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I want to invite you this morning now to Romans chapter eight. Romans Chapter eight. And this pastor has said many times, especially the last couple of weeks, what a tremendous chapter. Romans Chapter eight is one of those chapters that is so valuable to us as believers. We can learn so much from this chapter just about living our Christian lives, about who our God is and what he’s done for us, and about what we have in him. And that’s what we’re going to get to talk about today. And I’m so, so thankful that Chapter eight is here, because if Chapter eight wasn’t here, then we’re going to end up back in chapter seven with Paul, and we’re going to feel like we’re in kind of the same mess as him, right? I mean, sins deceive me. I don’t do the things I want to do and I do do the things I don’t want to do. And and nothing good dwells in me and oh, wretched man that I am, who’s going to deliver me from this body of death? I mean, that’s where Paul feels like he is in chapter seven. But praise the Lord. And he says this at the end of Chapter seven, he says, But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that thanks then leads us right into chapter eight, verse one. And you guys know this verse, but chapter eight, verse one. Therefore, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
What a blessing that verse is to us. What a what a comfort, what a peace that verse gives to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, there’s two things in this verse that we really need to understand for us to really grasp how tremendous this verse is for us. Obviously no condemnation. And secondly, in Christ Jesus, the word condemnation in this verse means and get this, it’s kind of slow and it’s kind of hard, but it’s a decision against someone that’s a condemnatory judgment. Grab a hold of that for a minute. It’s it’s a condition or a decision against someone that’s a condemnatory judgement. In other words, condemnation means that we’ve been tried, we’ve been judged and we’ve been condemned. Condemnation in this verse means it’s already all happened. The trial has gone on, you’ve been judged, you being condemned. And we understand what Paul is talking about here. We’re condemned by the law. We’re condemned by law, by the law of sin and death. But the good news is this There’s no condemnation. There’s no condemnation for sin for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty in full for our sin. He paid it for your sin. He paid it for my sin. He paid it for the sins of the whole world. Jesus paid that penalty.
He took that judgment. He took that condemnation on himself for us. He’s been tried. He’s been judged, he’s been condemned. And so that we can say and we can grab a hold of this verse like Paul does at following Chapter seven, and we can say there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and we can say it with excitement. But really, when you think about it, it’s the second phrase of this verse that’s so valuable to us. It’s it’s so important to us. And really it’s it. It’s important to the whole Bible. The second phrase is this in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? We got to talk about that. And why is it only those who are in Christ Jesus that don’t have any condemnation? That’s what we need to get to the place of. And so that’s what I hope to help you understand this morning. And then we’ll move on from this first. Being in Christ, Jesus obviously means that we are saved. You hear about that all the time, but we are saved. We placed our faith and our belief in Jesus Christ and we’re saved. You remember when Paul and Silas were in the prison in Philippi? Paul and Silas are in prison. They’ve been thrown in prison for preaching the word of God and for for getting a little bit of a following there. And they’re in prison and it’s midnight and they’re singing and they’re praising God.
All of a sudden God sends an earthquake. All of a sudden, there’s an earthquake. The whole place shakes the doors open. The chains fall off. And there’s a prisoners. They could bolt, they could take off. But they don’t. They stay there. And the jailer, knowing that there’s a chance that they’ve all gone, draws a sword and is ready to kill himself. Because what happens when you let a prisoner escape, you die. That’s the way it was back then. And so he’s ready to kill himself. And Paul says, Don’t harm yourself. We’re all still here. Don’t do it. And the jailer is so amazed that he says to Paul and Silas, What must I do to be saved? He understands what they were singing about, what they were praising the Lord for. Maybe it hurt them. Earlier that day, somewhere in Philippi. Who knows? He says, What must I do to be saved? And the simple answer is this Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That’s the answer. What do I got to do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. All about salvation. Being in Christ, being sons of God. We’re going to see in the next verse is strictly a result of faith and belief in Jesus Christ and who He is and what He did for us. Look at this verse.
There we go. I’m a rookie with this thing, so I’m going to mess up, but she’ll bail me out anyway. Galatians 326 through 28 says this for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, that means as many as you who have identified with Christ, as many as you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And there is neither Jun or Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male or female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. You are in Christ and I can’t get my pages apart. There we go. So being in Christ means that we have, by faith, accepted his sacrifice, accepted his payment, accepted what he did on the cross for us. We’ve accepted it that he paid the price for my sins, my own sins. He paid the price for everybody’s. But I need to understand. He paid it for me. For me individually. And I believe that believing in who he is, I mean, I didn’t understand that he’s God because only God could come down to earth, live that sinless life and be able to do that for us. Right. So believe that he’s God and that he came to this earth to make that payment for my sins and take that on individually and and as wonderful was wonderful as no condemnation is in this first it’s the important part really is is in Christ Jesus.
And when you look at the Bible, that’s the important part in the whole Bible. The whole goal of the Bible is either getting in Christ Jesus or explaining what it means to be in Christ Jesus, encouraging us to be in Christ Jesus and then live our lives in Christ Jesus. And so one day we’re eventually going to be in heaven and be ultimately with Christ Jesus all the time in Christ Jesus. So that’s that’s where the whole Bible is headed. And so if you listen, if you have not by faith believed in Jesus, I want to encourage you to do it today. I mean, I would hate to see anybody walk out of this place still condemned. I mean, because that’s what we’re talking about. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Tell Jesus that I’ve seen too messed up my life. I mean, I’ve made a mess of it. Jesus, I need you. I what I’ve tried to do, I’m not doing well at and by faith, believe in him. Surrender to him. Trust him. That’s what salvation is and that’s what I would encourage you to do today, because here’s the real truth of this verse. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and that means that the inverse has to be true as well, right? There is condemnation for those who are not in Christ Jesus.
You are tried, judged and condemned for your sins if you’re not in Christ. Jesus. And so, again, I would hate to see anybody leave this place and not be in that spot of no condemnation. And I encourage you to do that today if you haven’t, because I want everybody here to be able to say I have no condemnation in Christ Jesus and say it with excitement and say it with that. That’s an important and a special thing to me now. No condemnation can take on a couple of applications for us, I think. Obviously, we’re talking about here that there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus made the payment for our sins. We’re not going to be judged. We’re not going to be condemned. We’re not going to be punished for our sins, because Jesus has already been that that’s already taken place. Jesus has already done that. So thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, right? I mean, we can say with, with, with Paul, thanks be to God because he’s done that. But I think Paul helps us understand something else about condemnation. You know, he’s in chapter seven and he’s man, he’s lamenting. He says things I don’t want to do. I do do. And the things I do want to do, I don’t want to do. And you and I can relate to that because we all go through that as well.
And it. He’s just he seems like he’s really struggling. But listen, he’s not condemning himself. And we really shouldn’t be condemning ourselves neither. Paul’s explaining what it like, what it’s like to live in the flesh, but he’s not condemning himself. And too often, you know what? We we end up back in this time where we’re looking at some of the things we did. No, I did that. And it was awful. And I did that. And we start condemning ourselves for the things that we did in the past. And and Jesus is there saying, listen, I’m not condemning you, I’m not judging you. Why are you doing that to yourself? I’ve already paid the price for all of that stuff. Quit condemning yourself. And I think it also applies that sometimes. I mean, I know, I know we all don’t do this. And this group probably has never done this, But sometimes we look at other Christians when they sin and we start condemning them, don’t we? We start having some stuff to say about other Christians when they said when they sin and and Jesus is doing the exact same thing with them. He’s not he’s saying, I’m not condemning them. I’m not judging them. Why are you. Stop judging other believers when they sin. Stop judging yourself when you sin. Now, I’m not saying obviously that sin doesn’t exist. Sin doesn’t exist in our life.
We all know it does. We all know sin exists. And listen, we all know that there’s consequences for sin. I’m not saying that you’re still not going to experience consequences when you sin. Paul makes it clear that there’s no condemnation for sin for those who are in Christ Jesus. But there’s still consequences for sin. And you have experienced some. And I’ve experienced some. And so though Jesus paid completely the price for our sins, there still going to be consequences when we sin. And so we’re not saying no consequences for sin. We’re saying no condemnation for sin. Now, before we go on to any more verses, we need to look at just for a second, Some of your Bibles have an addition to verse one that says, For those who do not or for those who walk according to who walked, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Some some translations have added that, and some, like the ESV that we’re using today, has not added that does not include that in it. And so people that are a whole lot smarter than me, they say that this phrase isn’t in the oldest manuscripts, so a lot of the newer translations of the Bible don’t include that phrase in verse one. And in addition, some some scholars believe that it’s the idea that it gives off the idea that we must be walking in the spirit in order for us to have no condemnation.
But I think that that God makes it really clear that. And we’re going to see this in a few minutes in verse four. But God makes it really clear, clear that we walk according to the Spirit because we are already in Christ Jesus. We don’t walk according to the Spirit on our own efforts, and we don’t have the promise of condemnation because of what we have and what we haven’t done. We have that promise because of what Jesus did and he already paid for it. So the fact that there’s now no no condemnation for that, those that are in Christ Jesus really ought to have an effect on how we live our lives, shouldn’t it? And that’s what Paul wants is going to talk about through some of these remaining verses. Verse two of Chapter eight says this For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. When you are in Christ Jesus, there’s a whole new law. Live in India. And that law has been put in you through the Holy Spirit. You are now living in the law of the spirit of life. That’s pretty exciting, Paul said back in Romans six, verse 22. He says, But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life.
We are now living in the law of the spirit of life. It’s a whole new law. You know, you and I were born under the law of sin and death, and there was no way to get out of that law until another law, a higher law, a better law come into effect. And that’s what the law of the spirit of life is. Belief in Jesus. Being in Jesus means that you’re free from the law of sin and death because of Jesus. That’s the value of that. Paul goes on to explain in verses three and four. He just for God, has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and force in he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walked not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So the law was unable to bring about holy and righteous life because of flesh. The law could never make us holy. The law could never make us righteous. So. And it it couldn’t take away the power and the penalty of sin either. The law couldn’t do any of that. But listen, God did what the law couldn’t do. And when we without hope, God, the father sent God the Son. And he resolved the issue of sin for us. He took care of it.
And we’re free now from the condemnation because Jesus paid that full debt for us. And we can’t say that enough and we can’t praise the Lord enough for that. So by paying our debt, Jesus filled the righteous requirements of the law in us. And we don’t walk according to the flesh. We walk according to the spirit. Now, the word walk in verse four, it really means life, manner of life or lifestyle. So what he’s really saying is that true believers have this lifestyle of walking in the spirit because we’re in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. And it just it becomes our lifestyle and. Whoops. Good. John Chapter 14. Verses 16 and 17 say this. It says, I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. Now, there’s a little bit of a future sense in that because we’re still in the Gospel of John and the Spirit has not come onto believers yet. That’s not going to happen till X. So he says he will be in you. But the whole idea of that is the Holy Spirit in dwells each believer. The moment that we’re saved, the moment that we trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and He He’s in us to teach us.
He’s in us to guide us about this Christian life. This verse calls him our helper. And he, the Holy Spirit, gives us the power to walk in the Spirit. We walk in the Spirit because we have him indwelling in us. Now. I know we don’t walk in the spirit 100% of the time if you do. Wow. But most of us don’t walk in the spirit 100% of the time. We have this this idea of going back to the flesh. We have this idea of going back to depending on ourselves. We have this idea of of, you know, maybe God’s not given us everything that we think we ought to have. But here’s here’s the thing that that always entails. That always entails going back. That always entails going backward. And I don’t know about you, and this is true, especially as I get older. But when I’m walking forward and I start looking back, who knows what I’m going to run into and who knows how I’m going to stumble? You can’t move forward looking back. So don’t look back to that. Don’t look back to wanting to be the way something used to be. And sometimes we can, even in our Christian lives, we can either even hit a wall. Those of you that have ran marathons might understand hitting a wall. Now, I haven’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve just read about this and heard about this.
I’m not speaking from experience. But when you run a race, sometimes you hit a wall, Sometimes you get to that place and it’s usually later in the race, maybe not too far from the end. But usually you run into this time when your brain stops working, your mind isn’t working well, your body doesn’t want to function. It doesn’t want to keep going. I mean, you’re just shutting down and some people have to stop and rest. Some people have to slow down and walk. And some people have to say, look, I’ve been training for this. And even though my mind isn’t working and my body don’t want to, I’m just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other and I’m going to keep going and I’m going to keep chugging along. And pretty soon you work your way through that. And I’m just thinking that our Christian life isn’t much different than that sometimes. Sometimes we hit a wall, Sometimes we hit this place where where our brain doesn’t want to work and our body don’t want to function. And we just get to this place where we need to say, Listen, I’m going to go back to my training, I’m going to go back to my Holy Spirit that dwells me. I’m going to go back to the place that I know about, and I’m going to put one foot in front of the other and I’m going to keep moving and I’m going to keep my eyes on Jesus, because that’s what’s going to that’s what when you’re running, you’re keeping your eye on that finish line to get through that spot.
And I’m going to keep my eyes on Jesus and just keep moving forward. Sometimes I need to stop and rest. Don’t ever forget that, that we have times when we need to stop and rest. If you’re reading along with the church, reading this, this year, that’s what we got to read about at the end of Matthew 11 today was resting. So anyway, sometimes that’s what it’s required. But walking in the spirit is a lifestyle of moving forward, walking forward, look, not looking back, but looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Right. We need to look forward and keep moving forward. Now, Paul is going to continue here to to contrast life and the spirit versus life in the flesh in verse. Versus five through seven. He says this 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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God’s law. Indeed it cannot. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And what we’re seeing in this verse, especially in verse five, is Paul is really saying that living in the flesh or living in the spirit is is is differentiated by what we set our mind on. Those who don’t know Jesus live in the flesh and set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who do know Jesus live in the Spirit and set their minds on the things of the Spirit in God from God’s perspective, that’s the only two options. Either you have the Holy Spirit and you set your mind on the things of the Spirit, or you don’t have the Holy Spirit, and you’re going to set your minds on things of the flesh. That’s the two options in God’s mind. So living in the flesh means living out of self sufficiency, living out of self dependency. The flesh always builds its identity and its dependence around itself. It attempts to find value and identity and what it does, what it accomplishes, what it possesses. The flesh sets its minds on the things that it can depend on through the efforts of itself. Flesh is always totally self focused. And as you can see in this in this passage, when setting the mind on the flesh, depending on the flesh, it describes what it is, its death.
Its hostility towards God. It is not. And it cannot be submitted to God’s law and it cannot please God. The mind that’s focused on the flesh, the mind that’s set on the flesh has all those things going against it, and those who insist on living in the flesh and depending on the flesh, end up separated from God eternally. That’s the way it ultimately goes. That’s the way it ultimately ends. But listen, those who know Jesus, those who believe in him, set their minds on the things of the spirit living in and through the spirit, depending on Jesus, no longer living life through self. But through the indwelling Spirit of God. That’s how we live life. Colossians one or three verses one and two says that if then you have been raised with Christ, seek those things that are above which Christ, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. Set your mind on the things above. Set your mind on the spirit. Setting our minds on the spirit is life and peace. This verse says Eternal life and with Jesus Christ, peace with God through Jesus Christ. Paul has already mentioned that once back in Romans five and verse one, he says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s what’s setting our mind on the things of the spirit, life and peace. And we live our life. We move forward. We living the life in the spirit when life and peace pretty comforting. And that’s that’s good to hear. That’s good to understand. Now, Paul’s going to end this section that we’re that we’re covering today, and he’s going to really talk back directly to the believers in Roman and to us as believers that he says this. He says You, however. Are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, because you’re. Because we’re in Jesus Christ, because we belong to Him, we are not in the flesh. The flesh no longer has power over us, but we are in the spirit and the spirit of God and dwells us. That’s a huge difference since Jesus is in you. And even though the body of the flesh is still dead because of sin, the spirit indwelling you as life.
And that spirit is eternal life and the righteousness of Christ has been given to us by God. That’s what all of these verses are telling us. So if you have believed in Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then God gives life to these mortal bodies that we have through His spirit. That’s the whole process that Paul is talking about. These are the reasons that he can say there’s no condemnation because we have all of that in Christ. We have all of that through his spirit. Now, again, I’m not saying we don’t struggle with sin. I mean, the enticements of the world, the temptations to depend on ourselves again and and to be self sufficient, the desire for anything different than what God has already given us because. What Paul has already said is so true. The body, the flesh is dead because of sin. But the wonderful truth and the exciting truth, all this is that God has made us alive through His spirit and sin, even with its enticements and temptations and with its desires, It no longer controls us and no longer has to control us. That’s amazing. That’s a praise to the Lord because we’re in Christ and we’re alive through His spirit and sin is no longer our master. That’s a that’s a place to get to that’s so valuable in our Christian lives. Understanding sin doesn’t control me.
I still sin, but sin doesn’t control me. The Holy Spirit in me controls me. So. I think that you’ll agree that parts of Romans seven feel a little bit like Paul doesn’t have any hope. Like, I’m just, oh, wretched man that I am, he says. But get to the end of that chapter and then jump into chapter eight. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because there’s now no condemnation for those who believe in Jesus, for those who hope in Jesus, for those who are in Jesus. There’s no condemnation for us. Nothing is left to condemn us for sin. And by the way, no condemnation is just the start. In chapter eight. There are so many incredible things that we get to read about in chapter eight, and then we get to come to understand. Eventually we’re going to hear about being adopted into God’s family and we’re going to hear about being heirs with Christ, and we’re going to hear about that that were no more conquerors. That’s why this is up on our on our banners. And we’re going to talk specifically and this is one of the ones that’s a favorite part of me that nothing can separate us from the love of God. All of that stuff is still coming in. Romans Chapter eight, All of that stuff is still the encouragement of this chapter for us, living our Christian lives. And so I hope you’re just looking forward to to all that we can gain from this chapter over the next, what I think are going to be several weeks.
And so this is just the start. There’s no condemnation and we can live through the spirit and live in the spirit. So my challenge today is this. Please don’t walk out that door dependent on the flesh. Please don’t walk out that door. Still condemned. Please believe in Jesus today. If you haven’t done it before, believe it now. Believe in Jesus today. Walk out of this place in new life. Walk out of this place No longer can live. Condemned for your sins. Walk out of this place and dwelt by the Holy Spirit. Because the moment that you place your faith and belief in Jesus, that Holy Spirit comes to and where you are now, you have the power in you to walk in the spirit. Please do that today if you haven’t, and if you can rejoice with Paul and with other believers like us that you are in Christ and not condemned. Maybe you can ask yourself, How am I doing? Am I spending lots of time condemning myself for what I’ve done or what I haven’t done? What I did or what I didn’t do. And I spent a lot of time condemning other believers for their sin. All the while, Jesus is saying, Wait a minute, I’m not doing that.
I’m not judging them. I’m not condemning them. You need to not do it either. How are we doing with that? Listen, when God says there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, it’s a it’s it’s final. It’s over. It’s done. There’s nothing else that needs to be said about it. And it’s true for everyone who is in Christ. It’s not just true for some. Everyone that has placed their faith and belief in Jesus Christ has no condemnation for their sin ever, because Jesus can look you right in the face and say, I paid for that, and Jesus one day is going to stand up and look at Satan in the face and He’s going to say, I paid for that. You can try to accuse them. I paid for that. Although all of us who are in Christ, for those of us that live our lives in the spirit and desire to live our lives in the spirit, I pray that we’re sensitive to his leading and that we’re continually thankful to our God for for resolving the sin issue for us in the first place through Jesus Christ. I mean, I just can’t imagine where we would be without that. God has already resolved the sin issue through Jesus. He took care of sin. Jesus paid the price for the fact that we’re not condemned. It would be so easy for us to be condemned. It would be so easy for that to happen.
But Jesus took the payment. He was tried, he was judged. And he’s already been condemned for my sins. For making us alive through his indwelling Holy Spirit. Thank the Lord for that man. It’s so incredible to be alive. You ever you ever been saying you ever seen somebody going through a difficult time and say, Man, I don’t know how people who aren’t saved deal with that stuff? That’s the value of the Holy Spirit. I’ve seen people going through some ugly stuff and I think how do you deal with that not being a believer? That would be so hard because there’s so much confidence and so much trust and so much faith in God to handle and deal with those kind of things. Thank God for setting our minds on the things of the spirit. You know, I don’t have to try to do it. Remember that live. Remember that manner of life and lifestyle. Live your life in the spirit and you’ll automatically set your mind on the things of the spirit. So thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. There’s now, therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What a praise, what a wonderful truth, What an exciting thing that we can hold on to and make make true and know that it’s true not only in our lives now, but always. Never were condemned, not condemn. Now, we’re not going to be condemned in the future. Jesus says, I took care of it.