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The Spirit of Life, Adoption, and Glory (Romans 8:1-30)

by | Sep 22, 2015 | 2015 Sermons, Romans and Mission, SERMONS

romans8.1-30-thespiritoflifeadoptionandglory.m4a

I remember reading Romans 7 as a child and thinking that it sounds a lot like my own experience. I would take delight in God’s law in my inner being but then find myself doing what I hated. I did not understand my own actions for I did not do what I wanted to do. It was as if my hands were waging war against my mind. And if I’m honest, I would have to say that this hasn’t changed. It is not as if I want to go around celebrating sin and rejoicing in what is wrong. No, I still delight in the law of God. Yet my sin keeps using that law to put me to death. Forget what you may have read in some modern commentary saying Romans 7 is not about normal Christian experience. Hand a few verses from that chapter to anyone who believes in Christ and they will want to know when you read their diary. Or try preaching one of the theories in a modern commentary about the chapter and the believers in the pews will be wondering, ‘If that is true, then why does Romans 7 sound like my own present experience?’ Every believer knows that struggle because we continue to live in the old age. Then again, it is not our only experience as we will see. A reading from Romans, chapter eight, verses one through thirty.

 

Romans 8:1-30 

 

  1. Romans 7 is not our only experience as believers in Jesus during this life because the Holy Spirit also empowers the gospel of Romans 8.

    1. The Holy Spirit empowers the word of God – both the law and the gospel. The Spirit ministers the law to us in order to kill the old person. And the Spirit ministers the gospel to us in order to raise the new one. Likewise in the Gospels, the Holy Spirit is said to convict the world in unrighteousness and to witness to Christ. That is not just something that happens once and converts us into a Christian. Instead, this is a description of the Christian life: sin seizes the opportunity to use the law of God ministered by the Spirit to kill us and then the Spirit raises us new using the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Paul says there in Romans 8:13: “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” This is what we call in theology progressive sanctification even though we never progress during this life from being dead to being only alive.

    2. The Christian is at the same time both dead and alive in this life. Martin Luther tried to describe this by saying we are at the same time righteous and sinner. Luther did not mean that we are half righteous and half sinner or part righteous and part sinner. Every Christian is both 100% righteous and 100% sinner. Luther did not mean that we are simultaneously righteous and sinful. They are both nouns. Nor did Luther mean that you can have both identities at the same time. God only sees you as righteous or sinner, not both. What Luther did mean to do was to describe your experience. What you experience as a Christian is both 100% righteous and 100% sinner. In other words, the one who believes in Jesus experiences both Romans 7 and Romans 8 because you are at the same time living both in the old age and the new creation. Otherwise, Paul’s exclamation in Romans 7:24 makes no sense: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Or Romans 8:13 about putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Or Romans 8:23 about groaning inwardly as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. These statements only make sense during this time when we can be both in the old age and—by the Spirit—in the new creation. You are not completely in the old age nor are you fully in the new creation, but you live in this overlap. So you continue to find yourself doing what you didn’t want to do and even what you hate because your experience is what Luther calls sinner or what Paul would call dead but you will also experience assurance from the Holy Spirit because your experience is what Luther would call righteous or Paul would call alive.

  2. Thus the believer can now experience assurance from the Spirit of life, adoption, and glory. Indeed, if you experience your old person being put to death time and again or if you experience any other suffering you might benefit from some divine assurance. The Spirit of life, as Paul calls the Holy Spirit in Rom 8:2, gives that assurance. After all, this letter to the Christians in Rome is meant to show that anyone who is righteous-by-faith will live. Romans 7 should not be the only thing you experience as someone who is righteous-by-faith-in-Jesus. Likewise, the Spirit of adoption, as Paul calls the Holy Spirit in Rom 8:15, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and thus we will inherit the promises. Moreover, the Spirit of glory as we read in Rom 8:26 helps us in our weaknesses for while we do not know how to pray that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words according to the will of God. We who have the first fruits of the Spirit can experience such divine assurances. We can experience these blessings from the Spirit while we live today both in the old age and in the new creation and take this good news of life, adoption, and glory to the ends of the earth. The good news is: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). And again, “the one who is righteous-by-faith will live” (Rom 1:17). Praise God. Amen.