Breathtaking privileges! That’s what you have when you enter into relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ! If you are not a Christian, consider all the spectacular blessings that are waiting for you. If you are a Christian, how many of these mind-blowing advantages have you understood? How have they radically changed your life? Let’s look through Romans 8 to discover the astonishing blessings of becoming a Christian.
1. No judgment in Christ
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have no judgment. (Romans 8:1) Of course, we’ve all sinned – no one measures up. (Romans 3:23) And sin has wages.
What we earn when we sin is not good. It is death – physical death (eventually) and spiritual death. If we reject Jesus, we receive condemnation: the lake of fire, the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
Here’s why you have no judgment as a Christian: Jesus took your judgment! He loved you so much that He came down from heaven to live a humble life on earth – teaching, healing, feeding people, loving them – and He was absolutely pure! Jesus was the one person who never sinned. When Jesus died, He took your sins on His body, He took your judgment, He took your punishment. That’s how much He loves you!
If you become a Christian, you are holy and blameless in God’s sight. (Colossians 1:22) You have become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
2. Empowerment over sin.
When you belong to Jesus, the power of His life-giving Holy Spirit frees you from the power of sin that leads to death. (Romans 8:2) You now have the upper hand over temptation. You have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. (Romans 8:12)
You’re still going to be tempted to sin – even Jesus was tempted to sin. (Hebrews 4:15) But you will have the power to resist your sinful nature, which is hostile to God, and follow the Spirit instead. When you become a Christian, you are no longer dominated by your sinful nature – you can keep it from controlling your mind by letting the Spirit control your mind. (Romans 8:3-8)
3. Real peace!
Letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. (Romans 8:6)
You will have the happiness and tranquility that comes from assurance of salvation. You will have peace within, peace with God, and the capability of living in peace with others. It means wholeness, peace of mind, health and welfare, everything fitting together, everything in order. It means being undisturbed (even when disturbing things are happening), being quiet and at rest. It means harmony prevails, you have a mild and friendly spirit, and you live an unoffended life.
4. The Holy Spirit will live in you!
You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. (Romans 8:9, 11)
This is staggering. When you become a Christian, God’s Holy Spirit lives in you! Think about that!
What will the Holy Spirit do? Lots and lots and lots! The Holy Spirit gives power. Mega-power!
We’ve already talked about power over sin. The Holy Spirit will also empower you to live a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) The Holy Spirit will give you supernatural spiritual gifts so you can build others up (I Corinthians 12:4-11). He will give you power to be a witness for Him (Acts 1:8), the power to remember what Jesus taught, and the power to understand real truth (John 14:26, 16:13-15). The Holy Spirit will renew your thoughts and attitudes. (Ephesians 4:23)
5. The gift of eternal life comes Christians
When Christ lives within you, even though your body will die, the Spirit gives you life, because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. (Romans 8:10-11)
Wait, immortality? Yes! It’s God’s free gift to you! (Romans 6:23) That doesn’t mean that you won’t die in this life. It means you will live forever with Him in the next life in a perfect body that will never experience sickness or sorrow or death.
With eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us the new bodies He has promised us. (Romans 8:22-23)
6. Abundant life and healing!
When the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit giving life to your mortal body, it not only means that your body will be resurrected at the return of Jesus, but even in the here and now, you can have the life force of God flowing through you, giving you abundant life. You can have life to the full (John 10:10).
This is zóé life. It’s not just existing. It’s loving life! It’s a full life – living in the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit’s control.
As a believer, the Bible says that if you are sick, you should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. (James 5:14-15)
7. You will be adopted as God’s son or daughter.
When you become a Christian, God adopts you as His own child. (Romans 8:15) You have a new identity. You share His divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4) God is not far away in some distant galaxy – He’s right there as your own loving Father. You no longer have to be super-independent or self-reliant, because the Creator of the universe is your Dad! He’s there for you! He’s eager to help you, and guide you, and meet your needs. You are unconditionally loved and accepted.
8. Authority, not slavery.
Becoming a Christian doesn’t mean God makes you a fearful slave. Remember, He adopts you as His own son or daughter! (Romans 8:15) You have God’s delegated power! You have authority to resist the devil, and he will flee from you! (James 4:7) You can move about in the world knowing that it belongs to your Father. You can speak to mountains and to mulberry trees through your authority in Christ, and they must obey. (Matthew 21:21, Luke 17:6) You are no longer a slave to sickness, fear, depression, and the forces of destruction in this world. You have an amazing new status!
9. Intimacy with God.
When you become a Christian, you can cry out to God, “Abba, Father!” His Spirit joins with your spirit to affirm that you are God’s child. (Romans 8:15-16) Abba means Daddy! Can you imagine calling God “Daddy?” You can! He eagerly desires that intimacy with you.
God knows your heart. He knows everything about you. He knows when you sit down and stand up. He knows your thoughts, even when you think He’s far away. He knows what you’re going to say before the words leave your mouth. He goes before you and behind you, and He places His hand of blessing on your head. His thoughts toward you are precious.(Psalm 139)
He loves you more than you can ever comprehend. When God is your Dad, you no longer have to seek comfort in compulsions, escapism, and busyness. God is your source of comfort; you can rest in His presence and love, spending time with Him and delighting in His presence. You can learn who He says you are.
