EXPOSITORY THOUGHTS ON ROMANS CHAPTER 8

(Quotes from Scripture are taken from the NIV)

  1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Now that Paul has laid a foundation for justification by faith, and how the Law fits into a believer's spiritual life, and the necessity of living a life that is a testimony for Christ before the world, he now describes the believer's present standing before God.

There is absolutely no condemnation for those who have accepted Jesus as Saviour and Lord.   This is one of the most clear and definite statements that Paul has made.   Anyone, no matter how high a status he has in the church, who condemns another Christian believer for any reason, is going right against what Paul is saying here.   This is why we have to be so careful not to judge our brothers and sisters in Christ.

There are whole churches which have rules and regulations that cause a Christian to be excluded from them if the rules are broken.  Those churches are violating the clear words of Paul in this verse,   No person or church organisation has the right to condemn a Christian believer, nor exclude him or her from Christian fellowship.  Those who try quickly become spiritually barren until they repent of their pride and arrogance.

So we have to be quite clear about this right up front:  there is no condemnation at all from the Father, Son or Holy Spirit for a person who has sincerely accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour.   We start our Christian journey knowing that we are totally free from any condemnation or punishment for sin.

Paul gives the reason for that in verse 2:   A person who believes in and puts his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord is subject to the law of the Spirit of life.   This law has set the believer free from the law of sin and death.  The believer is placed out of range of that law that would bring condemnation.  The law of the Spirit of life in Jesus brings justification before God.

The Law of Moses was powerless to bring justification before God because it was weakened by the sinful nature that is in all people since Adam.    The sinful nature prevented a person from being able to keep the Law in its entirety.    God was able to overcome the problems caused by the sinful nature by sending Jesus to earth as a normal human being, except that He did not have a sinful nature as a legacy from Adam.   Because Jesus was completely sinless in His nature, and was the only Person who kept the Law in its entirety all His life, He was qualified to be the Sacrifice for our sins.  When He died on the Cross, He was able to take our sinful nature into His own sinless body.  He became our Substitute.   He received the condemnation from God for our sin.

This is how God condemned sin in sinful man.   Jesus took our sin in His own body and therefore became a sinful man in the sight of God.  God then condemned Him and He went to Hell to pay the price for our sin.   We were the ones deserving of Hell, but Jesus became our substitute and went there instead of us.   The effect on us is that when we accepted Him as Saviour and Lord, we have identified with His death, and have received His life in us.   There has been an exchange:   He took our sinfulness, and we received His righteousness.

In the light of this it is impossible for us to be condemned, because no matter what we have done, Jesus has taken it in His body on the cross.   The work of the cross did not finish 2000 years ago.  People living today, who confess their sin, have the substitutionary work of Christ backdated to the cross where Jesus took that sin into His own body.   This is why we can say if we sin today, and then confess it to the Lord, that Jesus took that sin in His own body 2000 years ago!   A man can come to a counselling session and say, "I confess that I have been unfaithful to my wife.  I have committed adultery".  The counsellor can then lead the man in prayer, confessing the sin to God.  Immediately, the substitutionary work of Christ kicks in and the sin is immediately taken away from him, as if it were attached by a long piece of elastic back 2000 to the cross of Christ.  The man is free from all condemnation.  Jesus has advocated for him before the throne of God, neutralising the accusation of the devil.  The Father has forgiven him and buried the sin in the deepest sea of His forgetfulness.  The sin is no longer an issue in Heaven.   The man can walk free.  

Of course, the challenge will be for him to receive forgiveness from his wife and children, and from the leaders of his church, but they are natural consequences that God may not take away from him.  This is because there is a chastisement principle in Scripture where God may allow circumstances to remain in a person's life because of sin so that through suffering the person may be strengthened in his faith and resolve to walk in the light with Jesus and not go back into the sins he has confessed.   So a person cannot go up to his church leaders who might have stood him down from ministry because of public sin which could have brought the church into disrepute, and say that because God has forgiven him and freed him from condemnation he should be immediately reinstated to his former position.   It doesn't automatically follow.   His stand down period may be permitted by the Lord as a teaching/learning time which will make him even more qualified for ministry when he finally gets his position back.

The whole reason for not being condemned for sin is that we have fully met the requirements for righteousness in Christ because we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour and have allowed Him to be our substitute.  We did not meet these requirements by ourselves.   We were "reckoned" as having met the requirements because we exercised faith in receiving Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.   And we are kept within the "safe area" of the righteousness of Christ as long as we continue to live not according to our sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.  The Spirit is our guide and He leads us in righteous ways.  All we need to do is the cooperate with Him.

5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

Paul continues to explain what it means to live in accordance with the Spirit.   Those people outside of Christ who live according to their sinful nature, have their minds set on the desires which that nature gives them.   This is why the value systems of people outside of Christ are so different from those who are in Christ.  Non believers are basically materialistic in their view of life, and they are selfish in their attitude to others.   Their desires are based around what they can get out of something that they are called upon to do.   This is why selfish people fight and war.  It is because they want to get the things they covet by force.  They see others as weaker than themselves, so they invade their homes and countries to grab by force things that are not rightly theirs.   This is just one example of the sinful desire affecting the minds of selfish non believers and then dictating their actions.

But those who are in Christ, and who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires for them.  They take the time to wait before God, to allow the Holy Spirit to make the will of God known to them.   They are not out for what they can get personally;  the purpose of their search for meaning is what they can do so that God will get the glory, and that others will benefit from their actions.

Therefore, the progress of the sinful man ends in death, because the death exists in his mind already.  But the way of the Spirit leads to life, because the life of Christ is already in the minds of those who are walking in the Spirit.  They have the peace of God that the world cannot give them, and this peace is a feature of their lives.

Paul goes on to say that the sinful mind is hostile to God.  This is why evangelism is such hard work at times.  It is not just a matter of telling the gospel and expecting the hearers to instantly accept it.  Many will not because their minds are hostile to God.  It takes a work of the Holy Spirit to break through that hostility.  This is why it is impossible for a person to come to Christ by himself.  He needs to have the power of the Holy Spirit applied to his heart and mind to get rid of the hostility before he can receive the good news of the gospel.   This is why it is important for the evangelist to preach the Law, because it is the Word of God's Law that is the "hammer that breaks the rock".  The rock is that hard resistance in a sinner's mind brought about by hostility toward God.

Paul says that the mind of the sinner does not submit to God's Law.  In fact, it cannot.  This underlines the fact that it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to break down that resistance.   This is why those who are controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.  They are hostile to Him.  They are rebelling against His Law, and they are helpless to do anything else unless the Holy Spirit works in them.

9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Paul is not talking about Christian believers when he says that some are controlled by the sinful nature.   If a person is controlled that way, he cannot be a Christian believer.  Therefore when a person accepts Christ and becomes a new creature in Christ, he is no longer controlled by the sinful nature.  The old things have passed away;  that means that the dominance of the sinful nature has passed away as well.   This is the way in which we can know whether a person is a genuine believer or not:  the person is is controlled by the Spirit of God is the genuine believer.  The sinful nature may be present and could very be an annoyance at times, but the true believer is not controlled by it.

Notice that Paul is saying that the Spirit of God lives inside the true believer in Christ.  In fact, if a person does not have the Holy Spirit living inside of him, he does not belong to Christ at all.   Now this is not to be confused with having the gifts of the Spirit.   Of course, if the Holy Spirit is living inside a believer, the facility is there for that believer to have the ability to use the gifts of the Spirit to further the gospel of Christ, but the use of them is not the seal that he is a true believer.   The people who maintain that people have to have the gift of tongues in order to be a true believer are mistaken.  These are the people who teach that tongues are the evidence of the Holy Spirit indwelling a person.  I say that they are an evidence, not the exclusive evidence.   The main evidence, I believe, is the outworking of the fruit of the Spirit through the way a believer conducts himself before others.

Paul uses the truth of having the Spirit living inside the believer to show that although the body is dead because of sin, our spirit is alive because of having the righteousness of Christ.   This is the "righteousness" that Paul is talking about here.   Through the substitutionary working of Christ taking away our sin, we are made acceptable to God in Him.  Therefore, we call that acceptability the Righteousness of Christ.  We have exchanged our sinfulness and unacceptability for Christ's righteousness and totally acceptability to God.   We not only have the Holy Spirit living within us, but our own spirit is also alive to God, giving us a heightened awareness of the reality and presence of God, and an open line of communication with Him.

