Spiritual Energy for Every Day
A Study of Romans 8:1-4
We’re continuing our Bible study today into the Holy Spirit Chapter of the Bible—Romans 8
Scripture
In this chapter, the apostle Paul exalts the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As I’ve analyzed this passage, I’ve developed a list of fifteen or so things the Holy Spirit does for us, fifteen different operations He orchestrates in our daily experience. Let’s read again Romans 8:1-4, and then we’ll pick up where we left off last week.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set [us] free from the law of sin and death. 3 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, 4 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.
Introduction
The other day while I was getting a haircut, the barber had on a Blues album. I don’t know enough about various genres of music to make much conversation, but I was interested in his choice of music and I asked him about it. He told me how much he enjoyed the Blues, how it had been a big part of his childhood.
He told me about a young man in his community who wanted to sing the Blues, but he was not a very good musician. His music was not well received. According to my barber, this young man left home for Detroit so he could study and practice and learn how to be a gifted Blues artist. When he returned a year or so later, he was excellent. He sang the Blues like B. B. King. People came from everywhere to hear him. How did that happen? How did he gain such skill? Well, on his way to Detroit, this young man had gotten so tired he pulled over into a cemetery to take a nap. While he was sleeping, according to my barber, the devil came and tuned his guitar. That was the story. He took a nap in a cemetery, and the devil came and tuned his guitar.
I left the barbershop thinking to myself, “Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to come and tune my guitar. I want the Holy Spirit to tune my heart to sing God’s praise.” That’s a good way of summing up Romans 8. It is the elucidation of how the Holy Spirit comes and tunes our heart so we live in harmony with the Savior and with the life He wants to give us.
1. The Holy Spirit Awakens Your Dead Soul
First, as we saw last time, the Holy Spirit comes and awakens our dead souls. Verse 2 talks about “the law [or principle or operation] of the Spirit who gives life.” It is the role of the Holy Spirit to take the essence of what is life, which belongs to almighty God, and infuse it into a dead object, with the result of that object suddenly becoming alive. Whether it was the clay transformed into the man, Adam; whether it was Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, which the Spirit swept over; whether it was the body of Jesus Christ who was resurrected in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea; or whether it is our own lifeless souls at the moment of conversion—it is the Holy Spirit that conveys the electricity of life into a dead form and brings it to life.
The moment you receive Jesus Christ as Savior, the dead part of you, the real you, which was dead in sin and dead to God, springs to life. That life, like a surge of electricity, is conveyed by the Holy Spirit.
2. The Holy Spirit Unshackles You From Sin and Death
Paul then immediately goes on to give us the second great operation of the Holy Spirit in our lives—He unshackles us from sin and death. Look at the passage again: 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.
The word law is nomos, but in this instance it isn’t referring to the Old Testament Law of Moses, but to a new operative principle or power that is at work. Let me paraphrase verse 2 for you: “When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, the operating authority of the Holy Spirit, who has just given us new life, also unshackles us from the operating authority of sin and death.”
Our hands and our feet were bound in shackles. The heavy iron chains were cutting into our flesh and weighing us down and pulling us downward into hell. But the Holy Spirit breathed life into our souls, and He immediately put the key of the cross into the rusted locks of the shackles, and off they came. He set us free.
I’m using the word unshackled on purpose because that is the title of the longest running radio drama in history. Since the year 1950, the Pacific Garden Mission of Chicago has been adapting true-life testimonies to Golden Age audio stories for radio, complete with vintage organ music. Unshackled uses live actors and creative sound effects to tell verified stories of how people were set free from the law of sin and death by the new law of the Spirit, who took the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and applied it to their lives.
One of the popular episodes of the 75-plus year history of the radio show was entitled “Troop Train Classic.” The setting was a train rolling across Louisiana one night in the summer of 1942. It was traveling at an unusually high speed, over 90 miles an hour. No one knew why it was going so fast. On board were 110 cadets, headed to the military base in San Antonio. It was a sweltering night and the heat inside the cars was almost unbearable. Most of the men had taken off their shirts.
One of the men was Keith Harper, but he was recruited to work in the kitchen car, along with two other guys, Greg and Steve. They pulled their shirts back on and went to work over the hot stove in the rolling kitchen. The subject of the Bible came up, and Greg began quoting Scripture. He told them he had been a Christian since he was twelve years old and had read through the Bible several times.
