This week we are going to be examining one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. Paul was setting out his best understanding of faith to the Roman people and had already clarified the impact of the law on the Jews and the non-Jews. He delineated how the law was sent to direct, but never to act as a savior. He made clear that our response to God had always been and is to be sinful and independent. Paul reiterated that only God’s grace and not our adherence to rules and law could repair the wounded sinful lives we have all inherited and live.
As I read the book of Romans, the first 7 chapters are building and building to a crescendo that is Romans 8. This week, we will talk through the four great promises in the chapter. Romans 8 sets to rest once and for all the question of what God’s Love actually means to us. If, after living in Romans 8 for a time, one is not deeply moved to love God deeply and personally, that person is truly blind to great and amazing truth.
As an introduction, Romans 8 promises that we need not fear the condemnation of the Heavenly Father. Further, we need not shrink from the trials and circumstances we face. We can rest in the fact that His gift and reward will so completely dwarf them. We can also cling to the truth that God is never surprised by our lives or fates. He not only has a great grasp of our lives but uses the day-to-day events to shape us and to carry out His plan in our lives and the lives of others.
Finally, we will see the focused and determined love and care of a perfect, immortal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent Father. A Dad that rose to the heights, sank to the depths, and jealously clutched His most prized treasure, us! I must confess that I paid little attention to this most powerful chapter of God’s word until God literally laid it in my lap one Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of a small missionary Baptist church. Since then, Romans 8 has stood as my treasure of faith and hope.
God Bless You
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness.
Walking With God 