A Spirit Led People | Romans 8:14

Scripture

• Romans 8:14

About this sermon

Introduction: From the 5th chapter of Romans to the 8th, the major theme being expounded by the apostle Paul is the freeness and the finality of salvation. It is the freeness of salvation that assures the finality of salvation. He is emphasizing both. Justification by faith alone is true, therefore the future glorification of everyone justified is a certainty. ESV Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Everything in the book of Romans from that point forward is just an extended explanation of truths contained in that opening statement. Salvation is accomplished by Jesus Christ and received by faith IN CHRIST. The result is a new standing before God THAT IS PERMANENT That salvation imparts a hope — A FUTURE THAT IS CERTAIN That hope holds despite all of life’s troubles — NOTHING SEPARATES US FROM GOD’S LOVE TO US IN CHRIST In fact, far from our troubles threatening us, they develop us. The God who saved us is the same God at work in all our circumstances producing in us that which He has destined for us. And all of this has been sealed to us by the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. His presence is not just a token of our final salvation, His presence preserves us, and explains our progress in the Christian life, until the day we are glorified. This is what we are given from chapter 5 to chapter 8. Those realities impart a responsibility in the present. ESV Romans 8:12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Those who have been saved have an obligation, but it’s not to the flesh. Those who live according to the flesh die. Those who put to death the deeds of the body, by the Spirit of God, are those who live. It is that responsibility, given to us in verses 12-13, that verse 14 explains. Why is that statement true? How is that statement true? Verse 14 gives the explanation. But as Paul has been doing, he explains in a way that takes a step forward. He introduces something new in verse 14, something additional. Salvation’s change, and salvation’s security, is not just judicial, it is familial. That is, by God’s choice, salvation results in a new family, a new people. For the first time in Romans, Paul explains our salvation in the terms of sonship. He explains our salvation in the terms of adoption. This morning we think about the security of the sons of God. And there are two main points that we observe from verse 14. • THIS STATEMENT IS A PROOF OF SALVATION’S REALITY The statement that verse 14 makes, can only be made because salvation is real. Because salvation is real, what God says is true of those who have been saved is true of them. What God promises in salvation, He truly gives. HE PROMISES SONSHIP ESV John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. ESV 1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.