Adopted in the Spirit - Romans 8:1-17
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We are continuing in Romans. We got two more weeks and then we're taking a summer break. And so thank you for everybody who has been jumped in, who has engaged, who's been with us through, this is week 12, we're gonna be one more week next week. Pastor Rhonda's gonna wrap us up before break, so week 13. And so we are moving and grooving. And from everybody I've talked to, everybody's enjoyed this Roman series. And if you haven't, you haven't said anything to me. So we're just gonna say you enjoy it. So we're just gonna take that as your answer. So sweet. So yeah, so if you want, open up your Bibles, click, tap, flip over to Romans chapter eight. And this is where we're gonna be. We're gonna hit about halfway through chapter eight and then Pastor Andres is gonna wrap up chapter eight next week. And this chapter, chapter eight, some scholars would say is the pinnacle of this book of Romans. Paul, since the beginning, amen. Paul, since the beginning of his letter, literally opening verse, hi, my name is Paul. Boom, here's some theology. Paul has dropped some wisdom on us and he has been building this argument and has come to the point that I think if you're sitting in a courtroom, the attorney is putting this whole defensive case up to this point.
And after this chapter eight, he's gonna sit and say the defense rests. And he has been building to this massive point because after we get through chapter eight, Paul rolls into, so if all of this is true, all of this stuff that I've been talking about, saying this argument and this one and building and building, if all of this is true, this is how our life is different. And Paul's gonna roll the next set of chapters through practical application of what it means to live our lives out in the power of the gospel.
But before we get to that, Paul has one final big thing that he wants to say to us in this chapter. And so today we're gonna be walking through some incredible truths about our lives and how we physically, personally, intimately are changed by this power of the gospel. And what do I mean by the gospel? I mean the gospel is that Jesus came, he lived a perfect life, he went to the cross on our behalf, died, God raised him three days later and he conquered death. The one thing that was never defeated up to that point, he rose again and we live in his new life. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Is there more to it? Absolutely, there's so much more. If you just read Romans with us, there's so much more to it. But that is the nutshell. And so I wanna jump in this morning. We're gonna go to the first four verses and then we're gonna go kind of section by section and explain some of these things that Paul, this truth that Paul is laying out before us. And so here we go, Romans chapter eight, We're gonna start in verse one. I talk for a living, it's okay. Therefore, all right, you remember this? Therefore, what's it there for? Well, Paul again has been building this argument up to this point.
He says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Remember the gospel, those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did. I could just stop right there, amen, we go home, right? God did, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, 'cause Jesus came human, lived this life, but yet was blameless, right? Sinful flesh to be the sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who did not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
So it's right there, Jesus, he lived in the flesh, Jesus here, fully God, fully human, divine and earthly, and lived this perfect life in his resurrection, in his sacrificing, his death, His atonement, we might say, that we have new life in His blameless life, okay? Paul is gonna go really deep here, but he starts with this piece of the law. And what does he mean by that? Well, he means this word law, meaning the 10 commandments or the law of Moses that in itself, Paul, we talked about this last week. Remember this battle we have between wanting to be like God and yet we got this tension in us and that Paul is saying, I do not do what I want to do, but I do it and I do it and I don't wanna do it, but I still do it even though I don't wanna do it. Guys remember that? Paul here is saying that this idea of he didn't even know what was wrong until the law. And it was in the law that he understood, oh man, I'm sinning. I'm not living the life that God has called me to live and I'm not living in his truth. I'm living this life that's apart from that. And so in a sense, we see here this argument that in the law calling out sin, the law brought death. This is the law that called out those actions, brought death. But then Paul here is saying, no, no, no, no, there's something new here that I'm calling you into. There's something new that I have for you. And this is the law of the Spirit in Christ. And it takes what was this limited law of the 10 commandments and those laws that we read about in the Old Testament. It takes those and it fulfills those. And it actually in the fulfillment actually brings us to a new life, an eternal life, an everlasting life. This is the power of the Spirit in our life. This is what Paul is talking about. But how what was once a limited, hard hitting, calling us out. I don't know if you've ever read the 10 commandments. calling us out for what we had done, takes us into this place of life. Takes us into this new calling that we have for us. And it goes from this limited focus to this mobile ever present with us. What do I mean by that?
