Romans 8: The work of the Spirit

[Preliminary Note: We continue to provide a brief summary of each previous chapter to provide present context:

• Ch.1 The sinfulness of the world    
• Ch.2 All – Jew & Gentile – are under God’s judgment
• Ch.3 Jews are the same as Gentiles in that salvation only comes through faith in Christ
• Ch.4 Abraham illustrates how justification only comes through faith 
• Ch.5 Peace with God is a natural outworking of justification. Adam sinned – Christ saves
• Ch.6 Sin now longer has a place in our lives as we consider our old sinful lives dead, and we’ve been raised to a new life 
• Ch.7 Because his old life has died, he has been freed from the Law. He wrestles with the fact that there is a drive within himself that knows about the goodness of the Law but can’t keep it, a drive called sin

NOW he considers how Christ’s death on the Cross has met the demands of the Law so that now as we set our minds on His will, the Spirit brings about a transformation so that, despite the groaning of the fallen world, we start showing the first signs of sonship with Father & Son working for us so that nothing can keep us from their love.]  

• v.1-4 Christ’s work delivers
• v.5-8 Laws of the Mind
• v.9-11 Christ’s Spirit transformation
• v.12-17 Spirit & Will triumph
• v.18-25 Present Suffering in a groaning World
• v.26-30 The Spirit’s help & the Father’s work
• v.31-34 Father & Son are for us
• v.35-39 Nothing can keep us from their love

v.1-4 Christ’s work delivers

v.1,2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

v.3,4 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, 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.

[Note: Having previously felt condemned for inner failures, we see we are condemnation-free because of Christ’s work on the Cross and his Holy Spirit’s work now. We couldn’t earn goodness so Christ dealt with our sin on the Cross to enable us to live Spirit lives now

v.5-8 Laws of the Mind

v.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.

v.6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

v.7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

v.8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

[Note: You will be either self-concerned or Spirit-concerned but the mind focused on self, reaps death while the mind led by the Spirit brings life and peace. The self-mind is anti-God and self-people can’t please God.]

v.9-11 Christ’s Spirit transformation

v.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.

v.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.

v.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.

[Note: But we believers are no longer self-people but Spirit-people, indwelt by the Spirit. No Spirit = no Christian. Christ in you – even if you struggle against sin – means life and righteousness, for the same Spirit who raised Jesus lives in you to raise you.]

v.12-17 Spirit & Will triumph

v.12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.

v.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.

v.14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

v.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.”

v.16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

v.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.

[Note: Therefore, we have no need to live by ‘self’. If you do that you will die, but if you live by the Spirit, He will set you free to really ‘live’. Those who are Spirit-led are the children of God, the indwelling Spirit confirms our adoption that we are children of God, and if we are children of God, we are heirs of all His promises of blessings, as long as we share the whole package, good and bad.]

v.18-25 Present Suffering in a groaning World

v.18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

v.19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

v.20,21 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

v.22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

v.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.

v.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?

v.25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

[Note: Any present sufferings are nothing to the glory we will yet inherit and the whole of Creation senses this and watches for it to happen. The Creation suffered at the Fall but will be redeemed in the fulness of the work of Christ, and it’s like it groans in anticipation. We likewise groan inwardly as we sense the fulness yet to come and this is the hope we talk about, for the future for which we are saved. But hope is about the future and that requires patience.]

v.26-30 The Spirit’s help & the Father’s work

v.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.

v.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.

v.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.

v.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.

v.30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

[Note: Now the Spirit helps us in our prayer uncertainty, interceding from within and God understands what the Spirit in us is sensing as He intercedes on our behalf, and all the while God is working for our good in any and every circumstance. He foreknew us [see notes at end of chapter 9] and conforms us to be like Christ, thus, back at the foundation of the world, He knew us, called us [and when we responded], justified us had shared His glory with us [His indwelling spirit].

v.31-34 Father & Son are for us

v.31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

v.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?

v.33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

v.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.

[Note: Now all of this shows ‘how much’ God is for us, so who can be against us? If He gave us His Son, won’t He give us all the rest of the things He’s promised? Who can say things against us, because God has declared us right in His sight; no one can condemn us, because we’re made right by Christ’s death and he now intercedes for us.]

v.35-39 Nothing can keep us from their love

v.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

v.36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

v.37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

v.38,39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.

[Note: So with all this in mind, can anything keep God’s love from us? Yes, we may face threats to our very being [Psalm 44:22] but actually we don’t have to struggle for this because all the battles have been won so nothing, but nothing, but nothing, can keep us from God’s love in Christ.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: