Romans 8:1-11
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Spirit Vs. Flesh
Spirit Vs. Flesh
Intro
We have talked about the concept before called the now not yet reality.
We have been saved and sanctified by the blood of Jesus (NOW)
But we still live in a world broken and filled with sin and we still struggle with the desire we have in our flesh (NOT YET)
The not yet is the concept that one day we will be free from this struggle with sin but not yet.
So while we still live here on earth we are constantly sanctifying ourselves to live more and more like Christ who lived a life free from sin.
We will never be truly sinless in this life but we can constantly strive to live more and more like Christ.
This battle between our sin (FLESH) and our desire to obey God and live righteously (SPIRIT) is the struggle that every Christian battles with.
Even Paul talks about his struggles.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
So how do we overcome this desire to sin? Through a relationship with Christ.
It is only through Christ! We already talked about how we couldn’t conquer sin on our own!
Let me be clear, until you die and go to heaven you will always struggle with sin.
Every believer struggles with sin, but there is freedom in Christ.
Not freedom to continue to sin but freedom to have victory over sin, to begin to desire sin less and less and desire growing in your relationship with Christ more and more.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
PRAY
PRAY
Therefore - What is it there for?
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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.
Paul here is addressing the war that rages inside of us.
One side that desires to follow God, that desires to do what He is asking us to do but also one side that desires to sin.
I’m sure all of you know what I am talking about, you know what is right but you still choose to do what is wrong.
When your done sinning or when you look back at what you have done you think to yourself, why did I do that!
Paul calls himself a wretched man! He then asks the question who will deliver me from this body of death?
Who would save a sinner like me, someone who knows what’s right and chooses to do what is wrong.
Then He answers his own question. Thank God that while we were sinners He rescued us from our sin and gave us His righteousness.
Now because we are saved we pick up in Romans 8:1-2
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
There is a difference between condemnation and conviction.
Condemnation means guilty
When a criminal does something wrong they are condemned to jail or condemned to punishment.
Those of us who are saved by Jesus blood are no longer condemned to the punishment that is for our sins.
BECAUSE we are in Christ Jesus.
PAUSE
There is a difference between condemnation and conviction.
Satan attempts to use condemnation in the lives of believers by making you feel as if God will never love you because of the sin that you have commited.
It is true that we are unworthy of God’s grace, but what is also true is that God pours it out freely in the lives of believers.
Conviction drives you away from your sin and back to God’s grace.
It’s that felling you get when you know you have done something wrong and you feel the urge to go confess your sin
Conviction in this contexts is used like the conviction someone has to do the right thing.
I stand up against things I disagree with because I have certain convictions that cause me to speak out against unjustice.
This conviction also causes me to desire to follow after Jesus and build a deep and lasting relationship with Him.
Conviction leads you closer to God, condemnation in the life of a believer makes you feel distant from Him.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
Paul then says
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
The Law of the Spirit of Life
Paul here is using the concept of the Law.
Laws are made to tell others how they should live their life.
Laws are made to keep others safe.
Laws are also made so that if someone breaks the law their punishment is just for the crime they commited.
It’s why we don’t kill someone for stealing 30 dollars from someone but we also don’t let murders go free after a three night stay in a jail cell.
The Law informs us of what is expected of people as well as what kind of justice is dealt out if someone breaks the law
Here’s the bad news.
At one point in your life before you recognized Jesus as your savior you were considered a guilty criminal under the Law.
God had told us if we sin the punishment would be death.
When we as humanity sinned God’s justice required payment for that sin which was death.
God even gave a list of over 600 commandments to the Israelites and told them if you want to live a perfect and holy lifestyle this is how you must live your life.
But the Israelites couldn’t fulfill that law.
They couldn’t even fulfill the major 10 commandments.
In fact they constantly failed at keeping the very first commandment.
You shall have no other God’s before me.
The Old Testament is filled with stories of God’s chosen people constantly sinning against God, constantly worshipping idols constantly doing what they wanted to do.
And you and I are no better. We are unable to fulfill the law.
In fact I constantly struggle with wanting to do what I want to do instead of what God wants me to do.
If I was in the garden and Satan tempted me with the fruit I wouldn’t be able to resist!
I can’t even resist going to Sonic during their 1 dollor coney dog days!
None of us are able to fulfill the law and live the perfect lifestyle required for salvation.
But here’s the good news in Romans 8:2 it tells us that because of Jesus we have been saved from the law and now we live in the grace He has given to us.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Verse three tells us that God has accomplished what we could not through the Law.
We were unable to live a life of righteousness that is required for salvation.
So God sent His son to do it for us on our behalf.
Now in these two verses there is a whole theological conversation about Jesus’ humanity and His divinity and why He needed to be fully man and fully God.
I told you Romans was a deeply theological book.
We do not have the time to dive into why Jesus needed to be fully man and fully God to accomplish the work of defeating sin and death.
Instead of getting to far into it let me tell you,
Jesus was fully God
Jesus was also fully man
Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly
He was without sin
Because Jesus was all of these things He was able to die on the cross for the sins of humanity
Now because we believe in Jesus as our Lord the perfection that the Law demands was fulfilled by Jesus and His righteousness is given to us.
We are no longer lost in our sin or in our shame but we have been made righteous in Christ Jesus.
He fulfilled the Law that we could not and then He took on our sins and exchanged His righteousness for us.
Now that I have said this I don’t want you to think you are free to go and live your life however you want.
As believers in Jesus now that we have been saved from our sin we are also aware of what sin is and why we should avoid it.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Paul here is telling us there are two ways people live their life.
According to the Flesh
According to the Spirit
The Flesh brings death
The Flesh is hostile towards God, it does not submit to God’s Law
It cannot submit to God’s law because it is enemies with God.
The flesh cannot please God.
So what does this mean? Are we enemies of God who are unpleasing to Him destined for death?
NO BECAUSE!!!
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 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.
You are not in the flesh!
Not only that but the Spirit of God dwells inside of you.
Just think about that for a moment.
Close you eyes and think about the fact that as a believer, you have the Spirit of the living God dwelling inside of you.
You are not condemned of you sin but now you have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you.
You no longer are hopeless but now you have hope because you can take your sins to God and seek forgiveness.
You are no longer God’s enemy but you are called His friend and His child.
Romans tells us that if Christ is in you, if you are a believer, even though you still struggle with sin, even though you still make mistakes, you are no longer condemned as a sinner
Instead you are considered righteous and you have life because of what Christ accomplished on the cross.
The flesh brings death
The Spirit brings life and peace
This does not excuse us to sin but this pushes us closer in relationship with God, no longer desiring to sin but instead desiring to submit to God and follow His way.
