I’m picking up now just one last thought on “no condemnation.” Although the whole chapter is about that, I can imagine someone saying, “Well, that’s nice not to have God mad at me, but frankly if it doesn’t make me well or get me a job or fix my marriage, I’m just not interested. What’s the relevance now of being told that there’s no condemnation hanging over my head?” Now that’s an objection that’s very hard for me to fathom. But given the way we are, I think it’s one that we need to address and I have three or four responses to it just briefly.

The Relevance of No Condemnation

First, even if your life for 85 or 103 years were perfectly miserable in every way on earth that you can imagine, followed by 85,000 ages of joy, it would be a good deal. It would be a really good deal. So I am not very moved by the demand for immediate relevance in terms of comfort. I’m just not very moved. It wouldn’t matter to me much if God gave me exquisite joy of every kind for 85 years and then misery for the rest of eternity. That would not be a good deal. But if he were to allow me for his sovereign purposes to have many sufferings and then awaken me from the grave — as it says in Romans 8:11 he will — to be with him forever in infinite joy, I would say, “Okay, that’s a good deal.”

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).

So my first response is, if you demand from me now some immediate payoff in terms of some practical comforts or change in your life about relationships, I say it may or it may not come, but I still say no condemnation is wonderful beyond imagination.

Pain, Marriage, and Parenting

My second response to that is this truth changes everything now. I mean the list would be very long. Let me mention a few. Some of you bring to this room physical pain. You’re living probably on drugs to help you manage it, or you will before your life is over. Physical pain is a massive reality. Now I ask you, is it not sweet beyond measure to be told by the living God, “This pain is not owing to the fact that I am mad at you.” Because that’s our first reaction when we hurt, you get in an accident or you get told by the doctor you have something really wrong, your first thought is, “What’d I do wrong? Why are you against me?” And to be told with the authority of the living Christ, “He is not against you in this,” changes everything about the cancer or the arthritis.

What about marriage? If a husband and a wife believe that they are and feel that they are sinners not condemned, it’ll change everything. If you wake up in the morning and feel as a husband, “I’m a sinner, I deserve wrath and I’m not condemned,” how will you be demanding of her? How will you insist upon so much? Or reverse the roles. If you know yourself to be living and hanging on mercy and that God could squash you at any moment, like you feel like squashing her or him, and he would be just and he doesn’t do it — he makes the sun come out in the morning, puts you in The Cove in a glorious place like this when you deserve pain — how then could you turn from that no condemnation to condemn her? It changes everything.

Another example is parenting. I’ve raised now with Noël four sons up through age 30 down to 20, and now we’re starting over kind of with Talitha at seven. When I look at the sins of my children, I ask, “Have I done it as well as I could do it?” Do you know what the answer to that is? No. And I don’t know if any parent could ever do it as well as it could be done. Therefore, if any of your children go astray, or if any of their marriages break down, how are you going to live with yourself knowing you could have done it better? There’s only one answer. There’s no condemnation. It’s the only answer to survive as a parent, I think. There’s no condemnation in Christ Jesus. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter how you parent. We’ll get to sanctification very quickly. But to be told, “Parents, trust me, in Christ there is no condemnation,” enables you at age 57 to keep on parenting.

When I came to Bethlehem, my church, I was 34, I had three little kids. I can’t remember how many I had. Abraham had just been born in December. So I had three little boys and I had this dream that I’d have three or four kids and I’d raise them to age 18 and that’d be over. Then I could get down to business with the church. Then I met Roland Erickson and he’s the patriarch of the church. He’s probably in his 70s and he’s the sweetest, most Christ centered man. He’s with Jesus now and he had grown children. I watched him weep over his grown children. I thought, “Oh, this is not going to end when they turn 18.” You do shed more tears over your grown children than over your little children. Little children are a piece of cake. You just spank them if they do wrong, and then they do right, at least on the outside. You don’t spank an 18-year-old and have it fixed. We are all failures and that’s okay in Christ because there’s no condemnation. So it’s relevant.

