Recently I was talking about listening to Sunderland AFC v Newcastle United FC on BBC Radio Newcastle whose approach to broadcasting the match is fascinating. If you are a Newcastle fan you should listen on FM as their commentary is from a NUFC perspective and if you are a Sunderland fan then you are best listening on the MW broadcast for the same reason.
So often in life there are 2 ways of viewing things and the life of the Spirit is no different. But in this case one way is right and the other wrong – rather than just a different perspective. We need to look at things from God’s perspective, not our own.
Through recent discussions with a number of people, I have discovered that people find Romans 8 a difficult, even uncomfortable chapter to read, whilst at the same time being transforming. When God works, it is no surprise we find things challenging.
But God is not asking us to do, or be anything that is impossible. He is more realistic than we know, yet he raises the stakes higher in our lives than we would want to because he doesn’t want us to miss out, he doesn’t want us to be anything less than he wants us to be, and we can be. The righteous will live not by trying hard, or by giving in. ‘The righteous live by faith’ (Romans 1:17). To live a distinctly different life what we need is to trust God, believe him in what he says about us and himself and live with the implications.
Remember, he has a personal stake in growing our walk with him and our experience of living with him. Jesus died and was raised so that we might be the righteousness of God.
Christians are different
Christians seem to be obsessed with trying to show other people that they are normal. Especially amongst students, this pressure is great, who are often wanting to put on events to show that they are normal. ‘Just like everyone else we too can have fun, we enjoy the things that other people enjoy’.
Now of course in a sense that is true, but there is a problem. Christians are not normal. In-fact trying to organize events just to show we are normal just shows that we are not. By having a concern to genuinely engage with those we are different from, what we are actually doing is showing that we are different.
And when it comes to the lives we lead, the same is true.
Question. Do Christians live in a natural or a supernatural way?
In Romans 8:12-13, Paul seems to be saying that the mark of Christian people is that they live differently. They don’t follow their natural (and sinful) urges, rather they turn from them.
Do you remember the contrast between living by the Spirit and living by the sinful nature? Living by the Spirit leads to ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control’ whereas living by the sinful nature lead to ‘sexual immorality, idolatry, jealousy, selfish ambition, rage, anger,’ etc.
The problem is this is hard isn’t it?
Which comes naturally to you – patience or envy?
Self-control or thinking everyone else is wrong?
Which do you feel like you have to work at, and which comes to you easily?
I think, at the very least we would all agree that we don’t have to try to be selfish. But we do have to try to put others first. It is hard, really hard, but Christians are different.
Imagine you have just bought yourself a Sat Nav. You plug it in, put in your destination and the leave following its co-ordinates. After a while you soon find it takes you in unusual directions and before too long you become convinced there is a problem. Your Sat Nav has a virus. Our sinful nature functions something like a faulty Sat Nav with a Virus. It tells us to do what we know isn’t right. But we follow anyway – don’t we…?
In v12-13 we notice 3 things
· ‘…you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.’
Christians are different. We are not the same as we were before we were filled with the Spirit. But that is not what we often feel and the problem is, very often our minds struggle to catch up with the reality.
Just imagine, you have struggled with your attitude towards those who are better off than you all your life. You are plagued by envy.
Over the last few years you have begun to encounter Jesus through a friend, and then through their church. You have done an Alpha course and have come to realize that God loves you, Jesus died for your sin and offers you forgiveness and new life. You gratefully, with real rejoicing accept it and are enjoying the Christian life.
A few months later you are invited to a party at someone’s home. You discover that they drive a flashy car, have a decent, extremely well paid job and enjoy several holidays a year in the Bahamas (you are not sure whether they own the island they stay on, or not!). Does the fact that you are now a Christian mean that you no longer struggle with envy and the jealousy that goes with it? Well, our experience says no.
The problem is, the pattern of sin in my life, developed and honed over many years tells me that I can’t help but be envious. It is in my nature.
But Paul says no. ‘I can’t help it’ is no longer true and is a lie for those filled with the Spirit. Where before I had no choice, now I do. God’s Spirit lives in me. I have ‘no obligation whatsoever to do what my sinful nature urges me to do’.
Sin no longer has any claim on us. We owe it nothing.
It is like the difference between receiving a bill through the post and receiving a call from a cold-caller. When we receive a bill we have to respond – we have an obligation and we owe something. But when we receive a call from a cold caller we have no obligation. In fact something is wrong if we function as though we do! We have no obligation.
Christians are different – and therefore we need to view ourselves differently.
So, what areas of your sinful nature do you still live as though you owe something? Which parts of your nature, when it says ‘jump’, you jump, or when it says ‘take it, it is yours’ you take it? Be real and honest with yourself. And when you have done that, the first thing to do is not to develop a new plan of approach to sort it out. It is to see yourself as different. You don’t have to do what it says. You can live a different life.
But Paul also shows us the flip side of the coin.
· ‘Those who keep following their sinful nature will perish.’
That is what he says and there is no easy, subtle way to put it. In v8 we considered that
‘…those who are still under the control of the sinful nature can never please God.’
This verse is one of those statements that it is easy to try and wriggle out of. It is far too black and white for us to be comfortable with. Of course, we need to understand it fully, but before we delve into its depths we must allow ourselves to be impacted with what it is saying. It is a comment on the seriousness and awfulness of sin. Do you hear its rebuke and challenge? Following our own desires and sinful nature leads to death, because that is what sin does.
Our Sat Nav with a virus leads us to a collapsed bridge and drives us over the edge. It is like being led by the enemy into battle straight into the middle of a minefield. Sin leads us to death!
Does Paul say this as a warning to Christians who are in danger of doing this? Yes and No. It is a comment on the seriousness of sin, certainly. But he is also saying something like this.
If the Spirit of God has given us life, (which he has – v10) we cannot possibly live according to the sinful nature, since that way leads to death! How can we possess new life, and still dabble with death at the same time? They are incompatible – and are evidence of a lack of new life.
But that is not you!
Of course, Christians regretfully sometimes creep back into sin, allowing their sinful nature some breathing space – but they do not ‘keep on following it’. They do what they can to strangle the life out of their sinful nature. The language he uses is that blunt. Christians are instructed to commit murder – of their own sinful nature!
how do you do that?
As we have already said, we must start by knowing we no longer have any obligation to sin. Sin has no hold on us.
Then Paul goes on -
· ‘But if, through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and it’s evil deeds ( or ‘put to death the deeds of the body’) you will live.’ v13
There is a life which leads to death, and there is a death which leads to life. We must ‘put to death’ our sinful nature, which means knowing we have no obligation to it and can say no.
It means knowing we now have life, and those things lead to death.
It means recognizing sin as sin and evil as evil.
It means putting to death every action of ours that is done for a purpose which serves ourselves rather than God and others.
It means radical discipleship – a radical following of God, by the Spirit of life. Martin Lloyd Jones eloquently states that we must ‘pull it out, look at it, denounce it, hate it for what it is; then you have really dealt with it.’
In short it means setting your heart on the things that the Spirit desires that lead to life.
Now this could well provoke 2 questions.
Firstly, we might say ‘Isn’t this all a bit morbid and complicated?’
The words Paul uses are shocking. As I mentioned earlier, he literally says – ‘put to death’ – it is an action we are to take. In one sense it could not be more straightforward. People who have been given life by the Spirit of life will hate what the Spirit of life hates – and he hates nothing more than those things that lead to death. So put to death what leads to death!
The secondly we might say – ‘But this is really hard.’ I’ve been trying to do this, and it is tough stuff!’
Again, as we have said elsewhere – it is an ongoing process. It is the experience of the Christian life. We can do it, and we must. In fact, if we are filled with the Spirit we have an obligation to do it. And we can do it, because we are not alone in doing it. It is done through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, how do we know if we are doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit?
If we are not trying to earn points with God by doing it, but are rather trying to live the life we already have in Christ we don’t need to worry about that one. He just is!
So, what areas do you need to put to death? First we must recognize that we have no obligation to do them, and then we must be radical. Cut them off. I don’t want anyone to miss what God is saying here. The sinful nature, and all its actions lead to one place – death. But the Spirit gives life. So chase after him with all your heart!
In summary, many of us probably feel the tension in own hearts. We are challenged by these words of Paul. We don’t want to live by our sinful natures. We see some successes, and some failures. If that is so, be encouraged. This is the evidence of the Spirit’s work in you. Struggle, frustration, victory and change come when the Spirit of life invades our life and we, with his power start to put to death all that is opposed to him. This is true spirituality.
Let us just reiterate those things.
Struggle, Frustration, Victory and Change are the expected experience of the Christian walk.
So, to be different, radical disciples we need to see ourselves as different.
But how are we different?
Paul goes on to develop one of the most mind blowing doctrines of the New Testament.
Christians are sons of God
‘For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his family – calling him “Abba, Father”. v14-15
Christians are sons not slaves. Paul’s audience knew a lot about slaves. Slaves had no rights, no authority and no dignity. They were owned by their employers and had to do what they were instructed, a little like the relationship between people and their sinful nature – until they are freed by the Spirit of God. So once the Spirit enters a Christian’s life, anyone who has the Spirit of God is no longer a slave (living in fear, or rejection and judgement) but is a son, with all the rights, privileges and heritage that comes with being sons.
In our day and age we struggle with the masculine language of Son-hood – but no other word will do. The word son is the right word because when Paul wrote it was the Sons who were heirs to the inheritance. Whether you are a male or a female – this same language of Sonship applies to you.
We have said we need to see who we are. Well, this is who you are -
You are adopted (you weren’t always like this) into God’s household.
You are not on probation which is dependent upon your performance – you are a son.
You are not on a temporary contract with God, waiting to find out if it will be renewed – you are a son, a permanent member of the family!
God is not standing over you with a stick waiting to wack you when you step out of line. In fact, notice what the mark of being a son is. You call him ‘Abba, Father’ (v15). This is a title of intimacy, and security and relationship. It’s calling him Daddy! We may struggle with the over familiarity of this, but that is what he is saying.
You are not one step down from the real Christians – you are a Son. The Bible even speaks of us as being Christ’s brothers – sharing in all the privileges and rights he has as a Son of God! This is amazing stuff!
Paul goes on to enlarge on the privileges of our Sonship.
· Assurance
Firstly, God is gracious to us. He tells us the truth and expects us to believe it, but he does more than that. He expects us to live not with fear (that is the attitude of the slave) but with the confidence that the Spirit gives us, deep within, that we are God’s children. As we are enabled to call him ‘Abba’, father so he speaks to our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children.
This is a work of God’s Spirit, but it leads to a confidence that many of us need. We need to ask him to work this in us.
· Inheritance (privilege and brothers with Jesus)
Secondly, we become heirs of God. In the Roman world, an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate. In no way was he ever inferior in status to a natural born son. So it is with God’s adopted sons. Of course, God is not going to die and therefore pass on his estate – but he calls us to share in his possessions, status privilege and name – for eternity. He calls us to be brothers with Jesus Christ himself so long as we share in the family business. Christians truly are different people – and this difference will be both in status and in a changed life!
· Share in the family business.
Then Paul closes this section with verses that crack open the door into another great theme of Romans 8, that of suffering. For now the point is clear. Glorification with Jesus Christ – sharing in his inheritance will also mean sharing in his sufferings. If we are God’s sons we must take all that is implied in being Gods sons. Elsewhere (1 Peter) this theme is developed more fully, but entering the family of God means being associated with all that God’s family goes through – joys, sorrows and suffering.
Where do we go from here?
We need to hear God’s commendation that we are his sons. Many of us live, for various reasons (images of our own fathers, self-condemnation because of enduring sin etc) with a picture of God as a man with a stick and a frown. Of course God is beyond compare with any of our Fathers – from the best to the worst, so we must not allow our acceptance by God to be molded by images of our own Fathers. The image of God with a big stick is false. That is the face and image of a slave owner, not a father. But God calls us his children – whom we can call ‘Abba’.
We need to know that if we are to live free of obligation to the sinful nature.
We need this assurance if we are to put to death our sinful nature and be led by the Spirit.
We need to know this if we are not to live in fear but in the radical freedom of tough discipleship.
So let’s ask God, our Abba Father to work this in our hearts.