Shaped by Suffering, Romans 8:28-31

Among Christians, verse 28 is probably one of the best known, most often quoted verses in the Bible.  But as is often the fact in such cases, it is probably misinterpreted more than it is understood correctly.  And so today I want to focus just on this verse and the two immediately following it, in hope that we can gain a correct understanding of this passage.  Because it is a tremendously important text.  It states a doctrine that undergirds our faith.  And so it’s important that we understand it.  

Correct doctrine is important.  These truths of God’s word are what we base our faith upon.  We base our future eternity upon them as well.  And nothing could be more tragic than to assume a false doctrine is true, and pattern your life in accordance with that doctrine, only to find out eventually that it is a flawed doctrine.  That you thought it meant certain things, but in reality it did not.  And usually when you discover that, it comes at the worst possible time.

I will give you a personal example. I grew up in the church.  I was a pastor’s kid and I must have listened to thousands of sermons and teachings about the Bible growing up.  But in spite fo that, I had a superficial knowledge of the Bible. I had never proved some of those doctrines in the fire of trials, and it turns out, that some of the things I thought were true were not.  

About a dozen years after I was married, I had by that time a successful career, I had a nice home, a beautiful family, kids in private schools, and all the trappings of what I thought were the benefits of living as a Christian in America. And then began a series of illnesses that were not quickly diagnosed.  I was ill with one thing after another for about a year or so.  And I soon found myself unable to work as I used to be able to do.  My finances went upside down. I ended up in serious debt looking at the possibility of bankruptcy. 

I’ll spare you all the details, but suffice it to say that my faith began to take on a more serious note.  Nothing sends you to church and to your Bible like a crisis.  But somehow through the years I had developed a type of faith that had been influenced by what is often called the prosperity gospel.  I wouldn’t have called it that, but nevertheless I expected that God would make everything better soon.  If I had more faith, if I tithed more, if I went to church more, if I read my Bible more, God would soon rectify everything and all would return to normal, perhaps even better than normal.  

I found examples in the Bible which supported that kind of hope; such as Joseph who was cast in prison and then was exalted to the second position under Pharaoh. I found every reference in the Bible to God making everything right, or restoration, that I could find, such as with the life of Job, and I underlined every one. And particularly I found Romans 8:28 comforting as I believed it promised that God would make everything good again. I held onto that faith with all my strength, believing that the size of my faith, or the diligence of my faith would make God come to my rescue and fix all my problems.  After all, it only made sense that God could use me even more if I was successful and healthy than if I was a physical and financial wreck.  How could I be useful to the Lord as a failure?

Well, long story short, I eventually was forced to sell the dream home that I had built with my own two hands.  My health degenerated and left me practically incapacitated for over three years.  I developed paralyzing anxiety attacks that made me a psychological wreck.  To this day I have large sections of my memory which seem to be blacked out, particularly of my children at that time. I guess from stress.  I can’t remember some things.  I lost my new cars.  I ended up at the bottom financially and finally at the end of my rope we moved here to the beach to try to reconstruct my life, a  move which didn’t really improve my situation at all, in fact it may have made it worse.

Bottom line is, I found that a lot of the doctrines of my faith that I had wanted to be true, or which I believed to be true, were in fact not what the Bible teaches.  My faith became tested in the fire of adversity and what came out was quite a bit different than what I had wanted to believe.  I found that believing something does not make it true, and God is not obligated to fulfill my wishes just because I muster up some sort of fervent faith.  

And so I present this passage of scripture to you today not from the perspective of a theologian sitting in an ivory tower, but from the experience of someone who has proven the validity of these promises in the fires of tribulation and trials.  So let me just say unapologetically right from the outset that verse 28 is not some sort of promise that God is going to make everything work out the way you want it to.  God is not promising good to you in the sense that we most often think of what’s good.  When you lose a loved one to illness or an accident, perhaps a young person in the prime of their life, you will ask yourself then, “how can this be good?”  And if you’re like most of us, trying to understand life from our own perspective of justice and goodness and rightness, then we will end up disillusioned and in danger of your faith becoming shipwrecked.

The key then to understanding this verse is the context in which it is found.  Context is so essential in interpreting scripture correctly.  And the verse which summarizes the context up to this point best is vs 16 and 17. “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]”  What Paul is saying here is that if we have become children of God by the new birth of the Holy Spirit, then we have a glorious inheritance that awaits us in eternity, but the path to glory goes through the valley of suffering in the present world.

Now we have already discussed this verse in previous studies, so I don’t want to belabor it again, but suffice it to say that what Paul is saying there is that suffering is an integral part of the Christian experience.  Health, wealth and prosperity is not typically the means that God chooses, but suffering is the way that God uses to bring His children to glory. It is the means that God uses to change us, to conform us to be like Christ in this present world.

I’m afraid that this principle is not something that gets a lot of airtime on Christian radio and television.  The expectation of Christian suffering doesn’t sell a lot of books.  We all want three steps to some sort of mountain top experience.  Or we want seven steps to a better, more fulfilling life as a Christian. And of course that usually includes all the physical and material “blessings” which we think will help us live out the American dream.

That may be the American dream, but it is not the Christian experience which the Bible teaches.  Let me just show you a few verses of scripture which indicate that suffering is the means which God has ordained for the Christian.  To the church at Philippi Paul said in Phil. 1:29 “For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”  To Timothy in 2Tim. 2:3 “Suffer hardship with [me,] as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”  Peter in 1Peter 4:19 said “Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” Jesus said to the church at Smyrna in Rev 2:10 'Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  1Peter 5:8-10 Peter says “Be of sober [spirit,] be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  But resist him, firm in [your] faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.  After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen [and] establish you.”  In John 16:33 Jesus said,  "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  

And we could go on and on.  Contrary to our expectations, the Beatitudes talk about suffering being a blessing of the child of God. Jesus talked about taking up your cross and following Him. We don’t have the time to exhaust all that the scripture says about that subject this morning.  But it’s important to understand that suffering is not incidental to the Christian life, but it’s essential.  And furthermore, suffering has a purpose, a Divine purpose.  

So in the context of the suffering that we will endure as children of God, Paul says in vs 28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.”  God causes all things, even what we might think are bad things, He uses our suffering to work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.  God uses our suffering for good. Now that is a hard doctrine, but that’s a true doctrine.  A fundamental doctrine.  

Probably the best illustration I can think of for that principle is that of Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, spent 13 years in prison for something he was not guilty of, only to eventually be released and put second in command under Pharaoh.  But what’s important to see in that was how Joseph responded many years later when his brother’s finally came and bowed down to him as he had dreamed they would when he was but a boy.  They were afraid that he would put them to death for what they had done to him.  But what did he say to them?  “You meant it for evil, but God used it for good.”

Notice that please.  It was evil that they did to Joseph.  He suffered tremendously for many  years. He was sold into slavery because of their hatred and he suffered greatly. But what purpose did God achieve in Joseph through that suffering? God used Joseph’s suffering for good. He made Joseph like Christ.  Joseph became the means of salvation for his people.  He became a type of Christ.  He was able to love his enemies like Christ loves.  He was able to forgive his enemies like Christ forgives.

So what Paul calls “good” is not necessarily the kinds of things we might call good, depending on the circumstances we find ourselves in.  What he calls good must be examined in light of the fact that the Christian loves God.  Notice that is how Paul phrases this; “God works all things together for good to those who love God.” Now we talk in the church all the time about love, especially Christian love.  We just finished studying what is called the great love chapter in 1 Cor. 13 in our Wednesday night Bible study.  And so we know that this is not an emotion base or sentimental love Paul is talking about.  The love which God has for us, and which we are to have for Him, is a sacrificial love.  It’s a selfless love.  It’s a love which wants what is best for the other, not what is best for us.  It is a love for God that is born out of the fact that God first loved us, so we love Him.  And this is love, that Christ suffered and  died to save sinners.  Oh, that kind of love then.  The kind of love we are talking about is a love that lays down his life for his friends.  That suffers all things, bears all things, endures all things, for the sake of the One whom we love.  To that person who loves God as He loves us, God causes all things to work together for good, even our suffering.

Then to  even further delineating this providence of God, Paul gives the caveat that those who love God are also called according to His purpose. So it’s not my purposes, my grand design, my 25 year plan that God is obligated to fix everything so it works out nice and tidy and I get what I want, so that I can rub my hands together and say “boy, life is good!”  But if I am called according to His purpose, if I am enjoined with God’s purposes, if I love God so much that I am willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary to do His will, then God will cause all things to work together for good, to accomplish His purpose.

Ok then, the next logical question is what is God’s purpose?  I believe the question has already been answered to some degree by the illustration of Joseph.  But nevertheless, Paul makes it clear in the next paragraph. Look at vs29, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” 

Now right about here, most theologians and a lot of preachers stop preaching, and start talking about theology.  And theology is necessary and it has it’s place.  But it’s possible to spend an hour or two on a dissertation of Calvinism  and completely miss the point of what Paul is saying here.  What I find discomfiting sometimes in discussions of theology is that we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to define what God can and can’t do, as opposed to figuring out what God wants us to do.  We spend a lot of time trying to define the undefinable, to know the unknowable.  To explain where the beginning and end are in eternity. 

But my take on a lot of high minded theology is to simply say that if God said it, then I believe it.  I don’t have to understand it.  Predestination and foreknowledge and election are things that my finite mind cannot comprehend.  And so talking about what I think God can and cannot do is not very productive. If you can understand eternity, then maybe you can figure out election and predestination. But God doesn’t use a lot of pen and ink trying to explain such things.  He just declares them.  But He does spend a lot of time explaining what He requires of us.  And so I think we would be better served to focus our time and energy on what He requires of us, and let God take care of being God.

That being said, however, we can clearly take away something important inn what Paul says here.  And that is that God has a plan. God has a purpose.  We may not understand exactly how foreknowledge and predestination work, but anyone can understand that you have to have a plan and a purpose for there to be foreknowledge and predestination. How can you predestine something unless you first plan what it is you want to accomplish?  So God has a plan and a purpose from eternity past.  And that plan and purpose is to bring many sons to glory.  

Hebrews 2:10 says, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” That’s exactly what Paul is indicating here in vs 29. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined  (that means God planned, He predetermined) for many people to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that Christ would be the firstborn among many brethren.”  Notice the last part of that statement, so that Christ would be the firstborn among MANY brethren.” Same thought as in Hebrews; Christ bringing many sons to glory.  God’s purpose in sending His Son to the world is to bring many other children to Him.

And to make them sons, or children, that are similar to Christ is the purpose of God.  Paul has already established earlier the benefits of being adopted into the family of God.  That we are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. Now he makes the point that the purpose of God is just not to save them from hell, but to make them like Christ.  Notice how he says this; “He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.”  That is God’s purpose, to bring them into conformity to the image of Christ.  To make them look like Christ, to act like Christ, to have the righteousness of Christ, to have the Spirit of Christ, to do the works of Christ.  That’s what it means to be in conformity to the image of Christ.  Paul is talking about our sanctification. 

Sanctification is the process of being remade in the image of Christ.  Now that happens in the chain of salvation.  And Paul states that chain of events which results in our salvation.  Remember as  I have told you before that salvation has three parts; justification, sanctification, and glorification.  Justification occurs when we accept Jesus as our Savior, believing in what He did on the cross on our behalf, and as a result of our faith in Him God forgives us of our sins, and transfers the righteousness of Christ to us. At that point we are declared righteous, and we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

So having become what Jesus called “born again”, He begins the process of sanctification in us.  This is the life of a Christian.  It’s the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in this present body, in this present life.  And as Paul has just indicated, God uses suffering to shape us into Christ’s image. Suffering is one of the tools that God uses to chip away the dross, to chip away the weights and the sin which so easily besets us, and to shape us into a work of art, really a work of love, in which we begin to take on the characteristics of Christ as we deny the flesh and walk in the Spirit. Suffering is the means of our sanctification.

Now that process of sanctification lasts until the last phase of our salvation, which is when we are gathered to be with the Lord.  That last phase of our salvation is glorification, in which this body of flesh will be made incorruptible.  We will be changed physically to be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.  We will receive a glorified body that will not have the sin nature any longer.  A body that will never die.  It will never have disease.  Because it will have no sin. And in that phase we will ever be with the Lord.  In that glorification phase we will inherit what God has prepared for those who love Him.  In that stage, the eternal plan of God to bring many sons to glory will be realized finally and completely.  The plan of God, which cannot fail, which was predetermined before the world began, will be brought to it’s consummation in the Kingdom of God.  And as Paul indicated earlier, heaven and earth will be remade to be the Paradise of God, where we that love God will be able to be with Him and live with Him, and love and serve Him forever.

So that is the good that God causes to work together for our sakes, to bring many sons to glory.  To conform many sons and daughters to the image of Jesus Christ.  That many sons and daughters will share in the inheritance of Christ.  That brings us back to the verse we started with, vs 17, 17 “and if [we are] children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

Oh Christian, if you hear me today, do not be dismayed at the fiery trials which have come upon you, which come upon you for your testing, as if some strange thing were happening to you, “but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”  

John Cowper wrote a hymn of which the following verse is famous.  He said, “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.”  Let us trust God in the suffering, in the trials and in the storms.  He has a purpose and a plan to call many sons to glory through suffering with Christ and being conformed to the image of Christ.  And He has promised to make sure that the chain of salvation is completed in us.  He will not lose even one of His sheep.  

Perhaps there is someone here today that has heard the call of God upon their heart.  Today if you hear the voice of God calling you, do not harden your heart.  Call upon the Lord when He may be found.  If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He will adopt you into His family so that you will receive the inheritance of glory.  If God is calling you today I hope and pray that you will answer Him, that you may become a child of God.  

Three groanings, Romans 8:18-27

Last week we looked at the blessings and benefits of  what Paul described in vs 15 as adopted into the family of God, as a child of God.  I would remind you that adoption as children of God is not a natural condition.  Contrary to popular opinion, we are not naturally children of God, but Jesus said we were naturally children of our father the devil. Consequently we are all sinners and under the condemnation of death by natural birth.  But for those who have believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, who have trusted in His substitutionary atonement on their behalf by His death and resurrection,  then they are born again spiritually, and at that point they are adopted into the family of God.

Now last week we looked at some of the blessings that are promised to the children of God. Not the least of which Paul states that we are now heirs of God.  He says in vs17 that we are heirs. “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.”  Just think, we are co heirs with Christ.  We will share in the glory that is going to be given to Christ.  That’s an incredible, incomprehensible blessing that is part of our inheritance as the children of God.

Now verse 17 connects two things that we would normally never put together: sufferings and glory, or what someone has called the hurts and hallelujahs. And you will find that these two things they are almost always connected in the scripture.There is a popular false doctrine that is being taught in some churches today that claim hardship or suffering or illness or lack of anything you desire is contrary to the gospel.  But if you read this passage you must conclude that that doctrine is in error.  The road of Christianity is one of suffering and glory.  But the cross comes before the glory. 

Suffering and glory belong together, and you find them together in almost every passage of Scripture that deals with the suffering of the Christian. For instance, the Apostle Paul links them together in 2 Corinthians 4:17 saying: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

John seems to reference that two dimensional experience of a Christian in 1John 3:2 saying, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” Again we see these presumably two opposing dimensions of our Christian life connected. There is a present condition that is typified by suffering, and a future dimension in which we will be like Christ in glory. And so in this passage we are looking at today, we see these two dimensions detailed in three arenas; in the arena of the creation, or nature, in the human arena, as in our personal experience as the children of God, and then even in the spiritual arena, as the Holy Spirit suffers with us.

Paul is speaking here of the present sufferings of the children of God, and their future glorification.  And I would add that suffering can take many forms.  It may involve persecution, though I would say we haven’t seen a lot of that in this country. However, I think we are heading in that direction.  But it can also take the form of family reproach.  It can come from situations in your career or job as a Christian.  It can take the form of isolation, loneliness, as it becomes difficult to have friends or loved ones because of your Christian convictions.  Jesus said the world hated Me, so don’t be surprised if it hates you. There are many ways you can suffer as a Christian.

However, the Bible teaches that suffering is used by God for a good purpose. That’s what vs 28 is talking about. Vs 28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.” Paul issn’t saying that everything in life is going to work out fine.  Don’t worry, be happy.  But he is saying that God will use everything, even suffering, for His purposes, and His purposes are good.  Suffering is used to purify His people, to sanctify us, to shape us into the image of Jesus Christ as we share in His sufferings.

So, our sufferings as believers - physical, emotional, whatever they may be - are directly linked with the glory that is coming. The important thing we need to see is that both the sufferings and the glory are privileges that are given to us. It is easy for Christians reading these passages to get the idea that we earn our glory by the sufferings that we go through.  But as this passage makes clear, glory is as part of our inheritance in Christ. And suffering, also, is our inheritance in Christ. Suffering is a privilege committed to us. Paul says this again very plainly in Philippians 1:29: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his  sake.”

In the early church, it is recorded in Acts that those Christians actually rejoiced in their sufferings. Peter and John, Paul and Silas and many others rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Lord. And though they may have been beaten and mistreated, they went away rejoicing because God had counted them worthy to bear suffering for his name's sake. That kind of perspective is what makes it possible for us to endure suffering and, more than that, to actually rise above it with rejoicing. James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” We can only consider suffering joy it as a privilege to share in Christ’s sufferings, and a means by which He makes us like Christ.

The blows by the hammer on the steel may be hard, and the fire may be intense, but what is produced on the anvil will be a weapon that will be fit for service to God.  

Jesus promised a blessing in Matthew 5:11-12 for those that suffer. He said, "Blessed are you when men persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for his name's sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.”

So the theme of this passage is found in vs 18; “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  The theme is that incomparable glory lies after a time of suffering - glory beyond description, greater than anything you can compare it with on earth. A glory that will make the present suffering seem but a drop in the bucket of what God has planned for us.  We have a tremendous inheritance that awaits us as the children of God after we go through a temporary time of suffering here on earth.

So the apostle says, “Our sufferings are not worthy to be even mentioned in comparison with the glory that is to follow.”  Now, that statement could just be written off as hyperbole if it didn't come from a man like Paul. He was a man who suffered immensely. I’m sure that no one listening today has gone through even a fraction of the suffering that Paul endured. 

Paul listed some of his sufferings in 2Co 11:23-28 saying to some who had criticized him, “Are they servants of Christ?--I speak as if insane--I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.  Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine [lashes.]  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.  [I have been] on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from [my] countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren;  [I have been] in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.  Apart from [such] external things, there is the daily pressure on me [of] concern for all the churches.”

Even though Paul suffered tremendously, yet he still asserts that the suffering we experience is not even a drop in the bucket compared with the immensity of glory that is coming. This is the incredible glory that God has prepared for those who love him.

We can endure the suffering, and even triumph in it, because we see the glory that is to follow. But the future glory is preceded by three types of suffering, which Paul describes as characterized by groaning. So there are three groanings that he makes mention of in the remainder of this passage, which are but precursors of the glory which is to follow.

The first groaning is that from nature. Paul says that creation is suffering while waiting for the glory that is coming. Verse 19 tells us that nature is waiting for something: “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” The word in the Greek language which is translated “anxious longing" is an interesting word. It is a word that pictures a man standing and looking for something to happen, craning his head forward. 

Paul goes on to say that the creation was subjected to futility, or frustration. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly (not by original design), but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

Paul is saying that creation not only is waiting for something, but that it is doing so because it is linked with man. Creation fell when man fell. Not only did our whole race fall into the bondage of sin and death, as the earlier chapters of Romans explain, but the earth fell as well. God said in Genesis 3; “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face. You will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

It was man's sin that caused thorns and bramble to overrun nature. It was man's sin that made the animals to fear and devour one other.  With the fall of man came the curse of death upon the earth. And so the earth was subject to futility. It no longer is what it was intended to be; a paradise which was made for man to enjoy.

But Paul argues that it is also true that when the Christian is delivered from the corruption, nature will be delivered as well. Therefore, when the time comes when the sons of God are going to be revealed - when it shall appear what shall be, as 1 John 3:2 says, when what we have become in our spirits, sons of the living God, shall become evident - in that day, nature will be freed from its bondage as well and reborn as the Paradise of God. 

That is the time on earth spoken of in Isaiah 11:6-9 “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them.  Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox.  The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.” That is the renewal that creation looks forward to.

But for now, under the weight of the curse, yet in anticipation of that day, the apostle says, nature groans, but it groans in hope (Verse 22): ”For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” As Paul said earlier, nature groans in the hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage of decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  It groans under the suffering of sin that has kept it in bondage to futility.  And so Paul likens the suffering of creation as to the groans of a woman in labor, as she bears with the suffering, because she has a hope that something much better will be produced through her present labor and hardship.

A point that should be emphasized perhaps is that this teaches us that nature is made for man.  It was to be his domain, under his rule.  And when man fell, his domain fell under a similar judgment.  God cursed the ground because of man’s sin.  So in like respect, when man is regenerated in glory, then nature will be regenerated into glory as well.  Peter speaks of the fact that heavens and earth will be burned with a fervent heat, but we look forward to a new heaven and new earth.  The end of the earth as we know it will not be by flood, but by fire.  A purifying fire from which the earth will produce a new vegetation, a new animal life, in which there is no decay, no effects of sin, which will be compatible to the new glory which man will also enjoy.

The second groaning that Paul describes is that of the children of God in their present condition. Vs23 “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for [our] adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he [already] sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."

Paul says here that though we ourselves are redeemed in spirit, our bodies are not yet redeemed; and so being in the corrupt flesh, we, too, are groaning.  He said as much about his own experience in chapter 7 concluding “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” It was as if Paul is groaning in his spirit because of this great conflict within him between what he wants to do to please God, and what his flesh is found to be doing in spite of his best intentions. Because of his justification he has the first fruits of the Spirit.  He is seeing some evidence in terms of the fruit of righteousness because of the inward dwelling of the Holy Spirit.  But he is frustrated by the lack of perfection that he wants to achieve. And so he groans in his spirit in suffering under the burden of the flesh, and yet anticipating the future glory of  the body at the consummation.

 All through this passage there is a constant contrast between the groan and the glory; yet there is a link between the two. Nature groans; we groan. And yet the groaning, or suffering,  is producing the glory. I remind you again of what Paul said in Second Corinthians 4:17: “For momentary, light affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”  Suffering is preparing us by sanctifying us, conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ by sufferings.  

PhIl. 3:10-11 says, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Our sufferings, our groaning, is producing in us a future glorification as we are being made like Christ spiritually, and will one day be like Him in body as well.

But in the meantime we groan because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  We groan because of the havoc that sin makes in our lives, and in the lives of those we love. We groan because we see opportunities that are not being taken advantage of. We groan because we waste the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that, as Jesus drew near the tomb of Lazarus, He groaned in His Spirit because he was so burdened by the ravages that sin had made in the lives of those He loved. He groaned, even though he knew that he would soon raise Lazarus from the dead. So we groan in our spirits -- we groan in disappointment, in bereavement, in sorrow. We groan physically in our pain and our limitation. Life consists of a great deal of groaning. But the apostle immediately adds that this is a groaning which has hope. 

The Christian perspective is that, though the body is in pain and suffering and disappointment now, this is an important tool that God uses in our lives. It is something that is part of the purposes and plan of God, part of the privilege committed to us as Christians. We suffer with Christ that we might be like Christ. As he suffered, so do we, that we might also be glorified, even as He is.  As vs 17 said, “if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” That is our hope that makes the suffering bearable.  We have a hope that is not now realized, it is in the future, but it is nevertheless a sure hope.  A hope which the author of Hebrews calls the anchor of the soul. And so again, we are taught that our hope of a life of pleasant living, of everything working out, a life of health, wealth and prosperity is not God’s plan for the life of a Christian.  But there will be trials, there will be suffering, their will be groaning, and yet there is a firm conviction which we call the blessed hope,  which will make it all worth it all when we see Jesus.

Then there is the final groaning which is found in vs26, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for [us] with groanings too deep for words;  and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to [the will of] God.”

Paul says the Spirit is groaning. The Spirit is groaning with words which cannot be uttered. This passage helps us in our understanding of prayer. The apostle says that we do not know what to pray as we ought. We lack wisdom. I want to point out that this is not an encouragement not to pray. Some people think this means that since we don't know how to pray as we ought, and if the Spirit is going to pray for us anyway, then we don't need to pray. But that would contradict many other passages of Scripture, such as James 4:2, which says. "You have not because you ask not.” God does want us to pray, and we are constantly encouraged to pray. Jesus taught us to pray. He asked His disciples to continue with Him in prayer in the Garden of Gethsamane. In Philippians 4:6, Paul tells us that in everything, with prayer and supplication, we are to let our requests be made known to God.

But the great encouragement should be that the Spirit prays with us, according to the will of God, to help us in our weakness.  That weakness is our weakness in temptation, it’s our weakness in steadfastness. It’s the weakness of our body of flesh.  And the Spirit who is in us, who understands and emphasizes with us, who also knows the heart of God and the will of God, helps us by praying with us.  

This verse is commonly misinterpreted to try to vouch for some kind of ecstatic speech, speaking in tongues, or an unintelligible prayer language of our spirit.  But to make such an  extrapolation from this verse is very simply bad exegesis.  Paul makes it clear that it is the Spirit praying, not us praying.  He is praying for us, because we are weak.  Because we are prone to sin.  Because we live in a fallen world and in fleshly bodies. Because we don’t always know the will of God. And so God has given us a Helper, who prays for us according to the will of God.

I am reminded of Jesus’s admonition to Peter when He said, “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.  But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  So as the Spirit of Christ continues the ministry of Christ as our Helper, as our Comforter, He also prays for us, that our faith will not fail, that we might do the will of God.  And that kind of intercession is essential to the process of our sanctification.  We would never be able to do the will of God without the Spirit of Christ working in us, and helping us, and praying for us.

Everyone that is living on this earth will suffer from the effects of the fall to some degree or another.  No one gets out of here alive.  It is appointed for man to die, and after that the judgment.  But for those who have trusted in Christ as their Savior, who have repented of their sin and been born again as children of God, there is a hope that this is not all that there is.  We have a promise of God, who cannot lie,  that we will receive an inheritance that is equal to the inheritance which is Christ’s.  That hope gives us assurance and even joy as we live our lives with a view towards the future.  If you are here this morning and you don’t have that hope, but have come to the realization that life without the Lord is hopeless, then I urge you to come to Christ today as your Savior and Lord.  He who believes in Him will never die.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  And you can know the same hope that we have.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  Don’t waste this opportunity.  Call on Him today and He will make you a child of God, an heir of salvation, and give you a future inheritance of glory with Christ.  

Children of God, Romans 8: 12-17

The point that I think Paul is making here is who is in control of your life.  He has made the case very clearly, starting in chapter 7, that there are two natures at war in your body; that which is flesh, and sinful, and that which is Spirit.  Paul uses the phrase or something like it again and again in this passage, a phrase like “of the Spirit,” “or by the Spirit,” or “led by the Spirit.”  

Now the question arises what is meant by “in the Spirit?”  A lot of people get off track on this whole subject of the Spirit.  The primary mistake they make is thinking that the Spirit is an unseen force rather than the third person of the Godhead.  So it’s not a matter of how much Spirit you have as if He is like electric current; ie, 110 volt or 220 volt, etc.  No, He is a person of the Godhead and we receive Him at salvation.  As Paul said in vs 9 “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”  So the Spirit is not just an unseen force but He is the Spirit of Christ, so that Paul say’s in the next verse that “If Christ dwells in you…”  So there is a oneness in the Godhead that enables us to have the Spirit of Christ in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The other mistake that is commonly made is that being in the Spirit is communicated by a feeling.  They talk about getting goosebumps or succumbing to tears or feelings of ecstasy or  exuberance or some sort of feeling which they attribute to the Spirit.  So the Spirit is relegated to an emotion that moves you inwardly or makes you feel something.  But the Bible never relates the presence of the Spirit as a feeling, but as in knowledge. We know the presence of the Spirit because of knowledge based on God’s truth, not by some experience.

The Bible teaches that the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.  He is a person that dwells in us.  And as God, He gives life to our spirit, so that we are spiritually alive in Christ, and our spirit is now reestablished in the hierarchy that was ordained by God in Creation, but which was overturned at the fall.  That hierarchy is spirit, soul and body.  And that reestablishment of our original design as humans was accomplished by the Spirit when we were born again. Jesus said in John 3:6 says "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Before our salvation we were living in bondage to the body, or flesh, but now our renewed spirit is governing our soul, or mind, and our mind is exerting control over our body or flesh.  That is the divine order that we are to operate under as born again Christians.  And our spirit is in communion with the Holy Spirit who indwells us and controls us.  

Now the old nature, the flesh, still remains in us.  And Paul says that the way we give control to the Spirit, or live by the Spirit, is to kill off the flesh. We don’t need to seek more of the Spirit, but we need to have less flesh. God said in Genesis 6:3, ““My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh.” We are not obligated to listen to the flesh any longer nor to obey the flesh any longer.  Notice vs 12, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  

So though the flesh remains we are not obligated to it. But we are indebted to the Spirit. 1Cor. 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  We belong to a new Master.  We have been married to a new Bridegroom.  If we were to continue to live according to the flesh he says in vs13 the outcome would be death.  But by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh and the outcome is life. So Paul says in 1 Cor. that he buffets his body and makes it his slave.

But what does Paul mean, by “the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body?”  Does that mean we don’t do anything, we just lay back and watch the Spirit of Christ put to death the deeds of our body?  No, Paul relates this as something we are responsible for.  Notice that Paul says “you are putting to death the deeds of the body.”  Our body is something that is under the control of our mind, whether consciously or unconsciously.  So how do we by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body?  Well, the answer must be, by the controlling influence of the Spirit, by the wisdom of the Spirit, we deliberately put to death anything that we would do  that is contrary to God.  We recognize by the illumination of the Spirit that certain things are sinful, that they are contrary to God’s will for us, and we decide in our will that we will not respond to those desires of the flesh. We choose to die to those things that the Spirit of God tells us are wrong. And we choose to live to those things which are of the Spirit.

In Joshua 24:15 the Israelites were told; “choose you this day whom you will serve.”  And in Matthew 7:24 Jesus told a parable about a man who built his house upon the sand, and another man who built his house upon a rock.  They made a choice which life they were going to live, based on hearing the words of Christ and acting or not acting upon them. There is a choice whom we will serve. We have a responsibility to choose whom to obey.

So then to the degree to which we yield to the Spirit and deny the flesh, then we do things of  the Spirit, and by the Spirit.  He controls us.  Paul states it that way in 2Cor. 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

Now if you are being controlled by the Spirit, if you are choosing to serve Him and denying the flesh, then you are obviously being led by the Spirit.  He is leading, we are following His leading.  So Paul says in vs 14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”  Paul is now going to enumerate further the benefits of our relationship with God.  Paul has used the analogy of slaves to a new master, and he has compared us to the bride of Christ, and now Paul says we that are led by the Spirit are sons of God.  Now sons of God means children of God, as we can see in vs 16. But the reason that he generically lumps us all together as “sons” is because in that culture, the sons were the ones to whom was left the inheritance. 

We have already addressed this concept of being led by the Spirit. It means our sanctification (that is as we are formed into the image of Christ) is something that is orchestrated by the Spirit as He indwells us, as He corrects us, as He teaches us, as He controls us, as He illumines our hearts and minds, as He gifts us, and as He produces in us the fruits of the Spirit.

And since we are led by the Spirit, Paul says we are not under the spirit of slavery, which leads to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption.  Consider how tremendous our salvation is in light of this verse.  We once were enslaved to sin and under the penalty of death.  But the blood of Jesus Christ was the payment by which we were bought by a new Master.  Under this new Master we were purchased to be slaves of righteousness.  But God was not content with keeping us as slaves.  Lo and behold, God loved us so much, even when we were slaves, that He wanted us to be HIs children, and so He adopted us. God chose us to be His children.   

Imagine a low level slave in Rome in the first century.  He is put on the auction block for sale.  And an incredibly wealthy and wise man buys that slave and takes him to his home.  But instead of sending him to the fields, he washes him, cleans him up, dresses him in the finest clothes, and announces to him that he is going to adopt him to be his son.  And then before the startled slave can comprehend how great it is to be a son, the master tells him that he is also going to make him the heir of all that his estate.  This formally worthless, penniless, hopeless slave is made an heir to an incredibly wealthy estate and is able to live with this man, not just as his master, but as his father.  That’s a picture of what God has done for us.

The apostle John writes in 1John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and [such] we are.”  I don’t know if the tremendous blessing of the fact that God is our Father has escaped you.  I fear that it has for me to some degree.  I have accepted the reality of my salvation to be sure.  I know that I am saved.  But I must confess that I have not fully comprehended all the wonders of the fact that I am a child of God, that He has chosen me to be His son and all the blessings that go with that.

Listen, in a great house in the time of the Romans, there would have been a tremendous difference between the way a son lived and acted, and the way a slave acted.  A son has an assurance and confidence as he lives in the house that comes from knowing that all belongs to him.  Whereas a slave lives with the awareness that nothing belongs to him, and his very life belongs to his master.  And so there would have been a sense of dread upon the slave, but a sense of freedom and confidence in the son.  And that is the relationship that we have with God as His adopted children.

And because we are adopted into God’s family as His children, we can call out to Him, “Abba, Father!”  Abba is the Aramaic for father.  Paul, as did Mark, adds Father after Abba for their Greek and Roman readers.  But it’s not necessary to say both.   Father is an intimate expression of our relationship and of His love for us.

Perhaps you have seen photographs of President John F. Kennedy  that were taken in the Oval Office, and his young son is hiding under his desk.  Here is the most important man in the world, and yet when his son calls out “Daddy” he stops everything he is doing, and scoops up the young boy and sets him on his lap.  That’s a picture of the relationship we have with our Father, whose ears are tuned to hear our cry of “Abba.”

Jesus called the Father “Abba” in the Garden of Gethsemane. He used “Father” when He taught His disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer. He constantly referred to God as His Father. And the amazing thing is that we have that same privilege that Christ had as the Son of God, as we are the children of God.

Now as to that assurance that we are indeed the children of God, it says in vs 16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”  So there are two that bear witness to our relationship with God.  The Holy Spirit gives evidence to us by the fact that we are filled with His presence, and by the fact that He leads us.  If we had not the Spirit of Christ, Paul said earlier, then we would not belong to Him.  But the fact that we have the Spirit in us is evidence that we are His children.  

But also Paul says that our spirit bears witness that we are His children as well.  How is that? John gives us an indication of how that occurs in 1John 3:10, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

So as our spirit is in communion with the Holy Spirit and under His leading, then it controls the mind and body so that the deeds of the flesh are put to death and the works of righteousness are accomplished in us, is that not evidence that our spirit is regenerated and that we are children of God?  Paul says that it certainly is.  

Now that sonship that Paul speaks of expands logically into heirship. Vs 17, “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]”  The state of being a child implies the benefit of being an heir, which of course, means that there is an inheritance in store for us.  This is an immediate benefit and blessings which comes from being a child of God, but there is also a future blessing which comes as Paul says at the end of this verse “that we may also be glorified with Him.”

In an inheritance, there is a will. It’s often called the last will and testament of so and so.  And the one who is writing the will, is called a testator.  So who is the testator of this will?  It is no less than God, our Father.  Christ of course is the main heir of the Father, but again the amazing thing is that He has declared us to be co heirs with Christ. 

Let’s consider the inheritance that God has promised us.  Like the imaginary master who adopted his slave, our Father’s estate is beyond our imagination.  Haggai 2:8 says that all the gold and silver are His.  Psalm 50:10 says that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and all the animals in the forests. Everything belongs to Him, and He is ruler over all. Solomon in all his glory can not begin to compare with the glory that belongs to God. 

According to Revelation 3:12 we will inherit a new name.  In Rev.4:4 John says we shall receive a crown of gold. In chapter 20 vs 4 John says with Him we shall reign. Probably the greatest aspect of our inheritance is found in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”  We will be like Him.  What an amazing thought, that we will become like God.

In vs 18, which we will be looking at in more detail next week, Paul says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” 

In 1Cor. 2:9  Paul quotes from Isaiah saying, “but just as it is written, ‘THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND [which] HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.’”  The long and short of it is our inheritance cannot be even comprehended.  And what is known, especially that the glory which was given to Jesus is the same glory that we are promised to share with Him, that we will rule with Him, we who were slaves will become kings with God,  is unfathomable.

The caveat though is that there will be suffering experienced here if we are God’s children. If we will share in Christ’s glory, then we will also share in Christ’s suffering. And perhaps that is another witness of the fact that we are children of God.  The devil certainly recognizes the Spirit of Christ in us and he will do all that he can within his power to make us suffer, hoping that we might deny Christ, even as Job’s wife urged him to deny Christ to end his suffering. 

But if we are children of God, and if we believe the promises that our Father has given to us, then we cannot deny our Father. And the promises that we have are the hope that is within us, that enables us to suffer with Him, so that we might be glorified with Him in the resurrection. 

Suffering as a Christian can take many forms.  It can mean alienation from loved ones.  It can cause problems on the job, even possibly losing your job because of your testimony or your refusal to participate in certain things that they want you to do.  Suffering may take place at school, for those who are still of that age.  It may take the form of being a social outcast. 

But it’s important that if we suffer, as Paul indicates, it’s because we are a Christian, and not because we have done wrong and suffer the consequences of it.  Peter says in 1 Peter 4:12-19  “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;  but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.  If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.  Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler;  but if [anyone suffers] as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.  For [it is] time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if [it] [begins] with us first, what [will be] the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?  Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

Let me close then by reminding you of what we started with.  That if you are of the Spirit, if you are being led by the Spirit, then you are being controlled by the Spirit.  The Spirit of Christ works in you to sanctify you. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, you “are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.”  I urge you then as children of God to yield to the Spirit of Christ.  He will speak to you the words of Christ and bring to your remembrance the things that He has taught us.  He will correct you and convict you when you stray from the way of righteousness.  Listen to Him, follow him, and He will direct your paths.  And that path is the path of righteousness, whereby we are being conformed to the image of Christ here on earth, that we might share in the glory of Christ in the future consummation of the kingdom when Christ returns for the children of God.  You are children of God.  May the grace of God enable  us to live as such. 

No Condemnation, Romans 8:1-11

In our study of Romans 7 over the last couple of weeks, we learned that Paul describes an inner  struggle that is going on in our life as a Christian.  He summarized that struggle in chapter 7 vs 25, “So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”  This is the summary of the struggle that Paul describes in chapter 7. He said there are two laws or principles at work in him.  And this is the personal experience of Paul.  Notice the redundant use of “I myself.”  I think Paul wants us to know that this is not just theoretical postulation. But it’s the actual experience of someone whom we would all agree was probably one of the most godly people that ever lived.

And Paul makes himself an example so that we might have encouragement, as we are also beset with trials and temptations, and we often find ourselves falling back into the sin of the old man which we thought we were delivered from. But like Paul, we must realize that there are two natures or principles at work in us, what he calls the law of sin in the flesh or body, and the law of the Spirit in the mind.  He says in [Rom 7:21 “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.  For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,  but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”

This struggle in the life of Paul caused him to cry out in a sense of frustration, “Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death?” The answer he gives is that thank God, Christ Jesus has set us free from the body of death. What that means is that God has declared us free forensically in the court of divine judgment.  Another person has died for our transgressions so that we are pardoned and set free. But though we have been declared free and given new life in our spirit, the flesh is a creature of habit.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  The flesh has not been made new.  The spirit in us has been reborn and is new but it must now exercise dominion over the old nature.  The flesh still exists, but we are no longer obligated to it. We are set free to serve the Spirit by the spirit, through a renewed  mind, which takes dominion over the flesh. 

Now having understood that law of the two natures, and the new dominion over the flesh which we have in Christ, Paul goes on to add a really important principle that underscores this new life in the Spirit.  And the principle is this: Rom 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation means freedom not only from the guilt of sin, but freedom from the enslaving power of sin.   Those who have trusted in Christ have been justified, that is freed from the condemnation of sin.  And those who have trusted in Christ have are being sanctified, the mind and the flesh are being set free from the condemning power of sin as a process of the Spirit of God working in us.  

Justification is accomplished for the believer when he comes to Jesus in faith, and the penalty of sin which is due to us is transferred to Jesus Christ.  He paid the penalty for our sin.  He was condemned to death for what we did.  That is what “no condemnation” means for those who are in Christ.  We are not condemned because He was condemned in our place.  He died in our place.  And God is not so unjust as to still hold us accountable when someone else has paid the penalty. So therefore there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.

Sanctification happens when the justified believer receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who gives us life, who gives us power, who gives us a new heart, so that  the life which we live in the flesh is now accomplished through the power of the Spirit within us, so that we have new desires, and that new desire is to please God.  The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is in dominion over our lives so that we no longer live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  Listen carefully to Gal. 2:20,  "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  Notice, the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”  The Spirit of God in me gives me the power to live in the flesh.

And that’s exactly the point that Paul states in vs2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”  So through Christ, the working principle of the Spirit has set us free from the working principle of sin and death.  Notice Paul speaks about the “law (or principle) of the Spirit of life.”   In other words, the Spirit is life and He imparts life, both spiritual life and physical life.  He makes that point more explicit in vs 11, which says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”  Notice; “your mortal bodies.” That is your flesh has been given life through the Spirit.

The point should be clear, that the Holy Spirit is given to us that we might have the power to live the life that God has given us.  Before our salvation we lived according to the power of the flesh. We were enslaved to sin, and thus incurred the condemnation of death.  But upon justification, we are given the Spirit of God that we might have new life according to the Spirit and by His power we have the power of the risen life, so that we do not live under the dominion of sin, but under the dominion of the Spirit of God.

So on the one hand in my flesh I am still enslaved to sin, so I find it difficult to do the things which I ought to do.  But on the other hand, the Holy Spirit has set me free so that I am no longer obligated to the flesh and by the Spirit working in me I exercise control over the fleshly nature. There are two natures in my being.  Though I am still a prisoner in the flesh, I am literally in the same old body, yet I have been set free in my spirit. Since I am free in the spirit,  Satan cannot make me do the things that I know are wrong anymore.  Sin has no power over me.  There may still be a weakness in my flesh, a propensity to do wrong,  but there is a greater power working in my spirit through the Spirit of God that enables me to be free from my weaknesses.  

As I quoted the ex slave trader turned preacher John Newton a couple of weeks ago as saying, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”  So I might add; I am a work in progress.  I have been justified, declared righteous in the sight of God, and by the Spirit of God at work in me I am being sanctified, that is being made holy in my body by conformity to the image of Jesus Christ through the Spirit working in me.

This sanctification is accomplished not by any strength of my flesh, but by what Jesus has done for me.  vs.3,4: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God [did:] sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and [as an offering] for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Trying to keep the  law in the strength of my flesh, says Paul, could never accomplish my deliverance from sin, because my flesh was too weak. It wasn’t the laws fault, it was my fault. I can do my best to try to keep the law, but sooner or later I fail miserably because of the weakness of my flesh.  But God did for me what I could not do for myself. 

God sent Jesus to take our condemnation.  We are going to be singing the song, “Hallelujah, What a Savior” in a few minutes.  And there is a line in that song which speaks of this.  It says of Christ, the Man of Sorrows, “bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood, sealed my pardon with His blood, Hallelujah, what a Savior!”  

In Christ’s incarnation, He took on human nature.  I want you to think of this for a moment.  Joe and Nick and I were talking about it on Friday morning in my backyard.  Jesus, who was equal with God in all respects, the exact representation of the nature of God, who was one with God, took on human nature in addition to His divine nature so that He might be like us.  We were made to be like Him, created in His image, in His likeness.  But in sin we fell from that spiritual state, so that in order to save us, and because of His great love for us, Christ lowered Himself, and took on human form, that He might be one of us, that we might be made one with God. He took on two natures even as we have two natures.  And the Bible teaches that He ascended into heaven in that same human body and is thus ever with the Lord and will come again in that same manner.  And so Christ remains the God Man forever so that He might redeem us from the curse of the law.  What a Savior indeed!

We find that same principle stated in Phil. 2:5-8 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  

Notice there the phrase “being made in the likeness of men.”  That’s similar to the thought here in Romans 8:3, “God sending His own Son the the likeness of sinful flesh.”  And God condemned His own Son for our sake, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. The requirement of the law for sin was death.  And it was in Christ’s flesh that God condemned and punished sinful man. It was in our place that Jesus stood condemned and bore the wrath of God’s punishment for sin. We cannot comprehend the horror that the Holy One of God had to bear as He became sin for us in order to be our substitute.  And yet He did it for us so that we might be set free and receive life.  Our response should be that of gratitude for what He did for us, we might respond by striving to fulfill  His standard of righteousness.

Vs. 4 says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” And we strive to fulfill that standard of righteousness according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  So that according to the last part of the verse, we “do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”  Righteousness then is the fruit of the Spirit.  On Wednesday nights we are studying 1 Corinthians, and we are looking right now at the gifts of the Spirit.  And I made the point then, which I hope you remember, which is that the gifts of the Spirit are given to produce the fruits of the Spirit.  What are the fruits of the Spirit? The short answer is righteousness. 

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”  To walk in the flesh is to walk according to my sinful nature, which results in selfishness and greed and anger and so forth.  But the opposite way of life is to be led by the Spirit to produce works of righteousness, which are the fruits of the Spirit.

A few verses earlier in Gal 5:16-18, Paul says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”  He says if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law, that is under the condemnation of the law.

Back in Romans 8, Paul tells us how we can accomplish this by saying in vs 5, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,  because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,]  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Those who live according to the flesh allow themselves to be governed by the lusts, the passions, the desires of the flesh. That’s what they are attuned to.  That’s what they live for; physical things.  And the sinful nature takes opportunity through the desires of their flesh to enslave them to serve the flesh.  They live for things that they think will satisfy the flesh.  That’s what defines their life.

But the opposite attitude should be that of the believer, who now live according to the Spirit.  And  Paul says in vs5 we do that by setting our mind on the things of the Spirit. Therefore, we are controlled by the Spirit, so we focus on the things of the Spirit.  And I would suggest that such things of the Spirit are found in the word of God. The Spirit wrote the word of God. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth.  Not the Spirit of emotion, or the Spirit of feelings. So the way to set your mind on things of God is to read scripture.  That is how the Spirit speaks to us.  It’s not through suggestion in the mind. I would warn against listening for a still small voice in your head.  There are a lot of crazy people running around claiming that they have heard God tell them something.  God speaks to us through His word and the preaching of His word.  Every thing that claims it is God speaking must be reconciled to His word.  

So there are two natures, and men must take sides with one nature above another.  On the one side are those who live according to the flesh, and the other side those who live according to the Spirit.  And there are two outcomes for those lives.  The life lived according to the flesh is death, but the life lived according to the Spirit is life and peace.  If a person is focused on the flesh, then Paul says that the end of that person is death.  But if you are focused on the Spirit, then you will have life, as opposed to death, and then the added benefit, which is peace.

What is peace? That subject came up the other day as well,  in my backyard discussion with Joe and Nick.  Jesus said, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives.  So the peace from God is not the same as the peace we often think of in human terms.  I believe that the peace Paul is talking about is the assurance that your sins are forgiven, that your circumstances are being used for God’s good purposes, and that nothing will ever separate you from the love of God.  

But there is another aspect of peace that Paul indicates here by the statement he makes in vs 7, where he says, “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,]  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  He speaks of a hostility towards God by the one who is focused on the flesh.  Hostility is the opposite of peace.  Hostility means they are at war with God.  And the basis of that war with God is they do not submit to the law of God.  God says such and such is sin.  And they say, no such and such is fun.  I like it.  It seems good to me. It feels good so I’m going to do it.  That’s insubordination towards God. 

But peace with God is found by walking according to the Spirit.  It’s a peace of contentment, a lack of striving, a sense of security. But those, Paul says in vs 8 who are living according to the flesh cannot please God. I can picture a mother with a small child who she is holding by the hand, trying to steer this child through a supermarket, and he is struggling, trying to grab things, trying to resist his mother’s guidance.  That’s a picture of living in the flesh in hostility against God.  But the opposite is peace, allowing the Spirit to lead you, being obedient to His will, and being content with His direction.

Now Paul is writing to believers.  And so the difficulty comes in knowing is this person who is living according to the flesh a believer or an unbeliever?  It’s tempting to say it is an unbeliever.  But the context should remind us of chapter 7 vs 22, when Paul said “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,  but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” Paul, the epitome of a Christian said he has a war going on in his body, so that he ended up doing the very thing that he hated. 

So then we must concede that even for believers there is a struggle going on between our two natures, with the result of our life being see sawed between discontent and peace. Isaiah 26:3 says “you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.”  The problem is that we don’t always keep our mind fixed on the Lord. Our mind is not always steadfast. We let our minds start to covet, to think about what others seem to be enjoying in this life, we think about things that appeal to our flesh. And like Peter who tried to walk on water, when we take our eyes off of Jesus we end up sinking fast.  Peter was a believer.  But his experience is evidence that it’s possible to live in the flesh even still.

However, the assurance that we are in Christ comes from the Spirit of Christ living in you.  If you don’t have that, then certainly you are an unbeliever, living according to the flesh and as such under the law of condemnation. Paul says in vs 9 that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  We can know that we are Christians by the confirmation within of the Holy Spirit.  That confirmation is a new heart, new desires, a mind that is focused on the things of God.  I can tell you from experience that conversion results in a hunger for God, a hunger to read His word, to know Him, and a desire to please Him.  And this doesn’t come from the flesh, it can only come from the Spirit. Paul says in vs7 that the fleshly mind is not able to please God.  So a desire for God can only come from the Spirit who is in you.

So in vs9 Paul says “you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, seeing that the Spirit of God dwells in you.” “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Let me try to summarize this then so that we can bring this to a close. The point that Paul is making is that if you have the evidence of the Spirit of Christ in you, then even though the body is sinful, yet your spirit is alive because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. He justified you, made you righteous by His death. But the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, who also dwells in you, will also give life to your mortal body, that is your flesh.  

The point is, we can have victory over sin. That’s what sanctification means; power over sin.  We are not under obligation to the flesh anymore.  Oh, the old nature is still there. There is still an inherent weakness in our flesh that we have to struggle with.  But as we yield to the Spirit, He will give life to our flesh, that we might please the Lord even while in our flesh.  That we might do the works of righteousness even while in our flesh.  Because the Spirit rules over the mind, and the mind rules over the flesh.  And by the Spirit of God the dominion of righteousness can prevail over our sinful nature so that we do not have to succumb to it, but we can live for God.  

Sanctification then is being conformed in our bodies to the image of Jesus Christ.  As Romans 12:1,2 says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We present our bodies, our flesh to God, yielding it in submission to the Holy Spirit, and at the same time fix our minds on things of God, no longer fixing our minds on this world, on the things of this world, and in fixing our minds on the Lord, our minds are transformed, and then in the flesh we can do the will of God, we can do the works of righteousness, that which is good and acceptable and pleasing to God.

Our Christianity may be marked by two natures that are struggling.  But we do not have to live two different lives.  We don’t live one way on Sunday morning and another way on Monday morning.  But by the working of the Spirit of God and by fixing our minds on Him, we can walk with the Spirit day by day, and do the things that are pleasing to God.  We can have the peace which comes from being in fellowship with God.