I. One Who is Not Condemned V. 1
● The Christian has been transferred from one realm of existence into another.
● Paul will explain why there is no condemnation for the person who is born again.
● Marcus Rainsford- Herein lies the great difference between an unbeliever out of Christ and the believer in Christ. The unbeliever has his judgment day before him, but the believer in Christ has his judgment day behind him; for him, judgment is past and gone: there is no condemnation.
● John 3:18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
II. One Who Has A New Operating System Vs. 2-8
A. The New Operating System Vs. 2-4
1. What is an operating system?
Webopedia- The operating system is the most important program that runs on a computer. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers.
2. V. 2- “Law”– Paul is not speaking strictly of God’s Law or 10 Commandments, but in this verse, “law” could better be translated “regulative principle”.
a. The unbeliever’s regulative principle regarding interaction with God was the law.
b. If a person could obey the laws of God, they could be saved. If not, then guilty.
c. The law told the unbeliever how they ought to live, but didn’t empower them.
d. The law is holy, just and good. (Romans 7:12)
e. As the unbeliever failed and sinned, the result was sin and (eternal) death.
f. The Christian is born again, and has a new regulative principle, via the Holy Spirit.
g. The Christian has been freed of the demands of the old regulative principle.
i. Romans 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life.
ii. Romans 7:6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the
oldness of the letter.
h. The Christian has a new regulative principle (OS/HS), and is not accountable any longer to the old OS which was impotent to help a person live right.
i. Chronologically, verse 2 occurs before verse 1. Because we have been set free from the law of sin and death, as a result, there is no condemnation for those in Christ.
j. The Christian no longer looks to the law for justification or sanctification.
3. Vs. 3, 4– For what the law could not do: literally, “the impossible thing of the law”
a. It was impossible for us to fulfill the law when we walked according to the flesh.
i. The impossibility was because the flesh is too weak to obey the law.
ii. The law can neither justify or sanctify, save or make holy, forgive or improve.
iii. If a Christian walks according to the Spirit, then by the Spirit, they can fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Christ died to justify and sanctify us.
b. Because mankind did not obey the righteous requirements of the law, mankind deserves punishment. That is why the Father sent the Son.
c. The judgment of sin was condemned in the flesh of Jesus, as He died upon the cross.
d. The old OS system was superseded by the new OS of life in the Spirit. The old regulative system of obeying the law was superseded by life in the Spirit.
e. God justifies us through His Sin, and sanctifies us through His Spirit.
f. NOTE- God looks for His people to be walking in holiness, in the moral laws that He has established. That was also a reason why Jesus died for us. Holiness.
B. Comparing The Old And New OS Vs. 5-8
1. “Set their minds”- Stott- The absorbing objects of thought, interest, affection, and purpose.
That which preoccupies us, the ambitions that drive us, the concerns which engross us, how we spend our time and energy, what we concentrate on and give ourselves to.
2. What we are spiritually will determine what we set our minds on.
3. The Christian sets his mind on God, resulting in life and peace, both now and eternally.
4. The Unbeliever only sets his mind on the things of the flesh, resulting in temporal and eternal death. His mind can only be at enmity with God. He only has the old OS.
5. It must be recognized that the Christians struggles between the old OS and the new OS, between the flesh and the Spirit. That struggle is unique to the Christian.
Galatians 5:16-18 16I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
6. Moule- “The saints fulfill the Law’s claim, not in the sense of sinless perfection, but in that of a true, living and working consent to its principles; the consent of full conviction and of a heart whose affections are won to God”.
C. Conclusions About the New OS Vs. 9-11
1. V. 9- That which marks a person as a Christian is that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Conversely, a person without the Holy Spirit is not a Christian.
a. V. 2- They have a new regulative principle working within them.
b. V. 4- The righteous requirements of the Law have begun to be fulfilled in them as they are aware of and yield to the Holy Spirit.
c. V. 5- They are increasingly setting their minds on the things of the Spirit.
d. V. 6- They know what it is experience life and peace from being spiritually minded.
e. Though they struggle as is described in Galatians 5:16-18, it is a sanctified struggle that the unbeliever knows nothing about. All of this is evidence of the new OS.
2. V. 10- The body is dead, (dying) because of the curse of sin, but the Holy Spirit is bringing increasing life to the soul, mind, emotions. More evidence of the new OS.
3. V. 11- The ultimate destiny of the Christian’s body is not death, but resurrection. Though the body is dying and will die, it will not stay dead, but be further (eventually) developed into an eternal body, through which the Spirit filled believer can perfectly express himself. Further, yet to be experienced work of the new OS.