No Condemnation in Christ Jesus

All right, we've got a fun text before us this morning. And I think to appropriately get into what we're going to be studying today and to give it hopefully all that it's worth, I thought we might begin in Chapter 7. And in fact, I think what I'd like to do is really go all the way back to Chapter 7 verse 7 and take it forward. That's a lot of reading, but I think it'll set the stage for where we're at today and do justice to the text before us. I'll read. What shall we then say?

Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known coveting, except the law said thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, rotted me all manner of coveting. For apart from law, sin is dead.

For I was alive apart from law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For that which I do, I understand not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If that I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law on my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that then with my mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

So let's begin and kind of summarize this section that I just read with a little bit more understanding about 724. And that's what Roger taught you last week. And we're going to kind of go back just for a minute. I have some questions for us to kind of think about and ponder here this morning. So 724, there's no O before wretched. It's simply wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And of course, we know who does deliver us.

But let's think about a few thoughts here. I thought Paul was saved. He is. All right. So what's all this stuff that all this reiteration of Romans 7? Carol? I think he was fairly separated from the Lord and from the feeling separated. Other thoughts? His sin nature was in charge. I thought he was saved. He is, but we still have a sin nature. Oh, really? It's kind of disappointing. I meant to be talking to you about that. Let's not do it now, okay?

You know, it's funny. I read in the newspaper last night this whole issue with this preacher in Colorado Springs. This guy was convicted of buying drugs and a homosexual relationship with this guy in Denver. Haggard, is that his name? Something like that? Yeah. Well, anyway, the article is about his wife, but then it kind of turned to this.

And actually, there was a book called Tactics or something like that. Does anybody know about this book? There's a book written by two kind of, I guess, pastors, spiritual leaders, elders. One, I think, somewhere in the Midwest and some on the West Coast dealing with this whole issue of sexual sin and dealing with pastors in that role.

And it was, I thought, kind of interesting to read this article because it was kind of dealing with kind of the age in which we live. I mean, there's nothing unique about sexual sin in the age in which we live, except it's so much around us all the time, right? I mean, the temptation is there always. And apparently in this book, again, this is the person writing the article about the book that these two guys have written, kind of dealt with the fact that Gee, you know, just because, let's talk about men now, because men are turned on, I think, visually. I think that's kind of well accepted in the world system. And those of you who have Y chromosomes might relate to this to some extent.

But anyway, what I was dealing with is that a pastor has the same visual cortex as a non-pastor, right? Somebody who's saved has the same visual cortex as someone who's unsaved. So the issue is here, yeah, Paul's saved here. But what makes his life any different than anybody else's? I mean, what this book apparently is not doing is excusing this behavior. It's simply, and what I think we're going to learn here, is that there's another life that shows up. You know, the wiring is still there. The perception is still there.

But in fact, how does a believer deal with something that's very physiologic differently than the way the world does with it. Yeah, the sin nature is identical in all of us. In fact, sometimes I think for the believer, Paul was saved and that made this more real to him, didn't it? It made it more real to him because he's now been saved unto a new life, a new existence, a new person. But yet, Romans 7 takes him back and shows him everything he thought he had been rid of. Next question.

What is this death that we're talking about here in Romans 7.24? Is this physical death? What kind of death is Paul alluding to here? Mental death?

I experienced that. I mean, he was human. He had the same desires as everybody else. And Paul had what he had been prior to the time he was saved. I'm sure that the conflict was always there. What do we think of when we think of death here? Well, of course, we think of a physical death. Right. But what else does the term mean? And in context, what does it mean? Separation. Carol alluded to that before. The separation, the lack of fellowship with the Lord. Is that what Paul's talking about here? What are your thoughts?

Don't you think when he says this death, he's talking about the sin, the sin nature, this death, because sin nature is death. It encompasses death. But I think when he says this death, I think he's talking about the sin nature, which then takes him to death. I mean, it is death. Well, we know that sin results in death, right? So what kind of death is he experiencing here? He's not experiencing physical death. Spiritual death. And what does spiritual death mean?

Separation from? Yeah, it's the fellowship aspect, isn't it? This death is an existence that says, God, I'm on my own path. I'm doing it my own way. And the result of that is separation. Not separation from being saved. Salvation, once saved in the account of I was saved, I'm being saved, I will be saved. Remember, three verb tenses to salvation. Was, am being, and will be. What else do we expect of sin? Separation. What's God done with sin? He's crucified it, right? Does it separate in any way our position with the Lord Jesus Christ? No. It's a direction that's self-perpetuated and ultimately results in separation. So the death that Paul's experiencing is this frustration, this total inability to really live the life that God has given him. because he's putting himself into it.

How many times did Paul use the word I? Roger, did you cover that last week? I mean, if you don't apologize, I mean, Romans 7 is I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. Who's running the show around here, right? Gail? Right, and that's going to transition us beautifully into Romans 8. So that's a great question. Absolutely. I think recognition.

You know, the thing is, and back to kind of the Colorado Springs scenario, I mean, in a sense, that sin nature that we all have, women too, by the way, gals, I mean, this sin nature we all have, obviously, as the light gets brighter, the sin nature gets more apparent, right? And so this separation from the fellowship becomes something we get increasingly aware of. And these believers who, quote, are the carnal ones, that kind of slip out and go their own way for a while, I have to believe. that that's not a comfortable existence. Because those that are born again, in whom the Spirit dwells, can't live there comfortably while they're there.

Next question. How did Paul get to this point? And Roger, not meaning to re-teach what you did last week, but we're setting the stage for where we're going here. How did Paul get to this point? The frustration I think of, and as Gail pointed out, the realization of, I do what I don't want to do, I can't do what I know I should do. I mean, he was totally, he realized he couldn't do it in his own strength.

He had all the facts though, didn't he? Romans 6 indicates he had all the facts he ever needed. Romans 1 through 6 is all the facts anybody who's a believer ever needs to know. Except he's missing one thing. Forgot to plug the plug in. So you get to that point when you, in fact, intellectualize all the truths and the facts that we have. There's nothing really very intellectual about living a Christian life. The fact that God has given us a brain to be able to read the written word and ears to hear the spoken word gives us a brain to organize the material in a way that we, in fact, can assimilate it. But taking it forward from there isn't facts. Nothing intellectualizing about living by faith. and Paul's on his own agenda here. We all get to that point by having our own agenda in terms of the ways we might please God or, in fact, please self. Either way, we lose. It's death. Do you ever get to this point in your own lives? I'm glad I don't ever have to experience anything like this.

Yeah, I mean, you know, if Jim were here, I think he would agree that even though Romans 7 is in a place like an island, you know, in an abandoned boat in the sea that we grasp onto and kind of hang there for years and years on end, that the Romans 7, 7 through 23 experiences one, in fact, or 24, taking it on to 24, that we all fall back into frequently off and on. I mean, we don't dwell there, I hope, but we get to that point by ultimately having the same kind of self-focus and self-desires that Paul, in fact, experienced. So when we get there, what do we do? What's our response?

Flesh shows up again. You've made a bad choice. Bite my tongue on that one. You've been tempted. You've been drawn away from Christ. Whatever. So how do we respond to that? Do we make a good choice at that point? All right, so the Spirit's good at reminding us who we are, right? So what's the response to that? Do we suddenly victoriously leave that place we find ourselves and move on to victory? What's the process here? Okay, has that worked for you constantly when that happens for you? That reckoning? So that reckoning must really be of the Spirit and by faith, right? I think you can shortchange reckoning. You ever find yourself intellectualizing the reckoning process and not really having any victory? That happens to me a lot. I mean, just saying, gee, well, reckon yourself dead unto sin, alive unto God. That sounds great, but there's no power. The plug's not in.

So the question is then, do we learn this response? Is the response a gift of God? What is the process by which that response is spirit-led and by faith? Wow. Repent and go back to God and to His Word. So when we lose faith, we step aside and go our own way.

Do you ever doubt that that sin has been forgiven? I mean, I hope not. I hope we're substantiated well enough in biblical truth that once saved, always saved. Because if you ever question that, maybe you're not saved. I mean, if you really don't trust God for what He's revealed in His Word, that salvation is a forever thing, then you've got to really re-question and reassess that situation.

