Romans 8 The Fork in the Road

[HKHaugan]

Romans 8

Logic, trust and action, they are the sequence that activate our humanity. We think, we decide and we act. This is the process for all human behavior. It is this humanity Paul saw exposed in himself as saturated with sin and he saw in Jesus God's perfection. What gave him that insight was the Law, particularly the 10th Commandment, that said, ‘Thou shalt not covet (Ex.20:17).'

Up to that point he was consumed in getting his life (and everyone else’s) right through the Law. He saw the Law as a thing in itself apart from God. To get the Law right became more important than knowing the God of the Law. It's tempting to think that if you get the religious system right then you are right with God. What God had given him to learn about himself and the nature of God got between him and God and the Law became his idol.

He had built an ethnic image based on the Law that demanded a tunnel-visioned obedience to it, an absorption in it and from it a view of others whereby he believed himself superior, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless (Php.3:4-6).” His mind was legally aggressive, his heart blindly obsessed and his behavior pridefully directed. Because he saw himself above criticism his self-awareness was locked in ethnic pride, which snowballed into his angry persecution of early believers in Jesus. From here it mixed with spiritual pride and spread even to the self-justified smugness he felt as an accessory to the murder of Stephen (Acts 8:1).

But something dramatic and unexpected happened. The pride he held that fueled his self-image, self-concept and self-awareness came crashing down on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:12-18). He came face to face with the risen Jesus. He was able to see himself as he really was. He had become what the devil wanted, a self-accomplished, self-justifying, prideful, aggressive and self-obsessed sinner. He was using God, not yielding to Him. But in the presence of the true perfection of Jesus his castle of self-achievement crumbled. What he had worked so hard to accomplish, what he thought was a solid foundation, his ‘superior’ obedience to the Law, was built on the sand of self-induced conceit and spiritual arrogance.

The 10th Commandment showed him that since his covetousness was constantly there he was not perfect. His attitude was not pure and he knew it. If the attitude in your heart can’t obey the Law perfectly you never will overcome that imperfection. That shifty attitude was where he saw sin in himself. He was a sinner and literally, a blind one at that. It then follows that you would begin to see how the rest of your obedience comes into question as well. Resultant depression, frustration and their discontent aggravate a latent anger, anger against himself and anger against God, he couldn’t control. Perhaps this explains his hostility toward the followers of Jesus and his intense determination to persecute them. He was simply taking out on others the frustration he couldn’t resolve in himself. I would be willing to say that the ‘thorn in the flesh’ he describes in 2Cor.12 is his persistent covetousness, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

A spiritual weakness needs a spiritual solution. All of us have spiritual thorns that in some way are attitudinal and expressed in behavior. We just need to identify them, repent and allow the Spirit to show us what Paul discovered. They are the occasion to glory in our weaknesses because in them God exhibits His power. This is Paul’s whole approach in all his epistles. Grace at some point in our walk with the Lord will make the difference between weakness and faith, worldly failure and spiritual success, fear and love. The devil never stops tempting us through his sin spirit.

No wonder Paul wrote about his weakness as he did and became wrapped in a new cloak of humility, prayer, ministry and mission. He discovered that Christ was His righteousness. This discovery wouldn't allow him to wallow in self pity or despair. He was no longer motivated by a thing, a concept, self exaltation or a system that consumed him but by a Person who loved him. His life was now a submission to being led by God the Son through the Spirit as every new moment unfolded. His view of the Law changed from a thing to live by to God’s way of getting his attention to what separated him in the first place, sin. That repentance was not something we accomplish. To the contrary it is a gift, a pride-challenger, something that becomes a lifestyle allowing the Holy Spirit to displace our pride, aloneness, guilt and fear. Being a disciple of Jesus is a living relationship whereby we yield to His presence in every next moment simply because we know our sin nature and the need fof His grace to overcome it..

Chapter 8 is transitional. The first six chapters give us the personal dimension of securing our spiritual humanity. It does three things. It establishes, it opens and it lifts. First, it establishes the centrality of Jesus as the revelation of God, His purpose, our restoration to Him and the redemption of the mind and heart for His mission of reconciliation. Second, it opens up the work of the Holy Spirit as the new life we live in Jesus. Third, it lifts us to see Christ in us is greater than anything in the world and even the world itself. Again this is the humbling factor. Because He is in us we see people and their needs like we never have before. We see them in His way and consider them before we consider ourselves. This is no longer religion, it's God's mission through us.

