Text: Romans 8:1-4, 37-29
When Adam and Eve listened to Satan and defied God by eating the forbidden fruit, they introduced sin into the Human Race. Because of that betrayal, every person born since then is born a sinner sentenced to eternal death. This began the spiritual battle between God and Satan. When we become Christians, the first thing we have to realize is that we become part of a spiritual battle. It’s a battle that’s unseen and unknown by the world because of the control of Satan. Paul teaches us in Romans 7 that these spiritual battles are constant for Christians and that because of them there will be times when we will feel that we want to give up. These battles are in the form of conflicts between the flesh – our human selves - and the Holy Spirit. But we can take comfort in the fact that we are in this battle with all believers. When we reach the point where we think we want to give up, all we need to do is look to our fellow Christians and especially the Holy Spirit to remind us of the victory and freedom that comes to all believers through the grace of God.
Our text is found in Romans 8:1-4, and 37-39 where Paul writes: “ (1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. (2) For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death. (3) For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; (4) that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. (38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) nor height, nor depth, nor another creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord..” Paul is showing the guarantees that every believer has because of the grace of God through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for our sin.
The first thing we see in verse one is that there’s no condemnation when we follow Jesus. This is the guaranteed victory of deliverance from our sin promised to us by Jesus Himself in John 3:17-18 when He told the Pharisee Nicodemus that God didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn the world. He sent Him to save the world. Anyone who believes in Him is no longer condemned; but all that don’t believe in Him are already condemned because they, like us were born that way and make the decision to not believe in Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God.
Many people try to protect themselves from their fears of being condemned by putting their faith in something they do or have such as good deeds, skill, intelligence, money, or possession. But the truth is that only God can save us from eternal condemnation - the one danger we really need to fear. We demonstrate our belief in God by recognizing the insufficiency of our own efforts to deserve salvation and asking Him to do His work in us. When Jesus talks about unbelievers, He means those who reject or ignore Him completely, not those who believe but have momentary doubts. Trust me, all Christians will and do experience momentary doubts. But very soon they come to their senses.
In Luke 18:10-14 Jesus uses the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican – aka tax collector. In Jesus’ day people went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee used his prayer time to announce to everyone within ear shot how good he was. But the tax collector went to pray recognizing his sin and begging for mercy and was he was saved by God’s grace. Self-righteousness is dangerous because it leads pride, causes a person to despise others, and prevents that person from learning anything from God. The tax collector’s prayer should be our prayer because we all need God’s mercy every day.
Paul shows us that the Galatians tried mixing the law and grace but soon found it ineffective. They learned the hard way that they were neither saved nor kept saved through the law. They couldn’t be justified in God’s eyes until they accepted Jesus as Lord and Master of their lives. Being justified means that God did the work of reconciliation for us through His mercy. As a result, we begin a new relationship with Him through Jesus. We’re forgiven for all our sins, become members of His family, and begin a lifelong transformation process. We can now stand in the presence of God freely, as though we have never sinned. This happens first through the willingness of Jesus to die and pay the penalty of our sin for us and second, through our faith when we place our full trust and confidence in Him as our Savior.
Our salvation is based on grace through faith as we learn in Ephesians 2:8-10. Think of it this way: when someone gives you a gift do you say: “That’s very nice, now how much do I owe you?” No of course you don’t. The appropriate response to a gift is a heartfelt “Thank you!” But too often Christians, even after they have been given the gift of salvation, feel obligated to try to work their way to God. Because our salvation and even our faith are gifts, we should respond with gratitude, praise, and joy. Afterall, we are God’s handiwork – His masterpiece. He works powerfully and creatively in each one of us using us as His canvas. If God considers us His masterpiece, we dare not treat ourselves or others with disrespect or as inferior.
Finally, our text reminds us that God’s grace guarantees that we will never be separated from God. Paul asks the question, ‘who can separate us from the love of Christ?’ Consider the things we experience in life: hard times, distress, persecution, lack of food, losses, sickness and oh so many more too numerous to list. But we see in verses thirty-seven through thirty-nine of our text that we can conquer all the terrible things this life throws at us because we have the love of our Savior Jesus Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit for all our earthy life and can joyfully look forward to the time when we will see Him face to face.
If you’re feeling lost and haven’t asked Jesus into your life don’t wait any longer. He’s waiting for your invitation. Every one who fully accepts Him is resting in the guarantees of grace as members of God’s family. If you have accepted His invitation, don’t keep it to yourself. Invite others to share the love and blessings you receive every day by trusting in Jesus and best of all, believers receive His gift of salvation for all eternity.
Until we meet again, may God bless you and keep you, may He shine His light on you, show you grace, and give you peace in all the days ahead.