Romans Series: Chapter 8, Part 2
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Peace to Live By Romans Series: Chapter 8, Part 2 (2023 Re-Record & Update) - Daniel Litton
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[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word, and contains extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]
We are continuing along today in Romans chapter 8. Last week’s discussion focused mainly on the believer’s position in Christ—the fact that we have no condemnation in him. Paul spent quite a significant amount of time talking about how we are indwelled by the Spirit of God, as Christians, how the Spirit has made his home in us. We learned how we are not to be walking after our flesh, our fleshy impulses, those natural and ungodly impulses, but how we are supposed to be walking after the Spirit, how we are to be aligning our minds, our thoughts, with what pleases God, what would be approved by him. Yes, Paul discussed how we are not supposed to be like unbelievers. And he explained how we are going to get our new bodies, as Christians, at the time we die or are Raptured. So, he discussed quite a bit in the first eleven verses.
Today, Paul is going to get more specific for us in our personal relationship with God. We pick up at verse 12. Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 12: “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:12-13, ESV)
What Paul has just told us is that we are debtors to something. We have something to work towards. Remember? Back in chapter 6, he would say we are either slaves of sin or slaves of God. If we recall in Romans chapter 7, we learned that we are to abide in Jesus, as Christians. Abiding in Jesus is the only practice that will truly bear fruit for God. If we live following our own fleshly efforts, our own ways (for clarification, that is, following what we believe God is saying without any personal input from the Holy Spirit), if we follow God that way we cannot bear fruit for God. Oh, we may think we are bearing fruit for him, but we really aren’t. So, the only method by which we find ourselves in peace and righteousness, then, is living according to the Spirit, by putting to death the deeds of our flesh. That’s how we live a peaceful life, one that is fret-free, one that abides in Jesus.
One way to look at living according to the flesh is to be full of all kinds of thinking habits and patterns that are incorrect, or which are ultimately sinful. This was mentioned last week. Paul brought up the mind, how we are to have the mind of the Spirit. Going to Psalm 37, David says, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness” (Psalms 37:3, ESV). This verse from David really seems to capture what Paul is telling us in Romans chapter 8. We are to trust in the Lord first, and then what? We are to do good. Both of these things are what living after the Spirit is all about. Trusting in God allows us to enter God’s rest because we have our firm foundation in him no matter what happens. Yet, even though we may be residing in this rest, we still deal with our wayward flesh, and not to mention the spiritual forces that try to enhance our wayward flesh. Paul says we are to put these deeds, these fleshly desires, to death so that we can live real life.
Of course, we are aware that in Romans chapter 6 Paul spent quite a lot of time discussing how are to put the death the sinful actions of our bodies, how we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, so that we obey its passions. Today in Romans chapter 8, Paul shows us that we have a choice. When we come into right relationship with God, we don’t automatically only want to do noteworthy behaviors, but we all understand we still retain that desire to do what is wrong, what is sinful at times. And Paul reminds us again today that we are under obligation because of what Christ has done for us to actually choose to live according to the Spirit versus living according to flesh. It’s a choice we have to make.
Death occurs for us if we choose to live according to our flesh. That’s what Paul said. What’s he talking about? Will we die physically? Well, it’s possible we will die physically since sometimes following the flesh can lead to choices so unwise that they may cost us our physical lives. Really, though, what Paul is talking about is spiritual death. Living in death is not what we want. If we are living in death, we are out of God’s rest and lose our peace of mind. We are out of fellowship with God, and the Spirit brings conviction for us. Once the Spirit brings conviction, he have the choice of whether or not we will make correction. We have to choose to put to death the sinful actions of our bodies. That’s how we live real life. The Spirit can point out to us areas we need to work on as we live out our lives. Each of us will find ourselves at different spots of growth. We aren’t all at the same place. And the Holy Spirit may not always work with all of us on the same areas at the same times. He may work with one person on one area and someone else on another area.
It is important for us, as believers, to realize that the putting to death the deeds of our bodies is a lifelong process. It’s not only a process that happens the first two or three years of our Christian lives, the first two or three years after we are converted. It is encouraging, in some manner, when we come to understand this fact. It means that even though we are not where we want to be in our walks with God we nonetheless understand that we will continue to grow as we go along. Now, some Christian folks (and generally it seems the more stricter ones), grow the first few years of their Christian experience and then reach a certain level of which their growth process comes to a halt. They feel they have achieved where they are supposed to be in order to be pleasing to God. Unfortunately, in the personal experience, names of individuals could be listed here off of the top of the head of those known whom are like this. But, this is not how we are supposed to see our Christian lives. Anyone who thinks in this manner is still stuck in first or second grade, even though they believe they are in high school. They have an incorrect understanding of our spiritual growth, as believers.
