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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/romans-8/
Let's turn to the book of Romans, please, in chapter 8. Privileged to be back in Hyattsville, beautiful summer morning. What falls in the air? So it's good to be here. Romans chapter 8, and we'll read at verse 1.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. We drop down to verse 10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Verse 16, the spirit itself birth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. Verse 38, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature or creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Lord will bless to us the reading from his word, we're sure, this morning. The central theme of the epistle is continued into chapter 8, which is the righteousness of life in Christ. The righteousness of life in Christ.
If we were to go back to chapter 5, we would find there the foundation of that life is Christ's death and resurrection. Christ died for the ungodly, and much more we shall be saved by his life. In chapter 5, we're reminded that we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and when we come to chapter 8, the Apostle is wrapping up his thought flow in relation to us reaching the glory.
And I want to speak a little bit about that this morning. In chapter 6, we have our fellowship with Christ in his death, in his burial, and in his resurrection. We too have been raised to walk in newness of life.
When we come to chapter 7, it's the feebleness of the law to produce righteousness in life. The feebleness of the law. But when we come to chapter 8, where we've read, we want to notice that we have here the fullness or the fitness of life in the power of the Spirit of God.
And that in particular will occupy the first number of verses, 11 verses perhaps, of this chapter. But then we want to notice as well that throughout this chapter, there are at least five occurrences, and we've read them, where we have the future of that life brought before us.
The glory that shall be revealed. And I would like just to encourage our hearts this morning to notice those with you in the few moments at our disposal. In fact, the chapter may be divided by these five references to God's work in glorifying justified believers.
Justified believers. Are you here this morning? Thank God for God's grace in bringing us into the blessing of salvation. Noah heard the words from inside the ark, come thou and all thy house into the ark.
God did not say go in. He said come in. The Lord himself had taken up a residence within that ark, and the presence of God was already there. And so Noah was carried through judgment to stand and to live on a purged earth.
And you and I too have been carried through judgment, the penal judgment against our sin. We'll never face the penalty of our sin, and there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Now the life-giving Spirit of God has taken up a residence within us, and there is a life to live in the power, in the energy of the Spirit of God. It's ours to enjoy from day to day as we set our minds on the things of the Spirit.
That's what God has us here for, and it's ours to enjoy from day to day. Now there will be failure. We're conscious of that, aren't we? And when we examine that, it is always a result of our minds being set not on the things of the Spirit, but taken up with the things of the flesh.
Renewed confession of sin and a renewed contemplation of our Savior will renew the enjoyment of that life that we've been brought into, and fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So daily practical deliverance then will be ours from day to day in the degree to which our minds are set on the things of the Spirit, to the degree to which we're taken up with Christ.
I was thinking this morning, I filled up with gas over there in Alcatraz. I was thinking the Christian is like a flex fuel car, flex fuel. You know, it can either burn the 89 octane with 10 ethanol, or you can put in the E85 with 70 ethanol.
It's cheaper. E85, 70 ethanol. $3 .35 it was this morning. But the downside is this, though you may put the cheaper gas into the car, you don't get as good mileage. In an Impala, it'll drop from about 31 miles per gallon on the interstate to about 25.
So you don't get as good mileage. And I was just linking that in my mind because, you see, the less we set our minds on the valuable things of the Spirit of God, then the less power there will be to live a life of victory.
And a life that is enjoying fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So our mindset is very important. A mindset on the things of the Spirit will give us a vigor and a vitality to live a life that is victorious, and a life that brings pleasure to God.
Now those thoughts are hidden maybe in those verses in the opening part of the chapter, but you can take a look at that. But I want to come to verse number 11, and we've read this, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
He shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you. The point that he's making is this, that since the believer is indwelt by the very same Spirit of God that raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, resurrection, so the justified believer is absolutely guaranteed that his mortal body will be raised by the very same Spirit of God.
That's a comfort to our hearts this morning as we think of how frail these mortal bodies really are. No sooner young than we become middle-aged and old, eyesight fails, hearing is not as acute as once it was, energy levels are depleted, the aches and pains they increase, and first flowers soon decay.
Youth and beauty pass away, our mortal bodies. Some dear saints are passing through times of deep trial, and each one of us is conscious, in some degree at least, of the weakness of our bodies. Eventually we must capitulate to too many birthdays, and if the Lord be not come, we die.
It matters not how that body dies. It is sown in weakness, but it is raised in power. You'll notice that the Apostle doesn't say in 1 Corinthians 15 that it is raised by power, but it is raised in power.
Power will reconstitute it, that's true, but power will mark it then as weakness marks it now. It is sown a natural body, but it is raised a spiritual body. It is subject to natural laws now, but then it is subject to the Spirit.
It will be energized, it will be empowered, it will be transported by the very Spirit of God. Directed and controlled, it is raised a spiritual body. Sown in corruption, raised and in corruption, never again to decay, never again to fall away from the pristine glory of the tremendous change that is ours at the rapture.
It is sown a mortal body, it is raised in immortality. Immortality, never to die again, never to be subject to death again. We look forward to that moment when we will be changed and we shall be like our blessed Lord.
This mortal body, brothers and sisters, is not our final home. It's not our final home. We're going to be changed. Well, we'll come to the next little section now, verses 12 through 17, back of our thoughts here, where we're learning that the believer is one who is led by the Spirit of God, verse 14.
That's the mark of sonship. Every true believer is led by the Spirit of God. Furthermore, he says, we have received the Spirit of adoption, and so instinctively, the justified believer cries out to God, Abba, Father.
It's his native heir, if you will. He can come before his God and know God as his Father. There's a relationship that's been formed by the indwelling of the Spirit of adoption that is within. Verse 16, you'll notice that we have the witness of the Spirit.
The Spirit of God is giving a testimony to our own hearts that we are the children of God. And as we come to the Word of God, these things, said John, these things have I written unto you that believe on the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.
And the Spirit of God causes that witness to echo within our hearts that we are the children of God. Now, verse 17, and if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
What a climax! What supreme logic here in this statement. As children of God, we are heirs. If we're heirs, we have an inheritance, heirs of God. And we are made joint heirs with Christ. Under Roman law, I understand that even adopted children were given equal rights to true-born children in a family.
And you and I have been brought in not only as children in a family of God, but we've been made heirs, and we've been made joint heirs with Christ. Isn't that marvelous to think of that? That all the boundless everlasting rights of Christ are ours, as those who are born ones in God's family.
We've been brought so near, so very near to God, nearer we cannot be, for in the person of his Son we are, as near as he. We've been made joint heirs with Christ, and that would transport us, that would be a springboard to our thoughts to think of what lies before, and all the purposes of God that are resident in Christ.
We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, and that will have eternal import for us. There will be suffering now, yes, but there's glories after these. And so as joint heirs with Christ, we look forward to that.
Notice verse 23, we're thinking here of the redemption of our bodies. And not only they, that is referenced back to creation, but ourselves also, which have the first fruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body.
So the portion of the believer now is often suffering as part of a groaning creation. And creation does groan, doesn't it? There's the claw, there's the talon, there's the tooth, there's the fang, there's the cycle of life and death, and ultimately living things must die.
And the groan of creation is, is this all there is? Just this endless cycle of life and death, eat or be eaten, and so on. With no purpose, creation groans. It's looking for something more, isn't it? And we ourselves, we groan.
We groan within ourselves. Sometimes there are things in a believer's life that are too heavy for words. And before God, we just groan. But that indwelling spirit of whom we've been speaking, he draws alongside.
He hears those groanings. And he intercedes for us. He knows the mind of God. God hears those groans. And God will answer that cry. Because there is soon coming a day when the futility of living just to die will give way to immortality for us and liberty for a groaning creation.
The bondage of corruption will be released in that millennial day. And so far as we're concerned, our present sufferings will be over. And says Paul, those sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
That small negative of suffering, it can't be compared. It's not worthy to be compared with a huge positive of the glory that shall be revealed. Says Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He says this light affliction which is but for a moment.
