A Person’s Walk
Notes
Transcript
We have been looking for some time now at what God has accomplished in providing the miracle of salvation in this first great argument supporting Paul's amazing claim in Romans 8:1, that “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
And as we have found in our study, this salvation has been entirely due to the actions taken by God, rather than anything which we ourselves accomplish. But in this amazing and supernatural truth, we can sometimes take liberties in applying principles or assumptions to salvation which are not warranted by what Scripture itself declares.
And unfortunately, this occurs all too often in both our culture and also in many church settings throughout the world, but most especially within our western culture today.
For example, we sometimes see people trying to claim that the world is put into two eras, separated by Christ, such that they feel that everyone who lives after Christ fall under the great relief of “no condemnation"; that once Christ Jesus came, the condemnation and judgment of the “angry God” of the Old Testament has been entirely done away with, that we are now in the New Testament era, that wrath has been overcome by the loving God of the New Testament.
Others, however, will in a sense double-down on this difference between law and grace, a perceived difference between the Son and the Father, and claim that the Son interjects Himself against the Father, that God the Father seeks only to judge and to be wrathful, but that the Son is activity working against the Father to wrest everyone He can away from that wrath.
And so it is with this in mind that we must look again to what the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul has for us to learn in Romans 8:3-4.
So let us play before we begin!
O Lord our God, You, o Lord, are in Your holy temple, Your throne is in heaven, Your eyes behold our deeds, Your eyelids test the sons of men. You test the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence Your soul hates; fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For You, O Yahweh, are righteous, and You love righteousness. The upright will behold Your face, to the glory of Your blessed Son. Amen!
As we begin this morning, let's remind ourselves of the great statement of Paul here in Romans 8:3-4 ,
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, so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Now it is vital to our right understanding of these verses that we take careful note of the very first word, "for", because this is not an entirely new thought or idea , but rather it is an explication and continuation of what the apostle had written in Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
There are those who, in trying to work out what Paul had been writing in the last portion of Romans 7, mis-interpret the man of Romans 7: 14 - 25 as being a Christian who was still carnal, who had not yet had the second experience of sanctification. What a Christian needs, they claim, is to have a second experience, to turn over from being a Romans 7 Christian to being a Romans 8 Christian. Such a thing is preposterous, and does violence to the plain meaning of Scripture everywhere, these verses before us in particular. Surely, the very way in which Paul begins his statement here will dispose of such notions!
But there is an even greater argument against such thinking within the content of what Paul writes here, when he once again makes it perfectly clear just who he is referring to when he talks about "us" here in verse 4, namely that he is referring to those "who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” And it is to that question that we must apply ourselves this morning, taking care that we rightly understand what he means.
Take the word "walk", for instance, the Greek verb here being “περιπατέω”. When used as it is here, this word does not refer to the act of putting one foot in front of the other for the purpose of moving yourself from one place to another, such as from your chair to the water faucet. Rather, it refers to a person's overall manner of life. We saw this same usage in Romans 6:4 “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk [ same word! ] in newness of life.” or in 1 John 2:6 “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” – the same word once again.
For, you see, the Bible does not speak of a Christian as merely a person who has at one point in their life prayed a particular prayer, or who has uttered some particular phrase as if it were some magical incantation – these are the paths and methods of the pagan mystery religions, doctrines of demons and the spirit of anti-christ, which is now in the world stirring up wrath unto the day of wrath among the sons of disobedience. No, no! What Scripture continually speaks of is your walk – your overall, general manner and tenor of life.
This term "walk" refers to those elements which govern and regulate a man or woman's living of life; yes, talking about his practice – but also and even more pointedly his thoughts and judgements and feelings! We are talking here about the controlling principles of his life. For example, we see the charge laid against Paul himself in Acts 21:21 “and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.” Again, the same term is seen, and this time perhaps more immediately understandably for our purposes, as it is referring to the basic and habitual manner of living, their way of life in its totality.
And it is readily apparent to all of us that each and every person has a particular walk, a particular habitual manner of life which even we, in our limited capacity as human beings, are able to understand and to recognize. Let me give you a couple of examples we can all relate to in order to help us better understand the context:
I have a friend named Rick, and Rick is a fisherman, he likes talking about fishing, he has owned multiple boats, and has a significant number of rods, reels, tackle boxes, and the like. So when I hear that my friend Rick has bought a new boat - I am going to assume that it is some sort of fishing boat with a live well, rather than an ocean-going speed boat. Why? Because Rick's general manner of life is more related to fishing for bass rather than racing on the open seas. And if he had instead bought the expensive racing boat I would think that to be out of his normal character.
