Sunday Morning Service

Romans 8:1-11 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

"Everyone Breathe!"  •  4.29.12  •  Sunday Morning Service, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- It is truly our privilege to study the amazing truths that Paul lays out for us here today.

- Paul has spent chapter 6 telling us that we are dead to sin and chapter 7 telling us that we are dead to the law.

 - Sanctification, the imparting of Christ's character will not be hindered by the dominance of sin, nor will it happen by adherance to the law. How will it take place?

- Romans 8 is Paul's answer, for this chapter is dedicated to God's answer to sin and the law in the believer's life. God's answer is the Holy Spirit.

- Where chapter 7 focuses on personal pronouns and ends in frustration, chapter 8 focuses on the Spirit and ends in triumph! We'll only cover 11 verses today, as sort of an introduction.

Text

• Romans 8:1 :  "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.'" : After all that we have been looking at in the book of Romans thus far, this is one of the greatest summary conclusions to the doctrine that we have been studying.

- Because of the truths that Paul has been exposing us to, the conclusion is that there is now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

- The rest of this verse, "who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" is not found in the original. This phrase is seen in verse 4, so it's biblical, but not intended here by Paul.

- It's likely that a scribe added this in at a later time, but In earlier manuscripts, the statement ends abruptly, so we'll receive it the way that the Apostle intended it.

- There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Period. No discussion. This is declarative truth that we are to receive as fact. This is the way that it is!

- Paul expects you and I to take the Lord at His Word. We are to trust, believe and understand that God's position regarding you and I is exceedingly clear!

- When you consider the doctrines that Paul lays out, remember that for all intents and purposes, he is writing that which has been revealed to Him. This is God's side of salvation.

- When it comes time for you to enter eternity, know that the blessing of the God of the Universe, awaits you who are in Christ!

- Because of our justification, which we experience by faith, God pardoning our sin and accounting Christ's righteousness to us, there is no condemnation for those in Christ!

- Because of our sanctification, which we enter into by identifying baptism into His death and resurrection, God forming Christ's character by His Spirit in our lives, there is no condemnation!

- This is the basis, the foundation upon which this moment is built. It is built upon Christ and our unity, experienced by faith in Him!

- Alternatively, there is a condemnation that still waits for those who are not in Christ. Those in Adam are still condemned, but not so those in Christ! Those who are unredeemed are called to come!

- The cross of Christ, the center of human history, has opened a way for man to approach God! When Jesus was dying, He was fulfilling every picture and becoming the object of our faith.

- Before the cross, men looked to God's intention through the shadows of the Old Testament types. Believing God, they were saved, but they did not have as complete a picture as we do.

- Our faith is in a historical Man, attested to in literature and didactically expounded by eyewitness testimony! He calls out to all who are in Adam, "Trust me and be not condemned!"

- It's interesting that while the finality of our forgiveness is true to intellect, our emotions tend to act as though it's not!

- Some live as though Paul had, "There is now LESS condemnation!"

- Christians live sometimes as if they still have something to pay for! I have heard well intentioned believers say, "We still need to be purified through tribulation!"

- Christ's work is good enough to save them, but then they'll finish showing their worth by paying the rest of their own way!

- These people live on the side of legalism, dedicated to what one does or does not!

- Then, there are others who live as though Paul said this: "There are now NO consequences!"

- These people believe that they can live a life that is free to explore any and all vices that they prefer! This is called anti-nomianism or living without law.

- Neither of these are correct! God's statement regarding your life is secure, but those who know that security respond in loving obedience!

- What a wonderful thought: There is no sentence of damnation or punishment for your sin! God is not waiting to mete out justice against you. He waits to give His greatest gifts!

- It is no coincidence that Paul has written this here. After discussing our sinful inclination, it could be that any believer might feel as though a condemning sentence was in order, but it is not!

- Despite what you and I feel, despite our our sinful flesh, we can know that God is true! Faith has to meet feelings and crush them with what the Word tells us! Why?

- Because your life is hidden in Christ Jesus, now and forever His blood propitiating the Father's wrath against sin, redeeming and rescuing us from the body of this death!

- We are still great sinners, but Jesus is always going to be a greater Savior! Our debt was great, but Christ's payment far exceeded. This is the only reason for our rest.

•  Romans 8:2-4 : "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." : Notice Paul's word. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made ME free! God is calling us to embrace these truths as personally as Paul did!

- The principle of God's rule by His Spirit has made me free from the law of sin and death! Try it on for size!

- When you heard the gospel, believed Christ, repented and were brought into the body of Christ by the baptism into the Holy Spirit, you were regenerated.

- Immediately, the rule of the Spirit of God began in your life. God had not left you and I without law. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus became an inward testimony from the Spirit Himself!

- The law of Moses was external and weak because of our flesh, our humanness.

- As Paul pointed out in chapter 7, the law could only reveal sin, but not produce power to resist! I could agree with the law and see my need for a Savior, but it could not change me!

- Law keeping cannot change you! It's meant to frustrate you and drive you to Jesus Christ!

- In response to the law's weakness, God sent Jesus in the likeness of flesh to do what the law was unable to do. Jesus came in a human body, devoid of a sinful nature, and won the battle for us!

- The NLT renders this as God giving Jesus a body just like us sinners! Somebody had to win for us and it was Jesus!

- Notice that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus never experienced sin personally, but was made to be the representative for every believer's sin.

- His incarnation was complete in that He was a full human, but at the same time fully God.

