Fighting Sin and Facing Suffering as Children of God

(Romans 8:12-17; Sunday, August 18; Preaching: Associate Pastor Nathan Snyder)

The two great challenges we face in this life are sin and suffering.  We see both in our text.  Verse 15: We must fight sin.  Verse 17: We must face suffering.  We also see that we are not on our own in the struggle and we are not orphans.  If we are trusting in Christ, then we know God has adopted us as his children, he has given us his Spirit, we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ himself, and thus our difficult journey through this life will end in glory.  So there is divine power for us to fight our sin and face our suffering.

Engaging in guerrilla warfare with sin.

Paul is not talking about other people’s sin.  He is talking about our own sin.  Watch out!  The sinful flesh loves to divert our attention toward other people’s sin.  “I hope so-and-so is listening to this message!”  In doing so the flesh keeps us from dealing with our own sin, and it builds our sense of self-righteousness.  This is a common tactic of the flesh when we hear anything in God’s Word denouncing sin.  But there is no need to run and hide behind someone else.  Christ died for our sins and thus we can face them and deal with them.  As we have seen in verses 1-4, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  The Spirit has set us free from sin and death.  This is why Paul concludes in verse 12 that we are no longer debtors to the flesh to live according to the flesh.  Remember that “the flesh” is our tendency toward sin and rebellion against God.  We were once enslaved to the flesh but we are no longer.  So we are not under any obligations to give in to the flesh.  We don’t owe sin our allegiance any more.  We owe our allegiance to Christ.  This is glorious news!

Of course, until we die, our flesh will continue to do whatever it can to lead us into sinning against God.  So as those who belong to Christ and have his Spirit in us, we are engaged in guerrilla warfare with the flesh.  The flesh is ruthless.  It means to turn us against God at every turn.  Paul does not mince words in verse 13.  “If you live according to the flesh, you will die.”  He is not talking about physical death.  That happens to us whether we live according to the flesh or not.  He means eternal death.  This is the end of the road for all who make peace with sin.  “But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  The point is not that we must work our way into heaven by fighting sin.  The point is that we were all heading down the road to destruction, living in the flesh and bound for hell.  When Christ rescues us from condemnation, he puts us on a completely different road.  We are now led by the Spirit in a lifelong war on sin, a lifelong process of growing into the likeness of Christ, and the end of this road is eternal life.  This was Paul’s point also in 6:20-23.  So as those who have been set free from sin and death, we are both obligated and empowered by the Spirit to fight mortal combat with our sin, seeking to kill it whenever we see its ugly head.  For us the war will end in victory.

What are the deeds of the body and how do we put them to death?  Paul is referring to deeds done when the body is led off into sin.  We put them to death by keeping ourselves from being carried away by temptation, by turning instead to what God would have us think, feel, say, or do.  And we can only do this by the Spirit.  The main offensive weapon of the Spirit by which we cut sin off at the root is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).  It is by the Word of God that we cultivate the mind set on the things of the Spirit (see v. 5).  The only reason we ever sin is because sin makes promises to us that look attractive.  When we wield God’s Word, we cut off the allure of sin by saying no to it and yes to the infinitely superior promises of God given us in his Word.  Peter writes, “[God’s] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:3-4). 

Fighting sin as children of God.

Several of God’s precious and very great promises are right here before us in verses 14-17.  “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”  The reason those who are killing their sinful inclinations by the Spirit will live is that all who are led by the Spirit of God into making war on their sin are sons of God, and sons of God live forever.  Be careful to get the causal connection here correctly.  Paul does not mean we earn a place in God’s family through fighting sin.  He means when we are adopted in God’s family, God’s Spirit takes up residence in us and leads us in the fight against sin.  So our being led by the Spirit of God demonstrates that we are sons of God.  That wretched sinners such as ourselves would be welcomed by the all-glorious, supremely holy God of the universe as his sons and daughters is an unspeakably great privilege we owe completely to his grace.  We have done absolutely nothing to deserve this!  And do not miss the comfort of the next verse.  “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba!  Father!’”  (See also Galatians 4:4-7).  We once were slaves of sin, living in the flesh and for the flesh at all times.  This leads to fear, or it at least ought to, if one recognizes that the end of such a life is eternal death.  But God has placed in us the Spirit of adoption as his sons.  Having the Spirit means we are no longer slaves to sin and no longer need to fear eternal punishment.  Yes, we still sin and so we fight to kill our sin.  But we fight as sons and daughters of God, our Father who has adopted us and loves us with an unstoppable, eternal love.  His Spirit inside us leads us to cry out to him, “Abba!  Father!”  “Abba” was an Aramaic term that a child might use for his human father.  Jesus himself used this term when he prayed to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane in Mark 14:36.  Whatever we face in this life, whether in our struggle against sin or the sufferings that come upon us, we have free access to our Father who loves us and we can cry out to him at any time.  Paul continues.  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.  As we meditate on God’s Word and the declarations of his gospel of grace, the Spirit stirs up in the heart of those who believe this gospel a sense that Christ died for my sins, that I am a child of God, that I am loved by this God.  The more we meditate on the greatness of God’s love and our privilege as sons and daughters of God, the less attractive to us will be the temptation to give a foothold for lust, laziness, envy, grumbling, etc.

Facing suffering as children of God.

If we are God’s children, then we are heirs (verse 17).  We are heirs of God.  We are heirs of God in the sense that we receive our inheritance from him as his children.  But we are also heirs of God in the sense that God himself is our inheritance.  God declares in Revelation 21:7, “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”  To be with God in the splendor of his glory, enjoying the endless riches of his kindness as his beloved children—this is our inheritance!  And we are fellow heirs with Christ.  Christ, as the perfect Son of God, is the rightful heir.  The inheritance belongs to him.  But he gladly shares the inheritance with his adopted brothers and sisters.  Thus we will be glorified with Christ in the resurrection age.  Verses 18-30 look forward to that great hope.  There is one proviso however (verse 17b).  We will be glorified with Christ if we now suffer with him.  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22b).  Paul is not telling us to go out and beat ourselves up to ensure final glory.  God has already ordained the suffering for our lives.  And the point is not that enduring suffering earns eternal life.  Only the merits of Christ have secured for us our inheritance.  The point is that the road to glory is a road of suffering.  Jesus walked the path of suffering on his way to glory, and we must walk it with him.  Suffering can include many things.  Cancer, unemployment, miscarriage, losing your home in a fire, being unjustly slandered at work, old age, death itself.  Somehow God is using all this suffering to prepare us for glory (verses 28-29; 2 Corinthians 4:17).  So we face our suffering with hope, even though we often grieve deeply.  And we show no mercy to every remaining sin in our life.  We are beloved children of God, and our glorious inheritance awaits us.