Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Tuesday, November 13th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Luke 23, John 18-19
Today's scripture focus is Romans 8:12-17

12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I love it when MacArthur summarizes the previous passage and sets the context for the current passage - so helpful to keep that context!

We will never be condemned. We will never be punished for our sin. That is the sweetest sound of any word that could ever have fallen from the lips of God. It is a pardon to a condemned criminal who sits on death row. For we were condemnedto an eternal punishment in hell. We sat on death row waiting God's execution. We were indeed guilty and the Savior delivered a pardon and said there will be no condemnation, for I have already died in the behalf of this criminal.....


the promise of no condemnation is the last in a string of pearls, the pearls that are the result of justification. As Paul outlined the doctrineof salvation, or justification by grace through faith in chapter 4, he then moved from there into the wonderful pearls of blessing that come as a result of that justification: peace, grace, hope, love, life, holiness, freedom, fruit, spiritual service and glory of all glories--no condemnation. No condemnation, no judgment will ever come upon us who are in Jesus Christ.
And that is so incomprehensible and so marvelous a truth that the Apostle Paul does not just leave us with that truth, but he marches us through the eighth chapter of Romans which tells us why that truth is indeed a truth. And he tells us it is because of the great and wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. And so, we call chapter 8, "Life in the Spirit." The marvelous reality of no condemnation is not only due to the work of Christ, it is due to the work of the Holy Spirit in applying to us the work of Christ. Christ does the work and the Spirit applies it to us.
And so, as we're moving through the chapter, we're noting seven aspects of the Spirit's work in our behalf that demonstrates to us that we will never be condemned for sin. Great, great chapter. Let me remind you of the ones we've already discussed.
First of all, we noted in verses 2 and 3 that the Spirit frees us from sin and death. The Spirit frees us from sin and death. That's why we have no condemnation. We're free from the power of sin. We're free from the penalty of sin which is death.
The second thing we saw about the Spirit's ministry is He enables us to fulfill God's law. Verse 4, we are not under condemnation because rather than violating God's law, by the power of the Spirit in Christ we fulfill God's law. And so, we become pleasing to God. And that again, the wonderful work of the Spirit. For it says in verse 4, this is true of those who walk after the Spirit.
Thirdly, we saw that the Spirit ministers to us by changing our nature. We are not under condemnation because we have been made new creations. And we looked at that, didn't we, in verses 5 through 11. We saw that the Spirit of God changes our inside. We are a new creation. And someday He will change our outside, says verse 11.
So, it is because the Spirit frees us from the law of sin and death, because the Spirit enables us to keep God's righteous law and because the Spirit transforms our nature that we no longer are under condemnation. And so, we bless the Spirit for the marvelous work which He does in our lives.
Now for our study tonight, we come to the fourth of those seven elements. The Spirit empowers us for victory over the flesh. The Spirit empowers us for victory over the flesh. And this point is somewhat similar to the second point in verse 4, but focuses not so much on what the Holy Spirit does as on what we do as we allow the Holy Spirit to accomplish His work in us. So the focus of verses 12 and 13 is not on His accomplishment as much as it's on our obligation. That's why it says "we are debtors," "we must kill the flesh." And of course, it implies and even says through the power of the Spirit, but nonetheless, we must be involved.
So, these two verses then become a demonstration to us of the call of God upon us to practically get about the business of killing sin in our lives. And we must be about this business. It is a very practical exhortation. It is God commanding us to do something which we are able to do. God never asks us to do what we can't do, that would be futile.  And when He asks us to kill sin, He says in verse 13 through the Spirit....those that are His have the Spirit and because we have the Spirit, we have the capacity to kill sin in our lives.

Flesh cannot overcome flesh.  We can only have victory over sin because of the Spirit's work in our lives.

And in order to live a truly Spirit filled life (instead of being filled with hate or envy or...), we need to be intentional about putting our life under the control of the Word of God.  We need to saturate ourselves with the Word.  We need to read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, listen to solid teaching on it - it must be a priority!  When the Word controls our thinking it will also control our behaviour - even our involuntary behaviour and instinctive or reactive responses will be godly.

So the power is in us to kill sin. It's there in the power of the Spirit of God. And you cannot deny that. You can't say, "Well, I just can't overcome ... I just can't..." It's not a question of available power; it's a question of available will on your part. Or, a question of whether or not you're saturating your heart and mind with the things of God and His Word.

You know the saying "With great privilege comes great responsibility"?  It is so very true.

This is the privilege of victory. Because of the privilege position of no condemnation which is given to us in Jesus Christ by grace through faith, because of the reality of the great gospel that has delivered us from sin, because of our privilege position and blessing, because of our salvation, our freedom from sin and death, our righteousness in Christ, our new nature, the gift of the Spirit: the hope, the joy, the peace, the love, because of all we have in Christ, because of all those privileges, "Therefore, brethren, we are ... what? ... debtors."

We owe the flesh nothing.  And why would we want to live as though we did?  That's for unbelievers, for those who are dead and dying.

No, we have no debt to the flesh.  We are indebted to the Spirit.

what is characteristic o f a Christian then? He's going to spend himself pursuing the things of the Spirit. He's going to desire to kill the flesh. Yes, he will have lapses. Yes, he will have times when he falls. But the pursuit is going to be to the things of God to stamping out sin in his life. That is a believer's pattern. And may I remind you that there is no argument for the security of a believer's salvation that gives the convincing assurance that righteous living does. No other argument is as convincing as the experience of victory over sin. You ask me, "Haw do I know I'm a Christian?" I'll say God promised His Word, I believed and He promises to save me. And the second reason I know I'm a Christian is because in my life I see victory over sin and that can't happen to one apart from Christ. And that is the most convincing of all arguments.


How do we kill the sin in our lives?

First, we need to recognize it's presence in our lives.  We need to fix our hearts on God and learn to worship Him.  We need to meditate on the Word of God - saturate ourselves with it!  We need to communicate with God through prayer - we need to unmask the deceit of sin by confessing that struggle to God and seeking His strength to overcome it.  And we simply need to make obedience a priority.

I can never pay Him back for my salvation, can I? But I'm sure going to spend my life making an effort to give something of response. I'm in debt. Christ bought me with His own precious blood. He paid the supreme price. I am in debt. He regenerated me, made me His own, brought me in His family, I owe Him something for that. And what I owe Him is not to live after the flesh that He delivered me out of but after the Spirit into whom He placed me.

MacArthur also gives some great insight into our adoption....

The Spirit is the spirit of adoption; it is the Holy Spirit who has adopted us, as it were. He is the one who placed us into the family of God by the miracle of regeneration, by the miracle of adoption. He transfers us from an alien family into the family of God and then confirms in our hearts that we are the sons of God....


Now in the Roman adoption system, four things were consequential to adoption. First thing that happened was the adopted person lost all relationship to his old family. Everything was gone and he gained all rights to the new family. It's a beautiful picture of salvation, isn't it?
Second thing, it followed that he became heir to all the father's ... the new father's estate. And even if the other children were blood born, it did not affect his rights. He was inalienably the co-heir with them and perhaps even exceeding above them, if that was in the prerogative of the father.
The third thing that happened, according to Roman law, was that the former life of the adopted person was completely wiped out. All his legal debts were cancelled. They were wiped out as if he had never existed. And the adopted person was given a new name and it was as if he had just been born. Sound familiar? When you came to Jesus Christ and were adopted into the family of God, all your past debts were what? Cancelled ... and you became a co-heir of all that the born son, the Lord Jesus Christ, possesses.
The fourth thing was in the eyes of the law the adopted person was literally and absolutely the son of his new father. And so, when we were adopted, all these things, no doubt, are in the mind of the Apostle and the Spirit, and we know they took place in our adoption. We have cut the cord with the past. We have become co-heirs to God's Kingdom. All the old debts are wiped out and we are absolutely and legally and forever the son of God.
Let me go a step further. Adoption is an insufficient term, as beautiful and rich as it is, to explain the whole of what happens to us because it goes beyond earthly adoption. It is not just that we are adopted; we are also regenerated, aren't we? We're also reborn. In fact, the adoption is so great that there's a whole recreation of the individual. And so we have two beautiful terms, we have regeneration or new birth, and adoption. And they're just two ways of looking at how God brings His children to Himself. Adoption ... adoption gives us the name of sons. Adoption gives us the title to the inheritance. Regeneration gives us the nature of sons and gives us the fitness for that inheritance. Both are important.
So, we're under no condemnation. Why? Because we've been adopted into God's family. And all the former debts are cancelled. And we belong to God. And that's why at the end of this whole chapter, as I mentioned, if there's nobody to condemn, if we belong to God and there's no higher court than God, if God has made us His children, if God has established our rights to be in His presence, if God has said we are His and we possess His Kingdom, then that's the highest court there is and we're not under condemnation as His children.
Now this passage says that not only have we received adoption--that's in the background--but we've received the Spirit of adoption. And what it's really saying is not only are we adopted, but the Spirit of God confirms that adoption in our hearts. So it is not only an objective fact that we're looking at, it is a subjective assurance. You hear that? The Spirit of God affirms that to our hearts that we belong to God.

The first confirmation of our adoption is that we are led by the Spirit - He gives us understanding of God's Word and that He also helps us apply that to our spiritual growth, our sanctification.

Another confirmation is that the Spirit frees us from fear - fear of bondage, punishment and judgment and instead allows us to express ourselves in intimate relationship with Almighty God, to come into His presence without fear, to gives us that intimacy.

And finally, the Spirit provides us that certainty within our spirit.  We feel that confirmation within ourselves as the Holy Spirit confirms the fact of our adoption.

You have no condemnation, beloved, but you can't enjoy that no-condemnation status unless you're responding to the internal ministry of the Spirit of God in leading you, in giving you that wonderful heart attitude that rushes into the presence of God and cries out Abba, Father.  And I'll tell you something, if you're not walking in the Holy Spirit in obedience to His will, you're not going to have the sense of His leading, right? And if you're not walking in according ... in accordance with His will and following His sanctifying promptings, you're not going to feel that you have access to God. I've had people say to me in the same circumstance, "I can't pray." Have you ever had anybody say that? I can't pray.
And furthermore, when you try to convince yourself you're really a Christian, you're not going to hear the affirming testimony of the Holy Spirit either. Because that comes to those who are walking in the Spirit. He's doing the freeing, He's doing the leading, He's doing the talking, but if you're off at a distance, you're not going to know it.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 8:18-21
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  Matthew 28, Mark 16

1 comment:

Miriam said...

I really love his explanation of adoption. I am learning so much in Romans! My Bible study group has started a study called Stuck, and guess what passage the first chapter is on? Romans 8:1-17. Interesting.