- Jesus came on account of sin, so that God could condemn sin in the flesh. He came and was our sin offering. His incarnation and His atonement met the righteous requirement of God's law!

- He satisfied God's righteous requirement. God has never treated us unjustly. Jesus made a life possible where the law would be fulfilled, not by us, but in us!

- God looks at us and sees Christ's performance. We manifest this to ourselves and testify of it's truth to others by walking not according to the flesh, but the Spirit.

- What does it mean to walk according to something? That phrase refers to a lifestyle that caters to or makes room for a worldview to dominate.

- A person uncondemned walks according to a world view, dominated by the Spirit, not the flesh. This again does not mean that he has no flesh, nor that he cannot give into his flesh.

- The flesh, the carnal nature is ever present, but someone who believes won't let it rule!

- The one walks according to the Spirit, by His gentle and wonderful rule, is the one who is not condemned! Are you being ruled by God's Holy Spirit? Is He on the throne of your life?

- When you look at the past week, how often were you driven by legitimate desires for the things of God, versus the things of your flesh? As you look forward to this week, what is that ratio?

- A person knows and testifies that they are uncondemned when that ratio is bent toward things of the Spirit of God!

•  Romans 8:5-8 :  "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." :  Those who live according to or after the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. They are always seeking the interest of the flesh. This is the unbeliever.

- They set their minds. In a public setting, one might describe this as taking another's side of things. That person is working to understand the other person, to act sympathetically toward them.

- In their mind, they are bent toward satisfying the things of the flesh. These are temporal worldly ambitions, characterized by self-seeking, self-pleasing circumstances.

- The person who does not have Christ, must live this way. They are oriented this way and must carry out the passions of the flesh.

- While this speaks primarily toward the unbeliever, there is a secondary application to Christians as well. The Spirit of God in a Christian dominates, but He does not dictate!

- It is possible for the Christian to become fleshly minded and rule the day! We need always to beware that possibility. I have experienced and I have seen men fall for this reason.

- They become satisfied with their Christianity. They've come to some understanding of the faith, but then, at some point, they get lazy.

- They'll put off their reading, they'll find excuses not to receive teaching and soon, fellowship with other believers becomes an optional spiritual aside.

- In the meantime, they are indulging their flesh until it comes back to bite them. Nobody who falls didn't ever first fall in the battleground of their mind! The mindset of the flesh is death.

- It's a living death, separated from God's intention for life. One commentator actually described this as a zombie's life, neither alive spiritually nor physically dead!

- There is an old addage that is particularly true here. A Christian who caters to their flesh has too much of Christ to enjoy the world and too much of the world to enjoy Christ!

- If you are a Christian here today, hear these words: Run toward the things of His Spirit! Now is never the time to slow oneself!

- The opposite is true for those who are live after the Spirit. They walk according to the Spirit and are thus seeking to understand the Spirit, looking out for His interest.

- They are continually putting themselves in a position to accomodate His direction for their lives. They are actively interested and fully invested in the things of God.

- To be carnally minded results in death. Nothing good comes from catering to a mind of flesh!

- How true is this? Those who cater to their flesh never look back and say, "Wow, that was worth it!" "Boy am I glad I sat on the couch and watched forty hours of mind numbing T.V.!"

- Alternatively, it's very rare that one regrets beings strengthened in their spirit! To be Spirit minded results in life and peace! You'll note though that it's either one or the other!

- Why is this the case? Why can't my flesh be controlled by my spirit? Because it has a mind of it's own! The carnal mind, the thinking related to the flesh, will never be subjected to God.

- The carnal mind is hostile against God. It will never surrender. It cannot be. It's irreconcialiable! How can one who lives according to the flesh please God? They can't!

- Those who are in the flesh, those who are without Christ are busy bringing themselves pleasure! They are slaves to and lovers of themselves!

•  Romans 8:9-11  :  "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." :  Christian, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit!

- Other translations use the words "you are not controlled by the flesh." You do not take the orders of the flesh. A Christian is to be inhabited and ordered by the Holy Spirit.

- The Holy Spirit indwells the believer. He has made a home for Himself in you and I. As Christians, this is why the external law is unneccessary. The internal law of the Spirit guides our way!

- He actively ministers God's will to my heart, making God's Word come alive to me.

- He speaks to us dynamically, moment by moment, bringing God's Word to our mind and correcting and guiding us as we go.

- No Christian can claim to be the Lord's unless God's Spirit dwells within Him. He lives in you and you live before God, or not, there is no other option.

- Some Christians want to divorce themselves from the Holy Spirit because of the bad press and the bad examples of men who claim that their foolishness is directed by the Holy Spirit!

- Truly, nobody can say that they are His unless the Spirit of Christ in living in you!

- This is a wonderful thought. This is how we can live a life that pleases God, fulfilling the law, because His Spirit is living His life through you!

- The body is dead, lifeless, defeated, unredeemable because of sin, but the Lord's Spirit is living life through that body because of righteousness!

- Though your mortal bodies cannot please God, His Spirit can cause our bodies to be subject to His rule!

Conclusion

- Paul's message to you and I: There is no condemnation! Why? Because their is a new condition, God's law fulfilled in us through the working of His indwelling Holy Spirit!

- God is working through you. Your body is to be a vessel that He pours Himself out from and lives His life through! Are you submitted to Him? Does He have all of you?

- He wants you to have His life, but we naturally desire substitutes. I pray that as you move into this week and examine your priorities, that you'll see His Spirit guiding yours to life!