Joined To Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”
Romans 6:3-4 NLT

Paul introduces what must have sounded a bit strange to his Roman readers. He said that they “were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism”. What is that all about? Perhaps we should pause in our journey through this Epistle, and consider what baptism really means. In a Christian sense, the word “baptism” means immersion in water. It doesn’t mean sprinkling a few drops of water on a baby’s head. But liturgies over the years have perhaps tried to make baptism more convenient and socially acceptable. After all it is not particularly easy to have to change clothes and get into a tank of water, or a river, or a swimming pool, and undergo a very public display of being immersed in water.

We read in Mark that John, nicknamed “John the Baptist”, associated repentance from sins with the act of baptism. “All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptised them in the Jordan River” (Mark 1:5). And Jesus Himself, even though he was the sinless Son of God, also submitted to the process. We read in Matthew 3:13-15, “Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptised by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptised by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?” But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptise him”.

Why should Christians be baptised? The main reason is that it is a very visible and public expression of a person’s faith and belief in Christ. So it can only really take place when the person is old enough to know what they are doing and what it means spiritually and practically. The pastor and theologian, David Pawson, who sadly died last year, says that baptism is one of four essential steps in becoming a Christian. The four steps are,
Repentance of sins towards God.
Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Being Baptised in Water.
Receiving the Holy Spirit.
David’s book “The Normal Christian Birth” is well worth a read.

Paul wrote in Romans 6:3, ”For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism”. The symbology is that we identify with Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and that through the act of baptism, they are washed away and remain in the water, as we emerge a new person “… created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:24). Our “old man” has died. Let’s pray that he or she stays that way!

Has anyone reading this today, someone believing in the saving and redeeming grace of Jesus, and has not been baptised? Pray about it. As Jesus said, “we must carry out all that God requires“. And find a church or fellowship that will help you.

Dear God. We want to be obedient to Your Word. Please speak to us about baptism, leading and guiding us in the right paths. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

God’s Abundant Grace

Posted on by korgrocker

“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:20-21 NLT

Paul finishes chapter five of Romans with an intriguing thought. The more we sin, the more God’s grace will flow to cover it. Perhaps some of Paul’s readers might have drawn such a conclusion, but something within me rebels at the very thought. How could I have the audacity, the arrogance, to think such a thing! But Paul moves on to this topic in the next chapter in Romans.

Paul reminds his readers that the Law is the plumb line. The standard against which we can measure how well we are doing. But the result is depressing. All we find out is how sinful we are. But thanks to Jesus, God’s very own Son, His plan for redeeming people from this sinful world in which we find ourselves involves His unlimited and unmerited grace. Grace so abundant that it more than covers all sins ever committed, past, present and future. And we have this wonderful dichotomy, sin leading to death against grace leading to life. The death eternal punishment. The grace eternal life.

The old Apostle, John, spoke gently and kindly in his first letter. He wrote, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:8-9). God’s grace may be abundantly available, but we must never abuse its provision. Once we become a believer, now that we have put our faith in Jesus, we start a journey. It starts at the Cross, where we find ourselves exposed in a dark place, but illuminated by the light of God’s Son, and it continues throughout our lives as we use God’s light to show us what we need to do to transition from who we were to who God wants us to be. We read in Ephesians 5:8-9, “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true”. 

The Law showed God’s people “how sinful they were”. Darkness exposed. Sin brought under God’s spotlight. He allows a particular sin to be brought to our attention, and shows us the way to deal with it. And how patient God is! Are we not relieved and very grateful that He doesn’t expose all our sins at once! But through His gentle whispers, and Holy Spirit inspired nudges through His Word and our fellow Christian friends, He graciously helps us in our journey to become more like Jesus.

Sometimes there is a blockage on the path. A boulder of insurmountable proportions that we are unable to deal with. A problem so great that we cannot see it, or don’t want to deal with it. At times like this He loves us too much to leave us there. We read in Proverbs 3:11-12, “My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights”. God’s discipline is sometimes necessary to give us a shove, rather than a nudge. A good kick up the backside even, It can be painful, but through it we emerge the stronger in our faith and our assurance about God’s caring love. And we can say with the Psalmist in Psalm 40:2, “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along”. What more do we need? 

Dear Lord. Praises and thanks are due to You without limit You, the wonderful gracious God. Amen.