Well, there's two perspectives you can have on law. And it depends on your understanding of what is going on around you. I think of it this way. No offense. I recently, our kids got to take horseback riding lessons this last year and the year before. That's been awesome, they love it. But I went to them to see them ride for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And we went and there were these, at the farm you have the fences, you have the pens, right? And that keeps the horses where they're supposed to be. So we have this idea of say the law is offense. And if you had the perspective of the horse, The horse going, "I don't wanna stay in here." And they get creative. They get crafty. They start figuring out how to knock the latch on the fence. They figure out how to weasel their way through a little tiny opening. They get absolutely creative. Why? Because they don't wanna be confined. A lot of us look at the Bible and go, "Ah, just a bunch of laws, just a bunch of rules. God doesn't wanna let me live my life. He's trying to hold me down. He's trying to pull me back. He's controlling, he's just pushing into me, trying to keep me in my place because God, he just wants to control us. But there's another perspective. The second perspective of the law would be one of protection, of life, of security. What if we saw this fence or the law in our life of a place of keeping us safe from the outside? We went from seeing law as a way of holding us in to a law of there's protection. And this isn't just a fence, we're talking about a fortress. We're talking about secure, tall, thick, robust, strong walls. And when we understand that perspective, when we live inside of that, we don't worry about what's out there, right? We actually forget what's out there because we find ourselves comfortable. We feel safe. We're in a space where we know that God has got our back, a place without fear, a place where we can sleep in peace. How about you? I'm notorious at night for going around and checking all the doors. I have my routine at night. I go check, check, check, go all the way around. Why? So I can sleep in peace, not going, Oh, did I unlock that? Did that get locked? Is that? Oh man, you know what? Oh, I got, you know, that's, that door's gotta be unlocked. It's good. I can't sleep in peace. I'll get up, drives my wife nuts. I'll get up sometimes multiplying 'cause I'll get into bed, I'll lie down, I go, did I? Oh, dang it. All right, back up. Do my routine, hit the perimeter again. But I know where it takes me, right?
And that's what Paul here is saying. maybe another perspective would be stoplights, okay? We're trying to get where we wanna get, right? We're trying to go down the road, and especially if we're running late, notorious, we're hitting every stoplight, right? I think we've all been there. I think we can all agree with that, especially over here at Costco. Oh, Lord Jesus. That's Stanford Ranch intersection. The Lord is not present there, I tell you that much. All right? That's horrible. I'm kidding, the Lord is there, okay, so refreshing. But we have our singular perspective. We're trying to get from point A to point B, and the only way to do that, the fastest way to do that, is every single green light. But what about perspective from elsewhere? What about the perspective of the kid trying to cross the street, wanting that stoplight to safely cross? What about the family wanting to be able to turn and to make the left in their car. And without the stoplight, they would kind of be chancing it, right? And we see that when people don't obey what's going on, what happens? Accidents, mess, crunch, ouch, insurance. And this is the law. That if we see this as ways that God is trying to protect us to lead us into a place of living in a new life in the spirit, there's not only protection for us in our own car at a stoplight, but there's protections for others and there's cars at the stoplight as well. See this word, law, is a Greek word called nomos. And really what this Greek law word means, not just law, but law that brings life. A law in a sense that leads us to a place of where we are better than we were before without it. And Paul here is using these words to explain that it's not necessarily a law to hold us back, but it's a law that would rather lead us to a place of life within the Spirit of God.
Paul says this in chapter 8 verse 5, "Those who live according to the flesh have their mindset on what the flesh desires but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mindset on what the spirit desires the mind governed by the flesh is death but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God it does not submit to God's own law nor nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
This law, this life rather, leads us to a place where we live in accordance with the Spirit. It leads us to a place where we're now in parallel with what God desires for our mind, but we have to change our mindset. We have to change the way that we think and bringing us into alignment with the heart and the leading with the Spirit. I love this quote by Hwee Hwee Tan, a Christian author and coach. She says, "You are what your mind looks at. You are what you contemplate." Hmm. Little quick self-assessment. What does your mind dwell on? What do you often find yourself thinking about? It's a perspective, it's an opening into our hearts. Is it the Spirit of God? Is it the Spirit of ourselves? And if that is true, then what Paul says there, that that Spirit is opposed to God. You've got to be careful what we're thinking about because the reality is when you and and I accept Jesus into our lives, and to say, I believe in this gospel, I want to receive this, I want you to change who I am. Jesus does that.
And he does that by giving us a new mind through the indwelling of God's spirit. Did you know that? If you believe in Jesus Christ, you call him Lord and leader of your life, you have the indwelling of God's spirit in you. You do. That God's in you, with you, forever continuing to be with you. And that in this, it takes us away from the flesh spirit and gives us God's spirit.
Romans eight, verse nine says, "You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but you are in the realm of the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God lives you, and if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.
Last week we had Paul's do, do, do, do, do. This week we have Paul's quadruple if, if, if. And it goes like this. It says if, so this is conditional logic here. If you guys know what that is, maybe computer programmers in the room, you know, the if, then, little JavaScript action here. If, Paul, the original writer of JavaScript, If the Spirit of God lives in you, then if Christ is in you, then even though you have this battle, remember this battle in life, back and forth of the sin nature pull, this pendulum, you still have life in the Spirit, why? Because of God's righteousness in you. And if the Spirit of God, whose side note here, raised Christ from the dead, the gospel, remember we talked about that, is living in you, then he, being Almighty God, who raised Christ from the dead will also give you life because of the Spirit that lives in you. You guys follow that? Paul here is setting up this understanding of, If all of this is true, all the way back, beginning Romans 1, 1, up to this point. Now remember, there's the letter read at one moment, one time, one sitting, not 12 weeks sittings. One sitting. So all of this stuff that Paul is just saying is so fresh in their minds, they're getting to this point and they're gonna like, okay, so that's true, that, okay, that means you're there, leads me there, therefore, therefore, therefore, Therefore, therefore, the Spirit of God indwells you. And we have new life because of that truth.
Paul continues on, verse 12, "Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it. For if we live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misty to the body, you will live.
Here is Paul's final giant, therefore. I could see Paul writing it, taking up like half the letter across the scroll. Therefore, therefore, there is victory in the Spirit. There is victory. Paul says this idea, this word consequences, it's hard for us in our mind to wrap around consequences being good, right? We always think about all consequences are bad. Paul, you're saying there is a consequence of when we accept Christ in our lives, take on the title of Christian or disciple, there is a consequence in a good way that we have this new relationship and it affects our day to day as a believer. Paul isn't saying at this moment, maybe someday you'll have victory. Maybe future down the road, if you live your life perfect, you'll have victory. Or if you go to church every single week, you read your Bible, you tithe, you pray, you serve in the church, you love your neighbors, you serve in the community, maybe you'll find victory. Paul says, no, you have victory right here, right now, in this moment and forevermore. Come on. That was your moment to give an amen if you wanted to. All right? Paul here is saying that we have no obligation anymore. No obligation to live in the flesh, to live in the sin nature, to be, I'm caught up in this, oh, oh, I'm so, no. Stop it. Paul here is saying, stop it. You don't have to follow the way that your sin dictates. You no longer have to obey its will. This is huge, guys. This is huge. This is true freedom. And in this mindset change, remember the fence? We find ourselves now inside of a gated community full of protection and safety, and we get to live our life in victory in Jesus. Exactly. Thought of it this way. I don't know where I thought of it. I think I heard another pastor say this 'cause this is too smart for me. But I heard this. They said, "We've been given a new boss." That's Jesus. And it would be foolish to still show up to our old job, to return old emails, to put in office hours for an old boss, to punch the clock for them, to get their lunch, to get them their dry cleaning, to do your stuff for an old boss, is ridiculous. You no longer are employed by that boss anymore. You have a new boss. And yet what do we do? We find ourselves still working for the old boss. We still get caught following sin. I'm guilty of it, guys, I am. It's a struggle, it's a battle. Ask anybody in this room who's been a Christian for 500 years, they're gonna say, "I'm still fighting it." Because Paul here says it would be foolish, right? We would find ourselves for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Think about that. You have a new boss and you're still working for the old boss. Now you got two jobs you got to figure out. You're trying to balance the stuff. You're over here, you're over there, you're doing this. You're a late night, early mornings, you're running all over the place. What's it gonna do? It's gonna kill you. It's gonna kill you physically. It's gonna kill you emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And Paul gives us this warning here that you cannot live like this. You have a new boss, so act like it. Right?
Paul says in the second half of 13, "But if you live by the Spirit and you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." This is the good news, guys. This is the great news. This is the power of the gospel and Paul here is stressing our personal responsibility to conquer this domain of sin in our lives but Paul wants us not to forget that this is only possible by the power of God in Christ through the Spirit. A big word we might use here would be holiness in life. We come from a tradition here at Spring Valley Church of a holiness movement we call it and we focus on this that every single day is an opportunity to say more yes to Jesus in your life. That every single day is this moment for God to show up in our lives and for us to say yes to him. A big term here would be sanctification. That in this constant living out of the life that is placed before us and is led by the spirit, we have taken up residence in him.
A.W. Tozer has this wonderful quote. It says, "Faith is not a once done act, but the continuous gaze of the heart at the triune God. Believing then is directing the heart's attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind, remember, the mind or thoughts, to behold the Lamb of God and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives. At first this may be difficult, but it becomes easier as we look steadily at His wondrous person, quietly and without strain.”
This saying no to ourselves, every single step of the way, saying yes to God's Spirit will take us on a journey to a place that is absolutely incredible. It'll take us to a place where we are so focused and in tune with God's Spirit, we're not even really there anymore. that we just fade into the background and we live in lockstep with this continual saying, yes, I love that part, the continuing yes to the activity that does not even originate in ourselves, guys. It's just a spirit of God, which takes us to a place that God desires to change us at our core. So how is this even possible? Paul finishes up this section with three crucial, crucial verses that is as part of our core and our doctrine of who we are as Christians.
And he says this, he said, "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves "so that you live in fear again. "Rather, the Spirit you receive brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, Father. And the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.”
This is our new spirit we are given. It's a spirit of adoption. And it's this new spirit you and I are brought in and welcomed into our new family. Did you guys know that? You have a new family. Some of you, that's better news than others. All right? But you have this new family and we are not only are given a family, but we are actually given an heir. We are brought in at the level of inheritance, sharing in God's full glory. But how do we get there? We are led by the Spirit. And when we are adopted into the family of God, our life is different, right? Our life is different in the way that our choices and how we conduct ourselves change, right? If we're brought into this new family, there's an expectation of how we conduct our lives. Are we living up to the family name? Or are we out just being led by our own spirit still? This whole new life in this new direction is determined by the spirit of God. I see this as an image in the Old Testament, okay? You guys, God saves the Israelite people out of slavery in Egypt, okay? Leads them across the Red Sea, and then they find themselves in this place in the desert, the wilderness, but they are continually led by God. The Bible tells us that at day it was a cloud and at night it was a pillar of fire. My goodness to see that today. But this idea of being led by the Spirit of God where? To the promised land, their inheritance. And so Paul here is making this connection with those who have been listening to this letter that may have been from a Jewish background ago and said, I remember my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandpa told me through the generations of stories about that pillar of fire and that cloud. And that Paul here is saying, "We are led by the Spirit into our inheritance, "which is eternal life with Christ Jesus in heaven "for eternity." That is our inheritance. And a part of this journey, just like the Israelites went through, was God leading us and teaching us and growing us and changing us and strengthening us and persevering us and protecting us and to this place that God says, "This is what I have for you. This is what I desire for your life." And it takes us to this place with, and somehow, I don't know how God does it, it's amazing.
