We have been looking at Romans 8 the past few days and it is as rich a passage as a chocolate fudge brownie is sweet. You can almost picture the apostle Paul in front of a gathering of believers and seekers speaking with sureness and gesturing to the crowd and towards heaven as he made the case for faith.
We have seen that the universal problem of man stems from our "sin nature". The Lord squarely addressed this problem by sending His Son to show that there was one born of flesh who would have personal victory over sin during His life and would absolutely conquer sin for all who would trust His sacrifice on the Cross.
We are free from sin's reign immediately upon accepting Christ into our hearts, but we are not free from the resident presence of our sin nature. We'll wrestle with that nature for the rest of our days and we've seen that we can win the wrestling match when we set our minds on The Lord. We also can set our hope on the sure promises of Heaven.
Chapter 8 tells us that a time is coming that Creation has awaited since the beginning... when the 'sons of God will be revealed (verse 19)'. I believe that we, who have trusted in Christ, are the sons of God referred to. Just as we have tasted salvation so all of Creation will eventually be set free. This world has been groaning and creaking with corruption for a long time. Romans 8 compares those pains to birth pangs. One day we will live in true freedom and we will be wrapped in the perfect Creation God has had in mind all along.
So we have a great future and we also have a great present, as verse 23 tells us. We are enjoying the first fruits of the Spirit now and are encouraged to persevere until our Hope is fulfilled.
We'll conclude tomorrow with more reasons for great confidence!
blessings (with apologies for wordiness...just felt I had to do this),
Rob Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment