Lesson 96

Romans Chapter Eight         

Freedom in Christ through the Holy Spirit

The Dynamic for living the Christian Life

Introduction:

 

 

Overview:  help us get a view of the chapter;

  1.  The believer's liberation/freedom  8:1-11   vs:2 "has set us free"

  2.  The believer's obligation  8:12-17   v.12 "under obligation"

  3.  The believer's glorification  8:18-25   v.18 "glory to be revealed"

  4.  The believer's provision  8:26-30   v.26 "helps our weakness"

  5.  The believer's protection  8:31-39   series of 4 rhetorical questions:

 

 

-  Its interesting, I believe, that he begins the chapter with an objective statement of the believers status, no condemnation;

and he ends it by answering a question,  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ??  No one or nothing at all!   Impossible!

 

 

Ø      8:1  Our liberation 

How does this fit with what we just saw in chapter 7, the struggle, the defeat of 7 and now the glory of chapter 8.

 

 

-  What we have to ask and answer is this; no condemnation on what basis?

 

 

 

 

- Conclusions:

#1 Rom 8:1 actually ends with a period after in Christ Jesus.

#2 The correct reading is critical!   Think about it!

If you accept the long reading its a looking inward!

If you accept the short reading its a look outside of self; upward to Him and His provision!

 

 

#3 The believer in Christ also has: [in Rom. besides no condemnation]  [reason for confidence, and assurance in time]

1. eternal life  6:23

2. nothing to fear! 2:16  speaks of a sure judgment in fut.

 

All this is true about our standing before Him, having believed in Christ and therefore having been declared justified based on the completed work of Christ.

But is that the main emphasis of the context?  Some things to consider, to think about!

 

Ø      Rom. 8:1  Beginning of the Believers Freedom;   The Announcement of No Condemnation

 

 

There are actually 2 ways to look at what Paul means by "no condemnation here."

 

1. You take it to refer back to Rom 3:21-5:21 whole section dealing with justification by faith

 

2.   We can take the retrospective aspect to go back to the more  immediate context, that of Rom 7.

 

There are two questions that should naturally arise, based on the ongoing struggle that we noted in ch-7.

 

#1  Must we as believers spend our whole life on earth frustrated by ongoing defeats at the hand of the indwelling sin nature?

#2  Is there not a power provided to achieve victory?

 

 

Back to the question of how far back is the primary retrospection.

 

-  I think the primary emphasis here must go with the thrust of the closer context; nothing incorrect about the truth taught by the longer look;  [interpreting theologically not based on context]

 

 

Reasons for a shorter look back to immediate context!

- 1st  Romans 6--8 deals mainly with the subject of sanctification, not justification.

 

 

- 2nd  The next verse (Romans 8:2), presents the reason why  believers are under no condemnation, deals with freedom from  domination by the sinful nature, not with freedom from guilt and penalty of sin.

 

 

- 3rd  The sentence in which the words "no condemnation" appear is joined to the immediately preceding context by the word "therefore,"  the conjunction a;ra.

 

 

- Paul is saying that, since God has provided the believer with  deliverance from the power of the sinful nature, the believer is not condemned to a life of servitude to that nature.

 

 

Ø      8:2  Expands on our new freedom in Christ

 

God has provided a means of deliverance.

 

The means for that deliverance,  he calls here,  the law of the Spirit of life.

 

 

 

- What's the first thing done for us at the point of faith?

 

- When the Holy Spirit regenerates the new believer what does He do? 

 

- He has also done something else for us when we believed, and that is what Paul is emphasizing here, "has set us free from the law of sin and of death."

 

 

- What Paul is leading up to here is that we as believers have a whole new way of living, a whole new means of enablement for living, having completely new resources available to us.

 

 

-  Several significant things should be noted concerning Paul's statement in Romans 8:2.

 

          1st Paul refers to two distinct laws:

The law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and death.

 

-  The law of the Spirit of life is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, which enabling power is related to newness of life (Romans 6:4; 7:6 whole new framework for the believer in Christ).

 

- The reason that the believer is not condemned to a life of servitude to the sin nature is that the enabling power of the Holy Spirit has set him free from the ruling power of the sin nature.

 

 

- 2nd  The freedom from the sin nature to which Paul refers to here is different from the freedom from that same nature to which he refers in Romans 6:7. Two things indicate this.

 

- #1  Paul uses two distinct words for freedom in these passages.

 

- #2  The freedoms spoken of in these two Passages are obtained through two different means.