We as Millennial Christians enjoy talking about our identity in Christ, and it seems rightfully so; we should talk about our identity in Christ. In Romans 8:1, Paul told us not to live under condemnation in our lives. One key element of our Christian lives is that we live in a condemnation-free environment. Isn’t that a great thing? It sure seems it is. We are not to be a Christian who walks around with his or her head down all the time over the latest sin we have identified in our lives, or of which we feel we’ve committed. Actually, it is hard to bear people who like this, who act this way. Don’t forget the fact that we have been made righteous before God in his sight. We are righteous before him. Yes, we still have to deal with sin, but God sees us as perfect before him. We ought not walk around all the time considering how bad we think we are. No, we need to consider and keep in the forefront of our minds who we are in Christ, that we are God’s righteousness in him. If we believe we are terrible Christians, sinning all the time, then guess what? That’s what we are going to keep on doing, sinning. As we think we are, in our hearts, so we become in our lives.
The method by which we continue to put to death the deeds of our flesh and live, the method we live is by keeping that optimistic, hopeful mindset that was discussed last week. Hope is the anchor for our soul, as the writer of Hebrews has told us. If we are going to overcome sin and eliminate sin, we have to believe that we can. It’s that simple. It’s not that we try harder, we’ve already discussed how that doesn’t work for us. What do we do then? We contemplate, meditate on, and consider God’s ways. We fill our minds with what is right. We consider the patterns we see in Scripture for how we are to act, but at the same time, not think of ourselves as a Biblical character wherein we become full of pride in our importance. We abide in Christ. We are mindful of good things. We spend time with God. We fellowship with him regularly. We begin our day thinking about him and we end our day thinking about him. We don’t wake up in the morning considering what we perceive our problems to be, or what we assume we need to do or accomplish for the day. Instead, God is in the forefront of our minds.
Striving for the things of the flesh will not get us what we want out of life. Fleshly things will leave us disappointed. Even if there is pleasure in them for a while, that pleasure will end, and at the end of the day, all we will have is death. We will realize we followed the wrong way. We took our pleasure first, and now we have to deal with the death that has come to us. Depression may even set in since we perceive that we have done things the wrong way. We have given place to Satan and his ways in our life. When we do things the right way, even if we experience discomfort up front from waiting or going against the tide, at the end of the day we look back and are happy with our choice. We will be able to look back and say, “Yes, I did it right. I followed God. I did things the right way, and now I have peace and I have exactly what I want.” Indeed, in order to get what we desire, we do that by following God’s way, not Satan’s. Surely, Satan will speak lie after lie to us that the only way to get what we desire is to do things the way he is telling us, but the real way we get it is by following God’s principles.
Verse 14: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14, ESV).
How are we led, as believers, by the Spirit of God? How does this work? It appears two types of Christians can be recognized in this area. There are the Christians who believe that the leading of the Spirit of God simply means to follow the what the Bible says without any internal input, without any internal discretion. Then there are those Christians who certainly follow the Word of God, but they do so with the Spirit’s internal leading, focusing on the areas he wants them to and following Christ in a certain, individual, personalized way where the Spirit of God leads. Instead of it just being following the Bible, it’s following the Spirit through the Bible. Therein lies the main difference that’s been noticed. Of course, obviously it seems the second approach here is the better model because it is more abiding and customized.
Simply put, the Holy Spirit leads us by giving us peace with whatever we are doing. If we are familiar with the Word of God, we try to understand how God thinks and what he expects from us. As Paul told the Colossian believers, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (3:15, ESV). That means we will do certain things, and not do other things. If we don’t have peace about something because we know it violates God’s Word, we won’t do it. Certainly, we won’t have peace about following what we clearly know is sin. If we not sure what God desires from us in a certain situation, we can ask him to lead us by his peace. If we have peace about doing whatever it is, we understand that it is okay for us to do that. However, if we have a lack of peace, we realize God probably is not leading us in that direction. This means there will be certain times we are going to pass on something. Whether that be buying a new house, turning down a person we like, taking a specific job offer, whatever it is, if we have a lack of peace that means we’re going to have to say “No” in that situation. Truly, we may not know why the lack of peace is present. God doesn’t always reveal that.
When we do wrong, or need correction, the Holy Spirit can gently voice to us where we need to make correction. At that point, it becomes our turn to decide whether or not we will move in the right direction—to change our minds to agree with him. Now (and this point is significant), if you feel you are being badgered by the Spirit of God, the good news is that’s not God speaking to you. That’s a demonic spirit trying to influence you, and he is trying to present himself as a helper, but he in fact isn’t helping at all. This can be one of the hardest areas for us to master, as believers. That is, being able to distinguish between spirits, to identify when the Spirit of God is speaking to us versus when an evil spirit is telling us lies. And then, not to mention our own thoughts on things. Anyway, this seems to be the case as we often have our sin-nature in the mix, and that only complicates matters. An evil spirit can play off of our sin-nature, which can make us even more eager to follow that spirit’s advice if we’re not careful. If we are acquainted with and very familiar with the Word of God, however, then we are more easily able to distinguish the times God is truly speaking to us.
