Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/romans-8-1-17-part-a/
There are some questions left over from the last Bible reading, only a few submitted and a lot of questions left over, but there are three questions. First question, is Philippians 2 .13 a combination of chapter 7 and 8 in Romans?
Philippians 2 and 13, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And I think while it has specific reference to the context, I think the principle is true, that the will comes from God and the performance of that will comes from God.
So the will is in chapter 7, the performance is in chapter 8. Is the end of Romans 7, this was asked and I wrote it down, the man that asked it was unwilling to write it. Is the end of Romans 7 limited to Jews?
And if we were funneling down through the chapter and talking about a Jewish man's experience, the point is that at the end of the chapter it is absolutely universal. It is because of flesh in whoever, Jew or Gentile.
Is chapter 7 possible to happen more than once in our experience? Maybe. If we let it, it will happen every day. Had this not God's mind that it should. We should learn the lesson and go from here with a deepening willingness to bow to the great provision that God has given us.
But sad to say, some of us have visited the end of Romans 7 too often. We're in Romans chapter 8, which is now for this afternoon and we'll take a look at the first 17 verses. Romans chapter 8, verse 1.
There is therefore now no condemnation for them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit.
If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 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. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The spirit itself hearth 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.
Now the epistle, just by way of quick review, the epistle was written by Paul, as we understand, towards the end of his third missionary journey. He had never been to Rome, but he is anticipating visiting that city, the capital of the empire.
The gospel that he is setting forth in this epistle is a gospel that he has been preaching for at least 20 years, and it's a gospel of which he is not ashamed. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
And as we've been reviewing already today, in that gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, and that is the theme of the epistle to the Romans. He also speaks of the gospel as the gospel of his son.
It's the gospel of God, it's the gospel of Christ, it's the gospel of peace, in which ruined man is brought into blessing with God, into the blessing of salvation, and he will examine that in detail. From chapter 1 we have the ruin of man set out, the Gentile nations in their ruin and debauchery in their lifestyle.
Then into chapter 2 he'll take a look at the respectable man and how that he is guilty as well of committing sin. Chapter 3 and into chapter 2 and into chapter 3, it's the religious man, the Jew, with all the privileges that he has had with the oracles of God committed to him and so on, all the advantages that he had as a religious Jew before God.
And yet, as Paul will conclude in chapter 3, all men, all are under sin. All are corrupted by sin and in fact all are guilty before God, guilty of sins before God and thus they stand condemned. But the amazing thing is with the work of Christ, the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, God has brought in a basis whereby guilty man can be justified, declared right and righteous in the sight of God.
And Paul concludes that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. So that righteousness that God declares upon the believer is a righteousness which is witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Then into chapter 4 we find that Paul sets out two examples of men from the Old Testament that were justified, justified on the basis of faith. There is Abraham who comes in before the law and there's David who comes in before the prophets and both men justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
That brings us to chapter 5 and the grand opening of chapter 5 is that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, justified by faith, we have peace with God and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And it seems that all problems have been overcome. But then as we've been thinking already, Paul anticipates objections that will be raised. What about the problem of being linked with Adam? We have indwelling sin.
What about that problem? And we've seen how he has dealt with that. Chapter 5 and into chapter 6. And then there's the problem of what about the law? Can it condemn a justified man already and nullify the effect of being justified before God?
Well, we've seen how that is dealt with as well by the death of Christ in that we have not only died to sin but we have died to the law and died to self-effort, died to self and trying to achieve righteousness with God.
So that brings us to right through chapter 7 to chapter 8 where you'll notice he opens. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now I take it the now will link back to chapter 7.
Notice verse 6, but now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. That's a little summary of what we're going to deal with just now in chapter 8.
Verse 5 was a little summary of what followed in chapter 7. Verse 6 is a little summary of what will now follow in chapter 8. So coming then to the section that we have read, we could put the title over it perhaps, the implications of being in the flesh or in Christ.
The implications of being in the flesh or in Christ. We'll find in the first 11 verses of this chapter that the spirit is the power for righteousness, the energy that is needed to produce righteousness in the life in a practical way.
The spirit is the energy, the power for righteousness. But then as well from verse 12, the end of the section that we have read and likely beyond, the spirit is the pledge of future glory. So Paul still has that in view from chapter 5 where we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
All these possible objections are being dealt with, taken out of the way, and he'll come back to that thought of the glory shining before us, if you will, in chapter 8, and he will conclude this chapter in our brother Bill's reading by showing that nothing can interfere at all with that purpose, that God will certainly glorify those that he has justified.
