Pearls of Purchase

Pearls of Purchase

Romans 8:1

Week 1 of January 2018

I going to begin a new blog and attempt to write at least one devotion a week.    I want to begin with a passage I have been reading and looking at in conjunction with the Series I have been writing from Romans 5.    That series is called: “Much More” and should be on our Open Door App as the New Year unfolds.

If you listen to me preach you will soon realize I have a hard time not preaching long sermons.   It has been the source of some criticism through the years, but here is the deal:  I try my best to dig deep into the riches of the Gospel.  This good deposit as Paul calls it.  A deposit takes time, and effort to mine out.   A rare deposit of minerals are seldom on the surface of the earth, and while truth is certainly on the surface of the scriptures, the portions that really hold you in the difficult moments are well below the surface. Therefore, find it difficult not to go down and stay down because there is so much depth and meat to enjoy.  

Paul’s work to the church of Rome is a packed letter to say the least.  It is full of great truths that are impossible to exhaust.   As a believer we know we have been purchased by God and for God.  We have been called to live life in the Spirit and not the flesh.    Paul is beginning this amazing chapter describing how we who have the Holy Spirit live a spiritual life.  And this chapter on "Life in the Spirit" begins with an amazing and wonderful promise in verse 1.

Let me remind you of it.  "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  That's how the chapter begins and that's really the summation of what's been said from chapter three right on through chapter seven.   We are seen as a pardoned criminal on Death Row.  Yet,  we have been given no-condemnation status.   How can this be?

This is the sweetest sound of any words that could possibly come from God.  We were condemned to eternal punishment in hell.  We were sitting already on Death Row, occupying a cell in the prison of our iniquity, already declared by a holy God, the Judge of all the earth, as guilty. 

Simply waiting for the day of our execution when the Savior delivered a pardon.  Our death row experience in many senses is our time on this Earth.   But something wonderful has occurred!

God placed pardon upon us.  The very hand of God  at work and having paid our penalty for sin moved us into a no-judgment, no-condemnation position.  He  did for us what we could never do for ourselves.  He came to this earth and become sin for us.  Yes, He was killed for us in our place.   He was executed for us as a substitution.

This is the joyous news that introduces this great chapter.  And if doesn't thrill your soul then you are cold; you've lost the warmth of a thankful heart.

It is where I begin this blog and my devotional series.   For it is the greatest price ever paid.   This promise of no condemnation in fact is the last pearl or the pinnacle pearl, the most prominent pearl in the string of pearls that are the benefits of justification.    Back in Chapter 5 where I was studying for my sermon series, In Chapter 10 Paul talks a lot about justification.

There are other pearls of purchase that are precious.  Think about them with me.  The other pearls would be peace and grace and hope and love and life and holiness and freedom and fruit and spiritual service and then the glory of all glories in this beautiful string of pearls, no condemnation.  .

Through the marvelous person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ our sins are paid for in full.  He bore our punishment; He was condemned in our place for us so we, by faith in him, are free from ever having to be punished for our sins.  

Praise God that is settled! 

Hallelujah, that is finished!

AMEN, punishment is a settled issue.

Expecting an Encounter,

Pastor Steven