Romans chapter eight, we're gonna
look at something here that was just such a big help to me. I
enjoyed studying this so much. The last time that we were in
Romans, we looked at Romans eight verse one, which says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. When we
looked at that verse, our focus was on no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. This morning, if the Lord is
willing, we're gonna look at the first 14 verses, and our
focus is going to be on this difference in walking after the
flesh and walking after the spirit. walking after the flesh, and
walking after the spirit. I've titled this Bible study,
What is Walking After the Spirit? All right, let's read these 14
verses and see what he has to say about this difference. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That sounds
like a stipulation, doesn't it? Sounds like a condition. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That's that condition again,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Verse five
says, for they that are after the flesh, do mind the things
of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things
of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we
are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, For
if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, if there is a condition
there, it sounds like a condition that we cannot fulfill. Did that
strike anybody as, I can't do that. As I read that, it sounds like
a condemning declaration of very sad news. That sounds like the
sad news. When we read verse six, which
says, to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. And when we read verse eight,
which says, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God. And when we read verse 13, which
says, if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through
the spirit do mortify, that means kill, the deeds of the body,
you shall live." When we read that, the only thing we can think
is, that's all I do. That's all I do. All I do is
live after the flesh, this sinful flesh. And it's true. It's honestly true. Sin is mixed
with everything that I do. When we read verse nine, where
it says, you are not in the flesh. Naturally, if God has revealed
something to us about our true nature, we think, well, he's
not talking to me. He can't be talking to me. I cannot get rid of my flesh. I cannot get away from my flesh. I would love to put away all
of the deeds of my flesh. I really would. I would love
to kill, mortify, do away with all of the sin that I commit
in my flesh, but I just cannot do that. I just can't do that.
Now, is that what Paul is saying right here? Is He saying, if
we will stop sinning, if we will stop walking after the sinful
ways of the flesh, if we will put away all sin and start living
and start walking that sinless life of the Spirit, which is
what people think, if we'll do that, then we can be saved. Is
that what He's saying? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. He just said in Roman seven,
if you look back at Roman seven, verse 14, we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal sold under sin. I'm sold under sin. I'm completely sold to sin. Verse
15, he said, that which I do, I cannot explain it. I don't
know why I do it. I allow not. He said, for what
I would, what I wish I could do, which is stop sinning, live
that good way, walk that good way. He said, I don't do it.
But what I hate, sin. That's what I do. Verse 18, he
said, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I've been looking for
it and I can't find it. For the good that I would, I
don't do it. But the evil, which I wish I
didn't do, that's what I do. Verse 24, he said, Oh, wretched
man that I am. And if people could ever just
get a hold of the fact that Paul never said was, am, am, and people
think, well, yeah, I was, I got to get away from what I was.
Paul said, I am. So walking after the flesh, and
walking after the Spirit is not the difference in sinning and
not sinning. That's not what he's saying right
there. He's not saying if you can stop sinning, you'll be saved. And if you can't stop sinning,
you'll be damned. He's not saying that at all.
All right, what is he saying then? What is walking after the
flesh and walking after the spirit? I'd like for us to read these
verses one more time. And this time we're gonna see
exactly what he is saying, and we're gonna see why he's saying
it. And what this is gonna be, I don't want it to be laborious
at all. I want it to be nothing but a help, but we're gonna have
a word study. This is gonna be a Bible study. All right, I believe this will
make this so clear. Verse 1, he said, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. He's talking about justification
before God. That's the subject of everything
we just read. Everything he's talking about
right here. He's talking about being saved. what actually saves a sinner
as opposed to what does not save a sinner. And he said in verse
one, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus who walk. Now there are some key words
and we're gonna hear the definition of them. And these definitions
will explain the verse. And the first word is walk. The
word walk means live. When you look it up, that's what
it means, live. Those who live, those who've been made alive. He said in verse one, who live,
who walk, who live not after the flesh. The word after, this
is the next word. It means, when you look it up,
it means according to, by way of. Verse one says, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
who live, who've been made alive, not by way of the flesh, but by way of the Spirit. If we can understand what verse
one is saying, we'll understand all of them. If we get verse
one, we'll get them all. As we read the rest of these
verses, let's realize that the flesh means works. The works of the flesh, the deeds
of the flesh, doing, you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do,
the flesh means works. The spirit means grace. The grace, the free gift of God,
totally free grace gift of God. And again, I'll say one more
time, this is all about justification. This is all about being saved.
