Our Life In the Spirit

Last Monday through Wednesday Becky were at Big Bear Lake where we had the privilege to enjoy a Church Planter’s Retreat. While we were there, we got spoiled. We were given nice little cabins so we could enjoy some alone time together. We were given a beautiful warm blanket as a reminder of God’s love over us. We were treated with room service breakfast our first morning.   And we were just loved on for three days. But in the midst of the retreat we were reminded of what it takes to truly live as followers of Jesus. After all, if we are to help make followers of Jesus, then we need to lead the way – we ourselves need to be becoming more and more like Jesus. Now, that was all well and good until we were presented with a list of obstacles that sometimes get in our way of becoming more like Jesus. Here’s the list:

• Our own rebellion. Especially our passive rebellion, where we put off following Jesus for a time when its more convenient.
• The constant demand of hurry and busyness – kind of keeps us away from Jesus
• Our inability to manage distractions
• Our radical addiction to comfort and ease
• Faulty theology or teaching
• Our fear of critical reflection: actually evaluating ourselves in light of God’s Word
• Our misunderstanding of spiritual disciplines
• Our expectation of instant change – thinking that just asking God to change us will do the trick
• Due to guilt and shame we lack confidence that God will really help us.

We were asked to identify two of these that block us. And once we did, we were asked to share them with the group. Now, I’m not going to tell you mine. But what this little exercise told me is this: We all want to live and love like Jesus, we all want to change and grow. But, if you are like me, you do often experience failure. In fact, more often than not it seems like we experience more failure than victory. You prayed and ask God to change you, but your anger still gets the best of you; you still loose your patience, struggle with selfishness or indifference, and still say and do things you regret. As a result some of you beat yourself up, others get discouraged, and some of you simply give up. In fact, when you hear me talk about how we’re called to live and love like Jesus, if you’re honest, you feel like a big fat failure. Ever felt that way? Ever wonder if you’ve missed something about the Christian life that could actually help you live it?

Well, if you have, then what God’s Word has to say today should come as good news. For God knew that just as we couldn’t save ourselves from the consequences of our sin and needed a Savior; He also knew we would we couldn’t live this new life in our own strength, so He gave us the Helper – the Holy Spirit.   So, if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open them to Romans 8:1-17, where we are going to look at 4 realities of Our New Life in the Spirit, and as we do so, we are going to see how the Helper helps us live this new life in Christ. So, if you’ve found Romans 8, lets look at the first reality of our new life in the Spirit: Our New Freedom

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4

Here’s the good news about our new freedom: God took the initiative to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. We could not fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. So God sent Jesus to fulfill those requirements for us in the life He lived. He lived life the way God intended. He loved God and His neighbor. He never sinned. Then Jesus went to the cross and laid down His life for us as an offering for our sin. He was the perfect sacrifice. This was God’s plan to set us free: God made him who had no sin be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

Now, anyone who believes in Jesus is set free from the burden of the law. Before Jesus’s sacrifice we were powerless to keep the law. It was an impossible burden for us. Living under the law only revealed how we failed to live up to the standard of righteous. But now that burden is gone. The moment you put your faith in Jesus, you were set free. How? God gave you the Holy Spirit. And when the Spirit took up residence in your life, He gave you new life, a righteous life, the life of Jesus.

Now, with this new spiritual nature in you, you are free. Free from having to earn your salvation. Free from the fear of condemnation. Free from having to obey the law in your own strength. Free now to live the way God intended – free to live righteous lives, because you now have the spiritual nature of Jesus alive in you.

This is what God promised in Ezekiel: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36:26-27

What this means for you today is this: The pressure to perform is gone! God loves you and accepts you the way you are. When He sees you, He sees the new life in you that He gave you. You are completely righteous, and you have a new power in you – the life of the Spirit, who has set you free to live like God intended you to live. That’s the first reality of our new life in the Spirit. We’ve been set free from the old way of the flesh, that could just never get it right.   The Spirit has set you free. And that leads us directly to the second reality: Our New Bent 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 flesh is 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. Romans 8:5-8

Now Paul starts off this section with some strong words, startling words about those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. The reason for this is to show the clear contrast of life without the Spirit. It’s not pretty. This is the disposition or bent of every person who has yet surrendered to God: Basically, the person without God has one controlling influence in his or her life: the flesh or sinful nature. Such a person lives to please the flesh’s desires, are not on the same wave length with God and have no desire to find out what pleases God. So they choose not to submit to God’s law and are by their very nature hostile to God’s law. They are rebels who have gone their own way. They are their own gods. They live only for self. And the result of living this way is death – spiritual separation from God.

This explains many things. This is why so many people live only for themselves. This is also why so many people are hostile to Christianity and even Christians. It is why Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:18-19

So, Paul sets up a clear contrast between those who live according to the flesh and those who now live according to the Spirit. So now the contrast: Those who live according to the Spirit have a new mindset, a new disposition that guides your life. With the Spirit of God living in you, you now have a new desire to want what God wants and new desire to make much of Jesus – to bring glory to Jesus – to become more and more like Jesus. That’s our new bent. That’s why when you come to faith in Jesus, its like you become a whole new person than who you were before.

Let me illustrate this for you: Before I came to faith in Jesus at 25 years old, I was not a very nice person. I didn’t particularly like people. You could say I just used people for how they could benefit me. My philosophy of life was to live for today, for tomorrow might never come. So I didn’t care. I just partied and did what I wanted to do. When I look back at who I was, I don’t like what I see. But then I met Jesus and everything changed. Even before I started learning God’s Word, the Spirit began changing me.   I knew immediately that how I’d been living before was selfish and wrong. And I remember telling Jesus, that now that I believe in you, you can have my life – you can do whatever you want with me. And immediately He began changing me. I now wanted to learn all about this new life. I couldn’t get enough of God’s Word. All of a sudden I saw people differently – I saw them as people Jesus loved and I was simply a different person, a new person, and rather than wanting to please myself – now I wanted to please God. And these verses describe my new bent: 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.

This is why God gave us His Spirit: So we could enjoy the new life that Jesus made possible by His death on the cross. He didn’t just die for you to get you to heaven. He died for you to give you a new way to live. He died for you to set you free to live! So Let me ask you: Do you have this bent? Do you want what God wants? Do you want to make much of Jesus? If so, then these desires in you are the work of the Holy Spirit alive in you. This is our new bent, our new disposition in life. And it this mindset that now opens us to the third reality of God’s Spirit living in us: Our New Life

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.  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. Romans 8:9-11

The good news for anyone who is in Christ today is this: You have a new life. You are no longer in the realm of the flesh, because the living Spirit of God is dwelling in you. God’s Spirit is living in you. Again, Paul points out that there’s a big difference between someone who has the Spirit of Christ and someone who does not. If you don’t have the Spirit of Christ, you don’t belong to Christ. But if you do, even though your physical body may one day perish, the Spirit gives you life, eternal life, abundant life, because of the righteousness of Jesus. This is what Jesus promised when He said: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

The reality of your new life is this: Because Jesus Christ is alive; because Jesus has risen from the grave, the new life in you is His resurrection life. We have the indwelling resurrection life of Jesus in us. And that means we have an incredible new power to live this life God has called us to live. This is why we have hope. The Bible calls our hope a living hope. This is why we have power to change. This is why we can break through our obstacles to spiritual growth, how we can over turn our failures and experience victory. All because God’s Holy Spirit is alive in us.

And once this truth sinks in, we should have some kind of response. And that’s what Paul records for us in verses 12-13, Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.  For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:12-13 Once we realize God has given us resurrection power to live this new life, we have an obligation to align our lives with this gift. To begin living out of the power God has given us. Here Paul gives us the key to helping us become more like Jesus. It’s by living according to the Spirit. And more specifically, its working together with the Spirit’s power in you to put to death the misdeeds of the body.

I like how John Stott, explains this: We are in debt to the indwelling Spirit of life to live out our God-given life and to put to death everything which threatens it or is incompatible with it. And then he explains how the Spirit helps us do this by defining the process known as “mortification.”

What is mortification? Mortification is neither masochism (taking pleasure in self-inflicted pain), nor asceticism (resenting and rejecting the fact that we have bodies and natural bodily appetites). It is a clear-sighted recognition of evil as evil, leading to such a decisive and radical repudiation of it that no imagery can do it justice except ‘putting to death.’ In fact, the verb Paul uses normally means to ‘kill someone, hand someone over to be killed, especially the death sentence and its execution.’ John Stott

This then is something that we do. We don’t wait for the Spirit to change us. We work with the Spirit in us. When the Spirit shows us what is wrong or sinful, we begin to see it as He sees it: as wrong and destructive to our new life. So then we denounce it, hate it and deal with it. Put it to death. Don’t entertain it, don’t justify it, but now have nothing to do with it. That’s one half of the equation.

But there’s another half – the positive half. This is where the Spirit’s power comes in. We live according to the Spirit. We let the Spirit lead us. And that leads us to our final reality today: Our New Relationship For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  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 testifies with 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 8:14-17

Basically, we begin living according to “whose we really are.” We begin living as Sons and Daughters of God. That’s why God gave us His Spirit – to reveal to us our new identity as God’s beloved children. This is the key to living out our new life in the Spirit.   We are no longer alone. God is with us and in us, to help us live this new life of joy and peace with Him. The Holy Spirit above all else is a relational Spirit who wants you to know a Father who is crazy about you: A relationship where you no longer have to fear, a relationship where you know that you are always loved as His child, and a relationship where everything that is Jesus’ now belongs to you.

Once you know this Father, you will want to live to please Him.  This is the reality God wants you to know. It’s why He gave you His Holy Spirit to live in you. For once your identity is secure as His child, you will be led by the Spirit, and the things that you once thought were important to you, they will slowly loose their power over you. And you will no longer want anything to do with them, because you will find your life and peace with a Father who loves you completely.

When you came here today, some of your were discouraged in you walk with Christ, some of you were stalled in your faith, and some of you were just in neutral.  But God doesn’t want you to settle for any of these conditions.  He gave you His Spirit so you could truly enjoy life and peace in the Spirit.  You can overcome your obstacles and thrive in this new life.  He has set you free by His Spirit.  Now, let Him lead you and help you.  That’s his job.  He is the helper who now lives in you to make you more and more like Jesus!