Romans

The Letter from Yeshua's Emissary Sha’ul(Paul) to the Messianic Community in Rome

Chapter 8 - (CJB)*

A Study to Help New and Young Christians - Previous Study

Chapter 8:1-39 (CJB)

1. Therefore, there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union with the Messiah Yeshua.

2. Why? Because the Torah of the Spirit, which produces this life in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the “Torah” of sin and death.

3. For what the Torah could not do by itself, because it lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, God did by sending his own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one [but without sin]. God did this in order to deal with sin, and in so doing he executed the punishment against sin in human nature,

4. so that the just requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us who do not run our lives according to what our old nature wants but according to what the Spirit wants.

5. For those who identify with their old nature set their minds on the things of the old nature, but those who identify with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

6. Having one’s mind controlled by the old nature is death, but having one’s mind controlled by the Spirit is life and shalom.

7. For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God’s Torah — indeed, it cannot.

8. Thus, those who identify with their old nature cannot please God.

9. But you, you do not identify with your old nature but with the Spirit — provided the Spirit of God is living inside you, for anyone who doesn’t have the Spirit of the Messiah doesn’t belong to him.

10. However, if the Messiah is in you, then, on the one hand, the body is dead because of sin; but, on the other hand, the Spirit is giving life because God considers you righteous.

11. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead is living in you, then the One who raised the Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

12. So then, brothers, we don’t owe a thing to our old nature that would require us to live according to our old nature.

13. For if you live according to your old nature, you will certainly die; but if, by the Spirit, you keep putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.

14. All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.

15. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to bring you back again into fear; on the contrary, you received the Spirit, who makes us sons and by whose power we cry out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”).

16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our own spirits that we are children of God;

17. and if we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah — provided we are suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him.

18. I don’t think the sufferings we are going through now are even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us in the future.

19. The creation waits eagerly for the sons of God to be revealed;

20. for the creation was made subject to frustration — not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it. But it was given a reliable hope

21. that it too would be set free from its bondage to decay and would enjoy the freedom accompanying the glory that God’s children will have.

22. We know that until now, the whole creation has been groaning as with the pains of childbirth;

23. and not only it, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we continue waiting eagerly to be made sons — that is, to have our whole bodies redeemed and set free.

24. It was in this hope that we were saved. But if we see what we hope for, it isn’t hope — after all, who hopes for what he already sees?

25. But if we continue hoping for something we don’t see, then we still wait eagerly for it, with perseverance.

26. Similarly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don’t know how to pray the way we should. But the Spirit himself pleads on our behalf with groanings too deep for words;

27. and the one who searches hearts knows exactly what the Spirit is thinking, because his pleadings for God’s people accord with God’s will.

28. Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with his purpose;

29. because those whom he knew in advance, he also determined in advance would be conformed to the pattern of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers;

30. and those whom he thus determined in advance, he also called; and those whom he called, he also caused to be considered righteous; and those whom he caused to be considered righteous he also glorified!

31. What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32. He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all — is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too?

33. So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God — he is the one who causes them to be considered righteous!

34. Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and — more than that — has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf!

35. Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War?

36. As the Tanakh puts it, “For your sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered sheep to be slaughtered.”

37. No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us.

38. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming,

39. neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.

Study - Chapter 8

Ch 8: verses, 1-6,

Verse 1: Praise The Lord! Condemation shall not be something that can dominate us because "we are in Christ". While we focus our attention to seeing ourselves having His Nature we have the victory.

How can this be? Because of the Spiritual rule that states as long as we willingly accept that our life is the "Life of Christ" which is 'living' in us the Torah of the Spirit, makes us free from the “Torah” of sin and death. Verse 2:

Verse 3 to 6: Sets out the reason that we can have this confidence.

Although the Torah is good it did not have the power to change our actions. When God sent His Son, He came in way that we are born. Having our nature but without sin, He was able to live His life just like we should, but not sin. So when He died His Death was not for Himself but in our place.

