Law & Grace - Romans 8:1-8 No condemnation

Good morning. We are proceeding through our study of Romans 5 through 8, here starting in chapter 8, and today looking at the first eight verses as Wayne read it for us here. I want to just highlight why we have this expanded and explained, which is a little different from your English translation. Rather than use the standard English translation here, we have provided this partially expanded and explained version, and there are a couple different reasons for that.

Here in Romans 8.2 you might have noticed here what is typically translated the law for the law of the spirit of life in Christ.

We've translated that principle, and the reason being we don't want to confuse it with the idea of law as a series of rules that you follow in order to attain righteousness. So we say it's the principle, and we'll explain that in more detail in a bit as to what that word means. Additionally, none of our translations commonly bring out the idea of theese in nature. The Greek actually has a definite article that is in English, the, and that's not brought out.

And it does make quite a difference. And so we want to recognize that. So for at least those two reasons, we have this expanded and explained version in order to bring those things out and to clarify what the intent of Paul is here. The Greek word translated law can be best conveyed as principle in some places. In this case, it's verse 2 where we bring that out a couple of times.

By way of review, looking back at Romans chapter 5, we saw that grace is the grace in which we have been made to stand. It isn't a grace that we decide actively ourselves to do the standing. All we did was believe and God made us to stand in that grace, and it says at the very last verse of chapter 5 that grace is the reigning principle.

It's the atmosphere that we breathe. In Romans 6, certainly we looked at the details, but the believer who is in Christ has died to the sin nature and is alive to God. A core and central truth there. We have this kind of diagram that we've included and carried forward the last several weeks, and I think it's helpful, in Adam. But before faith in Christ, we were separated from Christ and joined to the sin nature, the principle of law, and to the world. Now, having believed and had faith in Christ, we are in Christ, joined to Him, as we saw in the first part of Romans 7, separated from the sin nature, the principle of law, and from the world. This is a teaching out of Galatians 6. The believer is not under law but under grace. This is Romans 6 verses 14 and 15 and further illustrated by the first six verses of Romans chapter 7. We have died to the law.

That's a message nearly identical to Galatians 2.19. In order to be intimately joined to Christ Now, so we addressed this question last week.

What happens when we try to live by the law that Christ died to separate us from? Suppose ignoring that or being ignorant of the fact that Christ died on the cross for several reasons, one of which is to separate us from the law. What if we try to live life ignorant of or ignoring that truth? Well, what happens? What happens when a believer tries to live by even one of the Ten Commandments?

That's exactly what Romans 7, 7-25 describes, and as we took a look at last week. The experience that Paul describes is so wretched, Paul thanks God for God's resolution of it. He says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank God for God's taking action, for God's seeing my situation. Only He could save me from this wretchedness.

What we see here in Romans 8.1 is something that starts off as we look back in Romans 5.18. Paul wrote then in 5.18, so then as through one, that is through Adam, transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. How many? All men. Every one of us. Condemnation to all men through that one transgression of Adam.

Romans 8.1, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Let's review this. Is there a little bit of condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Just a touch? Is there a lot of condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Are there varying amounts of condemnation? No. For those who in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. And by the way, the word no in the Greek text is the first word in the sentence. And that's to emphasize it. There is therefore now no condemnation. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

And we could ask the question, how did we get into Christ Jesus? Did we get into Christ Jesus by working for it? Are we still trying to get there? Did we merit getting into Christ Jesus? Is that something that we need to aspire to? No. All we did was believe 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus. By His doing, you're in Christ Jesus. God accomplished it. All you did was believe. God's the one who pulled it off. And it's a done deal. If you're a believer here today, you are in Christ Jesus 100%. And there is 0% condemnation. Because you're 100% in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3, 7-11 carries some important insights here.

The law, which of course we have died to, the law, even the Ten Commandments, which Paul said just trying to live out one caused him misery, the law in this passage says is a ministry of death in letters engraved on stones. And which part of the Law of Moses, there are 613 laws in the Law of Moses, which part of the Law of Moses was written on stones? The Ten Commandments. And what is it that Christians are often beat over the head with? The Ten Commandments.

Crazy, okay? It's a ministry of death. Have any volunteers for the ministry of death? You like that? That did come with some glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was. It's fading, but it's really bright, right? How will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. It is a ministry of death and condemnation, even the Ten Commandments, that Christians continue to get put in front of them as, you've got to do this. It is a ministry of death. It's a ministry of condemnation.

However, what does Romans 8.1 say? There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. None. None. And no ifs. Why no condemnation?

You see, the law, as we found out back in chapter 5, it helps quantify and characterize sin so that it can be accounted. You broke this law, and this one, and this one, and this one, and you did this one three times, and that one five times, and so we can count it, and we can account for all the sins. You can quantify it and characterize it. It gives you the ability to do that. And the law is holy and righteous and good.

The law, however, actually increases sinning. It stimulates, as we saw last week, it stimulates the sin nature into action. All you've got to do is to tell the sin nature, don't do something. And boy, guess what the sin nature is going to do? It puts it into gear, big time, right? It stimulates and stirs it.

Since we died with Christ, and because we are in Christ and baptized into Him in His death, We died in relationship to that law in order to be joined to Christ. There was a purpose in dying in relationship to the law. We had to die to the law in order to be joined to Christ. The law is not enforced on corpses. When someone commits a crime but dies in the carrying out of that crime, they don't take him to court, do they? They don't put him up on the witness stand. They don't even make him sit there next to a lawyer. It's a done deal. I think we have an expression, something about beating a dead horse, right? You just don't do that. And so that's the character of it.

We have died to the law, having died with Christ. In order to be joined to Christ, we died to the law. This is about our position in Christ. Christ the righteous one, the one who was raised to new life, certainly is not condemned, and we're in Him. As we're in Him, we have died in relationship to the law, which is the instrument of condemnation. Does the law define God's righteousness?

Yeah. But it doesn't get the job done. We have not died to the law in some partial way. You will come across people who say, oh yeah, we've died to the law, but just to the penalty of it. We've died to the law just the part that was a part of the temple practices. We've died to the law except for these ten, because those are God's top ten. You'll have people who want to kind of slice and dice this thing and make us still under some law. What did he say in chapter 6 twice?

We're not under law, any of it, but we're under grace. Absolutely. Completely. Totally. Our death to the law is total. Did Christ die completely on the cross? Yes. Our death to the law is total. As we saw in chapter 7, even one law stimulates the sin nature. That's all it takes. He said in chapter 7, thou shalt not covet. All it takes is one law and the sin nature just goes into hyper mode.

It gets really stirred up. We are completely in Christ in his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension and seeding. And what God accomplished in his crucifixion is enough to end our relationship to the law. Now, law certainly allows us to quantify and categorize sin so that it can be accounted. It does that. But the law actually increases sin, it stirs up the sin nature into action, and is a ministry of condemnation.

So why would we in the church want to put law on people? It is amazing, Christendom has been slow, and I mean really, really slow, to catch on to the fact that one of the reasons that Christ gave his life for you and for me is so that we would die in relationship to the law and that means no condemnation. If you go up to Christians and ask them, why did Christ die on the cross? What will be their answer? How many of them will say, one of the reasons that Christ voluntarily gave up his life, remember he loved and he gave, one of the reasons he voluntarily gave up his life is to separate us from the law so that there is no condemnation.

None whatsoever. Philippians 3, 7-9 reads this way, Those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. That's an accounting term. You write it off. It's a loss. It's just a loss. More than that, I count all things to be a loss In view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, the word actually could be translated sewage. I count it all sewage, so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, no righteousness at all from the law, none.

But that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God. Whose righteousness? Is it my accomplishment? I did that righteousness? No. Righteousness, it comes from God completely. It's His righteousness. And how is His righteousness mine? By faith. That's all. Not by following a set of rules.

Very simply put, Romans 3.28, for we maintain that a man is justified, declared righteous, by faith apart from works of the law. The law doesn't get it done.

Now we have this word law translated principal for us in Romans 8.2. And we say a principal is not that guy who administers a school. So we'll get him out of the picture.

A principle is either a fundamental truth or it's the way things work, and in some cases, it's both. In this particular passage, what we've done is we translated that word principle instead of law in order to get the idea that it's the way things work.

The way things work. That's our definition of the word principle and how we're using it here. We've used it specifically in Romans 8-2. where it says, for the principle of the spirit of the life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the principle of the sin nature and of the death. The way the spirit works and the way that the sin nature works.

That's our intent there. So verse two is the place where we've made those substitutions of principle instead of law. We don't want to confuse law with the laws that we're supposedly going to live by. In the second verse, then, we have, For the principle of the spirit of the life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the principle of the sin nature and of the death. One of the things that's very clear in here, there are two principles in the life of the believer.

And by the way, the unbeliever doesn't have these. The unbeliever's got one. The way things work is the sin nature, and that's it. No other options. The believer, the one who has believed in Christ, has two principles. One principle, the way things work, is that of the sin nature, which, as we saw in chapter 6 of Romans, uses people as military assets, including believers, pays the death wage, including to believers, which is separation from God, and gets stirred even by just one law. Just one. That's all it takes.

The principle that sets us free from the wretchedness of the sin nature principle, the way things work under the sin nature, is the principle of the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, of the life in Christ Jesus. And the rest of this chapter will give us more insight as we go through it about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So thank God we're free. Free from the sin nature principle, which until we believed was the ruling monarch.

Verse 3 reads this way, For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, thee God did, sending the Son of His in the likeness of sinful flesh, as a man in a human body, and as an offering for sin. He condemned the sin nature in the flesh.

Now one of the things to notice here, what the law could not do. Do you get that? What the law could not do. The law can't do something. The law can't do something. Do Christians get that? The law can't pull it off. That's very important. Most of Christendom, and I use that term because it includes people who even aren't Christians but claim to be, tries to make use of some kind of law thinking that's what God wants. Oh, God wants me to follow these rules.

As we've noted, the law does do certain things, but it doesn't get any of us, because it's what the law can't do, it doesn't get any of us where God wants. None of us. It doesn't get us there. This verse tells us outright that the law is not going to get anyone where we need to be spiritually. It can't pull it off.

Is the law good and holy and righteous? Sure. Is it what God wants us to follow? Not at all. Only God could deal with the predicament and the problem that we're left with. And to do that, he sent his son. Imagine, here is the law. People have been trying to follow it for centuries. And so what does God do? He says, the law isn't doing it because the law can't do it. I'm going to send my son. So that's exactly what he did.

He sent His Son as the answer that we desperately needed. Christ came as an offering for sin. That's certainly not all, but certainly that. Christ died for us in our place, dying a death that you and I deserve ourselves. I should have been the one there, but He died it for me. He died instead of you and of me. He died in our place. We also died with him, but not because we paid for our sins. We died with him for another purpose.

Not to pay for our sins, but to be joined to Christ and die in relationship to the sin nature, the law, and the world. Christ's death paid for the sins of the whole world. The payment was made for everyone. That payment is effective when a person believes that Christ died for their sins and was buried again. The unbeliever has had complete payment but not forgiveness until they believe.

Jesus told the Jewish leaders in John chapter 8, it's recorded. He told them more than once. He says, unless you believe you will die in your sins, in them, positionally, in the sins, you must believe Then the sins are dealt with, but not otherwise. Verse 3 also tells us a very important truth.

God condemned the sin nature right where it is. It's like a cop who says, don't move! And then the guy doesn't move and he says, well, I'm going to shoot you anyway, right? Condemned the sin nature right where it is. Attached to this human body. Condemned it right there in the flesh.

There's nothing you can do with it. You can't help it. You can't make it better. He didn't extract it from our bodies. That would kill us. It's part of this body. It is attached to it. God lets it remain in this body until the death of this body. But it's condemned.

The condemnation sentence is already there. The sin nature is terminal. And that's the lie that the sin nature does not get across to us. The sin nature is always pulling us and trying to sell us on something, but the sin nature doesn't convey what scripture does, and that is that the sin nature is terminal. It's never going to get out of this body. It dies with it. It's condemned.

God did not do anything, nor is He ever going to do anything to improve or save the sin nature. Christ did not die on the cross for your sin nature. He died for your sins, not your sin nature. The sin nature is terminal. It's condemned. Who we are in Christ is not condemned. Remember, that's verse 1. But the sin nature is condemned. So that's very interesting. The first verse says there's no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus. This verse says there is condemnation for the sin nature. So the sin nature isn't getting saved. It's not getting improved. It's not getting any better. It's terminal.

