Die to Live
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
As I was preparing for this sermon, my mind wandered back to Genesis 4 in which Cain and Abel brought their gifts before God. Abel’s was accepted, but Cain’s was rejected. One can easily understand why this would anger Cain. One who lives by law can easily become angry when his duty is rejected. He did what he was called to do. He gave his offering to God. He was obedient, was he not? Why would God reject what Cain had given? The writer of Hebrews tell us the difference between the two brother’s offerings in that Abel’s was presented in faith. It was not simply obedience that was expected, but the obedience of faith; obedience that sprang from faith. Cain got angry, and in mercy, God spoke directly to this disgruntled young man.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain had been brooding over the fact that his gift was not accepted. What his thoughts were exactly, we don’t know. But we do know that when God spoke to him, he let him know of two responses he could have in that situation. If you do well, if you do what is pleasing, then you will be accepted, you will be lifted up. It was a play on words. Cain’s face had fallen when his offering was rejected. It wasn’t offered in faith and so it was not pleasing, because, as the writer of Hebrews wrote, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” But if Cain would do what is pleasing, obedience of faith, then his face would no longer be fallen, but rather he’d be lifted up. That’s the first option. “Cain, live by faith and you’ll would be exalted.” The second option, but if you don’t, then understand that sin is crouching at the door and it will kill you.
So live by faith or die by sin. Those were Cain’s options; and they are the same options we have today. God told Cain to rule over his sin. Paul is saying something similar, but he uses a bit harsher language. He tells us that it’s time to put sin to death. But doing that is difficult; it is not only difficult because “bad habits are hard to break,” but because to put sin to death means causing our own suffering. You see, following after the Holy Spirit brings life, but will often feel like death because certain practices will need to die. In order to move forward and resolve to kill those practices, we must have three new perspectives about our life as Christians. The first new perspective focuses on our obligation during our life. The second new perspective focuses on the Spirit’s objective regarding our life. The last new perspective focuses on our ultimate outcome concerning our life.
Obligation During Our Life
Objective Regarding Our Life
Outcome Concerning Our Life
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
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.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
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!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
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.
Obligation During Our Lives
Obligation During Our Lives
Knowing what to believe is a good first step toward living it. But knowing what to believe is not enough. Believing what it is we are to believe is where the power lies. Theology is powerful when theology is believed. I say that now because it is not enough just to know our obligation during our life; we have to actually believe that this is where our obligation lies. This is the new perspective. It’s the first perspective we see this morning. Paul wrote in
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
“So then,” is another way of saying “therefore.” In other words, Paul is coming to a conclusion that affects how we live our lives. If we were to go back a few verses, we’d see how this relates.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
In these three verses, we find three realities that relates to verse 12.
The Holy Spirit is living inside every believer
The Holy Spirit gives life to every believer here and now
The Holy Spirit will be sure to give life to our mortal bodies just as surely as God raised Jesus from the dead.
We could narrow it down to one main theme: life. The Spirit lives and gives life.
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
The flesh kills! Why would we live for something that kills us? Why would we not live for he who gives us life? Now notice that what Paul does not say is, “So then, brothers, we are not debtors.” He actually says that we are debtors, but clarifies whom we are not indebted to: the flesh. We are debtors, not to the flesh though. We are debtors. We have an obligation. We owe our lives—our living!—to someone, but that someone is not the flesh. Paul never got around to saying who it is that we are obligated to, but it is easy enough to figure it out. He who gave us these new lives did not give them so that we would feel some obligation to fulfill the desires of the flesh. Instead, he gave us life so that we would fulfill the righteous requirements of the law.
I get that from
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
And from
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
So there is an obligation that we owe to the Holy Spirit. We owe him a life of righteous living. That’s why he indwells us in the first place. We owe our flesh diddly squat, but we owe the Holy Spirit everything we are! But we have to be careful with this theology of indebtedness. There is a helpful way of understanding our indebtedness and a harmful way.
The harmful way is thinking that we have to pay back what God has done for us and given us. There is no way that we can do that. To go around thinking that we must do good enough and be good enough and must measure up enough is harmful. It may create a strong morality, but it will end in never knowing if it was enough. If you’ve ever watch Saving Private Ryan you will probably remember at the end of the movie, Tom Hanks’s character, Captain Miller, pulls Private Ryan close to him. Having sacrificed an entire squad to get Ryan safely home, Captain Miller straining for breath, says to Private Ryan. “Earn this.” And the scene fades to an older Ryan standing at his captain’s grave and with tears in his eyes he says to his wife, “Tell me I am a good man.” His entire life he lived with a debt that could never be repaid and was continuously filled with the knowledge he could never pay back such a price. That is not what Paul was getting at and that was not why the Holy Spirit was given.
The helpful way of thinking through this is by seeing this as an obligation of love and purpose. Keeping in mind who we once were and what we were incapable of doing and who we are now and what we’ve been given the ability to do is necessary.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
The purpose of the Holy Spirit coming to indwell us is to bring us from a place of hostility to the unmistakable position of no condemnation before God, the place of peace with God—the place where we can please him. So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation to follow after the Spirit. Only he can lead us. We can’t lead ourselves; on our own we have fallen hearts, minds, wills, and bodies. We are indebted to the one who took us out of our plight and is leading us home.
So what does this obligation look like? In part, it looks like death.
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.
If you and I want to live, we must die. Remember last week, I told you that typically Paul makes a distinction between the flesh and the body. Flesh generally is our sin nature. The body is our body: hands, feet, eyes, nose, head shoulders, knees and toes. There’s no difference here. It may at first appear that he’s using them synonymously, but he isn’t. If we live according to our sin nature, we will die. So what we must do is put to death the deeds, the practices of the body. The sin nature cannot be put to death, not until Christ returns or our bodies die. But the body either will or will not give the flesh, the sin nature what it wants.
A Christian who feels obligated to the flesh, will allow the body to feed the flesh, to give into whatever the flesh is wanting. Paul’s wrote that we must not do that. We must put to death the deeds, the practices of the body that are giving the flesh what it wants. The flesh is inanimate, but the body is animate. The flesh lays on the couch all day, barking out orders and making you feel like scum if you don’t comply…only to make you feel like scum if you do. You can’t win with the flesh. Paul wrote that we are under obligation, but not to the flesh. To put it another way, Paul wrote
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
or again
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
This is Paul’s reiterating the fact that since we are dead to sin and since we have been set free from the slavery of sin, then we owe the flesh absolutely nothing, and need to stop presenting our members as instruments of unrighteousness and so kill the deeds of the body. If it sounds like I’m repeating myself in that statement its because I am. Paul is saying the same thing a million different ways hoping that we’ll eventually catch on. You must deal radically with sin because sin deals radically with you.
Again, the implication is that you start performing the deeds of the Spirit. Which means, you follow the lead of the Holy Spirit rather than the flesh. So when you are at work, you cannot separate your faith from your work. This is the way politicians speak. They’re personal faith will not influence their policy-making. That’s what faith does, it influences every aspect of our lives. Put to death those deeds of the body at work that your flesh is pressing you to do.
Husbands and wives, you must put to death the deeds of the body that the flesh is tempting it to act. Husbands, in his second letter, Peter wrote that you are to see your wife as your co-heir. You see her as your sister and you treat and live with her as such. Paul told the Ephesians that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. Wives, Paul told you to follow your husband’s leadership even as the church follows the leadership of Jesus. This is following the Spirit.
Objective Regarding Our Life
Objective Regarding Our Life
Which leads us to the second new perspective we need to believe (not just know). The first new perspective that we must believe is that we are under obligation during our life to live or walk according to the Spirit so we can fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law. The second new perspective is that the Spirit has an objective in mind regarding our life.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
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!”
There’s that word again, “For.” If you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit (so the Spirit is your instrument, not your own strength), then you’ll live? Why? Because all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Why? Because, using the Spirit of God as your instrument to kill the deeds of the body, shows that your are God’s children. Verse 15 also starts with a “for.” “Because” doesn’t fit, so we know that Paul is explaining further with this “for.” What does he mean that we are sons of God? He means that the Holy Spirit has an objective in mind. The objective of the Holy Spirit is to bring you into contact, into a close relationship with the Father. His objective is to show you that you are a child and God is your Father, and then he develops that relationship giving you the power to kill the deeds of the body.
God has given us the Holy Spirit. He is the one who put the Spirit within us. But the Spirit knows nothing about fear. We could translate the word fear as “intimidation” if that helps with the understanding.
This is why I said that following the Holy Spirit will often feel like death. The flesh seeks to intimidate us. It likes to strike fear into our hearts. Because the flesh wants us back as its slave. So it will go through all the scenarios of what can happen, what might happen, what will “definitely” happen if we do not do what it says when it says it the way it says to do it. It’ll tell us that resistance is futile. That you’ll always struggle with this sin. It will seek to intimidate you into thinking that no one could love you if you confess this sin or that everyone will reject you if you let it out into the light. Because the flesh thrives in darkness. There were two new emotions Adam and Eve immediately felt after the fall: shame and fear. It came not by God or His Spirit, but from sin.
So when your flesh intimidates you, know that this is not the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit doesn’t make you afraid. The Spirit brings courage that comes with being sons and daughters of God. The moment that you and I begin to be intimidated into doing what we know we ought not do, we must seek the courage of the Spirit to kill the deeds of the body.
But it is not only that the Spirit who gives courage. Remember the objective of the Spirit is bring you into a relationship as a child with God and then to strengthen that relationship giving you power to kill the deeds of the body. Rather than a slavery of fear, which is what the flesh is wanting, the Spirit came as the Spirit of adoption—literally sonship, but adoption is the meaning. His objective is to take slaves of sin and fear and death and strengthen them as God’s children. But not just so we can go around and brag about being God’s child. It’s not about “I’m a princess of the King; I’m a prince of the King.” No; its about access to the King!
Without the Holy Spirit, you do not have access to God. Read the verse again:
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!”
