IaLP

15. Romans 8:3a What has God done?

Romans 8:3a (ESV) For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

I. What has God done?

Basically, this is the gospel or the good news of God.  This is such good news because God has done everything and you don’t have to do anything in order to save yourself.  All you have to do is believe.

Don’t believe me?  Watch this.

a. In the overabundance of God’s love (word search: womb, mercy, compassion, bowels in the KJV)

Exodus 13:2 (ESV) “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

Numbers 3:12 (ESV) “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine,

Deuteronomy 7:13 (ESV) He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.

It is the Hebrew word racham meaning tender love, mercy and compassion but it is the same word that means womb of a mother. Check how it is used here:

1 Kings 3:26 (KJV) Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

Put that all together and you get the single most powerful verse that truly speaks of God’s tender mercy, I will contend even more so than John 3:16:

Genesis 1:1a (ESV) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth

… or to put it another way:

Out of God’s love, God gave firstfruits and created the heavens and the earth, the stars, sun, moon, sea and land, animals and plants and you and me.

b. He creates the world including us, male and female, in His likeness.
Genesis 1:27 (ESV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

c. We sinned against Him by not accepting His perfect plan for shalom and order but rather doing it ourselves (Genesis 3)

d. Despite our ignorance in unbelief (1 Timothy 1:13), God would fix everything Himself (Genesis 3:15)

e. Christ came down to earth from heaven as a missionary and despite facing all of the temptations we face, He lived the perfect life that we should have lived and did not:
Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

f. Christ face the wrath of God and died in place of all the sins for all those who would believe upon His name:
1 John 4:9-10 (ESV) In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

g. Christ did this out of the love he had for us so that we might be with God forever:
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

II. If the law was not weakened by flesh and sin, could the law do what God end up doing?
Hebrews 7:18-19 (ESV) For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

cf. Matthew 5:17 (ESV) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Hebrews 7:28 (ESV) For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
III. How did we weaken the law?
a. law is the perfect standard of God
Romans 7:12 (ESV) So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

b. We kept adding rules and by-laws on top of what is already good:

It is the human nature to take something we don’t like and make it into a sin. In the 50s and 60s, rock and roll comes into popularity and all the parents and grandparents declare “I hate that noise therefore it must be a sin to listen to it.” 80s gives us Hip-Hop and the same kids who love Rock grew up to be parents and declares “I hate that noise therefore it must be a sin to listen to it.” It is in our very nature to take something we are really good at not doing and turn around and make it impossible for our brother and sister to abide by it. “Oh I can’t believe you can’t uphold that law. I can do it so easily. Let me look down upon you, you scum of the earth.”

Genesis 3:2-3 (ESV) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Adam was given the law (as we are keepers of His law) but added a by-law by the time he gave that law to Eve.

If you don’t think we don’t do that now, just think of all the times you have heard the term “unpardonable sin” whereas Jesus Christ himself declares there is only one unpardonable sin. (Matthew 12:31)

We are declaring what is sin based on nothing biblical but our likes and dislikes. That my friend is the definition of religion. How funny is it that God sent His Son not to condemn it with even more laws and bylaws and sub-committees you have to abide by in order to be saved but through Jesus Christ we might be saved. (John 3:17)

c. It is God that makes us holy, not the law
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.