SET FREE FROM THE LAW
Romans 8: 1-4 (p 800) Jan. 13, 2013
INTRODUCTION:
In the middle of Oreo’s is a delicious crème filling…in the middle of the Super bowl is an extravagance known as “ the half-time “ show…In the middle of a hurricane is the “eye”
A time of calm before the back wall hits.
By the way…I like Oreo’s more than hurricanes!
But in the Middle of the N. T. is a book called “Romans”…its sixteen chapters long…and right square in the middle of the letter to the Romans if chapter 8.
This letter was written by Paul, the apostle in about A.D. 56 or 57 as he was finishing up his 3rd missionary journey…the theme of the entire letter is “righteousness!
The apostle Paul introduces himself as a servant of Jesus…Deacon of Jesus, set apart for the gospel of God, and then he gets right down to business…the first 3 chapters shout…”No one---not one person is righteous…whether you are a Jew with Israel’s heritage or a gentile whose never heard of the 10 commandments you have sinned, you have dirtied up your life…and the only way you can become a righteous man or woman is through faith…
Martin Luther, the great reformer of the church, the one who nailed his 95 thesis’ on the door of the Cathedral in Wittenberg…each of the thesis dealing with just this subject in rejection of “working or paying your way to heaven” took his theme from these early chapters.
“The Righteous shall live by faith!”
The apostle Paul shouts this theme as he gives a history lesson of Man’s deteriorations, God’s faithfulness…The example set by Abraham, the father of the faithful, how the law teaches us what is wrong…but cannot do anything about its consequences.
He says the only answer for each of us who live with Adams’ sinful heart is a Savior, a perfect Savior named Jesus…There is an absolute truth for every human being..We live in a body that desires to be pleased…it lusts, it hungers…it desires…It is selfish and self-centered…and each of us, through God’s law can understand what is right and what is good…and a part of us longs to be right…to be good…it’s like 2 hungry wolves wanting to be feed inside us..which one gets stronger…”the one we feed…:” So Paul introduces the crème filling of the Oreo, Romans chapter 8 with these words… Romans 7: 21-25 (p 800)
How does Romans 8 introduce us to a new life…well it begins with this truth…
I IN CHRIST WE ARE SET FREE
[I swore I wasn’t going to tell this story but it fit to well here not to embarrass myself for your sakes…very early one morning, this last deer season I was hunting with George Powell, Ralph Pickering, and my son-in-law Rodney...I’d already got two deer, and I had an extra doe tag, but it wasn’t really all the important to me to get another deer, so I decided to go to a place I’d never been to in the dark…at 5:00 a.m. and it’s dark I promise…I’d been to this stand in the daytime, there were some tracks to follow…but I’d never been there in the dark of the morning…so I followed the trial…thought I turned left at the correct tack on the tree walk about 30 yards and then ended up squarely in the middle of a thorn thicket…thorns behind me, each side, and in front of me…and I fell…I was caught in every way possible, by the head, my arms, my legs….I couldn’t just lay there until the sun same up and screaming for help, but I could not imagine how hard George, Ralph and Rodney would laugh when they found me…
I believe that’s exactly how Paul viewed trying to live a righteous life by the law…every time he tried to do it on his own and in his own power he just kept getting caught deeper and deeper in the thorns of his own sins…I eventually cut myself out…it was light by then, and when Paul begins Romans 8…for the first time in his life he’s been cut free by the knife of god’s Holy Spirit.]
Now he says “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”…
The word that’s used in Greek for “condemnation” is “Katakrino” It means “to pass judgment against” like a judge “who passes sentence upon a convict.”
Paul has stood in the role of condemner…the one who passes judgment…listen to these words. “While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed “Lord Jews receive my Spirit…Lord do not hold this sin against them”
And Acts 8: 1 says “And Saul (Paul’s old name) was there, giving approval to his death” Giving approval passing judgment...condemning Stephen…Saul at one time had put himself in God’s place of Judgment and condemnation…”I’ve met a few that have done that themselves.”
Saul was a Pharisee…the self approved guardians of the Mosaics Law…most of them had condemnations of others down Pat…(Let me show you the Pharisees handshake…”Shake your finger in condemnation”) then do what happened to Saul and the church on the day Stephen was stoned…
Acts 8: 1-3 (p776)
Condemners usually believe your sin needs to be dealt with harshly, while their sin isn’t really very bad….Its this heart I believe Jesus is dealing with in Matt 7 where he says, “Do Not Judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matt 7: 1, 2) (p685)
This doesn’t mean that sin is ignored…it doesn’t mean that within the church we don’t gently go to a brother or sister who is “caught in sin” and try to restore them…with humility…but…
Only one person has the right to pass judgment and sentence someone to punishment…
Jesus Christ…He alone has the right to condemn…if we’ve broken God’s laws...it’s the laws he’s designed for our good and our protection…it wasn’t the sinful and dirty who caught his wrath..while here on earth, it was the legalistic condemners who he had his strongest words for…it was the older brother, not the prodigal that brought the most pain to his heart…He would sacrifice himself for both sins, but the one who believes he needs no Savior is hardest to reach…Jesus said, “Everything they do is done for men to see… (Matt 23:5) You hypocrites’! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish and then the outside will be clean also.” (V 25, 26)
The reason you only clean the outside up is because you do everything for others to think you’re amazing...
The problem is…Pride, self indulgence…greed…are horribly dirty sins…sins straight from Lucifer’s heart…you can cover them with good deeds, civic duty…nice appearance…but the inside is rotten and decaying…to make sure no one notices the smell you find someone to gossip about, to pick on to scrutinize…and you look great compared to them…to everyone, but Jesus.
When the Apostle Paul looks back at his life as Saul the Pharisee, deceived by his own legalistic righteousness he says
1 Timothy 1: 12 – 16 (p839)
Saul the Pharisees would have been one of the movers and shakers in Jerusalem… A leader of the Pharisees…He would have been respected, toasted celebrated in this world…given access to the who’s who’s…How does Paul look back at that person…”He was the worst sinner of all time…a blasphemous, violent…aggressive hateful…man…who didn’t know God…He knew about God, but had no relationship of faith..The cup and dish sparkled on the outside…it house death on the inside.
What this does to a man or woman is enslave them to a lie…a lie that presents to the world someone whose got it all together and pressed and starched…but underneath is insecurity and sin…but the lie has become so important pride will not let that sin be dealt with by Grace…In this person’s life there isn’t much room for grace…for the Spirit of life.
Here is…
II THE KEY TO THE LOCK
Listen again… Romans 8: 2-4 (p800)
The Spirit of life set me free….from the law of sin and death..
“Thou shalt not steal” teaches me it’s wrong to steal. “Thou shalt not Kill…teaches me it’s wrong to murder…Thou shalt, not covet, teaches me it’s wrong to covet…”And Thou Shalt not bear false witness” teaches me it’s wrong to lie…All of God’s laws tech me what He wants me to know is right what is wrong…
But knowing it’s wrong to lie doesn’t fix it after I’ve lied….knowing it’s wrong to covet doesn’t offer a solution after I’ve coveted…in fact the law is sometimes like wet paint (which makes you want to touch it) look at this picture.
(Show Calapri Bike)
Coveting is wrong…I know it..but it doesn’t fix what happens in my heart when I see this bike…if I let sins have its way…I mortgage my house…sell my wife’s car…purchase the bike and live alone in a box…..The fact that I’ve thought that out in my head might be coveting.
God’s law identifies Sin…that’s good...they are designed to keep us in His will…in fact 1 John 3:4 says, “Everyone who sins breaks the law, in fact sin is lawlessness.
The real problem is everyone has sinned, all of us have broken God’s law…We all end up in the same prison, condemned to the same fate…Death…God is perfect…He cannot just say “Well, sin doesn’t matter I’ll just look the other way…” He’s perfect…sin requires the punishment of death…your sin, my sin…every sin ever committed requires that payment.
But the law was powerless to do anything about our sentence of death…weaken by our sinful nature; no one lived a perfect life until…
“God sent His own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering…” and so He condemned sinful man) in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” John 3: 16 .
Mercy means “not receiving the punishment you deserve…we received mercy…but Grace is much much more…Grace is receiving that which you do not deserve.
It’s as if you stand before a judge…guilty of a capital crime…and the judge commits your sentence, but then that judge takes you home to live as his son or daughter…the first is mercy…the 2nd is grace.
Grace is the key for our salvation.
Someone has to pay the penalty for a broken law…that’s what a perfectly just God demands.
So God becomes a man and lives a sinless life so He can pay the penalty demanded for that broken law…that’s GRACE.
What is our requirement for Salvation…? FAITH!
We do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Eph 2:9 says, “We are saved by Grace through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Faith is an action word…faith responds to the call of God’s Spirit when he convicts us of our sin with obedience, we confess our Sin, we repent (turn from our old lives to a new life in Christ), We are baptized…for the forgiveness of our sins and to receive the Holy Spirit, and we rise to live a resurrection life…a new life, until we die or He returns….
[I’m going to say something really important in conclusion…Jesus, His Spirit are the Key to our freedom…the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and death…
When we are born again, by the Holy Spirit, he takes up residence in our body… 1 Cor 6: 19-20 lets us know we are no longer our own, we have been bought with a price, our body is a temple of God’s Holy Spirit… We should honor God with this body.
When the Holy Spirit moves in He does what no law can…He changes our minds…He changes our thoughts…He changes our attitudes and because of that our actions in life become “New”…
Our sin, our guilt, our passion…is opened by a Spirit of life…we are no longer “Dead Men Walking” towards the electric chair”. We are live men walking towards Heaven and eternity…after all.
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for It is the conviction what we do not see.”
And God’s children “Live by Faith, not by Sight”