Paul now inspires our hope in Christ when he further explains the effects of having the Holy Spirit living inside of us.  He says that if the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us, then He will in turn raise our mortal bodies on the day that Jesus comes again.  We may suffer physical death in the meantime, but the day will come when the Holy Spirit will raise us to newness of life in Christ for eternity.   We believe by faith now that we have eternal life within us, looking forward in hope to that great day when our faith will be honoured, and our hope will turn into reality.

12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Now, having learned the great truth that Jesus has become our substitute, taking our sinfulness from us and giving us His righteousness to replace it in us, and that the Holy Spirit is living in us, we realise that we have an obligation.  We are not free agents.  We have changed masters.    We have no further obligation to live according to the sinful nature.  We don't have to have the sinful nature controlling us, in our beliefs, state of mind, or our conduct to others.    If the sinful nature is in control of us, we will die.  This means that we cannot rest on our laurels once we have accepted Christ.   We need to move forward, and this takes effort.   We have to learn to understand the will of God in every area of our lives and walk in it.   We are given a new type of live, and now we have to live it out.

In order to do with, we need to search ourselves to see what the misdeeds of our bodies are, and we are to put them to death.   We need, by faith, to declare ourselves dead to those things, and call upon the assistance and the power of the Holy Spirit to make our faith declaration real in our lives.   This is not legalism.  We are not doing these things in order to be saved, or to be acceptable to God.  We already are in that state.   What we are wanting to do is to live a life that is consistent with what we profess.   If we say that we are new creations in Christ, then we have an obligation to live that way.  In some areas, this takes much prayer and effort, but the end result of our efforts is eternal life.

If we are to show the world around us that we are the sons of God, then we need to be led by the Spirit.  The Spirit will guide and instruct us on what is the will of God for us, and will give us the resources to allow it to be the guiding principle in our lives.

When we received the Holy Spirit, we did not receive a spirit that would lead us back into slavery and fear.  This means that the church organisation that we fellowship with promotes our personal freedom in Christ.  It does not work to give us heavy burdens and bring us into slavery to a set of rules and principles, so that we are tempted to fear for our spiritual state.   The Holy Spirit living in us gives us the indication and the assurance that we are really the sons of God.   The very fact that we have the Holy Spirit living in us shows that we are sons of God.   This is why we can call God Father and know within our hearts that He really is our Father.  

This puts us in a very privileged position with God.   Because the Spirit has witnessed with our spirit that we are truly the children of God, we are shown that we are not only children, but heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.  In a sense we are raised to be equal with Christ in the estimation of God.   This is a unique relationship that we have with the Godhead.  We look to Jesus as being or Lord, yet we are co-heirs and equal in position before God with Christ, and we have the third person of the Godhead living in us.   This is a relationship like no other.

Our relationship with Christ is a sharing one:  we share in His sufferings, that is, we died with Him when He died on the cross;  we were buried with Him in baptism; and we rose with Him when He rose from the dead.  This is our identification with Him.   As we have shared in His sufferings, we will also share in His glory when He comes again.

 18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Paul now compares the present sufferings of believers with the glory that will be reveal in us when Jesus comes again.   True believers do suffer in this world, because the systems of the world are not supportive of Christian faith.  A Christian is out of step with the world, because the world is out of step with the plans and purposes of God.   We are not talking about the creation here;  we are talking about the world systems that men and women adhere to and believe in.   Living in the world is all about materialism, power and control, selfishness, hostility and rejection of God, worshiping idols and false gods.  Therefore a true believer who is faced with these things, and having to live in the world's environment, goes through suffering because the world cannot give him what he really wants.  There is always a conflict between the demands of the world, and the obligation to be part of the plans and purposes of God.

The whole of creation senses the frustration of being affected by the Fall.  When Adam disobeyed God, the blight of sin and death spread right though creation.  It has been struggling with that ever since.  There is a sense of frustration because there is the sense of something far better, but not the ability to achieve it.   The creation did not choose that for itself.  The choice was made by Adam and Eve, but the consequences of their action affected the whole creation.   It was Adam's will that subjected the creation to death and decay.

But there is the eager expectation that exists within creation that one day it will be liberated from the bondage to sin, death and decay, be brought into the glorious freedom that is going to be a feature of the children of God.

 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

The whole of creation groans under the burden and weight of the sin that it has been subjected to.  Creation did not choose to be corrupted by sin.  Because man was put in a position to have dominance over creation, his choice to disobey God brought the corruption and decay of sin upon it.  Ever since the Fall, creation has been groaning under the weight of man's sin.    This is one of the great reasons why creation is hostile to man in many ways.  Many wild animals have been hostile to man and have attacked him with loss of life.  These animals were tame before the fall.  There was an instinct in them to respect and to cooperate with man;  but as soon as Adam sinned, these animals became hostile - either running away at the approach of a human being, or attacking.   Also, man has exploited the animal kingdom with the result that many species are now endangered of become extinct, and many have become extinct.  They have given up the battle of trying to co-exist with sinful man.

If Adam had not sinned, but continued to live in harmony with God, we would not have all the problems that we have today with the environment being polluted.  The environment first was polluted with man's sinfulness;  now it is being further polluted with the effects of man's sinfulness - to the point where we can see a future when the environment will no longer be able to support mankind, and mankind itself will be an endangered species.  We hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again before that time.  Actually, the breakdown of our environment is mentioned through the prophetic words of the book of Revelation.

It is not only the creation that is groaning in the pains of childbirth, waiting for the deliverance that is to come through the return of Jesus.  We, as Christians have a sense of burden as we await His coming.  At present, we are living through faith in hope that when Jesus comes again our adoptions as sons and daughters of God will become a reality.  Our sinful natures will be things of the past.   We will then live in complete harmony with God in a new environment that will be free from sin.

When we came to Christ and accepted Him as Saviour and Lord, this hope was part of our decision.  At the point of acceptance of Christ we could say that we were saved, even though the actual event of our salvation is still to come at the coming of Christ when the redemption of our bodies is to become an actual reality.  But we don't see it fulfillment of this yet;  this is why we call what we have at present hope.   Hope is an expectation of a future event.  We can say now that we are saved, but this is a statement of hope.  Our actual salvation is coming as a future event.   If we were experiencing the actual event right now, we would not have to have hope.  But if what we are hoping for is out in the future for us, we wait for it with patience.  The Scripture says that with faith and patience we inherit the promises.   Because of the strength of hope that we have, and the trust we have in the faithfulness of God, we take ownership of our salvation now, and live and behave as if it is a current reality, and at the same time we wait with patience for the day to arrive when it all becomes a reality to us.

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

But we are not left to flounder along by ourselves.  When Jesus ascended to the Father and sat down at His right hand, He sent the Holy Spirit to be our supporter.   The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and helps us, knowing that we are weak in ourselves.  This is why He has made gifts and abilities available to us.   Of course, we have the choice whether we want to use them or not.

It is accepted that when confronted with the big issues of life, we cannot find the words to effectively pray about them.  This is where the Holy Spirit in us prays with and for us with groanings of His own.   We sense this sometimes when we feel a kind of burden, or some sort of "depression" (not clinical or spiritual depression which are quite different).  It seems that somewhere deep inside of us there is a "groaning" or a yearning.  This gives us a motivation to pray and causes us to look for words to try and express what is going on in our spirit.

There are other ways that the Holy Spirit assists us in prayer.  The gift of tongues is another way in which the Spirit helps us to express things that are deep inside of us.  This is a prayer language that is not learned but spoken in faith to God believing that He understands what we are saying, even though we do not know what the words mean.  There are many Christians who do not have the understanding to be able to practice this type of praying, and there are those who actively oppose it;  but Paul teaches that this is a genuine gift of the Spirit (in 1Corinthians14), and he outlines the correct practice of it.

