Lessons From Romans – Lesson 10
Rom 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.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 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:
Condemnation is talking about being condemned to hell. That is why there is now no condemnation to anyone who is in Christ Jesus. This is talking about condemnation and not chastisement.
Getting saved makes us free from the law of sin and death. As in eternal death. We are totally free from that condemnation. It cannot touch us and has zero power over us. We have been guaranteed Eternal Life.
Since there is no as in zero condemnation for us and since we are free from the law of sin and eternal death. And eternal life is a gift and we in no way can lose that. Then this whole section of scripture cannot be talking about a believer who backslides.
Verse 9 gives clarification that this section of scripture is talking about the difference between saved people and lost people.
Rom 8:9 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.
This section of scripture is NOT talking about backslidden believers verses sold out disciples of Jesus.
People in the flesh are lost and people with the Spirit are saved. And if you do not have the Spirit indwelling you then you are lost and are in the flesh.
The first few verses and verse 9 set the context for this section of scripture. So keep in mind as we go thru this that anytime is says after the flesh or in the flesh it is talking about lost people and not talking about believers who backslide or mess up.
Rom 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:
The law was weak through the flesh is talking about our fleshly sin nature. The law was weak in that our flesh could not keep it. The law was weak because it could not make us have righteousness. The law was weak not because anything was wrong with it.
The law is good and holy and right. The law was weak because all of our righteousness is as filthy rags.
The law could not save; it could not impute righteousness; it could not justify man. All it could do is show man that he is a sinner.
But Jesus did what the law could not do. Jesus came in the likeness of us. God became man. Fully man except without the sin nature. And on the cross our sin was placed upon Him and He bare it in His own body.
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
And on the cross Jesus paid for our sin. The wages of sin is death and God the Father turned His back on God the Son. And Jesus literally died. And when He did that Jesus condemned sin.
He did not condemn us. He condemned our sin. And verse 3 says He condemned sin. Jesus did that for all sin. Not just the sin of those that get saved.
1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
The Calvinists are wrong once again. Jesus paid for the sin of the whole world. All those that go to hell do not go there because their sins were not paid for. They go there because they would not repent and chose to believe.
Jesus went to the cross so all men could be saved and He went to the cross so that those who chose to believe will have His righteousness imputed to them.
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
He condemned all sin for everyone. But that only does anyone any good if they accept it and call upon Him for salvation with a repentant heart.
And the instant that anyone does that in a judicial act of God we are declared just before God and the Righteousness of Jesus is imputed to us. God now sees the believer as in Christ Jesus.
We did not stay in the flesh. We did not stay in the bondage of sin. We turned from that when we turned to Christ. Our thinking changed. We agreed with God that I am a sinner and cannot save myself.
Our thinking turned to God. Our thinking agreed with what the Spirit was saying.
Jesus said in:
John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
When a lost person hears the gospel the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction about sin and righteousness and judgment. And when a sinner gets saved he stopped thinking like the world and he stops thinking like his sinful nature wants and he chooses to believe what the Spirit is saying.
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
As long as a lost sinner keeps thinking like the flesh wants and as long as he refuses to agree with the Spirit he cannot and will not change his eternal destination.
As long as he stays carnally minded all that his future holds is death. His carnal mind is at war with God. The lost man cannot please God. It does not matter how much good works he does. It is all filthy rags.
Contrasted to that bleak outlook is getting saved. Agreeing with the Spirit and getting saved brings eternal life and peace with God.
Now is the clarification that in the flesh means you are lost and do not belong to Christ and that you get indwelt by the Holy Spirit at salvation. And if you do not have the Spirit of God indwelling you then you are not saved.
Rom 8:9 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.
Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Now you still carry the old sin nature with you after you get saved. And because of that your body will die. Your physical body is dead because of sin. It will run down and get weak and eventually die.
But your soul is held by God. The Spirit of God that indwells you will one day raise your dead body and change it. This mortality will put on immortality and this corruption will put on incorruption. There will be no sin in eternity. The old sin nature will be put off never to bother us again.
