The Spirit of Life

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

From Self-Righteousness to Resting in Christ

Well, thanks for having me here. There's a free online book that I stumbled across recently. It's called Twice Born Men. Twice Born Men, it's by a man named Henry Pickering. The book briefly traces the conversation stories of some 100 men.

It discussed a man named John Berridge. Now, any hands go up on the name John Berridge? Probably not. Doesn't ring any bells. Well, that's the same for me. I didn't know who this guy was, but he's got kind of an interesting testimony.

He was a friend of John Wesley and George Whitefield. He was an Anglican vicar. He was a hymn writer and lived about a few hundred years ago. He's almost unknown to us today. So not very many people in this room know about him, except for me, because I read about him.

And maybe you'll like him a little bit too after you hear a bit about him. He preached in the countryside of England. He didn't preach in the big towns. He didn't preach in the cities. Before he became a believer, he was already an Anglican priest.

Had been for several years. And he would preach sanctification, that is holy living, as a way of pleasing God. As a way of pleasing God. And he saw very little success in his preaching. It just did nothing.

It just did nothing. He kept preaching to his congregations about being sanctified. These people weren't being born again. And so he had hoped to please God by his good works of righteousness, rather than simply by becoming a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now in his own testimony, he writes, and I loved his testimony. He says that, I put the justice of God into one scale, and as many good works as I could into the other scale. And when I found out, as I always did, that my own good works were not being a balance to the divine justice, God's justice against him, I then threw in Christ Jesus as a make-weight.

And this everyone really does, who hopes for salvation partly by doing what he can do for himself, and relying on Christ for the rest. At last, when in obedience to the heavenly vision, I ceased from my own works entirely, I cast them all aside as filthy rags, and I rested alone in the finished work of the Redeemer.

Only then did I learn the true meaning of having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So later he wrote this little poem, and this is actually where I got onto John Berridge quite a bit, is just on this little poem.

Sometimes this poem is attributed to John Bunyan. I don't think so of John Bunyan of Pilgrim's Progress. It sounds very much like John Berridge. The poem is, Run, John, and work the law commands, yet gives me neither feet nor hands.

A sweeter thing the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings. So in Romans chapter 8, we're going to read of the spirit of life. It's going to talk about how the spirit of life will break us free from the bondage we have in our body of sin.

We're going to read of powerful sanctification, not the powerless sanctification of doing our own good works or a pharisaic following of the law on the outside, but inside being whitewashed tombs and dead bones on the inside.

No, we're going to be learning about a powerful sanctification. The Holy Spirit, as we read, as we're going to read, not only dwells us as we trust in the saving work of Christ, but it also empowers, he also empowers every believer to be able to live a holy life.

Not by the efforts of their own good works as a means of appeasing God and using the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as Berridge called, making Jesus a make-weight, throw Jesus on the scale and maybe I'll be good in God's eyes.

Not like that, but simply by walking in the new life that we have as those believing in the saving work of Jesus Christ. Now, most commentators would say that the chapter, Romans 8, that we're going to get to is in the topography of the Bible.

I'm a mapmaker by trade, and so in the topography of the Bible, we'd be looking at a very high peak. I struggled with Romans 8 because there's just so much there. I'd rather have looked at only about two or three or four verses of this passage because there's just way too much in this passage to speak on.

So this would be classed as an inspiring passage. It's completely full of the grace of God and the equipping from God poured out freely for the children of God. Now, it's been said that all the Bible is inspired, but some parts are less inspiring.

This would be an inspiring chapter. It's a chapter that begins with no condemnation from the wrath of God, and it ends with no separation from God. These are wonderful truths. They're going to fill, I think, many, many songs in heaven, and we'll be singing of that because we'll be experiencing it.

Let's just begin in a word of prayer. Father, we ask that you just give us clarity as we approach your word today, that we'd have clarity of thought as we hear it and speak about it. And Father, again, help our souls as well to praise you for the work that the Lord Jesus Christ has done on our behalf.

Thank you, Father, for this passage. Thank you for the inspiring Paul to write it. And we would ask again that we just be filled with awe. Just help us, Father. Help us again just to rejoice in the salvation that we have in Christ and that we'll give thanks to you for the Holy Spirit that indwells every believer.

And so again, Father, just help us this afternoon in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now, if you've been studying in Romans, if you've been studying in Romans, you would have kind of noticed that Paul's got kind of a logical approach, especially through chapters 5, 6, and 7 up to chapter 8.

He's been telling us about gospel's impact. The gospel's had an impact on several areas, crucial areas. So as believers, we have peace with God. We are no longer considered slaves to sin. We have been freed from the obligation we had once to God's law.

God's law, in fact, if anything, it stimulated our sin nature and even corrupted a bit of good that we had. So it almost worked as almost an opposite of what we would have thought it would do. Today we're going to consider our corrupt nature, our mortality, and we should understand that the gospel has changed everything.

The gospel has changed literally everything. God's righteous anger, our sin, the law, and even now, in this passage, death. Now, I've read that the Greek word that Paul's going to be using 10 times in Romans 8 is often translated, that's often translated as mortal bodies, it's often translated as sinful flesh, corrupt nature, those kind of words in the different translations.

Now, this Greek word, sarx, sarx, S-A-R-X. Now, if you look at your Bible translations and probably a lot of different translations around the room, you're going to see those words, mortal bodies, flesh, corrupt nature, throughout this passage, and I want you to think about what that word implies.

The manner that Paul and the Greeks use the word sarx implies all that is weak, all that is corrupt in our humanity. You can imagine that Paul would ask, how can something that is so polluted, so sarx, by corruption, live a godly life?

How can something that is so polluted hope to please God? So let's open our Bibles, let's get over to Romans chapter 8, right at verse 1. Romans 8, beginning at verse 1. Very famous passage I'm reading out of the NIV.

No Condemnation in Christ Jesus

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do and that it was weakened by the sinful nature God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the spirit. What a statement.

What a statement to begin our chapter. A whole day could actually be spent just on verse 1. And we would not exhaust what could be said. But what does it mean that we will not be condemned? No condemnation.

Simply that God looks at those who are in Christ and he says, not guilty. The Christian man, the Christian woman who has trusted in Jesus Christ cannot and will not ever be condemned by God. These are wonderful words for us to hear.

What grace is being shown to sinful man because we know what we are. The not guilty judicial verdict is for today. It extends forever in the future. It does not end. Romans 8 shouts at us. Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ God does not condemn you.

He looks at you and he sees his own son. These words for those who are in Christ Jesus are crucially important. This state of not being guilty before God attaches one important condition on this not guilty verdict.

A caveat has been added. Now if you've ever been involved in buying a vehicle or say buying land you need to watch out for caveats. You need to watch out for caveats. Now I might say when I want to buy a used car that the car would need to pass a safety check.

Sounds reasonable. Otherwise the deal is off. That's a caveat. That's a caveat on the sale of the car. It's conditioned on that sale going through. Likewise, often the purchase of a property say a house some caveats might be added that say that house is subject to maybe a home inspection or the sale of my existing home first.

So those are caveats that we might place upon them. God has chosen to place a caveat on this no condemnation not guilty declaration that we just read. Instead of some sort of general amnesty that is being granted universally to mankind and you've heard of people who think in a universal salvation instead of that kind of thing being granted universally to sinful mankind this little phrase narrows down the scope of that not guilty no condemnation verdict.

It is significantly narrowed down. In Christ Jesus indicates what we might call today our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This condition declares that you must have placed your faith in Jesus Christ you must have placed your faith in him to be rescued from condemnation.

Put as simply as I can when a person has faith in Jesus it means that they believe who Jesus is God in human form that they trust what Jesus Christ has done died for our sin been resurrected now this faith in the person in the work of Jesus Christ is what saves everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God from 1 John 5 1.

Let's go on to Romans 8 2. If you look back in your Bibles you're going to start to see the word free. What does being free or freedom mean? Well we've been charged with a crime. We've been charged with a crime.

But another person has chosen to pay our penalty. We've been charged with a crime. Sin. It's a personal crime. It's a hereditary crime being part of Adam. It's kind of part of our family genes. And because Jesus Christ took our place of guilt and shame we can never again be charged with that crime.

It's been dealt with. Jesus was found guilty and he paid the penalty in our stead.

Now.

At the Korean War Memorial in the United States and at some cenotaphs that are found throughout North America there's a monument especially at the Korean War Memorial that reminds those who visit the cost of war.

The cost of war. And it reminds about the cost of war with these words Freedom is not free. Freedom is not free. Our freedom in Jesus came to us at an enormous cost to Jesus Christ and to God.

The Mind Set on the Flesh and the Mind Set on the Spirit

Paul.

Has not spoken very much about the Holy Spirit in Romans up to this time. Just a couple of little glimpses of the Holy Spirit's work. He's focused on God the Father. He's focused on God the Son. But now we start to see what the Spirit does in a real big way.

It begins a little bit in verse 2 and it goes on. So there are principles at work in this world. Now if we have put our faith our trust in Jesus Christ we are justified in God's sight. We are given the spirit of life which empowers a believer for living a holy life.

This empowering we're going to get to as we talk a little bit longer. Another principle, this universal law not just a mosaic law is that sin always will lead to death. Sin always leads to death.

Mankind.

Outside of those being in Jesus Christ stand condemned before God. They are sentenced to an eternal death and separation from God. So for those in Christ we hear more than the words just not condemned.

We actually hear the words free. Free. And that freedom is given to us because of Jesus Christ. Romans 8 .3. How is it possible then for God to offer no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus by faith?

Well it's hard for us to think of the mosaic law or any moral law or even our consciences as being powerless. And yet Paul continually is continuing to make an important argument here. The powerlessness of the law exists because it does not offer any lasting remedy for the sin which condemns.

Just as the there's an old hymn, Rock of Ages and it observes in one of its verses not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands.

Nothing I do.

Nothing I do can fulfill the laws demand. Now if you are under the law you always will stand condemned. There is always that nagging guilty feeling that you just don't measure up. You've always sinned in some fashion and the law cannot deliver you.

The grace of God succeeds where the law has failed. The law fails because it cannot produce holy living. It is weakened by our flesh, our corrupt nature. So what did God do? Well God acted on behalf of fallen mankind by sending Jesus in the likeness of human flesh.

Now the Amplified Bible uses the word God is a sinful flesh. God is a sinful flesh. And after all we read in the scriptures that he did no sin. We see that in 1 Peter 2 .22. Jesus did no sin.

And.

Over in 2 Corinthians 5 .21.

It says.

That he knew no sin. Jesus knew no sin. And over in 1 John 3 .5.

It says.

No sin was in him. No sin in Jesus. In all ways in every way he resembled humanity and yet without sin. This is critically important that he would be perfect. He had to be perfect. He had to be sinless.

He had to be these things for him to be a sufficient offering for sin. God through Jesus Christ didn't only deal with our individual sin. He dealt with the problem of our sin nature. And that's through Jesus Christ.

So Romans 8 .4 we see that the Mosaic Law is righteous. Its precepts must be abided by. For every human being without Jesus Christ it is the measure of achievement. It's an impossible measure to achieve.

You cannot measure up to the Mosaic Law. It's impossible. Our lives before Jesus Christ saved us. We're identified and connected all the way back through Adam and his sin and we were identified as sinners.

But in Christ Jesus as we turn over control of our lives to the Holy Spirit because of the Lord Jesus has transferred righteousness to us we fully meet the law's righteous demands. 1 John 3 .4 -6 says a little differently.

It says everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sin. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

So the Holy Spirit is a gift from God. It's given immediately to believers. We are given a new mind. We are given a new heart. We are given a new spirit. New mind, new heart, new spirit. Free gifts from God.

Our consciences, and you know this if you came to faith a little bit later in life, they only continually will accuse you. They never actually seem to result in lasting change. Now if you tried to live up to the Mosaic Law you would soon realize that it can never make you good.

But God can. God can. God when we trust in Jesus Christ gives us a new spirit because God gives us his Holy Spirit when we walk now in his spirit, in that spirit, not in our own sinful nature although we do on occasion still sin.

Let's continue reading in Romans 8 beginning at verse 5. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires.

The mind of sinful man is death. But the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You however are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the spirit if the spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ. So let's compare with Paul in just these few verses the two natures the Christians spirit led nature versus our old corrupt nature.

There.

Are four aspects to how our minds act as unbelievers and where this attitude takes us. Now if you were reading this in some of the other translations it talks about having a mindset. Having a mindset.

And I was thinking about that word it gives us a sense of being kind of something that we're pursuing that we're kind of locked in on. If you have a mindset you're directed, you're controlled you're governed rightly or wrongly to achieving something you can focus quite heavily on what you view is the prize.

Now in Romans 8 5 we see that the corrupt nature or sinful nature has its own attitudes. Now I'm going to date myself badly with this analogy. Back when MS-DOS first came out it was pretty easy to format drives.

This was a simple process because we used floppy drives for exchanging programs and data. Okay I'm old. I said I was dating myself. This is before such a thing as an internet. And so we'd exchange a lot of stuff on floppy drives.

When you were done using a floppy drive you could easily erase even hidden files with a single command. It was great. It proved to be a really dangerous command that did toast a lot of people's computers and a lot of people's work when they formatted their own drives.

When they just format, see.

Gone.

Maybe we wish that God would simply reformat our minds when we became.

Believers.

Wipe out all that old stuff. Give us a fresh start. But God doesn't appear to want to do that with us. He doesn't want us to be robots. God doesn't reformat our minds when we come to Christ Jesus. But He does place in our hearts and in our minds, places a new program.

That new program begins with the Holy Spirit. And He wants our minds to be obediently set on Him. Now one commentator reminded me that even Peter in Matthew chapter 16 23, you probably will remember this part of the story.

He had to be rebuked by Jesus. And Jesus used these words to him. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind. You do not have a mindset.

You do.

Not have in mind concerns of God but merely human concerns. Well what were Peter's desires and concerns? What was he obeying?

What.

Was his mindset? I think he wanted to prevent the Lord from suffering. I think he wanted the Lord Jesus to be made King of Judea. I think he wanted to rebel against the Roman occupation. I don't think there was any cross in Peter's forecast.

And he had to be heavily rebuked. We need to have our minds set on what the Holy Spirit desires. So first we said that the corrupt nature has its own attitudes. Second point, the corrupt nature and we're looking at Romans 8 .6 here.

The corrupt nature leads to death. The corrupt nature leads to death. Well what? What is the old human mindset leading toward? This carnal mindedness is not speaking of our normal physical and emotional needs but it's that self-absorbed satisfying of whatever we desire.

This brings death into our lives. In Romans there is this progression of our human mindset that walked us away from God, that suppressed truth and you can see that in chapter 1. Just this horrible progression of mankind that led to all types of unrighteousness.

Now the Christian that is guided by the Holy Spirit will have his mind set on God's concerns. This attitude will lead, it will lead to life and peace with God. It's a life that follows a different direction.

I think that this kind of ties in with what Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount. Do you remember Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14 says, Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it.

They've got that mindset. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. We are to follow a direction toward God, toward life and peace. So first we said that the corrupt nature has its own attitudes.

Then we noted that the corrupt nature leads to death, the wide road. Romans 8 7 tells us something else. It says that the corrupt nature is hostile, hostile to God. Perhaps we think that our natural mindset isn't so bad.

Paul reminds us that it is in fact very hostile. It's deceptive. It is at war with the spirit of God. Listen to how Charles Spurgeon described the state of our corrupt nature to the things of God. He's writing back a couple centuries almost ago and he writes this.

It is not black, but blackness. It is not at enmity, but enmity itself. It is not corrupt, but corruption. It is not rebellious. It is rebellion. It is not wicked. It is wickedness itself. The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit.

It is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence. It is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile. It is not envious against God. It is envy. It is not at enmity. It is actual enmity.

For the Christians, we have been given the Holy Spirit. He is there to guide. He is there to direct us. But the old corrupt nature mindset wasn't wiped away. It wasn't erased like that reformatted hard drive.

Our human views, our concerns, our thoughts, and our feelings beckon. It appears that choices must be made. It appears that battles must be fought against the attitudes that we once held. Paul writes similarly in Colossians chapter 3, verse 1.

Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. So through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that former hostility is overcome with peace from God and with God.

So first we said that the corrupt nature has its own attitudes. We said secondly that the corrupt nature leads to death. We said that the corrupt nature is hostile to God. The fourth point, also out of verse 7, the corrupt nature does not obey God's law.

So do you sense the rebellion of this mindset on the flesh? There is no divine bent toward God. There is no spark for God within the heart of the unregenerated person. He does not want to obey God's law.

In fact, he cannot ever please God. Christians, though, we live in the Spirit. We get distracted. We get lured by sin at times. But that is not the path that we are on. As one commentator said, sin is a deviation from whom we are in Christ.

