INTRODUCTION
- FREEDOM: In September 2016, Lawrence Ripple was willing to give up his freedom to be free from his wife.
- The Kansas resident handed a Kansas City bank teller a note demanding cash and warned that he had a gun.
- After receiving $2,924, he sat in the bank lobby waiting to be arrested.
- He later explained to investigators that he told his wife he’d “rather be in jail than at home.”
- The judge sentenced him to six months of home confinement…with his wife.
- The freedom we seek may not be the freedom we ultimately want or actually get.
- That’s an important lesson for America today. NYPost.com, 6/14/17
- Freedom.
- We hear a lot about freedom.
- Our country fought a war so we could be free.
- In the United States, our Constitution guarantees our freedoms.
- In other countries, people fight for freedom or come to the United States looking for freedom.
- Our passage today is nestled in one of the most beautiful sections of the New Testament.
- I could preach many messages out of chapter 8, but today, we will focus on Romans 8:1-4.
- The memory verse is verse 1.
- One of the most difficult struggles I experienced in my faith and relationship with Jesus early on, probably the first couple of years, was believing what the Bible said concerning my freedom from condemnation.
- I lived under the strain of a great deal of anger and guilt over my past when I came to Jesus.
- I knew what the passages said in the Bible concerning being forgiven and being freed from my slavery to sin.
- For various reasons, I held on to my guilt and shame, it was hard for me to experience freedom in Christ, when was holding on to what God had forgiven.
- Today, we will begin a new series within Core 52 entitled Beyond Belief.
- There are some things that even Christians have a hard time believing.
- If you can believe it, you can receive it: Freedom from guilt, freedom to change, freedom to know God’s thoughts.
- Ultimately, we are promised the freedom from this body through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- Believe it.
- I believe that many Christians really never get off the ground with their faith because they do not grasp the significance of this freedom.
- Our hearts want us to hold on to the past transgressions because we feel like we deserve to be condemned for what we have done.
- Satan tries to keep our past in the forefront of our thoughts.
- Many people feel paralyzed by feeling condemned because of guilt.
- I pray that if you are struggling with guilt and shame, that the Word of God will break that guilt and shame so you can experience freedom in Christ—ust as Jesus wants you to experience!
- Let’s turn to Romans 8:1
Romans 8:1 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SERMON
I. The foundation of freedom.
- Chapter eight has been called the triumphant hymn of hope.
- Most of us understand the concept of serving time for a crime, but in Christ, the time has been removed for the crime.
- Condemnation is a real thing; condemnation is not some lofty theological term that is some theory. Condemnation.
- It is real and can be a destructive force in our lives.
- When we live in condemnation, we will never experience the freedom we can enjoy in Christ.
- Condemnation is defined as a legal decision to be guilty in a criminal case, often with the ensuing punishment understood.
- We are all condemned before God.
Romans 3:23 (NET 2nd ed.)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
- Sin has condemned us, but what effect does sin have on us?
Romans 6:23 (NET 2nd ed.)
23 For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- The wages, payoff, or paycheck for sin is death, physical death as a result of Adam, and spiritual death as a result of our own sins.
- Once our own sin condemns us, there is nothing we can do on our own to reverse the verdict.
- However, Jesus has done something to allow the verdict of condemnation to be overturned!
- The weight of sin is heavy upon us.
- The wages of sin is death!
- Once our own sin condemns us, there is nothing we can do on our own to reverse the verdict.
- Humanity has been trying to fix the issue of condemnation since almost the beginning of human history!
- Romans 7:14-20 is but one example of humanity trying to fix a problem they cannot fix on their own.
- However, Jesus has done something to allow the verdict of condemnation to be overturned!
- The Romans passage on the screen tells us as much.
- Notice verse 1 of Romans 8 tells us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!
- “Therefore” shows that a conclusion is being drawn, most likely from the reference to the saving work of Christ in Romans 7:25.
Romans 7:25 (NET 2nd ed.)
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
- “Now” points to the same event: “Now, in view of what Christ has done.”
- Jesus is the foundation of our freedom; He offers us freedom through His sacrifice on the cross.
- This is that free gift of eternal life spoken of in the Romans 6:23 passage I posted.
- Jesus is our path to salvation!
- When we are immersed into Christ, all past transgressions are wiped clean.
- The eternal consequences are removed from our lives.
- The sentence of condemnation to sin and death has been repealed or cancelled for all who are in Christ.
- This would be like a person who was found guilty by the judge and sentenced to death.
- Then, the judge turns to the guilty one and declares the sentence repealed.
- That once guilty person could no longer be punished for that crime!
- Back to verse 1, we are told those who are IN Christ experience the joy of no condemnation.
- How does one be IN Christ?
- Romans 6:1-11 tells us how!
Romans 6:1–11 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase?
2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.
6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- This goes back to the baptism message from Dr. Fincher a couple of weeks ago.
- This is why baptism is a vital PART of the salvation process!
- Let’s move to verses 2-3.
Romans 8:2–3 (NET 2nd ed.)
2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
II. The fulfillment of freedom.
- Once again, here is a tie back to baptism in Acts 2:38 where we are told that when we are baptized into Christ, we receive the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit!
- The law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death!
- The law of the life-giving Spirit is yet another of the forty different names for the Holy Spirit found in the New Testament.
- The word “law” is defined as a rule that governs actions, a principle of procedure.
- Verse 2 of our passage explains what NO CONDEMNATION means.
- It means that we are no longer under the bondage of the law of sin and death.
- Set free is an aorist tense verb that refers to a one-time act in the past that has continual effects today.
- This one-time act is our baptism into Christ.
- Romans 6:3-7, especially verse 7.
Romans 6:7 (NET 2nd ed.)
7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)
- The two “laws” named here are the two competing world orders, the two rival life paradigms.
- The first is the life system in which the Spirit of life operates and dominates; the second is the life system controlled by sin and death. Jack Cottrell, Romans, vol. 1, The College Press NIV Commentary (Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 1996), Ro 8:2.
- The law of sin and death is simple: you commit a sin, you die spiritually.
- We have to decide how we are going to live.
- We will either live in slavery to sin, which will result in eternal separation from God (spiritual death).
- We or we will live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which leads to eternal life through Jesus!
- When verse 3 speaks of the Law, it is a reference to the Law of Moses.
- Verse three says the Law could not free us because it was weak.
- The inner person was sold into slavery and controlled by his fleshly body whose desires were excited by various temptations.
- We still could not control ourselves even when we wanted to do right.
- The Law of Moses gave no help.
- The LAW only told us what was right and wrong; there was nothing in the Law to help us to follow it perfectly.
- Laws, in general, give us no help in fighting the temptation.
- Laws can point out what is wrong; but cannot help you avoid doing it,whereas the Spirit can help you overcome the sin set before you.
- What the Law could not do, Jesus can do for you through His perfect sacrifice!
- By sending Jesus, God broke our slavery to sin.
- Sin is removed from its rule on the flesh.
- God condemned our sin in the flesh of Jesus.
- This is how God has set us free from the law of sin and death (8:2) in reference to its penalty, namely, through Jesus taking our punishment and reconciling us to the Father.
- Jesus fulfilled the Law for us.
- The law pointed out our problems. It told us what we should and should not do.
- God’s goal for our life is for us to live a holy life.
- This is what God had in mind when He condemned sin in the flesh.
- He wanted to make it possible for people to live the kind of holy life which the Law all along revealed as pleasing to God.
- Because of the fact sin was condemned in the flesh of Jesus, the requirement of the law (a holy life) can be fulfilled in each of us!
- The only way we can live righteously is to live our life in Christ.
- Let’s conclude with verse 4.
Romans 8:4 (NET 2nd ed.)
4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
III. The fruit of freedom.
- The fruit of freedom can only be experienced by being in Christ and by walking according to the Spirit, not the flesh.
- To “walk” means “behavior” or “course of life.”
- The Law will only be fulfilled in those who WALK or LIVE according to the Spirit and not the flesh.
- In Christ, you have the freedom to do either.
- The fruit of walking by the Spirit is freedom.
- IF you are living under a cloud of guilt and shame, how would you like to rid yourself of those two insidious things in your life?
- If you are a Christian, then why are you still living like the condemned?
- YOU HAVE BEEN SET FREE IN CHRIST JESUS!
- Why are you beating yourself up over a past and sin that God has forgiven you of and has set you free?
- Too many Christians are living like a criminal who has been set free yet refuses to leave the prison.
- The fruit of freedom is the ability to enjoy the life you have here and to be able not to dread what is coming!
CONCLUSION
- Too many people are living in a prison, a prison they have made for themselves.
- Our sin condemns us; being in Christ and living by the Spirit frees us!
- One of the biggest lies the devil feeds us is that if you come to Jesus, you will be enslaved to Him.
- The real master is sin; you can change that through Jesus!
- Are you ready to experience freedom?
- You will find it in Christ!
- Are you walking according to the flesh, which will end in death, or are you walking according to the Spirit?
- DO you want life and peace?
- Do you want to know you are forgiven?
- Give your life to Christ and walk according to the Spirit.
- We have much freedom in Christ; one of them is freedom from condemnation!
