Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights Archives

Letter, Law and Spirit

By Andrew YoungOctober 26, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“What is at issue is … two different regimes, the ‘old’ and the ‘new’…” Herman Ridderbos Bible Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 Indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, Christians belong to a different state or order of things than they did previously. They are no longer dominated by the sinful nature as those powerless to resist its appeal but are animated by the power of God through the Holy Spirit. We continue to explore this idea as Ridderbos expands on Paul’s teaching the contrasting ways of the law, the letter, and the Spirit. The idea that, as Christians, we are living […]

Life in the Spirit

By Andrew YoungOctober 25, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“The new life we have in Christ is life in the Spirit.” Bible Reading: Romans 8:1-4 It is faith on our part, and the Holy Spirit on the Lord’s, that makes our union with the risen Christ something practical and a part of our everyday life. From this point, Herman Ridderbos elaborates on what “life in the Spirit” means. The new life we have in Christ is related to his death and resurrection on the one hand, and to the ministry of the Spirit on the other. Through Jesus’ death, we are delivered from the power and tyranny of sin. […]

Raised Together with Christ (3)

By Andrew YoungOctober 24, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“For the present… it has the character of a life in the flesh by faith…” Bible Reading: Galatians 2:20 At the risk of dragging this point out, I want us to consider for a third time the implications of our union with Christ in his resurrection. The reason for doing so is its importance. It poses to us a kind of life that seems at odds with the one we live every day. We explore this tension more fully in this devotional. Last time, we noted that our participation with Christ in his resurrection means that our lives are hidden […]

Raised Together with Christ (2)

By Andrew YoungOctober 23, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“Because Christ is their life, it has also gone with Christ to heaven…” Herman Ridderbos Bible Reading: Colossians 3:1-4 In the last two devotionals, we have seen that when thinking about our new life in Christ, we do not start with ourselves – our own experience or feelings. Rather, we start with Christ, and with what he has done. Because we are united with him, we count that what has happened to him has also happened to us. We have seen how that applies to our death with Christ; now we consider further what it means in terms of sharing […]

Raised Together with Christ (1)

By Andrew YoungOctober 22, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“…our new life in Christ is anchored not so much in what we do, but in what he has done.” Bible Reading: Ephesians 2:4-7 Last time, we considered that as those who have died to sin with Christ, we must no longer live in its power or practice. This time we begin to look at what it means to live in union with him in his resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the reverse side of his death event. He not only died, but he also rose again through the power of God. Just as through faith we come to […]

A New Way of Life

By Andrew YoungOctober 21, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“What has taken place once in Christ must thus be actualized in a new way of life.” Herman Ridderbos Bible Reading: Romans 6:8-14 In our previous devotional, we noted that our lives are shaped by what happened to Christ. Because faith unites us to him, what has happened to him can be counted as being true for us. This becomes a real factor in our lives as we exercise faith. This is the point we explore further below. If our death and resurrection with Christ are to become something that is real in our lives, we must learn to judge […]

Death and Resurrection with Christ

By Andrew YoungOctober 20, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“By their being baptized into Christ and thus belonging to Christ, that which once took place in him is also valid for his own…” Herman Ridderbos Bible Reading: Romans 6:1-4 The new life we have as believers is defined by what once happened to Christ. This is so because our life, once we become Christians, is determined by the fact that faith unites us to Christ in a spiritual yet real way. This is not how many Christians think of what it means to be “saved.” They commonly connect salvation with being forgiven and delivered from the wrath to come […]

Seeing the Bigger Picture

By Andrew YoungOctober 19, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“…salvation is not all about us.” Bible Reading: Colossians 1:19, 20 Rather than plunging immediately into a consideration of the Christian life as a new life in Christ, Herman Ridderbos begins by taking a look at the larger picture of salvation (or redemption). The gospel Paul preached, he notes, promised more than a new relationship with God through Christ for individual men and women. It did that, but it didn’t stop there. God’s purpose in his Son is bigger than the rescue of individual sinful men and women. In its fullest scope, it includes the reconciliation of the whole of […]

New Life in Christ

By Andrew YoungOctober 18, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“…a Christian is a person who has been brought into a vital union with Jesus Christ” Bible Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-19 As I mentioned yesterday, in an effort to keep these devotionals flowing during this time when I am travelling and ministering abroad, I want to take a lengthy piece of writing that I have already done and break it down into bits – just like I have done with the article “Christ in the Heart” based on Martyn Lloyd-Jones exposition of Ephesians 3:14-19, Once again, the writing that I have in view is based on a helpful book. This […]

“It’s Not Practical”

By Andrew YoungOctober 17, 2017Devotionals: Miscellaneous Insights

“The truly practical man is not the man who is always bustling and busy and excited and rushing about here and there, but the man who is being used by God the Holy Spirit…” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Bible Reading: Daniel 6:1-10 With this sixth hindrance to experiencing Christ living in the heart we come to an end of the article that I wrote on this subject. We also come to the end of my present travels – the long road journey that has taken me almost the length of New Zealand. God-willing, tomorrow I hope to begin another similar series […]