Learn the Bible
By David A Simmons USA, Pastor of Baptist Church
“Freedom”
Romans 8:1-17
Introduction
· On January 6, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress on the state of the war in Europe.
· Much of what he said that day has been forgotten. But at the close of his address, he said that he looked forward "to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms."
· He named them: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
· These words are still remembered, even though their ideals have not yet been realized everywhere in the world.
· Romans 8 is the Christian's "Declaration of Freedom," for in it Paul declares the four spiritual freedoms we enjoy because of our union with Jesus Christ.
· This morning we are going to see the first two of those four spiritual freedoms. A study of this chapter shows the emphasis on the Holy Spirit, who is mentioned nineteen times.
· "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17).
· But the first of the four spiritual freedoms that the apostle Paul reveals here in chapter 8 is…
I Freedom from Judgment
(No Condemnation)
· Read vs. 1
· Romans 3:20 shows the "therefore" of condemnation; but Romans 8:1 gives the "therefore" of no condemnation—a tremendous truth and the end of a tremendous argument.
· The basis for this wonderful assurance is the phrase "in Christ Jesus." In Adam, we were condemned. In Christ, there is no condemnation!
· The verse does not say "no mistakes" or "no failures," or even "no sins." Christians do fail and make mistakes, and they do sin.
· Abraham lied about his wife; David committed adultery; Peter tried to kill a man with his sword. To be sure, they suffered consequences because of their sins, but they did not suffer condemnation.
· The Law condemns; but the believer has a new relationship to the Law, and therefore he cannot be condemned.
· Paul made three statements about the believer and the Law, and together they add up to: no condemnation. First of all…
A) The Law cannot claim you
· Read vs. 2
· You have been made free from the law of sin and death. You now have life in the Spirit. You have moved into a whole new sphere of life in Christ.
· "The law of sin and death" is what Paul described in Romans 7:7-25. "The law of the Spirit of life" is described in Romans 8.
· The Law no longer has any jurisdiction over you: you are dead to the Law (Rom. 7:4) and free from the Law (Rom. 8:2). Secondly…
B) The Law cannot condemn you
· Why? Because Christ has already suffered that condemnation for you on the cross.
· Read vs. 3
· The Law could not save; it can only condemn. But God sent His Son to save us and do what the Law could not do. Jesus did not come as an angel; He came as a man.
· He did not come "in sinful flesh," for that would have made Him a sinner. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, as a man. He bore our sins in His body on the cross.
· The "law of double jeopardy" states that a man cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Since Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sins, and since you are "in Christ," God will not condemn you. Thirdly…
C) The Law cannot control you
· Read vs. 4
· The believer lives a righteous life, not in the power of the Law, but in the power of the Holy Spirit.
· The Law does not have the power to produce holiness; it can only reveal and condemn sin. But the indwelling Holy Spirit enables you to walk in obedience to God's will.
· The righteousness that God demands in His Law is fulfilled in you through the Spirit's power. In the Holy Spirit, you have life and liberty (Rom. 8:2) and "the pursuit of happiness" (Rom. 8:4).
· The legalist tries to obey God in his own strength and fails to measure up to the righteousness that God demands.
· The Spirit-led Christian, as he yields to the Lord, experiences the sanctifying work of the Spirit in his life.
· "For it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). It is this fact that leads to the second freedom we enjoy as Christians.
· Remember, the first freedom that we have as children of God is Freedom from Condemnation… “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
· But the second freedom that we have in Christ is…
II Freedom from Defeat
(No Obligation)
· There is no obligation to the old nature. The believer can live in victory. In this section, Paul describes life on three different levels; and he encouraged his readers to live on the highest level.
· First of all…
A) "You have not the Spirit"
· Read vs. 5-8
· Paul is not describing two kinds of Christians, one carnal and one spiritual. He is contrasting the saved and the unsaved. There are four contrasts:
1. In the flesh—in the Spirit (v. 5). The unsaved person does not have the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9) and lives in the flesh and for the flesh. His mind is centered on the things that satisfy the flesh. But the Christian has the Spirit of God within and lives in an entirely new and different sphere. His mind is fixed on the things of the Spirit. This does not mean that the unsaved person never does anything good, or that the believer never does anything bad. It means that the bent of their lives is different. One lives for the flesh, the other lives for the Spirit.
2. Death—life (v. 6). The unsaved person is alive physically, but dead spiritually. The inner man is dead toward God and does not respond to the things of the Spirit. He may be moral, and even religious; but he lacks spiritual life. He needs "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2).
3. War with God—peace with God (vv. 6-7). In our study of Romans 7, we have seen that the old nature rebels against God and will not submit to God's Law. Those who have trusted Christ enjoy "peace with God" (Rom. 5:1), while the unsaved are at war with God. "'There is no peace,' saith the Lord, 'unto the wicked'" (Isa. 48:22).
4. Pleasing self—pleasing God (v. 8). To be "in the flesh" means to be lost, outside Christ. The unsaved person lives to please himself and rarely if ever thinks about pleasing God. The root of sin is selfishness—"I will" and not "Thy will."
· To be unsaved and not have the Spirit is the lowest level of life. Remember Paul is describing three levels of life, and the first level is life without the Spirit.
· But a person need not stay on that level. By faith in Christ he can move to the second level, which is…
B) "You have the Spirit" (vv. 9-11). "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8:9).
· The evidence of conversion is the presence of the Holy Spirit within, witnessing that you are a child of God (Rom. 8:16).
· Your body becomes the very temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Even though the body is destined to die because of sin (unless, of course, the Lord returns), the Spirit gives life to that body today so that we may serve God.
· If we should die, the body will one day be raised from the dead, because the Holy Spirit has sealed each believer (Eph. 1:13-14).
· What a difference it makes in your body when the Holy Spirit lives within. You experience new life, and even your physical faculties take on a new dimension of experience.
· When evangelist Dwight L. Moody described his conversion experience, he said: "I was in a new world. The next morning the sun shone brighter and the birds sang sweeter... the old elms waved their branches for joy, and all nature was at peace." Life in Christ is abundant life.
· But there is a third level of experience for which the other two are preparation.
C) "The Spirit has you!" (vv. 12-17) It is not enough for us to have the Spirit; the Spirit must have us! Only then can He share with us the abundant, victorious life that can be ours in Christ.
· We have no obligation to the flesh, because the flesh has only brought trouble into our lives.
· We do have an obligation to the Holy Spirit, for it is the Spirit who convicted us, revealed Christ to us, and imparted eternal life to us when we trusted Christ.
· Because He is "the Spirit of Life," He can empower us to obey Christ, and He can enable us to be more like Christ.
· But He is also the Spirit of death. He can enable us to "put to death" (mortify) the sinful deeds of the body.
· As we yield the members of our body to the Spirit (Rom. 6:12-17), He applies to us and in us the death and resurrection of Christ.
· He puts to death the things of the flesh, and He reproduces the things of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also "the Spirit of adoption" (Rom. 8:14-17).
· The word adoption in the New Testament means "being placed as an adult son." We come into God's family by birth. But the instant we are born into the family, God adopts us and gives us the position of an adult son.
· A baby cannot walk, speak, make decisions, or draw on the family wealth. But the believer can do all of these the instant he is born again.
· He can walk and be "led of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:14). The verb here means "willingly led." We yield to the Spirit, and He guides us by His Word day by day.
· We are not under bondage to Law and afraid to act. We have the liberty of the Spirit and are free to follow Christ.
· The believer can also speak: "We cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15). Would it not be amazing if a newborn baby looked up and greeted his father! First, the Spirit says, "Abba, Father" to us (Gal. 4:6), and then we say it to God. ("Abba" means "papa"—a term of endearment.)
· A baby cannot sign checks, but the child of God by faith can draw on his spiritual wealth because he is an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
· The Spirit teaches us from the Word, and then we receive God's wealth by faith. What a thrilling thing it is to have "the Spirit of adoption" at work in our lives!
· There is no need for the believer to be defeated. He can yield his body to the Spirit and by faith overcome the old nature.
· The Spirit of life will empower him. The Spirit of death will enable him to overcome the flesh. And the Spirit of adoption will enrich him and lead him into the will of God.
· Let’s Pray
· Bible Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 1.
· WORD-Search 8 Bible Software
· Holy Bible - New King James Version – Thomas Nelson Publishers
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