Free At Last!

By 

John C. Orlando, Jr.

20 September 2004

Covenant Presbyterian Church, Abilene TX      

Background:  The book of Romans, written by the Apostle Paul in 57 A.D., has been referred to as the Constitution of the Christian faith.  As we come to chapter 8, it is worth noting that this chapter has been haled as the inner sanctuary within the cathedral of Christian faith; the tree of life in the midst of the Garden of Eden, and the highest peak in a range of mountains.

Scripture:  Romans 8:1-6

Intro

            Guilt. Despair. Condemnation.  Have you ever been so devastated, so shipwrecked, so wracked by those things that no matter how much you tried, no matter how many times you read your Bible, no matter how many times you went to church, no matter how much you served God, you still felt overwhelmed, shackled, and in bonds and chains to these things?

         Maybe it was going to church that even contributed to the problem!  Maybe you went to a place where you were constantly placed under the scrutiny of those who were legalistic in the way they viewed the Christian faith, and formed their own lists of do’s and don’ts, exalted themselves as the perfect law-keepers, and magnified the speck in your eye, all the while ignoring the huge plank in their own eyes. 

What is the answer?  How is it that we can break free from those things?  Who shall deliver us from this body of death?  The Apostle Paul tells us the answer in Romans 7:25: “I thank God, through Jesus Christ my Lord!”    

But, you say, “I’ve already trusted in Christ, and yet I am still overcome by condemnation and guilt!  Why?!  Where is Jesus?  Has He abandoned me?  Where is the freedom He promised?”  Beloved, Christ has done everything on our behalf...He has made us free!  Christ has won the victory, and we are free at last.

The problem is, we turn Christianity into "7 steps on how to be more godly," and when we don't accomplish one or more of the "steps," we fall under the weight of guilt.  While there are important things that we must do in order to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, we must not lose sight of the fact that there is only One who was ever truly godly, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is only in Christ, that is, only by resting in the perfect righteousness of Christ that we can ever be godly.  It is by the Gospel, that we are made right before a holy God, and it is by that same Gospel that we are empowered to live.  

As we turn our attention to our text this morning, Paul first makes: 

I. The Declaration of Freedom

“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.” 

A.  "No Condemnation"  These are cherished words of assurance for those who find themselves constantly beat down under the weight of their own internal struggles with the world, the flesh and the devil, and who may be caused to feel weight of the guilt of all their sin. 

To capture the full impact of these words, we need to review a bit of what Paul has belabored in the previous chapters. Paul has told us that man is without excuse (Rom 1:20) all have sinned and stand guilty and condemned before an absolutely holy God (Rom 3:23), and are storing up wrath for the day of judgment. (Rom 2:5).

 As if that weren’t enough, we discover that by the deeds of the law no flesh will justified! (Rom 3:20) Did you hear that? Try and try as we will to keep God’s law perfectly, we will never be judged as right before God on the basis of law-keeping for the simple fact that none of us is able to keep God’s law perfectly in word, thought, or deed (Rom 3:10-18).  We are all on death row as it were, and there is no prospect for parole.  The moment we try to appeal to our good works or good behavior for parole, the more we find ourselves in deeper trouble. 

 But then Paul tells us that now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. (Rom 3:21-22), and having been justified, we who were once the enemies of God are now at peace with God. (Rom 5:1,10) 

We have been raised to the newness of life! (Rom 6:4)  Our old man was crucified with Christ. (Rom 6:6)  Sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under law but under grace, and having been set free from sin, we became slaves of righteousness. (Rom 6:6-14) 

Then in chapter 7, Paul fully and powerfully illustrates the utter futility of thinking that one could ever be justified (or even sanctified) by the Law of Moses.  Paul tells us that the Law, though it is good and holy, nevertheless arouses our sinful passions to bear fruit onto death (Rom 7:5).  The law was never intended to be a means to salvation, rather, it was given so that sin, through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful! (Rom 7:13)  It was designed to show us our utter destitution and wickedness of heart, and our desperate need for a Savior (Gal 3:22-24), and Paul, in a sense speaking for everyone of us cries out in Rm 7:24-25 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  “I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  

             Now in Rom 8:1, Paul, in light of all of that, raises high the banner of the Gospel and states emphatically there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! 

Here we have a perpetual declaration that is true of every single person who is in Christ Jesus.  The day you received Christ, you were forever declared justified by God because of Christ, and were sealed in the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our redemption.  

No false teacher, no demon in hell...neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:39)

We are free at last, and it is for freedom that Christ has made us free.  And notice, we are… 

            B.  Actually Free, Not Potentially Free!  “2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”  

            1.  Paul does not say that Christ will make you free if …you pull yourself up by your own bootstraps or if you conform perfectly to the law, or if anything...there is no if, just the statement that Christ made me free!  That is who I am right now, this very moment in Christ!

