Spiritual Hunger.

You're hungry. There is a table filled with food. You eat. You're no longer hungry. You recognized your need. You had access to fulfilling that need. You satisfied that need. You no longer have that need (if only temporary because the need will return.) 

Daily Bread. Daily need.

When you have easy access to food it is also easy to not experience true hunger. You keep yourself fed at regular intervals to avoid feeling any real hunger. You eat to keep hunger at bay. Occasionally something will occur that will allow you to experience real hunger. That real hunger reminds you why you choose to eat at regular intervals. 

Spiritual Bread. Spiritual need.

Faith allows us to comprehend our spiritual hunger.

We can spiritually starve ourselves, many people do. This spiritual starvation results in spiritual death. Spiritual death unlike physical death can be changed. You can be brought back from a spiritual death that has lasted several decades-long. The thing about being spiritually dead is it can only be reversed if you are physically alive. Physical death while spiritually dead means permanent spiritual death, there is absolutely no getting around that, none. You need to be physically alive to change spiritual death to spiritual life. 

The Lord Jesus pointedly TAUGHT us to pray and in that example of prayer, He spoke the words- DAILY BREAD.  To pray for DAILY BREAD, you need to pray daily. Prayer is SPIRITUAL. Prayer takes FAITH. 

Can you pray daily and not be spiritual?  Yes. How, if prayer is spiritual and takes faith? You could be mouthing the prayers without faith, you can be praying amiss. To pray amiss is mouthing words, putting on a show of faith without having faith. You can pretend to pray. You can say hollow prayers that lack truth. 

We have to comprehend our Spiritual hunger, that we should be spiritually hungry. We need to recognize our daily spiritual needs. There will never be a day we will not experience a spiritual hunger that needs feeding as long as we comprehend truth. The truth is our ever-existing need to be connected to Christ. When we forget that we need to be in submission to Christ and His will, we ignore our spiritual hunger. We have no goodness in and our ourselves, no righteousness in ourselves unless we have Christ in us as our righteousness. This is our spiritual need, this is the spiritual hunger that we need to recognize. We have Christ in us when we invite Him to live in us daily as we take up the cross that tells us we need to deny ourselves daily and accept Christ daily. Recognizing our nothingness isn't easy. We spend a good part of our day trying to behave, to live an acceptable life, in what we imagine is a life pleasing in the sight of God. As we berate ourselves for failing to live that God-pleasing life we need to RECOGNIZE we are being shown our complete inability to please God with anything we can do of our own accord. All the glory goes to God, and if ALL the glory goes to God that leaves NO GLORY for us! Recognizing our every failure is the constant reminder of our spiritual hunger, we need to feast at the foot of the Cross, not pat ourselves on our backs for a day spent being good. 

(Excerpt)

Establishing the Law Romans 3:27-31

27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also; 30 seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.

No Boasting. 

Since righteousness is a free gift of God through Jesus Christ, it is evident that no one can justly boast of any righteousness that he has. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:8, 9. 

"Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" 1 Cor. 4:7.

What Boasting Proves. "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." Hab. 2:4. Boasting therefore is an evidence of a sinful heart. But suppose a man boasts of his righteousness, as, for instance, when a man says that he has lived without sin for so many years? "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8.

But are not the grace and power of God manifested in Christ to cleanse and keep us from sin? Most certainly; but only when in humility we acknowledge that we are sinners. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. 

When we say that we have no sin,  that very thing is evidence that we have; but when with faith in the word of the Lord we say that we are sinners,  then the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. In the plan of salvation there is no place for human pride and boasting.

No Boasting in Heaven. The result of boasting in heaven is seen in the case of Satan. Once he was one of the covering cherubs above the throne of God. But he began to contemplate his own glory and goodness, and his fall was the consequence. "Thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God;  and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." Eze. 28:16, 17.

If the saints after their translation should begin to boast of their sinlessness, they would be as bad as they ever were. But that will never be. All who are admitted to heaven will have fully learned the lesson that God is all and in all. There will not be a voice or a heart silent in the song of praise, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever."

All Righteousness From Christ Alone.

 Romans 3 25 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Christ Set Forth. 

Christ is the one whom God has set forth to declare his righteousness. Now since the only righteousness that is real righteousness is the righteousness of God, and Christ is the only one who has been ordained of God to declare it upon men, it is evident that it can not be obtained except through him.

"There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12.

A Propitiation.

 A propitiation is a sacrifice. The statement then is simply that Christ is set forth to be a sacrifice for the remission of our sins. "Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb. 9:26. Of course the idea of a propitiation or sacrifice is that there is wrath to be appeased. But take particular notice that it is we who require the sacrifice, and not God. He provides the sacrifice. The idea that God's wrath has to be propitiated in order that we may have forgiveness finds no warrant in the Bible.

