Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans 1-8

by Dr. J. Ligon Duncan

Table of Contents

ROMANS 1

Greetings from an Apostle - Romans 1:1-7

Paul's Prayer Report - Romans 1:8-10

Paul's Purpose to Preach - Romans 1:11-15

Paul's Good News (The Theme of Romans) - Romans 1:16-17

We Have No Excuse - Romans 1:18-20

We Know God, But Don't Glorify Him - Romans 1:21-23

God Gave Them Over (1) - Romans 1:24-25

God Gave Them Over (2) - Romans 1:26-27

God Gave Them Over (3) - Romans 1:28-32

ROMANS 2

We Have No Excuse - Romans 2:1-3

Contempt for God's Kindness - Romans 2:4

God Will Judge Justly - Romans 2:5-11

God's Righteous Judgment on All - Romans 2:12-16

The Jew's Confidence Empty - Romans 2:17-20

The Jew's Failure - Romans 2:21-24

The Difference Between Inward and Outward Righteousness - Romans 2:25-29

ROMANS 3

Objection Overruled (1) - Romans 3:1-4

Objection Overruled (2) - Romans 3:5-8

All Are Under Sin - Romans 3:9-18

The Law Can't Save You - Romans 3:19-20

The Righteousness Which Comes by Faith (1) - Romans 3:21-26

Justification by Grace Through Faith - Romans 3:21-26

God, in the Gospel of His Son - Romans 3:21-26

Justification by Grace Through Faith (2) - Romans 3:21-26

The Instrument by Which We Receive the Righteousness of God: Faith - Romans 3:27-31

Faith Alone - Romans 3:27-31

The Implication of Justification - Romans 3:27-31

ROMANS 4

The Bible Says Abraham Was Justified by Faith! - Romans 4:1-3

David Understood Justification by Faith - Romans 4:4-8

Faith and the Covenant Sign of Circumcision - Romans 4:9-12

Faith and the Law - Romans 4:13-15

Faith, Grace and the Spiritual Seed - Romans 4:16-17

Abraham's Faith and Ours - Romans 4:18-25

ROMANS 5

Justification By Faith Means Peace with God - Romans 5:1-2

Justification By Faith Means the Ability to Rejoice in Suffering - Romans 5:3-5

Justification By Faith Flows from the Love of God - Romans 5:6-8

Justification By Faith Means Freedom From God's Wrath - Romans 5:9-11

The Broken Covenant of Works Brought Death into the World - Romans 5:12-14

The Covenant of Grace Stands in Bold Contrast to the Broken Covenant of Works - Romans 5:15-17

The Parallels Between the Broken Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace - Romans 5:18-19

The Law, the Covenant of Works, and Grace - Romans 5:20-21

Grace Reigns in Righteousness - Romans 5:21

ROMANS 6

United to Christ - Romans 6:1-7

Living in Christ - Romans 6:8-14

Under Grace - Romans 6:15-18

Slaves of Righteousness - Romans 6:19-23

ROMANS 7

The Newness of the Spirit - Romans 7:1-6

What Should We Think of the Law? - Romans 7:7-12

The Believer's Struggle with Sin - Romans 7:13-25

ROMANS 8

Delivered by the Spirit by Death of Christ - Romans 8:1-4

Flesh and Spirit - Romans 8:5-11

Children of God - Romans 8:12-17

Present Suffering/ Future Glory - Romans 8:18-25

The Spirit Intercedes for Us - Romans 8:26-27

The Purpose of God - Romans 8:28-39

God is for Us, So Who is Against Us? - Romans 8:31-32

God Has Justified Us, So Who Can Condemn Us? - Romans 8:33-34

More than Conquerors - Romans 8:35-39

Romans 1

Greetings from an Apostle - Romans 1:1-7

1 Paul, a servant[a] of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David[b] according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1-7)

Greetings from an Apostle

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 1, as we begin our study in this great what we could call the gospel of Paul to the Romans. And the book of Romans, as we have already mentioned this morning, has been used mightily by God over the course of church history. Many examples come to mind. One, more than 1500 years ago, a young man named Aurelius Augustan born in North Africa, swallowed up with a particular philosophy called Manichaeism, made his way to Rome with some of his friends who were also committed to that particular philosophy. And they wanted to go here a man who was considered to be the greatest orator of their day, a man named Ambrose, who happened the bishop of the church in Milan. They wanted to go hear him speak. They didnt care what he said, they wanted to hear how he said it. So they went and they listened to him for a few days and Augustans friends grew tired of it, but Augustans heart was gripped by Ambroses exposition of the book of Genesis. Ambrose was working through the early chapters of Genesis when Augustan was there. Augustan found his heart moved however by the message that Ambrose was preaching, not the way in which he said it. And soon in his reading of the epistle to the Romans Augustans heart was changed, and he converted to Christ; a lifelong prayer of his mother. And he became a man who impacted the rest of the history of Christianity, especially western Christianity. And it began in large measure with his encounter with Pauls presentation of the gospel and the epistle of the Romans.

You can think a thousand years after the time of Augustan in the life of Martin Luther, a young man who was a professor of New Testament in the City University in Wittenburg, had been wrestling with the idea of the justice of God. In fact, he tells us when he came to Romans 1:17, it just made him hate God because that passage spoke of the justice of God, the righteousness of God, and Luther knew he had no righteousness himself to offer to God. And so he felt as if he were undone and destined to be rejected, no matter what he did. And he did everything that the Roman Catholic church of his day told him to do to be right, to feel right with God, and he had no peace. And he tells us that when he finally understood what Paul was talking about in Romans 1:17, it was as if the gateway to heaven had been opened to him. And the rest, as Paul Harvey would say, is history. Five hundred years of Christianity impacted by the grasp of this Augustinian monks understanding of Romans.

And so we come today to study the epistle to Romans together. Now I want to mention just in passing before we read the section that is our text today, I just want to mention that this is the longest greeting of all of the apostles letters. Ninety-three words of greeting he brings in the epistle to Romans. But one thing I want you to see even in these first seven verses that we look at where Paul is basically saying Im Paul and Im sending this letter to you. Notice how, though he doesnt give us a definition of the gospel, already in the first seven verses of the epistle, everything in his greeting surrounds and is infused with the gospel itself. In the very first words of greeting in this letter, Paul is already talking about the gospel of grace. So lets hear Gods holy and inspired word here in Romans, chapter 1:

Romans 1:1-7

. Our Father, so many of us come with preconceptions about the gospel and about You that blind s us to Your glory and to the sheer extravagance of grace in the gospel. We pray that by the work of the Holy Spirit You would not only enable us to understand the truth of Your word as Paul sets it forth; but that You would take from our eyes the scales which prevent us from appreciating the glory of this tree, enable us to see, to believe, to trust and obey. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Now I want to state my agenda up front and clearly. Its my hope that as we study the letter of Paul to the Romans together that it is going to challenge your understanding of Christianity, that you will see as we study this book together just how radical the gospel of grace is and just how radical are the claims of truth which Paul presses here. And in the passage before us today, in particular, I want us to begin looking at the gospel immediately, and if you look at the passage in three parts, in verse 1, I think youre going to see Paul telling you something about the authority of that gospel.

Then if you look at the end of verse 1 and all the way down to verse 6 youre going to see Paul telling you something about the nature of the gospel itself. The gospel is rooted in the Old Testament. The gospel is Christ-centered. The gospel is for all the nations.

And then if you look at the end of verse 5 and all the way down to verse 7 youre going to see Paul saying that the gospel is radically transforming. It defines who we are and what we are for. And so those are the sections that Id like you to look at in this opening word of greeting that is before us today.

I. Pauls ministry, authority and purpose.

In verse 1 we see Paul describe his ministry position, his ministry authority and his ministry purpose. In verses 2 through 6 we see Paul set forth before us three great things that we need to know about the gospel. And then at the end of verse 5 and down to verse 7 especially, Paul tells us several important things that we need to know in order to have a proper self-understanding as Christians, as the body of Christ. So lets look at these verses together today. First, in verse 1 where Paul opens up by introducing himself to these Roman Christians telling them what his ministry position is, telling them what his authority is in ministry and telling them what his own purpose is in ministry.

Notice Pauls words. He says three things in this little verse. First, that he is a servant of the Messiah. Thats who he is. Im a servant of the Messiah who is Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, Christ Jesus is my master. And so Paul introduces himself to the Romans as a servant. Now that is an important balancing truth to the next truth that he announces to them. Because the very next thing hes going to say is that hes not only a servant of Christ but he is a called apostle. That is, God Himself, and Paul could say specifically the Lord Jesus Christ, visibly and audibly met him and called him not only to salvation but to service as an apostle. You remember when Paul was encountered on the way to Damascus by the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul was going to persecute Christians. Not only did the Lord Jesus humble him, bring him to repentance, convert him, but as Jesus Himself spoke to the Christians who had gathered around Paul and were a little bit wary about Saul of Tarsus being welcomed into the Christian community in Palestine, the Lord Himself said ,I will show him how much he must suffer for My sake. From the very beginning of his conversion Paul was set apart called by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to be an authoritative messenger and representative of God. And so Paul says, Im a servant of Christ. Im not here, as it were, to Lord it over you.

But you need to know at the same time that I am an authoritative messenger, a called apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul gives us some inkling of what that means in I Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13. Would you look there with me. In I Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13 he gives a compliment to the Thessalonian Christians. He says, "And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive from us the word of Gods message, you accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." Paul is saying to the Thessalonians, I want to thank God for you that when you heard me proclaim the truth you understood that my words were not just mens words, they werent just my opinions, my thoughts, my reflections, my experience. It was Gods word. You accepted it for what it is. And in this way the apostle is saying here to the Roman Christians, I am an authoritative messenger, a representative of God.

And then he goes on to say, and Im a man wholly devoted to proclaiming Gods good news. I am set apart for the gospel of God. Yes, Paul can say its my gospel elsewhere. But ultimately, its the gospel of God. Paul is here to serve anothers agenda. And that others agenda is the Lord Most High. Its Gods gospel that Paul comes to serve.

And you need to understand the radical implications for what Paul is saying, even in this first sentence. Not only for the Roman Christians who first heard this 2000 years ago, but for us today. We need to understand the radical truth claims that Paul is making here, and the radical authority claim of the gospel. We live in a day and age where people are uncomfortable with authority and with truth. Many of you who are students, and many of you who are not have heard even recently someone say to you, as I once had a Russian history professor say to me, something that goes like this. We were studying the Soviet Revolution, and he said to us, "The Bolsheviks are a lot like Christians. They think theyve found truth with a capital T." And then he stopped to give us some pastoral advice about this. He said, "If you ever run into anybody who believes in truth with a capital T, you run in the opposite direction as fast as you can." You see the world is very uncomfortable with absolute truth claims because the world is afraid that thats going to restrict its freedom to do as it pleases. Now, of course, its right. It is going to restrict to a certain extent its freedom to do as it pleases.

But let me tell you something, authority is the only thing that will save you from authoritarianism. It is only the belief in a transcendent truth that does not change, that saves you from the tyranny of the fifty percent plus one majority. If a man tolerates you only because he believes that there is no truth, or that what truth exists is relative, he can change his mind tomorrow. But if a man tolerates you on transcendent principles that cannot change, you have a relationship which can have some endurance to it. But you take away belief in transcendent truth, you are in trouble. And the apostle Paul comes with truth and authority.

But let me say that the truth and the authority that he comes with is a freeing truth and authority. And its so important for us to face up to those authority claims. He is wanting us to see the consequences of the truth that he presses. When he says, I am an apostle, and Ive got a message from God for you, he wants you to understand that his message has consequences for the whole of your life; for the way that you think, for the way that you live, and for the place that you will spend eternity. Paul is claiming to address us directly on behalf of God. Paul is saying, now this is not the churchs opinion. Hes not saying, this is the churchs opinion, this is the community of faiths opinion, this is my individual opinion, this is the result of my private mystical encounter with God. He is saying, no, this is Gods word for you. This is the good news of God. And my friends, it is vital for us to face up to that challenge. We must embrace, my Christian friends, we must embrace the gospel, not because we think its good for us, but because its true. And if its not true, its not good. And we live in a day and age that is not comfortable with truth. Were much more comfortable with well that works for me. But thats not how Paul presents the gospel. He doesnt present the gospel as one of many options that might work for you. He presents it as the one and only truth of how God relates savingly to sinners. If its rejected, it means eternal damnation. If it is embraced, it means eternal bliss. Its that simple. Thats not popular, but thats what Paul is saying. And I want you to feel something in the force of that in this relativistic, pluralistic age in which we live. Paul is laying down the gauntlet, and he is saying ,this is Gods message for you. Theres one way, one gospel, one hope, one Lord. And so the gospel that Paul preaches is authoritative.

II. The gospel

And then if youll look with me at the end of verse 1, all the way down to verse 6, youll see the three great things that Paul says that those Roman Christians need to know about the gospel. Three great things that we still need to know about the gospel. He says the gospel is rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures. He tells us that the gospel is Christ-centered, and he tells us that the gospel is for the Gentiles. Look at what he says here in these verses.

He tells us, first of all, that the gospel of God was promised beforehand through the prophets, in the holy Scriptures. Hes telling us that the New Testament gospel is rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures. The New Covenant presentation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ in the gospel is the fruition of, the fulfillment of, what God had already set forth in the Old Covenant Scriptures spoken through the Old Covenant prophets. Paul really is picking up right where Matthew left off as he presents to us the gospel. So the gospel is something rooted in that Old Testament revelation. Hes saying to these Gentile Christians that you cant just ignore the Old Testament. You cant say, oh, its wonderful, weve got these New Testament revelations, and weve got these New Testament books and weve got these gospels, we dont need to bother with Genesis anymore. We dont need to bother with Isaiah any more. Paul is saying, no, the gospel that I am preaching is rooted in the Old Testament. You cant forget the Jewishness of Christianity, he says.

And then he goes on to say, the gospel is supremely about God Himself. Notice that its concerning His Son. Its the gospel of God concerning His Son. Its supremely about God Himself, and especially His redemptive plan as its revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And thats a message that we need to hear today.

So often you ask a person, "Well what is the gospel?" The gospel is that youre to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Nope. Youve started with a response to the gospel. The gospel is, though you are under the righteous condemnation of God by virtue of your sin and rebellion and your participation in Adams original rebellion, God in His mercy and grace has sent His Son to die on your behalf, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. Thats where the gospel starts. Not with our response. Until you understand that the gospel is about God and His initiative, you dont have a full view of the gospel. And so Paul begins by saying the gospel of God concerning His Son.

And notice the things that He says that it concerns about His Son. First of all its about His Sons person. Look at verse 3. He says that His Son is truly human, and that according to the flesh, He is descended from David. And therefore, even genealogically, He is rooted in the Davidic hope and promises and all those promises of the Messiah to come through the line of David.

Notice again in verse 4 he speaks of Christs exaltation. He was revealed who He claimed to be the very Son of God by the resurrection, by the testimony of the spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. He was exalted in our eyes.

Notice again that he goes on to say in that same verse that He is in fact Jesus, the Messiah, who is our Lord. That is He is our God, and He is our Master. He is the One, Paul goes on to say, who has called me into service to bear testimony to the Gentiles.

And then Paul goes on to say, having said that the gospel is rooted in the Old Testament, having said that the gospel is about God and especially about His redemptive plan in His Son, now he goes on to say that the gospel is for all nations through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His sake. And Paul again is announcing something radical here. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, and even as we read in Isaiah 10, Gods judgment of the nations because of their wickedness. Here Paul is announcing the good news of God to the nations. Not only is his message good news for the Jews who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, but it is to all the Gentiles, to the Greek, because God is bringing together Jew and Gentile, slave and free, barbarian and Scythian. Hes bringing them all into this kingdom that He is building up. The gospel is for all nations.

And my friends, in light of what Paul says even in this introduction, we need to radically relearn what the gospel is. If we view the Old Testament as basically irrelevant to our Christianity, we dont understand Pauls gospel. Paul says that the Old Testament is the very foundation for our Christianity. If we view the gospel as primarily about something that we do, we need to rethink it in light of what Paul says. Paul says the gospel is about God. Its about what He is and does. And that its about what the Lord Jesus Christ is and does for us. And if we think that the gospel is simply something thats fine for other people, people that need a religious crutch, people that are just not quite all there psychologically, and need a little something to help them through the trials of life. But if were self-sufficient, we dont need it. Then we need to radically rethink what the gospel is because Paul says this gospel is for all nations. "Thats fine for you" is not an option in response to what Paul says. Its not an option to say, "Look, if it works for you, thats great. I just dont need it." This is the one gospel for all nations, the apostle Paul says. Now Tom Houston has hit the nail on the head when he says the gospel begins and ends with what God is, not with what we want or think we need. We need to radically rethink the gospel in light of what Paul says here.

III. The implications of the gospel.

And then if you look at the end of verse 5 all the way down to verse 7 youll see Paul show us here just how radical are the implications of the gospel for how we view ourselves. For our own self-understanding. He knows that these Roman Christians, he knows that you and I need to understand what the gospel does for us. The gospel is not a little dollop on top of our ice cream scoop. Its not a little dollop of whipped cream. You know its kind of a nice thing to add to what you are. The gospel transforms you. It infuses your reality. It changes who you are. Gods grace is transforming. The gospel defines what we are and are for. And look at four things that Paul says, just in this word of greeting. Four things that Paul says that the gospel means for who we are and what we are for.

First of all, if you look at the end of verse 5 and verse 6, Paul makes it clear that we are part of a united body that includes both Jew and Gentile, slave and free. We are now united by gospel bonds. God is doing a great work to bring the Jew and the Greek, Israel and the nations into one church and to unite us across all the things that separate us in an absolute unwavering conviction and confession of the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel so that we have this gospel bond now which transcends every other distinction and differentiation. We are part of the united body. Thats who we are. The gospel redefines it. It changes the way we look at one another. It changes the way we look at the world.

Notice again, look at verse 6. He goes on to mention specifically that we are called by Jesus Christ Himself. You are the called of Jesus Christ. Think of yourself that way. You are called by Jesus Christ. If you have responded to the gospel in faith as you have heard the word proclaimed, then you have heard Christ Himself speaking to you by His word, calling you into relationship to Himself. You are called by Christ Himself. Think about yourself that way, the apostle Paul says. Youre not only brought into this body a Jew and Greek, all united in gospel bonds, you are called by Christ Himself.

Notice again. Look at verse 7. You are beloved of God the Father. Think how important that would have been for those Roman Christians. They were hated by the world around them. Many of them would die for their faith. They were thought to be part of a sect, a superstition, to believe incredible things. They were accused of all sorts of immoral behavior. They were hated by their contemporaries. But the apostle Paul says you are the beloved of God and later he will specify that that God is God, your Father. You are beloved of the Heavenly Father even if you are hated by the world. And Paul is saying, Christian, think of yourself in these terms. This is who you are. The gospel means that this is who you are now. You are a person beloved by God the Father.

And then if youll look, he goes on to say in verse 7, "You are beloved of God. You are called as saints." So he not only tells you what you are, he tells you what you are for now. He goes on to tell you that you are called by Christ as holy ones to the pursuit of holiness. Roland Hill, the great teacher said, "I dont care for any kind of Christianity that doesnt mean that a mans cat and dog are the better for it." He didnt care for any kind of Christianity that didnt bring about a transformation in the character and behavior of a person. And here Paul says Christianity not only changes who you are, it changes what youre for. You now are saints. You are saints. You are holy ones and you are created. Youre created for the pursuit of holiness. Youre created to become the image of God. Youre created to walk in righteousness. Its changed everything that you are. Its changed your whole purpose for existence. The gospel changes everything. Even in his words of greetings, the apostle Paul presses home the authoritative character of the gospel, he tells you the nature of the gospel. Its rooted in the Old Testament. Its about God and especially about the Lord Jesus Christ. Its for all the nations, and it tells you that the gospel changes everything. You cant be indifferent about the gospel. Its an all or nothing proposition.

For those of us who live in a cultural context where its very tempting to want to keep one foot in the world, and the other foot in the bounds of the body of Christ, the apostle Paul is issuing a tremendous challenge. The gospel is all-consuming. The gospel claims every area of your life. Gospel grace transforms every area of your life. And for those who in this culture, have bought into the relativism of this culture, which says everything is relative, theres no absolute truth, there are many ways up the mountain, the most important thing is that we not think that we have found absolute truth so that we can tolerate one another. The apostle Paul says that is the sure road to hell. That is the sure road to hell.

No, the only way into eternal saving fellowship with God is to recognize that there is one truth represented in one Savior who is the Lord Jesus Christ and having embraced the gospel of what He has done you find life eternal in the only way that there is to find it. Pauls words to the Romans are radical. And I hope that in the weeks to come we will see our own lives transformed by the radical grace of the gospel and so come to a new appreciation of what it means to be a Christian. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we pray that You would humble us and exalt the Savior as we learn the gospel together, in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul's Prayer Report - Romans 1:8-10

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. (Romans 1:8-10)

Pauls Prayer Report

If you have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 1 and well look at verses 8 through 10. We began our study of this great gospel of Romans last week together, and even in Pauls words of greetings we found that they were chock full of the gospel and chock full of significance. We saw the authority of Pauls gospel, even as he introduces himself as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw how radical the gospel itself is. The gospel is about God first. Its about what He does, and especially about the person and work of His Son. Its the gospel concerning Christ, even as Paul speaks in this prayer report today, and its a gospel that radically changes us. It changes us; it changes our purpose; it changes our priorities; it changes everything. No wonder Luther could say in his usual provocative way, "The chief purpose of this letter is to magnify sin and destroy all human wisdom and righteousness, to bring down all those who are proud and arrogant on account of their work. We need to break down our inner self-satisfaction. God does not want to redeem us through our own, but through external righteousness and wisdom; not through one that comes from us and grows in us, but through one that comes to us from the outside, not through one that originates here on earth, but through one that comes from heaven. And so Paul does in this great epistle. So lets turn today and see this prayer report that he gives in verse 8 and following. This is Gods holy word:

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you. Always in my prayers making requests, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you." Amen. And thus ends this reading of Gods holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Father, this is Your word. By the Spirit illumine our hearts to its truth. Teach us not only to be stirred by it, to love it, to be intrigued by it, or even gripped by it, but to be changed by it that we might hear and do, trust and obey, in Jesus name we ask it, Amen.

The apostle Paul begins his letters almost uniformly with words of thanksgiving. If we were to turn to the Epistle to the Ephesians he would begin with a long praise to God, thanksgiving to God, which included the things which God had done for the Ephesians. And so we would see throughout his other letters, with one exception, the Epistle to the Galatians, he opens with no thanks. He opens only with the amazing declaration, Im baffled by the fact that you would so quickly dessert the one who has saved you. In all his other letters, however, he opens with words of thanksgiving. The urgency of the letter of the Galatians perhaps accounts for the lack of thanksgiving. And here in this very short thanksgiving, the apostle packs yet more gospel truth.

I. Paul teaches us about prayer, about theology and about our love for one another even in this prayer report.

And Id like you to look at that truth for a few moments today. Two or three things Id like you to see. First, in verse 8. Here you see Pauls report of his thanksgiving to God because of the Roman Christian churches testimony. Here Paul is going to teach you about prayer, hes going to teach you a little theology, and hes going to teach you about the proper love that Christians ought to have for one another, all in the scope of one verse of a prayer report. Id like you to see four or five things, even in this one verse.

First, notice that Paul begins this prayer report by speaking of thanksgiving. Thankfulness is an essential Christian grace. To be a believer is to be thankful, because to be a believer is to be a recipient of mercy. And those who have received mercy and forgiveness and grace are inherently thankful. It doesnt matter what circumstance they find themselves in. They may find themselves facing intractable health problems. They may find themselves in very difficult family situations. They may find themselves in situations at work that could cause anybody to pull their hair out. But theyre thankful people because they know that no matter what they face, they have never gotten what they deserved. The Lord has always given them better than they deserved. They are inherently thankful people because they know what they are and they know what they deserve and they know what God has given them instead and they cannot help but be thankful. It doesnt mean that they dont go through times of struggle, of doubt and even spiritual depression, but fundamentally that thanksgiving never desserts them. They are thankful people, they are grateful people because they are people who fundamentally are people who are recipients of grace. And the apostle Paul in the midst of all his own challenges, in the midst of his own vocations, his labors, his struggles is a thankful man, and he cannot begin to report on his prayer without beginning with thanksgiving.

And doesnt that remind us of the missing component to so much of our prayer. Why is it that we fail to see sometimes the things that God is doing in us and for us. Its because we fail to thank Him for it and therefore were not reminded of it even in the process of praying. And Paul begins with thanksgiving. You see a lack of thankfulness is a sign of gracelessness because those who are forgiven much, not only forgive much, but they thank much for that forgiveness even as Jesus said in the gospel. And so Paul begins by thanksgiving and that is a lesson to us. Thats the first thing that I want you to see in this one little verse.

Then Id like you to see a second thing. Paul, notice, Paul thanks God for the Romans faith. Pause rewind. Paul thanks God for the Romans faith. Now let me take some gentle issue with our Arminian friends for a moment. You see our Arminian friends can accept that salvation is a gift and that grace is a gift. But they are absolutely certain that faith is not a gift. No, faith is something that we do which prompts then Gods grace and salvation. Well, then, let me ask you a question. If that is true, why is Paul thanking God for the Romans faith? If the Romans faith is entirely produced from within the Romans, shouldnt he be thanking the Romans for their faith? But he doesnt do that does he? I thank God for your faith. Why? Because God is the cause and the root and the source of their faith. Even their faith is a gift of God. Salvation is of sovereign grace, and even the faith and repentance which we manifest in response to the gospel message itself are works of the Holy Spirit in us. Paul thanks God for their faith, and that is proof that faith is a gift of God. Its not just that salvation in general is by grace, its even that faith is a grace. And so he sees the root of their believing, of their trusting, in God Himself. Thats the second thing we see in this little sentence.

Notice the third thing though. Paul, in his thanksgiving, is actually reflecting for you his love of these Christians. He is praying for them because he loves them. Now pause for a moment and think how astounding that is. A few years before Paul was writing these words, he was singularly devoted to extinguishing Christianity and ridding the world of Christians. There was one thing he hated more than anything else on earth and that was Christians. And now that same man, a different man now we have to say, is pausing to thank God for Christians. And it ought to cause us to pause right now and thank God for His work in Paul. That this man would now would be thanking God for Christians. He once hated Christians and did his best to extinguish them. And now he cant get out a prayer report without saying, "And friends I just want to say that I regularly thank God for you in my prayers." What a change of heart God has accomplished in Paul. And my friends, that is a hallmark of every believer. Even as we said in preparation for the service, special love to Christians is a part of our preparation for the Lords table. And Paul here expresses his own special love for the Roman Christians. Were going to mention this in just a few moments and elaborate on it. But think of it. Hes never met these people. Hes never met them. Hes wanted to meet them, but hes never met them. And yet, he still has a love for them.

And thats signal for us to pause and ask do we have this kind of love for one another? Does it manifest itself in our fellowship no matter what our differences are, no matter what our background distinctions are, no matter what our cultural bearers and boundaries are, our age differences and all the other things that separate us and make us different. Do we have an overarching and abiding real love? I dont just mean a sentimental love that we sort of like one another or that we can tolerate one another, but a real love which desires to share life, the good times and the bad times, to care about one another because we are Christians. I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Ken Canfield when he was here with us on Wednesday night, and we were talking about various things. And he said, "You know its true that blood is thicker than water." But, "Thank God," he went on to say, "Thank God, the Spirit is thicker than blood." Well thats a profoundly Pauline sentiment. Hes saying, "Yes, it may be true that relationship, blood relationship is thicker than some kinds of friendship, but the bond which the Spirit brings is thicker even than blood." And that is why we can say in truth with the writer of Proverbs that there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother because of a bond of the spirit. Now do we sense that kind of bond amongst ourselves? Are we growing in that kind of love for one another? The apostle Paul, this giant of truth, is not without that relational concern. He is not without a real and tangible love for the brethren, and so he provides us an exhortation even in this which he reports that he prays.

Theres a fourth thing Id like you to see in this one sentence. And youll see it here. Paul is conscious in offering his thanksgiving to God through Jesus Christ. Notice his words, "I thank my God through Jesus Christ." Paul prays confidently to the one who is now his heavenly Father, but because God is Pauls heavenly Father through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ he also lifts not just this intercession, but this thanksgiving to the heavenly Father at the throne of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now there is a theological mouthful in that little phrase, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hes speaking of the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is saying, I lift up this prayer of thanksgiving to you in conscious dependence upon the One who is at the right hand of the Father so that the Father hears this prayer of thanksgiving through the lips of His Son. Its as if God is hearing the intercession of His own Son when I lift up an intercession. Or as Paul is saying here, its as if Paul is hearing the thanksgiving of his own son as I lift up this thanksgiving.

Do you realize that when you pray as Jesus commanded you to pray, with the desire for the kingdom of God and in submission to the will of God, your prayers visit God the Father on the throne of grace as if they came from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ, because every prayer that goes to that place from Gods people goes through the one who reigns at the right hand and who ever lives to intercede? And the apostle Paul is in the midst of this little prayer report to say, I thank God through the Lord Jesus Christ. But hes not done.

Paul in this little phrase tells us specifically what hes thankful for, and thats the fifth thing Id like you to see. Paul here says here he is thankful for their faith and for the fact that their faith is proclaimed throughout the earth. You know what youre thankful for tells you a lot about you. Among other things it tells you what you think is really is important in life. Look what Paul is excited about. Paul is excited about the fact that these people are believing. They are believing in the gospel the Lord Jesus wrote. It thrills his heart to think that in Rome, the capital city of the world, there are believers huddled around the word, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that their faith is so clear that a testimony is being sent out not only in Rome, but throughout the known world. People are talking about boy have you heard about those Roman Christians? They really believe. Theyre right under the eyes, right in the shadow of the emperor, and they believe with all their hearts in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who would have thought that in the Roman capitol there would be those who would believe in the Jewish Messiah and theyre right there. And it thrills Paul, not just because of the influence this church can have or claim throughout the world, but it thrills him because their faith encourages him.

When you look around you and you think of the things that encourage you about your brothers and sisters in Christ in this local body, is their faith one of the things that comes to mind that you thank God for? I can remember a time in my own doctoral studies where I was going through a difficult period of doubt, partly connected with some material that I was reading. I was required to read it for the course that I was doing. But it, very frankly, was soul-killing sort of stuff to read. And the way that God in His providence rescued me from those doubts was in a very simple and unexpected way. I had a meal with two Christian friends. A husband and a wife, one who was a young elder at a local congregation, and his wife who was a medical doctor. And we were eating Indian food in a restaurant in East London. And they didnt know it, but the reason God had them there for me that night was to speak to me of the reality of their faith in the midst of my doubt. And we didnt set out to have a spiritual or a theological conversation, but let me say that the reality of the Spirits work in their lives that just shone through, and the things that they carried about and the way that they talked was so real that I could have reached out and touched it. And I was thankful to God for their faith. It excited me, and it comforted me and the apostle is thankful for the faith of the Romans.

But you know what rebukes me is that hes thankful for the faith of the Romans, and hes never even met them. Hes heard about them, and hes already excited about it. Are you excited about the signs of your brothers and sisters here who are growing in their thirst and hunger for the word? They are growing and theyre thirsting and theyre hungering for righteousness. Theyre growing and theyre hungering to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Theyre growing and theyre hungering for grace? Does that excite you? It excited the apostle Paul. And what causes you joy and thanksgiving tells you a lot about what you care about and a lot about what you are. Our prayers, friends, ought to be shot through with thanksgiving and they ought to be shot through with thanksgiving and rejoicing over the truth and what the truth is accomplishing in the hearts of men and women.

II. Paul, with a divine oath, testifies to his constant intercession for the Romans.

Now theres a second thing Id like you to see in this passage. Youll see it in verse 9 and the first part of verse 10. Here Paul reports of his faithfulness in intercession for the Roman church. Paul, with the divine oath, testifies of his constant intercession for the Roman. Paul says, God knows that I pray for you incessantly. I am constantly interceding for you. But Paul actually takes an oath here. Paul says, God is my witness. I pray for you constantly.

Now let me just pause there. There are some very well-meaning Christians who go to Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount where He says let your yes be yes and your no be no. And they say, aha, Jesus is saying Christians ought never take an oath. They ought to just let their yes be yes and their no be no. The problem is, the apostle Paul takes oaths. And heres one of them right in front of you. God is my witness, he says. Oh, youll find several places in the New Testament where the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ take oaths. Jesus point then being not that we are not to take oaths, but that we are not to use them frivolously. We are not to take them lightly, and we are to mean what we say when take them. Were not to use them to cover up a lie as so many people often do. I mean, you know immediately when the friend says, I swear. Hmmm. I wonder what hes covering up? But Paul doesnt use it that way. Think of what Paul is doing here is. He says God is my witness of how I constantly intercede for you. Why would it be significant for Paul to take an oath in this circumstance? Because he had never been to Rome and the Roman Christians had never been with him. They would have no way of knowing experientially first-hand that every time he prayed, he prayed for them. And so Paul says, you wouldnt know this from being with me, friends, because we havent been with one another. But God knows. God is witness from heaven that every time I get down, you are on my heart. I am praying for you constantly. Hes seen it. He can bear witness to the truth of what I am saying. Paul says, God is my witness. How incessantly I pray for you.

And he says this same God who can witness that I am faithful in prayer for you, this is the God that I serve from my heart. Paul is indicating the nature of his service here. I serve God in my spirit, from the inner-man, from the depths of my being. My service of God is not superficial, its not external. Im not serving God to try to get people to think boy, hes serving God a lot. Im serving God from my heart. I love Him. And from my heart, in my spirit, I serve Him. And I serve in the gospel of His Son, the gospel concerning the good news about the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is showing us here a love for a group of people that hes never met. You know, sometimes when people survey the writings of the apostle Paul they characterize him as a introspective, doctrinal, abstract, philosophical, systematic and disconnected person. And the apostle Paul is anything but that. Here is a man who is in love with a group of Christians that he has never laid eyes on. What a rebuke that is to me. Why, sometimes it takes some warming up, doesnt it for us to like one another? I have a friend who did small-group Bible studies, and I remember her saying about this young woman whos now one of her dear friends. She said, you know, when we started that small-group bible study, I didnt even like her. Now shes one of my best friends. Thats the way it is, friends. We dont start off just loving one another naturally in the body of Christ, in its local expression. Sometimes there are some obstacles to get over, but the apostle Paul is genuinely loving of these believers. Our prayers, friends, ought to reflect our love for the church, and our service of the Lord ought to be from the heart.

You know, Paul says to the Corinthians, a place from which he is writing this epistle, Paul says to the Corinthians that they are to discern the body when they come to the Lords table. And hes not telling them that they need to discern some magical transformation of the elements into the actual body and blood of Christ when they come to the table. What is he saying, when he says discern the body, he means you need to discern the body of Christ. You are the body of Christ. When you were united to Him, you were united to His body. His body is His people. These people around you coming to the table, therefore, are your brothers and sisters. Do you discern them? Do you love them? Do you have a special love to them? Do you care for them? Are you a family with them? Or are you isolated from them? We ought to discern the body.

Young people, do you discern the body? Many young people here have already professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are the differences that you have amongst your friends who are Christians more significant to you than the commonality that you share in the spirit? Is the fact that youre at Jackson Academy or Jackson Prep more significant to you than the fact that you are one in the spirit with other believers. Is the fact that you come from a different socio-economic status more significant to you than the fact that you share in the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as part of His people. For all of us we need to pause and ask ourselves, are the things of God which unite us more significant than the temporal, ephemeral things which are so apparent to us but which will one day pass away in the fervent burning heat of the reconstruction of the world. Paul, with a divine oath, testifies to how constantly he intercedes for these brethren. And he intercedes for them because he loves them. What is our attitude?

III. Paul prayed according to the dominical principle and pattern: thy will be done.

Finally, if you look at verse 10 again, youll see there that Paul prays according to the Lords principle and the Lords Prayer. Weve been studying the Lords Prayer on Wednesday night. I invite you all to come and continue that study with us. One of the sections of the Lords prayer that well study is this prayer, "Thy will be done." Paul prays according to that principle here. Notice his words. "Always in my prayers making requests, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you." Paul is reporting here his desire to come to the Roman Christians and to be with the Roman Christians, but he does so in explicit submission to Gods will. Paul makes it clear that he longs to be with these Roman Christians. And he prays that God would bring him to the Roman Christians. But he is entirely submissive to the will of God. He wants to get there by Gods will.

Now lets pause again and think. Paul has no idea when hes writing these words, he has no idea how its going to be that he is going to get to Rome. You remember how he got to Rome finally? At the end of his life as a prisoner in chains. As an imperial prisoner preparing, if he lost his trial, for execution. That is how Paul would get to Rome. And he was delighted. He was delighted because God had long before given him a burden of heart to be with those Roman Christians, and he was entirely submissive to the will of God. And I want to say to you here that Paul gives us a model here for submitting to the providence of God in life and in prayer, no matter what. Notice two or three things.

First of all, Paul does not question that God is in control. He knows that the only way hes getting to Rome is in accordance with the will of God. Secondly, notice that Paul, relying on Gods will, does not lead him to be passive and to say, well, if Im ever going to get to Rome, its going to be up to God. In fact, in the remainder of this chapter were going to see that Paul had on numerous occasions tried to get himself to Rome. Its just that the Lord had blocked those plans. I had a professor who once said, "You know, we talk about the Lord closing doors, and when we talk about the Lord closing doors, you know, a lot of times its well, the Lord closed the door on that and we kind of mean that we rattled the knob and we decided that the door was closed." And he said, "You know, the apostle Paul didnt take that approach. When the apostle Paul came to a closed door, he tried to kick it down three or four times before he decided the Lord had closed that door." Thats exactly what he did with the Romans. He tried to get to Rome numerous ways. He prayed continually that God would get him to Rome. And finally in the end the Lord got him there as a prisoner.

But you see thats the third thing that we need to learn from it. Not just that he trusted in Gods providence, not just that he was active even though he trusted in Gods providence, but also that he was entirely submissive to that providence. There are many of you in very difficult situations today. Maybe your personal health situation or maybe a family member. It may be bereavement, it may be a job, it may be a tremendous difficulty in your family life, your marriage, with your children. And in that kind of circumstance its very difficult to believe in both the goodness and the providence of God. And I can imagine with the apostle Paul that the thought might have flashed across his mind at some point, Lord, Ive been waiting all my life to get to Rome, and here I am in chains. What in the world are you doing? You know theres a temptation to spend so much time on asking what in the world are you doing, Lord, that you forget the goodness and providence of God. Paul doesnt do that in this prayer. Lord, I want to be in Rome, but I want to be in Rome by Your will. What a model he gives for us, even in this little prayer report, friends, of how the gospel changes a man. Do you see a changed man here? This man was a Christian killer. And in these three little verses you see the heart of a person that the Holy Spirit has laid hold of. Not just an apostle, friends, but a Christian, just like you, or at least I pray so. Lets pray.

Lord God, as we come to the table today, make us mindful of the grace which is ours in Jesus Christ. We pray that you would truly set forth His death, and that this table would be a means of grace whereby our faith is strengthened and our assurance buttressed. And we pray, O God, that You would change our hearts by Your word and promise, in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul's Purpose to Preach - Romans 1:11-15

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,[a] that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians,[b] both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. (Romans 1:11-15)

Pauls Purpose to Preach

If you have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 1 as we continue to work our way through this great gospel. As Paul describes for us the very heart of the gospel and then expounds it in his letter to the Romans. Over the last couple of weeks, weve seen even in Pauls introductory words that they are filled with the gospel. Paul cant say hello without mentioning the gospel. And in seven verses, ninety-three words, he says hello. Basically, this letter is from me, Paul, to you, the Roman Christians. And yet in the context of that very word of introduction, he manages to stress the authority of the gospel. He characterizes the gospel as something that is rooted in the Old Testament, something that is focused on what God has done and especially on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the gospel is about something that God has done, not about something that we do. Ultimately, the gospel is about something that God has done outside of us that rescues us from the mess that we have gotten ourselves in. And so all the praise and the glory goes to God and not to ourselves. His focus on the gospel is that it is something that totally transforms us. It makes all the difference in the world. It impacts every aspect of our life. It changes the way we look at ourselves, it changes the way we see our purpose in life, it turns everything upside down and he does this just by way of greetings.

And then last week as we looked at verses 8 through 10, we saw a very short prayer report. Basically Paul is saying, let me tell you a little bit about how I pray for you and what I pray for when I pray for you. And in the context of that prayer report, he manages to mention to the Romans that he has so been interested in being with them that every time that he has prayed, since the time that he has been writing the letter or thinking about them, up until the time that he writes the letter, that he has been praying for them. He has been praying for them constantly. Every time he prays, he prays for them.

Having told them that, and in the verses were going to see today, he elaborates on his specific reason why he so desires to come and see them. And his reasons revealed in these verses tell us not only a lot about the heart of Paul, but they serve as a mirror to our own hearts. They give us an opportunity to reflect and say, "Has the grace of God changed us so that we think like that." How about serving the people of God. With that in mind, lets look at Pauls words, which are really Gods words, in Romans, chapter 1, beginning in verse 11:

"For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the others faith, both yours and mine. And I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented thus far) in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Father, this is Your word, and we ask that by the Spirit today we would not only come to have a greater understanding of what Paul meant when he wrote these words, but that we by the Spirit would be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That we would look at the world differently; that we would look at the church differently; we would look at ourselves differently; but, more than that, that we would look at the Lord Jesus Christ differently because of what the spirit does in our hearts through the word. We ask this earnestly in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul in these verses is going to elaborate on his reasons, which is really one reason, for coming to Rome. Later, by the way, in the book hes going to come back to this again. In Romans, chapter 15 in the verses around verse 24 hes going to talk again about what his agenda was in Rome. But he elaborates on this and in elaborating on why he wants to come to Rome he actually tells us a lot about what our attitudes ought to be to one another in the local church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what our attitude ought to be to those who are outside of the local church, those who are apart from Christ who arent believers. And so Id like to walk you through this passage today, and Id like you to see four or five things.

I. Paul desires to establish the church by means of spiritual gifts.

First of all, if you look at verse 11 youll see Paul explain his desire to come to Rome and actually specify why it was that he wanted to come to Rome. He says, "I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established." And so Paul just tells you point blank, my desire, brothers and sisters in Rome, my desire for coming to you is a desire to establish the church by means of spiritual gifts. And so Paul tells us a world just in that little sentence. First of all he tells us that he wants to come to serve the Romans. Hes not there to exploit them. Hes not there to get something out of them. He is there to give them something. Pauls desire is to minister, to serve. He wants to impart something to them. When he looks at the church, he sees not a resource for his own personal gratification or for his own personal enrichment, he sees an opportunity for ministry. And by the way, if we looked at the local church that way it would change at least a few of us. It would change the way we look at the local church. Often times we look at the church as a resource for us. It provides this. It provides that. It provides the other. Paul doesnt look at the local church that way. He looks at the local church and he says hmmm, theres an opportunity to serve. Theres an opportunity for me to minister, for me to give, not to get, but to give. And so he initially tells them look, the reason that I want to be in your midst is I want to serve you. I want to impart some spiritual gift that will establish you. Paul tells them specifically my purpose for ministering, my purpose for serving, my purpose for preaching is so that you will be established in the faith. In order for them to be established in the faith, he preaches the gospel. Isnt that interesting? Paul does not question that these believers are genuine believers. But he says for them to be established in the faith, you know what they need to hear? They need to hear the gospel. The gospel isnt something that we listen to at the beginning of our conversion experience, of our Christian experience, and then sort of set aside and move on to something more profound. The gospel is something that is actually to be infused throughout our Christian experience. We deepen in our understanding of the gospel. And as we deepen in our understanding and our embrace of the gospel, we deepen in our faith in trust of God. And as we grow and trust in understanding the gospel, so we also grow in trust of God. And so the apostle Paul says the way to establish you in your faith, Romans, is for me to preach the gospel. He gives us the book of Romans. We get a little taste of what he would have done had he been there in what he writes in this great book. He desires to be with them in order that they would be established in the faith.

Now, by the way, you see again even in this first verse that the way a person is established in the faith is dependent upon the work of the spirit. Notice what he says. "That I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established." Establishing a believer in the faith is the work of the Holy Spirit by the means of the Holy Spirit. No human being has the power to establish you in the faith. Just like no human being has the power to convert you. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. And by the way, doesnt that show how Gods sovereignty and mans responsibility goes together so beautifully and naturally in the thinking of the apostle Paul? Paul knows that he cant convert people. Paul knows that he cant even build them up in the faith. Paul knows that it takes spiritual gifts to do that. And yet Paul says, Im eager to come do this. Now thats strange. The Spirit is the one who, through His gifting, establishes us in the faith. And yet Paul says, Im eager to be with you in order that you might be established.

Whats Paul thinking? Paul knows that the ultimate source of spiritual growth and spiritual life is the work of the Holy Spirit. But he also knows that faith comes by hearing. So it is the ministry of the word of God which is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses in the hearts of His people. And Paul sees no contradiction between those things at all. And so often people who are unfamiliar with Calvinist think well, you know you Calvinists, you believe in Gods sovereignty. And that means that you kind of sit on your hands and let sinners take care of themselves. I mean if Gods chosen them, theyll come to Christ on their own. Theres no need for you to get involved. But thats a parody. It certainly is a parody of what Paul is teaching. Paul says its the Spirit that brings growth, and thats why Im so anxious to be in your midst ministering the word. Because Paul knows that the word is the Spirits ordained choice for how He grows people in the faith. Its the Spirits job to cause them to respond. Its the Spirits job to cause them to grow; but its our responsibility, and frankly, our privilege, to share that word of truth; to be amongst one another encouraging one another in the faith. And the Spirit will use that faithfulness. And so we see the coherence of Gods sovereignty and mans responsibility even in the way Paul talks to the Romans in this little verse.

And we also see by the way that the purpose of spiritual gifts is to establish faith. You know in our day and age, the day and age of the charismatic movement, there is much controversy in the Christian church over the issue of spiritual gifts. But I want you to see one thing. Whatever gift, by the way, that Paul is talking about here, and he doesnt tell us whether hes thinking about an extraordinary gift or an ordinary gift. And there are good arguments for both. He just doesnt say. He says its some spiritual gift that he wants to impart. Whatever that gift is or whatever those gifts are, the apostle Paul sees that the function of those gifts is to do what? To establish faith. So the gifts of the spirit are for the purpose of the fruit of the spirit. The whole purpose of the function of spiritual gifts is to produce spiritual fruit. Thats the goal. Thats the game. Not drawing attention to ourselves, not manifesting signs and wonders for their own sake, but in order that those who are in Christ will grow in faith.

And I want to ask you, friends, do you have the same kind of attitude to the church that the apostle Paul had? When Paul looks at the church, he has a desire to minister. He has a desire to edify. He has a desire to see brothers and sisters rooted and grounded in the faith and built up. Do we have that same desire to minister to one another? Pauls very words of description to the Roman church as to why he wants to come to them are actually an exhortation to us arent they? We ought to have that same kind of attitude about one another. We ought to want to see one another built up in the faith. Do we have that kind of attitude? Do we have the mind of Paul which is really here the mind of Christ. Because it was Jesus who said I came not to be served, but to serve. And Paul is manifesting exactly that same attitude here.

II. Paul reminds us of the mutual encouragement that flows from selfless service.

Now, having said all that, Im not going to contradict myself in the next verse, but it sure is going to sound like it. Look at the next verse. Paul goes on to say, "That is that I may be encouraged together with you while among you." Paul here is humbly acknowledging that if he goes to the Roman church with a desire to bless them, with a desire to build them up, with a desire to encourage them, with a desire to establish them, the strange and true reality of it is that he will be built up. He will be blessed, he will be encouraged. Paul is not just saying something nice so that the Romans will listen to him. Paul really means what he says. Paul is reminding us here that mutual encouragement always flows from selfless service in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The irony of Christian service is that when you die to yourself, you find life. When you give yourself away, you find yourself. When you put yourself last, you find yourself first. Its the irony, its the dynamic of Christian service. When you devote yourself to serving others, you always receive more than you could ever give. And so I want to say as Christians approach the church and feel that the church is not ministering to them as it ought, you know the answer is not for the church to do more for you. The answer is for you to determine that you are going to give yourself away. That you are going to serve, that you are going to minister, to develop a strategy, an agenda, a mindset to minister to give yourself away.

And then in that context you will find that you are given more back than you have ever given. You know that applies to new church members. A lot of times new church members, especially new church members coming into a church this size, can feel like, boy, Im lost. Im overlooked. People dont see me. And they get frustrated. I know no better way to find a place than to give yourself away. As you minister in the context of the local church, you will find that more will give back than you give. And thats a reality that actually impacts every area of our Christian life, every relationship. It might even be a relationship between a husband and a wife. A wife feels neglected, a husband feels neglected. They feel like their spouse doesnt pay them the attention that they ought to pay them, doesnt love them the way they ought to love them. And if that spouse will say I am going to give myself away in selfless service, I promise that they will get back more than they give, not necessarily from their spouse. I dont know that God will change the situation. But I promise you this. God will give back to you more than you are personally capable of giving if you will devote yourself to giving yourself away for someone else. Paul says to the Romans, look, I know that I have something to give you, but you need to understand there are things that you are going to give back to me that I am going to be blessed by. This isnt a one-way transaction, even though I give to you and even though my desire is to come and give to you, I know that the mutual encouragement that youre going to give to me is something that I couldnt get anywhere else in the world. And we know that experience dont we? Havent you been in experiences or situations where there has been someone, and they didnt know what you were going through, but they begin to share a story about how God helped them in a very difficult time. And suddenly you think, Lord, You sent that just for me. You sent that brother and sister who had gone through that just for me to encourage me. I had no idea that anybody else in this congregation had gone through that. And there is someone who went through it, and you brought them through it, and you blessed them anyway. Or maybe its someones self-sacrificial service of you and suddenly you feel like, why are they giving me so much attention? I dont deserve that kind of attention, and yet theyre giving me that kind of attention. And when you set out to bless, youll always find theres a mutual encouragement in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Calvin once said, "There is no one so void of gifts in the church of Jesus Christ who cannot in some measure contribute to our spiritual progress." And here the apostle Paul, maybe the greatest mind and greatest preacher ever in the Christian church is saying to these Romans Christians, let me tell you, as I come to give to you one of the things thats going to happen is Im going to be blessed by you, and our faith is going to be strengthened together as we fellowship. What an incredible thought, but its true, and we know it dont we?

III. Paul is aiming for Gentile fruit among the Romans.

And then Paul goes on to say in verse 13, that the reason he hasnt come is because hes been providentially hindered. You know, he opened up the epistle by saying look, Ive been wanting to come, Ive been praying to come for a long time to Rome, and some cynical wag in Rome might have said, well then, why havent you come here before, Paul? And so Paul says in verse 13 says, look, the reason that I havent come is not because I havent wanted to, its not because I havent planned to. And later on hes going to tell you its not even because I havent tried. Its because Ive been providentially hindered. It was not what God had planned. I have been stopped at every turn as I have desired to be with you. Ive been prevented so far, he says. Paul, in passing, just in explaining why he hasnt gotten there, tells us something of great value though in verse 13. He says, his aim in coming to Rome was fruit from the Gentiles. Paul is aiming for fruit among the Gentiles. Look at the words that he uses in Romans 1:11-15 to talk about his goal. In verse 11 he talks about establishing them in the faith. He talks in verse 12 about encouraging them and being mutually encouraged with them in the faith. So he specifies being strengthened in the faith in verses 11 and 12.

Here he begins to talk about fruit. Im looking for fruit among you. All of these are synonyms for what Pauls goals are. Paul wants to see people converted to Christ, and he wants to see Christians built up. In other words, his aim is evangelism and edification. He knows that Christian discipleship entails both. It means bringing those into fellowship with Christ that arent in fellowship now. And as they are brought into fellowship with Christ, making them disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because you cant be a follower of Christ and not be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cant be saved by Christ and not be a disciple and so His work of edification is going to entail not only bringing people in the kingdom, but building them up in faith. And so Paul here says thats what I want. I want fruit among the Gentiles. And by the way, even in that little phrase at the end of the sentence there in verse 13, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. Paul is telling you something about the Roman church. Hes saying to us sort of parenthetically, you know, these people were predominantly Gentiles. Most of Pauls churches started with a Jewish core. He would go, hed preach in a synagogue for three weeks. At the end of his three weeks of preaching on Saturday in the synagogue, hed say now, anybody who wants to be in a small group bible study see me after the service. And hed gather a little core group, and they would begin to meet in someones home. And that group would build and build and build, and they would make a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they would become Jewish Christians, Jewish followers of the one true Messiah, and then they would start to reach out to the Gentiles in their area. That way Paul could at least assume that those Christians, those Jewish Christians, had some understanding of Gods word. The Old Testament. And then he could work out to those who didnt have any understanding of Gods Old Testament, the Gentiles in that particular community. And that was the way most of Pauls churches started. But these Christians are apparently predominantly Gentiles. And he speaks to them, I wanted to have fruit among you, just like among the other Gentiles. Because Paul especially had a mission to the Gentiles. Were going to see this Gentile nature of the church in the very next sentence as well. But I want you to see that Pauls goal is to see fruit among these Christians.

I want to ask you this. As you prepare to come to church on the Lords day, as you prepare to come to church on Wednesday night or during the week, as you prepare to fellowship with other Christians who are part of this local church, is it a conscious thought in your mind, is it somewhere on your priority list of agendas that you desire to see fruit amongst them? Is that one of the things you think  you know, one of the things as I go to church today is not just that I want to get something out of the sermon or that I want to fellowship with my friends in Sunday School, but Im going to church today with the agenda of blessing and encouraging a fellow Christian and seeing some fruit produced in their lives. Is that something that is on our chart? If our heart is Pauls heart, if our heart is Christs heart, thats one of our hearts. Thats one of our things in our hearts for one another. We are desirous of encouraging and establishing and seeing fruit produced in the lives of one another, determining to bless one another. Paul says when I think about you Roman Christians, I want to see fruit. Thats the way we ought to think. We ought to think how can I encourage that brother? How can I encourage him to produce fruit in his work, in his family? How can I encourage that sister to produce fruit? Paul was looking to see fruit produced among these believers.

IV. Paul, in light of his union with Christ/Christ's commission, is obligated to take the gospel to Greeks and non-Greeks.

And then in verse 14 Paul stresses his obligation. And let me say verse 14 is a little surprising. Paul says something that seems really strange. He says, "I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." Now Paul doesnt even pause and qualify that by saying Im under obligation to Greeks and barbarians who are Christians. He doesnt say that. He just says blanket statement. "Im under obligation to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and foolish." Now, in short, what the apostle Paul is saying is I am under obligation to everybody, but he is saying it in a really Gentile kind of way. I mean, if he was speaking to a predominantly Jewish Christian congregation, he would have said Im under obligation to good Jewish people. Thats not what he says here. Hes speaking predominantly to a Gentile group, and so he says Im under obligation to both Greeks, the cultured, and to non-Greeks, the barbarians, the ones who cant speak Greek right. Thats where the word barbarian came from. It was a word, play on word, barbarous. And you can hear it: barbarius, they say. And he says Im under obligation both to the Greeks and the non-Greeks, both to the wise and to foolish, to the cultured and the uncultured. Im under obligation to everyone.

And you say, now wait a second. What had they given to Paul. Why is he a debtor to them? What have they given to him that he now owes something back to them? Well, weve slightly misunderstood, because Paul is not saying that the Greeks and the non-Greeks have given me something and therefore I am a debtor to them. I owe them something. Hes saying something a little different. Hes saying I am a debtor, Im under obligation to everyone. All the Greeks and the non-Greeks, all the Gentiles. Im under obligation to them because of my obligation to God. God did something for me, God did something in me, God commanded something to me, which puts me in obligation to everyone. God did something for me. He sent His Son to die in my place, and He redeemed me from my sin. God did something in me. He united me to His Son so that now my heart is His Sons heart. I want to think the way His Son thinks, I want to live the way His Son lives, I want to do the things His Son wanted do, and what did His Son want to do? The will of the Father. And what is the will of the Father? That all the nations will come and worship His Son. And so now I have the heart of His Son. I want to see the nations worshipping Jesus Christ, and furthermore, Jesus has told me to go to all the nations. In fact, He came and met me on the road to Damascus, and He said, "Paul dont kill Christians, make them."

And so the apostle Paul is saying look, I am under obligation, Im under obligation to everyone. I want you to notice that Paul is not discouraged by that obligation at all. Paul feels no burden about that obligation. Paul isnt grudging about that. This is the most exciting thing that Paul could ever, ever think of that God has given him an obligation to share the gospel because Paul was a Christian killer. Paul had been murdering Christians, or at least aiding and abetting their murder. He had been doing his best to stamp out the church. And now God says Paul, heres your new obligation. Once upon a time, you hated Christians. Now youre going to love them. Once upon a time you tried to extinguish the church. Now youre going to expand it. Once upon a time you were an enemy of Christ. Now you are going to become His apostle. And you know what? Paul was overwhelmed that God would give a sinner like him that kind of an obligation. Paul delighted in that obligation because of his union with Christ, because of Christs atoning death, because of Christs great commission. He is now obligated to go take the gospel to the Greeks and the non-Greeks. And I want you to see that juxtaposition.

Its strange because we dont think of duty and obligation in those terms. We hear duty, we hear ought, we hear obligation, and we immediately kind of cringe and say oo-oo-oo. Thats kind of authoritarian, isnt it? There are a lot of people that will say, now when you become a Christian you dont have to do anything. Its just that you want to. You dont have to obey the commands, you just want to. Thats wrong. Paul here says hes under obligation. Does a husband have to love his wife? Yes. I hope he wants to, but he has to. Does a parent have to love his child? Yes, I hope they want to, but they have to. You see obligations dont change when we become Christians. Gods commands are still there, but our hearts do, and those obligations cease to be burdensome. Look at verse 15. He says hes eager to do this. Hes obligated to do it. But hes eager to do it. I want you to see theres no fundamental antithesis, theres no contradiction between obligation and desire, obligation and eagerness to do it. Pauls willing, but its a command. He has to, but he wants to. You know, its kind of like a junior exec. Hes sitting in his office, its early afternoon, hes working on some accounts, hes really kind of bored by the work that hes working on. His boss comes down the hall, and he says, "Feanster, weve got a guy coming in who can offer us a $5,000,000 contract, and I want you to do this. I want you to go out with Mr. A over there who is one of the senior partners in the firm. And I want you to head out to the country club, and I want you to play a round of golf with this guy." Now Feanster happens to love golf. And in fact, while he was diddling away there on that particular contract work, he was thinking about golf. Now is he happy about going out to play golf with a potential contract person? Yes, hes thrilled, hes willing. Does he have to? Oh yes, he does. His boss told him he was. He has to, but he wants to. Now look, thats a silly illustration, but all it shows you that have to and want to are not necessarily contradictory.

And in the Christian life we find that out. Some of you have been through things that you never would have chosen for yourself. Youve been through situations in your family that you never, ever would have chosen for yourself. And yet God has been gracious to you and some of you who have been through those things have seen how those difficulties have been used in the life of another believer. Do you have to minister to those other believers? Yes, you do. But do you want to when Gods grace has been sweetly ministered to you in a difficult situation? Think of the situation of childlessness. Who in the world would ask for childlessness upon themselves. And yet it may be that God, in His unspeakable grace, has born you through that particular struggle, and He has enabled you to be a blessing to another Christian couple for whom that struggle has just dawned upon their hearts. Do you have to minister to them as a brother and sister? Paul says you do. Do you want to more than anything in the world? In the Christian life, its not that there are no obligations, its just that none of those obligations are burdensome, because our hearts have been transformed and Paul says look, Im under obligation to everyone, and I love it. Im eager to do it. Is that the way you approach your obligations to your brothers and sisters in Christ.

V. Paul wants to preach the gospel for edification and evangelism.

Look at verse 15. Paul goes on to say, "Im eager to preach the gospel." Hes showing his strong desire to edify, to seek converts in Rome. Is that the kind of spirit that we have about our Christian service to one another. Are we eager to edify one another. Are we eager to see people brought to Christ. My friends, its one of the marks of a heart that has been found by the grace of God. That the law of God, the commands of God are not burdensome. In fact, they are the greatest privilege and delight that we could ever participate in.

Has God changed your heart in that way? Then let us devote ourselves to ministering to one another, to abandoning ourselves, and giving ourselves in selfless service and the commands of God are not burdensome. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, by the grace of Your Holy Spirit, work this kind of spirit of service in us; through Your gospel mercies we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul's Good News (The Theme of Romans) - Romans 1:16-17

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,[a] as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17)

Pauls Good News (The Theme of Romans)

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you turn with me to Romans, chapter 1, as we continue to work through Pauls letter. In the first fifteen verses of this book Paul has successively given greetings to the Romans, shared a brief prayer report of what he had been praying about for them, and has given them an explicit expression of why it was that he wanted to come minister to them. We have seen the gospel of God at the very center of Pauls concern. Hes spoken about the gospel already explicitly three times. Hes spoken of the gospel, hes spoken of the gospel of God, hes spoken of the gospel of His Son.

And now in the passage were going to look at this morning, he actually sets out the theme of the whole book. In these two verses he tells us what he is going to be talking about for the next sixteen chapters. Everything that follows Romans 1:16 and 17 is Pauls elaboration of it. And so as we hear Gods word, lets bear that in mind. This is the holy word of God. Romans l:16:

Romans 1:16-17

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, But the righteous man shall live by faith."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Lord, as we come to hear Your word today, we pray that You would save us from apathy and over-familiarity with this truth. We have read this word many times. We have perhaps heard it explained, or taught or even preached many times. We pray, O Lord, that by the grace of the spirit you would give us fresh eyes to see this truth for us. Lord, as well we pray that as we come to this word this day that we would not come simply viewing our worship this day as a sentimental occasion, but as a day, a time, an hour to do business with You. Speak to our hearts. Change us, challenge us, surprise us by Your word and transform us by it. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul packs a lot into these few verses. Well see that as a tendency in Paul, not only throughout this book, but throughout all his writings. But Id like you to see two or three things in particular today as we look at this grand declaration of the theme of Pauls letter to the Romans, the gospel which is the power of God under salvation, or the righteousness of God unto salvation. And the first thing Id like to draw your attention to youll see in verse 16.

I. Paul models a complete conviction and certainty of the gospel.

In the very first few words of that verse Paul says I am not ashamed of the gospel, and so he identifies the fact that he is absolutely loyal to the gospel, and he has total confidence in it. In fact, in those little words, in that little phrase, Paul lets us see a glimpse of his complete conviction about his certainty of the gospel. In fact, Im going to suggest to you this morning that thats a model for us to follow. Paul is modeling for us a complete conviction in, and certainty of, the gospel. Paul is not shy about this message. If you were to turn, and Id invite you to do that right now, if you were to turn to I Corinthians, chapter 1 and look at verses 18 through 24, you will remember that Paul said similar things to the Corinthians. Paul understood that sophisticated, modern, learned, educated, intellectual, Roman and Greek hearers of his message might respond by saying, "Well Paul, how quaint. Thats real nice, Paul, but weve got more important things to do." Paul understood that they might think that the gospel was foolishness. That they were above the gospel. They were too sophisticated for the gospel. That they didnt need the gospel. So Paul in I Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 18 through 24 says now by the way the gospel is foolishness in the eyes of some. But let me tell you, the ones to whom the gospel is foolishness are perishing, but to everyone who is experiencing the eternal life of God, the gospel is in fact the wisdom of God and the power of God. And thats exactly what he is saying to the Romans here. Hes saying Romans, Im fully aware that the culture around you in the city of Rome thinks that you are stark raving bonkers for believing what you believe. But I am not ashamed in the least of the gospel. And he glories in that gospel.

And before we look at what he means by the gospel, I just want to pause for a moment and say that though Paul is not making an exhortation here. Though hes not opening this sentence by saying Im not ashamed of the gospel and dont you be either. Though hes not giving us an imperative in this passage, Christians make sure that youre not ashamed of the gospel. Yet, Pauls words do show us the heart of a true believer. A true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed of the gospel. There is no shame in the gospel, no matter how foolish it may be in the eyes of the world.

And let me just pause right now and ask you, is this a temptation for you to be ashamed of the gospel? Sometimes Christians are ashamed of the gospel because they want things that are different that the things that God wants for them. I know a young man who once had begun a relationship with a young woman. They had gone out on a date, hed had a great time. She was the most beautiful woman hed ever seen. He was very interested in continuing this relationship. And they were talking on the phone the next day and the young woman said to him, "Now I heard some of my friends said that you are a Christian. Is that true?" He was immediately suspicious and on the defensive. Why is she asking this? So he asked, "Why do you ask?" "Well, Im an atheist," she said, "and I dont want any of your religion. So if you cant leave that out of our relationship, were finished right now." He denied, he denied the importance of Christianity to himself in order to continue that relationship.

It doesnt just happen to high schoolers. That happens to people in relationships all through life. Maybe its in a business relationship. You are working with colleagues who are excellent at what they do. They are very competent in the business world, but they are profane. It shows in their language, it shows in their desires, it shows in their attitudes. And you are trying to be as cryptically Christian as possible. They respect you now, but you dont want them to know that this means that much to you, lest they think that youre just a little bit weird. Or maybe its that youre back with some friends with college days. You know, youre having a cup of coffee, youre sharing a meal, and suddenly over dinner it strikes you. You know, back in college I was different from the way than I am now. Im a mother now, Im a mother of two children, and I want to rear them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Im involved in my local congregation. Im serious about the Lord Jesus Christ and suddenly being with these friends again reminds me that I wasnt that way. But, you know, being with them reminds that they still are. They are pretty much the same way that we were when we were in college together. They want the same things, they are excited about the same things, theyre interested in the same things. And the Lord is not one of those things. They are happy to go to church. Dont get me wrong. Theyre happy to go to church, but a living, vital, saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is not very high on their agenda for life. Being transformed by the gospel is not something they are praying about every day. And Im just a little afraid to let them know how much the Lord Jesus and the gospel means to me, because I might be rejected.

My friends, all of us are tempted and pulled by those kinds of things day by day. Former associates who knew us when who might not think so well of us if they knew how significant the gospel was to us. Business associates, relationships, things that we want. There are many ways in which we are tempted to compromise our Christian testimony and to compromise our confidence in the gospel and the apostle's words, "I am not ashamed of the gospel," are certainly a model for us, arent they? We ought not be ashamed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the early church fathers, Apollinaris of Laodicea, once said this: "The Son of God bore the shame of the cross on our behalf. It could not be but out of place for us to be ashamed of His suffering for us." If you really believe that Gods own Son died for you, bore shame for you, how could you possibly be ashamed of Him around anyone for any reason?

You remember when Polycarp, the famous bishop of the early church was being roped to the stake to be burned at the age of 86. They gave him one last chance to denounce and renounce his faith in Christ. And he responded by saying, "eighty-six years I have served Jesus Christ, and He has never done me wrong. How could I do wrong now?" Thats the situation that we face as Christians, day by day. Will we renounce Him or will we embrace His testimony and proclaim Him? Thats the very first thing Id like you to see as you look at this passage. We ought not to be ashamed of the gospel.

