I’ll be honest, sometimes I skim in my Bible reading. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I sometimes quickly pass over the powerful intent of statements in the Bible because I’m not immediately being addressed. Often times a letter or passage is written to a large audience with the intent of each person individually meditating upon it for grace and change. I get hung up on the “we” and “us” and forget the implicit “me” and “you” of a passage.
One of those passages if Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
I can be prone to pass over this passages intent upon me for the sake that it uses “we” language. Thankfully, God stopped me in my tracks this morning. This is my own attempt to get inside this passage as, I think, Paul (and God) intended me to receive it:
Father, you did not spare your own Son, but gave Him up for me. Jesus died for my many sins in my place. How will you not also with him graciously give me all things needed? Therefore:
- All things I need today are all in Jesus.
- All things I need today are free in Jesus.
- Jesus is already freely pouring upon me the grace I need today.
- There are no real, substantial needs I have that Jesus will not meet.
- If a solution today comes that does not directly tether to Jesus, it is not a need, and is probably sin and temptation.
There is, of course, more that could be said to the above. My point here isn’t to excessively qualify remarks, though those could go on ad infinitum. My point is simply this: To meditate on this grand reality that God is for us in Jesus Christ, and to make that personal in my life today. God is for me in helping me be faithful at my job today. God is for Michelle in helping her care for Owen today. And this help is only in Jesus Christ. But it’s not hard to get the help! The point of Romans 8, if anything, is that God is for us and near us. He is not far. God is so close to us that not only did he take on flesh, take on the place of our sin under his wrath, but he also indwells us by his Spirit. God is for us in the most outlandish, staggering, bewilderingly beautiful ways possible.
So, I say it to myself again: All things I need today are free for me to receive, because Jesus, who died for my many sins, is free to me by faith.
The Strasbourg Inn 