If/Then
Daily Scripture Readings
Monday Galatians 4:28–5:1
Tuesday John 8:31–36
Wednesday 1 Peter 2:16–17
Thursday Romans 6:16–18
Friday Galatians 5:13–14
Saturday Romans 8:26-28
Opening Prayer
Gracious God, thank you that if Christ is in us, the Spirit gives us life. And thank you for the promise that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. AMEN
READING:
Romans chapter 8 has been called the most wonderful chapter in the Bible! It’s extremely encouraging. It starts with no condemnation and ends with no separation. It describes the new life of the believer in relation to the Holy Spirit and His work in and through us. Today we’ll look at the first four verses.
Paul begins by summing up what he has said to this point. It’s basically everything we’ve been looking at the last month as we’ve gone through chapters 5-7: how death came through Adam and life comes through Christ; how believers are now dead to sin and alive in Christ; how believers are no longer slaves to sin because we now live in a new era where we are now slaves to righteousness; how we’ve been released from the Law and are now bound to Christ; and finally, it is Jesus who rescued us from the body of death.
So how did Paul sum it all up? He stated, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” Think about that for a minute; it’s an amazing statement. It means to be found innocent of the accusation, to have no sentence inflicted and no guilty verdict found.
How can this be? We all know how bad we can be and how short we seem to fall when compared to God’s righteousness. That’s Paul’s point, we can’t. It’s only by the grace of God that we have any hope! It’s not by anything we do—it is a free gift from God. By His free gift (we went over this in Romans 5:15-17), believers in Jesus will not face condemnation. Think about that—you and I are free to serve God in the new way of the Spirit—it’s powerful!
https://www.rivercc.org/2017/06/12/day-1-romans-81-13-devotional/