If God is for us...

In Romans, Paul presents the “Gospel” in detail. It is the “power of God for salvation.” God provides salvation through the “faith of Jesus Christ” for everyone who responds to the message with faith. Death passed from Adam to all men, whether “within the law” or “apart from the law” because “all sinned and lack the glory of God.” However, now, “apart from the law,” the “righteousness of God” is being revealed for “all men who believe, for there is no distinction.”

Before the revelation of his “Righteous One,” all men stood condemned by the “righteous requirement” of the Law, both Jews and Gentiles, yet freely by his grace,” God has reversed the sentence of death through the “redemption” provided through Jesus. For all men who are “in Christ Jesus, there is now no condemnation” - (Romans 3:21-28, 8:1).

[Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash]

Because of human mortality and weakness, the Law was incapable of rendering anyone righteous before God, but what the Mosaic Law could not do, God achieved by “sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,” and thus, he “condemned sin in the flesh.” God used the very thing that condemned humanity – sin - to reverse the sentence of death - (“Jesus condemned sin in the flesh”).

What distinguishes believers from unbelievers is the Gift of the Spirit. “If anyone does not have the SPIRIT OF CHRIST, he is none of his.” The Spirit compensates for human weaknesses by enabling us to fulfill the “ordinance of the law.” Even though, at present, our bodies are “dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness,” the righteousness that comes from the “faith of Jesus.”

In this life, we remain mortal, still subject to suffering, temptation, and death. However, that is not the end of the story. Each of us has been given the Spirit as the “first fruits” and the “guarantee” of the future bodily resurrection:

• “If the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised him from the dead will give life also to your death-doomed bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you” – (Romans 8:1-11).

The problem is not our bodily existence, but mortality and human frailty because of sin. This is what Paul means by “flesh.” This situation will be remedied by resurrection when our bodies are “quickened” by the Spirit and made immortal.

In Chapter 8 of the Letter, Paul focuses on the future resurrection which is vital to our redemption. Everlasting life and glory mean bodily resurrection and life in the New Creation.

The indwelling Spirit attests that we are the “sons of God,” “heirs,” and “joint heirs” with Jesus. We are subject to suffering and death in this mortal life, but we will also be “glorified with him” in the coming resurrection - (Romans 8:12-17).

The faith proclaimed by Jesus and his Apostles is forward-looking. Salvation and glory are in the future. Everlasting life is received in fullness when Christ arrives in power and raises the dead. The “sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to us.”

RESURRECTION & CREATION

The creation itself is “waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.” Adam’s sin did more than condemn humanity to sin and death; it sentenced the entire creation to disease, decay, and death. The “whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain.” However, it “also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption” when the “sons of God” are resurrected – (Romans 8:18-25).

In the present age, we “groan within ourselves waiting for the redemption of our bodies” - our resurrection. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so He will give “life to our death-doomed bodies.” The future bodily resurrection is foundational to our “hope,” but it is a “hope not seen,” NOT because it is invisible, but because it is in the future.

Through His Son, God triumphed over sin and death for His children despite our sins, weaknesses, and mortality. His sentence of “acquittal” is an act of sheer grace, an undeniable manifestation of His “righteousness,” His faithfulness to His covenant promises.

Indeed, God “works all things together for good to them who are called according to purpose.” Since He “foreknew” those who belong to Him, He also “marked them out beforehand for conformance to the image of His son.”

In the passage, the Greek verb does not mean to “foreordain” or arbitrarily “predestine” one person instead of another but means simply to “mark something out ahead of time.” Paul was not a fatalist expounding on one form or another of later institutional traditions about “predestination.”

The text does not state that God “causes all things,” but that He “works” in all things to bring about “good” for His children. Paul was highlighting the faithfulness of God. Despite our frailties and failings, He brings us into the “image of His Son,” salvation and glory despite our sin and disobedience. As Paul exulted:

• “If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?” – (Romans 8:32).

[Photo by Georg Arthur Pflueger on Unsplash]

No longer can anyone successfully bring any charge against the children of God since the same “Righteous One” who died on our behalf and was “raised from the dead” now reigns from the “right hand of God to make intercession for us.” Nothing can separate us from the love of that magnitude, not even death. When God resurrected Jesus, He reversed the sentence of condemnation and death under which we formerly lived.

It is “in Christ Jesus our Lord,” especially in his Death and Resurrection, that we find the “love of God,” and the sufferings of this life do not compare with the glories that lie ahead for us who have the “Spirit of Christ” and for whom Jesus of Nazareth died.

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RELATED POSTS:

• Paul's Gospel - (Paul presents his Gospel from humanity's plight due to sin to the resurrection of the dead because of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection)

• Faithfulness of God - (The “righteousness of God” refers to His faithfulness to His promises, which is demonstrated in the salvation He has provided in Jesus)

• The Faith of Jesus - (Men are not acquitted before God from the works of the Law but through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – Romans 3:21-26)