After meditating on chapter eight of Romans there are several things that can be observed from this chapter. For this discussion I did what Whitney explained as lingering. His explanation of someone coming in from the cold and just walking by the fire was an excellent illustration. I have heard a lot of people say that they can't remember the Word and I have found what Whitney stated to be true in their lives and my own devotional life. He wrote, "The failure to linger is the reason why many fail to remember or find their hearts warmed by the fire of God's Word." (1) For this assignment I took "chunks" of Romans 8 each day and let it kindle my heart until it blazed inside. Foster said, "Meditation is the one thing that can sufficiently redirect our lives so that we can deal with human life successfully." (2) Meditating on Romans 8 can definitely do just that; help us deal with human life more sufficiently.
There are 39 verses in Romans Eight and each verse could have several observations that can be written about. A creative minister or teacher of the Word could easily do a lengthy sermon or teaching series on this particular chapter. There is a lot of meat in this chapter for the Christian. This chapter has a lot to say about the Christian life. To understand what Paul is stating in chapter eight it is best to understand chapter seven first. To sum up chapter seven in two would to use the two docrtinal words justification and sanctification. To be justified before the Lord because of what Christ did is to have peace, but that inner peace grows as believers go further in the sanctification process.
With that understanding here are the observations found in chapter eight:
1. Christ's triumph on the cross brings no condemnation to those who are in Christ (verse one).
2. Those who are in Christ must walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh (verse one).
3. The Law of the Spirit (which is different than the Law written on stone tablets) makes Christians free from bondage (verse two).
4. Though the Law is good it still could not bring freedom because it was weak in the flesh (verse three).
5. Paul revisited John 3:16 by stating that God sent His Son (verse three).
6. Not only did God send His Son, He sent Christ in our likeness (verse three).
7. Christ was an example by defeating sin in His life and on the cross (verse three).
8. The Law can be fulfilled in Christians however, they must walk in the Spirit (verse four).
9. Those who are still carnal, that is walk in the flesh, desire the things of the flesh which is the things of this world (verse five).
10 Those who truly desire to be more Christ-like walk in the Spirit; not in the flesh (verse five).
11. It is a hard truth, but those who walk in the flesh are carnally minded and only have the expectation of death which is spirital death (verse six).
12. Life, eternal life, comes to those who walk after the Spirit (verse six).
13. The person that walks after the flesh, those who are carnally minded, is hostile toward God (verse seven).
14. There is no way that a mind that desires things of the flesh can be right with God (verse seven).
15. While the person that is carnally minded cannot be right with God, that person cannot please God (verse eight).
16. Paul encourages those that are Christians that they are not in the flesh (verse nine).
17. Along with that encouragement Paul goes on to encourage Christians to allow the Spirit of God in (verse nine).
18. Paul goes on to say that those that are carnally minded and do not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Him (verse nine).
19. Due to sin the body is dead (verse ten).
20. Those who are in Christ and have the Spirit have life, that is eternal life (verse ten).
21. The life that Paul speaks of is now in the soul, not the outer body which will decay (verse ten).
22. The life that is given by Christ is only due to the inherited righteousness (verse ten).
*** At this point I will speed things up just a bit***
23. Those who walk in the Spirit have the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will bring life (verse eleven).
24. Christians then, owe Christ because of the righteousness that God granted through Christ (verse twelve).
25. Christians are sons of God because they walk in the Spirit (verse fourteen).
26. Christians do not have to live life in fear especially fear of death because they have been adopted into a new Kingdom (verse 15).
27. Christians are heirs of the Kingdom of God because of this new life (verse seventeen).
28. Christians, those who walk in the Spirit, will suffer in this life as Christ did and will also be glorified with Him (verse seventeen).
29. There is no comparison between worldly suffering to the coming glory that will be revealed to us (verse eighteen).
30. Not only the Christian, but all of creation, the whole frame of nature, eagerly awaits for the coming of Christ (verse nineteen).
31. All of creation was made subject to sin, but there is hope (verse twenty).
32. Since creation has also been subject to sin and bondage it will also be delivered from bondage when Christ returns (verse twenty-one).
33. Christians receive salvation of hope and hope cannot be something that is seen, but something that is unseen and earnestly waited upon (verses twenty-four and twenty-five).
34. The Christian not only helps Christians with the victory over sin, but the Spirit also makes intercession for them (verse twenty-six).
35. God searches the heart and knows what is on the heart of every soul. He receives the intercession of the Spirit and His saints (verse twenty-seven).
36. The famous verse of, "All things work together for good to them that love God" (twenty-eight).
37. Not against the Christians will, but the Omniscient God knew before hand elected them, called them, and justified them because of Christ will be glorified along with Christ (verses twenty-nine and thirty).
38. Christians will be pardoned on the day of Judgement because He is for us because of the work His Son did on the cross. there is no condemnation for Christians. (The meaning of the phrase, "freely give us all things," is eternal life (verses thirty-one through thirty-four).
39. Paul finalizes this chapter by asking who or what could ever separate Christians from the love of Christ or God (verse thirty-five).
40. Finally, there is nothing in creation from death to anything created can separate Christians from the love of Christ and God (verses thirty-eight and thirty-nine).
1. As mentioned earlier this chapter can be a very lengthy sermon series and to sum up what Christians should believe about God from reading this chapter can also be another sermon series on it's own. However, to sum it all up Christians should believe that God is an Omniscient God who knows all things, has predestined them to be an heir of His Kingdom, and all of this is possible because He loved us so much that He sent His One and Only Son as a perfect sacrifice for them.
2. Again, could also be a lengthy sermon series, but from this chapter the Holy Spirit works in the Christians life by regenerating them and also intercedes for them before God.
References:
1. Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, (Colorado Springs, Colorado: NavPress, 2014), 49.
2. Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, (New York, New York: Harper Collins, 1998), 22.