Condemnation

Posted on by korgrocker

“Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.”
Romans 5:18-19 NLT

What does “condemnation” feel like? We looked yesterday at the analogy of a prisoner in the dock about to be condemned to an eternal life sentence, but suddenly declared not guilty when Someone stepped forward to take the punishment in our place. But without that gracious act, we would have been condemned. Rightfully of course. The Judge is fair and incorruptible. The evidence of our guilt indisputable. There is only one possible verdict. There is no miscarriage of justice possible. An appeal to a higher court disallowed, because there isn’t one. Without Jesus we have no hope.

The condemned will spend eternity in a place called Hell. It will be a place of eternal torment. A place of fire and heat. The devil will be there, hardly an attractive thought. And God won’t be there of course. And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. All glimpses of a terrible place that we can find in the Bible. Most of what we know about hell came from Jesus. But most unbelievers today don’t believe in a place called hell. There is whole raft of expectations, ranging from obscurity and nothing after we die, through to everyone will end up in a place called Heaven. All with little evidence to support their views. Death and what happens afterwards is not a popular topic for conversation down the pub, or on the bus.

But we won’t dwell on such a place. Rather, we focus on what Jesus did for us. “Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone”. The contrast between Adam and Jesus is stark. One brought sin into the world. The Other dealt with it in “one act of righteousness”. The condemned are released into a new life with God. A life we can start to experience here in the time we have left in our natural lives. And after that we have an assurance that we will find a new existence in God’s presence, along with all our brothers and sisters who also put their faith in our amazing Saviour.

Dear Lord Jesus. What You did for us at Calvary surpasses any other event that has ever taken place on this planet. We are so grateful. Amen.

God’s Gracious Gift

Posted on by korgrocker

“But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:15-17 NLT

We could feel that an awful lot of blame has been dumped on Adam. After all, he committed one sin and then, because of that, he was immediately removed from the Garden and spent the rest of his life fighting thorns and thistles as he scratched a living in circumstances never intended. Genesis 3:17-18. “And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.” If that wasn’t punishment enough, the blame game for man’s sin focused on Adam. Paul wrote that Adam’s sin “brought death to many”, “led to condemnation” and “caused death to rule over many”. 

Perhaps it is fairer to empathise with Adam, and put ourselves in his shoes (if he had any at this point). Would we have behaved any differently? Whether it was Adam’s fault or not, we all sin. Of course, we could look at the spiritual connotations of the Genesis account, and see Adam as a spiritual representative of mankind. Fronting up God’s human creation, using Adam as a name for all mankind. We are effectively all Adamites. But whatever our opinion, it would be wrong to use the excuse “It was Adam’s fault”. As Paul said in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. 

But, thankfully, things didn’t end with the human race being doomed through Adam’s sin. God had a rescue plan in the form of a gift. “God’s gracious gift”. Just three words but behind them was a manifestation of God’s love so breathtaking that it has completely turned the world into a sphere of hope. Imagine it. We stand before a Judge, knowing that we are guilty, and just before the verdict is passed a Man steps forward and says to the Judge that He will take the punishment. That would be amazing enough in the natural, but when we find that it is the Judge’s own Son who steps forward we can only stand in amazement and gratitude. Emotions beyond all that we can even experience. That’s “God’s gracious gift”. But what is even more amazing is that most people in our societies will stand before that Judge one day without realising that if they had only accepted “God’s gracious gift” earlier then they would not have had to do the time themselves. And it will be a long time. Eternity.

God’s loving grace is available for all. No exceptions. And we pilgrims, having found a wonderful treasure, can only invite others to take a share. God has a personal gift available for everyone. It has a gift tag attached which reads, “To [put in your own name]. Here is a “gift of righteousness”, a passport to eternal life with Me”. And we reach out and take it, trembling and overwhelmed, knowing that it is totally undeserved. What a Saviour!

Dear Father. What else can we say than thank You. Amen.

Adam’s Sin

Posted on by korgrocker

“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.”
Romans 5:12-13 NLT

The word “sin” is not one that is used very much in today’s societies. It is mostly associated with religion, being defined as an immoral act, or when a law is broken. It is one of those words that make people feel uncomfortable, so they attempt to reduce or eliminate the potential pain by calling it something else, or projecting its reality into a treatable illness rather than calling it what it really is. This particularly applies to words defining sin in the Bible. So “adultery” becomes “an affair”. And, perhaps controversially, taking drugs, or stealing, or drinking alcohol to excess, are illnesses. And so on.

A typical dictionary definition of the word “sin” is “an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law”. So without even mentioned God, the definition connects morality with law, and particularly in a way that involves a higher being. So is breaking a secular law a “sin”? Technically yes, but perhaps not in a way that complies with the dictionary definition of the word. It is rare, even unheard of, to hear the word “sin” associated with a traffic offence, for example.

In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”. God doesn’t sin. He never has done. So His original intention for mankind, having made them in His own image, just like Him, was that they would be sinless as well. We must therefore consider what it was that violated God’s creation, and why.

In parallel with the Eden story, a battle raged in Heaven, with an angel called Lucifer trying to take over from God, a sort of Heavenly coup. We read what happened to him in Isaiah 14:12, quoting from the King James Version. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” Lucifer ended up in the only place available to him – Planet Earth. And it is here that he introduced his rebellious and wicked spirit, here he introduced “sin”. In the guise of a serpent, he caused Eve and then Adam to break the only law that they had been given by God. We read in Genesis 2:16-17, “But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die””. And we all know what happened next – the sad story is recorded in Genesis 3. Sin started with a rebellious angel in Heaven and in due course infected Planet Earth.

Sin happens when we break laws. And in particular God’s laws. The one overriding law that underpins all others was told by Jesus to a local Jewish religious expert. We read in Matthew 22:36-40, ““Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”” So the root of sin is disobedience to God. These simple laws power all other laws, and those who don’t want to sin must start here. And in so doing, they must bring everything they do under God’s scrutiny to see if they line up with these laws.

Perhaps we wonder what would have happened if Adam and Eve had confessed their sin, and were made right again in God’s presence. Their relationship with Him restored. Their sin wiped away and forgotten. But sadly it didn’t happen, and the disease of sin has been with us ever since. A pandemic of all pandemics.

Paul, in today’s verse from Romans 5, states that Adam’s sin became human sin. All have sinned, he said. And it is very true. I don’t know of anyone who has not broken any laws, let alone God’s laws. And all those who sin will ultimately die. That is, unless, they find forgiveness and redemption in God’s presence. Through Jesus we can discover that sins can really be washed away. Forever.

Father God. Only You, the Sinless One, has the power to forgive sins. On our knees today we worship You, deeply thankful for Your amazing grace. Amen.

Rejoice!

Posted on by korgrocker

“So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”
Romans 5:11 NLT

Paul made another statement as though it was a fact. He took it as read, beyond an assumption, that rejoicing would follow the process of belief in Jesus and all that He did at Calvary. Quite a leap for someone in that culture, moving from idolatry, to faith in the one true God. Society wasn’t very kind to those early Christians. But Paul wasn’t being theoretical when he wrote that. He wasn’t living in some different world, divorced from reality. What he wrote to the early Christians in Rome was a perfectly valid statement, designed to set out for them what a relationship with God should be like. A relationship that they could rejoice about. A relationship that was wonderful and new.

We fast-forward to today. If anything, our world is just as hostile a place to Christians as it was in Paul’s day. More so, if we read about the levels of persecution experienced by some. Constant negative news reports wear us down. The hostile spiritual environment where even leaders in the faith struggle and prevaricate rather than act as beacons for God’s ways. Worldly expectations have created a society where God doesn’t exist any more. And here are Christians today who, in spite of all that is going on, are called to rejoice in our relationship with God.

But we pilgrims have made a decision to follow Jesus. Through our faith in Him, believing Him for our future salvation, we do in fact have a “wonderful new relationship” with God. We are indeed His friends, positioned right in the “sweet spot” which He designed for us before the foundations of the earth. We rejoice! It’s not something we can do with one eye on what is happening around us. We do it with both eyes on God, because it is in Him we find a Friend who has overcome the world. We view the natural world through God’s eyes. And in that way we get His perspective. Through prayer we approach difficult situations and relax as God whispers in our ears wonderful words of wisdom and guidance. 

It may have been some years ago that we experienced  the “wonderful new relationship” with God. Perhaps we have taken our eyes off Him a bit. Perhaps we have been worn down by all the information, most of it negative, that bombards us every day. Well there is good news. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “ … Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest”. Having refreshed ourselves in God’s presence we can experience being friends with God. And that has to be good news. That has to be a wonderful experience. And through it all, regardless of the circumstances, we can rejoice. We look forward to a time when joy is the norm, and worldliness is no more. And because we are God’s children, we can experience that joy right now. 

So if any of my readers are experiencing a lack of joy this morning, feeling they there is nothing to rejoice about, we read these words of Paul. Through Jesus we are friends of God. Meditate on what that means this morning. How amazing is it, that the Creator of the whole universe, wants to be friends with us. That very thought is enough to make even the stones around us burst into praise. It truly is a momentous statement, and one that we embrace through our faith in Him. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:4, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” That is not a statement of delusion. It is a fact and one that will never leave us regardless of our circumstances. Join me this morning in rejoicing, because Jesus is alive, and because we are God’s friends.

