Happy Easter to my dear and special church family! How I love worshipping with you! I thank God for you and for the joy we share together in knowing who we are in Christ! How blessed we are in being assured of where we stand before God and what the future holds for each one of us! It is all because of Jesus and what He did 2017 years ago on the cross of Calvary and what He achieved three days later with His resurrection! And because of this, we will stand together in the company of the great saints in glory worshipping our Lord, our God, our Saviour, up close and personal forever and ever! O what joy will fill our hearts as we stand together, united in His presence; as we continue to serve Him in the tasks that He is preparing for us to do in glory and as we worship Him in our righteous, glorious and risen immortal bodies! Easter brings with it great hope and assurance for all who follow Jesus and go by the name ‘Christian’!
Today, we continue our sojourn in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome of his day. This letter is not only pertinent to them but to us too! It is a wonderful segment of his letter for us to enjoy and savor. There are some magnificent truths for us to hear and learn that should spur us on in our walk with our Lord. There is also some challenges too that should awaken us to the battle we are in when it comes to sin and its potential to impact on us and lead us from serving Him.
There are three truths that I wish to convey to you that I have picked up in this portion of Scripture. The first truth is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The second truth is that there is a distinction between the Christian and non Christian when it comes to what they set their minds on and to. In other words, the way they live their lives is starkly different. The third truth is that genuine Christians have a certain and glorious future awaiting them. And all of these truths flow from what Jesus achieved on that Easter weekend so long ago. His death made it possible for us be freed from the penalty of our many misdemeanors. His resurrection made it possible for us to have new life and not only this but to have new, glorious and incorruptible bodies when we too will be resurrected when the Lord descends to take us home. What a wonderful thought!