ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

ROMANS #10

In Romans 8:1 – 17 Paul contrasts people who live ‘according to the flesh’ and people who live ‘according to the Spirit’ – verse 4. He sustains this contrast throughout these verses, and his repeated reference to this contrast has seriously undermined assurance of salvation for many Christians.

But this uncertainty is the opposite of Paul’s intention. It results from the way that some preachers and teachers understand this ‘flesh’ and ‘Spirit’ contrast. Some believe that Paul is contrasting Christians who have received Jesus only and those who have also received (or been baptised in or by) the Spirit. Some believe Paul is contrasting people who have received Jesus as Saviour, but not as Lord. Some see a contrast between ‘carnal’ (fleshy) Christians and ‘spiritual’ Christians.

But there are built-in difficulties with these opinions – Paul says quite clearly ‘if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ they do not belong to Christ’ – verse 9. Whatever Paul means by the flesh/Spirit contrast it is not that the ‘flesh’ group of Christians does not have the Spirit, because every believer has received the Spirit when they first believed (Ephesians 1:13). Nor can it be the Saviour/Lord division, because a Christian is a person who has acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord (Romans 10:9).

Perhaps Paul’s meaning is best understood by looking at a parable Jesus told ‘to some who were confident of their own righteousness’ – Luke 18:9 – 14:

A Pharisee went up to the temple to pray. His prayer consisted totally of all the good things he could say about himself – the bad things he did not do, and the good things he did do. He sincerely believed that his life – what he did in his own flesh – was sufficient to merit God’s acquittal.

A tax-collector who also went up to the temple to pray. Standing at a distance, and not even daring to look up to heaven, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy to me, a sinner.’

The Pharisee stood in the presence of God relating to God on the basis of his ‘flesh’ – the things he himself had done. The tax-collector related to God solely on the basis of God’s mercy; he knew full well that he himself had nothing to boast about, that what he himself had done would only ban him from God’s presence. He did not trust in himself; his only trust, his only hope was in God, a God of mercy.

Jesus’ comment about the tax-collector instructs us: ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God’ (that is, declared legally innocent) – Luke 18:14.

Similarly, Paul’s testimony in Philippians 3:3 – 9 explains how he used to relate to God on the basis of what he himself was and did – his ‘confidence in the flesh’, his own ‘righteousness’, but how he put that totally aside, considered it dung, in order to relate to God ‘by his Spirit’ – knowing, depending on Christ and the ‘righteousness’ that comes ‘through faith in Christ’.

In 2Corinthians 5:14 – 16 Paul explains the implications of the death of Christ – ‘that one died for all, and therefore all died.’ He goes on to say ‘So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view’ – the Greek text has according to flesh. Then Paul makes this instructive statement which helps us to understand the flesh/Spirit contrast he is talking about in Romans 8: ‘Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.’ Paul, the zealous Pharisee, had been intent on eradicating the name of Jesus Christ (see Acts 9:1, 2; 22:4,5; 26:9 – 12). He had sincerely believed that Jesus was a mere man who was guilty of blasphemy because he claimed equality with God. Looking at Jesus ‘according to flesh’ he was convinced that Jesus deserved to be killed.

But there on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Paul and spoke to him. And immediately Paul understood Jesus Christ differently. He realised that there was another way of looking at Jesus, of relating to Jesus. No longer did he see Jesus as a mere man. He saw a deeper reality, a reality revealed by the Lord himself. Immediately, having had his spiritual sight, as well as his physical sight, restored, he began to preach that ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ – Acts 9:20.

Back to Romans 8: The question that Paul is putting before his original readers and us is: how do you see yourself in God’s presence? How are you relating to God? On the basis of your own perceived merit or lack of merit – ‘according to flesh’? Or on the basis of the truth that the Spirit has taught you about the death of Christ for you – ‘according to Spirit’?

If you are relating to God on the basis of your merit/demerit your mindset is that of death. Nothing in your list of good points will ever be enough to please God. You will constantly be striving to be good enough and constantly fearful that you are not. In your mind, the ‘law of sin and death’ still holds you captive, even though the Spirit of life has actually set you free from it.

If you are relating to God on the basis of Jesus Christ, whose Spirit is in you, your mindset is ‘life and peace’. You know that ‘through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death’ and you live every moment in that reality, unshaken by the weakness of your flesh.

Romans 8:2 – 11 is an extension of Paul’s statement that ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’. If we see ourselves as isolated individuals relating to God on the basis of our own goodness (our flesh), we will not experience the ‘no condemnation’. But if we understand that we are ‘in Christ Jesus’ we realize that our actions (whether good or bad) no longer determine our relationship with God. We relate to God always, ever and only in and through Jesus Christ. That is what Paul means by ‘live in the Spirit’.

If Paul had not understood this he would still have been stuck in his cry ‘What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me ….’ But he had ceased to relate to God ‘according to flesh’. He now related to God always and only ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ (Romans 7:24, 25) exulting in the glorious, liberating truth that there is no condemnation.

So also may we all.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2026