For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell:
for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.
For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice.O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Lord, we worship You together today. We fix our eyes on You. Thank You for bringing us together at this time. We pray that You would bless Your Word, break it and bless it, and bring it into our hearts in a definite way. We commit ourselves to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I am using PowerPoint today, so this will be different. But it is because there is so much. I thought we would go faster if we had pictures, charts, and so on.
We have been looking in the book of Romans during the last months, but we have been going through it with a specific approach. When we study Romans this time, we are looking at it to learn about preaching the gospel. This letter written by Paul the Apostle is the longest gospel message that we have. It is probably the most thorough and complete gospel message.
So we are not studying Romans merely for the teachings that are in Romans, even though we are looking into them. We are hoping to be somewhat like friends of Paul. He is writing his letter, he is preaching his gospel, and we are watching and learning how to preach the gospel from this master gospel preacher. This has been our approach.
Today we want to look at Romans 7 and Romans 8. There are a few things that we mention almost every time—basic things throughout Romans that are essential whenever we are looking at different chapters.
The first thing we learn in the first four verses of Romans is that the gospel is a person. When we talk about preaching the gospel, it is like Philip the evangelist: he preached Christ to the Samaritans. When we preach the gospel, we are preaching about a Person—but not merely about Him. We are actually sharing Christ.
To teach someone some teachings, doctrines, or even a formula is not quite preaching the gospel unless we are sharing Christ and bringing them into a relationship with Him—bringing them to actually meet the Lord Jesus. Otherwise, we have not really preached the gospel, and they have not received the gospel. The good news is God’s Son. The good news is our Lord Jesus Christ. This is basic, but it is important even for what we are looking at today.
Another thing we have mentioned every time is that this gospel message that we preach, we actually have to live. The messenger who preaches the gospel must walk in that gospel. If you are going to witness, you have to be a witness. If you are going to testify, you have to have a testimony.
When we are sharing Christ, we must be experiencing Christ. So today, even though we are looking at preaching the gospel, I want to mention these things because we ourselves need to walk in them. We are not merely coming to learn how to share the gospel, per se. We also want to ask, “Am I walking in this as well? Is this my case? Am I living in the good of the gospel that I have received?”
The third thing is that the gospel is for sinners and for saints. When I say saints, I mean Christians—believers, saints before God. When Paul preaches the gospel in this letter to the Romans, he shares it both with unbelievers and with believers.
Usually, when we say evangelism, we mean preaching to unbelievers. But according to the Bible, that term can be used for both. According to the Scriptures, you witness to both. In the book of Acts, they use the phrase about testifying what you have seen and heard in speaking to unbelievers; but in 1 John, he says he is sharing with them what he has seen and heard. We may call it fellowship, but fellowship is actually sharing Christ. We may call it witnessing, but in witnessing, you are witnessing Christ.
This is essential because today, when we look at Romans 7 and Romans 8, we are looking at preaching the gospel to believers. We are looking at preaching the gospel to believers a second time.
When we talked about the gospel being preached to sinners, we divided it into two parts. We talked about how the righteousness of God—the righteous way of God for saving us—has been revealed. That is when you believe and receive. But Paul also preaches the gospel in order to establish believers. We called this realization: the righteousness of God is realized.
A brand-new believer needs essential help. They need assurance of salvation. They need to learn to walk daily with the Lord, to keep a right relationship with Him, and to maintain peace with God.
In the same way, when Paul preached the gospel to saints, he shared it in both ways. First, as we looked at last time, the gospel is preached so that God would give revelation to us. When the righteousness of God is revealed, we believe and receive this good news. But there also has to be realization. There has to be establishing.
There is symmetry when you preach the gospel to sinners and when you preach the gospel to saints. Romans 1:17 says that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, from faith unto faith. In a sense, you can divide the book of Romans in that way. From faith, the gospel is preached to unbelievers; but it does not stop there. It is unto faith. There is an increasing experience of the good news of Christ.
Even though you have been born again—if you have met Christ initially—there is much more. The good news just gets gooder. We see the gospel provision for sinners and the gospel provision for saints.
For sinners, God has a righteous way of dealing with our sins. In the first five chapters of Romans, you see the word sins more often. But for believers, God has a righteous way of dealing with the sinner. Sins are what you do; the sinner is the sinful nature in you that constantly sins. Sins are the product, and the sinner is the factory making those products.
God does not merely save us from the penalty of our sins. He does not merely save us from hell. He has delivered us from the power and grip of sin, so that we do not have to sin anymore. We do not say Christians will not sin. Christians are able to sin. But we do say that God has made provision so that Christians do not have to sin.
When Paul preached the gospel to sinners, the bad news came first. In Romans 1 through the middle of Romans 3, he showed that we are condemned for our sins. Then, when he preached to believers, he showed that we are condemned as being a sinner. He spoke of how we were born in Adam and how we were born as sinners. This is our condition.
Then came the burst of revelation: we are justified by faith; we are made right with God by faith. In Romans 6, we are sanctified by faith. To be justified is to be made right with God. To be sanctified is to be able to live right before God. We have a new life. Our old, old, old sinful nature has been crucified with Christ. The old man has been crucified. We have a new life.
Romans 7 contains much reasoning—from Scripture, from logic, and from our own experience. Paul brings us to the point where we realize that without Christ, we will not overcome. Without Christ, we cannot live this Christian life. Our flesh is corrupt to the core. This has to be realized. We have to be so assured that we are hopeless; otherwise, we will not come to Christ for help.
In Romans 5, when preaching to sinners, Paul helps new believers learn to live in the good of having peace with God. A person may say, “I was saved this day, but what about five days later? Am I right with God?” New believers need to learn how to confess their sins quickly and maintain peace with God.
The focus is on experiencing the gospel. This helps with assurance of salvation. If you are experiencing salvation right now, if you are experiencing Christ right now and walking with Him, you know you are saved. It is when you get out of His presence that your mind begins to wander and you begin to question. It is essential for believers to walk with the Lord moment by moment. Romans 8 also focuses on experiencing the Lord this moment.
This principle of revelation first and then realization goes on with all of us. Right now, it has been revealed to Catherine and me that Catherine is pregnant. This is revelation. We know it is true. I have seen the pictures, and I have seen the baby moving. Yesterday I got the biggest kick—I mean, I got kicked in the face. Her belly is growing.
There has been revelation, but it still has not fully hit me yet. I have been told that when the baby is born and you are holding the baby, then it really becomes real. That is when realization begins. Right now, we are still kind of asking, “Are we really going to be parents? Am I going to be Dad? You are going to be Mom? We are going to be Daddy and Mommy?” We are a little bit in shock.
I have been told that during the first period of time, you are still in the beginning of realization. Every few days you realize, “Oh, well, I am a parent.” You remember what it was like simply to be husband and wife. But you are continually in wonder, realizing, “Wow, we really have a child—or children.”
Then a point comes when parents simply become parents, and realization has matured. You not only know you are a parent, but you almost forget what it felt like simply to be husband and wife. You know it was true in the past, but it no longer feels normal not to have children. That is when realization has matured. Then it matures even further, and you become grandparents.
When you meet Christ as an unbeliever, revelation comes. You believe in the Lord Jesus; it has been revealed, you believe, and you receive. Then revelation deepens when you stand up and testify before others at baptism. There is a deeper aspect of revelation. You really know that you are born again. There is something more solid about what the Lord has shown you.
You know you are a Christian now. You tell everybody, “I have been saved. Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. I want to follow Him. I give my life to Him. My life is now a Christian life.” But at the beginning of the Christian life, you are often shocked: “Am I really a Christian?” You still remember what it was like not to be a Christian, and sometimes you still have those habits.
As you press on in the Christian life, eventually you come to the point where you know you are a Christian, but you almost forget the feeling of what it was like not to be born again, not to be with the Lord, not to be saved, and to be an unbeliever. You have realized, “I am a Christian. My life is the Christian life. This is my way. This is the way I am going.” It gets deeper and deeper.
For believers, the revelation is not only that Christ died for us and died for our sins. When He died, He dealt with that sinful old man on the cross. In a sense, you were crucified with Christ—not physically, but that sinful nature in which you were born has been crucified with Christ.
The good news is that you have died. The good news is that you have been given a new life in Christ. The Christian life is not me trying to be good and not be bad. The Christian life is that I have a new life. The old sinner has been crucified with Christ. This new life does not sin; this new life obeys the Lord.
When this revelation comes, you believe it, receive it, and praise the Lord. You may go around shouting at people, telling them how dead you are. God has revealed something to you, and you are still in awe of it. But it becomes deeper in Romans 7 when you come to utter despair and say, “In me, in my flesh, there is nothing good.”
The knowledge is already there, but in experience you agree with God that this corrupt sinful nature has nothing good in it, and that the only hope is Christ in you. That is a deeper revelation, and it is the beginning of realization. You actually realize, “I am crucified with Christ. I deserve to be crucified with Christ—me, that is, my flesh.”
Sometimes, when we come close to that deeper point of revelation, we give up before we get there. Or we get there but do not look up and receive the good news. We reach the point of despair, but we do not find Christ.
Even if we reach that point and find Christ—agreeing that the flesh is corrupt to the core, and learning that only Christ in us can live this Christian life—we need to remember that this is only the beginning of realization. This is what frustrates us. We come to the beginning of realization, the beginning of being established in this gospel, and expect that from now on we will coast with no mistakes.
But realization has to do with this moment. Being established in the gospel has to do with what your experience is this moment. Forget about last week. What are you doing right now? Is it Christ in you right now? Are you abiding in Christ right now? This is the question.
Gradually, as you live in the now of the gospel, it becomes more and more normal for Christ to be your life and for you not to live by the flesh. There is maturing in this area, so that when you are in the flesh, it feels much more uncomfortable. At the beginning, however, it feels strange to be in the Spirit and in Christ. You think, “Whoa, I just overcame, and I did not commit that sin I always commit.”
As maturity goes on, there is gradual progression. When you are out of the Spirit, it feels uncomfortable. When you make mistakes, they become less and less normal because you are normally living by the Spirit and not by the flesh. We need to live in this moment—not looking to the future or the past, and not keeping a track record of whether we failed twenty times today or ten times.
Do not keep a track record so you can measure your progression. If you do that, it does not work. Instead, constantly care about this moment. What is going on with me right now? Am I living by the Spirit now? Let the Lord watch how much we grow. When we meet Him, He can show us how fast it happened and everything. But we focus on what is going on right now.
When we look at Romans 7, the main word to remember is law. The chapter has two parts. The first six verses speak of being freed from the law because we died. The next part shows how the law is used by God to expose the flesh. It shows the purpose of the law.
The word to remember for Romans 8 is grace. Romans 7 is law; Romans 8 is grace. In Romans 8, we see the law fulfilled by grace, grace upon grace unto glory, and finally the triumphant note of victory by God’s love.
The law is like the experience of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The law shows us what is good and what is evil. It is an outward thing, an outward list in a sense, showing us what we ought to do and what we ought not to do.
There was nothing inherently wrong in knowing what is good and what is evil. The problem is that if you know what is good and evil but cannot actually do what is good, it is death. That is what the law is like. It stands outside of you, telling you what you should do, while inside you have the corrupt sinful flesh that cannot do good.
The law tells you, “Do not sin,” but inside you say, “I want to sin.” Then you die. You become depressed—spiritually, soulishly, physically, everything. Romans 8:2 says that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.
The law of death is the principle that you try to do good but cannot do it. The good you want to do, you cannot do. The law of sin is the principle that, even though you are told not to sin, the flesh is drawn toward sin. The law exposes the flesh and shows you that you sin.
But life—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus—is able to set us free from sin and death. There are three ways Christians may walk: lawlessly, lawfully, or graciously.
The lawless way is the thought addressed in Romans 6: “Why not go on sinning? We have grace. Let us go on sinning, and grace will get bigger.” This is a silly thought, but it is the way of the lawless. They know they are not under the law, and whenever they touch the law, they run away and become upset: “No, no, that is law. I am not under law.”
Grace does not mean that you go on sinning. Yet some Christians have no ruler over them. Jesus is not their Lord. It is lawlessness. They simply do as they feel, and they go on sinning.
The second way is the lawful way, pictured in Romans 7. You have rules, you know what is good and bad, and you try to do those things without the life of Christ. The lawful Christian does try to do good, so you may not see as many outwardly ugly sins. But the sins are often more hidden: judging others, bitterness, gossip, and things like this.
When you are lawful, you compare yourself with those who are lawless. You think better of yourself because you are doing better than those who are wild and outwardly sinning. But you yourself know that you are failing all the time. You are miserable, yet you feel good whenever you can talk badly about somebody else. This is also the wrong way.
Then there is the graceful way—the way of grace. In this way you walk rightly and do not live in sin, but it is by the grace of God. You do not become proud because, at the end of the day, you have to say, “It was God’s grace that brought me through. It was God’s grace that overcame in me.”
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” If you remove the word grace, it sounds like Popeye: “I am what I am.” But grace makes all the difference. Paul says that he labored more abundantly than all the others, yet not he, but the grace of God that was with him. He is boasting in the Lord.
Romans 7:1-6 uses the illustration of a husband and wife. The wife is married to the law, and you are that wife. How can you get free from that marriage?
The lawless marriage may look like fun, but it is empty. There is no structure and no leadership toward the Lord. The attitude is, “Whatever. If we feel like doing this, we will do it. If we feel like attending a church meeting, we will. If not, we will not. We are free from the law.” Such marriages commonly end in divorce because selfishness and lack of structure lead to problems.
The lawful marriage is miserable. The law makes righteous demands: “Do good. Do not do evil.” The demands are not wrong, and the law does not ask us to do something bad. But it is all external. The problem is that we are in the flesh. We cannot do it. We are like the sad wife: we try and fail, try and fail, and it is a miserable marriage.
The only righteous way out of a marriage is death. “Till death do you part.” The good news is that the Lord did not take out your husband; He took you out and crucified you on the cross.
Romans 6 says, “Do you not know that you were crucified with Christ?” Baptism is burial because you are dead. When Christ died, you died. When He was raised, you were raised, and now you have a new husband. It is newness of life. You are joined to Another.
Romans 7 says that we died to the law and are freed from the law. We cannot otherwise get away from the law except that we died. But having died, we have also risen and have been given another Husband, who is Christ. We are now in covenant relationship with Christ, not with the law.
We no longer have merely outwardly imposed rules and regulations. Instead, He has given us a new life. We have a new Husband, and this Husband is helpful. Graceful husbands still say, “As for me and my house, we are going to follow the Lord.” But they serve together. Christ gives us strength within to live this Christian life.
The reasoning in Romans 7 is that we should not think we are still under the law, because we died. The requirement and judgment of the law have been fulfilled by death. Romans 1:32 says that those who practice such things are worthy of death. We fulfilled the law by dying with Christ.
But the law has a purpose. Romans 3:20 says that through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The law is good; Romans 7 says the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly. The law is good, but I am the one who is wretched.
Paul says he was alive until the law came. He could check off nine commandments, but when he came to the tenth—“Thou shalt not covet”—it exposed him. Then he died. He was still sinning before he knew that commandment, but the law exposed the sin.
From Adam until Moses, people were sinning. But when the law came, there was a righteous standard exposing sin. Paul was coveting before he learned the law, but when he heard, “Thou shalt not covet,” he was exposed. He was told to be content with what he had, not to desire what belonged to others, not to lust after things that were not his. When he heard this, he felt dead.
This is the believer’s experience: you try to follow the Lord and fail. You try not to sin and then end up sinning. You do what you do not want to do, and you do not do what you want to do. You get all wrapped up and come into despair about the flesh.
Even if you have had revelation and know that the old man has been crucified with Christ, there is still something to discover: the flesh. The old man is different from the flesh.
The old man and the flesh are connected. In one way, you might say they are the same thing; in another way, they are not the same. The old man is a basic, general concept covering everybody, all time, and everything. But the flesh is personal. Your flesh is different from her flesh and his flesh. It looks different and comes out differently.
Your flesh is your personal experience of the old man. The old man is that old Adam, the sinner whom you inherited. We inherited from Adam—our great-great-many-times-over grandfather—a sinful nature. We look like Adam, but it comes out a little differently in each one of us.
Romans 6:6 says that our old man was crucified with Christ. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” That historical crucifixion happened at the cross around two thousand years ago. When Christ died, He dealt with the old man.
But in this moment, your experience of the flesh needs to be crucified. What I mean is that you apply the work of the cross to this moment. Romans 8:13 speaks of putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Galatians 5 says that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.
There is our experience of taking up our cross, denying ourselves, and following the Lord. There is the great Cross, and then there are the little crosses. We experience the cross regularly, applying the great Cross to our own flesh—applying what happened to the old man to the flesh.
The old man is like a dead octopus. Sometimes, after something dies, there are still nervous reactions. The old man is dead—that is a true fact in Christ—but the legs, arms, or tentacles are like the flesh. Each one is a little different, yet they are still wiggling.
Because the octopus is dead, it is easy to apply the cross to your own experience. The old man and flesh are similar, but different according to our experience. The flesh is your personal experience of the old man.
What is going on in Romans 7 is that your flesh is being exposed. God has already revealed that the old man is corrupt to the core, deserved death, and was crucified. But now you are learning, “My flesh is corrupt to the core, deserves to be dead, and I give up on it. I am not going to try with my flesh.”
When we hit the law, we sometimes have bad reactions. Even mature Christians who have been walking in grace face this danger. You may be walking with the Lord and living by His grace, and then suddenly it seems as though grace has leaked out. You run into the law. Everything becomes more outward than inward.
All of a sudden, it does not feel as enjoyable to be with the brethren, read the Bible, pray, memorize Scripture, or do other spiritual things. You may even desire something you would otherwise call worldly. When you hit the law, there are two wrong reactions.
The first wrong reaction is to give up. You may have been pursuing the Lord strongly, but then you come to know what you ought and ought not to do without having the strength to do it. You say, “This is law. I am not under law,” cast it away, and become lawless.
You say, “This does not feel right. It does not feel like it used to. It is not as fun. I am not going to do anything unless I feel like it. I will not read my Bible unless I feel like reading my Bible. I throw away Bible-reading plans and prayer times. I will pray if I feel like praying.” This is lawlessness. You can reason it out, but no one is in charge except your emotions.
The second wrong reaction is to keep trying harder. That is miserable. To be under the law is one of the most miserable states. You bunker down, try harder, attempt to learn lessons, and try to do better. You become sadder and sadder, and your Christian life becomes more and more empty.
The right course is to look up and receive grace. In Romans 7, when Paul cries, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” suddenly he looks up. There is a change: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
What he discovers is Jesus Christ. Remember that the gospel is a Person. This good news is a Person. Do not look for a method to overcome. In a sense, we overcome when it is Christ; we do not overcome when it is not Christ. Grace is our experience of Christ.
The law shows sin, but Galatians 3:24 teaches that the law is a tutor to bring us to Christ. It is a schoolteacher saying, “This is the flesh. You have to go to Christ.” When you fall down and hit the law, recognize what is happening: this is the law, and God’s purpose for the law is to bring you back to Christ.
