romans 8:20 commentarylynn borden cause of death
Even where the law was, not by it but by faith the just lived. 8:18-25 For I am convinced that the sufferings of this present age cannot be compared with the glory which is destined to be disclosed to us. Because they look around and they say, "Will you look at that baboon over there? So God foreknew me. Such is the doctrine and the fact. ( Romans 8:24 ). Paul has the very same thought. We frankly confess it. Pythagoras forbade his disciples to pray for themselves, because, he said, they could never in their ignorance know what was expedient for them. If a man loves and trusts and accepts God, if he is convinced that God is the all-wise and all-loving Father, then he can humbly accept all that he sends to him. The threads are beginning to get a little old, rip a lot easier. No longer does the question exist of requiring an expiation. Thus the introduction opened with Christ's person, and closes with God's righteousness. Romans 8:20 Parallel Verses. We accordingly are dead, says he, to the law; not (as no doubt almost all of us know) that the law dies, but that we are dead to the law in the death of Christ. Those who live according to the dictates of the Spirit are absorbed in the things of the Spirit. So Paul goes on to think of human longing. Communism is saying just the opposite, man ought to be more concerned with the material realm than the spiritual realm, so the conflict between man and God. If Christ had to suffer, we also inherit that suffering; but if Christ was raised to life and glory, we also inherit that life and glory. You know things start going wrong, "Oh, I need to talk to someone," you know. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Because of that, to Paul life was not a despairing waiting for an inevitable end in a world encompassed by sin and death and decay; life was an eager anticipation of a liberation, a renovation and a recreation wrought by the glory and the power of God. The one who really counts is not condemning me, because. In the experience of the Holy Spirit men had a foretaste, a first instalment, of the glory that shall be; now they long with all their hearts for the full realization of what adoption into the family of God means. What is it we are thus desiring and waiting for? "But unto Israel he saith, All day long have I stretched out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.". There is nothing like the grace of God for producing the truest humility, the humility that not only descends to the lowest level of sinners to do them good, but which is itself the fruit of deliverance from that self-love which puffs itself or lowers others. Under the bondage of corruption,Romans 8:21; Romans 8:21. There is no hope for man otherwise; for the gospel is not all that is now made known. They weren't quite sure though. Colonial style, surrounded by beautiful gardens. 8:2 (a) NAS "t he law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" is much more literal than the NIV rendering. They are merely persons who plume themselves on their orthodoxy, but in a wholly unrenewed condition. I groan often when I see the conditions and needs of people around me, because often I don't know how to pray. Rome was the center of civilization at the time of Paul's epistle. Were it merely Romans 3:1-31 there could not be full peace with God as there is. (b) In the Old Testament, it always has the idea of something that is more than human. Height (hupsoma, G5313) was the time when a star was at its zenith and its influence was greatest; depth (bathos, G899) was the time when a star was at its lowest, waiting to rise and to put its influence on some man. Luke 6:15-16 calls two other apostles (James and Judas) the sons of Alphaeus also. "Let's make a woman in order that man might be complete." or who hath been his counsellor? My love for Him, my desires to please and serve Him. Hence, what he is here discussing is not remission of sins, but deliverance from sin. He really means human nature in all its weakness and he means human in its vulnerability to sin. With a touch of imaginative insight, he says that the state of nature was even worse than the state of men. Not only is God's righteousness revealed, but also His wrath. "[39] However, Locke's interpretation fails to give proper weight to Adam's responsibility. The Old Testament speaks of it without elaboration and without detail. Nothing can separate you from that love of God which is in Christ Jesus. To man this is the hardest of all obedience; but when once secured, it leads peacefully into the obedience of every day. But though we know not all the reasons why they are continued here in this state of vanity, we can see some of them: In hope - See the note at Romans 5:4. As he breathes in the air and the air fills him, so Christ fills him. 8:1 The Greek emphasizes the word "no.". Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified ( Romans 8:30 ). Paul was no pessimist. The Emperor Claudius adopted Nero in order that he might succeed him on the throne; they were not in any sense blood relations. This is called the adoption. But by reason - By him dia. No man can tell. This is what made the gospel to be so sweet and precious, and, what is more, absolutely necessary, if he would escape certain and eternal ruin. Romans 8:26-27 form one of the most important passages on prayer in the whole New Testament. Clearly, then, such ground is untenable. In both parts, as it may be observed, the door is opened to the Gentile. It was meant to make sin exceeding sinful. Once we were in the absolute control of our own sinful human nature; but God, in his mercy, has brought us into his absolute possession. I understand that God loves me. I shall live in that kingdom, the kingdom of light, and love, joy and peace, an heir of God, joint-heir with Jesus Christ.Then Paul said. The sense of the apostle in these four verses we may take in the following observations:-- (1.) For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God." If I am ruled by my body I have the mind of the body which is death, spiritual death. The first is Moses himself. And what is the world compared with God? The doctrine of faith therefore, which reposes on the cross, establishes law, instead of making it void, as every other principle must (verses 27-31). Even as you have all had a fleshly birth, we are here, it is just as necessary that you have a spiritual birth, for man by nature is alienated from God. . Two words keep occurring again and again in this chapter, flesh (sarx, G4561) and spirit (pneuma, G4151) . No matter how old he was, he was still under the patria potestas, in the absolute possession and under the absolute control, of his father. The third included angels and archangels and principalities. It is the experience of life for the Christian that all things do work together for good. But then he went on to declare. Abraham is the proof of the value of faith in justification before God. What glory so rich as that of the Christ Himself duly appreciated? No wonder, if souls confound the two things together, that they never know deliverance in practice. And this yoke (poor creatures) they bear in hope that it will not be so always. Of course, it could hardly be the law: that was the boast of Israel. This was not suitable to the character of the epistle; but the glory of God he does. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Because the carnal mind [or the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God ( Romans 8:7 ): It is opposed to God, because God has declared that the spirit is superior to the material. It is the adoption perfected and completed. More than once Paul speaks of these angels ( Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:10; Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:24). but I have received the Spirit [of sonship,] adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ( Romans 8:15 ). Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. And you are going through the hospital and emptying them all, and the whole world is just waiting for you to be manifested and so the idea is to, "Let's just sit and get perfected and get the church perfected so that God can manifest Himself in the perfected church," and this is in reality the second coming of Jesus Christ. He speaks with a poet's vision. He says that the mind of the flesh is death, and that it is hostile to God ( Romans 8:6; Romans 8:8). And as that little remnant is ever sustained by the grace of God, it is the standing pledge of their final blessedness through His mercy, whereon the apostle breaks out into raptures of thanksgiving to God. Besides this, which seems to be a most comprehensive expression for embracing every sort and degree of human iniquity, we have one very specifically named. For the truth is that God has in Christ condemned sin, and this for sin definitely; so that He has nothing more to do in condemnation of that root of evil. Why? The day hastens when the Redeemer shall come to Zion. The word is therefore appropriately used of the disappointing character of present existence, which nowhere reaches the perfection of which it is capable (208). . If that is so, we become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, God's own Son. What about His word passed and sworn to the fathers? They should not at all deter and frighten us from the diligent and earnest pursuit of that glory. Plants, animals, rocks, and dirt cannot in any sense yearn in hope. What baptism sets forth is more than that, and is justly found, not in Romans 3:1-31, but inRomans 6:1-23; Romans 6:1-23. But this does not content the apostle, or rather the Spirit of God; for he goes on to point out that Isaiah "is very bold" in a similar way; that is, there is no concealing the truth of the matter. Be it so then; it was a foolish nation by which Moses declared they should be angered. Then you really aren't a part of God or His kingdom. They were inclined to vanity, i.e. The same idea that he is presenting here is presented there in II Corinthians 5 , of that groaning earnestly, desiring to be free from this body that is limited and restricted and often seeks to bring me into bondage, the bondage of corruption.So we ourselves groan, we who are in these bodies do often groan earnestly desiring to be delivered. The connection is fully owned with that which had been from God of old. Not so Paul. It is quite clear, especially from the last instance, that Paul is not using flesh simply in the sense of the body, as we say flesh and blood. Or is mindful of fleshly things, or body needs. There is then the solemn truth also of divine wrath. The apostle has come now to the nature. Abraham believed God when, according to nature, it was impossible for him or for Sarah to have a child. He was inalienably co-heir with them. Because I will be led by the Spirit of God. Thereby is identification with His death. All the creatures desire their own perfection and consummation; when they are made instruments of sin it is not willingly. Upon what ground? It is foolish to fight God, because you're fighting against the very best for your own life.The next question, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Through the new birth there is an inversion, and man becomes then spirit, soul, and body. For if you live after the flesh, you are going to die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, then you shall live ( Romans 8:12-13 ). I think that all of us have experienced that very same struggle. It is eternal. The vision of God and the fruition of God make up the inheritance the saints are heirs to. Did the Jews take the ground of exclusively having that word of God the law? Their crowning glory was precisely what they would not hear of. If he struggled against them, he was uselessly battering his head against the ineluctable purpose of God. And so God speaks, and this is what thrills me, He speaks of my being glorified, because God knows He is going to do it. But, when he became a Christian, into his life there came the surging power of the Spirit of God, and, as a result, he entered into victorious living. He is the one who has the right to condemn--but so far from condemning, he is at God's right hand interceding for us, and therefore we are safe. The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. In Romans 8:19 he uses a wonderful word for eager expectation. Such men have never been wanting since the truth has shone on this world; still less are they now. Not so, says the apostle. In the most solemn way he appeals to man with the demand, whether he thinks that God will look complacently on that which barely judges another, but which allows the practice of evil in the man himself (Romans 2:1-3). Roman history provides an outstanding case of how completely this was held to be true. But to have to see your child suffer . It would not have been righteous in any sense to have remitted the sins, until they were actually borne by One who could and did suffer for them. We saw how the Jewish conception of solidarity made it possible for him to argue that, quite literally, all men were involved in Adam's sin and in its consequence--death. The next question, actually, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Our way is rough and long; but he that shall come will come, and will not tarry; and therefore, though he seem to tarry, it becomes us to wait for him. It is that body consciousness, and you talk to the average person apart from Jesus Christ and they are going to be talking to you about things that relate to the body. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Did they fall back on Abraham? but contrary to it. This word has a very definite Old Testament background. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope. 14, 15). Paul speaks of things present and things to come. . You have got a sizeable deposit that is in escrow and, boy, my commission on this is going to be about $35,000 and all right. God did it judicially; he passed a sentence upon the creatures for the sin of man, by which they became subject. What was it? Now likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses: for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself will make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ( Romans 8:25-26 ). On the contrary, the doctrine of faith establishes law as nothing else can; and for this simple reason, that if one who is guilty hopes to be saved spite of the broken law, it must be at the expense of the law that condemns his guilt; whereas the gospel shows no sparing of sin, but the most complete condemnation of it all, as charged on Him who shed His blood in atonement. Then there is another and crowning part of the blessing: "And not only so, but also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. Adam did it meritoriously; the creatures being delivered to him, when he by sin delivered himself he delivered them likewise into the bondage of corruption. Increase of privileges can never avail without the soul's self-judgment before the mercy of God. I have rested in this verse over and over and over again. Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible Romans 8. . He is interceding in your behalf. 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