“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” -Romans 3:23-25. “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” -Romans 5:17. “Therefore, there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8 is a hallmark section of scripture. It has been described as the most brilliant facet on the redemption diamond. Martin Luther is said to have read this chapter everyday for the last year of his life.
But as a stand-alone spiritual statement, Romans 8 does stand on what is previously written in earlier chapters. After all, it does begin with a “Therefore” and we must then have to understand what the “therefore” is there for!
Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains this “therefore” as a continuation of Romans 5 where righteousness under the law is compared to righteousness through God’s grace. God’s grace is declared and stressed several times in Romans 5 as “much more” and “so much more” than a righteousness under the law; grace and righteousness will “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Lloyd-Jones considers chapters 6 and 7 as parenthetical, an insertion between chapters 5 and 8. While we can see the truth in this, we really need to go back into chapter three and receive larger context for what is being included in the “Therefore” found in Romans 8:1.
Chapter 5 is a transition chapter, according to Lloyd-Jones, taking us out of righteousness which comes under law and into righteousness through God’s grace which comes only from Jesus himself; “Through him we have also received grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”-Rom 5:2.
Jesus came into flesh and became bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. The Son of God became the Son of Man. Why did Jesus pay, not only the price of our finite flesh to become like us, but more than that, Jesus submitted into an ugly human death, why? One answer is so that there could be a Romans 8, but more importantly, we are only beginning to understand His expressed love to us and in us. It is agape (αγαπη) love! God is agape love!
Only through Jesus Himself do we receive divine grace in which we stand and it is because He has “poured into our hearts” agape love through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The agape love of Jesus goes very deep; it includes all that is necessary to equip us into a maturity of Jesus’ own mind and person. The resurrection power of Jesus is available to us, including faith to endure all the fiery darts of the wicked with spiritual discernment to exercise judgment, growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Himself as a person. All this is contained in this opening, “Therefore”!
Romans 8 opens our spiritual window to heaven. Under the old covenant Israel is shown God’s righteous requirements for fellowship with our Father God through the law. Under the new covenant, the Bride of Christ, the Church, the individual believer, receives God’s righteousness through a personal union of our own spirit with the person of the Holy Spirit of God. The individual believer under the new covenant is created a new Spiritual person with the capacity to hear and understand spiritually. This “born-again” person is now able to grow in grace and produce spiritual fruit in Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation to anyone who is in Christ Jesus under the new covenant. All this is included in God’s amazing deep Love made available to we mortal creatures!
This is a love story, an agape love story enabling you and me to enter into God’s divine culture of grace while growing us Spiritually into maturity! Romans 8 opens our spiritual window a little wider, so that we have a better exposure into our new Spiritual reality, our new Spiritual person!
There is a red thread running through the entire 66 books of scripture depicting God’s agape love. God’s righteous judgment for sin is fulfilled through His agape love providing a redemption freedom. Jesus paid it all, not only our death on his crucifixion tree, but so much more, his living presence active within us! God’s Son Jesus is providing humanity a redemption of newly created, born-again, children of God, with a glory of eternal absolute truth and righteousness. We become his workmanship, His bride, so that, we are able to walk in his pathway of grace producing righteous fruit. The new covenant is a bucket overflowing with agape love.
This is what we are dealing with in the eighth chapter of Romans. This red thread leads us right into the heart of Romans 8 turning into a blood-soaked spiritual journey. Redemption sets us free from the bonds of sin but more than that, it creates a personal, intimate relationship as a friend within Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man!
In this chapter we are told how to walk this pathway of spiritual experience in the reality of our living Christ Jesus himself. It is telling us like it is, so that, we can understand our personal identity in Christ Jesus by seeing clearly how to walk in the Spirit rather than in the confusion of temporal flesh. It instructs us to make choices in our humanity so that we know and experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection work in a personal, edifying way. It is our personal choices, while still wearing our fleshly clay, that provides our heavenly choices when we see Him face to face!
We have this set up for us in Romans 5, verses 9 and 10:
“Since, therefore, we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by (in) him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by (in) his life.” -ESV
We bring this now to our attention not only because it is prologue to Romans 8, but because it illustrates our spiritual choices. We must learn to spiritually discern between being saved by Jesus and being saved “in His life.”
When we perform a task or even assign a task to another, it can be because it is the rule of law, because it is the right thing to do. Our relationship to Jesus is often because of our Christian duty; we have to be obedient to the principals of Christian love. We learn a certain culture, not an earthly worldview culture, but a culture of expected “Christian” behavior. It is devoid of love at the agape level. It is simply one expressing behavior conforming to Christian rules of life and conduct in the Bible. God’s grace culture, on the other hand, is on the divine level expressing agape love, defining an intimate relationship of oneness deeper and higher than most of us even know!
When we become a born-again believer, we are filled with joy, with peace greater than our understanding. The seed of righteousness has been planted within us and we have been joined with the Holy Spirit of God to grow in a new Spiritual culture of grace! The joy of the Lord is our strength.
