Good to see you. Wow. It’s cold. Get your Bible and let’s go to Romans eight. There that was my introductory statement. Huh? Isn’t that great? How about a hand for the guys that took care of our parking lot over-? Yeah, yeah, no small feat to get that done. We’re very grateful for Nick and the gang knocking that out. Doing something a little bit different here this morning. Normally, we do what you would probably call a biblical message or a sermon, depending on what your background is. This is a little different. This is actually part of what goes into the preparation of a biblical message, which is it’s called an exposition, or the expositional part of sermon prep or Bible study, and I want to demonstrate it to you simply because walking through it will help you get an understanding of what it’s actually about, and it will expose you to these three vital verses in Romans eight that we’re going to look at. And so, the title of this message is “Exposition Of Romans 8:1-3” (Romans 8:1-3) because I had to give it a title. Now we’re going to walk through these three verses, but what we’re going to do is we’re going to pull out specific phrases. Sometimes you can do words, sometimes you can do themes, sometimes you can do phrases. In this sense, we’re going to do phrases, and we’re going to understand what those phrases say, what they mean by what they say, and how they apply to our lives in light of the finished work of Jesus, and you say, “Well, that’s what we always do.” But this is going to be a little bit different, because this is a skill that’s learned, but necessary for every growing, maturing disciple. In fact, this will start to inform you the more you learn to do your own exposition, the more when you read your Bible, those things that you’ve studied and broken apart will come back together and you’ll read and you’ll find yourself remembering those things. And it enriches your Bible study, your memorization, your meditation and other and so that’s what we’re going to be doing with this. By the way, when we say this word, “exposition”, you probably could tell that this pen doesn’t work, that when we say exposition, the root of that word is what? It’s expose. That’s really what Bible teaching is supposed to be. You’re supposed to be exposed to the Word of God. And in fact, if there’s not exposition involved, even if it’s something that’s thematic, you’re not really getting fed the Word of God. So, the idea is, expose you to the Word of God, and we do that through the analogous nature of Scripture. We don’t just cherry pick a verse but we show how the Bible interacts with itself. We let the Bible teach the Bible, and so that’s the way it’s done properly. You’ll see that happen. But the idea is that the more you’re exposed to the scripture, the more that the scripture, by the work of the Spirit, will work inside of you. I was thinking about this and rolling over it this morning, and I remembered the Chernobyl disaster. If you don’t remember Chernobyl, your music isn’t any good. You’re probably pretty young, but it was a nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl in Russia, and what it resulted in was such high radiation, there was this one blob of radioactive material that all melted together, so it was metal and all different kinds of chemicals. It looked like an elephant’s foot. So they called it “The Elephant’s Foot.” And fun fact, to be exposed to “The Elephant’s Foot.” In other words, to look at it. If you got close enough in that in that chamber and you looked at it, if you looked at it for 300 seconds, you had two days left to live, 300 seconds of exposure. Now I would argue that the Bible is more powerful and more potent than “The Elephant’s Foot,” only for the opposite, it does the good and it works in us. The problem is believers are not exposed to it enough. And so, if you’re getting convicted in this and you’re like, “Maybe I should read my Bible.” Yeah, you should. “Oh, maybe I should memorize.” Yeah, you should. “Maybe I should meditate on the Scripture.” Yeah, you should. “Maybe I should study scripture.” Yeah, you should. And I want to help you with it. I want you to see some of the technique in this. And so, what I’m going to do is
I’m going to bring Romans chapter eight up here on the screen. Let’s do that. Let’s bring that up here. And here we got these three verses, and you’re going to notice that it’s also on the side screens. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to leave our main text up on the side screens throughout this entire time of exposing you to Scripture. And then we’re going to go through some verses that inform some of the statements that are within Romans eight one through three. And so therefore we won’t have to bounce back and forth. And this is a good way for you to do it. Let’s say you have one specific Bible that you have your main text. I’m imagining that you’re using paper Bibles. Okay? Then you have another Bible where you can look for cross references. And then you have a reference called the TSK, TSK, The Treasury Of Scriptural Knowledge. It’s a book. You can go buy it. You can find it online. You can have it in the Bible apps, the TSK. And what the TSK does is it gives you cross references all over the place for every single verse in your Bible. You can look up that verse in the TSK and it will give you cross references. Now it’s not going to give all of them, but it will give you enough cross references to where you can start understanding, “Oh, this is how the Bible teaches the Bible.” It’s like the work’s done for you, and then all of a sudden you start functioning that way more and more. But if you’ve never studied the Bible with a Tsk, I encourage you to do that.
