The Just Shall Live by Faith

The Just Shall Live by Faith
“The Victorious Christian Life” (Addendum)
Romans 8:1-5

  The 8th chapter of Romans stands as a pinnacle of security for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and fully surrendered unto Him as their Lord.

• Once a child of God has experienced the Christian life from God’s perspective, they cannot be satisfied with the staid, stale routines of churchianity; they must pursue that type of experience in their personal devotions to the Lord and in their corporate worship with others.

   The 8th chapter of Romans is also the most life-changing chapter in the Bible because it introduces the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

Up to this point, the Holy Spirit has only been mentioned once, and that was in Romans 5:5, where Paul said the love of God was shed abroad in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit!

• The Holy Spirit is mentioned 20 times in this chapter alone, and the conclusion is that the victorious Christian life can only be lived by those who are indwelt, filled, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
• What God the Creator was and is to our physical world, so is the Holy Spirit to our Spiritual world.
• God the Father created the heavens and the earth, and God the Son holds them together (Colossians 1:16-17). Without His continuing, sustaining, upholding, and preserving power, the world would explode, implode, crash, and burn.

Likewise, without the Holy Spirit:

• We would have never been reborn because we were dead in our trespasses and sins and could do nothing to change that. We would return to our spiritual deadness from which He delivered us.

A brief outline of the Holy Spirit:

• The Holy Spirit is a Person, not an “it” or an “influence” or “force!”
• He is the third member of the Godhead—equal with God the Father and God the Son in their deity, personhood, and personality—yet the Holy Spirit is as distinctive in His role in our lives as are God the Father and God the Son.
• Like humans, he has a mind, emotions, and a will. He knows the deep things of God. He loves the saints. He makes decisions. He speaks. He prays. He teaches. He guides. He commands. He comforts. He may be grieved. He may be quenched. He may be lied to. He may be tested. He may be resisted. He may be blasphemed and so much more.
• The Holy Spirit is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. He is holy, holy, holy! He is called God, Lord, the Spirit of God, the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Christ, and many other names to prove He is a Person and not an “it” or just a “force.”
• The Holy Spirit’s goal is to glorify Christ in the believer’s life. Therefore, He indwells the believer, fills the believer, and floods the believer’s heart with God’s love and the fruit of the Spirit. He empowers the believer with the gifts of the Spirit and seals the believer’s salvation until the day of redemption.
• He communes with the believer, fellowships with the believer, prays for and with the believer, fights against the power of the flesh on behalf of the believer, He sanctifies, leads, guides, and directs the pathway of the believer who is yielded unto Him, and all of this, never to bring glory to Himself – but to glorify and magnify the work of Jesus Christ in and through our lives.
• The Holy Spirit was there at creation, “moving upon the waters” and separating them from the earth. The Holy Spirit moved upon God’s chosen servants in the Old Testament, and their mouths spoke the very words of God, and their quills to write the very word of God.
• The Holy Spirit was present when Jesus was baptized, revealing God’s anointed One. He strengthened the Lord during His 40 days and nights of temptation. He was present at every miracle, every message, and every act of ministry, so those who mocked Him or His messages were, in fact, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which is the only unpardonable sin.
• He was there on the day of our Lord’s death, burial, and for sure at His resurrection – carrying out the work of God for the glory of God and our eternal salvation.

   Remember, the purpose of Paul’s letter to the Romans is to explain the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.

• In the first three chapters, Paul defines the sinfulness of all men and argues that the only remedy for man’s dilemma is God’s grace.
• Then, from the middle of the third chapter to the end of chapter seven, Paul probed deeper and deeper into the doctrine of salvation more than any other writer in any other book of the Bible. He concluded: “There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
• The term “no condemnation” means that the believer can face the future in faith and not in fear because he will never face any condemnation from God because of his faith in Christ alone, plus nothing.
• The Believer’s Position – There is no condemnation for those:
  • Who are in Christ Jesus (truly born again)
  • Who walk not after the flesh (worldly desires)
  • Who walk after the Spirit (led by the Holy Spirit)
• The Believer’s Possession – when a believer is born again, they are indwelt by the very presence of God Himself, through the Holy Spirit.
• The Believer’s Provision – the true believer will NEVER face God the Father’s wrath because of their struggle with sin.
  • Justification – the judicial act of God whereby He declares a sinner as innocent as if he had never sinned. Romans 8:33
  • Sanctification – the work of the Holy Spirit within the believer, conforming them to that which God the Father has declared them to be.

   The only way we can determine whether or not the grace of God has justified us and that we are being sanctified is—VS. 5—by our pursuit of righteousness vs. unrighteousness.

• The pursuit of unrighteousness—Galatians 5:19 –21 — Paul identified the works of the flesh as “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying’s, murders, drunkenness, retellings, and such like.”
• The pursuit of righteousness—Galatians 5:22–23— Paul identified “the fruit of the Spirit as Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,”
• The works of the flesh are all around us; they define our culture.
• The fruit of the Spirit is produced within us.
• The works of the flesh are things we do to ourselves and others.
• The fruit of the Spirit is birthed by abiding in Christ.

The Unbeliever or Natural Man

This person has never received Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, so Christ stands outside the door and seeks to enter in.

The Carnal or Worldly or Cultural Christian, but Still Unsaved.

This person may have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ to obtain their deliverance from hell, but there is no change in their way of life – they are still in control.

The Christ-Directed Life

This is the person who has received Jesus Christ as their Savior AND LORD, and is pursuing the things of the Spirit.
Self has been dethroned and Christ is occupying His rightful place as the Lord of his life.