Romans 8:1-2 Some have called this verse the most hopeful verse in Scripture. In presenting God’s salvation promise to believers. The deliverance from condemnation spoken here does not mean deliverance from discipline (Hebrews 12:6). Nor does it mean that we will not be held accountable to Him (Galatians 6:7). It’s important to note that the effectiveness of this is for those in Messiah Yeshua, this is the key to every aspect of salvation. Our being in Messiah is a great mystery but we are linked to the family of God because of our relationship to His Son.
All of us can say, what Paul said in Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Just as we are naturally related to Adam and have inherited his fallen nature, so to are we supernaturally related to Yeshua by the work of God’s Spirit. In the King James version the phrase “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” is added, but it is not found in the earliest manuscripts of Romans or in most modern translations.
It is probable that a copyist inadvertently picked up the phrase from Romans 8:4. Because the identical wording appears there, the meaning of the passage is not affected. The reason that there is no condemnation for believers is because of the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set us free from the law of sin and death. The word Law here is not the same as the Law of Moses or other commands from the Law, but rather a principle or truth as Paul spoke of earlier where he speaks of “a law of faith” (Romans 3:27) and as he does in Galatians, where he speaks of “the law of Messiah” (Romans 6:2).
Those who believe in Yeshua are delivered from the condemnation of a lesser law, by submitting to a higher God given law. The lesser relates to God’s law which reveals sin, and for which the penalty is death. The higher law is the law of the Spirit, which imparts life in Messiah Yeshua. This does not eliminate the need for obedience. While obedience doesn’t bring salvation it does demonstrate that salvation has occurred (Romans 16:25-26).
Release from the law’s bondage and condemnation does not mean release from the law’s requirements and standards. The higher law of the Spirit directs us to obedience to the lower law in a new and living way. The freedom that we have in Messiah gives us complete and permanent deliverance from sin’s power and penalty. It gives us the ability to obey God.
We are not free to do as we please but now we are free to do what we could not do because of sin’s condemnation and resultant spiritual death. We are free now to obey the Lord and His Word. The Spirit of the life in Yeshua is a reference to the work of the Holy Spirit as Paul spoke of in Romans 6:23. What a contrast to what we learned in Romans 7.
Romans 8:3 This verse speaks clearly on the substitutionary atonement provided by Yeshua. That He paid the penalty on behalf of every person who would turn from sin and trust in Him as Lord and Savior. It is work that makes it possible for us to be free from the law of sin and death. Although the Law is “holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12), the Law can not deliver us from sin because it was weak…through the flesh. The law cannot make us righteous but can only expose our unrighteousness and condemn us for it.
Jesus was the embodiment of the law of Moses. He alone of all men who have ever lived or will ever live perfectly fulfilled the law of God. “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” He said; “I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
God’s law commands righteousness, but it cannot provide the means to achieve that righteousness. So what the law was unable to do for us, God Himself did. When we trust in Christ not only are we saved from the penalty of sin but also are able for the first time to fulfill God’s righteous standards. While we will not be perfected during our earthly life, we have no excuse for sinning, because now we have God’s own power to resist sin.
John assures believers that “greater is He [the Holy Spirit] who is in you than he [Satan] who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). As Paul has already declared, “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,” that is, be kept saved and protected from sin’s domination (Romans 5:10).
Yeshua bore the fury of God’s wrath on all sin, and in doing so broke sin’s power over those whose trust is in Him and not themselves. God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
To teach that we can live a good life by following Jesus’ example is foolishness. To try to follow Jesus’ perfect example without having His own life and Spirit within us is even more impossible and frustrating than trying to fulfill the Mosaic law. Jesus’ example cannot save us but demonstrates the impossibility of saving ourselves by our own efforts at righteousness. Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. Where sin once condemned us, now Yeshua condemns sin, delivering us from sin’s power and penalty.
Paul wrote, “‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
Romans 8:4 Jesus was sent not in sinful flesh but in the likeness of it. Our freedom from sin results in our present as well as in ultimate sanctification. The true Believer has both the desire and the God given ability to live righteously while he is still on earth. Because God sent His own Son to redeem us by providing the only sacrifice that can condemn and remove our sin (Romans 8:3), the requirement of the Law can be fulfilled in us. The phrase who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit is not an warning but a statement of fact that applies to all believers.
In Romans 8:9 we learn that because we are indwelt by the Spirit we belong to God. It is not something that we choose it is something that is done in us by God’s grace. The idea of walking is life style. Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, are described as blameless in regard to the Law. They were not sinless but righteous in the sight of God because of their faith and the fruit of that faith was the walk of faith and obedience. It flowed out of them as a result of their love and Faith in God and His Word.
A word that is repeated over and over in the Letter to the Ephesians is the word “walk”. Paul is calling the Ephesians and us as well to walk in the Light of the Lord. The Spirit indwells every true believer, and so every true believer will produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The purpose of the gospel is not to make us happy but to make us holy. But from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-7:29 happiness is the result of a life committed to the Lord.
Romans 8:10-11 What Paul means when he tells us that even though are bodies are dead because of sin, yet our spirit is alive because of righteousness; is that we have been given the righteousness of Messiah through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our righteousness is described by Isaiah (Isaiah 64:6).
So even though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of Messiah’s righteousness. His Spirit who indwells you – It was again the Holy Spirit who was the divine agent of Christ’s resurrection.
And just as the Spirit lifted Jesus out of physical death and gave Him life in His mortal body so the Spirit, who dwells in the believer; gives to that believer new life now and forever (John 6:63; 2 Corinthians 3:6). Even though our bodies are destined to die because of sin (unless, of course, the Lord returns), the Spirit gives life to our bodies so that we may serve God. If we should die, the body will one day be raised from the dead, because the Holy Spirit has sealed each believer (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Romans 8:12-13 More than just having the Spirit for eternal life, the Spirit must control us in order for us to experience the abundant life. There are two ways before us the way of the sinful nature or the way of the flesh. The way of the flesh or self-orientation only leads to trouble in our lives and in the lives of others. When we obey the Spirit we are working in concert with God’s Will this is what Moses was calling Israel to in the wilderness (let’s see this in Exodus 23:20-33).
It is The Holy Spirit who convicted us, and revealed Yeshua to us, and imparted eternal life to us when we trusted Messiah. Because He is “the Spirit of Life,” He can empower us to obey Messiah, and He can enable us to be more like Jesus. It is only through the power of the Spirit that enable us to “put to death” the sinful deeds of the body. He puts to death the things of the flesh, like self-pity and self-centeredness, and allows us to have the same mind and attitude as Messiah (Philippians 2:1-8).
The Spirit with the Word of God enables us put to death the deeds of the flesh. The Scriptures reveal to us God’s Laws that can and do convict us of sin so that we might confess it and be cleansed. Secondly we can meditate on God’s Word placing our heart set on Him (Psalm 1:1). The Lord also inhabits the praises of His people by having our hearts fixed on God by singing Psalms and making melody in our hearts. Prayer gives us power to overcome the deeds of the flesh and to better discern the ways of the Spirit.
Obedience to God’s Word enables us to kill the deeds of the flesh as God rebuked Saul through Samuel we need to be warned that obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). The Holy Spirit enables us to walk and be led, the verb here means, “willingly led.” We yield to the Spirit, and He guides us by His Word day by day. He leads us because we are His children.
He leads in different ways but there are two primary ways that He does this by illumination and sanctification. Illumination is that work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to understand His Word. While Older Covenant believers were not in-dwelt by the Spirit as we are we see Pharaoh acknowledging the work of the Spirit through Joseph (Genesis 41:38-39). Jesus told His disciples that the Spirit will teach them things about Him and His ways (John 14:25-26).
Part of the work of the Holy Spirit given on Pentecost is the shedding of God’s light on scriptural truths that otherwise is beyond our understanding. The second major way in which the Spirit leads God’s children is by the work of sanctification. Sanctification is the work of The Spirit in taking what He illuminates and then helping us to obey it, and that obedience becomes another testimony to our salvation. The more we know about God and His Holy expectations the more aware we are that we cannot do this by ourselves.
The Holy Spirit will bless our work in ways far beyond what our own abilities could produce. This is what brings great joy to our heavenly Father, not for what we’ve done but for what we have allowed Him to accomplish in and through us. It is not our work but our dependence on Him as we do His work. In this way He receives the glory and Praise. And because “we live by the Spirit,” he goes on to say “let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).
Through our study of Romans hopefully we are coming to realize that many of us have been taught incorrectly. Instead of being instructed to claim the divine power we possess and to live above the drag of our sinful nature, we are usually told what to do after we sin.
Our mind-set has been directed to a corrective theology rather than a preventive theology. The result is that we’ve come to expect failure, to focus our attention on sin instead of on righteousness. The result is a defeated attitude and a view of life as one of endurance rather than joy. The good news is that God did not save us so that we could suffer through a miserable existence but His plan is that we live on a higher plane.
Paul has made clear that salvation is a gift made available to us by God’s grace. He alone has rescued us and made us forever secure in His Son. But who makes us holy? Is God responsible for our sanctification or are we? The biblical view is that sanctification, like salvation, is a work of God. We are called to cooperate with Him through the process. We are never told to perform the job ourselves.
In Philippians 1:6 we read… he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Messiah Yeshua. The Lord not only rescued us from the penalty of sin, but He also rescues us from the power of sin. He promises to move us toward holiness until Jesus returns for us in glory. At that wonderful moment, God will make us perfectly righteous in actuality, not just in position.
In Ephesians 2:8-10 we learn that God saved us by His grace through our faith alone and that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” From the moment of our conversion the Lord began to change us. And like a potter working a clump of clay, it is God who molds and develops us into the vessels He desires. All He requires from us is that we cooperate with Him through the process.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 that truth is clarified further “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
What can we do to assist rather than hinder God’s work in us? We are morally, spiritually, and legally bound by God to make the choice not to bind ourselves to “the flesh” to engage in a sinful lifestyle. A life controlled by the flesh leads to death. Whenever we return to a rebellious way of living, we begin to experience the misery of a deathlike existence.
Inner turmoil and agony, hostility, resentment, irritability, and selfishness are all hallmarks of this way of life. And if the Holy Spirit fails to get our attention through these means, then He uses other avenues, such as financial loss, illness, unemployment, and intense personal struggle. If we insist on living in sin, the Lord can even end our physical lives (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). The fact that God disciplines us shows that He takes our sanctification seriously.
In contrast to the lifestyle of the flesh is the lifestyle of the Spirit. As born-again children of God, we are obligated to commit ourselves to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. When we place ourselves in His hands and draw upon His power, we will be enabled to die daily to sin.
Then, and only then, will we begin to experience real living. The key to the Christian life is personal commitment to and cooperation with the Spirit’s work in our lives. What can we expect when we quit trying to control our lives and willingly give God free reign and allow our minds and hearts to be controlled by the Spirit?
Romans 8:14-17 The key to the Christian life is personal commitment to and cooperation with the Spirit’s work in our lives. What can we expect when we quit trying to control our lives and willingly give God free reign and allow our minds and hearts to be controlled by the Spirit? This Scripture reveal four manifestations of the Spirit’s work that we can anticipate.
1) Practical, Everyday Leading from God (Romans 8:14). The Greek term for led in this verse means “to show the way, to guide.” We are daily guided by the Spirit of God as we make ourselves available to Him. We can rest assured that He will never lead us to contradict the Scriptures, but He will always show us opportunities to flesh out biblical truth in life.
2) Fearless Intimacy with God (Romans 8:15). This verse states “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to tear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!”’
God has not only saved us from sin, but He has adopted us into His forever family As a consequence, we now enjoy intimacy with the Lord. Our relationship with Him is so close and unrestrictive that we can approach Him as a Jewish child did his father. We can address Him as Abba, which is Aramaic for “Daddy.”
3) Assurance of Belonging to God (Romans 8:16). Another manifestation of the Spirit’s controlling work in our lives is that the “Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” He reassures us and testifies with us that our salvation in Messiah is secure.
4) Reminder of Value and Worth before God (Romans 8:17). We who are believers are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” We will inherit the glory that is Messiah’s through grace (John 17:22-24).
However, there is a necessary requirement to our glory and that is suffering (1 Peter 4:13, 5:10). The afflictions and hardships that afflict us externally are the means God’s Spirit uses to transform us internally. This internal change reaches its goal when our bodies die and our spiritual condition becomes conformed perfectly to Messiah’s image (2 Corinthians 4:7-11,16-17). We need to ask ourselves Who Is in control of our lives? Are we severing ourselves from sin by yielding to the Spirit’s control? Or are we submitting to our old master?
What gives our lives significance? Is it our homes, family, spouse, friends, money, possessions, job, hobbies, or ministry? Or is it from what God has done, and is doing, and will do in our lives? Our answer reveals where our commitment and priorities lie. In this part of Romans we’ve learned that we are forever secure in Him (Romans 8:1). Because of His death and resurrection, we have been set free from the power of sin and death that kept us in bondage (Romans 8:2-4).
Through the indwelling of The Holy Spirit, we have been declared righteous and are becoming righteous (Romans 8:10). We are led daily by His Spirit (Romans 8:14), been adopted as sons (Romans 8:15); have become fellow heirs of His glory (Romans 8:17). Some might think we are implying that we will never experience difficulties, but the opposite is true. Now Paul addresses what perspective we should have on suffering and what help God gives us as we go through them.
Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit speaks with our spirit and tells us that we are truly saved and that we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Messiah.” Paul then relates another truth that seems to bring us back to the world we live in: . . . . “we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.”
We will share in Messiah’s sufferings by experiencing affliction and struggle in our own lives. For some of us that will involve a painful disease. Others might experience the heartache of a broken home, or the unexpected loss of a loved one.
The Lord uses our trials and tribulations to cleanse us of sin, to bring us closer to Him, and to conform us more to Yeshua and His sufferings (2 Corinthians 4:7-11, 16-17; Hebrews 12:1-13, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 4:12-19). At times like those we don’t fully understand how our suffering is bringing about good things for the Lord, but we can rest assured that it will accomplish His will (1 John 3:2).
Romans 8:18-22 – We are told, “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” There is no comparison between our present sufferings and our future glory. Not only will we be transformed but all of creation will is waiting for that day as well (Romans 8:19).
Creation does not include the heavenly angels, who, although created beings, do not experience the problems associated with flesh. Satan and his army of fallen angels, the demons have no desire for a sinless state because they have been sentenced to eternal torment.
The sages of Israel were familiar with a personification of nature. Isaiah used such language when he wrote that “The wilderness and the desert will be glad, and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom” (Isaiah 35:1), and that “the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:12).
Some environmentalists are crying for the government to take us back to living in the past, when, they assume, people and nature were in harmony. While it is true our environment is different then in the past from what technology and industry has wrought but back then the environment may have been even more deadly.
Certainly disease and death, as well as exposure to the natural elements and disasters, were greater in the past. They had less comfort, more pain, harder times, more disease, and died younger. In spite of the curse, much of the beauty and benefits of the natural world remains. Flowers, mountains, forests are still magnificent, the heavenly bodies are still majestic, food still brings nourishment and is a pleasure to eat, and water still brings refreshment and sustains life.
We learn that the world will be similar to the state that God intended for His creation before the Fall (Revelation 21-22). So then we need to understand that our groaning is temporary. Furthermore our groaning is a consequence (Romans 8:20a). The creation did not ask to be “subjected to frustration”; it was an act of God in response to man’s sin. When the universe was first brought into existence, the Lord declared it to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
The earth itself was a paradise filled with beautiful plants and trees that yielded its fruit in season. However, one of the consequences of Adam’s sin was the cursing of the ground. God caused the earth to experience the consequences of man’s disobedience. This curse has a purpose; that we might look to God for our help and choose Him and His ways and find a hope that cannot be found anywhere else.
When believers are glorified and unbelievers are judged the Lord will create “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1) where there will be no tears, death, mourning, pain, and night (Revelation 21:4, 22:5).
The glory of God will light up the earth, and the Lamb of God will be its lamp (Revelation 21:23,22:5). The curse of sin will be lifted from all of creation. Groaning is universal (Romans 8:22). This verse tells us that “the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”
Nothing in the universe is exempt from the effects of sin. And the consequences experienced by the world are like the intense pain felt by a woman in labor. But just as the pain of labor is quickly forgotten after the birth of a child, so the groans of creation will fade from our memories once we are in glory.
Romans 8:23-25 Now Paul turns from the general suffering of creation to believers. He points out that our response to the trials we face is similar to that of the rest of creation, groaning and Longing (Romans 8:23). Not only does the world groan under the corruption caused by sin, every true believer agonizes at times over the consequences of sin in our own lives, and in the lives of others.
Deep within us through the presence of the Holy Spirit we have a taste of the inheritance that will one day be ours. When we receive it in full, our bodies will be forever whole and perfect, free from all defects and faults forever. In Romans 8:24-25 we are told that full salvation is ours now, but all of its benefits will not be received until later. So with perseverance we wait to inherit the riches that are ours in Messiah Yeshua.
Romans 8:26-27 – The Lord never abandons us, regardless of the intensity of our struggle. Our Heavenly Father has even provided the Holy Spirit to pray for us so that His perfect will might be worked out in our lives. Jesus said to Peter, knowing that he would deny Him, (Luke 22:31-32) “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon that your faith may not fail.
And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Peter was no match for Satan but it is wonderful to know that our spiritual security rests in the Lord’s faithfulness rather than in our weakness. Paul also did not always know how best to pray. He knew that God had allowed Satan to inflict him with an unspecified “thorn in the flesh.” That affliction guarded Paul against pride over being “caught up into Paradise.”
But after a while Paul became weary of the affliction, which was severe, he prayed earnestly that it might be removed. After three different appeals, the Lord told Paul that he should be satisfied with the grace he had already been given (2 Corinthians 12:3-9). Paul’s request to have his pain and suffering removed was not the Lord’s will for him at that time.
Even when we do not know what God wants, the indwelling Spirit Himself intercedes for us, bringing our needs before God even when we do not know what they are or when we pray about them unwisely. It is because of our Messiah and the Holy Spirit’s intercession for us that, we don’t fall back and become separated from God. If such a falling away could happen, faith in Messiah would give us only a temporary spiritual life, subject at any moment to loss.
But Jesus gives to us eternal life, which, by definition, cannot be lost. To those who believe, Jesus said, “I give eternal life… and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28;17:2-3). Were it not for the sustaining and intercessory work of the Son and the Spirit on behalf of believers, Satan and his false teachers could easily deceive God’s elect (Matthew 24:24) and could undermine the completion of our salvation. But if that were possible, God’s election would be meaningless. He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, Paul continues.
He is referring to God the Father, who searches the hearts of men. When Samuel was seeking a successor to King Saul, the Lord told him, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). At the dedication of the Temple, Solomon prayed, (1 Kings 8:39) hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men), Because the Spirit’s will and the Father’s will are identical, and because God is one, Paul’s statement seems unnecessary in Romans 8:26-27.
Because the three persons of the Godhead have always been one in essence and will, the very idea of communication among them seems superfluous to us. It is a great mystery to our finite minds, but it is a divine reality that God expects His children to acknowledge by faith.
Here is a thought though, the essence of God is three persons living in unity, harmony and purpose, since we are created in the image of God, our community, our congregational life, and our family life is a reflection of the unity of God. In this passage Paul emphasizes the divine intercession that is necessary for the believers to abide in our eternal hope. We can no more understand that marvelous truth than we can understand any other aspect of God’s plan of redemption.
Romans 8:28 – This verse deals with the issue of the providence of God. Many of us struggle with this issue and this chapter suggests three reasons why. The first one is found in Romans 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. In the flesh we are selfish. We want our way, not anyone else’s, especially not God’s.
Our natural way is to be set against Him and His plan for our lives. Flowing out of this is the second reason we struggle; we fear losing control over our lives and becoming subject to God’s plan rather than our own. We don’t mind the eternal benefits of God’s control but we don’t want the groans that lead to our heavenly home. The third reason that we struggle with God’s providence is because of our pride. The Lord knows we are weak and totally dependent on Him, but we have difficulty admitting that to ourselves and especially to others.
We tend to focus on our present circumstances while God sees the full picture. He sees the end from the beginning. We also forget that our knowledge is limited, while God’s is unlimited. His knowledge is complete and perfect. He not only knows every detail of the past and present with total accuracy, but He also knows everything about the future.
Nothing can take Him by surprise, “Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13b). His ways are not our ways (Deuteronomy 32:4) He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. We need to be content with the partial understanding we have on this vast topic.
Romans 8:28 gives us a wonderful promise. The Greek term for know in this context refers to the possession of an absolute, unshakable confidence. The promise is not something we wish for or guess at, but is a truth we can count on because the Lord gives it. We should embrace it and make it a vital part of our daily lives. God’s work of sanctification in our lives is His and not ours.
The passage says, “God causes all things to work together.” it does not say, “God causes all things to occur.” We know from other biblical texts that the Lord is not the cause of sin and evil (Habakkuk 1:13; James 1:13; 1 John 1:5, 2:16). The Lord uses everything that enters our lives to work together for our best interest. He is the Potter and we are His clay He uses whatever means are necessary to form us into vessels of grace and beauty.
Since He is the Potter, He has every right to design and shape us into whatever He desires (Jeremiah 18:1-11). But we can rest assured in the fact that because He is all-good, He will always do what is best for us.
Moreover God’s plan is total, not partial. The Lord causes “all things to work together for good”. Many times we do not see, even in retrospect, how some events in our lives could possibly be for our good. But simply because we may be unable to figure out all the whys and the hows does not imply that God is without good reason or that He has lost control.
After all, He sees everything clearly and knows all things completely We, on the other hand, “see in a mirror dimly” and only “know in part” (1 Corinthians 13:12). So it stands to reason that we who don’t fully know ourselves will not always understand the plans of the omniscient God. The Lord will not cause or permit anything to cross our paths that will be to our detriment. Every circumstance is designed for our ultimate good. The Lord is for us, not against us.
Too many times we live as if the opposite were true. And when we do, we miss some of the richest benefits that God is waiting to give us.
Romans 8:31-32 Paul finishes this chapter with the logical conclusion of all that has been said; eternal security. He does this by asking a series of questions to cause us to think about what God has done for us. If God is for us as this chapter so clearly asserts, then who can be against us?
The logical answer is that though some might be against us, what chance do they have against an all mighty all powerful God who is for us and whose will be accomplished in and through us? If God sent His Son to accomplish this, Paul asks, does it not make sense that He will freely give all things necessary to accomplish the work He set out to do? These questions are all designed to produce answers that amplify and support the truths brought out in this chapter. Let’s consider them and their answers.
Romans 8:33 – “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” The expected answer is that no one will ever be able to make a case against us that will put his our salvation in jeopardy. How do we know this is true? Because it is based on the fact that “God is the one who justifies.”
Those of us who have come to faith have been declared righteous by the living God. And those are His own, He will glorify. God will never turn to someone He has chosen through His Son and say, “I no longer choose to call you one of My own.” Nor will He ever accept an accusation from anyone that could lead to the loss of our salvation. We are forever secure in the hand of God.
Romans 8:34-37 Who condemns us? Not only is the Judge on our side, but so is our all knowing and powerful Attorney. The death and resurrection of the Son, nullifies all opposition, silences all accusations and overrules all condemnation. No one can ever reverse God’s choices. He has justified us, He is sanctifying us, and He will glorify us. Who shall separate us? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Nothing can sever our relationship with our Messiah. Following a verse on suffering (Romans 8:35) come these words from Psalm 44: “Just as it is written, ‘For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’
“The death spoken of here is not just physical but also a daily dying to our self will so that we might live more fruitfully in the Lord. Jesus referred to this kind of death as self-denial and personal cross-bearing (Luke 9:23) Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Since we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Yeshua, we need to daily yield ourselves to Him. Only in this way will we become more like Messiah. As we submit to this kind of relationship in the power of the Spirit, “we conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
The Holy Spirit enables us to conquer tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and death as we totally abandon ourselves to His transforming work. God does not need us, but we need Him. In order to transform us God must transform us so that His goals rather than ours become our priorities. This process is painful but the result is wonderful and fulfilling.
When God takes something from us He replaces it with something far better. Things like peace, contentment, satisfaction and joy. In verse 34 Paul reveals four realities that assure our salvation First, he says that Yeshua died. In His death He took upon Himself the full penalty for our sins. Secondly, Messiah was raised from the dead, proving His power over sin and over its penalty of death. He “was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).
Third, Messiah is at the right hand of God, there were no seats in the Temple, because the sacrifices made there by the priests were never finished. but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:11-12). And fourth, He intercedes for us. Jesus Christ “is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
Since Yeshua is the perfect Priest who offered a perfect sacrifice on our behalf and gave to us His righteousness, to deny the security of a believer is to deny the sufficiency of His work. Even if we sin if a believer will confess his sin He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” because in Him “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 1:9; 2:1). When we sin, our Lord intercedes on our behalf and comes to our defense against Satan and any others who might bring charges against us (Romans 8:33).
