There was a time when you used to have to ask people how they were doing to find out what was going on, but now, thanks to Facebook we know more than we need to know about how other people are doing thanks to status updates! This past summer I had fun with this one…’traded the van in for a Charger’. I got some pretty good responses and my brother Adrian chimed in, ‘oh boy, Jack is having his midlife crisis.’ Well, as it turns out, I did trade the van in…for a week until the warranty work was done. Then after the Night In Bethlehem event here at Grace, my wife Sharon typed, ‘this angel is hanging up her wings’. The response, ‘no matter what it is Sharon, God will get you through’…from someone in our previous church.
Romans 8 has been described as the Christian’s declaration of freedom because of all the emphasis on what is ours to possess as part of our birthright into the family of God. The Holy Spirit is mentioned 19x so to say that this series will revolve around His work is an understatement. The weight that a believer can feel under a spirit of condemnation is paralyzing and we want to move to greater heights of freedom in this journey of life in the Spirit. It is high time for a God inspired status update!
I have from time to time struggled with depression and self-condemnation. There have been times in my life as a pastor that I have doubted my calling, grieved over watching some of my elders in previous ministries walk away from the church. It has broken my heart and in my spirit I doubted I had anything more to give. It is always easier to take a punch from someone outside your family, but when it comes from the inside, it can really spin you into quite a downward spiral.
There is one thing that I know and that is how powerful the truths of Romans 8 unleashed can be in your life and can meet you in your darkest moments, lift you out a deep pit of depression and reorient you in times of confusion.
Let’s look at a quick outline:
- In Romans 1-3 we see the downward spiral of man and just how sinful, rebellious and unrighteous we truly are.
- In Romans 4-5 we read that the only justification for our sin is faith in Christ.
We read that only through the cross of Christ can we be justified and fully forgiven of our sin.
We find that life can only be found in and through Jesus Christ.
· Romans 6 – a great picture of our baptism into Christ and then the wheels come off in Romans 7 with this incredible inner battle going on in Paul’s spirit.
I know a lot of Christians who definitely stuck right here in chapter 7 because of the back and forth battle they face and then we find Paul’s battle cry in Romans 7:24
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? There is this sinking feeling that we are never going to get out of this mess; however we haven’t heard the closing arguments; all the evidence is not in.
What are the closing arguments on your life and your walk with God?
Understand that Satan is the Prosecution
Revelation 12:10
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.”
- He is the Prosecutor, proclaiming that you are guilty, a loser, a nobody, who will never amount to anything!
Jesus Christ, is our Defense
Hebrews 7:25
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
He is making intercession for us and the Judge is God; Psalms calls Him the Righteous Judge
In Romans 8:1-4, we will discover the elements to our renewed STATUS that is free of fear, free of condemnation and free of man- made expectations:
- A status update based on the Testimony of Witnesses
- Physical Evidence that proves our status
- Past Case Decisions that reinforce our status.
I. The Testimony of Witnesses
Romans 8:1a
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus
- “Therefore” means that Paul is showing us that all that we have learned about sin and our condemnation up to now and now it is time to address that head on.
There is an incredible perspective change as Romans 7 end with “O wretched man that I am!”
And chapter 8 where he declares “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
· What has happened between 7:24 and 8:1?
I think Paul had this incredible wake-up call to what it means practically to be in Christ. No condemnation, not even a little bit of condemnation! Condemnation in the Greek means “to pass judgment, to accuse, to know something against someone.”
No matter how intensely you now feel that struggle against sin within; no matter how you may have failed in that struggle in the past; and no matter how you may fail in the future; if you are in Christ, there is therefore now - emphatically - "no condemnation"
Paul came to see that he was righteous before God. He realized that because of the cross, the righteousness of Christ was imputed to his account. We were sold likes slaves into sin because of our sin nature and the actions of our life that followed suit. Its grip on us was like chains that we couldn’t break. But now Christ steps in and becomes our sin offering and takes it all upon Himself on the cross.
Christ bore all of our sins and iniquities on the cross. But Satan will tell us that we are condemned, so that we will give up and quit or that our plight is hopeless or that there is no hope of ever doing it right.
This is the very reason why we need the witness of the Word, of Christ and the Spirit to take the stand and testify.
Status Update # 1 No Fear of Condemnation
How can I really get to the place where I do not live in fear of my enemies’ onslaught and the darts that are thrown at me by well- meaning people!
Take every thought captive with the Bible.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
The moment that a thought enters your mind, you are on the threshold of a decision. Do I accept and dwell on this thought or do I reduce it to ashes. It is the firm realization that it has no place in my mind and heart.
2. Jesus Himself
Romans 8:37-39
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 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.
We are more than conquerors, and we can overcome our constant desire to go back to our old lives and our old sins, beating ourselves up over it. We need to be overwhelmed and enveloped by His love.
3. The Holy Spirit
1 John 5:4-6
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is He who came be water and blood – Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
This is the proof that you are no longer condemned.
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to experience His power in our lives as we see in Galatians 5; Ephesians 5. We need to really come to experience the joy of the Lord and worship music is a powerful way to change our mindset, our attitude. I think all too often its just easy to turn on the radio and listen to whatever. If you are riding with my son Jordan, you’ll listen to 20 stations in the 10 minutes that it takes to get him to work! Then question I bring it back to is how is you diet. This is the time of year where we make resolutions to lose weight, but what about the diet of music that is filling our hearts. We need to SOAK in His presence. One CD I just purchased was Awakening – the Passion series and just lying down, listening and absorbing its truth is one way that the HS can speak to me. Another way is stillness and again we make resolutions to spend more time with God and that is important. The Bible affirms us to make every effort to go by direct effort to the place where we could never go by effort alone. That is the place where we hear from the Lord and the Spirit of God testifies with our spirit.
II. Physical Evidence that proves our status!
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.
As with all good mysteries, there is a dead body, a rotting corpse, the old man of our flesh.
Our old man is dead. He was guilty, but I’m a new man.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
- Yes, your old life of addictions and lust has been taken away by Christ.
Romans 6:6-9
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
The old man is dead, and you are a new creature walking in newness of life. It was the old man that was dominated by sinful actions and decisions, habits that were self-destructive.
We’ve also been set free from the dead man of religiosity and religious score card keeping. It isn’t about all that we do to somehow impress others and make God proud.
Romans 7:6
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.
The new way of the Spirit means that it shouldn’t become systemized to the point that we take all the room for the Spirit to move out of our walk with the Lord. We need to change our perspective from time to time and meet God in new ways.
III. Past Case Decisions that reinforce our status
- Ex. “Case decisions” means that when a case has made itself through the appeals process and makes itself all the way to the Supreme Court, whether they would decide to hear it or not, if they say we will hear this case, they look at previous decisions; precedents.
Romans 8:1-2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
The law cannot lay any claim on you. It has no jurisdiction over you and you have moved into a completely new sphere of influence and control.
The law cannot condemn you. Why? It is because Christ has already suffered that condemnation for you on the cross. There is no saving ability in the law. It’s only function is to make us so aware of our need for freedom.
Here is what the law can do: make sin obvious in its offence (Rom. 7:7, 13; 5:20)It is much the same way when we see the blue and red lights flashing behind us and we know that we’ve been busted for a speeding ticket!
The law brings about wrath, God’s righteous indignation. (Rom. 4:15), it brings about death (2 Cor. 3:7-9), it is made powerful through the strength of sin (1 Cor. 15:56), (5)it brings with it a curse (Gal. 3:10-13), the law identifies sin as "transgression" (Gal. 3:19), it provides the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20), and hopefully it becomes the tutor that brings us to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
But as good and powerful as it is, there are things that the law cannot do for us: it will never enable us to live by faith (Gal. 3:12), it cannot justify us in the sight of God (Rom. 3:20), and it cannot give us life (Gal. 3:21). The law cannot do these things because we are weak. The principle of sin that operates in our flesh makes it impossible for the law to do these things in us. Therefore, the good and powerful law of God, in and of itself, cannot bring about in us anything but sin and death.
The judge has been satisfied because of the work of Christ on the cross. Christ has gone to the trial for you. He has taken all the sins of your past life, all the unrighteousness of your past, and it has been nailed to the cross. It is finished, it is totally complete and we stand in His righteousness alone. We now have a new law: it is the grace and freedom of love. It should never be ‘because you have to, but because you want to.’
Do you need some status updates!
- Satan is disarmed.
- Satan has no jurisdiction over your life.
- You are cleansed and declared innocent.
- You are forgiven and innocent for the past, present, and future.
If you are not where you want to be:
Repent! Turn from listening to the lies of Satan, who has been telling you that you can never change or do any different. Do some serious damage to the sloth of your old life.
If you’ve been trying to make it happen all on your own, then repent and stop trying to live it in your own strength.
Finish The Statement -
I have been set free in Christ to _________________________
· live the adventure of knowing Him more
· never to doubt my salvation
· experience the overcoming power of the Holy Spirit
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