It is a Thursday afternoon, and you are driving home in rush hour. Someone swerves nearly hitting your car and cuts you off. Before you have time to realize what you are doing, you yell out a curse word and wish hateful things on that person. Bam. One small instant, and you are no longer holy. Heaven requires holiness and holiness requires perfection. In that small moment of anger, you became unholy and unworthy of Heaven. Or did you? This is what Romans 8 is all about and especially verses 3 and 4.

The law of God tells us to never mess up- to remain holy always. It demands perfect love, constant obedience, and unwavering faithfulness. The reality of humanity is that this is impossible to everyone except one – Jesus. We cannot, could not, would not ever live up to the requirements God needs from us to make our way to Heaven. So, He made a way for us. Jesus came to earth and died after living a perfect life so that He would be the perfect offering for us. His death paved the way to our freedom.

When Jesus took our sin to the cross and rose from the dead, He gave us the ability to live by the Spirit of Life. He broke the chains of the flesh that held us to our sin and gave us a path to holiness. His payment, His death, His sacrifice means that when we mess up past, present and future, our fate does not change. If we accept His salvation, we are Holy by His blood and can go to Heaven.

So, as we think about Romans 8:3-4, “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, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,” let us strive to honor Jesus. He gave His life so we may live. What can we do for Him? We owe Him nothing for this gift; and yet, it seems we should still try to give Him everything.

Written By: Elizabeth Keith