Life In The Spirit: Rom 8:1-17
Mar 30, 2008
Intro:
We stand today in the light of the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus. The stone has been rolled away, the body of Jesus raised to new life, the angels have asked ““Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead!” (Luke 24:5), the disciples have met Him in the upper room, and now everything is different. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything.
Last Sunday as we worshiped I called us to decision, and many of you responded by making a choice for Jesus and publicly walking across the bridge from one side to another. How has it gone this week? What has been different, what has changed, what have we done with what God began anew in us last week?
Over the next several weeks, we are going to study Scripture together to see what it means to live differently because of the resurrection of Jesus. What does it mean to “live in the Spirit”? How do we do that?? What is our part, what is God’s part? To take us on that journey we are going to study a section right in the middle of 1 Corinthians, chaps 12-14. But to lead us into that study I want to look at Romans 8 this morning.
Rom 8:1-17 (NLT)
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Breaking it Down:
That is a long passage of Scripture, full of richness and depth. And there is no way to adequately deal with it all, unless you’d like me to preach for 2 or 3 hours…
So let me over-simplify it: the passage is about living in the Spirit. If your Bible has a little section title, that is essentially what it will say.
Here is a really simple outline:
Life In The Spirit: Rom 8:1-17
1. Life in the Spirit frees us from the power of sin (vs. 1-4)
2. Life in the Spirit is choosing to let the Spirit control our minds (vs. 5-8)
3. Life in the Spirit is being controlled by the Spirit which means life (vs. 9-11)
4. Life in the Spirit is living as children of God and not as slaves to our sinful nature (vs. 12-17).
You see how I could preach for 2 or 3 hours… but I’m not going to. Instead I want to spend our time figuring out the “how” – the application – the rubber-meets-the-road. You see, I think most of us understand the basic idea: Jesus’ resurrection means that everything changes, and we are given the Holy Spirit and are free from the power of sin. We have a role to play in letting the Holy Spirit control our minds. We believe that being controlled by the Spirit means life, and we believe that we are God’s children and should live in ways that honor Him as our Heavenly Father.
I think most of us “get it” in our minds. We’re familiar with the ideas. But how do we live it? How do we do it?? How do we go from these incredible truths on the page into lives lived “in the Spirit”???
Being “Filled With The Spirit”:
It begins here: being “filled with the Spirit”. Obviously we can’t “live in the Spirit” unless we are “filled with the Spirit”. Now that is a loaded phrase… for many it has come to mean having an emotional experience of God which is accompanied with some “supernatural” demonstrations, most often speaking in unknown languages.
And some of you have had those experiences, and would gladly testify to how wonderful they were. Others of you hear about those, and think they are just really weird. We will talk about those particular “supernatural” gifts in a few weeks in 1 Cor 14, but for today let me just outright reject that definition of being “filled with the Spirit”. I am not rejecting those gifts or experiences, in fact I embrace them and their place in the life of the church, but I am rejecting the idea that those are the definitive expression of what it means to be “filled with the Spirit”.
So we need a better definition. Let’s use a little bit of common sense along with the passage. The simple meaning of the phrase is that we are full of something other than ourselves – that instead of it being “us” as the focus, the all-important, the consuming, it is God. Rom 8 reveals this in terms of contrast – the “sinful nature” and the “Spirit of God”. The main idea is that because of Jesus, we “no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” (vs. 4). There is an impact on our thought lives (vs. 5-8), on our decision-making and what “controls” us (vs. 9-11), and in our actions (vs. 12-17).
And the point of the passage is that we can’t do that on our own strength – we are actually helpless to live in life and goodness in our own strength. We need God to do it. And so the idea of being “filled with the Spirit” is that instead of being full of our (old) selves, we are filled with God.
So how do we become “filled with the Spirit” according to the better definition? First, it is not a one-time thing. Eph 5:18 says, “be filled with the Holy Spirit”, and it is quite clear that this means “be continually filled”. As Christians, this is to be our daily experience, which results in lives of joy and power and significance and holiness. And since it isn’t supposed to be a “one-time thing” we shouldn’t be seeking or concentrating on that huge emotional experience, looking for that one mind-blowing encounter, for that soul-shaking transformation. If those come, great!! I celebrate them!!! We should be welcoming those times. But we should not live for them – it is much better living daily with the Holy Spirit rather than living in either past experiences or just living for future experiences.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, there are some things we need to do. We have an important role to play, and commands are in the passage. But first we have to realize that while we have a role, we are not in control. God is – God fills, God comes, God empowers, God gifts, God frees, God breathes life. It isn’t us, we are not in control. But we do have a part.
