There was a man who lived a life of gross sin. After his conversion, one of his old friends said to him, “Bill, I pity you—a man that has been such a high-flier as you. And now you have settled down; you go to church, or stay at home and read the Bible and pray; you never have good times any more.” “But, Bob,” said the man, “you don’t understand. I get drunk every time I want to. I go to the theater every time I want to. I go to the dance when I want to. I play cards and gamble whenever I want to.” “I say, Bill,” said his friend, “I didn’t understand it that way. I thought you had to give up these things to be a Christian.”
“No, Bob,” said Bill, “the Lord took the ‘want to’ out when He saved my soul, and he made me a new creature in Christ Jesus.” ¹ What does it mean to not have the ‘want to?’ What does it mean to walk after the Spirit and not the flesh?

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Romans 8:3–4 (KJV 1900)
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
We are looking at verse four now.

• Verse four informs us God sent Jesus for this reason, ‘that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us…’
• Righteousness was the end game.
• God looked at Adam, the man He made, in the garden before he sinned and said, ‘This is very good.’
• When God created the non-human stuff of planet earth, He said of all that He created, ‘This is good’ (Gen. 1:4). But when He created man and added him to all His creation, God said ‘This is very good’ (Gen 1:31).
• Adam, before he sinned was very good.
• But after he sinned, God said ‘You are not right. We have to fix this.’
• So, what is righteousness? Righteousness is being right in the sight of God.
  • If we are referring to a believer’s righteous position before God, we are referring to being right.
  • If we are referring to works of righteousness which a believer does, then we are talking about doing right.
• Righteousness involves both ‘being’ right and ‘doing’ right.
• Now, if a man is perfect, and he did all the law, which is also perfect, and he did what the law said to do every single time the law said to do it and never missed, he would be considered right or righteous by the law.
• Another way of saying this is ‘the righteousness of the law was fulfilled in this perfect person.
• But since man is anything but perfect, the combination of the imperfect man and the perfect law causes a failure to produce God’s kind of righteousness.
• In other words, God looks at the individual who is striving to do the law, sees that he does it imperfectly, he can’t fulfill it and God the righteous says, ‘You know what, you are not right.’
  Now this was the verdict every single time, with every single man who walked the face of the earth since Adam.
• That was a problem for God and He solved it. How did He solve it?
• He sent a perfect Jesus so the law might have the chance to do what it was designed to do originally.
• So, a perfect Jesus did all the law which was also perfect, and Jesus did what the law said to do every single time the law said to do it and He never missed.
• God looked at His life and said ‘That’s right.’
• Jesus was and is declared right or righteous by the law (1 Timothy 3:16).
• Jesus was justified in the Spirit. Justified is another way of saying declared righteous.
• Now because of the principles of substitution and identification, you and I can both become right with God also.
• God said, ‘Here’s the deal. I have found a man named Jesus who did all the perfect law perfectly and did it ever time and never missed and because of that He is righteous in my sight. I am going to send Him as a substitute for you. So that when you receive Him, I will place you in Him so that when I see you, I see Him.’ And since, He is righteous, so are you.
• You can state this action of God in this way, ‘Jesus became what you were so you might become what He is.’

2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV)
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

• So again, God sent Jesus so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.

[Tweet “Jesus became what you were so you might become what He is 2Cor. 5:21.”]

The Law: Brought to a Designed End

• The word ‘fulfilled’ in Romans 8:4  means to bring to a designed end, to fulfill, complete, accomplish.
• The Jews tried to fulfill the law.
  • They wrote books and commentaries on the law, called the Talmud. The Talmud has two components, the Mishnah and the Gemara. In standard print, the Talmud is 6200 pages long. ²
  • The Jews tried, they put their best foot forward in trying to keep the law. Think of all that they did, with rabbis to teach and synagogues to instruct and ceremonies to cement, 6200 pages worth and God looked at all of that and said, ‘You are not right.’
• What the Jews tried to accomplish through self-effort, God gave to you through Jesus effort.
• How sad it is to work and toil throughout all the generations of men trying to get the gold ring, trying to acquire a God-acceptable righteousness and not being able to do it.
• The gospel contains this glorious fact.
  • The law has been fulfilled in people who were nothing but lawbreakers.
  • If we did anything well in our lives before we met Jesus it was break the law.

The Law: Do We Need It or Don’t We Need It?

• In order to become righteous before God, you don’t need it.
• But, in order to learn some things about loving God and loving man, it’s essential.
• The Law was a mirror for what love should do. Love is a big deal in the New Testament.

Romans 13:8–10 (KJV)
8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Matthew 22:36–40 (KJV)
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Galatians 5:14 (KJV )
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

• In these three verses, Rom 13:8-10, Matt. 22:36-40, and Gal. 5:14, we see the law is primarily about love.
• The selfishness of the sin nature in your flesh causes problems in the realm of love.
• This nature has kept people from loving God and loving one another as God desired.
• Jesus said the law hangs on two commandments. That is, you can boil all the law down to two things, love God and love man.
• How then am I going to put these verses into operation?

You only maximize what you emphasize.

• If you don’t emphasize the love walk, you won’t maximize the plan of God for your life.
• Studying the law is one thing, depending on it for righteousness is another.
• You don’t need the Law anymore to prove yourself to God. That’s what Romans 8:4 is telling you.
• For New Testament people to try and live under Old Testament law today, would put you into a position of trying to reestablish an acceptable righteousness to God.
• Since Jesus provided it anyway, it’s a waste time for you to try and keep it.
• Six thousand years of human history have already proven we are incapable of keeping it.
• Unless you understand the ‘WHY’ of verse four, you are left only with the information of verses 1-2.

Walking Not After the Flesh

• Walking implies use.
• Walking implies doing the Word.
• Walking implies putting God’s information into operation.
• To walk in faith, you must use faith.
• To walk in love, you must use love.

“Between saying and doing, many pairs of shoes are worn out. – Italian Proverb

• The word ‘walking’ is in the continuous sense here.
  • Meaning you can translate this phrase as ‘…who walk and who keep on walking not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.’
• You have to walk and you have to keep on walking.
• You to do and you have to keep on doing.
• We walk today and we keep on walking tomorrow.
• A little dab won’t do you.
• We perpetually walk out the practical side of positional realities.
  • We walk carefully,
  • We behave continually,
  • We live habitually according to the position that we have been placed into by God.
• If we choose to ‘walk after the flesh’, that doesn’t undo what God and Jesus did in making you righteous, but it sure hinders the manifestation of its fruit.
• When you walk after the dictates and impulses of the flesh, you walk just like the world walks.
• You become indistinct from unbelievers.

Believers Who Walk Two Ways

• Believers can walk two ways.
• They can walk according to the flesh, that means getting out of love.
  • The scripture calls that bunch carnally minded.
• They can walk according to the spirit, that means walking in love.
  • The scripture calls that bunch spiritually minded.
• Now it’s not one or the other.
• It’s not this believer is completely spiritual and this other believer is completely carnal.
• There are different stages of development and people weave in and out of them.
• Even the godliest of saints have bad days, have selfish moments.
• Mother Teresa, as saintly and godly as she has been portrayed had the sin nature. It’s hard to look at our hero’s that way but it’s absolutely the truth.
• Don’t ever put anybody up on a pedestal. Jesus is the only one who belongs there.

[Tweet “Even the godliest of saints have bad days, have selfish moments.”]

Stages of Development in God

• You may to come to church or you may know a believer and it just seems like this person is completely carnal.
  • It seems they never have grown in God.
  • You look at them and you have a hard time knowing they are even Christians.
• Then you have those who have grown some but yet still have fits of carnality in their lives.
  • They walk in love some and they get over into strife some.
  • They seem to weave in and out of the two.
  • Most days they are more carnal than spiritual.
  • When some more growth occurs this flip flops, they are more spiritual than carnal.
• And then there are those who are more constantly walking in love and very rarely get over into strife.
• Growing up in God means you become are more and more spiritual minded and less and less carnal minded.
• It’s all process and development.

Question of the Day

• Since the new creation contains the most miraculous thing that takes place in the realm of man, why did we not have a full realization of salvation? Why make us wait for the redemption of the body? Why do we have to do all this ‘walking out’ stuff?
• When we said, ‘Yes’ to Jesus couldn’t God have given us new bodies right then and there along with our new spirit’s?
• God could have given us the fullness of redemption in both our spirits and our bodies but we need our old body so that we might effectively minister in this realm.
• Glorified bodies, or spiritual bodies are an entirely different species of human body (Luke. 24:39). They are able to go through walls (Luke 24:36), they are able to disappear (Luke 24:31).
• Look at Jesus glorified body after the resurrection. Our bodies are fashioned like His (Philippians 3:21). Note after Jesus received His body, He continued on planet earth for 40 days before He had to leave (Acts 1:11).
• The spiritual maturity needed to operate responsibly with this type of equipment should not be underestimated.
• Can you imagine brand new believers in Christ with this type of ‘walking through walls capability’ and they’re carnal?
• Believers have to learn how to walk in love.
• They have to learn how to operate in faith.
• They have to know how to be led by the Spirit and move in authority.
• The time to learn it is now.

Call to Action:

You will either learn to walk in these truths here on planet earth or you’re going to learn it when you leave this planet. Who knows, you may end in a Bible Study in heaven and say to yourself, ‘You know I heard this planet earth. Brother Emery taught it.’ One thing is for sure. You are going to learn.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on Roaming through Romans by visiting the following posts:

1. #S2-020: How Romans Can Add Value to Your Life [Podcast]
2. #S2-021:  Why There Is No Condemnation In Christ [Podcast]
3. #S2-022: Why the Law of the Spirit of Life Sets You Free [Podcast]
4. #S2-026: Why Keeping the Law Won’t Get You to Heaven [Podcast]

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Question: Did you ever encounter a person entangled with doing the Law to try and become righteous before. Comment on the struggle you observed. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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