THE BOOK OF ROMANS
Lesson 18, Chapter 8 continued
We’ll continue to work our way through Romans chapter 8 today and I’ll tell you in advance
that we’ll be knee deep in some important theology. Since chapter 8 sums up what Paul has
been teaching and presents the conclusion to be drawn from it, I’m going to do some of the
same. Even though we’re only at the halfway point, we’ve studied enough of Romans that we
should do this.
Thinking back to what I told you in the introduction to the Book of Romans, I remind you that
the most common position held by Christian Bible Commentators is that the Book of Romans is
aimed primarily at gentiles (this is why the Book of Romans has grown in stature to become
preeminent in Christian theology and doctrine). The assertion is that in his letter Paul is
speaking mainly to what today we’d call “the Church” (since the Church is generally
envisioned as a nearly exclusively gentile religion) and considerably less to Jews (Believers
and non-Believers). I hope our journey through Romans is demonstrating that this traditional
viewpoint of Romans being mostly gentile oriented simply cannot be supported. Paul’s choice
of words reflects unique Jewish idioms and expressions, common Jewish cultural norms for his
day, typical approaches as used by early rabbis to explain and debate Scripture, and even
comments such as the first verse of chapter 7, which makes it explicit that in several parts of
his letter to the Romans he is aiming mostly at Jews. The first verse of chapter 7 said: “Surely
you know, brothers…..for I am speaking to those who understand law…..that law has
authority over a person only so long as he lives?” Clearly “those who understand law” are
Jews and not gentiles, especially since “law” in this case is referring to Jewish Law;
Halakhah.
So most everything Paul says in chapter 7 is aimed at the Jews in Rome (although the
principles he elucidates apply to gentile Believers as well). Thus in chapter 8 Paul tells his
readers what conclusions they ought to draw from what he has previously said (mainly
pertaining to chapter 7 but also to the underlying principles of his letter up to this point) as it
begins: “Therefore, there is no longer condemnation awaiting those who are in union
with the Messiah Yeshua”. So this comment is (as is all of chapter 8) also equally aimed
primarily at Jews who know law (Halakhah), and this can be deduced because chapter 8 is but
an uninterrupted continuation of chapter 7. We can get lulled into a false notion that Paul has
begun an entirely new thought pattern in chapter 8 merely because we have changed
chapters. But Paul didn’t write in chapters; chapters were artificially added by others 11
centuries after Paul’s day. Paul didn’t write using modern English literary and grammar
conventions; he wrote using the standard Jewish literary and grammar conventions of his time,
which did not include chapter breaks and verse numbers.
The point is this: while on the surface (especially to gentile Christians) it seems to be that Paul
is instructing only the new Believers in Yeshua, Jew and gentile, just under the surface we find
that he is also addressing Israel and the Jewish people as a whole; as a nation of people, if
1 / 9

