Good morning to everyone! It’s a beautiful fall morning, and the leaves are changing and falling. I'm afraid we've got winter next, but we're all getting ready, so it looks like we've got some nice weather coming in the next week. We are thankful for that.

We're continuing our study in Romans. We have our communion service the last Sunday of every month, and we've been working through the book of Romans during those services. Last month, we kind of just kept rolling through that and studied Romans 6 and 7, and now we're into 8. This morning, we're going to wrap up our study in this section with verses 1 to 13 of chapter 8. 

This is undoubtedly my favorite section of scripture to study, to teach, and hopefully to apply in my own life. It has been an edifying time for me to go through these passages and messages with you over the past several weeks. I hope it has been a time of growth and understanding for you as well. 

To understand the truths that Paul has been teaching is not only to have a more complete understanding of who we are in Christ and God's means for sanctification but also to understand salvation in Jesus Christ more fully. Through these chapters, we come to a better understanding of the salvation that Jesus has provided for us—not only what He has done for us in justification but also what God has done in us through our union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, our regeneration, or new birth in Christ.

There are many implications for us because of the full salvation that Jesus provides through His one-time death on the cross. One of those implications we're going to look at next week as we go back to 1 Thessalonians and wrap up that epistle with one final message. We'll tie that together with Romans 8 as well concerning our security in Christ. Because of the nature of the salvation that Jesus provides and because of the profound transformation that God has performed in us—making us new men, new creations with a new heart and a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit living in us—we can know that we have eternal life. We are secure in Jesus Christ; nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Many believers have struggled with the truth of the eternal security of the one who believes in Jesus and who has been saved by grace through faith. Perhaps you've wrestled with this doctrine in your life. Yet, when we understand the nature of the salvation we have in Jesus Christ, it becomes clear that there's nothing we did to affect such a drastic change in our regeneration and recreation. As I died with Christ, was buried with Him, and rose to newness of life, it is clear that there's nothing I could do to undo that great work of God; nor would I want to. He has promised to keep me, to preserve me, and to bring me to glorification and eternity in heaven with Him. 

This is just one example of the implications of our salvation when we come to understand it fully. We’ve studied the contrast between the man in Adam and the man in Christ. We’ve studied the contrast between sin and righteousness, between law and grace, and this morning we are going to see the contrast between flesh and spirit. I think this is an important message that brings the topic of sanctification full circle, answering some questions and making some clarifications. 

I was listening to a popular teacher—a good conservative Bible teacher—this week, and he was teaching on Romans 7 and 8. His message was all about winning the battle with sin. I want you to think about that with me, especially those of you who have been here or have listened to this entire series of messages. We’ve seen Paul build his argument like a master craftsman in a logical, linear way as he has taught us about our death to sin, to law, and to flesh, and our freedom from the fear of death and the law of sin in our members.

As he has anticipated objections, he has answered those questions with clarity to leave us at a point where we must understand that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, have a firm, solid logical basis for a new and holy life each day. The message I listened to was heavy on walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh in Romans 8:1-11. 

This teacher made Romans 7 all about our battle as believers with sin and Romans 8 about a command to walk in the Spirit and not after the flesh. I appreciate this man and his ministry, but my friend, he’s totally missed the entire point and purpose of Romans 6 to 8, especially chapter 7 and 8:1-11. I hope you can see that and understand why we have spent so much time being careful with the words and letting the context and flow shape the meaning so that we can come to the right applications. 

You can study Romans 8:1-11 until the cows come home, and you will search in vain to find one command—one imperative. You will have to force onto the text a battle with sin in the life of the believer. I'm not saying there’s not a battle in the life of the believer; we’ll get to that. But it does not exist in Romans 7 and 8, and to teach that it does not only undermines the truths of Romans 6, 7, and 8 but also misses the point of that section in Romans 7:7-25. This faulty interpretation and application results in a completely different application, and therefore a completely different result in our lives.

