Romans 8

Doctrine: Believers have no condemnation. The Holy Spirit convicts; the flesh condemns. When we condemn ourselves or others we are stating that Christ's sacrifice was not enough. This verse was a specific conclusion for the specific application presented in the previous chapter. There would be no condemnation to the person's being (Mind/Soul) in the specific example presented in the previous chapter: a believer intent on doing good from their Mind/Soul but actually doing bad because of sin in their body/flesh/brain.

Doctrine: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ" is grace and it has made us free from the "law of sin and death."

Doctrine: The Law was weak to result in people doing good because of the flesh. The Law couldn't team up with the Soul to know specifically what to do. The Law focused on what not to do. However, now the Soul is able to allow the Holy Spirit to direct the actions: to know what to do, which is grace.

Doctrine: God sent Christ in the flesh to give us the ability to overcome our flesh so that the Righteousness of the Law would be fulfilled in us. This is possible only by walking after the Spirit, which is living by grace: the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.

Being physically minded as a cause brings death as an effect which would be seen by others as sin, and the person's response would be to pridefully justify their sin. Being spiritually minded as a cause brings life and peace as an effect and that even though sin could result (because of the flesh), the person's response to the Law (and others) pointing out the sin would be confession and repentance: the person humbly and joyfully removing and repairing the sin in their flesh while not getting in condemnation because they know they are actually their Mind/Soul and not their body/flesh/brain. Notice, God is able to give you an influence intended for good that may end up with you doing sin because of your flaws. God could even do this in order to make you aware you need to remove and repair this sin in you. Which is your focus?

Doctrine: The "mind" of the flesh, the flesh as a being, is against God. Those in the flesh cannot please God. The flesh thinks short term and is without faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Notice how the being of the individual is the Mind/Soul and what the being of the individual chooses to focus on (the Holy Spirit through their spirit or their flesh/body/brain) is the responsibility of the individual with respect to Salvation.

Doctrine: If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ (Holy Spirit) he is not Christ's. God provided the Holy Spirit to all and it is the choice of the individual to be influenced by the Holy Spirit (grace) that determines if a person is saved or not.

Doctrine: Righteousness brings life. This verse was stated with an "if". This verse was spoken only to those who chose to follow Biblical Grace.

Doctrine: Those who are led by the Holy Spirit (grace) are sons of God because they have received the "spirit of adoption."

By this adoption, believers are joint-heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified together. Again, the "if" implied that this was a choice.

The suffering believers experience now is not worthy of comparison to the glory believers will see.

Doctrine: We are saved by hope/faith. Hope that is seen is not hope, just as faith that is seen is not faith. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1, is "a belief in something you cannot see" either because it is invisible or it hasn't happened yet.

Doctrine: The Holy Spirit prays for us when we do not know what we ought to pray for.

Doctrine: If you love God and follow His influence, He can turn any situation you are in to something that bears fruit. Notice, there were two qualifiers:

1. love God

2. called according to His purpose, which is Biblical Grace.

Also, "good" meant it bore fruit, it was profitable. This verse was similar to when Paul previously stated that where sin abounds, grace abounds more, enough to result in something being created.

Some misinterpret this verse to say that God can unilaterally make situations what they were meant to be regardless of what anyone did. This not only denies the existence of the two qualifiers, it denies the context of the previous seven chapters. More subtly, God will not restore a situation to what it could have been if we originally acted apart from His influence. A way to see this is to imagine God intended for you to do something that would have resulted in you gaining $100. Instead, you did what you wanted and ended up spending $5. If you love God and listen to His influence, God will be able to make the situation result in you gaining at least $1 instead of it costing $5. However, it will not result in the $100 that God originally intended for you.

Remember this chapter was concerned with believers. God foreknew everyone, otherwise He is not God. We have seen Paul made the case that God provided everything a person would need to attain Salvation...which meant God foreordained, called, and justified everyone.

We saw Paul stated Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross resulted in everyone having the ability to be justified. However, it was up to the individual to choose to believe this by faith. Every believer was glorified, justified, called, foreordained, and foreknown by God. However, every non-believer was foreknown, foreordained, called, and justified. What is missing for the non-believer? - being glorified.

The word "glory" means "intrinsic value" and resulted in "thinking well of." So, glorified would mean the individual recognized (perceived/thought of) the value within God, enough to let God's influence direct his actions, which would cause God to value (and think well of) the individual.

Remember, the critical passage in the first chapter stated the ultimate cause of people being non-believers:

"20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse:

21 because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened."

Non-believers "glorified him not as God"! The non-believer's unwillingness to receive this justification by faith was the reason he was not glorified. God did not think well of non-believers, so His wrath was against them. God valued those who valued Him. Remember, this chapter was focused on those who chose to continually walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh. This was the cause of being "glorified."

What better "value" is there than continually walking according to the Spirit and not the flesh"? Whether or not you are "glorified" depends on whether or not you choose to see the value within God enough to walk by His Spirit. Is the divine influence upon your heart being reflected in your life?

Doctrine: The word "foreordained" or predestined meant "to limit in advance." This did not mean that every thought and action you ever had or will have was planned out before you were born. For example, males are foreordained not to bear children. In this passage, foreordained/predestined meant that everyone was limited in advance to end up in only one of two places for eternity: the new Jerusalem or the lake of fire. Everyone was limited to these two options in advance of anyone being born. Where you end up out of the two options is dependent on your choice.

Calvinists create their own doctrine of "foreordained" to mean that God decided every individual's eternal habitation ahead of their birth and there was nothing the individual could have done about it. People who were "foreordained" by God to end up in the new Jerusalem will end up there whether they want to or not. People who were "foreordained" by God to end up in the lake of fire will end up there no matter what they choose or want. Calvinists interpret verses 29 and 30 backwards: only those who were glorified were justified, and only those who were justified were called, etc. Again, the only way to misinterpret these verses in this fashion is to ignore the previous seven chapters of the Book of Romans.

Doctrine: Christ was delivered up for us all. God freely gave to us all..."All" meant "every person who has, is, and will ever live". The other key to coming to a misinterpretation along Calvinist lines is to ignore the verses immediately before and immediately after the verses that are being taken out of context. We saw the previous seven chapters prevented verses 29 and 30 from being interpreted as Calvinistic. Now we see the two verses immediately following verses 29 and 30 also contradicted a Calvinistic interpretation.

Doctrine: God justified all and Christ also makes intercession for us. Again, two more verses that showed that God does not condemn people against their will. These verses specifically stated that God and Jesus supplied everything necessary for Salvation.

Paul referenced Psalm 44:22.

Verses 35-39 listed things which cannot separate us (believers) from the love of God which is in Christ. Notice that "you" (Mind/Soul) were not in this list. You are the only thing that can separate you from the love of Christ. This happens by you (Mind/Soul) choosing not to live by the Spirit. If Calvinism were true, this verse would especially have stated that "not even you can separate yourself from the love of God."

Theme of Chapter 8: Paul built on the foundation of the previous chapter that the difference between being a believer was whether we (Mind/Soul) recognized the value within God enough to choose to want to do good and choose to serve God through our being. This chapter more specifically assured us of our Salvation, if we love God and live in the Spirit according to grace. God would take any unprofitable situation and work it for good. Nothing would be able to separate us (Mind/Soul) from the love of God if we choose to believe our justification by faith.