WWUTT 1263 So That the Law Might Be Fulfilled in Us? (Romans 8:4)

Romans 8 -1 is just too good a verse to spend only one day talking about it. So we come once again to understanding there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus when we understand the text.

No Condemnation for Those Who Are in Christ Jesus

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Romans 8, and as with yesterday, I'm going to begin here reading verses 1 -9. This is Paul speaking to the church in Rome. There is 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 Christ does not belong to Him. Now this week we've only made it through three verses here and I was planning on at least making it through verse nine. So we'll be coming back to this section again next week surely.

But I'm perfectly content with spending our week just focusing on Romans 8 .1 and the beautiful truth, the triumph that's being declared here when Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We had that lament in chapter seven, that sin remained, a theological depth issued in chapter six, where it says you are no longer a slave to sin, but you are a slave to righteousness. And then yet Paul laments in chapter seven, that sin still remains in this corrupt flesh in which we exist in a corrupt world.

So the sin is still there. It lingers. Temptation comes at us both from inside and from outside. So I desire to do the right thing, but once I desire to do the right thing, I find that sin is close at hand.

And so there's this constant conflict, this struggle that is going on in Paul, though he knows he's not a slave to unrighteousness anymore. So why is the sin still there? So the lament is there, that sin remains, but it does not ruin.

He lamented through chapter seven. We get to chapter eight and there's this victorious cry. Of course, we end chapter seven that way too. Praise be to God through Christ Jesus, our Lord. And then you get to the start of chapter eight.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It doesn't say there's no accusation. There's certainly an accusation. There's still an accusation against you right now. How is that?

Because you're not perfect. Though you've been justified, you are being sanctified. So you've not yet reached that being glorified. Therefore, you are not perfect. So there's still an accusation that exists against you.

But God loves and he's showing his grace to you day by day, every day. Lamentations chapter three, his mercies are new every morning. So every day you are experiencing the grace of God. You are seeing his grace, his love poured out upon you.

I think it's it's Vodie Bauckham who has said, how do you know the grace of God? Because you didn't die in your sleep last night. He is. He is sustaining you while you slumber, waking you up the next day and continuing to pour out his grace upon you, though an accusation still stands against you.

But that accusation doesn't stick and you're not going to be judged for it because there's no condemnation in Christ. It would be like Satan is standing outside the city taunting you and he is hurling accusations at you.

But Christ is the fortress and you are inside that fortress. And so Satan can throw his words at those walls, but he has no jurisdiction inside. And therefore, there's no condemnation. Nothing that he can say or do will condemn you for the debt that we owed.

God has been paid to tell STI. It is finished, paid in full. As Paul talks about with the Colossians in Colossians chapter one, he took the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands and nailed it to the cross.

So the debt that stood against us has been paid. Satan can stand outside hurling those accusations all he wants. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Now we have this statement in Christ twice between verses one and two.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then verse two, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Now I think that over Monday and Tuesday, we kind of thought more about what the law of the spirit of life is, how we've been set free, what the law of sin and death is.

Have you really given much thought to what it means to be in Christ? Because Jesus said, if you abide in me, I will abide in you. This is especially prominent in John 15. So in verse four, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

Verse nine, he says, abide in my love. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. So they're the the illustration that Jesus gives regarding being in Christ is as a vine and branches.

So I am the vine, you are the branches, you abide in me, you'll bear much fruit. You cut the branch off from the vine, the branch can't survive. It's laying on the ground, it withers, it's gathered up, it's thrown into the fire.

So as long as you remain in Christ, as long as you abide in Christ, you produce fruit. You have life and that life is demonstrated in that you're you're still green. You've got fruit that is hanging off of your branches.

So you know that life is coming through that branch that's still connected to the vine. Now, Paul doesn't give that metaphor here. He doesn't make an allusion to being in Christ as the branch in the vine.

That was John 15. For me, it's really helpful to think of being in Christ as we read in the Psalms, God being our fortress. I've kind of given this illustration already talking about being in God in a fortress.

Satan is hurling his accusations, nothing that he can do. He's attacking one man coming against a fortress and he can't do it. God is our fortress. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So you think about condemnation being a judgment, and there's no way that judgment can come against us if we're in Christ, if we're within those city walls. And he is our fortress and our refuge. In Psalm 71, O Lord God, in you do I take refuge.

Save me from all my pursuers and deliver me. And you think of Satan and his minions and schemes, all of that being a pursuer. As Peter uses the metaphor of being like a prowling lion in first Peter chapter five, the devil is a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, resist him firm in your faith.

So in God, we take refuge and this prowler, this hunter is not able to come against us for God is our fortress. We have that like Psalm 18 is a big Psalm when it comes to understanding the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.

My God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. This is who God is for us. He is our protector. So God being a fortress, if we dwell in him as one would live inside of a fortress, we are protected.

There is no condemnation. The rules of the city reign. Christ is king in that place and he has declared our innocence. So in Christ, in his great kingdom, there is no condemnation for those who are in him.

The enemy on the outside attempting to accuse us, hurl accusations, attack us, none of that works. We will be delivered from all of those schemes when we take refuge in Christ. So there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I like that metaphor the best for understanding this, especially when we see this as a cry of victory, a shout of triumph. There is no condemnation. I am on the Lord's side. The Lord is on my side. What can man do to me?

As it says in Psalm 118. So then we get to verse two for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. So again, we're in the kingdom of God. His command reigns Christ, the word of the king, what he has declared, what he has said, what he has issued.

That is what is upon us, the enemy, all the laws and rules and stuff like that. He's making up on the outside, the one who is the prince of darkness, prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this age.

He has no claim on us for we are in Christ. So therefore the law of the spirit of life, that is the law that reigns or that rules over this kingdom that we are now a part of. We have been set free. We're within the walls.

We are servants of the king, but we're free. We're free from sin and the wages of sin, which is death. All of those things that bound us, enslaved us to the passions of our flesh. We are not under those things anymore.

We are now in Christ and the law that he had issued, which was not just for his city, but even for those outside, but those outside would perish under that law. Those who are in the city reign according to that law.

So the law of the spirit of life has set you free. We have it stated in Ephesians. There's a couple of places in Ephesians, but, uh, but most notably Ephesians one 13, where we're told that we are sealed with the promised Holy spirit in him.

You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy spirit. You think about a decree that a king has made. He makes the decree, it's written down, it's rolled up, wax is put over it, and it's sealed with his insignia.

So in this case, the seal itself is the Holy spirit. Once we have come into Christ, we are sealed for that day of redemption for the, uh, everything that we are going to receive as being fellow heirs of the kingdom of God in Christ.

All of that has been declared by the king. It is written in a scroll, it is rolled up, it is sealed by the Holy spirit. So therefore we have the law of the spirit of life upon us sealed for that day. It cannot be taken from us.

The citizenship that we have in the kingdom of God remains forever. We are members, we are citizens of that kingdom. Even now, though we are in this world, we are still citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

The law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Now, we're talking about a specific kind of law here, law of the spirit of life, law of sin and death. I don't think we're talking about the mosaic law.

It's our inability to keep that law that leads to sin and the wages of sin, which is death. So it's not the, the law of sin and death is not the law of God itself or the, or the law that was given to Moses, to the children of Israel.

Because we just had in chapter seven, Paul declared that the law is holy and righteous and good. Therefore it cannot be the law of sin and death. But our inability to, to keep that law means that we are subject to another law.

And that is the law of sin and death. The law of sin that reigns upon us because we are children of Adam, we are born with a sin nature. So we can't do anything but sin is our nature to sin. We are in rebellion against God.

And then we're going to reap the harvest of that sin that we continue in for the rest of our lives, which is ultimately going to be death unless Christ has rescued us, set us free from that bondage and made us subject to a new law, which is the law of the spirit of life.

So just as before in chapter six, Paul made the argument that you have to be a slave to something. You're either a slave to righteousness or you're a slave to unrighteousness. So we are also under a law.

You're either under the law of the spirit of life or you're under the law of sin and death. If you've been set free in righteousness, you're under the law of the spirit of life. And that's great. That's good news because we have been set free to worship God, to become heirs of his kingdom, to live with him and reign with him forever.

That's all written in the law of the spirit of life. But then there's that law of sin and death for those that are not set free. They continue in that sin. Sin becomes sin beyond measure, as Paul had talked about in Romans chapter seven.

And then ultimately what that results in is death and not just the death of the body, but the everlasting death of the soul in eternal punishment in hell, a place that can be described as nothing but death.

It's not non-existence. It's just death forever. So this is the law that is upon the person in one form or another. Either the law of sin and death or the law of the spirit of life. And in Christ, the law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death.

We go on to verse three. Again, it seems like as far as we're going to get here, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. God has done what the law weakened by the flesh. Now we're talking about Mosaic law, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus himself was not sinful, but he was in the likeness of sinful flesh. And he even stepped into that corruption. So as I talked about Monday and Tuesday, we, well, even when we were in chapter seven, we still live in that corruption.

We are no longer under the law. We're no longer a slave to unrighteousness, but the temptation still exists. And that war against sin still exists because we exist in corrupt bodies in a corrupt world.

So as this world is corrupt, it's being subject to corruption, subject to futility, coming to end and wasting away, then we're still going to struggle against those things. Jesus stepped into that world, but was not affected by it in the sense that he was not himself sinful.

He was in the likeness of sinful flesh, but his flesh itself wasn't sinful since he was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit. It was not by the seed of Adam. It was by the seed of the spirit. So from conception, he was not touched by the stain of sin.

Jesus stepped into this corruption, but was himself not corrupt. He was not affected by this corruption. So he became a sacrifice for sin in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

He was a sacrifice for sin, just like the lamb or the ox or the goat or any of the animals that were sacrificed under the sacrificial system. We read about in the Old Testament law, those were sacrifices given for sins, for sins that were committed.

So Christ likewise was given in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, and he condemned sin in the flesh. It was not just some sort of ethereal condemnation. It wasn't something that was spiritual that happened in the heavens.

It happened physically and spiritually that we might be cleansed of sin physically so that we might inherit the kingdom of God and live in that perfect kingdom forever. So in Hebrews chapter 9, starting in verse 23, it says,.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places year after year with blood, not his own.

For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment.

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. So there again in verse 27, you have it said just as it is appointed for a man to die once and after that comes judgment.

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. So the law weakened by the flesh could not save us, but Christ in the flesh did a 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.

And there we're talking about sanctification. So we are walking in sanctification. Now the law could not justify us, the law could not sanctify us, but it is Christ who justifies and it is Christ who sanctifies.

So now in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, Christ fulfilled the law. And then we who are in Christ are able to meet the righteous requirement of the law because the righteousness that we have is not ours, but came from Christ.

So in us, 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. We have the spiritual law, Paul referred to the law as spiritual.

In chapter seven, it's not, not something for the Christian that's written on stone tablets outside of us. It's been written on our hearts. So the law is spiritual. It's written on our hearts. We desire to walk in it and keep it.

And in this way that we walk by the spirit, we are keeping the law. Remember the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control against such things.

There is no law. So if you are loving your neighbor, you're not killing your neighbor, right? You're not committing adultery against your neighbor. You are not coveting what your neighbor has. You are not bearing false witness against your neighbor.

You're not robbing from your neighbor. Love is the fulfilling of the law. That whole first and second table of the law is fulfilled in love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love your neighbor as yourself. And in you, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled as you walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Is this making sense now? So we're going to continue this study next week.

The Spirit of Life and the Law of Sin and Death

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness you show to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, giving us your son to die for us, that all who believe in him will not perish in our sins. We will have everlasting life.

We've been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. So teach us to walk by the spirit, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who are in Christ Jesus.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Closing Announcements and Next Week's Study

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.