Now we havent even said what the gospel is yet. And I know thats a word that we use. We use that word so much that we dont know what it means. We assume that we know what one another is talking about when we use the word gospel, but were not really absolutely certain what it means. We may have a vague idea, we may even have a training course in which we studied a presentation of the gospel. We may have an outline of the gospel in our minds that goes something like grace, man, God, Christ, faith. Or we may have another tract that we like to use in our gospel presentation. We may use the Roman Road, or we may use various presentations of the gospel. But what do we mean by the gospel, and more importantly, what does Paul mean by the gospel?

Well, I simply want to point you to a couple of things. First of all, look back at verse 1 and verse 9 of Romans, chapter 1. Notice that Paul calls the gospel, "the gospel of God" in verse 1. And in verse 9 he calls the gospel, "the gospel of His Son." Clearly, in Pauls mind, the gospel is not something about what we do, its something about what God does. Now, that having been said, if you study the book of Acts, and you study Pauls letters, Galatians, Philippians, etc. You will find that there are at least five components always present when the gospel is preached by the apostles. Now thats significant, because the apostles ought to know a little bit about the gospel. After all they wrote it down. And Id like you to see those components that Paul uses. And to just give you an example of these, let me just ask you to turn to Acts, chapter 2, verses 22 to 39. And if youll skim across those verses, I want to show you these five components.

First of all, the gospel always entails the assertion that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah and Savior of God for Israel. Notice how Peter stresses that in Acts, chapter 2, verses 29 and 30. Hes sitting there and he quotes a passage from the Psalms that David said, and then he said, "Now look, David was laid in the grave, and hes there to this day." So these words spoken by David cant refer to David, theyve got to refer to Christ, that is Jesus Christ. Whats Peter doing? He is rooting his presentation of the gospel in the Old Testament. And that gives it a whole tremendous significance because in the Old Testament, the Old Testament prophets were speaking to Israel who was in rebellion against God. Israel was in exile because of their sin against God, and the good news of the Old Testament was that God in His grace was going to provide an anointed Savior, whereby they would be united to Him and His kingdom would reign in them and through them forever. And so by appealing to the Old Testament, Peter and Paul and the other apostles root the gospel in the Old Testament promises, and in the predicament that the Old Testament had told us about.

Secondly, if you look at verses 22 and 23, every biblical presentation of the gospel focuses on the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It explains the significance of Jesus incarnation, and it explains the significance of Jesus death. He died as a propitiation for our sins. Peter begins his sermon in verses 22 and 23 in Acts, chapter 2, by telling of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as part of the plan of God. It wasnt an accident, it wasnt murder in the sense that he was under the total control of the men who hated him. It was, in fact, something that was part of the very center of Gods plan. And so the gospel always sets forth not only the fact that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah, it also sets forth the meaning of His life and death.

Thirdly, if you look at verses 24 through 32 of Acts, chapter 2, you will see that the gospel always entails an explanation of Jesus resurrection. Here Peter goes on to say that Jesus not only died on our behalf, according to the plan of God, but He was raised again from the dead, as were told in the Old Testament scriptures. The resurrection of Christ is significant for a lot of reasons. Its significant because it vindicates the claims of Christ. He is the Son of God. It is significant because it vindicates the satisfaction of Gods justice. It shows us that God has accepted the penalty paid by Christ in our place, and so now accepts us. It shows us the hope of our future resurrection. It does a lot of things. And so the resurrection is at the very center of the presentation of the gospel in the New Testament.

Then if you look at verses 33 through 36 you see that the gospel presentation doesnt stop there. It goes on by mentioning the exultation to Christ, His ascension, His sitting at the right hand. If you would flip over to Acts, chapter 3 and look at verses 13 through 26, you would see that in addition to the exultation of Christ and his ascension and His sitting at the right hand, it is also emphasized that Jesus is coming again to judge the world.

So a fourth component of the gospel, in addition to the fact that the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies is there, the life and death of Jesus is explained, the resurrection of Jesus is explained, so also His exultation and judgment are explained.

So heres the gospel. It starts first of all with a shared understanding of the bad news. We are created by God, were in covenant with Him, we owe loyalty to Him, but we rebelled against Him. As we rebelled against Him, we were plunged into a state of sin and misery. Theres nothing we could do to help ourselves in that state. Thus, here comes the gospel. The gospel is, God in His providence from the very time of Genesis 3:15, set a plan in motion in order to redeem His people. He promised in the old covenant that He was going to send a redeemer. Jesus is that redeemer. First point of the gospel.

Second point of the gospel. Jesus is the incarnate Son of God who lived and died in our place that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Third point of the gospel. Jesus not only lived and died, He was raised again from the dead as a pledge of our hope and resurrection and redemption.

And fourth. Jesus is exalted, and He will come again to judge.

So the gospel is all about what God has done for our predicament. But, in all the presentations of the gospel in the New Testament, they dont stop there. They go on to press home. Repentance and faith. Whats the response to the gospel? Believe, repent of your sins, trust in Christ. And you see this in Acts, chapter 2, look at verses 37 through 39. At the end of Peters presentation of the gospel, the people have to remind Peter. Peter, okay, what do we do? And Peter says this is what you do. You repent and you believe. You repent of your sins and you believe that these things are true about the Lord Jesus Christ. You trust in Him with all your heart and the promise will be for you. My friends, that gospel, however its presented, in whatever format you present it, that gospel is very offensive to people in our culture today.

In fact, there are at least three things offensive to people in our culture today about the gospel. First of all, is the Christian claim to absolute truth. The Christian in the gospel claims to have come face to face with the truth. I dont mean truth with a little "t," I mean truth with a capital "T." And that scares the living daylights out of post-moderates. They are very happy for you to have your little "t" truth, and for me to have my little "t" truth, and for them to have their little "t" truth; but people who found truth with a capital "T" are positively dangerous and need to be put in an asylum. And yet Christians say, in the gospel we have found the truth. In Jesus we have met the truth. We know the truth. Were convinced of it, and thats frightening.

Secondly, let me say that non-Christians are absolutely baffled by our insistence upon the uniqueness of Christ. They have been taught that all roads lead up the mountain. Theres truth in all the religions. And suddenly here these Christians come trooping along with this gospel message, and they say, by the way, Jesus is uniquely the Son of God. He is the one revelation of the one true God. And that is absolutely astounding to post-moderns. They think, thats arrogant, thats biased, thats narrow-minded, thats even potentially bigoted. That will lead to persecution, intolerance, etc., etc., etc. The only sins that are left, of course, are intolerance and discrimination. And anything that leads to them cant be good. And here these Christians come along saying Jesus is uniquely the Son of God, but they add insult to injury by saying oh, theres one more thing you need to know. Hes the only way of salvation. Hes not only the unique revelation of God. He is the only way into saving fellowship with God. Yes, we believe that. Thats part of the gospel presentation, friends. And Paul says I know where you live. Paul faced an analytic pluralistic culture when he preached the gospel, and Paul knew that they thought he was absolutely crazy for believing those things.

Paul says, Im not ashamed of the gospel message. Are you? My friends, if we are ashamed of the gospel message, then we have never been gripped by its grace and power. Can a man ever be ashamed of the thing which saved his life and soul? You see, if youve really been saved by the power and the grace of the gospel, you cant be ashamed of it. Paul was a man whose life had been turned upside down by the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that he was headed for perdition and Christ laid hold of him. I mean, there was no way that he was going to be disloyal. There was no way that he was going to be ashamed. And if you and I are ashamed today, perhaps we have not tasted of the experience of the grace and power of the gospel.

II. Paul teaches that salvation is by faith in the gospel.

And theres a second thing Id like you to see in this passage today. Look at verse 16 again. Here Paul goes on to tell us the reason why he is so confident in the gospel. The reason why he is absolutely committed, the reason why he is not ashamed. Because the gospel is the saving power of God. Paul is teaching here that salvation is by faith in the gospel. Look at his words: "It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." The gospel message, Paul says, is the God-appointed means for salvation. Its the instrument that God has developed in order to bring about salvation.

Now theres another one of those terms that we use all the time. We say gospel all the time, and we have no idea what were talking about. We say salvation all the time, and we dont know what we are talking about. Brother, are you saved, we say. And sometimes we wonder, saved from what? Good question. Do we mean by salvation merely fire insurance? Do we mean by salvation that were safe from the penalty of sin so that we can as we please? Many people in churches think so. Thats not what Paul is talking about. What does Paul mean when he speaks about salvation? Well, were going to be spending who knows how many weeks answering that question. But, can I give you a short answer?

By salvation, Paul means at least two things. Positively and negatively. Lets start with negatively. Negatively, Paul means that salvation is Gods rescue of us from something. From what? From four things.

Its Gods rescue of us from guilt, and I dont mean from feeling guilty. I mean from really being guilty. The rescue from feeling guilty is the result of being rescued from being guilty. I mean objectively being guilty. He rescues us from being guilty. We are guilty and he rescues us from it.

Secondly, he rescues us from the pollution of sin. Sin corrupts everything in us, and it dominates us so that we long for things that are self-destructive and bad and God displeasing. And God redeems us from that pollution in salvation. He rescues us from it.

Thirdly, he redeems us from slavery. Sin enslaves. Sin makes you really like it, and makes you think that youre going to find your fulfillment in what God tells you to do. And then at the very end, it says, oh yeah, by the way, this means eternal separation from God. It enslaves you. You may enjoy your slavery. You know you may be enjoying the adulterous relationship that youre in. You may think that its the greatest thing thats ever happened to you. One day you will wake up and you will see that in fact you have been being drawn closer and closer to the yawning jaws of hell. It may happen when its too late. Thats how sin enslaves. It looks good, it feels good. In the end it is a way that leads to death. The gospel frees you from that. Now you see already there are people here today who say well, I dont want to be free from this. Thats right. Thats why the gospel is foolishness to you. But the gospel is the power of God and the salvation to all who believe. You see those who believe are those who realize my heavens I need this. I am guilty. I am polluted. I am enslaved to sin. I need to be freed and thats where the gospel comes along and says yes. Negatively, God frees you from all those things and more. He frees you from the penalty of sin, from alienation from God, from the wrath of God, from the eternal separation from Him in perdition. The gospel does all of those things negatively.

But secondly, positively, the gospel is not just a rescue of us from those things, Paul says. The gospel is a bringing of us into a new relationship, a righteous relationship with God, whereby we are stood before God and we can be confident before Him. Were accepted by Him. But the gospel not only brings us into a state of being accepted by God, it brings us into a state in which we are actually made holy. The holy spirit begins to work in us the life of heaven.

You remember Richard Sibbs? They said heaven was in him before he was in heaven. God does that to a certain extent in every believer. God begins to work the life of glory in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, so that we love the things that God loves, we hate the things that he hates, and we begin to even live like the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel brings men into freedom. Though we may have thought we were free when we were doing what we wanted to, youre really not free until youre doing what God wants you to do. Because what God wants you to do is not only glorifying for Him, its the only thing that is good for you. Remember He made you; He knows. And so God, in His gospel, brings us in the gospel. In salvation He brings us into an experience of true freedom, not freedom from obedience, but freedom to obedience.

And finally, salvation brings us into blessedness, fellowship with God. The love of God, eternal life, all those things. Thats the gospel of salvation that Paul is talking about here. And thats what we mean when say salvation: rescue from guilt and pollution and slavery and punishment being brought into righteousness and holiness and freedom and blessedness.

But Paul says something very important for us to note here. Look at verse 16 here again. The gospel saves not all, but all who believe. Look at that again. The gospel saves not all, but all who believe. There are lots of people today who would like us to believe that the gospel is that all are saved. Thats not what Paul teaches. Its the gospel to everyone who believes.

Do you notice two dimensions there? Theres a universal dimension, and theres a particular dimension. Everyone who believes. Paul yearns for everyone to embrace the gospel, but he emphasizes that the gospel must be embraced, and it must be embraced by faith. This good news avails to everyone, Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, barbarian or cultured man, but it must be embraced by faith. Paul emphasizes that the gospel is by faith. Salvation is by faith in the gospel.

And notice again in that last phrase, "to the Jew first and also to the Greek," that Paul indicates that the gospel is the same in the Old and the New Testaments. It wasnt that there was one gospel in the Old Testament and one gospel in the New. Thats not how Paul says it. Isnt it interesting how he says it. He says the gospel is for the Jew first. Often times we hear people say. Well, theres one way of salvation for the Jews, and one way of salvation for the Gentiles. And lets face it, friends. Thats a little attractive to us as Christians because were guilty of anti-Semitism. You know, we feel like weve been kind of hard on the Jews over the years. And were tempted to kind in our discussions and say, well you know, maybe there are two different ways. But notice thats not how Paul says it. Paul says the gospel is for the Jew first. Now this is a Jew. He couldnt have been anti-Semitic. And hes speaking about a Jewish Savior who wasnt anti-Semitic. And hes speaking to a lot of Jewish Christians out there. The Jewish body is the first one to whom the gospel is to be preached. Its to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Thats not just historically, that was Pauls pattern. He went into the synagogue first. He preached the gospel there first. Why? Because theres one way of salvation. Not two ways: One in the old and one in the new ,or two ways now. Theres one way of salvation and that way is the gospel.

III. Paul tells us that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God.

One last thing. Were already overtime, but one last thing. Look at verse 17 because I think this is one of the most exciting things that Paul says here, and frankly it is one of the most surprising. Paul explains how the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And let me say it is absolutely flabbergasting what he says.

He says that in the gospel there is a righteousness obtained by faith. Paul tells us that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. Now that is utterly surprising, friends. If you and I had been writing this we would have written it differently. We would have said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for in it the grace of God is revealed. But thats not what Paul says. He says the righteousness of God is revealed. Or we would have said the gospel is the power of God under salvation for in it the love of God is revealed. But thats not what Paul says. He says in it the righteousness of God is revealed. Or we would have said the grace of God in the gospel and the mercy of God is revealed. All those things are true by the way. Paul will talk about those later in the book of Romans.

But notice, when hes giving his theme, he says, in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. What in the world is he talking about? What gets Paul so excited is that God has saved us in a way in which he causes His justice to be done full service. God has saved us by grace in such a way that He has been perfectly righteous in the way that Hes done it. God has saved us in such a way that He has not swept our sins under the rug. Hes actually dealt with them. He has not just cancelled them. Hes liquidated them. And this is what gives Paul assurance. And this is what gives you and me assurance.

You see, if you thought that God had dealt with your sins by just saying, okay, lets just pretend like theyre not there. And you knew that God was a righteous God. You would never, ever be confident of the security of your salvation because you would wonder how could a righteous guy not deal with sin? I dont understand. And Paul says, this is the thing that gets me so excited about the gospel. What gets me so excited about the gospel is that God has righteously saved me by grace. And the way hes righteously saved me by grace is He has caused the penalty for my sin to fall on His Son so that justice is served. And because justice is served, I am absolutely assured. Because if God has put the penalty for my sin on the head of His Son, God cannot righteously require the penalty from me.

The apostle Paul is saying, the reason Im secure from the wrath of God is because it would be wrong for God to punish me if I trust in His Son, because God in His own design has saved me by grace by the death of His Son, by the work of His Son, by the righteousness of His Son, by the righteousness of His plan and thats what gets Paul so excited about the gospel. And thats what were going to be studying by Gods grace over the weeks to come. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, give us some inkling of just how glorious the gospel is and help us to embrace it by faith. In Jesus name we ask it, Amen.

We Have No Excuse - Romans 1:18-20

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[a] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

The Bad News: The Wrath of God against Mankind

Bad News for Bad Pagan; We Have No Excuse

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 1, verse 18. Were continuing to work our way through this glorious epistle of Paul to the Romans. The last time we were together we were in verses 16 and 17 where Paul announces the theme of his entire book. And today we begin what is the first section proper. Everything before verse 18 is really Pauls introduction and now he begins a long section that runs all the way to chapter 3 verse 20 in which he sets forth, very frankly, the bad news. Paul knows that unless you understand the bad news, you cannot understand and appreciate the good news.

Now theres another thing we need to know in order to appreciate what were going to learn in verse 18 today, and that is to know what Paul has said in verse 17. And Id like you to look at it a moment. In verse 17, Paul says something surprising. In fact, Paul tells us that one of the things that causes his heart to beat quickly when he thinks about the gospel, is that in it the righteousness of God is revealed. As we said last time, thats not how we would have said it had we been writing Romans. We would have said that in the gospel the grace of God is revealed. Or we would have said that in the gospel the mercy of God is revealed. Or we would have said that in the gospel the love of God is revealed. And let me just pause and say Paul believes all those things. In fact, much of his book is going to talk about the grace and the mercy and the love of God revealed in the gospel. But for now, as hes stating his thesis, thats not what hes focusing on and thats not what hes rejoicing in. Hes rejoicing in the fact that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.

Now why would that cause Pauls heart to be moved? Well, lets go back and think for a moment about this man before his conversion. As a Pharisee the apostle Paul was pursuing with zeal and activity the goal of pleasing God by exterminating Christians. He had vested the whole of his being in reducing the numbers of these people whom he considered to be blasphemers. People who are heretics. People who were an affront to God. And as he did so he thought that he was gaining favor with God. He thought that he was pleasing God. And when he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, or rather when the Lord Jesus Christ met him, suddenly Paul saw that everything that he thought that was good that he had been doing was, in fact, not getting him closer to God, but was actually pushing him further away. Or I could put it another way, it was bringing him closer to God for judgment rather than for blessing. Paul suddenly realized that all his righteousness was as filthy rags, and that all his deeds only earned him condemnation. And so he saw face to face the glorious grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to save a wretch like him. Paul could have sung "Amazing Grace" with conviction. All of us ought to be able to sing it with conviction. Paul especially could have sung that song with great conviction. He could have sung "And Can It Be" with great conviction, because he knew what he was.

But when he sees the gospel, hes stunned again because he realizes that the way God saves him by grace is not a way that causes God to sweep his sins under the carpet. The way in which God saves is a righteous way so that even in the gospel Gods righteousness is revealed. Its righteous because instead of sweeping Pauls sins under the carpet, God dealt with those sins. He caused His Son to live the life that Paul ought to have lived. He caused His Son to die the death that Paul ought to have died. And then he gave Paul credit for it because of the covenant promises He had made to Abraham and suddenly Paul's mind is blown, andnd he says, "Lord, you have saved me by grace. But Christ has earned me by His righteousness." This is unbelievable. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And its also revealed that our own righteousness can never suffice. No, an alien righteousness, Christs righteousness must be obtained by faith. And this is what Pauls heart exults in, that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God from faith to faith.

Now, understanding that will help you understand what he says today. So lets hear Gods word in Romans, chapter 1, verses 18 through 20:

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness; because, that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made. So that they are without excuse."

Our Lord and our God, as we come before the gospel this day, we ask that You would speak to us by Your Scriptures and apply that truth to our hearts by the Spirit so that we would see our sin; and we would see the fact that it deserves to be condemned, and we would see Your condemnation of it, Your judgment of it, Your wrath against it. And then that we would see the Savior in all His gospel glory. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

My friends, the gospel makes no sense without two things. Sin and Gods wrath. Apart from your sin and mine, the gospel makes no sense. If I have no sin to be saved from, the message of salvation is utterly unintelligible. Its irrelevant. If I dont need saving, the message of salvation may sound nice, but its not relevant, its not significant. Apart from Gods wrath against sin, the gospel makes no sense because the gospel is the story of Gods amazing, loving, gracious, redemption of us from his own wrath because of our sin. And the apostle Paul knows that it makes no sense to tell us the good news unless we have fully appreciated the bad news. And so, from Romans, chapter 1, verse 18 to Romans, chapter 3, verse 20, the apostle Paul is going to make sure that we understand the bad news. Before he ever gets to elaborating on the glorious truths which he has hinted at in the first seventeen verses of Romans in which he has outlined for us in Romans 1, 16 and 17. Hes going to spend a good long time to make sure we appreciate just what God is saving us from. But my friends, the gospel truth of the bad news is under assault today. Its not very popular today. Its not even popular amongst Christians. Now we make fun of hellfire and brimstone preachers. I can remember as a young Presbyterian going to my grandparents church, a Southern Baptist church in mid-Florida, and hearing the preacher become considerably exercised during the sermon as he was preaching against sin and about hell. And I turned to my grandfather and spoke out loud and said, "Granddaddy, whos he mad at?" We sometimes think its a bit humorous when we hear hot gospelers preaching hellfire and brimstone. But I want to pause and say this. The basic truth being taught by those who warn us against Gods judgment against sin is absolutely Pauline, and its absolutely biblical. And more than that its absolutely essential that we understand it and embrace it, because we live in a culture that is uncomfortable with the idea of sin; its uncomfortable with the idea of evil; its uncomfortable with the idea of depravity; its uncomfortable with the idea of the wrath of God. Derek Thomas, on Wednesday night, during our series on prayer quoted Carl Menningers famous book titled Whatever Happened to Sin? This was a social scientist, a psychologist in the early 1970s saying ,you know, sin seems to have disappeared from our collective cultural conscience. Wonder what happened? Then its true, isnt it? Alan Bloom in his book The Closing of the American Mind says that he has seen a succession of generations, or a succession of classes of students come into his courses at the University of Chicago, and he found that none of them believed in evil and none of them believed in sin. And so he would ask them in the course of teaching them humanities, can you name for me an evil person? And he was stunned by the fact that none of them had any personal experience of a person that they would have characterized as a person who did evil things. In fact, the only people that they could come up with were people with whom they had no relationship. Invariably, he said, the top two evil people on their list in those days of the 1970s were Hitler and Richard Nixon. It was the University of Chicago and it was the 1970s mind you, but they had no personal experience of someone that they would indicate as a person who was evil.

Furthermore, we dont like the idea of depravity today. And certainly not the idea of universal depravity. I mean were good people. Surely God couldnt have that much against us. Were good people here. Furthermore, we no longer believe in the wrath of God do we? In fact, we feel a lot of Christian theologians today working very hard to make sure that Christians dont believe in the wrath of God. But ironically, I want you to understand that not believing in the wrath of God does not lead you into believing in a god who is more loving. It leads you to believing in a god who is less loving. Thats a shocking statement, I know. But I want to demonstrate it for you as we look at Pauls words today. There are two or three things Id like you to see.

I. God's righteous wrath is revealed against sin, all sin and all sinners.

First of all look at verse 18. In verse 18 Paul says Gods righteous wrath is revealed against sin, against all sin, against all sinners. Why is Paul saying this? Because he wants us to understand that the gospel is necessary. Look at the parallel between verse 17 and verse 18. In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed: in creation from heaven, in providence and in our hearts. What does verse 18 say is revealed? The wrath of God. In the gospel the righteousness of God. But now the wrath of God is revealed. What Paul is doing in this whole section is explaining why we need a righteousness that is by faith alone. Why we need the good news of the gospel, and why the good news is so good. Hes telling us here why the gospel is necessary. And to do it he announces the bad news. And the bad news is Gods wrath is upon the ungodly and the unrighteous.

Now, Im perfectly aware that our generation is uncomfortable with the idea of people who are not good. Its uncomfortable with the idea of wrath, and its particularly uncomfortable with the idea that the wrath of God can be combined with any meaningful use of the idea that God is love. Now I want to tackle each of those with you for a few moments. Notice what Paul says here. Two things in particular in verse 18.

He says that Gods wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. In those two terms he indicates both impiety, ungodliness and immorality. He indicates a lack of God-centeredness in our thinking, believing, living, in our attitudes, in our priorities and our actions, and he indicates contempt for Gods law. He indicates there both a rebellion against God and a rebellion against His word. Both impiety and immorality. And he says that that is in fact the condition of all men. In fact, he characterizes mankind and the Gentiles in particular as those who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. These are not people who are ignorant of the truth. They know the truth, but they work very hard not to allow it to have any impact on their thinking, their living, their believing, their worshiping. And so the apostle Paul says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against them. And I want you to note what that indicates. That indicates that they know that their actions are wrong. Paul is saying here that the wrath of God is being revealed continually, not only in biblical events like Gods judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah, or Gods judgment against Nineveh way after the time of Jonah. But its being revealed in his providence as laws are enacted to punish those who were guilty. As nations are brought under the searching judgment of God, Gods wrath is shown. In other words, these people see that there is a right and a wrong because God visits punishment and justice and judgment. And so the wrath of God is being revealed everywhere they see the wrath of God is being revealed. So Paul tells us that these people suffer from ungodliness, and they suffer from unrighteousness. They suppress the truth; and they know the difference between right and wrong, and they see the wrath of God being revealed. And yet they do not run to God; they do not flee to Christ; they do not embrace the gospel; they are under Gods rightful condemnation. What is Paul doing here? He is arguing in these three verses that Gods wrath is just, that it is right for God to be angry against sin. That it is right for God to be in a posture of readiness to judge those who were in rebellion against Him. That is what Paul is doing here.

Now look, I realize we are up against it. We are up against a culture that doesnt believe that people are evil. Were up against a culture that doesnt believe that wrath is right. They equate wrath with hate. And were up against a culture that doesnt believe that wrath and love are compatible. But Paul has already started off by characterizing mankind as a whole as worthy of judgment, as ungodly and unrighteous.

And then he goes on in these verses to indicate the rightness of Gods wrath. Now look, there are two basic objections to the idea of the wrath of God. Often times, it is assumed that wrath or anger is immoral. And if its wrong to have wrath and anger for us, then its certainly unworthy of God to be wrathful or angry. Secondly, it is assumed that wrath is incompatible with the idea of divine love. But let me respond to those very briefly, my friends.

First of all, Paul himself indicates in Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 26 that it is possible for us to be angry and not to sin. There he tells us in our anger we are not to sin, which indicates that even for us there can be a righteous indignation which does not involve us devolving into sin. There can be a righteous anger on our part that does not necessitate our sins. Such as when we see something that is absolutely wrong, and we hate it. So if thats true for us, how much more is that true for God?

Secondly, with regard to this idea that wrath is incompatible with the idea of divine love, Id say it the other way around. Anger, righteous indignation is a function of goodness. Goodness is necessary to true love. Therefore, in order to truly love, you must be capable of righteous indignation against that which is a violation of it. Let me put that another way. A god who cannot be angry is a god who cannot love. In fact, if you cannot be angry against wrong, you are a person who cannot love.

Let me demonstrate. Now let me ask you for a moment, friends, to hold your hearts in your hands. You know that I dont try and shock you, and Im not trying to make some sort of a direct appeal to the emotions right now. I am asking you, in what I am about to share with you, to think of the moral response of your heart to what Im about to describe. We have heard much about partial birth abortion in these last months. Theres a case before the Supreme Court right now. We talk about it antiseptically. Listen to this description by a nurse, Brenda Pratt Shafer as to what she saw when she participated in what was her final, partial birth abortion. "Dr. Haskell brought the ultra-sound in and hooked it up so he could see the baby. On the ultra-sound screen I could see the heart beat. Dr. Haskell went in with the forceps and grabbed the babys legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. He delivered the baby, his whole body, the arms, everything but the head. The babys little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking, and then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head. The babys arm jerked out like a startle reflex, like a flinch, like a baby does when he thinks hes going to fall. The doctor opened up the scissors and stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening. The baby went completely limp. I was totally unprepared for what I was seeing. Next, Dr. Haskell delivered the babys head. He cut the umbilical cord. He delivered the placenta; and he threw the baby in the pan, along with the placenta and the instruments that he had used to perform the abortion." She goes on to say that, "That baby boy had the most perfect angelic face that I think I have ever seen in my life."

Now I dont know what your reaction to that is. There are a lot of words that come to my mind. Revulsion. Indignation. Anger. Wrath. And I want to say that if you cannot be angry about infanticide, and that is what that is, then you are incapable of human love. And I do not worship a God who is indifferent about that type of immoral behavior. To say that God does not care about that kind of behavior is to say that God is amoral. And you know, I think if somebody came up to you today and told you that you are amoral, you wouldnt take it as a compliment. Well, my friends, anger against wrong is not the antithesis of love, it is necessary for love. And my friends, in the reaction that you have had to that little description that I just gave you, you have just seen a glimpse of the heart of God against sin. You have seen that there is such a thing as absolute wrong. There is such a thing as evil and people do it. You have seen that it is not better, its worse not to be wrathful against that evil. And I must say I cant think of a punishment, a human punishment that does justice to what that act deserves.

Oh, my friends, dont fall into the trap of thinking that you can have the good news without the bad news, and dont fall into the trap of thinking that you can even have an apprehension of what the love and grace of God means without understanding what your sin deserves. You know many things ran into my mind as I read those facts that were sent that to me this past Tuesday. I didnt read them until Wednesday, and I made the mistake of reading it right before Prayer Meeting, and I was shell shocked before I walked into Prayer Meeting. But let me say that one of the things that ran through my mind is "Lord God, what does my sin deserve?"

I want to pause. There may be unbelievers in this congregation who are sitting here thinking right now, "Oh, there they go, a bunch of right-wing, conservative Christians that are pounding on abortion again." And thats not the point, friends. Pauls point is that everyone, everyone in the world, apart from Christ, is under the rightful condemnation of God. And what weve just read is just evidence of that fact. Oh my friends, the gospel makes no sense until we realize our sin, until we realize that we deserve condemnation and conversely our sin and Gods wrath make it clear why the gospel is necessary for salvation. You know you often hear people glibly say, "Of course God will forgive you. Thats His business." Take that statement inside of that abortuary for a moment. We may never treat Gods forgiveness in that of glib expectant sort of way. The most surprising thing in the world is that God forgives. The most surprising thing in the world is that I dont get what I deserve. And Paul is glorying in the gospel because he knows the bad news. He knows what he deserves, and he knows what God has given him instead. Now my friends, have you come face to face with your sin, and have you been able to say, "Yes Lord, that is what I deserve." Your judgment of me is right. If you have, and if youve turned to Christ, then you know what it is to experience the joy of the good news. But if you dont agree in Gods judgment of you, if you dont think that youre evil, if you dont think that you need salvation, then there is no salvation for you in the good news, because the good news is for sinners.

One of the officers of the church reminded me after the early service that Paul himself says Christ died for the ungodly. Thats who He died for. He died for the ungodly. If you dont think youre ungodly, Christ didnt die for you. Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus Himself said, "I came, I came for sinners, not for the righteous." My friends, if we insist upon justifying ourselves, then Christs salvation is not for us. Gods wrath is just, and Paul is saying that its being revealed against sin.

II. There is no such thing as an atheist.

Then if you would look in verse 19. Paul carries out this argument. He is explaining in verse 19 the reason for his wrath. And hes telling us in verse 19 that Gods wrath is justified because we know God and yet are ungodly. Gods wrath is justified because He is known among the peoples. Look what he says: "Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them." There is no such thing as an atheist, Paul is saying. Theres no such thing as an atheist, an agnostic. No one can claim ignorance. The apostle Paul says everyone knows God because God Himself has made Himself evident to them. All men have a knowledge of God, not just a bear awareness of his existence. They are not blind in this sense. They know God. God is plainly seeing. He is evident within them. And so our suppression, the suppression that he talks about in verse 18, is culpable. You cant suppress something you dont have. And suppressing that knowledge of the truth makes us liable for sin. Listen to what Donald McCloud says. "It is because we know the truth that mans godliness is inexcusable."

Pauls argument is not that a mans ignorance is inexcusable because Gods revelation is so clear, but that mans religious behavior, or lack of it, is inexcusable because man is not ignorant. Paul is saying we know, and we still dont worship; we still dont obey, we still dont love God; we still dont love our neighbor. We know it, and we dont do it. We rebel against it. Sin is whole-soul rebellion against God. Theres no such thing as an atheist. Often people say well what about the native in Africa. Thats not a very politically correct thing to ask anymore, but you know what theyre getting at. And Pauls answer is quick. Its at the tip of his tongue. And he says theres nobody who doesnt know. We dont have to go out and tell them the gospel so that they know the one true God. Paul says they already know the one true God, and they choose not to worship Him, or reverence Him, or adore Him, or obey him, or believe Him. They all know, and they suppress the truth. God is known in the heart of every person Paul says, and therefore, Gods wrath is justified.

III. God's nature, eternity and power are made known through His creation.

And then he continues to carry out this argument in verse 20. Look with me there. Paul elaborates on that shocking truth. The ungodly, he says, are without a defense. Theyre without excuse because they know so much about God. Paul pauses in verse 20 and shows us one way that God has revealed Himself by His creation. And he says, not just that God is known, that His existence is known because of creation, he says that Gods nature, His eternity, His power are made known through His creation. That is stunning. He says its not just that you work till the end of a syllogism based on the design argument and you can see that it is a good possibility that a god exists. Thats not what Paul says. Paul says the world, creation itself shows you that the one true God exists. And you even see something of His eternity. The world is not eternal; He is. You can see something of His power. The world didnt create itself; He did. You can see something of His attributes, His wisdom, His perfection, His goodness, and even His judgment as you look at the world around you. Paul is not merely asserting that God is revealed, but that He has been clearly seen.

Look at the words of verse 20: "Has been clearly seen and understood." Its not that God just displays His truth in the heavens, it comes home. Its received. We get it and we still suppress it. And then Paul turns to the language of the law courts. We often poke fun at our friends in the legal profession, but I want you to see Paul here borrowing his very language from the law courts of his day. He uses a word without excuse. You see it there in verse 20. That is a technical Greco-Roman legal term. If you were accused of a crime, and you were called to stand in the dock before the judge and jury, you would have been required to give an apologia, a defense. You would be required to defend yourself. If you were unable to defend yourself, you were said to be unapologia, without a defense. Paul says that because of these things, we stand before God unapologias. We stand before Him without an excuse. We have nothing to say for ourselves. You know there are a lot of people who think they will argue with God on the last day. Theyre going to give Him a good what for. The apostle Paul says every mouth will be shut on that day because there is no defense against this. Theyve known, theyve suppressed. They are created in the image of God, yet they were ungodly. They had the law of God written on their heart, yet they were unrighteous. They were in rebellion against God, and everybody in the world falls into that camp unless theyre in Christ Jesus. And the apostle Paul says this is why the good news is so good to me, because thats where we are, whether you like it not, that is where we are. Thats where I was, and thats what I deserved. I deserved condemnation. But God in His goodness, in His love, in His grace, in His mercy has saved me through the righteousness of Christ. All I did was trust on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for my salvation as is offered in the gospel, and I became a child of God.

Thats why the good news is so good. If you pass by, if you cast aside, if you deny the bad news, the good news ceases to be good. And whats worse, God ceases to be God. But the good news is the good news is true, because the bad news is true. You know the bad news is the one thing that you can prove empirically in this life. And so theres one thing left for us to do. Come, for the feast is spread. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, it is the great wonder of our life that You have spread the table of the gospel feast for sinners such as we. So I pray that everyone who is weary and heavy laden, in need of rest, in need of forgiveness, sensing their sin, sensing Your wrath, they would come to Christ today and trust in Him and believe on Him and commit themselves to Him, to live by Him. I ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

We Know God, But Don't Glorify Him - Romans 1:21-23

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23)

We Know God, But Don't Glorify Him

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 1, verses 21-23. As we continue to work through the first chapter of this great Epistle. Paul announced the theme of the book in verses 16 and 17, and said that the gospel was the power of God to salvation and that in it, the righteousness of God was revealed. And he was truly moved by that reality, that fact. He had experienced the power of the gospel, himself. He had embraced and received the righteousness which the gospel brings. And he knew it to be the only answer for a world sick with sin. But immediately as he comes to verse 18 of Romans chapter 1, he puts on his garb as Gods prosecuting attorney. And he keeps on that particular role or position all the way to Romans chapter 32, verse 20, because he knows that you and I will not and cannot understand the good news until we understand the bad news. Until we understand what we deserve, we cannot appreciate the depths and depth of the grace of God.

And so the Apostle began in verse 18, to bring a charge against everyone. He is speaking especially in Romans chapter 1 to Pagans. He will speak to religious people in Romans chapter 2. But his strictures are brought against everyone in the world. And in Romans chapter 1, verses 18-20, we saw him make two very important points. First of all, he indicated that God was right to be wrathful against sin and sinners who are in rebellion against Him. He made it very clear that God had every justification and as part of explaining the justification of God in His wrath against sin and sinners who had not embraced Christ, but rather who had rebelled against Him. The Apostle said, the reason that God is just in this impart at least is that we know Him and yet we still do not honor Him. It is very important that we see Pauls argument. Pauls argument is not that there is not excuse for ignorance. It is not like when you are driving through the town and you say to the policeman, but I didnt know this was a 35 mph zone. And he says ignorance is no excuse. You should have read the sign. That is not Pauls argument. Paul does not say, well, look, God has revealed it clearly, therefore, your ignorance is culpable. That is not Pauls argument. Paul actually says, you are not ignorant. You know God. God has not only displayed His knowledge of Himself in creation to you, But God has revealed himself to you and you possess that knowledge. His knowledge revealed in creation had gotten through. His knowledge as implanted in the image of God is present. No, in fact, he says at the end of verse 18, you are suppressing that knowledge. You are suppressing the truth that God has given to you. So Pauls argument for our culpability, for our responsibility to God, that though God had given this knowledge, we didnt worship it. It is not that we are ignorant of God, but in fact, that we are knowing of God. We know Him, we know a lot about Him. And yet we do not honor Him as God. Now, Paul, in these verses we study today is going to elaborate on that point. So lets turn our attention to Romans 1, beginning in verse 21.

"For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations. And their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools. And exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and crawling creatures."

Thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired Word. May he add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Lord this is Your word. We ask that You would teach us Your truth by it. So many of us come this day, having heard this passage and perhaps the whole book of Romans read many times in our upbringing, in our own Christian walk. We pray that You would refresh us with a new appreciation with the truth set forth in this passage. Others of us, O Lord, may come skeptical this day, apathetic about the truth of God, uncertain of You, uncertain of Christ, uncertain of the Gospel. Cynical about cardinal Christian teachings, we pray that by the Holy Spirit, that You would open their eyes, that You would challenge them with the Gospel. That they would see and appreciate, all these things, we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Paul began his presentation of the bad news in verse 18. First, the bad news, then the good news. And he explained that God was just in His wrath because we are without excuse having the knowledge that we possess. Because we suppress that knowledge, we suppress that truth, in unrighteousness. Now, in these verses, Paul explains just how it is that people go about suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. You know someone might respond to Paul, well, what do you mean, Paul, surely you arent saying that everything suppresses the truth in unrighteousness who is not a Christian? And the Apostle Paul says, well, as a matter of fact, that is exactly what I am saying, and let me tell you how they do it. And that is precisely what he does in three parts in this section today.

The first part you will see in the first half of verse 21. Then in the second half of verse 21 and 22, you will see a second aspect of Pauls argument. And then in verses 23, you will see a third part of the argument. Look with me at verse 21 first.

I. The true knowledge of God is suppressed.

Here, Paul shows us how the true knowledge of God was suppressed in the hearts of the Gentiles. Maybe I should put it this way: here Paul shows us how the true the true knowledge of God is suppressed in the hearts of the Gentiles. He is speaking to all Pagans. I dont use that word in a majority here. By Pagan, I mean someone who thinks that there is another way to express religious belief validly apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, who rejects the uniqueness of the Gospel and of the Lord Jesus Christ and there are many people in our culture who have done that. They think of themselves as post Christian. They want to be religious. They want to have a spirituality, but they want to have it apart from Christianity and a perfect name for that is Pagan. Not in a condescending way we say it, but simply to identify it as a distinctively religious non-Christian view of life. Paul is saying, this is how Pagans suppress the truth of God in their hearts. He says, that we suppress the knowledge of God by failing to glorify and thank Him. Look at the first section of verse 21. Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. This verse explains and elaborates the final phrase in verse 18. Look at that phrase, where Paul says, that we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That phrase indicated that it was depravity that had obscured the knowledge of God. In other words, Paul is telling you how the truth was suppressed. The truth was suppressed not because there wasnt enough evidence. The truth was not suppressed because it wasnt intellectually compelling, the truth was suppressed, he said by unrighteousness. They suppressed the truth by unrighteousness.

In other words, there is a moral problem here. Not an intellectual problem. The origin of this rejection of the truth of God in general revelation finds itself not in the intellect, not in the cognitive, but in a moral rebellion, corruption, depravity, by their unrighteousness, they suppressed the truth. And this verse that we are looking at now, verse 21, tells you two specific ways that that occurs.

It happens first, through failing to fulfill the fundamental purpose for which God created you, and that is, to glorify Him. If you have the knowledge of God and you dont use it to promote Him glory, you fail the fundamental purpose for which He created you, and for which He gave you knowledge in the first place. And secondly He says, that truth is suppressed when we are ungrateful for Gods kindnesses. And so in two ways, the truth of God is suppressed. They saw Gods creation. They saw Gods glory, they saw Gods providence, and they did not glorify Him as God, they saw His eternity, they saw this world, they knew that the world didnt just get here like it is, it hasnt always existed, that it was brought into being by something that was greater than it, by an infinite, omnipotent personal force who had the power to make an order and vast universe. A universe, which was not eternal, but made by a being, which was eternal, and they did not end up worshipping Him. Despite the fact that His eternality and His power, and His wisdom were displayed, His goodness in the creation, they did not worship Him. They didnt worship Him, when they saw His justice revealed in providence. They didnt worship Him when they saw His mercy, His patience, His forbearance revealed in providence.

You are asking yourself, well how is His mercy, patience, and forbearance revealed in providence? Let me illustrate. A while back, there was a man who was married, a professing Christian who became involved in an extramarital affair. Coming back from one of his rendezvous, he was in a near fatal automobile accident. He languished for days on the edge of death. Christians, who prayed for him, longed that that wake up call from God would drive him back into the arms of God. Instead he announced later after his recovery that that event had been decisive in his decision to live life like he wanted to live it. Oh my friends, that providence was a revelation of the mercy of God. But it was misread. It didnt lead to a person saying, I embrace God in thankfulness for His patience and forbearance to me. I embrace the wife of my youth. I repent, I seek, reconciliation and I ask forgiveness. No, it doesnt lead to the worship of God in that way, it leads to rebellion. And so the Apostle Paul says, the truth is suppressed. The truth clearly revealed by God. And they didnt give thanks to Him. There is no one who is not indebted to God for His many kindnesses and when we do not show thankfulness to Him, when we do not acknowledge the things we have come from Him, we havent earned them ultimately. No matter how hard we have worked. Gods kindness has been at work in our experience. When we dont acknowledge that, we suppress the truth. We dont acknowledge that the gift comes from the Giver. And in these ways, Paul says, we suppress the truth.

Our central purpose in life is the promotion of the glory of God, and the knowledge of God serves that in. There is a necessary connection between knowing and believing and obedience and worship. And when that connection is severed, the truth is suppressed. When the knowledge of God does not lead to the worship of God, when the link is broken between knowledge on the one hand, and belief and obedience and worship on the other, that knowledge appears to be vacuous and irrelevant and it is suppressed.

Henry Schafer is a theoretical chemist and a Christian who has taught at the University of California, Berkley, and is now at the University of Georgia. And during his Apologetics lectures at First Presbyterian Church at Augusta, Georgia, a couple of years ago, he told the story of two incidents which made a profound impact on him in his upbringing. He had been brought up in a nominally Christian home. They attended a relatively conservative evangelical church, but he said two things happened in his relationship with his dad, or rather in seeing his dad in his younger days, which caused him to reject Christianity. Once, they were in an argument, and he quoted the Bible in his favor on his side of the argument, and his father, responded, well, in this case the Bible is wrong. Then when his younger sister graduated from high school, he noticed that his father and his mother stopped going to church. And from those two experiences, he decided that Christianity must be worthless. If Gods word is not authoritative, if his fathers word can effectively challenge Gods Word, well Gods Word must not mean much. If his father had only gone to church simply because it would be good for the kids, then Christianity must not be relevant. It took him years and the grace of God to get over that physical demonstration of the break between the linkage of knowledge and worship, knowledge and faith, knowledge and obedience. His father had broken that link and thus, had ended up suppressing the knowledge of God. That is what happens to all so-called theoretical and practical atheists and agnostics. The knowledge bears no godly proof. Paul does not say that they didnt have the knowledge. Paul simply says, they suppressed that knowledge, that truth. It has been marginalized in their heart and their experience. Now there are so many implication of this, so many applications of this, that we could spend all day. But let me just think about a couple of them with you for just a moment.

We live in a day and age where there are a number of people who call themselves atheists and agnostics. Last week, we argued according to Pauls words, and in Romans chapter 1, verses 18-20, that really there is no such thing as an atheist or an agnostic, because God has implanted His knowledge in everyone. But there are still people who claim to be atheists and agnostics. In this passage, Paul makes it clear to us, that the reason that they claim to be atheists and agnostics is not because they are smarter than we are; it is not because they have got intellectual problems with the evidence of Christianity; that they have got intellectual problems with the credibility of the belief. The origin of their problem is not intellectual: they are moral. In unrighteousness, they have suppressed the truth. There is a moral suppression of truth going on. And that means a lot of things. But one thing it means is that it is not your job to go out and try to prove God to atheists and agnostics. He has already proved Himself and their problem is not intellectual. In fact, Paul Vince has just speculated that the best instrument of atheism and agnosticism in terms of its being perpetuated is an absent or a bad father. You ought to take a look at his book, Faith of the Fatherless, sometimes and see his argument about the origins of atheism. Atheism does not come from being smarter. Atheism does not come from intellectual superiority. Atheism comes from a moral suppression of the truth. And we need to understand, in addition to what Paul is saying here, about the basis of the divine final judgment.

You know, a lot of times as evangelicals, we think on the last day, those who have heard the Gospel, and accepted will be saved, and those who have heard the Gospel and rejected it will be condemned. Well, so far, so good. But then the thought pops into our minds: well, what about those who have never heard? And many well-meaning evangelicals attempt to find other ways for people to come into eternal saving fellowship with God apart from the Gospel, because they think, well, if your acceptance or rejection of the Gospel is the basis of your final judgment or acceptance, and you never had the chance to hear, well, surely then God provides some other way. The Apostle says, no, no, no, you dont understand. All people know. The problem is not ignorance here. The problem is moral rebellion. If we dont understand that, we will get into all sorts of self-created problems in terms of our Christian witness.

The reason we share the Gospel to the nations, is not because they dont know, but that because they do know and they suppressed that truth. And only the Gospel can savingly liberate them from that self-imposed bondage. That is why we go to the nations. You know, if it was true that the way that people are condemned is by their hearing of the Gospel and rejecting it, if that was the only truth out there, you see, then the best way to make sure that people got to heaven would be not to tell anybody the gospel. And that way, they couldnt reject it, then that way; they could get to heaven some other way. But the Apostle Paul says, no you dont understand, the nature of the problem is not that people dont know. The nature of the problem is that they do know and they still reject God. That is why we need the Gospel. So Paul tells us that the way we suppress the knowledge of God is by failing to glorify and be thankful to Him.

II. The results of suppressing the true knowledge of God.

And then He goes on if you look at the end of verse 21, and the first part of 22, to show you the results of suppressing the true knowledge of God. Whenever you suppress the true knowledge of God, there are consequences and in this brief passage, he shares three consequences of suppressing the true knowledge of God. When you ignore or reject the true knowledge of God, everything else goes haywire. There is always a consequence for the rejection of the truth. And the results of their failure to glorify and thank God according to Paul are several. First of all, their speculations become empty. Second their hearts become more obscured from the truth. And third, while professing wisdom, they display foolishness.

Notice these words: they become futile in their speculations. Their foolish heart was darkened, and professing to be wise, they become fools. Their speculation becomes futile. Once their knowledge is divorced from praise, it becomes empty. You know, you have heard it: well, I like to think of God as .. and then fill in any crazy idea you want. Reject the true knowledge of God; you will come with all manner of nutty things to believe. It doesnt matter how smart they are. Smartness is not as protection against superstition. Smartness is not a protection against embracing incredibly crazy beliefs. It is amazing isnt it, that there are people out there that believe scientology and L Ron Hubbards Dianetics. Relatively intelligent people who embrace that as a worldview. There are people out there who build buildings on the basis of Feng Shui. You know, you have got to have the bathroom in the right part of the building or the spirit of the building will cause your business to collapse. There are intelligent people who embrace that kind of thinking. Their smartness has not protected them from the results of their suppression of the truth.

And Paul goes on to say: their foolish hearts are darkened. You know the heart stands for the whole of the inner life. You know, that inner core of our being. Leon Morris put it this way, "the heart is the center of the inner life, from it, the persons direction is determined, his whole course is shaped, his basic commitments formed." And Paul is saying that in the very core of their being they become more impervious to truth. Truth is often pictured in the Scriptures as light. He says their hearts become darkened. That is, it gets harder for their dark hearts to accept truth when they do run into it. By suppressing the truth, their heart becomes more obdurate against the truth. And then finally, they claim to be wise, and yet they become fools.

Many of you were at the National Center for Fathering Conference last week, and during it we saw a clip from major broadcast news source. One of the three media giants. I wont tell you which one; because the story I am about to tell you is so embarrassing. And we were seeing a clip from a series that this particular main broadcast channel had done on fathering. And a relatively intelligent sounding reporter stared us in the eyes through the camera and said, with a straight face, "more and more research indicates today that fathers are important for children." Now all of us in the conference reacted just the way you did. We said, exactly what research did you need to do to figure this out? And yet, my friends, you see when you come from a culture that has a grid, that has an agenda to try and marginalize the importance of fathers, and to promote experimentation in same sex marriages, and single parent child rearing, it is blind to things that are perfectly obvious to any human being with an IQ larger than his shoe size. And the Apostle says professing to be wise, they became fools. And the knowledge of God always goes bad when it is not deployed as it is supposed to be. When we suppress the knowledge of God and it does not lead us to praise, it always goes bad on us. And so, professing to be wise, we become fools. And so Paul says here, not only that we suppress the knowledge of God by failing to glorify Him, and thank Him, but that having failed to glorify and thank Him, it leads everything else go haywire in our thinking and in our living.

III. Idolatry is the consequence of suppressing the true knowledge of God.

And finally in verse 23, he takes us to the next step. Here he tells us that idolatry is the degrading but inevitable consequence of the suppression of the true knowledge of God. When we refuse to worship the one true God, it is not that worship anything; it is that we will worship anything. If you refuse the one true God, who has revealed Himself in you, and around you, you will worship anything. Idolatry is the central religious problem. Not theoretical atheism, not agnosticism, but idolatry. God has made us to be religious people. If we won't worship Him, well find something else to worship. There is a God we want and there is a God who is, and the two are not the same. And if we dont want the God who is, we will invent the god we want, and we will worship him.

And we see this in the Old Testament. The people of God did it right in the wake of the Exodus. They said they would worship the true God, through the golden calf. Isaiah mocks Pagans who would go out and they would take a tree and they would cut it down, part of it they would make kindling and make firewood. Part of it, they would build a house out of. The rest of it, they would make their god, and they would worship it. And Isaiah said, this is ridiculous. And of course it is ridiculous. And we can stand back and say, well, we will get more sophisticated for that. We dont do that anymore. But we make God in our image all the time.

Many of here grew up in the old Southern Presbyterian Church, and back during the 1950s we became concerned about the curriculum that was coming out of the Christian Education Department in Richmond. It was beginning to question traditional teaching about the doctrine of Scripture, and it denied the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. It began to question traditional teaching about the doctrine of salvation, traditional Christian teaching about the nature of God. And people became concerned; they began to talk about it. But you know, if you had gone into a member's home, in the 1950s and said this, you know if you get off on the doctrine of Scripture, off the doctrine of God, why, you know what, one day you will be worshipping other gods. They would have looked into your eyes and they would have said, you are stark raving loony. And yet our descendants have been involved in sponsoring a conference where the worship of the goddess Sophia was participated in.

Oh my friends, when you refuse to worship the one true God, according to His knowledge, you will worship anything. And the irony of this, of course, is that when we refuse to decentralize ourselves to displace ourselves and to acknowledge the one true God, to be the proper focus of all life, the center of reality and we replace ourselves and we decide that we are going to be the center of reality and what we think is going to be the center of reality. We end up killing ourselves. Because we cant support the weight of reality. We cant generate satisfaction and blessedness and happiness only the displacement of the self to the worship of the one true God, can bring blessedness and satisfaction and happiness, so the Apostle Paul says, until you come to grips with the realization that the suppression the truth of the one true God, that truth which has been given to every human being is a universal reality, you are not ready yet, to appreciate just how good the good news is that I am going to share. May God enable us to see the folly of our own hearts, and to flee to the only answer to that folly, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lets pray.

Our heavenly Father, we humble ourselves before You, and we confess that we have not known You as we ought. You have revealed Yourself to us, and we havent worshipped You, and we ask O God, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we would see Christ in all of His benefits, that we would trust in Him, and so would come to worship You as You are, as You reveal Yourself in the Gospel. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

God Gave Them Over (1) - Romans 1:24-25

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:24-25)

God Gave Them Over - 1

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 1 as we continue to study through Pauls letter to the Romans. We have been in Romans chapter 1 for a number of weeks now, and we even began a new section a few weeks ago when Paul introduces the words of Romans 1:18, where he begins a long diatribe.

We have already said that from Romans 1:18 all the way to Romans chapter 3, verse 20, the apostle Paul is announcing the bad news. Now Paul is speaking to Christians. He is writing to a Christian congregation in Rome. He is writing from Corinth. But, for the meantime, he is going to speak about two types of rejection of the one true God. In Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18 all the way to the end of the chapter, he wants to talk specifically about what we would call today Pagans. That is those who make no specific Christian profession. They might not even make a religious profession of faith. And yet, the apostle Paul says they are still guilty before God, for they know Him. He has revealed Himself to them in them and in creation. They know what He is like. They know that they ought to honor Him, and they dont. And he spends a long time talking about bad news to the Pagan.

And then he turns in Romans chapter 2, and he talks about a religious person, a person who is very diligent in living out a religious sort of life, and yet is living that life apart from God. And then he will sum up in chapter 3 by basically saying this: everyone is under the condemnation of God, who is not in Christ Jesus.

Today, we are in the middle of that first section where he is speaking to Christians. He is speaking especially about Pagans, those who do not have a Christian or even a Jewish or religious profession of faith. Those who may be religious or superstitious in some sense, but reject basic truths about the one true God. And he is speaking about how Gods wrath manifests itself in them. So lets hear Gods holy and inspired word, beginning in verse 24.

"Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy inherent and authoritative word. May He write its truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Our Father, we ask that You would open our eyes, that we would see the truth of Your Word. If we come, O Lord this day, with hardened hearts, skeptical of You and of Your truth of the gospel way of salvation, we pray that You would soften our hearts in Your hands. We pray that we would see the truth and that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we would respond to it. We come as believers this day, O Lord, root us and ground us in the truth. Help us to understand ever more the greatness of Your love to us. And enable us better to witness by word and by life to the saving truth of Jesus Christ. We ask these things in His name. Amen.

You cant understand the good news, without the bad news. That is the true for many reasons. One important reason it is true, is because if you have not diagnosed the problem, the basic problem that mankind has, you cannot apply a solution that will work. That is true in all areas of life. If you are working in any particular field, and you misdiagnose the problem, your solution for the problem will be wrong. And lets face it, there are many different opinions in our world today about what our problem is. There are many influenced by New Age thinking, who think that our basic problem as human beings is that we have forgotten who we really are. We are all actually divine, New Age teaching would tell us. We need to look within to find the god within us. To remember who we are. To realize that we are all one. That there are no real distinctions out there between good and evil and right and wrong and God and not God. All is one, and we ought to all be united together as brothers and sisters, realizing the divine in us. Wrong diagnosis. Wrong solution. Our problem is not forgetfulness. Our problem is not that we have forgotten that we are god. We never were. The memory is not there. That is not the problem and so any solution based upon that diagnosis is going to incorrect.

There are others who have different solutions to that. They have a somewhat Christian kind of belief. They say, you know, mankinds basic problem is it doesnt realize that God already savingly loves them. Everybody is already Gods child, they just dont realize it yet. And so the gospel is to tell them that. They need to realize that theyre already Gods child. They are already accepted and they just havent accepted their acceptation. If that is your version of the gospel again, it is based on a misdiagnosis, because that is not what the gospel says. The gospel does not say that all mankind is already in a saving relationship with God, it just needs to have it announced. That is what our Barthian friends used to say when they would go to the mission field. Our job is to go out there and tell people that God already loves them and has already forgiven them. They need to find out the truth, which is already true about them, that they dont yet know. And we used to say, we beg to differ. We believe that the gospel is different from this. You see, if you misdiagnose mans problem, you will not be able to apply the solution. Paul, here is saying, that our basic problem is idolatry. We are in rebellion against God. And we need redemption from that rebellion in sin. And that rebellion is only remedied in Jesus Christ. Until we understand the problem, we wont be able to embrace the solution.

And so Paul begins with the bad news, not because he was a person that liked to dwell on the negatives, not because he enjoyed speaking about very difficult topics, but because it was the truth and the truth is good for the souls of men and women. In fact, it is absolutely essential for their eternal salvation. And so the apostle Paul pauses to explain the bad news in order that we will understand the good news. And in this passage today, he continues to confirm some things that he had already said. Let me just remind you of two things.

First of all, in Romans chapter 1, verse 18, Paul had asserted that everyone has the truth, but we suppress it in righteousness. That is so important because in our day and age, we, even as Christians are dominated by a fear that basically most people out there do not believe in God, and it is our main job to try and get them to believe in God. As far as the apostle Paul is concerned, that is not the big problem. Men are.

When Paul is in a Pagan culture, Athens, he finds a sanctuary in which there is an altar to an unknown god. And what does Paul come to them and say? God is not unknown. The problem is not that He is unknown, the problem is that He is known and He is not worshipped. He says the same thing here doesnt he? Our basic problem is not that we dont know that there is a god out there. We do. We just dont want to worship Him. We dont honor Him. We suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And as we studied last time in verses 21-23, he tells us explicitly how it is that we go about suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. Even though we know God, and even though we know we ought to honor Him, Paul says we do two things. First, we are ungrateful. We are not thankful for what God has provided, and everything we have, we have we have just prayed, everything we have comes from Him. We are not grateful. Secondly, we suppress the truth in unrighteousness by not worshipping Him. We know Him, we know about Him, we know what He is like, we know what He does, but we dont worship Him. And so the apostle says we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. But he goes on to say, having done that, in verses 21-23, it leads us into idolatry. You suppress the truth he says, it leads you into idolatry. And in the passage we are going to study today for a few moments, he now goes on to explain to us the consequences of idolatry: apostasy from the truth. We have the truth, we suppress it, and leads to idolatry he says. And idolatry leads to something else. That something else is what Paul has before us today.

Now before we look at what Paul says about Gods judgment in sin, I want you to think about a question for a moment. What is it, how is it, that we normally think of God judging sin? We look around at our culture today, and sometimes we look at the natural disasters that befall us, and we ask ourselves the question: Is that God sending us a message? Is that Gods judgment against us, when we see that tornado or that earthquake, or that tidal wave, or that hurricane, or that natural disaster, or whatever sort. And it is not inappropriate to ask that kind of question. I want to say, very quickly, the writers of the Old and the New Testament all understood that God used means in the ordering of natural creation, but they also recognized that God controlled those means for His own purposes. And that often times, He would use natural calamities in order to send a message to His people. So it is perfectly possible that God can visit His judgment through natural calamity. On the other hand, sometimes we say, well you know, God is bringing His judgment against it and we can see it in the human calamities around us. When we see a Columbine High School, or something like this. Often times, we look at one another, and we ask, is this Gods judgment upon us as a nation because we have turned our back upon Him? In this passage, the apostle Paul says something absolutely shocking. He says, though those things are true, Paul says, Gods judgment against sin is universally and pervasively seen in sin itself. That is, that sin unchecked is in itself, Gods judgment against sin. Chew on that for a few moments, and I would like you to see two or three things in this passage.

I. God's judgment against sin involves His delivering us into the hands of our own desires!

First, in verse 24, Paul has just explained to us, in 21-23, how people suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Now, Paul is going to reveal to us the consequences of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. Look at what he says, therefore, God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. In other words, Paul says that Gods judgment against sin involves His delivering us into the hands of our own desires. We see Gods hand of judgment against sin, when we see Him withdrawing the restraints in our society against that sin and that sin beginning to work itself out in our conduct individually and corporately. Paul is saying that in and of itself is a judgment against sin.

I was struck a couple of weeks ago with the passage that we were contemplating in which we mentioned partial birth abortion. Do you remember the Old Testament reading that occurred that morning? It spoke of Gods judgment against Babylon even judging the children of Babylon. And it struck me, what an example of what Paul is speaking about here, because it is not God bring some outside force against Babylon to judge and kill the children of Babylon. We are doing it to ourselves. And so Paul says, Gods judgment against sin is sin. You know, we often think, Lord, if we continue to commit this crime of abortion, well You will bring judgment against this nation. The apostle Paul, if he were standing by me side today, would say, that is His judgment against this nation. You are killing your own kind. Animals in the wilderness know that you cannot do that and survive. You are manifesting even in your own conduct my judgment against sin.

Now contemplate what Paul says here. He tells us that Gods judgment against sin involves His delivering us into the hands of our own desires. Look at verse 24. I would like you to see three things there. First of all, notice Pauls emphasis. God delivers. His judicial deliverance of us into our own desires. God gave them over. Now you know that he uses that phrase three times, verse 24, verse 26, and verse 28. In verse 24, he says, that God gives us over to these impure desires, verse 26, he says that God gives us over to degrading passions, verse 28, he says, God gives us over to a depraved mind. Notice all that, the language of the heart, indicating that the totality of what we are in the inner man, in the depth of our being, in the seed of the personality in that aspect of our humanity that defines everything else that we are that we are being corrupted. And the apostle sees this as Gods judgment. God gave them over.

You know that language that is used there, God gave them over, is the same language which is used of the Jews handing Jesus over to Pilate. It is the same language used of Pilate handing over Jesus to His potential executors. It is the same language used in Romans 8:32 to speak of God delivering over His Son to pay the penalty of our sin. The apostle Paul is saying, Gods judgment against sin is when He delivers you over into your own desires. The Greeks used to say, whom the gods would destroy, they answer their prayers. And what Paul is saying is when a human heart says, I rebel against you God, I want to be my own god, I want to do it my own way, then God says, okay, have it your way. And that judicial deliverance, that abandonment into our own desire becomes our own punishment. That is why C.S. Lewis could say in a provocative way, that "The doors of hell are locked from the inside." Those in hell dont want to get out of it, they have chosen it. They have chosen their sin, they have chosen their wickedness. They love it. And God abandons them to their own desires.

Notice also, in this passage, He abandons them, what? To their desires, the desires of their hearts in impurity. Sin is the punishment of sin here. It is not just that people sin and thus God will bring judgment against them in some sort of calamity. It is that their very deliverance over into doing what they want to do is Gods judgment against their sin. He brings judgment against them by letting them go ahead and do what they so strongly desire to do. It is His judgment. When He removes the constraints and allows them to go the way of their own wicked hearts.

Notice here too, Pauls connection between sexual sin and idolatry. Paul was writing this letter to the Romans from Corinth. And Corinth was a famously immoral city. In Pauls time, the idiom 'to act like a Corinthian' meant to act in an immoral way. It was a sailor's port town. It had a temple in the city center. You could look up and see the temple, and there were over one thousand cult prostitutes servicing that temple. And the apostle Paul could see the connection visibly displayed between the idolatry of the Corinthians and their immorality. Note that connection between idolatry and immorality. Why? Because if you will not conform your desires to the truth, you will conform the truth to your desires. And thus, there is always an inseparable connection between idolatry and immorality. Idolatry is simply immorality worked out. And immorality is simply idolatry worked out. Thus, the connection. We either conform desire to truth, or truth to desire.

And Paul is teaching us here in response to some who might have said to him, now come on Paul, there may be a few bad people, but people are basically good. Or to those people, who might have said, oh come on Paul, I mean God may occasionally be angry at me, but He is not pervasively angry. We are not all under the condemnation of God. And the apostle disproves those objections by pointing us to the pervasiveness of immorality. He doesnt point us to some extreme example in the culture. He points right to the mainstream of the immorality of the culture. And he says, look, you see the pervasiveness of immorality. That is indisputable evidence of ungodliness. Ungodliness, idolatry, leads to that immorality. And the immorality itself is an evidence of Gods wrath against the immorality. And therefore, simply by showing the pervasiveness of immorality, Paul has proven two things. He has proven the doctrine of depravity empirically, and he has proven the doctrine of the wrath of God because you dont have to look for an earthquake or a volcano destroying Vesuvius to see the wrath of God against sin. The wrath of God against sin is seen when He breaks lose the restraints of sin in a society and lets sinners go their own way. Now, I hasten to say my friends, that what Paul is saying is as fresh as the ink on our morning paper. Now people who say that the Bible is not relevant have not read Paul recently. Because what Paul is saying about his own culture is pervasively true of every culture. He knew that. He was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is Gods Word. And it is eternally relevant to our situation. We look around at our culture, and we see the truth of what Paul is saying. What is Paul saying? Gods judgment against is the delivering of us into the hands of our own desires.

II. Our fundamental problem is idolatry.

And then in verse 25, he goes on to say something else. He specifies our fundamental problem. And he says our fundamental problem is idolatry. It is the root sin. And I want to say, that Paul understood as did the Old Testament prophets that idolatry doesnt just mean crafting a hand-made God. Idolatry means worshipping anything that is not the true God. In fact, the better the thing is, the better an idol it makes. When we go to the movies and see a bad guy who is an idolater, the idol that he worships is usually some sort of a horrible, terrible, evil thing. The best idols, however, are things that in and of themselves are good. In fact, our idolatry manifests itself in a couple of ways. Either, we will have a tendency to remake God, in such a way, that He will not poke His nose in our business. Or, we make an idol out of something by vesting all our desire for significance and security and control and comfort in that thing instead of in God.

Lets talk about those two things for a moment. There are many in our world today, who are very uncomfortable with the bothersome god of the Bible, who is always telling you what you ought to do. We want our freedom. And so we have invented gods, that dont bother us. We can use them when we want, and then we can put them back up on the shelf. And pick up the morning newspaper on Saturday morning and see an article in which it is described, a young man going to a church and speaking to some members of that church, and some members of that church said some negative things about other denominations. And the author of the article goes on to say, isnt it terrible that we have all these differences and different denominations, and different beliefs and such. After all, we are all the same, we are all one, we all worship the same God, we worship Him through different ways, and through different names, but it is all the same god. Wrong. That is a false god. Nobody, who is an orthodox Jew, an orthodox Christian, an orthodox Catholic, an orthodox Protestant, or an orthodox Muslim believes that. And yet, that is a very popular teaching today. The Bahai faith manifests that particular belief. But as far as Paul is concerned, it is utterly false. And yet that god is so convenient, because you say, oh yes, God is love, and He would never interfere with what I want to do. So I use Him when I want, and I put Him back up on the shelf. I have created a god in my own image. He doesnt get in my way, doesnt tell me what to do, doesnt make things difficult. That is one way we make idols.

But we also make idols out of worshipping things that are good, but arent God. Family, maybe. Family is a wonderful thing. But if you see your ultimate significance and your ultimate safety and your ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction as being vested in a person, your husband, your wife, your children, you have made them an idol. No human being can possibly give you the satisfaction that you need as a creature created in the image of God. Only God can do that . That is the irony of it, isnt it? When we vest all of our significance in a marriage, or in a family, we are ultimately disappointed, because no human being can fulfill what we need. Only God can. But we have also made it an idol. It is a good thing, but we can make it an idol. If it is the place where we find our ultimate hope, our ultimate significance, our ultimate satisfaction, our ultimate comfort.

There are so many other things that can be idols, money, work, power, popularity, wanting to be liked, appearance, food, anything under the sun can be an idol that we put our hope and our dreams in instead of God. And suddenly we have become no less idol worshippers than the human being who goes out and cuts down a tree and comes home and carves it up and sets it on his mantle piece and worships it at night. Because idolatry is placing anything before the one true God. And Paul is saying to us, that is what we need to be saved from, because every human being has a natural inclination to that idolatry.

There is one God. There is no God, but God. And there is no rest for any people who rely on any god, but God. And so the apostle Paul says, idolatry is our fundamental problem and only Jesus Christ can save us from it.

III. God's truth, glory and blessedness are independent of our assessment, rejection or acceptance.

But he has one more thing to say. Right at the end of verse 25, even as he has been speaking of the way that human beings dishonor their Creator, he gets to that word, Creator, a recognition of his Creator, God, and he pauses and he says, He is blessed forever, amen. Have you ever been talking to a devout Muslim and they come across the name Allah, and they have to pause and say, Allah be praised, or they come across the name, Mohammed, and say, may his name forever be blessed. It is a very common way of acknowledging the essential work in the near east of the creator or the prophet. And the apostle Paul, here vexed to the core of his being, by being in the midst of an idolatrous world, that dishonors his God and does not worship his God as the one true God and Paul gets to that word Creator, and he just has to pause for a second and by way, He is blessed forever. Whatever you think or not.

And that is exactly the truth that Paul is sharing with you here. Gods truth, Gods glory, Gods blessedness are independent of our assessment. They are independent of our rejection or acceptance of Him. God, in order to be blessed doesnt need to have our approval. God, in order to be true, does not have to have our concurrence. Remember the bumper sticker, which said, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. As far as the apostle Paul is concerned, that is wrong. God said it, that settles it, I dont care whether you believe it or not. Gods truth is not dependent upon my concurrence with it. It's true. It is the same with Gods glory. Gods glory is not going to be in the least diminished by my refusal to glorify Him, but, I will never participate in His glory, if I do not glorify Him.

You know it is one of the ironic things, isnt it, I can refuse to glorify God, and it is not going to impinge upon His glory in one iota. But it is going to destroy me. If I refuse to give myself away to Him, I am in the end destroyed, but if I give myself to Him, and I glorify Him, I find that I am made what I was intended to be. I am fulfilled, I am satisfied. I am filled up to overflowing in Him. And the apostle Paul wants us to realize that Gods glory is not impacted by our rejection of Him.

You see, the gospel is not, oh no, we Christians better get out there and tell as many people about Christ as we can, or God is not going to be glorified. Oh no. God will be glorified. The idols will not triumph. The question is, will we participate in that glory? And the answer to that question is only determined by whether we will bow the knee to the one true God, or whether we will continue to worship our false god. If we continue to worship our false gods, whatever they are, we will never participate in the true glory. But if we will bow the knee to Him, and if we will embrace Him by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will find that in an amazing way, He will determine to share His glory with us. And fill us with His glory. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, convict us of our own self-worship and idolatry. And show us of the way of glory, the way of the cross, the way of Christ. Help us to turn away from our sin and from ourselves and from our false gods. To cast ourselves at the feet of the Savior who exalts us, with Himself and leads us in triumphant procession. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

God Gave Them Over (2) - Romans 1:26-27

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27)

God Gave Them Over (2)

If you have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, Chapter 1. The first seventeen verses of Romans are shot through with the gospel, even though to a large extent they are introductory. In the first seven verses Paul is giving greetings to the Roman churches. Even in the context of those verses he draws attention to the gospel in verses 11 through 15. Hes basically sharing the shape of his desire for coming to minister at Rome, and even in those words the gospel is present.

In verses 16 and 17 he gives you a summarization of the gospel, the theme of the whole of the rest of his book; and he tells why hes so excited about the gospel. Why the gospel just leaves him in wonder and bafflement when he thinks about it. And its almost like somewhere between verse 17 and 18 somebody said, "Oh, thats real nice, Paul, but so what? I dont need this gospel. Im basically a good person." And the apostle Paul does a gigantic, "Oh no, youre not." And from 1:18 all the way to 3:20, hes explaining to us why we need the gospel.

Now Id like you to look at verses 18 through 25 for a few moments. Look at 18 through 23 first. Well get to 24 in a moment. In verses 18 through 23, Paul is basically saying a very few simple things. First of all hes saying everybody knows God. Everybody knows good from evil, right from wrong. Everybody knows that God judges evil. He judges wickedness. Nevertheless, though they know God, and though they know they ought to worship God, they dont worship God. And when they dont worship God, they worship nothing, they worship anything. And amongst the anything that they worship are themselves, their own sinful desires, and even beasts, he says. They revert to idolatry. And that idolatry plunges them, Paul says, into the darkness of heart.

Now again, between verse 23 and 24, its almost as if somebody says, yeah, Paul, youre going to have to give me some examples of this. Im not sure whether I can buy this. And Paul says Id be happy to give you some examples of this. Thats exactly what he begins to do.

In verses 24 and 25 he gives example 1. In verses 26 and 27, which well look at today, gives example two. In verses 28 to the end of the chapter, he gives example 3.

What Paul is doing is empirically demonstrating for us total depravity. One Christian theologian has said rightly that total depravity is one Christian doctrine that you can prove empirically. You dont have to accept it on faith. You can demonstrate it, and thats exactly what Paul is doing here. He is demonstrating the doctrine of total depravity. But more than that Paul is explaining why we are all sinners, hes showing us the proof that we are all sinners, and hes explaining to us why we need the gospel. So if youll bear that in mind, it will help you understand what hes doing today. Paul is going to do something that is very much against the grain of our societal belief today. He is going to use as an example of the depths of sin a behavior and a life style which many people are working very hard to normalize in our society.

Many of you will notice that just this last week Tufts Universitys student government kicked the Intervarsity Fellowship off campus. They banned them from meeting on campus because they refused to appoint into a position of leadership a young woman who was an open avowed homosexual. They were happy to have her in the group. They were happy to have her as part of the meetings. They were happy to have her participate and hear the Bible taught; but they were not willing to have her in leadership because her own life style contradicted the scriptural standards. And so the student government kicked them off the campus. Now temporarily that position has been reversed by the faculty and administration, but it will come up for review again when the student government meets in the fall. The Boy Scouts are under siege right now. Those who want homosexual people to be able to serve as scout masters in the Boy Scouts. Most of the mainline protestant denominations in our day have strong gay and lesbian lobbies. Some of those protestant denominations have actually endorsed the homosexual lifestyle. One of our PCA missionaries to Europe who works in Germany has told us that in Germany it is not the government, and its not even the gay and lesbian lobby, it is the state church in Germany descended from the work of Martin Luther that is working hardest in German society to normalize homosexuality. And then, of course, we live in a day and age where for the first time in history, Christian scholars are arguing for the normalization of homosexuality. It was in 1955 when Baileys work first came out arguing something that had never been argued for 1955 years in Christian history. And that was that the Bible didnt really condemn homosexuality. Well, as we study this crystal-clear passage today, we are going to come right up into contradiction of all those trends. Im perfectly aware of that. So lets make sure as we hear the word of God today that we do our best to listen to what it says, and not what we want it to say. Lets listen to Gods word. Turn with me to Romans, chapter 1, and well look at verses 26 and 27.

Romans 1:26-27

"For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."

Thus ends this reading of Gods holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we ask that by the grace of your spirit our own opinions, even our own desires would be brought into captivity to the truth of the word of God so that we might be freed from our own self-imposed bondage to sin and might be able to see the light. We pray, O God, that You would strip away any presuppositions or preconceptions which will blind us to the truth or to the force of Your truth this day. And we ask that by the grace of God that You would enable us to embrace that truth unto everlasting life. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

The apostle Paul is speaking to the Roman culture, and to all cultures, and he is giving a diagnosis, having asserted that God in response to the heart sin of idolatry had plunged and had allowed the people, the sinful people of the world to plunge into a state of sin-darkened hearts, he now gives some evidences for those. In verses 24 and 25, he said one of the first evidences of Gods judgment against sin are passions which are themselves unclean. And you know we wouldnt have to look far in our society today to find unclean passions. There are all sorts of things that encourage those unclean passions in our society today. You cant turn on the radio, you cant turn on the television without being encouraged in unclean desires. Many of you today are struggling with internet pornography. And that internet pornography or pornography in various other forms is encouraging unclean desires. And the apostle Paul says that the pervasiveness of unclean desires in a society is evidence of Gods judgment against that society.

Remember we said Pauls shocking revelation in the passage verses 24 and 25 of Romans, chapter 1 is that sin is Gods punishment against sin. Its not just that God brings extraordinary consequences in His punishment against sin, its that pervasive sin is its own punishment. God gives us over, not only to the consequences of that sin, but to the sin, the behavior, the practice itself. And its an evidence of Gods judgment. And he continues that argument here in verses 26 and 27.

I. All are sinful and in need of grace: this sinfulness is seen in the pervasiveness of sexual perversion in society.

He says once God in His judgment gives us over to unchecked, unclean desires, what results from that is perverted passions. Sexual perversions in which we fling in all directions against Gods holy word. And he breaks that down to three assertions in this passage, and Id like you to look at those with me for just a few moments. In the first half of verse 26, the apostle Paul is giving his second proof that we are all sinners, and that immorality is Gods punishment on idolatry. Hes teaching us here that all are sinful, and all are in need of grace. And so he says look, the sinfulness which is pervasive in society, and which in fact proves my assertion that we are all in need of grace, this sinfulness that is pervasive in society is seen, for instance, in sexual perversion in the society. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions. These shameful desires unchecked by the grace of God are resulting in out-of-control sexual passions.

And the interesting thing is that Paul says these passions themselves are inherently degrading. They are inherently dehumanizing. When we reject God and we reject his standards, we dont become more free and more human. We become less free. We become bound. We become in bondage to those desires. And we become less human, because we are less reflecting the image of God, because God is holy. And in our own righteousness we become less and less human. Jim Philip puts it this way: "Mans refusal, even while knowing God, to honor Him as God constitutes a revolt against his own destiny." Were destroying ourselves in other words when we rebel against God. And this inevitably leads to the loss of the very qualities that constitute true life.

Now Paul is not picking out some marginalized group of society out of the general population and saying, see these people are really bad; and they need my gospel. He is picking this particular perversion. This particular expression of sin as proof of the pervasiveness of sin in society, and hence the pervasive need for grace. Pauls not saying, you know, theres about two percent of us that have a real problem here. Let the other ninety-eight percent of us  were in great shape. Hes saying, look, look at the pervasiveness of this sin. It hits every part of your society. It hits creative people; it hits intelligent people; it hits productive people. This is evidence of the pervasiveness of sin, and hence, evidence of the pervasiveness of our need for the gospel. Hes telling us this, in other words, not so that all of us normal people can feel good about ourselves and look down upon those abnormal people. Hes telling us so that we would realize that it is Gods saving grace in believers, and his common grace in unbelievers that is the only thing that keeps us from doing the things, the degrading things, that we are capable of doing. The only thing that stands between us and going the way of our flesh is the grace of God, the apostle Paul is arguing. When God is not glorified, when God is not worshiped, when God is not honored, when the one true God is not adored, then unrighteousness invariably results unless God in His grace restrains it. And what is Paul saying? When we see pervasive immorality, we are seeing Gods judgment because He is removing the restraint. God gave them over.

The pervasive sin in our society, my friends, does not merely await the judgment of God; it is the judgment of God. Paul is saying, look around Romans. Look around at your society, look around at the sexual perversion. Thats evidence of Gods wrath which is evidence of your sin, which is evidence of your need of grace. Thats why you need to hear my gospel.

Now again, its almost like between the first half of verse 26 and the second half somebody says, "Oh come on Paul, youre going to have to get more specific. Youve got to be kidding. You think that degrading passions are pervasive?" And the apostle says, "Uh, huh. Let me give you two examples."

II. God judges sin by sin: this is seen, for instance in the completely unnatural practice of lesbianism.

And this is the second thing Id like you to see. Look at the second half of verse 26. He says, "Let me give you a very good example of this. ". . . for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural." Paul does not just spout off some sort of theoretical sociology here. He says let me get very specific with you. Look around, Greco Romans. Even your women are given over to degrading passions. They are involved in female homosexuality. Paul is putting his finger on a problem which proves the pervasiveness of sin in this very exalted and advanced society. He says, let me tell you. When women have that kind of relationship with one another, its unnatural.

Now its interesting. Paul doesnt say thats unbiblical, though it is. Paul himself in this passage makes it very clear that what he is saying about homosexuality is, in fact, based upon the Old Testament Law. And especially Leviticus, chapter 18, and Leviticus, chapter 20. But Paul doesnt say, you know, that unbiblical. What he says is, its unnatural. What does he mean by that? He means a lot of things by that, but he means at least this.

He means first of all that you dont even have to have common sense to know that this is wrong. He says all you have to know is basic anatomy, and all you have to do is know animal biology to know that this is not the way its supposed to be. Nobody out there works this way. There are no female to female relations in the animal world like this. Your anatomy is even against it. Its not supposed to work that way. You dont even have to have any common sense to understand this, Paul says. Its unnatural. Its against nature. Its against the created order. Its against the way God made us to be. And when he says its unnatural, he means that everybody knows that. This is apparent to everyone. And, therefore, the people who engage in this have to work very hard to make their minds conform to their unnatural thinking and behaving. So the apostle Paul brings a strong charge against this particular type of activity.

Now Im well aware that we live in a society that tends to do two things with the Bibles teaching about homosexuality. It either says, well, weve all misunderstood the Bible. For 2000 years, Protestants Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Jews have all misunderstood the Bible. Actually the Bible doesnt condemn homosexuality. And then there are others who say, well, the Bibles wrong. We have understood the Bible, but the Bible is wrong. And neither of those answers will do. First of all, if you can mistake the Bibles teaching on homosexuality, you can get the Bible to say anything. If you can mistake what the Bible says about homosexuality, you can make the Bible say that the moon is made of green cheese, and its raining lollipops. The Bible is crystal clear.

There are five passage which are absolutely unmistakable. In Genesis, chapter 19, in the story of Sodom. Moses makes it crystal clear that homosexual activity, all of it is wrong. In Judges, were told in the story of Gibeah, chapter 19, in no uncertain terms that homosexuality is wrong. Moses, thirdly, in Leviticus 18 and in Leviticus 20 makes it absolutely clear that homosexuality is wrong. In fact, the language that Paul is using here in Romans 1 is pulled right out of the Greek translation of Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. Here in this passage today, as Paul describes decadent pagan societal practice, he again makes it clear that homosexuality is wrong. And then when you get to I Timothy 2, or I Corinthians 6 in that list of sins that will keep you out of the kingdom of heaven, homosexuality is once again mentioned, indicating once again that the Bible is unequivocal in its condemnation of homosexual practice.

Now why has Paul picked this out? Hes picked it out because of the seriousness of sin. He singles this sin out precisely because it is an example of the human heart working against reason, working against Scripture, working against nature. Listen to what Murray says: "Pauls stress falls upon the unnatural character of the vice, and in that, as also in verse 27 consists the peculiar gravity of the abomination. The implication is that however grievous is fornication or adultery the desecration involved in homosexuality is on a lower plane of degeneracy; it is unnatural and therefore evinces a perversion more basic." The apostle Paul is saying, you want to see evidence of the power of sin unchecked? I give you female homosexuality. Even his phrase can be translated, even their women. Hodge comments that women are always the last ones to be swept under in pervasive societal moral degradation. Paul says, look, even your women have fallen prey to this. Paul says, I know that this is more prevalent amongst men than women, but the fact that even your women, upper-class women, educated women, women who know better than this had fallen into this practice. He said thats an evidence of how pervasive sin is in your society. Paul is telling us here what can happen when sin unchecked by Gods grace is afoot in a society. It leads literally to inhuman deeds. Chrysostom said, "When God abandons a person to his own devices, everything is turned upside down." And Jim Philips says that, "Pauls point in elaborating on the consequences of the revolt against God is not merely to speak of the depravity and the degeneration of God as inviting Gods anger, but particularly to assert that these are the indisputable evidences of that anger being visited upon the heathen world." Paul is proving why we are under Gods wrath.

III. God judges sin by sin: this is seen, for instance, in the completely unnatural practice of sodomy.

He is showing the evidence that we are under Gods wrath, and hes saying therefore you need grace. Then he goes through example number two in verse 27. He goes to male homosexuality. And again he sees this sin as Gods judgment against itself. Gods judgment against sin is sin, and we see it again in the completely unnatural practice of male homosexuality. And Id like you to see three phrases in particular. The phrase "indecent acts," the phrase "due penalty," and the phrase "in their own persons."

Paul in condemning male homosexuality is not just condemning kinds of male homosexuality, hes condemning all of it. Oftentimes you will hear people say well, what Paul is condemning is heterosexuals acting like homosexuals. What Paul is condemning is pederasty. Very common in the Greco Roman world where an older man would attach himself to a young boy, and they would carry out a homosexual relationship. True, but thats not everything that Paul is condemning. Paul is condemning all types of homosexual activity. You see it in the phrase "indecent acts," and you see it in the word that he uses for homosexuality. Its the word that comes from Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, and Moses describes it simply as this  man sleeping with man, man relating sexually to man. Period. All of it is out, according to the apostle Paul. And so Paul rules out all homosexuality. Thats seen in his vocabulary and the indictment of Moses and Leviticus.

Notice also the phrase "due penalty." Paul says here that these persons receive the due penalty of their error. In other words, the penalty for their sin is not simply a natural consequence, it is the deliberately ordered decree of God and punishment against wickedness. In other words, God will not allow His created order to be so violated without just punishment. And so when we see the penalty of sin visited, its not just something that happens. Its not just people suffering the consequences of their own sin, its not just inevitable consequences of the law of cause and effect, it is Gods own judgment.

And then notice the phrase, "In their own persons." This penalty, Paul says, is a result, not simply of the behavior of the person, its not just the physical or psychological or medical consequence thats the due penalty that they receive in their own bodies. The behavior itself is Gods judgment. Its not just, "Okay, well if we live this way then Gods judgment will come." That may be true, it often is. But Paul is saying the behavior itself is evidence of Gods judgment. Paul here views the sexual perversion itself as its own punishment.

And that raises the issue of AIDS and all the other various sexually transmitted diseases associated with homosexuality. We often say things like well, AIDS is the penalty for homosexuality or these sexually transmitted diseases are the penalty of homosexuality. Well that may be providentially true in terms of the visitation of the wrath of God, but thats not Pauls point here. Pauls point here is its not that something else that happens after you do this is Gods punishment, its the perversion itself is Gods punishment from a heart that is filled with impure desires. Paul is picking out male homosexuality, not because its an unforgivable sin, but because it is indisputable proof of just how far humans are able to go if they are unchecked by the grace of God.

I want to stop right now and say there may be folks in the congregation that are struggling with homosexuality in various ways. You may have loved ones who are wrestling with this. I dont want to be misunderstood here. It is not unloving to condemn homosexuality. God does not accept any of us as we are. He does something better than that. He accepts us in spite of who we are. And then by His grace, He makes us into what we are not. And every single believer in here knows that experience. Look, the apostle Paul who wrote this book was a murderer, and God by his grace saved him. Paul did not have the experience of Jesus coming to Him, saying Paul I embrace you in your murderous lifestyle, I love you as you are, just go right ahead murdering people. Jesus loved Paul too much to do that. And believers love those who are practicing this particular sin too much to say go ahead and do that. I mean would you say to a friend, go ahead and live a lifestyle that is going to lead you to a significantly decreased likelihood of establishing or preserving a successful marriage which is going to lead you to a twenty-five to thirty-year decrease in life expectancy, which is going to leave you open to chronic potentially fatal liver disease, infectious hepatitis, which increases the risk of liver cancer. Go ahead and live in a way that is going to leave you open to an inevitably fatal immune disease and associated cancers, that is going to leave you open to frequently fatal rectal cancer and multiple bowel and other infectious diseases, and a higher than usual rate of suicide and a low likelihood that its adverse affects can be eliminated unless the condition itself is, and at least a fifty percent chance of dying in a group under enormous medical expense over a period of time and treatments that are utterly ineffective in reversing the disease. Is that loving for me to say, "Oh, go ahead and live that way." I dont think so. Its the most loving thing in the world to say, "Thats wrong, and it will destroy you. I love you with all my heart, and that is not the way that God intended you to go." It is precisely because of our love and precisely because of our confidence in the gospel that we say 'no' to homosexuality. Its not the only sin in the world. Its not the wickedest sin in the world; but it is a sin, and it is an evidence of why we need grace.

And look, Pauls two big points in this whole passage that he desires to press home are these. First, that we are sinners. Notice his illustration of homosexuality is just that. Pauls main point in the passage is not to attack homosexuality, its to use it as an illustration that all of us are sinners and need grace.

But Pauls second point, and this is his ultimate point, is that his gospel is so great that it can even transform those who have become locked into the death grip of this particular sexual perversion. You dont believe me? Turn with me for a second to I Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 9 through 11 and see what Paul says there. Its interesting isnt it, Paul is writing to the Romans from Corinth with the Corinthian behavior patterns in his background, and when he writes to the Corinthians, hes writing to a congregation, many people who have come right out of the milieu of the Corinthian behavior patterns. And he says this in I Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 9: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God."

But he doesnt end there. "Such were some of you; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God." The apostle Paul is saying to the Corinthian Christians, "Some of you were living that way. But my gospel is so grand that there is no one that is beyond the pale of its power to transform. The good news of the Lord Jesus Christ is that the gospel can transform you no matter what." The apostle is saying, not that this sin is so horrible, or its beyond even the grace of God. Hes saying, oh, no, this is an example of the kind of sin that my gospel can utterly eradicate and transform.

You know I was talking with one of our African American brothers who is a minister in this city, and he said, "You know, Ive never seen someone on crack cocaine kick it without being converted." Its amazing isnt it, the power of the gospel in the human life. The apostle Paul is saying dont ever underestimate the transforming power of the gospel of grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it can change anything. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we pray that even as we take seriously Your indictment against sin, we would take seriously the grace of the gospel; that we would recognize that the gospel is the power of God to salvation. And that power can transform anything, even us. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

God Gave Them Over (3) - Romans 1:28-32

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32)

God Gave Them Over (3)

If you have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 1 as we continue to work our way through the first chapter of this great book. You remember Pauls argument as weve been looking at it the last few weeks. Beginning in Romans 1, 16 and 17 he has set forth in outline his gospel.

Beginning in Romans 1:18 and going all the way to Romans 3:20 he explains why his gospel is necessary. Why it is that everyone is in need of the gospel of grace, and he evidences to us in that particular section of Romans our own sin. Hes holding up a mirror to us. And hes saying now look, put your finger down for a few moments, stop pointing at someone else and look at your own heart. And hes making a universal argument that absolutely everyone is in need of the grace which he is going to explain and offer in this great gospel of Romans.

And so, beginning in verse 24 he makes a series of three statements about Gods judicial abandoning of sinners to sin because of their sin. He says that these deliverances, these judicial abandonments are not only evidence of our sin, theyre not only evidence of Gods just penalty against sin, but they are, in fact, evidence of Gods wrath against sin. So when we see these things happening around us and in us, we see the evidence of God visiting His judgment, not just in the final end-time judgment, but right now against sin. In fact, its a blessed clue that God is giving to us in order that our hearts might repent and turn to Him. The reason that He visits these judgments upon us is not because He delights in seeing sinners destroyed, it is because He delights in seeing sinners turn from their ways and turn to Him. And so he begins in verse 24 by saying, "Because of our sin God delivers them over to impure desires."

And then in verse 26, "Because of our sin God delivers us over to degrading passions." Paul knows that hes receiving arguments all along the line at each point. He started out verses 18 through 23 arguing that were all idolaters, and he knows that hes going to get some people arguing: Well, Im not worshiping gods of stone, gods of precious metal, gods made out of my own hands. The apostle Paul says, yes, but youre worshiping your own desires. Youre putting other things ahead of God, and youre worshiping God according to your imaginations. Therefore, you are idolaters, and that idolatry leads to something else, and it evidences itself in various other kinds of sin. Sin is the punishment of sin. And so God punishes sin by other sins.

And he says one of those other sins is the sin of impure desire. At the very core of your being, your desires are corrupted, and you start desiring things which are wrong, which are deviant, which are not in accordance with Gods law. And Paul knows he gets some argument back from that. Well, wait a minute Paul, thats a general kind of charge. Prove that to me. And he does that in verses 26 and 27. He says well, let me give you an example. God gives us over because of our idolatrous hearts, God gives us over to degrading passions; and he illustrates that by pointing to homosexuality, male and female homosexuality. And he says this is an example of a heart given over to its own sinful passions. And he says this is something that is pervasive in your society, he knew it was pervasive in Corinth, he knew it was pervasive in Rome, it was pervasive all over the Greco Roman world. Its pervasive today. The apostle Paul says this is an illustration to show you just how all pervading is sin in your society.

But the reason he points that out is not to say, well, you see, thats the only problem in your sight. If you can just get rid of that, everything will be fine. Pauls point in this whole passage is not to pick some particular group and say, now, they are the real problem. If we could just get rid of them everything would be great. Throughout, Pauls illustrations and his main points are all directed at you and me. Anyone who happens to be sitting under the reading and preaching of what his particular gospel has to say at any particular point, we are the target. And so in this passage he says, look that pervasive sin in the way of homosexuality is an illustration of all of our sinfulness and all of our need of grace.

And here in verse 28 he goes on and he gives one more example of Gods deliverance, His just judgment against our sin of idolatry. And it is His delivering us over to a depraved mind. So lets hear Gods holy and inspired word in Romans 1:28:

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

Amen. Thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Father, open our hearts this day. If we come trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, remind us of the glory of the gospel again; reacquaint us with the depth of our sin, the greatness of His grace. We come this day skeptical of the gospel, thinking that the gospel is for weak-minded people that need a crutch in life. If we come thinking that the gospel is for somebody else, but not for us. We pray, O God, that by the Spirit You would open our eyes to see our own black hearts, to see our own need of grace, and to see the only remedy for our sin, that is the Lord Jesus Christs atoning work. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul in this passage is continuing his theme: the theme that our need for the gospel is evidenced by the wrath of God against our sin, which is seen in the consequences of our idolatry. Gods judicial abandonment of us to do exactly what we want to do, Paul says, is the evidence of Gods judgment against sin. And weve already said in this passage three times he gives us examples of that. First, he speaks of our being given over to sinful desires. We rebel against God, we desire that which is wrong. Gods judgment against that is handing us over to do precisely what we want to do. Then in verse 26 he goes on to speak of our sinful passions. And he says this again is an evidence of Gods judgment against our sin, that he gives us over to do exactly what we want to do, even though its degrading, even though its dehumanizing. Its the very opposite of self-actualizing. Were becoming smaller and smaller as we do it. And its the sign of Gods judgment against us.

But he doesnt stop there. Paul is an equal-opportunity critic. If you think that Paul is picking on some marginalized group of society, youve missed his point. In fact, in what hes going to do in verses 28 through 32 is aim his cannons at you. Everyone comes under the strictures of Pauls words here. In fact, Paul is anticipating an argument. Well, Paul, sure there are people in society that have perverted sexual lifestyles. But thats not me. Thats not my sin. And Paul says, I was waiting for you on that. Let me list twenty-one sins in verses 29 and 30, and let you think about it for a few moments, let you think about how you participate in these sins. How these sins are present in your heart. How, even if these sins dont work themselves out to their logical conclusion, their maximal potential, nevertheless they are there. The seeds of them are there in your heart. The apostle is making it clear that everyone is under the wrath of God apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That apart from Gods restraining grace or apart from His saving and transforming grace, this is the direction that all of us could go. Hes telling us this because he wants us to understand that all of us need the gospel. The gospel is never something about which you can say, well, thats really nice; he really needed to hear that. The gospel is something that we need to hear. Christians need to hear it, and non-Christians need to hear it.

Christians need to hear it so that we would remember again just what God has done for us, so that it will color our whole attitude and posture towards those who have not yet come to know the Lord Jesus Christ; so that we will have a heart of mercy for them; so that well be patient with one another; so that well be thankful to God for the grace which has been shown to us.

Unbelievers need to hear it, because even if you dont think it right now, this is your problem, sin. This is your problem, the wrath of God. This is your problem, the final judgment of God. And there is only one solution. There are not many ways up the mountain. There is only one solution. Now the message that Paul has for us today, my friends, is very simple.

Basically, in these three verses Paul is going to remind us again that Gods judgment against sin is absolutely just. Its never arbitrary. Secondly, hes going to remind us that all of us are sinners, all of us are in need of grace. And then hes going to sort of bring his final, crowning blow by saying one of the ways that you see sin at its worst is not only when people practice it, but when they enjoy it, and they enjoy others practicing it, and they actually advocate others practicing it. Its his final blow against the society. Hes saying, if you dont want to admit to the pervasiveness of sin in your society, just look around and see how many people are advocating sin. They want it to be written into statutory law. Its Pauls crowning blow in his argument against the sinfulness of a pagan world. But he tells us all of this because he wants us to understand not that these things are beyond the reach of the gospel, but that this is precisely what Christ came to deal with.

In fact, in Romans, chapter 5, hes going to say this beautiful phrase. Notice how he uses the phrase unrighteousness and ungodliness in this passage. And then notice what he says, that Christ Jesus came into this world at the right time to die for the ungodly. The things that Paul was going to talk about in this message are horrible, but none of them are beyond the bounds of the power of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thats why hes talking about these things with utter frankness. Now I say his message is simple, but its hard; because its not easy to swallow. So lets take our time and walk through the passage together.

I. God's wrath against sin is evidenced, our sinfulness is proven, God's just sentence is vindicated in God's deliverance.

First, lets look at verse 28. Here Paul makes it crystal clear that Gods judgment against sin is just. And he makes it clear by the parallel of the first two phrases in verse 28. Notice what he says: Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind. They didnt acknowledge God, they abandoned God in their thoughts. So what was Gods punishment? He abandoned them to their thoughts. He abandoned them to their corrupt thoughts, their depraved thoughts. He let their thinking run its logical course. That was Gods punishment. They refused to acknowledge Him. They abandoned Him in their thoughts. Therefore, He gives them over to their thoughts, to their corrupted and depraved minds. Gods judgment against sin is not arbitrary. Its the perfect judgment.

You know, we can often times complain about the judgment that human judges give against sin. Often times, weve got a lot of legitimate complaints about that. Sometimes criminals get off light. Sometimes people are wrongly convicted. Sometimes we think that the judge has been a little bit overbearing. Gods justice is never arbitrary. It is always the exact thing prescribed. And the apostle Paul shows us this here. Those who want to live without God in this world, God hands them over to their own desires. The vanity of their own imaginations. They want to live without God. Whats his judgment? Fine, you live without Me, and you will see what your own minds without Me will reap. You reap what you sow. So those who abandon God, He abandons to their own corrupt mind. Why is Paul saying this? Because this is an evidence of Gods wrath. It proves our sinfulness, and it shows the justice of Gods own judgment. He has successfully talked about idolaters being abandoned to their own impure desires, to their degrading passions, and now he speaks of God abandoning them to their depraved mind. Notice all of those things have to do with the inner-man. The corruption, the problem that Paul is trying to get at is not caused by societal problems, its not caused by deficiency in the legal code, or in the social program of the nation or state in which we live. Its a heart problem. And nothing can get at this heart problem but the power of God which is able to work in the heart.

And so Paul is helping us to understand the nature of the problem. It has to do with our desires. It has to do with our desires, it has to do with passions, and it has to do with our mind or with our heart. That thing which is at the very core of our being. When he speaks of a depraved mind, hes speaking of the very seat of our thinking, our willing, our feeling and our actions. And hes saying, at the very core of us, we are corrupt apart from the grace of God. The mind that is not God-centered, the mind is not God-honoring will become a slave to its own carnal desires. And so the apostle Paul is saying when we see that happen, we are seeing the judgment of God against a mind, against a heart, against the person who wants to have nothing to do with the worship and honor and adoration of God in his heart of hearts. From this source of corrupt thinking, Paul goes on to say at the end of this verse, "To do those things which are not proper from that source of corrupt thinking and willing and feeling comes improper actions." And that again is why external solutions will never ultimately work. We can constrain sin with external solutions, but we cant get at the interior problem. Only the grace of God can. One person has said the worst penalty for sin is to love sin. And the apostle Paul is saying here that God is giving these people over to the love of their own sin in their corrupt minds. And so his point, Gods judgment is absolutely perfect. Its absolutely just. Its spot on. He gives them exactly what they want. Theres no one who can argue with this particular judgment of God.

II. The ubiquity and intensity of this catalog of sins demonstrates our deserving of judgment and need of grace.

But now in verses 29 though 31, he makes it clear that this is not a problem for them. For those people out there its a problem for anyone who is apart from the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul knows that people are going to respond by saying, well, Paul, that may be a problem with some people in our society. You know we may have problems with that quadrant in our society, but this isnt a universal problem. This is not a problem with me. And the apostle Paul says, oh, yes it is. And Paul rattles off a list of twenty-one sins. Now by the way, this is not intended by Paul to be a comprehensive list of sin. There are other lists of sins in Pauls letters where he includes things that he doesnt include here. But hes giving you a sampling. And hes asking you to hold this up like a mirror, and ask yourself do I see this in my own heart. When Gods constraining grace is removed, the true extent of depravity becomes evident as does the wholeheartedness of the sin of the sinner. In this passage, Paul is showing the universalness, the ubiquity, the everywhereness of sin. And hes showing just how intense it can become when God removes His restraining grace, and He hands us over to our own desires. It shows not only the fact that we deserve judgment, but it shows our need of grace. Now Paul is not asserting that everyones heart problem is worked out to its logical extent, to its maximal potential. But he is saying that it would be if it were not for either Gods restraining grace or for his saving grace. Paul is showing us elements which we can all identify with. These sins, these social sins are things which every single one of us can identify. We may not have committed to its full extent every sin on these lists, but we are familiar in our own hearts with this kind of sin.

Contemplate this list of sins provided by Paul. Id like you to just look very closely at verses 29 through 31. These twenty-one sins can be grouped into three sets of sins. The first four, the second five, and the last twelve have a certain connection. Pauls not making a logical argument necessarily, but there is a grouping to these sins. Lets just walk through them together, and I would just ask you to think for a moment how these sins are evidenced in your own heart, because the apostle Pauls point is not to point to them; they are the problem. Pauls point is to show all of us that we need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unrighteousness, the very first sin in the list, is a general description. It speaks of the rejection of Gods standards of righteousness. And we could think in our society of those who are working very hard to cast out the Judeo-Christian ethic. But before you throw stones to quickly, let me say this. I think that at least as destructive to the Judeo-Christian ethic in our society, at least as destructive as the efforts of those who have directly attacked the ethic is the life of those who claim to hold the ethic, and yet who do not live in accordance with it. You think through the Ten Commandments, and you ask yourself, how do we Christians obey those Commandments? We want them up on the walls of courtrooms, but how are we doing in our obedience of them? How are we honoring the name of God? How are we honoring the day of God? How are we honoring our parents and those in authority? How are we honoring life? How are we honoring marriage? How are we keeping the marriage bed undefiled? The statistics say we are not doing very well. Thats amongst evangelical Christians. And I just ask you. Before you point to someone else, ask how are we doing in the church?

Wickedness, delight in wrongdoing is the second thing. You know we see this expressed even in the phrases we use today. When we want to say something is good, sometimes well say, "Man that was wicked." When we say something is good, sometimes well say, "That was bad." We even turn it upside down in the adjectives that we use to describe particular activities in our songs. Now, young people, you want remember any of these songs, but some of the people who are old and losing hair like me will remember these songs. Some of us remember those soul-tunes of the sixties and seventies that said things like, "If this is wrong, I dont want to be right." Or, "Me and Mrs. Jones. Weve got a thing going on. We know that its wrong, but its much too strong." Now we can laugh about tunes that we sang when we were growing up, but that sort of attitude certainly pervades our outlook.

There are certain things that we know are wrong that we actually delight in, we laugh at. Many of us unfortunately were flipping through the television and saw a fundraiser in Washington this week in which a six-year old boy was subjected to unspeakable filth and vileness during a fundraiser. And everybody was laughing about it, as all manner of filthy language was being used in front of this six-year old boy on the front row. We even delight in that which is wrong. Greed, covetousness, overreaching, craving for more and more. None of us would ever be guilty of that. More clothes, more car, more house, unwise debt at the expense of our charity. There is evil, depravity, badness in general. Its similar to the term "wickedness" that Paul has already used. Nobody would be deliberately wicked and evil, would they? Yes. But you know, sin is inherently self-deceiving. And so we have things happen like people become involved in marital affairs, and it seems like such a right thing to do until its discovered. And then suddenly all the shame, all the embarrassment, all the humiliation, all the wickedness of it comes to light.

"Full of envy," he says in verse 29. This begins that second set of five sins that he mentions. "Full of envy, displeasure." Envy is displeasure aroused by seeing someone with something that we want, and then we begrudge that person for that. Oh, none of us have ever been guilty of the sin of envy. Maybe theres one wife in the room whos ever looked at a relationship between another wife and a husband and said, "Well, I sure do wish I could have a relationship like that. She doesnt deserve that. Why dont I have a husband thats so attentive to me?" Or perhaps theres a wife whos looked and said, "Ive always wanted to have children. Ive never been able to have children. How could she deserve to have children, when I want children like this?" Murder. Envy often leads to murder, actual and metaphorical. If its not Cain murdering Abel, its Josephs brothers coming very close to murdering him. But we can murder in our hearts, Jesus says, without ever carrying out the acts. Strife, a spirit of unwholesome competition and rivalry; bitter conflict, quarrelsome disposition, deceit, cunning, and treachery; tricking and lying in order to get what you want.

Malice. The desire to harm people. Spite.

Gossips destroying someones reputation in secrets.

Slanderers, those who destroy peoples reputation openly. Haters of God. Not merely ignoring Him, but actually resenting him and working hard to exclude Him from our thoughts and from others thoughts.

Insolence. Treating others with contempt. Shaming them without mercy. Arrogant. Making unwarranted claims of superiority.

Boastfulness. Bragging about ones self.

Inventors of evil. Being creative in thinking up ways to sin.

Disobedient to parents. In the middle of the list like this? Yes, because if you can deny parental authority and lawful authority, its a reflection of your ultimate rejection of Gods authority. And so young people, dont take lightly what it means to rebel against the authority of your parents. Because ultimately youre just rebelling against God when you do that. It will destroy you in the end, and Paul will lump it right here in a list of sin which includes murder, disobedience to parents without understanding. These people are what the Bible calls fools. That is, they are willingly senseless when it comes to spiritual and moral things. Its not that they dont know right from wrong. Its that they work very hard not to act like they know the difference between right and wrong.

Untrustworthy. Not keeping ones promises or doing ones duties, unreliable, not true to the covenant, unloving without natural affections. And often times we say that we look into some of the children in the society, and we look into their eyes and we see nothing looking back at us. Theres no moral framework looking back at us. You see this in youth court and family court. Many of us are still traumatized by the vision of Susan Smith letting two little children roll down a ramp alive into a lake to drown. And we say that woman has  whats in her? She has no natural affections, and yet I wonder if theres a husband in this room whos so bitter against his wife that hes lost all natural affection. Its easy to point that finger somewhere else, but Paul is pointing right at us, and hes saying now you look you can say the problems out there. We just need more trigger locks. We need more federal government. We need more social programs. Pauls saying, thats not where the problem lies. The problem lies in you, unmerciful without pity or compassion. All the apostle is doing here is setting forth the doctrine of total depravity, and hes saying this is what everyone would be like apart from the grace of God. And, therefore, everyone needs my gospel.

III. When we go beyond participating in sin to actually encouraging it, we evidence the central mark of extreme depravity.

Now he goes on. Hes not done, because he says a third thing in verse 32. He says that when we go beyond, actually participating in sin, but to enjoying it, enjoying in others, encouraging it, and actually advocating it, we are showing the full extent of depravity. The fact that we are not satisfied to engage in sinful behavior but insist on applauding and advocating it in others is the definitive proof of our wickedness. And this is rampant in our society. You see it with regard to pornography. Oh no, its not just that somebody needs to be able to pick up a pornographic magazine. Its that we can do absolutely nothing to restrict it. And so Larry Flynt and Playboy are going to make sure that we dont scramble that on our television screens. Heavens no, that would be to violate the First Amendment. Something, by the say, which none of the founding fathers had in their mind protecting. Or maybe its sexual freedom. Whether its Hite or Kinsey or Comfort, or Johnson or NAMBLA, or gay and lesbian groups. Its not just that they can just do this behind closed doors. Its got to be a statute requiring that this be allowed and actually promulgated in our society. Whether its the rejection of parental or lawful authority by groups that work very hard to make sure that law and order is not the rule of the land.

Pauls point is that everyone is corrupt of heart. And that apart from Gods restraining and saving grace, we would all become consistently depraved. What we need is the grace of God, and that is found only in Jesus Christ. And the apostle Paul is continuing to build his case for the necessity of the gospel.

If youve seen yourself in this picture that Paul paints today; and youre not in Christ, you havent trusted on Him. Youve never realized your sin; youve never said, "Lord God, I deserve damnation, and I dont know what to do. And theres only one way for you to respond. One wise way. And that is to recognize that only in Jesus Christ can a heart like yours or mine be transformed and become the righteousness of God. Lets pray.

Heavenly Father, we ask that You would help us to see ourselves and then to see the Savior and to run to Him. For in the gospel of Your Son, Your mercy is shown, and Your salvation is dispensed. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Romans 2

We Have No Excuse - Romans 2:1-3

2 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? (Romans 2:1-3)

We Have No Excuse

Open your Bibles, please to Romans chapter 2, as we continue to work our way through this great letter of the apostle Paul to the Romans. Let me remind you where we have come from so far, so you will appreciate Pauls argument today. In the first half of Romans chapter 1, Paul has introduced us to the subject of the Gospel. We got a taste, even in his introduction, of just how much the Gospel was a part of his life and thinking. Especially in verses 16 and 17, he outlines for us, the theme of his whole book and he tells us that the Gospel itself is the power of God unto salvation and that in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. And that is incredibly good news. ,

And it is the good news of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ that the apostle Paul is going to spend so much time in this letter explaining. But he recognizes that for those who respond to that announcement of the good news by saying, that is real nice Paul, but I dont need Gods grace; that is real nice Paul, but I am not a sinner, I dont need to be saved from my sin; that the good news falls on deaf ears. And so he spends a considerable amount of time in this letter, making it clear that everybody, not just most people, not just a great majority of people, but everybody apart form Christ, needs Christ. Everybody, who is not under the covering of grace which is only found in the Gospel, is in fact under the condemnation of God. And that is in fact, his specific theme from verse 18, of Romans chapter 1 all the way to the end of the chapter in verse 32. He sets before us, and them, this proposition, that everyone knows God, and everyone knows certain things about God and by God, the one true God. And nevertheless, we do not chose to worship God.

In other words, he poses that apart from Gods own grace, all of us are idolaters. And that therefore Gods wrath is being revealed. And He specifies three ways in which it is being revealed in Romans chapter 1. People respond to him, perhaps, we're thinking of a person who is invisibly or silently interacting with Pauls argument, saying, O Paul, now come on, that is a little bit of a dreary and morbid diagnosis of things, isnt it? And Paul says, let me give you some empirical evidence of God revealing His wrath.

First of all, he says, if you look at verse 24 of Romans chapter 1, he says that God displays His wrath against universal sin, by giving us over to impure desires. He hands us over to sinful desires. And this silent person in dialogue with Paul says, well, Paul, surely you are not saying that everybody has been given over to impure desires. Paul says, well, let me give you another example of how God deals and displays His wrath against sin. He hand us over to sinful passions. And in verse 26, he speaks of that specifically sinful sexual passion and he illustrates by talking about what was in the Grecco Roman world a pervasive sin. The sin of homosexuality. And he says, look, you can see, even in this highly intelligent society evidence of Gods wrath against all of your sin because of your idolatry displayed in homosexuality. That is the display of Gods wrath against sin. It is the consequence of Gods judgment upon your culture that you are seeing this pervasively in your society.

And then someone comes back to him and says, yeah, but Paul, not all of us have that problem. And he says, yes that is true, but let me give you twenty-one other sins which you all do have. And so beginning in verse 28, he outlines for you twenty-one other sins that are pervasive in society. And he says, as a matter of fact, the pervasiveness of those sins in your hearts, is the display of Gods wrath against your depravity. As you abandon God in your thinking, God abandons you to your thinking. And that thinking is corrupted and therefore it leads not only to wrong thinking, but wrong behavior, and he gives a list of them there. It is not a comprehensive list, but it is a list that is long enough that nobody in this room or in the original room in which this epistle was read or anywhere else in the world can possibly say, well that is real nice, this letter doesnt have anything to say to me. Oh no, this letter has something to say to everyone. They may not want to hear it, but it has something to say to everyone. And so the apostle Paul is speaking primarily to this point of the Gentile world. And he is bringing an argument which shows that Gentiles are sinners, they are in need of his Gospel, and therefore, His Gospel really is good news for them, if they will listen, if they will take stock of their own hearts, they will recognize that they have a need that only be supplied in the Gospel itself.

But Paul is not finished. Paul recognizes that there is another audience listening to this particular audience. And that audience may not be shot through with the same kinds of dramatic and deviant sins which he has dealt with from verse 24 to the end of the chapter. And yet that audience is just as much in need of his Gospel as the previous audience to which he was speaking. And so now he begins an argument against a new audience. That is where we are today in Romans chapter 2. As Paul now turns his targets on a slightly different audience. And it is an audience we need to take heed of, because it looks an awful lot like us. So lets hear Gods holy Word, attentively and reverently in Romans 2, verses 1-3.

"Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?"

Thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Father, we ask for the light of Your own knowledge, the Holy Spirit, that we might understand Your Word, we ask that You would open our hearts, that all here this day, would seriously deal with the challenge which Paul brings us in this passage. That we would realize that this word is Your word of truth. We pray, O God, that we would not only understand in our minds, this truth, but we would embrace it in the very depth of our hearts and that we would be transformed by it. In Jesus name. Amen.

Imagine you were in a tent somewhere or in a building and you were listening to a fiery preacher, or perhaps a social critic, who was bringing incessant strident charges against immoral behavior, in the church or in the community. Calling down Gods condemnation of that particular behavior. Calling for people to revolt against that kind of behavior. To eradicate it, to correct it. If you are sitting there and you are nodding, yes, that is right, that is right, those people do need to be, if we could just get those people out of our community, out of our church, everything would be fine, and suddenly that preacher, that social critic turns and he says, now for you, I have dealt with them, but now I have got something I want to say to you. And his opening words are, "Therefore, you are without excuse." How would you respond to that? That is precisely what Paul does in this passage. Paul has given examples of relatively gross open and deviant immorality, especially in verses 26 and 27, but throughout that whole end of the passage from 28-31, he has given examples of sins which are pretty apparent to the eye. You could not engage in many of those things and hide it from view.

However, the apostle knows that is not the only kind of sin. And the apostle knows that all sin condemns. And therefore, he is now concerned, not simply to address the openly immoral, but to address those who are outwardly moral while being inwardly sinful, untouched by the grace of God, untrusting in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would like you to watch Pauls argument. It is a very simple argument here in verses 1, 2, and 3. And I would like you to see three stages in that argument. He opens up with a very strange phrase. He says, therefore you have no excuse. Now, that is a little bit confusing because it doesnt seem to follow directly on what has been said. He has been speaking about a particular group, in this case, predominantly Gentiles. Now he is speaking to a predominately religious community. In this case, the Jews, and he says therefore, you have no excuse. 'Therefore' doesnt seem to follow on what has been said immediately prior to it. But in fact, he is announcing his conclusion before he demonstrates it here. Because it is so certain. In other words, he is saying, in verses 1, 2, 3, he is going to show you why you are 'therefore now without excuse.' And he tells us his conclusion before he demonstrates it. And in verses 1, 2, and 3, he tells us the following things.

I. God's judgment is upon outwardly moral people who are apart from Christ in the gospel.

First in verse 1, he says you who feel superior to immoral Pagans, are guilty of the same thing. In other words, Paul is saying, that Gods judgment is not only on grossly openly immoral people. Gods judgment is upon outwardly moral people who are apart from Christ in the Gospel. For the apostle Paul there are only two types of people in the world. Those who are in Christ, and those who are not. But of those who are not in Christ, they display their irreligious, their Paganess in different ways. Some of them, are openly immoral, others, however, are incredibly nice and moral people. And the apostle Paul says, having set aside these grossly depraved folk for a few moments, I would like to talk with you nice moral people, who are not in Christ. And his word is this: You, too, are under Gods condemnation. Everyone who is not in Christ, everyone who has not experienced the grace of Christ. Everyone who has not found the peace of the gospel, Paul says, no matter how nice you are, no matter how outwardly moral you are, you are guilty of the same kind of sin that you actually criticize in others. The outwardly moral, who have not embraced Christ, the apostle Paul is saying, are self condemned hypocrites.

That is incredibly strong language. Why is he saying this? Well, he tells you in verse 1, because he says, at whatever point, you judge the other person, you are condemning yourself because you the judge are practicing the same things the apostle is bringing against this particular group to whom he is talking, the same charge that Jesus brought against the Jewish religious leaders of his day. In Matthew chapter 7, Luke chapter 6. He is bringing the charge of hypocrisy. These people believe in high standards. They believe in moral standards. They think that moral standards are important. They are horrified when moral standards are not upheld in their community. Nevertheless, thought they clearly see the sins of others, they have not come to grips with their own sins. They are quick to say ah ha, that person is immoral. Ah ha. That type of behavior is immoral and it needs to condemned. But they have no realization that they themselves are in the same fundamental predicament. They are sinners apart from God in rebellion against Him. Their very outwardly moral behavior has blinded them to the fact that apart from Christ and apart from the Gospel, the same faith awaits them.

And so the apostle Paul says, and now for you respectable people. You remember I told you that Paul was an equal opportunity critic. Well, he is proving it again today. He is turning his targets right on those who are respectable, they are nice, they are outwardly moral, but they are under condemnation. And he draws a very unflattering parallel between the bad Pagan and the good Pagan. By the bad Pagan, I mean that openly immoral Pagan, by the good Pagan, I mean the person who looks outwardly moral. Remember in verse 32. The apostle has said, as part of his condemnation of the openly immoral Pagan, the bad Pagan, he said, the bad Pagan knows right from wrong, the bad Pagan knows that God is going to judge the wrong. But the bad Pagan chooses to do the wrong, he enjoys doing the wrong, and not only does he enjoy doing the wrong, he encourages others to do that which he knows is wrong. And the apostle Paul sees that as just the epitome of depravity; that you know something is wrong, you do it yourself, you enjoy it yourself. And you encourage other people to join you in doing it.

But then the apostle turns to these outwardly moral people apart from the Gospel and he says, and you know what you do? You know right from wrong, you condemn wrong in others, you acknowledge the standard of right and wrong, but then you know what you do? You practice the very same thing that you condemn. What is Paul saying? He is saying, there is a sense in which you are worse than they are. At least the outwardly immoral Pagan is living consistently with his desires, and with his supposed profession. But you condemn things that are wrong in others, and yet the same sins are to be found in your hearts. Paul is going after hypocrisy here. Those whose outward lives are characterized by certain moral standards. And yet, who have never come to grips with their own sin, the sin of their heart, have never realized their need for grace. And subsequently think that the basic problem is that periphery of people who are immoral. If we just clean that up, everything would be fine. And they basically think that they are in good standing with God because they are nice people. And therefore, they dont think that Pauls radical gospel is for them. And the apostle says, oh no, what we have here is hypocrisy.

Now there are different kinds of hypocrisy. And those kinds of hypocrisy are reflected not only in our experience, they are even reflected in the Bible. There is what you might call diverting hypocrisy. Hypocrisy that is committing serious sin, but focusing your attention on someone elses relatively less serious sin, so that wont have the time to focus on the more serious sin which is being perpetrated by the hypocrite. You see this in the interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees. You remember when Jesus says, you know, the Pharisees will tithe even the smallest of plants, mint, dill, cumin, and yet they will ignore the weightier matters of the law. They will get very detailed and particular and they will criticize you until the cows come home about what you do with regard to your tithing. Well, I even tithe my small patch of household herbs. What about you? And they will be judgmental and censorious towards others who dont measure up to them in that area and yet in the more significant things of life, they totally miss the point. You know, sadly that is exactly the case with David, when Nathan had to come and confront him. Here was a man who knew better, but he has committed the grossest of sins, and for a period of almost nine months, he showed no remorse for the sins that he had committed. And his friend and prophet, Nathan and told him a story about a man who had stolen the one sheep from a poor man and had taken that sheep and slaughtered it. And David was incensed. He was morally enraged and he said that man deserves to die. And Nathans response was, David, youre the man. And by that, he meant, David you have done far worse than this. Can you tell me that that man deserves to die? I am telling you that you have done fifteen times what that man has done. Because you have murdered a man and you have taken his wife, you havent taken a sheep, you have taken a wife who doesnt belong to you and you killed a man for her. And suddenly David realized that he had the heart of the Pharisee by speaking acronistically. See, the hypocrite will often times divert attention from his own wickedness by pointing to something less sinful in another person. And the apostle is saying, that is precisely what is happening among outwardly moral people who bring great condemnation towards gross immoral behavior and yet do not reckon with their own sin before God.

A friend of mine just a week or so ago, told be a very sad story about a minister in another denomination in another country, who just a few years ago, ten years ago, had become very exercised about a particular sin, and he brought a resolution to the General Assembly of that denomination and he was vehement and adamant that that resolution be passed against this particular sin. It was a relatively peripheral thing. He was exercised about it, and he was angered about it when the General Assembly would not pass his particular resolution. He accused them of unfaithfulness. It was discovered just a few years later, that he was absolutely overwhelmed during this period of time by homosexual pornography and later entered into a homosexual relationship, he has renounced the faith, he is now the leading gay rights activist in his country. And suddenly his actions and his attitudes had a new light shined on them. He was wanting to focus everyones attention on another sin, while protecting himself from Gods searching judgment on his own heart. And my friends, are there many among us, is there any among us today, who has never, ever engaged in that kind of behavior?

And then there is of course, there is we might call corresponding hypocrisy. It is not just diverting attention to lesser things. Sometimes we are doing the very things that we are condemning in others. We become very exercised about crimes in others, when we ourselves are doing the same thing. You know, it is just possible that when Jesus is confronting the Pharisees who have confronted the woman in adultery, in John 8, that when he says, that you who are without sin cast the first stone. It is just possible that he is not simply saying, that those of you who are generically without sin, cast the first stone. It is possible that Jesus is saying, that those of you Pharisees who are not guilty of the sin of adultery, you cast the first stone against her. It is possible that Jesus is bringing that precise charge against the Pharisees. That they are exercised about a sin in a woman of which they themselves are guilty. Certainly, we have seen something of that in our own national experience. Without passing any judgment whatsoever on the moral or the political implications of a very sad event in our own nations history, let me take you back to the House impeachment inquiry as we were dealing with our President. One of the things that made people cynical, one of the things that undercut peoples trust in the process, whatever you think of that process, was that the chairman of the committee looking into these allegations, yes of perjury, but also of sexual misconduct, had also himself broken up a marriage years before. And the speaker of the house, we came to know later on, was in that very time involved in an elicit affair with a woman who was not his wife, as was the man who would have become his successor. No wonder people were cynical. And sometimes, we can bring judgment against the very thing which we ourselves are doing. And the apostle Paul is saying, my friends, apart from Christ, my friends who are respectable and upstanding and even church going but who have never, ever recognized that their sin deserves hell. And that only Christ has saved them, he is saying you are better, you are in no different situation from the most gross and deviant idolatrous sinner. Apart from Christs grace, you are in no different situation. For you pass judgment on others, and your very judgment condemns yourself, because you are guilty of the same kind of sin. It may be different in its specifics, but it is the same in particular because all sin flows from idolatry. And therefore you are without excuse.

Paul, by the way, is not arguing that judgment of other people or of other behaviors outside of the norm of Gods law is wrong. There would be times, there are times where it is not only appropriate, but it is necessary to engage in that kind of judgment. Many of you may have seen the interview of the parents of the young man who shot the teacher in Florida last week. It was appalling. One expects parents to be loving of a child even in the worst of circumstances, but there were attempts to justify and to downplay the actions of this young man. The mother says, my son has so much to offer the world. I hope the judicial system will recognize that and will give him the chance to do it. Because my son is the perfect son and everyone would want to have my son. The father describes this action whereby a husband and a father of three was wrongfully killed, the father describes this as an unfortunate incident which resulted in someone passing away. It was almost humorous, if it werent so devastating. In that kind of circumstance it is absolutely appropriate and necessary to bring to bear judgment. But the apostle Paul is saying this. If you are apart from Christ, and you are apart from the Gospel, have you ever sat under the searching judgment of Gods truth in you own life? To see what you deserved, and have you ever agreed with His verdict on you and run to Him, and said Father of mercy, you ought to condemn me, but I rest in Christ, have mercy on me. And so Paul says, that Gods judgment is on outwardly moral people who are apart from Christ.

II. God's judgment, unlike human judgment, is always according to truth.

But he is not done yet. In verse 2, he goes on to say, that Gods judgment is just and we know that Gods judgment is just. In fact, Gods just judgment is indicated even in our judgment of wickedness. But Gods judgment unlike human judgment is always according to truth. Notice the phrase he uses, 'we know, that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.' The judgment of God rightly falling on them means that Gods judgment is in accordance with the truth. It accords with the facts of the case. It id done impartially. He doesnt play favorites. His punishment fits the crime. His judgment always is correct. He acquits those who are innocent. He condemns those who are guilty. The Lord is coming to judge the earth, the Psalmist says in Psalms 96:13, and he will judge the world in righteousness. He will judge the world in faithfulness and that is what Paul is saying here. Gods judgment is appropriate. Gods judgment is just, His judgment is unimpeachable. It cannot be called into question. And every assault upon that judgment of God, is not only vain, but it is essentially atheistic. When we look at Gods judgment, and call it into question, Lord how could you do that? Lord it was wrong for You to do this particular thing in my life, then we are in fact, calling into question what God tells us in His word.

And what Paul tells us here, we all already know. Paul has already told us that we know that Gods wrath is justified. We know that His justice is right. Our very engagement in condemning other things is proof that we know that those things are wrong. Even as we are engaging in them ourselves. Our conscience itself, is convicting us. And so, Paul says Gods judgment is always according to truth. Just because we know something, is wrong, doesnt spare us from condemnation. For it is not the possession of the truth which saves us from condemnation, it is the action of righteousness, and if we are unrighteous people, then the only thing that can save us from condemnation, is the righteous action of another imputed to us. And so the apostle Paul says here, that Gods judgment is according to truth, and then he goes on to say in verse 3, that Gods judgment is inescapable.

III. God's judgment is inescapable.

Dont think, he says, dont think then that there is anyway to elude Gods just condemnation apart from the gospel. The you in verse 3 is emphatic in order to negate the thought that this person can avoid the judgment and condemnation of God. Paul can say, in II Corinthians 5:10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Paul in verse 3, of Romans chapter 2 is saying even more than that. He is not only saying that God will judge, and that God will judge rightly, but he is saying that Gods judgment against those who have not acknowledged their own sin, who have not fled to Christ, Gods judgment will result in condemnation. That is the only possible verdict. And not only in condemnation, but in carrying out the sentence. Because you know it is an ironic thing, the only escape from Gods judgment is to accept Gods judgment. The only escape from Gods judgment is to acknowledge that His judgment is right, to embrace that judgment and say, yes, Lord, You are right about me. I do deserve condemnation. That is the very kernel of repentance, my friends. When you say Lord, You are right about me, and I have been wrong about me all along, I have tried to justify myself before you, I have no argument. You are right about me, I do deserve condemnation, but I am running to Your Son, and I am going to trust Him. Please see not me, in your judgment, but Your Son. That is faith, that is trusting in Jesus Christ. Accepting Gods judgment of us. Yes, I fall short, yes I deserve Your condemnation, yes I deserve hell, but I run to Christ, I trust Him, I have faith in Him. Credit His righteousness to my account. That is faith. And so it is an irony that the only person, the only person that escapes the judgment of God, is the person who first accepts the judgment of God, and then runs to Christ, who Himself bore the judgment of God, that we might never ever bear it.

Oh, my friends, you see Pauls argument is airtight. That is why he can begin, "therefore you are without excuse." We are guilty of the very things that we judge in others. Gods judgment is always appropriate. It is always according to truth and it is inescapable. Therefore, we are without excuse. You remember we said the last time we were together, that word excuse is a technical legal term drawn from the courtroom, it means a persons standing before the judge and the jury and the prosecutor without a rational argument. We are defenseless, Paul is saying. If God brings this charge against us, and he tells us, He certainly will, then we have no response, unless we have the response of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, my friends, what a better way to begin sharing the gospel? For a person who has known that they deserved to be condemned and has found the freedom of forgiveness in Christ, doesnt need a course in rocket science in order to share the reality of salvation in Jesus Christ. I once was lost and now I am found in Christ. Let me tell you about that. I once was condemned and now I have been acquitted and freed and blessed and included in the family. I once was a rebel and now I am a son. What a wonderful way to begin a Gospel conversation. And the apostle Paul says to all of us today, unless you have had that experience of seeing your sin and then seeing the Savior, then you are in no different situation than the immoral, openly, godless Pagan, who is seeing his life even now go to the logical conclusion of rebellion against God. Sooner or later, the same fate will be yours, unless you accept Gods judgment now, and ask for Christ as your substitute. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we bow before You, we honor, we bless You. We ask that you would give us some inkling of the truth that you have set before us in Jesus name. Amen.

Contempt for God's Kindness - Romans 2:4

4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

Contempt for God's Kindness

As you take your Bibles in hand, please turn to Romans, chapter 2, verse 4. As we have worked through Pauls letter to the Romans, especially beginning in Romans 1:18 to the end of the chapter, we have seen Paul demonstrate two things. First of all the justice of Gods condemnation, the justice of Gods wrath against the world in its sinful rebellion. He has demonstrated the justice of that wrath by showing the universality of sin. Sin is everywhere, and hes illustrated the pervasiveness of sin, the universality of sin by showing the gross immorality in the society to which he was writing. And, in fact, the same kinds of immoralities that you would have seen in Greco-Roman society you see in society in America today. And so Paul began by pointing, for instance, to a particular type of sexual deviancy. But then by the time he gets to Romans 1:28 to the end of the chapter, he gives a list of twenty-one sins to make sure that no one in pagan society thinks that simply because they havent committed a particular sexual sin, or a particular sexual deviancy that they are therefore without sin. And so somewhere, everyone is touched by the sins that he lists at the very end of the chapter.

But to this point, hes writing primarily to what we would call immoral pagans. Pagans who are not in any way worshipers of the true God, or part of the religious and worshiping community. And so as he would have been speaking this word, the religious, moral Jews, church-going Jews of his day would have been shaking their heads: Yes, Paul, thats right. Those people are immoral. Yes, they are under Gods condemnation. But he gets to Romans, chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, and he says, by the way, I have something Id like to say to those of you who are regular synagogue-attending moral Jews, but who have rejected Christ. And heres what it is. You know right from wrong. And you condemn those who do the wrong. But you know what? You do the wrong yourselves, and therefore, you are self-condemned. Even though you dont participate in the openly, grossly, blatantly immoral activities which Ive just described, you yourselves are sinners and youre in need of grace. And if you rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, youve rejected the only way that you are going to be able to find the grace of God. And so he brings a charge of hypocrisy against the church-going people, if we can put it that way, of his day. So, he speaks first to the bad pagan, that is the pagan who is openly immoral, and now hes speaking to the good pagan. That is, a person who is religious, but who really in his or her heart of hearts has never come to grips with his own sin and his own need of grace. And he certainly never found it in Jesus Christ.

Now he continues that argument today. So heres Gods holy word in Romans 2, verse 4:

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance." Amen.

And thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, this day as we come to Your word, help us to see ourselves in light of what Paul says. Rather than thinking about how these words apply to someone else, help us to sit under the judgment of Your word. Search our hearts to see if there is any unclean thing in us. And then by Your grace, lead us to the only place of refuge and mercy and grace and safety. That is, the Lord Jesus Christ and a living relationship with Him. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

He was a young attorney in graduate school. He had won a Rotary scholarship and so was doing a year, taking a break from his own law work. He had gone straight from law school into one of the most prestigious firms in the country, the Fulbright & Jorwarsky firm in Houston, Texas. He was one of the nicest guys that you would ever have wanted to meet. He was not in any way, apparently at least; openly immoral; he was from a Christian background; his language was never inappropriate; he was not suggestive in his behavior. He was one of those nice people that you run into from time to time. And as we got to know one another in the university halls over a period of a few months, I did notice that he was not attending church; and I did notice that he got distinctively nervous around me when the conversation veered anywhere in the direction of religious things. He knew that I was a minister, and I knew that that was a real conversation killer for some. But, as we conversed one day things did go in the direction of talking about spiritual things and his interests and such, and he became more and more nervous. So, to try and put my heart at ease he assured me, "But Lig, I talk to the Man upstairs every day." That did not set my heart at ease. He was a good friend. I kept in touch with him for a long period of time, but I wonder if in his niceness and in his moralness and even in his Christian background, if Paul would not have had a question for him: Do you think lightly of the kindness and forbearance and patience of God?

And I wonder if there are some here today who are in a similar boat. You may be more faithful at going to church than my friend was, but I wonder if you have come to grips with the realization of what your sin deserves and your need of mercy. And the fact that that mercy and that need for mercy is met only in Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul walks us through a scenario. Hes speaking to the Jews of His day. But these words are just as much for us as they are for the Palestinian Jews to whom Paul spoke in that time. Paul has, I think, three questions for us to ask ourselves that help to understand the issue that he is raising. Having just said that he finds amongst his own people a propensity to condemn others for sin, while not realizing that they are sinful themselves and in need of forgiveness of sin, he continues that charge by saying, and let me say that that very attitude which condemns others without realizing the need for forgiveness in your own heart also is, in fact, taking lightly the kindness of God.

And so Id like to look at this verse in three parts with you asking three questions. In the very first words of this verse we see Paul raise the issue of the danger of discounting Gods goodness and mercy. Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience. Do you think lightly of Gods mercy?

I. Do you think lightly of God's mercy?

Thats the first question I want us to ask. Do you think lightly of Gods mercy. Paul has said that the Jews knew right from wrong. They condemn those who did the wrong, and yet they practiced it themselves and, therefore, they were self-condemned. To that he adds another charge. He says, you have failed to appreciate the purpose of Gods forbearance with you. In other words, Paul is saying to his Jewish friends, his Jewish brothers and sisters, you have a false security. You believe that because God has been kind to you and has forborne with your sin that He is in fact pleased with you, and that you are at peace with Him. What, in fact, He is doing is giving you the opportunity to come to peace with Him, in Jesus Christ because you are not, in fact, at peace with Him. Paul is saying to the Jew who has false security, when the Jew says, "Well, I have the law" Paul says right, You have the law, but you don't do it." And the Jew says, "Well, I havent been abandoned to a life of gross immorality like the pagan Gentile that you just described." And Paul says, "I know that. Youre still a sinner. You need grace." The Jew says to Paul, "Well, Gods mercy to Israel will never fail. In spite of my sin, God is merciful." And Paul says, "Thats right, God is merciful. But Hes merciful so that you will be led to repentance." You see Paul is speaking, if we may, to the church-going believer of his day. He is talking about a false security that church-going people can often experience. They know the Bible; they know right from wrong; they know what the Bible says about the mercies of God; and they have taken false comfort without having ever come to grips with their own sin, their own need of grace, and the provision of Jesus Christ.

Those of us who are church-going Christians are susceptible to the same mistake. We can even twist our theology, good truths to bad ends in this regard. We may take the doctrine of 'once saved, always saved' and say, well, I made a decision years ago as my friends did, that I just described. He walks down an aisle and made a decision years ago. And yet was not walking with the Lord and had not for many, many years. And many people would say, "Oh, well, I mean hes made a decision. Hes in. Hes got Gods mercy." And the apostle Paul says are you taking lightly the kindness of God? Are you presuming upon the kindness of God? Are you assuming that you are at peace with Him, when in fact, you are not? And that is a danger of anyone who is religious. Anyone who is part of a worshiping community. They can be lulled into a false sense of security. Thinking lightly of Gods mercy does not require that we openly reject it. We dont have to set up placards outside of evangelical churches condemning fundamentalists to think lightly of Gods mercy. All we have to do to think lightly of Gods mercy is not repent. All we have to do to think lightly of Gods mercy, to manifest that we are thinking lightly of Gods mercy, is not to live a life of repentance.

I just want to emphasize that repentance is not just a one-time thing that is sort of stuck right at the beginning of the Christian life, and then youre done with it. You remember one of the first of Luthers ninety-five theses was a criticism of the churchs doctrine of repentance in his day. And he contrasted the churchs doctrine of penitence to the biblical doctrine of ongoing, lifelong repentance. All you have to do to despise the mercy of God and think lightly of His kindness and forbearance and patience is not to live a life of repentance. Any response to Gods covenant mercies without a life of repentance, means to despise and reject Gods overtures of grace. Do you think lightly of Gods mercy?

II. Do you understand who God is?

Secondly, Paul asks us this question. Do you understand who God is? First, he asked us if we thought lightly of His mercies. Now he asks us do you understand who God is? Notice he mentions here the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience. Hes showing us some of the characteristics of the God of all grace. Hes asking us to reflect upon who God is. Who He is essentially. How He is towards us. Some of His attributes, some of the ways in which He deals with His people. Hes asking, for instance, the Jewish people of his own time to go back and reflect upon the mercies which God has heaped upon them in His covenant. And hes asking those of us who are in the church and who have been blessed from our childhood, from our mothers arms, as the hymn says, with the knowledge of the Lord being preached and read and proclaimed. Hes asking us, do we think lightly of Gods kindness, Gods tolerance, and Gods patience? Hes really telling us a lot about the character of God.

Weve said all along that one of the secrets to really understanding the Bible, is going to the Bible, not first with a question, well, is there anything in this passage thats going to help me practically in what Im doing today? That may be a legitimate question to ask, but thats not the first question to ask when we study the Bible. The first question to ask is, what does this passage teach me about my God? And thats Paul taking us right to that issue: His kindness, His tolerance, His patience. Paul is showing us who God is and what Hes like, and why He does what He does.

And let me say thats very important because today many Christians, even Christian leaders want to remake God in their own image. They want to create God in their image. They want to make Him like they want Him to be rather than like He is. And this happens in a couple of ways in the Christian community. Sometimes there will be an outright rejection of biblical truths about God. Youve probably heard a Christian say at some point or another in your life  well, you know, the God of the Old Testament was a God of wrath. The God of the New Testament is a God of love. I choose to believe in the God of love, and so they reject a biblical teaching about God, through whatever conceived reason or rationale. Or perhaps youve heard someone reject the attributes of God even more boldly: Well, the Bible may say that about God, but I just think thats wrong. You may have heard someone who professes to be a Christian say that. That person is remaking God in his or her own image. Thats one way that people alter who God is, by rejecting the scripture truth about Him.

The other way that people do this is by setting side by side two scriptural teachings about God, and preferring one over the other: Oh I know the Bible talks about Gods justice, but Id rather think about His mercy. I think His mercy is going to triumph over His justice in the end. And so they set two of Gods attributes over against themselves. You can never do that. God doesnt allow us to set one attribute of God over against another. They are in perfect harmony in the nature of our God. But in doing that, we change who God is.

Now what Paul does here is he points us to three things that God is towards His people  kind, forbearing, and patient. And he says those three characteristics of God are designed to lead us to repentance. And if we do not repent, then were really not apprehending God as he is. Think about those characteristics for a few moments. Paul speaks of three ways in which God displays His mercy towards those in the covenant community.

First of all, he says that God is kind. When he speaks of Gods kindness, hes speaking of Gods goodness and generosity in action to His people. Now its true in general that God is kind. The Psalms tell us that God is kind to all, and, therefore, in general, Gods kindness is designed to lead all to repentance. But Paul is even more specific here. Hes speaking to the worshiping community, the Jewish people who held the truth, and hes saying, Gods covenant kindness to you was designed not so that you would sit back and think well, Im really special; but so that you would be led to repentance. Gods generosity in action is there because Hes drawing you to Himself in repentance.

He goes on to say Gods tolerance, or Gods forbearance is there to lead you to repentance. When he speaks of Gods tolerance, hes speaking of Gods restraining His final judgment. Gods holding back in bringing to bear on sinners the judgment that they deserve in the here and now. It is Gods temporary forbearance against sin. By the way, my friends, that definition of tolerance is radically different than the tolerance that is taught in our society today. The tolerance in our society today says youre intolerant if you think that youre right and somebody else is wrong. Youre intolerant if you do not say that everybody is right, even if they disagree. Youre intolerant if you condemn any action of anyone else. I want you to notice that that is not the tolerance of God. In this passage, the tolerance of God is Gods forbearing a punishment which is deserved. He will bring to bear justice unless repentance brings that sinner out from under His just and deserving wrath, and into the domain of His grace. So Godly toleration is not based on everybody being right and everybody being good and making no distinctions between right and wrong and good and evil. Godly toleration doesnt evacuate and evaporate the categories of good and evil. Godly tolerance says, for a variety of reasons, we will forbear. The greatest of which is we long to see that person united to God in grace. And so God, He says, tolerates us, He forbears with us.

And he goes on to speak of Gods patience, and Gods patience is a reference to His long-suffering. Gods ability to bear patiently in the face of sin and opposition even from his own people. We commented as we were studying the gospel of Matthew together that over and over you see Jesus patience with His disciples. There are numerous times where Jesus would have been perfectly justified to rebuke His disciples, and He doesnt. And we said that if Jesus had rebuked His disciples every time they deserved it, and if the gospel writers had recorded it, then the gospels instead of reading like they do would read something like this: Peter, stop that. James, stop that. James, youre wrong. John, you are out to lunch. The gospels would read completely differently than they do. But Jesus forbore. He was patient with His disciples. And Paul says God is forbearing, too. He is patient with His people. And the purpose of that patience is to lead us to repentance.

Now, that raises the question for us. Have we used Gods kindness as an excuse to be indifferent about eternal matters in our souls. Have we used Gods kindness as an excuse to be indifferent towards Christ, indifferent towards the gospel. If we have, beware; because Paul is saying to the religious people of His day, you have seen actively displayed Gods kindness and forbearance and patience and yet, you have not repented. You have not embraced the Lord Jesus Christ. And that increases your condemnation, youre under a heavier condemnation because youve been given so much.

III. Do you know why God is so patient?

And then he asks a third question. Youll see it at the end of verse 4. The question is, do you know why God is so patient? First, he had asked us, do you think lightly of Gods mercy? And then he had asked do you understand who your God is? Do you know who He is? Now he asks, do you know why God is so patient? Paul here is reflecting upon the purpose of Gods covenant mercies, and that purpose is to produce repentance. Gods mercy and patience has a purpose. And, when we do not appreciate that purpose, we are despising Gods mercy; we are thinking lightly of His kindness. Not knowing, he says, at the end of verse 4, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. The religious people to whom Paul was and is speaking were utterly uncomprehending of the purpose of His kindness. They saw God forbearing their sin. They assumed that they were at peace with God. They were assuming that they were under the favor of God. They were despising His mercy.

There are at least two ways to despise Gods mercy. You can, on the one hand, think that you dont need it. And that can be done more or less boldly. Now some person might say, well, I havent sinned. I dont need to be forgiven. There are not many people that are that deluded. There are a few. They think they never sin. They think they dont need to be forgiven. But more often its like this: Well, Ive already received Gods favor. I dont need to hear this again. There are those who think they dont need the mercy of God, and then there are those who take it for granted. They think that theyve done something, theyve gotten it. They dont need to worry about it. It doesnt matter that God isnt at the center of their life. It doesnt matter that they really dont love the kingdom Lord. It doesnt really matter that Christ is not the one who is the ruler of their hearts. They presume, they take for granted, the mercy of God. I grew up in the church. Ive gone all my life. The apostle Paul says, dont you know that the kindness of God leads to repentance? It leads to a life of renouncing sin and self-service of Christ, of love to Christ.

You see repentance is not merely a one-time thing that a person does. It is a life-long change of mind and heart about sin and about self. Repentance sees our sin as God sees it. Repentance no longer looks at sin as attractive and beautiful. It sees sin as ugly and damnable. Repentance realizes that we deserve condemnation. It doesnt rail against God that He would dare condemn us. Repentance recognizes that in and of ourselves we are not self-sufficient, and so repentance cannot be self-satisfied. Repentance recognized that we can only find fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can only find peace with God in Him. And so repentance is a change of mind about sin and self, and it leads to a new life in Christ. It leads to a life of active service to God.

When I was in high school, I actually could see manifested in the lives and in the words and the actions of some of my classmates this particular desire. They were in evangelical churches, they heard the gospel preached from the pulpit, they had seen films, and they had heard presentations about the end times and about the final judgment, and they did not want to be cast into hell forever. They were genuinely fearful about it. And so they were actually quite anxious to make professions of faith. But, they wanted to make professions of faith so that they would be secure from Gods judgment in order that they could go on living their lives the way they wanted to live. They wanted to have their cake and eat it. They wanted to live life on their own terms, with their own priorities, with their own goals, with their own immoralities I might add. And they wanted to be secure from the condemnation of sin. And the apostle Paul is saying here, "No. That is taking the kindness of God lightly." When we think that we can be secure and in our sin at the same time, we are wrong. And so the apostle Paul says, do you know why God is patient? Hes patient because He wants people to come to the realization of their own hearts and come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. The only adequate response of the gospel is to repent and embrace Christ. To recognize that you do deserve condemnation; to recognize that your sin is ugly; to recognize that you need a moral transformation which you cannot bring about; to recognize that you need forgiveness which you cannot provide. It can only be provided in Jesus Christ. Thats what the apostle is saying in this little verse. This powerful verse. A verse, my friends, that speaks directly to our hearts. Have we thought lightly of the kindness and the forbearance and the patience of God. Have we presumed upon His mercy? If so, then Paul would have us bow the knee today, right know and repent and find life in Christ. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, bring Your word home we pray to our hearts. Search us to see if there be any unclean thing in us, and then lead us to repentance and faith, by Your grace we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

God Will Judge Justly - Romans 2:5-11

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking[a] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. (Romans 2:5-11)

God Will Judge Justly

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 2. We will be reading verses 5-11. Let me remind you where we have come from so far. The apostle has announced the theme of this book in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. He has said that the gospel, the gospel that he is preaching is the power of God unto salvation. And in verse 17 of Romans chapter 1, he has specifically said that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. Now that may leave you scratching your head. You might have expected him to say that in the Gospel the mercy of God is revealed, or the grace of God is revealed. That is of course true, that the grace and mercy of God is revealed in the gospel. But Paul is especially interested to stress that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And what he says for the next couple of chapters explains why he is so interested to stress that point. But having given that summarization of the gospel, Paul then pauses and from Romans 1:18 all the way to Romans 3:20, moves with a single purpose of emphasizing to us that we are all sinners in need of grace. That we are all under the just condemnation of God and therefore need to find a righteousness in order to be in fellowship with God which is alien to ourselves. A righteousness that we do not possess.

Paul knows, in other words that there are going to be some people who respond to Romans :16 and 17, by saying, "Oh that is very nice Paul, but I dont need the Gospel." And so Paul, from Romans 1:18, following to Romans 3:20, says, "Oh yes, you do need the Gospel. And here is why."

Now in Romans 1:18 to the end of the chapter to Romans 1:32, the apostle specifically zeroes in on the Gentiles. And He makes it clear that the Gentiles in their behavior, in their propensity for sinful desires and degrading passions and depraved minds and behavior actually manifest in themselves rebellion against God and Gods judgment on that rebellion. Therefore they are sinners, they are pervasively sinful and that they need grace. And so the apostle, as we have already seen brings a strong charge against the immoral Gentile world of his day.

Now all along, the religious people of the day, in Pauls case the Jewish people of his own time, are nodding their heads. They are saying, Paul you are exactly right. Those people are horrible. They are immoral. The judgment of God does justly fall upon them and Paul suddenly turns to the religious people of his own day, and he says, and now I have something that I would like to say to you. And we started to see his argument unfold as we looked at Romans chapter 2, verse 1. He says, therefore you are without excuse. Because even as you bring judgment against those who are wicked, you are committing the same crimes.

And he goes on in verse 2, and he says, now you know that Gods judgment rightly falls on these, because you have been judging them yourselves. You have been saying, surely they deserve judgment. And Paul says, so you know that God justly judges those who do these things, and in fact you do these things. He says, do you think you are going to get pass Gods judgment, if you are doing the same things that the immoral Pagans are doing, and yet you have not embraced the grace of God as it is offered in the Gospel.

In fact, he goes on in verse 4 to say, if you have not embraced the grace of God as it is offered in the Gospel, then you are thinking lightly of Gods patience. Why is it that God is patient, Paul says? He is patient in order that we might repent. That we might see our sin, that we might see our need of grace and flee to Christ for that grace. And so the apostle Paul has begun an argument against the religious people of his day. This is so important for us to hear. Those of us who are church-going Christians. Because the apostle knows that at any given church, there are going to be some people who think they are in saving fellowship with God but who in fact, are not. They are deluding themselves. They have never really seen their sin, they have never really seen what the grace of God in Christ means and they have never embraced Christ by faith. And so he is bringing to bear, Gods word, in order to expose that very phenomenon. So lets hear Gods holy word in Romans 2, beginning in verse 5.

"But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God."

Thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord, Your word is for us. You intend us to see the truth by Your spirit as Your word is read and proclaimed. Help us to have listening ears, hearing words, that we might hear and do the truth of God. Search out our hearts, see if there is any unclean thing in us. Root it out. Show it to us. Give us the grace to hate sin and to run to Christ. We ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Two businessmen, we will call them, Bob and Bill, are having a cup of coffee and they are lamenting the moral state of our nation. They are ranging to and fro over a whole host of topics and concerns that they have about the United States in our time, and Bill, one of these men, is being vigorously critical of those who are leading our nation morally astray. And then, for a time, he is especially critical of the way the judicial system is failing to punish crime. Then the subject turns to religion. Now both of these men are churchgoers. Both, Bob and Bill. And everyone would guess that Bill was a Christian. He is nice. He is moral. He is a family man. But he really doesnt understand sin and grace. And he attends a local church where the Gospel is not preached. The Bible is not held up as the only authority for faith and life. And the Gospel is not explicitly emphasized in the preaching. He attends every Sunday morning, but he doesnt really live his life during the week with any kind of self-conscious commitment to the lordship of Christ or Christian principals. And if you ask him, and Bob is about to, if you ask him why he thought he was right with God, he would basically tell you something like this: He is trusting in his own goodness and in Gods benevolence.

And so sure enough as the conversation turns to religion, Bill asks a question. Or Bill is asked a question by Bob. Bob says to him, "What are you trusting in for your salvation? What is your ultimate hope for salvation. And why should God grant you eternal life?" And the answer is very candid. Bill says to him, "Well, I think that I am a fairly moral person. I try and live according to Gods Word, and I think that God will take into consideration my good intentions and He will overlook those things where I have fallen short." Bob then says to him this: "So, Bill, you think that God is less concerned about justice than you are?" Bill had just been lamenting about how judges were failing to punish crime, and yet when it came to spiritual things, he thought that the divine judge would cut us all a little slack. That is precisely the kind of thinking that the apostle Paul is contradicting in this passage. Paul is out to prove that everyone is a sinner. And everyone is under just condemnation and that we cannot save ourselves or expect salvation apart from Christ as he is offered in the Gospel. And he presses that truth home in three parts in this passage. And I would like to look at those with you this morning.

1. If you really understand the way God's judgment will be executed, you are going to plea for mercy.

First of all, in verses 5 and 6, Paul tells us a couple of really stunning things in these verses. He tells us that we are accumulating our own condemnation and he tells us that God is going to judge us by works. Now I fully realize how shocking that last announcement may be to some of you. But let me repeat it. Paul tells us in verses 5 and 6 that we are accumulating our own condemnation and that we are going to be judged by works, by our deeds, by our life. And now Paul tells us this because he knows that if we really understand Gods judgment, if we really the way Gods judgment will be executed, we are not going to be tempted to stand before Him in our own righteousness. We are going to plea for mercy. And we are going to flee to some other place than our own righteousness. Most people, you see, who are religious, church-going, but apart from Christ, are outwardly moral. They are religious in their frame of mind, but they are apart from Christ. Most people like that think that they are pretty good, and that God is going to grade on a curve. He is going to cut them some slack. And therefore, their hope of salvation rests in the fact that they are relatively nice people with good intentions, and that God will be relatively benevolent in the way in which He administers His judgment. This person thinks that God will judge them sort of in a general way, looking at their overall good intentions while giving them slack for the evil that they have done.

And Paul has two stunning surprises for a person thinking this way. The first surprise you see in verse 5. There he says, that if we are unrepentant, if we obstinate. If we have refused to see our sin, and run from it to God, if we have been obstinate, if God is not at the center of our life, if we have not embraced God, by the Gospel, then he says, we are busily building a case against ourselves. It is like being a defendant and everyday hastily pulling together a file of all the reasons why we ought to be convicted of sin and sending it to the prosecuting attorneys office, with a note, make sure and dont miss this. This will be important for the trial. We are building a case against ourselves if we are resting in our own righteousness. The person addressed here by reason of his hardness of heart is represented as being an agent for piling up wrath against himself. It is Gods wrath, but he is piling it up by the way he is living. By his own heart.

And secondly, Paul goes on to say in verse 6, that Gods judgment is going to be strictly according to deeds. Strictly according to our works, our lives. Everything is going to be taken into account. Gods judgment is going to be according to works. Now let me say, that is not a uniquely Pauline teaching. Jesus says that more frequently than Paul does. In fact, for example, you could turn to Matthew chapter 16, verse 27. Where Jesus says this, the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His father, with His angels. And He will then repay every man according to his deeds. Jesus and Paul both teach the truth. That we will all give an account before God and that our lives will be measured in the balance of Gods judgment. Salvation is by grace. That is Pauls emphatic point throughout the book of Romans. But, judgment is by works. Justification is by grace through faith. But our condemnation will be in accord with Gods justice and will be produced because of our own evil works.

Paul is stressing here, just like Jesus is in Matthew 16, verse 27, three things. He is stressing that everyone, everyone will come under the searching judgment of God. The question is, will that person be found righteous or not? Notice what He says, I will repay every man according to his deeds. I will render to each person according to his deeds. So the universality of Gods judgment is emphasized.

Secondly the criterion of that judgment is emphasized, deeds, works, our life before the judgment throne of God, and finally the certainty of God rendering judgment of His executing judgment. I will repay, I will render judgment is emphasized both by Jesus and Paul. Therefore those who take refuge, for their eternal hope in a sort of generally moral life and in God judging on the curve are in for the worst sort of shock. The apostle Paul says here, if you really understand the way Gods judgment is executed, you are going to flee to God for mercy.

2. In the end, there are only two types of people in this world: God-centered and self-centered.

And then he goes on to say in verses 7-10 that there are two kinds of people in the world. And he illustrates these two kinds of people by showing us their ambitions, their desires, their lives, and their end, their ultimate destiny. He contrasts these two kinds of people by showing their desires, their lives, and their ends. In the end, there are only two types of people in this world. Those who God-centered, and those who are self-centered.

I realize, of course, that it is not very politically correct to divide the world into two kinds of people. We are all supposed to be one. But the apostle Paul, following our Lord Jesus Christ consistently divides the world into two kinds of people. And the apostle Paul does that for a very specific reason here. Again he is speaking to people, who are religious and outwardly moral, some of whom are very comfortable in their eternal hopes. But who ought not to be comfortable in their eternal hopes, because they have rejected the Gospel, and they have rejected the Gospel and they dont think the Gospel is for them. And so he sets side by side these two visions of the godly and the ungodly, of the righteous and the unrighteous, of the believer and the unbeliever, of the person who has embraced the gospel, and the person who has not embraced the gospel.

And here is the picture. Look at verses 7 and 10. In this nice parallelism in verses 7 and 10 he discusses the believer. In verses 8 and 9, he discusses the unbeliever. He tells us about the aspiration of the believer. He says, you want to see a believer, you want to see what he is aspiring after, what he desires, he desires glory and honor an immortality. Lets think about it for a minute. It doesnt sound very humble to strive to aspire for glory, does it? But Paul says, you know the believer strives for glory, not glory in this life, not to be glorified amongst men, but the glory of being conformed to the image of the son. The glory of being made like the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what he aspires for. That is what he longs for. And he strives for honor. And again, that doesnt sound very humble does it? He striving, for honor, but it is not honor among men that he is striving for. He is striving for that honor whereby Jesus says, "ell done, My good and faithful servant." This person is striving for the approval of Christ. He doesnt care what the world thinks about him. He doesnt care for the worlds approval. He doesnt care for the worlds approval. He just wants to hear those words one day, "Well done, My good and faithful servant." That is all the affirmation he needs. That is all the honor he needs, is the honor that comes from the mouth of the king, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is striving for immortality, referring to the resurrection hope of the Christian. He is not just looking for hope in this life. His hope is the life to come. That heavenly Canaan. That is where his hope is. And Paul says, this person, his life, is characterized by enduring in godliness. Enduring in good deeds. He does the word. That is what his life is characterized by. And once he is end, eternal life.

Now notice what Paul has not said. Paul has not said that this person has earned his salvation by his good deeds, nor has he said, that he has earned his salvation by his aspirations, by his desires. But he has said, the person who has met Christ in the gospel and embraced Him by faith, is a person who is characterized by these kinds of aspirations, by this kind of life. He is saved by grace. But his life is transformed by that grace so that his desires are different from the world, and his life is different from the world.

And then he says, and let me show you the ungodly. His life is centered upon himself. Selfish ambition is his fundamental aspiration. His concern when he is concerned about God is to use God as a means to his ends. For God to help him get the things that he wants. What is his life characterized by? Paul tells you in verse 8 and 9. He is a person who does not obey the truth, but rather obeys unrighteousness. What is his end? Tribulation. Trouble, distress, wrath, and indignation. Now look, Pauls point here is not that you have to murder someone to be unrighteous manifested merely by neglecting the kindness of God in refusing to embrace the Gospel. To be unrighteous, all you have to do is reject the truth of God. And so the apostle Paul says, there you are, two kinds of people. Two kinds of people in the world. And we must all take stock of ourselves, and ask ourselves, what do our lives say about who we are? What do our desires say about who we are? What do we really want, because in the end, we will get what we really want. If we are God-centered, if our hope I in Him, that hope will be consummated. But if we havent ultimately wanted Him, then He will grant us our wish. And we will forego Him forever.

3. Don't presume upon your status nor upon God bending the rules.

And so Paul goes on to say in verse 11, that there is not partiality with God. He is saying to us, not to presume upon our status. Dont presume on God bending the rules. He is speaking here of the impartiality of God, the presumption that some people have that God is going to show them favor, and finding that presumption as the shelter that they have from Gods judgment. Favoritism is preferring someone without good reason. And this verse is a reassertion of the justice of Gods judgment. Paul has already talked about that in verse 2. God judges justly. His judgment is righteous. But he wants to reemphasize it. God will judge in accordance with reality. He will not show favoritism. He will not show partiality. He will not show preference without reason. So the criterion of Gods judgment is not privilege. It is not position. But it is affirmed repeatedly in these previous verses. The character of mens lives. He will weigh justly.

You see many people assume, they presume that God will grade on a curve. They presume on Gods grace, rather than seeking it. It is ironic, isnt it? They will say, Well, I have lived a pretty good life." And indicated, at least superficially, that they believe that they saved themselves by their works. But when you ask them, "Now do you strictly think that God is going to judge you exactly as you have lived?" "Well you know, God will take into consideration some, you know He will give a little flexibility here in His judgment." What are they doing? They are presuming on Gods grace. One minute they are saying, "I dont need Gods grace," but the next minute they are assuming that He is going to universally distribute it to everyone. And their presumption is a shadow. It is a ephemeral. It will evaporate on the last day. And the apostle Paul says, dont presume on the kindness of God. Seek it. Plea for it. Throw yourself at the feet of Christ. Ask God for mercy and He will grant it. But dont presume on it. Dont live life thinking well everything will work out fine. Live life knowing that there is a judgment. And at that judgment will take into account everything that you have ever done. And make sure that your righteousness is not your own righteousness, but that your righteousness is Christs righteousness. You can only receive it by faith, by trusting in Him, by repudiating your own life and saying, Lord I am not going to stand before you in this life, but clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I accept Him. I trust in Him. As you set Him forth in the Gospel. I trust in that Lord Jesus Christ. I receive Him as my Savior. I acknowledge Him as my Lord. I want His righteousness credited to my account, even as He has died in my place for my sins.

We need a sheltering from judgment. But where can it be found? Only in Christ. We need a sheltering from judgment. Where can it be found? Not in presumption. But in the real saving grace of God. We need a sheltering from judgment. But where can it be found? In our works? No. In the works of Christ. We need a sheltering from judgment. But where can it be found? It cant be found in our lives, but only by faith in the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pauls main concern throughout this passage is to take away from everyone who hears him, every conceivable prop on which we might lean for our self justification for acceptance with God. And he refuses us to allow us to rest in any privilege, in any possession, in any knowledge of the law. But he holds up before us, our lives, and he says, how will this life look in light of the final judgment, knowing that God is going to judge with exact justice.

Now Paul does that because he knows that unless we consider that deeply, we will be tempted to think that God is going to look over the blemishes and see the few nice things that we have done along the way. Or more than that, Paul knows that we will be deceived about the real nature of our hearts. Because our lives are not ultimately characterized by general niceness with a few blemishes along the way, but our hearts are black with sin apart from the grace of God in Christ.

And so the apostle Paul wants us to see ourselves, and then see the judgment of God. Not so that we will work harder to save ourselves, but so that we will cease from attempting to justify ourselves before God, and run to Christ for mercy, and ask Him to make us stand righteous before God. That is why David Dixon could say, that he made a heap of all his good deeds and all his bad deeds and fled from them to Christ. That is faith, that is justifying faith, to run from our deeds and to run to Christs deeds and to trust those alone to justify us before God. That is an issue for everyone of us today. It doesnt matter whether our grandfather was in this church. It doesnt matter whether we have grown up knowing the Catechism. If we have not embraced Christ, or rather been embraced by Him for salvation, as He has offered in the Gospel, we are in the same position as those to whom Paul was speaking when he first wrote those words. And so his words are as relevant today as the minute that he penned them. May God enable us to see the truth and to respond accordingly. Lets pray.

Our heavenly Father, we bless You for Your word. We ask that You would show us ourselves. I ask this day, O God, that there would be men and women and boys and girls who would see the grace of God and the justice of God displayed so clearly that they cannot but embrace Him by faith. We ask, O God, that You would hear our prayers, and that You would redeem us by the blood of Your Son. We ask these things, in Jesus name. Amen.

God's Righteous Judgment on All - Romans 2:12-16

Romans 2:12-16

God's Righteous Judgment on All

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 2. We continue to work our way through Pauls gospel to the Romans. You remember in Romans, chapter 1, verses 18 through 32, Paul had spoken especially to those pagans who were Gentiles who had never heard the law of Moses, and he had brought to bear the searching judgment of God against their sin. He had revealed to them through their attitudes and actions, their need for the gospel of grace so as to preclude a response to his message that went something like this: "Well, Paul thats very nice, but I dont need your gospel." The whole point of Romans, chapter 1, verses 18 to the end of the chapter to those Gentiles apart from Christ was that was precisely what they needed. They needed Christ, they needed the gospel.

Then, in Romans, chapter 2, verse 1 and going down to the point where we are today, he turns his guns in another direction. He turns his guns towards his fellow Jews. Paul himself a Jew from Tarsus who had been raised in the strict branch of his religion, a man trained as a Rabbi, as a Pharisee; now turns to his own people, the religious people of his day; the people who had received the one true revelation of God in the history of this world through the writings of the Old Testament. And especially in that core of the law of Moses, and he says to them, you need the gospel, too.

And again, in order to preclude an objection, well, Paul, we dont need the gospel, we have the law, Paul begins a series of argumentation. In the first few verses he points out their hypocrisy. That though they say we have the law and the Gentiles dont, they in fact do many of the same things that they accuse the Gentiles of doing themselves. And so he brings to bear an argument against their hypocrisy.

And then he goes on to argue that God is not partial in His judgment. They have used their own misunderstanding of the doctrine of election to think that God is going to treat them with a certain kind of favoritism, irrespective of their love for God, their love for the promises, their embracing of His promises and His covenant calls to obedience. And so again, Paul says, look, God is going to be impartial in His judgment. Hes not going to grade on a curve. His law is going to be strictly applied. So Hes undercutting any other place that they can run to for hope, other than the promises of God as they are manifested in Jesus Christ. He continues that argumentation here today in Romans 2, verses 12 through 16. So lets hear Gods holy word:

Romans 2:12-16

"For all who have sinned without the law, will also perish without the law. And all who have sinned under the law, will be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. Their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus." Amen.

Father, we ask that you would open our eyes to understand Your word. These words are simple, but they are hard. They are simple because Pauls logic, his argument, is crystal clear. They are hard because they cause us to take stock of our own hearts in ways that are unpleasant. Help us because of the hardness of these words to be soft in our hearts as we receive them; to allow Your Holy Spirit to seek us out and see if there is any unclean thing in us. And then we pray that by Your grace that we would run to Christ and to His promises, and to nowhere else for relief from the judgment that we deserve. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Now there is a rumor afoot amongst evangelical circles today that in the end, in the final judgment and the final deliverances of Gods judgment on this world, that Gods grace is going to triumph over His justice. That is, that some people are saying that somehow in the end, those who have not embraced Christ in this life, will be in Gods mercy embraced by Him at the judgment. That is, sooner or later, most if not all, will be redeemed. They will not undergo the punishment of Gods just sentence. Theologians like Clark Pinnock and his writings have popularized that view. Weve all heard that view spoken at a common-place level as weve had conversation with various friends, but that particular view is even taking root amongst evangelical theologians today. That somehow God in the end is not going to punish everyone. God is not going to bring to bear punishment on those who have rejected Christ. That evangelical universalism, we might call it, is directly rejected by Paul in this passage.

But closer to home Paul is rejecting another attitude that is held by many who are professing believers, many who are church members. There are many who are part of the church who, with their lips, say that they believe in the gospel; but their lives radically contradict those claims. They feel secure because they have, with their lips, made a profession of faith; but their lives portray a lack of gospel-transforming power. Now Im not talking about perfectionism here. Every one of us, even the most mature Christians, especially the most mature Christians in this congregation, knows that the Christian life is not characterized by perfection. Its characterized by growth. We grow in grace. We continue to struggle with sin. There are besetting sins that are very difficult for some of us to conquer, and sometimes we are tempted with Paul to cry out a wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this bondage to sin? We feel that from time to time. Im not talking about that though. Im talking about a fundamental tension between our profession and our behavior which is characteristic of all of life. Its a schizophrenia and more and more we see this kind of schizophrenia in the church. Let me give you an example that a friend told me about only a few days ago that occurred right here in Jackson. It was at the abortion clinic on Briarwood Drive. There, an older gentleman, a grandfather, brought his young, unwed granddaughter who was pregnant, to the abortion clinic to murder her child. In they went to the clinic. The man immediately came out, sat down on a chair, opened his Bible and began to read. Someone said, "Do you believe that?" "Yes." "Are you a Christian?" "Yes." "Then, what are you doing. Whats going on in there is none of my business," he said, and he went back to reading his Bible. Schizophrenia. Gods word says one thing. We do another. Radical, dynamic tension going on in what we say we believe, and the way we act. Thats extreme perhaps, but it struck me like a thunderbolt as to how some Christians can say one thing, and live in an entirely different way. Say that we believe one thing, and actually live as if we believe another.

Paul is speaking to people in a similar situation in His own day and age. There are people who say, "Paul, look we have the law, we have the law. We dont need your gospel." And Paul has several responses to that. One response that Paul has is well, you havent understood the law. If you understood the law, you would understand that the law was never given to justify you. The promises are what you trust in for your salvation. The law is your standard for life. Youve misunderstood the function of the law itself.

But another charge that he brings is that though they have the law, they dont do the law. You talk about having the law, he says to his people, but you dont live by the law. You make all this noise about how you alone amongst all the peoples have been given the law of Moses. Thats true, but you dont live by that law. So in this passage he continues this relentless argument. Paul is responding to the objection that he hears. "Oh, we dont need the gospel, Paul. We have the law." And hear his response in three parts.

I. Even if one has never read or heard God's law, because we break the law we will by judged/condemned by the law.

If youll look at this passage with me, first in verses 12 and 13. Here, Paul simply stresses this. That Jews and non-Jews, Jews and Gentiles, everyone in other words, will be judged according to the standard of Gods holy law. Even if one has never heard or read the law of Moses. Because we break the law, we will be judged. We will be condemned by the law. Now bear in mind that throughout this section Pauls main aim is to bring conviction of heart for those Jews who have rejected the gospel, theyve rejected Christ. Hes first in Romans 1 been speaking to the Gentiles. Now he changes his focus and he speaks to the Jews for a moment. Then in Romans 3, hes going to summarize and wrap everybody up in one big bundle and get us all condemned in order that we will not seek to justify ourselves before God, but will instead run to God through the Lord Jesus Christ in His mercy. And so Paul is, in this whole section, trying to bring conviction of heart to these Jews who rejected Christ, and theyve said, "No, Paul, weve got the law. We dont need your gospel."

These devout Jews felt secure in their national election and in their possession of the law of Moses. And Paul wants them to be uncomfortable. He wants them to be insecure. He doesnt want them to find their security in those things. He wants them to be insecure in order that they will run to the only place of hope and refuge, and that is Jesus Christ.

And Paul wants to unsettle them by pointing out that the law is not going to justify any sinner. Now its important to recognize throughout this passage, Paul is not teaching justification by works. Some people read this passage, and they say, "Ooh, that kind of sounds like Paul says that unless you do this, you wont be saved." Actually, Pauls point is the opposite. Those who dont do this will certainly not be saved. Those who are unrighteous will certainly not be justified before God. Those who are characterized by a life of wickedness will certainly be condemned. Why is he saying that? Because there are some people who think that simply by hearing the law, that they will be declared right before God; that they will stand acquitted before Him in the last day. And Paul wants to emphasize that no sinner will be justified by the law, whether hes a Jew or a Gentile.

His targets are hypocrisy and self-justification. Either saying, "I know the law," and not doing it. Or attempting to justify ones self by the works of the law. And his tool of diagnosis is this distinction between hearers and doers. And you remember this. Jesus uses this all the time in His teaching, in His parables. He speaks of the distinction between hearers and doers of the law. And Paul says, "Look, my Jewish friends, you have the law. You dont do it. And in the end if you expect to be justified by the law, the only way to be justified by the law is by doing it, and doing all of it and doing all of it perfectly. And so I would suggest to you that unless you want to stand before God on those grounds, that you probably ought to try another way. And the only other way is my gospel, which is the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, His words not only have reference to the Jews of His own day, but they have reference to us my friends. For us, if we cling to a religious profession of faith that is contradicted by the whole tenor of our lives, we are in the same precarious position of presuming on Gods mercy while living in a way which shows weve never really understood or embraced the gospel. Paul underscores here the fact that what counts both now and in the day of judgment is not whether people have possessed the law or have read it, had them read to them in the synagogue or in the church, but whether they have conducted their lives in accordance with its requirements. So for those people who expect to be judged right before God on the basis of how they have lived, if you choose that way, you better be prepared to backup your choice.

And the apostle Paul is basically beginning to lay an argument that there is no one who will be justified in that way. Everyone falls short. We could find striking examples that show how people within the church fall short if they are expecting to be justified by their own lives on the last day. The same friend who was telling me the story that I opened the service with, told me another story about seeing an acquaintance of his, a lady from a Presbyterian church in another city, drive into the same abortion clinic with her daughter to take her in to have this procedure performed. Here she was, a professing Christian, and yet she was conducting herself in a way which contradicted her profession. In another case, I had a young woman come in to visit me who had grown up in a non-Christian background, and she was very confused because she had dated a young man who was a professing Christian. And yet, it was he who had introduced her to premarital sexual relations. And she was confused. He was a professing Christian. And yet he was the one who had led her in a direction which was in contradiction of Gods work. She had been pure in her living before she met this young man. She was confused. We could point out example after example about Christians, professing Christians who do not live according to the standards of Gods words.

And so Paul is simply saying this. Dont rest in this generic idea that God is sort of going to weigh your life out, a little bit of good and a little bit of bad, and then youll be fine in the end. Because at the Grand Assize, because He will judge by His law, everyone whose confidence is in the law and not in Jesus Christ is going to come up short, whether Jew or Gentile. Its a sobering word that Paul brings here. But hes emphasizing that no one can stand before God as righteous, merely by hearing the law. If you intend to be justified by the law, then you must do the law as Leviticus says. And so the apostle says, "If you have not done the law, then there is only one hope for you, and that is the hope of the gospel."

II. Our conscience confirms the justice of God's judgment.

Paul continues his argument. Look at verses 14 and 15. Someone might object. "Wait a minute, Paul, this isnt fair. You say everybodys going to be judged by the law, even those who have never heard the law of Moses. Thats not fair." But Paul says, "No." Everyone who is alive has the work of the law written on his heart. Everyone who is alive has the works of the law written in their heart. Our consciences, in other words, confirm to us that Gods judgment against sin is real, and its right.

Paul is heaping up here condemnation on the Jews. The Jews have said, "Well, we have the law. And, therefore, we dont need your gospel, Paul." And he says, "Look, youre culpable by that law that your boasting in. Let me show you that even the Gentiles come short if they trust in the law."

Now this is important because we often hear a modern objection to the gospel that goes something like this. "Well, its not fair to say that God will judge people. What about those who have never heard." And Pauls getting a similar kind of objection here. "Well, this isnt fair, Paul. Many people have never heard or read Moses law. How can they be judged by that law?" And Paul says, "Well fine, let me explain that to you. Yes, indeed, they will be judged by that law, because everyone has the requirements of the law written on their hearts. Everyone. Let me prove it," he says. He first asserts that there is no human being that does not have the things, the requirements of the law inscribed permanently on their heart, on their soul, on their inmost being. And then he says, "Now, I know that some of you disagree." You say, "Well, Paul, you say, thats simply your philosophy, and I disagree with your philosophy." And Paul says, "Let me give you some evidence from my philosophy." He says, "First of all notice how there are Gentiles who sometimes do the works of the law." He says, "Look around at the governments of the Gentiles. All of their governments have standards. Many of those standards are good, many of those standards are in accord with the law which God has revealed through Moses. And the reason that theyre in accord with those laws which are revealed through Moses is because theyre based upon the principles of the law which are inscribed in the heart. So the very fact that you see governments with standards around you is an evidence that God has inscribed the works of the law on peoples hearts." He goes on to say, "Furthermore, they act in accordance with those laws from time to time. Theyre not always all bad. They do some good things from time to time. Thats evidence that the works of the law are written on their hearts.

Furthermore, their conscience confirms to them," he goes on to say in verse 15. "Their conscience confirms that they have the works of the law written on their hearts. From time to time they feel guilty about things they have done or not done. And furthermore, not only their conscience, but theyre reflection upon their conscience confirms that they indeed have the works of the law written on their heart, because they think about it." Sometimes the thoughts of their hearts acquit them from being guilty of something that they have been accused of by their conscience. Other times, their reflection actually convicts them of being guilty about something that their conscience has accused them of.

And so through all these means, Paul makes it clear that it is evident that God has written the works of His law, the requirements of His law on the hearts of everyone. And therefore the old objection  but what about those who have never heard? Its scuttle. You know, sometimes, people will attempt to evade the gospel. Theyll say, "But look, how can you say that people who have never heard the gospel are going to be condemned." "Because theyre not condemned on the basis of the gospel," Paul says. "Theyre condemned on the basis of the law." And you say, "But what about those who have never heard the law?" And Paul says there is nobody who exists like that. They may not have heard it with their ears, but its been written on their hearts. Theres nobody who is not culpable for their sin. In other words, Paul is saying everyone stands under the just condemnation of God. And even our conscience confirms it.

III. The justice of God's judgment will be revealed on the day of Christ's coming.

So he goes on in verse 16 to say that in the last day, according to His gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus. Now be careful, Pauls not contradicting himself there. We just said that Paul is arguing in verses 14 and 15 that God is going to judge, not by the gospel, but by the law. And so when He says on the day when according to my gospel God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus, Hes not saying that the gospel will be the standard by which He judges men on the last day. He is noting, however, that in the preaching of the gospel there is necessarily and inherently a proclamation of Gods just judgment. Think about it. If you preach the gospel that though we are sinners, and though we are rightly under the condemnation of God, yet God in His mercy and His love sent His son, who lived and died in our place, so that if we trust on Him alone for our salvation as Hes offered in the gospel, we will be saved, He receives the punishment for our sin, we receive the acquittal of righteousness by His deeds. By saying that you are inherently committing yourself to the belief that God will judge, and that those who are in Christ will be spared His punitive judgment, and that those who are not will not be spared His punitive judgment.

In other words, the gospel inherently entails the conveying of the doctrine of Gods final judgment. Thats so important for us to understand. The gospel doesnt negate judgment. The justice of Gods judgment will be revealed on the day of the coming of Christ, just as the mercy of Gods judgment will be revealed on that day. Thats very important in our day and time, because there are many Christians who think that Gods grace rules out eternal punishment; or, that Gods grace rules out a final judgment. Paul begs to differ. Paul says, no, far from it. Gods grace requires judgment. Grace, mercy, is optional. Justice and judgment are not. And the very proclamation of grace requires final judgment. The gospel inherently entails proclaiming the reality of the final judgment and punishment of sin.

You know, were in the midst of a national discussion that has been growing about the death penalty. Whatever your views are on that, one often hears from within the Christian community some flogged thinking that goes like this: "If we really understood Gods grace and mercy, we would be opposed to the death penalty. Now whatever you think of that argument recognize that underlying it is the idea that grace is the opposite of justice. Its not. Injustice is the opposite of justice. Grace is not the opposite of justice. Grace and justice can co-exist happily. In fact, there could be no grace for us apart from the justice of God; because Gods grace for us is based upon His enacting of His justice upon His Son. And, therefore, if grace and justice are exclusionary, then the gospel is impossible.

And so its so important for us to recognize that when Paul says on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. Yes, yes, we preach the gospel of grace. In fact, Pauls whole point here is to make people not trust in their own lives and their own works, but to run to Christ and the gospel. But Gods grace does not negate the reality of His final judgment. In fact, the reality of His final judgment impels us to embrace His grace now. Dont think that somehow in the end, one part of God is going to be pitted over against another part of God, because Gods attributes and actions never contradict one another. They are always in perfect harmony. So the apostle Paul says not only now does your conscience show you that your lives will condemn you, but on the last day your conscience with crystal clarity will confirm that if you are apart from Christ, you will have no hope forever. And so the apostle Paul is taking away every argument possible that we might bring up to say to Him, Paul, thank you very much. We dont need your gospel, because Paul knows that we need the gospel more than anything else.

Until we understand our deserving of judgment, until we understand the seriousness of sin, until we believe that Gods judgment is just, then we will never understand how amazing grace is. But it is precisely because of the seriousness of sin and the reality of final judgment that Gods grace is so amazing. And Paul is saying look, your only hope is not to look to yourselves. Your only hope is to embrace Christ and the gospel. Trust in Him, not in yourself. Accept His life, and His death in your place. Recognize that you, in and of yourself, standing before God, you are going to be condemned. But recognize that He, in His love has accepted condemnation for you, so that for you, as you trust in Him, there can never be condemnation. Thats amazing grace. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we do need to embrace the gospel. Lord, if we have been in church for years, and weve never embraced the gospel, enable us to see our sin and to see the Savior and to embrace Him. If we have wandered in and out of the church over the years; and weve never dealt with our sin; and weve never seen our deserving of judgment; and weve never embraced Christ as He is offered in the gospel; enable us to embrace Him today. We pray that You would be exalted in Your peoples lives, for these things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

The Jew's Confidence Empty - Romans 2:17-20

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— (Romans 2:17-20)

The Jew's Confidence Empty

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 2, verse 17. Weve been working through Pauls letter for a number of weeks now. Ever since Romans 1:18 we have been emphasizing that Pauls point throughout this long passage that runs all the way to Romans 3:20 is to explain why we need the gospel. He is pre-empting the expected response of some who say to Paul, "Well, Paul, thats nice and all, but I dont need your gospel." Paul is explaining in this whole section why everybody needs the gospel. He started in Romans, chapter 1 with the Gentiles. But in Romans, chapter 2, verse 1, he turned right to his own brethren, right to the most religious people in the world in his time, right to the very people who had received Gods revelation of Himself, and His law through Moses to the Jewish people. And he begins to speak to them and showing them that they, too, need the gospel, because he knows that they are tempted precisely because of the privileges that theyve received, to think that they do not stand in need of saving grace, even as the Gentiles do. But his point to them consistently is the very greatness of your privileges brings along with it a greater judgment if you do not embrace the promises of God. And at the very center of the promises of God are the coming Messiah who comes to save his people from their sins by His own death on their behalf. That must be embraced for salvation to be experienced. And so Paul continues to pile up arguments to break down any resistance to the reality of everyones need of the gospel of grace.

Lets turn to Gods word then in Romans, chapter 2 and hear it. Let me just say in passing that this word is the first half of an argument, and so it will sound like an incomplete sentence that were reading. And it will sound that way because it is. The second half of the argument comes next week, but youll see why we are focusing on this in a few moments:

"But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law, and boast in God and know His will, and approve the things that are essential being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth. You, therefore, who teach another do you not teach yourself?"

Thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for this world, and we ask now that You would cause us to search us to search our own hearts out; that we would seek to hear what Your word has to say to us more than what it might have to say to someone else. We pray that we would be convicted, corrected, built up and encouraged by Your word. That by Your Spirit You would apply Your word just in those places where we need it most. We pray that we would be hearers and doers of Your truth. For these things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

The apostle Paul in these few little verses before us is rooting around in the inventory of our lives to find all the things other than Christ and the gospel on which we are relying to stand us with approval before God. He knows that we will run in every direction we can find to justify ourselves, to convince ourselves in our own mind that we are all right from God apart from Christ in His gospel if we are given half the opportunity. And so he is exploring every possible area that we might, as religious people, be tempted to run for refuge rather than in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is recounting for us in these verses a religious persons self-perception. A person who perceives himself to be 'okay' with God, but in fact that self-perception is a delusion. This person is in spiritual and moral denial. He and she think that they are alright with God, but in fact they are not. Paul knows that our self-perception is sometimes self-deception, and he is writing here to uncover self-deception.

First, he comments in verses 17 and 18 on how his fellow Jews predominantly see themselves in relationship to God. And then in verses 19 and 20 he comments on how they see themselves in relation to others, especially the Gentiles. And by pointing to these self-perceptions, he uncovers self-deceptions and thus strips away objections to the gospel itself. So lets hear what Paul has to say to us in these two parts today.

I. The truth misused blinds us to the truth.

First, if I may direct your attention to verses 17 and 18. Paul, in those verses, describes for us how the Jew thinks about himself in relation to God and to the things of God, and he says four things. He says that the Jew thinks, "I am specially chosen by God; I uniquely delight in Him; I know His will; and I am possessed of good, spiritual discernment." And the Jew says this in contrast to the prevailing irreligion of the Gentiles around him. But as Paul reveals to us that self-perception of the predominant number of his people in his own time, he is also telling us something else. Hes telling us that the truth misused blinds us to the truth. His own people have had the truth given to them from the mouth of Moses and the prophets. Its Gods truth. Paul doesnt quibble with that. They have had enormous privileges given to them. Paul doesnt quibble with that or deny that. But he says that they have misused those things that God has given to them, and, therefore, are blinding themselves to the truth and its purpose. And thats a truth, thats a reality thats just as significant for us. If we misuse the truth, it blinds us to the purpose of the truth. The apostle begins this section with an enumeration of those things which the typical Jew of his day prided himself in, and which he thought gave him superiority over the Gentiles and commended him to God. And he identifies four things as weve already said. Lets work through them.

In verse 17, first he says, you take confidence in the fact that you are the Jew. You are a Jew. He says, "You bear the name Jew." Ever since the time of II Kings, the name Jew had been used to refer to the totality of the people of God. There are all sorts of arguments about where that term came from. Many suspect that it came from the tribe of Judah, which was the last identifiable homogeneous tribe in the time of the dispersion of Israel, but that name came to indicate all the uniqueness of the relationship between this ethnic people and the one true God.

And Paul is saying, you take pride, you take confidence in the fact that you have this unique relationship with God that God has chosen you. That God has elected you. And Paul is raising here the problem of the misapplication of the doctrine of Gods national election of Israel. The people of Israel say to Paul. "Well, Paul, your gospel is nice and such, but were the chosen people of God. God has chosen us out of all the nations of the earth. We dont need your gospel, thank you very much. God has chosen us. We are His people." And the apostle Paul is saying, "Look, that is a misapplication of the doctrine of divine election."

And Paul in this book of Romans places at least two arguments against that misapplication of the doctrine of divine elections. First of all, he says, "Look if youre truly elected, you are also transformed." So if you say that youre the elect of God, if you say you are chosen of God, and God has not transformed your life; if you have not become a doer of the law as well as a hearer of the law, then youre not elect. In other words, he points to the proper results and effects of election, and he says, "If those things arent there, you may be deluded." If you dont have a transformed life accompanying this claim of a special relationship with God, that is a good sign that something is grossly out of order.

Secondly, and he does this especially in Romans, chapter 9 through chapter 11. The apostle Paul says, "Alongside of the truth of your national election as a people, you need to recognize that there is another truth just as important, and that is the doctrine of the individual election of God." And so he quotes for the Jewish people in Romans 9 through 11. You remember, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated." He points to two Jews. Two true sons of Abraham, and one is chosen, and one is not. One is Gods people and one is not. And one is blessed and one is cursed. And, he does that precisely so that Israel will not presume upon this special favor and election which God has certainly bestowed upon them as a nation.

But you see Pauls words to his Jewish people in his own time, are just as much applicable to us today. For we ourselves have received great favor in the teaching of Gods word, inheriting the faith from our parents, hearing His word read and taught and preached. And it would be possible for us to rest in those privileges without experiencing the realities to which those privileges point. And it would be possible for us to become proud in this benevolent bequest that God has given to us. But Paul is saying, "Thats a contradiction in terms. Its a contradiction," Paul says, "to be proud of your election. You have nothing to your account to credit for your election." Even Moses in Deuteronomy, chapter 7, had said to the people of God "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and I have chosen you not because you were the greatest of the people, but in fact you were the least of them. I have chosen you because I love you." In other words, the reason, the origin, the source of Gods choosing of Gods people is not to be found in them, anything that theyve done, anything that they are, but its to be found in His mercy.

And the same is true today. You can be proud, or you can be a Presbyterian, but you cant be both. How can you be proud of being saved by the grace of God? How can you be proud of having been chosen on the basis of the mercy of God and the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and none of your own? What is there to be proud about that. Thats a humbling thing. It humbles you in the dust to realize that for some reason God in His mercy has taken you and Hes saved you, despite yourself, and Hes brought you into His kingdom. Thats the most humbling experience in the world. And thats why Isaac Watts can ask in his great hymn, How Sweet and Awesome is the Place, Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I invited to your banquet? I have nothing to commend myself to You. I can point to many men more moral than me, more deserving than me. And yet, youve chosen me in Your mercy. Thats a humbling thing. It humbles you to the dust. And Paul is saying that the people of his own day, his own people, the Jewish people, had contorted, they had twisted that doctrine. They turned it on his head; and they had become prideful, when they should have been humble.

Secondly, notice what he says again in verse 17. You take confidence in your possession of the law, in your obedience of it. Notice his words, "You rely upon the law." Paul again, is responding to something that he hears from the Jewish people all the time. "Paul, you dont understand. We dont need your gospel. We have the law." And the apostle doesnt say, "No, you dont." And he doesnt say, "Well, that doesnt matter." What he says is this: "Fine. You have the law. Do you do it? Fine, you have the law. Do you understand it?" See Pauls Jewish people, his friends are saying to him, "Paul, we have the law. Of all the people in the world, we have been given the law of God." That was absolutely true.

But Paul is pointing out here the problem of misunderstanding the function of the law, and its comprehensive demands. Sure, they had the self-revelation of God. Sure, they had the way of righteousness displayed before them, and yet they had not realized just how comprehensive were the demands of the law. And they had not realized that the law in fact condemned them, if they were not walking in according to it. And so Pauls remedy is to emphasize to them the demands of the law and the extent of the law. The law was far more comprehensive than they had ever thought before. It extended even to the motions and the attitudes of the heart. The demands of the law were strict and exacting; and, in fact, apart from Gods grace, the law would condemn us. And he points to two realities that they were ignoring. The second use of the law, and the third use of the law. Yes, it is true, that the third use of the law is as a pattern for righteousness. But it is also true that the law drives us to Christ, so though we want to say with the psalmist, 'How I love Your law, O Lord,' even as we say that we realize that apart from Christ, the law would condemn us. And, therefore, the law always leads us right back to the mercy of God and the Savior. And if you forget either of those realities about the law, you become precisely what had happened to the people of God in Pauls day. You become immune to your sense of need of grace.

Then in verse 18 he goes on to say a third thing. "You are proud of your God." Thats an interesting thing. "You boast in your God," he says. "Now what thats all about?" Lets think back to the scripture reading that we heard a little bit earlier this morning. Its Isaiah 21, it speaks of the judgment of against the people of Israels great enemy, Babylon. Though Babylon may indeed run ragged over Israel from time to time, though Babylon may dominate the people of Israel, Isaiah 21 speaks of the day when God will bring judgment against Babylon. And you can see a pious Jew standing around and saying I thank God that you have conquered this wicked nation, Babylon, with her false Gods. And I glory in the fact that I worship the one true God, not some idol that has been invented by the hands of men that these poor people, these pagans in Babylon worship. And you can understand theres a true distinction there, isnt it? Between the glory of the one true God, and the idols of mens imaginations.

And yet the apostle Paul reminds us here that theres a problem. Theres a problem of separating the knowledge of the one true God from God Himself. One can glory in ideas, in truth about the one true God without glorying in the one true God Himself. One can know a great deal about the one true God without knowing the one true God Himself. One can think a lot about the one true God without fellowshipping and having a saving, personal relationship with the one true God. And so the apostle Paul says to the Jewish people, "Yes, you boast in your God, but you dont know much about Him. You havent seen him in all the glory of his character. And youve thought a lot about Him, but you havent known Him." And so the apostle Paul to remedy this reminds us that the knowledge of God, and God Himself can never be separated. We cant say, with so many people today, well, I just want to have a relationship with God who cares about theology, who cares about the Bible. Well, Ill tell you who cares about it. Gods people do, because that Bible, that theology is Gods revelation of Himself to them, and they wont know Him apart from that revelation of Himself to them. But, on the other hand, if we simply become obsessed with the facts revealed about God, and we do not realize that the word that God has given us in His word about Himself is precisely so that we would fellowship with Him, and experience Him as He is and as He is towards us in His benefits, then we have misused the theology that Hes provided us. Anytime we separate the knowledge of God, from God Himself, we will go awry. And so the apostle Paul accuses His own people in His own day of knowing a lot about God, but not knowing God. Theyve fallen in love with their ideas about God, but not with the living God himself.

And then fourthly, in verse 18, he says, "You take confidence in your spiritual and moral discernment." This is the longest phrase of all. Look what he says: "You know His will, and approve the things that are essential being instructed out of the law." "They said look Paul, we dont need your gospel. We know the will of God. Hes revealed it to us in word, and in His law. Were able to distinguish those things which are more significant and less significant; those things which are right and those things which are wrong, unlike these poor Gentiles. Go tell the Gentiles about your gospel. Maybe they need to hear it; but we certainly dont need to hear it, we already know these things."

And the apostle Paul turns back on them the problem of the speck and the log. The problem that they are very quick to see the sins and the foibles of the Gentiles, and they are very slow to see their own failure. They may know a lot, but they dont do a lot. So he turns back on them the problem of the speck and the log about which Jesus had spoken in His teaching. And he turns back on them the problem of hearing and doing that theyve heard the law. That they may know something about the law, but they havent done the law. And he says to them, "It is not enough to admire the law. We must embrace it in our desires. We must do it. We must live it. So dont claim that youre immune from the judgment of God because you know the law when you dont do it." Dont claim that youre immune from the judgment of God when you judge others according to that law, but dont do it yourselves.

So the apostle Paul is reminding us today that its not enough to admire the rectitude of Gods law. Its not enough to criticize those who dont obey the statues of His law. We must embrace it with our own desires. We must live by it, we must judge ourselves harshly, and others charitably in light of the law. Paul is bringing to bear all these things in his discussion with the Jews to show them how they have misused the truth and thus blinded themselves to the truth.

And I want you to note that Pauls criticism of these people is very different than a modern liberal's criticism would have been of them. If a modern liberal had come to critique the Jews of Pauls day, it probably would have gone something like this: "How can you be so arrogant to believe in a doctrine like election?" Thats not true. God doesnt elect. And then they would have gone on to say something like, "And what is all this fooling around with the law? You dont need the law. Law isnt for Christians. Thats an Old Testament thing." And then he would have gone to say something like this, "Theology, smeology. Who needs theology? You guys are sitting around thinking about abstract stuff all the time. Stop thinking about that. Thats not important." And then they would have come along and said something like, "And what is this imposing your own moral standards on others? Let people just live however they want. Im okay, youre okay." That would have been the modern liberals critique of the people of God in Pauls day.

That is not Pauls criticism of them. Notice that Paul says none of that to them. These are conservative, Bible believing religious people who are very serious about a relationship with God. And he says none of that. Notice, if Paul ever had an opportunity to deny the doctrine of election, this is it. He could have said, You guys were never elected. God doesnt elect." He says, "Sure, sure, the doctrine of Gods election is true. Youve misused it." If Paul ever had the opportunity to throw out the law, this was his chance. But notice he doesnt jettison the law. He doesnt say, "You know, your problem is youre hung up on all this law stuff. If youd just get rid of the law and get into grace, everything would be great." Thats not what he says. He doesnt jettison. He says, "You know, in fact, the problem is you havent understood the law enough." Notice again thirdly. He doesnt trash theology. He doesnt say, "You know you guys, youre pretty cocky about all this thinking you do about God." He doesnt do that. He just says, "You have misused the truth. You need to think about the truth. You ought to glory in the truth. You ought to glory in God. Your problem is not that you do too much. The problem is that you dont do it enough. In fact, you dont do it at all. Youre in love with an idea, but not the one true God." And finally, he doesnt attack them for imposing their moral standards on others, because after all its not their moral standards. But what he does say is this. "Youre very quick to judge other people for not living up to these moral standards, but youre very slow to see how you dont live up to them. So be uniform in your criticism. In fact, concentrate on your own hearts instead of others and especially the Gentiles. The apostle Pauls critique is entirely different than a modern religious liberals critique would have been of the religion of his day. And we need to look closely to what Paul is saying because it is directly relevant to us.

II. Theology gone bad inoculates us against the saving truth of God and leads us to sin against our neighbor.

And then in verses 19 and 20 he goes on. Hes been speaking about the perception that the Jewish person has of his relationship with God. Now he speaks of his perception of how he relates to the Gentiles. And again in verses 19 and 20 he says, "The Jew thinks Im a guide for spiritually blind Gentiles. Im a light for those in darkness. Im an instructor of the ignorant. I am a teacher of those who are mature." Again, four things he says about the Jews self-perception of the way he relates to those who are apart from the revelation of God to Moses. And again, we see in this passage that theology gone bad inoculates us against the saving truth of God, and it leads us to sin against our neighbor. It not only keeps us from hearing the gospel, but it leads us to have an attitude of inappropriate pride and superiority to our neighbor. We dont serve our neighbor, we dont love our neighbor. We lord it over our neighbor, and we think that we are a lot better than our neighbor.

And the apostle goes through several things here. Having dealt with the Jewish misappropriation and misunderstanding of the truth in relation to God, he now considers its effect on neighbor love. And he says four things. "Youre convinced that you are a guide for the Gentiles who are blind. And of course this is a warping of something that they were genuinely. This was a responsibility that God had given them. God had given to the Jewish people the responsibility of being a guide for those who are blind." Furthermore, he says, "You are convinced that you live in light, while the Gentiles live in darkness." Well, indeed, the people of God had been called to be a great light in the middle of darkness. They were to be a light to the Gentiles. God had called them to be a blessing to the Gentiles. But what is Paul saying here? A responsibility that they have been given by God has been contorted by them into an occasion to be prideful. And instead of seeing their responsibility, their obligation of mission to the Gentiles, they have instead become spiritually fat and lazy and prideful.

And he goes on. "You are convinced that you are capable of and called to tutoring those in the foolish ways of God. Youre convinced that you are well-equipped to instruct new converts in the way of life." These people view themselves as having arrived. Spiritually and morally they are a cut above everyone else. They are here to instruct everybody else. And yet they dont see the holes in their own life. And so the apostle Paul responds to this. And he says two or three things. He says, "First of all, spiritual pride has hampered your God-given mission. Its not that God didnt call you to be a light to the Gentiles, its that you have taken that as an occasion of pride. As if somehow you were inherently better than they were instead of simply saved by Gods grace. And so instead of serving them and longing for the Gentiles to fellowship in the truth of Gods covenant promises, you have lauded over them and thought them better than them."

Secondly, he says, "There is actually an unconscious ignorance of Gods person and His law right here amongst the very people who tend to think of themselves as so wise. And that unconscious ignorance of Gods law and Gods person, has blinded you to your own blindness and need. You think you know God better than everybody else. You think you know His law better than everybody else." And Paul is saying, "You dont really know Him at all, and you really dont know His law. And the fact that you dont know Him, and you dont know His law has blinded you to your need of Him and of His grace. And to the reality of the truth of His law.

And thirdly, Paul goes on to say that, "The focus of His Jewish brethren on others needs and others deficiencies, and others sins has forestalled their own self-examination." They are very quick to see other peoples faults, but they are very quick to forgive their own.

And my friends, this is why I want you to see. What Paul is saying is just as applicable to us today as it was to the Jewish people to whom He first spoke. Its very easy for people who have been given tremendous religious privileges in a culture that is decaying by the minute around us. To be quick to criticize  everybody in this room could gather around, and for many hours we could have a heated discussion about the inadequacies of the decisions of the Supreme Court in the last two or three weeks. And we could go away feeling really good about ourselves and the moral stand that we have taken. Quick to point at others, slow to point at our own hearts.

And the apostle Paul is saying this: "This is why you need the gospel. Because when you really look at God, and when you really look at the law, if thats what youre trusting in, you fall short." And so Pauls reason for sharing these criticisms of his own people is not because he hates them. Its because he desires them to come to Christ. He desires them to see their need for the gospel. He desires us to see our need for the gospel.

In a few moments were going to sing about the love of Christ, our Savior, and were going to come to the Lords table. That table reminds us that we are incapable of saving ourselves by our goodness. That table reminds us that its only the goodness, its only the obedience, its only the worthiness, its only the merits of Christ that saves us. And that table reminds us that we must come to Him in faith and trusting Him alone, and in faith alone receive the grace which is the gospel. That table reminds us of the truth that Paul is preparing us to hear even in this passage. May the Lord bless His word. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we ask that You would speak to our own hearts this morning. That You would convict us again of sin, and that you would convince us of the meeting of our need in Christ alone. And that we would, by Your grace, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, seek Him by faith so that in Him we might a Savior and a friend. We praise You for His love, and we pray that as we now partake of His sacrament that we would revel in it, knowingly, in Jesus name, we ask it, Amen.

The Jew's Failure - Romans 2:21-24

21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." (Romans 2:21-24)

The Jew's Failure

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 2, verse 21, as we continue to work through this glorious gospel of Romans. Though its a letter to a local congregation, it certainly does contain for us a beautiful presentation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have emphasized over the last several weeks that in Romans 1, verses 18 to the end of the chapter, to verse 32, the apostle Paul basically says to the Gentile world, 'Even though you have not had a special revelation of the moral law of God and the Ten Commandments from Moses given to you; nevertheless, you are guilty for breaking the law, and you need my gospel.' Paul had anticipated the Gentiles saying, well we havent ever hurt the law the Israel, how could God condemn us for not having obeyed the law of Israel weve never heard it. And the apostle Paul responds by saying, everybody knows God, everybody knows that he or she ought to worship God. Everybody has the works, the principals of that law, Gods law, Gods moral law, written on their heart, and everybody breaks it. And, therefore, everybody is culpable. Not only as God created everyone, but He has caused everyone to be created in His image and to have indelibly impressed upon their souls a knowledge of him. A knowledge that they ought to worship Him, a knowledge of how He wants them to live, and that theyve rebelled against Him. Therefore, they are culpable. They deserve judgment. Therefore, Paul says, "You do need my gospel. Even if youve not grown up in a religious setting where youve heard the Bible read day after day, you need my gospel."

Then, in Romans, chapter 2 beginning in verse 1, he turns his focus on the religious people of his day, the Jewish people, his own people. The people from whence he came, the people from whence Messiah came. And he says to them, "Now you, too, need my gospel. And their response is, "But Paul we have the law, and we have been chosen by the God of Israel." And Paul says, "Right, true, Israel is the subject of the national election of God. Israel has the recipient of the law of God, and yet though you have received the law of Moses, youve broken it. Though you glory in the God of Israel, you rebel against Him. You sin against Him. In fact, you cause His name to be blasphemed. The apostle is bringing an argument in Romans 1 and in Romans 2 to say that everybody needs his gospel. Theres nobody out there who can say, thats nice, thats fine for you, Paul, Ive got another way. Paul is saying everybody needs my gospel. And hes explaining why. And were continuing on in this passage where hes speaking specifically to Jews.

Now before we do, let me say one thing. It is possible, I mean, lets face it, you read Romans 2, verses 1 through 24 in the presence of a dear Jewish friend. And if theyre listening, they are going to be offended. These words were offensive to Jewish people when Paul first spoke them. Recognize this is not anti-Semitism. The apostle Paul was a Jew. The apostle Paul loved the Jewish people. Hes going to tell us what he thought about the Jewish people in Romans 9, 10, and 11. In fact, in that passage he is going to say that he wishes that he himself could be eternally cursed and under the damnation of God. If only his people would come to faith in Christ. He loved his people with all his heart. And so his words are not words that are based on ethnic resentment and anger and hatred. His words are based upon the truth and upon a heart of love. He longs to see his people come to a saving knowledge of Christ. These are not anti-Semitic words any more than the words of the prophets in the Old Testament are anti-Semitic when they chastise Israel for failing to follow after the Lord God. No, Paul is speaking Gods word to his people as a Jew who has converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is begging them, he is beckoning them to embrace their Messiah. And so to know all the benefits of His saving work. So bear that in mind as we look at this great passage and lets continue in our study reading Gods word in Romans 2:21.

"You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself, you who preach that one should not steal. Do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols. Do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, because of you, just as it is written."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we pray this day that again You would teach us from Your holy word that we would see the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would see our sins and our need of Christ. And His grace. That we would embrace Him as we respond to the gospel. We pray, O Lord, that You would save us from self-delusion, and self-righteousness, and hypocrisy; and that You would lead us into the way of truth and sincerity, faith and obedience. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

You may want to sneak a peek at verses 17 through 20 of Romans, chapter 2, because the sentence that we began to read in Romans 2:21 is actually the end of a sentence that the apostle had started back in verse 17. Paul has been convicting the Jews on the basis of their own moral law ever since verse 1 of this passage. In other words, hes saying, "Yes, you have the moral law, but you havent lived up to it. Yes, you have the moral law, but youve broken it. Yes, you have the moral law; but even though you glory in it, and you presume to teach others, especially the Gentiles about it, you yourself have discounted that moral law. You have ignored it. You have broken it, you have flagrantly violated it." And here in verses 21 through 24, he clinches this argument.

Hes actually going to move on to a new phase of the argument beginning in verse 25. From verse 25 down to verse 29, hes going to begin talking about the ceremonial law. But to this point, hes focusing on the moral law, because Israel assumed that they were impeccable with regard to the keeping of the moral law. But even as he speaks to his own people, even as he speaks to the Jewish people, he is speaking here and clinching his argument against all religious people who are without Christ and without grace. So before you are too quick to point the finger at these first century Palestinian Jews, remember that Pauls words are equally applicable to anyone who professes to know the true God, but who is, in fact, without Christ and without the experience and the receipt of saving grace.

Now there are two things Id like you to concentrate upon in this passage. In verses 21 through 23, Paul is concerned to expose the hypocrisy of Jewish self-righteousness. In verse 24, he is concerned to show what is the effect upon the witness of the Jewish people of their own hypocrisy and self-righteousness. So in these two parts of his discussion, we learn several very important things.

I. When examined in light of their own claims, Christ-less, grace-less moralists always fall short.

In verses 21 through 23, Paul is continuing his argument from verses 17 through 20. In those verses, 17 through 20, he picked out eight areas that reflected a Jews self-understanding of his relationship to God and his relationship to the Gentiles. And he basically uses those areas to condemn the Jew of hypocrisy. Look at those verses for a few moments. Lets walk through them.

Notice, first of all, he speaks of four things that the Jew thinks about himself in terms of his relationship with God. You take confidence in the fact that you are Jew. "You bear the name Jew," he says in verse 17. "You take confidence in your possession of the law and in your obedience to it. You rely upon the law," he says. "You are proud of your God. You boast in your God and you take confidence in your spiritual and moral discernment. You know His will, you approve the things that are essential being instructed out of the law. All of these are the things that the Jew thinks about himself," Paul says, with relationship to God. Then, keep on following through all those verses, he begins to talk about how the Jew thinks about himself with regard to the Gentiles. He says, "You are convinced that you are a God for the Gentiles, who are blind. You are convinced that you live in light while the Gentiles live in darkness. You are convinced that you are capable of and, in fact, called to the job of tutoring those who are foolish in the ways of God, and you are convinced that you are well equipped to instruct new converts in the way of life." All these things the Jew thinks of with regard to the Gentiles, and especially to those who are proselyte Jews. Those Gentiles who are converting to Judaism and being instructed in the faith. And the apostle Paul is saying this with that final phrase. "You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself?" He is saying, he is bringing general charge that his people does not practice what it preaches. It claims one thing, but it does another.

It professes one thing, but it practices another. It says that it believes one thing, but it behaves in another way. Paul, in short, like Jesus, is accusing his own people collectively, generally and specifically of hypocrisy. You see why I say that this would not have met a very happy response when it was first heard, when it was first spoken. What Paul is saying amounts to this. If you present yourself as a person who relies on God in His law, and even teach others the meaning of His law and impress upon them that they should live in harmony with it, how is it that you yourself do not practice what you preach?

Now friends, that charge would have been shocking to the Jews. It would have been absolutely shocking to them, and it would have been shocking to them for a variety of reasons. It is very true that the Jews saw themselves as distinct from the world in their receipt of the law of Moses, and they despised the rank polytheism that surrounded them in the Greco-Roman world.

But lets also remember that the generation of Jews living in the time of Christ and Paul was the first generation of Jews of whom it could be clearly said that they had utterly rejected formal idolatry. Think of it. Ever since God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, what have the Old Testament people of God been struggling with? Idolatry. Abraham, himself, was an idolater. In his family there were people who continued to house household gods. Constantly in the times of Judges and Joshua Gods prophets and judges had to keep the people from going after the ashterah or going after Baal or going after the sun god or the moon god, or whoever the Johnny-come-lately god of the day was in the cults that were around them. Constantly, the people of God were being pulled off the path of the worship of the one true God, and they were worshiping idols. The prophets continued to charge the people of God with being idolaters and of not being faithful to the one true God. And finally, after the exile in Babylon, the people of God got the message. And they were confident that they may be many things, but they were not idolaters. And suddenly heres the apostle Paul saying, "And by the way, you who abhor idolatry, you are, in fact, temple robbers. Youre not only idolaters, youre out stealing the idols of pagan temples." It is the most brutal, frontal attack possible upon the morality of the Jewish people. And it would have been absolutely shocking.

Now, you may ask, how can Paul say this? How can Paul say that the whole Jewish people who has not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ is hypocritical. I mean, Paul, isnt that a little over the top? I mean, arent there a few people out there that arent hypocritical? And the apostle Paul says, "No, all of my people who have not embraced the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, are, in fact, hypocritical."

How can he get by with this? Well, first of all, contemporary literature from the Rabbis itself confirms that the Rabbis knew that this was a problem, at least among some Jews. You can pick up Rabbinic literature, and you can find the rabbis talking about people who practice differently than they preach. People who say that they believe one thing, and yet believe in another way.

Furthermore, of course, the Old Testament prophets were constantly bringing that charge against Israel. This is nothing new that Paul is saying here. He is repeating precisely what the Old Testament prophets had consistently said. Israel, you say one thing, you worship me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. And so constantly in the Old Testament prophets there is this call for what? For sincere worship. That is, worship that comes from the heart, not which is just purely external, not just going through the motions. Prophets can say it in dramatic ways. Isaiah can say, I hate your new moons and festivals, even though He appointed them. I hate them. Why? Because youre worshiping with your lips and not your hearts, and youre breaking my law. So what Paul is saying is nothing new in that regard.

Furthermore, remember that this was Jesus main charge against the Jews. It was His main charge against the Pharisees. What? That they were hypocritical. So again, Paul is simply following in a time-honored tradition of the same message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, Pauls teaching is based upon a biblical understanding of the demands of the moral law. The people of Israel had thought that they could commend themselves to God by doing two things. By scaling down their own sin and what it deserved, and by scaling down the demands of the moral law. And the apostle Paul says, "Look, when you understand how serious sin is, and what it deserves in terms of judgment, and when you understand just how high are the demands of the moral law, you will not think that you can commend yourself to God. You will be incapable of thinking yourself as a moral and upright person who deserves the affirmation, the acquittal of God Almighty." And so he scales up their understanding of sin. And he scales up their understanding of the demands of the moral law, and he says, "In light of your sin, and in light of the moral law, do you really think that you can stand as righteous before God?" Again, we must understand that the Christian charge against the Jews was not that they were making too much of the law. Its that they werent making enough of it. And finally, there is indeed evidence of a terrible degradation of Jewish morals around the time immediately prior to the destruction of the temple.

For all these reasons, the apostle Paul brings this charge against his people. He does it to uncover the spiritual dichotomy between their preaching and their practice, between what they believed and the way they act. And he does it with four questions. Three specific charges and then a summarizing question. Look at these questions in verses 21 through 23. You who preach that one shall not steal? Do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who are poor idols. Do you rob temples? Then heres the summarizing statement. You who boast in the law through youre breaking of the law, do you dishonor God? Paul brings these charges in areas that the Jews would have conceived themselves to be strong in. They would have conceived themselves to be strong and upright. They werent an adulterous people in general, they would have thought. Were a fairly moral people. Were not deceiving honest people. Were a fairly moral people. Were not an idolatrous people. The Gentiles are idolaters, but were not.

And Paul goes right to their self-perceived strengths, and he says heres the best areas that you think you have to offer to God, and I want to tell you that youre ranked sinners. He does this to expose their hypocrisy. And I want you to note in passing that Pauls critique of Israel is utterly different than a modern relativistic, pluralistic, liberals critique it would have been. Paul doesnt say, "You know, your problem is that you think that youve got a corner on the truth. Your problem is that youre imposing your morality on everybody else." Paul doesnt say that. Paul, in fact, says, "Youre right. You do have a corner on the truth. And youre right. You do have the right morality. Its Gods morality, and it is imposed upon the whole world." His complaint is that they are not living consistently with what they profess. He doesnt say, "You know, you people really need to become more broadminded and open-minded and realize that all the roads lead up the mountain. There are many different ways to God, and everybody is saying youre okay, Im okay, everybodys got the right way. We cant bring criticism against people if they live differently than us." Thats not what Paul says. Paul says, "Youre right. God has chosen you, and Hes chosen you to be a witness to the nations for His truth by living according to it. And you havent done it. You have failed. You have fallen short, and you will be condemned." Inconsistency between profession and practice is Pauls proof of sin. Hypocrisy pointed out to the people is Pauls proof of sin. It is also His proof of their deserving of judgment, and it is His proof of their need of grace.

Now friends, when examined in the light of their own claims, Christless, graceless, moralists will always fall short. In light of their own claims, and their own standards, apart from Christ, apart from grace, a moralist will always fall short. And that is precisely what Paul is saying here. "You feel like you have a strong sense of character and of right and wrong. Youre apart from Christ, you dont think the gospel is for you, you dont know what saving grace means, you dont know what it means to be born again." He says, "Youre a hypocrite."

Its easy to preach honesty to other people, but its not so easy, is it, to be scrupulously honest in all ones dealings. Were always tempted to grade honesties. And by a strange coincidence, our own dishonesties have a way of coming out as the minor infractions. While someone elses dishonesty is important and severe and deserves Gods judgment, we always have a way of cutting ourselves slack, even as we bring judgment and condemnation against others for the same sin. And the apostle Paul is pointing out that inconsistency, that hypocrisy that dwells in each of us. And look, he knew it, he had been a hypocrite himself. You couldnt fool him. He had seen his own heart, and he knew what was in the heart of men.

And so, why does he say all this? To point out that these people dont have a righteousness that will commend them to God. They need an alien righteousness. They need a righteousness that comes outside of themselves. They need a righteousness that will be imputed to them, credited to their account. And the apostle Paul knows that the only righteousness that will do is the righteousness and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And hes telling them this so that they will know that they cannot take refuge in themselves. They can only take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is kicking out the legs of every prop that they are trying to set up to commend themselves to God so that they will have only one place to flee, and that is to Jesus Christ and His finished work. That is what Paul is doing here. But hes not finished yet. He continues in verse 24, and he says another thing.

II. When professing believers claim to be followers of God/Christ and live in contradiction of that profession they become the single greatest hindrance to the gospel.

In verse 24, he describes the horrendous detriment to the covenantal privilege and responsibility of the Jewish people to witness to the nations that their hypocrisy brings about. Their hypocrisy is a detriment to that privilege that they have to be a witness to the nations. From the time that Israel was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, from the time that Abraham was given the covenant promise, what was at the very heart of that promise? That he would be a blessing to the nations. The book of Genesis, especially from Genesis 12:1 on, is a missionary book. The call of Israel is a missionary call. Israel is called so that the nations might know the one true God and worship Him. They are to have the privilege of being the witness to what a real relationship with God is like. And the way that you enter into it, and walk in it, their job is to bear witness to the nations. It is emphasized throughout the Old Testament as well as the new.

And the apostle Paul is saying in verse 24, not only have they failed to do that; but their hypocrisy, their immorality, has in fact negated that witness, in fact, it has caused that witness to be reversed so that the Gentiles blaspheme because of them.

Now again, you cannot possibly imagine how devastating that would have been. By Pauls time, the Jewish people wouldnt even say the name of the Lord. That name that is spelled with the vowels, YHWH, which we sometimes hear pronounced Jehovah. They wouldnt even say it because they were so concerned that the name of God would not be taken in vain, it would not be blasphemed. And so that in order to keep the Third Commandment, they wouldnt even say the name of God. I mean,, you cant take the name of God in vain if you just dont speak it, right? They were that concerned about the name of God. A friend of mine was just telling me this morning that he had been to Chicago to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, and in some of those scrolls there was a more modern form of Hebrew print. But when they came to the name of God, the tetragrammaton, the YHWH, they spelled it in the older form of Hebrew out of reverence for the name, and it stood out so that even a non-Hebrew reader could see the name. Such was the reverence the name was held in, and here is the apostle Paul saying, "And by the way, because the way you live, that name is blasphemed by the Gentiles. Thats the effect of your hypocrisy. Thats the effect of your immorality."

And Paul verifies this by quoting from Isaiah 52:5. You know what Isaiah is saying. Isaiah is saying, "Look, because you have been carted off into exile, into Babylon, the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles." The Gentiles are sitting around there saying, "Well, they must not have much of a God. Theyre in exile. They got toted out of their land and into another land. Their God must not be much."

You know, in a way what Paul is saying to Israel is worse than that. You know it is directly because of your immorality and hypocrisy that God is blasphemed. Despite your profession, because of the way you have lived, Gods name is blasphemed by the Gentiles. And what Paul is pointing out here, is the effect of hypocrisy upon the witness to the promises and the mercies of God. And what Paul is teaching us here is that when professing believers claim to be followers of God and live in contradiction of that profession, they become the greatest hindrance to the worship of God. Let me put that in Christian terms. When professing Christian believers claim to be followers of Christ, and they live in contradiction of that profession, they become the single, greatest hindrance to the gospel. The greatest hindrance to the spread of the gospel in the world this day, is not that the Bible has not been translated in every language, its not that we dont have missionaries amongst every people group. The greatest single hindrance to the cause of the gospel today is nominal Christianity, hypocrisy, false believers, people who claim to be believers but who do not give any evidence whatsoever of the reality of that claim. The single biggest obstacle to evangelism is hypocrisy. And the greatest impediment to the spread of the gospel today is the nominal Christian.

Now there are several levels of application to this truth. Let me just mention three. First of all, to the moral unbeliever. There may be a moral unbeliever or two in our midst, open-minded person who would even come to First Presbyterian Church and suffer through this. A person who thinks, thats okay for you, you all can believe that. I dont need that. Im a moral person. Im not real sure what God is like, and Im not real sure whether there will be a judgment, but if there is a judgment, I think Ive been a pretty good person, and I think Im going to be okay. I appreciate your sharing the gospel with me, dont stop by the house, Im okay.

There may be a moral unbeliever amongst us. Well, Paul has something to say to you. And what Paul has to say is this: "You are not as moral as you think you are." In fact, Paul has this to say to you. If the one true God is the God who has revealed Himself in the word, and He is; then you will certainly fall short in His judgment, because youre righteousness is as filthy rags. You have nothing to commend yourself of. Paul will point out throughout his writings that in order to commend yourself to God, you only have to do two things. First of all, in every action that you take the motions of your heart must be right before God. And then in every outward action it must be strictly in accord with His law. So, when your boss wife made a snippy remark to you, and you bit your tongue, and you called her every name in the book in your heart, but you were nice to her outwardly, that was not a good deed. Not ultimately in the sight of God, because God knew your heart. God knew what you were thinking. God knew what you were doing. So, even when your outward righteousness looks nice, its not in the eyes of God. And the apostle Paul is saying, "You are not the moral person that you think you are. And in the end you will be condemned."

And then theres a word that God has to earnest believers, believers who know that they struggle with hypocrisy. Now there are only two types of people in the world. There are hypocrites that dont know that they are, and there are hypocrites who do know they are. And the apostle here says, "Look, to you earnest believers, to you true believers, you are witnesses." The Gentiles are watching. Its very interesting. The Bible doesnt say, please be a witness for Jesus. The Bible says, you are witnesses. So the question is, are you a good one or a bad one? Those are the only options. Your witness, good or bad. And Paul is reminding us here that we are witnesses, and, therefore, we ought to make it count.

The most important preparation for evangelism is discipleship. Just as the greatest impediment to evangelism is professed Christians, claimed Christians, who arent disciples, in fact, so also the most important preparation for evangelism is discipleship. The most important hours of the week, every week, in preparation for evangelism, the Lords Day morning, the Lords Day evening, under the house of God, in the house of God, with the people of God, doing discipleship. And all the other things that come along with Christian discipleship. And earnest believers ought to realize this. We are witnesses, and our lives will speak volumes. Share the gospel with everyone, one Christian has said. Use words, if necessary. You are witnesses. That is what God has made you. Your witness will either drive away from Christ, or it will draw to.

Finally, there may be some hypocritical believers in our midst. Those who have professed faith in Christ but those who are not living as if they really cared more than anything else about the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have really not experienced the transforming power of the new birth, those who are alien in their experience of the grace of God. And Paul has a word for you. And his word is not, "straighten up and fly right."

Its very interesting, isnt it, that Pauls whole point here is that there are a bunch of people out there that dont practice what they preach. Its very interesting that his conclusion to that is not, "therefore, straighten up and practice what you preach." Why does he not say that? Because he knows that they cant do that. They cant straighten up and fly right. They cant practice what they preach, because theyve never been born again. Only the spirit can straighten out that kind of a hypocrite. He knew, he had been one. Hed been changed, and so his word is, "Come to Christ. Confess, repent, come to your senses, snap out of it, see yourself, see your sin, flee to Christ."

There are all sorts of people in churches today who dont want to do that because it would be embarrassing. So many people would find out that Ive been a hypocrite. You see they would rather make sure that we like them than that theyre at peace with God. We respect them. We think highly of them. They have an appearance of being Christian rather than, in fact, having a saving relationship with Christ. And that would be a tremendous tragedy.

First of all, because you would find, my dear hypocritical friends, that if you were, in fact, to trust in Christ truly, those of us who have been saved by grace would actually rejoice. We would think it was the most wonderful thing on earth. You know, hypocrites have been among the greatest evangelists in the history of the church. Let me share with you the story of one such hypocrite. "When I was sixteen years of age, I began to fast twice a week for thirty-six hours together. I prayed many times a day. I received the sacrament every Lords day. I fasted myself almost to death during the forty days of lent, during which I made it a point of duty never to go less than three times a day to public worship, besides seven times a day to private prayers, and yet I knew no more that I was to be born again in God, born a new creature in Christ Jesus than if Id never been born at all. I must bear testimony that my old friend, Charles Wesley, put a book into my hands called The Life of God and the Soul of Man, whereby God showed me I must be born again or damned. I know the place, it may be superstitious perhaps, but whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to that place where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me and gave me the new birth. How my heart did rise. How my heart shuttered like a poor man that is afraid to look back in his account books, lest he should find himself bankrupt. And yet, shall I burn that book? Shall I throw it down? Shall I put by it? Shall I search into it? I did, holding my book in my hand, and I addressed the God of heaven and earth, and I said Lord if Im not a Christian, if Im not a real one, God, for Jesus Christs sake, show me what Christianity is that I may not be damned at last. I read a little bit further. Oh, says the author, that they know anything of religion know that it is a vital union with the Son of God. Christ formed in the heart. Oh, what a ray of divine light that broke upon my soul. From that moment God has been carrying on His blest work in my soul, and now that Im fifty-five years of age, I tell you brethren, I am more and more convinced that this is the truth of God, and that without it you can never be saved by Jesus Christ." That was George Whitfield.

Thank God for that hypocrite. Thank God for His saving grace to change that hypocrite into one of the great leaders of the great awakening. Maybe, dear hypocritical friend, maybe God will meet you in His word this day. I trust He will. May the Lord bless His word. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, when we pause to contemplate the blackness of our hearts, all of us shutter at the reality of hypocrisy. What can we do but come to You, O Christ, true Son of God and man, and cast ourselves at Your feet and beg for Your mercy and ask that by Your grace you would draw us into a vital relationship with You that would change our life, our priorities, and above all else our standing with God. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

The Difference Between Inward and Outward Righteousness - Romans 2:25-29

25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded[a] as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically[b] uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code[c] and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.(Romans 2:25-29)

The Difference Between Inward and Outward Righteousness

If you would, please take your Bibles in hand and turn with me to Romans, chapter 2, and look at verse 25. Well continue to work through this great letter of the apostle to the church of the Romans. Romans, chapter 1, verses through 18 through 32. The apostle had made it clear that the Gentiles needed His gospel by demonstrating their immorality. All along the religious people of his day, his fellow Jewish friends, were shaking their head, nodding in agreement. Yes, they do need God. They are immoral. They need to be changed to be transformed.

And then, beginning in Romans, chapter 2, verse 1, Paul turns his attention to the Jews, and he says, "And by the way, you need my gospel, too; for your hope is vain, and youre not walking with God. And youre under His condemnation." And they responded, "Oh, No, Paul, you dont understand. We have the law." And he said, "Well, I know that, you dont keep it." And they said, "Well, we have the election of God. God has called us out amongst all the nations, and He has made us a people of His own. He brought us out of the land of Egypt, and He made us into a great nation." And the apostle Paul said, "Yes, but you forget that even in the Old Testament, there were Jews who were not those who loved God. There was Jacob and Esau. Jacob have I loved. Esau have I hated. Jacob, son in the line of Abraham, lover of God; Esau, not. Ishmael and Isaac, and so on." And they said, "Yes, but we have a unique calling that sets apart from the Gentiles. We have been called to be a light to the Gentiles." And Paul says, "I know. In fact, youve been such a bad witness that the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because of you." And so they reach for one last argument. And the apostle blows one last argument out of the sky.

Thats where we are today in Romans, chapter 2, beginning in verse 25.

"For indeed circumcision is of value, if you practice the law. But if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If therefore, the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision and will not he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, it is an indispensable requirement in understanding scripture to see and understand our own sin. So we pray this day that You would show us the sinfulness of our own hearts that we might understand our need of the gospel, open our eyes, that we might sit under the searching authority of Your word. And be found out, and then be drawn to our Savior. We pray, O Lord, that You would be honored in Your word, for we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

The apostle Paul throughout Romans, chapter 2, is aiming to deal with those who are hypocrites, those who are outwardly devoted to God, and yet who have no real expression and experience of love to God from the heart. The apostle is also aiming here to deal with what we could call gospel hypocrites. For Paul is not simply saying something here that is relevant for first century Jews in Palestine. What he is saying here is relevant for us all, especially those who have enjoyed the privileges of growing up and hearing for many years the gospel preached in a gospel-preaching church. The apostle Paul is aiming for those, you see. He has a false assurance. Let me give you a grid to think about before we go into the main passage together, because well come back to this again. Imagine a cross. Make a strike down and a strike across so that you have four boxes. In the upper right box you have believers who have assurance. In the upper left box you have believers who do not have a full and healthy assurance. Youre struggling, your doubtful. Down in the lower right box you have unbelievers who have assurance. You heard me right. Well come back to that again. Unbelivers who have assurance of their salvation. Theyre standing with God. And over in the bottom left you have unbelievers who do not have assurance of their standing with God. So across the top line you have believers. Along the bottom line you have unbelievers. In the right hand boxes you have assurance. In the left hand boxes you have the lack of assurance. Now remember that.

Paul is speaking throughout this passage to what we might call gospel hypocrites. Those who have a profession of belief in God, but those who have no reality of saving faith and experience of grace. And Paul is working very hard throughout the second chapter of Romans to bring arguments against gospel unbelief. To bring arguments against those who are assured of their standing with God, but who ought not to be. And Ive already listed for you some of the arguments that have been thrown up to him as he says to the Jewish people. "You need my gospel." Their response is, "No, we dont. We already know God. And, we can prove it. We have the law. Were set apart from all people because we have the law." And the apostle Paul says to them, "Well, I know you possess the law, but you dont keep it. That nullifies the advantage of your possession." And they say, "Yes, but weve been chosen by God. We can show you Deuteronomy 7. Weve been chosen amongst all the nations." And the apostle Paul says, "Yes, you have been chosen. Indeed that doctrine of election is a glorious doctrine, but you also need to pick up your Old Testament and read and recognize that there are many people who are the children of Abraham who have rejected the covenant promises. And God has revealed Himself in His word to have rejected them, "Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated."

And then they come back with another argument. "Yes, but God has chosen us to be a light to the Gentiles. We can show it to you in any passage in the Old Testament." The apostle Paul says back to them, "I know that. I know that we have been chosen to be a light to the Gentiles, a blessing to the nations, and yet youve forfeited that responsibility. You not only neglected it. But youve actually turned the responsibility upside down so that your unbelief and your immorality has been a negative witness to the Gentiles. And, in fact, the name of the one true God is blasphemed by the Gentiles because of your immorality."

What is Paul doing there? He is kicking every possible prop for their assurance out from under them. They have the leg of the stool of their divine election. They have the leg of their stool of their calling. They have the leg of the stool of their possession of the law. And now in this passage today, theyre going to throw out one more leg of the stool of their assurance, and that is circumcision. The possession of the promises of the covenant which was sealed in the sign of circumcision. And Paul says, "Look, all of these things, apart from the realities to which they point, apart from real love to God and love to man, apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ will do you no good. All of these things are false assurances taken apart from the promises of Gods grace and the covenant of grace which are realized in Jesus Christ." So Paul is attacking every false place or location of assurance that he can find. Hes knocking every prop out from under them so that they will recognize their need and come to Christ and be able to have the real truth, real salvation and real assurance. And thats all Paul is doing in this great argument. This is the conclusion of his argument in Romans, chapter 2. And Id like you to see two things in this passage before us

I. Covenant signs avail for nothing apart from covenant realities. .

First of all, in verses 25 through 27 Paul, having dealt with their argument from the law, their argument from their election, their argument from their calling, now undercuts their argument from circumcision. They said, "Paul, we dont need your gospel. Weve got circumcision. Were the inheritors of the covenants of promise given to Abraham, sealed in circumcision." And Paul basically comes back to them, and he says, "Look, covenant signs mean nothing apart from covenant realities. You can claim that sign of circumcision all along, and yet your heart does not show signs of heart circumcision, true consecration to God, true love to God, true love to your neighbor. Paul is here continuing to diagnose a spiritual problem amongst this religious people. Hypocrisy. They are spiritually deluded. They are comfortable and secure.

My friends, notice Paul is saying they are unbelievers who have assurance. Now lets remember our box again. Believers with assurance, believers without assurance, unbelievers with assurance, unbelievers without assurance. Paul loves to preach to unbelievers without assurance. They are one step from the kingdom. They are not saved, and they know it. They are ripe to hear the gospel. Paul loves to preach the gospel to believers who lack assurance because he can assure them and the promises of God made to them, that they have not fully realized yet, and moved them into spiritual maturity where they can be secure in their faith. He loves to preach the gospel to believers who have assurance because they grow in their grounding in the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

But let me tell you, those unbelievers who have assurance, they are a hard nut to crack. So the apostle is throwing out every argument that can come to mind to undercut their false assurance, not because he hates the Jewish people, not because he doesnt care about them, but precisely because he loves them. He does not want them to be spiritually deluded. He does not want them to be secure when they ought not to be. And so every place that they are running, other than Jesus Christ to find their assurance, hes cutting it down. The law, it will condemn you. Your election, it will condemn you. Your calling, it will condemn you. Your circumcision, it will condemn you. Only Christ.

What is Paul doing? Hes wanting them to see themselves as they are in order that they will accept the gospel. Theyve already said to Paul. Paul, we dont need your gospel. Paul said back to them. Yes, you do need my gospel. And theyve given him four arguments why they dont, and hes shot down every single one of them. And hes saying what? "Not just this, not just that you are immoral, and you are in need of grace," but hes saying to them, "You need the grace that is supplied by my gospel. You need the grace that is supplied only by Jesus Christ. Dont look to these other places. Dont look to these other places."

So Paul in this passage is speaking to these Jews who have defended themselves by their appeals to the possession of Moses law and of national election and divine calling, and the covenant, and he says this. "Look, a life pattern of disobedience to the very heart of the moral law. To love God and love neighbor overthrows your superficial adherence to the ceremonial law. You come back and you give me the ceremonial law." And you say, "Well, weve been circumcised." He says, "I dont care. Because the thrust of your life is out of accord with the moral law of God. And the whole reason that God gave the ceremonial law was to confirm the reality set forth in the moral law. And the moral law itself is not a way of salvation. Its an expression of life having been received by grace through the redeeming work of God in the old covenant. God didnt say keep the law, and Ill bring you out of Egypt." He said, "Im your God. I brought you out of Egypt. Now, keep the law."

So these things that youre looking for for your security with God, theyre only going to condemn you. Youve got to have my gospel. The hope of the covenant signs, and the hope of the new covenant is for a heart obedience. The work of Gods grace works in us so that we have the law written on the hearts.

And this is not just a new covenant principle, its an old covenant principle. Let me show you. Go back to Deuteronomy, chapter 10 and look at verses 12 through 17. Heres Moses speaking to the people of God, and he says to them this. "Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you." Youll hear Micah echoing those words many, many years later, wont you? "What does the Lord your God require from you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul." Its no mistake, is it, that Jesus comes right back to this as the summation of the moral law and calls it the greatest commandment. "And to keep the Lords Commandments and His statues which I am commanding you today for your good, behold to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it, yet on your Fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them. And he chose their descendants after them. Even you, above all people, says it is to this day. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer." What is the response to the grace of God to be if one has really received it? To circumcise your hearts. And the apostle Paul here in verses 25 through 27 is saying, "Your circumcision, my dear fellow Jew, is of no value because your hearts arent circumcised. And because your hearts arent circumcised, your fleshly circumcision has become uncircumcised. Its as if you never received the law, you never received the promises, you never received the calling, you never received the election, you never received the covenant because youve rejected the heart of the covenant.

And then again in Jeremiah, chapter 31, you remember when Jeremiah is giving his vision of what the new covenant is going to be like in verses 31 through 34, he says this in Jeremiah 31:33. He says, "This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God; and they shall be my people.

And again, theres the dream of the covenant, of the new covenant, the new covenant of grace. And these will be the people who have the law in their heart. And Paul is saying, "Look you people are telling me that you are people of God, and I dont see the law in your heart. I dont see love for God, I dont see love for your neighbor. I dont see a real obedience to the law of God. I dont see a love for His word. I dont see a response to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Messiah of God. And so dont be assured. Youre unbelieving, but youre very secure. And its so important to remember what Matthew Henry said so long ago. He said, "You know, sometimes those who are most secure are those who are most in danger. These people are secure in their spiritual self-delusion." And so the apostle Paul is kicking out from under them every prop on which they base that security. Why? So they will be miserable? Not in the long run. So that they wont trust in something that wont fail them in the end. He longs for them to embrace the one thing that can give them the security that they need.

But my friends, hes not just speaking to those Jews in first century Palestine. Hes speaking to us. And you say, "Were not trusting any ritual adherence to the ceremonial code." But you know what? How often have you talked to a person who has no sign, no sign of real interest in God. No love to God, no love for His word, no obedience to His word, no love for the people of God, no sign of the fruits of the spirit. And you talk to them about spiritual things, and what do you hear? "Well, I walked the aisle. Ive signed a card. I made a decision." Isnt it funny how its always past tense? "You know this happened thirty-five years ago, and nothing has happened since. And Im absolutely assured." You see the question is, where is the present faith? Its not, did you once upon a time trust in Christ? The question is, are you now trusting in Christ? And if so, how is that showing in our life? And the apostle Paul here is uncovering gospel hypocrites. T

The mere possession of a covenant sign, circumcision or baptism, means nothing apart from real grace and the consequent righteousness. By the way, this is one reason why we believe as Presbyterians, along with most Protestants, that baptism, the covenant signs, are not absolutely necessary for salvation. And there are many churches that teach if youre not baptized, youre going to hell. The thief on the cross, then, was in trouble. Even though Jesus said, "This day you will be with Me in Paradise."

Why are they not absolutely necessary? Because the apostle Paul says that those outward signs set forth an inward reality. And the inward reality in absence of the outward sign is as if you have the outward sign. And the outward sign in the absence of the inward reality is as if you have the never received the sign. And, therefore, there may be some circumstances where a person is unable to receive the sign. Oh, well never reject the sign. Well never make little of the sign. Well never neglect the sign, but there may be some circumstances where its impossible for that sign to be applied. You know there are some places where theres a child in the hospital born sickly, going to die, a few hours old. Theyll rush to the hospital to perform a baptism, lest that child be plunged into hell. Oh no, my friends, the outward sign is not of the essence of the reality. And, therefore, there will be some circumstances where the outward sign cannot be applied. But the inward reality makes it as if the person has received the outward sign. Thats one thing we learned from this passage.

We also learn in this passage that Paul is laying the groundwork for how the Jew and the Gentile will relate in the kingdom of God. They will be made into one household so that those who are uncircumcised, it will be as if they were circumcised. And those believing Jews who have trusted in the Messiah as their God and Savior, they, too, will be united in the one house, no longer separated by the ceremonial law. Jew and Gentile together. But mostly what Paul is saying to us here is that we need the gospel. Hes saying to those who are secure apart from Christ, those who are secure apart from a living faith, hes saying that apart from the righteousness freely granted by God, no one can ever attain to the state of being accepted by God. And hes saying that to people who are religious. You know youve probably heard of John Bunyan and some of you have probably read Pilgrims Progress. I loved that great allegory. And I like the book that he wrote about the Christian life called The Holy War, and I loved the autobiography that he wrote, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. One of my favorite books, but one of the scariest books by John Bunyan, is called The Life and Death of Mr. Bad Man. Bunyan was always so subtle, wasnt he? The story is about a gospel hypocrite. That is, a man who has been born and reared in the church, hes gone to church every Sunday, hes lived a fairly moral life, he dies in complete security about his eternal destiny, and he plunges directly into hell, because he had never really embraced Jesus Christ as he is offered in the gospel by faith. His assurance was false. And Paul is speaking precisely to that person today. And my friends we must take heed that our assurance is found in Christ. Is it on Christ the solid rock we stand, or is it somewhere else. If its somewhere else, youre in that box. And Paul doesnt want you to be there. He wants you to be in this box, the unbeliever who realizes his lack of assurance so that He can move you to this box, the believer with full assurance in the right thing for eternity.

II. The righteousness of the new covenant is inward and moral.

And then theres a second thing here in verses 28 and 29. Paul asserts a very different definition of what it meant to be a Jew than his opponents accepted. And he teaches us here that the righteousness of the new covenant is inward and moral. Though, of course, it is expressed outwardly. Its inward and moral rather than being merely external and ceremonial and ritual and symbolic.

Notice the four contrasts that he gives you to help you know the difference between true righteousness and false righteousness: Outward, inward, flesh, heart, letter, spirit, men, God. Lets walk through them.

First, verse 28. "He is not a Jew who has won outwardly but," verse 29, "he is a Jew who is one inwardly." In other words, Paul contrasts a parent and perceived righteousness with real righteousness. Hes not a Jew merely outwardly, but hes one who is inwardly.

Secondly, notice what he says. "Circumcision of the flesh versus circumcision of the heart." This is a person who has been circumcised by flesh. Thats ritual righteousness. Circumcision of the heart, thats real righteousness. T

Thirdly, notice the contrast. Letter, spirit. "By the spirit, not by the letter," he says, in verse 29. This is a contrast between mere compliance with the ceremonial law and spiritual adherence to the moral law.

Fourthly. Notice the contrast. "Praise from men and praise from God." Just like Jesus had critiqued the Pharisees who longed to have what? The approval of men, the praise from men. The contrast between the truly righteous person and the one who is only apparently so is that the truly righteous person longs to be righteous in the eyes of God, but the only apparently righteous person longs for the praise of men. And theres a play on words in that last parallel between approved of men and approved of God. Praise from men and praise from God. Paul does a play on words in verse 29, when he speaks about the Jew whose praise is not from men, but from God. Judah, you may remember from the Old Testament, is the word from which we get the word Jew. And the word Judah was connected in the Old Testament to the idea of praise or to the word praise. Let me give you an example of that. Turn back to Genesis, chapter 29, verse 35. When Leah gave birth to Judah, this is what she said: "She conceived again and bore a son, and said this time I will praise the Lord. Therefore, she named him Judah." Do you see the connection between the praise of the Lord and Judah? Notice again as Jacob speaks in Genesis 49, verse 8: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your fathers sons shall bow down to you." And so Paul says the true Jew, connected with the idea of praise, is praised not by men, not by mother and father, or onlookers, but by God. This person, the truly righteous person longs to have the affirmation of God rather than the affirmation of man.

Can you hear Jesus teaching in the background? Practice your righteousness before your heavenly Father so that He who is in heaven can see your deeds of righteousness. Do not practice your righteousness before men to be praised by them. Pauls doing a play on words here. The difference, you see, between inward and outward righteousness is that outward righteousness is superficial apparent. Its only perceived, but its not real. It doesnt penetrate the surface. It doesnt flow from a heart which has been redeemed. It doesnt flow from a heart which has been spiritually regenerated by the work of Gods holy spirit. And the apostle Paul says, "Look at your life. And if your life only bears marks of that superficial righteousness, then perhaps your trust has been false." Perhaps you have never really known what it means to receive the grace of God, and Jesus Christ. So flee to Him. Flee to His gospel.

You see Paul has undercut everyone who says, "Well, Paul, I dont need your gospel." Paul has made it amply clear. "If youre going to see God, you need my gospel." And so today, my friends, we ask ourselves as we look at our lives, and we see a profession of faith. Along with that profession of faith do we see true love and esteem for Jesus Christ? Do we hold Him in high esteem? Do we love His word? Do we acknowledge the authority of the holy Scriptures and long to have our lives guided by it? Have we grown in love to God and love to neighbor, love to man? Have we seen the spirit working in us those fruits which wage war against the flesh and its lust and cause our hearts to be more and more conformed to the desires of God? Have we been captured by a spirit of truth, or are we bound to the spirit of this age?

The apostle Paul is saying to us, "We dont see the marks of the spirits work in us." Ask the question, are we really trusting in Christ? If youre really trusting in Him, God is at work in you to do that which is well pleasing in His sight. Dont trust on that which cannot give you assurance. Trust on the only one who can assure you forever, Jesus Christ as Hes offered in the gospel. May the Lord bless His word. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we bow before You. We acknowledge that You are the one true God and the only way of salvation. And we ask this day that You would help us to search out our hearts, to see if were truly trusting and resting in You. By Your grace keep us from deluding ourselves with spiritual delusion. Keep us we pray from gospel hypocrisy. Help us to really and truly trust alone in Jesus Christ for our salvation. And so find in Him that complete and full assurance provided only by the Holy Spirit. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Romans 3

Objection Overruled (1) - Romans 3:1-4

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." (Romans 3:1-4)

Objection Overruled (1)

As we begin to look at this passage, I would like to remind you that Paul is helping us, as believers, to know how to speak to unbelievers. We ask ourselves, how can we be more effective as we speak to our friends and our neighbors, and there are various programs by which you can be trained in this. For instance, in our church we offer the Evangelism Explosion program. But let me say that much of the New Testament is concerned directly with that particular issue. Romans is one of those books, and Paul has been giving hints about things to look out for and things to be ready to discuss. Paul has made it clear that all men need the gospel. Our generation, however, does not believe it needs the gospel. One reason is that many in our generation believe truth is relative. There are many ways up the mountain, equally valid, and the gospel is only one option. The New Testament will provide answers to these objections.

Paul is speaking to two communities, the Jewish and Gentile, neither of which believe they need the gospel. Now in Romans 3, Paul is going to meet two objections to the gospel. The Jewish people are going to say, if what you are saying is true, it's got at least these two problems. Paul, in this section, begins to answer these objections to the gospel. There are several questions I need to be prepared to answer. How does this inform how I ought to answers objections to the gospel, what are the obstacles to the gospel, what are some of the objections that they are going to raise and throw back at us? Well, if you will pay close attention to what Paul is doing, Paul is helping you even as he shows the gospel to you. And even as he deals with objections to the gospel, hes showing you how to tell the gospel and how to deal with objections to the gospel. The objections that we get today are substantially the same objections that the apostle Paul got to the gospel. And so if you will pay close attention to his line of argument, you yourself will learn how to respond in the context of gospel conversations to objections that you hear. Now that, of course, presupposes that youre having gospel conversations. Conversations about spiritual things of eternal significance with friends, with neighbors, with schoolmates, with people that are in graduate school with you or medical school, with colleagues, with relatives. We all ought to be thinking about the gospel and speaking about the gospel, especially with those who havent embraced it. And Paul is giving you a good model of just how you can do that.

The other thing I want to mention in passing before we read the text itself, as this is a perfect passage to have on a Sunday where you would minister the covenant sign of baptism, because Paul here speaks to issues of baptism and church membership which are significant. Paul is responding to an argument, in fact, in the passage were going to read. It basically is saying "Well, Paul you are invalidating what the Bible, and by the Bible the person who is responding to Paul means the Old Testament, what the Bible says about membership in Israel and about the covenant sign of circumcision." And Paul says, "No, Im not doing that at all." And so what Paul says here actually speaks to specific concerns that we have today with regard to baptism and church membership.

Thirdly, however, I want you to remember what Paul has been doing in Romans, chapter 2. Paul has been systematically kicking out from under the religious Jews of his day four legs on which they based their assurance. Their receipt of the law, their possession of the law of Moses; their divine, their national election by God. They had been chosen out from amongst all the nations. Their divine calling from God that was given even in the blessing to Abraham, that they were to be a light to the nations, a light to the Gentiles. And, of course, finally, circumcision itself. They had appealed to all four of these things, apart from the gospel, apart from belief in the fulfillment of the promises of God in the Old Testament and the person of Jesus, the Messiah. They had appealed to those four things apart from that belief in Christ, as the basis of why they were to be eternally secure. And basically Paul is saying, nope, youre not secure because of that, because of that, because of that. Why? He wants to drive them to despair, not because Paul doesnt want them to have assurance. He does want them to have assurance. In fact, he will devote a significant amount of the book of Romans to try and make sure that we do have assurance. But, before he wants to promote a true and sure and good assurance, hes got to remove a false assurance, a false security, a false comfort, a presumptuous relationship with God. People who are presuming upon Gods blessings but shouldnt be. First he has to cause a crisis of despair before people can come to the fullness of assurance which is only based upon a living, saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And so that is what Paul has been doing all throughout Romans, chapter 2.

Now one last thing. Look back at the final verses of Romans, chapter 2. There you will see that Paul is specifically dealing with the situation of circumcision, and he has said, "Circumcision is of value (verse 25) if you practice the law. But if you are at transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision." And he has gone on to say this. "And will not he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law (verse 27) will he not judge you, who, though having the letter of the law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law." And then he has gone on to say in verse 29, "But he is a Jew who has won inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God." Hold that thought in your mind, because you wont understand the objection that is coming here in verses 1 through 4 of chapter 3 unless you remember what Paul has been doing in those previous verses. And so with that as introduction, lets hear Gods holy word in Romans 3:

"Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What, then, if some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, That thou mightiest be justified in Thy words and mightiest prevail when Thou art judged." Amen.

And thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Father, we pray that You would press us with Pauls words. That You would make us uncomfortable in false assurance; that we might come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and to a full and real Christian assurance. We pray, Heavenly Father, for believers who struggle in these areas, that they would not be discomforted; but they would, in fact, be strengthened in their faith, knowing the truth and knowing the way of true assurance. We ask, O God, that those unbelievers who are here in our midst today, who perhaps are comfortable in their sin and not uncomfortable about their eternal destiny might be made uncomfortable precisely so that they may find the comfort of God which is in Jesus Christ. All these things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul has been pounding away on the superficial and false assurance which the religious Jews of his day who have failed to embrace Jesus Christ have constantly been throwing in his face. Oh, but Paul, we have received the law. Paul, we have received the calling. Paul, we have received the choice of God. Paul, we've received the circumcision, the sign of Abraham. And he has done this in order to show them that when they argue for privileges or when they argue from privileges that God has given to them, apart from obedience, apart from faithful response to the promises of God, apart from the embrace of Jesus who is the Messiah, those privileges only condemn them. And he's gone through a series of them. The Jews have defended themselves, via the possession of the mosaic law, via God's national choice of Israel from amongst all the nations about which Moses speaks in Deuteronomy 7, based upon the calling which God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12, verses 1 through 3 and especially based upon their receipt of the sign of circumcision.

And against all these things, Paul has said, "Look, when I look at you, I see a life pattern of disobedience. When I look at you, I see people who really haven't ever understood the promises of God, and when I look at you I see people who have rejected Jesus who is the Messiah, who is the fulfillment of all those promises. And, therefore, I don't see any ground for you to be assured. I don't see any ground for you to be confident of your relationship with God, and so especially as he speaks of their circumcision, he says, "Look, your circumcision means nothing unless it's circumcision of the heart." And immediately here in Romans, chapter 3, verse 1 he gets this objection. "Whoa, wait a minute, Paul. If that's the case, then you're saying that circumcision is worthless. You're saying that being a Jew is worthless. You're saying that being a part of the covenant community is worthless. And to say that, Paul, would be to say that God who instituted those things in the Old Testament had instituted something of no value and no use." And Paul responds, "Oh no, that's not what I mean at all." I want you to see two objections in this passage which are raised against Paul's teaching. And then two answers from Paul. But I want you see as deal with it what Paul is having to say here is not only significant for first century Jews who have inherited a tremendous religious tradition, and yet who are trusting in the husk without trusting in the kernel of promise. What Paul says is also applicable to us, especially those of us who have had the privilege of growing up within the visible church, within the gospel preaching visible church, and those who have had the privileges of receiving the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. What Paul has to say to us is just as sharp and just as applicable as it is to them.

I. The signs confirm a covenant promise, but the promise must be embraced in order to eventuate in blessing.

So, first of all, lets look at verses 1 and 2 where Paul encounters this first objection. Its stated in the form of a question. I suspect that Paul has not only regularly had this question asked to him as he preached. Remember, his pattern was to preach in the synagogue for three Saturdays. Three Saturdays he would preach in the synagogue. And then he would pull a small group of folks together, and he would begin to train them in the ways of Christ. And no doubt in the context of that training, he would get, "but what about, but what about, but what about, so this question is something that Paul has heard many times. I also suspect that Paul thought this himself about the Christian teaching from time to time.

But, one might say, those Christians, if they really take that to logical extent, it just means that all the ordinances of God in the Old Testament meant nothing. And so Paul is very studied in his reply. He hits this one right on the head in his response. Hes got this objection. Its in the form of a question. "What is the advantage of being a Jew then, Paul? If what you are saying is true, whats the advantage of being a Jew? And Paul, if what youre saying is true, why bother being circumcised in the first place? Why would God have even given that ordinance if what you are saying is true? If its true, if youre not circumcised, if youre only circumcised outwardly, youre only circumcised if the Spirit circumcises you, why not just forget the circumcision of the flesh and go right to the circumcision of the spirit? Why not?" And the apostle Paul says, "Oh, no, that argument wont wash. There is a great advantage to being a Jew. Theres a great advantage of being a part of the covenant community which God first manifested Himself in. Theres a great advantage in these Old Testament ordinances which have been given to you." And he begins in his retort to show specifically what that advantage has been.

Now I want you to note, if youll look at verse 2, that he says, "First of all," and then he only gives one thing, and he never comes to second. Preachers get carried away, you know. Sometimes it takes them a while to get back to the number two, again, you know. Youve never experienced that, of course from me, but it does happen to some preachers. Now, if youll look ahead in Romans, chapter 9, you will see that he has not forgotten the thought. Look ahead to Romans, chapter 9, because in verses 4 and 5 he does list some other advantages of the Jewish people. Notice what he says. "To whom belong the adoption as sons? The glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple server, the promises, the fathers, from whom is the Messiah." All these things, you see, he could have given more. But he focuses them on one thing in Romans 3, verse 2. The receipt of the oracles of God. I want you to just think about that for a few moments. Paul is saying, "Look, of course there is an advantage to being a Jew. Of course theres an advantage to having received the sacrament, this ordinance which points to the word of Gods promise because you, among all people, God has chosen to be the trustees of the oracles of God."

Now think about what that means for a minute. First of all, I think Paul is thinking specifically of the words of covenant promise that God gave to Abraham in the very context in which he gave him circumcision. You see, the circumcision by itself means nothing, but that promise means everything. But the promise is not effectual for blessing unless its embraced. You have to believe the promise. You have to receive the promise. You have to embrace the promise in order for it to be effective for blessing. And so Paul is just reminding us here that the signs confirm the promise. But the promise must be embraced in order for the blessing to eventuate. And so he says you are the recipients of the oracles of God, right in the context of them wanting to argue with Him about circumcision, he says, "Remember that behind that circumcision, behind that covenant sign, there was a promise from God. Why did God give that covenant sign in the first place? To confirm His word of promise." And so Paul drives them right back to the oracles of God. Its a beautiful move, isnt it. You know theyre trusting in something superficial separated from the word. Whats Paul doing? Hes putting the sacrament right back with the word. To point them back to what the sacrament points to itself in order that they will embrace the reality of the sacrament and not just hold to some meaningless tradition which they dont even know why theyre doing or doing for the wrong reason. But when he says 'the oracles of God,' he means something even broader than that word of promises. He, in fact, means the entirety of the revelation that God has given to Israel that is inscribed in the Old Testament.

Now think about it for a few minutes, friends. Amongst all the people in the world, God determines to reveal Himself alone in the days of the Old Testament to the Jewish people. Those outside of Israel that are introduced to God in the Old Testament are normally done so only through the ministrations of the people of Israel. And so Paul says, "Look, God has entrusted you with His oracles, the one people in the world that God has revealed Himself to." And furthermore, he speaks of these oracles of God referring to the written transcript of the revelations that God has given from the time of Adam through the last of the prophets, Malachi. God spoke to Adam, God spoke to the patriarchs, God spoke to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. God revealed Himself in dreams to Joseph. God spoke to and by Moses, the prophet, and by all the succession of prophets that followed him." And Paul is saying, "God has entrusted the oracles. He has entrusted the knowledge of Himself uniquely revealed. Everybody in the world has Gods image written on their very being. They bear the image of God. Everybody in the world knows the law of God, and they know that God ought to be worshiped. But because of sin they suppress that, and uniquely to Israel God has revealed Himself. And furthermore that revelation has been written down so that it is contained in a Book. The Old Testament we call it. And so Paul says, "Look, youve received the oracles of God," and notice what Hes calling Scripture. The oracles of God.

Now look, my friends, I know today that the predominant view of the Bible is not out there. That it is the oracles of God. You know people will say, "Well, you know, the Bible is a religious book written by spiritual men who some of them had mystical experiences, and they were doing the best they could to describe in their own words their encounter with the ultimate." That may be what a lot of people think about the Bible. That is not what the Bible thinks about itself. And its certainly what Paul thinks about the Bible. There are people who say, "Well, the Bible is not revelation. The Bible is human witness to revelation." Revelation is the great encounter. Its the existential event in which we have an I-Thou meeting with the Almighty. And then we go back and we write about it. Its sort of like a diary, a journal. And then this happened to me and then this happened to me. That is not what the Bible says about itself. The Bible says it is the revelation of God, and it is the revelation of God written. Its an amazing thing, my friends. You can hold divine revelation in your hands.

Paul was not afraid of being accused of being a bibliolater, because Paul knew that you can't worship the one true God and reject His word. You can't worship the one true God and make light of His word. You can't say, "Well, I love God, but you know, His word, it's a mess. You got to pick and choose in there. There's some crazy things in the word." Paul knew that His word is the oracle of himself. It's His own self-revelation. And this is right where Paul presses when he says, "What's the advantage of being a Jew? What's the advantage of the ordinance of circumcision?" You have been the recipients of the oracles of God, the one people in the world to whom God has revealed himself in a special and unique way. Think about it. It's hard to illustrate this. But think about it. Let's assume that there was one school in the world that could teach you the secret of knowing God. Entrance into that school was by invitation of God only. But the children of those who had been invited to those who had been invited to those schools were automatically enrolled and invited to enter into that school. That school was located in one nation, not in many, but in one nation. Those who go through that school are uniquely exposed to the knowledge of God and how to live with Him, relate to Him, worship and serve Him forever. Going through that school does not necessarily guarantee that you will, in fact, worship and serve Him forever.

But let me ask you this. Is it an advantage to be invited to that school? Is it an advantage to be a child of someone who has been invited to that school. You better believe it, Paul is saying. Of course, it's an advantage. It's an incredible advantage. There's nothing like it in the world. Yes, the people of that school are supposed to go to all nations and tell the nations about the Lord. And they are to invite them back to that school. But Paul is saying, "This is the one place; of course it's an advantage." And so he rebuts this idea that he is in fact making light of the privileges that God has given to the people of Israel.

II. God's faithfulness to His covenant promises can be manifested in wrath as well as mercy.

But he's not finished, because there's another objection lurking behind this one in verse 3. Look at the objection. What then, if some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God. You see the objection. It's coming. Hold on, Paul. Now you're saying that circumcision did mean something. That membership in the Jewish community did mean something. Well, then, answer me this. In the covenant sign of circumcision, what was the great thing that was to be set forth? I will be your God; you will be My people. Well, hold on, Paul. You're saying that through unfaithfulness, through unbelief, many Jewish people have not obtained that promise for which they had received the sign of circumcision. Doesn't that call into question the faithfulness of God? I mean, God told them to receive the sign. And intimated in the sign that He would redeem them, that He would save them, that He would be their guide, and they would be His people.

But you're saying, Paul, that many Jewish people rejected Him. Doesn't that call into question the faithfulness of God, the truthfulness of God, the veracity of God, the plan of God, the promise of God? And I want you to note how Paul answers this question. He uses the strongest response that he can find. He uses this response over and over in Romans and elsewhere. It's translated various ways. May it never be as one way. But the King James gets it just right, based on the way the Old Testament Greek translation translated some of the words of the prophets. "God forbid."

And Paul brings two arguments in verse 4 against the idea that we could ever even conceive that God would be unfaithful to His promises. First of all, he says, "It is actually impossible for God to be unfaithful. Let God be found true," he says. "And every man." If you stack everybody in the world in this corner and God over here, you go with God. You know there's something in that in recognizing the essential faithfulness of God. Because events in our lives which are difficult for us to bear, our first instinct is to think that we are, or would be more faithful than God, if we were in His place. And that God is being unfaithful. And the apostle is saying, "Oh, no. You stack everybody up in the world on this side, and God on this side. God's faith will bear not." And he quotes from Jeremiah and from some of the Psalms to do it.

But then he clinches his argument by going to Psalm 51, verse 4. Now you remember the context of that Psalm. You may want to look at it. David has sinned; he has broken every one of the Ten Commandments, especially the Commandments against adultery and murder. In the context of his confession, he says, "Lord, I have received your discipline in order that when You speak, You may be justified." I other words Lord, I acknowledge that I deserve -- Your punishment of me was justified.

By the way, this is a very kind thing that Paul is doing. I would have been so miffed by this time with the objection, that I would have drawn an illustration from Esau, you know. When they say, "Well, what about circumcision?" I would have said what about Esau? But Paul's kind. He goes to a believing, sinful, but repentant, Israelite, David. And he says, "You know, even David recognized that when God seemed to be being unfaithful to His promises of mercy, He was in fact being faithful precise in His punishment of sin because He deserved it. Maybe Pauls even hinting. You know, if you would be like David you would find out how faithful God is. Youd find out how merciful He is. What he is indicating is that God is faithful even in His punishment of sin even when that sin is being done by His covenant people who have received the covenant sign. Because there are two ways for God to be faithful in response to the giving of the covenant sign to the covenant community. He can be faithful in blessing as we trust and obey, or He can be faithful in wrath if we reject those promises and live apart from His word and His law. Either way, God is faithful. The question is, easy way or the hard way, as our parents used to say. Gods faithful, Hes always faithful, because the covenant sign itself, though it always entails privileges, it also entails responsibilities. And when the covenant promise is rejected, or when its neglected, or when its taken for granted, its presumed upon, then Gods wrath is visited. And it is not a manifestation of Him being unfaithful. Oh, no, because even when He called Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldees by His grace, He required Abraham to leave his family and to leave his country.

The covenant always entails responsibilities. Its established by grace, its received by grace. Were kept by grace in it, but it always entails responsibilities. And Paul is saying, "Look, God has not been unfaithful. Thats not an objection that will work against my gospel. In fact, the very objection points out your need to repent, that you might find His faithfulness to be manifested on you in mercy, not in wrath. May God bless His word. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we bow before You, and we ask that You would enable us to truly embrace Your promises in Jesus Christ, to trust in Him alone for salvation, and not to trust in things of our own invention whether that be our suspicion that youre going to let everybody off the hook, whether it be our suspicion that were really basically good people and how could You possibly keep us out of heaven. Whether it is simply our suspicion that this idea that there will be a final judgment is just something that somebody has dreamed up along the way. Whatever the defense mechanism we have put up in front of Your gospel to try and deflect its claims, we pray that You would tear down in Your grace and enable us to trust in Jesus alone, who is the only hope of salvation. We ask these things in His name, Amen.

Objection Overruled (2) - Romans 3:5-8

But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. (Romans 3:5-8)

Objection Overruled (2)

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn to Romans, chapter 3 and verse 5 as we continue working through the book of Romans together. Let me remind you that in Romans, chapter 1 the first verse through the 17th verse, the apostle introduces us to the theme of his book. He focuses on the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 1, verses 3 and 4, he gives us a synopsis of the theme of His argument in the book. In verses 16 and 17, and then immediately in Romans 1:18 to the end of that chapter, he begins to explain why the Gentiles need the gospel. The gospel is not just something thats for the Old Covenant people of God, its not just something for people are the natural descendants of Abraham. Its not just for the Jewish people, its for everyone. Its for the Gentiles, and he explains why the Gentiles need the gospel in Romans, chapter 1.

Then, in Romans, chapter 2, beginning with the first verse and all the way down to the last verse of the chapter the apostle is concerned to show why the Jews need the gospel. Its not just something for the Gentiles, its for the Jews. They must embrace the Messiah of God as promised in Gods covenant with Abraham, if they are to enjoy the blessings of the fulfillment of the Covenant of Abraham for good. And so Paul, throughout the chapter we have seen, undercuts wrong bases, wrong arguments for assurance that has been set up the Jewish people of his day. He has said in response to their appeal, "Well, look, we possess the law of Moses." Paul says, "Thats right. You do possess the law of Moses, but you dont do it. Youre just as guilty as the Gentiles are of disobedience." And they say, "Yes, but we have a divine calling, given by God to be a light to the nations." And Paul says, "Thats true, you do; but, because of your disobedience, God is actually blasphemed among the nations." They have reminded Paul that they have the covenant of circumcision, and he says, "Yes, thats true, you do have the covenant of circumcision", but in the final verses of Romans, chapter 2, he says, "What we need is heart circumcision, not mere flesh circumcision."

And he draws a very interesting distinction between inward righteousness and outward righteousness. Those people who have real righteousness that is brought about by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in the heart which transforms our attitudes, our actions, our lives, contrasted to a merely ritual and superficial obedience of God.

And that final criticism that Paul had brought in Romans, chapter 2 verses 25 through 29, evoked a response, an objection to Pauls teaching. And basically we saw that objection in Romans, chapter 3, verses 1 through 4. There were two objections. The first was this. Paul, if what you are saying is true. If a person in order to have a saving relationship with God, in order to have a face-to-face fellowship with the one true God, if a person needs to have inward righteousness rather than outward righteousness, then all of the things which God said to us in the Old Testament as privileges, the privilege of being His chosen people, the privilege of receiving the law of God, the privilege of the sign of circumcision. All those things, theyre worthless. And Pauls response is, "Oh, no, theyre not worthless at all. Youre misunderstanding my argument." In fact, he goes right to that central blessing of the children of God receiving the oracles of God. Gods revelation of himself. And he says, "That, in and of itself, proves the value of the blessings that God extended to you in the Old Covenant.

But Paul presses on; you must not reject the promise on which all our hopes are based. And the promises focused in Jesus Christ. Then, another objection came. And that objection is this. Look, isnt Gods faithfulness called into question if you are saying that some and even many, of the Jewish people have rejected the Messiah, they have refused to believe in Him, and by their unbelief have not received the promises that God made to us in the Covenant with Abraham, doesnt that call Gods question? Doesnt that call Gods faithfulness into question? And Pauls response again is, "Hardly," because Gods faithfulness can be manifested in two ways. It can be manifested in blessing on those who embrace His promises, or God can be faithful to punish and to judge those who reject His promises. And so the apostle Paul says, "God is faithful either way. The question is, will you enjoy your faithfulness in blessing, or will you endure His faithfulness in cursing?" I love the way that Ralph Davis is able to turn phrases, and he describes this very well. He says, "Pauls point is to say, 'Great is Thy faithfulness, and it will kill you.'" That is, God, when we reject His promises, will be faithful to judge. He promises us that He will be faithful to judge if we reject His overtures of mercy. And thats exactly what Paul says to these who are objecting to his teaching.

They are saying, "Well, if Gods faithfulness is manifested in punishment for unbelief, isnt that calling into question His faithfulness and His promise to bless us?" Paul says, "No, no. You missed the point. It doesnt call His faithfulness into question at all. The problem is yours, not Gods. When you reject the promise, you are under judgment."

And so Paul continues to hear objections to his teaching in the passage that we will look at today. Lets turn to Romans 3, verses 5 through 8 and hear Gods word reverently and attentively.

"But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be. For otherwise how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say as we are slanderously reported, (and as some affirm that we say", Let us do evil that good may come? Their condemnation is just."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add his blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we praise You for Your word. We thank You that Your word uncovers the secrets of our hearts. And as painful as it is sometimes to see our sin, we know that You unveil our sin to us with the intention that we would receive mercy, having seen our sin, having given up any thought of saving ourselves, we flee to Christ for grace. And in mercy You receive us as the Father received the prodigal. Unveil our hearts to us this day, we pray, in Your word. Enable us to see it, to understand it, and to respond in such a way, not only that You are glorified, but that we become the benefactors of Your eternal and saving mercy. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul, in this passage, receives two more objections to his teaching. And you will have noticed that as these four objections in Romans 3, verses 1 through 8 proceed, they get weaker and weaker. In fact, these objections dont even contest Pauls main point. I dont whether you have ever watched debates, but if one team is being beaten really badly, good debaters have all sorts of techniques whereby they attempt to obscure the fact that they are being beaten. They will try and change the subject, they will try and discuss something which totally befuddles the judges and those on the other side; perhaps, youve even seen a lawyer whos being badly beaten in his closing arguments, go to things that are utterly irrelevant to the case, in the vein hope that the jury will be distracted from how badly he is losing his case. And thats what we often do when we are confronted with our sin. We want to talk about anything else but that issue. We want to talk about the weather, or we want to talk about something that the person whos confronting us has done wrong. We want to change the subject. And thats exactly whats happening here. Paul has convicted a people, and the response is to try and change the subject. "Lets talk about something else, Paul. Lets talk about a theological problem that youre view brings about." Why? Because the truth has gotten very close to home. Its hit home to the heart. And the unbeliever, the very last thing that the unbeliever wants to do is to deal with his or her sin.

And so Paul in this passage is going to receive two objections to his teaching. Two more objections to his teaching. And in the course of responding to those two objections, hes going to teach us two very important truths. So, Id invite you to look at verses 5 and 6 at the first objection, which we see in this passage.

I. God is righteous in His judgment.

And the objection runs something like this. Paul, if Gods justice is magnified in the wickedness of humans, is it really right for God to pour out His wrath? You remember that Paul has just argued in Romans 3, verses 1 through 4 that Gods righteousness stands out all the more against the backdrop of human sin. And that assertion gets him this objection. The objection says that if God glorifies Himself through my sin, isnt it unfair for Him to judge me for that sin, too? I mean if God is making use of the unbelief of the Jews in order to magnify His faithfulness, isnt it unfair for Him to go ahead and judge it, to punish them for their unbelief? This person is saying Paul, on the basis of your doctrine, since mans unrighteousness brings out more sharply Gods righteousness, shouldnt the Almighty be happy about that turn of events? After all, hes being glorified in His faithfulness by their unfaithfulness. And Paul, you see here, is facing people who would rather rationalize than repent. Hes convicting them of their sins. Hes pressing them about their sin. And theyd rather talk about anything else. They would rather find some theological point to nitpick with the apostle Paul, rather than deal with the charge that hes making.

Paul emphatically rejects that kind of reasoning. Look at verse 6. He does two things in response to it. First of all he gives us an emphatic negation. Not at all. God forbid. Thats hardly what I am doing. Paul rejects outright the suggestion that it is unjust for God to judge those who have sinned, even though in His judgment His faithfulness is magnified.

Secondly, he goes on and gives a positive argument based on the idea of Gods just judgment. And though we could understand it in two or three different ways, the basic point is absolutely clear. Paul says that the God of the Bible is beyond questioning in the righteousness of His just judgment. God is a just judge. But Paul may mean this. Hes speaking to Jewish people who believe in Gods judgment, and they believe in a final judgment. And perhaps hes saying to them, "Look, if you think that God might be unjust in His judgment now, how can you think that Hes going to be just in His final judgment, which we all agree is going to occur?" Or Paul may be saying something like this, "If you are saying that sin ceases to be sin and ceases to require judgment, because God overrules it for His glory, then theres no sin that can be punished, because God overrules every sin for his glory." That doesnt make it any less punishable though. It doesnt lessen the requirement of God to bring about justice for that sin. And if you argue that way, then no sin can be judged.

