The Resurrected Life (2)
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Introduction
Introduction
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Whether we realize it or not, the questions that we have about life and the answers that we decide on are fundamental to our existence. Much of our happiness or unhappiness comes from the answers that we have regarding questions to life: Where did life begin? Is there life after death? Is there a purpose to my existence? If you think that life is created by random chance and that there is nothing after death, that is clearly going to color the way you live, what you think about it, and how you ultimately set your priorities. Christianity gives very definitive answers to the many questions that we have regarding life by telling us in no uncertain terms that God is the creator, the sustainer, the reason, and the very source of life. For these reasons, the Christian faith asserts that there is no life apart from God and that those who choose to live separated from God will not only experience death in this life but they will experience the winter of an eternal death. I realize that this may seem offensive or even arrogant but I want you to consider the logic of what the apostle Paul is trying to assert in this passage.
The way of sin is death
The path to life is righteousness
The Holy Spirit leads us to true righteousness
Sin leads to death
Sin leads to death
You don’t have to be a biology major to understand that there are different degrees of life to be found on this earth. Meaning, a dog experiences life differently than a worm, a worm experiences life differently than a plant, a plant experiences life differently than an amoeba. We can all agree that each of these organisms are alive by definition but depending on the level of complexity, they perceive and experience life completely differently. I love my dog but I would never spend money to watch a movie with him or go to a concert or the theatre because he simply doesn’t have the capacity to enjoy life to that degree. Now if you are not a big fan of culture, then you might be thinking that’s because your dog is smarter that you. But if you agree that humans are the most complex forms of life in nature, it makes sense that you and I have been created to enjoy life more fully than my dog and hence, I can appreciate life in ways that he cannot.
As we go up this chain, we can clearly see that more complex organisms seem to understand and enjoy life more fully . So if we believe that God is the creator of life than we have to believe that God experiences life more fully, more abundantly than we can ever dream of and amazingly He has provided a way for us to share that life with Him. I hope that this will give you a new perspective on what Jesus tells us:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Implied in this statement is both the promise of life along with the warning that there are elements in this world that lead us to death and there are major obstacles that keep us from living life in all of its fullness. And chief among the enemies of the abundant life is the human struggle with sin. Paul makes this point crystal clear when he tells us that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no life that is more full, more abundant than the life that God wants to give to us. In fact, God has a monopoly on life and those who want to live it well need to pay attention to the warnings that He provides.
It isn’t hard to see how sin has the potential to destroy our lives. You see it all around us in the streets of our city. I was reading an article on the opioid drug crisis on the way home from Romania and its heartbreaking to see how our society’s misguided desire for pleasure, coupled with our manic avoidance of pain, can lead to such tragic consequences for so many people. This epidemic is hitting people regardless of race, income level, and family upbringing. (I was going to morning prayer on Uber through the Tenderloin.) The irony of addiction is that in our rabid pursuit of pleasure, people become like the living dead, unable to feel real pleasure, because of all of the artificial chemical signals that are competing for these receptors in our brain. But instead of casting judgment, isn’t that the trap that we all have a tendency to fall into?
People are so ready to take the temporary pleasures of this world that we forsake the everlasting pleasures that God promises us in his presence. And in a nation that has largely forgotten the the power of God, we are looking for solutions only in the physical realm through science, psychology, and sociology and largely ignoring the sickness of the human soul, a sickness that only God can heal. King David seemed to fully understand what God was offering him when he wrote these words in .
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Sin destroys life by robbing us of our joy and stealing our ability to experience real pleasure. But through the gospel of Christ, this is what God redeems in the human heart through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit because in His presence, God reveals the true path to life, the real secrets to joy, and the keys to permanent, everlasting pleasure.
The greatest lie of the enemy is that the commands of God are simply a negation of life. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t have premarital sex, don’t do anything that is pleasurable because those things are worldly. And if you have heard this for much of your life, you begin to wonder if God must be trying to keep you from really experiencing life. Then scientific studies show that any amount of alcohol is actually harmful and leads to undesired consequences like anxiety. I had a non-Christian friend who cut out all alcohol from her diet and was amazed that her anxiety levels dramatically decreased. Is it possible that maybe God is onto something and that he isn’t trying to negate life but trying to protect it so that we might learn how to truly enjoy it.
What is fascinating is that you see people falling for this timeless lie over and over again. Don’t commit yourself to going to church on Sundays because there is so much more to life but then what happens? You sleep in and you don’t get your day started until the afternoon anyways. By that time, you’re in a bad mood and you end up getting in a fight with your wife, your favorite football team loses, and you realize you should have went to church in the first place. (I’m half joking but half not because you deserved it.)
When you look back at the story of Eden, we often forget that there were two trees that were there in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Only one of those trees was actually forbidden to eat from and that is exactly the tree that the serpent made the focal point of his temptation. This story is so simple but so deep philosophically and spiritually that it can’t be anything else but the wisdom of God. Satan knew that once men and women took the place of God and then determined for themselves what would be good and evil, we would naturally pick self-destruction. John Calvin, the great Christian reformer, once wrote that “the surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves.”
Every moment of every day, the original sin of Adam and Eve is repeated over and over again as people decide that they would rather be their own gods, deciding for themselves what is good and evil rather than obeying God and eating from the tree of life. And we do this not realizing that every road that takes us away from God, leads to death. This is why Jesus came so that He could show us the way, teach us the truth, and lead us to life.
This is why the cross that Jesus died on is often referred to as a tree in the New Testament.
Every road that takes us away from God, leads to death because He is the source of life.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
So sin entered the world through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but then our sin was atoned for on the tree on which Jesus died, and for those who put their faith in Christ, it is a second chance to eat from the tree of life.
Righteousness leads to life
Righteousness leads to life
Last week, we learned that through faith in Christ, we are freely justified in the eyes of God because through His life and death, all of the righteous requirements of the law were fully met on our behalf. The curse of the law fell on Him so that we might be now free from that curse. We also learned that justification by faith doesn’t mean that we can go and live any way we want believing that God will simply forgive us but neither does it mean that we have to perform up to some standard or list of religious requirements to prove our gratitude towards God. That is still living by the flesh but the reason why believers fall into these two extremes is that they are far are easier to understand than the actual solution that Paul gives us in this passage. In verse 4, he further explains that God sent his Son to condemn sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who live, not according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans
What many of us have experienced in the church is nothing more than religion that limits and negates life. My cousins weren’t allowed to go treat or treating on Halloween because that is the devil’s holiday and so in their adult life they got back at their parents by walking away from the Christian faith. And the thing is they remained really good moral people, well educated, cultured, highly successful and it’s hard to convince people like that, that they are still living according to the sinful nature. I often quote from Martyn Lloyd Jones, who was a pastor of one of the largest churches in London for many years , and I never fully understood why he went to such extents to point out that good moral people are no better off than murderers, thieves, and prostitutes. Well, Mira and I had a chance to spend a day in London on a layover from Romania and we were shocked at just how nice, respectable, and helpful Londoners were. Even the way they speak with their English accents make them seem so bloody nice. “Would you like a flu jab?” Then you see how they drive and you know they are evil through and through. This is what Martyn Lloyd Jones had to say to the nice people of London:
When we say that people are ‘walking in the flesh’ it does not mean of necessity that they are living a very sinful life; it does not of necessity refer to flagrant immorality, or gross evil. Very respectable people who are never guilty of what we call gross ‘sins of the flesh’ nevertheless may be ‘walking in the flesh’
Jesus puts it this way in his context and to the people of his generation:
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Remember what got us into all this trouble in the first place: the self-determination of right and wrong, the pride of believing that we know the difference between good and evil better than God. Even the Bible can be read and obeyed through the motivations of our sinful nature. And the righteousness that leads to life can only be found as we walk according to the Spirit.
I want us to remember what got us into all this trouble in the first place: the self-determination of right and wrong, the pride of believing that we know the difference between good and evil better than God.
I want us to remember what got us into all this trouble in the first place: the self-determination of right and wrong, the pride of believing that we know the difference between good and evil better than God.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
The Holy Spirit leads us to true righteousness
The Holy Spirit leads us to true righteousness
I mentioned at the beginning of the message that there are different degrees of life that cause us to appreciate and enjoy life in similar but also vastly different ways. (I enjoy a good steak like my dog but I’m moved by things that he cannot be moved by.) The true Christian is someone who has been born again through the Spirit of God and he/she has become an entirely different creature. As Paul tells us in verse 9, we no longer live in the the flesh but we now live in the Spirit. Yes we enjoy some of the things that all people enjoy but what we enjoy the most is living to please God. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit and as we set our minds these things, God produces a righteousness that leads to life. And instead of seeing the righteousness of God as limitation to live, we see it finally for what it is, an invitation to live life in all of its fullness and to enjoy our resurrected life. We’ll pick up this thought next week as we look at what it means to live according to the Spirit but I want you leave you with this closing thought from John Calvin:
“For as the surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves, so the only haven of safety is to have no other will, no other wisdom, than to follow the Lord wherever he leads. Let this, then, be the first step, to abandon ourselves, and devote the whole energy of our minds to the service of God.”