Or, since it is into the political season, we could look at individual members of each political party, and just by knowing which party a candidate belongs to have a fairly general idea of what that particular candidate believes and supports regarding many common issues of the day, without them having to explicitly tell us.
But Paul, or more precisely the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, is not at the moment discussing something so trivial as boats or political positions, but rather he is speaking of whether a person is “in Christ Jesus" or are they not in Christ Jesus.
And when we look at our text, and throughout Scripture, we find that our walk follows after one of two great powers – either the flesh on the one hand, or the Spirit of the living God on the other.
And it is for this reason, that Paul presents these two before us here in Romans 8:4.
And in order to truly understand what is being said here, we must first comprehend precisely what is meant by these opposing terms, "flesh" and "Spirit".
Within the New Testament, there are a couple of ways that the term "flesh" is used:
First, Paul uses this term “flesh” as he does in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
When he writes "the life which I now live in the flesh", Paul obviously refers to his being alive here and now, that he is remaining alive in the normal, typical understanding common to all men everywhere, but to the believer who is aware that death is not the end of existence it serves to differentiate for us that Paul's body has not died – he still has a mortal body.
Now, to suggest that that “not-yet-dead” state is what Paul is referring to here in Romans 8:4 as “ living according to the flesh" simply does not make any sense at all, so we ought to exclude that potential meaning from our study here.
Paul uses the term “flesh” in a second way both in Romans 1:3, saying “concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,” and also in Romans 4:1 , “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?”
So now, what does "flesh" mean here in these verses? It refers of course, to the natural course of mankind, in passing down humanity from one generation to the next, going all the way back to Adam and Eve; this is the natural mortal man. And although this "natural, mortal man" may come close to how the apostle uses the word here, such a meaning still falls well short, for in chapter 1 he is using the term to describe our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and to say that His manner of life was opposed to the manner of life in the Spirit of God is reprehensible and preposterous.
So Paul once again cannot have this meaning of “the natural course of man in” in mind when he uses the word "flesh" here in verse 4.
But the apostle Paul also uses the word "flesh" in the manner of Romans 7:5, where he writes “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.” He uses it in a similar manner in Ephesians 2:3, “among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
In these passages, which are so very similar to this how he uses the term in Romans 8:3-4 before us today, it is obvious that he is speaking of a manner of life which is opposed to and set against a manner of life which is “in the Spirit”, or “following after the Spirit of God”, the Holy Spirit. And because of that great similarity between them, we may then rightly look to them in order for us to understand what a life "according to the flesh" is – that such a life is opposed to and at odds with the manner of life which is according to the Holy Spirit.
This being the case, then, looking at the antithesis of life in the flesh will help us here in understanding the totality of what is meant. Therefore, before we return to complete our understanding of what it means to be “in the flesh”, let us look at what it means to walk “according to the Spirit”.
For I hope you remember the point I made in our overview of this chapter the Trinitarian aspect of salvation, that all three Persons of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – are all intimately and wholly involved in Salvation. You of course, see it here in these 2 verses plainly – the Father sent His own Son, the Son came in the likeness of sinful flesh and willingly gave Himself as an offering for sin. These activities we have already looked at in detail. But it is here in this question of our walk that we see clearly the work of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord, you recall, told us the same thing in the gospel of John, where we read in the 16th chapter
“But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
And what will He do?
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
And then elaborating so that we rightly understand what He means,
concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
In other words, to “walk after the Spirit”, is to respond accordingly to the Holy Spirit’s role as described by Christ Jesus.
To “walk after the Spirit” is found first in His conviction of sin, namely the sin of not believing in Christ Jesus Himself. The Holy Spirit does not seek His own glory, but ever points to Christ Jesus, and convicts those who do not rightly believe in Him, and for those who do believe in Him the Holy Spirit will lead us ever more toward an ever deeper trust and faith in Christ Jesus. This is not merely an intellectual affirmation that there was a Jesus of Nazareth, but a belief in the Jesus Christ as He is declared and described within holy Scripture, Scripture which was breathed out by God Himself which is “able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15-16).
