Romans 8 Free From Indwelling Sin

 

Romans 8 – Free From Indwelling Sin

 

No truth is more glorious to imprisoned people than to be told that they are no longer condemned but are set free! Christ brings that good news. When people accept Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf, they are freed from the tyranny of sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Condemnation means an eternity apart from God. No condemnation means living with Him, now and forever.

Often believers who have been set free keep themselves behind bars. They feel guilty about their past, or guilty that they cannot be perfect in this life. Guilt can be good when it helps us to know when we have done something wrong. But guilt can also keep people from being able to rejoice in their new life or to bring others to Christ. That kind of guilt is a prison. We needn’t stay locked up if Christ has set us free. Christ’s death on the cross sets them free. They have been forgiven and are promised eternal life. If Christ no longer condemns us, then neither should we condemn ourselves. Beating ourselves up over sins that we have brought to God only keeps us imprisoned in our guilt. Christ has set us free.

Suffering was very real for the early believers. Persecution was part of the package when someone became a Christian. Jews who became believers faced persecution from fellow Jews who did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Gentiles who became believers faced charges of treason for refusing to worship the emperor. Persecution has continued throughout the centuries, and today’s believers are not immune. Our suffering may seem to have a stranglehold on us, but in eternities perspective, it loses its grip. God promises Glory, we can count on it!

In heaven God will make everything perfect. He promises believers new and perfect bodies that will never get sick and never die. Our earthly bodies face genetic problems that sometimes cannot be reversed or cured. Many people live in darkness, in silence, or bound to a wheelchair. Yet many love Christ and serve Him faithfully even through difficult life challenges. How wonderful will be that day, especially for those who now face physical burdens, when Christ returns and all believers will be given brand new bodies, seeing, hearing, running, jumping in the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Painful separations happen constantly, friends move away; loved ones die, marriages break up. When people have trusted Christ for salvation, however, nothing can separate them from the love of God. Death cannot separate, for we will be in God’s presence. Nothing in life is powerful enough to take God away. Nothing in the realm of the unseen, nothing in time, and nothing in all the vast universe can separate believers from God’s love. When we feel alone or far from God, we must remember His promise that He is with us always, even to the end of the world.