Features of the Greatest News

In our entrance upon Romans 8,
several weeks ago, we realized that we have come into one of
the greatest chapters in the Bible. I have articulated it
as such, and it’s only fitting that in the greatest treatise
ever written, the book of Romans, and in this, the greatest chapter
of that treatise, Romans 8, It’s only fitting that there should
be a greatest verse, and as I suggested to you, Romans 8.1 is that verse. The theme of chapter 7 had weighed
heavy on the reader. with the results of the work
of the law in our hearts, leaving us with an unmistakable heaviness,
a sense of our own sinfulness, our hopelessness, our wretchedness,
as Paul calls it in verse 24 of chapter 7. And so when we
come into chapter 8, we are filled with more than just a breath
of fresh air. We are overwhelmed and invigorated
by that life-giving declaration of praise that there is therefore
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. As we
suggested last Lord’s Day, that statement itself is superlative. It is the greatest verse in the
Bible, in my opinion. But it’s the greatest because
it’s also comprised by a series of superlative elements. We saw
the greatest conclusion where Paul says, therefore, looking
back on everything that he had said in the first seven chapters,
the greatest change now as opposed to our life without Christ, the
greatest liberation, a liberation from condemnation, the greatest
degree, that there is no condemnation, not even remaining a little bit.
And then finally, the greatest haven, that we are placed in
Jesus Christ. And so combined, those superlative
elements comprise the greatest and most hopeful sentence in
all of Scripture. This is the greatest news that
has ever been uttered in human ears. It’s the gospel. It’s the good news of salvation
through faith in Christ, and it provides an unshakable confidence
for the child of God. What began, as you remember,
as a mere pinprick of hopeful light in Romans 7.25, which overwhelms
all darkness by the light of God’s glory in this single verse. The glories of the gospel now
radiate against that dark backdrop and the impact of the law. Well,
as we saw last week in our very brief overview of Romans chapter
8, Paul outlines here God’s provision for the sinner, what he or she
most needs. What he or she needs as a sinner
is not more law, Not more example, not more instruction, not more
motivation. What the sinner needs most is
divine assistance. And Paul discusses that very
thing here in this chapter. Divine assistance in the life
of the Christian would be the overarching title of this chapter. And all three members of the
deity are here present. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. We saw first that the Christian’s
life is established in Christ Jesus, 8-1 through 11. There
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But the Christian’s life is also
sustained by the Spirit of God. We find that in 8-12 through
27, and we’ll look at that section beginning next two weeks. And
then thirdly, the Christian’s life is ordained by the Heavenly
Father. We know, verse 28 says, that
God causes all things to work together for the good. And so
the conclusion that Paul comes to is if the Christian’s life
is established in Christ, sustained by the Spirit, ordained by the
Heavenly Father, the Christian’s life is absolutely secure. That’s what we find in 8.31-39. Well, Paul here is extolling
the excellencies of God because of his gift of salvation to us
where the sinner is justified simply by means of his or her
faith in Jesus Christ. It’s not by works. And here in
this chapter, he presents the respective roles, as we saw,
of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, effecting, bringing about,
securing the redemption of sinners. There’s a fascinating little
feature in Romans 8, verse 1. We noted last week, I just even
mentioned it, that this one verse is Paul’s conclusion of everything
that he says in the first seven chapters. That’s indicated, as
we saw last week, by the word therefore. Paul’s drawing a conclusion
there. It introduces that concluding
statement. But this verse is also supported
by what follows. in verses two through 11 especially. And that is indicated by the
little word for in verse two. That statement in verse one then,
there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
It’s a very well established statement. The foundation is
laid in the first seven chapters and the support is provided in
the verses that follow. As I’ve already pointed out,
Romans 8-1 introduces Christ’s contribution of divine assistance,
and so that we can focus on His participation only, I want to
just go to the first 11 verses, Romans 8-1 through 11. There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin
and death. 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. in order that the requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who are
according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh,
but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the
spirit. For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset
on the spirit is life and peace, because the mindset on the flesh
is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the
law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who
are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells
in you. But if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ
is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the
Spirit is alive because of righteousness, But 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 indwells you. Incredible section of scripture. As we draw our focus on those
first 11 verses, we look to Christ’s contribution to the salvation
of sinners, and the Christian’s life, again, is established in
Christ Jesus. And we hear of his crucial involvement,
even in that very first verse, Romans 8, no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus. A sinner is saved only because
of his or her union with Christ, only because he or she has been
placed into Christ by the Holy Spirit. Now, last Sunday, we
considered the greatest news, Romans 8.1. This morning, I’d
like to extend that and to look at the features of the greatest
news. And if you want, the features
of the gospel. here in verses two through four.
