My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

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HE WHO RAISED CHRIST JESUS

Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Notice how clear Paul is in his description of the God who gives us life. He brings to the believer’s attention a number of clarifications that may be worthy of considering.

First, Paul speaks of the God who raised Christ Jesus as Spirit. His emphasis is on the person of God, not any moral codes, regulations, rules, bylaws or religion that we may be associated with. It is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, dwelling in each of us that Paul speaks of.

Which brings to our attention a second point to consider, that is the dwelling of the Spirit of God in the believer. Some may refer to this as the indwelling, and is an emphasis of the apostle Paul in this passage. His first reference to “dwelling” is in 7:17, where he speaks of sin dwelling in the body.

Romans 7:17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For the remainder of chapter 7, he speaks repeatedly of sin dwelling in the body, but shifts gears in chapter 8.

Now in chapter 8, we are not considering death and sin in the body, dwelling and destroying, but the Spirit of God dwelling and enlivening the body.

Paul had laid a framework in our minds regarding the concept of dwelling in the previous chapter, helping us identify a parallel condition. Sin dwelled in our bodies. Dwelled throughout our lives, deeply in our innermost being, permanently in our actions and thoughts (seemingly), and without any respite or rest from it’s ravages.

It is that type of dwelling that we carry over into the next chapter, yet all the negative aspects of this dwelling will be turned on it’s head. It is not death dealing sin that dwells in our body as believers, but life giving Spirit permeating our lives.

Easy to say Paul, for you surely are using flowery words to build up your teaching. Au contraire, mon ami, Paul is not one to make a claim and then hope for the best. Paul is linking the life giving Spirit in our lives with the Life giving Spirit that RAISED JESUS from death. He refers to the most astounding, historically proven, evidentiary phenomenon ever witnessed on earth. The raising of the Son of God from a cruel torturous death.

Story Time

We had our grandsons out on the farm this weekend and as I was reading the Word to them as a bedtime story, I so happened to be in John 11, with the story of Lazarus.

As I provided more and more expression to the story of Jesus amongst those crying at the death of His friend, I ended the story as Lazarus came out of the grave, and then closed the Bible. I looked at my oldest grandson, and emphasized that no one has done this before. A man was dead and Jesus simply said to come forth. And he did!

His eyes expanded a wee bit, and though he has not experienced death in his young life, his expression reinforced the wonder of this miracle.

Yet as I considered the Messiah’s resurrection, I was reminded again that it is unlike Lazarus in many ways. Lazarus was raised to die again. It was as if he was resuscitated from death. Now I do not want to make light of the miracle of Lazarus, but in comparison to the raising of Jesus from the dead, it was a mere shadow of the reality.

Jesus was raised from the dead, never to die again. Never. Death has been killed, dying by the hand of God as the Messiah was called forth from the tomb!

This is the God we serve.

HE WHO RAISED CHRIST JESUS is the Spirit that resides in us, dwelling in our lives and providing guidance, compassion, strength and love.

He is good!

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I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

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