Live in the Spirit
Romans 8:1 – 11
Imagine the scene with me if you will. We all have the picture in our mind’s eye, from all the times that we have seen it either in the movies or on tv. There is a person guilty of crimes sitting in a chair at a long table in a court room with faceless onlookers filling the room. The knowledgeable and experienced prosecutor makes his case. He presents the copious evidence to the jury by calling key witnesses to the stand.
After discrediting the testimonies of witnesses for the defense by skillfully cross examining them, he concludes with an airtight summary and stirring challenge for the jury. The quicky announced verdict is no surprise. ‘“Guilty” states the foreman, and the Judge swiftly pronounces the sentence to be served. The word “Life” echoes in the court room as the gavel strikes, justice is served.
The guilty soul is ushered out of the room and another soul is seated. Those faceless onlookers are a multitude of also accused awaiting their turn in the seat of the judged. Watching it happen to others before them makes it that more painful.
Before Christ, before the Christ event, this was the reality of humanity, we were unable to resist our sinful, selfish nature and acting to please them. The Law of Moses told us we were sinful, but the Law could not stop us but only identify our nature. All of humanity was among that great multitude seated in the courtroom waiting to be tried and convicted and sentenced to Life. But the Apostle Paul was sent by God to give us the opportunity to change our plight.
Among other things, the Apostle Paul was a lawyer, an expert in the Jewish law. He had studied under the great Gamaliel who was a first-century Jewish rabbi and a leader in the Jewish Sanhedrin. It was under his tutelage that the man then named Saul of Tarsus, gains the understanding of Jewish law that he uses to prosecute the members of “The Way”, the Jews that had been converted to Christianity.
Paul is intelligent, articulate, committed to his calling and a skilled lawyer, a background makes him the perfect person to present the gospel clearly and forthrightly in his letter to the believers in Rome. To help seekers of the Truth to go from accused sinners waiting for judgement, to saved and redeemed souls.
If you read the newsletter this month then you know that the Book of Romans is among the most influential books of the Bible. Romans has helped the likes of Martin Luther and John Wesley, both struggled with an unworthiness of God’s love and acceptance after they understood their disobedience.
The Book of Romans helped both and billions of Christians over the years to come to an understanding of how we can go from alienation and brokenness to acceptance and redemption. If Romans is among the best books of the Bible, then chapter eight of Romans is the pinnacle of the chapters in the book of books! Our study over the next four weeks will be over Romans 8.
Paul begins his message to the Romans by portraying the sinfulness of all people. Whether Jew or Gentile, it does not matter, all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Paul’s point is that righteousness does not come through the Hebrew Law, but rather through faith. In fact, the Law does not have the power to make us righteous, because its purpose has always been to show us our sin. Sin has been our problem ever since Adam, and we are all condemned to death because of it. As human beings, we are bound by the law of sin, and we cannot obey God’s law, by ourselves, even if we want to.
But there is hope, in Romans 6, Paul tells us that righteousness is available to those who have been justified by faith. Those who have died to sin will no longer continue to live in sin. They will no longer present their bodies to sin but will present their bodies to God as instruments of His righteousness.
Paul shares his own experiences in Romans as he shows that living a righteous life is humanly impossible, without help. Theologian Karl Barth calls it, the “impossible possibility.” Barth writes, “The negation of sin is not a possibility among other possibilities, but the possibility beyond all other possibilities … and we possess [this], the impossible possibility by Living in the Spirit.”.
Eugene Peterson puts it this way: “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God, who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!”.
With that hope and certainty that if we Live in the Spirit, we don’t have to stay condemned. Paul turns immediately to the comfort and relief in the work of Christ in our lives. He starts Chapter 8 with a bold and all-encompassing statement about our future condition, “Therefore” because of Christ’s redeeming action “now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”! Paul’s solution to our inability to put down the desires of the flesh and remain true to our obligations and responsibilities as Christians is found only if we have Christ in our lives and Live in the Spirit.
Every Christian receives all of the Spirit he or she needs, at the time of their salvation. So, the question is not whether the Christian possesses the Spirit but whether the Spirit possesses the Christian. The question is not having the Spirit but if we will Live in the Spirit. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is diverse, affecting virtually every aspect of one’s life. The Spirit is involved in our salvation and in our sanctification. The Spirit initiates, guides and empowers our actions, so that the righteousness God requires is fulfilled.
Paul’s teaching is fundamental to the Christian life. The Christian need not be overcome by guilt or by fear, due to his sins. The cross of Jesus Christ is the solution from sin and its condemnation, for all who are justified by faith. The death which Christ died was for all the sins of the one who receives His sacrifice, by faith.
There is no condemnation for those that have come to Christ through faith! What a wonderful truth to the ears of every believer. But there is more. The death of Christ has delivered us from condemnation. While our Lord’s death at Calvary delivered us from condemnation, it also delivered sin to condemnation. Paul wrote:
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so, he condemned sin in the flesh
In Christ, God condemned sin that is in the flesh. That “Flesh” is our worldly selfish nature that looks for earthly pleasures and desires rather than those things of divine nature, things of God, things Eternal. The flesh was sin’s stronghold. It was the “handle” which sin found by which to lay hold of us and to bring us under condemnation.
The righteousness of God is accomplished, not by walking according to the flesh, but rather by Living in and trough the Spirit of Life. God’s righteousness cannot be achieved by the flesh, but it can be accomplished by means of the Spirit of God.
God’s sanctifying work is never accomplished by human effort but only by divine enablement through the Holy Spirit. It has always been this way. The righteousness which the God requires cannot be realized by walking according to the flesh, but only by walking according to the Spirit. Paul was telling the Roman Christians and us today, that we are not like the others, we as Christians are different because we have found salvation by grace through faith.
Hear the Good News my Friends………….
By the grace of God, we are different than we were before because we have been empowered by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Here Paul explains the reality of the Spirit’s presence in the life of the believer.
- Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
- To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
- You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, the Spirit of God dwells in you.
- Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
- He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead gives life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
The Spirit of God has been given to the people of God so that the people of God might rightfully praise and worship God by becoming the person that He has always planned us to be.
There is no condemnation of you here today! Not anymore. There was condemnation on you before, but for those that are in Christ Jesus with indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your lives there is no condemnation on your soul ever again. On this Independence Day we can announce and celebrate our Spiritual Independence from our old nature. If we Live in the Spirit, today is our Un-condemnation Day! Dear Ones, Live free from your old selfish ways, live free of condemnation, Live in the Spirit.