Study session scripture: Romans 8:26-39

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Study session topics:

• The Intercession of the Holy Spirit (vv. 26-27)

• This is an important topic because prayer itself is a confusing subject, as Paul himself concedes in v. 26 -"Likewise" or "In the same way"--connects the Holy Spirit's intercession to earlier context

• vv. 22-25: our hope in God's promises is strengthened by the Spirit's intercession on our behalf

• vv. 15-17: the Spirit's aid in prayer is further assurance that we are God's children

• The problem with prayer--our weakness

• The Holy Spirit assists us in our weakness in many ways, but here Paul is specifically talking about our ignorance

• The word "our" is important here--Paul is saying this is a problem for all Christians -"helps"--a hugely insufficient word

• Greek sunantilambanetai--someone coming alongside another to help bear a heavy burden -Paul transitions to his next and final point in this chapter by giving us both an assurance and an aspiration: the Spirit intercedes for Christians according to the will of God

• The Spirit translates our desires into requests that fit into the will of God

• The point of the Christian life is to be increasingly conformed to Christ, so we also should be increasingly petitioning God according to His will

• The Practical Outworking of God's Character (vv. 28-39)

• v. 28 is one of the most well known--and misused--verses in the Bible

• It is not a platitude for things getting better, rather Paul immediately clarifies that he means all things work together to further sanctify us

• v. 28 is the thesis of the remainder of the chapter--we can rest assured in our salvation and know that we will be further sanctified due to the One our salvation rests on

• vv. 29-30 show the roadmap for God's process of saving and sanctifying His people -Foreknowledge -Predestination -Calling -Justification -Glorification

• In the last section of the chapter, Paul triumphantly, almost defiantly, challenges anyone to overthrow the work of God in salvation by posing 5 questions:

• Who can be against us?

• How will He not graciously give us all things?

• Who shall bring any charge?

• Who is to condemn?

• Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Study session scripture: Romans 8:1-14

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. 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. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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 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.

Study session topics:

• Assurance of Hope

• Freedom from condemnation by the law (vv. 1-4)

• v. 1: a thesis and a summary -"therefore"--the biggest one yet

• No condemnation

• Points back to the first few chapters, summed up in 3:9-11 -"in Christ Jesus"

• Points back to Paul's discussion of being united to Christ in Ch. 5, continued in v. 2

• Here we see all 3 persons of the Trinity active in salvation

• God the Father: Sends His Son to Earth and condemns sin in the flesh through Christ's death, thus justifying the Christian

• God the Son: Becomes like us, dies as the perfect sacrifice, and breaks the power of sin through His death

• God the Holy Spirit: Joins us to Christ in His death and resurrection, and gives us power to live a holy life

• In this passage we begin to see how our freedom from condemnation leads to a holy life -Holiness is the goal of justification

• Holiness consists of fulfilling the law's just demands

• Holiness is the work of the Holy Spirit

• Holiness is mandatory

• We see Christ illustrate how freedom from condemnation works in John 8:1-11

• Deliverance from our sinful natures (vv. 5-14)

• In vv. 5-8 Paul contrasts the unsaved person and the Christian

• The unsaved person is characterized in 4 ways:

• His thinking: his mind is set on fleshly things

• His state: spiritually dead

• His religion: anti-God

• His present condition: unable to please God

• The Christian is characterized in 2 ways:

• His thinking: set on what the Spirit desires

• His state: spiritually alive and at peace

• In vv. 9-11 Paul encourages his audience to examine themselves to assure them that they are included in God's new covenant

• The Christian's past (v. 9) -The Christian's present (v. 10)

• The Christian's future (v.11) -vv. 12-14 describe the process of sanctification as a moral imperative

• If you live like a non-Christian, you will die like a non-Christian--because you are not a Christian -If you live like a Christian--as only a true Christian can--you will live forever

Study session audio:

Study session scripture: Romans 7:13-25

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Study session topics:

• The Law and sin, continued

  • v. 13 summarizes vv. 7-12

  • The law does not bring death

  • The law reveals sin as sin

  • Sin takes provocation from the law

  • The law, operated on by sin, brings us to the end of ourselves

• What is the state of the man in vv. 14-25?

• Paul as an unsaved man -Calls himself "sold under sin"

• Says "nothing good dwells in me"

• Wonders "who will deliver me from this body of death?

  • Problems with this view:

    • The way Paul describes himself here is different from how he describes his unsaved state elsewhere

    • Paul expresses delight in God's law, which is absent in unbelievers

    • Paul describes himself in the past tense in vv. 7-12, but here he describes himself in the present tense

• Paul as a "carnal Christian"

• The man in the passage speaks in despair, as if he has been defeated

  • This view holds that the passage talks about a Christian who lives in sin, and Ch. 8 is about a life of victory

  • Problems with this view:

  • This view suggests that there are 2 stages of Christian experience, where a person first accepts Christ as Savior, then later accepts Him as Lord

  • Paul does speak of his flesh, but there is a struggle that a so-called "carnal Christian" has given up on

• Paul as a man under conviction

  • This view claims that Paul is speaking neither as a regenerate man nor an unregenerate man

  • The strongest argument for this position is that Paul is speaking as a man who has come to the end of himself after being confronted by the law

  • Problems with this view:

  • It still doesn't account for the change from past to present tense

  • Paul knows who his redeemer is

Study session audio:

Study session scripture: Romans 7:7-12

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Study session topics:

• The Law and Sin

  • The Legalist's Objections

  • Objection 1: If the law can neither save nor sanctify, what is its value? Should it not be thrown out?

  • Objection 2: If our sin is aroused by the law, isn't the law sinful since it leads to evil?

  • Why these objections matter: Since the law came from God, who does not do or make anything evil

  • Paul will show in this passage that the law is good and holy, and that it does accomplish good things

• The law reveals sin as sin

• No one naturally thinks of themselves as wicked, but God's law reveals that fact to us

• Genesis 6:5 -Romans 3:10-12

• Even if we can see our wicked state with clear eyes, we cannot know what is "sin" without the law

• Paul touches on this earlier in 4:15 and 5:14

• Paul relates this truth to himself

• Philippians 3:2-6 -- Paul once thought very highly of himself and needed the law to see himself as a sinner

• The law provokes sin

• This sounds counterintuitive, but it draws out the realization of how bad sin is

• Sin, through the knowledge of the commandment, creates a surge of rebellion in our hearts

• The law brings out sinful desires we never knew existed

• Our sinful nature reveals itself (and its power over us) by taking provocation from the law

• The Law Brings Us to the End of Ourselves

• v. 9 in context talks about Paul's obliviousness to his own wickedness, becoming aware of that wickedness due to the law, and feeling hopeless -- dying -- due to his realization that he cannot keep the law

• This hopelessness in oneself is a good thing because it drives us to see our need for a savior

• Jesus used the law this way when talking to the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-22)

• Paul summarizes this idea earlier in 3:19-20

Study session audio:

Study session scripture: Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Study session topics:

• The triumph of grace over the power of the law

• Law is binding only until death

• Ancient Greek wording omits "the" in v. 1

• Paul is talking about a broader concept of law than the Law of Moses

• Death ends all obligations and contracts

• Paul's illustration: marriage

• Paul ties the idea of marriage dissolving at death to the Christian's relationship to the dominion of the law vs. the dominion of Christ

• This illustration is not allegorical (i.e. the husband does not represent the law, or Adam, or our old nature)

• Though this is an imperfect illustration, it is useful for several reasons:

  • A woman who is married to a man is under the authority of that man

  • The subjection of a wife to a husband in marriage is for life

• In spite of the permanence of this relationship and the authority it confers, there is still the possibility of entering into another relationship

• The object of marriage is to bear fruit

• Flesh vs. spirit

• The word "flesh" here has a deeper theological meaning that Paul often uses in his letters in contrast with "spirit"

• Flesh (sarx) can refer to a physical human body (Luke 24:39, Gal. 2:20), the whole of mankind (Isaiah 40:6), or our fallen, sinful nature

• v. 5 uses the latter meaning

  • It can't be a physical body, since it speaks of flesh in the past tense

  • It can't be all humanity, since it is contrasting flesh with the new life according to the Spirit

• Interpreting the use of the word "flesh" correctly is critical, because misuse of the term has given rise to the modern view of the "carnal Christian"

• Scripture does speak about and to immature Christians, but it does not support the idea of them being in a separate category of persons from "spiritual" Christians

• Scripture treats the process of sanctification for the Christian not as something that is optional, but as an inevitability (I Cor. 6:9-11, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 9:13-14)

• In Romans 7:6, Paul presents 2 categories: captivity to sin aroused by the law, and serving in the new way of the Spirit

Study session audio:

Study session scripture: Romans 6:15-23

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 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. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Study session topics:

• The Triumph of Grace over the Power of Sin, Continued

• "What then?" Paul anticipates a further objection based on a misunderstanding of his last statement in 6:14

• The antinomian again asserts that sin does not matter because "we are no longer under law but under grace"

• Paul's emphasis is that "sin will have no dominion over [us]," that freedom from the power of sin enables us to fight against sin in our lives

• Paul's new illustration: Slavery

• Echoes Christ's words in John 8:31-36

• Slave--doulos -Same word Paul used as the first descriptor of himself in Romans 1:1

• Not describing chattel slavery, but voluntary slavery

• Importantly, Paul only describes 2 options: slavery to sin, or slavery to God

• Paul acknowledges in v. 19 that this is an imperfect illustration, but it is helpful to illustrate 2 truths:

  • God does not look upon us as profitable commodities that He needs, but as weak, frail, destitute beggars whom He graciously welcomes into His house

  • We cannot entrust ourselves to be cared for by God and think that we will somehow rule the roost

• 3 Important Contrasts between Slavery to Sin and Slavery to God

  • Increasing corruption vs. increasing righteousness (v. 19)

  • Romans 1:18-32: Choosing sin over God leads to being given over to a worsening state before God

  • Increasing sanctification comes as a necessary consequence of saying "no" to sin and saying "yes" to God more and more

• Shame vs. joy (v. 20-21)

• From a Godly perspective--which we share as slaves to God--all sin is shameful

• The world gets this backwards and will often try to shame us for obeying God

• There is great joy in living with a clean conscience

• Death vs. eternal life (v. 23)

• We all, consciously or not, seek eternal life (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

• As God is the source and sustainer of all life, separation from Him means death, but being joined to Him inevitably leads to eternal life

Study session audio: