Romans 5-8

Answers

2009

Chapter 5 –Faith Brings Joy

Paul wants to make sure that we “get it,” that we understand the fullness and wonder of this miracle we call justification.  Could you explain the doctrine if you were asked?  Do you embrace the marvel and truth of it and know for sure that you are not only saved, but also assured of your salvation because of what Jesus your Lord and Savior has done?  Paul takes up the question: What are the benefits of justification in the believer’s life?  Does it really work?  YES!  He gives us seven major blessings that every believer possesses because they are bound eternally to Jesus Christ, preserved by His power and not by human effort.  They flow to the believer through Christ, our Mediator between God and man.

1. Paul is a master of the language and uses it to maximize the blessing we receive as we read.  Verb tenses are important and in the first two verses of chapter 5, we see several used.  Here Paul addresses the believer and correctly assumes that the believer has already been justified by faith (past tense.)  (A) The emphasis is justification as a one-time legal declaration with results, as when a judge has declared a defendant “not guilty” – So we are in Christ.
2. The first of the blessings – our peace with God (v.1).  What is this peace?  (A) It is more than simply an internal feeling of comfort.  It is an external, objective reality; the war is over!  Through the work of Christ, all causes of hostility between our souls and God have been removed.  We have been changed from enemies of God to friends by a miracle of grace.
3. The second blessing – our standing in grace (v.2).  How do we stand in grace?  (A) This refers to the permanent, secure position believers enjoy in God’s grace.  Because of the access we have to God (the Jews never had it), we are in an indescribable position of favor with God [this is present tense].  The favor is the fact that the Father welcomes us as His sons and daughters, not strangers.  This grace includes every aspect of our position before God, a position (before the throne) that is as perfect and permanent as Christ’s because we are in Him!
4. The third blessing – our rejoicing in the hope of glory (vv.2b-5a).  What is our hope of glory?  (A) We think of the word hope as a tentative feeling based on certain criteria; we hope (if) - (then).  What God has in mind contains no uncertainty!  It means something that is certain, but not yet realized.  What is that something?  Our ultimate destiny –to share in the very glory of God.  How can we know that we will share in His glory?  Because Christ Himself secures it (1Tim. 1:1).  This is the future tense aspect of justification.  Rejoice and be glad!
5. The fourth blessing – our glory in tribulation (vv.3, 4).  How do we find glory in tribulation?  (A) It is not so much about our present discomforts as in their eventual results (Heb. 12:11).  Maybe only for the Christian can joy be experienced in times of trial and trouble.  One of the by-products of tribulation is perseverance, or steadfastness.  Our perseverance under trial produces character (some are bigger characters than others!), and God awards us with His approval.  It fills us with hope because we know that He is working in our lives, developing our character.  We will learn more about this work called sanctification.
6. The fifth blessing – we receive His divine love (vv. 5b-8).  How do we receive it?  (A) God worked in our hearts to give us the faith necessary to believe in Him.  He gives us His HS to empower us to believe and we feel the expressions of His eternal love “poured out in our hearts” (v.5).  These assure us that He will see us safely home to heaven.  All this happened while we were still sinners, spiritually dead and incapable of doing anything to help ourselves (what can a dead man do?).  Because we cannot do anything to bring us to salvation, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners (v.6).  He did with our sins what we could never do – remove them from us forever.  Our salvation is not based on how lovable we are, but upon His holy character.
7. The sixth blessing – our certain escape of God’s divine wrath (vv.9, 10).  How do we escape His wrath?  (A) This is all about the indescribable, sacrificial, work of Christ on the cross, we being made right with God by the shedding of Christ’s blood.  The blood is not simply about the bodily fluid, but encompasses the entire meaning of His death and atoning work.  Christ bore the full fury of God’s wrath in the believing sinner’s place, and there is none left for him.  V.10 says that “We were restored to friendship (reconciled) with God by the death of His son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by His life.”  Can you imagine –we were enemies of God!  That is how He saw us before salvation.  But the substitutionary death of Christ removed the cause of hostility toward God – our sins.  If God purchased our reconciliation at such a cost, will He ever let us go?  Never!  If His death had such a power to save us, how much more will His life have power to keep us?  Praise God! 
8. The seventh blessing – our joy in the Lord (v.11).  How?  (A) Before we were saved, we found our joy in other things.  Now we rejoice whenever we remember Him and are sad when we forget Him.  What has changed us?  It is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in us, the Messiah –it is all through Him!

The rest of chapter five acts as a bridge between the first part of the letter and the next three chapters.  It is linked with the first part by picking up the subjects of condemnation through Adam and justification through Christ.  It shows that the work of Christ far outweighs in blessing what Adam caused in misery and sin.  It is linked with chapters 6-8 by moving from justification to sanctification.

In a nutshell: the Bible teaches that all men are sinners, both by nature and by practice.  Everyone born of man inherits Adam’s sin and also sins by his own deliberate choice.  We know the wages of sin is death, both physical death and spiritual separation from God.  But no one has to pay the penalty of sin unless he wants to.  Why?  Because God paid the awful price when He sent His Son as a Substitute for sinners.  God’s grace is the free gift of being accepted by God in spite of our sins (v.16).  Thos who reject Christ do pay the price, and it is eternal.

Adam’s sin brought death – exactly the opposite result he expected and Satan had promised,  “You will be like God” (Gen. 3:5).  Christ’s sacrifice brought salvation to those who believe.  “All who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift will live in triumph over sin and death in this One man, Jesus Christ (v.17)”

Verse 18 says “Christ’s one act of righteousness makes all people right in God’s sight and gives them life.”  This cannot mean that all men will be saved; salvation is only for those who exercise faith in Jesus as Savior.  As a final stamp on the struggle between man’s condemnation and death through sin, and God’s wonderful work of kindness through grace, Paul reiterates justification as making us right with God and resulting in eternal life (v.21).

Chapter 6 – Sin’s Power is Broken

Paul has put to bed the fact that all men are guilty of sin and deserving of death.  God gives us the only remedy –Justification through faith alone by God’s grace.  Paul anticipates the next question he knew was coming:  Does the teaching of the gospel (salvation by grace through faith) permit or even encourage sinful living?  “Of course not!”  May it never be!  To counter the confusion over justification (declared righteousness), Paul now goes on to explain the practical end result of salvation on those who have been justified.  He discusses sanctification, which is God producing actual righteousness in the believer (6:1 – 8:39).

1.     “Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it (v.2)?”  Don’t we still sin?  (A) This is not a reference to the believer’s ongoing daily struggle with sin, but a one-time event completed in the past.  Because we are “in Christ” (6:11; 8:1), and He died in our place (5:6-8), we are counted dead with Him.  When Jesus died to sin, He died as our Representative.  He died not only as our Substitute – that is, for us or in our place- but He also died as our Representative – that is, as us!  Therefore, when He died, we died!  God sees all those who are in Christ as having died to sin.  That does not mean a believer is sinless, but because he is identified with Christ, the sin is no longer accounted to him.

2.     Verse 3 is an example of what most Christians at one time or another are confused with – we forget that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ, we died with Him.  The question is; to which baptism is he referring?  (A) This is a little tricky but bear with us:  This does not refer to water baptism.  Paul is actually using the word baptized as if we might be saying that one is immersed in his work, or underwent his baptism of fire when experiencing some trouble.  All Christians have, by placing saving faith in Him, been spiritually immersed into the person of Christ, that is, united and identified with Him.  Water baptism pictures this reality, which is its purpose, to show the transformation of the justified (one already made right with God through faith).

3.     Verses 4-5 – “Buried with him in His death…Raised in the newness of life” – words we use in our baptismal ceremonies.  They mean what?  (A) United by faith with Christ, as baptism symbolizes, His death and burial become ours.  This is true if, in Christ, we died and were buried with Him, we have also been united with Him in His resurrection.  This is a new quality and character in the believer’s life, which speaks of his rebirth.  Where sin describes the old life, righteousness describes the new.

4.     What is Paul talking about when he says, “Our old sinful selves…?”  (V.6)?  (A) The NKJV calls it “our old man” and refers to all that we are as children of Adam – our old, evil, unregenerate selves, with all our old habits and appetites.  At conversion, we put off the old man and put on the new man, as if exchanging old, ragged clothes, for spotless new ones.  The life that we now life is the life of Christ Himself (Gal. 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”).

5.     If the old self is dead, why is there the continual struggle with sin and how can our new self dominate our life (vv.11-14)?  (A) Paul explains the practical outworking of what God’s method for holy living is.  We call it sanctification.  V.11 tells us that we should “consider ourselves dead to sin.”  How?  Accept what God says about us as true and live in the light of it.  And what does He say that is true?  That as believers, we are dead to sin’s power through our faith in Him.  It is not that we don’t sin anymore, but we must now choose to obey Him as our part in no longer sinning.  V.13 tells us to “give yourselves completely to God since you have been given a new life.” It is our choice.

6.     What does he mean when he says, “You are no longer under the law…you are free by God’s grace (v.14)?  (A) The believer is no longer under the law as a condition of acceptance with God – an impossible condition to meet and one designed only to show man his sinfulness.  Under grace, the believer had received the indwelling HS as the power for holy living.  He is no longer motivated by fear of punishment, but love for the Savior.

7.     V.16 gives us a choice of how to live.  One way or the other we will be slaves, whether to sin, which leads to death, or slaves to obedience, which leads to righteousness.  There is no middle road.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord (v.23).”

Chapter 7 – Freed from the Law

Paul continues with his discussion about the law, sin and grace.  He wants to make very sure that we fully understand the issues at stake.  If you ever closely listen to people in many group discussions, you will quickly learn that they do not have a good grip on what must be an absolute in their lives.  The question still revolves around the struggle between law and grace.  “Since we are saved by grace,” some argue, “we are free to live as we please.”  It’s as if we have a license to sin.  “But we cannot ignore God’s Law,” others argue.  “We are saved by grace, to be sure; but we must live under Law if we are to please God.”  This is legalism.  In answer to the second group, Paul discusses the place of the Law in the believer’s life in chapter 7.  In Romans 6, Paul told us how to stop doing bad things; in Romans 7 he told us how not to do good things,  “You were not justified by keeping the law and you cannot be sanctified by keeping the Law.”

In this chapter, Paul uses the illustration of a husband and wife to show that the believer has a new relationship to the Law because of his union with Christ.

1.     How does the marriage bond illustrate our relationship to the Law?  (A) When a man and woman marry, they are united for life and one cause that can break it is death.  As long as they live, the husband and wife are under the authority of the law of marriage.  If the woman leaves the man and marries another man, she commits adultery.  But if the husband dies, she is free to remarry because she is no longer a wife.  Death has broken the marriage relationship and set her free. In other words, the law that governs a married woman’s actions no longer has any jurisdiction over her once her husband dies (v.7: 3). 

2.     He goes on to explain; v.4, “So this is the point” – (this is the logical conclusion), this death (dead to sin) happened and the results are complete and final.  Someone else – God in this case Himself – initiated this death (literally “you were made to die”) through the body of Christ.  In response to faith in His son, God makes the believing sinner forever dead to the condemnation and penalty of the Law. 

3.     How then do we serve God?  (A) V.6-  “Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the Law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.”  It is a new state of mind which the Spirit produces, characterized by the new desire and ability to keep the Law.

4.     According to Paul, what purpose does the Law serve (vv. 9,10)?  (A) Paul came to see the true requirements of God’s holy and perfect moral Law and his imperfect understanding of it and its demand for complete and total obedience.  It showed him that he was a sinner, doomed to die.  Its purpose was to show him the way of life, but instead it gave him a death penalty.  How do vv.10, 12, 22 support this?

5.     What is the root problem of people that Paul exposes through his own example (vv.14-24)?  (A) “The trouble is with me…with sin as my master (v.14).  I know what I am doing is wrong, but I do the very things that I hate and know are wrong.  I can’t help myself because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things (v.17).”  There is an old, sinful nature within that makes us do wrong.

6.     In the middle of all of Paul’s struggles, what is his hope (vv.24, 25)?  (A) Who will free me from this life dominated by sin?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Chapter 8 – Life Through the Spirit

THEREFORE:  The result and consequence of the truths just taught - there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus!  This is the “Christian’s Declaration of Freedom,” because in it, Paul declares four spiritual freedoms we enjoy because of our union with Christ.

1)     Freedom from Judgment – No Condemnation (8:1-4).  There are no conditions for us to meet; Christians all fail and do sin and we pay the consequences for the sin, but we no longer suffer condemnation.  It is because of the new relationship we have with the Law:

q      The Law cannot claim you (v.2) –we now have life in the Spirit.  It is a whole new sphere of life in Christ.  The Law no longer has any jurisdiction over you: you are dead to the Law (7:4) and free from the Law (8:2).

q      The Law cannot condemn you (v.3) – Why?  Because Christ has already suffered the condemnation for you on the cross.  God sent His Son to do what the Law could not do – to save us!  Like our “law of double jeopardy in which you cannot be tried twice for the same crime, so then since Jesus paid the penalty for your sins, and since you are “in Christ,” God will not condemn you!

q      The Law cannot control you (v.4) – He sent His Son so that “the requirement of the Law would be accomplished for us.”  What is the requirement?  That every thought, word and deed which the Moral Law of God demands be fulfilled and met.  Our perfect God could not live with the darkness of sin, the Law showed that – therefore, condemnation.  But the Spirit is now written on our hearts and gives us the power to obey.  The spirit-led Christian, as he surrenders to the Lord, experiences the sanctifying work of the Spirit in his life.

2)     Freedom From Defeat – No Obligation (8:5-17) – “Those who are dominated by a sinful nature do sinful things…those who are controlled by the Spirit think about things that please the Spirit (v.5).” These are not two types of Christians; he is contrasting the saved and the unsaved.  He describes four contrasts:

q      In the flesh-In the Spirit (v.5) –the unsaved person does not have the Spirit of God and lives in the flesh for the flesh.  But a Christian has the Spirit of God living within at all times and his mind is fixed on things of the Spirit.

q      Death – Life (v.6)  - The unsaved person is alive physically, but dead spiritually.  The inner man is dead toward God and does not respond to the things of the Spirit.

q      War with God - Peace with God (v.v.6, 7) – In Romans 7 we saw that the old nature rebels against God and will not submit to God’s laws.  Those who have trusted Christ enjoy peace with God. 

q      Pleasing Self – Pleasing God (v.8) – To be “in the flesh” is to be under the control of the old sinful nature.  The unbeliever’s cry is “My will, not Thy will.”

q      You are controlled by the Spirit (vv.9-11) – The very evidence that you are a Christian is that you have the Spirit of God living in you and revealing Himself through you.  If you haven’t felt the difference, maybe you need to look closer at your surrender to the Lord Jesus.

q      “The Spirit Has you!”  (vv.12-17) – It is not enough that you have the Spirit; the Spirit must also have you!  It is all about surrendering completely to Him as your Lord and Savior.  The Spirit then comes to live in you, to strengthen you and keep you from doing the evil things that were once part of your life.  The Spirit is also the Spirit of adoption, which in the NT means, “being placed as an adult son.”  We come into God’s family how?  By being born again, and the minute we are, God adopts us and gives us the position of an adult son and all that is important about that position.  We can cry out to the Father, “Abba, Father” – a term which means daddy or poppa.  We join with Christ in all that is His as the Son of God – all the spiritual blessings imaginable and so much more than we can even imagine.  It is all ours as a child of God, filled with His Spirit.

3)     Freedom From Discouragement – From suffering To Glory (8:18-30).  Are you suffering in some way?  We all do and will right up to the last minute.  But Paul gives us hope; “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later (v.18)!”  We suffer as a part of the creation and because of Adam’s sin.  But we look forward to tomorrow’s glory.  We groan because we have tasted a small piece of the glory that will be ours in eternity – receiving a new, glorified body, living with Him and serving Him forever.

q      We don’t do it alone.  The HS has us and “helps us in our distress” (v.26).  The believer never needs to worry in times of suffering and trial because he knows that God is at work in the world and that He has a perfect plan.  “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.  For God knew His children in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son…(vv.28, 29)”And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him.  And He gave them right standing with Himself, and He promised them His glory (v.30)!”  Can we shout AMEN!!!

4)     Freedom From Fear – No separation from God (vv.31-39)

It just keeps getting better!  Are you called according to His purpose?  Yes!  Paul once again reminds us that there is “no condemnation” – who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own (v.31)?  The Father is for us and proved it by giving us His Son (v.32).  The Son is for us (v.34) and so is the Spirit (v.36).  “If God is for us, who can be against us?  For those who do not believe in the assurance of faith He says, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love.  Death can’t, and life can’t.  The angels can’t and demons can’t.  Our fears for today, our worries for tomorrow, and even the powers of Hell can’t keep God’s love away.  Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv.38, 39).”  Child of God, claim these truths as your own, embrace them and keep them in your heart.  Know that God will never let you go, not even for a second.  You are His forever, paid for by the Son and sealed with the Holy Spirit.  Forever!

