Compensation - Romans 8:1-18

Unlike chapter 7, Romans chapter 8 is much easier to understand and honestly, quite beautiful in many parts. Paul continues talking about the duality of man, but now instead of focusing on the difficulty of overcoming the physical appetites, he focuses on the rewards of doing so. The IM sets out some definitions before we get started stating that when Paul uses the word “Spirit,” “he was primarily referring to ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,’ or to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ established after the law of Moses.” So when Paul references the “Spirit” we will associate that with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Likewise, the IM continues, “With the word flesh, he was primarily referring to the law of Moses, which was ‘weak through the flesh.’”

It seems like all of a sudden everyone is talking about how bad and terrible the law of Moses is, but we know that this was the law given to Moses by God Himself for the people to observe for hundreds of years, how can it be so bad then? I don’t think that Paul is saying that the law of Moses is “bad” or “evil” or anything like that, but that it has passed it’s usefulness. Indeed, with Christ’s atonement, there was no need for similitude sacrifices anymore, because the people weren’t “looking forward” to the coming of the Messiah. They could now look to his life and teachings and obey his new law.
But Paul emphasizes that the law of “flesh” is basic and deals with minimal physical rules, whereas the law of the “Spirit” “hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Paul again points out that the law of Moses was unable to save the people because without the power and atonement of God, the law would have just been rituals and moral advice, there is no eternal power in those ordinances that would have been able to pay out debt to justice, they use totally different currency.
Paul makes a powerful and often quoted statement, “for to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” He’s talking about spiritual death because being carnally minded won’t physically kill you, usually, but focusing our time and energy on carnal things will kill us spiritually, by driving the Spirit away from us. Conversely, using our energy to become “spiritually minded” brings us closer to God, closer to the eternal law of happiness, and interestingly “peace.” This is significant, especially later when Paul talks about how God’s love overcomes all.  God wants us to be happy which means that if we “are in the flesh (we) cannot please God.” God is not pleased when he sees us doing or thinking things that he knows will bring us unhappiness.
Interestingly, Paul points out that “he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” This is one concept that is so interesting to me, that even though Jesus is amazing and so many hundreds of times better and more worthy then us, the same power that worked in His life can work in ours. He’s the one who saved us all, but he gets no special reward for that, honestly, like not even an extra cookie or anything.
This fact is especially poignant to Paul’s later teaching that as children of God, meaning those who have accepted the gospel of Christ through baptism, we can be “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” When I imagine being a “joint heir” with someone, I feel like it would mean that we both get the same exact amount of inheritance, no more or less than the other person. So does this statement mean that I will be rewarded for my efforts just as much as Jesus Christ will? Like, logically I know that that’s the truth, but I really feel like Jesus is getting the short end of the stick here and that I would be getting infinitely more than I deserve. That really is an interesting concept though, isn’t it? If we just do our best, we will be rewarded for our efforts just as much as Jesus Christ will be for his, that’s mind boggling.
Our reward will be just like Christ’s “if it so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” So does that mean that in order to gain our reward, we must suffer just as much or in the same way that Jesus did? The IM answers, “when Paul declared that we must ‘suffer with Christ,’ he did not mean that we would suffer what the Savior did as part of His atoning sacrifice, but rather that we would go through our own suffering with Him.” We are only required to go through our own trials and suffering, to be given what Christ will be given as well.
The IM quotes Elder Keith R. Edwards as teaching, “We can learn spiritual lessons if we can approach suffering, sorrow, or grief with a focus on Christ… Now, lest anyone go looking for hardship and suffering, that is not what is taught. Rather, it is the attitude with which we approach our hardships and trials that allows us to know the Savior better… As we are called upon to endure suffering, sometimes inflicted upon us intentionally or negligently, we are put in a unique position- if we choose, we may be allowed to have new awareness of the suffering of the Son of God… We can have a greater appreciation for that which He did, and we can feel His spirit succoring us, and we can know the Savior in a very real sense.”
The suffering that we feel in our own life is nothing compared to what Christ experienced in Gethsemane. In fact, during the atonement, he did experience all of our suffering, everything that we ever have and ever will endure, he felt it, and he compounded that with the same suffering and pain that everyone who has ever lived has experienced. So for us to be promised the same reward as the man who felt all pain and suffering to ever be inflicted upon anything, and still never do anything wrong or make any mistake, that’s absolutely, almost unfathomable.
This doesn’t mean that our lives are going to be easy or that our suffering is meaningless, it just means that it’s going to be rewarded and compensated for immeasurably. I think that when we think about “compensation” we imagine someone who was paralyzed during a car accident and so was awarded $2 million as “compensation, when really, the person who was injured might not feel that the money was worth their pain and suffering. So even though a generous reward was given, the person might not feel like the payment was equal. I don’t think that God’s compensation will be like that though.
I can only imagine how incredible the rewards will be if we are given the same thing as Jesus is, and some of us, probably most of us, go through some pretty horrific things in this life. But honestly I think that when all is said and done, we will not only feel fairly, even generously compensated, but we will thank God for the experience and view it positively. That’s a hard statement to really understand when we are trapped down here in this rat trap with all these terrible things happening, with no perspective of where we came from or where we are going. It’s like we’re standing in a mud pit with blinders on thinking, “how is this ever going to be ok?” But we don’t see the dry land that we stood on previously hoping for rain and we can’t see the beautiful flowers and trees that will bloom because of the water.
Paul comments on this perspective saying, “for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” This is my new favorite verse of scripture, ever.