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Romans 8:11-17
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus1 from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brothers,2 we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 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. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons3 of God. 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!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
[1] 8:11
[2] 8:12
[3] 8:14
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a bible, turn to Romans chapter 8. Guys, I'm not gonna lie. It was hard to get up this morning, wasn't it? It's cold, it's wet, windy. It's a holiday weekend.
Joel Brooks:There were a lot of reasons not to come, so thank you for being here. And I can only assume that the reason you came here is because you were expecting something. I'd like to ask you, what are you expecting in our time together? It's an important question to ask anytime you come to church. If it's just to hear a sermon, well you could have stayed at home and you know stayed in your pajamas, and you could just listen to the podcast.
Joel Brooks:If it's to just come and sing, you can do that in your car. Crank up some worship music. Some of you probably sing louder in your car than you do here. But what is so important about us gathering together as as the church? I can tell you what why I believe it's important.
Joel Brooks:What I expect. I expect when we gather together as the church, we come as Peter says, we're living stones. Together, Paul says in 1st Corinthians, that we are built into the temple of the Holy Spirit. So when we come together, we become collectively the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit He comes and He blows in our midst. And I think he does something unique when God's people gather together versus when we are alone.
Joel Brooks:And so I know when you come here, there's an expectation. And I want you to expect even more when you come. And once, when we open up God's word and we read, yes, there's huge benefit in us reading God's word by ourselves, having our quiet time in the morning, but there's something about when we've gathered together as His temple, for you to lean in expectant that God's Spirit is gonna come. He's gonna blow in our midst, and do something unique as His children are gathered together. So with that let's read through Romans 8.
Joel Brooks:We're gonna go through 11. I'm not gonna make it through verse 17. I'm gonna go and call it now, so we'll probably just go through verse 15. 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 the Spirit who dwells in you. So then brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
Joel Brooks: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. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back and to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Joel Brooks:And if children then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Father, we do come with high expectations of what you will do in our midst. That you will uniquely, at this time through your spirit, change us. That's why we're here. I pray that you would make all of us look more, like your son Jesus. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. I often get asked by people what is my theological background? How did I come to believe the things that I believe?
Joel Brooks:And I tell them the answer is a little complicated. I grew up Southern Baptist. I'm actually a licensed Southern Baptist preacher. So for those of you who are Southern Baptist, you could feel you're you're okay. So I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church, then I went off to college and I became involved Ministry there.
Joel Brooks:Ironically, at the University of Georgia, the Methodist Student Ministry were the, they were the conservative, theologically conservative group. The Southern Baptist Ministry at the time was the theologically liberal group. So I was a Methodist while I was in college. Even more ironically, it was from my Methodist friends I came to be reformed or believe in predestination and election, which we'll get to in a little bit. And it was through my Presbyterian friends that I was introduced to the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and became a little charismatic.
Joel Brooks:And I know some of you are like, charismatic? Like, well, I'm I'm for everything, but prayer tunnels, people. Like I we're we're gonna move in that direction, but I'm basically a spiritual mutt. I'm a spiritual mutt, and as any dog owner will tell you, mutts are typically the most healthy of all the dogs out there. But the Lord used all of those those things, you know, to to kinda develop my theology into who I am.
Joel Brooks:And then I went to Beeson Divinity School and that got all blended together as well and then baked out and then here I am. But while I was in college, I certainly wrestled with a number of doctrines, mostly these 2. The doctrine of predestination and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Both of these subjects will be what Paul takes us through in the next couple of chapters. And I must confess that I actually, actually had a lot of fear at the times.
Joel Brooks:Not so much with predestination. I was more angry with that. But over the Holy Spirit, I had a lot of fear as I wrestled through the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. You see I was in the middle of this very charismatic ministry. Strange things were happening all around me.
Joel Brooks:People were very emotional. I'm not a huge emotional person. I was actually one of the only one of my friends in my circle that did not speak in tongues. And I actually thought something was wrong with me because I was given the lesser gift of teaching. And I really wanted what everyone else had.
Joel Brooks:And and so I was really just wrestling so much with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Who is he? But all during this time, Romans 8 was what grounded me. I kept coming back to Romans 8. It's one of those chapters that really grounded me.
Joel Brooks:It's one of those chapters that actually really ignited and fueled my heart with a passion for Jesus. It was here that I was reminded of who the Holy Spirit is. What he loves to do. Why he indwells me. How he empowers me to live a life that is pleasing to God.
Joel Brooks:It was Romans 8 and and possibly fused with that some Ephesians 3. Those two chapters of the Bible is what really, grew my prayer life in college and taught me about the Holy Spirit. As I mentioned last week that this chapter we are in Romans, it's Paul's chapter on the Holy Spirit. It's the pinnacle of Romans. And here he mentions the Holy Spirit 20 times.
Joel Brooks:And I have high expectations for what the Holy Spirit's gonna do in our hearts and in our midst as we listen to him in these words. At verse 12, Paul begins with the words, so then we are debtors. So then we are debtors. You could translate this so then as a more of like, in light of this. In light of this we are debtors.
Joel Brooks:In light of what? In light of everything he's been talking about before this. Everything we talked about last week. In light of us not being condemned because of Jesus. In light of Jesus dying and rising again so that we might have new life.
Joel Brooks:In light of that, we are not debtors or we are debtors, not to the flesh, 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. So Paul says, we are debtors. Or some of your translations might say that you have an obligation, or you are indebted.
Joel Brooks:But you are not indebted to sin. We don't owe sin 1penny. Not after all that sin has done to us. Why should we ever give a part of our lives back to sin, when the only thing sin has ever given us is destruction and death. Sin made a lot of promises to us, but sin never kept its promises.
Joel Brooks:We don't owe sin anything, but we owe Jesus everything. Because Jesus is the one who rescued us. Jesus is the one who has given us new life at a great cost to himself. Now that's Paul's argument for how we should kill sin. We are to remember that we owe God everything and we owe sin nothing.
Joel Brooks:In other words, thinking about God's lavish grace towards us, His generosity towards us is The The opposite of that is true as well. If you believe that God is indebted to you, that God owes you something, then you will most certainly sin. If you believe that you are not getting your needs met by God, if you are not getting the things that you deserve, if you believe that God is somehow holding back on you, If you believe those things, you will most certainly continue a lifestyle of sin. If you believe God is indebted to you because all you have done for Him, you're gonna live for yourself. But if you believe you're indebted to God because of all he has done for you, then you will live for him.
Joel Brooks:That's Paul's argument here. Think of Adam and Eve. Why did they sin? They sinned because in that moment, they thought God was holding back on them. They did not, they did not remember, they did not call to mind all that God had given them.
Joel Brooks:God gave them life, breath, gave them the entire world, put them in this gorgeous garden. They could freely eat of everything. They did not focus on what God had given them. Instead they said, God you're holding back. You're holding back.
Joel Brooks:You owe me more. And that led them to sin. If you wanna cut the roots out of the sin in your life, then the key is not for you to just, you know, summon up the strength and to try harder not to sin. I'm not gonna sin today. I'm not gonna sin And just really concentrate on not sinning.
Joel Brooks:That's that's not how you cut the root out of sin. Paul says it's to remember that you owe God everything. Remember the generosity of God. God loves you so much, he had nails driven through his hands and his feet for you. And he's not just forgiven you, he has given you his Holy Spirit to give you a whole new and better life.
Joel Brooks:In light of that, why would you ever settle for a life of sin and slavery? Paul, in using this language of slavery here, he's calling to mind the Israelites, And he's saying, don't be like the Israelites. God miraculously rescued them. You know He sends the plagues to Egypt. He has the Israelites walk through the Red Sea.
Joel Brooks:He miraculously delivers them. Then He tells them how to live at Mount Sinai. Now live this way, and the Israelites responded this way. After all God had done for them, after the new life God has promised them, How he's taking them to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. They're like, you know, I kinda wanna go back to Egypt.
Joel Brooks:I wanna go back to my old life. And they begin to romanticize their old life. And God's saying, don't you remember what your old life was? You were slaves. You were calling out for help and for deliverance.
Joel Brooks:In light of all of my rescue, all of my power, everything I have given you, go to the promised land. Don't go back to Egypt. That's Paul's argument here. Paul's argument is this, the next time that you are tempted to sin, remind yourself how Jesus rescued you at a great, great cost to Himself. How He has given you a new life in His spirit And then ask yourself, how could I do something so stupid with my life in response to that?
Joel Brooks:How could I do something so stupid with my life? God did not go through sin and death. He did not go to the grave and pop out of the grave victorious so I could keep making this stupid decision. He's called me to greater things. That's what Paul is arguing here and he's saying that God has given us his spirit to enable us to walk in a new way of life.
Joel Brooks:So this is what Paul's talking about in verses 15 through 17. Let's read there. 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. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Joel Brooks:And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. J I Packer in his book, Knowing God, he says that he's often asked, what is a Christian? And his answer is that although a Christian, what that that could be answered many different ways, he says the richest answer he knows is that a Christian is one who has God as father. A Christian is one who has God as father.
Joel Brooks:And I think the apostle Paul would agree. Through his spirit, God has adopted us as sons. Now several of you in this room have actually adopted children. And I should probably get you up here to preach this text, because you have an understanding of adoption that's far greater than someone like me who has never adopted. I'm not gonna let you come up here and preach, but I probably should.
Joel Brooks:Because you you have given us a beautiful image. Just a beautiful gospel image, of what God has done for each of us. God took us and we were not family. And God brought us in and he made us his family. And when you adopt someone, they're completely family.
Joel Brooks:They're 100% totally family. It does not matter that this person was not born into the family. They're not second class family. They are completely family. There is there's no difference than those who were natural born, than those who were adopted.
Joel Brooks:And so for those of you who've adopted, thank you, because you have given us a very beautiful, rich image. To be adopted, it means that you were not born a child of God. No one is born a Christian. You're not you're not born that. This is something that God has to do to you.
Joel Brooks:At some point, you were adopted. When the spirit of God came inside of you, it was at that moment that you became his child. And you didn't just become his child, you became his son. Now I I realize for you women here, likely, you hear the word son, and it just kinda makes you bristle a little bit. And you immediately wanna put, he's adopted me as his son or daughter.
Joel Brooks:Don't do that with this text. There's other places you could do sons and daughters or brothers and sisters, but here it is really important for us to keep this idea of sonship. And the reason is this, because in this day daughters could not be heirs. Only sons could be heirs. If a wealthy man did not have a son, he would then adopt a son.
Joel Brooks:He would adopt a male, so that he could have an heir. He could have someone to, to give his estate to, someone to carry on his name. This was a status that was only given to males. He would not adopt a daughter. But now Paul incredibly, he's applying this idea of an adopted sonship to all believers, men and women.
Joel Brooks:This would have been so countercultural. Women, if I can be called the bride of Christ, you can be called a son of God. The Bible is really rich in its metaphors it uses here, and and I don't love being called a bride of Christ, being called a bride, but I get it. I get the image. I'm a bride of Christ.
Joel Brooks:Women, you are a son of God. It's an important image to keep even if it gives you maybe a little discomfort. And when a father adopted a son, several things happened in this moment. First, the child immediately became the heir of the estate. Everything that the father owned immediately became the child's.
Joel Brooks:In addition, all the old ties that the child had, all the old family if there was any, those ties were immediately severed. Permanently removed. Also the old debts, if that child had any old debts was immediately paid for. They were cancelled. The child was given a new name.
Joel Brooks:And they had now at that point on the obligation to live in such a way that would please the father. All of those things that happened back in the 1st century concerning adoption are true of us as believers. We've been given a new name or a new identity in Christ. Our old debt to sin has been canceled. It has been paid for through the blood of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:We are now called to live a new life in a way that honors and pleases our father, and we become heirs of God or co heirs with Christ. And I know I said this last week a couple of times. I'm gonna say it again. Can we just sit at that peak for a little bit? We are heirs of God.
Joel Brooks:Means everything that God has is ours. Let me ask you, what does God have? I mean, what does he have? I mean, he owns the cattle on a 1000 hills. He owns every star in the sky.
Joel Brooks:God owns everything. And here, Paul says, we are heirs of God. Now I mean I I can understand Jesus being the heir. Jesus is the begotten son, The only begotten son of our lord or our lord.
Jeffrey Heine:He could
Joel Brooks:be the heir, but Paul says, no. We're co heirs with Christ. We're fellow heirs with him. This is such an astonishing claim that, honestly, I'm always scared to teach on it because I think I'm committing heresy. I really do.
Joel Brooks:Every time I come across this and I'm like, I gotta I gotta explain this. I type something and I delete it. I type something I delete it. I'm like this has to be heretical because it's too good. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around.
Joel Brooks:I mean, are we really allowed to say Am I allowed to say that we have the same inheritance as the eternal son of God. Is it really true that we enjoy the same benefits, the same status as the very one who conquered sin and death, Jesus? It just doesn't seem possible nor does it seem right that we should ever be granted such access, such a privilege. But we don't just read this here. I mean, the new testament drips in this language.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we just read about it at the start of our service in Ephesians 1. We read how God predestined us for adoption. How we have now obtained an inheritance. How the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of that inheritance until we actually acquire possession of it. Paul's gonna go on if we had continued reading from the opening scripture into Ephesians 2 to say that God has raised us up in Christ and seated us in the heavenly places with him.
Joel Brooks:He has seated us in the heavenly places with Christ. The image I have, if you could go back to the Old Testament. Let me take a little detour here. Hopefully, it's worth it. To Mephibosheth.
Joel Brooks:Do you remember Mephibosheth? Fun name to say. He was the grandson of King Saul. He was Jonathan's son. And after King Saul and Jonathan were killed in the battlefield, Mephibosheth was the rightful heir to the throne, but God had remembered He had established King David on the throne.
Joel Brooks:So Mephibosheth is an enemy at this point. Mephibosheth also he he had, he had been dropped as a child. He was lame in his feet. He was crippled. And King David should have since all the other descendants of Saul and Jonathan had been killed, he should have killed Mephibosheth.
Joel Brooks:But instead, out of great grace, he's he asked his servants, is there any one of Jonathan's sons, anyone in the line of Saul that I could show kindness to? And they find Mephibosheth. And he adopts Mephibosheth. He says, from now on, all that I have is is yours, and you will dine at the king's table. You will be seated at the king's table with all my sons.
Joel Brooks:What a beautiful image of adoption and the privilege we enjoy. I mean, we have no problem when we think of the king's table there, you know, the feast that's there. We have no problem thinking of someone like Solomon. You can almost picture Solomon coming in. You know his wise glory.
Joel Brooks:He was sitting down. Oh, I understand him sitting at the king's table or Absalom. Absalom remember he was described as a beautiful son. He had the long flowing locks. Oh, I could see him there.
Joel Brooks:Or Adonijah or Nathan or or all of the other sons of David. We picture them there at the king's table. But the gospel is this, don't just picture them. Listen to the sounds of those shuffling feet coming. Someone who is a former enemy, Someone who had no place at that table, but he has been raised up, and he is seated among God's children enjoying the feast there.
Joel Brooks:Mephibosheth is an heir. That is a picture of us. We were lame. We were his enemies and God has raised us up and he has seated us at this table. But even as great as that image is, Paul actually tells us it's more because he when he says in Ephesians 2 that God has raised us up in Christ Jesus and seated us with him in the heavenlies, where is Jesus seated right now?
Joel Brooks:Not at a table, but on the throne. He has seated us with him on the throne. And I keep thinking I'm committing heresy. You write this. You delete it.
Joel Brooks:You write If it was just here, Jesus himself says this though. In Revelation chapter 3, Jesus says to the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. As I conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. Let me just read that again just so you know I'm not committing heresy. Jesus says, to the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.
Joel Brooks:We will we'll sit with Jesus on his throne. And you're thinking, oh well that's just that's just for him who conquers. Spoiler alert end of Romans 8, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. This is describing us sitting with Jesus on his throne. In light of all that, are you gonna go back to sin?
Joel Brooks:That's Paul's argument. You're really gonna go back to that old life? Do you have any idea the life God has for us? So we've been adopted. We are heirs.
Joel Brooks:We have the incredible privilege now of calling God Father. Actually the word that Paul uses here is the word Abba. We call him Abba Father. And you could just tell by by the way the word sounds, Abba is very similar to our word dada or papa. It's it's a word that a child would come up with.
Joel Brooks:Often the very first words that a child would come up with calling their father Abba. Abba. Paul is saying this is the relationship that we now enjoy with God. This is a relationship in which you cannot be more loved or more accepted in. And can I just can I just say that as a father, nothing brings you more joy than that very first time you hear your child calling you Dada?
Joel Brooks:I mean, they are never more joyful and secure when they say it, and you are never more joyful than when you hear it. And Paul is saying that's a relationship with God. We look at him and we go, dada. And he is beaming at us as we call him father. And Paul's point to all of this is would you just take a step back and think about it?
Joel Brooks:So then or in light of the incredible sacrifice Jesus has made for you, in light of his forgiveness, in light of him going to hell for you and back, being raised from the dead, in light of him giving you his spirit, in light of you now being called a son of God, a co heir with Jesus, in light of being able to call him Abba Father, in light of all of that, are you really gonna go back to sin? God, through his spirit, has called you to something so much more glorious. Go to the promised land. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, like I feel every time I read Romans 8, I feel my failure.
Joel Brooks:How can I possibly communicate the truths that you have put in this glorious passage? I can't, but you can through your spirit. Write these words on our heart. They are too glorious for us to wrap our minds around. They far exceed our ability to truly believe.
Joel Brooks:We need a miracle to press these things into us. So, God, I pray that we would know the unknowable through your spirit. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.