From Lost to Loved: A 30-Day Study of Romans 8නියැදිය

When read together, Romans 8:2-3 reveals the Trinity working in perfect unity for our salvation. Verse 2 shows the Spirit and Son at work. Now verse 3 draws us into the Father’s sending of the Son, displaying love that gives and holiness that condemns sin in the flesh. This means we don’t have a harsh Father lurking behind a compassionate Christ. The love, mercy, and holiness we see in Christ are the very attributes of the Father.

Paul writes Jesus came “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” The Greek word Paul uses for “likeness”, homoiōma, means He was fully human, sharing our real flesh and blood, yet without sin. If you blur that line, you lose the Gospel itself. This reality destroys the heresy of Docetism, which claimed Jesus only seemed human. If Christ didn’t take on real flesh, He couldn’t suffer, die, or rise again. And if He didn’t do those things, we are not saved.

Because He truly took on flesh, He also truly took on suffering. And that truth changes how we face the darkest valleys of life. When my first wife passed away from cancer, well-meaning words often fell flat. Most hadn’t walked the road I was on: grieving, exhausted, and raising three young children. Their needs only increased while I had less to give than ever before. In that season, what comforted me most wasn’t that Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah or the Alpha and Omega, but that Isaiah 53 called Him the Man of Sorrows. That title met me in the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus knew sorrow, yet He didn’t waver. Knowing He walked that road with faithfulness gave me faith to do the same.

That same grief-bearing Servant appears in Romans 8:3, clothed in our likeness to destroy sin and death. The description of Jesus’s nature here encourages readers. Paul’s precision matters. His word for “flesh” isn’t soft or symbolic. It reveals Jesus entered into human pain with bones that ached, skin that tore, hunger that gnawed, and tears that fell.

Yet He remained without sin.

He bore our frame, not our fallenness. He was fully human and fully holy. Why would Jesus agree to a life so far beneath His glory? Why would the Father send Him? Paul provides a simple yet staggering answer: "for sin.” To deliver us from the law of sin and death (8:2), He had to become human Himself. Jesus wasn’t just another prophet. His incarnation is no small detail. It’s the mission. Without real flesh, there’s no real death. Without real death, there’s no real redemption.

Stand in awe: the Son of God took your frame so He could take your place. This is the Gospel, and it changes everything.

REFLECT:
Where do you need the Man of Sorrow to meet you, and what concrete act of obedience would reflect trusting Him there?