Believer’s New Position
Position in the Son of God
Position in the Law of God
NCBC, 4/4/04, Romans 8:1-8
When a person becomes a Christian, he usually undergoes some radical life changes, especially if he has had an immoral background. Through the first steps of spiritual growth and self-denial, he gets rid of the large, obvious sins. But sad to say, many believers stop there. They don’t go on to eliminate the little sins that clutter the landscape of their lives.
Gordon MacDonald, in his book Ordering Your Private World, told of an experience in his own life that illustrates this truth. "Some years ago, when Gail and I bought the old abandoned New Hampshire farm we now call Peace Ledge, we found the site where we wished to build our country home strewn with rocks and boulders. It was going to take a lot of hard work to clear it all out....The first phase of the clearing process was easy. The big boulders went fast. And when they were gone, we began to see that there were a lot of smaller rocks that had to go too. But when we had cleared the site of the boulders and the rocks, we noticed all of the stones and pebbles we had not seen before. This was much harder, more tedious work. But we stuck to it, and there came the day when the soil was ready for planting grass."
Our Daily Bread.
Dearest Ones, upon accepting Jesus Christ, for those of us who have “truly” done so, we receive Positional Sanctification, meaning we are identified with and as having gone under the blood of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven and we are identified as being in him and our eternity is secured.
Let’s look at aspects of this today.
Position in the Son of God
The miracle
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit [Rom. 8:1].
"Therefore now, not one condemnation."
In spite of what Paul felt in our previous study or what you or I feel occasionally, he did not nor will we who have “truly” called upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior lose our salvation.
Why?
Praise be to God…There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
However, outside of submitting Paul wasn’t enjoying the Christian life -- he was a failure, and he was a wretched man.
Paul knew that God wanted him to have joy in his life.
How is he and you and I to have this?
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death [Rom. 8:2].
The word “for” or “because” occurs seventeen times in this chapter. Paul is telling us that there is no condemnation because…
"The law of the Spirit"…principle and authority of law, which is exercised by the Spirit.
"The Spirit of life"…the Holy Spirit brings life because HE is life. HE is the Spirit of life.
"In Christ Jesus"…the Holy Spirit is in complete union with Christ Jesus. The believer who shares the life of Christ is liberated by the Spirit.
"The law of sin and death" we spoke of last week, it had authority over our old nature.
Only the coming of a higher authority and power could accomplish this, namely the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit operates upon the new nature, which is vitally joined to the life of Christ. We who were of the body of the dead, are now joined to the living Christ.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit [Rom. 8:3-4].
As we agreed earlier the Law cannot produce righteousness in man.
The fault lay in man and the sin in our flesh.
The Law was totally incapable of producing any good thing in man, because man apart from Jesus Christ is totally depraved. This means you and I…apart from Christ.
The Holy Spirit is now able to do the miraculously impossible, IT can produce a holy life in the weak and sinful flesh.
Illustration:
Suppose a housewife puts a roast in the oven right after breakfast, she is going to serve it for the noon meal. The telephone rings. It is Mrs. Jane Jabber is on the phone. Mrs. Jabber begins with "Have you heard?" Well, the housewife hasn’t heard, but she would like to; so she pulls up a chair. Mrs. Jabber has a lot to tell, and about an hour goes by. After smelling our good housewife says, "Oh, Mrs. Jabber, you’ll have to excuse me. I smell the roast -- its burning!" Hanging up she rushes to the kitchen, and opens the oven.
She gets a fork and tires to lift up the roast but it won’t hold. She can’t lift it out. She tries again, closer to the bone, but still it won’t hold. So she gets a spatula. She puts the spatula under the roast and lifts it out. You see, what the fork could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, the spatula is able to do. Now, there is nothing wrong with the fork -- it was a good fork. But it couldn’t hold the flesh because something was wrong with the flesh -- it was overcooked. The spatula does what the fork could not do.
The Law is like the fork in that it was weak through the flesh. It just won’t lift us up; it can’t lift us up...it neutral.
The miracle: What the Law could not do, the Holy Spirit is able to do. Therefore, we must live the Christian life on this new principle.