Now verse 1, condemnation is gone. No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Verses 2 to 4, the control of sin in the life is gone in Christ. Verses 5 through 8 brings out the consequences of being in flesh or in spirit.
Verses 9 through 11, he will draw contrasts between the flesh and the spirit. Verse 9, in the flesh or in the spirit, indwelt or not indwelt by the spirit. Verse 10, there's a contrast between body and spirit, dead, life, sin, and righteousness.
Verse 11, Jesus and Christ will be linked with the thought of history and prophecy. So in that section, the spirit is the power for righteousness. Then from verse 12 onwards, the spirit is the pledge for future glory.
Verses 12 and 13, conformity to the flesh or to the spirit, conformity. Verses 14 through 17, it's the children of God by the spirit that is the way in which we are looked upon as believers in Christ, and he'll take up the thought of sonship.
Verse 14, sonship is asserted. Those that are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Verse 15 shows how sonship is accomplished. It is through a mechanism called adoption. Then in verse 16, sonship is assured, and in verse 17, sonship is accredited.
If we are the children of God, we are heirs with God, of God, and joint heirs with Christ, and so on. Now there's a contrast between this chapter, as it's already intimated, and chapter 7. Fr. David was indicating that in chapter 7, we have I, me, myself, mentioned some 47 times in just 19 verses.
But in chapter 8, he mentions me once, and he mentions I just twice. So again, in the occurrence of words, we see that there's a lack of emphasis upon self entirely in chapter 8. Again, you have many mentions made of the spirit of God in chapter 8, and that has already been indicated to us.
I think that's all I'll say here by way of opening. We'll start in at verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation. I take it that Paul is referring back to what he has handled in the previous context, not only the thought that sin no longer can condemn us, because God is finished with what we were in Adam.
That has been condemned already. Sins have been atoned for and forgiven, and we're declared righteous before God. The problem of the law condemning us has been taken care of, and so Paul is saying there is now no condemnation, specifically in relation to what has immediately gone before at the end of chapter 7, who shall deliver me from the body of this death, in that body with the condemnation that's linked with it because of sin.
But it is through Jesus Christ our Lord that we are delivered, and so there is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. I should point out that at the end of the verse, you may have this in your margin or if you've a newbie, it will point it out, that the words after Jesus, then which are in Christ Jesus, the words following are not in the original.
They have been supplied or transported from verse 4. Some manuscripts leave it all out, others just leave out the last little section but after the spirit. But at any rate, we'll cover that when we get to verse 4 so we can leave it until then.
Brother William, I know you have noticed too that the two words there is really are supplied so really it starts therefore, and now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Could we take it back as far as chapter 3 and verse 19, it's really going right back that far and then coming up and this is the summation of that.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Absolutely. So, just to support that, John 5, 24, shall not come into condemnation. That word condemnation there is really the execution of judgment. Here it's a different emphasis. It's really the sentence of judgment.
So it goes back to chapter 3.
No condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. It's again linking us with Christ himself, the work that he has accomplished in dealing with our condemnation on the cross, the death of the cross that Brother David was bringing out last night.
So verse 1 he is saying, there is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. In other words, condemnation frees me, does it not, from the guilt of sin. But when you go to verse number 2, he's speaking of something different here.
It's captivity that really would free me from the power of sin. There was a power that was linked with that captivity, wasn't there?
William, this maybe just kind of jumps into the rest of the chapter, but I notice at the end of verse 11, which is the first section of the chapter, you have the spirit quickening our mortal bodies. At the end of verse 17, glorified together with Christ.
At the end of the next paragraph, you have the adoption of sons, the adoption, the redemption of the body, the hope and patience waiting for it. Then as you've mentioned at the end of the chapter, you're taken again to the ultimate purpose of our being made like Christ, nothing can stop that.
So in his handling of this subject, he constantly goes to the future, when death will be unraveled and when we will no longer have any subjection to sin and to the flesh and liabilities. It seems to me that the condemnation is the condemnation of death that came from Adam.
And actually what he's saying is this, the ultimate result of what Adam did is going to be removed. There is no condemnation. Yes, we may die, but the ultimate is that we will be gloriously like Christ and all that Adam brought in will be passed from us.
William, can you help us as to the phrase, in Christ Jesus, how wide do you take that phrase in the context of the New Testament?
How do you mean in how wide?
Are we including Old Testament saints?
Oh, no, no, it is those that are in Christ, that is exclusively a New Testament concept. He's dealing with the believer in Christ, after his death, his resurrection, believers of this age are those that are in Christ Jesus.
It's interesting, in verse 10, he speaks of Christ in you, and that takes us back to John 14, I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you. We're in Christ, and Christ is in us.
So, God condemned sin in Christ, who took our place upon the cross, and he came through death onto the other side of death, in resurrection. Now, all who are in Christ are seen as well as being taken beyond condemnation.
It's like those that were in the ark, they were carried to the other side of judgment safely. Condemnation was carried out, but they were set free on the other side of it.
While this may go right back to chapter 3, if you like, I think primarily it's going to chapter 7, because of what you have in verse 3. You condemn sin in the flesh. So I think it's talking more of the principle that's within me, and the person in chapter 7 that's condemning themselves.
Yeah. I mean, if you look at it widely, you don't lose anything, you know. I like to look at it widely.
I think it's good to see that this is bringing us right up to date to how far he has gone in his exposition of the gospel, and how God delivers in that there is now no condemnation from any source, from any angle, to the person in Christ.
And just linking back to chapter 7, even despite the fact that sin is still resident within my being, in my flesh, I am not legally accountable before God, will never be brought under judgment because of its existence, and even its operation.
So there's no condemnation possible.
I enjoyed the thought, correct me if I'm wrong, but the thought was, we are no longer on death row. That's how drastic it was. And it needs to get a hold of us. In chapter 8 here, we'll see all that we've been brought into total context.
William, could I just make a suggestion here, and then I'll leave it, but I don't have any problem with making in Christ Jesus in this context, New Testament, but we did emphasize before that in Christ Jesus has been in chapter 6 and has been in chapter 7.
And I would have thought there that in Christ Jesus is actually, in that context, under the headship of Christ, and it embraces all Old Testament and New Testament believers. I'm happy enough once we get to chapter 8, we're now into New Testament ground.
But in terms of the argument from chapter 5, the relationship to Christ as the federal head is what's there, because otherwise you've left Abraham and Daniel and all the rest of them and all future believers without any possibility of actually being right before God, constituted righteous, or having the capacity to do right.
So I'm thinking of some that are listening and they heard us emphasize them before in Christ Jesus was in connection with the federal head, and now you said it's only a New Testament. This is positional.
In this passage, I'm quite happy that this has got to be positional. Verse 2 explains it, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. So it is post-resurrection, isn't it? That's in view.
William, tell us what you mean by positional. We use language and we take for granted everyone understands.
God does not look upon the believer as being an atom or as being in the flesh. The flesh is within us, but we're not in that position before God. In Christ is where we are. God looks our direction, he sees Christ.
Does that help? So it's our standing before God, whereas our state down here doesn't always correspond to that, but of course it should. What would you say about the law? It just doesn't say for the spirit of life, but the law.
So it's a fixed principle in which there's liberating power. Yes.
The operating power, the energy, the operating power of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He has entered into death, he is alive forevermore. And that operating power will enable me, make me free from the law of sin and death.
The operating power of sin and death. So now the believer is not in that sort of vacuum that we were looking at in chapter 7, where he was struggling in the energy of the flesh to produce righteousness before God, even though he delighted after the law of God, he didn't have the power to perform it.
But here's the key to that. Here's the source of power. It is the operating power of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
I've enjoyed the illustration of the airliner sitting on the end of the runway. And it's bound to earth by the law of gravity. When the engines are revved up and it moves down the runway, the law of gravity is overcome by the law of aerodynamics.
And the superior law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the earthbound law of sin and death.
So the law of sin and death was not a condemnation, but Christ has gone through death on our account. And he has taken us with him beyond condemnation. And we are now in the place of enjoying the spiritual life that is ours in Christ.
So it's new law for new life. It's a total difference. It's not something that we're considering when we think of the law as we have in the previous chapters. But this is a new law. In other words, a function, the way in which it functions.
So it's the opposite to what you have then as set me free from the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death gravitates downward, doesn't it? But the law of the spirit of Christ Jesus gravitates upward toward God.
Everything that he has dealt with from chapter 5 onward to this point of condemnation of the liability of our link with Adam and with sin, I think is all embraced in that statement, the law of sin and death.