The church of today is distracted from growing in this intimate relationship of agape love. Rather, we are content doing tasks, riding around in our salvation car enjoying the view. We are saved and going to heaven, yes, so let’s just enjoy our life while we are on earth; lets enjoy the Jesus ride! This has become a church attitude. Many born-again believers have turned into Spiritual fools.
Why is this important? Many of us assign or perform tasks because it is part of the structure with which we are identified. These are good and necessary things but there is more to our life in Christ Jesus than assigned tasks and responsibilities. Our salvation, for example, is provided by Jesus Himself requiring only our acceptance. Ephesians tells us we are both “rooted and grounded” in love. But there is a higher level of Spiritual fulfilment that is simply the result of friendship and intimacy in agape love! It is a fellowship in Jesus Himself offering intimacy not only as the Son of Man, but as the Son of God.
Do we perform for others or is the joy of our Lord our strength?
This distinction is hidden in our English translation of Romans 5 verses 9 and 10 but the more subtle Koine Greek text makes it transparent.
Our English translation of these two verses correctly uses the word “by” even though the Greek text uses the word “in.” The reason why both are correct is because the Greek verb “saved” is in the middle voice which means the noun, “God,” is the source for “saving,” being saved by God; He is the power behind the act of “saving.” The English translators had to make a choice between the English words of “by” and “in,” the consequence being an incomplete translation when the English grammar does not have the same nuance provided in the original Greek text.
A reason for us to look at this distinction is because Romans 8 outlines our choices “in Christ Jesus” between salvation by Jesus and salvation in Jesus. Salvation in Jesus is about having his resurrection life active in Jesus, within our physical body:
“that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.” -Ephesians 3:16-19.
This is a different salvation than the one where salvation is by Jesus not requiring our participation on a personal level. And it is true, we merely need to believe and accept God’s gift … but there is so much more!
AW Pink renders a description in the Life of David depicting for us an example of what we are talking about. King Saul had died with his son Jonathan some seven years earlier than King David’s coronation in Judah. The tribe of Judah immediately invited David to rule over them after Saul’s death but Saul’s son, Ishbosheth, took his dad’s place instead with the help of Saul’s man Abner. Now, Ishbosheth, has also been killed and the 11 northern tribes of Israel are looking to David to be their King as well.
“Upon the death of Abner and Ishosheth the tribes of Israel were left without a leader. Having had more than sufficient of the rule of Saul and Ishosheth over them, they had no inclination to make a further experiment by setting another of Saul’s family on the throne, and having observed the prosperous state of Judah under the wise and benign government of David, they began to entertain higher and more honorable thoughts of the “man after God’s own heart.” That illustrates an important principal in God’s dealings with those whom he has … for salvation. There has to be a turning from Satan to God, from the service of sin to the subjection to Christ. That is what true conversion is: it is a change of masters: it is a saying from the heart, ‘O Lord our God, others lords besides Thee have had dominion over us; but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name.’ (Isa. 26:13)”
Israel was God’s chosen people! They constantly were complaining and disobedient even though rescued by Moses our of Egypt. Now here they are in their promised land a divided people, 11 tribes in the north and Judah in the south. Saul, jealous of David, sought to kill David but upon his own death only Judah sought out David to anoint him King. Seven years later, Israel in the north recognizes David for who he is and seeks him out.
This is the same story of today’s church. Believers are God’s chosen people bought out of sin but are not seeking out Jesus as their personal Lord and redeemer! They do not seek to know God on His agape love level!
“’Behold, we are thine bone and thy flesh.’ What a precious line in our typical picture is this! After conviction and conversion follows spiritual illumination. The Holy Spirit is given to glorify Jesus Christ: to take of the things concerning Him and reveal them to whom He draws to the Savior (John 14:16). After a soul has been brought from death unto life by His mighty and sovereign operations, the Spirit of God instructs him; shows him the marvelous relation which divine grace has given him, to the Redeemer. He discovers (reveals) to him the glorious fact of his spiritual union with Christ, for “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). He reveal (reveals) to the quicken (quickened) children of God’s family the amazing truth that they are members of that mystical Body of which Christ is the Head, and thus we are “members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph. 5:30).”
This is what Romans 8 is all about! If salvation is by grace through Jesus only, Romans 6 then argues, then we can tolerate sin in our flesh so that grace can do its work! But Romans 6:9-11 and 14 instructs: we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and make choices that are righteous because we do have his resurrection power. This is what we find in Romans 8. It begins by us leaving the judgment of the law to govern our behavior and consuming, rather, redemption because the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death!
Romans 8 is about making decisions to consume God’s grace through redemption, and growing our new inward man into our Lord Jesus being filled with His glory and agape love!
“Now unto him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the work of the power within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
“By this is love perfected with us … as he is so also are we in this world.”