Category Archives: Romans

Who Are the Children of God?

On this Pentecost Sunday, a day on which we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit in fullness upon Christ’s church, I want us to consider within our passage today the indwelling characteristics of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the identifying characteristics, in every believer.  

To that end, I want us to think on this simple question: Who are the children of God? Are they the natural descendants of Adam, as the universalists believe? In other words, is every human being a child of God? Or, are they the natural descendants of Abraham, as the Jews of Jesus’ day believed, or as dispensationalists believe today? In other words, is every one of Jewish ethnicity a child of God? Or, how do the writers of the New Testament use the term “child of God,” or do they make a distinction at all?

God and Sinners Reconciled

I think our culture is willing to openly acknowledge Christ at this time of year more than any other, don’t you? It is a time when Christian virtues, such as hope, love, joy, and peace are openly connected to Christ, whether he is known personally or not. Perhaps it is because Christ’s birth is more culturally palatable than Christ’s cross, but in our post-Christian era Christmas still carries not only its name but its significance, even if buried in secular interpretation and consumerism. In settings that would typically reject the authority of God’s Word, carols rich in Scriptural reference are still sung. In a public venue, I recently heard Charles Wesley’s hymn caroled with gusto: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,

“Glory to the newborn King:

Peace on earth and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!”[2]

The Love of God

If we would love with the love of God, then let us not accept sin in ourselves but mortify it. A righteous life tells the world of your love for God. And if we would love with the love of God, then “let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. … Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:7-11). Amen.

How God Strengthens His Church

God also strengthens his church through the obedience of faith, an expression Paul used to begin this letter and now to conclude to it. It is the obedience to believe the gospel as well as to live it. Or, as one commentator describes it, “obedience always involves faith, and faith always involves obedience.”[3] He who enabled and empowered us to believe so also enables and empowers us to live obedient lives. We shall not be defined by sin and the decay of death but life through the faith God gives: “May we be rich in faith, be strong in faith, live by faith, walk by faith, experience the joy of faith, do the work of faith, hope through faith.”[4] And so, God strengthens his church through the obedience of faith.

Not Naive but Wise

The victorious Christian life is not one of fear nor naivete. Through his Spirit, we live in obedience to God, watching out for false teachers and rooted in Truth himself, living wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.” For, that which is good is of God, not evil. And that which is good we know and receive by grace, and the grace we enjoy has been given through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Extraordinary from the Ordinary

How often we take for granted what God has done, through churches like the Roman church, and is doing, through a church like us. While God calls every one of us to ordinary service, what he does through us is truly extraordinary. So, let us give thanks for what he has done and is doing, through saved sinners and saints like you and me, that perhaps our faith too may be proclaimed in all the world, to the glory of God. Amen.

Living Locally, Serving Globally

So, brothers and sisters of this local church, let us live out our faith together, but let us not forget that we have been commissioned to go to the nations, knowing that we are active participants in the Great Commission with our brothers and sisters around the world, and striving together in prayer, praying: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

The Heart of a Pastor

Paul writes to the Ephesians, “[Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). While not a comprehensive list of New Testament church offices, Paul reminds us of God’s chosen men and means of equipping and edifying the Beloved. As they are listed, we may be tempted to think of each as mutually exclusive, but that is not the case, and while this is typically the case, it’s not always the case.

Take Him at His Word

Hope is one of the defining characteristics of the Christian life. It is not worldly wishful thinking but conviction that what God has promised will be fulfilled. Hope takes God at his Word. Christian hope is also future oriented. For example, in the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul explains, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom. 8:24-25). Although we have not yet entered the heavenly realm, we know it exists, that it awaits us. Our Lord has promised us the kingdom, given us the guarantee of his Spirit, and is preparing us for glory.

In Accord for God’s Glory

In a choir, a selfish voice creates dissonance. A submitted voice enjoys consonance. If you can hear one voice above the others, a choir sings not as one voice but a dissonant two. But when every individual submits to one another together, a choir produces the beauty of harmony in one voice. Likewise in Christ’s church, who is composed of many yet sings as one, we submit to one another resulting in harmony, living, singing forth, to the glory of One. May we as Christ’s church, as one voice, sing forth beautiful praise to the One who not only gives us life but also lives that we may glorify him forever.