Romans chapter 8 verse 1 to 17
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 in 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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks very much, Joe.
Sorry, there's notes.
If anybody would like to take notes,
there's pens and a sheet there,
just put up your hands,
and they will be passed to you.
Thank you.
So we're looking at supernatural people,
how the gospel works in us.
Well, there's a real fascination with the supernatural.
For years, people have explored,
and they've tried to understand the strange happenings
that science and natural laws of physics can't explain.
Everything from books to documentaries
have tried to portray what they understand to be the supernatural.
So what is the supernatural?
Well, for many, it's something dark and sinister
and associated more with the occult,
such as the cult series on TV called Supernatural,
which is all about two brothers fighting demons
and the devil himself.
Now, why we don't deny the reality of demons and the devil,
for our purposes this morning,
the supernatural is this,
and I've got it up on the overhead, the screen.
A supernatural act is a God intervention
which is not explicable by natural or scientific laws.
And that simply means that everyone who is a Christian
is a supernatural person.
Go back to chapter 7, verse 6.
But now, by dying to what once bound us,
we have been released from the law
so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit
and not in the old way of the written code.
Chapter 8, verse 9.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature,
but by the Spirit.
You see, if we are Christians,
if we're followers of the Lord Jesus,
God has intervened into our lives by His Holy Spirit,
enabling us to live a new kind of life
that we naturally can't do ourselves.
It is nothing less than a miracle.
And having spent chapters 6 and 7
explaining our ongoing battle with sin
and our failure to keep all the laws
and all the rules to make us better people,
chapter 8 is this intervention
to introduce us to the supernatural life
that enables us to live God's way.
Now, this life, this supernatural life,
is only possible by the Holy Spirit.
Now, before we get into this chapter in more detail,
we must understand who and what the Holy Spirit does
because there's a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit
and there's a lot of confusion.
And while Romans 8 doesn't give us all the answers,
it does give us some very important foundations.
So, three things about the Spirit
before we get stuck into the passage.
First, the Spirit is not a thing or an it.
The Holy Spirit is a person,
the person of Christ.
Look at verse 9.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature,
but by the Spirit,
if the Spirit of God lives in you.
And if anyone doesn't have the Spirit of Christ,
he doesn't belong to Christ.
So, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ.
He is not some unidentified mystery or force.
He is the person of Christ in Spirit.
Second, the Spirit is not a roaming power
that we have to somehow try and capture in a jar
and bring it home with us.
The Holy Spirit is present.
Look at verse 10.
If Christ is in you,
and verse 11.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead
is living in you,
the Spirit is in you.
In fact, it's stronger than that.
He lives in you.
And when we believe Christ,
when we trust Christ,
he takes up residence in our life.
Our life becomes home to the Holy Spirit.
So, he is personal.
He is present.
And then third,
the Spirit is not just an emotional feeling
to help us along every day.
The Holy Spirit is a power.
Verse 11.
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.
So, the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead
is in you.
Christ who was dead
and who came to life again
did so by the Holy Spirit.
And that Spirit is within us
giving us new and eternal life.
So, if we are believers,
we are supernatural people.
The Spirit of Christ
living in us
giving us life.
Remember the big idea of Romans,
the whole big picture
of what it's all about.
The purpose of Romans
is to unite his people together
to be partners
in God's global mission.
Now, none of us are going to get anywhere near that
without the Holy Spirit at work.
And that's what the Spirit does.
He is God's giving life,
his power to his people
to enable us to live the kind of life
that he has called us to
so that we can be united
to be partners
in God's global mission.
Well, with that background,
let's get a bit further into the text
and see what this supernatural life
looks like in reality.
The first thing is
is that we are freed by the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit
applies the finished
and completed work of Christ
to our lives.
Let's read from verse 1.
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.
Condemnation
is the opposite to justification.
If you're under condemnation
it means to be under the sentence
or judgment of God
because of our disobedience.
And the natural way
that we try to deal with that
is to up our performance,
to become better people,
to add more rules
and laws to our life
and to try and change ourselves.
But as we've seen over the weeks,
we haven't got the power to change us.
It doesn't matter how many rules
you put in place,
it just means we've got more rules to break.
It doesn't change us.
Verse 3.
For what the law was powerless to do
in that it was weakened by our 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.
It's telling us that Christ came
and exchanged places with us.
He takes on all of our disobedience
disobedience
and he suffers our judgment.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who trust in Christ.
Well, you're asking,
where does the Spirit fit into all of this?
Well, look at verse 2.
It tells us,
through Christ Jesus,
the law of the Spirit of life
sets us free
from the law of sin and death.
The Spirit,
His work is to take the finished
and completed work of Christ
and to apply it to our lives.
He takes the work of Christ on the cross
and He makes it a reality
in our lives.
He opens up our minds
so that we can see
how Christ has transformed us.
But not only that,
it's not just an intellectual fact,
it is something that is experienced
in our life each and every day.
It means that every time I fail and fall,
which I do,
and you do as well,
all of our disobedience
has been, past tense,
been dealt with by Christ.
And the Spirit continually applies
the work of Christ to our lives
so that we are forever free
from His condemnation.
We will never, ever be condemned
because the Spirit continually
and has done,
applied the work of Christ to our life.
But it doesn't stop there.
We're free from condemnation
for a purpose.
Look at verse 4.
We're free to obey.
All this was done 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.
So not only does Christ
take my disobedience
and deal with it,
but He actually gives me
His obedience into our lives.
So rather than being treated
as a condemned sinner,
I am now treated
as a treasured child.
And this new obedience
that Christ has given to us
isn't just a status
or a position.
It is that,
but it's more than that.
It's a daily reality.
Look what it says
at the end of verse 4.
We do not live
according to the sinful nature.
We don't obey that,
but we live according
to the Spirit.
So it's the Spirit again
at work in our lives,
freeing us from a life
of disobedience
and enabling and equipping us
to live a life of obedience.
And of course,
all of this
shouldn't have been
a surprise to the people
who were reading it
for the first time
because it was all
what God had promised to do.
Flick back to Ezekiel,
chapter 36.
If you've got a page number,
someone can shout it out.
Ezekiel, chapter 36.
It's on page 867.
Ezekiel 36.
On page 867.
And here is one of God's
wonderful promises.
In verse 26
of Ezekiel 36,
he says,
I will give you a new heart.
I will put a new spirit in you.
I will remove from you
your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh.
And here's the big point.
I will put my spirit in you
and move you
to follow my decrees
and to be careful
to keep my laws.
He puts His spirit
in our life
to move us
to follow His laws.
The Holy Spirit
takes the obedience of Christ
and He internalizes it
into our lives.
He changes us
on the inside out.
So rather than reject
God's law,
we love God's law.
Now none of this is natural.
We are not able
to free ourselves
from condemnation.
We are not able
to obey
however we want.
Without the supernatural
work of Christ
and without the supernatural
work of His Spirit
who applies this
to our lives,
we would never be able
to live
as He calls us to.
So the Spirit
frees us
by applying
the work of Christ
to our life.
Well that's the first step
in the supernatural
work.
The second is
that we're told
we are controlled
by the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit
applies
the good
and perfect
law of Christ
to our lives.
Look 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.
So it's essentially
telling us
there are two ways
to live
or there are two kinds
of people
in this world.
Lots of different
nationalities,
lots of different cultures,
but essentially
two people.
There are unbelievers
who live
according to
their sinful nature
and there are those
who are believers
who live
according to
the Spirit.
They're both
described
and outlined
further.
Look at verse 7.
There are those
who fight
God's law.
Verse 7.
The sinful mind
is hostile
to God.
It doesn't submit
to God's law
and nor
can it do so.
Our natural
response
or attitude
to God's law
is one of
hostility.
We don't like
God telling us
what to do
and how we should
live in this world.
In fact,
if we were to
live by any
kind of rules,
we prefer to
make up our
own rules.
Basically,
that we have
no rules at all
and we can live
however we want.
our sinful
nature
reacts
against God's
law.
We fight it
rather than
submit to it.
Try and think
of it
this way.
Take two
magnets.
I'm sure you've
always played
with magnets.
If you have
two magnets
facing each
other and the
two poles
are facing
each other,
they're going
to react.
the natural
laws of
physics
means that
one pushes
against the
other.
If you hold
one magnet
up and put
the other
one against
it,
it will push
off against
it.
Well,
think of
Christ,
who is the
dominant
law.
And as soon
as we come
close to
Christ,
it's like we
push against
it.
Verse 8,
those controlled
by the sinful
nature cannot
please God.
It doesn't
mean to say
that we
can't do
anything good.
It simply
means that we
have no
natural desire
to please
God.
Our life is
lived primarily
to please
self.
We just
naturally
push away
from God.
So naturally,
without the
Spirit,
we have no
love for
God's law.
But when the
Spirit comes
into our life,
all of that
changes.
We turn from
people who
fight the law
into people
who love
the law.
Because of
the Spirit,
Christians have
a supernatural
power at work
so that we
do love
the law.
Look at
verse 9.
You,
however,
if you're
Christians,
are controlled
not by the
sinful nature,
but by the
Spirit.
Again,
let's think
of those
magnets again.
If we leave
the one magnet
here,
the big
one,
the dominant
one,
and you
take the
other magnet
and then
turn it
around,
immediately
there is a
different reaction.
Rather than
a force that
pushes against
it,
there is a
force that
pulls it
together.
And that's
what happens
to us when
we stop being
the control
center of
our lives.
If we
turn around
in our
lives,
repent,
and put
Christ at
the control
center of
our lives,
then our
whole life
is reorientated
towards
Christ.
Look back
at the end
of verse
five.
Those who
live in
accordance with
the Spirit
have their
minds set
on what the
Spirit desires.
So you see,
once we turn
around to
Christ,
rather than
reject his
law,
rather than
fight it and
be hostile
towards it,
we will love
his law.
We will
want to
do what
God says.
There is a
desire and
a hunger
within us
that we
want to
obey.
Not to
try and
earn God's
favor,
but as an
expression of
our love
towards him.
Now think
about that,
because none
of that is
natural.
We do not
love God's
law by
ourselves.
What we
need is a
supernatural
work of
Christ and
his Spirit
applying,
working that
law out
in our
lives.
Without
the Spirit,
we would
never be
able to
live the
life that
God has
called us
to.
So not
only are we
freed by
the Spirit,
not only are
we controlled
by the
Spirit,
but we are
also people
who are led
by the
Spirit.
Because what
the Spirit
does is he
applies the
right and
the beautiful
way of
Christ to
our lives.
Look at
verse 12.
Therefore,
brothers and
sisters,
we have an
obligation.
In other
words, we
have a
response to
the way in
which God
works.
But it's
not to the
sinful nature
to live
according to
that.
It's telling
us that the
Spirit leads
us in a
completely new
way.
Things that
were once
unnatural for
us now
become natural
part of our
daily living.
And here
are two
things that
should and
ought to be
natural for
us in our
lives.
The first is
killing off
sin.
Look at
verse 13.
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.
You see,
before our
faith in
Christ,
before we
turned our
lives around
to him and
reorientated
ourselves around
Christ,
when we were
at the
control center
of our
lives, we
were hostile
to God's
law.
And as a
consequence, we
loved our
sin.
We loved
doing our
own things.
We had no
intention of
fighting sin
or killing
it.
We loved
it.
But now
the Spirit
gives us a
new way.
By the
Spirit, we
now want
to kill
off the
sin in
our lives.
Verse 14.
Because those
who are led
by the
Spirit are
children of
God.
You see, if
we are
children of
God, we
will be
people who
are led
by the
Spirit.
And being
led by the
Spirit doesn't
mean a
particular
direction about
what kind of
job I'm going
to take or
about which
person I'm
going to
marry, no,
being led
by the
Spirit in
verse 14
is connected
to the
putting to
death the
misdeeds of
our lives in
verse 13.
He says,
put to
death the
misdeeds of
your body,
the wrong
actions,
because that's
what being
led by the
Spirit is.
The Spirit
enables us and
equips us to
kill off the
sin, to
fight it, to
put up a
battle against
it.
And on
our own, we
will naturally
want sin.
But with the
Spirit, we
now have a
supernatural
desire and
a determination
to say no
to sin.
Well, you
say, okay, I
get that, I
still have this
Spirit within
me wanting to
say no to
sin, but I
still do
sin.
Well, yes,
that's true, it's
an ongoing
battle, and that's
the tense in
these verses
here.
It is
something that
is continuously
done until we
get to heaven.
But there's
something else
that reminds
us of this
Spirit at
work, this
supernatural work
in our lives.
The Spirit
not only helps
us to kill
off sin, but
in our battle
with sin, he
leads us back
to our
Father.
Look at
verse 15.
He says,
For you
didn't receive
a spirit that
makes you a
slave again to
fear.
but you
receive the
spirit of
sonship, or
of adoption.
You see, once
we did live in
fear of God, we
were under his
condemnation.
But now, because
of Christ, we've
been set free from
his judgment
forever.
That means, even
with my sin, I
can run to
God, and I
can call out to
him as
Father, without
fear, because
he has already
paid the
penalty of
sin.
And here's the
big point in
this.
When we
sin, our
natural tendency
is to hide
from God, to
run away, and
to believe that
we are still
under condemnation.
Isn't that how
we are?
Whenever we
sin, we want
to run and
not tell God
and pretend it
didn't happen.
But the
Spirit moves
us in the
midst of our
struggles to
still cry out
Father, because
he is our
Father.
Verse 16, the
Spirit himself
testifies with
our spirit that
we are God's
children, despite
all of our sin
and all of our
failure and all
of our mess.
The Spirit makes
us aware that we
belong to him, and
we can keep
running back to
him as our
Father, and
there is nothing
to fear.
Again, this is
not natural.
Naturally, we
run to sin, and
we run away from
God.
But by the
supernatural work
of Christ and
his Spirit being
applied into our
lives, we now
have a completely
new way.
We run away
from sin, and
we run towards
our Father.
God.
So we are
people who are
freed by the
Spirit, controlled
by the Spirit, and
we're led by the
Spirit.
We are supernatural
people.
And the big
question is this,
how can this be my
experience each and
every day?
How can I live as a
supernatural person?
Well, as we've seen
as we've gone through
this passage, the
work of Christ and
the Spirit of, sorry,
the work of Christ and
the work of the
Spirit are not
separate from each
other, but they
are dependent on
each other.
The Spirit of
Christ applies the
work of Christ to
make us more like
Christ.
So that means if we
are to experience the
supernatural in our
lives, there are two
things that I think we
can do in response to
this.
First, we've got to
remind ourselves that
Christ, what Christ has
done for us.
We must remember the
gospel, remember the
work of Christ.
There's no longer any
condemnation.
There is no longer any
fear for those who are in
Christ.
We must teach
ourselves and remind
ourselves every day of
the gospel of our new
position and our new
status.
And second, we must pray
that God by His Spirit
will apply that work to
our lives, enabling us
to live as someone who
is not condemned, equipping
us to live as someone who
is without fear.
And so we must ask God
continually for the power
of His Holy Spirit to be
at work in our lives, to
live supernaturally, to
live somebody who doesn't
feel the weight of
condemnation, but somebody
who's been set free to
serve God and to live for
Him.
Somebody who's free to
fight sin and be able to
run to our Father without
any fear at all.
We are supernatural
people because the
Spirit of God, the
Spirit of Christ, is
living within us.
We have a resource
within us to live the
kind of life that God
has called us to.
We can't do it by our
own.
It's impossible.
We are powerless.
But with the Spirit of
Christ, we are given
His power.
The Spirit that raised
Christ from the dead,
that power that raised
Him from the grave,
is the same power at
work in us to live His
life.
Let's pray together.
Father, our Father God, we
recognize before You
again our complete
inadequacy, our
hopelessness, our
powerlessness to be able
to change our lives in any
way at all.
Thank You that You have
given us the gift of Your
Holy Spirit to be able to
live supernatural lives, to
be able to fight the
battle of sin so that we
can become more like
Christ.
Thank You that it is You
working in us.
It's not about what we can
do, but what about Christ
has done for us.
We pray that You would fill
us afresh with Your
Spirit.
That we would respond to His
promptings and to His
work.
That we would be people who
go into this week enabled
and equipped, ready to live
for You in this world, to
live supernatural lives, to be
able to do all that You
have called us to.
So we praise You and we
thank You for all that You
have done for us and all
that You have given to us.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
God bless.
Amen.