Bible Guys Classics: Romans 8 Part 1

Today on the Bible Guys, we're actually talking about life at Spirit Airlines. That's what we're talking about. Life at Spirit. No, not Spirit Airlines, life in the Spirit. I saw a life in the Spirit at the Capital last I thought we're talking about Spirit. Airlines, favorite airlines. So hey, this is Kyle and I'm Jeff and we're the Bible Guys. All right, So today before we get into talking about life in the Spirit, I actually just want to let you know we actually were submitting there's some questions have been submitted to us trying to stump the pastor. And there's one that was submitted today from these these great yes, everybody asks. Really good questions on these stumped pastor things, and. So we encourage you send those in. You can. If you're on the Bible Guys dot com, we have a spot on there you can contact us. You can comment on one of our YouTube pages and Facebook, and we read all these things. We keep a collection of them. You send an email to info at the Bible Guys dot That's right. And then Ed P had this really good, uh the pastor question? Thanks Ed. He says, when did Jesus know after being born that he was the son of God. Oh, that is a good question. The easy answer, and the seems to be the standard answer to the stumped the Bible guys is we don't know. But there seems to be a couple of indications of Jesus awareness. Particularly there's the story of Jesus when he was twelve years old and his mom and dad took him to Jerusalem and he's with the people in the temple. Yeah, yeah, and his Mary and Joseph. They were traveling in a large group, and then they leave Jerusalem and then you know, they're halfway home and they find out they left Jesus good parenting, which is hysterical. Hey, mam and dad, if you think that you're not a very good parent. Mary lost God, she lost the son of God. So that's funny. Anyway, she realizes, they both realize that they don't have Jesus with them. They turn back and they go back to Jerusalem, and when they finally find Jesus, he's sitting on the steps of temple some of the other scribes and the teachers, and he's pretty amazing in his depth of biblical knowledge, and they're amazed by him. And so Mary says, Jesus you know your father and I've been looking for you for all this time. And Jesus looked at his mother and said, didn't you know that I'd be about my father's business. And he was differentiating between his stepdad Joseph and his heavenly father. So at that point I think Jesus had a strong awareness of his heavenly father and perhaps what his role was. So the question I think for a lot of people is was he born with that awareness or did he gradually grow into that awareness? But yeah, at least by the age twelve. We know for sure by twelve he was aware of his relationship to his father. Yeah, we don't really have a lot of indication. Yeah, we don't know that he knew that he was going to die in the cross at that point, right, But yeah, he at least had an awareness that he had a special mission from the Father. So it wasn't like a Luke Skywalker, That's right. And the thing about this, the reason why this question is so important, is some people make the mistake of thinking that Jesus was a really good guy that God chose. Man, I like this guy, he's great. Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God, Jesus was born God in the flesh, and so that then, for you know, when we think about it, Jesus had to be potty trained. Mary had to teach him to walk, She had to change his diapers, she had he had to nurse as a baby. Now he had to learn to chew with his mouth closed and not talk with his mouth full. And he had to learn his ABC's and his well not ABC's, but you know, he had to learn his letters, and he had to learn how to do math. He all that stuff because he was completely human. Yes, that is and that's the part people I think struggle with the fully god, fully man. That's the part that I think is has hard people to wrap their minds around. They assume it's one or the other, fifty to fifty or whatever it may be. So I think that in the same way that he gradually began to understand language as a baby, as he gradually learned how to walk as an infant, as he began to learn social norms as an adolescent, all those things, I think that he gradually came to this stronger and stronger awareness of what his mission was because he was fully human, but he's also fully god which meant that he had, you know, all the power and the knowledge of God, but that knowledge seems to be limited. Jesus says. At one point, they're asking Jesus, hey, when are you going to return the disciples? And Jesus said, I don't know that. Only my father in Heaven knows that. So God is everywhere. Right, then God chose in Jesus to limit himself to one place at one time. So God is everywhere outside of time. Now Jesus is God limited in one body, in one place at one time, and so he chose to set aside and you know, the Bible tells us he set aside some of the glory. He set aside those things to limit himself into a human and so he's operating with human knowledge and at the same time he's God. And there's this tension there all the time. But the Bible's not specific. So when it happened, well, another thing too, is I think about it like we see many instances in the few years of his ministry where he goes away to talk with his father, I mean for hours at a time, days at a time, and it almost seems like the most inopportune times to do that. Right, So he found it necessary to go and have that communion with it. And so it makes you wonder, like, that's not just a habit you pick up in ministry. That's that's something he'd been carrying. It makes you wonder how many years he had he'd had that sort of a relationship with God where he can go away, where you take this there's moments of silence, solitude and just be with his father. The Bible says it was his habit. Yeah, right, it was his habit. Then you