1. "There are some things you can't do because you lack not a natural ability but a spiritual one. Can you simply switch off a sinful desire? Can you unplug love of the world and plug in love for God?"

2. "The law reveals our inability to keep it. The law reveals our need for deliverance. We need to be freed not just from the consequences of sin, but from the inward power of sin."

3. "The problem with the law isn't the law. It's our sin. The problem all along was user error. The problem wasn't the instructions. And user error is why God's law never could and never will save anyone."

4. "Christ bore all the condemnation we deserve so that we never would if you believe in him. Jesus bore our condemnation so that we would receive his righteousness."

5. "You're free from the need to justify yourself before others because God is the one who justifies you. You are free from the futile project of trying to prove to others and prove to yourself that you are valuable because of what you achieve."

6. "The cross is the execution of God's final judgment against sin, and Christ was condemned in your place. And so God has already pronounced the verdict of his final judgment on you, and it is righteous, vindicated, freed, justified, right in his sight, and so secure forever."

7. "God doesn't merely rescue us from guilt, he reinstates us in true obedience. He delivers us from the condemnation due to sin and from the inner corruption of sin. He frees us from sin's penalty and power."

8. "The law's curse no longer threatens us. Instead, its demands have become our delights."

9. "If you're a Christian, you cannot be condemned by your sin. Christ has borne that condemnation. There's none left for you. Not a single one of your sins can keep you from enjoying peace with God now and the face-to-face presence of God in eternity."

10. "If you're a Christian, you can't live how you used to. The Spirit dwelling in you won't let you. Instead, the Spirit is a spring of life within you, welling up in your hearts, nurturing fruit that offers a foretaste of your happy eternity."

Observation Questions

1. According to Romans 8:1, what is the status of those who are "in Christ Jesus" regarding condemnation?

2. In Romans 8:3, what does Paul say the law was "weakened by," and what was God's response to this weakness?

3. How does Romans 8:3 describe the manner in which God sent His Son into the world, and what did God accomplish through this sending?

4. According to Romans 8:4, what is the purpose ("in order that") for which God condemned sin in the flesh through Christ?

5. In Romans 8:4, what distinguishes those in whom the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled—how do they walk?

6. Looking at Romans 8:2, from what two things has "the law of the Spirit of life" set believers free in Christ Jesus?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Paul say the law was "weakened by the flesh" rather than saying the law itself was defective? What does this tell us about the real problem humanity faces?

2. What is the significance of the phrase "the likeness of sinful flesh" in describing Christ's incarnation? Why does Paul use this particular wording instead of simply saying Christ came "in sinful flesh"?

3. How does the sermon explain the relationship between Christ's sacrifice (verse 3) and the Spirit's work (verse 4) as two distinct but connected aspects of God's saving work?

4. What does it mean for the "righteous requirement of the law" to be "fulfilled in us"? How does this differ from Christ merely fulfilling the law's requirements for us?

5. According to the sermon, how should we understand the relationship between the law and the gospel—are they opposed to each other, and why or why not?

Application Questions

1. The sermon asks what your biggest moral or spiritual problem is and whether your proposed solution requires "using what's broken to fix what's broken." What areas of your life are you still trying to fix through your own effort rather than relying on Christ's finished work and the Spirit's power?

2. The sermon lists several things Christians are freed from—guilt, shame, the need to justify yourself, fear of final judgment, and the pressure to prove your value through achievement. Which of these do you still struggle to believe is truly settled for you in Christ, and how might that unbelief show up in your daily life?

3. The preacher asks whether growth in holiness is "a major goal of your life" and "an organizing purpose for your daily rhythms and routines." What specific practices—prayer, Scripture, or discipling relationships—could you begin or strengthen this week to pursue holiness more intentionally?

4. Walking "according to the Spirit" rather than "according to the flesh" involves doing what the Spirit wills by the power the Spirit supplies. What is one specific area of obedience where you need to stop relying on your own willpower and instead ask for the Spirit's enabling this week?

5. The sermon emphasizes that there should be a "radical break" between the old you and the new you that is "evident to anybody with eyes to see." If someone who knew you before you became a Christian were to observe your life now, what evidence of transformation would they notice—and what areas still need the Spirit's transforming work?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 7:7-25 — This passage provides the immediate context for Romans 8, showing the inability of the law to deliver us from sin and setting up Paul's cry for deliverance that chapter 8 answers.

2. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 — This passage explains the "great exchange" where Christ who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

3. Jeremiah 31:31-34 — This Old Testament prophecy of the New Covenant promises both forgiveness of sins and the internal transformation of God's law written on hearts, which the sermon identifies as fulfilled through Christ and the Spirit.

4. Galatians 5:16-25 — This passage expands on what it means to walk by the Spirit rather than the flesh, describing the contrasting fruits of each and reinforcing the sermon's teaching on Spirit-empowered obedience.

5. Romans 6:15-23 — This earlier section of Romans addresses the freedom believers have from sin's dominion and their new status as slaves of righteousness, directly supporting the sermon's emphasis on freedom from sin's power leading to holiness.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Question of Human Inability

II. Christ's Sacrifice Frees Us from Sin's Penalty (Romans 8:3)

III. Christ's Spirit Frees Us from Sin's Power (Romans 8:4)

IV. The Freedom of the Christian Life

Detailed Sermon Outline

• Free from guilt, shame, and the verdict of guilty
• Free from the terror of eternal condemnation and hopeless effort to earn God's favor
• Free from needing to justify yourself or prove your value through achievement
• Free from fear of final judgment because God has already pronounced you righteous in Christ

• Prayer for your own and others' growth in holiness
• Studying, meditating on, and memorizing Scripture as a mirror and searchlight for the soul
• Discipling relationships aimed at pursuing holiness together

What can't you do?

For the vast majority of us, there are some things that you normally could do but can't for now because of the pandemic. These are many and various. They range from trivial to sorely trying. As one person put it, We're all in the same storm, but different boats.

There are some things you can't do because of a natural inability. You can't lift a car above your head. You can't hold your breath for an hour underwater. Hence, the perennial popularity, especially among young children, of the question, if you could have any superpower, what would you choose? What about you?

Flying is an obvious answer. Although if I'm being totally honest, I think my superpower would be every time I bought a book to instantly have the clock stop and I could just have all the time I needed to read it.

But there are some things you can't do because you lack not a natural ability but a spiritual one. Can you simply switch off a sinful desire?

Can you unplug love of the world and plug in love for God?

What is the cause of that inability? How can it be remedied?

The passage for this sermon is Romans 8:3-4. If you have a Bible, please turn there. In Romans chapters 5 through 8, Paul is giving an account of life in the reign of Christ. The kind of life Christians now live by the power of Christ and his Spirit in us. Within those four chapters, Romans 7 is something of a digression.

It focuses on what the law can't do. The law can't bring life because it can't make us righteous. As Paul says in Romans 7:10, the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. Now, does that mean that the law itself is bad or sinful? Not at all.

Paul says in verse 12 of chapter seven, so the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. But if the law were the whole story, we would be in trouble. The law leaves us in a bad place. Paul cries out in chapter seven, verse 24, Wretched man that I am!

Who will deliver me from this body of death?

The law reveals our inability to keep it. The law reveals our need for deliverance. We need to be freed not just from the consequences of sin, but from the inward power of sin. And that deliverance from the consequences and inward power of sin is what Paul proclaims in Romans chapter eight.

I'll read the first four verses to give us the context, and then the sermon will focus on verses 3 and 4.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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.

Paul says in verse 3 that God has done what the law couldn't. The question is how? How has God Done what the law could not? The passage gives two answers and the sermon will have two points. Number one, Christ's sacrifice frees us from sin's penalty.

Number two, Christ's spirit frees us from sin's power. Number one, Christ's sacrifice frees us from sin's penalty. And number two, Christ's spirit frees us from sin's power.

Point one, Christ's sacrifice frees us from sin's penalty. We see this in verse 3. Now, as I just mentioned, verse 1 declares that Christians are free from sin's penalty. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then verse 2 declares that we're free from sin's power.

The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. That is, the kind of negative feelings feedback loop of being unable to escape from sin's consequences because we don't have any power to free us, only the law to condemn us. So in verse three and then verse four, it repeats the same pattern. Verse three, 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.

What the law couldn't do is it couldn't make us righteous. And because it couldn't make us righteous, it couldn't grant eternal life. That's the Paul point makes in Romans 7 and assumes in Romans 8. Now, why couldn't the law do this? It's not that there's anything wrong with the law.

God's law reveals God's character. God's law is good. God's law is a trustworthy guide to right living. As Psalm 19:9 says, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. So what's the problem with the law?

The problem with the law is us. It's in that phrase, weakened by the flesh. The law was weakened by the flesh, that is, it was hindered. It was kept from reaching its goal of do this, and live because we couldn't do it. God gave his law to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.

And from the very time he gave it, they began to prove that no human being can fully keep God's law. All of our hearts are sinful, they're corrupt, they're turned away from God by default. And so the whole history of Israel proves beyond reasonable doubt that no one can keep God's law. And if you know your own heart, if you know the inclinations of your own mind and how you work in your deepest desires, you know that you yourself can't live up to what God requires.

As we saw several weeks ago in the sermon on Romans 8:7-8, just a few verses after this, when Paul says flesh, he means sinful human nature, humanity as corrupted by Adam's fall.

Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, human nature has been fatally weakened, corrupted and turned away from God by sin. God created humanity upright, but sin has inwardly corrupted us all. And you can't use something broken to fix something that's broken. If you're not a Christian, we're very glad you're here, you're always welcome. At this gathering.

You're always welcome at any gatherings we're having at our church building. You're very welcome to be with us. What would you say is your biggest moral or spiritual problem?

What is your biggest moral or spiritual problem?

How can that problem be solved?

And does your proposed solution require using what's broken to fix what's broken?

The problem with the law isn't the law. It's our sin. Let's say you're putting together a piece of IKEA furniture. Inevitably, you come to a point where The reality before you, the partially assembled furniture, just doesn't seem to fit with the next piece of instructions. How are these bolts supposed to fit in those holes?

How is this shelf supposed to fit in that indent? So what do you conclude? These instructions must be wrong. The picture must be wrong. The parts they've shipped in the package must be wrong.

But then perhaps a friend or roommate or your husband or wife comes along and takes a look at it and they say, well, it's just because you had it upside down. Right? The problem all along was user error. The problem wasn't the instructions. And user error is why God's law never could and never will save anyone.

The law couldn't bring rescue and release. It couldn't bring righteousness and eternal life. It couldn't free us from sin's penalty and power. But God could and God did. How?

Verse three tells us, By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. God sent his own son, his eternal divine son, who is equal to him in every power and perfection. This son became incarnate. Paul uses the phrase the likeness of sinful flesh to say two things. First, he indicates the reality of Christ's human nature, which makes him like us and one of us.

But second, he also indicates that Christ himself was not subject to sin. That's why he says the likeness of sinful flesh. Christ's human nature was subject to physical weakness, to mortality, and his life was beset by all sorts of effects and consequences of other people's sin and of living in a fallen world. But Jesus himself was not sinful. Jesus himself didn't sin.

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. In him. Instead of sinning, Jesus perfectly kept the law of God that we haven't and can't keep.

Paul also says in verse three that God sent his son into the world for sin. For sin.

You could also translate that phrase as a sin offering. What did this sacrificial sin offering accomplish?

Paul tells us, he condemned sin in the flesh. In his own body on the cross, Christ bore the penalty we all deserve for our sin. And he rose from the dead in order to make his everlasting life and victory ours. If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Christ, turn to him today. Trusting in him is the only way to escape condemnation for your own sin.

And he is a full and complete deliverer and savior from sin. Christ bore all the condemnation we deserve so that we never would if you believe in him. Jesus bore our condemnation so that we would receive his righteousness. Paul says in verse one that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Not a little bit, not an uncertain amount, not an amount small enough to be safe for consumption and survival.

He says none. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because Jesus was condemned for us. Here's how Martin Luther celebrated this great exchange. Thus with the sweetest names, Christ is called my law, my sin and my death in opposition to the law, sin and death, even though in fact he is nothing but sheer liberty, righteousness, life and eternal salvation. Therefore, He became law to the law, sin to sin, and death to death, in order that He might redeem me from the curse of the law, justify me, and make me alive.

And so Christ is both. While He is the law, He is liberty. While He is sin, He is righteousness. And while He is death, He is life. For by the very fact that He permitted the law to accuse Him, sin to damn him and death to devour him.

He abrogated the law, damned sin, destroyed death, and justified and saved me. Thus Christ is a poison against the law, sin and death, and simultaneously a remedy to regain liberty, righteousness, and eternal life. Christ's sacrifice frees us from the law's penalty. If you're a Christian, God has done for you what the law couldn't do for you. God has done for you what you could never do for you.

To be a Christian is to be set free. You're free from the verdict of guilty. You're free from the terror of eternal condemnation. You're free from the hopeless effort to earn God's favor. You are free from guilt, free from shame, free from the overwhelming, unpayable debt of your sin.

You're free from the need to justify yourself before others because God is the one who justifies you. You are free from the futile project of trying to prove to others and prove to yourself that you are valuable because of what you achieve. You're free from fear of final judgment because God has already passed final judgment on you and Christ. The cross is the execution of God's final judgment against sin, and Christ was condemned in your place. And so God has already pronounced the verdict of his final judgment on you, and it is righteous, vindicated, freed, justified, right in his sight, and so secure forever.

You, Christian, are free from sin's penalty. This and much more is what we Christians are free from. But freedom in Christ, like all true freedom, is always also freedom for. Not just freedom from, but freedom for. And to see what we're free for, we need to see what else God has freed us from.

So point two: Christ's Spirit frees us from sin's power. Christ's Spirit frees us from sin's power. We see this in verse 4.

Because verse 4 continues the sentence, we'll read verse 3 again too: 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 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. What is that requirement of the law and how is it fulfilled in us?

Some take this phrase to mean the law's judicial requirements. That is, that sinners deserve death. On that view, this phrase restates verse 3 saying that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us in that Christ died for us. But I think Paul has something else in mind in verse 4. One piece of evidence we saw for that is how Romans 8:1 talks about the consequences of sin in judicial terms.

And then verse 2 talks about being free from sin's power. And so again, then in verse 3, it's the judicial consequences of sin. And then verse 4 at the end, Paul specifies what it is about us that causes the requirement of the law to be fulfilled in us. He says that decisive difference is that we walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In other words, it's God's own spirit dwelling in us that enables us to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.

And what does it mean that our lives fulfill the law? It means that when we love God and love our neighbor, our lives fill in the pattern that the law sketches out. It means that our lives move forward along the rails set down by the law. As Paul says later in Romans 13:8-10, owe no one anything except to love each other, for one who loves another has fulfilled the law. And then again in Romans 13:10, Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

So Romans 8:4 tells us, one purpose for which God saved us. He doesn't merely rescue us from guilt, he reinstates us in true obedience. He delivers us from the condemnation due to sin and from the inner corruption of sin. He frees us from sins penalty and power.

The article of our statement of faith that we've just confessed a few moments ago says, To deliver them from which, that is, from sin, and to restore them through a mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy law is one great end of the gospel. That is, one great purpose of the gospel. And as Annie read to us a few minutes ago, in the New Covenant promise of Jeremiah 31:31-34, God promises both. To forgive our sins and to inwardly transform us. Both, I will forgive their iniquity and I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.

In our two verses, Paul shows us how these two promises are being fulfilled. Forgiveness through Christ's sacrifice and inner transformation by the Spirit's indwelling. Verse 4 tells us one great end of the gospel: to so transform us that we willingly, freely, delightedly obey God's law. In this life we do not obey perfectly, but we do obey sincerely, truly, and gladly. If you are in Christ, your life is no longer dominated by sinful desires.

You are no longer enslaved to sin, as Paul puts it in Romans 6. You've been given a new mind, a new heart, a new self, a new direction where you love to serve God and serve others. God's spirit living in you enables you to love what God loves and do what God commands. So Romans 8:4 along with its echo in our statement of faith says that our real lived out holiness here and now is one of the goals of the gospel. It's one of the purposes for which the Father sent his son to die for us in his spirit to dwell in us.

And notice the Trinitarian pattern there. As John Stott says, Holiness is the fruit of Trinitarian grace, of the Father sending his Son into the world and his Spirit into our hearts.

Is your growth in holiness A major goal of your life?

Is it an organizing purpose for your daily rhythms and routines?

Is holiness something you pursue, something you strive for, something you chase after?

A purpose, and especially a big one, is a magnet that pulls all sorts of resources and effort toward it. If you want to go on vacation, what will you do? Well, probably save money for plane tickets, book a place to stay, read up in guidebooks or online about the place you want to visit, sketch in an itinerary, buy sunscreen, and these days probably check the list of quarantines of places you would want to go to or be coming from. If you want to get a new job, you might pursue another degree or get some kind of certificate or credential. You'll probably talk to people who are experienced in the field, get to know some of the main employers and what they look for in a candidate, apply for jobs, prep for interviews.

What about holiness? What efforts and resources does holiness draw together in your life?

What should some of those efforts and resources include? One is prayer. Praying privately for your own growth in holiness, for others' growth in holiness. Praying with your family or roommates. Praying with the church.

Pray that your life would increasingly fulfill the law by the power of the Spirit. Another effort and resource is studying scripture, meditating on scripture, memorizing scripture, using scripture as a mirror in which to examine yourself, using scripture as a searchlight to dispel darkness from far corners of your soul.

Another resource, another effort is discipling relationships, where the goal is to help each other pursue holiness together. How can you together hold up God's word as a mirror and use it as a searchlight? How can you together pray for victory over besetting sins, for progress into the likeness of Christ? Are you making these efforts?

Are you using these resources?

If not, how do you know that your goals for your life align with God's goals for your life?

The law and the gospel are distinct but not opposed. The law's curse no longer threatens us. Instead, its demands have become our delights. Forgiveness of sins and inner transformation are distinct, not opposed. We need both.

And through God's work in Christ and by His Spirit, we have both. So much of the balance of Christian doctrine and so much of the balance of a rightly lived Christian life is found in rightly relating things that are distinct and not opposed. God's sovereignty and human responsibility, caring for people's eternal needs and temporal needs, the Word and the Spirit, careful teaching and deep experience. What God has joined together let no man separate. So too with the law and the gospel.

We should neither confuse the law and the gospel with each other nor set them against each other. So what does it mean to walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit and so fulfill the law? As Paul says in verse four, it means to live a life in line with and from the resources supplied by the Spirit who now lives within you. It means doing what the Spirit wills by the power the Spirit supplies. It means that God's will is the measure, and God's indwelling presence is the means of your growth into the likeness of Christ.

It means that there is a radical break between the old you and the new you. And that radical break should be evident to anybody with eyes to see. Very practically, it means confessing sin and putting sin to death and striving to be conformed ever more closely to the perfectly loving, perfectly self-giving character of Christ.

To be a Christian is to be free from sin's penalty and power, and it is to be free for a life of fulfilling God's law in the power of the Spirit. In Christ, you are free from sin's dominion, and you are free for living a life of fulfilling God's commands and finding your fulfillment in doing what God requires.

So what can't you do?

If you're a Christian, you cannot be condemned by your sin. Christ has borne that condemnation. There's none left for you. Not a single one of your sins can keep you from enjoying peace with God now and the face-to-face presence of God in eternity. And if you're a Christian, you can't live how you used to.

The Spirit dwelling in you won't let you. Let you. Instead, the Spirit is a spring of life within you, welling up in your hearts, nurturing fruit that offers a foretaste of your happy eternity. As Paul says in Romans chapter six, verse 22, but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end. Eternal life.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for condemning sin in the flesh in order to enable us to live by the Spirit and so to fulfill your righteous and holy law. Father, we pray that You would grant us to delight in this freedom we have in Christ and to use it to glorify you and serve others. We pray that you would grant us assurance of your love for us and that we would demonstrate our love for you that you've put in us by your Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.