Romans 8:1

We have been working through the book of Romans since January of this year and have arrived in Romans 8 this week.  The first verse has been rattling around in my head for the past couple of days -

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The implications of that are huge and I’m looking forward to hearing our pastor preach through this passage. I know he’s excited about it too.

I received this quote by email today and loved how well it fit with what we’ll be talking about on Sunday -

“There is only one way for any of us to resolve the tension between the high ideals of the gospel and the grim reality of ourselves: to accept that we will never measure up, but that we do not have to. We are judged by the righteousness of the Christ who lives within, not our own. Tolstoy got it halfway right: anything that makes me feel comfort with God’s moral standard, anything that makes me feel “At last I have arrived,” is a cruel deception. But Dostoevsky got the other half right: anything that makes me feel discomfort with God’s forgiving love is also a cruel deception. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That message, Leo Tolstoy never fully grasped.”

The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey, pg. 142