We need to let him know. So forgive us, please—crosswires.
If you turn with me to Romans 8, a very important chapter—perhaps the most important chapter—verses 1 through 17. I always think it is good to read the Word. If you get nothing out of the message, you should get something out of reading the Word. That is what I always say. So, amen.
I agree with you, brother.
Beginning at verse 1:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 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, having sent His own Son in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit.
For they that are according to flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are according to Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit, life and peace:
because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither indeed can it be:
and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if so be that God’s Spirit dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from among the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from among the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Father, we again come to You utterly dependent, knowing that Your words are the only words that matter this morning. We know that Your words are spirit and life. Once again, we bow before the throne of grace.
We have heard so much this morning about the grace of God—how inexplicable it is, the greatness of Your grace. We are asking for grace this morning, for us to be able to utter what God has written. We are asking for grace to be able to speak with boldness what You have spoken in Your Word.
And we are asking for grace to be hearers of the Word, and not only hearers, but doers of the Word. We are asking that that grace which has been poured out on us—or, as that verse says in Ephesians, lavished upon us—would not be in vain this morning; that we would apprehend what these verses are about and how they can lead us into an overcoming walk in Christ. In Your precious name, amen.
Well, as you know, this is the Back to the Bible study on Romans. I never expected to be doing this in Richmond. I volunteered, after much pressure from Pakistan, to teach on Romans for Pakistan. By the way, they cancelled, and it is a little odd when we have a meeting: we might catch up to Pakistan, even though we started earlier.
But I cannot think of a more important chapter for us to take up. Romans 8 is the pinnacle of Romans. It really is the high point of Romans. If you do not understand Romans 8, you cannot live the Christian life.
It is the grand summary of the gospel of grace, the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus. Do you remember how the Apostle Paul began? He said in Romans 1:16, when he gave his subject for the entire book:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
So that is the grand outline and subject of the book of Romans. Particularly, Romans 1 through 8 explain that glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter 8 is, in one sense, an end in the book—the grand subject of the book. Of course, it is not finished; we know that. Romans 9 through 11 concern the mystery of election—how wonderful that is. Then Romans 12 through 16 give a practical explanation of living the Christian life, how it works in us.
We are living sacrifices and all that that means, and then we see what God gets in the end: that plethora of names. I think everyone says it is the longest list of names that Paul mentions at the end of any of his books. In that plethora of names, what God is saying is, “I have a testimony in a people.” That is the whole thing.
So you can look at the first eight chapters as the works of God, the mighty works of God. You can look at Romans 9 through 11 as the ways of God—His mysterious ways. We see it so beautifully displayed in Romans 9, 10, and 11.
Then, of course, you can look at Romans 12 through 16 and see the will of God: that we would do the perfect will of God, not just the acceptable will of God, but the perfect will of God. To me, those little things help you. They help me to have sort of a broad roadmap of where we are going.
Well, this morning we are going to look at these first verses: the law of the Spirit of life. There is not one thing more important for the Christian to know in a living way—and not just to have some idea in doctrine—than the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
It is the secret of the Christian life. It is the summary of the Christian life. It is how we get there and how we walk. So I think this is most important.
Now, if you do not believe me, maybe you will believe others. I like what Robert Godet said about Romans 8. He said that if Holy Scripture were a ring—okay, you get a ring, not a bell like we just rang—and the Epistle to the Romans were a precious stone, chapter 8 would be the sparkling point of the jewel.
You know, like in a diamond, when light comes into the many faceted parts of a diamond, there is something called refraction. The glorious light is displayed in all of its beauty and all of its sparkle. That is what Romans 8 is.
Then I think of Griffith Thomas, when he said that this is undoubtedly the chapter of chapters for the life of the believer. So we need to really think about what we are doing here in this grand testimony.
We have come from the utter ruin of man. When we look in those first chapters, particularly Romans 1:18 through Romans 3:20, we see the absolute, utter ruin of man. Then we come to Romans 8, and we come to glory—to the glorification of man in Christ Jesus. It is unspeakable glory.
So that is sort of the importance. I will not go over all the summary of the earlier chapters, where people will be yelling at me. Let us begin.
