Romans 8:9-13
1. Please read the entire chapter because the chapter is so very integrated that the paragraph divisions are not clear. Please review the Old Testament background for the Holy Spirit listed in last week’s lesson.
2. Look in your Bible for the indentation or other indication of a quotation from the Old testament (OT). Notice that in Romans 4:8-8:36, there are no OT quotes; and in Romans 5:19-8:18, there not even any OT echoes. I have brought in the OT about the Holy Spirit in Romans 8, the law in Romans 7, and the wages of sin in Romans 6, to try to help us understand the thinking of Paul’s first readers, but these central three chapters are remarkably clear of Paul’s own references to the OT. Why do you think that might be?
3. If at least some sense of both Romans 7 and Romans 8 are interactive in a person’s mind, heart, and soul at the same time, then are we saying the Christian walk is an on-again, off-again experience? Or what about “nothing can separate us from the love of God”?
4. What is the difference between a battle and a starvation?
5. What joy or excitement comes to you from this text? What questions arise for you out of the reading of this text? What did you learn that was new to you, or a new way of looking at something? What does this text tell you about God and about yourself? About humans in general?