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April 30, 2017 The Spirit of Life Romans 8:1-4 Pastor Josh Sheldon
Well, again, open your Bibles, please, to chapter 8 of Romans. Excuse me. Chapter 8 of Romans, I'm going to read in a moment, verses 1 through 13. Our preaching text this morning is only the first four verses.
I'm going to read them all to you because we will attend to this passage, 8, 1 through 13, for at least another couple of Sundays. And so each time, we're going to read the entire passage, 1 through 13.
But this morning, as I read it all, understand I'm only preaching from the first four verses. With that short introduction, let us get right to the word. Chapter 8 of Romans, verses 1 through 13. There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.
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. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.
But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 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. 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 God 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.
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.
May God bless the reading and now the hearing of His Word. You know, the Apostle Paul mentioned the Holy Spirit. The last mention of Him in this book before this passage I just read to you was way back in chapter 7 and verse 6 where he wrote,.
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit. That summarized for him, for us, his metaphor of how the law of marriage works.
When a husband dies, a wife is released from that law, that law of marriage. And he goes on to say that in just the same way, in chapter 7 verses 1 through 6, the last mention of the Holy Spirit, we who are in Christ have died to the law of Moses.
And so in the same way that the wife is free from the law of marriage by that death of her husband, in the same way, by analogy, we are free from the law by our death in Christ to that law. And following that, Paul took us on an extended exploration of that law.
And I want to take a quick look before we get to our text this morning to remind us where Paul took us from to get to this point. As we noted in Sunday School this morning, that to understand Paul's book here of Romans, we have to be very careful to follow his flow of thought, because it's very carefully laid out, very logically interconnected.
Romans is a very difficult book for a preacher, and I think I've avoided this fairly well to just pull one passage out and preach it as a topical. I've used Romans to buttress other preaching messages, but to just take one section out is a bit of a hazardous task because everything is so tightly interconnected the way Paul develops his thought.
So we're going to take a very quick tour of where Paul went after his last mention of the Holy Spirit in chapter 7 verse 6 to this morning's text, chapter 8 verse 1. In chapter 7 verses 7 to 12, Paul showed how the law is used by sin.
Sin being portrayed, if you remember, as this living, breathing, thinking, planning, conniving, malevolent being. Almost anthropomorphized that way. And it excites in us the desire to do the very things that the law says not to do, or conversely, not to do what the law positively says to do.
And he ends with this triumphant, this well-proved conclusion, so the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. And I might add parenthetically, as is he, God who gave the commandment.
And then in 13 to 25 of chapter 7, he defends the law against the charge that it, the law, is the cause of death. The question must have been asked by someone who had forgotten already chapter 5 verse 12 where Paul said, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, of course that means Adam, and death through sin, for sin was indeed in the world before the law was given, so know, he says in chapter 7 verse 13 and following, sin.
Sin is the reason for death. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death through what is good. The good being the law, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
And with these conclusions firmly in our grasp, that the law is binding only as long as you live under the law, that the law is not sin, that the law is not the cause of death, that sin is sin. What is the cause of death?
Sin. Why is it? Because sin is sin. Sinful, exceedingly sinful beyond all measure, beyond all your imaginings. The worst set of adjectives you could put together. Don't come close. That is what brings death.
That is what Adam introduced by his rebellion. That is the cause of death, not the holy and righteous and good law, which came from a holy, righteous and good God. And with these firmly in our grasp, right before us, with these conclusions, he is ready to bring the Holy Spirit into sharper focus to us.
Our text this morning, chapter 8, verses 1 -4, they tell us something, and they tell us this, if you are in Christ Jesus, if you, by faith, in what Jesus Christ accomplished, by the will of his Father on the cross where he died for your sins, and the Holy Spirit has given you faith to believe that and repent of your sins, if you are in that way, in Christ Jesus, then the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death, and he will lead you in the ways of righteousness.
Before we go on, if you're one who likes to mark in your Bible, which I am distinctly not, but I'm going to make one doodle in my Bible after having studied this passage in preparation for this morning, the L in life, a spirit of life, capitalize that.
Or at least think of it as a capital. It's not descriptive. It's his name. It's a name. I'm convinced that's a name of the Holy Spirit. God the Father has names. Names that describe what he is doing or give us an idea of his nature, his attributes.