go up into the mountains or you go out into the desert or whatever and pray early in the morning. Yes, maybe from a young age though, could have been something where he had I believe. The reason why he did this, you know, the Holy Spirit descended on him while he was being baptized. I believe that he functioned as a spirit filled man, but he was carrying the sinless blood of God. Right, yeah, yeah, so his his sinless blood is what was able to pay the price for our sin. But he functioned on earth as a spirit filled man, and this is why he was able to say, my followers will do greater things than I did. Yeah, So as we are spirit filled and as we walk in the spirit, then we have the ability to have the kind of impact that Jesus had. That's really good. That's really good to keep sending in your questions and hopefully that was a good answer to that at p wherever you are. Thanks, it's a really good one. Yeah. Hey, So, as we get into Romans chapter eight today, just to if you didn't get a chance to watch or listen to the podcast yesterday, we're talking about a little bit more about the law. That's kind of what Paul's been talking about, and he's basically talking about the fact that so often when it comes to sin, we do what we don't want to do, we don't do what we want to do. And then he provides the. Solution to He says, what a miserable person person I am. But then you come to verse eight. Thank goodness, you know we read your chapter eight. We read these in chapters and verses, but he's not no, yeah, right, so you just come to the end of this. I feel like I'm a miserable person, but thank God Jesus can solve this for me. And then you go right on this, yes right, verse one. And I don't know because this is a Bible Guys podcast, we push you know, the study Bibles and that sort of thing. But if you haven't heard of have you ever heard the story Bible by any chance? They basically where they take the Bible in chronological order and they treat it like a like a novel. We still have chapter slily, the whole chapter like Jesus' ministry on Earth, and they'll be and they remove all the chapters, the verses. There's no Matthew, there's no and they just put them in respect cool because you read the same thing, you'd be reading it would not even think about the chapter change. So anyway, we're going to continue on here. In verse one, chapter eight, Paul saying this, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The Law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in a body. Hey, we're talking about that earlier. You go in a body like the bodies we sinners have and in that body, God declared an end to sins control over us, giving us giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the spirit. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit. If you have the Spirit of God living in you, then it says in quotations, remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all. And Christ lives within you. So even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raise Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give you life to your mortal bod bodies by this same spirit living within you. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do, for if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if, through the power of the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received the spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you receive God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him abba Father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children and spins. We are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Wow, there's a lot to that. Yeah, well he covers a lot. Yes he does. So he comes out of the statement, what a miserable person I am. Thank God for g Jesus, And then he says, So there is now no condemnation for those who belong to Christ. Jesus condemnation. He's talking about judgment, right, the judgment of hell for our sin. So in Christ, those who are in Christ or those who belong to Christ, we don't have to worry about that judgment anymore. So we were on death row. Essentially, we're on death row. There's now no condemnation. Therefore we're free. Yeah, well, there's that note. I think you're referencing the note here for eight verse one in the Life Application Bible. He says, not guilty, let this person go free. What would those words mean to you if you were on death row? In reality, the whole human race is on death row, justly condemned for repeatedly breaking God's holy law. Without Jesus we'd have no hope at all. But thank God, he has declared us not guilty and has offered us freedom from sin and supernatural power to do his will right. So, as as a people, as humanity, we were all on death row individually, we were on death row spiritually, but because of Jesus. Now he says, let him go free. They're free from sin, they're free from the consequences of sin, and this is all because of the life giving Holy Spirit, and so I love it. In verse three, it says the Law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. Right, that's really it. So if you're trying to obey all the religious rituals and all the things that religion has told you you must do, you have to receive communion at this time, and you have to get baptized at this time, and you have to stop doing these things. And you better never ever do those sins or you can't go to heaven. That's all the law, and so they have value. They just can't get us to heaven. And so he says, instead, God did what the law cannot do. God's the one who saves us. God's the one who makes it possible for us to have our sins forgiven and have a right relationship with Him and have access to Him and eternity. The law can never do that. There's no way we can perfectly keep every rule that's right. So that's really good. I so like to and I think it mentions this as well. In the Life Application, study Bible, but uh in five and six from one of