January 18

Romans 8

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 6 For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. 11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.

12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God who subjected it – in hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will. 28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, 29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8, NET).

These first two weeks of getting influenced by Scripture, we got an overview of the purpose of the Scriptures, to be the thing we root ourselves in to have a life of real flourishing, and the story at the centre of what the Bible is saying, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, vindicating his claims as the Son of Man, the Messiah (meaning the Sent One), who was fulfilling the purpose of all of the Old Testament stories, where we see Israel called to be blessed to be a blessing, to be a light to the nations, and to show people the way to live into their purpose as imagers of God.

This week, we’re getting a taste, one of the best in the whole Bible, of what happens when someone embraces this way of being. Romans chapter 8 fits as the centre point of the apostle Paul’s great theological masterwork, this letter to the Romans. Paul himself was a man who had steeped in Scripture from a young age, he was trained as a Pharisee, and who had encountered the risen Christ in a dramatic conversion story (read about it in Acts 9). Paul’s zeal for the Scripture and for his Saviour caused him many hardships in his life, but he endured these and became the great evangelizer of the gentile population around the Mediterranean, not just in his personal missionary journeys, but through his correspondence with a bunch of the churches in the Greco-Roman world of the first century AD which ended up canonized as Scripture themselves. His fellow apostles recognized his gift at explaining these rich theological truths and we see one of the richest examples here in Romans 8.

It’s a bit hard to just throw yourself into Romans 8 without thinking through the rest of the argument up ‘til this point in the book. Paul has been walking his reader through the consequences of the presence of sin in their life (in fact in everyone’s life) and takes pains to level the playing field. Both Jew and Gentile are found wanting in their moral walk. God is holy. What we all (Jew and Gentile) deserve in light of this is condemnation.

Even worse, Paul describes how this losing battle with sin has played out in his own life where he keeps succumbing to temptation, doing things that in his heart of hearts, he doesn’t want to, and he keeps failing to do the good and just things that he really would like to do! If we’re honest with ourselves, Romans 7 resonates in every one of our lives. By our own lowered standards, we still find that we’re corrupted and broken, our behaviours don’t match with our stated beliefs, and we lack the holiness that is required to be in the presence of a holy God. Paul’s pithy and memorable statement of this, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” is found in Romans 3:23.

Sprinkled throughout this dismal recounting though, is the presence of Paul’s saviour, the LORD Jesus, and it’s kind of delightful to see as you read through the first half of Romans. Jesus keeps popping up, almost before Paul has finished fully explaining his points. It’s just too good to keep under wraps and Paul’s enthusiasm leads him to these little outbursts and tangents where he starts to expound on the work of Christ.

And this all comes to a fullness in chapter 8 in one of the most important expressions of how theological truth warrants trust which turns to certainty in one’s acceptance by God. It’s the great reversal in human history played out in this man’s life. He deserved hell; God loved him so much that He died for him. And then God, being God, couldn’t be held by the grave and so rose to glorious life! In His victory, Paul found himself made whole, by this new Spirit, the Spirit of Christ himself, given new eyes to see the power of God at work in the world and to participate in this new life dominated by a new motivating Spirit.

As I read back through chapter 8, the subtle work of the Holy Spirit is what really sticks out to me. The Father offers forgiveness through the Son. And as we accept that this work has been done for us, a new work gets done in us by the Spirit. We’re invited to be on His team, better than that, to be his heirs, adopted through this Spirit. And through the Spirit, we experience life differently. We are sure of our security, not because our bodies are necessarily going to be safe, but because we’re secure that whether we live or die or whatever happens to us, God still loves us. We are freed to have options other than the sin we found so appealing, but which turned out to be nothing more than bondage; true righteousness, in imitation of our example, Jesus Christ, becomes possible by His Spirit. And even when we’re stuck in terrible situations or fighting the war with sin or experiencing pain and loss (all of which are still going to happen), we have a great Interceder as Christ’s Spirit groans on our behalf, praying for us, advocating for us, knowing better than we do what we need and offering us succor and stability though we find ourselves in a stormy sea.

In my life, Romans 7 was the chapter that cured me of my pride. Romans 8 was the chapter that let me know I wasn’t nothing. I was (and am still, and will be forever) loved by God, foreknown, called, justified, and I look forward to being glorified. My prayer for anyone who reads this is that they know that same assurance and embrace the new life offered in this marvelous book given us by the One who made us.

Next week's text is Psalm 46.