RELEASING THE WORD OF GOD IN MY SOUL AND LIVE, ONE VERSE AT A TIME

RELEASING THE WORD OF GOD IN MY SOUL AND LIVE, ONE VERSE AT A TIME – ROMANS 8

 

In order to understand the 8^th chapter of Romans, we must look back at chapter 7.  The 7^th chapter teaches that no Christian can please God in his or her own strength.  This means that no one in our Mentoring Schools can in his own strength obey the disciplines we teach which will make him or her conform to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).  Paul, perhaps the greatest Christian ever, found out he could not please the Lord in his own strength.  Finally, he cries out, “O wretched man I am.  WHO shall deliver me from this body of death?”  The adjective, “wretched” means miserable, frustrated, tired, and exhausted.  This describes many Christians, even the best at times.

How does Paul handle coming to the end of himself?  Beautifully.  Notice Paul does not ask, “What must I do,” but WHO will rescue me?”  Then he answers, “Thanks be to God who gives me the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ” (7:25).  Paul had discovered the victory of the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit whom he talks about in Romans 8.  “Now that I have come to the end, I know where to look – to Christ and His indwelling Spirit.”  Praise the Lord!! And the cry of Paul takes us to the first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God” (Matthew 5:3).  “Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt, the wretched, the tired, the frustrated,” provided they surrender to the Holy Spirit.

1.      In verse 1, “There is therefore now no condemnation…”  No condemnation from our sin for those who have turned from sin to Christ and who are now in Christ and out of Adam.  Verse 2 explains why.

2.      Verse 2, “For the law of life in Christ Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death.”  Two opposite laws or principles:

a.       The principle of the Holy Spirit is to empower believers for holy living.

b.      The principle of indwelling sin is to drag a person down to death like the law of gravity.  Throw a ball into the air and it comes back down because it is heavier than the air it displaces.  A living  bird is heavier than the air it displaces, but when you toss it up on the air it flies away.  The law of life in the bird overcomes the law of gravity.

So the Holy Spirit supplies the risen life of the Lord Jesus Christ, making the believer free from “the law of sin and death.” We cannot be free in our own strength or by trying to keep the law.  Why.  Verse 3 explains.

3.      Verse 3a, “For what the law could not do.”  The law held up its perfect standard but was unable to empower us to live up to that standard.  Why?  The answer is in verse 3.

 

Verse 3b, “In that it was weakened by the flesh.” There is nothing wrong with the law.  The problem lay with the weakness of our flesh.  The problem is not with the law but with me in the “flesh” (old Adamic nature).  The law is holy but it cannot sanctify (Romans 7:12).  The law tells me I am a sinner but it cannot save me.  Actually the law is powerful.  Able to give life if a person KEEP ALL THE COMMANDMENTS ALL of the time (Luke 10:25-28); Matthew 19:16-17), but none of us could do this.  So the law cannot bring blessing, only a curse (Galatians 3:10-11) BUT the weakness is ours and not the law’s.  Illus.:  Think of a strong anchor.  Is the anchor able to hold?  YES.   But if you lower the anchor into soft mud it will not hold.  The anchor could not do so because it was weak through the mud.

Verse 3c, “God sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”  Note that Jesus  did not come in sinful flesh, but in the “likeness of sinful flesh”.    He did or knew no sin (1 Peter 2:22; 2 Cor. 5:21). 

Verse 3d, “And for sin He condemned sin in the flesh.”  “For sin” means Jesus became a sin offering for us.  As the hymn says, “He paid a debt He did not owe – I owed a debt I could not pay – In my place condemned He stood.” Compare 2 Cor. 5:21. And He died not only for the sins we commit but for our sin nature.  In other words, He died for what we are as much as for what we have done.  In so doing He condemned sin in the flesh. Why?  Verse 4 explains.

