Well, our sermon text this morning, or our
scripture reading comes from Romans chapter 8, verses
1 through 4. So here now, the word
of the living God.
There is therefore
now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus, for
the law of the spirit of life
has set you free in Christ Jesus, from
the law of sin and death.
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 a sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirements
of the law might be fulfilled
in us,
who walk not according to the flesh, but
according
to the spirit. This is the word of
the Lord.
Thanks be to God. You may be seated.
Well this Lord's day, we begin our journey
into what many people consider
the most beloved chapter of the entire Bible,
if not for sure the New Testament.
Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer called,
Romans chapter 8, the masterpiece of the New
Testament.
And one pastor in a commentary that I
read wrote,
if the Holy Scripture was a ring and
the entire
epistle of the Romans, its precious stone,
Romans 8 would be the sparkling point of
the jewel.
Some of the reasons why Romans Chapter 8
is so cherished and beloved by God's people,
some of those reasons are because it points
us to the future hope that awaits us
in communion and union with our God.
Romans chapter 8, assures us of our salvation
as well, and it also reminds us very
powerfully about
the inseparable love that God has for his
people.
And my prayer this morning is that
all of us would come to understand, come
to a fuller, comprehensive
and exhaustive grasp
of what Roman Romans 8 has to say,
and in particular, verses 1 through 4, and
really the application of it upon
the Christian faith life and practice. I hope
that we come to love and say the
exact same things that Martin Luther and that
pastor said, after we're all done in the
next couple of weeks with Romans chapter 8.
And so by way of introduction, let us
go ahead and begin,
and step into Romans chapter 8. If you
are someone who takes notes,
I have an outline for us this morning
and it's threefold. The Christian Promise,
the Christian's Security,
and the Christian's Assurance.
And so beginning with our first heading,
the Christian's Promise. Look with me at verse
1.
Paul writes, there is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are
in
Christ Jesus.
And now there's 5 things that I want
to note for us this morning just in
verse 1. We'll be spending a lot of
our time in verse 1, and then I'll
move fairly quickly through the other 2.
The first thing that I want us to
notice is the word therefore. Very much like
the English word therefore,
Also in the Greek, it's sometimes used to
sort of come to a conclusion in an
argument,
to wrap up sort of the point that
you're making. And and I I make I
wanna bring that point up because Paul is
not using it in
that way. And and we know that because,
well Paul continues to write for another 7
chapters.
Right. So he's not coming to a final
conclusion. He is not wrapping up the book
of Romans.
Rather what Paul is doing, he is actually
making a shift.
He is making a shift to really the
implications and applications of everything that he has
been saying since Roman 1, Romans 1 all
the way to 7, which is that we
are,
sort of distill it down to one point.
What Paul said from Romans 1 through 7
is that, all of man is justified. We
are saved and we stand before our Creator
through faith
in Christ Jesus. And so, what Paul is
doing by that word therefore, he's making a
pivot. He is now shifting to belief
to behavior.
From doctrine
to duty. And I think this really speaks
upon,
something else about the Christian life and that,
the Christian life and Christianity itself is not
simply about just filling our heads with knowledge,
but
also allowing that knowledge to seep into our
heart and out into our hands. We don't
just believe things for the sake of believing,
but we believe it because God has told
us, but we also live it out in
our lives. And this is the reason why
Paul is making this pivot.
The second observation is that, the shift deals
with a present application.
This pivot deals with a present application and
and I just want us to look at
verse 1 again. Paul does not say, there
is therefore a baby. Right? Some sort of
probability.
He also does not say that there is
therefore soon, some sort of event that's out
there in the future. But look at the
text. He says, rather, Paul writes, there is
therefore
now.
This is a present application. This is a
present
implication of the gospel.
Which leads to the third observation, which is,
that this present application deals with the subject
of condemnation.
This word condemnation is not something that we
use in our everyday vernacular.
We might see it on some occasions or
hear the word, but it's not something that
we use every day. And I think it's
important for us to learn what this word
condemnation means,
because it's a biblical word.
Something that Paul uses and there's a concept
behind it that we ought
to understand and it's really foundational
for grasping the gospel.
That Greek word which means condemnation in the
Greek,
means two things. It means the pronouncement of
guilt, first thing. And the second thing that
it means,
is
the adjudication
of punishment. So the pronouncement of guilt and
the adjudication
of punishment. This is what the Greek word
means for condemn.
Today when people use the word condemn, it's
very few situations. It's often used and typically
used only in the sense of a pronouncement
of guilt.
And we see this really played out in
the realm of politics and the media. You'll
see a journalist come up to a politician
and say, you know, mister president, do you
condemn this?
Or
mister senator,
you condemned your colleague for this and this.
Right? And and what you see is that
the journalist is asking this question. He's trying
to get the politician to condemn, make a
pronouncement, to publicly express really,
some sort of complete disapproval.
And it's used in that way in our
society. But there's no really force, some form
of punishment that comes after. It's just a
pronouncement of guilt.
But the place that we do see, both
the pronouncement of guilt and also the adjudication
of, of of the adjudication and punishment of
of of that guilt,
is in the courthouse.
We have our court system. It's working Monday
through Saturday
and
the word condemnation, and especially in the way
in which Paul would use it,
it's fairly acted out in exactly that way
in the court of law.
Today, judges really condemn people by both a
condemnation, a pronouncement and also a punishment.
When the day, the verdict day comes, when
the judgment day comes, if you will, the
defendant or the person who was accused of
a particular charge or crime,
will stand with his lawyer before the judge,
and what the judge will do is read
both the the, you know, what court they're
in. He will read the the the case
number, the charge, and he'll read the verdict
out loud.
And it's at this moment, I think everybody
has seen this, if you've watched TV or
seen videos of a of a judge pronounce,
this, that make the pronouncement of guilt.
And he'll either say 2 things, guilty or
not guilty.
Guilty or not guilty. You'll hear a judge
say something like, We, the jury, in count
1,
the charge of first degree murder, first degree
penalty.
We, the jury, find the defendant,
John Doe,
guilty.
I've seen many videos of the pronouncement of
guilt by a judge upon a defendant,
and the reaction is instant disapproval, if not
anger.
And even in some cases,
the person just collapses
because of the actual
verdict. And typically, when that's the case, it's
because they know what comes next,
which is the adjudication
of the punishment. And you've have you ever
seen, you know, even some videos of when
a a remorse that happens in the family
of the depend of the defendant. The defendant
is very, terrified as well in some cases.
Well, dear friends, when we read our Bible
and we come across the word
condemnation,
a scene in our mind of you really
standing before the throne of God on the
day of judgment,
should really enter your mind.
The Bible speaks of the day of judge
judgment very clearly, from the old testament all
the way to the new testament very consistently.
And it's a reality. And I would say
it's all of our realities.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 14 says, God will
bring every deed into judgment with every secret
thing, whether good or evil.
Jesus speaks about it. He says, I tell
you, on the day of judgment, people will
give an account
for every careless
word they speak.
Once again, this is a future reality for
all man mankind. It's something the Bible
speaks about.
And with that being said, I wanna ask
everybody here,
how will you stand before God on judgment
day?
Have you considered that?
What will you tell him?
Or in fact, I think the more important
question is, what will he tell you
on that day?
Middle schoolers and high schoolers,
I think we need to think about this
question as well.
There's no
age requirement to enter or to stand and
before the throne of God on the day
of judgment.
Everybody will stand
before
him. And dear church, the question about your
standing before God is really the most important
question that you could ever ask, and it's
also the most important question that you could
ever pursue to answer. Because it very much
is the difference between life and death.
But I want to submit to us, looking
back at verse 1, that really the answer
is found in verse 1.
You don't have to look far.
Look with me again at verse 1, leads
to my 4th observation.
And that is that the Day of Judgment
has already been announced for some.
Let's look at the text again. Paul writes,
There is therefore now
no condemnation
for those who are in Christ.
And what Paul is saying is that God's
verdict, the verdict that awaits all of us
on the day of judgment,
has already been announced for some.
In other words, there are some people that
already know their standing before God,
before they ever entered into his court,
for the day of verdict.
It's like it's been moved up. They already
know.
This is the observation. It is now. It
is present. The Lord has already made his
pronouncement.
And this is the verdict.
No condemnation.
And lastly, the other thing, last thing we
wanna notice about verse 1, is who exactly
are these people?
Paul does not say that there are, is
therefore
no condemnation
for the Jews or no, therefore now, no
condemnation for the Gentiles or therefore now, no
condemnation for those who go to church or
who participate in social justice.
Paul also doesn't say that there is therefore
now, no condemnation
for me
or for the Romans.
In fact, he mentioned something that's very important
for us because
the small preposition in this great noun,
transcends
space and time, Old Testament and New Testament.
Any any region,
but rather a people that are found in
God himself.
The small preposition
in
and this noun,
which is Christ Jesus appears over a 160
times in the New Testament.
These people who are not condemned are those
people that are in Christ.
And the phrase is shorthand to describe really
the chief blessing of the Christian life, which
is union
with Christ.
The narrowest
description, or rather, is the narrowest description of
what a Christian is. A Christian is not
so much one that follows Christ, but rather,
more specifically, one that is found in Christ.
In Christ is intended to remind us, to
communicate to us,
that everybody who believes in Christ for salvation,
that they are spiritually
and mystically,
yet separately
and really,
inseparably and really join to our savior.
We're really united with him and the Bible
talks about this in multiple places.
John chapter 15, Jesus teaches that he is
the vine and his people are the branches.
Union.
In 1st Corinthians chapter 12, Paul says that,
Christ is the head and we are the
body.
Union.
Ephesians chapter
2. Paul teaches that Christ is the cornerstone
and we are the stones that are built
upon him. Once again, union. Ephesians chapter 5.
Christ is the bridegroom
and his church, his people are his bride.
Union.
But I think one of the most powerful
evidences
of union with Christ, at least that I've
observed in the New Testament, is actually found
in Acts chapter 9,
where the Apostle Paul, the one who's writing
this exact letter is heading over to Damascus
to persecute Christians to imprison them.
And the Christ, the the Jesus, has already
ascended to the right hand of the father.
He is in heaven,
and he has an encounter with the risen
Lord.
And Paul is blinded,
and he has no idea what is going
on. And but the words that he does
here is, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute
me?
You see, dear Christians, the the the the
body of Christ is
one with Christ, is united with Christ, and
the reason why Christ could say, Saul, Saul,
why do you persecute me? Is because we
are united to him.
To persecute the church is to persecute
Christ because we are one spirit with him.
This is union with Christ. And so,
all that being said for verse 1,
church meant many of us can have said
or we do say that Christ is with
me.
We say that Christ is behind me. We
say that
Christ is before me and we'll even say
that Christ is above me, that he's ruling
and reigning. But but can you say
that I am in Christ?
That I am in my savior.
This is really important
and I ask this question because so long
as you remain in Adam, as
Paul has said, and so long as you
remain separated from Christ,
all that he is and all that he
has endured, all that he has suffered,
his life, his death, his resurrection and ascension,
is useless and of no value to you.
Or to me.
Unless a man be in Christ,
he cannot celebrate that there is therefore now
no condemnation.
There is therefore now no condemnation.
This text is one that ought to be
committed to memory as well for the Christian.
The reason is because we're prone to wander.
We're prone to leave the God we love.
We're prone to
doubt his faithfulness, especially in the midst of
circumstances.
We are prone to question his
faithfulness, God's faithfulness,
and is in those times where really sometimes
we might begin to think that we have
fallen out of favor with the Lord.
But this is a promise from God. There
is therefore now no condemnation.
It is what he has said and is
done, and it is finished. And it is
one of the main reasons why later why
later in Romans chapter 8,
Paul could say, for I am sure that
neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else
in all creation
will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Dear Christian, for those who are in Christ,
there is no condemnation.
And praise be to God for that.
We now move on to our second heading,
the Christian security,
and let's go ahead and read,
verse 2. And it reads,
for the spirit of life has set you
free from the law
of sin
and death. And there is quite a lot
to say about this verse, but the one
thing I will mention is really that Greek
verb that is that is has set you
free. This Greek verb
does not indicate something that happened in the
past, although it does, but also means something
more.
What it means is that,
this event is something that can't be undone.
He has set you free. You could almost
see as verse 1, Paul is teaching about
the Christian's present standing before God. And in
verse 2, by this verb, he's really making
it clear that this is an eternal standing
before the creator of the universe.
No condemnation.
And the person that applies this eternal security
is called the Spirit of life.
Later, we know that this is the Holy
Spirit. We know that because later in Romans,
it Paul makes it abundantly clear. You could
also say that Romans chapter 8 is a
chapter about the Holy Spirit. He is,
really,
fixed and focused upon
in this chapter.
But not only do we know that because
He appears in Romans chapter 8 and that
clarifies it for us. But also we know
that it's the Holy Spirit because the Holy
Spirit is the only power
that can give
physical and spiritual life.
Is also the only
means by which
one could be liberated from the power of
sin and death.
We see the Holy Spirit's work all throughout
scripture.
In in terms of how the Holy Spirit
brings life, the first thing that we could
think of is Genesis 1.
The Spirit of God hovered upon the face
of the earth. And what does the Holy
Spirit do? What does our triune God do?
He brings that which is nothing
into existence.
All of creation,
all of life,
by the power of His word.
And he's the in the book of Ezekiel,
we see there's a valley of dry bones
and it's the Spirit of God
that restores and resurrects and brings life into
these bones.
In Matthew 1, the Holy Spirit brings
life through the miracle
of the virgin birth.
The empty womb,
the Holy Spirit, it says, conceived
Christ, and it was by the Holy Spirit.
And even in the Nicene Creed that we
confess this morning, what do we say what
we believe about the Holy Spirit? I believe
the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and the giver
of life.
That's something that we affirm. This Spirit of
life is the Holy Spirit. We also see
all throughout the scriptures how the Holy Spirit
conquers sin and death.
The Holy Spirit empowers the prophets, empowers the
judges to defeat the enemies of God's people
in the Old Testament, empowers
some of the prophets and the judges.
Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
also heals the mute, the deaf and the
blind.
Leprosy, which was very prominent in the Gospels.
People had, it was an infection that,
was, that really affected all the crevices of
your body. Inside your ears,
on your eyes,
It was something that that made you an
outcast in society,
made you unable to participate not only with
the people of God, but,
made you think also that somehow, some way
that you were separated from Him. And what
does Christ do by the power of the
Holy Spirit? When he comes, he heals the
leper. And that there is a is a
really almost it is a symbol, the way
in which the Holy Spirit is restoring things
and making things new. He is conquering sin.
Leprosy is the effect of the fall.
And in terms of death, we celebrated last
week the resurrection.
Christ was raised by the power of the
Holy Spirit.
So here we see that the Holy Spirit
is the liberator. He is,
our protector. He is the one that preserves
the Christian. And so
this is really the Christian security here.
We are
saved eternally.
The pronouncement of no condemnation
is no more upon the Christian. The Holy
Spirit is our liberator. He is our protector.
He is the one that preserves us. And,
today,
there is quite
an awareness
of bullying in our country. And I've been
asked many times, Julio, have you ever been
bullied before?
And to which my answer has always been
the same, no. Besides,
you know, your ordinary teasing and besides your,
you know, taunting, I I was I was
never bullied at school.
And it wasn't really till later where sort
of understood why
that was
the case.
And, it definitely was not because of my
size. It definitely wasn't because of my strength.
If you were to see pictures of me
as a child, I was skinny. I was
scrawny. I was quiet. And I would even
argue that I was probably the perfect target
for a bully, but no bully ever came.
And one of the reasons why was because
my cousin,
who was a grade above us, was right
down the hallway.
And he was not a bully, but he
definitely was intimidated.
He did not have a reputation of being
mean, but he definitely was somebody who you
did not want to mess with physically. People
did not want to deal with him,
and deal with that issue, and mainly because
they couldn't.
Older Christians in a similar way, if we
are united to Christ,
and if the Holy Spirit is the one
who has liberty liberated us, the one who
is our comfort, the one who is our
helper,
who can condemn us?
Who could reverse this condemnation
that the creator of the universe has spoken
upon those who are in Christ?
Who can separate us from Christ as well?
What can reverse this new birth? And the
answer is,
nobody. That is the Christian security. That not
only that we're in Christ, but we also
are liberated and freed by the power of
the Holy Spirit. And later, Paul will get
into, the subject that the Holy Spirit actually
indwells
us.
Dear Christian, always remember that we live in
a world that is passing away and everything
that once seemed
strong,
intimidating will become unsure,
will become weak.
So long as we're in Christ,
we are secure.
We are assured of our salvation because
Jesus Christ is the same today, tomorrow and
forever.
If you are in Christ and freed from
the law of sin and death by the
Holy Spirit, you have an assurance,
a security,
a comfort,
a safety the world cannot offer.
Do we believe this?
Now moving to our 3rd heading. Now move
to,
the Christian's confidence.
Read with me verses 3 through 4.
Paul writes, 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 in order that the righteous
requirements of the law might be fulfilled in
us,
who walk not according to the flesh, but
according to the spirit.
The first thing I want us to to
notice is the first four words that that
God that that Paul uses.
And it is that, for God has done.
For God has done.
Your Christian here
is a reminder that the Christians assurance and
security
does not rest upon what we have done,
but what God has done.
