New Life in the Spirit

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Today's scripture reading is from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 8, verses 9 through 17, as printed in the liturgy.

Romans 8:9–17

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.

And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin,

the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,

he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies

because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation,

but it's not to the flesh to live according to it.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

For those who are fed by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

The Spirit you received does not make slaves so that you live in fear again.

Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

And by him we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Now, if we are children, then we are heirs.

Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

If indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share in his glory.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Good morning, Christ Church.

Thanks to the few of you who encouraged me to take my jacket off this Sunday.

I appreciate your compassion and permission to do that.

We are continuing today just preaching through the Apostle Paul's great epistle to the church in Rome.

And I just want to begin asking this question.

Like, why is it important for us to know the Apostle Paul and to know his writings?

And I want to start with a quote from a British historian.

His name is Tom Holland.

He's got a great podcast called The Rest is History.

Oxford and sort of Cambridge-trained historian.

He says this.

Paul's letters are like a collection of acorns from which mighty oaks have grown.

They are the most influential pieces of writing to have survived from antiquity.

And their influence on Christian history and the present-day character and assumptions of the West are incalculable.

Not just our earliest sources for Christianity, they are also the most influential.

If the European philosophical tradition can be characterized as a series of footnotes to Plato,

then even more so can Christian theology be characterized as a series of footnotes to Paul.

Yet that does not mean he should be regarded as the founder of Christianity.

Without Jesus, we would never have heard of Paul.

The figure of Christ stands at the heart of Paul's letters just as he stands at the heart of the later Gospels.

That is why Christianity, although it may be Pauline, is not named after Paul.

And Holland goes on elsewhere and he says,

I think of Paul as a kind of depth charge deep beneath the foundations of the classical world.

He sets up ripple effects of revolution throughout Western history.

And I think this is interesting because even if you're here and you don't agree with all the things that the Apostle Paul is saying,

Holland would say that, you know, you can't even understand the present character and assumptions of Western culture.

You can't appreciate the various ripple effects of revolution that have happened through Western history without Paul.

So just on an intellectual level, looking at what Paul has to say is just a matter of historical and cultural literacy.

But of course, what we're doing today goes way beyond the intellectual level because we're talking about matters of both the head and the heart.

And we saw this great theme in Romans 8 last week is about the comfort and the security that a Christian believer has with an assurance of their salvation.

The absolute certainty of the absolute certainty of the final perseverance of all who are truly justified in Jesus Christ by faith.

That's what Romans 8 is all about.

And I want to encourage you, as I did last week, to put this chapter of the Bible, or at least parts of it, into your memory bank to meditate upon.

Everything we read about in Romans 8 is made possible and is put into effect by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

God the Father planned our salvation.

God the Son carried it out.

But God the Holy Spirit is the one who applies that salvation to us.

And this is why the Holy Spirit is mentioned in this chapter 21 times.

It tells us that the Christian life is essentially life in the Spirit.

Life animated, empowered, sustained, directed, and enriched by the Holy Spirit.

Without the Holy Spirit.

True Christian discipleship would be inconceivable and impossible.

And in fact, the hallmark of any authentic believer, the hallmark of any true Christian and real disciple of Jesus is are you filled with the Holy Spirit?

Are you indwelled by the Holy Spirit?

Are you being led by the Holy Spirit?

And what we want to look at today is the way that the Holy Spirit applies God's salvation to us.

And particularly the way he gives us these three gifts.

We're going to limit ourselves to just three.

But he gives us three gifts.

And what he says, particularly in verses 14 to 17, is that God's Spirit gives you a stable identity, a vital relationship, and a future hope.

God's Spirit gives you a stable identity, a vital relationship, and a future hope.

As Andrew said, this is a special sermon where we're installing Andrew Ong as our associate pastor and ordaining and installing Jesus Arseneaga as our ruling elder.

So this is a particular word to you two guys today as shepherds of God's flock.

But really to all of the leaders of God's church is that it's our task to serve the people of God by helping them discover and treasure and nurture these three gifts from the Spirit.

A stable identity, a vital relationship, and a future hope.

So let's start with this first one.

God's Spirit gives you a stable identity.

Last week I said that our culture highlights freedom as the main theme and value of our society.

Freedom is seen as the highest good.

But it may be more accurate to say that there are two interdependent cultural narratives.

First of all, there's freedom, which is that no one has the right to tell me how to live my life unless I hamper the freedom of others.

But in addition to freedom, there's identity.

Identity says I ought to be true to myself and express my deepest desires and dreams no matter what others say.

And these are the two narratives of our culture, freedom and identity.

I have one slide.

I don't know if we can bring it up.

But it's from a psychologist at San Diego State who talks about the ways, looks at all the different books that have been written in the last many years.

And the way that this word identity has skyrocketed in our imaginations.

We're kind of obsessed about identity.

And what is identity?

Identity consists of two things.

First of all, an identity is about a sense of self that's durable.

Right?

We live in many different spheres at once.

We live with our family at home and we're a colleague at work and we're with our friends and we're alone in solitude.

But an identity is that sustained sense of self that's true of you in all spheres no matter where you go and what you're doing.

And the second thing is that identity is not only about a sense of self, but it's also about a sense of worth.

A sense of dignity and honor.

And we don't have time this morning to talk about and to examine the dynamics of identity formation.

But I would argue that modern identities are inherently unstable.

Modern identities are inherently insecure because they're based on one of two things.

They're either based on what my society or my group says about me or they're based on what I think about myself.

And I want to challenge that approach to identity this morning and say, what if identity is about more than that?

What if identity is not about what society and my group says about me or about what I think about myself?

But what if identity is about what God says about me and what God thinks about me?

And the gospel tells us that we can have a stable and secure identity that cannot be shaken.

And this is what Paul says in verse 14.

He says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Now the negative truth of that, first of all, is that not all people are the children of God.

Those who are led by the Spirit of God, they and they alone are the sons and the daughters of God.

And there's some circles that will talk about, you know, the universal fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

There are people who will take that further and talk about universal salvation, that in the end, everyone is going to be saved.

But the teaching of Jesus, the teaching of the Bible says otherwise.

Jesus himself divides humanity into two groups and to use his language, he talks about the saved and the lost.

He talks about those who are perishing and those who are alive.

And that's a hard truth.

That's why Jesus got rejected.

But Paul is bringing that up here for us again in verse 9.

He says,

You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature but are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.

And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

So Paul is saying,

Not all people have the Spirit of God, therefore they don't all belong to Christ.

Therefore, they don't all have God as their father.

They're not children of the Father.

And Paul has been making this case since Romans 5 that none of us by nature are a child of God.

We are rather the children of Adam.

That's our parentage.

That's where we belong by nature.

And the Scriptures tell us that on the other hand, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God.

And so he stands alone and unique in this category over here.

And this poses a great question for us.

How then does anyone become a son or a daughter of God?

And Paul tells us, he says,

Adoption is this great word.

It's an act of God in which by grace he deliberately chooses us and takes us in so that we belong to him.

And with adoption we come to bear the family name.

And we come to eat at the family table and we work in the family business and we share in the family inheritance.

To be someone who's adopted is to be given an exalted position with immense privileges as sons and daughters.

Now to come and to share the status and all the benefits of God's only begotten Son, Jesus.

If you're adopted, that means that you are as secure in the Father's love as Jesus is secure in the Father's love.

Paul is saying that if we're in Jesus Christ and if we're led by the Holy Spirit,

then your true identity, your enduring sense of self in all spheres of life,

that identity that gives you a sense of worth and dignity is that you are the sons and the daughters of God.

And your identity is defined not by yourself, not by your group, but by someone beyond you and someone much greater than you.

And this is vastly different than modern approaches to identity formation because on the one hand,

in modern life you look inside yourself to discover your deepest desires and dreams and to express them.

And then you'll know who you truly are.

Or on the other hand, you essentialize your gender, your race, your class, your age, your sexuality,

and you say, this is who I am, and you define yourself either by what you're not or by who's against you.

And the reason both of these approaches to identity are so unstable is that they do not start high enough and they do not go deep enough.

We need someone from outside of ourselves on the one hand and someone outside of our group and our society on the other hand

to instill in us a sense of self and a sense of worth and to try to rely on our own self-affirmations

or to try to rely on the affirmations and the agendas of our group or our society is inherently unstable because that's constantly changing.

But the gospel says that someone from outside of ourselves, someone from outside of our group,

has conferred upon us a sense of self and a sense of worth that can never change and that can never be taken away.

If you're exploring Christianity and you're open to the idea that there is a God

and that that God is a good and a trustworthy and a loving God,

that if he made you and if he's the source of your life,

you have to ask the question, is it possible for me to have a stable sense of self and worth apart from that God?

And the offer of the gospel is that you need no longer be a stranger to that God.

You need no longer be even an enemy of that God, but you can become his child.

And the apostle Paul says it like this in Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

He says, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead, then you can be saved.

You can become a child of God and have this identity that's stable and secure.

And if you're a Christian today, I want to say that you need not look for your identity in here, in yourself.

Nor do you need to go look for your identity over here in your group or in society.

But rather, you already have an identity that comes from up here,

that comes from this spirit of adoption who's brought you in.

You've been deliberately chosen.

You've been proactively taken in.

You belong.

You're a beloved son and daughter.

That is who you fundamentally are.

God loves you as much as he loves his only begotten son, Jesus,

and he can't love anyone more than that.

So your task, if that's true of you,

your task is not to go in search of an identity.

Your task is to spend time on a daily basis cultivating and nurturing this God-given identity

that you already have,

exulting in the status that you have as an adopted, chosen, and beloved child of God.

Thank you so much.

I'm always waiting, you know, just to see.

God's spirit gives you a stable identity,

and you can't get that identity anywhere else.

But God's spirit not only gives you a stable identity,

he also gives you a vital relationship.

He gives you this vital relationship.

He continues that verse.

He says,

The spirit enables you to cry,

Abba, Father.

The spirit enables you to cry,

Abba, Father.

It's within this stable identity as a son or a daughter,

as someone who's an adopted and a beloved child,

that you have the confidence now

of knowing who and whose you are

to actively and regularly cry to God.

Because with this new identity and this new position,

this new status,

you've been given a new voice and a new tongue.

And with that voice and with that tongue,

you cry out to God.

And this is not a generic God or a distant God.

No, he's a very specific God

and a cloud who is very close.

Because what do we say to him?

We say,

Abba, Father.

Abba, Father.

Abba, of course, is the Aramaic

and pater is the Greek.

And Abba is this homely word

used by children

who are talking familiarly with their fathers.

It's like the word papa or daddy

or opa or baba.

That's how Jesus talks to his father.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, for example,

he says,

Abba, Father,

all things are possible for you.

And what the Spirit does

is he comes into our lives

and he enables us to talk to God

like Jesus talks to God.

And what does it mean for us

to cry out,

Abba, Father?

Well, it means that the Holy Spirit

has granted you

an especially close and personal

and loving relationship with God

as your heavenly father.

So that whatever your family of origin,

whoever your parents were,

you now have the father of Jesus Christ

as your father.

And I know some of you

and I know your stories.

You didn't have the father you wanted

or the father you needed.

Some of you weren't provided for

and protected.

Some of you weren't cherished

and treasured.

But look who you've been given now.

And how do we relate to him?

It says that we cry.

We cry,

which suggests vulnerability.

It suggests a safety

and an earnestness

and a deep emotion

and fervency

that we can bring

all of ourselves to him.

And when we cry,

what do we say?

We say,

Abba,

which suggests warmth

and affection

and rejoicing

and happiness

and exuberance.

when my kids were little,

some of you remember that time,

and they would run up to me

and they'd throw themselves at me.

And they would just grab hold of my leg

and just cling on

and they would hang there.

They would just hang.

And if any of you did that today,

that would be strange.

That would be overly familiar.

But these are my children.

I'm their daddy.

That is their rightful place.

Right?

Now, if they came

and tried to do that today,

they'd break my legs.

You know,

they would break my hip.

So now that they're bigger and older,

they still know that

even when I'm in the middle

of something extremely important,

they can walk right in.

They can call me up

and I'm going to interrupt

and I'm going to answer their call.

And they know

that they have access to me.

They know that they can come up

right up next to my side

and grab hold of my hand

and whisper something into my ear

and I'm going to give them

my full attention.

They come to me

with the boldness

of a child

who knows their daddy.

And what the Holy Spirit

gives to you

as a Christian

is he enables you

to talk intimately

and confidently

to God.

And notice that I said

intimately and confidently,

not irreverently

and flippantly.

Right?

Because some people read this

and they start to pray,

hey dad.

I don't know if you've ever heard

someone say,

hey dad.

And if that's you,

I love you,

just stop doing that.

When Jesus prays in the Gospels,

he prays,

holy father,

righteous father.

In the Sermon on the Mount,

he teaches us to pray,

say,

our heavenly father.

Father.

Because this is a transcendent

and an exalted God,

a sovereign and supreme God.

But,

we can cry out to him,

Abba,

Father.

And when we do,

we have immediate

and bold access to him.

Not as fearful,

cowering slaves,

but as cheerful,

confident sons

and daughters.

And what happens

when we do that?

What happens

when we cry out,

Abba,

Father?

Paul says in verse 16

that the spirit

bears witness

with our spirit

that we are the children of God.

When we cry,

Abba,

Father,

and when we take upon our lips

the very words

that Jesus used,

when we come to these

spirit-inspired scriptures

and we say,

Abba,

Father,

show me more of your glory

through your word,

the Holy Spirit shows up

and he begins to bear witness

with our spirit

that we are the children of God.

God.

And I don't know about you,

but sometimes when that happens,

I become so overwhelmed

with a fresh realization

that my Father knows me.

That my Father,

in fact,

knows me more

than I know myself.

He knows the very number

of hairs on my head,

which is getting easier

and easier year by year.

He knows reality

and history

way more than I do.

He knows my past

and my present

and my future.

He has plans for me.

He has great plans for me

that include trials and troubles.

He has plans

that include my pain

and my suffering.

He has plans to correct me

and to discipline me,

but I become overwhelmed

by this realization

with the spirit

bearing witness to my spirit

that I am his child

and he is my Father

and he can even make

the worst things in my life

work out for my good

and for his glory.

And it's just

an amazing experience.

And if you've never had

that experience,

if you don't know

what verse 16

is talking about,

I want to encourage you,

ask for it.

Ask for the spirit

to bear witness

with your spirit

that you are a child of God.

Jesus says in Luke chapter 11,

Luke 11 · chapter mention

he says,

if you,

though you are evil,

know how to give good gifts

to your children,

how much more

will your Father in heaven

give the Holy Spirit

to those who ask him?

I was reading this week

an old Puritan preacher,

probably from about 400 years ago,

and he says this,

he says,

picture a man

who's walking along a road

with his little boy

holding hands,

father and son,

son and father.

And the little boy knows

that this man and his father

and that his father loves him,

but suddenly the father stops

and picks up the boy

and lifts him up into his arms

and embraces him

and kisses him.

And then the father

puts him down again

and they continue walking.

And this man said,

he said,

the boy is no more a son

when he's being embraced

than he was before.

And the father's action

has not changed the relationship,

but oh,

how much greater

is the enjoyment

of that relationship.

It is a wonderful thing

to be walking along

holding your father's hand,

but it's an incomparably

greater thing

to have his arms

enfolded around you.

And that's what Jesus means

when he says,

ask your father

to give you more

of the Holy Spirit.

It's what Paul means

when he says

the Holy Spirit

bears witness

with our spirit

that we are the children

of God.

Just say,

Lord,

I know you love me,

but give me more

of your love.

Of course,

if you do this,

fair warning,

there's ethical

and moral consequences

to crying out,

Abba, Father.

Because along with this

comes a desire

that others would see

in us

a life reminiscent

of the Father himself.

That we would imitate him

and that people would want,

people would be able

to see in us

no consistency

between our conduct

and the Father's character.

And so a spirit-filled,

spirit-led Christian

hears Paul saying,

you need to put to death

the misdeeds of the body.

You need to kill off

all that pride

and you need to mortify

all that self-centeredness.

And you say,

well, of course,

that's what I want to do.

Of course,

that's what I want to do

because I'm so grateful

to be an adopted child.

I'm so grateful

to be a beloved son

and a daughter.

I want absolutely

no dishonor

to come to my Father

on my account.

I just want to

adequately reflect

and express

and represent

his glory

and his excellencies

to all the people

around me.

That's what it means

to cry out

and have this vital relationship

and say,

Abba, Father.

Now, I want to close

talking about

one final thing

and that is that

God's spirit

not only gives you

a stable identity

and a vital relationship

but he also

gives us a future hope.

He gives us a future hope.

You're probably aware

that there's an increasing

number of people

in our society

who are filled

with despair.

Right?

They look at the future

and the future

is utterly bleak

and hopeless.

And on the one hand,

that's a bad thing.

It's not good

to live in a society

that's so charged

with pessimism

and nihilism

and doom

and gloom.

But of course,

on the other hand,

this is often

what's required

to come

to the end

of ourselves

and the end

of our schemes.

Right?

And to begin

to look beyond

this material world

to a hope

above and beyond

this world

and this life.

And that's what

Paul is getting at

in verse 17.

He says,

Now if we are children,

then we are heirs,

heirs of God

and co-heirs with Christ,

if indeed we share

in his sufferings

in order that we may

also share

in his glory.

Many people

have been writing today

about the great

wealth transfer.

Have you read

about the great

wealth transfer?

The silent

and boomer

generations

are going to

bequest a total

of $84.4 trillion

in assets

through 2045.

And $72.6 trillion

is going to go

directly to their heirs.

Right?

And so,

maybe a few of you

are going to be

so blessed

to be heirs

to inherit

a bit of that windfall.

So I hope you'll

invite me to dinner.

But let's assume

that you are set

to receive $0

of that great

wealth transfer.

The good news

for you

this morning

is that if you're

in Jesus Christ

and if you're led

by the Holy Spirit

and God

is your Abba Father,

then you are

the heir

of an inheritance

that's beyond

your wildest

imagination.

This great

wealth transfer

that's going to happen

is just pennies

in comparison

with what you're

going to get.

And what does

the Apostle Paul mean

when he says

we are heirs of God

and we're going to

share in the glory

of Jesus Christ?

If you go back

to verse 11,

he says,

if the spirit of him

who raised Jesus

from the dead

is living in you,

he who raised Christ

from the dead

will also give life

to your mortal bodies

because of his spirit

who lives in you.

This means that

Christ's resurrection

is the pledge

and pattern

of our coming

resurrection.

That the same spirit

who raised Jesus

from the dead

will also raise us.

And the same spirit

who's already given life

to our spirits

will also give life

to our bodies.

And that does not mean

that our dead bodies

will be revivified

and resuscitated

so that we're restored

to the present

material existence

that we have

only to die again

which would be a complete

and total bummer.

No, Jesus was raised

in such a way

that he can never die again.

And if you're in Jesus Christ,

your future hope,

your coming inheritance

is that you are going

to be raised up

with a new body.

And your body

is going to be transformed

into this glorious,

powerful,

spiritual,

imperishable,

immortal body

like the body

of Jesus.

You're going to be liberated

from all the vestiges

of sin

and frailty

and disease

and pain

and decay

and death.

And this is why

Christians are people

who are eagerly

and fearlessly

awaiting this future hope

as we endure

this world

and this life

that's marked by death.

But that's only one aspect

of our future hope.

Paul says in verse 17,

he says,

now if we are children

then we are heirs,

heirs of God

and co-heirs

with Christ.

What are we set

to inherit?

Well,

as I close,

Jesus,

when he was talking

with his disciples

on the night

before he was

to be crucified,

he told them a parable

just before the last supper

and he ended that parable

saying this,

he said,

then the king will say

to those on his right,

come you who are blessed

by my father,

take your inheritance,

the kingdom prepared for you

since the creation

of the world.

Your inheritance

is an entire kingdom.

He said to them

at the end

of that last supper,

he said,

I confer on you

a kingdom

just as my father

conferred one on me

so that you may

eat and drink

at my table

in my kingdom

and sit on thrones.

So you not only

have a kingdom

but you have the table

of the king

and you have the throne

of the king.

And then after that supper

Jesus said to them

additionally,

he said,

my father's house

has many rooms

and I am going there

to prepare a place

for you

and if I go

and prepare a place

for you,

I will come back

and take you

to be with me

that you also may be

where I am.

And that is so crucial

for us to hear

because Jesus is telling us there

that I want you

to be with me

that you might be

where I am.

Your inheritance

is not necessarily

a something.

Your inheritance

is a someone.

You're not just set

to receive

a resurrection body

and a kingdom

and a table

of the king

and a throne

with the king.

You're going to get

all those things

but what you're set

to receive

is the king himself.

The triune God

infinite

and eternal

and all of his glory

and power

all of his excellencies

and all of his strength

and all of his life

and all of his goodness

that is what you

the heirs of God

and co-heirs with Christ

are set to inherit.

And so my friends

we who are filled

with the spirit of God

we who cry out to him

Abba Father

we who know Jesus

as our king

we have no right

to despair.

We have no right

to be people

who are just utterly sad.

God

we are called

to be a people

of joy

and a people

of hope

in the midst

of this world

that's despairing daily.

So may God

empower us

to be that.

May God empower us

to do that.

That this future hope

would outweigh

all the current

sufferings

that we currently

share with Christ

because it says

we are going to share

in his glory.

In the name of the Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.