Living a Spirit-Filled Life
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning, church!
Announcements about
Student Camp
Any Students in 7th-12th Grade
June 4-7, 2026!
Pre-registration will close on March 31st.
Email Pastor Casey at casey@redemptionutah.com if you have questions.
The location is Pinecliffe Camp and is in collaboration with all our RFC churches!
Good Friday
6:30p, April 3rd
Eccles Center, Ogden
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Taste of the Nations
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First Time Guests
If this is your first time visiting RND, we are so glad you are here.
What you’ll find here is an imperfect people, worshipping a perfect Savior.
After our time together, I’ll be standing at the front door—we would love to give you a gift, mug and free movie tickets, and have the opportunity introduce myself!
Intro to Text
Intro to Text
Would you turn with me to Romans 8
We are going to jump straight into our text this morning as there is so much gold in this text to unpack this morning.
Main Scripture
Main Scripture
Would you follow along as we read our text, starting in Romans 8:1–17
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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. 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. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
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. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Pray
Intro Illustration: The Greatest Chapter in the Bible
Intro Illustration: The Greatest Chapter in the Bible
Before we get into our text, we are going to have a group activity here this morning.
Throw up blurry picture of a goat
Can anyone guess what this picture is? (Crowd participation)
I don’t think anyone got it. . .
Survey says. . .
Throw up the goat/glasses/Westbrook picture
The correct answer is Russell Westbrook.
The 2017 NBA MVP with
2 scoring titles
3 assist titles
Mr. Triple Double himself
He is the G.O.A.T.
the Greatest of all Time
Now the argument could be made that Michael Jordan and Lebron James are in that GOAT conversation
But I guess the debate will go on and
we can call it a draw
You’re not convincing me. . .I’m not convincing you
Such is the nature of these debates
Tie in:
If we could put one chapter of the Bible in the GOAT conversation
Romans chapter 8 would take the crown for many
As many call this the greatest chapter in the Bible
Some have called it
The inner sanctuary within the cathedral of Christian faith;
others
the tree of life in the midst of the Garden of Eden;
Martin Lloyd Jones called Romans 8 “the highest peak in the entire mountain range of Scripture. It is the Himalayas of the New Testament.”
John Calvin said this one chapter is the “main pillar which supports our life. Here is the medicine for every wound, the solution to every doubt."
Why Romans 8?
Because it gives us a beautiful and near complete picture of what it means to be a Christian
It starts off in verse 1 saying “No Condemnation”
and ends in with “No Separation”
What we find in between are
the glorious privileges believers enjoy through our union with Christ
Privileges like assurance, inheritance, peace,
Living as more than conquerers
And as is the subject of our 17 verses today
Adoption as children of God
and life in the Spirit of God who dwells in us
Main Point
Main Point
With that being said, if there’s one takeaway point I want us to leave here today from our time in God’s Word today it’s this:
As adopted children of God, we live according to the Spirit of God who dwells in us!
The Holy Spirit is mentioned 19 times in chapter 8, almost once every two verses.
And yet the chapter is not so much about who the Spirit is
so much as what the Spirit does in the lives of believers in whom He dwells.
Nonetheless, there are two aspects of His nature mentioned in these first 17 verses
from which these privileges for the believer flow.
And we’ll use those two aspects to divide our text.
He is the. . .
Spirit of Life (v. 1–13)
Spirit of Adoption (v. 14–17)
Let’s look at the first one, starting in v. 1
and y’all already know I like alliteration so we’ll take this first section
in four parts as will be laid out in the bulletin this morning.
Body
Body
1. Spirit of Life (Rm. 8:1–13)
1. Spirit of Life (Rm. 8:1–13)
a. Deliverance (v. 1–4)
a. Deliverance (v. 1–4)
Last week in Rm. 7, we looked at the life-long fight of the believer with his indwelling sin.
We sympathize with Paul’s cry of frustration in Rm. 7:24
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
And he gives the answer: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
We Christians, live in the Already-Not-Yet
knowing we have been delivered from sin’s power,
While longing for full deliverance from sin’s presence.
Well, here Paul reminds us of something we have certainly been delivered from:
condemnation.
It might look like he’s backtracking here,
since he already argued this back in Romans 5
In fact, he only uses this word “condemnation” 3 times in Romans—
once here and two times in Romans 5
for example, when he said in Rm. 5:18
as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
For that reason, we can see this “therefore”
is not just building off what he’s been saying in Rm. 7
about the believer’s struggle with sin
but stretches all the way back to Romans 5
bringing everything he has said from Romans 5–7 to a climactic conclusion
What is that conclusion?
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This is basically a restatement of Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There it was stated positively:
we have peace with God through Christ.
Here it is stated negatively:
as in we don’t have condemnation now that we are in Him.
The believer’s assurance hangs on every word of this sentence.
Paul emphatically uses the word “NOW”
to communicate that something new has happened for the believer.
The believer, before being in Christ—
was with all mankind under God’s condemnation because of their sin against Him
Now that they are in Christ—
that condemnation has been taken away
Such that Paul emphatically uses the word “no”
There is therefore now NO condemnation
Believer, Jesus didn’t pay some of your sin
He didn’t pay for most of your sin
Jesus paid it ALL!
ALL to Him I owe!
Sin had left a crimson stain—He washed it white as snow!
What relief that should give us as believers!
Are you here today and still feel guilty for something you did in the past?
Do you carry any leftover shame for who you were before Jesus?
Hear this word for you today—”there remains therefore now no condemnation for you”
I heard a quote this week that said, “Satan likes to bring up our pasts, but you need to remind him of Jesus’s past.”
Colossians 2 says that Christ nailed all your sins to the cross—
He canceled your record
So do not hold on to it any longer
Trust that He has forgiven you.
The same goes for any guilt we feel as believers who still wrestle with indwelling sin.
Paul just spent that last chapter sharing his experience—one that we can well relate to—
of sometimes doing the things we hate
sometimes putting the chains back on of our old slave master, sin
This assurance in Rm. 8:1 is for you as well
This doesn’t mean we overlook our sin or make peace with it
This much has been clear the past couple weeks—that we make war with it
But we take God at His Word when He says in 1 Jn. 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confess it, repent of it, and rest that God doesn’t hold it against you
I encourage every believer to memorize Romans 8:1
To dwell on Romans 8:1
For this is the grounds of our eternal assurance
That there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
(Pause)
If it hasn’t been evident, we could spend a whole week on just verse 1—it’s that good—
but there’s a lot more to mine from this passage so let’s keep going
If v. 1 tells us of our deliverance from condemnation,
v. 2–4 show us how that deliverance was secured
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Paul is picking up a theme from the last chapter in Rm. 7 as
he mentioned the word “law” (Gk. nomos) over 20 times in that chapter
Yet, most of those referred to the Mosaic Law
the 10 commandments God gave Moses and the people on Mt. Sinai
And here Paul’s really just using a play on words to contrast
the powers of the old realm we used to live in when we we under the reign of sin and the law
and contrasting that with the new realm we now live in under grace and in the Spirit.
It’s a continuation of his thought from Rm. 7:6, that
. . .we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Here he’d say the Spirit of life has set us free in Christ from those powers which led to death.
And he says this happened because God Himself did it.
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,
When I served as a missionary in India before marrying my wife,
I vividly remember walking into a Sikh temple
And at the center of this temple was this book that sat on a throne
Basically because they believed the book was alive as an eternal living guru/teacher
So they worshipped the book
They had these large leaf looking things that they used to fan the book
They would even put the book to bed in this air-conditioned bedroom
The only room in the temple with AC
and would wake it up the next day and put it back on the throne
And, of course, I just thought that was so odd
This book was inanimate.
It had no ears to hear
No mouth to speak
No hands to reach out and pull anyone out of a pit to save them
Despite what they thought, this book was limited what it was able to do.
Now, we believe the Mosaic Law that Paul is now referring to here in verse 3
actually does contain the Word of God
And agree with Paul that it is holy and good because God is holy and good
And yet, because of our sin and inability to keep the law,
the law could never break the power of sin
It could not save us nor give us life
And so God did what the Law could not do
And rather than sending us more written words,
He sent us the living Word—who would take on flesh
And the Word became flesh. . .
He sent us a Person—His own Son, Jesus.
And Jesus, the living Word, would fulfill all the written Word.
