If you want a chapter of the Bible chalked full of power, Romans 8 is your destination. Candidly, though, I never really "got" chapter 8. I could understand the wrestling of chapters 6 and 7—how I do what I don't want to do no matter how hard I try—but chapter eight never seemed to spell out what I needed to do. 

You know, I need the formula in life, friends. Clear, concise steps and checklists on free living. I do better with direct, third-grade-level logic. That is my jam. If I have a strategy and a precise execution path, I can nail it. Sometimes. 

That was/is probably my struggle with Romans 8. To truly understand and tap into its strength, you must come weak. Broken. Exhausted. And that is who I've fought not to be my entire life. 

I will not sit here and type out this Bible study claiming that I've got Romans 8 digested, ingested, and fully at work in my life. But, I can tell you this: it's planted. 

A few moments ago, Finley (my 4-year-old boy) brought me a seed and asked me what kind of seed it was. It was a pumpkin seed (I'm 95% sure), and he decided he wanted it to grow. I told him he needed a pot, some dirt, and water. 

Fortunately, I had an empty pot in front of me on the table and I handed it to him. He was off to collect dirt, came back shortly (not enough dirt in the pot, so I sent him back) and then he pushed the seed down into the dirt and added some water. He came back outside and told me it needed sun. He was right, so he left it on the deck bench. 

"Now what?" he asked. "Now, we wait patiently," I said. He trots off for about 15 minutes and then comes back to tell me that he can see the stem growing already. 

At first, I thought to myself, "How nice that would be for seeds to grow that quickly. Silly Fin." But as I thought more about the book of Romans, I realized how Finley saw something that wasn't as though it were (Romans 4:17).

We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" Romans 4:17 MSG

That's a child's faith: they hear an instruction (the Word), believe it to be true (take active steps of faith), and expect it to happen (display hope). Hope is the absolute expectation of coming good.   

And that is the power behind Romans 8. Positionally, Christ had already finished the sin slaying. The pot, the dirt, the seed, and the perfected growth and completion. But our human eyes only see the temporal, present tense result. So how can we have a heavenly vision in an earthly world? 

Let's pray God's powerful and active Word in Ephesians 1:18 over ourselves and then wait expectantly, just as Finley is doing for that pumpkin. 

I pray that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which he has called me, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.

Now, for Romans 8:1-4 this week:

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 

• Paul's therefore word usage is critical to understand. It means that what he is saying comes from a logical argument. It's as if Paul says, "I can prove what I say here." What is he proving? We are one with Jesus and since He is our head, we can't be condemned.

• "This phrase imports, that there is a mystical and spiritual union betwixt Christ and believers. This is sometimes expressed by Christ being in them...and here by their being in Christ. Christ is in believers by His Spirit, and believers are in Christ by faith." (Poole)

2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

• Here, Paul contrasts the law of sin and death and the law of the Spirit. While the law of sin and death was strong, the law of the Spirit was stronger still—raising Christ Himself from the dead and that same Spirit now abides and is at home in us (Romans 8:11).

• Think for a moment about the abiding and dwelling Spirit of Christ in you. The Spirit of God is at home in your heart. Planted into the soil of your very being, constantly indwelling and rooting out the indwelling sin. This is the power: the indwelling Spirit rooting out the indwelling sin. That, my beloved, is why you are free. Christ already won that sin battle. It's simply playing out in the present tense because it's already done. God it outside of time and space. He sees the whole parade of your life all at once—the beginning, the middle, and the end. Even though you have only see the first float come by. He is before all and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17).

3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. 

• As we've talked about before, the purpose of the law is to show us our sin. The law does not have the power to save us or free us. It does have purpose, but it is powerless in and of itself to free us from death. Remember how I wrote earlier in this post about wanting those clear, concise steps and checklists on free living? Direct, third-grade-level logic, friends. If I have a strategy and a precise execution path, I can nail it. Sometimes. As disciplined as I am, I am weak. I have lusts and temptations that befall me. Satan knows how to expose me when I'm tired and how I am vulnerable. He plays to my weakness. Every. Single. Time.

• How are we ever to win? Not by our own battling. This is why God told the Israelites in Exodus 14:14, "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." This is the power of Romans 8: to be still and to trust that God has done the work on our behalf because we are completely impotent. Sometimes I think this is hard to grasp not because we don't think God is strong enough to fight our battles on our behalf, but because we believe we need to contribute something to the work of Christ. I’m a helper! Let me put in a little love and extra effort just to top it off.

• Paul was careful in his words here. Christ did not come as sinful, but He identified with it entirely.

And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

• I like what David Guzik says about verse 4 and the righteous requirement of the law: "Paul does not say that we fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. He carefully says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us. It isn't fulfilled by us, but in us." Chew on that one, friends. Chew on that one.

• God desires for our Spirit to rule over our flesh in this life. When we find ourselves bound by sinful passions and lusts, our life is marked with "the struggle" of Romans 7 that Paul describes so well. But, walking in the Spirit over the course and progress of one's life means we are directed by the Holy Spirit and we are Spirit-infused in our daily walk.

• There is hope, beloved. Hope in eternity, hope in this life, and hope in whatever you’re battling this exact moment. 

"Observe carefully that the flesh is there: he does not walk after it, but it is there. It is there, striving and warring, vexing and grieving, and it will be there till he is taken up into heaven. It is there as an alien and detested force, and not there so as to have dominion over him. He does not walk after it, nor practically obey it. He does not accept it as his guide, nor allow it to drive him into rebellion." —Spurgeon 

Finley just popped back outside again. He checked his potted pumpkin seed and said confidently again: "It's growing! I can see the stem!"

"He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 18:2-4

I believe, Lord. Open my eyes to see. Amen.