Romans 8:10-15 • Blessed Assurance
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let's stand as we honor God's Word, Romans 8 verses 10 through 15. If not on our own strength, how can we respond to the grace of our God? Verse 10, "But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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." 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 for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, 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." Let's pray together. May our hearts cry this day, "Heavenly Father, be to you," with the childlike desperation that says, "Abba, Father, be our help, be our aid, our strength, our comfort, and by knowing what you have provided by your son and by your spirit, be enabled to rise in newness of faith, in strength of hope, in the joy that ultimately is the reason that we are compelled to love you." So work in our hearts this day that we who would celebrate Thanksgiving would know our greatest cause, this we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. Please be seated.
Sometimes it's the parent who will say, "My adult son or daughter is not walking with the Lord in an immoral relationship or caught up in the money chase, exiting yet another marriage, maybe just disinterested in things of the Lord." But that same adult child says, "But don't worry, Mom, don't worry, Dad. I still believe in God." Sometimes it's the child. "My parents have not darkened the door of a church in what seems like years." Or they go to church, but they show absolutely no effect in their lives. It's just habit and pattern of a past generation. Or the church that they attend calls itself Christian, but there's so little gospel light there. When I talk to my parents about a personal relationship with Jesus, they look at me like I'm a fanatic. And then they say, "But don't worry about us, child. We still believe in God." Or maybe it's a friend at work or school. You want me to go with you to church? Leave a life with my live-in? Give up my bottle weekends?
No thanks. Don't worry, I still believe in God. And maybe for just a moment we're comforted. After all, the preacher says that salvation is by grace through faith alone. And if they believe in God, maybe that's supposed to do it. But then something in us wonders if real faith could have such invisible fruit. And something in us echoes from the past teaching of James, the brother of Jesus, who says in the Bible, "You say you believe in God and you do well, but even the devils believe faith without works is dead." Or Jesus sang to us his own words, "If you believe in me, then you will do as I do." So what is the assurance of faith that's real? I mean, surely this faith, this belief is something more than just mental assent. To be real, it has to be something about a heart conviction. What is that? I mean, there has to be some difference than just kind of mentally believing that Minnesota is north of Illinois. And believing that in the Mayo Clinic there are people who can save your life. And you got to get there. And you got to get what they have. And you know that it is a desperate need that drives you to believe that there is life there. That will change you. That will change your actions more than just some sort of mental assent. Ultimately, it's that that the Apostle is after in this portion of Scripture where the very one who has said, "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," is reminding you of what your assurance is that that promise actually applies to you. Saying that if you believe, there are certain things that characterize you. The first of which is a life changed by the Spirit. After all, it is verse 10, "If Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." There was a life that characterized you, the life of measure up or don't care, the life of just going your own way. You'll make it up to God. You'll do what makes life right for you. And you recognize ultimately that that life says the Apostle is spiritual death. That which is just the pursuit of you is nothing that's ultimately going to satisfy a holy God. And so, if that's all you're depending on is just you, that's spiritual death regardless of what you may say you believe. There is a life. There's another way of thinking. It's life in the Spirit. If Christ is in you,
the Spirit is life. The Apostle is driving home something he's been mentioning now for chapter after chapter. That if Christ is yours, if his Spirit is in you, that there's a new identity for you that Christ now has put himself in your place so that your sin has been put away and Christ's status in your place. It is the grand substitution. Our sin on Christ, his righteousness on us. But it's not just a once for all act that has no further implications. That same Jesus says the Apostle indwells us by his Spirit. His life becomes our life. So now says the Apostle, by the grace of God, by his work, the Spirit is life to you. What does that mean? We can kind of make sense by our own phrasing, words that we use. In good times we sometimes will say to one another, "Sports is my life. Or my career is my life. Or my marriage is my life. Or my kids are my life."
As though that's what we're living for. That's what preoccupies us. That's what we're about.
But in hard times the words change.
The next deal is my life. I'm made or broken by what happens next. The next deal, the next date,
the next fix. Fixing my family. That's my life. If I could just get them fixed. Or honest reflection of what is preoccupying our life. I'm so worried about my sin. I'm so worried about my shame. I'm so worried about our finances. I'm so worried about my divorce. I'm so worried about my rejection. Every day I spend thinking about my reputation. Every night I stay awake thinking about my life. There is a way of living in which the things apart from God are your life.
And now says the apostle, "Here comes Christ who has not just substituted himself for your sin. He has given you a new life. The life that is in the spirit as you begin to live for his priorities." The apostle Paul says it different ways, different places. Colossians 3-4, "Christ is my life."
