A Spirit Led Life

Freedom

A little over a week ago, we watched on the news as thousands of people turned out for a lockdown protest on the streets of Sydney.

Many of us were shocked at the blatant disregard for the rules, knowing that we are trying to keep a contagious virus at bay, and that such actions will undermine the efforts made.

Now, if we look at what these protesters were on about, while there might have been various different angles at which they come from, it would seem from my perspective that their common point of concern was the issue of freedom.

You see, it certainly stands to reason that when you are locked down, by very definition you have less freedom.

And this lack of freedom is going to have flow on effects. It will effect the economy. It will effect the mental health of those in lockdown. Relationships will suffer. Education will be effected.

And so I can see the conclusion, we need the freedom which this lockdown is taking away.

But… is this the whole story? Now I recognise that those who attended these rallies might dispute this, but the relevant experts seem to agree, and the experience of other countries make it self-evident, we can try to grab hold of one form of freedom, only to be dragged into a different kind of oppression.

You see, the experts warn that the virus left unchecked, will result in an overloaded hospital system, which has the flow-on effect of reducing medical care in other areas of the healthcare system. Work forces will be decimated. But worst of all, loved ones will die.

And so we can ask: what is freedom? If we answer that it is to do whatever we want, then we have to recognise that our actions can actually reduce the freedom of others.

You see, freedom is not exactly what it initially appears to be. In fact, I’m going to suggest that we can never really be free in the way that we often think of freedom, that is, the freedom to do whatever we want when ever we want to do it.

But that doesn’t mean there is no freedom.

You see, true freedom is actually found within bounds. As we get those bounds right, that’s when freedom can be most enjoyed.

I love the example of a musician who is able to improvise.

You see, a musician who can improvise has this amazing freedom to play whatever notes they like.

But there is actually a trick to improvising. You see, you actually need to understand how the music works. You need to understand chord progressions, and how scales work. Once you understand these, rather than restricting the musician, it actually gives them enormous freedom. They can also improvise with others and it will sound good together.

Christian freedom

Now as Christians we talk about freedom, but what is that freedom?

Well, there are actually a lot of similarities with what I’ve been talking about.

Now we’ve actually looked at some of these concepts already throughout our series in Romans, however it might have been easy to miss.

You see, Romans outlines the amazingly good news that Jesus has paid the price for your sins. Though you are a sinner, you have been justified… made right before God, and for this reason you can confidently stand before God as someone who has been redeemed. It truly is wonderful.

In fact it is such wonderful news that as we move into this wonderful eighth chapter, Paul again asserts with great audacity: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

Now overlay this with the fact that we’ve also seen how the law brings death.

In fact, if we go to today’s passage and look at verse 2, you’ll see that Paul even says that we have been set “free from the law of sin and death”.

So surely Christian freedom means not getting worried about all of this law stuff, right?

Well, you see, this is kind of like wanting to be free of the covid rules. We could take away all of the restrictions, but are we really free.

Knowing that you are free of the law of sin and death is not freedom unless the actual real problem is addressed.

But you see, when I quoted verse 2 a moment ago which tells us of this freedom from the law, I didn’t quote the whole verse. Perhaps if you’ve been looking at it yourself you might have noticed what I missed.

Let me read all of verse 2: “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death”.

You see, it doesn’t just say, don’t worry about the law, rather it gives us a better one, the law of the Spirit.

You see, Christian freedom is not about just being free of all responsibility because of God’s grace. Rather Christian freedom is this idea that the thing that holds us down and locks us into a cycle of self-destruction has been broken and replaced with the law of the Spirit.

So what is this law of the Spirit? Well, this is what we’re going to explore this morning, but what we’re going to see is that as we submit to this law of the Spirit, it is then (and only then) that we will truly experience freedom.

Not some pretense of freedom that just replaces one set of rules for another type of oppression, but true freedom where you really start to live… to experience life for what it really is.

You see, that first verse, as amazing as it really is, would be little hope if there wasn’t something better for us to go in to. Thanks be to God though, there is something amazing, and it is life lived in the Spirit.

Starts with Christ

Well, while we are going to focus on the role of the Spirit this morning, as we come to verse 3, Paul is keen to remind us that it starts to understand this freedom, we need to remember how it came about.

It all starts with Jesus. God sent his only Son who was the offering needed to break the hold that sin has on humanity. His death and resurrection had power like nothing this world has seen.

It’s the very thing that was needed so that we had another option over the hold of sin.

If I use the analogy of the covid rules, he’s the one that says, actually it’s not just a choice between being locked down by rules or being oppressed by a virus, but there is a completely new choice, one where all oppression is gone.

And we see in verse 4, because of this choice, not only are we counted righteous, we actually can start to become righteous. Verse 4 describes this process of the requirements of the law being fully met in us.

Now we need to be careful here. This side of Christ’s return, our lives will never completely align with the characteristics of Christ. When Christ returns, the sinful nature will finally be removed, but until then, it will always be present.

But… that’s not to say the process doesn’t begin before then.

We are counted righteous first, because of Jesus, but after we are counted righteous, we then are able to start to act in a righteous way. Not in our own strength, but in the strength of the Spirit. And that’s where we turn now.

Our effort or the Spirit?

But before I do, when we talk about our striving towards holiness, we can find ourselves with a bit of a conflict. You see, on one hand I’m going to be talking about what we need to do to live the right way. In other words, on one hand we have our effort.

But I’m also going to be saying that moving toward a holy life where we can find freedom is entirely the work of the Spirit. Now how can I talk about our effort if it is entirely the work of the Spirit.

Well, this is one of those tensions that we need to hold together. We strive towards a holy life while completely relying on the Spirit to get us there.

Minds set on the Spirit

Well, we’re at the point now where we really need to consider what it actually means to live according to the Spirit. How do we understand this law of the Spirit which is going to set us free?

Well, we get the first part of our answer in verses 5 to 8.

And it involves your mind.

Paul sets up two options. Either we live according to the flesh, or we live according to the Spirit. And quite simply, it comes down to what you have your mind set on.

If on the way of the flesh, then to the ways of the flesh you will go. But if your mind is set on what the Spirit desires, then your life will follow.

It’s actually such a simple concept but yet one we can neglect so easy.

Let’s take an example. Let’s say someone does you wrong. I don’t know, maybe they too advantage of you in some way and it didn’t end well for you.

Well, according to the flesh, you need to pay them back. And so your mind is set on revenge. You find yourself continually thinking about how you can show this person up. How you can catch this person out and show the world that this person really is bad. The thought just keeps popping back in your mind.

You get to the point that you are now no longer able to show kindness to that person. It has consumed you.

But here is the great news. Because of what Jesus has done, we now have a different option. We can choose to set our minds on the Spirit.

It starts with a prompting where the Spirit convicts you in your thoughts. In the example I just gave, the Spirit will prompt you, telling you that this person consumed in your negative thoughts is actually a person made in the image of God. The Spirit will prompt you that when you show love, you can flip the whole situation upside down.

And as you then set your mind on the Spirit, something changes. That focus on revenge starts to evaporate. You then see the other person in a new light.

And this is why in verse 6 it tells us that the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. Because that’s what we get.

When we allow the Spirit to dominate, we find the peace that God brings.

And this is where that freedom starts. A freedom which is based around love.

Do you have the Spirit?

Now, let me just pause a moment and raise a question: how do you know if you, a believer, have the Spirit?

Sometimes you’ll hear Christians describe a baptism of the Spirit in addition to their conversion.

Perhaps you might have even experienced something like this. For some, it might involve an experience we describe as speaking in tongues. And I certainly acknowledge that this is a real experience that you may have.

However, whether you’ve had an experience that you might align with this or not, I’m going to assert that if you are a believer you already have the Holy Spirit in your life.

Look at verse 9. Now remember that Paul is writing this letter to the church in Rome. A group of believers he has not personally met. He would not be aware of what sort of personal experiences they may or may not have had. Yet he can declare in verse 9 that if they belong to Christ, then they are in the realm of the Spirit. They do have the Spirit of God in them.

So as we consider this idea of living according to the Spirit, you don’t have to wonder whether you do or don’t have the Spirit. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then you have been given the Spirit.

