Romans chapter 8, I want to read
to you the first four verses. 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. I want you to take your Bibles,
turn over to the first chapter of Romans, No condemnation to
those who are in Christ Jesus. I don't know of another epistle
that Paul was so caught up with Christ and the Gospels as he
was this epistle. And you see that right when he
begins here writing this epistle because he does something in
it that he don't do in any of his epistles. The first thing
the Apostle Paul always does in his epistle is give his salutation,
his greetings, grace be unto you and peace. But it seemed
like when he began to write the book of Romans that he was so
caught up with this gospel of Jesus Christ, the person of Christ,
that it was all the way down to verse 7 before he's able to
stop and greet these people and say, Grace be unto you and peace. And you see what he was caught
up with as he began this chapter. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And that's what he's caught up
with all through this book. And I want you to take your Bible
and look here at it with me for just a minute. Look here in verse
15. This is one of the most tremendous
statements, I think, that we can read in all the Word of God
when we think about it. In verse 15, so much as in me
is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And here
is one of the most tremendous statements, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. What a tremendous statement that
is. I don't know that you and I will ever find another statement
in the Bible like this. What is the power of God? When
we think of the power of God in creation, in ruling, upholding
all things, and yet Paul, when he wants to describe the power
of God, what does he say? He points to the Gospel, and
he says, here's the power of God. The power to do what? To save a sinner. The power of
God is revealed in the gospel. For it is the power of God unto
salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek. For therein, in this gospel,
is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith. That
is, the way God makes men righteous is revealed in the gospel. And then Paul begins here in
this very chapter, and to illustrate the power of God, he does it
like this. He says, I want to show you the
power of God that's manifested in this gospel, that's revealed
in this gospel, and he does it like this. He begins here in
chapter 1, and he proves the awful state of man's misery that
he's in. He begins here in verse 18, and
look here what he says, For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. And then he begins to teach us
about the Gentiles. This first chapter is telling
us about the Gentiles. They hold the truth in unrighteousness. They know the truth. What truth
is that? They know there's a God. They
know He's the Creator of the ends of the earth. They know
that He's a moral judge of this world. And yet, Paul said there
in verse 19 and 20, when they knew Him, they glorified Him
not as God. God showed this unto them. It's
not something they understood by nature, but God showed it
to them by the things that's made. They understand there's
a God. He's a Creator. He's my Judge. I should not sin against Him.
I should not oppose Him. I should not rebel against Him.
I should love Him and believe Him and fear Him. But they did
not, did they? They held this truth in unrighteousness. And therefore, Paul said, there
in the last part of verse 20, they are without excuse. And
he deals with the Gentiles in this chapter. All men are without
excuse. And then he comes here to the
second chapter, and he begins it like this. Thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges another. For wherein thou
judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest
another, you do the same things. Who's he talking to? Who was
those that wanted to set themselves up as the judges? That was the
Jews, wasn't it? Look what he says over here in
verse 12. For as many as have sinned without
law, there's the Gentiles, they didn't have the law, they shall
perish without law. As many as have sinned in the
law, that's the Jews, they shall be judged by the law. Look at
verse 17. Behold, thou art called a Jew,
and you rest in the law, and you make your boast of God, and
you know His will, and you prove things that are most excellent,
being instructed out of the law. Thou art confident that thou
thyself art a judge of the blind, a light of them which are in
darkness, instructor of the foolish, teacher of babes, and you have
the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore
which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest
the man should not steal, yet do you steal? Thou that saith
the man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? Thou
that men should abhor idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou
that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law,
dishonest thou God?" And that's what they did, wasn't it? They brought that woman that
was taken in adultery in the very act, and they were going
to stone her to death. The Lord said, which one of you
are without sin? Your heart's full of sin. You're full of wickedness.
You set yourself up as judges, but you're full of wickedness
yourself. So he comes on down to chapter 3 and look at this,
in verse 9. What then? Are we better than
they? Are we Jews better than the Gentiles?
No and no wise, but we have proved both Jews and Gentiles that they
are all under sin. See that? Paul is going to show
the power of the gospel, the power of God in the gospel. But
he doesn't start with the gospel. He starts with a man being a
sinner against God. Jews and Gentiles shut up in
guilt before God. And now he comes on to verse
10 in chapter 3, and he's been dealing with the sin of the Gentiles,
the sins of the Jews, and now look at this, he comes right
here and applies it to every individual. He singles it down
now to every man and woman and boy and girl. It is written,
there is none Righteous? No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They've all gone out of the way.
And he goes on down through this chapter just telling what sinners
we are. And then look what he says over
in verse 19. We know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and the world become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
See what he does? He makes this wonderful statement.
He said, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God to
salvation. And he says, now I want to show
you something. I want to illustrate this power to you. He said, look
at the Gentile world. They're ruined in sin. But look
at the Jewish world. It's ruined in sin. They set
themselves up as being judges, but they're guilty before God
too. The world is guilty. Each individual is guilty before
God. Then he comes to verse 21 and
look what he says, But now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witness for the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus." See what he does? He stops here and says
everybody is guilty. Well, what's going to happen,
Paul? Are they all going to perish? He said, no. But now, this righteousness
that's revealed in the Gospel. And you know what he's saying
when he says this righteousness. He's not saying, this is a righteousness
of your own. And he's not saying so much,
this is the righteousness which God requires for you to work
out. But he's saying, this is a righteousness
which God has provided. And this is a righteousness which
becomes yours by faith. It's received, not worked out,
it's received. And everybody that has this righteousness,
God accepts them in this righteousness. They're justified by this righteousness. That's what he's talking about
here when he says, the righteousness of God. But now, he says, but
now, he shows us the power of the gospel. Now, but now, the
gospel comes to us right where we are in our misery and makes
no bones about it. It comes right to us where it
finds us in our misery and tells us plainly this, I can deliver
you from the wrath of God. It comes right where it finds
us in our nakedness and says I can clothe you. He comes and
finds us in our guilt and says, I can wash you. How can you do
that? I'm the power of God. I'm the
power of God. Nothing else can do that for
us, but the gospel does that for us, because the gospel is
the power of God. I have the power to meet God's
demands, and I have the power to meet the needs of the poor,
miserable sinner. So that's where he gets at this
in these first three chapters. Then he comes to chapter four,
and he shows to us that these two great patriarchs, Abraham
and David, were made righteous by this gospel. They were saved
by this gospel. I don't know how many. I just
wonder, and someday the judgment will tell, how many especially
in the Jewish nation were saved through the means of the fourth
chapter of the Book of Romans. Because there was two of the
men that the Jews loved most. One of them was Moses, but one
was Abraham. They always said we're children
of Abraham. And they loved David. They loved David. And when they
come here, no doubt, and read, and they hear the preachers preach,
that this was the righteousness that justified Abraham. This
is the way Abraham was saved. Through the gospel of Christ.
And no doubt, no doubt their hearts have been won by seeing
this is the very gospel that saved Abraham. And David himself
said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness
without works. And then he comes here to chapter
5, and this is what he proves in chapter 5. And he proves this
concerning this gospel of the grace of Christ, that none of
us in any way, any shape or any form, merit this gospel. God didn't send us this gospel
because we deserve it. He didn't send us this gospel
because He saw some potential in us. There's no potential in
the human race. They're guilty before God. Christ
the Lord did not die because He saw some potential in us.
It wasn't that He looked upon us and said, all I've got to
do is get them started in the right direction. They just need
a push in the right way, or there's a flame within them, there's
a spark and it just needs to be fanned. It was nothing like
that. And he reminds us of that here
in Romans chapter 5, and look at it. Because here's what he
says concerning Christ's coming and the gospel. In verse 6 of
chapter 5, For when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for The ungodly. No merit in an ungodly man. In
verse 8, God commendeth His love towards us, and that while we
were yet sinners, sinners against God. Sinners by nature, sinners
by deed, sinners by practice, sinners by choice, sinners against
God. And when we were there, Christ
died for us. And down in verse 10, look at
this. For if, when we were enemies, enemies of God, enemies in our
mind by wicked works, enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Now what's Paul saying? He's
saying this, the Gospel comes to us and it's not looking for
Mary in us. The gospel doesn't come looking
for merit in a man. It doesn't come looking for worth
in a man. It doesn't come requiring of
an individual. The gospel comes giving. It comes
giving. God gave His Son. The Son gave
His life. The Spirit comes to reveal the
gift of God, the gift of righteousness, the gift of salvation. If you
knew who it was that spoke to you, You'd ask of Him and He'd
give you. If you knew the gift of God,
you'd ask of Him and He'd give you living water. It's all about
what He gives to us then. Look here in verse 15 of chapter
5. The knot is the offense, so also
is the free gift. Notice how Paul keeps using this.
