Joint Heirs With Jesus

Recap of Flesh leading to Death

We continue in our series on the early church. We have been working our way through Romans. Last week we looked at Paul’s bold proclamation of faith. Whoever is in Jesus is not condemned. We are free in the Spirit because of what God has done for us, not for what we have done. We looked at the purpose of the law. The law is good for diagnosing what is wrong with us. I think that today if we were to sit down and evaluate our lives based on the Ten Commandments, we would see where we are doing okay and where we are completely failing. The point of the law is to diagnose our problems. The cure for this is not the acts of the flesh, but the blood of Jesus. It was His holy sacrifice that has cleansed us. We looked how the law was weakened by the flesh. From our interpretation today, we might be led to believe that we have power enough to weaken the Law. We most certainly do not. Like we said last week, the Law is good and perfect and Jesus is good and perfect. The Law doesn’t fail and Jesus doesn’t fail. We are the ones that fail. As believers, we should seek perfection. It should not be a matter of “Well, Jesus paid it all, so I am going to just go and have all the fun I want”. Instead it should be used as a tool to determine where we are failing.

The Law was given so that the people knew how to behave. Feasibly, if they had been able to follow all of those commands every single day for their entire lives, when they reported to Jesus for the judgment seat, they would be given a pass because they had done everything right. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but none of us will get it right. There is only One that got it right and He was executed by the hands of sinful men. When Jesus is approached by the rich young ruler, Jesus is called good. Jesus responds, “Why do you call Me good? The only One that is good is God.” Solomon puts it this way in Ecclesiastes 7:20 “There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.” That right there should take the pressure off of us because we know that it is not just the individual I that sins, but everyone. We all struggle, we all have a problem of sin.

Even Paul discusses his problems. One thing to not about Paul is that as we work through his letters is that he goes from calling himself a sinner to eventually calling himself the chief of sinners. I think the longer we walk with God and the closer we get with Him, the more we realize how sinful we are. Paul knows he has a sin problem. Rather than try to make himself look like he is the golden child, he admits to it. The only way to solve problem is to first admit we have one. If we think about it, that is how we came to faith. The Holy Spirit told us where we were messing up and identified the sin in our life and that was the impetus for us to put our faith in Jesus. That’s one of the challenges we have as the church today. The world has no real definition of truth or sin so people do not feel condemned for the bad things they do. How blessed are we that when we follow Jesus, we know where we are messing up. We know where we fail Him.

We looked at Jesus and His example of putting the Spirit first and then the flesh. Jesus’s source of earthly contentment was not things of the flesh. Instead, it was the things of the Spirit. His fulfillment was in doing the Father’s will. Oh that we would live such a life. Oh that we would live a life that is driven by the Spirit first and then the flesh. The things of the flesh lead to death, but the Spirit leads to life and peace. If we want true life and peace, it can only be done through living a life devoted to God.

Today we are going to look at our birthright as children of God. God does not have grandchildren. Our parent’s faith and our grandparent’s faith won’t save us. If we want that birthright then we have to come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior on our own. If you have your Bibles, please turn them to Romans 8: 12-17

Romans 8:12–17 CSB

So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

I like how Paul concludes the exhortation against living in the flesh. We were once bound to the laws of the flesh. We were once confined in that area, but now we are free from it. We are no longer obligated to go along with what the flesh wants. We don’t have to do what it wants us to anymore. Unfortunately, old habits die hard and the flesh is going to do what it can to keep us mired down in its sinfulness. As we were talking with the youth last week, the devil doesn’t care if we worship him, he just doesn’t want us to worship God. The devil doesn’t care if we serve him or not, he just doesn’t want us serving God. Since we have lived in the flesh and are surrounded by the flesh, it will be hard to break free from that cycle. When we became followers of Christ, we became sons and daughters of God. I think one problem we have in the world today is the common refrain of “We are all God’s children”. It is a nice sentiment, but that is not in the Bible. We are all God’s creation. Every single one of us has been created by God. When we look at the process of procreation and all the very precise things that must happen, the birth of a child is truly a miracle. It is God’s handiwork. No wonder David can proclaim in Psalm 139:14 “I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.”

We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. God put every person here on earth for a reason, but not everyone will come to know Him as Lord and Savior. Not everyone will be brought into His family. Those of us that believe in Jesus have been adopted into the family of God. Adoption is a binding process. I have known some people that were adopted. I have known people that have been trying to adopt. When a person is adopted into the family, that’s it, the child belongs in the family and has the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else in the family. They belong. It’s the same way with us when we come to know Christ. We are adopted into His family and now we are joint heirs with Jesus. We get the same benefits. Pretty amazing, right? Though we have done nothing to earn it, we now suddenly have heaven guaranteed. We are brought in and will enjoy eternity with Him. It does not matter when we come to know Jesus. Some of us will come to know Him when we are young, others will come to know Him when we are older. It doesn’t matter when, because we are brought into the fold. Dania and I have some friends that adopted a guy when he was 17 years old, almost 18. That young man was still part of the family. He was introduced as their son. When we confess Christ as Lord, His blood covers up our sin. His blood is so powerful that it completely removes our sinful past, meaning that our slate has been completely wiped clean. As a result, the very righteousness of Jesus is now on us. That’s a hard one to comprehend. I know this for sure. I have a hard time comprehending it. How in the world can I, as a sinner that is stuck in the flesh have Christ’s righteousness on me? However, that is just me thinking from my feeble human understanding. God is way more powerful and He is strong to save. So even though I don’t fully understand it, I can see why John can proclaim in 1 John 3:9 “Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.” It is not that we are unable to sin. We surely will, it is going to happen. However, Christ’s blood is on us and He remains in us, so we are clean in the eyes of the LORD. What a mighty God we serve.

The question is, do we believe it? Do we believe it for ourselves and for others? So when people come to Jesus, there should be rejoicing. There should be happiness. Unfortunately, our human pride can get in the wya from time to time. Jesus tells several parables about what it is like in the kingdom of God. One of my favorites is the story of the man that loses one of his 100 sheep. The man is distraught because he only has the 99, which for all intents and purposes, is pretty good. It’s just one, right? But the man is distraught, so he leaves the 99 to go and seek out the lost one. The man finds the sheep and then calls all his friends to let them know and calls for celebration. Luke 15:7 “I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.” Do people rejoice when others come to know Jesus? Or do they look at them with suspicion? Conversion is hard, are we helping the new converts out in the way they need or are we looking at them and doubting their sincerity? As I am thinking about this, it’s not as crazy as it sounds, right? Dania’s not here to defend herself, so I’ll use this example. There are videos of Dania when her parents brought home her baby sister. At one point on the video, Dania is telling her mom and dad to “take it back”. So I guess from the human perspective, it makes sense that some would respond that way.

But as believers, we are supposed to put aside that fleshy stuff. That’s what Paul is talking about here. There is a new obligation that we are under. We aren’t under the obligation of the flesh anymore, we are under an obligation to the Spirit. So we should put to death all the things of the flesh. If we are willfully doing things that are sinful, then we must ask ourselves if we are truly God’s children. That’s why Paul states here that we have not been given a spirit of fear and timidity. As believers, who do we fear? Do we fear the world or do we fear God?

Conversion is hard. The process of becoming more like Christ is a lifelong process. We will have missteps, but we should be working toward living that holy life God has called us to live. God didn’t free us so that we could continue submitting to the flesh and being slaves to sin. The flesh is going to make it difficult for us to make those changes though. It is going to cause us fear because it is going to make us think that we are missing out. So the question is, who do we fear? Do we fear God or do we fear something else?

My kids introduced me to this thing the younger generation is suffering from. It’s called FOMO which means fear of missing out. FOMO can be about anything. Friends get together and you can’t go, now you’ve got FOMO. A big party is happening that your parents won’t let you go to, there’s FOMO for that. Concert happening? FOMO. The problem there is that this fear prevents people from enjoying where they are at in the moment. That fear does not produce anything productive. Instead, it produces discontent. For instance, Dania is not here today. Neither is Mary. The reason for that is because Mary desperately wanted to go and watch a New Jersey hockey game. She had tickets to this thing before even Jack Hughes scored the goal winning shot at the Olympics. She’s been a fan for a while, so she was super excited about the adventure up to New Jersey/ New York. Well, wouldn’t you know it, one of the singers she enjoys, who I can’t stand, but that is a conversation for a different time, is going to be in New York because he is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. So the focus shifted from the joy of seeing her favorite hockey player, to now the fear of not seeing this other guy while she’s in New York because even though she was not even making the trip up there to see him, now there is the possibility and so the focus has shifted.

In the same way, when we come to Jesus, we may worry that we are going to miss out on stuff since now we belong to Him. There might be concern because we see our non believing friends out doing whatever they want without a care in the world. So what we have to determine is what are we going to fear? Are we going to fear missing out or are we going to fear the LORD? Everything on this earth is temporary. God is eternal, so we should fear Him, not the things of the world and certainly not on missing out on certain activities. Luke 12:4–6 ““I say to you, my friends, don’t fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will show you the one to fear: Fear him who has authority to throw people into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the one to fear! Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.”

Who has the authority to cast us out on the day of judgment? Certainly not the devil or any of our family and friends. God does. so we should fear Him first and foremost. Proverbs 9:10 ““The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” What Paul is calling for us here is to put away the misdeeds of the body and to throw ourselves completely into wholehearted fellowship with God. Are we doing that? Or are we letting the things of the flesh get into the way? Mark 9:42–47 ““But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. “And if your hand causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell, the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,” As hard as it is, we should remove the things in our lives that are taking us away from the LORD. That’s what Christ is warning about here. If there is something in your life that is important to you to the point that it causes an intereference between the two of us, get rid of it. Hand causes sin, get rid of it. Foot causes sin, get rid of it. I dare say that if we were to remove these things, we would miss them, but it would be better to have them gone than to miss eternity with Him. An updated version of this could be: If Social Media causes you to stumble, remove your account. It is better to be offline than to spend an eternity away from Christ. If your cell phone leads you to gossip or lust, toss it in the garbage, it is better for sin not to be able to reach you 24/7 than having constant connectivity. I tell you, these cell phones are an amazing thing, but they can mess up our lives if we are not careful. There is a weird phenomenon where people have panic when they cannot find their phones. They have essentially become another appendage. Don’t get me wrong, they are very helpful. I can do all kinds of productive things on my phone. I’ve got my Bible app, I’ve got my banking, I’ve got my subscription to the Wall Street Journal on there. The seminary even has an app for me to do my schoolwork from my phone if I choose to go that route. So all in all, it is a tool that can be very constructive in my life. However, if I am not careful, I can find a whole bunch of destructive stuff on this thing as well. I can find all kinds of filth in the palm of my hand. This thing can either be used as a tool to help me grow spiritually or drag me down to death through the sinfulness that it can access. All that to say, we have to be careful. These things are not going away. I remember when I was young enough and the internet was unstable enough that we thought it was going to be a fad. Sadly, these things are not fads, they are here to stay unless something even more technologically advanced comes along with even more features. As believers, we have to make sure we are acting accordingly.

Paul says here in Romans that we must suffer like He did. That is not to say that we must suffer physically, but there will be sacrifices that we should make to show our alliance with Him. As believers, we need not fear the world or the things of the world or missing out on the things the world has to offer. Instead, we need only fear God, the maker of heaven and earth, and our Father.