The second half of Romans 8 traces a journey from inevitable suffering to inevitable victory. It begins with the meaninglessness of the world in which how the world ought to work is constantly being frustrated, and ends with the children of God being inevitable conquerors bringing the glory of God into a cursed world.

Paul walks us through,

• The Meaning of Meaninglessness
• The Mind behind Meaninglessness
• God’s Victory through Meaninglessness

Paul has highlighted the internal conflict that breaks out between the flesh and the spirit when a person comes to Christ. In Romans chapter 8, Paul introduces us to the weapons of our warfare, and our allies in this fight. He outlines for us:

• The Goal
• The Battlefield
• Our Warfare

In Romans 6 Paul address misunderstandings that come from not understanding …

• What Happened When we Came to Christ
• What was Happening Before we Came to Christ

In Romans 5:11-21 Paul addresses something he has not discussed yet: how Christ’s death can change our fate. The answer is through a real union with those who put their faith in him. This is how the human race fell into sin in the first place, through a real union with Adam. And so Paul here describes:

• How God Justified Us
• Why God Justified Us, and
• The Confidence God Gives Us

Romans 5:1-11 demonstrates that, far from being a lesser justification, fake justification, justification by faith is far superior to any status we might ever have earned for ourselves. Justification is not just the satisfaction of our legal responsibilities, it is also …

• The Restoration of a Relationship, and
• The Relocation of our Confidence

We boast in God…

To demonstrate the deep roots of this gospel of justification by faith, Paul takes us to the very beginning of God’s work to bless – to Abraham, “the father of us all” (Rom 4:16). He takes the received wisdom of the Jewish believers and goes about:

• Redefining History
• Redefining Israel
• Redefining Hope

Zechariah 7-8 forms a kind of review of what the prophet has revealed so far in the form of opposing pictures of:

• Our Coldness, and
• God’s Jealousy

The record of the visit of the Magi provides us with …

• A False King
• The True King
• Some Unexpected Subjects

Romans 3:21 is the turning point, the thing that changes everything, where Paul introduces us to …

• God’s Declaration – Justification
• God’s Goal – Redemption
• God’s Means – Propitiation