Free From the Law of Sin & Death | Ep52

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Join Wayne Burger each week as he explores various topics and scriptures and challenges listeners to meditate on God's Word more deeply.

Romans 8:1-3 says, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as for an offering for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh."

Stop and think about what that said. The background of this really begins in Chapter 7, as Paul there described what it was like to live under the law.

You see, law never justified, law always condemned. The only way the law could forgive someone, or could guide them to God, is if the person never broke any of the laws, but kept all of them perfectly. And so, back in chapter 7:24, he said, oh, King James says, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from this body of death?" And then in verse 25, he gives a hint, thanks be to Jesus Christ.

The promise is there now, Romans 8:1, "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The condition is those who are in Christ Jesus. He then explains the reasons in verses 2 and 3 that there is no condemnation in Christ.

And notice what he says, he said, for what the law could not do, and it was weak through the flesh. The idea was, the weakness of the flesh is that you had to keep the law perfectly in order to be forgiven, or to be right in God's sight. And of course, no one could do that.

And so, that was the weakness of the law. But God has made us free from the law of sin and death. He mentions this idea of the law of sin and death.

The law of sin and death is under the old law. You sin, you die. That's simply the principle.

When one sinned, he was dead spiritually. And so therefore, the law of sin and death. But he says here that what the law could not do, God did, sending his own son in the form of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

And so, what we are blessed with is that we do not live under the law of sin and death. That was the Old Testament law. God removed that law, gave us his grace.

The blood of Christ continued to flow to keep us clean. And so, we're separated from that law of sin and death. We now have no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

He says the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, see, the key is you and I can get into Christ Jesus. And he talked about getting into Christ back in Romans 6, 3 and 4, where he said, no, you're not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. So we get into Jesus Christ and he says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

The problem was with the law is, as I said, you had to keep it perfectly. And it was a law of sin and death. You sin, you die spiritually.

The weakness was, of course, in the flesh. If one could keep it perfectly, it could be saved. But of course, we know, no one was able to do that except Jesus Christ.

That's the reason James even says in James 2 in verse 10, if you commit one sin, it's as if you brought the whole law. All it took was one violation and that was the law of sin and death. But he says, we have been free from that law of sin and death.

What a great blessing. God accomplished that. The law could not do by sending Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life, nailed that old law to the cross, and then set us free from that law of sin and death, giving us the blessing that we have in Christ.

As we stop and look at this passage, it's a great passage. I love what it says and how it says it and the message that it teaches. Again, let me look at it again as we even begin with verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. And then he goes on to say, for what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own son in the likes of sinful flesh. And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

We can be thankful that we live under a system that does not condemn us every time we sin. Now, that doesn't say we can live in sin and everything is okay. No, there's a difference in committing a sin and in living in sin.

We are blessed with the fact of being in Christ where we have that forgiveness. In 1 John 1 verse 7 says, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sins. As we live our Christian life, we're going to commit a sin.

But as long as we manifest his attitude of repentance, the blood of Christ washes that sin away. We are no longer condemned by that sin. And so we have that we are free from that law of sin and death.

And we have the grace of God that continues flows to keep us clean as we live our Christian life. Jesus paid that debt and therefore set us free from the law of sin and death. Now, of course, our responsibility is found in verse four, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

We walk according to Spirit as we follow the Spirit's instructions that are given in God's Word. The Holy Spirit revealed his will to us. That was his work as part of the Godhead is that he revealed this will of God.

And if we abide in that word and follow those instructions, we have forgiveness of sins as we and we can be thankful for that. We can be thankful that we have forgiveness of sins by being buried in baptism and arising to walk a newness of life as he had spoken about in Romans six, three, and four. We arrived from the waters of baptism, clean from our sins.

We then began to walk in the way of the Spirit following the Spirit's instructions. Not by some feelings that we have, not by the fact that the Spirit puts anything on our heart, but simply as we follow the instructions of the Spirit, we then can maintain this relationship with God. We ought to be thankful that we do not live under that old law system that where we sin, we die.

We have a great passage in Christ Jesus, a flowing forgiveness of sins. Paul described what it was like to live under that law system in chapter seven. You know, there he said, I know what I should do, but I don't do it.

And I know what I shouldn't do. And that's what I do. And that's the reason King James says in Romans seven, verse 24, oh, wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from the body of this death.

And verse 25 says that the body of this death is Jesus Christ. He's the one that enables us to be able to sin, to find forgiveness, and not be condemned to death again. And then we can have what he talked about in chapter one, eight, and verse one.

There is therefore now no condemnation. As long as we repent of our sins, as long as we're striving to do what God wants to do, the blood of Christ continually flows to keep us clean. And so we can be thankful that we have been set free from the law of sin and death.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, have we reached the blood of Christ? You see, the blood of Christ is what washes away our sins. Jesus died that that blood might be shed to pay for our sins. And that is the grace of God.

And Paul said in Titus three that the grace of God had appeared to all people, teaching us that denying ungodliness, worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present life. That's Titus three in verse 10. The grace of God has appeared to all people, but only those who are willing to obey God's will receive God's grace.

God's word is spoken of as being the word of his grace. It tells us about his grace. It tells us how to reach that grace.

It tells us how we can be forgiven of our sins. And so we have a great blessing that we don't live under that old law that basically was, you sin, you die. Today, we live under the grace of God, walking to the very best we can, striving to live the kind of life that God expects us to live.

And we do as Colossians 3.10, we put off the old man of sin, and we put on the new man of Christ. We strive to be what God wants us to be. And it all begins when we put our trust in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, except you believe that I'm he, you'll die in your sins. John 8.24. That belief, though, is not faith alone. That faith must be manifested by our actions.

It's not just accepting Jesus as our Savior, but it is making some changes in our life. Jesus said, except you repent, you'll all likewise perish. And Luke 3.13, Paul stressed the importance of repentance in Acts 17.30 and 31.

Speaking about the Old Testament, he said, at the time of the sickness, God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in actions. And then, as we're going to look at later, encourage you to listen to the confession that we make.

We confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Lord, calling him Lord, says he is the master. Not only do we have to repent, we have to accept Jesus as our master and live according to his will.

And we make that confession that we believe he is the Son of God, that he is our Lord and Savior, and thereby he is in control of our life. We have to be submissive to his will. And then, of course, we must be baptized to have our old sins washed away.

When people in Acts 2 asked the question, because they were convicted of their sins, they said, what have we got to do? And Peter said, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We need to be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins. And then, we are separated from that old life.

We begin to put on the new man. We live in accordance with his will. And even then, when we sin, God will forgive us when we repent and pray to ask God to forgive us.

Of that sin. And so, we can be thankful that we do not live under that old law of sin and death. That's what Paul makes reference to there in Romans the 8th chapter, that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.

Have you been obedient to God's will? It all starts when we put our trust in him. We manifest repentance in our life when we're willing to confess him and then to be immersed in water to have our sins washed away. And then, we begin that walk with Jesus where the blood of Christ continues to flow to keep us clean.

If you've not done that, let me urge you to be obedient to his will. Jesus, as he closed out the Sermon on the Mount, said, not everyone that says unto me, in the kingdom of heaven, that he that does the will of my Father who's in heaven, have you done the will of the Father? Are you in Christ Jesus? Are you walking in the light that his blood can continue to flow to keep you clean? If not, why not? That's the blessing and the promise he makes and offers to all. He wants you to accept it.

Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God's Word. Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and LightWay Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you're ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we'd love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at 4 at the Senior Center.

You're always welcome. For more information about this podcast, visit lightwaymedia.com slash meditating on the Word and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study. Be sure to like, subscribe, and follow us on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

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