Freedom In Christ

OUR FREEDOM IN CHRIST JESUS: ROM. 8:1-4 9/1/7

Today we’re going to be talking and thinking about the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.

Listen as I read today’s text found in Romans 8:1-4

1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

3For 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:

4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

As children of God, a lot of us don’t really understand just what being set free from our sin debt really means.

Some folks seem to think, “well since I was such an ungodly sinner and this and that, surely God is always going to keep all that in mind.”

Ps. 103: 12As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

The believer is not doomed and damned, but is freed from the penalty and condemnation of sin; he is not judged as a sinner, but is delivered from the condemnation of death. he is not judged to be unrighteous, but is counted to be righteous.

–Listen as I read vs. 2 again

2For the law of the Spirit* of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin* and death. *

Listen as I give you this little illustration of Vernon Mc gees:

~~ Suppose a housewife puts a roast in the oven right after breakfast because she is going to serve it for the noon meal. The telephone rings and it’s the community gossiper.

And the caller begins by saying; “Have you heard?” Well, the housewife hasn’t heard, but she would like to; so she pulls up a chair, and after a long while she’s reminded of her roast as she smell it burning.

Finally the housewife tells the long winded caller that see has to hang up she smells something burning.

She hangs up the phone, rushes to the kitchen, and opens the oven. **Then she gets a fork and puts it down in the roast to lift it up, but it won’t hold. She can’t lift it out. She tries again, closer to the bone, but still it won’t hold. So she gets a spatula. She puts the spatula under the roast and lifts it out. ~~

Notice, what the fork could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, the spatula is able to do.

There is nothing wrong with the fork—it was a good fork. But it couldn’t hold the

flesh because something was wrong with the flesh—it was overcooked. The spatula does what the fork could not do.

The Law is like the fork in that it was weak through the flesh. It just won’t lift us up; it can’t lift us up. But a new principle is introduced here in vs. 2 : the Holy Spirit. What the Law could not do, the Holy Spirit is able to do.

2For the law of the Spirit* of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

It was impossible for the Law to produce righteousness in man. This is not the Laws fault. The fault lay in man and the sin in his flesh. The Law was totally incapable of producing any good thing in man.

Paul said in Rom. 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing. All Mankind is totally depraved. That doesn’t mean our neighbor across the street or down in the next block from us, and it doesn’t mean only some person who is living in sin; it means you and it means me.

The Holy Spirit is now able to do the impossible. The Holy Spirit can produce a holy life in the weak and sinful flesh.

No child of God can be happy in living for the things of the flesh. The prodigal son may get into the pigpen, but he will never be content to stay there. He is bound to say, “I will arise and go to my father.”

The person who is IN CHRIST is safe and secure from condemnation now and forever. He will not be judged as a sinner; he will not face condemnation, and he will never be condemned for sin; he shall never be separated from the love of God which is IN CHRIST.

To be in Christ means that a believer walks and lives in Christ day-by-day. A true believer lives and moves and has his being in Christ.