Another way the Holy Spirit assists us is to give us the words in our native language to express the desires of our heart.  It is a type of "prophetic" praying where the Holy Spirit inspires us and gives us the appropriate words to overcome our lack of expression when trying to pray through the deeper issues of our spiritual lives.

God knows what the Holy Spirit is thinking, and when the Spirit expresses Himself through us in whatever way He chooses, the Father to whom He is praying through us understands what the Spirit is saying on our behalf.   This is so because the Spirit prays for us in accordance with the will of the Father.   This is an important point, especially for those who use the gift of tongues to communicate with God, because as they pray in the Spirit using this gift, they are praying in accordance with the will of the Father.  This puts these believers well out of the range of those who object to the use of tongues in prayer and worship, because the Scripture clearly teaches that the gift of tongues, rightly practiced, is of the Holy Spirit, and those who pray in tongues are praying in the centre of God's will.  But it is fair to point out that tongues is just one way that the Spirit communicates to the Father through us, and individual believers have the choice whether they wish to use that ability or not.

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Here is one of the great blessings that Christian believers have that non believers miss out on.   For a believer, God is working for their good.  All the events and circumstances in life are planned and organised by the Father with the outcome that is totally good for the believer.   Even those circumstances that cause distress and suffering will ultimately work out for their good.  If Satan decides to attack a believer through his or her weaknesses and sinful nature, the Father will turn those things around so that good will result.

This is because Christian believers are called of God and are part of His plans and purposes.  We were not saved by accident.  We were called and chosen by God to receive the offer of salvation through Christ.  We were given the choice to accept or reject it.  When we accepted it, we entered into God's calling for us.  We no longer live by the law of cause and effect.  Everything that happens to us has a reason and a purpose in God.

This is no so with those who reject the invitation to be saved through Christ.  They are living by the law of cause and effect, and not all things that happen to them have a good outcome.  They are enemies of God and therefore outside of His providence and provision.  Therefore there is no surprise when their hopes, dreams, ambitions and plans are dashed, and they go through deep disappointment and frustration.  God is not responsible for those things, even though these people tend to blame God for the bad things that happen to them.  They say, "If God is a God of love, why does He let these things happen?"   The short answer is, that if they reject the love of God in Christ and do not accept the invitation to be saved through Christ, then they choose to stay outside of His love that He has reserved for His saints.   It is not that He does not love sinners generally, but He showed His love by sending Jesus to come and die for them.  He then, through the work of the Holy Spirit, invites them to come and share in the salvation that He offers through Christ;  but they must accept the invitation.   Their rejection puts them outside of God's providence, and all they can look for is a meaningless life and a Christless eternity at the end of it.

Predestination is a hot topic among Christians.  This is one of the mysteries of God's plans and purposes for mankind.   There have been debates about the exact nature of God's foreknowledge.  Some have said that He chose who was going to be saved and who was going to be lost.  There are doubts about this because the Scripture says that He was not willing that any perish but that all may come to repentance.   This shows that the invitation to come to Christ is made to all;  but not all will accept it.   There is a school of thought that God foreknew who was going to accept the invitation to come to Christ and who was going to reject it;   so in that sense the calling of God became effective in those who accepted the invitation.

His plan is to transform those who accept Christ into the likeness of Christ.   This is part of the hope that every believer has, which will be fulfilled on the day that Jesus comes again.  On that day, believers will be instantly changed into the likeness of Christ.  This is part of the redemption of the body, and the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.    The resurrection of Jesus signalled that He is the firstborn.   He is the first of many brothers and sisters who will be resurrected on the last day.   We look to the resurrection of Christ as the basis of our hope in Him.   The resurrection of Christ involved just one person, but the resurrection of the rest of His brothers and sisters on the last day will be a mighty resurrection of millions of people with all the joy and rejoicing that will go with it.   This will be the greatest event of the whole history of man and of the Christian church.

There is a progression then in God's plan of salvation:   He looks through the ages and sees the ones who will accept the invitation to accept Christ.  He calls those ones, and when they accept, He makes them right with Him to be able to stand before Him with boldness and confidence.  Then the day will come when they will be resurrected to newness of life to stand with Christ in His glory as brothers and sisters of Christ and as sons and daughters of the Father.

