Session 23 – Romans; Romans 8: Mark Lanier, 01/18/26

ROM 023_Romans P23_PODCAST_011826
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[00:00:00] So I don't know about you, but I have very fond memories of Roswell, New Mexico. Now for some Roswell, New Mexico evokes images of flying saucers. Uh, aliens, um, uh, and, and all. But for me, that's not the case. I was not alive in the 19. Forties, fifties, whenever it was, the early fifties, late forties when supposedly the flying saucer, uh, crashed outside of Roswell, New Mexico.

But I was alive and active in the seventies when I went on a mission trip of sorts with a friend of mine to [00:01:00] Roswell, New Mexico, and I heard Don fto preach a sermon on no condemnation. Out of Romans chapter eight, and that sermon and Don fto, whom I had never met before, blew me away. It blew me away so much that I bought a cassette tape of that sermon.

Now we have some young people in here who may not know what that means. A cassette tape looked like that. Yes, and we could play them in something that looked like that. This was the, uh, Spotify podcast of the 1970s. I got a cassette tape of that and I think I wore it out listening to that sermon. I dare say that now, some 50 years later, [00:02:00] I could give you that sermon, almost word for word.

Yeah, that sermon really formed and shaped me in so many ways, and it came back to my memory as I was preparing to teach this morning on Romans eight, the first four verses. Now, some of you have been so patient waiting for us to get back to Romans, uh, Larry Burgess said to me, are you going to get back to Romans seven today?

I said, no. He said what? I said, I'm gonna go to Romans eight. He said, but I did the homework you assigned from Romans seven, five weeks ago. I said, good, then you've already learned what you needed to learn. So quit belly aching, but I wanted to hear the rest. And I said, well, I'm sorry, but I looked at it [00:03:00] and I decided for me to teach the second part of that class on Romans seven, it would require me to reteach the first part of that class.

'cause nobody's going to have remembered it. And so it just doesn't work. So I'll just kind of pick up with it as we go into Romans eight. And he was not satisfied because he got tired of waiting, and I can understand that because we do reach that point where we want to know the answer to the question in Romans seven, but the answer's coming in Romans eight.

So don't fret about it. We'll still pick back up that big question in Romans seven is are we powerless against sin? And remember that cry in Romans seven where Paul said, wretched man that I am, who will [00:04:00] deliver me from this body of death now. In Romans seven, when you get to verse 25, Paul gives a hint of what is to come.

He speaks of the rescue that comes in Christ when he says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we're going to pick back up in Romans for the first time in five or six weeks, but that requires us to just make a brief look back. So we'll look in that rear view mirror and we'll just remember some of the basics we need to, so that we're in the flow and context of Romans chapter eight.

We'll do it quickly. Romans one, 16 and 17 is Paul's theme [00:05:00] for the entire book of Romans. If you, if you wanna reduce Romans down to two verses, you can reduce it down to this theme or Proprio in Latin. This is his, his his theme. That is a short, pithy statement that will explain what the whole rest of the book.

Elucidates or elongates or explains, and this says very succinctly. I am not embarrassed by ashamed, by feeling poorly about the gospel. The gospel, a key Pauline word that Paul uses in some ways, I believe uniquely among the New Testament writers. Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. The gospel is God's power.[00:06:00]

To save everyone who has faith, everyone who believes, everyone who trusts all legitimate ways to translate duo the verb here. God's the gospel is God's power to save everyone who has trusting faith. The Jew first chronologically. It came to the Jews first, but then it also went out into the Greek world because in the gospel, in it, in the gospel, the righteousness.

It's a word that includes the, the, the justice of God, the, the, the, the, not just good behavior, but the consistency, the, the, the [00:07:00] judicial appropriateness of God. The righteousness of God is shown. It's revealed, it's made apparent. It's made visible from faith, belief to belief. Faith, as it's written in Habakkuk, the righteous shall live by faith.

