I recently wrote a thesis on the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a segment of it on Romans 8. I broke down Romans 8 verse by verse to show how God promises a new life through the Holy Spirit. Basically God says in Romans 8, “You can’t change your behavior unless you’re a changed person. So what we have, is a new life that comes from God the Father; through God the Holy Spirit; by God the Son who died our death, so we can live His life.
New life free from condemnation (8:1-4)
· The Holy Spirit has set us free from sin and death. (8:2)
· The Holy Spirit fulfilled the law in us. (8:3-4)
In Romans 8:1-4, we have a new life free from condemnation. Nevertheless, one of the main problems I see in counseling is that people “feel” condemned. Even 1 John 3:20 tells us, “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. But if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” How exactly are we free from condemnation? Well, Romans 8: 1-4 says the Holy Spirit has freed us.
New life free from the power of sin (8:5-14)
· The Holy Spirit gives us life and peace. (8:5-8)
· The Holy Spirit has given us a regenerated body and spirit. (8:9-11)
· The Holy Spirit gives us life as sons of God. (8:12-14)
This is enormous. We really need to understand this as believers, because people are more enamored by the power of sin, than the power of Christ. Verse 11 says that if the spirit of Jesus, who rose from the dead, dwells in you, He will give life to our mortal bodies through the Spirit. That’s amazing, right?
New life with God (8:12-17)
· The Holy Spirit has adopted us as sons of God that cry Abba Father. (8:15)
· The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. (8:16)
· The Holy Spirit makes us heirs of God and of Jesus Christ. (8:17)
· The Holy Spirit allows us to suffer with Christ. (8:17)
· The Holy Spirit glorifies us with Him. (8:17)
How exactly does a human dwell with the eternal God? How does flesh and bone commune with the eternal God? In versus 12-17, God says it’s the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit connects us to God the Father.
New life of hope (8:18-25)
· God promises future glory. (8:18-21)
· God promises redemption of our body. (8:23)
· God promises hope for what we can’t see. (8:24)
How do we have hope of what we can’t see? Or a hope of a future we don’t know? How does the promise of God break into the now? It’s the Holy Spirit. I believe hope in God glorifies God more than anything else. Hope says, “I believe God”! Hope gives us confidence and boldness to see God as He is. It is faith that consists of hope, and our faith produces hope. Pastor Bill Clem talks about a difference between a little faith, and a real faith. The little faith was like Peter doubting God, the Holy Spirit’s ability within him, to walk on water (Matthew 14:31). Jesus says “you of little faith why did you doubt? Peter went from God’s ability to his own ability, and sank.
We are called to have the faith of Abraham. In Hebrews 11:8-20 Abraham offered up Isaac with no hesitation, because he knew God would give Isaac back through a resurrection. After all, Abraham knew God promised a nation out of Isaac. Abraham believed God! Abraham hoped! A little faith says, “I believe in me.” But God calls us to a real faith that produces a real hope. A real faith says, “I believe in God!” The Holy Spirit makes that real faith possible.
New life of prayer (8:26-27)
· The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray. (8:26)
· The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in prayer. (8:26)
The Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray, and searches our heart. One aspect of the Holy Spirit teaching us how to pray includes us learning how to confess sin with discernment given by the Spirit. We learn how God sees our sin rather than merely praying to God and telling Him about our sin. Here we see that the Holy Spirit helps us to confess sin the way God sees it.
New life of purpose (8:28-29)
· God works everything for the good for those who are called to His purpose. (8:28)
The enemy uses our suffering to lie to us and declares, “Where is your God”? David says in Psalms 42:10 “As with a deadly wound in my bones my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” While we suffer, it is the work of the Holy Spirit that enables us to worship well in the midst of our suffering. Paul tells us in Romans 5:1-6 that we can rejoice in our suffering, because it produces hope and endurance. So, the “Good” that is according to God’s “purpose” in 8:28 is hope filled, because he will never waste our suffering.
A New life with God (8:29-30)
· God’s chosen ones are predestined to conform to the image of His son. (8:29)
· God justified and glorified the predestined. (8:30)
We’re secured because we are conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. In verse 30, it says God justified us, and who He justified He also glorified. We share in the glory of God, and this happens through the Holy Spirit, by taking sinful man and clothing us with His image. We are visible people and God is invisible, so we need tangible evidence that we are now Just before God and that’s the work of the Holy Spirit; the real and felt forgiveness of God.
A new life of victory over all of our enemies (8:31-34)
· God is for us who can be against us. (8:31)
· God gave his own son up for us. (8:32)
· God freed us from any legal demands because he has justified us. (8:33)
· God is the one who condemns, He condemned Jesus so we stand acquitted. (8:34)
Condemnation is what the Enemy had over us, because we belonged to the world. When we were dead in our trespasses, we belonged to Satan. Again, I ask, how did we get separated from the Enemy? How are we joined together with God? How does the human being stand acquitted before God? How do we share in the victory over Satan? The Holy Spirit.
New life as conquerors (8:35-39)
· Nothing can separate from the love of God in Christ Tribulation. (8:35)
How do we stand more than conquerors? It’s an amazing statement; more than conquerors. It would be one thing to be a conqueror, but God says we are more than conquerors. I believe God says we are more than conquerors because of His love; His love that has been poured into our hearts by the Spirit (Romans 5:5). So, in this last segment of Romans 8, because of God’s love that has been poured into our hearts, the things that we stand over are tribulation; distress; persecution; famine; nakedness; danger; sword; death; angels; rulers; and evil powers.
So after walking through Romans 8, how does knowing and believing we have a new life given by the Holy Spirit help the counselee change? I believe that if we have the true confidence that is given to us by the Holy Spirit, we are more equipped to lead people to their new life. But if we don’t know to how to navigate to the truth by the Holy Spirit, we may tend to lead them to better behavior or a better life, rather than to a place where they are living out of their new life. For example, if a porn addict is not using porn anymore, how will you know if it is out of a better life or a new life? Most people who want help don’t realize what they actually need. They most often believe they need to change their circumstance, or change some behavior. Not true. What they need is a new life.
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