Life–Freedom from Death
Romans 8:1-17

Some time ago a man in Kansas was released from prison after investigation had shown that he was innocent. He attempted to return to his old life in his home community, but people would not accept him although he was innocent. His wife soon despaired of the situation and she left him. Without a job, without being able to be accepted the man’s life was miserable.

Our Scripture involves a different story than that of the Kansas man. In his innocence he was condemned, in our case before God we are guilty and are declared innocent, forgiven.

Note our leading verse, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” What does this mean? Condemnation frequently means that of criticism, but here it means that there is no punishment following the sentencing. We have been guilty and are declared to be so by the Law, but because of God’s act in Christ, there is no punishment, or penal servitude. There is no reason to go on living in the prison house of sin from which we have been liberated in Christ.

This verse relates to our standing concerning the past, the present, and the future. A Christian can never say that since I am in Christ, I can forget about trying to fight sin. We must stand on these verses that in Christ there is no condemnation.

Some people who do not understand this live in fear of dropping dead without having their latest sins confessed. Sin must always be confessed for it relates to fellowship. Let’s take the case of a couple, the man forgets his wife’s birthday, and to add to the problem he agreed to substituted for somebody on the bowling team. The wife may get hurt and angry with himself and her and storms out of the house. They are still married, but there is a broken relationship that needs to be repaired. The husband has to confess his neglect and be reconciled to his wife.

Now when you sin, you are not torn out of the body of Christ, but there is a problem in your fellowship. If you had died after you stormed out of the house, your obituary would not have said, Joe Doe, once married to Jane Doe, but rather, Joe Doe, the husband of Jane, died..... Likewise, the Christ, there is no separation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Escape from condemnation is in reference to only one type of person...the one who is in Christ Jesus. To be in Christ means to be in an intimate relation with Him. The Gospel of John speaks of a vine and branch relationship. The life of the branch goes directly to the trunk of the vine where it receives its life-sustaining food. The Christian is linked in a similar manner when he gives him self to God. He becomes ingrafted –like a branch–into the life-giving relationship in Christ.

There is no condemnation in Christ because:

I. The Requirements of the law have been met. V. 4

A wrong but familiar way of looking at these verses is to reason something like this. The law sets forth God’s demands of us and only if they are met in every point can we stand as righteous before God, but no one can by nature fulfill the requirements of the law that way. The weakness of the flesh makes that impossible for him, but in this situation God comes to him with help. He give him Christ and He gives him the Spirit. Thereby he receives the ability which he formerly lacked. Now, by the strength that God has given him, he can fulfill the requirements of the law. Thus righteousness is finally attained. The relation between the law and the gospel is sometimes understood this way, that the law is the goal and the gospel is the means of fulfilling that goal.

The view above is wrong for two reasons: (1) Before we ever heard of the gospel, we became dead in sin. The law cannot resurrect a dead person. We died in sin, and we died in another way. We died in Christ, when he died. (2) Paul is not saying that the Gospel’s mission is to enable the believer to bring about his own salvation through the law.

What was the purpose of the law? The purpose of the law (chapter 7) was to give life although sin used it and brough6t death. (7:8,7:12) The law could not give life, but Christ came and brought life to dead people. V.3. God has done what the law could not do–give life. Hence the deepest purpose of the law has been met.

Since I am a dead man in relation to the law, the law does not prohibit a resurrection from taking place. God has done this for me in Christ. Having been raised in Christ from being spiritually dead, I am now alive in Christ. The newness of life is enhanced by the Spirit of God that dwells within me.

To run and work the law commands
Yet give me neither feet or hands’
But better news the Gospel brings
Ita bids me fly, and gives me wings.

One of the laws of dynamics states that no machine can give out more power than it receives. The same holds true for Christians. We can produce no more righteousness than is received. The point here is that God has fulfilled the just requirements of the law in us in Christ Jesus.

II. The Spirit of God dwells in us. V. 9

God gives his Spirit to those who are sons of the covenant. There is the remarkable fact of the Christian faith. Only Christ offers the Spirit who enables us to live the Christian life. Three alternatives are seen by Paul: (1) Legalism–trying to fulfill the law although one does not wish inwardly to do it. Grudgingly one goes through life obeying in a rebellious way. This is self-condemning. (2) a life of impulse, yielding yourself to selfish, carnal and your unconverted nature, impulsively one may give vent to greed, anger, immorality and all that attracts the eye. (3) In contrast to these, there is the alternative of living in the Spirit, which is a life of freedom from statutes and impulsiveness. The life of the Spirit is a highway above all others.

How shall God condemn what he has made new? V. 33, If God is the final judge and he has declared us forgiven and accepted, who is left to condemn us? Who is left that counts?

Handley Page, celebrated aviator, says his most thrilling experienced happened in a flight over Arabia. He was in the middle of a long flight. Many hours would elapse before he could make safe landing. To his horror, he heard a rat gnawing behind him. As he sat at the controls he speculated on all the damage that rodent could do to the plane by gnawing the insulation off the electric wires. A crash might easily result. What could he do? He could not leave the controls and deal with the rat. “Suddenly,” he says, “it occurred to me that a rat is made for low altitudes.” He pushed the plane skyward to an altitude at which the rarified atmosphere made it difficult to breathe. The gnawing grew fainter and fainter, and finally stopped altogether. When Page reached his destination he examined the plane and found the rat dead.

We can let the Spirit of God lift us to higher spiritual levels and live on a higher plane. Many of the failures that spoil our Christian experience would come to an end, like the rat in the plane. Sin within us is made for low spiritual altitudes. We are called to rise to higher levels.

III. We have received Sonship in Christ V. 14

A son or daughter is placed in a special place of privileges. Sometimes people say, “We know what God is like because we have experienced a loving father.” This is true only if you have a loving father. We ought to say, “we know what a father is like because we have known God as Father.” God has adopted us. We were sons of disobedience, alienated from him, worthy of condemnation. In Christ we are adopted to be his sons, fellow heirs of Christ.

Son ship is related to heir ship. No longer must we regard ourselves as spiritual paupers. We become heirs in Christ. The term “adoption” may seem artificially in our ears, but in the first century an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate; he was no bit inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of nature, and might well enjoy the father’s affection more fully and reproduce the father’s character more worthily.”

What does this say about your spiritual experience? Are you living in spiritual poverty not knowing any better or not willing to enjoy the treasures that are yours. In 1951 the 50th anniversary of Harvard 01 class met for reunion. The classmates of Henry C. Smith felt it necessary to pay his fare and to provide him with a bath, a shave, and some decent clothing. He told them that he had retired, and that his private affairs would not interest them. As a matter of fact, he was a scavenger, prowling New York ever night and picking up odds and ends to sell as junk. During the day he slept on a rusty bed, with no mattress, in a junk-filled house where he cooked over “canned heat” and used kerosene lamps. After his death his safe deposit boxes in various banks were opened. Know what he left? Everything! The boxes contained securities valued at $400,000. (Lots of money then)
Many Christians resembled Mr. Smith. They live as spiritual paupers–married by fear, fretting, and smallness of vision. You would never know, to watch them, that they were children of the King.
A Christian has a glorious heritage. Being a son of God is a high privilege. The glory of God is going to be revealed in us and this should fill our hearts with joy and praise. A child looks forward to the inheritance. We can because we are his children.

Conclusion

Escape from condemnation sounds great, and it is, but life in the Spirit, bearing the name of Christ, is not without its problems. We may have to suffer. V.17. We may be called to suffer persecution for his name’s sake. But it is with Him that we do it, not alone. Because he is alive, we suffer together.

With Him, we confess a Living Christ. The Saviour gave his life that we might have an abundant life. John 10:10, “I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly?