Romans Lesson 11

Pastor Brian's Bible Study on the book of Romans

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Life in the Word, our verse by verse study of God's Word. Every semester, college students endure a time of testing. Final exam week. They stay up late, eat poorly, and spend countless hours studying. One reason they can endure this trial is because they know their sufferings are temporary. Final exam week is going to come to an end. Christmas or summer vacation is coming with more sleep, more free time, and better food. God has also provided hope for our suffering as Christians in this world by repeatedly reminding us in the scriptures of our assurance of our final destination. And Paul's going to remind us of that tonight. So join me in chapter 8 of Romans, beginning with verse 1. So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Powerful verse. There's no condemnation for believers. Before we go on, I want you to look if I want to look at and show you something. I want you to see, I want you to learn this and just to be aware of these things sometimes. If you look at the King James Bible or the New King James Bible in Romans chapter 1, uh excuse me, chapter 8, verse 1, it reads, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. Okay, that's what I just read to you. However, after Jesus there's a comma, not a period. It says, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So what's the difference there? Well, in my opinion, it makes it very legalistic, doesn't it? If we continue to lead a godly life in the spirit, we will not be condemned. But if we fail to live a godly life, we will be condemned. I mean, there's there's no standing with God based on our performance, is what this is all about. It's actually legalism. Who do not walk. It's telling us to do something who do not walk. It's talking about performance. It's not talking about grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It's not talking about that at all. So sometimes we have to be conscious of what we're reading. That's why I read usually, I don't know, four or five. If you looked at my desk, I have four or five different Bibles, different versions, and I use them all as I prepare my studies and sermons. So we need to be just conscious of that, that sometimes this is going to happen. So anyway, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus Christ, period. Verse 2. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. So what are these two verses telling us? Well, they're telling us that we have peace with God. There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. It's saying you're not guilty. Let this person go. I mean, what would those words mean to you if you were on death road? Well, in reality, the whole human race is on death row, isn't it? Justly condemned for repeatedly breaking God's holy law. And without Jesus Christ, we would have no hope at all. But thank God He has declared us not guilty because of our faith and has offered us freedom from sin and supernatural power to do his will. Where does this supernatural power come from to free us? It comes from the Holy Spirit. And in verse 2, Paul is referring to the consistent ways that the Holy Spirit works in our lives. These fall under two main functions. First, the power of the life-giving Spirit sets us free. Free from the power of sin that leads to death. What both we and the law were powerless to do, God did for us. Second, now that we have been freed, the Spirit lives in us so that we can actually live lives that are pleasing to God, okay? So let's move on. You know, understand what this is really talking about, too, as we go through it. There's no condemnation in Christ, but we feel tension in our daily Christian experience because we all struggle with the desire to sin, don't we? We still have that sin nature within us. We face conflict because we agree that God's commands are right and good, but we cannot carry them out fully on our own because we still have that sin nature waging war inside of us every day. And as a result, we are painfully aware of our sin. The inward struggle with sin was a real issue for Paul as it is for us today. And many a believer will struggle with feeling condemned because Satan uses past guilt and present failures to make us question what Christ has done for us. I mean, over the years, I myself have dealt with this. I've dealt with many others who get caught up in the sins of their past. I've had people come to me talking, their drug because of their drugs, their violence in their past, their abandonment, the murder of another person, they've taken another life, or abortion. I've had people, I used to have a guy pull up to my office the same day every year, and he'd sit out in his car, watching by my window crying, and he'd finally come in and talk to me. That was the celebration of the celebration, that was the right word. It was the anniversary of the day that he took his girlfriend to get an abortion. It would have been that child's birthday. He was thinking about it. And every year that just ate at him and ate at him, and he felt unworthy. All these people cause people, all these cause people to question their salvation because they can't log go of the past. But we have to understand God has. Remember, Paul was Saul. He persecuted the church before becoming a believer. He was responsible for the imprisonment and death of several believers before he became a believer himself. And whenever he felt overwhelmed by the spiritual battle on the side of him, and I'm sure he felt this problem, but his past kept bothering him, because the Jews kept bringing it up. He would return to the beginnings of his spiritual life, remembering how he had been forgiven and freed from sin and his past by Jesus Christ, the very one whom Paul was really attacking. And when we feel confused and overwhelmed by sin's appeal, let us claim the freedom Christ has given us. We must never forget what He did for us and what it cost him. Our assurance of God's forgiveness and salvation must be focused on Christ, not on our performance, not on the past. His power can lift us to victory. So whenever our hearts condemn us, we have to remember God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. We must never forget the reality of our rescue and our indebtedness to God's grace in Jesus Christ, who willingly bore our sins on a cross. Remember Romans 5.8? But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. He didn't save us because we're good. He saved us because we're sinners. We were lost. We are hopeless. He gives us the power we need to live the Christian life, which we all know is not easy. Again, we're waging war all the time with our sin nature. So anyway, press on. Keep looking to Christ, not the past, not your failures. Verse 3. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have, and in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice to pay the price for our sins. In John chapter 1, we read in verse 1, in the beginning what the word already existed. The word was with God and the word was God. Who was the word? Was Jesus Christ. Word in Hebrew means agent of creation, and it points us to Christ. All of Scripture is about Christ. Then we read in John chapter 1, verse 14, so the word Christ became human and made his home amongst us. Jesus Christ became one of us. Why did Jesus come to earth as a human being? Went to this ugly world? It was crucial for Jesus to become flesh, to act as a qualified sacrificial substitute for humanity, dying a physical death to pay the penalty for our sin and break the power of death. Remember, in the Old Testament times, animal sacrifices were continually offered at the temple. These animals brought to the altar had two important characteristics. One, they were alive, and two, they were without flaw. There was no blemish in them. And the sacrifices showed the Israelites the seriousness of sin. Innocent blood had to be shed before sins could be pardoned. But animal blood could not remove sin, and the forgiveness provided by those sacrifices, in legal terms, was more like a stay of execution than a pardon. Those animal sacrifices could only point to Jesus' sacrifice that paid the penalty for all sin for all time. Jesus' life was identical to ours, yet it was unstained by sin. By becoming human, Jesus could serve as the flawless sacrifice for our sins. He represents us, he sympathizes with our weaknesses and fulfills God's law, redeeming all aspects of human nature and makes it possible for us now to approach God. First Peter 3 18 says, Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh. Verse 4. He did this so that the just requirement of the law could be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit. So what is the just requirement of the law? Well it's holiness. Leviticus eleven forty five says, For I the Lord am the one who brought you from the land of Egypt that I might be your God. Therefore you must be holy because I am holy. What does it mean to be holy? Well, it means to be set apart, consecrated, or distinctly different from the common, ordinary, or profane. It primarily signifies being separated for God's exclusive purpose, and for believers involves living according to God's standards rather than the world's. To be holy involves sanctification, the process of being transformed by the Holy Spirit to become more and more like Jesus Christ, which is a lifetime pursuit and a goal for us. The law is powerful, powerless to make us holy. Only through Christ's death and the resulting freedom from sin can we no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead we're to follow the Spirit. Verse 5. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. Verse 6. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your minds leads to life and peace. Paul divided people into two categories, those who are dominated by their sinful nature and those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit. All of us would be in the first category if Jesus hadn't offered us a way out, a way that brings us life and peace, eternal life. Verse 7. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws and it never will. Verse 8. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. Nine. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever worried about whether you really are a Christian? If you have sincerely trusted Jesus Christ for your salvation and acknowledged him as a Lord, then the Holy Spirit lives within you. You are a Christian. He is your seal. I mean, I've struggled with it before, especially in my early walk with Christ. It was hard for me to understand that Christ accepted me as I am, broken. And I struggled every day with my sin nature, and I often failed in those days. And that's an issue for many, many people today. They believe Christ cannot, will not accept them because of their past. So they work hard to try and earn his favor. But our God is bigger than that. Verse 10. And Christ lives within you. So even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. Verse 11, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you. The Holy Spirit is God's guarantee of eternal life for those who believe in him. The Spirit resides in us now by faith, and by faith we are certain to live with Christ forever when our time here on earth is up. Chapter Excuse me, verse twelve. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what our sinful nature urges us to do. thirteen. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. See, Scripture tells us there are two kinds of death. Death is both physical and spiritual. All people die physically, but only those with the spirit will be resurrected. And those who live according to the sinful nature cannot enjoy God's presence in their lives. Thus they're left of their own devices. They're less left to face ultimately God's wrath. Verse 14. 15. So you have not received you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. The law made us slaves, and we were terrified of it. The law didn't work. Instead, first fifteen, instead you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. We now call him Abba Father. What does that mean? Abba. Well Abba is from the Aramaic and is still a term used by Hebrew children to address their father. Abba is a term of informal intimacy and respect spoken by children to their fathers. The equivalent expression in our language today would be daddy or papa. So calling God daddy indicates what? That we are his children, that we have an intimate relationship with him because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 16. For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory. But if we share in God's glory, we also have to share in his what? His suffering. Being identified with Jesus as heirs of God's glory comes with a price. Paul also mentions suffering that Christians must face. So what kinds of sufferings are we to endure? Well, first century believers, there was economic, social persecution, and some were even martyred for the faith. In over 50 nations of today's world, Christians face pressures and persecutions just as severe as those faced by Christ's first followers. Just last week, a couple weeks ago on March 5th, 50 armed Fulani fighters riding 25 motorcycles stormed rural farming areas in Nigeria in the late afternoon and opened fire, killing 22 Christian men tending their fields. It's said that there's over 7,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in the first 220 days of this year. Why? I don't know. There's no war going on. They're not just collateral damage. Christians is the reason. Christians are the target of Islamics who want to destroy Christianity. A few months ago in the Republic of Congo, 70 Christians were marched into their church and beheaded. Men, women, and children slaughtered. Did you hear about that? Where are the news reports? Where are the activists? Nobody's marching and protesting for these people. You know, you or I could have been born in any one of the 50 plus nations where it's illegal to be a Christian. You could be running for your life right now, but you were born in America. So I guess those people are not our concern. Or are they? Even in countries where Christianity is widely accepted, Christians must not become complacent. To live as Jesus did, serving others sacrificially and resisting pressure to conform to this world always exacts a price. I mean, what is what is what has being a Christian cost you? Do you know those things? Has it cost you anything? I mean, I could go on and on about what it's cost me over the years. It's cost me a lot, a great deal. But nothing we suffer, however, can compare to the great price that Jesus paid to save us. Verse 18, yet we suffer now. What we suffer now is nothing, nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse, but with eager hope. 21. The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. These verses are speaking about what? They're talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. The entire universe, all of creation is looking forward to the conclusion of God's plan, but people are, it's interesting, the largest group of holdouts and anticipating an eager expectation for Christ's concern return. So what is the purpose of Christ's second coming? The purpose is to fulfill remaining prophecy, judge the world, destroy evil, and establish a permanent kingdom of righteousness. And unlike his first coming to save, this return was visible to all. It's a personal event meant to resurrect the dead, glorify believers, and restore creation to perfection. I can't wait. However, research has found that Christian human beings in general do not eagerly await or anticipate Christ's return. I mean, do you look forward to that day? I hope you do. I mean, when I was a youth pastor, we talked about this. Young people don't. They don't want them to come back. They want to get their driver's license. They want to drive a car, they want to get married, they want to own a home, they want to experience life. And several older folks I've talked to just even recently want to have grandchildren. They want to retire. They want to travel and see the world. That's more important. And why is that? Well, we're attached to this world. Attached to things that are temporary. We don't like change. We're comfortable where we are. And many don't understand how great our inheritance will be. The things we'll give up are only temporary, but eternity is living forever in the presence of God. Nothing could be greater. Verse 23. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory. For we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We too wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he's promised us. Verse 24. We were given this hope when we were saved. I mean, if we already have something, we don't need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must patiently and confidently wait for that. Now I can have complete confidence it's going to happen, but the patient part I struggle with a little bit. Most young children naturally trust their parents, even though parents sometimes fail to keep their promises, but God never makes promises he won't keep. He's given us hope, but his plan will unfold according to his timetable, and thus certain things may take longer than we expect. So what are we hoping for? Well, for me, I'm hoping for new bodies. I can't wait. New knees, the new heaven and new earth, rest and rewards of service, our eternal family and home, the absence of sin and suffering, and we look forward to being face to face with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Rather than acting like impatient children as we wait for God's promises to be fulfilled, we should place our confidence in God's current promises to bring good out of bad situations that we endure, to give us divine wisdom for daily living, and to encourage us with peace of heart and mind. Verse 26. And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying. For the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's will. As believers, we're not left to your own sources to cope with your problems. Even when you don't know what the right words are to pray, the Holy Spirit prays with you and for you, and God answers. So what does in harmony with God's own will mean? It means when you bring your request to God, trust that He will always do what's best for us. He knows better than we do what we need in every situation. Verse 28. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Is this first saying that whatever happens to us will be pleasant? No. Everything that happens in this life is directed towards God's plans. What happens may not itself be good, but God will make it work for our ultimate good to meet his ultimate goal for our life. And sometimes that means pain, loss, and suffering. But no matter, God is sovereign. He's in control, and the eventual outcome will be for our good. God uses all our circumstances, both good and bad, to grow our faith and help us become more. More and more like Christ while we're still on this planet Earth. Verse 29. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his son, so that his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. You know, some families have such distinct features, for example, dad's brown eyes or mom's blonde hair, that everyone immediately knows the children are all related. And because we are God's children, we are Christ's brothers and sisters, we're family. And in the case of believers, the distinguishing family characteristic is that we are all becoming conformed to Christ's likeness. He's the firstborn of the new race of humans who are purified from sin. Verse 30. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them the right standing with himself, and having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. One thing is clear in these last few verses. The entire initiative in our salvation in our salvation lays in God's hands. God is not limited by time or space, and before time began, God knew who would believe and be his people of faith. He foreknew us, and so he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son. Then within history he called us. This was and is the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit as he appeals to our hearts to respond in faith to the free offer of pardon, a new life in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are then justified, made right with God, and then we will be glorified. What does it mean to be glorified? Well, it means that when we get to heaven we will all be like Christ. We will retain our individuality, but we will also have Christ's character, the same gentleness, the same self-control, the same perfect love. And while receiving God's glory as a future event, Paul writes it in the past tense to show that it is so certain to happen that it's as good as done. I mean, this ought to fuel our confidence, right? Everything that happens in life is used by God to prepare us in some way for the future revelation of glory. We're going to be like Christ. The family resemblance both in body and spirit will be unmistakable. Verse 31. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? These, if God is for us, who can ever be against us? The story is told that during a crisis in the Civil War, a timid civilian sought out President Lincoln and said, Mr. President, I am most anxious that the Lord should be on our side. Lincoln replied, That gives me no anxiety at all. The thing I worry about is being on the Lord's side. Lincoln was correct in his application for that moment, but in the context of salvation, there's no doubt God is for us. God is for each and every one of us. So who can be against us? The next verses make clear that God will withhold nothing to take care of us. Verse 32. Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he give us everything else? Since God gave his only son for us, he will withhold nothing beneficial for us. Verse 30. Next we read that God will allow nothing to condemn us. Verse 33. Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one. For God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Verse 34. Who then will condemn us? No one. For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting at the place of honor at God's right hand pleading for us. If accusations are brought against us, we need not fear, for the charges are silenced by the upraised, pierced hands of our intercessor, Jesus Christ. Do you ever think that because you aren't good enough for God that he will not save you? Do you ever feel as if salvation is for everyone else but you? At those times, make verses 31 through 34, your constant companions. If God gave us his son for you, he isn't going to hold back the gift of salvation. He will if we will if we will be condemned, it will be over Christ's dead and now resurrected body, which actually is the basis of our salvation. Christ will not withhold anything you need in order to live for him. The book of Romans is a letter of comfort and confidence addressed to you. And finally, God will allow nothing to separate us from his love. Verse 35. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death? 36. As the scriptures say, for our sake we are killed every day, we are being slaughtered like sheep. In verse 35, Paul is kind of speaking autobiography, biographically, having experienced all that he writes about here, and he affirms that none of this, in fact, absolutely nothing, can separate us from Christ's love. In verse 36, he quotes from Psalm 44, 22 to show that the tribulations believers face are nothing new but have always been characteristic of God's people. And then in verse 37 he concludes, No, despite all these things, overwhelming victories ours through Christ who loved us. Literally, Paul says we are super conquerors, not just victors, but super victors. We're more than conquerors. That's what we are now, and that's what we will regard ourselves throughout all eternity. Look at verse 38. I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, nor angels or demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the power of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. Death will not pull me away from God's love, neither will life and his allurements, nor cosmic spiritual powers, nor anything in time, nor power, nor the height of heaven, nor the depth of hell, nor anything else, not disappointment, neurosis, disease, a broken romance, financial crisis, insanity, nothing. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul's point is simple and compelling. Once in his care, it's impossible to be separated from Christ. His death for us is proof of his unconquerable love. Nothing can stop his constant presence with us. And Christ God reveals his great love for us so that we can feel totally secure in him. Let me finish with this story. Cory Tinboom was at the Nazi death camp, Ravensbrook, where roll call came at four thirty AM every morning. Most mornings were cold, and sometimes women would be forced to stand without moving for hours in the bone chilling pre-dawn darkness. Nearby were the punishment barracks, where all day and far into the night would come the sounds of cruelty, blow blowing blows landing in regular rhythm and screams keeping pace. But Cory and her sister Betsy had a Bible, and at every opportunity they would gather the women together like orphans around a blazing fire and read Romans chapter eight. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? All these things and all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Cory later said, I would look about as Betsy read, watching the light leap from face to face, more than conquerors. It was not a wish. In our case, it was a fact. We knew it. We experienced it minute by minute in an ever widening circle of help and hope. Life at Ravensbook took place on two separate levels, she said. One the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory. As we face this world of evil and chaos and madness, hold verses thirty-eight through thirty-nine deeply in your heart and mind. Claim them for yourselves so that you will never doubt God's love and care for you, especially when you're facing great adversity and struggles in your life. And they will come. That's the end of chapter 8. I hope you have learned and grown can grow from this. I think I hope you go through it again and put some application to your life in this. And I hope you'll join us next week as we get into chapter 9. Between now and then, have a blessed week.