Romans 8:1-39. https://youtu.be/vlPdfyJNtKY
The Holy Spirit as the Power for Holy Living (Chap. 8)
The subject of holy living continues. In chapter 6 Paul had answered the question, “Does the teaching of the gospel (salvation by faith alone) permit or even encourage sinful living?”
In chapter 7 he faced up to the question, “Does the gospel tell Christians to keep the law in order to lead a holy life?” Now the question is: How is the Christian enabled to live a holy life?
We notice right away that the personal pronouns that were so prominent in chapter 7 largely disappear, and that the Holy Spirit becomes the dominant Person. This is an important key to understanding the passage. Victory is not in ourselves but in the Holy Spirit, who indwells us. A. J. Gordon lists seven helps of the Spirit: freedom in service (v. 2); strength for service (v. 11); victory over sin (v. 13); guidance in service (v. 14); the witness of sonship (v. 16); assistance in service (v. 26); assistance in prayer (v. 26).
8:1 From the valley of despair and defeat, the apostle now climbs the heights with the triumphant shout, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! This may be understood in two ways.
First, there is no divine condemnation as far as our sin is concerned, because we are in Christ. There was condemnation as long as we were in our first federal head, Adam. But now we are in Christ and therefore are as free from condemnation as He is. So we can hurl out the challenge:
Reach my blest Savior first, Take Him from God's esteem; Prove Jesus bears one spot of sin, Then tell me I'm unclean.
—W. N. Tomkins
But it may also mean that there is no need for the kind of self-condemnation which Paul described in chapter 7. We may pass through a Romans 7 experience, unable to fulfill the law's requirements by our own effort, but we don't have to stay there. Verse 2 explains why there is no condemnation.
8:2 The Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. These are two opposite laws or principles. The characteristic principle of the Holy Spirit is to empower believers for holy living. The characteristic principle of indwelling sin is to drag a person down to death. It is like the law of gravity. When you throw a ball into the air, it comes back down because it is heavier than the air it displaces. A living bird is also heavier than the air it displaces, but when you toss it up in the air, it flies away. The law of life in the bird overcomes the law of gravity. So the Holy Spirit supplies the risen life of the Lord Jesus, making the believer free from the law of sin and death.
8:3 The law could never get people to fulfill its sacred requirements, but grace has succeeded where law failed. Let us see how!
The law could not produce holy living because it was weak through the flesh. The trouble was not with the law but with fallen human nature. The law spoke to men who were already sinners and who were without strength to obey. But God intervened by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Take careful notice that the Lord Jesus did not come in sinful flesh itself but in “the likeness of” sinful flesh. He did no sin (1Pe 2:22), He knew no sin (2Co 5:21), and there was no sin in Him (1Jn 3:5). But by coming into the world in human form, He resembled sinful humanity. As a sacrifice for sin, Christ condemned sin in the flesh. He died not only for the sins which we commit (1Pe 3:18) but also for our sin nature. In other words, He died for what we are just as much as for what we have done. In so doing, He condemned sin in the flesh. Our sin nature is never said to be forgiven; it is condemned. It is the sins that we have committed that are forgiven.
8:4 Now the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. As we turn over the control of our lives to the Holy Spirit, He empowers us to love God and to love our neighbor, and that, after all, is what the law requires.
In these first four verses the apostle has gathered together the threads of his argument from 5:12 to 7:25. In Rom 5:12-21 he had discussed the federal headships of Adam and of Christ. Now in 8:1 he shows that the condemnation which we inherited from our identification with Adam is removed by our identification with Christ. In chapters 6 and 7 he discussed the horrendous problem of sin in the nature. Now he announces triumphantly that the Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. In chapter 7 the whole subject of the law was brought up. Now we learn that the law's requirements are met by the Spirit-controlled life.
8:5 Those who live according to the flesh—that is, those who are unconverted—are concerned with the things of the flesh. They obey the impulses of the flesh. They live to gratify the desires of the corrupt nature. They cater to the body, which in a few short years will return to dust.
But those who live according to the Spirit—that is, true believers—rise above flesh and blood and live for those things that are eternal. They are occupied with the word of God, prayer, worship, and Christian service.
