Romans 8:1-39
This passage ends by saying we are more than conquerors, and so today's reading gets its title. But what does that mean? There is so much to read today, even though it is only one chapter, that it could take me a long time to read and re-read it.
When I looked up the timing of this letter it is written before yesterday's trip to Rome, so these folks don't know him personally, nor does he know them. But what I notice is this same eloquent style we have heard from Paul already. Yet it is a formal writing, and I think because there is a lot to take in, it isn't a reading that I can digest easily in one sitting.
Starting at the beginning, I see that Paul lets people see the relationship between what Christ did and what the law of God requires, how through Christ we are fully sanctified. This sanctification that we could not hope to achieve on our own is managed by the grace of God. I am thankful, and should be thankful every day, since I know I need this grace every day.
Then there is this news that we are heirs. I remember some of the readings earlier about inheritance, and how the son - the eldest son is due an inheritance from his father, according to the laws of the time, and we have heard that Jesus is God's son. What would that inheritance look like? To inherit everything. "The earth is the Lord's for He made it." So the firstborn son, the only son is due the inheritance. What this next says is that we are adopted into that inheritance as brothers and sisters of Christ.Wow.
The understanding that there is more later, and while we may have troubles here, what comes next is even better, and so we hope for that future. That even if we do not see it, we can hope in this future, because of the promises of God. And that explains the passage title for us, I think. If we were going to have all the glory and all the blessings now we would be conquerors, there would be nothing we couldn't subdue, but in this sense we are not conquerors, our hope is for those things as yet unseen, but promised. I will wait and trust in those promises. How about you?
See you tomorrow.
-maggie
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