Faith & Love: A One Year Bible Reading Plan - Part 2Sýnishorn

Samuel Coleridge calls the book of Romans ‘the most profound work in existence,’ and John Piper calls the eighth chapter in this book ‘the greatest chapter in the Bible’ what a statement. Although there is such a depth of themes we could explore in this chapter, I want to highlight two thoughts from verse 3. It reads: "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh."

1. God has done what the law couldn’t.

Firstly, there is a statement: God has done what the law –referring to the mosaic law put forth by Moses on mount Sinai (Exodus 20) – could not accomplish because it was made weak by the flesh. God’s law was meant to give His people a guideline for living rightly before God. The problem was that, although the people had the guideline for living well, they could not actually follow it. This was because it was weakened by ‘the flesh,’ meaning our mortal, sinful nature. Basically: the Law had what was right but had no might.

2. Jesus was the way God did it.

The law couldn’t do what it intended, so God sent Jesus to deal with the underlying issue: the sinful nature of humanity. How did he do it? Well, he sent Jesus, not in glory and fame, but as a small and fragile baby. The baby grew and became a full-grown man, looking from the outside exactly like the sinful, unable-to-fulfill-the-law people around Him. But he wasn’t. He was perfect in every way and in every way, capable of fulfilling the law God put out for us. This perfect man then took the sinful nature that rendered us incapable of pleasing God, placed it on Himself, and took it with him to the grave.

The amazing thing is that Jesus rose back to life. But your sinful nature is dead, truly dead and buried, never to be uncovered again. If you believe in Christ Jesus, your sinful nature, unable to please God, is dead and gone.

So how does this change your view of building a relationship with the Father? Does this change the way you look at the sinful habits in your life? How does knowing your old sinful nature is dead and buried impact your daily walk in life?