Passage: Romans 8:1-4 Speaker: Danny Brooks Series: Standalone Messages
Speaker: Danny Brooks - Are there voices in your head you’d like to evict? Voices that remind you of your past failures and sin? Voices that highlight your guilt and shame and wear you down to a place of discouragement and defeat? Often those voices are connected to deeper sources of guilt and shame or the ongoing frustration and struggle with present sin. With reference to Romans 8, J. I. Packer wrote “Paul balances what the law has told Christians about themselves ("failed! weak! guilty!") with what the gospel tells them about themselves ("loved! [forgiven! justified!] saved! safe!"), and his purpose is to ensure that the gospel rather than the law has the last word in his readers' consciences and determines their final attitudes toward God, toward themselves, and toward life.” Letting God have the final word in our souls is critical to living in the freedom of the Spirit and experiencing true liberation from sin. The gospel not only includes a mighty word from God about our forgiveness of sin, but also a mighty work of God to free us in real time from the present power of sin. He really means it when He says to believers, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."