Free from Fear As God's Children
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
As we have been working through Romans 8 Paul has walked us through some pretty big concepts to understand. Most importantly he has been showing us what salvation means and can look like in our lives.
Let’s review some of the things Paul has declared so far in this chapter 8.
Those who believe, who are justified by the cross are no longer under condemnation. Believer's by faith have been made right with God.
We have been set free from the law of sin and death. Set free from the power of our sinful nature.
We have had our minds now set on the things of the Spirit, rather then on the world.
Because of these things we are no longer under the power or dominion of sin. It doesn’t need to control us anymore.
Moving into our section today Paul pauses to sum up the points so far, pressing home their importance to our understanding of grace and how we live under God’s gift of grace.
Every single day we are confronted with a choice: Will we allow the desires of our sinful nature to drive us into a life of fear, or will we put to death our sinful actions and live free from fear.
In other words will we live saved, or live as slaves to the desires of this world?
Lets dive into today’s passage:
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
The question that Paul is putting out there in this passage is twofold.
He is challenging us as believers, will you choose each day to live by the power of the life-transforming Spirit, by putting to death our sinful actions and ultimately live?
or
Will you choose to live in fear, not trusting the life saving, life transforming grace you have received through the cross.
Are you shaped by the cross or the world?
Paul states that we have no obligation to do what our sinful urges desire. You don’t need to be controlled by human struggles anymore. We don’t have to live a life that is dictated by fear and sin. Instead we can be free from such power.
Essentially, Paul is challenging us on what is running our lives. In Paul’s eyes our relationship with God is always reflected in how we live.
So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
To Paul when we truly give our lives to Christ, our whole self, completely to God, the fruit of this is transformation.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
To Paul when we profess Jesus as Lord we nail our passions and desires to the cross and crucify them there.
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
Paul says that the choice we make reflects whether or not our faith is real.
But, we have to remember that it is the Holy Spirits power in us that help us with this choice.
Paul gives us two blunt and mutually exclusive options - the flesh or the Spirit- these options lead to very different ultimate destinies.
He states:
For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
This is a huge statement from Paul and a difficult one to understand. But then he makes an even more difficult comparison.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
This would seem that Paul is assuming that those who do not let the Spirit lead them are not children of God.
Does Paul mean that if we struggle with sin in our lives that we are not saved? Is Paul saying that since the Holy Spirit lives in us we have no excuse to struggle?
When we read this should we walk away discouraged thinking....”man I have to work harder at my faith”?
The answer to this is no......but let’s wait until the end for an explanation on that.
Let’s look at the rest of the passage first, then I will help you understand Paul’s thinking here.
The Spirit Confirms that we are God’s Children
The Spirit Confirms that we are God’s Children
Paul says it is the Spirit that confirms that we are children of God.
Fear is no longer part of the believer's life. We don’t have to let fear control us, drive us.
Instead of living in fear we can live with the assurance of salvation, because we have now been adopted into God’s family.
In this section Paul is speaking about other aspect of the Spirit’s work. The Spirit does more then simply give us new power for living. Deep within, the Spirit moves us to addressing God as “Abba, Father” assuring us that we are indeed children of God, part of His family.
And because the Spirit confirms we are his children, we can expect to receive all of the privileges that the heir of ones father would receive.
This concept of the Spirit moving us to address God as Father is important to understanding where Paul is going with this.
A father, a perfect father protects his children, takes care of his children. And gives up everything for his children.
Anyone with a father like that places their trust, as a child that dad is going to take care of things.
Do you remember being a child, looking up to your father thinking he could do no wrong. This is what Paul is talking about. When we see God as the perfect father, Abba, Father, we can rest in the assurance of dad looking after us, giving us everything we need.
The Spirit gives us the posture of trust in the Father that says, Ok dad, wherever you are taking me I am willing to go because I trust you. What’s next, bring it on.
So we don't need to live in fear anymore because we have the perfect dad who leads us down the right paths in life. He takes away the fear and frees us from slavery. Christ has liberated us from the clutches of evil and death - he has given us a dad, we are God’s children.
Life is a Real Struggle
Life is a Real Struggle
So why do we as human beings struggle so much to live free from fear? Why doesn’t it feel like we are free?