Romans 5 – 8

Questions

2009

Chapter 5 –Faith Brings Joy

Paul wants to make sure that we “get it,” that we understand the fullness and wonder of this miracle we call justification.  Could you explain the doctrine if you were asked?  Do you embrace the marvel and truth of it and know for sure that you are not only saved, but also assured of your salvation because of what Jesus your Lord and Savior has done?  Paul takes up the question: What are the benefits of justification in the believer’s life?  Does it really work?  YES!  He gives us seven major blessings that every believer possesses because they are bound eternally to Jesus Christ, preserved by His power and not by human effort.  They flow to the believer through Christ, our Mediator between God and man.

1. Paul is a master of the language and uses it to maximize the blessing we receive as we read.  Verb tenses are important and in the first two verses of chapter 5, we see several used.  Here Paul addresses the believer and correctly assumes that the believer has already been justified by faith (past tense.)  (A) The emphasis is justification as a one-time __________ _____________ with results, as when a judge has declared a defendant “____ ___________.  So we are In Christ.
2. The first of the blessings – our peace with God (v.1).  What is this peace?  (A) It is more than simply an _________ feeling of comfort.  It is an _______, objective ________; the war is over!  Through the work of Christ, all causes of hostility between our souls and God have been removed.  We have been changed from __________ of God to ____________ by a miracle of grace.
3. The second blessing – our standing in grace (v.2).  How do we stand in grace?  (A) This refers to the ____________, _______ position believers enjoy in God’s grace.  Because of the ________ we have to God (the Jews never had it), we are in an indescribable position of ______ with God [this is present tense].  The favor is the fact that the Father welcomes us as His sons and daughters, not strangers.  This _______ includes every aspect of our position before God, a _________ (before the throne) that is as ___________ and permanent as Christ’s because we are in Him!
4. The third blessing – our rejoicing in the hope of glory (vv.2b-5a).  What is our hope of glory?  (A) We think of the word hope as a tentative feeling based on certain criteria; we hope (if) - (then).  What God has in mind contains ___ _____________!  It means something that is __________, but not yet realized.  What is that something?  Our ultimate ________ – to share in the very _____ of God.  How can we know that we will share in His glory?  Because Christ Himself secures it (1Tim. 1:1).  This is the future tense aspect of justification.  Rejoice and be glad!
5. The fourth blessing – our glory in tribulation (vv.3, 4).  How do we find glory in tribulation?  (A) It is not so much about our ________ discomforts as in their eventual _________ (Heb. 12:11).  Maybe only for the Christian can joy be experienced in times of trial and trouble.  One of the by-products of tribulation is __________, or steadfastness.  Our perseverance under trial produces _________ (some are bigger characters than others!), and God awards us with His ________.  It fills us with hope because we know that He is working in our lives, developing our character.  We will learn more about this work called sanctification.
6. The fifth blessing – we receive His divine love (vv. 5b-8).  How do we receive it?  (A) God worked in our hearts to give us the faith necessary to believe in Him.  He gives us His HS the moment we believe and we feel the expressions of His eternal love “poured out in our hearts” (v.5).  These assure us that He will see us safely home to heaven.  All this happened while we were still sinners, spiritually ______ and incapable of doing _________ to help ourselves (what can a dead man do?).  Because we cannot do anything to bring us to salvation, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners (v.6).  He did with our sins what we could never do – remove them from us forever.  Our salvation is not based on how lovable we are, but upon His holy character.
7. The sixth blessing – our certain escape of God’s divine wrath (vv.9, 10).  How do we escape His wrath?  (A) This is all about the indescribable, ____________, work of Christ on the cross, being made right with God by the _________ of Christ’s _____.  The blood is not simply about the bodily fluid, but encompasses the entire meaning of His death and _______ work.  Christ bore the full _______ of God’s wrath in the believing sinner’s place, and there is ______ left for him.  V.10 says that “We were restored to friendship (reconciled) with God by the death of His son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by His life.”  Can you imagine –we were enemies of God!  That is how He saw us before salvation.  But the substitutionary death of Christ _________ the cause of hostility toward God – our sins.  If God purchased our reconciliation at such a cost, will He ever let us go?  Never!  If His _______ had such a power to save us, how much more will His _______ have power to keep us?  Praise God! 
8. The seventh blessing – our joy in the Lord (v.11).  How?  (A) Before we were saved, we found our joy in other things.  Now we rejoice whenever we ________ Him and are sad when we _________ Him.  What has changed us?  It is the ____ of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah –it is all through Him!

The rest of chapter five acts as a bridge between the first part of the letter and the next three chapters.  It is linked with the first part by picking up the subjects of condemnation through Adam and justification through Christ.  It shows that the work of Christ far outweighs in blessing what Adam caused in misery and sin.  It is linked with chapters 6-8 by moving from justification to sanctification.