So let’s get to this. Can we understand Romans 8:1-3 from an expositional standpoint? Yes, we can. First. Let’s read through the text, and I’ll mark a few things, just some statements that we’re going to highlight as we go through start verse one. “Therefore there is now (and I know you know this one) no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the Spirit (there’s another statement) of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. (We’re going to look at these texts, okay?). For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh. God did sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin (oops, that’s really that’s low down there. Let’s see up. Don’t want to mark it out) in the flesh.” Those two separate things we want to look at those are the statements. Now there are a total of 11 of those statements. So, I have 11 points. No, I have nine, but they’re quick. Don’t be afraid of nine points. We’re going to look at nine statements. You need to be afraid of a no point message. Believe you me, this has a point. So, when we take these apart and we start at verse one again, let’s just look at verse one here again. “Therefore there is no condemnation.” So, when we see this word “condemnation”, what do we know? What does “condemnation” mean? You probably know this from past messages. Condemnation means eternal, damnatory, separation and punishment. There’s none of that for the believer. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in (the second statement) in Christ Jesus.” See that? And what does that mean? That means you’ve been regenerated by the Spirit. That means you’ve been born again. That means you heard the gospel, you saw that your works could not save you. You were convicted of your sin, and the Holy Spirit raised you from the dead, and you repented of your sin and you believed on your Savior. That’s who’s in Christ Jesus. It doesn’t say, “There’s no condemnation for those who are in Sherman Bible Church.” It says “Christ Jesus.” That’s verse one.
Now we’re going to take the statements from verses two and verse three, and we’re gonna take that in what’s an expositional order. So let’s expose ourself to these.
Here’s the first of the statements,
1. “The Law Of The Spirit Of Life”
So, you’re going to get the title and the references up here, and then we’re going to interact back over here for “The Law Of The Spirit Of Life.” What does “The Law Of The Spirit Of Life” mean? Now, if you’re not careful, it’s easy to read over this, and you might just say, “Oh, let’s just talk about the Holy Spirit.” Well, it’s a little more specific than that, because the law of the Spirit of life, this word “law” in your text, in verse two, it’s “nomas”, it’s translated law, and it’s true, but it’s also translated at times the principle. We’ve covered that in past lessons. Okay, so this could be the principle or the law. It’s knows no time or space or place. It’s, it’s universal. It’s fundamental. Doesn’t matter who you are, where you are or when you are. There’s a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, we want to know what that means, and so what we want to do is we want to incorporate what other parts of the Bible show us what this would mean. What is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? Well, let me read you this, and we’re going to bring up this reference John 6:63 Jesus is speaking, and he says this. He says, “The Spirit (that’s the Holy Spirit) is the one who gives life in a word that is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (look) the flesh.” Here is we’re going to contrast it so we can understand the clarity. “The flesh (that’s the outer man) profits (just a little bit, nope) nothing; the words that I’ve spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is this law. It is the Holy Spirit that gives life. It is the Holy Spirit that raises somebody from the dead. That’s what it’s talking about in verse two of Romans, chapter eight. See, you’re seeing it from a different angle. You getting this? It’s like holding a diamond and turning. It and seeing it, it’s beauty as the light hits various facets. That’s what’s happening. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is a synonymous term with saying that it’s the Spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing. Now that really helps us in Romans eight, because we just came out of Romans seven, figuring out that our flesh still has remnants of sin and it could never save us in the first place. Romans five. Romans, six, right? Tying this all together.
In fact, let’s look at another reference. This is Titus chapter three. You saw this on the baptism video. Right? Happened this morning. Titus 3:5-6. It says this, “He saved us.” You notice it doesn’t say “we saved us or together.” No, no, He did it. Salvation is what we call monergistic. “Mono”, there’s one. “GISTIC” that is one actor. Mon-ergo, one actor. Moneristic, okay? God saved us. “He saved us, not by works which we had done in righteousness.” Why? Because we don’t have any righteousness. Our righteousness, Bible says is as filthy rags. “He saved us not by works that we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.” And how did He do it? “Through the washing of regeneration and renewing (there He is) by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Christ Jesus, our Savior.” This is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. So, think about the statement now. Open it up, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” In other words, so the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. That’s where you are in the text. Now, if you’ve never done this before, you might be going, “Oh, man, that seems really complicated.” It’s really not. It’s really not. This is a discipleship skill that you need. “You know feels, it feels like I got to learn a bunch of stuff. Shouldn’t spiritual things just come easy?” No, we’re to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourself. But we’ve got to engage our mind. We’re to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is something that you will learn to do. And, by the way, when you learn to do it, your Bible will not just- you won’t just read it. It will be amplified to you. It’s only turning up the volume and seeing it the way God really intended it. We call it the authorial intent. He saved us, and it’s by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. And so thus we understand what that means for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Here’s the second statement,
2. “Law Of Sin And Death”
Okay, let’s put it all together again, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Now, what is “The Law Of Sin And Death”? “The Law Of Sin And Death” is very simple, it is what the law does to someone when they sin. You know what it does? It condemns them. If you want to know where the most succinct verse in your Bible is that would tell you what the law of sin and death is the most succinct verse in men’s theology. We call it a flag. I’ll show you a flag. A flag versus simple this, it’s if you go to that verse, and you go to your TSK, you’ll find every other cross reference, and then when you go to the cross references, they’ll have cross references. And you can let the whole analogous nature of the Scripture speak into this. In fact, you could spend a good 10 hours on this way more than that, actually, and that’d be on your electronic devices. Ten hours would equal probably about two and a half weeks of study, if you were to do it on paper. And so, with the law of the Spirit, or rather, “For the law of the Spirit of Life of Christ Jesus set you free from the law of sin and death.” So, what the Holy Spirit has done has freed you from the law of sin and death. Here’s the flag, verse Ezekiel 18:4. Ezekiel 18:4, God says this, “Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the Father, as well as the soul of the son (and here’s the statement) the soul who sins will die.” That is the law of sin and death. You see? That’s it. That’s what he’s referring to. And in Paul’s mind, as a genius rabbi who was actually a Pharisee, he was thinking of verses like Ezekiel chapter 18, when he writes that out, yes, the Holy Spirit was breathing it out through him, but he was using, still, the intellectual tool of a human being to write sacred, perfect scripture. And so that’s what it’s talking about. Now think about it, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” In other words, the Spirit brings you to life in regeneration. It “Set you free from the law of sin and death.” And what is that? The soul who sins will surely die. Now, why is that good news? Well, because the Bible is very clear, “All have sinned, fallen short of the glory of God.”
In fact, look at Romans 6:23a, we went over this about 16 years ago. It says, what? “For the wages (the payment, the payment of) sin is death.” That’s what it is. Okay, let’s put the whole thing together. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Why? “For” (there’s that word) “for” verse two, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” This no longer applies to you. You say, “Well, what happened to the consequence of my sin?” If you’re in Christ, it went on Jesus. And if you’re in Christ, His righteousness went on you. That’s called expiation and imputation. Your sin was expiated and put on another, and His righteousness was given to you and imputed to your account so that when God looks at you, He doesn’t see the sin. He sees Jesus, He sees a righteousness that’s foreign to you. Now this is incredibly good news. I have a hard time doing exposition and maintaining composure. What do I mean by that? I’m about to freak out and get charismatic. No, but my heart gets stirred. There’s doxology without keyboards playing, and nothing wrong with keyboards. Without guitars, nothing wrong with that. Without lights or smoke or motion or people. There is a wealth of doxology that comes up just by digging down a little bit into theology to understand. This is who He is. This is what He did. Law of sin and death.
