Romans 8: 1-17: "THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE"

"THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE”

Romans 8:2

Preached by:  Pastor Carolyn Sissom

Sunday, August 22, 2010

 

Romans Eight is the blessed mountain top of Romans.  In Christ we have a new authority, the Spirit of Life.  The soul is not now our life-spring.  We are no longer living in it or drawing from it.  We use it.  We come to live our life in the Spirit and by the Spirit.  We still use our soul faculties just as we do our physical,  but now we are servants of the Spirit and we have yielded our members (body and soul, i.e. mind will and emotions) to be led by the Holy Spirit.  When we yield to this Grace, then we are vessels ready for the Master’s use.

 

As we have made the journey through Romans, we have accepted our forgiveness; been declared righteous; delivered from sin’s power; delivered from the law; sanctified by the Word; and consecrated.   Now we come to the pathway of regeneration, adoption, the knowing that we shall be saved from the presence of sin; the Holy Spirit outpoured; the Holy Spirit indwelling;  and glorification as Sons of God. (“Whom He justified, he also glorified”.)  God’s purpose in creation and redemption is to make Christ the First Born Son among many sons.

 

The Holy Spirit is for all.   It is to prove His goodness and greatness not ours.  Christ has been crucified, therefore, we have been forgiven.  Christ has been glorified, therefore, we have been endued with power from on and high and we can walk and move and live in the Glory of God on this side of the grave.

 

God’s gifts are freely given.   Anyone upon whom the Holy Spirit falls will unfailingly know it.  The outward evidence may be many and varied but the Spirit is One and He is Lord:

 

There is the Seven-fold spirit of God in Isaiah 11: 1-5:  The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Might, the spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord.”

 

There is also the Holy Spirit of Truth (John 16: 12-15); The Spirit of Holiness (Romans 1:3-7); Holy Spirit of Comfort; The Spirit of Promise (Eph. 1: 2-14); The Spirit of Power (11 Tim. 1: 6-14); The Spirit of Grace (Heb. 10: 26-30); The Spirit of Glory (1 Peter 4: 12-19); The Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8:15); The Spirit of Life (Romans 8:2).  This is One Spirit, The Holy Spirit.    (This list is inconclusive.  For addditional description of the character of the Holy Spirit, see my teaching, The Holy Spirit is the Feast of Pentecost.)

 

Romans 8: 1-2:  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

 

These first four verses conclude what Paul was saying in Chapter Seven.  When a toddler first learns to walk, he falls less and less as his walk is strengthened.  God is not interested in the number of times His children fall down, but in the number of good steps they take.  After a while the believer is walking more than he is falling.  There is no condemnation for the falling down while we are growing up in Christ.  However, for the “Fathers and/or Mothers” who are empowered to teach and operate in the ascension gifts, there is more accountability. 

 

The first chapter of Romans began with the entire world condemned before God.  For a Christian to be condemned for sin, Jesus would also have to be condemned.  As we grow up in Christ, we are going to stumble and fall.  This is not to say that sin is harmless.  If we don’t confess it, sin can break our fellowship with God.  However, it cannot break out son-ship.  Sin can also rob us of our joy, hinder our growth, reduce our blessings and rewards---but it cannot take us out of Christ.  Nothing can do that except we choose to take ourselves out.

 

We have been transferred by adoption from the Adam family to the family of God.  For us to be condemned now, Jesus would have to be condemned.  Anyone seeking to take us out of Christ would have to overpower him first.  (Mt: 12:29) We are as safe as the strength of Jesus.  As in the natural realm, there are higher and lower laws in the Spiritual realm.  When we switched families, the lower law of death in Adam is over-ruled by the higher law of life in Christ Jesus.

 

There are no degrees of our union with Christ, we are either in Him or out.

 

8: 3-4:  “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

 

Man tends by human nature to want to scheme around laws.  The law can’t change human nature.  So if God wants men to be Holy, as He is Holy, He has to accomplish it another way. 

 

The Law made man cry out to God for mercy, and God in turn provided a Savior.  God’s answer to human depravity is a new nature, a holy nature, Christ’s own nature.  When I was saved, I received Christ’s nature.  If it is fair for a Just God to let men be born with a corrupt nature, it is also fair to let them be born again with a Godly nature.

 

God sent Jesus into the world that everything required by the law might be fulfilled in us.  Our souls have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb.  Our external walk should reflect this internal holiness.  We will do this by surrendering to the Holy Spirit more and more each day.

 

Christ was the first man to have a human nature and a divine nature.  Until then, mankind had a human nature.  However, the OT clearly states that certain elect men of God had both the Spirit indwelling and the Spirit outpoured.    That didn’t work out too well for Adam.  As fully man and fully God, Jesus experienced the struggle of the flesh versus the Spirit.

 

8:5:  “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

 

The Bible speaks of three kinds of men:

 

  1. Natural – He is incapable of discerning spiritual things.
  2. Carnal – A Christian who has Jesus as Savior, but not as his Lord.  His nature is self-serving, selfish, and self-centered.
  3. Spiritual – A Christian who spends his life bringing glory to Jesus.  He has a gradual change into the likeness of the Lord.

 

Our nature is recognized by the fruit produced in our life.  We choose the degree of our surrender.  Both carnal and spiritual Christians have the faith to be saved.  The difference is in their surrender.

 

8: 6-7:  “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be.”

 

Salvation does not change the old nature.  As there is no peace for the man outside Christ, neither is there any peace for the carnal Christian.  Each time we yield to the old nature, we breathe again the deadly atmosphere of the flesh.  When our carnal nature dominates us, we slip back into that condition which is hostile to God.  This is known as backsliding.  A backslider grumbles at misfortune; resents losses resulting in bitterness; loses faith in the face of spiritual battles;  scoffs at the supernatural; has no interest in reaching lost souls; has no interests in Bible Study or Corporate Prayer; sneers at God’s call on their life and often blames the "Church" for their backsliding. 

 

8:9: “But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so then the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Now if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ; he is none of his.”

 

In verse 4, Paul spoke of walking in the spirit as we surrender to the new nature.  Here he speaks of our living in the spirit.  Our walk is concerned with what we do the other with who we are.  We may act like children of the devil at times, but we are the Sons of God.  Our souls are translated, not our bodies.  Our five senses are still in the flesh, but can be quickened to hear, feel, smell, see and taste the Spiritual.

 

As we are translated by the Holy Spirit into the Kingdom of God, we will experience the Glory of God on earth as it is in Heaven.

 

In this verse, Paul says emphatically that if you do not have Christ, you do not have His Spirit.  The Holy Spirit brings the benefits of the cross to us.  It is He who applies the Blood of Christ to our souls.  Without that no one can be saved.  We receive the gifts of the Spirit after salvation, and baptism in water.

 

8:10-11:  “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

 

The righteousness of Christ imputed to us secures the carnal soul and body from death.  The Holy Spirit preserves it, elevates it and we become partakers of a supernatural gift of light, life and love not possible to the carnal soul.  This is the Joy, Peace and Righteousness of the Kingdom of God.

 

We are experiencing the habitation of the Lord in glory.  Since Jesus has promised that we will appear with Him, We will need glorified bodies for the occasion.  The presence of the Holy Spirit in us is a pledge that these bodies, now serving as His temple, will be changed to conform to His glorious body.  If the same Spirit who raised Jesus’ body from the dead lives within us, that same Holy Spirit will raise us up to rule and reign with Him in Heavenly places.

 

The Spirit of God within is God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  Oh, the greatness of God’s gift!!!  Oh the vastness of the resources within us!!!  The Spirit who dwells within me is no mere influence, but a living Person.  I am only an earthen vessel, but in this earthen vessel, I carry a treasure of unspeakable worth, even the Lord of Glory.

 

This verse declares that we, who have been born again of the Spirit of God, carry Jesus in our heart.  The Lord has made our hearts His dwelling place!!!  We should have reverence that our Lord lives in us!!!  We were bought with a price.  He has divine ownership of us and all that we have. 

