Sermon Central
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Living The Spirit-Controlled Life Series
Contributed by Brian Bill on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: We need to focus on what God has done, think about what we think about, and allow the Spirt to control us.
How Then Should We Live?
If many of us default to one or more of these faulty ways to live out our faith, how then should we be living? Our passage today gives us three ways. Note: this is not a formula but rather a framework for living the Spirit-controlled life.
1. Focus on what God has done. Romans 8:2-4 spell out what God has already done for us. We have been given…
* Freedom. Look at verse 2: “Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” The word “because” tells us the reason why believers have no condemnation – we are set free from the domination of sin and delivered from death through Christ Jesus. The Spirit gives freedom so that we no longer have to sin. 2 Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” That means if you sin, you choose to do so, not because you have to live that way any longer. As Jesus victoriously declared in John 8:32, true followers of Christ are free: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Just in case we didn’t catch it the first time, he repeats this idea four verses later in John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Warren Wiersbe adds, “Freedom does not mean I am able to do whatever I want to do. That’s the worst kind of bondage. Freedom means I have been set free to become all that God wants me to be, to achieve all that God wants me to achieve, to enjoy all that God wants me to enjoy.” I am not condemned for my sin and I’m not constrained to sin. I’m also not charged with my sin.
* Forgiveness. Verse 3 teaches that God knew the Law was unable to save us and so out of love, He sent His own Son as a sin offering, condemning sin in us: “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. And so he condemned sin in sinful man.” That means you and I can never be condemned for our sins because the price has already been paid for that which condemned us. Notice that God condemned the sin, not the sinner because He sent the Savior to be our sin offering. What the Law could not do, the Lamb could.
* Fulfillment. Amazingly, because Jesus is our sin offering, all of God’s righteous requirements have been fully fulfilled in us. We see this in verse 4: “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.” We no longer have to be dominated by sin; we’re different because the Holy Spirit is in our lives. I love Zechariah 4:6: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
Essentially, we must live out who we are in Christ by focusing on what God has done. In his book called, “Victory Over the Darkness,” Neil Anderson states the following: “Understanding your identity in Christ is absolutely essential to your success at living the victorious Christian life.” I was talking with someone this week and we both realized that the key to victory is to focus on who we are in Christ. Allow these truths to pour over you right now.
