Romans 8 part 1

Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit: 
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Free from Indwelling Sin
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:1-11)

This passage and this chapter are one of the most exciting parts of the New Testament. There can be a reluctance amongst bible commentators to develop the teaching here as promoting Christian experience in the here and now. This probably comes from a fear of raising expectations in people that living a holy life is actually possible. 

But in this chapter we can see how lovers of Jesus can be filled with the Holy Spirit in a passionate, experiential way. Sound and balanced bible teaching around this is very important. It will help us realise God’s potential in each one of us. This chapter could just be read as containing beliefs about what God has done for us through Jesus; and also adding promises for the future after death. I am reading it as that which promises us an inspired quality of spiritual life which we can enjoy NOW!

contrasts

We read in the bible that the devil is the ‘accuser of our brothers and sisters’ (Revelation 12:10). It is important that we do not fall under oppression through listening to accusation. The word ‘condemnation’ which begins this chapter has a legal meaning of ‘guilty’; but Christ has freed us from the penalty of guilt.

You will recall Paul’s heartfelt cry: “O wretched man that I am!” in the previous chapter. He was expressing the condemnation that comes from failure to live in a way that pleases God. That wretched feeling was compounded by the demands of the Law. But now Paul reveals the thrill of discovering that he can live in a way that pleases God; the secret is this: 
who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (v4)
Fulfilling the Law was based solely on human effort. This new freedom is based on the spiritual energy which comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit. The bible describes this passionate energy as fire.

The contrast between flesh and Spirit and the way they oppose one another occurs throughout this section. Remember that although we experience this conflict, we are not split personalities. However, we are influenced by these conflicts within us: the power of sin through the flesh, against the power of holiness through the Holy Spirit. As mentioned before, ‘live according to’ can also be thought of as ‘walking’: hence walking in the Spirit. Walking describes minute by minute life in the Spirit; a daily continual experience is what it is referring to. Rather than think of humans as being split personalities, this conflict might be better likened to a man riding an elephant. The elephant has power and can have a mind of its own. The rider must control it and not allow it to run after its own instincts.

new law

In verse 2, Paul expresses the conflict as laws or principles at work in us:
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
In chapter 7 we looked at Paul’s different uses of the word ‘law’. The ‘law of sin and death’ refers to our problem with habitual weakness: a negative power. But in this verse, he introduces a new ‘law’: the law of the Spirit – a positive power. You can interpret this just theologically: that is, Christ died for our sins on the cross, and in God’s eyes I am free from the penalty of sin and death. This is true, of course: there is a transaction by faith before God (such as that Jesus made with the thief on the cross). However, this statement of Paul is also a promise which leads to holiness through the Spirit’s life in us.

You may remember the benefit of holiness from chapter 6. This promise of a new law through the Spirit shows the route to that benefit:
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22)
This is practical and not simply theological. The benefit we reap is holiness now. It was part of the promise of Jesus:
‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ (John 10:10)
Again, this promise could be viewed as only applying to a promise of everlasting life after we die. But the effects of the promise in this chapter should have benefit now. That is why we are referred to as being slaves of God. We are slaves now: this is a present-day lifestyle in which we can manifest holiness.

delivered

The means for our deliverance is in verse 3:
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh
The law mentioned here is the Jewish Law which we were incapable of fulfilling in every exacting detail. However, as Paul showed in chapter 6, we died and were buried to this weakness of the flesh when Jesus died on the cross. There is a suggestion here that Jesus did not have the same problem with the flesh as we do: it refers to ‘the likeness of sinful flesh’. This may be a distinction bestowed on him by the virgin birth through his conception by the Holy Spirit.

The evidence that Jesus condemned sin in the flesh was seen when he challenged his opponents:
Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? (John 8:46)
Because Jesus was sinless, he could become a perfect ‘sin offering’ on the cross so that both the penalty of sin and the power of sin in us could be broken. John the Baptist said of Jesus that he was the Lamb of God ‘who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

Paul had previously expressed the effectiveness of our identification in the death of Jesus:
‘because anyone who has died (with Christ) has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:7)
By believing through faith we are delivered from the penalty of sin; we are then to live and walk in the death of Jesus. By also living in the Spirit we can be delivered from the power of sin.

according

This freedom from sin is conditional as we see emphasised in the next verse:
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The meaning here is sometimes taken as referring to just the legal transaction which took place at the cross – Christ fulfilled the Law’s demand on our behalf. This is indeed true and an essential place to start: Christ satisfied the demands of a holy God from which we had fallen short. But looked at practically as Paul wrote it, there seems to be more to it. It is conditional - 'might be fully met in us'. That sounds as if this transaction only applies whenever we happen to ‘live according to the Spirit’. It would mean that if we start to drift away from the Spirit, we would no longer benefit from Christ's fulfilling of the Law since we are ‘living according to the flesh’! This doesn't seem right. Living according to the Spirit comes with experience and maturity. Accepting Christ's work on the cross comes with faith, when we are starting out as Christians; when we are still immature!

Every Christian has their difficult or doubting days. But this does not change our ‘spiritual position’ – seated with Christ in his righteousness. We can repent and be rejuvenated in our faith. A set-back does not remove our adoption as children of God. This verse is realistically referring to a daily spiritual dynamic that should characterise the committed Christian life. You may have read in Galatians 5 that Paul wrote the following advice, because at times Christians were not behaving consistently, and were making choices according to their fleshly passions:
Live your life as your spiritual nature directs you. Then you will never follow through on what your corrupt nature wants. (Galatians 5:16 – God’s Word translation)
It is good to take the positive view of the promises in this chapter rather than just accept easy-going failure.

requirement

I am interpreting verse 4 as a promise of freedom: when we live, being passionately filled with the Holy Spirit, we can do the right things – the righteous requirement:
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us (v4)
This is not achieved by our fleshly efforts, but by living according to the Holy Spirit, who inspires and feeds our passion for Jesus with heavenly fire (Luke 3:16). The phrase Paul uses here, the ‘righteous requirement’ of the law, makes it sound as though some of the Law is no longer required. So what can we make of this? As we have seen previously, the Law had different categories: the Ceremonial Laws, the Civic Laws and the Moral Laws. The righteous requirement for us now, in the gospel, is to keep the Moral laws. They were summarised in the Ten Commandments and gave directions as to how we should live in our relationships with one another. 

The requirement of these moral laws was neatly summarised by Jesus into two commandments:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’ (Mark 12:30-31)
Our relationships with both God and other people are covered in these moral laws. The emphasis on relationships is an exclusive mark of the Christian faith.

James, in his letter, summarised this saying of Jesus as ‘the Royal Law’ (James 2:8). It is this which I believe the Holy Spirit trains us to practise as we live in his life and wisdom. This is also why I see this training as ‘bespoke’ – it has a particular emphasis for each of us individually because we all have to work out the Royal Law in our personal circumstances. This is part of our development in spiritual maturity. As maturity grows, we learn to live more effectively in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will teach us deeper ways in which we ought to love. As we grow in grace, more obedience will be expected of us. The righteous requirement will then become greater too!

thinking

In the next sub-section, Paul gives more guidance on how we can achieve this in practice. If you like, it is our first bit of practical advice on how to ‘ride our elephant’:
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, the things of the Spirit. (v5)
To ‘set the mind on’ can be literally translated simply as ‘mind’ (as in ‘mind your own business’ or ‘mind the gap’). For the person who wishes to live in the victory of Jesus, the key battleground between flesh and Spirit, condemnation and freedom is in our thinking. We must learn to control our mind which can easily run freely out of control, as would the 'elephant' we are riding, if we do not exercise control over it.

Firstly, there is a choice for us to make – ‘according to’. Whichever one we choose determines the outcome: choosing the Spirit leads to the practice of righteousness. Choosing the flesh or choosing the Spirit is up to us. The Holy Spirit does not, in His humility, force Himself upon us. He responds to obedient faith.

Secondly, we must learn to control our mind: we must learn the skills through determination and daily practice. Mind discipline is a lifelong occupation. We are learning to use our minds to think like the Holy Spirit thinks. Thinking with the fleshly mind is more natural and potentially more exciting or gratifying: after all, we have had a lifetime of practice! This is not an exercise in gritted teeth or becoming stressed about it. It is achieved by our submission to the energising fire of the Holy Spirit who is always there to inspire us. This is the experience of living 'according to the Spirit'. It involves faith, not simply will-power.

temptation

Our mind is meant to be our servant and not our ruler. Anything in the mind which does not manifest the fruit of the Spirit is to be rejected. Bible knowledge and teaching aid us in knowing what to reject. The flesh is subtle and persuasive, appealing to our selfish instincts. The Spirit is humble and waits for us to choose. This can prove to be a one-sided war until we learn to enjoy the Spirit’s inspiration, as we learn to listen through prayer.

Sometimes thoughts in our mind are fleeting ones which suddenly appear like sand which blows in your face as you walk along a beach. Other thoughts come from within where sin and pride lurk, trying to convince us that they are genuine and should be engaged with. This inward conflict is another lifelong struggle. We have to mature, and understand what the will of the Lord is in all our decision-making (see Romans 12:2).

The more persistent thoughts more than likely need repenting of. We should offer them to God in our prayer times as sacrifices or sin offerings which are burnt up. We can see this process in the temptations of Jesus. He did not sin but he had thoughts which could have led to sin. When such tempting suggestions trouble us, we do get time to take control of our minds. The time window for this gets longer as we mature in mind control, and learn to discern any inner motives to our thoughts.

actions

Jesus walked with the Holy Spirit and so recognised tempting thoughts for what they were. We should notice too, that he was able to use the bible to help him identify thoughts which were not from the Spirit. James teaches us in his letter, that sin is a process. This process of sin operates on different time scales. It is more than likely that our habitual sins have never really been challenged, because they came from a lifetime’s habit of ‘minding’ the flesh.

Sin begins with thoughts which lead to actions:
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)
It is not a sin to be tempted, but it is a sin to act on the temptation especially when we do so through a lack of faith:
everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
This is one of my personal life challenges – how every action should be from faith – faith in the Spirit’s leading, the bible’s teaching and the maturing of love in the heart. Someone described how they managed their mind, so as to reject bad thoughts in this way: “you can’t stop the birds flying over your head; but you can stop them making nests in your hair!”

arbitration

Paul gives us an idea of how our minds should develop as Christians:
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. (v6-7)
We should remember that hostility to God is the default position of our fallen nature. This might be tough to accept, but it helps explain many of the difficulties people have in obeying God’s commandments.  

The descriptor, ‘governed by the flesh’, refers to our natural, instinctive actions: these promote selfish behaviour and a love for this world. Generally, we are born with these instincts, or they could have been developed through the examples of parents and peers. It means that actions governed by the Spirit are naturally alien to us and must be learned. If we are ruled by flesh-inspired thoughts, we shall lose the presence of the Holy Spirit and his life-giving inspiration. 

Another outcome of this is losing the peace of Christ:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. (Colossians 3:15)
This peace is a gift from Jesus. It is also something we must learn to take notice of through experience. The peace of Christ is our ‘arbiter’. Arbitration is the process of agreeing where there is conflict. Since we experience this conflict between flesh and Spirit, allowing the peace of Christ to arbitrate will enable us to make good decisions. This is especially so when we are dealing with modern-day situations in which there is no direct bible teaching which deals with them.

As we have seen many times, our default human experience is that our fleshly nature is opposed to God:
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 
Its thoughts are hostile to God, and resist obeying the righteous requirement of God’s law. It can be very tough for educated, cultured people to come to terms with this. It is hard to acknowledge this basic hostility when you are so used to feeling in control. You can learn how to hide your true feelings; but sometimes these will explode in anger as the people of Nazareth or the Pharisees did towards Jesus.

guidance

But through the life of faith, being filled with the Spirit and refusing all enticements of the flesh, we can please God, obey his commandments, and so demonstrate that we love Him:
Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. (v8)
But we do need to be taught well:
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2)
The phrase, ‘instructions we gave you’, means bible teaching and Christian moral guidance. They are aids to help us learn how to live in the Spirit. Our motivation is not to gain acceptance from others, but to please God. Our motivation comes from gratitude for all he has done for us. 

With this in mind, Paul now moves on to reveal how the Holy Spirit works in us. It is important to recognise that because we belong to God, then he wishes nothing less than that we should experience the Holy Spirit. Jesus reassured us of this in his teaching:
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:13)
It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom in which the Spirit leads us (Luke 12:32)
This is why Paul taught that we should always be in the state of being filled with the Spirit:
be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)
The Greek used here describes something ongoing and not stopping. Whatever happens, don’t give up on receiving the Spirit; rather ask, knock and seek all of God’s free gifts to us.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (v9)
The question asked here: ‘if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you’, does not have to be read in a rejecting way. This is God’s will for us: ‘It is the Father’s good pleasure’. But let Paul’s words rather be an incentive to be filled with this wonderful gift, and surrender to the Spirit’s working in us. Remember that the Holy Spirit is given to us, not only as a gift, but also as a full assurance that we belong to Jesus. This is part of Paul’s teaching in Ephesians where the Spirit is ‘a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance’ (Ephesians 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit is the difference between believing in God and belonging to God.

mortal

The Holy Spirit helps us to develop and mature as Christians. We may have weak bodies, prone to sin and sickness, but the Holy Spirit promises to enliven them. He does this by spiritual power which works through faith to inspire us with the energy of Heaven:
But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (v10-11)
God does not ignore the fact that our bodies are weak and prone to sin and sickness. Paul is revealing here that the presence of the Spirit adds something to us which is more than the non-believer can ever know. There is evidence for this: religious people do live longer, and do better when measured by happiness scales. What makes the difference is how we respond to God in faith. There are still natural ageing processes happening, but the Spirit can make interventions.

We might also experience healing grace as part of this promise. The New Testament has many examples of healing at work. Gifts of healings is one of the gifts of the Spirit to the church. The whole point of God giving life to our bodies is so that we can serve him and his people. It is not just to improve our personal quality of life. If improving our quality of life is our chief goal, then when we have trials, we may doubt God because our basic motivation is still personal and self-interested. Sickness still affects Christians, and we read of this in the New Testament, but the Spirit still can transfer to us something of that same power which resurrected Jesus.

Sonship Through the Spirit
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:12-17)

This section deals with our obligation to God. But this is not a form of payment for what he gives us. Anyone who has had a genuine conversion experience feels full of gratitude to God for the grace that has been shown. This gratitude brings conviction that we owe God something, yet not in payment. It is not so much a dutiful response as a worshipful one. It becomes our living passion to do God’s will.

So, this is not us earning something from God, but rather giving back to him. When the 10 lepers were healed by Jesus one of them came back and thanked him (Luke 17:11-19). He was expressing gratitude and his debt of thanks. He was not trying to earn his healing or pay for it in some way. Grace is freely given to us and our obligations should be freely given in return. “Freely you have received freely give” (Matthew 10:8). We are not earning salvation.

incentive

The leper was effectively in debt to Jesus and worship was his expression of thanks. We too are debtors, but our freedom is from sin rather than a physical sickness:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (v12-13)
This is a humbling situation because it highlights the fact that we cannot earn favour with God – we owe him. The phrase, ‘put to death’, used to be translated as ‘mortify’. “I was mortified” is the closest we get to using this word today. The principle of mortification was of deep importance to spiritual people in previous centuries. 

There is definitely something wrong in us which needs sorting out in this drastic way. It has echoes in the teachings of Jesus:
Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24-25)
There is a presently a mentality in which Christians are replacing ‘put to death’ with ‘discover your identity – be yourself’, and consequently putting themselves in danger of completely missing the mark.

The recollection of being in debt is a powerful incentive to live by the Spirit. If we take our salvation for granted, we shall fall back into living according to the flesh. But being a grateful worshipper energises our determination to live in the way of mortification which pleases God. True worship (as Jesus taught) is a powerful force for spiritual life in us. We have to learn the secret of true worship. But as well as the worship of a grateful heart, there has to be the practical control of our minds so that we ‘mind’ the things of the Spirit. This will also entail recognising the ‘misdeeds of the body’ for what they are. We cannot simply ‘be ourselves’ or ‘be who we are’; both are corrupting. Remember that our default self is hostile to God; and so, this enmity must be ‘put to death’, that is, be mortified.

mortification

Mortification was a term which was well understood by most generations up to our post-war one. especially by the Puritans. The famous Puritan, John Owen, wrote a whole book about it. Here are some of his principles: 

Tackling personal and habitual sin was a main focus for these Christians. Without this they understood that Christians would become religiously complacent and drift. They understood that there is no holy spiritual life without mortification. As Owen highlights, the Spirit is the only one who can truly inspire the need to ‘put to death’. The Spirit should be the leader in this and not religious impulses:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (v14)

Religious efforts and rules are of no use in this as Paul highlighted elsewhere:
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:20-23)
Only what the Holy Spirit inspires in us will be successful; we are totally dependent on Him.

children

At this point Paul encourages us in regard to our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Spirit demonstrates our acceptance as children of God:
the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. (v15)
This is what makes being a Christian personal – it is a relationship; children revel in the attention which a parent gives them, even if they have siblings. The Spirit we received does not make us slaves, so that we live in fear of judgment or rejection. Rather, the Spirit we received brought about our adoption. We are not Christians from birth (even if brought up to live with Christian principles by our parents). As Jesus said, we have to be born again. This new birth makes us adopted children rather than actual children, because our nature is sinful. But as those who have had experience of adoption know, being adopted means you become a full member of the family.

This does affect our motivation to serve God because it is not driven by fear of rejection but by the love of a child for a parent. However, it is a love which is kept pure by the genuine fear of God: the fear which acknowledges our Father as the Judge of all; and the fear which is the beginning of wisdom. A false understanding of 'love alone', while we still have the weaknesses of the flesh, can lead to indulgent and indolent lifestyles. A healthy fear of God stops us from being presumptuous and self-advancing.

We do not deny ourselves because we think God is a harsh judge, but because His love liberates us from our natural selfish focus. With these balances, experiencing God's love will always do us good, as we maintain a spirit of gratitude at our undeserved deliverance from sin. Remember this encouragement from chapter 5:
God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

witness

Spiritual experiences should humble us and not exalt us or they becomes a snare:
And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (v15-16)
This is an inward spiritual experience. It has some emotional context which leads to worship and prayer. Paul is writing about the Spirit and our spirit. It is not easy to explain what our spirit is. However, it can be viewed as our primary means of communicating with God who is spirit. Our five senses communicate with the world around. Our spirit, which was once dead but has now been made alive, connects with God.

The Spirit creates an inward assurance that we belong. At times this can be very real, especially during times of powerful worship. When the prodigal son returned, the Father placed a ring on his finger. This was to confirm that he really was accepted even though he had behaved abominably. The Holy Spirit is given to us in the same way: to confirm that we are children through adoption, however awful we might have been. We see this power in action when we read the Book of Acts where the new disciples received the Spirit. I think they had more powerful spiritual experiences than we have today. I think we get bogged down in organised religion and unbelief.

sharing

Perhaps the greatest encouragement this section of Romans gives us, is that God considers us equivalent to Christ:
Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (v17)
This is how far we are promoted – we are now co-heirs: grace is at work. As co-heirs we inherit everything the Father has – we are so richly blessed. These are the things which inspire us to put sin to death through the rich grace of Jesus. This is at once both extremely humbling and extremely worship facilitating!

However, there is a sting in the tail: we must suffer with him. This does involve the suffering of putting to death the misdeeds of the body. Denying ourselves is a fleshly suffering, but it is really no problem when we are truly loved by God. But it also means we shall suffer as combatants in the spiritual battle. We pray for grace to accept what God allows to happen. The Lord’s Prayer takes it into consideration: ‘Do not lead us into a time of testing; but deliver us from the evil one’. (Matthew 6:13 – New English Translation footnote)

Anyone who determines to live a life of death to self and sin will have a target painted on them. Indeed, it seems as though suffering is one way in which God teaches us, that our faith is the greatest thing we possess. It is this faith that we take with us into the new world:
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. (1 Timothy 6:7)
Suffering is a very deep subject. Much about it is hidden from us. But Paul did mention its importance in this deep truth:
Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)

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