Meditation

Meditation: Romans 8:3

Reading: Romans 8:1-17

In verse 3 Paul says that the law was weakened. It is not the law which caused death; it was because of our sin that the law brought death. The law was good: if you disobey God’s commandments, you will surely die. No matter how hard you try to make up for that, your sin deserves capital punishment. Sin leads to death. If God would tolerate sin, then that would mean the end of His beautiful creation. And therefore, in order to restore His creation, this law first has to be fulfilled.

It is our own sinful nature that weakened that law, that made it impossible that the law would save us. If we had not disobeyed God, then we would still be able to live through this law. The fault is with our sinful flesh. We are totally helpless. We would die eternally if God did not give the way out.

Therefore, God sent His own Son to become human, in our own human, sinful nature. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. It is all out of love for us that God sent His Son Who came to assume human flesh. He came in a human body. At the end of chapter 8, in verse 29-30, there we read that it was all decided by God, already before everything was created. There Paul says that those whom God foreknew, He also predestined. God made His plan of salvation before He created the world, and God sent His Son Jesus Christ, with already in mind that He would save us, His people, Christ’s church. You, who believe. Jesus Christ came to give His life, to save you from the power of sin and death and to give you life.

It is out of love for you that Christ came on earth, in a body just like ours. He, Who is God, in the heavenly glory, came to this earth and humbled Himself. In everything He became like us. Except one difference: He was without sin. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He did not come in sinful flesh, because He was without sin. But for the rest, He was completely like us, truly human. He suffered sickness, pain, He was tired, He had disappointments, He grieved, He wept. He knows all our difficulties. But He also took upon Himself the punishment which we deserved. Although He was without sin, He did pay for our sins, for all our sins, on our behalf.

In Romans 5 Paul explained that Christ came as the second Adam. Adam as the head of entire mankind sinned against God and through him sin entered this creation. Now Christ came and He can act on our behalf, He represented us when He came to pay for our sins. He took our sins away from us and upon Himself. He died, He was forsaken by God when He was on the cross. He suffered eternal death. But now, what was impossible for us who are mere human beings, was not impossible for Christ: He defeated the power of eternal death, He broke the power of sin and death, He rose from the dead. Because we believe in Him, we may know that Christ paid for all our sins. We are righteous.

That is what the Spirit of life, the Spirit of Christ, gives to us. The law of the Spirit of life is a law that is more powerful than the law of sin and death, because it finds its power in the Spirit of Christ. Christ came to give us life, to make us one with Him in His death and in His resurrection. What was impossible for us, is being made possible, through Christ.