Romans 8:1-8. No In Between. 

1. Why do we want to talk about this? Verses 1-8. 

1. The depravity of man is a difficult topic to hear because it pierces us at our innermost being, it crushes any pride we may have. Sadly, it’s rarely talked about today because of how it drives away many, as the truths from Scripture almost always do (1 Corinthians 2:14). 

2. We live in a time where people are obsessive over the idea of “free will” and believe man is born with a neutral free will (the ability to choose good or evil without divine intervention). This is not what Scripture clearly teaches and shows a lack of biblical literacy and knowledge among Christians. 

2. How many different kinds of people are there in the world? Verses 1-8. 

   1. There are many ways to answer this question, but in terms of spiritual condition there are only two types of people: those in the flesh and those in the Spirit. 

      1. Other ways of describing the two types of people are:

         1. Slaves to sin and slaves to Christ.

         2. Slaves to sin and slaves to the Spirit. 

         3. Slaves to sin and slaves to righteousness. 

         4. Those under sin and those under Christ. 

         5. Those serving Satan and those serving Christ. 

         6. Children of wrath and children of God. 

         7. Those under condemnation and those under justification. 

3. What is condemnation? Verse 1. 

   1. Condemnation, coming from katakrima in Greek, appears only three times in the NT (Romans 5:16, 18, 8:1) and is used exclusively in judicial settings as the opposite of justification. It refers to the verdict of the guilty and the penalty that verdict calls for. In other words, man has sinned against God and broken the covenant of works. Therefore man stands condemned before God because he is unable to do anything to earn back a right standing before God. All have sinned and fallen short and all are justly condemned before God (3:23). All deserve to be punished according to God’s standards, which say that the wages of sin is death (6:23). All of humanity deserves to be punished in hell under the eternal wrath of God. This is how serious condemnation is. 

   2. “Unbelievers like to pretend that the great moral dilemma is ‘how could a loving God send anyone to Hell?’ But that is not the real problem. He could do that just by issuing everyone their paycheck. The wages of sin is death. The real problem, the one requiring the death of Jesus as a solution, is how a holy God can let anyone into Heaven. God wants to declare His righteousness two ways. He wants to declare that He is just and the one who justifies. He could be just and damn us all. He could forgive us in a boys-will-be-boys kind of way, but that would make Him unjust along with us. The gospel is found in that glorious word and.” - Doug Wilson, To the Church in Rome.

4. How are all three persons of the Trinity active in our Christian lives? Verses 1-4. 

5. Now let’s shift our focus from those in the Spirit to those in the flesh. We will later come back to compare the two after discussing the Doctrine of Total Depravity. 

6. To what extent has sin tainted mankind? Verses 5-8. 

   1. Is man naturally good or naturally evil? 

      1. Evil (Romans 5:7-8, 12, and 19). 

   2. All men? Are there any exceptions? 

      1. No (Luke 18:19, Romans 3:9-20 and 23, 1 John 1:8-10). 

   3. Are we truly evil in the depths of our heart? 

      1. Yes (Psalm 5:9 and Mark 7:21-23). 

   4. Are men totally depraved? Is every part of man corrupted by sin? 

      1. Our hearts are deceitful (Ecclesiastes 9:3 and Jeremiah 17:9). 

      2. Our wills are bound by sin (Psalm 51:5, John 8:34, Romans 1:18-32, Romans 3:10-12, Romans 8:7-8, and Ephesians 2:1-3). 

      3. Our desires are perverted (Proverbs 14:12, John 3:19, and John 8:44). 

      4. We are radically corrupted by sin, it has tainted the totality of mankind (Romans 7:18, and Titus 1:15-16). 

7. We are totally depraved in our unregenerate state. We can do nothing to serve God, we cannot please God in the flesh (Romans 8:8). We do not desire the God of the Bible so we make idols of our own. Calvin describes the human heart as an “idol factory.” As Jonathan Edwards described us, we are all Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. We are by nature totally opposed to God, following the passions of our flesh that we have had since conception, under bondage to sin and service to Satan. 

   1. This does not mean that all men are as bad as they could be, but that sin has affected all parts of man. 

8. Why do we believe this about the serial killer, but not ourselves? 

   1. Our feet are quick to shed blood too. Look at the Sermon on the Mount.

   2. When we have hatred in our hearts towards others we have already murdered them in our hearts. When we lust after others we have already committed adultery in our hearts. We are totally depraved, we are radically corrupted by sin. 

   3. Seriously consider this, if there were no laws caging up our sin, what would our world really look like? Think about how many the act of abortion murders each year. When there is an option to sin and the legal system validates it people will swarm to the sin. People will murder by aborting babies because that is how depraved humanity truly is, with many even willing to defend or fight for the right to murder an unborn child. Why are there so fewer homicides? The penalty for murdering a grown person is far greater than that of murdering the unborn. 

   4. The thought of what I would be like without Christ, if there was nothing caging up my sin, absolutely horrifies me. 

      1. “You can cage evil, but there’s nothing you or I can do to eradicate it.” - Voddie Baucham.

9. Contrast those in the flesh to those in the Spirit. Verses 5-9. 

10. It should be noted that those in the flesh love (agapē) sin unconditionally. It is unconditional because it does not depend on the one or thing being loved, but on the commitment and faithfulness of the one loving. Sin brings death, yet those in the flesh remain faithful to it (John 3:19, 1 John 2:15). 

11. How do we know if we are in the Spirit or remain in the flesh? Verses 5-9. 

    1. Self-examination: John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 13:5 

       1. “Are you in Adam or in Christ? Are you of the world or of Christ? Are you lost or are you saved, unconverted or converted? Every one of us needs to examine ourselves to see whether we have been born again. Are you birthed by the Spirit of God into the kingdom of God? … There is only one way to be in Christ, and that is to be born again by believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ.” - Steven Lawson. 

    2. Self-renunciation: Matthew 6:33 

       1. “If you realize that you are living according to the flesh, then you need to repent and turn away from your carnal pursuits and desires. You must deny yourself and take up your cross. You must renounce your old way of life. You cannot have one foot in the old way of life and one foot in the new way of life.” - Steven Lawson. 

    3. Self-presentation: Romans 12:1-2 

       1. “Having renounced our old way of life, we now present ourselves to Jesus Christ to live out this new manner of life. We must entrust our life to Christ. We must submit to the law of God and live in obedience to it. … We must continually present ourselves to God.” - Steven Lawson. TO BE REWRITTEN. 

11. How do we practically walk in the power of the Holy Spirit? Verses 1-8. 

    1. Intentionally. We must be aware of our weakness and need for the power of the Holy Spirit. We must purposefully yield to the lordship of Christ. This includes everything, not just spiritual matters. Remember, it is all from God’s grace. 

       1. How often do you intentionally yield to Christ? 

    2. Continually. We must always walk according to the Spirit. We do not take timeouts from walking according to the power of the Spirit. Would you take a timeout from using life support?

       1. How often do you take breaks from walking in the Spirit? 

    3. Humbly. We must submit our lives to the Person of the Holy Spirit. We must confess our constant need for the Spirit’s help. 

       1. How often do you rely on your own strength instead of the Spirit’s?

    4. Obediently. The Law requires obedience and those who are born again must love the Law of God. We must keep and obey it from our hearts; this is willing and joyful obedience, not obeying despite a sense of coercion or against our will. 

       1. How often do you disobey the Law of God? 

    5. Prayerfully. We must ask God through prayer to give us the power of His Spirit to live in a way that glorifies Him and honors the Lord Jesus Christ. 

       1. How often do you pray to God for assistance in walking by the Spirit? 

12. Because of our depravity, what is our default status before God? 

    1. We are debtors. We have a sin debt before God. 

13. Are we able to pay for this debt ourselves? 

    1. Yes, eternity in hell under the wrath of God. 

14. What hope do we have? 

    1. But God (Ephesians 2:4-10), being rich in mercy towards sinners like us, had predetermined a plan in which He would bring about the redemption of sinners through the virgin birth, sinless life, death on a cross, and resurrection three days later of His own Son, Jesus of Nazareth. The Messiah, the Lamb of God.  

    2. THEREFORE THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE IN CHRIST JESUS (ROMANS 8:1-17). THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH IN CHRIST MAY NOW WALK IN FREEDOM FROM SIN (JOHN 8:36) BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AT WORK WITHIN THEM (GALATIANS 2:20). 

15. What must we do now that our debt to God has been paid by God? 

    1. He died so that we may live, we owe Him our lives, therefore let us live for Him. 

    2. We must share the good news of the gospel of Christ crucified with everyone. PEOPLE CANNOT COME TO KNOW CHRIST APART FROM THE GOSPEL. 

       1. Knowing the depravity of man should drastically affect both our drive to share the gospel and the way we share it with others (Romans 10:14-17).  

16. How must this impact how we share the gospel with others? 

    1. It angers me to see how many Christians evangelize, if they do at all. 

    2. We hear things like, “Oh He’s just yearning for you, He’s longing for you, He wants friendship and relationship with you, He needs you, oh you’re breaking His heart.” But really, “No, He’s gonna break you.” - Voddie Baucham. 

    3. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, He is sovereign over all and He demands repentance and faith. We must not sissify Christ. 

    4. Do you really think God would crush and kill His own Son but let you slide?

    5. Simply telling someone, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” is true but oh so misleading to the natural man. Here’s why, they love themselves too, they too have a wonderful plan for their life, therefore they begin to think they are like God. In reality, they likely already are their own god. 

    6. We must not see people like the world sees people, we must see people as sinners in desperate need of a Savior. We must understand the depravity of man and be prepared to share this with others, for if this bad news is not shared then the good news of the gospel isn’t really good news. 

    7. This last point is more of a personal conviction, but I do not believe we should ask people to “accept Jesus into their heart.” It’s not inherently wrong to say, but it is not found in Scripture, which tells us repeatedly that sinners need to “repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). 

17. Resources: 

    1. RA_ Predestination and Free Will.pdfRA_ Predestination and Free Will.pdfSamson’s Mullet.  

    2. Romans: An Expositional Commentary Ligonier, RC Sproul.

    3. The MacArthur Bible Commentary John MacArthur.  

    4. The Cup Consumed for Us desiringGod. 

    5. Romans 8:8 Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God Bible Hub. 

    6. Worse Than We Think: What Total Depravity Is (and Is Not) desiringGod. 

    7. "Those Who Are in the Flesh Cannot Please God" Monergism. 

    8. What does Romans 8:8 mean? Bible Ref. 

    9. Total Depravity by John Piper Monergism.

    10. The Mind Set on the Flesh Ligonier. 

        1. Total Depravity AKA Radical Corruption, Ligonier.  

    11. Total Depravity Verse List Travis Carden. 

        1. What Does the Bible Say About Total Depravity? Open Bible Info.

18. Sermons:

    1. Romans, Vol. 05 (6:11-8:11) GTY, John MacArthur. 

    2. The Doctrine of Total Depravity - Voddie Baucham 

    3. The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing   The Doctrine of Absolute Inability Session III

    4. Paul Washer: God's holiness and man's depravity

    5. Total Depravity (Part 1): What is Reformed Theology? with R.C. Sproul 

    6. Total Depravity (Part 2): What is Reformed Theology? with R.C. Sproul