4.      Verse 4a, “In order that the righteous requirements (daikoma) of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Holy Spirit.”  The law requires that a person “love God with all his heart, soul and strength” (the first 4 of the 10 Commandments) and also “to love his neighbor as himself” (the last six of the 10 Commandments) (Matthew 22:37-39).  How can I keep this law?  I cannot, but the power of the Holy Spirit, who came into my life when I was truly born again (Romans 8:9b), makes this possible.  Note carefully that the verse does not say “by us” but “in us.”  This is something God does in me by the Person of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  “The flesh” (old sin nature) is that which I can do myself, “the Spirit” refers to that which God does in me by the Person of the Indwelling Spirit.

 

The two great commandments,

(a)     love the Lord and

(b)    love your neighbor,

not only summarize the 10 Commandments but all the commandments of God.  I cannot keep the law by trying to keep the law.  The saved person may want to but he can’t, as we see in Romans 7:14-25).  “How to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18).  In a word the key to fulfilling all the law is God’s love in our hearts for Jesus and His Word.  And what is the key to love?  A Spirit-filled lie (note the second “I”).  (Galatians 5:13-23; Romans 8:4; and Romans 13:7 say, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”  The Spirit thus produces this love in me (Gal. 5:22).  I cannot but He can.  It is impossible for God in me (when I allow Him to do His word) not to keep the law.  What the “flesh could never do, God can do.”

Thus we see the foolishness of the person who says, “My religion is keeping the 10 Commandments” or “I live by the Sermon on the Mount.”  That would work if that person could keep perfectly all the commandments, never breaking one or failing to obey all, but no one ever has, except Jesus.  That is why one is saved only if He trusts Jesus and Jesus Alone to save him and if He would meet the “righteous requirements” of the law, He must surrender to the Holy Spirit who indwells him and longs to control him completely until he can say, “It is not I, but Christ who is living through me” (Gal. 2:20).

 Illus:  Some would cry, “O, all this is legalism.”  Absolutely the very opposite.  The legalist tries to obey God in his own strength and fails to measure up.  He is just another Pharisee depending entirely upon keeping outward rules which are not in his heart but an expression of his selfish pride. Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds therighteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”  But the Spirit-led person, as He yields to the Holy Spirit, experiences in his heart the sanctifying power of the Spirit motivating and empowering him to “love God with all his heart” and to “love his neighbor as himself.”  The Pharisees hated both God and neighbors in the past; they still do today (Romans 8:7). 

Genesis 1:2 says the Holy Spirit brought forth creation (EX Nihilo) “out of nothing” and so the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus “gives life to the dead and calls those that are not as thought they were” (Romans 4:17b).  This is as great a miracle as when the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep and with power materialized a new creation.  Hallelujah – the Holy Spirit liberates us through Christ. 

Verse 5 – “For those who live according to the flesh (after the flesh, KJV) set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (NKJV).  Paul is not describing two kinds of Christians as many teach:  one carnal and one spiritual.  He is contrasting the saved and unsaved.  The unsaved person does not have the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9b), is dominated by the flesh (old sin nature) and lives in the flesh and for the flesh.  Galatians 5:21-22 describes the lifestyle of such persons.  But the Christian possesses the Holy Spirit within him and lives in an entirely new and different sphere.  His mind is fixed on the things of the Spirit, such as the Word of God, Prayer, Righteous living, Pure speech, Right attitudes, Jesus, the Bible, etc.  This does not mean that the unsaved person never does anything good, or that the saved person never does anything bad.  It means that the bent of their lives is different.  One lives in the Flesh, the other for the Spirit.  One lives a lifestyle of sin, the other does not and cannot “practice” sin (1 John 3:9; Romans 8:1-4; John 5:18).

Verse 6 – “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”  The carnal or unsaved person is alive physically, but dead spiritually (Ephesians 2:1).  His inner man is dead toward God and does not respond to the things of the Holy Spirit.  He may be moral and even religious, but lacks a love and heart for God.  He desperately needs the “Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:2).

Romans 8:7 – Because the carnal (fleshly) mind is enmity (hostile to God).  The unbeliever’s problem is much deeper than acts of disobedience, which are merely outward expressions of inner fleshly desires.  His basic inclinations to gratify himself, not God, no matter how outwardly religious or moral he may appear, are directly hostile to God.  Even the good deeds the unbeliever may perform are not truly pleasing to God, because they are produced by the flesh, for selfish reasons, and from a heart that is in rebellion against the authority of Jesus Christ.  “All our righteousness (not just our unrighteousness) is as filthy rags in God’s sight” (Isaiah  64:6).

Illus:  The radical left in America is not just disobedient to the laws of God, but they hate God and are seeking to remove even His name from public life.

Romans 8:7b – “For it is not subject to the law of God.”  To be “in the flesh” means to be lost, without Christ.  The unsaved person lives to please himself and rarely if ever thinks of pleasing God.  The root of sin is selfishness – “we have turned everyone to our own way” instead of God’s way (Isaiah 53:6).  The Flesh always says, “Not your will, but mine be done.”

Romans 8:7c – “Neither indeed can be.”  Jesus says “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” (John 3:6).   Thus everyone in his natural state has been born of the flesh, the nature that rebels against God, and in his very nature cannot bow to God until He is born of the Holy  Spirit.”  Jesus said to the Biggest Cog in the Synagogue, Nicodemus, “You cannot see (have any idea) of the kingdom, you cannot enter the kingdom (under the rule of God) unless you are born again (John 3:3,5).

Note:  Did you know a person cannot get into heaven until heaven gets in him?  Why?  Because he would be miserable in heaven where all the people are subject to God, loving and serving Him, whereas the lost person cannot do these things because his nature will not permit him to do so.

Verse 8 – “So then those in the flesh cannot please God.”  The carnal or lost person lives to please himself.  As Isaiah 53:6 says, “We have turned everyone to our own way.”  He rarely ever thinks about pleasing God.  The root of all sin, beginning with Eve in the Garden, is selfishness.  “I will” and not “THY” will.

To be unsaved and live for self, not God, is the lowest level of life.  But a person need not stay on that level.  He can receive God, at which time the Holy Spirit enters his body, and with the aid of the indwelling Holy Spirit he can crucify his flesh and live the abundant life.  We will deal with this glorious reality next week.(Romans 8:12-13)  No one will want to miss this story of deliverance from the bondage of the flesh into the glorious liberty of the children of God (R

Romans 8:9a – “But ye are not in the Flesh (not controlled by the Flesh) but in the (Holy) Spirit, if so be the (Holy) Spirit dwell in you.”  This verse plainly rules out such a thing as a “Carnal or Fleshly Christian, asserting the very opposite – that the true believer is controlled by the Holy Spirit, not the flesh.  The evidence of true conversion (salvation) is the presence of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16), witnessing that you are the children of God.  Your body becomes the very temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  Even though your body is “dead” because of sin (Romans 8:10), the Spirit gives life to that body so that we may serve God through it.

What a glorious difference the Holy Spirit makes in your body.  Even your physical faculties take on a new dimension.  Example:  D. L. Moody said, “I was in a new world.  The next morning the sun rose brighter, the birds sang sweeter… the old elms waved their branches for joy, and all nature was at peace.”  Many, many times I have felt my body being “quickened” by the wonderful Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11).

Romans 8:9b – “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ (same as the Holy Spirit) he is not of His.”  Did you ever hear someone say, “I was saved years ago and just got the Holy Spirit last night?”  Wrong.  You get the Holy Spirit the moment you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.  After being saved, you may have an encounter with the Holy Spirit as I have myself, but the encounter you may have after salvation is an encounter with the same Person who entered your life on the day of your new birth or spiritual birthday.

Illus:  In Acts 19 Paul encountered 12 persons who professed salvation but had not received the Holy Spirit.  So Paul asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”  They replied, “We did not know whether there be any Holy Ghost? (19:2-3).  They had been baptized unto John’s baptism, but not saved because  they had not trusted Jesus and had not received the Holy Spirit.  Paul preached Christ unto them, they received Christ in the Person of the Holy Spirit, and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 19:4-5).

Romans 8:10 – “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness (justification).  This could be paraphrased:  Even though Christ dwells in you through the Holy Spirit, your body is still unredeemed and is dead.  Still Christ imparts to you eternal life which is the consequence of your justification or righteousness.  This reminds us of the three tenses of salvation:

1. We were saved in the past – justification
2. We are being saved in the present – sanctification
3. We will be saved, that is the body, will be saved in the future – glorification, when our bodies will be changed into a body like unto the glorious body of Jesus (Phil. 2:20-21).

 

Romans 8:11 – “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”  This reminder that the body is still subject to death need cause no despair.  For the Holy Spirit, who is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, (Ephesians 1:19ff) indwells our mortal bodies, and is our guarantee that, just as He raised Jesus from the dead, He will also raise our immortal bodies.  This will be the final act of our redemption – when our bodies are saved and glorified even as our spirits like the Savior’s body of glory.

Note:  While this verse points definitely to the final resurrection, I believe and have experienced the “quickening power” of the Holy Spirit in my “mortal body” in this life. 

Now the Glorious Conclusion of this whole passage is found in Romans 8:12-13.

Romans 8:12 – Therefore, brother we are debtors, not the flesh, to live after the flesh.”  It is not enough for us to have the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit must have us.  We have no obligation to the Flesh which has only brought us trouble but we have obligation to the Holy Spirit who convicted us of sin, lead us to Jesus, entered into our hearts and imparted eternal life.  When we surrender to Him He will “crucify the Flesh” and give us the abundant life which He promised in John 10:10, “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Romans 8:13 – This is the key verse of the whole passage, since it tells how to experience the crucifixion of our foremost enemy, the FLESH or  SELF LIFE.  Please read carefully the following “An Explanation of How the Holy Spirit Crucifies King Self or the Flesh or the Self Life.”

AN EXPLANATION OF HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT CRUCIFIES KING SELF

Romans 8:13; 6:11

When any person truly repents and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, he dies to the old life of sin and self and is risen with Christ “to walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:2-4; 2 Cor. 5:17; 1 John 3:9).  In fact that person has died with Christ and risen with Him to live a holy life.  All this is pictured in immersion baptism.  However, the death which begins to take effect when the believer first accepts Christ must be experienced daily throughout life.  This picture clearly presented in baptism is often abandoned,  and as a consequence, far too many Christians, confused and discouraged, often abandon the idea of victory over sin and the flesh and live a wretched life torn between the contending forces of flesh and spirit or simply say, “I cannot keep from sinning or living in the flesh.” 

To make this victory ours is the first work of the Holy Spirit after that of the new birth (regeneration).  This aspect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is strikingly set forth in Romans 8:13, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body you  shall live.”  The “deeds” of the body are “the doings” of the body, such as “fornication, uncleanness, passion, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, shameful speaking,…lying.” (Col. 3:5-9).  From God’s viewpoint, the “deeds of the body” or “old man” (King Self) has been dealt with once and for all – crucified with Christ; but from our viewpoint, the death by crucifixion must be applied to the “doings” of the flesh in a day by day process.

How is the Flesh, King Self, or Deeds of the Body Put to Death?  – in a word, “The Self Life.”  Certainly not by the energy of the flesh.  I have heard Christians pray, “Lord, help me to crucify myself.”  No one  can crucify himself.  It’s a physical impossibility.  One can commit suicide in many different ways, but if he ever dies by crucifixion someone else will put him on the cross.

The Holy Spirit is the Agent Who Brings Crucifixion to Pass.  As Romans 8:13 specifically states, “If ye by the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body (its doings), ye shall live.”  In order to understand how the Spirit works with us to put the death sentence into effect, we must understand the meaning of the one word translated “put to death.”  The word is THANATOS,   which means Death.  (Note:  William Cullen Bryant wrote the famous poem on death called Thanatopsis).  To this one word Thannatos is added a causative ending, making it THANAtoute,which literally means “cause to put to death,.  We are not to crucify ourselves.  However, we are to acknowledge our sin, and give the Holy Spirit permission to crucify it or take it out of our lives.  He MUST have our permission.  We must say the word, because God does nothing in us without our own active cooperation.

Permit me at this point to share an illustration whereby a pastor friend of mine described how he learned to permit the Holy Spirit to enable him to crucify King Self:

“An experience some years ago brought home to me this aspect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry.  We had at that time a pet dog named Skipper which had won his way into our affections – especially those of our children.  One day Skipper was struck by a passing automobile.  Though he recovered in a measure from his injury, Skipper was never himself again.  His disposition was ruined and he became a problem in the neighborhood.  One day after he had snapped at my little daughter I sent him to the veterinarian for observation.  The doctor explained that sometimes a dog’s disposition was permanently altered by an injury of that nature.  He stated that Skipper would probably be a dangerous pet to have with the little children in the home and frankly advised me to put him out of the way.

The veterinarian had made his recommendation.  He stood ready to carry out the course that he had advised.  But the problem was mine – the dog was mine, and the children were mine.  It was my responsibility to say the word, and I said it.  I have always felt that I said the right word, and ever since I have held in grateful appreciation the friend who counseled me so wisely and who then so faithfully did the “dirty work” for me.  So far as I know that is the only sentence of execution I have pronounced – except that which time and time again I pronounce when the Holy Spirit reveals to me the working of a vicious nature within and waits my word to carry out the death sentence which he so strongly recommends.

My friend’s relation to Skipper describes the position which the believer must take in regard to the problem of the flesh.  However the act of pronouncing God’s sentence must be cultivated until it becomes habit of mind.  That attitude is commanded in Romans 6:11.  That attitude is described in Romans 6:11 where Paul say, “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.”  The tense of the verb is present, indicating a continuing process of reckoning. The word “reckon” means “to accept as an accomplished fact”  that our “old man” (Self) has been crucified as the Word plainly states,  “Ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).  “They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof” (Gal. 5:24).  The crucifixion has already taken place.  By faith we must accept this fact and hold to the course in a steady reckoning.”^[1]

Caution:  This business of being “dead” to sin does not necessarily take away its appeal, nor does it render us incapable of responding.  Many a young believer discovers through painful experience that if sin and self are dead, it is the “livest dead” thing he has ever encountered.  The fact is:  we are free to do as we choose.  God’s will is that we play by the rules he has graciously given – quietly reckoning in our minds and faith that we ourselves are dead unto sin and do not have to commit it and alive unto God just as He as said.  “…The wonderful thing about it is that the instant we make this reckoning and take the position that He has indicated in relation to sin, the whole problem is solved and the victory is won.  It is a sure way, and the only way by which the believer may walk in constant victory.”^[2]  Then the believer will know that Jesus did not just come to give life but to give it more abundantly. (John 10:10b).

Final Word to you:  My hope is that our study of Romans 8 will enable myself and all who study under me to live more and more in “the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21) so that Romans 7 will become less and less our experience and Romans 8 will replace Romans 8.  Then we will experience “The Declaration of Freedom” proclaimed for every Christian on earth.

In Romans 8 we have a contrast between the power of the flesh, flesh being our old, Adamic corrupt nature, and the power of the Holy Spirit, truly God, who was sent into the world by Jesus after His ascension (Acts 2:33) to empower every believer with the mighty power of Almighty God, enabling them to possess both character and perform the conduct of Jesus – “to be conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29)

 

Romans 8:1-14

Contrast Between The Person Dominated By The Flesh
And The Person Dominated By God The Holy Spirit