What actually saves a sinner as opposed to what does not save
a sinner. And this difference that he's
comparing is works and grace. All right, so every time we read
the flesh, we're gonna substitute works. And every time we read
grace, or the spirit, we're gonna substitute grace. All right,
free gift. Here's our words, walk after
the flesh, the spirit. Those are our words. All right,
verse one. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who live, not by way of works,
but by way of grace. Verse two says, for the law of
grace, life in Christ Jesus, by way
of grace, hath made me free from the law of works." Sin and death,
my sinful dead works that Paul just described in chapter seven.
Verse three says, for what the law could not do in that it was
weak through my works. I could not justify me through
my works. I was trying to do what God said
I had to do and I just couldn't do it. Therefore, verse 3, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, He was made
of a woman. He made himself to be under the
law, the same law we were under. And for sin, condemned sin in
his own works. He condemned sin in his own works. Verse four says that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who live, who walk, who
live, have been made alive, not by way of works, but by way of
grace, the free gift of the Spirit of God. Verse five says, for
they that are after the flesh, they that are according to, they
that are by way of works, and there's a lot of them, They that
are by way of works do mind. And I'm gonna give you the definition
of that word. The word mind means they savor. They entertain the
opinion. Think about that one. They entertain
the opinion, this opinion. And aren't you so glad our hope's
not built on an opinion? Aren't you so thankful for that?
We're the only people whose hope is not built on an opinion. Man throws out his opinion and
some entertain their opinion, even though they can't prove
it by the word. They savor, they entertain the
opinion. That word mind means they put
their trust in. Works. Works. Verse 5 says, They that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are
after the Spirit, by way of the Spirit, they that are by way
of grace, they put their trust in the things of grace. They
mind the things of grace. Verse six says, for to be carnally
minded, my center margin says, the minding of the flesh. For
to be works minded is death, but to be grace minded is life
and peace. Verse 7 says, because the carnal
mind, the mind of works, trusting in works, trusting in the flesh's
ability to satisfy God on its own, is enmity against God. That mindset and that belief
is the enemy of God. It goes against everything He's
declared in His Word. Verse 7 says, for it is not subject
to the law of God, the truth of God. Neither indeed can be. So then they that are in works,
seeking salvation in their own works, cannot please God. So many people are in works.
So many people are in works. This is why we preach. So many
people are in works. Doesn't your heart break for
them? Doesn't your heart break for them? They're in works, religion. Works, religion. And they're
never going to please God in that. All of God's people please
God. Where? Verse 1 says, in Christ. In the grace of Christ. Verse
9, it says, but you're not in works. And I can say that with
absolute confidence. in the faith that God has given
to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not in works. Are you
in the flesh? Yes, in the way that... That's
not what he's talking about. You're not in works. He goes on to say, but in grace.
