“FOR YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF BONDAGE AGAIN TO FEAR…”Rom.8

HNewsWire:

We have reached Rom.8 in our study in Paul's epistle to the believing Jews at Rome. And in this chapter we will see the benefits of living by faith, that is to walk in the spirit. Vs the detriments of living by the flesh, that is to live under the law.

This "spirit of bondage" Paul speaks of in vs.15 is a fear that happens when a man is under the Mosaic law. It’s the fear that caused David to pray saying, “Blessed is the man whose sins are not imputed”. Ps.32:2 and Rom.4:8.

A law that Paul said in Rom.7:1-4 the Israelite must first be dead to before he can be joined with Christ. This is why in Rom.8:2 Paul says it is the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus that sets the Israelite free from the law of sin and death.

So they are free from the Mosaic law that was given to Israel to keep them from the iniquity of the nations around them till Christ came. Which God used also to make them a light to the world to show the world who God is. And salt to preserve them as a people whose bloodline the messiah would come through.

This bondage is explained by Paul in Gal.3:23 as the fact that while they were joined to the law they were kept "shut up unto the faith that should afterward be revealed."

But, why would being under law keep them shut up unto the faith? Answer- Because the law is works. And because the Israelite can not be saved by the works of the law, the only purpose for it was to be a "schoolmaster" that would keep or guard Israel until Jesus came.

Not for salvation because salvation is by faith so that it can not be by works. And what can only be accessed by faith can not be accessed by works. As Paul plainly says i Rom.11:5,6. This is why Paul said Israel under the law, and anyone who puts themselves under the law, are "shut up unto the faith".

In Rom.8:1 Paul says it like this, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Israel was subject to death and condemnation while they were under the law because under the law "the soul that sinneth it shall die".

It was this way for them because being under the law is to walk after the flesh. This is what Paul was referring to when he said in vs.5, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."

For the Jew that Paul was writing to here, to "mind the things of the flesh" is to focus on the works of the law. To think in terms of no murder, no stealing, no adultery, etc.. as Gal.5:19-21 describes being the person who will have no place in the kingdom of God. Rather than walking by the spirit as Gal.5:22,23 says.

Because under the law is to have their choices motivated by the Jew’s relationship to the law. To the created thing rather than the Creator. A form of idolatry.

But, in the spirit is when their choices are motivated by their relationship with God. By their love for God and one another as His love that has been shed abroad in all believer's hearts shows us.

A love that goes way beyond anything the law ever instructed Israel to do. As is shown by the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus told Israel where He showed them what being motivated by law keeping looks like vs what being motivated by God's love looks like.

It is a love that has no fear because as John says in 1John4:18,19 God's "perfect love casts out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us." This is why God has comforted Israel with Paul's words of no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh, that is to say by the works of the law. But after the spirit, that is to say by faith. Because as Paul said in Rom.1:17, "the just shall live by faith".

Because the spirit is life so that to walk after the spirit is to live by faith in Jesus. Trusting in Him as He trusted the Father. A faith that all believers are supremely confident to place in Him because we know that He loves us.

It is to focus solely on our relationship with Him and it's effects on our relationships with others. It is to trust in Him as He trusted the Father saying, "Nevertheless, not my will but thy will be done". So when a person trusts in Jesus apart from the works of the law he is walking in the spirit. He is loving as Jesus loves us.

This is why when the Jew believes he must keep the law he walks after the flesh. Because focusing on no murder, no stealing, no bearing false witness, etc he is focused on the natural. On the things of the flesh. And not on the spiritual. He is focused on works he does or does not do. Rather than on the one in whom he has believed and that relationships affect on the choices he makes.

Under the law the relationship with Jesus becomes a works project.

No longer looking into the face of Jesus. Rather, their focus becomes fixated on the stone upon which laws were engraven. What Paul refers to as the "ministration of death" and "condemnation" in 2Cor.3:7.

This is what makes the person who is walking after the flesh at enmity with the spirit. Because a carnal mind is one that lives by the natural. Which is why in 1Cor.2:14 Paul says, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

The natural is what Adam was when he was made. In 1Cor.15:45,46 Paul says he was not spiritual, but natural when God made Adam a living soul. So this natural way of thinking and doing is how God made Adam.

But, this is not a bad thing. In fact, in Gen.1:31 God said it was "very good". Not because it fulfilled all that God wanted for mankind. But, only that for the time being Adam was exactly the way God wanted him to be. But, the fact that Adam was not spiritual meant that he could not relate to God spiritually. But, only naturally. Just as Israel did while under the law. .

This is why Paul said "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Because the carnal mind thinks only of the flesh. What is lawful to eat. What is lawful to drink. What is lawful to handle. As Col.2:21 speaks to. The things of this life rather than the things of God. The things of the world rather than the things of the spirit.

Being subject to the law of God in this context then is for the Israelite to live in the law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus. And to do this they must first be delivered from, or dead to, the law of sin and death. The law of Moses.

This is also why we know that from the time God made Adam he was created with a need for Jesus. Because as Paul shows us in 1Cor.15:45,46 he was not spiritual, but natural when God made him. And for man to be able to worship God or to connect with Him in any way other than the flesh, or carnally, he must be spiritual.

This is why in John4:24 Jesus said, "God is a spirit. And those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth". And in John3:1-8 Jesus said, "Ye must be born again to see the kingdom of God".

This is why Jesus came. Because God had to first meet man where he was naturally to be able to relate to him by natural means. So that He could show them what they needed to be in a loving relationship with their Creator.

So here in Rom.8, as he has done in all that he has written before in the previous chapters, Paul shows the Jew the reason he must first be dead to the law is so that he will no longer live after the flesh by the works of the law. Minding the things of the flesh rather than the things of God.

And when he begins to live in the spirit he will know that he is a son of God.

Because the Jew then will no longer be led by the works of the law which is by the flesh. Because as Rom.8:14 says, those who are led by the spirit of God, rather than by works of the law, they are they sons of God. This is what it means for the Jew, or for anyone who has mistakenly placed themselves under the law, to walk in the spirit.

In vs.15 Paul says it is because they are led by the spirit of God that they "have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." A spirit of bondage Heb.2:14,15 says men are bound to their whole lives.

Now this phrase "spirit of adoption" is an interesting statement for Paul to make regarding Jews. Because this means that as much as the gentile has been adopted into God's family, so too has the Jew. Because even though the Jew already had a covenant with God through Moses, that covenant did not make them sons of God. Because that covenant could never give them life.

So they needed a New Covenant with God that would make them sons of God every bit as much as gentiles did. Because for the Jew Jesus' death brought an end to the Old Covenant by being it's final once for all sacrifice for sins under the law, as Heb.10:1-14 tells us he was. And for the gentile His death took down that wall of partition that stood between Jew and gentile, "even the law written in ordinances". The "ministration of death written and engraven in stone".

Eph.2:15 says this enmity between Jew and gentile was "slain". Col.2:14 says it was "blotted out" being "taken out of the way, nailing it to his cross" with Jesus. So with the law's passing this means that neither Jew nor gentile had a covenant with God anymore.

So that now both needed to be adopted into this New Covenant. So that the two will be made one new man. A spiritual man that is a child of God who lives by the faith of Christ. And not by the works of the law or any other works. Because to live by works is to walk after the flesh.

This is why in Col.2:20,21 Paul says, "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using; after the commandments and doctrines of men?"

Note that here Paul conflates the Mosaic law to "rudiments of the world". And "ordinances of taste not, touch not, handle not" that were in the Mosaic law with the "commandments and doctrines of men".

Saying that if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, which we saw in Rom.6 Paul taught happened through baptism, the Jew is no longer required to keep the law that said "taste not, touch not, handle not".

This is why in Gal.3:28,29 Paul says "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Because since the law has passed both Jew and gentile have the same need for deliverance from "the body of this death". From death to life and from mortality to immortality. From this body that was made mortal from the time God made Adam. So that this deliverance is the same for all people.

And that need is met for both the Jew and the gentile the same exact way. By coming to faith in Jesus for eternal life by turning from their old life, whether it be the old life under the law, or the old life worshipping idols, to trust in Him. No more works of the law that Paul said "perish with the using". And no more worship of idols. But, only trusting in Jesus as He trusted the Father. That is, to be "justified by the faith of Christ".

When we do this Paul says in Rom.8:16,17 "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."

The suffering Paul refers to here, as we will see as we go through the rest of Rom.8, is simply the spirit that has been birthed in us living in these natural mortal bodies waiting for our new ones. A suffering that Paul says even the rest of creation is going through as they await the glorification of the children of God.

But, for now, if Jews will be dead to the law, no longer a carnal man who lives by taste not, touch not, handle not, walking in the flesh, they will no longer be in bondage to the fear of condemnation that existed for them while they were under the law.

Because they have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. But, have now received the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus if they have trusted in Him. They can now be joined with Jesus and adopted into God's family. And being joined with Jesus they are now led by the Spirit of God. And no longer by the law which was their schoolmaster until Christ came.

And if the gentile will turn from their idols they too can come to faith in Jesus and be made heirs of God's kingdom just as their new brothers the believing Jews are.

A new man of faith because they have both confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus. And have believed in their heart that God has raised Him from the dead to be saved.

Saved from death to life. Saved from mortality to immortality. Saved from this life to the life to come. Joined with Jesus by the faith of Christ.

If you will do this then you will have eternal life. If you will do this then you will become immortal at the resurrection. If you will do this then you will be a child of God and heir to His kingdom. If you will do this... then I will see you there or in the air!

This message can also be heard at: https://rumble.com/v2syq6c-for-you-have-not-received-the-spirit-of-bondage-again-to-fear...-rom.8.html