Romans 8:34 Who is to
condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is
at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Remember the Cross! Look to the Cross! These are helpful
phrases we often use when someone is dealing with something difficult, or just
in our daily lives. Many people remind themselves of the cross, as a sign of
forgiveness, redemption, and salvation. Paul tells us here that we have more
than the cross- perhaps our phrase should look like this:
Look to the cross! Look to the tomb! Look to the heavens!
So many promises of God, so much power at work in our lives,
by the Spirit.
Look to the cross:
We are forgiven. When dealing with sin, we are reminded that
God freely offers forgiveness. He answers repentant hearts every time with
mercy. When I yell angry words at my spouse, when I’m impatient with the
customer service rep, when I neglect my kids or my parents in favor of surfing
the web…I am forgiven. I look to my baptism where I died with Christ, my sin
drown. Jesus paid the price.
Look to the tomb:
So often in life, the things we deal with are not direct
results of our sin. Someone is diagnosed with cancer, mental illness becomes
daily reality in a family, terrorism grips schoolchildren in fear. Paul uses
the Greek mallon de, for what we see
in the ESV as “more than that.” This Greek phrase “is
a comparative adverb so it refers to what is better as
compared to what is merely "good." This involves prioritizing or
ranking to elevate the better over the good, i.e. the higher
priority (the more important) over the less-important.”
(http://biblehub.com/greek/3123.htm)
Paul proclaims that Christ did in fact die on the cross, but
let us not forget. He ROSE! The tomb is empty and that means LIFE for us. God offers us life, and
life to the full, even in the midst of all of it. We rise from the waters to
life!
Look to the heavens:
Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God. The Spirit
intercedes for us, Christ intercedes for us. So much interceding on our behalf.
We look to the skies and have confidence in a Lord that died, was raised to new
life, and ascended in to the heavens. He sits on a throne at the right hand of
God. He reigns and is in control, come what may.
Look to the cross, friends. Look to the tomb. Look to the
heavens.