For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the
grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus
Christ hath abounded unto many, and not as it were by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death
reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace,"
and look at this, "...and of the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one." It's not what we work out. It's what's
given us. And what's given us? Righteousness. Righteousness is given to us. Oh, the power of this gospel.
It comes to helpless. and hopeless and wretched and
damned sinners, and it saves them and justifies them, and
it gives them peace with God and sheds abroad the love of
God in their hearts and gives them hope in a world to come.
And it does it all, not because of them, but in spite of them.
Now, brothers and sisters, you and I believe in the gospel that
comes to us. And no man ever sought the Lord
until the gospel first comes to him. And that's why it's so
glorious in us. We weren't even seeking Him until
He sought us. This is the power of God. And
here in chapter 5, we see something else that reveals the power of
God into salvation. And I don't know of anything
else that gets under the skin of self-righteousness. and legality
as this very thing here in the fifth chapter. Because what we
see here that shows us the power of God, that God doesn't save
a man by what that man does or does not do himself. But God
saves men by what somebody else does on their behalf, as a representative. That's the way God saves men.
Look here in verse 18 and verse 19 of chapter 5. He saves us
in a manner altogether outside of ourselves. Now look here. Therefore, in verse 18, as by
the offense of Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Why are we condemned? Adam sinned.
And we're condemned because he sinned. You say, I don't like
that. You know, we can't help it, can we? I don't believe that.
I can't help that either. But that's what it says. I don't
understand that. I may not either, but I believe
it. When Adam sinned, it condemned you, Gail, condemned me. But
look at this, even so, by the righteousness of one, The free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life. In verse 19, For as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so in the
same way by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. How are we made righteous? By
someone else's obedience outside of ours. Our obedience has never
been perfect, has it? In our best state, we see vanity
mixed with it. But there's a man who came into
this world who rendered perfect obedience to God, to the law
of God, to the people of God, the ways of God. And that obedience
was so perfect, and him that rendered the obedience was so
full of merit that he could reach out of himself and clothe you
and clothe me and justify us before God. That's the obedience
of Jesus Christ. He's our representative. What
determines whether a man will be justified? or whether he'll
remain guilty. What determines whether a man
is saved or lost? What determines whether a man
is alive or whether he remains dead in sins? You know what determines
that? Who his representative is. Now
that's what it boils down to. Who's your representative? Who's
he united to? In Adam, all die. All of them. They're condemned
in Adam. They are lost in Adam, and finally
we die physically in Adam. Even so, in Christ shall all
be made alive, spiritually alive, freed and justified and made
righteous and someday physically changed and glorified, all because
we are in Christ, in Christ. What am I? Whatever I am, that's
what you are. That's what He said to us. God
hath made Christ to be sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. What is Christ? He's God's righteousness.
Then so are you in Him. What have I done? Whatever I've
done, you've done also. Did I suffer? Then you suffered.
Did I die? Then you died. Was I buried?
Then you were buried. Did I raise from the dead? Then
so do you. Did I ascend to the Father? So did you. In me? In me. In me you obeyed, in me
you suffered, in you you rose and ascended to the Father. What's
mine or whatever's mine is yours. We're heirs of God and join heirs
with Christ. Where am I? Where is Christ? Wherever he is, he said, wherever
I am, that's where you'll be. That's where you'll be. And Paul
carries this thing of representation right on into the 6th chapter,
and he says it's because of this union with Christ that these
two things have taken place. Look in the 6th chapter. Look
in the 6th chapter. We have this union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's not only represented us
because He's our representative. Now He's brought us into union
with Himself. And look in verse 8. Well, I'm
not even going to get to my text. I may not even get to my text. I've got caught up in this. But
look here, two things are union with Christ. Talk about the power
of the Gospel. Paul was still caught up with
this. Two things. concerning this union with Christ.
Look here in verse 8 of chapter 6. Because we have union with
Christ, look at this. In chapter 6. In verse 8. Now if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. If we be
dead with Christ, Now that's you in your name. You and I didn't
die on a cross, but God says we did. We're dead with Christ. Dead to what? Well, look in verse
11. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. What are we dead to? Sin. How
could we be dead to sin? Because Christ died to sin. And
in His death to sin, you and I died to sin. We died to its
guilt. We died to its dominion. And
we died to its wages. We died to its guilt. There's
no condemnation to them who are in Christ. We died to its dominion. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. You're not under the law, but under grace. We died to its
wages, to its end. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. When Christ went to the cross
and He died unto sin one time, you and I died with Him. We're
dead to sin. You don't feel like you're dead
to sin, do you? But disbelieve what He says. Believe what he
said. We're looking at this from his
standpoint, not ours. And secondly, we're dead to this.
Look in chapter 7 and verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the dead body of Christ. Dead to the law. Now this is
a wonderful thing. Dead to the law by the dead body
of Christ. How did Christ die to the law?
He cursed Him. He cursed Him to death. But He
has no more dominion over Him. He can't come back and curse
Him again. If the law of the land puts a man to death, then
that's all He can do to him. You ain't going out and saying,
well, let's bring some more charges against that man. Let's dig him
up. That'd be silly. You just don't
do that. When the law condemned Christ,
it condemned him to death, it has no more dominion over him.
He's dead to that law. It can't condemn him anymore.
It can't require anything of him anymore. And now Paul comes
here and says, it can't require anything of you either. You're
dead to it. It can't demand you and command
you to fulfill its precepts. You're free from it. You're died
to it with Jesus Christ the Lord. You don't participate in it anymore.
Now somebody said, Bruce, we need a priest. We've got a priest. We need a sacrifice. They have
a sacrifice under the law. We've got a sacrifice. We need
an altar. We've got an altar. We need righteousness. We've got righteousness. Everything
the law required, it's been provided for us. And we're not under it. We're free from it. We're dead
to it. We're dead. That's the first thing. We're
dead with Christ. Dead to sin, dead to the law. And now the second thing, because
of this union with Christ, we're alive. We're alive. Isn't that what he said there
in verse 11? Look at this, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your border body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.
Neither yield you your members as instruments of righteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead. and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God. You're alive. We died with Christ. We died to sin. We died to its
guilt, its condemning power, its dominion, its end. But now
we're alive with Christ. We're just as alive as He is.
Because I live. You live also. We're alive to
God. Don't you enjoy God? Don't you
enjoy Him? Or when you get along sometime
with Him in prayer and meditation? Or you're just still out in it?
Sometimes maybe in the night hours when you're getting tired
and you almost pray, Lord, don't let me go to sleep. Let me stay
awake a little bit longer. You enjoy Him and you meditate
in His Word day and night. You're alive to God. You're alive
in Jesus Christ. Look what he says in chapter
7 in verse 5. When you were in the flesh, the
passions of sin, which were by the law, the law that stirred
up sin, it worked in your members to bring forth fruit into death.
But now we are delivered from the law that being dead we are
in our hell. We should serve in newness of
spirit and not in the oldness of the lettering. When we see ourselves dead to
sin, dead to the law by our virtue, by the virtue of this union with
Christ, we truly begin to live to God and enjoy Him forever
in our spirits. And then he goes on here in chapter
7, and he tells about this awful conflict in the soul, what goes
on within the heart, good and evil in this one person. And
I like the way he says this, because it describes us perfectly.
When I would do good, evil is present with me. Evil is an awful
word, awful concept it describes to us, and yet Paul says that's
what's in us. Evil is present with us, the flesh lusting against
the Spirit. These two I's, these two me's,
oppose one to another. This warfare that's going on
within us, look what he says in verse 19. For the good that
I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not.
It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law, I see it, I see
it in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? And sometimes this warfare gets
so bad, it about gets us down, doesn't it? It discourages us. But right in the middle of this,
now, he comes up here in our text and he says, There is therefore now. Ain't
that wonderful? You know, if that had been in
some places, he'd have said that, it may not have meant much. But
right in the midst of this warfare, he says now. When you are feeling
so down, when you are feeling so discouraged, when you see
this awful sin warring against the Spirit, and the Spirit warring
against the sin that is within you, right now there is no judgment,
no guilt to be charged to you. There is no judgment upon you
or a punishment that awaits you. No condemnation. Why? Because
you are in Christ. In Christ. Ain't this a powerful
gospel? To justify you right in the midst
of your warfare? Your hating yourself? Despising
yourself? In Christ. In Christ. I went
out to my little office to try to get away and surround myself
with good books. And I sat there coming out of
the office sometimes. I'm so down. I just abhorred
myself. Spent the whole day in this battle.
Good against evil. The devil against God, like a
beast, just sit out there and rage. Well, my little office, don't
assure me that I won't have any condemnation. But being in Christ
does. Being in Christ does. God will
not judge me. If I'm in Christ, I'm free from
condemnation. He's not speaking to everybody,
but those who are in Christ. He that believeth in him is not
condemned. He that heareth my words, and
believeth on him that sent me, shall never come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. And now here in this verse
1, look here, he goes on to describe their character. There is no
condemnation to them which are in Christ, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit. After the flesh. He doesn't say
that you have no condemnation because you don't walk after
the flesh. That's not why you don't have
any condemnation. But this is your character. If you're in
Christ, this is your character. You don't walk after the flesh.
What if you walked after the flesh? I tell you, there's nobody
that could think of evil to do like a true believer. Do you
know that? I'm a lot meaner now than I ever realized I was when
I was lost. I tell you, I can think of sins
now to commit that would have me in jail before dark. I'd be
ashamed. I wouldn't tell you about it.
Oh, that I had a window in my eye. If I had one, it would have
blinds on it. I'd cover it up. I'm mean, I'm wicked, I'm wretched. Flash. Flash. Look all around
us. Oh, just educate it. Oh, just
do that. Do with it what you want to.
It's flash still. And it's wretched and it's a
rebel against God. And all you can do is just keep
it beat down. And if it ever gets the upper
hand, I'll tell you what they'll do. They'll arrest you. They'll
arrest you. It's your character not to walk
after the flash. You're ashamed of it. That's
why you ladies ought to keep your bodies covered up. And men
too. No, go flaunting around. We're sinners. That's all we
are, sinners. But after the Spirit. After the
Spirit. We don't walk after the flesh.
We walk after the Spirit. And what's the character of those
who walk after the Spirit? They walk in love. They walk
in joy. They walk in peace. They walk
in long-suffering and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness. This is the character of those
who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the reason they're not
condemned, but it's their character. In verses 2 through verse 3,
he mentions all of these laws. He mentions three laws. Look
at it. He mentions there in verse 2, the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, he mentions three laws. He mentions
the law of sin. We just read about that in chapter
7, didn't we? I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin. You know what a law is. It's
an established rule. It's like the laws of the Medes
and Persians. You can't make it void. It's
something that's established. It's the rule. And here we have
these laws. And we have this law of sin. And what is that? That's what's
in us. That's what's in us. Who shall
deliver me from the body of sin? A fellow told me one time, he
said, I'm not a sinner anymore. Where do you find a law like
that in all the Bible? The man says he had no sin, he deceives
himself. That's not a law, that's deception. Here's the law, the
law of sin. What is it? What I am in myself. What I'm born into. My nature. I'm ruined. The heart's wicked
above all things. But here's another law. Oh, thank
God for this law. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus. And what does that do? It frees
me from the law of sin. Now what does that mean? I thought
you said you were bound by that law. Now you're saying you're
free from that law. Well, there can be a law. There
can be a law. And you can't make it void. But
you can be free from it. This is the law of sin. And you
can't never get rid of it. Not until you die. But there
is a law that frees you from that law. He frees you not from
the workings of that law, but He frees you from the condemnation
of it. Yes, there's sin working in us, but the Spirit of life
in Christ frees us from it. It's not imputed to you. You're
free. Christ is that liberty. He's that Spirit. And where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. He was talking about
this very thing. If the Spirit of Christ is in
you, the life of Christ is within you. And you're without condemnation. You're without judgment. And
then he goes on, and the last one is this. This third one is
this. And he's talking here about the
law. The moral law. I imagine you could put the whole
law in there if you wanted to. He says in verse 3, what the
law could not do, the ceremonial law could not do, and the moral
law, the whole law could not do. What is it the law cannot
do for us? Well, it can't justify us, can
it? By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. How could
the law justify us? Well, it could justify us if
we weren't fallen sinners. But to be justified by the law,
you've got to obey it perfectly, and nobody does. So it can't
justify it. What about giving life? If there
had been a law given that could have given life, righteousness
would have been by the law. But there is no law that can
give life. It says, do this and you'll live, but it doesn't give
you any life. Why can't the law save us? Because
it demands perfection. And the law makes nothing perfect
because it looks at us and says, be perfect. And we disreveil. Disreveil. Because we can't.
And it drives us off into despair. Has your life upon this earth
been perfect? No. Then you're condemned. The law can't help you. What
about forgiveness of sins? The law can't do that. You know
the law never makes provision for sin. It has no provision
for it. It just condemns it. It don't
say I'll forgive it if, I'll pardon you if, it just says don't
do it, or I'll damn you, I'll condemn you. The law can't save
us. Even those things that God ordained under the ceremonial
law, the blood of bulls and goats, they can never take away sin.
God ordained them, but they can't never take away sin. God gave
them moral law, but it can't save us. It can't save us. But what we could not do in ourselves,
look at this, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and as a sacrifice for sin, put sin to death in the
flesh. What did God require? Perfect
obedience. He sent His Son to render it.
