A Surprising Pronoun
The Apsotle Paul uses an amazing pronoun in Romans 8:4. The pronoun is “us.” I was surprised by this pronoun because I had mentally replaced it with a noun. Let me briefly tell you the story.
As I was going over the opening verses of Romans 8 in my head this morning, I mentally replaced Paul’s pronoun in verse 4 with an entirely different noun. To my ears the noun sounded correct. In fact, it sounded better than Paul’s pronoun. But I knew that I hadn’t got the verse quite right in my head so I looked at my Bible. I was amazed and surprised to see the pronoun “us” starring back at me. I had remembered the verse exactly as Paul wrote it, except for replacing “us” with “Christ.”
The text says that God has sent his Son to be a sin offering “And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us…” I know that God meets the requirements of the law in Christ; after all, Christ fulfilled the law! But “in us”?, that just doesn’t sound right. Do you feel like the full righteous requirements are met in you? I don’t. That is why I was surprised.
When I shared my surprise with my colleague, Brian Ochsner, he said, “That’s grace.” That’s grace.
Did you know, and do you remember, that if you are in Christ then the full righteousness of the law is met in you. That’s grace.