Now all of this has been said to set up a therefore.
Paul has set before us a side by side comparison of being lost and staying lost and no way to have anything but eternal death and the horribleness of that is compared to eternal life and peace.
Enmity with God of the carnal mind is compared to being indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
The reality is that there really is no comparison, eternal death or eternal life. It should be a no brainer. The one is infinitely better than the other.
Because God has done this for us.
Because we have the gift of eternal life.
Because we have a wonderful eternal future before us. Then therefore.
Rom 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Therefore brethren. A term for saved people. Since we are saved and God has done all this for us, then we should not live after the flesh.
The flesh never did anything eternally good for us, only did eternally bad for us. We don’t owe the old sinful flesh anything.
Instead allow yourself to be led by the Spirit of God that indwells you.
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.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Remember this section is talking about your position not your performance.
You are either lost in the flesh or saved and in the Spirit. That is the only 2 positions there are.
And The Spirit will lead everyone He indwells. That is your position. Christians still have a free will and they can choose not to follow the leading of the Spirit. How close or how often a Christian chooses to follow His leading is a different issue. That is performance. That is how well you walk the walk.
Right now we are talking about your position in Christ. And you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit does lead everyone that He indwells. He does not force, He leads and very gently in that still small voice.
He is not a hard task master. He does not use fear to push you. He is gentle and good.
Rom 8:15 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.
The spirit of bondage to fear that is what we had when we were lost in the flesh. We were in bondage to sin and in bondage to the law of sin and death. Salvation released us from that.
It is so much better now. We now have a loving heavenly Father. We have been adopted. We are now one of His precious children. We can now pray to Him and say Abba Father. Abba is a term that is kind of like daddy.
He loves us and wants to hear from us and wants us to walk with Him and have close fellowship with Him.
This should be an amazing thought to you. The Almighty creator. The one who has all power and all authority. Always has time to listen to you and wants you to call to Him Abba Father.
And he does not use fear to try to get you to walk with Him.
I have heard a lot of hard preaching from men who do not understand this. And some of them did use fear like a cattle prod to try to push the congregation to conform to their vision and to do what they wanted.
That approach is actually against the Word of God and it is against who God is and does not line up with the way God wants things done. God is not behind any spirit of fear.
Yes He will at times correct us and chastise us but it is for our good and done out of the love of a father. He does not treat us like a drill sergeant in boot camp.
What God is after is for people to be motivated by His great love. God is after the heart. He wants real love from His children and any service we do for Him is because we are thankful and because we want to please Him. It all needs to be voluntary and it all needs to be motivated by Love and not fear.
And our Heavenly Father wants us to know that we are His child. And He wants us to be confident and assured of this relationship. He wants us to not have any fear of losing Him as our father.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
He gave us verse after verse in His word proving that our salvation is eternal and permanent. And on top of that His Spirit indwells us and bears witness with our spirit that we are His child.
And since we are His children then we are heirs. We have an inheritance.
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
We have an incredible future ahead of us.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
This is a precious truth that it is sad to say we often forget. I don’t mean forget as in I never heard that before and you totally forgot that truth. I mean forget as in a practical way. As in a way that makes a meaningful difference in your life.
I am talking about how we live in a sin stained world and life is difficult. At times it can be downright hard.
For most of us the top 3 categories I would say are health, relational, and financial. For some it is persecution, like in Nigeria or North Korea. But for us in this room the difficult things in life come from those top 3 categories.
We can get so focused on our problems that it takes all of our attention and we tend to forget that this life is very temporary. Our lives, even if we get 70 or 80 years is but a vapor.
Our bodies are frail. Most of us have had car wrecks and suffered pain. Some of us have been literally hit by a car while walking in an intersection.
Serious health problems can and have come. And all of those problems are very real. And they hurt and it is very difficult at times. I am not going to make light of any of that at all.
But especially in times like those, we need to remember this precious truth.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Yes there is suffering in this world but our future is so great, it will be so wonderful that all of our pain and suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
And that will be for eternity.
