Written by Cory Collins on October 21, 2021

The Righteousness of God … Enacted! Part Two Romans 6:12-8:39

All written materials for this series will be posted on this website, http://servingandsharing.com/, under the category, “Romans – Just Right!”

All corresponding video presentations may be found on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7JRppjEn33aIrggv9opfecN4rksInQsM.

Married to Christ: Romans 7:1-6

Are you looking for a husband? How about marrying law? It mercilessly diagnoses sin and convicts us as guilty. It offers no grace, forgiveness, or remedy. Who would want a spouse like that? What a cold, lifeless, unhappy marriage that would be! We were, in a sense, joined to law. The relationship was miserable. Countless demands, judgment and criticism at every turn, the threat of punishment, and no hope for forgiveness, peace or joy. Who wants THAT husband back? Christians have died to that old husband that bound us, and we have been wedded to Christ. What a contrast! Now we know real joy, peace, and security, and we can live happily ever after. Now that’s a marriage that is “just right!”

Like a wife who remarries after her husband dies, we who are put to death with reference to the law immediately enter into a new “marriage,” as it were, with Jesus Christ. You died, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

What works in marriage works in the Christian life, and vice versa! And what kills marriage ruins the Christian life, and vice versa!

Observation: Rom 7:1 – Death frees one from bondage to law.

Illustration: Rom 7:2-3 – Death frees a widow to remarry.

Application: Rom 7:4 – Death freed us to marry Christ.

Implication: Rom 7:5-6 – We live happily ever after!

Wrestling & Winning: Rom 7:7-25

It’s a tug of war that every genuine follower of Jesus knows all too well. We hear God’s law, we know that it’s right, and we want to obey it, and yet we keep falling short. The law says, “Don’t covet!” That makes us aware of coveting, and our sinful desires urge us in response to covet. The problem is not God’s law, but the sin within us. The truth is, if we recognize that fact, keep leaning on God’s grace, and keep fighting against sin, victory will come through Christ and His Spirit in our lives!

Those who are complacent, easy-going, and numb have no problem with sin. No fervent prayer. No tears. No need. But if you’re serious about service and sanctification, you know it’s not easy! It’s a matter of wrestling and winning!

Law identifies sin. Rom 7:7 – That’s a good thing!

Sin weaponizes law. Rom 7:8-13 – That’s a bad thing!

I try to do right and not sin. Rom 7:14-23 – That’s a challenging thing!

Then I lean on Christ. Rom 7:24-25 – That’s a winning thing!

Life in the Spirit: Romans 8:1-13

Think about the Law of Gravity. You don’t break the Law of Gravity. It breaks you! This is the law of sin and death. It’s the experience of all who live in the sphere of flesh, apart from the Holy Spirit of God. This law says that if you sin you fall. It is predictable and powerful. It never fails. No matter what you do, you cannot overcome it. It holds you back, slows you down, and pulls you down. Once you have fallen, and you realize it, the Law of Gravity has no power to pick you up again. The result is frustration, anxiety, fear, despair, and death. Do you like that? Of course not. You want another law, that is, a governing principle, system, or paradigm.

Thankfully, there is another “law” that can save you! Let’s call it the Law of Thrust. You meet a pilot with an airplane. He invites you to trust Him and obey Him by getting into the plane. Fasten your seatbelt, keep the door locked, and … take-off! You roll, then you lift, then you climb, then you soar! Wow! The air is clear. The sky is bright. The world seems far below you. The pilot has enabled you, through your obedient faith, to fly!

The Law of Thrust has set you free from the Law of Gravity.

Once you realize what has happened, your heart is filled with peace, joy, contentment, patience, goodness, kindness, and self-control. Fruit of the Spirit. You love the pilot! Whatever he says you do. Problems are still there, but they appear smaller, more manageable. You see from a different point of view. You rise above what is petty and trivial.

Could you unfasten your seatbelt, head toward the door of the plane, open it, jump out, and fall to your death? You could … but how could you? And why would you? If you could live by the Law of Thrust that set you free from the Law of Gravity, why would you ever prefer to revert and die by the Law of Gravity that once enslaved you?

Our Status – 8:1-2

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Our Savior – 8:3-4a

3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us …

Our Stride – 8:4b

4b … who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Our Set – 8:5-8

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Col 3:1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

φρονέω – to be preoccupied with; to place focused attention; includes the will, thoughts, and emotions, assumptions, values, desires, and purposes.

Ro 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our Source – 8:9-11

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

In Rom 7, we noted the power and effect of indwelling sin. Now, Think about the power and effect of the Holy Spirit indwelling your life.

As you walk, think, speak, and act according to the Spirit, the sin that indwells you has less and less room. It is minimized, overcome, pushed out, defeated.

Note these Scriptures that affirm the fact that God’s Spirit indwells those who are in Christ.

1 Co 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Ga 4:6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

1 Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

2 Co 1:22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

2 Corinthians 3:3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Our Strategy – 8:12-13

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live..

Two extremes, both false:

[1] The Holy Spirit does it all. Irresistible grace, perseverance guaranteed. Let go and let God. If you are among the special few that He has sovereignly chosen, your success is assured. That’s the draw – and the drawback – of Calvinism.

[2] You do it all. You have the Word of God as your guide, of course, but His Spirit does not actually sanctify you, empower you, or enable you. You are pretty much on your own. Grit your teeth, man up, try harder, and you may – by the skin of your teeth – get within the reach of God’s grace.

Biblical truth:

You know the Word that the Spirit has inspired.

You set your mind on the Spirit.

You walk each day in, with, and by the Spirit.

You believe that the Spirit will sanctify, encourage, and equip you in the fight.

You gradually gain the victory over sin.

Double trouble. Double cure. Sanctification.

Ga 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Sons and Heirs: Romans 8:14-25

Hungarian cave-dwellers could split grandmother’s $6.6 billion fortune: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/34264774/ns/world_news-wonderful_world/t/homeless-brothers-line-inherit-billions/#.WOohG9LyvIU Two brothers who are so poor they live in a cave on the outskirts of Budapest and get by selling scavenged junk are in line to receive a $6.6 billion inheritance from a long-lost grandmother, the U.K. Daily Telegraph reports. Zsolt and Geza Peladi have been informed that they are entitled to the fortune, along with a sister who lives in the United States.

Let us live as those who are heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ! We are rich beyond our wildest imaginations!

Adoption and Access 8:14-17a

Ro 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ …

Grit and Glory 8:17b-18

17b if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Reversal and Renewal 8:19-23

19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

Expecting and Enduring 8:24-25

24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.