He would come in the likeness of sinful flesh
And Paul is very much intentional about including that word likeness
because he doesn’t want to communicate that He Himself
had the same sinful nature that we do
such that He would be guilty of any sin
At the same time, he was fully human
He experienced real pain, real hunger, real weaknesses, real temptations
which meant that He possessed all the necessary requirements to act as our substitute.
We needed a Savior who would be a spotless Lamb given up in our place
And Jesus did this
He gave Himself up as an “offering for sin”
which is what is meant by the phrase “for sin”
And in doing so, he condemned sin in the flesh
He conquered it from the inside-out
by living a perfect life
A life we could never live
and died a death that we deserved
on the cross,
He suffered the wrath of God,
He took on the just judgment of God that we deserved!
In my place, condemned He stood!
sealed my pardon with his blood!
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
He took our condemnation
And not only that,
He lived and died so that we would be made righteous!
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us
The gospel—the good news—is not just that Christ died a death we deserved,
That is an important part
But it is also that Christ lived a life we couldn’t live
Why?
Because It was absolutely necessary that He fulfilled all righteousness
As we saw earlier in Romans and still see now even as believers
We could not and cannot live up to the law’s demands
But He could and He did.
Not just so that the law would be fulfilled.
And we can call it a day.
Paul goes further than that
He did it
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us
This is similar to what Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We call this The Great Exchange
He takes on our sin and gives us His righteousness.
As we saw in Rm. 6, when we come to faith in Christ,
We are united with Him
In His life, His Death, His burial, His Resurrection
Such that what was counted to Him is counted to us
When He died, we died to our old selves
As He raised from the dead, we are raised to new life in Him
And in giving us Christ’s righteousness,
God looks on us and considers it as if we perfectly fulfilled the law
Transition:
What grace—What unmerited favor our God has shown us!
We didn’t earn it and we don’t deserve it
But, believer, Christ secured all these things for you.
Not only deliverance from condemnation,
but positively, righteousness for those
“who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (v. 4)
who now enables us to forsake sin and live righteous lives.
This then leads us to our second part of this section in v. 5–8
Distinction
b. Distinction (v. 5–8)
b. Distinction (v. 5–8)
What Paul starts here at the end of verse 4, he continues through verse 8.
In that he makes a distinction
between those who walk according to the flesh and
those who walk according to the Spirit
between those who set their minds on the things of the flesh and
those on the Spirit
In other words, he’s distinguishing between the unbeliever and the believer
The non-Christian and the Christian
The one whose life is determined and
directed by the values of this world and of the flesh
and the one whose life is under the control of and
directed by the Spirit who now dwells in them
To be clear, Paul’s not warning Christians about two possibilities they face
in order to encourage them to live according to the Spirit
being “in the flesh” (v. 8) is not a possibility for the believer
As we’ve been walking through Romans chapters 6 and. . . . . .7
I feel like I had to pause there so that I would not say the two numbers in quick succession
For reasons obvious to some
In those two chapters, It has been clear that Christians—
those who have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone
have been transferred from an old realm to a new realm
They are no longer under the reign of the law, of sin, of death
They are under grace and now according to the Spirit of life
They are new creations
They have a new heart, a new mind, a new way of thinking
Yes, they still fight against indwelling sin,
but their basic orientation is for the things of the Spirit
This is evidence of being in Christ: that we no longer live for ourselves, but live for the glory of God.
After all, Paul says in v. 6
What comes to who live for themselves
is death
not just death in this life
but eternal death—
the wrath of God and
eternal separation from His love and mercy
But what comes to those who have been saved and live in the Spirit
is life and peace
both now and for eternity
Paul ends this paragraph explaining why living to the flesh leads to death
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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This is a foundational verse for the doctrine known as “Total Depravity”
“Total depravity” does not mean that all people are as evil as they possibly could be
nor does it mean that those outside of Christ can’t do good things.
What is does mean and what we see in this verse rather
is that every person apart from Christ is thoroughly in the grip of the power of sin,
and that this power extends to all the person’s faculties.
Apart from Christ,
we stand as enemies of God (Rm. 5)
And are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2)
Those who are dead in their sin do not submit to God’s law
because they cannot submit to God’s law
They are dead and cannot bring themselves to life
They cannot rescue themselves from this condition
They need a Savior.
Therefore, Paul concludes, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Application:
Whatever categories the world distinguishes people with
Whether it be nationality, language, IQ, football team, etc.
There is one distinction that matters most
Whether someone is in Christ or not
With that being said, I want to encourage every one in this room to
identify where you are in this passage
Are you in the Spirit or are you still in the flesh?
Have you put your faith in Christ alone for your salvation?
Or are you still seeking your own pleasure, happiness, righteousness within yourself or within the world?
If the latter, I want to encourage you to consider Christ today.
We see that living for yourself and the world will lead to death
The Bible is clear that our default relationship with God is not one of peace
but one of hostility toward God
and His hostility toward us.
We may feel like we are okay with God and God is okay with us
But that’s not what this verse says
It says you cannot please God apart from Christ
and God is not pleased with you.
But there is good news for you and it is found back in v. 3
That though you could not save yourself
God send his own Son, Jesus,
in the likeness of sinful flesh
and lived a life you couldn’t
and offered up His life for you as a sin offering
to pay for your guilt and mine
and He rose three days later showing He had victory of sin and death
so that through faith in Him we may have peace and eternal life with God!
You may have came into this place under condemnation for your sins
But you can leave here today with Romans 8:1 said of you, that
There is therefore now no condemnation for [you] who are in Christ Jesus.
Would you trust in Christ today?
Transition:
After Paul gives the distinction between unbeliever and believer,
He reminds the believers in v. 9 that there is something—that is, SomeONE—dwelling in them
c. Dwelling (v. 9–11)
c. Dwelling (v. 9–11)
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
He’ll mention the Spirit of Life dwelling in the believer two more times in v. 11
This fulfills God’s promise back in Ezekiel 36:27,
when the Lord promised His people
I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
And Jesus reaffirmed it in Jn. 14:17, promising
the Spirit of truth. . .dwells with you and will be in you.
This indwelling Spirit is proof, Paul says in v. 9,
that you belong to Christ.
Notice how Paul words this—
In v. 9, he calls the Spirit the Spirit of Christ
And then proceeds to say “if Christ is in you”
Which leads one to ask the question,
Wait—is it Christ who is in me or the Spirit?
Or is Christ actually the Spirit?
Well, we know the answer to the second question is no!
Thankfully, each person of the Trinity is distinguished and in view all throughout Romans 8
v. 3–4, we saw God [that is, the Father] sent the Son
the Son took on flesh and died for our salvation
And we now walk according to the Spirit
In v. 11, we see all three mentioned twice
If the Spirit of Him [the Father] who raised Jesus [the Son] from the dead dwells in you
he [that is, the Father] who raised Christ Jesus [the Son] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you”
We’ll get to the other instances in Rm. 8 later,
but Paul is clear to distinguish each person of the Trinity in the work of salvation
But, still, why would Paul say Christ is in me
when in v. 9, he said it’s the Spirit of God in me?
And the answer, as one person put it,
is not that Christ and the Spirit are the same person or interchangeable,
but that Christ and the Spirit are
so closely related in communicating to believers the benefits of salvation
that Paul can move from one to the other almost unconsciously.
They are distinguishable, but inseparable.
That being said, we are so united with Christ in His life, death, resurrection
that Paul says that union can be spoken of as
the believer being in Christ and
Christ being in the believer
Such that He would say in Gal. 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
In any case, Paul distinguishes that it is through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Life, that
the Father will give life to your mortal bodies.
These bodies, Paul says back in v. 10, are dead because of sin
Which is to say that we as believers who have been given eternal life
will still experience the sting of death.
That is the result of living in a fallen world
Consequences of the Fall
And yet, we have the promise of Eternal Life
And can proclaim
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Transition:
We have the Spirit of God dwelling in us from the moment we believed
He sealed us for the day of the redemption of our bodies
When the perishable will put on the imperishable
The Spirit of Life who dwells in us has given us life
Both now and forever
At the same time, He is not just idly sitting in us
He empowers us to discipline ourselves by killing the sin remaining in us and
by living for God in this life
Which leads us to the last couple verses here in this section
v. 12–13
d. Discipline (v. 12–13)
d. Discipline (v. 12–13)
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
In other words, We don’t owe our flesh anything,
On the other hand, we owe God everything!
He rescued us from death to life!
He made us new
And now we give our lives to honor and glorify Him
Which he tells us how to do, in part, saying
. . .if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Notice Paul switches from using the pronoun “we” in v. 12
to the pronoun “you” in v. 13
Although he’s writing to Christians in Rome,
he nonetheless warns them that
anyone who lives lives of sin
without a fight, without repentance
They will die.
He’s not saying you can lose your salvation here
but that anyone who pursues their sin without repentance
proved to not actually belong to Christ or be indwelt with the Spirit
in the first place
The letter of 1 Jn. (written to Christians) would describe this kind of situation saying
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
No, what has been clear over the last two chapters
Is that the believer doesn’t make a peace treaty or pursue his/her sin
No, we make war with our sin!
Paul doesn’t say kick sin in the shin
He doesn’t say give it the cold shoulder
He says put it to death
kill it
We’ve shared this quote from John Owen the last two weeks
John Owen: “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”
But it came from his exposition of this very verse in Rm. 8:13
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. . .
Okay, but how do we kill sin?
Well, in Romans 7, we learned how not to fight sin
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
What he was saying then is that we have not the ability to carry out
what is right and to fight our sin in our own strength
We must rely on the strength and power of the Holy Spirit who also dwells in us.
And for this reason he says put to death the deeds of the body
by the Spirit
Now that phrase can be kind of vague
How do I kill sin by the Spirit?
It’s really communicating a dependence on the Spirit in the fight
That’s not to say we Let Go and Let God
God is not going to reach out and
turn off the tv,
shut the laptop,
close your mouth shut so you don’t say something you shouldn’t.
No, Paul says, you are the one putting sin to death
And you are doing it while relying on the Spirit
To give you the strength to do it.
You’re remembering that you are dead to sin and alive to God
And you are acting in faith
Consider, believer, that God has given you everything you need in the fight
Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:13
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
One of the clearest memories I have as a kid is every night when we’d go to bed,
My mom would have us “put on the armor of God”
And every night we’d act it out
Belt of Truth. . .click
Breastplate of Righteousness
Helmet of Salvation
Shoes of the gospel
Shield of Faith
AND?!
Sword of the Spirit
Which my brother and I would then use to stab each other
Notice, all but one of those are defensive pieces of armor
The one offensive piece?
The Sword of the. . .
Spirit
Which is what, church?
The Word of God
Now that doesn’t mean you go on smacking your enemy with your hard copy of the Bible!
That’s not what it looks like to wield the sword of the Spirit
No, we put to death our sin by knowing and using the Word of God.
This is, after all, how Jesus fought temptation in Mt. 4
When He was led out into the wilderness and the devil tempted Him
with bread and with power
What was Jesus’ tactic?
He quoted Scripture
and the devil fled.
The Psalmist says in Ps. 119:11
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
So, believer, what is one way to by the Spirit put sin to death?
By knowing God’s Word
Memorizing God’s Word and
Trusting God’s Word.
Here’s a question for everyone:
What temptation are you prone to?
Find a relevant scripture to memorize
and quote it in the moment of temptation
Call out to God.
Pray for help.
Is it anxiety?
Turn to Php. 4:6–7
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Is it lust?
Flee from sexual immorality. . . you are not your own, for you were bought with a price.
Is it anger or speech?
. . .let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger
When you’re in that moment of temptation,
Remember
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
By the Spirit’s power, you can actually conquer your sin
as you are dead to it
And, following the example of Jesus,
we wield the Word of God
To, as James 4:7 says,
To resist the devil and he will flee from you.
All that being said, Paul is encouraging us to not just be reactive in the fight against sin
But to be proactive
Paul relates his discipline in fighting sin to the way we discipline our bodies in exercise
Paul says in 1 Cor. 9:27
. . .I discipline my body and keep it under control [literally, I make it my slave]
So, think about how you exercise.
You don’t just start running with no plan.
We aren’t Forrest Gump
If you’ve ever seen the movie, you know he sitting on the porch in a plaid button up and slacks
and then just starts running
“That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run.”
He runs for over 3 years and over 15,000 miles
All the newspapers and media asking him and trying to figure out
Are you running for world peace? For animals?
And he said, no I just felt like running
Okay, but most of us are not Forrest Gump
We make a plan before we just start running
We decide the route and the distance,
we check the weather,
we put on the right clothes and shoes
In the same way, make a plan to kill sin.
Don’t wait till it comes.
You can’t kill sin that you already fell into.
Punch a guy in the face and
say okay lemme kill this sin real quick.