There are a few things I want us to consider.
There is a new law. You know, I used to like Western shows growing up, and they would say, “There is a new law in town.” There is a new law in town for us believers: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Then we are going to look at the flesh and the Spirit. This is a conflict of the ages. I mean, the many wars of mankind, the bloodlust of mankind—who loves war?—are nothing, in one sense, compared to the war between the flesh and the Spirit.
It is a battle within your very being. It is a civil war. It is raging, and we need to understand the contrast in that.
The second part is walking in the Spirit, verses 3 and 4. The third part is the flesh and the Spirit, where you really see those contrasts. It is the longest part, by the way: verses 5 through 13.
Then finally—and the Lord’s Word is always encouraging—the last thing we will look at is the blessings of the Spirit, those last four verses, 14 through 17.
If you can imagine, when we get there, we should be on our face, bowed before the Lord, that He has given us such extraordinary and inexplicable blessings, how they have been poured down on us. I think that sort of an outline, at least, gives me an idea of how to follow this book.
Well, let us begin: Romans 8:1. I will read it again:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Now, I think the King James wording there is, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Is that right? I am trying to remember.
I told you this old dichotomy I have. I started out memorizing the King James Version over fifty-two years ago when I was saved. Then, after a few years, I changed to the Darby version. I still get hung up between versions, and they do not always come out right when I quote them. So you will forgive me for that little thing.
But this is something tremendous:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Paul—I have told you this before—when you study the Word of God, notice words that are repeated, because words that are repeated are the Holy Spirit trying to convince you of what His thought is.
Paul, in particular, used the word therefore with great liberty when he comes to the book of Romans. As a matter of fact, he used it sixteen times. When you get to turning points in the book of Romans, you will often see that the word of choice of the Apostle Paul was therefore.
You know, I think I have told you that before, and I will tell you again—some of you even remember it. But, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.”
What a glorious word to begin this chapter with: therefore. It is a summary word. It looks over all the things that have occurred in the first eight chapters. It comes to the simple and glorious conclusion that now something is different. Now something has happened. There is no longer any condemnation.
Now, if you just take that lightly and read it sort of casually, you will not understand the importance of what the Apostle Paul is saying. Because if you look at Romans 1:18 through Romans 3:20, the whole point of the Apostle Paul is that he lays out, in explicit words, the condemnation that is heaped upon man.
He spent almost three of the first chapters telling us of that condemnation. And now, when we come to Romans 8:1, the first thing that comes out of his mouth is:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
What a mystery that is to me. Because in those early chapters, as I have just said, it was full of condemnation. It was the ruling condition. We were without hope, lost, without God.
“For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” Absolute condemnation. But now, in glorious fashion—and only the Holy Spirit could say it in summary—there is therefore no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
Now, the emphasis of this ought to grip you. Condemnation has disappeared for us who are in Christ Jesus. There is a new day. The sun has broken out through the clouds, and all the despair that preceded this is over in Christ Jesus. Is that not wonderful?
I think that is a rather wonderful start to this rather wonderful chapter.
Griffith Thomas—I like what he said about this—calls it “the glorious fact.” I like that. It is a good way to put it.
Pardon me, my voice. I have a little bit of a tickle in my voice. The change in weather is not kind to me. I always get a tickle when it goes from warm to cool. So if you can put up with my raspy voice this morning, I will try to finish the message.
Griffith Thomas says, “The glorious fact,” with just two words: therefore and now. Not later—not some time in glory, when we will be able to say finally, “Now”—but we can say it now. There is no condemnation.
He says that “no condemnation” in the Greek is a very emphatic no. You know, it is not like me when I tell my grandsons, “No.” It is not too emphatic. They know how to work around my noes, but you cannot work around God’s noes.
He says there is no condemnation—absolutely none. It is plain. He even went on to say, “No sort of condemnation.” Is that not rather marvelous? Neither judicial nor experimental.
Then he went on to say, it is only on this basis—no sort of condemnation—that holiness, or sanctification, is possible.
Now, you know we are dealing in Romans 6, 7, and 8 with the glorious subject of sanctification. We have been justified; we have been saved. That is Romans 1 through 5. Romans 6, 7, and 8 concern sanctification, which concludes with glorification, by the way.
He says there is no sort of condemnation that makes holiness, or sanctification—it is the same word—even possible.
How glorious. What a change from Romans 7, in the awful vice of the law, when Paul said in Romans 7:24:
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
Of course, it is in Christ Jesus. There is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. A helpless struggle of the Apostle Paul, a desperate battle, came to an end; and finally, when he came to this point, he was free—totally free—in Christ Jesus.
That is the glory of this chapter. In those first two verses of Romans 8, there are two things that are prominent. First of all, there is our position.
Now, do not just laugh off position. Position in the heavenly world, in the spiritual world, is of absolute importance. Position is in two words: in Christ.
Now, you were formerly in Adam before you were saved. God looks at the whole of humankind based on these two phrases alone: you were either in Adam when you were not saved, or now you are in Christ after you are saved.
You know, it says in 1 Corinthians 15:22:
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
How marvelous—this new position. “There is therefore now no condemnation.” Did he stop there? No, he did not stop there: “to those that are in Christ Jesus.”
Now, I am afraid we have made that a religious phrase: in Christ. What a shame. Brother Sparks said those are the two most important words in the New Testament: in Christ. They occur hundreds of times.
If you do not understand your new position in Christ, you will never understand all the blessings that have been made available to you in Christ Jesus. You will never understand how to walk in the Spirit. You will never understand the power of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Notice what this means: it means that in Christ’s own risen life, the believer shares. Did you know that?
It does not mean somehow you are saved to struggle, like Romans 7. It does not mean somehow you are given a religious list of rules: do this and do not do that, and you need to rise up to the occasion and do it.
It means God, by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has put something in you: a phenomenal power, an inexplicable power. That is what this new position is.
Romans 6 is the position of being in Christ. You understand? We are baptized into Christ Jesus. That is a marvelous thing. That is position.
Hold on. God first changes your address. You get it? You can say to people, “I no longer live at that old address in Adam. Sorry—moved, forever moved, into a heavenly address. My new address is in Christ.” How marvelous.
That is the first thing we notice. The second thing we notice is a new law in verse 2:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and of death.
Is that not marvelous? There is a new law. How wonderful this is: a new law that overcomes the old law, a new law that overcomes the old man, a new law that can correct for every deficiency of human life. That is how wonderful this is.
It is a powerful law. First, there is a new position in Christ. But then there is a new law in Christ. That new law is not just words; it is the power of God Himself in the believer by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
I cannot imagine when God thought of that plan—that marvelous divine plan—in the counsels of God: “I will put God the Holy Spirit in this people, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and that will be the power for them to live by.”
How different from what we so often hear preached in Christianity: “Now you are God’s; live for Him. Now that you are the Lord’s, do this and do that.”
How different it is when we know we have in us a new law, a new power—divine power, overwhelming power, the power that was used to create the heavens and the earth. This is the glory of Romans 8. Unthinkable. How marvelous.
Now, Linda tells me I use the word marvelous too much. Before I know it, it will be another word. She penalizes my vocabulary. An engineer’s vocabulary is not very good to begin with. I will get down to two words, and I will just keep repeating two words.
But you understand, this is marvelous. This is beyond anything we could imagine, anything we could ask or think. So now, we not only have position—you get it?—we have power: the power of God Himself in this new law.
I just think it is of tremendous significance. This law is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It is the power that overcomes the law of sin and death.
Notice there were two laws. Romans 7—you can summarize the whole thing in Paul’s agony—is the law of sin and death. In Romans 8, you can summarize it all with one phrase: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
That is how marvelous it is. It is so powerful, it can overcome the law of sin and death in Romans 7, because it is the life of the Lord Jesus living in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Do you understand?
Well, I think I have tried to make it as clear as I know how to do it. I hope that helps. I will try to illustrate; maybe that will help.
I will never forget when I was a younger man—and that was many years ago—I first flew on a Boeing 747. I thought, “This beast will never fly.”
You remember, the 747 came out in 1970, the year of my high school graduation. It was that ugly plane with that big bump on the front. It looked like it had a big wart on the top. That is what I always thought of the Boeing 747.
Massive machine, massive machine. All by itself, it weighed five hundred thousand pounds. Now, as a guy that dealt with pounds all my fifty-year career, I have a sense of what five hundred thousand pounds is like.
It takes a lot to support five hundred thousand pounds. It takes even more to get five hundred thousand pounds in the air.
Now, it is not just that, by the way, because then you have to put the luggage in. Then you have to put the cargo in. Then you have to put the people in. In a 747, you could have the dense seating—up to six hundred—or you could have the more relaxed seating in the three-hundred-to-four-hundred range. How much you would prefer that.
But I will never forget the first time I got in a 747. This thing was rumbling. It weighs a million pounds, by the way—five hundred thousand more pounds in cargo, people, and fuel. It needs a lot of fuel.
Just ask the aerospace engineer how much fuel. You do not want to know, when you fly a plane, how much fuel you are sitting on, by the way. Just do not think about that.
My wife does, by the way. I will tell you a little story on her, only because I love her. I tell these stories, and I like to make fun of myself, but she watches Air Disasters. Honey, I do not fly. Why would I ever want to watch air disasters?
But here is this beast of a plane: one million pounds, five hundred tons. How does it fly?
The first time I took off in one, it was rumbling and the wings were roaring like a bird flapping. I will never forget it. I am thinking, “This runway is going to run out. It is not that long.” This thing is headed down, and all of a sudden, it tips up and ascends into the air.
I thought, “How did that one-million-pound beast do that?” Well, there was a higher law than the law of gravity.
You see, Romans 7, the law of sin and death, is like the law of gravity. It is always there. Give it a chance—bam, you are on the floor. It will take you over. The law of gravity never goes away.
But there is something marvelous. There is a greater law. There is a higher law. There is a divine law, and that divine law is the law of the Spirit of life.
It requires two things to work. It requires a power that is not your own. You know, when they designed the 747—and I am not going to talk for a whole morning, by the way, about 747s, brother—they decided to put four engines in it.
They did not need four engines. They put more power in that plane than they could do. They actually thought about putting five engines in the plane. They thought about maybe a sixth engine in that beast.
But the point was: put in a power that can overcome anything else. That is divine power—the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
A little secret about the plane: Jerry is an aerospace engineer. I think some of you already know that, so ask him the details that I get wrong.
Wings are not just a flat plate. The wing of an airplane has a flat bottom, and it has a nicely contoured top shape. When the plane is going three hundred fifty, five hundred, or six hundred miles an hour, and the air goes over that wing foil, there is a lower pressure on the top of the wing foil because the distance it has to travel is more.
It causes something these aerospace engineers call lift. That is why, given enough power—two principles: give it enough power, and give it a special design that can lift you out above the earth.
That is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We are lifted up. We have a power that is not our own. This is the glory.
I think you get it by now, huh? Stop talking about 747s and talk about the Word of God.
But the next section is walking in the Spirit. This is something important. This is not just to be a theory. We could go to conferences, we could sit around, and we could talk all day about the law of the Spirit of life.
But this speaks of those who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. That is what verse 4 says:
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent His own Son in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit.
We are to walk in the Spirit. This was meant to be very practical. This was meant to be part of your life. This was not meant to be a seminar. This was not meant to be a doctrine.
This was to come down to the very places and difficulties in which we live, and to know how to live by that new power and that resurrection life which lifted our Lord to the heavenlies.
Well, I think this is God’s perfect plan, by the way. Let me back up again. He did not remove the law of sin and death. He gave a higher law. He gave a greater power than the power that is in the flesh.
He gave a greater principle: the law of resurrection life that lifts us to the heavens. This is the whole secret about walking in the Spirit.
Paul shares his agony in Romans 7:21–23:
I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
Brothers and sisters, this is the problem with the flesh. You have a law in your flesh that, as much as you try, as much as you struggle to be a Christian, there is always that downward pressure of sin’s gravity, and you cannot overcome it.
Do what you will. Recommit yourself to the Lord as many times as you want to. Rededicate your life to the Lord as many times as you want to. But in yourself, what Romans 8 is teaching us is that it is absolutely impossible for you to live the Christian life.
You need a higher power. You need a higher law. With that, you are able to overcome in Christ Jesus.
I thank God that He sent His Son to prove this. Now, people say that is unfair a little bit. They say, “Well, Jesus, of course, He could prove this.”
But it talks about how God, “having sent His own Son in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” He came as a man. Do not forget, He came as a man.
Sure, He was sinless, perfect. But He came as a man, subject to every temptation—and I would say more temptations than you or I are. Impossible temptations.
And He overcame because of the law of the Spirit of life. He proved, without the shadow of doubt, that man can live by this new law, overcome by this new law, and be victorious by this new law.
Christ proved it. It was not just a dictate from heaven. That is what that verse means. Now God has put us in Christ and provides us overcoming power in Christ, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, to overcome the defect that is in us.
I have often wondered—and I will share with you this little thought—why did God not just remove the law of sin and death? He could have. Why did He not do it?
He did not want to. He wanted us to learn to live by the life of Another. That is what He did.
You remember, He came and walked upon the earth. He said, “I no longer say what I want to say, but what I hear the Father saying.” Do you remember? He came and He said, “I no longer do what I want to do, but what I see the Father doing.”
He was living through His Father. And now the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is us living through the Lord Jesus.
It is not for the Lord Jesus. I get upset when I hear people say, “You are living for the Lord Jesus.” If I lived for the Lord Jesus, it would be a disaster. I do not know about you. I think that is what Paul was doing in Romans 7.
But if I live through the Lord Jesus, it is what 1 John says. What a difference. What a marvelous, marvelous difference.
To those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit—there are two paths for us. Only two paths.
You know my affection for twos in the Bible. There are only two paths. You only have two choices. Narrow it down. God narrows it down.
You can now, as a believer—and this is about believers, by the way; these are already those who are justified—you can either choose to walk according to the flesh, or you can choose to walk according to the Spirit.
Those are the two most important phrases Paul put in there. Those are our only choices as believers. It is easy.
I started to tell my story about the Cheesecake Factory again, but I am sure you remember it. I went there, and they handed me a menu. The thing was that thick—it was a book.
Now, I am not the best reader in the world, and I did not come to a restaurant to read a book. I would have gone to the library if I wanted to read a book. I thought, “Who would make a menu? What marketing team came up with a menu that is a hundred pages?”
You only have two choices: walk according to the Spirit or walk according to the flesh. Two paths. That is all we have.
You know, Paul discovered, in this walk according to the flesh, that he was the problem. I think many Christians do not understand that we are the problem.
If you read Romans 7, it says thirty times the word I—over and over again, thirty times: “I, I, I.” When I first saw that, it was light to me. It was a revelation to me.
Then sixteen times he says, “me” or “my.” Finally, he says, “me myself,” in the grand finale. That is the problem with the law of sin and death. It is all about us. It is centered in us. It is centered in our deficiencies. It is not centered in Christ.
I am waiting to see the bumper sticker on that young lady’s car I have talked about so long: “Me, myself, and I am the center of the universe.” This is what Paul was doing—everything revolved around Paul.
Sadly, I think everything in the Christian life often revolves around us. It needs to revolve around Christ. Only then do we find a breakthrough.
Then when you come to Romans 8, the key word is Spirit. Twenty-one times the word Spirit occurs in Romans 8. Now, flesh occurs thirteen times, just to show us the difference. But the comfort I have from the Holy Spirit is that there is more Spirit than there is flesh. That is the good news.
Dear brothers and sisters, how we need to see this difference between Romans 7 and Romans 8. It is the way out. The divine solution in sanctification is not to remove sin in the flesh, but that we should walk according to the Spirit.
The secret of overcoming life is to yield to the divine, indwelling Spirit.
Now let me share something with you of most importance. I think the problem with most of us as Christians is that we spend most of our earthly days grieving the Holy Spirit.
Do you remember what it says in Ephesians 4:30?
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.
In other words, the Holy Spirit was given to us to sanctify us and prepare us for that day of redemption. Yet we spend most of our life grieving the Holy Spirit.
How easy it is to grieve the Holy Spirit. It could be a word. It can be a thought. It can be an action. But what God is after is a people who learn to walk in the Spirit, not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
Just cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Learn that still, small voice in you. I think John called it that unction—that utterance, that unction in us.
Learn to develop a spiritual sensitivity. Then you hear His voice, and you obey His voice. That is the secret of the law of the Spirit of life.
Thank God He put this divine, indwelling Holy Spirit in us. Romans 7 is just indwelling sin, but in us is the indwelling Holy Spirit. That was the divine plan. What a difference.
When John spoke to his own in John 13 through 17—by the way, beautiful, beautiful words—thank God John was the only one to give us those words. None of the other three Gospel writers gave us those words.
But these intimate words of assurance, shared by our Lord Jesus before He went to the cross, John captured by the Spirit and saved for us.
In John 14:16–17, the Lord said, before He ever went to the cross:
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
That would be good enough, right? I would take that in a heartbeat if the Lord stopped there. But the Lord did not stop there: “He abideth with you, and shall be in you.”
Unbelievable. Is that—can I say marvelous once again? Well, marvelous beyond anything that you can imagine.
This promise of the Father: the first business the Lord had in His ascension, when He went before the throne of grace, was to ask the Father for the promise of the Father—that the indwelling Holy Spirit would be in you and in me. First request. First request.
When I get up in the morning, where is breakfast? Think about it. How precious.
That is the law of the Spirit of life.
Let me mention a few other things as we are looking at this section about walking in the Spirit.
Man was created as a three-part being. I think you know that: spirit, soul, and body. You understand that?
First Thessalonians 5:23 says:
And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice the context: sanctification. “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly.” That is an important word. “Your whole spirit and soul and body.”
Three-part being. Now, what happened in the garden with Adam and Eve? The Lord said, concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Now, did they die? As an analytical person, I think, “They did not die. They realized they were naked, but they did not die.” What died? The spirit died.
Now they were a two-part being. They were just soul and body. When you get to your soul, which is your mind, your will, and your emotions, and you get the body, that is what the Bible calls flesh.
So you wonder about this word flesh in Romans 7 and Romans 8—thirteen times. It is when you are controlled by your own mind, will, and emotions, and not by the Holy Spirit.
For those who walk according to the Spirit, they must be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
So the first thing that happens to you when you are born again—I will take you back to basic Christianity—what happens? You are born from above, right? You are born of the Spirit.
What happens at that moment? Your spirit comes alive. Your spirit, which had been dead, is now alive.
Now you have the opportunity to be what God originally designed: a three-part being, controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Your soul—your own mind, will, and emotions, that I of Romans 7—comes under the control of the Holy Spirit, and your body comes along with your spirit and soul.
Now, is that clear? Yeah, thank you. One amen as a group. It is helpful to keep you going. Thank you.
This is, again, these two choices: walk according to the flesh or walk according to the Spirit.
Now let us look at the flesh and the Spirit. I think there are a few things I want to at least point out in this next section. I will read verse 5.
These are vivid contrasts—the difference between living according to the flesh and living according to the Spirit. They are vivid contrasts. They are not even close. They are distant, distant apart.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
You know, this is not proper English, but I often say it: flesh does what flesh is. You get it? You get it?
They say we are a chip off the old block. The apple does not fall far from the tree. If we are flesh, we are going to do what flesh does. That is what it means.
But if we walk according to the Spirit, we will mind the things of the Spirit. We will know that still, small voice. We will walk in communion. We will walk in fellowship. We will know the Lord, and the Lord will speak to us.
We can have this grand fellowship. How are you walking? Where are you living? Which one of these two paths have you chosen? Remember, this is talking to Christians, not unbelievers.
You will have to make a choice if you are going to be wholly sanctified. That seems to be the whole point.
Moses gave a warning that is so graphic in Deuteronomy 30:19:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live.
This is the only thing: choose life. What is life? The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Verses 7 and 8 speak about the contrast:
Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither indeed can it be:
and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
You know that? Remember, this is talking about believers. We often talk about enemies as the unsaved. They are enemies, if you look at Romans 5, but Christians can actually be enemies to God, believe it or not, if you live in the flesh.
If you walk according to the flesh, if your soul controls you, then you become an enemy of the cross.
You remember Paul said—and I think it was Philippians 3:18—he says, I think, something in sorrow about those who are enemies of the cross.
The cross says, “Not I, but Christ.” The cross says to the flesh, “No more. No more. I have a new way to live. I have a new power to live. I have a new law to live under. I will not live according to your desperate and overpowering bondage.”
These are the choices I think we have. It is not I, but Christ.
But then Paul, if you look at verses 9 and 10, has strong encouragement. I am always grateful that Paul ended with encouragement. Often we do not, but Paul did.
Listen to what he explicitly said to believers:
But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that God’s Spirit dwelleth in you.
Is that not wonderful? We are not in flesh, but in Spirit. By the way, it is capitalized. When you read your Bible, notice if it has a capital “S” in front of Spirit. That is always the Holy Spirit.
Now, I cannot speak for Chinese versions or Indian versions; I do not know how they do it. But a capital “S” in English is the Holy Spirit. A little “s” is the human spirit. The Holy Spirit is to be in control of the human spirit, and that is how we begin to walk in the Spirit.
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if God’s Spirit dwelleth in you.” Now, that if in Greek is not a question for the believer; it is a guarantee. It means God’s Spirit dwells in you.
So you are not according to the flesh. But if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. “But if Christ be in you”—again, that if means yes; leave the if out for a moment—“the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
This is encouragement, brothers and sisters. We do not have to beg God to do this. He has done it already. The indwelling Holy Spirit is a fact. All we have to do is take it, yield to it, live by it, and it will make such a difference in our life.
To me, this is such broad encouragement. It says in Romans 8:11:
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from among the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from among the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Now let me try to interpret this in plain English. We have the Spirit of the Lord in us—a fact for life now, not life later. But we have a promise for life later.
If that Spirit is in you—and it is, if you are a believer—He will give life even to your mortal bodies. This is talking about the day of redemption for which the Holy Spirit has sealed you.
So think about it. The encouragement is that you have everything you need now to walk in the Spirit, and you have everything you will need for eternity to walk in the Spirit. It is life now and life then. That was the encouragement that the Apostle Paul gave.
I think this is so precious. The last encouragement is in verses 12 and 13:
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
That means spiritually. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
That is the thing about walking in the Spirit. You were left on this earth to be conformed to the image of Christ by the indwelling Spirit. What you need to do is learn to put to death the deeds of the body, bring it under submission to the Holy Spirit, and bring your soul under submission to the Holy Spirit.
Then you will live in fullness. That was the encouragement that the Apostle Paul spoke of.
The last thing is the blessings of the Spirit. You look at those last four verses—how tremendous.
Romans 8:14 says:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Being a son of God—now, I am not discriminating against you sisters. You sisters are sons, you know that? You might not like that, but the way the Bible is written, we are all sons, whether you are a female son or a male son.
All it means is one that comes to maturity in Christ. It is not a little babe. It is not even a little child. But the encouragement, the blessing, with which he concludes is: all that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Did you know we were sons? It means sons of adoption. It means sons of maturity.
When you think of Hebrews 2:10, it says:
For it became Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Do you understand that He has set His heart on making us fully grown, mature sons? That is the blessing.
How has He done it? With unthinkable blessings. He has put within you the indwelling Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead. That is how, if you yield, if you obey that voice, if you learn how to walk in the Spirit, you will be made a full-grown son.
As a matter of fact, the word adoption in the Bible means sonship. I like the fact that Darby pointed that out in his notes. Whenever you read the word sonship, it means adoption.
Then another thing: if you look at verse 15:
For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Now, Abba is an Aramaic word. The Lord spoke in Aramaic, by the way, not in Hebrew when He was on the earth. Aramaic. He says, “Abba, Father.”
Now, Abba means father, so the Lord is being redundant, right? Father, Father. Abba, Father. But Abba is the most intimate description of father in the Bible.
This was the Lord’s own word: “Abba, Father.” Do you remember in the garden of Gethsemane, in that dark moment before He was crucified the next day? Do you remember, when the disciples slept, He said, “Abba, Father”?
Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; remove this cup from Me: howbeit not what I will, but what Thou wilt.
That is the Lord’s own personal word for the Father. But do you know, when he comes to Romans 8, Paul says it is our word.
We now can say, “whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The Lord’s own personal word becomes our word.
There is also a place in Galatians—the only third place it occurs—where we say, “Abba, Father.” You cannot think of anything more of a blessing than that.
You are now being made a full son of God by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and you have now the Lord’s own personal word of intimacy in fellowship with the Father, that you can say, “Abba, Father.”
Do you think He will ignore your cry? You know, that is the ultimate fellowship. Abba—that is communion.
I sometimes get distressed when I hear the word, “We have a relationship.” We have much more than a relationship.
Relationship is not a word that is in the English Bible, Old or New Testament, but we often say that. We have much more. We have fellowship, communion, sharing in common all that is of Christ—koinonia, the Greek word.
How much more spectacular than that. First Corinthians 1:9 says:
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now you can say, “Abba, Father.” The closest communion. This is the blessing. This is the blessing.
It says in verse 16:
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.
How marvelous that is—that we are children of God. Is that not a blessing? We are newborns. We are sons. It is a different word than sons, by the way. It is tekna in the Greek. It means a newborn. It means a little child.
We are not only being made sons through the indwelling Holy Spirit, but we are His children.
Then it goes on to say, “and if children, then heirs also.” You know, if you are a child of God, you are an heir of God. There could not be anything better than that.
You had better not hope you are an heir of mine. There might not be anything left for you at the end. But being an heir of God—look what He shares with you.
Then he goes on to say something even more spectacular, if God could get more spectacular: joint-heirs with Christ.
Now, do you know what that means? A joint-heir shares everything equally with the other heirs. Now, my three kids—our three kids, sorry, pardon me; I do not want to make a mistake I made last week—our three kids are joint-heirs of us.
They might not get much, but they are still joint-heirs. Every once in a while, I tease them. If they act up, I say, “You are out of the inheritance.” They look at me with disbelief because they know I am too much of a softy to do that. So they are completely at rest.
But here the Bible says something explicit and clear. The blessing that has been poured down on you is that you are a joint-heir with Christ.
He does not say with the angels. He does not say with the cherubim. He does not say with a seraph. You are a joint-heir with Christ.
That means God shares with you everything that is in Christ. Now, not deity. Do not ever make that mistake. Do not ever go there. It is a dangerous place to go. But everything else God freely shares.
A sister in the Lord who met with us for many years, and who no longer lives in Richmond, told me a story yesterday when she was reviewing the outline by text. She said that when her father had died and her mother was still alive, they were talking about the joint gravestone—a single gravestone for both graves—in anticipation of the day that her mother would pass.
This young sister was fellowshipping with her mother, who is a dear believer, and they thought, “What should we say on a gravestone?” You cannot write a chapter unless you have a very big gravestone.
So they said, “Let us put, ‘Joint-heirs with Christ.’” What a blessing.
I cannot think of anything more appropriate as an epitaph than to say, “We are joint-heirs with Christ.” That is the ultimate blessing.
Let me finish with this. William Newell, when he was dealing with this matter of heirs and joint-heirs, said something remarkable.
He said, concerning heirs now, “It is said of no angel, cherub, or seraph that they shall be an heir of God.” Think of that. The heavenly beings—it will never be said of them, “They are an heir of God.” But it is said of us: children.
Then when he came to this ultimate phrase, “joint-heirs with Christ,” he could not contain himself. He wrote, “I could not have the presumption to write these words if they were not in God’s holy Book.”
What a blessing. This is you. This is me. This is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, with all of its blessings, with all of its benefits, with all of its power to sanctify us wholly.
This is Romans 8:1–17.
Lord, we come to You and bow before You, and ask You to somehow interpret to us by the Holy Spirit the things we fail to be able to explain.
Cause us to hear that still, small voice speaking to us.
You have in you the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You have even Christ dwelling in you. Is there more I could do? Nevermore.
You have done it all. And we bow in Your presence and acknowledge You have done far beyond all we could ask or even imagine.
And we say, “Thank You, Lord, for the divine mystery, the divine plan.” We bow and worship You, in the name of Jesus.