Salvation
NB. Sermon preached at St Helen’s Sandal 27 July 2008
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Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
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Salvation
Setting the Scene
When I lived in Durham I once received a parking ticket. There was a lorry parked in the disabled bay so I parked in the truck’s loading bay. I got a ticket, he did not. I was incensed. I took pictures, spoke to witnesses and decided to Challenge the injustice.
Fortunately, the Magistrate was on my side - I received an ‘Absolute discharge’. I felt elated, set free.
In this passage, Paul takes us to the courtroom to give us a 3D picture of our salvation. The scope of Salvation, the scheme of Salvation and the Peace of Salvation
Paul does like the courtroom scene as a way of explaining the meaning of Jesus’s death… so does Nicky Gumbell of the Alpha course.
Anyone who has taken the Alpha course will remember the Week 2 question - Why did Jesus Die? In answering Gumbell quotes from Romans 8:1 there is ‘No Condemnation..in Christ’ because Jesus was condemned in our place.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Paul, in the scene of a courtroom drama, gives us a picture of the scope of our salvation.
The Scope of Salvation
That is the first dimension of our Salvation – the scope of it - there is No condemnation.
Our strength is that we are ‘in Christ’ and like a barrister in a court room drama he explains that the Law cannot be ignored. If Almighty God as supreme judge and perfectly just were to say the Law did not matter –He would no longer be perfectly just, he would no longer be Holy, he would be corrupted by turning a blind eye to the requirements of the law.
But the words of Romans stands us in the dock and the supreme judge says these words ‘there is No Condemnation for those who are in Christ…’
Imagine the Barrister closes his file, walks over to the jury and looks at them to deliver his final summing up….Who can condemns these - when Christ Jesus is at RH of father saying you are not guilty because he has paid the penalty [Parking Ticket Judge on my side]
That’s the 1st … Of the scope of our Salvation – No condemnation.
The 2nd dimension is simply stated in v2 ‘for the law of the Spirit of Life has set me free from the law of sin and death.’ In other words Salvation has delivered us from both the condemnation and the chains of sin, the hold it can have on us – salvation frees us from the power, the chains of sin.
But how did that work out? What was God’s great scheme which did not corrupt him as supreme judge but let the guilty (you and I) go free.
The Scheme of Salvation
Romans 8:3-4 sets out the Scheme of Salvation, in other words, how Salvation is worked out, or accomplished.
We may be inclined to think we’ve heard this all before ‘Jesus died for me on Calvary..’ But there are 3 Dimensions to the scheme of salvation.
1D: God would make the move and 2D: Accomplish Salvation through his Son saving us(v3) and 3D:through his Spirit living with and dwelling within us.
2D: Paul continues with the legal metaphor - telling the early Roman Church (v3) that the law could not save us. Truly if any one of us can live a life of perfect holiness and be faultless in thought and word and deed, always doing what is right, following the right path, keeping the laws and commandments totally, then the law can save us - God could not turn away from our perfection.
So the law’s weakness is not in the law – the weakness is us - the flesh! And because of our weakness and our tendency to sin, salvation can never be achieved by what we have done - no amount of good deeds, good thoughts, or good responses. And that weakness has been there right from the first Adam ‘All have sinned…’ That first Adam broke that harmony between God and those he created in his own image. The lines of communication were broken and we needed someone to come and connect us again.
So the scheme of salvation is that God sent one like us, born like us, to live like us in every way - his life’s challenge was to live a sinless life and then (back to the courtroom drama) to stand in the dock and take the penalty.
3D:Here is the surprise v4 ‘in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us…. who walk in the Spirit.’
The scheme of salvation was not just about restoring the harmony or repairing the lines of communication BUT it was always part of the scheme of Salvation that Jesus would stand in our place to meet the requirements of the law. You see the LAW - The Greek word Paul uses here is not the law of circumcision, food laws, cleansing rituals etc.. the word indicates the Torah (including the 10 Commandments) was meant to make us a Holy people. In Romans Chapter 7 St Paul admitted we are not able to keep the law and NOW we see that the only way to fulfil the law and be a Holy people is by the Holy Spirit living in us dwelling within us - ‘walking according to the spirit’ under the Spirit’s power and control.
Holiness = righteousness = just requirement of the Law.
So the scheme of salvation is this v3 – We are weak (flesh prone to sin) - God sent his son in ‘the likeness of sinful flesh…But v 4 surprises us with another aspect of the scheme of salvation - to fulfil the law in us.
The Peace of Salvation
Peace has strong roots feeding from the waters of salvation, the peace that is beyond our understanding (Philippians 4:7) is God’s gift to us in salvation which helps us stand firm when things do not go well.
Let me Illustrate it in this way - a strong tree rooted in a constant source of water and nourishment - when the storms come the tree may bend and creak but its long deep roots help it withstand attacks.
What may the storms look like? relationship problems, relationship temptations, illness, bereavement, financial storms, power struggles…
And you are rooted in Christ the one who spoke to the storms and even the wind and waves obeyed him – and he can speak to those storms and sa ‘Peace, be still!’
We are talking about life in the Spirit! A life that in the midst of conflicts Jesus has promised that his HS will guide and that peace will be …..
Peace is mentioned here in this Romans passage because our salvation through Jesus Christ returns us to our intended state - living in harmony with God (Genesis 1:27). It was always intended that ‘peace with God’ would be normal.
Ezekiel 37v26 teaches us God made a covenant of peace with us.
Rom 5v1 taught us Jesus restored that relationship ‘we have peace with God.’
Galatians 5v22 teaches us peace is a fruit of the spirit, a natural consequence of living by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:6 has huge meaning.“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Looking again at the trees, there’s a totally different world of trees which is still about being rooted but it is a spiritual world that is unknown to most of the world.
Scientists who study the tropical rainforests tell us about and entirely new ecosystem about 50 feet in the air. Yet, because we're ground-dwellers, we miss it. All you have to do is to look up. In the top canopy of the trees, there is a dense, inter-woven, life-filled zone - 50 feet in the air. There are creatures and networks that never set foot on the ground. There are unique little primates, insects the size of your hand, colourful frogs, beautiful birds and a tapestry of plant life that our grounded-ness keeps us from ever experiencing. We go through life never even knowing it's there. David Attenborough did a programme about the upper arboreal region of the rainforests - moving about get about on a system of pulleys and slides to navigate the tree tops.
Paul in Romans 8:1-11 tells us we can live and know life in a new way – (think of inhabiting the tree canopy) through the indwelling of the Spirit.
This Spirit enables us to live beyond our limitations, to experience the selflessness of Christ first-hand, to serve as he served, to see answers to prayer, to receive gifts of the Spirit, to express God's love to our world. Paul calls this the ‘life of the Spirit.’
The indwelling Spirit enables our souls to both touch the tree tops and touch the hearts of others. You can choose to live your spiritual life close to the ground or you can soar in the Spirit. Which will it be?
Many people have chosen to live on the ground level (way of the flesh) Content to see life as an opportunity to earn enough to get the drinks over the weekend or a mundane peaceful kind of life watching endless TV - it’s not the peace of Salvation.
To live in the Spirit you need to regularly seek, ask for the Spirit to fill you to overflowing. Take time with the Lord to seek the filling of the Holy Spirit. There's no more exciting, adventurous way to go through life.
Jesus invites you to live and experience life through the power of the Spirit. Jesus wants you to make so much of your life in the Spirit.