What did God require? The law to be honored and magnified.
He sent His Son to keep it. What did God require? Justice
to be satisfied. He sent His Son, and He did it.
God sending His own Son. Ain't that love? His own Son. Not a mighty angel, but His own
Son. The Son of His love. He sent Him. Send Him. Here in
His love, not that we love God, but He loved us and sent His
Son. to be the perpetuation for our
sins. God sent Him. You mean He just
didn't begin? No, He sent Him. Where from?
From Heaven. He was with the Father. And He
looked down upon this world, and the Father said, Son, I'm
sending you down there. And He did that. Out of great
love, He sent His Son. He left that happy place. He
left that holy place. He left that safe place. where
he was admired and worshipped and he come here to be hated
and abused and forsaken and betrayed and killed. What great love God
sent his Son. Humiliation, look at this, in
the likeness of sinful flesh. Not in the likeness of flesh,
he was real flesh. But in the likeness of sinful
life. He didn't look like Adam before the fall. He looked like
Adam after the fall. Adam before the fall had no trouble.
He had no infirmities. I don't even know if he got hungry
or tired. Maybe he did. But I know when the Son of God
comes, He comes in our likeness after the fall. He was subject
to infirmities. Not sinful infirmities. But he
was subject to hunger, he was subject to weakness, he was subject
to thirst, he was subject to fear, he wept in the likeness
of sinful flesh. Some of us was talking the other
day, Min Cody was talking. Can you imagine yourself, this
is a poor example, but can you imagine yourself turning over
a piece of meat, Bob's probably done, And there underneath that
meat was a whole bunch of just maggots. Just maggots that just
make you sick to look at. Can you imagine if you have the
ability to join yourself to those maggots? Actually take upon the
nature of a maggot, condescend and be made a maggot, and walk
around and live and crawl around with those maggots, That does
not even begin to compare with the condensation of the Lord
Jesus Christ that He stooped to be made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. That is humiliation. It started
when He was planted in His mother's womb, a fallen woman, and it
reached the climax there upon that cross when He hanged naked
with our sins in His own body. God sinned Him for that reason.
What love! What humiliation! And though He was in the likeness
of sinful flesh, He never ceased to be what He was before He came.
When He hung on the cross, He was God's own Son. He never changed. He never changed. He's God's eternal Son. He was
back in eternity. He was when He died. He is today.
The Son of God died on that cross. Often heaven opened its windows
and looked down and said, this is my beloved Son. In Him I am
pleased. God's soul was wrapped up in
Him. He beheld Him. He loved Him. And He gave Him to do what you
and I, wretched sinners as we are, could not do for ourselves.
What did He do? He made Himself a sacrifice for
sin. For sin. Do you want to know
why there is no condemnation? Look over in chapter 8 and verse
34. Look at this. There is no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. And here it is. Who is He that
condemneth? It is Christ that died. There it is. There it is. That
is why we are not condemned if we are in Christ. What the law
could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sacrifice
for sin, He literally put sin to death in His flesh. He can do that. He can do that
because He has these two wonderful natures, human nature and a divine
nature. And He can do that. He can do
it. Well, I've kept you too long.
I've kept you too long. But look at this right quick. Now sin has been judged. It's
been put away. All those in Christ are just
as clean and white as He is. And here's the effects of all
of it. Look in verse 4. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. In us. Not by us, but in us. It was
fulfilled for us. And now it's fulfilled in us.
How is that? The Spirit of Life is in us,
and this life does not see Him. This is the Spirit of Life within
us. He cannot see Him. We're born of God, and He cannot
see Him. Ain't that wonderful? I can't
begin to get a hold of that. That there's a nature, there's
a seed within the believer that's born of God, and that's a holy
seed, and He cannot see Him. He never sins against God. He
never sins against the Law of God. He never sins against the
Spirit of God, Light. And God looks upon him and says,
Oh how righteous, how righteous. The Spirit of Life is within
us. And it fulfills the Law. Love
don't break God's Law. There's no law against peace
and joy. and goodness, and temperance,
and faithfulness. Oh, Paul was right into these
Christians, these believers in Rome. And he says here, I've
experienced it. I'm experiencing the very same
warfare that you have, and that you're in right now. I'm this
great apostle. I've been called up into the
third heaven. But don't let this warfare get you down. I'm experiencing
the same thing you are. Well, I quit. I quit. Lord bless
His word.