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
   "For your sake we face death all day long;
      we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So what is the conclusion to all this?   What is our response to what we have learned about the plans and purposes of God in our salvation?   The answer is "If God is for us, who can be against us?"   Through this we know that there is no enemy that can ever succeed in defeating us when God is supporting us.   In the Old Covenant, the Jews thought of God as someone who was distant and wrathful.   They did not see God as a friend and supporter.  Jesus can to show them the Fatherhood of God, but they found that very difficult to understand.   But now, to us who have been saved and filled with the Spirit of  God, we have a clear appreciation of God being our Father, and Jesus being our brother, and the Holy Spirit supporting us in prayer.  We see through this that the whole Godhead is there for our support and defence.

The fact that the Father gave up His own Son to be our Substitute shows His heart of love toward us.  Now that we have accepted Christ, the way is open for the Father to give us all that we need for a meaningful and Godly life.  We have Providence on our side, not against us.

Here is the challenge for us all.  Who is there who can bring any charge against any Christian believer?   Who is there who can accuse any believer of sin?   The Father has dealt with the sin question once and for all.  There are absolutely no sin issues between the Father and believers any longer.   The Father has gone to much trouble and sacrifice to see us justified.  Justified means that we are completely put with with God, and we are able to stand before Him without any sin consciousness, fear, or sense of inferiority.

This flies right in the face of those who make it their business to try and reveal sin in Christian believers.  We have church leaders who impose strict rules on their followers and severely punish them for any infractions.  They excommunicate believers from their churches and make it appear that they have now lost their salvation.  Their actions are completely contrary to the purposes of God, and the day will come when they will stand ashamed before the throne of God to see the ones they condemned being honoured by the Lord and set at His right hand.

No one has any right to say to a believer that their conduct has cancelled out their salvation.  They have no right to expose their weaknesses and sins before others in a way that suggests condemnation from God.  God is not in the condemning business.  The condemnation that will come to those standing before the throne of God in judgement will be on the basis that they rejected Christ as Saviour and Lord.  All other sins and weaknesses are covered by that.    As acceptance of Christ completely covers sinfulness with the Righteousness of Christ, so that rejection of Christ brings condemnation of itself, regardless of the good or bad deeds that are done as part of that.

Of course, the Scripture supports brothers and sisters in Christ correcting the conduct of others that may affect their testimony to the world, or to the smooth running of the church, and there is a set process for that.  The final condemnation where a person's bad conduct is exposed to the whole church and the person is treated as an outsider and a sinner, comes through that person rejecting good correction, and therefore comes under the chastisement of God until he puts things right.   There is no suggestion that the person concerned will lose his salvation through it;  rather, that the Holy Spirit may work in that person's heart to bring him back into line so he can continue fellowshipping with the other believers in the future.

Neither is Jesus condemning anyone who has accepted Him.  He is at the right hand of the Father, acting as our great Defence Lawyer.  Jesus defends us before the Father.   He cannot defend us and condemn us at the same time.   Therefore there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God as long as we remain in an attitude of faith and trust in what Jesus has done for us, and in the faithfulness of God to fulfill for us what He has promised.    There are no circumstances that can separate us from God.  Paul gives examples of things that may happen to us, which can be quite devastating on the human level, but they cannot upset our relationship with God if we keep our hand to the plough and not turn away from Christ.

Paul encourages us that although these things may happen to us, in the midst of them, we are more than conquerors through Christ.   Our victory in Christ is not dependant on what happens to us in this life.  Once we have established our relationship with the Father in Christ, nothing on this earth can upset it, not even death.   Our death is the final victory, because we then go to the Lord and have direct fellowship with Him.

The devil is the accuser of the brethren, and he works hard to neutralise Christians and make their ministries ineffective.  Many Christians are afraid of what the devil and his demons could do to them, but their fears are unfounded.  The devil is a defeated foe and he can only tangle with Christians with bluff and deception.  His main weapon is: "Has God really said that...Is he really faithful in this...?"   In other words he tries to get you to doubt God's word.

But Paul is adamant.  None of these things can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ.  We are victors, and we can walk in that victory without any hindrance, because the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are fully supporting us.

[End of Chapter 8]