Grace to You :: esp Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time

Winning the Battle Against Sin, Part 2

Scripture: Romans 8
Code: 81-67

Let’s turn to the Word of God, Romans chapter 8. Now I taught some in Romans 8 back in 2012
early in the year, and eight years have gone by and I always feel sooner or later every new iteration,
every new generation of Grace Community Church needs to be given the gift of this chapter; so
that’s why we’re going to start a series in chapter 8 now. I really don’t have any idea how long it will
go. It will go until we have done our best to exhaust the glorious truths in this incredible chapter.

Back in 1969 when I first came, I had, as you heard from Michael, the first Sunday here was
February 9th. This is Year 51. I know many of you were hoping 50 would have been it, but I’m back.
So that first year of 1969 was not the first time I preached here on February 9th. I had preached back
in November to the church before they had asked me to be the pastor. And that evening that I was
here, the first time I ever came and was in the chapel, I basically preached from Romans 6, 7 and 8. I
had been spending the summer working on it, and I was so loaded with it that I actually preached for
an hour-and-a-half. And I didn’t realize it. Patricia said to me after that sermon, “Well there goes that
church.” And I was so into these three chapters and unpacking them. But they did come back and
ask me to come back the next week and preach again, so I was grateful for that. And the next week
there was a huge clock on the back wall just to help me move along a little more conscious of reality.

I confess to you that I can get lost in the Bible pretty easily, and certainly in Romans 6, 7 and 8.
There will be many truths in this eighth chapter that you are well aware of, but I will be happy to
again put you in remembrance of things, because they are the source of our gratitude, joy, and
worship. There will be some things in this chapter that will be fresh to you as we move through. But
all in all, this is the greatest chapter of promises containing the greatest promises that you can find in
any single chapter in the Bible.

Every Christian should know this chapter and know it well. It should be the source of constant
encouragement and divine comfort. We should all live and love and worship and serve in the glorious
truths of this shining diamond of grace. And more than any chapter in the New Testament it details
the gracious work of the Holy Spirit for the redeemed people who belong to the Father because they
were purchased by the Son and are now empowered by the Spirit. Romans 8 is the believer’s
treasure house of blessing through time and into eternity.

We have heard much about God the Father. We have heard much about Christ the Son. And now
we will learn about the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Really can be broken into very simple parts.
The two great works of the Spirit are to sanctify us and to bring us to glory, to sanctify us and to bring
us to glory. All that the Father planned, all that the Son provided is produced by the Holy Spirit.
Mastering and understanding of this chapter with all of its profound gracious realities will elevate your
love for and worship of God the Holy Spirit. We will draw from this chapter in unparalleled knowledge
of the kindness of God through Christ by the Spirit as He has granted us all spiritual blessings in the
heavenlies. This study will prevent us from all the bizarre and dishonorable things that are heaped
upon the Holy Spirit by false teachers who take His holy name in vain with their folly. But more than
just protecting us from that, it will give us cause for worship and gratitude and love and joy in the light
of the work of the Spirit secured for us by grace.

Now chapter 7 closed on a very negative note, as we saw last week. Let me go back to verse 21 of
chapter 7. Paul as a believer faces a struggle. He knows that sin is present in him. He says that:
“The principle of the reality that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.” And there he
sets up the Christian’s battle. The new man, the inner person, desires to do good, loves the law of
God, loves God, loves righteousness.

But there is another principle, another operative principle, another reality, and it is sin, so that Paul
says in verse 22, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.” The new creation, the new
man joyfully concurs with the law of God.

But verse 23, “I see a different law” – or a different principle, he means, a different operating power –
“in the members of my body, waging war against the principle, the operative power of the work of
righteousness in my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”
There’s a sense in which he identifies himself as being righteous and loving the law of God and
desiring to honor God and serve God. That’s the real him. That’s the real “I.” “But in my body, in my
members” – my unredeemed and fallen flesh – “the principle of sin still operative.”

In verse 24 he speaks of his frustration: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body
of this death?” It’s as if he has a corpse attached to himself. He’s a new creation, but strapped to him
is a dead corpse. “Is there someone to set me free?” he says.

Verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He knows that he will be set free from
this struggle. He knows there will be a day when this struggle is over, this war has ended. But until
then, he says, “So then, on the one hand I myself” – the real “I” – “with my mind am serving the law
of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” He distances the new inner man from the
flesh, and he says, “The real me serves the law of God, but my flesh which hangs on like a corpse,
the law of sin.” That is a very despairing reality, and all of us live in it as believers; we understand
that. And that might induce fear that somehow with this wretchedness clinging to us, this corpse, this
carcass strapped to us, we would lose the battle and forfeit our salvation.

There are many people who would teach that. But Paul rushes to tell us in chapter 8 with these
words: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s what we
needed to hear. That is the good news.

In spite of the fierceness of the battle, in spite of the fact that we consider ourselves in a sense to be
wretched. And you say, “Well, Paul is a mature believer. Why does he consider himself to be
wretched?” And the answer is because the more mature you are, the more wretched you know
yourself to be. Another way to say that is, as you grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, as you
go through the process of sanctification, you will sin less and you will behave more righteously.

The problem is that even though you sin less and are more righteous, you’ll feel worse, because to a
righteous person, to a sanctified person, sin is worse. Sees by its own righteous eyes the real
odiousness of sin. A new believer might understand that there are new righteous impulses, but will
not understand the sinfulness of sin, because righteousness hasn’t developed enough for him to see
the sinfulness of sin against the backdrop of sanctification. So it is the case that as you grow in grace
and as you sin less and are more righteous, you will feel worse, on the one hand. But on the other
hand, you will feel better because you understand how bad sin is, you understand how great grace
is. Those who are far along in that sanctification process who really see the sinfulness of sin and see
the magnificence of grace have reached the mature ability to worship.

So here’s the good news. The battle is fierce. You have a corpse attached to you as a believer until
the redemption of the body, which we’ll learn about in the eighth chapter. You’re going to be serving
the law of God with your inner man, but you’re also going to have sin operative in your flesh. But the
good news, the news you want to hear above all other news is there is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. That is a statement that says you are secure, you are secure.

This is the good news. You will never be condemned. You will fight the battle. You will be victorious.
On occasions, you will fail, succumb to temptation. You will always feel like you are bearing about a
certain kind of wretchedness. But fear not, you will never be condemned. That is the good news.
Another way to say it is, justification is forever. Salvation is forever. This is to give us confidence
even in our struggle. And that confidence and that no condemnation reality is secured to us by the
work of the Holy Spirit.

Now what does the Holy Spirit do for us? This is what we’re going to see in the eighth chapter. He
gives us life. He sets us free from judgment. He enables us to keep God’s law. He changes our
nature. He empowers us over temptation. He confirms our adoption as sons. He creates a longing for
eternal glory, He intercedes for us according to the will of God, He conforms us to Christ, and He
brings us to heaven. He does all of that, so we are secure. And that’s why starting in verse 31 you
have this unparalleled portion of Scripture that gives us the full promise of our security: “No
condemnation. Who can say anything against us if God is for us? If God already didn’t spare His
Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who
condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” and he lists
things. “But in all these things” – verse 37 – “we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
The conclusion: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That explains what it means, that we’re under no condemnation. It starts out with a simple statement:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ.” And it ends up with all that is in
verses 31 to 39, culminating in verses 38 and 39: “Nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No condemnation. That is the best news, isn’t it? We are
secure in Christ. That is the good news. The battle with sin rages, but we will never be condemned.

Think about that. Every human being is a sinner who stands condemned. Every sinner, every human
being coming into the world is a child of wrath, a son of Satan, with no resource in himself or herself
to change that inevitable judgment, to escape condemnation, death, and hell. There’s nothing in any
human being that can merit an alteration of his inevitable status. The sword will fall in judgment,
unless that sinner is in Christ. For those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation.
That is the greatest promise that we could ever receive, is it not? Every, every believer has that
promise: never will you be condemned. And that is secured for you by the will of the Father through
the work of the Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit. No condemnation. What an incredible,
incredible promise.

By the way, the Word of God is filled with condemning statements. “The soul that sins, it shall die.
The wages of sin is death. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. Fear not
those who destroy the body, but Him who destroys soul and body in hell where there’s weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

The Word of God is filled with threats of condemnation and judgment against those who do not know
God, who do not obey God. And that condemnation is not singular; but in reality it’s sort of triple
condemnation. There is a foundational condemnation; we find that in chapter 5 of Romans and verse
12: “Therefore, just as through one man” – Adam – “sin entered into the world, and death through
sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” First of all, we’re under condemnation
because of the sin of Adam. The whole human race fell. We have all inherited Adam’s condition.
That’s the first level of sin.

Verse 16, it says, “Judgment arose” – in the middle of the verse – “from one transgression resulting
in condemnation.” Says it again in verse 18: “So then as through one transgression there resulted
condemnation to all men.” You’re born into the world condemned because you’re condemned in
Adam. That’s the first reality. Condemnation comes because you are a child of Adam.

But there’s a second level of condemnation. In Romans chapter 3 it says, “Condemnation is just,” –
the end of verse 8. “Their condemnation is just.” You might say, “Well look, why should I be
condemned because of something Adam did?” But the truth of the matter is that condemnation is just
for this reason, same chapter. Verse 9: “We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all
under sin.” You’re not only condemned in Adam because you’ve inherited the effect and the result of
his sin, but you’re under sin, and it’s clear. “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one;
there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together
they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an
open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in
their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’
Now we know that whatever the Law says,” – the Law of God – “it speaks to those who are under the
Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”

Here’s the second problem. You’re not only condemned because you’re in Adam, you’re condemned
because you constantly break God’s Law. This is a deeper condemnation. That’s why condemnation
in Adam is just, because following Adam we violate the Law of God. “There’s none righteous, not
even one.” And verse 20 says, “By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for
through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” The Law just shows you what sin is, it doesn’t deliver
you from it.

So condemnation at the first level is because you were born a sinner, inheriting the effects of Adam’s
sin. Secondly, you are a violator of God’s Law, and you do that and nothing else. All human beings
cannot do anything righteous or anything truly good that would satisfy God’s perfect Law.
But there is yet a third level of condemnation. It’s a serious level. Go to John chapter 3. This too is
profound. Here it is, John chapter 3, verse 15, “so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
In whom? In the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” You believe
in Him, you will not perish, you will not be condemned.

“For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be
saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe has been
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This
is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than
the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and doesn’t come to
the Light.” You’re condemned already because you don’t come to the Light. You’re condemned
already because you don’t believe in the Son of God.

Every sinner is condemned by virtue of the sin of Adam. Every sinner is doubly condemned because
he is a constant violator of God’s Law. And every sinner is triply condemned because he doesn’t
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a deep and profound and unalterable condemnation,
unalterable as far as the power of man is concerned.

This is the human reality. This is biblical anthropology. Religion theoretically exists to deliver people
from the wrath of the gods. Religion intends to give you an escape; that is why religion exists. Any
religion and all religion is designed to show you a path to escape the wrath of God or gods. And if
you follow the prescriptions of those religions you will move from the wrath of the deity to the favor of
the deity. But all of those religions offer the pathway as being moral or ceremonial. It is either
because you do some moral good and therefore God accepts that as all that is required and moves
you from condemnation to reward, or it is because you have followed ceremonies and you have done
the prescriptions that the religion orders you to do, and therefore by some sacrament or some
ceremony, you have escaped condemnation. By the way, all those religions lie because no
ceremony can save you, not even the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament could save anybody.
Nobody was saved by the blood of bulls and goats. Those were just illustrations of the fact that those
couldn’t save, and that’s why they were repeated every day. But there needed to be a final sacrifice
who could save by the one offering of Himself; they all pointed to Christ.

Let me say it again. Religion exists for the purpose of telling people they can escape the
consequence of their sin. They can escape the inevitable judgment of whatever god that religion
espouses by following certain moral pathways or ceremonial activities. They all lie. They all lie.

Religion is more deceptive than irreligion. Religion is the most deceptive thing in the world. Satan
disguises himself as what? An angel of light. He’s a deceiver, and all of his agents are deceivers,
and all of his angels are deceivers. What Paul says in chapter 8 is this: “There is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s it. That is exclusive and inclusive.

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, we read this in verse 7, “The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven
with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to
those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal
destruction.” Who is going to pay the penalty of eternal destruction? Who will realize divine wrath and
condemnation? Those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why Acts 4:12
says, “There’s no salvation in any other name.” That’s why John 14 says, “No one comes to the
Father but by Me.” That is the only way. Christ is the only Savior. Christianity is the only true religion.

So the condemnation is just. It is just, inherited from Adam, yes, but just, because all men
demonstrate the sinful nature that they inherited, and they have no capacity to rise above it. And
when they face the Law, it doesn’t help them, it even does more damage.

Look at Romans 7, verse 9. Well, back to verse 8: “Sin, taking opportunity through the
commandment, produced in me, coveting of every kind.” What a strange statement. Paul actually
says, “When I came under the Law, the Law made things worse.” He says in verse 7, “I wouldn’t
have known about coveting if the Law hadn’t said, ‘Don’t covet.’ So when I read the Law of God, far
from making me a better person, far from enabling me to escape condemnation, it escalates my guilt.
I was once” – he says in verse 9 – “alive apart from the Law. When I didn’t know the Law of God I
thought I was fine. But when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this
commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an
opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” The Law is holy. The
commandment is holy, righteous and good; but I’m not.”

So you become religious. You try to be moral, follow the ceremonies. All that does is increase your
guilt, which increases your condemnation. The Law just excites evil.

Go back to verse 5 of chapter 7. “While we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused
by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.” The Law of God just
excited our passions. It’s as if, if you make a rule of something we shouldn’t do we all of a sudden
have a big desire to do it, whatever is restricted. So all men are condemned in Adam, that
condemnation is just because they are wicked and not righteous. In fact, the Law of God will only
compound their guilt and escalate their condemnation. And then, if they don’t obey the gospel, if they
don’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they’re condemned already.

I said some weeks ago that most people think as they live their life, “If I do a few good things, then I’ll
meet God someday, and God will say, ‘Let Me look at the record here. Yeah, you did pretty well.’
And the decision will be rendered on that day.” No. The decision regarding your eternal
condemnation has been made already. If you believe not on the Son you are condemned already,
that’s settled.

So how do you escape that condemnation? Only, only in Christ. Chapter 5 of Romans begins,
“Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through our
Lord Jesus Christ we are declared righteous. He that believes is not condemned. If you are in Christ,
there is no condemnation. In fact, as one man’s sin condemned us all, Romans 5:18, “one act of
righteousness” – namely Christ – “resulted in justification to life for us all.”

This specific term “condemnation” is katakrima, used only in Romans. It focuses on the punishment
more than the judgment, which would be katakrisis. It speaks of the penalty itself. So what it’s saying
is there will be no penalty, no penalty exacted on those who are in Christ, no – strong negative, oude
– no, not a single bit of condemnation, like in Matthew 18:27, when the man was forgiven his large
debt and had no obligation to pay anything.
This is the wonderful message of the Christian gospel. This is the good news and why it’s called
good news. The believer will never be condemned. Why is that? Because God will forgive those who
are in Christ. In Christ – to borrow the language of Colossians 1:12 – God the Father has made us fit
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the glorious Light of eternal heaven. We are fit for
eternity; we will never be condemned, never. In fact, in John 5:24, Jesus said, “The one who believes
in Him will not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life.” Yes, we still sin. Yes, the
battle still rages. Yes. But we will never be condemned.

If you have a King James or a New King James you’ll see another line in that first verse that isn’t in
the oldest and best manuscripts. It looks like somewhere along in history a scribe picked it up from
verse 4 and also put it into verse 1. It’s the very same statement we’ll get to in verse 4. But the
manuscripts, the most trustworthy ones, have nothing more than that statement: “Therefore there is
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That is a powerful, direct statement that
should be the number one promise to which all of us as believers cling. How wonderful is it to be
beyond the reach of condemnation.

No matter how much we struggle – and there are Christian people who needlessly fear that
somehow because of something they’ve done they’ve lost their salvation. Not possible. Not possible.
There is no condemnation. Strong language. There will be no sentence, no punishment. And the rest
of the chapter demonstrates that, until it finally culminates in, “Nothing can separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus.”

Chapter 5 says if we are in Christ, if you’ve come to Him as Lord and Savior, confessed Him,
repented of your sin, embraced Him as Lord and Savior, you’re at peace with God. That is an eternal
peace. Chapter 6 says you’re not only at peace with God, you’re in union with Jesus Christ, chapter
7. Chapter 7 then goes on to say you have been delivered, you have been set free – chapters 6 and
7 – from sin. Chapter 8 now says, “There’s no condemnation,” and ends up saying you’re going to be
brought into eternal glory.

The apostle is setting forth the fact that even though we struggle, and we do, we can rejoice in this
promise. Be joyful, believer. You will never be condemned. Christ took your condemnation. Christ’s
sanctifying self-sacrifice paid in full the accumulated debt and the curse for all the sins of God’s
people. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, the Law was satisfied. He paid the penalty in full. He
became sin for us who knew no sin. He bore in His body our sins. To condemn us would be double
jeopardy.

Paul says, “If you’re in Christ, if you’re in that union with Him by faith, there will never be punishment
for you.” That means that there will be no punishment. You’re not going to go to heaven even as a
believer and have all kinds of bad things thrown up on some screen – as I’ve heard people say – and
you’re going to get whacked around or lose some heavenly benefit because of ugly things. Nothing
you will ever see in eternal glory will bear any mark of sin against you, Christ bore all the punishment
for that.

This takes us back to the point of being in Christ. Go back to chapter 6, verse 3. “Do you not know
that all of us have been baptized into Christ.” It’s not talking about water baptism, it’s the Word
immersed. We have all literally been immersed into Christ Jesus. We’ve been immersed into His
death. We’ve been buried with Him through this spiritual immersion into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. In other
words, we died in Him and we rose in Him. Verse 5, “If we have become united with Him in the
likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” We were there in
His death, we are there in His resurrection. We died with Him, we rose with Him.