Verse 4 goes like this. So that the requirement of the law, which is righteousness, that's the requirement of the law, might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The requirement of the law is God's righteousness. That's what the law spells out and sets out. The law offers us nothing to get us there. The law does not help us. That's what the law can't do. The law lays out the requirement of righteousness, but doesn't help us achieve it. That's why we needed to die to it.

Some have taught that the law was written on our hearts, and it's written here, taken, I'll say stolen, from Israel's new covenant. The law was not written on her heart because that passage also says that you'll know the whole Mosaic Law. Do you know the whole Mosaic Law by heart?

What? No? Well, me neither. The reality is the law was not written on her heart. You don't know it. That's what that passage says. You don't know it. All 613 laws. Can you recite them quickly? No. This does not apply to us. It is Israel's new covenant. It will apply to Israel when the Lord comes again and the Lord establishes his kingdom on the earth and every Jew will have the law written on their heart and they will know it and they will not need a rabbi.

But that's not us. The law requires righteousness, but doesn't get it done, so God provides righteousness another way. It fulfills the requirement of the law, righteousness, another way. Christ's righteous life in us. That's the answer. It's not that we try to live out the law. It's not that, you know, okay, 613 laws, that's a little bit much, so let's just try 10. No. Chapter 7 says, even one, we're not going to cut it. We've died to the law.

Christ's life, lived through us, fulfills the law. Is Christ going to mess up? No! Christ won't mess up. Christ's righteousness gets lived out through us as He does His living in and through us. And Christ doesn't mess up at all. That's righteousness. That fulfills the requirement of the law. Christ is righteous.

There are two ways that a believer can live life, but only one of them makes any spiritual sense at all. And the two ways are spelled out here in this passage. A believer can, even though he's been freed from it, walk according to the flesh. That is the sin nature working through this human body. A believer can do that, but it doesn't make any spiritual sense. The sin nature attached to this body is condemned and been put offline. It's terminal. It's a deposed monarch that's not going to be around when this body's gone.

The only thing that makes any spiritual sense, the only thing that's not spiritual insanity, is to walk according to the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit. We'll be talking more about those multiple ministries Hal Malloy put together a listing of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. We have that available as a supplement in the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And we'll also put that up on the website with the audio associated with this message. So that lists on one page the many ministries of the Holy Spirit. We'll be examining that more as we go through this chapter. Galatians 5, 16, and 17 put some of this truth succinctly.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. It's an either-or, 100% deal. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." What this passage tells us is that a believer can walk by the flesh or walk by the Spirit. And by the way, walking is a Jewish term. It comes out of Genesis. Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. It's the individual ordering of one's life according to a spiritual principle. The flesh and the spirit are certainly opposite. They are not at all equal.

Is the flesh, the sin nature acting through this body, going to be around 100 years from now in you? No. You're going to be with the Lord. Might even be sooner than that, right? You're going to be with the Lord and you're going to have a new body that will not have a sin nature attached to it. The sin nature that you're having to contend with now, that the Lord has put offline, is terminal. It's going to be gone. They're opposite, they're not equal. God does not want us to just pick one. God isn't saying, oh, make a choice. They're opposed to one another. They're not the same.

He's saying the only thing that makes sense is walking in the Spirit. Verse 5, For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So a walk starts with a mind set. Notice I didn't put this as mindset. A mind set. There is a setting of one's mind according to the flesh and according to the spirit. Many try to live out the Christian life by attempting to be a good Christian.

The insight from this verse is what the walk begins with, and that is the setting of one's mind by the flesh or the spirit. However you set your mind, that's how the walk's going to turn out. If one's mind is set on the flesh, walk will most certainly come out according to, that is consistent with, the character of the flesh. The mind set on the spirit will result in a walk according to, consistent with, the ministry and character of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 6 reads like this, For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. So where we set our mind has a spiritual outcome. A spiritual outcome. The mindset on the flesh, which is a sin nature, is expressed through the human body. That's the flesh. The sin nature expressed through this human body will result in a walk that will be spiritual separation from God.

That's what he means by death. It doesn't mean that if you walk out of fellowship with the Lord that you're going to die right away. It means Spiritual death, which is in fellowship, separation from God, not in position. A loss of fellowship. The mindset on the spirit who indwells us, the spirit indwells us, so as to carry out those multiple ministries of the spirit that we talked about, is focused on Christ. We'll have the result of a spiritual life that comes from fellowship with the Lord, and of spiritually generated peace. Life comes from God. Death does not come from God.