You're in grace. If so be that the grace of God
dwell in you. The gift of His Spirit is the
gift of His grace. Christ in you. That's grace. His Spirit is His grace. Verse
9 goes on to say, Now if any man have not the grace, the gift,
the free gift of Christ, the Spirit of Christ Himself, the
free gift of His body, the free gift of His blood, the free gift
of His Spirit, that man doesn't belong to Christ. He is none
of His. Verse 10 says, and if Christ
be in you, the body, the flesh, your own works are dead. If Christ be in you, your own
fleshly body works, they're all dead because of sin. But the grace, if Christ be in
you, the grace, the gift, His work, is life because of righteousness. He is righteousness. Verse 11
says, But if the Spirit, if the grace, if the gift of the Holy
Spirit, if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken, give life to, make alive your mortal bodies, your
flesh, your works, by His Spirit that dwelleth in
you. What he's saying is, if Christ
dwells in you, He will create good works in you. He will. And it's all because of His Spirit
that dwells in you. It's God which works in us both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. What is His good pleasure? Bow to my Son. Believe on my
Son. Cast it all on my Son. That's
what God's people do and they're so willing to do it. That's Christ
in us. That's God in us. creating that
and doing that. Verse 12, he said, therefore,
brethren, we are debtors, not to works, not at all to works,
to live, to be made alive by way of, that word after means
by way of, works. Verse 13, for if you live By way of works, you shall die. That's where your hope is. You're gonna die. That's where
all your hope of eternal life is before God. You're gonna die. Verse 13 says, but if you through
grace, the free gift of the body and the blood of Christ, if you
through that do mortify, kill, All hope of salvation through
the deeds of your own works. And we have. I mean, we've slayed
our works. I kill my works before God. I mortify anything that I have
done to justify me before God and make me acceptable. I slay
my flesh. Verse 13, if you live after the
flesh, you'll die, but if you through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, the deeds of your own, if you kill that,
you shall live. Verse 14 says, for as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. As
many as are led by the grace of God, they're the sons of God. God the Father purposed grace
for all the elect people of God. God the Son secured grace for
all the elect, redeemed people of God. And God the Spirit is
the one who brings that grace to all of the elect, redeemed,
quickened people of God. What the Apostle Paul is saying
right here is either we're saved by grace or we're not saved at
all. That's what he's saying. That's
what he said, that's what he meant. Now in closing, I'm done.
This is why he said it. It's because verse 3 says, what
the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,
because our works and our deeds could never justify us, never,
never save us. We could not make ourselves acceptable. We could not make ourselves worthy
in God's sight. Because of that, God in His grace,
in His mercy, kindness, His grace, verse 3 says, sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. What that means is He
was made to be true flesh, but He never committed one sin in
that flesh. Not one sin. He made Himself to be a man in
form just like every other man on this earth. Except for the
fact that every other man on this earth was completely ruined
by sin. But not Him. He remained the
spotless, holy, Son of God man. The perfect man. And because
our works of sin ruined us so badly, verse three says, God
sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
if you have a margin in your Bible, mine says, by a sacrifice
for sin, by the sacrifice of his own spotless self, he condemned
sin. What that means is he judged
the sin. He judged the sin in Himself. He condemned sin and He judged
that sin. It had to be punished. It had
to suffer. It had to die. He justly, rightly
condemned sin in Himself. That's beautiful, isn't it? And
verse four says he did that so that the righteousness of the
law, the perfection, the rightness, that sinless way that everybody
thinks they can walk on their own, that spotless way of the
law, Christ did that so that that way might be fulfilled in
us. He did something and then gave
it to us. freely traded with us, took our
blame, condemnation, sin, death. He gave us His innocence, His
purity. This is why, if it ever crosses
your mind, I just don't see this in myself. I don't either. But
I see it in Christ. And I received everything Christ
is. And He received everything I
am. And God judged us accordingly.
That's grace. That's grace. And that's why
Paul said in verse 1, There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Every soul in the grace of God
has been by the sacrifice of Christ set free. Totally set
free. So he's right. He's right. He said at the end of this in
verse 12, we're debtors. That's what we are. We are debtors. We have received something we
weren't owed. We didn't earn it, we didn't
deserve it, He just freely shed His grace on us. Verse 12, therefore
brethren, we're debtors, not to the flesh to live after the
flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But
if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body,
you'll live. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they're the sons of God. All right, you're dismissed.