A Sermon:
Privileges in Christ
By L. Miller
Scripture Text: Romans 8:1-14
The right to life
Verse 1: Everyday I worship and glorify God for the fact that He averts the judgment He had destined for mankind. When I looked at the text, Man was sentenced to death because of sin that had entered the world as a result of his disobedience. But thank be to God for His goodness and grace, He had a back-up plan in the person of Jesus Christ who was born of a woman to reverse this punishment that God had pronounced on sinful man. Paul was exhorting his audience that the only way any individual could escape from the wrath of God was to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of his life. This could only be accomplished by accepting that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that he or she might have life more abundantly. By this I mean that life continues after the physical death of the body whatever the circumstances that cause death may have been. That is why he started the passage with the words “therefore there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus” this is simply telling us that anyone and everyone who don’t acknowledge and is covered by the blood of Christ is destine to an eternal death.
· Accepting Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior simple means the giving up of fleshly desires and letting the Holy Spirit having full control of your life. This complete surrender to God will result in the changes in one’s thought patterns, change in thoughts means the redirection / reorganizing of one’s priority of what is most important to you in your pursuit of life here on earth. This means not looking first and foremost to your wants or desires but allowing the Holy Spirit to reign supremely in your hearts. Hence the focus is not on the will of man but on the will of God. Theses desires are endless, partying, grudge, envy and malice covetousness, the desire to be one own boss, having control of one everyday affairs. While there is a tag – of – war taking place inside each one of us mind regarding the will to do good and evil. We can come out victorious if we submit to the will of the Spirit and not the flesh and this is the war that the Apostle Paul talks about when he says in verse 7, that the mind of sinful man is hostile towards God.
Escaping of death
Jesus while empowering his disciples told them that they will face trials and persecution (floggings and being imprisoned), then sentence to death but that, they should not fear those who can kill the body, but fear Him who has power and authority to cast both body and soul into hell. Death was inevitable for mortal man because the Lord had stipulated a specific time for each individual to live on earth. Hence after death the body must return to the dust while the spirit returns to the Heavenly Father, hence Jesus was warning his disciples about eternal death. So when you are governed by the fleshly needs, you take the road to death and destruction since there is a gap between you on God, because you are not mindful of the things of God. Paul went on to further state that the sinful mind who live according to the lust of the flesh is hostile towards God. Because the lust of the flesh is contradicting to the purpose of God, it will not want to come under the subjection of God but would rather want the Holy God who is creator of heaven and earth and the entire universe to condescend to the desires of man. Therefore such a person faces three (3) subjective levels of death whereby the first level determines the final one:
§ Spiritual Death: This is the level of death that man has stop listening to the call of God, via the means He uses to try to get man to stop focus on his own needs but focus on the Sovereign God who create him. He is also at the point in life where he does not believe there is a need for salvation. It is also at this point the preaching of the word, that normally would cause people to be convicted in their heart and that they would feel the need to make changes in their lives to be on the right track with the Lord. The Lord does not talk to them anymore in visions. Neither do believers who would approach and witness them, to tell them that they need to give up a certain life-style to receive Christ that too has stopped. So such a one would be free to do as he /she pleases until physical death.
§ Physical Death: This is when the spirit leaves the body to be with the Lord, this level is where most people focus on. This should not be so. The emphasis placed on this death is misguided because a lot of people are worrying about: (A) when will they die, if they will accomplish the things that they wanted to do and achieved such as (1) see that their children have come to an age that they can take care of themselves sufficiently. (2) whether they will get the opportunity to buy / build that dream house on the piece of land that they have, house furnished with the most stylish of furniture and having the flashy vehicles to go with the profile and (B) How will they die. The person who dies of old age in no better position than the person who was murdered if their life was not wrapped up and tangle up in Jesus Christ (St. Luke 13:1-5). So it will not matter when will you die or how do you die because if such a person had died a spiritual death, then his / her life is meaningless. Because your fate is sealed with the devil and those who disobeyed the command of God.
§ Eternal Death: This is the death that Jesus was telling his disciples about, where you have no lot nor part with God. This is the judgment spoken about in Hebrews 9:27b, because you will have to give an account of the things you do in this life. Furthermore scriptures speak to the fact that it is only things done for Christ that is important. Appreciating His sacrificial death on the cross, acknowledging Him to others as the only hope in life that mankind must be save. Bringing hope to the fatherless, giving to the poor are some of things that would be taken into consideration after being directed by the Holy Spirit. This death speaks to the anguish one faces while burning in of hell with Satan and his followers.
Entering into the Presence of God
The law that Paul talks about in verses 3-4 was too rigid for people to survive under. Every sin requires some burnt offerings or other sin offerings in order for sin to be forgiven. One author simple phrase it like this “the sacrifices of animals show the Israelites the seriousness of sin in their lives. Blood had to be shed before the pardoning of sin could take place”. Failing that it would means death of the individuals who had sin. So when Jesus died on the cross once for all and for all sins that man would commit thereafter. Each time man sins he had to find offerings over and over again, but when my Jesus went to the cross he affords me the opportunity to humble myself in the presence of God.
Like that tax collector scream Lord have mercy upon me because I am a sinful man. This does not give me the right to focus on my neighbors’ faults except to bring the word of salvation to them in order for them to enjoy the same peace and assurance of knowing that I have eternal life in the presence of God. No longer do I have to confess my sins to man, and then he intern act as a mediator between God and I. This does not negate the fact that people do not intercede on behalf of others, but the priestly system that was in place no longer exist. Jesus death on the cross allows me to take my concerns directly to Father when I pray using my Savior’s Name.
The Authority of Sonship (Verses 9 - 14)
The fact that we now have the privilege of entering in to the presence of God, we have an obligation to live according to the Spirit, and not by the sinful desires of the flesh. Paul in verse 9 of the passage tells us that if we don not have the Spirit of Christ in us, we do not belong to Christ. The Spirit of Christ is very important to the believers today because He is going to be the one to dictate our life here on earth. He is the one that will tell us everything we need to know at the right time that we need to know. This is He who Christ refers to when he had said take no thought for your life or what you shall say in your defense but the Spirit will tell you what you should say when you stand before the rulers and magistrates.
Paul was making the point that not been control by the Spirit of Christ means conversion never takes place. And if conversion did not take place I would not want to be in that pair of shoes, such persons is going to a Christ – less eternity known as eternal death.
© L. Miller 2009.
Entered 04-July-2009 (Contributed to Write 2 Shine by Larkland Miller. All rights reserved.)