those who live according to the flesh and then those who live according to the spirit. So there's really it basically said, there's two types people in the world, those who are living according their flesh. So you kind of simplifies like two types people live accordion, flesh live by the spirit. I know that you're a big Michigan fan, so it's almost like there's two types people. There's Ohio people, right, there's Michigan Michigan people and Ohio or even in our state who that's all the world consists of is Ohio state people and us the rest of it. But it's almost like Michigan, Michigan State. It's like, you know here in in you know, our our area here in Michigan. You know, people get pretty divided, you know, and here he's kind of saying that there's two. Types people, and yeah, you know, I just made me think of the the well, so I think it really comes down to these two uh, these two issues, and it really simplifies quite honestly, my decision making in my my self, uh you know, measurements about my life when I look and I go, okay, is this decision I'm making. Is this a fleshley decision? Yeah? Or is this a godly decision? This is literally one of these what would Jesus do kind of things. He's really dividing it down to either you're only pleasing yourself or you're only pleasing God. There's no mixing and there's nothing in between. Yeah. Right, So if you're living for your flesh, that's usually a wrong decision. When you're wanting to go tell off that coworker, you have to ask yourself, would Jesus go tell off my coworker in this moment? Right? If not, then okay, maybe I should step away from that. I'm going to walk in the spirit instead. And so it really simplifies our decision making. Yeah, well what happens all the time. I mean, think about you. You mentioned that telling off the coat. I mean, there's so many of those instances where you're like, yeah, my sinful desire, my simpul nature is telling me to do this right, or I'm following the emotions, or I'm following this you know, even the Bible. Like, it's funny how in our culture, in this day and age, it's about listening to your heart. You watch so many about what's your heart telling you to do? And you know from the Old Testament that the heart is deceitful, right, and don't listen to your heart, don't trust your heart. And oftentimes your heart is lying to you in those areas. And so you know, whenever you hear from somebody or ever I'm talking somebody are counseling somebody on certain decisions. You know, it's like a lot of times you have to look and see what the spirit spirit's telling you to do, or also what God's word, God's word that tells you to do. So you go back to his word, which is foundation. But the Holy Spirit will never tell you to do something contrary that's other than what yes, exactly right. So a lot of times you'll have though like, well, I really want to do this, or I really want to quit this, or I really want to start what I'm going to do, and it's like, well, what does his word. Say to do? And then in that you'll essentially find what it looks like to live in the spirit when you're when you're actually in the world, when it's written in your heart, when it's an overflow of what you're reading and growing and ultimately you are living in the spirit in that way. Yeah. James, in his book he talks about the difference between light and light and darkness. Yeah, or John the same thing in first, second, third John, he talks about that. Peter talks a little bit about it that. So here it's the flesh or the spirit. For them, they're talking about light and darkness. It's the same same kind of thing. There is no gray, yes, right, right right. Either it's for the flesh or it's for And a lot of times I get with people who go, oh, well, if you understand you know, businessman, Well, if you understood how real business happens, you know, So I walk in the light on Sundays, but Monday through Friday I have to walk in the darkness. And God's not making any room for that at all. No, even business people, everybody should be choosing. If you're if you've been saved, if you've been forgiven of your sins, if you've received the spirit of Christ in you, then you should choose to be walking in the light, not based on guilt and fear, but based on the fact that He loves you, and so out of love for him, you choose to walk in the light. And this is a is a difficult issue because we really want to please ourselves, and what we kind of want is we want God to also please us. That's our goal. Our goal is that God would affirm us and approve of us and please us, give us what we want. So it winds up being a self centered life that's always living in the flesh. But he says when we begin to grow up to become more like Christ, suddenly it stops being about us and God is no longer there. We don't expect him to please us. Instead, we flip the script and we want to please him. Right, that's really that's good. Well, I honestly think that is even in our culture. Again, going back to that, it's so we live in a culture that just wants the approval. We wanted the affirmation, and we want somebody to It's like, you know, we want the friends to surround us who don't tell us any bad news, just tell us that everything we're doing is great, the yes men or yes women around us. Right, and so it's like no, no, no, we have to walk in the spirit. In fact, it actually talks about that in fifteen sets, you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. So I was just looking at it. Yeah. So, I mean obviously the whole adoption thing, the abba father you talk about that, I feel that's pretty important for our listeners, like. He'll adopted you as his own children. You know, a lot of people know my story. My dad adopted me, and I know what it means. You know, when when my dad we were with the judge and you know, the judge was affirming with my dad, Hey, this is kind of an irreversible thing. It's not something you do