The study of the Book of Romans chapter 8

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is my sincere Prayer that you are being Blessed even as you read this email.

Today, we study the Book of Romans chapter 8.

8:1 Many manuscripts omit "who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit."

8:2 Law of the Spirit of life: See the note on 7:23.

8:3 Law...was weak: There is nothing inherently wrong with the law. The presence of sin renders the believer powerless to do what the law demands. The likeness of sinful flesh: Christ was truly human but not a sinner (2 Corinthians 5:21).

8:6 To be carnally minded means to have one's life dominated by the sin nature. To be spiritually minded is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

8:9 None of his: Any who lack the Spirit are unsaved. The Holy Spirit abides in all who are regenerated (8:4; 1 Corinthians 12:13).

8:10 The body is dead: It is still mortal and subject not only to death but also to the temptation of sin. The Spirit of life anticipates verse 11 and the hope of resurrection.

8:11 Quicken your mortal bodies: Resurrection is "bodily." Resurrected believers will, like Christ, receive new physical forms (1 Corinthians 15:44).

8:12 Debtors: The word places emphasis on Paul's moral obligation. He uses the same term in 1:14.

8:13 Mortify: Death signifies separation. Here it denotes separation from the sinful deed of the flesh.

8:15 The Spirit of adoption: The Holy Spirit places the believer as a son in God's family. Abba (Aram. for "father"): This is the intimate name used only by members of the family. Its use here denotes the intimacy of the believer's relation to God.

8:17 Joint-heirs with Christ: All believers share all of the inheritance together. They also have the promise of glorification if their lives are lived devotedly and sacrificially unto the Lord.

8:18 The sufferings of this present time: See 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18. The glory which shall be revealed: The blessed hope of the Christian looks ahead with anticipation to this great moment. See also 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18; Titus 2:13.

8:19 The creature, or creation, eagerly looks forward to the revelation of the sons of God in the Millennium (Christ's thousand-year earthly reign) because that is the time when the curse will be lifted and creation will be restored to Edenic conditions.

8:20 Vanity (Greek mataioteti, "vanity," "emptiness," "frailty," "folly") is a reference to the curse of Genesis 3:14-19 and considers the whole thing as unnecessary. Creation did not actively participate in the Fall.

8:21 Delivered from the bondage of corruption: There will be no more death. The creature (or Creation) looks forward to the Millennium when redeemed man is glorified and will never again have to face God's curse.

8:22 Groaneth and travaileth in pain refers to Adam's Fall, which has caused misery from then until the present. The present sufferings of creation are the "birth pangs" of the new age to be born, the Millennium. From the Fall until now, creation has been groaning over the pointlessness of having been made subject to a curse. It eagerly looks forward to the time when the curse will be lifted (verse 19).

To be continued.

Yours in Jesus Christ,

Bishop William B. Caractor

Completely unable to find my answer!