The Spirit-controlled life, the Christ-centred life, the God-focused life is daily coming nearer heaven even when it is still on earth. Paul begins and ends this passage with statements about the absolute security of those who are in Christ. Let us remember that he began all this by saying that every man sinned in Adam. Hence, as God's wrath is revealed from heaven, it is against every form of impiety "against all ungodliness." For the created world has been subjected to chaos, not because of its own choice, but through him who passed the sentence of such subjugation upon it, and yet it still has the hope that the created world also will be liberated from this slavery to decay and will be brought to the freedom of the glory of the children of God; for we know that the whole creation unites together in groans and agonies. The last time it was popular was 1948, and it is beginning to get popular again, so thirty years. The life of a salesman is a life of feast or famine, and potential great feast. There are two ways of taking them and both give excellent sense and precious truth. No fresh revelations from God can nullify those which preceded them; but as the prophets looked onward to what was coming, so is the gospel already come, supported by the past. Interactive Bible study with John Piper. True ministry gives out not merely truth, but suited truth to the saints. Paul goes further; he goes on to speak of the spiritual experience of every Christian. The apostle allows this privilege to be great, specially in having the Scriptures, but turns the argument against the boasters. This hope is related to the thought in verse 21. As do so many evangelists today. Who shall deliver me from this life controlled by the body?" And when we look back upon our Christian experience, all we can say is, "I did not do this; I could never have done this; God did everything." In heaven it will fill us perfectly; but there is no more perfect joy there, nor anything. He has declared me innocent of all charges. (b) Christ is risen; therefore nothing can ever separate us from him. Man classifies death as the separation of man's consciousness from his body. It is not God seeking, or man bringing righteousness. In the creed the fourth is that Jesus will come to be the judge of the quick and the dead. Those that suffered with David in his persecuted state were advanced by him and with him when he came to the crown; see 2 Timothy 2:12. Now the man who lives dominated by his body appetites is living like an animal, because animals are body-controlled beings. And so God speaks, and this is what thrills me, He speaks of my being glorified, because God knows He is going to do it. He had this, of course, in a revelation that was from God; he had law; he had prophets; he had divine institutions. There was a most important trial of man in the person of Adam; but after this, what dispensation was there? There is mutual confirmation. It is apokaradokia ( G603) and it describes the attitude of a man who scans the horizon with head thrust forward, eagerly searching the distance for the first signs of the dawn break of glory. He breaks the objections down into 3 main ones: 1) If God's grace increases whenever we sin then we should just continue to sin so that we might experience more grace 2) If we're not under the old law in the old testament then we should be free to live however we want We do with patience wait. The sense of the apostle in these four verses we may take in the following observations:-- (1.) Jesus had come and died; Jesus had been a propitiatory sacrifice; Jesus had borne the judgment of God because of the sins He bore. When man sinned, the ground was cursed for man's sake, and with it all the creatures (especially of this lower world, where our acquaintance lies) became subject to that curse, became mutable and mortal. Our problem is that we just don't understand the depth of God's love for us. (2.) The trees shall, yield their proper fruits, and rich flocks, and kine, and lambs, of sheep and kids of goats. Verse 21 may be correlated with the references previously given (Revelation 21:1-27; Revelation 22:1-21 and Acts 3:1-26). We are aliens because we live an entirely different lifestyle as we live after the Spirit. for the mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can it be. Then he answers his own question, "Thanks be unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, is my deliverance." Of course, it could hardly be the law: that was the boast of Israel. In hoping for this glory we have need of patience, to bear the sufferings we meet with in the way to it and the delays of it. God himself will be with them, and will be their God, Revelation 21:3. Bible Verse; Newest; Oldest; Most Viewed; Sermon. If children, then heirs,Romans 8:17; Romans 8:17. He "will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile.". The Stoic went further. We did nothing to bring that about; that is God's work. Paul speaks about height and depth. "Paul, a bondman of Jesus Christ" an apostle "called," not born, still less as educated or appointed of man, but an apostle "called," as he says "separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets." And he is father of circumcision in the best sense, not to Jews, but to believing Gentiles. When he gives a list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, he includes the bodily and the sexual sins; but he also includes idolatry, hatred, wrath, strife, heresies, envy, murder. Surely we can trust a loyalty like that for anything. subjected the same", and not Adam, by whom sin entered into the Compare with this Psalms 96:10-13; Psalms 98:7-9. Paul knew that, and here he, as it were, endows creation with consciousness. Not my will, but Thine be done.". We have God and man in presence, so to speak. This designs the vanity and emptiness of the minds of the Gentiles, who were without God and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, without the law and Gospel, and grace of God; also the vain conceits they had of themselves, of their wisdom, knowledge, learning, and eloquence; likewise their vain philosophy, particularly their gross idolatry, their polytheism, or worshipping of many gods; together with their divers lusts and vices, to which they were addicted, to such a degree, that they might be truly said to be made subject thereunto, being under the government of these things, slaves unto them, and in such subjection, as that they could not deliver themselves from it; though it is said. Hence he infers (v. 8), Those that are in the flesh cannot please God. What did they say to Ishmaelites as joint-heirs? That always amazes me, but it shouldn't surprise me because He knows everything. In the fourth verse this could not be absent; in the first verse it ought not to be present. The answer is, that this will not do one whit better; for when we come down to the next generation, it is apparent that the two sons of Isaac were sons of the same mother; nay, they were twins. The truth is, those are altogether mistaken who call it so. There is nothing like the grace of God for producing the truest humility, the humility that not only descends to the lowest level of sinners to do them good, but which is itself the fruit of deliverance from that self-love which puffs