BAPTISTWAY PRESS Adult Online Bible Commentary By Dr. Jim Denison, Pastor, Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas Studies in Romans: What God Is Up To Lesson Eight It s God s Life in You Focal Text Romans 8:1-11 Background Romans 7:1 8:11 Main Idea The way to real life is through neither surrendering to sin nor keeping the rules but through allowing God s Spirit to dwell within us by faith in Christ. Question to Explore What is the way to real life? Quick Read When we choose to practice the presence of Christ, we experience the victory the Spirit gives the children of God. Commentary Last year I had the delightful experience of receiving a traffic ticket. The police officer believed I made an illegal left turn. I believed I did not (and haven t changed my mind). So, rather than pay the fine and be done with the whole frustrating affair, I prepared to plead my case. I planned posters and pictures to show the judge how my turn was in accordance with posted signs, and I prepared to explain why I should be acquitted with the apologies of the court. Fortunately, I happened to tell a lawyer friend about my upcoming day in court and described to him my well-prepared defense. He grinned at me and said, Please don t do that. He asked whether I had ever seen Perry Mason on television and was at all familiar with the concept of due process. He then explained that if I contested this ticket, the Page 1 of 8 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations in Adult Online Bible Commentary are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (North American Edition), copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
arresting officer would be obligated to tell his side of the story. My friend was sure that the policeman would be much more effective than my poster and pictures in convincing the judge of my guilt. So he made a few phone calls and obtained deferred adjudication for me. In layman s terms, that s driving probation. As long as I didn t get another ticket in the next six months, the charges would be expunged from my otherwise pristine driving record, and all would be well. I can assure you that my driving habits for the next six months were careful in the extreme. I am now off probation and a law-abiding citizen again. Deferred adjudication is a way to clear your driving record, but it s not an option for your soul. The holy God of the universe is a righteous Judge before whom we must all stand one day (Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10). When we do, our secret sins will be judged: God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Jesus confirmed it: There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs (Luke 12:2-3). Our words will be judged: I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken (Matthew 12:36-37). After listing all sorts of sin, Peter declared that those who do such things will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead (1 Peter 4:5). No one is innocent before the perfect standard of our holy God (see Romans 3:23). All of us deserve to be found guilty in God s court and banished from God s sinless presence forever. That s why Romans 8:1 is some of the best news in all of Scripture: There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? How can this be? What does this promise mean to your soul and class this week? Know why you were lost (Romans 7) As we have seen, Paul wrote Romans in part to call God s people in Rome together in Christ. Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, are all welcome in the family of our Father. How is it possible for people from the entire spectrum of class and race divisions to live in such unity? The answer lies in our common problem and God s common answer. All of us, Jews and Gentiles alike, are subject to the wrath of God against our sins (Rom. 1:18). We commit the same transgressions we condemn in others (2:1), for Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin (3:9). As Abraham was justified by his faith, not his works, so can we be: the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham s offspring not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all (4:16). Page 2 of 8
We have all inherited Adam s sin nature (5:12), and we can all be saved by God s grace through Christ (5:17). We have been slaves to sin in the past, but we can live free from sin and slaves to righteousness instead (6:18). Every Christian has been released from life by the law so that we can live by the grace of our Lord (7:1-6). As we share our sin problem, so we share God s gracious solution in Jesus. As a result, Jews who keep the law have no advantage over Gentiles who do not know it. To a people who inherited centuries of bias against Gentiles, Paul s argument must have come as a great shock. It would help that he was himself a Pharisee of the Pharisees (Acts 23:6) and that he had been as zealous for the law as any of his readers (Philippians 3:6). But still his Jewish audience must have wondered what value the law possesses if it does not make its adherents any more righteous than the Gentiles. The Apostle, anticipating this question, responded with one of the most debated passages in all his letters. Romans 7:7-25 explains that the law serves the valuable function of showing us our need for saving grace. In summary, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, [the law] produced death in me through what was good (Rom. 7:13). God gave the law to demonstrate the kind of perfection we must attain if we would earn our way into his presence. Against such a standard, none of us can qualify. So the Gentiles are no less acceptable to God than the Jews, for all have sinned against the holiness of God. The logic of Paul s statement is clear. But interpreters continue to debate the nature of his argument. The section is written autobiographically and contains one of the most confessional statements in the New Testament: I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it (Rom. 7:18-20). Paul concluded, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (7:24). The question is: Did Paul speak for himself or for all Jews? Scholars have defended all sides of the debate. Some believe Paul was describing himself before meeting Jesus. Others say he was confessing his continuing struggle with sin even after becoming a Christian. Still others assert that Paul was speaking for his Jewish nation in their doomed struggle to keep the word and will of God. There are reasons to adopt or reject each position. Fortunately, none of them affects Paul s logic. Whether he was speaking for himself or for all Israel, his point is clear: the law cannot save us, but it can show us our need of salvation. So having the law makes the Page 3 of 8
Jews no more acceptable to God than the Gentiles. We can each find unity in Christ, for we all share the same sin problem. Know why you are saved (8:1-4) Paul s plaintive cry, Who will rescue me from this body of death? (7:24), sparks one of the most magnificent chapters in all the word of God. Many consider Romans 8 the mountaintop of Scripture. It is my favorite chapter in all the Bible. In it Paul elaborated on his answer to our problem: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (7:25). Why such praise? For this reason: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (8:1-2). Therefore connects Paul s answer to his question: all are lost in sin, but all can be saved in Christ. To be in Christ Jesus means to enter into a personal relationship with him, to know him personally. When Paul chose this way to God, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (8:2). The Holy Spirit liberated Paul from bondage to sin and the death it produces, and set him free for life eternal. What the Spirit did for Paul, he has done for each of us. Follow Paul s logic The law could not save us from our sins, for our sinful nature kept us from obeying it fully (8:3). But the sinless Son of God could pay our debt as our sin offering (8:3). Only a sinless person could do this. If Jesus had committed sin, his death at Calvary would have been just punishment for his transgression. Because Jesus was sinless in every way (Hebrews 4:15), he owed no debt to death. So Jesus death could be applied to our spiritual account, canceling our debt and setting us free. Now the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us (Rom. 8:4a) since we no longer live by our old sinful nature but by the Spirit. With the help of the Spirit of God, we can fulfill the law and purpose of God. We can keep God s law as it was intended, satisfying its demands by the power and help of our Lord. God s righteous law is fulfilled, while our sins are forgiven. All of this is accomplished by the atonement of Jesus for us. Consider Paul s logic in this way. Let s say that I created and embedded a virus in this commentary so that it infected your computer when you uploaded it. (I actually don t know any more about a computer virus than the one that causes the common cold, but humor me.) My virus ruins your hard drive and costs you much time and money. I clearly owe you a new computer and payment for all you have lost. But I don t have the money to pay my debt, so that you still need a computer and I am sentenced to prison. Page 4 of 8
In steps the BaptistWay editor. He has done nothing wrong and owes you nothing. He certainly has no obligation to help me pay my debt and avoid my just sentence. But he graciously chooses to purchase a new computer for every reader whose hard drive was damaged by my malice. He then persuades the court to allow him to pay my fines and serve my prison sentence. Now you are made whole, and I am set free. All because he paid a debt he didn t owe, by grace. 1 This is God s love for us in his Son. All of us, no matter our sins and failures, are offered the same grace. The church can find unity in Christ, no matter our past, because we share the same present and future. We are forgiven, saved, restored. This is what Jesus has done for us. Paul s logic is persuasive and powerful. How else could God maintain his holiness and righteousness in the face of our sin and yet restore his sinful creation to himself? If God waived the law, God would be less than just, for the law expresses God s expectations and very nature. He would have to be less than holy to allow less than holy people to dwell in his eternal presence. But if God punished our transgressions, none of us could be with our Father. Our sin would defeat God s purpose in creating us for fellowship with himself. God s only option was to provide a sinless sacrifice in our place: Someone who could satisfy the righteous demands of the law by his own perfect life and then pay sin s penalty with his own death (see Rom. 6:23). The atonement of Jesus was the one solution to God s dilemma and our lost condition. Rejoice in God s grace The genius of this solution is one of the many reasons I am persuaded that Christianity alone offers us the true way to God. All other religions in human history compromise on one side or the other of this dilemma. For instance, the Greeks and Romans observed a legalism that anyone could meet with enough effort, but they worshiped gods who were little better than humans and certainly nothing like the holy Lord of the universe. Many of the world s religions follow their example in requiring sacrifices and obedience that are well within human capacity but cannot cleanse sin or appease the justice of a truly righteous God. Other religions offer no assurance of salvation in heaven. They see God s demands as so righteous, God s justice so unwavering, that none can be sure of forgiveness. In this light, no Muslim, for instance, can be certain he or she will be in heaven (apart from dying in a declared holy war in defense of Islam). Buddhists and Hindus have no concept of personal forgiveness and salvation, offering only the assurance that we will one day be absorbed into reality and cease to exist. Page 5 of 8
Only Christianity requires the highest standards of holiness and then offers us a way to meet them. Only by following Jesus can our sins be forgiven, our salvation assured, and our lives empowered to please God. There is now no condemnation, but only for those who are in Christ Jesus (8:1). When last did you invite your class members to receive this gift? When last did you lead the Christians in your Bible study to express their gratitude for this grace? Live in the freedom of God (8:5-11) If Christians alone are set free from sin and death, why do we still sin? Why do preachers and other spiritual leaders make headlines regularly with their moral failures? Why does nearly every church have a story about a fallen staff member or congregational leader? How does Paul s logic, reasonable though it is, reflect reality? For this reason: God still permits believers the freedom with which we chose to enter his family by faith. We have become the children of God, but we must choose to live by our new family s standards. We are like children rescued from a tragically broken family and neighborhood where we learned all kinds of sinful, manipulative behavior. Now we have been adopted by parents who love us and want only the best for us. But we can stay away from home, spend time with our old friends and family, and abuse the privileges of our new family. All such sin does not change the fact that we belong legally to a new family it only shows we have not chosen to be who we really are. Those who have not trusted Christ as their Lord have no such choice. They are still living according to their sinful nature and doing what it requires, while those who are made alive by the Spirit do what he wishes (8:5). The mind of sinful man knows only death, while the mind of the Christian knows life and peace (8:6). Those who are still controlled by the sinful nature cannot keep God s law or please him (8:7-8). But when the Spirit of God comes to live in believers, he breaks the control of the sinful nature and substitutes his own in its place (8:9a). This spiritual exchange has occurred for all Christians, since we must have the Spirit of Christ to belong to Christ (8:9b). When we make Christ our Lord or, as we say, ask Jesus into our heart, it is actually the Holy Spirit who takes up residence in our lives (see 1 Cor. 3:16) while Jesus is praying for us at the right hand of the Father in glory (Hebrews 10:12; Rom. 8:34). Now our body (signifying our sinful nature) is dead (decaying and dying) while our spirit is alive to live righteously (8:10). The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will one day raise our mortal bodies to life eternal (8:11). So we have the answer to Paul s cry, Who will rescue me from this body of death? (7:24). The solution is simple: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (7:25). Page 6 of 8
The Spirit of God is the presence and power of God in our daily lives. We are in the Spirit when we trust in Jesus (8:9a), for the Spirit of God lives in you (8:9b). He is the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ made present in our lives (8:9-10). All of God there is, is living in us by his Spirit today. So you and I are set free from our sinful nature by the Spirit of God because of the atoning work of the Son of God. We no longer have to sin. In the classic formulation of St. Augustine (A.D. 354-430), we were posse peccare (able to sin) before the Fall, and we tragically used our freedom to do so. Then we were non posse non peccare (not able not to sin), for our sinful nature dominated us. When we trusted in Christ as our Lord, we became posse non peccare (able not to sin), for we can choose to live by the power and nature of the Spirit who lives in us. When we are with God in heaven we will be non posse peccare (not able to sin). 2 In the meantime, you and I can choose to submit to the Spirit and live in the freedom and victory our Savior bought for us. This is not a decision we can make today for tomorrow, but one we determine every moment of every hour. If we ask the Spirit to fill and control us at the start of the day (Ephesians 5:18) and then meet God in God s word and worship, we are beginning the day by connecting to the power of God s Spirit. If we pray through the day about our problems and opportunities, confessing sin as soon as we commit it, spending our moments in the presence of Jesus, we will live in the abundant life of our Lord. Conversely, if we choose to live in self-reliance, submitting to the values and priorities of our fallen culture, we will forfeit the significance and joy Jesus gives. The decision is yours and mine, every day. Encouraging your class to choose the presence and priorities of Jesus is one of the greatest gifts you can give them this week. Conclusion This week we have found yet another reason to celebrate our unity in Jesus. We share the same sin problem with every person we know, regardless of his or her background in the faith. But we also share the same salvation solution in Christ. When we celebrate our freedom from sin by faith in Jesus and choose to practice his presence each day, the world will see his victory in our lives and want what we have. A young boy was fishing with his grandfather. As they sat talking in the boat, the boy confessed he had been having bad thoughts lately being angry with his sister, wanting to steal from his little brother, being untruthful with his parents. But he knew he should do what was right, and he wanted to do better. He told his grandfather that it felt as though there were two dogs living inside him, one bad and one good, fighting all the time. Which one will win? he asked. Page 7 of 8
His wise grandfather smiled and replied, The one you feed. Which have you fed this week? See www.baptistwaypress.org for additional study materials on Romans: What God Is Up To and on other Bible studies by BaptistWay Press, or call 1-866-249-1799 (M-Th 8:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.; Fri 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. central time). A recent book by Dr. Denison, The Bible You Can Believe It: Biblical Authority in the Twenty-First Century, is available from BAPTISTWAY PRESS. The cost is $4.95 each plus shipping, handling, and any applicable taxes. A Teaching Guide is available for $1.95 plus shipping and handling. 1 The BaptistWay Press editor reminds the reader that this is only an illustration! 2 See Augustine, Enchiridion 104-106, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, repr. 1988), 3:271. Page 8 of 8