Comfort & Hope

**This is what I am meditating on today**

Romans 8

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to Go's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your moral bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba Father!" The spirit himself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation wait the eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And no only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. 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. 

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according tot he will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called he also justified, and those whom He justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors though Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus or Lord.

Another Hymn of Grace

How Sweet and Awesome is the Place

How sweet and awesome is the place 

with Christ within the doors,

while everlasting love displays 

the choicest of her stores.

While all our hearts and all our songs 

join to admire the feast,

each of us cries, with thankful tongue, 

"Lord why was I a guest?"

"Why was I made to hear your voice, 

and enter while there's room,

when thousands make a wretched choice, 

and rather starve than come?'

'Twas the same love that spread the feast 

that sweetly drew us in;

else we had still refused to taste, 

and perished in our sin.

Pity the nation, O our God, 

constrain the earth to come;

send your victorious Word abroad, 

and bring the strangers home.

We long to see your churches full, 

that all the chosen race

may, with one voice and heart and soul, 

sing your redeeming grace.

-- Isaac Watts -- 

Sola Gratia

Not What My Hands Have Done

 

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;

not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.

Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God; 

not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;

thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.

Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to thee, 

can rid me of this dark unrest, and set my spirit free.

Thy grace alone, O God, to me can pardon speak;

they power alone, O Son of God, can this sore bondage break.

No other work, save thine, no other blood will do;

no strength, save that which is divine, can bear me safely through.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;

and with unfaltering lip and hear, I call this Savior mine.

His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in his tomb

each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust his truth and might;

he calls me his, I call him mine my God, my joy, my light.

'Tis he who saveth me, and freely pardon gives; 

I love because he loveth me, I live because he lives.

-- Hymn by Horatius Bonar --