Romans 8
Before Jesus came to the earth, we didn’t have any hope. We were lost in our sins. When we give our life to Jesus, our sins are forgiven. God does not condemn us. He loves us.
Ever since God gave His law to Moses, we have been trying to obey that law – trying and failing.
Our sinful, human bodies kept doing what was wrong.
This is why we could never be saved by following the law – we simply could not follow it. Our fleshly impulses and desires always got in the way.
But when Jesus came to the earth, He was tempted to sin just like we are, but He overcame temptation and did not sin – not even once. And because He did not sin, Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf and this set us free from it.
Instead of having a written law, God wrote the law on our hearts.
When we give our life to Jesus, God fills us with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit reminds us of the law that God has put in our hearts and He also gives us the strength to withstand temptation.
While we live on this earth, we still struggle against sin, but now we have help, because the Spirit of Jesus has come into our hearts and he leads and guides us.
But we are not perfect. We will not be made perfect until Jesus comes and takes us to Heaven.
At that time, He will take away our old, sinful bodies and give us brand new bodies and a brand new nature – one that will never sin again. We will be free at last. We patiently wait for that time.
In the mean time, we still live in a sinful body and this means that we still do sin.
But now, all we have to do is ask God to forgive our sin in the Name of Jesus, and we are instantly and completely forgiven. In God’s eyes, it is as if we never sinned.
As we walk with Jesus every day and follow the leading of the Spirit, we become more like Him.
When we love God, we will still experience hard times because we live on this sinful earth, but God promises to take every hard situation and bring good out of it. What a comfort this is.
When you have God on your side, no-one can successfully come against you. They might try, but they won’t succeed.
God does not condemn us. He loves us and He sent Jesus to save us. Now Jesus is in Heaven, working continually on our behalf.
There is nothing at all – not any amount of trouble or hardship – that can separate us from God’s love.