Paul seems to not understand the fear that drives us, his words seem so demanding and impossible to live up to. I can’t possibly be like Paul.
Many when they read sections like this default to being frustrated and it drives more fear. Or some move into a mindset of legalism demanding perfect behavior from all believers.
So why does Paul seem to have such big expectations for us?
the answer to this is he does, but he doesn’t....
Let me explain by showing you how he deals with the church in Corinth.
This is a church that really struggles with living in the world, they struggle with pride, and a lack of humility. They struggle to let the Spirit guide their lives. If any church would be a disappointment to Paul it would be the church in Corinth. You would think he would question their salvation.
But listen to how he addresses them:
I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
He addresses them as God’s church, as holy people by the means of Christ Jesus. He obviously believes they are saved, justified.
Then three chapters later listen to what Paul says:
Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
Notice Paul associates being controlled by your sinful nature as being infants in faith. Not as someone not saved, but as someone not ready to live up to the fathers expectations. Someone who needs to be nurtured, discipled in their faith so they can grow. The evidence of immaturity is jealousy of one another, quarreling with each other.
Isn’t that exactly what infants do. That’s mine, give it to me.....mom…Johnny took my toy away.
When we fight, when we are jealous of another, it shows that we are infants in Christ.
But like every child the Father wants them to grow and mature, but not all children live up to the expectations of their father.
Listen to Paul by chapter 6 in Corinthians.
Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul points out that you don’t have to stay an infant. You can and you will be in heaven because the assurance of our salvation is based on being a child of God. But how you grow as a child, how you respond to the Father is up to you.
Growing as Christ Like Children
Growing as Christ Like Children
Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Romans & Galatians The Key is the Spirit of Christ in Us
So it is possible in Paul’s thinking for a person to have an authentic relationship to God (be a genuine Christian) and still be spiritually immature—characterized by something less than full dedication, living too much like the people of the world. This treatment reflects Paul’s awareness that in reality, for many people, sanctification is a slow and gradual process—though his own radical conversion and thoroughgoing theology of the Spirit may have made it difficult for him to understand or be patient with the slower transformation of others.
For many sanctification is a slow process. Some kids excel and exceed their fathers expectations, others don't. But both are still loved and part of the family.
Paul does however continue to warn those who don’t mature, there is risk in this, you can’t take God’s grace for granted. There are rewards in heaven for those who seek to mature.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Paul warns that life will be a challenge if you chose to live this way. When the Holy Spirit lives in you, you will always feel convicted of your sinful desires, if there is no conviction, Paul would question the authenticity of ones belief. But if the Spirit lives in you and you choose to let the world control you, you will live in constant conflict with yourself.
Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
As you grow in Christ you will progressively be transformed, you won’t stay the same.
In our passage today in Romans Paul gives us a clue to how we go about growing. How God moves us toward maturity.
And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
In order to share in his glory we have to be willing to share in his suffering.
Paul knows what this looks like:
Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.
Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches.
Our willingness as children to go where the Father goes, to trust the Father means that sometimes we will grow through suffering. Every good father knows that you have to allow your children to learn the hard way sometimes. If we protect our kids from suffering, they will struggle to mature.
We need to embrace our times of suffering and come out on the other side knowing that our Father is with us.
Closing
Closing
This entire section in Romans 8:1-17, Paul has been encouraging us to mature in our faith. He has told us that we have everything it takes to mature and live up to our Fathers expectations. If we listen to the nudging of the Spirit we can excel as children, if we ignore it we will remain infants.
The Father has given us His Spirit living in us, calling us to mature, to grow to experience and embrace our suffering. Learning to see the Father in all aspects of our lives.
We can rest in the fact that we have been made children of God with all of the benefits of the oldest child.
Big Idea: We have the assurance of salvation by our adoption into God’s family through the cross. But, how we live our faith is determined by our openness to the Holy Spirit in our lives, our willingness to embrace sufferings that develop mature Christ like character.
Our Father wants us to live up to our potential, He has given us everything we need to become mature in our faith. The question is are you willing to work for maturity, or are you satisfied with immaturity?
As you reflect on this spend some time asking God to revel your weaknesses and help you to be self aware. Ask the Father to be a dad who helps you grow in character, which means we might have to admit we don’t have it all figured out.