We Who Walk by the Spirit

Intro

State of Emergency

What is the state of the Christian before God in the space we inhabit now as we await the consummation of the age and the promises of God?

Do we know live in the ever present reality that sins power has been banished from our lives and that the wrath of God is totally cast away from us?

In the first 17 verses of Romans 8, what many have called the mountain top of Bible passages, Paul describes the resting state of believers and encourages them to step into the spiritual life of adoption.

Through the Spirit we are redeemed for a relationship with God.

What does Paul write?

Why Romans 8?

Theological Treatise

Letter to a specific church.

Why does Paul write?

What going on in Rome?

Jews: Compelled by heritage.

Gentiles: A new normal.

Where Does Romans 8 Exist?

Romans 8 comes after Paul has pleaded with his audience not to fall back into slavery by the law, to lean solely on Christ for salvation. Living a life pleasing to him out of great love for him.

In Romans 8 Paul gives us three Characteristics of the Spirit lead life, a description of the person who is truly led by the Spirit.

Those Who are Free (1-4)

V.1 Where we exist

When we approach the father there is no “what about this”, there is therefore now NO condemnation.

Two realms/ ages: Sin and death and life and Spirit.

For the Christian, right now marks and transfer to an age in which there is no threat of condemnation or damnation.

Put out of reach of the wrath of God because of the work of Christ.

Dorthy in Wizard of Oz: Picked up and thrust into a new realm.

V.2-4 Jesus Legal Work

The technicalities of Christ work on the cross.

The law? The standard, the norm to be expected, that which has present dominion.

Being set free from sin in death is the transfer from one space to the next.

It is here that justification and sanctification takes place. Only after this transfer.

Is the law bad?

Weakened by the flesh: That we cannot follow it and that the flesh takes the law, which was never intended to save, and makes it our primary means of salvation.

You can’t handle your sin.

It is as with a sick man who wants to drink some wine because he foolishly thinks that his health will return if he does so. ow if the doctor, without any criticism of the wine, should say to him: “It is impossible for the wine to cure you, it will only make your sicker,” the doctor i not condemning the wine but only the foolish trust of the sick man in it. For he needs other medicine to get well, so that he then can drink his wine. Thus also our corrupt nature needs another kind of medicine than the law, by which it can arrive at good health so that it can fulfill the law- Martin Luther

Our assumption that we can save ourselves corrupts the law.

Christ handles sin, stripping it of its power. It no longer can dictate terms for those who are in Christ.

How is the law fulfilled?

In us, not by us.

Christ perfect obedience, the only means of fulfilling the law, is accepted for us and God now sees that reality over us.

“Christ becomes what we are so that we may become what Christ is” - Moo

Christian behavior is not how the law is fulfilled but the mark that it has been fulfilled in us.

We have entered a new space. No longer one defined by sin and death.

Moving out for the first time.

In a new space we think differently, we have a change of scenery that gives us a new mindset.

Those Who are Spirit Minded (5-11)

v.5-8 Death in the flesh

Paul pursues further what it is like to live by the Spirit with descriptions.

You are what you think (v.5-6)

What is most often at the forefront of your mind?

What do you allow to consume your attention?

Not a description of mortality but rather a proclamation of where you exist. In a state of death or one of life.

Warfare with God or peace with him.

James 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Unable to please God(v.8-7).

Total depravity. Natural bent. Original sin.

The person who is not in the Spirit has no concern for the things of God.

This is why morality does not work.

Ephesians 2:1 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

v.9-11 Alive in Christ

Total spiritual and physical redemption in him.

Not pur propensity to wander, but the place we exist.

Flesh is the realm of death in which, in Christ, we are not.

How is there no no condemnation, because the power sin has had been crippled on the cross and the Spirit positions us to walk in newness of life

Ephesians 2:4–6 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Prone to sin yet dead to its power.

Though we were dead because of sin, the Spirit allows us to be alive. Physically and actually.

Now but not yet.

Those Who are Adopted (12-17)

v.12-14 Children of wrath

No longer debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit to live in newness of life.

It is important to say that up to this point we have been describing the two states of humanity. This is not Paul instructing us. He assumes his listeners are truly Christians and thus exist in that state of life and grace. He aims to encourage them.

Now we see our part. recognizing fully that this is the Spirit at work in us, we must also recognize this does not mean “let go and let God”. We play a role.

We are not free from putting sin to death but put in the position in which that is necessary and possible.

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Before Christ we are dead in its fullest most significant theological meaning. Separated from God, life, and peace. Unable to please him, totally deserving of his wrath.

Conversely Jesus offers life, and life abundantly.

The lie from the enemy is that life is found in the pursuits of pleasure or in the legalistic moral conservatism we. He lulls us to death.

The cry from heaven is more. Seek God, be most delighted in him, and find life in its fullest most significant theological meaning.

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Lead by the Spirit: Less often is this a sense of physical direction from the Spirit. Not that God does’t do this. Think rather having the whole direction of ones life determined by the Holy Spirit.

Breath of life that puts us in the position to do everything else.

This is where sanctification becomes a key topic.

We are lead by the Spirit when we determine the will of God.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

Psalm 23:3 ESV

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

For his name sake. That we might be found in him. How? By radical adoption.

v. 15-17 Sons of God

How do we know we are safe?

Live by the Spirit, easy to say perhaps harder to understand and even harder still to know where we stand.

We know we are in Christ because we have been adopted as sons.

Sonship: Whose lead do you follow?

Dad and I in our uniforms.

Implications of Christian inheritance.

Christian hedonism

Not given the spirit of slavery.

You do not need to live a life of worry, am I in or am I out, You need to build your affections for God. To find your delight most in him.

“Wickedness is driven out by greater affection.

Spirit bears witness

Get in the word.

Partner with God through prayer.

Orientate your thoughts around him.

Endure the suffering of world bent away from God as you await the glory he has promised you.

Conclusion

Fifteen times the Spirit was mentioned in our passage today, all but two of them dealing with the Holy Spirit.

The mark of your life ought to be Spirit driven. When you consider your actions and thoughts, your greatest affections, are they orientated towards God. Do you match the description Paul just laid out for us.

If the answer is yes do not let the enemy lie to you, to cause you to doubt and fear. Live presently, now, knowing that you are not under the weight of condemnation and damnation, but are as on, daughter of the God of the universe. Who did not spare even his own son that he might have you.

Live in that grace. Bought and sealed in the Spirit. Confident no matter what comes.