Walk by the Spirit (Part 1)
Romans 8:1-13 (1-9)
September 22, 2013
As you know we are studying the Holy Spirit.
We have studied who He is.
We have studied what He does.
And most recently we have begun looking at some of those commands
That have to do with how we relate to Him.
The last several weeks we looked at: “be filled with the Spirit”
And of course the reality is that the Holy Spirit desires to fill you
And have full control in your life.
• You are first going to have to allow yourself to be filled with Him
(“let the word of Christ richly dwell within you”)
• And you are going to have to choose to let Him dwell there.
• We do this by killing off the flesh (by starving it) and thus making
it easier for the Spirit to have control.
• And when this occurs in a life, it is evident by their speech.
They speak to one another teaching and admonishing.
They praise Christ with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
They give thanks to God for everything
And that sort of sums up the idea of being filled with the Spirit.
This morning we move on to a new command.
WALK BY THE SPIRIT
Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
Now we’ll get to that passage a little later,
But it is important to at least have a basic understanding here
At the outset as to what it means to “walk by the Spirit”
And the answer is really seen in reading that verse.
He first says that we “live by the Spirit”
Obviously he is not commanding you to stay alive.
He reminding you that the Spirit supplies the life you live.
And it is the same when he says to “walk by the Spirit”
The Spirit supplies you with the ability walk differently, let Him.
It is not just a command to do what the Spirit says,
It is a command walk in the strength that the Spirit supplies.
When we do get to that verse you will see that Paul is talking
Primarily about our relationships with one another.
And Paul is appealing to the Galatians to let the Spirit guide their walk
Instead of the flesh.
So walking by the Spirit is actually not that different
From being filled with the Spirit.
It simply means to live, using His strength and guidance.
I will also say this from the outset.
Walking by the Spirit is without a doubt the secret to the victorious life.
Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
The Spirit is supplying you strength and guidance to do God’s will.
Only He can allow you to conquer the flesh.
Now, if you choose instead to walk by your own strength.
Or “Do it on your own”
Then you are destined to fail.
So use the strength the Spirit supplies and find victory over the flesh.
Now we are going to begin our study in Romans 8:1-13
And the main point is obvious.
WE ARE OBLIGATED TO WALK BY THE SPIRIT.
(12-13) “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Paul is extremely clear there.
“we are under obligation”
In other words, we owe this to God.
Now, that obligation is “not to the flesh”
Which is another way of saying, we don’t owe the flesh anything.
Peter said it like this:
1 Peter 4:1-3 “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.”
We’ve devoted enough time, energy, and resources to the flesh.
We don’t owe it anything.
But we are obligated to the Spirit.
(we are obligated operated on His strength, not our own)
This morning I want to begin to show you why.
There are two main reasons.
#1 WE ARE DELIVERED FROM CONDEMNATION
Romans 8:1-9
Everyone loves Romans 8:1.
It has been called the most hope filled passage in all the Bible.
Those who are in Christ have “now no condemnation”
And again, if you are familiar with Romans,
You know that Paul has been building to this point throughout the book.
• We’ve seen the substitutionary atonement in chapter 3
• We’ve seen the justification by faith in chapter 4
• We’ve seen the sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness in chapter 5
• We’ve seen the reality of grace in chapter 6
• We’ve seen the deliverance of Christ in chapter 7
And really 8:1 is a culminating thought
To the entire book of Romans up to this point.
• Based upon what Christ has done…
• Based upon the believer’s faith in Him…
• Because of the tremendous grace of God…
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
And we can’t stay there forever,
But we do desire just to sort of bask in this reality for a while.
Romans 8:31-34 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
It is impossible to condemn one of God’s children.
• You have a God who wants your pardon so badly He killed His own Son.
• You have a God who knew you when you were really bad and still justified you.
• You have a Savior who intercedes daily for you.
Nothing sticks on a believer.
The accuser can hurl accusations at you all day long,
But he cannot cause you to be condemned.
Because Christ already paid your debt, the Judge stamped it official,
And the enemy has no leverage.
God’s children are fully forgiven.
“there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
And that is just a tremendous reality.
And we could really spend a lot more time there,
But we’re going to move on because I want you to see
How this all ties in to our obligation to walk by the Spirit.
So Paul makes this bold and tremendous statement in verse 1,
And then he begins to support it in verse 2.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
So you want to know why a believer is no longer condemned
And that is what Paul answers here.
It is because a believer has been set free from condemnation.
Now let’s look at this verse a little more deeply.
What we see here is that Paul references two types of laws.
And incidentally the word “law” here translates NOMOS
Which literally means “that which is assigned”
It refers to an order or a system or a legal requirement that one is under.
And here Paul speaks of two very different systems or laws.
THE FIRST IS:
“the law of sin and of death”
What is this?
• It is the system that came over man after the fall in the garden.
• It is the system that says if a person sins then they must die.
We have read the creation account we know about the incident in the garden with Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree.
Sin entered the world and God pronounced a curse.
And then God made a decision:
Genesis 3:22-24 “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” — therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Because Adam and Eve sinned they could no longer dwell in the presence
Of a tree that could cause them to live forever.
They were cursed with death, and so they had to leave the garden.
And that is one of the harshest realities of the book of Genesis.
(Incidentally we are going to Genesis after we finish our study of the Holy Spirit)
But if you read Genesis 5 you see the same statement over and over.
It looks like a boring genealogy, but don’t let it full you.
8 times in that chapter the same phrase is used.
“and he died”
Humanity was under a new system, humanity was under new law.
That law stated that if you sin, you die.
It didn’t matter that the Mosaic Law was not yet there.
All the Mosaic Law came to do was clarify what sin was.
Sin was there before the Law and it was the cause of death.
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”
That is the system all humanity found themselves under.
And incidentally humanity is still under that system today.
James 1:15 “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
And perhaps the clearest statement on the issue
Is found in the first half of Romans 6:23
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
That is “the law of sin and of death.”
If you sin, you die.
And because we all inherited a sin nature from Adam, we are born corrupt,
We are born in sin, and we are born condemned.
David said:
Psalms 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”
We are born in iniquity.
That is why Jesus didn’t have to come to condemn the world,
The world was already condemned.
But you get the picture, we were all under the same system.
But Paul mentions another system. Paul mentions another law.
SECOND:
“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”
• The first law recognized sin and the consequence was death.
• This system recognizes the Spirit and the consequence is life.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There is a new system available.
One that ends in life, not death.
Romans 5:8-9 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
So this second system took sinners and instead of killing them,
Chose to atone for their sin.
And so this system doesn’t impart death.
This system imparts life.
That is “the Spirit”
The new system only forgives sinners of their sin,
But also makes them righteous.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
And of course the agent of this righteousness is the Holy Spirit.
John 7:38-39 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
• This is a totally new system.
• This is a totally new reality.
And here is the beauty of this verse.
The second system sets you free from the first.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
And that is why there is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Condemnation came under the first system of sin and death,
But we were delivered from that system
When Christ paid our debt and gave us His Spirit.
And that is what verse 3 begins to explain.
We say that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” set me “free from the law of sin and of death.”
Ok, HOW?
How did He do it?
(3) “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”
Now before Paul gets in to the reality of how Christ set us free from sin and death, Paul first talks about a saving agent that didn’t work.
We have sin in the garden and we have man dying.
But the first thing that came wasn’t Christ.
The first thing that came was “the Law”
And specifically there we are talking about the Mosaic Law
The Law of Moses came in so that there would be no doubt what sin was.
Before the Law men were dying and they didn’t know why.
The Law came in like a cat scan or an MRI to show what the problem was.
It began to reveal what was killing people.
Romans 7:7-10 “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;”
The Law came in and showed people their sin.
And the Law was good at that.
But there was something the Law wasn’t good at.
Saving people from their sin.
The MRI could show the tumor, but it couldn’t remove it.
The reason is because the Law was weakened “through the flesh”
See, when you tell someone not to do something,
The entire emphasis is on them.
That is the way all of our laws work.
We are told not to do something, but the decision is all ours.
And that is why the Law failed.
It depended too much on human ability.
It told man what “Thou shalt not” do, but man was too weak to obey.
And so the Law didn’t remove condemnation, the Law increased it.
(The law is only your friend when you are innocent.
If you break it, the law instantly becomes your enemy)
And that is what happened.
Paul said, while we were under “the law of sin and of death”,
The Mosaic Law was absolutely no help.
It did not rescue us, it was too weak.
Let me explain it like this:
• Suppose you go to Africa and someone hands you a wildlife safety booklet, maybe you read it, maybe you don’t.
• And while you are there you come across a lion and you instantly scream and run away. Well the lion chases you, tackles you, and is in the process of digesting you.
• At this point you pull out your safety booklet and read, “Don’t run from lions, they will chase you. Calmly back away”
• Good advice right? But useless now.
What I need is someone to come along stronger than the lion.
I need someone to kill the lion!
Well…
“what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin,”
God took matters into His own hands.
The incarnation occurred.
God became flesh and He took on the “likeness” of humanity.
And He became “an offering for sin,”
The “offering” was the death that was paid on behalf of the sinner.
The O.T. was full of goats and bulls, God’s Son was the ultimate offering.
You know the story.
He died upon the cross for sin that was not His own.
And Paul says, “He condemned sin in the flesh”
The Law came and exposed sin.
Christ came and overpowered it.
Romans 5:20-21 “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
AND THAT IS HOW HE TOOK AWAY OUR CONDEMNATION.
He took away our sin.
He killed our enemy.
He set us free from our fate.
He took us out of one system and put us in another system.
So now here is the reality.
We vile creatures, who because of our sin, deserved only death;
Now find ourselves receiving only life because of the deliverance of Christ.
Now all of that is reality.
But this reality comes with an expectation.
(4) “so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us,
Christ came and did all that so that we could be righteous.
Now, don’t misunderstand this.
We aren’t talking about positional righteousness here,
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT PRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Christ came and did what He did, not just to remove your condemnation, but to free you up to live a righteous life.
He did what He did so you could live righteous.
BUT HOW ARE WE GOING TO LIVE RIGHTEOUS?
Because we are those “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
And please get this, Paul is not talking here about what we do,
He is talking about who we are.
This statement is NOT a COMMAND.
He is not commanding you here to walk by the Spirit.
This statement is NOT a CONDITION.
He is not saying this is true if you walk by the Spirit.
This statement is a CHARACTERISTIC
Paul is describing believers.
He is saying that believers are those
Who do walk “according to the Spirit”
AND THAT IS WHY THEY LIVE RIGHTEOUS
SO LISTEN CLOSELY HERE.
Later we are going to talk about the obligation to walk by the Spirit.
But you need to understand first that this is what believers do.
I understand that sounds a little confusing,
But it is like many other spiritual realities.
For example:
• Believers are those who pray, and yet we are commanded to pray.
• Believers are those who bear fruit, and yet we are commanded to bear fruit.
• Believers are humble, and yet we are commanded to be humble.
On one hand it is what we are,
On the other hand it is what we are commanded to do.
It is that tension between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.
BELIEVERS ARE THOSE WHO WALK BY THE SPIRIT,
AND THUS THOSE WHO LIVE RIGHTEOUS LIVES.
They are a drastic contrast to those who walk by the flesh.
(5-8) “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Now obviously those people fail
We know that because they don’t please God.
But the reason they fail is because
They do everything in their own power or strength.
They do everything according to the flesh.
When they need answers they consult the flesh
They “set their minds on the things of the flesh”
And this is a grave mistake, because the flesh fails.
It opposes God and will ultimately lead you to death.
But that’s not us.
• Believers don’t do things in their own strength.
• Believers don’t rely on their own merit.
• What we accomplish we accomplish by the power of the Spirit.
We walk in Him.
We are described in verse 9.
(9) “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
We have the Spirit and therefore we are walking by the Spirit.
And walking by the Spirit is why we live righteous lives.
That’s why the righteous requirement of the Law
Is practically fulfilled in us.
NOW – ARE WE AS RIGHTEOUS AS WE SHOULD BE?
NO
WHY?
Because we may walk by the Spirit, but we don’t do it enough.
And that is why Paul refers to the obligation portion of this text.
Romans 8:12-13 “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
On one hand we are those who walk by the Spirit.
On the other hand that is what we should be doing.
WHY SHOULD WE BE DOING IT?
Because of what Christ did in our lives.
Before Christ we did everything we did by our own strength.
• We walked according to our own strength.
• And all that ever resulted in was sin which resulted in death.
But then Christ came.
• He came in the likeness of sinful man and as an offering for sin and He condemned sin in the flesh.
• He transferred us into the law of the Spirit of life.
And instantly our efforts to please God became effective.
Now we actually can fulfill the Law
Because we don’t walk in our own strength,
But in the strength of His Spirit.
Now, if that is true, do you see your obligation?
If He died to allow you to walk by the Spirit, don’t you feel just a little obligated to make an effort to do it well?
We certainly ought to cooperate
And strive then to walk according to the Spirit.
• The Spirit is guiding us…
• The Spirit is leading us…
• The Spirit is helping us walk correctly…
The obligation is that we submit to that guidance and do it better.
I know we are out of time, and we’ll see the second point next week,
But you get the idea.
We owe it to Christ to walk by the Spirit.
Because He is expecting righteousness
And that is only done by walking by the Spirit.