It is the height of absurdity to say that God is so angry with men that he will not forgive them unless something is provided to appease his wrath, and that therefore he himself offers the gift to himself, by which he is appeased.0 "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death." Col. 1:21, 22.

Heathen and Christian Propitiation. The Christian idea of propitiation is that set forth above. The heathen idea,  which is too often held by professed Christians, is that men must provide a sacrifice to appease the wrath of their god. All heathen worship is simply a bribe to their gods to be favorable to them. If they thought that their gods were very angry with them, they would provide a greater sacrifice, and so human sacrifices were offered in extreme cases. They thought, as the worshipers of Siva in India do to-day, that their god was gratified by the sight of blood.

The persecution that was carried on in so-called Christian countries in times past and is to some extent even now, is but the outcropping of this heathen idea of propitiation. Ecclesiastical leaders imagine that salvation is by works and that men by works can atone for sin, and so they offer the one whom they think rebellious as a sacrifice to their god not to the true God, because he is not pleased with such sacrifices.

Righteousness Declared. 

To declare righteousness is to speak righteousness. God speaks righteousness to man,  and then he is righteous. The method is the same as in the creation in the beginning. "He spake, and it was."  "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:10.

God's Justice in Redemption.

Christ is set forth to declare God's righteousness for the remission of sins, in order that he might be just and at the same time the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. God justifies sinners, for they are the only ones who need justification. The justice of declaring a sinner to be righteous lies in the fact that he is actually made righteous. Whatever God declares to be so, is so. And then he is made righteous by the life of God given him in Christ.

The sin is against God, and if he is willing to forgive it, he has the right to do so. 

No unbeliever would deny the right of a man to overlook a trespass against him. 

But God does not simply overlook the trespass; he gives his life as a forfeit. Thus he upholds the majesty of the law, and is just in declaring that man righteous who was before a sinner. 

Sin is remitted sent away from the sinner, because sin and righteousness can not exist together,  and God puts his own righteous life into the believer. So God is merciful in his justice, and just in his mercy.

"There's a wideness in God's mercy,

Like the wideness of the sea;

There's a kindness in his justice,

That is more than liberty."

We now come to the close of the third chapter of Romans. We found that righteousness is the free gift of God unto every one who believes. It is not that God gives a man righteousness as a reward for believing certain dogmas; the gospel is something entirely different from that. It is this, that true faith has Christ alone as its object, and it brings Christ's life actually into the heart; and therefore it must bring righteousness.

This act of mercy on the part of God is eminently just, because in the first place the sin is against God, and he has a right to pass by offenses against him; and, further, it is just, because he gives his own life as an atonement for the sin, so that the majesty of the law is not only maintained, but is magnified. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Ps. 85:10. God is just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. All righteousness is from him alone.

Justified Freely

 

Seek Glory and Honor...Eternal Life

 We were made a little lower than the angels… angels were made spirit beings… we were given spirit and flesh upon our creation.  Also upon creation we were crowned with glory and honor.

Glory and honor. 

What comes to mind when you think of glory and honor?

To my mind when I think of glory I think of God. The dictionary states- glory is exaltation, achievement, praise of deity, awesome, splendor. Honor- personal integrity, respect, dignity, reputation, source of pride, mark of distinction, great privilege, 

Glory and honor. 

Such magnificence was given to us upon our creation. We were GIVEN glory and honor, we were CROWNED with glory and honor. Crowned. There we were, a newly created being shining in the magnificence of being created by God and crowned by GOD with such exceptional gifts - glory and honor! We need to comprehend our beginning. We weren't dirt created creatures with dust coating our new flesh. We were glorious, honored by GOD!  

Then sin wiped that all away.

From glory and honor to shame. 

And now, we have to SEEK that glory and we find it only in CHRIST. 

(Excerpt)

Romans 3:22 …There is no difference; 23 for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

"The Glory of God." 

From the text we learn that the glory of God is his righteousness. Notice, the reason why all have come short of the glory of God is that all have sinned. The fact is plain that if they had not sinned they would not have come short of it. The coming short of the glory itself consists in sin. Man in the beginning was "crowned with glory and honor" (Hebrews 2:7)

Heb 2:7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands

because he was upright. In the fall he lost the glory, and therefore now he must "seek for glory and honor and immortality." Christ could say to the Father, "The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them," because in him is the righteousness of God which he has given as a free gift to every man. It is the part of wisdom to receive righteousness; and "they that be wise shall shine."

Rom_2:7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life

Joh_17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one

Dan_12:3  And they that be wise shall shine…

No Difference.

 All, leaving no one out, have sinned.

All, no matter race, sex, creed, nothing exempt… all have sinned.

No one person, no matter the circumstances, not a single person can escape their sinner status.  No one can buy sinlessness. No one can give another sinlessness. You birth does not matter, your station in life doesn't matter, absolutely nothing will keep you from being a sinner.