you would. The nation of people is God’s original chosen people (Israel), which is why he has
used the promise given to Abraham as a foundational premise for his doctrines. But back in
Romans chapter 3 he also alluded to the exclusive advantages given to Jews by God (such as
being entrusted with God’s Word) and he also says something else that can easily escape our
attention.
Romans 3:1-4 CJB
CJB
Romans 3:1 Then what advantage has the Jew? What is the value of being
circumcised?
2
Much in every way! In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the
very words of God.
3
If some of them were unfaithful, so what? Does their faithlessness
cancel God's faithfulness?
4
Heaven forbid! God would be true even if everyone were a
liar!- as the Tanakh says, "so that you, God, may be proved right in your words and win
the verdict when you are put on trial."
When Paul’s straw man asks the question in Romans 3:3: does the Jews’ unfaithfulness to
God cancel God’s faithfulness to the Jews, Paul immediately answers and refutes his straw
man by saying “Heaven forbid!” But what, exactly, does Paul have in mind when the
discussion turns to God’s faithfulness to the Jews? He is speaking of God remaining faithful to
the covenants He has made with Israel; covenants that set them apart from all other nations.
What every Jew in the 1
st
century would have understood is that the main point of God’s
covenants with Israel is that they are what make Israel, Israel. Those covenants are what set
Israel apart as God’s chosen. In fact in Matthew 15, in the famous story of Yeshua venturing
outside the Holy Land and up to Tzor and Sidon, he met a Canaanite woman who begged
Yeshua to exorcise a demon from her daughter. Although Yeshua eventually agreed to do so,
His initial response is one that ought to prick the ears of the Church and cause us to take
notice.
24
He said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Isra'el.” Oh my! To
whom did Our Lord Yeshua say He was sent? ONLY to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Yeshua, in theory, was Israel’s Savior because the Lord’s purpose in sending Christ was to
solve the deadly problem of sin among His chosen and set apart people, Israel. In fact in
Matthew 10 Yeshua explicitly instructed the 12 Disciples to go ONLY to the house of Israel with
the Gospel and to avoid gentiles. Much later, of course, we find the risen Yeshua confront Paul
on the road to Damascus and instruct him that the time has come to take the Gospel to the
gentile world.
So if Yeshua was really only the Messiah for Israel, then on what basis could gentiles be
included? There would be two basis for this: the first is that in Romans 4 we learn that gentiles
who trust God through Yeshua become spiritual seed of Abraham and thus co-inheritors of the
Kingdom of God; and second is what we’ll study when we get to Romans chapter 11: gentile
Believers have been divinely grafted into the covenants of Israel and thus effectively become
part of Israel (from a spiritual, not a physical, perspective).
Here’s where I’m going with this. Especially in chapters 7 and 8 Paul is not only addressing
Believers, Jew and gentile, but on a secondary level he is also addressing Israel in general:
national Israel. That is, from the near view that we discussed last time (it is necessary to study
Scripture from the near, mid, and far view to obtain proper context), Paul is speaking to
2 / 9

Believers. But if we pull back from the few verses we’ve read and see it in the wider context of
the entire Bible (the far view) then Paul’s inclusion of Israel-in-general comes into focus. At the
same time that he has been explaining why the Gospel works, and what exactly it does for
humanity, he has also been defending Israel’s election as God’s set apart people (especially
for his Jewish audience but also as a reminder to gentiles). So part of Paul’s underlying
message to his audience is that despite Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and to the covenants
meant to bind them to Him, God has remained faithful. And the chief way God is showing His
faithfulness is 1) by not abandoning or rejecting Israel, and 2) this continuing love and concern
for Israel is proven by God sending His only Son to give Israel a way out from the death
penalty that they have earned for themselves by being disobedient to His covenants
(especially as it applies to Covenant of Moses; The Law). So there is a dual meaning going on
here; one meaning that many Jews would recognize as being about their Israelite heritage, and
another meaning that explains why the Jews would have to begin to share that heritage (from a
spiritual standpoint) with Believing gentiles. The part about Israelite heritage would mostly have
flown right over the heads of the Roman gentile readers of Paul’s letter, just as it does to this
day within the Church. But many Jews in Rome would have immediately understood these
thoughts in the perspective Paul intended because his choice of terms and his recounting of
Israel’s history centered on Abraham, and his constant mention of the role of The Law, would
have resonated with them.
So now that you are informed, keep this dual purpose of Paul in mind as we continue our study
of Romans chapter 8. Since we only addressed the first 3 verses of this chapter in our last
lesson, we’ll re-read the entire chapter for the sake of continuity.
RE-READ ROMANS CHAPTER 8 all
If you listened carefully you noticed that the word “spirit” is front and center in this chapter,
being used 21 times. This is an important indicator because in the previous chapters of
Romans it was the term “law” that Paul used so very often. So Paul is now moving on from his
explanation of the effects of The Law and what God has done to counteract the curse that
comes from disobeying it (which Paul sums up in verse 1), to explaining that it is the indwelling
of the Spirit of God that marks and characterizes a Jew or gentile as having been righteoused
(justified) by his or her trust in Yeshua’s perfect faithfulness. Thus in Paul’s summation of
verse 1 about the case he has been building for the last 7 chapters, he says that those who are
in union with Messiah Yeshua are no longer under the condemnation (the death sentence) that
is the consequence of breaking The Law of Moses.
In verse 2 he explains why this works as it does. And it is that the law of the spirit has set the
Believer free from the law of sin and death. We talked about this last time but I’ll expand it a
bit. The term “law” as used here is an expression (perhaps even a metaphor); it is not meant
in the legal sense or is it used to identify some particular holiness code or regulation. In our
modern English this use of “law” more means something like “principle”; something that
regulates. So the principle of the spirit has set the Believer free from the principle of sin and
death. Most importantly it must be understood that the meaning of “the law of sin and death”
does not mean “The Law of Moses whose substance is sin and death”. So this statement is
not setting The Law of Moses over and against the Spirit of God. Rather it is setting life over
3 / 9

