Not Guilty!

A cry for help. Just before Romans 8, Paul cried out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (7:24). He had tried to obey God in his own strength, and he kept failing. The answer. “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25). Jesus is the One who rescues us. No condemnation. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). Condemnation means being found guilty and sentenced to punishment. For people who belong to Jesus, that sentence is gone. Right now. Paul says “now.” A believer does not have to wait until heaven to be forgiven. It is true today. In Christ. To be “in Christ Jesus” means to belong to Him by faith, joined to Him the way a branch is joined to a vine (John 15:5). Set free. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (8:2). Sin pulls us down like gravity pulls a rock. The Holy Spirit's power is stronger, like the wings that lift a bird into the sky. What this means for you. If you trust Jesus, God does not hold your sins against you. You do not need to live afraid that God is waiting to punish you. You can live free and thankful.

From Romans 7 to Romans 8. Paul's cry, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” is answered at once: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:24-25). The rescue begins with a verdict. Katakrima (say: kah-TAH-krih-mah). The Greek word for condemnation is a courtroom word. It means the sentence that follows a guilty verdict, the punishment itself. Paul does not promise less condemnation. He promises none at all. Therefore now. “Therefore” rests on everything Jesus has done: we are “justified by faith” and have “peace with God” (5:1), and our old self “was crucified with Him” (6:6). “Now” means the verdict is already given; a believer “shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24). Two laws (8:2). Law here means a ruling power, the way gravity is a law. The law of sin and death pulls every person down. But the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is a stronger power. It does not pretend sin's pull is gone; it overcomes it, the way the lift of a wing overcomes gravity and keeps a plane in the air. The Spirit of life. The Holy Spirit is a Person, not a force. He brings the resurrection life of Jesus into the believer (8:11), so obedience flows from new life instead of fear. Why it matters. If you belong to Jesus, you do not have to live as if God is waiting to punish you. Guilt can drive a person to Jesus, but it cannot condemn anyone who is in Him. The case is closed, and the One who closed it is the Judge Himself.

Imagine you broke a rule at school. The principal says you are guilty. Then a kind friend takes your punishment for you. Now you can go free! That is what Jesus did for us. We all sin, and sin makes us guilty before God. Jesus took our punishment on the cross. So God says His people are not guilty. Paul says there is no condemnation for them. That big word means a guilty sentence and punishment. Being in Christ means belonging to Jesus. It is like being safe inside a strong house. God's Holy Spirit gives new life too. He breaks the power sin had over us.

Guilty means we did something wrong. Jesus took our punishment. Now God's people are free. They are not guilty!

A good law. God's law is “holy and just and good” (7:12). The problem was never the law. The trouble was in us. Weak through the flesh. “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh” (8:3). Flesh here means our sinful self, the part of us that wants its own way. The law could tell us what to do, but it could not give us the power to do it. God did it. God did what the law could not do “by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (8:3). Jesus became a real human being. He looked like any other man, but He had no sin. An offering for sin. The ICB says God sent “his Son to be an offering to pay for sin” (8:3). Jesus came to deal with sin once and for all. Sin sentenced. “He condemned sin in the flesh” (8:3). At the cross, sin received its sentence in Jesus' body, so the sentence would not fall on us. Right in us. God did this “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (8:4). What the law asked for, God now works in us by His Spirit. What this means for you. You cannot earn God's love by keeping rules. Jesus kept the law perfectly and died for you. Now the Holy Spirit helps you obey because you love Him.

Sarx (say: SARKS). Paul's word for flesh in 8:3 does not mean skin and muscle. It means human nature turned toward itself and away from God. The law came to people like that, so it was “weak through the flesh.” The fault was in us, not in the law, which is “holy and just and good” (7:12). In the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus did not come in sinful flesh, which would make Him a sinner. He did not come in only the appearance of flesh, as if His body were not real. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh: truly human, “tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Sin was sentenced. “He condemned sin in the flesh.” Condemned is the same courtroom word as condemnation in 8:1. The sentence that should have fallen on us fell on sin, in the body of Jesus. Isaiah saw it long before: “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Fulfilled in us (8:4). The law's righteous requirement is fulfilled in us, not earned by us. The Holy Spirit works it in us. God promised this long ago: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). Walk. To walk “according to the Spirit” describes a whole way of life, step by step, led by the Holy Spirit: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). Why it matters. Rules alone could never change a heart. God sent His Son to pay for sin and His Spirit to change us from the inside. That is why the Christian life is not a list of rules but a life with a Person.

God's law is like a mirror. A mirror shows you dirt on your face. But a mirror cannot wash your face! God's law shows us our sin. But the law cannot take sin away. Only Jesus can do that. God sent His own Son to be a real man. Jesus never sinned at all. Jesus died on the cross as an offering for sin. He took the punishment we should have had. Now the Holy Spirit helps us do what is right. We obey God because we love Him. We do not obey to earn His love. God already loves us!

God's rules are good. But we cannot keep them all. So God sent Jesus. Jesus paid for our sin.

Two mindsets. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (8:5). What you set your mind on shows who is leading you. Where each one leads. “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (8:6). Carnally minded means having a mind run by the sinful self. Death. A mind ruled by sin leads away from God, who is life itself. That road ends in death (6:23). Life and peace. A mind led by the Holy Spirit has peace with God and peace inside. Against God. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God” (8:7). Enmity means being enemies. Without Jesus, the sinful self fights against God and “is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (8:7). Cannot please God. “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (8:8). No amount of trying in our own strength can make us right with God. A new heart. That is why we need Jesus. When we trust Him, God gives us a new heart and His Spirit changes how we think. What this means for you. You choose what you feed your mind. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you think about what is true and good. “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11).

Phronēma (say: FROH-nay-mah). Paul's word in 8:6 means a mindset, the settled way a person thinks and wants. It is more than a passing thought. It is the direction of the heart. Two directions (8:5). Every person lives “according to the flesh” or “according to the Spirit.” These are not two kinds of Christians. They are the person without Christ and the person in Christ (8:9). Death and life (8:6). The mind set on the flesh is already death, cut off from God, the source of life. But the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace: peace with God (5:1) and the peace of a heart at rest. Enmity (8:7). Enmity is open hostility. The sinful mind does not simply ignore God; it resists Him. It “is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” This is why the law alone could not save: it gave commands to a heart that would not and could not obey. Cannot please God (8:8). Good deeds done in our own strength, to earn God's favor, still come from a heart turned toward self. God saved us “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy” (Titus 3:5). A new heart. God promised, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). Through Jesus, that promise comes true for everyone who believes. Why it matters. Your thought life is not a small thing. Paul later urges believers to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:2). A Spirit-led mind grows by feeding on God's Word and by prayer, and it learns to think about what is true, right and pure.

What we think about matters to God. Our thoughts are like seeds in a garden. Bad seeds grow weeds, and good seeds grow flowers. Thoughts ruled by sin grow into wrong choices. Thoughts led by God's Spirit grow life and peace. People ruled by sin cannot please God. Trying hard on our own does not fix it. We need a new heart from God. When we trust Jesus, His Spirit changes how we think. We can ask Him to fill our minds with good things. Reading the Bible plants good seeds. Praying to God helps those seeds grow.

We can think about wrong things. Or we can think about God's things. God's way brings peace. It brings life too.

Not in the flesh. “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” (8:9). If you belong to Jesus, sin is no longer your master. God lives in you. Dwells means lives at home. The Holy Spirit does not visit now and then. He moves in to stay. Jesus promised “another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). Belonging to Christ. “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (8:9). Every true Christian has the Holy Spirit living inside. Dead body, living spirit. “The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (8:10). Our bodies still grow old and die, but the Spirit gives life that never ends. Resurrection power. “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (8:11). Mortal means able to die. The same power that raised Jesus is at work in you, and one day it will raise your body too. We owe sin nothing. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh” (8:12). We owe our sinful self nothing. We owe Jesus everything. What this means for you. You are never alone. Each morning, ask the Holy Spirit to help you love Jesus and obey Him that day.

Oikeō (say: oy-KEH-oh). The verb behind “dwells” in 8:9 and 8:11 comes from the Greek word for a house. The Spirit makes His home in the believer: “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Three names, one Spirit (8:9). In a single verse He is “the Spirit,” “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ.” The Holy Spirit is fully God, sent by the Father in the name of the Son (John 14:26). No Spirit, no Christ. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” The Spirit is not an extra for advanced Christians. Every believer receives Him on trusting Christ. Life because of righteousness (8:10). The body still carries the sentence of death that came into the world through Adam (5:12). But the Spirit is life, because Christ's righteousness has been counted as ours. The resurrection promise (8:11). Mortal means subject to death. The same Spirit who raised Jesus will one day raise our bodies. Jesus' empty tomb is the first of the harvest: “Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Debtors (8:12). Paul uses a money word. Sin used to demand our obedience as if we owed it. That claim is canceled. Verse 13 goes on: “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (8:13). Why it matters. Christian living is not trying harder in your own strength. It is the Spirit of the risen Jesus living His life through you, one choice at a time.

Everyone who trusts Jesus gets a wonderful gift. God's Holy Spirit comes to live inside them! The Holy Spirit is not just a feeling. He is God, and He is a Person. He helps us pray and understand the Bible. He gives us strength to say no to sin. Our bodies get sick and old, and one day they die. But God raised Jesus from the dead. God will raise His people too! So we do not owe sin anything. We follow God's Spirit instead. You are never alone if you belong to Jesus.

God's Spirit lives in His people. He gives us life. One day God will raise us up, like Jesus!

🎉 All words found!