Let me try to say that plainly: If I believe in my heart and mind that I, as a believer in Jesus Christ, am a vile, wretched sinner—that I am carnal, fleshly, a slave to sin—and if my great example, the Apostle Paul, at the height of his maturity in his Christian life has an experience of perpetual, continual defeat at the mercy of the power of the sin that dwells in him—then what should I expect for my life? If I compound this by believing that the moral law of God is binding on the believer and is somehow the daily goal of my life to obey, to focus on, and to gauge my life by, thus facilitating my sanctification—then, my friends, I'm sunk. I will live up to my expectation of sin and failure.

On the other hand, if I understand that Romans 6 to 7:1-6 and 8:1-11 are meant to teach me about my death to sin, law, and flesh, to declare the truth of the implications of my death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus to newness of life so that grace might reign through righteousness—remember Romans 5:21—this is why He saved us: so that grace might reign in our lives unto righteousness, and the end of that is eternal life. 

Romans 7:7-25 is a parenthesis meant to exonerate the law of God—remember, if you haven’t heard these messages, please go back and listen to them. It’s meant to exonerate the law of God as holy and just and good and to highlight indwelling sin as the problem in the man in Adam, specifically to answer the objections raised in 7:5, is the law sin? Is the law what brought death to me? This section of Romans 7 has absolutely no application to my life as a believer whatsoever.

If that’s true, then I should expect, by God's grace and power, by the life of the Holy Spirit in me, who witnesses with my spirit—Paul says—to produce daily holiness through my life as I abide in Him, as I reckon these things to be so and choose to believe, to trust, to look unto Jesus and to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The truth we see in Romans 7:6, fleshed out in our text this morning is that the law is no longer my rule of life. Not that the law is bad, not that there's anything wrong with the law, it's just that the law was not given to produce holiness in my life; it cannot. It was given to show me my sin and lead me to the Savior who then would crucify me with Him, recreate me, come to dwell in me, and empower me to live a new kind of life. 

It’s not God's intent that I should look to the law of Moses to produce holiness; rather, God has provided a better way through His Holy Spirit living in me, producing life out through my mortal body. This is what we're going to see in our text today as we look at spirit versus flesh. 

Let me start by saying this: you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Romans 7 and 8 are not about the believer's battle with sin; they are a declaration of the truth of the total captivity and enslavement of the man in Adam by indwelling sin in the flesh and a declaration of the freedom from indwelling sin in the flesh for the man in Christ. When we get to the end of this message, in verses 12 to 13, we will just begin to hint at application and the nature of the battle in the life of the believer. 

It’s important that we understand that there is a battle—a daily battle—but we need to fight it at the right point. Here in verses 1 to 11, as we've seen throughout these chapters, we have only truth taught concerning the contrast between the man in the flesh and the man in the Spirit, the man in Adam and the man in Christ. 

Let me ask you: which are you? Who are you, my brother, my sister in Christ? 

That’s a really important question to think about. Let’s look at Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to 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, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, 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.”

I've given you four points this morning: 
1. Free from the law of sin and death. 
2. Fleshly, carnal. 
3. Fullness of the Spirit. 
4. Fruitful life.

Last week we focused in on verses 1 to 4 with the great truth that the man in Christ has been made free from the law of sin and death by the Holy Spirit. This is a work that is done in the man who places his faith in Jesus alone. At that moment, he is justified, sealed with the Spirit, and regenerated—born again—as God places his old man on the cross, uniting him to Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. That man—our old man—dies; he dies to sin, he dies to the law, and he dies to the flesh. That is Romans 6, 7, and 8. 

We see that God did this in Christ, as Jesus took on the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin in the flesh. The Spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death in my members. The result of this is that the body of sin—remember Romans 6:6, the body of sin that is this physical body controlled by indwelling sin—has been rendered powerless. 

Romans 6:5 says, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 

For he who has died has been freed from sin. 

Romans 7:4 states, “Therefore my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead.” Why? For the express purpose that you should bear fruit to God. 

What is it that God intends in salvation in the life of the believer? That we should bear fruit to Him: new fruit, holiness, righteousness, obedience. What is necessary for this to happen? We must die and be married to another—to Jesus. Our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ facilitates life—new life—fruit unto God. 

Verse 5: “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” 

And that brings us to 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

The old man in Adam was crucified with Christ, and he died; he is no more. The new man that rose out of the grave with Christ is dead to sin, dead to the law, dead to the flesh; he’s alive to righteousness, to grace, and to the Spirit. His manner of life, his walk, his way of producing fruit unto holiness is now by the Spirit through faith.

And my friends, Paul's summation of the Christian life in Galatians comes to light as we understand these truths. What’s the context there? Peter was going back to the law. Remember, Peter was trying to bind the law on the believers. What does Paul say? 

Verse 18: “For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law in order that I might live to God.” Does that sound familiar? “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

The man in Christ is free from the law of sin and death because of what God did in Christ. I come into this salvation—I come into this regeneration—by faith alone in Jesus alone and what He accomplished on the cross. And I live one day at a time, one moment at a time, as a believer in Jesus Christ, by faith, reckoning what God says is true about me because I am in Christ and trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit and the very life of Jesus in me to produce holiness for a witness and for the glory of God. 

I live by God's grace through faith, by the Spirit, not by the letter. So we see in our text this morning that I’ve been made free from the law of sin. 

Next, we see that I am not in the flesh but in the Spirit as a believer in Jesus Christ. Romans 8:5: “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, the things of the Spirit.” 

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” He Himself is our peace. He has given us abundant life, eternal life. We have it—present possession—now, eternal life. The Spirit now gives life to our mortal bodies, producing holiness through us. 

But the man in Adam is dead—spiritually dead—unable to produce one righteous act, destined for eternal death. The man in Adam, or the man in the flesh—same thing here—cannot please God. That’s what the Bible says. Why? Because he’s an enemy of God.

In verse 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. Since those who are in the flesh cannot please God, would you like to contend, along with so many preachers today in conservative Christian circles, that the believer is still in the flesh? 

Yes, we live in this physical body, and the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And the Spirit gives life, producing holiness how? Through this physical body, which has been released from the controlling power of indwelling sin by the work of Christ in us at regeneration. 

My friends, this is the very definition of the word “carnal” as Paul uses it here. The word doesn't always mean sinful; it doesn't always mean the body controlled by sin; sometimes it just means the body. We live in this life; I now live in the flesh. Paul just means in this body because that's where I live, right? That’s where everything happens.

But as he uses it here in a negative connotation, it’s this body controlled by indwelling sin. So to say the believer is in the flesh is to make him unable to please God, an enemy of God, and wholly unable to live in righteousness and holiness to bear any fruit to God. 

Look at what Paul says next, which I believe should soundly end the argument: “You are not in the flesh.” You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. 

And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, then he is not His. It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? If you’re a believer, you have the Spirit, and you’re not in the flesh. 

You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. That’s a clear statement. If you believe in Jesus and have been born again and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you are not in the flesh. Yet, I hear it all the time—believers are sinners, their hearts are desperately wicked. 

Who will deliver me from this body of death? My friends, the body of death is described in Romans 7:14-25. The body of death is this body controlled by sin. “Who will deliver me?” This is the cry of the man who has come to know his sinfulness, his helplessness through the law of God. The man in Romans 7:7-25. 

Paul said, “I would not have known sin unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet,’” right? I had those other nine all worked out; externally, I never murdered anybody. I never committed adultery. Just like the rich young ruler, I did all these things since my youth. But boy, when ‘You shall not covet’ came, that’s an inside job. 

When he understood it, it brought death to him. That's what he said. He said, “This is my experience as a man in Adam controlled by sin. I never, ever do what I want to do, and I always continually, perpetually do the things I hate.” 

And I want to keep the law of God because I'm a Jew and a Pharisee, and that's how I'm going to get to heaven. But I find myself continually breaking the law of God. Who’s going to deliver me? 

The law has shown him his sin, and it has brought him to the cross, and he turns to Jesus in faith. Jesus delivers you from the body of death. For those who have believed, they have been delivered from the flesh—the body of death, the law of sin and death. 

We are in this physical body, yes, but we are no longer dominated and controlled by indwelling sin. We are no longer carnal, fleshly. We are no longer dead because we've died and risen again to a new life. And now the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ produce life and holiness through us in this physical body—through the members of my body.

Sin caused death to the body, but the Spirit gives life, producing righteousness through my members. Verse 10: “If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” 

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, does He? Yes! If He dwells in you, then what? He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 

Ephesians 1, right? The very power that raised Jesus from the dead works in you, Ephesians 1 says. What’s the context here in verses 1 to 11? Walking. Those who walk in the Spirit, those who walk in the flesh. 

