Romans 8:1-11: The Ministry of the Spirit

Romans 8:1-11: The Ministry of the Spirit

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 8. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 782. We’ve been working our way through Paul’s letter to the Romans, and this morning, we come to Romans 8:1-11. Romans 8:1-11: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 

In his classic book entitled Knowing God, J. I. Packer laments how little attention is given to the Holy Spirit in many Christian circles. Of course, the notable exception is the Pentecostal movement. But in non-Pentecostal churches, Packer describes how the Holy Spirit is, for the most part, simply ignored. He refers to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as “the Cinderella of Christian Doctrines.” You remember Cinderella, right? Neglected, obscure, forgotten. Packer then writes, “Many excellent books have been written on the person and work of Christ, but the number of books worth reading on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, even in this charismatic era is small. Christian people are not in doubt as to the work that Christ did; they know that he redeemed us by his atoning death even if they differ among themselves as to what exactly this involved. But the average Christian, deep down, is in a complete fog as to what work the Holy Spirit does…. They are for practical purposes in the same position as the disciples whom Paul met at Ephesus—“We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit” (Acts 19:2).…It is an extraordinary thing that those who profess to care so much about Christ would know and care so little about the Holy Spirit. Christians are aware of the difference it would make if, after all, it transpired that there had never been an incarnation or atonement. They know that then they would be lost, for they would have no savior. But many Christians have really no idea what difference it would make if there were no Holy Spirit in the world.” Then finally, Packer concludes, “Surely something is amiss here. How can we justify neglecting the ministry of Christ’s appointed agent in this way? Is it not a hollow fraud to say that we honor Christ when we ignore, and by ignoring dishonor, the One whom Christ has sent us as his deputy, to take his place and care for us on his behalf? Ought we not to concern ourselves more about the Holy Spirit than we do?”

And of course I’m quoting Packer at such length here because I believe he makes a great point—and one that we definitely need to hear. In the majority of Christian churches, the Holy Spirit is sadly neglected. Sometimes it seems like even though many churches and many Christians may say the Trinity is “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” what their Trinity really looks like—for all practical purposes, at least—is “Father, Son, and Holy Bible.” They’re missing a member of the Trinity. And sometimes, to be honest, I’m not so sure our church avoids that error. I wonder how much of the Spirit’s blessing we’ve missed simply because we haven’t been as attentive to him as perhaps we ought to be. 

That’s why I’m so glad that we now have before us Romans 8. I believe this passage is a wonderful introduction to the Spirit’s ministry. Of course, there’s much more to know about the Spirit’s ministry than what’s taught in this passage, but this is a good introduction. Paul’s main idea here in Romans 8:1-11 is that the Holy Spirit takes what Jesus has done and applies it to our lives personally. The Holy Spirit takes what Jesus has done and applies it to our lives personally. You see, Jesus purchased and accomplished our salvation when he died on the cross. He took the punishment we deserved. Even though we deserved to suffer for our sins forever in hell, Jesus died to satisfy God’s justice and appease his wrath. Then Jesus resurrected from the dead to make it clear that God the Father had indeed accepted his sacrifice. And that’s the very center of the gospel. Yet there’s a sense in which the things Jesus did wouldn’t quite be complete or at least wouldn’t be of any benefit to us if they weren’t applied to each one of us personally. It would be kind of like having billions of dollars in the bank but no way to access it—no way to withdraw money from your account. Thankfully, though, as we see here in Romans 8, that’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. He takes what Jesus has done and applies it to our lives personally. And as we walk through this passage, we’re going to look at three characteristics of the Spirit’s ministry that Paul talks about. Number one, the Spirit’s ministry is essential. Number two, the Spirit’s ministry is transformative. And number three, the Spirit’s ministry is intimate.

The Spirit’s Ministry Is Essential

So first, the Spirit’s ministry is essential. Look again at verses 1-4 of Romans 8: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

So once, we were held captive by what Paul calls in verse 2 “the law of sin and death.” We were trapped in the impossible situation of trying to keep God’s law in our own strength. And that didn’t work very well. It resulted in sin and the consequence of sin, which is death. But thankfully, Paul says that “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” So what is this “law of the Spirit of life”? Well, it’s a new kind of law—a law that consists not of written rules and regulations but of the Holy Spirit living within us and leading us and empowering us to be what God wants us to be. You see, in order to live for God, we need something more than just God’s instructions. God’s instructions won’t do us any good unless we also have the corresponding ability to follow those instructions—which we don’t in and of ourselves. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. He’s absolutely essential. Think about a kite. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to fly a kite on day when there just wasn’t much wind, but I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t work very well. The kite never quite gets off the ground. It’s pretty disappointing. Yet there’s not really much you can do in that situation, is there? A kite isn’t an airplane. It doesn’t have engines or propellers. So without wind, a kite is dead. It needs wind in order to fulfill its purpose and soar up in the sky. And that’s the way we are. It’s only through the Spirit’s ministry in our lives that we have any potential whatsoever to be what God’s designed us to be. In Paul’s words, it’s “the law of the Spirit of life” that sets us free from “the law of sin and death.”

We might say that the Holy Spirit is just as central for our sanctification as Jesus is for our justification. I think a lot of Christians understand how central Jesus is for our justification, or being declared righteous before God. Most Christians know that the only way we can be declared righteous before God is through Jesus and what Jesus did on the cross. But, as we see here in Romans 8, we need the Holy Spirit for our sanctification—or our Christian growth—every bit as much as we needed Jesus for our justification. Without the Spirit, sanctification can’t happen. Going back to the kite: you can try to get that kite up in the air all you want to, but without the wind, it’s not happening. The kite isn’t going anywhere. And neither are we, spiritually, without the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s ministry is essential.

The Spirit’s Ministry Is Transformative

Then secondly, not only is the Spirit’s ministry essential, it’s also transformative. That’s point two: the Spirit’s ministry is transformative. Look at verses 5-8: 5 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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So according to Paul, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who live according to the flesh and those who live according to the Spirit. And there’s a big, big difference between those two kinds of people. Those with the Spirit are profoundly different from those without the Spirit. And that shows us that when the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s life, he doesn’t just tiptoe around and leave everything basically unchanged. No, he comes in and changes everything. 

Look at how Paul describes people prior to receiving the Spirit. In verse 5, he says that “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.” So basically, they’re dominated by this entity called “the flesh.” Now understand that when Paul talks about “the flesh,” he’s not just talking about our physical bodies. He’s talking about what people are in their natural state and about all of the unredeemed desires they have. In our natural state of being, we’re dominated by an inclination toward sin. We have a sinful nature. So when Paul says that those without the Spirit “live according to the flesh” and “set their minds on the things of the flesh,” he’s basically just saying that they’re consumed with sinful desires and live out those desires continually. And a part of that, as we see down in verse 7, is that they’re hostile to God. That’s the phrase Paul uses. He says, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God…” It can’t stand the thought of God’s righteousness or God’s will or God’s authority. It hates God and everything God stands for. 

And as we see in the second part of verse 7, not only does the mind set on the flesh “not submit to God’s law,” Paul even goes a step beyond that and says that “it cannot.” He then repeats in verse 8, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” So he’s not just saying they won’t. He’s saying they can’t. They don’t have the moral ability to please God. Sin is so dominant in their lives and has so enslaved them that it’s rendered them morally unable to take even a single step in the right direction. And by the way, that’s why our church teaches that in order for an unsaved person to put their faith in Jesus and become a Christian, God has to give them that faith as a gift. So both the salvation people obtain through faith and the faith itself are gifts we receive from God. And it has to be that way because, in and of themselves, verse 8 says that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

But when someone’s saved and the Holy Spirit comes into them, the Spirit changes everything. He turns everything around. In verse 4 and then again in verse 5, Paul describes Christians as those who live “according to” the Spirit. Think about that phrase. We live “according to” the Spirit. That means everything in our lives revolves around what the Spirit wants and where the Spirit leads. It’s a lot like the way our country functioned during World War II. During World War II, everything in the United States was geared toward the war effort. It was what we call “Total War.” Nearly every man between the ages of 18 and 30 was conscripted for military service, factories that made goods for civilian households were renovated for war production, children were encouraged to participate in scrap metal collection drives, women who formerly worked at home took jobs in heavy industry, strict rationing policies on common goods were introduced to provide for war needs, and the brilliant minds of mathematicians, doctors, engineers, and chemists were all turned toward the war effort. Everything revolved around the war. And in a similar way, when the Holy Spirit comes into a person, he changes them and totally reorients their desires so that a healthy Christian now lives, as Paul says, “according to” the Spirit. There’s not one part of their lives that’s not touched and changed to some degree and to an increasing degree by the Spirit. 

And perhaps it would be good here to point out that if you can’t see a transformation in your life, there’s a very real possibility that you’ve never truly received the Holy Spirit—meaning that you’ve never been saved. I mean, follow the logic. If the Holy Spirit transforms people when he comes into them and your life hasn’t been transformed, then is it not possible and even quite likely that you’ve never received the Holy Spirit? Take a look at this. In Galatians 5:19-24, Paul contrasts the lives of those without the Spirit to the lives of those with the Spirit. He says: 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So notice that Paul technically isn’t commanding anything here. He’s just stating a fact. People without the Spirit live this way, and people with the Spirit live this other way. So which list better describes you? Is there evidence that the Holy Spirit lives within you? Has your life changed to a sufficient degree that it would be reasonable to conclude that the Spirit of Almighty God has entered you and gotten ahold of you? So, back to Romans 8, Paul describes Christians as those who live “according to” the Spirit.

And part of living according to the Spirit involves setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. Again, verse 5: 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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit. So that’s a discipline we need to cultivate. Setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. It reminds me of the way a young child might set their mind on an upcoming birthday. When you’re young, having a birthday is a pretty big deal, right? It’s typically something you look forward to with great anticipation. I know in our house, our kids will tell us about some of the presents they hope to receive and what kind of cake they want. It’s also not uncommon for them to initiate a countdown to their birthday. Not too long ago, one of our kids started counting down the days until his birthday about 30 days ahead of time. So every day, for 30 days, my wife and I received a report of how many days were left until this child’s birthday. His mind was set on that day. And in the same way, our minds as Christians should be set on the things of the Spirit. What kinds of things might those be? Well, a good place to start is the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Setting your mind on the things of the Spirit means setting your mind on virtues like these. So maybe, this morning, you should do a kind of checkup on yourself. What kinds of things fill your thoughts throughout the day? What subjects command your attention? You only have a limited amount of mental energy, so what do you use that energy to think about? Is it the things of the Spirit? 

To be honest with you, one of the things I’ve been wrestling with recently is how much entertainment I allow myself to consume and what kinds of entertainment are permissible. Because like it or not, whenever you allow yourself to be entertained by something, you’re opening a mental door that allows all kinds of things to come into your mind. Even if you know certain things are wrong and have no plans of changing your convictions about those things, you’re still making yourself vulnerable to those things and prone to be influenced by them whenever you allow them to entertain you. And I’m not just talking about things might make cause a movie to be rated “R.” I’m also talking about things that are a lot more subtle than that—worldly values, worldly priorities, a worldly way of thinking in general. Don’t underestimate the extent to which being entertained by those things opens you up to be influenced by them. At the end of the day, each one of us has to decide for ourselves what kinds of entertainment and how much entertainment we’re going to consume. Yet if you want your mind to be set on the things of the Spirit, you might want to make sure you’re not shooting yourself in the foot in that effort by spending hours each day filling your mind with things that are not of the Spirit. 

The Spirit’s Ministry Is Intimate

Then lastly, the third characteristic of the Spirit’s ministry is that the Spirit’s ministry is intimate. So first we saw that the Spirit’s ministry is essential, then we saw that the Spirit’s ministry is transformative, and now we see that the Spirit’s ministry is intimate. Look at verses 9-11: 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So notice that the Spirit doesn’t just minister to us from far away. He actually dwells within us. In the original language, that word translated “dwells” refers to residing somewhere for an extended period of time. So it’s not like the Spirit’s just passing through or stopping in every once in a while. He lives within his people. He actually dwells within us. 

And honestly, if you’re anything like me, that’s one of those things that you hear about and you just have trouble conceiving of how such a glorious thing could be possible. I mean, to think that the God of the Universe would actually dwell within the hearts of his people is absolutely extraordinary! It’s mind-boggling. In the words of Spurgeon, “Had it not been revealed, it would never have been imagined.” You know, I’m sure there are a lot of things we as Christians take for granted. For me, I know there are. There are so many ways God’s been gracious to me that I don’t think about or thank him for nearly as much as I should. But surely, this blessing right here has to be at the very top of the list. I mean, when you consider the discrepancy between how glorious this blessing is and how infrequently most of us think about it, surely for many of us, it tops the list of things we take for granted. But how amazing is it that God would care for us and love us and make himself close to us in this way? It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for us all to go home this afternoon and just spend some time marveling at the fact that God would do this kind of thing. 

And notice in verse 11, that this Spirit that dwells within us is the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from dead. So in case we needed any reminder of how glorious and how powerful the Spirit is, Paul tells us. The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is the Spirit that lives within you, if you’re a Christian. That means there’s no sin in your life that he can’t enable you to defeat. There’s no trial you’ll ever face that he can’t sustain you through. The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to you. There may be times when you feel distant from God. Even though you’ve repented of every sin you can think of, God still seems so distant to you. And you might be tempted to ask God the same question the psalmist asks God in Psalm 44:24: “Why do you hide your face?” If that’s you, just be assured this morning that God hasn’t left you. He hasn’t forsaken you. Even if it feels like he’s distant, he’s actually not. He continues to dwell within you through the Holy Spirit, graciously sustaining you and faithfully watching over you.