 

We surrender all without reservation.  Of course, I speak for myself, and usually when the Lord requires more responsibility from me, I have to spend some time dying again.   The "all" is our-selves, our possessions, our business, our families, and our time.  All we are and have become are his to be held entirely at His disposal.  We are His guests, His tenants, and His stewards.  All direction of our lives and all control are committed to the Spirit.  If we do not give him absolute authority, He is present, but the power and Glory of the Spirit is quenched.

 

When the Holy Spirit is given full Liberty, then he can reproduce the life of Christ in us and in a corporate Body of believers.

 

God is daily waiting for a settlement of all our controversies with Him.  I can trust the Holy Spirit to do in me what I cannot do myself.  Exod. 14:13:  “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you.”

 

The Holy Spirit will bring us forth triumphant and victorious.  The Cross procured our salvation.  The Spirit produces salvation in us.  Christ raised from the dead and ascension into Heaven is the basis of our salvation.  Christ in our hearts by the Spirit is its power.

 

“I live, and yet no longer I live, but Christ lives in me”.  We should not think that we have a “changed life” but an “exchanged life”.  Christ being formed in me is “reproduction”.   When the seed of His life is deposited into each of us by the Holy Spirit, then we, too, reproduce the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.

 

God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He that has the Son has the life, and he that has not the Son of God has not the life.

 

“I can do all things in Him that strengthens me.”  As Jesus is free from limitations, so am I.

 

In Romans Seven, we learned that our intentions were good, but our actions contradicted it.  The highest point the will can reach is that of willingness.

 

8:12-13:  “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  But if you live after the flesh, you shall die; but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.

 

We are under new management, a new owner and a new government.  When a believer sets his heart to resist an impulse stirring in his old nature, the Spirit is ready to back him in power.  However, that kind of power must be triggered by Faith.  Having the Holy Spirit does not automatically cause holiness.  The power is there, but we must resist the devil.

 

The instant we are tempted by satan, we must will to not sin.  We must trust the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the desire behind that particular sin.  This is Spiritual warfare.  Here again we can apply the “reckoning” technique.  We reckon ourselves dead to sin.  We picture and believe ourselves victorious.

 

8: 14-15:  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  for you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

 

It is the Holy Spirit of Adoption which produces son-ship.  The Spirit of Son-ship guarantees we will reach adulthood.  When a Jewish youth turned 21, he was taken to the marketplaces where his father proudly displayed him as being “of age”.  The Spirit of Son-ship is not here referring to Christian growth, but to our status as Sons.

 

Our Heavenly Father will reveal our son-ship to the world.  The receiving of the Spirit of Adoption leads us into a place to enjoy our privileges.  We are trusted with the Kingdom of God.  The throne of grace is our home.  It is where our father lives.  The Israelites dared not speak his name.  They still only write his name as, G-d.  We are led to call him Papa.

 

8:16-17:  ‘The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.”

 

As we come to the last half of this chapter, Paul leads us into the revelation of glorification.  We are God’s children.  The Greek here means begotten ones.  When we were born again, we are now  God’s sons by birth.  Within us is an inaudible witness which is beyond the comprehension of the unsaved.  This working that we may also be glorified is beyond the five senses.

 

A man operates at two levels: conscious and unconscious.  Even when we are distracted and not listening to the Holy Spirit on the conscious level, then He speaks to us in dreams and visions of the night.

 

The Holy Spirit gives us the witness of the Spirit which is our imprimatur.  Through the imprimatur of Faith in believing what the Spirit is saying, we then witness the supernatural manifestation of miracles in the natural realm.

 

“Even our human mind has come into nature from super-nature.  We have our taproot in an eternal self existed, rational being whom we call God.” (C.S. Lewis)

 

This evening, we will conclude Chapter Eight of Romans as Paul continues to lead us to the present reality of the “glory which shall be revealed in us.”

 

Preached by:  Pastor Carolyn Sissom

Scripture from K.J.V.; Bibliography:  F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, Leslie C. Allen, C.S. Lovett’s Lights on Romans; Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible; Matthew Henry’s Commentary and quotes from my Bible Study Notes prepared in 1987.  The comments and conclusions are my own as revealed to me by the Holy Spirit and not meant to be the views of those from whom I have gleaned.

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