Father God. We worship You today. You are the source of joy. You are the mighty One, our Lord and God. Amen.

Friends or Enemies

Posted on by korgrocker

“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”
Romans 5:10 NLT
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain, having been reconciled, that we will be saved [from the consequences of sin] by His life [that is, we will be saved because Christ lives today].”
Romans 5:10 AMP

Two different translations of the same verse today. The NLT comes from the angle that through Jesus we become what we always should have been – friends of God. The Amplified (and NIV) versions bring the thought that all people are enemies of God by default, and it is only through the death of His Son, Jesus, that we become reconciled to God, and are not His enemies any longer.

We all know why people are God’s enemies. I bang on about it often enough. Sin, the product of evil and wickedness, appeared on Planet Earth, sullying God’s perfect creation. And we see its impact all around us. I often think, as I meander around the West Fife woodlands near my home, that the beauty I see around me, the plant growth, the birds and small animals, even the occasional deer, is after its corruption from sin. And yet every year, during the Spring, I watch as the vegetation, now largely rotting away through the long winter months, somehow starts to burst into new life. Surely a prophetic statement of what is to come when God finally deals with sin and wickedness, releasing all creation from its bondage and death.

But we see most dramatically the impact of sin on the behaviour of our fellow men and women. If we read a newspaper, or log into an online media site, we will find reports of the consequences of sin. Lots of them. A quick glance at the BBC website this morning revealed that 10 out of the top 13 news stories were a direct consequence of sin-influenced problems. It’s no wonder that God considers those who reject Him and His ways as His enemies. 

Those of us who live in a relatively peaceful place, such as a Western society, will perhaps struggle to find any enemies that affect them. We may have enemies in a more abstract way, such as a hostile foreign power, but we couldn’t name an enemy we know personally. We might think of an enemy as someone who wants to do us harm, but in God’s view, an enemy is someone who rejects Him. Someone who refuses to even accept that He exists. 

The Amplified version ends Romans 5:10 with the declaration that Christ lives today. He has to be really, because God raised Him from the dead. He was resurrected long ago on the Easter Day. Jesus said, and as recorded by the Apostle John in Revelation 1:18, “I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave“. Jesus has been alive for a long time, and will continue to be so for all eternity. He lives within us, if we let Him, by His Spirit. And because of that we will be saved, enemies of God no more.

Can we pilgrims feel the Spirit of Jesus within us? If not, we must ask Him into our hearts. He is more than willing to oblige. Jesus said to the Laodicean church, as John wrote down in Revelation 3:19-20, “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends”“. We will know Jesus’ voice when He speaks to us, and He wants to share a meal with us, as friends. Isn’t that amazing? How could we ever refuse?

Dear Lord Jesus. We thank You for considering us Your friends. We are truly grateful. Amen.

Dying for Another

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Romans 5:7-8 NLT

Paul made a statement that is very difficult to accept, if put in the form of a question. Would I be willing to die in the place of another person? Come to that, would you, my reader, be prepared to do such a thing? I think the honest answer has to be “No, of course not”. There are stories of such a selfless act, of course, which was probably why Paul said “most people”. We can read of a man called Max Kolbe, who volunteered to die in the place of another prisoner of war in Auschwitz in 1941. And there are mentions of other selfless acts throughout history. But I think we can all agree that such a course of action is very rare because self-preservation is a built-in part of our psyche as human beings.

But God is not a human being. He is the Creator of the universe. All matter was brought into being by His Word. No words can totally describe who God is, by a long way. But there is one Godly quality that He has that we must consider from our verses today – He loves His human creation. Paul wrote, “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”. Jesus, early on in His ministry, explained to a Jewish leader called Nicodemus why He, the Son of God, had come to Planet Earth. We read in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. That is the ultimate sacrifice. No human being has come anywhere near such an act. 

We pilgrims must share the Gospel message with those around us, the message about Jesus and how He died for all mankind, not just a select few. And in the process we share how much God loves them. It’s a life-changing experience. It will bring colour into a dull monochrome existence. It will bring a new dawn after a night of helplessness. It will bring hope to the hopeless. God’s love changes everything.

Dear Father. Your love for us is without bounds. We thank You for Your patience with us and Your free gift of salvation through Jesus. Amen.

