AP

Romans 8:16-18  The Spirit himself bears 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.

Some days (but not always!) I’m quite happy for the ‘algorithm’ I decided on nearly 17 years ago to lead me to choose verses on which to write about each day!  Today (18.8.26) would have been my late wife, Pat’s, 82nd birthday, and it is a good day for me to be reading Romans 8.

Today’s verses remind me that, by God’s grace, and the way the Spirit so clearly was bearing with her spirit during her earthly pilgrimage, that she is a ‘child of God and a fellow heir with Christ’, that she is now ‘glorified with him’, and safe and secure for all eternity in the ‘mansion/room’ he had gone to prepare for her in ‘his Father’s house’ (John 14:2).  It reminds me that, although I miss her so very much, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” 

What a comfort these truths are to us in all our struggles. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) as it does not depend on our efforts, but on what Christ has done/won for us through his perfect, obedient Life, his sacrificial death in our place for our sin, his glorious resurrection and ascension, and his present advocacy for us at the Throne of Grace.  Secured because of his grip on us, rather than our grip on him!  I love the slight adaptation of the first line of the popular children’s hymn: ‘Jesus knows me this I love’!  It is his perfect, intimate knowledge of me that is more precious to me than my imperfect knowledge of him.

Let me quote what Spurgeon writes in the Evening Devotion for Pat’s birthday in his book Morning & Evening, commenting on Mark 15:23 (“And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.”).  Spurgeon comments:  “A Golden Truth is couched in the fact that the Saviour put the myrrhed wine cup from his lips.  On the heights of heaven the Son of God stood of old, and as he looked down on our globe He measured the long descent to the utmost depths of human misery.  He cast up the sum total of all the agonies which expiation [and propitiation! – Ed] would require, and abated not a jot.  He solemnly determined that to offer a sufficient atoning sacrifice He must go the whole way, from the highest to the lowest, from the throne of highest glory to the cross of deepest woe.  This myrrhed cup, with its soporific influence would have stayed him within a little of the utmost limit of misery, therefore he refused it.  He would not stop short of all he had undertaken to suffer for his people.  Ah, how many of us have pined after reliefs to our grief which would have been injurious to us!  Reader, did you never pray for a discharge from hard service or suffering with a petulant and willful eagerness?  Providence has taken from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke.  Say, Christian [he even mentions me by name!], if it had been said, ‘If you so desire it, that loved one of yours shall live, but God will be dishonoured,’ could you have put away the temptation and said, ‘Thy will be done’?  Oh, it is sweet to be able to say, ‘My Lord, if for other reasons I need not suffer, yet if I can honour you more by suffering, and if the loss of my earthly all [which Pat was for me] will bring you glory, then so let it be.  I refuse the comfort if it comes in the way of your honour’.  O that we thus walked more in the footsteps of our Lord, cheerfully enduring trial for his sake, promptly and willingly putting away the thought of self and comfort when it would interfere with our finishing the work which he has given us to do.  Great grace is needed, but great grace is provided.”  

If you think reading this gave me a real ‘kick in the guts’ and was a necessary ‘wake up call’ you’re not wrong.  Sadly, that’s what devotional reading is for, and why it is important!

– Bruce Christian