Aug21-27: Freedom in Christ

Teaching Points

1.  Summarize Romans 1 through 7.

ANSWER:

• Rom. 1—We are under the wrath of God.
• Rom. 2—We are still under wrath but there is hope; God decides to give us judgment.
• Rom. 3—We are all guilty deserving wrath in God’s judgment but God   offers His free gift of justification so that we can stand in the judgment and avoid God’s wrath.
• Rom. 4—Justification is possible by faith so here is an explanation of how. 
• Rom. 5—Who is justification available to? It is available to all because all have been affected by one man—Adam therefore, one man—Jesus can offer the free gift to all.
• Rom. 6—reveals that the experience of justification by faith involves switching masters from sin to righteousness.
• Rom. 7—The experience of bondage. We can’t switch masters until the old man is crucified. Even if we thought we were free and tried to keep the letter of the law we are still in bondage to sin until our old man is crucified.

2.  Now that we are guilt free, our sins will be blotted out, and we will be considered righteous—is there more?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:14-17—We are adopted into God’s family.

3.  Now starting from the beginning, who is condemned?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:1—Those not in Christ Jesus who walk in the flesh.

4.  Why are those in Christ Jesus free from the law of sin and death?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:1, 2—Without the law sin does not exist. Without sin, death does not exist.
• 1 Cor. 15:54-46—O death where is your victory? …the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law.
• The law reveals sin and the wages for sin is death. Thus the one who is not justified (declared innocent) in Christ is condemned.
• Those in Christ Jesus are justified or not condemned.

5.  What is the law of the spirit of life?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 2:28—He is a Jew that is one inwardly, circumcised in heart, in the spirit and not in the letter.
• Rom. 5:5—The Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in our hearts.
• Rom. 7:6— We should serve in newness of the spirit and not oldness of the letter.
• Rom. 8:10—The body is dead because of sin (old man) but the spirit is life (new man) because of righteousness.
• What is the law of the Spirit of life? The Holy Spirit shedding God’s love in our hearts so that we will obey in the spirit of the law (obeying from the heart with Christ’s power) and not in the oldness of the letter (obeying on our own). 

6. What does it mean to walk after the flesh?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:4-9—Cannot fulfill the righteousness of the law, Mind the things of the flesh, carnally minded, at enmity with God.
• Rom. 8:7—enmity with God or not subject to the law of God. Another word related to the word “subject” is “yield” (Rom. 6:13, 16, & 19). In other words those who walk after the flesh do not yield themselves to serve God.

7. What does it mean to walk after the Spirit?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:4-10—The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, mind the things of the Spirit, being spiritually minded, having life and peace, at peace with God, subject (yielding) to God’s law, The body (old man) is dead and the Holy Spirit is living in you.
• Total surrender to Christ so that He can live out His life in you. Yielding self to serve God.

OBSERVATION:

• There is more to salvation than being justified—we are actually adopted as children. Now we can switch from being children of Adam, to being children of God.
• Those in Christ Jesus who are walking by the Spirit are not condemned, they are justified.
• Those in Christ are free from the law of sin and death, because they are justified, they are no longer standing guilty before God.
• Walking after the Spirit means to be dead to the old man (desires to sin) and alive to God. Total surrender to Christ yielding the will to serve God and not sin.
• Walking after the flesh means to be alive to the old man (desires to sin) and dead to God. They are not yielding or surrendering to God.
• Naturally we are enemies of God—we are rebelling and breaking His law. Paul is trying to show us how we can become friends at peace with God.  

8.  What does weak through the flesh mean?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:3—The law was weak through the flesh. The law can’t help us.
• Rom. 7:18—The flesh is also weak, unable to obey or perform on its own.
• Rom. 4:21—Jesus is able to perform.

9.  Why did Christ come in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:3-9—those in the flesh, carnally minded, or the old man cannot please God because they are at enmity with God and is not subject (yielding) to the law of God. (Heb. 11:6) They cannot please God because they are not walking after the Spirit by faith.
• Rom. 8:4—That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us (inwardly). (The Jews kept the law outwardly, not in the heart).
• Christ overcame in the flesh, so that we can, through His power, overcome in the flesh by walking after the Spirit and not following our sinful desires.  

10.  Summarize the rest of the points of the chapter.

SUMMARY:

• Rom. 8:10, 11—Christ in you: the Spirit that raised Jesus is in you. This means that you not only have power to live righteously, but also have the hope of immortality (quicken your mortal bodies).
• Rom. 8:12, 13—live after flesh: death. Live after spirit: life.
• Rom. 8:14—Those who are led by the spirit (live after the spirit) are sons of God.
• Rom. 8:15—Spirit of bondage—living after the flesh. Spirit of adoption—living after the Spirit (yielding to serve God).
• Rom. 8:16, 17—Children are heirs or joint heirs—whatever Christ inherits we inherit. As children—Christ suffered, we will suffer; Christ was glorified, we will be glorified (immortality).
• Rom. 18-23—the creature (physical body) will be delivered from bondage of corruption (mortality or death) to glorious liberty. Those who have the first fruits (having spiritual rebirth or renewal) of the spirit are waiting for the adoption—the redemption of our body (immortality—freed from the bondage of death) or eternal life.
• Rom. 8:24, 25—Hope: immortality or eternal life (Rom. 5:2 and 1 Cor. 15:19-21).
• Rom. 8:26, 27, 33, 34—Christ intercedes for us because we don’t fully know what we need.
• Rom. 8:28-32—the topic here is immortality. “All things work for good” and “freely give us all things” are specifically referring to the gifts of justification, changing into His image, and  immortality (eternal life) contextually. Those who God knew would respond to Him, He predetermined or pre-planned to change them, justify them, and glorify them.
• Rom. 8:35-39—Who can keep God from doing this work of changing, making us innocent and adopting us or giving us eternal life? No outside power!

OBSERVATION:

• Weak through the flesh means that the law has no power to help us obey. We have no power to obey on our own. But Christ does have the power to help us obey.
• Christ came in the “likeness of sinful flesh” (our nature) to condemn sin in the flesh so that the “righteousness of the law could be fulfilled in us”—we could live obedient through His strength.
• Those who are in the flesh can’t please God because they are not yielding to walk after the Spirit by faith.
• Paul basically summarizes everything in the chapter in verses 29 and 30. God pre-planned to save all. Those who respond to His plan He “conforms to the image of His son (changes the character), justifies, and glorifies.
• Adoption as children of God, being glorified, having hope, the “redemption of our body,” being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” are all references to the gift of immortality or eternal life.

SOP

• We have a living Saviour. He is not in Joseph's new tomb; he is risen from the dead, and has ascended on high as a substitute and surety for every believing soul. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The sinner is justified through the merits of Jesus, and this is God's acknowledgment of the perfection of the ransom paid for man. That Christ was obedient even unto the death of the cross is a pledge of the repenting sinner's acceptance with the Father. Then shall we permit ourselves to have a vacillating experience of doubting and believing, believing and doubting? Jesus is the pledge of our acceptance with God. We stand in favor before God, not because of any merit in ourselves, but because of our faith in "the Lord our righteousness."  {ST, July 4, 1892 par. 6} 
• Jesus stands in the holy of holies, now to appear in the presence of God for us. There he ceases not to present his people moment by moment, complete in himself. But because we are thus represented before the Father, we are not to imagine that we are to presume upon his mercy, and become careless, indifferent, and self-indulgent. Christ is not the minister of sin. We are complete in him, accepted in the Beloved, only as we abide in him by faith.  {ST, July 4, 1892 par. 7} 
• Christ's followers are required to come out from the world, and be separate, and touch not the unclean, and they have the promise of being the sons and daughters of the Most High, members of the royal family. But if the conditions are not complied with on their part, they will not, cannot, realize the fulfillment of the promise. A profession of Christianity is nothing in the sight of God; but true, humble, willing obedience to His requirements designates the children of His adoption, the recipients of His grace, the partakers of His great salvation. Such will be peculiar, a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men. Their peculiar, holy character will be discernible, and will distinctly separate them from the world, from its affections and lust.  {2T 441.1} 

CONCLUSION:

• When we are justified we are no longer condemned by the law because our record of sins by faith will be blotted out. We are at peace with God because we are no longer serving sin but we are serving Him doing righteousness.
• God works to change us into His image or character and adopts us as children with equal rights to eternal life with Christ.
• Paul’s main point in Chapter 8 is that God is not stopping short. He wants us to be His own children inheriting eternal life! What He started in us He will finish and no outside power will stop Him. Our part is to co-operate by yielding to Him or walking after the Spirit. If we do our part God will do His.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

• Are you at peace with God?
• Are you choosing to yield yourself to God daily?
• Are you under condemnation of the law because of sin?
• Are you hoping for the gift of eternal life because you are yielding to Christ and trusting in His righteousness?
• Are you one of the “called” who is being changed into the image of Christ?
• Are you thankful that God is not stopping short but able to finish the work He has started in you, if you continue to surrender to His will?
• Are you stopping God from doing this wonderful work of transformation and adopting you into His family?