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The Apostle Paul's Epistle
to the Romans |
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Chapter
8
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1Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Messiah Yeshua.
Paul, in verse 1, summarized his main point that
he sought to establish, namely, that in the
Messiah there is no condemnation. In some
ancient manuscripts, the phrase "who do not walk
after the flesh, but after Spirit" was added.
This addition, however, is not represented in
the earliest manuscripts. Why is it that some
scribes felt to add this phrase (which actually
appears in verse 4)? Human nature, even among
redeemed humanity, cannot handle that salvation
is a free gift that completely atones for all
one's sins. While there is the danger that some
might distort this truth into thinking that a
believer's actions do not matter but this does
not negate the fact that through the Messiah,
believers are not under any condemnation
whatsoever.
2For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah
Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and
of death.
The reason why Paul confidently asserted that
there is no condemnation for those who are in
the Messiah is because the Torah of the Spirit
of life has set us free from the law of sin and
of death. Despite the fact that the believer
does still struggle with sin, the greater
reality is that, positionally, we are not under
the condemnation of the Torah. Here Paul
contrasted the believer's relationship to the
Torah with that of an unregenerate sinner's
relationship to the Torah. For the redeemed
believer, since we stand before God by the merit
of the Messiah's perfect life, the Spirit that
brings life writes the Torah on our heart. By
having the Torah written on our heart, we are
able to obey it and thus receive the promised
blessings that come with obedience. This is in
contrast to the unregenerate sinner, for whom
the Messiah's sacrifice was not applied and the
Spirit has not done His regenerative work, for
him the Torah can only show where he has sinned,
which ultimately results in death, the just
penalty for disobedience to the Torah.
3For what the Law could not do, weak as it
was through the flesh, God did: sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an
offering for sin, He condemned sin in the
flesh,
To explain what he exactly meant by the phrase
"the Torah of the Spirit of life in Messiah
Yeshua," Paul explained the need for the Messiah
at all. First of all, he pointed out the
inability of the Torah to bring about salvation.
The Torah itself was never intended to bring
about salvation. As God's revelation of what is
right and wrong, it can only show a person where
they have obeyed God or disobeyed Him. Since
mankind is inherently sinful, without God's
intervention, the Torah will only show us where
we have sinned. This is what Paul meant when he
said that the Torah was weak through the flesh;
it's not that there's anything wrong with the
Torah but because sinful man is helpless to do
anything about his unregenerate state, the Torah
then becomes weak as well. Thankfully, God did
not and does not save people through the Torah;
God's way of salvation comes through His Son.
The Messiah came in the likeness of sinful
flesh, meaning He entered into this fallen world
and took on a mortal body. Unlike the rest of
humanity, Yeshua was without sin and therefore
stood as the sacrifice without blemish. Using
this body, the Messiah offered Himself and
"condemned" sin. The word here translated as
"condemned" could be translated as "render
ineffective." In this way, since the Torah is
God's unchanging standard, there's no way it
could render sin ineffective, for it can only
tell us what sin is. The Messiah, on the other
hand, through His death, did render ineffective
the power of sin and will one day completely
abolish sin altogether.
4so that the requirement of the Law might be
fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to
the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For
those who are according to the flesh set their
minds on the things of the flesh, but those who
are according to the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit.
By uniting ourselves by faith with the Messiah,
the One through whom sin was rendered
ineffective, we can actually fulfill what the
Torah requires. The very definition of not
walking according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit is doing what the Torah requires of
God's people. This is simply another way of
saying what Paul said in 3:31, that our faith
does not nullify the Torah but, in fact,
establishes it. Paul continued this contrast,
and showed that those who are according to the
flesh, set their minds on the things of the
flesh, as opposed to those who are according to
the Spirit, who set their minds on the things of
the Spirit. What does the "mind" refer to here?
The word "mind," like how the word "heart" is
used idiomatically in Jewish culture, stands for
that part of each of us that makes decisions;
the mind is the part of us that reasons and
makes subsequent choices. Therefore, what Paul
stated here was that, in life, there are things
connected with sin and this fallen world, and
the mind that has not been regenerated will
gravitate to those things. In contrast to this
is the mind that has been revived by God's
Spirit; the mind set on the Spirit will
gravitate towards the things of the Spirit of
God. In this context, the things of the Spirit
is a reference to the instructions God revealed
in the Torah.
6For the mind set on the flesh is death, but
the mind set on the Spirit is life and
peace, 7because the mind set on the flesh is
hostile toward God; for it does not subject
itself to the law of God, for it is not even
able to do so, 8and those who are in the flesh
cannot please God.
