The righteous requirement of the Law is filled in us.

Wednesday February 22, 2023

The believer needs motivation for total commitment.

The reality of who you are in Christ is in the gospel.

False motivation will eventually be discovered and leave you with an empty feeling. How many times have we tried to quit some habit or add good behaviors to our lives only to fail and find our self-esteem knocked down a few steps? The problem is that your motivation is not something real. You found that change is hard work and you didn’t want the change that badly. But when God the Holy Spirit convinces you of who you really are in Christ, you will desire holiness with all your heart and soul.

The motivation is the Spirit’s witness of the gospel in which He convinces you of who you are as a new creature in Christ.

You have to be totally convinced of who you are in Christ or you will not give the level of commitment needed to live this holy life in the manner that God desires.

The believer is in debt to live life as holy as heaven, Rom 8:12.

Rom 8:12-14

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

But on our own, we come to realize that we fall far, far short.

Rom 8 is one of the most astounding chapters in the Bible. In this chapter, Paul relates the exceptional life of the new creation in Christ. He does not give us the details of the life (Rom 12-15), but the quality of it. In Rom 8 the Holy Spirit is mentioned 17 times.

Before we overview the role of the Holy Spirit in the quality of life of the saved, let’s look at the transition from the prior chapter where Paul admits to his struggle with sin.

Rom 7:24-25

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Our fallen self, our old self, which still tempts us and we still give in to it from time to time, justifies Paul’s statement for us all – “Wretched man that I am.” The wretchedness is slavery because someone has to set us free. The Lord announced, quoting the prophet Isaiah, that He had come to set the captives free. We were captive to sin and death (Rom 5:12-21) and therefore bound under the Mosaic Law, but the Lord Jesus, through His death set us free.

The first instance of the Holy Spirit in Rom 8 is a title.

He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Rom 8:1-2

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

What is life in Christ Jesus? It is not the life of the wretched. Paul is going to explain that life, but he is sure to show us that without the Holy Spirit it cannot be lived.

He doesn’t use the phrase filled with the Spirit, but instead uses walk according to the Spirit.

Again, fullness is a state. Filled with the Spirit, when coupled with the other things that the Bible says we are to be full of, would make it hard to imagine that one could be filled with the Spirit but not filled with anything else, as if there is no room left. The Spirit has a very real purpose for us, and those things must fill us as well. They are things like truth, humility, obedience, faith, trust, love, etc. I highlight this because these virtues or things of God have to always be chosen by us. You have to choose to love, the Spirit is not going to force you. But when you choose to love, that love is His fruit and not your own. It is still a process of life depending on faith. Every decision we make is faith to do God’s will or something else.

For instance:

Psa 16:11

You will make known to me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Rom 8:1-8

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

There is a word here that changed the world as it changed millions of lives – “requirement.”

“requirement” – dikaioma = righteous requirement or ordinance; a just act.

The word means an act of righteousness or a righteous requirement. Paul uses the same word in Rom 1 for the failure of mankind and his societies destroyed by sin and immorality and greed and lust, etc.

Rom 1:32

and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

God gave Israel the Law, so that even those people who might not be characterized as greedy or immoral, but good people, would know that they too did not live up to the righteous requirement of God. So, to be clear, it is not the requirement of people or governments that is in view, but the righteous requirement of God.

This requirement might be fulfilled in us, which if we take as a cause-and-effect conditional clause, we would conclude that when we walk by the Spirit we meet the righteous requirement, and when we don’t, we don’t.

The issue is the subjunctive “might be fulfilled” in us who do not walk according to the flesh but the Spirit. The interpretation is debated. Is Paul calling for obedience in Rom 8:4 or is he telling us our judicial position? You have to make up your mind on it. I tend towards judicial truth but acknowledge that our position demands obedience.

All believers were made to walk by the Spirit and that all believers, through Christ’s death, have fulfilled the righteous requirement of the Law. And still, we have to decide to walk by the Spirit.

Rom 5:16

The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

Rom 5:18

So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

Justification is the requirement of the Law, and through Christ, we have been justified.

Rom 3:21-26

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In this astounding statement, God has declared us righteous. On the basis of what Jesus did on the cross, God has pronounced us “not guilty” in the court of law, despite our sin and guilt. There was nothing in anyone that could be a basis for justification. Only in Christ’s sacrifice was it possible.

How does a new humanity, who for the first time in history is not under the Law, live? This began at Pentecost where they were filled with the Spirit. The new creation in Christ is justified and so not under the Law. Does he live lawless? How does he live?

“If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” [James Madison]

But what if we were angels? How would we live?

The answer is “according to the Holy Spirit.”

Our age of the Holy Spirit fulfilled the long awaited expectation of Israel in which God would give the Holy Spirit to empower and fulfill His requirements.

Eze 36:27

“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinance.”

This certainly doesn’t mean that he can do as he pleases. The life of the Spirit is clearly described in God’s word. There, in Christ, is your law. However, it is really not a law. You’ve heard the phrase, “a law unto himself.” It is a negative thing. It means that a person acts with no concern for laws or others or what others think. But what if we changed it to a law unto Himself with a capital H, meaning Christ. Our life is the one a type of person lives. A person made new in Christ who is righteous and justified and called to a holy life.

Paul reveals this to us in his love of the gospel.

Not under the Law of Moses we have the law of Christ which is the gospel.

1Co 9:19-23

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. 23 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

When we think about it, Christ is the gospel. He is the good news and every aspect of that truth; His incarnation, His ministry, His compassion, His zeal, His passion, His cross, His resurrection would all dictate our manner of life in all situations. If, like Paul, I wanted others to grasp the truth of the gospel, it would dictate how I treat them and my prayers for them. It would also motivate my own life in that I would want to be a living gospel – for to me to live is Christ.

This is why we fill ourselves with divine things (thoughts, truths, virtues) and the Spirit fills us to accomplish what those things look like lived out in a real life. It’s a life that looks like Christ in you and Christ clothing you.