“Live By the Spirit”

Scripture: Romans 8:9-17

(Note: This message was part of a "cyber-worship service" that was held on line March 31, 2020, due to the covid-19 virus pandemic)

As our world continues to struggle with the Covid-19 virus, and as we strive to figure out just how to deal with this newest plague on our lives, it appears that there are two distinct approaches to living under this threat. One tactic is to listen to the medical community and government researchers regarding recommended precautions, and by following the guidelines that they put in place. The other tactic is to ignore the warnings because they seem too restrictive, and to go on doing whatever we want to.

The first tactic will soon defeat the disease and get us back to some semblance of normalcy and life. However, the second will only continue to spread the virus from the young and healthy to the more vulnerable of society, and will continue to enable infection and death to be part and parcel of our lives for a long time to come. The first is the most obvious, sensible, and considerate way to live, while the second is nothing short of being short sighted, irresponsible and self-centered.

Isn’t it strange that faith has a tendency to mimic the culture, when scripture tells us that this situation must never happen (Romans 12:2). But it’s true – the church has the same choice to make as our world has right now –staying true to the way set down by Christ, or to continue to live without consideration for the call that the Lord has placed on our life.

Read Romans 8:9-11

Paul tells us that there are two natures that are competing to control our lives – the nature of sin, and the nature of the Spirit. The nature of sin is about self-control, self-gratification, and personal pleasure. It’s about passion, pride, power and ambition that serves to bring honor to us alone. The very nature of sin is about elevation and glorification of self.
But the nature of the Spirit can never be about ourselves – it’s about that which the Lord God Almighty would have us do and be, and it’s about our bringing praise and glory to him, not to ourselves. It is about our surrender and our servanthood on behalf of God. It is about our desire for Christ, as well as for his will, his Law, his authority, and love for the guidance that he brings to us in faith.

The implication is that through a solid faith in Christ, there is a real benefit to all who believe, that a relationship in God will blossom in ways that it never can if we are focused on a life in the world. As a matter of fact, Paul lets us know that faith will not prevent our mortal death, a death because of sin, and that it is a certainty for everyone – for those of the world, as well as those of the Spirit. But the difference comes when we have the Spirit of the Lord within us, that death will not have the final word over us, and that the resurrection power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead will have the ultimate authority for life over us, too.

Read Romans 9:12-14

When we give our life to Christ, our commitment to the ways of earth is broken. It’s like an adoption, where both the child and a parent, or parents, surrender their relationship in favor of the child’s new relationship with new parents and a new family. Everything about the former relationship is no longer pertinent for any of the parties, and the new relationship is as if it had always existed. Legally, it is as if the child had been born into the new family.

The child becomes, in effect, a new person. All debts and benefits from the former family are dissolved, and legally, a new family is created. When we become a member of the family of God, our old self is as good as dead, and we are born anew into a divine relationship. Our mortal self is still held to the limited existence that sin has created in us, but our spirit now has an immortality that reflects the resurrected life of Christ. This is what Jesus was telling Nicodemus on that night when the Pharisee learned that his only chance to experience the kingdom of God is if he was “born again.” (John 3:1-21)

This is what Paul is telling us, that we can only have one relationship – either we live as one in the world, or we live as one in Christ.

Read Romans 8:15-17

And here is the truth of what we inherit when our life as a slave to the world is exchanged for life as a child of God. Christ’s Father becomes our Father, our “Abba”; Christ’s resurrected life becomes our new life; Christ’s glory will be our glory; the truth of Christ becomes our truth; and the suffering that Christ endured will also become our suffering.

Life in a new family, with its new relationships and new opportunities, also brings with it new obligations that cannot be denied. The world would have us believe that scripture is not the final word regarding God’s way and will for our lives. They want to blur the line that separates us from the old life, but the truth that Christ represents is made clear by the light of his life – and if we fail to live the same life that Jesus lived, it means that we have never left the old one. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit will testify to our true life, but that doesn’t mean that temptations and lies will stop plaguing us – after all, Jesus was under attack throughout his entire ministry! And that is part of our inheritance, too!

But Paul’s parting verse is the promise that is given to all who claim the new family name – the name of Christian. That our sharing in the sufferings of Jesus – the hatred, the lies, the temptations, the denials, the betrayals, the attacks are all inevitable, but as a member of the family of God, we have the Spirit to help us through those times, and the promise of eternal life at the throne of glory becomes ours through perseverance in Christ.

A life in the Spirit? It has no connection to our former life in the world, and our new life teaches us to despise those old ways. It can never be any other way when we come to live anew in Christ.