flippantly and then change your mind later. And I can't remember. My dad got down on his knees and he said, Jeffy, I choose you. That's great. And I can't remember what it's like to be chosen, you know, by my dad and be because I mean, I was thrilled. I was excited as a little boy, but I was super excited. And that's kind of what he's saying is God decided to adopt you as his own children. And when he did that, he changed your name, He changed your future, he changed the direction of your life, he changed the opportunities in your life. And now you don't have to be this street Urchin. That's, you know, running from all the demons in your life. Instead, you've been given the spirit of God. You don't have to be living a life of fear anymore, which was my life. My life was, you know, full of fear. And instead he says, you don't have to live this life of fear anymore. You've been given the power, the all the spirit of God in you now. So quit walking around like you're defended all the time. Instead, understand that you've been delivered from all this stuff. So and the consequences of it. So now you can call him Abba father Abba in Hebrew or in Aramaic. Either one is like the most intimate word that a toddler like daddy, daddy. That's really what he's saying here. And you know, so this is a personal access. It's not a Victorian hello, father, a little mother. It's mommy daddy. It's it's a daddy thing, right, it's jump up on his lap, cuddle with daddy kind of a thing, which is weird for us. Most of us do not think of our walk with God as he's our daddy. Right. That's a surprise. It's kind of an odd thing. But that is available to USh well, especially to when you're talking about who you know, consider the source of who's writing this. You mentioned that he of being adopted, you know, changing a name, changing your outcome, and changing your destination. We're talking about Paul or Saul, not Paul, like literally changed his name. And it's so cool because he's sitting here, is like almost, Hey, remember me, I'm the guy. I'm that guy. And now look at me walking in the spirit, look at me walking my life and change. I've been adopted. I'm new, I'm made new. It's just kind of a cool, cool reversal. Yeah, and then it says we are his children, we're his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, where airs of God's glory. And this is very significant. Our father is a king, right and we have all the benefits of being the children of the king. Right. He provides for us, he protects us, he cares for us. We have the dignity of being a child of the king, all those things. But our father is a king. We're also his subjects. So we're his children, were subjects, and so we choose to obey him because he's our king. And then it's his mission that is our inheritance. Here on this earth, but our inheritance and eternity is along with Christ. Right, So if we're going to experience this inheritance, if we're going to lay claim on the inheritance with Christ, then we also have to be willing to suffer with Christ. And that's just want to ask you about that last Probably the final thing is it's our last version here. But if we're a sharer's glory, we must also share suffering. Just thoughts on that? Is that kind of where you're going with that? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, So Jesus said, don't be surp when people hate you. They hate me. So if I'm aligning with Jesus, then others are gonna hate me. You know. You reference the Michigan Ohio state thing, you know, and we have a fake hatred for each other. We don't hate Ohio state that much that much, but when you put on a Michigan jersey. My wife and I were going down to visit our son in Virginia. We're going through Ohio and we stopped at the Starbucks because my wife's addicted to Starbucks, and she's wearing a Michigan jersey sweatshirt. I'm wearing a Michigan hat, and my daughter's wearing a Michigan hat. We all go into Star Wars together and it was during the football season, and everybody turned and looked at us, and it was half the room was wearing Ohio state jersey. So because we were wearing the name of Michigan, it got the attention of and some of the you know, there were fake booze, you know, stuff like that, and that's natural. It's the same thing when they come our way. We wear Jesus' name literally Christ one Christian right, so we wear his name. And it shouldn't be surprised then that the world would hate us as much as they hated Jesus. And so he says, hey, it's a glory. It's a privilege to suffer as Jesus suffered. And I know to most of us, our goal is never to suffer, but to really become more like Jesus. That's a part of it. So we're so grateful for the price he paid for us that we should be willing to pay any price for him. And that's really what he's It's also too such encouragement to the people he's writing to who are about to endure a lot of persecution. Yeah, some of them already are, but they're about to see it even escalated. Are and that's crazy. And then and then, quite honestly, the suffering around the world, Yes, which we can talk a little bit more tomorrow because he begins unpack that suffering around the world is unbelievable today. So it was at a greater level than maybe any other time in union histry. So something like this, he's writing it really walking the life of spirit. But then there's that suffering part, which is actually hope to know that you're still just like what Jesus saying, it's going to happen. Jesus already predicted this, but you can know that you have the hope in him. Yep. So well, hopefully that was that was helpful for you guys, just to understand what it looks like to walk and live in the spirit. Really excited about tomorrow because this next section, I know Jeff mentioned it. I know this next section of Roomin's eight is really powerful, really encouraging. Hoop, We're gonna like it a lot. We hope you tune in tomorrow. We'll see you guys later. H