and against death (“the law of the spirit, which produces life, has set me free from the law of
sin and death”).
This interpretation is backed up when we read in verse 3 that what the Torah could not do was
to change the human nature (because it was never designed to do it). It is our human nature
controlled by our evil inclination that is the problem. The Law, because it is essentially words
on scrolls, doesn’t have any inherent power to reach in and affect the inner self and thus resist
the evil inclination that is the Master of human beings (remember: this Mastery of the evil
inclination is the result of everyone being related to Adam). So God sent His Son to deal with
the problem of sin and death that resulted from disobedience to The Law, because God’s Son
DID have the inherent power to reach inside the inner self and change our nature. The irony is
that in addition to having divine power, Yeshua also had the same flawed nature that ordinary
human beings had. This was necessary because God’s plan was to execute (put to death)
that sinful human nature….to destroy it…..and God did so by allowing His Son Yeshua and the
sinful nature that He carried to be literally executed with Christ behaving as a substitute to
represent our sinful nature. It worked just as the Levitical sacrificial system operated and
prefigured. Hebrew humans sinned (they broke The Law). But instead of them receiving the
eternal death penalty (the curse of The Law), innocent animals could be substituted. The
principle was that God allowed the sin that the human committed to be imputed upon the
otherwise innocent animal, and then the animal was “executed” as a substitute or a
representative for the guilty human. Likewise our sins were imputed upon the otherwise
innocent Christ, and then He was “executed” as a substitute for us.
But we must be honest; while Paul says Believers have been set free from the law of sin and
death and instead we are now under the law of the spirit, the reality is that Christians still sin.
Our lives remain an illicit mixture of sinning and God-imputed righteousness. This unwelcome
phenomenon was well recognized by Paul within himself such that he cries out in angry
frustration near the end of Romans 7: “What a miserable creature I am!” So we are not
entirely free from the power of sin and don’t let any pious-sounding minister tell you that you
are. However we are entirely free from the power of the consequence of sin, which is death.
Thus we have to think of this freedom we have gained from the power of sin and death as not
so much an event as an ongoing process. Just as we have not escaped the reality that no
matter we are Believers, our fleshly bodies will still die and decay in the earth just as anyone
else, on the other hand the other aspect of death (spiritual death) we already HAVE escaped
thanks to Yeshua. It is not in process, it is finished. Thus while we have a new Master in the
Spirit that empowers our good inclination, that doesn’t mean that the residue of our old
Master, our evil inclination to sin, has fled; we still have to contend with it. But through the Spirit
we do have a power in us that is able to fight it effectively.
CJB
1 John 4:4 You, children, are
from God and have overcome the false prophets, because he who is in you is greater
than he who is in the world.
So what are we to do in this present state whereby we are far better off than before we knew
Yeshua; yet still we hang in suspension, seemingly neither fish nor fowl? We’re saved and our
spirits already have eternal life; yet our flesh still succumbs to sin as though we weren’t saved.
Back in Romans chapter 6 we read of Paul’s approach to this problem that in some ways is a
pleasant fiction, but in other ways is quite practical considering the fallen state of the world,
4 / 9

and the condition in which we live:
CJB
Romans 6:11 In the same way, consider yourselves
to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua. Notice the
use of the word “consider”. In Greek it is logizomai, which means to infer or to count oneself
as something. So to paraphrase: Paul says that even though it is not actually so, count
yourselves as though you are dead to sin. In other words, our mindset as Believers…..the way
we should understand this strange conundrum we find ourselves in….is to think of ourselves,
and to do our best to behave, as though we are completely dead to the power of sin while at
the same time we are more alive than ever to God’s will. We play a sort of game with
ourselves while we are waiting for the reality of it to be actually true.
Don’t discount this. There is an old saying about how to change behavior: fake it until you feel
it. That is, you know what you ought to do (the right thing) even though you sure feel like doing
something else (the wrong thing). So do the right thing, even if not entirely sincere, until doing
the right thing is what your inner self WANTS to do. Look: this frustrating position we finds
ourselves in is exactly what Paul was lamenting in verses 15 – 24 of Romans 7. This is why
perseverance MUST be part of every Believer’s life, and we must pray for this perseverance
every single day.
But now let me assure you: I’m not suggesting a self-help program of positive thinking. What
Believers are doing by “counting” ourselves as dead to sin is less a matter of “faking it” and
more a matter of steadily dying to self. God’s Law has revealed our sin, and now the Spirit
gives us the power to fight against our former propensity to sin. Believers are in the process of
learning how to disobey our old nature and instead to obey the new nature God has given to
us. We are learning how to discern when something is our will versus God’s will, and how to
choose to do God’s will. This is a hard and lifelong process; but immensely worthwhile. Paul
says this in 1Corinthians:
1Corinthians 15:16-19 CJB

16
For if the dead are not raised, then the Messiah has not been raised either;
17
and if the Messiah has not been raised, your trust is useless, and you are still in your
sins.
18
Also, if this is the case, those who died in union with the Messiah are lost.

19
If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable
than anyone.
Indeed; if our eternal future is no better than this present life that we live as Believers (which is
actually a constant struggle to do what we know is right despite how we might look to others)
then we are to be pitied by others and not emulated. I’m not talking about a struggle for wealth
and abundance in terms of the earthly economy; some of us may have plenty of that and
others may not. I’m talking about our internal struggles, which no Believer will escape. The
struggles of conscience when looking at ourselves in the mirror after doing what is wrong, and
knowing better, and feeling defeated and ashamed, and asking ourselves how God could
possibly continue to love us. But the Good News is that there is a divine power that Yeshua’s
sacrificial actions have given to us that is so much greater than our old sinful nature. The Holy
5 / 9

Spirit has been given to guide us, instruct us, comfort us, forgive us, give us hope and
perseverance, and show us the greatest mercy so that despite it all, we can live a life of joy
and hope. This is the only real source of hope that mankind has. But it is also a source of hope
that we can trust and depend upon because Our Creator has guaranteed it.
Verses 6 and 7 are a continuing midrash (discussion, exposition) on the doctrine of Two
Masters or Two Spirits that Paul has used constantly throughout his letter. So he says that the
mind controlled by the old nature (the mind that is a slave to the Master of the evil inclination)
is death; but the mind controlled by God’s spirit (the mind that is a slave to the Master of the
good inclination) is life. And this is because our old nature is naturally hostile to God. Our old
nature is virtually incapable of co-operating with God. Thus those who continue to willfully
identify with their old nature (that is, those who have not accepted Messiah Yeshua and thus
become identified with Him) cannot please God. Again: it is impossible to please Two Masters.
We can’t please our old nature and at the same time please God. We can’t split time with
each and we can’t compromise between them.
Paul continues to expand his emphasis on the spirit in verse 9. He essentially equates the term
Holy Spirit with the term Spirit of Messiah and with the term Spirit of God. In one sense Paul is
making all three terms synonymous. But in another sense he is speaking of the mysterious
nature of God, which is unity (the echad of God): Father (Spirit of God), Son (Spirit of
Messiah), and Holy Spirit.
Whereas Paul has been speaking in a duality to Israel in general and to Believers in specific
(at the least since Romans chapter 7), in verse 9 he is addressing only Believers because only
Believers actually have the Spirit of God living in us. And he is also laying down a doctrine: if
we don’t have the Spirit in us, then we don’t identify with Messiah. And if we don’t identify
with Messiah, then the only alternative is that we identify with our old sinful nature. There is no
in-between. I don’t wish to create a theological debate (but I probably will). Some Believers
think that the New Testament envisions a process whereby first we are baptized into an
identity with Christ and then sometime later we are baptized into the Holy Spirit. Essentially this
means that we first identify with Messiah (that is we first come to believe in Yeshua), and then
later at some point, if we believe correctly, the Holy Spirit will indwell us. If I am interpreting
correctly what Paul seems to clearly say here in Romans 8:9, then such a thing cannot be
accurate. Paul says that if you have the Holy Spirit you are identified with Christ; and if you
have identified with Christ you have the Holy Spirit. So to me this destroys any thought that a
new Believer can, for a time, be “saved” (identified with Christ) but has not yet received the
Holy Spirit. This is because Paul sets up the dynamic that the one validates the other. Or to put
it negatively: you can’t have one without the other. In other words it operates like sin and
death. Sin and death come as a fused pair; you can’t have one without the other. So it is that
identity with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit come as a fused pair; you can’t have
one without the other.
Let’s move to verse 11 because I think Paul says something quite plainly that for some reason
some Believers (or at least some denominations) have a hard time with. There is a belief
among some versions of the Trinity doctrine that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co-equal. That
is, one has no authority or pre-eminence over the other. There is no hierarchy. However I find
6 / 9

that mindset is the result of the desire of the New Testament Church to shove God the Father
to background in order to pull God the Son to the fore. Or to allow God the Father to remain
the God of the Jews, but to make God the Son to become the God of Christians. So the
solution is to simply make Father, Son and Holy Spirit co-equal if not virtually identical. Yet in
verse 11, according to Paul, there was a specific one of these 3 identified and named Spirits
that raised Yeshua from the dead (that is, the Spirit of Yeshua didn’t raise Yeshua, it was a
different spirit). And it is this same Spirit (the same one who resurrected Messiah) that lives in
us as Believers. But the last half of verse 11 causes controversy. What does Paul mean that
the same spirit that raised Yeshua from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies? Calvin says
this is speaking of life in the sense of an ethical renewal of our bodies. David Stern says it is
life in the sense of the Holy Spirit giving Believers hope. I find these both to be a reach. Rather
in its plainest textual sense, since the topic is who or what raised Yeshua from the dead, then it
is comparing our mortal bodies to Christ’s mortal body that died. And just as it is the work of a
certain Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, so it will be the work of the same Spirit that will
raise us from the dead (resurrection). So Paul is speaking of a future time at the End of Days.
And, by the way, the Believers of Paul’s day thought that the End of Days was imminent; not
hundreds or thousands of years into the future.
Verse 12 presents us with another point of summation for Paul. All that he has said in the first
11 verses of chapter 8 leads him to conclude what he states in verses 12 and 13. He
introduces that summation by saying, “So then, brothers”. And what he does is actually to
speak of our relationship to our old nature in terms of debt. That is, we don’t owe any kind of a
debt to our old nature that would force us to keep giving it our allegiance and labors. On the
contrary: by switching our allegiance to the Spirit then we are essentially killing our old nature
who still thinks we owe it something. We should take this as but a rough illustration in the same
way as Paul used the illustration of the widow remarrying in Romans chapter 7.
Verse 14 says that a Believer is God’s son because anyone led by God’s Spirit is a son to
Him. This is a Jewish expression that reflects a universally understood Jewish cultural concept
of the value of a son over a servant. Although several Bible characters will be called servants
of God (a high status), those called sons of God are even higher. Thus while priests were
called servants of God (a high status), Israel’s kings were called sons of God (a higher status).
Prophets were called servants of God; but Yeshua is called the Son of God. Thus the typical
Levitical priests, although indeed properly serving God, do not have God’s spirit in them so
they can only be called servants. But any Believer is elevated above Levitical priests because
we have God’s spirit in us, so we are sons of God. And ladies, don’t let this bother you. The
issue is not a gender issue (son versus daughter). The issue is a status issue. From a status
issue you gain the status as sons of God just as does a male if you trust Yeshua.
Next Paul explains that it is not a spirit of slavery that we get from God when He puts His spirit
into us, but rather it is essentially a spirit of adoption that we gain. The notion here is that the
character of God’s indwelling spirit is not one of coercion that works by putting a Believer into
a state of fear as it would be for a slave. That is, the reason that a slave is loyal to his master
and does the master’s bidding is because the master could severely harm him or kill him if he
didn’t. The slave has few rights and no choice so it is the fear of his Master that compels his
loyalty. Instead, says Paul, the character of God’s indwelling spirit operates more the way an
7 / 9

adopted son does towards his father; he operates out of love and gratitude, and not out of fear.
The son obeys his father not from a fear of bad repercussions if he doesn’t; but rather from a
motive of sincere desire to reciprocate the love his father shows him by pleasing his father.
This is reason that Paul employs the term Abba. Abba means father but it is a term of
endearment and affection.
In verses 16 and 17 the other status benefit of being a son instead of servant to God is brought
to bear. A son inherits from his father; a servant does not. So since God’s spirit bears witness
that Believers (those who have His spirit in them) are His sons, then there can be no doubt. In
the biblical sense a witness is someone who attests or confirms the truth of a statement.
Biblically (and in Tradition) is usually takes two witness to confirm. So here we have our own
spirits and God’s Spirit as the two witnesses. Therefore the proof of our being God’s children
means we have the right be heirs. Heirs to what? To the Kingdom of God. Yeshua was the first
heir, and those who trust Him are now fellow heirs with Him.
I love the way that C.E.B. Cranfield speaks of the next several verses beginning with 17:
“…..the subject with which this subsection is concerned (is) Christian hope. The life
which is characterized by the Spirit of God, which is a life in which God’s Law is
established, is a life characterized by hope”.
A Believer must have God’s Law (which is of the same substance and principles as the Law of
Moses) established within him. This happens by an act of God: the indwelling of the spirit. It is
a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:30-33 CJB

30
"Here, the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Isra'el and with the house of Y'hudah.
31
It will not be like the covenant I
made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the
land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my
part, was a husband to them," says ADONAI.
32
"For this is the covenant I will make with
the house of Isra'el after those days," says ADONAI: "I will put my Torah within them
and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
33
No longer
will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, 'Know ADONAI'; for
all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their
wickednesses and remember their sins no more."
Since Yeshua has put an end to the death sentence of the Law for His worshippers, all that
remains is the Laws themselves….for worshippers. But my brothers and sister, if we should
think to ourselves: if there is no eternal death sentence for disobedience, why would I, as a
Believer, obey The Laws of God? That my friends is the attitude of a servant; that is the
question a slave of the evil inclination would ask. For as Paul rightly says, a slave must be
mastered through fear. However since the spirit of God indwells the Believer, and the spirit of
God has written God’s Law on the hearts (minds) of His worshippers; and since His
worshippers have, by grace, been elevated to the lofty status of sons of God, we have the right
8 / 9

to call God Abba (Father). Therefore the Believer’s following of God’s Law comes not from
fear of consequences if we don’t (the death sentence, which Yeshua has already borne for
Believers) but rather from our love of Our Father and the desire to please Him.
We’ll stop for today and finish up Romans chapter 8 next time.

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
9 / 9