God’s Spirit~ Alive and Well! Romans 8:1-11NASB
The late baseball legend Gil Hodges told this story. Once, when he was managing the Washington Senators, he discovered four of his players had broken curfew the previous night. Immediately, he called a team meeting and said, "I know who you are but I do not wish to embarrass you. You know the rules; you will each be fined $100. I have placed a cigar box on my desk. I expect the four of you who broke curfew to put your money in the box by 3:00 p.m." At the end of the day, Hodges found $700 in his cigar box!
What Gil Hodges discovered is that a lot more people are struggling with guilt than he imagined. Guilt plagues everyone to some degree.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Today’s text reveals that there are only two ways to live life. Paul draws several contrasts between existence ruled by the flesh and the new life of the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to be "in step" with the Spirit. Life in the Spirit means to follow His lead and remain in His control. It is life governed by the Spirit of God. This life is distinguished by the mind being set or focused on serving Christ.
This individual’s desires are not selfishly controlled, but are controlled by the will of Christ who lives in Him.
If a person is not in step with the Spirit of God he or she will be controlled by the flesh. These people live an existence which is dominated by sinful human nature whose focus and center of attention is self, whose life is lived to satisfy selfish desires.
These two mind sets are intent on diametrically opposite directions.
Let’s break these verses down. Verse 1 declares, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
A little boy and his father visited the country store. Upon leaving the store the owner of the store offered the little boy some free candy. "Get a handful of candy", the merchant said to the boy. The boy just stood there looking up at his father. The owner repeated himself, "Son, get a handful of candy; it’s free." Again the boy did not move, continuing to look up in the face of his father. Finally, the father reached into the candy jar and got a handful of candy and gave it to his son. As they walked back home, the father stopped and asked his son why he did not grab a handful of the free candy. The boy, with a big smile on his face, looked into the face of his father and said, "Because I know that your hand is bigger than mine."
Do you ‘know’ God’s hand is Mighty, and He saves to the uttermost?
The subject of Romans 5:12-21 is condemnation, for all who are in Adam; the theme of Romans 8 is no condemnation for all who are in Christ!
So the simple question should be asked~ “Are you in Adam, or in Christ?”
Romans chapter 8, verse 2 proclaims, That there are two laws, the law of sin and death. (These laws were given at Mount Sinai.) It came because God needed a way to show mankind their guilt, their sins, nakedness while remaining incomplete. These sins cannot be escaped, every believer that trust only in the law of sin and death is guilty as charged! “Live by the law die by the law.” P.H.
Romans 3:23NKJB for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The second law worked once and forever on Calvary’s Hill (Mount Zion) because of a perfect sacrifice, it’s the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus!
Remember, “The old is rid only by being in Christ Jesus.”
Did you know, the Apostle Paul uses the phase, “In Christ,” “In Him,” “With Him,” “In the Lord,” some 170 times!
Colossians 3:3-4NKJB Proclaims 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
It takes a lot of effort and needless unrest to live a life of sin and death, it speaks loud~ “You’re guilty, you sinned again. It say’s, “Look at you coming to church after what you did this week!” (This voice constantly condemns.)
The IRS once received a letter from an anonymous taxpayer. It read, "I have cheated on my income tax for the past seven years, and tonight my conscience is troubling me to the point that I cannot sleep. I have enclosed a $100 bill as my way of saying ‘I am sorry.’ If I find that I still can’t sleep, I will send the rest of what I owe."
Guilt has been a companion of mankind from the beginning.
I love Romans 8:3NLT, 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.
“The believer’s efforts to overcome sin within their own strength is pointless and futile.” P.H.
Romans 7, shows a terrible struggle due to the believer not knowing, or understanding what Christ has actually done for Him or her at Calvary, and his or her standing in that finished work. Under no uncertain terms can a believer succeed standing in their own strength.
The message of the cross is the deciding factor for every believer. “Do you really believe Jesus took your sins?”
Romans 8:4TM The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for, but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
Jesus tells His disciples in John 14:16NKJB before He exits earth. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
This helper, counselor, advocate, teacher and comforter is the Holy Spirit. His #1 priority is to remind you about Jesus and convict believers of their righteousness.
Romans 8:5TM Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God!
Can I remind you that temptation is found around every corner.
Romans 8:4-8TM Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God, leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. 5 Focusing on the self, is the opposite of focusing on God. 6 Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. 7 That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. 8 And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
I’m going to make this statement and I hope it’s profound to some of you. Stop ignoring the Holy Spirit!
Romans 9:9-11NLT 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[a] 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.
Romans 8:9-11TM But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. 9 But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. 10 It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. 11 With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
As I close, remember, the Holy Spirit desires to show you the way, He’s your road-map for everything on this earth. He was sent to promote Jesus’ finished work. He gifts you, He gives you fruit and He’s all you need.
Jesus eased sins debt.
Jesus only makes you complete.
Benediction.
