The Spirit's Work In You: Freedom
The Spirit’s Work in You: Freedom
Romans 8:1-8
I. Introduction
A. Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – Condemnation = censure or blame, including a judicial act of condemnation
II. Freedom from the law (2-3)
A. Exegesis
1. The point of a law – to make you righteous
2. The law of the Spirit of life – Holy Spirit – written on our hearts
a) Prophecies of a heart of flesh
(1) Ezekiel 11:19-20
(2) Ezekiel 36:25-27
(3) Jeremiah 31:31-34
b) This is the law that the Spirit places in us when the old law is fulfilled in us by faith in the atonement of Christ
3. That law sets us free IN CHRIST JESUS – it is through Him and because of Him!!!
4. Sets us free from the law of sin and death
a) The Old testament law of works
(1) No one could keep it and be righteous through it
(2) Because all had fallen, all had been condemned by the law
b) God did what the law could not do – made us righteous in spite of the law!
c) We are weakened by the flesh – we have a sin nature within us that drew us away from righteousness
5. Christ is the liberator! –
a) Through Christ God condemned sin in the flesh – through the cross
B. Application
1. Through faith you are freed from a law that you would certainly have brought condemnation – you would have failed at some point, more likely many points
2. In Christ you are given a new law of the Spirit – We cling to Him in faith, he makes us righteous
3. In Christ, all of our sins have been paid for and the penalty of sin is behind us – no more condemnation!
III. Freedom from punishment (3-4)
A. Exegesis
1. Jesus paid the penalty of our sin – He took our punishment
2. The righteous requirements of the law – death (Romans 6:23)
a) There must be a death for sin
b) Jesus becomes our sacrifice of death that we may know life –
c) OT sacrifice imagery
3. The righteous requirements of the law are FULFILLED (completed) in us through Christ
a) Illustration – a person who breaks the law and does his time has fulfilled the law. He is no longer under condemnation. The same is true with us, except Christ has taken our punishment,
4. This is for US – who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit
B. Application
1. You punishment has been paid
2. Christ righteousness is now in you
3. We do not fear punishment is we are walking in the Spirit
a) Living in Him – depending on Him
b) Trusting in Him
IV. Freedom from the flesh (sin) (5-6)
A. Exegesis
1. In Christ there is a change of nature from the flesh to the Spirit
2. Illustration – The source of our spiritual empowerment is like the difference between and a tram. A car has its own stored energy source where a tram has to have constant contact to its energy source – We are like the tram always needing to have contact with the Holy Spirit
3. Those who live in the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh
a) Living in faith in the flesh – going where your sin nature and lusts and the flesh would take you
b) If you live in the flesh you will deal with the consequences of the flesh
c) Follow your lusts and you will find condemnation and consequences
4. Those who walk in the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit
a) Before we are saved we are dead in our transgressions and sins – We choose sin in our lives because we are not alive to spiritual things
b) In Christ we are made spiritually alive and are for the first time free to choose between sin or the righteousness of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit ruling in our lives
5. The difference
a) Flesh –
(1) Death –
(a) continuing to walk as you did in sin before salvation and reaping its consequences
(b) Hebrews 6:4-6 – Many will continue in death through a false faith
(2) Spirit
(a) Life
(i) Spiritual life – hope of salvation
(ii) Life – living the real life of the regenerate person with joy
(b) Peace – No condemnation – in fellowship with God, knowing His peace
B. Application
1. Many of you claim salvation but are walking in the flesh – this is foolishness
2. You are freed from the flesh to walk in the Spirit apart from sin and its consequences
3. There is no joy and no life walking in the flesh
V. Free to please God (7-8)
A. Exegesis
1. The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God –
a) Can you imagine a person who is saves living hostile to God?
b) Yet, when we make a mockery of the salvation bought at such a high price by the son of God, we set ourselves against Him when we continue in sin
c) Minds set on the flesh show and open rebellion towards God
d) Why – it does not submit to God’s law –
(1) indeed it cannot
(2) We cannot submit to God’s law in the flesh because that is the sin nature
(3) We are dependent on the Spirit to please God
2. Those in the flesh cannot please God
B. Application
1. If we are to live a life pleasing to God it will be lived in the Spirit alone
2. If we are living in the flesh, living with our minds in this world we will not please God
3. We have to immerse our minds in the Spirit – God becomes the only focus of our lives.
VI. Conclusion
A. Romans 3:27 – No boasting – we are saved by a law of Faith in Jesus Christ
Ezekiel 11:19-20, "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
Ezekiel 36:25-27, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."
Jeremiah 31:31-34, " “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”"
Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Hebrews 6:4-6, "For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt."
Romans 3:27, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith."