Descriptive vs. Prescriptive

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. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Romans 8:4

Pastor Ryan spoke yesterday on Romans 8:1-4.  The whole sermon was great, but this point stuck with me. 

From my notes:

In verse 2, God has set us free from the law of sin and death, and yet verse 4, implies a responsibility on our part to walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Is Paul making a contradiction between verse 2 between verse 4? No, because this is descriptive not prescriptive. Paul is describing what the believer looks like. If we are saved, we will walk according to the Spirit. Not perfectly by any means, but this is what marks someone who has been born from above. Paul is not saying that we earn our place with God by walking in the Spirit.

My takeaway:

The difference between interpreting this passage as descriptive vs. prescriptive is huge. It's the difference between assurance and fear. It's the difference between believing what Christ has done through his life, death, burial, and resurrection is sufficient to complete the good work that God has begun vs. Christ did His part, which gets us in the door, but it's up to us to make it the rest of the way. One view magnifies what the Trinity has done for our salvation. The other minimizes it (which really magnifies man). One view sees the glorious work the Holy Spirit has done in bringing us from death to life and making us new creatures with a new nature and affections. The other view seems to deny the fundamental and drastic change that takes place in regeneration.

I've lived most of my life as a Christian burdened with something I was never meant to carry - responsibility for my ultimate acceptance with God. I probably wasn't alone. This makes me all the more thankful for sound preaching and sound doctrine. The truth indeed sets us free.