Keith said something like, “Well, I’ve been a Christian since I was born. My parents were Christian, so I’m a Christian.” Later that evening, their duties over, Greg continued talking to Keith about the subject of faith in Christ. As they continued talking, the train would occasionally lurch to one side or the other. The boys felt uneasy, wishing the train would slow down. With every lurch Keith’s anxiety rose.
Greg used the occasion to talk about his thankfulness for eternal life. “So,” Keith asked him, “what do you believe will happen if you’re killed?”
Greg said, “There will be a funeral. My body will be buried, or what’s left of it. But I will not be dead.” He quoted scripture after scripture and told Keith that eternal life is something that cannot be earned or inherited from one’s parents; it is the gift of God. Greg quoted the powerful passage in 1 Corinthians 15 about the future resurrection of the physical bodies of believers.
It was at that moment the train derailed. Apparently the engineer was killed in the accident. In the aftermath of the chaos, Greg looked over and said, “Keith, would you like to feel confident in knowing you’ll go to Heaven when you die?”
Keith replied, “I would. I want that.” There, in the middle of that chaos, Greg led Keith Harper to faith in Jesus Christ.
Less than six months later, Greg Tapple was killed in a training crash. Keith Harper lived through World War II with his Christian faith sustaining him. He was eternally grateful for his seat next to Greg and for the ride on the troop train that forever changed his life.
He had been unshackled from sin and death. As we’ll see, that doesn’t mean we no longer struggle with temptation, or that we never sin again. Later in the chapter, Paul is going to give us the formula for victory. For now he just wants us to know we are no longer in the tyranny of sin. We no longer have a termination point to our lives. The law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death.
As I have read through the book of Romans, I’ve come to realize that Paul is a master of recapitulation. So at this point in Romans 8 he is going to pause to recapitulate everything he has said so far, yet again. Look at verses 3 and 4:
3 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, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us….
This is an important recapitulation. Here in verse 3, the word “law” does refer to the law given in the Torah. As we have seen earlier in our series from Romans, God codified the traits of His own character in a set of laws intended to govern our behavior and establish our morality. These are summarized in the Ten Commandments.
The Jewish people in the first century thought that if they kept these laws, they could have a relationship with God. But Paul told them the Law was powerless to bring us into a relationship with God, because it is weakened by the flesh. In other words the law simply tells us how far short we have come from realizing the glory of God. Rather than a ladder we can climb to heaven, the law is a yardstick measuring how far we fall short of the perfection God requires.
But what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did. I don’t know if there is a more powerful subject-and-verb combination in all of the Bible. God did something. The word did implies a past action; it insinuates that God brought about an event in history that accomplished for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
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
This does not mean that Jesus was sinful. It means He was given a physical, perishable body like the ones we have. We are the sinful ones. We were made in God’s likeness, and we spoiled it. Jesus was made in our likeness, and He redeems us.
He came in our likeness to condemn sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirements of the law might be met in us. He took our condemnation, so that He could give us His salvation.
3. The Holy Spirit Transforms Our Lifestyle
And now we come to the third operation of the Spirit in our lives. He teaches us a new way to live. He transforms our lifestyles, our habits. Let me read these verses again: 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.
The Holy Spirit enables us to live in a new way. We are no longer dominated by our sinful nature and weakened flesh. Instead, we are increasingly directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit who indwells us. The Christian life is not merely a matter of trying harder; it is a matter of living differently because a new power now resides within us.
I once had a garden hose that totally collapsed whenever the water was turned off. It lay flat on the ground—wrinkled, limp, and useless. But when I turned on the faucet, water surged through it. The hose swelled, straightened, and came to life. Suddenly it was strong, purposeful, and ready to be used.
Without the Holy Spirit, our lives are like that empty hose. We may possess good intentions, but we lack the inward power to become what God intends us to be. But when the Spirit gives us life and unshackles us from the law of sin and death, His power begins flowing through us. We discover a new capacity for obedience, a new desire for holiness, and a new ability to walk according to the Spirit rather than according to the flesh.
I recently read a book entitled God, My Rock: Faith Adventures of a Missionary Mom. It was by Carol Nordman. She was born and raised in the Los Angeles area and she attended UCLA. She had some Christian influences in her background. As a child, she had even occasionally listened to the aforementioned radio show, Unshackled, by the Pacific Garden Mission. But she didn’t become established in the Christian life, and when she entered the University of California, Los Angeles, she was a confused young adult. Carol’s roommate was a communist who held drug parties in their room.
