The Blessings of New Life

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Well, a few weeks ago, my dad and I and Charlie and Benjamin went to go eat dinner and we wanted to have Mexican food and we found a little taco shop that when we walked in, I got excited because it was really authentic. You couldn’t get, I couldn’t even order tap water. Everything they had was bottled drinks and there were no crispy shells to any of the tacos.

It looked like stuff I’ve eaten in Mexico. I was really excited. The boys were a little leery, thinking, what are we going to eat?

Charlie, I think, why did we order him a block of cheese or something like that? That was right up his alley. Benjamin, though, was trying to order, and he was asking for help with the menu.

And rightfully so. There was very little English on the menu either. Oh, it was so good.

But anyway, he was asking me what all this stuff was. He said, you know, what are carnitas? And I realize I’m giving you the oaky pronunciation.

Sorry. What are carnitas? What’s al pastor?

What’s asada? What’s this? What’s that?

So I’m trying to explain to him what all these things are. And he asked me about tripa, and I wanted to tell him, you know, it’s beef. You’ll love it.

But I thought, I want my son to trust me, so I’ll go ahead and tell him it’s tripe. And then he wanted to know what tripe was, and I had to tell him. So he didn’t order cow stomach tacos.

I was eager to see how that was going to play out. But he was asking me all this stuff on the menu. What is this?

What is that? Because he wanted to know what he was ordering. I mean, very few of us are going to be so adventurous that we’re going to walk into a restaurant of a, not only a restaurant we’ve never been to, but a type of food we haven’t really been exposed to and just point at something on the menu and order and just, you know, spin the dice.

You don’t spin the dice. You can tell I’m not a gambler, right? Roll the dice and just hope we like what we get.

He wanted to know what was coming on that plate so he could be prepared, so that he could make a decision. Because not knowing what was going to be coming, the menu didn’t mean anything to him. And I tell you that story because the passage we’re going to look at this morning deals with something similar when it comes to our spiritual life.

We’ve spent the last several weeks looking at some passages that talk about the new life that we are supposed to have as believers, the new life we’re supposed to have in Christ. And when we come to Romans chapter 8, Paul writes about this because God wants us to understand what He does for us. Paul is explaining at the beginning of Romans chapter 8, among other things that he’s trying to accomplish in Romans chapter 8. He’s trying to explain to us what it’s going to look like when this new life comes.

What does it look like when the plate arrives, right? He’s helping us to understand so we can picture in our minds what this new life is supposed to be like. We’ve spent weeks discussing how we’re supposed to have a new life.

That if we come to Christ and everything is exactly the same as it was before, something is wrong. There is supposed to be some kind of change. Now, for some people, there is a dramatic overnight transformation of every aspect of their lives.

For some people, it takes longer, but there’s some change in the beginning. We’ve talked about that. We’ve talked about how only he can provide it.

And now we come to Romans chapter 8, where it explains to us what all that entails. What are we getting? What is he doing for us here?

And God doesn’t explain this through Paul because he’s selling us a product. And he’s saying, if you’ll order now, wait, there’s more. You know, he’s not the telemarketer or infomercial God trying to sell us on new life in Christ. But he explains these things to us so that we know what to expect, so that we know what he’s capable of doing, and so that we glorify him accordingly.

And so we’re going to look this morning at Romans chapter 8, at least at the beginning part of it, and see some of the things that Paul lists here when he’s writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. some of the things he lists that are part of what come to us as part of new life in Christ. And so if you would, turn with me to Romans chapter 8, if you haven’t already. If you don’t have a Bible or can’t find Romans chapter 8, it’ll be on the screen for you.

But once you find it, if you’d stand with me as we read together from God’s Word. And we’re going to look at the first 17 verses here and see what it is that God provides. What is it that’s coming when we take hold of this new life in Christ?

He says, starting in verse 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God.

That means to be an enemy of, that word enmity. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not 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 who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Verse 12, therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live for as many as are led by the spirit of God these are sons of God for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. And you may be seated.

So I realize we’ve covered a lot of ground in that reading. And I wish I had the time this morning to go through this with you as deeply, get into as much detail as I would like. But to cover this much ground and all the things he looks at, we’re going to kind of hit the highlights of what Paul is talking about here.

But he makes the point, among other things that he’s doing, Paul is making the point that our new life in Christ results in several blessings that he provides for us. These are blessings that come from God as a result of the work that Jesus Christ has done. Now, throughout the book of Romans, Paul explains the gospel.

He explains how it works. He explains why it’s needed. I mean, The early chapters of Romans paint a pretty bleak picture of our lives apart from Christ, of how sinful we are, of how separated from God we are.

And he makes the case that even the religious, even the outwardly moral, are guilty and stand condemned before God. So we really can’t look at it and say, well, I’m a pretty good person. Pretty good is a relative term, relative to other people.

But he makes the case throughout the book of Romans that relative to God, none of us are pretty good. So he explains the gospel. He explains why it’s needed because of our sin.

The gospel is the fact that Jesus died to pay for our sins and rose again to prove it. Now he offers salvation as a free gift to those who will turn to him by faith. That it’s entirely a work of his grace.

Here, as we come into chapter 8, he turns and explains these blessings that come as a result of the gospel. Generally speaking, I’d like to go through this in the order it’s presented here, but I think it’s important that we start at verse 9. and then come back to verse 1.

Other than this part, we’ll go as it’s written. But I think it’s important for us to understand one of the most important blessings we have as a result of the gospel, as a result of new life in Christ, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And the reason I think it’s so important to lay this out in the beginning is because it is key to understanding what’s at work throughout the rest of this passage.

Because if you noticed, if you were paying attention, you noticed the Spirit is mentioned over and over and over throughout all the other things that Paul is talking about here. And so we come to verse 9, and it really explains the role of the Spirit. He says, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. So we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

What that means is that when you and I trust Christ as our Savior, The reason why this transformation is not only possible but expected, the reason why I say and why the Scriptures say there should be a change in us when we come to Christ is because at that moment, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, comes and takes up residence inside of us. Inside of me, inside of you. The same Holy Spirit who empowered all of the things that took place throughout Scripture, the same Holy Spirit that inspired the writing of Scripture has come to live inside of us.

So the change that takes place is not because we’re suddenly so good, not because we’re great moral people, not because we found religion. It’s because the Holy Spirit now lives there and is working a change. And so the role of the Spirit in our lives, it’s crucial to understanding this passage.

He works these things in us because we are in Christ. If you belong to Christ, then the Holy Spirit belongs to you. And the things that it spells out through the rest of this passage are entirely dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit within us. If we’re walking in the Spirit, you’ll notice it says a few times if you’re talking about walking in the Spirit or being in the Spirit.

If you’re walking in the Spirit, it’s going to show up in your behavior. But these statements here about walking in the Spirit or being in the Spirit, these things, they’re not talking about our behavior, but our position. Because verse 9, not chapter 9, verse 9 says that if we are in Christ, we have the Spirit.

You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Just by virtue of the fact that we belong to Jesus Christ, we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

And it says here in verse 9 that we are in the Spirit. And so it’s important to understand that for when we back up to verse 1 and it’s talking about walking in the Spirit. We think that’s about our behavior.

Well, I’m not walking in the Spirit today because you don’t know what I said to somebody on the way in. We should behave ourselves. We should be kind.

We should be spirit led. But listen, being in the spirit has more to do with the spirit being in you because you’re in Christ than it does with your behavior. The Holy Spirit lives within us whether we’re whether we’re being perfect or not.

As a matter of fact, that’s a good thing because we’re never perfect, right? Anybody want to claim perfection this morning? The Holy Spirit is in us and that means we are in the Spirit, according to verse 9.

If we belong to Christ, verse 10 tells us we have the Spirit. If we have the Spirit, verse 9 says we are in the Spirit. And this is also shown in verse 1, where those who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh are identified as those who are in Christ Jesus.

The Spirit teaches us, guides us, and secures us in Christ. If you belong to Jesus Christ, if you’ve trusted Him as your Savior, you have the Holy Spirit. That means you are in the Spirit, even if momentarily you’re not living up to that. You’re in the Spirit because you belong to Him.