God alone is able to do this impossible thing by sending HIS very own Son, HIS own nature in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Christ had the same kind of flesh that we have, apart from sin.
Hebrews tells us: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil . . . . For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:14, 16-17). Also "For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Heb. 7:26). Then "Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me" (Heb. 10:5).
This was God’s way. Today, the Holy Spirit is the Deliverer from sin in the body.
Our Lord Jesus said in HIS high priestly prayer, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (John 17:15).
Position in the Law of God
"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled"
It is the Holy Spirit produces within all who submit themselves full to a life of obedience which the Law commanded but could not produce. The Holy Spirit furnishes the power; the decision is ours. Will you submit today?
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit [Rom. 8:5].
What will you mind? Christ wants you to seek after Spiritual things.
A believer has been given a new nature, and can yield himself to the new nature.
And this is an act of the submissive will. This is the new struggle that’s brought to our attention.
Jesus said, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" -- it will always be flesh. God has no program to change the flesh. Rather He brings in something new: "and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).
A new struggle: the Holy Spirit striving against the old nature.
The little boy coming home from school was being beaten up by a big bully. He was on the bottom, and the big bully was pounding him very heavily. Then he looked up from his defeated position on the bottom, and he saw his big brother coming. The big brother took care of the bully while the little fellow crawled up on a stump and rubbed his bruises. The believer has the Holy Spirit to deal with the flesh, that big bully. None of us apart from the Spirit can deal with the flesh, we have to turn it over to somebody who can. The Holy Spirit indwells believers. HE wants to do that for us, and only HE can!
Ephesians 2:1-3. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
This was our condition we were saved.
The "flesh" includes the mind. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled" (Col. 1:21).
In Colossians Paul says: "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:8-9).
We retain our old Adamic nature. It means defeat and death to live by the nature of our flesh.
No born again believer can be happy in living for the things of the flesh.
The prodigal son may get into the pigpen, but he will never be content there. He is bound to say, "I will arise and go to my father."
"They that are after the Spirit" love the things of Christ. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:1-2). And Paul says, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Col. 3:12).
We can’t do these things by effort, only as we let the Spirit of God work in our lives will they appear.
Here is another great principle.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace [Rom. 8:6].
"For to be carnally minded" means death here and now.
The Spirit brings life and peace.
When we sin, we come to HIM in confession and let HIM wash us, restoring us to fellowship.
The "life" is fully satisfying.
"Peace"…tranquility and well-being regarding the present and future.
There is one thing for sure: if you are living in the flesh, and you are a child of God, you are not having right fellowship with God. You can’t.
The Lord Jesus in the Upper Room said to Simon Peter, ". . . If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me" (John 13:8).
Brother, Sister do you need washing right now?
"Well," somebody says, "what are we to do?" Do what Simon Peter had to do -- he stuck out his feet and let the Lord wash them.
We need to go to Him in confession. 1John 1:9 tells us, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just . . .to forgive…"
The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, keeps on cleansing us from all sin (see 1John 1:7).
This old nature is totally depraved. God has no plan to redeem it. He gives us a new nature.
Somebody says, "Then if a child of God sins, what’s the difference between him and the lost man?" The difference is simply this: when the lost man goes out at night and paints the town red, he comes back and says, "I’ll get a bigger brush and a bigger bucket of paint next time; wow, I want to live it up!" While the child of God, if he does a thing like that, will cry out to God, "Oh, God, I hate myself for what I’ve done!"
Any idea that you can somehow train your old nature, and live in it, is false. That’s legalism. Take it from Paul…it doesn’t work.
What we need to know today is that “God can do everything and you and I apart from God can do nothing of eternal worth.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God [Rom. 8:7-8].
How hopelessly incorrigible and utterly destitute the flesh really is. It is a spiritual anarchist.
The truth is that man is the enemy of God, dead in trespasses and sins, active in rebellion against God.
Anything that the flesh produces is not acceptable to God. So-called good work, the civilization, the culture, and man’s vaunted progress are all a foul stench in the nostrils of God.
Do you willing to accept God’s estimation of our human boasting?
This is a terrible but accurate picture of man.
Yet there is deliverance in the Spirit of God.
Are you willing, dear one, to turn it over to the Holy Spirit and quit trusting that weak, sinful nature you have?
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his [Rom. 8:9].
"But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit since the Spirit of God really dwells in you."
Even Paul could say to the carnal Corinthians: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1Cor. 6:19).
Again when Paul went to Ephesus, he missed something; he missed the distinguishing character of the believer. So he asked, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They didn’t know what he was talking about. So he asked them, ". . . Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism" (Acts 19:3). John’s baptism was unto repentance; it was not to faith in Jesus Christ. So he preached Christ to them. Then they received Him and were baptized in His name (see Acts 19:5).
A believer is a new creation. Do you love Him? Do you want to serve Him? Are these things uppermost in your mind and heart? Or are you in rebellion against God?
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness [Rom. 8:10].
Paul is saying here that you and I are in Christ, and since we are in HIM, when HE died, we died.
And we are to reckon on this, as we have already been told. Also we are to yield, that is, present our bodies to Him.
Don’t ever say you can’t do this -- that is not the language of a believer. Paul could say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
If you today are not conscious of the presence of the Spirit of God in your life and if you do not have a desire to serve God, then "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2Cor. 13:5). The Lord wants us to know that we are in Christ. "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
If you are not sure that Christ is in you, He extends this invitation: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20).
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you [Rom. 8:11].
These bodies that you and I have will be put in the grave one of these days, if the Lord tarries. However, the indwelling Holy Spirit is our assurance that our bodies will be raised from the dead (2Cor. 5:1-4). Because Christ was raised from the dead, we shall be raised from the dead. The Holy Spirit will deliver us from the "body of his death" -- this old nature.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh [Rom. 8:12].
In other words, we live not according to the flesh. God created man body, mind, and spirit. When man sinned, his spirit died to God. God warned, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). After Adam ate of the fruit, he lived several hundred years -- physically; but spiritually he died immediately.
Man was turned upside down. The body, the old nature, the flesh became dominant. Today man is dead spiritually.
Regeneration means that you are turned right side up, that you are born again spiritually, and that you have a nature which wants to serve God.
Oh, Dear one, to stay close to Christ is the important thing.
Don’t make up excuses for your fleshly ways, but in all your ways yield yourself fully under and unto Christ.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live [Rom. 8:13].
"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die" -- die to God.
When you have unconfessed sin in your life, do you want to go to church? Do you want to read your Bible? Do you want to pray? Of course not. Why? For you are separated from God.
"But if ye through the Spirit" -- you can’t do it yourself -- "mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
What is your problem today? Liquor? Drugs? Sex? " Then how about your thought-life? How about your tongue? Whatever your problem is, why don’t you confess it to God, then turn it over to the Holy Spirit?
Dear one, if you deal with it through Christ you won’t need to crawl up on the psychiatrist’s couch.
Only Christ can remove it; HE is in that business. Jesus says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will rest you" so that you will know what it is to have sins forgiven (see Matt. 11:28).
Won’t you come today?
Do you have bitterness and woe in this life? Do you crave a drink of something pure and deep? Jesus is inviting you to ask HIM to bring this refreshing flow into your life today… start experiencing HIS great love for you.
The transaction is so simple.
Simply pray, Lord, I recognize that I am a sinner, unclean, deserving of not only death but eternity in Hell. YOUR word says “…all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We know that your word says the penalty for sin is death and death apart from YOU means “Hell’.
Dear Lord, I ask YOU to come into my heart today and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Create in me a clean heart. Bring me to YOUR life giving flow and sustain me in YOUR ways, Oh Lord.
Through YOUR precious ways lead me as I commit myself to YOU for leadership and guidance in all my ways.
If you have said this prayer, please let your pastor or one of the church leaders know, so that we may assist you in becoming grounded in the vine of Christ in order that HE may bring fruit in this present world through you abiding in HIM.
God is always there, HE never walks away, so HIS people should continually be in prayer seeking HIS “good and perfect” will in their lives no matter whether you are walking on dry land in the midst of the sea or are walking through a desert towards bitter streams for a season. God will be faithful to carry you through any situation HE places you in.
Closing Prayer.
NCBC
