The GOAT Chapter Part 1: Romans Series #7

If we are going to go from Romans 7 to Romans 8, we will have to understand what it means to walk in the Spirit. Romans 8 will help us to move from misery into victory in the life of a believer. If you would say to me that Romans 8 is the greatest chapter in the Bible, the GOAT, I wouldn’t argue with you. It has to be if not the greatest, certainly one of the greatest chapters in all the Bible. One writer said about Romans, “If the Word of God were a ring, Romans would be the precious stone and Romans 8 would be the sparkling point of the jewel.”

You have to keep in mind that we are in a particular section of Romans. The theme for Romans 6, 7, and 8 is sanctification. Sanctification is a progressive growth in righteousness. It is us daily becoming more and more of what God has saved us to be. Sanctification is how to live the Christian life.

Romans 6 gives us the ideal Christian life. It shows us what the Christian life is intended to be. The key phrase there is “freed from sin.” Not that we may not sin or that we do not sin, but as believers we do not have to sin. Provision has been made whereby we can have victory over sin. The three key words of Romans 6 are these: Know that we are identified with Jesus. Reckon, that is, live on that basis, and then daily Yield ourselves unto God. So Romans 6 shows us the Christian life as it is meant to be lived.

When we come to Romans 7, we see that Christians too often live a life of struggle, a life of constant failure. A life of failing to be what God intends for us to be as believers.

Then we step into Romans 8, and we find victory in the Spirit-filled life. We find victory in sanctification, allowing God to work in and through our lives to make us everything He wants us to be.

When you look at these first four verses of Romans 8 you will find that you are in some ways on familiar ground. You will find that really the truths here are not new truths. I have a feeling that most of us know more about the Christian life than we really practice.

Mark Twain, who was not a believer, made a statement one time. He said, “It’s not the things in the Bible I do not understand that trouble me; it’s the things in the Bible I do understand that trouble me.” Most of us know more in the Bible than we practice in our daily life. When we read Romans 8:14, we find that basically Paul has already dealt with these truths in the early chapters of the book of Romans.

We are going to learn how to go from misery to victory. Look back at chapter 7 and the great climax Paul comes to in verse 24 when he says, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Notice he didn’t say what shall deliver me; he said who shall deliver me. He understood that victory in the Christian life is to be found in a person. He says in verse 25, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

I. We Are To Reckon On Our Positions As Christians

In Romans 8:1, we are reminded here that we must remember our position as Christians. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Notice that little phrase, “in Christ Jesus.” Remember that we are located spiritually in Jesus Christ. This is Paul’s favorite phrase in the New Testament. Many times when he was writing letters to individual churches he would use this little phrase.

In Ephesians 1:1 he says, “to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” Ephesus was their geographical location. In Christ Jesus was their spiritual location. Before we are saved the Bible locates us. The Bible tells us where we are spiritually before we come to Jesus.

We are told that before we are saved we are in Adam. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “as in Adam all die.” That’s our old nature. That’s what we were before we came to Christ, “in Adam.” That’s where we get our old fallen nature. The Bible also says that we were in sins. In Ephesians 2:1 we read, “You hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

Before we were saved, we were in Adam, spiritually. We were in sin, spiritually. That’s a dangerous place to be—in sin. Jesus said in John 8, three times, you shall die in your sins. Whatever you do, don’t die in your sins. Don’t die outside of Jesus Christ. Before we were saved, we were in Adam. We were in sin. Before we were saved, we were also in the flesh. In Romans 8:8, we read, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” That’s our spiritual location before we come to the Lord Jesus.

But when you receive Jesus as your personal Savior, now you are located in Christ Jesus. If you are in Christ Jesus, you are also in the Spirit. In Romans 8:9, we read, “But you are not in the flesh.” That is, you are not lost if you’ve come to Christ, but in the Spirit. You have a brand-new spiritual location. Keep in mind we are talking about our position in Jesus. We are not talking about our performance.

Suppose I asked a person, “What kind of business are you in?” The person answered, “I am in the airline business.” I would probably say, “That’s wonderful. I hope you are doing good.” When the person says they are in the airline business, they are not telling me a thing in the world about how they are doing. It tells me about their position, but it doesn’t tell me about their performance. So when the Bible says we are in Christ Jesus, Paul just wants us to remember our position as Christians. Notice that location determines protection. Verse 1, “therefore there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” That is, no judgment, no punishment.

This is a wonderful thing about our protection in Jesus Christ. There is no condemnation. One of the things that happens as we try to live the Christian life and experience struggle and defeat is that the devil rushes in and tries to fill our hearts with a sense of condemnation. The devil tries to condemn us for our failures. But the Bible says we are not condemned. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That means that when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and are located spiritually in Him, that means that you will never be punished for your sins. Your punishment for sin has already been poured out on Jesus Christ.

Look at the last part of Romans 8:3, “Jesus for sin condemned sin in the flesh.” That means as a born-again believer in Jesus Christ all of the holy wrath of God upon sin, all of the punishment that our sins justly deserve, was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ and we are not going to be punished for them.

Are you in Christ Jesus? If you are in Christ Jesus then the Bible says there is therefore now condemnation. You may say you are struggling as a Christian. That’s alright—NOW there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. My judgment is behind me as a believer.

In John 5:24 we read, “Verily, verily (very important), I say unto you, he that heareth my word (the Gospel), and believes on Him that sent me (that is, receive it by faith), has everlasting life (you are saved), and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

Our judgment is behind us! Two thousand years behind us. God judged our sin in the person of His own Son, Jesus Christ, at Calvary’s cross. If you have never been saved, your judgment is ahead. The Bible says there is going to come a judgment in the future.

When Paul preached that sermon to Felix in the book of Acts, he preached righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. The Bible says in John 3:18 that judgment is ahead for the unsaved. We read, Jesus said, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Verse 36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” If you are lost, you are condemned. If you are lost, judgment is ahead of you. But if you come to Christ and receive Jesus as your personal Savior, you are now as to your position located in Jesus, and location guarantees protection. We need to remember this phenomenal truth when we struggle in the Christian life.

II. We Are To Rely On Our Power As Christians

There is now available to us, as a saved person, a brand-new power in our life. In Romans 8:2, there is a contrast between two laws, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Do you see those two laws there? There is the law of sin and death. In every one of us there is present the law of sin and death. That’s why we struggle at times. We’ve already been told about that law.

In Romans 7:21, Paul is talking about the struggle he is experiencing that we also experience. He says, “I find a law.” In other words, he says there is a principle, there is a power, “I find a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Paul is saying, “I want to do what is right, and yet I find a law. It is a principle that causes me to want to do right.” In Romans 7:22, Paul says, “I delight after the law of God after the inward man—my new nature. But I see another law in my members—warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.”

That old law of sin is in every one of us. Every time you want to do what’s right, that old law of sin rears its ugly head. Every time you make up your mind you want to live a victorious Christian life, the old law of sin sticks up its ugly head. Paul says in Romans 7:23 that this law brings us into captivity. It wars against us. The old law is there all the time in every one of us.

I want to show you something. Paul called it the law not only of sin, but the law of sin and death. He’s talking about the fact that the law of sin has a downward pull. The law of sin always brings us down to death. We find in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.” Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; for that all have sinned.”

Sin always leads to death. You let sin get into a Sunday school class and it will kill that Sunday school class. You let sin get into a home and sooner or later, it is wrecked and ruined. Sin kills everything it touches. We have that power of the law of sin and death, and it’s pulling us downward.

Next, Paul states there is another power operating in the life of a Christian. He says the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. He is saying there is a new superior, more powerful law available to me as a Christian.

This is the huge difference between being saved and being lost. If you are lost, then you don’t have any choice in the matter. If you are lost, you are totally helpless in the presence of the law of sin and death. But when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, there comes a power surging into your life which did not exist before. It is the very power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The same power that raised Jesus from the tomb is now present in your life as a believer. It is a superior power.

You have the Holy Spirit in you, so you are not captive to the law of sin and death in that you do not have a choice. You can now choose to yield yourself to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and that’s the law that sets you free as a believer.

III. We Need To Remember Our Potential As Christians

In Romans 8:3-4, we read, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.” We are moving to our potential as Christians. How to go from misery to victory. Paul’s talking in particular about the Old Testament law—the Ten Commandments, the moral requirements of God. Yet the Bible teaches that nobody can be saved by keeping the law because we can’t keep the law. He tells us here what the law cannot do.

