Life
Notes
Transcript
6 The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace.
7 So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t.
8 People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.
9 But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him.
10 If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin.
11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.
Life
Life
Tony Campolo tells about the first funeral he attended at Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Philadelphia when he was twenty years old. It was a predominately a black congregation.
Clarence, a college friend of his, had been killed in a subway-train accident. At the beginning of the service, says Tony Campolo, the pastor brilliantly expounded upon what the Bible says about the promise of the resurrection and the joys of being with Christ. Then he came down from the platform and went over to the right side of the sanctuary, where the family of Tony's dead friend was seated in the first three rows. There, he spoke special words of comfort for them.
Then the pastor did a most unusual thing. He went over to the open casket and spoke as though to the corpse. He said, "Clarence! Clarence! There were a lot of things we should have said to you when you were alive that we never got around to saying to you. And I want to say them now."
What followed was a beautiful litany of memories of things that Clarence had done for many people present and for the church. The list recalled how lovingly Clarence had served others without thought of reward.
When he had finished, the pastor looked at Clarence's body and said, "Well, Clarence, that's it. I've got nothing else to say except this: Good night, Clarence. Good Night!" And with that he slammed down the lid of the casket as a stunned silence fell over the congregation.
Then a beautiful smile slowly lit up the pastor's face and he shouted, "And I know that God is going to give Clarence a good morning!"
With that the choir rose to its feet and started singing, "On that great gettin' up morning we shall rise, we shall rise!" As the choir sang, everyone in the congregation rose to their feet and started singing it with them. "On that great gettin' up morning we shall rise, we shall rise!" There was clapping and crying, but the tears were tears of laughter. "Celebration had broken out in the face of death. Something of a party that is to come had broken into that church... Death had been swallowed up in victory." (1)
We are a few weeks away from Easter. We’ll be celebrating that Jesus died for our sins and that he rose from grave. We celebrate the resurrection. We know that because Jesus was raised from the dead that we to will one day have a resurrected body. Right now we have life in Christ. Even though we were once dead in our sins, we are alive in Christ.
Paul starts this portion of his letter to the Romans with these words
8 People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.
It might be easy to stop right there and talk all about the self-centered people that we know. We might spend the next 30 minutes talking about what they do or don’t do. We might talk about how we’ve been hurt by them because of how they put themselves ahead of everyone and everything in their lives.
This passage doesn’t invite us to look at anyone other than ourselves. This passage invites us to look in the mirror of our spiritual self to see who is staring back at us.
In his thoughtful book, Our Good Crisis: Overcoming Moral Chaos with the Beatitudes, Jonathan K. Dodson shares a funny, yet poignant encounter with a kid who wanted to keep religion private:
I had the crazy idea that going on a five-hour field trip to NASA with fifty fifth-graders would be a good idea. As a chaperone to three kids, I was tasked with not letting them out of my sight. On the way to NASA, one of them told me about a summer camp he went to.
He said, “I didn’t really like it because they made us sing to God every night and listen to someone talk about him. I mean, I believe in God, but I just think you should keep him on the side.”
I thought about what he said and replied, “If God is the most important person in the world, don’t you think he should be more than ‘on the side’?” He stared at me blankly for a moment, then looked away and said, “I guess.” When we sideline God, something has to take his place. Up sprouts the Big Me.
When a person is self-centered, they have God on the side. When I was in the Air Force and was in my uniform. Over here on the right side has a name-tag. It had my last name on it. So a person looking at me could see my rank on my sleeves and see my name on my chest. It made it easy for them to recognize who I was.
Over here on the left side was another tag. It had U.S. Air Force on it. It told those who I came across who I belonged to.
I know I’ve said many times that there are people who put a name tag on that says Christian. The sad thing is that the name tag can just be just a mere decoration. On the outside we claim that name Christian but on the inside we are self-centered, living in the flesh.
That word self-centered means:
1: independent of outside force or influence: SELF-SUFFICIENT
2: concerned solely with one’s own desires, needs, or interests
The Bible uses the word “flesh” to described this as self-centeredness. When Paul uses this word, he is talking about “the whole of our humanness viewed as corrupt and unredeemed, ‘our fallen, egocentric human nature’, or more briefly ‘the sin-dominated self.” [2]
Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Paul is building the case in these early verses to this great chapter for the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. Paul uses the word that is translated carnal or flesh or self-centered.
One thing that I struggled with for many years was the idea of a “carnal Christian.” It always seemed like an oxymoron. It was a long time before I gained a real understanding of what that means. A “carnal Christian” is an individual who professes to be a Christian but whose life does not demonstrate that they are. They are in essence saying one thing and doing another.
Kevin Brown, the president of Asbury Seminary wrote in an article on this topic:
“Many years ago in college, I had a disagreement with my wife (then girlfriend) over a moral issue related to a friend of ours. In making my case, I was taking what could be described as a more permissive view. After enough back-and-forth, she posed a question that stopped me in my tracks: “In making this argument, are you trying to get as close to God as possible—or as close to the world as allowable?”