The mind set on the flesh is death because the
path that the unregenerate sinner is on leads to
death. An unbeliever lives in a state of
hostility towards God, a position one should not
want to find themselves in, for the person who
contends against the All-Powerful God of the
universe will only meet a deathly end.
Interestingly, the reason why there is hostility
between God and the sinner is because the sinner
does not subject his decisions to the Torah of
God and, in fact, is not even able to do so. A
life of not subjecting your decisions to the
instructions found in God's holy, righteous and
good Torah does not characterize the life of the
believer but rather the dead-in-their-sins
unbeliever. Those who do not subject their
mind--that is, their decisions--to the Torah of
God are in the flesh and those who are in the
flesh cannot please God.
9However, you are not in the flesh but in the
Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in
you But if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Messiah, he does not belong to Him.
The Roman believers to whom Paul was writing
were not in the flesh but in the Spirit. Since
Paul had established the contrast between the
flesh and the Spirit, we can make some logical
deductions in regards to the person who has set
their mind on the things of the Spirit based on
his comments on the person who has set their
mind on the flesh. The mind set on the Spirit is
life and peace; since believers have received
atonement for sin, we can rest assured that our
destiny will be one of life and peace. We can be
confident that through the merit of the Messiah,
we are not in state of hostility towards God but
that there is peace between us and God.
Furthermore, the person who sets their mind on
the things of the Spirit, unlike the person in
the flesh, will subject their minds--their
decision making--to the Torah of God, for they
are indeed able to do so. To be able to obey
God's commandments was the very reason that
Messiah died for us, just as Paul stated in
verses 3-4. Paul knew that these Roman believers
were in the Spirit because of the reports he had
received of their obedience (1:xx). To Paul,
this was an indication that the Spirit of God
dwelled in them. Paul then immediately included
a rhetorical statement that if one does not have
the Spirit of Messiah, that person does not
belong to Messiah. He added this to allow the
Roman believers to examine their own lives, to
see if indeed they had seen the fruit that Paul
taught must be the evidence of genuine faith.
These truths should not be taken in purely an
academic fashion but we should also internalize
these truths, testing ourselves to see if they
positively affect our lives.
10If
Messiah is in you, though the body is dead
because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because
of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who
raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, He
who raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies through His
Spirit who dwells in you.
Notice that Paul speaks of the Messiah being in
us immediately after referring to the Spirit as
the Spirit of Messiah. That the Spirit of God
can be called the Spirit of Messiah is a
powerful yet mysterious truth; the Messiah is in
us by the dwelling of the Spirit. Some
understand the contrast of “body” and “spirit”
here to refer to our physical body as opposed to
non-physical part of us, our “spirit.” That Paul
would introduce such a dichotomy misses the
context of this passage, rather Paul is
contrasting the body, representing our sinful
nature, and the Spirit of God, representing our
new life. In this way, he’s simply contrasting
the inevitable outcome of each; those who simply
remain in the body without the work of the
Spirit will one day experience both temporal and
eternal death. Since the phrase “spirit is
alive” can just as easily be translated as
“Spirit is life,” those whom the Spirit has
given life will result in righteousness, that
is, eternal immortal life. This interpretation
is confirmed as Paul then immediately stated
that the Spirit of God, which raised Yeshua from
dead, dwells in us and gives life to our mortal
bodies. Far from thinking that the physical
realm had no significance, here Paul clearly
taught that the Spirit gives life to our bodies
now, despite the fact that we are destined to
die one day.
12So
then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to
the flesh, to live according to the
flesh-- 13for if you are living according to the
flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you
are putting to death the deeds of the body, you
will
live. 14For all who are being led by the Spirit
of God, these are sons of God. 15For you have
not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear
again, but you have received a spirit of
adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba!
Father!"
