Hey guys, welcome back. We're on our 17th week together, and I'm really excited about the chapter of Scripture we're going to dive into today. We're going to look at Romans chapter 8. Grab your Bible, open up to that chapter, and we're going to look at the most exciting chapter in the entire Bible. And I mean that. If you understand and live Romans chapter 8, everything to do with our faith, our beliefs, how we interact with God, it's all in that one chapter. It starts out with how we're free from condemnation and all the things that we were under before we really came to know the love of God through Christ and before His presence came on the inside of us.
It puts us secure in our sonship. It makes us have a vision for what lies ahead right on through to the resurrection of the dead and the eternal kingdom that we live in, and makes us really confident and secure that nothing can rob us from the love of God. So what I'd like to do is read the whole chapter together with you, and I encourage you to do this frequently. We call it ruminating. Like you ruminate on something, you kind of meditate on something. This chapter has something for every situation of life that if we grab hold of the truth, not just with our minds, but with our heart, believe it with all of our heart and live it with all of our being, we are going to live a victorious, successful walk with God.
And even though we may have setbacks along the way and times that we stumble a little bit, we will not be moved away from the grace upon which we stand. So let's dive right in. I know we've looked at some of this already and other teachings that we've done together, but let's absorb the whole thing. Romans chapter 8 and Hebrews chapter 8 are the two most important chapters in the New Testament. Both of them come to the heart of the entire book. Hebrews chapter 8 comes to the heart of this is why we don't need the religious systems that we used to have before. This is why we have a new covenant and what it's all about.
Romans chapter 8 is the same basic message. We don't need legalism anymore. We no longer need external regulations to govern our lives anymore because we have the Spirit of God in us. And that's why it is so important. So we do have a complete teaching on the entire letter to the Romans, which is, you can find it on our website or on our YouTube channel. But, and that's if you want to study the whole book. If you want to study the letter to the Romans, read chapters 1 through 8. From chapter 9 onward, it kind of gets into other subjects.
1 through 8, we call the case for grace. And here's where Paul kind of sums up, almost like an attorney making his closing argument for why it is that we should learn to live by grace and never by legalism again. So, chapter 8, we start in verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see that word, therefore, just a Bible study tip. Whenever you start reading something and you see the word, therefore, it means don't start here. Therefore means I've made some argument or I've made the case for something.
Therefore, I'm going to share something else. So we always say, if you see the word, therefore, find out what it's there for. So all of the chapters, 1 through 7, have led up to this glorious moment. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. That's the cross in a nutshell. In other words, we couldn't do it on our own. We needed Jesus to stand in our place, become the perfect man, offer himself as a sacrifice in our stead. And now we get to walk without condemnation because he paid the price for us. So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So we looked at this a few weeks ago.
We can either try to live our lives in terms of living God's way, living the way we were hardwired by heaven to live, living in a life of holiness as we describe it, by striving and by doing the best we can to live up to a set of rules, which nobody has ever been able to do except for Jesus. Or we can say, I give up, I give in. I'm no longer going to live according to the flesh. In other words, by my own strength. I'm going to live this life by the strength of another. In a nutshell, that's what our faith is. We live our life by the strength of another, a supernatural God who lives inside of us and makes the supernatural natural.
Because that's what life is now like in Christ. Verse 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. In other words, we have two options for life. We could live as those who are just governed by our senses, governed by our emotions, our desires, our needs, our cravings, our intellect. We could live those ways. Those are all living according to the flesh. In other words, living as if God doesn't exist.
In fact, I'm going to propose one really good heart check question we can ask ourselves at any given point in time to see not how well we're doing in God. I don't like that terminology, but to see how closely we're walking with Him. And the question is simple. If Jesus was removed from my life tomorrow, in other words, I have no access to the Holy Spirit, I have no connection with Him, I have no undergirding that I've experienced in Christ, what would be different? And if the answer is, my entire life would fall apart, I'd be right back in the mud pit where He found me, that's a great answer. It means we're living, we've learned to live dependent on Him like we're dependent on oxygen.
If the answer to that question, however, is, I don't think really much would change at all. I think I would go on, today would be the same as yesterday, and I really wouldn't notice much of a difference. It means that we've grown separated from Him. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't survive for a little while. Now, just like, you know, if you've swam underwater, you can take a great big gulp of oxygen and go for a ways, a long way if you've practiced. But eventually you're going to run out of oxygen. And if you don't come up for air and a new breath, you're going to drown.
And so it is with all of us who have come to know Christ by the Spirit, if we don't continue to walk in the Spirit rather than according to the flesh, it's just a matter of time before we need to be rescued again from drowning, like when He found us in the first place. Verse 6, For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, or numb toward God is another way of translating that. For it doesn't subject itself to God. It's not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Now, there are two ways to walk according to the flesh in terms of holiness. One way walking according to the flesh is I just do whatever I want to do, sinful or not sinful. I'm walking according to the flesh and I'm going to reap what I sow. In that area, God is not mocked. Galatians says, Whatsoever man sows, that he shall also reap. And if we sow according to the flesh, meaning we just indulge ourselves in whatever sinful pleasures we want to, eventually it'll catch up to us. Not because God's punishing us, but because we've been sowing seeds that don't reap anything eternal, just like what we tried to get away from.
That's one way of living according to the flesh, meaning the sinful cravings of the flesh. But living according to the flesh can also mean I'm back in the place of religious striving. I'm going to do this. I am going to, by my own effort, my discipline, my ability to do my religious good deeds of the day, I'm going to strive, and I'm going to achieve, and I'm going to match up. Now that's what we call self-righteousness, and it's the trap of the religious spirit. It's the trap of the Pharisees. It's the trap of everybody who thinks, I can earn my way up into heaven.
I could climb a staircase to heaven and get there one day. Well, that's also living according to the flesh. And it says here, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, verse 9, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you, does the spirit of God dwell in you? You bet it does. But if anyone doesn't have the spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to him. If Christ is in you, though your body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
Remember in chapter 7, which we looked at a few weeks ago, that whole thing where, oh, the thing I hate, I do, and the thing I want to do, I don't do, and oh, who will deliver me from this body of death? This is what he means. Every craving that we have, everything that leads to sin originates with a desire of the flesh or a desire of our soul, our physical being absent the spirit. Our spirit's alive because of righteousness. 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 other words, living by the flesh seems like, you know, if I just exercise more, if I just take care of my physical needs, all that's well and good. But if that's all that I take care of in my body, I'm going to wear out spiritually eventually. But if I feed that spirit who is in me, the way I've shared with you, to feed that spirit, our mortal body even benefits from it. It's well known, and we've studied it, and people know, if you take care of your spirit, even your natural body, you feel stronger, you feel more joyful, you feel healthier when you tend to your spirit and not just your body and your soul and your mind.
So, so then brethren, we are not under, we're under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Fear, if you live according to the flesh, you'll die. But if by the spirit, you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. And I want to make sure that you highlight that. Remember, if you're circling things in your Bible, circle if by the spirit, you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So, all of you and all of us who have had to overcome an addiction of some sort, who have been trapped in some kind of circular pattern of sin, repent, forgive, sin, repent, forgiven, and we're trapped in this cycle like that, if by discipline, we've tried to overcome it, we can find ourselves back in that same pit.
But if we ask for help, if the grace of God, like we looked at last week, if the grace of God is in us to enable us to overcome it, it's an effortless victory, isn't it? We find that we're no longer tempted with that thing, no longer has a draw upon us, we've overcome. And we'll see at the end of this chapter, more than conquerors. Now we go on and we make sure that we're clear in our identity. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, this is verse 14, they are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.
And if children, heirs also, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him. In other words, we are confident in our identity. We were adopted, chosen. The child who has been adopted had nothing to do with the adoption process except win over the love of the parents who adopted him or adopted her. And as we began in Christ, so we remain in Christ. The Father Himself loves us. He loves you. He chose you to be His son. And in Roman law, and it's not coincidental that he really digs in on this in his letter to the Romans, in the Roman law of the days of the Scriptures, when the Bible was being written, if you adopted a son, you could not change your mind about it later.
So in other words, once you signed on the dotted line, you were obligated for the rest of that child's life to care for him, support him, and make him an heir in your house. Amazingly, the natural-born children didn't have those kind of rights. If you were a natural-born son of a father in Rome, and you went off and you, you know, destroyed the family's reputation and whatnot, you could be disowned. But an adopted son, no such thing. You could not be unsonned once you were adopted. And the Father in Heaven used the term adopted sons for us because we cannot be unsonned. You're stuck with him, and he's happy to be stuck with you.
Verse 18. Now we're going to talk about, all right, so if it's all so joyful and all so peaceful, why does it still feel like my life is a struggle? Well, it's because we're still living in a world that's subject to the wages of sin. Remember back in the Garden of Eden, it wasn't just Adam and Eve that had consequence because of their eating from that other tree. It said the ground is going to produce thorns. The ground's going to fight back against you to bear weeds, and it's going to resist you is the, in other words, the earth itself will now respond to the fact that you open the door by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why do you think it is that in your garden it takes a lot of work to grow things that you can eat? It takes no work at all for weeds to grow. Annoyingly enough, those weeds grow whether we plant them or not. They're always there to get rid of. So it's like creation was affected by it. So that's why we live in this world where our sin and our way of doing life for the last 5,000, 6,000 years that humans have occupied the planet. We've done it in such a way that the whole world it almost seems is against us and we've created cultures and the way we go about society is that way.
So he goes on, he says, I consider the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that's to be revealed in us. It's for the anxious longing of the creation. Just think of that. The creation itself, the earth, the stars, the whole universe as it is created that it eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. That's you, that's me for us to come completely restored. Remember the name of this series, Restored. God wants to restore us to not only what Adam and Eve had before they fell but to something even greater, even better than it was before.
For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who suggested it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its slavery. Do you know the ground doesn't want to produce weeds? I mean, if you could think of the soil of the earth having a personality, it doesn't like weeds any more than we do. And actually, weeds don't do much good for the soil. There's a cyclical process by which crops and things that we grow feeds nutrients into the soil and vice versa. Weeds, not so much. Not quite the way that edible crops do.
It's just an amazing thing. Everything in creation shows us the gospel in real time. It wants to be set free from its corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And if you have ears to hear, the earth is groaning. It wants to be filled with good stewards of the earth again. People who will cultivate and keep as Adam was instructed to do in the garden of Eden. People who will be wise with it and view themselves as part and parcel of this beautiful creation that God's given to us.
When all of that's restored, that is when heaven and earth are one again and Eden is restored. He goes on, not only this, but even we ourselves, having the first fruits of the spirit groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. You may say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought you said we are adopted already. And we are. But there's an already and not yet aspect of this. In other words, we already are inner man, right? That part where Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Notice it's the hope of glory is on the inside, kind of like a seed. On the outside, it's this shell, ugly looking shell. And in comparison to what we're going to be, we're living in an ugly looking shell in comparison to the glory that will be revealed one day. And on the inside of every seed is something that's alive. It's actually an embryo is the term for it. Just like we started out our lives as embryos. There's an embryo of life in there. And when that seed gets planted and it dies and it falls to pieces, unrecognizable, there's a process going on where that embryo begins to grow into something.
So you might have an acorn that went into the ground and it dissolves in the ground and even the acorn itself no longer exists. But there's something beautiful happening below that soil and it's going to take root and it's going to begin to grow and bear fruit and it'll be a mighty oak tree one day. Looks nothing like the nut that it was before it went into the ground but it's a nut that held its ground and became an oak tree. You and I holding our ground in Christ and waiting for the day when what we actually are on the inside becomes manifest on the outside. That's what Paul's talking about here. The redemption of our body even our physical body look I'm going to just introduce this now and we'll get more into it maybe next year in the discipleship class but our eternal hope is not to live as a disembodied spirit in heaven dancing on clouds and you know playing harps and stuff like that.
That's a little bit of pagan stuff that got mixed in there somewhere along the way. No as Jesus raised from the dead so also we will be raised from the dead. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 if you're interested in studying that that describes it all in detail. For in hope we have been saved but what hope is there what hope that is seen is not hope because who hopes for what he already sees? In other words there's some things that we're going to experience in this life that we don't have to hope for because Christ in us is already at work we're looking better day by day we're looking more like him the image of God more like the likeness of God every day but there's still something that we're waiting and hoping for what is it? He who hopes for what he's already seen but if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
What is it? The redemption of our body. Even in this so we got the sufferings of this present time that Paul is introducing what it's like living in this world the struggles even the struggle against sin that we you know will probably contend with that sin that dwells in us as Paul described it in chapter 7 we're going to have those kind of struggles as we go on but always there's a mindset and this is a return to hope and I urge you to do this when everything falls apart and you can't find hope in anything at the moment find hope in this that just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead so also you one day will be raised from the dead even if the suffering of life produces death like actual physical death and look we are a belief system we're a heritage in our religion of being martyred there have been millions upon millions of people martyred just for believing the things that we're studying in this course and they died in hope in hope of what? that even if you take my last breath from me you can't take eternity from me because my life is hidden with God in Christ and there's nothing that can ever take that away no matter what you do to this mortal body that's at the bare bottom foundation of all of our hope as believers and that's why it's so important we're suffering the world is suffering but it's not always going to be that way that's Paul's point in this so so far in this chapter and we'll finish it up in part two so far in this chapter we started out with learning to live by a new law we're not going to have to strive by dead religion we're going to move we're not going to live according to the flesh we're going to live according to the spirit we're going to grab hold of the power of the spirit and the grace of God we're going to remember that we're sons and even if we fall upon conflict and hard times even when our faith is being tested to the point where it feels like we're going to die there is still a living hope that can never be taken away from us that's where we've been so far now verse 26 in the same way the spirit also helps in our weakness for we don't know how to pray as we should for the spirit himself intercedes with us with groanings too deep for words remember back when we talked about praying in tongues and speaking in tongues this is a lot of what we're talking about with that that there's some times where the languages of men English French Spanish whatever language you speak where those words fail there's a deeper language we say a picture is worth a thousand words and it is and a picture worth a thousand words means there's something beyond the verbal languages of men that we use to describe things and even to intercede in other words to ask God and to connect with God on here's my struggle here's what's going on in my life and there come times and you've probably hit them already man I don't even know what to pray right now I'm in it I am down at the end of my rope I'm in it I don't even know what to say the beautiful thing is our spirit that lives in us has instant eternal connection with the spirit of God himself so there's communication happening when we walk in the spirit when we remain in touch getting to a place where we quiet our spirit quiet our soul quiet our heart quiet our mind down enough to just say to the father I don't know what to pray right now I need to commune spirit to spirit with you it's amazing what happens and I'll talk more about that when we get into prayer what happens when we just meditate on the word and when we just sit silently in the presence of the Lord the spirit now communicates with groanings too deep for words and he who searches the hearts this is verse 27 he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he intercedes for the saint according to the will of God you want to know what to pray ask the spirit of God for a minute how should I be praying right now this is how I've gone about praying another way of putting it is it says in Hebrews that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us so when I begin to pray and I don't even know what to pray for a situation I try not even to presume to know how to pray for a situation I'll say so Jesus how are you praying for this so that I could pray in agreement with you what is it that you're calling on right now and here comes then because we're in touch with that now we have this confidence and this is a classic memory verse you should put this on your fridge put it on your bathroom mirror especially when you're in a tough season verse 28 and we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of who for those who love God and are called according to his purpose we have this knowledge that no matter what it looks like right now the sufferings of this present time yeah we have the hope of glory but I need something for today that there's this belief there's a trust in the sovereignty of God a trust in his way for us trust in what he has in store for us what he's going to give us every good thing that comes from above for life and godliness that we know that he's going to make it all work together for good so sometimes we say when we fall into hard times well everything happens for a reason and I encourage you to be careful about that one because when we try to reason out what that reason is we either end up with giving dead religious answers that aren't helpful we even say hurtful things to people that are grieving you know what's the reason my son was killed by a drunk driver what could be the reason that happened for a reason what good reason could there be for that and that's not biblical to say that what is biblical is to and this may not be appropriate but the truth of that is look God's able to make even this work together for your good and right now it's dark right now it feels hopeless right now God probably feels a million miles away from you but trust that he is able somehow to take this mess and work it into a ministry to take this awful awful moment and to make it into something beautiful he's able to make ashes into something glorious that's just the kind of God that he is so he goes on then for those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that it would be the firstborn among many brethren those whom he predestined he called those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified in other words there's an inevitability about this if he began a good work in you he's going to finish that good work in you come hell or high water he is going to finish what he started in you and in me and there's nothing that can stop that that's what he'll get into shortly in the rest of it for the moment though I'm going to pause the recording and I'll be back with a short conclusion because the rest of this chapter comes into one of the most powerful truths and blessings for us to grab hold of and live in everyday life so that we can live victorious live as those who overcome everything from what we came out of and finish what God started together with him I'll be right back okay so let's pick up where we left off then what a glorious beginning the first 30 verses of Romans chapter 8 I encourage you to read it over and over again and now we're going to pick up where we left off in verse 31 so what shall we say to these things what things what are the things we're talking about all the things that come against us all the things that can make it feel like this journey with God it just feels like man I used to think the path was going to be like the yellow brick road and all of a sudden I'm finding I'm climbing mountains and I got these big obstacles in my way and the biggest obstacle of all is right inside of me those are the things what shall we say to these things if God is for us who's against us if God is on our side which he absolutely is even when we feel like he's not he is always for us never against us he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all how will he not also with him with Jesus freely give us all things remember we're we're heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ Jesus the firstborn is just one heir we are with him in the inheritance everything that we do in life right now we are storing up an inheritance for ourselves God's not a slave master whatever it is that we invest spiritually in this life grows and buds and becomes something we get to enjoy for all eternity what that looks like and how that works out we'll find out when we get there I don't even know how to describe it but it's going to be glorious and it's all going to be worth it so verse 33 this is one of the first verses I put to memory because like many of you I dealt with a lot of shame and a lot of condemnation not just over the things I'd done before I came to Christ which were many there were a lot of things for me to be ashamed of then but I found like Romans 7 said that I've still got these problems why am I not holy yet why am I not looking just like Jesus yet and learning to be patient in that process this verse really set me free and I pray it will you too who will bring a charge against God's elect it is God who justifies who is the one who condemns so imagine you're in a court of law God almighty is the judge and our advocate or our defense attorney is Jesus Christ his son they go through the process and the prosecution has made his case and we are guilty as charged the son and the father have a conversation they work out a covenant with each other and the judge himself says you are free to go you are now justified your defense attorney has taken your place and your punishment and your stead so we consider you to be time served and you are now free to go you didn't you didn't get released because you were innocent no you were guilty but your sentence has already been served and now you can leave this courtroom do you know the legal term is double jeopardy it's a legal term used in the western world it started in England and it's the concept that once you've been charged over crime you can never be charged for that again if you're found innocent or you let go or you've been in jail and you've done your time once you're free from that courtroom you can never be charged with it again that's a biblical understanding of justice that comes right out of this chapter in Romans that it's God who justifies who is he that condemns you could even say who would dare to condemn the one that God said you're free to go who's going to argue with God and win the devil tries believe me he's never given up on that and he will always be seeking a new way to bring us to haul us back into that court and charge us with new crimes and if we want to play that over and over in our minds if you're stuck in a religious trap you can just always say talk to my lawyer if the devil comes after you and he's trying to charge you with here you blew it again you sinned again you deserve to be punished for this you can just say I'm not going to talk with you talk with my attorney and Jesus ever lives to be our advocate and to make intercession for us once we're in this new covenant we can ignore the accuser for the rest of our days and that's just a beautiful truth Jesus Christ is the one who died and was raised and who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us so you just tell that devil talk to my lawyer I have nothing to say to you right now then we'll go into this final thing and for this one you know you'll be able to read this and study it and put as much of it to memory as you want to but for this one would you just close your eyes and experience this for a moment because I want to read it like it's a blessing I want to read it in a way that with the force and authority of the kingdom of heaven penetrates deeper than your mind and your heart and your soul even spirit to spirit right now to be confident in these truths that I'm about to read to you because these are eternal these are inviolable nothing can change them this is just the way it is and no matter if anybody agrees or disagrees with it it's how it is who will separate us from the love of Christ will tribulation or distress persecution famine nakedness peril or sword like it's written for your sake we're being put to death all day long we're counted as sheep to be slaughtered but in all these things what things distress tribulation persecution famine nakedness peril sword in all all of these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us another translation of that has it saying we are more than conquerors through Christ how do you get to be more than a conqueror I mean how do you do more than win maybe you win by a lot yeah that's another way of putting it what if I told you that what this expression means is that you win without even fighting that just your presence showing up on the battlefield child of God with all the force of heaven behind you all the presence of God inside of you and surrounding you that you just show up to that accuser or the one who tries to destroy you steal kill and destroy you that just you showing up and looking him in the eye with confidence it says you can't take away the love of God from me you can't take away what God's given me you can't take my joy you can't take my peace and you can't take away the love of God from me no matter how hard you try wail away all you want bray and howl and get loud all you want to you can't touch me I'm now untouchable child of God that's how we more than conquerors that's what it means we win without fighting because God has already fought on our behalf for I'm convinced close your eyes again please and just receive this neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present or things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord will you just wrap your heart around that truth with me for a moment you can't mess this thing up no matter how hard you try all the forces of the kingdom of darkness hell on earth can't take away what you got in Christ you can't send yourself out of God's love you can't run far enough to escape the father's gaze loving gaze loving embrace he's got everlasting arms and they're long enough to reach out and find you wherever you are being steadfast and immovable in that belief knowing for sure that even if it feels otherwise our hearts our hearts are condemning us our hearts are making us feel like that's it so far removed from the love of God right now how could God ever accept me as I am in this even in that place read this passage over yourself in fact I encourage you to take this chapter I've read it to you in one translation of scripture read it in other translations like I recommend the passion translation has a beautiful way of saying everything that we went over in Romans chapter 8 but whatever it takes ruminate often until your spirit and your mind agree on the truth of everything in here ruminate regularly meditate on this word of all words in fact I know maybe maybe you're one of those ones who you know we're on week 17 right now and you want to finish this in a year slow down meditate on this take two weeks three weeks on it take a month on it goodness you could chew on Romans chapter 8 for an entire year and more importantly not just think about it but experience it until you've experienced it keep meditating on it until your mind gets convinced God bless you enjoy your week of ruminating