“Our old self” – verse 6 – was crucified with Him. The body of sin done away, no longer slaves to sin;
freed from sin.” Verse 8, “We died with Christ, we’ll also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having
been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death
that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider
yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What an incredible truth: you died in
Christ, you rose in Christ. You died in Him because He paid the penalty for your sins, you rose in
Him because He credited to you His perfect life. First Corinthians 15:22 says, “As in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

You’re not a Christian if you’re not in Christ. You’re not a Christian if Christ is not in you. This union
was symbolized even in the Old Testament when the high priest went before God. He had on his
chest twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, so that when he appeared
before God all the people appeared in him, just as all believers appear before God on the heart of
the Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one with Him.

It’s hard to improve on the language of the seventeenth chapter of John concerning that. Back in
John chapter 17, verse 21, He’s praying that they all may be one; “even as You, Father, are in Me
and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory
which You have give Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them
and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so the world may know that You sent Me, and
loved them, even as You loved Me.”

What an incredible statement. Father loves us the same way He loves the Son because we’re in the
Son. That is why there’s no condemnation, because if there is condemnation, then Christ must be
condemned because we are in Christ. And since Christ cannot be condemned – holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners – we in Christ can never be condemned. We are not under
condemnation.

Go back to verse 2. Here’s the reason: “For the Spirit, the law or the principle, the function of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” The Spirit is the one who gave us life in Christ, regenerated us, placed
us into Christ, “has set you free from the law of sin and death,” from the principle that sin leads to
condemnation and death. The law of sin. What is the law of sin? Well, it’s mentioned a number of
times: the law of sin.

“The law of sin is” – in verse 21 of chapter 7 – “evil present in me.” The law of sin, verse 23, “a
different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, making me a
prisoner of the” – there it is – “the law of sin in my members,” in my unredeemed flesh. Verse 25, the
end of the verse, “with my flesh the law of sin.” The law of sin is simply the principle of sin, the
operative principle of sin that leads to death. “The wages of sin is death.” That’s how chapter 6
ended, verse 23: “The wages of sin is death.” The law of sin or the principle of the operative power of
sin, though its power is diminished and though its punishment is already taken by Christ, it still
remains in our flesh. It can defeat us – listen – it can never condemn us, because the Spirit of life
who placed us into Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

That’s what salvation is. The Spirit of life, who is that? Verse 6 tells us. It says in verse 6, “The Spirit
is life.” In verse 11, it says, “It is the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead.” So this is the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit has literally placed us into Christ, and in so doing we have been set free from
the operative principle of sin that leads to death and condemnation. So, there is no condemnation to
those who are in Christ.

How did we come to be in Christ? The life-giving Spirit in the work of regeneration placed us into
Christ Jesus; and at that point, we were free from the law of sin and death, because in Christ the
penalty has been paid in full. We died in Him and we rise in Him, to walk in newness of life. Yes, as 2
Corinthians 3:6 says, “The Spirit gives life.” Back in John 3, isn’t that what Jesus said to Nicodemus,
“You must be born of the Spirit”? The Spirit gives life.

So what do we learn in the work of the Spirit initially? The Spirit gives us life and the Spirit frees us
from condemnation. Joy, joy, right? What a promise. That’s just the beginning, more to come.

Lord, Your Word does come with power. It is born on the wings of the divine Spirit as it rises from the
pages of Holy Scripture to touch our minds. We respond to Your Word differently than the world who
understands not the things of God, they’re spiritually discerned; and those who are unconverted and
condemned are spiritually dead and cannot perceive the truth. But for us, Your Word is life and light
and power and promise and blessing and joy.

We worship You for the great grace given to us. We deserve to be condemned as those who
inherited the sinful nature of Adam, as those who have constantly violated Your law. And the more
we were exposed to Your law, the more violations we perpetrated against Your law and Your holy
will, and we were triply condemned because we rejected Your Son. We thank You, the Spirit gave us
life. We thank You that You chose us before the foundation of the world. You predestined us, and
Your Spirit gave us life, and You justified us, and You have promised us no condemnation.

Our hearts are filled with thankfulness. We’re overwhelmed by Your goodness to us, and we lift up
our hearts in thankful praise and worship. The truth is Your grace is far greater than our sin. We
thank You for that. We have much more to learn. Instruct us and fill our hearts with thanks and
praise, we ask in the Savior’s name. Amen.

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