Joshua Grant, Master of Divinity graduate (2024) and 2024 recipient of the Al and Beverly Fasol Preaching Award, preached from Romans in SWBTS Chapel on November 21, 2024.
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Well, good morning. TBC and SWBTS How we doing? I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to stand where some men that I admire have graced this stage, and it’s really humbling for me as a student who only graduated in May, to be able to say I’ve been invited back by Dr McKellar. It’s kind of wild for me to even say that. So, thank you for allowing me to be here. Thank you to the faculty and staff for all that y’all have invested into me. And I’m just I get excited doing this, because while I am standing in the same place as a lot of great men. I have one advantage over all of them. I graduated in May, okay? And what I mean is I sat exactly where you’re sitting right now, not that long ago, that where you’re at right now.
I understand the pressure of what’s happening in the midst of finals, you got three papers due, and you’re like, I’m pulling my hair out. Oh, also, I have this job on the side that I’m supposed to be doing as well. All of those things are happening and they’re all converging to one central place. Is what it feels like right now. And for me, that happened in may see my wife got pregnant nine months before I was supposed to graduate in May, and we were walking through this whole process, and I realized my second daughter was due three weeks after when I was supposed to graduate on that Friday. And I got to this place that I was like, okay, I got to pray to the Lord that my daughter does not come before I graduate. Right?
Like, we have to get all the papers done. I have to get all the assignments done. And I was like, Lord, would you please? Please? Just like, make it to where Haven shows up after I graduate? Please, please. And so thankfully, my wife showed up to my graduation pregnant. We did not have our baby before that happened, but God has a sense of humor. And on Monday, we had our second daughter. So, after graduating on Friday, we had our daughter on Monday. And so, for me, it was really this place of I thought I was gonna get a break, but in life was super busy right at the end of graduation, like, things were kind of crazy. And then I got to the place, then I was like, okay, I can take a breath. And we went and picked blackberries on Saturday. And I was like, things are gonna be okay for like, three weeks.
And then we went into the hospital on Monday afternoon, right? And it was like, seriously, this is how this is all gonna crazy be. And then something happened with my daughter. It’s just been kind of this whirlwind since then, but it’s been this amazing journey that I’ve been on with the second one in particular, we’ll talk about the two-year-old here in a little bit. But with the six-month-old, for the first couple of months, she did not like me at all. I don’t know if anybody else has felt this. If you got kids and you’re the dad, sometimes this happens where it’s like, no, no, I have such a bond with mom, but you hand me off to this weird looking guy who I don’t really know why he is holding me at this point. And so, we would do things like go to my second daughter’s dance class.
No, I did not dance. I was in charge of the baby while mom and sister danced. So, I would be in charge of the of having of our second and I would feed her the bottle. And as I did that, she would just yell, like in my face, even though I have what she wants, right? Like she’s yelling at me because she’s hungry and she’s like, and she’s like, why won’t you feed me? And I’m like, Dude, I’m trying here, right? Like I’ve got what you want, and I’m trying to give it to you, but because of her desires and her flesh, what exists within her, this physical desire that exists within her. She’s yelling at me, saying, why won’t you give me what I need? But then there was this change somewhere around three to four months, and she started smiling, and she’d look at her dad, and she would see me, and she’d be like, it’s almost the sense of like she could trust me, because she knew that I was going to give her the bottle. She started to smile because she knew I had good things for her, her relationship with her father brought provision that led to her joy that was written all over her face.
So, what do I tell you that? Because this is. Christian life. That’s what following Jesus is. We’re going to be in Romans chapter eight today. So, if you want to go ahead and turn there you can. We will be starting in verse 12. But I want to give you a preview of what we’re going to get into here, and kind of tell you the four story of what’s happening in Romans, so that it will set up this passage, okay, so in Romans chapter one, and then going into chapter two, you get these two groups of people. And really, these are the two groups of people that exist within the Roman church. Okay, that there are the Gentiles and the Jews, and they have clashed together within this Roman Church, that they’ve come together, and they’ve tried to make one United Church, and they’re trying to decide, okay, how do we live life in Unity together? And then you get into Romans, chapter eight.
And at the beginning of Romans, chapter eight, it starts talking about this war that’s going on the inside of us between the spirit and the flesh and the flesh. In certain passages that Paul writes really means our flesh and bone, but what he’s talking about here is this underlying desire that we have to go after what our body needs. This is what Haven was dealing with. She had this physical desire that was causing her to act out. Okay? And so, in Romans, chapter eight says, Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. That’s the beginning of Romans, chapter eight. And then it walks through this path of like, I’m no longer in this fleshly state. I’m in the Spirit, and things have changed dramatically. I’ve gone from the flesh to the Spirit. So, what does that exchange actually change? Let’s start in verse 12.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh. There’s an assumption there, if we are no longer obligated, then at one point, we were right, that there was this place that there’s nothing that we could do to get ourselves out of the choice of choosing to go after our flesh. That’s what Paul is saying here, that there was an obligation. There is now in Christ, no longer an obligation here. But it’s interesting, in this passage, there’s not going to be any commands between verses 12 through 17. And as you look in that it becomes no longer a command to do these things.
It is you have a choice of one way to go or the other. We have a decision to make, and we need wisdom in choosing the way that God would want us to go. But the first step in wisdom is realizing what’s the wrong way to go. If I’m naturally built in to go in a certain direction. How do I not go down that path and instead choose the path that God has for me? So, what does it look like to live according to the flesh? Well, I think in order to answer that, you really got to go back to the beginning, to the first time that somebody lived according to the flesh that’s in Genesis chapter Genesis, chapter three. And what Adam and Eve did in Genesis chapter three is they said, okay, I see this good thing, or at least I think it’s good. And God told me not to do this, but I’m not going to act on the good thing that God told me I’m going to act on, this flesh that my body is telling me to go after, this thing that I see that I think is good, therefore I’m deciding good and evil on my own terms. This is living in the flesh. Living in the flesh is independence from what God has told us.
If I’m living in the flesh, it’s God has told me something, and I’m going in a different direction. And see this happened with both of these groups that were in the Roman church as well, that you’ve got in Romans chapter one the Gentiles, and it talks about this blatant sinfulness that exist within them, that they are struggling with sexual sin. They’re struggling with hating. It’s this deep, dark place. And you get to the end of Romans chapter one, and you’re like, I don’t want to be that way. And you can kind of almost hear the Jews pipe up and go, yeah, I’m glad I’m not one of them. And then Paul gets to Romans chapter two, where he goes, you’re just like them, only it’s actually your religious acts that are causing you to be that way, that you’ve done this quid pro quo thing. What does that mean? That’s this for that, right? That’s when I act a certain way that God will give me this. It’s works justification. It’s if I perform these duties, then I’ll get the good thing that I know that God has for me, it’s things like pride and power.
See, I really believe that this isn’t just what’s happening within the Roman church. I believe that this is what happens in each one of us as well that there is blatant sinfulness that we struggle with. There’s blatant sinfulness that some of you right now are struggling with. Some of you are struggling with sexual sin right now, in a room like this, there’s someone in here that is struggling with that. Maybe you’re struggling with alcoholism. There’s some blatant sinfulness that exists within your life. And for others, it’s not the blatant sinfulness. Maybe that’s the issue. It’s I keep performing these religious acts, and it’s leading me to a place of thinking that I know how this thing works, that I’ve figured out the solution of what it looks like to be in control of my own relationship with God, and I’m not letting him lead both of these I think, lead to a false sense of control. It reminds me of my second daughter.
So, we were sitting there one day. I’m actually this is after I’ve learned how to feed the six-month-old. Okay, so I’m feeding my six-month-old, and we’re sitting there, and as we’re sitting there, she is playing, but she’s kind of eating at the same time. That’s what two-year-olds do. They’re like walking around with a cheese stick and like a beef stick, and they’re walking around. And so, she sits down, and she goes and gets this cup. It’s her little owl cup. She loves owls. So, she puts her beef stick in this sippy cup. I’m like, that’s weird. I don’t know what she’s doing. Luckily, there’s nothing in the cup, but she sits there and she’s like, okay, I’ve got to figure this out. So, she puts her beef stick in the sippy cup, and she puts the lid on it, but it’s not all the way on it. I’m like, okay, what’s gonna go on?
And she starts to go. I was like, hold up. I don’t think you know how the laws of physics work, right? Like, I don’t think you understand that. Like, solids don’t go through a straw like that. I get it. She’s two. She doesn’t really understand. So, I’m like, hey Ren and I can’t move right, like, I’m feeding the four-month-old at the time. So, I’m feeding the four month old. And I’m like, hey Renly, that’s not going to work. And she’s like, oh. And she goes, the lid is not on. And I go, no, no, you can’t drink the beef stick through the straw. And she goes, I know. Liz, not on. And trying to describe how the laws of physics work to a two-year-old, if you’ve ever tried to do it, is not very successful. It’s very difficult to explain that a solid can’t go through a straw to a two-year-old, because every time she closes the lid, it works because mommy and daddy give her liquids in this cup, not beef sticks.
I think this is me and my relationship with Jesus so many times. What I mean is I have decided that I know the right way to do things. I’ve decided on my own terms what it looks like to get happiness out of this life. And I keep putting things in and trying to solve things my own way, and when they don’t work, I go, God, I have the solution for it. Would you just put the lid on? Like, like, just give me. That last little piece that I need to make the whole thing work, and he’s going, that’s not how any of this works. You can’t figure this out on your own. You need me to do this and give you good things. You cannot drink a beef stick through a straw. Josh, I insist on my own way, but I’m disappointed with the results.
So, if I live that way, what’s the results? Well, it goes into verse 13. Verse 13 says this because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s spirit are God’s sons, so that when I live according to the flesh, our independence, that we do things our own way actually leads us to a place of insufficiency, that as I’ve done this and I’ve tried to make it happen, that it doesn’t actually work, like God has told me, and it leads me to a place that I’m like, I can’t actually do this. I can’t do what you’ve asked me to do, I think. But I’m actually operating my own way. And this is actually what I really love about new believers. Like, if you get around new believers, like their own insufficiency has come to light for them, and they go, I got nothing, like I tried to do it my way, and it wrecked like it bombed out hard, and God gave me grace, and he showed up for me, and I’m here, and I got nothing, and it’s just The goodness of God that I’m here in this place, in the first place. I love that about new believers. It gives me such life to be around new believers in that way, because they’re so raw, they’re so honest about who they are, like they’re just real. It’s actually what I love about younger college students. They’re just super honest. They don’t even know how to not be honest.
But here’s the deal. It says that if you live according to the flesh, you’re going to die. And yet, there are a lot of believers in this room who probably feel like they’re dying life’s real hard right now. And I have to ask myself, okay, if I feel like I’m dying, am I operating in my own insufficiency by trying to be independent of God? Here’s the good news. Paul gives us the remedy right after that. But if by the Spirit, you put to deed to death, the deeds of the body you will live. So this is present tense here that this is an ongoing thing, that the Spirit is going to have an ongoing process that exists within you, that as you continually allow the Spirit to kill this on the inside of you, you’ll live that life comes from admitting that you’re insufficient and you have to fit depend on the spirit to actually kill the flesh that exists within you.
That’s difficult to do. It’s really easy for me to get up here and say that right, like it’s cool for the guy behind the pulpit to say that, okay, I can say, let’s kill the flesh, but that means I gave up all that I know how to do everything in operating in my own mind, And how I have operated for my entire life has to die so that I can live away, according to the way that God has called me to live, easy to say, incredibly difficult to do. But it also says that for all those who are led by God’s spirit are God’s sons. See, they were having this argument within the Roman Church of who’s in and who’s out right. Like, like, did the Jews got it right, and you got to, like, do these like, fizz? Cool things in order to be in the family of God, like who gets in and who gets out, and Paul goes, you know how somebody is in or they’re out, all those led by God’s spirit are God’s sons.
That if you have God’s Spirit, if you see somebody moving with God, that person has been adopted into the family, and as that your identity as a son guides you that your actions don’t lead to your identity. Your identity leads you into action. So verse 15, how do I know when I’m operating in the flesh? For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. So fear is how you lived in the flesh, that it’s this process if I as I’m choosing, remember this is a choice. Now. We no longer have it. We’re no longer obligated to the flesh. We have a choice of which way to go, and that as I’m pursuing a choice, how do I know whether I’m operating in the flesh? Because fear will crop up in the midst of that, it reminds me of Shawshank Redemption. I don’t even know if you can say that at swivets, but it does so. Shawshank Redemption is a horrible movie at points and incredibly beautiful at others, but one of the points that just really sticks with me throughout all time is how this guy, red, is played by Morgan Freeman, becomes a grocery clerk like he bags people’s groceries, and every time that he has to go use the restroom, red asked to go use the restroom because he’s been programmed as an inmate to ask to do everything. See, red is free, but he doesn’t know how to live free. He’s been released from slavery, but the chains are still on him. Just because you’re free doesn’t mean you know how to live free. You right.
Okay. So, if we have those fears, then what are they like? How can I identify them so that I can see, well, Paul’s actually gonna give us the opposite of those things, so that we can look at like, okay, how do I take that and go on the opposite side of those fears? How do I operate in what God has called me to do? So that’s what he says. Second half of 15. He says, instead, you receive the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, cry out, Abba Father. The Spirit himself testifies, together with our spirit, that if we are God’s children, that we are God’s children. And if children also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him, so that there is this place of a fear based works mentality that exists in that and Paul’s going, No, you operate the opposite way that I’m adopted, that you are an adopted child of God, and also that as a part of that adoption, that you’re included in inheritance.
So, what’s the fear? The fear is the opposite of that, right, that if that’s the way to operate in God and what He has called you to do, then the opposite of that would be operating in the flesh. And there’s these two fears. It’s really our independence leads us to a place of a lack of relationship, that I’m fearing a lack of relationship, and if you’re if you’re dealing with a blatant sinfulness, it’s really that I’ll be judged by a God who exists because of what I’ve done. And I know some of y’all are feeling that this morning, you don’t feel like you can be honest with somebody about what you’re struggling with, for fear that you might be judged.
God has called you a son or a daughter. That’s your identity, not what you’ve done. The other side of that is religious activity. Some of us operate in this place. Purpose of doing good things for God, hoping that he’ll like us at the end of it, we’ve got really good accolades. People think we’re real good in church, and if I do the right things, that will put me in a place where maybe God will love me. And that’s the gospel flipped on its head. You’re already a son or a daughter of God. You already have a relationship with him. You don’t need to work to make that better, you can’t improve it. You’re adopted. There is no improvement on that relationship. You are that’s your identity.
The other fear comes from your insufficiency. It’s a lack of provision. See, if you’re blatantly, blatantly sinful, that goes against the truth that I have an inheritance, that I’m a co heir with Christ, that I would have access to God in everything that he has for me, and a blatant sinfulness, would say, I gotta go get in mine. I think kids say, like, you gotta get the bag or something like that. Like, you gotta go get your thing. I’m 37 I don’t know that stuff anymore, man, but you gotta go and get yours, right? And what is really underneath that is that God is not going to give you something. God doesn’t have good things for me, so I got to go out and grab it for myself. Or the religious activity portion of this that I have to do good things, or God won’t give me that thing that I desire so much. Instead, God says, no, no, you are a son and you are a daughter. And because you are a son or a daughter, you are an heir, you have access to me, and in access to me, that you would have the fullness of provision, that I provide, that when you walk with me, when you trust in me, when you’re guided by my Holy Spirit, that this whole thing, that I will lay it out all in front of you, you’re gonna have what you need. You’ve just got to trust me to get to that place.
My identity changes my relationship, and my relationship gives me a provision in the inheritance. But here’s the crazy thing that also changes how I see my circumstances. See some of you looked at this and I read that little last portion, and you said, whoa, Josh, that said suffering. I don’t know if I like that word too much. If indeed, we suffer with Christ, so that we may also be glorified with Him. A lot of us getting in this place is like, I don’t like the suffering word. I like the comfortable word, right? Like, can I just, like, operate my own comfort? Like, not have to go to that place of suffering? Suffering sounds terrible. Like, I don’t want to go to that place. But also, I know within me that there is a place of all the good things that have existed within my life have come through something that’s pretty difficult. And in this Roman Church that they’re probably dealing with some persecution from the Roman Empire actually not probably they are dealing with persecution from the Roman Empire, and they’re suffering in the midst. And Paul’s going, hey, be encouraged in the midst of that. He’s going to walk through a whole passage of suffering right after this. And he’s going to go into it and go, hey, I’m going to work out all things.
God is going to work out all things for the good of those who love Him. Jesus says, Yeah, you’re gonna go through suffering in this world. You’re going to have trouble. But take heart. I’ve overcome the world. It’s the same thing that goes on in Romans chapter five, that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope, that there’s this process that God uses suffering that exists within our own lives, that he’s perfecting us. We don’t have to be scared or fear the things that exist within our life that are hard. It’s actually those things that bring about the good that exist within us, that God is going to build us up to this place. I realize that right now, some of you are dreading walking out of this place. Because you got to prepare for a final that you’re not ready for. I get it. You’re a son or a daughter of the king of all of creation. That is your place. And whether you walk out of this place and you fail or not, he will use it. How do I know? Because I flunked out of Lamar.
Some of the seminary professors, the ones who have had me, they’re like, that dude made good grades. There’s a reason why I made good grades here is because I didn’t before, because that wasn’t God’s purpose in that place, and because I forgot who I was for a season, God has good things for you, and he’ll use that, if you’ll let him. We live trusting God with our circumstances, but we also look forward to that day that God will get the glory for all of those things, that it’s not about me and my small little kingdom that I try to build for myself, that it’s about him and what he has for me, and that that’s good. It’s for His glory, but it is for my good as well. I depend on God, my father, who loves me and provides for me despite how I see my circumstances. All right, so what do we do with that? One? You got to know that you’re a son or a daughter.
Some of you know it. Ted knows it, but you got to let that sink into your heart. If you don’t know that, there’s an opportunity right now to give your life to Jesus. You have that opportunity right now. If you’ve never done that, you need to have that conversation with him. You need to come talk to me, or talk to one of your professors, talk to anybody in here about that. Do it today. But if you’ve made that decision to follow Jesus, you need to let that sink into you, that my identity is in Christ, not in my actions. Number two, you need to kill the flesh, that the Holy Spirit is going to work within your life, and he’s going to convict you have certain things and you need to get that stuff out of you. There is a blatant sinfulness that exists within some of us also. There is this deceptive peace that we try to take good things and twist them and make them distorted. And so many of us have done that with the religious things that exist within our lives. As the Holy Spirit convicts you of that, you need to get rid of it.
Number three, you got to live like a son and not fear the things that are set before you. So where is fear cropping up for you? What are you afraid of? That thing might happen, don’t let your fear keep you from what God has for you run after it. And lastly, when you’re suffering, depend on him. In the midst of it, he’s got good things for you. He’s going to bring about good he’ll bring glory in your life. That you’ll glorify Him, if you’ll just trust Him. Would you pray with me for it God, I pray over everyone here that’s struggling, that might be struggling with sin they know that needs to leave God. Maybe it’s the pride of making a good grade. God, maybe it’s, I just don’t believe that you actually love and care for me.
God, I pray that you would remind us that we are sons and daughters of the King God, that we have an inheritance, that everything that we need is provided by you. God, I pray that if there’s anything that we’re dealing with or. Now that we would give it to you, all our hopes, all our dreams, that we might rest in what you have for us, not in our own accomplishments, not in our fears, not in our doubts. God, you are the Holy One, and we want to live to glorify You. It’s in the holy and precious name of Jesus that we pray amen.