Now, I said gospel is a unique word in the way Paul uses it, in that for Paul, the gospel is something that's not just good news, but the best news. The greatest news there is, and the greatest news there is, is that Jesus Christ died, was buried and resurrected on our behalf. And that's what Paul means when he says gospel.

So when Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the [00:08:00] gospel, he, you can write in your Bible, draw a picture of the cross as long as you understand the empty tomb as part of that picture. Paul's not ashamed of the fact that Jesus had to die for him. There would've been a lot of Jews in his day who would find that shameful.

He doesn't need to die for me. I'm actually pretty good. A lot of lawyer Jews like the one that tested Jesus, that pastor preached on this morning, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Just give me the list and I'll do it. Paul says, doesn't shame me Jesus had to die for me, because that's the only way anybody's gonna be in, in God's forgiveness, in God's righteousness.

So some people say, yeah, but the word gospel means more than that. I think the word gospel, some writers will say means, [00:09:00] let's see. It means, uh, God's graciousness. Gospel is, is that God is gracious, that God loves you. That's surely the good news. God loves you, or it's God's mercy. God is merciful. So the gospel is, is God's mercy and and his expression of mercy to you.

Or some will say the gospel is the new life that we have with all that, that means. Or, uh, the fellowship that we enjoy. That's the good news is we're all now one body. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. Surely that's the good news. I would suggest to you that when Paul speaks of the gospel and he's using a singular noun there, when Paul is talking about the good news, he's talking about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and yes.

That is part of [00:10:00] God's graciousness. It's an expression of it. It's an expression of his mercy. It's an expression of our new life. It's what draws us in fellowship. All of those are spokes from the wheel hub. And the hub of the wheel is the good news in Paul's language. This is why Paul in one Corinthians two can say, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And he puts that in front of a book where he talks about fellowship, the Lord's supper, spiritual gifts, new life, God's mercy, how we live with each other, sexual morality, speaking in tongues. He talks about all of those things. In a book where he says, I resolve to know nothing except Christ and him crucified, because that's the center, that's the hub.

And so when we look back at this, I'm not ashamed of the death, burial, and resurrection of [00:11:00] Christ because the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is God's power to save everyone who has faith. In the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the righteousness of God is revealed. We can see God's righteousness.

This revealed is the same word that's used for Revelation, the Book of Revelation, apocalyp. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's unveiled, it's apparent for all to see. It is on display in the death and resurrection of Christ. God's very own righteousness is on display from [00:12:00] faith to faith. That might mean from the faith of Christ to our faith.

It might mean from faith at the beginning of our last, uh, life, uh, of faith, walk to the end. It's a bit ambiguous, but there's no doubt that just as the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to in it, the righteousness of God is revealed in the cross. So also the righteous will live by faith in the cross.

Now, Paul moved on from that to begin his discussion explaining God's principles of judging. God as a judge, and his principles are pretty simple in Lubbock talk. If you live right, great. If you don't uhoh, that's God's principles of judgment. You live [00:13:00] right. You don't make any mistakes. Everything's golden.

You mess up. Everything's tragic. And then Paul goes on to apply it to the Gentiles, but he doesn't apply it just to the Gentiles. He applies it to the Jews as well. The Gentiles don't have the Old Testament law, the Torah, the Jews do have and live under the Old Testament law, but for both of them, there is ultimately perishing.

Because what's really true about the, the reality of this life and our existence is that we are sinners universally. Paul, in Romans three then quotes the psalms. There's no one righteous, not even one. No one does a good deed. Not even one. We all universally are sinners. [00:14:00] And so because of that, Paul makes this pivoting turn.

Just when you think it's desperate. Just when you think no one has a chance, Paul says, but now noy day. But now the righteousness of God has been shown. It's been manifested. It's been demonstrated. It has come into being apart from the Torah. Even though the Torah and the prophets talked about it coming, and this is the cross of Christ, this is the gospel.

This is that event in history. This is the event that takes the desolation of judgment under sin and transforms it into a new life. And then Paul spends Romans chapter four and five explaining that this was never [00:15:00] some small keyhole that was tucked away in the Old Testament. It wasn't like, Hey, I found this little passage over here that kind of indicates it.

Paul says, this is the entire vision of the Old Testament. This is the scope of it. This is the point of the Old Testament to tell you that someone is gonna be coming, who's gonna take care of the sin problem, who's gonna make you right with God, not based upon your own performance? And that's the point of the Old Testament.

And Paul says, so that's the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That's the gospel. That's the good news. And look at how it translates into your life. As we move into Romans six, he says, you also, when you affiliate with Christ, you died and you died to the dominion that sin had over you. [00:16:00] So you shouldn't live letting sin be your boss because you have died with Christ.

You have been crucified with Christ. He says in Galatians two, he says, you have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, you're alive, but it's not you anymore. Christ lives within you and the life you live in. This flesh. You're living by faith in the son of God who loved you and gave himself for you. And so when you're sitting there and you're looking at your life, you realize, I know what is right.

I know it, and I want to do what's right,

but I can't. And it's that understanding. That can prompt that Romans seven question, [00:17:00] wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. I know what's right, but I don't do it. I wanna do what's right, but I don't do it. I simply can't live the way I would like to live. Who will rescue me?

Who will deliver me? Help me please. Now, some people who understand this desperation just turn numb to it by ignoring it. Some people who understand this inability to be who we would like to be, who we know God wants us to be. Some people just say, well, I can never please him anyway, [00:18:00] and they just dive off the deep end.

Paul says There is an answer here. We are trapped in this. World of this body of death. But there is an answer here, and that answer is through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So God's principles of judgment never changed, but there is a transition that has taken place because Christ has borne the penalty. And that transition is the great news.

It's the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ not only reveals God's righteousness, but manifests that righteousness in us through faith. With that, [00:19:00] we get to this passage that there is, therefore now no condemnation. I'd like to read these first four verses with you and then we'll get into it in some depth.

There is, therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The law because for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus. From the law of sin and death for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not [00:20:00] according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Now we are at a point where I would like to take this apart with you. Let's take these verses apart and I'll tell you where we're gonna sit today. Today we're gonna sit on the reality of condemnation, and then we're gonna move our seat to the declaration of no condemnation, and we will finish today with the explanation of how God did it.

So let's start with the reality of condemnation. The verse begins, there is therefore now no condemnation. No condemnation. Now this word condemnation. Kama in the Greek. This is a, a court word. See, I get the joy of teaching this as a lawyer who makes a living in courtrooms. I leave tomorrow morning for la.

We've got pretrial this [00:21:00] week and then a week from. This week. So next week, not, not the week we're in right now with Sunday is the first day of the week. Next week we start picking a jury in the first social media addiction case to get tried in the us I'll be trying the case in Los Angeles. Yeah. Pray for me.

Uh, you, you, you, you have not lived till you've tried to battle meta. Who owns Instagram? Google Who owns YouTube and TikTok. Um, uh, the judge has ordered that Mark Zuckerberg has to come live to be one of the witnesses I cross examine. It's gonna be, um, a, a very attentive case, but this is against very powerful companies and I appreciate your prayers.

Uh, I still hope to be back on weekends to teach, so, um, uh, pray for that as well, but condemnation. Crema, [00:22:00] it's a court word in antiquity. In the ancient Roman courtrooms, this is a word, it's a courtroom metaphor that Paul's using that's translated condemnation, but it actually means a little bit more than that in the ancient Roman courts, which actually typically took place outside, they were attended.

I mean, it was a you. You gotta remember, this is before tv. So, I mean, people couldn't stay at home and watch tv. No Netflix, no Amazon Prime. You want some entertainment? Go watch. You don't, you don't watch Matlock. You go watch the courts outside and they would, they would go attend. But the crema. The crema was not simply a condemnation.