He is Yahweh Naseh. He's God our banner. He is Yahweh Tzavot, the Lord of hosts. Jesus has names, does he not? He is Jesus. He is Christ, the Messiah. He is the Prince of Peace. He is everlasting God.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, and he is the Spirit of Life. I would capitalize that L, just as a brief excursus and a little advice. It's his name, the Spirit of Life. There is therefore, verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, I think stretches us all the way back to chapter 5, which I read from just a moment ago. Where we learn that all of us, all mankind is born in sin. Why? Because of our lineage in Adam. In Adam.
We were in him when he sinned. All humankind came from him. All humankind represented by him. Federal theology, we handled it a few weeks ago. In him. Passively, yes. Did you actively reach out and take the fruit?
No, but you were in him. Represented by him, and therefore born in sin. That's where he's going with this idea of this representative doctrine that we have. We're in Adam when he sinned, so his sin is our sin.
And the apostle takes pains throughout to show the other side in that chapter. That Christ also represented a people. Adam had all mankind in him. Christ had a people in him. And that people received the effects of Jesus' one act of righteousness the same way that they had received the effects of Adam's one act of disobedience.
The effects wrought by these two men, the first Adam and the last Adam as we call them, Adam and Jesus, is as different as the acts they performed and what they passed on to their progeny. Adam's disobedience led to death.
In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. And the wages of sin is that, is death. While Jesus, his one act of righteousness, his obedience brings life. Chapter 5 verse 18, Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
Chapter 8 verse 10, which we will get to in a few weeks, confirms this. The Holy Spirit is life because of righteousness. Verse 2 begins in a familiar way. After covering verse 1, there's now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
Look what verse 2 says. It begins with the word for. It connects to verse 1. He's going to draw an inference out of that. He's going to continue with this line of thought. For the law of the Spirit of Life, capital L, his name, his law, his ruling principle, that has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Now the flow of thought is something like this. Why is there no condemnation for those in Christ? Answer, because the Spirit of Life is the ruling principle, the law of those in Jesus. Remember that Paul is in a diatribe here.
A conversation with an imaginary dialogue partner. So he's thinking, what are the questions he's going to ask? What are the issues he's going to raise? What do I have to answer? I do this. Do you ever do this?
Do you ever talk to yourself? You see me driving down the road. If I'm talking, I don't have a Bluetooth. So if you see my mouth moving while I'm driving, I'm talking to me. And sometimes I do this. If I'm preparing for a conversation or a meeting, I will imagine that person sitting there.
And I'll kind of rehearse what I'm going to say to them. And it does help me to imagine, if you will, some of the issues that might come up. Some of the things I might have to answer. Paul is in this.
This is what we call a diatribe. He's anticipating. He's answering questions of this imaginary dialogue partner. So why is there no condemnation? Because the spirit of life is now the ruling principle.
Going all the way back to chapter 6, verse 7. For one who has died, died of course in Christ, in Him when He died to go. He died to and because of sin. For one who has died, that's you and me dying in Him.
That one has been set free from sin. And now in chapter 8, verse 2, that freedom gets a little more explanation. Set free from the ruling principle of sin and its ultimate consequence, death. The law of the spirit of life has set you free from that previous law.
You see, the spirit of God is a life-giving spirit. Chapter 8 mentions the Holy Spirit 20 of the 30 times He's mentioned in the whole book of Romans. 20 of them right here in chapter 8. He's a life-giving spirit.
It is He. Be careful here. He, not it. He is a person. He is what we call the third person of the Trinity. He is God as much as Jesus is God and He is God and He is God as much as God is God, who is, of course, God.
The Holy Spirit is He, a personal person of the Trinity. It is He, the life-giving spirit, the spirit of life. He is the one who hovered, Genesis 1 -2, over the waters. What did He see? The term in the Hebrew is tohu v 'vohu.
It's a term used only there and later in Jeremiah. Jeremiah looks upon destroyed Jerusalem. When the Babylonians come in and he's looking at the wreckage. He says, I looked and all I saw was tohu v 'vohu, chaos, something that could not accomplish its purpose anymore.
The only two times we find this used, there in Jeremiah, forget the reference, in Genesis 1 -2. Here we have the spirit of life hovering over this chaos. Brooding, as it were. He looks upon this and what does He bring?
Order. He saw where life was untenable and He provided step by step everything that was needed for life so that the world that God spoke into existence from that which was not could accomplish the purpose intended for it.
That there would be sea, that there would be land, that the sea would be filled with fish and creatures. The land would have animals on it and God provided the vegetation to them so that everything was ready for man to have life with God and dwell with Him in unity and fellowship.
That's the spirit of life, Genesis 1 -2. It is the spirit of God who comes in Ezekiel 37. It is He, the spirit of life, who reassembles broken Israel and breathes life back into those dead bones. Chapter 2, verse 1 of Ephesians says,.
And you who are dead in trespass and sins, He made alive. Who did that? Well, if you said Jesus Christ did, I say, Amen, He did. If you say God the Father did, I say, Amen, He did. But it is the spirit of life, the third person of the Trinity, who is most distinctly responsible for turning dead sinners into those who are alive before God.
This is the spirit of life we're now introduced to again in Romans chapter 8. Please put a capital L on life after the word spirit. It's His title. He's a life-giving spirit. And now in chapter 8, verse 2, It is He, the spirit of the living God, who has set you free, set us free, set those who are in Christ Jesus free from the law of sin and death.
When we get to the end of this chapter in a few weeks, it will be made clear that this transformative work of the Spirit is something that cannot be undone. The end of chapter 8, we're going to be talking about the security that we have, the certainty of what God in Christ has done for His people, and He will not let go of them.
It doesn't mean life is always smooth. We need to be rebuked at times. Do we not? We need to be chastised. God in His loving and kind providence brings hard providences to show us our error, to bring us again to repentance.
But He will not let go. He will not let go of you. This comes later. We'll learn that what the Spirit does here setting you free is a work of God that you cannot undo. Matthew 19, what God has joined together, let not man separate.
There is therefore now no condemnation. You've been set free. This tells us something. The condemnation that we rightly deserved. Notice the past tense. If you're in Christ Jesus, deserved. It's no longer yours.
It's no longer ours. You see, I fear that too many of us too often were self-condemning. Now at one level, there's something very healthy in taking our sin very seriously and in being severe with ourselves when our sins are exposed.
There's something very healthy about that. But who is it who forces this to us? It is He. It is the Spirit of God. He who dwells in you is the one who does this. Chapter 8, verse 9. Chapter 8, verse 11.
Tell us that. So brethren, let us remain hard on our own sin. Let us help others with their specks as we yank out our own log. But let us do this holy duty to ourselves and others with humility born in knowing that God has said, this one is not condemned.
As Nathan told David, you shall not die. I fear too often believers, and I do mean believers, forget that the condemnation is not only just been poured out in Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross, not just that.
But the condemnation that was yours is no longer yours. You have no right to it. It doesn't belong to you anymore. And so to walk down the street and every stray thought we have, every incorrect motive we find in ourselves to bow our heads and cover our heads as though God's gonna smite us down from heaven because of that terrible sin, and we're condemned and we're going to hell.
You have no right to think that way. You have no right to think that way. It's Jesus'. And He took that condemnation on Himself. And that's what the spirit of life applies to you. I'm sorry, I got a little excited about that.
Let me take a breath. You do have no right to your condemnation. Verse 3 is another explanation. It flows straight from verse 2. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.
So if the question is, how can I be free of this ruling principle? The answer is that God has condemned sin. Same word as in verse 1, no condemnation. And think on this for a moment. Just stop for a moment.
Think about what this says. I often say, it's not just my thought, it's fairly common. 2 Corinthians 5 .21 is the most succinct, single verse explanation of the gospel. The tightest, closest, fewest word, total explanation of the total gospel is 2 Corinthians 5 .21.
For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, that in Him, in Christ Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God. There's the gospel. This transference. Sinner, saint. Unrighteous, depraved.
Righteousness of God. That's the gospel. And it's very clear. But Romans chapter 8, verse 3, I think is clear as well. God did something that the law could not. The law's weakness was what? It depended on the doing.
It depended on the works of the flesh. You need to do these things. And you heard when John read to you from Deuteronomy 30, how many times was if there? I'm not gonna go back and read it. I'm not gonna count them for you.
It all sounded so contingent. It all sounded so my effort is necessary to accomplish this thing so that God will then pour out His blessing because I need to bring it upon myself by doing this thing. The law's weakness is that it depended upon our doing of it.
Our doing of it. Do this and you will live. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine. And again, he says, if you will fear, if you will fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, then it will be well.
If you do this, if you follow this, if you obey this, if you accomplish this, you see, the law can never bring the righteousness that it demands. It could only expose sin and then it leaves the convicted sinner devoid of hope because it depended upon Him, depended on Him, the man.
