Romans 8:1-4 a...

Before we read God’s Word, let’s all bow in prayer to our God as we ask for the Lord’s help upon His truth.

Our heavenly Father we bow before Thee once more, deeply thankful to be in the Lord’s house this day.

We thank You for the Word that is before us this day. We pray Lord that You might bless the preaching of it and the hearing of it. And in the preaching, may You come down O’ Lord. May the Holy Spirit descend and may there be a real work done for eternity. Bless us we pray as we continue before You now as we all look to YOu dear Lord, even fro Your throne. We pray this in Jesus Name and for His sake, AMEN.

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.” ()

Here in the second half of Romans Paul is going to continue to answer a question he began to ask in chapters 5 to 7:

How does faith in the gospel of Christ actually lead to change in real life?

Paul was writing to the church in Rome in about AD57, during his third missionary journey,

quite likely from Corinth, Greece.

This was a church made up of Jewish and Gentile converts, a church of committed but young Christians.

Though Paul had not yet met them personally, he knew that what they most needed was the gospel.

But he did not merely want them to understand the gospel.

Rather, he longed for them to love and to live the gospel.

Christianity is not primarily a matter of the head or the will;

it is a matter of the heart,

a heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells and which

is saturated in the gospel.

That’s the heart that leads to real change in thinking and behavior.

In one sense, comes in two sections, each beginning: “Therefore.”

First, in 8:1, Paul tells us: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

This is a summary of the whole ground of Christian assurance.

For the believer, there can never be any condemnation by, nor separation from, their heavenly Father. Why?

Because of the work of his Son on the cross and the work of his Spirit in our hearts.

As Paul goes on to show in chapters 9–11,

our salvation is all about God’s choice, and so

we can be both humble about ourselves and confident in Him.

Second, in 12:1–2, Paul says: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God … Do not conform … but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

This is a summary of the whole of the Christian life.

The believer’s life is to be lived out of gratitude.

We live to please our heavenly Father by obeying him, even at cost or inconvenience.

The rest of Romans shows how we can offer ourselves “as living sacrifices” in all parts of our lives.

For me, perhaps the most wonderful part of the book of Romans is 8:5, where Paul summarizes how you change from the inside out; how you change deeply.

5 "For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.” ()

“Those who live in accordance with the Spirit,” he says, “have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”

To grow in Christ and to be changed into people like Christ,

we need to set our minds on spiritual things, on things above.

We need to learn how to meditate and think about the gospel until

it becomes real to our hearts and the foundation of everything we do.

So let’s do that. I’ve entitled this message: What does the gospel of Christ Jesus do?

We start this morning with the biblical truth, that we’ve been liberated from condemnation, sin, and death.

The Gospel of Christ Jesus has liberated us from condemnation, sin and death.

begins with the best news imaginable:

1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,” ()

So God is not just going to justify me by faith alone in Christ alone.

He’s going to sanctify me too by the indwelling power of God’s Spirit living inside of me.

So the eighth chapter of Romans begins with the best news imaginable.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,” ()

“Therefore” in light of all that’s been said since chapter 6, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ this morning.

“now”. In times past you never were able to stand in the victory of the justification that Christ purchased in His own blood.

But you can “now”. Now there is no condemnation.

And though we do not yet experience all the fulness of what salvation in Christ means,

we do enjoy all that no condemnation means.

Now believers have a wonderful gift of salvation from God in Christ.

Condemnation is a forensic term which here includes both the sentence and the execution of the sentence.

But for believers there is no condemnation at all.

Similarly, Paul declares that Christians have been set free; they are set free

And we are given further reason as to why there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

So why isn’t there condemnation for those in Christ? It’s: "because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” ()

So there’s two laws here. The “law of the Spirit of life” and the “law of sin and death”.

“law” is taken here in the sense of a principle. The principle on which the Holy Spirit works.

A principle that operates in power.

The presence of the Spirit is the distinguishing mark of the Christian, and

this presence means the defeat of the power of sin.

Paul is saying that when the Holy Spirit comes into a person that person is

liberated from bondage to evil and

finds a new power (that’s come from God to dwell within),

a power that causes the defeat of sin and

leads the liberated person into ways of goodness and love.

In v2 we’ve been set free from that law of sin and death,

set free by what? “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”.

Look at how Paul addresses “sin” in chapter 7.

23 "but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.” ()

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.” ()

The “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has set me free from that sin.

Not just sin, but also death. 10 "and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 "For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” ()

13 "Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.” ()

Sin and death do not have the final word in the believers life and it’s because

true life is wrapped up in the person and work of Christ Jesus!

It’s in Christ Jesus is this Spirit of life, the very energy and being of life.

4 "In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” () 10 "A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” () 25 "Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 "Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”” () 6 "Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” () 24 "“Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.” () 12 "The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” ()

10 "A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” () 25 "Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 "Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”” ()

So the Gospel of Christ Jesus liberates us from condemnation, sin, and death.

The gospel of Christ Jesus also provides for us the way from condemnation to freedom.

If you can keep the law of God you can indeed save yourself.

16 "Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” 17 "“Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”” ()

“If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Jesus says.

If salvation is to happen by the law, perfect obedience is necessary.

There can be no blemishes or shortcomings, for the law will never show mercy.

It knows nothing of grace or forgiveness. It demands perfection,

because whoever transgresses in one tiny detail

transgresses the whole of God’s law:

10 "For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.” ()

Getting to heaven through obedience to the law requires perfection.

Merely

doing your best will prove insufficient;

good intentions are not enough. It is vitally important to grasp exactly how much the law demands if we think we are going to be in a right relationship with God through law-keeping. Simply put, “By works of the law no one will be justified” ().

good intentions are not enough.

It is vitally important to grasp exactly how much the law demands

if we think we are going to be in a right relationship with God through law-keeping.

Simply put, “By works of the law no one will be justified” ().

This is why v3 says: "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,” ()

Simply put, the law of Moses simply could not do, God has now done.

Since the law is powerless because of our sin, God must intervene and

do for us what we could not do ourselves.

“What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did...”

So what did God do? v3 says that “He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”

“own” is very important.

It points us to the close relationship between the Father and the Son.

It was no remote messenger that God sent, but the Son who stood in a unique relationship to Him.

Christ is His Son by nature, we are His sons by grace.

What the law could not do, God did: he broke sin’s power—condemned sin—by

sending His Son to identify with us and to give himself as a sin offering.

Christ came to deal with our sin problem.

Paul is now picturing a litigant in a court of law; the verdict goes against sin and so sin is condemned.

So follow close to what God is saying to us. How do we moved from “no condemnation” from sin and death to freedom?

In other words, how can I be set free?

How is it possible to find myself in a state of no condemnation?

How can I tread the path of life rather than a path of death?

These are among the most important questions we can ever ask ourselves.

The answer lies outside of our performance: 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,” ()

Notice two facets of this important truth.

First, the initiative in our salvation comes from outside us: God (the Father) sent His Son.

Our salvation is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” ().

It is dependent on God’s sovereign intervention and plan.

Second, our salvation depends entirely on what the Son did for us.

Our salvation is dependent on Christ alone.

It is not a cooperative venture, but one in which His accomplishments alone merit our salvation.

He never sinned, but He was reckoned a sinner.

By an act of substitution, He took our place.

He came as the Lamb of God to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin.

This is how we are set free. By Christ alone.

So the gospel of Christ does:

liberate us from condemnation, sin and death.

It does provide the way from condemnation to freedom.

It does provide the way from condemnation to freedom.

The last truth that I see in our text this morning in “What does the gospel of Christ do?”

The Gospel satisfies God’s demands and empowers our obedience.

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.” ()

Look at the first part: “in order that” or “That the” or “so that”

We’re introduced to the divine purpose. It’s a purpose that will never fail.

Christ never failed. He fulfilled everything that He came to do in securing the salvation for His people.

And as that divine purpose will never fail, neither will the results.

All that are in Christ and have bees set free from condemnation walk in a certain way.

Not “according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

So the law of God is fulfilled in the obedience of Christ as our substitute, this satisfies God. Justification.

The result of being justified leads to our being sanctified. We’ll walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

Because of God’s Spirit residing in us: God’s commands have now become God’s enablings.

In the full sense only Christ has fulfilled all the law’s requirements, but when we are in Him

we in our measure begin to live the kind of life that God would have us live.

Notice that Paul does not say “we fulfil the law’s righteous requirement”, but that

“the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us”,

surely pointing to the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer.

Before we came to know Christ we were continually defeated by sin.

When we came to know Him and to receive the indwelling Holy Spirit we were able to

attain a standard we could never reach in our own strength.

So why did God send his Son to bear our condemnation, and send His Spirit to break our bondage?

Verse 4 tells us that everything Christ did for us—his incarnation (“sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man,” v 3),

his death and his resurrection—was all in order (for the purpose) that we might live a holy life.

This is an amazing point.

The thing Jesus lives for, the purpose of his entire life, is to make us holy, fulfilling “the righteous requirements of the law.”

This is the greatest possible motive for living a holy life.

Whenever we sin, we endeavor to frustrate the aim and purpose of the entire life, death and ministry of Jesus Christ!

If this doesn’t work as an incentive for living a holy life, nothing will.

To know this condition of “no condemnation,” Christ must “become ours and … dwell within us.”

So we can move from “no condemnation” to “life.” How?

Paul’s answer is characteristically precise and formulaic: we need to be “in Christ.”

All that Christ accomplished for us on the cross needs to be internalized.

We must be brought into a living and personal relationship with Jesus.

The basis of the relationship

Given the universal, pervasive sinfulness of human beings, how can anyone ever be in a right relationship with God?

More particularly, how can a human being ever be in a right relationship with a holy God?

More particularly still, how is it possible for a just God to justify a sinner?

That is one of the greatest questions we can ever ask.

To those with light views of sin, the justification of human beings may seem relatively simple to achieve.

God is all-powerful, they conclude, and, after all, it is God’s business to forgive.

Such trivializing of the issue shows the lack of our understanding of

who God is and

what sin has done to our relationship with Him.

God, Scripture declares, “will by no means clear the guilty” (; ).

The holiness of God requires that justice be done in clearing the guilty,

something that cannot be accomplished merely by an act of God’s will.

Thus, the greatest issue of all time is the answer to the question that is before us:

how is it possible for those who are guilty to be declared “not guilty”?

We come to Jesus Christ by faith, renouncing any confidence

in our own ability to do anything worthy of God’s salvation.

Rather, we trust only in Jesus’

sinless life,

substitutionary death, and

resurrection on our behalf.

Every day, we must preach the gospel to ourselves and remind ourselves:

Nothing in my hands I bring

Simply to thy cross I cling.

Simply to thy cross I cling.

Simply to thy cross I cling.