God takes these twists and turns, ups and downs, surprises and blessings in life. and he is slowly taking us and morphing us and changing us and molding us into who he desires for us in our lives. But this isn't something that can be taken lightly, guys. This is some serious thing that I want you to talk about because it's not just in name only. So it's not just Chris the Christian. It's not just Andre the Christian. It's just Eric the Christian, Gloria the Christian, Donna the Christian. This is, there's something deeper here, and it's in that word that said Abba Father. Paul here is using this word that is so personal for God. No other religion or belief system out there has anything close to this, 'Cause I think there is truth in this that says, you know God at a deeper level, at the same personal level that would be similar to a child crying out for their father to help them in a time of need. If you're a parent, you know that cry from a child. But you also know this other part of I love you, Daddy. You're the best dad ever. I love you, dad. This is the level of adoption, inheritance, personal relationship that you and I have through the spirit in Jesus Christ to say, "Hey, dad, thanks." Abba, Father. There's this closeness of personal, intimate, knowing and a connection. Does this line up with your view of God in your life? Maybe we need to change some things. I was reminded of this on Wednesdays. We've been just finished four weeks focusing on prayer and the practice of learning how to pray and to go deeper in our prayer life. And one of the sessions specifically was talking about learning the voice of God and listening to God.
And it was this beautiful image of understanding and how God knows us personally and desires to sit with us. How do we know this? Well, it says this. It says in John 10, 27, Jesus says, "My sheep listen to my voice and I know them "and they follow me." Did you guys know that sheep understand and know the voice of their shepherd? Sheep specifically know the voice of their shepherd. So in a moment when a fraud shows up to try to say, "Oh, come on sheep, come here sheep, sheepy, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep." They know to run away because it's not their shepherd. God here and Jesus is reminding us of He knows who we are and we know His voice to the intimate level level of dad. And for some of us it's hard. We didn't have the father figure that was supposed to be the father figure in our life. And we struggle with this. But God shows up here and says, "That was that, that's not me. "This is me. "This is who I am." And this talking about Pastor John Mark Comer reminds us that in this prayer, we begin to learn the voice of our Father and the Father knows our voice. And there are so many ways that we believers in Christ and disciples of Jesus hear the voice of God. You've probably heard the voice of God and you didn't even know it. 'Cause the voice of God shows up in our lives through Jesus, through scripture, through circumstances, through desire, through the prophetic and through listening prayer. And it's when we take time to focus and listen to God that we are learning more and more, getting to know our new family, our new father, our Abba Father deeper.
And I love what verse 16 here says. It says, "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." There is this deep, spiritual, heartfelt, inner soul, truth level that we are constantly reminded of our status with God. We're God's children. You're gonna hear one thing today to walk away. You are a son. You are a daughter of God. Do not forget that. And this is a beautiful truth. That's something that can never be taken away from us. And that's something that is ours here both on earth and in heaven for eternity. Because why? Because we are heirs. Verse 17. Now if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Guys, you've been given a name change, you've been given a status change, you've been given an inheritance change, You've been given a mindset change. You are set free from slavery to sin, and you share in the glory of Jesus Christ. Live in your newfound adoption. That's what Paul is saying here. Live in this newfound adoption. So what does this mean for us?
Well, I have a couple questions I want to close here, and the worship team is going to come up. What might need to change in your life to live with this newfound understanding of being an heir with Christ? What might need to change? You ask yourself, are my actions each day one that is in lockstep with being in God's family? And then two, what might need to increase in your life knowing that you are a child of God? How can I live more freely in this truth as one who is inheriting the glory of Jesus? Because if we are led by the Spirit, our our actions are gonna be different than when we were led by ourselves, right? Should be different. So live in your newfound adoption into the family of God.
Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for your word. Jesus, we thank you for our new family. God, we thank you for the spirit that leads us every single moment of every single day, God. And that Jesus, I pray that this week we might live differently in this newly found understanding of you who is our Abba Father. who is our loving, caring, ever-present dad. And Jesus, that might come with some behavior changes. That might come with some different ways that we set up our calendar. That might come with different ways that we start our day or end our day. That might come with different choices that we need to make to live in this newfound family in you God so Jesus I pray even right now that your Holy Spirit would guide us in the areas that you want us to change that we no longer have no obligation to sin but we have victory through Jesus Christ God I may be led by the spirit each and every day of our lives to live in lockstep with what you have for us, God, which is the power of gospel to transform our lives. We love you, Jesus. Amen.