Here’s number three,
3. “Law Could Not Do”
Again, let’s put it back together. We’ll just keep going back and forth. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do.” Well, what is it that the law could not do? Well there’s a myriad of things that the law could not do. Let me give you just a little list. I know you won’t remember all of these but you might get the concept. The law could not justify you. The law could not give you life. The law could not break sin’s power. The law could not save you. It couldn’t sanctify you. It would never be able to empower you for holiness. It would never provide you with fellowship with God. The law couldn’t reconcile you to God. And the law would never remove condemnation. What the law could not do, there were things that the law just simply could not do, because what was the law’s design? The law’s design was to show you your need for the Savior to act like a tutor to a child, to bring you along and say, “Look, here’s the answer, and it’s not of yourself. Your works of righteousness, they’ll never save you. Look to the one whose works are validated by resurrection, and that would be Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be (what?) shut.” Oh, God, I wish it was that way online. The Law of God comes out and everybody just goes, zip it, right? “So that every mouth may be shut and all the world may become accountable to God.” That’s what the law was supposed to do. Show you something you couldn’t argue against. Now many people try, but they’re ultimately going to fail, and then they recognize that, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to answer to God for my life.” “Because (verse 20) “By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes (what?) comes the knowledge of sin.” I’ve told you this, excuse me, I’m allergic to the place God sent me to pastor. Isn’t that awesome? Think about this. I’ve told you this before. I’m going to say it again. The law shows you what’s wrong, but it doesn’t fix it. It shows you that you’re ugly, but it won’t comb your hair. It’s like a mirror. Which of you would ever look in the mirror? You ever smile and you check your teeth, right? You check your teeth and there’s something between your teeth? Well, how many of you would ever think “I’m just gonna break the mirror and then pick up a shard and clean my tooth out?” That’s what the law is not for. This is what the law could not do. It couldn’t save you. It would only show you the bad news. You see the richness of this?
Galatians 3:10 is another cross reference that feeds into that very statement. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse.” Did you know that? Do you know if you try to keep the law for righteousness, you live under a curse no matter how hard you try, no matter how good you think you’re nailing it. If you break one, you broke it all, and you live under a curse, “For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by (watch the words) all things written in the Book of the Law, to do them.’” You can’t just align with them. You can’t just mentally assent to them and affirm them. You got to align yourself perfectly to all of the law, and you have to do it perfectly if you’re going to be justified by law. So, the law simply can’t do that. So, let’s incorporate that look back here for what the law could not do. Law couldn’t do it. God never intended it to. God intended the law to point you to the place where you would have righteousness apart from your works. In fact, this was the mode of the early church, especially in teaching those who thought they could be righteous by the law. Let’s see what Paul says. Look at Acts 13:38-39 speaking to religious men, he says, “Therefore, let it be known to you brothers (that’s brothers of a common descent in Israel) that through him (that’s through Jesus) forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you (now watch the good news) and that in him, everyone who believes is justified (justified from what?) from all things which you could not be justified from through the law of Moses.” It couldn’t do it. “For what the law could not do.” It couldn’t do it. It was not designed to do it. This is exposing yourself to Romans 8:1-3 in the analogous nature of Scripture. This is exposition, and you can do it. You can do it. I don’t remember what movie that was from, but it was funny. Don’t Google it. Let’s look at it again. “What the law could not do (look) weak as it was.” “You mean the law was weak?”
Well, at number four, look through the flesh. This is number four,
4. “Through The Flesh”
The law couldn’t do it, not because the law was deficient, but because the law was weak through the flesh. In other words, through the weakness of your flesh, through the weakness of my flesh, through the weakness of sinful flesh, which is literally everyone who has ever had flesh, or ever will have flesh, except for one perfect Jew, only one. He did go under the law, didn’t He? He sure did. “Through the flesh.” Now, when we say “through the flesh”, Jesus even makes this distinction. Look here in Matthew 26:41 remember, He’s in the garden right before His arrest. He tells the disciples, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing. (He’s speaking to these men who actually are believers, right? The spirit’s willing) but the flesh is weak.” Weak to do what? Weak to keep the Word of God. Weak to keep the Scripture. Weak to do what’s right. Why? Because there remains remnants of sin. We covered this in Romans chapter seven. There’s weakness there, or frailty, or we would say it this way, inability, there’s inability. Now, if you think you’re living a perfect life, that’s only because you’re imperfect and you’re now deceived. You’re not nailing it. Only Jesus nailed it. Okay? So, when we incorporate that understanding, we bring it back over here, “What the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh,” because we were involved in it.
