Project 119: Heaven and Nature Sing | Romans 8
| Project 119 | Tim Sanderlin
Reading for Sunday, December 27: Romans 8
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth;
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
'Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;
Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices!
O night divine! O night when Christ was born.
O night, O holy night, O night divine.
-"O Holy Night"
This past summer I found myself in the midst of a sea of children during the morning VBS session. During one session, someone on stage asked the kids the fatal question, “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” Being a little older, I have come to believe that it is always better to get the bad stuff out of the way so that the good news can be enjoyed. If done in the reverse order, the celebration is short and bittersweet. I considered myself to be one of the older, and therefore wiser, people in that group, meaning I assumed that this bit of knowledge was something these children wouldn’t have discovered yet—but I was wrong. Even the five-year-old attendees were yelling “Bad news! Give us the bad news first!” When the bad news came that it was the last day of VBS, the good news—that we would be making the most of it with pie-ing Mr. Larry in the face—became that much sweeter!
Good news is good news. It’s even better if it makes up for the bad news. The book of Romans acknowledges both the bad news and the good news. The bad news is that sin is a problem. It separates us from God. Because of our sin, we are enemies of God. Paul cries out in Romans 7, “What a wretched man I am! Who will save me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 NIV). And in Romans 8, even as we hear again the good news of the gospel, we continue to feel the weight of sin. Because of the presence of sin in our world and the power of sin over the lives of unbelievers, we groan, along with all of creation, waiting to be redeemed. Can you hear the weariness in Romans 8:18-25?
However, Romans 8 brings about some good news too. You are made clean. You are a friend of God. You have been adopted. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2 NIV). The soul that was void of worth is now made alive and is now set free.
Before Christ came, it was probably hard to have any hope of good news, after hundreds of years of sin and suffering for God’s people. They must have felt the desperation of living in a world “in sin and error pining.” But here is the good news: then He appeared and the soul felt its worth. We must face the bad news (who we were) because only then is that mourning turned to dancing when we see that we have been found in Christ (who we are now). Let us join with the shepherds and angels who worshiped that first holy night, proclaiming the good news that “Christ the Savior is born!”