Romans 8

Read Romans 8.

            You know you’re in for something beautiful when the chapter begins: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Paul has just spent the last how many chapters telling us how there’s no excuse and no one is righteous and the law just exacerbates sin. But in Christ, there is now no condemnation! What the law (of Moses) couldn’t do (that is, provide a path to rightness with God) God Himself did by sending His Son. The rest of the chapter continues in that vein. Let me just highlight a few things.

            First, Paul emphasizes our transference from the realm of the flesh to the realm of the Spirit. I mentioned in relation to chapter 6 that the Holy Spirit is given in Baptism, so this is carrying on that theme. We are in a new situation; we are reborn; the Spirit governs us. There is freedom in that, freedom to live by the Spirit, no longer slaves to our own desires. In verse 15, Paul describes this transference as adoption into God’s family. We have the rights and privileges of natural born children. (When you consider that God only has One “natural” Son, that’s saying something!)

            Second, because we are sons and daughters, we have an inheritance, although now we suffer along in a fallen age. Paul describes the present age of the world as one in which the creation itself groans under its brokenness, a brokenness imposed by human sin. Those present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed, and the Holy Spirit is the down payment of participation in that future. We often describe that as Christians living in the tension between now and not yet. The present age is evil, so now we live in a fallen world, a world not yet fully reborn. Yet, by faith, we are reborn and live in God’s new age by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, now we live both in the fallen age of the world and in God’s new age and we look forward to the day when Christ returns and God is all in all and the old wicked age is brought to an end and we walk by sight.

            Finally, Paul concludes this section on a grand note of defiance toward the present age. If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing will separate us from His love in Christ Jesus. Despite current appearances, we are more than conquerors. Beautiful things, indeed!