It's that simple. Also notice this. Peace comes with a mindset on the Spirit and a walk with God. What's the opposite of that? You want contention? You know exactly where to get it. You want internal wrestling? That's exactly where to get it. A walk in the flesh.

You want peace, God's peace, regardless of the circumstances that comes from God alone. Verse 7, Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. It has no capacity to do so. The flesh is hostile toward God. Is this sin nature expressed through this body? It is by nature fundamentally hostile towards God.

We saw that in Galatians 5.17. There is no way to change that.

It is not, hey, we just need some counseling and we'll get the flesh settled down here. Right? Oh, we just need to get you on some meds and that'll get the flesh settled. No. None of that's going to fix it. Christians can have biochemical issues. Yeah, that could be, and may need to deal with it that way. Christians can be in need of some biblical counseling. There isn't any way to medicate or counsel away this spiritual fundamental truth, and that is the flesh is opposed to the spirit. Those will be at odds completely, no changing it. That's going to stay that way. The flesh is hostile towards God.

We give the picture here sparks, or the oil and water illustration. But they're not mixable. You can't get some kind of a compromise. There isn't any way to renegotiate this one. Now, here's the other part. The law will not fix the flesh. The law will not settle down the flesh. As a matter of fact, it'll be quite the opposite. Just like we have here in this bull riding illustration, this bull is not settling down with the rider on the back. That's the way the flesh is.

You're not going to fix it with the law. It's not going to happen. There's no way to repair, restore, or do anything to make the flesh right. Just like there's no way to make this bull settle down. The law will inflame the flesh and stir it up to rebel and resist. Don't try this at home or anywhere else. There's no sense in it.

In spite of what the Bible clearly says about the sin nature in the law, and we saw that last Sunday, there are those who keep trying to apply the law to the Christian as if that's going to fix or help anything. They do not understand. Just like some artist went and made this big illustration of Jesus pointing to the Ten Commandments. What do they think they're doing?

The law won't fix it. It just won't help. Verse 8, those who are in flesh cannot please God. Even though the law is righteous and holy and good, it still can't pull off what God wants, what the law cannot do. Remember those words? The flesh, which is the sin nature as it acts through this human body, can't please God ever. It is incapable of doing so. There is nothing you can do to fix it. God doesn't ever expect the sin natures that act through this body, that is the flesh, to ever act in faith, which is what is required to please God.

Hebrews 11.6, without faith it's impossible to please Him. Is the flesh ever going to put faith in God? Not going to happen. Not going to happen. God does not want us to try to be good Christians. God does not want us to try to be good Christians. He doesn't want us to give our best to the Master, no matter how beautifully you play it or sing it. He doesn't want that. He doesn't want us to pay Him back for what He's done for us. Christ's death on the cross is completely of grace.

Just within a few months here, we're going to have Christmas, right? And what do you do when you give a Christmas present? For every Christmas present you give, you give them a little card you attach to the present, and there's the invoice, right? Is that the way you do it?

No. It's a complete gift. And that's the way, that's the way God pulled it off. When Christ died for our sins, when he died so that we're separated from the sin nature and the law and the world, how did he do that? Did he do that with, say, hey, I'll send them the bill, and then they'll pay it back? No. Not at all. It is completely a gift. That's grace.

He doesn't want us to feel really, really bad and condemned. That's not his point either. That's not what he wants. God does not want us to try to will the good things and will not to do the bad. That's not his point. We saw that in Romans 7 and it's also true in Galatians 5.17. God does not want us to will to do the right and not to do the wrong. That's not how he wants it done.

He does desire that we walk in fellowship with him. That's what he wants. Setting our minds on him, beholding Christ, the Holy Spirit, whose ministry we'll be looking at here as we continue through Romans 8, will use our beholding Christ to transform us from glory to glory. Spiritual growth. Righteousness by the law, our best efforts, are not what God wants. He wants us to fellowship with Him and to depend upon and trust in Him and Christ will pull it off. Christ's righteousness is exactly what God wants.

Let's thank Him for it. Lord, we do thank You. You did it all and our faith is not in us but in the things that you have done and are doing and who you are. And we can have complete confidence in that. We thank you and we give you praise because it's only by grace, a very amazing grace, that you have saved us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.