The fact that we are in the Spirit means that we walk in the Spirit. Those who are in the flesh walk in the flesh according to the flesh. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life; He will produce righteousness through your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwells in you. 

This is a summation of all that Paul has been teaching us. This is the language he’s been using throughout this section on sanctification. It is who you are on the inside that translates to how you walk on the outside. 

If you’re in bondage to sin, if sin reigns in your members, in your physical body, then sin will continually manifest out through those members. You'll lie, you'll cheat, you'll lust, you'll steal through the members. But if you’re free from sin because of your death with Christ and resurrection to new life, if the Holy Spirit lives in you, then He will produce life and righteousness through your mortal body.

We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are free from the law of sin and death. We are not in the flesh; we're not carnal; we have the fullness of the Spirit—the Holy Spirit living in us. And as a result, we have a fruitful life.

These are the truths that we see here in God's Word. This is the logical, foundational basis on which Paul will exhort us to present our members to righteousness, our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which he says is our reasonable service. 

And in verses 12 and 13 of Romans 8, we get a hint of application in these doctrines: “Therefore, brethren, 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 as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” 

Even here in these words, there’s really no command. Paul states another maxim by saying, based on the great truths of who we are in Christ, what we have in Him because of our salvation—all of this—“We’re debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh,” but rather we are debtors to God, to His grace. 

We must live by the Spirit in true righteousness and holiness. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” What Paul is saying here is that there’s such a transformation involved in this salvation in Christ on the inside that there must be a manifestation of it on the outside. 

This is what Jesus taught about the good soil, right? In His parable, He said there would be fruit—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold—but there will be fruit. And there should be consistent fruit. 

This is what we should expect for our daily lives based on all these truths. It’s all like Romans 1, you know? We have the creation. In the creation, there’s so much evidence; there’s so much power. Even the eternal Godhead is visible through the creation. What does it take? It takes a willful suppression, a holding down of that evidence, Paul says, to deny it. 

I kind of see that in a similar way; there’s like this willful suppression of bad teaching about who we are in the church, and it holds down these truths. It undermines them. I'm not saying it’s easy; I’m not saying there isn’t a tremendous battle; I’m not saying we don’t sin. I’m not saying any of those things, but I want to rightly understand what God says in His Word about me in Christ. 

I want to rightly understand how He intends for me to live a holy life. That’s what we’re talking about. 

So what do we do with these great truths so forcefully, clearly taught in this section of the book of Romans? The truth is no good to us if we don’t apply it, right? So what is the nature of the battle of the Christian life? How do I win this battle? I know that I can choose to yield to the sin that still indwells me. I can act like a mere man set on the flesh. How do I consistently live out who I am? That’s the question. 

We see this clearly back in Romans 6 and in many other places, where Paul says that we must first know. “Do you not know?” We must know. “Knowing this,” he says. So we have to know the doctrine—that’s why we spend so much time laying down this doctrine. 

Paul spends so much time laying down this doctrine to make sure we comprehend it. We must first know because if we don’t know, if we know the wrong thing, we think we know something, right? And it’s not. We’ve got a problem. So we have to know; it’s important to know the doctrine, know the truth, understand who you are in Christ. 

Then Paul says we must choose—reckon—we must reckon. Present tense, continual action, we must believe what God says to be true. The word literally means to count up the facts. God gives us seven facts in those first ten verses—seven truths. 

He says, “Count them up; these things are true. You’re free from sin…all these things. Count them up; reckon them to be true.” This is a continual need—like spiritual breathing—keep bringing to my mind, renewing my mind with God’s truth. 

Then I have to make a volitional choice to believe it. And finally, Paul says we must yield or present our members to righteousness. God’s grace and power—by God’s grace and power—we must live out these truths, live consistently with who we are. 

This is the consistent exhortation of the New Testament. I want you to watch this as you read your Bible, as you study now. Because you’re going to see it everywhere. This is who you are; now live like it. 

