The Christian and New Life (Romans 8:1-4)

Paul has used a large section of this letter to explain the relationship that each Christian has to the law of God. He has had to do so because it is possible for a person to have had more than one connection to it and here he again refers to it in more than one way. Now he wants his readers to consider the Christian life, what it means to be a person who is being sanctified, and this he does in Romans 8. As he does so, he tells his Christian readers that they must realise several important details or doctrines. It is doctrines that give us the framework that enables us to understand the Christian life. Without a good grasp of them we will be unable to explain or discuss what happens to those who are Christians. So what does he want them to understand?

Remember how they became right with God

First, Paul wants his readers to think about the fact that if they are spiritually united to Jesus they are no longer under divine condemnation. They became united practically to Jesus when they trusted in him and became Christians, but it would not be long before they would have discovered that they were united to him in other ways before then. How does believing in Jesus mean that they are no longer in a state of condemnation?

Obviously we need to know how one comes into a state of condemnation? Paul has already explained in this letter that condemnation commenced when Adam sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. At that time, Adam was our representative in an arrangement between God and the human race. The theological term for this arrangement is the covenant of works and in this covenant Adam, as the head of the human race, was required to obey perfectly the terms of the covenant. If he did, we would be accepted by God, and if he failed to obey we would enter into a state of condemnation.

Sadly Adam did fail, and we fell with him and in him into this awful state. The shift would be like moving from a country in which there was permanent beautiful weather and perfect health to a country in which there was nothing but fierce storms and terrible disease constantly. This new country is a location in permanent rebellion against the Ruler of the good country. All that the inhabitants of this new country do is increase the amount of condemnation they deserve. Instead of enjoying an atmosphere and environment of life, they live in a country marked by death and all they have to look forward to is the Day of Judgement when their condemnation and deserved punishment will be announced. What an awful place to live!

The people to whom Paul was writing once lived in that condemned country. Now they had moved to a country in which nobody was condemned and in which all the inhabitants have been justified by the Ruler. The declaration of justification had taken place when they trusted in Jesus. It is essential for each Christian to understand that he or she is justified and justified forever. They are now in an unchangeable relationship with Jesus.

Remember the work of the Spirit in them

In verse 2, Paul contrasts two laws – one is connected to the Spirit of life and the other is connected to sin and death. Believers have been freed from the law of sin and death, which I suspect is another way of describing the condemnation. So the law here could be the law of God in its condemning function and as we noticed in previous studies in Romans the law by itself does not prevent us from sinning and can never free us from the condemnation of eternal death.

What is the law of the Spirit of life? Believers were spiritually dead but they received life from the Holy Spirit when they were united by him to Jesus. The Spirit came into their dead souls and they were regenerated, made alive. He liberated them from the chains of the condemning law, and this liberty cannot be repealed. It is a permanent law as far as the kingdom of God is concerned.

But this is not all that the Holy Spirit does for believers. In verse 4, Paul states that the Holy Spirit enables those who trust in Jesus to obey the righteous requirements of the law. This, as we saw in previous studies, is one of the blessings of the new covenant. Christians, when they are spiritually healthy, love to do what God commands. This is the normal Christian life. Those who once were dead in trespasses and sins now do what God asks for in his law. Of course, they do not do so perfectly, which is a reminder that something can cause problems in the Christian life, and Paul refers to that something here as well.

Remember the danger of the flesh

A few sermons ago we noticed that Paul uses the word ‘flesh’ in different ways. Here he uses it in four different ways in verses 3 and 4. He says that the power of the law was weakened by the flesh, he says that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh, he says that God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus, and he says that Christians don't walk according to the flesh. The second reference describes the human race and the third reference concerns Jesus’ physical body. Both of those references are straightforward. The first reference probably describes the sinful state of every unbeliever. And the fourth reference says that Christians have the power from God not to live according to the standards, outlooks and ambitions of the unconverted.

The fourth reference highlights the reason why Christians should remember the existence of that power that Paul calls the flesh. They should remember it because they are still affected by it (after all they are not yet sinless) and they should remember it because every unconverted person they meet is under its control. It is an enemy that is everywhere. Sadly, many Christians, in fact every Christian, frequently forget that the flesh is there, and sometimes they can fall.

What should they do when that happens? In addition to repenting of the sins that caused their fall, they should remember that the status of justification, of being right with God, does not change. And they should recall that the almighty Holy Spirit is able to sanctify them so that they will obey God’s law from the heart.

Remember the work of Jesus

Paul mentions two features of the work of Jesus. First, he became like us when he became a man. Paul is very careful in what he writes about Jesus. He does not say that Jesus had sinful flesh, such as we have as sinful people. Instead Jesus had flesh that looked like our sinful appearance, yet all the time he was sinless. None of his temptations came from himself, whereas most of our temptations come from ourselves. Paul here is reminding his readers that Jesus lived a sinless life, a life unique and perfect, a life that was also lived on behalf of his sinful people.

Moreover Paul mentions that Jesus came to deal with sin by becoming a sin offering in the place of his sinful people. We know that this is a reference to what occurred at Calvary when Jesus paid the penalty of sin and suffered in our place. Because he did so, we can be assured that the benefits that he purchased by his death, including among them forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit’s presence. So we should often reflect on those two details.

Remember the actions of the heavenly Father

Paul stresses three features of God the Father here. First, he sent his Son into the world to deliver us. This is the greatest evidence of the Father’s amazing love for his people, that he sent his own Son to be the Saviour. Paul is indicating that initiative of our salvation came from God the Father (this does not mean that the Son and the Spirit did not share that desire). Yet we must remember that the Bible often asserts that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

Second, the Father condemned sin in the flesh. This is a reference to what God the Father did at the cross when Jesus suffered there. The phrase does not mean that the flesh of Jesus somehow became sinful even although he was the sinbearer. Instead it means that sin was condemned in the same nature that sinned in Adam – human nature – but that it was condemned in a sinless human nature. We should look at the cross and realise that all our sins were condemned there. It was an incredible transaction that took place when he suffered – his righteousness was going to be mine and my condemnation was going to be his.

Third, the heavenly Father wants his people to obey his law through the power of his Spirit. This statement is another way of saying what God promised in the new covenant when he said that he would give his Spirit to his people and they would have his law written on their minds and hearts. This is the heavenly Father’s will for our lives – obedience.

Three brief lessons

The obvious feature of Paul’s description of the Christian life is that it involves the work of the Triune God as each fulfills particular roles. We can say that the Father sends, the Son saves, and the Spirit sanctifies. The triune God is for us, in his gospel and in his gracious activities.

Second, Paul’s description of the Christian life indicates that its basic features are shared by every Christian. Of course, there are some aspects of the Christian life, such as the possession of spiritual gifts, which differ between Christians. But in the main, they all have the same blessings that are part of salvation.

Third, the evidence that one is in a healthy spiritual state is that he or she loves to keep God’s law. There are three attitudes to God’s law and each reveals where we are in God’s sight. One is legalism, which is attempt to live by the law without God’s grace, and he disapproves of it; the second is license, which is the assumption that God’s laws don’t matter, and he disapproves of it; the third is love for his laws, which means that we have the same attitude, in a far lesser degree, as he has towards his own law. 

What is sanctification? Loving conformity to God’s law. What is heavenly mindedness? Loving conformity to God’s law. What is Christlikeness? Loving conformity to God’s law. What is true spirituality? Loving conformity to God’s law.