Our Incredible Salvation - 4

n this episode we cover Romans 7 & 8, chapter 8 being one of the most powerful chapters in the New Testament.  Listen in as we unveil some of the most powerful elements of our incredible salvation!

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Well, it's a cold and overcast day in the Pacific Northwest, at least in this portion of it. I want to welcome everybody back once again to Jeff's Bible Trek. We are continuing our current season entitled Our Incredible Salvation. This is episode four, wherein I cover both the seventh and eighth chapters of the book of Romans. Just the highlights. As chapter seven begins, Paul starts talking about marriage, where one of the spouses dies. And as long as both spouses were alive, they were bound by the law to stay together. But when one spouse dies, the other is released from the law of the marriage. The living spouse is free to marry again without breaking the law or being guilty of adultery. And again, that's the law of Moses. Verse 4 then reads this way, and I quote, So, my dear brothers and sisters, the same principle applies to your relationship with God. For you died to your first husband, the law, by being co-crucified with the body of the Messiah. So you are now free to marry, quote unquote, the one who was raised from the dead, so that you may now bear spiritual fruit for God, unquote. Now the law being spoken here is the law of Moses, as I said, but if you're not Jewish, you've never been bound to the law of Moses, so you can forget about that. But for the rest of us, you can consider the law spoken of in these verses to represent our old life before Jesus came into our lives. Paul refers to the old life as the old man. In Ephesians and Colossians, Paul instructs us to put off the old man like an old worn-out garment and put on the new man in Christ. Our old man is effectively dead and gone, and we are now remarried to Jesus. Or to be more accurate, we are engaged to be remarried to Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is our engagement ring. Some versions say the Holy Spirit is our deposit, but that doesn't fit the marriage and wedding scenario exactly. He is our engagement ring. But he's also a deposit that God has put into our life against future. Yet another incredible piece of our incredible salvation. Moving down to verse six, it says, and I quote, but now that we have been fully released from the power of the law, or our old man, we are dead to what once controlled us, and our lives are no longer motivated by the obsolete way of following the written code, or can we say religion? So that now we may serve God by living in the freshness of a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In our last episode, we talked about how we now have the ability to choose whether to follow the ways of the old man or the ways of the new man in the Holy Spirit. I say the new man in the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit will empower us to walk in the new man. That last phrase of the verse says, Now we may serve God by living in the freshness of a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. Freshness. I love that word. It has such a fresh sound now, doesn't it? The last verse I want to cover from chapter seven is the last verse in the chapter, verse 25. And I quote, I give all my thanks to God for his mighty power has finally provided a way out through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. So if left to myself, the flesh is aligned with the law of sin. But now my renewed mind is fixed on and submitted to God's righteous principles. And we are not left to ourselves. God is with us all the time. Even as I sit here and you sit there, God is with us. And if we look to Him when tempted to say or do something, He will come to our rescue. So because of our incredible salvation, Paul opens chapter eight with these words, and I quote verses one and two. So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life union with Jesus, the anointed one. For the law of the Spirit of Life flowing through the anointing of Jesus has liberated us another great word liberated us from the law of sin and death. Now this is interesting. Paul uses a courtroom analogy here by saying the case is now closed. Well, what case? Is the case in heaven against us? The analogy continues by explaining why it's closed. And it's because there are no more accusing voices. Now my wife and I have seen enough courtroom dramas on TV to know that when the accusers slink away and give up the fight, the case gets dismissed. In our case, Jesus made them slink away. He drove them away. And the accused, that's us, has been liberated from the shackles and sent away from the courthouse to forever live in complete freedom. Isn't that awesome? Down in verse 4, Paul says, and I quote, So now every righteous requirement of the law can be fulfilled through the anointed one. That's Jesus, living his life in us. And we are free to live, not according to our flesh, but by the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit. What got my attention in this verse is that last sentence. And we are free to live not according to our flesh, but by the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit. I think some Christians look at living the Christian life as a drudgery, something they have to do. But the truth of the matter is that we get to. Remember earlier in chapter six and verse sixteen, it said that grace frees us to choose to give ourselves either to righteousness or to sin. Giving ourselves to righteousness is the new way to live for God, brought to you by our incredible salvation. Let's move now down to verses 15 and 16, and I quote, and you did not receive the spirit of religious duty, leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the spirit of full acceptance. Boy, there's that word again. I love it. We talked about that acceptance by God in chapter five. But you have received the spirit of full acceptance enfolding you into the family of God, and you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, Beloved Father, for the Holy Spirit makes God's fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, you are God's beloved child. What an incredible couple of verses. The apostle Paul had to have been jumping up and down as he dictated this. That phrase the spirit of religious duty, what is meant by that? The simplest way to describe it is a system of do's and don'ts. Now, in my opinion, some of you may frown a little bit on this, in my opinion, every church, every church has some set of do's and don'ts in it. They may not all be mentioned from the pulpit, but behind the scenes they may be. Some are bad, some are good, some are restrictive, and some are freeing. I'm certainly not saying that all of them are bad and or restrictive, but I think they are there nonetheless. And Paul is saying that they can lead a person back to the fear of never being good enough. That spirit of religious duty. What we did get is the spirit of full acceptance, not partial acceptance, but full acceptance. You were brought into the family of God just as you were, and then he's been molding and shaping you from there. And finally, I love where it says the Father whispers into our innermost being, and what he whispers is, You are my beloved child. I love that. The thought continues in verse 17, and I quote, And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed we are heirs of God Himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. Wow. You and I have a huge inheritance waiting for us. In chapter ten and verse twelve, Paul adds that and he has enough treasures to lavish generally j I'm sorry, generously upon all who call on him. But we don't have to wait for the full inheritance because he's put a deposit down or an engagement ring by giving us his Holy Spirit. Consequently, we get some teasers on this side of heaven that make us excited for the rest. Verse 17 says that we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. Let's stop and think about that for a moment. This verse is saying that whatever Jesus is, we are that. Well, he's the Son of God. Well, and now we are also. Imagine this. You adopt another child, and at some point you write that child into your will. That child is what your other children are, your child. And because you wrote them into your will, that child now has what your other children have. That's what Paul is saying here. We are part of God's family just as Jesus is. That is a phenomenal fact, a phenomenal reality. Skipping to verses twenty three and twenty four, we read, and I quote, We who have already experienced the first fruits of the Spirit also inwardly groan as we passionately long to experience our full status as God's sons and daughters, including our physical bodies being transformed. For this is the hope of our salvation. But this hope means that we must trust and wait for what is still unseen, for why would we need to hope for something we already have? So we inwardly groan as we passionately long to experience a couple of things. One is experiencing our full status as God's sons and daughters. We've already talked about how we have received a deposit in the form of the Holy Spirit on our full inheritance. So what we're groaning for is the rest of what is coming to us, and that is living in His literal presence for eternity. And two, the other thing that we're groaning for is the transformation of our physical bodies. You know, the older we get, the more we think about this. I mean, some of the aches and pains that creep into our bodies make us literally groan. But what comes with that is an inner groaning to be clothed with our new glorified bodies. One of the things I have read a lot about is near-death experiences. Now, this term refers to those incidences where someone dies due to an accident or an illness and is taken up to heaven. The Apostle Paul experienced this for himself, and I think it was during one of the times when he was stoned. And I don't mean high, I mean literally stones were being thrown at him. Now, while no two near-death experiences are exactly alike, there are some amazingly common elements to these experiences, described by young and old, across cultures, and in different languages. And here are those common elements as given in the book Evidence of the Afterlife by Long and Perry. The first is an out-of-the-body experience, a separation of consciousness from the physical body. Seventy-five point four percent experienced this, or at least mentioned it. The next is heightened senses. Seventy-four point four percent said that they were more conscious and alert than normal. Next is intense and generally positive emotions or feelings. Seventy-six point two percent said this, and some mentioned an incredible peace. Next is passing into or through a tunnel. Thirty-three point eight percent mentioned that. Encountering a mystical or brilliant light is the next one. Sixty-four point six percent said that. Encountering other beings, either mystical beings or deceased relatives or friends. Fifty-seven point three percent said that. A sense of alteration of time or space. Sixty point five percent. Next is a life review. This one's interesting, but only twenty-two per percent mentioned that this this as part of their experience, where someone meets personally with Jesus and is shown their life in a flash from the third person view. And this is undoubtedly where the phrase my life flashed before my eyes came from. Somebody who came back from a near-death experience. The next is encountering otherworldly or heavenly realms, fifty-two point two percent, encountering or learning special knowledge, fifty-six percent, encountering a boundary or barrier, thirty-one percent. The next one is a return to the body. And it's interesting that fifty-eight point five percent of those who mentioned this were aware of the option to stay in heaven or return to their body. But the amazing thing about these experiences, other than what I've already mentioned, is that many noticed their bodies were different. Their senses were thousands of times more powerful. Some reported that they were without uh genitals, which is interesting because Jesus said people in heaven do not marry nor are given in marriage, that they're like the angels in heaven. But some of these people were sent back to their bodies without the option to choose, and re-entering their bodies was a painful and unpleasant experience. I read one of account one account of a man who uh was in a horrible accident and went to heaven. And for a long time afterwards, he he laid in his hospital bed silently and in deep depression because he was sent back. His wife was getting impatient with him because he wouldn't respond to her, all because he had to leave a place and a body of complete pain-free bliss. The new body in heaven is real, my friends. And being that I'm not a young man anymore and have a set of aches and pains myself, that thrills me to no end. Paul says this new body is the hope of our salvation. Our salvation is indeed incredible. And by the way, if you want more on near-death experiences, I recommend the book Imagine Heaven by John Burke. It's available on Amazon. There are some powerful things in the next few verses I want to share that, again, just point to how amazingly incredible. That's right, not just incredible, but amazingly incredible our salvation truly is. Let's start at verse 26, and I quote, and in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don't even know how to pray or know the best things to ask for, but the Holy Spirit rises up within us to superintercede. Let me just let that phrase hang there for a second. Rises up within us to superintercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words. Unquote. And I quote The Greek word, and I I'm this is me talking now, I'm not going to try to say it, it's seventeen. Letters long, okay, is best translated super or hyper intercede for us. We can only imagine how many blessings have poured into our lives because of this the hyperintercession of the Holy Spirit for us. And verse 26 said that intercession is presented to the Father as emotional size too deep for words. You can see some of the emotion in the English definition of the prefix or word hyper, and listen to these definitions with the Holy Spirit in mind. Hyper means overexcited, overstimulated, keyed up, serious or obsessively concerned, fanatical and rabid. Does that give you an idea of how greatly the members of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit deeply care for us? The next verse, verse twenty seven, continues, and I quote, God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longing, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God's plan and our destiny. So the Holy Spirit takes all of that expressive emotion he has, and he uses it to passionately hyperintercede for us. But wait, there's more. Listen to verse thirty four, and I quote. Who then is left to condemn us? Certainly not Jesus, the anointed one, for he gave his life for us, and even more than that, he has conquered death and is now risen, exalted, and enthroned by God at his right hand. So how could he possibly condemn us since, and listen to this, he is continually praying for our triumph? Do you realize that we have not one, but two members of the Trinity, of the Godhead, passionately interceding for us, not judging, not condemning, but praying to the Father for our success, our triumph, our overcoming. Do you not find this overwhelming? All of this is part of our salvation package, if you will, that came to us when we asked Jesus into our lives. I want to conclude this episode with the verses which conclude this chapter. Two of the most powerful verses in all of the New Testament. It's verses 38 and 39. And I quote, So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God's love. I'm convinced that his love will triumph over death, life's troubles, fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens. There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken his love. And this is me talking now. Let me pause and say, can you just hear Paul shouting this out as he dictates this letter? Okay, back to the quote. There is no power above us or beneath us, no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God's passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the anointed one. All I can say to that, friends, is amen. Well that's it for this episode. And I have to go lay down. I'm worn out. I encourage you to reflect on these truths because they really are incredible. This actually concludes our look into the book of Romans on the truths of our incredible salvation. So until next time, and the start of a new book of the Bible, God bless you.