itself or lowers others. Because the carnal mind [or the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God ( Romans 8:7 ): It is opposed to God, because God has declared that the spirit is superior to the material. And because God is for you, I don't care what forces of hell may be against you, they are nothing compared to God.Never think of Satan as the opposite of God. So Jesus said, "Rejoice when you are persecuted for righteousness sake. But now the body appetites under the control of the spirit as God intended them to be. Lot Chuck Missler 6CD and Books (Romans, Acts, Luke, John) Notes. This is applied in the two chapters that follow. "I knew you in the wilderness," said God to Hosea about the people of Israel ( Hosea 13:5). But you know what it is to be more than a conqueror? But God will no more accept the works of your flesh than He would Cain's, who sought to offer to God the works of his flesh and was rejected by God. ", No age in time can separate us from Christ. In writing to the Corinthians, the second epistle, chapter 5, Paul said, "For we know when this earthly tent, our body, is dissolved, that we then have a building of God that is not made with hands that is eternal in the heavens. Did the Jew fancy that the gospel makes very light of Abraham, and of the then dealings of God? The apostle applies this according to divine wisdom. The confusion of tongues, by which true religion was lost in the world, is a proof that the builders of this tower sinned against God in the highest degree. For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" ( John 4:23 ). Prayer is the instrument by which we cooperate with God in the accomplishing of His will upon the earth. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus. John Locke insisted that Adam's disobedience was not of his own will, since it occurred "not through his own choice, but by the guile of the devil. subjected -- The word subject to means placed in such a state; subjected to it by the appointment of another, as a soldier has his rank and place assigned him in an army. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. The answer is found in this portion of our epistle (that is, from the middle of chapter 5). He is not complete. Let me refer in passing to a few points more in the introduction, in order to link them together with that which the Spirit was furnishing to the Roman saints, as well as to show the admirable perfectness of every word that inspiration has given us. Today we're going to be studying Romans 7:1-6 and its overall message/theme. This clearly takes in man, it will be observed; and this is his grand point now. The gospel, instead of treating this as a light matter, alone vindicates God in these eternal ways of His, in that which must be in him who stands in relationship with God. Time was when none of the English, nor French, nor of any other nation believed in the Saviour. It is no longer a question of man's guilt, but of his nature. In Paul the fourth is that Jesus is at God's right hand to plead our case. 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. It is exquisite the delicate love with which he singles out distinctive features in each of the saints, men and women, that come before him. That final adoption will be the redemption of their bodies. "Earth, the universal mother, shall give to mortals her best, fruit in countless store of corn, wine and oil. in hope that) the creature (or, creation) also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. This passage gives a very wide perspective of Gods great plan of redemption, which is the heart of Pauls theology. For I know that as long as I am living in this body I am absent from the Lord, but I would rather be absent from this body and to be present with the Lord" ( 2 Corinthians 5:4-6 ). But this is not all; and the objection of the Jew gives occasion for the apostle to bring out a fuller display of what God is. ". Far from denying or obscuring what they boasted of, he goes beyond them "Who are Israelites," says he, "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever." He put in everything he could think of, and yet, some poor timid soul stands there and quivers thinking God is going to forsake them now. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? You know, He is through with me. He says that God's spirit witnesses with our spirit that we really are his children. If we are children then we are also heirs; and if we are the heirs of God then we are joint-heirs with Christ. The circumstances under which the epistle to the Romans was written gave occasion to the most thorough and comprehensive unfolding, not of the church, but of Christianity. Why it is, he has not seen fit to inform us fully. day clouds distilling the dews of health" (Baruch 29:5). Not only does the created world do so, but so do we, even though we have received the first-fruits of the spirit as a foretaste of the coming glory, yes, we too groan within ourselves earnestly awaiting the full realization of our adoption into the family of God. Accordingly the apostle says that boast and works are completely set aside by this principle which affirms faith, apart from deeds of law, to be the means of relationship with God (verses 27, 28). It will then be put past dispute. Such is the doctrine and the fact. With one tremendous leap of thought Paul has seen Christ, not as the Judge but as the lover of the souls of men. Pleasing God is our highest end, of which those that are in the flesh cannot but fall short; they cannot please him, nay, they cannot but displease him. Did they fall back on Abraham? Thereby is identification with His death. It is quite clear, especially from the last instance, that Paul is not using flesh simply in the sense of the body, as we say flesh and blood. But then he gives us the other side. He could reckon not by art only, but by experience; for he knew both. We have seen that chapters 5-8 have a kind of sandwich structure. Someone may object: "You say that the Spirit-controlled man is on the way to life; but in point of fact every man must die. Of whom does it declare all this? That the creature doth therefore earnestly expect and wait for the manifestation of the children of God,Romans 8:19; Romans 8:19. 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? It was so exciting reading every night. 52:18. The quickening power of God therefore was here set forth, of course historically in a way connected with this life and a posterity on earth, but nevertheless a very just and true sign of God's power for the believer the quickening energy of God after a still more blessed sort. Was it not sure and evident that Israel could not take the promise on the ground of mere connection after the flesh? instructive and interesting manner the links that grace practically forms and maintains between the saints of God. And when I was a child I spent one summer in a home in Montecito where my aunt was the maid. He saw man's sin and the state of the world; but he also saw God's redeeming power; and the end of it all for him was hope. And here it may be repeated that it is no question of pardoning the sinner, but of condemning the fallen nature; and this so as to give the soul both power and a righteous immunity from all internal anguish about it.