Romans 8:9–11Scripture
Everybody turn your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 8. Romans 8.
Today I'm going to jump backwards to verse 8, matter of fact, I'm going to jump backwards to verse 7. It's not going to be on the screen, but i'm going to jump backwards to verse 7, so Romans 8:7–15. I'd like to read that with you.
It says, "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God." Now for those of you who are here today and you haven't been traveling along with us, we've got to be very careful here. We've talked quite extensively about the fact that Paul is defining those whose mind is set on the flesh and those whose mind is set on the Spirit. He defines them and classifies them, because there are two types of people in the world: those who are far from Christ and those who are in Christ. Those are the two types of people. So he uses this terminology, he gets, remember, the writer of the letter gets to determine how he defines and how he uses the term. We don't get to take the liberty to reapply it the way we please or to interpret the way we please. He is saying something specific. He says, "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot." So he defines someone whose mind is set on the flesh. This is someone who is far from God, this is someone who is not a believer, and they cannot obey the law. Then he goes on, "Those who are in the
Introduction
Flesh cannot please God." He just throws that in there as a bonus point, it's a P.S. Moment. And then he goes on to verse 9. It's really what I want to focus on today, is verses 9 through 11, but we're going to read 9 through 15. "You, however," speaking to the church in Rome, to believers, to, I would even say, specifically to true believers, right, "You, however, are not in the flesh but you are in the Spirit." That's a fact. This doesn't just change back and forth day by day depending on whether you're at work or whether you're at church or whether you're in the car or whether there's traffic or not traffic.
You are, if you're a believer, in the Spirit. You're not in the flesh, you're not ruled by the flesh, you're not controlled by the flesh, you're not dead because of the flesh. He's brought you to life and you're in the Spirit, "if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Whose righteousness? Don't be scared. I know I do trick questions like this, and it's very concerning. There you go, that's a good answer. "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." I love this. I think we should read on to 15. So I'm going to, so then: "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die." Notice the being produces the doing. When he makes you like him, you live like him. Are we perfect? No. Will we make mistakes? Yes. But there is a transformation that happens.
"We are debtors, not to the flesh any longer, to live according to the flesh, 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." Now this is very interesting, because chapter 8 is a grace chapter. Matter of fact, the entire chapter is trying to explain to you, after now the gospel has been presented, right, to both Gentiles and to Jews, to every person that he could possibly think that he might be speaking to in the church in Rome as he writes this letter, he is speaking to, and has preached the gospel. Now in chapter 8 we get an understanding of what the gospel has accomplished, is currently accomplishing, and will one day accomplish in glory, right?
So if it's a grace chapter, then we have to be very intentional about not taking certain Scriptures and applying it and creating a work-based theology to achieve grace or to keep grace, the grace of God. And this wording here, if you're not careful, it'll mess you up real quick, right? "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." And some of us go, "Okay, I'm going to do it. I've been trying to quit this sin for so long and I'm going to do it. I'm going to put it to death. I'm going to step on its head, I'm going to finish it." That's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about an internal life change that produces an external life change. He's saying this is what we do when we are new. Our nature is new. We talked about that, right?
Can a cow eat meat? Yes, a cow can eat meat if he chooses. Will a cow eat meat? No.
Why? Because he doesn't, nature doesn't do that, right? So as a believer, when he gives you a new, when he makes you new, you are a new creation.
The nature of a believer is different than that of someone who lived according to the flesh. We're different. Can we do bad things? Yes. Will we? No, that will not be our heart, that will not be our desire, we will not want to do that, right? And when we do things we shouldn't, we feel terrible for that, because we have a new nature. What used to go down and be tasty no longer goes down the same way when you're made new, which does not work that way. Verse 15: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'" And then the uppercut, and I love this: "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." There's a mouthful. We could go from 15 to 17 and it would take, we could do it beyond, for six months, it's a lot right there. Paul, oh man, I mean, he's being inspired by the Holy Spirit, so it's not fair when he writes these things, but man, that guy's sharp as a tack, right? It's amazing how much content he can put in one verse. Now I just want to talk to you for a second. Many of us in the church, this is important and I would write this down and maybe think through this week a little bit, many of us in the church use Scripture as a proof text to make it say what we want, or another way of saying that is, many of us in the church use Scripture as a proof text to back up our own positions.
This happens. Oh wow, it happens so much. I can come on Sunday morning, this is, I'm not saying this has happened, I can come on Sunday morning, I can present something in Scripture, I can use tons of Scripture, I can give a hundred verses, but people might have a problem with something that they heard in the Scripture, and instead of letting the Scripture teach, because they have preconceived ideas of what they want to believe about something, they have a hard time hearing the truth when it comes right out of the Bible. Are you with me? Oftentimes many of us, when we're reading the Word, we don't read it verse by verse as we go through and we don't study, we tend to go look for a verse that supports what we're struggling with so we can understand something, or some of us will get into maybe a theological debate with other believers and in our family, and we will look up Scriptures to prove that we are right in our belief. So we don't form our belief based on the Scripture we've read, we form our belief and then we go find Scripture to back it up.
Proof text: "I'm going to prove to you with Scripture." And honestly, when we then approach God's Word this way, we cherry-pick Scripture and we use it out of context a lot. Are you with me?
We need to approach God's Word using it as a source text, not as a proof text,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:35
meaning that this is the source by which all other understanding emits from.
So if I form an opinion, it is only because of the evidence and the direction of the source of life.
Notice here today that the source of life, as we go through Romans, the source of life is not you and your opinion and your will. The source of life is his Word, who was in the beginning. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." It was in the beginning, and it has always been and always will be, and it is a source of life. Anything you obtain outside of that does not guarantee life. This is life. God is life.
Source text. This is our source text. All right, okay, that's important. So there's that as we walk through Romans.
Then, and before we actually begin to break down these few verses, particularly 9 through 11 today, you can, and actually 7 through 17 if you read through the rest of all of chapter 8, but if you read through these verses, one of the things you can risk is turning to your own strength to do the things that are listed in here. That's a massive problem, because that's not what Paul is accomplishing here, it's not what he's trying to do. So as we walk through Romans, I want to say something that might be difficult to grasp, but bear with me a moment.
Romans is one of those places where we miss the gospel completely. Like, we miss it, and it is the greatest gospel book, in my opinion, in the Bible, yet we miss it. We totally miss it, and it doesn't matter that he's really
Point 1We miss the gospel by confusing requirement and fruit
Talking about the gospel in every verse of every chapter of the book of Romans. There are two things we do that cause us to miss the gospel here.
Here's the first one: we don't know what the gospel is. That's the first one. We just don't even have a clue what even is the gospel. If I were to come and ask you, "What is the gospel?" You would be shocked at the answers we would get. Some of you right now are going, "Oh gee, I hope he doesn't call on me," right? But this is what, as believers, we responded to in faith: the gospel.
We've been learning that it is very easy to miss it. I'm afraid today in the evangelical church in America we don't know what the gospel is. If we don't know what it is, then we attribute verses about justification to the gospel at the risk of forsaking everything else, but there's way more involved with the gospel than merely justification, way more involved. To take the implications or imperatives we see, there's a lot of imperatives, particularly from Paul, he's saying, "This is what a believer does, this is what a believer looks like, this is what a believer is." He gives many imperatives. He gives many imperatives of what a Christian life is, and to take these implications or imperatives and use them in isolation from the gospel actually tears down and breaks apart the gospel itself, because there's a difference between what the gospel requires, write this down, there is a difference between what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces. Now hold on to those two words today, because for us to properly contextualize this section of Scripture, actually all of the Bible, but specifically this section of Scripture, as we begin to venture in to understand what grace is and what it produces, we also have to understand that there is, there are some requirements regarding justification. And so I'm afraid that the greatest problem is that we take things we read in the Bible that God, that God meant for, "This is what the gospel produces," and we apply it to "This is what the gospel must require." So then, or oftentimes, because we're in America, because we're such a do-it culture, we tend to take things that are there to show us what the gospel produces and we convert it into something that we can go do. But you don't do what is produced, right? All right, you don't do fruit, you produce it.
That's different. So when he says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control,"
I think that might be most of them, I don't know, because when I grew up, King James, and then I changed to New King James, and then I changed to the ESV, and I just don't even know Scripture anymore, right? But that's kind of the list. We tend to go, "That's what the gospel requires, so I've got to love my neighbor as myself." Let's talk about that verse. Is that what the gospel requires, or is that what the gospel produces? Are you with me today? "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church." Is that what the gospel requires, or is that what the gospel produces? Are you getting it? So the understanding that getting that wrong affects the entire Bible, more importantly, getting that wrong affects the gospel, and if we get the gospel wrong and people are responding to it, what gospel are they responding to?
And when they get to heaven, will God turn them away because we preached a false gospel? Are you with me today? It's a problem.
So gone are the days where you come to church and you're like, "Well, my pastor went to school, he's the only one who has to think, just spoon-feed me, baby."
That doesn't work, because you are going out into the highways and the byways of life and you are sharing the gospel. Of course, that's what he calls you to do. So let's hope you are, and if you're sharing it wrong because you've got what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces mixed up in your own life, then what gospel are people responding to?
To mix these two things up is to pervert the gospel, and it would be better for us to preach no gospel at all than to preach it wrong.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:49
That's my opinion. You don't have to like it, you can disagree with it, you know, phone it in, but I just don't think it's better to be quiet. What the gospel requires is actually quite simple. Let me tell you what it requires. The gospel requires repentance and faith, of which, by the way, we could not do, because faith is a gift from God, that no man can boast. So even what faith requires is not something you do, it's something he does.
We learned last week that we can't even repent, we can't even profess with our mouth in 2 Corinthians that Jesus is Lord unless the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so. So if the gospel then requires repentance and faith comes from God, it's a gift, and repentance is released because the Holy Spirit empowers you to repent, then where does our doing come in regarding the gospel? I would propose to you that the gospel is more about what's being produced in your life than what you do in your life, and this is a work of God that no man can boast.
The gospel is the proclamation of the redemptive work God has done, the redemptive work that God has accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ, and what the gospel produces. Mark my words, because some of you are like, "Man, Shawn, don't go too much of that grace thing." Why?
Because it's like the Bible's replete with it. I'm confused. "Well, don't go there, because you give people permission to live how they want." No, the gospel produces obedience.
It produces it doesn't demand it for you to keep your salvation or be saved. We learned that in chapters 2 and 3 when he compares the difference between those who are depraved, the Gentiles, and then also the Jews. He comes down hard on the Jews because he's like, "Listen, you think this is about what you do, and it's not about what you do. I don't even think you know what has happened to you." Like, for you, not to you, but for you.
If we go to a place in the Bible where the author is talking about what the gospel produces and treat them as though they are what the gospel requires, we have just added something to the gospel and we caused people's lives to be wrecked at the foot of our ignorance. I guess this person only has one leg because I said foot, not the feet. Here's an example, John 13:35. This is a brief example, you can think of many of them this week. Matter of fact, I would encourage you to consider what the gospel requires, what the gospel produces, and I want you to go find Scriptures where you have misappropriated the requirement and the production, meaning you've taken what the gospel produces and you said, "This is what it requires of me." I want you to go find all the places you've done that, and then you begin to turn to your own strength to do those things rather than trust the Lord to not only start the work, continue the work, but finish the work in you. John 13:35 says, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." So does that mean that to be his disciple we have to love one another? Yes and no.
Yes, in the fact of the evidence that you are his disciple is that you love one another, but not in the fact that the way you become his disciple is to love one another and the way you stay his disciple is to love one another. It is the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience. It is the fruit of love. Fruit's not, it's not required, it's not done.
Fruit is not done, right? It's produced.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:42
So if love is produced, then this is the gospel. What does the gospel produce, not what does the gospel require? So now, if you take the Scripture, it becomes your life first and you begin to go out and tell people, "I'm in the church, we need to love one another. You need to love people. You don't get cranky at people, you love people. You need to love more. You need to go love more. You need to be more loving." I agree with that.
You need to be more loving, not do more love.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:08
We ought to love one another, of course, but I'm here to tell you can't do that unless you're changed and made new, because God is love, and if you're a rebel against God, if you're depraved in every way, if your life can't even do his will or does not care about him, if your life is against God in every way, how can you do love? God is love. If you don't know him, you're not loving.
It's not possible. This is a work of God. This is specifically a work of the Spirit where we bear these things. Is this something that the gospel requires, or is this something that the gospel produces? Love for one another is something the gospel produces.
"It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." The problem is we confuse what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces, and when we do this, we look at what the gospel produces and we fight with all our strength to produce it on our own, or we're continually questioning our salvation or our devotion or feeling like we must rededicate our lives because we haven't done enough.
I know people that have rededicated their lives fifteen times. I would just maybe hit pause on that and say, you're trying to do this in the wrong strength.
You put too much trust at the altar in what you do, and I just want you, I want some people that are in this cycle to be set free and understand that what God starts, he finishes, and when God does it, he does it all the way, right? It's important.
In Romans 8:1–17 we get a snapshot of the gospel. Next week we'll examine Romans 8:16–17, at what I feel is the greatest statement about the gospel in all life and history. It is, in my opinion, the seminal statement of the gospel. Before 16 and 17 we have this paragraph where we see the compulsion in the life of a believer, or the behavior in the life of a believer, or more specifically the difference between someone whose mind is set on the flesh, non-believer, and someone whose mind is set on the Spirit, believer. He gives a list of what these two look like and the differences in how they function. Their compulsion to do things is birthed out of the nature of who they are. Are you with me today? When they are created and made new, a Christian functions different. His compulsion to do things is based on what Christ has made him.
It is less of what we do and more of who we've become.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:33
We can look at this and say, see how the Christian life, how the Christian life is based upon the gospel. Christian life is based on the gospel.
Or we could say, see what the gospel, rightly understood and applied, produces in the believer's life. This is what is produced. If we confuse what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces, and we preach the imperatives without the indicatives, then we walk away on Sunday with a list of things we have to do better, ten things to be a better Christian. But if we understand the difference between what the gospel requires and produces, then what ought to happen to us is threefold. You can write these down real quick and then we're going to break down these Scriptures, but you need to understand how to interpret it, and that's what I'm trying to do now, and then we're going to break down these verses here. Here are three things that I think will happen if we get what the
Point 2Getting it right leads to dependence on God
Gospel requires and produces correct. One, dependency on God, because if only God can produce these things in your life, then it makes you have to be ever more dependent on him, and whether you're dependent on him or not affects the result of what you say in your profession.
Dependency. You know what else stems from dependency? The more dependent you are, the more you go to prayer. A person who doesn't pray probably doesn't depend on God very much, because nothing will turn you to the feet of Jesus like a little bit of trouble, right?
Be careful about praying for a praying church, because oftentimes the way he gets you to come to your knees is with the touch that disables you for life.
Are you with me today? I'm talking about Jacob. There, you're like, "Man, I just wish I could pray more." I'm going to go to an orientation in July in St. Louis and they're going to be talking about prayer. I can talk to you a lot about prayer. Understand that anything you read in the gospel doesn't come from you, it comes from God. You mean to tell me, Shawn, that I can't do any of this? That's what I mean to tell you. In your own strength you cannot.
God changes you, he empowers you by his Spirit that you might produce these things, and the acknowledgment of that, or right understanding of the gospel in that sense, you understand that this is a production and it requires life change. It makes you wholly dependent on him, and when you're wholly dependent on him, you talk to him a lot because you depend on him.
There's a difference between somebody who can bankroll their own expenses and a child who depends on their parents to feed them, and it is amazing how easy it is to cut the apron strings of our mother, from a father to a mother, when we can bankroll our own expenses. We don't go to them as much as we did when they fed us, clothed us, took care of stuff, and paid everything for us. Are you with me today? Why do you think then, here in Paul, he says, "You were bought at a price," you're his property? Why does he use that terminology? Because we in America have tried to bankroll our salvation, and you can't purchase it. Only God can purchase it through Jesus Christ for you. You are wholly dependent on him whether you want to be or not.
But a dependent person is a praying person, and also a depending person, a dependent person is a praising person. Now that could be my sermon, but that just sets me up for the sermon, because if you don't get this right then you won't understand what's coming.
Getting what the gospel requires wrong produces legalism, which takes people to hell. Legalism leads to eternal death.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:08
Okay, so let's go through this.
But I'm going to back up real quick, because 8 through 11 is really what I want to hammer down on, but listen, this, at the beginning of verse 9 the issue is this: what's different about a believer. And then in verse 9 he begins to explain what's different about a believer, in other words, what sets the believer apart from the people we read about in verses 7 and 8. You've got to have your Bible out if you want to do this, because I'm not, I mean, you just have to have it out. In 7 and 8 he describes those who live according to the flesh, those who set their mind on the flesh, and then he talks about in verse 9 those who set their mind on the Spirit. He is talking about an unbeliever who's depraved, who's dead in sin and trespasses, and then a believer who has been set free from sin. He uses these two terms to define them, and these are the verses: 7 through 8 is an unbeliever, number 9 is the believer. So what sets us apart from those in 7 and 8 as believers? These are two great groupings of human beings that Paul is dealing with here. Verses 7 and 8 describe what we are like as merely human, when he calls being in the flesh, verse 8, or having the mindset of the flesh, verse 7, and he says that what distinguishes us when we are in the flesh or when we have the mindset of the flesh is three things, or a better way to say it is one thing said three different ways so we can get a clue. Verse 7, the first part of verse 7 says this, that we are hostile and insubordinate to God. That's what an unbeliever is. Verse 7, second part of verse 7 says this, that we cannot submit to God's law. That's how deep our corruption and our rebellion is. Then in verse 8 it also says of these people, non-believers, that they cannot please God, that it is their condition and their plight and their identity when they are in the flesh and there's nothing that can be done except God. So what's different about us, that's what I want to talk about today, and it's going to be quick, I'm going down through points quick. What's different about you as a believer? Now at the beginning of verse 9, the issue is what's different about you. When the verse begins, "But you,"
Who's he talking to? The Christians in Rome. Is he talking to us? Why, of course. Are you a Christian? You're not in Rome, but you're a Christian, so this applies to you. So there's a group of people who are different from the described birth in 7 and 8, unbelievers, and these people are true Christians. So it is here that we learn what it means to be a true Christian. He is showing you what your life will produce.
So if you wonder what a Christian is, listen carefully to the Word of God. It is not the family you grow up in. Oh man, listen, man, I wish I had time. I baptized someone recently and I said, "Who is Jesus to you?" And this was the response. "Jesus is to me," well, they said, "Well, who's Jesus to me? Well, I met my wife when I was 21 and her family is full of believers and so I've been a part of the church a whole long time, and I've been, and her family are good Christian people." I said, "Yeah, but who's Christ to you?"
You couldn't answer. And people, that's concerning, because the gospel is not your family being saved, so you're in because your family has a lot of believers and a lot of pastors and a lot of preachers in your family, you're just in. That's not true. The gospel is not your family. It's not what it is. It is not whether or not you're baptized or confirmed. I know that's tricky. Like, you're like, "Oh, that's getting personal," because there are people who are baptized and confirmed that will go to hell.
That's just the facts. I'm always fascinated by the Scripture that says there will be those that stand before me and they're shocked that God says, "I don't know you," and they said, "Well, I prophesied in your name and I did many miracles in your name and I did all that," and God doesn't correct that person and go, "No, you didn't do any of that." He didn't say that. He said, "Depart from me, I don't know you." And so there are some things that are good that are not necessarily God. There are things that look good in the church that are not necessarily godly. We have attributed godliness to things that is actually not us producing something but rather doing things in our own strength and giving God credit for something that is carnal. "You know, Shawn, but you don't know how I felt." Well, yeah, I mean, we feel a lot of stuff. I've watched an R-rated movie and been moved to tears. You're like, "Oh, R-rated?" "You watched an r-rated movie?" Yeah, so have you. I mean, I have VidAngel now, so it cuts out a bunch of stuff, so I don't recommend movies to anybody anymore, because VidAngel, I just want to say, it'll help your life. But it's not whether you're baptized or confirmed, it is not whether you have been to a Christian school so now you're good, it's not what church you go to or what denomination you belong to. That's a good one. What is it then? What makes you different?
It's not your family, it's not your school, it's not your heritage, it's not your denomination, it's not your theological position, it's not any of that. What makes you different, if you're a Christian, the way Paul describes here, what makes you different? There are five things he talks about, we're going to go through them quick. One,
Point 3The Spirit lives in you, not just visits
In verse 9 he says the Spirit dwells in you. That's what makes you different than those whose mind is set on the flesh: God's Spirit dwells in you.
It says this: "However, you are not in the flesh but you are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." That's the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. The Spirit doesn't dwell in a non-believer, it dwells in a believer. And I love this word, well, it's important, right? So I'll give you the word for this, maybe "dwell," oikeō, right, is the oikeō comes from the word "house," or oikos, right? Oikeō comes from the word "house," or oikos. What does that mean? Why are you saying that, Shawn? Because this isn't somebody who visits for a barbecue party at a house. This is someone who lives there. That's good stuff, right? Like, I can preach the sermon on that alone, because some of us come to church to have a barbecue with God, and then when the barbecue ends we want to leave him in the church.
But he doesn't dwell in the church building, he dwells in the church, which is you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:45
So when you leave church on Sunday, he's with you, because you are the temple of God.
Are you with me today? And so you need to understand that if you're a believer, he dwells in you. That means you don't have to come to church to be able to make it Monday through Saturday. You are the church, and you don't need a service to pump you up. You don't need that. Why? Because you have the Spirit who has taken up residence in your house and lives there. He's not visiting, right? How do you know if someone's a visitor and if they live there? Who helps do the dishes at the end of the party? And the Holy Spirit's number one job is to clean house, and the fact that he does it lets us know he's a resident in the house, not a visitor who gets to leave when the party's over. That's good stuff, man. I'm speaking personally, we have people in our small group, thank God, that stay and help us clean. Can we just all give a big round of applause to people? They're not even residents there, but the Holy Spirit is there, and you have some dirty dishes in your life, but it's okay, he came to help clean it. He's cleaning it. Number two, I like the way John Piper says it, so I'm going to say it this way: you are in the sway, everybody say "sway," of the Spirit.
Here's the second thing that makes you different. The second clause in verse 9 says this: "You are in the Spirit." Note this carefully, that this is not saying the Spirit is in you. It changes. It says you are in the Spirit. What in the world does that mean, you are in the Spirit? And this is what distinguishes you from those who are in the flesh. They're in the flesh, and you're in the what? Most commentators will agree, verse 9a, "However, you are not in the flesh but you are in the Spirit." They will say, and they use many different words, I kind of like the way John Piper says it, is that to be in the Spirit is to be in the sway of, meaning those who are in the flesh are in the sway of flesh, meaning the flesh most often gets its way, but those who are in the Spirit, the flesh sometimes gets its way and behaves in a fashion, but most of the time the Holy Spirit, we're in the sway of the Spirit. Are you with me? That most of our life is directed towards holiness, righteousness, and godliness. Number three, you belong to Christ. Listen,
Point 4You belong to Christ, bought and homesteaded
You won't like this, you're his property. He bought you. He bought you.
The third thing that Paul says is different about Christians is that we belong to Christ. Note the two clauses in verse 9: "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him." So the reverse is true: if you do have the Spirit of Christ, you do belong to him. So as Christians we should think of ourselves as belonging to Christ, or we are Christ's possession. Pause here for just a second. Paul's here for just a second. There was a really great discussion, and one of our students, and I thought this was fantastic that this student brought this to light, and I think it's fantastic for our culture, and so there was some conversation, and a question I had, we had written and asked, is, do you know that for a believer, God not only wants to do things for you but he wants to do things to you? The "for" we're okay with, because that's an acquisition. I'm able to acquire something from God without having any really true connection or him actually impacting my life in any real way other than a gift. So we come to church and we're like, "Do something for me." We write worship songs about God doing something for us. But the teens talked about the difficulty of this word, God doing something to us.
They wrestle with that, and that's okay, right? That we wrestle with that, because it's best to be honest about these things and to see how culture affects us. We don't want God to do things to us, was said, because that feels like wrong. So does being his possession, which the Bible is clear about.
And then I mentioned this, and you're right, this is a real problem in our culture, and I want to mention this to you, and there are a lot of people in the church who are okay with God doing something for them, but as the moment that he tries to do something to them, they run and they say, "I'm not having it."
But see, a believer doesn't just get to get something done for them without having something done to them, because to come to Christ is to be changed completely, right? It's very important. So this issue of possession is a two-part.
There was a time in this country when you could lay claim to a piece of land in the West by simply going there and living on it. How cool would that be? And that sounds really awesome. Many of you are like, "Man, I really wish I lived in that day." You know, many people got shot in the face trying to get land. Like, it was bad. Why? Because nothing's truly free in life.
But they would get it in the West by simply going there and living on it. Or another word, I love these shows, homesteading. I kind of want to be a homesteader when I retire, like, I do. I'm a little weird like that. It's like this seems like a reasonable way to validate being a hermit.
I like it, I like it, I think it's cool. And of course there is the more traditional way of obtaining land where you pay for it.
Listen to this is so cool. Christ did both. In order to possess a people for himself, he bought us and he homesteaded us with the Spirit. That's crazy. That's what he's talking about, that he dwells there and he possesses it.
He possesses you, like some of you, like "possess," kind of, I mean, his Spirit's in you, that's how, if you have his Spirit you can't be possessed with another spirit.
That's, you know, Christ did both. In order to possess a people for himself, he bought us, he homesteaded us. And here it is, 1 Corinthians 6:19–20: "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price." That's the purchase. "You are the temple of the Holy Spirit." You are not your own. 1 Corinthians 6: 19, Romans 8:9: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." You don't get to be purchased and not homesteaded.
We want him to buy the land and give the land and stay away from the land. You're the land.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:23
It don't work that way.
It does not work that way. If you are a Christian, you're not your own, you're his. We are, and I love this quote, we are inhabited by Christ, under the sway of Christ, and we are owned by Christ. That's good stuff, man. That makes me want to throw a mic. It's good stuff. Number four, your spirit is alive because of the righteousness and presence of Christ. The fourth difference from those in the flesh, and the end of the verse, of verse 10, says this: "The Spirit is alive because of righteousness." Yes, the body is mortal and doomed to die, but two things make it different from our spirit: the gift of righteousness and the presence of Christ. You see them both in verse 10. Verse 10: "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is alive because of righteousness." The gift of righteousness secured at the cross obtains our life, and the presence of Christ in us applies the life to us as an experience, not only later, not only when we're glorified, not only when we get to heaven, but now as well.
We don't have to wait for the redemption of our bodies to be spiritually alive. The righteousness is ours now and Christ is ours now, and therefore
Point 5Your mortal body will one day be raised
Life is ours now. That's good news. Number five, the last one: your mortal bodies will be raised. I'm just like, "Please, God, why?
I don't like this body. I want one with a six-pack, please. I
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:31
want one that doesn't have blood pressure issues, please. Why are you raising that old thing?"
Because when God creates something, he doesn't create junk.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:44
He's raising it for a reason, and one day your mortal bodies will be raised. So even through redemption, even though redemption happens in stages, know this, and this is what Paul is saying, although redemption happens in stages, saved, sanctified, glorified, although it happens in stages, every stage will come for a believer. That's where our hope is.
That's the point he's trying to make here.
Your resurrection is as certain as Christ's resurrection,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:22
he says, because the Spirit that raised him from the dead dwells in you. God did not create the body to throw it away, and Christ did not purchase the body to throw it away. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ, and just as Jesus raised up the temple of his own body in three days, he will raise up our bodies as well. That's the good news. It's good news.
I want you this week to go home, because as we continue to go through chapter 8, I want you to begin to think about what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces, and I want you to be mindful, specifically as we get into next week, I want you to be mindful that as he begins to list what a believer is, and even in this verse today, he's not trying to list things that are required of you. He is listing things that he does in the life of a believer, that because he changes us, we now produce. It's production, it's not requirement.
That's important. In Romans 1 it speaks of people who can't produce, talk to them as depraved, lost people.
He says they won't follow the law, they can't follow the law, and they don't want to follow the law.
How can a lost person produce something that is a fruit of the Spirit? Are you with me yet today? In the church I believe we have people that are trying to be justified by the law even after they have responded to the message of grace, because we have not preached grace correctly in the church. Are you with me?
We got a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a little bit of legalism and a little bit of Jesus, a little bit of me and a little bit of the Spirit.
Listen, you were bought at a price. You don't own you. God owns you, and he will produce in his field what he pleases, the way he pleases, and in the time he pleases.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 55:02
That's the way it works.
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