Romans 8:17. Remember this? It says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me (Paul is saying) that is in my flesh, for the willing is present in me.” Where’s that? Spirit. “But the working out of the good is not.” Where’s that? The flesh. Here it is. The willing is in the Spirit working out is not found because there’s a weakness there in the flesh. This is what’s referring to. This is showing us what’s been accomplished on our behalf and what you’ll notice that all the actions that are good God does. Do you know that? Do you know Romans 8:1-3 is not telling you to do anything? Did you know that? You’re told to believe it. But that’s the end of the matter. There’s no imperative in this. It’s not like, “Now get out there and live the gospel” or something like that. You can’t live the gospel. The gospel is good news. You can believe the gospel, and that’s what you’re called to do. That’s what it’s referring to well. So let’s put it together. “What the law could not do.” There was things it couldn’t do. It was weak as it was, because of us, because of our flesh, because the innate nature of sin, God did. And we’re not going to exposit that, because it’s just those two words are clear. But what’s important in that is what he goes on to say, God did.
Here it is number five,
5. “Sending His Own Son”
God did. So, you couldn’t do it. There’s no condemnation. It’s not because you could do it, because you couldn’t do it. The law couldn’t do it because of you, weak as it was, through your flesh. So, what happened? Well, God did it. And how did He do it? Sending His Son. Now you say, “Well, this is so basic Christianity.” I know it is. What’s wrong with that? “This is so John 3:16” as though we’ve transcended John three. Give me a break. We’ve not transcended John three. We’re always going to be in John three, you’re always going to need that understanding. But when God sends His Son, what is He doing? He’s making the provision. Obviously, He’s making the provision to accomplish something that you couldn’t accomplish and I couldn’t accomplish. So, He’s causing it to happen. God did. And when God did it, when God removed the condemnation, He did it by sending His Son. Galatians 4:4-5 says it this way, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son (so He sends Him) born of a woman.” So, He’s actually a human being but He doesn’t have an earthly father. The Spirit conceived Him. God the Father is His Father, but He’s born of woman and but watch this. “He was born under the law.” Are you aware of this? When God sent His Son, Jesus was not born under grace. You know that? There was grace in Jesus, but Jesus was never shown grace. Jesus was under the law. Did you know Jesus was never given mercy? He wasn’t. You know why? He didn’t need it. He never sinned. He was born under the law. Look verse five, “So that He might redeem. (He comes under the law so that He might redeem) those who were under the law, that we might receive (what?) the adoption as sons.” We couldn’t do it. The Law couldn’t do it, even through us because of how weak we were. Let’s put that together. Let’s start from the top. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life (we know what that is) in Christ Jesus.” We know what that is. He set you free from the law of sin and death, so that sins will surely die for what the law could not do, just couldn’t save, couldn’t justify. It still doesn’t do that. Weak as it was. Who’s the problem? The law? No, it’s us. It’s you and me. Weak as it was, through the flesh, God did. How did He do it? Sending His own Son. He sent His Son under the law and not just sending His Son.
But look at number six, sending His own Son and the here’s the statement,
6. “Likeness Of Sinful Flesh
It’s very important that we get this one word when it says, “the likeness of sinful flesh.” That means to a casual observer who did not know Jesus by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, Jesus looked to them like any old normal person, thus they would think He was a sinner. Now I want you think about that. It does not say that He sent His own Son in the likeness of flesh, because that would mean what? That would mean, that He came in something like flesh, but He wasn’t really flesh and blood. That’s called Gnosticism, and that’s a heresy that’s been debunked close to 2000 years ago. No, no. He didn’t come in the likeness of flesh because He came in the flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. In other words, people would look at Him and would regard Him as a sinner. John 9:24, they’re talking to a man who Jesus healed of blindness, right? “Therefore, a second time they (that’s the Pharisees) they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, ‘Give glory to God for we know (look at what they know) we know that this man (that’s Jesus) is a sinner.’” You see that? Why? Why do they think that? Because He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and they’re under the assumption that everybody who is born is a sinner, and they’re right, except for this guy. I mean, what are the odds you got the wrong guy? But He comes in the likeness of sinful flesh, it’s very, very important, but it doesn’t mean that He had sin, but nevertheless, He was put in that group.
Look at Mark 15:27-28 again, we’re just exposing ourselves to the truth, it says. “And they crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left.” You ever heard of guilt by association? Man, this is what it would look like, wouldn’t it? What did he do? I don’t know. When I see the company he keeps. “They crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.” Look at Verse 28 it’s going to quote Isaiah 53, “And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, ‘And He was numbered with transgressors.’” Was He a transgressor? No, He was not. Why would He choose to be numbered with the transgressors? Because He was taking what you deserve. He was taking what I deserve. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set you free from law of sin and death. For what the law could not do (look) weak as it was through the flesh. God did. (How?) Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” In other words, He put Himself in your place. He put Himself in my place. You deserve to hang on the cross. Did you know that? You deserve the curse of someone that hangs on the cross. But what does Jesus do? He put He imposes Himself between you and the judgment you deserve, and says it this way, “I’ll take it. I’ll take it. I come in the flesh. I’m in the likeness of sinful flesh. I don’t have any sin of my own. I’ll bear yours. Thus I’ll die your death and give you My life.” That’s a pretty good deal. “God did He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”
Look at Hebrews 4:15. It says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.” Now I want you to notice it doesn’t say “empathize”. Now, what’s the difference here? Well, the pen doesn’t work. Look at that. I fixed it. I’ve become a technical marvel to these guys out here. Empathy is the is the sense you have with someone that says, I’ve been there, I’ve gone I’ve experienced that. Sympathy is the feeling of compassion towards someone who’s going through something. He’s able to sympathize with our weaknesses, but He doesn’t empathize with them. Why? Because He never felt the weakness of someone who sinned. Husbands never look at your wife while she’s in labor. Don’t ask me how I learned the lesson and say this, “I know how you feel. I mean, when the Cowboys lost that Super Bowl that time, I felt like I was having a baby of grief.” Because when you wake up with a black eye, you’ll realize there’s a reason why you know you can’t empathize, but he can sympathize. Okay, this is very important, fully God, fully man, yet without sin. “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but (look) one who has been looked tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.: He was in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had to be because only a man could atone for man and only God could suffer the wrath of God and survive. He bore our sin on the tree. Back to the text, “Law could not do weak as it was to the flesh. God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin.”
Okay, here’s the next one, number seven,
7. “Offering For Sin”
He’s in the likeness of sinful flesh, and not just to come live as an example. Have you ever heard somebody tell you this? “Well, Jesus, you know, He lived a great life. He was a great teacher. He was a good man.” People say, “I think His principles were good, yeah. Oh man. He got assassinated. They did it.” No, no, no, none of that is truth. Jesus Christ was an offering. He would be offered sent by the Father to offer Himself up, what? As the atonement for those who were weak in their sin, dead in their sin, disabled in their ability to earn righteousness and to ever please God on their own. As an offering for sin. Hebrews 7:26-27 says, “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, (this is Jesus) holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” That’s why He was in the likeness of sinful flesh. But He wasn’t a sinner. “Who does not need daily like the those high priests (the ones in the Levitical code) to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins (that’s what they would do, have to offer for their own sins) and then for the sins of the people. Because He (that’s Jesus) did this once for all (that’s all without distinction not all without exception) He did this once for all when (He did what?) He offered up Himself.” He offered up Himself. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but Jesus was a sin offering. Yes, He was a sacrifice, but He was also a free will offering. He laid His life down willingly the condemnation that you deserve He willingly took. Now, see, the good news starts becoming gooder the closer you look, the more of the text you bring in. We had a couple. This is last year, like forever ago, you remember when it was 2025? We had a couple come here. And maybe you’re still here. I hope you’re still here. I don’t know who you are, by the way, they were leaving. And the friends that invited them said, “Well, what did you think of the service?” And this was their response. “It was a lot of Scripture.” And I think the couple said, “I don’t think you’re going to like it here.” I mean, what’s the downside, guys? This exposure is what will actually change you, not moralistic deism and beatings of guilt. But the Spirit doing the work inside of you, Joy, rooted in love, will change behaviors. It’ll come trust me. It will trust Him. It’ll be the fruit of you abiding in His Word.
Here again, John 10:11. Jesus says this of Himself, “‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life (wow, I am insisting on using this pen. Stop turning yourself off) lays down His life for the (who?) for the sheep.’” Jesus knew who His sheep were. He predestined them from before the foundation of the world. Doesn’t say He lays down His life for His goats. And if that messes with your head a little bit, you’re really struggling. Trust me, you’re going to struggle more when we get to 9, 10, and 11. But go ahead and lean into it. Lean into it. He lays down His life for His sheep. It wasn’t taken from Him. In fact, this is what he says in John 10:17-18. “‘For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it away from Me (no one takes it away from Me) but from Myself I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again, this commandment I received from My Father.’” “No one takes it away from Me.” Why is that so wonderful? Because when He gives the Son, and He gives Him as an offering, listen to me, Jesus wanted to do it. He wanted to do it. I don’t know if sometimes you think of yourself as well. “You know, I may be a Christian, but I’m the booby prize when it comes to what God gets out of me, I’m so sorry, Lord, I’m sorry. I’m not better for You.” You ever felt that? When Jesus died for you, He knew exactly where you would struggle, and He took your condemnation so that you could rest in the security that is in Romans eight, one through three. And you could say this, “Yeah, God did. He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin and as a willing offering.” He knew you from before the foundation of the world, and He knows you in your struggle, and if your heart condemns you, the Bible says very clearly, God is greater than your heart, and God knows all things. He knows there’s no condemnation over you, there’s discipline, but your security is not changing, and what we’re seeing here in chapter eight is the concrete of the rock that sits beneath our feet starts to harden around us, forming the security that we are His, loved from before the foundation of the world, called and chosen by name, paid for in full, called to Him and purchased irresistibly by His grace, brought to Him, though willingly and somehow miraculously, kept even through our stumblings, even against that day, He began it, and He’ll complete it. He’s bringing you to this place. And this is just chapter eight. Let me warn you, when we get to chapter 9, 10, and 11, you see the illustration he uses to prove how secure you are in the promise that He’ll keep His Word. He’s going to use Israel as an illustration when we get there and we’ll go through 9, 10, and 11, so that when you finally come to chapter 12, verse one, and you read the first, the very first imperative, with 11 chapters of indicative. And you read this, “Therefore, by the mercies of God, present your bodies holy and acceptable to God.” It’s your reasonable service of worship. You’ll be able to say this, “Okay, I’ll do it. Jesus paid it, all to Him I owe,” and from a heart that loves Him, that’s a life changed. Everything else is religious occupation, and we’re just not here for that.
Number eight, very important, usually gets read over really fast. “What the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin,”
8. “He Condemned Sin”
He condemned sin. Now, ever since Genesis chapter three, sin has been condemning people through the law. Right? The law is condemning them under guilt, but sin is the cause for that. But Jesus comes, and He comes and condemns sin. I’ll read you this statement, “The law was unable to condemn sin in the sense of delivering a sinner from his sinfulness, as well as from its consequences. The law could only pronounce judgment and inflict penalty, but Jesus dethroned sin from its place of domination, thus rendering sin and ultimately conquered enemy.” He condemned the sin. How did He do it? Hebrews 10:1 says, “For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of the things can never by the same sacrifice which they offer continually, year by year, make perfect those who draw near.” In other words, the Old Covenant couldn’t do it. The old law couldn’t do it. Skip down. You’ll get it. Look at verse four Hebrews 10:4, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to do (what?) to take away sins.” It couldn’t do it. In other words, it couldn’t condemn the sin itself. It couldn’t even wash it forgiven. And then finally, verse 11 Hebrews 10:11, “And every priest stands ministering (these are Old Testament) stands ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.” Sin would never be condemned by them. Jesus had to come, and Jesus had to condemn sin.
And how did He do it? He did it in the flesh. That’s number nine.