When Christ saves us He is saving a sinner. 

There is no difference in any human from another in the matter of needing the righteousness of Christ, not a single difference.

We are all in need of Christ and His righteousness.

*******

The Justice of Mercy

Romans 3:22-26

Rom 3:22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference

22 There is no difference; 23 for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

"No Difference." 

In what is there no difference? There is no difference in the way in which men receive righteousness. And why is no difference made in the manner of justifying men? Because "all have sinned."  

Peter, in relating to the Jews his experience in first preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, said, "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Acts 15:8, 9. "Out of the heart of men," not of one class of men, but of all men, "proceed evil thoughts," etc. Mark 7:21. God knows the hearts of all men, that all are alike sinful, and therefore he makes no difference in the gospel to different men.

"One Blood." 

This lesson is one of the most important to be learned by the missionary, whether laboring at home or abroad. Since the gospel is based on a principle that there is no difference in men, it is absolutely essential that the gospel worker should recognize the fact, and always keep it in mind. God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Acts 17:26. Not only are all men of one blood,  but they are also of "one kind of flesh." 1 Cor. 15:39.

The great burden of the Epistle to the Romans, as has appeared up to this point, is to show that so far as sin and salvation therefrom are concerned, there is absolutely no difference between men of all races and conditions in life. The same gospel is to be preached to the Jew and to the Gentile, to the slave and to the freeman, to the prince and to the peasant.

If We Continue...

 Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell

(((The Father God knows and wanted all in all to be in Christ))))

Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 

(((The blood of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ for us brings the peace of salvation. Jesus Christ our Savior alone can reconcile us to God.))))

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 

(((Separated from God by our own wickedness, we can be reconciled to God by our Savior.))))

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 

(((JESUS' death allows Him to present US holy, unblameable, unreprovable!  Think about that!? You and I, HOLY, UNBLAMEABLE, UNREPROVABLE! The magnitude of such a miracle is truly beyond our ability to fully comprehend.))))

Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister

(((IF…IF… IF….IF….IF…  I can't stress this IF enough! IF WE CONTINUE IN THE FAITH.

Continue in the faith! Endure to the end! Confess always to be cleansed always! 

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 

1Jn 2:1  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

1Jn 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

WE must continue just as we began in CHRIST, that belief, that zeal, that comprehension, that knowledge of being saved must be continued always. We can never get to a place we believe we are sinless and not in need of forgiveness. While we strive against sin, we know that only Christ is sinless, and our acceptance of His sinlessness is our salvation through Him. Never ever should we condone any sin. If we sin we must confess, we must recognize our Savior as saving us, not us saving ourselves with our own power to refrain from sin. ANY ability to keep from sinning comes from the power of God and we need to keep this in mind. Christ in us is our hope, not our hope in our own power to be sinless.

IF we continue...

We must continue in the faith, not step outside of it onto another path.  We must be GROUNDED and SETTLED. If you are grounded and settled in something you will not be moved from it ever! We must NEVER move away from the gospel of salvation through Christ!

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 

Col 1:28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 

Col 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily

Christ - Creator.

 Col 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, 

Col 1:2  To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Col 1:3  We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 

Col 1:4  Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, 

Col 1:5  For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 

Col 1:6  Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: 

Col 1:7  As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; 

Col 1:8  Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. 

Col 1:9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to 

DESIRE THAT YE MIGHT BE FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL IN ALL WISDOM AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING

(((We need and can be filled with the KNOWLEDGE of CHRIST'S WILL - being given all wisdom and spiritual understand towards this end- knowing His will))))

Col 1:10  That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 

(((Walking worthy of the LORD. Fruitful in good work. Gaining knowledge of God.))))

Col 1:11  Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 

(((Spiritually strengthened with all we need- by HIS glorious power, giving us PATIENCE, LONGSUFFERING while being filled with JOY!))))

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 

(((Thanking GOD the Father who made our spiritual INHERITANCE from CHRIST possible))))

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 

Col 1:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 

(((Delivered from SATAN, given to CHRIST for His Kingdom. REDEEMED by CHRIST through HIS BLOOD, HIS DEATH- FORGIVEN of our SINS!))))

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 

(((CHRIST JESUS- the image of GOD the Father- invisible to us.

CHRIST JESUS- the firstborn of every creature.  Holding the position of importance a firstborn holds, but not only the firstborn power position but the power over all created, firstborn over all firstborn.))))

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 

(((CHRIST CREATED ALL THINGS. Christ our CREATOR.  All created by Him and FOR Him!))))

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 

(((CHRIST before ALL things, CHRIST - by HIM ALL THINGS ARE.))))

Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 

(((CHRIST the HEAD of the body.

CHRIST the HEAD of His people.

CHRIST the beginning.

CHRIST the first risen from the decreed death - God forsakened.

CHRIST truly greater than all things.))))