Romans 8: A Life Led by the Spirit
Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of God Shown to Us in Jesus
Oct 30, 2007
The Christian faith teaches that people don't need to live under judgement and fear.
Throughout the history of Christianity there has been a strong belief that a life lived following Jesus of Nazareth brings freedom to the believer.
A New Testament passage that has had an impact on the lives of many people talks about this freedom and about the strength of God's love. It is found in the book of Romans.
Freedom in Jesus and a Life Led by the Spirit
Romans 8:
- Verse 1, 2 – There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death.(Good News Bible)
- Verse 38,39 – For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love; neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below – there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.(Good News Bible)
These two important passages of the Christian faith have been favourites for many people through the ages.
The first passage talks about a teaching that was at the centre of the belief of the disciples and early followers of Jesus. St Paul wrote this passage to the Church in Rome making the strong point that when they became believers in Jesus Christ they were no longer under judgement.
In the Old Testament an animal or bird sacrifice had been required before people could be free before God. Now, in the New Testament, that sacrifice was no longer required and a life of trust in Jesus Christ brought freedom. The believer needed no longer fear God or his judgement, but could be free to know God's love through Jesus Christ. The believer was also free from a life controlled by weakness.
Nothing Can Separate Us from God's Love
The second important passage is at the end of the chapter – the assurance of God’s love. St Paul asks rhetorical questions to dramatically drive home the reality of God's love. Can anything separate God's followers from his love shown in Christ? No! Nothing in all creation can separate them from God’s love.
"Because God is for us, who can be against us?" St Paul asks, again dramatically. If God did not keep back his only son, but gave him for us – won’t this God freely give us everything else – especially his love? – And nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from that sacrificial love.
Hope for a Struggling World
And between these two great passages is a picture of a struggling world waiting for its deliverance – “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail …and not only creation...but we ourselves.”
There is suffering in the world, and people often don’t know how to deal with it. But St Paul here writes about a great hope.
That hope is the Holy Spirit who is given by God. When Christians don’t know how to pray for the world's sufferings the Spirit prays for them in ways that cannot be put into words…"in sighs too deep for words (RSV)." And in joining with the Spirit in this way Christians are part of God’s redeeming hope in the world.
The English theologian N.T. Wright, in writing on this passage, says: -
- “In my college chapel in Oxford, during the Gulf War, the students made a small display on the floor beside the alter – a pile of sand with some poppies, and a single candle in the middle. Those of us who went in there every day didn’t know how to pray, what to pray for. But we knelt there, in front of the sand and the poppies, and looked up at the cross on the great stained-glass window above, and simply tried, without words and often with puzzlement and grief, to put the two of them together; to let the God revealed in Jesus embrace and hold within himself the Gulf and all that it was and meant.”
This chapter in the book of Romans, then, is an important one for Christians. It talks about the freedom of a life lived in Christ, the immensity of God's love and the hope for a suffering world.
Sources:
- Good News Bible; RSV Bible; CEV Bible;
- "The Crown and the Fire, Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit, " by NT Wright. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan.
