Life In The Spirit | Romans 8:9-11

Scripture

• Romans 8:9–11

About this sermon

Introduction: One of the great errors that the church has had to battle throughout history is the viewing of salvation as something that is not NECESSARILY experiential. According to this error, salvation occurs wherever you find a willingness to profess faith in Jesus. “Pray this prayer.” “Say these words.” “Welcome to the family of God!” “Don’t ever allow someone, or some set of circumstances, to cause you to doubt.” “You asked Jesus to save you, and that settles it.” What also characterizes this error is a gutted gospel message. A gospel that is not the gospel. Professions of faith are called for, but in response to a message that doesn’t match the fulness of the biblical gospel. Sometimes, no mention of sin. If sin IS mentioned, it is often minimized and dealt with superficially. There is a superficial presentation of God, of Christ, of what salvation really is, and what it means for someone to believe. YOU HAVE TRUNCATED MESSAGE ELICITING A TRUNCATED RESPONSE Those who fall prey to this error emphasize salvation from the standpoint of its legal results. Salvation is a legal matter. Salvation is factual, it is objectively true, but it is not necessarily something that changes a life in this age. “It SHOULD. It CAN. But we cannot say that it always WILL.” So that, it is possible, according to this view, to have been saved from the fires of hell, and brought into a heavenly citizenship, and there be no real difference in your life right now. The results from this error has been devastating. On the personal level, there are many holding on to a false assurance of salvation. There have been many who have been “evangelized” in a way that imparts that false assurance. On the corporate level, there are churches full of lost people who have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. RELIGIOUS BUT NOT REGENERATE. If this section of Romans did not make anything else clear, we should be clear on this, that the absence or presence of salvation is not something that produces a result that is purely EXTERNAL to a person. The absence or presence of salvation is seen IN THE LIFE. Salvation does not just change one’s legal status, it changes the person. So far in this chapter, we have seen what the absence of salvation looks like. Such is the condition of the natural man, that even if you give him the law of God, he cannot be saved by it. For salvation to occur, God had to do what the law COULD NOT DO, due to the weakness of the flesh. And God did that. He did it by sending His own son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. This resulted, not only in a right standing with God received by faith, but a new liberty imparted by the Spirit. God did this by His Son precisely so that His people would not be able to walk in a new righteousness. They are not saved BY that righteousness, but they have been saved FOR that righteousness. The New Testament consistently sounds that message. ESV Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This is the message Paul has been sounding throughout Romans. ESV Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Not only is this new life APPROPRIATE, it is CERTAIN. ESV Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. ESV Romans 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.