Romans 8 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Rom 8:1-4

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

A. Find Out:

1. What isn’t there for Christians? v.1
2. Why? v.2
3. Why wasn’t the law able to help? v.3a
4. So what did God do? v.3b
5. What effect did it have? v.4a
6. How do we now live? v.4b

B. Think:

1. What are these verses mainly about?
2. What two provisions of God help us?

C. Comment:

Paul’s main point here is that there is no longer condemnation for the Christian because God has dealt with our sin through Jesus on the Cross, and this leaves us free to live under the prompting and guidance of His Holy Spirit.

Doubting, weak Christians are sometimes heard to say, “I think God is punishing me!” Perish the thought!   Jesus has taken all of our punishment and so God is NOT bringing it to us. The enemy or circumstances may appear difficult, but God ISN’T punishing us.

Paul reminds us that the law (which is good) couldn’t bring us to a place of blessing because the sinful nature in us brought death from constant sin. Instead, God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and that condemned sin, or dealt it a death blow, because it no longer has the law to respond to. Jesus met the requirement of the law in our place on the Cross, and then sent His Holy Spirit into our lives so sin has no room to operate in us any longer!

Thus, we are freed to live, not in condemnation and fear of judgement, not under the domination of sin and in spiritual death, but in a loving relationship with the Lord by His Spirit within us.

D. Application?

1. There is NO condemnation for me today because Jesus HAS taken ALL my punishment and there is NOTHING to be held against me!
2. My life today, because of that, can be simply enjoying all of God’s goodness for me now.

Passage: Rom 8:5-11

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

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And 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 because of his Spirit who lives in you.

A. Find Out:    

1. What 2 sorts of people are there? v.5
2. What are the two end products? v.6
3. What does the sinful mind (flesh) do? v.7,8
4. What is essential if you belong to Christ? v.9
5. What is our twofold state with Christ in us? v.10
6. What will the Holy Spirit do? v.11

B. Think:

1. How is the mind important?
2. How may there be different controlling forces in us?
3. What is the assurance about the transforming power in us?

C. Comment:

First of all, observe a person’s DIRECTION. A person sets their mind either in the direction of pleasing self or on what the Spirit of Jesus desires. The self-centred life concentrates on personal pleasure, is hostile to God and produces death (total absence of spiritual life). The God-centred life brings life and peace. The decision as to which direction we will take is OURS.

Second, observe a person’s POWER SOURCE. The non-Christian by implication, has no power and is just pushed by the whim of desires. The Christian, in stark contrast, has the Spirit of Jesus within, and if we weren’t quite sure what that means, Paul reminds us that the Spirit within us is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.

This is the incredible power that is ours, the power that brought Jesus back from the dead! So, in the same way, as we have died to sin, He will bring us back from the dead with new lives than can now be lived for the glory of God. The decision as to direction may be ours but the power input is His. We cannot do this, it is all His work in us, but He does it freely and willingly as soon as we commit our way in HIS direction.

D. Application?

1. Ensure your direction is clear and unwavering.
2. Thank the Lord for the provision of the power of His Holy Spirit to change your life.

Passage: Rom 8:12-17

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Paul first say we have? v.12
2. What two ways are contrasted? v.13
3. What are those who are led by the Spirit? v.14
4. What does the Spirit confirm? v.15,16
5. What does this make us? v.17a
6. What 2 things are we to share in? v.17b

B. Think:

1. What requirement is it that Paul says is upon us?
2. What does an heir do?
3. What therefore is our position today?

C. Comment:

Paul’s reasoning flows straight on from the above passage with a “therefore”.  Because (above) we have the Holy Spirit in us giving life to us, we are to live according to the Spirit. If you allow Him to, He will enable you to overcome the self-life (flesh) and you will really know what it means to live.

Now Paul goes a step further for he says those who are led by the Spirit are God’s sons and he contrasts sons with slaves. Slaves are obedient in ignorance. Sons are obedient as they share in the life of the family, aware of Father’s heart, sharing His plans and purposes. More than that, sons are heirs, they are the receivers of all of the father’s possessions. Thus we, as God’s “sons” share with Him now and are on the receiving end of His constant giving.

At the end of this passage, Paul quietly drops in a profound reminder. We have just said sons share in the family, but sharing for us also means sharing the rejection and the hostility of the world that Jesus experienced and which every Christian since has experienced in greater or lesser measure. Part of the sharing is also the wonderful greatness or glory of it all as well and that makes it all worthwhile.

D. Application?

1. Do we realise we don’t have to work to obtain God’s blessing, we are heirs and so we receive it freely as part of His family.
2. Thank Him for that truth today

Passage: Rom 8:18-25

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

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

A. Find Out:

1. What overshadows our present troubles? v.18
2. What is creation waiting for? v.19
3. What has happened to creation itself? v.20
4. But what will happen to it? v.21
5. What has creation been doing? v.22
6. For what are we waiting? v.23

B. Think:

1. What picture of the world does Paul portray?
2. What will eventually happen?
3. Why do you think the world is like this?

C. Comment:

To the sufferings in yesterday’s passage Paul now compares the glorious future that is to be ours, and as he starts thinking of the future glory, it seems to put the present world in stark perspective: it is groaning because it has been frustrated (limited) and brought into a place of constant decay.

The Bible shows that God did this to all of Nature at the Fall when He removed His blessing from the ground and left it cursed (Genesis 3:17 -). The animal kingdom was not expressly mentioned but it was clear that it was originally at peace (Genesis 2:19 ,20) and will return to that state of peace (Isaiah 11:6-9).

We also similarly, as part of creation are not what we were, as our bodies now suffer sickness, pain, and decay. We too, long for that time when our bodies are not going to be like this, and such a time WILL come. The order for this would seem to be Jesus’ return in triumph (1 Thessalonians 4:16 / Revelation 19:11 -21) and the coming down of heaven to join earth in forming a new habitation of men with God, free from all present suffering (Revelation 21:1-4). This indeed is a glorious hope. God started the world off in perfection and at the end He will restore it to perfection.

D. Application?

1. Share your aches and pains with the Lord today and receive His grace to cope.
2. All things will be made new. Praise Him!

Passage: Rom 8:26-30 

26 In 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 through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

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

A. Find Out:

1. What does the Spirit do with us? v.26
2. What does the Spirit do for us? v.26,27
3. What is God continually doing? v.28
4. What is His primary purpose for us? v.29
5. What are the 5 stages of God’s working? v.29a,30

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise the Spirit’s activity as seen here?
2. What do these verses tell us, in summary, about God?

C. Comment:

First, because Paul has been speaking about the Holy Spirit, and us in a groaning world, Paul speaks now about the Spirit who helps us as He works within us, with us sensing His desires as He expresses God’s purpose for us with deep inner groaning or yearning.

Then, as a follow on to thinking about God’s purposes for us, Paul comes out with this key verse to bring reassurance, that in ALL THINGS God is working for OUR GOOD! We may make a mess of things but God will take it and use it somehow for our good. He is committed to bless us! Can we really allow this truth to settle in us?

Because Paul knows our tendency to question and query he relentlessly pushes on his argument. Look, he says, God knew you before the foundation of the world, He looked into the future and saw you, He knew you would be a responder to Him, so He gave you Jesus to respond to.

Now, having given you Jesus to respond to, He called you by His Holy Spirit and when you responded to the Gospel message, He justified you so that you could know that you were accepted by Him, and even more, He glorified you, He placed His glory (His Holy Spirit) in you and called you His son and one day you’ll be with Him in heaven perfected. Got that?? Right, don’t be under any doubts – He IS for YOU, to bless you and purpose good for you always!

D. Application?

1. Chosen, justified, glorified! Wow! Worship Him!
2. Live in the light of the wonder of this passage.

Passage: Rom 8:31-39

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He 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? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

‘For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What is God’s attitude towards us? v.31
2. How did He prove this? v.32a
3. What can we therefore expect? v.32b
4. What also does He do? v.33
5. What is Jesus doing, from where? v.34
6. What does this make us? v.37

B. Think:

1. What is Paul seeking to show in verses 31-34?
2. What consequence is he going to lengths to show in verses 35-39?

C. Comment:

Again these glorious verses ought to be burnt into the heart of every Christian. Paul first goes to show something that many of us doubt as we listen to the lies of the enemy: God is for us!   God is totally committed to us, to bring us into the place of full sonship, receiving all of His goodness. And, says Paul, the way we know this is because God gave His one and only Son, Jesus, to die for us, to reconcile us to Himself.

God has justified us, He won’t condemn us. Jesus, at His Father’s right hand, intercedes for us (see 1 John 2:1,2), so He won’t be against us! Now, says Paul, the consequence of all this is that we are receivers of God’s love, and NOTHING can stop that happening. We may get into difficult, trying circumstances but God will be there with us in them. Demonic beings may try to come against us, but God is so much greater, and He is with us, so they won’t be able to keep us from His love. In fact, nothing can!

Look, he says, we don’t have to fight to achieve this, because God has done everything necessary. We don’t have to triumph over circumstances or the enemy to know and experience this, because God is with us in it, and nothing can push God Almighty away. No, there is no fighting to achieve this, it is ours because God has made it so!

D. Application?

1. Paul said in Ephesians 6:13, “Stand your ground”, i.e. hold the position God HAS given you.
2. Rejoice in the position you have NOW!