Category Archives: Commentary

The Bridge Commentary is a running verse by verse breakdown of the Books of the New Testament including word definitions, significant historical background and comments.

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How God’s Foreknowledge Propels Us to Be Like Jesus

Roaming through Romans

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A.J. Gossip gave us these words about becoming like Jesus. He said, “You will not stroll into Christlikeness with your hands in your pockets, shoving the door open with a careless shoulder. This is no hobby for one’s leisure moments, taken up at intervals when we have nothing much to do, and put down and forgotten when our life grows full and interesting. It takes all one’s strength, and all one’s heart, and all one’s mind, and all one’s soul, given freely and recklessly and without restraint. This is a business for adventurous spirits; others would shrink out of it.” 1 Paul addressed this issue in Romans 8 and verse twenty-nine. Let’s take a look.

[Tweet “You’re not an afterthought to God. You’re a pre-planned being with a calling and purpose.”]

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How, by the Spirit, All Things Can Come Out Right

Roaming through Romans

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The story is told of an only survivor of a wreck who was thrown on an uninhabited island. After a while he managed to build himself a hut, in which he placed the little that he had saved from the wreck. He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously scanned the horizon each day to hail any passing ship. One day on returning from a hunt for food he was horrified to find his hut in flames—all he had had gone up in smoke. The worst had happened it seemed. But that which seemed to have happened for the worst was in reality for the best. The next day a ship arrived. “We saw your smoke signal,” the captain said. If our lives are in God’s hands “all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28).1 In today’s post, we take a look at this marvelous truth from the Word of God.
[Tweet “Romans 8:28 doesn’t say, ‘Every bad thing which happens, work’s together for our good.'”]
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Why the Holy Spirit is the Great Helper of Our Prayer Life

Roaming through Romans

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Romans 8:26-27 is a mountain of Bible truth and comfort on the subject of prayer. J. Oswald Sanders in his book, Cultivation of Christian Character says these words. “It is worthy of note that the Spirit’s assistance in prayer is more frequently mentioned than any of His other offices. All true praying springs from His activity in the heart. Both Paul and Jude teach that effective prayer is ‘praying in the Holy Spirit,’ which has been defined as praying ‘along the same lines, about the same things, in the same Name as the Holy Spirit.'” 1 In today’s post, we take a glimpse at this all important aspect of the Spirit’s work in the life of a believer.

[Tweet “The truth is we don’t know how to pray as we should but, the Spirit comes to help us.”]

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The Role of the Spirit in the Life of A Believer

Roaming through Romans

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Gardner Taylor said that words are vehicles by which to transfer ideas from one mind to another. However, he went on to say, some ideas are so heavy that the words break down in the effort. What a blessed assurance it is to know that when words break down in our effort to transmit the deepest longings of our hearts, we have the Divine Helper through whom these yearnings find their way to the mind of our Heavenly Father. According to Romans 8:26–27 the Holy Spirit takes our inarticulate groanings and verbalizes them to the Father. Through the Holy Spirit of God who indwells you, a groan in your soul can be the most eloquent prayer you ever prayed.  1 In today’s post, we take a look at the role of the Holy Spirit in the prayer life of a believer.

[Tweet “The way to access the Spirit’s help in the prayer arena is to look to Him for it.”]

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What Is The Glorious Liberty Creation Is Looking For?

Roaming through Romans

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I ran into this whimsical illustration on two different views of creation. It is entitled, ‘Male and Female Views of Creation’. Woman’s View: God made man and said, “I can do better than that,” and made the woman. Man’s view: God made beast and man, then rested. Then He made woman, and no one has ever rested since, beast, man, or God. 1 In today’s post, we will continue our look at creations anticipation for deliverance as continue Roaming through Romans.

[Tweet “The creation was made subject to the curse but at the same time, God gave it hope.”]

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Why Creation Waiting Is A Good God Thing

Roaming through Romans

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In today’s post, we look at verses nineteen and twenty in Romans chapter 8 where Paul speaks of how the whole of creation is waiting for a special event, the manifestation of the Sons of God.

[Tweet “The sons of God will be manifested at the Second Coming of Jesus with their glorified bodies.”]

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How Suffering with Jesus Leads to Glorification

Roaming through Romans

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In today’s post, we continue our march through Roman’s chapter eight. Right after Paul climbs the heights of joint heirship with Christ, he tackles the subject of suffering. Is all suffering the same? The Bible has the answer. To what end does it all come to? Paul tells us in one word, glorification.

[Tweet “Over 200 million believers are persecuted for Christ daily. Jesus identifies with us in this area.”]

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What’s the Spirit’s Number One Role in a Believers Life?

Roaming through Romans

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In this post we look at the Holy Spirit’s most important role of witnessing in the hearts of God’s children there relationship status with the Father. We also look at four different Greek words for ‘children’ or ‘son’ and it’s relevance to Romans 8:14-16 as we continue ‘Roaming through Romans.’

[Tweet “By two immutable witnesses, the Word and the Spirit, you have full assurance of salvation.”]

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Why Adoption in God is the Same as Full Sonship

Roaming through Romans

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What does the Bible mean when it applies the term adoption to believers in Jesus? Is is it any different than the American concept we are familiar with? In this post, we will take a look at the idea and, while doing so, uncover a first century ceremony known as the Toga of Man-hood.

[Tweet “Coming to Jesus is a welcoming into the God’s family as ‘a full son with legal rights’.”]

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In What Way Is the Spirit Your Helper?

Roaming through Romans

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Every believer has a mighty Helper. Even the weakest child of God can make this claim. In today’s post, we take a look at one area where the Spirit of God will lend His aid on your behalf as we continue Roaming through Romans.

[Tweet “The Spirit indwells us and His help can be accessed at any given moment.”]

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Why Mortifying the Flesh Is a Good God Thing

Roaming through Romans

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John Flavel said, ‘It is easier to declaim, like an orator, against a thousand sins of others than it is to mortify one sin, like Christians, in ourselves; to be more industrious in our pulpits than in our closets; to preach twenty sermons to our people than one to our own hearts.’ 1 Mortifying sin was Paul’s subject here in Romans 8:12-13. What can we learn about how to put this into operation in our everyday lives?