Romans 8:12-14 "Life By the Spirit pt.3"

Introduction

If you have been transformed by the Spirit of God, that is the basis by which you are empowered to live for Christ in this fallen world while you are in this mortal body.

This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Christian, God did not regenerate you and put the Holy Spirit in you to just hang around until you die.

God put the Spirit of Christ in you to transform you from the inside out. So that your life would glorify Him by reflecting Christ in this fallen world.

If sanctifying you into a disciple was optional or if you could just straighten yourself up on your own, the third person of the Godhead could have just stayed in heaven.

There are more glorious places in the Universe and beyond for Him to hang out than these sinful bodies of flesh.

But He didn’t do that because in God’s plan, redemption and transformation go hand in hand. That is why obedience is not optional when we live by the Spirit. Look at verses 12-13 of our text.

I. The Obligation of Obedience (12-13).

This obligation as Paul says is not to the flesh. As in some way we should live out pursuing our fleshly appetites.

Scripture tells us here and in other places that to do this will in the end lead to death.

Because it is not an authentic Christian life. There is no transformation that shows forth the work of Christ being applied by the Spirit.

We are not obligated to do the works of our hands to establish our own righteousness before God. Nor did God justify us by faith in order to free us to pursue our sinful appetites without consequence.

Both of those two perceptions are examples of a life lived in the flesh and by the flesh.

However, We are obligated to live in light of God’s imputed righteousness by pursuing obedience in the power of the Spirit.

And that is different because the work of Christ is the foundation, and the power of the Holy Spirit is the agency that makes it effectual in our lives. And therefore, it is reflective in radiating the glory of God.

Life by the Spirit is a life lived in such a way that demonstrates the glory of God’s provision in Christ not a demonstration of the sinfully tainted performances of fallen man.

Remember John 15:26 when our Lord told us that he would send us a helper, the Holy Spirit: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”

So the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and the coming judgement as we saw last Sunday from John 16:8 . But now we see that He will also bear witness to the person and work of Christ.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t get jealous when Christ is being glorified and emphasized in the world. That is His job to make much of Christ.

There is not another religion or religious figure that the Holy Spirit bears witness about other than the Jesus Christ of the Spirit inspired word of God.

If you love God you will love the Son and if you love the Father and the Son you will love the Holy Spirit that lives in you.

And as He convicts us of our sin and points us to truth it should be our joyous conviction to obey Him.

Would you go to Africa to be a missionary if you knew for a fact that He wanted you to go be a missionary in Africa?

Yes I would Pastor! I would do whatever He told me. But why then is it so difficult for us to pursue holiness and obedience in the Christian life?

For some it is not Africa that He is calling you to. He may be calling you across the street to your neighbor. Or He may be calling you to teaching Sunday School or to serve as a deacon or an elder in the church.

Or maybe it is to finally get serious about confronting the habitual sin in your life. You know the things we know in reality that are wrong but we have grown so accustomed to them that we hardly even notice their presence.

We may even practice them because they are convenient for us. We may lie because the truth is harder to deal with. We may cheat on our taxes because it saves us money in the end.

We may lie to our spouse because it is easier to lie than it is to be accountable to telling the truth.

I think, Like Jerry Bridges argues in his book “Respectable Sins” that it is difficult to confront the sins in our lives that we are accustomed to tolerating.

But Christian to live in the Spirit means that our desire and disposition towards sin has changed. We have been challenged and empowered by the Spirit to pursue obedience to Christ. And it should be our great joy to do that very thing.

The gospel of the Cross reminds us that we should never trivialize sin. If the gospel reminds us of anything it reminds us of this. The Cross does not tell us that sin is trivial to God but it tells us just the opposite. Christ bore the Cross because God hates sin.

God has redeemed us from sin and the penalty of death that goes with it. So that we could have eternal life and be empowered to live in obedience in this current life in this world as we look to the life eternal.

And that is the indicator of our identity. Look at your text back to verse 14:

II. The Indication of Identity (14).

If the Holy Spirit is in you and you are led by the Spirit that is an indication that you are truly a child of God.

Salvation is not theoretical. It is not something that is conceptualized in the human mind alone but it is something that translates into obedience by the Spirit.

Being led by the Spirit is the proof of being a true child of God.

You have heard the old idiom, “The proof is in the pudding” but that is a shortened form of the older saying, “the proof is in the pudding is in the eating.”

This is taken to mean that the quality of something is to be judged on direct experience with it in reality.

And being led by the Spirit indicates your identity as an authentic child of God. You are led by the Spirit because the Holy Spirit has made grace effectual in you as God’s child.

Real Christianity is lived out in obedience as you are convicted by the Holy Spirit as He uses the word of God to guide your life. This is why faith without works is dead , just like James says in James 2:17.

This is what happens when the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to the truth of the gospel. A life is directed towards obedience just like gravity pulls on a material object.

Conclusion

True transformation can’t be hidden. When God changes you it shows in your life. Unbeliever maybe today is your day that that transformation takes place in you. You need a Savior.

Believe the gospel!

Believer today we come to this table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

You will drink juice and eat bread. Physical food nourishes our physical bodies but when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper he used physical food and drink to indicate something Spiritual to us.

Our Spiritual nourishment comes from Him. Our power for living is because of His work and His Spirit giving us the strength and the power to live for Him.

His word instructs us to examine our hearts in preparation for this table. Because even though we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us we have all grieved Him in our disobedience.

Confess your sin and receive from Him, His restorative grace. We come to this table as children of God and eat of our Father’s provision. Let’s Pray!