Living by The Power of God’s Spirit
December 10, 2020
Commentary
This chapter explains about the big hand of our heavenly Father when He says, “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (v.1). He does not mean that Christians do not suffer various consequences because of their sin, but they do not suffer condemnation. Paul points out three things the Law cannot do to a Christian:
1. It cannot claim you (v. 2). You now have life in the Spirit, and the Law no longer has any jurisdiction over you.
2. It cannot condemn you (v. 3). The law of double jeopardy states that a man cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Since Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sins, God will not bring you to trial again.
3. It cannot control you (v. 4). The indwelling Holy Spirit is the one who enables you to walk in obedience to God’s will (Philippians 2:13). When D.L. Moody described his conversion experience, he said: “I was in a new world. The next morning the sun shone brighter, and the birds sang sweeter … the trees waved their branches for joy, and all nature was at peace.”
Paul is drawing a contrast between two kinds of life (vv. 5-11). (1) There is the life that is dominated by a sinful human nature, whose focus is self and its own desires. It may be passion-controlled, lust controlled, pride controlled, or ambition controlled. (2) There is a life that is dominated by the Spirit of God. This person has no mind of his own; Christ is his mind. This person has no desires of his own; only the will of God. These two lives are going in opposite directions.
Application
In every perplexing situation I must ask, “What would Jesus want me to do?” When the Holy Spirit points out what is right, I need to do it quickly and eagerly.
Romans 8:1– 11 (NET)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 6 For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. 11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.