Romans Eight
“Becoming
a Son and Daughter of God”
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
·
The word for condemnation is a judicial sentence. It is symbolic of a verdict that has been
passed down by a judge; and has become a decision.
·
If you will
please go down to verse nine, it tells us that we are no longer in the flesh
but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of Christ dwells in us. Therefore, any one that is in Christ (that
is, he or she that is a Christian), from the viewpoint of the completed work of
Christ, are now spiritual, and not carnal or fleshly in nature.
·
However
verse one tells us, that though we are no longer in the flesh as in
relationship to our standing with Christ, we can still “walk after, or
according to the flesh.”
·
The word for “walk” in the Greek
is to order or conduct our lives.
·
The term for
“the flesh” is a very broad term. Usually,
the apostle Paul uses the word for “the flesh” as in pertaining to Christians,
as any time that a Christian chooses to obey God according to his or her own
understanding, plans, and reasoning, and not according to the voice of the Holy
Spirit.
Php 3:3 For
we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Ro 7:25 I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God;
but with the flesh the law of sin.
·
Verse one
finalizes, by telling us that there is no damming judicial sentence for those
people who order their lives according to, or in conformity, to the voice of
the Holy Spirit. Those individuals, who
order their lives in conformity to their own reasoning, planning, and scheming
of things outside of the voice of the Spirit of God, will fall into the condemnatory
judicial sentence reserved for sin.
·
Can Paul
here be talking about believers or about the lost?
·
I would
venture that Romans 8 is written primarily for Christians. We shall study, and understand, what this
condemnatory sentence that Paul discusses is all about. We shall also see, that that the principle
of condemnation, or being absolved from condemnation, is really a law.
Romans 7:25
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
·
Let us begin
our discussion by going to the last verse of Romans chapter seven. Paul tells us here, that as a believer, at
any given moment, he can make the choice to serve God either in the flesh or in
the spirit. This confirms what we
already touched on in verse one of chapter eight of Romans. Christians can either conform their lives
according to their own reasoning and understanding. This is the flesh.
Conducting our affairs in conformity to the Holy Spirit’s wishes however
is to walk after the Spirit.
·
In Romans
7:25 the word “to serve”
is to be a slave of.
·
Also the
word “law” is defined
as, that under a certain set of conditions, certain results will always occur.
·
Man’s spirit
(pneuma) and mind (nous) are very much intertwined.
The purpose of man’s mind, in God’s economy,
is to discern and understand the wishes of the Spirit of God residing in man’s
spirit. Once that our mind has
understood the wishes of the Holy Spirit, its responsibility is to activate the
intellect and the will to bring our bodies to in subjection to the voice of the
Holy Spirit. This is what it means,
“to walk in the Spirit.”
·
Likewise, as
we read and meditate on the Word of God, our minds become renewed. This in turn
causes image of the person of Christ in our spirits to be further revealed and
matured.
Ro
12:2 And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God.
Eph
4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
·
Serving
God, through this relationship of understanding the wishes of the Holy Spirit in
our minds, and conforming our lives to that understanding, will activate the
law of God. The law of God tells us, that every time that we act in conformity
to the wishes of the Holy Spirit, God Himself is obligated to bless us and pour
out His righteousness in accordance with our obedience and the wishes of His
voice. As we stated earlier, the word “law”
is defined as, that under a certain set of conditions, certain results will
always occur. God has bounded Himself therefore to always
bless us when we move in accordance to His voice.
·
On
the other hand, any time that we order our lives outside of the voice of the
Holy Spirit, we walk after the flesh, and activate the law of sin.
·
This
brings us into the condemnation, or condemnatory judicial sentence reserved for
sin, found in verse one of Romans eight. We end up falling back into the law of
sin and bring ourselves back into the worthy condemnatory that God has placed upon
sin.
1Co
15:56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the
law.
Ro
3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law
there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
·
Time and
space are not sufficient in this study, for us to get into a discussion of an
understanding of “the law”.
Please refer to our study on Romans chapter seven. “The law” and “the flesh” are very closely
related. Both have to do with our
obedience of God by our own efforts, outside of the leading of the Holy Spirit. I believe that the main difference lies
simply in that the flesh is the inward motive of our hearts to act without God,
while the law represents the end results that come about from our acting in the
flesh.
·
Notice that
in the verse above; (1Cor. 15:56), Any time that we conduct our lives
outside the voice of the Holy Spirit we give power or strength to sin!!
·
Likewise, in
Romans 3:20, our actions in the flesh outside of the voice of the Holy Spirit,
will only give us more knowledge and awareness of sin in our lives.
·
Why is this?
The answer lies in that; we were never supposed
to obey God outside of the voice of the Holy Spirit. Because we are sinful, weak, and infirm people, living in a fallen
world, it is impossible for us to obey God by our own efforts. Only the Holy Spirit can cleanse us and set
us free. Any time that we choose to
obey God outside of His leading, and by our own efforts, we will fail to
overcome and please God. How many times
do we vow not to commit the same sins, yet find ourselves breaking our promises
again and again? This failure to please
God will only bring us more hopelessness, more frustration, more condemnation, more
guilt and anger into our lives. This is
why walking in the flesh gives strength to sin.
·
Part of the
deception in the American church is to serve God through psychology, through self-help
programs, and through simply making “right choices.” This is the work of the flesh and it will always give strength to
sin. Like wise, any church that plans
according to programs, formats, agendas, and committees, and not the voice of
the Spirit of God, will give strength to sin and consequent failure in its midst.
Part of these results can be seen today,
in the many churches that sow much into their planning and working, and yet
reap little in terms of the harvest for the kingdom of God.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
·
Please
observe the operation of the two laws found in verse two of Romans eight. The law
of the spirit of life resides in the person of Christ. As Christ is revealed in our lives, this law
becomes more evident. Likewise, as we
obey Christ in the spirit, the law of the spirit of life “kicks in” or is
activated.
·
What
is the law of the law of the spirit of life?
It is the law that brings the life, the blessings, the righteousness,
the freedom, and the power of God into our lives. In other words, every time that we choose to obey the voice of
the Holy Spirit we activate the blessings of God according to this law. This law of the spirit of life, and the “the law
of God” found in Romans seven, verse twenty-five, are one in the same.
·
The
law of sin and death is activated at any time that we choose to follow God in
the flesh, and not in accordance to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
·
It
is of vital importance for us that we comprehend, that the law of the Spirit of
life in the person of Christ is more powerful than the law of sin and
death. If we always endeavor, to the
best of our abilities, to serve the Holy Spirit in accordance to His voice, the
law of the Spirit of life will continue to set us free from all sin until we
are perfectly conformed or renewed into the image of Christ within us. Total perfection of course will not occur
until we get to heaven.
Romans
8:3 For what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: {for sin: or, by a sacrifice for sin}
·
Verse three
tells us that we are unable to obey God through our own efforts, plans and
understanding, in that that flesh is weak. “ But praise be to God.” Christ has condemned sin in the flesh. We are no longer condemned, because sin has
now been condemned in our place. The condemnation
of sin also has to with its being rendered powerless or ineffective. By the death of Christ, sin in our bodies has
been dethroned; it has been rendered a mortal blow. It is now unemployed from its board of directors, Satan, the
flesh, and the world. This is what Paul
describes in Rom 6:6;
Ro 6:6
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
·
It is
extremely imperative that we understand however, that our only safety lies in continuously
and without fail obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. At any time that we start to willfully disobey God, or commence
to order our lives back outside the promptings of the Spirit, we shall activate
the law of sin and fall back under its condemnatory sentence.
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience
·
It is also
very sobering to observe as in the verse above, that any time that we willfully
disobey God we give energy to the devil (The word for “worketh” is the word for “energizing” in
Ephesians 2:2)
Rom 8:4 That
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit.
·
Our only way
to please God, and to perfectly fulfill all that He requires of us, is through a
life that is totally submitted, and surrendered to the wishes of the Spirit
from moment to moment.
Rom 8:6For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace
·
To
live in the flesh brings death. The
word for death in this verse is “thanatos”.
This type of death is an encompassing death. In reality, “thanatos” is a spiritual death and contains within
itself ruin, pain, bondage, weakness, infirmity, and so forth. It is directed to our “whole man”; body soul, emotions, and spirit. This is why it is crucial that the Christian learns how to walk by
the Spirit of God.
·
The
only way to develop and mature the voice of God so that we may walk “in the
Spirit” is by embracing the cross of Christ and living under its shadow. The Christian life is one of uncompromising
obedience, yielding and surrendering to God.
Our obedience activates the cross of Christ in our lives. This in turn destroys the sinful nature and
manifest forth the voice of the Holy Spirit, as our sinful nature quiets and
dies, and gives clarity to the “still small voice” of the Spirit within us.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 9:9 But
ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Romans
8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are
debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
·
Paul once
again confirms to us that we have no more business serving God according to our
own programs, agendas, control, formats and understanding. Yet, and sadly enough, much of the church
still operates today according to the flesh.
This is why the church remains powerless, and many times can only bear boring
and ritualistic services bound in its shackles of fleshly agendas and programs.
Rom 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
·
This
is a very important verse that tells us that our total freedom from sin, bondage,
and hurt can only be executed step by step in accordance to the voice of the Holy
Spirit. How many times do we try to
overcome sins through own efforts? We
promise ourselves that we will stop smoking, or overcome our anger. The results are that we always fail, and feed
our bad habits with even more power for them to continue on.
·
The “deeds of the body” are defined as the practices of the body,
or indeed our habits. Please notice
once again that only the work of the Spirit will and can put to death these
habits.
·
The voice of
the Spirit will always lead us to the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ will always put us to
death. Our total freedom from all bondages,
sin, hurts, and bad habits can only come as the cross of Christ puts or sinful
self to total death. There is no
other way!! Remember, a corpse in a casket cannot sin, because he or
she is dead! A corpse cannot respond to
sin. This is why we must allow the
cross of Christ to work deeply in our lives.
Ro 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
·
To finalize
our study for today, let us look at verse fourteen of Romans eight. Why can we only become truly a son or a
daughter of God when the Spirit of God leads us?
·
Any time
that we aim to please God, or serve Him, through our own means, plans, and
efforts we fall into performance, duty, trying to earn brownie points with the
Lord, and so forth. We serve God out of
guilt and condemnation. We attempt to
carry out evangelistic programs out of this same sense of guilt or duty. This is the spirit of bondage of fear described in verse
fifteen.
·
Once that we
can experience the beauty of simply serving God through His voice by embracing
the cross of Christ, all condemnation, guilt, performance and duty are
gone. We come into the realization that
the responsibility for the world does not fall on our shoulders anymore. Let us observe that Elijah the prophet was
not sent to the whole world but only to those whom the Father showed him.
Luke 4: 25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days
of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great
famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save
unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time
of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the
Syrian.
·
We can enter into the blissful rest of not
planning for our future, and of not shouldering our own results as the Spirit
of God leads us. Our only responsibility
comes in faithfully executing the commands of the Lord according to the voice
of the Spirit. The outcome of the
results becomes the Lord’s; our future is in His hands. Our plans are simple in accordance to His
voice.
·
No longer do
we have to save the world, or be continuously planning one church program after
another church program. We simply have
to hear and obey. Our lives become simply to do no more and no less than what
the Spirit dictates. Hallelujah! All guilt, performance, and figuring out
things for ourselves is gone forever! This,
my friends, is the Spirit of
adoption! God Bless You and
Thank You.
Following
are the links at your disposal for the rest of our ministries.
First Nations
Information Super Highway
http://thefirstnationscentral.homestead.com/nativebeliever.html
First Nations Prophecy Web Site
http://christianindiantv.homestead.com/thepropheticnativebeliever.html
"Forgiveness,Reconciliation, and
Raising Up"
http://thefirstnationscentral.homestead.com/healingthepain.html
Virtual
New Testament Library( An updated
internet Bible teaching ministry)
http://christianindiantv.homestead.com/ministryonline.html