When you hit the law, do not give up and do not merely try harder. Look up to Christ and come back to Christ. You have fallen from grace, but the law is a tutor saying, “Come back to Christ now.” Some of us lean toward lawlessness, and others toward legalism and empty outward conduct. But we all have to return to grace.
Romans 7 brings us to this point: “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there is no good.” Have we come to that point? If we are going to share the gospel, we must come to this point. Do you believe that you, by yourself and without Christ, have any good left that will overcome sin?
Have you ever been so desperate and down that you realize, “I am a wretched man”? Have you ever reached that depth of despair and said, “O wretched man that I am”? Yet there is a way—the way of grace.
Grace overcomes the flesh. Sometimes, after receiving the revelation that we are crucified with Christ, we feel that there is no turning back. But until you become desperate concerning your flesh, you will not live moment by moment by grace. You may want to be zapped and suddenly become an overcoming Christian, but the zap does not last very long.
The Lord wants to teach us to give up on the flesh, take up our cross, and follow Him in the way of the cross. Then comes the burst of glorious good news in Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
At that desperate moment, you look up to Christ: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Suddenly there is no condemnation. Condemnation has more than one meaning. It can refer to a judge condemning a criminal for his sins. It can also refer to a condemned house—unlivable, unusable, structurally ruined.
So condemnation can mean that you are condemned for your sins and condemned for being a sinner. You are condemned because you have done wrong and deserve judgment, and you are condemned because you cannot do good. You cannot be the house that you ought to be. No one can live there; God cannot dwell with you.
When you fail again, you may keep a track record: “I did that sin again. This is the fifteenth time—the hundred and fifteenth time.” Eventually you say, “I know that in my flesh I am going to do it again.” You become depressed because you failed again in the same area.
But in the renewing of our minds, we have to think differently. In Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. When God forgives you, you are not only forgiven; you are cleansed and washed clean. You may say, “But I just did this for the sixteenth time.” Yes, you did it in the flesh, but you did not do it in the Spirit. You have never committed that sin in Christ.
Your history in Christ is a clean slate. You have never done wrong while living by the life of Christ. We have all done many things wrong by living in the flesh. Our walk in the Spirit is different from our walk in the flesh. Your record in Christ may be spotted and small, but when you are in Christ, you are not condemned.
The question is this moment: are you in Christ? That is what we need to consider as we look at Romans 8. The heart of the Lord for the believer is this: walk in the Spirit this moment. Live by grace this moment.
You are not condemned for what you have done in the flesh. The flesh is condemned. God agrees with you: the flesh is corrupt. That is why He gives you grace and a new life to live by. If we keep the history of the flesh and the history of life in Christ separate, it will make things easier.
Do not allow the accuser of the brethren to attack you by saying, “But this is the tenth time.” You can declare, “I know; it was my flesh. In my flesh, I have done it many times, and I may do it again. But I am in Christ now. I am not in the flesh. I am walking with the Lord right now. Therefore there is no condemnation.”
Romans 8:2 uses the word law differently from Romans 7. In Romans 7, the law is outward rules and regulations. In Romans 8:2, law means a principle, like the law of gravity.
A bowling ball falls to the ground because of gravity. This is like the law of death. In the flesh there is death; there is a principle of death. You cannot do what you want to do. You cannot obey God. You cannot stay afloat or serve God.
There is also the law of sin. Like metal being pulled toward a magnet, the flesh is pulled toward sin. The law of sin means that you are not merely unable to do good; you are actually being drawn toward sin.
But there is a way to overcome both principles. A solid table can hold up a bowling ball despite gravity. It can also keep metal from being pulled directly down to a magnet beneath it. This is like the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the principle of the life of Christ that overcomes the principles of the flesh. When we live by the life of Christ, it overcomes the death and sin of the flesh.
Therefore, there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. We are not condemned as unusable houses or as Christians unable to serve God. We are able to serve God by the Holy Spirit. But we must keep in mind that it is only by this law. Only when we live by the life of Christ do we overcome.
Romans 8:4 shows another way in which the law is fulfilled. One way is that we fulfilled the law by dying with Christ. The law says that those who do such things are worthy of death, and Christ’s death has met that judgment.
But Romans 8:4 says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. This is another way the law is fulfilled: we live by the Spirit.
The law has righteous demands. When we live by the Spirit, we not only meet them but go beyond them. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is not the law multiplied by ten. It teaches us how the life of Christ lives.
The law says, “Do not commit adultery,” but the life of Christ does not even look with lust. The law says, “Do not murder,” but the life of Christ does not hate with murderous hatred. When we live by the Spirit, we fulfill the law. Grace is beyond the requirements of the law.
When we meet the law, do not assume the law is always wrong. The law may make righteous demands, even showing good things we ought to do. Do not cast those things away. Realize that the way of grace is inward. Grace shows us how Christ lives.
As we mature, the Lord may show us many more things: “That is actually sin,” or, “This is the way you should follow Me.” But we must not make a list of twenty things and try to keep them by the flesh. The Lord is showing us the way of grace—the way His life will live through us.
This is not more rules. As we mature, we do not simply receive more rules; we discover more of how Christ lives in us. It is an inward law, in a sense—the law of the Spirit, the way the Holy Spirit lives through us.
Romans 8 then speaks about mindedness. Is your mind set on the Spirit or on the flesh? Remember that we are talking about experience right now. What is your Christian experience this moment? Where is your mind?
The mind set on the flesh is a loose mind. If your mind is wandering around, having no connection with the Spirit, eventually that wandering, careless mind will lead you into the flesh and into sin.
Paul is sharing something very down to earth: what is your condition this moment? Sometimes you can check: “Where is my heart? Am I walking body, soul, spirit—or am I simply following something else?”
If our thoughts are looking to the Lord, then we are with the Lord. As we go about the day, we remain in relationship with Him. We are not doing things apart from Him; we are walking with Him. We are not mindless, but mindful of the Spirit.
When your mind is on things above and not on things on the earth, you are not bumping into doors because your mind is in heaven. Rather, you are living by faith. The good news is from faith unto faith.
When your mind is in the reality of what is in Christ, you remember what is true: the old man has been crucified. By faith, you look up and see that you are crucified with Christ. Then here on earth it becomes your experience. You apply that truth to the flesh. When you meet the flesh, you say, “No, no, I am crucified with Christ.”
You can also say, “I am crucified to the world,” and deny the world. This has much to do with our experience. But if you look down at your past and ask, “How am I actually doing? How did I do this month?” then you lose sight of the reality that you are crucified with Christ and have a new life.
Faith is like a tunnel leading up to what is true in Christ. Faith brings into experience what is true in the unseen realm in Christ. As our minds are on the Spirit and on things above, as we look to the Lord, we walk by faith.
We have to fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Otherwise, we will not walk it out. The question for all of us is, “What is your condition this moment?”
When you are fellowshipping with someone, ask, “How am I right now? Am I in the Lord’s presence right now, so that I can share Christ?” If you are not in the Lord’s presence, how can you share the good news? How can you share Christ? Do not worry about how you did earlier today. Stay in this moment.
It is worth spending this hour together if all of us finish this time in the presence of the Lord—living by the Spirit and not in the flesh, fixing our eyes on the revelation the Lord has given us. Revelation received in the past has to be maintained. We must look up and live in that revelation.
This is not automatic. We cannot live by the Spirit and not live by the flesh if we do not apply the cross to the flesh. If there is no cross, there is no resurrection life. If we do not deny ourselves, we will not live by the life of Christ.
Sometimes, when we try to crucify the flesh by our own strength, it is like cutting up a worm and having five more worms grow. You chop off one head and five more heads appear. Mustering up our strength to wield the sword against the flesh does not work.
Romans 8:13 says, “By the Spirit put to death.” It is by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always applies the good news to our experience. When we were saved from our sins, the Holy Spirit took what Christ had done on the cross and brought it into our experience. He washed us clean.
Christ has crucified the old man. Who brings that into our experience concerning the flesh? The Holy Spirit. We cooperate with Him and allow Him to crucify the flesh. By faith, when we declare, “I am crucified with Christ,” we are allowing the Holy Spirit to apply the work of the cross to the flesh.
This is a great key: the way of the cross. Without the cross, we cannot live this moment in the good of the gospel. Grace overcomes the flesh.
When we share with believers, we often meet those who are in a desperate case. They may be in Romans 7. We need discernment: have they had the revelation that they are crucified with Christ? If not, we should cooperate with what the Holy Spirit is doing and share that revelation.
Sometimes a believer is discovering how wretched the flesh is. We need to ask the Lord for discernment concerning where that believer actually is. If someone feels desperate but has not yet agreed that the flesh is terrible, that may be the area to share—not by getting onto them, but by showing them what the Lord is doing.
If they have reached that desperate point, sometimes they simply need somebody to point them to Christ. We are down about the flesh, and we need someone to show us, “This is the way of grace. This is the need for this moment.”
It may be from different angles, with different Bible verses and different approaches. But at the end of the day, most of us need someone to bring us back to Christ—back to this moment of walking with Christ. The Lord can handle us from there and bring us into maturity.
We do not need to be so down on ourselves because we keep failing. The flesh is going to fail. We are in the midst of realization. We may not yet be mature; it may still be more normal for us to live in the flesh. But by God’s grace, live this moment in the Spirit. If you fall down, come right back this moment in the Spirit. Gradually, the Lord will bring us into maturity.
Romans 8 shows that we experience grace unto a purpose. The Lord is conforming us to the image of Christ. Christ is increasing, and we are decreasing. The sufferings through which we go are leading us to glory. They are bringing us closer and closer to Christ.
The dealings we have with the flesh—denying and crucifying the flesh—are increasing the measure of grace in us. The Lord is doing something through all of this. Do not look so much at your history. Thank the Lord that He will complete what He began in your life.
He who began a good work in you will finish it. He is able to bring you to completion. Walk it out with Him this moment. That should be our focus as believers and as we share with believers. We do not need a formula that will make somebody overcome from that point onward. Basically, we all need to be brought to Christ.
At the end of Romans 8 is a beautiful section. God did not spare His own Son; will He not also freely give us all things with Christ? This is God’s love. No one can separate us from His love. We can be assured that His love will carry us through.
Trials, other people, even ourselves, things heavenly, earthly, and under the earth—nothing can take us away from His love. His love is bringing us into glory. At the end comes the declaration that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
We should praise the Lord often. When you praise the Lord, whether by song or declaration, it brings you back into what is real and into the goodness of God. God is so good. He will bring you through. He knows what is going on with you, and He knows how to mature you and bring you to completeness.
Some call this the note of victory. It is like a trumpet sound in an army: they know they are going to win, and in fact, they have already won. When you become depressed, even spiritually compressed—as though something is pressing down on you—the way through is to praise the Lord.
Start declaring His victories. Forget about your feelings; forget about your experience. You know what is true in the Bible, so praise Him. Speak it out. Declare His victory. This is not tricking yourself. It is true.
It is true that He is the Conqueror. It is true that He was crucified on the cross and destroyed the works of the enemy there. He rose from the dead, He has given you a new life, and He ascended. He is seated on the throne right now. All power and authority have been given to Him.
Anything touching you, He has allowed. It is true that Christ is all in all. When we praise Him and declare His glories, it brings us into the reality of Christ and away from our petty experience. Then we can simply worship Him.
Lord, we all together praise You that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have saved us from sins, and You have saved us from sin. You have delivered us from so much, and we fix our eyes on You today.
We thank You for this glorious good news. We pray that this would be our experience this moment. We thank You that all the provision is there. We pray that our fellowship with one another would grow deeper and that we would be able to help one another in this way.
Lead us into being those who share the good news with each other. We commit ourselves to You, Lord. We worship You and praise Your name, in Jesus’ name. Amen.