Romans 8:1-4 “Spirit Business”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, the ones walking not according to flesh, but according to spirit. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of the sin and the death, ³for [what was] the impossibility of law, in which it was being weak through the flesh, God condemned the sin in the flesh, sending His own Son in [the] likeness of flesh of sin and concerning sin, ⁴in order that the righteous act[s] of the law might be fulfilled in us, the ones walking not according to flesh but according to spirit.

Well, here we are. Romans chapter 8. This chapter has been called “the pinnacle of the Bible.” It doesn’t get any better than this. I would happily agree. Not to be cynical or negative, but the simple fact is life is really hard. “Brutal” might be a more fitting epitaph. For me, just to stay sane, we need some kind of hope that rises far above anything this world has to offer. This eighth chapter of the book of Romans is exactly that otherworldly hope my own heart craves.

Interestingly, the Greek word for spirit (here usually Holy Spirit) appears twenty times in this chapter. It only appeared four times in chapters 1-7 and it will only occur another four times in 9-16. Nowhere else in all the Bible is there so much emphasis on spirit, and particularly the Holy Spirit. It is no coincidence that the greatest chapter of hope in the entire Bible is also literally inhabited by the Holy Spirit!

As I lamented earlier, it doesn’t seem to me that the power and/or presence of the Holy Spirit has been what it ought to be. I’m looking forward to studying this chapter for just that reason. If somehow I’m not embracing Him or somehow I’m not availing myself of that power and presence, I certainly want to do whatever I can to remedy that problem. Obviously, along with the Son Jesus and His saving work on the Cross, the Holy Spirit is the best gift we can receive from God. I want to make sure I’m enjoying that gift as much as I possibly can!

So here would be my thoughts from these first four verses: This, of course, is quite a statement to start with, “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” I would say most of us, if we’re born-again believers, can easily shout, “Hallelujah!” We make much of the fact that we’ve been saved, that heaven is our eternal home, and that we have been forever delivered from the condemnation and judgment of our sins! And we should.

However, I would suggest there is far more hope in these words than perhaps they are often afforded. Paul’s problem in chapter 7 was not that he was struggling under the penalty of sin. That would have been struggling with what we would call the question of justification. “What must I do to be saved?” No, it was not the penalty of sin that he was addressing, it was the power of sin. The earlier chapters of Romans have clearly established the doctrine of justification by faith alone. The problem for Paul (and us) is that, though we may now know we’ve been justified, yet sin still seems to possess an almost overwhelming power in our lives. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out…Oh, wretched man that I am!”

This statement, “There is, therefore, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,” is not just about our justification; it also concerns our sanctification!  It is not just referring to the guilt of our sins, it is also referring to their power. It’s not just about whether or not we’ll go to heaven, it’s about our daily lives. “There is no condemnation…” If we ponder that thought, I’m guessing most of us would feel we need to respond with something like, “But, but, but…my sins are still really, really bad!” I would suggest we all need to ask ourselves, “Can I really step out into the light of God’s love and say of myself, ‘There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus’”?

God goes on in verse 2 to tell us that “through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Then in verse 3, He specifically heads back to the source of our problem. It is “the Law.” He knew right where we would all run, when it came to this matter of “condemnation.” The Law. The rules. We have to keep the rules, right? Yes, I’m saved, but now my main job is to “keep the rules.” The problem, of course, is that just lands us back in chapter 7: “…the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing!” No, no, no. A thousand times no. The Law will not save us. Rule-keeping is not the answer.

Consider vv. 3,4 together: “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 requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Ah, we see we’ve circled back to the Spirit. Once again, our hope is not in being better rule-keepers. It is somehow tied up in the Spirit!

Jesus clearly said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23,24). And what do we learn later in Galatians? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Against such things, there is no law. And why not? Because rules will never create love in people’s hearts…or joy or peace or patience.” Those things must come from our hearts. And, once again, therein is the problem. It’s my heart. It has always amused me just a little when the woman at the well told Jesus, “But the well is deep and you have nothing to draw with!” In fact, she had no idea just how deep the well was! And she certainly didn’t realize the infinite power of Jesus to draw for her the water of life! Yes, my heart is a very deep well. It’s much too deep for me. Way down there somewhere is this sad reality that it is “desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.” Only this indwelling of the very Holy Spirit of God can rescue me.

I for one certainly want to know more of this freedom God has given me. I hope as I continue to study through this chapter in Romans that the Lord will in fact open my eyes to whatever I may be missing.

 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free!”

 

Daniel 6:28 “Like Daniel”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁸And this Daniel prospered in the kingdom of Darius and in the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian.

This verse concludes what some call the historical portion of the book of Daniel. The rest of the book will be records of various visions which the prophet saw, with some more accounts of how it all affected Daniel. I’m really looking forward to studying through those final chapters. Up to now, we’ve basically observed Daniel and how he dealt with life in this world. In chapters 7-12, we’ll get an extensive display of our friend interacting with the spirit world. As I get older, I am finding more and more the realization that this world in which we live is only a small bubble in an ocean of the spirit world which, though we cannot see it, surrounds us and engulfs our very being. I suspect that world has far more bearing on our lives than this world. The spiritual battles which are raging around us are probably the real battles which matter. I long to have eyes that see that world, to be driven by those far greater concerns.

All that said, however, here we are: Daniel 6:28 and this simple little verse, “And this Daniel prospered in the kingdom of Darius and in the kingdom of Cyrus.” We first met our friend as a young man, probably but a teenager, and, for myself, as I have studied these first six chapters and tried to learn from him, he has definitely become my hero. Speaking of the spirit world, I am amazed at how Daniel was very specifically created to be who he was. He was born just in time to be that young man right when Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold, arose to power and carried off young Jewish men to serve in his court. Daniel’s life then spanned the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity. By the end of his life, he has lived through the reigns of several Babylonian kings until finally the “Arms and Chest of Silver” displaced the Head of Gold, and now the second great kingdom, the Persians, are in control. By now, Cyrus has issued his decree that the Jewish people may return to Judea, and our Daniel is at the end of his life, easily an 80-year old man in that ancient world.

Like Esther, the Lord obviously raised him up specifically for “such a time as this.” His entire reason for existence was to be the Lord’s representative in the very highest offices of these worldly kingdoms. No doubt this access gave him considerable opportunities to provide for and protect the exiled Jews, but it also definitely gave him and his friends enormous opportunities to bring glory to God! No more were the Jewish people and their God just stories people heard about those people who lived in Canaan. The Babylonian Captivity brought those people right into the very palace of the king of Babylon—the very epicenter of evil in this world—and there, the Lord displayed His glory for all the world to see.

Wow. On the one hand, I’m sure Daniel would have rather lived out his life there in Israel. He’d rather have lived with his family there, probably married one of his cute Jewish girlfriends, had a family, lived out his life and died there. Instead, the Lord had an extremely important assignment for him—to go and be His representative in that epicenter of evil. This is where seeing the spirit world is so important. We’d all like to write the story of our lives and make sure it includes all the parts and pieces just the way we’d like them. I know for myself, and I suspect it’s true of everyone, very little of my life has turned out like I thought it would. In so many ways, I wish I could go back and re-write the story, but of course I cannot. We don’t get to write it beforehand and we don’t get to re-write it either.

It is what it is. I find my only sanity is to believe that the Lord has been carefully, meticulously controlling even my bad decisions, to produce in the end some beautiful tapestry which my eyes have yet to see. As has been often said, we all have to realize we are looking up at the underside of that tapestry. All we can see are the snarls of thread and splotches of colors. It will only be at the end, and probably from heaven itself, that we will get to look down and see the beauty of our lives as the Lord wove them to be. Certainly, we see that here in the life of Daniel.

His life was very, very different than what he could have possibly imagined (or wished) as a young man. Yet here he is. Through all the pain, all the heartaches, all the disappointments, yet because he was the Lord’s servant, he goes down through history as a great prophet and a man to be admired 2,600 years later! Even in his own world, the description of the end of his life is our verse, “And this Daniel prospered in the kingdom of Darius and in the kingdom of Cyrus.” The word translated “prospered” is a nice word that could be translated, “he did well,” “he was successful,” “life went well for him.” Probably what it means is that he got to end his life being respected and appreciated. I have read somewhere that there was even a ”Tomb of Daniel” in Susa of Persia—that apparently he was so greatly respected and appreciated that a great tomb was provided for him in his death. That would be so not unlike the Lord—after all the trials and pain, to allow Daniel to finish out his life in quiet honor.

Drawing things to a close, I think it also very encouraging to note what it said in verse 23, “And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.” There you have it, the “secret” to it all. What made Daniel different? What made him “successful”? What enabled him to be a man of sterling integrity and godliness in the very epicenter of evil? “He had trusted in his God.” Trusting God was the engine that made Daniel who he was, and that simple little epitaph can be true of you and me too. Our stories are still being written. What will make the difference whether they are, in the end, worth reading? The question will be, “Did we or did we not trust our God?” It really is that simple.

As I sit here typing, I can only pray over and over, “Lord, make me like Daniel.” I don’t get to write the story of my life either, but if day by day and minute by minute I can just hang on to this simple plan, “Trust God,” then I can hope that somehow the Lord really is weaving it all into something eternally grand and beautiful—just like He did for Daniel.