Romans 8

Romans 8:1-17

c. THE . LIFE IN THE SPIRIT. Romans 8:1-17

1. The Proclamation. Romans 8:1 a. The State. No Condemnation. b. The Sphere. In Christ Jesus.
2. The Explanation. Romans 8:2-11 a. The contrasted Sovereignty. Romans 8:2 The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. The Law of Sin and Death. The Victory in Christ Jesus. b. The contrasted Strength. Romans 8:3-4 The Weakness of Law. The Strength of the Son of God. The Victory of the Son of God. c. The contrasted Spheres. Flesh. Spirit. Romans 8:5-11 The First Contrast - Of Inspiration. Romans 8:5 After the Flesh. After the Spirit. The Second Contrast - Of Issue. Romans 8:6 Of Flesh- Death. Of Spirit - Life and Peace. The Third Contrast - Of Experience. Romans 8:7-11 The Flesh. Romans 8:7-8 At Enmity against God. Incapable of Subjection to God. Incapable of pleasing God. The Spirit. Romans 8:9-11 The Indweller. Romans 8:9 a (Parenthesis. A Test. Romans 8:9 b) The present Position. Romans 8:10 The Body dead. The Spirit alive. The Ultimate Victory. Romans 8:11 The Quickened Body.
3. The Obligation. Romans 8:12-17 a. Responsibility. Romans 8:12-13 Negative- Not to Flesh. Romans 8:12-13 a Positive- By the Spirit. Romans 8:13 b b. Resource. Romans 8:14-17 Sonship. Romans 8:14-15 Heirship. Romans 8:16-17

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c. THE . LIFE IN THE SPIRIT The final section of this division sets forth the life of sanctification on its positive side. It is perfectly evident that the word “Therefore” is not related to the final statement of the previous section. In order to discover the teaching which the word recalls, it is necessary to go back to the first section, and to its last declaration. That this may be clearly seen, let us bring the last verse of the first section and this first verse of the third section together.

“But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were holden; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.''

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”

The connection is self-evident; “discharged … no condemnation.” Thus after having in the first section dealt with the provision for sanctification, that of identification with Christ by which the believer passes from death into life; and having illustrated his principle in that section in which he described the condition of death under law; he now returned in order to set forth the privilege of sanctification to be that of life in the Spirit.

That to which we now turn stands in startling contrast to that which we have been considering. Throughout the whole of the paragraph of autobiographical illustration, the overwhelming sense was that of condemnation. In this most glorious passage the language is ever that of one discharged, and free from condemnation. From the slavery of the law of sin and death we emerge into the freedom of the law of the Spirit of life.

The section falls into three parts: a brief proclamation; a careful explanation; and a final statement of consequent obligation.

1. The Proclamation In the final stages of the previous section the apostle, as though unable to avoid it for very gladness of heart, had exclaimed, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” As we saw in considering it, this was an interpolated answer of the man in Christ, to the wail of the man under law.

He now turned to the full and positive statement of the truth which compelled that cry of victory. The opening proclamation is brief but all-inclusive. It rings with the note of absolute assurance. The state of the believer is described in the words, “no condemnation.” He has escaped from the intolerable depression of the awful agony resulting from the sense of sin created by the law. This escape is the result of entrance into a new sphere of life, which he described by the words “In Christ Jesus.” The omission of the words, “who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit” is no loss, but rather gain. While what they suggest is true, and will be stated presently under the consideration of obligation, the statement is more complete, as a definite proclamation, without them. It is indeed a gracious announcement that in Christ Jesus man is under no condemnation; and inspired the great verse in Charles Wesley’s hymn,

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness Divine, Bold I approach the eternal throne. And claim the crown, through Christ, my own. 2. The Explanation Having thus comprehensively stated the privilege of sanctification, the apostle passed to a careful explanation thereof in a series of contrasts between life in the flesh, and life in the spirit.

My own interpretation of this passage adopts the distinction indicated in the spelling of the Revised Version in the case of the word “spirit.’’ Therein a small letter is used when the word refers to the spirit of man, and a capital when it refers to the Spirit of God. I am aware that some of our best expositors do not agree with the interpretation resulting from this spelling. I do not propose to enter into any argument concerning the matter, for I do not believe that anything of vital importance is involved. Let readers desiring to compare other interpretations refer to the works of Dr. Handley Moule and Dr. Agar Beet. My own understanding of the passage leads me to the conclusion that where the distinction is maintained as indicated in the Revised Version, the result is a clear presentation of the truth that sanctification is the full realization of the forces of regeneration; and that a “picture of remarkable strength is presented, of a regenerate man living under the control of the Spirit of God, his own spirit being restored to its proper place of dominion over his body.

The first contrast is that between the two sovereignties of life. In this relation the word law is used, not in reference to the Mosaic economy, but as describing a master-principle.

On the one hand there is that of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, on the other that of the law of sin and of death. These two stand related to the two sections of the division already considered, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus having been revealed in the first section, and the law of sin and of death having been dealt with in the second; the law which the apostle therein described as “a different law . . . warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin/’ If this is the contrast, it is stated only in order to declare that the victory is that the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and of death.

The second contrast is between the ability of the law - and in this case the reference is to the Mosaic economy - and that of the Son of God. The weakness of the one consisted in the fact that it had to do with man as the apostle had described him in the central section, unable to obey. The strength of the Son of God lay in the fact of His incarnation, and His work on the cross, all of which had been dealt with in the first section. Again the contrast is made, in order to declare that the victory is that of the Son of God, because in all such as walk not after the flesh but after the spirit, the ordinance or requirement of the law is fulfilled.

In the third contrast, which has to do with the two possible spheres of life, flesh and spirit, the overwhelming victory of sanctification is revealed. There is a three-fold movement in this contrast, dealing with the two inspirations, the two issues, and the two experiences.

As to inspiration, there are those who live after the flesh, and those who live after the spirit. The first mind the things of the flesh, that is, desire them, and seek after them. The second mind the things of the spirit, and again that is, desire them, and seek after them.

As to issue, the result of seeking the things of the flesh is death, a present death, the death of the mind, its darkness and limitation. The result of seeking the things of the spirit is life and peace, present life and peace, the life of the mind, its light and comprehension resulting in abiding peace.

Finally, in dealing with the contrast of experience the apostle first declared that to live in the flesh is to be at enmity against God, incapable of subjection to Him, and therefore unable to please Him. His description of the experience of life in the spirit is fuller. Declaring that the secret of spiritual life is that of the indwelling Spirit of God, he parenthetically declared that this indwelling Spirit of God will be manifest as the Spirit of Christ, and that this manifestation is a test of possession. The immediate result of the indwelling Christ is that the body is dead, that is to say, the body does not immediately escape the consequence of past sin; it is still mortal, not exempt from dissolution. But the spirit is alive, and that fact will have its bearing upon the whole man, including the body.

In this connection there is finally one word declaring that the ultimate victory of this life will be that of the quickening of the mortal body.

This picture, then, is that of a regenerate man. Sanctification is the full realization o f regeneration, and consists in the spirit of a man being in subjection to the indwelling Spirit of God; with the further result that the body of the man is under the dominion of the spirit of the man, which is controlled by the Spirit of God.

3. The Obligation The argument as to obligation immediately follows, and of course is entirely dependent upon that which has already been considered. The apostle stated it in relation to our responsibility and our resource.

The negative responsibility of believers is that they are not debtors to the flesh. There is no longer any need for them to live after the flesh, that is, to obey the dictates of the flesh without reference to the claims of the spirit. Being free from the law of sin and death which operates through the body, making it the master of the life; to yield to its claims alone will issue in death. The first responsibility of sanctification is that there shall be no such yielding. The positive responsibility is that of the exercise of power by the spirit over all the things of the flesh.

In order to the fulfillment of this responsibility the resources of sanctification are then stated. The first is that of sonship. The victory of the spirit of man results from the leading of the Spirit of God, and those who have such leading are the sons of God. They have received the spirit of adoption whereby they are able, under the tender and gracious impulse of the indwelling Spirit, to call God, Father. The witness of the Spirit of God with our spirits that we are the children of God is the proof necessary, and granted, of our justification and sanctification. All the logical method is nothing save as we have this inner witness, the absolutely certain knowledge, proof against all argument, that we are the children of God.

The sequence of this glorious sonship is that the saints are heirs of God. This statement is so overwhelming that it defies analysis, or exposition. In the presence of it the heart can but be still in exulting meditation, while it confesses that the profundities of the Divine love defy the fathoming of human intelligence.

O love of God, how strong and true. Eternal and yet ever new, Uncomprehended and unbought. Beyond all knowledge, and all thought.

O love of God, how deep and great! Far deeper than man’s deepest hate; Self-fed, self-kindled, like the light, Changeless, eternal, infinite. Children are heirs of the Father’s wealth and the Father’s home. And yet the apostle kept plainly in view the ground of our claim. We are joint-heirs with Christ. He Who identifies Himself with us in death, identifies us with Himself in life, and in all that life means as to breadth, and richness, and continuity.

This joint-heir ship with Christ, and heirship of God, brings us into fellowship, not only with the consummation, but with the process. We are brought into the place of suffering with Him, Who came into the fellowship of our suffering. This statement of the case reveals responsibility. The privilege is evidenced by the declaration of the same truth from the other side. Having fellowship with His sufferings through the process, we shall at last have partnership with the glory in the consummation.

Romans 8:18-39

iii. . Romans 8:18-39 a. THE IN THE PROCESS. Romans 8:18-30

1. Introductory Declaration. Romans 8:18 Present Suffering and ultimate Glory incomparable
2. Fellowship with Creation. Romans 8:19-30 a. Fellowship in Creation’s Groaning. Romans 8:19-25 Creation’s Need. Romans 8:19-22 Waiting. Romans 8:19-20 Hoping. Romans 8:21 Groaning. Romans 8:22 The Saints’ Fellowship; Romans 8:23-25 Groaning. Romans 8:23 a Waiting. Romans 8:23 b Hoping. Romans 8:24-25 b. Fellowship with God. Romans 8:26-30 The Spirit’s Interpretation. Romans 8:26-27 Making Intercession with Groanings. Romans 8:26 Intelligible to God. Romans 8:27 a According to God. Romans 8:27 b The Saints’ Assurance. Romans 8:28-30 The Conditions. Romans 8:28 a The Process. Romans 8:28 b The Issue. Romans 8:29-30 b. THE OF THE . Romans 8:31-39
3. Introductory Affirmation. Romans 8:31-32 a. The Inquiry. Romans 8:31 What shall we say? If God . . . who is against? b. The Answer. Romans 8:32 The Gift of the Son. The Gift of all things.
4. The Threefold Challenge and Answer. Romans 8:33-39 a. The Accuser. Romans 8:33 Challenge. Who? Answer. God justifies. b. The Judge. Romans 8:34 Challenge. Who? Answer. Christ Died. Rose. Ascended. Intercedes. c. The Separator. Romans 8:35-39 Challenge. Who? Romans 8:35-36 The things of suffering. The Answer. The Love of God in Christ Jesus.Romans 8:37-39 The incompetent Forces.

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iii. The last phrase in the previous section, “glorified with Him,” naturally leads on to the discussion of the final fact in the salvation provided by God, that of glorification. There is nothing like a detailed description of the conditions of the coming glory, either on earth or in heaven. The apostle’s dealing with the subject was rather that of an onward look from the midst of that suffering to which he had referred, and which is seen in the light of the consummation. The section falls into two parts; the first dealing with the fellowship of the saints in the process that leads to the consummation; and the second with the assurance of the certainty of that consummation.

a. THE IN THE PROCESS After an introductory declaration the apostle proceeded to deal with the subjects, first of the fellowship of the saints with creation; and secondly of their fellowship with God.

1. Introductory Declaration In his introductory declaration the apostle suggested and declined a comparison between the sufferings and the glory. So stupendous and overwhelming was the radiant vision and the ultimate issue of the work of grace as he saw it, that set in the light of it, he reckoned the sufferings of the present time incomparable. All that follows in this section emphasizes that conviction. It is impossible to read his teaching without discovering how keen his sense of the suffering was, and yet through all the movement the dominant note is that of a joyful confidence, born of his assurance of the certainty and overwhelming sufficiency of the glory.

2. Fellowship with Creation In dealing with the fellowship of the saints with creation the apostle affirmed the fact of their fellowship in creation’s groaning; and then that of their fellowship with God in relation to that groaning.

a. Fellowship in Creation’s Groaning The apostle first described creation’s need, and then the saints’ fellowship therein.

The need of creation as the apostle understood it is revealed by three words of which he made use. He saw it, waiting, hoping, groaning.

It is waiting “for the revealing of the sons of God.” In that declaration the apostle recognized man’s place in creation to be that of its lord and master. He also recognized that man’s power to exercise beneficent rule results entirely from his relation to God. That relation being interfered with by sin, he had failed to realize the creation beneath him, or to lead it to its full development. The creation had therefore been subjected to vanity.

He next described it as expecting, or hoping, that it would also find its way into the liberty of the glory of the children of God, that is, that in answer to the dominion of redeemed man it also would be redeemed.

Finally he taught that while creation thus waits and hopes it does so in suffering. This he declared in the words, “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain . . . until now.” How much of sorrow and of agony is pressed into this one pregnant sentence! It includes man himself in his spiritual ruin, in his mental limitation, in his physical suffering; and all the lower forms of creation in their sighing and suffering for lack of the kingly government of the being created to have dominion over it for its perfecting.

In dealing with the saints’ fellowship, the apostle made use of the same words, groaning, waiting, hoping.

He began at the point of creation’s pain, as lie declared that “we ourselves groan.” The saints of God in the midst of the suffering are conscious of it, and, indeed, the consciousness is more acute than that of the creation itself, for with the restoration in measure even, of the Divine ideal, there comes the new capacity for pain, which is indeed part of the privilege of partnership with God in Christ.

The saints are also waiting for the redemption of the body. The bodies of the saints have not yet been brought into full realization of the renewing forces of salvation. They remain the media through which the saints experimentally enter into the consciousness of creation’s suffering. Nevertheless the spirit is renewed and alive, and in their spiritual life the saints wait for the redemption of the body.

While in the midst of this fellowship of suffering and of waiting they also share the hope of creation, and that hope is so sure and certain as to create patience in waiting, even in the midst of suffering.

b. Fellowship with God The deeper secret of the fellowship of the saints with creation is that of their fellowship with God. The indwelling Spirit exercises a twofold ministry in this respect; that first of interpreting the real meaning of the world’s agony, and that secondly of creating the assurance of the ultimate deliverance. The supreme consciousness of suffering is in God, because of the perfection of His love. He, by the Spirit indwelling believers, interprets that consciousness, and thus makes their intercession. That intercession, even though it cannot be expressed, is intelligible to God, because “He . . . knoweth . . . the mind of the Spirit.” This intercession is therefore “according to the will of God.” By this interpretation of the Spirit, the saints are brought into fellowship with the suffering of creation through fellowship with God; and they co-operate with God by intercession in the midst of suffering creation.

Such fellowship with God creates the assurance of the saints that the whole process is moving toward a consummation. “We know” wrote the apostle. Here is no indefiniteness, no speculation, no expression of a hope that faints or falters. Upon the basis of the profound and magnificent arguments of the Divine method of redemption, the apostle founds a confidence that nothing is equal to shaking. In an introductory phrase, “to them that love God,” he indicated the one condition upon which all that he was about to say concerning the process to consummation, is true. The confidence he expressed in the present tense, “all things work”; they do so even here and now, amid conditions which seem as though they would make the ultimate issue impossible, or at least indefinitely postpone it. The soul in fellowship with God rests assured that everything is contributing to the consummation.

The word “together” is in itself a luminous explanation of much that perplexes. No lonely circumstance, no event of an hour, no isolated incident, must be used as interpreting the whole process. All such circumstances, events, incidents, are inter-related, and each must be viewed as part of all. The apparent defeat is a preparation for certain victory. The seeming mystery holds within itself, in relation to other facts, the making of a revelation. The present is part of the whole.

The whole needs it, and alone is equal to explaining it. This is the faith that tinges the darkest cloud with the light of the sun hidden behind it, and transmutes its sable into the purple promise of coming glory. This is the confidence that whispers words of infinite peace amid all the babel of contending voices. This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith, and faith is at once the law and the offspring of fellowship.

What, then, is the good toward which the “all things’’ work together? We find the answer to this inquiry stated only in regard to the central fact. The sons are to be conformed to the image of the Son. This revealing of the sons of God in the likeness of the Son of God will issue in the healing of creation, and the ending of its groaning.

There can be no doubt that at last the sons will be conformed to the image of the Son, for to this they are foreordained of God, and those “whom He foreordained, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.''

Thus the great glad certainty of assured finality of glory accounts for the statement with which the section opened. “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward.''

b. THE OF THE The last section ended with the apostle’s affirmation of the assurance of the saints in fellowship with God, that the process is inevitably moving toward the consummation. This second half of the division dealing with glorification looks out into the future, and challenges all opposition, affirming its impotence in the presence of the great salvation.

It is sometimes helpful to read this paragraph in close connection with, the first section of the book, that dealing with the ruin of the race. There the apostle declared that the whole world must be silent in its condemnation. Here the saints are no longer silent, but challenge to silence all the voices that can be raised against them.

The first movement in the paragraph is that of an introductory affirmation, which is immediately followed by a threefold challenge and answer.

1. Introductory Affirmation The introductory affirmation consists of an All-inclusive inquiry and reply. The attention is first arrested by the question, “What then shall we say to these things?” which is immediately followed by the inquiry, “If God is for us, who is against us?” Already he had demonstrated the fact that the very forces of sorrow and of suffering which seemed to be opposed, are working together for good. In the light of that assurance he looked out through all space and all ages, and demanded “Who is against us?”

The answer is really an exposition of the assumption of the inquiry, that God is for us. He has proved that He is for us by the gift of His Son. It is therefore inconceivable that He will withhold anything. Indeed the gift of the Son is the gift of all things, for as the writer declared in another of his letters, “In Him all things consist.”

2. The Threefold Challenge and Answer The inclusive inquiry is then expressed in a threefold challenge, followed by a threefold answer.

The first challenge is as to the possibility of an accuser. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?’’ The answer is immediate and brief, “It is God that justifieth.’’ Nothing more need be said, because in the earlier part of the letter the fact has already been dealt with, that it is possible for God to be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.

The second challenge is as to the possibility of a judge who will condemn, “Who is He that shall condemn?” The answer re-states those facts of the work of Christ Jesus, belief in which made possible the declaration of an earlier section, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus”; the facts of His death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession.

The third challenge is as to the possibility of a separator, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” and the challenge is emphasized by the naming of some of the terrible experiences which may form part of the process through which the ultimate glory must be reached - tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. So far from these being able to separate, in them “we are more than conquerors " because they are of the number of the things which work together for our good, and thus are compelled to serve us, and to co-operate with God toward the accomplishment of the highest purposes of His heart. There are other things which may be against us, and the apostle finally named them only in order to reveal the fact that the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, is mightier than either of them, or all of them united, in an attempt to separate us therefrom.

Neither death, the foe ever threatening; nor life, with all its trials and testings; nor angels and principalities, the beings of the spiritual realm; nor powers, those in earthly authority; nor things present, the circumstances of the hour; nor things to come, the possible contingencies of the coming days; nor height, heaven itself; nor depth, hell beneath; nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God, Who is the Creator, and therefore the supreme Lord of all because life is resident in, and manifested through, Christ Jesus, Who is our Lord.

In this final affirmation there is incidentally a fine note of assurance in the little phrase, “any other creature”; for by its use the apostle recognizes the fact that all the things which he has named are but creations, while the One in Whose love is the assurance of the victory is the One from Whom all these have come, He being the Creator.

This threefold challenge and answer becomes the more wonderful when we realize the remarkable change of relation between God and man which it exhibits. On account of sin, God was against man, and man was silent. Through His salvation God is for him, and the opposing forces are silent. By reason of sin God was the supreme Accuser. By the way of His salvation He has become the Justifier. As the result of sin it was God Who as Judge condemned man. As the outcome of His provision of salvation, the triumphant word is uttered, “No condemnation.” The inevitable issue of sin was that God had excluded man from fellowship with Himself. The equally inevitable result of salvation is the restoration of man to such fellowship with Him in love that no force in the universe can separate between them.