Strength of Character

Posted on by korgrocker

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.“
Romans 5:3-5 NLT

What is this entity “strength of character”? The dictionary defines the word character as, “the particular combination of qualities in a person or place that makes them different from others”. But the “character” that Paul was referring to was much more than that. Just to be different in character to other people is all very well, but Godly character is something else. This type of character is active, not something that is passive. Godly character is something that is constantly improving, drawing us closer and closer to the person God designed us to be. As we endure the hassles of life, our endurance in maintaining our faith and relationship with God strengthens us, so that when the storms hit, we stand firm.

Someone who has a Godly character is like the wise man in Jesus’ parable about the builders. In Matthew 7:25-26 we read, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock”. The wise man had the right character, because he knew, perhaps from previous experiences, the consequences of building on a dodgy foundation. Perhaps previous “problems and trials” had taught him much and honed his character. He knew that only Jesus had the words of eternal life and would lead him to the right outcome. But so many people instead put their trust on sandy foundations. They trust a friend, or a political party, or their bank account, trusting a substitution for God that will collapse like the foolish man in Jesus’ parable when the storms of life crash against them. They lose their jobs, or their friend moves away and cuts off contact. Their bank account is swallowed up by inflation and they find that there is too much month left at the end of their money. But whatever happens, they find that they have no endurance to get through the crisis. Their character fails the strength and endurance test.

We pilgrims are made of sterner stuff, of course. Not for us a trust in worldly systems that could collapse at any moment. We have built our foundations on the Rock that is Christ. Psalm 18:30-31, “God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. For who is God except the Lord? Who but our God is a solid rock?” Who indeed!

Father God. Only You can develop our characters through the trials and problems of life. Only You can hold our hand and help us. We praise and thank You today. Amen.

Endurance

Posted on by korgrocker

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Romans 5:3-5 NLT

In the UK at present, in the natural, there seems little to rejoice about. The cost of living has gone up dramatically, impacting a new generation of adults who have never known anything other than very low inflation and interest rates. Energy costs have more than doubled over the space of a year or so and there seems no sign of them returning to the level enjoyed before the Covid pandemic. Eventually, wages will catch up, but “problems and trials” will abound for the foreseeable future. So why did Paul make the statement that the difficulties we are facing into will “help us develop endurance”?  

Paul wasn’t the only early first century Apostle who made such a statement. We read in James 1:2-3, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow”. 

So what is this “endurance”? It is that ability to persevere through “problems and trials” without going under, without giving up, without jumping ship and joining another with less hassles. The Christian life was and is never going to be an easy option. Not only do we have to clean up our own lives under God’s gracious and loving guidance, but we will be largely shunned by those in society around us. In some parts of the world, even the state authorities will be against us. We have many brothers and sisters persecuted for their faith in other countries like North Korea and Afghanistan.

Jesus told His disciples, “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”  (John 16:32-33). Jesus was facing into an incredibly difficult situation. He knew He was heading to the Cross and a horrible and painful death. And He knew His disciples would abandon Him to His fate. And here He was, encouraging His disciples with words of comfort. He told them that their future natural lives were going to be full of “problems and trials” and yet, through it all, they would have Jesus with them because, as they would find out later, His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would be with them, enabling them to “overcome the world”. 

There are many Christians who start well, but then become shipwrecked on the trials of life. Perhaps they are in a church that goes through a difficult time with splits and changes of leadership, and they get hurt in the process. Or perhaps a Christian friend is treated badly by another Christian and they decide that they want no more of this faith. So they stop going to church. They stop reading their Bibles. And before long they have failed to endure. 

What do we pilgrims do, when circumstances seem to conspire against us? Go down the tubes? Or rise up above the difficulties? A Psalmist, Asaph, was facing into an inexplicable situation that severely challenged his faith in God. We read in Psalm 73:2, “But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone”. As we read on, we see the gyrations that went on in his mind as he considered how the wicked seemed to get away with their behaviour. Bitterly, he said, “Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?” And then we read, “Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked. Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do” (Psalm 73:17, 25-26, 28). Asaph regained his perspective. There are many other examples in the Bible, of people who faced into trials and problems. We read about a few in Hebrews 11.

But through it all, we have a wonderful loving Heavenly Father who is always there for us. He will always help us through our times of trial. Somehow in His presence, the trials don’t seem half as bad. There is an old saying, “When the going gets tough the tough get going”. Much truth in that when it comes to endurance.

Father God. Your Son Jesus knew all about trials and problems. We thank You for Your encouragement and guidance when the going gets tough. Through You the world has been overcome. Thank You Jesus. Amen.