Mormons, Muslims, Manuscripts and More: Romans 8:1-4

today we're going to talk about Christian psychology translation issues the Old Testament law and the New Testament believer Mormonism and Islam issues and the security of the believer even when they sin and this is all in the first few verses of Romans eight so so Romans eight this is a seriously good passage I mean seriously good passage and I was trying to struggle with thinking of how to explain the quality of this passage of Scripture and so I'm going to give you an analogy if you're familiar with foie or faux or or however you want to pronounce it it's this amazing Vietnamese soup this stuff is delicious we get it SoCal we get it all the time you can get it all over the place out here but a lot of the world sadly is still in the Dark Ages when it comes to the glories of the Vietnamese soup rice noodle soup good stuff now Allison my wife will actually make from scratch she got the recipe and had a family member that taught her how to make it everything and one of the things you do with fuzz you boil this giant pot full of like Donald is a chicken broth and a bunch of other ingredients and what you do is you add a ton of ingredients to the fun and it gives a ton of different flavors and all these different textures so there's like layers of flavor and depth of taste and then you pull most of these ingredients out and you don't put them back it's really interesting there's one thing called the daikon which is this big like a root type plant that you put in there and you boil this giant thing in there just to diffuse its flavor and then you pull it out and you don't eat it you just throw it away or give it to the dog the dogs not going to eat it actually but but then you just chuck it and then you taste it now Romans is kind of like this the book of Romans is like the fuh in the sense that there's all these different things going on in the book there's all these intricate flavors and you might just simply taste this clear little broth and you're like Oh Romans oh it's so good but what we're doing is we're trying to catch the flavors the individual flavors as I go through the text what I'm saying is I don't want to miss things this is one of the most beloved passages in the Bible Romans eight one of the most beloved passages in the whole Bible but people often read it and they only pick out the flavors they really like they grab them and then they miss a lot of actually the passage so we're going to take our time and go through it what we often do right is we read passages we pick up pieces of it but we want to pick up each piece of Rome and date so we're going to be in Romans 8 for a few weeks we're going to take our time going through it and I want to get the full teaching and then afterwards I'll try to sort of zoom out periodically as we're going through the chapters so that you can see how it fits in the rest of Romans and how it all connects together so let me let me start by actually reading to you this this is this is what Peter said about Paul did you know Peter talked about Paul in 2nd Peter 3:16 he said this about Paul Paul's the guy who wrote Romans it says that in all his epistles that Paul was speaking in them these epistles that there'll be a letter so Romans is one of his epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand the Apostle Peter said that some of the things in Paul's letters were hard to understand people say the Bible is simple well this is true it's also very complex you see it's a rather large thing the Bible it has some very easy things and some very hard things and some of what Paul writes is hard to understand so we'll take our time and we'll we'll grapple with some of the harder to understand stuff because in my experience guys who teach Romans 8 tend to zoom to the easier stuff focus on that and sometimes skip some of the flavor that's there some of the valuable stuff so here we are Romans 8 verse 1 it says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit no condemnation now condemnation - interesting word and the way it's being used here it there's a difference in conviction and condemnation right condemnation is you are condemned in the sense of you are damned you are condemned to hell or condemned to a life apart from God eternity apart from God that's condemnation in this context of Romans 8 there's no condemnation now the difference here is there is such a thing as conviction Christians we do have conviction you're in Christ you you fail you sin you blow it you should feel convicted you should feel bad about the thing you did but what you ought not feel is condemned now for many years I would feel condemned for many years when I first came to Christ because I was discipled by nobody pretty much I didn't seek it out I didn't ask for it I didn't really read the word and so consequently I was a very weak Christian when I first came to the Lord and and this idea of conviction versus condemnation didn't enter my mind if I felt convicted I felt condemned and then I would have to have the Lord restore me and remind me of his grace in his love and then I just felt restored I felt such peace and comfort in my life and then I fail I blow it I'd sin I suddenly feel convicted and then I feel condemned but it says here that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus that's a great concept in Christ Jesus do you know it means to be in Christ it doesn't mean I have to be good enough to earn heaven no I'm in Christ if you like me struggle with whenever you feel convicted you feel condemned if you the way I used to if you're like that I encourage you do your own private Bible study of Rome acuity of Ephesians chapters one through three and take your time with it casually just carefully thoughtfully read through Ephesians one two and three looking at the things that it says and specifically highlighting what it means to be in Christ because that's what Ephesians one two three is all about what it means to be in him in fact the phrase in him in Christ in him in Christ is used over and over again and it says things like we are holy and without blame before him in love that's me I'm holy and without blame I don't feel that way because that's what we're going to talk about as a positional truth so we'll come back to that in more detail later but you might say but Mike you do understand you say there's no condemnation for me Roman tears eight one says there's no condemnation if I'm in Christ like if I'm in Christ no condemnation there's no category of people who are in Christ and yet are condemned if you're in Christ you're not condemned and you go but I'm messed up I'm really messed up I'm like seriously messed up like you you have Lala sins not me like my sins are serious this is why we've launched from Romans seven into Romans eight you remember Romans seven man that I am who would deliver me from this body of death the things I hate I do the things I want to do I don't do what's wrong with me I'm messed up I'm a wicked evil sinner everything I've said about all those other sinners and Romans 1 & 2 & 3 guess what it's all about me and so Romans 7 takes us to the depths of the man's depravity so that then it can show you yep even there there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ but ur grace and forgiveness complete complete salvation in other words you're actually saved you're not just helped by Jesus you're saved and my heart rests in that and that's the only way you'll rest you'll never have peace if you're looking at your good works to try to affirm how you know saves you are that's that's ultimately not going to be the qualification it's going to be God's grace period now there is a condition in Romans 8 you may have noticed it and you might be thinking but Mike what about the rest of the first it says there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to this to the flesh but according to the spirit this is an interesting issue here now there are some who would be maybe you're following along in your Bible you have a different version and you're like I don't even have that phrase in my Bible if you have the ESV or if you have the NASB or if you have the NIV or if you have several other versions you're not going to have the phrase who do not walk according to flesh but according to the spirit and this is because for my understanding most likely it's not part of the original passage it seems as though this this phrase who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit was inserted from verse 4 into verse 1 it does appear in verse 4 but it's not in the most ancient manuscripts and most translations and I mean the vast majority of translations will leave this out and we've already talked about this in the evidence for the Bible series when I talked about translations and manuscript issues and all that so you guys know this is not a question of conspiracies it's not about polluting the gospel or any kind of weird it's just simply people looking at the ancient manuscripts going what do we think the original text really said this is why even in your Bible is probably a footnote after Romans 8:1 if you follow the bottom of the page it tells you that this phrase is is quite possibly not not there I think it's not there personally and I think that that I'm that should answer that question for us but here's brings up another question no doesn't it is this an example of a doctrinal change based on a textual problem does it just does it teach something different if the phrase is there versus the phrase isn't there and should I be like wow well what's the theology on this Lord I think the answer is no and I told you we're going to talk about translation issues too this is the part where we talk about translation issues let's suppose that Romans 8:1 should include the phrase who do not walk according to the flesh but according the spirit does that mean that if I'm in Christ and I walk according to the spirit now there's no condemnation but if I'm in Christ and I don't walk according to the spirit now I'm condemned so the real condition of being unconditionally versus being in Christ positionally and I would say no I think then Romans 8:1 will be a description of what it means to be in Christ there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ end of story and what do they look like oh though you could see it they're the ones who are walking in the spirit of the flesh it's a it's a playing out its position based not performance-based position based not performance based the Allison's my wife I'm her husband that's my position now if I'm not being a great husband one day do I stop being her husband no I mean Allison's husband is the guy who loves her and cares for her and yet if I wasn't acting and loving and caring ways do I stop being the husband no because there's a position versus a condition issue my conditions aren't matching my position that's a problem but it's not a Salvation issue so it's not like you can say to people yeah you're in Christ but you're not walking according to the spirit enough so even though you're in Christ you're condemned you can't be in Christ and be condemned there's no category of people that are in Jesus and condemned there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ and so I think even if it is in there it should not challenge your for in the grace of Christ and the fact that you're not condemned so hopefully that helps ask the questions afterwards if you need to clarify on that point but we'll move to verse 2 so it says for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death what is the law of the spirit of life remember last time when I told you guys I thought you guys vocabulary words for the book of Romans a few vocab words one of them was law and how Paul uses this word in a lot of different ways particularly in the book of Romans sometimes he means a general rule of life sometimes you mean to the Old Testament law there's various different ways he uses it here the law of the spirit of life I think is talking about this concept of how someone's born again they have a new way of living they have a new rule of life that they're under living in the spirit that's the law of the spirit of life so basically think of your new nature that's what it's referring to this is throughout the chapter we're going to see this this concept of walking the spirit being in the spirit having God's Spirit and you'll notice in verse 2 here's another translation issue for you this is I love getting to do this stuff with you guys but there's a capital S on the word spirit what does that mean he's talking about the Holy Spirit right that's what it means now what you might not know is that this is a translators opinion there aren't capitals here for holy for further word spirit it's just the word spirit in Greek there's no capital or non-capital it's it's just the word spirit the only way to know if it's the Holy Spirit is to read the read the text in context and then it tells you if it's the Holy Spirit this is the same for the situation where you have the capital H when it's referring to God him capital H and many translations will capitalize it that's the translators opinion they're saying we think this is about God so we're going to go ahead and capitalize that to try to help the reader to understand who is talking about sometimes generally speaking this is a good thing I like this okay yeah make it easier for me why not good Thanksgiving sometime but it's not bad to all to go hey let me just be aware that the capital is an interpretation not a translation it's impossible to translate without having some small amount of interpretation going on it's just not possible if anybody who's bilingual knows this you can't translate without having some level of interpretation going on that's not it's really a bad thing just something you might want to be aware of but if you read throughout the rest of the chapter you're going to see these capital s's when it talks about spirit but I think that this is legitimate and as we read through you'll see this is the Holy Spirit in question here it will be constantly brought up and there's times where it's irrefutable ooh the Holy Spirit that's being spoken of so the spirit of life this the Holy Spirit who gives me life that is how I'm living now that's the new law and that has set me free or made me free from the law of sin and death so what's the law of sin and death well we read about this in the Old Testament God says to the people of Israel do this and you'll live don't and you'll not live that other thing die so then this is the law of sin and death you send you die that's the law in fact it goes back even before the time of Moses because when God put Adam and Eve in the garden he tells them of the tree don't eat of it because the day you eat of it you'll die sin and death man this is the sin equals death what will set me free from this because I'm a sinner who will die well I need the Holy Spirit to bring new life into me I'm born again and this is a positional reality now there's no condemnation that all that all connects together it's the theology of Christianity so do you see something out the law is like the daikon from foe it was put in so that the flavours of it could diffuse it was kept for a time and then the law was innocence removed because its job was done but that broth continues to carry the flavors of the law in the same sense we look at the Old Testament law and we go wow it was placed in on Israel for a time for season to teach lessons it was in a sense removed but its effect and its impact remains and that is what gives us the fullness of the gospel or you're not isn't your thought one taste right that's the idea is that the gospel will not be right unless you understand the law and its relationship I'm amazed when I'm witnessing and sharing with a theists or agnostics or anybody who doesn't doesn't hold the at how they really don't understand the biblical teaching of Old Testament law versus New Testament believer and so it's so I like this analogy about the and you put the daikon in there you take it back out and that's kind of what the law is see the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death you're not under the law you're not under its rules you're not under its consequences but you're still experiencing its flavors because there were moral truths that are eternal lasting things that we learn from them as well as other lessons so I'm under a new rule a new law and that's the Holy Spirit now if you would turn to Luke chapter 3 verse 16 because I want to pull together a few different passages of Scripture in connection with Romans 8 Luke chapter 316 this is a not as familiar as John 3:16 but it's related it says John answered saying to all in I indeed baptize you with water so we're talking about John the Baptizer there's another translation issued you know he's not really done the Baptist he's actually done the Baptizer it's a it's a bird this is what he does he baptizes people he wasn't part of the Baptist denomination which of course did not exist at the time that he's John the Baptizer we he's often translated as being John the Baptist but he's but this is why he goes I indeed baptize you with water but one mightier than I is coming Jesus whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to loose he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire this is an interesting phrase the Holy Spirit and fire what was meant by this I think that the Holy Spirit is obvious he's going to give us the Holy Spirit I immerse you in water he's gonna immerse you in the Holy Spirit I I show you dunk yourself in that water show your repentance and your faith towards God but Jesus is going to give you a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit he's going to cleanse the vessel from the inside out give you the spirit but what's the part about fire about right baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire verse 17 he goes on his winnowing fan is in his hand now that was a tool they used for harvesting right they they would take the wheat and they'd smash it and bash it and then they'd throw it up in the air and if it was windy it would carry the chaff away but if there wasn't wind they'd make their own with the winnowing fan the winnowing fan was there to blow wind onto the wheat so it to blow the chaff away so his represents judgment in a sense or a separation of the good from the bad so as when dealing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor that's where they would do this with the wheat so the fan and the threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire so this Holy Spirit and fire it's like when you meet Jesus when you encounter Christ you're either going to receive him and get the Holy Spirit or reject him and get wrath that's why it's the Holy Spirit and Fire some people relate the fire to like a spiritual experience of being you know like on fire for Jesus like this is not the kind of on fire for Jesus that you want right this is the wrong kind of on fire and it's an allegory because you're not literally chapped so there's necessarily literally fire but it's a it's a judgment is what it's saying so why did I bring this up because this is a law of the spirit of life this is the new thing Jesus comes and he gives us this new thing that was not going on before even John when he baptized people they didn't get the Holy Spirit this indwelling experience but when Christ came he died and rose and then he gives the Holy Spirit to us so I'm no longer under the law I'm walking in the spirit for those who are in the spirit you don't need the law because now you have a new relationship a new law in a sense that you live in so for the Old Testament I'm gonna draw more of these parallels between the Old Testament law and the Holy Spirit because this is there's a great lesson to learn here in the Old Testament we were told the Jews were told to walk in God's law if you actually go to like a search engine and search the Bible for like walk and law you search those words and you'll see it over and over again like walk in my law walk in my statutes walk in my ways walk in my laws walking the things that I've told you to do an example psalm 119 verse 1 it says blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord so the Jewish person was called to walk in the law but as Christians we're in the New Testament am I told to do this what I'm told is in Galatians 5:16 I say then walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh see before it's like if in psalm 119 right I'm undefiled I won't be sinning if I walk in God's law now I'm told I won't be sinning if I walk in God's Spirit why didn't they just do it back then because that relationship was not established until after Christ now you have the Holy Spirit now you could take on out so to speak you now we can add the the the meat of it this is the thing we've been waiting for this whole time so that's the difference the difference is you couldn't do this before there's there's a real change there's a shift in the way that that God not in how you get saved how we been saved there's always been the same right didn't Paul make that clear in Romans 4 Abraham was saved by faith David was saved by faith it was all grace it was forgiveness so the salvation method has always been the same but the experience has shifted now that we have the holy spirit so Jeremiah 31 talks about this it talks about this new covenant or this new law this new thing that's coming and it relates to this as well so let me read it to you this is this is some really neat theology stuff I love this kind of stuff and you can see the threads of the scripture coming together Jeremiah 31:31 it says behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt my covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them says the Lord so there's the law we failed a lot as same as me I failed God's righteous standard but here's the new covenant verse 33 but this is the new the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people no more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more Jesus comes and it Passover the night before crucifixion he says this is the new covenant this is a cup of the new covenant in my blood this is the new thing and it enters us into this holy spirit' relationship with this is don't miss this in Jeremiah 31 this is a Theological prophecy this is a prophecy about a theological reality that will take place because of Christ I think that's really neat sometimes we forget that the Scriptures were written hundreds of years apart from each other and that we have prediction and fulfillment going on the theology of the New Testament is actually embedded in the Old Testament and Romans keeps driving this in to us as he keeps going to the Old Testament to prove the gospel there's a powerful thing now since the eye can actually look at the New Testament and then verify and ratify through the Old Testament this sets Christian theology apart from things like Islam or Mormonism I told you we would talk about a little bit about Islam and Mormonism today so just briefly I want to discuss it Islam and Mormonism what they have in common with Christianity as they claim to have fidelity to the Old Testament they claim to hold to the Old Testament of God now they'll even claim to hold to the New Testament as well but they'll claim to hold to all of these things yet they break the Scriptures by having all these theological things that are totally against what the actual Bible teaches I mean because like it or not I mean there's these are actually words on a page they actually say something specific you can't just do whatever you want with it and be honest there's a there's not only in say Islam or Mormonism defying of the New Testament I mean this description of the New Testament says for instance that Jesus was crucified he rose again on the third day and this is a central central thing of Christianity but Mormonism should be islam teaches that jesus never died on the cross he never died at all let alone rose again it teaches that god has no sin and it is in Islam it's the greatest of sins God has no son excuse me it's the greatest of sins to say that God has a sign it's called shirk in Islam it's a great sin to say that God has a son I mean how much of the New Testament do we have to tear out tear out and throw away but also we have to tear out the Old Testament and now we've broken the chain of threads connecting the old and new Testament this Gospel message throughout the Scriptures Islam destroys the Bible yet Muslims are taught that they stand upon the scriptures Mormonism does the same thing it teaches things that like that Jesus was a created being that good God is a creative being that he used to be a humanoid who lived off in some faraway place near a star called Kolob and he lived a good enough life as a humanoid to become a god and be deified and then forgive me for this but this is the doctrine in in Mormonism that God had one wife were very likely lots of wives and had intercourse with them he has God as a physical body he's a giant like 12 foot tall man and he had physical sex with with his wife in heaven or wives and they produced babies and that was us and we have this pre-existent life in heaven and we chose to come to the earth and forget about that life for the chance of becoming gods ourselves yeah this just this just wrecks the connection of the old and new Testament it bites against all of the scriptures to say these things to think that there's multiple gods to think that I'm that God had his own God before him bled God says he knows not one he's the only God he doesn't know any other kind so that's in Isaiah and so this is is interesting because here's what happens if you talk long enough with especially Muslim apologists Mormon apologists people who are defending that faith what they'll do is they'll first start by saying we believe the Bible and the Bible affirms us and our theology but as you get more into the details of Muslims and more in the details of Mormons and their beliefs they start to attack the Bible and I've seen this happen multiple times and they start to say things like well the Bible's been changed well the Bible has been corrupted well you know this you can't really trust what it says there so what they're really saying is think about this they're saying we stand on the foundation of the Bible except that whenever it comes to our different theologies how we're different than the rest of Christianity in that area the bottles been corrupted just whenever the Bible disagrees with me it's been corrupted yet there's no manuscript evidence to support these types of corruptions there's nothing in the world out there that says that you know Mormonism might possibly be true and good or the Islam might be biblical so people miss this they forget that Islam tries to stand upon the scriptures but then while standing upon it they're ripping pages out of it meaning that it's not possibly true we couldn't possibly be the case so I think that's interesting my point here is how I told you Paul wrote some things that were hard to understand right the point here is that Romans is drawing together all these things from the Old Testament and New Testament times if teaching us the fullness of things from Jeremiah and Luke and and through the teachings of Jesus in John the Baptist and they're coming together in this new relationship with God through the spirit that we have salvation by faith in it and that it's always been that way and it's steeping that throughout the scriptures and only Christianity can do this only Christianity can say we hold true to the Old Testament in fact modern-day Judaism doesn't even hold true to the Old Testament there's there aren't there isn't any Judaism like in fact it's called rabbinic Judaism for a reason because they follow rabbis teachings rather than the actual plain teachings of the scriptures and so if we're going to stand and have our battle ground on the Scriptures that's a good place to be what does it actually say and that's what Paul does and hopefully we're equipping ourselves to do that too so you might want to play the tape back on that one I know that's a lot of stuff but I wanted to get into it tonight so verse three let's go on and says for what the law could not do Romans 8:3 what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemned sin in the flesh but the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit we're getting these things the old the Old Covenant the new the the law of sin and death the law of the spirit of life we're getting these are contrasting points right these afflictive the two very different issues the flesh versus the spirit but this is some really interesting things let's break it down what was it that the law couldn't do according to verse three what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh well but it couldn't do is it couldn't make me right with God it couldn't make me right with God it can't get me to obey God it can't give me life Romans seven says this too in verses 10 and 11 and the commandment which was to bring life I found to bring death for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived it and by it killed me it used the fact that there was penalties to my the consequences of breaking a lot to slay me so what the law can't do is it can't make me right with God why can't it do it it's weak because of my flesh it's weak through my flesh the issue isn't that the law is a problem the issue is that hind the problem right the the wet paint sign just proves how messed up people are so don't step on the grass sign just proves how messed up people are did they go and do you know tell someone don't do that and they want to go do it that just proves that they're messed up because a loving person would be like well why would I want to go do the thing that you just asked me not to do but I want to you know because just something wrong with me so the weakness is in my own flesh Romans has been teaching as a ton about this stuff in Romans chapter 1 it taught us how sinful man is we just look around and see the wickedness of man in general that all mankind Falls some people try to deny this this is a very important doctrine in Christianity the man is wickedly sinful and what I find interesting is that they often try to deny this by pointing to imaginary people they've never met have you noticed this just think about the logic of this if want me to say that mankind is not sinful why can't I pick somebody I know as an example hmm no I have to pick some random monk out in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains somewhere and use them as my example until a story about a person I've never met that's my example of a person who hasn't sinned and failing that what will they offer then as their example that mankind isn't really sinful like this children because our heart can actually go out to children now personally I believe confidently the idea that there is an age of accountability before God and so this doesn't actually challenge the Christian view but don't tell me kids aren't sinful I mean have you met them or your met kids before I never met anybody quicker to lie that a child or a steal I remember one of those are the kids in our family every time they go to our house we had to like hide certain things because this child would want to try to steal them and then you'd be like why why is that child's pockets bulging so much right now and they'd be going around our house just putting things in their pockets and you're like what and then you catch them and they go I was just going to borrow it ok so I mean kids are we love kids and there's a beauty and in children there's a wonderful thing in kids but the sinless no no innocent by reason of accountability but not by reason of being so perfect in sinless that's not the case so mankind is sinful and the attempts to try to tell us that we're not sinful really reveal that we are high caged actually so then in Romans goes on in Romans chapter 2 it talks about how not just the world has failed in sin but even the religious people have failed and sinned who are you as soon as you turn and say all the wicked people you point the finger at yourself because you've done the same stuff even the same thing whatever you shake your fist at that other driver for doing you did that five minutes ago we do the same stuff in Romans it continues and it talks about how it all came about it talks about how Adam in Adam we all sin we all fall through Adam and it also continues to talk about what sin feels like and what the psychology of being a Christian is like or assuming of being a human is like who deals with the internal battle of knowing what's right yet doing what's wrong that's Romans seven which my heart wrote goes out in that passage because I'm like man Anatomy or wretched man that I am and I've yet to get past Roman 7 in my old life so it reveals my inability my inability and then Romans 8 now is telling us but God fixed it God fixed it right when the passage we just read it says that what what the law could not do in that it was weak through the sinfulness of our flow should we through the flesh God did the law couldn't make me right with God so God made me right with God the law couldn't because of my sinful weakness in my flesh God fixed the problem restored my relationship with God undid my death sentence by taking it on himself and made a way for me to have a new nature and a new life how did he do it it continues he sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh God sent his own son that's except one he sends his son verse 3 he sent his son how in the likeness of sinful flesh now there was a early Christian Harris that non Christian heresy it really was non Christian called Gnosticism Gnosticism I wouldn't teach you this except it's becoming more and more popular for people who attack the Word of God and attack Christianity to use Gnosticism to do it there are guys like Bart Ehrman who goes around suggesting that the Gnostics were legitimate Christians like they were kind of almost the og Christians you know there was the original Christians and urbio see maybe would be just original Christian there are those who claim that in the early church after after Jesus came and after the Christianity started to spread that there were a whole lot of different versions of Christianity and that you had what they call Christianity's and they like to maximize this now the thing is this is really easy to overcome we have the text of Christianity right here you want to see of Christianity's about go to the text but these people I think their agenda is a little different than that they're trying to pull apart Christianity to deconstruct it in a bad way but notice this that the text here and these epistles from Paul are very early historically extreme earlier than the Gospels actually mostly and what we have here is this statement that God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and the Gnostic heresy one of the things is that Jesus never really had a physical body so in the Gnostic teachings you'd have Jesus and this came out years and years later way after Paul wrote you'd have Jesus walking with you along the beach and there's only one set of footprints instead of two but it's not because he carried you it's because he doesn't leave footprints because he's not really there so his idea that Jesus is like spirit but he has no body because Gnosticism thought that all that is physical is evil and so you know Jesus didn't have this or other Gnostics thought he had to be delivered from this and so then you have Judas helping Jesus by getting him killed to get him out of his body weird creepy stuff that is certainly not biblical certainly not Christianity so Gnosticism denies this when it says here that God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh he comes and he has this flesh it's how he came now if you would turn to Philippians chapter 2 because I want to talk about this this is the theology about Jesus here how is it that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh the Philippians 2 is kind of like one of the chief passages in the scripture about this starting in verse 5 he says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but and this is the part you're supposed to emulate made himself of no reputation you just be humble and have that humble mind of Christ he made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross notice this Jesus is preexistent and then he comes into physical form he's he's equal with God but he comes into physical form so that he might bear our sins he humbles himself he's obedient he dies on the cross for us and if you keep reading in Philippians he's exalted the resurrection his exaltation and so there he is eternally exalted now what's interesting here is Jesus has a pre existence as equal with God whereas we simply start existing in the world that's when I begin to exist Mormons try to get around this particular passage in Mormon teaching Mormons have been taught that everyone had a pre existence and that helps them avoid the idea that Jesus is somehow God in the flesh so they say oh no we're all up there in the sense you know it's equal with God in a sense and then we come down here but this is not the case if Genesis 2:7 it tells us this because if I think about this if we were all pre-existent and Adam was was existing before he was in the garden right but what is Genesis 2:7 say it says and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being he wasn't already a living being he became a living being right there in the garden when God formed him so he didn't come in and have it this body Christ however did camp and inhabited the body because he's pre-existent so we see a clear teaching there that I think would help a woman kind of shake away from some of the theology they've been taught so man was made Christ was sent that's the big difference he was sent so he was sent and that's what verse 3 of Romans says Romans 8:3 God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and that's how he came as sinful flesh that doesn't mean that Jesus sinned we know clearly from Scripture he never sinned but he was tempted and that's the sense though the sinful flesh was the source of temptation it provides temptation for him so then it talks about what happened on the cross it says here in Romans that he condemned sin in the flesh that's an interesting idea God condemned sin in the flesh in what flesh in Jesus is flesh he took on sinful flesh that he might condemn sin in that flesh Jesus in a sense was condemned so that for you there'd be no condemnation for those who are in Christ because the condemnation is already happened and you're not gonna be charged again Isaiah talks about this so if you would turn to Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 actually teaches so much about the meaning and the purpose of the things on the cross that it's actually more clear than many New Testament passages that talk about the cross even though was written hundreds of years before Christ isaiah 53:6 it says all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned away everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all I've all sinned and took all of our sin and laid it upon Jesus he is their substitutionary for us he's experiencing the penalty of our sin Isaiah 53 verse 10 continuous lorry 10 10 through 12 it says yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper his hand so there's a future hope for this offering he dies he suffers he's the you know punished for our sin but then he'll live beyond it and though he rewards verse 11 he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities he's going to carry their sins therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death he will die for their sins not just suffer but die for their sins and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors whatever sin you're thinking to yourself what about this Lord what about that Lord what about this have you paid for that Jesus bore that sin on the cross already he literally was condemned for your sin that's why there can't be condemnation for you because you're in Christ and he was already condemned for you your sin was condemned already think about it think about it this is the glorious liberty of the children of God this is the incredible freedom I have and it doesn't make me want to sin just it just relieves my heart it just encourages my life it just lets me get up and pray I can talk to you God because you really have washed me even though I blew it five minutes ago you've already dealt with it and I just want to be near you want to be close to you I don't want to walk in that but I'm so grateful I've forgiven so if you would turn back to Romans eight and it talks so that's what happened on the cross that sin was condemned in the flesh your sin my sin all sin it was condemned in the flesh on the cross already 2,000 years ago and the results are in verse 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us so righteousness is necessary and I will walk in this righteousness now in a new way by by how by walking in my new nature those who walk according to the spirit not according to the flesh I'm going to walk in the spirit so I'm going to live it out walking in this new nature and as much as I walk in the spirit I'm fulfilling a lot because if I walk in the spirit I will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh so my obsession should be walking in the spirit Lord am i walking in your spirit right now just like the Jews obsession should have been in my obeying God's law am i following Islam I doing what he what he wrote to through Moses to us I should be like Ottoman walking in your spirit love joy peace patience gentleness kindness faith from the self control all these all these wonderful things is this what I'm walking in is this what I'm walking in I want to walk it that's my I should be my obsession now I think in psychology we should actually apply this we should realize that it's not just nature versus nurture it's flesh versus spirit - yeah I've got a nature yeah but I've got a new nature yeah I've been nurtured in experiences you have a guy's nurturing mousse of other things you know and I get to stand in the middle and choose to walk in the spirit not the flesh and if more believers would realize this I think it would change their lives walk in the spirit not the flesh let this be your obsession let it be your step by step constant thing Lord am i walking in your spirit or not does this mean though that I'm earning salvation if I'm walking according to spirit not the flesh verse 4 I'll read it to you again it says that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit we're no longer looking at the law though as how we get saved rather we're looking at obedience as the result of salvation right you couldn't obey before the law couldn't do it because it was weak through your flesh but God gives you a new spirit you now walk in the spirit now you're fulfilling a lot without even looking at it you're just walking in the spirit so that's what it's saying this is this is God saying look I'll save you and then that salvation will impact you and we'll see it in your life and turn to Philippians 2 13 I were bouncing everywhere today but I love getting to pull the threads together so Philippians 2:13 this to me is one of the best verses for capturing how God saves us and then what that looks like in our lives we actually should start in Philippians 2:12 and it says therefore my beloved as you've always obeyed and not in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling we're caught my salvation with fear and trembling this is a verse that's used sometimes out of context to just bash people on the head but the idea is that you're asking like am I really saved so am I really am i living out this salvation but read the next verse it says for it is God it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure so really what I'm doing is I'm not looking to say am i being good enough to be saved what you're doing is saying if I'm saved that I should see the new life in me God working in me too willing to according to his pleasure so the thing is if you look at your life as a Christian and you behind so backslidden all the time my thought is maybe you're not saved but the solution isn't do more good works the solution is get on your knees come to Christ in truth really repent and believe and then he'll work in you to do to will and do according to his good pleasure he'll start to do the work you need the salvation experience so you can have the good works it's it's faith brings salvation and then good works come automatically automagically you might say just good I'll just like you can word automagically when I can so that Philippians 2:13 is a great thing for it's God who works in you both to will in your mind and to do for his good pleasure for is a good pleasure as we're going to continue through Romans 8 I want to I want to do this and kind of take our time a little bit and there are some challenging things that we that we discussed but hopefully you're seeing that there's some themes that are together in Christ themes not only in the book of Romans but throughout the scriptures that are coming together and we master these concepts you are guarded against lies you're gardening it's heresies your guard against false teachings because it breaks the scriptures to believe those things and now that you see how it all holds together it'll hold you together but if there's a word we can we can close with today I think it's this there's no condemnation are you in Christ yeah I'm in Christ then you can't possibly be condemned because who's going to condemn Jesus his righteousness is yours there's no condemnation let's pray father we thank you so much for the grace of Jesus Christ that in Christ there's no condemnation that the sin that I've committed has already been dealt with and condemned on the cross and that I can stand forgiven by the grace of God it's free and it's complete we love you God and we bless your Holy Name and we just pray that we could live it out we want to live it out Lord we want to not not to earn anything but just to say thank you and we love you so help us lord help us to in our hearts know the love and the grace that you've given us and to then live that out in our lives and and let us be people who are motivated by love and walk in the spirit we pray that you refresh us in our minds to be constantly aware of the fact that when we're facing decisions and we face challenges and we face mean people if we face hard stuff in life and stressful situations and things that we find frustrating that at that moment it's a choice between walking in the spirits or walking in the flesh let us be mindful of that spiritual again spiritual dynamic to everything we do in Jesus name we pray amen [Music] [Music] and your [Music]

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 34,816

Rating: 4.8373985 out of 5

Keywords: Mike Winger, BibleThinker, Bible Thinker, Romans, Romans 8, Romans 8:1, textual problem, islam, mormonism, is mormonism predicted in the Bible?, gnosticism, what does it mean to be in Christ?, Law verses Spirit, Christian psychology, conviction or condemnation, no condemnation, in Christ, Gnostic, Islam vs the Bible

Id: CTQanooQImM

Length: 48min 56sec (2936 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 05 2017