Vs.1-17 bring us into the realm of the Holy Spirit. While His ministry is not really specified in prior chapters it is quite obvious they all reflect the Spirit's work. Chapter 1 to Chapter 7 are a staircase of chapters, individual but connected steps, whose themes rise with the purpose of bringing our mind, heart and spirit into presence of Jesus at the top. Let's review the steps.

Step 1. Through the Holy Spirit's power Jesus has been declared the Son of God by His resurrection (1:4) thus bringing the revelation of a new righteousness which is by faith (1:17).

Step 2. But mankind is in a rut. Sin has opened up a flood of destructive thought and behavior deserving God's wrath (vs.18-32).

Step 3. Part of sin's production was how each heart had taken on judgment that belonged to God alone. The Law, given to show the heart's problem, was hijacked by religious leaders and their followers to keep people in line through fear (2:1-16).

Step 4. Everything physical has a spiritual meaning. Circumcision was not designed to be a physical membership sign nor an ethnic merit badge. It was meant to teach people that the heart is spiritual and needs to have its sin circumcised, cut away (2:29).

Step 5. There is no spiritual progress through legal obedience. Rather the new righteousness gets us to treat every next moment as a means to experience life through faith in Jesus the Christ (3:22).

Step 6. Only faith in Jesus can make us one with God because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice necessary to atone for each person's sin that kept all people separated from God (3:21-31).

Step 7. Ethnicity was intended to be a training mechanism not a barrier to personal spirituality. That's why Paul shows how Abraham was counted as righteous because of faith (Ch.4).

Step 8. Just as sin came through the one man Adam, so righteousness comes through the one man Jesus whose blood shed on the Cross reconciled us to God (Ch.5).

Step 9. We are baptized into Christ's death so by grace we are brought into into His Resurrection. Thus sin brings nothing but death and faith in Jesus guarantees eternal life (Ch.6).

Step 10. The personal dimension overrides worldly definition. The good my mind wants my heart can't do. The release from this inner conflict of mind and heart is found in Jesus (Ch.7).

Step 11. Therefore, Jesus does not condemn us (8:1). He delivers us from sin and fills us with His Holy Spirit for direction, purpose and the power to fulfill them (8:1-17). God works for the good of those who love Him and all called according to His purpose and because of faith in His Son nothing can separate us from Him (8:18-38).

Step 12. This is really a platform, a landing, between floors. Here we are moving from the stifling world below to the higher clear air in Christ. It includes Chapters 9-11.

But before we get into the succeeding steps, let's get into the work of the Spirit in Chapter 8 that creates the atmosphere to enable the climb up those next steps beyond Chapter 8.

Vs.1-4 set the foundation for spiritual thinking. This is essential for following God's truth in this world. It is the Holy Spirit who becomes the new law, the law of allowing faith to open every next moment the way the Lord would want. What Jesus did was to take on the likeness of sinful man to show what a sinless humanity thinks, looks and acts like. He became a sin offering (2Cor.5:21) in order to condemn sin in sinful man to free humanity to live under the new law of the Spirit which is to approach every next future moment in faith. Faith is the key to the spiritual life.

Vs.5-11 The key here is the mind which is mentioned five times. He will repeat the principle in 12:2. The spiritual life begins with the mind, thinking spiritually. This is where belief holds the base for trust and faith. What is really going on here is that we are given a choice and that choice is freedom to serve either God or the sinful self. This is what the Spirit is all about. To serve God brings the unexpected, the surprise of a heart blessed and fulfilled. Sin lives only for satisfying the moment. Thinking spiritually led by the Spirit is eternity in the present.

Here are stated the principle differences between the Spirit led life and the sinful nature:

Those who live by the Spirit have their minds set on the Spirit's desires which results in the Spirit controlled mind producing a purpose filled life with inner confidence in every next moment.

Living by the sinful nature, the mind follows whatever satisfies personal desire in any given moment. The sinful mind is hostile to God, cannot submit to God's law and cannot please God. The sinful mind is bound by a death wish wrapped around every next moment. The choice is ours.

Vs.9-11 emphasize the difference very dramatically. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and if you don't have the Spirit you don't belong to Christ. It's plain and simply stated. You can tell if Christ is in when you think of who is really in control, the Lord through the Spirit or your momentary personal desires. It's then that you count your body dead to sin and alive because of faith in the Spirit's control. So if the Spirit of the risen Lord is in you He will give life to your body for every next moment.

Vs.12-17 underscore living by the Spirit. If you put to death what the sinful nature desires, you live because the Spirit fills the gap with eternal life. Because when you are led by the Spirit it makes us a son or a daughter of God. Rather than my paraphrase, look at how Scripture declares the truth, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children then we are heirs---heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” (To be continued.)