One day when Carol was eating lunch, a woman from Campus Crusade for Christ approached her and invited her to a Bible study. Shortly afterward, she attended a college-age retreat sponsored by Campus Crusade. The woman there challenged Carol to give her life to the Lord Jesus, and she did so. This is what Carol said in her book:
Back on campus, I found a Christian sorority (Alpha Delta Chi), joined it, and moved into the apartments they lived in. The women surrounded me with love and support, taking me to a good church every Sunday, where I learned from the Bible. As for my studies, I discovered kinesiology—the perfect combination of my love of science and sports. I enjoyed the classes and planned to pursue physical therapy as a profession. I broke up with my boyfriend, who didn’t share my faith, and was much happier. God took such good care of the… areas I had entrusted to him. I gave him everything else in life too. That was the start of learning to trust God, and it transformed me. My fear and confusion disappeared, and life became an adventure. Light and free as if a weight had fallen from me, I grew closer to God.
Carol and her husband Vance served over 47 years with Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) and are now emeritus staff members. This is how Carol summed things up: “Every day can be an exciting adventure for the Christian who is filled with God’s Spirit and who lives under His control. As a drop of foam rides a mighty wave—so my soul is thrilled as I ride on God’s power.”
What was taking place on the inside of this confused college-age girl who suddenly had an encounter with the Lord Jesus that changed the trajectory of her life, established a new set of values, and put her on a path of effective personal ministry? She was learning to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. The Spirit of Jesus went to work transforming her lifestyle. He wants to do that with you and me, and it is a lifelong process of walking according to the Spirit.
Throughout my ministry, I’ve used the New International Version of the Bible. My single biggest criticism of this translation is that its scholars often render the Greek word peripateō as “to live” rather than by its literal meaning, “to walk.” To be sure, “live” captures the general idea, but “walk” is the richer image.
The word peripateō is related to our English word peripatetic, which describes someone who travels from place to place on foot or who is constantly moving about. In the ancient world, it simply referred to walking around. The New Testament writers adopted this ordinary word and filled it with spiritual significance. The Christian life is a walk—a step-by-step journey of faith, obedience, growth, and dependence on God.
So when Romans 8 says that we do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, Paul is describing more than our beliefs. He is describing our daily conduct, our habits, our direction, and our way of life. Every day, step by step, the Holy Spirit teaches us where to place our feet.
I believe it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to change our habits, which is exceedingly difficult to do. I just read a book about habits. It was not written from a Christian perspective, but some of the suggestions were helpful to me as a Christian.
The author wrote, “Take a behavior you want, make it tiny, find where it fits naturally in your life, and nurture its growth. If you want to create long-term change, it’s best to start small…. Tiny allows you to start now.”
He said that just when he was trying to improve his diet, he walked into a hotel room in Austin, Texas, and saw an overflowing basket of goodies. Potato chips, lollipops, granola bars, salty snacks. He said, “I knew that if the basket sat there I would eventually cave…. [So] I put the beautiful basket of temptations on the lowest shelf in the TV cabinet and shut the door. I knew the basket was still in the room, but the treats were no longer screaming EAT ME at full volume. By the next morning, I had forgotten about those salty snacks. I’m happy to report that I survived three days in [the hotel] without opening the cabinet again.”
He was making the point that we can change our habits if we take practical small steps, if we incrementally change the patterns in our lives. If even a non-Christian can do that, how much more those of us who are indwelled and empowered by the Holy Spirit! We must progressively learn to walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
So my question in closing is this. Is there a pattern in your life that needs to be cast out, corrected, improved, or strengthened? If you’re going to change a pattern in your life that would enable you to walk more consistently and in a way that is spiritually strong and successful, what would that pattern be? What tiny habit can you change, what small step can you take?
Walking in the Spirit involves small steps forward. Why don’t you think about this and write down one small step you can take? Consider how to begin implementing it, using tiny habits that will grow into richer patterns under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The devil has been tuning our guitars long enough; let’s turn ourselves over to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Christian life is not merely a matter of trying harder. It is learning, day by day, to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit who now lives within us
As we will see next week, the apostle Paul is going on to tell us that those who walk according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who walk according to the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. I know we’re making our way slowly through this chapter, but for me it is such an enriching study that I don’t want to rush through it. The devil has been tuning our guitars long enough. Let’s say, “Holy Spirit come and tune my heart to sing your praise and to walk in your ways.”
Thank you for delving into Romans chapter 8 with me.