There is no “Abba! Father!” without the Spirit. But with the Holy Spirit we have direct access. The Holy Spirit is the agent by which we cry to the Father. The flesh will seek to intimidate you into thinking that God doesn’t want to hear from a failure like you. It will try and intimidate you into thinking that calling out to God will do no good so why try? But beloved, do not be intimidated. Whenever you feel like you cannot go to the Father because of your sin or your struggles, that is not the Holy Spirit. That is the flesh. It is a lie from hell. As a child of God you have access to the Father 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and on leap day too! You are never too grimy, never too dirty, never to ugly in your sins to approach our Father.
The flesh will tell you that you’re too tired. It’ll tell you that you’re too stressed. It’ll tell you that the day has just been too frustrating. No need to go to the Father. Just give in and everything will feel so much better. But the Holy Spirit has been given to us so that we may cry out, “Abba! Father!” in our distress. And because we are in debt, not the flesh, but to the Spirit, then we ought to follow his lead and call out.
So you’re in a marriage where there is constant struggle, constant battles, and you’re just tired. You’re ready to give up. It’s too much. Cry to the Father in your distress. You’re at work and they are pressuring you and intimidating you into compliance of that which goes against conscience or Scripture, cry out to our Father. God is not too busy. He’s not on an iPhone checking out how many likes he got on his last post. He’s not checking Facebook messenger to see how many people he’ll have to curse for not sending that chain letter along. He’s not up in heaven taking selfies. He is ever active in this world and longing to hear from his children!
Brothers and sisters, we have the opportunity to cry out to our Father together every Wednesday night at 6:30. Few of us choose to do so. I’m not trying to intimidate you into coming. I just want you to know that we are here and we will pray with you and for you and we can call on the Lord together. But it doesn’t have to stay only on Wednesday nights. Some of you have play-dates with each other for when your children get together and play. How about some of you out there scheduling pray-dates just to lift each other up to our Father?
Outcome Concerning Our Life
Outcome Concerning Our Life
Which leads us into the third new perspective we need to believe (not just know). The first is that we are obligated to follow the Spirit. The second is that the Spirit has an objective for our life. But the third is where that leads. It’s about the outcome concerning our life.
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
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.
I don’t have much time, but I want us to understand three quick points in these two verses.
The Holy Spirit is communicating with our own spirit about our adoption. We are children of God. The Holy Spirit does not lie. He does not bear false witness. He is testifying, bearing witness, that we are children of God. Case closed.
Children are heirs to their parents. This is not that God will die and we gain all when he does. But that all that is God’s is ours just as much as it is Jesus’s. We are co-heirs. Now, this is a future hope, with present ramifications. Because in the present time, we focus on what we are rewarded with. The children of God, who have an unmistakable position of no condemnation before our Father, are joint-heirs with Jesus.
Lastly, and so important to understand. Our glory, the glory we share with Christ, must come through suffering. The word that Paul uses here are two Greek words put together. The first is “sum” meaning “with” or “together.” A person who has sympathy, feels “with” someone else. Sum means with/together. The other word is “pascho” which means “to suffer.” We get the word pascal from this word, as in the pascal lamb, the suffering lamb that is killed that we might live. We also get the word passion as in the Passion Week or the Passion of Christ. It is the suffering week, the suffering of Christ.
The only way Christ was glorified was to go to the cross.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
Therefore, for that reason, God has highly exalted him...
No servant is greater than his master. We cannot expect glory if we do not go through suffering. This certainly can mean any suffering in this world, but I think, in context, it is the suffering that comes by way of our own flesh. It certainly applies to suffering in general, but I would venture to say that every teenager and adult in here understand what it means to suffer at the hands of your own sin nature. One of the main points in revealing our adoption is to give us strength to kill the deeds of the body, but another is to show us that the suffering that comes from doing that is not in vain. The suffering will turn into such glory!
Beloved we need each other. We need each other to see us in our sorrows, in our tears, in our pain, in our suffering and affliction, and remind us that it is worth it. The ultimate outcome concerning our life is glory!
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we conclude this study of Romans 8:12-17, I hope that we have a new perspective on life. I hope we’ve gone from knowing the truth to believing it. I hope that we believe that it is to the Holy Spirit and not the flesh that our obligation belongs. I hope we believe that the Holy Spirit’s objective is to bring us closer in our relationship with the Father as his children. I hope that we believe that our outcome of that faith is the precious glory that comes only after suffering.
If you’ve never put your faith in Jesus, I would ask you to do that now. Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, not adopted as we, but his one and only Son, came into this world to save all who will give up that way that seems right but leads to death and instead follow and trust him. He gives us his Holy Spirit who then enters us, strengthens us, encourages us, and brings us into a close fatherly relationship so that we can cry out to him anytime we need or want. And who assures final and ultimate victory and glory.
Those of us who have already put your hope and trust in Jesus, this Holy Spirit is in you. Do not listen to the lies of the flesh who tells you that its too late to seek God whether by his Word to you or your word to him because of some failure in your life. Take heart. He is your Abba!