Transcript of talk given at Birkenhead Community Church on 1st July 2018
Picking up
from where we left off last week at the end of chapter 7, let’s begin with the
first four verses of Chapter 8.
Therefore, there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus
the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law was powerless to
do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous
requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to
the flesh but according to the Spirit.
I’m sure
you’ve all heard it said that whenever you see a ‘therefore’ in the Bible you
need to figure out what the ‘therefore’ is ‘there for’. Well, this therefore is pretty much taking
all we’ve heard so far in this series, from Romans 1 to 7, and Paul is getting
ready to bring home his message. We’ve
heard how we are all sinners, how we all fall short, how there is nothing we
can do to bring us into right standing with God. Last week we heard from Kirsty as she
unpacked Romans 7 for us. I don’t know
if you noticed but chapter seven is pretty heavy on the “I”. Paul references “I” 32 times in chapter seven
compared to only twice in this chapter.
So what was the issue?
In chapter
seven we see Paul talking about sin.
Verses 15-17 kind of summarise the mess that Paul, and indeed we, find ourselves in - “I do not understand what
I do. For what I want to do I do not do,
but what I hate I do. And if I do what I
do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it,
but it is sin living in me.” You can
almost hear him screaming ‘argh. I’m so
messed up’. Sin - there is no
escape. Paul shows us in chapter seven
that there is no hope in ourselves for salvation and there is no hope in
ourselves for obedience. Sin has royally
screwed us up. “Who can rescue me?” Paul
asks at the end of chapter 7.
So then we
reach chapter 8. And we hear “therefore,
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. In light of all that has gone before in
Romans, that’s a pretty weighty statement.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. It has been said that as
Christians, “most of our troubles are due to our failure to realise the truth
of this verse”. So let’s just stop here
for a moment and unpack the first verse of chapter eight.
The Greek
for condemnation here is “kata-krima” which literally means ‘against’ and
‘judge’. It’s a damning sentence. And yet we’re told that those in Christ
(we’ll come to that bit) have no condemnation.
Notice that it’s ‘no’ condemnation and not those in Christ are ‘not’
condemned. If you were a criminal in a
court of law and you were facing judgement for a crime you had committed you
could be condemned. If the ruling said
you were not condemned then you would be released. But if the next day you committed another
crime and were caught you would be right back in that courtroom and the next
time you might be condemned. It has been
established before now that we are all guilty of sin. We should all face condemnation. But instead, No condemnation is total
forgiveness. It’s not a line of
condemnation that you can cross over but if you mess up you’re back on the side
of being condemned. There is NO
condemnation. That means condemnation
does not even exist for those who are in Christ Jesus. You shouted at your kids when they were
winding you up - no condemnation. You
were jealous of someone else’s wealth, status or lifestyle - no
condemnation. You spent too many hours
at work and not enough time with your family - no condemnation. You can’t remember the last time you read
your Bible - no condemnation. You keep
repeating the same sin even though you’re trying not to - no condemnation. Sin has been condemned in the flesh. The condemnation has already happened. Jesus was condemned. He took the condemnation and so now there is
NO condemnation for those who are in Christ.
If you are a believer please stop condemning yourself because God’s not
and incidentally if God has decided he’s not going to condemn those in Christ,
then perhaps we might consider not condemning one another either?! There’s a thought. After all we’ve been hearing in Romans up to
this point - how all have sinned, all fall short, how we are all
sinners, to hear that if you are in Christ there is no condemnation? This is huge.
There is no charge against you.
This is your position in Christ.
God has nothing against you, He finds no fault in you, there is nothing
to punish you for. There is NO
condemnation.
How? How have we got off scott-free? How is it that we can find ourselves with no
condemnation if we are all sinners? The
answer is Jesus. There is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ, those who are in Jesus. There’s a story of Abraham Lincoln asking
someone to take his Jacket into town in their cart and buggy for him. They responded, “yes of course, but how will
you get your coat back?” To which he
replied, “I intend to remain in it.” To
be in the position of no condemnation we need to be in Christ. We need to remain in Him. This isn’t a new idea in scripture. The phrase ‘in Christ’ is used approximately
140 times in the Bible and of those times around 35 are in relation to our
identity. We call ourselves Christians
now, but the Bible rarely, if ever, uses that phrase. The Bible talks about believers, about
disciples of Jesus as those who are “in Christ”.
Why do we
need to be in Christ? Well as verse
three tells us it’s because the only way to deal with sin was to condemn it in
the flesh. The reason we have no
condemnation is because Jesus took our condemnation for us. The death of Christ has given us life. If you are in Christ, then through him, the
law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Throughout
Romans, Paul talks about the ‘law’ in several different ways. Referring to God’s law or standards, a
general principle, or a force or power.
In this instance, it’s the last one.
The power of the Spirit who gives life has set us free from the power of
sin and death. Verse 1 tells us we’re
set free from the legal condemnation of sin, verse 2 tells us that we are set
free from the actual power of sin.
We might
understand this if we think about the law of gravity. Think of the law of gravity as kind of
representing the law of sin and death.
There’s not much we can do about the law of gravity - what goes up, must
come down. The law of sin and death is
the same. It just is and we are all
subject to it. Except there’s another
law that can overcome the force of gravity and that’s the law of
aerodynamics. The law of aerodynamics
allows an aeroplane to fly and not fall out of the sky. It can overcome the law of gravity. The law of the Spirit, the power of the
Spirit can overcome the law or power of sin and death. One law sets you free from the other. And that’s one of the main differences
between chapter seven and chapter eight.
Paul talks about himself, about us.
The focus is “I” in chapter seven.
I am not good enough, I can’t do this, I make mistakes, I fall short, I
am a bad witness, I doubt my faith, I don’t measure up… In this chapter, the
Holy Spirit is the focus. In fact in
these verses alone, the Spirit is mentioned 12 times - almost once every
verse. If you are in Christ, if you are
a believer, then because of his death on the cross, because of his being
condemned for our sin, through the Spirit, our standing becomes one of
freedom - free from condemnation, free from the law of sin, free from the law
of death, free from the guilt of sin and free from the power of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin or the sinful
life. We are free.
So. This is the most excellent of news: there is
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But how do you actually know if you’re in
Christ? That’s where Paul moves on to
next, let’s look at verses 5-11.
Those who live according to the
flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in
accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit
desires. The mind governed by the flesh
is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to
God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh
cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the realm
of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God
lives in you. And if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your
body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life 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 because of his Spirit who lives in you.
How do we
know if we’re in Christ? Well, verse 9
tells us, that, if you have accepted Christ as your saviour, if you believe
that he is who he says he is and that he did what he said he did, then the
moment of coming to faith, you received the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit,
to live in you. As a seal. As confirmation that you are in Christ. It already happened, you no longer live by
yourself for yourself. Paul here is
kinda saying you’ll know those who are in Christ because you will see the
evidence of the Spirit at work in their lives.
You’ll be able to see that their minds are set on the Spirit and what He
desires. Right from the outset in the
Garden of Eden God has wanted to dwell with His people. In Exodus He says that the Israelites have
made a sanctuary for Him and he will “dwell among them” (25:8). Countless references through 1 and 2
Corinthians talk of the Holy Spirit being a seal, dwelling in us, confirming us
as children of God. If you trust Jesus
as your saviour, then you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, it’s a
fact. And if you have the Spirit
dwelling in you then you will be walking according to the Spirit. Which means you are in Christ. You have no condemnation.
But what
about all this Flesh vs Spirit stuff in these verses? We have two groups and two destinies. You are either In Christ. Or you’re not. If you’re in Christ, you’re living according
to the Spirit. If you’re not in Christ,
then you’re living according to the flesh.
A couple of key words to pull out from the Greek here are “peri-pateo”
and “phro-neo” but what’s interesting about these words is that the first
translates as ‘around’ and ‘tread’ - which is why in some translations you
would read about walking according to the Spirit or walking according to the
flesh. It’s a word that’s about making
one’s way. This is about how you live,
the way in which you conduct yourself.
The second word, ‘phroneo’ is the bit translated as having your minds
set. It’s more than just feeling or thinking. It’s about directing your mind towards
something, to be of one’s party, to side with it in public affairs - almost
like an election.
We just had
a bi-election less than a month ago and there were very clearly two parties in
particular that were wanting to get you to side with them, to set your mind to
their policies, their agendas, their way of thinking. These two parties wanted you to opt to ‘walk’
with them, and to vote for them so that they could govern you. Here, Paul tells us, you have a choice - you
can vote for living according to the flesh or according to the Spirit - your
mind is going to be governed by one or the other. So let’s have a look at what these two
parties are offering:
The flesh
is offering the following:
Condemnation,
ultimately leading to death (v6). The
flesh also offers you hostility to God - enmity - opposition, the inability to
submit to God and the inability to please God.
On the
other hand, the Spirit is offering:
Life and
peace. Resurrection.
Oooh, it’s
a close battle which party to side with right?
No. Don’t be ridiculous. Hostility vs Peace. Death vs Life. Chapter seven made it abundantly clear that
the mind is in a strategic battle. Verse
23 tells us that there is a law at work in us waging war against our minds and
making us prisoners. There is no neutral
ground. What happens when your mind
sides with the flesh? It leads to
death. If your mind is walking according
to the flesh then you will die. Ezekial
18:4 says, “The one who sins is the one who will die.” Pretty clear cut. And as we’ve already established, it’s not something
you hop either side of the line on.
You’re not condemned one minute and not the next. There is no condemnation, no death, for those
who are in Christ, those who are governed by the Spirit.
Tim Keller
when commentating on this passage says, “The overcoming of sin in our lives
begins in our minds; and victory over sin is only ever the result of having
minds set on the Spirit.”
Way back
when we were looking at Romans 2, Dan talked about the bifurcation point of The
Parting of the Waters in Wyoming. One
river, two destinations. This is your
bifurcation point - one life, two destinations.
Which way are you going to go?
Who are you voting for? Who do
you want to be governed by? Where are
you setting your mind? Flesh or
Spirit. You can’t pick both.
It’s pretty
obvious that we should want to walk according to the Spirit so that we can be
in Christ, but how do we actually do that?
Let’s look
at the final two verses in our passage today:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we
have an obligation - but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh you
will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you
will live.
Ooooh yay,
another ‘therefore’. Therefore, in light
of the fact that you are in Christ, in light of the fact that because God sent
his son to be your sin offering. In
light of the fact that sin was condemned in Jesus’ flesh. In light of the fact that the righteous
requirement of the law has been fully met in us because of Jesus, therefore, we
have an obligation.
The
obligation is to live life according to the Spirit. The obligation is to walk with the Spirit, to
be governed by the Spirit. The
difference between sinning as an unbeliever or as a believer is a bit like a
woman breaking the law vs breaking her husband’s heart. When someone not in a relationship with God
sins, she breaks the law and there is legal retribution. She will be condemned. But if the believer sins, it is like she
breaks her husband’s heart - there won’t be a judicial consequence - but there
will be a relational consequence. Those
who are in Christ face no condemnation.
That’s clear cut. The obligation
then is not to the flesh. That will lead
to death. The obligation, and Paul’s
urgency to us, is to walk with the Spirit, to guard and protect our
relationship with God. How do we do
that? If we’re Christians then we have
the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, promising us life beyond physical death, but
how do we deal with the sin that Paul was talking about in chapter 7 and
before? We have to put it to death.
Sin isn’t
something to be messed around with.
There was a
French aristocrat Baron Richard D’Arcy who kept a two year old lion as a pet in
his home. As you do. Each night it would sleep in the bathroom. One night, as he tried to make his pet go in
the bathroom it had other ideas. The
lion refused to go, leapt on its master and in minutes had clawed him to
death. Guys. Don’t keep a lion as a pet. Don’t mess around with sin - it’s not
harmless, it’s dangerous. Stop playing
games with it. Don’t be thinking you can
keep sin as a pet and not have it kill you.
The Greek
used for ‘put to death’ here is “thana-toute” - it speaks of a violent and
total destruction. A ruthless and
full-hearted resistance to sinful practice.
This is not messing around. This
is serious stuff. If you don’t kill your
sin, it will kill you. Earlier
theologians used to call this Mortification.
This means if you want to set your mind on what the Spirit desires you
need to take sin seriously. You can’t be
keeping lions in your bathroom.
A couple of
years ago I was out running (as I did a lot more frequently then than I do now
- seriously, hills here, how do you do it?!) and I got a stone in my shoe. It wasn’t really sharp, just one of those
little ones that kinda jingles around in your trainer - annoying - but small
enough to ignore despite the irritation.
I had already done 12 miles and I only had one mile to go so figured I’d
ignore it and I felt like God say, “why are you content to run with a stone in
your shoe?”
We might think that it’s only small and so it won’t make a difference, but actually, the longer we leave the little stones, the more friction they cause and the greater the negative impact.
Sometimes we can have the same approach to sin in our lives. We think it doesn’t really matter. We think it’s ok to leave the anger, pride,
jealousy, unforgiveness, judgement, gossip, lust, love of money, idolatry in
our lives. They’re not really affecting
anything, they just show up every now and again. No harm done right?
But if you
leave the stone in your shoe, no matter the size, you’re more likely to get a
blister. The longer you leave the stone
in your shoe the more damage it will do.
And not just to your foot but also to its surroundings. Your trainers will wear out and get
holes. If you leave a stone in your shoe
when running then you compensate for its presence in your gait and the way that
you run. Which in turn makes you out of
kilter and can cause other issues elsewhere.
In extreme cases, that tiny stone, the one you think is so insignificant
can affect the way you run so much that your posture is altered to such a
degree that you injure yourself and have to quit running altogether. Don’t be content to run with stones. Don’t be content to live with sin.
There are
whole websites dedicated to getting rid of things (getridofthings.com for
example). Everything from weeds to
smells to jet lag to maggots. I know
about maggots. Dan and I had the
unfortunate experience in Leeds of having a maggot infestation in our front
garden. I kid you not, it was the
grimmest, most disgusting, horrific experience I think I’ve ever had. They were all over our front door, all up the
garden path, on our car, they were everywhere.
Now, if you have a maggot infestation then you don’t hang around waiting
to get rid of them. Not like the stone
in your shoe. You don’t put it off until
later. No - you dive right on in and do
everything in your power to exterminate them.
To obliterate them. To mortify
them. You immediately go into action
with the boiling water, vinegar, bleach, salt (seriously you will try anything
people) and you continue your efforts until you have succeeded. You put on your rubber gloves and you get to
work. Because if you don’t, if you let
the maggots hang around, then they will become flies, they will multiply and
give birth to more maggots. They will
take over.
We need to
stop playing around with sin like it’s not dangerous. Don’t keep a lion in your bathroom. We need to stop ignoring sin like it doesn’t
really matter. Take the stone out of your
shoe. We need to approach sin like it’s
a maggot infestation. At the first
signs, we need to mortify it, we need to put to death the misdeeds of the body. Then.
Then we can live. We need to be
ruthless in getting rid of anything that will slow us down or hinder us in
running the race God has set before us.
“Let us
throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race
marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
How? What does mortifying our sin look like
practically? I’ll give you a personal
example. A few years ago I had an issue
with someone at my church. This person
annoyed me and I was judging them big time.
I judged the way they interacted with others, I judged the way they
talked about themselves. I judged their
demeanour and I judged the things I heard other people say about them. I judged them to such an extent that whenever
they were around - serving or simply just present - it affected my ability to
worship and engage with God.
I knew that
this was my sin. My sin of judgement, of
assuming I was better than they were and they should just be more like me. And I also knew that one of the ways of
dealing with the sin, one step to mortifying it, would be to confess. And not just to Jesus either, but an actual
out loud confession to another Christian.
And so I did. It was painful and
it was embarrassing, but it was necessary.
Confessing to a trusted and wise friend allowed the power of this sin to
be broken, it allowed the Holy Spirit to get to work on my hardened heart and
soften it towards this individual. When
I focused on myself I became dark and twisty as Meredith Grey would say, but
when I allowed the Holy Spirit to convict me of my sin, when I focused on Jesus
as Hebrews continues, when I confessed my sin and prayed with my friend - all
too aware of my inability to love without Jesus’ help - I saw the power of this
sin diminish and my love for this individual grow. The judgement had been put to death. It wasn’t easy, it was painful, but it was
necessary. I don’t know what your lion,
stone or maggots are. But face
them. Don’t be scared or ashamed of
facing them - there’s no condemnation in Christ - just get rid of them, put
them to death.
If there is
anything that Paul is telling us in this first chunk of Romans 8 it’s that it’s
not like chapter 7 - we can’t do any of this in our strength, in our
power. You won’t be able to mortify sin
by yourself. No one can live the perfect
Christian life. No one can deal with
their sin through strength of their will or resolve to ‘try harder’. Only one man ever could life the Christian
life perfectly - he did it before he came to earth as a man, he did it when he
walked the earth and he’s still doing it now in heaven. You can’t do it and God isn’t expecting you
to. Jesus can. It is all by His Spirit, the Holy
Spirit. Did you know the Holy Spirit is
referenced more times in this chapter than any other in the New Testament -
even in our passage this morning, the message is clear -
Verse 1, we
are in Christ
Verse 2, through
Christ we’re set free
Verse 3,
it’s what God did by sending His son
Verse 4, Jesus’
actions meant the requirement of the law was met in us
Verse 9,
You are in the Spirit
Verse 10,
Christ is in you
Verse 11,
The spirit lives in you
Verse 13, by
the Spirit we mortify our sin
We look to Jesus. We choose to walk His way. We set our minds on Him and allow the Spirit
to govern us. We cannot remove the
stones and maggots by ourselves. It is only in Him, through Him and
by His Spirit that we can live. “Christ in
you, the hope of glory.” It is all
because of Jesus, his death on the cross to pay for your sin, his resurrection
to give new life, and the deposit of His Spirit in you when you believe. Therefore, therefore, there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment