Romans 8:1-11

What defines a good life? Is it having money, enjoying many social events with good friends, or having your dream job? We know that all these are fleeting things; they soon pass.  

How do we determine if we are really living or not?

Jesus said in John 10:10 that he came to give life and life abundantly. But what does that mean? The apostle Paul addresses this in Romans 8:9-11. In verse 9, we read, “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.”

There is a big “If” in this verse. How do we know if the Spirit of God lives in us?

The evidence of conversion is the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, witnessing that we are children of God (see Romans 8:16 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  

Every true Christian has become a temple of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit comes at the moment of placing your faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross in repentance and conversion (see Ephesians 1:13). The Holy Spirit is a seal of belonging to Jesus.

Nothing to be Added

Be wary of anyone who teaches that there is an additional encounter that somehow makes someone a true Christian or a better Christian. Of course, after conversion, there are additional fillings of the Holy Spirit, encounters with God that can be called fresh anointings, or rich encounters with the Lord – these are often during times of fasting, focused prayer, repentance or preparation for a specific task that the Lord has for us.

Some people teach that after conversion, there is a future date when the person is filled with the Holy Spirit. Often, the dates are far apart. I am not denying their initial salvation experience, or that they had a powerful encounter with the Lord later on, but we don’t believe in the name of Jesus, have a true conversion experience, and then somehow, the Lord leaves us to try to live the Christian life on our own without the Holy Spirit. No, God gives us what He promised at conversion for us to live as followers of Christ.

This can be an example of spiritual elitism, where someone claims to have a superior encounter or special knowledge of the Holy Spirit, and as a result, they look down on other “lesser Christians.” This destroys faith and makes people feel less than who God created them to be. This kind of teaching has done incredible harm in the Body of Christ, causing some people to leave the church and even walk away from following Jesus.

The Bible is clear that the evidence of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. This is the evidence we should look for in people’s lives. Many humble believers simply go about their lives as followers of Jesus, sharing the Gospel, praying, fasting, and caring for the broken-hearted. These people are often the ones who display the fruit of the Spirit to a greater measure. The Bible teaches that the Christian life is not defined by supernatural encounters, but rather by steadfast endurance and obedience (see 2 Timothy 4:7). Much like character, the Christian life is not defined by mountain top experiences; rather, it is defined by steadfast obedience to the will of God. I am not diminishing the miraculous and powerful moves of God, but we must not make that the benchmark of what it means to be a good Christian.

Dying But Alive

In verse 10, we read, “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

We are saved from sin, but the effects of sin in our bodies is still killing us; we are living in broken and fallen bodies, only to receive our resurrected bodies when Jesus returns. While our physical bodies decline, life in the Holy Spirit becomes more vibrant as we follow his leadership. The more our desires and passions for the things of this world are replaced by eternal and spiritual desires, the more we become increasingly alive.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11.

There is an interesting difference between the word life in verses 10 and 11 – in verse 10, the Greek word is “zóé,” which is a noun and simply means “life.”

But in verse 11, the Greek word is much more complex and means to make alive, or to give life where there was no life before. The Holy Spirit gives us life where there was no life before; this is life in and by the Holy Spirit (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). There is a tremendous difference that takes place in our bodies when the Holy Spirit resides in us; it is new life, even affecting our physical faculties.

How do you Know?

God does not want us to be uncertain of His presence in our lives. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a promise at conversion (see Acts 2:38-39). It begins with repentance, a turning away from sin and turning to follow Christ. Baptism is an act of obedience that signifies death to your old life and being raised to new life in Christ. The core of repentance and baptism is faith. The Holy Spirit is given to everyone who trusts Christ as savior.

Three Activities of the Holy Spirit

1: The Holy Spirit gives us victory over the flesh.

This is more than simply being able to resist temptation, as the Spirit gives us life; He gives us direction for our lives. This is not always doing what our flesh desires, but being led on a distinctly better path.

2: The Holy Spirit is a Seal of Belonging to God.

In Revelation 5:9, we read that Jesus purchased people for God by his blood. We are a part of that people. The presence of the Holy Spirit means belonging; we have been adopted into God’s family.

3: The Holy Spirit gives New life.

This is not revised life, but a new life. The Holy Spirit gives life where we had no life before.  

Do you know this life?

This is not an optional extra; this is the definition of being a Christian.

Romans 8:1-8

Life or Death

In Romans 8:5 Paul writes, “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.” There are two kinds of people; those who live according to the flesh, and those who live according to the Spirit of God.

In Romans 8:5-8, Paul contrasts the difference between living according to the flesh and living according to the Spirit. In these verses, we find four aspects of this contrast.

The Mindset

The Holy Spirit writes the law of God on our hearts. This is only true for the believer; the unbeliever is not led by the Spirit, but rather is led by the flesh, thinking about how to satisfy their own desires. The person living in the flesh has a self-centered attitude.

Our sinful nature looks at every situation and decides how to live based on how it will be of benefit to us. It is a question of what motivates us: what are our ambitions? What are the concerns that engross us and consume our energy? The answer to these questions determines who we are, or better yet, whose we are.

If you are filled with the Holy Spirit and led by the Spirit, then your ambitions, motivation, and mindset will be to glorify God through your life. You live for a higher calling (see John 16:13-14). This does not mean that the unsaved person never does anything good, or that the believer never does anything bad. It means that the bent of their lives is different. One lives for the flesh; the other lives for the Spirit.

The Consequences

Romans 8:6 says, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” The unsaved person is alive physically but dead spiritually. The inner man is dead toward God and does not respond to the things of the Spirit. He may be moral, and even religious, but he lacks spiritual life. The mind of the unsaved man leads him to death and eternal separation from God in Hell. Without Christ, this mindset is selfish and leads to death.

The person whose mind is set on the things of the Spirit, the person who has a personal relationship with Jesus, experiences life and peace. The person whose mind is set on the Spirit has peace with God (see Romans 5:1). Having peace with God, having eternal security, allows us to live at peace in this world. Trouble may come, but we can weather the storm because we experience the peace of God in our lives.

This is more than getting through this world to get to heaven. The Holy Spirit works in our lives as we make daily choices that lead to life or death. What we decide to watch or listen to, what we do with our time and money, are all choices that either lead to life or to death. These are decisions that determine our pursuit of holiness.

The Hostility

Romans 8:7, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.”

Our mindset determines our fundamental attitude towards God. If we have our mind set on the flesh, aimed at pleasing our sinful nature, we are hostile towards God. This hostility affects all our thoughts and attitudes towards God. Paul wrote that the person who is hostile to God does not submit to the law of God. That person is unable to follow the law of God because they lack the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Pleasing

Romans 8:8, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

To be “in the flesh” means to be lost, outside of Christ. The unsaved person lives to please himself and rarely, if ever, thinks about pleasing God. The root of sin is selfishness and pride.

How do we please God? (see Hebrews 11:6).

Pleasing God begins with saving Faith—placing our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Then there is the daily living Faith, being led by the Holy Spirit. This means walking out the Christian life and making choices that sometimes look foolish to the world, but these choices  please God when we walk by faith.

Are you alive or are you dead? Are you in the flesh or in the Spirit. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and savior?

You may be a believer, but are you alive? Let me explain. If you are a follower of Jesus, you should look and act differently. If the only difference the world sees in you is that you have a different Sunday morning schedule, then something is wrong. Being empowered by the Holy Spirit affects every aspect of our lives. It should make us look different and sometimes quite odd to the onlooking world.

But we don’t like being odd; we like to fit in, but the result is that we are living like dead people, ignoring the Spirit and living for the flesh, our sinful self. Jesus died on the cross so that we may have life and have it abundantly (see John 10:10), so why do we settle for so much less?

It starts by acknowledging our position before the Lord. King David knew the secret as he prayed, in Psalm 139:23-24;

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
     Try me and know my thoughts!
 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
     and lead me in the way everlasting!

As we invite the Holy Spirit’s scrutiny, repent as He reveals things, renew our minds with His truth (see Romans 12:2), and walk in the Spirit daily, we experience life and peace!

Are you fully alive?

Are you making choices that produce life – led by the Holy Spirit? 

Romans 8:3-8

What is Sin?

Sin is defined as falling short of the glory of God – missing the mark of God’s standard of holiness. Sin is the common human condition. Even Paul the apostle sinned as he wrestled with his sin nature (see Romans 7:14-20). If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you can relate to Paul’s struggle with sin.

As believers, when we sin, we are convicted of sin. In fact, if we don’t sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit, there is a good chance that we are not saved, we don’t know Jesus (see 1 John 1:10).

If we know sin is missing the mark, what is the mark?

What is the Law?

We have the Ten Commandments, as clear, concise set of regulations for relating to God and to our fellow man. But Jesus took the Law and raised the bar in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:21-28). Jesus stated that sin is born in our hearts; we are all guilty of thinking and saying things about other people that are sinful.

Romans 8:3 states, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”

The nation of Israel was given the law of Moses. Remember, Paul is writing to a mixed audience. Some Jewish believers grew up with the law of Moses, while Gentile believers knew very little about the feasts and the sacrificial system.

Paul didn’t say that the Law was bad or that it failed; it was weakened because human beings could not do what the Law required. We may follow all the rules and regulations, but our thoughts will still drift into sin, and we break the law.

What is the Gospel?

The law couldn’t save, but God provided a way: He sent His own Son, born of a virgin, who lived a common life as a carpenter. Jesus looked and spoke every bit like a Jewish boy growing up in the first century. Paul wrote this to combat a heresy that taught that Jesus was fully God, but he was never a human; he only appeared to be human. Jesus had to be fully man to be the perfect sin offering for our sins. If he were not a human, the cross would have been meaningless.

But Jesus was perfectly human, and he was the final and perfect sin offering for the sins of mankind. The verse clearly states that Jesus died for sin. But more than dying for sin, God the Father condemned sin in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).

God not only made Jesus to become sin; God made Him bear our sin. He also condemned that sin; Jesus was judged and punished for our sin. It was a transfer of guilt, a sentencing, and an execution by God the Father. 

But why did Jesus have to die? Paul explains in verse 4, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

When laws are broken, there are consequences. The Law of God points out sin, and when we sin, the righteous requirement of sin is death. But the Good News is that Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. We who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ as our savior will never die; we will live eternally in the presence of Jesus.

Walking in the Spirit

Verse 4 ends with the phrase, “…in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”  If the only purpose was for Jesus to fulfill the requirements of the law, the final phrase of the verse would be meaningless.

This phrase is where we live today. Paul reminds his readers that just because Jesus paid the price for our sins, it does not mean we can live however we want. The moral law of God has not been removed, rather as we walk in the Spirit, we are able to fulfill the law (see Matthew 5:17).

The law of God does not go away because we believe in Jesus. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to fulfill the law, to follow the righteous requirements of the law. Not perfectly, but as we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we grow in being led by the Spirit, our sensitivity to sin grows, we begin hating the things that God hates, and we are being transformed into the image of Christ.

Our human sinful flesh makes the law weak because it does not lead to holiness. The Law does not have the power to produce holiness; it can only reveal and condemn sin. But the indwelling Holy Spirit enables us to walk in obedience to God’s will. And as Paul writes in Romans 7, we wrestle with our sin nature and being led by the Spirit.

So how do we know the law, fulfill the law, and walk in the Spirit? When God gives us his Spirit, he writes his law in our hearts (see Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27). This is such an important part of living as a Christian.

Being Christ’s ambassadors in our community, as the law bearers of God, empowered by the Spirit of God to live holy lives for the glory of God. Law abiders, but only because of the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

What is holiness? Holiness is Christlikeness, being set apart for Christ.

“The Moral law was not abolished for us; it is to be fulfilled in us.” John Stott.

As we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, as we walk in the Spirit, we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, we love God above all else, and we love our neighbor as ourselves.

No Condemnation

Romans 8:1-4

In Romans 7, Paul writes about the Law God gave Moses, which had become a point of tension in the church in Rome. The Judaizers wanted everyone to follow the Law, and the Gentile believers wanted everyone to be led by the Spirit. In Chapter 8, Paul highlights the freedom that believers have in Christ through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 8 can be summarized in three phrases: no condemnation, no obligation, and no separation. We will begin by looking at the first phrase.

No Condemnation

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1.

No condemnation and justification mean the same thing. If you have repented of your sins and asked the Lord Jesus to forgive you, your sins are forgiven. We are justified and made to be in right standing with God because of our faith in what Jesus has done on the cross. He died, shed his blood, and rose again so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (see John 3:16).

But what does condemnation mean?

These verses conclude the argument in chapter 7, where Paul addresses the personal problem we all face in dealing with our own sinful nature. Paul cries out in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

In the Bible, the word condemnation is synonymous with damnation, judgment, punishment, destruction, and verdict. In its strongest sense, condemnation means “the banishing to hell all those disobedient to the will of God.” Remember, Jesus spoke frequently about hell and the eternal punishment awaiting all who reject him.

The Law of Moses pronounces every person guilty because it shows us what sin is. Before Christ, everyone had to offer animal sacrifices every year, as a reminder that God punishes sin but also offers forgiveness through repentance. However, animal sacrifices were just a temporary method of dealing with man’s sin until Jesus came to deal with sin forever.

Jesus made it clear that without Him no one can enter the kingdom of heaven (see John 14:6). We all know John 3:16, yet two verse later Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).
Though the Law condemns all mankind, we as believers in Jesus Christ have this glorious promise, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).

But does that mean we can go on sinning without consequence? Not at all, in Romans 6, Paul addresses this very question (see Romans 6:1-3). In both these passages, Paul uses the phrase, “In Christ”. When we believe in the name of Jesus for salvation, we receive the Holy Spirit, and we are in Christ. Those who are in Christ are set free from the condemnation of sin.

In Christ

I doubt we grasp the depth and the breadth of those two words. Paul uses this term about 164 times in all his letters. To be in Christ is the heart of Christianity. Baptism is our public profession of faith in Jesus. It is us publicly declaring that when Christ died, our old man died, we are aligning ourselves with his death. It is total surrender to the new life in Christ.

Paul explains that when you become a Christian, you move into a realm of new life in Christ, and you come under new management. How can we still desire and walk in the ways of our past life? (see Galatians 2:20).

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” Tim Keller

A New Law

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” Romans 8:2.

When we read the word “law”, we are tempted to think of a very thick book of rules and regulations, a judge, and a courthouse. This is not a fun place to be.

But the law of the Spirit of life is a governing principle that God has set in place, much like the law of gravity. When Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the grave, he put in place a new Law, the law called the Gospel. This new law sets us free from the law of sin and death. God still has the old principle/law in place, but by being placed in Christ, we are subject to a new law, the law of peace with God.

In our new position before God, as dead to the Law, we are not expected to obey God in our own strength. God has not enslaved us under a “Christian Law” that we must obey in order to be holy. Rather, He has given us His Holy Spirit, who enables us to fulfill the demands of God’s holiness. And then out of that union with Christ, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, we do things for God, we produce fruit. We give generously, we act in faith, we share the Gospel, we stand against injustice, we care for the poor, we use our time differently, and so much more.

Paul calls this the law of the Spirit of life; it produces life in us and those around us.

What law are you operating in? The law of sin and death, or the law of the Spirit of life?

The law of sin and death is a hard taskmaster; you will never satisfy it.

But the law of the Spirit of life has no condemnation; we have peace with God.

Do you know this freedom?

Are you in Christ?