No you done did the sinning!
So,
Figure out what temptation your prone to
Find the Scripture that would aid you in the fight
Determine where and when your most tempted
And put up extra guards
Grab together 2-3 folks you trust who can hold you accountable and
encourage you when you fall
Commit to get back up and keep fighting no matter how unsuccessful you may be.
And let’s fight together by the Spirit of Life
Knowing through His work of sanctification in us,
We will live to the glory of God.
Transition:
Well, if the first 13 verses describe the blessings we receive being indwelled by the Spirit of Life
The last three verses describe the blessings we receive being indwelled by that same Spirit
who here in v. 15 is called the Spirit of Adoption.
2. Spirit of Adoption (Rm. 8:14–17)
2. Spirit of Adoption (Rm. 8:14–17)
We’ll just look at two blessings as we near a close on our time.
We’ve been given a New Family (v. 14–16)
He has secured for us a Glorious Future (v. 17)
a. A New Family (v. 14–16)
a. A New Family (v. 14–16)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
With the word “for”, Paul is connecting this with the previous verse of
putting sin to death by the Spirit.
Lest anyone believe that putting sin to death is the means by which we gain life
Paul is quick to qualify it
We are able to put sin to death by the Spirit
Because we are led by the Spirit
And we are led by the Spirit because we are sons of God.
In other words, we work from a position of already being saved
We work from our salvation, not for our salvation
As I was writing this earlier this week in my office,
I look up and see this picture taped to the wall
Put up picture of OKC/Mario
It was a surprise from my son Ezekiel
because he knew I loved OKC Thunder Basketball
Not sure why Mario is dunking a ball, but I’ll take it
In any case, Zeke didn’t do this to earn my favor or love
but out of his love for his daddy,
he worked on this and gave it to me
In the same way, it is out of our love and desire to honor our Father
that we live not for ourselves, but for Him.
No, we don’t have to earn God’s favor
Because Ephesians 1 tells us that
it was not even us who chose God,
but God chose us
Eph. 1 says that
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. . .
Y’all, we were spiritual orphans
And yet, God in His mercy and love for us
took us off the street called death and
adopted us into His family
such that we now enjoy all the rights and privileges
as full member’s of God’s family
He put His Spirit of Adoption in us who (v. 16) bears witness with our spirit—He assures us—that we are children of God and
It is by this Spirit, we cry “Abba, Father!” (v. 15)
What is being communicated here is not just that we are legally made a member of God’s family
Although we are—
those adoption papers were signed and the judge declared it so!
We also experience the love and intimacy and awareness
of that relationship with God as our Father
It’s not just a matter of fact, but something we deeply experience in our inner selves.
“Abba” is not just a translation of father
But is more intimate than that—
something more like a small child crying out for his “daddy”
Something I heard very clearly this last Wednesday night as
Karis fell flat on her face onto the concrete after small group.
It’s the same word Jesus used in the Garden of Gethsemane as He cried out:
“Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Indwelled by the Spirit of Adoption, we have a relationship like that—
One that can cry out to our dad
not only in times of joy
but especially, in times of suffering
When we fall flat on our face onto the concrete of life.
Transition:
Finally, as God’s adopted children, we’re not only given a new family
We are also given a Glorious Future
And it is here in the last verse where we’ll close our first week in Romans 8
b. A Glorious Future (v. 17)
b. A Glorious Future (v. 17)
Rm. 8:17 declares that as children of God, we are
. . .heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
This may remind of us Paul’s words in Eph. 1:13–14 when he says
. . .when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. . .
In other words, both Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 indicate that that the best is yet to come.
Heirs must wait for the full realization of what has been promised
But we have the Holy Spirit in us as a deposit—a guarantee;
the firstfruits of what we will receive in glory.
To be sure, as he reminds us,
we will face much suffering in the meantime
That is the reality of living in a fallen world
of living in a body that is wasting away
while our inner self is being renewed day by day
It is the reality of living as children of God
in a broken world that is hostile to Him
But, the Christian has the blessing of having hope in this life.
A hope that says, “this is not all there is”
This is not our home, we are just passing through.
A hope that says—as Paul will say in the text next week
. . .I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
There is much to look forward to and until then,
Back to our main point:
As adopted children of God, we live according to the Spirit of God who dwells in us!
Pray
