“Explanation Of Romans 8:4” (Romans 8:4)

A little bit different in the sermon last week and or week four, and in this one, this is going to be something a little bit different in that it’s not really, I wouldn’t even say it’s a sermon. I would call it more of a teaching, something that we need to explore and explain. If we’re going to continue to go through Romans eight, and we are, we’re going to need to deal with a basically a controversy in verse four. And so, the title of this message, if you can call it that is “Explanation Of Romans 8:4” (Romans 8:4). You’re welcome. I didn’t put any work into that at all. You’ll see what the explanation is and why it’s needed here in a moment. But what we’re going to do is present the side of this controversy about what that verse actually means, which we know to be the most historic, dating way back into early church history. And the side that I’m going to present here is the side that I have become convinced of over four decades of reading and studying in Romans. And I share this conviction with a lot of really great theologians. Name a few, John Calvin, John Murray, John Owen, those are the Johns. Charles Hodges, R C Sproul, the Reverend Dr. Jeff Wideman. And if you hold a different idea about verse four, it’s okay. I mean, in the sense that we can be friends, and you’ll find out I was right when you go to heaven, and it’s okay. So, I wouldn’t pick on this if I didn’t need to, but when you see verse four, and some of you already probably already there in your mind, it’s critical, it’s almost, I feel life or death for the key tenant of what’s happening in chapter eight. And if you miss verse four, you’re going to start putting the emphasis where it doesn’t need to go. And that would be on you, that comes later in the book.

So, let’s read to it. Okay? We’re going to go to verse four. We’re going to spend time in verse four, and then I’m going to show you something out of the rest of the context. Romans 8:1-4, I just want you to see the context again, right? Here’s the essence of the context that’s raining down all the way to chapter eight verse 10. “Therefore there is now no condemnation (none, no eternal separation or punishment) for those that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set you free from the law of sin and death.” Been covering this over the past weeks. Verse three covered this two weeks ago, “For what the law could not do, weak as it was, through the flesh (and what’s that referring to? your flesh, my flesh, our own human inability) what the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh (I want you to see this) God did.” We are now in “God did” territory, if you will. We’re talking about what God did. We’re talking about how God did it and what it has affected in our lives. It doesn’t say God did. Now it’s your turn. It just says God did it. “The law could not do weak as it was to the flesh. God did. (How did He do it?) Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.” So, this verse right here, verse three, would be the offering. And this verse right here would be the result of it, the result of what He did. “He condemned sin in the flesh so that (look at the next verse. This is the key. This is the verse we’re going to focus in on) so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Now let me tell you what the critical nature here is. We have to make a determination. There is a choice you have to make. Is this talking about walking in the flesh or walking in the Spirit? Is this talking about two possibilities of what a Christian could do, or is this talking about two separate identities, one unregenerate, the other regenerate, right? One unsaved, the other saved. And what I’m going to show you, from the context and from a detailed study, is that it means the latter, that it’s not talking about the individual Christian, either walking in the flesh or walking in the Spirit. And why this is so important is because if you think that there’s no condemnation, and God did His part, but now, if you don’t do yours, there is condemnation, you have blown up chapter eight, one through 10. You’ve lost the meaning, you’ve lost the plot, you’ve lost the assurance that it was written to give you. If you come to a different conclusion, you can still be a covenant member. You can still even be a leader here. I just wouldn’t want you to disciple me. I’m picking on it because I have a lot of friends that mostly dead, that I love, that I’ll see in heaven, and so they no longer believe what they used to. But we’re going to focus on a phrase and two words in chapter eight, verse four. And what I’m going to do is I want to take a microscope, and we’re going to look close, and then once we look at close, at those three places, at those three things right here in verse four, we’re going to we’re going to come back up to 60,000 feet, and we’re going to examine the overall context. And you determine what you see in it, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see the glorious work of Jesus Christ, and thus give Him glory in His person. That’s the goal of our instruction.

Okay, let’s read it again, because we’re going to leave these on the side for the microscope, right? “For what the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh God did (so there’s the God did context) sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh so that (here are the terms we’re going to cover) so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” We’re going to look at the “righteous requirement of the law.” Where are you? There you are, we’re going to look at the word “fulfilled”, and we’re going to look at the word, “walk”. And out of that, our hope is to discover the authorial intent from the original language, which deviates wildly from what you might be assuming those words in that phrase mean. So, we’re going to do some Greek. I know you’re here for the Greek. It’s great, isn’t it? You’re like, “It’s Greek to me, man, I check out.” Check in and then check it out. The cheesiest thing I’ve ever said in my life. But I’m a true empty nester. Okay so that the righteous requirement of the law, when we see this term “righteous requirement” what are we talking about? What exactly is the “righteous requirement of the law?” Thank you. That’s awesome. In other words, He condemned sin in the flesh. His offering God gave, God gave Him, God did it so that there would be a righteous requirement of the law that would be fulfilled. What is the “righteous requirement of the law?” Let me tell you what it is in one simple word, it is perfection. The “righteous requirement of the law” is perfection to the standard of God’s absolute holiness in perfect love for God and for everybody else. That’s the standard of the righteous requirement of the law. I want to prove this to you in a few places.

Here’s Matthew 22:35-40, “And one of them, a scholar of the law, asked Him (that’s Jesus) a question testing Him, ‘Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?’ And He said to him, (Jesus says to him, He’s going to quote Deuteronomy) ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all (khol in the Hebrew, means totality) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” That means “all” at all times, infinitely past, in the absolute now, in the present and in the infinite future. All. No lapse of love, either with heart, soul or mind. Other places even add strength. It’s the totality of who you ever are or whatever you could do. This is the righteous requirement of the law and it has to be perfect. And He goes on, look at the next two verses. Three verses. He says, “This is the great and foremost commandment, and the second is like it. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Because, by the way, if you’re doing the first one, you’ll naturally do the second one. Then He ends it with this statement on verse 40, “‘On these two commandments hang (what?) the whole Law and the Prophets.’” In other words, the entire Word of God on those two commandments. What is the “righteous requirement of the law?” He offered Jesus as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. He did it by dying. He lived a perfect life and the flesh died for sin and condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. This is the righteous requirement of the law. It had to be perfection.

Earlier in Matthew 5:48 Jesus is laying down the law, actually, in five, six and seven of Matthew, it’s called the Sermon on the Mount. But He’s taking the law and showing them the spirit of it. And He says the same in 4:8 “‘Therefore you are to be (pretty good, no) perfect, (that’s absolute sinless perfection) therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’” You want to go to heaven? There’s the ticket price. You have to be perfect. You cannot have broken one single law. That’s the good news of the gospel. You will never qualify in your own works to get to heaven, you’ve already blown it, even if you only broke one commandment. This is James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps (what?) the whole law (and who would that be? Well, nobody here) yet stumbles (it doesn’t even use the word “hamartia”, which is sin, just an error) stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” Perfection is the righteous requirement of the law. That’s the good news of the gospel. You could never do it but Jesus did. 33 years of perfect law keeping. He never transgressed one time. No sin, not through omission or commission. He perfectly fulfilled the law. Now, again, I want to remind you, in this context, “God did”.

And so, the question we have to answer is this talking about something that we walk out if we walk in the Spirit, or we don’t walk out if we walk in the flesh? Again, what I’m arguing out of the Scripture is this, that this is actually referring to two different kinds of people. This walk is in general terms. I’ll prove it to you in a moment. If these are general terms, and these are actually two identities, and they are taken to understand by the general term “walk”, or to be according to something, or to have a certain mindset, or to be either leading to life or leading to death. And it’s not a variable that buys you no condemnation or earns you condemnation. Very important. If you see this wrong, you’ll wash away one through three, and then if you wash away one through three, whole chapter seven doesn’t make sense. And those of you that have been with us, you know what I mean. Doesn’t make any sense. “Who would deliver me from the body of this death?” He laments at the end of seven. Well, if it’s the case that you have to finish the work, then it would be “I thank God through Christ Jesus and my own effort.” That’s terrible news. No, no, it’s not referring to that. Righteous requirement is perfection.

Let’s cover the second word of the law might be “fulfilled.” “Fulfilled in us.” This is a Greek word. It literally means to make full, to fill up. Shocker. To fill to the full. Now let me say a couple things. The Greek tense and voice is very important. Every Greek verb has what’s called parsings. You can parse it out. It’s going to have a tense, it’s going to have a voice, it’s going to have a gender, it’s going to have a mood. And you understand the complexity of those Greek words when you parse them out. But I did it so you don’t have to, but you can fact check it, and you don’t have to know Greek. You can go look up a Greek grammar. You can fact check and see if these things are so. I’m going to bring a chart up on the on the screen, and you can take your phone out. You can take a picture of it. You can go home and self-study it. I’m telling you be a noble Berean. Check it out. It matters. Now, the tense that this word that this word “fulfilled” is in Romans 8:4, is in the aorist tense, and the error is tense. And the passive voice, aorist tense, passive voice. You say, “What does that mean?” Well, aorist tense. It describes a single and completed act in the past. The passive voice speaks to the fact that the subject receives the action. It’s not something that they do. I’m just simply telling you that this is the Greek. And if we don’t use the tools in eight four, why do we even have them? By with the Holy Spirit have ensured that we had a language way more complicated and richer than our own. That’s why you can’t just say, “Well, you know, I’m just gonna stick to the simple meaning of the text.” Well I am too, but I’m not going to stick to a superficial meaning of the text. I want to know what it actually says in its original autograph. Now we don’t have those but we have what was copied in the language it was written. Therefore, we can exposit that and come to an understanding of it. The fulfillment is performed by God within the believer, not by the believer’s own effort. I want you to notice something. It says, “So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” Not “by us.” Because if he was going to describe whether or not you were able to be in the Spirit or you were stumbling in the flesh, the word wouldn’t be like that. It would not be that verb.

In fact, let me read you, John Calvin, I know you live for this. He wrote it this way. Okay, this is obviously translated. “They who understand that the renewed (that’s the saved people) by the Spirit of Christ fulfill the law introduce a gloss wholly alien to the meaning of Paul. For the faithful (that’s the saved people, right? The regenerate) while they sojourn in this world, they never make such a proficiency. (In other words, they never arrive as to say, look, it’s perfectly fulfilled in me) as that the justification of the law becomes in them full or complete.” And to that, I say, “Amen.” People that don’t study the Word, what they can do is they’ll cross this up with another verse in Romans, and it’s in chapter 13. Now you’re students of the word, and you know what happens in chapter 12. Romans 12:1, you get the very first imperative statement in the book of Romans. You’re not told to do anything in the book of Romans, you’re told one through eleven, you’re told what God has done. And then in chapter 12, you get what? “Therefore, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service of worship for you.” But then in chapter 13, because 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, those are all imperatives based upon all this, now live like this, but we’re not there yet. But people will appeal to Romans 13:8. Here we go, and they read this, and they say, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” And people say, “See? That’s what eight four was talking about. Romans 8:4 and Romans 13:8 are analogous to each other. “No, they’re not, because they’re not. And so I know you’re here for the Greek.

Here’s my cool chart that you can buy. It’s suitable for framing. $100 at the connection Central.

We have the verse, we have the Greek word, the tense and the voice. These are the same root, same root, but different tenses, and therefore different meanings. Okay, so when you read Romans 13:8, Peplērōken, Romans 8:4, Plērōthē sounds familiar, doesn’t it like it? Sorry, it sounds similar, doesn’t it? It is similar and it can they can both be, both be translated into “fulfill” or “fulfilled” meant, yeah, either of them, but they carry different meanings based upon what? Based upon the parsing. Here is the tense, when you see Romans 13:8, that love fulfills the law and we are told to do it, this is in the perfect tense, and it indicates a past, completed action, but it has what? Abiding present results. In other words, you’re doing something out of something that was completed long ago, and that would be us walking in love. But it’s a different tense than the aorist tense in our text of Romans 8:4. This is just what aorist is, it focuses on the action as a whole, often indicating a completed event. There’s nothing that it carries an emphasis of it being walked out now, and this is what I would argue, because it’s talking about your identity based upon what? What He did, and that the one that’s regenerate walks in the Spirit, and that the one who’s unregenerate walks in the flesh. And that doesn’t mean you’re always walking perfect, but your Spirit is and that doesn’t mean that everything that the unregenerate does you look at and be able to condemn like, “Oh, I can’t believe that they would do that. How horrible.” But their spirit is dead, and so ultimately, they cannot please God, because without faith, it’s impossible to please Him. This is the difference. But then you look at the voice, and this just lands the plane in Romans 13:8. It’s active voice, and that means the person who loves is the one performing the action of fulfilling the law. That’s what that voice would say. But look, “fulfilled” in Romans 8:4 is passive, as I told you, it means the fulfillment of something God does in the believer through the Spirit. You see the distinction here? Aorist is not I mean rather active and passive are not the same. If I say you’re to be active in this, you would feel like, “Oh, I’m being told to do something.” If I tell you, you’re completely passive in what I’m about to do, you’d be like, “Well, guess I don’t have any responsibility here,” right? It’s your identity. And in that, I would remind you Romans 8:3, “But the law could not do weak as it was to the flesh (who did?) God did.” It doesn’t say, “God and you” it just says, “God,” “God did” it. And I find that to be incredibly good news.

Here’s the next word in chapter four. It is the word, “walk.” Again, “So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Now when you see that that’s so easy, and I understand it’s super easy to look at that and be like, “Oh, it’s talking about me doing things.” Because, again, there’s a verse, and it is Galatians 5:25, and people look at this and they say, “Oh, there it is. That verse in Galatians 5:25 is analogous. In other words, it’s teaching us what a four in Romans is.” No, it’s not. And look at me, here’s why. It’s actually a different word. You say, “Wait, there are different Greek words for walk?” Yeah. And different parsings of the words for “walk”. Confused yet? I hope you’re not. I’m trying to demonstrate to you that the Bible is not trying to say there’s no condemnation as long as you walk in the Spirit perfectly. You’re not gonna. The Bible’s saying you’re gonna walk in the Spirit if you’re His and there is no condemnation on you, doesn’t mean you’re gonna be perfect. That we covered that in chapter seven, didn’t we? Very clear. But what does the verse here say? It’s Galatians 5:25, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in step with the Spirit (or keep in step with the Spirit).” It’s a very good translation of the original Greek term. The problem is it’s not the same thing.

Now it looks like it if you’re misunderstanding the context of Romans eight but I’ve got another chart!

Now on this one, what you’re going to see, we’ve got the verse, we’ve got the Greek root. We’re not parsing this word. I’m just showing you the root. That’s what your Strong’s Concordance will do, by the way. So, if you have a Strong’s Concordance, or you use Strong’s in your Bible study, and you go to eight, four, and then you go to Romans 13:8, and it’s gonna show you the root of the word “fulfilled.” You’re gonna say, “He was wrong. It’s the same word.” No, no. It’s showing you only the root. You have to get the Greek grammar to get the parsing out, and, by the way, you don’t even have to have to know how to parse it. You can read somebody else who did it. There are a lot of great men who gave their life to learning that stuff and so, but these are roots. I wanted to put the roots up here so you’d see these words are not even close. So ,when you see that, then we have literal meaning, figurative use and nuance. And these. I did not these did not originate with me. It’s just the way the Greek language works. So, when you see Galatians 5:25, Stoichōmen, that’s the word. Romans 8:4, Peripatousin. How many of you can acknowledge that’s not the same word? One of these things are not like the other. Okay, that’s enough to get us started in the understanding that the walk may not be talking about what you think it’s talking about. The literal meaning of this word is to march in a line or stand in rows. In other words, to keep in step. It’s very specific. It’s very exacting. Where peripatousin and right here it means to walk around. You ever just walk? I mean, like a wander, almost in general. It’s a walk in general. Now talking about specific actions. The figurative use right here, keeping in step with a standard or following a specific rule, right? Walking by the Spirit. That’d be Galatians 5:25, keep in step with. If you live by the Spirit, keep in step with Him. Walk exactly as He wants you to. That’s ultimately the goal. But look at peripatousin it’s one’s general, what? Lifestyle, habitual conduct or the what? The walk of life. Yeah, it’s an identity. He’s in eight four. He’s not talking about the steps you would take in the Spirit or not. He’s talking about the general. He’s talking about your whole life. In other words, it’s your identity. That’s the walk he’s referring to. And the nuance is this, precise, regulated alignment, yep, Galatians 5:25 versus broad, everyday behavior, ongoing, headlong, unrepentant. That’s what it’s referring to. This starts to illuminate what the Holy Spirit wants to elucidate, right? And your eyes can open. You can go, “Oh, well, what? That makes sense. There’s no condemnation, not because something I did, it’s something God did. How did He do it? He did it through Jesus Christ. Oh, that’s incredible news. And so that the righteous requirement of law might be fulfilled in me. Because I don’t walk according to flesh. I’ve been born again. Now I walk according to Spirit.” You say, “Wow, that’s the verse. But what’s the context?”

Okay, we did the microscope, and now what we’re going to do is we’re going to zoom out and we’re going to start in verse three of Romans eight, and we’re going to go all the way through 10, Romans 8:3-10. And I want you to see the development, at least give it a chance. If those words mean, what those words mean that I showed you, and they do, and it’s in the flow of the context of something God did, not something you did, then you’ll see how it progresses. And these verses, which have been so misunderstood will become crystal clear, and that will sharpen the rest of the way you see eight. You’ll no longer be looking to your behavior to validate the fact that you have no condemnation. You’ll be looking to Jesus Christ, and ultimately, that is the goal. Key question in verse four is walk talking about an action, or do we which we do, or a position we are in? Let’s start in verse three, “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 in the flesh so that the righteous requirement (you know what that is now) of the law might be fulfilled in us (you know what that means) who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Now you may still have questions. You’re like, “What about the walk?” Well, we showed you, it’s a different word, but watch how it develops. Because here’s what you’re going to see, you’re going to see it goes from the term “walk” to just simply according to a certain mindset that leads to either that lives in either death or life and peace. And the relationship that those two identities have with God is where it lands. I said a lot. Let’s look at it.

Look at Verse five, “For those who are according.” Now, I just want you to notice now it just says “are.” Now “are” is replacing the word “walk” because before in the previous verse, in verse four, it says what? “Walk” but now he’s talking about are. “According to the flesh, they set their minds on the things according to the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” And the word “mind” would be implied here. Now people have read this, and they think this, “Well, if I set my mind on the things of the flesh, I’m one way in God’s eyes, but if I set my mind on the things of the Spirit, then I’m another way in God’s eyes” and condemnation becomes kind of grading on a curve. So, if I’m thinking about the Cowboys, which, if you do, you’re in the flesh. So, if I think about something and it’s sinful, or it’s a memory, or it’s unforgiveness, or I have some bitterness, or, you know, I mean sinful anger, or got something, a movie from the mindset of my life before Christ pops in my head. Well, now I’m walking court of the flesh, but if I’m thinking about my D-group and I’m meditating on the sermon and I’m reading the Word, “Oh, now I’m in the Spirit, my mind’s on the Spirit.” Is that what he’s talking about? I’m going to argue, no, not at all. He’s saying this. He’s saying that the unregenerate can only have their mind on the flesh, and that the regenerate can, listen, and it’s going to bother you a minute, can only have the mind of the inner man on the Spirit. Now, we do have a mind, and we have to choose. But he’s not talking about that here. He’s talking about your identity because your spirit does not sin. I don’t know if you know that, but if you are born again, you’re ready to go to heaven right now, the only thing standing in the way is your corrupted body is still in the way. Eventually that gets taken care of, typically thought of as bad news, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Then he keeps going, talking about the mind. Now this will clear it up for you, maybe you’re going, “Yes, you know it says the thought life. I’m wondering what the mind is referring to.” Here, look at the next verse, he’s going to say something else. He says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death.” Now, I have a question for you, Christian, when your mind gets set on something that’s fleshly, that’s even sinful, do you fall over dead? No, you don’t. Spirit doesn’t die. Your Spirit’s been born of God. It cannot sin because it’s been born of God, but you still struggle, just like Romans seven, but it says “The mind set on the flesh is death,” and the difference between that death is watch, “The mind set on the Spirit is (what?) life and peace.” Now people tend to think, “Oh, well, he just means I’m going to experience this newness of life and I’m going to have the peace that passes all understanding that guards my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.” It’s not referring to that. It’s just not because the next we’ll, don’t bring it up yet, the next verse, you’re going to see this. This is describing two different kinds of lives, one that is dead and the other that is alive. And because it’s alive, it has peace with God, because of the finished work of Jesus, that peace is not talking about tranquility on Earth, that peace is talking about peace between you and God.

How do we know? Because when we go to the next verse, we see the contrast the other side of it of the carnal mind. Look at the next verse, verse seven, “Because the mind set on the flesh (again this is an unbeliever is what?) enmity toward God.” In other words, it hates God. It doesn’t want God. It rejects God. It hates His Word. It hates His presence. It rejects His Christ. Doesn’t want His will. It doesn’t want to God over them. That’s the carnal mind. That’s an unsaved person. That’s not a believer. If you’re in Christ, you’re not at enmity with God. The “enmity”, the Bible says the enmity was removed by what Jesus did. He put an end to it. But the carnal mind, it says, “Mind set on the flesh is enmity toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God (and why is that?) for it is not even able to do so.” It will not, because it cannot. If this is describing a believer being carnal, a believer being fleshly, that’s not a believer. This is referring to an unbeliever. So, the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Not according to flesh meaning, why? Because we’ve been regenerated. And now what do we have? We have a mind set on the Spirit. We care about the things of God. Perfectly, consistently in our soul all the time?  No, but your spirit wants what God wants. You’ve been given new affections, new love, new aspirations. You’re headed in a new direction, not perfection, but it’s a different direction. And when you sin, you grieve. You feel the Spirit grieve. You feel the Spirit when it’s quenched. You get convicted. And you want to come and you want to ask for cleansing, and you ask the Lord, “Forgive me based upon the blood.” That’s the life of a disciple. It’s described in 1 John 1:9. This is incredibly good news. These two different minds.

And look at verse eight, then, “And those who are in the flesh are not able (Uh oh) to please God.” Why? Because there’s no faith. They’re dead. They’re dead in their sin. Without faith, it’s impossible to please Him. Because the one who comes to God must what? First believe that He is and then He’s a rewarder of those who seek Him. Not two options. There’s no option B. This is describing someone that is not regenerate. Those who are in the flesh, they cannot please God. If you are born again, you can please God. How can you please God? Because you have faith in His Son who pleased Him fully. And you can even do things that please the Lord. You can order your life. You can order your conversations that please the Lord. You can love others and that pleases the Lord. You can give Him glory and that pleases the Lord, but these people can’t. Why? Because they’re not regenerate. This is who it’s talking about. He goes on in verse nine, he says, “However you (now, who’s he talking to? Talking to church, talking to Christians who are at Rome) however you (yeah) you’re not in the flesh.” Now, just pause right there. Don’t read ahead. Stop reading ahead. Stop! Paul, how do you know I’m not in the flesh? What if I happen to read this while I’m yelling at somebody in traffic, “You idiot, get out of the fast lane ‘however you’re not in the flesh’? That’s not true.” He’s talking about your identification. He’s not talking about your action. He’s talking about your position. “However, you are not in the flesh.” Paul, how do you know that? “But in the Spirit.” See it? That it’s not looking at your walk, your physical walk, it’s talking about your position. “You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed, the Spirit of God dwells in you.” What is that synonymous term for? A Christian. But here’s the other kind of person, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Him.” Do you see it? Those who have the Spirit are the ones who are walking in the Spirit. Those who don’t have the Spirit don’t belong to Him. So where do they walk? They walk in the flesh. What the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His only Son likeness to sinful flesh, and He condemns as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh. Why? Because we have the Holy Spirit. We’re walking according to the Spirit. And if you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you are not a Christian. I remember a charismatic once asked me, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit? Have you received the Holy Spirit?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “When was that?” I said, “It was September 26, 1986.” He says, “Oh, when were you saved?” I said, “September 26, 1986.” Because that’s the deal. And if you don’t get that, you don’t know the rules and stuff. It’s real important that you know this. If you don’t have the Spirit of God, you don’t belong to Jesus Christ. You can have religion all you want to but when the Spirit comes, you are born of the Spirit, not of the flesh. You’re born of the Spirit. You’ve been given a new spirit, a changed heart, and you are a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Already and not yet. Yeah, got it. You still have vestiges of sin in your in your members? Yep, you do. You’re going to struggle until you see the Lord, but you will see the Lord, and you will be changed, because you’ll see Him as He is. So, what about now? Is there no condemnation? Or is there not? There is no condemnation. Because, why? Because this is talking about an identity.

And he ends it with verse 10, “But if Christ is in you (so you see, it’s the identity, not your action) though the body is dead because of sin.” You say, “Wait a minute, my body’s not dead.” Give it time. It’s true, right? The human mortality rate still hovers around 100%. “Though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of (what?) righteousness.” “Righteousness” and not the righteousness that’s fulfilled by you walking correctly. It’s the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus that when He laid His life down for His sheep, He took the sin of His people, He expiated it from our hearts, from our lives, to wash us in His blood. And He bore that sin and suffered the curse, reconciling us, redeeming us, and conquering sin, death, hell, the devil, all of it was taken care of, and we’ve been brought to Him, born anew, and we are His and this is His identity, and there is no condemnation over the person who has the Holy Spirit. There’s discipline because you’re His kid but there’s no condemnation. And the walk of the Spirit is referring to in chapter eight, verse four is talking about an identity, and the walk of the flesh is talking about your identity. You can read that right, and you won’t have to fix anything else in Romans eight, the rest of it will make sense, and the good news stays good.

Let’s see it one last time, Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now (now) no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

KEYWORDS

Gospel, Christian, Romans 8:4, Peplērōken, Plērōthē, Stoichōmen, Peripatousin, Condemnation, Righteous Requirement, Fulfilled, Walk, Law Of Sin, Flesh, Spirit, Identity, Regeneration, Regenerate, Unregenerate, Perfection, Holy, Perfect, Fulfillment, Greek Word, Greek Root, Tense, Literal Meaning, Figurative Use, Nuance, Active Voice, Passive Voice, Aorist, Faith, Hamartia, Holy Spirit, Peace, Enmity, Love, Mind, Faith, Offering, Result, Khol, John Calvin, Righteousness, Audio Sermon, Texas, Grayson County

Speaker

Steve LeBlanc