Romans 8:9-11Christians are not in the flesh but on the contrary we are free from it. “Carnal Christian” is an oxymoron. Scripture says there will be tares in among the wheat but the tares are not “Carnal Wheat” because they are not wheat. Paul makes it clear that someone who is saved is not in the flesh any longer. You can’t be in the flesh and saved and your body is being given life in a new way by the power of the Holy Spirit who now lives in you. So you can’t be like you were before. You are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone. Does that make sense to you? A living faith necessarily produces works. You are not saved by works. They contribute absolutely no merit toward your right standing before God. But don’t ever forget that faith without works is dead and you are saved by a living faith that gives life and leads you to act out your faith. So you judge yourself. The Church has a discipline responsibility for those within the Church but we can’t see hearts and tell is someone is in the Spirit or in the Flesh. We look for fruit and hope for fruit in ourselves and others but when it comes to salvation you obey Scripture and:
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.
“make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pe 1:5).”
When we see someone in persistent sin who claims to be a Christian we are either looking at a child headed for discipline or a person who never possessed saving faith. We can’t tell. The longer they run without correction from God the more likely they were never saved but we can’t tell and we don’t really need to. We are required to address the sin and remove it from the Church for the health of the Church. We can’t act like a brother’s sin doesn’t matter to us in our walk with God because it does but we need to treat the person with dignity and concern.
Romans 8:12-17Our lifestyle must change as we yield to the Holy Spirit. The struggle we find in our flesh is a spiritual struggle as we learn to let the Holy Spirit dominate and rule in our lives. It strikes me as odd that almost every departure I’ve heard of from the Gospel taught in the New Testament so clearly in Romans involves a move into a spirit of slavery and fear in order to control human behavior. But we are now children of God and we have that new birth in our hearts that connects us to God by means of the Holy Spirit and we inherit all that God has for us as we enter the struggle to obey and live before God in our Sanctification. When we as obedient children pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, “Our Father, who art in heaven” then it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we pray “Our Father” in humility and thankfulness.
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 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.
Romans 8:18-25We really need to guard our hearts against whining about the struggle to put to death the sin nature that we find within us. As Christians we struggle in our lives (as Chapter 7 makes clear) to live according to the Spirit and to stop living according to the flesh. We need to realize that if we make a realistic contrast of the struggles we have in this life with what will be ours someday we really should certainly be able to patiently run the race we find ourselves in. In some sense, all of creation is waiting for us to be revealed (as God intends us to be and His intent will be accomplished) and we also groan inwardly until the redemption of our bodies is complete. We sometimes lose sight of the hope that we had when we were saved. God has promised to complete the work that He began in us and that is our hope. Once again we don’t want to leave our minds in the struggle described in Romans Chapter 7 without moving on to the tremendous blessings and promises of Chapter 8.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to 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 firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for 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.
Romans 8:26-30Most of us will admit that on occasion we are hard pressed to put up with our own failure in spiritual things. God knows our weakness and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God. One of the beautiful aspects of these verses is the unity of the Trinity in our threefold salvation. The Holy Spirit is interceding (so that we may be saved day by day); God the Father working everything according to His purpose (so that we may be saved someday and live in Glory), and the Son who died for us that He might be the firstborn among many brothers (so that we are saved and justified by His work on the Cross). Then we have a golden chain of predestination, calling, justification, and glorification and that chain forged by God isn’t subject to breaking or even modification by anything or anyone. It is most certainly not subject to modification by the accuser who is the enemy of my soul.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:31-34What can we say about these things? If we meditate on our salvation and get rational about our situation we should naturally have a great assurance of salvation. Romans Chapter 8 starts with the statement “There is therefore now no condemnation” and we see clearly why there is none. It is because God who could justly accuse us has justified us. Christ could condemn us but He is at the right hand of God interceding for us. I think these verses are one of the main reasons I love this chapter. There is such finality with regard to my justification here. I can rest in my relationship with God and not fear losing it. It is also why all I can do is shake my head in disbelief at an organization that would teach that a sin might kill the grace in me and then I’d need to go earn merit to get right with God again. There is nothing about a salvation that comes and goes in this Gospel. The Gospel is all about God’s ability and not about my ability. I was saved, I’m being saved, and I’ll be saved in Heaven someday. In each case it is God who saved me, is keeping me saved, and who will raise me up in the last days. It is all God and not me. The evangelicals who abandon the P in TULIP as a means to scare people into holiness are in error. I can understand that as a man who is acquainted with sin I can understand why you might think that you could manipulate human behavior with fear of losing salvation. Many don’t even stress the glory of this doctrine because they think it might result in more sin. So would you assume that God would thank you for altering the Gospel to do him a favor? As Paul says to the Galatians, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Romans 8:35-39Here is a wonderful and beautiful affirmation the doctrine known as the “preservation of the saints”, “perseverance of the saints”, “eternal security”, and “once saved always saved.” God tells us this so that we will know that we are His and kept by Him. This causes an attitude of worship in my heart. It is a source of awe at God’s patience and sovereign Grace in my life.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“ For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
I think some reject this doctrine out of fear. You can’t reject the Gospel because it is too good. And I’ve also seen those who were supposed to reject the doctrine of the preservation of the saints (because of denominational affiliation) cling to this doctrine in times of trial.
Considering the basis of the “love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” we have to praise God along with Paul and leave the question as a purely rhetorical question with the obvious answer that, with all the glory going to God, I’m sitting in the palm of God’s hand and nothing can remove me from that place.
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