Romans Series # 34 April 17,2002
Welcome to New life in Christ. We are currently going through the book of Romans verse by verse. I believe all of us have found this book of the Bible to be challenging to understand at times but also very instructive and encouraging. Tonight we continue with my second message out of Chapter Eight. I did an overview of this chapter last week and I explained that the primary purpose of this chapter is to give assurances to the Christian about life’s most important issues. In fact I believe we can see five assurances or certainties for the believer in this section of Romans. We discussed the first assurance last week.
I. When you trusting Christ you can be certain that you are truly forgiven. Romans 1:1-4
Tonight I will teach from verses 5-9 which tell us why we can be certain that we are pleasing to God.
Read Romans 8:5-9
Opening Prayer
"How can I be pleasing to God?" That is an important question and one for which people have sought the answer for many years. It is an important question because when we are pleasing to God it means that we are in a healthy relationship with Him. If we are pleasing to Him we are accepted and have His approval.
People have long recognized that their lives are not pleasing to God and so they have sought answers on how to have God’s acceptance and approval. Many people have devised many ways to try and do this: Animal Sacrifices, Religious Acts (Pilgrimages, Self-Inflicted Suffering, Fasting, Long Prayers, Sacrificial Giving, etc.), Good Works (Feeding the Poor, Helping the Elderly, or Saving the Rain Forests, etc.), and others have sought God’s approval by Keeping the Law (Pharisees, Many Jews, Legalist, etc.)
Throughout history, people have tried all kinds of things to make God happy. Many devout people from all religions have tried to get on God’s good side by killing off those they considered to be His enemies. Before his conversion, the Apostle Paul killed Christians because he thought it would make God happy. To a lesser extreme, some people wear their hair a certain way, or dress a certain way, or follow certain dietary customs to make God happy.
In the 16th century, a monk named Martin Luther did everything he could think of to make God happy: he spent hours in the confessional, he beat himself with a whip, he wore shirts made out of human hair-all in an effort to make God happy.
Source: www.sermonnotes.com “How To Make God Happy” by Steve May
Despite all these extravagant efforts the Bible tells us there is only one group of people who are really accepted and approved by God and can be pleasing to Him. That group of people is composed of all genuine Christians. All Christians are accepted and approved by God because the Holy Spirit works and to develop desires and a life that finds His approval and acceptance.
You may struggle and slip in your Christian walk and as a result wonder if God accepts you and if you could ever live a life pleasing to God. On the basis of our text I can say that this is an uncertainty you do not need to have. You can be very confident that you are accepted and approved by God and your life is being directed by the Holy Spirit to be more and more pleasing.
II. When you trust in Christ you can be certain that you are accepted and approved by God.
This is not to say that God is satisfied with every single thing in our life.
Illustration: In many ways God relates to us in the same way we as earthly parents relate to our children. We approve of and are pleased when our child begins to talk despite his or her lack of clarity. We approve of and are pleased when they begin learn to walk despite their many stumbles. We are really pleased when they are potty trained despite the occasional accident. We approve of and are pleased with all these things despite their failings but we are not satisfied for we always desire to see more progress.
II. When you trust in Christ you can be certain that you are accepted and approved by God.
Why can we Christians alone have this certainty? Why aren’t others who may try hard, be religious, or do good deeds acceptable or pleasing to God? These are the questions Paul answers for us in our text.
Read Verse 5
First Paul begins by identifying those whose lives can never be acceptable or pleasing to God. This is "those who live according to the sinful nature...” This phrase is nearly synonymous with other phrases such as “being in the flesh” or “being controlled by the sinful nature” Whom is this phrase referring too? What does this phrase mean? Is Paul referring to Christians who are struggling with fleshly desires? Does this phrase apply exclusively to non-Christians?
In this context it seems that this phrase does not in any way refer to Genuine Believers. This verse is often mistakenly applied to Christians because we tend to think of it as referring to our behavior. For example when someone is lusting or boasting they are said by us to be "walking or living according to the flesh/sinful nature." We use this term weather we are speaking of a Christian or a non-Christian. Paul is not using the term or phrase in a manner that applies to Christians.
Quote: John MacArthur “In God’s eyes, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who do not belong to Him and those who do. Put another way, there are only those who are according to the flesh and those who are according to the Spirit.”
Source: “The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Romans 1-8” Page 415
Paul is using this term to denote spiritual position, not behavior. "According to the flesh" is the same thing as being "in Adam.” Put simply this phrase refers to all of those who are not" in Christ ", that is anyone who is not a genuine Spirit indwelt Christian.
A non-believer can never be pleasing to God no matter how religious or how "good” they may seem. Why not? Because "those who live according to the sinful nature have their mind set on what that nature desires." The flesh, the person without the Spirit, primarily desires in their inner person those things that are not acceptable to God (sinful wants, earthly desires, selfish indulgence, etc) therefore they can never be pleasing to God or accepted and approved by Him.
The word "mind" here refers to a person’s inner disposition (thinking, will, affections, attitude.) A non-Christian may appear all right on the outside but their mind or their disposition is on what the flesh desires. They can never please God because God looks at the inner person or the heart and not just the outward acts. Paul says here that all those who are not Christians have a primary disposition that is not pleasing to God.
Many believers, when they read this text, think that in verse five, Paul begins explaining HOW we live this Spirit controlled life…Many think that, given the fact that Paul mentions “the mind” several times, that means that to live a Spirit-controlled life, (as opposed to a carnal, fleshly, Christian life) is to in some way control our minds. Many in the church today would summarize their understanding of this text something like this, “The difference between a Spirit controlled believer and those Christians who live under the control of the flesh is the focus of the minds.”
Source: c) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 - All material is property of Duncan Ross and/or Mount of Olives Baptist Church, all commercial rights are reserved.
Paul is not contrasting different type of believers, but he is contrasting all unbelievers with all Genuine Believers. He is not telling us how the Christian can please God by thinking a certain way and thereby walking in the Spirit. He is telling us why the Christian is accepted by God and can be pleasing God and why the non-Christian can never be accepted or pleasing God.
The person who is not a believer has a total disposition that is on what the sinful nature desires which is hardly pleasing to God. This is true only for the non-Christian i.e. the person without the Spirit of God in them. It is not true for you, if you are a Christian.
II. When you trust in Christ you can be certain that you are accepted and approved by God.
What makes the difference in the Christian’s life? Why is that they can be pleasing to God? Because they "live in accordance with the Spirit." When you become a Christian the Holy Spirit immediately takes up residence within you and begins to change your inner disposition. You begin to think differently. You begin to have new affections in your life. You have new desires within your heart and your mind is now set on what the Spirit desires which is pleasing to God. We begin to want what God wants and therefore our inner person is accepted and approved by God.
II. When you trust in Christ you can be certain that you are accepted and approved by God.
This confidence we have isn’t based on our own merits or abilities but rather on the Holy Spirit’s ability to change us and make us pleasing to God.
Read Verse 6
Here Paul begins to describe some of the consequences and the characteristics of being in the flesh or in the Spirit. The result of being “in the flesh”, as a spiritual positional, is death. The person who is not born again is not pleasing to God because their entire mindset is displeasing to Him and therefore they experience "death." Death in this verse does not apply exclusively to physical death but refers also to separation from God, guilt, condemnation, fear of judgment, etc.
The result or consequence of having "mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." Here again Paul is referring to all Christians because all Christians are "in the Spirit" which is synonymous with what the NIV translates as “(having) a mind controlled by the Spirit.” The consequence of being a Christian is "life and peace." This is not a reference to a feeling of peace or "peace of mind" but rather is referring to the status of those who are genuine Christians. They are at peace with God (Romans 5:1) whereas the non-Christian does not have this kind of relationship with God. This becomes clear in verse eight where it says that the unsaved person has the disposition of hostility and rebellion against God. "Life" is used of the abundant and eternal life that only those who at peace with God, accepted and approved by Him can experience.
Read Verses 7,8
Why can’t a person be accepted by God or pleasing to Him without becoming a Christian? Because without becoming a Christian they do not have the power of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives. They are rather controlled by the flesh/sinful mind/sinful nature. As Paul says here the "sinful mind" is hostile to God. It does not submit to Him rather it is rebellious and it cannot submit to God. The non-Christian does not really want to do what God wants but rather they are resistant to God’s will and could not obey God even if they wanted too. Therefore as it says in verse eight, "those controlled by the sinful nature can not please God." All these things are true of those who are "in the flesh" but they are not true of those "in the Spirit" as verse nine makes clear.
Read Verse 9
This verse in the original Greek actually says “But you.” Which emphasizes that there is something radically different in the Christian from those who “cannot please God.” The reason believers can be accepted and approved by God and live i9n a way that pleases Him is because they have undergone an essential change in their spiritual nature by the Holy Spirit.
You have the Holy Spirit, which makes you friendly to God’s ways rather than hostile. The Holy Spirit works in our minds and hearts so that we are willing and able to submit to the instead of being unable and resistant to God’s will and law. You can please God because the Holy Spirit "lives in you" as he does everyone who "belongs to Christ." No exceptions!
Paul is saying that for everything that was true of those in the flesh the opposite is true for you. They had a disposition or mindset focused on the sinful desires but you have a mindset focused on what God desires. They experienced the consequences of death (guilt, condemnation, separation) but you experience life and peace. They did not and could not surrender to God’s will but you can and do surrender to God’s will. They could not ever please God but by the Holy Spirit you can please God. Your inner person is changed therefore you have God’s acceptance and approval.
II. When you trust in Christ you can be certain that you are accepted and approved by God.
I realize that tonight selection may be a little confusing some I want to summarize the essence of what Paul is saying:
First: The non-Christian can never please God because the flesh makes their basic disposition and thinking hostile and unacceptable to God.
Second: The Christian can be certain of pleasing God because the Holy Spirit works in us to make our disposition and thinking acceptable to God.
Questions or Comments?
Closing Prayer
