Rooted in the Spirit, Part Two

Change.  Have you ever noticed how some people change, grow, become kinder, more generous, more joyful after they come to faith in Jesus?  In fact, that’s one of the questions I often ask a new believer.  How is God changing you?  I asked both Frank and Mark that as I helped them prepare for their baptism last week.  Mark shared how God had changed him by taking away his depression.  Frank shared how God was changing him by giving him clarity that Jesus is His Savior.  But God doesn’t just change you when you first come to faith, He’s always changing you.  He’s always changing us.  And the reason He is changing us is the direct result of your union with Christ. For the moment you believe and God joins Jesus’ life to your life, you become a new Creation in Christ.  The old you is gone and the new you has come. And the reason there’s a new you, is that the moment God joined you with Jesus, the Holy Spirit came to live in you.

And as we’ve been learning, there are countless benefits to having Christ’s life joined with ours – the new life rooted in Christ.  First, because we are united with Christ’s life, we are now spiritually alive. Because Jesus lives in us, we have eternal life.  We are alive to God, alive to His Word and can now experience the abundant life He has for us. Second, because we are united with Christ, we are now justified in Christ. We no longer have to prove ourselves to God.  We have God’s approval in Christ because Christ’s righteousness is now our righteousness. Third, because we are united with Christ, we’ve been adopted through Christ.  We can now rest in God’s love and know the One who loves us because we are now God’s very own: The beloved of God who purchased us with the blood of Christ!  And now we have a God who is crazy about us and who pursues us with His love every moment of every day.

But one of the best benefits of this new union we have in Christ is that each one of us has the potential to change and become like Jesus. You no longer have to be controlled by selfish or sinful desires: You can experience victory over anger, greed, lust, hatred, drunkenness, discontent, anxiety and fear. The reason we can experience victory, the reason we have this potential to change because God has put His Spirit in us.  I don’t know about you, but I’m glad He did.  Because there some things I need Him to change in me and make me more like Jesus.  And my guess is that there are some things in you that you need Him to change in you. And if that’s true, then what God’s Word has to say today, will not just encourage you, but will help you begin to experience the change you need.

So if you brought your Bible this morning, let me encourage you to find Romans 8:5-17Where God’s Word reveals How the Indwelling Spirit Changes Us! There’s going to be a lot of truth to unpack in these verses, so I’m going to try to distill it down for us.  So if you’ve found Romans 8, lets look at the first change God’s Spirit works within you:

He changes your outlook: He changes your orientation, your inclinations, your mindset as to what you see as important for life.  He shows us how He has changed our outlook by contrasting our new mindset in Christ with the old mindset that was controlled by the flesh, by our old nature.  So as we read this text, see if you can pick up on some of these changes as we read the text: 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.The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the fleshis hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 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.  Romans 8:5-9

So lets look at the contrasts. But before we do that, let me clearly define the use of this term “the flesh.”  The flesh does not mean the soft muscular tissue which covers our bony skeleton, nor our bodily instincts and appetites, but rather the whole of our humanness viewed as corrupt and unredeemed, ‘our fallen, self-centered human nature.’  Now, this old nature that used to call the shots is contrasted with our new nature in Christ: those who live according to the Spirit.

Old Nature                                                            New Nature

Mind set on what the flesh desires                 Mind set on what the Spirit desires

The mind ruled by the flesh is death             Mind ruled by the Spirit is life and peace

Hostile to God                                                    Belongs to Christ

Does not submit to God’s law                           Submits to God’s Will

Is not able to please God                                   Wants to please God

So we see here a number of changes that take place once the Spirit lives in you:

You have a new mindest, a new spiritual orientation.  To understand this better, Paul lays out this contrast. Before you were united with Christ, your mindset was focused on only fulfilling your sinful desires.  You woke up each day preoccupied with how you could fulfill those desires.  You were absorbed with how you could make yourself look good in the eyes of others.  Your interests revolved around building your kingdom, fulfilling your goals, making your life secure in an insecure world. Your time and you energies were spent almost entirely on your wants and needs.  You didn’t have time for God, didn’t want anything to do with God.  And because your flesh governed you, you were spiritually dead.  There was literally no part of you that wanted to submit to God or please God.  That’s the person in the flesh.

But once the Spirit took up residence in you; your whole life orientation changed. Your mindset has changed.  You became different than you were before. You became a new person inside. And now with God’s Spirit in you, you now want what God wants.  You now wake up each day wanting to please Him.  Now you hunger and thirst after righteousness.

How many of you remember the movie, Rudy?  Rudy loved Notre Dame football and wanted nothing more than to play for the team. He was a walk-on, undersized, too small, too slow – but he practiced harder and worked harder than anyone else on the team.  At one point in the film, the coach says, “I wish God would put your heart in some of my player’s bodies.”  Well, that’s exactly what God has done for us.  He’s taken the heart of Christ and placed it in all his players.  Once you were united with Christ, God put His Spirit in you.  And because His Spirit is in you, you have a whole new outlook, a whole new orientation in life.  The Spirit changes your mindset.

He’s changed your mindset, but that doesn’t mean you are to be passive to how He is changing you.  That’s why Paul gave us these commands: Since, then, you have been raisedwith Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3

So what do we set our minds on? Paul tell us in Philippians what we should set our minds on:  In your relationshipswith one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very natureof a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8   Our mindset is to consider others as better than ourselves.  That’s the mindset of Christ.  He came to serve others, we must do the same.

What else are we to set our minds on?  Later in Philippians Paul tells us: Whatever is true, whateveris noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

So, if Christ is in you by His Spirit, maybe its time you examined what you are setting your mind on.  You belong to Christ, not this world.  This is why we encourage you to be in God’s Word.  It’s only through God’s Word that the Spirit of God can transform your thinking.  It’s only through God’s Word that you discover what Jesus is like and can hear from the Father.  And it’s by God’s Word that the Spirit can form Christ in you.  God has put His heart in you, His life in you, so you can really start thinking like Jesus.  That’s the first change the Spirit makes in you.  Now the second:

He changes your focus:  This sounds similar, but let’s look at the text: 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.  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. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live accordingto the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Romans 8:10-14

What Paul is saying in a nutshell is this:  You died to the old nature that only led to death.  You have a new nature. God’s Spirit now lives in you.  Therefore, it makes sense to start living according to that nature.  He says we have an obligation to live according to the Spirit, who is now living in us.  What he’s talking about is a total change of focus on how you lead your life.  Rather than you calling the shots, its time to start letting the Spirit lead.  After all, this is the identifying factor of the children of God.  For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

And what’s interesting in these verses, he shows us one of the first ways the Spirit leads us.  He leads us to not simply turn away from our old way of living, our old lifestyle before Christ, but he actually says, if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. What he is trying to get through our thick sculls here is this: The best way to truly experience this new life, is to end the old life.  Literally, to put it to death; to give it no place in our life.

I liken this to a medical procedure.  A good doctor will not prescribe a medicine for what ails you, without also telling you that you need to stop doing what makes you sick.  If you’ve had a heart attack because of a poor diet; once you’ve had by-pass surgery, your doctor is going to tell you to stop eating the things that clogged your arteries.  In the same way, God’s Word tells us that if we want to experience the new life in Christ, we need to stop living according to the flesh– stop doing the things that Jesus died for.  Don’t give them a place in your new life.  And Paul uses the strongest word possible to make his point.  He says, “put to death” the misdeeds of the body. But you’re not to do this in your own strength.  He says, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

I’m going to let John Stott help us here. He says, “We can put to death the misdeeds of the body only by the Spirit, by his agency and power.  For only He can give us the desire, determination and discipline to reject evil. Nevertheless, it is we who must take the initiative to act.  Negatively,we must totally repudiate everything we know to be wrong, and “don’t even think about how to satisfy the desires of the sinful nature”Romans 13:14.  This is not an unhealthy form of repression, pretending that evil does not exist in us and refusing to face it.  It is the opposite.  We have to ‘pull it out, look at it, denounce it, hate it for what it is; then you have really dealt with it.’…  That is, if temptation comes to us through what we see, handle or visit, then we must be ruthless in not looking, not touching, not going, and so in controlling the very approaches of sin.  Positively, we are to set our minds on the things the Spirit desiresand set our hearts on things above, and occupy our thoughts with what is noble, right, pure and lovely.”

I for one am grateful for this teaching. I am learning once again, how to recognize the desires and dictates of the flesh, so with the help of the Spirit to put those desires to death. What I’m trying to put to death right now is my need to gain my identity from my ability to play good golf.  It’s stupid I know.  My true identity is as God’s child.  But, somehow there is still part of me that wants the applause of man.  So I’m learning to put that part of me to death, so I will no longer be ruled by frustration when I make a mental mistake or a bad stroke.  What I’m attempting to put to death is my pride.  I want to be led by the Spirit in every area of my life, and especially on the golf course. So I am learning once again what it means to die to self and let Jesus reign in me.

But that’s me.  What about you?  What area of your life is the Spirit of Christ in you leading you to put to death?  Where are you frustrated?  Where might you be greedy?  Where do you need applause? What part of the old life is controlling you? Is it fear, lust, anxiety, envy, anger?  Maybe the reason, the Spirit of God is not pulsating in you and through you, is that you’re not letting go of old habits or old ways of thinking.  Maybe you’re not free to live this new life, because you’re letting ungodly things live in you.  Maybe it’s time to let the Spirit led you to: Put to death whateverbelongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Colossians 3:5-10

This is how the Spirit of God in us changes us.  He changes our focus in life.  But He starts by leading us to put the old life to death.  Maybe some of you have never been taught this.  But once you are taught this and begin to put it into practice, then a new reality takes over: He changes your confidence:  Listen to how Paul describes this: The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba Father.”  The Spirit himself testifieswith our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:15-17

What I love about this conclusion about the indwelling Spirit is that once God’s Spirit lives in you, He breaks the chains of fear.  That’s what love does.  God’s perfect love poured into our hearts by His Spirit, drives out fear, and in it’s place gives us total peace in God’s presence.  And now the Spirit allows you to cry out to God in the most intimate terms possible.  The Spirit confirms within you that you belong to God.  You now have a Father oohs and aahs over you.  You’re no longer defined by your sins and struggles.  God is not put off or disinterested in you; He’s drawn to you.  For you’ve become His child with all the rights and privileges of His Son. The Spirit removes everything that separated you from the Father so you can now rest in His presence and know His smile.  This is why God put His Spirit in you when you trusted in Jesus: So He could renew in you the confidence of a child.  So you can come to Him whenever you need Him and know He will be there for you.  So you can come to Him and rest in His presence.  So you can come to Him and know His smile.

Let this truth sink in.  God put His Spirit in you to give you a childlike confidence in Him.  That’s why God sent Jesus to die for you.  That’s why He joined your life with His when you trusted in Him.  So He could be your Father, and you could become your true self– the person He created you to be when He created you.  That’s why God put His Spirit in you – to change you.  So you can know the Father, just like Jesus.

Do you know Him this way? If so, then the Spirit of God is truly alive and working in you.