Regularly we seek God’s guidance on what we are to do in a certain matter. Probably the most vital thing that can be said is that you need to wait, you need to wait, if you don’t have a clear answer on what you should do. That is critical. At times God doesn’t want us to do anything at the moment because he may be waiting to see what other free-persons do, and where circumstances end up. When we are asking God to guide us, the Holy Spirit, to state it again, will give us peace at the moment God wants us to go one particular direction; we will have peace in imagining that out in our minds. Again, we will have a lack of peace in considering the direction that is incorrect. In considering going that direction, will feel uncomfortable, or have a lack of faith things will work out if we do it. Paul told the Philippian believers, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7, ESV). Sometimes there is that lack of understanding as to ‘why’ or ‘why not’ we should or should not do something, but by operating by peace, we are guarded without having this information. We will not lose in living like this.
Verse 15: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14, 15, ESV).
A spirit of slavery, which causes us to fall back, is a spirit we haven’t received from God. If we look at the wording of this verse carefully, we see that because the second half of the verse brings up a ‘real’ Spirit, the Spirit of God, we can then assume that the first half of the verse may also be referring to a ‘real’ spirit, a demonic spirit of slavery. One of Satan’s chief objectives in our daily lives is to get us to fall into slavery, and that is slavery with him as our master. He wants us to get caught up in habits and thought patterns that are destructive for us. He uses to his aid real, actually present demonic spirits which can try to bring us under slavery. So, the spirit of slavery would be a demonic spirit from Satan that tries to enslave us. And how does he do this? Well, as Paul said it is through fear.
Fear can be a pretty debilitating problem for us. Demons seek to deceive us by telling us lies on a daily basis inside our minds. Thoughts come to us of theories and possibilities in the world, and often those thoughts are brought about by a demonic spirit. The problem for us comes at the moment we decide to believe the enemies’ lies, to see things how he’s telling us they are. For instance, he may tell us a certain person or group of people really doesn’t like us, that they are really against us. If we believe that lie, that undoubtedly will have an enormous impact on our relationships with people. If we accept beliefs that are based in lies, we can’t live the life God really desires us to live. We can begin to act differently toward the people the demon has told us doesn’t like us, and we may even try to oppose or lash out at someone whom we have come to believe is against us, when that truly wasn’t the case at all. Sometimes demons fill in the blanks for us, and they don’t fill in those blanks with praiseworthy things. God wants us to fill in the blanks believing the best regarding people, not the worst. In fact, that’s a Biblical command (see 1 Corinthians 13). A lot of believers need to learn this. It is not godly to always be operating out of a ‘so called’ discerning (which is truly a fault-finding) mindset versus a believing the best about others mindset—a loving mindset. To do the former is actually sin.
The reason a demonic spirit of slavery is so detrimental to us is that having a fear-filled mindset affects how we see everything around us, and it causes us to live enslaved lives. Don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but stop and consider the most successful persons you know—Christian or non-Christian. Those are the individuals who do not operate out of a fearful mindset. A successful person can’t be full of fear. A golfer, for instance, if he or she was full of fear would never win a tournament. A businessperson who was full of fear would never make lots of money on the stock market. Even in science and medicine it has been noted that when we believe things that are not true, that actually causes our brains to not function correctly. It’s a domino affect. So, if Satan and his forces, if a spirit of slavery, can get us to think untrue, incorrect things, he can truly bring us into slavery so that we have a deluded mind. Coming up in Romans chapter 11, Paul is going to talk about the spirit of delusion.
How do we overcome a spirit of slavery? Here are two pieces of advice to think on. One is that at the moment we recognize a demon is lying to us, we need to dispel that lie with a verse or passage from God’s Word. It’s that simple. Most of us can recall the movie from the mid-1980s called Gremlins. A lot of us have seen this holiday classic. For us if we don’t confront demons, it’s as if we let the Gremlins loose in our minds and they reap havoc. In the movie, flashing a bright light in their face disoriented them and caused them to move back. This is the same as speaking God’s Word to an evil thought (which is brought about by a demon). You have to kill a gremlin to prevent his destruction; so, you have to vaporize an evil thought so that it cannot cause destruction. And if a demon insinuates something to us, like that a particular person really doesn’t like us for instance, and we’re not certain of the reality of the situation, it’s best to believe the best in that situation. That’s how we combat that. After all, if you treat someone distant who really does like you, you may end up causing a problem when there was no real problem before.