This world is not our home. We are just pilgrims passing thru. We are guaranteed to reach our destination and it will be absolutely amazing and full of wonder.
We are to be looking forward to that day. We are to be patiently waiting for it to come.
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
The whole creation groans and travails waiting for that day. With earnest expectation we wait for the manifestation of it. When we are delivered from the corruption that exists in our world and in our bodies.
When God will create a new Heaven and a new Earth and corruption puts on incorruption and our mortality puts on immortality.
And until them we with patience wait for it.
And while we wait and navigate life’s struggles know that God cares and even helps us pray for our infirmities.
Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
God has an incredible way of taking the bad and sin that man does and turn it to good. He does not erase the bad, He does not protect us so that nothing ever bad happens to us. But when it does there is a reason and God does work all things together for good.
Some good will come of it. It might take time, even years. We might not even see it this side of Heaven, but God will work it out in the end for good.
As you know I have had some hard times and in all 3 main categories.
I came close to dying from health issues. I have suffered pain that there is no way to adequately describe. And I have been poor. Lived in a house with no working kitchen, holes in the walls, part of it had no flooring and part of it had no ceilings.
Had a small creek running under it which sank the garage and made the bricks on the back wall of the garage fall off.
I it is a sad thing to say but I have to be honest. Life can be hard and it can get you down. And I have at times let things like that get to me and get me down in the dumps so to speak.
And in my experience these 2 thoughts have really helped me when I turned my focus from my problems to them.
Number 1 is this life and all of its trouble is just temporary and it is not worthy to be compared with what God has prepared for us.
And number 2 is God makes sure that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Those 2 truths really help in the hard times in a real meaningful practical way. They help you keep things in perspective.
Before we sing and before the message I want to take a look at 2 verses that Calvinists really mess up.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
This is the primary place where they come up with God chooses who goes to heaven and God chooses who goes to hell. And no one has any choice.
Now to say that they have to either flat out ignore or twist huge amounts of scripture. I mean huge amounts. And you have to literally change the character and attributes of God.
You have to take away that God is Love and that God delights in showing mercy.
You have to take away that God is Just. Choosing someone to go to hell just because and refusing to give them any chance to accept Jesus, that is not just.
You also have to take away that God is good. By forcing some to not get saved, that actually makes you responsible for the sin they do. You forced that sin upon them, so that actually makes you responsible for sin. The bottom line is that Calvinism makes God responsible for sin.
Calvinism removes God’s love and mercy and forgiveness and His justice and His goodness.
Now when you change God that much and you take away all of those attributes, what you end up with is not the same God. It is a god of their own making and own imagination. One that fits with their pride.
They have pride in His sovereignty. And pride in His power. And pride that they are special enough to be one of the few that are chosen for Heaven.
So to make verses 29 and 30 mean what they say they have to ignore, twist, or flat out change huge volumes of scripture. They have to ignore the context of the Bible.
Remember the Bible is perfect and it all goes together. You interpret scripture with scripture. And there are 3 contexts. 1 is the context of the verses then the context of the book and then the context of the entire Bible.
They ignore all 3 contexts here. The New Testament proves over and over that God does not choose who goes to hell. And the book of Romans does as well.
And they also have to ignore the context that is in these verses. Verse 29 and 30 are cleared up by the first 5 words.
For whom he did foreknow.
It does not say whom he felt like. It does not say whom he chose. It does not say in his sovereignty.
It says For whom he did foreknow.
God is all knowing. He knows the beginning and the ending. Prophecy proves this.
Before the foundation of the world God knew who would accept Him and who would not. This foreknowledge in no way overrides the man’s free will.
Man is still free to choose. And man is responsible for his free choice.
And at the same time God knows ahead of time who will accept Him and who will not.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
So what these 2 verses are teaching is that every single person that God foreknew would out of a free will accept Him. Every one of those He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.
And all of those that He foreknew would accept His Son, He calls and He justifies and will one day glorify for eternity.
We also know from other scripture that God calls all men.
John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
Jesus said that referring to how He would die on the cross.
God does call all men to be saved. And only those that answer that call are justified and predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.