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No Condemnation for those in Christ Romans 8:1-17 |
September 5, 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum |
Let's begin with a brief survey: How many of you took a vacation this summer? How many of you are already thinking about the vacation you hope to take next summer? How many of you agree that even after the greatest of vacations, it sure is great to come home?
I know that Stirling and I certainly feel that way. Whenever we've been away for a few days that first glimpse…or sometimes it's the first whiff…of Petaluma always puts a smile on our faces. It's great to get away, but it's even greater to come home.
I was reminded of that this past Monday morning as I returned to my study of Romans in preparation for this sermon. I couldn't help but smile. I felt like I'd come home. I enjoyed our two-week vacation into the subject of Christian Citizenship but having lived in Romans these past several months now, returning to it definitely felt like coming home. And what a homecoming we find waiting for us in chapter 8!
Context
To fully appreciate the great joy that we find in chapter 8 we need to take a moment to remember the bleak picture we encountered in chapter 7. In chapter 7 Paul shared his remarkably candid personal testimony about the day-to-day struggle that he faced as he tried to live the life that God wanted him to live…the life that he saw modeled in the example of Christ.
Paul's dilemma can be summed up like this: I know what God wants me to do…and I want to do what God wants me to do…but all too often, I end up doing something else altogether. And as we listened to Paul's painfully honest description of his own struggle, we were all thinking: been there, done that. Paul's problem is also our problem.
And as Paul wrestled with his dilemma, he offered up this conclusion at the end of chapter 7:
"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Romans 7:21-24
Folks, on one level, it is a very dark and discouraging picture that Paul has just painted for us. This is not some wishy-washy, lukewarm Christian we're listening to. This is Paul, the "super saint." And his testimony to us basically comes down to this: Our human nature is so fundamentally flawed that even if we want to please God, we just don't have the power to do so. It's just not in our make up to be able to meet the righteous standards that God has established and that Jesus exemplified.
But as dismal as that reality is, it is also the key that points us in the only direction that offers real hope. Because once we realize that even our best efforts are destined to fall short of God requirements of us, then we will realize that our only hope is for outside intervention. And that's the point that Paul came to at the end of his statement when he cried out, "Who will rescue me…?" Not, "Lord, please help me try harder!" But, "I can't try any harder. Won't someone please rescue me?"
Freedom for those who are in Christ Jesus
So, with that cry ringing in our ears we come now to chapter 8 to learn that our rescuer has already come to us. Chapter 8 begins with one of the greatest, most hopeful, most life-changing, most liberating statements in the entire Bible. Verse one says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Folks, could any statement be more welcome in the aftermath of our painful acknowledgement that on our own we are utterly powerless to live the life that God requires of us? Yes, it's true that we cannot possibly meet God's standards on our own. Even so, for those who are in Christ Jesus there is "no condemnation." Not some condemnation. Not a little bit of condemnation. There is "no condemnation." Folks, it can't get any better than that!
God knows all of our weaknesses. God is fully aware of all of our failures. God has witnessed every one of our sins. Even so, there is "no condemnation" for those who are in Christ Jesus. "No condemnation." Not even a hint.
Folks, do you realize the liberating power that certainty can bring to your daily lives?
--You don't ever have to worry about what kind of mood God is going to be in today.
--You don't ever have to worry that you're going to blow it big time, on the very day that God has a really, really bad day.
And do you know why you don't have to worry? Because there is "no condemnation" for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Now, I said a few moments ago that this is one of the most liberating statements in the entire Bible. And it is…provided that it's addressed to you. This is not a universal promise. The promise of "no condemnation" is given exclusively, "to those who are in Christ Jesus." And that means that it is vitally important to know whether or not you're included in that group.
And it's at this point that the word, "therefore," which we see at the beginning of this verse becomes very helpful because it tells us that this promise is based upon the preceding text. And it was in that preceding text that Paul explained to us, in great detail, that those who are "in Christ" are those who are connected to him "by faith."
You are "in Christ" if, "by faith," you believe that the forgiveness of your sins and your eternal salvation have nothing to do with anything that you have done and everything to do with what Jesus did for you through his sacrificial death on the cross. If you have placed your faith in Jesus as your Savior…as your "Rescuer" …then you are "in Christ Jesus" and, for you, there is now "no condemnation."
What the Holy Spirit Does to Set Us Free
Now, as we move into the next verses, we're going to notice an emphasis that has been almost completely missing thus far in Romans. Through the first 7 chapters of the book Paul has mentioned the Holy Spirit twice, but here in chapter 8 alone Paul mentions the Holy Spirit 20 times!
Why the shift in emphasis? Because the Holy Spirit is absolutely key to the freedom that God wants those who are "in Christ Jesus" to experience. And in verses 2-4 Paul explains how the Holy Spirit works to set us free.
In verse 1 he told us that there is "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Now, in verse 2 he tells us why that's so. He writes, "because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."
