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  "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:1-2) - 

  This word is today's watchword on www.biblegateway.com and a wonderful verse for the monthly devotions. It combines Eastern and Pentecost in a beautiful way and thus fits perfectly in these weeks between them. A few weeks ago we mourned in remembrance of Jesus who had to die for because of our sins, and shortly after we rejoiced that he raised from death and triumphed over the death once and for ever. We still experience attacks: Satan shows us our weak points, tells us we are incompetent for everything, we are of no value, and we are bad. Yes, it is true that we lack the glory which we ought to have before God. But this concerns the whole mankind, not only your! Even the person who may just have pointed you to one of your mistakes would have no chance to stand before God. God once gave commandments in order to see things run better than before, in order that we know God’s will, but also that we see how far mankind has driven away from God’s ideal, and to make us see how urgently we need a saviour. And the law really showed us where to go – but it was unable to help us achieving it! Man failed because of his incapacity, and thus the law, once intended for good purposes, became the scale for our condemnation. This would hit every single person on earth, if God would not have sent the saviour. If we fix our lives in Jesus, we participate in the fact that Jesus as the ONLY ONE ever on earth complied to the law in full and in spite of that took the sentence of death onto himself – not for himself, but for us. Thus, there is no condemnation for us anymore!

  This was the first part of the verse, the „Easter part“. Let‘s turn to the „Pentecost part“: „…for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”. What does it mean to be "in Christ"? I call it the “Pentecost part”, because the Holy Spirit appears in it. Being in Christ has some stages before, which are all together in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. The first step is that a person turns to God, often called “conversion”. God answers with a „new birth“, which includes our entry into the book of life in heaven and the party of the angels, who rejoice that someone found Christ. The spiritual person within us, who can perceive God and communicate with God, is born! The new birth is somehow like a freshly opened bank account with a first small deposit, or like the entry of a new estate into the cadastral register Jesus just breathed on the disciples and thus demonstrated that they had received the new birth. They were still no mature Christians, for this was only the first step. He prepared them for receiving the „power from above“, which, however, could only come after he had left to the Father. Before, they just had to wait. At Pentecost, they experienced it. They noticed it from an overflowing love to Jesus, an unknown wish to work for God, endurance, bravery, and supernatural powers in such a way that they spoke languages they had never learned, and a so far rather chicken-hearted Peter stood up, preached and experienced that 3000 people were deeply touched and gave their lives to Jesus. One could hardly believe these were still the same disciple, after they had received this “baptism of the Holy Spirit”, as it is often called.

  There are more experiences waiting. With the baptism of the Holy Spirit we are not finished! Paul wrote the believers they needed to „put off their old selves“, and to „put on their new selves“. The new birth was nothing they could do themselves, it was just given. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was also a gift, they had nothing to contribute. But now, it was their turn: God had provided the equipment, they now were to put off the old and put on the new. We are called to step into this new life actively. If we do, this changes our beings, and it yields a manifold “fruit of the Spirit” (my topic in the April devotions ;-): “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23). If we then continue walking in the “new self”, we will see the fruit steadily growing. If we do not see them growing, it seems we got stuck somewhere – perhaps right after the new birth? Or after the baptism of the Spirit? We walk in the flesh, but not in the Spirit. We must change this!Ahead of us lies Pentecost. The disciples awaited something, not really knowing what. I have similar expectations this year: What may the Lord show me? What may he give to the church? And one final thought: Pentecost is not mainly the end of waiting for something. Rather it is the beginning of the book of Acts! The start of mission! The awakening of the church! And for us personally it wants to be a step in our spiritual CV that gets followed by others. Dear reader, I wish you a deep spiritual encounter with the Lord this Pentecost, which changes you like it changed the disciples.

  By the way: Pastor Alfred Osei-Poku from Ghana will preach on Whit Sunday and expects great blessings for all of us!

Yours in Christ

Jan Pahl (Church Referee) 

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