Heritage Reformed Baptist Mission
ROMANS
Sermon 20
No Judgment
Romans 8:1-11
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 hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 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. 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. 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. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Two of the great doctrines of God's grace taught in much detail in Romans are justification and sanctification. We are about to enter into the detailed teaching about sanctification as we begin our study of chapter 8. But before we begin that study, let's briefly review what we have learned about justification and give an overview of what we will be studying about sanctification.
Justification is the once-for-all act of God whereby He declares ungodly sinners to be right with Him. It is the act by which God counts the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be the righteousness of anyone and everyone who simply believes the gospel; i.e., that Christ died for their sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried, and that He was raised again on the third day according to the Scripture. As Paul writes in Romans 1:16, the gospel of Christ...is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. There is no human effort, no human work, no human merit. It is all done by grace through faith in Jesus. It provides God's free gift of eternal life, places the sinner in Christ, and places Christ, in all His fullness, in the sinner.
Sanctification is both a once-for-all act and a process. The act of justification includes the once-for-all setting apart of the sinner to the purpose and for the glory of God. So, believers may be said to be already sanctified, which is their eternal position with God. But, the process of sanctification, making believers to conform to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in character and conduct, continues throughout the course of their lives on earth. That process is also done by grace through faith in Jesus. It works out in experience everything that God placed within believers at the time of their new birth. It produces fruit to the glory of God. And, what is very important for believers to know and understand, it is the work of and is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, who came to permanently live within believers at the instant of their new birth.
For the process of sanctification to be obvious and successful, it is necessary for believers to consistently and constantly overcome the sin which still lives in their bodies. In our study of the last half of Romans 7, we saw a perfect picture of the futility of self-effort in doing that. But, we also were given the answer to that futility when Paul exclaimed, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:25).
Now we come to chapter 8, which is the detailed explanation of the answer. May God give us the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding necessary to both hear and apply these great truths.
One of the unchangeable laws of God is, The soul that sins, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4). The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Thus it is that the moral law of God condemns all men to His wrathful judgment and eternal death. But, those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are made free from that condemnation by the introduction of another, higher law of God, the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2). We may illustrate it very simply with something we see, probably everyday of our lives - a bird flying.
There is a very powerful natural law of God that keeps things on this earth from hurtling out into space. It's called the law of gravity. Not even a bird can fly so long as it is under the power of that law. But, when a bird puts its wings into motion, another natural law of God, the law of aerodynamics, overcomes the law of gravity and the bird is free to soar as high from the earth as it wills. Even so, by God's grace, the believer in Jesus is freed from the law of sin and death through the application of the law of the Spirit of life. And by that freedom believers are delivered from any and all judgment for sin.
Before the law of the Spirit of life could be applied, the power of the law of sin and death had to be broken. The moral law could not do that because sinful man could not and would not be obedient to it. But the eternal Son of God came from heaven into the earth as a man, with a fully human nature that was perfectly sinless. And though He was tempted to sin the same as other men, He never committed a single sin. Thus, He obeyed the moral law of God and became the perfect sacrifice for the sins of Gods elect. As that sacrifice, God placed upon Him all of the sins of His elect and judged those sins in the body of the Lord Jesus on the cross. When, with God-given repentance and faith, they receive Him as their personal Savior His righteousness is placed on their eternal account. In that way, the righteousness required by the moral law of God, which they could never reach themselves, is fulfilled in them.
Those in whom that righteousness is fulfilled are said in our text to be those who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit (vv. 1,4). The word, walk, is a very important one in the Scripture, especially the New Testament. It describes a way of life. To walk after the Spirit is to have a manner and direction of life and purpose that are of God. The gauge of such a life is not based on one particular act, but on a total lifestyle that is built upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
A person's lifestyle is determined by their mind, their innermost being. If they have a mind that serves the law of sin, then they are in the flesh, and have a lifestyle that is after the flesh. Such a mind is death itself, because it is the enemy of God, neither wanting nor able to be subject to Him. Therefore, the person who walks after the flesh can never please God.
Now, please look carefully at verse 9 of our text. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The only right understanding of those words must conclude that no believer is or can ever be in the flesh; i.e, living a lifestyle that serves the law of sin. That is so because every true believer has the Holy Spirit of God living within. Those who do not have the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, are not true, born-again believers. They may profess that they know God, but their lives will prove they do not.
Within all true, born-again believers, the evidence that the Holy Spirit is present is a mind which serves the law of God. There is a deep desire to obey God. There is assurance that eternal life is a present possession, the gift God promises to all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is the comfort of having peace with God, no longer being His enemy.
Just in passing it is interesting to note that the Holy Spirit is called, in our text, both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Doesn't that make it quite obvious that God is a Trinity of Persons, yet One in the essence of His being. And doesn't that make it also quite obvious that both Christ and the Holy Spirit are God. The Trinity of God is without explanation in Scripture, but it certainly is not without statement of fact.
Being One in essence with the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit within believers is also said to be Christ in them. Because He is in them and because His righteousness is placed on their eternal account in heaven, they have spiritual life. Once they were dead in trespasses and sins. But now, the new creation they have been made in Christ Jesus is alive forevermore.
Though believers have spiritual life in Christ, their bodies are still subject to decay and death because of the sin that still lives in their members. That subjects their bodies to the possibility of still being used by sin for deathly purposes. But, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the same Spirit of power Who raised Jesus from the dead, believers' mortal bodies are made alive to be instruments of righteousness now, and will be finally redeemed, either by resurrection or by translation, when the Lord Jesus returns to receive them unto Himself forever.
Now, let's summarize what our text tells us. Those who have been justified in the sight of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will never be judged for sin. That judgment was done for them when Jesus took their sins in His own body on the cross and died as their Substitute. Furthermore, they have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, permanently living in them. They have a mind that serves the law of God, with the will and desire to obey Him. Their lifestyle is one of righteousness, which they are enabled to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. And, though sin still lives in their mortal bodies, the Holy Spirit enables them to overcome it and therefore use their bodies to serve and please the Lord, something they could never do in the flesh
By contrast, those who have not been justified in the sight of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are already judged and condemned. The reason is stated in the 18th verse of the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John: ...he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. They do not have the Holy Spirit and so cannot properly claim to belong to Christ, or be children of God. Their mind, their will, their desire is to serve sin. Because of that, they can never please God and can never live any kind of life except one of unrighteousness. Their only hope is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
Thats your only hope if you have never been born again and come to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. Do you want to be saved? If so, confess to God you are a sinner, repent and come to Jesus NOW!