Romans 8:1

1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 "because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 "What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 "in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” ()

Today we’re going to come to one of the greatest chapters in all of Scripture. Romans chapter 8.

But before we get into the particulars of we really need to set the context for the chapter.

So this is a very important message. Because if you don’t understand what the Apostle Paul’s motivation was for writing it, you’ll misunderstand and misapply the Scripture.

Jesus makes an amazing statement in John chapter 17. He is praying to His Father and He says,

"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” ()

Sanctify means to be set apart. Christ, as our High Priest, prays that we might be set apart from this world, the world system.

And the method laid down by Christ, in His prayer is God’s Word.

The truth of God’s Word actually makes us more and more like Christ, separated from the world and unto our heavenly Father.

The whole of the word, everything in the Bible ministers to our sanctification.

You cannot read truly about God Himself, in His being and His Person, without its promoting your sanctification.

The doctrine of God, the

doctrine of sin, the

law of God, the

doctrine of punishment, of

judgment and of hell—

all that is truth and points in the direction of sanctification;

udgment and of hell—all that is truth and points in the direction of sanctification; it is the whole truth.

it is the whole truth.

Romans chapters 6-8 deal with the doctrine of sanctification, in a very explicit manner.

Paul has just spent the first five chapters telling us how sinful people are made right with God.

Turn with me please to where we are introduced to God.

We see here about creation testifying to God’s glory and power.

"For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.” ()

If you’ve ever stood at the edge of a canyon and seen the birds swooping below you

and the clouds stretched out over your head, or

if you’ve ever stood in a field and felt a tiny rush of fear as you’ve watched a thunderstorm roll in over the horizon,

then you know what this means.

There is something about the grandeur of creation that calls out to the human heart, saying, “You are not all there is!”

The world itself isn’t ultimate. The world sprang from the mind, word, and hand of God Almighty.

We are not the result of random chance and genetic mutations, gene re-assortments, and chromosomal accidents.

We are created!

Every one of us is the result of an idea, a plan, and an action of God himself.

And that brings both meaning and responsibility to human life ().

None of us is autonomous, and understanding that fact is key to understanding the gospel.

Despite our constant talk of rights and liberty,

we are not really as free as we would like to think.

We are created.

We are made. And therefore

we are owned.

Because he created us, God has the right to tell us how to live.

So in the garden of Eden, he told Adam and Eve which trees were theirs to eat from, and which they could not eat ().

It’s not that God was acting like a child on a power trip, bossing his little brother around and making arbitrary rules just to see what would happen.

No, the Bible tells us that God is good.

He knew what was best for his people, and

He gave them laws that would preserve and

increase their happiness and well-being.

Some understanding of this is absolutely necessary if a person wants to understand the good news of Christianity.

The gospel is God’s response to the bad news of sin, and sin is a person’s rejection of God’s Creator-rights over him.

Thus the fundamental truth of human existence, the well from which all else flows, is that

God created us, and therefore

God owns us.

There’s another truth communicated to us in .

18 "For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,” ()

Because he created us, God has the right to tell us how to live. So in the garden of Eden, he told Adam and Eve which trees were theirs to eat from, and which they could not eat (). It’s not that God was acting like a child on a power trip, bossing his little brother around and making arbitrary rules just to see what would happen. No, the Bible tells us that God is good. He knew what was best for his people, and he gave them laws that would preserve and increase their happiness and well-being.

We are accountable to God.

Some understanding of this is absolutely necessary if a person wants to understand the good news of Christianity. The gospel is God’s response to the bad news of sin, and sin is a person’s rejection of God’s Creator-rights over him. Thus the fundamental truth of human existence, the well from which all else flows, is that God created us, and therefore God owns us.

With his very first words, Paul insists that humanity is not autonomous.

We did not create ourselves, and we are neither self-reliant nor self-accountable.

No, it is God who created the world and everything in it, including us.

Because He created us, God has the right to demand that we worship Him. Look what Paul says in verse

21 "For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.” ()

Second, Paul tells his readers that their problem is that they rebelled against God.

They—along with everyone else—did not honor God and give thanks to him as they should have.

Their foolish hearts were darkened and they

"and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.” ()

For most of the next three chapters Paul presses this point, indicting all humanity as sinners against God.

In chapter 1 his focus is on the Gentiles, and then in chapter 2 he turns just as strongly toward the Jews.

n chapter 1 his focus is on the Gentiles, and then in chapter 2 he turns just as strongly toward the Jews. It’s as if Paul knows that the most self-righteous of the Jews would have been applauding his lashing of the Gentiles, so he pivots on a dime in 2:1 and points his accusing finger at the applauders: “Therefore you have no excuse”! Just like Gentiles, he says, Jews have broken God’s law and are under his judgment.

It’s as if Paul knows that the most self-righteous of the Jews would have been applauding his

lashing of the Gentiles,

so he pivots on a dime in 2:1 and points his accusing finger at the applauders: “Therefore you have no excuse”!

Just like Gentiles, he says, Jews have broken God’s law and are under his judgment.

By the middle of chapter 3, Paul has indicted every single person in the world with rebellion against God.

9 "What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,” ()

And his sobering conclusion is that when we stand before God the Judge, every mouth will be silenced. No one will mount a defense. Not one excuse will be offered. The whole world—Jew, Gentile, every last one of us—will be held fully accountable to God (v. 19).

Now, strictly speaking, these first two points are not really good news at all.

In fact, they’re pretty bad news.

That I have rebelled against the holy and judging God who made me is not a happy thought.

But it is an important one, because it paves the way for the good news.

That makes sense if you think about it.

To have someone say to you, “I’m coming to save you!” is really not good news at all

unless you believe you actually need to be saved.

Third, Paul says that God’s solution to humanity’s sin is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Having laid out the bad news of the predicament we face as sinners before our righteous God,

Paul turns now to the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“But now,” Paul says, in spite of our sin,

"But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets.” ()

In other words, there is a way for human beings

to be counted righteous before God

instead of unrighteous,

to be declared innocent

instead of guilty,

to be justified

instead of condemned.

And it has nothing to do with acting better or living a more righteous life.

It comes “apart from the law.”

So how does it happen? Paul puts it plainly in .

Despite our rebellion against God, and in the face of a hopeless situation, we can be “justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Through Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection—because of His blood and His life—

sinners may be saved from the condemnation our sins deserve.

But there’s one more question Paul answers.

Exactly how is that good news for me?

How do I become included in this promised salvation?

Finally, Paul tells his readers how they themselves can be included in this salvation.

That’s what he writes about through the end of chapter 3 and on into chapter 4.

The salvation God has provided comes “through faith in Jesus Christ,” and it is “for all who believe” (3:22).

22 "The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.” ()

So how does this salvation become good news for me and not just for someone else?

How do I come to be included in it?

By believing in Jesus Christ.

By trusting him and no other to save me. Look at chapter 4:5

“To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,” Paul explains, “his faith is credited [counted] as righteousness”.

Then Paul makes this statement in

20 "The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more 21 "so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ()

The opponents of Paul’s interpretation of the gospel say,

“Well as grace is multiplied when I sin, let me just keep sinning so that grace would abound and bring more glory to Christ!”

So what’s Paul say to those who charge Paul with the teaching of antinomianism,

which means that the doctrine of justification by faith says

that because you are saved by Christ,

it does not matter what you do.

Greasy grace, we call this.

So the Apostle is going to write the next few chapters to refute that terrible suggestion,

which he dismisses with a sense of horror and the words, “Absolutely not!”

1 "What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 "Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” ()

Paul sets out to show the utter impossibility that a Christian can go on living in open sin.

1 "What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 "Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” ()

Because of the character and nature of my salvation in Christ I can’t continue to live that old life.

This is the them, actually of . It’s to denounce, with horror, the tendency of people to separate justification from sanctification.

To think that you can use Jesus as a flu shot to make your life better,

or as a fire insurance card to escape hell,

and as long as you have your ticket to heaven punched or you have your flu shot, not you can live however you want.

And Paul would say, “Absolutely not!” God forbid!!!

If you live that way you have grossly misunderstood the gospel!

The theme continues to expand in 14 "For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.” ()

So in v1-2 your relationship with sin has changed.

In v14 your relationship with the law has changed.

Chapter 7 describes more fully our relationship to God’s Law.

So, because of our union with Christ, and because

we have been crucified and

have died and been buried and

have risen with Him,

He says: You are ‘dead to the law’ ().

The law cannot touch you. Christ has died, He is the end of the law once and for ever for sin.

So the law has nothing more to say to me by way of condemnation.

Yes, but it does not stop there.

The Apostle tells us that not only are we dead to the law but

we are also, and equally, dead to sin.

‘Absolutely not. How shall we, that are dead to sin …?’ (). Or, ‘How shall we that have died to sin …?’

It is as definite as that: the death has happened once and for all.

We are not dying to sin, we are dead, we have died to sin.

Paul repeats that many times:

"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.” ()

And that is the Christian. 18 "and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.” ()

7 "since a person who has died is freed from sin.” ()

22 "But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life!” ()

So, then, we are not only dead to the law, we are also dead to sin.

As far as we are concerned, Paul says, sin is no more.

To prove that, in the next chapter Paul has the great argument of the woman married to her husband who is free the moment her husband dies.

Paul argues this in the sixth chapter by saying that a slave is owned by a master,

but if another master comes and buys the slave,

then he does not belong to the first, but to the second.

So not only are we dead to sin, but, more than that, we are risen with Christ.

And that means that Christ’s life is our life.

4 "Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 "For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.” ()

Then in 8 "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,” ()

That is really the present tense: we are living with Him. This is true of us already. You find this also in verses

11 "So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” ()

13 "And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.” ()

We have risen with Christ and therefore we are in this new life.

And, as I have already indicated, in chapter 7 Paul says, in effect, ‘In a sense you were married to the law,

but not any longer because the law, as far as you are concerned, is dead.’

4 "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.” ()

We are married to Christ and we ought to bring forth the fruit of a good and a sanctified life.

That, then, is Paul’s fundamental statement.

As the result of our union with Christ, we are dead to sin and alive unto God.

The life of Christ is in us and that is the position of every Christian.

‘Well,’ says someone, ‘does that mean, then, that we are completely sinless and perfect?

Has Christ done this to the whole self?

Am I entirely finished with sin in every shape and form?’

The answer Paul gives is: ‘No. All that I have just been saying is true and true of our spirits.

Our spirits are already entirely delivered from sin.

I, as a spirit, and as a spiritual being, am dead to sin.

I have finished with it once and for ever,

but that is not true of my body.’

So you see the argument?

The result of the fall of Adam was that the entire person has been involved, my spirit and my body.

In our Christian salvation at this moment Christ has redeemed my spirit perfectly; that is the ‘new self’;

but my body still remains under the thralldom of sin.

I am dead to sin, I am finished with it, but my body is still under its dominion.

24 "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” ()

This is the logical conclusion.

Paul has been saying in effect,

‘This is my position; I am saved and redeemed, yes, but I am still in this body and

this body is still under the dominion of sin and

is trying to drag me down.

Who shall deliver me out of this body?

How can I be perfectly emancipated?’

That is his question. And indeed he puts it again in the last part of verse 25

"Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.” ()

Because doesn’t say all that there is to say about the Christian life. Our new condition, a double nature, can actually lead to more distress unless we 8:4, “walk according to the Spirit”.

is our direction to steer us away from doing the things that we hate.

It’s how to live in the Spirit.

The theme of is easily found in "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” ()

What are all these things? 31 "What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 "He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?” ()

What do we say about the things of the gospel? What do we say about the fact that we’re saved?

Saved by pure, sweet, sovereign grace. Made right, declared righteous before God by faith alone in Christ alone. What do we say to these things?

What do we say about the relationship with our sin in ? How about the indwelling sin that still remains in me, in .

What shall we say to these things? "He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?” ()

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” ()

v37 is the central thought, it’s the last main fruit of justification by faith.

And note: not merely conquerors, but more than conquerors; not merely invincible but super-invincible.

All because of Christ and the work He’s done in and through the gospel.

It’s going to be a great study! May God bless us as a church body.