But for those of us who are in Christ, you confess the sin, the spirit leads you to do that, fellowship is restored, but that's an act of faith. I mean, it doesn't occur because we intellectualize it. It occurs because we believe it. You've got to believe. that you're confessing that sin or sins or nature unto re-establishment of that operational relationship you have with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So our response increasingly is by faith. Where's our faith come from? The Word continues to lead us in faith-based truth. And have you ever felt that you've looked at a section of the Bible maybe 150 times and it was the 151st time you looked at it and it really opened up new doors? You've got to be in the Word. If we're separated from the Word, we have what the Word has already done in us and what we understand about it. But the Word is really the source of our truth, which is the source of our faith.

And we continue to rely on it for education and guidance. Are you saying that when you confess that sin, that you have to feel sorry for it? Oh, no, you confess the fact that you've broken fellowship. I mean, God knows our sin nature, and I think we know it more as we grow in grace, don't we? Remember what I said, I think the darkness gets more revealed as the lightness gets brighter.

But that doesn't mean we dwell there. I don't want to study the old nature. And I don't think God calls us to study the old nature, but it's apparent by the growth process that the old nature gets more revealed for who it really is. Yeah. And to believe what he's already done in that area. I mean, that's really what it is. And as you said, it's fake. You have to believe that. Yeah.

And nothing's going to get Christ back up on the cross again and take care of that, right? Feeling sorry is really kind of a pitiful response of the old man, in my opinion. And that's not a justice of sin. God forbid that this great grace He's given us justifies our sin or encourages our sin. Thank you.

First John 1.9, right?

Where is the focus of Romans 7.7-23? Before, O wretched man. Me. It's entirely me. and how mistaken. Whenever we're God's focus, our attention is to the wrong place, to the wrong person. All right.

Let's turn now to Romans 8.1. And let's read the first four verses, although today we're only covering the first three. So let's do, in fact, we'll go back and read 24 and 25 into 8.1 through 3.

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself might serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin and flesh. that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And I'll go down two more. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

My question to you, is there a verse in the Bible that better encompasses truth rest and liberty than Romans 8.1. One thing I found useful is kind of falling back on this as a soft pillow. That when you fall into kind of self as the focused and really are disappointed with your yourself in terms of the expectations. Remember, being disappointed with yourself is always to have trusted yourself. And Boole's commentary in Romans 6, I believe. So this is, if you will, like this.

It's that drink of fresh water, that there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. And that verse never changes. So this is the soft pillow, the drink of fresh water, the victory that we all fall back on. And I find this personally very, very useful, realizing that I've not only disappointed myself and the Lord, but he still is true to his word. There's no condemnation. Those who are saved are not condemned ever. And that's really very special. And what's the principle? It's great grace. No condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

So what's all this condemnation about anyway? Well, it's a term that shows up a fair amount in Scripture. Catechrema, the Greek word, means an adverse sentence or verdict. So to be condemned is to be ultimately sentenced adversely. And you can think of that in terms of its infinite application. A good section of Scripture for that is John 3, 18 and 19. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already. because he that has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

Romans 5.18, Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. That's Adam, of course. Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of life.

In 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he made him, and this is a great verse, not that the other ones aren't, but for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So there's the no condemnation stuff. He's been made our righteousness. We're found in him. We believe. We're not condemned. Simple. One, two, three, just like that. So if you're saved, there's no condemnation. Doesn't matter what you do, when you do it, and how often you do it, there's no condemnation.

That doesn't seem right. The unbelieving world really can't grasp this at all, can they? So the unbelieving world's looking down at this Colorado Springs thing, see, they're just a bunch of hypocrites. But I think this book, and I made by it just to get an idea where these guys are coming from, this book Tactics, and there's kind of a phrase after tactics, is going to explain that the sin nature, I hope, is the sin nature in all of us. But the world doesn't grasp that, do they?

They think we walk on clouds or something. We claim to walk on clouds. And boy, the world's very critical of someone who's pious and takes this kind of quote, maybe sometimes self-righteous position, and falls into this kind of scenario that ultimately their faith can't be real. And we know that we're all capable of this. Bob, you know, you said the world can't understand it. I think it's even more strange than that. But I have to keep in mind that Jim Baker, Jimmy Swigert, John Eggert, all three came out of churches that are meaning in theology.

And their own people can't do that, because they tend to make light of us, who believe in internal security, that we have a license to sell. And I've read a couple of things in the Colorado Springs paper, where people aren't just, you know, accusing pet agribusiness. of sitting and being out of scholarship, you know, they're referring to the fact that he does this, he loses his salvation, and then he has to come back in, you know, come back in again. So I keep thinking, you know, I mentioned this back in Room 6, there's a large part of the Christian, quote, Christian population out there, and I appreciate the fact that And you made a statement, which Ann and I discussed quite frequently, that some of these people that believe they'll lose their salvation, probably aren't going to save in the first place.

And my family is a classic example of that. And I want to know if I get to heaven, whether or not my father is there, because he was a very sponsor of meaningless work. If he hadn't even fought before he died, he'd be in hell today. It's just scary, the fact that, you know, when I read these things about Haggard and his church in the fall, It isn't just the fact that these are these are people that are losing their followers or losing their salvation in the process. Thanks for sharing that.

Let's do that. Let's go back to Romans 5 again. Let's go back to 5.18. Open your Bibles to 5.18. And we're going to take 5.18 down through 6.1 because we have to really make sure that we're solidly in place with this truth. We're talking about condemnation here, verse 18.

Therefore, it's by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of life. For if by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall the many be made righteous. Moreover, the loss entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That is, sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign for righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 1, chapter 6. What shall we then say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And of course, God forbid.

Now, the neat thing about this is that if we go back, there's the liberty. and that there's no condemnation? What does the liberty of there being no condemnation on those who are in Christ Jesus mean? People, share your thoughts. What's the liberty that we have in Christ? Is it the liberty to sin? Because, gee, the price has been paid. We can just go ahead and sin. It says here, God forbid. No, that's not what God's called us to. What's He called us to? What's that liberty all about? It's freedom from what?

Right, Lisa. The liberty we have is to live a life without sin. The liberty by God's great grace to live by faith and that we're taken away and out of that nature, out of that life. And it's also the liberty of living outside of the law and resting in Him because His life is what's going to live through us. Absolutely. Not us.

We have these rules and so we better you know, live under the law in order not to sin. And Margaret, when we respond by faith to that great grace that God gives, His will and ours becomes on the same track. They're parallel. Because when we have expectations of how the flesh performs, we only are bonded to the law and to a legal system. The liberty we have here is to live a life that's a life that's different and free from sin. Larry, thanks for bringing that up. That was useful. And Larry, I was thinking about what you just said too.

Because they're being taught, and probably you're right, those guys came out of churches where the teaching was so astray, that they don't understand the truth themselves. I don't mean to do it. I'm not going to take this in truth. The thing that I thought was bizarre was the fact that those of us, especially when I made the transition from Armenian theology to Calvinist theologies, to give it broad terminology, how I was ostracized because of that liberty issue. Now I've given myself the liberty to sin at will. I can say, no, that's not the point.

That's not what Romans 6 teaches. transition to make as a teenager of the time. We were so ingrained that this whole theological point of view, when you say that's not what the Bible teaches, I mean it just becomes, you know, they look at us like we're gross sinners because we believe in sterling security.

But what they don't know is because they're under that Armenian teaching, which is still law, Their sin is abounding even more. It stirs it up, just like we've read. Exactly, just like Romans 7 talks about. It just stirs it up because they're still putting themselves under law. And one would think if any pastors quote throughout the recent history of the United States, if there were theologians, or what do you want to call these guys, that had strayed, they would be people that believe they could lose their salvation instead of those that believe they could.

To me, that's the ironic part of it. They teach this whole claimant. Sin, you're going to hell. Sin, you're going to hell. And then, bang, it blows up. And these are the guys that are publicly I'm not trying to imply that they're the only ones that sin, but I just find it extremely ironic when I read these things and hear these things.

