I want to focus on God’s Spirit and how he comes alive in God children. Romans 8 is full of very memorable teaching and its verses are often memorized because it is so well loved. The Holy Spirit’s power comes alive here as we learn about our freedom from condemnation, the mind controlled by the Spirit, the power of our sonship and the undeniable connection to Jesus.
We move from the battle that rages within us in our desire to live the Christian life and how the law all too often reminds of our shortcomings in Romans 7 . The reality is though that the law will only take you so far. Eventually you realize how utterly far you fall from the expectations or you live in denial with the sense of your own accomplishment.
I had the opportunity to walk inside some of the orthodox Jewish, ‘Hasidic’ communities in Jerusalem and see the reality of a people bent on doing their upmost to follow all of the 600+ rules as stated in the Torah or as we know it, the first five books of the OT. To me there was a lot to admire about their desire to live counter culture and strip away the evil influences of their culture and then there was a deep point of sadness knowing that they rested their hope in their own abilities and self proclaimed knowledge.
We are free from condemnation v1-4
Where Chapter 5 begins with a positive declaration of our justification, this chapter makes a negative point to our good. There is no condemnation
Because we are not condemned, it leads to two positive affirmations – the first is a freedom from the law of sin and death, the Torah. It is not that the law is sinful, but that the law provokes death, it produces a death in us. The believer needs to come to the full realization that looking to the law for life will never come. It will never produce justification, it was not designed or set to do that.
William Young gives a great illustration of what the law was intended to do in his book, The Shack.
On page 202, Mack asks, why did you give us the commandments to which Sarayu, the Spirit responds,
Actually we wanted you to give up being righteous on your own. It was a mirror to reveal how dirty your face gets when you live independently. But as I’m sure you know there are many responded Mack who think they are made righteous by following the rules. Sarayu continues, But can you clean your face with the same mirror that shows you how dirty you are? There is no grace or mercy in rules, not even for one mistake. That is why Jesus fulfilled all of it for you – so that it no longer has jurisdiction over you. And the law that once contained impossible demands becomes promises we fulfill in you.
So, why then are we more comfortable with following rules and trying to ‘live up’ to the faith. Because in that there is:
1. A sense of control. I now can decide who is in and who is out based solely on their ability to live by the code
2. A sense of comparison. I can now focus my attention on comparing myself to others in determining how worthy I am.
The law is weakened by our own sinful nature. It is our human weakness that robs the law and so God provided the way for the law to be fulfilled, for all the requirement to be met and that was in Jesus.
The plan for our salvation is the Trinity in that God met us and justified the law through the grace in the death of His Son Jesus and his way of transforming us is through the indwelling HS.
When God puts his Spirit in our hearts, he writes his law there. Remember it was through Jeremiah that God said, ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.’
Let’s realize that the law was important enough that Christ died for us and that God’s Spirit lives in us in order to secure the law. There are still good laws that we are called to follow today, the law to love God and love others, but the motivation to obey the law and the strength to follow through has been completely redefined.
Realize that these verses do not say there will be no mistakes, there will be no more failures because we will fail, we will make mistakes and we will sin. Abraham lied about his wife, David, the man after God’s own heart committed adultery, Peter denied Jesus. The fact is that we will suffer consequences because of sin; however we are not condemned. When sin is confessed, when His light exposes our darkness, where there is repentance, there is restoration of fellowship.
In the Hasidic community, should you fail to follow the rules, you will be expelled from the community and everyone will know and they have their own security to force you to walk away and leave. Condemnation tells you that you can never come back to the throne room, that you are not worth it, that you have nothing to offer, that you are not welcome here and it is not from Yawweh, it is lie from the pit of hell.
Allowing our minds to be dominated by the Spirit v5-13
Setting our mind on the Spirit the question that preoccupies us? It is the ambition that consumes us, the concern that engrosses us, it is the energy that we expend in that direction. How do we practically go about that in our everyday life?
The recognition of a child of God is the indwelling Spirit of God. While there are many rich experiences of the Holy Spirit and fresh anointings for the believer, I want to make this clear. To know Christ and to have the Spirit are one, there is no separation; however I will say this, there are varying degrees of influence just as there as different degrees of surrender in the life of the follower of Christ.
We have no obligation to the sin nature. It has no claim on us. We owe it nothing! So, hear me out. Stop giving it more credit than credit is due. Stop believing the labels that it attaches to you, the excuses that it so pompously proclaims to you, the lies that it burdens you with.
If anyone comes after me, he must take up his cross and follow me. When the Romans condemned a criminal, the person was demanded to carry cross piece to the site of the crucifixion and we are called to carry our cross and put to death self centeredness and self assertion. We are called to be ruthless here with those things that control us and suffocate the life of the Spirit in us.
The daily, hourly, moment by moment affirmation of the Spirit is what is necessary to fight the scheming and controlling enterprises of my natural learned tendencies. It is choosing to be led, directed, compelled by the Spirit as opposed to reacting in a knee jerk way to what I am faced with.
There is a place where the impulse of the Spirit does become undeniable and it is almost always born through prayer.
The Power and Authority found in your adoption v14-17
Adoption into a family is not an acceptance of what already is, but a conscious, active choice to choose on the part of the father and mother. If the child listens well, their connection in the family is undeniable.
I live next door to a couple who have adopted two special boys. The oldest, Justin, lives with incredible confidence and is not shy at all. It always struck me as so beautiful how he used to confidently proclaim his name to me...first and last. For Justin, there is no doubt who he is.
Adoption in Roman culture was a deliberate event where the son or daughter was chosen specifically to perpetuate the Father’s name, inherit his estate, would be fully embraced and receive the Father’s full affection and called to reproduce his character.
Abba was an everyday word, it was a very home sensed word , for those to call their Father only within context of the direct family. No Jew would have dared to address God in this manner, it really was unthinkable to address God in this way
The witness of the Spirit is one of inward assurance that often comes through times of intense prayer.
Although it is not essential for our salvation, often the wave of the Spirit in our lives comes in very emotional and powerful waves. It is a profound sense of the Father’s love that you cannot prescribe or dictate but one that often comes over you and it is undeniable.
Sufferings and glory belong together, they are indissoluble. They are welded together and they cannot be separated. The magnificence of glory cannot compare with what persecutions we may face.
The ministry of the Spirit v18-27
· He enables us to not dwell on today.
Paul gives the illustration of child birth which no man really understands – no, sympathy weight does not count!! However, what we do understand is the incredible joy of a newborn child. So, while there can be great pain in child birth, it will come to a glorious end. One day creation will be delivered and while we think it is beautiful now, it will be nothing compared to when it becomes glorious creation when even the rocks will cry out in worship to God.
· The ministry of the Spirit is to teach us to wait patiently for those things which will last forever. They are the things that don’t come easy, they come often with tears and pain, but the end result is always beautiful and worth the wait.
Our bodies groan too....they groan more as we get older, but our bodies will also experience their future redemption as they await their adoption as well. It is the point when we will enter our full inheritance in eternal glory.
· He teaches us to pray. We groan. Why? Because often when you get to the place of intense prayer, where you are overwhelmed at the prospect of what is staring you in the face you understand Paul when he says, we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Two times recently I have sensed and felt this incredible groaning was at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and at my bedside on Easter morning as I prepared for the service and overwhelmed at the realization with baptizing my children, Jordan and Brynley.
Five unshakeable convictions for a Spirit controlled person v28
We know that God is at work in our lives
He is at work for the good of His people
He works for our good in all things
He is at work in all things for the good of those who love Him
Those who love God have been described as those who have been called according to his purpose
Five affirmations for the adopted child of God v29,30
· God foreknew us – sovereign distinguishing love. The Hebrew word here is much more than an intellectual knowledge. It speaks to a group of covenantal people who God called out, chose and formed a relationship with. Paul is speaking to the thread of God’s divine love.
· He conformed us to the likeness of His Son
· He predestined us
Predestination is a wonderful teaching for those who are born of the Spirit
No one comes to the Father unless he has been drawn by Him John 5:40
We have been created before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9
Predestination is not to foster self absorption Gen 12:1
Predestination is a calling. We have been called and we have listened to His voice. It is a subject for the believer. No where do we find Scripture teaching us that God predestines people to be eternally condemned.
Predestination is the spiritual summons that raises the spiritually dead to life. It is the refusal to listen to the calling, the rejection of Christ that keeps a person out of His presence.
· We are justified.
· We will be glorified
5 unanswerable questions for the person born of the Spirit v31-39
If He is for us, who is against us?
Will He not graciously give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against us,
Who will condemns us?
Who can separate us?
The Takeaway
No condemnation! No obligation! No separation but only beautiful intercession for the child born of the Spirit.
Questions For Discussion
1. Have you been in that place of self condemnation? What can you take from today’s message to bring you renewed hope?
2. Have you ever been in that place of intense prayer when words were not enough to express your heart? What circumstances led you there?
3. Memorize Romans 8:28. How is God revealing His purposes to you?
4. Compare Romans 8:37-39 with 1 Corinthians 15:54-58. Then write a brief statement, ‘Overwhelming victory is mine because...’
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