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Pastor's Blog May 20, 2021
"View of God in Romans XI"
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Last week, we discovered that we have victory from sin through our Lord Jesus Christ: that because Jesus is the Victor, he makes us victors as well! But we were left with the question of HOW we have the victory from sin through our Lord Jesus. In Romans 8:3, we are shown the answer - and it's an amazing answer! Romans 8:1 states explicitly that there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus. It's almost a complete echo of Romans 5:1, which says that we are justified by faith and have peace with God through Jesus. And Romans 8:2 claims the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.
How can Paul make either of these two claims, which appear to further explain the theme of our victory in Jesus as expressed in Romans 7:25? The answer is given in the next two verses: "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4, NASB).
According to these verses, God's law was and is unable to give us obedience, victory over sin, or freedom from sin and death. And the reason for the law's inability is not due to a defect in God's law, but to our own sinfulness. We are sinners who naturally avoid following God's way; the law only has the power to point out God's ways, and it has absolutely no power to reclaim us from departing from God's ways! But here is where God shows us how we have victory and obedience: God sent Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh - a phrase that means Jesus is human like us but not a sinner like us - so that, as God incarnate, Jesus' human life and death are a condemnation of sin and the way in which we are made obedient and victorious over sin!
Friends, behold how God demonstrates his love for us by sending Jesus to make us holy and give us the victory! Since Jesus has already dealt with our sin, let us respond to what he's doing in our lives to make us victorious and obedient!
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