The question bypassed my immaturity masquerading as reasoning and spoke to the orientation of my heart. In other words, perhaps the discussion had less to do with the plausibility of my words or the logical consistency of my argument, and more to do with the directional intentionality of my own desires. At the time, I wanted to blur the lines between the beliefs we mentally ascend to and the implications for how we should live.” [3]
I feel like what his wife asked him is the question that someone who is a Christian but is carnal, living in the flesh, or self-centered.
“are you trying to get as close to God as possible—or as close to the world as allowable?”
This question really addresses the direction we are headed. When you stand and look in the spiritual mirror, what do you see? Are you heading toward God? Are you more like Him today than you were a year ago? Are you heading toward the world? Are you more like a non-believer than you are a true believer?
There is an old staying that close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. Being close doesn’t count with God. That is like the teacher of the law who questioned Jesus about the greatest commandment in Mark 12. After Jesus answered the man, the teacher said that Jesus was right. That is kind of one of those “Duh” statements in the Bible. Of course Jesus was right, He’s God!
Jesus replied to the man and said to him Mark 12:34 “34 When Jesus saw that he had answered with wisdom, he said to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.” After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
When you say that someone is not far from something means they’ve got a ways to go. Kids are good about asking how much further. As a parent I can hear myself saying many times “it’s not much further.” We’re on the way but we’re not there yet.
This man was heading in the right direction, but he wasn’t there yet. He still had a ways to go to be a disciple of Jesus. I say based on what Jesus said and what Paul says in verse 9
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Paul in verse 8 and in this verse is speaking about the difference between living according to the flesh and living according to the Spirit. The flesh, which is our human nature apart from God, is corrupt and leads to death. But when we live according to the Spirit, we experience life and peace.
Paul is reminding us that we cannot please God with our own efforts. Our sinful nature makes it impossible for us to be subject to God's law. However, when we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, we are transformed. Our old self, with its sinful desires and actions, is put to death, and we are made new in Christ.
There are two types of people: those who have not been regenerated and are still "in the flesh," and those who have been regenerated and are now "in the Spirit."
These two types of people have two different perspectives or mindsets: "the mind of the flesh" and "the mind of the Spirit," which in turn lead to two different patterns of behavior (living according to the flesh or the Spirit), which ultimately result in two different spiritual states (death or life, enmity or peace).
As a result, our mental state, as well as the environments in which we choose to place it and the activities in which we choose to engage it, plays an essential part in both our current actions and our ultimate destinies.
Paul said there that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ then we are not His. This indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit is not just for a select few, the Holy Spirit is the deposit, the earnest money, the down payment of all that God has for us.
A real Christian is one who not only says that they are a Christian but they live like it as well.
Paraphrasing A.W. Tozer
We have agreed to spend the rest of our lives outside the Holy of Holies and not go inside at any point to have a glimpse of God. Because of our fallen nature and "self," there is a curtain in our souls, which prevents us from drawing nearer to God.
The following are examples of our self-centered sins: self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love, and others. The opaque barrier that stands between us and the face of God is our own sense of self. Only through spiritual experience is it possible to get rid of it. In order for the cross to set us free, "self" must first be sacrificed on it.
A real Christian has entered the Holy of Holies. They have died to all those self-centered sins. We become truly alive in Jesus.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Freedom and Fulfillment (Romans 8)
When evangelist D.L. Moody described his conversion experience, he said: “I was in a new world. The next morning the sun shone brighter and the birds sang sweeter … the old elms waved their branches for joy, and all nature was at peace.” Life in Christ is abundant life.
Holiness is our Christian heritage. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians
30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—
31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Jesus became our righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He did that for us.
Bishop N.T. Write said that Romans 8:1-11 “carries the power of the gospel in every breath. If the church could hoist its sails and catch this wind, there is no knowing what might happen. [4]
Imagine what would happen if we would really grasp on to what Paul is saying in these verses.
Listen to verses 9 through 11 from The Message:
9 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about.
10 But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms.
11 It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
What wonderful promises are ours through Jesus Christ. A life of freedom from sin, a life a peace. A life of holiness. My prayer is that you have that today.
If you are a Christian this morning you have been declared Not Guilty. The Holy Spirit has come to transform you from the inside out. Keep saying yes to God and no to sin. Keep your eyes on Jesus, keep on being obedient to Him.
Are you tired of the struggle with sin? If so, say yes to the Holy Spirit, allow him to sanctify you, to cleanse and transform you.
Are you close but not there yet? The Holy Spirit is here to bring you to Christ.
Are you living with an If Only regrets in your life? Jesus came to change that If Only into a What if. What is the possibility that God has for you? If God is for us, who cane be against us?
If you're not a Christian this morning you are guilty - you stand condemned, you are trapped, enslaved to sin.
You don't have to live that way. Won't you say yes to God this morning? Won't you say I believe to Jesus, won't you repent, turn around and begin following Jesus?
1. Tony Campolo, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS A PARTY (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990).
2. Stott, J. R. W. (2001). The message of Romans: God’s good news for the world (p. 222). InterVarsity Press.
3. Brown, K. (2022, May 10). Can a Christian be Carnal? Firebrand Magazine. https://firebrandmag.com/articles/can-a-christian-be-carnal
4. Wright, T. (2004). Paul for Everyone: Romans Part 1: Chapters 1-8 (p. 143). Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.