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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's Word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.
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Welcome to this period of Bible study and we are thankful for the time that you have taken to join us in a consideration of God's Word. I hope that you find the time that you spend with us to be valuable, beneficial, but most of all that you find our efforts to be honoring and glorifying to God. We believe that the only way that we can really honor the Lord when we're trying to understand his will for us is by going back to the Bible for it all. In the Scriptures we have God's Word revealed to us. And we want to do the very best we can to know what God's Word has to say, to live that out and to teach it. And if you see gaps in what we might understand, how we act and in how we teach, then we would invite you to reach out to us and to offer your questions or your considerations or even your criticisms. Because we want to be faithful in our efforts to communicate God's Word faithfully and clearly. And so if there's a place where you see a gap in our judgment or a failure in our consideration, or if we're trying to communicate something and we're not doing so in a clear way, we invite you to reach out to us and try to help us in that. You can reach out to us at our website backtothebiblepodcast.com that would be the best place to reach us. There you can find this program and older episodes, information about the program, and you can have contact forms there that you can reach out to us. Our study today comes from the Book of Romans, chapter 8, and we're going to pick up at verse 12. Now there is a lot that we could say in lead up to this passage, but I think that it's good enough for us to go back to chapter five where there, Paul encouraging the Roman Christians, says that the fact that Jesus died for us is the great demonstration of God's love for us. Because while we were still enemies, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Paul encourages them in Romans chapter 5 that if, if God would do that for them when they were his enemies, how much more can they look forward to the reconciliation and the resurrection that will come because they are in Christ. At the end of Romans 5, Paul portrays Adam and Christ as two separate leaders of different paths. If we can put it that way, Adam is the leader of the path to death. I take it to be at the time being, that he's talking about physical death, not because all have sinned and are guilty, but because in Adam all are reckoned as having to face the consequences of death. As 1 Corinthians 15 will put it, in Adam all die. That is just the way that it is. But in Christ, all of those who are in Christ will live. 1 Corinthians 15 puts it, and I think Paul is explaining that here, that the reason that that is possible is unlike the one transgression that Adam committed which led to death. Jesus committed that one act of righteousness, I take it to be his death was that one act of righteousness that brings life. So he brings grace where Adam brought death. Now, if that's the case, the conversation partner that Paul is riding back and forth with in Romans chapter six, he says, so should we just continue in sin so that grace will abound? And Paul says, absolutely not. That's not who you are anymore. You have died to sin. You were buried with Christ in baptism, and you were raised to walk in newness of life. And so he will go through chapter six, mostly using that imagery of master slave relationship, and says, you were once enslaved to sin, but now you're not enslaved to sin anymore, you're enslaved to righteousness. And so in chapter seven, Paul allows, I think, this conversation partner to express the feeling that he had when he was under the law. He says that when he was under the law, he was learning about things that were right and wrong, and he wanted to do what was right with his mind, but in his body he kept doing what was wrong. And rather than the law, rather than the Torah being the means to self mastery, it became a spotlight, it became a highlighter on the sin in his life. Now Paul will say, does that mean that the law was sinful? Of course not. Absolutely not. But it did point to sin because the purpose of it always was to strike to the heart and it was always intended to point to Jesus. And so we come to Romans chapter 8, where Paul says, now in Christ there is no condemnation for the Spirit of life. In Christ Jesus has, has set you free from the law of sin and death. And he will go through Romans chapter 8, verses 1 through 11 and say that if you have your mind set on the flesh, you cannot be pleasing to God. If your mind is set on the Spirit, then you will be indicated as one of God's people. Because of the nature of the life that you're going to be living, you are going to be characterized but a life guided by the Spirit. In Romans, chapter 8, in verse 11, the text tells us that if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. I think the idea there is if the Spirit dwells in you, that is, if you're characterized by by his influence and by his relationship with him, then the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is going to raise you from the dead. You see that the spiritual life that we have now is pointing forward to the resurrection that we will resurrection life that we will have in the future. And so I want you to think about this. Where there was no freedom, where there was no hope for the Gentile who had put himself under the law, not because the law was sinful, but because it was not the end of things for God. It was not the thing that the law was pointing to. Now, in Christ, not only is there freedom from the condemnation of sin, but there is righteousness in the life of the Gentile believer, the Gentile Christian. And there is hope of resurrection life. So notice verse 12. So then, this is the conclusion. Let's read verses 12 through 17. So then, brothers, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live for as many as are being led by the Spirit of God. These are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out Abba, Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God. And if children also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. Listen to the conclusion that Paul draws here. If our life comes by the Spirit, if it is in Christ that we have no condemnation, if it is in Christ that we have hope of eternal life, then we are under obligation to not to live according to the flesh anymore. That is, I think this is important to see. Romans chapter 6 points to the fact that we died to sin, we were buried, and we were raised to walk in newness of life. And yet there still had to be the commitment not to present our bodies as servants to unrighteousness, but as servants to righteousness. Do you see that? Yes, we've been set free. But we can be re enslaved if we keep committing ourselves to those old actions here. Yes, the Spirit dwells in us. Yes, he has influence in us. But we are under obligation not to live for the flesh anymore. I want you to see that the freedom that God has given us in Christ, that the new master that we have in Christ, that the victory is not unconditional. It depends on us recognizing that we are obligated to keep living in step with the Spirit, that we are to keep living in view of that new life so that we are not enslaved again to the flesh. So he says, if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live. You hear that? We've got to keep putting them to death. We have to keep mortifying them. So I think about this and maybe this illustration is helpful. When I had a brain tumor, they went in and they extracted it and they tried to put it to death. Now, brain tumor is not exactly the same. The brain tumor removal was not exactly the same as the removal of sin. God completely removes that and forgives us of it. And I had a little residue left over that they couldn't get to. But just stay with me for a moment. They went in, they extracted it, they are putting it to death. They are removing it. I am dying to that and I'm raising to walk a new life. And yet what do they have to do? They have to shoot it with lasers to make sure that they're getting all that they can. I did chemotherapy. I am doing treatments now just to keep an eye on it and to make sure that it doesn't come back always ready to kill it again. And I think we ought to think of what Paul is saying about sin in that way in this text. What he's saying is, is that God cut that away. You have been freed from that, you have died to that. And yet there is the responsibility that we have to keep putting to death the practices of the body that are inclined towards the flesh and keep living in keeping with the Spirit. And so that is an important thing to note as we look at this text. Now he says you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received the spirit of adoption. Now I want you to see this. I love this transition. For you notice the word there have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of doctrine as sons by whom we cry out Abba Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God. I think this is correct. And you can check it. I think in verses 1 through 15, you have. You he talks about. You have no condemnation. You are able to meet this walking by the Spirit. You have to put your body to death with regards to the flesh. And then you have that transition in verse 15 by whom we cry out. And I think in the rest of Romans 8, he refers to the Christians that he's writing to as we instead of you. I love this. I want you to see what's happening. Look at the word that's used there. In verse 15, he says, we, you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we. So here are the Gentiles, and they were excluded. They were on the outside. They, as Ephesians chapter two will put it, they were without God and without hope in the world. But now he says, we together, because of the adoption, are able to cry out abba, Father. Isn't that a powerful statement there, that what you have here is you have Paul transitioning so that he is communicating that you're no longer a they, you, y' all kind of thing, but that we are together because they have been adopted as sons. So that is the first major point here. He kind of changes this illustration here to say that it's not just about slavery and freedom all or slavery to one and slavery to another. But now you're not slaves to sin. You are sons. You are children of God, which is so powerful because now the Spirit is able to testify with our Spirit that we are children of God. And I'm sure there's lots of questions about how that works. This is my understanding. How does the Spirit. Just imagine you're in a courtroom scene and you have somebody. The question is, are you a child of God? Are you a son of God? Well, here's how that works. What testimony does the Spirit bring? Well, he brings what it takes to be a child of God. He brings not only the basis for that, but he also brings the conditions for that. He brings all of that. What testimony do we bring? If we were going to testify in that court, what would we say? This is how I'm living. This is what I've done. So His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, testifies, and our Spirit testifies. And together that unified testimony is, we are children of God. And here's the thing. If we are children, then we are also heirs. And if we are heirs, we are fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may be glorified with Him. I don't think he's saying that suffering Somehow is a condition of being an heir. I think it's saying that we are heirs with Christ. However, we're going to face suffering and we have to endure that suffering in order to ultimately be glorified with him eternally. And so maybe there is a sense in which it's a condition, but. But it's not as if suffering is what it takes for us to become a child of God. But we have to endure that suffering in order to grab hold of that being an heir when the glorification time comes. Now, I don't know what suffering was going on for the Roman Christians in this would be what, about 57 AD? And yet, whether it's social exclusion, or maybe they are being affected in some kind of financial or economic way, maybe they are being persecuted and tried for crimes, or maybe they are being challenged in certain ways. Regardless, the fact that we are heirs with Christ and have the hope of being glorified with him would allow them, encourage them to endure the suffering. I think he'll pick that up here in verse 18. Let's read verses 18, and we'll read all the way down to verse 25. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 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. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but we also ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit. And even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees. But if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance, we eagerly wait for it. So Paul says we're going to suffer in hope of being glorified with him. And what he says is any sufferings that we deal with now, the sufferings of the present time in this era are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. That is, if you were to put these on the scale, and you are to say, is it worth it? Is the suffering that we have now worth the glory that we're going to experience? And if the suffering is way worse, than the glory that's going to be revealed, then maybe this isn't worth it. And he says, the sufferings and the glory, they're not even worthy to be put on the same scale. The sufferings that we have now are not worthy even to be compared to the glory that we are that is going to be revealed in us. And so what saying is, is it's not just us, but that all of creation is, is anxious, is longing, is waiting for what is coming. And he says that we anticipate glory because we are enduring the sufferings that came on the world because of sin. So just like we live in anticipation, the whole creation lives in anticipation for the day of freedom and glory and redemption. Creation's anticipation is really for the day when those who are controlled, when those people, when God's people will be rescued from the futility that the world faces. Now the goal of creation is delivering those who are in Christ to glory. Now why is the creation subjected to futility? Why is creation the way it is? Because he talks about the fact that, I mean, we would look at Romans chapter one and we would say that Christ is the Son of God in power. And yet we look at the world and it, it's groaning, it's suffering, it's, it's longing for it. Why? Because the one who subjected it, subjected it in hope. We live in a world that is looking forward to the accomplishment of God's ultimate purposes, which is the redemption of creation, which is accomplished in the revealing of those who are God's children, God's people. So our hope gives us endurance and gives us perseverance. That is what we are able to use to maintain our commitment is the longing of ourselves for what is coming. Now notice verses 26 and 27. And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not 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. The Spirit is dwelling in us, guiding us, influencing us, shaping us. We are walking. In keeping with the Spirit, we have this hope of eternal glory, but we also have his intercession. Now, the Spirit and how all of this works, we're not given the information about. But what happens is that the Spirit helps us to pray. This is a great help for our weakness. When we don't know the words to say, we don't know the best path forward The Spirit intercedes for us because God, the one who searches the minds and hearts, knows what the Spirit of the mind is, because he, the Spirit, intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. When we express our desire to God, and I think that one way that we would do this is as Jesus prayed, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As Jesus prayed, not my will, but thy will be done. I deal with circumstances in my own life, and I don't know what God's will is and all of that. And what I want to do is I want to be faithful in all of that. But what do I pray to God? God? I don't know the best path forward. Do what you think is best. Do what you think is right in all of this. Do what you know to be right. I shouldn't put it just in the category of what God thinks would be best. But you do your will and help me to be the kind of person I ought to be. In the middle of all of that, I don't know what the game plan is. I don't know what the outline for the course of all of this is. All I know is that the Spirit is interceding for me when I have groanings that are too deep for words. And I don't know how to ask God for what I need. The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So what do we have? The Spirit's dwelling in us. So we're under obligation not to live for the flesh, but to live for Christ. And because of that, we receive adoption. And not only that, but we have the expectation. And here we have intercession. And not only that, but we're going to have transformation. Look at verse 28. We know that for those who love God, he works all things together for good. Or God works all things together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. Because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. So we have the confidence that God will work through all things, good and bad, even in our suffering, as he's just discussed, to shape us for our ultimate good. To be like Christ. That is what he has predestined. Do you see that up in verse 29? Those whom he foreknew he predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Those he has a grand plan for, those who love him, and those who are called to his grand purpose for those who are in Christ. Those are the people he foreknew and the people he foreknew. He predetermined that they would be shaped to be like Jesus. I think verses 29 and 30 explained the good that God will accomplish using all things, even their sufferings. God determined that those who love him and those who are called according to his purpose will be shaped to look like Jesus. That is the reason God has called. That is the reason God has justified. That is the reason that God has and will ultimately glorify us. We were made to look like Jesus, but humanity's failure meant that calling, justification and glorification had to occur in order to restore us to that status. So through the gospel of the good news of Jesus, we are called to respond to his rule. When Paul talks about the called, he's talking about those who are called and who respond to the gospel. So when we respond, we are justified. We, we are put in that right standing and we are put in right relationship with our Father. And Jesus Christ being our brother, we're being so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And finally, we are being and will be glorified. I think the idea of being glorified stated in the past tense, is that it is as good as done. Now, why? Because Jesus is revealed. He's referred to here as the firstborn among many brethren. That is Jesus. God wanted many children that looked like Him. This is the fulfillment of the fact that Abraham would have innumerable seed that is accomplished when we are in Christ. Now, I want you to think about this, that in just a few chapters we have been given information about how we are called justified and glorified. We have been given information about how we are truly transformed into the image of Jesus. We die, we are buried, we are raised with him in baptism. We come under his rule. We are obedient to him. We share in his sufferings. All of this is an anticipation that we will be resurrected with him, conformed to the image of his body. Now, Paul doesn't often use that image word, but when he does, I think he uses it almost always in reference to that idea of being transformed back into the image of God that we were made to be from the very beginning. So Paul will conclude and we may not be able to say everything we want to about these verses. There's Way more than we can say. He says, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who indeed did not spare his own Son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns Christ. Jesus is he who died. Yes. Rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ with affliction or turmoil or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death. All day long we were counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of what we have in Christ, nothing has the power to separate us from God. No one can oppose us with effect. God is for us. If God would give us his own Son, what would he not do to help us? Yes, he will bring judgment and condemnation. But for those who are in Christ, remember there is no condemnation. Rather, the one who is the judge becomes the intercessor. Interceding for us. The struggles of life will not separate us from Christ. If we are in him. If we hold to him, we will be more than conquerors. It's not just that we overcome the things we face, but that God is working in all of those things to conform us to the image of His Son. Jesus died and he was raised so that we can join with him all the way to and through death. With hope of being raised with him. Satan can throw whatever he wants at us. Nothing will be able to separate us from God's love. In verses 28 and 37 we see that because we love God and because he loves us, no circumstances will bring us down. We become victorious by our relationship with the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Until next time, we bid you a pleasant good day.
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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.