And throughout the New Testament, it teaches that the Holy Spirit is there as a teacher, as a guide. Jesus said the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. In Ephesians, I believe it is, the Apostle Paul talks about the Holy Spirit being a seal or an earnest that’s there with us always.

So if you think, well, I can’t live up to the demands of the Scriptures. I’m not good enough to stay saved. I’m not good enough for this or that.

You’re right, you’re not. But the Holy Spirit is there as that seal because of what Jesus Christ has done. So we need to understand the role of the Spirit in order to go through and understand these, the rest of these.

Otherwise, we’re going to look at it as a legalistic thing that you have to check all these boxes or you’ll never be secure in Christ. The role of the Spirit is absolutely crucial here. Now, understanding that, we go back to verse 1 and look at some of the other blessings we receive. It’s not just the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but it’s also freedom from the bondage and condemnation of sin.

He says in verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And that word condemnation is a word that they would have used for a curse that was placed on somebody, or a sentence that had been passed for somebody who had committed a crime, something that we deserve as those who have broken the law of God. We are under condemnation, we’re under a sentence of judgment, But when he says there is therefore now no condemnation, it means that curse has been lifted.

It means the sentence has been. . .

I can’t think of the legal term. It’s been. .

. Somebody help me out here. Pardoned.

There you go. Pardoned. Expunged.

Both. Yes, both of those are correct. It’s been pardoned and expunged.

Those things that curse and that sentence that was on us because of our sin that separates us from God. He says that has now been removed. It’s been taken away.

And that’s very important for us to understand. Because even as Christians, we walk around sometimes with this incredible guilt over stuff we’ve done. And you know, we should feel bad about things that we’ve done wrong.

And it should be a feeling bad that drives us to deal with the Lord and seek to be restored into a right fellowship with Him. But at the same time, if you’re anything like me, I still feel guilty over things I did years and years ago that I’ve already repented of many times. and we can’t seem to get past that.

And yet he says we are not under condemnation. Why? Because we got better, we became better people?

No, because we’re in Christ Jesus. There’s now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That pardon is there because he paid for it and because he applied it.

And it says in verse 2, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. That word means liberated, set free. Imagine somebody who’s a captive and suddenly they’ve been set free.

You and I are captive to sin and death apart from Jesus Christ, but in Him we have been set free. And we’ve talked about this some in the concept of new life, that the world thinks that going out and sinning and living however you want is freedom. What they don’t realize is the Scripture says that is actually slavery to sin.

You’re not out there doing what you want to do. You’re doing what the sin nature tells you to do. Like an animal that acts on instinct.

and yet we have been made free we’ve been set free in Christ now to choose and to follow him and when we come to verses three through five it it tells us that he’s blessed us with this righteousness under the law verse three says for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemned sin in the flesh see the law the law could never make us right with God you can never follow the Ten Commandments well enough to be right with God, let alone the rest of the Old Testament law. Now, am I saying ignore the Ten Commandments? No, I’m not.

I believe that God’s moral law expresses something about His nature and His character and expresses what pleases Him. And so if you and I as believers desire to please Him as we ought to, that should be our goal to come as close to His moral law as we can, even understanding that we’re going to fall short. but we cannot and we must not look to the law as a way of salvation.

That if I can just follow the law, if I can just do these certain amount of things, then I’ll be right with God. He says the law could not do this. He said the law was weak in verse 3.

In verse 4, he says that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but the Spirit. You see here, the requirements of the law are fulfilled. The law is met, it’s kept, but it’s a passive thing on our part.

It was fulfilled in us. Who’s the one who’s capable of fulfilling the demands of the law? It was Jesus Christ. He came here, God the Son in human flesh, and He lived in total obedience to the Father, total obedience to the Father’s will.

He fulfilled the demands of the law for us. And when He went to the cross to pay for our sins, He, because He was perfect, was able to pay for those sins in full so that our sin debt was moved into His account and paid off and His righteousness was put in ours. The Bible calls this the imputing of his righteousness.

The demands of the law that Jesus fulfilled. God looks at us with all of our sin. He looks at us in all the ways we fall short.

And all he chooses to see is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And in that sense, the law has been fulfilled for us, in us. And we are declared righteous. The result of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is that we are declared righteous under the law.

Even though we do not fulfill its requirements ourselves. And then he says in verse 5 that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So here again we see this indwelling Spirit who is conforming us to the will of God and helping us to walk in righteousness.

So the Gospel means that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the demands of the law. We are declared righteous in the sight of God. And then the Holy Spirit goes to work making us to act like it.

Just a better illustration would be adoption, but I only have my own kids, the ones that are biologically mine, to explain this. But when they were born, they were as much burns as they were ever going to be. Right?

And now it’s my job spending the next 18 years teaching them to act like it. It’s what the Holy Spirit does. We are as much children of God and we are as much righteous under the law as we are ever going to be when we’re in Christ. then the Holy Spirit works on training us to act like it.

So we have righteousness under the law. We have peace with God in verses 6 through 8. He says, to be carnally minded is death, because the carnal mind, the fleshly, the worldly mind, is an enemy of God, is enmity against God.

For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So in our natural state, apart from Christ, just doing what we do by nature, our minds are separated from the things of God.

Any concept of, you know, I want to please God. I want to do hard things that make God happy. That is completely foreign to our way of thinking.

We ourselves are separated from God. Not just our minds being separated from His will, but we are separated from God. I gave this illustration last week talking about the holiness of God and how some people say it’s harsh that sin separates us from God.

Why can’t God just get over it? And I use the illustration. We’re going to go in there in a few minutes and eat.

Those who would like to stay, there’s plenty of food, but you’re going to go through the line, you’re going to get a plate of food. How much of the stuff out of the garbage disposal are you okay with me scooping onto the plate before you say no, right? You don’t want that.

You want to keep that separate, right? God in His holiness is repulsed by sin. You see, that sounds so harsh.

It is. But I have no problem admitting it because it’s true. Our holy God is repulsed by my sin.

And so we are separated from Him. And we did that. We positioned ourselves in opposition to Him, not the other way around.

We’re not at war with God because God says, forget them. They’re awful. I’m done with them.

We are at war with God as a species because we looked at the righteous, loving, just King of the universe who created us so that He could love us and bless us and fellowship with us, and we just sort of shook our fist at Him and said, no, thank you, I’m going to do it my own way. The Bible talks about being enemies of God, and we’re the ones that fired the first shot there.

and in that condition we are unable to do anything to make ourselves right with God because even if we go back to well I’m just going to do good things now I’m only doing what the law requires I don’t get extra credit toward the the laws I’ve already broken so that sin is always there separating us from God but he says in verse 6 but to be spiritually minded is life and peace we are made to be at peace with God through Jesus Christ you and I cannot have peace with God we cannot have this relationship with a holy God, apart from Jesus Christ, having come and cleaned up our mess, having come and taken responsibility for our sins and being punished in our place. And what we need to understand is that even in spite of our sin, even in spite of our rebellion, God loved us enough that he’s willing to do that. The father was willing to sacrifice his only son.

The son was willing to go. The spirit was willing to put up with the aggravation of coming down here and living among us people. We people.

I don’t even always want to live in this, right? And yet He’s come here to do this. All so that we could have peace with Him because of what Jesus did.

So we have peace with God that comes as a result of what Jesus has done. We have a future resurrection. We’re skipping ahead to verse 11 because we’ve already looked at verses 9 and 10.

A future resurrection is promised here. He says, But if the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Paul’s argument that he makes here as well as other places in his letters is that we know that he can raise us to new life, not just the new spiritual life he gives us now, but he can literally raise us to new life after we’ve died or raise us to new life at the last day.

We know he’s capable of this because he’s already proved it with his own resurrection. It’s commonplace to not believe in life after death nowadays. I don’t know.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ makes a compelling argument. If he could raise his own self from the dead, I wouldn’t think you or I would be any harder. And of course, he raised Lazarus as well.

If you start from the premise that he’s the God of this universe who spoke all things into his existence by the words of his mouth, who commanded nothing to become something, that he’s the God of the universe who by the words of his mouth will bring this all to a close, I don’t know, raising us up doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. I mean, it’s a big deal to us. It doesn’t seem like it would be that taxing to his strengths, right? And that’s Paul’s argument.

We’ve already seen his resurrection power at work. So when he promises us eternal life through him, when he promises to raise us to new life, there’s compelling evidence there that he can do it. And then there’s the matter of spiritual life in verses 12 and 13.

Therefore, Brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

What he’s saying here is we’re not bound to obey the flesh, where the flesh promises life but delivers death. Kind of overlaps with what I talked about earlier with bondage to the sin nature. Following the way of the flesh, following what our instincts, our human nature tells us to do, it promises life.

It promises fun. It promises excitement. but it delivers death.

And the Bible even acknowledges that sin is fun for a season. It talks about the pleasures of sin for a season. Sin is fun.

It is exciting. But it always comes with a little something more than it promised. But we’re no longer bound to obey the flesh.

Where it promises life and delivers death, instead we have been set free for the first time to truly know what it means to love and serve the Lord. To truly understand and experience what we were created to do. And we’re able to do that because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

There’s adoption into the family of God. We’re almost finished. Verses 14, 15, and 16.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Do you know that? If you have the Holy Spirit, you are a son of God.

Not son of God in the same sense that Jesus is. But you are a son or a daughter of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.

And the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. The Holy Spirit is within believers testifying to us that we belong to Him and that we are His child. That we’ve been adopted into His family.

It’s this incredible, beautiful picture where you and I as these rebels against God do not deserve even to be servants in His household. And yet because of what Jesus Christ did, He invites us in as sons and daughters. That’s what the story of the prodigal son is about.

That son was in rebellion against his father. He’s practicing in his mind this speech, if I could just come back and if he’d just be gracious enough to let me come in and be a servant, because I don’t even deserve to be his son. At this point, he’s an enemy, and he’s hoping against hope that maybe he can come back as a servant, and he knows he doesn’t even deserve that.

And yet the father says what? My son who was dead is alive again. That’s what the father does for us.

We are rebels against him. We don’t deserve to come into his kingdom even as servants. And yet he invites us in as sons and daughters.

And he adopts us. And the presence of the Holy Spirit testifies continually to us that that is so. Because there will be days where you don’t feel saved.

Every morning my alarm goes off at 5. 45 a. m.

, a time which should not come twice a day, 5. 45. And I tell you what, at 5.

45 a. m. , there is never a day when I feel saved at that time of day, right?

Not to make light of it, there are other circumstances in life where you just may feel like you don’t really have that hope in Jesus Christ. But the Holy Spirit is there to remind us. Whether you feel like it or not, God said it and you’re His child. And by that spirit of adoption we cry out, Abba, Father.

And verse 17 tells us we have an inheritance in Christ. He says, and if children, if we’ve been brought in as children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Get that, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus receives an inheritance from the Father, just as He’s received everything the Father has to offer, so do we. We are every bit as much as child as Jesus is.

Again, not in the same way, because He’s God by nature, we’re human by nature, we will never become gods. But as far as receiving the gifts and blessings of the Father, because our adoption depends on what Jesus did, we receive the inheritance that Jesus receives. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together.

We’ve been received. What this means, what this tells us is that we’ve been received into the family of God fully. We’re not even second class children.

We belong to Him. He loves us. He has chosen to be our Father when He didn’t have to be.

We’ve been received into the family of God fully with all the rights and privileges that that entails. You, if you belong to Jesus Christ, if you’ve trusted in Him as your Savior, you are not a second class citizen in the kingdom of God. You are a child that He has adopted and whom He loves.

And it’s not because of our own goodness, but it’s because Jesus purchased a place for us. There are more blessings that Scripture spells out that come with this new life that we have in Christ. But we’ve got to stop somewhere. Because we could go through the whole New Testament verse by verse this morning, talk about all the blessings He’s provided, and we’d all die of starvation probably.

This gives us a good overview of what He’s providing when we get that new life. What He’s promised and what He’ll do. But what we need to understand in just a couple moments we have remaining this morning are that these blessings are only available through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There’s not one thing on this list that is there because you or I have done anything good.

I cannot go out and earn the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You cannot go out and earn freedom from sin’s bondage. As a matter of

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