In today’s discussion, we explore the transformative power of faith that works in contradiction to the mind. With insights from Romans, we unravel the beauty of living a life free from guilt and shame, learning to trust in God’s mercy during life’s storms. Whether facing internal turmoil or external crises, this episode encourages you to deepen your spiritual journey and embrace the freedom offered through Christ.
Now, this passage, beginning in chapter 8 of Romans, the first four verses or so are a continuation of thought from Romans 7, which is about being dead to the law, being delivered from the law. An astonishing idea for many Christians who haven’t really explored the gospel in any depth. But this is what we need to know for our liberation. We’re not lawless people. But we do not find walking a godly life by the law. We find it in Jesus Christ. So Paul says in chapter 8, verse 1, And as I pointed out last time, To believe that is a total contradiction of our mind, which is filled with guilt and shame and fear. And if we listen to our mind, we cannot hear the gospel. But we hear the gospel, and that brings us faith which works in contradiction to the mind. It enables us to believe that we are freed from guilt and shame. We are freed from sin. the condemnation that the law would bring, because Christ took our judgment upon himself. And then it says in verse 2, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Let’s note the connections therefore and for. Look at verse 1 again of chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation, Therefore, in verse 1, shows that it’s a continuation of the thoughts in chapter 7 of the law. Why does he say, therefore? Because the law has been removed as a judgment from us by the judgment of Christ himself, who represented or stood in for all humanity. What a beautiful thing this is. It gives us hope. It gives us the will to lift up our heads again, to walk with God, knowing that he is being merciful to us. There’s no condemnation, so allow your faith to contradict your mind. Do not allow the endless judgments that come upon you to speak to you as if they were valid anymore. The truth of the gospel is that we are removed from the judgment of the law by the death and atoning work of Christ and counted as if we were righteous. That’s the amazing thing of the gospel. For the law, you see, now he says for, so that word for in verse 2 is building on what he said in verse 1, which is there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Now, you understand that he’s using the word law in the first part of the verse differently from the way he’s using it in the second part of the verse. For the law of the Spirit of life, that’s not a new law of Ten Commandments, that’s the principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You see, we are freed from condemnation not simply in ourselves and because of ourselves at all, but because of Christ. Remember in verse 1 he says, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. To be in Christ is to be released from judgment. If you, and what is it to be in Christ? It is to believe in him, to believe in him as the Savior of the world and as the Savior of your own soul. God sent his Son to relieve you from all the shame and the guilt you have felt all your life. What a beautiful heart of God to do that. And so the law of the Spirit of life, the principle of the Spirit of life in Christ, is that he is our atonement, he is our judgment, and he took our place on the cross, and therefore we are freed from judgment, and he rose from the dead, and therefore we are declared innocent. And this conforms with chapter 4, verse 25, where it says, Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses, delivered up to death, you see, and raised because of our justification, that is, resurrected from the dead for the sake of justifying us, declaring us innocent. When Christ rose from the dead, God declared humanity freed, freed from judgment. Christ is our representative. He is our substitute on the cross and our representative as the resurrected Lord, representing our resurrection to come. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. You see, you’re not made free from the law of sin and death simply by yourself. No, what has set you free is Jesus and his life communicated to you by his spirit. What a beautiful thing. So this is how we live. Now, you know, we go through crises. We go through troubles, and sometimes they hit two or three at a time in one day. and were thrown off kilter, were thrown off balance, and suddenly were in panic. And we think God has forsaken us, or we thought things were sailing smoothly, but then we hit a squall and a storm, and it rocked our boat. and the rocking of the boat suddenly made our faith seem silly and foolish. We’ve been believing all this time, and really we were quite naive, because there were far more troubles ahead than we thought, and we thought we were going to sail into smooth waters, and we sailed into a storm. When that happens, our faith is shaken. So, what happens? We affirm by faith everything that seems to the contrary of our logic, that there is no condemnation, that even though we might have been naive and were simplistic about our life now in Christ, that is all forgiven because God knows that we don’t know it all and we don’t know the future. and we are still counted as innocent in Christ, no matter how confident we might have been. Now, we might have been confident by our pride. We might have been confident by our ignorance of the complexities of the Christian life. But God doesn’t charge that against us either. When we meet the storm, we say, Lord, I’m afraid, I’m panicking. But then slowly, by hour by hour, maybe it takes a day, maybe it takes half a day, we calm down by faith. We say, Lord, I’m sorry I was so naive about all this. I thought it was all going to be pretty straightforward and simple. But this has rocked my boat. But I thank you, dear Father, that my simplicity, my naivety, my overconfidence, perhaps my pride even, are all forgiven. are not charged against me, and I am trusting now on a deeper level that you have brought to me because I’m in the midst of a storm. You see, when the weather, the spiritual weather is calm, maybe our faith is just shallow. But when the storm comes, we realize we have to dig deeper. And that’s what God intends to do. He will deepen our faith. That’s all right. We say, thank you, Lord. I was not expecting this. It’s thrown me off kilter, but I’m trusting in you, and I’m trusting that if you took care of me in this stillness, in the calm situation, you will take care of me in the storm. This is how we believe. And again, as I say to you, it may take us a few hours to get back our faith equilibrium, but we do it. And at first, when we don’t have that equilibrium, we think that God’s forsaken us. We’re all alone. Nobody will understand the trouble we’re going through. There’s a crisis, a stone wall. We didn’t expect it, a dead end, and we don’t know how to get out of it. But we keep trusting in God and we say, Father, I thank you that you are here with me in this storm. You are here with me in the dead end and you are the way through. And Lord, I will trust in you until you open the gates, open the break down the wall or whatever image you think of. And so, you see, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets you free from the law of sin and death. And sometimes you must assert this. I am free, dear God, from the law of sin and death. I am free. I insist I am free from it. And at first, your mind will think that you are being blasphemous and you are contradicting the Spirit of God, it seems, because you will think that the guilt that you feel is the Holy Spirit. but the Holy Spirit does not condemn. He does not nag. He rebukes, yes, but it is a gentle rebuke. He will not torment you. The Holy Spirit will not torment you. If you think that the voice in your head, as it were, is the Holy Spirit nagging you endlessly, threatening you with hell— That is not the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is the voice of Satan, although I do not believe that Satan can speak directly into the mind. He is not a divine being, but he can create a situation in which you start thinking his thoughts. And so very often we are simply repeating Satan’s thoughts in our own mind. But stop it. By faith you don’t have to do that. You’re not under obligation to Satan or the devil. You are not under obligation to evil forces. You can insist that you are freed from the law of sin and death. Lord God, Father, I’m imperfect, I’m broken down, I don’t have all knowledge, I don’t have wisdom. I feel, dear God, that I was too naive about approaching this project. I thought it was simple and I was overconfident and I didn’t realize that there would be troubles ahead. And I’ve been proud and self-confident. Oh, Father, all of this, but I thank you that in acknowledging this I am not condemned. I praise you that I am not under judgment, for you have taken all that away. I insist, Father, by faith, the faith that you have given me, that I am freed from the law of sin and death. Isn’t that just amazing? That’s the kind of way you can pray, do you see? That’s the kind of way you can have faith. Let me tell you that the book of Romans, inspired by God, God inspiring this man Paul, actually teaches us how to pray. If you don’t know how to do a wrestle with God, if you don’t know how to do battle with doubt, then the book of Romans will help you to do it. I urge you to read this book on a regular basis because it is a means by which you know how to talk to God in confidence, not pride, not self-confidence, but in the confidence of Jesus Christ. Remember that all this confidence is for those who are in Christ Jesus, not confident in ourselves, but in Him. Thank you for listening today. But you can also hear it on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com, and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. Any time of the day or night you can hear it then. And if you would care to consider a donation, funds are very low at the moment and we need your help. Please send your donation to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thank you so much for all your support. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
