Lloyd-Jones calls Romans 8.15-17 “…one of the most magnificent statements that is found anywhere in the whole realm and range of the Scriptures…”. However, he says, we so often don’t apply the big truth therein to ourselves and to our lives.
Paul is, he writes, dealing with the problem of practically living out the Christian life and how we deal with our propensity to sin. We still have, in part, a spirit of slavery (v.15). This arises within us when we try to live in a new and different, in a sanctified way. We can then end up turning our newfound Christian faith and life into a list of rules to keep, boxes to check, and a law to uphold. We can fall into the trap, Lloyd-Jones says, of seeing “the Christian life as [a] great task with [we] have to take up…”
Simply, we want to live holy and sanctified lives but struggle. We fear failing and incurring the consequences.
So, what do we do?
“…you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) — if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.”
(Romans 8.15-17, NET)
We shouldn’t have a fear of failing before God anymore. There is no need to have a fear of failure or a fear of ourselves because we are now viewed as children of God (v.15). Upon taking the Christian life as our own we want to live a life that is pleasing to God (2 Timothy 2.4) but we fear failing here because, well, we’re people (Isaiah 64.6). We find ourselves in a bind: we want to live holy lives but fear failing because of our flesh.
Lloyd-Jones writes this, a great thought to take into the day.
“There is nothing that is so calculated to promote holiness as the realization that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, that our destiny is certain and secure, that nothing can prevent it. Realizing that, we purify ourselves even as He is pure, and we feel that there is no time to waste.”
(Spiritual Depression, P.174)
James Travis 