We see it over and over. You are new men; live like new men. The battle is not against sin per se; that battle has been won. We died to sin, and the battle is one of faith—of knowing and choosing to believe what God says and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 

I’m living my life; I'm interacting with people; I have a thought. This is James 1, right? I have a feeling, an emotion rise up in me. At that point, I must make a choice in my mind to either take it captive to the obedience of Christ or to trust my feelings, my emotions, or the wisdom of men in the world. 

The battle is won in the mind. The battle is believing God and trusting Jesus to live His life in and through us—letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, Paul says—being filled with the Spirit, abiding in Christ. These are all the same thing. 

Let me give you a practical example as we close this morning and hopefully bring all that we’ve learned over the past several weeks into application. 

Let’s say I’m interacting with my neighbor or coworker, or even someone in my family. That person does something to wrong me, or says or does something that causes me to be angry. I feel that emotion rise up in me. It’s tempting me to anger. I’m drawn away by my own lust, as James says. Sin still dwells in me. Sin is still working to have dominion over me, to manifest itself through my members. 

It’s at this point that the battle is won or lost in the mind. I can rationalize my sin. I can conceive sin at this point in the mind, as James says. I can say, “That lousy bum! How could they do this to me? I’m going to show him!” And we choose to react to the circumstances, to the emotion, the feeling that rises up in us. 

Or I can reckon God’s Word in my mind at that moment. I can say in my mind at that point in time, “I’m dead to sin! I’m alive to God! Please help me, Jesus! Give me patience! Help me to forgive as You have forgiven me, to love as You love.” 

If we bring these scriptures to mind, I’m telling you, this is intensely practical. Try it. The more you do it and see that it produces righteousness in your life, the more it can become a habit. 

Because I know the other habits are really easy to fall into. Bring the scriptures to mind to bear on this. If we choose to believe God and His Word, we look unto Jesus, we pray to Him for help and strength, we win the battle in the mind, and the holy and righteous act will flow out through our members. 

I cannot have my wife say something cross to me, and I in my mind at that moment say, “I’m dead to sin, thank You, Jesus, help me!” and then turn around and yell at her. I can’t do that. 

But I can think, “What the heck is her problem?” and I can yell at her real easy. We’re not going to go at that person if we reckon, if we choose to believe God, if we fill our minds, if we let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. 

We’re not going to go at that person with an outburst of wrath, but we’re going to let it go, and we’re going to respond in love. This is the practicality of the truths that we’ve been studying. 

It’s not the law that delivers us; it’s not trying to live up to a standard or to gut it out or pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. It’s God’s grace through faith. It’s knowing the Word of God. It’s renewing my mind to it continually. 

It’s choosing to believe Him and depending on Him and His life and power in me to produce life through my mortal body, righteous, holy living, consistent with who I am on the inside. The command of the new covenant is to believe Jesus and love one another. 

I can’t keep the law perfectly, but I can believe Jesus. I can look to Him, depend on Him, trust Him, and in this, see His life lived out through me in love for God and love for others. This is the very desire He’s put in my heart. This is the very thing He’s prepared for me to do. 

He has given me all things that pertain to life and godliness. I’ve been crucified with Christ. I’m dead to sin, to law, to the flesh. I’m alive to God. I’m a new creation. I no longer live by the oldness of the letter, but by the power of the Spirit, by faith in the One who loved me and gave Himself for me on that cross of Calvary. 

This is who I am. And by His grace and power, this is how I expect to live. And in this, God gets all the glory because He has accomplished it all. That’s why we’re here this morning—to remember what He’s done at the cross. He accomplished it; He did this work in us. I didn’t do it, and He’s the one that has to work out His life through me now, one day at a time. 

Let’s close in prayer. 

Father, we’re so thankful for Your Word, Your truth, and Your Holy Spirit who guides us. I pray that You’d help us to know Your Word, to know what it says. Not to be certain of things that aren’t so, but to know the truth. And then to believe You, to trust You, to reckon these things to be so, and to abide in You one day at a time through faith so that You might work Your will out in our lives. 

Thank You for Your power, Your grace, Your mercy. Thank You that as many times as we fall, we get back up. You preserve us, Lord, and keep working in us, and You’re so patient and long-suffering. Thank You for Jesus, our salvation, and for the cross. In His name we pray, amen.