The Spirit we have received, Paul says, is the Spirit of Adoption. This is a wonderful thing for us. It’s an incredible thing, being adopted by God. He is now our Father, and not simply our Father, but we can actually call him Daddy. It’s an intimate, close father-son, father-daughter, relationship. Now some of you out there are likely saying, “Oh really? God is my father, but I don’t care.” You’d prefer seeing it as Jesus your friend, because unfortunately there are some who didn’t grow up with a good father relationship. So, for you, seeing God as your father isn’t that appealing. If your earthly father was harsh, legalistic, overly demanding, abusive (whether verbally or physically), you just don’t have a good picture of a father. These poorly performing fathers can exist inside the church walls also, especially in stricter churches. That just seems to be the way it is. The good news today is that God isn’t like this as our Father. He’s the nice, cool Dad you saw other’s had. He’s the Father you wished your dad acted like when you were at your friend’s house as a child. That’s God.
A correct father-child relationship then is one that is based on closeness, kindness, trust, and one of which there is a lack of fear, a lack of slavery to fear. Yes, you may fear your dad in that you revere him, but you really shouldn’t fear your dad in that your afraid he might do something to you, or against you. Let us bring to mind what Paul told the Ephesians: “we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him [that is, Christ Jesus our Lord]” (Ephesians 3:12, ESV). We can be bold before God, just as a child. If there is something we want or want done for us, we can tell God plainly. We have confidence that God now is on our side, that he cares about what we care about. We are frequently taught that what we desire and care about is dumb and stupid, and that we need to align our cares with God’s cares. But remember, we are indwelled by the Spirit, so our cares often are already God’s cares. The haters are going to hate. We have confidence before God in the same way a child does. We believe that God is going to work toward us in the fashion that we desire him work. In one of the churches the speaker’s father used to take him to when he was growing up, the minister there always use to quote the verse, “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10:15, KJV). So many pastors need to learn this.
From time to time we are told and taught that we need to give up what we want for what God wants. However, let us translate this so called wisdom into an earthly father-son relationship. What Dad out there, listening today, is there who doesn’t want to give their son at least some of what he wants? It would seem that all of them do give their sons some of what he desires. They give him gifts, take him places he wants to go, support him in interests he likes even though they may not particularly care for those interests. Why is it that some out there say that with God we have to give up all these things? Since none of the fathers out there are really like this, expecting their sons to only care for gifts they pick for him, or to only want to go places that they specifically want to go, or to like things and seek after things only they have an interest in, and of which he is not interested in. None of them are like that. So, why in the world should we accept a picture of God like this? Actually, we should view God as better than our earthly fathers instead of worse. And, Jesus even made this argument. There are some who need to print what was just said and keep close by for reminder of how life actually is with God.
Verse 16: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:16, 17, ESV)
It certainly is the case that as Christians we can expect to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, confirming that we are a Christian, that we belong to God. We know that Jesus said he would be with us always. Truly, we are never alone, no matter how we may feel. And that’s a great thing for us. This bearing witness by the Holy Spirit is also an external thing, that which occurs outside of us for everyone to see. The outpouring of a true Christlike character is shown forth in us, as we relate to other people bearing the Spirit’s fruit toward others, and using that fruit in our lives in general.
If we are children of God, if we call God our Father, then we are heirs of God, which means we are fellow heirs with Christ. This dramatic and incredible statement by Paul is hard to fathom. Just think of the enormous wealth each of us possess being an heir of God. There are a wide range of things God is going to give us in the future. We’ve discussed Heaven in the past, but to say the least it’s going to be awesome. God has saved us from an eternal sentence in Hell, where we would have been tormented day and night forever and ever, and he has replaced that with the extreme opposite. It will be better than Charlie inheriting Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and that would be pretty cool. Yes, God is a good God, and he is ever loving toward us, longing to give us more and more. Satan said that if we went against God we would actually gain life, but nothing could be farther from the truth. All unbelievers and rebels against God will get is punishment for their sins.
Paul brings up Christian suffering, and it is true that we may suffer for our personal relationship with God through Christ. Some of you out there saying, “I knew it, God really isn’t as good as I thought. He wants me to suffer. I have to suffer to get good things from him.” Well, hold on a second. For starters, if you live in American society, most Christians are not going to suffer significantly, at least compared to the rest of the Christians in the world. But that’s beside the point. God certainly does not delight to see his children suffer, nor does he generally want it for us. Anyone who says he does, it simply isn’t true. God does hope to see our admirable response and attitude in suffering—but not the actual suffering. So, there is a significant distinction. Sometimes it is necessary for us to suffer for Christ’s sake. Satan has power, and he can work against believers in different ways. Suffering can be used to bring God glory when it is endured. As a matter of fact, Jesus is our perfect model in this area. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (ESV). Jesus didn’t look at the suffering, he looked ahead and hoped on into the future for what would be the result of his temporary suffering. That’s what he fixed his eyes on.
Anybody out there today who doesn’t have the good things that have been discussed can have them all by placing your faith in Jesus. Yes, Jesus died for the sins of everybody and rose from the dead, and today is with God in Heaven. Anyone who places their trust in him gains life now, is indwelled by the Spirit of God, gains a new mind, a new character over time, and will ultimately be a heir with Jesus of everything good God is giving us in the future. All can be yours today by placing your trust in Jesus.
-Daniel Litton
We are continuing along today in Romans chapter 8. Last week’s discussion focused mainly on the believer’s position in Christ—the fact that we have no condemnation in him. Paul spent quite a significant amount of time talking about how we are indwelled by the Spirit of God, as Christians, how the Spirit has made his home in us. We learned how we are not to be walking after our flesh, our fleshy impulses, those natural and ungodly impulses, but how we are supposed to be walking after the Spirit, how we are to be aligning our minds, our thoughts, with what pleases God, what would be approved by him. Yes, Paul discussed how we are not supposed to be like unbelievers. And he explained how we are going to get our new bodies, as Christians, at the time we die or are Raptured. So, he discussed quite a bit in the first eleven verses.
Today, Paul is going to get more specific for us in our personal relationship with God. We pick up at verse 12. Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 12: “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:12-13, ESV)
What Paul has just told us is that we are debtors to something. We have something to work towards. Remember? Back in chapter 6, he would say we are either slaves of sin or slaves of God. If we recall in Romans chapter 7, we learned that we are to abide in Jesus, as Christians. Abiding in Jesus is the only practice that will truly bear fruit for God. If we live following our own fleshly efforts, our own ways (for clarification, that is, following what we believe God is saying without any personal input from the Holy Spirit), if we follow God that way we cannot bear fruit for God. Oh, we may think we are bearing fruit for him, but we really aren’t. So, the only method by which we find ourselves in peace and righteousness, then, is living according to the Spirit, by putting to death the deeds of our flesh. That’s how we live a peaceful life, one that is fret-free, one that abides in Jesus.
One way to look at living according to the flesh is to be full of all kinds of thinking habits and patterns that are incorrect, or which are ultimately sinful. This was mentioned last week. Paul brought up the mind, how we are to have the mind of the Spirit. Going to Psalm 37, David says, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness” (Psalms 37:3, ESV). This verse from David really seems to capture what Paul is telling us in Romans chapter 8. We are to trust in the Lord first, and then what? We are to do good. Both of these things are what living after the Spirit is all about. Trusting in God allows us to enter God’s rest because we have our firm foundation in him no matter what happens. Yet, even though we may be residing in this rest, we still deal with our wayward flesh, and not to mention the spiritual forces that try to enhance our wayward flesh. Paul says we are to put these deeds, these fleshly desires, to death so that we can live real life.
Of course, we are aware that in Romans chapter 6 Paul spent quite a lot of time discussing how are to put the death the sinful actions of our bodies, how we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, so that we obey its passions. Today in Romans chapter 8, Paul shows us that we have a choice. When we come into right relationship with God, we don’t automatically only want to do noteworthy behaviors, but we all understand we still retain that desire to do what is wrong, what is sinful at times. And Paul reminds us again today that we are under obligation because of what Christ has done for us to actually choose to live according to the Spirit versus living according to flesh. It’s a choice we have to make.
Death occurs for us if we choose to live according to our flesh. That’s what Paul said. What’s he talking about? Will we die physically? Well, it’s possible we will die physically since sometimes following the flesh can lead to choices so unwise that they may cost us our physical lives. Really, though, what Paul is talking about is spiritual death. Living in death is not what we want. If we are living in death, we are out of God’s rest and lose our peace of mind. We are out of fellowship with God, and the Spirit brings conviction for us. Once the Spirit brings conviction, he have the choice of whether or not we will make correction. We have to choose to put to death the sinful actions of our bodies. That’s how we live real life. The Spirit can point out to us areas we need to work on as we live out our lives. Each of us will find ourselves at different spots of growth. We aren’t all at the same place. And the Holy Spirit may not always work with all of us on the same areas at the same times. He may work with one person on one area and someone else on another area.
It is important for us, as believers, to realize that the putting to death the deeds of our bodies is a lifelong process. It’s not only a process that happens the first two or three years of our Christian lives, the first two or three years after we are converted. It is encouraging, in some manner, when we come to understand this fact. It means that even though we are not where we want to be in our walks with God we nonetheless understand that we will continue to grow as we go along. Now, some Christian folks (and generally it seems the more stricter ones), grow the first few years of their Christian experience and then reach a certain level of which their growth process comes to a halt. They feel they have achieved where they are supposed to be in order to be pleasing to God. Unfortunately, in the personal experience, names of individuals could be listed here off of the top of the head of those known whom are like this. But, this is not how we are supposed to see our Christian lives. Anyone who thinks in this manner is still stuck in first or second grade, even though they believe they are in high school. They have an incorrect understanding of our spiritual growth, as believers.
We as Millennial Christians enjoy talking about our identity in Christ, and it seems rightfully so; we should talk about our identity in Christ. In Romans 8:1, Paul told us not to live under condemnation in our lives. One key element of our Christian lives is that we live in a condemnation-free environment. Isn’t that a great thing? It sure seems it is. We are not to be a Christian who walks around with his or her head down all the time over the latest sin we have identified in our lives, or of which we feel we’ve committed. Actually, it is hard to bear people who like this, who act this way. Don’t forget the fact that we have been made righteous before God in his sight. We are righteous before him. Yes, we still have to deal with sin, but God sees us as perfect before him. We ought not walk around all the time considering how bad we think we are. No, we need to consider and keep in the forefront of our minds who we are in Christ, that we are God’s righteousness in him. If we believe we are terrible Christians, sinning all the time, then guess what? That’s what we are going to keep on doing, sinning. As we think we are, in our hearts, so we become in our lives.
The method by which we continue to put to death the deeds of our flesh and live, the method we live is by keeping that optimistic, hopeful mindset that was discussed last week. Hope is the anchor for our soul, as the writer of Hebrews has told us. If we are going to overcome sin and eliminate sin, we have to believe that we can. It’s that simple. It’s not that we try harder, we’ve already discussed how that doesn’t work for us. What do we do then? We contemplate, meditate on, and consider God’s ways. We fill our minds with what is right. We consider the patterns we see in Scripture for how we are to act, but at the same time, not think of ourselves as a Biblical character wherein we become full of pride in our importance. We abide in Christ. We are mindful of good things. We spend time with God. We fellowship with him regularly. We begin our day thinking about him and we end our day thinking about him. We don’t wake up in the morning considering what we perceive our problems to be, or what we assume we need to do or accomplish for the day. Instead, God is in the forefront of our minds.
Striving for the things of the flesh will not get us what we want out of life. Fleshly things will leave us disappointed. Even if there is pleasure in them for a while, that pleasure will end, and at the end of the day, all we will have is death. We will realize we followed the wrong way. We took our pleasure first, and now we have to deal with the death that has come to us. Depression may even set in since we perceive that we have done things the wrong way. We have given place to Satan and his ways in our life. When we do things the right way, even if we experience discomfort up front from waiting or going against the tide, at the end of the day we look back and are happy with our choice. We will be able to look back and say, “Yes, I did it right. I followed God. I did things the right way, and now I have peace and I have exactly what I want.” Indeed, in order to get what we desire, we do that by following God’s way, not Satan’s. Surely, Satan will speak lie after lie to us that the only way to get what we desire is to do things the way he is telling us, but the real way we get it is by following God’s principles.
Verse 14: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14, ESV).
How are we led, as believers, by the Spirit of God? How does this work? It appears two types of Christians can be recognized in this area. There are the Christians who believe that the leading of the Spirit of God simply means to follow the what the Bible says without any internal input, without any internal discretion. Then there are those Christians who certainly follow the Word of God, but they do so with the Spirit’s internal leading, focusing on the areas he wants them to and following Christ in a certain, individual, personalized way where the Spirit of God leads. Instead of it just being following the Bible, it’s following the Spirit through the Bible. Therein lies the main difference that’s been noticed. Of course, obviously it seems the second approach here is the better model because it is more abiding and customized.
Simply put, the Holy Spirit leads us by giving us peace with whatever we are doing. If we are familiar with the Word of God, we try to understand how God thinks and what he expects from us. As Paul told the Colossian believers, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (3:15, ESV). That means we will do certain things, and not do other things. If we don’t have peace about something because we know it violates God’s Word, we won’t do it. Certainly, we won’t have peace about following what we clearly know is sin. If we not sure what God desires from us in a certain situation, we can ask him to lead us by his peace. If we have peace about doing whatever it is, we understand that it is okay for us to do that. However, if we have a lack of peace, we realize God probably is not leading us in that direction. This means there will be certain times we are going to pass on something. Whether that be buying a new house, turning down a person we like, taking a specific job offer, whatever it is, if we have a lack of peace that means we’re going to have to say “No” in that situation. Truly, we may not know why the lack of peace is present. God doesn’t always reveal that.
When we do wrong, or need correction, the Holy Spirit can gently voice to us where we need to make correction. At that point, it becomes our turn to decide whether or not we will move in the right direction—to change our minds to agree with him. Now (and this point is significant), if you feel you are being badgered by the Spirit of God, the good news is that’s not God speaking to you. That’s a demonic spirit trying to influence you, and he is trying to present himself as a helper, but he in fact isn’t helping at all. This can be one of the hardest areas for us to master, as believers. That is, being able to distinguish between spirits, to identify when the Spirit of God is speaking to us versus when an evil spirit is telling us lies. And then, not to mention our own thoughts on things. Anyway, this seems to be the case as we often have our sin-nature in the mix, and that only complicates matters. An evil spirit can play off of our sin-nature, which can make us even more eager to follow that spirit’s advice if we’re not careful. If we are acquainted with and very familiar with the Word of God, however, then we are more easily able to distinguish the times God is truly speaking to us.
Regularly we seek God’s guidance on what we are to do in a certain matter. Probably the most vital thing that can be said is that you need to wait, you need to wait, if you don’t have a clear answer on what you should do. That is critical. At times God doesn’t want us to do anything at the moment because he may be waiting to see what other free-persons do, and where circumstances end up. When we are asking God to guide us, the Holy Spirit, to state it again, will give us peace at the moment God wants us to go one particular direction; we will have peace in imagining that out in our minds. Again, we will have a lack of peace in considering the direction that is incorrect. In considering going that direction, will feel uncomfortable, or have a lack of faith things will work out if we do it. Paul told the Philippian believers, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7, ESV). Sometimes there is that lack of understanding as to ‘why’ or ‘why not’ we should or should not do something, but by operating by peace, we are guarded without having this information. We will not lose in living like this.
Verse 15: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14, 15, ESV).
A spirit of slavery, which causes us to fall back, is a spirit we haven’t received from God. If we look at the wording of this verse carefully, we see that because the second half of the verse brings up a ‘real’ Spirit, the Spirit of God, we can then assume that the first half of the verse may also be referring to a ‘real’ spirit, a demonic spirit of slavery. One of Satan’s chief objectives in our daily lives is to get us to fall into slavery, and that is slavery with him as our master. He wants us to get caught up in habits and thought patterns that are destructive for us. He uses to his aid real, actually present demonic spirits which can try to bring us under slavery. So, the spirit of slavery would be a demonic spirit from Satan that tries to enslave us. And how does he do this? Well, as Paul said it is through fear.
Fear can be a pretty debilitating problem for us. Demons seek to deceive us by telling us lies on a daily basis inside our minds. Thoughts come to us of theories and possibilities in the world, and often those thoughts are brought about by a demonic spirit. The problem for us comes at the moment we decide to believe the enemies’ lies, to see things how he’s telling us they are. For instance, he may tell us a certain person or group of people really doesn’t like us, that they are really against us. If we believe that lie, that undoubtedly will have an enormous impact on our relationships with people. If we accept beliefs that are based in lies, we can’t live the life God really desires us to live. We can begin to act differently toward the people the demon has told us doesn’t like us, and we may even try to oppose or lash out at someone whom we have come to believe is against us, when that truly wasn’t the case at all. Sometimes demons fill in the blanks for us, and they don’t fill in those blanks with praiseworthy things. God wants us to fill in the blanks believing the best regarding people, not the worst. In fact, that’s a Biblical command (see 1 Corinthians 13). A lot of believers need to learn this. It is not godly to always be operating out of a ‘so called’ discerning (which is truly a fault-finding) mindset versus a believing the best about others mindset—a loving mindset. To do the former is actually sin.
The reason a demonic spirit of slavery is so detrimental to us is that having a fear-filled mindset affects how we see everything around us, and it causes us to live enslaved lives. Don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but stop and consider the most successful persons you know—Christian or non-Christian. Those are the individuals who do not operate out of a fearful mindset. A successful person can’t be full of fear. A golfer, for instance, if he or she was full of fear would never win a tournament. A businessperson who was full of fear would never make lots of money on the stock market. Even in science and medicine it has been noted that when we believe things that are not true, that actually causes our brains to not function correctly. It’s a domino affect. So, if Satan and his forces, if a spirit of slavery, can get us to think untrue, incorrect things, he can truly bring us into slavery so that we have a deluded mind. Coming up in Romans chapter 11, Paul is going to talk about the spirit of delusion.
How do we overcome a spirit of slavery? Here are two pieces of advice to think on. One is that at the moment we recognize a demon is lying to us, we need to dispel that lie with a verse or passage from God’s Word. It’s that simple. Most of us can recall the movie from the mid-1980s called Gremlins. A lot of us have seen this holiday classic. For us if we don’t confront demons, it’s as if we let the Gremlins loose in our minds and they reap havoc. In the movie, flashing a bright light in their face disoriented them and caused them to move back. This is the same as speaking God’s Word to an evil thought (which is brought about by a demon). You have to kill a gremlin to prevent his destruction; so, you have to vaporize an evil thought so that it cannot cause destruction. And if a demon insinuates something to us, like that a particular person really doesn’t like us for instance, and we’re not certain of the reality of the situation, it’s best to believe the best in that situation. That’s how we combat that. After all, if you treat someone distant who really does like you, you may end up causing a problem when there was no real problem before.
The Spirit we have received, Paul says, is the Spirit of Adoption. This is a wonderful thing for us. It’s an incredible thing, being adopted by God. He is now our Father, and not simply our Father, but we can actually call him Daddy. It’s an intimate, close father-son, father-daughter, relationship. Now some of you out there are likely saying, “Oh really? God is my father, but I don’t care.” You’d prefer seeing it as Jesus your friend, because unfortunately there are some who didn’t grow up with a good father relationship. So, for you, seeing God as your father isn’t that appealing. If your earthly father was harsh, legalistic, overly demanding, abusive (whether verbally or physically), you just don’t have a good picture of a father. These poorly performing fathers can exist inside the church walls also, especially in stricter churches. That just seems to be the way it is. The good news today is that God isn’t like this as our Father. He’s the nice, cool Dad you saw other’s had. He’s the Father you wished your dad acted like when you were at your friend’s house as a child. That’s God.
A correct father-child relationship then is one that is based on closeness, kindness, trust, and one of which there is a lack of fear, a lack of slavery to fear. Yes, you may fear your dad in that you revere him, but you really shouldn’t fear your dad in that your afraid he might do something to you, or against you. Let us bring to mind what Paul told the Ephesians: “we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him [that is, Christ Jesus our Lord]” (Ephesians 3:12, ESV). We can be bold before God, just as a child. If there is something we want or want done for us, we can tell God plainly. We have confidence that God now is on our side, that he cares about what we care about. We are frequently taught that what we desire and care about is dumb and stupid, and that we need to align our cares with God’s cares. But remember, we are indwelled by the Spirit, so our cares often are already God’s cares. The haters are going to hate. We have confidence before God in the same way a child does. We believe that God is going to work toward us in the fashion that we desire him work. In one of the churches the speaker’s father used to take him to when he was growing up, the minister there always use to quote the verse, “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10:15, KJV). So many pastors need to learn this.
From time to time we are told and taught that we need to give up what we want for what God wants. However, let us translate this so called wisdom into an earthly father-son relationship. What Dad out there, listening today, is there who doesn’t want to give their son at least some of what he wants? It would seem that all of them do give their sons some of what he desires. They give him gifts, take him places he wants to go, support him in interests he likes even though they may not particularly care for those interests. Why is it that some out there say that with God we have to give up all these things? Since none of the fathers out there are really like this, expecting their sons to only care for gifts they pick for him, or to only want to go places that they specifically want to go, or to like things and seek after things only they have an interest in, and of which he is not interested in. None of them are like that. So, why in the world should we accept a picture of God like this? Actually, we should view God as better than our earthly fathers instead of worse. And, Jesus even made this argument. There are some who need to print what was just said and keep close by for reminder of how life actually is with God.
Verse 16: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:16, 17, ESV)
It certainly is the case that as Christians we can expect to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, confirming that we are a Christian, that we belong to God. We know that Jesus said he would be with us always. Truly, we are never alone, no matter how we may feel. And that’s a great thing for us. This bearing witness by the Holy Spirit is also an external thing, that which occurs outside of us for everyone to see. The outpouring of a true Christlike character is shown forth in us, as we relate to other people bearing the Spirit’s fruit toward others, and using that fruit in our lives in general.
If we are children of God, if we call God our Father, then we are heirs of God, which means we are fellow heirs with Christ. This dramatic and incredible statement by Paul is hard to fathom. Just think of the enormous wealth each of us possess being an heir of God. There are a wide range of things God is going to give us in the future. We’ve discussed Heaven in the past, but to say the least it’s going to be awesome. God has saved us from an eternal sentence in Hell, where we would have been tormented day and night forever and ever, and he has replaced that with the extreme opposite. It will be better than Charlie inheriting Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and that would be pretty cool. Yes, God is a good God, and he is ever loving toward us, longing to give us more and more. Satan said that if we went against God we would actually gain life, but nothing could be farther from the truth. All unbelievers and rebels against God will get is punishment for their sins.
Paul brings up Christian suffering, and it is true that we may suffer for our personal relationship with God through Christ. Some of you out there saying, “I knew it, God really isn’t as good as I thought. He wants me to suffer. I have to suffer to get good things from him.” Well, hold on a second. For starters, if you live in American society, most Christians are not going to suffer significantly, at least compared to the rest of the Christians in the world. But that’s beside the point. God certainly does not delight to see his children suffer, nor does he generally want it for us. Anyone who says he does, it simply isn’t true. God does hope to see our admirable response and attitude in suffering—but not the actual suffering. So, there is a significant distinction. Sometimes it is necessary for us to suffer for Christ’s sake. Satan has power, and he can work against believers in different ways. Suffering can be used to bring God glory when it is endured. As a matter of fact, Jesus is our perfect model in this area. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (ESV). Jesus didn’t look at the suffering, he looked ahead and hoped on into the future for what would be the result of his temporary suffering. That’s what he fixed his eyes on.
Anybody out there today who doesn’t have the good things that have been discussed can have them all by placing your faith in Jesus. Yes, Jesus died for the sins of everybody and rose from the dead, and today is with God in Heaven. Anyone who places their trust in him gains life now, is indwelled by the Spirit of God, gains a new mind, a new character over time, and will ultimately be a heir with Jesus of everything good God is giving us in the future. All can be yours today by placing your trust in Jesus.
-Daniel Litton