It included the accusation made against the person on trial. It [00:23:00] included the verdict and it included the sentence. So when Paul says there is therefore now no condemnation, he means there's no accusation that can be made against you. There's no verdict that can be assessed against you, and there is no sentence to be imposed upon you.

It's over before the trial starts.

Now, I told you before in Romans chapter two and three, Paul established universal sinfulness in Romans eight, one. Paul is setting up universal condemnation. There is condemnation outside of Christ Jesus. Us

over the holidays I had a chance to speak at New Orleans Baptist Seminary. They have a, a conference, uh, on [00:24:00] defending the faith each year. It's a kind of an apologetics conference, and the topic that I was given to speak on is God is good, but is he always good?

Um. If you read the works of Richard Dawkins, he wrote The God Delusion. Uh, I think Ill fought out book. I don't, I don't find it to be logically very good. Um, he's a, a, not just an atheist himself, but he's, um, evangelistic in his atheism. He tries to draw everyone into a world of unbelief. And in this book, Richard Dawkins says The following, the God of the Old Testament is, quote, arguably the most [00:25:00] unpleasant character in all fiction.

As he calls the Bible, he says he's jealous. Speaking of God, jealous and proud of it. A petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak. A vindictive blood thirsty ethnic cleanser. A misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal phili, Phil Cidal. Uh, that's, uh, siblings. Pestilential mega Megalomaniacal sadomasochistic capriciously malevolent bully,

and he cites these Old Testament stories in support.[00:26:00]

Now, this is not a question of whether or not those Old Testament stories are there. They are. Yeah, but the question is what do they tell us about God's character, what Dawkins claims, or something very different? I would suggest that these stories in these texts, in the whole of scripture teach us that there is divine wrath that is love's necessary response to evil.

And that God is working toward the ultimate healing of all creation. And, and that's what God is about here. This is not the God of the Old Testament, is all of those things. This is a, an expression that we see of divine wrath that is a necessary [00:27:00] response of love to evil. Now, there are texts that we can't ignore, and I don't ignore these texts.

I have no trouble talking about the conquest of Canaan, where God seems to indicate if you read it normally, go into AI and just kill every man, woman, and child.

Now, inherent in that is every man, woman, and child who hasn't fled ahead of time because he's given him a chance to flee or hasn't sat down and said We'd like to become, uh, followers of Yahweh, but it's there. I, the flood narrative is in scripture where God wipes out all of humanity, including the infants save Noah and his family.

The plagues of Egypt are there where God kills the firstborn.

Za reaches his hand out because the ox drawn [00:28:00] cart is about to drop. The, the arc of the covenant and when he touches it, za is no more. Those texts are in the Bible and when we approach those texts, we, we can reject certain answers, including the answer of Dawkins, but there are more bad answers we should reject.

Some people say, well, that's the Old Testament, not the New Testament. Let's don't hitch our wagon to the Old Testament in some neo marcionite way. You know, Marcian was an early church heretic who said the God of the Old Testament's different than the God of the New Testament. No. All I can say to someone who thinks that is read Acts chapter five in the story of Anais and Saria.

Yeah, that's when the early church is [00:29:00] selling everything they've got, holding it in common and deny us. In Sari, they sell a piece of real estate, and Deia comes in and says, here, it's part of the money, but he doesn't give all the money. Just give some of it. And Peter says, why are you lying to the Lord?

Why are you lying to the Holy Spirit? And Ananias drops dead. Then a few hours later, his wife comes in not knowing what all happened. Peter says, uh, Hey, uh, did y'all really sell it? Give all the money to the church? She says, uh oh yeah, and she lies too. And she drops dead. Now, I mean, think about that story for a moment.

What did they not do? Nobody there stole church funds. Nobody there committed adultery. They didn't murder anybody. What did they do? They sold a piece of property [00:30:00] and they, not only, that's a good thing, they not only sold a piece of property, they gave money to the church, but they pretended they gave it all and they lied about it, and they dropped dead.

Now that's worthy of some teaching and explanation, but I tell you, don't say that. It is just the Old Testament, not the New Testament. When you see these problematic passages about the wrath of God, don't give the answer. Well, those are primitive cultural expressions. We've outgrown. That was a Jewish caveman talk.

No. Jesus said, if anyone won't receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that town and another place, he says, it's gonna be better for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for them. [00:31:00] Don't answer it with, well, the people just misunderstood God, and they wrote it up with a misunderstanding.

It's in too many texts and it's in too many places. I wanna suggest to you there's a problem here, but the problem is not the text. Here's the problem. We're trying to rescue God from something. Scripture never treats as a problem that needs explanation.

Scripture never treats as a problem that God is actively opposed to evil. In fact, scripture, the biblical writers, they don't apologize for God's wrath. They celebrate it. Think about the Psalm seven 11 passage. God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day. See these passages show we are the problem.

It's not [00:32:00] God. We have lost the category of evil that's serious enough to warrant divine judgment. CS Lewis said it this way. The problem with reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word love, and we look on things as if.

We are the center of everything, or as they say in England, the center, but they spell it sentry. For reasons I've never understood. Lewis uses a veterinarian, but I'll take this his metaphor a bit further and use it as a surgery metaphor. Her when the doctor causes pain to someone by cutting out the cancer.

When we pray for Dr. Hank, when the surgeon causes pain by cutting out [00:33:00] the cancer, that's not the surgeon being an evil, wicked person. She or he as a surgeon is doing the loving thing. There is a logic to divine wrath if we understand it, and the logic is quite simple. God's wrath is not the opposite of his love.

Wrath is the form his love must take. In a world that's corrupted by evil, God's wrath is real. Paul has used the word over and over in Romans. In Romans one 18, the wrath of God is revealed. Present tense is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. It's a very real thing.

And then in Romans two, five, he says, you're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will [00:34:00] be revealed. So wrath is real. And Paul didn't dream this up. You know, the most famous verse in the New Testament probably is John three 16. God so loved the world. He gave his only son that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.

But the last verse in that chapter, verse 36. Whomever believes whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son that obey, um, uh, uh, whoever does not obey, the son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains Mena. It remains on him. And that's present tense. It's on the wrath of God is real.

There is a reality of condemnation. God does not to to use a Lubbock expression. God does not truck with evil. It just doesn't get to ride with him.[00:35:00]

But then Paul takes this to another place because Paul says there is, therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. No wrath. We escape. And every word is loaded here. Paul begins with the word udin. Therefore, and it's because of everything he's written in Romans so far. Because of God's principles of judgment, because of the death of Christ, because of what he did.

Taking on our sins and paying the sentence because the accusation that belongs on us went on him because the verdict that belongs on us went on him because the sentence that belongs on us went on him. We don't get accused. We don't get a verdict. We don't get condemnation. There is none therefore. [00:36:00] There is none.

No udin actually is. No, uh, I said, therefore, I don't know what I'm thinking. No, none. Nothing. Not any. It's an emphatic word for none. It's not just, Hey, there's none. It's like, none. Underscore write it, circle it, draw it with a red line, and put stars next to it. None. Zero. Zip. Not a n. None. Zero gone. And he puts it first on, because that's the way, you know in, in our Bibles just happened to have a Baylor study Bible here in our Bibles.

We can look at this and we can say, wow, look at that. No. No, look at that. No. [00:37:00] Whoa, whoa. No. Zip

nil. NA

zero. There is no, but in Greek they couldn't do that. So in Greek, if they wanted to do that, what they did instead is they would put it in a position in the sentence where it stands out. Like, first word, none. Zip, not a zero, nothing. Therefore, that's the R noon. Uh, no condemnation for those who are in.

Christ Jesus. None. Therefore, for those who are in Christ Jesus because of everything we've said, none [00:38:00] for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now that in Christ Jesus, that's a very Paul word. Paul uses that phrase, phrase over 160 times in his writings. What does he mean in Christ Jesus. He means we, we are U Union in Union with Christ.