9. “In The Flesh”
Look it. You made it. Jesus comes. Look, He’s an offering for sin. He condemns sin in the flesh. Why is this so important? Here’s why, because sin had to be conquered by the one or by the thing, or say it by the race that sin had conquered, it had to be taken back. Sin had won. Would you agree? Yes, in Adam, all die, all sin, therefore all die. I don’t know if you know this, but the human mortality rate, it still hovers right around 100% one of the things you find throughout your Bible. And he died, he died, he died, he died, he died, he died, he died, right? But Jesus comes. He comes fully God and fully human, fully God, fully human. So, He comes in the flesh, not the likeness of flesh, but He condemns sin in the flesh. In other words, He in His flesh. He not His sinful flesh. He didn’t have sinful flesh, but He, as an actual human being, conquered sin. And so, an actual human, a human being, defeated sin, and only a real human in the flesh could be condemned justly, so that He could bear our punishment. Hebrews 2:14-15. “Therefore, since the children (this is a term referring to all mankind here) since the children share in (what?) flesh and blood.” In other words, all of us here, since we’re human, and those of us who God would redeem, ultimately, we all have flesh and blood, since that’s common, “He Himself, likewise, also partook of the same (in other words, He came in the flesh, why did He do it?) that through death He might render powerless Him who had the power of death, that is the devil.” So, He checks that off as He’s conquering, what? Sin, death, hell and the grave. How did He do it? He did it as a human being. We had to have another representative. It had to be a human being. He didn’t just come and condemn sin. Jesus could condemn sin, couldn’t He? He could just say, “Hey, that’s wrong.” But that’s not what He was doing. He was abolishing it. It goes far beyond simply pointing out its error. Look at verse 17 Hebrews 2:17, “Therefore He had to be made like His brothers (see that? like His brothers) in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of people.” He could not be a propitiation if He was not made like His brothers, God had to put the judgment on a human being because human beings were the ones who deserved it. So, when Jesus goes on the cross, He goes as what? He lays His life down willingly a sacrifice for sin, and so He’s put on the tree, and He’s there as a sacrifice. And in that fulfilling what the Old Testament pointed to, God put the sins of His people on the Lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin. And when God the Father, saw the sin on the Lamb, what did He do? His wrath is excited, and He pours out His wrath upon His own Son, “‘My God, my God. Why have You forsaken Me?’” Right? That’s what Jesus cries. He’s pouring it on Him. That is called propitiation. That’s what this word means. It means to bear the wrath and to take away the judgment, to remove the condemnation, because flesh and blood actually went and made atonement for your sin, not just as a sacrifice, but as your propitiation. He didn’t just do a nice deed. He took what you deserve. So important that we get this.
Now with that understanding, let’s read the text again and we’re done. Romans 8:1-3. Now you tell me, do you see it broader? Do you see it a little deeper? Is it a little more elucidated? Is the Holy Spirit opening your eyes? It’s very simple. You’re applying your mind and you’re letting the Scripture teach the Scripture. “There’s therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death, for the law could not do weak as it was to the flesh. God did. Sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.” I can’t read that and not worship. Now, I can read over it and not worship, but I can’t be exposed to it and not worship. Listen to me. if you’re understanding this, you’re understanding and you could begin to learn to expose yourself more to Romans 8:1-3. That’s the prayer that you do that not just that you hear it, but that it goes in the heart. You memorize, you meditate, you regurgitate that in the sense of community, and you go over this and grow in grace and in knowledge.
KEYWORDS
Romans 8:1-3, Condemnation, Sermon, Exposition, Law Of The Spirit, Law Of Sin And Death, Condemnation, Sinful Flesh, Offering For Sin, Propitiation, Holy Spirit, Bible Study, Cross References, Analogous Nature, Spiritual Growth, Doxology, Salvation, Romans, Gospel, Chernobyl Disaster, Elephant’s Foot, TSK, The Treasury Of Scriptural Knowledge, Law, Nomas, Principle, Spirit, Flesh, Cross, Jesus, Shepherd, Monergistic Regeneration, Empathy, Sympathy, Expiation, Imputation, Sin Offering, Free Will Offering, Online Sermon
Speaker
Steve LeBlanc