- Introduction 1:1-17 (includes purpose, 8-15; and theme, 16-17)
- The Need for God's Righteousness 1:18-3:20
- The Imputation of God's Righteousness 3:21-5:21 (description, defense, proof, benefits, and restorative effects)
- The impartation of God's righteousness 6:1-8:39
- The believer's relationship to sin 6:1-23
- The believer's relationship to the law 7:1-25
- The believer's relationship to God 8:1-39
- Our deliverance from the flesh by the power of the Spirit 8:1-11
- Our new relationship to God 8:12-17
- Our present sufferings and future glory 8:18-25
- Our place in God's sovereign plan 8:26-30
- Our eternal security 8:31-39
- The believer's relationship to God 8:1-39
- Our deliverance from the flesh by the power of the Spirit 8:1-11
- We just finished up this struggle with sin caused by the flesh. My mind is being renewed and now I am a slave to God's righteousness while I still retain my sinful flesh. The law was good in revealing sin to me, but bad in that it gave my sinful flesh more reasons to rebel against God. So what does Paul conclude from this mess?
- We might be failures, but we are not condemned
- The righteous requirements of the law have been met
- The big change is in our mind. What does Paul say that implies?
- We need to set our mind on what the Spirit desires (we need to submit our mind not to the flesh)
- A mind controlled by the Spirit offers life and peace
- A mind submitted to God is what will please God
- This is the struggle of those who want to be under the law. They want to know what pleases God and so they use the OT law as their guide
- We do have a new guide, 2 new guides
- The spirit within our mind
- The law of the spirit of life that conveys Jesus' commands
- A life controlled by the Spirit is evidence of that God's Spirit lives within us
- And what does the promise mean, to give life to your mortal bodies (vs 11)?
- It is a quality of life evidence by peace, not condemnation
- The struggle still exists, but there is also a peace that only maturity in Christ can bring about (In Hebrews, the author uses a metaphor of the Sabbath rest to bring about the same idea)
- Our new relationship to God 8:12-17
- How can a Christian "die" by living according to the sinful nature?
- Could die physically as was the case in Hebrews with the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem
- Can shows signs of spiritual dying exhibited by a lack of joy and peace
- A life lived in contradiction will always seem defeating
- Our new position is as God's children. What are the implications?
- We are heirs
- We may have to suffer prior to fully comprehending God's glory. Why?
- Because this was never the life God promised when Adam rebelled in the garden
- We also have rebelled, in our sinful flesh, in every possible way. Adam rebelled against one law. We have rebelled against many more
- Consequently, this world is not as God intended it to be
- Our present sufferings and future glory 8:18-25
- What does our rebellion reveal to us about its effect on creation?
- The creation is frustrated
- The creation is subjugated
- The creation is in bondage (a reference previously to sin)
- The creation is decaying
- The creation is groaning for liberation from decay
- How do we see this?
- Plagues, diseases, viruses, famine, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, birth defects, chemical imbalances, etc
- This is not the world God intended. But it does not show God as evil, but rather us as in rebellion
- God offered us a wonderful creation, we can see the hints of its beauty
- Adam rebelled, but we are just as guilty, because while Adam rebelled against one rule, the law has shown us that we rebel against many laws of God
- APPLICATION: One of the arguments of Atheists is that the existence of so much evil in the world is proof that God does not exist. Paul's argument is the opposite. The existence of evil is the proof of our rebellion. Jesus is the proof of God's love and existence
- And so what do the adopted children do?
- We live in hope
- We wait patiently
- Someday, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, just as God had originally intended
- Our place in God's sovereign plan 8:26-30
- Actually, "our weakness," Greek word astheneia, means feebleness (of mind or body)
- So it could be referring back to our struggle with the flesh or the weakness could be in our mind
- NT:769, the state of being ill and thus incapacitated in some manner - 'illness, disability, weakness. (from Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domain. Copyright © 1988 United Bible Societies, New York. Used by permission.)
- In other words, our weak flesh (or even strong flesh, weak mind) probably fights against us praying, and may even tempt us to pray for things that are not according to the Spirit
- The Spirit helps us in other ways as well
- The NASB suggests we don't know how to pray, the NIV / ESV suggests we don't what we should pray for
- Probably both are true. The Greek is ambiguous as well, although Constable believes it favors the NIV
- Jesus teaching on prayer suggests both how and what as well
- Part of the problem is that the best prayers are those aligned with the will of God. The Spirit knows God's will, and the Spirit reveals the will of God to us--at least to the extent we listen
- It would be wrong to assume that verse 26 is speaking in tongues, since the scriptures never connect tongues with intercessory prayer (Constable, Fruchtenbaum)
- "Groans that words cannot express" literally would be interpreted as an emotion and not as a special prayer language
- Also see use of "groan" in previous section regarding creation where clearly a spiritual tongue is not implied
- In this case, taking into account all the information, the Spirit prays through us not for us
- Our eternal security 8:31-39
- So, we are left with a sinful flesh. We are not condemned, but we do struggle. We are children of God, heirs, but we need to live according to the Spirit (in our mind) while on earth, because the rebellion ruins everything around us. We don't even do a good job praying, but the Spirit helps us in that as well. It expresses through us God's desire. It works to renew our thinking. It fights against the sinful nature. So what she we say?
- God is on our side
- Look at the evidence
- No one can charge us
- God has already positionally justified us
- No one can condemn us
- Jesus died for us, paid our price
- Who can separate us from the love of God now?
- Trouble? No. Hardship? No. Persecution? No. Famine? No. Nakedness? No. Danger? No. The Sword? No.
- We are more than conquerors (which means: we already won)
- There is nothing in creation that separate us from the love of God
- This is one of the great arguments for eternal security. Because if there is something that can separate us, then Paul's words are not true
Rom
8:1-11 (ESV) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the
Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
3 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, 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. 5 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. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but
to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 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. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 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. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin,
the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 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.
1
Cor 9:20-21 (ESV) To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To
those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself
under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the
law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but
under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
Gal
6:1 (ESV) Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Rom
8:12-17 (ESV) So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live
according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will
die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you
did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have
received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba!
Father!" 16 The Spirit himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children,
then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with
him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Rom
8:18-25 (ESV) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the
creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For
the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who
subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its
bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains
of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who
have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for
adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were
saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Rom
8:26-30 (ESV) Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know
what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the
mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to
the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work
together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For
those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those
whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also
justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Rom
8:31-39 (ESV) What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who
can be against us? 32 He who did not
spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's
elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who
is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was
raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for
us. 35 Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
"For your sake we are being killed all
the day long;
we are
regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
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