“So then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” Romans 8:12-15
This is a great truth, indeed. It’s so simply put that it’s easy to pass with nary a second thought. Yes, it’s easy to do – especially since there’s so much more meat coming in Romans 8. But let’s slow down and take a good look. Romans 8 is about our security in Christ. It’s the pastor’s chapter built upon the perfect theology and anthropology of chapters 1-7. The logic is striking. It’s pure. It’s life-changing.
You are secure. You are His. By faith alone. By grace alone. Don’t fear your future. Have no fear because you will not and cannot be lost or else Christ died in vain. The tomb is empty. The Father has accepted the perfect sacrifice of His Son on your behalf. To believe this is to live…and to live in absolute, untouchable security. That’s the whole point of Romans 8.
Knowing this, we shouldn’t fall back into the spirit of fear, nor focus on our outward circumstances absent the truth about Christ.
We don’t have a political problem, an economic one, a health issue…a romantic conundrum…bouts of depression. Mankind has these problems because he’s exchanged the truth for a lie. This exchange has required a consistent suppression of the truth. This is the low hum in the background of our lives. We go to counselors, we take drugs, we seek out distractions, we build idols and temples and do everything we can to recreate Eden for ourselves. Our minds are idol factories (Calvin) due to this elemental aspect of life. The root of man’s problem isn’t cancer or racism or poverty – it’s sin. Our mad dash to fix the consequences of sin all while leaving our sin untouched is the height of folly. And let’s remember, the principle of sin is the lie that God isn’t the Creator God who’s spoken through Scripture.
Romans 1 lays this foundation and then the Apostle leads us on a tour. He shows us that God has done, in Christ, what the law – and all human efforts – can’t do. By faith we’re saved because there’s no way else to God. No man may boast. No man is saved through any device, plan, or philosophy. We’re saved only by faith because salvation – and life – is about righteousness. And we can only be righteous through faith. That’s it!
In Matthew 7:21-23 the Lord makes the shocking announcement that many will come before Him on that Final Day and declare their devotion to Him. They’ll expect to be citizens of heaven when, in fact, their final address is Hell. We’ve spoken already of the necessity of the new mind in Christ. We’ve read about the mind that’s set on the flesh and how it can’t please God. Perhaps a good way to comprehend what’s at hand is this verse. Those who are in the flesh will not inherent the Kingdom of God because, when it’s all said and done, they didn’t pursue God’s righteousness through faith, but by works. This is why the Apostle has made such an issue of this.
The mind that’s set on the flesh is hostile to God for two primary reasons. First, it doesn’t like any restraints. God’s law and righteousness are an affront to the rebel because they act as agents of limitation. They expose our lack of moral authority. We aren’t a law unto ourselves. Second, it doesn’t like accountability. The mind that’s set on the flesh seeks its own happiness – it’s obsessed by it. Its preoccupation is self, not God. To have a mind that’s set on God, the sinner thinks, is slavery and misery. It seeks happiness, not holiness. The irony is that this is the very thing that makes us miserable since we live in God’s world and can’t be truly at peace unless we live in accord with Him.
The person that steps before God on that Day, outside of faith, therefore, is guilty of profound presumption. What we see in Romans is the righteousness of God – He is both just and justifier of the one who has faith in Christ Jesus. Justification isn’t the act of God lowering His holy standards because He loves us. Salvation isn’t a grandparent giving a cookie to a disobedient child – spoiling them. God’s righteousness is non-negotiable. It’s the act of God so loving us that He crucified His Son so that our penalty would be paid in full and that the righteousness of Christ would be imputed to us. The cross of Christ is everything we need to know about God’s love and His righteousness. Both facts – His love and His holiness – are the supreme facts of reality.
Faith is about God’s righteousness and His love. The two aren’t separate. God is wholly consistent, after all. Faith isn’t a fuzzy feeling. It isn’t, as we say today, “feeling spiritual.” It’s trust in the God who saves us. It’s agreeing with God, in a manner of looking at it. It’s a reversal of the Great Exchange – the exchanging of the truth for a lie.
So, the person that the Lord is talking about in Matthew 7 is the man or woman who pursues righteousness through anything other than faith. Just to be clear: to do so is to call God a liar and a fraud to His face. Think about it. God’s righteousness and perfection are unattainable for us through any human effort, program, religion, or philosophy. Faith doesn’t negotiate with God; it submits to Him.
The poor in spirit, on the other hand, is the person who comes to Him in utter poverty. To say, “Lord, Lord,” as anything but an impoverished debtor is to say that He owes us. It is to make a mockery of the grace of God. It’s to call the cross a sham and some kind of unnecessary drama. To walk in the Spirit, therefore, is to agree with God. It’s to accept the supreme fact of reality, which is God and to accept Him as He reveals Himself to us in Scripture.
The weeping and gnashing of teeth on that Day will be, in part, because sinners learn, once and for all, that they’re unable to change reality. They will weep angry tears of denial, they will gnash their teeth in hatred of the fact of God and that He will not relent. They will march up to Him and say, “my will be done, Lord, not yours.” That is the heart of sin. It’s the demand that God come down from His throne. It’s the mouse sauntering up to the lion and demanding an accord. They gnash their teeth not in pain but in hatred. They will, even then, be convinced that God is unjust to be Himself. They will demand what they think they’re owed. God, they think, has no right over His creation. He has no right over the facts of reality and its categories. “Oh, well…maybe He has some rights, but I have too,” says the unconverted in his heart. Those that say, “Lord, Lord,” in vain mean that He has a shared authority with them, which is to say that He must relent to them.
What of it? Where is the limit of God’s authority in your life? Is it in “public” education? Is it at work? Is it over your sexual desires? Is it over your temper? Where is it that you place a limit upon God? What category of life is a “no-go zone” for the Lord in your mind? Do you see that this is unfaithfulness and such is to demand that the Almighty obey you?! Is He our debtor? Please listen. If you have these areas, repent and “put to death the deeds of the body” so that you may live. And think carefully, soberly. He is either Lord of all or not at all.
Thus, that Day is the match of matches. It’s the cosmic showdown of unrepentant man at last facing God and demanding that He answer to them. The false converts will be those that will have lived among us in the flesh, never liking the great truth about faith. They never had a broken and contrite heart, but a proud one. They wished to use God, not be used by Him. They were always embarrassed at the truths of Scripture. Suffering and humiliation or anything else that smacked of their dependence and finitude insulted their high opinion of themselves.
A debtor, though, mortifies the flesh through the Spirit by the power of faith. A debtor seeks God’s glory, not their own. Only a debtor cries out, Abba! Father! Only a debtor understands the righteousness that comes through faith, not works.
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