Romans chapter 8 is like healing medicine on infected wounds. God’s Word is like a two edged sword that cuts into the deepest parts of our souls and delivers an injection of the gospel that no other source can provide. It’s like a mirror that shows us our imperfections and helps us to reflect on God’s perfection in the cross of Christ. And Romans chapter 8 is like the most precious of all the medicine in God’s Word because it teaches us that there is therefore, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Think about this message that there is no condemnation. No guilt. No shame. No accusation that can stand against us if we are in Christ Jesus. There are so many ways that our old enemy, the devil, speaks words of condemnation over us. He is the enemy of our souls. He is the accuser of the sheep. He is a lion who comes to steal, kill and destroy. He is a liar, the father of lies and there is no truth in him. He is our adversary and he’s not playing for participation trophies. He’s playing for keeps.
He relates to you through your sin, your weakness, your pain, your fear, your guilt and your shame. He identifies you by these things. He doesn’t call you by your real name. He calls out to you through your shortcomings. When he calls out to you he calls you worthless, hopeless, helpless, powerless, dirty and forgotten. Satan is a vicious enemy and his attacks are relentless.
But if you know Jesus, then you know a Savior who is more relentless then your enemy. Jesus never gives up on you and he never leaves your side. Your name has been on your picture in his shirt pocket since before the foundations of the earth were laid. He speaks words of life, freedom, peace and love over you. He restores your soul, he refreshes your spirit, he heals your wounds, he strengthens your heart, he gives you eternal hope, he washes your sins away and he says that you are worth every penny of his life at the cross. Your Savior is more relentless than your enemy.
If you know Jesus, then in Christ, you have a Savior who is relentless in his pursuit of you. He is better at saving than you are at sinning. The only person who has a right to call out to you through your sin and your weakness is God. But in Christ, your Father calls you by your name. You are a son or daughter of the King and he calls you his. You are not an orphan. You are not fatherless. You are wanted and loved. You belong to Jesus. You are no longer condemned. You are free to stand before the throne of God with confidence, not in yourself, but in Christ Jesus who died in your place and overcame Satan, sin and death. Your Savior is more relentless than your enemy.
I don’t know where your heart is at today. But my prayer is that you would hear from your Heavenly Father through Romans chapter 8 today because Romans chapter 8 is like healing medicine on infected wounds. Maybe you came in today wounded and weary and sick. Your family is facing the biggest battle of your life. The sin you’ve been fighting to put to death is overwhelming you. Depression has its claws dug deep inside your heart. Fear is casting its big bad ugly shadow over everything you think and do. You spend your days worrying about what you could have or should have said or done. You feel like you are the problem so why try any more. Sin, guilt, shame and fear have a grip on your soul and it feels like they won’t let go.
If this describes you today, then I pray that you would hear Romans chapter 8 as a massive dose of gospel infused medicine for your soul. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The old you is not the new you. You are no longer a slave. You are a son or daughter of your Father in Heaven. You can now look forward to the hope of Heaven where there will be no more sin, no more tears and no more fear. You can rest right now in the safety of the promise of the gospel that you belong to Jesus and Satan has no claim over you. Your Savior is more relentless than your enemy. The cross is bloody but the tomb is empty!!
With all of this in mind, please hear Romans 8:2 – 4 again. Paul says: 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
There is a law that sets you free and there is a law that keeps you in bondage. God in the flesh has done what no other human could do. He has broken the chains of your sin. He has released you from the prison cell of your flesh and he’s given you his Spirit so that you can walk in freedom. Do you know what it’s like to walk in freedom? Have you tasted the exhilarating experience of your freedom in Christ? Do you know what it’s like to look at Satan, to look at your sin and to look at your eventual death and be completely free from it? Do you know what it’s like to walk in freedom from shame, guilt and fear? Can you look at your enemy, the devil, and say “My Savior is more relentless at loving me than you are at condemning me”?
