Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Romans 8 | Date: March 10, 2019 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, please, to Romans Chapter 8. We’re continuing our studies. We’ve been away from it for a while. Studies on the subject of death and afterwards—what the Bible has to say about it. We have been looking now at the subject of the resurrection. We began looking, you remember, just for review, at the nature of humanity: that we are created body and soul, and that the soul is something that exists even after death. And that took us to the study of what is called the intermediate state. What is the condition of the soul after death?

And we saw that for the lost, the lost after death go immediately into punishment. Peter affirms that in many other places as well. And for the redeemed, we enter immediately into the presence of Christ. But we also saw that that experience of the intermediate state is not ultimately what we are looking for. We saw particularly in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that what we are looking for is not to be unclothed, to use Paul’s language there—a bodiless spirit in the presence of Christ, as wonderful as that will be. And the transition is immediate into the presence of Christ. And there is at that point something of a foretaste of the final glory that we will experience.

But as glorious as that will be, that is not our ultimate goal. And what we are looking for is not simply to be in heaven with Christ without our body. Ultimately, what we are looking for is the resurrection and in the eternal state then to be in the presence of Christ and to dwell with him forever, body and soul redeemed. We’ll be exploring that for the next few weeks. We’ll look at the final state then, the final state of both the redeemed and the lost. We have much more to explore in that, but I’ve been taking my time to look at this doctrine of the resurrection to see how it is explored for us or explained for us in the scriptures.

We began with the Old Testament. We saw it anticipated. We saw it was a hope that was alive with the patriarchs. In the book of Genesis, we saw the resurrection hope in the book of Job. We saw the doctrine of the resurrection is something to be sung about in Psalms. We saw the great anticipation of the resurrection in the prophets as well, particularly in Isaiah. And then finally with the great grand statement of it in Daniel chapter 12. We saw it in the New Testament that Paul and Jesus both affirm that their doctrine of the resurrection is grounded in the Old Testament.

Jesus then takes an important step forward and says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And we saw that that means quite a bit more than just he is the one who will raise the dead. He is affirming there that he is the one in whom we will experience resurrection. And we will see that again when we come to 1 Corinthians perhaps next time. Tonight we want to see how Paul treats the doctrine of the resurrection in Romans chapter 8. And I think I’ll take the time to read through the first 25 verses.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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 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. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, what a marvelous topic this is, what a marvelous passage of your word. As we focus on this doctrine of resurrection, we thank you that you have revealed it to us. We ask now that you will give us your spirit to open our minds to understand it well, that we may live more faithfully in hope. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

We are going to focus especially finally on the verses that deal with resurrection, our verses 10 and 11, and then again in verses 18 and following, 18 through 23, where Paul picks it up again. But I think in order to understand it well, we should take time to look at the context to see how he comes about this doctrine.

The Transforming Impact of the Work of Christ in Us by His Spirit

In Romans 8, verses one and following, the Apostle Paul is affirming for us the transforming impact of the work of Christ in us by his spirit. This is a topic he picked up—he began in chapter 6 with that famous question: should we continue to sin that we will have more grace? And his answer to that, of course, is that we are the kind of people who have died to sin. And being in Christ, sin no longer has dominion over us. He set out with a contrast to that in chapter 7, living under the law and under the flesh. We have no victory over sin whatsoever.

But now he picks up in chapter 8, verses 1 and following, to tell us the contrast now. What was not possible in the life of the flesh under the law is now possible and in fact a reality as we live in Christ and in the Spirit. So that, in a nutshell, is what his argument is here in these first few verses. You’ll see that in the first four verses here, that Christ has accomplished for us what the law could not. There is now, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That is, we’re justified, we’re declared righteous, and we have a right standing before God.

But notice how then he unpacks some of the implications of that: “For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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.” That is, Christ has come, he has condemned sin, and what God has promised in the gospel—we’ve seen this here a hundred times over—what God has promised in the gospel is not only a right standing with God, justification, but he has promised transformation as well. Justification and transformation. He has promised not only to make us now legally acceptable and accepted before God, but he has promised to change us.

And that’s what he’s talking about here in these next several verses in chapter 8, verses 2 through 4. God has sent his Son to condemn sin so that now the righteous requirements of the law will be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. So this transformation then, and he picks this up through verse 11, is grounded in the work of Christ and it’s accomplished in us by the Spirit of God who has come to indwell us.

Now a couple of things to point out here before we get to our point and see how he works up to it. Note the close identity here between Christ and his Spirit. There’s a correlation of terminology that works through this whole passage. Let me give you a few examples. Look at verse 9. We have the expression, “in the Spirit.” You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Some of you might have heard, there are some brands of Charismatics and Pentecostals that will ask the question, when they find out that you’re a believer, they will ask you the next question, “Have you received the Spirit?” Now sometimes they will mean have you received the spirit and it’s just that simple—that it is a second work that comes. Often what they mean by that is you receive the spirit, and that means you receive the gift of tongues. But in either case, the answer that you ought to give immediately is, “Well, yes, I’ve received the Spirit.” That’s what it means to be a believer. That’s what it means to be in Christ. And that’s what Paul affirms here in verse 9. You are in the Spirit if the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if the Spirit of God doesn’t dwell in you, you don’t belong to Jesus. So there is no such thing as a believer who does not have the Spirit.

But notice how these two expressions are paralleled. “In the Spirit,” beginning of verse 9, means, at the end of verse 9, belonging to Jesus. To be in the Spirit means to belong to Jesus. Or if you belong to Jesus, that means you have the Spirit or you are in the Spirit. Now what he’s talking about, of course, here is union with Christ. The union that we have with Jesus is cemented, if you will, by the indwelling Spirit; it is by the Spirit of God that we are united to Christ. And that’s why here in verse 9 he’s called the Spirit of Christ as well as the Spirit of God.

But then notice the expressions. Verse 9, “in the Spirit” means the Spirit of God dwells in you. To be in the Spirit means the Spirit of God dwells in you. Two different metaphors. We are in the Spirit, or to say it another way, the Spirit of God indwells us. In the Spirit, or the Spirit of God in you. That is picked up in verse 10. But notice the expression here: “If Christ is in you.” Well, how is Christ in us? Christ is in us by the indwelling Spirit through whom we have union with Christ. So we have these paralleled statements again. There are certainly two different persons of the Trinity in view here, the Spirit and the Son, but we can speak of it as the Spirit in us, or we can speak of it as being in the Spirit, or we can speak of this concept as Christ in us—all of this is referring to the same reality. And then in verse 11, it picks it up again: the spirit dwells in you. Twice over it’s stated in verse 11, the spirit dwells in you.

I should point out there, by the way, if you have an older 1984 edition of the New International Version, you have a small “s” there. That’s the human spirit in view. They’ve corrected that in the later versions. I think the translators did a better job of that. Clearly, it’s the Spirit of God who’s in view here. So we have these expressions that are related. Being in the Spirit means belonging to Christ, means the Spirit of God is in you. It means we are in the Spirit. It means Christ is in you or the Spirit is in you. These expressions are used throughout this passage with the same general meaning involved.

Now, another parallel or contrasting set of expressions in this passage to help us understand it, is these two realms of existence: in the flesh or in the spirit. “In the flesh”—that’s the expression Paul uses for the lost, who are dominated by the flesh, and they don’t have victory over sin. Then, of course, they can’t accomplish it, even though the law comes and commands them better. But because of the weakness of the flesh, the law doesn’t accomplish in them what it commands. In the flesh is living in this domain where the flesh dominates, the natural man dominates.

By contrast, now, being in Christ, we are in the Spirit. And just as in the flesh means this is the realm of existence in which the flesh dominates, so now to be in the spirit is we are now living in this realm where the spirit of God dominates. There is a new controlling factor involved in the experience of every believer. Again, Paul started this in Romans chapter six. Sin no longer has dominion over us. The reason is sin’s grip has been broken. We’re no longer in the flesh. But we’ve been transferred out of that kingdom into the kingdom of Christ, and that means we are now directed by the Spirit of God.

And so you see these contrasting expressions. Verse four: walk according to the flesh, walk according to the Spirit. Verse five: live according to the flesh, or live according to the Spirit. Verse six: set the mind on the flesh, or set the mind on the spirit. And then verses seven and eight, we have a brief statement contrasting these two realms of existence. The mind that’s set on the flesh is hostile to God, because it does not submit to God’s law. And then there’s that interesting addition: “indeed it cannot.” Verse eight: those who are in the flesh cannot please God because they’re in the flesh. This is the realm where the flesh dominates. You, however, verse nine, are not in the flesh, you’re in the spirit. If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, you have this new controlling factor in your experience.

And that, by the way, is what it means in verse 14: “for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Another parallel expression. It means now you are the one, you are one who is dominated by the Spirit of God. A new controlling factor has come into your existence. You’re led by the Spirit. Now for the last hundred years or so in biblical interpretation, this idea of being led by the Spirit has meant something else entirely. It’s meant to mean something like some mysterious guiding of the Spirit. “The Spirit of God led me to write this letter.” “The Spirit of God led me to ask you this,” or whatever. Whatever’s true or not true about all of that, that’s not the meaning of the expression as Paul uses it here. In Romans chapter 8, being led by the Spirit means exactly this: you’re no longer in the flesh where the flesh dominates. You’re in this new realm of existence of freedom from sin. Sin’s grip has been broken because you have a new dominating factor in your life. The Spirit of life has come and he’s brought you to life and you’ve been freed then from sin’s grip.

Now then, in the midst of all of that, we have verses 10 and 11, where he assures us now that this transforming work of the Spirit of Christ in us is complete and thorough. “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.”

Now you’ll notice we have two if-then clauses, one in verse 10 and one in verse 11. “If Christ is in you,” and in verse 11, “if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.” Two if-then clauses. Verse 10: if Christ indwells, even though you are mortal and will die, the spirit of life is nonetheless ours. Verse 11: if the spirit of God indwells you, the spirit of Christ indwells you—that is the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead—so also then God by his spirit will raise us by means of the Spirit of God who raised Jesus. So if Christ indwells, then we have the Spirit of Life. And verse 11, if the Spirit of Life indwells, then we will be raised as well.

In other words, our possession of the Spirit of God—or the Spirit of God indwelling us—the Spirit of Life promises life both now and not yet. There is the spirit of life working in us now. He’s raised us out of our spiritual death and brought us to a new existence where sin no longer dominates. But there’s more to come. He also will work in us such that in time we will be raised from the dead as well, just as he raised Christ from the dead. So our possession of the Spirit is then the promise of the fullness of life in resurrection, both now in a spiritual sense, and then finally body and soul raised with Christ.

Now notice then he says, “the Spirit who raised Jesus,” verse 11, the Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us. Or actually a little more accurately, “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus,” that is God the Father raised Jesus through the agency of the Spirit. And so God the Father will raise us through the agency of the Spirit as well. Now this is an interesting point that we’ll probably pick up later, but just notice it here: the passivity, if we can put it that way, the passivity of Christ in his resurrection. There’s like two dozen passages in the New Testament that speak of Jesus’ resurrection all in the passive voice—that he was raised. He didn’t raise himself. He was raised by God the Father through the agency of the Spirit. A couple of dozen passages that speak of that. God the Father raised Jesus from the dead through the agency of the Spirit.

Now why is that significant? One, there’s a parallel expression: the Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us as well. But I suspect it’s a little bit more than that, and that’s a hint of what we saw back in John chapter 11, where Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life,” that is, in union with him we will be raised from the dead. And so I think what’s happening here is that just as God the Father through the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, so also we will be caught up with him in that resurrection. And that’s exactly Paul’s argument that we’ll find in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

At any rate, the point here in Romans 8 then so far is that the Spirit of Christ has come to transform us. Christ has come and through his work on the cross has condemned sin and the unpacking of that is a personal transformation of life, both now and not yet. Now in that we are freed from sin’s grip and then finally in that we will be raised from the dead as well.

Now, in verses 15 and following that we’ve read, the Spirit is spoken of now in another language, and that is the language of the spirit of sonship. We have not received the spirit of slavery and fear, but we’ve received the spirit of sonship by which we cry, Abba, Father. The idea there is that we’ve been joined to Jesus, who is the Son. And because we are joined to Jesus, the Son of God, we then, in union with Jesus, are sons as well.

Well then he, of course the points in verses 14 and 15 and 16, are the personal entailments of that in this life, that because of our union with Christ, we are sons, and that’s not just an objective truth, but a subjective one. Through the Spirit of God, he has come to make a sense that we are sons, and so we instinctively now cry, Abba, Father. But there’s another unpacking of that, another ramification of all of that, and he picks it up with verse 17: “If we are children,” all right, I’m a son of God by union with Christ. I’m a child of God. “If children, well, then I’m an heir of God.” No, wait. I’m a “fellow heir with Jesus.” I’m joined to Christ, who is the son, because the son inherits. And because Jesus will inherit, and because I am a son of God in union with Jesus, then I will inherit, and I will inherit with Christ. I will be a fellow heir with Jesus.

And he picks that up then in verse 18 and gives us a summary topic statement of what he’s going to deal with in the next verses: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that shall be revealed in us.” Can you imagine it, he said. We are joined to Jesus and because of our union with him, we are sons of God. Because we are sons, we will be heirs of God. We are joint heirs with Jesus. What kind of glory will that be? So he’s kind of scratching his head. What kind of glory will that be that we will experience finally when we inherit all things in Jesus? Well, this transforming work of the Spirit now takes on new dimensions, doesn’t it?

Well, having said that in verse 18, then in verses 19 and following, he gives us some reflections then on the fallenness of the created order. Verse 19: “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Actually, there are three propositions bound up in this. Number one, the created order is caught up in the consequences of human sin. The created order is caught up in the fallenness of mankind. And so not only is mankind fallen, but the whole created order now shares in that fallenness. Of course, that’s pointing us back to Genesis chapter three: Cursed is the ground for your sake and so on.

So number one, the created order is caught up in the consequences of human sin. Number two, the created order will be restored. It’s waiting for it. And number three, the restoration of the created order is tied up with the restoration of humanity. So it’s all bound up together. Mankind has fallen in sin and there’s a consequence. There’s the curse. The whole created order is caught up in that curse. The created order itself is waiting for a release from it, and that release is bound up with the release that will come when the sons of God themselves experience it. That’s verse 19.

Then he unpacks it a little bit further, verse 20: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.” That obviously is referring to the curse in Genesis chapter 3, where God cursed the ground because of Adam’s sin. Verse 21: “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” So the creation itself is in—quite an expression here—bondage to decay, and yet will be set free from it.

Verse 22: “we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” The whole creation groaning. It’s an interesting expression to speak of creation itself groaning as though it’s in pain. I think obviously here what he’s speaking of is the fallenness of the created order and why things at times seem so out of whack: tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes—all of that, the created order out of sorts, reeling, as it were, from the judgment of God that has fallen on the created order because of human sin.

But notice the expression now in verse 22. It’s fallen under the curse, but it’s in the “pains of childbirth.” I’ve never experienced the pains of childbirth, and I don’t mean to minimize it at all, but there is a happy side to the pains of childbirth. And that is, at the far end of it comes the child. And that’s the expression used here: the created order is in the pains of childbirth, waiting to give birth to a better day, a better experience is coming, and that for the whole created order.

And now verse 23, not the created order only, but we ourselves—we are all caught up together in this, in this fallen state. And now then in verse 23, notice how he describes the Christians: “And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit.” Remember I talked earlier about the now and the not yet in this passage, that we will receive the spirit of God who’s given us life already and yet there’s a fullness of it to come. Here he takes the language of the Old Testament, the first fruits: the first gathering of the harvest, the sampling that was brought into the priest to show that this is a sample and a promise of a greater harvest to come.

The possession of the spirit in our existence now and in our experience now is just the first fruits of a final fruit of the Spirit that will come later. There will be—whatever the glory of today’s experience of the Spirit, with its breaking of the grip of sin and the freedom to live unto God, whatever the glory of the experience of the Spirit of God now, in which we cry, Abba, Father, and know God as our Father and Christ as our brother—whatever the glory of being in the Spirit today is, that’s just the first fruits. There’s a greater harvest of it to come and the work of the Spirit will come in its fullness.

And then notice, what is that final fruit of the Spirit? Verse 23 again: “not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons.” That is the full manifestation of our sonship. We wait eagerly for it. What is that? “The redemption of the body.” That is to say, at last all of the effects of sin and all the effects of the curse will not only be gone, but in fact death will have been reversed. The bodies will be redeemed and there will be resurrection to be with Christ. Death itself gone.

And we may be sure of this, he’s telling us, because we’re in Christ. And if we’re in Christ, then we’re heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ in all that he will inherit. And the Spirit of Jesus, who raised Jesus from the dead, indwells us also, and he surely then will raise us to share in his glory. We already have the firstfruits: a new controlling principle of life in which we have freedom from sin and know God as our Father and all of the intimacy that goes with that. But we will in fact finally have the final fruits of the Spirit as well and his work in us will be complete and even raise us from the dead.

That is to say, then, the sufferings of this life will not last forever. I thought of that this evening during the prayer requests. So much suffering that happens, so much that’s going on, what we’ve experienced in our own congregation. There’s coming a day when the hearing loss will be gone and the headaches will be gone and the cancer will be gone. Not only will death be over with, but death will be reversed. And those who have died in Christ will be raised together with him to share in his glory. Amen.

We’ve gone over just a little bit. Let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Boyd, would you pray, please?

Heavenly Father, we are delighted to be those to whom the Spirit has come. We are thrilled at that thought for ourselves, for all of our Christian friends, and the whole of the Christian community. As she waits to come.