Chapter 8
The question this morning is ‘Do You belong to Christ?” Now…you may say,
“Yes, I invited Jesus into my heart at Vacation Bible School when I was a child.” …but…do you belong to Christ?
“Yes, I prayed the sinner’s prayer after someone shared with me the Four Spiritual Laws.” …but…do you belong to Christ?
“Yes, a co-worker told me that if I prayed a certain prayer I could be assured that I’m going to heaven.” but…do you belong to Christ?
As your pastor I hope that I can be assured that those who regularly attend The Branches do indeed belong to Christ…hopefully you can identify either the… event…time…or place you made your decision to belong Christ.
There are no set words to pray for salvation because words aren’t what gets you into heaven…nowhere in the Bible is there a specific prayer you can pray that will assure that get you into heaven…there isn’t one…the Bible has a lot to say about salvation…but very little to say about a certain prayer that will save you.
We cannot be saved unless we first recognize our lostness…sinfulness…and desperate need for a Savior…saying a few words even in earnest is not salvation…salvation is the intention in your heart to become a follower of Jesus.
The kingdom of heaven doesn’t belong to those who come to God with any sort of agenda…selfishness…pride…or lack of understanding of their need for Him.
Again…there seems to be a faulty interpretation being made regarding what’s expected of believers…easy believism has contaminated the salvation process.
Every instance in the gospels where someone accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they immediately began to follow him…saying the right words and checking the right boxes is not salvation.
The idea of praying a one-time prayer and I’m good to go…that I’m saved and that’s all that’s needed to get me into Heaven or keep me out of hell, is an insufficient view of salvation.
Salvation is a commitment…if you have been with us during our Sunday night ‘movie time’ The Chosen’…Jesus’ request of ‘follow me’ wasn’t met with “Well, first explain to me all the details of what’s going to take place…I’ll think about it and get back with you.”
The work of salvation is not easy…if people are unwilling to continue in faith it is evidence of a lack of true salvation in their lives [1 John 2:19].
ONLY when we are in Christ does everything change…only when we belong to Jesus is there no condemnation.
To be in Christ means that we are in an actual relationship with Jesus because we’re united with Him.
While there is no such thing as a “sinner’s prayer” that saves us…and we should never lead someone to think there is…it is the commitment that we make in response to God’s grace that results in salvation.
In the first 16 verses of chapter 8 Paul mentions the “Spirit” 16 times…one of Paul’s main reasons for writing Romans 8 was to give assurance to Christians who believe in Jesus that we belong to Him for eternity.
We talked about one of them last week…Romans 8:1.
There is…now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
I put this verse right alongside John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9…this is one of the most important truths of the Christian faith as well as being one of the most comforting statements in all the Bible.
Paul’s mentioning of the “Spirit” is to emphasize the importance of realizing that salvation is not just praying a prayer…that’s Paul’s intent and the importance of emphasizing the Spirit and what it means for Christ to live in you.
Paul describes the Holy Spirit’s residency in us a number of different ways:
…in verse 9 Paul says, “the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Also…
…in verse 9 Paul calls the Spirit “the Spirit of Christ”
…in verse 10 Paul drops the word “Spirit” and says, “But if Christ is in you.”
…in verse 11 “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you”
…in verse 11…“through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
We need to see these as interchangeable terms:
…to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you is the same as
…having the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you which is the same as
…the Spirit dwelling in you which is the same as
…Christ dwelling in you…BUT…what does it mean to dwell in us?
Paul is defining the difference between the saved and unsaved…in one verse Paul describes what separates the two.
He begins by describing the saved…If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you verse 9 is somewhat confusing in our English translation.
Two words need to be looked at in that phrase otherwise you come away with a distorted understanding.
FIRST…the “if” seems to be casting a doubt over the believers’ salvation… that’s not the intent…Paul is talking about born again believers…there is no ‘if’ …the idea that a believer might not have the Holy Spirit living in them is an impossibility… that’s not what this phase is implying.
The word “If” (1512) in Greek is an emphatic marker of condition…the more literal translation is: since the Spirit of God dwells in you…it is stating a matter of fact.
SECOND…the word ‘dwells’ (3611) is in the present tense…it means to live or stay in a certain place continually…this emphasizes that the Spirit is not an occasional visitor but that He takes up residence in every redeemed believer.
That is the real test…the true mark of a born-again believer is that they are indwelt by the Spirit of God…who personally dwells in Christians the moment they become Christians (Acts 2:38).
This is what has misled people into believing they are saved because they believe they are spiritual.
,Here’s what’s interesting about being ‘spiritual’ …probably heard it said: “I’m spiritual but not religious”…approximately sixty-four million Americans—one in five—identify themselves as being “spiritual but not religious.”
So what does that mean? Americans are leaving organized religion in droves… disagreeing with the church on a number of issues so ‘Spiritual-but-not-religious’ becomes a nice category to be in…it doesn’t confine us to a specific denomination…that’s why community churches are so popular.
Spirituality offers a worldview that suggests there is more to life than just what people experience on a sensory and physical level…sounds a lot like religion… it suggests that there is something greater that connects all beings to each other and to the universe itself…sounds like religion.
It proposes that there is an ongoing existence after death and strives to answer questions about the meaning of life…how people are connected to each other… truths about the universe, and other mysteries of human existence…sound a lot like religion.
People may feel comfortable and comforted using spirituality as a coping mechanism for stress…helping improve their well-being…even using prayer to achieve a greater feeling of acceptability….and ultimately a decreased fear of death by being dedicated to God or a ‘higher power.’
Sounds harmless…even inviting when you consider those benefits…but what’s missing is a dedication to the true God…not some ‘higher power’ …in spirituality there is no mention of a commitment to God…or to a life controlled by the Holy Spirit.
As true believers…God has given us His Spirit that “we know that we live in Him and He in us” (1John 4:13).
Verse 14 points to the fact that it is the witness of the Holy Spirit who gives evidences in our life that we are His.
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God
Here’s what’s exciting about the witness of the Holy Spirit…He confirms to you that you are a child of God…not by just whispering it in your ear.
The devil does that to an unbeliever…whispers in his ear…and I don’t doubt that the devil has whispered that in a lot of people’s ears because there are going to be people who think they have called Jesus “Lord,” and they really haven’t.
It is the witness of the Spirit who gives evidences in our lives that we are the children of God…speaking directly to each person individually.
That is one of the benefits of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit…in ancient times there was some direct communication between God and a chosen few…Noah… Abraham…Isaac…Jacob…Moses…Joshua…David…the prophets…God spoke audibly at times to them.
BUT today…there’s no biblical reason why God would audibly speak to us… granted He could speak to a person audibly today…but why…God speaking audibly would be the exception…there are those who may tell you they have direct access to God…that they speak to God audibly…I question that.
God doesn’t need to speak audibly to us…because He speaks to us every day… God speaks to every person in the world every day…even unbelievers.
(1) Through His written word
(2) Through the preached gospel
(3) Through our consciences
(4) Through nature
(5) Through relatives and friends.
The question is not, ‘is God still speaking? …the question is, are we listening because He is still speaking.
Without His Spirit…there would be no assurance of salvation…no sensitivity to sin…no power to live a godly life…more importantly…no personal relationship to Christ…Charles Spurgeon calls verse 9
If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
“one of the most solemn texts in the whole Bible…to belong to Christ is the most essential thing for time and eternity” …here’s the importance of the statement ‘does not belong to Him.’
In the Greek that is referred to as ‘genitive of possession’…which conveys the idea of ownership…used to express a relationship of possession…what seems to be an insignificant statement is actually defining a person’s eternal destiny.
Paul’s point is that the one who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not “owned” by Christ and thus is an unsaved person.
This is what clearly separates those who are saved from those who think they are saved because of a prayer they prayed that was only superficial.
Paul then gives proof to those who have been justified…forgiven of their sins… what defines the difference between a professing Christian and a true believer.
Unfortunately, ‘professing Christians’ think they are true believers…example:
Oprah Winfrey had a program with women who were having affairs with married men. When the women were challenged on the morality of their adultery, one woman said, “Wait a minute. I’m a Christian, but I want everyone to know that my personal life and my religion don’t interfere with one another. I believe in a God who wants me to be happy. And if this man makes me happy, then God approves of the relationship.”
—here’s the meaning of that…if God didn’t want me to be happy, He wouldn’t have brought us together—let’s just credit God with this immoral relationship.
She goes on to say…it’s reasonable that the most important concern of God is for you to be happy…is it possible for one person to make any more stupid statements in such a short period of time…what we see is someone who professes Christianity but doesn’t profess Jesus as her Lord and Savior.
Nowhere in Scripture does it say that God is concerned about your happiness …your happiness and success are not God’s end goals.
We like to think that our happiness is God’s highest goal because that fits our you-deserve-it idea of who God is.
We see the same mind set in same-sex marriages… in the Declaration of Independence is the belief that our founding fathers declared we have unalienable rights…that people have the right to pursue their own happiness…it says so… “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Same sex marriage is recognized as a legal contract that allows for this union to take place…people make the same conclusion…assuming that lifestyle is acceptable under the same premise…God wants me to be happy.
With just a little effort we can apply that justification to most anything in life… that God wants me to be happy…BUT what vast multitudes do not realize is… this is not the Lord’s definition of “happiness.”
The woman in Oprah’s example is clearly not possessing Christ…she might have knowledge of who Jesus is but her actions define her character as someone who is outside of Christianity.
Many times people have strange ideas about God or the Bible that are wrong because of something they were taught growing up.
The question for her is what I proposed in my opening statements…do you belong to Christ? …Paul gives the evidence of a true born-again believer [14]:
do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
This is the emphasis in the book of Hebrews…why it’s filled with so many warnings and encouragements to keep the faith…the idea is not that salvation can be lost…BUT if their conversion was real in the first place.
When a person comes to faith in Jesus a radical change is expected…no…it’s required…when no change is apparent, we begin to wonder if there was a genuine conversion…if they truly understand God’s Word concerning sanctification and discipleship.
In the first 17 verses of Romans 8 Paul’s mentioning of the Spirit details three freedoms believers have:
Freedom from Condemnation
Freedom from the Sin Nature
Freedom from Abandonment
These are the results of having the presence of the Spirit living in us…it is the essential mark of a Christian.
The one who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not “owned” by Christ and thus is an unsaved person.
That’s a bold statement. It’s also a sad declaration…one that is true or it is not true…there is no in middle ground…what a tragedy for a person to go through life without belonging to Christ!
Paul provides one of the simplest presentations of salvation in Scripture:
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [Romans 10:9]
So, if we have a sincere heart…10 for it is with your heart that you believe… and if you openly confess Jesus as your Savior…it is with your mouth that you profess your faith…Scripture says you are saved.
There are no exceptions…no such thing as a select few…or a chosen few… or some…NO… Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [Rom.10:13]
So let me go back to my opening question…“Do You belong to Christ?”