The Christian Obligation Series

1 20 13 “The Christian OBLIGATION”

Romans 8:1-14

The SHORT SIDE

I. God in Christ has given me a new life (zoe) to live for Him. (vs. 1-2)

II. The law cannot save, sanctify, nor justify us: only Christ can. (vs. 3-4)

III. If you are LIVING in the flesh (sinFULL self), you are trusting in the flesh; You will die in yourself (sin), by yourself, and be judged for yourself (sin).

* If you are LIVING in the SPIRIT you have life in Christ and peace with God. (vs. 5-8)

IV. The Believer in Christ escapes neither sin nor death, but is sustained by the Holy Spirit through both! (vs. 9-11)

V. The Believer IN Christ is indebted TO Christ. (13-17)

* To Put to death the deeds of the flesh.

* To Walk and live in the Spirit.

A BELEIVER HAS A DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO PAY BY putting to death the deeds of the flesh and to Walk and Live by in and by the Spirit

I was thinking about the adage that goes: “There are two sides to every story”. Everybody has “A STORY” of some kind or another, and often when CONFLICT or accusations arise, we are quick to say: “There are two sides to every story”. IN a Christian, there are two sides on the INSIDE of US: There is the conflict of the TWO I’s. There is the fleshly, worldly sinful side and then there is the Spirit of God-I-want-to-please-you side.

We have been looking at the some of the struggles in the Christian life. That brings us to Romans 8 (NAS): 1 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. (If Christ’s Spirit has come into your heart, you believe in Jesus’ death on the cross and life for you, then you have been set free from the condemnation from sin and death. Listen: You have been released from the law and death for a specific reason and that is to serve the Spirit of the Living God! The word LIFE (zoe) means a real and genuine, active and vigorous existence which is DEVOTED TO GOD, not to the world and flesh! I.God has given me a NEW life (zoe) and Spirit to live for HIM. You have a continual lifestyle change.

Galatians 2: 20 says: "I have been crucified with Christ (my sin and death have been crucified with Christ) ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;(THE NEW SPIRIT OF LIFE) and the life which I now live in the flesh (while I am still here on this earth) I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

Rom. 8:3 “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 (12th time in the book of Romans: the earthly, prone to sin and opposed to God, that which is going to die) but according to the Spirit (the spirit of God).”

The Spirit of God IN US is the key to the Law being fulfilled in us. The Spirit calls the believer to obedience. For the Believer, the end is not condemnation but righteousness.

II.The law could not save us! We cannot save ourselves because we are sinful before birth, but God sent Jesus in the flesh but without sin to fulfill the perfect requirement of the law. Now Jesus imputes His righteousness to us: He assigns HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS to believers; He places it on the believer’s account, even though they have ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS and no reason to deserve His. The law cannot sanctify us (make us holy and pure) and the law cannot justify us (It only declares us “Guilty”). Only God in Christ can SAVE.

We can understand with a heart of faith how Christ sanctifies us and justifies us, but how is the requirement of the Law fulfilled in us? How can we be Christ-like, submitting to persecution, turning the other cheek, producing HOLY FRUIT like the law requires us to do? The key to having God’s holiness fulfilled in us is that we WALK (LIVE) ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT. We don’t fulfill the requirement by turning to the law, and trying to DO BETTER. We have do a complete “about face” and turn from OUR REMEDIES to God’s remedies: We have to TURN TO JESUS CHRIST. “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord !” (Rom. 7: 24-25)