Spurgeon Verse Expositions - Romans 8:1 - 8:22

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Spurgeon Verse Expositions - Romans 8:1 - 8:22


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

This precious chapter reminds us of the description of the land of Havilah, “where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.”

Rom_8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,

There is no condemnation to them; that is gone, and gone for ever. Not only is part of it removed, but the whole of it is gone: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” This is their legal status before God,—in Christ Jesus, without condemnation; and this is their character:—

Rom_8:1. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Their daily conversation is according to their new spiritual nature, and according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and not according to their fleshly nature, and the guidance of self and Satan.

Rom_8:2. For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

“It cannot any longer rule me; and it cannot now condemn me. I am free from it, for I am now under the new and higher ‘law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”

Rom_8:3-4. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

If there are any men in the world who do keep the law of God, they are the very persons who do not hope to be saved by the keeping of it, for they have by faith found righteousness in Christ, aid now by love and gratitude are put under the power of the law of the spiritual life in Christ, and they so live, by God’s grace, that they do manifest the holiness of the law in their lives.

Rom_8:5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh;

They care for nothing else: they are satisfied so long as their appetites are gratified. They are of this world, and the things of this world fill them to the brim.

Rom_8:5. But they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Spiritual joys, spiritual hopes, spiritual pursuits,—these belong only to those who are spiritual.

Rom_8:6. For to be carnally minded—

To be fleshly minded

Rom_8:6. is death;

That is what it comes to, for the flesh comes to death at last; and, after death, it goes to corruption. If we live after that carnal fashion, this will be the end of our living: “death.”

Rom_8:6. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

For the spirit will never die, and the spirit has that within it which will bring it perfect peace.

Rom_8:7-8. 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.

Those that have never been born again, so as to be “in the Spirit,” are still just as they were born “in the flesh,” so they cannot please God. Do what they may, there is an essential impurity about their nature so that they cannot be well pleasing unto God. We must be born again, we must become spiritual by the new birth which is wrought by the Holy Spirit, or else it is impossible for us to please God. O you who are trying your best to please God apart from the new birth, and apart from Christ, see how this iron bar is put across your path: “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Go then to him, and ask him to give you of his Spirit, that you may be spiritual, and no longer carnal.

Rom_8:9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

It does not matter what he calls himself; he may be a preacher, he may be a bishop; but if he has not the Spirit of Christ, “he is none of his;” and if he has the Spirit of Christ, though he may be the most obscure person on earth, he belongs to Christ.

Rom_8:10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;

The grace of God has not changed that body; it still remains earth, dust, worms’ meat, and it must die unless Christ should come, and transform it by his coming. “The body is dead because of sin;” and hence come those aches and pains, that heaviness, that weariness, that decay, those infirmities of age which we experience so long as we bear about with us this body of death.

Rom_8:10. But the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

There is a living power within us which triumphs over this dying, decaying body. So we rejoice notwithstanding all our afflictions, trials, and depressions.

Rom_8:11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

There is to be an emancipation even for this poor flesh, a translation and a glory for it yet in Christ.

Rom_8:12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Certainly not, for we owe the flesh nothing. It keeps us down and hampers us, it is a hindrance to us, but we certainly owe it nothing; so let us not be subservient to it, let us not consult or even consider it, and especially let us never come under its fatal bondage.

Rom_8:13. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:

It is a dying thing, and “ye shall die” if ye live after its dying fashion..

Rom_8:13. But if ye through the Spirit—

That living, immortal power—

Rom_8:13-14. Do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God:

Oh, high dignity and blessed privilege! As soon as ever we get away from the dominion of the flesh, and come to be led by the Spirit of God, and so become spiritual men, we have the evidence that we are the sons of God, for “God is a Spirit,” so his sons must be spiritual.

Rom_8:15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;

We did have it once, and it wrought some good effect upon us for the time being; when we were under the Law, we felt ourselves to be in slavery, and that made us go to Christ for liberty.

Rom_8:15. But ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Oh, blessed, blessed state of heart to feel that now we are born into the family of God, and that the choice word which no slave might ever pronounce may now be pronounced by us, “Abba”! It is a child’s word, such as a little child utters when first he opens his mouth to speak, and it runs the same both backwards and forwards, -AB-BA. Oh to have a childlike spirit that, in whatever state of heart I am, I may still be able to say, in the accents even of spiritual infancy,” Abba, Father”!

Rom_8:16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God :

What better testimony can we have than that of these two witnesses, first of our own spirit, and then of the Holy Spirit himself, “that we are the children of God”? Note that this is not spoken concerning everybody. The doctrine of the universal Fatherhood of God in a doctrine of the flesh, and not of the Spirit; it is not taught anywhere in God’s Word. This is a Fatherhood which relates only to those who are spiritual; we are born into it by the new birth, and brought into it by an act of grace in adoption. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God;” this is a special privilege that belongs only to those who are spiritual.

Rom_8:17-18. 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. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Do we suffer now? Then let us wait for something better that is yet to come. Yes, we do suffer, and in this we are in accord with the whole creation of God, for the whole creation is just now, as it were, enduring birth pangs. There is something better coming; but, meanwhile, it is troubled and perplexed, moaning and groaning.

Rom_8:19-22. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

See how it often weeps in the superabundant rain that seems like a minor deluge. Note how, at times, creation’s very bowels seem to be tossed and torn with pain and agony by volcanoes and earthquakes. Mark the tempests, tornadoes, hurricanes, and all kinds of ills that sweep over the globe, leaving devastation in their track; and the globe itself is wrapped in swaddling bands of mist, and shines not out like its sister stars in its pristine brightness and splendour. The animal creation, too, wears the yoke of bondage. How unnecessarily heavy have men often made that yoke!