#1: There Is A Law That Sets You Free (2)
Do you know what it’s like to be free? Have you tasted the freedom you have in Christ? There is a law that sets you free and there is a law that keeps you in chains. Paul says that the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. In other words, there is one law that breaks the power of the law that condemns you. There is one law that sets you free. Free from what you might ask? Free from the law of sin and death.
The law of sin and death simply tells us that we are sinners who deserve to pay the price tag for our sin and that price tag is eternal death. Everyone falls short of the glory of God and the paycheck for sin is death. The law of sin and death will not set you free it will condemn you. The law of sin and death was never meant to show you how you deserve freedom. It was always meant to show you how you deserve to be locked up. It’s hopeless to keep a checklist of laws done right because to fail one point of the law makes you guilty of failing the whole law which leaves you facing the death penalty.
The playing field is level. You cannot compare your sin with other people and get off the hook. You can’t say that you are better today than you were yesterday and therefore you deserve something better. Someone must still pay the price. Someone must serve the court sentence. Every one of us, regardless of good deeds done or small crimes committed, is still responsible for paying the fine. But the fine is heavy because your sin has been committed against a perfectly innocent God. Every one of us is a sin-soaked rebel on death row.
But this is where the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus steps into the courtroom of your condemnation and sets you free. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus reminds us that the Spirit of the living God left the tomb empty on the third day. By the power of the Spirit, Jesus rose from the dead. It is the Spirit of God who comes and breathes life into your dead heart. The Spirit of the living God gives you a brand new heart and he sets you free to love God with your obedience. Once again, your Savior, by his very own Spirit, is better at saving than you are at sinning.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. The only person who gets the credibility for saving us from the law of sin and death, is the resurrected Jesus by the power of his Spirit. Your Savior is more relentless than your enemy. There is one law that breaks the power of the law that condemns you because God has done, in the cross of Christ, what you cannot do.
#2: God Has Done What You Cannot Do (3)
God in the flesh has done what no human could do. He has broken the chains of your sin. He has released you from the prison cell of your flesh. Do you know what it’s like to look at Satan, to look at your sin and to look at your eventual death and be free from it? Do you know what it’s like to look at your enemies, Satan, sin and death, and say: “You may be relentless but my Savior is more relentless than you are”? Paul says that God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. You see, God, in Christ Jesus, has done what you cannot do.
One of my favorite super heroes is the Hulk. The Hulk can do what I cannot do. The Hulk in his superhuman form is nearly invincible. But even the Hulk has a weakness. Apparently the Hulk’s weakness is either his girlfriend or a pack of puppies. The key with the Hulk is that his weakness is found in anything that doesn’t make him angry. So at the end of the day, despite his superhuman strength, the Hulk is still human at his core. So he is limited just like you and I are.
There are many things that I cannot do. I cannot know everything. I cannot be everywhere at once. I cannot be in control of everything. And I do not have the power to achieve any thing I set my little mind to. Don’t hear me wrong, just like the Hulk, there are many great things I can do. But, there are many things I cannot do. And there are many things you cannot do.
And one of the things we cannot do is save ourselves from the penalty of our sin. In our flesh we are weak. Our flesh is actually corrupted by sin. The doctrine of total depravity teaches us that even at our best, our good deeds are still flawed with sinful motives. This is what Paul alludes to when he says that the law (doing what’s right and avoiding doing what’s wrong) is weakened by our flesh. No amount of good things done or bad things avoided will be good enough to save us from the penalty of our smallest sin. Even the smallest amount of cyanide in a soft drink poisons the drink and is deadly to the person who consumes it. The same is true in our flesh. The smallest amount of sin is deadly.
This is what makes the gospel such good news. The gospel teaches us that God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. God, in Christ Jesus, has done what you and I cannot do. Sin must be paid for and it can’t be paid for by anything less than perfect performance. So, Jesus came in the flesh to be our substitute to pay the price for our sin, to set us free from the power of our sin, to cleanse from the stains of our sin and to heal us from the sickness of our sin.
Your Savior is more relentless in saving you than your enemy is in condemning you. Even though you once were condemned by your sin, Jesus came and did what you cannot do. He condemned the very thing that once condemned you. He hung on a cross by three nails. He died in your place. He was laid in the tomb for three days. But on the third day he ran out of that grave with the keys of life in his hand and the victory crown on his head. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
If you’ve trusted in Jesus today then you are free and you can walk in freedom because the Spirit of the living God helps you to run out of your self-made grave and walk in the freedom of the gospel.
#3: The Spirit Of God Helps You To Walk In Freedom (4)
God has given you his Spirit so that you can walk in true freedom. Do you know what it’s like to walk in freedom? Do you know what it’s like to walk, free from guilt, free from sin, free from shame and free from fear? The Spirit of the living God enables us to walk in the power of the cross and the empty tomb. Paul says that Jesus, at the cross, condemned what condemns us, so “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” The Spirit of the living God helps us to walk in freedom.
My life was once so full of sin that all you had to do was spend a few moments with me and it would all spill out onto you. My life, the way that I lived, my walk (to use Paul’s words) was soaked with sin. I was violent, abusive, angry, bitter, selfish, vengeful, lust-filled, greedy, ungrateful, callused, intoxicated, power hungry, controlling, fearful, prideful and a whole junk drawer of other obvious sins. I was known for this. My walk was infected with this.
But then the Spirit of the living God came and rescued me because my Savior is more relentless at saving than I am at sinning or my enemy is at condemning. He saved me. He gave me a new heart. He cleansed me. He restored me. He made me new and he gave me new desires. I’m not perfect yet but the Spirit inside of me is perfecting me a little more and more each and every day. My walk is different now because the Spirit of the living God is helping me to walk in freedom. My Savior is more relentless than my enemy is.
Conclusion…
There is a law that sets you free and there is a law that keeps you in bondage. God in the flesh has done what no other human could do. He has broken the chains of your sin. He has released you from the prison cell of your flesh and he’s given you his Spirit so that you can walk in freedom.
Satan is a vicious enemy and his attacks are relentless. But if you know Jesus, then you know a Savior who is more relentless then our enemy. Jesus never gives up on you and he never leaves your side. Your name has been on your picture in his shirt pocket since before the foundations of the earth were laid. He speaks words of life, freedom, peace and love over you. He restores your soul, he refreshes your spirit, he heals your wounds, he strengthens your heart, he gives you eternal hope, he washes your sins away and he says that you are worth every penny of his life at the cross.
In Christ, you have a Savior who is relentless in his pursuit of you. He is better at saving than you are at sinning. The only person who has a right to call out to you through your sin and your weakness is God in his perfection. But in Christ, your Father calls you by name. You are a son or daughter of the King and he calls you his. You are not an orphan. You are not fatherless. You are wanted and loved. You belong to Jesus. You are no longer condemned. You are free to stand before the throne of God with confidence, not in yourself, but in Christ Jesus who died in your place and overcame Satan, sin and death. Your Savior is more relentless than your enemy.
I don’t know where your heart is at today. But my prayer is that you would hear from your Father in Heaven through Romans chapter 8 because this passage is like healing medicine on infected wounds. The only thing stronger than the cyanide of sin is the truth of the gospel. And Romans chapter 8 is a massive dose of gospel infused medicine for your soul.
The old you is not the new you. You are no longer a slave. You are a son or daughter of your Father in Heaven. You can now look forward to the hope of Heaven where there will be no more sin, no more guilt, no more shame, no more tears and no more fear. You can rest right now in the safety of the promise of the gospel that you belong to Jesus and Satan has no claim over you. You can look Satan, sin and death in the face and you can say: “My Savior is more relentless at saving me than you are at condemning me because the cross is bloody and the tomb is empty!!”There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.