As we will see in the verses that follow, Paul uses several different phrases to describe and refer to the Holy Spirit, depending upon the point that he is making. Here in verse 2 he uses the phrase, "the Spirit of life." Paul's point is this. Before we were "in Christ," we were enslaved to the "law" or the power of sin. Sin was the dominating power in our life and sin ultimately leads to death. But, once we were joined by faith with Christ, God's Spirit set us free from the power of sin. God's Spirit became the dominating power in our life and unlike sin, which leads to death; God's Spirit leads to life. And in verses 3-4 he describes how that process works.
In verse 3 he writes, "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." In other words, the law that God gave us was perfectly effective in revealing what God required of us but because of our sinful nature we were unable to meet God's requirements even though we knew what they were. Folks, mankind was in a terrible position. We knew what God required…we just couldn't do it.
So, God rescued us from our dilemma by sending us His Son, Jesus. And verse 3 tells us that Jesus came "in the likeness of sinful man," which means that Jesus was fully human but he did not yield to the weakness of his human nature by sinning. And because He never sinned, His death on the cross didn't pay the penalty for His own sin…it paid for ours. He became, as it says here, "a sin offering."
So Paul concludes, "And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." By taking on our human nature without yielding to sin, Christ broke forever the stranglehold that sin had held over the human race since the beginning of time. What's more, through His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus paid in full the penalty for all our sin. And the result is that those who are "in Christ" are freed from the power of their sinful nature to live, "according to the Spirit."
A New Mind-Set
And as we live day by day, "according to the Spirit," the influence of our sinful nature steadily diminishes while the influence of the Holy Spirit steadily increases. In short, as we live by the Spirit our lives begin to change. And the verses that follow identify some of those changes. Verses 5-8 tell us that the first thing we see is that the Holy Spirit will work in us to create an entirely new mind-set.
Beginning in verse 5 we read, "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."
Folks, here's the main point in that passage -- our mind-set will always be consistent with our nature. Our mind-set…the way we look at, make sense of and live in the world...will always reflect our basic nature. Consequently, as we go through this process that diminishes the influence of our sinful nature and increases the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can anticipate changes in our mind set because our nature is changing. Another way to look at it is like this -- we can actually track our progress in this process of transformation by the changes we see in our mindset. And this passage tells us to look for these changes.
The mind-set of the person who is still under the dominating influence of their sinful nature is characterized by hostility towards God, an unwillingness to submit to the righteous requirements of God's law, a willing participation in things that are displeasing to God, all of which ultimately lead to death.
Conversely, the mind-set of the person who is living under the influence of the Spirit is characterized by peace, by friendship with and love for God, by a passionate desire to for those things that are pleasing to God, all of which to lead life.
Folks, this is the life the Holy Spirit has freed us to experience.
Eternal Life Right Now
Now, verses 9-11 identify another change the Holy Spirit brings about in this process of transformation, namely, that we begin to experience eternal life right now. Beginning in verse 9 we read, "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."
Now, folks, it's important to realize that Paul uses the phrases, "the Spirit," "the Spirit of God," and "the Spirit of Christ," interchangeably here. He's not talking about three different Spirits. They all refer to the Holy Spirit. And the point that he is making is this -- if we are "in Christ," God's Spirit is in us…and His Spirit in us changes the very essence of our lives. And here's the substance of that change -- while our body is still destined to die, our spirit comes to life as never before. The Holy Spirit in us makes it possible for us to begin to experience that distinctive quality of life called, "eternal life" right now.
Paul also wrote about this in 2 Corinthians 4:16 saying, "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Folks, here's the point -- for those of us who are "in Christ," eternal life has already begun.
A New Identity
And with that we come to verses 12-17 which identify one more change the Holy Spirit brings about in this process of transformation, namely, that He gives us a new identity. "In Christ," we become the children of God.
Beginning in verse 12 we read, "Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation -- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."
Folks, the glorious reality woven into the heart of those verses is this -- the presence of God's Spirit in us joins us together with God in a relationship characterized by love and intimacy. A relationship that is so close and so strong that is likened to the relationship that exists between a loving Father and his child. The Spirit frees us…urges us…implores us to drop all our fears and insecurities so that we can run with joyful abandon into the outstretched arms of God our Father, our "Abba." An Aramaic word best translated as, "Daddy." God wants us to come to Him with the confidence that He will always welcome us as our Daddy.
While I've spoken to her frequently since she went off to college 3 weeks ago, I was still thrilled last week when I got my first letter from Jordan. It was an awesome letter that assured me that she is, indeed, exactly where God wants her to be. She ended her letter like this: "I want my husband to be just like my Daddy. One day, I want my unborn son to be like my Daddy. There is no one like my Daddy. And I thank you for loving me. I love you lots Daddy!"
Folks, everything you need to know about the kind of relationship that God desires to have with you and the kind of relationship that the Holy Spirit makes possible for you is captured in that single word, "Abba." "Father." "Daddy." And when you finally understand that that's the nature of the relationship that God wants to have with you, you will also understand why there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
© Copyright 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum