The Delivered Life
The outline:
1) Delivered from condemnation.
a) Willed by the Father.
b) Achieved by the Son.
c) Applied by the Spirit.
2) Delivered into God’s Family.
a) Led by the Spirit.
b) Fellow heirs with Christ.
c) Children of God.
Some comments:
Last week I presented chapter 7 as being a representation of the Christian’s life in relationship to the law. Chapter 7 ends with the marvelous declaration that the power of God in the Gospel will be our final deliverance from sin.
Chapter 8 moves the general argument of the book further along. The ‘therefore’ which opens the chapter embraces all that which has passed before. With that understanding Paul is now opening up the amazing richness of the Christian life.
I am presenting the text in two sections.
The first deals with that from which the Christian is delivered.
The second deals with that into which they are delivered.
The Father sends the Son, in the likeness of sinful man.
The Son, the sin offering, enabled the righteous requirments of the law might be fully met in us.
The Spirit sets us free by applying the work which Christ performed to us.
We are delivered from condemnation. All our condemnation has been accepted by Jesus.
The Spirit leads us. Note how He is both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. We are not only dead to sin we are alive to God. We are exhorted to live according to His leading.
We are accorded the status of co-heirs with Christ. That glory which He has earned we share.
We are children of God. The Spirit testifies this to our spirit. When all other evidence suggests we deserve wrath, the Spirit tells us that God give us His love.
That is why fear has no place in the life of the Christian. The commands of old left us fearful of God. Life in the Spirit sees us filled with peace and joy, because God accepts us. Nothing we do adds or subtracts to this.
Our likeness to Christ in His sufferings is an emblem of our inheritance.
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