Hope In The Compassion Of God Series

We continue in our series on Hope Found Here, and this month we are considering the Hope we have in the Compassion of Father God.

When we come by faith to Jesus we enter into a covenant relationship with God. Because of His Compassion, His love, His mercy, because of the sacrifice of Jesus we are forgiven. We are called His children. We are adopted into His family.When Father God looks at you or me it is the righteousness of Jesus that God sees.

God has shown His Compassion and His love to us by giving us a way to be saved. Repenting from our sin and turning to Jesus as Lord and Saviour changes us, our old lives are gone, we are transformed from to death to life, from darkness to light, born again as Children of the living God.

To focus our thoughts listen to these words of the Apostle Paul from Romans 8:14-17, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.” For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.

Let me give you a little background to put this verse into context:

It’s the winter of A.D. 57-58, Paul is in Corinth at the close of his third missionary journey. Soon He will return to Jerusalem with an offering for the poor. A woman named Phoebe, who lives in a suburb of Corinth, is going to sail to Rome soon and Paul gives her a letter to take to the church in Rome.

The only postal service in the Roman Empire was for government business, personal letters had to be carried by friends. Paul wanted the Christians in Rome to have a written explanation of the gospel. He wrote this letter, which Phoebe delivered safely to the church.

Paul thought this letter may be his only communication with the church in Rome, so he wrote about two important truths of the Christian faith – the belief that results in salvation and the behaviour that results from salvation.

If you have read the book of Romans, you will know, The Apostle Paul, in the first seven chapters, makes it clear we are not saved by self reliance, self sufficiency, or self justification. It is the compassion of Father God and our trust in the sacrifice of Jesus that saves us.

Paul says that us “In our flesh”, that is in our old nature, “dwells no good thing”.

In fact, Paul tells us when we try to do good we do bad, and when good needs to be done, we do not do it.

Paul sums it up at the end of chapter 7 by saying in verse 24 “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” Then, he answers his own question in the same breath: verse 25 “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Our acceptance by God is not through our own efforts, not through our family line, not through our associations or deeds, we receive acceptance through Jesus Christ alone. In Christ we are rescued, cleansed, and loved then empowered and changed. That is the message of Romans chapter 8 which I want to focus on tonight.

Romans 8:1 says “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, how you’ve acted, who you are, or how much you think you have failed –

if you are in Christ, Father God has compassion on you and you are not condemned anymore. Trusting Jesus brings us freedom from condemnation.

Paul then tells us why this is a reality. Romans 8:2-4, And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.