Romans 8 (Week 3)
Notes
Transcript
Recap
Recap
In February, we began a new series called Your Verse. We began to look at the Scripture or Scriptures that earmark a season or our life in general. I think there can be passages stand out to us and really become a theme for our life. Have you experienced when a certain passage or verse really speaks to you during a specific time or situation in your life? I certainly have. Sometimes, the words from the Scripture will be in a song as well, and I will hear it over and over in various places because God is saying something to me.
Usually, when God is speaking to me I will hear in multiple places, from various people, to get my attention. It usually take a few times of hearing the verse from this person and then this person, seeing it on Facebook, then a similar lyric in a song…finally I start to realize the common theme of what God is trying to say to me.
For me, my Life Verse, if it were, is in Romans chapter 8. We haven’t yet gotten that far, but we are working through the entire chapter (which is my favorite chapter in the entire Bible). I believe that this chapter displays both the contrast between what was before Christ and what now can be because of what Jesus has done for us. This chapter also paints the climax of what we have experienced as followers of Jesus in acceptance, forgiveness, and freedom.
Paul is writing to this largely Gentile Christian audience, allowing the Jewish believers to overhear what he is saying to them. He has had to establish relationship with them since he was not active in the planting of the church in Rome. Through this process, Paul levels the playing field for how true righteousness is found, only in the redeeming work of Christ.
STORY: Each week I get the opportunity to teach kids in our city about God and His plan for their life. Just last week, we were teaching this simple point: God gave us commands to show us our sin and our need for Him. As I taught this throughout the week, I realized that so many adults (even) think that God’s commands/rules really just serve to show us how rotten or terrible we are. Few of us allow His commands to become a bridge to our need for Him.
Talk through the commands becoming a bridge to God rather than to judgment. This is the perspective He has given us as a result of seeing His great love for us through the sacrifice of His Son.
I asked the kids after telling them all of this last week, can you earn your way to heaven? Can you earn God’s love or forgiveness? And you get mixed answers, some yes, some no. But the revelation for all of us is that God’s economy, as far as His love and forgives are concerned, isn’t based on what we have done but who He is.
I didn’t get to this point last time I spoke, but had it in my notes to say:
The only blood, sweat, and tears that will justify you with God isn’t yours—it’s His.
This should bring such freedom, such breathing room to your life knowing that you don’t have to strive to earn acceptance, but instead can live a life filled with God’s Spirit out of a place of acceptance, forgiveness, and freedom.
To see the kids in our city get this is amazing. You start to see the spiritual lightbulbs go off. God doesn’t love me because of my behavior. He loves me no matter what, unconditionally.
The Good News, the simplicity of the Gospel, Paul sums up in .
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
And last week during this series, we looked at the importance of the place our thoughts dwell. When ‘born again’, when regenerated, we have the ability to shift our thoughts from our old way of thinking and to dwell on spiritual things, on the things of the Spirit. Whereas, our former way of thinking and living (because don’t think for one second those two things aren’t connected) led to death, God is making all things new, and our renewed thought life now leads to life and peace (according to the Scripture).
We build on this today as we look at the next few verse in . Will turn there with me today?
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
The Good News that Paul writes to the recipients of this letter is the reminder that they are not like those he has been describing who live only according to fleshly ways, following fleshly desires. Instead, he writes to encourage the believer, reminding them that they are filled with the Holy Spirit.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
For the believer, we are reminded that even these temporal, mortal bodies serve a higher purpose. Our bodies serve the purposes of God in the here and now reaping a harvest in the then and there.
Remember, those that do not have the Spirit of God cannot understand spiritual things. They will not make sense to them, instead they will seem like utter foolishness. Paul says that we can recognize those that belong to Christ as God’s children by the spirit that is within them.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
The Spirit of God reveals to us the Truth. He reveals to us the Truth about Christ and His finished work. I mentioned last time, that the Holy Spirit is very good at His job. According to the Gospel of John, God’s Spirit comes to lead us into all Truth but also to bring conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgement.
The Holy Spirit gives us opportunity to respond to revealed truth and then also comes as the transformative agent that works in our life to continue to process of redemption in every area of our life, that’s the sanctifying work He does in all of us. He works in us to make us mature and complete, not lacking anything, that we may reflect the image of the One who created us.
STORY: How many of you have made a large purchase before that required a deposit or earnest money? Typically, this is used when buying a vehicle or home, but can also be used in other large purchases.
As many of you know, our family continues to grow, but our house has remained the same size. We have been working tirelessly this past week while Ellie and Judah were gone. There was a point though this time last year, where we had put an offer in on a house. It had more bedrooms, ample home school space, etc. It looked like the next place the Clark family would live. It was even on Rocky Top Road. How could that not be home sweet home to me? Well, in our efforts to buy this house, we had show not only good faith but serious action. We made a contract offer (with decent stipulations) but it included a large sum of money showing our seriousness to the words we were writing in this contract. We put a deposit down guaranteeing we would return to be good for the rest of what we said we would do.
You have may have done this in buying a vehicle or home yourself. We have put something down to show our seriousness to return.
TRANSITION: Paul writes...
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
14 Paul calls the Spirit the arrabōn (a Semitic word that passed into Greek; GK 775) of our inheritance (see also 2 Co 1:22; 5:5). BDAG, 134, describe this entity as the “payment of part of a purchase price in advance, first installment, deposit, down payment, pledge.” The sense is clear enough. The Spirit in believers’ lives constitutes God’s “earnest money,” a kind of deposit from him by which he assures that he will give them their full inheritance. In v. 18 Paul speaks of the “riches of [God’s] glorious inheritance in the saints.” The Spirit is the down payment; the remaining riches will follow. A Spirit-filled life is a foretaste of what heaven will be like (cf. 5:18–21).
14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
The Greek word, ἀρραβών, describes the Holy Spirit as the “payment of part of a purchase price in advance, a first installment, a deposit, a down payment, or pledge.”
The Spirit in believers’ lives constitutes God’s “earnest money,” a kind of deposit from him by which he assures that he will give them their full inheritance.
Paul takes the next couple of verses to talk about the ramifications of this guarantee, the deposit of the Holy Spirit.
10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Romans 8:10-
We see the obvious effects of sin around us. We see it in sickness and addiction. We see the effects of sin in division and animosity in our society. We see sin in our daily struggles as well as global pandemics. You don’t have to be a theologian to see the impacts of sin surrounding us.
ἀρραβών
For those of us in Christ, followers of Him, we can see the real results of a life filled with His Spirit. Yes, the fruit of sin is death. We see its evidence all around us, but the righteousness of Christ has reversed the curse and unlocked life eternal for all those who believe and receive God’s free gift.
And as heirs with Christ, as adoptees into the family of God, we experience the overwhelming benefits and blessing of being in the family (the family of God). That same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is the deposit within each one of us, guaranteeing not only the reality of what we have already experienced but will experience when our inheritance is in its full.
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength
20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
Paul in writing to the Ephesians couldn’t add enough describers and adjectives to give enough emphasis to the spiritual realm he was seeking to describe.
18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
vs. 18 There is a revelation that comes from God when we encounter Him that unlocks hope. This hope is rooted in the calling He has for each one of us, namely to be sons and daughters. You can look back at and see the adoption terminology that God gives to our selection to be a part of His family.
vs. 19-20 There is nothing that God holds back in giving to us the full life that we were intended to live. That Spirit that raised Christ, that power that He exerted to bring Jesus from death (not only to life but) to a place of glory is the same Spirit and power that is at work in us who believe.
vs. 21-22 The reign and rule that was intended from the garden as part of God’s image that he entrusted to us, His creation, has been restored in its full through Christ our Savior.
STORY: Have you ever received an inheritance before? Possible you were expecting something from a family member upon their death. An inheritance works in much the same way we referred to as the law. The law is only good as long as someone is alive. You have to be alive to become subject to it, and someone has to be alive to hold you accountable to it. An inheritance is simply the gift you receive from someone who is no longer alive. The inheritance is typically activated by death. You can receive a gift beforehand, sometimes this occurs to avoid larger estate taxes or the inheritance being fully subject to probate.
My grandmother had lived her life simply, saving year after year with her and her husband. She thought she had invested her money in such a way that it would continue to accrue interest and not become subject to estate taxes upon her death. There were a few things she did setup that way, but there were some other accounts that became subject to higher government taxes. While she was still living, she was able to use this money to sustain her during her retirement and ailing health. It was until her death that her family would receive an inheritance.
Unlike my grandmother, God’s inheritance has no limits, knowns no bounds. It is not dwindling nor is He having to exhaust it due to His own needs for care. Instead, the guarantee for the inheritance was sent to us, for us, to fill us upon the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. It has been activated in our lives. There is a deposit from which we can drawn from, the Holy Spirit. We will not exhaust it. It will not run low or out. But there will be a day when we receive the fullness of this inheritance, when death will be exchanged in our our lives with lifer forevermore.
PIANO MAN
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 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.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 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!”
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 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.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
It is time to live our best life. It is time to live the life that God has called each one of us to live. It is time to raise our children in a way that they understand not only the effects of sin that are at work in this fallen world and unregenerated, sinful humanity. BUT it is greater that they understand the effects of what Christ has done for each of us, how His righteousness has come to replace our sin, His sacrifice to pay our price for sin. He has set us free from both sin and death, and the Spirit that raised Him from the death we can now
It is time to live our best life. It is time to live the life that God has called each one of us to live. It is time to raise our children in a way that they understand not only the effects of sin that are at work in this fallen world and unregenerate, sinful humanity. BUT it is greater that they understand the effects of what Christ has done for each of us, how His righteousness has come to replace our sin, His sacrifice to pay our price for sin. He has set us free from both sin and death, and the Spirit that raised Him from the dead we can now see at work in our lives. He will also raise our mortal bodies. We can walk in the Spirit in this life, seeing the ways of the flesh put to death, and life reigning and ruling in our lives today. We can experience God’s goodness and hope now even in this imperfect world because of God’s amazing grace. His Spirit is unlocking within us a hope that is for all eternity, connecting us to heaven, seeing His kingdom come in our lives.
And on that day, what we have known in part will pail in comparison to what we will then fully know. The fullness of Him will fill everything in every way.
23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
PRAY