Sermon Tone Analysis

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:

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.

To Paul when we truly give our lives to Christ, our whole self, completely to God, the fruit of this is transformation.

To Paul when we profess Jesus as Lord we nail our passions and desires to the cross and crucify them there.

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:

This is a huge statement from Paul and a difficult one to understand.

But then he makes an even more difficult comparison.

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

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

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:

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:

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.

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

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.

Paul warns that life will be a challenge if you chose to live this way.