INTRODUCTION
Those who have been justified through their faith in Jesus Christ are new people. Their old sinful nature has been crucified with Christ, they are now dead to sin and alive to God. Never-the-less, they face the daily choice of whom they will serve. Will it be sin or the Savior? As Paul taught us last week, whoever we, as transformed believers, yield the members of our body to serve, we become the servant of that thing or person. As he told us the, choosing to serve sin makes no sense to a genuine Christian. It only enslaves them to sin.
Last week we read as Paul turned to discuss the way to experience holiness of life. Some were suggesting starting at the point that Paul knew from experience was the wrong point: trying to obey the Law. As Paul told us, the problem with seeking holiness through keeping the law is not the law itself, but us. We can’t keep the law. The law only arouses sin in our life and produces death, not life. Paul’s own experience, and probably ours also, bears this out. He wanted to obey God and his law but found that sin dwelling in him continued to produce the opposite result of what he wanted. He sinned rather than obeyed. This brought him to utter frustration, and he looked for another way to achieve holiness. In the last verse of the chapter, he telegraphed his answer: deliverance came through Christ.
We peeked ahead in chapter 8 and saw that the path to holiness involved the work of the Holy Spirit, not obedience to the Law.
Up to this point in Romans, Paul mentioned the Holy Spirit only four times. Now in the space of thirteen verses he will mention the Holy Spirit twelve times. The reason is this: by himself Paul was weak. Using only his flesh to fight sin resulted in continuing defeat. Yet something new had come into his life and the life of every believer: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s presence changes how we can deal with our sin nature, and he allowed Paul (and all believers along with Paul) to be victorious where previously they had been defeated in their desire for holiness of life.
The subject of these verses can be easily found in the contrast Paul sets up between the flesh and the Spirit. By flesh, Paul here means the human mind, will, and emotions, unchanged and unaided by the Spirit of God (all that an unsaved person has available to live by). To live by the flesh is to live only by the power and wisdom that the flesh gives. To live by the Spirit is to live by the power and wisdom the Spirit gives.
As we’ll learn, Paul’s struggle with sin was overcome by learning how to walk in the Spirit, set his mind on the Spirit, and put to death the deeds of the body through the Spirit. New life in the Spirit allows the believer to experience the freedom from sin that Paul talked about in chapter 6.
As we enter Romans 8 we enter one of the most beloved chapters in the whole New Testament, certainly in the letters of Paul. You will certainly discover here verse and truths precious to the believer and memorized by millions of followers of Christ, and for good reason.
The theme of Romans Eight is New Life in the Spirit. In the first 13 verses we’ll see that new life in the Spirit means that we can have victory over the law of sin and death. In contrast to chapter seven, I’ve entitled this message “Seeking Holiness in the Right Place.”
If you are ready to learn the path to personal holiness these are verse you cannot miss.
New Life in the Spirit: Freedom from sin’s grip
I. The Holy Spirit has from the law of sin, 1-4a
A. Believers cannot be , 1
B. Believers have been set free from the law of and , 2
Romans 7:21-23
C. Believers can now do what they , 3-4a
We can fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law.
What Paul struggled to do on his own can be done through .
II. We can now live by not by the flesh, 4b-8
Note the contrast, two ways of living:
By : the unrenewed human nature dominated by fleshly and selfish concerns.
By : the new person within dominated by spiritual and unselfish concerns.
A. If we live according to the flesh, 5a, 6a, 7-8
1. are set on the things of the flesh, 5a
(MULTILINE)
2. We , 6a
(MULTILINE)
3. We are to God, 7a
(MULTILINE)
4. We do not (and cannot) to God’s law, 7b
(MULTILINE)
5. We cannot God, 8
(MULTILINE)
B. If we live according to the Spirit, 5b, 6b, 7-8
1. We set our minds on the things of , 5b
(MULTILINE)
2. We have and peace, 6b
3. We are to God, (7a)
4. We to God’s law, (7b)
5. We God, (8)
(MULTILINE)
III. The Holy Spirit is , 9-11
A. We are in , not in the flesh, 9a
(MULTILINE)
B. The Holy Spirit , 9b
(MULTILINE)
C. Our body is because of sin, but the Spirit is because of righteousness, 10
(MULTILINE)
D. Since the Spirit dwells in us, we have giving our bodies life, 11
(MULTILINE)
IV. We can put sins to death in our life through the Holy Spirit, 12-13
A. To live according to the flesh is , 12-13a
B. By the Spirit we the deeds of the body and live, 13b
(MULTILINE)
Conclusion
Because we are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit, holy living is possible. The old way of living according to the flesh, with our minds set on the flesh, has been replaced by the ability to live by the Spirit, with our minds set on the things of the Spirit. The Spirit’s indwelling brings life instead of death, freedom from the law of sin and death, and resurrection life to our mortal bodies. Through the Holy Spirit we can put to death the sinful deeds of the body. Walking in the Spirit is the right way to holiness.