And this is its weakness, that its goals must be achieved by human effort, which is impossible. A few weeks ago, in this book of Romans, for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. It cannot happen.
The negation cannot be stronger. It will not occur that by your works, by the efforts of you in your humanness, your best effort, your most holy effort towards the law of God, which is holy and righteous and good, no flesh shall ever be justified.
That's the weakness of the law. Ah, but, dear ones, brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, we are justified. Is it by our works? No. May it never be. By Christ. God condemned sin in His flesh. God put on Him the consequence of every sin that the law aroused in us.
Nothing wrong with the law. We've covered this before a couple of weeks ago. Nothing wrong with the law. There's something wrong with us. And when the holy and righteous and good law says, don't do this or do this, it's us who says, that makes me want to do the opposite.
And yet, by faith in Christ Jesus, justified before God Almighty, set free of this law of sin and death. Why is there now no condemnation? Condemnation didn't just disappear. It didn't just go away. It was completed.
God didn't wink and forget. He acted in Jesus, in His flesh, in Christ's flesh, where our sins were poured out in all of God's fury. Now do we understand? We stood rightly condemned. We had no answer.
We had no excuse. And what does God do? He condemned that which condemned us. God condemned condemning sin. Think of that, brothers and sisters. That which condemned you has in Christ itself been condemned.
It reminds me of what it says in Leviticus about the man who brings a false accusation. And what does the law of God say? He's going to suffer the punishment that he thought to inflict on the other. This is what happened.
We think of our accuser standing there day and night accusing us. We'd have to admit that most of these acts are true things. The father of lies wouldn't have to lie about how bad I act sometimes. Or you.
Condemnation has been itself condemned. This is what he's saying here. As it would have been for us, so it is for sin. Verse 4 gives us the purpose behind this. 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.
Notice here that requirement is singular. And so we need to spend just a moment here. I think it's very important. Something has been fulfilled. Something's been completed. Something's been satisfied in us.
Now the word is passive. It's a passive word. So we don't perform the act of fulfilling. We receive it. Now I'm going to avoid a long survey of options of what the righteous requirement is. The righteous requirement.
I just want to say it this way. Paul means the summation of what God demands of us. It's simply the summation of what God demands. And what this implies, if we stop and think about it, what this implies is mind bending.
I have no illustration for you. I have no metaphor that relates this to our everyday life. What the law as a whole demands of us has been fulfilled. Think of this. That's how the sin is condemned and the law completely fulfilled.
The requirement, God's just and righteous requirement has been fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit. By one count, there are 613 individual laws in the Mosaic Code. I don't know if this is completely true.
It sounds right. I can't confirm this. They say they, whoever they are, they say it came from the rabbis so you can blame it on my people. 613. But let's go back to Genesis 18 for a moment and pretend that I'm Abraham bargaining with God.
But I'm gonna bargain with you and not with God. Let's pare it down a little bit. Let's say that there's not 613 individual laws. Let's say there's only 500. We're gonna take away about 20 or so, whatever that number is.
Would you have done them all? No, not only would you have not done them, there would be dozens and dozens you probably don't even know about. But let's just do Abraham's bargaining a little bit. Let's pare it down to 400.
Let's go down to 100 laws. Let's say there's only 100 laws. We know there's more. Pretend with me there's only 100. Could you do them? Could you satisfy that righteous demand of God? No. Pare it down to 75.
We know that there's more, but just say for sake of argument there's only 75 discrete commands. Do them and live. It's that simple. Do these 75 things. Could you do them? Could I? Could anyone? No. For by our own works be they ever so good, no one can be justified.
No one can avoid the condemnation that the law demands. Brethren, I'm screaming out the gospel to you. I'm hollering to you the gospel of God and Jesus Christ. Yet here's the apostle taking all of the law's demands, gathering all together in a single righteous requirement and saying, this has been fulfilled for us, in us, by and because of Christ Jesus.
There is another picture, if you will, of the saved person and what they are to look like. An image impressed on them the way George Washington's image is impressed on Carter. Painted on their souls and expressed in their actions like an artist's canvas expresses his creative work.
Now John read this to you. I just want to read a part of this to you. But the fruit of the Spirit is nine things. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such things there is no law. This multifaceted expression of a single fruit worked in sinners like us by the Holy Spirit of life. Just nine things. Now think back to my little bargaining example a moment ago with the laws as we tried to pare it down and pare it down and pare it down and see if we could do it.