And it's obvious because they're teaching untrue things. I mean, to me, it's just Rubber Stamps, Romans 6 is the original truth. In fact, they're teaching error from their prophets. sure all right and I think I know there are that kind of message They can make you feel so ill that you can crawl under the rug.

But remember the soft pillow we fall back on. And when we understand this truth, and we don't understand it intellectually, we understand it at that level, but we understand it by faith. And if any of you have been paying attention to your day-to-day life, that sin nature is revealed for what it really is. But we don't dwell there. We don't study it. We move on by faith that the great grace God gives us reminds us there's no condemnation.

Now, if we think of, O wretched man that I am, concluding Romans 7, what's then the condemnation that Paul relates to? Why does he come out of Romans 7 with, there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus? Is he questioning his salvation here? So what's the condemnation? What's the condemnation relating to in Romans 7? Well, condemning what? So what's Paul talking about in Romans 7? The sin. Not the sin nature, but the sin that he's been doing. O wretched man that I am.

Does that relate to his salvation? His being saved? No, it relates to the death of the flesh. and the separation, the condemnation reflects that he's being condemned because of the fact that he's not, quote, pleasing God. He's not living in the life that God has called him to live. He knows the facts. I've been buried with him with baptism unto death, risen with him in newness of life, and now I've fallen into this different track of having expectations about how I'm to perform in the power of the flesh. The condemnation is on the works And God's even saying to Paul, reminding him, there's no condemnation of any kind of those that are in Christ Jesus. It's a done deal. Why, in fact, do you continue to try to live the Christian life in your own strength? Wow. Well, I think you go back to David. He was a murderer. He was an adulterer. God used him. Right. Absolutely. Alright, now, verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Actually, we're still in 8.1, I'm sorry, in Christ Jesus. So the last question of 8.1 before we go to 8.2 is what does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? Describe what it means. And don't look at your notes. What's it mean to be in Christ Jesus? Just free associate. Ruth? It means to be saved. Okay, so if I went down, let's say we went to St. elsewhere Presbyterian Church today and I walked in there and I was going to ask some parishioner in the pew, are you in Christ Jesus? And they would kind of look at me in a puzzled way and They think they are, but they're not quite sure. How would you describe them what it is to be in Christ Jesus? And by the way, in Christ Jesus is used like some 167 times or something in the epistles. Born again into new life. Which, by the way, I did in that Presbyterian church.

Clearly a mistake. Maybe I should have said Methodist or American Baptist or something like that. Maybe we should have asked this to Holly Hills, right? How we need you. You shouldn't have gone home yet. Okay. All right. That sounds kind of technical, Art. Make that simple for me. Paul's talking about, let's read the verse again. There's no condemnation now to them who are in Christ Jesus. I think everybody's kind of on the right track here. In Christ Jesus, being saved, of course. Well, we're identified with his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. I mean, that's what positions us at the right hand now. because we're identified in all of these things that took place to him. So 8-1 is positional truth?

Even more than that for my salvation. You know, Ann and I have traveled churches all over the world for that matter, but this is the only place in Vern's teaching, especially with even a little logo up there in the corner, In Christ is seeded with Christ.

It's more than being saved. It's a pretty fact that we're in heaven and we have eternal life today. That's the meat of being in Christ. It's just so much more than salvation. It's a very personal relationship. It is, but it clearly is a position of truth. Those who are in Christ Jesus are placed and positioned in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's a life that follows.

And that's what we're coming out of seven from. Paul's life has gone down a frustrating path, an incorrect path, and now we're ready to plug in the lamp. So a verse that just among many that uses this kind of terminology, and to be found in him found in him in his crucifixion, death, resurrection, placement, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law." Isn't that interesting, reflecting back on Romans 7?

But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that must be based on positional truth. And as our positional truth gets more reinforced by our faith, our conditions ultimately are changed to have His life be our life. How does being in Christ affect you day by day? Well, any thoughts about that? Do you reflect on this or is this just something that gets covered on Sundays?

