University Avenue Church of Christ

UA-NT-10 Essay on Romans 5-8

Written by Eddie Sharp Monday, 01 March 2010

These four chapters are often referred to as the heart of Romans. I am not sure that I can ask you to do anything more than let these words wash over you. Nothing exceeds the wonder of what Jesus did in dying for us while we were in sin. The love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The new Adam by his act of obedience has undone what the original Adam did by his disobedience. In Christ, God has fulfilled his commitment that grace would always be greater than sin.

Paul argues that the presence of God’s grace does not muffle God’s call for holy life. In baptism, believers are born again as they join Christ in his death and resurrection. Christians avoid sin because their old lives have died to sin and their new lives are focused on life in God.

Each one, buried and raised with Christ, becomes a slave of righteousness. As a slave of righteousness, the Christian seeks to obey God.

In chapter 7, Paul says that yet another reason Christians try to avoid the life of sin is that they are in a love relationship with Jesus. Paul writes about the struggle that everyone knows. The struggle for consistent, faithful living dogs everyone. The only hope for overcoming the inconsistency of our human heart is to commit ourselves completely to Jesus Christ.

Chapter 8 opens with the declaration that, even with all our struggles with the flesh, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Life in the Spirit replaces life ruled by laws of sin and death. We want to put sin out of our lives because we want to live according to the Spirit and not according to the sinful nature. With the help of the Spirit, we can put to death the misdeeds of the flesh. Our lives can be different.

The Holy Spirit is the sign of our adoption as children of God. Because of our adoption, we have God as our loving Father. With that adoption into the family comes a reminder that the family business is sacrifice, service, suffering and salvation.

With our adoption into the family of God come several assurances. We are assured that the physical world is at work in the work of salvation. We are assured that in the midst of whatever troubles we might experience, the Holy Spirit is anchored in our hearts, praying the prayers for which we have no words. We are assured that God is at work in all things, working for the good of those who have as their highest goal being conformed to the likeness of the Son. We are assured that nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.