Thursday, January 22, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Romans 8
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 10
Key Verse
Romans 8:20 — “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,”
Devotional Thought
In the dead of winter, when the wind bites and the trees stand bare against a gray January sky, Paul’s great declaration in Romans 8 lands with peculiar force: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” The word *now* is the hinge of the gospel. Not yesterday’s acquittal, not tomorrow’s verdict, but a present, settled reality for every soul hidden in Christ. Paul traces the ground of this freedom: the law was “weak through the flesh,” unable to save us, so God sent “his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” and condemned sin itself in the flesh. The condemnation fell on the sacrifice, not on the sinner who trusts Him.
Yet Paul does not stop at pardon. He speaks of adoption — “ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself “beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God,” and if children, then heirs, “joint-heirs with Christ.” This is intimate, family language, and it stands in deliberate contrast to Psalm 10, where the wicked say in their hearts, “God hath forgotten… he will never see it.” The psalmist cries, “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD?” — a question every believer has whispered in a hard season. But Romans answers: He is not far. He “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.”
Notice, too, how honest Paul is about suffering. He does not promise ease but declares that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Creation itself “groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,” and we groan with it, “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Even our prayers falter — “we know not what we should pray for as we ought” — but the Spirit “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” In January’s long nights, when hope feels unseen, this is our anchor: “we are saved by hope.”
And so Paul reaches his summit: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Nothing — not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword; not death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor height, nor depth — “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The psalmist’s cry for God to “arise” finds its answer at Calvary and the empty tomb. The wicked who said “I shall not be moved” will be broken; the humble who commit themselves to God will be heard. Today, rest in this: you are not condemned, you are not forgotten, and you are more than a conqueror through Him that loved you.
Reflection
- When you feel condemned — by your own conscience, by others, or by the enemy — do you live as one for whom there is *now* no condemnation in Christ, and what would change today if you truly believed it?
- Paul says the Spirit intercedes with “groanings which cannot be uttered” when we don’t know how to pray. In what area of your life are you groaning without words, and can you entrust that burden to the Spirit’s intercession rather than carrying it alone?
Prayer
Abba, Father, we thank Thee that in Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation. Thou didst not spare Thine own Son but delivered Him up for us all, and by Thy Spirit we are adopted as children and made joint-heirs with Christ. When we groan in weakness and know not what to pray, let Thy Spirit intercede for us according to Thy will. Arise, O Lord, as the psalmist pleaded; forget not the humble, and judge the fatherless and the oppressed. Hold us fast in the love of Christ, from which neither death nor life nor any creature can separate us, until the day we are glorified together with Him. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 10:1 — “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?”