When we acknowledge that we can't live this life without sinning and ask for that exchange, salvation, we set our minds on who we are in Christ. It is just that simple, set our minds on the 'Spititual', not on our 'old nature' and we can walk out our lives in that victory.

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Ch 8: verses, 7-17,

Paul continues to explain how this all works out. He goes into more detail because this is a major problem we all face. If we are serious about seeing how we still try to "fix it ourselves", we will know that this is our main issue of not being victorious.

We have to understand that where our focus is, is where we end up. As long as we see our 'old nature' rearing its head and try to stop it we a due to fail. Since we have been translated into the "Kingdom of His Dear Son", we don't have to struggle with our 'old nature'. We have a New Nature that we live by fosucing on Jesus and His Nature then that which lives with in us will come out. It does not happen by us trying to make it happen, it comes by allowing the Life to come out from within.

Verse 13: When we focus on "The Spirit", we are not giving any life to the 'old nature' so it dies and does not have any hold on us any more.

Verse 14: Gives us the victory. "All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons."; (CJB)* [Or daughters, there is no gender in Christ.]

For the Life, The Spirit of Christ, which we have recieved does not bring us back into slavery to be fearful but has set us to be free. We can come to God and say “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”). We have a witness in our spirit, our inner most self, that we are God's child. We are join-heirs with Christ. We are part of God's Family.

Verse 17: Talks about us "suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him."; (CJB)* This suffering may seem contary to what we should be experiencing. Really it means as we discipline ourselves to leave the past, 'our old nature' behind and focus on Jesus who is our New Life this cause a tension or suffering in our flesh'.

As long as we continue to think of ourselves as being a "Child of God", we don't have to worry about living up to that standard because we are already there. Our efforts will not make any difference.

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Ch 8: verses, 18-24,

Paul says that there will suffering that will part of our experience but we should not focus on it because it produces something much more glorious.

The whole of creation is suffering because of Sin that entered when Adam rebelled and allowed sin to reign in the earth.

Paul continues on in stating that all of creation is groaning, suffering, waiting for "The Son's of God" to come to a place of Glory. This Glory will be achieved as we all stand and take our rightful place in His Kingdom.

We also have this hope as we wait till the fullness of God's Life which, is through us being in Christ, is made to be seen through us in the earth.

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Ch 8: verses, 25-39,

Paul says back in Verse 24:, if our hope is what we can see then it is not hope. We hope for what we can't see that is what makes it hope. This hope is not most people in their natural state conside as hope. "I hope for this" or "I hope for that". The following verses give a better understanding what this hope is about.

The waiting in patience can be a difficult process which Paul says is natural but we have help from the Holy Spirit who live in us. Sometimes even our grownings which we find ourselves doing in our struggle to see the way through the Holy Spirit uses to get us the answer.

The Holy Spirit knows us better than we do ourselves so is able to take our febble stuttering and offer our prayer to Our Father who answers directly. Verse 27: So how can we have the confidence that our "stuttering" has been successful?

We can have confidence that God is working on our behalf becuase He has a Plan that He had prepared long before we were born that we are to walk in. This plan is opened to us as we move along into the path and as we allow Him to direct us into it.

This being the case, that is God is for us, who or what can come against us?

The confidence that we can have is in knowing this fact. Since that God did not spare His Only Son from death so the we might have life how much more will be able to help us.

Who else could judge us not worthy of having all this blessing? Jesus? No, He died for us.

So is there anything thing that separate us from the Love Of God?

Verse 35:, "Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War?" (CJB)*

Even though we struggle in our lives to keep the 'old nature' from taking over, we consider that we are no better than "sheep to be slaughtered", Verse 36: (CJB)* we have confidence because of God's faithfulness.

"No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us.", Verse 37: (CJB)*

Paul continues on to explain the confidence he has and so can we also. There is nothing that we can concieve that will separate us from the Love of God. Paul states: Verse 38: (CJB)* "neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming," Verse 39: (CJB)* "neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord."

What more could you want?

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(CJB)* The Complete Jewish Bible" used with permission.