You keep coming back to 1 John 1.9. I'm not going to ask why you keep coming back to that. So, yes, I mean, in Christ Jesus must be impacting you on a day-to-day basis. It's not again that we intellectualize that we're in Christ Jesus experientially, though God's, you know, got full knowledge of what we need for our growth.

Our paths are all different. But for Vani and for George, those paths are unique. And we're all in this process of having that life formed in us. But we have to understand that it begins at the right hand and ultimately, by our faith, gets extended to our day-to-day life. All right, we've got to move. We've been sluggish.

That's my fault for allowing maybe too much time here in 8.1, 8.2, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and again, in Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Has the Holy Spirit ever been mentioned in Romans before? Well, you got the answer right there on your page, right? And the answer is only once has the Holy Spirit been mentioned in the book of Romans. and 5.5 is that source. I'll let you go back and look at that later in terms of what it means in context. But it relates to God's great love. That's the only time before 8.2 that the Holy Spirit is mentioned. And I think that's revealing.

Because Paul's taken us down a really beautiful path of the world, the world's sin, the different types of people in the world system, and their ways of dealing with all the truths of the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then back, and then down through four and five in terms of justification by faith, and six in terms of co-crucifixion, and then seven, the law battle. We only see the Spirit mentioned once. And now we're going to see him mentioned I think 17 times in Romans 8. describe the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus?

Just because of time, maybe I'll help us along here. Well, things that you think of. It, meaning the law, or He, the Holy Spirit, is freeing. And as the verse says, He frees us from the law of sin and death. So there's a freedom there, a liberty that the Spirit gives. And this process of freeing is arist-active indicative. It's an active process. It's the Spirit who frees us, not us. Errors done at one point in time and indicative factual. So presumably when we're saved, the Spirit indwells. He's in the position then to be actively freeing us from the law of sin and death.

And from the law, Mosaic and beyond, Galatians 5.18. We'll not look at that right now.

The Spirit gives life, 2 Corinthians 3.6, and that life is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He leads us in truth, John 16.13. And He teaches you all things and glorifies Christ.

Let's turn just briefly to John 16.13 and 14. I think that's probably worth a minute pause here. We can start with verse 12. Gail, would you read that, 6, 12 through 14? John 16. Did you say me? Yes. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.

Nevertheless, when he who is word of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatever I think without being an overzealous reductionist, the function of the Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He operates within the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to in fact reveal the Roman 7 experience for what it really is. So the Spirit's not there to energize the flesh to do good things. The Spirit's there to ultimately activate the Christ life for all it's worth, including convicting the old man for all that he's worth.

The law of sin and death. Consider, as you think about the law of sin and death, sin the source. Not sins only, but the source of sin. And think of death as separation. So we know those who die physically, who are unbelievers and condemned, their sin's source is played out for all it's worth, and that death is eternal separation from the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15.56 captures this a little bit, both of them. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Let's transition that in closing into 8.3.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh in for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Now think about this condemnation that we are all free. There's no condemnation for them in Christ Jesus. And by the way, he condemned sin in the flesh. And that means our sin in our fleshly nature is condemned, separated. But yet We have ourselves no condemnation.

What does could not do, and this is really, I found this very interesting yesterday as I was preparing for this morning. What does could not do and weak through the flesh mean to you? which is ad natas, it means without strength, impotent, powerless, weakly, disabled, unable to be done, impossible. And interestingly enough, the verb for weak, or I guess here it's an adjective, esthenio, means to be weak, feeble, without strength, powerless. To be weak, it means needy, poor.

You getting the theme here a little bit? I mean, both the verb and the adjective reflect the same process to show that it's not a matter of the flesh. How many times have you heard somebody say, well, I pray God to help me. It's kind of like you kind of get to a certain point on your own power and strength, then the Lord's going to kind of help you get through with this. Well, that's not what this implies here. The flesh doesn't bring anything to the table. It's impotent, totally without strength. It's not a little bit weak. It's incapable to do because of its futile weakness. To be feeble sick is the other thing.

For when we were in the flesh, Romans 7, 5, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. So in a sense, that reflects the process. Notice this, and this is so important, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. So when you think of Christ being in the likeness of sinful flesh, the next question I ask is could Christ have sinned? No. Then what's the likeness mean then? It means he had the flesh of man, the likeness of flesh as a man.

Alright, it's an image. It's a figure, it's a representation, and some texts call it almost to equality. Yes, almost. I don't like the term almost, but you know, the fleshly nature, the Lord Jesus Christ's ability to live the human life was obviously experienced and well-recorded historically.

For sin, the source and all that results from it, including sins. God sending his own Son for sin means Christ not only took care of our sins, I mean, think the elementary believer who is living on milk believes his or her sins are forgiven. But the whole concept of the sin nature being crucified, that's what we're talking about here. Christ came for sin, not for sins, everything that relates to the source. I like it. JFB commentary put it, the business of sin. I like that. Do you like that? OK. I guess nobody likes that. OK.

So he came for sin and condemned sin in the flesh, meaning, remember, condemned is an adverse judicial statement. Judgment clearly has been rendered to both sin and its power. And Romans 6, for remember, states very, very importantly Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life. not because we try harder or have the ability to energize the flesh, but because, in fact, we walk in his power. Let's reflect on his own son here for a second.

And Philippians 2.7 talks about him leaving his throne, remembering coming to Earth to live the human existence in the likeness of flesh. I like the Jason Fawcett Brown kind of review of this. Let me quote.

He not only has the very nature of God, even as a son of his father, but is essentially of the Father, though in a sense too mysterious for any language of ours properly to define. And this peculiar relationship is put forward here to enhance the greatness and define the nature of the relief provided. It's coming from beyond the precincts of sinful humanity altogether, yea, immediately from the Godhead itself. Kind of profound. There's a lot in that paragraph, so I'll let you kind of reflect on that again if you have the opportunity to read it further.

And so, what's this in His own Son for sin and to condemn sin and the flesh? It's grace, grace, and more grace. It never stops. And this, perhaps, in verse 3, For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." Awesome.

And Romans 6.6 is, I think, a good parting verse for us this morning. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be, not only might be, was done away with, that we should no longer live as slaves to sin. Remember, there is no condemnation to any of you who are in Christ Jesus. Reflect on that as just really an uplifting opportunity and life to ultimately live.

Roger? little bit. There's not even one little bit of context. It's all inclusive. When it says no, it means no. To be capitalized, underlined, many exclamation points afterwards. Any brief comments or questions here as we close today? So Roger, you're going four through six next week, is that right? OK.

Appreciate the prayer for Margaret and I. We're traveling to Africa, and I'm going to a satellite meeting of an international meeting, which is in Cape Town. We're not going to Cape Town. We're actually going to Kilimanjaro and then taking a kind of a safari, if you will, for a week with some scientists and physicians. And then we're going to Zanzibar for a couple of days on our way home.

So pray for that travel. Pray there'll be plenty of opportunity to get people close up. We pray for us that the gospel can be evident not only in our lives, but we can have an opportunity to share the Lord Jesus Christ. Quarters will be close and we'll get to know people that we don't know quite well. We already know some of the people who are going, so the opportunity. A number of Jews, a lot of Jews.

So pray for us during that travel. Pray for Jacqueline as she looks after Margaret's mother while we're gone. We're very fortunate to be able to do this. It'll be a unique experience to see an aspect of God's creation that we'll probably never get another chance to do. So, Art. You may find lots of elephants in Africa, but probably no donkeys. That's good. That's good to know, Art. If I see a donkey, I'll take a picture of it. Art, we need to talk afterwards, I think. All right, let's pray.

Father, it's been an opportunity this morning just to get a glimpse of the profound truth of your Word. And we're thankful that we do fall back on that drink of fresh water or that soft pill that there's no condemnation. Lead us on by faith to observe the fact that you've, in fact, accomplished everything that needs to be done. Our flesh has no power, no strength, no capability. and the legal system has been abandoned for a much greater one, and that's the person of Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for your great grace, your great love, your great mercy, and as we move forward, may we live by faith. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.