romans 8:20 commentary

January 17, 2023. The Christian is involved in the human situation. ", No age in time can separate us from Christ. The adopting father went to the praetor, one of the Roman magistrates, and presented a legal case for the transference of the person to be adopted into his patria potestas. 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. Paul's basic thought is that the Christian is indissolubly one with Christ. The Gentiles the despised heathen were to be brought in; the self-satisfied Jews are left behind, justly and beyond question, if they believed the law and the prophets. This is a textual problem in the Greek manuscripts - some manuscripts have 'me', some 'you'. 21). subjected -- The word subject to means placed in such a state; subjected to it by the appointment of another, as a soldier has his rank and place assigned him in an army. 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. He is dead." Was it possible to limit this to Israel? There was an angel of the winds, of the clouds, of the snow and hail and hoarfrost. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The created world awaits with eager expectation the day when those who are the sons of God will be displayed in all their glory. was true, accordingly, before the law, right through the law, and ever since the law. In one scale he puts the sufferings of this present time. The state of the church in this world always is, but was then especially, an afflicted state; to be a Christian was certainly to be a sufferer. 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. Oratio: United with Him in Resurrection. When believers prayers are unable to express their deepest thoughts and feelings, the indwelling Spirit pleads to God on their behalf. If children, then heirs,Romans 8:17; Romans 8:17. 15), "because we are not under the law, but under grace?" Not only man, but all of creation is groaning under the curse of sin. Subject to vanity - The word subject to means placed in such a state; subjected to it by the appointment of another, as a soldier has his rank and place assigned him in an army. Thus the introduction opened with Christ's person, and closes with God's righteousness. All Sermons Bible Studies Devotionals Prayers. For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" ( John 4:23 ). [The mind of the flesh, or] the carnal mind is death ( Romans 8:6 ); That is, spiritual death, which biblically would be interpreted as separation of man's consciousness from God. Children will dream. For, let us recur to the origin of Gentilism, the confusion of languages, by reason of the attempt to build the tower of Babel; and though there are some passages in the gloss of the Targumists upon this matter that are sufficiently ridiculous, yet as to their scope and design they are worthy of notice. Live with Rachel Mellema. He draws a great picture. For you did not receive a state whose dominating condition is slavery so that you might relapse into fear; but you received a state whose dominating characteristic is adoption, in which we cry, "Abba! So therefore it addressed itself to the obedience of faith; not by this meaning practice, still less according to the measure of a man's duty, but that which is at the root of all practice faith-obedience obedience of heart and will, renewed by divine grace, which accepts the truth of God. It could not happen to me unless God did allow it to happen to me, and God loves me and is working out what is best for me. If we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him. Wait a minute. The gospel, as now revealed in the New Testament, has linked with it, though not contained in it, the revelation of divine wrath from heaven, and this, you will observe, according to Paul's gospel. And if it be objected, What use will they be of to glorified saints? But he introduces all parts of the world, by a sort of personification, as being endued with reason; and he does this in order to shame our stupidity, when the uncertain fluctuation of this world, which we see, does not raise our minds to higher things. But when he came to the realization that the law was spiritual, then he realized that the law actually condemned him to death because, though he had physically kept the law, spiritually he had violated it. They weren't quite sure though. Hereupon he enters upon the direct proofs, and first cites Hosea as a witness. The spirit is groaning, waiting for that perfect work of God. Or, We groan among ourselves. . Next, he enters upon another branch of the truth the Spirit not as a condition contrasted with flesh (these two, as we know, being always contrasted in Scripture), but as a power, a divine person that dwells in and bears His witness to the believer. And now it is falling out of escrow and oh God, what are we going to do now? Because that is where the mind of natural man is, because the body is in control, what he is thinking about constantly are those body needs, the body drives.But when a man is born again by the Spirit of God and the spirit, then, is in control in his life, that man, then, is concerned with spiritual things and he is going to be talking about God, his relationship, the work of God within his heart, the work of God, spirit, how to please the Lord, how to serve the Lord. Paul speaks about height and depth. The most cursory reading of Paul's letters will show how often he uses the word, and how he uses it in a sense that is all his own. Because God created a way to save humanity, both man and creation itself have hope. Will usually post within 20 business days of receiving cleared payment. Sanday and Headlam add: Vanity is the refrain of the Book of Ecclesiastes that is without result, ineffective, which does not reach its endthe opposite of complete or perfect. One such casualty of Paul's oversight was the stoning of . Who will separate us from the love of Christ? They should not at all deter and frighten us from the diligent and earnest pursuit of that glory. And here it may be repeated that it is no question of pardoning the sinner, but of condemning the fallen nature; and this so as to give the soul both power and a righteous immunity from all internal anguish about it. Hence the depravity of the heathen found little or no cheek from conscience, because it was bound up with all that took the shape of God before their mind. 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. He foreknew me, and then predestined that I should be conformed to the image of his Son, that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren. In different people that life will be differently described. The expression means that righteousness which God can afford to display because of Christ's atonement. But if children, we are His heirs. To Him be the glory forever! Having shown first, then, the sources and the character of the blessing in general as far as regards deliverance, the apostle sums up the result in the end of the chapter: "That as sin hath reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life," the point being justification of life now through Jesus Christ our Lord. Did they venture to plead that it must be not only the same father, but the same mother? The application of this was more evident to the Gentile than to the Jew. And God knows the mind of the Spirit (26-27). This doctrine of the manifestation of the sons of God is sort of a heavy kind of a doctrine. Who then can condemn us) The answer is that the Judge of all men is Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. Conscious deliverance, to be solid according to God, must be in the line of His truth. 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 ourselves which have the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves as we wait for this work of God. That final adoption will be the redemption of their bodies. Because of sin, there were massive changes in nature. . God created man with this emptiness so that man would seek after God to find that fulfillment and meaning for life. There the truth is held, and apparently with firmness too. (1-5) The promises are made good to the spiritual seed of Abraham. As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter ( Romans 8:35-36 ). Moreover, He gave up the knowledge of God that had been handed down from father to son (ver. I think that the second way of taking this is right. This great chapter is, in a sense, the heart of Romans, being a shout of victory contrasting with the wail of despair which closed the seventh, the transition from the bleak and depressing condition of the unregenerated there, to the enthusiastic and joyful optimism of the eighth, being signaled by the adverb "now." He can meet the sinner, but He justifies the believer; and in this, instead of trenching on His glory, there is a deeper revelation and maintenance of it than if there never had been sin or a sinner. Let man be what he might, or where he might, God's good news was for man. The ancient world was haunted by the tyranny of the stars. In the most binding legal way, he got a new father. 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. There are two very obvious reasons why we cannot pray as we ought. I will read the Bible every day. Did they deny that they were a foolish nation? Jesus said, "Woman, the day is coming, and now is, when they that worship God neither worship in this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Here the word has the sense of perishability (Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 3:423). God's unseen guiding is in our lives, but to the end of the day we can refuse it and take our own way. He says that Jesus is the son of David kata ( G2596) sarka ( G4561) ( Romans 1:3), that is to say, on the human side of his descent. God is proved thus divinely consistent with Himself in Christ Jesus, whom He has set forth a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. Of whom does it declare all this? The more a Christian thinks of his experience the more he becomes convinced that he had nothing to do with it and all is of God. As Paul saw it, prayer, like everything else, is of God. But this is not all; and the objection of the Jew gives occasion for the apostle to bring out a fuller display of what God is. The next question, actually, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? It is God Himself who, infinitely glorified in the Lord that expiated our sins by His one sacrifice, remits them now, not looking for our victory, nor as yet even in leading us on to victory, but by faith in Jesus and His blood. The rest of the chapter (7-25) is an instructive episode, in which the impotence and the misery of the renewed mind which attempts practice under law are fully argued out, till deliverance (not pardon) is found in Christ. And this leads the apostle into the moral history of man the proof both of his inexcusable guilt, and of his extreme need of redemption. The life that is dominated by the desires and activities of sinful human nature is on the way to death. We are aliens because we live an entirely different lifestyle as we live after the Spirit. Then, in Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36, the apostle handles a difficulty serious to any mind, especially to the Jew, who might readily feel that all this display of grace in Christ to the Gentile as much as to the Jew by the gospel seems to make very cheap the distinctive place of Israel as given of 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). Would that the Lord would give us hearts to remember, as well as eyes to see, according to His own grace! The Stoic believed that this world was permeated with that logos ( G3056) . "Behold I create new heavens and a new earth" ( Isaiah 65:17). The stumbling-stone was their despised and rejected Messiah. In Romans 7:1-25 we have the subject of the law discussed for practice as well as in principle, and there again meet with the same weapon of tried and unfailing temper. Romans speaks to Christians today just as powerfully as it did in the first century. The gospel, instead of treating this as a light matter, alone vindicates God in these eternal ways of His, in that which must be in him who stands in relationship with God. My life is being ruled by the spirit, thus I am being led by the Spirit and in that I have then this joined together with God in the spirit as His Spirit is bearing witness with my spirit. He shows that, on the responsible ground of being His nation, they were wholly ruined. He was God over all blessed for ever, as well as their Messiah. Romans 12:1 - Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to pre-sent your bodies a living and holy sacrice,. Law works wrath because it provokes transgression; grace makes the promise sure to all the seed, not only because faith is open to the Gentile and Jew alike, but because God is looked to as a quickener of the dead. How can I really know that I am a son of God? "The law is weak to us, because we are weak to it: the sun cannot give light to blind eye, not from any impotency in itself, but merely from the incapacity of the subject it shines upon." (Poole) c. In that it was weak through the flesh: The law is weak because it speaks to our flesh. But you are wrong; he is not there to be our prosecuting counsel but to be the advocate to plead our cause.". That is, it is not merely pardon of past sins, but deliverance from sin, and in due time from all its consequences. Romans 9:1-33. No apostle had ever yet visited Rome. Paul used figurative language to clarify and emphasize his point. Even as God pronounced the sentence upon Adam and all mankind, He gave humanity hope and the first prophecy of the coming Messiah in His rebuke of Satan: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15 NKJV). We have reason to pity the poor creatures that for our sin have become subject to vanity. As a Christian we will experience suffering, because in reality we have become an alien in the world in which we live. Verse 21 may be correlated with the references previously given (Revelation 21:1-27; Revelation 22:1-21 and Acts 3:1-26). What glory so rich as that of the Christ Himself duly appreciated? Romans 8:1-39 displays this comforting truth in its fulness. We did not achieve that; all is of God. This was the key to their difficulties this alone, and fully explains their coming ruin as well as God's solemn warnings. Heirs of God. In him mankind brought to God the perfect obedience, just as in Adam mankind brought to God the fatal disobedience. But for the time it is held fast, though in unrighteousness. Then the domains of flesh and Spirit are brought before us: the one characterized by sin and death practically now; the other by life, righteousness, and peace, which is, as we saw, to be crowned finally by the resurrection of these bodies of ours. Think of the Christian experience. The earth, or, at least, the Jewish nation, had been familiar with such dealings of God in times past. Right now I am living in a tent, this body. The penalty of the past is removed and strength for his future is assured. He was the promised Messiah, born King of the Jews. We are often so hard on ourselves and are in the position of condemning ourselves, but I can tell you one who is not condemning. The one who really counts is not condemning me, because. The righteousness of God means that God is just, while at the same time He justifies the believer in Christ Jesus. Now if I am a child, I am an heir; I am an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together ( Romans 8:17 ). Hey, wait a minute. All the creatures desire their own perfection and consummation; when they are made instruments of sin it is not willingly. The Rabbis had a legend that when God appeared on Sinai to give Moses the law he was attended by his hosts of angels, and the angels grudged Israel the law, and assaulted Moses on his way up the mountain and would have stopped him had not God intervened. The truth is, those are altogether mistaken who call it so. In the creed the fourth is that Jesus will come to be the judge of the quick and the dead. Nor does this in the slightest degree weaken the principle of law. And this lies in the fact that Abraham believed God before he had the son, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able to perform. He would not therefore have them ignorant how they had lain on his heart for a visit (ver. I can say, "God, I bring John before you, oh, oh, oh . Moses saith, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people," etc. Thus, the true God being lost, all was lost, and man's downward career becomes the most painful and humiliating object, unless it be, indeed, that which we have to feel where men, without renewal of heart, espouse in pride of mind the truth with nothing but unrighteousness. might be truly said to be made subject thereunto, being under the Oh, how happy is the man to whom God does not impute iniquity. But then it will be complete, when the Captain of our salvation shall bring the many sons to glory, Hebrews 2:10. In Romans 14:1-23 and the beginning ofRomans 15:1-33; Romans 15:1-33 we have the delicate theme of Christian forbearance in its limits and largeness. "I knew you in the wilderness," said God to Hosea about the people of Israel ( Hosea 13:5). 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