Day 111: Where is The Holy Spirit Leading Us?
Romans 8:2
For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. He has been sent to us by Father God and the Lord Jesus to lead us to live by faith in Christ and fill us with His love. Many believers have never been taught a biblical view of the Holy Spirit. Continuing on from the truths we learned in Phase 2, we will see how the Spirit empowers us and gifts us to live in a way that is pleasing to Father God and so be the Body of Christ—The Church
WORDwork:
Romans 8:1–11
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 8:3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
8:5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook [mind-set] shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook [mind-set] shaped by the things of the Spirit. 8:6 For the outlook [mind-set] of the flesh is death, but the outlook [mind-set] of the Spirit is life and peace, 8:7 because the outlook [mind-set] of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. 8:11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.
Based on what you know, what does Paul mean by “no condemnation” for those who are “In Christ”?
What has set us free from the “law of sin and death”?
How did Father God accomplish what the Law could not do?
According to 8:5-6 what are the two ways we can have our outlook/mind-set shaped?
According to 8:9, what does it mean to be “in the Spirit”?
We begin in Romans 8:1 where Paul makes one of the most incredible statements in all the Scriptures: “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” Because of all that Jesus Christ has done for us and to us, Father God has accepted us and welcomed us into His eternal fellowship; We are accepted, not condemned!
Even more than that, notice that “the law of life giving spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” In this section of Romans, Paul emphasizes the word “law” and he uses it in two different senses. First, he uses the term “law” to refer specifically to God’s written instruction and commandments, specifically all the instructions (Torah) given to Moses at Sinai.
But here in 8:1-4 Paul is using the term “law” in the general sense of a principle—a fundamental truth stating what something is or the way something works. You can see this as he contrasts the “law of the life giving Spirit” and the “law of Sin and Death.”
Paul is making the case that the “written law” cannot save us or empower us to do what it requires. In fact, when we try to “keep” it, the sin that lives with us is empowered to make us do exactly what we don’t want to do. In order to live in a way that is pleasing to Father God, we need another “law”—principle—to live by.
We have summarized these laws/principles in this way:
The Law/Principle of Sin and Death:
If I try to keep the Law (Legalism, self-salvation) in order to be pleasing to God, the Sin that dwells within me will come alive producing in my evil and corrupt desires that will lead to sinful actions.
The Law/Principle of the Life-Giving Spirit:
If I follow the Spirit as He leads me to follow Christ by faith (trust),
He will empower my desire for good which will lead to living in a way
that is pleasing to Father God.
Notice again what Paul goes on to say: God has sent Jesus to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. At the Cross,Jesus fully exposed and judged sin (the reality and power of sin) in order to break it’s power. We discussed this in some detail in the last workbook, Rooted and Growing in Christ.
We also made the case that what the Spirit now enables us to do is fulfill the ONE requirement of all the Law: LOVE.
Romans 13:8-10
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law… Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
In 8:4, Paul says that the requirements of the Law will be “fulfilled” in us; he does not say that the requirements may be “kept” or “obeyed” or “done” by us—all the normal activities that usually define what we do with the Law. The one requirement is “fulfilled” in us. In other words, the Life Giving Spirit is going to work this out in our lives. As the Spirit does His work in us and we follow Him, the actual things that God’s Law/Instruction requires will be fulfilled—lived out in our lives, our lives will be FILLED by love!
All of this becomes true of us when we “walk according to the Spirit.” To walk here simply means “to live our lives”—it is what we do on a daily basis. Again, we discussed this at some detail in Phase 2 Walking in the Truth. Now we are going to push into that a littler further in the coming sessions and talk about specifics things we can do each and everyday to realize this “walking in the Spirit.”
In 8:5-8, Paul gives us two very different ways of life—one is shaped by the Flesh, the other is shaped by the Spirit. One leads to death; the other leads to life. We can summarize these ways, this way:
Those who live according to the FLESH:
Their Mindset is shaped by the things (thought and desires) of the flesh which is hostile to God and leads to death.
Those who live according to the SPIRIT:
Their mindset is shaped by the things (thoughts and desires) of Spirit which is at peace with God and leads to life.
The word that is translated “outlook” or “mindset” in these verses, is one that refers to our attitude that is produced by a certain way of thinking and planning. In part, this mindset is part of your worldview—the way you see yourself and the world. If we could summarize the difference in these two mindsets very simply (maybe overly simple) the mindset of the Flesh keeps us focused on ourselves and our own, unredeemed desires. The mindset of the Spirit focuses us on Christ and the His desires. Those whose mindset are shaped by the things of the flesh cannot please Father God.
Paul gives us great news in 8:9-11: if we are “in Christ,” then Christ is IN us and His Spirit is our life! The presence of the Holy Spirit in us sets us free from the claims and power of the flesh and the sin that dwells there. If you think back to our last unit, we made the case that Paul sees our physical bodies as the “headquarters” for the power of sin that still dwells in us. That is why in 8:10 he says, “our bodies are dead because of sin.” In 8:11 he goes on to tell us that the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit who lives in us now to make us spiritually alive! One day – on the day of resurrection – even our “mortal bodies” will be made alive again!
Paul summarizes all this in this way:
Romans 8:12
So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 8:13 (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.
We have already discussed how we “put to death” the deeds of the body in Phase 2 in our discussion of “putting on the new person In Christ.” In this unit, we will push a little further into what it means to LIVE according to the Spirit.
A lot of what we discussed today should be familiar to you. Take a minute and think about what was NEW to you or hit you in a fresh way. Do you basically understand the difference in the “Way of the Flesh” and the “Way of the Spirit”?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
