ROMANS 8:1–17

Scotland’s greatest preacher, Dr. Alexander Whyte, was once speaking on Romans 7, and said this:

As often as my attentive bookseller sends me on approval another new commentary on Romans, I immediately turn to the seventh chapter. And if the commentator sets up a man of straw in the seventh chapter, I immediately shut the book. I at once send the book back and say, “No, thank you. That is not the man for my hard-earned money.”

I think perhaps Dr. Whyte was a bit severe because it is possible for a writer to take a different position on Romans 7 than the one Dr. Whyte and I have taken and still write an excellent commentary on Romans. Some of the best Bible teachers see the matter differently. Nevertheless, I have some sympathy for what Alexander Whyte was saying because I think it is misleading, and thus not spiritually healthy, to imagine that Romans 7:14–25 is anything other than the Apostle Paul describing his own struggle as a Christian trying to please God in his own strength (to measure up to God’s standards as revealed in the Law). But of course Paul is also talking about the experience of everyone who has come to Christ. To argue that Romans 7 cannot be the experience of a great Christian is to espouse an unrealistic and unhealthy approach to the Christian life.

Now, there is nothing wrong with God’s Law. It is good and perfect. The problem lies with us. Paul’s passionate conclusion is the cry of every Christian who has ever tried to please God on his own:

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (7:21–24)

This has been and is my cry. It has been yours too. We want to do good, but we end up doing the very thing we did not want to do. Our inner being wants to please God, but the power to do so is out of our grasp. We are in bondage.

But there is another experience which also belongs to Everyman, and it is described fully in Romans 8. If we have been Christians for any length of time, we have known something of the life of Romans 8, but all of us would like to spend more time in its liberating heights.

Paul memorably introduces this great treatise by saying: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v.1a). This is an arresting statement. But it is even more gripping when we understand that the term “condemnation” carries the idea of penal servitude. F. F. Bruce paraphrases it this way:

There is no reason why those who are in Christ Jesus should go on doing penal servitude as though they had never been pardoned and liberated from the prison house of sin.

In this way Paul introduces the grand theme of Romans 8: the work of the Holy Spirit in effecting our liberation.

The theme of chapter 8 is the Holy Spirit. Until this point, there have only been two mentions of the Spirit in Romans. The first was a passing reference to “the Spirit of holiness” (1:4), and the other described the Holy Spirit as pouring out the love of God within our hearts (5:5). Now chapter 8 mentions the Holy Spirit twenty times! Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Romans 8 is the chapter of liberation through God’s Spirit. My hope is that our study of it will enable us to live more and more in “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (v. 21) so that chapter 7 will become less and less our experience.

The structure of the argument of verses 2–17 is as follows:

I. The Holy Spirit’s Liberating Work (vv. 2–4)

II.The Holy Spirit’s Liberating Gifts (vv. 5–17)

A. A new mind-set (vv. 5–8)

B. A new sense of life (vv. 9–11)

C. A new obligation (vv. 12, 13)

D. A new identity (vv. 14–17)

THE HOLY SPIRIT’S LIBERATING WORK (vv. 2–4)

Verse 2 introduces the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing liberation: “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Here “law” carries the idea of principle: “You were under the old principle of sin and death, but that has been transcended by the new principle of life in Christ—and so you are free.” The old principle showed us our sin, stirred up our sin so that we sinned even more, and then brought us to condemnation. But the new principle liberates us. Death has been replaced with life.

Here Paul gives the Holy Spirit one of his more magnificent titles: “the Spirit of life.” It reminds us of the first mention of the Spirit in the Bible (Genesis 1:2), when the Spirit brought forth creation ex nihilo. That same creative power is characteristic of this new principle. The Spirit of God “gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were” (4:17b).

This “Spirit of life” administers the work of God the Father, thus securing our liberation. God’s work is described in verses 3, 4:

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

The Law held up its perfect standard, but 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. The problem lay with the weakness of our flesh.

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man.… (v. 3)

[Since our flesh was inadequate, God sent Christ in “the likeness of sinful man.” Paul was very careful about his words here. He did not say Christ came “in sinful flesh” because that would imply sin was in him. Nor did he say, “likeness of flesh” because that might imply Christ only seemed to be in the flesh. He said, “the likeness of sinful man” because Christ took on man’s flesh (human nature) without becoming a sinner. Cranfield writes, “… the Son of God assumed the selfsame fallen human nature that is ours, but … in His case that fallen human nature was never the whole of Him.” Christ became “a sin offering” as he took our sin without sinning. Thus his flesh (his human nature) remained strong and unfallen. As a result “he condemned sin in sinful man.” That is, he conquered sin.]

What this means for us is given in verse 4. He condemned sin in his flesh “in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” 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.

To run and work the law commands,

Yet gives me neither feet or hands;

But better news the gospel brings:

It bids me fly, and gives me wings.

The principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the principle of sin and death. Thus when we yield to the power of the Holy Spirit, we are liberated. We no longer have to sin. 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)

Now we will consider what the Holy Spirit gives us in our liberation. Four things are mentioned in verses 5–17. First, he gives us a new mind-set. Verses 5–8 describe two mind-sets—one without Christ and the other with Christ. The bulk of the description is of the non-Christian mind-set.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace, because the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

The mind-set of those without Christ has distinct characteristics: death, hostility toward God, and an inability to subject itself to God. These govern its orientation to all of life. How sad! First Corinthians 2:14 says, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them.” On the other hand, “the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (v. 6).

What Paul is saying here is immensely important because our mind-set makes all the difference when it comes to daily living. We all, whatever our spiritual state, live in a storm-tossed world. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. The set of our minds will determine not only eternity but the quality of our life now.

One ship drives east and another drives west

With the selfsame winds that blow.

’Tis the set of the sails

And not the gales

Which tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,

As we voyage along through life—

’Tis the set of a soul

That decides its goal

And not the calm or the strife.

The Holy Spirit gives the believer a new set of mind which brings life and peace. This is liberation!

Second, the Holy Spirit gives a new sense of life. Verse 9 tells us our life is permeated by the personality of Christ.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

As believers we have “the Spirit of Christ”—that is, the indwelling Holy Spirit. The clear implication of Paul’s use of the phrase “the Spirit of Christ” is that through the Spirit we experience something of Jesus’ disposition—his kindness, his gentle care, his love in our lives. As we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, we are filled with the ethos of Jesus, and life becomes more and more to us what it was and is to him. Paul continues in verses 10, 11:

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

This could be paraphrased:

If Christ dwells within you, then, while your body is still subject to that temporal death which is the consequence of sin, the Spirit who has taken up His abode in you, the living and quickening Spirit, imparts to you that eternal life which is the consequence of justification.

Through the Spirit we have a sense of new life now and the assurance of eternal life in the Resurrection. The Holy Spirit confirms and intensifies our assurance of immortality. The “now” of living becomes Technicolor!

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.”I found the same thing to be true. When I was twelve years old, I came to know Christ. I remember saying the next day, “The sky is bluer and the grass is greener.” Jesus Christ enriches the “now” of life!

But the “then” of living is assured by the Holy Spirit as well. Carlos Baker’s standard biography of Ernest Hemingway records this sad description of him the year before he died:

The only resemblance to the man we had imagined was in the fullness of the face. And even the face was pale and red-veined, not ruddy or weather-beaten. We were particularly struck by the thinness of his arms and legs.… He walked with the tentativeness of a man well over sixty-one. The dominant sense we had was of fragility.

They were equally surprised by his apparent inability to talk. He “spoke in spurts of a few words, hardly ever in sentences.… ”

When Hemingway died, everything was lost!

This is not so for the believer. Second Corinthians 4:16 says: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” This positive sense of immortality is one of the liberating gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The third element the Holy Spirit gives us is a new obligation.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (vv. 12, 13)

Paul realizes that though we all have the privilege of victorious Christian living through the Holy Spirit, we will not automatically follow God’s will. Therefore he exhorts us to live “by the Spirit.” Day by day we are constantly solicited to follow the flesh, and that is why 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.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit gives us a new identity.

… those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (vv. 14–16)

The identity the Spirit gives us is that of being sons and daughters of God. Verse 16 tells us, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” In Hebrew culture the testimony of two witnesses was required to establish a truth, and we have two witnesses: that of our innermost being, and that of the Holy Spirit. Paul calls our identity “the Spirit of sonship.” F. F. Bruce says:

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 no whit 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 … everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). We believe it was the word he used in the Aramaic original of what we call “the Lord’s prayer.” And here in Romans the Holy Spirit compels us to cry, “Abba, Father!” Galatians 4:6 says, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” It is not a reasoned cry, but a reflexive one, the cry of children.

Can anything be more beautiful in this world of cold steel and computers? Jesus, through the Spirit, has given us his own special name for God, and it has become our natural cry to a loving Father. Could we offer anything more enticing than this to a lonely world? Many have never known a meaningful relationship with an earthly Father. Or some have, but now he is gone. God offers his soul-satisfying paternity to all who come to him. “Abba, Father.”

Paul began by saying that we are no longer under penal servitude to sin. We are free because the Holy Spirit has applied the work of Christ to us. The Law could not save us because of the weakness of our flesh, but Christ came to our rescue as he came in “the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering” (v. 3).

Then he addressed the dynamic role of the Holy Spirit in our liberation: a new mind-set, a new sense of life, a new identity, and a new obligation.

The key to personal enjoyment of all this is twofold: first, experiencing the renewal of the Holy Spirit; second, living according to the Spirit.

May all this be ours today and always!

in the likeness of sinful flesh—literally, “of the flesh of sin”; a very remarkable and pregnant expression. He was made in the reality of our flesh, but only in the likeness of its sinful condition. He took our nature as it is in us, compassed with infirmities, with nothing to distinguish Him as man from sinful men, save that He was without sin. Nor does this mean that He took our nature with all its properties save one; for sin is no property of humanity at all, but only the disordered state of our souls, as the fallen family of Adam; a disorder affecting, indeed, and overspreading our entire nature, but still purely our own

When the Chalcedonian Definition says that the two natures of Christ occur together “in one Person and one Subsistence,” the Greek word translated as “Subsistence” is the word ὑπόστασις (G5712) “being.” Hence the union of Christ’s human and divine natures in one person is sometimes called the hypostatic union. This phrase simply means the union of Christ’s human and divine natures in one being

but the idea is clear here. He says further that God sent him “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, an expression that has caused a great deal of discussion. On the one hand there are those who emphasize “sinful flesh”, and consider this expression important if we are to see Jesus as really “one of us”. Unless this is taken realistically, it is contended, Christ did not really become man, for humanity’s flesh is invariably “sinful flesh”.14 On the other hand it is pointed out that unless Christ was sinless he could not be our Savior; he would need to be saved himself. So our passage is something of a minefield where it is necessary to tread carefully. We cannot take the view that Jesus was no more than just another man, sinful as we are. Paul certainly held that Jesus was sinless (2 Cor. 5:21). Nor can we see him (as the Docetists did) as of a different order from us. He came right where we are. Stott comments on the expression, “Not ‘in sinful flesh’, because the flesh of Jesus was sinless. Nor ‘in the likeness of flesh’, because the flesh of Jesus was real. But ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’, because the flesh of Jesus was both sinless and real.” We must bear in mind that Paul is not giving us a full explanation of his understanding of the incarnation; he is talking about the way Christ saved us in his death

Notice that Paul does not say “we fulfil the law’s righteous requirement”, but that “the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us”, surely pointing to the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Before we came to know Christ we were continually defeated by sin. When we came to know him and to receive the indwelling Holy Spirit we were able to attain a standard we could never reach in our own strength.

7. Again this verse is linked to the preceding, this time with because. We have been told that “the mind of the flesh is death” (v. 6), and now we find that it is “enmity” towards God. It is not simply being slightly uncooperative; it is downright hostility. It means being in the opposite camp, refusing to be subject to God’s law. “In withdrawing from God,” Brunner writes, “I eliminate him so far as I am concerned. I am hostile to him.” Paul explains the hostility in that this “mind” does not submit to God’s law. The implication is that it ought to do this. That is the common lot of man. God has given his law so that people may know what is right and submit to it. But the person whose general bent is towards the things of this earth, fleshly things, the person dominated by his fallenness, is by that very fact rebellious against God’s law. Indeed, Paul says, such a mind cannot submit to God. By definition it is set on a contrary course. There is no possibility that anyone will at the same time set the course of his life on the merely fleshly and be obedient to God. This does not mean being horribly and blatantly wicked

The Spirit, then, of the resurrecting Father “lives” in the Roman Christians. He does not pay a fleeting visit, but “has its home” (Way) in them.

On the contrary, believers received “the Spirit of adoption”. The word for “adoption” is used only by Paul in the New Testament (five times, three being in Romans), and it does not occur in LXX, for the Jews did not practise adoption. Some Old Testament examples are suggested, but most scholars agree that Paul took the concept from Roman or Greek law in both of which adoption was important

It is a useful word for Paul, for it signifies being granted the full rights and privileges of sonship in a family to which one does not belong by nature. This is a good illustration of one aspect of Paul’s understanding of what it means to become a Christian. The believer is admitted to the heavenly family, to which he has no rights of his own. But he is now admitted and can call God “Father”

This basic word tells us that God is not a distant Ruler in transcendence but One who is intimately close. Unconditional faith in the Father is thus taken seriously.” We should not overlook the fact that in this passage Paul puts the Father at the center. The Spirit does not cause us to cry “I am God’s son”, but “God is my Father.” The believer looks at God rather than contemplating himself. The repetition of the word, once in Aramaic and once in Greek, is probably not to be seen as a translation, for translation is out of place in prayer. Rather, the word was repeated. We need not be surprised at the use of an Aramaic term by Greek-speaking people, for we do much the same when we say “Amen”, or “Hallelujah”.

He is one with us in our sufferings. But also “we died with Christ” (6:8). We are one with him in his death. But our sufferings are not meaningless. We suffer in order that we may also share in his glory. The path of suffering is the path to glory