PRAY Last week we began to look at the eighth chapter of Romans. I said this chapter contains some of the greatest promises of the Christian faith. Then I focused on the first promise: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I talked about what it means to be “in Christ Jesus” and to be free from condemnation. Today I want to look at the next section of this chapter, roughly the middle third of chapter 8 – verses 12 through 25. However, I have a problem starting in the middle. Paul didn’t finish one thought in verse 11 and begin with a new thought in verse 12. The passage for today is a continuation of the train of thought Paul is following throughout this section of the letter. In the first part of chapter eight Paul contrasted life in the Spirit with life in the flesh. I talked about that last week. For Paul life in the flesh refers to the path of sin. It is a life out of harmony with God’s will. On the contrary, life in the Spirit, the life made possible through faith in Jesus Christ, is pleasing to God. Then Paul says, in verse 9, addressing the Christians in Rome (as well as you and me), “You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Verses 10 and 11 flesh that out a bit and expound on the meaning of being “in the Spirit.” Then with verse 12 Paul returns to the thought expressed in verse 9. So, as you will follow along in your own Bible, I will begin reading with verse 12. Remember Paul has just said, “You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.” (Read Romans 8: 12-25) Paul says, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (v14). This is Good News! Through faith in Jesus Christ we have been adopted by God. We can even call God “Abba! Father!” We have all the rights and privileges of God’s offspring. Furthermore, we are heirs. We have a legal claim, a “God-given right, to all the benefits of God’s kingdom. Paul even says we are “joint heirs with Christ.” We have been recognized by God as brothers and sisters of Jesus. Can you believe that? Are you beginning to see how Paul can say, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”? We are family! We’ve been adopted! We belong to God! We will never be condemned by God, but we may face condemnation from the world. Paul says, just as Jesus suffered, we may also experience suffering. If we are faithful to Jesus, some people may belittle us, even persecute us. If we take a strong stand for the truth, some people may label us as irrelevant, attempt to discredit us, or even silence us. But Paul says whatever suffering we may experience in this world is nothing compared to “the glory about to be revealed to us” (v18). Paul says all of creation is waiting for that glorious day when it, too, will obtain the same freedom we have already obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. Some people get confused by Paul’s use of language in this passage. In verse 14 Paul says, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” – present tense. We are God’s children! In verse 15 Paul says, “You have received a spirit of adoption” – past tense. Through faith we have already been adopted! Then in verse 23 he says, “We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption” – future tense. So which is it? Are we already adopted, or is our adoption a promise to be fulfilled in the future? The answer is “Yes!” We have already been adopted and yet there is still a future dimension to our adoption. This is a great example of the “already but not yet” tension that the Bible teaches about the Christian life. We are God’s children from the moment we profess our faith in Jesus Christ. We are justified, reconciled, and brought into the family of God. But we are not yet God’s children in the way we one day will be, when we gain the full inheritance, when we enjoy perfect holiness in resurrected bodies, and when we are glorified. In light of this tension between the “already but not yet”, we live with hope. God has promised us glory, a glory already existing in heaven for us. But we cannot see it, hear it, or taste it; we simply hope. We live in the present by faith and trust God for the future. That is the essence of hope. This passage contains an amazing promise about our relationship with God. Through faith we belong to God. We are God’s children – adopted, loved, forgiven, and free. I want to speak for a moment about that last word: free. Paul says by faith we have been set free. In verse 2 of this chapter he wrote, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Then in verse 21 he says all creation is waiting to experience the freedom we already have as children of God. On Friday we celebrated the 232nd year of our independence as a nation. I truly believe the driving force behind the Revolutionary War was to win our independence from England so we could be dependent on God. That’s why the founding fathers and mothers of our nation chose to inscribe “In God We Trust” on our currency. Instead of trusting in a human king and human power for their future security, they chose to place their trust in God. I am proud to be an American and I love our country. We owe a deep sense of gratitude to all those who gave their lives to win our freedom and to all those who serve to protect our freedom. Our freedom is a precious gift and we have a responsibility to preserve it for future generations. That means we need to be involved in the political process. We need to communicate with our elected officials. We need to share our ideas and concerns with them and encourage them in their efforts. We also need to be informed and responsible voters. Freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand. We must also never forget to whom we owe ultimate allegiance. An American History teacher posed the following question to her class: “A distinguished foreigner was a big help to the American colonists during the Revolutionary War,” she said. “Can anyone give me his name? One young fellow in the back of the room raised his hand. “It was God,” he said. I did nothing to earn the freedom I enjoy as an American. Neither did you. I was simply fortunate enough to be born in America. I am a citizen by birth. I also have another citizenship and so do you. Through faith in Jesus Christ we are citizens of God’s kingdom. You might say we are citizens by virtue of our rebirth. Through faith in Jesus Christ we have been born again – born into a new kingdom where we are more that citizens, we are children of the King. And we are free! In God’s kingdom we are free from sin, free from guilt, and free from condemnation. And with our freedom in Christ comes a great responsibility. We have a responsibility toward God – to love and serve God faithfully. As the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another” (Galatians 5: 13). We exercise our freedom in Christ by loving others as he loves us and by caring for others as Jesus cares for us. And when we truly love and care for each other, with the love of Christ in our hearts, we become the best example of a citizen this nation can produce. There is one other word in this passage I want us to consider for a moment. The word is “fear”. In verse 15 Paul wrote: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. Is there some fear that is preventing you from enjoying the full freedom of life in Christ? In many ways we live in an age of fear. A businessman carried his brief case into a downtown bank to make a deposit. He set it down as he struck up a conversation with the teller. When he left a few minutes later, he walked out without his brief case. By the time he discovered his mistake, the police bomb squad had evacuated the bank and destroyed his brief case. We live in an age of fear. Sometimes fear is appropriate. Sometimes it is even useful, if you are in real danger and need to escape harm. However, most of the time, most of us aren’t in any real danger. We are more apt to be haunted by anxiety, by worry, or by dread. We worry about our kids, our homes, our jobs, or our retirement. We can find any number of things to increase our level of anxiety. And anxiety comes not from without but from within. Anxiety is fear of the uncertain, the “what if”. Once again the Apostle Paul is right on target. Fear, when it manifests itself as anxiety, is a spirit. It is something we carry around with us on the inside. We have it long before we encounter anything actually worth fearing. It is a condition of the mind, of the heart, of the soul and the only cure is an inner reorientation. So what does Paul suggest? “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.” The cure for anxiety is found in a new sense of identity – a sense of knowing you are a child of God. Psychologists tell us that the most basic need of an infant is the development of a sense of trust. That is also the most basic need we have as adults. If you are plagued by anxiety, put your trust in God. Years ago Bishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote, “Anxiety increases in direct ratio and proportion as [a person] departs from God.” What did Jesus say? In the upper room he said, “Do not let you heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1). And in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus admonished us to not worry about the things of this life, but to strive for God’s kingdom (see Matthew 6: 25-34). So how are we to live as children of God, as heirs of the promise? As brothers and sisters of Jesus we have nothing to fear, for we have been set free. AMEN! |