July 23, 2017 – Hope Is Suffering

In Romans 8:12-25, Paul weaves a number of intimacy metaphors together. Family, child parent, sibling with Christ, new birth and adoption. Each of these allows for a place that each of us can connect to the passage and understand Paul’s point – God claims us as family. For many chapters Paul has focused on sin and law but in chapter 8 he is moving to the main thing – we have an intimate connection to God offered to us as a free gift. God claims us no matter what.