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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 8 ch. 8:1-17 ch. 8:18-27 ch. 8: 28-39
Life
Through The Spirit (ch.
8:1-17) Chapter
8 opens a whole new topic, even though it is closely related to what Paul
has been talking about. Paul
has mentioned the Holy Spirit three times to date in his letter.
Now he will elaborate more on this important subject. Paul
connects chapter 7 and 8 by the word “therefore”.
He goes on to say that “there is no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus”. After
all the frustration with sin in chapter 7, you might think that Paul would
need to deal with the idea of one feeling condemned.
A sense of condemnation would easily come over a person described
in chapter 7. You want to do
what is right. You try hard,
but you can’t. The feeling
of condemnation is a natural result. One
might just give up the fight. Paul
said that he was one wretched man. A wretched man has no hope, so why not
give up. Paul doesn't give up
because there is hope, but it's just not found in himself or any other
human being or institution. Paul
makes it clear that there is no condemnation for those who are “in
Christ Jesus”. One point to
be made here is that condemnation really is not a feeling.
It is a place in which we stand before God.
We are either condemned or not condemned.
We are either guilty, or not guilty.
Both condemnation and guilt are not feelings.
They are judgments placed on us by God.
What
does the term “in Christ” mean. Simply
put, if we are justified, (pronounced by God as righteous) then we are in
Christ. We should not make
anything more of this term than that.
Being justified, being saved, being a real Christian means that we
are in Christ, and stand before God without guilt and condemnation.
There
is a lot in these next few verses. Why
are we not condemned because we are in Christ?
Paul says in verse 2 that “the law of the Spirit of life has set
us free from the law of sin and death.”
The "law of sin
and death" is not speaking of the Law of Moses here, or so I believe.
I see this law as a natural law.
God told Adam if he sinned he would die.
That's the law of sin and death.
Sin leads to death. That's
just a natural law. Yet
Paul introduces a new law in verse 2 that we have not heard of before, and
that is the "law of the Spirit of
life". Simply put,
sin leads to death in all aspects of life, but the Holy Spirit leads to
life in all aspects of life. He helps us in many ways in the present life,
and will lead us on to eternal life. Verse
3 says that Jesus condemned sin in sinful man.
Jesus condemned sin so the righteous requirements of the Law might
be fully met in us. What does
Paul mean when he says that “Jesus condemned sin”?
I believe it means this. Ever
since Adam, sin had rule over man. All
mankind was under the control of sin.
Jesus overcame sin in His life.
He lived His life free from the power of sin.
For the first time in human history sin lost a battle. Jesus lived
the perfect life, yet died as one who carried all the sin of mankind.
By His resurrection He condemned sin.
He pronounced to the whole universe that sin had finally been
defeated. Because He was
punished for our sin, God’s judgment was satisfied and therefore His
wrath and anger were turned from us. This
resulted in the fact that His Holy Spirit could come to live within us.
Now we had a way to overcome sin in our life.
Following the Law could not help us, but God Himself who lives
within us; He can and will help us overcome sin.
This is what Paul is getting at in verses 1 to 4 of chapter 8. In
verse 3 we see the word "law" again.
Here I believe Paul is talking about the Law of Moses, because he
says that the law was weakened because of our sin.
The Law of Moses was weakened because of our sin.
The Law told us not to sin, but since the Law told us that, we want
to sin. For example, the law
says, don't commit adultery. We
may not even have thought about committing adultery, but now that the law
brings the subject up, we think about it, and want to do it. In that way,
the Law of Moses was weakened by our sinful condition.
We
see God's response to the weakened law n verse 3 as well. God sent Jesus
into sinful humanity. That
very act of God was making Jesus a sin offering.
We often think that when Jesus hung on the cross, that at that time
He became a sin offering, but really, the sin offering began at His
conception within Mary. The
sinless God taking on sinful humanity was the beginning of the sin
offering. In
verse 5 he says that “those who live according to their sinful nature
have their minds always on their sinful nature, yet for those who live
according to the Spirit are always mindful of the Spirit”.
Paul goes on to say that those who have their minds set on their
sinful nature are opposed to God and as a result death comes to their
life. We have seen Paul speak
many words on this thought before. This is one of the main problems we
have as Christians today. We're
too involved with our sinful nature and not the Holy Spirit.
For this reason we do not see the miracles and the supernatural
life as we see in the book of Acts, and we experience death in many ways,
more than we should. In
verse 5 Paul speaks of two types of people.
One type of people live according to their sinful nature, and
therefore they spend their time on things of the sinful nature.
They think on such things and they do such things.
The other group of people are those who live according to the
Spirit. Those people do what
the Holy Spirit would have them do. It
is sad to say, but many Christians live according to their sinful nature
when they should be living according to the Spirit of God. In
verse 6 Paul says that the mind of the sinful man leads that person to
death while those who have their mind set on the things of the Spirit, the
Spirit leads them to life. Christians
who feel dead and out of things when it comes to the things of the Lord
clearly spend too much time on the things of their sinful nature.
In
verse 7 Paul makes it very clear. He
says the sinful mind is hostile to God.
It cannot submit to God. This
shows us the depravity of our situation.
In our natural self, we are hostile to God.
That means we are enemies to God.
We cannot obey Him even if we wanted, but since we are so sinful we
can't even want to obey Him. This
is what we need to admit to when we repent.
One of our problems is that we think too highly of ourselves, when
in fact we need to admit that we are so lost, we can't even want to come
to God. We need the Holy
Spirit to help us along in this respect.
Romans
8:9 is extremely important. Paul
says, “you however are not controlled by your sinful nature, but by the
Spirit, if the Spirit lives within you”.
I am sure that James would love these words of Paul.
James says that he will show the world his faith by what he does.
Here Paul says that if you truly have faith and the Spirit of God
within, you will not live according to your flesh but according to the
Spirit. Paul
goes on in verse 9 to make a very dramatic point.
He says, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does
not belong to Christ”. We
note a couple of things here. First,
note that the Spirit is called “the Spirit of Christ”. The Spirit is
often referred to as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, but here He is
the Spirit of Christ. This
means the Spirit of God the Father is also the Spirit of Christ.
They are the same Spirit. Secondly,
Paul says very clearly that “if you do not have the Spirit of Christ,
you do not belong to Christ”. Simply
put, if you do not have the Holy Spirit within you, you are not a
Christian. These are vital
words. Peter, in Acts 2:38
says, “repent and be baptized … and you will receive … the gift of
the Holy Spirit”. Receiving
the Holy Spirit “must” be a part of our conversion experience.
If this is not the case, then you are not “fully converted”.
Your salvation has not been sealed.
You do not belong to Christ, according to what Paul says here.
This is something that really scares me.
I just wonder how many people that attend church actually have the
Holy Spirit living in them. In
verse 10 Paul says that if Christ is in you, even though your body is dead
because of sin, meaning a deadly depraved state, with all of its problems,
the Holy Spirit will give life and righteousness to you. We need to
understand that even though we are alive physically, we are dead.
We can't imagine how dead we really are because we have never
experienced life in its fullest. Life
in its fullest was only experienced before the fall of man by Adam and
Eve. No other humans have
experienced such life. Paul
takes this thought one step further in verse 11 by saying the Holy Spirit
will give life to your mortal body. I
think this life is in the present as well as in the future when Christ
returns. Many Pentecostal
style Christians use this verse to prove healing, and to a degree I do
believe that. That being said,
I think Paul had our resurrection body in mind when he wrote these words.
Paul,
in verses 12 through 14 exhorts us not to live according to our sinful
nature. That means, even
though we have God’s Spirit within, we do still have our sinful nature,
even though it does not rule us as it once did.
Yet, if we decide to give in and start living according to our
sinful nature, then we will die. Sin
will kill us, because that is what sin does. By the same token, if we let
the Spirit help us put the deeds of the sinful nature to death, we will
live. I
believe it is important to know that we always have our sinful nature with
us. We won't lose it until the
next life. That should keep us
humble. We will always
struggle with our sinful nature. Our
only hope is in the Holy Spirit, and also the a good understanding of the
Word of God, which is the Bible.
Note
in verse 14 that Paul says that if we are led by the Spirit, we are God's
sons. We become God's sons
when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives.
That is only common sense. How
can we be God's sons, if we don't have something of Him in us?
In
verse 15 we see that the Holy Spirit doesn't make us slaves of fear.
Instead, we becomes sons of God so that we can affectionately call
God "Daddy”. That's
basically what "Abba Father" means.
Therefore we are heirs, along with Jesus Himself.
We inherit all of what God has for us, all that God has for Jesus.
That means we do have the ability to live as we should.
I
need to say one thing about fear. In
this verse it clearly says that we aren't a slave to fear.
That means that we don't have to constantly fear God.
Yet how should we understand this in light of the many verses that
tell us to fear God for He is a consuming fire.
Well, we are to fear God. That
means we are to be afraid of him. It
is more than mere reverence. But,
the one whom we fear is also the one we love.
The one who causes us to fear is the one who loves us.
When we feel like running from God in fear, we realize that there
is no place to run to, so we run to Him.
We aren't slaves to this fear, but we do fear God, yet at the same
time live in His love.
In
verse 17 Paul closes this section with a word we probably don’t like.
The word is “suffering”. He
says, “if we share in Jesus’ suffering, we will also share in His
glory”. Paul certainly
shared in the suffering of Jesus. Suffering
is yet another one of those words that the modern church does not like to
talk about. In this respect,
we have been too influenced by western modern culture, but Christians have
suffered greatly over the centuries. The reason why western Christians
haven't suffered so much is because of the Christian gospel that has
affected western society. Now
that Christianity is losing its hold on western culture, we can't expect
to suffer, expect to be persecuted.
Paul,
in verse 18 continues with his thinking on suffering.
He says that compared to the glorious future for Christians, all
that he is suffering now means very little.
This statement means a lot coming from Paul, since his sufferings
were very great. Paul speaks of "the glory that will be revealed in
us." The glory he is
speaking of is what is known as our "glorified body".
At some point in history to come, we will be like Jesus presently
is, in a body that will never ware out, a perfect body. Paul looks forward
to that day and the hope that he has for that day overshadows any
suffering that he was presently going through.
Paul suffered immensely. Most
of us would have given up if we suffered as he did.
In
verse 19 Paul makes a point concerning creation.
He says that creation has been subject to bondage and decay.
It too is waiting eagerly for the day in which it will be liberated
along with the children of God. God
told Adam to have dominion over the earth in Genesis 1:28.
When Adam sinned, he died. He
apparently lost the ability to rule the earth as God wanted him to rule.
God also cursed the ground that man walked on. (Gen. 3:17 and 5:29)
God originally put creation under man’s care and authority.
Since man sinned, God put creation under the same sentence of death
and decay that he put man under. So
all of creation is waiting to be liberated along with all Christians who
will be liberated at the end
of the age. In
verses 20 and 21 Paul says
that creation is frustrated. You
might not think of trees, animals, and all created things as being
frustrated, but they are. Paul
says that creation is frustrated, but not by their own choice, but by the
choice of the one who subjected it to frustration.
All of creation did not choose to live in the world of death and
decay. Adam made that choice.
Creation didn't. The
one who subjected creation to death and decay was God.
But notice the word "hope" in this verse.
Even though all creation is subject to this frustration, there is
hope. This hope will be
realized at the end of this age when Jesus returns and makes all things
new. Creation will be
restored. Actually, it will be
made brand new, as seen in the New Earth in the book of Revelation.
In
verse 22 Paul continues to tell us that all of creation is groaning, as if
in labour pains. This most likely accounts for the turmoil found in
nature. Earthquakes, floods,
and other natural disasters are probably
examples of creation groaning in pain.
As it is with a woman ready to give birth, the birth pains come
with more frequency closer to the time of birth.
So it is with creation. More
natural calamities will come on earth as the birth of God's new creation
comes at the end of this age. You
can expect more earthquakes and natural disasters.
In
verse 23 Paul says that we as Christians groan inwardly, waiting for the
redemption of sons, the redemption of our bodies.
This will take place when Jesus returns to restore all things.
Paul is hoping for that day to come.
Here again, we see the word hope as we did in chapter 5.
Paul is groaning. This
tells me that things aren't always happy and joyful after giving one's
life to Jesus. We groan out of
frustration, just like the rest of creation groans.
Notice that this groaning is associated with the Holy Spirit.
The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives makes us more
frustrated. Paul uses the word
"firstfruits" in regard to the Holy Spirit.
This simply means that even though we have the Holy Spirit in our
lives, we don't have all of Him and we experience all that He has to
offer. We have a deposit of
better things to come. But,
since we experience the Holy Spirit in part, we know there is better days
ahead, and that is why we groan. If
not for the presence of the Holy Spirit, we probably wouldn't groan,
because we would not have a taste of the future.
So if you're not groaning to one degree of another, you are missing
the present day reality of the Spirit of God.
Note
also in verse 23 that our "adoption" as sons of God takes place
when our bodies are redeemed. That
means when our bodies are transformed in heavenly bodies as Jesus' body
is, at that time our sonship with God the Father will be fully realized.
Sonship here is linked to our glorified bodies, and not before.
In one sense of the word we are now presently sons of God.
The Bible makes that clear. That
being said, the full realization of this will take place at the end of
this age. We need to
understand that with all aspects of salvation, salvation is progressive.
It comes to us in stages. That
is to say, we are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved.
All three of these stages are Biblically correct.
In
verse 24 Paul says that we were saved for this hope.
So hope is important for a Christian.
We do hope for the future glory to come, and there is nothing wrong
with hope, even though hyper-faith preachers sometimes suggest that hope
is actually a lack of faith. . Paul
makes the point that hope is part of the Christian life.
Hope is actually part of salvation.
When one initially gets saved, hope is involved.
The hope is for a better life in the future, that is, in the next
life. In
verse 25 Paul continues on with hope.
He introduces the word "patiently".
Even though Christians suffer a measure of frustration, we do have
patience, or at least we should have patience.
The Holy Spirit can help us with that.
We simply "wait patiently amidst some frustration" for
better days to come. Paul
has told us that creation is groaning and that we as Christians groan as
well, waiting for our redemption. In
verse 26 and 27 he tells us that the Holy Spirit groans inside of us as
well. His groans cannot be
expressed in words. The
important point to be made here is that the Holy Spirit helps us by
interceding for us when we don’t know how to pray properly.
This is another important reason why we
need to live by the Spirit.
Some Pentecostals suggest that this groaning is speaking in
tongues. I don't see that.
Tongues are words. The
text states that these groans can't be put into words.
I believe from time to time I experience these groans, especially
in light of the fact some of my loved-ones aren't saved.
Paul
says that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf. We don't know what to
pray, so He prays for us. The
text says that "he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit." I believe the
word "he" in this instance refers to God.
God the Father searches our hearts.
We don't know what to pray, so God sees the prayer of the Holy
Spirit and since God knows the mind of the Spirit, God knows what the
Spirit is praying for, and what the Spirit is praying for is on our
behalf. He is praying for us
and about our concerns.
More
Than Conquerors (ch. 8:28-39) Verse
28 reads, “and we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love Him”. Some
other translations, including the KJV read, “and we know that all things
work together for good…” Do
you see the difference between the two translations.
The former says that “God works for our good in all things”.
The latter says that “all things work for our
good”. It is hard for
me to imagine that all things that happen to me is for my
good. There are many
tragedies in life. What about
a family break up? Is that
good for me? I am not a
language scholar, and I know that some manuscripts translate this verse
differently, but the NIV version
makes more sense to me. God
can work for our good in whatever comes our way.
God can work bad things for our good, but the bad things themselves
can't work for our good. Paul
goes on to qualify the idea that God works for our good.
He says that God will work for the good
of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
I often wonder if I really love God.
I am not sure that I do love Him, using God’s definition of love.
I do believe that I am called to be part of God’s purpose.
I believe that all Christians are first called to God Himself, and
then to participate in His plans. Concerning
love, we could say that we love God as best we can at the moment.
For those of us who try to love God and are called by Him, He will
work with us in whatever comes our way, whether it is good or bad
Verse
28 and 29 are hard verses to understand.
They have been debated and argued over for centuries.
We have two new words here. The
word “foreknew” and the word “predestined”.
The word foreknew is from the Greek word “proginosho”, which
simply means “to know beforehand”.
This is an easy concept for us to understand.
We have no problem with the idea that God knows all things, even
before they happen. The
word “predestined” is a much harder concept to deal with.
This is where the debate over the centuries has taken place. The
Greek word translated here as “predestined” is “proorizo”.
This word means, “to determine beforehand” .
Some say that God predetermines who would be saved.
Those He predetermined have no choice in the matter.
This
viewpoint is not my personal opinion. There are too many “believe and
you shall be saved” verses to contend with when you think this way.
If God makes the choice who will be saved and we can do nothing
about it, why then does He ask us to come to faith?
Why does He ask everyone to believe when He only chooses some to be
saved? Here
in verse 29 Paul says that those God foreknew, He predetermined that they
would be conformed into the likeness of His Son. The reason why we are
being made into the likeness of His Son is so that Jesus can have brothers
like Himself. Verse
30 says that for those God predetermined, He called, then justified, and
lastly glorified. This is the
hard verse due to the chain of sequence.
If Paul would have said, “those He called, he predestined”,
that would be easier to understand, but
he said that those who were predetermined were then called.
Is Paul saying that God chooses ahead of time those who will be
saved? Is he saying that God
chooses people out of the world and then calls them to salvation after He
chooses them? Once again this
thinking neglects all of the ”whosoever will”
verses. It takes away
man’s free will to deny God’s calling for salvation.
I
do not presume to end all the debate that has taken place over the years,
so I will not dwell on the subject. I
will say one more thing. Is it
possible that God has predetermined all mankind to be saved?
By sending Jesus to the cross for the sins of the whole world,
hasn’t He predetermined that all mankind should be saved?
Once predetermining this,
which He did at the cross, He then proceeds to call men and women to
salvation. At this point they
have the choice to respond to the call as free agents. To me this makes
sense. It also fits into the
sequence of foreknowing, predetermining, calling, justifying and then
glorifying. I
think this verse can be simply understood that God predetermines all to be
saved. He then calls everyone
to Himself. Those who accept
His call are justified and eventually glorified into their heavenly bodies
at the end of this age. Notice
in verse 29 that the reason why God calls us is so that we can be
"transformed into the likeness of His Son".
That's Jesus. That is
the goal God has in mind for us. Our
bodies will be redeemed and made new, just like Jesus' earthly body was
made new. Jesus is seen in the
New Testament of the firstborn of many brothers.
We will be like Jesus in one real sense of the word some day,
That being said, He will be eternally distinct from us.
He is the Son of God, we are sons of God, with no capital
"s" . Verse
31 is a great verse. “What,
then, shall we say in response
to this? If God be for us, who
can be against us”. Paul is
saying that if we respond in faith to God’s salvation, He has
predetermined to call, to justify and glorify us.
It is a done deal. Nothing
will get in God’s way. It is
all wrapped up and finished. There
is nothing to worry about when it comes to our eternal destiny. When
Paul says, "what then shall we say …"
The idea here is that God has predetermined that all can be saved.
This predetermination shows that God is for us, and if He is for
us, we will in fact be saved if we accept His call.
The
words "who can be against us" should ring clear in the ears of
Paul's readers. Many
Christians were suffering great persecution by those who opposed them.
If God was on the side of the Christian, the Christian had no
worries, even if they were killed. God
being on the side of Christians does not mean Christians won't suffer.
It means that God will be with them in the midst of their
suffering. In
verse 32 Paul goes on to say that if God gave His only Son to bring
salvation to us, which is the greatest thing He could give, will He not
give us all other things to help us in this great salvation?
If someone gives you a million dollars, he wouldn’t have any
problem giving you ten dollars, would he?
The same with God. He
already gave the greatest gift, so any lesser gift should not be a problem
for Him. That being said, I
don't believe this verse can support the hyper-faith teaching that states
we should expect everything and anything we want from God.
Jesus said that when we ask the Father for anything in Jesus' name
we will receive it. The key
here is the phrase "in Jesus' name".
We represent Jesus on earth. That
is what the words in Jesus' name" means.
So, God will give us anything we need to do His work.
Beyond that, it is His choice to give us anything else that is not
necessary needed to do His work.
In
verse 33 Paul asks, "who will bring any charge against us?"
Whatever charge that is laid against a Christian, assuming that it
is not a legitimate charge, should not bother us.
God is the one who will and has justified us, so what can a charge
from man do? Verse
34 says that Jesus now sits at the right hand of God interceding on our
behalf. If this is the case
who can possibly bring any false charge against us?
Who could possibly condemn us when Christ Himself doesn’t bring
condemnation our way. So
now in this one chapter we see that both the Holy Spirit and Jesus
intercedes on our behalf to God. What
a great privilege. In
verse 35 Paul asks the question, “who or what could possibly separate us
from the love of God?” He
lists a few things that he has experienced like, hardship, persecution and
famine. He goes on to say that
he and his fellow workers are like sheep ready to be killed, yet not even
death itself can separate us from God’s love.
In reality death brings us closer to God’s love. God has
predestined us to a glorious future with Him, and if God has decided on
that, then nothing can change His plans.
Paul knew God's presence in the midst of all the trouble he went
through. In
verse 36 Paul quotes from Psa. 44:22.
He links himself and those ministering with him, with sheep being
sent to slaughter, as this Psalm speaks of.
Simply put, Paul viewed his life as being one of on the road to
certain death. He laid aside
his life for the life of others, just as Jesus Himself did, to whom the
Bible also states that He was a sheep heading to the slaughter.
The church today would be in much better shape if our present
leaders had the same mentality In
verse 37 Paul states that in all these bad things that happen to him, he
is more than a conqueror, but not only him, but all of us.
He says "we" are conquerors.
This is not mere positive thinking.
This is a conviction of Paul's heart based on the power of the Holy
Spirit. Paul is not being humanistic here, saying he can conquer in his
own strength.
Paul
closes the chapter in verses 38 and 39 by saying that he is
“convinced” that there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from
God’s love that has been demonstrated in Christ Jesus. May we have this
same conviction. We
often think, and actually allow such bad things that come our way to
separate us from God, but it's not really the bad things that does the
separating. It is us.
We choose to separate
from God because of the way we view bad things in our lives.
The
word "convinced" is important here.
Paul was totally convinced. We
need to be totally convinced, but many of us aren't.
The Holy Spirit, along with the study of the Word of God should
help us be convinced of all these things.
If we are not so convinced, we have a problem, and these bad things
in life will drag us down.
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