Everest - Romans 8

“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives you life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”  (Romans 8:1)
 
If you think of the New Testament letters as a mountain range like the Himalayas, then Romans chapter 8 might be Everest.  It is majestic.  It describes the identity and basic worldview that people filled with the Holy Spirit can expect. 
 
In Romans 8 we see that life with LOVE will not be pain-free but it can be guilt-free.  We are invited to adopt a basic worldview for our lives as a child of LOVE.  This approach to life means we are intimate with our heavenly father, we are intimidated by nothing and we inherit everything LOVE has.  This approach to life means that we face suffering fuelled by a LOVE from which we can never be separated.
 
These truths are desperately needed by everyone alive, no more so than is true for unchurched younger generations, characterised as being young, successful, busy and lonely.  In 2016 The Independent reported that, “Eighty-six per cent of millennials reported feeling lonely and depressed in a 2011 study.  A study in 2014 found 18-24-year-olds were four times as likely to feel lonely all the time as those aged 70 and above.”  The proposed solution was a new friendship app.  That’s not going to work.  What’s needed is set out in Romans chapter 8.
 
Read the whole chapter again.  And again.  And again.  Until the penny drops.  LOVE loves you.  You are his child.  And he is a good, good, Father.  Pray and just say thank you, and ask the Holy Spirit to reconvince you of the great truths of Romans 8 deeper and deeper every day.  It is your true identity and basic approach for everything in life.  Pray for our younger generations that they might come to know the truths that we’re reading and that we might have the courage and creativity to show and tell them that it’s true.
 
“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14)