Romans I have made a commentary of sorts with my thoughts on the Bible Romans Chapter 8 Quick take: Brain smashingly amazing Written July 8, 2006 through August 9, 2006 Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 July 8, 2006 Romans 8:1-2 This is the good news. In Christ, there is no condemnation. God’s law, the law of the spirit of life, gave us freedom from the law of sin and death. Both are laws. We are obligated to obey, verse 12 says this, but we are no longer obligated to obey the law of sin and death. Romans 8:3 The law was powerless to bring righteousness in us. It was weakened by the sin that lives in us as Paul describes in chapter 7. Yet God loves us and wants us to enjoy Him forever, so he solved the problem another way. He sent His Son to be a sin offering. Christ’s perfect life condemned sin. Romans 8:4 Christ condemned sin so that we could meet the requirements of the righteous law. We fully meet the requirements because of Christ’s imputed righteousness. His righteousness is so complete in our lives that it is as though in the middle of the night when nobody was around, we didn’t fall to that temptation. Or when everything went wrong, we didn’t get angry. Praise God, for this gift He chooses to lavish on us, because we can be so confident in our righteousness before Him. July 9, 2006 Romans 8:5 You can see that the spiritual battleground is the mind. It is no mystery that the actions of man equal the thoughts of man. The way it is worded here makes it sound like the thoughts come after the actions. This is an interesting concept that I want to study further. July 10, 2006 Romans 8:6 Again we see that the mind is the battlefield. I originally thought that letting your mind be controlled by sin would lead to death, but a mind controlled by sin is death. Actively submitting your thoughts to the Spirit is life and peace. Look how powerful our thoughts are. When I think of peace, I think of circumstances that are peaceful or a peaceful spirit in the midst of trying situations, both situations can be affected by our thoughts. Romans 8:7 This is why there is no peace with the mind controlled by sin. It is at war with the God of peace. The sinful mind cannot submit to God’s authority. Romans 8:8 It is impossible for people controlled by the sinful nature to please God. July 12, 2006 Romans 8:9-11 Accepting Christ does many things. It kills your body of sin freeing you from sin’s control. It brings you under the control of Christ allowing you to please God and live righteously. It puts the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead in you giving life to your mortal body. July 13, 2006 Romans 8:12-14 Verse 11 says God will give life to our mortal bodies if the Spirit is living in us. This fact gives us an obligation to live our one life for God by the Spirit. This is a little confusing because he is talking about mortal bodies living if we live by the Spirit and dying if we live by the sinful nature. Since no one has lived forever I think we can assume he is talking about both physical life and spiritual life. In a sense, we can think of non-Christians as walking corpses. Not to be offensive, but they are totally dead to all of the joys of being alive in Christ. July 14, 2006 Romans 8:15-16 Being children of God was probably a radical concept for the Romans. They had their powerful and terrible gods and the Jewish God was too powerful and dreadful to even speak His name, but now Paul is saying we are not switching from one slave master to another, but from a cruel slave master to our Abba Father. God has even sent His Spirit to comfort us and help us know we are God’s precious children and not expendable slaves. Romans 8:17 So we have been adopted and have full privileges as sons and daughters. As the family of God we share in the shame and suffering as well as the glory. You wouldn’t cut and run from your family when it goes through hard times then expect to receive the family glory afterwards. July 17, 2006 Romans 8:18-19 Paul goes from talking about our inheritance as children of God to a statement that puts suffering into an eternal perspective then to explain how creation is also suffering until the full number is called in. The Christian life is not the easiest life; it is the best one though. Romans 8:20-21 When Adam sinned, God cursed the ground making it hard for man to work the land. At the second coming the creation will be restored from its current state of bondage to decay. July 18, 2006 Romans 8:22-23 The creation is held in limbo until its restoration can take place. It groans with the excruciating pains of childbirth. We ourselves, even though we have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly. I don’t think any of us know how a redeemed body might feel, but I am sure it will blow us away. Romans 8:24-25 We are promised and can look forward to having new bodies. Bodies that are not effected by sin. This certainly isn’t the case now, so we wait for the Lord’s return and fulfillment of this promise patiently. July 19, 2006 Romans 8:26 The Bible Knowledge Commentary makes a good point here in that the believer is always in a state of weakness. Christians don’t live strong lives with a few weak moments where the Holy Spirit steps in. His help is continual. Paul gives prayer as an example of the Spirit’s help in our lives. How many times has my prayers been precisely wrong. Thank God for the Spirit’s work in our prayers. Romans 8:27 The Spirit is perfect for this task, because He knows our hearts, and He knows the heart of the Father. July 20, 2006 Romans 8:28 Aside from salvation, this is probably the greatest promise God has given us. It is applicable in every situation no matter how hard or terrible, even the great situations in our lives God causes for the good. There is no shortage of people who will say that they grew the most as a person during the hard times in their lives. July 21, 2006 Romans 8:29 God predestined those He foreknew to be brothers with Christ. We cannot be brothers with Christ until we have been conformed into Christ likeness. Romans 8:30 This verse reminds me of Philippians 1:6 “…that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We have been glorified, it is a past tense. It has taken place. We have been justified. We have been called. We have won the victory. July 26, 2006 Romans 8:31 The finality of Paul’s words in the previous verse assures the reader that the glorification of the saints has been completed. There is nothing that can stop it because it had already happened. Paul’s question, “who can be against us?” seems rhetorical with the answer being that “no one can be against us”. But verse 38 is a list of things that stand against the saints. There is no end of the examples we can see around the world that stand against the saints of God. Many things are against us, but nothing will stand against us. The powerful will of the Lord will not be stopped at bringing us to complete glorification. July 27, 2006 Romans 8:32 This is both the greatest reassurance of God’s provision for us and stark reminder of the Lord’s strategy. God is going to provide for us by graciously giving us all things in the exact same fashion as always. Why would we expect that God’s giving to us now would look different than when He gave us His Son? His graciously giving us all things does not simply mean we have everything we want and don’t have anything we don’t want. It is deeper than that, just as Christ’s sacrifice was much deeper than comfortable, feel goodness. August 4, 2006 Romans 8:33-34 I love this image of the heavenly court. The question is asked, who would possibly accuse the people whom God has justified? God justified His people, is there anyone who would bring an accusation? Yes there is. Jesus Christ accuses us on the authority of his sinless life, sacrificial death, and His supernatural resurrection from the dead. Jesus is at the right hand of God standing in favor. He has the authority to accuse us. But, praise God for His mercy, the One with the authority, is also the one who is interceding on our behalf. He is defending His brothers. Romans 8:35-36 One might fear that if Jesus stopped loving us, He would stop interceding for us. So, Paul addresses this fear. The answer to this rhetorical question that jumps out is that nothing could separate us from Christ’s love, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that these things won’t try to separate us from His love. These verses aren’t promising health and an easy life. Actually it says we are considered to be slaughtered. But when the world thinks killing us brings victory for them and defeat for us, they are wrong. We conquer even in death. August 5, 2006 Romans 8:37 The idea of being more than a conqueror has universal application. Every challenge that attempts to rob us of our joy and rob Christ of our praise is something we can use to honor God. When we rely on God’s strength, he will take our enemies and cause them to work for our good and His greater glory. August 9, 2006 Romans 8:38-39 Paul reassures us that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God. I would naturally fear that death might separate us from Christ’s love, but I wouldn’t necessarily fear life separating us from that love. That is the same for angels and demons. Why would good things like life and angels separate us from Christ’s love? Probably because it is so easy for us to set up an idol in our lives. It is a comforting promise. Our sin will also not change the character of God. Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16