Romans 7,8
“The New Reality” • 1.27.09 • The Power Of One: One Man, One Life, One Mission, Session #12
Intro.
- Romans chapters 5 and 6 provide transitional commentary to what happen theologically to a person who is justified by faith.
- Paul presents 3 new realities in the life of the believer. We used to be enemies, but are now reconciled. We used to be represented by Adam and his disobedience, but are now represented by Christ and His obedience. Finally, we used to be slaves to sin, but now, we are slaves to God.
- A transfer of power has taken place. Now, we have a new relationship to God and the things that once kept us from Him.
- In chapter 7, Paul describes the believer’s relationship to the law, which as we have studied in Acts chapter 15, was a major point of contention for the early church.
- They wanted to know that they were pleasing God and living a life that He could bless. That’s what makes this chapter so incredibly relevant.
- Paul illustrates our relationship to the law by using the picture of a widow, who is now free to marry another.
• Romans 7:4-6 : “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
- Paul goes on to explain that the law reveals to us the depth of our sin and the true wickedness that resides in our hearts. The law outside of him reveals a law that is present within him.
• Romans 7:21 : “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”
- It’s overwhelming to Paul, as he considers the understanding that he has in his own mind regarding the law, but the overwhelming nature of God’s law as it pertains to his fleshliness.
• Romans 7:24 : “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
- Has that ever been your cry? The law is a brutal taskmaster that only reveals how far we fall short. Thank the Lord for chapter 8!
- Romans Chapter 8 presents us with three benefits of salvation with regard to our relationship with the law and the power of our flesh.
Text
• Romans 8:1,2 : “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
- Please hear those words: no condemnation! Consider the words Romans chapter one, when all we heard was the condemnation of the world. What a difference.
- There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. This refers specifically to those who have surrendered their lives to Christ and claim Him as their Savior.
- The word "condemnation" means to not have a sentence hanging over you. It's gone! It's been wiped away! Christians can live out their days, knowing that that death sentence is gone!
- The Bible tells us that we will have conviction, but never condemnation. Conviction lasts as long as the person's lack of repentance. Condemnation does not ever go away.
- Conviction leads us to repentance and forgiveness. Condemnation leads us deeper into fear and dread. For the Christian, the guilt of sin is the gateway to repentance.
- It's easy to confuse the two, as both of them are strong emotional states. But don't be confused: We are never condemned!
- Turn with me to I John. The Apostle deals extensively with the subject of sin and reminds the believers of this same sentiment.
• I John 3:18-20 : "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things."
- We can be confident before the Lord because we are not walking according to the flesh.
- This statement is deep with metaphor. The idea of walking Biblically is that there is a progression and a direction toward something. This is a person who patterns themselves according to certain rules.
- The man who walks according to the flesh, patterns himself according to the rules of the flesh. The flesh metaphorically refers to our natural state and desires.
- A person who walks according to the Spirit, is one who is patterning their life after the things of God's Spirit.
- The law of the Spirit is the governance of God's will. It is the rule of living a life that God intended for us. It's a life that leads to no regret living.
- It leads us to the best life experience. When I am walking, directing my life this way, it will follow that this type of life would free us from the law of sin and death.
- Simply, when I'm living the life that God intends, I won't have the time to live the life that caters to my flesh desires!
- Turn with me to Galatians 5. Paul again is discussing this issue in the life of the believer.
• Galatians 5:16-18 : "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."
- Today we can communicate that our lives are free from the law's death sentence, so long as we seek to live a life governed by His spirit.
• Romans 8:15-17 : "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."
- The second benefit of our salvation is that we are no longer slaves. He says, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear."
- God has transferred us from the Kingdom of the Mosaic law. We have lived under the threat of condemnation all of our lives.
- "Am I good enough?" "Have I done it all right?" The thought that any minute, I might just be cut off has dogged me virtually every day of my existence.
- Why should I now feel any different? Paul explains that there is a different spirit here.
- We have been liberated! But more than that, what Paul is saying, is that this transfer is not just a one to one switch. This is going from being a slave to being a family member!
- We don't have a spirit of fear. We have a spirit of adoption. To the Roman mind, adoption was more than a legality.
- He says that the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit. He is confirming these truths to our hearts. He assures us of our standing before the Lord.
- His presence in our life is a guarantee that we are His children and that we are then heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
- Turn with me to II Corinthians. Paul speaks to the significance of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
• II Corinthians 1:21,22 : "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."
- Notice that word "guarantee." It's the same word that we would use for the concept of putting down a payment on something. The Holy Spirit's work in your life today is the downpayment on your life, which is the express promise of the Lord, that He will fulfill His Word!
- Paul notes a seemingly strange aside here, speaking specifically about the concept of suffering. Suffering is par for the course.
- It may not be physical in nature, as was the case for the believers that Paul spoke to. However, there will be suffering of some kind.
- Suffering is part of the believer's life who is walking in the direction of the Spirit's control.
- Turn with me to John 15. Jesus is addressing His disciples in the upper room and leaves them with this encouragement.
• John 15:18-21 : "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."
- Interestingly, but a further proof of our salvation is the level of suffering that you experience in our world. If somebody doesn't laugh at you, reject your friendship, ignore you at every opportunity or yell at you on account of your faith, then you are likely not doing something right!
- Paul tells these faithful believers that if we suffer with Him, we will also be glorified together.
- In this way, we truly share in all of it, just like a Roman family would.
- For those in a Roman family, an injustice would be shared together. If a family member was defamed, that whole family was disavowed.
- But when or if vindication would come, the entire family would reap the benefit.
- This is the beauty of God treating us as family, as opposed to just really high paid slaves: We get a share of all of it!
- Paul anticipates the groans of what Kingdom living is like. "Suffering!? I didn't sign up for suffering?" Even though glory is promised, suffering is no way to sell this thing! Paul answers:
• Romans 8:18,19 : "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God."
- Paul is saying, when you put the two on the scale, your suffering here and now and the glory that is to come, you will see that your suffering here carries no weight in comparison!
• Romans 8:32-35 : "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
- In our final point, Paul illustrates that there is nothing that can separate us from Him.
- He begins with discussing the high cost that delivered us to Him: The sacrifice of His own Son! Paul asks incredulously, "How then can he not give us all things!"
- Sometimes I wonder where our faith has gone. I have been the one to question the Lord, His provision, His care, His understanding and knowledge of any given situation.
- There have been many times when dollars were few, spirits were low and prospects were dim. The Lord never failed! How can He not also freely give us all things?
- Paul goes further. Who can bring a charge against God's elect, His people? Literally, who can stand and accuse God's people before the Lord?
- God justifies, Jesus intercedes. Literally, he comes to meet with. He brings light to a situation about us. He brings the truth when an accusation flies against us! He is our defense.
- Paul is saying to us that nothing can change our status if we are indeed in Him!
- These are speaking of ultimate realities. Our status as Heaven's citizens, God's children, Christ's brothers is secure. There is nothing that can dislodge us from that position, ultimately.
- I know that the "we can lose our salvation" crowd has a hard time with this one, pointing to people who seemed to be faithful saints. According to this, they might just have been imposters!
- There is a sense of finality here. A definition that goes beyond any concrete thing that we have ever known or experienced. If anything is more sure, I cannot fathom what it might be!
- These ultimate realities serve as the context for the present realities. People that were listening to Paul we suffering. They wondered, like we do, where is God in these things?
- Has He forsaken us? These were their realities. Pressures. Narrow escapes. Persecution. Extreme hunger. Nakedness. Dangers. Martyrdom.
- Could God possibly be on their side with this kind of life resume? Paul is reminding them that God could not be separate from them, even in the most dire of circumstances, in the darkest moment.
- Often we wonder the same. Paul assures his readers that though, these are the present suffering, we are not separated from the Lord, who is with us in the middle of the struggle.
- Paul finishes his thought with these wonderful words.
• Romans 8:36-39 : "As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Conclusion
- Paul has explained that the benefits of salvation are that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The sentence is done away with.
- There is no subjagation. We are no longer slaves to our sinful nature, our sinful appetite. We are Sons of God, co-heirs with Christ.
- And there is no separation. We are distressed and stuck in trials and tribulation. Jesus is with us. He has not left. He is not immune to your suffering.
- These are the benefits of God's work of salvation in your life. How can you not extend yourself to the Sauls of your world and tell them that this can be their fate as well?
- The answer is, if you understand it, you cannot!
“The New Reality” • 1.27.09 • The Power Of One: One Man, One Life, One Mission, Session #12
Intro.
- Romans chapters 5 and 6 provide transitional commentary to what happen theologically to a person who is justified by faith.
- Paul presents 3 new realities in the life of the believer. We used to be enemies, but are now reconciled. We used to be represented by Adam and his disobedience, but are now represented by Christ and His obedience. Finally, we used to be slaves to sin, but now, we are slaves to God.
- A transfer of power has taken place. Now, we have a new relationship to God and the things that once kept us from Him.
- In chapter 7, Paul describes the believer’s relationship to the law, which as we have studied in Acts chapter 15, was a major point of contention for the early church.
- They wanted to know that they were pleasing God and living a life that He could bless. That’s what makes this chapter so incredibly relevant.
- Paul illustrates our relationship to the law by using the picture of a widow, who is now free to marry another.
• Romans 7:4-6 : “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
- Paul goes on to explain that the law reveals to us the depth of our sin and the true wickedness that resides in our hearts. The law outside of him reveals a law that is present within him.
• Romans 7:21 : “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”
- It’s overwhelming to Paul, as he considers the understanding that he has in his own mind regarding the law, but the overwhelming nature of God’s law as it pertains to his fleshliness.
• Romans 7:24 : “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
- Has that ever been your cry? The law is a brutal taskmaster that only reveals how far we fall short. Thank the Lord for chapter 8!
- Romans Chapter 8 presents us with three benefits of salvation with regard to our relationship with the law and the power of our flesh.
I. No Condemnation (v.1,2)
II. No Subjugation (v.15-17)
III. No Separation (v.32-35)
II. No Subjugation (v.15-17)
III. No Separation (v.32-35)
Text
I. No Condemnation (v.1,2)
• Romans 8:1,2 : “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
- Please hear those words: no condemnation! Consider the words Romans chapter one, when all we heard was the condemnation of the world. What a difference.
- There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. This refers specifically to those who have surrendered their lives to Christ and claim Him as their Savior.
- The word "condemnation" means to not have a sentence hanging over you. It's gone! It's been wiped away! Christians can live out their days, knowing that that death sentence is gone!
- The Bible tells us that we will have conviction, but never condemnation. Conviction lasts as long as the person's lack of repentance. Condemnation does not ever go away.
- Conviction leads us to repentance and forgiveness. Condemnation leads us deeper into fear and dread. For the Christian, the guilt of sin is the gateway to repentance.
- It's easy to confuse the two, as both of them are strong emotional states. But don't be confused: We are never condemned!
- Turn with me to I John. The Apostle deals extensively with the subject of sin and reminds the believers of this same sentiment.
• I John 3:18-20 : "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things."
- We can be confident before the Lord because we are not walking according to the flesh.
- This statement is deep with metaphor. The idea of walking Biblically is that there is a progression and a direction toward something. This is a person who patterns themselves according to certain rules.
- The man who walks according to the flesh, patterns himself according to the rules of the flesh. The flesh metaphorically refers to our natural state and desires.
- A person who walks according to the Spirit, is one who is patterning their life after the things of God's Spirit.
- The law of the Spirit is the governance of God's will. It is the rule of living a life that God intended for us. It's a life that leads to no regret living.
- It leads us to the best life experience. When I am walking, directing my life this way, it will follow that this type of life would free us from the law of sin and death.
- Simply, when I'm living the life that God intends, I won't have the time to live the life that caters to my flesh desires!
- Turn with me to Galatians 5. Paul again is discussing this issue in the life of the believer.
• Galatians 5:16-18 : "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."
- Today we can communicate that our lives are free from the law's death sentence, so long as we seek to live a life governed by His spirit.
II. No Subjugation (v.15-17)
• Romans 8:15-17 : "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."
- The second benefit of our salvation is that we are no longer slaves. He says, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear."
- God has transferred us from the Kingdom of the Mosaic law. We have lived under the threat of condemnation all of our lives.
- "Am I good enough?" "Have I done it all right?" The thought that any minute, I might just be cut off has dogged me virtually every day of my existence.
- Why should I now feel any different? Paul explains that there is a different spirit here.
- We have been liberated! But more than that, what Paul is saying, is that this transfer is not just a one to one switch. This is going from being a slave to being a family member!
- We don't have a spirit of fear. We have a spirit of adoption. To the Roman mind, adoption was more than a legality.
˚ "Under Roman adoption, the life and standing of the adopted child changed completely. The adopted son lost all rights in his old family and gained all new rights in his new family; the old life of the adopted son was completely wiped out, with all debts being canceled, with nothing from his past counting against him any more."
- The tenderness of this passage astounds me. God has opened His house and made it my house. He is sharing all of it with me, with you.David Guzik
- He says that the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit. He is confirming these truths to our hearts. He assures us of our standing before the Lord.
- His presence in our life is a guarantee that we are His children and that we are then heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
- Turn with me to II Corinthians. Paul speaks to the significance of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
• II Corinthians 1:21,22 : "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."
- Notice that word "guarantee." It's the same word that we would use for the concept of putting down a payment on something. The Holy Spirit's work in your life today is the downpayment on your life, which is the express promise of the Lord, that He will fulfill His Word!
- Paul notes a seemingly strange aside here, speaking specifically about the concept of suffering. Suffering is par for the course.
- It may not be physical in nature, as was the case for the believers that Paul spoke to. However, there will be suffering of some kind.
- Suffering is part of the believer's life who is walking in the direction of the Spirit's control.
- Turn with me to John 15. Jesus is addressing His disciples in the upper room and leaves them with this encouragement.
• John 15:18-21 : "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."
- Interestingly, but a further proof of our salvation is the level of suffering that you experience in our world. If somebody doesn't laugh at you, reject your friendship, ignore you at every opportunity or yell at you on account of your faith, then you are likely not doing something right!
- Paul tells these faithful believers that if we suffer with Him, we will also be glorified together.
- In this way, we truly share in all of it, just like a Roman family would.
- For those in a Roman family, an injustice would be shared together. If a family member was defamed, that whole family was disavowed.
- But when or if vindication would come, the entire family would reap the benefit.
- This is the beauty of God treating us as family, as opposed to just really high paid slaves: We get a share of all of it!
- Paul anticipates the groans of what Kingdom living is like. "Suffering!? I didn't sign up for suffering?" Even though glory is promised, suffering is no way to sell this thing! Paul answers:
• Romans 8:18,19 : "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God."
- Paul is saying, when you put the two on the scale, your suffering here and now and the glory that is to come, you will see that your suffering here carries no weight in comparison!
III. No Separation (v.32-35)
• Romans 8:32-35 : "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
- In our final point, Paul illustrates that there is nothing that can separate us from Him.
- He begins with discussing the high cost that delivered us to Him: The sacrifice of His own Son! Paul asks incredulously, "How then can he not give us all things!"
- Sometimes I wonder where our faith has gone. I have been the one to question the Lord, His provision, His care, His understanding and knowledge of any given situation.
- There have been many times when dollars were few, spirits were low and prospects were dim. The Lord never failed! How can He not also freely give us all things?
- Paul goes further. Who can bring a charge against God's elect, His people? Literally, who can stand and accuse God's people before the Lord?
- God justifies, Jesus intercedes. Literally, he comes to meet with. He brings light to a situation about us. He brings the truth when an accusation flies against us! He is our defense.
- Paul is saying to us that nothing can change our status if we are indeed in Him!
- These are speaking of ultimate realities. Our status as Heaven's citizens, God's children, Christ's brothers is secure. There is nothing that can dislodge us from that position, ultimately.
- I know that the "we can lose our salvation" crowd has a hard time with this one, pointing to people who seemed to be faithful saints. According to this, they might just have been imposters!
- There is a sense of finality here. A definition that goes beyond any concrete thing that we have ever known or experienced. If anything is more sure, I cannot fathom what it might be!
- These ultimate realities serve as the context for the present realities. People that were listening to Paul we suffering. They wondered, like we do, where is God in these things?
- Has He forsaken us? These were their realities. Pressures. Narrow escapes. Persecution. Extreme hunger. Nakedness. Dangers. Martyrdom.
- Could God possibly be on their side with this kind of life resume? Paul is reminding them that God could not be separate from them, even in the most dire of circumstances, in the darkest moment.
- Often we wonder the same. Paul assures his readers that though, these are the present suffering, we are not separated from the Lord, who is with us in the middle of the struggle.
- Paul finishes his thought with these wonderful words.
• Romans 8:36-39 : "As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Conclusion
- Paul has explained that the benefits of salvation are that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The sentence is done away with.
- There is no subjagation. We are no longer slaves to our sinful nature, our sinful appetite. We are Sons of God, co-heirs with Christ.
- And there is no separation. We are distressed and stuck in trials and tribulation. Jesus is with us. He has not left. He is not immune to your suffering.
- These are the benefits of God's work of salvation in your life. How can you not extend yourself to the Sauls of your world and tell them that this can be their fate as well?
- The answer is, if you understand it, you cannot!
1 comment:
1 Paul writes that there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Recall a time when you felt condemned by the Lord. What effect did that have on you then? Understanding that this is the constant mentality of the unsaved, how can we sensitively employ this information in our efforts to share the gospel with them?
2 Paul tells his readers that there is no subjagation. Believers are not slaves, but are sons of God, co-heirs with Christ. Sometimes this seems difficult to believe. Speak to why that is the case. What keeps us from fully believing these things to be true? How can we enforce these truths in our hearts today?
3 Paul tells us that there is no separation from the Lord for those who are in Christ. Share times when you have felt otherwise. What scenarios have caused you to feel separated from Christ and how did you recover from that?
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