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In exploring our lectionary text, it is helpful to review briefly the argument Paul has made leading up to it. Having described the conflict we experience as those enslaved to sin and death (Romans 7:14-25), Paul presents our only hope of deliverance. God sent his Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” to deal with … Continue reading “Romans 8:22-27 Commentary by Elisabeth Johnson”

What if, for a moment, we were to set aside the fact that our text comes out of Paul’s theological magnum opus, and instead, hear it as our people will hear it on Sunday morning? What if we ignored theories of Romans or reasons for Romans or narrative substructures of Romans and listened, instead, to … Continue reading “Romans 8:22-27 Commentary by Audrey West”

The reason that this passage appears in the lectionary at this point is obvious. It is an epistolary text that speaks of the activities of the Holy Spirit. There are of course other passages that do that, such as those that speak of the gifts of the Spirit (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Ephesians 4:1-13). … Continue reading “Romans 8:22-27 Commentary by Arland J. Hultgren”

Anyone who reads this commentary has heard it hundreds of times: “I’m spiritual but not religious.” A Google search yields 1,360,000 results for that sentence, and Robert Fuller’s 2001 book on the topic estimates that twenty percent of American people identify themselves with some sort of expression. The statement is revealing, not just for its … Continue reading “Romans 8:14-17 Commentary by Beverly Gaventa”

Pentecost Sunday celebrates God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. For many Christians, the Holy Spirit remains a puzzle. The other members of the Trinity, the Father and the Son, are better defined. But there is much confusion about the Spirit. Questions like the following are likely to be in the minds of listeners: Just what … Continue reading “Romans 8:14-17 Commentary by Mark Tranvik”

These four verses come midway in the ecstatic account of post baptismal Christian life that runs from Romans 8:1 through Romans 8:39. The word “spirit” is repeated and concentrated (I count it twenty-two times — five times in these four verses). The frequency of the word conveys the exuberance of the baptismal experience, and the … Continue reading “Romans 8:14-17 Commentary by Cynthia Briggs Kittredge”

Chapters 5-8 of Paul’s epistle to the Romans are practically a self-contained meditation on the operation of grace. Though many other notes are sounded in these four chapters of the letter, the overriding tone is that of grace. Chapter 8 is itself a pearl of a passage that deals with grace and brings this portion … Continue reading “Romans 8:12-25 Commentary by Marion L. Soards”

In Greek, even more than in English, the word for “flesh” (sarx) points to something different from that to which the word for “body” (soma) points. This is certainly true as the apostle Paul uses the two words. Paul’s gospel is not about fleeing life in the body in favor of existence on a spiritual … Continue reading “Romans 8:12-25 Commentary by Mary Hinkle Shore”

When he received the Spirit as his baptism, Jesus was proclaimed to be God’s son. Driven by the Spirit, Jesus was tempted; empowered by the Spirit, Jesus exorcised demons. This Jesus who was marked out as God’s son by the Spirit at his baptism cried out “Abba, Father” in Gethsemane, praying for deliverance from his … Continue reading “Romans 8:12-25 Commentary by J.R. Daniel Kirk”

In the ancient Roman world, unwanted children were routinely abandoned or sold into slavery. Sadly, such cruel realities persist today in many parts of the world, where families crushed by poverty abandon infants they cannot afford to raise, or sell children into the slavery of child labor or child prostitution. In much more positive cases … Continue reading “Romans 8:12-17 Commentary by Elisabeth Johnson”