It worketh in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Better on before for the believer, isn't it? We wait for that manifestation of Christ. The change will be ours at the rapture. But at the manifestation of Christ in glory, we will be seen then in all the glorious display of the fullness of his redemption.
Will be brought into our eternal inheritance in Christ. Every effect of sin will be removed forever. Will be resplendent in the glory with Christ. All that has been done for him down here, righteous living in his name now, will be seen then in radiant righteousness.
And he will be admired in his saints in that day. Christ will be on display, but also his people will be on display. And wandering worlds will see what he has done with such a poor lot as us. Redemption will be complete.
Our very bodies will be changed. Radiant in his glory in that coming day. Being glorified with Christ is surely the crowning grace of God toward us. I just love those verses there in the further down the chapter now in that section, verse 24 to 30.
Verse 29, breaking into the reading, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified.
The sweeping purpose of God from eternity to eternity. The end result is this, that every justified individual believer will be glorified, absolutely guaranteed by the very purpose of God. There's no question about that.
The following section in the book of Romans will actually endorse that. I'm talking chapter 9 now through chapter 11, where God's purposes for Israel are not seen to be futile, are not seen to be inconsequential.
God still has a purpose for Israel. The purpose of God cannot be overthrown. Now we come back to chapter 8. What is underwritten here by the purpose of God is absolutely guaranteed, whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Looking forward to that day when we shall be conformed to the image of his Son. We shall be then, brothers and sisters, wholly through and through. Every trace of sin removed, every spot of sin removed.
Never again to grieve him, never again to sin, but conform to the image of his Son, forever resplendent in unimpeachable righteousness, made just like unto Christ. What a glorious prospect to be like him.
And he will be the firstborn among many brethren, Christ supreme, exalted, preeminent, exalted, extolled, made very high. And we are actually brought in to be like him. I don't understand all that that means, but it sure sounds good to me this morning.
To know that we will be conformed to the image of his Son, and he will be the firstborn, thank God, the first in rank, among many brethren. You see, all of this is wrapping up the argument or the thought flow from chapter 5, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The believer that has been justified through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. And there's nothing that's going to interfere with that. It's already touched upon a number of things.
But as we come to the end of our chapter, we're absolutely assured that we're as good, as glorified, because there's no charge of guilt that can be laid against us if God be for us who can be against us.
And there's no one and there is nothing that is able to separate us from the realization of our hope in Christ. Notice some of these things. Verse 31, there's no opposite, no opposition can overthrow it if God is for us.
No opposition. And there's no reservation on God's part to bring it about. With him he will also freely give us all things. Verse 32, there's no accusation that will stand against us. There's no just charge that stands against the believer because it's God who justifies.
There's no condemnation. Who is he that condemned? Well, Christ has died. He has gone into condemnation for us. There's no condemnation. And then in these last closing verses, verse 35 to verse 39, he's emphasizing there's no separation.
Paul is going to look upon across the vast acres or the vast expanse of creation itself. He's going to ransack creation, searching for something that can conceivably separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Can death with its terrors? No, he has conquered death. Life with its allurement? No, we have died with him. Angels, principalities and power? No, Christ is far above all principality and power. Things present, things that come crashing in upon us, unexpectedly to us?
No, he is in control of every circumstance in life. Nor things to come? That's our fear of what there is to be. But the future's in his hands. Nor height, nor depth, verse 39. Height nor depth, that's space, time and distance.
But you know, our God, he is omnipresent. He's everywhere. Nor depth, nor height, nor any other created thing, just to cover all the bases here. Anything else is created in this whole universe. There's nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
It's absolutely ours in Christ. Our future is secure. Remember, we were the ones who had sinned and come short of the glory of God. But God has so worked in his matchless infinite grace that he has brought us into a place where the glory is guaranteed to us.
And there's nothing can change that. Absolutely nothing. The justified believer. Dear believer this morning, your future is glorious. It's linked with Christ, and nothing can ever change that. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts.