Romans 8:2
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Good evening, church. It is so good to be with you all tonight. Let's go to the Lord one more time in prayer. Father, we are coming to the end of this first day of the week, and many of us are already exhausted for different reasons of life. We just feel drained, and we need your strength, God. We ask that in the next 15 minutes you would be with us, that we would lock in to what your word has to say to us, that we would drink from the well of living water.
We don't have anywhere else to go. You've given us the words of eternal life, so let us drink freely from those. Be with us. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. The Stoic philosopher, Epitechus, wrote, Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else. That kind of resonates with us deeply, doesn't it?
Deep down, many of us long to live that kind of freedom. We want the ability to shape life the way we wish on our own terms. But pause for a moment. When I say the word freedom, what comes to your mind? Some of you picture William Wallace and Braveheart shouting, freedom! On Thursday, I was actually talking to a college student in my home group, and I mentioned I'm going to make a Braveheart reference, and he looked blankly at me and said, I've never seen Braveheart, and my friends haven't either.
That man and his friends live in a very sad reality. But maybe your mind goes somewhere a bit more personal when you think about freedom. Maybe you think about those places in life you feel stuck or weighed down. For some of us, freedom would mean never clocking in again, but still getting paid.
For others, it may mean getting to travel wherever we want, say whatever we want, live wherever we want. But here's the tension. Is that all that freedom is? From a biblical perspective, could freedom mean something far deeper? Something the world can't give you and it can't take away? Tonight, my hope is that scripture is going to guide us into a far richer understanding of what it means to be free.
Tonight, we're going to be in Romans 8.2. Let's read that together. Here's what the Lord says to us through Paul. He says, For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Here's what I want to convince everyone in this room of, in this room of tonight. True freedom is not doing what we naturally want to do.
It's doing what we were originally created to do. I'm going to say it one more time. True freedom is not doing what we naturally want to do. It's doing what we were created to do. Like any good evening devotional at 3rd Avenue, I have two strong points for you. The first point is the law which leads to freedom. And the second point is the law which leads to enslavement.
All right, so let's take a look at our first point, the law which leads to freedom. Why am I so focused on freedom this evening? Well, it's because if we don't understand what the word free means in Romans 8.2, then we will completely misunderstand the claim Paul makes in Romans 8.1. Our verse tonight is actually an explanation. In the previous verse, Romans 8.1, Paul makes this earth-shattering claim.
He says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Take a moment and let that sink in. If you know the book of Romans, you should be absolutely stunned by that statement. Paul has spent several chapters of this book describing the devastating reality of sin in this world. In the previous chapter, in chapter 7, he opens his hearts to his readers.
And he says, I don't even understand myself. The things I want to do, I'm not doing. And the things I don't want to do, I do. At the end of chapter 7, Paul cries out in despair. And he says, so then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind. But with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. Well, that statement raises a question, doesn't it?
Paul, if that's your reality, if your flesh is still corrupted, still tainted by sin, then what hope do you have to stand before the holy God? Even though your intentions are good, your actions are deeply corrupted by sin. Will God still declare you righteous if you mean well, but you act wrongly?
It's to that question that Paul responds with Romans 8.1. There is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And he goes on in verse 2 to explain why. It's because the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. According to Paul, true freedom comes through a new law.
It's the law of the spirit of life. Genuine freedom can only be tasted when the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death. Now, I realize that the Americanness in almost all of us might not like what I just said. Our concept of freedom is innately self-centered. We think of freedom as not being accountable to anyone or to anything.
But the biblical concept of freedom is actually the exact opposite. The biblical concept of freedom looks or is a wholehearted submission to Jesus as Lord. And an organization of everything in your life around Jesus' Lordship. If you doubt what I just said, flip on over to 1 Corinthians 7, 22 through 24 and read that.
You see, our verse tonight helps us realize a cosmic shift has taken place. A new law is in town and it's here to stay. The regenerative and continual work of the spirit in the life of a Christian offers a glorious return. to a pre-fall world. It's a world not defined by sin or death. It's a world where the chief end of man is to know and glorify God by enjoying him forever.
It's a world marked by freedom because we get to do what we were created to do. Wholeheartedly worshiping and serving God as our king. Some of us in this room don't really deeply feel what I've just said. Even though you, Christian, know the truths of the gospel, that you are saved by grace through faith alone.