The real question is how aware of him and how much are you setting your mind on Him.

Because while he will prompt you, you do have a choice as to what you allow your focus to stay on.

Put to death sin

Now, let me come down to a verses 12 and 13, because here I want to add a second idea about what it means to live according to the Spirit.

I want to for a moment focus on this phrase found in verse 13 which says: “put to death the misdeeds of the body”.

Now what does that exactly mean?

There is actually a word which you don’t hear used very often these days but actually describes this process - it does sound a bit scary though. It’s the word ‘mortification’.

But it’s this very concept - to put to death the sin in our lives.

Now it’s not something we can do on our own, in fact, if you look at verse 13 it actually says that it is by the Spirit that we will do this.

So, it starts with the Spirit revealing to you those sinful parts of your life. And to listen to that, we need to be attentive. We need slow down and be reflective and hold our actions up to the mirror of scripture. How the Spirit reveal it to us may be differ between people and even differ at different times in our lives.

But then once that is revealed, we can reject that part of our lives. As one commentator has put it: “Pull it out, look at it, denounce it, hate it for what it is; then you have really dealt with it”.

Or as Jesus himself even once said, gouge out that offending eye, or cut off the offending hand or foot.

You see, we can strive towards holiness, but part of that process is putting to death those sinful parts of our lives. It is as we put to death these misdeeds of our body, that we will live.

This is part of living by the Spirit. It is the Spirit that enables this to actually happen.

We’re not perfect

Now let me just reiterate something that I’ve said before but I want to say again to avoid any confusion.

Though I’m making the case that living according to the Spirit means that we are able to become more holy, you will not entirely get there this side of the return of Christ.

You will have success in putting to death the misdeeds of the body, but not entirely. There will be times when that sinful nature will rear it’s ugly head.

When that happens, take a healthy look at it. Don’t shrug it off like it doesn’t matter. It does. But also know that it doesn’t mean you’re defeated. After all, as verse 1 says: “…there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus”. Keep going. You just put the next foot forward and allow the Spirit to carry you.

Children of God

So from this passage, I’ve considered two aspects of living according to the Spirit.

Firstly, set your mind on the Spirit. Dwell on what is good. Listen to the Spirit’s promptings. And see the change that occurs.

Secondly, put to death the misdeeds of the body. Identify where you struggle and denounce it. Cut it off. Give it to the Spirit who has the power to deal with it.

In one sense, the Spirit will work these aspects for you, but in another, it is something you actively need to work on.

But as with the Spirit working, we become children of God, as Paul goes on to describe in verse 14.

As Children of God, we get to call the maker of the universe: “Abba, Father”.

That word Abba, is the word that the Jewish person would call there father. It implies intimacy. It’s sometimes associated with our word “Daddy”. That’s a close approximation, but perhaps not quite there.

But I want to suggest that as we begin to understand how this relationship plays out, it is then that we actually start to understand the freedom that I described earlier.

You see, in an ideal family situation, this is where you understand freedom within bounds.

A child knows the bounds, but within that they have great freedom where they know they will be kept safe, and enjoy life. The bounds a father places is not burdensome. Rather it provides security and allows the child the explore.

Inheritance

But there is one other benefit of being a child - and that is the future inheritance.

Verse 17 says: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory”.

That reminder at the end of sharing in his glory, puts in our minds that we are headed somewhere. You see, there might be pain in this life time. In fact, one sure guarantee I can give is that in your life, you will face suffering. But when Jesus comes again, that will all pass. The old order will be gone, and the new will have come. One where there will be no more pain or tears.

This is the benefit of those living in the Spirit.

Conclusion

But though we can long for that future day, let me just assure you that living in the Spirit begins the day you gave your life to Christ.

Christ already has won the victory, and you can know the freedom that I’ve been describing.

Not a freedom that the world wants - the freedom the world wants just plunges them into the sinful world of selfishness and further hostility.

Rather a freedom in Christ where we find peace. And where we find life to the full.

This is life in the Spirit. The Spirit that has already been given to you.

So let me encourage you to set your minds on the Holy Spirit , and put to death the misdeed of the body, and enjoy the experience of being a child of God.

Let me pray...