So there's a difference between the next expression for what the law could not do. That's talking about moral law, which tells us what we ought to be, ought to do, ought not to be, ought not to do. Whereas this, what we've just been talking about, is an operating power that controls.
And so we have the two things we need to recognize. And that is that the law of sin and death is still operating, but it is canceled out. I mean, that's kind of the way we're using the illustration. And I think it's helpful that just as if you switch the power off in the airplane, you'll find out the gravity is still there.
And so we need to know that in our day-to-day Christian life, we get careless. We get independent. And then we start finding the power of sin catching us, grabbing us, affecting us. And then we realize, I'm getting out of touch with the Lord.
I'm becoming careless about evil and not rejecting it. So I see this as a very, as the Galatians 5 actually puts it in other terms, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. And even the word lust is used there.
And linking back to Chapter 7, I think, is an important clue in that. And law of gravity is a good illustration, again, because it's a power of attraction. And to put it as simply as I can, the law of the spirit operating within me is a power of attracting me to the Lord Jesus.
To live in closeness to Him, in submission to Him, and enjoying Him. And in the measure that I'm doing that, I will be free from the snare and control of sin operating.
So you don't think rather that verse 2 is positional?
I think it's more than positional. I wonder, Brother William, in verse 1, 2, and 3, if you could, very simply. Verse 1 is a penalty, very obviously, that has been removed. But when you get to verse 2, it's a prisoner that has been released.
But now when we get to verse 3, as you're going to consider, it's a plan that's been revealed. Here's how he's going to do it.
I was going to say the illustration of verse 3, I believe, is the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. He coming in the likeness, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And between the giving of the law to the lifting up of the serpent, they say it was about 38 years.
And Israel was helpless under the law. All it did was murmur and complain. Then I link that with the man in John 5, who was at the age of the pool for 38 years. Helpless, but he needed Christ. The nation was helpless under the law.
But now they get their eye on the one that was lifted up.
So, God sending his own son. This is one of seven contexts in the book where the sonship of Christ is mentioned. The thing is, before your section finishes, because of this plan that we've been told about, we ourselves will be placed as sons.
Right. Just before we leave totally verse 2, I do take it that it's more than positional. Those that are in Christ have been indwelled by the spirit of God. He brings and he supports life. He energizes life, enabling us to live in a way that we couldn't before.
So, it's not only our place in Christ as something that's theoretical, but there is also the inherent power that comes with the indwelling spirit of God to enable us to live right before God.
So, in the positional truth, there's a very practical teaching that there is a power that we can utilize to continue on our path of righteousness.
I think we have to see the connection of verse 3 and 4 to verse 2, because verse 3 and 4 are given in explanation of what is in verse 2. Right.
The inherent weakness that was linked with the law. Someone has put it this way, that Moses' law had right, but not might. It couldn't produce anything. Sin's law has might, but not right. But then the law of the spirit has both right and might.
To do what is right has the ability to do it. So, what the law couldn't do, God has achieved through the work of Christ. Vine says that this is the longest title of the spirit of God, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
I think it's all right to put that life in Christ Jesus as a unit there. So, what we're looking at is actually taking us back to chapter 6, where on the one hand, there was death. In the death of Christ, our link with sin, Adam, etc., is severed.
But to walk in newness of life, and here is the power now that makes that newness of life work. He is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. There's a number of titles given to the spirit in this section.
The spirit of life in Christ Jesus, then end of verse 4, just the spirit, and several times over. Verse 9 is the spirit of God. Verse 9 again, the spirit of Christ. Verse 11, the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead.
Maybe that's a longer title. I'm just quoting Mr. Vine. But at any rate, we see teaching here in relation to the Trinity. All three persons are linked in those titles.
I was going to say, I find it interesting, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. We were made in the image and in the likeness of God. But here he sends his son, not in sinful flesh, of course, but in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Condemned sin in the flesh. That's the principle that sin was condemned in him on the cross.
We do well to remember that as God, as the Son of God, he is absolutely holy. But also in his humanity, he is absolutely holy. His humanity is perfectly compatible with his deity being absolutely holy.
Is there a difference for the William in the expression, sending his own son? Whereas in John 3 and 17, it's God sent, not his son, into the world to condemn, but the sending of his son?
What do you have in mind? Like when the fullness of the time has come, God sent forth his own son?
But this is going right back in the purposes of God sending forth his son. We can just see the one side of it, but this was always in the plan of God.
God was not caught out by surprise. Exactly.
Not something that happened from incarnation on, but prior to that, from the glory.
God knew when the law was given that it wouldn't accomplish righteousness in man.
I think it's very good to see the connection that we find in Romans 8, in the Son of God and the sons of God. Because this is where we find that link being established here. What the law could not do, it couldn't conquer sin.
It couldn't cure sin. But God sending his own son. Here is an entirely new human life. Yes, he came into our humanity, but he remained pure in distinction from that sin that had attached itself to humanity.
So the incorruptibility of his humanity is very, very vital. And coming into our humanity in perfect likeness to us, except for this one thing, sin. So even by the manifestation of his life, he condemned sin in the flesh.
But then it also includes the work of the cross, where he personally identified with it, bore the judgment, settled all the issues relating to sin in the flesh. But it doesn't end there. That, verse 4, in order that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
That's in people who have been given the life of the son. Who've had imparted eternal life. And now, with the spirit indwelling, have that life which does fulfill the righteous requirements of the law.
So I think that's the line of argument that he's going through here.
There is a connection back into chapter 7 here. The law could not do, because it was weak through the flesh. The problem is not the law. The weakness is not the law. The weakness is in the flesh. But the point is, then, by sending his son, like sinful flesh, but for sin.
On the cross, God said, I am finished with the flesh. Let it be clear. You wanted to see if the flesh could not be improved by the law. And you asked for the law. I've concluded that there is nothing can be done with the flesh.
And the only way to deal with the flesh is through crucifixion and ending that connection to Adam, to sin, etc. So we're looking still back at the outcome of what was in chapter 5, chapter 6. He came for sin.
That is, because of sin, to deal with it. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Who can explain that to me? That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I can tell you what it doesn't mean.
I listened to a man in the last three weeks. And he had a great word and very emotional about the death of Christ and all. But what he said was he was made sin so that you're an adulterer. Christ was an adulterer on the cross.
And you are a thief and he was a thief on the cross. That is terrible. That's blasphemy. Impossible to be. But what happened is that that adultery was dealt with. So that God dealt with him as he would with adultery, as with stealing, etc., etc.
It was not that he became anything that was sinful. Because the passage defends he knew no sin. But all that sin required, God heaped upon him. Isn't that Leviticus 16?
With the scapegoat? Like the iniquities of the people were laid upon the goat into the wilderness. He was made to be sin. I was going to ask a question, Thorne. It's probably been answered. That he condemned sin in the flesh.
The imperfect man Adam demonstrated sin in the flesh and brought death. The perfect man. The one who demonstrated what God really wanted. He never sinned. But does this condemning sin in the flesh go beyond his life to his death?
Yes. And I think you answered that.
I think it's got to be. In fact, I think primarily his death. Yes, as we look at his life, it condemns me. It condemns us. It is possible to have humanity without sin. But for us, the condemnation of the flesh was what God did at the cross.
He said it is absolutely incapable. I'm severing the link. It is impossible for that to affect what I want.
So he condemned sin morally in his life. He condemned sin judicially in his death. That's good.
Sin in the flesh, the sin nature of man could not be forgiven. It could only be condemned. And it cannot be improved. It cannot be improved.
Or tamed. Or who? Tamed. That lion you were talking about. Brother William, it's really the thought of resemblance in the word likeness, isn't it? So he doesn't use image, he doesn't use form. But in the word likeness is resemblance.
Yeah, the three words that you have in Philippians 2 are great. The form of a servant. That is the absolute essence of what a servant is and the display of that essence. The likeness is every detail looking like but there is a distinction still.
And then in fashion as a man, he behaved as a man. He had just what every man would be seen to have. But the likeness allows for the distinction.
Mr. Newbery's marginal note says the righteous requirements of the law. It wasn't so much the righteousness of the law in itself but the requirements. Our inability to keep the law did not demonstrate the righteous requirements of the law.
But they are seen through Christ. And that's where he's the one who fulfilled the law.
Paul is now saying that while the law could not produce righteousness, the law is a legitimate, it's a God-given standard. And that standard must be met. But it can only be met by the Spirit of God working in us.
That word week too has been used in the epistle, right? Yes. Chapter 5, verse 6, without strength. Good, good.
Might be fulfilled in us. It's the oris passive. So it is absolutely, completely, totally filled. I take it it's the purpose of the death of Christ to have met every legal requirement that was against us.