You feel like your life stops in Romans 7. You're constantly plagued by your own sin. Every time you walk through the doors of church on Sunday, you feel like you bring the spiritual stench of death along with you. You focus so much on your own personal sin that you've forgotten that the Spirit has set you free. When I was a senior in college, I had a kind of weird season where I felt like my life was crumbling around me.
I remember one night specifically, I was struggling with just tremendous anxiety. I was praying to God underneath my bed, underneath my bed, like a goon, shouting at God. God, you promised good. But this isn't. What I didn't realize at the time was that my own personal sin of doubt and lack of trust in God's goodness robbed me of the freedom the gospel offers.
some of us Christians in this room are like that. You're so focused on your failures that you've forgotten your freedom. You spend hours introspectively focusing on your sin patterns. You can't seem to get past the fact that you're a sinner. Brothers and sisters, if that's you, You just need to stop.
The message of the gospel is not merely that you're a sinner. The message of the gospel is that you are a sinner who is saved by grace alone, and through faith alone, in Christ alone. Romans 8.2 is meant to be a sweet balm to your weary and tattered soul. yes, you struggle. We all struggle.
Yes, you stumble. But if you're in Christ, the Spirit has set you free. You aren't condemned before God's throne. That's what freedom is. It's the regenerative and continual life that the Spirit brings to you through Christ Jesus. It breaks the chains of sin and death over your life.
So rejoice. Rejoice in the good work the Spirit is doing in you. All right, so we've seen what freedom is. Let's consider what freedom is not. Let's move on to my second point. Point two, the law which leads to enslavement. What has the spirit of life set Christians free from? It set them free from the law of sin and death.
Well, we need to ask, what is the law of sin and death? When Paul says the law of sin and death, he's talking about the universal human experience of man's rebellion against God's rule. Such rebellion brings spiritual death to men before the holy God. Here's my concern, friends. I am deeply, deeply worried that our concept of freedom aligns more closely with the law of sin and death than with the law of the spirit of life.
If Epictetus is right, if freedom is merely doing the things we want to do, then we're doomed. Why? Because sin has hopelessly tainted our desires. We naturally desire to make our own kingdom great in this world. But that's not freedom. It's slavery to sin and to death.
By your own confession, some of you tonight in this room say you are not Christians. You hope to find fulfillment in your life by pursuing the things you want to do. You want to make money, so you'll stop at nothing to do that. You want a bunch of relationships, so you move from one person to the next. You want career achievement, so you spend every waking hour of your life trying to be better than the person next to you.
Here's what you need to realize, if that's you. Your pursuit of freedom in these areas actually reveals that you are under deep bondage. You serve money. You serve people. You serve career achievements. Friends, all of these things are ultimately going to fail you. At the end of time, your money is going to burn.
You'll be alone before God's throne. And your career achievements will be a distant and faded memory. You will have chosen the wrong master to serve. Though your earthly life may have felt free in a sense, You will look back in dread, realizing that your entire life was under bondage to sin and to death.
You will stand before God's holy throne, condemned. Christians in this room stand as a testimony to the fact that the law of the spirit of life has set them free in Christ Jesus. From the law of sin and death. Even though Christians struggle with rebellion against God. In their own personal lives. The spirit of life is working to convict them. To change their hearts.
To transform them into the image of Christ. Friend. Please let that be your story as well. Submit to King Jesus. If you do so, you're going to realize that freedom isn't doing merely what you want to do. It's doing what you were created to do. That's the glorious paradox of the gospel.
Surrender to Christ brings freedom. Obedience to God brings life. For you Christians in this room, some of you actually have lost sight of what true freedom is. Even this week, you have believed the lies the world has told you. That you can be free if you do this thing or that thing. You've doubted that the freedom the gospel offers is better than the freedom the world gives you.
As Chris reminded us this morning, God is a good father who eagerly and earnestly desires to give you the kingdom. Remember that Christ loved you so much that he gave his life for you. Remember that true freedom comes only by walking by the Spirit and not gratifying the desires of the flesh.
Brother or sister, remember the truth of the gospel. I want to end tonight with the words Paul wrote in Galatians 5 verse 1. He says, For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have freed us through the gospel.
Thank you that we get to rejoice with one another as we get to see the Spirit working in each other's lives. We ask that you would save people in this room even tonight. that they would hear the gospel repent of their sin and believe in you help us to find true freedom in jesus it's in jesus name i pray amen