Let's just pretend that I got it down to these nine. Nine. Nine laws. Nine rules. Not 613. One short of 10. And Paul gives us this one overriding principle for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
So all you have to do in my imaginary little world right now, all you have to do and you can define your neighbor any way you want. I don't care how wide or how narrow you define neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself and show your neighbor love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Do this and you will live. You will have satisfied the righteousness of God. You will no longer be condemned. Can you do it? Thank you. Did you do it yesterday? Did you do three of these for your neighbor yesterday?
Will you do two of them tomorrow? Do you see how immense it is that the righteous requirement of the law of God has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ? Think of it in the singular which is how Paul gives it to us.
Think of a sack in which is entered everything God requires along with all that we did against that law. That is what was placed on Christ Jesus. That is what it means that sin was condemned in His flesh.
The whole requirement of the law, all that God demands of His people to be able to stand before Him, to be saved, to have salvation, eternal life before God, all that is demanded for that to occur put into one sack and placed upon Jesus Christ.
The righteous requirement of the law was condemned in His flesh in our place. Not just the fruit of the Spirit with nine facets and one overarching principle. The whole of God Almighty's requirement. Now go back to Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 4.
That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. All of it. One composite picture that the whole of it composes fulfilled in us, in you, if you are in Christ Jesus. If you are in Christ Jesus, if the Spirit of life has given you faith to believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose again on the third day and by that faith you're able to go before God and repent of your sins knowing you are no longer condemned for those sins because Jesus Christ was condemned in your place.
It's fulfilled in you because of Him. There's another facet to the idea of in us. Fulfilled in us. It has to do with that great day when you will meet Jesus. Whether you're in Him or out of Him. Whether your faith is in Him or as it would turn out as it might as well be your faith was in yourself.
That great day when we meet Christ and on that day, on that great day an answer must be given for our sin. For every one of them. For the whole righteous requirement of the law you must give an answer.
And God Almighty is looking to you and saying speak. Your eternal fate rests on your answer and it better be true. Speak now. That's the great day. And if you're in Christ He is your answer. If you're in Christ Jesus He is the one you point to that His righteousness might become yours.
2 Corinthians 5, 21 His obedience is yours and so is His righteousness. Philippians 3, 9 puts it this way. Being found in Christ not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
I emphasize this because Christ suffered for us. Christ is our answer. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is the one who beckons us. Christ is the one in whom we're clothed. And without all of that we cannot stand before God.
But there's an aspect of this where we are placed before the judge of all the earth and we give an answer for ourselves. Romans 14, 10 through 12 says this. For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God for it is written as I live says the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Each of us will give an account of himself to God. 2 Corinthians 5, 10 is similar. For emphasis, I'll read this to you. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body.
In this life, as we sojourn on this strange world from which God has called us out but left us here for now. In this body, whether good or evil. So put these together. By faith in Christ we will be seen as having his righteousness and not our own.
So that when we stand before God and give an account we can claim that we stand in his and Jesus' righteousness. Not metaphorically as though God opens the door to paradise because of some literary device.
Not as it were in his righteousness but in reality. Christ really did suffer on the cross. The Holy Spirit really has applied his righteousness to you. God really does see the one in his Son with the same love that he has for his Son.
John 17. And his righteousness really and truly and literally yours. God the Father doesn't just pretend that those who are in his Son are righteous. The scripture teaches over and over again that this is real.
A literal declaration of God. Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through Christ Jesus our Lord. This literal declaration by God that our innate human unrighteousness has actually been removed and replaced with Christ's.
You're thinking well I'm not that. I'm not that righteous. Amen. None of us are. That's an absolute true statement. If that is going through your mind that is true. But we are growing. If you're in Christ if you're in the spirit of life you are growing.
Romans 14 and 2 Corinthians 5, 10 are speaking of the final day. The day that we are finally glorified. And sin is no longer between us and God. This is what it means that our sin and not we ourselves was condemned in Jesus' flesh.
This is what it means that God and His Son has done for us what the law could never do. This is what it means that the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled in us. This is what it means that the law excuse me that sin death bringing sin has been condemned.
And you if you are in Christ Jesus are not. You're not. Finally there is at the end of verse 4 the description of how this lays out in our lives how this plays out in our lives. We are those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
The spirit of life. This life giving chaos ending spirit that I spoke of. We should know right away that this comes at the end which is a guard against our tendency to want to be in control. It comes after there is now no condemnation.