What can the law do? The law is a mirror. You get up in the morning and you look at yourself in the mirror. The mirror can show you your condition and show you where the repairs need to be made. All the law can do and all that mirror can do is show you your condition; it can’t do anything about your condition. The mirror can’t shave you. The mirror can’t apply the makeup. All the mirror can do is show you your condition. All the law can do is show you your condition.

Paul says what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. The law can tell you where you stand but it can’t do anything about it in that it is weak through the flesh. The problem is not in it, the problem is in us. Our flesh. The problem is not in the law of God. The problem is in you and me. We don’t have the power to be what we ought to be. The weakness of the law.

Now, the work of the lawgiver, verse 3, “God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh (not in sinful flesh), and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. There’s His incarnation and His substitution. Jesus Christ came and lived an absolutely holy life in the flesh, in the likeness of man. He was without sin, tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He fulfilled perfectly all of the righteous requirements God had placed in the law. Then He went to the cross, and as a sin offering for sin, He bore all of our sins on the cross of Calvary. That’s the work of the lawgiver.

When we couldn’t do it, God sent His Son to do it in our place. That’s good news. The law of the law keeper. Verse 4, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled (this is the key) in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” In verse 3 we learn what Christ has done for us. In verse 4 we learn what the Holy Spirit does in us. God has given you the Holy Spirit. The moment you received Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in your heart. The Spirit does in you what God expects of you.

Victory is not found in struggling to be what we ought to be in our own energies and in our own efforts. Victory is found in the indwelling Spirit who does in us what God expects of us. You have a choice. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who are in the flesh, and those who are in the Spirit (Romans 8:8-9).

Paul graphically displays the struggle that goes on in the life of Christians between their new nature and old nature. Between the Spirit and the flesh. Galatians 5:16-17, “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit.” The old nature lusts against the new nature; the Spirit against the flesh.

You have two natures working in you. You have a choice. You can choose to walk according to the dictates of that old nature—your flesh—or you can choose to walk according to the dictates of the new nature—the Spirit.

It’s like if a scientist could graft a butterfly and a spider. Wouldn’t you have a struggle going on? That butterfly would be constantly pulling toward heaven. The spider would be constantly pulling toward earth. The butterfly would be aspiring to fly to the clean air and the glories. The spider would be constantly striving to fall to the damp, dark recesses of the dirt. That is exactly what’s going on in us—the Spirit and the flesh. The old nature, the flesh.

How do you know which one is winning the battle? In Galatians 5:19, Paul writes, “the works of the flesh are manifest.” Read that list, and if that’s characteristic of you, then that’s who is winning. But if the Spirit of God is winning, in Galatians 5:22 we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit.” Then it lists the nine graces of the Spirit. Verse 25, “If we live in the Spirit (we are saved), let us also walk in the Spirit.” The key to going from misery to victory in the life of a Christian is walking according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit.

How do you walk in the Spirit? Walking in the Spirit is a definite, daily decision you make as a believer. I would encourage you to have a daily quiet time. If you aren’t reading God’s Word and praying on a daily basis, you are not walking in the Spirit. You don’t even know which direction the Holy Spirit is going if you don’t read His Word. You can’t walk after someone if you aren’t following where they are leading.

I can’t live the Christian life. I’ve tried it and I can’t do it. I must have the Holy Spirit working in my life for me to be able to walk in the Spirit. Romans 8:14 says, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” You walk after the Spirit as you are led by the Holy Spirit.

It’s the difference between the automobile and the trolley. An automobile is powered by gasoline and a trolley by electricity. You put gallons of gas in your tank, and according to how much gas mileage you get, it will take you so many miles. Then if you aren’t careful, you’ll run out of gas. If you run out of gas, that old automobile is out of power. But a trolley is different. It’s attached to a power line. As long as that trolley stays attached to the power line, it just keeps on running because it is connected to the power all the time.

A lot of Christians try to live the Christian life like an automobile. They try to do it in their own gasoline and along the way they run out of gas. You need to plug into the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay in touch with the power supply and walk in the Spirit every day. This is the difference between misery and victory.