Well, I read a funny story the other day, a funny
and very relatable story the other day. First
service, I think because I don't usually start
with a funny story, they had no idea what I was
doing. They didn't know whether to laugh or not.
Either that or the story wasn't funny. So just
imagine I'm launching my stand -up career, and
you guys are the helpful audience to encourage
me, okay? Let's get a little laughter in here
before we get going, all right? No, no. Actually,
it's a funny story. It's written in the first
person, and I'm going to start with this. It's
titled, The Night I Invented a New Form of Pasta.
You with me? You guys are going to start throwing
things and heckling me now, right? I told everyone
I was really getting into cooking now. I said
it while holding a wooden spoon, which felt official.
I'd watched a few YouTube videos. I'd learned
the word al dente and decided it was time to
host a dinner party. The recipe looked simple
enough. Step one, boil pasta. Step two, prepare
sauce. Well, I decided to interpret that creatively.
I added garlic with confidence and spices with
flair and chili flakes with the reckless abandon
of someone who had never met consequences. While
the pasta boiled, I multitasked by not stirring
it at all. I assured myself this was fine. Italians
probably do it this way. Suddenly, smoke appeared
in the kitchen. I just assumed it was aroma.
The sauce seized into a thick, angry paste. The
pasta fused together in a single heroic mass
like a carbohydrate meteorite. I tasted it and
immediately understood why professional chefs
look tired. My guests arrived to a kitchen that
smelled like ambition and regret. We ordered
pizza and pretended that was always the plan.
I learned an important lesson that night. It
turns out confidence is not the same as competence.
Anyone else ever learn the lesson that confidence
is not the same as competence? Ambition does
not equal ability. I think we've all had that
project or that thing we set out to do and we
thought, I watched a few YouTube videos, how
hard can it be? And 20 trips to Home Depot later,
right? Maybe we had some semblance of what we
were trying to do, but nothing close to the quality.
Well, I think we've all had that lesson. Today
we're going to be in Romans chapter 8. verse
one through four, Romans eight, one through four.
If you have your Bibles, you can turn there.
It's gonna be on the screen. I wanna read Romans
eight, one through four for you. It says, therefore,
there is now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus, because the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could
not do, since it was weakened by the flesh, God
did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh as
a sin offering in order that the law's requirement
would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the spirit. This
is God's word. Will you join me in praying? Father,
we come and we ask you would honor your name
as holy among us as we go to your word, as we
revere you in the posture of our heart in the
way that we come even now. Lord, may we be awestruck,
God, at the truth of who you are and what you
have done. And Lord, may it produce in us a gratitude
like nothing else and a joy resounding, we ask
in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we live in
a world that runs on effort. From the time we're
young, we're taught implicitly and explicitly
that progress only comes through performance.
Work harder, be more disciplined, apply yourself,
improve a little more next year than you did
the last year. And that mindset shapes everything.
It shapes how we think about our careers, how
we think about our health and relationships and
so much. and whether we realize it or not, it
also shapes, for many of us, how we think about
God. For many people inside the church and outside
of the church, faith becomes another strategy
for self -justification. Not so much how can
I please God as much as how can I feel okay with
myself. If I just try harder, if I just stay
more consistent, if I avoid repeating the same
failures over and over, then maybe I can manage
my guilt, I can protect my self -image, and I
can reassure myself that I'm still mostly a good
person. It's kind of like a spiritual rat race.
You're running hard, you're putting in the effort,
trying to stay ahead, but the track never ends.
for the wicked. There's another habit to fix,
another failure to compensate for, another version
of yourself that you're supposed to become. And
the cruel part of this spiritual rat race is
that the faster you run, the more convinced you
become that stopping would mean failure. And
so we continue on. And we bring this habit, this
habit of performance into our relationship with
God, and we begin to view him not in a personal
sense, not in a personal relative sense, but
primarily in terms of all the demands that he
places on us in order for us to shape up and
be acceptable. And so we assume the entire weight
of the relationship rests on us, on our performance.
There's a phrase that gets quoted all the time,
often in religious settings. God helps those
who help themselves. And that line gets quoted
like it's scripture. It gets preached like it's
wisdom. It gets trusted like gospel, but it is
not Christianity. God helps those who help themselves
is not Christianity. It's not what Christ did.
In fact, it's pure, unadulterated, garbage theology.
It's self -salvation dressed up in religious
language. Because when you open the New Testament,
you find something that is almost offensive to
our instincts, and that is that God doesn't wait
for people to help themselves. He steps in Precisely
when they cannot. Merry Christmas. That's the
Advent story. Merry, Merry Christmas. That's
what it's all about. Advent is not about the
celebration of humanity's moral potential or
our achievements. But instead, it's the announcement
of divine intervention. It's the confession that
left to ourselves, no matter how sincere, how
disciplined, or how well -intentioned, we could
not rescue ourselves. Christmas happened because
something was fundamentally broken. Not out there
in the world, but in us. And when Paul communicates
the advent in Romans chapter 8, He says it like
this, not we figured it out finally. He doesn't
say we finally tried hard enough or we met God
halfway, but he uses these words that carry the
weight of the gospel and that is God did it.
God did it. Can you say that with me? God did
it. That's the theme of our text. That's the
heart of our hope. That's what we're gonna sit
in today. therefore there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. And to give
a little context before we get into the three
points I have today, when Paul is writing Romans
chapter eight, he's right in the middle of a
conversation. He's already been going on for
many chapters. In fact, he's actually bringing
that conversation to a climax. For seven chapters,
Paul has been walking through a brutally honest
diagnosis of the human condition. In Romans 1,
Paul looks at the nations of the world and he
says that something has gone seriously wrong.
Not just socially, not just politically, but
spiritually. That God has made himself known
to all of creation through creation. And that
his power and his order and his divine nature
are on display for everyone to see. And yet,
instead of responding with gratitude and worship,
humanity suppresses the truth. Human beings created
to reflect God have exchanged him for the worship
and the honor and the exaltation of created things
in his place. We worship what we can control.
We chase whatever promises life but can't deliver
it. We bow to what flatters our strength instead
of confessing our utter dependence. And so Paul
says the world is without excuse. The light of
revelation about God, about who he is, even if
only in creation, painted in creation, is rejected
by the people of the world. Then in Romans chapter
two, Paul turns his attention to Israel, to the
Jewish people, the ones God chose out from among
the nations through the covenant with Abraham,
the people who are entrusted with the oracles
of God, the word of God, the law and commands
of God, the teaching of God given to them by
Moses and the prophets. The nation called to
be a light to all other nations. They didn't
just have creation to look at. And see God. They
also had divine revelation in his word. And they
also had. Didn't just have their conscience to
rely upon. But they had the covenantal faithfulness
of God himself. The presence of God dwelling
among them. And Paul says. Israel failed. To
respond in faithful love. To the light of revelation
that they had been given. That knowing the law
is not the same as keeping the law. Being chosen
alone does not equal salvation. And so the nations
stand guilty before creation and Israel stands
guilty before the law and all stand guilty before
God. And by the time he reaches Romans 3, Paul
kind of levels the playing field completely.
No hierarchy of standing between anyone. He says,
there is no one righteous. No, not even one.
In Romans 4 and 5, Paul begins to introduce hope.
He says, righteousness does not come from trying
harder. It comes as a gift received by faith.
Peace with God is not achieved. It is received.
And then Paul anticipates the next question.
Well, if grace is real, if forgiveness is free,
why does sin still feel so powerful? And that's
where Romans 6 and 7 come in. Paul says the law
of God is good. The commands of God are good.
They show us what life was meant to look like,
but they cannot give the power to live that life.