In a nutshell: the Bible teaches that all men are sinners, both by nature and by practice.  Everyone born of man _________ Adam’s sin and also sins by his own deliberate _______.  We know the wages of sin is death, both physical death and spiritual __________ from God.  But no one has to pay the penalty of sin unless he wants to.  Why?  Because God _______ the awful price when He sent His Son as a ___________ for sinners.  God’s grace is the ____ _______ of being accepted by God in spite of our sins (v.16).  Thos who reject Christ do pay the price, and it is eternal.

Adam’s sin brought _______ – exactly the opposite result he expected and Satan had promised,  “You will be like God” (Gen. 3:5).  Christ’s sacrifice brought salvation to those who believe.  “All who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift will live in triumph over sin and death in this One man, Jesus Christ (v.17)”

Verse 18 says “Christ’s one act of righteousness makes all people right in God’s sight and gives them life.”  This cannot mean that all men will be saved; salvation is only for those who exercise _______ in Jesus as Savior.  As a final stamp on the struggle between man’s condemnation and death through sin, and God’s wonderful work of kindness through grace, Paul reiterates justification as making us right with God and resulting in eternal life (v.21).

Chapter 6 – Sin’s Power is Broken

Paul has put to bed the fact that all men are guilty of sin and deserving of death.  God gives us the only remedy –Justification through faith alone by God’s grace.  Paul anticipates the next question he knew was coming:  Does the teaching of the gospel (salvation by grace through faith) permit or even encourage sinful living?  “Of course not!”  May it never be!  To counter the confusion over justification (declared righteousness), Paul now goes on to explain the practical end result of salvation on those who have been justified.  He discusses sanctification, which is God producing actual righteousness in the believer (6:1 – 8:39).

1.     “Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it (v.2)?”  Don’t we still sin?  (A) This is not a reference to the believer’s ongoing daily struggle with sin, but a _____ ____ ______ completed in the past.  Because we are “in Christ” (6:11; 8:1), and He died in our place (5:6-8), we are counted ______ with Him.  When Jesus died to sin, He died as our _______________.  He died, as our Substitute – that is, for us or in our place- but He also died as our Representative – that is, __ ____!  Therefore, when He died, we died!  God sees all those who are in Christ as having died to sin.  That does not mean a believer is sinless, but because he is identified with Christ, the sin is no longer _________ to him.

2.     Verse 3 is an example of what most Christians at one time or another are confused with – we forget that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ, we died with Him.  The question is; to which baptism is he referring?  (A) This is a little tricky but bear with us:  This does not refer to _____ baptism.  Paul is actually using the word baptized as if we might be saying that one is immersed in his work, or underwent his baptism of fire when experiencing some trouble.  All Christians have, by placing saving faith in Him, been _____________ immersed into the person of Christ, that is, ______ and identified with Him.  Water baptism pictures this reality, which is its purpose, to show the ______________ of the justified (one already made right with God through faith).

3.     Verses 4-5 – “Buried with him in His death…Raised in the newness of life” –words we use in our baptismal ceremonies.  They mean what?  (A) United by faith with Christ, as baptism ________________, His death and burial become ours.  This is true if, in Christ, we died and were ______ with Him, we have also been _______ with Him in His resurrection.  This is a new quality and character in the believer’s life, which speaks of his rebirth.  Where sin describes the _____ life, righteousness describes the _______.

4.     What is Paul talking about when he says, “Our old sinful selves…?”  (V.6)?  (A) The NKJV calls it “our old man” and refers to all that we are as children of _____ – our old, evil, unregenerate selves, with all our old habits and appetites.  At _________, we put off the old man and put on the _____ man, as if exchanging old, ragged clothes, for ______________ new ones.  The life that we now life is the life of Christ Himself (Gal. 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”).

5.     If the old self is dead, why is there the continual struggle with sin and how can our new self dominate our life (vv.11-14)?  (A) Paul explains the _______ outworking of what God’s method for holy living is.  We call it ___________.  V.11 tells us that we should “consider ourselves dead to sin.”  How?  _______ what God says about us as true and live in the light of it.  And what does He say that is true?  That as believers, we are dead to sin’s _______ through our _____ in Him.  It is not that we don’t sin anymore, but we must now choose to obey Him as our part in no longer sinning.  V.13 tells us to “give yourselves completely to God since you have been given a new life.” It is our ________.

6.     What does he mean when he says, “You are no longer under the law…you are free by God’s grace (v.14)?  (A) The believer is no longer under the law as a _______________________ with God – an impossible condition to meet and one designed only to _____ man his sinfulness.  Under _____, the believer had received the indwelling HS as the power for holy living.  He is no longer motivated by fear of punishment, but love for the Savior.

7.     V.16 gives us a choice of how to live.  One way or the other we will be ______, whether to _____, which leads to death, or slaves to __________, which leads to righteousness.  There is no middle road.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord (v.23).”

Chapter 7 – Freed from the Law

Paul continues with his discussion about the law, sin and grace.  He wants to make very sure that we fully understand the issues at stake.  If you ever closely listen to people in many group discussions, you will quickly learn that they do not have a good grip on what must be an absolute in their lives.  The question still revolves around the struggle between law and grace.  “Since we are saved by grace,” some argue, “we are free to live as we please.”  It’s as if we have a license to sin.  “But we cannot ignore God’s Law,” others argue.  “We are saved by grace, to be sure; but we must live under Law if we are to please God.”  This is _______.  In answer to the second group, Paul discusses the place of the Law in the believer’s life in chapter 7.  In Romans 6, Paul told us how to stop doing bad things; in Romans 7 he told us how _____ to do good things,  “You were not _________ by keeping the law and you cannot be ____________ by keeping the Law.”

In this chapter, Paul uses the illustration of a husband and wife to show that the believer has a new relationship to the Law because of his union with Christ.

1.     How does the marriage bond illustrate our relationship to the Law?  (A) When a man and woman marry, they are united for life and one cause that can break it is ______.  As long as they live, the husband and wife are under the authority of the ______ of marriage.  If the woman leaves the man and marries another man, she commits adultery.  But if the husband dies, she is free to remarry because she is no longer a wife.  Death has _______ the marriage relationship and set her ____. In other words, the law that governs a married woman’s actions no longer has any jurisdiction over her once her husband dies (v.7: 3). 

2.     He goes on to explain; v.4, “So this is the point” – (this is the logical conclusion), this death (dead to sin) happened and the results are complete and _______.  Someone else – God in this case Himself – initiated this death (literally “you were made to die”) through the _______ of Christ.  In response to faith in His son, God makes the believing sinner forever dead to the ___________ and _______ of the Law. 

3.     How then do we serve God?  (A) V.6-  “Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the Law, but in the new way, ______________.”  It is a new state of mind which the Spirit produces, characterized by the new ____________ and ability to keep the Law.

4.     According to Paul, what purpose does the Law serve (vv. 9,10)?  (A) Paul came to see the true _________ of God’s holy and perfect moral Law and his _________ understanding of it and its ________ for complete and total obedience.  It showed him that he was a sinner, doomed to die.  Its purpose was to show him the ______ ____, but instead it gave him a death penalty.  How do vv.10, 12, 22 support this?

5.     What is the root problem of people that Paul exposes through his own example (vv.14-24)?  (A) “The trouble is with ____…with _____ as my master (v.14).  I know what I am doing is wrong, but I do the very things that I hate and know are wrong.  I can’t help myself because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things (v.17).”  There is an old, sinful ________ within that makes us do wrong.

6.     In the middle of all of Paul’s struggles, what is his hope (vv.24, 25)?  (A) Who will free me from this life dominated by sin?  Thank God!  The answer is in ______________our Lord.

Chapter 8 – Life Through the Spirit

THEREFORE:  The result and consequence of the truths just taught - there is ___ condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus!  This is the “Christian’s Declaration of Freedom,” because in it, Paul declares four spiritual freedoms we enjoy because of our union with Christ.

1)     Freedom from Judgment – No Condemnation (8:1-4)

There are no conditions for us to meet; Christians all fail and do sin and we pay the consequences for the sin, but we no longer suffer condemnation.  It is because of the new relationship we have with the Law:

q      The Law cannot claim you (v.2) –we now have life in the ______.  It is a whole new sphere of life in Christ.  The Law no longer has any jurisdiction over you: you are ______ to the Law (7:4) and ______ from the Law (8:2).

q      The Law cannot condemn you (v.3) – Why?  Because Christ has already suffered the condemnation for you on the _______.  God sent His Son to do what the Law could not do – to ______ us!  Like our “law of double jeopardy” in which you cannot be tried twice for the same crime, so then since Jesus paid the _________ for your sins, and since you are “In Christ,” God will not condemn you!

q      The Law cannot control you (v.4) – He sent His Son so that “the ___________ of the Law would be ____________ for us.”  What is the requirement?  That every thought, word, and deed which the _______ Law of God demands be fulfilled and met.  Our perfect God could not live with the darkness of sin, the Law showed that – therefore, condemnation.  But the Spirit is now written on our hearts and gives us the _________ to obey.  The spirit-led Christian, as he _________ to the Lord, and experiences the sanctifying work of the Spirit in his life.

2)     Freedom From Defeat – No Obligation (8:5-17)

“Those who are dominated by a sinful nature do sinful things…those who are controlled by the Spirit think about things that please the Spirit (v.5).” These are not two types of Christians; he is contrasting the _______ and the _________.  He describes four contrasts:

q      In the flesh-In the Spirit (v.5) –the unsaved person does not have the Spirit of God and lives in the flesh for the flesh.  But a Christian has the Spirit of God living ________ at all times and his mind is fixed on things of the Spirit.

q      Death – Life (v.6)  - The unsaved person is alive physically, but dead ________.  The inner man is dead toward God and does not respond to the things of the Spirit.

q      War with God - Peace with God (v.v.6, 7) – In Romans 7 we saw that the old nature ______ against God and will not _______ to God’s laws.  Those who have trusted Christ enjoy ________ with God. 

q      Pleasing Self – Pleasing God (v.8) – To be “in the flesh” is to be under the ________ of the old sinful nature.  Their song is “My will, not Thy will.”

q      You are controlled by the Spirit (vv.9-11) – The very ________ that you are a Christian is that you have the Spirit of God ______ in you and ________ Himself through you.  If you haven’t felt the difference, maybe you need to look closer at your surrender to the Lord Jesus.

q      “The Spirit Has you!”  (vv.12-17) – It is not enough that you have the Spirit; the Spirit must also have you!  It is all about surrendering completely to Him as your Lord and Savior.  The Spirit then comes to live in you, to strengthen you and keep you from doing the evil things that were once part of your life.  The Spirit is also the Spirit of __________, which in the NT means, “being placed as an adult son.”  We come into God’s family how?  By being ________, and the minute we are, God adopts us and gives us the position of an adult son and all that is important about that position.  We can cry out to the Father, “Abba, Father” – a term which means daddy or poppa.  We _____ with Christ in all that is His as the Son of God – all the spiritual blessings imaginable and so much more than we can even imagine.  It is all ours as a child of God, filled with His Spirit.

3)     Freedom From Discouragement – From suffering To Glory (8:18-30).

 Are you suffering in some way?  We all do and will right up to the last minute.  But Paul gives us hope; “Yet what we suffer now is nothing ________ to the _______ he will give us later (v.18)!”  We suffer as a part of the creation and because of Adam’s sin.  But we look forward to tomorrow’s glory.  We groan because we have tasted a small piece of the glory that will be ours in eternity – receiving a new, glorified body, living with Him and serving Him forever.

q      We don’t do it alone.  The HS has us and “helps us in our distress” (v.26).  The believer never needs to worry in times of suffering and trial because he knows that God is at work in the world and that He has a perfect plan.  “And we know that God ______ ____________ to work together for the _____ of those who ___ God and are_______ according to ___________ for them.  For God knew His children in ________, and He _____ them to become _____________…(vv.28, 29)”And having chosen them, He _____ them to come to Him.  And He _____ them _____ _____________ with Himself, and He promised them His glory (v.30)!”  Can we shout AMEN!!!

4)     Freedom From Fear – No separation from God (vv.31-39)

It just keeps getting better!  Are you called according to His purpose?  Yes!  Paul once again reminds us that there is “no condemnation” – who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own (v.31)?  The Father is for us and proved it by giving us His Son (v.32).  The Son is for us (v.34) and so is the Spirit (v.36).  “If God is for us, who can be against us?  For those who don not believe in the __________ of faith He says, “And I am convinced that ________ can ever separate us from His love.  Death can’t, and life can’t.  The angels can’t and demons can’t.  Our fears for today, our worries for tomorrow, and even the powers of Hell can’t keep God’s love away.  Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to _____________ us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv.38, 39).”  Child of God, claim these truths as your own, embrace them and keep them in your heart.  Know that God will never let you go, not even for a second.  You are His forever, paid for by the Son and sealed with the Holy Spirit.  Forever!