Our part begins with letting go of our control. That begins with a decision – “Jesus, be Lord of my life”, and then continues with constant vigilance. And I know this is hard.
I once went to a dentist, and I don’t remember what procedure he was actually doing on my teeth but for some reason he needed to wiggle my jaw. He grabbed my chin and tried to use it to tap my bottom teeth to my top teeth. He commanded me to just relax my jaw muscles. Essentially, he wanted to control my jaw. And I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t just give up control. He got frustrated after awhile and got fairly sharp with me, and I really was trying, but I couldn’t do it. I see this in my life and with my God. I really want to leave it all in His hands, let Him be in complete control just like my dentist wanted to be in control of my jaw muscles, but I don’t know how to do it. Some people have less trouble – they find it easier to just “let go” – but I’m not one of them!
So let me tell you what I did at the dentist – I couldn’t just completely relax my jaw muscles, so instead I tried to completely respond to his touch. When he pushed up I concentrated on following his touch as closely as possible, matching the speed and force and direction. When he closed my teeth together and released, I let my jaw drop back into his hand and again tried to respond to his touch. I didn’t just let go, but I tried to match my actions to his touch.
And I think that is a good spiritual discipline along the way to complete surrender. Maybe that is even the best picture of it, I’m not sure. We will never be simple marionettes, puppets on a string, lifeless and choiceless until the puppeteer picks up the strings. And I’m not sure we would want to be. That seems more like slavery than adoption. Maybe the idea of “letting go” is really one of being attentive to the Master’s touch and immediately responsive. Maybe the choice for us is to stop fighting God’s hand and start responding.
I think that is what Paul means when he tells us we “no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit” (vs 4), when he tells us “letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (vs 6), when he tells us to be “controlled by the Spirit” (vs 9), and when he tells us to “through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature” (vs 13). Maybe that is what it means to be obedient children rather than lifeless marionettes.
How To Be Filled With The Spirit:
It begins with letting God be in control. Then it comes back to the basics – we create space in our lives to allow God to fill us. If we fill our lives with all kinds of activity and pursuits and entertainments and leave God only a couple of hours on Sunday, we will not be “filled with the Spirit”. We have to make space in our lives for God to come. Again, we are not in control, we are rather the gate-keepers. To what, or to whom, do we open the gate? When we spend time in Scripture reading, in prayer, in worship, in service, in the other Christian disciplines we are simply opening the gate to God, to come and fill us.
This, for many of us, might be a suitable point of conviction. If we want God to fill us with the Spirit on a daily basis, where are we making space on a daily basis for Him to do that? Again, we are not in control, but we open the gate. Are we doing that on a daily basis? Asking Him to come and fill us, and making time and space for that to happen?
If we don’t…
If we don’t make space, it is most likely that God won’t fill us. Not that He couldn’t, and maybe sometimes He does whack us with a spiritual 2x4 to get our attention, but more often than that I think God waits for the invitation and the space. If we don’t create that space, we don’t experience God’s filling. We don’t live with power. We don’t recognize His presence, we don’t follow His lead, we don’t enjoy the best of His blessing, we don’t experience a win in the fight against the sins that tear us down, we don’t have power and opportunity to be His witnesses, and we aren’t filled with the Spirit because we’ve already filled our lives with other things.
But if we do…
But if we do make space? If we do give up control? “we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.”
Those are words first of intimacy: “abba”. They are words of affirmation: “we are God’s children.” They are words of promise: “we are his heirs”. And they are words of reality: “if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.”
Last Week’s Decision Leads To This Week’s Action Plan:
Last week many of us made decisions to follow God more closely and obediently, in whatever specific shape your decision took. This week, will you put some action to that decision? Will you choose to let God be in control, by being as responsive as possible to His touch? Will you create daily space to be filled by God, in whichever way resonates most deeply with who He has created you to be? I want to close with a moment of silence. In that silence, make a decision if you need to, and more importantly make a specific, daily action plan. What will you do to make space? What time will you do it? Who will you ask to help you?? Take some time in silence, then we’ll close.
