Christian Assurance of Deliverance & Provision – Romans 8:1–4

PRAY & Quick INTRO: Before we read the text for today, it is helpful to remember that in the latter half of Romans 7 Paul described the frustrating futility of fleshly effort to defeat sin and be holy. Roman’s 8 now answers this dilemma while also building on the foundation of all that Paul has proclaimed concerning God’s gospel to this point.

READ TEXT: Here’s how Paul begins Romans 8.

Romans 8:1–4 ESV

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Here’s the central application we should take away from Paul’s essential thrust in these fountainhead verses of Romans 8.

Be assured of God’s deliverance and provision by the Spirit.

As we said, Paul emphatically responds to the predicament raised in chapter 7 (the futility of fleshly effort for producing holiness), but he does so by tethering us to an assurance that God is our deliverance and provision. He is the sufficiency and security of his people.

The theme of Christian assurance in Romans 8 grows like a foundational melody that is introduced, and then is joined by harmonies that fill out the chords, until all crescendos into a sweeping chorus of exuberant exaltation in God… that he is our security, and nothing will be able to separate us from his love.

The theme of ASSURANCE in Romans 8:

1. Assurance that the Spirit applies to us the deliverance and provision secured in Christ (1-4)
2. Assurance of a Spirit-empowered spiritual mind, in contrast to the hostility and inability of the fleshly mind (5-11)
3. Assured deliverance from slavery to sin by our adoption as sons (12-17)
4. Assured hope (in suffering) of glorification (18-30)

• again the motif of deliverance arises, even of all creation awaiting deliverance from corruption
• Culminating in…

5. Assured hope that God is our security and nothing can separate us from his love (31-39)

Again, the thrust of the first four verses should cause us to… Be assured of God’s deliverance and provision by the Spirit.

I will draw out four main points regarding this assurance from these fountainhead verses: By the Spirit we have assurance that…

God has delivered us from the penalty of sin. (verse 1)

Verses 1 & 2 emphasize God’s deliverance of his people, another motif we see carried along substantially in the chapter later as well. But here we find the foundational melody of this deliverance, which is “in Christ Jesus.” So secondly…

God has delivered us from the ruling authority of sin and death. (verse 2)

(In vv. 3&4) God provides the righteousness to fulfill the law (His holy standard) both positionally and practically. These provisions also answer HOW God has delivered and is delivering us.

God has provided for the righteousness required of us. (verses 3-4a)

God provides his presence and power for us to live righteously. (verse 4b)

By the Spirit we have assurance of God’s deliverance and provision. First, we have assurance that…

God has delivered us from the penalty of sin. (verse 1)

After discussing the frustrating futility of his flesh to be holy, Paul takes solace in the assurance of security in Christ Jesus.

Earlier Paul had said, [Rom 7:24-25a]

Romans 7:24–25 ESV

²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Now he emphatically adds:

Romans 8:1 ESV

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Condemnation for Paul is both the guilty verdict and the corresponding sentence, the penalty. Paul has expressed clearly in this gospel treatise that a just and righteous God demands justice against the unrighteousness of man. The just verdict and sentence from God is that sinners are condemned to death (the wages of sin is death Ro 6:23)—not only the physical death of our bodies, but a spiritual death of our souls, a separation from God leading to eternal punishment away from God. 

But that there is no condemnation for those in Christ is because Jesus paid the penalty for all our sin—past, present, and future—and his righteousness has been imputed to us to make us positionally right with God. - By the way, church, our understanding of texts like these causes us to differentiate doctrinally from our more Arminian brethren who believe falling from grace is equivalent to annulling one’s saving faith in Christ, thereby losing it. We are convinced Paul teaches that the Triune God himself has secured the position of the saints and will not reverse what he has done in making us his own.

God does not adopt children through Christ only to give them back. No, by faith we are forever His. God does not give us spiritual birth only to take away that life. God has united us to Christ; he will not annul such a marriage covenant of his own making.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Those truly united to Christ by faith are not condemned and will not be condemned. Instead, Christ has already paid the penalty for our sin, and we have been declared righteous by his righteousness. The issue of all our sin has already been tried, when the sinless Christ took the guilty verdict on himself and paid the penalty in his sacrificial death. If you are in Christ Jesus, you can no longer be retried and held accountable for that which your Savior already took care of. 

Thus we can be assured that we have been delivered from condemnation. But how should Christians presently be applying this assurance of no condemnation?

Robert Mounce states an application this way: “It follows that if condemnation as an objective reality has been removed, there is no legitimate place for condemnation as a subjective experience. To insist on feeling guilty is but another way of insisting on helping God with our salvation. How deeply imbedded in human nature is the influence of works-righteousness!” (NAC Romans)

In other words, there is a difference between experiencing remorse and repentance for our sinning versus a wallowing in self-condemnation over our sin. We need to confess every known sin to God, and then we need to prove our repentance by moving forward in God’s gracious provision by his Spirit to pursue holiness in our affections, thoughts, words, and deeds. Wallowing in self-condemnation is to focus entirely too much on ourselves instead of on the glory of God, who has rescued us and accepted us and who gives us his Spirit to continue Christ’s work in us.

So that is the first assurance: complete deliverance from the penalty of sin.

Then at v. 2 the word “For” introduces an explanatory reason there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And this reason introduces our second point for assurance by the Spirit:

God has delivered us from the ruling authority of sin and death. (verse 2)

Here the language of deliverance from 7:24 is reinforced, and the role of the Spirit now comes to the forefront.

Romans 8:2 ESV

² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

First, this pretty evidently seems to be one of the places where Paul uses the word “law” without meaning the Mosaic law specifically. Law here means something more like “authoritative standard,” which helps me grasp the meaning of the sentence. “For the [authoritative standard] of the the life-giving Spirit has set you free in Christ Jesus from the [authoritative standard] of sin and death.”

Why don’t sin and death rule us any longer? Because the Holy Spirit applies Christ’s accomplishment to us, setting the saints free from sin and death dominating us. If we remain in Adam (in the flesh only), the dominance of sin and death means we have a mind set on the flesh, which makes us hostile toward God and keeps us from having the capacity to please God from the heart. (We see this clearly in vv. 7&8 as Paul contrasts the mind set on the flesh with the mind set on the Spirit.)

So the life-giving Spirit gives us spiritual life that sets us free from the utter dominion of sin and death. We see as we continue in this passage that the Spirit doesn’t just set us free, but this new authority and influence at work in us provides a way of seeing and living in God’s world that experiences peace with God and that genuinely desires to submit to God and please God. (Ro 8:6-7)

Now, perhaps you are also recognizing here that the Spirit’s work is absolutely critical to God applying deliverance and provision to his people, and to our assurance of it. There is obvious connection to what Paul has already taught, but there is also now a clear focus on the role of the Spirit applying the effects of union with Christ. “the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus”

The present ramifications we experience are due to the Spirit applying what the Son accomplished and the Father architected. The Trinitarian nature of God and his work becomes evident as we transition from v.2 into vv. 3&4. The Father architects (plans and initiates), the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies.

I’ll explain this more right now as we continue into verse 3. But to stay connected to Paul’s meaning here and for our application, remember that as Christians we can be assured of God’s deliverance and provision. Deliverance from the penalty of sin and from the ruling authority of sin and death, and now assurance that the Triune God provides us with both positional and practical righteousness.

First…

God has provided for the righteousness required of us. (verses 3-4a)

Romans 8:3 ESV

³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

The Triune God himself has intervened to do what his holy standard (the Mosaic law) could not accomplish, not because of something inherently wrong with the law, but because of what is inherently wrong with us: sin at work in our flesh. So the law draws attention to our need for righteousness, but it also highlights our inability to achieve that righteousness.

The law acts like a mirror showing you the truth about your uncleanness, but you cannot use the mirror to scrub yourself clean. So God gave us the mirror to show us that we must come to him to be cleansed, in faith seeking his mercy to graciously do so.

Now Paul continues explaining the manner in which the Triune God has provided not only cleansing, but also provides the positive righteousness required of us. [8:3b-4a]

Romans 8:3–4 ESV

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us

As promised, I want to draw your attention again to the role of God the Father initiating this provision: “by sending his own Son.” The Father is architect and initiator of divine plans, including his plan of redemption. - Here’s an opportunity in the biblical text to strengthen our theological understanding of the Trinity.

The Father architects (initiates), the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies. The church has historically phrased God’s activity in creation and redemption this way: From the Father, through the Son, in/by the Spirit. What this highlights is the Trinity’s shared, undivided action while showing each Person's unique role in creation and redemption.

We must admit that the Trinitarian nature and work of God is quite beyond us, but we still should strive to comprehend God as best we can in order to adore him. So here are a couple of features to shore up your Trinitarian theology:

• Economic Trinity vs Immanent Trinity: The Father, Son, and Spirit's roles in the world (economic) are distinct, but their essence (immanent) is one, undivided divine nature.
• Inseparable Operations: All external actions of God (creation, redemption) are done by the entire Trinity, but each Person manifests a unique role.

So all three persons of the Godhead eternally work together, even as they have distinct functions in salvation history, with the Father planning & initiating, the Son executing, and the Spirit applying.

Here first in Rom 8:3b the emphasis is explicitly on the Father’s initiative in sending the Son, both “in the likeness of sinful flesh” and “for sin.”

- “In the likeness of sinful flesh” specifically highlights that the Son came in human flesh but only in the likeness of our flesh. Christ came in true human flesh, but unlike every other person from Adam’s descent, he was sinless. The Savior on earth was like us in humanity and distinct from us in sinless perfection from conception. That’s why he is not just Adam’s descendent like we are, but he is the Second Adam… the Last Adam.

And His perfect righteousness was essential to his provision as THE sacrificial Lamb. That’s the second emphasis. The Father also sent the Son “for sin,” meaning as an atonement for sin. By sending a sinless Savior to be a substitute, God condemned sin in the flesh by Christ taking our sin and atoning for that sin in his own flesh by his death on a cross. Christ accepting our sin’s condemnation means that believers are not condemned (v. 1).

- What more, Christ’s sacrificial death not only takes our sin, but his resurrection life provides us with the positive righteousness required of us to stand in the presence of God. If by faith we are united to Christ, our sin was imputed to him, and his righteousness imputed to us.

Now Rom 8:4 means not only that God has provided for us to be righteous before him positionally, based on the righteousness of Christ, but here the emphasis becomes that his ongoing presence by his Spirit provides us with God’s own presence and power for us to live righteously.

God provides his presence and power for us to live righteously. (verse 4b)

Romans 8:4 ESV

⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

“Walk” is a term Paul uses when he means the way we are presently and actively living our lives. In Ephesians 4 & 5 Paul challenges Christians to walk worthy of their calling (Eph 4:1), and to walk in love and light after the manner of our God of love and light (Eph 5:2, 8).

In fact, the verb form here in Rom 8:4 is a present participle: walking. “… who are not walking according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Clearly Paul intends to emphasize the ongoing activity of living righteously.

And what is the righteous requirement of the law being fulfilled in us? To be holy as God is holy. It is to love the Lord God with all that we are and have, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This latter part is the explicit command of Christ to his people, which he says sums up the law and prophets (Mt 22:37-40). Paul himself will take up this argument in Rom 13:8-10. Loving one another as oneself fulfills the law and essentially covers all the other interpersonal commandments.

But how will this righteous requirement of the law be fulfilled in us—to be holy, to love as God has loved us, to love as Christ loves the church?

Only by the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit working in us can we do this, that which we cannot possibly do by our own flesh.

So the presence and power of the Spirit becomes essential to our assurance that we are in Christ. Paul will say at v. 16 that “The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.” And the argument that leads up to this is that we know the Spirit is present in us as we experience His power to progressively overcome sin and become more righteous, more holy, thus fulfilling God’s intention for the law. Such is the thrust of where Paul goes from verse 5 onward, that our assurance is in the presence and power of the Spirit to do the right that our flesh is not inclined to do.

If we do not have any capacity in ourselves, then the Christian spiritual life must not be like going to the pump to stock up on grace to run a while longer. Instead, our ability to live righteously depends on our remaining plugged in, our staying in contact with the tram lines that conduct the power into us. God provides the power of Christ’s life to us by his Spirit, but we must always remain tethered to Christ and relying on the Spirit.

To use Christ’s metaphor, he is the vine and we are the branches. We have no life apart from him and we produce nothing apart from him. The Spirit’s work flows through us to produce righteousness if we remain dependent on Christ for provision. The moment we trust ourselves is the moment we’ve unplugged from God’s power to provide the righteous life we now long to live.

So these truths that Paul proclaims becomes both comfort and challenge to us. We can…

Conclusion: Be assured of God’s deliverance and provision by the Spirit.

Let this truth teach us that we must cast ourselves on the mercy of the Triune God for deliverance, and we must continually depend on Christ in us by his Spirit to be our provision for sanctification (for progress in holiness).

Paul’s fellow Jews, and anyone familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, would hear the language of deliverance and remember God’s deliverance of his people out of slavery in Egypt to bring them to a land of promise. So too, they hear the language of provision and think of the water and manna and quail provided in the wilderness, and they think of God providing the law and the Levitical system. And they think of God’s presence with his people in the tabernacle and of his presence leading them in pillar of cloud and of fire. [exile?***]

The reader of the New Testament is meant see these (and still other patterns and promises) as shadows now fulfilled in Christ. He is God’s deliverance of his people from slavery to sin and from our own inability, and He is God’s provision of the righteousness we need to be right with God. And what becomes central to the argument here for Paul is that by the Spirit God provides the power of Christ’s resurrection life for us to live righteously before the God who has graciously made us his children.

So now we seek to be his faithful children by depending on him for provision to be like Him, and we expectantly await the fulfillment of his promise to bring us home to the land of perfect rest, where we will enjoy worshipping him in righteousness forever.

PRAY

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