Romans 8:3 Meditation

Text (Ro 8:3, NIV):

"For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh..."

Amplified Rendering:

When we turned from God, we became sin, death, and confusion, and no longer able to fulfill the just requirements of God's ways for us. Because the law, due to our systemic, moral sickness, could neither save us from sin, nor resurrect us from death, nor produce in us faithful, sound living, God, because of His everlasting and unfailing love(1), sent His one and only Son(2), born of a woman, born under the law(3), yet without sin(4), to suffer in Himself the penalty for our rebellion(5).

In dying, Jesus, the sinless one, took sin upon Himself. In fact, He became sin(6), and, in dying, seized sin and death by the throat, tore it from those of us who would one day call Him "Lord," and distanced it from us as far as the east is from the west(7). Further, in becoming sin, Jesus enabled us to become the righteousness of God(8). By allowing Himself to be nailed to the cross, Jesus, the Lamb slain before the foundations of the earth(9) were laid, lured the enemy (Satan and the forces of evil) into overstepping their bounds. In nailing Jesus to the cross, the enemy unwittingly carried out God's sentence of death on sin, sickness, fear, confusion, and, ultimately, death itself.

They had no idea. No idea that, in killing the Beloved and Divine Son, they were playing into the Hands of the Almighty...into the Hands of He who is restorative and renewing justice(10) and never-ending faithfulness(11). In trying to hurt God, the enemy participated unknowingly in our redemption as well as their own demise—Alleluia! In killing Jesus, the righteous God who became a sinless man, they sealed forever sin's final extermination(12) as well as their own annihilation(13). God's greatest act of love became the theater for the greatest act of self-destruction ever known.

Consecrating Prayer:

Holy Father...

Words cannot express my gratefulness to You and for what You did in giving us Your Son. Your wisdom is beyond comprehension(14). Who can fathom it? I cannot.

About all I can do is acknowledge it, give You thanks for it, and rest in it. Come what may, You have me in Your Hands, and I know now that no one will ever be able to snatch me from them(15).

In the Name of Jesus, I declare these truths...

Amen.

Notes

1. See Ex 34:6, Ps 36:5, and Je 31:3.

2. See Jn 3:16.

3. See Ga 4:4.

4. See 2Co 5:21, 1Pe 2:22, and 1Jn 3:5.

5. See Ga 3:13-15.

6. See 2Co 5:21.

7. See Ps 103:12.

8. See 2Co 5:21.

9. See Re 13:8.

10. See Dt 32:3-4 and Pss 89:14 and 145:17.

11. See Dt 7:19, Ze 7:8-9, and He 6:18.

12. See Jn 1:29 and 1Jn 3:5.

13. See Re 17:14 and 20:10.

14. See Is 40:28.

15. See Jn 10:28-30.

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