It comes after the spirit of life has set us free. It comes after God doing what the law could not. It comes after what He did in His Son Jesus. After condemning our sin in His Son. It comes after God the Father fulfilled in us the righteousness He requires according to the law.
Now and only now are we ready to walk. A metaphor for how we order and live our lives. Now after all that ready to walk according to the spirit of life who accomplished and applied all this in us. Paul doesn't stop and take a detour to explain just what it means to walk by the spirit.
And neither shall I this morning. When we get to chapter 12 of Romans should God grant us to get to chapter 12 of Romans there we are going to find plenty of doing. We'll get to it when the scriptures do.
There's a lot of ground to cover yet before that. Before Paul riding under inspiration by the Holy Spirit before he says we're ready. But just in our immediate context there's a lot to go on. As we noted chapter 8 picks up something the apostle started in chapter 7 verse 6 and then he left off for a while.
But now we're released from the law having died to that which held us captive so we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the spirit. Chapter 8 verse 1 can I read it to you once more?
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The law which held us captive no longer binds us. Don't worry right now about whether the law remains as our means of sanctification whether it's still the bar by which we measure ourselves the so called third use of the law.
Don't worry about that right now. Your captivity to it as a means of exposing sin or revealing God's righteousness or as the way to eternal life however it was or is to be used it was a captor from whom Christ has set you free.
We'll get plenty later about what the law means in our life today. Let's stay with the apostle because that's not in view quite yet. That's not in view quite yet. The condemnation that the law threatened no longer hangs over you and this is new life in the spirit.
Live like it. Live like it. How? Some might say I must therefore live with my sin ever before me. I must detest more and more my sin as I consider what price was paid by my Savior to rescue me from it.
I love people. I truly love people whose spirits are so sensitive to sin. They are gifts to the church. They are gifts to me personally. Men and women who can turn every dilemma to a personal need to recognize sin to mortify sin to repent of sin.
I love people like that. But we can offer a caution. As freedom makes us ever more appreciate the depths from which we were released, remember that you have been released. That your slate of sins before God and His holy and good and righteous law has been wiped clean.
And the sin that it excited in you, that the law excited in you has been condemned. Has been condemned by Jesus. And God has declared that by faith His righteousness against the bar of the law, Christ's righteousness against that standard is yours.
For people like myself, we who tend to gravitate towards the positive, I believe the church needs us too. We need people who revel in their freedom, who remember that for liberty Christ has set us free.
But we need to take caution and we need to remember like our more grave brothers and sisters the dread penalty that was suffered by Jesus in our place. You were not paroled from prison on good behavior.
There was none. You didn't serve and complete your sentence because the wages of sin is death, eternal death, ever dying before the Lord. You and I could never pay the debt we owe. But praise be to God, Jesus Christ paid that debt.
And while demanding of us all holiness of life, expecting to hear our prayers of personal confession and repentance coming in a steady flow, Jesus never asks us to repay him for what he did because we can't.
And if you could now, you could have then. And brethren, you couldn't then and you can't now. And the condemnation, that feeling of dread, we have to rebuke ourselves because brethren, it's not yours to feel.
It was Christ's. Leave it where it's to be. Be free. You who are more grave, you who are more somber about sin than all of us. Doesn't mean that the rest of us who are, I describe myself sometimes as Tigger, completely Eeyore.
I'm the one who bounces off the walls. It's always good. I can always find the good side, though my wife says sometimes it gets a little not so finding the good side, but in general. And I need to be moderated.
This church now has three deacons and one pastor. And amongst us, you can see the wisdom of God giving us all each other because we do moderate each other. Some of the officers of this church I think are just too grave, too serious, too, I did it again.
And on the other hand, the pastor of whom we only have one now is just too, well, it's going to be okay. Let's just go on and keep moving. And we need to keep ourselves somewhere in the center there. He has set us free from that which is impossible.
Impossible to obey the law and to do what only Jesus could do. Impossible even now to obey it fully as he did. Impossible to pay back what God never asks to be recompensed for. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
If you are in Christ Jesus, then the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death and the spirit of life, that same spirit of life brooding over you and bringing life and order from chaos will lead you in the ways of righteousness.
Amen? Heavenly Father, we are grateful again for bringing us together, for giving us, Father, your word, for sending your son to die for our sins and to send you your spirit to remind us of all things that Christ has told us.
And even here in chapter 8 of Romans, Lord, just a reminder of what Christ has really accomplished for us and may we walk in the ways in newness of life according to the rule of the spirit of life. We come to you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