Philippians 1-21, "For me to live is Christ as though he has become the purpose, the priority." But more than that, the identity, my thought life, my purpose, that's my life now. And there is a grand consequence of this grand substitution. It is that our life begins to change. Not just that there was a status from sin to righteousness back there, but there's an ongoing life in the spirit. The apostle Paul will talk about it other places, right? What is the fruit of the spirit? What is that life that is the spirit now? The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control. There is this fruit of the spirit changing us. And it's important for us as believers to recognize as much as we talk about the fruits of the spirit, the word is not plural, it's just fruit. It's not like we go to the spirit, the way we go to the market and say, "You know, I see that there's apples and bananas and kumquats and, you know, I'll take some of the kumquats, but I really hate apples." No, you don't make choices with the fruit of the spirit. You don't say, "You know, this kindness thing, I'm not really up on that one." But, you know, there's patience. I'm really good at that one, you know? And so we begin to pick and choose among the fruit of the spirit. And the apostle's saying, "No, if the spirit is in you, then there is this irradiating power of that spirit to begin to show in your heart and life the character of Jesus Christ, and you're being conformed to that character. And as that is changing in you, it's the evidence in your own heart that the spirit lives there. You're perceiving, you're calling, you're perceiving the changes. Not that we're all fixed yet, but that we are growing in Christ's likeness. The spirit is changing us. There is life in the spirit. Now, having said that, we're all immediately troubled. Because if we recognize all that fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, we recognize all that fruit. We say, "Whoa, I may not have all of that fruit, and it may not all be ripe in me yet." So now what is my assurance? The assurance is not just that the changes are happening by your desire, by your life habit, by your patterns, but there is real ability to become more and more what God is calling you to be. Verse 11, "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." That same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that gave life to a dead body, now dwells in you. So that as we begin to recognize, the spirit is saying there's this difficulty in a relationship in your life or a pattern or a habit that needs to change that we don't just throw up our hands and say, "You know, I just can't help this. It's just impossible." We say, "No, the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that resurrection power indwells you now, and there is new ability to give you new maturity as God is changing you from the glory of your salvation to the glory of increasing Christ-likeness." We are being changed from glory into glory as God is working in us over time, not by our perfection, but by his spirit illuminating what is the problem and then giving us affection and energy and ability to become more and more Christ-like. I think of it just in terms of something I enjoyed watching a few years ago when there was the speed record set for a speed boat going up the Mississippi River, the entire length from New Orleans all the way to the northern point in 21 hours and four minutes.
That was quite a speed, quite a speed feat. But because it was 21 hours, you recognize that some of the journey had to be at night. And so what I enjoyed reading about was the tugboat captains to enable the record to be set, turning their spotlights on the snags or the sandbars or the tricky currents so that the boat could identify what was wrong and move past it. Such is the work of the Holy Spirit. As God by His Word is illuminating in our heart and life the things that inhibit our progress in Christ-likeness. And then as God by His Spirit is making our hearts vulnerable and sensitive and malleable to the life of the Spirit, we're hearing the Word of God. We are reacting to it. We are being changed. But it's not just that the spotlight of the Spirit is on the different aspect of our lives, but we've actually been given the fuel that the speed boat needed to make the progress that God determines so that that Spirit is in us, saying as God raised Jesus from the dead by that Spirit, that Spirit is in you, illuminating to your heart what needs to be seen but also giving you strength to do it. Now I will grant you the Spirit does not illuminate to me or to you everything that needs to be changed at once. We would die, right? And so there is this loving metering of the light of the Lord to let us see this and now this and now this. But the evidence of the Spirit in us is that we do see and our hearts begin to delight to change. We are compelled by the reality that God has by His Spirit given us ability as well as the desire to change because He's showing us what is needed to grow in Christ-likeness. There's a new life. It's the life in the Spirit and we are beginning to live in that Spirit and be changed by that Spirit. Not only is there change by the Spirit, there is conviction of sin in those who are ultimately identified as those loved by the Lord. If you think of how the Apostle is saying it, it's verse 12, "So then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. If the Spirit is in you, you begin to have a sense of the conviction of sin. Things are not right. Jesus had to die for me and I'm still working on things and that puts me under a sense of debt." But do you notice the careful wording? The Apostle said, "It is not a debt to the flesh."
It's not as though your debt is to make things up to God by what you do, that I'm going to counterbalance my flesh. The debt is not to your flesh. Ultimately, the debt is to the grace of God, to the goodness that's been revealed in the Savior. How does that make a difference? I think of the testimony of Robert Murray McShane, the great, ultimately, Scottish evangelist of the 19th century. When he was in college, McShane lived a wild party life.
But he had a godly brother who prayed for him, prayed for his salvation. Before he got out of college, that brother died.
And McShane had this awful sense of guilt and debt. He came to the Lord, he acknowledged his sin, and he became a pastor. But all that was so much compensation for his flesh. And in his flesh, he tried to compensate for the wrong that he had done. Even as a minister, he would try to say to people, "You have to make it up to God. You have to do all these wonderful things the way I have done. You have to make it up to God," which ultimately crushed him. Even while he was a minister, he fell under deep depression, had to leave the church in order to regain sanity and health. And while he was away from church, there was a fill-in young man in his twenties upon whom the spirit of revival fell. And revival broke out in the church when McShane was away. Now, wouldn't you like to be that preacher? Yeah, great revival in your church. You weren't here.
But what McShane realized as a consequence of that was the Lord's Spirit had fallen where there was not deserving, where there was not ability, that the Spirit was operating apart from compensation, as it were. And McShane began to recognize it was a different kind of gospel, not the gospel of, "I'm going to make it up to God. I'm going to compensate for my flesh. My debt is to my Savior, not to my flesh. God gave Himself for me. And ultimately, it is not my making it up to Him, but His totally uncompensated grace to me. That is what now I'm living for." McShane wrote to him, "Many churches still sing, "When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty, not my own. When I stand with Christ in glory, looking back over my history, then, Lord, shall I fully know. And not till then how much I owe. There'll be a day I stand in beautiful dress, robed in the righteousness of Christ. And I'll look back over my life and recognize I couldn't compensate for that. I couldn't make up for that. But here I am, dressed in glory through the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ. I will recognize then how great my debt. But don't have to wait just until then."
McShane, who encouraged his own heart into his people, wrote another verse, "Even on earth, as though through a glass darkly, let thy glory pass. Make forgiveness feel so sweet. Make thy spirits help soul meet. Even on earth, Lord, make me know something of how much I owe. Though He is my Creator, He died for me. Though He was innocent, He suffered for me. Though He's in heaven, He lives for me. Though I struggle, He gives His Spirit to me." And it's that reality of loving thanksgiving. Look at all that He has done. It becomes the heart of the believer. I'm not trying to make it up to God. I could never make it up to God. Instead, I recognize He has paid everything. And I have this great privilege of living in thanksgiving, of living in a reality of how good is His love. So I'm responding to the grace of God, not because I'm only convicted of sin,
but because I'm convinced of the grace of God at the very same moment. We have to say that over and over again to one another. It is so important to be convicted of our sin, to recognize I'm not where I should be. I'm not even where I want to be. And that conviction of sin is most necessary for spiritual change. But conviction of sin is not the end of the gospel.
The gospel has not done its work until we are also convinced of grace. You meet those people sometimes, of course, right, who think the great mark of their Christian obedience is they feel really bad. And of course, the great mark of their orthodoxy, of their profound faith, is they feel bad or longer than everybody else. No! He has made me right with God. And His Spirit testifies with my spirit now in my heart that my sin is paid for, as now the Spirit is revealing what I need to do about that. Yes, I recognize guilt, so I turn from the sin. But I recognize at the same moment He has filled me with strength and the joy of knowing there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So now I desire to walk with Him. I want to be the one He wants me to be. Ultimately, it means that we are compelled by love. It's that great change that begins to occur. Verse 14, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." I begin to recognize my changed status. I, by all rights, could be labeled the enemy of God. I, by all rights, could be simply one that He called garbage and dispense with. And yet He looks at me, robed in the righteousness of Christ and says, "You're my child. I love you as much as I love Jesus. Can you believe that? You have the Spirit of Jesus in you, the righteousness of Christ on you." And now the same God says, "I want you to recognize that. You are my precious child, weak, wounded, sick, sore, all true, and His child." How do we respond to that? Verse 15, "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." How does the Spirit testify with your spirit that you are a child of God, your heart cries out, "Abba, Father!" It's the great message of the Word of God that if if you were not of God, your heart would be hostile to Him. But if the Spirit of the living God is in you, then your heart cries out, "God, in all my woundedness and weariness and not rightness yet, you call me your own. I cry out to you, Father. Help me. Be with me. I yearn for you."
You know, I looked up that word "cry." It struck me as odd that we would cry as children to Abba, Daddy, Father. And when I looked it up, I found that that word "cry" was a word that actually meant reach out to hold on to. And I thought of the great example of it that we will all have at so many of our Christmas, excuse me, not Christmas, but Thanksgiving tables.
The children, the grandchildren will be there, some in their high chairs,
overstressed, overhungry, over tired, over excited, and crying. And who will they reach for?
Mama! Papa! Knowing their hearts cry out.
In just a few moments, we're going to partake of this Lord's Supper.
And you may wonder, "Should I be doing this? I recognize I'm not Jesus yet. Get everything worked out." Not really the question. Do you come to this table with arms outstretched to say, "Father, I just yearned for you. I just yearned for what you provide through Jesus. My heart cries out to you." The Jews use that same word to describe their prayer shawls that they called the crying out robe. But each robe had tassels, each tassel with knots, 613 knots, representing the laws of God. They had to fulfill to be acceptable to God.
Paul says, "We just cry, Abba, Father, not in our flesh, but in His provision."
How do you know you are the Lord's? Your soul cries out, "Father, help me. I want to walk with you. Send me Jesus. Put His Spirit in me. I know it's there, because my heart yearns for you. I cry out, "Abba, Father," again. Heavenly Father, we now come to these earthly elements. They're just physical things, but they represent our hearts cry.
That we who recognize we cannot be made right with you by our efforts look for nourishment from Jesus alone. We recognize what He did that's represented here, a body broken, a blood shed, all for us. But it wasn't just a past act. By your Spirit, you continue to nourish and to guide and to help and to strengthen. And so we celebrate that as well. May it be what we do even now as we partake of this meal crying out, "Abba, Father," that your Spirit would testify with our Spirit. You should take this child, because it's from your Father for you. As you yearn for Him, this is yours to have.