For what purpose does the Spirit give life to
our bodies? The Spirit gives us life so that we
may live according to the Spirit and not
according to the flesh. Though previous to the
regenerative work of the Spirit in our lives we
had no choice but to obey the desires of the
flesh, now, we are no longer under obligation to
the flesh and its desires. In fact, if one lives
their life always giving in to the desires of
the flesh, they prove that there has been no
real work of the Spirit in their lives and they
are therefore destined for eternal death. If,
however, your life exhibits consistent examples
of saying “no” to sin and “yes” to obedience,
you can be sure that you are destined to live
eternally. To be clear, the flesh refers to
living according to the norms of this sinful
world, whereas living according to the Spirit
refers to living according to the norms of the
Torah-based life given to Israel and lived out
by the Messiah. Interestingly, this dichotomy is
the same one presented in the book of
Deuteronomy; Paul is simply reiterating the
choice each Israelite must decide: will we obey
God and receive blessing or will we disobey God
and receive punishment? This is why that those
who choose obedience can be assured that they
are a child of God. Here we have the tension of
the fact that God puts before us a choice but
it’s only by the leading of the Spirit can we
make the choice that will lead to life. The
Spirit of God, which all believers have
received, is not a spirit of slavery but rather
a spirit of adoption. In other words, the type
of relationship we have received is one of
between a loving father and his son; so intimate
is the relationship that we now have with God,
we can call him “Abba.” The word “abba”
is an Aramaic word equivalent to our English
word “daddy” and, again, bespeaks of the
intimate relationship we have with God because
of the Spirit.
16The
Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we
are children of God, 17and if children, heirs
also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with
Messiah, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we
may also be glorified with Him. 18For I consider
that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that is to
be revealed to us.
The very fact that there is a legitimate
resonance in our lives to things of God
testifies to us that we indeed are the children
of God. If we did not care about the word of God
or if we didn’t have a desire to know Him more,
there would be no assurance that we are on of
His. Since we do have this assurance, we can
also understand ourselves to be heirs with the
Messiah. By being united with the Messiah, in
His merit, we will receive all the blessings
promised to Israel; through the quintessential
Israelite, the only one who actually deserves
these blessings, we can enjoy them as well. Paul
added another way we can be assured that we are
one of God’s children: that we suffer with the
Messiah. The very nature of the Gospel, with its
message of dieing to self, turning away from sin
and obeying God will cause those in rebellion to
persecute us; if one does not suffer
persecution, one should question whether they
are truly espousing the real Gospel message. The
outcome of such suffering however is
glorification, that is, life in the World to
Come. Any suffering that we may experience now
will seem, in light of the glory of immortality,
will seem like paper cuts. To know that for
eternity we will enjoy God’s presence and peace
should enable us to persevere through any kind
of suffering in this life.
19For the anxious longing of the creation waits
eagerly for the revealing of the sons of
God. 20For the creation was subjected to
futility, not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself
also will be set free from its slavery to
corruption into the freedom of the glory of the
children of God
The creation itself eagerly waits for the time
when God’s children will be revealed for who we
really are. As long as the Messiah tarries, we
will have to live in a world that is contrary to
the reality of life in the Spirit that has been
birthed in us. The creation was subjected to a
state of continued decay by God as a result of
the disobedience of mankind, the ones to whom
God gave dominion and responsibility to take
care of the earth. God did this, however, in
hope that the creation will be one day set free
from this bondage of decay. This is not the kind
of passive hope that we usually understand but
more of an expectation; while we hope and trust
in God to bring about our glorification, God can
hope and actually make that hope a reality. Once
mankind is made free and given an immortal and
sinless state, the creation itself will become
free and will no longer decay. When Messiah
returns, for the first time since the fall of
mankind, the second law of thermodynamics, which
states that everything is in a state of decay,
will be reversed and the earth will function as
it was supposed to. Again, far from Paul having
a view that placed the physical world as
unimportant, Paul looked forward to the day when
man will be able to truly live a righteous
physical existence. |
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22For we know that the whole creation groans
and suffers the pains of childbirth together
until now. 23And not only this, but also we
ourselves, having the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as
sons, the redemption of our body.
The creation as a whole suffers the effects of
the fall of man. Not only that but believers too
must live in this fallen world and endure the
reality of a sinful world and the remnant of our
sinful nature embodied in our mortality.
Contrary to what the health and wealth preachers
of our day might proclaim, the life of the
believer is not one of comfort and ease.
Instead, each believer must suffer through
persecution, deny our sinful desires and go
against the grain of a world that wants to be
contrary to everything that is holy, righteous
and good. This is not without hope though, since
believers have received the first fruits of the
Spirit. The first fruits of something are simply
a guarantee of something much greater and more
complete. What this means is that the work of
the Spirit in our lives now is just a taste of
what we will experience in the resurrection. For
now, we wait eagerly for that reality, for even
though we are indeed now adopted as God’s
children, it will not be fully known until our
body is redeemed and becomes immortal.
24For in hope we have been saved, but hope
that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what
he already sees? 25But if we hope for what we do
not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for
it.
Our current life as believers is not the end of
the story since we have been saved in hope.
Hope, to Paul, is something that is not yet
seen. In other words, if our current reality of
having to continually struggle against sin and a
sinful world, then what are we hoping for? The
point is that we are indeed hoping for something
better, for something that we do not yet see.
This hope, then, must be connected with
perseverance; all those who have hope must also
persevere and not give up. Believers must
continually hope and eagerly wait for the return
of the Messiah and with His return, our
resurrection into immortality.
26In the same way the Spirit also helps our
weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we
should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words; 27and He who
searches the hearts knows what the mind of the
Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.
Just as the believer groans waiting for our
glorification, the Spirit also intercedes on our
behalf with groanings that cannot be expressed
in human terms. In this way, the Spirit helps us
in our weakness; our weakness is that we do not
always know how to deal with our present
reality. When we stand before God in prayer, and
we pour out to Him the situations in our life,
should we ask Him to take away our suffering or
let it stay, since that suffering might used by
Him for our good. In this way, we do not know
how we should pray, so the Spirit intercedes on
our behalf and expresses to the Father what we
long for. God knows what our true intentions are
because the Spirit intercedes on our behalf and
this is the will of God.
28And we know that God causes all
things to work together for good to those who
love God, to those who are called according to
His purpose.
If the Spirit’s intercession wasn’t enough to
comfort us, Paul went on to explain that God
causes all things to work together for good for
believers. In what way does God work all things
together to for good? The answer is found in the
next verse, where it’s clear that believers are
chosen to become conformed to the image of God’s
Son. In other words, both the good and the bad
situations (“all things”) of our lives shape us
and mould us into becoming more like the
Messiah. This is not a promise that everything
in life will be pleasant but that no matter what
happens in our life, we can rest assured that
God is ultimately in control and that we have a
greater destiny ahead of us. This brings up the
question of God’s sovereignty and to this, it
seems clear, that from man’s perspective, life
is made up of choices and random occurrence but
not so from God’s perspective; amazingly, God is
so beyond anything we can imagine that even with
all of men’s choices, He can still work all of
the situations of life together to result in
good. To be clear, this working together is not
promised for everyone but only for those who
love God, specifically those who are called
according to His purpose. We have explored what
it means to love God in past studies but it is
worthy of a quick review. All throughout the
Tanakh and the Apostolic Scriptures, the concept
of loving God is coupled with the action of
obeying His commandments (cf. Deuteronomy
7:9, 11:1, 30:16, Joshua 22:5, Nehemiah 1:5,
Daniel 9:4 and 1 John 5:3); therefore,
loving God is not an emotion but encompasses how
we live our lives. Furthermore those who truly
love God, that is, keep the commandments out of
a heart of love, are the ones who are called
according to His purpose. This, again, speaks of
the fact that we have a destiny and our destiny
is to become like the Perfect One. As we will
see in the upcoming chapters, this individual
reality is not different from national reality;
though Israel has gone through both good and bad
situations, ultimately, God will make all of His
people Israel perfect.
29For those whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to the image of
His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among
many brethren; 30and these whom He predestined,
He also called; and these whom He called, He
also justified; and these whom He justified, He
also glorified.
At its core, these verses present the five
stages of our salvation, a process that spans
from before the creation all the way to the
World to Come. By this, we see that our
salvation was not just a possibility, based upon
whether we received the Gospel or not but
instead was planned from the very beginning,
where God set in motion a process that will be
completed. Firstly, there are those whom God
foreknew, meaning, before the foundation of the
world, He had previously chosen an elect few to
be saved (cf. Ephesians 1:4). Secondly,
he predestined us to become conformed to the
image of His Son. Though our current state is a
struggle that results in groaning (cf. 8:23),
it was always God’s plan and will for us to be
given regeneration and new life by the Spirit,
all for the purpose that we would learn how to
become holy like He is holy. Interestingly, the
reason why we are being made into the image of
the Messiah is so that He can be called the
firstborn among many. Here, the firstborn calls
back to its biblical meaning in that the
firstborn receives the inheritance of the
father. In other words, we are being made into a
perfect family, with the Messiah as our eldest
brother. Thirdly, those whom God foreknew and
predestined, He also called; to be called refers
to the outworking of God’s plan in our lives. In
theological terms, this call is referred to as
an “effectual call.” It’s not that God simply
called and it was up to us to respond but that
God called us and also gave us the ability and
the motivation, through the Spirit, to answer
that call. Fourthly, for all those who have
experienced this life giving work of the Spirit,
evidence in a life of repentance and obedience,
those are counted among those who are justified,
that is, they are declared innocent before God.
One would think that Paul would place
“justified” earlier in the list but here we have
another example that the only evidence that we
have in this life that a person is truly saved
is the fruit of their lives. Fifthly and lastly,
all whom He foreknew, he predestined, called and
justified, He also glorified. That Paul placed
the word in the past tense, despite the fact
that our glorious resurrection is in the future,
shows that from God’s perspective everything
that happens in our lives has already happened.
God is not inside of time, waiting to see how
everything turns out but instead already knows
the whole history of mankind. This means that
each of us have a destiny; we should all live
our lives with confidence, knowing that God has
secured us for glory and that we can freely live
our lives in devotion to Him.
31What then shall we say to these things? If
God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did
not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over
for us all, how will He not also with Him freely
give us all things?
Knowing that God works all things together for
good, that He foreknew us, predestined us,
called us, justified us and, from His
perspective, glorified us, how can we ever think
that God would be against us? Obviously, if
these are true, then God is for us and on our
side, in the sense that He is invested in us.
This is evident in the fact that He sent His own
Son to die for us. If God was willing to send
Messiah to die a horrible, sacrificial death for
our sins, how much more so we will He ensure
that we be conformed to the image of the Messiah
and ultimately reign with the Messiah for
eternity? This is yet another “light to the
heavy” argument; if we are certain that Messiah
died for our sins, we can be sure that God will
bring to completion the salvation that Messiah
secured for us on the cross.
33Who will bring a charge against God's elect?
God is the one who justifies; 34who is the one
who condemns? Messiah Yeshua is He who died,
yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right
hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
In that way, we can confidently ask if anyone
can therefore bring a charge against us, that
is, a charge that will condemn us before God. It
is obviously not God, since He is the one who
justifies and if God won’t condemn us, then how
can the charges brought by created beings have
any effect? Paul’s precise point is that no
charge brought before God against us can stand
for God is the only true and righteous judge and
His justice has been satisfied. Indeed, God’s
justice was satisfied by the Messiah Yeshua, who
died on our behalf. So, it is not the Messiah
who will bring a charge against us, since He
Himself gave His life willingly for us. Not
only, that He was raised sits at the right hand
of God and continually makes (successful)
intercession on our behalf. The truth is that
each believer’s salvation is perfectly secure.
35Who will separate us from the love of Messiah?
Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE
BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE
CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37But in
all these things we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us.
The Apostle continues with his use of rhetorical
questions and implies that indeed no one can
separate us from the love of the Messiah. Again,
just like our love for God is not simply
emotional but is actually action-oriented, so
too the love of Messiah is not an emotion but
are His actions that secure our salvation. In
other words, God, through the Messiah, has set
in motion a plan of salvation that He will
complete. Therefore, to be separated from the
love of God refers to the plan of salvation not
being completed. Is there anyone or anything
that can make it so that we don’t reach that
final stage of glorification? Consider Paul’s
list of things that one might presume would
separate us from this plan of salvation and
notice that not even the worst conditions of
life, even death itself (“sword”) can interfere
with God’s plan and purpose for our salvation.
The people of God have always gone through
horrible trials and tribulations and will
continue to do so but the hope is that in all of
these things, through our Saviour, we will
overwhelmingly conquer. This does not mean, as
some televangelists would have you believe, that
the life of the believer is a pleasant life
filled with comfort but it does mean that no
matter what happens to us, the end for each
believer is the same: eternal life. Believers
overwhelmingly conquer the bad things of life
because we know whom we serve and that He will
work all things together for good.
38For I am convinced that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor
height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Messiah Yeshua our Master.
Furthermore, Paul now adds his own personal
conviction that nothing at all will be able to
separate believers from the love of God, found
in the Messiah. Firstly, though from our
perspective death seems to be end of things, it
cannot put an end to God’s plan for our
salvation, for we will be brought back to life
in the resurrection. In the same, nothing in
life can separate us from God’s love as well.
Neither angels nor principalities, that is,
those within the “spiritual realm” who serve as
God’s messengers or act as enemies of God can
disrupt God’s love for us in salvation. Nothing
that we have done or will do, nor will any event
in This World or in the World to come can
prevent God from lovingly save us from sin. No
power, whether above the heights or below the
depths, will be able to separate believers from
God’s love. Indeed, neither God nor the Messiah
nor any created thing will be able to separate
us from the love of God. This should bring us
great assurance and confidence to live our lives
for the Almighty and offer Him thanks for His
great mercies. |
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