By Michael
Morrison
By Michael
Morrison
Paul's letter to the Romans has three major parts: a presentation of the gospel (chapters 1-8), the place of Israel in God's plan (chapters 9-11) and exhortations for Christian living (chapters 12-15).
The chapter of our study this month comes at the end of Paul's explanation of the gospel. It is the climax, and the truths that Paul discusses are truly astonishing.
The chapter begins with an astonishing statement: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (vs. 1-2).
Because of what Christ has done, believers are not counted guilty and will not be punished. We sin, but there is no condemnation. If we didn't sin, the question of condemnation wouldn't even come up. Paul knows that we sin, so he is saying, There is no punishment for Christians even though they sin.
Hard to believe? Yes, for we know that sin deserves to be punished. Paul agrees, but the gospel is that Christ has been punished for us. Because he paid the penalty in full, we do not need to pay it again. Christ has already received all the condemnation that we deserve, so there is no further condemnation waiting for us. If we have faith in him, if our lives are in him, we do not need to be afraid.
Why? Because Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death, set us free from the only law that could possibly condemn us. The law that says, those who sin shall die, no longer applies to us, because it has been taken care of--completely. In Christ, we have eternal life.
God does not want us to sin, but even if we sin, we will not be condemned if we believe in his Son (John 3:18). The law could not give us eternal life, but God could. He did it by sending his Son as a human being to be a sacrifice for our sins (Rom. 8:3).
Jesus did not come to condemn sinners--he came to condemn sin. He came to punish sin, to take away its power to control us and kill us. He came to give us life, and to do it in a way that completely fulfilled the righteous requirements of his law (v. 4). In his life and in his death, Jesus satisfied all the demands of the law. It cannot demand anything more.
Paul then tells us that Christians "do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit" (v. 4). We do not try to sin, but we set our minds "on what the Spirit desires" (v. 5). We are not perfect, of course, but as we are led by the Spirit, we do the things of God.
Before we came to believe, our minds were death, but now they are life and peace (v. 6). Before we believed, we were hostile, disobedient and displeasing to God (vs. 7-8). But our new lives are controlled by the Holy Spirit, who lives in everyone who belongs to Christ (v. 9).
Our old bodies are dead because of sin, and they received their wages on the cross (Rom. 6:2-6). But in Christ, we have new life--"your spirit is alive because of righteousness" (8:10). Because Christ is righteous, and our lives are in him, we are alive.
"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you" (v. 11). God, who raised Jesus from the dead, will also raise us, if his Spirit is living in us. Our bodies will be raised immortal, incorruptible and full of glory.
"Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation," Paul says (v. 12). We are obliged to live according to the Spirit of God. There is no penalty for failure, Paul says in verse 1, but the obligation still remains: We are to "put to death the misdeeds of the body" (v. 13). We are called to serve the Spirit, not the flesh. We are commanded to serve God, not self.
The old person is condemned; the new person is not, so we want to spend as much of life as we can in the new. Whatever we do according to the sinful flesh will die, but whatever we do in obedience to God will be of eternal value. The more we kill sin and the more we obey God, the more we are really alive. The children of God are led by his Spirit into life that pleases him (v. 14).
The Spirit does not enslave us, does not frighten us with threats of condemnation, but gives us instead a secure membership in God's family (v. 15). Since the Spirit lives in us, we can confidently call God our Father--and this has important implications.
Since we are children of God, we are his heirs--heirs along with Jesus Christ himself (v. 17). This means an assurance of salvation and an assurance of glory--but it also means that we suffer in this age, as he did. When our lives are placed in Christ, we share in his life, both the good and the bad. We share in his sufferings, in his death, in his righteousness and in his resurrection to glory. As God's children, we are co-heirs with Christ, sharing in who he is and what he has done. We belong to him.
Even though as Christians we have pain, "our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (v. 18). Just as there was for Jesus, there is joy set before us--so much better, that our current trials will seem trivial.
But we are not the only ones who will benefit. Paul explains that there is a cosmic significance to God's plan being worked out in us: "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed" (v. 19). The creation not only wants to see us in glory, it will also be blessed with change.
"For the creation was subjected to frustration ... in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God" (vs. 20-21). The creation is now in decay; its original purpose is frustrated. But at the resurrection, when we are given the glory that rightly belongs to God's children, the universe will also be freed from its bondage. The universe has been redeemed by the work of Jesus Christ (Col. 1:19-20).
Even so, the creation is currently struggling, burdened, in pain, as it forms the womb in which the children of God are being birthed (Rom. 8:22). We also groan in pain, even though we have an advance payment of salvation--the Holy Spirit living in us. Although we are already children of God, our salvation is not yet complete. We wait, with a mixture of patience and eagerness, for "the redemption of our bodies" (v. 23). Our adoption will then be completed.
This is the hope that we have in salvation--even our bodies will be made new, transformed into glory. The physical world is not junk that must be tossed aside--God made it good, and he will make it good again. We do not see this yet, neither in creation nor in our own bodies, but we have confident hope that it will be so. As Paul says, "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently" (v. 25).
We live in the situation of "already but not yet": already redeemed, but not yet completely redeemed. We are already freed from condemnation, but not yet completely freed from sin. We are already in the kingdom, but it is not yet in its fullness. We live with aspects of the age to come, even as we struggle with aspects of the old age.
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (v. 26). God knows our limitations and frustrations. He knows that our flesh is weak even when our spirit is willing, so his Spirit intercedes for us in ways we cannot put into words.
God's Spirit does not remove our weakness, but helps us in our weakness. He bridges the gap between old and new, between what we see and what he has declared us to be. We see that we still sin even though we want to do righteousness (Rom. 7:14-25). Despite this discrepancy, we can be confident that the Holy Spirit does what we cannot.
Even despite our trials, our weakness and our sins, "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (v. 28). God has a plan for us, and he has already begun to do his work in us; we can be confident that he will see it through to completion (Phil. 1:6).
God planned in advance that we should become like his Son, Jesus Christ. So he called us through the gospel, justified us through faith in his Son, and united us with him in his glory (Rom. 8:29-20). We don't yet see all that, but we can be confident that God is doing it.
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (vs. 31-32). If God went so far as to give us his Son even when we were sinners, we can be sure that he will give us everything else that we need to make it.
On the day of judgment, no one can accuse us, for God has declared us not guilty (v. 33). No one can condemn us, for Christ our Savior is interceding for us (v. 34). No matter what trials we have, "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (v. 37). Victory is given to us! Nothing can separate us from the plan that God has for us. Absolutely nothing can separate us from his love (vs. 38-39).
Michael Morrison
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000