Romans 8:1-16
"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.) Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you.
So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family calling him "Father, dear Father." For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children."

(Page Two)

The grand result of the Spirit's work in regeneration and conversion is described by the apostle, when he says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, all things become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
When a sinner is converted to God, he is said in Scripture to be united to Christ. He becomes a living member of that spiritual body of which Christ is the Head: and it is from his union with Christ that he derives all those blessings which he now enjoys as a born-again child of God. In virtue of this union, he is identified, as it were, with Christ, and Christ with him. He is represented as having died with Christ when He died, and as having risen with Christ when He arose from the dead. His sins are reckoned to Christ's account and Christ's righteousness is imputed to him, so that, as Christ suffered his punishment, he will share in Christ's reward. He now is a joint-heir with Christ, and has an interest in every privilege or promise which God has given to His Son on behalf of His people. The legal or judicial effect of this union is his entire justification, the pardon of all his sins, the acceptance of his person, his adoption into God's family, and his final admission into heaven!
Ah! What a wonderful salvation God has planned, Christ has accomplished, and the Holy Spirit is consummating. By being united to Christ as a member of His spiritual body, the believer becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit of God and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit begins the life long process of making us like unto our Lord and Saviour.
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:19-22)
"Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
"Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we became more and more like Christ and reflect His glory. The Gospel reveals the truth about Christ, and the Spirit

(Page Three)

of the Lord works within us, transforming us morally as we understand and apply the truth that Christ taught us..
The progressive work of the Holy Spirit in the life and heart of a believer is called sanctification. It begins at the moment of conversion and continues until we stand perfect in His presence for all eternity. The Oxford Dictionary defines SANCTIFICATION as "the action of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying or making holy a believer by implanting within him of the Christian graces, and the destruction, of the sinful affections. Sanctification is the work of free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. It is the work of the Holy Spirit whereby we are separated from the reign of sin unto God for His service. The root meaning of SANCTIFICATION suggests a setting apart from which is common and unclean.
SANCTIFICATION is God’s master work in the believer and this is accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit. The new birth will be followed by a new life!
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:11-14).
"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, putting away lying, "let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

(Page Four)

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:17-32).

Regeneration and Sanctification are inseparably conjoined. A renewed heart will be followed by practical reformation, and a holy life can only spring from an inward change of heart. Regeneration is the spring, sanctification is the stream; if we live in the Spirit, we shall also walk in the Spirit; but we cannot walk spiritually unless we are spiritually alive!
The commencement and continuance of spiritual life in the soul depends on the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit. As the great initial change by which we pass from death to life is wrought by the Spirit of God, so is the succeeding course of our progressive sanctification. We are made alive by the Spirit, and we are enabled to walk by the same Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to live a life of holiness and Godliness! There is a wonderful thing that happens in the heart of the believer at regeneration...the Holy Spirit implants a passion for holiness deep into the born-again heart! Without the Holy Spirit, the natural man cannot understand spiritual truths. "Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God." (2 Corinthians 4:4)
"That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, and His Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets. No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And God has actually given us His Spirit [not the world's spirit] so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can't understand us at all. How could they? For, who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who can give him counsel? But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:9-16)
It is the Holy Spirit at work within us that gives us the ability to grasp spiritual truths. By nature fallen man is in a state of darkness with respect unto God. Be he ever so wise, learned, and skillful in natural things, unto spiritual things he is blind. Not until we are renewed in the spirit of our minds by the Holy Spirit can we see things in God’s light. The inward darkness which fills the soul of the natural man is something far more dreadful than a mere intellectual ignorance of spiritual things. The darkness which rests upon the human soul gives a heart a bias toward evil, prejudicing it against

(Page Five)

holiness, fettering the will so that it never moves Godwards. None but the Spirit can deliver from this terrible darkness.
"Darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:2)--fallen man’s state by nature. "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters"--adumbrating His initial work of quickening. "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). Natural light was the first thing produced in the making of the world, and spiritual light is the first thing given to the new creature when sinful man becomes alive to spiritual things.
"But God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6) This Divine light shining into the mind makes it possible to understand the things of the Spirit. "In Thy light shall we see light." (Psalm 36:9) This is of what spiritual illumination consists. It is not a mere informing of the mind, or communication of intellectual knowledge, but an experimental and efficacious consciousness of the reality and nature of Divine and spiritual truths. It is capacitating the mind to see sin in its real hideousness and to perceive the beauty of holiness.
Jesus said, "But now I am going away to the One who sent Me and none of you has asked Me where I am going. Instead, you are very sad. But it is actually best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Counselor won’t come. If I do go away, He will come because I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convince the world of sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment." (John 16:7-8)
There is another aspect of the Spirit-filled life that I want to discuss for a moment. In the Scriptures a special operation of the Spirit is mentioned, by which He aids His people in the exercise of prayer.
"Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:26-27) "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:17-18) "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." (Jude 20-21)
Because prayer is such an important aspect of our Christian life, consider the meaning of "praying in the Spirit." One of the puritan writers, John Owens, wrote a masterpiece with his book entitled: THE HOLY SPIRIT. He writes, "The Holy Spirit in Zechariah 12:10 is referred to as the Spirit of grace and supplication. Paul speaks of this aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 4:6 when he writes: "Because ye are sons,

(Page Six)

God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father."
The twofold testimony as the Spirit of grace and supplication sufficiently proves, that there is a peculiar work or special gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in the prayers of God’s people.
The first thing we ascribe to the Spirit is, that He supplies the mind with a due comprehension of the matter of prayer, or what ought to be prayed for, without which no man can pray as he ought. Without the assistance of the Spirit we neither know our own wants--nor the supplies of them that are expressed in the promises of God--nor the proper end for which we should seek those supplies."
So, John Owens sees "praying in the Spirit" as praying with the knowledge and hope that comes through divine revelation as to God’s promises and their availability to us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer. "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." (1 John 5:14-15) To pray in the Spirit is to let the Holy Spirit reveal the will and purposes of God to our mind and heart and then make us acceptable to God’s will for us...whatever that may be. Because in our present weakness we do not know how, or what to pray, the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with "inarticulate groanings," an expression that most likely refers to glossolalia (speaking in tongues). This could be another interpretation of Romans 8:26-27. F. F. Bruce writes: "Speaking to God in the Spirit with tongues may be molded in this expression, but it covers those longings and aspirations which well up from the depths of the spirit and cannot be imprisoned within the confines of everyday words. In such prayer it is the indwelling Spirit who prays, and His mind is immediately read by the Father, to whom the prayer is addressed."
There is yet another aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit within the life of the believer and that is the evidence of His work within us. Paul writes: "So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will

(Page Seven)

produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. (Galatians 5:16-25)
Consider the evidence of a Spirit-filled believer!
His life will demonstrate the following characteristics:
LOVE. This is not a word which classical Greek uses commonly. In the Greek language, there are four words for LOVE. (1) EROS...means the love of man for a maid; it is the love which has passion in it. It is never used in the New Testament. (2) PHILIA...is the warm love which we feel for our nearest and dearest; it is a thing of the heart. (3) STORGE...means affection and is especially used of the love of parents and children. (4) AGAPE...this is the Christian word and it mans unconquerable benevolence. It mans that no matter what a man may do to us by way of insult or injury or humiliation, we will never seek anything else but his highest good. It is therefore a feeling of the mind as well as the heart; it concerns the will as much as the emotions.
JOY! The Greek word is CHARA, and the characteristic of this word is that it most often describes that joy which has a basis in religion. It is not the joy that comes from earthly things, still less from triumphing over someone else in competition. It is a joy whose foundation and source is God!
PEACE! The Greek word is EIRENE. It has two uses. It was used of the serenity which a country enjoyed under the just and beneficent government of a good emperor. It was also used of the good order of a town or village. Usually in the New Testament, this word stands for the Hebrew SHALOM and means not just freedom from trouble but everything that makes for a man’s highest good. Here in our text it means that tranquility of heart which derives from the all-pervading consciousness that our times are in the hand of Almighty God!
LONGSUFFERING! It is the grace of the man who could revenge himself and does not, the man who is slow to wrath. It is commonly used in the New Testament of the attitude of God toward man. If God was man, He would have wiped out this world long ago; but He has that patience which bears with all our sinning and will not cast us off. In our dealings with our fellow man, we must produce this loving, forbearing, forgiving, patient attitude of God with the help of the Holy Spirit.
KINDNESS AND GOODNESS! These characteristics are closely connected and are defined as virtue equipped at every point. Some translations use the word...sweetness.
FAITHFULNESS! This means fidelity, reliable, and trustworthy.
GENTLENESS! This characteristic is evidenced by submissiveness to the will of God, being teachable and considerate.
SELF-CONTROL! It is the spirit which has mastered its desires and its love of pleasure. It is the virtue which makes a man to master himself so he is fit to be

(Page Eight)

servant of others.
By the Spirit’s enabling, Christians resolve to do particular things that are right, and actually do them, and thus form habits of doing right things, and out of these habits comes a character that is Christ-like. Paul describes the process of character formation by this means as one being changed into Christ’s likeness from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 these words: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been made to drink into one Spirit."
Now this verse brings us to our closing thought in relation to the believer and the Holy Spirit. One of the prevailing misconceptions of the Holy Spirit has to do with the subject of "the baptism of the Holy Spirit." Some teach that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a separate experience apart from conversion and is evidenced by the speaking of tongues. The Scriptures make it plain that every Christian is baptized by the Holy Spirit at the moment of conversion. It is impossible to be saved without the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that we are not Christians at all if we do not have the Holy Spirit living within us! (Romans 8:9) As we have already noted, the evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit is a life producing the fruits of the Spirit.
Our verse just quoted from 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that all Christians have been made to drink into one Spirit. The Spirit has entered their inmost being and for all Christians, it is the same Spirit that is at work in the deepest recesses of their personality. Goodspeed translates this passage by suggesting that we all have been saturated with the Spirit!
The work of the Holy Spirit in filling the believer may be simply defined as that ministry which is accomplished in the believer when he is fully yielded to the indwelling Spirit. Every reference to the filling of the Holy Spirit indicates a spiritual condition on the part of the person filled which is brought about by the complete control of the Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit within the life of the believer is determined by the degree of yieldedness to the Spirit’s influence. It is not a question of securing more of the presence of God but of entering into the reality of His presence and yielding to all the control and ministry for which He has come to dwell.
It is significant that Christians are never exhorted to seek the baptism of the Spirit.
When we place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. As believers, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in us!" (Romans 8:11)
Wonder of wonders...this mortal flesh, our bodies, become the dwelling place of God’s Spirit.