Evil s Lost Grip SIN & CONDEMNATION sin condemnation

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1 1 SERIES: SERMON: Evil s Lost Grip Rom. 8:1-11, SIN & CONDEMNATION The true freedom we have from sin (by Jesus salvation from its penalty and liberation from its power) and condemnation (through Christ s atonement, justification, and redemption) also gives us freedom from Satan. We have to understand these first in order to fully appreciate our freedom from the Evil One himself. His greatest goal is our separation from God and his greatest tool to this end is our condemnation which is fueled by our sins. Yet when we bring up Satan, many inside and outside of the Church find the very concept embarrassing. Often we hear, You don t really believe in a guy with horns in a red suit running around bothering people, do you? Others think it irresponsible to have a belief in Satan since it gives us the free chance to act horrendously with the devil made me do it claims. And yet despite all of our hang-ups with him, Satan is in countless cartoons and films, has sports teams named after him, as well as a vacuum and even his own cake. Many American churches feel they have progressed past talking about the devil and treat him as a metaphor, an ancient cultural icon that our ancestors used to personify evil. A few thoughts for us to keep in mind: 1. We don t have to believe in the caricaturization of Satan in order to believe that he is real just as we don t have to disbelieve in God because we disbelieve for example in Michelangelo s anthropomorphic depiction of God reaching an arm out to touch Adam. 2. It s better to ask, How did Satan get to be depicted as he is in our pop culture? especially since the Bible doesn t describe him that way. Our depictions usually tell us more about us than those being drawn. R.C. Sproul notes positively that the horned, goat-like image we are familiar with first appeared in the Middle Ages when people actually took Satan very seriously. The depiction was made as a joke on Satan to attack him where he s most vulnerable his pride. Again, just because our image of Satan has mythological roots (in Pan for example), doesn t mean Satan is mythological. 3. While our culture might be intellectually embarrassed by Satan and personified evil, our wallets and hearts are enthralled by both. Look at the movies and stories that captivate us with tales of ultimate good versus ultimate evil, sinister bad guys overtaken by the righteous and just good guy, and the

2 2 universe saved from imminent destruction at the hands of evil by some unlikely hero. Fairytales to blockbusters, our hearts are moved by evil being overcome and our interest reveals our belief in such things or else they wouldn t be so compelling. And if the claim of the Bible is true that this is the story of history, the narrative of life then we have it backwards. The Bible s depiction of evil and Satan are not borrowed from myth, but all myths and stories are echoes and shadows of the real deal the ultimate reality. 4. Lastly, Jesus took evil and Satan quite seriously. That tells me I too should consider carefully who Satan is and what he s after. Jesus told us to pray for protection from the evil one and let Peter in on reality when our Lord shared that Satan was after Peter. Moreover, if we are to take Jesus seriously, we have to take Satan seriously. If Satan is merely metaphor then who was Jesus talking to in the wilderness during His temptation? As we come to understand Satan and our freedom from him thanks to Christ s victory, we have to first zoom out a bit to see the bigger picture. The Bible teaches that evil has a status apart from and independent of any individual human will, a subsistence of its own, an organized or structured basis. We refer to this as the world (Greek kosmos). This refers to a virtual spiritual force, the antitheses of the kingdom of God. It is the embodiment of evil, found especially in the writings of John and Paul, although elsewhere in the NT. This evil system is under the control of the devil, Satan, who is able to use the world s resources to accomplish his purposes and oppose those of Christ. So let s focus on Romans 8 to see again what condemnation is and isn t, the relationship and role of the Law in all of this, and how belonging to Christ we can no longer be condemned and thus no longer ruled or claimed by Satan. To do so we have to look at: I. Who Satan Is (and isn t) His origins + nature in Scripture (see ) His power: This evil system (the world) is under the control of the devil. Paul noted this in Ephesians 2:2 when he wrote the ruler of the kingdom of the air) and John said that the whole world is under control of the evil one (1 Jn. 5:9). Jesus right before his betrayal said that the prince of this world is coming

3 3 in Jn. 14:30. Behind, and in a sense over all of the authorities exercising control in the world, there is a far greater power; they are merely agents, perhaps unwittingly. Satan actually is the ruler of this domain. This is why Satan offering Jesus all of the kingdoms of this world (Matt. 4:8-9) was not an idle or exaggerated boast but reality. These kingdoms lie within his power or they would not be very tempting. Yet, they are not rightfully his or earned by him and one day they will be fully delivered from that control which he now exercises as a usurper (thief). He has physical powers to cause physical harm including deafness, dumbness and bodily affliction; he can orchestrate the possession of bodies which sometimes can have supernatural strength. In Job s trials, Satan seems to be able to control natural elements and armies as well as cause sores on Job s body. He has spiritual powers to accuse the church, etc. His limits- What he is not: He is not a god, not even a lesser god. He is not the yin to God s yang in some sort of dualistic system. He is a creature. He is a fallen angel or demon (while being the ruler of demons). He does not possess God s incommunicable characteristics such as omnipotence, omnipresence, or omniscience. II. What Satan Wants: Separation from God (which is death) He is not ultimately concerned with making you miserable but making you curse God and die. Making you miserable and discontent with your Maker or helping you be rich if that will make you feel God is not necessary are both means to the true end. He does this often in Scripture through: Temptation: The Grass is Greener over There. He tells us that what we really need to be free, to be happy, to be successful, be OK, and to be justified is something more than God tells us we need. Adam and Eve can eat of any tree except one but Satan tells them that this is not true freedom. They won t be truly free until they can do anything they want, get what is over there and become autonomous. The temptation is to believe that something other than Jesus Christ will satisfy your deepest longings and meaning for your life. Lies: Punch Your Own Ticket. Job s great trial is coming to terms with God s authority and supremacy as well as His grace. Job s family and friends want to convince him that we are really in control in some karmic system of do-good-get-good. What Job needs, the world keeps

4 4 telling him, is just to perform the truth better. What he needs though is God and God alone to save and sustain him. The most powerful lie is that we can and need to somehow earn our own salvation, to punch our own ticket to paradise through our morality, our piety, or our freethinking open-mindedness. When you scan world religions and cults this principle is amazingly at the root of almost all. Accusation: Grace Isn t Enough. Satan s other great tactic is to remind you of what you have done and then tell you who you are. He would love you to believe his accusations as he loudly shouts to try and drown out God s claims of personal grace and mercy on your life. He tells us, You re a sinner and you always will be, you ll never be worthy of being with God. Through Condemnation: You re Mine. What Satan would love to convince you of is that your sin and your spiritual status as a sinner forever render you hopeless to live with Christ. Condemnation really means the death sentence hanging over your soul and your life for all that you are and have done. It is just that sinners are punished and it is reality that sinners cannot be with such a holy, righteous God as we have. Satan wants to convince you that what Jesus did on the Cross was not enough for you to be saved and shouts condemnation into our ears. III. How Christ Fulfilled the Law and Won the Victory Law and condemnation unearthed (vv.1-2,4-8) The apostle s concern here is pastoral. Paul is telling his readers, in light of the foregoing reminder of their continuing sinfulness; they must now recall their acceptance, immunity, and security in Christ. This Undoes Temptation as autonomy exposed as a hoax. The lie that there is something better around the corner, something grander, freer in doing it your way leads only to death. Christ s victory gives us security that we are (1) saved, (2) free and fully justified, and (3) secure in Him, we don t need anything else. Law Explained Law here means the operative, controlling power (7:23 says a law of sin). The Mosaic Law is not abandoned but still of value to us; not erased. Verse 4 tells us though that Law was not designed to be a means of salvation but as a moral and ethical guide, obeyed out of love for God and by the Law of the Spirit the power that the Spirit provides as He fills us and takes over running the show of our

5 5 lives. The law of the Spirit doesn t set me from obeying God s ways, but frees me to actually obey them fully, in my heart and through my body and thoughts and thus be truly free. LIES erased by TRUTH: Condemnation Undone: Sin Offering (vv.3-4) Jesus undoes the lie that you have to earn your own way and that somehow you can save yourself. Law exposes sin like a mirror, it can t clean it. Just as trying to wipe my face clean with a mirror is ridiculous, trying harder to save myself by performing the very laws which expose my sin will never work. In fact this leads in many ways to more sin as when I see my sin (which is from my own pride and selfcenteredness) and then I say, I ll try harder, I can do it on my own, and if I focus more I ll get the payoff in paradise. Guess what this inner power is just disguised pride and my means and goal are both, yes, you guessed it self-centered. Law cannot overcome sin it can point out, condemn, and even stimulate sin but can t remove its root cause. Someone has to pay and God pays Sin offering: Christ fully man (looks like sinful man), as the deceiver tries to pass looking like an angel of light, God comes looking lowly, unsuspecting, undignified as a common man. The Accuser says you stand condemned, guilty in God s eyes. But Christ undoes that condemnation by condemning sin itself, and Satan is left naked, undone with nothing to say to God. Paul is saying that in the crucifixion of the incarnate Son of God sin was judged and condemned, so that now all its claims to have us condemned have become invalid. There is no condemnation remaining for those who are in Christ. Don t miss the beauty here the sin than condemns is condemned. Christ condemns the condemning sin and what is condemnation but a death sentence for those deserving death. Jesus condemns sin puts it to death because it deserves to be put to death justice has been served. And he does this so that righteousness can blossom not merely the absence of sin and death but the flowering and flourishing of what this life is all about life with Life himself, righteousness pouring through your veins and you living free to be exactly who God designed you to be living not according to sinful nature of the fall but according to the Spirit as true worshippers of God. Death + Resurrection: Christ s and Ours (vv.2, 9-11) Christ undoes Satan s Accusations that grace is not sufficient. The devil loves to accuse, You re not any different. You haven t changed, as well as charge that Jesus Cross was too good to be true, it can t cover all of your sins. But the reality Paul points us to is that it wasn t cheap or

6 6 easy but mirroring language of Genesis 22:2, the apostle lets us know how much it cost God How does this happen that the law of righteousness is fulfilled? It is an imparted righteousness. We have Christ s righteousness to our credit which removes the penalty of sin which is condemnation and the Spirit coming in us to live which removes the power of sin. Christ s righteousness is now ours as His unmerited gift. We live because the Spirit who is Life lives inside us. Christians are not mere creatures doing moral works but embodied spirits with God himself living inside, animating, moving and guiding us to be increasingly like Him. Christ s resurrection and promise of our own is proof that not only have we changed but everything has changed. The world no longer has control over us and we are not merely now more moral people but we are entirely new people, new creations formed in Christ, ruled by Christ, raised with Christ. Don t sell yourselves short. Do go back to performance or belief that this is too good to be true it is how God is always working, making something out of nothing, giving life to the dead, and raising up people to be in His presence. Some notes here: The body physically dies, even for Christians, as it is subject in the material to the consequence of sin but the spirit, controlled by God s Spirit lives. Spiritual death is undone. The great news is that one day soon enough even physical decay, the consequence of sin, will be undone. Your resurrection is assured and the Spirit s control over your life now, producing in you the holy life of Christ, is proof that your resurrection is sealed the same power and presence of God living in and animating you now and which raised Christ then will in the near future also resurrect you physically and you will be complete, embodied spirit, as were Adam and Eve, but dare we say better. 8:9 11 Christians are not in Adam, dominated by the flesh, but are under the rule of Christ, because the Spirit who dwells in them is the Spirit of Christ (see The Holy Spirit at John 14:26). Though the body is still subject to death, life prevails because those united with Christ live to God in the sphere of the Spirit. The duality in view here is not simply the distinction between the physical and spiritual sides of a believer s life, but between two spheres of existence bodily life in a fallen world with its ever present physical death, and life in the Spirit, a participation in the resurrection of Christ (1:4). 8:10-11: Christ and the Holy Spirit work together in applying the resurrected life of Christ to the believer. The Spirit s presence now is

7 7 a guarantee of the future bodily resurrection of the believer (v. 11). Verse 11 is also a Trinitarian account of the realization of salvation, presupposing the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their essential being, just as they are united in the complex work of redemption. Raised Heirs with a new Father (vv.9-10,15-17) Christ undoes Condemnation with Adoption. You re rightfully Christ s not Satan s as condemnation kept you away, resurrection draws you in to the family of Christ and right relationship with the Father. Every inch of reality is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan. Life in Christ through His victory means that you do not belong to Satan and you do not belong to yourself, or this world. When God freed Israel from 400 years of slavery and inhuman life, slaves to the will of another master, He freed them to be His, to be adopted by Him. He said he would dwell with His people. That language picks up here the claim on your life is God s. We are children, we are heirs. We are adopted children of the Most High God, the Lord and Savior of the world children of the one who placed the stars and came down to redeem your very life, who even knows the hairs on your head. Are you truly living like this with all of its confidence and freedom, to even be able to call God daddy (8:15-17) IV. Application for daily life Take the devil very seriously but remember he s defeated Give no footholds to sin; Give no audience to condemnation Sanctification: Verse 12 s Therefore gives us our application. Sin originates in the heart, the spiritual center of our being, including the will (Mark 7:18 23). But since we live in physical bodies, sin finds expression through the body. Therefore, not only at the inner points of origin, but also in its

8 8 bodily expressions, sin must be put to death, that is, terminated (6:12, 13; 12:1). This is an active co-working with the Spirit who guides, empowers and convicts us of sin. As we grow in sanctification, we give Satan less and less ammunition and time to attack us. Sanctification also means that we: Pray for equipping of the Holy Spirit Ephesians 6:10-20 is all about this and powerfully practical. It says pray always in the Spirit. Jesus Lord s Prayer says to daily ask for deliverance from the Evil One it is a proper name (NKJV gets this right, some others do not). This is a daily, crucial battle and we are to actively ask the Lord for His protection. Read + Accept Scripture, appropriate the promises and truth of your salvation and Jesus Christ s salvation-history. Again Eph. 6 doesn t offer these things automatically they must be put on which means to put on victory, to put on Christ. Satan doesn t want you reading your Bible to know the truth and accept it as yours. He would love your mind to stay untransformed and not be renewed with the truth of who God is and what He is doing. Worship + Praise your victorious champion as you turn your heart and mind to God and away from the lesser things of this world and its prince. We need to give God the glory for His victory and sacrifice which brought us through the cross and resurrection back to the Father. 1 John 3:8 (NIV) 8 The one who makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil s work.