We’ve spent the last two days in a very quick overview of Romans 1-7, setting up for our focus on Romans 8 next week. Despite the universal sinfulness of humanity, God has provided a way for us to be right with him – not by what we do, but by faith in Jesus, who became the sacrifice of atonement for our sin.
Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Yet we’re still left with the problem of how to live a life that pleases God, while we wait for the hope of God’s glory (5:2). We can’t just keep on sinning, now that we’ve died to sin. And the law has proven itself incapable of restraining our sinfulness – in some ways it’s incited sin all the more (chapter 7)! So God provided a new and better way:
Romans 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Chapter 8 explains what it means to “serve in the new way of the Spirit” as we live between-the-times. In preparation for next week, read all of chapter 8, and note down what it says about: (1) living by the Spirit; and (2) our future hope of sharing in God’s glory.
timmacbride.com 