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Romans

Romans 8 – Life in the Spirit and Final Glory

Published since 02. Dec. 2025
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Romans 8
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But how does this deliverance work? How is it actually carried out? We get the answer as we begin reading chapter 8. At the end of chapter 7, the “law of sin and of death” proved itself much stronger than the “law of the renewed mind.” In the opening of chapter 8, the “law of the Spirit” (who is now given to the believer) proves itself far stronger than the law of sin and death. The apostle can joyfully say, it has made me free.

Not only do we have life in Christ Jesus, but the Spirit of that life has been given to us. Through this, a new power enters our lives. When we come under the controlling power of the Spirit of God, we are released from the controlling power of sin and death. The greater law overrides the lesser.

We can illustrate this with many examples from nature. Take a piece of iron. It lies still on the ground, held there by the law of gravity. An electromagnet is placed above it, and the current is switched on. At once, the iron leaps upward, as though it suddenly had wings. A new controlling force has come into play, which, within certain limits, proves stronger than gravity.

The Holy Spirit is given to us so that He may control us, not so that we may control Him. How does He exert His influence? He works within the believer, but always in connection with an attractive Object outside—Christ Jesus our Lord. He is here, not to speak about Himself or to glorify Himself, but to glorify Christ. He dwells in us, not to nourish the old life—the life of the first Adam—but the life of Christ, the last Adam. We are “in Christ Jesus,” as verse 1 says, and we are that without any qualification at all, for the extra words at the end of the verse in the Authorized Version should not be there—they have evidently been copied from verse 4, where they do belong.

There is nothing to condemn in Christ Jesus, and there is nothing to condemn for those who are in Christ Jesus. The reason is twofold. Verses 2 and 3 each give a reason, both beginning with “for.” Verse 2 gives the practical (or experimental) reason: the believer, under the control of the Spirit, is set free from the control of what once brought condemnation in. Because this verse describes a liberty that must be experienced, the apostle still speaks in a personal way: “has made me free.”

Verse 3, on the other hand, states what God has accomplished judicially at the cross of Christ. The law had been shown to be weak through the flesh, though in itself it was holy, just, and good. It was like a master sculptor set to carve a beautiful and lasting monument out of a great heap of wet mud—a hopeless task, not because of any lack in the sculptor, but because of the utterly unsuitable material. The law could condemn the sinner, but it could not so condemn sin in the flesh that people might be set free from its slavery and, walking according to the Spirit, actually fulfil what the law righteously demanded.

What the law could not do, God has done. He sent His own Son, who came “in the likeness of sinful flesh”—only in the likeness of it, note well, for although He was truly Man, He was a perfect Man, without even the slightest taint of sin. God sent Him “for sin,” that is, as a sacrifice for sin, so that in His death sin in the flesh might be condemned. Sin is the root principle behind everything wrong in man, and “the flesh” is that in man which gives sin its channel for activity, just as electricity generated at a power station finds its channel in the wires that carry it.

We know that sin first originated in heaven. It began with Satan and the fallen angels. But Christ did not come to die for angels, and so it was not sin in the nature of angels that was condemned. He died for human beings, and it was sin in the flesh that was condemned. Notice, it was condemned, not forgiven. God forgives sins, which are the fruits of sin in the flesh; but sin itself—the root principle—and the flesh—the nature in which it operates—are not forgiven but unsparingly condemned. God has condemned them in the cross of Christ. We must learn to condemn them in our own experience.

We are to judge as God judges. We are to see as He sees. If sin and the flesh lie under His condemnation, they must lie under ours. With sin and the flesh judged at the cross, the Holy Spirit has been given to us to energize the new life we have. If we walk in the Spirit, then all our activities—both of mind and body—come under His control, and as a result, we are found doing what the law requires.

This is truly remarkable. When we were under the law and “in the flesh,” we struggled to fulfill the law’s demands and constantly failed. Now that we have been delivered from the law, are in Christ Jesus, and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, there is a power that enables us to fulfil it. As we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh—and to the extent that we do so—we actually carry out what the law rightly demanded. This is a tremendous triumph of the grace of God. In fact, the triumph can be even greater, for it is possible for the Christian to “walk even as He [Christ] walked” (1 John 2:6). And Christ’s walk went far beyond anything the law demanded.

We may summarize it like this: the Christian, according to God’s thoughts, is not only forgiven, justified, reconciled, and indwelt by the Spirit who pours out God’s love in his heart; he also sees that sin and the flesh have been condemned on the cross. He realizes that his true, vital link before God is not with fallen Adam, but with risen Christ. He is in Christ Jesus and indwelt by the Spirit, who controls him and fills him with Christ as a bright and attractive Object before his eyes, so that he may walk in joyful deliverance from the power of sin and gladly do the will of God.

Nothing less than this is what the Gospel sets before us. What do we think of it? We call it magnificent. We say the whole plan is worthy of the mind and heart of God. Then our conscience starts to trouble us, reminding us how little these glorious possibilities have become actual realities in our daily lives.

Notice that Paul does not put down his pen or change the subject after verse 4. There is more to be said that may help us to enter practically into this blessed deliverance, so that we may live out the life of Christ in the power of the Spirit of God. Verses 5–13 continue the subject in a very practical way.

Two classes of people are described: those who are “according to the flesh” and those who are “according to the Spirit.” Those according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; those according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. The mindset of the flesh is death; the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. The two classes are opposite in nature, character, and outcome. They belong to two entirely different spheres. Paul is speaking abstractly here—he is looking at things according to their inner nature, not talking about particular individuals and their mixed experiences.

Of course, we may rightly ask about our own experience. What then? We must admit that although we are not “in the flesh,” we still have the flesh in us. It is therefore possible for us to turn aside from setting our minds on the things of the Spirit and begin to set our minds on the things of the flesh. And to the degree that we do this, we come into contact with death, instead of life and peace. But we must not deceive ourselves—if we go after the things of the flesh, we are not going after things that properly belong to the Christian at all, but things that are abnormal and wrong for him.

The things of the flesh appeal to the mind of the flesh, and that mind is “hostile to God.” This may sound harsh, but it is true, for the flesh is essentially lawless. It is not subject to God’s law and cannot be. Do we believe that? Educate the flesh, refine it, make it religious; starve it, flog it, restrain it—it is still the same flesh. The only proper thing to do with it is to condemn it and put it aside, and this is exactly what God has done, as verse 3 tells us. May we have the wisdom and grace to do the same.

Since the mind of the flesh is nothing but hostility against God, it is clear that those who are “in the flesh” cannot please God. For a complete contrast, look at 1 John 3:9, where we read that the one born of God “cannot sin.” Everyone who is not born of God is “in the flesh”— the flesh and nothing else characterize his whole state. There is no new nature in him; therefore, everything he thinks and does springs from the flesh and is displeasing to God. The one who is born of God shares in the nature of the One of whom he is born.

But the believer is not only born of God; he is also indwelt by the Spirit of God, who seals him as belonging to Christ. This great fact completely changes his state. He is no longer “in the flesh,” but “in the Spirit”—that is, his state is characterized by the presence and power of the Spirit of God, who is also called in verse 9 “the Spirit of Christ.” It is the same Spirit, yet the change in title is meaningful. Christ is the One from whom we derive our spiritual life, and the One to whom we belong. If we truly belong to Him, we have His Spirit—and therefore we ought to be Christlike in our inner character, so much so that others can see that Christ is in us.

According to verse 10, Christ is in us if His Spirit dwells in us, and so we are not to be ruled by our bodies. We are to consider them as dead, for if they act, they only produce sin. The Spirit is to be the power of our lives, and then the result will be righteousness—doing the will of God in practice.

Our bodies are called “mortal bodies” in verse 11. They are subject to death; death is in them from the start. At the Lord’s coming, they will be given life. The God who raised Jesus from the dead will do this by His Spirit. In this connection, the Holy Spirit is given yet another title: He is “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead.” Dwelling in us in this character, He is the pledge that our mortal bodies will be given life—whether through resurrection, if we have died, or through instant change, if we are alive at His coming.

The conclusion from all this is that the flesh has no claim on us at all. It has been judged at the cross. It is hostile to God, and always will be. We are not in the flesh; the Spirit indwells us and are “in the Spirit.” We are in no way debtors to the flesh, to live according to it, for a life lived according to the flesh has only one end—death. The Spirit is in us so that we may live according to Him. This means putting to death the deeds of the body—refusing the body’s sinful impulses and desires in practice. That is the pathway of true life according to God.

All of this shows how important the indwelling Spirit of God is. He produces an entirely new state in the believer and gives that state its character. He is the power of Christian life in us, the energy that breaks sin’s power and sets us free. But He is more than a power: He is a Person dwelling in us, taking charge of us.

In the old dispensation, the Jew was under the law as a “schoolmaster” or tutor. The law took him by the hand as a child and led him until Christ came. Now that Christ has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster, but stand as sons of full age in the Father’s house. Not only are we sons, but we also have the Spirit of God’s Son. This we learn in Galatians 3 and 4, and verse 14 of our chapter refers to the same truth.

Those who were in the position of minors were put under law and led by it. We, who have received the Spirit of God and are led by Him, are the sons of God. Christ, the Captain of our salvation, is in glory; the Spirit dwells in us on earth as our Leader along the path that goes up to that glory. Praise be to our God! Our hearts should indeed overflow with praise.

Romans 8 gives us a wonderful unfolding of truth about the Spirit of God. In verse 2, He is “the law” (the governing principle) of the believer’s life. In verse 10, He is “life” experimentally in the believer. In verse 14, He is the Leader, under whose guardianship we are placed on our way to glory.

Further, He is a Witness, as we see in verse 16. Being made sons of God, we have received the Spirit of adoption, and two results follow. First, we are able to respond to the relationship we have been brought into, turning to God with the cry, “Abba, Father.” Second, the Spirit gives us the conscious enjoyment of this relationship. We know in our own spirits that something has happened that has brought us from darkness into light. The Spirit confirms this, bearing witness together with our spirit that we are children of God.

The witness goes further still: if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. By the Spirit we are united with Christ (though this truth is more fully developed elsewhere). What astonishing truth this is! Our familiarity with the words often dulls our sense of their meaning. Let us stay with these things long enough for the truth to sink into our hearts.

The chapter began by stating that we are in Christ if we are truly believers. Then we learned that, having the Spirit of Christ, Christ is in us. Now we come to see that we are identified with Him both in present suffering and in future glory. The point here is not that we suffer for Christ in service and will be rewarded with glory—that is taught elsewhere. The point here is that, being in Him and He in us, we share in His life and circumstances—both in His sufferings now and in His glory to come.

This leads Paul to consider the contrast between present sufferings and future glory, which is developed in verses 18–30. However, the main statement is given at once: the sufferings are not even worth comparing with the glory.

The same contrast appears in 2 Corinthians 4:17, in even stronger language: “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” In Romans 8, however, the contrast is developed with more detail. The paragraph seems to divide into three parts: (1) the character of the coming glory; (2) the believer’s comfort and encouragement in present sufferings; and (3) the purpose of God that secures the glory.

First, the glory is connected with the manifestation of the sons of God. The sons will be revealed when the Son, the Firstborn and Heir, appears in His glory. Then the creation will be delivered from its bondage to corruption and share in “the liberty of the glory of the children of God” (New Translation). It has been well said that creation does not share in the liberty of grace which we now enjoy in the midst of suffering, but it will share in the liberty of glory. Creation was not made subject to futility by its own choice, but as a result of the sin of the one who ruled over it—Adam. So creation is pictured as eagerly waiting in hope of the deliverance that will arrive with the revealing of that glory. When the sons of God are publicly glorified, the year of release and jubilee for all creation will have come. What glory that will be! How do our present sufferings appear in the light of that?

Still, there are these sufferings—whether for creation as a whole or for ourselves in particular. Verse 22 speaks of creation; verses 23 and 26 speak of us. We have weaknesses, as well as groanings that come from pain—physical or mental. What, then, do we have to support us?

Again, the answer is: we have the Spirit. He is now presented in three more roles: Firstfruits (v. 23), Helper, and Intercessor (v. 26).

We are already sons of God. Yet we still wait for “the adoption”—that is, the full state and glory of sonship—which will be reached when our bodies are redeemed at the Lord’s coming. We have been saved in hope (not “by” hope) and therefore are placed in a position of patient waiting for the promised glory. We are saved, looking forward to splendid things to come, and yet we already have the Firstfruits in the Spirit who has been given to us. The firstfruits were offered in Israel as the pledge and foretaste of the coming harvest (see Lev. 23:10, 17, 20). Likewise, in the Firstfruits of the Spirit, we have the pledge and foretaste of the redeemed body and the glory ahead.

The Spirit also helps our weaknesses. This shows clearly that weakness is not the same as sin, for the Spirit never helps our sins. Weakness is limitation—mental and physical—and if we are left unaided, we may easily fall and become prey to sin. The Spirit’s help strengthens us and delivers us.

Furthermore, ofbecause is our weakness and limitations, we often find ourselves in situations where we simply do not know what to pray for. Then the Spirit, who dwells in us, takes up the role of Intercessor, and expresses Himself in our groanings, which cannot be put into words. God, who searches every heart, knows the mind and desire of the Spirit, for all His desires and intercessions are perfectly in line with the will of God—whatever ours may be. God hears according to the Spirit’s desires, not according to ours—and we may be deeply thankful that this is so.

We must not miss the connection between verses 26 and 28, though it is not very clear in our usual translation. The thought is: “We do not know what we should pray for as we ought … but we do know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” This event and that event may each seem to work for harm, but taken together, they work for our spiritual good. This must be so, since the Spirit indwells us, helping our weaknesses and interceding in our confusion, and since God has taken us up according to His purpose, which cannot be frustrated.

This brings us to the third point: the purpose of God that secures the glory. Two verses contain the whole statement, and their very brevity gives them great force.

There are five links in this golden chain of divine purpose. First is foreknowledge, rooted in God’s omniscience—rooted in eternity itself. Next is predestination: a decision of the divine mind, determining that those whom He foreknew would be brought to a certain glorious place, long before they existed in time. From other passages, we know that this predestination was before the foundation of the world.

Then comes the effectual call that reached us in the Gospel. Here we come down to time—the moments in our lives when we believed. Almost at the same moment, as far as our experience is concerned, we were justified. Finally, “whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Here, the chain, having dipped down from eternity into time, returns into eternity.

Notice that it says “glorified” (past tense), not “will glorify.” This is because, when we see things from the standpoint of God’s purpose, we step outside of time and must see things as He sees them. He “calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17). He chooses “things which are not” (1 Cor. 1:28). Things that are “not yet” to us already exist for Him. We are glorified in God’s purpose. It is as good as done, because His purpose is never overturned by any opposing power.

So this is where we have arrived: In the Gospel, God has shown Himself for us in the marvels of His justifying grace (up through the end of chapter 5). Then the question was raised: What should our response be? We have learned that, though we have no power in ourselves to make a worthy response, there is power, because we are in Christ and indwelt by the Spirit of God. We are set free from our old bondage so we may do God’s will. We have also seen how many roles the Spirit fills as He dwells in us: He is Law, Life, Leader, Witness, Firstfruits, Helper, and Intercessor. And beyond all this, we find ourselves held in the purpose of God that culminates in glory—a purpose nothing can frustrate.

No wonder Paul returns to his question, “What shall we then say to these things?” (v. 31). What can we say but words full of exultation? From verse 31 to the end of the chapter, we have a series of questions and answers, fired out in rapid succession by a heart burning with triumph. These verses are more for meditation than for detailed exposition; we will just highlight some of the main points.

“God is for us!” Fallen man naturally thinks of God as against him. The Gospel proves the opposite. God’s heart is turned toward all people, and He is actively and eternally for all who believe. This silences every foe. No one can effectively be against us, however much they might desire it.

The gift of God’s Son guarantees every lesser gift that we can have with Him. Notice in verse 32 the words “freely” and “with Him.” Do we desire anything that we cannot have with Christ? In haste or foolishness, we may sometimes want such things. But on reflection, we would not for one moment wish to have what would mean separation from Him.

God is the One who justifies us—not man. In that light, no one will succeed in bringing a single charge against us. Even in human courts, if the judge has declared a prisoner not guilty, it is almost slander to go on accusing him.

If no charge can stand, there is no fear of condemnation. But if that could ever be questioned, there is a complete answer in Christ, once dead, now risen, at God’s right hand as our Intercessor. Note that in this chapter we have two intercessors: Christ at God’s right hand and the Spirit in the saints on earth (vv. 26, 34).

Could there be a more perfect proof of Christ’s personal love than we already have? We could not ask for one. Still, our fearful hearts may ask: Might something arise—some power or circumstance—that could separate us from this love? Well, let us search and see. Let us mentally search the universe.

In this world, which we know so well, there is a whole range of hostile forces. Some are direct attacks from wicked people, such as persecution or the sword. Others are indirect results of sin under God’s government, such as distress, famine, nakedness, or danger. Can any of these seen and felt things separate us from the love of Christ? No, not for a moment! Again and again, nervous young believers have been threatened by cruel men determined to “beat this religion out of them,” and again and again the result has been exactly the opposite. Far from being driven away, they have been rooted more firmly in the truth and in Christ’s love, coming out not only as conquerors but as more than conquerors. The very things meant to crush them have deepened them in the love of Christ.

But there is also an unseen world, full of things we understand very little. Unknown troubles always seem more frightening than known ones. There are the mysteries of death as well as of life. There are angelic or spiritual powers. There are unknown things in future ages or distant regions. What about these?

The answer is: none of them can separate us from the love of God. That love rests upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is the infinitely worthy Object of that love, and we are in it because we are in Him. The love reached us in Him, and we, being in Him, stand permanently in that love. If Christ can be taken out of the embrace of that love, then we can be; if He cannot, neither can we. Once we realize that, Paul’s conviction becomes our conviction: nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So Romans 8, which began with “no condemnation,” ends with “no separation.” And in between, we discover that we are taken up according to the purpose of God—a purpose that cannot be broken or violated.

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