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• LESSON 13 (July 13) *Romans 8:1-17 “Led by the Spirit of Life” Romans 7:4 was a significant bit of God-shaped news in our understanding of what our Savior is doing to “bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (1:5). Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. In Romans 6, Paul made clear the fact that if we belong to Christ, our foolish relationship with sin must change. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (6:9-11) Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we who have been justified by faith “have peace with God” (5:1). All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but all can be justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (3:23). Having methodically developed in Romans 1-7 the means of our justification in Jesus, the Spirit of God leads Paul in Romans 8 to new heights as the glory of the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages is now summarized. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (8:1) Why? On what basis?For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. (8:2-3a)Where has the breakdown occurred? The law was not weak in its God-defined purpose; people were weak in that they failed to abide by and fulfill their Creator’s expectations. Law is only a source of deliverance to those who flawlessly obey it. Once violated, law provides no way of escape. Quite to the contrary, it demands accountability and punishment. But God has intervened. He had promised,“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…” (Heb 8:8)One of the hallmarks of this new covenant would be:“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Heb 8:12)Meditate on this further explanation:For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Heb 10:1-4)Sin has been committed and the law demands justice, but God has done what the law could not do.He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col 1:13-14) Consider where we have been led by Paul throughout this letter: • Rom 1: Gentiles are guilty. • Rom 2: Jews are guilty. • Rom 3: None is righteous, not one. • Rom 4: Justification depends on faith. • Rom 5: Grace can reign through Jesus. • Rom 6: How can we who died to sin still live in it? • Rom 7: We have been released from the law that we may serve in the way of the Spirit. In your own words, what does Paul mean when he affirms that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ? In what way was the law “weakened by the flesh”? How would you summarize some of the most significant differences between the old covenant and the new covenant? Why was it impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins