Romans Ch 8 From No Condemnation to No Separation
Romans · Mike Doyle · Jun 9, 2024
Romans (2022-25), No. 077
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261935314010

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

When I sat down to do a whole chapter like this chapter, it is a daunting task. By the time I got done putting my notes together, I had 37 pages of notes, which meant that I was going to talk for an hour and 45 minutes. So I spent the entire week cutting and hacking and doing that kind of thing. But it was great because there's so much good stuff in these verses in terms of God's blessing. I want to make a couple of points.

When we study Paul's 13 epistles, One of the things that you learn about Romans in relation to his other epistles is Romans never leaves the ground. And what I mean by that is Romans does not take you to heavenly perspective. Everything is here. God comes here.

Now, as Paul goes on in his writings in Corinthians and Colossians and Ephesians, especially the prison epistles, It was like going down the runway and taking off. So keep in mind as we go through this that all of these blessings are here and it's important for us to understand. So the first four verses of chapter eight could be connected with chapter seven, linking the expression of hope.

I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Romans 7, 24 and 25 says, O wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then on the one hand, I myself with my mind, I serve the law of God, but on the other hand, the law in my flesh, the law of sin. So eight one through four, Now, therefore, there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law couldn't do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, what did he do? He condemned sin in the flesh. so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

As I was reading that, it dawned on me there's one other thing I wanted to tell you. Notice there's no handout today. That means you're gonna have to do that thing, you're gonna have to get your Bible out and look at Romans 8. So that's the only way, that's the handout is Romans chapter 8.

So there's no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. These opening verses of chapter eight form a summing up of all the truth previously unfolded in the part of the epistle that began in 512. 512 if you remember that by one man sin entered the world. The last part of verse 1 is an interruption which properly belongs to 8.4. We've talked about this when we were doing beginning chapter 1. Some of your Bibles or some of the translations will say there's no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. And then it will add, who walk according, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. That part doesn't belong in verse one. And there are manuscripts that show that it doesn't belong there.

And I think that The statement requires no qualifying clause. When God says there's no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus, and he puts a period after that, he means that, just exactly that. And there's no other requirements. He doesn't depend on your walk for condemnation. He depends on your position. It is true of all who are in Christ, and to be in him means to be of the new creation.

It was man's innate aversion to sovereign grace. You may not think that man has an aversion to sovereign grace, but Lewis Sparrow Chafer said, the most hated thing in the world is grace. You know why? Because it doesn't leave anything for you to do other than to receive.

So that brought these restricting words to the text in some versions. It seemed too much to believe that freedom from condemnation depended on being in Christ and not upon walking after the Spirit. So a clear reading would say the Spirit's law principle, we've talked a lot about principles around here, which is life in Christ Jesus has delivered me from the law or the principle of sin, death.

I am delivered. Why? Because I'm in Christ. That is, the Spirit's law of life in Christ received at new birth is put in contrast with the law of sin and death against which the believer struggles in vain as long as he wrestles in his own strength. Quote from Harry Ironside. We're brought to God in Christ, and so all question of judgment is forever settled for every believer.

It can never be raised again. This leaves the believer free to be occupied with pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's left. You get to please him. Not as a means of escaping divine displeasure, but out of love for him who has brought us to himself in peace. That's one of the great things that always is going through my mind. God has brought us to himself and we're acceptable there. There's nothing to keep us back.

So verse three says, for what the law couldn't do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, what did he do with sin? He condemned it. He condemned it in the flesh. So what the law, with all its demanding and solemn warnings and threats, couldn't accomplish, it couldn't produce life of holiness because of the weakness and unreliability of the flesh, is now realized in the power of life in the Holy Spirit.

Victory comes through turning from self to the risen Christ. The law's principle brings blessing because it gives power to him who did not have it before. It's a new principle of life, entirely new. Not in or of ourselves, but it's in Christ Jesus. This new life is imparted to every believer, every single one of us. And in the power of this new life, We are called in verse four, we are called it as God who works in us, both to be willing and do his good pleasure. It's God who does that. So verse four, so that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

This is a relief when you understand that if you've been struggling with sin, and maybe just the people on this side struggle with sin, you guys over here are okay. It's a relief to a troubled soul oppressed with a sense of our own unworthiness and distress because of frequent failures to live up to the highest resolve when he learns that God sees him in Christ free from all condemnation. That's a great day. A soul can scream to God quietly so that nobody hears it, but I feel so condemned.

In the realm of faith, this is not the question. It's not how I feel, but it's what God says. I think the entire New Testament can come under that heading. It's not how I feel, what does God say? He sees me in Christ risen far beyond the reach of condemnation.

God has pronounced that every believer free from condemnation, whether he fully realizes it or fully rises to the glorious fact or not, whether you feel it or not, or you even understand it or not, it's yours. It's yours, why? Simply because God did it and he told us so. So if you doubt, Look away then altogether from self and look away from your condition.

And look away from the entrapment of your feelings and look to Christ risen. Your sins were once put on him at the cross. See yourself in him, exalted there at God's right hand. Christ would not be risen if the sin question was not settled to divine satisfaction. The fact that he is risen and that you are seen by God in him is the fullest possible testimony that you're free from all condemnation.

The law demanded righteousness from man whose nature was utterly corrupt and perverted and which could only bring forth corrupt fruit. The Holy Spirit has produced a new nature in a man in Christ and linked with the new life are new affections, new desires, so that he gladly responds to the will of the Lord as revealed in his word.

So when you come to 5, Romans 8, 5 through verse 27, which is a word that Bob likes to call, we gotta stay in context. Well, here's the context. Paul opens a whole range of truth in connection with the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is the true minister of Christ on the earth.

We see that there are two exactly opposite principles to be considered. There are two opposed standards of life that are shown here. Verse 5 says, For those who are according to the flesh, that's where you came from, you set your mind on things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit set their minds on the Spirit. For the mindset of the flesh is death. but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace. So there's the contrast. Those who are after the flesh, that is all the unsaved, are dominated by the fleshly nature. That's where they come from. Contrasted to this, they who are after the spirit, which are believers. And why?

Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile to God. I don't care how much holy water you pour on the sin nature, it's hostile to God in every way. It does not subject itself to the law of God for it's not even able to do so. It can't. So religion and all of its rules and regulation, this is what you've got to deal with. You talk about fighting a losing battle. It is not that the flesh is or ever will be in any sense improved, never. If it were, why would God condemn it? The flesh in the oldest and godliest Christian is as incorrigibly evil as the flesh in the vilest sinner. We all have the flesh.

We all have a sin nature. Your sin nature and my sin nature, especially my sin nature, is I look at these people that do these horrible things and I think, oh, they're pikers. They can't. What I think about, I had a friend, a guy who led me to the Lord, said to me one time, he said, you know, he said, if you could see what goes through my mind, for five minutes, you'd never talk to me again. That's sin, that's a sin nature.

All efforts to reform or sterilize the flesh will prove unsuccessful. Some of you have more staying power than others. The law only demonstrates its incurable wickedness, and this explains why the natural man is so utterly unprofitable. and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. It is not that man does not know right from wrong or knowing it is powerless to do right. To say he's ignorant would be to declare that the man is not a responsible creature, but is simply the victim of hard, cruel fatalism. But knowing the evil and approving the good, the natural man inclines towards the wrong and fails to do the right because he's dominated by sin in the flesh, to which he yields his members as instruments of unrighteousness that we spent a lot of time in chapter six talking about. and he's powerless to change his nature, he therefore cannot really please God. You can't change your nature.

However, you're not in the flesh as believers, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to him. That's a big difference with believers. He's no longer in the flesh since he's born of God. He's no longer as being of the family of the first man, Adam. He is no longer under the dominion of the old nature.

I'm talking about positional truth here. This is true of you and your position. He's now in the Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in him. One without the Spirit of Christ is none of his. He does not belong to him. I'm glad we all belong to Christ. I like that term.

It is not merely the personality of Christ that's in view here, but the Spirit of Christ. is the Holy Spirit whom Christ has sent into the world and who dwells all, indwells all his redeemed ones in the stewardship of grace. This produces a Christ-like disposition in the one so indwelled. But if Christ by the Spirit be in us, he alone is the source of the power of holiness, he is, Verse 10, if Christ is in you, though your body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. So the body is to be considered as though it were lifeless and inert so far as ability to produce fruit to God is concerned. It's moving and active. Some of you go to the gym, you know. But in terms of being pleasing to God, it's lifeless.

Our new life must be of the Spirit. The Spirit is life because of righteousness. So this is not to ignore or undervalue the body at all. It too has been purchased by the blood of Christ and we have the promise that. If the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal body through his spirit who indwells you. But the body is for the Lord and the same Holy Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead will eventually raise us up and raise your body up, giving resurrection life to your mortal body. He's speaking of the body of the living believer who has a new life now in a body subject to death.

If the rapture doesn't happen and I live longer than all of you, I'll be doing all your funerals. I shall put on, it shall put on immortality at the Lord's return. When the Lord returns, we meet him in the air. Either you're gonna either be coming down or going up, and you're gonna get a brand new body.

So then, brethren, we are not under any obligation not to the flesh to live life according to the flesh. We don't have any obligations there. If you live according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the power of the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So since God has claimed us for this, we owe nothing to the flesh, nothing.

We are not its debtors to be of service to it. To do so only means that we're gonna die, separate. It's a great fact which he calls attention to. Sin, when it is finished, what does it produce? Death, separation. The body is viewed as the vehicle through which the flesh acts. It incites the natural appetite to lawless indulgence. The spirit-led man must be on guard all the time, I think. Against this, we must and will put to death those unlawful desires.

I refer you to Colossians 3.5. So as many that are led or controlled by the Spirit, they're the sons of God.

To walk in the flesh is to walk contrary to the whole principle of Christianity. I say it this way, you know, I see in the news all the time, certain tragedy happened, but we're going to send in counselors. Counselors are going to sit down and tell us how to deal with the flesh. Well, If I'm walking in the flesh, I'm contrary to the things of God, and I don't need counseling, I need the cross.

And so what do I really need when I need to be controlled by the Spirit of God? It is by this life and the Spirit's power that we mortify or put to death or put out of business the deeds of the body. and manifest our new life and relationship. It's a dependence on him alone.

This is the spirit of adoption, of adopted sons, acknowledgement whereby we automatically lift our hearts to God and cry of the conscious child If you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry, Abba Father, it's Cordelia's favorite term. Adoption can be distinguished from new birth. How? Everyone that's born, all born in his family are children. but only those who are adopted are recognized as sons. So how do you make the difference?

If we've been born again by the word of God and thus our children, we were all believers from Adam forward. Is Adam a believer? Is Adam a son of God? Or is he a child of God? Answer yes. How about Abraham? How about all the Old Testament saints? Well, what makes me and you different from them?

We are indwelt by the Spirit and we are designated adopted sons. And this will be fully manifested when we are changed into the Savior's image that is coming. Maybe explain it this way. In a Roman family, let's say they had four boys. And the father at some point would go to one of the boys and say, I'm adopting you. I'm going to put you in the position of an inheritor of my whole estate. You're going to be the one. You're adopted.

The other three are still sons. They're still children, but they're not adopted. Every single one of us is a son of God adopted, an inheritor. There aren't gonna be any of us that are saying, well, I'm a child of God, but I didn't get in on this adoption thing.

Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. Someone has aptly suggested that Abba is a word for baby, let's elect that term, whereas the Greek pater, or the English equivalent, father, is a word of a more mature, but young and old together in approaching the Father by the Spirit. So not only are we children of God, but we're adopted. Adopted really means more than just being a child of God.

Ooh, that didn't fit, Roger. Oh, I can see it. No, I can't see it over there either. I can't read 16. Children of God, and if children heirs, also heirs of God and fellow heirs. with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we also may be glorified with him. When we do these slides, one of the things that I do is I send them all to Roger, and he tries to get them to fit if I got them out of the, we obviously missed this one.

He himself, the Spirit of God, bears witness to our human spirit that we are God's children. And not only that, We receive the witness which he has given us in his word, and thus we have the witness in us, the word hidden in our hearts. And now the spirit himself tapes up his abode within and leads us into the enjoyment of heavenly things.

17 says, if children heirs also, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ. That's what adoption means. if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. If children of God in Christ, it naturally follows that we're adopted, but not all children are. And as his heirs, and thus we are joint heirs with Christ. We share in all his acquired glories and we shall share eventually and be glorified together with him.

So now down to verse 18 through 27, Paul's gonna contrast our present condition with the coming glory. So he starts out and he says, I consider that the suffering of this present time, sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us, to us. Even though we aren't dwelt by the Spirit, we're called to a path of suffering and sorrow as we follow the steps of him who was on earth the man of sorrows. However, all we can possibly suffer here is nothing compared to the glory which soon will be manifested in us. I was reading the other day, and I forget who it was, but he said, you know, if one of the things that's going on as we live in this earth is we're learning, Hebrews says that Christ learned obedience through his sufferings. And so if we're going to be the sons of God and we're going to be conformed to his image, we have to go through the process of maturity, of being matured. And we love to think about the glorious part and the reception part and all the good things, but suffering is part of that.

So when we get to be with the Lord, we can say, I walked the whole way with him, not only in the grace that he gave me, but in the sufferings too. I'm fully orbed as a son of God because I know grace and I also know sufferings. And that's what makes believers able to walk besides other believers. They know, and so they can walk.

So the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. All creation, all of it, is expectantly waiting for the full revelation of the true estate of the sons of God. Isn't that interesting? If you read about, if the environmentalists tell you that you've got to do this or that or save the planet or whatever, that what really is going on from God's perspective is that the creation which was cursed because of Adam's sin is waiting for what event?

The revealing of the sons of God. You think you're important? You think of Fuliorb's son who is in Christ? The earth doesn't get relief from the vanity without us being manifested as God's sons. That's the event. It's gonna be released to share in our glory and our liberty.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, it didn't do it itself, but because of him, who subjected it in hope. Interesting that the creation was made subject to vanity, which means it isn't performing like it was designed to do, nor of its own will, but through the failure of its federal head. The federal head was Adam. When he sinned, the whole creation sinned, yet subjected not forever, but there's a hope in the creation, which means there's coming in the future something with the creation that's gonna restore it, and in that day, it'll be delivered, and we'll get to see it. that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Slavery to corruption and made to share in the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.

Creation does not share in the liberty of the grace that we have, but it does in part share in the glory, the kingdom age of millennial blessings. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now, groaning and travailing in birth pains through all the present age, waiting for the regeneration. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting, waiting eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. We ourselves, though we have received salvation for our souls and have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan in unison with the groaning creation as we wait expectantly for our acknowledged adoption when we shall receive the redemption of our bodies and be fully like himself.

Those of you who are younger probably don't ever have these conversations, but those of us who are older, we talk about that a lot. We're looking forward to it. We wanna get there sooner rather than later. For in hope we have been saved, But hope that is seen is not hope, for we hope for what we already, who hopes for what he already sees. In this hope we've been saved, and in its power we live. We walk by faith, not by sight. If already seen, hope would fade away. We patiently wait for the Lord himself.

In the same way, The Spirit helps our weakness for we don't know what to pray for as we should. I think we all experience that lots of times. Lord, how should I pray about this? Should I pray about this or should I not? But the Spirit helps our weakness for we don't know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. You know what's cool about the will of God? It's totally based on grace and blessing, and we're the ones that don't know about it. And the Spirit of God communicates from God's heart what he has intended for us. Meanwhile, We as human beings are often tried to our limits and we don't know even what we should pray for as we should, but the indwelling spirit, knowing the mind of God fully, makes intercession within us according to the will of God, though not in honorable words, but in honorable groanings. Think about this, once we groaned in bondage and now we groan in grace. as another has well said, and this very groaning in itself a testimony to the changed condition brought about by our union with Christ. And so we go on in peace and tribulation, assured in our hearts that God works all things together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

It's God who works all things together. It introduces the closing part of the chapter and the doctrinal division of Romans, which is a summing up of all we have gone over, and a conclusion to the opening up of the righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel. It breaks into two subcategories.

Verse 28 through 34, we have God is for us. In 35 through 39, there's no separation. So, We have a chain of five links in 29 and 30 reaching from eternity past to eternity future. We are foreknown, we're predestinated, we were called, we were justified and glorified. Those five things were determined by God before. Every link was formed in heaven and not one can ever be broken. The blessed segment is not for theologians to wrangle about, but for us saints just to enjoy it. Theologians love to argue about these things. I like to enjoy them because they say so much to me and to you about how God loves us.

For those whom he foreknew, all of you, he also predestined to, what's he gonna do? He's gonna conform us to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. He's the first, and you're gonna be like him. It's ordained by him. It was foreknown before we ever walked on the planet. It was predestined to become fully like our blessed Lord, conformed to the image of God's Son that he who was from all eternity, the only begotten, might be the firstborn among many brethren.

And those whom he predestined, he called. And those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. You guys that are going down to Camp Elam, you ought to make a sign and hang it around your neck and say, here's who I am. I was predestined, called, justified, and glorified. That's who I am. So we are foreknown, called, predestined by divine grace, justified by faith based on his accomplishment, Christ's accomplished redemption, and our glorification is as certain as the foreknowledge of God.

And then the great question, what shall we say to this? What are you gonna say to all of this? If God is for us, who's against us? If God is so openly for us now and not against us as he once was, when our hearts were troubled and our guilty conscience made us believe, what power can there be against each one of us? Oops, I missed a part. Who can successfully fight against the divine will? That's why I said in the beginning, what's more important, how I feel about something or what God says about it.

He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? In giving Christ, God showed us that he loved us better than we loved our sins. If he did not spare his son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall you not freely give us all things? The principle is really simple here. If God gave us the best he had, is he going to give you the lesser thing? Or is he going to say, I gave you my son, but I'm not going to do this for you? He'll give us everything of his grace and his blessing.

So last two verses, or the next two verses, should probably be as questions, and they are in a lot. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Number one, shall God, who did the justifying? Who shall condemn? Shall Christ, who died, yea, rather, who is risen again? Who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us? Is there an answer to these challenges? There isn't any answer possible. Every voice is silenced. Every accusation is quieted.

Our standing in Christ is complete and our justification is unchangeable. So, somehow the last few verses were left off. Anyway, that's okay. To close, I think really what we've done, or what Paul has done in chapter eight, he's taken us from no condemnation to no separation. From no condemnation to no separation. There is nothing, there is nothing who can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, not even what you think, not even your feelings, not even God himself. So let's close.

Father, how we thank you. We thank you for the grace. We thank you that you loved us. We thank you that you have given your son, your most precious, precious thing that you had for us. And we're thankful how convinced Paul is and that we should be convinced that there just is absolutely no separation for the love that you have for us in Christ Jesus. And we pray in your son's precious name, amen.