So Paul describes this inner conflict that I
think is probably familiar to all of us. Wanting
to do good, but not doing it. Knowing what's
right, but failing to carry it out. Hating the
very thing we keep returning to. Anyone been
there? Romans 7 ends not with... Confidence but
with a cry. What a wretched man I am. Who will
rescue me from this body of death? Praise be
to Jesus. That's someone who knows what's right
but can't do it on his own. That's... Someone
who has tried and failed and tried and failed
and tried and failed and has finally decided
enough. And maybe, maybe that's you today. Is
that you today? Have you tried and tried and
tried and tried and failed? Well, stick with
me. We're going somewhere. Paul then turns the
corner in Romans 8 and he doesn't begin with
instruction. He begins Romans 8 with a declaration.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation.
It's not reduced, not delayed, not conditional,
but gone. And the question is, how can Paul possibly
say that? How can there be no condemnation when
the problem of sin runs so deep? And Paul's answer
is simple. God did it. God did it. He did it.
And the first thing Paul wants us to understand
is what we could never do ourselves. So if you're
taking notes, number one, what we could not do.
Romans 3, Romans 8, 3 says, what the law could
not do since it was weakened by the flesh. Paul
says there was something that the law could not
do. The problem was not that God had given bad
instruction. The problem was not that people
misunderstood what God wanted. The problem was
us, humanity. And Paul says the law was weakened
by flesh. That doesn't mean our bodies are bad.
It means human nature, bent and fractured, is
disordered by sin. And it lacks the power to
do what God's law requires. The law can tell
us what's right. It can expose what's wrong.
It can even awaken a desire for godliness. But
the law cannot change the human heart. It can
diagnose the disease, but it cannot cure it.
And just a quick sidebar, because if you're reading
that scripture there and you're thinking, okay,
I read one, two, and three, and four, and I'm
a little confused because Paul uses the word
law a couple times in this passage, and he's
actually using it in two different ways, and
they're right next to each other. In verse two,
Paul says, the law of the spirit of life has
set you free from the law of sin and death. And
there, law doesn't mean commandments. It means
a power or a ruling force or a governing reality.
Think the law of gravity, right? I'm out in the
middle of nowhere, out front of my house and
I look up and I see the beautiful moon and I
decide I'm gonna go there right now and I just
jump and I go to the moon, right? No, I jump
and then I remember or I realize there's a law
at work against me. No matter how high I jump
and it's not high. That law forces me right back
down. There's a law, a power, a force, a governing
reality, the law of the spirit of life. has set
you free from the law of sin and death. The power,
the ruling force, the governing reality of the
spirit of life has set you free from the governing
reality, the power, the force of the sin and
death. How many of you guys have ever felt that
you know that there's something at work? You
know that your will at times, you want to do
good, but you know that something is opposing.
Something, you jump, but you only can get an
inch off the ground and then you come smacking
down. What is that thing? That's the law of sin
and death. But the law of the spirit of life
has set you free from the law of sin and death.
In verse three. Paul then says, for what the
law could not do since it was weakened in the
flesh. And here Paul is talking about the law
of Moses, the commandments, God's good, holy,
revealed word. And so Paul's point is not that
the law of God, the commandments were evil or
outdated or replaced. His point is commands can
reveal righteousness, but they cannot produce
it. If you're a parent and you have kids, you
already know this. You've told your kids countless
times to do something or to not do something
and no matter how right you are, it cannot produce
in them all the time the proper response, can
it? Because they do what they want to do. Commands
can reveal righteousness, but they cannot produce
it. Why? Because only a righteous God can produce
righteousness. And that's why Paul spends so
much time in Romans saying, seven, describing
the inner conflict that so many of us recognize,
wanting to do good but not doing it, knowing
what's right but failing to carry it out, hating
the very thing that we keep returning to. And
that's where many people quietly live. They know
enough to feel guilty. They care enough to feel
frustrated. And they try enough to feel exhausted.
And they assume the verdict is that they just
didn't try hard enough. Because they also assume
that the answer is simply more effort. But Paul
says the issue isn't effort. It's capacity. And
you think about someone who's recovering from
a serious injury. A torn ACL or double knee surgery.
Early in physical therapy, the therapist will
oftentimes show the patient exactly what needs
to happen. They'll say something like, your leg
can only move this far and we need to get it
so that it can move this far, right? They're
showing it. They're demonstrating the movements.
They're explaining the exercises. But there's
usually a moment where that therapist will say
something like, but right now your body just
can't do it. We'll get there. The instructions
are good. The pathway is right. But the muscles
just don't have the strength. And no amount of
trying harder will fix it. Feeling more motivated
today than you did yesterday won't fix it. The
limitation isn't information, it's ability. And
that's what Paul is saying about the law. God
didn't fail to tell us what life should look
like. We simply lack the power to live it out
on our own. See, the problem isn't just out there
again. It's not just... It's not just, man, if
I could get away from bad influences or difficult
circumstances, then I would be able to try to
exert the effort that's necessary to overcome
the things and live the life that I want. It's
not out there because it's something much deeper.
And until we come to terms with that, grace will
never make sense. Grace only sounds good when
you finally stop pretending you could fix yourself.
And if Paul stopped there, we would be without
hope. But he doesn't. The next words out of his
mouth are not try harder, but they are, God did
it. So if you're taking notes, number two, write
down what God did. Paul continues, what the law
could not do since it was weakened by the flesh,
God did. What the law could not do since it was
weakened by the flesh, God did. Paul does not
say God helped us to do it or met us halfway
or finished what we started. It says God did
it. In other words, when human effort reaches
its limits, God did not issue new instructions.
He didn't lower the standard. He didn't wait
for us to improve. He acted. And Paul tells us
how he acted. God did it by sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin
offering. And this is Paul's way. of telling
the Christmas story. God sent his own son. Not
an idea, not a principle, not a new rule, but
a person. And Paul is careful with his language.
He says Jesus came in the likeness of sinful
flesh. Jesus didn't come pretending to be human,
but he entered it. He took on hunger and fatigue
and temptation and suffering, but he did it all
without sin. He conquered the law of sin and
death. And Paul tells us why. Because he came
as a sin offering. And that phrase would have
landed heavy with Paul's original readers. A
sin offering was not merely symbolic, it was
substitutionary. Something innocent stood in
the place of something guilty. And in Jesus,
God does not overlook sin, but he dealt with
it fully and finally and personally. And then
Paul says this, he condemned sin in the flesh.
And notice what Paul does not say. Paul does
not say he condemned sinners. He says he condemned
sin. Sin is judged. Sin is exposed. Sin is defeated.
But the judgment falls on Christ. That's the
cross. Not God overlooking sin. Not God pretending
everything is fine. But God dealing with sin.
fully and finally, without utterly destroying
us. You know, there's a clear difference between
lifestyle advice and kind of emergency intervention,
isn't there? You go to a doctor and he says,
wow, your blood pressure's a little high. You
might get a little brochure that tells you how
to eat better, exercise more, or reduce a little
stress in your life, right? But when someone's
arteries are dangerously blocked, When their
life is at risk, the doctor doesn't just hand
them a pamphlet, does he? No, at some point he
says, we have to go now. We have to intervene
now. Intervention is required. Surgery, medication,
a procedure that the patient could not perform
on themselves. The patient may participate in
recovery, but they do not perform the rescue.
And that's what God did in Christ. He entered
the condition. He took decisive action. He did
what we could not do from the inside. And this
is why Christianity is not, first and foremost,
a moral system telling you how to live a good
life. It's not that, first and foremost. Christianity,
first and foremost, is a good news gospel announcement.
It's an announcement. Something has been done.
Someone has done it. Jesus has changed everything.
Amen? Number three, what he accomplished. Paul
continues, in order that the law's requirement
would be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And
Paul doesn't say, again, that the law's requirements
needed to be ignored, the bar had to be lowered
so that we could meet it, or that it no longer
mattered. He says it was fulfilled. But notice
how, not by us. It wasn't fulfilled by us. It
wasn't fulfilled through more effort. It was
fulfilled in us. And this is the crazy good news
gospel logic of the Bible. The very righteousness
that God requires is the righteousness God provides.
I'll say that again. The righteousness that God
requires is the righteousness God provides. Through
Christ, God does not merely forgive us and then
send us back out there to go get them, champ.
Try again. You got this. But instead he gives
us new standing, a new identity and a power,
a new power that is at work within us. The Christian
life absolutely involves obedience. It involves
growth. It involves learning to walk according
to the spirit. But obedience is no longer the
way into acceptance. Obedience is something that
we do from acceptance. We live our life in Christ
from acceptance. And that distinction changes
everything. Because when we obey, in order to
earn God's favor, it will always lead to fear
and failure. When we obey, we try to obey. We
exert as maximum effort to obey in order to earn
God's favor, to earn standing, to earn a place
before God. It will always produce in us fear
and failure. But when obedience flows from God's
favor, the Bible says it produces freedom. An
illustration that might help is you think about
adoption. A child does not earn their place in
a family, right? It's not like, oh, you want
to be in my family? I'm going to send you off
to orphan hunger games, right? And whoever comes
out afterward at the end will be the one that
we adopt, right? They don't meet qualifications.
They don't prove themselves first. They don't
clean up their past. Before they're brought in
because they are brought in simply by decision
alone. Only after adoption does formation begin.
Only after belonging does growth happen. The
parents don't say behave well and then we'll
make you ours. They say you are ours and now
let's grow together. And that's what Paul is
describing here. God does not say fulfill the
law and then I will accept you. He says, I have
accepted you in Christ because Christ has fulfilled
the law. And if you are in Christ, I will credit
that to you. And not only that, I will send my
spirit so that my spirit will form my life in
you. Not through more maximal effort and earning.
but by my spirit. And the law's requirement is
fulfilled in us because we now belong to the
one who has fulfilled it for us. And so in conclusion,
Paul has taken us on a journey. We could not
fix ourselves. We could not defeat and overcome
sin. We could not fulfill the law. We could not
rescue our own souls. And the problem wasn't
a lack of information. It was literally written
in creation and written in the law. But it was
a lack of power. And so God did what we could
never do. sent his son. He entered our weakness.
He condemned sin in the flesh. He removed condemnation
from us. He fulfilled righteousness on our behalf
and he secured our future. Did he come with better
advice? No. This is a good news announcement.
The gospel is not try harder. The gospel is God.
Say it one more time with me. God did it. And
because God did the hardest thing, because he
did not spare his own son, Paul can later write
in chapter eight with unshakable confidence this.
Listen to what he says later. He says, if God
is for us, who can be against us? He did not
even spare his own son, but gave him up for us
all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?
Who can bring an accusation against God's elect?
God is the one who justifies. Who is the one
who condemns? Jesus Christ is the one who died
and even more has been raised. He also is at
the right hand of God. And intercedes for us.
Who can separate us. From the love. Of Christ.
Can affliction. Or distress. Or persecution.
Or famine. Or nakedness. Or danger. Or sword.
No. In all these things. We are more than conquerors.
Through him. Who loved us. For I am persuaded.
That neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
rulers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
created thing will be able to separate us from
the love that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Not
failure, not weakness, not suffering. not even
death. And that's the advent, according to Paul.
Not humanity reaching up to God, but God coming
down to us. Are you tired today? Are you discouraged?
Are you carrying shame or fear? Or just quiet
exhaustion? Hear the good news. Your hope does
not rest in what you can do for God. It rests
in what God has already done for you. Will you
trust that God did it? And that is enough