Sin is a deviation from who we are in Christ. Peter says this in 2 Peter 1, 3 -4. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. To sum up this section, J. Vernon McGee gives a neat little illustration of what the Holy Spirit does in the life.

Of a believer.

If you've ever listened to J. Vernon McGee, he's a little bit homespun. A young boy was on his way home from school. He found himself encountering a bully. The bully pummeled him without mercy. As the boy was getting bruised and beaten, he looked up from his defeated position and saw his big brother coming.

The big brother took care of the bully as the younger brother just climbed up on the stump to deal with his bruises. The believer has the Holy Spirit to deal with our corrupt nature. The flesh, that big bully.

The flesh, that big bully. I can't overcome that with my mindset, my attitude, so I must turn them over to someone who can defeat my corrupt nature. Someone who wants to defeat my corrupt nature. The Holy Spirit, living within a believer, wants to deal with it.

Adoption, Abba, and the Spirit of Sonship

Let's go over to verse 10 and verse 11. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you.

Everyone.

Who has Jesus Christ living in them, at the moment of being born again, not some special time later, have received the Holy Spirit. Christians are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Before we believed in Jesus, we were spiritually dead.

Now we are made spiritually alive through the presence and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The work of redemption that Jesus Christ did was powerful. It was powerful. His righteousness has been credited to our account.

We have life now and eternally in him. Romans 8, 12 and to the end of verse 17. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 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.

What do you think of when you think of having an obligation? Now, if you have an obligation on a contract, it is that you're going to do certain things to fulfill that obligation, that contract. Now, if you have an obligation, say to the bank, it's likely that you're going to repay a sum of money by an appointed time.

Well, we owe nothing. We are not obligated anymore to our corrupt nature. It only wants to drag us down. We do still have an obligation by the power of God's Spirit to find victory over our sinful desires.

The corrupt nature must be put to death continually by the spiritual nature given to us by the Holy Spirit. Now, I've read that under Roman law, when a person was adopted, his previous obligations were broken.

They were no longer considered in force. His only obligation was to his new adoptive parent. His complete obedience was expected to his new parent. Everything that he owned was now controlled by his new parent.

He became an heir of his parent. Even more deeply as an heir, it was as if he already owned and possessed his inheritance, even though his adoptive parent was still alive. Now, clearly, our situation as believers has changed immensely.

As adopted children of God, we have no obligation to our corrupt nature. The obligation from our former lives has been broken. We now have an obligation to our Father. He guides us in our lives. We are the sheep of His pasture, His heirs, His children.

He is owed our complete obedience, and all of His resources are available to us. I've read that the translators, because of their reverence for the Word of God, got to this word Abba, and they just decide to keep the Aramaic.

Just decide to keep the Aramaic as it is. Dad, Daddy, intimacy, closeness, trust, dependability. In Mark's Gospel, if you've been reading ever through the Gospels, in Mark's Gospel, Jesus called the Father while He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, anticipating the cross, and He calls the Father Abba.

And we can, too. We have that same right. We can.

Call God Abba.

It's an intimate privilege that we have that a holy God would love us so, and the indwelling Holy Spirit would prompt us to call God Abba, Father. Just to wrap up, Billy Graham once wrote, The strength for our conquering and our victory is drawn completely is drawn continually from Christ.

The Bible does not teach that sin is completely eradicated from the Christian in this life, but does teach that sin should no longer reign over you. The strength and the power of sin have been broken.

The Christian now has resources available to live above and beyond this world. The Bible teaches that whoever is born of God does not practice sin. It's like the little girl who said that when the devil came knocking with a temptation, she would just send Jesus to answer the door.

So Paul challenged us today with several points. What are these imperatives that he challenged us with? Well, if you are a believer, if you are in Jesus Christ, you should rejoice that there is no condemnation, there is no judgment that awaits you eternally.

If you are a believer, consider what and where your mind is set upon. Where are your minds set upon? Your corrupt nature, the things that the Holy Spirit leads you towards. Challenge yourself. Where are you showing your obligations and your allegiance to?

To your old nature or to your new?

Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our Instagram at Grace Church, Y-E-G all one word.

Finally, you can visit us at our website graceedmonton .ca. We pray that you have been blessed by this recording. God bless you and we hope to see you soon.