From Eden to Eternity God has always wanted to be with us as His people. He has made this possible through his redemptive plan to bring heaven and earth together ultimately in the work of His son, Jesus – our Emmanuel.

Jesus is the life and light of the world.

Although we have a wonderful salvation and so much blessing from God we still face suffering in this age. How do we walk through this life in the midst of difficulty, pain and distress as a Christian? The passage we are considering today provides us with a pathway and finishes with an exuberant flourish.

Our new identity of being in the Spirit rather than being in the flesh empowers us to live God’s way. Paul makes clear that having the Spirit living inside of us is the hallmark of the Christian. It is this indwelling of the Holy Spirit which leads to the discussion of adoption because he is the Spirit of adoption.

We live turbulent times as a nation. Politically things seem very unstable with growing division and mistrust. As Christians how do we navigate our way in this election season? What should shape our attitudes and actions at this time?

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But those in Christ Jesus, now have the empowering of the spirit to fulfil the law in a way that was once not possible in the flesh. Although we may not be ‘sinless’, we will certainly ‘sin less’ as we grow in the likeness of Christ and wage war on the flesh.

The Law (Old Testament Ten Commandments etc) was never meant to save us. It does reveal something of God’s holiness, it also shows us that we can never earn our way to God. We can never be good enough! Sin has polluted us and we just cannot do it on our own.

As we understand the Law it reveals our desperate need of someone to save us, it gets us looking away from ourselves and towards God.

As Christians we live under grace which means that because of Jesus we are totally loved and accepted by God. We no longer need to be bound up by religious rule keeping but are empowered by the Spirit to live lives that bear fruit and glorify God.

Slavery to sin leads to death, but obedience leads to righteousness and eternal life. Sam reminds us that as Christians we have been set free from sin and are now slaves of righteousness to God. How does this shape how we live?

Our identity and value can be taken from many places – society tells us that our value is found in what we do, not on who we are. Yet with Christ, everything changes. We are no longer a product of what we do, but on what He did on the cross. We are no longer slaves of sin, but righteous before God because of the cross. This enables us to reign in life and wage war on sin.