An attorney confided that “a good lawyer never asks a question he doesn’t already know the answer to.” He explained that an attorney never wants to be surprised in court, so lots of effort goes into learning the facts before a case comes to trial. Once a trial begins, each attorney carefully phrases questions so as to receive the answers he expects. Attorneys don’t want to ask the wrong question and “open up a can of worms.”

The Apostle Paul trained to be a Jewish rabbi. Essentially, Paul was an expert in the Jewish law and was expected to teach that law to others. To instruct, Paul sometimes asks questions in his writings, but always with the answer in mind. Paul’s questions teach us much about Christian living.

For example, in Romans 7, Paul concludes the chapter with a question and then answers it himself: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (Romans 7:24-25, NIV).

Paul acknowledges his sin and recognizes his continuing weakness. Sin isn’t finished with him yet! Paul longs for rescue. Who will help? “Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Paul continues the thought as he moves into chapter 8. (There were no chapter and verse divisions in Paul’s writing of Romans; those were added, for convenience, centuries later.) Chapter 8 begins: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Paul’s words plant the seed of the thought: “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”

I read about an old preacher who told everyone he baptized: “Now go home and read Romans 7.” It was the preacher’s way of teaching his converts that while they were now Christians, they would still struggle with temptation and sometimes disappoint themselves with their weakness. As they read Romans 7, they would see how Paul himself struggled with temptation: “I do not understand what I do,” Paul wrote, “for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.” Seeing that admission by the great Apostle Paul would prepare new believers to deal with their own failures.

Those failures will come. True believers should never treat sin lightly or take God’s grace for granted. Paul already made that point in Romans 6:1-2: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” But true believers will also never think themselves beyond the reach of sin. That’s why it’s important for believers who struggle with temptation and weakness (and who doesn’t?) to understand that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The sacrifice of Jesus, the same sacrifice that paid for our sins before we were baptized, continues to cover sins after baptism as well. 1 John 1:9 comforts believers, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Simply stated, God wants to forgive. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us won’t give up on us easily. That’s why the second question in Romans 8 means so much. It’s found in verse 31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”