The Christian's Freedom - Part 2 (Romans 8:1-4)
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we began to look at Romans 8:1-4 and only scratched the surface by looking at the first two verses. As I said last week we will be in this chapter for a while as we look at the rich treasure that it holds. I will finish up this first section this morning and then we are going to take a break from Romans for the month of December and spend some time looking at the incarnation of Jesus Christ, His first coming into the world. Then in January we will jump back into Romans 8 and pick it up in verse 5. This morning we are going to finish the first four verses of this chapter that teach four aspects of the Christian’s freedom in Christ Jesus. Let’s pray and then read our passage of Scripture again.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:1-4, our passage for this morning. I will read it and then give a brief recap of what we looked at last Sunday and then finish up verses 3 and 4 this morning. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Romans 8:1-4,
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 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.” (Romans 8:1–4, NASB95)[1]
FREEDOM’S FACT AND FREEDOM’S WHY – RECAP (Romans 8:1-2)
Last Sunday we looked at the first two aspects of the Christian’s freedom found in verses one and two. Just by way of review the first was the fact of our freedom that in Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation. The person who has agreed with God that he is a sinner and by faith has put his trust in Jesus Christ believing that Jesus Christ died for him, paying the penalty for sin and that He was buried and on the third day rose from the dead, this person has been forgiven and will never again be condemned for sin, will never again be given condemnation’s penalty which is death, eternal separation from God forever. The Supreme Judge of the universe has given His verdict, by faith through grace in Jesus Christ you are declared righteous, you are justified, and no one can overturn the verdict of Almighty God, because He is the supreme Judge, there is no other. This truth, this fact of our freedom should cause you to erupt in thanksgiving to God. You will never be judged for your sins, they are paid for, there is now no condemnation.
Second, we looked at the why of freedom, why are we free, why is there now no condemnation? Because we have been justified by God, we have responded to the Gospel and the principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us forever free from the principle of sin and of death. Our justification is new life through the Spirit in Christ Jesus, we have a new nature that can at anytime stand before God sinless because He has redeemed us and justified us. This is entirely a work of God in us, it is only the righteousness of Jesus Christ that makes us righteous and in that righteousness we stand justified. This truth too should cause you to bow in humble gratitude to our God for His mercy in not giving us what we deserve, eternal punishment in the lake of fire separated from Him, and for His grace, giving us what we do not deserve, forgiveness of sins, justification, and the promise that we will live with Him forever. No condemnation and justification are the first two aspects of the Christian’s freedom in Christ Jesus.
FREEDOM’S WAY – SUBSTITUTION (Romans 8:3)
How did we get to this place of freedom where there is now no condemnation and we are justified before God? Paul tells us that the way to freedom is by substitution. In verse 3 we find a very clear statement of the substitutionary atonement. The truth of the Gospel is found in this statement that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin on behalf of every person who in repentance would trust in Him for salvation. Again, this verse begins with the word “for” which could also be translated because and gives an explanation of what has just been said in verse 2. In other words, believers are set free from the law of sin and of death and are made alive by the law of the Spirit of life because of what Jesus Christ has done for them.
Paul begins with the Law, here speaking of the Law of Moses, the commandments and requirements found in Scripture. He reminds us that the Law cannot save us, what the Law could not do, it could not make us righteous, it is not the Law that is weak, but it is made weak through the flesh. The Law is good and righteous and holy Paul had stated in the last chapter, but because of our sinful flesh it is powerless to save us. Because we cannot keep the Law perfectly it exposes our sin and shows us how utterly sinful we are, and in exposing our sin it condemns us, and the penalty of sin is death. So, what the Law could not do, make us righteous, Paul says, God did, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. Jesus in His incarnation was completely a man, fully incarnated. But Paul makes it very clear with his choice of words that Jesus was only in the likeness of sinful flesh, in the outward appearance He looked like us, He was a man, but He was sinless. Hebrews 4:15 speaking of Jesus says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15, NASB95)[2] If Jesus Christ had not been fully human and fully sinless, He could not have been an acceptable sacrifice to God for the sins of the world. But He was truly human, and He was truly sinless having resisted every temptation of Satan and having denied sin to be any part of His earthly life. Sin was forced to give up its supremacy in the flesh to the Victor, and by being sinless and not yielding to sin Jesus Christ became sovereign over sin and sin’s penalty, death.
By Jesus Christ’s death on the cross He condemned and conquered both sin and Satan. On the cross He bore the full fury of God’s wrath on all sin and in doing so broke sin’s power over those who trust in His giving of Himself as Paul writes as an offering for sin on their behalf. Jesus Christ as an offering for sin condemned sin in the flesh. While sin once condemned the believer, now Jesus Christ his Savior condemns sin, delivering the believer from sin’s power and sin’s penalty. The Law condemns sin in the sense of exposing it for what it really is and in the sense of declaring its penalty of death, but it is unable to condemn sin in the sense of it delivering a sinner from his sinfulness or in the sense of overpowering it and sending it to its final destruction. Only the Lord Jesus Christ was able to do that. He became our substitute and took our place and suffered God’s wrath against sin. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 concerning Jesus Christ, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NASB95)[3] Praise God for this great exchange that makes it possible for us to stand in the presence of God for eternity.
FREEDOM’S FRUIT – SANCTIFICATION (Romans 8:4)
Freedom’s fruit, the outcome of our freedom from sin is our present as well as our ultimate sanctification. For those who have put our faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and have been freed from sin we will have a desire and the ability given to us by the Holy Spirit to live righteously while we are still on this earth. Because God sent His own Son to redeem us and to condemn and remove our sin Paul writes that this was done for us “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.” (Romans 8:4, NASB95)[4] Paul in this verse goes from the justifying work of salvation to the sanctifying work of salvation and he writes that the requirements of the Law are fulfilled in us who have trusted in God’s Son for salvation. Because we as believers have been cleansed of sin and we have been given God’s own nature within us, we long for and are able to live lives of holiness. We know that the Law of God is holy, and righteous, and good, Paul told us that in Romans 7:12 and this verse tells us that we have been saved so that this holiness, this righteousness and this goodness can be fulfilled in us. This is the desire of the true believer; he longs for holiness in his life. Do you long for holiness in your life, it is the mark of a true believer?
This phrase, “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4, NASB95)[5] is a statement, not a command or admonition, it is a statement of fact and it applies to all believers. We are at the moment of salvation indwelt by the Holy Spirit; this is true of every true Christian without exception. This word “walk” refers to a habitual way of life, to a lifestyle. Paul is saying here that without exception the true child of God does not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, whether you are young or old, mature or immature, you live your life according to the Spirit. God does not just want us to have imputed righteousness but also practical righteousness. The imputed righteousness of Christ is reflected to others in our practical righteousness. This desire is in us to live out this righteousness because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, He gives us this desire. Righteousness is the very heart of salvation. It is for righteousness that God saves us.
We begin to walk by the Spirit the moment that we believe, but we are also admonished to walk by the Spirit as we live out our life under the lordship of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Spirit. This is because, I believe at times we are drawn back to the old ways by the fleshly remnants of our life before salvation and we must set our mind again on walking in the Spirit and as we do our new being or our new nature indwelt by the Holy Spirit makes obedience to God begin to be the “natural” thing that we do. As Christians this obedience is not out of some obligation or a form of legalism that we must fulfill. We have a new nature that is in agreement to God’s will. When you live by your new nature in the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s desire becomes your desire and there is no compulsion involved, but rather it is out of love for your God and gratitude to your Savior and Lord.
CONCLUSION:
This morning we just broke the surface of this chapter and now we will be away from it for several weeks. In the first four verses Paul declares the freedom that the Christian has in Christ. First, he gave us the fact of freedom that there is now no condemnation because we are in Christ Jesus. Second, he gave us the why of our freedom, why is there no more condemnation, and it is because of our justification, we have been declared righteous in Christ Jesus. Third, he gave us the way that we came to this justification so that we could no longer be condemned and it was because of our substitute who paid the penalty for our sin on our behalf, Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, became the perfect, sinless sacrifice for our sin, suffering God’s wrath for the sin of the world and dying to pay the penalty required for sin. Finally, Paul gave us the fruit or the result of our freedom which is sanctification. Because we have a new nature in Christ, and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit we are being sanctified presently in this life and we will be ultimately and completely sanctified when we are present with the Lord. But even now in this life as we live in our new nature and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit who is in us, we have longings for holiness, and we can live righteously and be victorious over the sinful remnant in our flesh. The apostle John spoke of this ultimate sanctification and this longing for holiness in his first epistle when he wrote in 1 John 3:1-3, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 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. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:1–3, NASB95)[6] Walking in the Spirit and fulfilling the desires of God’s heart. Paul told the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:3-4 that this was the reason we were chosen by God, he writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” (Ephesians 1:3–4, NASB95)[7] For this reason, you were saved, for this reason there is now no condemnation, for this reason you have received justification, for this reason Jesus Christ died as your substitute, so that you by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit would be holy and blameless before Him.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.