Dick Lucas’s sermon on Romans 8 explores the profound truths of this pivotal chapter, focusing on themes such as life in the Spirit, the assurance of salvation, and the hope of future glory. He delves into how believers are freed from condemnation, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and secure in God’s love, emphasizing the transformative power of the gospel in the lives of Christians.
The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.
1 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 For 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. (Romans 8:1-11, ESV)
There is therefore now no condemnation. Well why do they need to be told this at this stage of chapters 5 to 8? Have we not finished with justification and assurance? Well, you’ll know how much difficulty this has caused and how it has led some really quite excellent commentators to search for different meanings of the phrase no condemnation. It might mean no defeat or something of this kind. At any rate, people have been driven to quite astonishing ends to make it mean something different from no condemnation. What has caused, then, such alarm amongst the early Christians that they need this constant reassurance?
The answer, in a sentence, is in verse 2. What they need reassurance about is this matter of the law of sin and death. Now it was the essence of the Christian gospel that Christ had come to deal with just this great enemy. He did so by this death for our sins and by his conquest over the grave at his resurrection. By his death and resurrection he set us free from the law of sin and death.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2, ESV)
All this was clear to them, as it is clear to us.
However, what caused them such alarm and despondency, and should cause us the same, was the continued reign of sin and death in the Christian community. As they looked around amongst their fellow Christians and looked within their own hearts, they realized that they were still sinners. As Christians, too, they noticed that they were still mortal, that the early generations of Christians were dying, just like everybody else around them in pagan society. We’ve looked at the first scandal, that we still sin, now we’ve got to consider the second, that we still die.
Now, at the very heart of the message that shook and transformed the world was the fact that Christ was the resurrection and the life, that the last enemy had been defeated by him. Jesus and the resurrection, you remember, was that little summary of the gospel that people thought that Paul was talking about in the marketplace of Athens.
Yet these same Christians who claimed that their saviour had conquered death for them still died like everybody else. It may seem gruesome, but come with me to the mortuary.
There are two bodies lying there, grey and cold in death. One is the body of a notorious blasphemer. One is the body of a well-known, well-loved Christian person. I go up anxiously to the pathologist and I say, sir, is there any difference between these bodies? Is there any sign that one, you know, did you know that one of them is a child of God? It’s obvious the pathologist thinks I’m mad. Is my, is my sonship, is my membership of the family of God revealed by my death there?
Look at verse 19, the creation is waiting with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19, ESV)
There’s no revelation of the sons of God in the mortuary. There’s no revelation of the sons of God in the mortuary. Verse 21, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay. As you look at that sad and sagging corpse of the Christian, do you see before you the creation set free from its bondage to decay, having obtained the glorious liberty of the children of God? The answer is no, shockingly no.
What has happened then? Has Christ’s victory failed? Does God not care? Is God unable to bring the fruits of Christ’s redemption to bear on the church today? You know, my brethren, that the charming fanatics amongst our evangelical churches who claim freedom from sickness for God’s people have at least this advantage over us: they see the scandal of sickness and death amongst the Christian community, which some of us have long since taken for granted. Well, how can we be sure that we who continue to sin and die are free?
How can we be so certain that condemnation has been lifted from us when the essential marks of condemnation are clearly upon us? The hallmarks of condemnation are sin and death. We claim to have no condemnation, yet we sin and die. How can we deal with such a contradiction? Now, the particular part of the answer that is given here in Romans 8; we’ve had much of the answer already, is the presence of the Holy Spirit. This theme was begun in Romans 5:5 and is now taken up and wonderfully developed.
We’re told in verses 2 and 3 of this chapter that the gospel of Christ is the gospel of the Spirit. Please notice that. Handler Mowles saved the Christians in the early days of the Keswick Convention by making the memorable comment, “There is no separable gospel of the Spirit.” Would that all evangelicals still believe that. There’s no gospel of Christ for sinners, and then once we become Christians, a gospel of the Holy Spirit for Christians.
Not a lot of damage would have been prevented if Christians had realized that the gospel of Christ is the gospel of the Spirit. Before we look at the detail that will soon become shiningly clear, I hope, let’s explain this in advance, since it is unfamiliar in modern evangelical teaching very often, at any rate. The assurance that we need with regard to sin and death is the presence of the indwelling Spirit. First, as regards sin, we’ve learned already that indwelling sin is the mark of even Paul.
There is, I dare and am bold to say, no Christian believer present here, however well advanced you are in Christian ministry and experience, there is no Christian here in whom sin does not dwell. This is not the mark of an unsatisfactory Christian; it is the mark of the most devoted Christian. But also, with indwelling sin, there is, at the same time, the indwelling spirit. It is this juxtaposition of indwelling sin and the indwelling spirit that is the miracle of grace. Do you remember the dispiriting words of the hymn writer?
And hate the sins that made thee mourn, and drove thee from my breast? Admittedly, he was deeply depressed, often in his life, but what those verses show, line by line, shows that he had no grasp of grace. It was too good to be true that the Holy Spirit would continue to abide in a life that committed sin. If you think that the Holy Spirit will leave you because you commit sin, then you have lost your grasp on the gospel of grace. I know the danger of that, but that is so.
Do you remember that strange holiness teaching of yours, that only when I get rid of all known sin from my life can the Holy Spirit enter into his fullness? That teaching showed no understanding of grace, furthermore it showed no understanding of sin. How can I get rid of all known sin? How can sin expel sin? Now Christ has died for me and given me the mark of his saving and justifying work, which is the gift of the Spirit. The sign that God’s work has been done for me is the gift of the Spirit within me.
If there is no gift to the Spirit within me, then the work of Christ does not apply to me. He is not driven from my breast, and that is simply because Christ has died and God still loves me. It is true that though sin indwells, it need no longer reign in our bodies. We shall come to that later. And yes, there is a truth amongst those who come out of seven into eight, even if they do not accurately describe it, as we see in verses 13 and 14.
By the Spirit’s power we are to put to death the deeds of the flesh. But to summarise this point, the juxtaposition of indwelling sin and the indwelling Spirit has not been taught as it ought to be. Neither drives out the other. My indwelling sin does not drive out the Holy Spirit, or I could not continue to be a Christian for a moment. But nor does the indwelling Spirit drive out indwelling sin in this life.
If I cannot grasp that paradox, then no wonder I cannot grasp Romans 7 and 8, and no wonder the whole area of sanctification and assurance is such a problem to me. So then, the gift of the Spirit is part of the way in which God gives assurance to those who have indwelling sin. Secondly, the gift of the Spirit is part of the assurance that God gives us if we know we are doomed to die. The indwelling Spirit within me is the assurance that I need, that death is conquered for me.
And this is perhaps the chief contribution of chapter 8 for our true comfort. And we shall find it at the end of nearly every paragraph.
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. (Romans 8:11, ESV)
It’s not only that he’s going to revive us in spirit, but he’s going to revive us one day through the resurrection.
Hence when we come to the magnificent conclusion at the end of chapter 8, what is it that is put first of all those threatening experiences that so easily rob us of our confidence that God still loves us? Look at verse 38. I am sure, and he makes a great list, what comes first? It’s very striking, isn’t it? If you were going to put death and life first, you would surely have written life and death.
But not him, because the theme all the way through the chapter, that which he has been thinking about throughout chapter 8 is death. I’m sure that neither death, death at the beginning, not even that, not even that will be able to separate us from the love of God. Now that’s very important in our pastoral ministry, isn’t it? The fact is, as anyone knows who is experienced in pastoral ministry, especially to the sick and dying, that Victorian deathbed scenes that are thoroughly victorious are not the invariable pattern amongst God’s people.
The time will come to you when you are counseling a Christian of considerable standing who dies without assurance, whose sickness and whose pains in death make it very difficult for them to have any assurance about the future. If you have not already met that, you will meet it. Whose very experience of drawing near to the valley of the shadow causes them to wonder if they are still a Christian. If you don’t know Romans 8, I do not know how you are going to carry out your pastoral responsibilities.
Well, enough of introduction—perhaps you didn’t realize that we hadn’t got as far as that. But its length is quite intentional, and it’s all too possible to miss this. I mean, I strongly recommend Leon Morris’s new commentary on Romans. It’s on the bookstall. I’m greatly indebted to it, as to all his writings, but it seems to me that the essential meeting of chapter 8 eludes him. It is remarkable how easily people can look at the trees and miss the wood.
He almost turns Romans 8 into a here-and-now chapter, as so many people have done in the last two or three generations. This is what he writes as his introduction to Romans 8. Paul is saying that a new and wonderful life opens out before those who put their trust in Christ, and that this depends heavily on the work of the Spirit. Well, it depends what you mean by a new and wonderful life opening up.
If he means that in Romans 8 a new and wonderful life in this world opens up because of the Holy Spirit, he’s completely missed the point of Romans 8. What Romans 8 is saying is that a new and wonderful life opens up beyond the grave through Romans 8, by the presence of the indwelling Spirit. You see, Romans 8 is about the future, as Romans 5 was, these two great chapters in this section.
It’s true that it’s anticipated in the present, but we must beware of the pressures of our existentialist age upon us, which confine our attention to this age and its rewards. You know that Paul says that if your mind is caught up with this age and its rewards, you set the mind on the flesh. So it is a strange thing to come to Romans 8 having set your mind on the flesh, if I may be slightly provocative.
To think that Romans 8 is dominated by the here and now is completely to misunderstand it, and just means that we are desperately trying, as so many people are trying to do, to put the New Testament into the existentialist mold, and it’s a very difficult job to do. You have to be pretty ruthless to do it. You have to make all eschatology realized. Each of the main sections of Romans 8 leads us to the far distant future. I know these paragraphs are unreal divisions, but verses 1 to 11, where does that finish?
Where does verses 10 and 11 finish? In the far distant future. Verses 12 to 17, where does that paragraph finish? In the far distant future, glorified with him. Verses 18 to 25, where does that paragraph finish? The hope of glory. Verses 26 to 30, where does that paragraph finish? Glorified. The only paragraph that doesn’t finish in the far distant future is the last one, verses 26 to the end, which says, in the light of the fact that your path to glory cannot be thwarted, then you may have confidence in the here and now.
Only in the light of this assured future, which Romans 8 gives me, can I have certainty that God will accomplish his purposes and that I can take verses 31 to 39 on my lips. Right, let’s go back then to verses 1 to 11 very briefly. I said that verse 3 was a key verse. God has done, notice the theocentricity of Romans; we’ve seen this all along. God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.
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, (Romans 8:2-3, ESV)
And he’s done this, of course through the gospel, verses 2 and 3 are a description of the gospel. The gospel of Christ is the gospel of the Spirit. They cannot be divided. Christ came, as Stott well says, not in sinful flesh, because the flesh of Jesus was not sinful, not in the likeness of flesh, because the flesh of Jesus was real, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, because the flesh of Jesus was both sinless and real.
And he came not to condemn sinners, we know that in John 3; he came not to condemn sinners, but to save them by condemning sin, that is to deal with it, because sin threatened not only us and our future, it threatened the very righteous rule of God in the world. We saw that in chapter 3. If God cannot righteously justify sinners, then the very rule of God is threatened. So he sent Christ to condemn sin. In order that, verse 4, a verse that’s caused much trouble.
Now, there are many, of whom I was one, who think this is simply a statement of justification. In all, the just recommends the law might be fulfilled in us. The problem with that interpretation is the second half, which is taken as a safeguard against antinomianism in nearly all the Reformation commentaries. In other words, verse 4 says that not only am I justified, but regenerated, and that’s certainly Romans’ teaching. My difficulty with that is that the second half is not additional to the first half; it’s explanatory of the first half.
To walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit is explanatory of the just requirements of the law being fulfilled in us. So, we must look for another explanation. On the other hand, there are those for whom it is clear that the aim of justification is sanctification, namely the keeping of the law. They see, therefore, as the purpose of our redemption. We could not keep the law; we are now redeemed in Christ in order to keep the law.
But you see immediately our difficulty here that Paul has already told us that we cannot keep the law. Indeed, the whole point of the end of Romans 7 was to show us that even as Christians, we cannot be justified by virtue of what Christ has done for us, within us, and in what he’s done for us on the cross. Nothing that Christ does in us by his spirit will bring us to such a position that by virtue of what he does in us, we can be justified. Is there another way then of taking verse four?
I want to suggest diffidently that there is an alternative to the second interpretation I’ve just given. What could the law not do? Well, obviously, it could not justify, but that’s the negative side. What positively could the law not do? I remember in chapter seven, verse 10, that we were told that the law was to do something. The law promised life. Since the law could not justify us, it could not fulfill its promise to give life.
Christ’s gospel is a new law, a striking phrase in Chapter 8:2, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Just as the law could not give justification or life, but could only condemn me and deliver me to death, the gospel delivers me from condemnation and gives me life. This was the just, right, and proper purpose of the law, but the law could not deliver. All that could happen through the law was to make a man into a law-keeper, but the gospel made a man into a believer.
What he is saying, therefore, in Romans 8:1-4, is that the gospel, the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus, has done what the law could never do. It has delivered what the law could never deliver: negatively, it has dealt with our sins and caused us to stand before God unashamed with no condemnation; and positively, it has brought us new life, acquittal, and life, as an earlier chapter explained it to us, chapter 6.
The mark, then, of the new man is that he not only has no condemnation laid against him, but he walks according to the Spirit, and minds the things of the Spirit, and that is precisely what is elucidated in verses 5-7. The contrast between verses 5-7 is not, repeat not, between carnal Christians and spiritual Christians—a shocking misuse. The contrast is between the unregenerate and the regenerate, or rather, the life according to the old age and the life according to the new age. Listen to it.
Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Well, now we know where we stand, because your mind is set now on the things of the Spirit. You are no longer hostile to God. Ah, but alas, you know the problem, you see it already, you’re quick, aren’t you? Yes, we’ve left that old life behind, but that old life hasn’t left us behind. Though we have left the old life behind and John Brown unconverted, which belongs to the past, the flesh still indwells John Brown converted.
And therefore, although he has said goodbye to that way of life, there is a witness within him that constantly reminds him of it. However, let’s be cheerful, because that’s what 9, 10 and 11 is. But you are not in the flesh, that is, you are not now unregenerate. You are in the Spirit, and no false assurance if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Very, very clear, isn’t it? No escape into false assurance, but strong encouragement for true assurance.
If you pray that God will bless me with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, it means that you think I am not regenerate. To deny the gift of the Holy Spirit to anybody is to deny them the right to call themselves a member of God’s family. No wonder that kind of extreme Pentecostal Christianity causes ordinary Christians to have a crisis over assurance. For death, doomed to die because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. There is the dichotomy again, the dualism, isn’t it?
Interesting by the way here that Christ and the Spirit are said almost synonymously to be the same, and yet they’re not the same. And since I gave a clobbering to Dodd just now, I’ll give him a good mark. It’s difficult to find a good mark for him, but I found one, a quotation that Leon Morris helpfully gives us. His virtual identification of the experience of the Spirit with the experience of the indwelling Christ is of the utmost value. It saved Christian thought from falling into a non-moral, half-magical conception of the supernatural in human experience.
And it brought all spiritual experience to the test of the historical revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Do you see that? I’m going to do what they do with choruses, I’m going to repeat that. It saved Christian thought from falling into a non-moral, half-magical conception of the supernatural in human experience. We’re not free of that, are we? It brought all spiritual experience, heart experience, to the test of the historical revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Do you see?
What the Spirit does in me must measure up to the historical and risen Christ, of whom I know in the Gospels, and is at the right hand of God. I must match those two things up. I mustn’t divorce what is happening by the Spirit from what the patterns are given to me in the revelation of the historical and risen Christ.
Verse 11: If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit which dwells in you, to the resurrection. It’s not a curious description of sanctification. So verses 9 to 11 are a marvelous description of the work of the Blessed Trinity in giving the Christian assurance by the indwelling Spirit. So already, the Christian solution is emerging. The gospel, known by the gift of the Spirit, does two things.
It sets my heart on the things of God, and it gives me certain hope that death will not be the victor. By setting my heart, the very centre of my being, not on the things of God, it deprives sin of the victory in the here and now. And because it gives me a certain assurance that death will not be the victor in the future, it gives me that future assurance of victory which I so badly need in a dying world. The next paragraph flows straight on from that.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 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. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of 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. 12 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. (Romans 8:9-14, ESV)
Now such a destiny, the destiny of verses 10 and 11, has, of course, its obligations. By the way, notice again, we’ve come back to the same picture, haven’t we?
The Christian is constantly looking back to the past, his conversion baptism, which stands for the death of Christ. So, he’s looking back to the death of Christ, and he’s looking forward to the coming of Christ and the great resurrection. He’s caught between those two things. He has his two eyes, his eyes there. Oh, by the way, he also has his eyes on Christ at the right hand of God, doesn’t he? You notice the one place where he doesn’t have his eyes? Here. See, draw a parabola right across.
I’ve got my eyes fixed there, there, and there, not here. the Spirit within leads me to look there, there, and there, not here. the Spirit relates me to Christ crucified, Christ enthroned, and Christ coming. That keeps me healthy. Now I have obligations if I am caught up in this magnificent position, if I am there standing with Christ behind me, Christ above me, Christ ahead. It has obligations.
Now, you see, I said just now we no longer live according to the flesh in the sense that we are regenerate, and yet, because of indwelling sin, we have a constant reminder of it. I mean, can you remember the day when you lived according to the flesh, when you were unregenerate? I can. It was thankfully only a few years because I was caught in my mid-teens.
But I can vividly remember those first two years, those two years in my early teens, I think it was about 13, 14, and getting in with entirely the wrong set at school. And I look back on those two years with great pain, I look back too in a sense with great pity upon my fellows then because the way that we espoused, the way we all thought was the way of the future, had no future as I now see.
Of course, there is one or two of those old friends. I won’t say chums because that will date me to those of you who are younger. I belong to the days of the boys’ end paper, you know. It really takes you back a bit, Billy Buncher and all that. I know you’re beyond all that now, but it was a good one; it lasted. Where were we? And don’t you think you’re superior to that if you just enjoyed these magnificent chocolate waffles, or whatever they are. Future, did it?
The trouble is, I have a painful reminder of that past old life within me today. It witnesses to me that I am the same man, although I have been regenerate. I hate it. I could not set my mind on it, but it does not allow me wholly to forget it. What then are my obligations as a new man in Christ? I am told here very plainly, aren’t I? By the power of the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body.
By the Spirit within me to put the deeds of the body to death, the daily continual duty of mortification. You see the dichotomy again? the Spirit within me has to put to death the deeds of the body. This is what it means, verse 14, to be led by the Spirit and nothing else. The work of the Spirit is not the mark of an advanced guard of Christians in the van. It is simply the driving power of all God’s genuine people. This, of course, is no new message, peculiar to chapter 8.
We had it in chapter 6:12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey them.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. (Romans 6:12, ESV)
It is the Spirit who leads me to refuse sin, to take up its residence, laugh at me, and have the victory. the Spirit leads me constantly to fight against that, constantly to go back again and deal with those things. Because, you see, verse 13, I have a part to play. It is the Spirit who leads me, and it is by the Spirit that these deeds are put to death.
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. (Romans 8:13-14, ESV)
But I have to do it. I have to do this painful crucifixion all through my life. Thus, by this work of the Spirit, I am not living under the law, which could only lead me back, of course, as a slave to a fear of God, but under grace leads me to a confidence that I am a child of God, because that is what I want to do. I want, by the power of the Spirit, to put to death these things that I now hate.
And this tells me that the Spirit of God that I have received is not the Spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear, as in the old days under the law, but the Spirit of sonship, which cries Abba Father.
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!” (Romans 8:15, ESV)
Isn’t that wonderful? The two languages together. Very striking. One Aramaic word, one Greek word. Showing the power of the Gospel in a bilingual culture, isn’t it? In a bilingual world.
The power of the Gospel as it comes to the Church in Rome, whether as Jew and Gentile, one speaking Aramaic and the other speaking Greek, although they may be mostly Hellenistic. Nonetheless, that is the origin, the original language of their heritage. See, so in both cases, Paul is saying that they have not only the status, but the heart of children of God. What then as a child of God do I have? The Holy Spirit leading me to mortify the deeds of the body. That’s the present, sanctification.
But at the same time, the Holy Spirit is telling me that I’m a child of God, an heir, an heir of God, a fellow heir with Christ, and that provided I suffer with him, I will be glorified with him. These two things go on throughout the chapter, don’t they? As they do throughout the chapters 5 to 8. What he is doing now as a pledge of what he will do then. The hope of glory leads me to action now. This action now gives me hope of what is to come.
But it is no good pretending I have this great inheritance. If I do not show the mark of God’s family on earth, then what is that? Verse 17, it is suffering with Christ. Isn’t that striking, you see? It saves us from all misunderstandings. It probably prepares the Church of Rome to receive the Apostle Paul, because if he comes amongst them with his missionary zeal for the Gentile mission, there’s sure to be trouble. Wherever Paul goes, there is suffering, isn’t there? Remember 2 Corinthians 11? Wherever Paul comes, you’re in hot water.
Wherever Paul comes, satanic activity doubles immediately. So, he has to prepare the way for his coming and remind them that if suffering comes with him, then it is only a mark that they are genuine believers. If they want to have a Christianity without suffering, are they genuine children of God? So, he comes then to this great theme that he began at Chapter 5:3. Now, how does Paul deal with this question of Christian affliction, the afflictions of the people of God, on the road to the crown in the future?
Is he a Christian scientist who says, “Boo, it isn’t there”? Is he a charming Christian triumphalist who says, “The glory now far outweighs the suffering now”? No, he’s neither. He calls upon them here in verse 18 to think clearly that the present trials are not compensated for by present good, glory, but are compensated for by the light of the future triumph. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.
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. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:17-18, ESV)
Once again, brothers and sisters, I want you to notice, because I think this is absolutely central to where we are today, that an existentialist evangelicalism, such as we have all around us today, is utterly incapable of facing the cost of discipleship. Because it has, in practice, eliminated the perspective of hope – by the way, if you eliminate the perspective of hope, the word hope will disappear too. When did you last hear a sermon on hope? Faith? Love? Lots of them. Hope? God bless you, you preached one last Sunday, I know.
I was saying to some of the folks at St. Helens that I was told in Singapore that 70 to 80 percent of the young, keen Christians of the 1970s no longer go to church today in the 1980s – 70 to 80 percent. Probably one of the reasons is that the Christianity in Singapore in the 70s, like with us, was an existentialist version.
And when you face the problems of bringing up a family and earning a living in a pressured society, it becomes very difficult to go on with Christianity, unless you’ve got a proper perspective of past, present and future. Now, Paul is a man of integrity. He won’t deny present suffering. And he gives us here in verses 18 to 25 a fascinating picture of what it means to live in the present. present as a Christian against the whole perspective of God’s created order. And it circles round the concept of groaning or sighing.
So hold on to your seats. There’s groaning as well as glorying, and sighing as well as singing in the Christian life. You ready for it? First, the groaning of the creation, verses 19 to 22. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope.
Because the creation, the created order itself, will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.
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 corruption 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. (Romans 8:19-22, ESV)
It’s mind-blowing, isn’t it? What is the world in which we live? What is the backlash to our existence? What is the shape of the universe as God sees it? Long ago, the whole created order was subjected by the will of God to futility, decay and death. Isn’t that a stunning and amazing concept? God wrote over the whole created order, futility and decay. And isn’t this what many young people feel?
Many sensitive people, as they grow up, begin to recognize the futility and the decay that is in everything. It’s why some people drop out into various different ways of escaping reality. Futility then and decay is the mark of the created order, but its bondage is not permanent. It will be set free, it will obtain liberty.
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 corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21, ESV)
What does it long for? It’s almost as though inanimate creation is animate and personal. What does it look for? Why, I tell you what it’s looking for. The creation says, I’m looking for the liberty of my Lord and Master.
Verse 21: What do you long to see, creation? Why, I long to see the revelation of the sons of God. Verse 19: Isn’t that marvelous? The whole creation was put under man’s dominion. If man has fallen, if man therefore is subject to sin and death, the creation will have to wait until man has received the fullness of his freedom. And on that great day of the resurrection, when man at last is utterly free of futility, decay, and death.
When the Lord and Master of all creation is free, then the creation can be free too, but not until then. Remember the body on the slab, it’ll be very different then. Because there will be no difficulty in the new creation to see which is the Son of God. The Son of God will be revealed. I can’t tell today who is the child of God, can I? Nor can you. The hearts of men are open only to God, but in that great day it will be plain to everybody who are the children of God.
As I look today at the children of God, I see them often in futile positions, at work, longing to get free of it. I see them getting older, decaying, teeth, hair falling out. We elders know about these things. And I say to myself, well, I’m no different from anyone else. What? All decaying, going downhill. How different when the creation ceases to groan, Romans 8:19-22. But meanwhile, I’m part of it all. I can’t escape from that. See how different Christianity is from idealism and fantasy. Secondly, Romans 8:23, the groaning of the Christian.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Now, we are often told that Romans 8 is about the fullness of the Spirit. But what is the fullness of the Spirit now? Verse 23 makes it quite plain that whatever fullness of the Holy Spirit it may be my privilege to have, that is nothing more or less than the firstfruits. The substantial reality I await. The firstfruits are not the harvest.
What I wait for here is the redemption of my body, Romans 8:23. I do not see that now. If I saw it now, it would be full salvation, and there would be nothing to hope for. How important this is, isn’t it, in this whole realm of sickness, wholeness, health, perfection. You see, all these areas have to be brought to Romans 8. Oh well, we ought to be whole. Oh well, we ought to be perfectly well. Oh well, we ought to be perfect. There ought to be in us the fullness of Christ’s victorious life.
But wait a minute. Apparently, as a Christian, I groan inwardly, waiting for the redemption of my body.
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 corruption 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. (Romans 8:19-23, ESV)
That is something that I only hope for in my salvation now. If it was mine now, I would not hope for it because I would see it, know it, and experience it. But I don’t. The groaning of the creation is matched by the groaning of the Christian. Thirdly, that is matched by the groaning or sighing of the Spirit.
Verse 26, likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.
26 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. (Romans 8:26, ESV)
Well, this comes on now as usual to the indwelling spirit of God, which is so much the theme of Romans eight. And as the Spirit indwells us, he knows how weak we are.
We are so weak as Christians that even in the most basic matter of our Christian experience, that is our prayer, Romans 8:15, crying out Abba, Father, that absolutely elementary evidence of the Holy Spirit, even in my prayer life, which is the very first fruit of my regeneration, I cry to God as my father. Even then, I have to say in my prayer life that I can live only by God’s justification of sinners. I would recommend to you the shorter Cranfield, by the way, if you’re wrestling with Cranfield, buy the shorter one.
And he has a superb page that takes casement to the cleaners in the way that he thoroughly deserves on this verse, but I won’t go into that now. Our prayers as God sees them, you might think are some of the most remarkable sides of our experience, but as God sees them, they’re like your children or your grandchildren’s drawings. Father, says the Spirit within me, here I am. You placed me here in this child of yours. This is the situation here, but it is your purpose to bring him or her to glory.
We’re a long, long way to go, haven’t we, Father? Amen. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit is interceding for the saints according to the will of God, of course, what else? And what is the will of God? 28 to 30. We know that in everything, God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
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 brethren, and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. It’s irresistible, isn’t it? That’s the will of God. Notice it is not the false hope of modern Christianity, the promise of bliss now, that can only lead, as I said, to fantasy living. It’s the promise of glory hereafter. And what happens on the way?
What happens on the road to glory? Well, of course, verse 28 does not mean that all that happens to me serves God’s will and therefore my convenience. It means that all that happens serves God’s will and therefore my being conformed to his image. That whatever happens, even the deepest afflictions cannot alter two things, that God is going to make me like his Son and that God is going to bring me to share his Son’s glory. The two themes all the way through. This is the work of the Spirit.
But as the Spirit does his work, he often sighs, because he can see how far you and how far I am from that destiny. Now, it is, I think, of the very greatest importance to understand that Romans 8, which has often been presented to us as the victorious Christian life, is, sorry, well actually the early Victorians knew better, as the late Victorians led us astray, wasn’t it?
So this Romans 8 that’s often been given the picture of the victorious Christian life, though it is indeed pointing to the victorious plan of God, is very realistic about the life of the believer indwelt by the Spirit. But how full of assurance the chapter is, as it comes to its magnificent conclusion, and points at the three things that will cause the Christian to despair in this present age. Let me tell you what is likely to cause you to despair, so that you will know where to go when you are up against it.
First, we are led to despair and to the temptation to throw it all up because of our many enemies, verses 31, 32. What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? Well, the answer is, of course, a great many people. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?
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. 31 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? (Romans 8:27-32, ESV)
An argument that comes straight out of Romans 5. So, there is the question, first thing. What will cause the Christians at Rome to go back, to despair, to be unwelcoming to Paul? Well, of course, their many enemies. The enemies of the gospel. The enemies of the world mission of the gospel. The enemies of Gentile inclusion in the church of God. The Jewish enemy. What a vicious enemy he was, wasn’t he? Hunting down Paul and all who followed him. What shall I say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31, ESV)
It smacks of Nehemiah, doesn’t it? But what a magnificent statement. The opposition counts for nothing.
Secondly, what is the second thing that causes the Christian to go back into despair? Well, our many sins, of course. Verse 33. Who shall bring any charges against God’s elect? Will God bring a charge against me? But it is God who justifies me. Will Christ condemn me? But it is Christ who died, yes, and was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God interceding for me.
So if God has no plan to charge me, and if Christ has no purpose to condemn me, but rather the very opposite, who shall bring any charge against me? Satan? Sin? The law? Fiddlesticks. What is the third thing that will cause the Christian to go back into despair? Their many enemies, that’s very real and obvious to the Church in Rome. Their many sins, that has become very obvious to the Christians as they’re taught by Paul. Their many afflictions, even to death, third thing, quite different. Verse 35 onwards.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall, and all these things that Paul himself knew in his experience and that some of them were to know, leading up even to martyrdom, verse 36. Well, how few of those we have known, and so perhaps we can only say that they needed this assurance in a way that at the moment, thankfully, we do not. And then he comes, verse 38.
For I am sure, here is the confidence, here is the conclusion of the whole thing, that neither death, and that is been his underlying theme throughout 5-8, death as the consequence of sin, sin aroused by law, the law of sin and death. I am sure that neither death nor life, angels nor principalities nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from what?
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. (Romans 8:33-39, ESV)
What we started with at the beginning of chapter 5.
Justification by faith gave me access to the God who loved me. The gift of the Spirit gave me an assurance that God loved me. And now all these things work together to show me that God loves me. And you’ll notice that this last section is not a purple passage, it’s not just a wonderful peroration, though it is that, but that he actually, clearly and definitely pinpoints the three things that again and again in life have caused amongst Christians so much consternation and so much despair and so much doubt as to whether God was with them – our many enemies, our many sins, and our many afflictions on the way. Let’s pray.
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