Lesson 98
Romans
Chapter Eight
Freedom in Christ through the Holy Spirit
The Dynamic for living the Christian Life
Review:
Ø 8:3-4 The provision of our freedom/liberation
- Grace succeeds where the law fails; Grace motivates to holy living; while the law is unable to do so!
- There are things that the law cannot do!
The law is just but it cannot justify anyone;
The law is holy but it can not make anyone holy!
The law demanded righteousness but did not enable one live righteously.
The law points out that I am a sinner but it cannot make me a saint!
- But God intervened and He did this by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh; this phrase is critical.
- key word is likeness o`moi,wma resemblance, similarity; does not bear the co-notation of exactness as eikwn, it stresses similarity but leaves room for differences.
- He came into the world in human form, He resembled sinful humanity but
with a major difference; had no sin nature, He was w/o
personal sin;
1 Pet
- Phil 2:7 says the same thing
1. This expresses the fact that Christ became true humanity, but also was not merely humanity.
2. His becoming man did not exclude His possession of Deity.
- not an exchange but an addition of the 2nd > absolute uniqueness
3. He was in the incarnation and is today at the right hand of the Father, a person of two natures.
Never is the sin nature said to be forgiven; it is condemned!
- What is forgiven when you believe in
Christ?
- The guilt of sin is forgiven, this was dealt with in ch 3-5;
- The focus here is on the root cause of sin, the sin nature and so we have another aspect of the work of Christ on the cross for us, through His death He condemned the sin nature that resides in the flesh.
Ø 8:4 The Why of the provision of freedom for the
believer;
"in order that the requirement of the Law"
- The last phrase describes exactly who is in view; that is the ones in whom the righteous requirement of the Law is being fulfilled. (balance) "who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
- Paul doesn't define his focus at this
point;
- gives us a clue in
13:9-10; also Gal
- What about 1 Pet 1:15-16? This flows from the righteous standard of the
Law. Yet it is addressed to believers of Church age.
Can you fulfill these commandments??
-
That is, the Holy Spirit as He
ministers to you! Illuminating
the Word as He fills and empowers you.
- "who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
?? Who is doing the walking?
This is a description of living the Normal Christian life!!
- The standard by which we as believers are to walk, is stated here by a negative and a positive. Not this but this!
- What Paul is describing here is the
believer who is empowered, enabled by the Spirit is the one who is not fulfilling the desires of
the flesh but is fulfilling the righteous requirement of the will of God. Living in the sphere of the will of God!
- The normal Christian life is a SUPERNATURAL LIFE and we are given SUPERNATURAL POWER to live this life.
Rabbit Trail
Ø Phil 2:12-13 speaks to the balance we have of between choice and the strengthening or empowering of the Holy Spirit.
- Our responsibility in 2:12 to work out our salvation, to carry our salvation to its logical goal and objective is linked here by the causal particle -> gar - which introduces the means, the power and ability available to us to fulfill our responsibilities as believer's.
What Paul is saying here is that God is the source of the power, the enablement to fulfill our responsibilities as Bel's, the goal, the objective He has for us.
*** REM: God never demands anything w/o providing the means the power to execute fully those demands.
"...both to will and to work for His good pleasure.."
The result is the bel'r accomplishing "...His good pleasure..."
** Good translation: "..inspiring both the will and the deed for His own purpose."
We see here in these verses the bringing together of man's responsibility and God's enablement in the life of grace with great power.
All volitional choices are then molded by the will of God, DVPT and the resulting actions of the believer then take place out of loving obedience to God.
The only way we will KNOW the WILL of God, and therefore be able to please Him or as Paul is saying here that our will and desires will be the same as those of God, if we know the Word of God because it is through His Word that we learn who He is and what He desires for us.
Lets look at some documentation from other passages dealing with this supernatural enablement of the believer in this age of GRACE, the Church age.
1. 1 Cor 12:4-7
2. 2 Cor 10:3-5
3. Gal 5:16
4. Eph 6:10-11
5. Col. 2:6
Observations
1. In the life of the positive advancing believer God is at work, empowering, enabling them by the Indwelling Holy Spirit.
2. It is God/H-S who will illuminate and reveal to us what the will of God is at any time.
3. God works in us, stirring us through the Word in the new man, the new conscious that we're building to do what we ought.
4. Simply to know what is right and even to desire to do the right thing isn't enough; we must have the empowering, the enabling of the H/S if we're going to be able make the overt application of the truth known and have it be effective in our life.
5. We must make the overt application of the truth that we know.
6. "To work" energew also means to have production, to bear fruit.
7. We are to be like a plant that grows, flowers and sets fruit.
8. Analogy with the believer:
- grows = to grow up spiritually - God will provide the necessary resources for anyone who is positive and desiring to know His word.
- flowers = along with our growth is an increasing desire to do what is right; what is consistent with our new nature in Christ and our developing relationship with Christ.
- fruit = divine good production in the life of the believer, and applying the Word daily and that regardless of the external circumstances.
9. The whole activity of learning what the will of God is and then acting on it fulfills God's purpose/plan for you.
10. God is not pleased and His purpose not fulfilled when negative volition and rejection of truth reigns. 1 Cor 10:5; Why??
Heb. 4:2 Heb. 10:38