And Paul, here in these verses, gives us four glorious aspects
of the gospel. Wasting no time, let’s go back
to verse two, and I want to look at the first of these four glorious
aspects of the gospel. The first one is the external,
pardon me, the eternal liberation of the gospel. Verse two, for the law of the
Spirit of Christ in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law
of sin and death. Verse two is a very complex sentence,
giving the unmistakable contrast that is presented there, the
law of the Spirit over against the law of sin and death, and
then together with the numerous descriptives of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus, In a string like that, where do we even begin?
As we noted a moment ago, Paul is providing an explanation for
what he has said in Romans 8-1. That we are no longer under condemnation. Here he tells us why. And we
know that again by that little word, for. These verses really,
all the way down to verse 11, provide the support, the additional
explanation for Paul’s assertion in verse 1. Well, that’s the
function of these verses, but what do they mean? What do verses
2 through 4 mean? And that’s the challenge before
us. A number of questions begin to flood our minds. To what law
is Paul referring? To what spirit is Paul referring? What does he mean by the spirit
of life? And what is the law of sin and
death? And before we plunge into detail,
we should note the basic thought of this sentence, that there
are really basically two laws, one liberating us from the bondage
of the other. The law of the spirit has set
you free from the law of sin and death, whatever that means. It certainly is a hopeful verse.
Freedom, that alone communicates liberation from bondage. And
that’s a good thing. As for Paul’s use of the word
law here, the law of the spirit and the law of sin and death,
it’s important to note that it is not here referring back to
God’s moral law. that he has referred to several
times in this letter. Over and over again, he has talked
about God’s law, God’s moral law, beginning with the Ten Commandments
and everything else. Here, we might think of these
two references to the law as pointing to a ruling principle,
the law in that sense. Now admittedly, that’s more difficult
to apply to the second reference, the law of sin and death. Paul
has told us, after all, in Romans 3 20, that by the works of the
law, the moral law of God, no flesh will be justified. And
again in 415, the law brings about wrath. And then in chapter
7, over and over again, Paul said that his sinful passions,
verse 5, were aroused, stirred by the moral law of God. And then in verse 9, when the
commandment came, sin came alive and I died. All of that is true. But here Paul speaks about the
aftermath. It’s like a live shot reporter
reporting after a disaster. And so the law did it, sin and
death were the result. It’s the aftermath, the controlling
principle of which Paul speaks here. We’ve already seen that
the law, God’s moral law, exposes sin, ultimately condemns sin,
but God’s law does not make us to sin, nor does it kill anyone. Outside of Christ, we were controlled
by the consequences of sin, and those indeed were exposed by
God’s moral law, but it placed us as sinners under the controlling
principle of sin and death. But now, Paul says here, the
Christian is ruled by a completely different principle. Having been
set free by the Holy Spirit, he or she now operates under
a new ruling principle, the law of the Spirit. So that whether
we think of the law of the Spirit or the law of sin and death,
we know that Paul is using this term law generally, not technically. There are two opposing operating
principles, that of the Spirit and that of sin and death. So
then, what do we make of these multiple descriptions that Paul
works into this sentence of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? The Spirit of Life, it seems
very clear, is no other than the life-restoring, eternal life-granting
Holy Spirit Himself. That’s the Spirit. It’s the Spirit
who gives life, Jesus Himself said in John 6.63. The letter,
that is the letter of the law, kills. But the Spirit gives life, 2
Corinthians 3, 6. The Holy Spirit is the one who
stirs the sinner to life through regeneration. The Holy Spirit
is the one who convicts of sin and brings about our repentance. The Holy Spirit is the one who
stirs the convicted sinner to faith in Christ. And as here,
it is the Holy Spirit who sets the sinner free from the law
of sin and death. free from the natural bondage
to sin, free from the curse of the law, free from sin’s guilt
and power. This is an amazing truth, that
God set us free. This divine action, even as we
have seen from this very letter, is the magnificent liberation
that God grants from the grip of sin. It’s the magnificent
truth that Paul speaks of here. Paul speaks of it twice in Romans
6, speaking of an action there that God has already accomplished. Having been freed from sin is
how Paul speaks of it there. Jesus proclaimed this same glorious
spiritual freedom in John 8, 36. If the Son makes you free,
you will be free indeed. This is liberation like no other.
Free from sin’s power, guilt, and penalty. Now, as I said,
I mentioned a moment ago at the outset, verses 12 through 27,
there’s an entire section devoted to divine assistance rendered
by the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is mentioned
10 times here in this section, which is talking about Christ’s
contribution. Among these he is called the
Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead, verses 9 and 11. The Holy Spirit is
so completely and fully woven into the work of redemption that
it is hard to isolate one member of the deity’s work from another. And the sphere in which this
is enjoyed, all of this freedom that we have by means of the
Holy Spirit, Paul says it is in Christ Jesus. And you might ask yourself, where
do we hear about these incredible promises? That the Holy Spirit
frees sinners from sin and death. granting them life in Jesus Christ. What is the vehicle by which
these truths are communicated? The spirit of life in Christ
that sets us free from the law of sin and death. It’s the gospel. This is the message of the gospel.
And so the first glorious aspect of the good news that Paul extols
here in these few verses is the eternal liberation of the gospel. This life that the Spirit provides
is without any doubt eternal life because it stands in contrast
with sin and death. There’s a second glorious aspect
of the gospel, we find it in verse three. Not only the eternal
liberation of the gospel, but secondly, the divine accomplishment
of the gospel. Would you look at verse three,
and I’m gonna jump around a bit, don’t panic, because I’ll come
back to these other verses. Look at verse three, for what
the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God
did. What did he do? Look at the very
end of verse 3. He condemned sin in the flesh. Here in these verses, Paul’s
outlining the features of the gospel. Remember, the greatest
news. And in verse 3, he presents this feature, the divine accomplishment. Throughout this letter so far,
Paul has made it abundantly clear that we, as sinners, cannot save
ourselves. Can’t do it. Our salvation, Paul
exclaims in Romans 3.21, is apart from the law, and by implication,
apart from law-keeping, we can’t do enough or obey enough to secure
our salvation. Can’t do it. Salvation is by
God’s grace alone, through faith alone, we cannot save ourselves. If we are to be saved, we need
divine assistance. And the apostle powerfully asserts
that provision right here. Paul is essentially telling us
how, here in verse 3, or better, by what means God is able to
free sinners from the law of sin and death. And the first
thing that he reiterates here is that our salvation is apart
from the law. This is what Paul says at the
outset of verse three, when he refers to what the law could
not do. The word that Paul uses there
is completely unambiguous. It’s very clear. In fact, it’s
often translated as impossible. It was impossible for the law
to save sinners. It could not do it. Paul’s already
told us in this very letter that the law, God’s moral law, cannot
save us. One of the functions of the law
is to articulate God’s standards of righteousness. And in the
presentation of those standards, we stand exposed to our own inability
to live according to that law. God tells us what the standard
is, but in reconciling that standard, we realize we can’t live according
to it. The law convicts the sinner and
condemns the sinner. The law can expose our sin and
pronounce condemnation, but it is powerless to save us. This
is what Paul detailed at length back in chapter 7, the limits
of the law. Here, likewise, he calls the
law weak. The law could not save sinners,
weak as it was through the flesh. That word is often used to refer
to weakness that is incurred through sickness or disease.
The law, as forceful as it was, lacked the power to save us.