We're united with him. We're in him. We're not just following his example, though we do. We're not just believing his teachings, though we do. We're not just admiring his character, though we do. We are united with him. We are one with him. Paul has already said in Romans six, we died with him. We were buried with him.

We were raised with him. We are wedded to him. [00:39:00] That's what it is. We are in union with Christ. We are in Christ, and there is zero zip, not a nail knock condemnation for those who are in Christ. For those who are united with him. Paul says it this way in second Corinthians, for our sake, God made Jesus to be sin, even though Jesus knew no sin, so that in him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God.

See, you got two scenarios here. Scenario one, scenario two, look at scenario one. Scenario one, is this an accusation you've sinned, a verdict, you're guilty, A sentence, wrath, death, condemnation, [00:40:00] or scenario two. Scenario two, accusation. Your sins are on Christ.

Verdict. Christ took your guilt judgment. Christ paid your penalty. There is no condemnation. There's none, and it's not because you're good enough. You are not,

and it's not because you are. Working hard enough. You're not,

and it's not because no condemnation, because you've earned it. You couldn't, there is no condemnation because Christ was condemned in your [00:41:00] place. That's the truth. And if we don't live in the truth. We will not live the life that God gives us to live. We have to walk in the truth. There is no condemnation because you are hidden inside Christ.

This is the reality. God sees his righteousness in you, his Christ's righteousness. God looks at you. Yeah, but I messed up. No God, that's not what God sees. He sees the righteousness of Christ in you. And if we'll live in that reality, the world takes on a whole real new meaning because the enemy's primary tactic is to lie to you.

His primary tactic is to tell you, oh, forget that Romans eight, one [00:42:00] stuff. No condemnation. Oh, that doesn't apply to you. Because you are not good enough. That doesn't apply to you. You sin again, same one, same sin. What's your problem? You're probably not even saved. It doesn't apply to you. You are still struggling.

God knows it. Too disgusting. Who could love you? I mean, that's. The accusation, but what's the truth? The truth is I never was worthy. That's why I'm in Christ and not out there standing on my own. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I'm in Christ Jesus. And so when guilt and condemnation assault [00:43:00] you, you just say Romans eight, one out loud.

There is, therefore, based on Christ's word, death bear, and resurrection of Christ, the gospel. In this present moment, there is nothing absolutely zero, no condemnation, none whatsoever for me because I am in Christ Jesus. And that is what Paul's declaring here. And then he goes on to explain a little bit more about how God did it.

He says, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. And Paul's having a ball here because he's making all these puns off of law. The law, the nomos, it can mean the Old Testament, specifically the Torah law. The laws that, uh, Genesis are in, are in really Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and [00:44:00] Deuteronomy.

That, that law system, that can mean the law, but law can also just mean the principle, the, the idea of of, of a principle, like the law of thermodynamics, like the law that says to every action there's an equal and opposite reaction or the law of substitution in mathematics if X plus one equals three. It means X is two.

Wait, I may mess this up if I don't show it to myself. You always show your mouth, right? Um, x plus one equals three. If that is true, then I can say X plus two equals four, right? 'cause X is clearly gonna be two, right? That's a law of substitution. [00:45:00] In mathematics, I think they may call it something else now.

They reinvent math every 10, 15 years just so parents can't help kids with their homework. Um,

but he's playing these puns on the word law. And then there's Greco Roman law or Roman law actually in his time period in, in, where he is writing Roman law. But he's making these puns off law, the law of the spirit of life. The principle of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of you sin and you die.

And that can be the Torah law or that can be another law. That can be a principle law as well, because they're both equally true. He says, for God has done what the law and here he clearly means the Torah law. See, he's having all these play words on law. God has done what the [00:46:00] law weakened by. The fact we just aren't strong enough.

Could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He wasn't sinful, but he was in the likeness of sinful flesh and he sent him four sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. So that God's righteousness of the law, again, a law pun word here, might be fulfilled in us who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Now, Paul's got some loaded terms in here that I hope we'll talk about next week. If not, Larry can do his homework and I'll just skip over it and he'll get upset. But Paul's got buzzwords here. Flesh. Spirit, uh, law, and we need to look at what those are, but Paul is making clear this [00:47:00] understanding that the law.

Of the spirit of life in Christ has set me free from the law of sin and death. JB Phillips was an Anglican bishop who translated the New Testament, I think in the 1950s and sixties, and I loved his translation of Romans eight, two because he translated the law of sin and death as the vicious, um, uh oh.

How do you spell vicious? See, that's the thing about these Anglican bishops, they use words that we can't spell. VI see, I see. I-O-U-I-O-U-S. Yeah, that's the other way to spell it. Um,

he calls it a vicious cycle of sin. [00:48:00] It is like

you sin and it just leaves you feeling dead, so you sin again and it just leaves you feeling dead and you sin again. You know, it's the person who's deep in debt, so they go out and buy everything they can. 'cause I mean, they're already so deep in debt. Might as well, you know, what am I gonna do? I don't have any money.

I'm deep in debt. I think I'll go shopping. Um, it's that mentality that we have. You know, I, I, I can't control myself anyway. I might as well do X, Y, z. I've got no shot. I already know I have no self-control. I might as well just dive off the deep end. It's that type of sin that produces death in us. Is what JB Phillips was talking about.[00:49:00]

So we'll pick up next week, God willing, but today we need points for home.

Point for home. One, let's own what we deserve. Our gratitude to the Lord will be a whole lot more when we're honest about what we deserve. Our appreciation for the good news will be a whole lot more when we own what we deserve. When we recognize that none is righteous, no, not one, and we own what we deserve.

There's a reason why in the Biblical New Testament picture of salvation. Over and over. You see the call to repent, to repent. [00:50:00] If you take a moment, I've got a minute I can do this. Think back about Acts chapter two for a minute. That's when the Holy Spirit descends on Pentecost and Peter gets up and preaches this riveting sermon using the Joel passage as his text.

And here's what Peter says. Jesus Christ was the son, is the son of God, the unique Messiah, the one for thousands years plus. We wanted, we've praying for him. We've been saving him a seat at the table. We've been on the lookout. He is the Messiah and you killed him. Do you realize you killed the son of God?

You have killed the son of God and he's back.[00:51:00]

How you feel about that? And that's what causes everybody to fall on their knees and say, oh no, what, what, what? What do we do now? And Peter says, repent, shoo in the Old Testament Hebrew language. Turn around. Repent. Repent. Be baptized into the death Bureau of Resurrection of Christ. Start anew every one of you.

Repent. Own it. Own it. Own what we deserve, but don't stop there, please, let's finally believe the truth. Because the truth of the matter is now there's no condemnation. Jesus died for us. There's no condemnation in the full sense of that word. There's no accusation. That can be levied against us. There's no [00:52:00] verdict that can be levied against us.

There's no sentence that can be levied against us. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And if we will live from that truth, live from the truth that the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set us free, it will transform our ability to walk in victory in this world.

Yes, it will absolutely transform who we are. It'll transform how we treat others. It'll transform how we treat ourselves, how we treat the Lord. It will transform everything as God continues to work, to bring this creation to its final place.

Amen. Amen. Let me pray over you. Lord, we lift up to you this truth [00:53:00] with gratitude in our hearts gratitude, Lord, because we know how inadequate we are on our own. We know that we sin against you indeed, in thought, in motive, in intent, over and over and over again Lord.

Yet we stand in the solid truth that all that we have done and all will ever do wrong, has been forgiven through the blood of Jesus and with truly eternal gratitude and praise on our lips. We, we thank you and I pray specifically, Lord, that all who hear this message will not let the enemy. Defeat them in their walk today with baseless accusations, [00:54:00] but that we will walk in the victory that is ours through the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, in whom we pray and amen.

Amen.