Finally... :D

My dear friends,

After much prompting, I have finally decided to post on here more regularly. Yes, it took me long enough, I know. :D Thank you for your patience and gentle persistence!

I am going to be posting excerpts from a paper I wrote on Romans 8 during Advanced Excel last year. I pray you will be blessed and encouraged by reading them. God's blessings on your week and your walk with Him!

Sarah

Operation SUCCESS!

Romans Chapter Eight

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Classified Material

Code Name:
Operation SUCCESS!
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Sarah Poss
June 12th, 2009
Advanced EXCEL

Introduction

God, in His wisdom, knew that the people He had created would reject His plan for them and revolt, going their own way. In His Sovereignty, God designed His plan of salvation before time and made it the only means by which the peoples’ disobedience could be atoned for, to reveal to them their absolute need and dependence on Him. In order to redeem them from the bondage that they had foolishly chosen for themselves, the King of Kings sent His One and Only Son to pay the penalty for their sin.

Romans chapter eight looks in depth at certain points of the battle plan that God used to recover the His precious possession, mankind, from His enemy Satan, enabling us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. God has ransomed us from bondage and death and brought us into the freedom of His life. As we learn more about God’s character by studying what He says in His Word, we will be able to become more like His Son.


Operation: Liberation – Romans 8:1-5

“1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For 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: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

The word walk in verses one and four includes the idea of regulating one’s life and conduct.[1] Christians should regulate their conduct according to the Holy Spirit’s direction, instead of by their fleshly desires. Free, in verse two, describes deliverance and being set at liberty.[2] The law of the Spirit of life brings freedom because of what Christ did on the cross for us. Christ’s atonement for the sin of mankind liberated us from the destruction that would have been the result of our disobedience.

In Romans chapter eight, the word translated flesh is the Greek word sarx (sarx) meaning “the soft substance of the living body, which covers the bones and is permeated with blood” and also “the earthly nature of man apart from Divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God.”[3] When Christ came into the world in the likeness of sinful flesh to pay the penalty for our sin, He had the same sarx (sarx) and ability to sin that the first man Adam did.

The beauty behind this is that Christ was not only fully God, but also fully human, with every capability to commit sin. In spite of this, He honored His Father and remained sinless. Because of His sacrificial love, we are released from the bondage of sin and are able to regulate our lives by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

One appropriate definition for condemned in verse three is “by one's good example to render another's wickedness the more evident and censurable.”[4] God, in His mercy for sinful man, sent His only begotten Son, a sinless spotless example, to the earth, and by so doing, brought evil more sharply into the light of His truth. By condemning sin, Christ enabled the righteousness of the law to be made clear to us.

[1] Walk - Strong’s reference number 4043.
[2] Free - Strong’s reference number 1659.
[3] Flesh - Strong’s reference number 4562.
[4] Condemned - Strong’s reference number 2632.