Liberty in the Spirit
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In the last part of chapter 7 we see Paul be very real about his own struggle with Sin and how he often times feels like he is at war with himself.
Now in Chapter 8 he brings in the idea of our freedom being in the Holy Spirit.
The term spirt is only mentioned 2 times in the previous chapters (1:4, and 5:5), here in chapter 8 the term Holy Spirit is mentioned 27 times.
This is one of the most theologically important chapters in the whole NT.
In the Law we have death but in the Spirit we have Life.
We see this in 2 Cor 3:17
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
We need to live more in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
The Holy Spirit’s Liberating Work (vv 2-4)
The Holy Spirit’s Liberating Work (vv 2-4)
Here Paul gives the Holy Spirit one of his more magnificent titles: “the Spirit of Life”.
It is remindful of the first mention of the Spirit in the Bible in Gen 1:2 when the Spirit brought forth creation.
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
The word here is ex nihilo which means to bring forth creation.
The Law held up its perfect standard, but it was unable to empower us to live up to that standard because of the weakness of our flesh.
There was nothing wrong with the Law. It was perfect.
The problem lay with the weakness of our flesh.
We were showed our sin and death through the law but had no way to fix it.
Because we were inadequate, God sent Christ “in the Likeness of sinful man”.
Paul was careful to say that Christ came in the “Likeness” of sinful man because He did not come in Sin but came in the same flesh that we have.
He had to wear the same flesh to fulfill the law of perfection.
Christ Conquered Sin. He did what we were to weak to do.
The Holy Spirit creates a new humanity which is characterized by walking “according to the Spirit.”
This new humanity, through its union with Christ, whose flesh never sinned, is infused with the power to live in a way that is pleasing to God.
Everything the Law required is now realized in the lives of those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Through the Holy Spirit the virtue and perfection and power of Christ’s life is communicated to us.
We actually do the Law of God from the heart.
We love him with all our hearts, and we love our neighbors as ourselves.
This is as great a miracle as when the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep and with power materialized a new creation at the spoken word of the Father.
The Holy Spirit liberates us through Christ!
The Holy Spirit’s Liberating Gifts (vv 5-17)
The Holy Spirit’s Liberating Gifts (vv 5-17)
Not only are we liberated from the death of the law by the Spirit we are given gifts to help live more abundantly.
And also to live a better life.
A life that has Christ as the center of our thinking and actions.
A New Mind-set (vv5-8)
A New Mind-set (vv5-8)
Here in verses 5-8 Paul describes two different mindsets, one without Christ and one with Christ.
The bulk of the description is of the non-christian mind-set.
Here are the things that effect a non-christian:
They have their minds set on what nature desires.
Their minds are dead.
The sinful mind is hostile to God.
It does not submit to Gods Law.
Nor can it do so.
Cannot please God
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
What Paul is saying is that our mind set is very important.
It makes a huge difference in our daily lives because even though we belong to Christ we still have sin in our bodies and still live in a sinful world.
But with our mind fixed on the things of Christ we have a different outlook on what happens to us.
A New Sense of Life (vv 9-11)
A New Sense of Life (vv 9-11)
We have a new way to look at life.
We look at it as not the end but just the beginning.
We now know that no matter what happens here on earth when we close our eyes here we will be in the presence of The Lord God himself.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
Everyday the light of Christ should get a little brighter in our lives.
We have the gift of living for ever in grace and peace, that is something that not everyone has.
A New Obligation (vv 12-13)
A New Obligation (vv 12-13)
Paul understands that though we all have the privilege of victorious Christian living through the Holy Spirit.
We will not automatically follow Gods will.
Everyday we are constantly solicited to follow the flesh.
But Paul encourages us to constantly be putting to death the deeds of the body.
The freedom of the Spirit brings obligation, the obligation of liberation.
A New Identity (vv 14-17)
A New Identity (vv 14-17)
The identity the Spirit gives us is that of being sons and daughters of God.
In Hebrew culture the testimony of two witnesses was required to establish a truth.
We have two witnesses: that of our innermost being, and that of the Holy Spirit.
Paul calls our identity “the Spirit of sonship.
The term “adoption” may smack somewhat of artificiality in our ears;
but in the first century A.D. an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate;
he was in no way inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of nature and might well enjoy the father’s affection more fully and reproduce the father’s character more worthily.
We sense that we really are God’s sons!
So intense is the reality of our adoption that we cry, “Abba, Father.”
The Aramaic word “Abba,” which means “Dear Father” in the sense that we might say “Dad” or “Daddy,” was never used by the Jews to address God, nor do they use it today.
Jesus alone used it, and this was no doubt considered scandalous by his enemies.
He used it in Gethsemane when he cried, “Abba, Father
6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
It is not a reasoned cry but a reflexive one, the cry of a child to their father.
This is the spirit that we have that we can cry out father God, as if we were calling our earthly father.