Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Falling for Lesser Loves | New Testament | Romans 8

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Where does your mind go when you're alone? What motivates you to live like Jesus? In today's episode, Tanya shares good news from Romans 8: there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Find out how to live in this freedom. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Romans 8

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. Hi, listeners, let's do a little thought experiment. Think about one of your worst and most annoying flaws. Don't let yourself off easy. Nail biting is not an option. Mine is that I become manipulative when I'm overwhelmed or stressed. I can use my words in a very calculated and self-righteous way to take control over people's

emotions, and it's just not good. Now, imagine that someone you love very much accepts you, even with that flaw. They don't turn their back on it, but they recognize it and love you, even though they fully know about it. Would that motivate you to want to change? In Romans 8, Paul explains the new life Christians now enjoy as a result of Christ's saving work. It tells about how God's love means condemnation and bondage no longer exist when people put their trust in Jesus. They aren't just gone for a time and then come back, but condemnation and bondage actually cease to exist. In Romans 8.1, Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law

of sin and death. So two words, no condemnation. Well, those tell us our position as Christians. And three words, set you free. Those tell us our motivation as Christians. And we're going to talk about both. So not condemned. Well, that's a legal term. And it means we don't have charges against us. We are free of any debt or any penalty. Just think about how amazing that is. God has nothing against you. Okay, Paul doesn't just say we aren't condemned, but he uses the phrase no condemnation. That is a strong phrase that means none at all. It's not attached to a way that we're living right now that will need to be addressed later down the road if we make a mistake. It means condemnation for Christians doesn't exist. So when you do sin, you don't have to

confess to avoid punishment, but you confess to allow God's love to comfort you again. again with the truth of your uncondemned status that doesn't change. Tim Keller said, the moment we come into Christ Jesus, condemnation is gone forever. There is nothing but acceptance and love for us. Wow. So if condemnation isn't our problem,

we have a different one, forgetfulness. If you're a parent, don't you sometimes wonder, why did my kid do that? I've given them freedom and support and love, why did they feel the need to take advantage of all that? I don't think it's because they don't love us, but because they're forgetful,

because they also love lots of other things, because they love themselves, and they love what other people think of them, and they love attention. They have lots of other loves, just like we do, right? When we forget to make God's love, the big thing that all the whole, that all, of our other motivations and decisions fall under, we fall for lesser loves, and we put our love in things less than God, and we create a cycle that God wants to keep us out of. Falling for lesser loves makes us feel unworthy and shameful, and then we want to hide and withdraw. It makes us feel needy, and we do weird things to get attention. It makes us hypersensitive

to feedback and criticism, and we become defensive. It zaps, our confidence and our relationships, and we assume the worst about people. It can even lay seeds of addictive behavior as a way of dealing with the guilt we feel when we forget that we are loved and accepted by God. The good news Paul shares is that we don't just have ourselves to fight these temptations, but we have the Holy Spirit. Life in the Spirit means no condemnation, and it also means no bondage to sin. Or in other words, the cross dealt with our punishment and our problem. But we know what we're really like, right?

Which is why we have trouble imagining unconditional love. So why would God send his son to do this for us? Why did he send his son to do this for us? Paul answers that question in verse four. And it's so we might not walk in accordance with the flesh, but in the spirit. it's so we might live a holy life. Jesus had a better way of living in mind for us when he went to the cross. When we choose sin, we're forgetting the purpose of Jesus' life and Jesus' suffering.

So that then is our incentive and our motive to live a holy life. In the remainder of Romans 8, Paul explains how we can't rely on our own efforts for real change, but we should rely on the work of the spirit. verse 5 says for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on things of the spirit do you hear in that verse how closely thinking and living are connected what we're doing with our minds like contemplating believing fixating occupying all of those things shape who we are and what we choose it shapes what comes out of our mouths it shapes our motives so what do you give the power to fixate

thoughts. Is it food or drink? Is it sex? Is it approval? Where do your thoughts, in other words, go when you have some space or time or some aloneness? When the Bible says the Christian is no longer under bondage, we should understand that our thoughts don't have the ability to carry us away without our approval. It's because we have the Holy Spirit to help us. When we're fixated on something that isn't good, we have prayer, we have worship, we have gratitude, We have the ability to pause. We have all of these tools plus others in our toolkit. And the Holy Spirit also makes us aware.

Sometimes I get stuck here, actually, in the awareness phase. And I'm not willing to move into the change phase. Like, yes, I'm aware that this change of plans is throwing me off kilter. And I'm reacting like a two-year-old. But I'm not yet ready to deal with the way that I'm acting. I'm being honest, but I'm not making an excuse. I don't want to get stuck there because it's not the best. life for me or the people around me. What about you? What do you do with your thoughts in private? Will you

bring them under the power of the spirit next time? Where do you feel condemnation? And what makes you feel that way? Will you remember there is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus? Romans 8 ends with a blessed truth that's given me a lot of encouragement over the last few years. If you're a memorizer, you should put this one in your memory box. Romans 837. Now, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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