10. A priceless inheritance!
Since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. (Romans 8:17)
As a believer, you can live with great expectation, because you have a priceless inheritance kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay, ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. You have wonderful joy ahead. (1 Peter 1:3-6)
As a Christian, you are blessed by your Father God to inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. (Matthew 25:34) God has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people, who live in the light. He has rescued you from the kingdom of darkness and transferred you into the Kingdom of His dear Son. (Colossians 1:12-13) The riches and glory of Christ are for you too. (Colossians 1:27) When you are a Christian, you are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 2:6)
11. We share in the sufferings of Christ.
But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.” Romans 8:17
“Whaaaat?” Okay, so maybe this may not seem like a compelling benefit of becoming a Christian – but stick with me.
Becoming a Christian doesn’t mean life will always be smooth sailing. It wasn’t for Jesus. He suffered. He was taunted by the religious leaders and even by His hometown people. Even His family thought He was crazy. He was betrayed by His own friend and disciple. And He suffered greatly for us when He was beaten and spit on, when a crown of thorns was pressed down on His head, and He died on the cross in our place.
Everyone – Christians or not – suffer in life because we live in a fallen and cursed world. And head’s up, if you become a Christian, you can expect some persecution from some people. But when troubles of any kind come your way, you can consider it an opportunity for great joy. Why? When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. When your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)
Suffering builds our character; when we grow through suffering, we are able, in a sense, to identify with Jesus, and we are able to mature in our faith. And Jesus is there with us, every step of the way when we go through difficult times – encouraging us, guiding us, comforting us. What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory God will reveal to us later. (Romans 8:18)
And…check out numbers 12, 13, and 14 below for what God does when you’re going through suffering!
12. The Holy Spirit will help you when you are weak.
This verse in Romans 8:18 gives more detail about what the Holy Spirit does for us. We all have times of weakness in our bodies, in our spirits, and in our morality. When you are weak in some way, the Holy Spirit will come alongside you to help. He will remind you of Bible verses and truths you have learned, and He will help you apply them to whatever is troubling you. God reveals things to you by His Spirit, who shows you God’s deep secrets. (1 Corinthians 2:10) The Holy Spirit will fill you with boldness (Acts 4:31) and empower you with inner strength. (Ephesians 3:16).
13. The Holy Spirit will intercede for you.
One example of how the Holy Spirit will help you in your weakness is when you don’t know what God wants you to pray for. (And that’s another benefit – prayer!! It’s your opportunity to take your problems, your challenges, and your heartaches right to God’s throne. It’s your opportunity to receive guidance and direction from God.)
But sometimes you’re not going to know how to pray for a situation. When that happens, the Holy Spirit will intercede for you – He will pray for you! He will intercede with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8:26) And when the Holy Spirit is praying for you, He is praying in harmony with God’s own will! (Romans 8:27)
14. God causes all things to work together for your good!
God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. (Romans 8:28) Even when we go through those times of suffering, God has a way of turning them around for us, for our good.
An example is the story of Joseph that you can read about in Genesis 37, 39-47. When Joseph was 17, he was hated by his older half-brothers because he got all their father’s love and attention. One day they decided to get rid of him by selling him to some slave-traders and then told their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave, and then matters got worse. He was falsely accused of rape and sent to prison!
As you can see, Joseph was having a series of unfortunate events. But God was using that time to set things in place – to work that bad situation together for Joseph’s good. Long story short, Joseph was able to save Egypt and his family from a terrible famine. And the Pharoah of Egypt took Joseph out of prison and made him second-in-command over all Egypt! God caused that bad situation to work together for good…for Joseph, for his family, and for Egypt.
15. God will give you His glory!
When you become a believer, it is because God predestined or chose you to be like His Son Jesus – to be conformed to Jesus – to mirror Jesus. (Romans 8:29) Whoever God has chosen, He calls them to come to Him, and gives them right standing with Himself. And then He gives them His glory. (Romans 8:30)
God gives glory and honor to His children because his children are to be like Jesus. You will experience a taste of this glory and honor in this lifetime, and then you will reign with Jesus in the next life. (Revelation 5:10)
16. God is for you!
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? (Romans 8:31)
Several millennia ago, a psalmist said this about God: “In my distress I prayed to the LORD, and the LORD answered me and set me free. The LORD is for me, so I will have no fear.” (Psalm 118:5-6)
When you are a Christian, God is for you! He’s on your side! God, who created the sea and then walked on it and told it to be still (and it obeyed) – that’s who is for you! He’s empowering you, He’s loving you as His child, He’s giving you glory, He’s giving you peace and joy and victory. God is for you!
17. He gives you “everything else.”
Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? (Romans 8:32)
This is astounding. God didn’t just save you from hell. He will give you everything else – ALL His precious promises! He will bless you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:3). He will give you grace – unmerited favor – in abundance. His favor will flow into your life like a river. You will experience no limit to His amazing grace, and to His unfailing love. His mercies will be new for you every morning.
18. Jesus will plead for you at God’s right hand.
Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. (Romans 8:34)
No one can accuse you. No one can condemn you. Even if you mess up, (and no Christian is perfect – far from it) Jesus is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for you. Jesus will be your advocate. He will plead your case, based on His own death on your behalf that saved you from sin and death.
19. Overwhelming victory is yours.
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? . . .Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. (Romans 8:35, 37)
As a believer, you are more than a conqueror. All these things – trouble, calamity, danger – are the impotent enemies of love. Jesus’s love for you is beyond comprehension. In the words of John Piper, “One who is more than a conqueror subjugates his enemy. . . .one who is more than a conqueror makes the enemy serve his own purposes. . . one who is more than a conqueror makes his foe his slave.”
20. Nothing can separate you from God’s love!
Neither death nor demons, neither your fears for today nor your worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate you from God’s love. Nothing spiritual or earthly, nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
And…that love. As you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully, then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:19)
Are you a Christian yet? Do you want to be?
If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:10)
Why wait? Take that step right now! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!
