Sermon Notes

8 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
(New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, NRSVue)
8 12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! 15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. (The Message, MSG)

The Letter to the Romans is the longest of Paul’s undisputed letters and the latest. It was written around 55 CE while Paul was in Corinth, and it is addressed to the Church in Rome, the capital city of the Roman Empire. Adapting Greco-Roman conventions of letter writing—the Hellenistic Diatribe—Paul writes to explain why Jesus matters in the story of God’s redemption of humanity. Although Romans is the last of Paul’s undisputed letters, it is not a systematic presentation of Paul’s theology. In fact, the occasion for his writing is to persuade the Roman Church to financially support his apostolic mission to Spain. He writes to introduce himself, present his apostolic resume, and announce Phoebe—an invaluable deacon who is his right hand person and trusted advance agent. While introducing himself to Roman Christians, Paul outlines the core of the gospel (euangelion in Greek) as Jesus—the promised Messiah—fulfilling God’s plan to save the world. Like all New Testament literature, Israel’s scriptures (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) are the textual and theological grounding for Paul’s imagery and ideas in Romans.
In Romans 8, Paul explores the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Triune Godhead who ministers to, sustains, and directs the Church at all times through indwelling. The Holy Spirit’s ministry was especially crucial during the times of the Early Church, when fledgling communities of early followers of the “Way of Jesus” Christians experienced persecution, internal struggles, and external challenges. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is also crucial for contemporary Christians who currently battle an onslaught of false Christianity in the form of Christian Nationalism, For Paul, living a life “in the Spirit,” is only possible through the aid and tutelage of the Holy Spirit. His message to the Romans reminds how the Holy Spirit is foundational to enduring beliefs of the Church concerning the nature of God.

12-13 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life.
In the opening verses of the lesson text, Paul says Christians are under no obligation to serve the flesh(our sinful ways). However, we are obligated to serve God in the Spirit. As New Testament biblical scholar Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr. asserts, “renewal of the inner life through the Spirit brings life eternal; the Spirit is life for the person of faith.” Reiterating what he stated in verses 4-11, Paul again asserts that we encounter the righteousness of God, and fulfill the requirements of the Law, when we walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh (or sin.) We don’t owe the flesh anything. After all, what has the flesh actually provided except for short-term “feel-goods” that lead to sin and death? Whether the flesh produces self-indulgence or self-righteousness, it cannot please God. In fact, the flesh is so hostile to the Spirit that we are obligated to put to death the deeds of the flesh—give it a burial and get on with your new life. Too many Christians are far too busy catering to the flesh rather than crucifying it. This is why they are living defeated lives—merely existing within unending cycles of sin, guilt and shame.
Verse 13 offers further substantiation why we are obligated to the Spirit but not to the flesh. It all comes down to the consequences of following the one or the other. If we are living according to the flesh, we must die. “The mind set on the flesh is death” (8:6) and “the wages of sin is death” (6:23). When one chooses the path of sinful flesh, it is a one-way ticket to death.
14God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! 15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
Verses 14-17 are an early Christian baptismal formula that utilizes ideas of “sonship” and “adoption” to explain how baptized believers are related to God. Just as Jesus was God’s son, we too are God’s children. Therefore, we have standing as the children of God. We belong to God as God’s children. In Roman culture, adoption was primarily employed for acquiring a male heir, and “sonship” came with material benefits. Paul uses this metaphor to explain how baptized believers now have material and spiritual benefits because we have status as children and heirs. The Christian life is exciting, expectant, and effervescent because “sonship” and “resurrection possibility” is the context for our every life move. Just as a daughter or son has a childlike conviction that their loving parent will always provide every good thing for them, Christians expect every good thing from God our heavenly parent through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. As our ever-present parent, the Holy Spirit provides us with strength and resurrection power to live as people who have defeated sin because Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave.
Further, because we have the Holy Spirit as our constant companion and guide, what was impossible for us to do as unbelievers, and even impossible for us as Christians in our own strength—abundant life through the resurrection power of Christ Jesus—is possible because we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. As children of the Holy Spirit, we are heirs to “Holy Ghost power” to defeat evil and sin because we have access to resurrection power in Jesus Christ.
26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.
In the final verses of the lesson text, Paul outlines the ultimate assurance which comes from our standing as children of God by emphasizing the goodness of God’s plans for God’s children. The notion of “good” comes from the Greek word, agathon, which means moral goodness or the idea of things that work towards God’s divine plan of salvation for the world. Essentially, all things work together to do good things.
Paul also says what he Holy Spirit prays for is what happens. God the Holy Spirit prays according to the mind of God—because the Holy Spirit is God—and God the Father answers those prayers by bringing into our lives the experiences that we need, the people that we need, the challenges that we need, and the blessings that we need, in order to develop us into the people that can be used for God’s purpose and God’s glory.
We have the assurance that no matter what happens, it will work together for good. This verse does not tell us that everything that happens to us is good. However, this verse testifies that says that whether the situation is bad or good, it will work together for ultimate good. God is always working out Divine purpose within us, and Divine purpose is always for our good.

As spiritually adopted children of God, the Church must exhibit love, kindness, spirituality, and holiness in everything it does. Further, its members must strive to live out the life of the Holy Spirit, one that lays out a legacy for others to emulate and follow. Dying or declining congregations and denominations need to reclaim the power of the Holy Spirit. With the power of the Holy Spirit, there is a new opportunity for Church revival and growth; we can experience revitalized spirituality.

i. See Thomas L. Hoyt Jr.’s “Romans ” in Brian Blount, et al, True to Our Native Land: An African American Commentary, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 262.