And though Paul concluded that the law is holy and righteous
and good at the end of chapter 7, he knew that it could not
justify us before God. It cannot save us. Couldn’t it absolve us of the
guilt of sin? And in that sense, it was weak,
not because of anything lacking in the words of the law, they’re
very clear, very forceful, but because of the inability of sinful
humans to obey the law, to yield to it for salvation. You see,
if we were to take responsibility for saving ourselves, all that
we as sinful people would need to do is keep God’s holy law
perfectly forever. The inability to do so had nothing
to do with the demands of the law. It had everything to do
with our moral inability, our inclination to sin. Paul refers
to it here as through the flesh. We were born with an inherent
sin nature, and all that the law could do is point out the
ugly truth and condemn us for it. It isn’t the law’s fault. It was our natural inclination
to sin. But what we in our flesh and
the law in its weakness in commanding the flesh could not do, God did. He rendered the ultimate in divine
assistance. Paul says, what the law could
not do, God did. What did he do? And if you glance
at the end of verse three, he condemned sin in the flesh. God
made a pronouncement of condemnation, not just a sentence, but the
execution of that sentence as well. which eliminated sin’s
power over us. Paul’s key point here in verse
three is that this is something that God did. It’s done. He rendered divine assistance. It’s God’s glory alone. That
salvation is and only of God. But how? How is it, that is,
by what means did God condemn sin in the flesh? And that brings
us to point three in our outline. And that point is embedded there
also in verse three. Not only do we see the eternal
liberation of the gospel and the divine accomplishment of
the gospel, but the third glorious aspect of the gospel is the redemptive
sacrifice of the gospel. Would you just glance at verse
three again, and now we’ll pick up those several lines that we
left off earlier. 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. Paul says here in verse three
that God condemned sin in the flesh by his offering of his
own son, the Lord Jesus. In order to make atonement for
sin, to accomplish our redemption, and to secure our salvation,
God had to supply a fitting sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.
The sin was indeed humanity’s, The penalty was also ours, but
the sin was so great that only God could pay it. So he needed
a perfect, sinless, unblemished sacrifice. And the only answer
was his own son, Jesus Christ, who John the Baptist powerfully
introduced as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. The sending of His Son is the
means that God used to provide the necessary spiritual aid for
humanity. That God sent His Son, Jesus
Christ, into the world to become an offering for sin, it’s a truth
so well established that it hardly needs explanation or embellishment. In John’s Gospel, Jesus refers
to the Father who sent me, or more generically, Him referring
to the Father who sent me. He does that 25 times in John’s
Gospel alone. You might remember that short
but very significant parable of the vine grower, remember,
who sent a series of slaves into the vineyard to collect what
was rightfully his. It’s a metaphor of the prophets
that God sent into the world, and ultimately he sent his son,
who suffered the same fate as the prophets. The landowner says,
I will send my beloved son. It’s a reference to Christ. And
of course, we could recite John 3 16 without aid, right? For
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal
life. God the Father sent his son. And he did so, as Paul adds here
in Romans 8 3, in the likeness of sinful flesh. We need to be
clear about this phrase. When Paul speaks of likeness
here, the likeness of sinful flesh, he isn’t for a moment
suggesting that Jesus did not actually take on a physical human
body. Nor is Paul saying that the flesh
that Jesus took on was actually sinful, as if he too were just
another sinner. Jesus really and truly took on
human flesh, a human body. It was flesh in the sense that
this body hungered, it ached, it grew tired. It looked and
appeared just like our physical bodies. but his body was only in the
likeness of sinful flesh. Paul says essentially the same
thing in Philippians 2.7, that he emptied himself, taking the
form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. He acquired, did Christ, a new
and different form, but his nature was unchanged. Jesus had the
capacity to be tempted, but he did not have a sin nature that
assured that he would sin. Jesus’ mother was Mary, so he
was fully human, but his father was no other than God, making
him truly and fully God. and as the sin nature passes
through the fathers, Jesus therefore remains sinless as God. All of this, of course, is communicated
to us in the opening chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. You know
this verse. Behold, the virgin will be with
child, she shall bear a son, and they shall call his name
Immanuel, which translated means God with us. And God didn’t just
send his son as some faithful messenger, as some good example. He sent him, Paul makes clear
here, as an offering for sin. That was his mission from the
start. His mission was sacrificial. It was for the atonement for
sin. Matthew recorded of Jesus in
Matthew 20, 28, the son of man did not come to be served, but
to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus Christ
was indeed that good shepherd who laid down his life for the
sheep. And in so doing, the Lord, Isaiah
53 tells us, caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. The
chastening for our well-being fell on Him. So as we saw in our previous
point, God’s accomplishment that He condemned sin in the flesh,
but it was Christ’s flesh. It was Christ’s physical body
atoning for the sin of the world that God condemned. And in doing
so, He rendered sin and death powerless with regard to our
sin and its claims upon us. In our sinful condition, we stood
condemned, but Jesus’ atonement condemned sin. Why would God do all of this? That’s what we come away with
is a sense of being just utterly astounded at what God’s doing.
Paul details the reason for it in verse four. The fourth glorious
aspect of the gospel. What an incredible sentence verse
three is, that the Lord Jesus would come and take on human
flesh and then stand in our stead and bear our guilt and shame
and punishment. Why? Verse four. Four glorious aspects
of the gospel, eternal liberation of the gospel, the divine accomplishment
of the gospel, the redemptive sacrifice of the gospel, and
fourth, the spiritual triumph of the gospel. In order that the requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us. Here in verse four, Paul
sets forth the definitive benefit for believers. This is where
it all comes home to us. Here he states the purpose of
what he has said in verse three, God’s accomplishment through
the redemptive sacrifice of his son. And he begins that by saying,
in order that. And that flags God’s purpose. It gives us the why of God condemning
sin and the why of God sending his own son as an offering for
sin. He says that it was in order
that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Well,
that explains everything, doesn’t it? Not yet. We need to understand first what
the requirement of the law is. As we’ve already seen, God’s
law was given in order to declare and advance His righteousness. And He did so for His glory. But we’ve already seen as recently
as verse three that because of the weakness of our flesh, our
sinful nature, we are unable to establish ourselves in that
righteousness. We cannot live according to God’s
standards. Of ourselves, we cannot meet
the impeccable demands of the holy law of God. But Paul isn’t
asking anything of us here. He’s declaring what God has already
accomplished through his son’s sacrifice. He has secured God’s
righteousness by means of his atonement for our sin. He met
the demands of the law. He established the law as good
and righteous and liberating sinners from the dreadful bondage
to sin. so that by faith in Christ’s
finished work of redemption, we are declared righteous. We are justified, thus fulfilling
the requirement of the law. And as Romans 8 is, after all,
still a chapter about sanctification, Paul introduces a metaphor here
that will carry him all the way down through verse 11. The Christian walk. that we walk
about indwelled by the Spirit and we walk in a new and different
way. He says that the Christian, those who have placed their faith
in Christ, do not walk according to the flesh. We don’t live like
we used to live in a sinful manner, but according to the Spirit in
holiness and in righteousness. The Holy Spirit immediately begins
the process of producing those spiritual qualities in the life
of the believer. This is the gospel. These are
the glorious features of the gospel. We are in Christ eternally liberated
by this good news that we enjoy the benefits of God’s divine
accomplishments in the gospel because of the redemptive sacrifice
that he provided, which leads to spiritual triumph. Would you
humble yourself before him? Our merciful God, we thank you. We might be tempted to get forlorn
or hopeless, in that we cannot secure our
own salvation. That is the proud heart of man. And so, Father, we come before
you and rejoice that what the law in our sinful hearts could
not do, you did. You accomplished what we needed
most in providing payment for our sin and redemption that we
might come to you by faith and stand in Christ’s perfect righteousness. Lord, for any of us who have
already come to faith in Christ, we rejoice in what you have provided
in our Savior. We rejoice that you brought us
to the end of ourselves, that we came to the point of realizing
and recognizing that we could not do enough good to earn our
salvation. We had no choice but to look
elsewhere, to yearn for some other way of salvation. And you
provided it in Christ. If there are any here who do
not know the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation is free. It is not
by means of law keeping and good deed doing It is by means of
faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and in
Him alone. Father, we thank you for that
truth. We thank you for the reminder of that truth here in the greatest
chapter of the greatest treatise ever written. We rejoice before
you in Jesus’ name. Amen.