So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (9) But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (10) And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul and he is addressing the faithful in Rome. The faithful who believe in Christ Jesus belong to Him for time and eternity. They are those who do not walk according to the flesh (natural man) but according to the Spirit – they have been justified by faith in Christ and enjoy new life and peace with God. The unbelieving (those in the flesh or natural man) are hostile toward God and spiritually incapable of trusting Christ for salvation. This human inability is the fundamental fact of theology. Self ruin is possible but self recovery is not. Faith is contrary to the principle of good works.

In verse 9, Paul turns to the faithful who are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. The test of genuine Christianity is the indwelling Spirit; His presence is manifest in the christian behavior and a guarantee of deliverance. We walk in the Spirit but deliverance – sanctification – is a process. The Lord Christ Jesus has delivered believers from spiritual death; our physical body will die because of sin but one day our mortal body will be resurrected through the indwelling Spirit.

The vital thing about faith in Christ is the Spirit has caused us to be born again. The Spirit dwells in every believer and enables them/us to live a holy life (sanctification) and helps us to pray. We want/need to live a holy life which reminds me of Martin Luther who declared “Here I stand. I can do no other.” We strive to behave as we believe.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (9) (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), (10) finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. (11) And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. (12) For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. (13) But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. (14) Therefore He says: “Awake you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the apostle Paul. In our verses today Paul tells us how we, as children of the light, should relate to a morally dark world – he is not giving specific directions but providing comprehensive guiding principles. As natural man we were in darkness, neither able or wanting to know God; living entirely for ourselves. Those who walk in darkness are said to be themselves darkness. Now in faith, we are children of the Light – the life of Christ is the light of man. If we are reborn of God we possess a new and divine nature to walk in goodness and righteousness and truth. Righteousness is simply doing what is right. Truth has to do with our own inner sincerity – we will be real, genuine in dealing with God and man.

The faithful are to have no sympathy of indulgence or excuse for the deeds of darkness. We are not to relate to the lost; to become so much like the world in it’s attitudes and behavior. We can minimize cultural differences but are warned to not compromise the gospel. Sin has no result but sin and the suffering of the lost. We are charged to expose evil by the light of Christ’s truth. To walk as children of the light we must BE children of the light – a profound change in our new birth in Christ in faith

Paul advises the his readers to wake up from lethargy and carelessness. Reprove the works of darkness by how we live in the light which is the very nature of God – in Him there is no darkness at all. Enjoy peace with God. Wake up. Put things right and then trust God for the rest.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (5) Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (6) For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (7) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. (8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. Paul has settled the question that justification is by faith and not man’s good works. All who are justified have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ by the blood of the cross. It is settled forever. We also have access to God by faith alone in Christ alone into the grace in which we stand. Peace here is not a state of mind or heart but a condition; sin had alienated God and man, a breach man could not mend. Our sins are not simply covered but removed in Christ – it is not a precarious state.

The hope of the believer certainly ends in salvation. At the moment of faith in Christ Jesus, the Spirit becomes indwelling – this benefit of justification is hope which will not disappoint. The love of God is in our hearts – given us by the Spirit despite the unworthiness of it’s objects as sinners, ungodly and enemies. We were not able to understand spiritual truth nor, in sin, did we want to. While we were alienated with God and rejected Him, He came to us in Christ’s atoning perfect death. Through the Spirit God worked in us a change of will. In justification the faithful are now children of God.

Our verses today do away with all works based salvation – it is not because of our loveliness but in the constancy of the love of God. Our hope of heaven is secure because it doesn’t have anything to do with us – it is rather in spite of us. It is all and only of grace – all through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, (9) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, (10) but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

The second letter to Timothy was written by the apostle Paul to his beloved companion and son in Christ. Paul wrote this letter while imprisoned in the Mamertine prison in Rome awaiting execution. Paul was treated like a despised criminal in disgrace all for preaching the gospel and he writes this final letter to Timothy to warn him (and us) against being ashamed of the gospel or ashamed of Paul. The testimony of our Lord is a testimony of a crucified Savior.

The salvation of men was completed in the “shameful” death of Christ and cannot be sought anywhere but in Christ. Death on a cross was considered a curse by the Jews and ignominious to the Romans – so terrible that Roman citizens were legally not to suffer this death. Whoever shall revolt or shrink from the cross will always be afraid of the gospel – some have a crisis of faith, some run at criticism, ridicule, conflict, slander, false accusations. The Christian lives in enemy territory but God will give us strength and power so that we might turn away from present weakness or shame while the unbeliever remains in hardness of heart. The battle is between this world and our holy calling.

The subject of shame is a big one but our verses are confined to shame of testimony of the gospel. The Christian believes this world is passing away and the only shame that matters is from denial of Christ. C.s. Lewis writes in my favorite, ‘The Weight of Glory’ – “in the end that Face which is the delight or terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us with one expression or the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised. I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important but infinitely more important.”