2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 4
The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence
Day 4
“so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:4
The Requirement of the Law
According to Romans 8:3, yesterday’s verse, Jesus condemned sin in His death. Jesus condemned sin, but He did not condemn the Law. On the contrary, He upheld the Law. He upheld the Law’s requirements. In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” He not only upheld the Law, He also fulfilled the Law. He fulfilled every one of His Father’s commands with absolute perfection. In order to have eternal life, we too must fulfill all of the requirements of the Law. At the end of Matthew 5, Jesus said this, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is the great, divine transaction. There is a cosmic, eternal exchange that occurs when we place our trust in Christ. When we believe in Jesus, we acknowledge several truths. First, we acknowledge that God demands a standard of behavior from us. In order for us to be in a right relationship with Him, we must live perfectly according to His standards. Psalm 130:3 states that “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” To be in God’s presence, He demands a standard of perfection. Second, we humbly admit that we have not and cannot fulfill this standard. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” No one is capable of living a life completely free from iniquity. No one is sinless, no one except Jesus Christ. Third, we acknowledge that God justly holds us responsible for our failure to fulfill all of the requirements of His Law. Since God is holy, in His holiness, He must hold us accountable for our sin. Galatians 3:10 says, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.’” Failure to fulfill all of the works of the Law put us under a curse, a curse of separation from God. Fourth, we gratefully acknowledge that God, in Christ, has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law. God in Christ has fulfilled the Law in two ways: first, by Christ perfectly keeping the Law and second, by Christ paying the penalty for our failure to keep the Law. Today’s verse says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” We need Christ to fulfill the Law in us. We need Him to do this because of His perfections, His perfect fulfillment of His Father’s commands. We also need Christ to pay for our failure to fulfill the Law. Galatians 3:13 describes the work of Christ this way: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us.” God alone accomplished this twofold work of fulfilling the Law in His Son, Jesus Christ. As Christ died, He cried out from the cross, “It is finished.” The entire work of fulfilling the Law had been accomplished. What Jesus claimed in the Sermon on the Mount, “I did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill,” was accomplished in His life and death. He declared this completed work in that moment on the cross for all of us to hear, “It is finished.” Fifth, we humbly acknowledge and receive this righteous gift, the gift of perfect Law keeping and this gift of divine justice born in our place. This gift comes from God through faith in His Son. Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is a free gift. Salvation is a free gift to simply be received by us. Ephesians 2:8 states it this way: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” If Christ did not completely fulfill the Law then faith in Christ would not accomplish what Paul states here, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” The requirements of the Law were fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, by faith in Christ, His accomplishment of Law fulfillment and sin bearing transfers to our account the moment we believe in Him. We are perfect before God. We can stand in His presence forever and ever. We are now perfect Law keepers in the eyes of God, not because we have done anything, but because Christ has done everything. Sixth, this gift comes to us through the work of God by His Spirit. The Spirit of God bears testimony to all of these truths. He convicts us of our sin and points us to the person of Jesus Christ. In that moment, when we receive this gift of salvation, in that very moment, the requirements of the Law are completely fulfilled in us.
Old Walk, New Walk
Paul’s description of our life as believers is quite captivating at this point in Romans 8:4. We have been saved by the work of the Spirit within us. This work of salvation comes at the initiative of God the Father through His Son. God took the initiative to glorify His name by exalting His Son’s life, death and resurrection for all eternity. God took the initiative in human history by sending His Son into the world in the “likeness of sinful flesh” to be a sin offering on our behalf. God took the initiative in our lives by bringing us into this plan of salvation. The Spirit of God is the One who revealed these truths to us through the Word of God and by the Spirit’s work of conviction within our lives. When we heard the good news of Jesus Christ, we believed because the Spirit of God comes along side us in the work of saving faith. Paul transitioned from these global, eternal truths captured in the opening phrase of this verse “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us” to the daily implications of living in the here and now. He focused on the work of God in human history and on the work of God in bringing these glorious, eternal truths into our personal history. However, Paul does not think only in these past terms. Paul also did not think about salvation in purely future terms. Truly, our eternal future is secure in Christ. Therefore, though these truths dominated human history and our own personal history and these truths dominate our future as well, these truths matter right now. Believers are also those who are currently walking in His Spirit. We embrace what God has done for us in our past, when He saved us from the eternal consequences of our sins. However, we also walk with God in the present. We used to walk purely according to our sinful desires. We only knew life from our sin nature. However, when Christ came into our lives a new life followed. Now we live in the power of the Spirit. He did not save us just to the send us back to living our old futile life. God saved us to transform us right now and forever. The work of God in our past began a long journey of walking with Him every moment of every day. God in Christ saved us from His wrath. God in Christ now abides with us continually in His Holy Spirit. We once were separated from God due to our sin. Now we live every moment in the presence of God. How then shall we live? We should live a daily life that reflects the work of God in setting us free from sin and death.
Prayer Focus
How great You are, my God. You have saved me by meeting all the requirements of Your Law on my behalf. You have fulfilled Your Law in my life through Your Son. God help me to walk with You. Help me to walk according to Your Spirit. Overcome my tendencies to wander from You. Establish me firmly in Your Spirit. I ask You to do this work in my life, in my family and the life of Your church. Amen.
From DL Moody’s Secret Power
Some skeptics assert that there is no other vital energy in the world but physical force, while contrary to their assertions, thousands and tens of thousands who cannot possibly be deceived have been quickened into spiritual life by a power neither physical or mental. Men who were dead in sins - drunkards who lost their will, blasphemers who lost their purity, libertines sunk in beastliness, infidels who published their shame to the world, have in numberless instances become the subjects of the Spirit’s power and are now walking in the true nobility of Christian manhood, separated by an infinite distance from their former life. Let others reject, if they will, at their own peril, this imperishable truth. I believe, and am growing more into this belief, that divine, miraculous creative power resides in the Holy Spirit. Above and beyond all natural law, yet in harmony with it, creation, providence, the Divine government, and the upbuilding of the Church of God are presided over by the Spirit of God. His ministration is the ministration of life more glorious than the ministration of law, (2 Corinthians 3:16-10). And like the Eternal Son, the Eternal Spirit having life in Himself, is working out all things after the counsel of His own will, and for the everlasting glory of the Triune Godhead.