            2.  Notice the contrast Paul sets before us between the law of the Spirit of life in Christ and the law of sin and death.  Just as there are natural laws, such as the law of gravity, that always produce certain results, so there are "spiritual laws" (so to speak) that always produce certain results.  Before we come to Christ, we are under the law of sin (Rom 7:25).  That is, we are by nature sinners, and we are in bondage to our sinful nature, so that the only thing we can will and do is sin, and the wages of sin is death.  

             But the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the exact opposite!  Instead of sin and death, The Spirit of Life in Christ is righteousness and life.  Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death, and in its place has given us His righteousness and His life…in Christ we are a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2Cr 5:17)

 How is it that the Spirit of life in Christ makes us free? Many seem to think that what Christ did was merely show us the way, and then it is up to us, through the power of our own "free will," to do the rest.  Others point to the Law of God as the means whereby we enter into life and righteousness with God.  But Paul demolishes both of these ideas, and shows us the… 

II.  The Cause Of Our Freedom

The cause of our freedom was neither the Law, nor our flesh, for both are powerless.  Note first: 

            A.  The Powerlessness of the Law:  “3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,”  That Law came to us on tables of stone, and reveals to us the eternal holy nature and character of our Triune God. It could tell us what God required, but it could not empower us to do what God required. Thus, Paul would say that while the Law is good and holy, nevertheless it worked death in him.   It was, as Paul would say, a ministry of death and of condemnation (2 Cor 3:7-9), for by it the perfection of God and His requirements were made known, but the power to comply was altogether absent.  And the fault lay not in God, nor in the Law itself, but notice, Paul says that “the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh.” Here we see: 

B.  The Powerlessness of the Flesh – The Scripture states in no uncertain terms the powerlessness of fallen man to do anything about his condition.  We are told that we were dead in trespasses and sins, that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit for they are spiritually discerned. (Eph 2:1; 1 Cor 2:14)  The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it (Jer 17:9)…the flesh profits nothing (John6:63) (and that "nothing" isn't a little something!), and no one can come to Christ. (John 6:44,65)  Before being regenerated by the sovereign grace of God, we were in total bondage to our sin nature and incapable of inclining ourselves to any spiritual good. (John 8:34; 42-47).  We were not simply sick unto death…we were dead.  

Thus, the Law was weak through the flesh.  The fleshly mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.  (Rom 8:7) The only thing our “free” will freely chooses is sin and death.  We must be liberated from the bondage of sin and death. (John 8:36)  We must, beloved, to put it bluntly, be delivered from ourselves.  Thus, what the Law could not do, and what we could never do in and of ourselves, Paul tells us…For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, 

C.  “God did…” – Here is the glorious trumpet of Christianity that burst through the clouds and demolishes every man-centered system ever devised under heaven!  Here is the difference between Biblical Christianity and everything else.  It is not man by the power of his “free will” or man by placing himself under the Law and trying the best he can, and then God filling up the rest that we leave undone.  No...God does it all!  What we could never do, and what the Law could never do because of our weakness…God did 

          1. Where we could not work, because our works bore only the fruit of death, God worked perfectly to bear the fruit of life. 

            2.   Where we had no righteousness to offer, because even our righteousness is like filthy rags, God gives us His righteousness.  

But how did God “do it?”  Did He merely overlook our sin and the perfect requirements of His law? No... Paul now shows us…  

III.  The Cost of Freedom  

A.  “God did…by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,”  Here is holiness, grace, justice, righteousness, and love!  God, according to the good pleasure and kind intention of His will, demonstrates His amazing love for His people!  

Notice the Triune nature of the work.  The Father sent the Son.  The Son accomplished the work of the Father, and, as we will discover, it is the Spirit that we are now living according to, as He perfectly applies that finished work of Christ to Christ’s sheep.  There are at least 3 critical points here to probe further:

            1. Full Divinity of Christ:  Jesus is God’s own Son. To say God had a Son is to make the Son equal in nature and essence with God.  John 5:18: “Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.”

            2. Full Humanity of Christ - Paul says that Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh.  Note carefully, Paul does not say that Jesus came as sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh.  Paul does not mean to infer that Christ was a sinner, rather He was fully human, and was tempted at all points, yet without sin (ref Phil 2:5-11; Heb 4:15).  Jesus is the lamb without blemish, perfect humanity, the Second Adam, sent to do in human flesh what the first Adam, and we by extension fail to do:  keep the law perfectly at all points.  It wasn’t simply that Jesus died, but that He lived!   And it is His perfect life that He lived as our Representative that is now your life.  

                        3.  Substitutionary atonement:  “...condemned sin in the flesh” Christ, the Second Adam, is our representative…our substitute. God has demonstrated His love toward us by coming to us in the Person of His Son, living the perfect life of obedience we never could, paying the full penalty of the wrath of God for our sin on the cross, then rose from the grave for our justification, and by His sovereign grace inwardly bestowed He births saving faith us, the instrument through which we are now enabled to take hold of Him who had in fact taken hold of us from all eternity.  

            A great transaction has taken place.  Our sin and the law worked our condemnation, and now Christ condemns sin by taking our sin upon Himself, and is Himself condemned in our place. The perfect Son of God took all of our imperfection, all of our sin, all of our guilt, all of the curse that was due us.   

In exchange He imputes all of His righteousness and merit to all those who trust in Him alone for their right standing before God.

a.  We are no longer clothed in the robes of condemnation, guilt, and sin, rather, we are clothed in robes of the merit of Christ.

            b.   We are no longer under the bondage and dominion of our sinful flesh, rather, we have been crucified with Christ and made free in Christ.

c.   We are no longer under the yoke and bondage the Law, the list of external rules and regulations that have no power to either justify or sanctify.  Rather, God has made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Col 2:13-15). 

We who were dead in trespasses sin have been made free by the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we now have the Spirit of God working within us conforming us to the image of Christ and bearing the fruit of holiness in our lives.  Paul now shows us … 

IV.  The Life of Freedom

Verse 4 “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us…”  

            A.  We Have Been Freed To Do Right -  What does Paul mean here?  Does he mean that because of Christ’s work, we are now going to be placed under the Law, and work to fulfill it in our own power?  No!  Turn to Galatians 5:

                    1.  Gal 5:1,6, 13,14.  Paul clearly tells us not to come under the yoke of bondage which is the law because we have been delivered and set free from it.   We have been freed to love (v. 6).  And Paul then says that the Law is fulfilled in one word:  love your neighbor as yourself.  This is the righteous requirement of the law that is now fulfilled in us. 

                    2.  But how?  By our own feeble efforts?  No;  It is by living by faith in Christ alone. Not only did He perfectly fulfill this in His life, and not only is that perfect obedience imputed to us, but right now, right we are today, Christ Himself is living in and through us, who, Paul says…

B. “…do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

To walk according to the Spirit is to live a life totally abandoned to the cross of Christ.  It is to stand trusting in Christ alone for everything.  It is to get our eyes off of our circumstances, and off our works and off of our shortcomings, and fix them on Christ and realize as Paul says in Ga 2:19-21:  

“For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 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."

It is always the Gospel!  To live according to the Spirit is to live preaching the Gospel to ourselves everyday and clinging to it as our only hope.  Since the Law was weak through the flesh because of sin, every aspect of our salvation, from start to finish, is accomplished for us by Christ and is applied to us by the Holy Spirit.   It is by the Gospel, not the Law, that we are made right before a holy God, and it is by that same Gospel that we are empowered to live as Christ lives His life through us.  

            C.  “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.”“6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” 

Here Paul sets before us the only two kingdoms or realms that one can live in:  the kingdom or realm of the flesh, or the kingdom or realm of the Spirit.  There are those who are in Christ, and those who are not in Christ.  Those who are not in Christ are those who live according to the flesh, and those who are in Christ are those who live according to the Spirit.  The end result for the unbeliever, or the fleshly minded, is death, and for the spiritually minded, that is the believer, is life and peace. 

The life we have is union with Christ; it is His life; it is eternal life, and the peace we have is that of former rebels and enemies of God who deserved nothing but the just and righteous wrath and condemnation of God, but have now, for no other reason than God’s sovereign grace and good pleasure, have been made sons of God, joint heirs with Christ, who have had the Spirit of God sovereignly poured into our hearts whereby we now cry out to God “Abba, Father!”   

V.  Conclusion

            This is what is objectively true of every believer.  You may not feel that way, you may do battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, you may feel overwhelmed and even despondent, but dear believer in Christ, realize who you are in Christ.  Survey the cross beloved, upon which the Prince of Glory died.  See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down; did ever such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?  Here we have a firm foundation…the Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel to guilt; none ever shall be confounded who on Him their hope have built. 

Let us, as Paul says in Col 3:1-2, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. We must set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For we died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God. 

Let us not become burdened again by that yoke of bondage which Christ forever abolished in the Body of His flesh, whose flesh you are since you have been joined to Him by the work of the Spirit’s grace through faith! 

Let us rise up on the mighty mountain of the Gospel, being carried along by the amazing, all-powerful, effectual grace of our holy God who did and does for us what we could never do for ourselves, and lift up the banner of Christ, which declares:  

"I am free because of Christ alone...There is no more condemnation because of Christ alone!  There is no more guilt because of Christ alone...Where O death is your sting!  Where O sin is your power!  I am a new creature in Christ Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me..." 

  Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ alone.  To Him alone be all of the glory, all of the honor, and all of the praise both now and forevermore!  

Amen.

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