Salvation,
us being in Christ,
our liberation by the Holy Spirit is not
a work of us, but is a work
of the Holy or the Holy Spirit, the
work of the triune God thoroughly.
We also learned something about the character of
God as well. In that,
our God is not someone who is idle.
He's not someone that is inactive. He is
not somebody who is passive, but he is
one that actually operates. He works
to save his people. He knew that we
were weak, that we were mortal, that we
were frail, that we were unable to fulfill
the requirements of the law for eternal life.
He also knew that the law had no
power to to to stir us,
to obey him.
So rather the law
condemned us.
Paul's first word really Paul Paul's first word
should really be the pillow upon
we in upon which we rest our head
for what God has done.
Not what we have done.
And so what did God do? Well, Paul
says that what God did
will send his was to send his son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, in the
likeness of sinful flesh. And here we have
the doctrine of the incarnation.
The likeness
is the this Greek word likeness is is
is another word for resemble. This this word
here really leaves leaves no room or allows,
for the interpretation. There was sin in Christ.
I was telling the, students this morning in
Sunday school,
we're going through Genesis and we are we're
discussing that we are created in the image
of God, likeness of God. And I said,
this likeness is is a resemblance, just like
we you guys resemble
y'all's parents, so also
do do humanity,
this man,
is created in the likeness and the image
of God.
And and here we see that Christ was
incarnate in the likeness or the resemblance of
flesh.
But notice why God
sent his son in the likeness of flesh.
Paul writes, by sending his own son in
the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin.
For sin.
God sent his only son
for sin. Now this Greek word too, for
sin is the same word that's used in
the old testament,
in the Greek translation of the old testament
of the Torah,
for the, for the for the for the
sacrifices, for the sin offerings, for the atonement
of sin.
And therefore, God sent his only son to
be a sacrifice to redeem
his people, to atone for sin.
And when Paul says, God condemned sin
in Christ's flesh, what that means is that
God's adjudication
of punishment
that you and I deserved was poured out
upon
Christ's flesh.
That that which condemned us sin
was condemned in Christ's flesh. That he bore
our sins.
Paul also says, that that was done in
order that the righteous requirements of the law
might be fulfilled.
And see, it's not simply, the gospel is
not simply that
that Christ
died for our sins and that he satisfied
the wrath of God and that our sins
were removed by his his blood,
but it's also that he lived the life
that we could not live.
Not only
by Christ's sacrifice
is God's wrath satisfied and our tones that
are sinful, but his life
is credited to us by union with him.
By union with him. Put another way, God
treated his son
like he lived your life so that he
could treat you as though you lived the
life of his son.
That's what it was all for.
Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse
21.
It really gets out really what what Paul
is saying here in Romans, but in 2nd
Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, Paul says,
for our sake, he being God,
made him, that's Christ,
to be sin who knew no sin so
that in him, that's in Christ, once again,
we might become the righteousness of God.
So dear Christians, not only do we have
and live and breathe and walk in this
life free
and liberated from sin and death by the
power of the Holy Spirit, we're you we're
also united to Christ. We're also credited with
his righteousness by union with him. We are
so secure.
We are so assured of our salvation. And
this is what really what Paul is trying
to get at.
In the 1800,
a game of French origin was played in
which if someone wanted to find out
the extent of an individual's affections for them,
what they would do is
go up to an Oxford Daisy,
which was a very pretty Daisy. And it
had, you know, a lot of white petals
around it, and and it had a bright,
really beautiful
yellow, carpel in it. And they would pick
up this flower, and they would begin just
to pick off the petals.
The one thing that this game would repeat,
in order as they were picking off the
petals, was
a little,
a lot,
passionately,
to madness,
or not at all.
It would repeat that phrase until it got
to the last petal. And that last petal,
whichever it landed on, that supposedly was
the verdict upon which the person's extent had
for you.
Today, many of us might know that game
and it goes a little different. The he
loves me, loves me not, she loves me
or she loves me not.
At least I remember doing that. I remember
my parents discussing
that game.
And I bring that up because dear Christian,
because of what God has done for us,
we never have to play those sorts of
games.
Never.
We know
for certain that our salvation is secure simply
by looking upon the cross of Christ.
Looking at the cross of Christ,
every Christian can say with confidence, all my
sin is paid for.
Looking at the cross of Christ, every Christian
can say with confidence,
there is
nothing that could separate me from the love
of God.
Looking at the cross of Christ, every Christian
could say with confidence,
there is therefore now no condemnation.
Let us pray.