By Dr Kent Hodge
Romans 8:1
We walk by the grace of God and not by the law. Walking by the law means by our own power and ability to keep the law, but walking by the spirit means the life of Christ and the grace of God.
Romans 8:2
Sin and death is a law – it is something that is not voluntary and that we have to be set free from. We don’t have power over it otherwise. The law of the spirit of life is Christ’s presence in us.
Romans 8:3
The law was only a letter, it had no power. The wonderful love of God, what the law couldn’t do, He did for us through His son Jesus Christ. God in Christ condemned sin in our flesh. He did it. This is the new law. Where the law of sin and death was involuntary, we now have a different law operating in us which is His son, who lives our life through us. We can’t live His life through us, He lives it.
When Jesus was on earth, He was saying this and talking about the law. He stunned the disciples on many occasions, and they asked who could be saved. Jesus said, with man nothing is possible but with God all things are possible. With God it is more than a possibility: it is a new life.
God is the one who condemned sin in our flesh. We have a new destiny in Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:4-9
This is not an exercise that we need to do, but if Christ dwells in us, we are in the spirit, by virtue of being born again.
Romans 8:10
Romans 6:6
What Paul was speaking about was the body of sin. If Christ is in you, the body of sin that controlled your life is now paralysed by your life. it doesn’t mean you will be perfect, but it means you will overcome with Christ’s faith in your life. The spirit is life in us because of His righteousness.
Matthew 19:16
They asked the wrong question. Jesus didn’t correct the question, because the man probably wouldn’t have understood Him. He also didn’t explain, He just answered him according to where the man was.
Matthew 19:16-21
When I was a teenager, we left our church and bought a farm, and went to work on the farm on weekends, so we stopped going to church for a while. Later on I started going back for Bible study groups. The Bible study said to look at Jesus and follow Him. You have to live the Christian life perfectly, and I knew I didn’t have a chance.
When I read this passage, it looked like bad news to me. I thought to myself, I hadn't got a chance. I believe what Jesus was showing this man here:
Matthew 19:22
I believe what Jesus was doing, was putting his finger on the man’s need. He could not be saved by the Ten Commandments; there had to be a Plan B. The default nature of man is idolatry. The idol is basically ourselves. What we are serving is what we can get. We are the god of our life until we get born again. Salvation comes to fix that in our life. It is impossible for the law to fix the need.
We can be set free from who we are and be brought into His fellowship and into life with Him. Only His gift can do that. There is no number of laws that can change one iota of our character.
The issue isn’t what enters into the man that defiles him, but what comes out. There is no amount of law that can change what comes out.
Law and legalism becomes idolatry, because we are worshiping and depending on our own ability.
Matthew 18:23-26
The Bible so accurately portrays the nature of man. Man thinks that outside of the Gospel, he can get right with God somehow. This man underestimated the extent of the law, and he didn’t see how rigorous that law was, and how far short he fell from it. This man thought that if he had time, he would be able to pay. I read somewhere that ten thousand talents is equivalent to something like the debt of a nation. This man overestimated his own ability. He didn’t know the law, and he didn’t know himself.
A lot of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel was to point these two things out to us, and to give us a proper understanding of the law. It isn’t just paying tithes.
Jesus explained the law. Murdering wasn’t just killing, it also meant to hate. Unless you accept Christ you will die in your sins. Unless you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. There is no way we can keep the law or take up our cross, without Christ. You can’t get perfection on your own. He preached the law in order to lead us to Christ.
I am crucified with Christ. It is the power that changes our hearts and turns us to God.
Romans 5:15
This grace is much more. Does that mean we will never stumble? No, but this grace will bring us home. It is much more than this world or the devil.
Romans 5:21
Sin is reigning as king in my life, before Christ. There’s nothing I can do about it. I have a new thing reigning in me now. Just as sin reigned involuntarily, and I had no say in my destiny, now I have grace reigning. It brings me to the destiny that God has planned. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
We are baptised into that fountain and we become an avenue to that fountain in our church. It’s God’s mission and He is moving in our nations.
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