Cleared of All Obstacles to Joy in God

A third relevance is that it does mean that God is for you and therefore will work out everything for your good. He will work everything together for your good. So all the pain that does come and all the miseries that do come, he’s going to turn for good. We have a little saying in our church when I preach on Romans 8:28, which I hope we get to. Every now and then I try to say things that the kids will be able to remember and we had a little rhyme:

If things don’t go the way they should, God always makes them turn for good.

Hundreds of our kids memorized that over the years because I gave that years and years ago. That wasn’t in 2001 when I preached on Romans eight, but earlier. It would come back to me year after year. Kids would come up or parents would come up and say, “We were driving to Florida and we had a flat tire and mommy and dad were all mad and little Billy said, ‘When things don’t go the way they should, God always makes them turn for good.’” I said, “Yes, they’re getting it. They’re getting it.” So Romans 8:28 is true because of Romans 8:1.

God Is the Gospel

The final point of relevance of this doctrine of no condemnation is that I’d like to write a book someday called God is the Gospel because I have a burden that us preachers understand. We preach the gospel with these big nice words — salvation, reconciliation, forgiveness, justification, propitiation, redemption, ransom — and we say, “Isn’t that great? That’s great.” And most saints who have the Holy Spirit know they’re great and they join us and say, “That’s great.” And we don’t push through the words to what really makes them all good news. Just take all those and ask, “Why are they good news?” Why is no condemnation good news? There’s an answer to that which would give God no honor at all, like, “Hell is hot and I don’t want to go there.” God gets no honor from that answer.

Where would you like to go, golfing? There’s a lot of people that handle the gospel that way. It is an escape hatch from what they don’t like but has very little to do with an affection for God. I ask my people just to test them sometimes, “If you could go to heaven when you die forever and have every desire that you ever had on earth satisfied — every sex desire, every food desire, every people-approval desire — and God just wouldn’t be there, would that be okay?” It’s a devastating question because there are a lot of people in the church I think who would be really satisfied to go to heaven minus God if they could just get rid of their pain. They could just have everything they’ve ever wanted to have on earth. It’s just paradise. Now, if that’s true, we’re not saved.

God is the gospel. The reason “no condemnation” is good news is because it removes the obstacles that keep me from seeing him, delighting in him, treasuring him, embracing him, and experiencing his manifold perfections to the satisfaction of my soul. The task of a pastor is very difficult. It’s impossible. The task of a small group leader is impossible. The task of a parent is impossible because our task is to awaken the affections of people to treasure God above all his gifts, including forgiveness, psychological relief, peace, a nice family, a nice Cove conference, nice health, and a nice job. We must awaken in people affections for God which are superior to those affections. We must have him become our treasure. So my fourth statement of relevance is that this “no condemnation” is precious, not only (or mainly) because it escapes us from final judgment and hell, but because it removes God’s wrath so that we can now embrace his flaming holiness as our treasure without being consumed.

The Link Between Justification and Sanctification

Now let’s move on. What is the relationship between Romans 8:2 and Romans 8:1? This is a very crucial question because I think you’ll see that verse two is about sanctification and not justification. Romans 8:2 says:

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Now, I think that is a freedom that is experienced now in the transformation of victory over sin. So we need to ask why that is so by asking, “What is the law of sin and death?” I’m going to back you up, you can look in your own Bibles, to Romans 7:22–23. Now you know that in the original writings there are no verse divisions and there are no chapter divisions. Those were added about 1,700 years after the Bible was written. So you should really try to ignore them as much as possible in tracing the flow of an argument.

You come to the end of Romans 7 and it says:

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members (tongue, eyes, sexual members) another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Now that I think is the same as “the law of sin and death.” Death is added because that’s what it leads to. So the crucial thing to see here in Romans 7:23 is “the law of sin that dwells in my members.” That means he’s talking about a principle, or an impulse, or a rule in his body that inclines him to sin. This is a practical, nitty-gritty impulse to sin. That’s why I think Romans 8:2 is about real practical godliness and holiness, not about justification. Oh, that we might get this clear now. It is so important that we have justification being a declaration at a point in time through faith at the beginning of your Christian life where God says, “No condemnation, not guilty, acquitted, righteous in my sight.” And then begins a life becoming like that. Christians are becoming what they are in Christ, what they’re reckoned to be. We’re becoming that. Little by little, we’re being shaped into Christ’s image and we’re being victorious in measure over that law of sin and death. How? The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). So Romans 8:2 is describing what Romans 8:1–14 are going to unpack how the spirit of God sets you free from the impulse to sin.

So justification is in Romans 8:1 (“no condemnation”), and sanctification is in Romans 8:2. You are getting victory over the law of sin and death by the power of the Holy Spirit. We’re not talking about perfectionism here. There’s plenty of evidence in the New Testament that this is a process rather than perfected work.

The Evidence of Our Freedom from Condemnation

Here’s the crucial theological and very practical question: How shall we understand the word “for.” Because if I’m right that sanctification is in Romans 8:2 (becoming more holy in real, practical, daily, lived out, purity of life) and if I’m right that Romans 8:1 is justification just (an absolute declaration over us that there’s no condemnation) this “for” here on the face of it looks like sanctification is the basis of justification and that’s awful. I hope that’s not true, and yet I want to be biblical and that word “for” is there. That’s in the Greek and it’s in the English. So how then shall we understand the relationship between sanctification (a life of growing holiness and love) and justification (no condemnation). Do I have to lead a life first that proves that I’m making progress in holiness and then God looks at that and says, “Okay, on the basis of that, for on the basis of that I declare you not guilty.” That’s not Protestant theology. I think that’s not biblical theology, so if it’s not biblical, how come it says that?

Here’s one possible explanation. I think it’s the right one. The word “for” can provide either ground and cause, or the word “for” can introduce evidence. Here’s just a simple example. You could say, “I am really hungry because my stomach is growling.” Now the growling stomach does not make you hungry. It’s evidence that you’re hungry but you still use the word “because” or “for.” Or you can say, “I’m really hungry because I skipped breakfast.” Now skipping breakfast is the cause of hunger, and a growling stomach is the evidence of hunger. Skipping breakfast is the cause of hunger and we use the same word in English and they use the same word in Greek to say those things. This is all over the New Testament. Every time you see a word “for” or “because” you need to ask, “Is it giving the cause or the ground on the one hand or is it giving evidence?” That’s what I think is happening here.

I think he’s saying, “There is therefore no condemnation because here’s the evidence. The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” He’s at work in your life and therefore you have evidence that God has declared you innocent, has given you his Holy Spirit, and is now at work in your life to make you holy.

Grounded in Christ’s Finished Work

Now, what is my reason for opting for that? Well, there’s the theological reason from the wider Book of Romans that if we are justified — as Romans 3:28 says “we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law” — then I need to hold on to the fact that verse one comes to me by faith alone and not because of a life of triumph over sin. So my first reason is there’s the wider theology of justification by faith alone that brings my right standing with God, not my lived out holiness, which is the basis of it.

A second reason is simply the flow of the argument here. Look at this. Romans 8:3 as the ground to Romans 8:2 now says:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh . . .

Now that’s a description of God doing for us in the death of Christ what we could not do, namely have our sins executed without us being executed. In having our sins executed without us being executed, there’s no condemnation for us. We are justified. So verse three is a restatement of justification and how it happens and it’s given as the ground for sanctification, which makes me see that this sanctification in Romans 8:2 is not the ground for justification because justification is given as the ground for it, but it’s the evidence of justification. So I’m arguing from the context, not just from distant theological principles, that Paul does not intend Romans 8:2 to be the ground of Romans 8:1. He intends to be the evidence of verse one.

For the Sake of Holiness

Here’s another reason. Notice how Romans 8:4 follows with “in order that . . .” God did what the law could not do. He sent his Son to condemn sin without condemning us. Why did he do that? In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, which is exactly what Romans 8:2 is talking about the law being fulfilled in us. In other words, us triumphing over the law of sin and death, we are now beginning to fulfill the law that God has, which means that Romans 8:3 is the means to Romans 8:4, which makes it also the means to Romans 8:2. So Romans 8:2 can’t be the ground of it. Now if that sounds complicated, that may be why Peter said in 2 Peter 3:16, “Paul has written many things that are hard to understand.” If you’re lazy you just won’t get rich in the Bible.

If you’re willing to work with these “becauses” and “in order thats” and “therefores,” those are the most important words in the Bible. That’s a little bit of an overstatement, but it’s almost right because if you take the big juicy words like “justification” and “condemnation” and “salvation” and just hang them like beads without understanding how they’re connected — “for,” “because,” “therefore” — you’ll make hash out of the Bible. You can make words mean anything you want them to mean. Until they’re connected with logical connectors you don’t have affirmations and theology. All you have is a list of words and then you just fill them up with what you want. So there’s a little lesson in studying the Bible.

All that is to argue that sanctification (becoming more like Jesus or getting victory over the law of sin in my life, the impulse to sin) is not the ground of justification, even though that word “for” looks like it’s a ground for it.

The Way of Sanctification

The way we get sanctified is in Jesus Christ just like we got justified in Jesus Christ. Isn’t this remarkable? Do you see that “in Jesus Christ” there? What that means is that when by faith you are united to Jesus and God — as it were, grafts you into his Son, identifies you with his Son so that his suffering and condemnation becomes your condemnation so you don’t have to experience it and his righteousness becomes yours so it gets imputed to you — two things happen when that union is performed. The first is justification. There’s no condemnation in Christ. And the other is the power to be sanctified that happens in Christ. So don’t think that in Christ you only have pardon; in Christ you also have power.

I have friends right now who I think are making dangerous theological moves in regard to justification and its relation to sanctification because they are aware of certain segments of evangelicalism which stress the forensic, declarative nature of justification so strongly that they say, “It doesn’t matter at all whether you get sanctified.” They’re so scared of this — and rightly so — that they’re beginning to merge sanctification and justification to secure sanctification in it. I think that’s really dangerous. I think that’s theologically explosive. I think that will result in legalism, and it will put us right back into the church of Rome eventually.

I think this is very crucial that we see what they’re after, namely triumph over the law of sin and death in our life. A real change in Christians lives has to happen, and it can be solved Paul’s way and not their way. Paul’s way is to say it is necessary evidence. It is a necessary evidence of justification. If you are not making progress in sanctification, you need to question your justification, not because sanctification is justification, but because it is a necessary evidence of it. Now we’ll see that again shortly.

The Deficiency of the Law

Let’s ask right now, “What could not the law do? It says, “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do” (Romans 8:3). And my answer is it could not justify because when the law meets sinners, which is all the law ever meets, it produces rebellion and not faith, and therefore, it’s not going to justify. And it cannot sanctify. In other words, it can’t provide the solution to my guilt because I have to have a substitute to die for me, and the law can’t do that. And the law can’t change my nature. It comes to me and says, “You’ve got a lousy nature. It should be changed.” Thank you, law. In other words, law simply makes sin known. It has no power to get me fixed inside. That’s what he’s saying.

So what God did first was send his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Notice two massive things right there that have to be true of our redeemer. One, his Son was sent into flesh, which means this Son is pre-existent. It’s not like sending a prophet. It’s not like sending John Piper to The Cove. It’s sending a pre-existent being, the Son of God, into the world, into flesh. This is the incarnation. This had to happen. Your substitute had to be the Son of God. He couldn’t just pick out any old person on planet earth and say, “I’m going to put in the place of all the other people that need someone to die for them.” It had to be a Son of God. If somebody ever asks you, “Well, why does it has to be a son of God to die?” You take them here to show them that that’s the teaching of Scripture, whether we know why or not, and there are reasons, but let’s leave that. The first thing to notice here is that you have a preexistent, divine Son of God. He is everlasting and one with the Father. You find that in other places but let’s assume that here.

The second thing to notice here is that he comes in the “likeness” of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). Now why is the word “likeness” so important? The reason it’s so important is because he did not have sinful flesh. He had perfect flesh. He took on a body like ours. He took on a human nature like ours, but born of a virgin, not an accident. He did not participate in the fall. He did not participate in original sin. And as he grew up, he grew up into a perfect man. He never sinned in thought, never sinned in emotion, never sinned in deed, and therefore he was qualified to be a perfect substitute and a perfect righteousness. When he died, it was a perfect lamb who was sacrificed on our behalf. And when he lived it was a perfect fulfillment of the law, so that could be imputed to us. In every way our great Lord Jesus has provided what you and I need. We need a substitute to die in our place to bear our guilt and we need a substitute to fulfill the law for us because we can’t ever do it and it’s required of us. So He’s divine, he comes into flesh, and he comes as a perfect Son.

The Law Fulfilled in Us

The effect of that now is that sin is condemned. So we’ve got justification here because I’m relating that word “condemned” to this word “condemnation.” And now we see how it’s related to sanctification with this in order that. Now there are some scholars I really, really respect like Douglas Moo’s commentary. I love that commentary and he and I go different ways here. I also love Charles Hodge, and we go different ways here. I want to make their case a little bit here. Paul says that Christ died and condemned sin in the flesh “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled,” they say “fulfilled by Christ on our behalf.”

Now, I believe that is a true theological statement. Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf because I can never fulfill the law perfectly, but that’s just not what this text says. This text says, “Christ died in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us (Romans 8:3).” I read over and over again that section in Moo’s excellent commentary to see how he would give an account of this in, and he doesn’t. So even though I admire and stand in awe of that big, thick, excellent commentary, I have to part ways here because I think this fulfilling of the righteous requirement of the law happens in us and not just for us. We really fulfill the just requirement of the law. Now that requires some explaining, doesn’t it? So let me try.

How can my imperfect obedience ever be called a fulfillment of the just requirement of the law? What is the just requirement of the law? I take it from Romans 13:8–10, which says:

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

So twice — once in Romans 13:10 and once in Romans 13:8 — he says that love fulfills the law. And in Romans 8:4 he says that, “Christ died in order that we might fulfill the just requirement of the law.” I think that means “in order that we might love.”

How the Law Comes to Fulfillment

Now I know that my love is imperfect. So let me try to give three reasons why I think my imperfect love and what will follow fulfills the just requirement of the law when it is worked by the Holy Spirit, which is what’s coming.

First, my imperfect love is nevertheless real, God-dependent, Spirit-enabled, Christ-exalting love, based on my justification. It is Spirit-wrought. It is through faith. It is God-dependent. It is Christ-exalting. And that’s what the law is about. So imperfect as it is, it is a fulfillment of what the law is after.

Second, my imperfect love is the first fruits of a final perfection that I will experience in the twinkling of an eye at the coming of the Lord. Or if I die, my heart will be morally perfected in heaven. This text does not say “in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us only in this life.” It must be fulfilled in us and we are going to be made perfect one day by the power of God. That’s my second reason.

Third, my imperfect love is the fruit of my faith in Jesus who is my justifying perfection. My imperfect love now and my perfect love later will always be the fruit of faith that looks to Jesus as my only God-satisfying perfection. So my imperfect love, growing out of my faith in his perfection on my behalf, is constantly witnessing to his perfection and glorifying him as my only title with God. And that is what the law is after. Those are my three reasons for arguing that the just requirement of the law really can be said to be fulfilled in us. And now comes an argument for how that comes about.

The Mindset of the Spirit

Let’s trace the argument with Paul. There are about four or five steps to the argument. Let me walk with you through them.

Step one: We fulfill the just requirement of the law by walking not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Just translate that to mean we become authentically loving people, not perfect. We’re just authentically loving, risk-taking, sacrificial, lay-down-your-life kinds of Christians who don’t try to maximize our comforts and our securities here. We’re going to maximize our service and our sacrifice and our love for other people. So there’s a walk that fulfills the just requirement of the law and it’s a walk that accords with the Spirit in our life. We’ve already seen it in Romans 8:2, which says, “The law of the Spirit of life is setting us free.” And here’s how. We walk in a way that accords with the Spirit:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5)

So underneath this walk is now a mindset. This word in Greek is very difficult to bring over. If we had the word attitude-set instead of mindset, that might be better. But we don’t have a phrase like that. We only have “mindset.” But since you know the word mindset, you can imagine the word attitude-set. In other words, mindset seems so intellectual. This is not mainly intellectual here, this word (phronēma) is bigger than just intellectual. This is an attitude-set. This is a heart-set. So put all that together. Those who live or are according to the Spirit have an attitude-set or a mindset or a heart-set for the things of the spirit. And I think that basically means you love them.

You love the things of the Spirit. You’re inclined that way. You delight in them, you treasure them, and your minds are set on them. Notice there’s no conjunction here like there was in the other place. I think it’s parallel. He’s giving another premise. So we got stage one in the argument, there’s a walk. Stage two in the argument beneath that walk, there’s a mindset or an attitude set that is loving the things of the Spirit which produces the walk. And now he says simply that mind of the flesh produces death and that mind of the spirit is life and peace.

So it is in having life and peace that the walk is produced. If you’re a person who has peace with God and has a spiritual life, not deadness, within you, it will produce a walk.

Knowing the Life of the Spirit

Now we’ve got another argument going down a level in the argument. This is level three. Paul says:

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:7–8).

That is the need for why there has to be a work of the Spirit producing life and peace yielding a mindset of the things of the Spirit yielding a walk which fulfills the just requirement of the law. Paul wants you to really know what’s happening in your life Christian. There’s so many Christians who don’t know what makes them tick at all because we’re not well taught. I presume that the pastors who come here are pastors who love the word and care about the word, but there are so many pastors who just tell stories.

They don’t help their people trace out the argument of their soul. Your soul is being described here. You need to know your soul. You need to know how it is you’ll become a loving person, how it is you’ll walk, how a mindset is created, how life comes into being with peace, and how you were hostile to God, alienated, unable to submit blind, deaf, and dead. You need to know these things. It’s a worldview that changes everything in your life. And the average Christian seems to just be oblivious to the dynamics of their soul and the relationship they have with God, which is so superficial as an evangelical church. So I plead with pastors and Bible study leaders and small group leaders to trace out the Biblical arguments because they’re describing not just some interesting little intellectual stuff out there; they’re describing us and our relation to God and the most important things of our lives.

The Only Hope in Our Slavery to Sin

Romans 8:7 sets us up for why we so desperately must have the law of the Spirit of life setting us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death so that we fulfill the just requirement of the law. Because until the Spirit comes, we not only don’t submit to God, we can’t. And not only do we not please him, we can’t. This is why we should be on our faces in prayer for evangelism. Sometimes people say, “Calvinists who believe in the sovereignty of God, why would they do evangelism?” I respond, “How can anybody else do evangelism, except people who have a massive confidence that Romans 8:7–8 can be overcome?” All you do is witness to people who cannot please God, cannot submit to God,and cannot do anything to honor God. They are enslaved to sin according to Romans 6. They have to be set free. And Romans 6:17 says:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed . . .

Thanks be to who? God. God is the only hope for evangelism. The only hope is the sovereignty of God blasting this cannot into a can and bringing people from death to life. Ephesians 2:1–5 says that we were dead in trespasses and sins, but God in the great love with which he loved us, made us alive. He gave us the ability to walk by the Spirit and thus fulfill the just requirement of the law. We need to know where we came from. We need to know it because we won’t ever sing a song like “Mercy” like we ought to sing it until we know how we got out of Romans 8:7–8 into this glorious “no condemnation,” justification, and sanctification wrought by the Spirit.

So my main concern in those eight verses is that you see the connection between justification and sanctification, or justification and the work of the Spirit. Justification is in Romans 8:1 (no condemnation), and justification is in Romans 8:3, which says that he came and he condemned sin in the flesh. This “in order that” here shows the connection between justification and the following work of sanctification by the Spirit. He did that. He took away our sin, he declared us righteous, and he removed condemnation so that now as a free person you can fight.

Remember the analogy I used last night? You’re in a courtroom, you’re all guilty. The judge says, “You got two options in front of you. I can declare you not guilty now and then you can go out and give evidence of it, or we can wait 70 years and then I’ll pass my verdict on the basis of your life. Which do you want?” And this text leaves no doubt about which God plans for you. He means for you to hear today the verdict in the courtroom “not guilty” in order that you might walk according to the Spirit by having a mindset that loves the things of the Spirit, because there’s a Spirit who’s working life and peace in you which delivered you from the of slavery to your hostility to God. So please get that connection.

The State of a Christian

Paul then goes on to say:

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit . . . (Romans 8:9)

So you’re not in Romans 8:7–8 anymore. You’re not in that horrible, you-cannot-please-God, you cannot-submit-to-God state. You’re not in that anymore. And then he describes you in I think five ways I wrote down five ways. Let me just see if I can squeeze those summaries in, and that’ll get us through Romans 8:11.

The Spirit is in You

First, you however are not in the flesh. Paul says:

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you (Romans 8:9).

That’s the first thing I want to say about you. The Spirit of God is in you. Paul says:

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Romans 8:9–10).

So now we have three ways of saying the same thing. The Spirit of God dwells in you, you have the Spirit of Christ, and you have Christ is in you. Isn’t it interesting how he moves from “Spirit of God” to “Spirit of Christ” to “Christ.” It’s virtually interchangeable in Paul’s mind as far as the presence of God in your life. You can say, “I’ve got the Spirit of God within me.” Or you can say, “I’ve got the Spirit of Christ within me.” Or you can say, “I’ve got Christ within me.” That is an awesome statement. Oh, to just linger for 15 or 20 minutes spelling out the preciousness of the truth that right now and every minute of your life from here to eternity, Jesus Christ is in you. He never takes a vacation. He never goes away. He’s in you. He says, “I will be with you. I’ll be in you to the end of the age.” That’s the first of the five ways he describes us.

You Are in the Spirit

The second is, “You however are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9). So the first was that the Spirit is in you, and the second is that you are in the Spirit. What does that mean? I think it means in the sway of the Spirit. And the reason I think it means in the “sway” or the “leadership” or the “control” of the Spirit is because the contrast is “not in the flesh.” We just saw in Romans 8:7–8 that if you’re in the flesh, you can’t do anything but what the flesh wants you to do. You’re in the sway and the bondage and the control of the flesh. That’s clear in Romans 8:7–8. So the counterpart that you are in the Spirit would mean the Spirit is holding sway over your life. He’s in charge of you. That’s the second thing that marks you out as new and different.

You Belong to Christ

Here’s the third: You belong to Christ. Paul says:

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him (Romans 8:9).

I presume that if you do have the Spirit of Christ, which you do, you do belong to him. So the third truth about you is that he owns you. You belong to him. He is yours by homestead and purchase. I like that analogy. You could have a land in two ways, at least back in the old days you could. If you wanted to go out and get some land in the far west, all you had to do was stake it out, homestead it and it’s yours. And that’s the way the Spirit took you over. He moved in, he homesteaded, you’re his. But 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 says, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” So you are his by purchase (Romans 8:3), and you are his by homesteading. He moved in on you and took possession of you.

Christian, know whose you are. It will change your life if you live in the consciousness that you belong to another. You belong to another. You are not my own. Every choice you make, every purchase you make, every place you go, think, “I am not my own. I am owned by another. I consult my owner. He owns my mind, he owns my emotions, and he owns my body. Everything I do is for him. First Corinthians 6:20 says:

Therefore glorify God in your body.”

So that’s the third. Two more quickly and then we’ll stop.

You are Alive

The fourth point is this: You are alive, or your spirit is life. Paul says:

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Romans 8:10).

Another version says, “Your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” It’s very hard to tell which is the best translation here. I think they might boil down to almost the same thing. Your body is dead. That means you’re going to die. When God saves you, he does not rescue you from mortality. You’re going to die. We are saved in stages and that part is for later. We’ll see it in resurrection in Romans 8:11. So the fourth thing is that right now though your bodies are still mortal and you’re going to die, you’re going to get sick, you’re going to get a disease and something’s going to put you in the grave. Nevertheless, you’re alive or the spirit is your life.

You Will Be Raised from the Dead

The last thing is he is going to raise you from the dead. Paul says:

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 (Romans 8:11).

Let’s just rehearse them now. What makes you different from those who are in the flesh and what Christ’s death has accomplished for you by bringing the Spirit into your life is number one: The Spirit dwells in you. Number two: You are in the sway and the control of the Spirit, not perfectly. He does allow us to do many things that bring reproach to him. That’s why the Bible says, “Don’t grieve the Spirit.” Number three: You belong to another, you belong to him. Number four: You are alive and the Spirit is your life, even though you’re dead in your body. And number five: You will be raised from the dead.

The point of this whole unit here on the Spirit is to encourage you with assurance and security that even though you’re going to die, nevertheless, you’re alive now and that life is going to one day be joined with the life of your body so that all things really will work together for your good in the end.