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Studies in Romans

Studies in Romans. Presentation 19. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS:. OPENING REMARKS : 1:1-17 BAD NEWS : Universality of sin and its condemnation 1:18 - 3:20 GOOD NEWS : A gospel that changes our relationship to God 3:21- 5:21 HOW TO GROW AS A CHRISTIAN : 6:1- 8-39

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Studies in Romans

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  1. Studies in Romans Presentation 19

  2. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS: OPENING REMARKS:1:1-17 BAD NEWS : Universality of sin and its condemnation 1:18 - 3:20 GOOD NEWS : A gospel that changes our relationship to God 3:21- 5:21 HOW TO GROW AS A CHRISTIAN : 6:1- 8-39 Sanctification 6:1-23 Union with Christ and its implications The Place of the Law 7:1-25 Life in the Spirit 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 Practical implications of Life in the Spirit 8v12-17 Suffering and glory 8:18-27 The super-invincibility of the believer 8:28-39 A SHORT DETOUR : Questions concerning Israel 9:1-11:36 HOW A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO LIVE :12:1-15:13 PERSONAL GREETINGS : 16:1-27 Presentation 19

  3. Studies in Romans Life in the Spirit Part 1 Chap 8v1-39 Presentation 19

  4. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 For Paul, "life in the Spirit" is simply another way of describing the Christian life. In ch. 8 Paul is not so much teaching new doctrine but rather re-examining the truths of ch. 5-7 from a different perspective. In 5v5 Paul told us that one of the benefits of justification is the gift of the Spirit. In 6v4 we learn that union with Christ also results in life in the Spirit. In 7v7 we learned that the Christian served God in the new way of the Spirit. When we come to Chap.8 we find that the person and work of the Holy Spirit, already referred to in now unpacked in greater detail. Presentation 19

  5. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 1. A Justified Man Cannot be Condemned. The death of Jesus delivers from the condemnation of God's justice cf. 3.21 . Condemnation is the opposite of justification. In Ch. 7 we learned that the law cannot condemn the Christian for his sin, because Jesus has removed him from the law’s jurisdiction. The law has no extradition treaty with the realm of grace! Why does Paul now return to the subject of condemnation? Because as the Christian tries to please God and becomes aware of his failure, he is constantly the target of accusation. Presentation 19

  6. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 1. A Justified Man Cannot be Condemned. Satan, the 'accuser of the brethren', stirs up accusation saying, “You are not a real Christian, you are living a lie!” The Holy Spirit responds applying the benefits of Christ's death to us. Martin Luther, the famous 16th Century church leader was tormented, almost to breaking point, by Satan's accusations, until God's Spirit pointed to the cross, where the penalty of his guilt had been dealt with and where peace with God had been made. Luther writes that he was ‘able to experience peace within because Jesus had created peace without’. Presentation 19

  7. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 2. The Spirit Counteracts the Influence of Sin. The Holy Spirit has an additional role as empower v2. It is important to understand how he operates. Before becoming Christians, we were slaves to an old order in which sin ruled, resulting in death. But when the law, or rule of the Spirit of Life, with all his dynamic power, breaks into our lives, we are released from our former slavery and brought under the new authority of the Spirit. The breaking in of the new order of the Spirit counteracts the influence of the old. Presentation 19

  8. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 Illustration. Children have difficulty understanding what keeps planes up in the sky. They may understood the law of gravity, but the law of aerodynamics is harder to grasp. But in time they learn that, when an aeroplane flies, the law of aerodynamics overrules the law of gravity. Similarly, the Spirit counteracts the influence and down-drag of sin and enables and empowers the believer to throw off its influence and take off into life. Gravity Aerodynamics Presentation 19

  9. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 3. Salvation is not just deliverance from… but for... something The Spirit enables us to live righteous lives. Our acquittal from the courthouse of God's justice and our deliverance from the prison of sin’s power are with a goal and purpose in mind. That purpose is made clear in v4 "that the righteous requirements of the law might be met in us". This takes us to the heart of Paul's message. Salvation is not simply deliverance from but deliverance for something - a life of holiness! Presentation 19

  10. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 4. Jesus provides forgiveness of sin + enabling for righteousness Christ's death procured not only forgiveness of sin but a new enabling for righteousness. But what is this enabling? What is this new empowering? The gift of the Spirit, who enables us to live lives of holiness as we ‘walk according to the Spirit’. The vital difference which the Holy Spirit makes is seen in v11 where two orders of existence are contrasted, those "who are in the flesh" and those "who are in the Spirit". Presentation 19

  11. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 5. Two orders of existence A man "walks in the flesh" when his life is regulated by his sinful nature. The Greek word ‘sarx’, translated as 'the flesh‘ here, refers to natural man in his fallen state. Such a man sets his mind upon, and is only interested in those things that are associated with his sinful human nature. Not surprisingly, therefore, his mind is hostile to God, and refuses to submit to God's law. By nature, this man is a self-centred creature and therefore incapable of pleasing God. Presentation 19

  12. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 To ‘walk in the Spirit’ describes not merely a better man but a different man. He submits to the Spirit's direction and makes a priority, the things that are dear to the Spirit. Therefore, it is what absorbs a man’s mind and heart that reveals whether he has taken his stand beside God or not. Paul distinguishes between what man is by nature and what he can become by grace. Those, who live their lives under the control of their fallen human nature, will be marked by ‘death and hostility’ . In contrast, the lives of those under the Spirit’s control are marked by ‘life and peace’. Life and peace describes eternal communion with God and a contentment, security and inner tranquillity. Presentation 19

  13. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 Although the basic outlook of the Christian is one of ‘life and peace’, this does not mean he escapes the tug of war raging within his heart. He stands on God's side, pulling against the remnants of fallenness in his heart. He will sometimes slip and be dragged through the mud. The fact that he falls in this way does not mean that he has changed sides. Indeed, the more he lives under the Spirit's control, the more he is likely to abhor his sin when he does fall. It is important for the Christian to understand the nature of the contrast Paul describes, or he might think that when he sins, that he no longer lives in the realm of the Spirit. Presentation 19

  14. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 In v 9-11 Paul exercises his pastoral concern saying: ‘You Roman Christians are ‘not in the flesh but in the Spirit’’. Indeed the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit is evidence of his having been justified by faith. At present the Christian is made alive spiritually, but that newness of life does not yet affect him physically. Death still has a claim on his 'body', but even this residual claim will be annulled one day [2Cor. 5:1-5]. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will quicken our mortal bodies. On that day, “The rapture of the saved soul will flow into the glorified body”. Augustine Presentation 19

  15. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 1. To live lives of holiness Having made clear who the possessors of the Spirit are, Paul now deals with the practical implications of possessing the Spirit. First, we are to live lives of holiness cf. v12-13. How is this holiness to be achieved? It is neither through a sudden crisis nor by a passive yielding of our lives to the Holy Spirit as we “by the Spirit to put to death, [or mortify], the misdeeds of the body”. Presentation 19

  16. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 1. To Live Lives of Holiness And because this is a continuous process Paul uses a continuous tense. Why this emphasis on putting to death 'the misdeeds of the body’? The Christian is a new creature with a new nature who awaits the redemption of the body. He still lives in a ‘body of sin’. His body continues to give lodging to the remnants of the old Adamic nature, which will be with him until death, or until he receives the new glorified body promised at Christ's return. The unwelcome presence of the dregs of his old nature ensures that the Christian’s life is one of battle. Presentation 19

  17. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 2. Sin has been Reduced to a Residual Problem. However, the power of sin operating in our lives has been dismantled, like a factory that has been decommissioned but not annihilated [cf. 6:6 ff.]. God has given us victory over our fallen sinful nature in Christ. We must battle with the Spirit’s help to make it our own. God's powerful Spirit enables us to overcome the down-drag of the remnants of the flesh and because we no longer live in that realm we no longer have any obligations towards it. Presentation 19

  18. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 3. Recognising a New Allegiance. Many who emigrated to America in the C20th wanted a new start. They turned their back on ‘the old country’ and were eager to become American citizens. Proud of their new citizenship they wanted to live according to its customs and so discarded the baggage of their past. Now think of Paul's argument. When Christians live as though they belonged to ‘the old country’, [responding to the desires of the flesh], their new heart allegiance is disguised and the Spirit grieved. And they become less conscious of their true identity. This is why Paul links holiness of life with assurance of sonship. Presentation 19

  19. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 4. The Spirit Reveals our New Identity as Sons When Paul speaks of being ‘led by the Spirit’, he has a particular form of guidance in view. It is guidance in the matter of holiness and in mortifying the deeds of the body. This is clear both from the context of the passage and in Paul’s use of the conjunction "because" in v14. As we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit, the family likeness becomes apparent. We see evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We see sin retreating and its hold loosening. As a result, the assurance of our true identity grows. But a failure to mortify the deeds of the body hides our true identity and as a result restricts the liberty that is ours as the sons of God. . Presentation 19

  20. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 4. The Spirit Reveals our New Identity as Sons The Christian’s spirit examines his life, finds a new hunger for God and his Word, a new love for God’s people, a new abhorrence of sin and evidence of the fruit of the Spirit and he asks, “Can this give me good grounds for believing that I belong to God?” At that point the Holy Spirit takes the stand and says, “These are authentic evidences that you are a child of God.” i.e. “the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit”. There is an important relationship between the way in which the Spirit works to bring assurance to our hearts, and our need to co-operate with him in putting to death indwelling sin. Failure here causes many Christians to live with low levels of assurance. Presentation 19

  21. How to Grow as a Christian Life in the Spirit: 8:1-39 The Significance of Life in the Spirit 8v1-11 5. The Christian’s Inheritance "We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” v17. Sonship conjures up the idea of inheritance. Jewish law recognised only one heir, whereas Roman law made provision for co-heirs. Paul teaches we are co-heirs. And the inheritance is described in one word, "Glory". Cf also 1Cor 2:9, "For the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him" . How can we know we are inheritors of glory? This knowledge is associated with the knowledge of our sonship, communicated to us by the Spirit, whose presence in our hearts is the guarantee or down payment of that inheritance. Presentation 19

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