Written ~ 07-22-2024
Read Romans Chapter Eight
Romans 8
Our chapter for today is jammed packed with some awesome stuff!!
I recommend when reading through this chapter you really take your time. Break it up into smaller sections and think about what Paul is writing and meditate on how this applies to your life. I’ll do my best to bring practical application to everything Paul has to say to us, as believers in Jesus Christ.
So, let’s dive in and see what the Holy Spirit has in store for us today.
Romans 8:1…
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
When we have made the decision to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior and we have accepted Him into our lives, we no longer live under the weight of condemnation.
Condemnation has been one of those big “Bible” words that has caused some confusion for me – maybe I didn’t quite understand the word – so it caused me not to fully understand this Scripture. I decided to look up the word condemn in the dictionary, it really helped give me more insight into what this particular verse means to the believer…
- To declare to be reprehensible (or offensive)
- To be wrong
- To be evil usually after weighing the evidence
- To pronounce guilty
- To sentence
- To doom
Using that definition, let’s insert some of those meanings into this first verse of Romans 8…
“I am no longer declared reprehensible or offensive because of my sinful nature. I am no longer wrong in the eyes of God, even though the evidence could have been piled up against me. I am no longer evil in His sight. I am not guilty of my sinful nature, therefore, I will not be sentenced to death with the doom of Hell.”
When we accept Jesus into our lives, EVERYTHING changes. You may not feel a lightening bolt of change when you give your life to the Lord, but think about this one fact, “I am no longer condemned,” that means you have been washed clean, as white as snow… you have become brand new, there is definitely change.
Verse number one sets up this entire chapter, if we are no longer condemned… what then?
Romans 8:2-4…
2 “…because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Holy Spirit.”
Our lives have been filled with the presence of the Almighty God because we have accepted His Son Jesus Christ. We will “no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Holy Spirit.” God has made a way for us to live a blameless life before Him and it’s only through His Son.
What if you believe you accepted Jesus as your Savior, but there is no evidence in your lifestyle to confirm that action? The next set of verses clarify whether or not a heart has received Salvation, let’s read these verses slowly, with understanding…
Romans 8:5-8…
5 “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Holy Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.”
There are instances where a person can recite the “Sinner’s Prayer of Salvation” with absolutely no heartfelt desire to actually receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. You can say the words, but not really mean it. That’s why when you read verses like Romans 8:5-8 you can make a pretty honest assessment as to the sincerity of your heart when praying the “Sinner’s Prayer.”
When we give our hearts to the Lord… change happens… Let’s see what the next set of verses say happens when a heart has received Salvation.
Romans 8:9-11…
9 “But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Holy Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Holy Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”
This is the change I was talking about. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your entire being, heart, mind and soul wants to please the Lord. The Holy Spirit will now prompt your thoughts. Your actions will be based on what the Holy Spirit deems pleasing to the Lord. And this is not a bad thing! When the Spirit of the Lord resides within you, a completely different mindset begins to emerge. You won’t feel the need to fight against doing what pleases the Lord. Your heart has changed, what once was filled with self obsorbed thoughts and behaviors has now been upgraded to thoughts of joy and peace and freedom from the yoke of sin!
Romans 8:12-14…
12 “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
Do you see what it says in verse 8:14? When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior we have become children of God! We are now a part of God’s family! That means we all become brothers and sisters through Christ! Our physical family here on earth might be small, but just think how huge our family is when we include all of our brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world! Awesome!
Romans 8:15-17…
15 “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.”
As a believer in Jesus Christ, we have a wonderful hope… and that hope is to spend eternity with our Heavenly Father. Sometimes it’s difficult to think about leaving this earth, leaving those we love and all the things we cherish…but we have a heavenly inheritance to share! And we have a Heavenly Father who isn’t just someone off in the distance, no, He is our Abba, our daddy, and one day we will run into His loving arms.
Verse 8:17 says, “…if we want to share His Glory, we must also share His suffering…” While giving our lives to the Lord brings us an abundance of joy, we will suffer trials and tribulations, we will suffer ridicule from a world who does not want to know the Living God. But that suffering will be worth it when we see our Savior’s face.
Romans 8:18-25…
18 “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the Glory He will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.”
We should be eager for the coming of Lord. We should be waiting with great anticipation for Christ to return and take us home. If the entire earth is groaning for the Lord’s return, then you and I should be just as eager, just as antsy. But we must be enthusiastically patient because our mission is not complete! We need to be the bold and confident witness of Christ so those who do not yet know Him, will turn to Him and be saved. Do you pray continually for your loved ones to serve the Lord? Do you have the urgency in your prayers that everyone you know would come to know Christ?
Have you ever found it difficult to find the “right” words when coming to the Lord with your requests? The next couple of verses should give us peace of mind that God knows what is on our hearts, even when we can’t express them with audible words.
Romans 8:26-27…
26 “…the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Holy Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”
Doesn’t that give you a sigh of relief that God knows your heart?
I love the way “The Message Bible” translates these two verses…
Romans 8:26-27 (MSG)… “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves…”
Think about everything the Holy Spirit helps us with! He helps to control our thoughts and sinful behavior. He guides us to the truth in God’s Word so we can live our lives according to the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit confirms in our hearts that we are children of God and look, now we find out that He helps us in our prayers. Awesome! Don’t you think so too?
When we live in harmony with the Will of God, we will better see the purpose God has for our lives. When we allow the Holy Spirit to intertwine our hearts with the Lord’s we will know with unmatched assurance that God can work out our lives according to His purpose and we will never be disappointed!
Romans 8:28…
28 “…we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them…”
As believers we have a specific purpose in life and that is to live for the Lord, we are to give Him praise and honor in all we do. With that kind of obedience, I truly believe that God will work things out for good, even if we have struggles, illness and pain – even if we go through all sorts of trials and tribulations that try to derail us… If our intention day in and day out is to honor the name of Jesus, even when we make mistakes, then God will bless our actions.
On the flip side… As believers, if we begin to adopt an attitude that leads us down a path that is not honoring the Lord and we still expect God to work things out for our good – we may be surprised when that doesn’t happen! If we expect God to work out our sinful desires for the good, we are taking advantage of His Grace. We cannot manipulate His Will by expecting God to work things out for good when we want to continue in our wrongdoing. The beginning of verse 8:28 is something we shouldn’t overlook or omit, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God…” Are we showing God we love Him by continuing in a sinful lifestyle? If we are “called according to His purpose…” is rationalizing a sinful lifestyle His purpose for us? If we are being honest with ourselves, I believe that by reading Romans 8, we can all answer those questions with a “no.”
If we are led by the Holy Spirit, we will do what is pleasing to the Lord and it will keep us in line with the Will of God. When we follow the Holy Spirit’s lead, we will be able to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives.
That is my hope, that is my prayer… for anyone reading these words and reading through the Book of Romans that the Holy Spirit would convict our hearts to turn away from sin and fulfill our Godly purpose!
~AMEN~
- I am going to end the study of Romans 8 right here, I realize there is much more to go, but to get an in-depth understanding of this awesome chapter, I don’t want to rush through it. But if you are interested in continuing chapter 8… In previous journaled notes I wrote two separate Bible Studies, one for the verses Romans 8:31-34 and another one for the verses Romans 8:35-39. You can look them up on my website ~ www.godswordneverfails.com ~ click on “Menu,” then under menu click on “Bible Study and Journaling,” you will see the Books of the Bible listed in order, scroll down to Romans – then click through the posts for the Book of Romans until you find the referenced verses.