“5 Questions for a Loving & Enduring Relationship with Jesus”

That’s what we’re looking at this weekend as we conclude our series on Romans 5–8.

The questions are Paul’s. There are more than five in the passage, but we’ll combine a few.

It’s one of the greatest passages in the Bible.

Here’s how the great New Testament scholar N.T. Wright describes it:

“The end of Romans 8 deserves to be written in letters of fire on the living tablets of our hearts.”

You might want to read (or reread) it before you come this weekend:

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

Snippet: The God Who Love Us Enough to Guide Us

snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.

Sarah Yardley, commenting on Psalm 119:165-168 which expresses love for God’s law:

“In a book called The Fault in Our Stars, John Green writes: ‘Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.’ …the Psalmist writes here about the great peace and freedom we can find when we know and love the instruction of God. True freedom calls me to true obedience. In freedom, I am invited to follow the God who loves me enough to make all of his ways known to me.”

I heard this on the Lectio 365 devotional the same day I read an article by Justin Giboney citing a Netflix documentary on a 1980’s commune that went bad after trying to build a utopian city “by deconstructing the social norms and religious strictures that in their view suppress one’s true self.”

“When the commune received political pushback from other residents in the area, they became anything but compassionate. In the name of free love and self-expression, they attempted murder and committed fraud and bioterrorism to get their way. They also abused each other and exploited the homeless. Their attempt to completely rid themselves of all constraints left them defenseless against their own internal evils.”*

God’s ways should matter to Christians.

Throwing off biblically based “constraints” denies our own internal evil.

Repentance and faith and living in God’s grace is needed every day, not a new commitment to living under the law (as we’ve been seeing over the last few weeks in Romans 6:1–8:17).

Loving God and his commands, and seeking his help to live “in Christ” and “in the Spirit” is the way of Christ.

What does that look like?

It looks like what a growing relationship of love looks like.

That’s not as concrete as the alternatives of following the law or throwing off constraints to be free and be me. But it’s what we’re called to be and do.

*”Christian Virtue Strengthens the Social Justice Cause: Liberation from injustice starts with obedience to God and his moral order” by Justin Giboney, Christianity Today.

Photo by Debbie Molle on Unsplash