8:6 To be carnally minded—that is, the mental inclination of the fallen nature—is death. It is death as far as both present enjoyment and ultimate destiny are concerned. It has all the potential of death in it, just like an overdose of poison.
But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The Spirit of God is the guarantee of life that is life indeed, of peace with God, and of a life of tranquility.
8:7 The mind-set of the flesh is death because it is enmity against God. The sinner is a rebel against God and in active hostility to Him. If any proof were needed, it is seen most clearly in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. The mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God. It wants its own will, not God's will. It wants to be its own master, not to bow to His rule. Its nature is such that it cannot be subject to God's law. It is not only the inclination that is missing but the power as well. The flesh is dead toward God.
8:8 It is no surprise, therefore, that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Think of that! There is nothing an unsaved person can do to please God —no good works, no religious observances, no sacrificial services, absolutely nothing. First he must take the guilty sinner's place and receive Christ by a definite act of faith. Only then can He win God's smile of approval.
8:9 When a person is born again, he is no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. He lives in a different sphere. Just as a fish lives in water and a man lives in the air, so a believer lives in the Spirit. He not only lives in the Spirit, but the Spirit lives in him. In fact, if he is not indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Though there is a question whether the Spirit of Christ here is the same as the Holy Spirit, the assumption that they are the same seems to fit best in the context.
8:10 Through the ministry of the Spirit, Christ is actually in the believer. It is amazing to think of the Lord of life and glory dwelling in our bodies, especially when we remember that these bodies are subject to death because of sin. Someone may argue that they are not dead yet, as the verse seems to say. No, but the forces of death are already working in them, and they will inevitably die if the Lord doesn't return in the meantime.
In contrast to the body, the spirit is life because of righteousness. Though once dead toward God, it has been made alive through the righteous work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection, and because the righteousness of God has been credited to our account.
8:11 But the reminder that the body is still subject to death need cause no alarm or despair. The fact that the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies is a guarantee that, just as He raised Christ from the dead, so He will also give life to our mortal bodies. This will be the final act of our redemption—when our bodies are glorified like the Savior's body of glory.
8:12 Now when we see the stark contrast between the flesh and the Spirit, what conclusion do we draw? We owe nothing to the flesh, to live according to its dictates. The old, evil, corrupt nature has been nothing but a drag. It has never done us a bit of good. If Christ had not saved us, the flesh would have dragged us down to the deepest, darkest, hottest places in hell. Why should we feel obligated to such an enemy?
8:13 Those who live according to the flesh must die, not only physically but eternally. To live according to the flesh is to be unsaved. This is made clear in 8:4, 5. But why does Paul address this to those who were already Christians? Does he imply that some of them might eventually be lost? No, but the apostle often includes words of warning and self-examination in his Letters, realizing that in every congregation there may be some people who have never been genuinely born again.
The rest of the verse describes what is characteristically true of genuine believers. By the enablement of the Holy Spirit they put to death the deeds of the body. They enjoy eternal life now, and will enter into life in its fullness when they leave this earth.
8:14 Another way of describing true believers is to say that they are led by the Spirit of God. Paul is not referring here to spectacular instances of divine guidance in the lives of eminent Christians. Rather, he is speaking of what is true of all sons of God—namely, that they are led by the Spirit of God. It is not a question of the degree in which they are yielded to the Holy Spirit, but of a relationship which takes place at the time of conversion.
Sonship implies reception into God's family, with all the privileges and responsibilities of adult sons. A new convert does not have to wait a certain time before he enters into his spiritual inheritance; it is his the moment he is saved, and it applies to all believers, men and women, boys and girls.
8:15 Those living under law are like minor children, bossed around as if they were servants, and shadowed by the fear of punishment. But when a person is born again, he is not born into a position of servitude. He is not brought into God's household as a slave. Rather, he receives the spirit of adoption; that is, he is placed in God's family as a mature son. By a true spiritual instinct he looks up to God and calls Him “Abba, Father.” Abba is an Aramaic word which suffers in translation. It is an intimate form of the word father—such as “papa” or “daddy.” While we may hesitate to use such familiar English words in addressing God, the truth remains that He who is infinitely high is also intimately nigh.
The phrase the Spirit of adoption may be a reference to the Holy Spirit as the One who makes the believer aware of his special dignity as a son. Or it may mean the realization or attitude of adoption in contrast to the spirit of bondage.
Adoption is used in three different ways in Romans. Here it refers to the consciousness of sonship which the Holy Spirit produces in the life of the believer. In 8:23 it looks forward to that time when the believer's body will be redeemed or glorified. In Rom 9:4 it looks back to that time when God designated Israel as His son (Exo 4:22).
In Gal 4:5 and Eph 1:5, the word means “son-placing”—that is, the act of placing all believers as mature, adult sons with all the privileges and responsibilities of sonship. Every believer is a child of God in that he is born into a family of which God is the Father. But every believer is also a son—a special relationship carrying the privileges of one who has reached the maturity of manhood.
In the NT adoption never means what it means in our society—to take a child of other parents as one's own.
8:16 There is a spiritual instinct in the newborn believer that he is a son of God. The Holy Spirit tells him that it is so. The Spirit Himself bears witness with the believer's spirit that he is a member of God's family. He does it primarily through the word of God. As a Christian reads the Bible, the Spirit confirms the truth that, because he has trusted the Savior, he is now a child of God.
8:17 Membership in God's family brings privileges that boggle the mind. All God's children are heirs of God. An heir, of course, eventually inherits his father's estate. That is just what is meant here. All that the Father has is ours. We have not yet come into the possession and enjoyment of all of it, but nothing can prevent our doing so in the future. And we are joint heirs with Christ. When He returns to take the scepter of universal government, we will share with Him the title deeds to all the Father's wealth.
When Paul adds, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together, he is not making heroic suffering a condition for salvation. Neither is he describing some elite inner circle of overcomers who have endured great afflictions. Rather, he sees all Christians as being co-sufferers and all Christians as glorified with Christ. The if is equivalent to “since.” Of course, there are some who suffer more than others in the cause of Christ, and this will result in differing degrees of reward and glory. But all who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior are seen here as incurring the hostility of the world, with all its shame and reproach.
8:18 The greatest shame we may endure for Christ here on earth will be a mere trifle when He calls us forth and publicly acknowledges us before the hosts of heaven. Even the excruciating pain of the martyrs will seem like pinpricks when the Savior graces their brows with the crown of life. Elsewhere Paul speaks of our present sufferings as light afflictions which are only for a moment, but he describes the glory as an exceeding and eternal weight (2Co 4:17). Whenever he describes the coming glory, his words seem to bend under the weight of the idea. If we could only appreciate the glory that is to be ours, we could count the sufferings along the way as trivia!
8:19 Now in a bold literary figure Paul personifies the whole creation as eagerly looking forward to the time when we will be revealed to a wondering world as the sons of God. This will be when the Lord Jesus returns to reign and we return with Him.
We are already the sons of God, but the world neither recognizes nor appreciates us as such. And yet the world is looking forward to a better day, and that day cannot come until the King returns to reign with all His saints. “The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own” (JBP).
8:20 When Adam sinned, his transgression affected not only mankind, but all creation, both animate and inanimate. The ground is cursed. Many wild animals die violent deaths. Disease afflicts birds and animals as well as fish and serpents. The results of man's sin have rippled like shockwaves throughout all creation.
Thus, as Paul explains, the creation was subjected to futility, frustration, and disorder, not by its own choice, but by the decree of God because of the disobedience of man's first federal head.
The words in hope at the end of verse 20 may also be connected with the following verse: “in hope that the creation itself also will be set free” (NASB).
8:21 Creation looks back to the ideal conditions that existed in Eden. Then it surveys the havoc that was caused by the entrance of sin. Always there has been the hope of a return to an idyllic state, when creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption to enjoy the freedom of that golden era when we as God's children will be revealed in glory.
8:22 We live in a sighing, sobbing, suffering world. The whole creation groans and suffers pain like that of childbirth. Nature's music is in the minor key. The earth is racked by cataclysm. The blight of death is on every living thing.
8:23 Believers are not exempt. Although they have the firstfruits of the Spirit, guaranteeing their eventual deliverance, they still groan for that day of glory. The Holy Spirit Himself is the firstfruits. Just as the first handful of ripened grain is a pledge of the entire harvest to follow, so the Holy Spirit is the pledge or guarantee that the full inheritance will be ours.
Specifically, He is the guarantee of the coming adoption, the redemption of the body (Eph 1:14). In one sense we have already been adopted, which means that we have been placed into God's family as sons. But in a fuller sense our adoption will be complete when we receive our glorified bodies. That is spoken of as the redemption of our body. Our spirits and souls have already been redeemed, and our bodies will be redeemed at the time of the Rapture (1Th 4:13-18).
8:24 We were saved in this attitude of hope. We did not receive all the benefits of our salvation at the moment of conversion. From the outset we looked forward to full and final deliverance from sin, suffering, disease, and death. If we had already received these blessings, we wouldn't be hoping for them. We only hope for what is in the future.
8:25 Our hope for deliverance from the presence of sin and all its baneful results is based on the promise of God, and is therefore as certain as if we had already received it. So we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
8:26 Just as we are sustained by this glorious hope, so the Spirit sustains us in our weaknesses. We are often perplexed in our prayer life. We do not know how to pray as we should. We pray selfishly, ignorantly, narrowly. But once again the Spirit comes alongside to assist us in our weakness, interceding for us with groanings which cannot find expression. In this verse it is the Spirit who groans and not we who groan, though that is also true.
There is mystery here. We are peering into the unseen, spiritual realm where a great Person and great forces are at work on our behalf. And although we cannot understand it all, we can take infinite encouragement from the fact that a groan may sometimes be the most spiritual prayer.
8:27 If God searches the hearts of men, He can also interpret the mind of the Spirit, even though that mind finds expression only in groans. The important thing is that the Holy Spirit's prayers for us are always according to the will of God. And because they are always in accordance with God's will, they are always for our good. That explains a lot, as the next verse reveals.
8:28 God is working all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. It may not always seem so! Sometimes when we are suffering heartbreak, tragedy, disappointment, frustration, and bereavement, we wonder what good can come out of it. But the following verse gives the answer: whatever God permits to come into our lives is designed to conform us to the image of His Son. When we see this, it takes the question mark out of our prayers. Our lives are not controlled by impersonal forces such as chance, luck, or fate, but by our wonderful, personal Lord, who is “too loving to be unkind and too wise to err.”
8:29 Now Paul traces the majestic sweep of the divine program designed to bring many sons to glory.
First of all, God foreknew us in eternity past. This was not a mere intellectual knowledge. As far as knowledge is concerned, He knew everyone who would ever be born. But His foreknowledge embraced only those whom He foreordained or predestined to be conformed ... to the image of His Son. So it was knowledge with a purpose that could never be frustrated. It is not enough to say that God foreknew those whom He realized would one day repent and believe. Actually it is His foreknowledge that insures eventual repentance and belief.
That ungodly sinners should one day be transformed into the image of Christ by a miracle of grace is one of the most astounding truths of divine revelation. The point is not, of course, that we will ever have the attributes of deity, or even that we will have Christ's facial resemblance, but that we will be morally like Him, absolutely free from sin, and will have glorified bodies like His.
In that day of glory He will be the firstborn among many brethren. Firstborn here means first in rank or honor. He will not be One among equals, but the One who has the supreme place of honor among His brothers and sisters.
8:30 Everyone who was predestined in eternity is also called in time. This means that he not only hears the gospel but that he responds to it as well. It is therefore an effectual call. All are called; that is the general (yet also valid) call of God. But only a few respond; that is the effectual (conversion-producing) call of God.
All who respond are also justified or given an absolutely righteous standing before God. They are clothed with the righteousness of God through the merits of Christ and are thereby fit for the presence of the Lord.
Those who are justified are also glorified. Actually we are not glorified as yet, but it is so sure that God can use the past tense in describing it. We are as certain of the glorified state as if we had already received it!
This is one of the strongest passages in the NT on the eternal security of the believer. For every million people who are foreknown and predestined by God, every one of that million will be called, justified, and glorified. Not one will be missing! (Compare the “all” in Joh 6:37.)
8:31 When we consider these unbreakable links in the golden chain of redemption, the conclusion is inevitable! If God is for us, in the sense that He has marked us out for Himself, then no one can be successful against us. If Omnipotence is working on our behalf, no lesser power can defeat His program.
8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. What marvelous words! We must never allow our familiarity with them to dull their luster or lessen their power to inspire worship. When a world of lost mankind needed to be saved by a sinless Substitute, the great God of the universe did not hold back His heart's best Treasure, but gave Him over to a death of shame and loss on our behalf.
The logic that flows from this is irresistible. If God has already given us the greatest gift, is there any lesser gift that He will not give? If He has already paid the highest price, will He hesitate to pay any lower price? If He has gone to such lengths to procure our salvation, will He ever let us go? How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
“The language of unbelief,” Mackintosh said, “is, 'How shall He?' The language of faith is 'How shall He not?'.”
8:33 We are still in a courtroom setting, but now a remarkable change has taken place. While the justified sinner stands before the bench, the call goes out for any accusers to step forward. But there is none! How could there be? If God has already justified His elect, who can bring a charge?
It greatly clarifies the argument of this verse and the following one if we supply the words “No one, because ... ” before each answer. Thus this verse would read, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? No one, because it is God who justifies. If we do not supply these words, it might sound as if God is going to bring a charge against His elect, the very thing that Paul is denying!
8:34 Another challenge rings out! Is there anyone here to condemn? No one, because Christ has died for the defendant, has been raised from the dead, is now at the right hand of God interceding for him. If the Lord Jesus, to whom all judgment has been committed, does not pass sentence on the defendant but rather prays for him, then there is no one else who could have a valid reason for condemning him.
8:35 Now faith flings its final challenge: is there anyone here who can banish the justified from the love of Christ? A search is made for every adverse circumstance that has been effective in causing separations in other areas of human life. But none can be found. Not the threshing flail of tribulation with its steady pounding of distress and affliction, nor the monster of anguish, bringing extreme pain to mind and body, nor the brutality of persecution, inflicting suffering and death on those who dare to differ. Nor can the gaunt specter of famine—gnawing, racking, and wasting down to the skeleton. Nor can nakedness, with all it means in the way of privation, exposure, and defenselessness. Nor can peril—the threat of imminent and awful danger. Nor can the sword—cold, hard, and death-dealing.
8:36 If any of these things could separate the believer from the love of Christ, then the fatal severance would have taken place long ago, because the career of the Christian is a living death. That is what the psalmist meant when he said that, because of our identification with the Lord, we are killed all day long, and are like sheep that are doomed to slaughter (Psa 44:22).
8:37 Instead of separating us from Christ's love, these things only succeed in drawing us closer to Him. We are not only conquerors, but more than conquerors. It is not simply that we triumph over these formidable forces, but that in doing so we bring glory to God, blessing to others, and good to ourselves. We make slaves out of our enemies and stepping stones out of our roadblocks.
But all of this is not through our own strength, but only through Him who loved us. Only the power of Christ can bring sweetness out of bitterness, strength out of weakness, triumph out of tragedy, and blessing out of heartbreak.
8:38 The apostle has not finished his search. He ransacks the universe for something that might conceivably separate us from God's love, then dismisses the possibilities one by one—
death with all its terrors;
life with all its allurements;
angels nor principalities, supernatural in power and knowledge;
powers, whether human tyrants or angelic adversaries;
things present, crashing in upon us;
things to come, arousing fearful forebodings;
8:39 height nor depth, those things that are in the realm of dimension or space, including occult forces. Then, to make sure that he is not missing anything, Paul adds:
nor any other created thing.
The outcome of Paul's search is that he can find nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
No wonder these words of triumph have been the song of those who have died martyr's deaths and the rhapsody of those who have lived martyr's lives!
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