To “walk after the Spirit” is found second in His leading us to righteousness, righteousness which was found first in Christ Jesus, who was put to death on the cross, whose righteousness was affirmed and declared by God with great power by raising Christ Jesus from the dead, who ascended into heaven and is at this very moment “at the right hand of God”, as Romans 8:34 reminds us. To “walk after the Spirit” is to be convicted of our former manner of thinking that Christ was not, in fact, entirely and completely righteous, to feel and agree with the shame and guilt on account of such thinking on our part.
To “walk after the Spirit” is found thirdly in His leading us to judgement. To not only “understand” in an intellectual sense, but to agree with the judgement of condemnation upon the ruler of this world – of Satan – and the rules he imposes upon this world, his blinding of the eyes that they not see Christ for who He is and to trust Him entirely. It is to feel and understand that same judgement is right and holy, and by rights ought to be applied to us individually as well for following after the ruler of this world.
It is for these things that 2 Peter 1:21 declares “For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
So when we go back to our verses in Romans 8:3-4, where we read…
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, so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
…We begin, now, to understand the trinitarian nature of God’s work in salvation, that each member of the Trinity is continually working to call us to Christ Jesus.
But in this, we also start understanding the depth of the depravity of a life lived after the flesh – that such a life denies the Christ Jesus described within Scripture, who comes now for peace, but later for judgement. That such a life denies that we, from our conception, failed to be ashamed at our denial of Christ’s righteousness. That such a life denies that judgement against the way of the world has already come, and will yet still occur, that judgement against all who follow that ruler of this world is likewise certain.
The problem is that although people will generally agree they sometimes and occasionally do sin, they will deny this work of the Holy Spirit. They will say, “Well, now, I’m not a bad person!” Most people will look at their lives and say “well, now, I'm not so very bad as some of these others, I've not committed heinous acts, I've not murdered anyone, I'm not a drunkard, I've not engaged in any of these horrible actions which you see on the evening news! In other words, I'm generally a good person, I may occasionally sin but that really doesn't matter so much, since I'm overall a good person, you shouldn’t call me a bad person. Certainly I am not deserving of such words!”
O foolish person! Do you not see that you fall under the condemnation of Romans 1:32–2:4,
and although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
But do you presume this, O man—who passes judgment on those who practice such things and does the same—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
God declares in Galatians 3:22,
But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
This is the selfsame thing that Paul has been explaining to us ever since Romans 5:12,
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
That all men and women, every where and in every era and every place are "in the flesh" from conception.
That Ephesians 2:3 is the only description which is accurate – no matter if you are the most debased and sickly person in the poorest neighborhood, or else the finest of gentlemen in the most affluent gated community.
The Scriptures say the same thing throughout – If you are outside of Christ Jesus, the best that can be said of you is that description in Ephesians 2:3, “…doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and … by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
The Holy Spirit seeks to convict a person of this, to show them Christ in His glory and grandeur, to lead us to Him.
So, then, we are now able to answer the final question for understanding Romans 8:3-4,
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, so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
That question, of course, is “who is it that the apostle speaks of?” Who is it that the righteous requirement of the Law is fulfilled in, on account of God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, why He thereby condemned sin in the flesh. Who is “us”?
It is those who the Holy Spirit has led into conviction and faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
In other words, when we look at this teaching in totality, we begin seeing that there is no so-called “second experience”, that Thomas Manton was absolutely correct when he wrote of this, “We often consider Christ as dying for our pardon; we should as much consider him as dying to renew and heal our natures, that we may be recovered to our obedience to God, to crucify the old man, to give us the spirit of holiness. Surely he is made sanctification to us, as well as righteousness”!
If you are a Christian, you are justified, you are not condemned. But even more, you are also sanctified, you cannot be only justified but not be sanctified. That does not mean that our sanctification is completed, that we are entirely conformed at salvation to the image of Christ Jesus. But it does mean that the process has begun, that the entire tenor and thrust of our life is no longer what it once was.
We have, in other words, undergone the most profound change a person may ever undergo – to be “born again”, as our Lord declared to Nicodemus.
The question I must ask, then, is if such a change has occured within you. If not, God declares in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—”
Do not delay! For if you are in the flesh, all that awaits is judgement. If you are in Christ, there is no condemnation, and the righteous requirement of the Law is fulfilled in us, for we walk according to the Spirit.
And, Lord willing, we will begin Paul’s own exposition on this in verses 5 though 13.
Let us pray!