But Pauls point, over and over, is that the God of the Bible is beyond questioning in the righteousness of His judgment. Notice how, when faced with the judgment of God for sin, these people immediately want to ask the abstract question, is it right for God to judge, rather than the obvious and concrete question, okay, Im a sinner; I deserve judgment; how do I deal with that? They would rather go to some sort of abstract theological question which is frankly preposterous; the idea that Gods judgment is unjust, than deal with the fact which is close at home that they are sinners in need of Gods divine mercy. And so often when were in gospel conversations we run into that very thing. When you have taken many months to screw up the courage to go and talk with a friend, or perhaps a friend whose made a profession of faith, but who is living in sin. And you want to confront that brother or sister with that sin, and suddenly that person has all these intricate theological questions that they want you to answer. Well, before we get to that, Ive got some questions about angels that I need you to straighten out. Or help me with predestination, I dont understand that. Or what about the existence of God? Suddenly, theres this great interest in various speculative theological issues. Why? Because, youre getting close to home. Youre wanting to deal with sin. And sin is willing to accept anything except repentance. And it will do anything to stay alive. And so the favorite thing to do for the unrepentant unbeliever is to run away from the question at hand, sin, and go to some abstract theological question.

And by the way, this is done in various ways. One way that I see it done here in Jackson very often is when Paul hits a little too close to home, people will say, Well, thats Paul, not Jesus." Have you heard that around here? Ive heard it over and over. People say, "Well, Paul said that, not Jesus." As if somehow that gets you off the hook. Oh, well, Paul may be wrong. But Jesus, you know its only the red-letter stuff that counts. That argument boggles my mind. And I want to pause right here because Ive heard it so many times, and because Ive heard so many of you tell me that you have heard this so many times.

And I want to tell you eight reasons why that thinking is wrong. The first reason is this. Thats a no mans land kind of argument. Liberals arent going to be satisfied with that kind of argument because they dont care what Jesus says either. Theyre not sure whether the stuff thats written in the gospel, Jesus ever said. So distinguishing Jesus and Paul isnt really going to help you with an honest-to-goodness liberal, nor is it going to help you with a conservative because a conservative believes that the entire Bible is inspired. Whether Isaiah said it, or whether Moses said it, whether David said it, whether Paul or Peter said it, whether Jesus said it, its all the inspired word of the living God. And so that problem, if you try and solve the problem of something you dont like in Pauls teaching by saying thats not Jesus, thats Paul, it doesnt get you off the hook with either liberals or conservatives. Youre left in a no-mans land by yourself.

Second problem with that argument  it ignores Paul own strong claims. Think for a minute what Paul says in I Corinthians 1:1. He says that hes an apostle, not by the will of man, but by the will of God. In I Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 12, he has the audacity to say, "I say, not the Lord." In other words, Lord Jesus didnt speak to this issue, but this is the way that I say you need to deal with it. Furthermore, later in that chapter in I Corinthians, 7:17 he says, "Thus I direct in all the churches." In other words, the way I say it ought to be done, it ought to be done in every church. And then in I Corinthians 14, towards the end of that chapter in verses 37 and 38 when hes dealing with that very tricky issue of prophesy and tongues, he says, "Listen, if anyone who hears this thinks that hes a prophet, then he needs to recognize that these are the words of a prophet. They are the words of God and they are authoritative. And if they do not recognize this word, then they themselves are not recognized."

And, of course, Paul, in I Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13 can commend the Thessalonians with this word. Hell say, "I thank God that you received our words for what they were, not the words of men, but the words of God." And later in that Book in II Thessalonians in chapter 3, verse 14 he can say this: "If anyone does not obey the instruction of this letter, let him be put out of the church." The apostle Paul had no conception whatsoever that his words were on a lower level of inspiration that were the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because he was inspired by the third person of the trinity when he spoke them. They were Gods words. Thats the second reason why this argument wont fly.

Thirdly, this kind of reasoning ignores the claims of scripture about itself and about the nature of inspiration. Paul, for instance, writes in II Timothy, chapter 3, verses 14 through 17 that all Scripture is given by inspiration. And yes, he was especially talking about the Old Testament. But by extension, his words apply to all Scripture, both Old and New Testament. Its all inspired by God. Its all God-breathed And Peter tells us what that means. He means that holy men were carried along by the Holy Spirit in order to give what God intended, not their own private interpretation. Peter tells us that in II Peter, chapter 1, verses 19 through 21. And therefore, the author of Hebrews can say in Hebrews 4:12 that the word of God is powerful and active, and its sharper than a two-edged sword. Thats what the word of God is. And so teaching which says, "Well Paul said that, or Job said that or Jonah said that", as if Jesus didnt say it and it doesn't count, ignores what the Bibles says about itself.

Fourthly, let me say that this kind of statement, Paul said it, not Jesus, contradicts what Jesus thought about the Bible. In Matthew, chapter 5, verses 17 through 20 Jesus said that not a jot or a tittle of the word of God, of the law of God revealed. Especially again hes speaking of the Old Testament. Not a jot or a tittle of it would pass away until it was all fulfilled, and that those were greatest in the kingdom who keep and teach that words. And those are least in the kingdom who do not teach or keep that word. Furthermore, Jesus would say in John 10:35 that the scripture cannot be broken. And in John 17:17 He would remind even in the prayer that He was lifting up His heavenly Father, He would remind His disciples that Gods word is truth, and that is how we are sanctified. Thats how we grow in grace, is by Gods word. And so for us, as evangelicals, our view of the Bible is itself an act of devotion. We believe in the inspiration, the authority, the inerrancy of Gods word because Jesus believed in it. Furthermore, this type of an argument creates an enormous and unsolvable problem. Its what I might call the pick and choose dilemma. If some parts of the Bible are inspired and some are authoritative and others are not, who gets to choose? Who is appointed the Pope to determine which parts are right and which parts are wrong? We all become our own little popes. And today we can excise this part, and tomorrow we can excise that part. Furthermore, this view negates the historic view of the canon, held by all Christians in favor of an arbitrary red-letter edition view of scripture. Christians have always recognized that the books of the Bible all bear the marks of the canon, that is they are authoritative, they are prothetic, they are apostolic. They show the marks of inspiration. This argument fails to appreciate the correspondence between Jesus and Pauls teaching. We have noticed as we worked through Romans how closely tied to the teaching of Jesus are Pauls arguments. Even his argumentation bears very close resemblance to Jesus arguments in His earthly ministry.

And finally let me say that the desire to distinguish Jesus and Paul originated in the liberal attempt to demythologize Christianity. The idea of the liberals was that Paul is the person who really invented Christianity. He came up with the idea of the virgin birth, he came up with the idea the deity of Christ. He came up with the idea of the substitution atonement, and the idea is those ideas have not been around before Paul. And so you need to understand that when people make a distinction between Jesus and Paul, they are actually falling into the trap which had been set for them by German rationalists a century ago. And that idea again simply will not wash. So for all those reasons, when we have that kind of a deflecting comment, but Paul said that, not Jesus, recognize that you are seeing a manifestation of a heart that has gotten uncomfortable with a godly idea and thus has tried to obscure the real point.

The point of this passage though is that because God is the Judge, because God does judge, and because God will judge, He is irreproachable in His justice.

Do you take seriously Gods judgment? We better, we better, because its certain, and it will be right. Paul is reminding us here that those who do not deliver themselves into Gods hand for mercy cannot be delivered from His hand for justice. Its one way or the other, Gods mercy or Gods justice. And Gods judgment here is not arbitrary vengeance. It is the due process of moral providence. It is absolutely just. And the apostle reminds us that here. Thats why we need the gospel, because God will judge. Over and over people would say to Paul that they did not need the gospel. That they didnt need the grace of God. That they were in and of themselves perfectly ready to face God in their own righteousness. And over and over Paul says back to them. Fine. If you can face Gods judgment, apart from Christ, apart from grace, apart from mercy, apart from the gospel in your own righteousness, go ahead and do it; because God is just, and if you are righteous, I promise you He will acquit you.

The problem is, as he is going to point out later in this chapter, no one is righteous. Its not that God is unjust. The problem doesnt reside with the kind of justice that God is going to meet out. He is not unfair. The problem resides with us. But over and over what does the sinner want to do? He wants to call in the question Gods rightness, Gods justice, Gods judgment rather than deal with his own sin. The apostle Paul wont let him off the hook.

II. Just because God is fair and just does not mean that we can continue to sin and He must forgive us.

Second objection that Paul gets in this passage you see in verses 7 and 8. And again, this objection is even weaker than the previous one. It goes something like this. If my lying, if my unfaithfulness highlights Gods truthfulness, then why should I be condemned? Why not do evil that good may come. Now Paul gets this objection in several places in the book of Romans. Remember, in Romans 6:1 he goes this objection to his doctrine of justification by grace through faith. In Romans 9:19 he gets this same objection to his doctrine of election. And let me rephrase the objection. It goes something like this. Paul, your teaching leads us to the idea that we ought to do evil in order that good might come from it. Or Paul, your view of salvation means go ahead and sin to your hearts content in order that grace may have its chance to do its work.

But once again here you see the inveterate tendency of a depraved heart to do anything rather than to repent. The unbelieving heart will do anything so long as it doesnt have to repent. It will call in to question doctrine; it will call in to question Gods fairness; it will call in to question Gods existence; anything, as long it does not have to repent. And Paul considers the very suggestion that we do evil in order that grace may have a chance to do its work. He considers that very suggestion as blasphemous. And he announces here the justice of the condemnation of those who would say it.

Jesus ran into this kind of thing at the woman at the well didnt he? Hes talking with this woman; he begins to talk with her about a sin that is very, very close to the center of her heart when he says to her, "Woman, go bring your husband." "Well, I have no husband." "Youre right. The man that youre living with is not your husband, and youve had five previously." And immediately she becomes interested in having a theological discussion about worship. Well, lets talk about the theories of appropriate worship. It is here in Samaria or is it in Jerusalem? Immediately she wants to talk about something else.

Have you had that experience? Have you been in a conversation with an unbeliever about a spiritual issue, and suddenly they want to talk with you about angels or Calvinism or the crusades or anything else. The apostle Paul wont let us off the hook because theres no excuse for sin. Theres no escape from its guilt, its power or its penalty except through the gospel. The most stupendous blunder a man ever made was to think that he could gain anything by sinning. And, in fact, sin is double when we attempt to defend ourselves of it. When we attempt to excuse ourselves from it. The apostle Paul is reminding us here that Gods grace and His promises and His faithfulness and His ability to overrule sin in judgment to His glory, none of that excuses sin. And when the sinner tries to run anywhere else other than to the gospel to find relief from sin, hes running in the wrong direction. And so the apostle Paul has at every point cut off false assurance and false saviors from these folk and from you and me because he loves us. If you were running to a place that you thought was a refuge, but in fact it was going to end up being your destruction, a friend would tell you, dont go there. Thats exactly what Paul is doing. As hard as Pauls words may seem to us, as hard hitting as they may feel to us, these are the wounds of a friend. Hes telling us dont run anywhere else for safety, for refuge, for salvation except the gospel, because youre under sin, youre under judgment. The only way youll experience blessing is embracing Jesus Christ as He is presented in my gospel. Thats Paul word for you and me today. May God bless His word. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word. We ask that You would pierce our hearts with it. If we come to this place as believers today, build us up in the truth of the gospel, help us never to fool ourselves into running anywhere else for relief from sin in its guilt and power, except to the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have come to this place skeptical of Him, distant from Him, we pray that You would burden our hearts, convict us, that You would show us the truth about ourselves, and the greater truth about our Savior. Enable us by grace to run to Him and to trust in Him, to believe on Him for eternal life. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

All Are Under Sin - Romans 3:9-18

9 What then? Are we Jews[a] any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

"None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one."

13 "Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive."

"The venom of asps is under their lips."

14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."

15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 in their paths are ruin and misery,

17 and the way of peace they have not known."

18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

(Romans 3:9-18)

All Are Under Sin

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3, as we continue to work our way through this glorious letter of the apostle Paul to the church in Rome, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to all of us, because all Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for all those of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, as we have looked through the first eight verses of Romans, chapter 3, we have come into contact with four objections to what Paul had been saying in Romans, chapter 2. You remember that in Romans 1, he had made it clear that the Gentiles were under condemnation and in need of Gods saving grace if they were going to have a real experience of saving relationship with God. In Romans, chapter 2, however, Paul went on to say that so also the Jews were in the same condition. That they were in need of Gods saving grace in the gospel if they were going to experience the blessing of eternal fellowship with Him. And he had given several arguments against the things that the Jewish people were depending upon. He had pointed out that their possession of the law was not good enough to assure them a relationship, a saving, eternal relationship with God. He had pointed out that the fact that God had chosen the nation out of all the other nations to be a special people unto himself did not in and of itself guarantee that every Jew was going to experience the blessing of God. He will go out in Romans, chapter 8, 9, 10 and 11 and explain that there is another doctrine that you have to consider as well, and thats the doctrine of the individual election. I wont go into that right now, but the apostle Paul has made it clear that if the Jew is trusting simply in the fact that he happens to be a religious Jew, an ethic Jew, and in the midst of this people, that he has been chosen uniquely by God amongst all the nations to be a peculiar people unto himself, that that in and of itself, apart from faith in the promises and trust in the promises is not going to guarantee that Jew salvation.

Furthermore, he talks about the Jews divine vocation to be a light to the nations. And he says, "Just because God has called you to be a light to the nations doesnt necessarily mean that you will be a light to the nations." In fact, he makes a very serious charge that the Jewish people have in fact brought darkness to some because of their blasphemy, and because of their unbelief and disobedience. And finally, he says, "Just because of circumcision, just because youve been given the sign of the covenant doesnt necessarily mean that you know and are enjoying the blessings of the covenant."

So hes made some very strong statements to those who are part of religious and ethic Israel. And he naturally gets some objections to those, and weve been looking at those objections in Romans, chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. Four objections in particular we have seen in this passage. First of all, we have seen the objection that somebody says, "Well, Paul, if what youre saying is true, then what advantage is it to even have these signs of the covenant?" And we saw Paul respond to say, "Well, theres a tremendous advantage as long as those signs are coupled with faith. As long as one is trusting in the promises, those signs have a tremendous confirming and assuring advantage. But not without faith." And then secondly we saw the objection, "Well, look, if so many of Gods people in Israel have rejected the Messiah and fallen away by their own belief, doesnt that call into question Gods faithfulness?" And Pauls response to that was, "No, because God can be faithful in two ways." He can be faithful to bless as we embrace His promises, and He can be faithful to judge as Isaiah spoke about in that awesome passage that we read in Isaiah 24. He can be faithful to judge when we reject His promises. We quoted that wonderful phrase of Ralph Davis, 'Great is Thy faithfulness, and it will kill you.' God is faithful to judge when we reject His covenant. And so the apostle Paul says, "No, Gods not unfaithful. He is always faithful. Its a question of whether we will know His faithfulness in blessing or in cursing. And then thirdly, we saw that objection last week. Well, if Gods justice is magnified through the wickedness of humans, is it really right then for God to go on and pour out His sin on people who are doing things that are already magnifying His righteousness and His greatness and His faithfulness? I mean if their evil is magnifying that, is it really right for Him to turn right around and punish them? And the apostle Paul basically says, "Of course God is just in His judgment. That is self-evidently true. He is judge. You know it, I know it, we know He is judge, that Hes going to judge, and its self-evidently true that His judgment is appropriate and right."

And then finally we saw that objection, "Well, if our lying, if our unfaithfulness, if our unbelief highlights Gods truthfulness, why should we be condemned? Why not do evil so that good can come?" And again, Pauls response to that is almost dismissive. He says, "Look, that is self-refuting. The very statement why not do evil that good may come is self-refuting and self-condemning. Gods grace, His promises, His faithfulness, His ability to overrule sin in judgment to His glory, none of those things make sin not sin. And none of those things make sin not worthy of judgment. All sin is by definition worthy of judgment." And so the apostle Paul responds to three of four objections to his teachings so far.

And then in the passage were going to read today, he moves to his closing argument. So lets hear Pauls words, which are the words of God to us in Romans, chapter 3, beginning in verse 9:

"What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they have become unless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it.

Our Lord and our God, this is an awesome word of indictment, and if we really listen to it closely, our hearts tremble. Even the redeemed know the reality of these temptations in our hearts. We thank you that by Your grace you have saved us from them as we trust in Jesus, the Messiah. But help us now as we come to consider them again. Help us not only to consider these words because of their importance for how we share the gospel, but help us to consider these words for ourselves, not looking first at their application to others, but first looking at Your word for our hearts today. We ask it in Jesus name, amen.

If you are a political junkie, you have been on overload the last couple of weeks with the conventions. And there are now multiple news channels whereby you can get analysis of all these various speeches and productions at the major conventions. One of the things that you have heard political pundits and analysts doing is analyzing what the speeches have said and how they have been presented how those things might have attracted different groups of people within the nation. Well, he says this and this would be attractive to this group. And he says that. Well, that would be very attractive and appealing to this group. And its very important for this particular candidate to say such and such in order that he solidifies this part of his base. And its very important that he say that in order that this particular group will be attracted to his message, and he can get his poll numbers up. And it just goes on and on and on until your head spins, because they have to say it just right in order to get particular groups to go along with their particular platform and plan.

But not only has there been discussion of how they said, what they said would impact some; there has been discussion, in fact, of the platform itself. Its not just what they said. In fact theres been a great deal of discussion of the differences between the platforms and the presentations. For instance, in one convention diversity was stressed. And it has been suggested that that has been something that was not so very well reflected in its platform. And then in another convention it was amazing how family oriented it was. And it has been suggested that the platform of that particular party is not so family oriented as they might. So theres not only a discussion of how the presentations might have appeal, but how the particular platforms might have appeal.

Well, let me say if the apostle Paul had to go before the convention with this speech, not only would his content appeal to no one, but his platform would appeal to no one. The apostle Paul is not mincing words. Let me just pause and say, if you come today at all skeptical of the gospel, appreciate the fact that Paul is not playing politics with you. Hes not in any way telling you what he thinks you want to hear. Paul is brave enough, and Paul is loving enough to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. The apostle Paul lays out a platform which, on the first glance, looks like it would be appealing to no one. But when considered more closely is, in fact, the most loving possible thing that he could say, because he confronts us with a reality that if we do not deal with, we will end up under the judgment described by Isaiah, in Isaiah 24. If that is really true, if we do not deal with these realities, the realities about which Paul speaks in verses 9 through 18. If it is true that we will fall under the judgment and condemnation of God, then Pauls words take on an entirely different meaning. This is not nearly the harangue of a 'hot gospeler.' This is not the harangue of a street fire and brimstone preacher, who some might think is actually taking delight in the idea of God hailing His judgment upon those who are wicked. These are the words of a man who so deeply cares about the people of the world that he desires them to see themselves as they are; as God sees them, and to respond in faith to His gospel that they might know the blessings of God. And Paul speaks in grotesque detail as he describes us.

So Id like you to look at this passage with me today as he summarizes what he has been saying. And as he says basically, "Look, everything that I have been saying in Romans, chapter 1, from verse 18 all the way through the end of Romans, chapter 2 and verse 29, and then the things that I have continued to say here in the first verses of Romans, chapter 3, these things are not simply applicable to this group, or that group, or the other group. These things are applicable to everyone. No one is excluded from the strictures that I am bringing. No one is out from under the condemnation that I am bringing. Everyone, every group is under this particular condemnation, and there is only one way of escape from it. So the apostle Paul begins to lay out this particular truth. In fact, you will see three sections to the particular charge that Paul brings. And I believe that before we get to those three sections, he gives a word of introduction. And I think in the very last of those three sections, he gives a kind of a concluding word. And so Im going to look with you at three or four or five things today. But look at these three sections.

If you look at verse 10 and 11 and 12 youll see the first section. In that section the apostle Paul is quoting probably from a passage in Ecclesiastes 7 and definitely from a passage in Psalm 14 or in Psalm 53. Then the second section youll see beginning in verse 13 and in verse 14 where the focus is on sins of the tongue. Then theres a third section that begins in verse 15 and goes through verse 18, but is really summarized especially, the whole charge is summarized in verse 18.

I. Is there anyone who is "off the hook" by nature? Not at all!

So lets begin in verse 9 where the apostle Paul again opens a new section of his epistle with a question. You remember how, as he goes through each of the questions in verses 1 through 8, he gives an answer to the question. Well, its interesting that he starts again in verse 9 of Romans, chapter 3 with a question. "What then, are we better than they?" And there have been all sorts of discussions about who the 'we' is. Is Paul again speaking of himself as a Jew and asking the question, "Okay, given all this, are we, the Jews, any better off than the Gentiles." And then he gives an answer to that. Or is hes speaking as a Christian and saying, "Okay, are we, as Christians, any better than they?" And there are various learned discussions of that particular question.

But let me say it doesnt matter how you answer that question. Pauls basic point is very clear. His basic point is seen in the second phrase. Look at it in verse 9. We have already charged both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Thats Pauls point in verse 9. All, guilt wise, all are under sin. Thats the first point that he makes in his concluding remarks. Everyone, Jew and Greek, slave and free, everyone is under sin. Everyone is under guilt.

In other words when you ask a question, is there anyone who is off the hook with regard to sin? Is there anyone who can say oh, I dont have to worry about that. Pauls answer is, "No." By nature no one can say, "Well, I dont have to worry about sin separating me from God. Thats not a problem for me. That may be a problem for other people, but its not a problem for me. Paul says theres nobody in that condition. Everyone, in fact, is sinful, and everyone is under the power of sin. What does it mean then to be under sin? We really could spend a long time just meditating on that.

But let me suggest at least three things for you to think about that it means to be under sin. First of all, to be under sin means to be under the guilt of sin. Sin is inherently worthy of judgment. Even when penalty is spared, sin inherently deserves judgment. And, therefore, when we say that we are under the guilt of sin, we are saying that objectively we are guilty. Objectively, we have committed deeds that are worthy of judgment. Now thats very important for us to think about, because normally when we hear the word "guilt," we think subjectively. When we hear the word guilt of sin, normally we are thinking well, I feel guilty about sinning. Well, that may be true, and that may be a consequence of the objective guilt of sin. But when Paul speaks of the guilt of sin primarily, he is pointing not to that subjective feeling that we have of guilt, but the fact of the matter is sometimes you meet people who are guilty who dont feel guilty, and other times you meet people who arent guilty, but who do feel guilty. And so the subjective feeling of guilt is not always a sure guide to the objective state of that person. But the apostle Paul is saying here, "Objectively, we are all guilty. We are all deserving of judgment."

Secondly, to be under the power of sin means to be under the penalty. We are not only deserving of judgment, but when we are under sin, we are under the apprehension of God visiting the penalty which is deserved. We are under the punitive measures of Gods holiness. Gods holiness must punish sin. Its very interesting isnt it that when Paul thinks about the gospel in Romans, chapter 1, and then as he comes back to it again in Romans, chapter 3, at the end of this great passage that we are in, he revels in the fact that God has done an amazing thing. He has shown grace without sacrificing His righteousness. He has shown grace without sacrificing His holiness. He has shown grace without sacrificing His justice. How has He done that? By visiting the punitive measures of His justice upon His own Son. And so the apostle Paul, when he talks about us being under sin, hes reminding us were not only under its guilt, its deserving of judgment; but while were under sin apart from the grace which is in Jesus Christ, apart from faith in Christ, we are under the punitive measures of Gods wrath. Thats a horrible place to be. Would you want to be before Gods wrath unmitigated? Thats where Paul says you are if you are apart from Jesus Christ. And finally, you are under the power of sin. The power of sin means that the whole of your being is worked in the wrong direction from the center out, from the desires out, were pointed in the wrong direction. We dont see the good things that God offers for what they are because we dont thank Him. We dont desire the good things that God made us for. We desire to go after our own way. Paul will even use that phrase from the Old Testament. We go after our own way. We turn aside. We do what we want to do, not what God has made us to want to do.

And thats what it means to be under sin. Therefore, its so important for you to see this, there is nothing in us to commend reconciliation with God. If this is the way we are. If we are under sin, its guilt, its penalty and its power, then we have nothing that we can offer to bring about reconciliation with God. The idea that we could do some work, whatever of those works, whatever they were. The idea that we could do some things that would bring us back to reconciliation with God is self-evidently ridiculous if we are the problem. And thats where Paul starts off.

Now in each of those three sections, in verses 10 through 12, in verses 13 and 14 and in verses 15 through 17, Paul elaborates on that basic point. Hes begun his closing statement by saying we are all under sin, and he goes on to say three things about that. Let me pause and say there are multiple applications of this great truth, even for Christians who know the reconciling grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are things that are directly applicable about us because as Satan uses the things that Paul is about to talk about, or the things that Paul will talk about in this passage to blind unbelievers from the truth, so often there are believers with these same truths or with these same tricks. He will take these particular tacks, and he will use them against believers as well as unbelievers. So there are applications for believers as well as unbelievers in this passage.

II. Our condition is manifest in our heart-disposition.

Look at the first thing that he says in verses in 10 through 12: "Our condition," he shows us here, "is manifest in our heart disposition. The fact that we are under sin is seen clearly in our heart disposition." "All," he says in verses 10 through 12, "are without righteousness, without understanding, without a real true desire to worship God, without true goodness." Paul knows that hes speaking to religious people primarily. Hes not only speaking firsthand to the Roman Christians, hes speaking secondhand as it were to the Jewish community. And he knows this is a religious community. And if he had begun to give evidences that we were all under sin that were like the evidence that he gave of Gentile sin at the end of Romans, chapter 1, what would they have done immediately? They would have done just what you and I would do, and say, "Well, Ive never done that. Ive never murdered anybody. Ive never participated in that particular sexual perversion. Ive never done that. Im immune from that particular charge."

So to buttress Pauls argument, he goes right for the heart in verses 10 through 12. He speaks about things that all of us can relate to, and he does it by appealing as we said to Ecclesiastes 7:20 and to Psalm 14, verses 2 and 3, or, you remember the first four verses of Psalm 14 get repeated again in Psalm 53, maybe hes referring to that particular passage. But I want you to note Pauls refrain in this passage. Notice. Look at these words. "None, not even one. None, all, none, not even one," walk through the passage. Wonder what Pauls getting at here? Pauls point is that there is no one who is righteous. If there is anybody out there who is saying, "Okay, that applies to everybody but me." Heres what Paul has to say to you. "None, not even one. None, all, none, none, no one." Everybody comes under this particular charge. And he points to dispositions of the heart. Notice how he says it. Were not righteous. We dont understand. We dont seek for God. We all turn aside. We have become useless. We do not do good. Not even one.

And all of us can hear our own hearts making claims to have done those things. Im basically a pretty good person. God will accept me. And Paul is saying, "Think about that. Really think about that. You know who you are. You know who you are when you look in the mirror and nobody else is around. Now, do you really want to say that youre really okay, and God will accept you?" Paul is asking you to look into your heart. Theres nobody else around to impress. Its just you looking at your heart. And hes saying, "If you will look there for any amount of time, you will see that what I say is true."

III.Our condition is manifest in our speech.

Secondly, he goes on, if you look at verses 13 and 14, to go to our tongue. It starts with the heart, verses 10 through 12. Now he goes to the tongue or to the speech. He says, "Let me show that this condition of being under sin is also manifested in our speech. Our condition is evidenced by our speech. Our speech condemns us." And again he points to those inescapably present sins of the tongue. And again he quotes from the Psalms. He quotes from Psalm 5:9, and he quotes from Psalm 140, verse 3. And he quotes from Psalm 10, verse 7. All of which have to do with sins of the tongue. And all of which have to do with condemnation brought against people who are part of Israel who had sinned with the tongue. And he says, "Notice again. Here is an evidence of the real condition of your heart."

And all of us experience this. If youre parents, you know. Its amazing. You dont have to send your children to lying school. They inherently know how to do it. Suddenly, not long after they can speak, they master it. And sometimes its innocuous and we laugh, and sometimes we go good grief, how did a child so young learn how to be so insidious. It is natural to us. So even as parents we are confronted with the reality of deception in our children, even very, very little children. Without provocation and without really any reason will show us the problem of sin in the hearts through lying. But much more seriously, we know in relationships the destructive points of speech. Deception in a relationship can spell its death. When one party in a relationship will not be honest, that party will continue to pledge, oh, Im gonna do this, Im gonna do this, Im gonna do this, and it never, ever is done. Or, Im going to stop doing this; Im going to stop doing this. And its never, ever done. Or theres the hiding of some secret part of a life from the other in that relationships. And relationships are destroyed that way, through speech; or maybe its through abusive language. And we know in relationships and marital relationships and other relationships the power of speech. And Paul says, "You dont think you need reconciliation with God? Look at your speech a little bit. Its an evidence that theres a problem deep down inside."

IV. Our condition is manifest in our actions.

And he goes on to say in verses 15 through 17 that the actual deeds  and notice he goes from heart to tongue to feet. Feet he uses there in 15 through 17. And hes using that to express the active working out of things. The deeds that we do that flow from our hearts. Their feet are swift to shed blood. So what he is saying is the condition is manifest in our actions. Our deeds condemn us. So our heart condemns us, our speech condemns us, our deeds condemn us. Paul is simply reapplying Isaiahs criticism of Israel because verses 15 through 17 comes right out of Isaiah 59:7. Hes applying it to all of us, to everyone in general. It's not that hes saying everyone commits murder, literally, that you take an axe in hand and go out and do that. What he is saying is that our hearts manifest a disinterest in real peace and reconciliation. Think about this. There are many, I think, in this room that can recognize this problem in their own experience. There are so many of us who have serious breaches in relationship with another person, and we are a major contributor to that serious breach of relationship. And in some of those relationships the pain of that breach has become so strong that we stop trying. Now the apostle Paul is saying when that happens, you are simply seeing an indication of what the heart is capable of. And, in fact, youre seeing an indication that the unredeemed heart really isnt interested in peace and reconciliation. Its more interested in its own safety. Okay? The apostle Paul takes us from heart to speech to deeds to show us our needs, to manifest our condition.

V. Our condition is manifest in our impiety.

And then he concludes, look at verse 18, by saying this: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." You know that the fear of God is the sum of Biblical religion. The Old Testament teaches us that the beginning of the knowledge of the Lord is the fear of God. There is no knowledge of the Lord apart from the fear of God. To fear God is to have God as your prime goal, as your prime end, for God to be the conscious arena of your experience, for God to be the one that you care about more than anybody else in the world, for Gods approval to be the approval that you really want, for Gods will to be the will done that you really want to have done, to have God at the very center of your thoughts, the center of your actions, the center of your desires, and the apostle Paul says, "Everybody is in this condition. You are ungodly. Everybody is in the condition of not having God at the conscious center of our experience and our goals." Our condition, in other words, is manifest. Our need for grace is manifest in our impiety, in our ungodliness.

One great example of this is the fact that ministers, I speak from experience, can even go about their duties without reference to God. You can find yourself doing your Christian duty and your ministry without thinking about God; without desiring to please God; without God as the conscious goal of your experience. In fact, isnt it interesting that the big charge that God brought against the religious leaders of Israel was that they were man fearers, not God fearers. In other words, they had man at the center of what they were doing religiously, not God. Now if that can happen to ministers who are supposedly ministering God to people, it can happen to anyone. And the apostle Paul is saying, "That is exactly the situation that we are in."

So having demonstrated from our impiety, from our deeds, from our words and from our hearts our need of sin, Paul has set us up to embrace the only way out of this mess. Now unbelievers today, those of you who have never really embraced Jesus Christ, the great message that you need to get out of Pauls words is "You are in trouble; and that trouble can only be answered by the Savior, the one Savior, Jesus Christ."

For those of us who are believers there are many messages that we get. We are reminded of what we have been saved from, we are reminded of what we are apart from Christ. But we are also reminded of how Satan can insidiously drag us back into old patterns of thinking and living and behaving and speaking, even as God has renewed us in Christ. And so this word is a word for us all today. Because this word establishes why we need the good news. And the good news is that there is a righteousness that reconciles you to God that comes from outside of you. You dont produce it, you dont contribute to it, you didnt create it, all you do is receive it and rest on it by faith. If this is true, that is the greatest news ever heard. May God enable you to embrace it.

Lets pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this hard, but faithful word from Paul. Help us all to receive it. In Jesus name, Amen.

The Law Can't Save You - Romans 3:19-20

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being[a] will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19-20)

The Law Can't Save You

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3, verse 19. The last time we were together we said that Paul was beginning his closing arguments. Ever since Romans, chapter 1, verse 18, we said Paul has been functioning like a prosecuting attorney, both for the Jews and for the Gentiles that all the world might be found guilty before God. He laid out his argument against the Gentiles in Romans, chapter 1, verses 18 to the end of the chapter, and Romans, chapter 2, although his Jewish friends had been nodding their heads all along agreeing yes, the Gentiles were under condemnation. Yes, the Gentiles needed to be saved. Yes, the Gentiles were law breakers. Then Paul turned his focus upon his Jewish friends, and he made it very clear that they themselves were under the condemnation of God, even though they had been specially chosen from amongst the nations and been given a unique vocation by God. They had been the special recipients of the law and had even been given a great sign of promise, the sign of circumcision. Yet, their trust was misplaced. They had refused the gospel. They had rejected the Messiah who was Gods way of salvation, and, therefore, they were under condemnation. And the Apostle Paul makes that very clear in Romans, chapter 2.

Then in the first eight verses of Romans, chapter 3, Paul, we saw, had three or four objections to some of the things that he had said in the course of making these charges, and he responds to each of those objections. And then beginning with Romans, chapter 3, verse 9 he starts what we might call his closing argument. The prosecuting attorney is now preparing to rest his case.

And what were going to look at today are the final words of that closing argument. Paul is concerned that there may still be some Jews in his hearing, and perhaps even some Jewish Christians in the church which are confused about some very important matters. And he wants to straighten out their thinking so that we might understand the relationship to us of a law in a fallen world where we are already sinners. What is the relationship of that law to us? And Paul begins to work that out for us here in Romans 3, verses 19 and 20. So lets hear Gods holy word:

"Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. That every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight for through the law comes the knowledge of sin."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Our Lord, we bow before You as before Your word, and we ask that You would help us to understand these important words spoken to us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the apostle Paul. And not only to understand them as information, but to be touched, to be stricken in the heart by them. That we might be humbled and believe, that we might trust in Christ as He has offered in the gospel. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul, in his final words in his closing argument, is dealing with yet another objection which he thinks has perhaps not been supplanted in the heart of some of recalcitrant Jewish hearers to whom he is speaking, and which he perhaps feels has infected the thinking of some of the young impressionable Jewish Christians in the congregation in Rome. You see, Paul knows that the Jews agreed with him in Romans, chapter 1 that the Gentiles were under the judgment of God, under the condemnation of God. Were lawbreakers, were lawless, were guilty, were godless, needed salvation, needed God, needed the God of Israel. But, many of those pious Jews did not believe that they were under the liability of Gods judgment. They felt that their receipt of the law, their having been circumcised, their being part of the covenant community, that stood them well before God. And therefore, Paul says, this is all nice what youre saying, that it applies to the Gentiles, but it doesnt apply to us.

And Paul takes one last opportunity to disabuse them of that point in order that he can make an even bigger point. The bigger point being that everybody, apart from Christ, everybody in the world is guilty before the bar of God. When you stand before God as judge, all of us, everyone apart from Christ, is guilty.

And so Id like you to see three or four points that Paul makes in his final words in this great assault. We have said all along that Paul says these things not to be mean but precisely because of his heart of love. He desires that everyone would come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but until we admit our guilt and our need of Christ, we are not in a position to partake of the benefits that he offers in the gospel. So Paul is relentlessly and remorselessly pounding home this truth that we are guilty and stand in need of grace.

I. Christians must beware applying the Bible's warnings exclusively to others/pagans.

The first thing Id like you to see is in the very first few words of verse 19. Notice what Paul says: "We know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law." The better translation there may be, 'speaks to those who are in the law.' Many of you Bible scholars know that if you were to turn over just a few chapters to Romans, chapter 6, verse 14 you would see that phrase again "under the law." Its not the same phrase that Paul is using here, and its not the same concept, and so maybe to keep those two things distinct it would be better for us to say "for those who are in the law." Paul is not speaking here of those who are under the law as a covenant of works as he will in Romans, chapter 6. He is speaking of those to whom the law has been primarily addressed. Those who are in the sphere of the laws hearing, the laws reading, the laws judgment. Especially he is thinking of the Jewish people, because in their minds, they are not under condemnation, only the lawless Gentiles.

But Pauls point is precisely that when the law speaks, it speaks to those who are its primary audience. And, therefore, far from being exempt they stand in even greater situation of condemnation, because they have rejected what God has plainly said to them in the law. While at the same time they have been condemnatory of the pagan Gentiles who were not the primary recipients of Gods specially revealed law through His servants Moses and the various prophets and writers of the Old Testament. So Paul says here in Romans 3:19 that the whole of Scripture speaks directly and authoritatively to the covenant community. Again, remember the Jews claim that the law condemns the Gentiles. But that the law will, in the end, assure them of divine favor because they viewed the law as containing the promises.

Notice that Paul uses the term "law" in a very general sense here. Paul is not thinking of the Ten Commandments, hes not thinking of the decalogue, hes not even thinking of those specific laws that you find in the first five books of the Bible. Hes not thinking of the first five books of the Bible themselves which are often called The Law of Moses. Remember, hes just quoted from Isaiah and from Psalms, and he calls this the law. So he is using the law just like you find it used in John 10:35 and in John 15:25 and in I Corinthians 14:25. Hes using the term "law" to refer to the Scriptures, the whole of the Old Testament. And hes saying this, "Yes, of course, the warnings and the condemnations and the cursing written down in the Old Testament against the nations, against the Gentiles. Yes, of course, that applies to the Gentiles, but primarily those warnings and those cursing and those condemnations apply to the people of God who were the primary recipients of that law, the Jewish people, the old covenant people, and we need to understand that the scriptures speak directly and authoritatively to that community. Hes saying, in fact, that the Jew needs to realize that the condemnations of the Old Testament are not merely meant for the nations, not merely mean for the Gentiles, they are meant for them when they do not embrace the covenant with their whole life.

Notice here again that the law refers to the whole of the Old Testament scriptures, but notice that Paul does not treat it as a dead word. He treats it as living speech. Notice how he characterizes the law and says it speaks. The law is a living word. The Scripture of God is a living and active and powerful word.

One of our congregation members was at a meeting just about a week ago where he was accused of being a bibliolater, a Bible worshiper. I dont know about you, but Ive never met a bibliolater. Ive never met somebody who had too high of a view of Gods word, because Gods word belongs to God; and just as we show honor and respect to Him, we show honor and respect to His word. And so the idea of a Christian being accused of being a bibliolater really ought to come across to you as a compliment. Well, thank you, ought to be your response. Ive always aspired to being a bibliolater. Ive always wanted to be one. I never think Ive quite made it, but Ive always wanted to be one. You see Paul speaks of these Scriptures, some of them were written a thousand years before the time that he was speaking, some of them were written six hundred years before the time he was speaking and writing, and yet he talks about them saying and speaking to the people of his own day, just like they say and speak to us today. Gods word is living and if anyone ever, ever accuses you of thinking too highly of Gods word, you can be assured of two things. One, youre on the right track. And two, theyre not. The apostle sees the word of God as living and active and powerful. And so he uses these terms, it speaks, it says.

Notice that he sees it as relevant to the present circumstance. Even though Isaiah said what he said six hundred years ago, even though David said what he said a thousand years ago, it is directly applicable to the people that Paul is preaching to in his own day, and he knows that its applicable to us as well.

And notice again that Paul sees these words as especially relevant to their primary recipients. As the Jews are looking at the Bible and seeing its condemnation to the Gentiles, and saying, "You see there? Those pagan Gentiles do deserve condemnation." Paul is saying, "Think about who God primarily wrote these words to you." He wrote them to you, he wrote them to his community, his people. The people who had heard God Himself give the word. And they had seen Moses bring the tablets down from the mountain. And they had heard Isaiah the prophet, and they had heard Jeremiah and Ezekiel and all the other writers and preachers of the Old Testament. Theyd heard it. Thats who God primarily intended that word. Dont worry about the pagan out there. Worry about 'you' for a few moments. Paul is saying, "No one should assume that apart from a saving faith and interest in Jesus Christ, no one should assume that he is exempt from the Scriptures warnings nor be too swift to apply those warnings to others without having taken stock of them themselves." Paul is telling the Jewish people of his day that the Scriptures speak directly to them and authoritatively to them and especially to them, but Pauls message is for us as Christians, too.

Pauls message is that Christians must beware of applying the Bibles warnings exclusively to others. Have you ever heard a Christian teacher do that, perhaps by flattering the ears of his people by condemning the evils of the world, without ever addressing the reality of sin within the context of the covenant community, without ever acknowledging the sin that exists in a congregation? Its very easy for a minister to stand up and condemn them. They dont pay his salary. You do. Its harder, however, to address the sins that we have to deal with in context of our community, our congregation. And Paul is looking right at these people, his own fellow Jewish people, and hes saying, "Remember that Gods word is first for you." And Im saying to you today on the authority of Paul, remember this is Gods word for you. Dont think about how it applies to them out there first. Think about what Paul is saying to you. Think about what God is saying to you. Thats the first thing that I want you to see.

II. If we really understand the Bible, we know that all are guilty, accountable and speechless(apart from Christ). Then if youll look at the second half of verse 19, theres another thing Id like you to see. Here, Paul tells us why Gods word speaks especially to the covenant community in the context of its sin. The Scripture speaks in order that we might be dumbstruck before God while we await sentencing. Paul says, "So that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God." If we really understand the Bible, we will understand that all are guilty, all are accountable, all are speechless before Gods judgment who are apart from Christ. If you are not in Christ, if youve not trusted in Christ, if you have not received the benefits of His saving work and person, then you are going to be speechless and called guilty and accountable before God at the great judgment. Whereas, pious Jews believe that the Gentiles were under condemnation and needed salvation, but they did not believe themselves under that condemnation, Paul again is pressing them with the realization that that is a major error.

Now, by the way, Id like you to notice a very interesting word that Paul uses. Look at verse 19. He uses the word 'that they may become accountable' to God. This is another one of those courtroom terms. Turn back to Romans 1:20. The first courtroom term that we saw in this closing argument was at the very end of Romans 1:20. Remember we said that Paul said that 'all the world is without excuse.' We said that that term literally is a courtroom term that means that its a defendant that doesnt have a defense. He doesnt have anything to say. He doesnt have an argument, he doesnt have a defense before the court. Now Paul comprehends us. Picture what hes talking about here in Romans 3:19. He comprehends us standing before God. The trial has begun. We have had no argument, no defense. We have nothing to say for ourselves. There is no defense for what we have done. The procedure has gone on. We have been convicted of the crime. Now we are standing before the bar of justice, and we are awaiting sentencing. And in Romans, chapter 3, verse 19 he says that the law says what it says so that every mouth will be stopped, and so that we might be held accountable before God. And that little word accountable means that we are going to be speechless before God as we await the sentencing. Its almost as if the judge in the courtroom is saying now to the convicted criminal: "Do you have anything to say to this court before I proceed to the sentencing?" And the response is: "No mitigating circumstances, no excuses, no explanations, no appeal for reasons why the sentence ought to be mitigated, no nothing." This person is accountable before God. Speechless before God in the court as he awaits the sentence being delivered. And so standing before God with the trial over, weve lost. Before the sentencing phase, God says do you have anything to say before this court. And the answer is nothing.

Paul knows that as we read the Scriptures the most indispensable requirement for understanding the word of God is understanding our own sin. And if we read the Scripture without an appreciation for our own sin, we will always read it wrong. And so Paul pauses here to say that the proper understanding of someone who is in the sphere of the law, who has heard the law, who has been presented the law, who knows the judgments of the law is to recognize his or her sinfulness and need of grace.

III. The law can't save you, acquit you or justify you!

And then Paul goes on to say a third thing in verse 20. Look at the first part of verse 20: "Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight." This verse gives the reason why every mouth is stopped and why the whole world is condemned. And the reason is were sinners, and the law cant save us. The law cant save us, it cant acquit us, it cant justify us. In the wake of the fall, in the wake of our own sin, the law only serves to condemn us. And so Paul says very provocatively, "By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified."

Notice what Paul speaks about. Paul doesnt speak about just any old work, he speaks about law works here. Hes anticipating an argument. "Paul, Im not saying that just by doing some good things that God must bless me and fulfill his promises to me. Im saying by doing the things that his word tells me that Im supposed to do." And Paul says, "Okay, lets take those. Lets talk about law works. Lets talk about things that God says in His word that we ought to do. By those no flesh is going to be justified." Now you say, "But wait a minute, doesnt that contradict something that Paul just said? In Romans, chapter 2, and verse 13 didnt he say at the end of that verse that the doers of the law will be justified. Didnt you just say, Paul, that if you do the law, you will be justified? Are you taking that back? Are you now denying that?" "No."

Understand what Paul is doing. Paul is not saying that that principle is something that he is now repudiating. The problem is not the principle. The problem is there is nobody who does that. The problem is that there is no one who does the work of the law. Therefore, Paul says, because of this no flesh will be justified in his sight.

The problem is not the principle, the problem is us. Paul doesnt have a hang up with obedience. He has a hang up with people who think they are obedient, but theyre not. And so the apostle Paul says, "I want to make an announcement here. If the standard of judgment is Gods law, and it is, and you appear before the bar of God, depending upon your goodness. Youre a nice person. Youve done the works of the law and youve been part of the covenant community. But you havent ever trusted in the Messiah, you havent acknowledged your own sin, you havent fled to Him, you havent put your faith in Him alone for salvation. Let me tell you ahead of time," Paul is saying, "what the verdict will be. The verdict will be guilty. The sentence will be eternal death, and you will have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing, because the works of the law will justify no flesh in his sight. The problem is not with the law, the problem is not with the principle of justice. The problem is with us, and the problem is with our sin. The law condemns us. The law cant save you, the law cant acquit you, the law cant justify you."

IV. Think about it, the law itself shows us our need of grace.

Then Paul concludes with something that would have been very shocking to his Jewish friends. At the very end of verse 20 he says, "For through the law comes the knowledge of sin." Now that I think would have greatly irritated a pious Jew. Listen closely. A pious Jew would have said, "What do you mean that through the Scripture comes a knowledge of sin? Through the Scripture comes the knowledge of the great and holy and awesome God. How dare you say that through the Scripture merely comes the knowledge of sin." Well, of course, Paul is saying this provocatively. Hes been provocative throughout this passage. He knows hes provoking the pious Jew, but hes doing it for a gospel purpose.

And Paul isnt in this little phrase telling you everything that the law is and does. In fact, the final hymn that were going to sing  Id like you to take your hymnals and open to it. Number 150. Well sing it to the familiar tune "Duke Street." Number 150 perhaps better than any hymn that Ive ever seen summarizes everything that the law does and says. Matthias Loy wrote this hymn last century, and it summarizes beautifully what the law is and does. And Paul isnt trying to tell you everything that the law is and does in this passage. But he is telling you this. Think about it. The law itself in our fallen condition, the law itself, as we are already sinners, the law itself shows us our need of grace. Far from putting us right with God, the law shows that we are wrong with God; and that we need to be put right with God, but that we cant be put right ourselves, or in our selves, or by ourselves. In light of this situation, the law itself functions to reveal to us our sin, to convince us of our sin, and to show us that we need an escape from sin which we cant provide.

Isnt it interesting that in those habits and patterns of life in us which are most offensive to others, to our spouses, to our friends, to our colleagues, to those who know us best. When they confront us with those patterns, one of our favorite techniques is to deny that we have done that or thought that or said that. Because it is so painful for us to think about what we had done, we would rather pretend like we didnt do it in the face of clear contradictory evidence. And the apostle Paul says I know that. The sinner loves to cope by denial and the law is here to lift the mirror in front of us and to convince us that our denial is denial. Look what you are, look what you are. You need grace. The law cant save you. It cant put you right. It cant remove sin, but it can show you your need for a Savior. So far from justification being possible by the law, the opposite is true. The law brings the knowledge of sin. It uncovers and exposes it. It shows its true nature, and the fact that it deserves condemnation. The law imparts the knowledge of sin, it enables us to perceive that from the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.

Paul, as we said, doesnt have a hang up with obedience, he doesnt have a hang up with the law, but he has a hang up with people who think that they are obedient, who think that they are keeping the law, but they are not. And he is saying look, if you at the end of time are counting on the acquittal of God based upon being a nice person, based upon having done good deeds, based upon having been obedient to the law of God, youre verdict is already settled, and that is why you need an alien righteousness, not from within you, but from somewhere else. And that is why you need a supernatural power, not from within you but from someone else that can enable you to walk in righteousness.

And by the way, Paul, notice, is not pointing us to look within. So often we hear people today say, "What we need to do is look within and find the power, find that spark, find that divine something." That is the dumbest idea in the history of the world. Pauls whole point in this passage is there is nothing within us to look to that can get us off this particular hook. The whole thrust of his argument is we need to look somewhere else. We need to look somewhere else other than ourselves to find a righteousness that will stand us before God.

Pauls question to us is this. "What stands you before God? What makes you secure before the wholly God of the universe?" And his answer is, "The righteousness of God. Thats what stands."

But, you see, that brings another crisis. "Well, Im not the righteousness of God. My life condemns me if thats the standard. Where do I get this?" And Paul says, "Well, thats where I wanted you to be in the first place. Because until you understand that you need the righteousness of God, before you stand before the awesome and holy God, youre not ready to hear the good news that Ive been wanting to tell you." And for the rest of this book, for the rest of this book, Paul is going to tell us just how glorious that good news is. But it will make no sense to us, no sense, until we first acknowledge our need of that good news. Until were honest with ourselves, and we run from our deeds, good and bad, to the one place where we can find the righteousness of God, and thats in Jesus Christ as is offered in the gospel. Thats the issue that Paul is pressing on you today. Thats the issue that Christ is pressing on you for He said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy leaden, and I will give you rest." He can deliver, you cant. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, give us hearts to see our sin, and to see the greatness of the Savior, so that even as we are humbled by our sin, the Savior is exalted in the gospel, and we trust on Him alone for salvation and life. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

The Righteousness Which Comes by Faith (1) - Romans 3:21-26

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

(Romans 3:21-26)

The Righteousness which comes by Faith

If you have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3, verse 21 as we continue our study through this great book. Paul has spent the last two or more chapters making it very clear that all the world stands guilty before God. He has done this because if we do not understand, if we do not embrace the truth of the bad news, the good news makes no sense. It not only makes no sense, we cant appropriate it unless we accept the reality about ourselves as Paul has described it in Romans 1 and 2 and the beginning of Romans 3, the we are not prepared to embrace the grace which is offered in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why Paul has been driving that note home with such remorseless endeavor. Over and over and over he stresses that both Jew and Gentile apart from Christ stand under the condemnation of God.

And then having said that, he poses to us this question. What stands a man then before God. What are you going to be dressed in as you stand before God? In fact, as we begin to walk through this whole section from Romans 3:21-31, Id like you to hold a basic question in your mind. That question is this, standing before God on judgment day, knowing that you are a person who has been far from perfect, what is going to make you bold? We just sang about being bold on that judgment day. What is going to make you bold to stand before the all-seeing, the all-discerning righteous God of the universe?

I want you to pause and think for a moment. Almost all of us have hidden sins that would be extremely embarrassing to us were they revealed, even to those closest to us, much less before the congregation. And those sins are known before God, thinking of those hidden sins, would you hide right now which no one else know about. Serious? Some, apparently less heinous. What is going to make you bold before God, knowing that He knows those sins perfectly in the day of His judgment? What about those things for which we have been confronted by those closest to us? Rebuked, perhaps. Those rebukes which we feel deeply because we know that they strike at a truth about us which we dont particularly want to think about. A reality, a habit, a sin which is displeasing to God and hurtful to our neighbor. How are we going to stand before God on that last day? Boldly, knowing those realities and knowing that He knows those realities. Even those things for which we feel we are falsely accused of by someone close to us. We know the consternation of sometimes being falsely accused, and at the same time knowing that there is a grain of truth in this false accusation. How are we going to stand boldly before God knowing that those realities, and by the way, the reality of guilt, which is ours, is far greater than just the realities of our awareness of it. Were just talking about things that were aware of. That we become aware of reluctantly, perhaps. The reality of that guilt is far greater. How are we going to stand boldly before God on the judgment day with that reality about us?

Some people want to cope with denial. We are basically good people. God will let us off the hook. Were basically good people. Paul says if thats your answer, youre in trouble. And if thats your answer, youre not even prepared to hear my gospel, because its only the person who realizes Paul, what youre saying is true about me. I do deserve condemnation and judgment. Its only that person who is even ready to hear the greatness of the good news which he is going to unfold.

So what stands you before God? What are you going to be dressed in before God? How are you going to stand boldly, knowing what you know about yourself before the God who knows everything about yourself on that last day? Those are the kinds of issues that Paul is going to begin to deal with in this great passage today. So lets hear Gods holy word.

"But now, apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, theres nothing more important for us to understand in this life than the gospel. And so we pray that by Your Spirit in the next few moments You might give us an understanding and an embrace of gospel truth to the saving of our souls, and to Your glory. In Jesus name, we ask it, Amen.

Paul, in this little passage, sums up the argument that He has been laying the groundwork for throughout this epistle. In fact, he takes us in Romans 3:21 right back to a thought that he had given us in Romans 1:17. Id invite you turn back there. In Romans 1:17 he said that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation, and he went on to say, "For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed." Well, notice where he picks up in Romans 3:21: "But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested." Hes right back to that point.

From Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20 hes been explaining to us why we need this righteousness of God that has been manifested in the gospel. If we dont know that, or if we dont believe that we need the gospel, then what Paul says from now on is nothing more than gobble de gook. It makes no sense to us. But if we have been struck with the reality of what Paul has been saying about not only certain individuals, but everyone standing in need of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, then what Paul is about to say is the greatest news that has ever been heard. But theres no way that we can possibly cover everything adequately in Romans 3:21 through 26 today. There was one commentator who, having done the exposition of the first three chapters, came to Romans 3:21 and to the words "But now," and into this section of the gospel and preached twenty-two sermons on it. Im not going to subject you to that. But I had planned about three so that we could take our time. And Im not even sure whether we can do it in three, but thats what Im sort of aiming at. And what Id like to do with you this morning is concentrate just on the first two verses and not even the whole of verse 22.

So were going to look at verses 21 and 22 of Romans, chapter 3, and see Paul continue this legal judicial courtroom forensic language that hes been using. Hes been talking about us being guilty, hes been talking about us being on trial and being sentenced and being condemned. And now hes going to say something absolutely amazing. That God the Judge acquits sinners. He acquits those who are guilty because of His infinite love based upon the law work of His Son in His life and death, freely pardoning us as we place our trust, our faith, in Jesus who is the Messiah. But Paul is excited about the fact that God does this in such a way that not only is His own justice and righteousness not compromised, but in fact it is highlighted and exalted in such a way that He shows His grace to us. And in the showing of His grace, He actually emphasizes the perfection of His righteousness.

This is what boggles Pauls mind. Paul is not surprised that the God of the Scriptures is gracious. Paul is not surprised by that at all. Although that is an incredibly surprising truth when we contemplate who we are in the receipt of His grace. But Paul is amazed, hes overwhelmed that the God of grace shows His grace and bestows His grace in such a way that His justice is not compromised. You remember in Proverbs 17 God Himself had said, "Cursed is the judge who condemns the innocent and who acquits the guilty." The apostle Paul is about to tell us about God, the Judge, who acquits the guilty. And the question occurs to us, how can God, the Judge, condemn human judges who acquit the guilty and yet acquit the guilty Himself? And thats what gets Paul so excited about the gospel. Because in the gospel, Gods justice and His righteousness and His grace and His mercy are all displayed side by side, far from contradicting one another. In fact, enhancing our understanding of one another. So if you dont believe that God is just, you can never understand His grace. And if you dont believe that God is gracious, you can never understand this display of His justice. And so in this passage, Id like us to see four or five things, just in these first two verses. The first thing is this.

1. The gospel displays an inherent distinction between what we are in Christ, before union with Him and after.

Paul, in Romans 3:21, makes it clear that the gospel displays an inherent distinction between what we are before Christ, before union with Him, before trust in Him, and after. And, it displays the distinction between the old and the new covenant. Look at that little phrase in verse 21, "But now." Paul deplores "but now" as both a temporal distinction between what God had been doing in preparation for the fullness of times in the days of the old covenant, and the fulfillment of those promises and those prophesies and those types in the old covenant. You remember where Paul  the center point of history is Jesus Christ in His incarnation, in His life, in His death, in His resurrection and ascension. Thats the center point of history. Everything before it was then. Everything after it is 'now.' Thats the center point of history for Paul. And Pauls "but now" even points to that. Now we have come to the fullness of times. Thats how he says it in Galatians 4:4. "In the fullness of time, God sent His Son." And so that "but now" refers to that temporal distinction, but more than that it refers to that logical distinction between our plight which hes been talking about and Gods salvation. Our plight and Gods provision.

Paul, for two chapters or more, really from Romans 1:18 all the way to Romans 3:20, has been talking about the fix that we are in. We are sinful. We know we are sinful. We are guilty. We deserve condemnation, and now hes going to show us what we get from God in His grace and mercy as we trust in Christ, despite that situation that hes been talking about in Romans 1, 2 and 3. And so theres a contrast here between our plight and Gods provision. And the gospel displays this before and after reality. And thats one reason, friends, why if we reject the bad news, we cant accept the good news. You see, a person who thinks that there is no original sin, and that all people are basically good cannot even begin to understand what Paul is talking about in the good news of the gospel. If you believe that we are not in a state of deserving condemnation, in a state of wicked rebellion against God, the gospel is absolutely unintelligible, and thats why Paul says, but now heres where you are, heres what you deserve. But now here is Gods gracious gospel answer to it. And so if we reject our deserving of condemnation with it, we also reject salvation. Because salvation, Jesus said, is not for the righteous, its for sinners. God saves sinners is a beautiful three-word, nutshell of the gospel. But notice the word is sinners. Its not just people, its sinners that God saves. And those people who want to exempt themselves from the category of being sinners are not in the category for which God has presented the gospel. And so the gospel displays the distinction between what we were before and after our union with Christ.

Secondly, Id like you to see again in Romans 3:21, that the gospel amazingly displays Gods righteousness apart from our obedience of Gods law. The gospel displays the righteousness of God apart from our law work, apart from our obedience to Gods express commands. Notice this phrase, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law." Apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested. Paul is explaining to us in this little phrase, "apart from the law" that Gods righteousness has been made manifest wholly apart from our doing, from our obedience, from our law work. Paul is exposing the inherent legalism that results from separating the law of God from the promise of God and from the fulfillment of that promise in Christ. Paul is saying that Gods righteousness is going to be displayed in us in such a way that nothing that we do contributes to that display of Gods righteousness. There is absolutely nothing accessory or subsidiary or contributory to this display of Gods righteousness that we bring. It is an alien righteousness. It is a righteousness of God, provided by God, received by faith. It is not something in us.

Again, were back to that question. What stands you before God? On the last day, if it is anything in you that stands you before God that youre trusting in, what are you going to do with the other realities in you that you really dont want to think about right now. Unless it is a righteousness outside of you that stands you before God, you will not boldly stand before the throne of grace. The apostle Paul is telling us here that the gospel displays Gods righteousness apart from our law work.

Thirdly, again in verse 21, notice what Paul says: "The righteousness of God has been manifested. Even the righteousness of God through faith." He goes on to say in verse 22. The gospel, surprisingly, is fundamentally a demonstration of Gods righteousness and justice in the midst of His mercy. Now thats surprising, because if you and I were describing the gospel, we would use words like this: Grace, mercy, love and all of those would be appropriate and all of those would be right. But thats not what Paul is focusing on right now. He is focusing us on Gods justice, Gods righteousness. Why? How could we say that the gospel is about Gods righteousness? Isnt it about His mercy and Him not visiting His righteousness? No, Paul says, its about Gods righteousness. We just saw a few moments ago in Romans 1:17 that thats what Paul had said there. That in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, and he said virtually the same phrase here. The righteousness of God is manifested.

Paul is telling us that the gospel is the display of the righteousness of God. Now he means that in many ways, and we cant fully explore that. But let me suggest a few ways that he means that. First of all, hes talking about the righteousness of Gods character. We just quoted from Proverbs 17 in the passage which says that the judge is cursed who condemns the innocent and acquits the guilty. And yet Paul is telling us that God pardons guilty sinners.

Well, how in the gospel is Gods righteousness displayed then? Because He does that in such a way that the penalty of their sin is paid for in full. So that His character of righteousness is vindicated in the gospel. And Pauls going to use a word for that later in this passage called propitiation, the appeasement of the wrath of God due for sin. So God saves in a righteousness way.

But thats not all that Paul means. Paul also means that God is righteous in His covenant faithfulness. He has promised to save His people and His covenant as they trust in Him. That way of salvation is the same in the old and in the new. The old covenant folk looked to the promise of God and the coming Messiah, trusting in Him alone for their salvation, and were saved. In the new covenant we look to the promised Messiah who has come. We trust in Him alone for our salvation, and we find refuge. And God is righteous to do what He said in His promise. And, therefore, in the gospel Gods righteousness is demonstrated as He faithfully fulfills the promise that He has made to His people in all ages. So again the gospel displays the righteousness of God.

But the gospel also displays the righteousness of Gods condemning judgment. There is no greater picture of the judgment of God in the universe than the cross of Jesus Christ. On the cross of Jesus Christ you see forever, ever revealed that God takes sin seriously, and He will punish you. He will punish it all, and He will punish it all in one of two ways: Either Jesus Christ or you yourself; it depends on which federal head you want to choose.

If you choose Adam, youll pay for it yourself. If you choose Christ, He has stood in your place. And so God shows us the seriousness with which He deals with sin when He says to us that He delivered up His own Son as a propitiation for our sin. And so Gods righteousness is shown in that way. And Gods righteousness is shown in its imputation and our justification in its impartation in our sanctification.

The gospel reveals Gods righteousness in many ways, but especially Paul is concerned to show that we have been given a standing before God, that we did not earn, and that we did not deserve by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus righteousness was credited to our account. And in all these ways, the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, and Paul revels in this idea.

And then fourthly, Id like you to see in verse 21 that Paul makes it clear that the gospel is something which is actually evidenced and confirmed by the Old Testament. Paul is telling us when he says, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, hes telling us, "Look, Im not coming up with some new idea here. Im not the first person that ever thought of this. I am not the only person to whom this truth has been revealed. In fact, the law and the prophets, the Old Testament Scriptures, your Bible tells you about this way of salvation. Your Bible tells you about this purpose of God." Paul is telling us that he is not giving us a new teaching, but that this truth of the gospel and this truth of justification by faith is demonstrated in the Old Testament itself. The Old Testament clearly witnesses to it and testifies of the truth of the gospel and the truth of justification by faith. In fact, in Romans, chapter 4, the place that Paul is going to go to show the proof of the gospel from Scripture, is from Genesis, and the story of Abraham. When Paul wants to prove justification by faith, he goes right to the Old Testament, right to the story of Abraham, right to Genesis. And so those people who teach that salvation is by works in the Old Testament, and not by grace through faith in the New Testament have no clue about what the apostle Paul is speaking. That idea never entered into Pauls mind that there was some other way of salvation in the Old Testament than in the New.

You know, often times we ask this question, "Well, we know that salvation is by grace through faith in the New Testament; but I wonder if it was the same way in the Old Testament?" That question would never have occurred to the apostle Paul. Now he might have asked it this way: "Well, we know that salvation is by grace through faith in the Old Testament. I wonder if it's still that way in the New Testament?" But he never, ever would have questioned the truth that the gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone is an old covenant and a new covenant reality. Yes, in the old covenant they had to look forward to the coming Messiah, but they still trusted in the promised Messiah. In the new covenant we have the completed glory of Jesus Christ. So theres that "but now" there that Paul used in Romans 3:21.

But Paul is telling us that this teaching is not a new teaching. Its actually demonstrated in the life of Abraham. And then finally he says this: "Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe." Paul here tells us this. That God ordained that His righteousness would be received by means of gospel trust and belief in Jesus as the Messiah. Paul is telling us that this righteousness about which he is speaking is bestowed, is received by faith, by personal trust in God and in His promise and especially in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Paul is telling us that we receive, we participate in this righteousness about which he is talking about through faith alone, through belief and trust.

Its very important that you notice a couple of things. By faith Paul does not just mean you saying, "Okay, okay, I understand that. I understand that Jesus claims to be the Son of God, the Messiah." Thats not faith. Faith is not saying, "Okay, well I believe that Jesus is the Messiah. I believe that." Faith entails knowing and believing and trusting. The Old Testament uses some wonderful images and words to talk about faith. It talks about rolling ones burden over on another person. It talks about trusting in God in the dark when you cant see. Faith is not only belief in the truths which the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ. It is personal trust in Him as your Savior.

And notice especially that Paul goes out of his way to identify the object of faith as Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people today who think that they are saved by their faith. They think that their faith is what commends them to God. Thats not what commends you to God. Your faith is not a work. Christ commends you to God; faith is your way of laying hold of Him. And so the object of faith is not our faith, much less our works. The object of faith is Jesus Christ.

And so Paul says, "As we believe in Jesus Christ, as we trust in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as He is set forth in the gospel, so we find the benefits of salvation and are able boldly to stand on that last day." Because in that last day what will make me right before God is not that I have lived a perfect life or one near thereby. What will stand me before God is not that Im going to be able to keep all of my hidden sins a secret from Him. What stands me before God is that my life is closed with the righteousness of Christ. And Jesus Christ and His righteousness have become my glorious dress.

On that solid rock, we stand. Jesus Christ. His righteous, not ours, appropriated as we have trusted in Him alone for salvation. That is the beginning of the truth of justification by faith as Paul sets it forth here. And well continue that the next time. My prayer for you is this, though, that you will not fool yourself into thinking that God will sweep your sin under the carpet, or that you are basically a good person, and that God is going to let you in. Or on the last day saying, "Well, you know, I attended two church two out of four Sundays most mornings." But did you trust in Jesus Christ alone as He is offered in the gospel? Thats the only sure foundation for boldness on the day of the Lord. Lets pray.

Heavenly Father, there is an inveterate temptation in the human spirit to deny our own sin. And once having accepted that we are sinful, there is an inveterate temptation to try and find ways to justify ourselves. Save us from that temptation and enable us to flee to Christ for our eternal good and for Your eternal glory. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Justification by Grace Through Faith - Romans 3:21-26

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

(Romans 3:21-26)

Justification by Grace Through Faith

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3, beginning in verse 21. Just to remind you of a couple of things before we look at this great passage today. Were going to focus on the very end of verse 22, and then verses 23 and 24. But Paul, for more than two chapters, has been telling us the bad news. Weve said over and over and Romans 1 makes it clear that the Gentiles are under bondage to the law and to the condemnation of God, and they need redemption according to God provided to them freely. They cant save themselves.

But in Romans, chapter 2, he goes on to make it very clear that the Jews, too, apart from Christ stand in need of redemption. Now theres a message for us today. That not only is a message for pagans, those who are apart from religious belief or church involvement, those who have no Christian profession of faith, yes, of course, this passage speaks directly to them. They stand in need of Gods justifying mercy. But it also speaks to religious people who have no real trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. There can be much religious activity. There can be involvement in a body of believing people. There can be church membership and other things like that, and yet a person may in fact not have real trust in Christ. And Paul is speaking both to pagans and to religious people who are apart from a real trust in Jesus Christ, and hes saying this. "I have bad news for you. Apart from Christ there is condemnation for sin, and you are under that condemnation." And he spends two full chapters speaking about this condemnation, because before we can understand the good news, we must understand the bad news. So over and over he stresses the needs for Gods provision of salvation which everyone, without distinction, stands in need of.

And then secondly, Id like to remind you what we did last week as we looked through those first two verses, or really part of the first two verses of this passage. We focused on four or five things that Paul teaches us about the gospel there. Look at the phrase, "But now." He opens this section with "But now," teaching us that the gospel displays a distinction between what we were before Christ, apart from Christ, what we are in Christ after saving belief in Christ. Condemnation before, blessing and acceptance and justification afterwards. It also, of course, that "But now" speaks to the distinction between what God had been doing historically amongst his people before the time of the coming of Christ in preparation for that time, and what God was now doing since Christ has come since now in the fullness of time, God has sent His son to be a propitiation for sin. We live in an age which is uniquely a gospel age. And that "But now" displays that distinction in the gospel. The distinction between what we were before and after Christ as well as between the old covenant and the new covenant.

Secondly, look at the phrase "apart from the law" in Romans 3:21. Paul teaches us there that the gospel amazingly displays Gods righteousness apart from our obedience. Gods righteousness in the gospel is displayed not by our obedience, not by our law works, but in another way. Gods righteousness is displayed. That was a surprising thing we saw. Thirdly, in that phrase "the righteousness of God" has been manifested. And then again in the phrase, "Even the righteousness of God through faith," Paul told us something again that was surprising about the gospel. That the gospel is fundamentally about the displaying of the righteousness of God. We might have said well the gospel is about showing the grace of God or the mercy of God or the loving kindness of the Lord. And all those things would have been true, but Paul here is focusing us on the truth that the gospel is about the righteousness of God. In the gospel His righteousness is manifest even as He displays His mercy.

Then again, look at that interesting phrase "being witnessed by the law and the prophets." In that little phrase Paul is telling you that the gospel is not uniquely something that pertains to the New Testament. There wasnt, in other words, another way of salvation under the Old Testament. When he speaks of the gospel, notice what he says. It was witnessed to by the law and the prophets. In other words, the whole of the Old Testament bears witness to the way of salvation revealed in the gospel. So there is continuity between what God was doing then, and what God is doing now. The way of salvation is the same.

And then finally in that phrase, "even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe," we see that God has ordained that His righteousness would be received by the means of faith. That is, through belief and trust on Jesus Christ, God would bestow the righteousness of the gospel. And so these things are all things that we saw as we reviewed Pauls first two statements in this passage that pertains to the gospel.

This is a great passage. Paul packs it full of thought. Every word, every phrase has tremendous meaning. Remember that throughout as we studied this last week, we said that Paul has been pressing upon us an ultimate question, what stands a man before God? What makes a man right before God? On the last day what could possibly make a human being able to stand boldly before the throne of a God who is perfectly righteous. What will you be dressed in on the last day? How are you going to be able to be bold and confident on the judgment day? That cluster of questions which is really just one question, Paul constantly has on his mind, and hes pressing it home on us as we read through this passage. So bear that in mind throughout. Lets hear Gods holy word beginning in verse 21: Romans 3, beginning in verse 21. This is Gods word.

"But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration I say of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord, these words are glorious and they are so surprising. They are filled with such gospel, joy and awe. They overwhelm us, and we need the help of your Holy Spirit to understand them. We pray that by Your Holy Spirit You would open our eyes. If we come today skeptical, if we come in any way unbelieving, not trusting with the whole of our heart alone upon Jesus Christ alone, we pray that You would shake us from our spiritual slumber, that You would show us our sin, and that You would show us the Savior. We come as believers today, but struggling, struggling for the assurance of Your purposes in our lives, struggling with our assurance of salvation. We pray that You would, by the very ministry of Your words, strengthen our hearts and make us glad in our salvation. We pray, O God, that all the praise would be Yours, that You would enable us to open our eyes, to behold, to understand, to see, to hear and to embrace. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Everybody needs to know about justification by faith. If you have been a believer for thirty years, forty years, fifty years and youre here today, you need to know about justification by faith. I understand that if youre a believer you know something about justification by faith. A believers assurance to a large degree is tied to how well that believer understands justification by faith. You know if you know yourself very well at all, you know your sin. And if you know your sin very well at all, you know that it can be a nagging thing, and if you dont understand the freeness and completeness and the effectiveness of justification by faith, you will continue to be weighed down and nagged by your sin. Every believer delights to hear about the doctrine of justification by faith. You know you dont get finished with the doctrine of justification by faith. You dont become a believer and sort of shelve that one and move on to more important stuff. No, its the doctrine of justification over and over that enables us to grow in the Christian life. Faith itself is that grand instrument for the Holy Spirit for growth in grace. So justification by faith is a doctrine that every true believer loves to hear about and loves to know more of. In fact, I would go so far to say that if your heart does not thrill to know more about the free justification of God by the redemption of His Son, you dont know the Lord Jesus Christ. Because anyone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ wants to know of how freely He has given us salvation.

But the doctrine of justification by faith is something that everybody needs to know about. Not just believers, unbelievers. Those who are without a real saving faith in Jesus Christ. Unbelievers need to hear about the doctrine of justification by faith as well. For without understanding the doctrine of justification, you are without hope, you are without salvation. As we ask that question what stands a man before God? Theres only one answer. And that one answer comes in what the Bible teaches about justification. So there is no issue which a person who has no real saving faith in Christ needs to think about more than the issue of how a man is made just before God. How a man is declared righteous before God. How a man is accepted before God. How a man is pardoned before God. Justification speaks of all those things, and Id like again to focus your attention on the end of verse 22, and then down to verse 23 and 24. Well just look at three of four things that Paul says.

I. Everybody needs justification.

The very first thing that Paul says in this passage is a phrase that we didnt concentrate on, even though we studied verse 22. Its a phrase right at the end of that verse. For there is no distinction. And in that little phrase Paul teaches you the first thing you need to know about justification from this passage today. And that is that everybody needs justification. There is no distinction.

What is Paul saying? There is no distinction between sinners apart from Christ. If youre apart from Christ, it doesnt matter whatever else is different about you from everybody else in the world. The one thing that matters with regard to salvation, the one thing that matters salvificly, the one thing that matters is that you are apart from Christ. And therefore no matter how different you are from other sinners, from other groups, you are in the same fix that all sinners apart from Christ are in. You are under the condemnation of God. You may be rich, but apart from Christ you are under the condemnation of God. You may be poor, but apart from Christ you are under the condemnation of God. You may have been raised, you may be been reared in a very socially adroit kind of setting. You may have been reared with tremendous educational opportunities. You may be very influential in your community. Or you may be poor, you may never have had the opportunity for education. You may come from a background where you were on the wrong side of the tracks. None of those distinctions ultimately will matter. On the last day, the only thing that matters is that you are either in Christ or apart from Him, hen you stand before God and the question is asked.

What stands a man before God? What makes a man acceptable to God? If youre apart from Christ, that is the one thing that matters. There is no distinction. When the passengers list began to be put up in New York of the people who had survived the sinking of the Titanic, and those who had not survived the sinking of the Titanic. All the other distinctions in their lives were lost. There were only two categories: Those who were saved, and those who were lost. On the last day, thats the only distinction that will matter. There is no other distinction. And even though you were a religious person and even though you went to church very often, but you never trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, all the other distinctions will not matter. And so Paul presses this matter home, because the first point of salvation is recognizing your need. And if you dont think that you need to be justified, if you dont think that you need to be declared righteous before God, it is certain that you are lost. If you dont think that you need justification, it is certain that you are not justified. If you dont think that you need justification, it is certain that you have never understood in such a way to embrace the gospel itself. And so you were the very person who needs to listen about it.

II. Justification answers the predicament of sin.

But secondly, Paul goes on, notice in verse 23 to tell us this. "Justification is Gods answer to our predicament of sin." The nature of the problem of sin is stated again. Paul tells us here, "We have sinned, and we are continuously falling short of the glory of God." Now Paul has spent two chapters telling us this. Hes even been arguing with us a little bit about it, because he knows that some people want to argue back about this particular status. And so he pauses to tell us one more time, just to make sure. Do we understand what the problem is? Do we understand what our predicament is? And hes telling us, "Look, justification is Gods answer to that predicament." What is our predicament? We are sinners. We have sinned. We fall short of the glory of God. Weve missed the mark, we have broken Gods law through not being conformed to it, not obeying its positive commands through absolutely transgressing its prohibitions. We have fallen short of the glory of God.

How do you even explain or describe the strong words that Paul uses here to characterize sin? You know, missing the mark or falling short of the glory of God might sound like, "Ooh, I almost made it." Real close, you know, just a few more inches, and I will have gotten across that line. If the arrow had been just a little bit closer to the bulls eye, I would have gotten it. But thats not what Paul is saying at all. I ransacked my mind over the last few days thinking how do you illustrate this. And a couple of those horrible experiences from past life came to mind. One was sitting in an English class at University, and the professor would regularly call upon members of the class to explain to him what a poem meant or what a short story meant or what a book meant that we had been assigned to read. And then after you had given him your analysis of the book, he would brutally, brutally criticize your analysis of the book. On one particular day he asked a person in the class to tell him what a particular Robert Frost poem meant. I still shutter when I remember that exchange. The person had clearly studied and went into great detail about the meaning of this particular poem and the various aspects of it and the illusions and the various devises that Robert Frost had deployed. And at the end of this explanation, Dr. Bates said, "You missed the point," and I remember wanting to just crawl under my chair for that person. Everything that he had said was wrong. He missed the whole point of a poem. I had another flashback because a few years later I was in a preaching class in seminary, and a friend of mine had just preached his heart out on a text assigned by the minister who was teaching the class. And after the class was over, and we were to give our various input on the sermon, we were all trying to encourage this friend along. Always at the end of our comments and evaluations the teacher of the class would make his comments, and once again he came up and he said, "Now this is a very interesting text. And it was a very interesting presentation, but I want to make one thing very clear. You missed the entire point of the passage." You cant imagine how discouraging that is to a young minister to hear that word. "You missed the entire point." Well, it struck me. This is what Paul is saying, "That at the end of life standing before God almighty, the verdict on our life will be you missed the whole point." You see its not that you almost made it. It was real close, ninety-eight percent. You missed the whole point. Thats what Paul is saying. Thats the verdict on the sinner. You have missed the whole point for which I made you. I made you to experience companionship with me, to share my glory. You failed to receive that glory, you failed to glorify me, you failed to reflect my glory. You missed the whole point of life. Thats what Paul is saying. Apart from Christ the verdict of God against every individual is going to be "you missed the point." Its not that we got sixty-eight percent of it, or ninety-six percent of it, or ninety-eight percent of it. We missed the whole point. We were on the wrong tract, and its right in the context of that frightening verdict that Paul has such good news for us.

III. Justification is absolutely free.

And he begins to tell you that good news again in verse 24 because he says that those sinners who have missed the point, theyve missed the whole point. And yet those who have thrown themselves upon the mercy of Christ believing in Him alone for salvation, they have found that God has accepted them and declared them to be righteous freely as a gift. Justification, in other words, Paul says, is a grace gift; and it is a grace gift that comes from the extravagantly, loving hands of the heavenly Father. Justification, in other words, is absolutely free. We contribute absolutely nothing to this declaration of God. Justification means the pronouncing or a declaring of a person to be righteous. Its a law court term. Moses uses it in Deuteronomy 25, verse 1 to contrast with a judge condemning someone. The judge justifies or acquits someone who is innocent. He condemns someone who is guilty. But in this justification, someone who ought to be condemned is acquitted by God.

Justification is an act, its not an ongoing work or process. Its a judicial act, and its not our act. God justifies. We dont justify ourselves. In justification, God pardons us. He forgives us of our sin. He spares us the penalty of that sin. The only thing in our culture that comes remotely close is a presidential pardon. And when the presidential pardon comes down no one can ever again convict you for whatever crime you have committed. No one can bring to bear on you the judicial punishment for that particular crime. When the presidential pardon comes down it is absolute within this particular culture. You are freed. God, in justification as a gift, to a divine act of grace pardons us. He spares us the penalty that was due our sin. And that free justification flows from the heart of a father to all who trust in His Son. And it is given to them without price. It is freely offered. No wonder one of Erskines, when he was preaching a sermon on the story of the prodigal son, called the story not the prodigal son but the story of the free-grace Father. God, despite our sin, in justification because and insofar as by His Holy Spirit we have trusted ourselves and committed ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, God freely justifies us by His redemption.

And then Paul in the second half of verse 24 goes on to say one more thing. Notice the phrase "through the redemption" which is in Jesus Christ. Justification, in other words, justification, though it's free, is, in fact, very costly. Justification is free to us, but its costly to God. Justification is only made possible through an exorbitant expense through an extravagant purchase. Justification is free, but it is unimaginably costly. Paul says that it is extended to us as a gift by grace but it is purchased for us through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has paid a purchase price for us. Jesus Christ has paid by His life and by His blood, by His bearing the penalty of sin, a purchase price.

Redemption is a term that was oftentimes used to refer to people buying slaves in the slave market. They would redeem a slave. They would buy that slave. Sometimes they would set that slave free. Other times redemption was used to refer to buying prisoners out of being prisoners of war; redeeming them out of their bondage. And Paul is saying here that we are justified freely, but that free justification is done on the basis of Jesus paying a purchase price for sinners.

Now those two ideas may seem not to go together. Well, how can it be that justification be free and justification is costly? How can it be that justification can be a gift and at the same time justification is earned? How can those things go together? Now its interesting  the reformers beautifully emphasized both of those truths, that justification is free, and justification is costly. Justification cannot be earned, we contribute nothing to it. Its something that God does. Its something that He does not on the basis of anything in us, He does it out of His love, and His grace and His mercy.

The reformers preached that beautifully. They also preached beautifully the fact that justification is costly. Its costly to God. It cost the blood of His only begotten Son. Our justification was earned, as it were, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reformers stressed both of those things. But there were people who objected to their teaching. One man who objected to that teaching was a man named Socinus. In fact he specifically objected to John Calvin in his teaching on justification, and he said, "Look, justification is either free, that is, that God either freely forgives without condition, or justification is based upon an atonement, a price, a sacrifice. But it cant be both," Socinus said. Its either free, God just freely forgives, he sweeps it under the carpet, or justification is based upon the atoning, appeasing death of Christ.

Now Socinus went on to say: "And I believe that justification is free; therefore, I reject the idea that justification is based upon the atoning work of Christ because thats contradictory. You cant have it both ways. Its either free or its not. Its either a gift or its earned."

And John Calvin responded, "You have totally misunderstood Paul in the Scriptures. For though justification is free to us, and we receive it without cost, and it comes to us not because of something in us that prompts God to love us; but it flows out of the love of the Heavenly Father. It comes to us at a tremendous cost, not to ourselves, but to the Son of God. For He Himself bore the penalty of our sin; and He Himself received the verdict of guilty, though he was not, in order that we might receive the verdict not guilty."

In other words, in the heart of God every time He extends to a sinner the verdict of free justification, 'you are not guilty,' there is in the heart of God the corresponding remembrance of His verdict upon His own Son. So that when He freely and without price pronounces you accepted and acquitted and pardoned and safe, He remembers His verdict upon His Son that He was rejected and condemned and sentenced, and He paid the penalty. And thus justification is both free and costly, freely extended, flowing from the heart of love, and yet the medium through which that grace flows, the ground on which God can be righteous and merciful at the same time is the death of His beloved Son.

And do you see because of that why no one can be justified apart from belief in the Lord Jesus Christ? No one can be saved; no one can experience the free justification of God around the back of the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we do not trust in Him, if we do not worship Him, the one who paid the price of our justification, how can we ever expect to know the freeness of justification. The blessing of justification, the saving of justification.

And so the apostle in this passage teaches us that every one needs justification, and that justification is an answer to our predicament of sin, and that justification is absolutely free, and that it is unimaginably costly. And then He presses this home. When you stand before God, what will you say? Why am I able to stand before you this day? If your answer begins with "I," youre wrong. The answer begins with Christ, because justification begins with God. And knowing that and believing and embracing that is the beginning of an adventure that will last forever. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, on that last day enable us all by grace to say Thy works, not mine, O Christ. Amen.

God, in the Gospel of His Son - Romans 3:21-26

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-26 (3)

Atonement and Justification

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3, as we continue to look at this great passage from Romans 3:21-26 in which Paul begins to set forth the good news. Over and over weve said in Romans 1 and 2, and the first part of Romans 3 from Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20, that Paul has been establishing the good news, by explaining the bad news. He has told us that we are all in need, that we all stand condemned, that were all in sin. And so in Romans 3:21 when he begins to announce the good news it makes sense. Theres a context to it. We are in desperate need for the good news which he is explaining here.

But as weve seen the last couple of weeks, Paul says some rather surprising things. For instance, if youll look at verse 21 he says that apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made manifest. He told us in Romans 1:17 that the gospel displayed the righteousness of God, but here he says something surprising. That the righteousness of God is displayed in the gospel apart from our law works, apart from our obedience, apart from our merits, and he goes on to say that it is a righteousness which is through faith in Jesus Christ.

And then if you look at verses 23 and 24, the passage that we focused on last time, he begins to elaborate on this: This righteousness that we need. You remember the great question is what stands a man before God. On the judgment day how is that I am going to stand before the throne of God, bold and unafraid of judgment, knowing that Im a sinner. How am I going to stand boldly? Paul says, "Well theres this righteousness thats apart from your obedience which is displayed in the gospel." And he begins to explain that in more detail in verses 23 and 24. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Apart from Christ, standing before that judgment throne, the verdict is going to be you missed the point. God made you for fellowship, God made you to display His glory. You havent trusted in Christ, you havent received the gospel, youve missed the whole point of life. Paul says, "In Christ, all those who trust in Him are justified freely." They are declared righteous before God, freely as a gift of His grace. So that on the judgment day, all those who trust in Christ will stand before God and instead of the verdict of their sins being pronounced upon their own heads, the verdict will be 'Youre perfectly righteous. You are absolutely sinless in the eyes of God. You are declared to be holy and righteous and just by God because of the Lord Jesus Christ as you have trusted in Him.'

Now this raises several questions in our mind. How can this be? The apostle Paul knows that and thats exactly what hes going to explain for us in verses 25 and 26 today. So lets hear Gods holy word, beginning in verse 21.

"But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration I say of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for this word. Protect us again from its familiarity. Strike us in our hearts with a new appreciation for the depth of its truth. Enable us not simply to understand, but to embrace the message of Your free justification that we might stand boldly before You on the last day. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Many, if not most, if not all of you, have heard at some time or another someone ask the two EE (Evangelism Explosion) diagnostic questions. The first of those questions has to do with ones assurance of salvation. The second of those questions has to do with what one is basing ones assurance on. Why one thinks one ought to be assured of salvation. And so youve heard perhaps someone even ask you the question, "If you were to die tonight, are you sure that you would have eternal life?" Or, "Are you confident that you would go to heaven?" And then youve heard that second question. "Well, lets suppose, God forbid, that you were to die tonight and stand before God, and He were to say to you why should I let you into My heaven? What would you say?"

The first question deals with whether you feel assured of salvation, whether you are confident of acceptance with God. The second question asked this, what are you basing that confidence on? There are perhaps many who dont have assurance of salvation, and that lack of assurance and salvation is a pointer to the fact that they do not have a real embrace of Christ by faith. And so we use those diagnostic questions.

Well, there is a campus minister here in Mississippi who has added a third diagnostic question, and he likes to ask this of covenant children, because he knows that if youve been in an evangelical church in Mississippi, chances are youre going to know the right words to say when those first two questions are asked. And hes wanting to try and find out how he can really cut to the chase and see what you really think, and so hes added a third question. He asks the first question. If you were to die tonight, would you have eternal life, would you go to heaven? He then asks and if you were to stand before God, and He were to say why should I let you into My heaven? What would you say? And assuming that they give the answer "Well, because I trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin." He then says, "Okay, Ive got a third question for you. So what? What if God says to you when you say that, 'So what?'"

Now, Im not trying to be irreverent, but you understand what hes getting at. He knows that lots of people can mouth the right words to answer that second question but have no idea why that answer is the right answer. They have no idea why it is that Jesus Christ had to die, bleeding for the propitiation of our sins. Why it is that we must trust alone in Him alone for salvation? Why it is a combination of our faith and our works and His works and our works. They know the right words, but they dont know the why behind the right words, and so he presses that question home.

Theres a real sense here in verses 25 and 26 that thats precisely what Paul is doing. Hes telling us, hes explaining the why behind the answer I am trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation as He has offered in the gospel. He is explaining why it is that that is the only way that a person enters into and remains in saving fellowship with God. Id like you to see three or four things in these two very short verses today.

I. Justification is based upon Christ's bearing and satisfying the wrath of God.

First, if youd look at the first few words of verse 25. Really, you have to look at the last two words of verse 24 and the first few words of verse 25. Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. In this little phrase Paul is telling us that justification is based upon Christ bearing our sin and satisfying the wrath of God.

This is the first thing that Paul teaches us in this passage that justification, our being declared righteous on the last day, is based upon Christ bearing our sin and turning away appeasing, satisfying the wrath of God. The question perhaps is put to Paul. How can it be, Paul? How could you have just told me that justification is free. You have just told me that justification is a gift. Youve just told me that God justifies us by grace. How then, Paul, the question goes, can free justification be just? How can it be right for God to freely forgive sinners who really are guilty? How can God be the righteous God and freely forgive people for their sins? And the apostle Paul is answering that question here in this little phrase. And his answer is, "Divine blood atonement." Thats how God can be just. Thats how God can be just. Thats how God can be righteous. Divine blood atonement. He points us to the work of Christ on the cross, and he says Gods free forgiveness of you is right and just because He did not slide your sins under the carpet, He paid for them by the blood of His own Son.

Id like you to see three or four things that he says just in those little phrases. I was studying this week. I realized that I really should have preached the sermon on this phrase. I would about have time to do justice to this phrase and this sermon. As it is now, its only a fourth of what I have to say today, so Im going to hurry through it. But notice three or four things that we see just in this phrase.

First of all, notice the emphasis on the work of Christ on the cross. It doesnt say, because Jesus is a great moral teacher, believe in Him. It doesnt say, because Jesus lived this impeccable, wonderful life, believe on Him. It says that Christ Jesus was displayed as a propitiation in His blood. So the emphasis is on the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as necessary and fundamental for you being declared righteous before God.

There are a lot of people that dont like that message. They say, ooh, you know, you evangelicals, you teach this slaughterhouse religion, whereby you say that God in order to forgive has to visit His Son with wrath? Oh, thats horrible. What an awful, awful picture of Christianity you paint. Well, Im sorry, my friends, we didnt paint that. Paul did. If you dont like that, you dont like Paul. If you dont like Paul, you dont like the New Testament. If you dont like the New Testament, you dont like Christianity. Paul is setting forth here what is absolute bedrock Christian truth. The work of Christ on the cross is emphasized.

But notice also the work of God the Father is emphasized in this little phrase. Dont miss the picture. The picture is not of Jesus, the merciful one, trying to turn away the wrath of a mean, vindictive, narrow-minded, mean-spirited deity. No, look who it is who displays the Son. Its God who displays publicly His Son as a propitiation through His blood. The Father is the author of propitiation. The Father is the author of redemption. The Father is the author of justification. The Fathers love is already upon His people. The cross is the means of accomplishing the purposes of His love. Jesus is not on the cross trying to get God the Father involved in salvation. Hes on the cross because the Father has been involved in salvation from the beginning of the world, and He loves His people so much that Hes willing to spare not His own Son.

But notice that the passage also emphasizes what Christ did. He was a propitiation. Its interesting. We dont use that word very often. You dont use justification very often, unless youre talking about justifying what you have done to somebody or what you havent done to somebody. We dont use redemption that much. We would normally talk about buying something, but we normally dont talk about redeeming anything, except maybe a coupon. And we dont use propitiation very much. But these words are very important. Redemption speaks of purchasing back something that was in bondage. A prisoner of war or a slave. Propitiation speaks of turning away a deserved wrath. Propitiation means a wrath-removing sacrifice.

Notice what this little phrase says. It says that Jesus was a 'wrath-removing sacrifice.' He was a sin offering who appeased Gods just wrath and covered our sin. He turned away the wrath of God that should have been visited upon us. And this little phrase goes on to tell us one other thing. That the benefits of the provisions of grace in this passage provided for us in Gods free justification are received how? Through faith. It is the one who believes on Jesus Christ, the one who has a personal belief and trust who receives the benefits of this redeeming work.

And so the gospel of free justification, as Paul unveils it here, forces us to acknowledge two things at the same time. It forces us to acknowledge that its God the Father, Himself, who takes a loving grace initiative in our salvation. And at the same time it makes it clear that it is the righteousness and the justice of God that has to be dealt with and is dealt with in the death of Christ in order that we might receive free justification. The apostle is laying for us a beautiful picture and a beautiful explanation of why we can be confident of our salvation when we say we are trusting in Jesus Christ alone, as Hes offered in the gospel. Thats the first thing we see in this passage.

II. The gospel and free justification, rightly understood and taught, vindicate God's righteousness.

But the second thing Id like you to see. Look at the middle of verse 25. Just a little phrase, "This was to demonstrate His righteousness." In this little passage Paul is teaching us a second thing. That the gospel and free justification rightly understood, rightly taught, vindicate Gods righteousness. And weve said all along its a little surprising. You would think that the gospel would display or demonstrate Gods mercy or His grace or His love. And all along weve said now Paul wouldnt have quibbled with that. Of course the gospel does. Of course it demonstrates Gods mercy and grace and love. But Paul is emphasizing the fact that the gospel displays Gods justice. How? Thats a little strange to say, isnt it? Paul, having asked this question, 'How can free grace be right?" and having answered that question by saying, 'Because of divine blood atonement,' now makes an astounding assertion. He says that Christs death, Christs sin offering, Christ propitiation, Christs sacrifice to turn away the wrath of God, demonstrates Gods justice. It demonstrates Gods righteousness.

Let me make an audacious statement. Let me make a bold statement. Listen closely. Ill repeat it twice. But listen closely. The entire Old Testament sacrificial system calls into question the justice and righteousness of God if there is no real divine sacrifice. Listen to that again. The entire Old Testament sacrificial system calls into question the justice and righteousness of God if there is no real divine sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ. Now how in the world can I say that? I can say that because the author of Hebrews, in Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 4 says this: "The blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sins." Now what was the whole atonement ritual of the Old Testament based upon? The sacrifice of bulls and goats and other animals. And yet the author of Hebrews says the blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sins. And he doesnt mean, well, the blood of bulls and goats cant forgive now in the New Testament, but it could in the Old Testament. He means it never could forgive sin. The blood of animals cant atone for human sin. They cannot bring about reconciliation. They cant bring about redemption. They cant bring about propitiation. And the propitiation offered by Christ that Paul is speaking about here demonstrates and vindicates the justice of God in establishing the Old Testament sacrificial system by providing a real sacrifice on which they are all based. So Pauls gospel actually reveals Gods righteousness in showing that when He shows mercy, He doesnt just sweep sin under the carpet. He deals with sin by the death of His own Son, and those animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, they didnt forgive sin. They pointed forward to the One who was going to forgive sin.

III. Justification shows us how God's mercy is grounded in justice.

Pauls not finished. Theres a third thing that he shows here. Look at the end of verse 25, and the first few words of verse 26. "Because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration I say of His righteousness at the present time." Paul having made this audacious assertion that Christs propitiation demonstrates Gods righteousness, goes on to give a little bit further explanation about that. He tells us that Gods past mercy, Gods mercy to His people in the Old Testament, and even to some extent Gods forbearance with the nations, that He didnt just end the world in His judgment, Gods mercy in the past is grounded in His righteous judgment of Christ on the cross. Paul is saying something astounding here. Justification shows us how Gods mercy is grounded in justice.

You know Paul was never in doubt about mercy. He was never in doubt about the mercy of God. Youll misunderstand Paul is you think that Paul conceived of the God of the Old Testament as unmerciful. That thought never entered into Pauls mind even when he was an unbeliever. He didnt think that the God of the Old Testament was merciful. He knew that the God of the Old Testament was merciful. What blew his mind about the gospel though was how God could be merciful and still be righteous at the same time. For Paul, Gods mercy is axiomatic, but the wonder of His mercy, the wonder of Gods mercy is that it is just, and the gospel opened Pauls eyes to this. Apart from the gospel, you see, Paul says, the validity of the Old Testament sacrificial system is called into question. Its immoral for God to institute a system establishing atonement and reconciliation based on the sacrifice of animals. It's immoral because the blood, as he says in his own words, the blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sin.

I had a professor in Seminary who liked to speak evangelistically in various settings, and he would speak rather boldly. He was invited by a group of Christian businessmen who had a weekly luncheon in the city of St. Louis to come and give a presentation. They always asked the speakers to make the gospel presentation. He was told before he came that the group would be made up of Jews and Gentiles, ethnically and religiously speaking, and that some of the Jews were believing Jews. They believed on Christ. They were Messianic Jews, sometimes they are called; they were Christian Jews. And some of the Jewish men would not be Christians. And there would be some of the Gentiles who were there who were Christians and some of the Gentiles were not Christians. And he said, "Now you speak on anything you want." So he thought about this, and he was told by the man who invited him that, in fact, at that meeting, there would be a very large number of Jewish friends there. And so he decided, okay, I know what Ill talk about. And he titled his talk, "Moses the Great Barbarian." Now Im sure that phrase was calculated to offend about half of the people there. Thats a rather audacious kind of statement. I mean, Moses is the epitome of Jewish culture. He is the great prophet. He is the law giver. How dare you speak of Moses as the great barbarian. But this was his point. If Moses instituted a sacrificial system of animals that was conceived in and of itself to turn away the wrath of God, then Moses is no different than any naked savage in the wilderness who thinks that he can appease and placate and please the gods that he serves by the offering of animal sacrifices. No, the difference between Moses sacrifices and the savages sacrifice is simply this: That Moses sacrifice is pointed forward to the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They were not in and of themselves able to or designed to forgive sins. But they did point forward to the one real sacrifice that does forgive sins. And that teaches us that Christs cross-work flows both directions. It flows backwards in time, and it flows forward in time. It is Christs cross-work which provides the covering for the sins of all those who were under Gods covenant of grace in the Old Testament. And thats why it was just for God to be merciful to them, even though at that time in history no real sacrifice for sin had been provided. And so also it flows forward to us. We live 2000 years after His crucifixion, after His atoning work, and yet His benefits continue to flow forward. Justification shows us how Gods mercy is grounded in justice and righteousness.

IV. Justification compromises neither God's justice nor His mercy, but rather exalts them both.

And then finally, if you look at the last words of verse 26, you see a fourth thing. Paul here, having stated a question, 'how can God be just and freely graciously justified? and answered it, 'by divine blood atonement,' having made an assertion that Gods propitiation, Christs propitiation demonstrates Gods righteousness, having explained that by showing the relationship between the sacrifices of the Old Testament and of the New, now gives us a conclusion.

God, he says, God is simultaneously a just judge and a merciful Father to those with faith in Christ. You see justification compromises neither Gods justice nor His mercy, but exalts them both. Justification by faith compromises neither Gods mercy nor His justice, but magnifies them both. Any presentation of the gospel that denies either of those two realities is, in fact, not the gospel. You hear a presentation of the gospel that denies that God is just, that presents Him as merely a loving and merciful Heavenly Father, it is certain that you have not heard the gospel. And, of course, the gospel cant be preached apart from the expression of Gods compassion and mercy and love. And so both of those components must be present in a true presentation of the gospel. Here is the glory of the gospel, my friends. God shows Himself to be merciful. That is no surprise to anyone who knows the character of God. He is a God of patience and compassion.

But you see, when you say that God is merciful, you havent said the gospel yet. The gospel is more than that. God is merciful. That is true. God is merciful to rebellious, hell-bound sinners. That is amazing. But you still havent said all that the gospel is. God is merciful to rebellious, hell-bound sinners, and He saves them in such a way that His justice is not compromised. Thats not only amazing, thats mind-boggling. But you still havent said the gospel yet. God is merciful towards hell-bound sinners. He saves them in such a way that His justice is not compromised, and He does though at the expense of His own Son. Thats past our knowledge. Thats the gospel. The apostle Paul is saying in the gospel, I see the righteousness of God revealed in this way. The merciful God saves hell-bound sinners without compromising His justice by punishing His own Son. His Son who willingly takes their place, and receive upon His own body on the tree the due penalty for their sin. And offers to them salvation as they trust in Him. And you notice that emphasis there at the end of the verse. The one who has faith in Jesus. The provisions of grace, redemption, and propitiation, and justification and all those technical terms that Paul uses and piles up to describe the riches that we have in Jesus Christ. All of those things are appropriated by faith. And apart from faith they are not appropriated.

And that means, my friends, that it is only the one who has faith in Christ who can stand boldly on the judgment day. On the judgment day will you stand boldly? How will you stand? What kind of righteousness will you be dressed in? What will make you bold before the awesome, just judgment of God? Will you trust in Jesus Christ for salvation? If you do, why will you?

What is it about trusting in Jesus Christ thats so necessary? Why is it so necessary? Why is that the way of salvation? The apostle Paul explains. God is righteous. He never compromises that righteousness, even as He displays His mercy. And so His mercy is displayed at the expense of His Son, and only toward those who embrace His Son by faith.

Now that presses on all of us an issue today. Have we trusted in Jesus Christ? Trusting in Jesus Christ isnt something that you do twenty-five years ago, and then youre kind of done with it, to move on, to do what you want. Free grace, you see, free grace is the gift that costs you everything. When you trust in Jesus Christ, you commit yourself to a new life. Its a life in which you recognize that your whole purpose is to glorify God by showing that He is worth living for in spite of all the aspersion of the demonic forces and of those who hate Him in this world. He becomes the focus of your life, the center of your life. Do you trust in Him? If youve never trusted in Him, if youve never placed Your trust and received Him as Hes offered in the gospel, receive the Lord Jesus as hes offered in the gospel for your salvation, then you have nothing to say on that great day. You will stand before the throne; you will hear you missed the point; and there will be nothing that you can say.

But if youve trusted in Him, and if you will trust in Him on that great day you will stand, and in the gospel of His Son you will see Gods mercy and justice displayed toward you and in you, and you will be bold even as the world crashes around your ears. And youll rejoice as you see the saints of God vindicated, and as you see the enemies of God condemned. May God enable each of you to understand and to embrace the truth, and to walk with Him now and forever. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, it is in the gospel that You display Your glories, Your mercies, Your justice. We pray, oh Lord, that we would have some inkling of the beauty of the gospel ourselves, at least enough to know our need and to know the Savior, and to embrace Him by faith. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Justification by Grace Through Faith (2) - Romans 3:21-26

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

(Romans 3:21-26) (4)

Justification by Grace Through Faith

If you have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3, verse 21. Well look at this section of Romans one more time. Weve been working our way through the whole gospel, and weve paused, and we have tarried for three weeks, breaking apart Romans 3:21 through 26 into three parts. And today Id like to perhaps pull it back together, summarize, focus on especially some of the terms which are unfamiliar to us to make sure that they are absolutely certain in our mind. And then look at some of the implications of this glorious doctrine of justification by faith. As we do so, I want you to remember one thing in particular from our study of Romans 1:18 through 3:20. Paul has made it amply clear that we are without the righteousness that is necessary to stand before God to continue in a fulfilling relationship of enjoyment with Him to be acquitted on the last day. We lack that righteousness. In fact, we are in rebellion and sin against Him. We are under His condemnation. And Paul has piled up a whole array of words to describe our situation. We are without excuse. We are speechless before His judgment. We are sinful. We are condemned. We have been sentenced, and we are awaiting execution. All of that kind of language Paul piles up to describe our situation in relationship to God. Romans 3:21 through 26 is the antidote to that. Remember that as we come again to this great passage in Gods word:

"But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed. For the demonstration I say of His righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord, we ask for Your illumination that we might understand the truth of this word. We know that justification is at the very heart of our spiritual relationship with You. Its the foundation of so many other things in our salvation. We pray, O Lord, then that as believers we would understand this word, and that we would understand something of its implications for us. We pray as well, O Lord, that those who by Your Spirit are seeking You, that who have not yet trusted in Jesus Christ, that by Your spirit they, too, would see the truth of this word, and not see it in the abstract, but see it as it is for them. Embrace that truth to the saving of their souls. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Two things I want to try and do today. We have acknowledged all along as we worked through this passage that Paul stacks up a heap of words that we dont use in normal every day, breakfast table, over a cup of tea conversation. And I want to rehearse the meanings of those phrases and terms to make sure we have in our minds exactly what Paul is talking about. Because if we see exactly what Paul is talking about, we will be flooded with a vision of glory because this is amazing what hes telling us. Secondly, I simply want to recap for you the outline of Pauls argument in this passage, especially hitting three main truths which he focuses upon. Naturally, as we had opportunity to spend three weeks looking at this verse and taking it apart, we were able to focus on more things than that. But sometimes you lose the forest for the trees, and Id like to pull back and look at the picture of two or three major things that Paul teaches us. Those are the only two things Id like to do today. Lets begin with the words then.

I. The words Paul uses to describe the Good News are rich with meaning and comfort for those who take the time to study them.

When you look at verses 21 through 26 you will see a number of terms which Paul uses related to justification which are mentioned in the passage. And these words which Paul uses to describe the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ are rich with meaning and comfort for those who will take the time to study them. And Id like to look at some of these lesser known words and phrases and think with you about them for a moment, especially focusing on these three: justification, redemption and propitiation.

But let me start back in verse 21, youll a phrase there, the righteousness of God. What does that mean? Weve already said that Paul has argued that we lack the necessary righteousness to stand before God, and then suddenly in verse 21, Paul says, "But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested." Now what is it exactly that Paul means when he says the righteousness of God has been manifested. What is he talking about when he says the righteousness of God? Well, lets remember that what God is and what He does is righteous. Both of those things are true. God is righteous, and He does righteousness. God in and of Himself is upright. He is the ultimate, moral standard of the universe. Theres not some standard outside God and above God by which He is judged. He Himself, in His own moral rectitude, is the standard of right and wrong in the universe, and He is just in His very nature. So He is righteous. Righteousness then is an attribute of God. Thats one of the things that He is. But God also does righteousness, and He does righteousness in various way. Two immediately come to mind. God does righteousness when He punishes those who deserve to be punished. God does righteousness when he visits punishment upon those who reject His rule and His reign. So He is righteous in the exacting of justice.

But Hes also righteous when He forgives those whom He promises to forgive. So Gods righteousness is not only displayed in His justice, His righteousness is displayed in His mercy when He says to Abraham, "Trust in Me, and I will save you." And then He saves Abraham, and He fulfills His promises to Abraham. God is not only being merciful, Hes being righteous. It would be unrighteous for God to renege on His word. And so when He keeps His word in fulfilling His gracious promises, Hes displaying His righteousness. And Paul is telling us here that in the gospel Gods righteousness is manifested. And think of it. In the gospel, Gods righteousness is manifested in both of those ways. The gospel reveals, for instance, the truth that God will judge those who reject Him. The bad news always comes before the good news. Paul has spent two chapters telling us that apart from Christ everybody, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, religious or secular, moral or openly immoral, all apart from Christ are undone and will be judged by God. So the gospel begins with an announcement of Gods judgment against sin. Hes righteous.

But even within the good news of the gospel, theres a display of Gods righteousness. For at the cross we see Gods righteousness striking out against His Son in order to punish sin. So at the very heart of the gospel we see Gods perfect purpose to punish sin. But we also see Gods righteousness in mercy in the gospel. For the gospel is the fulfillment of all that God had promised Abraham. Its the thing which brings about the realization of the promises that He made to Abraham. In the gospel, God is faithful to be merciful to those whom He had promised mercy. And so Gods righteousness is seen par excellence in the gospel.

But the amazing thing that Paul tells us here is that that righteousness can actually be received by you. You can receive that righteousness by faith, and so the term "the righteousness of God." Its used twice, once in verse 21 and again in verse 22.

But then theres another term in 22 that I want you to see. Its used in the form of a noun and of a verb. The noun faith, the verb believe. Notice how often Paul emphasizes our faith. It is made amply clear by Paul that faith is necessary for justification. I mean, there are some people, and I dont quite understand their reasoning, but there are some people who seem to believe that all men are condemned and all men are justified, and that faith is not a condition of that justification. Ive never quite understood that. It directly contradicts the teaching of Jesus who say, for instance, twenty times in the gospel of Matthew stressed to those to whom He ministered that their faith was a necessary part of their reception of His redeeming blessings. Paul makes that clear, too, doesnt he. "The righteousness of God through faith," verse 22. And just in case you forgot, "for all those who believe." He says it twice just to make sure you see how central faith is to receiving the righteousness of God. Faith is a necessity for justification.

But what is faith? What does it mean to believe. It means at least two things. To have faith is to believe Gods word, especially His promise and to believe God Himself, especially His son, Jesus the Messiah. That is, faith has two components, belief and trust. Faith means believing Gods word. Thats trusting in what He says, the truth that He says, the doctrine that He says, the propositions that He gives us in the forms of words and sentences. But faith is also a personal trust, a leaning, a depending, a resting, a receiving based upon a personal relationship.

Now people constantly make a mistake by defining faith as one or the other, as opposed to both. Some people will say things like this. "Well, Christianity is a person, not a proposition." Or maybe theyll say it this way, "Christianity is not a person, not a doctrine." Paul would respond, "Wrong. Its both, its both." Faith, which merely believes in ideas but does not have personal trust is not the saving faith which Paul is speaking about. But faith which says it is personal trust, but does not embrace the truths, the doctrines, the words of God is also not saving faith. Saving faith has both. Receipt of Gods word, belief of Gods word as well as a personal trust in God, and especially His Son, Jesus Christ.

In verse 23, we meet two other terms that are not terms that we use in very technical ways and regular conversation. The term sinned which we do use frequently, the words fall short which is not a term, in its technical sense, that we often use. To sin, our Shorter Catechism reminds us, means to break Gods law by omission or commission. The Catechism says it much more eloquently, doesnt it? Sin is any want of conformity unto omission or transgression of commission the law of God. Now the Catechism is just ripping off John, because John, in I John says, "sin is lawlessness." And so the Catechism is just recognizing that there are two ways you can be lawless. You can fail to do what God tells you to do, or you can do that which God tells you not to do. You can omit to do its commands or you can commit a transgression against those commands. And in this passage Paul is using the term sin in that way. To sin is to break Gods law by omission or commission, and thus fail the purpose of our creation. Thats the effect of that phrase. Fall short. All have sinned. All have broken Gods law and fallen short. We have failed the purpose for which we were created. Weve missed the point. Whats the point? To glorify God. To live for God. To live for His glory. Thats the point, but thats not all sin is.

Because sin is also the rupture of a relationship. In this case its the rupture of the relationship that God created us for. He created us to be in everlasting companionship with Him, to be friends if I can put it that boldly. And sin is our rupturing of that relationship which God intended for us. And thus, when we sin we not only fail to glorify God, but we also fail to participate in the greatest blessing of life for which God made us companionship with Him which results in what? Enjoying God. To sin, then, is to fail to both glorify and to enjoy God, and thus it is to fail the purpose for which we were created.

What is the glory of God? That is a harder question than you might think. The short answer is that the glory of God is God Himself, because God is inherently worthy of praise. Notice how the Psalmist says it: "Give unto the Lord." He says to you, "Give unto the Lord the glory which is due His name." His name inherently is worth being praised. He is glorious in and of Himself. His essential worthiness to be praised is His glory. His weightiness, His fullness, His due, that is His glory. Ezekiel describes Gods glory in Ezekiel, chapter 1. The Rabbis later would not allow young men under the age of thirty even to read the description, so awesome and mysterious is the glory of God.

What then, in verse 24, is grace? Thats a term we throw around all the time. Sometimes we hear it explained in an acrostic that John Stott or maybe someone before him came up with. Youve heard it, g-r-a-c-e. Gods riches at Christs expense. Thats a good explanation of grace, and one could do much with that. But I want to be a little more specific than that. Oftentimes we say grace is 'unmerited favor.' Thats true, but you know you can show someone favor that they didnt earn without their necessarily being a breach in your relationship with them. You can give a child a free gift where there is not necessarily a terrible breach in the relationship. Grace is the bestowal of favor, even in the face of a breach of relationship. So we need a more specific definition for it.

What is grace? Grace is Gods free favor bestowed on those who deserve His condemnation at the cost of His Son. Gods free favor bestowed on those who deserve His condemnation at the cost of His Son. That is grace. Notice it is free favor. Theres nothing in us or about us that prompts that favor. God just loves us. Its bestowed on those who are not merely victims of sin, but on those who are perpetrators of sin. And its done so not by God sweeping that sin under the carpet, but at the cost of His own son. As Derek Thomas described for us a couple of years ago, the gospel is not that God forgives. The gospel is that God forgives at the cost of His Son. And those two things are very different. You leave out the cost of the Son, you dont have the gospel. You dont understand grace. Mercy in the Bible is Gods favor shown to us in our capacity as victims. We are all hurt by sin in this fallen world, but grace in the Bible is Gods favor shown towards us, even as we are considered as rebels against Him and His will. And so he overwhelms our sin and draws us into His favor and into His kingdom. Now, lets look at those three great words that I want you to concentrate on in these passages.

In verse 24 the word justified is used. What does it mean to be justified? Let me say before we say what it means, let me say emphatically what it does not mean. Just to be justified does not mean to be made righteous. This is so important for you to understand. To be justified does not mean to be made righteous, it means to be declared righteous. Do you remember when we were looking at that interesting passage both in Deuteronomy, chapter 25, that also in Proverbs 17? Turn with me there for a moment. Proverbs 17:15 says this: "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord."

Now think about it for a minute, friends. If to justify or to be justified means to make righteous or to be made righteous, what would be wrong with someone making the wicked righteous? I mean if this passage means He who makes the wicked righteous is an abomination to the Lord, it wouldnt make very much sense would it? But if this passage means that the judge who accounts or declares to be righteous the wicked or declares to be wicked and condemns the righteous is an abomination of the Lord? It makes sense.

This term as well as the term used in Deuteronomy, chapter 25, indicate that Paul uses the term justification in a legal sense. It means to be declared righteous in a court of law, to be counted or treated as righteous. And so we are accepted by God, not by our being made acceptable, but by this great exchange whereby we are accepted on account of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. He is righteous, we are not. We are declared righteous because of Him. That is justification.

Lets look at the word redemption. This is a precious word, too, in verse 24. Paul says that we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. To be redeemed is to be set free by the payment of a price. We said that in Pauls day you could have seen living illustrations of this in at least a couple of ways. Have you been in the slave market? You could have seen people who purchased a slave out of slavery and set that person free by the payment of a price. Its a commercial transaction. You could also have seen it when a king or a group of leaders purchased prisoners of war out of their confinement from their enemies by the payment of a ransom or a price. This was an illustration which would have resonated with the people to whom Paul was speaking. And so for us to be redeemed is to be set free by the payment of a price.

And then finally in verse 25, this word propitiation. Again, not a term that we use very regularly. What does propitiation mean? Propitiation, or a propitiation, means a sacrifice that turns away wrath. It is a sacrifice that appeases Gods just indignation and covers our sin. Now those three words are particularly precious to the Christian, and I think you should ponder them for a while.

But they are also very important for the unbeliever. Think of them for a moment. Justification, redemption and propitiation. Now Paul has already told you from Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20 three things about us as sinners. First of all he has told us that as sinners we are condemned as guilty. Secondly, he has told us as sinners we are sold into bondage into sin. And thirdly, he has told us that as sinners we simply are awaiting the final visitation of the wrath of God, because as sinners, facing God apart from Christ there is nothing to stand in between us and the just visitation of Gods wrath. Now think about those three precious words. Justification, redemption and propitiation.

Justification answers the problem of our being guilty and condemned as such by pronouncing us not guilty. Think about that, Christian. The next time you are wrestling with the sin with which you struggle, and you are feeling the weight of its guilt, and you are wondering if God will accept you, and you reflect upon your faith in Christ, remember this. That in Christ you are declared not guilty. The next time the accuser whispers in your ear, but if youve sinned youve lost your salvation. Reflect upon the truth of justification, not guilty. The truth of justification is not made perfect, made perfectly righteous. The truth of justification is declared righteous, no condemnation. Now I dread. Think about that. An unbeliever, as you struggle with your guilty conscience, knowing that you ought to be condemned in those fleeting moments of honesty when you can face yourself in the mirror and acknowledge what you are. Remember that you indeed ought to be condemned. But there is a free justification provided in Jesus Christ. Justification answers the problem of our condemnation for guilt of sin.

But redemption does something else. You remember in that frightening passage in Romans, chapter 1 where Paul says that if the Gentiles who sin and who rebel again him and worship the creature rather than the Creator, three times he says what? God gave them over. God gave them over. God gave them over. He let them do exactly what they wanted to do. He sold them into the bondage of their own sin. Now what does redemption do? In redemption, Jesus buys us back out from under the bondage to sin into which we had sold ourselves. And He does it not by paying a price other than Himself, but by paying the price of Himself. Now you think about that, believer, as you struggle with that sin that you dont seem to be able to shake. And you feel like you are powerless before it. You remember that your Savior sold Himself as the price of the redemption of you from the bondage of sin, so that sin shall no longer have dominion over you, because you have a new Master.

Then think about that glorious word propitiation. You remember in Romans 1 and 2 Paul says all we have is the anticipation of the visitation of the wrath of God, for we have no excuse, we have no argument against it. All we can anticipate is Gods perfect penal wrath being visited upon us. But heres propitiation. And in propitiation, the Lord Jesus Christ in His sacrifice on the cross appeases, He quits, He satisfies the wrath of God so that not one sin is unatoned for, for the one who believes in Jesus Christ. So that we stand before God knowing that Gods wrath has been poured out to the full in Jesus Christ. It is not that God cancels those sins, He liquidates them. It is not that He sweeps those sins under the carpet, He visits the penalty and the condemnation of that sin on the person of Jesus Christ so that that penalty and condemnation has been swallowed up in Christ. It doesnt exist any more for us.

Do you see the freedom that that brings to the Christian life? For the unbeliever, do you see the glorious offering of the gospel that Paul is setting forth before you. You struggle with guilt, Ive got justification. Youre bound to your addictions, Ive got redemption. Youre afraid of the wrath of God, you ought to be, but Ive got propitiation. Thats what is freely offered to you. Embrace Christ and you have it all. You see why its so important for us to learn these wonderful words. Jim Phillip is surely exactly right when he says, "It is not too much to say that a true estimate of the New Testament gospel depends upon a proper interpretation of the words righteousness, propitiation, justification, redemption and faith. You see how much encouragement there is in these words.

II. Paul tells us three eternally significant truths.

And then finally and very briefly let me just say this. As you look at the big picture of what Paul does in verses 21 through 26 you see Paul telling you three eternally significant truths. The first one is this: There is a righteousness that is provided by grace. You lack righteousness? Hes argued that for two chapters. That righteousness is provided as a gift by God. You dont produce it, you contribute nothing to it. It is created outside of you, it is a divine righteousness, its offered to you, its provided to you. Its provided for you by grace.

The second great truth is this, and you see it. Our purchase, our redemption is based upon a divine blood sacrifice. Do you see how Gods mercy and His justice are so beautifully joined here? God freely forgives, but He forgives in such a way that the basis of our security and our salvation is the blood atonement of His son. The blood sacrifice of His son. The divine offering of His Son. Do you see how that gives you security? When you stand before the Lord on the Judgment Day, youre plea is not "Oh Lord, youve made me a better man." When you stand before the Lord on your Judgment Day, youre plea is not, "Well, Im basically a good person." Your plea before the Lord on the Judgment Day is not, "Well, Ive tried to live a good life." Your plea before the Lord on the Judgment Day is simply this. Christ, in my place, He is my righteousness. My redemption is purchased by His blood sacrifice. Turn to 499 right quickly. Were about to sing it. Look what Augustus Toplady says when hes contemplating meeting his God before the throne in eternity. Stanza 4, "While I draw this fleeting breath." Here he is at the gates of death. "When mine eyelids close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on they judgment throne." Whats his plea? "Rock of Ages cleft for me." Even in glory he doesnt say, "Lord, accept me because Youve transformed me? Lord accept me because You have justified me by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And thats the last thing that Paul teaches. That benefit, the benefit of Gods righteousness, provided by grace is received by faith. So that when you say and when you mean, "Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee," then you become the recipient of an alien righteousness which you contributed nothing to, but which restores you to what you were created for, to glorify and enjoy God forever. Lets pray.

Our Lord, we fall short of the glory of Your word in our understanding. But Your truth is so manifest that no opened eye can miss it. So help us to embrace it and to live it. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

The Instrument by Which We Receive the Righteousness of God: Faith - Romans 3:27-31

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:27-31)

Faith: The Instrument by Which We Receive the Righteousness of God

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3. Weve been in Romans 3:21 through 26 for the last few weeks as we have meditated upon this glorious doctrine of justification by grace through faith. And just as Isaiah, before he gives us that beautiful presentation of the gospel of grace which he begins to unfold for us in the 30s and especially in Isaiah 40 and on. He gives us first the bad news of Gods judgment, warning and woe. So also Paul in Romans, and especially chapters 1 and 2, and the first part of chapter 3 prepares us for the good news with the bad news. The good news makes no sense if we dont understand the bad news, and if we do not embrace the delivery of the bad news. You can hear the bad news and still say, "Well, Im not sure I buy that." Pauls good news makes no sense if youre not a person who senses the need for the forgiveness of sin, senses the need for the reconciliation with God, senses the need for redemption and propitiation and forgiveness and justification. Those things make no sense.

Now you understand, of course, that just because you dont sense it, doesnt mean that you dont need it. But Paul spends all that time with the bad news, not because hes morbid, but because he wants you to embrace with joy the salvation provided by God that you do need. That urgency for Paul is still here today. As we read his words, theyre just as urgent today speaking to us. So, lets hear Gods holy word here in Romans 3, beginning now in verse 27:

"Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we ask that this day, not only as every Lords Day, but especially this day that You would open our eyes, our hearts, to understand Your word. Perhaps there are some here who have never embraced Christ by faith. Theyve never understood the glory of what it means to be justified and to receive that justification by faith alone. They dont understand the terms, they dont understand the offer, they dont understand the grounds. They certainly never embraced it themselves. For those we pray that You would open their eyes. That they would see just how grand this truth is. That I would overwhelm them, that it would flood them with the knowledge of God and of grace. Perhaps there are other believers here who have never adequately taken into account the implication of justification for their own lives. Theyve never known the freedom that the believer can have. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from fear of condemnation that comes only through the free justification provided in Christ Jesus. We pray for those believers, that You would shake them, shake them with the grace of the gospel so that they embrace it in a way that they never quite understood it before. Perhaps there are others, O God, who have presumed upon Your love. They think of themselves as believers, but they have presumed upon Your love. Theyve never really trusted in Jesus Christ. Theyve never known the power of the Holy Spirit transforming them by the gospel of grace. Take hold of them, show them their sin, their need, and then display the Savior and the gospel and humble them and exalt them simultaneously. Hear our prayers, we pray, in Jesus name, Amen.

Beginning in Romans, chapter 3, verse 27 Paul is interested in drawing some deductions from the teaching which he has been giving to us in Romans 3:21 through 26. He has set forth all the basics of his doctrine of justification, his doctrine of salvation by Gods free justification based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ received by faith alone. He has set forth all the basics of that doctrine here in a short span of verses from 21 to 26. Now He wants you to see some of the implications of that doctrine. In fact, he wants you to see a lot of implications in that doctrine. Much of the rest of the theological section of the book of Romans will be based upon Pauls expounding the implication, his applying the truth of justification and its ground, its origins, and its implications for your life.

Why is Paul so concerned to talk about this? Why is Paul so preoccupied? Why is he so fixated on this? Why does he spend all this time thinking with you, telling you about justification? Because its at the heart of Christianity. Because justification is at the very heart of the gospel of grace. Its at the very heart of Gods plan to reconcile sinners to Himself.

Confusion in this area is spiritually deadly. The person who thinks that he or she has something in and of himself or herself to commend himself or herself to God is in trouble. The person who thinks that Christ plus a little bit that they do makes you safe before the searching judgment of God is in trouble. The person who believes that God does a little bit, and we do a little bit. The person who thinks that God does something, and we do something in response that merits His justification. All of those mistakes are of a kind, and they are deadly. They are spiritually deadly. And Paul knows that. And Paul is concerned for both the Jewish and the Gentile believers in this young church, this young congregation of Christians in Rome. Hes concerned for both of those groups of Christians to understand the basics of the gospel and the basics of how people relate to God almighty.

Think of the struggles, for instance, the Jewish Christians in that congregation would have undergone. Not only had they been reared in a system which taught them to think about salvation in different terms than Paul is talking to them, but they have a circle of family from which they have come. They are Jewish Christians, and if you know Jewish Christians today, you know the enormous strife and tension that can be created in a family when a person reared in the Jewish ethnic situation and faith comes to faith in Christ. Suddenly theres enormous tension in these young Christians who are of a Jewish extraction. They know that tension, perhaps more than any generation of Jewish Christians has ever known. And Paul knows that their friends and their family, and their relations, their colleagues, their associates, all of them have a different view of salvation than the one that he is setting forth, and the one that the apostles are preaching. And he wants those young Jewish Christians to be grounded in the faith as Christ wants them to understand it. And they can so easily be confused. And so he dwells on this doctrine, because its almost alien to their categories of thinking. They naturally think in terms of meriting. They naturally think in terms of boasting in the unique privileges which they have been given, and that those privileges in and of themselves set them apart from the Gentiles and warrant them as recipients of the blessings of God. And Paul wants to completely disabuse them of that kind of thing.

And then there are those Gentile Christians. Bless their hearts. They dont know Genesis from Malachi. They havent been reared in good Bible believing Jewish homes. They dont know anything. They dont know anything about salvation history. And they could be so confused by the crazy ideas about salvation floating around in the Greco Roman world, and Paul knows that he needs to take them right back to the Old Testament. They need to understand their Bibles so that they can understand how glorious and how free is this justification that God has provided for them in Christ. And so both those Jewish Christians and those Gentile Christians are in need of grounding in the way of salvation. Of course, Paul is fixated on this because to conceive of relating to God on the basis of ones own merits in any way, shape or form is to condemn yourself to eternal perdition. And so Paul here directs us again to reflect upon the truth of justification by faith.

And I want to put three matters before you in this passage, and really Im going to zero in just on the first one today. Well see how far we get, and maybe well get to the other two next week. Lets look especially at verse 27 to begin with. Notice what Paul says in response to his exposition of justification by faith. He says this. "Where then is boasting? It is excluded," he says. "By what kind of law, of works?" No, but by a law of faith. Paul has been concerned all along about misguided Jewish boasting. We saw that in Romans, chapter 2. The Jewish people had responded to his presentation of the gospel by saying, "Paul, look, you dont understand. Were the elect. Weve been chosen by God from among the nations. Weve been set apart. Were His people. All this that youre saying, well, it may be nice for the Gentiles, but we dont need this. We are the elect. We have circumcision. We have the sign of membership in the community. Weve received a law. God has revealed Himself to us in His law. Weve been set apart. Were Gods people. We dont need reconciliation with God. Weve already got it. Weve got privileges. Weve got standing. We dont need this gospel that youre peddling." Paul has been concerned about that kind of misguided Jewish boasting precisely because that religious self-confidence blinds the Jew to his need of the gospel. The Jewish person who thinks that hes already got it, doesnt want to respond to Pauls exposition of the gospel by saying, "Well, you know, I really am needy, and I need Christ."

You may have remembered about twenty years ago a campaign was mounted, and it was called the "I Found It" campaign. It was a gospel evangelistic campaign to spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the United States. It was entered into by a variety of denominations and paired church groups. Well, there were many Jews that were offended by that campaign. And they began to run billboards themselves that said, "We Never Lost It." Pauls used to that kind of response from the Jewish people. To say that youre lost and that you need to be found is dependent upon the reality of your lostness. Paul is concerned about people who say, "Well, Ive never been lost. Im not in need of this that youre offering." And here Paul is telling us that when you understand salvation, when you understand justification, when you understand the grounds on which God accepts a person, when you understand the way that you receive the blessings of justification, then there is no room left for pride. Theres no room left for boasting. Theres no room for saying, "Well, you know, I didnt need this. I didnt need grace. I didnt need the death of the Messiah. I didnt need forgiveness." Theres no room for boasting. Theres no room for saying, "Well, you know, there was a little something I did that set me apart from him. In the final analysis, I was a little better person than that person, and that is why I was accepted by God." Paul says, "If you understand the way that God saves, theres no room left for self-congratulation. Theres no room left for self-commendation." You would never, ever think of presenting yourself before God and saying, "Well, Lord, you know, actually I have been a pretty good person." You would never even think of it if you understand the way of salvation.

And this is very significant my friends because the way that you come into the kingdom dictates in large measure the quality of life that you will experience in the kingdom. If you think that you become a Christian through something that you do, that will determine in large measure the kind of Christianity that you practice as a professing believer. If you think that its a little of God and a little of you, then you will work like a beaver as a professing believer to try and assure that you get the things that are offered in the word. You will begin more and more to work for the promises of God. If, however, you understand that free justification is the entrance gate into a reconciled experience of communion with God, then the whole of your experience as a believer you will understand is under- girded by free and sovereign grace. And everything that you do in your believing experience is the result of Gods grace in you, not the cause of it. Its what God is aiming to work in you, not that which you have to do in order for Him to love you. And my friends its all the difference in the world. If you have ever known anyone who is racked with struggles, with assurance because they werent sure that they had done right enough to be accepted by God. You know how crucial that distinction is. The apostle Paul is hitting it with full force.

This is important, my friends, because true religion in the Bible is always characterized by humility. Anywhere the Bible defines for us true religion, I promise you youll find humility somewhere nearby. When Micah is talking about it, he talks about humility. When Isaiah is talking about it, he can speak of God being high and lifted up, and yet dwelling with whom? With the humble and lowly of heart. And its not just an Old Testament thing. Humility is part and parcel of the Christian experience. And Paul is saying that the way that God saves us itself humbles us and leaves us with nothing to boast of. The way we are saved must accord with the spirit which is to characterize the true Christian. You cannot produce humility through a way of salvation which in and of itself leaves a person able to boast. If in the final analysis as I stand before God, my hope is that there is something about me and in me that is different from another person who is under Gods condemnation, then I am undone. Because the apostle Paul says "The hope that all those who trust in Christ have is not based upon something that has been done in them. It is based upon something that has been done outside of them. It is not based upon something which God is doing in an ongoing work in them, it is something that God has done for them in their place." And that something is the free justification which flows from the work of Jesus Christ. And, therefore, Paul says my doctrine of justification by faith does just that. You exclude boasting all together. You understand what I am saying about justification, you have no ground for boasting, but at the same time if you embrace it, you have no ground for fear. And those are the two directions that Id like to take this with you today for just a few moments.

But you may be asking, "Well, hold on. How is it that Pauls doctrine of justification by faith excludes boasting? How is that Pauls doctrine of justification by faith makes it absolutely impossible to reimport our obedience, our works, the things that we do, our efforts, however good they may be. How is it that that doctrine keeps you from importing those things into Gods salvation?"

Well, Im glad you asked that question. There are two parts to Pauls answer. You really see the two parts to Pauls answer in verse 27. "Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith." Now right there Paul focuses us on that way by which we receive our justification. He focuses us on the instrument of justification: Faith. But previous to verse 27, in verses 21 through 26, he has spent a lot of time telling us the ground or the basis on which we are saved. Now those two things are different. Theres the basis on which we are justified, theres the way in which we receive that justification. There are the two parts of Pauls answer. Let me tell you, Paul says, how it is that my doctrine of justification by faith excludes boasting. First look at justification, then look at faith. First look at the basis of your acceptance with God, then look at how you receive that acceptance. First, look at the ground of salvation, then look at the means of salvation. First, look at what I do to save you. Secondly, look at what you do to receive the gift that I have accomplished in salvation. And as you look at those things, Paul says, you will see how impossible it is to import your works and thus any of your boasting or self-congratulation or self-commendation back into salvation. So lets look at these two parts together.

I. The ground of our acceptance with God.

First, if youll look with me at verses 20 through 26. I want to focus for a few moments on the ground of our acceptation with God. How is it that boasting is excluded all together? Six ways, just in these few verses that Paul shows you. First, Paul emphasizes that it is God Himself who justifies. You dont justify yourself. God justifies you. Look at verse 26. "That He might be the justifier." Whos the 'He'? God. God is the justifier. God justifies. You dont justify yourself. Nobody else justifies you. God justifies you. Its not something that you do. Its something that he does.

Secondly, notice in verse 24, God emphasizes that that justification is a gift of grace. Look at his words. "Being justified as a gift by His grace." Once again, justification isnt something that you earn. Justification doesnt require that you do something to get it. Its a gift thats offered in grace. Notice how Paul is already building an argument as to why your works dont play a roll in it. Its a gift of grace, its not something you do. Its something you receive.

Thirdly, look again at verse 24. He emphasizes that that justification is itself grounded, not in something that you have done, but in fact its grounded in something that Christ did. Its grounded in the death of Christ. Its grounded in the redeeming death of Christ. Look at those words, "through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."

Fourthly, notice again in verse 24 that Paul makes it clear that the basis of justification, the basis upon which he declares you to be righteous, is not something in you, its something outside of you. Notice those words, "whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation to demonstrate His righteousness." Whats he talking about? Hes talking about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as an atoning sacrifice for sin, and Hes telling you that justification is based on that, not on what you do.

Fifthly, he goes on to say. And if youll look all the way back to verse 20, youll see it. He emphasizes that justification is accomplished apart from our obedience. Justification is not something that our obedience contributes to in any way, shape or form. He says it negatively, but look at verse 20: By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. Paul doesnt even say by doing some nice deeds that you thought that you might just do on the spur of the moment. He even speaks of works of the law. Those things which God commands us to do in His law. He says, "Look, even if you do the things that God commands you to do in the law, you wont be justified, because, of course, everything that we do is riddled with sin. And those of us who are most self-aware are most aware of it. You take the casserole to your neighbor across the street. You know you muttered all the way back. "Oh, that house. I just couldnt stand to be in that house. Oh, its a pig sty." Or your neighbor who youve repaired the lawn mower for three times: "Couldnt he buy a new lawnmower." You help him out all right. Youre kind to him, you smile. Youre muttering under your breath all the way back home. Even the good things that we do are shot through with sin. Our motives are warped, our goals are warped, our attitude is skewed. Paul says, "By the works of the law no flesh will be justified." Justification is apart from our obedience.

And finally in verse 22 he makes it clear that justification is something which is received through an act of self-renunciation. Justification isnt based upon affirming something that you do. In fact, it is based upon renouncing yourself and entrusting yourself to another person. Thats what we call faith. Notice verse 22. It is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Paul, just in case you forget, says it twice. Faith for all who believe. And so justification is received by the self-renouncing means of faith. In all those ways, Paul shows that the ground of our salvation is based upon something not in us but something outside of us. Not something that we do, but something that God does. And hes not finished yet. Because he even wants to talk with you about how you get the benefit of what God has done.

II. How we receive the gift of eternal life?

How is it that you receive the gift of eternal life? And he meditates on that with you here in verse 27. He says that boasting is excluded because of the law of faith. By that he means the principle of faith. God has chosen that we would receive His salvation by the means, by the instrument, not of our own obedience, not by performing some work, but by faith. And Paul is saying that the very way that God has designed for us to receive the benefits of Christs work, that very way is in accord with grace. If salvation is purchased by grace, but received by obedience, then grace is overthrown, boasting is not excluded. Youve reimported the law. You can say, "Okay, God saves us by sacrificing His Son, and then we believe, and we do good works, and were saved." Youve just reimported good works back into salvation. Even he said, "Well, Im not saying that God accepts us because of those good works, its just that the way He accepts us involves us both believing and doing good work. Once youve done that, youve imported good works back into the scheme. Paul is saying that only the principle of faith and the principle of faith alone is conducive to the humbling grace offered in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Faith.

Think about it for a minute. Yes, faith is something that we do. Its an act that we do as humans. But, as an act it is in its essence essentially focused not on us and not on our works, its focused on someone else. Faith is focused on another. In this case, God. Faith doesnt look to what we do. It looks to what God does. Faith doesnt put trust in ourselves, it puts trust in God. Faith doesnt try and find strength from within, to stand before God is righteous, faith renounces our righteousness as filthy rags and looks to the righteousness of another, Jesus Christ. Now do you see the implications of what Paul is saying here?

There are just two things Id like you to think about for a moment. On the one hand there are those who think they have something to commend themselves to God by. And Paul is just saying here that no form of self-commendation whatsoever will work before the judgment throne of God on the last day. I mean you stand before the judgment throne of God and you say, "Well God, basically, Im a pretty good person." And the response is, "No, youre not. You are not basically a pretty good person. You have missed the point of everything that the prophets and the apostles were saying. Youre not basically a good person." You stand before God on the judgment day and say, "Well, I believe in Christ. But, you know, I believe that you not only need to believe in Christ, you need to add some of your good deeds to that. You know, in order to be saved." You know what youre saying there? Youre saying, "Lord, Christ is nice, but Hes not enough. I did a little bit better deal, Lord. I did Christ plus my works." You see, you understand, my friends, that that addition is actually subtraction. What youre saying to God almighty is, "Christ wasnt quite enough, so I did Christ, plus a little better." But Christ plus is always Christ minus. And so what youre saying is, "God, the sacrifice of Christ is insufficient. I needed to do something, too."

My friends, thats not something that God is prepared to hear. God is not prepared to hear on the last day, "Oh, and by the way, Lord, the sacrifice of Your only Son, the Son of Your love, it wasnt quite enough for me. I did a few extra things, you know, just to make up." Thats not something that God is prepared to hear. And so everyone who stands and commends their self in any way, will be condemned. Because Christ alone and faith alone in Christ alone is the way that God has dictated that His people will be saved. Thats the negative side of it.

Think of the positive of it. Every believer of any depth of maturity whatsoever has known the struggle of sin, has known the specter of the remnant of sin and habitual sins that are so difficult to slay; desires that we cant expunge from our hearts. And if our justification is based upon the eradication of those desires, well never have any assurance of it in this life, because those desires arent going anywhere. Gods mercy grows us some, but there are always some that stay with us. Theres always that thorn in the flesh.

The apostle wants us to understand that our standing with God has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with anything in us. Because justification doesnt take place in us, it takes place outside of us.

Do you see the implication of that? Youre standing with God in the final analysis is based upon something to which you do not make even a thimbleful of a contribution. Thank God. Because if I even made a thimbleful of a contribution to it, Id mess it up. And this is the one thing I cant mess up, because I didnt have anything to do with it. I simply stretched out the empty hand of faith, and I said God have mercy on me, a sinner. Nothing in my hand I bring simply to Your cross I cling. My friends, that is the most comforting thing in the world. Now its utterly alien to the way we think. If were not religious, we think were basically good people, and Gods going to accept us anyway. If we are religious, we think weve got to get out there and start doing our thing so that God will accept us. And the apostle Paul says wrong on both counts. Christ alone, faith alone. Only way of salvation. Well start working out the implications of that next week. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, help us to understand the free justification which we have in Christ Jesus and then to embrace it by Your grace. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Faith Alone - Romans 3:27-31

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:27-31) (2)

Faith Alone

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 3. Were going to be looking again at that same section that weve been pondering for the last couple of weeks beginning in verse 27. Romans 3:27-31. As we do so, were going to concentrate especially on Pauls statement in verse 28 and two parts of that statement. This sermon is sort of a spill over from what was supposed to be a three-point sermon. So youre going to get two points today.

Im going to be looking at two questions. Two simple questions. Whats so important about being justified by faith alone? Isnt it a little nit picky to just insist that its got to be by faith alone? Paul, arent you being a little unreasonable? Martin Luther, arent you going just a little bit far. I mean, after all the Catholics, they believe in salvation by grace. Arent you being just a little too insistent to say that justification is by faith alone? I think you know Martin Luthers answer. I hope by the time were done today, you know Pauls as well. Paul is very insistent on this. Why is he so insistent on this? Why is it that over and over in our hymns we sing about justification by faith alone. Do you realize how often you sing about justification by faith alone? Let me just illustrate. In some of your favorite hymns and then some that you dont know perhaps so well, lets look at how often you sing about justification by faith alone. For instance, turn to 463. Four hundred sixty-three is a hymn called "A Debtor to Mercy Alone." Now Augustus Toplady who gave us "Rock of Ages" is the author of this hymn. And notice what he says. "A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing; nor fear, with your righteousness on, my person and offring to me. The terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do; my Saviors obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view." Hes talking about appearing before God, trusting in Christs righteousness alone, justification by faith. Look what he says. The implications of that are for him, especially in verse 3. "My name from the palm of His hands eternity will not erase, impressed on His heart it remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is givn; more happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heavn." Do you see what hes saying? Hes saying that a man is justified by faith may be more happy in heaven, but he will never be more secure than he is right now as he trusts in Jesus Christ alone for his salvation.

Turn back to 461. Bonars great hymn, "Not what my hands alone have done can save my guilty soul; not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God; not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee, can rid me of this dark unrest, and set my spirit free." Hes focusing on what Christs work does in justification, not what we do.

Turn forward to 500. One of our favorite hymns in this congregation. "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me." Notice what he says in the second verse. "Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands; could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone, thou must save, and thou alone." Then look at verse 3. "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling; naked come to Thee for dress; helpless look to Thee for grace; foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die." And then Toplady goes on to say in the last stanza, that even when hes in glory hes not going to trust in his own works. "While I draw this fleeting breath, when mine eyelids close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne." Whats my plea going to be? "Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hid myself in thee." Theres never going to be a time when he doesnt stand on the righteousness of Christ alone.

And then forward to number 520. "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress." Now what does he say? What is it that enables him to stand before God with joy? Verse 2: "Bold shall I stand in they great day; for who aught to my charge shall lay? Fully absolved through these am I from sin and fear, and guilt and shame. Jesus, be endless praise to thee, whose boundless mercy hath for me a full atonement made, an everlasting ransom paid."

Focusing upon the work of Christ and in the very next page. "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less." Page 521. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name. His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the whelming flood; when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay."

And then 523. "My Hope Is in the Lord." "My hope is in the Lord who gave Himself for me, and paid the price of all my sin at Calvary. No merit of my own, His anger to suppress, my only hope is found in Jesus righteousness. For me He died, for me He lives, and everlasting life and light He freely gives."

And then the very next hymn. "Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ." Another Bonar hymn. "Thy works, not mine, O Christ speak gladness to this heart; they tell me all is done; and bid my fear depart. To whom save thee, who canst alone for sin atone Lord, shall I flee?"

Over and over, why is it in our enmity that we meditate upon the glory of justification by faith because its at the very heart of salvation. Do you realize that without an adequate understanding of justification by faith, you will lack assurance? Every Christian from time to time has a struggle with assurance. Now you see something in yourself, and you wonder what was I thinking. What am I thinking? Who do I really love? And if your salvation is based upon anything in you, you will be unsettled. For the doctrine of justification by faith alone reminds us that our acceptance of God is grounded on nothing in us. Its grounded on something done for us, outside of us, by Jesus Christ. We merely receive it by faith. You dont understand that. If you dont believe it, youll never be assured. Youll never be embolden for service because those who are not assured of the Fathers love will never be bold in his service to speak for Christ in His kingdom, to live for Him. The doctrine of justification by faith is very, very important. Thats why Paul wants us to meditate on it. Lets hear Gods word, here in Romans 3, beginning in verse 27.

"Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the law."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Father, help us as we come to this word, to see just how glorious is your free mercy and justification given to us in Christ. Shake us from our spiritual slumber. Free us from the inhibitions of our own misconceptions to assurance and to service and to praise. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

The apostle Paul in this little verse, Romans 3:28, tells us a couple of things that we need to meditate upon. We need to meditate upon this teaching of justification by faith. Paul says its right at the heart of the gospel. Its not all there is to the Christian life, but without this truth, nothing else matters. For without this truth, we are still in our sin and under the judgment and condemnation of God. And so this truth is the beginning truth of the whole of faith. And its especially important truth because every revival of Christianity that has occurred in the last 500 years of the church has been directly related to men and women understanding the doctrine of justification by faith. Every revival of religion in Christianity in the last 500 years has been directly related to men and women understanding the doctrine of justification by faith. People who have been in the church for years who perhaps have been believers for years suddenly are confronted with the truth of the doctrine, and they are awash in the apprehension of the love of God, and it changes their lives. And they almost feel as if they have been born anew themselves. They wonder how could I have not understood the fullness of Gods grace as displayed in his word in justification by faith. It transforms them, it transforms churches. People who are not Christians, who are confronted with the truth of justification by faith are at the same time leveled and humbled by its presentation of the holiness of God, and yet at the same time feel more loved and more comforted by the merciful God of heaven and earth than they ever have before. And they are drawn to Christ, and they become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they join His church. The doctrine of justification by faith is a doctrine that you and I cannot afford to be ignorant of. And so lets meditate today just on the truth of this one verse, Pauls words in Romans 3:28: "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. I want to say two things before we look at the main emphasis of Paul in this verse.

The first thing is this. Notice that Paul says we maintain. Paul makes it clear that this teaching is not some individual opinion of his. He does not say I maintain. He could have said that, and he would have been right. He did maintain this truth. But he says we maintain, because he wants to stress two things. First, that this is something that all Christians know and understand and embrace. We Christians, hes saying, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. But hes also stressing, isnt he, that this is not simply a New Testament doctrine, its a Bible doctrine. In fact, when he wants to emphasize the truth of this word, he goes right to the book of Genesis, and the story of Abraham to prove that justification is by faith. And so Paul wants to say, we maintain this truth, because he wants people to understand that this isnt some new insight that Ive brought about. This isnt a doctrine that Ive invented; this isnt an opinion that I have in isolation. All Christians believe this, and we believe this because the Old Testament teaches it. And so Paul stresses that this is not some marginalized, peripheral, strange, individual opinion that he holds. This is what all believers know and understand, that were justified by faith.

But the second thing that I want to remind you when we look at this passage, just to make sure you are clear, is what justification means itself. Weve said it over and over, but you know, one of the strange things is in times of reviving, people who have heard the doctrine of justification by faith over and over again say things like this: "Ive never heard that before. The preacher may have read the passage and may have preached on it, but I never heard it before." So I want to say it one more time. When we mean justification or when we say justification, we mean by justification a declaration by God that you are righteous because of Christ. It is Gods declaration of you as not guilty because of what His Son has done. And so when Paul speaks of free justification in this passage that is precisely what he is talking about. God declaring you to be righteous. Not making you righteous, not accepting you because you are righteous, but accepting you as righteous because of the righteousness of His Son. Justification is Gods act of free grace whereby He pardons you of all your sins and accepts you as righteous. Not because of your own righteousness, but because of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Children, do you know what Im saying. Thats your catechism, and its exactly right. Now, what is Pauls main emphasis? Its very clear, isnt it? Justification is received by faith alone. He wants to drive that truth home. Hes already said it a couple of times, but he just wants to make sure that youre listening. Justification. This declaration of God is received as a gift by faith alone. In other words, Paul is saying this: Works have no part in your acceptance by God. Works have no part in your acceptance before God. Not even works that God commands, not even works that God, by His grace, enables you to do, your works have no part in your justification. Paul is emphatic. God has established salvation for us, and he has established salvation for us by grace at both ends. What in the world do I mean by that? He has established salvation for us by grace at both ends. Lets look at Gods end. Lets look at our end. On both ends he has established us in salvation by grace.

First of all, in terms of meeting the demands of His righteousness, he has established salvation for us by grace in Jesus Christ. He doesnt depend on what we do. He depends upon His work and His work in His Son. Paul uses to words in this passage to talk about that. Redemption and propitiation. Two words that most of us dont use in our normal table conversation. Redemption refers to Jesus purchasing us back from the bondage of sin. Redeeming us out of our slavery to sin and the penalty that was due for it. Propitiation refers to Jesus turning away the just wrath of God against our sin. Jesus, thus, accomplished salvation. We contributed nothing to that. He did that. Its by grace. Gods grace provided that sacrifice for sin. So on Gods end, salvation is provided by grace. But its not just Gods end. Our salvation is provided by grace. This is the second half of the equation. Paul wants to emphasize that that salvation purchased and accomplished by Jesus Christ is received by faith alone apart from the works of the law. No action of ours conditions Gods grace. No obedience of ours moves God to show grace to us. No thing that we do prompts the grace of God towards us.

Furthermore, even our faith, whereby we receive the grace of God in the gospel, is a gift of God. Paul makes this absolutely clear in Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. Turn with me there. Some of you have that passage memorized. Good for you. Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not as a result of works that no one should boast." Whats Paul saying? That salvation and all that is entailed in it including faith is a gift of God. Thats why elsewhere Paul can say to one of the churches that hes writing to, "I thank God for the faith that you have." Now why would Paul thank God for something that they had done? I mean, they were the ones who believed, didnt they? He thanks God because God is the author of faith. He gifts us with faith. So salvation is by grace at both ends. We dont do things in order to condition Gods acceptance of us, and the one thing that God requires of us  faith  He gives. It goes right back to the glorious word of Augustin. You remember when Augustin in the confession says to God, "Command what you will and give what you command." In other words, hes saying, "Lord you can command me to do anything You want. Just enable me to do it." God requires faith of those who would be justified, and He gives that faith by His grace.

And so Paul is emphasizing that salvation is by grace from beginning to end on both sides, on both ends. There is no work that we contribute to our acceptance before God. That is so important for us to understand. If you think there is something that you have to contribute in order to be accepted by God, you will never, ever understand the freeness of the Fathers love, or the costliness of the sacrifice that He initiated in order that you might experience the freeness of His love. There is no work whatsoever, even the works that God Himself commands and enables that has anything to do with our justification. The only works that have anything to do with your justification are the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. In sea any other works in that equation does not add to the work of Christ, it takes away from it. Its says if were saying, well, Christ, Your work wasnt quite enough. Im going to add this to it. And Paul wants to make it absolutely clear here that we are accepted before God not on the basis of something in us, not even on the basis of something that He has wrought in us. But on the basis of Christ alone.

Now that leads us to the second thing that Id like you to see, because so often people look at this verse and they say well, I dont know how this verse squares with James, chapter 2, verse 24. It seems to me that weve got a fundamental contradiction here. May I invite you to turn to James 2:24. In fact, Id like you to look at James 2:14 all the way down to verse 24, because I want to walk through that with you very briefly. Now look, Pauls teaching does not contradict James, in James 2:24. In fact Paul knows and teaches that faith must be accompanied by love, by obedience, but our love is not the means of Gods saving grace. Its the result of Gods saving grace. Our obedience is not the means of Gods saving grace. Its the result of Gods saving grace. And if you dont get that right, you will have missed one of the greatest and most precious truths of the Christian faith. Lets walk through it together. We are often confronted with someone saying. Oh yeah, Paul says justification is by faith alone. James says justification is by faith and works. Now somebody has got to be wrong. And sometimes they choose Paul, and sometimes they choose James. And then sometimes we have people that come along that say, well, okay, Paul says justification is by faith, James says its by faith and works, so what we need to do is we need to put them together and realize that that means that justification is by faith and works. I never have understood that, but people do that all the time. Both of those solutions are wrong.

Lets look at the words though. Paul says in Romans 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." James in James 2:24 says, "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." How do you explain that. On the surface it looks like a contradiction. Well, you explain it by looking at the context. Paul, as you will recall is clearly talking about how a man is accepted by God. He is dealing with the issue of how it can be that unrighteous people can be accepted by a righteous God. And so he is specifically dealing with the issue of the way that we are justified. The way that we are declared righteous. The way that we are pardoned. The way that we are accepted. And he makes it clear that we are accepted first by what God does, and secondly that we receive the benefits of what God does, not by our doing something else, but simply by trusting. Simply by receiving through the empty hand of faith. That gift. Thats how we are justified.

James, however, is talking about something else. James is writing in the context of dealing with hypocrisy in the church. There are some people who claim to believe, they claim to be Christians, but their lives do not bear out the fruit of their profession. And so how do you sort that out? How do you tell the difference between somebody who claims to be a Christian but isnt, and someone who claims to be a Christian and is? How do you know whether a person really believes? What demonstrates their Christianity? James answer is clear. "Faith brings forth the fruit of holiness." So faith and obedience, faith and holiness, says James, demonstrates a person to be a believer.

But a close look at James reveals several points that emphatically prove that James is not contradicting what Paul says. Id like to point you to four things that James says that show that he is not contradicting what Paul has said. First of all, notice that James is dealing with a different subject. Paul is dealing with how one is made right before God. James is dealing with the sin of hypocrisy. Now you say, well, Ligon, he didnt write over that section. Now Im going to deal with the sin of hypocrisy. Arent you just making that up so that it doesnt seem like they're in contradiction? No, I got it right out of verse 14. Take a look at it. The very first sentence that James utters in the section is, "What use it my brethren if someone says he has faith, but he has no works." James has introduced the subject of a person who claims to be a believer, but who does not live a life that looks like it accords with the life of a believer. He raised that issue, I didnt. It is the issue of hypocrisy. What about a person who professes to be a believer, but his life certainly doesnt look like a believer? James himself raises that question. Thats not what Paul is dealing with. There are two different subjects. Bear that in mind first.

Secondly, James does not ask the question can faith alone really save a person here? Thats not what James is talking about. Hes not asking can real faith by itself save a person? Or do you need to have real faith and works to save a person? That is not James question. James is asking another question. Can claimed faith demonstrate a person to really be a Christian? That is the question that James is asking; not can faith alone save you, but can a claimed faith really demonstrate that a person is a Christian. Now again you say to me. Hold on, theres no marginal note from James that says that. Youre making that up. No, Im not. Look at verse 14 again. Twice James emphasizes this. Notice how he phrases his first question. "What if someone says he has faith." Now notice what James said. James did not say what if a person has faith but doesnt have works? Thats not what James said. He said, "What if a man says he has faith." Whats he focusing on? Hes focusing on a spoken confession. A spoken profession of faith, being contradicted by a lie. But thats not the only time. He goes on to say at the end of verse 14, "Can that kind of faith save him?" Notice that James did not ask, can faith save him? He asked, "Can that kind of faith," what kind of faith? A claimed faith that shows no reality. James is not talking about how a man is saved. James is talking about how you know a real Christian from a false one.

Thirdly, James is clearly concerned throughout this passage about what he calls dead faith. Look at verse 17 and then again at verse 26. Twice he uses the term "dead faith." What does he mean by it? By dead faith he is referring to a faith which is empty or hollow. It doesnt have a living reality. There is a verbal profession, but theres no reality of life in the heart of the believer. There are no deeds which are in accordance with faith. There is no workmanship for which we were created in grace as Paul says in Ephesians 2. And so Paul is clearly concerned about people who make a profession but show no marks of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

And fourth and finally, notice the argument that James uses to cap off his point. He goes right to what? The story of Abraham. Now thats very helpful because thats right where Paul goes. In Romans, chapter 4, Paul is going to go to the story of Abraham in order to prove justification by faith alone. James goes to the story of Abraham and to one of the very same passages that Paul goes to in order to prove that faith without a life which is in accordance with faith, without deeds, without obedience, without love, is not real faith. He goes through the same story. But notice what he does. He gives you a wonderful clue. He quotes from Genesis 15:6 which says "Abraham believed and God reckoned it to him as righteousness." And then he says what? Look down at verses 21 through 23. He says in verse 23, that Abraham was justified when he offered up Isaac, his son. And then he draws his conclusion. "So you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."

Now thats a wonderful clue to actually help you understand that hes not contradicting Paul. Why? When did God say to Abraham that he was justified by faith? Before Isaac was born. When did Abraham offer Isaac up? Years and years and years later. Therefore, James, who knows where this passage is because hes just quoted it, and he knows that his audience, being good Jewish Christians know where it is in Genesis, he knows that they know that Gods declaration that Abraham is righteous came seven chapters before Abraham offering up Isaac. Therefore, James is giving you a clue again that he is not talking about Gods acceptance of Abraham; hes talking about Abrahams demonstration that he does belong to God. Over and over James gives you clues to help you understand that he is not attempting to contradict what the apostle Paul said. In fact, my friends, turn back to Romans 3. Paul, in the very passage here, makes it clear that he not only knows that faith has to be accompanied by obedience, he teaches it himself. What was the very last verse we read in Romans 3? Do we nullify the law? On the contrary, Paul says, we establish the law. Now in the very passage we also read in Ephesians chapter 2. Look how Paul handles this. Turn again to Ephesians 2:8: "By grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast." All of grace. And then listen to verse 10: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Paul knows that faith and obedience go hand in hand in the Christian life. But listen to this. Paul also knows that our obedience has nothing to do whatsoever with Gods pre-justification, and he wants you to hold those two truths right together.

Does God call us to obedience as Christians? You better believe it? Does our obedience have anything to do whatsoever with Gods acceptance of us? Absolutely not. And if you get that wrong, you get everything wrong. Think about it, my friends. Conditionality inserted into any human relationship severs the capacity for intimacy in that relationship. How much more in our relationship with God? If you are obeying because you are afraid of the rejection of God, then you are obeying out of an ungodly fear. For if you were the beloved, God has accepted you in His Son, and your obedience is not rendered up in order to get Him to like you, to get Him to love you, to get Him to save you. Its rendered up out of gratitude for the salvation that is already yours. I want to illustrate this for you out of the Old Testament. Turn with me to Exodus 20 as we close. In Exodus, chapter 20, in the very giving of the Ten Commandments, look at verse 2. The Ten Commandments are going to be given.

Is this another way of salvation that Moses is suggesting? Well, lets see. Exodus 20, verse 2: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery," verse 3, "you shall have no other Gods before Me." My friends, that order is so important. Listen to what God says. He does not say now here are the Ten Commandments. If you will obey them, or if you will really try hard to obey them, then I will bring you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. That is not what God says. God says I have brought you out of the land of Egypt. I have brought you out of the house of slavery. I have redeemed you. Now obey. My friends, redeem, obey. Thats the order. Not obey to be redeemed.

Do you hear that? Paul is emphasizing when he says justification is by faith alone that we are redeemed for obedience, not redeemed by obedience. And that makes all the difference in the world. My obedience is not an order to condition the love of God. He already loves me more than I can ever know. My obedience flows from that love which I have received, and I receive the benefits of His justification by faith alone, and not by any deed that I do. That is the greatest news ever told, and there is no other religion in the world that has anything like it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we come now to Your table to celebrate Your redeeming love and the free offer of Christ in the gospel. Help us then to feed on Christ by faith. We ask it in his name, Amen.

The Implication of Justification - Romans 3:27-31

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. Romans 3:27-31 (3)

The Implications of Justification

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you turn with me to Romans, chapter 3. We come today to our last look at Romans 3:21-31, where Paul is setting forth his teaching of justification by grace through faith alone. Paul has made it very clear in Romans, chapters 1, 2, and 3 that God is a righteous God, and that He expects righteousness from His creatures, and that no one, absolutely no one apart from Christ is righteous. Neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, no one is righteous before God; not the religious, not the pagans, not the Jews, not the Gentiles. No one is righteous before God, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that creates a predicament. In the final judgment of God, how will anyone be found righteous, how will anyone be declared righteous? How will anyone be accepted as righteous? How will anyone enter into everlasting fellowship with God because God is a righteous God, and He cannot fellowship with unrighteousness? The apostle Paul says I have the answer. The answer comes from the Bible. What Im about to say to you is not new, but it is powerful. And what Im about to say to you is this. The only way anyone can stand before God is by a righteousness provided by God for them. God accepts them because of His Son, and as they trust in His Son, they are declared to be righteous, as if they were His Son. Its an absolutely astounding thing.

Now I want to stop right there and say that every other world religion gives a different answer than that. Every other world religion that postulates a final assize, a judgment before God, an afterlife in which the lives of today matter, gives some sort of a variation of this answer. Well, how can a man be accepted by God? By being a good person. Youve got to do better, youve got to do good things, you need to do good works. Somewhere in their answer is the idea that we ourselves condition Gods acceptance of us, that we prompt Gods acceptance of it. That something in us, even something that God helps us do prompts God to accept us. To that the apostle Paul says, "Wrong. The only way a man is accepted by God is when God Himself declares that person to be righteous because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as that person has trusted in Him." It is that great message, that radical message, that shocking message that weve been looking at for the last several weeks.

Now in verse 27 Paul begins to derive some implications from that. And weve already begun to look at that. Today, I want to focus especially on verses 29 through 31, and four implications that Paul derives from that truth of justification. He tells us that that truth has implications for how both Jews and Christians are saved. Secondly, he says that it has implications for the one way of salvation. Thirdly, he makes it clear that that teaching does have implications for how we live. The freedom that leads to an obedient and holy life, and finally one interesting implication of this teaching is that it always draws a certain accusation. But that accusation actually proves the grace which is contained therein. And Id like to look at those implications with you today. So lets hear Gods holy word in Romans 3, beginning in verse 27:

"Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law."

Thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Lord and God, we thank You for Your word. We pray that this day that this would be Your word to our hearts. Cause that word to be spoken clearly, but more importantly, cause that word to be heard clearly. Stir up our hearts to respond in faith to Your truth. We pray, O God, that some who have never known the peace which comes from knowing the free justification of God in Christ, we pray that some who do not know that would come to know it even this day. We pray that Christians who have struggled with the freeness of Your acceptance of them would be encouraged and strengthened today. We pray that You would be exalted in our hearts, as we understand Your word. That You would display Yourself before us to be glorious and merciful. In Jesus name, Amen.

There are four issues raised in these three little verses that close Romans, chapter 3. Id like to look at those issues with you today.

I. Is God the God of Jews only?

They are all implications of what Paul has been teaching about justification. The first one youll find in verse 29. Paul asks a question. "Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles also?" He answers, "Yes, He is the God of Gentiles also." Why is Paul saying that? Hes telling us that because he wants to reiterate especially to the Jewish audience hes speaking to and to the Gentiles audience because of what theyve heard the Jewish audience say, hes wanting to reiterate that theres not one way of salvation for Jews, and another way of salvation for Gentiles. When it comes to salvation, when it comes to justification, 'different strokes for different folks doesnt work.' In fact, as far as Paul says, its wrong. There are not different strokes for different folks when it comes to justification, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to Gods acceptance of mankind. Theres one stroke and theres one folk. There is one way of justification, theres one people of God, and there is not two, there is not a different course of action, a different way of being accepted by God.

Now, of course, no Jew would have denied that there as only one God. Every Jew would have professed that. Indeed that was central to the Jewish faith. However, the Jewish people to whom Paul was speaking were ethnically exclusive, and they were legally external in their religion; and that in and of itself had promoted a climate in which it made it hard for them to accept this divine breakdown of the walls of separation between Jew and Gentile and the divine fulfillment of the Old Testament by Jesus Christ. And that unbiblical spirit of separation blinded some Jews to the truth of the justification by faith that Paul had been preaching. And so Paul is emphasizing once again, and its not the only time hes done it, that theres one way of salvation for both Jew and Gentile. Theres one way of being accepted by God.

Now to the Gentiles, thats music to our ears. We glory in the fact that God has made a provision for us Gentiles. We know that God in His mercy chose the people of God in the Old Testament, the Jewish nation, to be the representation of His kingdom on earth, and we know that there was a time when very few in the Gentile world knew anything of the one true God. And so its music in our ears when we hear that God in His mercy saves Gentiles like us the same way that He saves His people. But my friends, that word grates on the ears of our Jewish friends. It sounds intolerant to them, it sounds mean, it sounds biased, it sounds anti-Semitic.

I want to pause and say theres no way to candy coat this. This is offensive, but just remember this friends. Paul knew that this was offensive. Thats why he spent much of this book trying to explain this point. Paul knew this was offensive. You remember he said that the gospel was an offense to the Jew. It was a stumbling block for the Jew, and to the Greek. There were aspects of the gospel which caused the Jewish person to stumble. Now Paul wasnt saying this because he hated Jewish people. He was not a Jew hater, as we would say today. Paul was a lover of the Jewish people. He was a Jew himself. He will later say in this Book, in the eleventh chapter, that he could wish himself accursed if only his people would come to the knowledge of the truth. In other words, he can say I wish that I myself could be eternally damned if only my people would come to a knowledge of the truth. And so Pauls words here are not the words of someone who hates the Jewish people. This is the word of God through Paul, a person who is a Jew and who loves the Jewish people, and he is emphatically stressing that theres one way of salvation.

My friends, its very popular in some forms of theology today, even amongst some Christians, to argue theres one way for the Jewish people, and theres another way for Gentiles. That is not the Bibles teaching, its not Jesus teaching, its not Pauls teaching. Contrary to the teachings of many, there is one way of salvation. Jews and Gentiles are justified precisely on the same ground. Thats the first implication of what the apostle is saying.

II. There is one way of justification for all.

The second thing is this. Youll see it in verse 30. Because, Paul goes on to argue, God is one, the way of justification is one and the same for all. Because there is only one God, there is only one way of justification, and its one and the same for all, Jew and Gentile. In other words, when you consider that God is one and when you consider that God is just, and one part of justice is you dont do one thing for one group and another thing for another group. So when you consider that God is one, there is one God, and that God is just, it is clear that there is only one way and no more, theres only one way of justification.

Paul knows that all the Jewish audience that hes speaking to, and all of the Jewish Christian audience that hes speaking to know that central truth found in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, that the Lord is one. He knows that they know that. And knowing that they know that God is one, that theres only one true God, he appeals to that truth in order to draw an implication about his doctrine of justification. If theres only one God, then theres only one standard of righteousness. And if theres only one standard of righteousness, then theres only one way to satisfy that demand for righteousness and justice. And, therefore, Paul says, both the circumcised, the Jewish people, and the uncircumcised, those who are not Jews, those who are Gentiles, are justified in the same way. Because theres one God, theres one way of justification, Paul argues.

And this reminds us of a second thing, and its just as unpopular as the first point that we drew. And that is this: There is one way of salvation. Paul is emphatic about that. Now again, I know that there are many people, even people who profess to be Christians, especially those Christians of a more liberal stripe who believe there are many ways up the mountain, there are many roads to the end of the journey. There are many ways of salvation. There are many legitimate teachings of the world religions that will lead you to God. That is not Pauls view. My friends, you cannot rescue Paul on this point. He is unrescuable. Paul is emphatic that there is one way of salvation, and he is emphatically opposed in all his teaching that suggests otherwise. He is emphatically opposed to the idea that anyone can be saved apart from Christ. Now many people will say to Christians who announce something like that in public, "Well, youre narrow minded, youre bigoted, youre biased, youre intolerant." And the response, of course, would be: "Well, we would be if we have made it up. But we didnt make this up. This is the Bibles teaching. We accept it as Gods teaching, this is Jesus teaching, its Peters teaching, its Paul teaching. Its the teaching of all the apostles. Its not some isolated thing off in a corner in the Bible. It is the historic belief of Christianity, and, in fact, you wont find anyone within the pale of Christianity who has been accepted by mainstream Christianity until about the last fifty years who has dared suggest that there are other ways of salvation outside of Jesus Christ." Paul is emphatically stressing that there is one way of salvation. As unpopular as that is today, that is Pauls teaching.

But let me pull back and make one further comment. Oftentimes, those who deny that teaching pit themselves as the people who are open-minded and tolerant. And those who believe there is one way of salvation, are posed as the Neanderthal. Its like an international wrestling match, and were the bad guys. Now the problem with that is to deny that Jesus is the only way of salvation cannot be done without either denying the necessity of His death or the sufficiency of His death. In other words, you cant be neutral about Jesus and deny that He is the only way of salvation. Its not that you think, well, Hes one option. Oh, no, the minute you say Hes one option, you have either denied the necessity of His death or the sufficiency of His death.

Now let us reason together for a moment. Suppose Paul is right, and he is. And you show up on the last day, and you stand before God and you say there are many roads up the mountain. Jesus is one of those ways. I just dont happen to think that His death was necessary or sufficient. What do you expect the response will be. You see, you cant be noncommittal. You cant be open to Jesus. Youve either got to be for him or against him. He wont let you be open to Him. There are only two options. You either bow the knee to Jesus, or He will bow your knee forcefully. There are only two options when it comes to the Lord. You either accept His claims, or you openly reject them. And the apostle Paul presses that home. Because of this truth of free justification, we need to recognize this is the only way a person can be reconciled to God.

III. Justification by faith does not nullify God's commands

Thirdly, Paul, everywhere he went, got this objection to his teaching. Youll see it in verse 31. He gives us a paraphrase. This is clearly language that Paul has heard over and over. He gives us a little snippet of it after explaining his teaching of justification. Someone says, arent you nullifying the law through faith, Paul? Arent you making void the law of God? Arent you making void the commands of God? Arent you suggesting that people go and live wild lives and sin so that grace can abound? Arent you suggesting that obedience doesnt matter? Arent you suggesting, Paul, that holiness isnt a necessary part of the Christian life? Arent you saying that theres no place for works in Christianity? And Pauls response is, "May it never be. On the contrary, my doctrine of justification by faith actually establishes the law." Justification by faith, in other words, Paul says, rightly understood, doesnt lead you to neglect the law. It doesnt lead you to negate the law. It doesnt lead you to hate the law. In fact it will lead you to say with the Psalmist, how I love your law, O Lord.

But on the other hand justification by faith doesnt lead you to believe that you can do anything that you want. I mean, youre saved by grace now. You can live any way you want. You can sin boldly so that grace will abound. And so Paul, in verse 31, raises and then briefly answers this question saying that Gods free justification does not mean that works or obedience or love does not have a place in the Christian life. Paul wants you to hold two truths simultaneously in your understanding. You must understand first that there is absolutely no contribution whatsoever on your part to your justification. There is no work that you do that contributes to your justification. Theres no obedience that you do that contributes to your justification. There is no love that you show that contributes to your justification. There is nothing in you that conditions Gods justification. Theres not even anything in you that God does that conditions your justification. Justification is done on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ. Its received by faith alone. So your works contribute absolutely nothing to your justification.

He wants you to understand that on the one hand, on the other hand he wants you to understand that obedience and works, love which flows from a renewed heart, those things are a necessary part of the Christian life. We could see him argue that case in I Corinthians 13, but I cant think of a shorter place where he does it than Ephesians, chapter 2. So turn with me there. In Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 10, he says these marvelous words: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast." So theres verses 8 and 9 and what has he just said. Your works contribute absolutely nothing whatsoever to Gods acceptance of you as righteous. Your works contribute absolutely nothing whatsoever to Gods declaring you as righteous, and to be part of His family. You contribute nothing at all to that. And then look at the next verse. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." Good works, obedience, holiness, love, all flow from the work of God in us, but contribute nothing to our being accepted as righteous before Him. Those are two glorious truths which Paul is happy to hold right together and ask all Christians to believe them fervently. Works contribute nothing to our acceptance by God. Works are always present in the heart that has been renewed by the grace of God, but contribute nothing to Gods acceptation, His declaration of us as righteous. And so those two truths Paul sets forth in response to anyone who says well, Paul, youre teaching nullifies the place of obedience, the place of the law, the place of holiness in the Christian life. Pauls response is oh, no, its doesnt. In fact its the only way its established in it. And hell explain that a little bit later on. But theres one sort of flipside truth.

IV. Our good works do not cause God to accept us.

One last implication that you also see in verse 31, and I want you to think about it. It may be a little mind stretching, but think with me here for a moment. This is an accusation that Pauls teaching consistently got. He got this accusation in Galatia. He had apparently received this accusation from the time of his ministry in Asia Minor because hes already writing it in the book of Romans. We know that people followed him around, attacking him about this teaching because we learned that from Luke in the book of Acts. So Paul consistently got this accusation. But think about it. Think about it. It is clear that many people who heard Paul teach on justification, thought that he was saying there was no place for works in the Christian life. Now think about that. We know that they were misled by that. But think about it. Why were they misled? They were misled because one thing that was clear about Pauls teaching is that there was no place for our works in justification. There was no place for our works in how we are accepted by God, and how we are declared righteous by God. And, therefore, think about it, my friends. If you are teaching Pauls doctrine of justification by faith. If you believe the Bibles doctrine of justification by faith, set forth here by Paul, you must be able to be accused of having no place for works in your doctrine of justification, because Paul himself was accused.

I want you to pause and think for a minute here, because what Ive been saying for the last several weeks as weve worked from Romans 3:21 to Romans 3:31, would be positively denied by many people who are affiliated in one way or another to Christian churches. If there was someone from say, a Church of Christ background in a strong traditional Church of Christ setting, there would immediately be this retort: No, no youre not saved by faith alone. Youre saved by faith and baptism. You must be baptized by immersion by a Church of Christ minister. Because Peter says, you know, repent and be baptized. Baptism is necessary for acceptation by God. And Pauls retort is no, it isnt. No it isnt. And youre saying where did Paul say that? He said it in I Corinthians 1. You remember? There were people in Corinth who were arguing whether they were of Paul or of Apollos. And Paul says I didnt come here to baptize. I came here to preach the gospel. Now friends, if baptism was necessary for salvation, you couldnt have said that. Paul, you see, makes it clear that theres nothing that conditions the acceptance of God. Faith is how we receive the acceptance of God. And so there are some Christians that would argue oh no, its faith, but its something else. Perhaps there would be a traditional Roman Catholic person who would say, oh no, the way you are justified by God is you have faith, but you also have to do works which are enabled by the grace that you receive through the sacraments. And they would disagree with what weve been saying.

And the apostle Paul says, no, there is absolutely no contribution whatsoever from our works to our acceptance of God. And anytime you begin to mix your works into your basis of acceptance by God you do two things. You diminish the fullness of the provision of Jesus Christ, and you undercut your possibility of assurance of salvation. Why? Because if you mix your works into the bag on that which causes you to be accepted by God, then you can never, ever, ever be assured of that acceptation, because you know that your works are filthy, you know that they are shot through with sin, you know that they are corrupt, you dont know the bottom of your motives. Paul says the glory of my teaching is yes, obedience is importance, but it has nothing to do with your free justification in Christ. God in His mercy accepts you not because of something in you, but because of something in His Son and something that His Son did. And so when He accepts you, He looks at His Son, not at you. Do works flow from the work of God in you? Of course they do. Can any true Christian say let us sin so that grace may abound? Absolutely not. Paul himself in Romans 5:21 is going to say grace reigns in righteousness. But does the righteousness that flows from Gods grace contribute to your justification? Heres Paul word. No. No.

There are lots of people who dont like this teaching. They think that it will lead to lawlessness, disobedience. But think of it. If your doctrine of justification has a place for works in it, it cant be Pauls doctrine of justification. Because his doctrine of justification didnt have any place for works in it. And, therefore, any church that teaches that there is any component of works whatsoever in the justification of the believer is not teaching what Paul is teaching.

Dont miss that my friends. Paul was dead serious about this. Its so vital because any looking to our works turns our face away from our Savior, who is the only hope of salvation. When John Bunyan, that great Baptist minister, came to Romans 3:24 and the truth of Romans 3:24. He wrote these words as if God were speaking these words to him as a sinner. Listen to them: "Sinner, you think that because of your sins and your infirmities that I cannot save your soul. But behold, My Son is by Me and upon Him I look, not upon you, and I will deal with you as I am pleased with Him." Every sinner needs to recognize this. The only way you will ever, ever, ever be accepted of God and assured of it is when you say, Lord, dont look at me. Look at the One who is standing at Your right hand, because I have put the whole of my confidence in Him. And dont look at me, look at me through Him. Lets pray.

Our Lord and Our God, theres nothing more marvelous than your free justification. Help us to understand it. We pray, O God, help us to embrace it, to live it, to be transformed by it, in Jesus name, Amen.

Romans 4

The Bible Says Abraham Was Justified by Faith! - Romans 4:1-3

4 What then shall we say was gained by[a] Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." (Romans 4:1-3)

The Bible Says Abraham was Justified by Faith

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 4. We have been looking for a number of weeks in our study of Romans 3 at Pauls teaching on justification by faith. That is, the teaching whereby Paul sets forth the scriptural truth that the way a person is saved is by being declared righteous, that declared righteousness is received by faith. It is grounded, however, in the grace of God and is purchased through the work of Christ, not through our own works. And so when we speak of being of being justified by faith, we mean being declared righteous, and so accepted as righteous by God through the instrument or the means of faith. And weve been looking at that truth in detail.

Now in Romans, chapter 4, Paul begins to defend this teaching from the Old Testament. And youll appreciate why this was important. He is speaking to a congregation not nearly of Gentile Christians but of Jewish Christians. They would have grown up in their Jewish context with rabbinic teaching that would have been directly contradictory of what Paul has been saying in Romans, chapter 3. They will, of course, have embraced the Messiah. They will know something of grace because they have been saved. And yet they could be very easily confused because the teachers of their youth, very impressive men, godly in a manner, had taught something very different. Furthermore, being Jewish Christians, they were surrounded by friends and family, perhaps in that same city, who had not embraced Jesus Christ, and there would have been many discussions. Well, is Paul right or are the rabbis right about this teaching about justification by faith? And so it was very important for Paul to explain this truth to that congregation.

But, of course, more than that, it was important for Paul to explain this to all of us. And even as Paul defends this teaching and elaborates on it in Romans, chapter 4, he does so by appealing to the Old Testament. He actually teaches us more about this doctrine. And this is one truth of the Christian faith which no Christian can afford to be willfully ignorant of. So lets attend with Gods word in Romans, chapter 4, beginning in verse l:

"What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to Him as righteousness."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, there are few truths more important than the truth of Your free grace and salvation and the truth of Your justifying sinners by faith on the basis of what Jesus has done. Help us to understand this word. If this is a truth that we have some secure grasp on, deepen our appreciation for it, expand upon our knowledge of it, and the comfort which we derive therefrom. If we do not understand this truth this day, if we have never embraced Jesus Christ, we pray that by Your word and spirit, we would be awash in a new understanding of the freeness, the depth and the power of Your love to forgive sins, to bring us back into a restored relationship with You. We pray that You would honor Yourself in Your word, even as we hear it this day. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Now keep your fingers in the Bible because were going to turn to a couple of passages which Paul has already spoken about in Romans, chapter 1, verse 2, for instance. You will be reminded that Paul went out of his way to indicate that the gospel that he was announcing, the gospel that he was teaching, had in fact been taught beforehand by the prophets. In Romans 1:1 he says, "the gospel of God." And then look at verse 2: "The gospel of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures." In passing, in other words, Paul is reminding us that this teaching that he is bringing about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is one which had been promised beforehand in the writings of the Old Testament. And then again if youll turn to Romans, chapter 3, verse 21, he indicates that the righteousness apart from the law which is offered to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is, look at the last phrase, "witnessed the Law and the Prophets." In other words, this righteousness that is not produced by us, this righteousness that is an alien righteousness, this righteousness which is accomplished by Jesus Christ, but which is available to us by faith, has been witnessed by the law and the prophets. In other words, they teaching about that righteousness which is not a self-righteousness. Its not a righteousness of our works, its a righteousness of Christ.

So Paul has tried to make it very clear that this gospel of his salvation is rooted in the teaching in the Old Testament. Now hes going to make that clear here again in Romans, chapter 4, verses 1 through 3 and for good reason. As Ive already mentioned, the rabbis of Pauls day would have had a real disagreement with him about this doctrine of justification by faith. They taught very clearly that Gods salvation, Gods election of His people was based upon merit; that our righteousness compelled Gods electing, saving choice of us in salvation. And this the apostle Paul had diametrically opposed in Romans, chapter 3.

And so hes waiting for an argument to begin. And the argument is going to go something like this. "Well, Paul, we understand what youve said in Romans, chapter 3, but we disagree with you. And we disagree with you because we think that you have interpreted the scriptures wrongly. We believe that the Scriptures will show you if youll for instance go back and turn to Genesis 15, verse 6. We believe that the Scriptures teach that Abraham was chosen by God because of his righteousness. He merited Gods choice of him, he merited Gods choice of him as the head of Israel.

And the apostle Paul then, in Romans, chapter 4, verses 1 through 3 says, "All right Id like to enter into that argument with you, because I believe that I can show you in two great characters in the Old Testament." And he does this in first ten or so verses, looking at Abraham and David. "I believe." he says, "that I can show you through these two characters in the Old Testament that God operated in salvation by grace through faith." In other words it is not simply that I am announcing that Christians are saved by grace through faith, but that all believers in the one true God in all ages are saved by grace through faith. In other words theres not one way of salvation in the Old Testament and another way of salvation in the new. And so Paul here in Romans 4, 1 through 3, is answering an objection which he is expecting. This objection comes from the quarter of the Jewish rabbis, but it is an objection which perhaps had an impact on some of the Jewish Christians and perhaps even some of the Gentile Christians there in the church in Rome.

And so in this answer to the objection, he actually accomplishes two things. He first of all manages to show us the continuity of Gods plan of salvation. Gods plan of salvation is one. Its not multi-parted. There are not numerous different ways that one is saved. Paul makes it clear that one is saved the same way in all times and all ages. Theres one God, theres one Lord, theres one faith, theres one baptism. Paul makes it clear that Gods way of salvation is singular, its not plural. There are not multiple ways to be saved. Secondly, he makes it clear here that the way of salvation must exclude boasting. That any way of salvation suggested by man that allows man to stand before God and boast and demand on the basis of something in Him is obviously blasphemous, sacrilegious and offensive. And so in his great answer he responds teaching us those two things. Id like to focus on two or three things that we learn in this passage in these brief verses.

I. The gospel teaching about justification by faith is confirmed in the life and experience of Abraham.

First of all in verse 1 youll see Pauls teaching on the continuity of grace. Then in verse 2 youll see his emphasis is on the unconditionality of grace. And then in verse 3 youll see his teaching about the instrument of grace. And Id like to look at those three things with you today.

First, in verse 1, his teaching on the continuity of grace. Paul, in verse 1, is beginning to establish his teaching on justification by appealing to the Old Testament. And he is doing this knowing that the passage that he is going to quote is a favorite passage quoted by the rabbis to prove the opposite of what he is going to demonstrate from it. So Paul is establishing his teaching on justification by appealing to the Old Testament, but in doing so he knows that he is entering into an argument with the rabbis. But he teaches here in verse 1 that the gospel teaching about justification is in fact confirmed in the life and the experience of Abraham.

Now what better way, of course, to get the attention of Jewish Christians. Jewish Christians who are not only by the flesh, but also by faith, the children of Abraham. And Paul is wanting them to see that Abraham, too, was justified by faith. The Jews of Pauls day would have challenged his teaching on justification, and they would have charged him with coming up with a new idea that was utterly unknown in the Old Testament. They would have said, "Paul, thats very interesting. I see the flow of your argument. I dont see this anywhere in the Old Testament. Youre coming up with this out of thin air. Nobody has ever heard of this stuff before." And so Paul is concerned to take up that issue, and he does so by saying, "Well, let me give you a good example of justification by faith. Lets go to Abraham." He goes right back to the fountainhead of Israel, the father of Israel. And he says, "Well, Abraham was justified by faith. Lets start there." And Paul knows that his contemporaries would have appealed to Abraham to prove that salvation was by works, that salvation was by our own righteousness, that salvation at least in some degree was by our own merit. But Paul appeals to the Old Testament to show that, in fact, the Old Testament, if you look at it closely, teaches the opposite. That salvation is in fact by grace, and that its received by faith.

But you notice that in doing so Paul teaches you something about the continuity of grace. He is saying to New Testament believers, your salvation is accomplished the same way that the salvation of believers under the Old Testament was accomplished. Its not done in some different way. Its not that youre saved by faith, and they were saved by works. Its not that you were saved by Christ, and they were saved by the blood sacrifices of animals. No, they were saved by the same means. God accomplished their salvation by the blood of Christ, and they received their salvation by faith. Paul would never have asked this question. We ask this kind of question all the time. You know, we know that were saved by grace in the New Testament, but how were they saved in the Old Testament? We ask that kind of question all the time. We know the Holy Spirit operates this way in the New Testament, but how did He operate in the Old Testament, or did He operate in the Old Testament? That kind of a question never would have occurred to the apostle Paul.

Now Paul might have said the question this way: Well, we know that salvation is by grace in the Old Testament. I wonder if its still the same in the New Testament? Paul makes it very clear this continuity of Gods plan of salvation, He always operated by grace and faith was always the instrument whereby we receive salvation. Paul is showing here that salvation is one and the same in all ages. Its accomplished by the same means. Its received by the same means. And so we see the continuity of grace. The New Testament believer shares in the same salvation as the Old Testament believer. There is one covenant of grace.

II. If our works have any place in our justification then salvation is not by grace and we have reason to boast.

And then in verse 2 Paul tells us something about the unconditionality of grace. Paul, in direct challenge to contemporary Jewish teaching, is asserting that Abraham was not justified by works. And this is very important because as far as Paul is concerned, because if our works have any place at all in our justification, then salvation is not by grace; and we have reason, we have cause to boast before God. The Jews of Pauls day taught that Abraham was chosen by God because of his righteousness. They taught that he was the most righteous man of his day, and that, therefore, God chose him to be the father of Israel. Furthermore, the Jews of Pauls day taught that Abraham was without sin, that he did not need to repent, and that he had kept Gods law perfectly throughout his life.

Now you say, oh come on, nobodys ever said that. Let me give you a couple of quotes. In the prayer of Manasseh, which was written just a couple of centuries before the time of Christ, we read this: "Therefore, You, O Lord, the God of the righteous have not appointed repentance for the righteous, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who did not sin against you. But you have appointed repentance for me, a sinner." Now when you read that phrase, at first you might think, well, hes being humble. You say Im a sinner, youve appointed repentance for me, but these other people were much more righteous than me. But you see theres really bad theology contained in that phrase. Theres the suggestion that theres someone out there that doesnt need to repent, that theres someone out there that hasnt sinned other than our Lord Jesus Christ. And the apostle Paul is contradicting just that kind of teaching.

And then theres this quotation from the book of Jubilees, another Jewish work written before the time of Christ. It says this: "Abraham was perfect in his deeds with the Lord and well pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life." Read Genesis 12 through 17 recently? You want to go, hello, wake up. This is not the Abraham of Genesis 12 through 17. The Abraham in Genesis 12 through 17 was a man who fell into sin and displeased the Lord and wounded his own people, and who had to be restored in his feeble faith. And yet this was the kind of teaching and, in fact, even in commenting on Genesis 15:6, and if youll look at Romans 4:3, youll see a quotation of Genesis 15:6. Look at the quote again closely. "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Listen to what the rabbis said about that verse: "Our father, Abraham became the heir of this and the world to come simply by the merit of faith. In other words, his faith was a work whereby he earned the right to the inheritance of this world and the world to come."

Now Paul says, look, lets grant for a minute that youre right. That Abraham merited salvation. That his righteousness is the cause of Gods choosing him. If that is the case, then Abraham has the right to boast before God. Now the minute those words get out of Pauls mouth, every pious Jew immediately recoils at the idea of somebody standing before God and boasting. Immediately, the Jew, the Jewish Christian, the Gentile Christian knows well that cant be. No one can stand before God and boast. No one can stand before God in his own righteousness and demand that God take account of him in his own merit, in his own goodness, in his own works. And so the apostle says, "Aha, but you see if you say that we are saved by our own righteousness, if were saved by our works, if were saved by our deeds, if we merit Gods salvation, then we have a reason to boast before God."

And of course Paul concludes that verse by saying, "Look, but not before God." What is Paul saying in that phrase? Nobody has the right to stand before God and boast. But he is saying very clearly if you teach that Gods salvation is based upon your righteousness, you must necessarily teach that its okay to boast before God, which is patently absurd, the apostle makes clear. Why is Paul saying this? Because his contemporaries were saying that Gods election, Gods choice, Gods salvation of Abraham was based upon Abrahams righteousness. And Paul says, look, thats upside down. If you say that Gods salvation of Abraham was based upon Abrahams righteousness, youre saying that Gods salvation of Abraham was based on something in Abraham, not something in God. God looked out, and He saw that Abraham was good. And, therefore, God did two things: First, God responded to something in Abraham, and secondly you need to understand that Gods election, Gods choice, Gods salvation of Abraham was conditional. Gods responding to something in Abraham, and Gods giving grace to Abraham is conditioned upon Abraham, and what he does. And Paul says thats entirely wrong. Thats an entirely wrong view of salvation. Its an entirely wrong view of what God did in the Old Testament because over and over its made clear in the Old Testament that God comes in salvation in initiative to His people, and that they do what? They respond to Gods promise. They respond to Gods free offer. Its not that God responds to something in them. Its that they respond to something in God. Its not that His salvation is conditioned upon something in them, it is that their salvation is purchased in Christ, and He fulfills all the conditions necessary for their salvation. Gods sovereignty and salvation can only be maintained by the doctrine of justification by faith. Otherwise, we have to say that we save ourselves. If we say that salvation is by our works, then ultimately we must say that we save ourselves. Listen to what Jonathan Edwards says: "If there be ground for you to trust in your own righteousness, then all that Christ did to purchase salvation, and all that God did to prepare the way for salvation, is in vain." Paul is reminding us here that the salvation which is set forth in the Bible from Genesis to Romans is unconditional in this sense. It is not conditioned upon something in us that prompts it or allows it or accomplishes it. It is accomplished by God in Christ. It is freely offered. Its not conditioned upon something in us. And so Paul teaches us about the continuity of grace here, and he teaches us about the unconditionality of grace.

III. The Bible teaches that Abraham was justified by faith, i.e., he believed God and His promise, and was imputed righteousness.

And then in verse 3 he goes on to teach us about the instrument of grace. Paul establishes, and he elaborates on this teaching by appealing to Genesis 15:6, that favorite rabbinic text. And he tells us there that contrary to what they have heard, contrary to what those Jewish Christians have heard, that Abraham was justified by faith. That is, he believed God, he believed his promise, and was imputed righteousness.

Paul goes right to this main Jewish proof text, and he explodes their argument. Now lets look at it closely. This is worth looking at closely. Listen again to what the rabbi had said about Genesis 15:6. He said this: "Our father, Abraham, became the heir of this and the coming world, simply by the merit of faith." So he had earned this salvation through the merit of his faith. Now listen to Genesis 15:6 again. "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now whats missing in that passage that the rabbi had added in? Think about it for a minute. Whats missing in that passage that the rabbi added in? Now you think, its been a hard week. Why are you pressing me on this? Look, weve been listening all week about the difference between 'shall' and 'may' and which act was passed last by the Florida legislature in the 1887 act of the electoral college. We can at least concentrate on this for a few minutes. Whats missing in Romans 4:3? What did the rabbis put in thats not there in Romans 4:3? Heres Pauls argument. He says, I dont see anything there about earning merit or works. They are entirely absent in Genesis 15:6. Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him in his righteousness. I see nothing about Abrahams merit. I see nothing about Abrahams merit. I see nothing about Abrahams works. I see nothing about Abrahams righteousness. I see only faith, and I see the grace of God.

I want you to notice three things about that glorious verse. First of all, Abraham believed. Abrahams receipt of the promise was based upon his response to Gods word of promise. Its not that God went down and said, "Hummm, Abraham, youre good. Im going to bless you." Its that Abraham looked up to God who had made a good promise to him. God had taken the initiative. And Abraham did what? He responded to God. Abrahams salvation isnt about God responding to Abraham. Its about Abraham responding to God. Gods gift of salvation to Abraham is not secondary. Its not a response to something in Abraham, or something that Abraham has done. Gods salvation of Abraham is primary. God reaches out to him first. He says to him, while hes a pagan idol worshiper in Ur of the Chaldeas, "Abraham, come out and Ill make you a great people." And so we see here that Abrahams believing is the instrument whereby he receives the promise that God is in the first place held out toward him. Secondly, notice that by his believing he was counted righteous. He was credited as being righteous. He was considered as righteous. He was imputed righteousness.

This passage, and many others in Pauls teaching in Romans and Ephesians and Philemon formed the basis of a glorious doctrine called the imputation, the Doctrine of Imputation. We are imputed, Paul tells us in Romans 5. We are imputed the sin of Adam. All of us are guilty in Adam, but there are two more imputations that you need to pay attention to. Its not merely that we are counted as deserving of condemnation in Adam, it is also that Christs righteousness is imputed to us and our sinfulness is imputed to Christ. So that on the cross the exact price for our sinfulness is paid, and on the cross Christs righteousness is established and made complete and imputed to us. We are counted as righteous, and Abraham believed, and it was counted to him as righteous. God counted him, He credited him, He considered him as a righteous man. Its not something in Abraham that prompts this. Its something in God, and it is promised.

And finally in this verse notice that faith is the means of receiving that righteousness. Its not the cause of that righteousness. Its not that God looked down and said, "Well, you know, Abraham, you have a lot of faith. Therefore, Im going to make you righteous." No, faith is merely the means, its merely the instrument whereby God declares Abraham to be just. For us that means that faith is merely the instrument whereby God declares us to be just. It doesnt cause Gods salvation. Its the instrument through which God accomplishes it. Paul is not saying, that in the Old Testament they earned salvation by works. That was really too hard, so what God did was, He scaled down a little bit, and in the New Testament you earn salvation by faith. That is not Pauls argument.

First of all, Paul has already told you that salvation is the same in both the Old and New Testament. His argument is this. It is not that we earn salvation by works or that God lowers the bar so that we can sort of skip over a little more easily by earning salvation by faith, it is rather that God gives salvation freely, and faith is the saving response of the believer to Gods gift. The Bible from beginning to end teaches free grace justification. Paul is making that absolutely clear.

But do we understand that today? God has accomplished everything necessary for our salvation outside of us. There are always people that think they need to be good enough to respond to the message of the gospel. Wherever you go you will find a few people who think that they need to tidy themselves up enough in order to be worthy of the gift of salvation. Friends, you can tidy up from now to eternity and youre never going to be worthy of that gift. But your worthiness for the gift is not the point. God has accomplished everything necessary for your salvation outside of you. Your salvation is not based upon something inside of you. Its based upon something that Jesus did. Its based upon the plan of God set in motion before the foundation of the world. Your only, only response to that is to believe, is to receive, is to accept, is to embrace. It is to respond to what God has already set forth in His Son.

Now there are many of you who have believed that for many years today. But that truth never gets old, my friends. Its a truth that you have to go back to over and over and over again as you walk in this Christian life. But there may be some here today whove been in gospel preaching churches all their lives who have never responded to that truth. They have thought that somehow they had something to contribute to their salvation, and hence have never rested completely in Jesus Christ. If that is the case with you, then today is the day of salvation. Today is the day for you to realize that everything that is necessary for your salvation is accomplished outside of you. You contribute absolutely nothing to the basis of Gods acceptance of you. You only need respond by faith and believe it, trust in it, receive it with empty hand, bringing nothing, realizing that its not your works, its Christs work. Its not your cross, its Christs cross. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Your cross I cling. Thats the message of the gospel. Its an Old Testament message. Its a New Testament message. Its a Bible message. Lets believe it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your one plan of salvation, manifested in Jesus Christ. We thank You for its unconditional freeness, and we thank You, oh Lord, that even faith by which we respond to salvation is a gift of grace. Help us then to believe, in Jesus name, Amen.

David Understood Justification by Faith - Romans 4:4-8

4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in[a] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered;

8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."

(Romans 4:4-8)

David Understood Justification by Faith

If you have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 4. Weve been looking at this great theme of justification for a number of weeks now, especially as weve worked through Romans, chapter 3. Paul there has been explaining justification. Justification simply refers to Gods declaring us to be righteous. And hes been explaining in Romans 3 exactly how it is that God goes about declaring us to be righteous. One thing that he has been stressing is that it is not our own righteousness that leads God to declare us to be righteous. It is Christs righteousness that leads God to declare us to be righteous.

How is it that we then take benefit, how do we gain benefit from Christs righteousness through faith, through faith alone? Paul says we trust in Christ, and God reckons us to be righteous because of Him. And Hes been explaining how that happens in Romans, chapter 3. And weve just been, now for a week, in Romans, chapter 4, and we were in Romans 4, verses 1 through 3, where Paul takes us then to the Old Testament, and especially to Genesis 15, verse 6, and that grand declaration about Abraham: Abraham believed, and it was credited, it was reckoned to him for righteousness. And Paul says, "Look, this teaching that I have been telling you about is not new. Its not something that I invented. Its not novel. Its not unique in the sense of never before having been heard of, though it is unique in other senses. Its a teaching which is actually grounded in the Bible, in the Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, you can find it in the story of one of the greatest saints of Old Testament times. You can find it in the story of the one who is the Father of Israel, the fountainhead of the Jewish people." And he takes us right back to the story of Abraham.

Now why does he do that. Well, we said several things in answer of that question last time. First of all, the Jewish theologians of Pauls day taught that Abraham was chosen by God, elected by God, perhaps even justified by God because of His own righteousness. And believe it or not some of them appeal to this very verse, Genesis, chapter 15, verse 6 in order to prove that. And so Paul wants to challenge that particular belief. He wants to make it clear that when you look at the life and experience of the father of Israel, you find that he was justified by grace thorough faith. And so he wants to make it clear that his teaching is scriptural. This is, it is rooted in the authoritative Scriptures of God. Its not something hes thought up on his own which contradicts what God taught in the Old Testament. It in fact simply flows from what God taught and revealed in the Old Testament.

Theres another thing he wants us to do. He wants us to look closely at Genesis 15, verse 6. And he basically poses this question to us: Where in Genesis 15:6 does it mention Abrahams works? Where in Genesis 15:6 does it mention Abrahams merits? Where in Genesis 15:6 does it suggest that it was because of Abrahams righteousness that God counted him righteous? And of course Paul knows that theres going to be a thunderous silence in response to those questions because Genesis 15:6 speaks of none of those things. Only Abrahams belief, his faith is emphasized by Moses in Genesis 15:6. God counts Abraham as a righteous man because he believed God and His promise.

And Paul wants to focus us in on that important reality of Abrahams faith being the instrument by which God declared him to be righteous. He wants us to know that first of all so that we will know that this teaching of justification by faith is grounded in Gods Old Testament scriptures. Its part of the covenant of grace. He wants us to see that Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, so many of whom were arguing with Paul and calling Pauls doctrine of justification false, that the father of the Jewish people was himself justified by faith. And he does so, of course, ultimately so that we might have greater confidence and greater understanding of this truth of justification.

Now he continues that argument today. As we look at Romans, chapter 4, verses 4 through 8, Paul zeroes in on this idea of imputation. I realize that imputation is not a word we use every day over our coffee. Just like justification. Normally we dont work justification into a regular conversation. We have to go to Paul in Romans or elsewhere usually before were talking about justification in the course of conversation. Just as justification was a term borrowed from the law courts, so also imputation was a term borrowed from the accountants office.

Paul goes to these two terms, not only to describe for us what it is like to be saved, but to show to us exactly what God does for us when He saves us. He justifies us, and then He imputes to us Christs righteousness. Paul is focusing our attention on imputation, this accounting term. He elaborates on this point by reminding us of something that David said in the Psalms. In fact, in Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2. So lets hear Gods word reverently and attentively in Romans 4:

"Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man upon whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy word. May He open our eyes to see and embrace its truth. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, this day for those who do not know Christ enable them through the eyes of faith to see the truth of your free gospel offer. We pray for those who know Christ and yet struggle, sometimes not sensing the full acceptance that they have in Jesus Christ. Root their assurance in this glorious truth that they might walk freely. Be encouraged and be strong in their testimony. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

The issue of justification, the issue of imputation is not just interesting theological chitchat for seminarians. The issue of justification, the issue of imputation is at the heart of the Christian faith. There are very few questions in life that you can ask more significant than the question what makes a person right before God? What is it that causes God to accept a person, to embrace a person? What can cause you to be able to stand with confidence before the judgment of God? Those kinds of questions are significant, and there are very few questions more significant than those. Paul is addressing precisely that significant a question in the passage before us today. And, in fact, is elaborating on a point which he had already raised in Romans 4, verses 1 through 3. In Romans 4, verses 1 through 3, because he quoted Genesis 15:6, he had raised this picture, this term, this metaphor of reckoning or accounting or imputing by reminding us that Abraham believed, and it was reckoned or counted or imputed to him as righteousness.

And so in verses 4 through 8 he wants to elaborate on just what imputation is, and what its implications are. And thats all were going to do today is look at those two things. In verses 4 and 5 Paul explains imputation. In verses 6 through 8 he demonstrates imputation. Just as he had gone to the story of Abraham to show that His doctrine of justification by faith was biblical and was part of the very heart of the Old Testament teaching on salvation, then in verses 6 through 8 he goes to David, and he says, "Not only was Abraham justified by faith, but David was justified by faith." And in the process he explains to us imputation, and he helps us understand the implications of that glorious truth of imputation. So lets look at these passages together.

I. As we trust in Christ, God credits, imputes, Christ's righteousness to us.

First in verses 4 through 5, here he explains imputation as we trust in Christ, God, by His favor, credits Christs righteousness to us. Thats what imputation means. As we trust in Christ, God credits to our account the righteousness of Christ and conversely credits our sin to Christs account. Thats what imputation means. And Paul here is explaining how imputation works. He makes it clear in verses 4 and 5 that Abraham was declared righteous, and he was accepted by grace as a favor, as a grant, as a gift from God, according to his faith, not according to his works. And understanding imputation, Paul says, will help you understand and appreciate all the more that Abraham was accepted by grace. The argument here is that Gods imputation of righteousness is inconsistent with your earning your standing as righteous.

In other words, imputation is incompatible with an earned salvation. Merit and what is due because of what you have done, those things dont mesh with being reckoned righteous, by grace, being imputed righteousness by Gods favor. Paul gives a negative illustration. In verse 4 he says look, "A laborer receives earned wages. It is the laborers legal and moral right to receive those wages. And to put it the other way around, it is the employers legal and moral responsibility and obligation to pay him his due for the work that he has done." And Paul says, "That is not how it is in Gods justification."

Now its very important for us to pause here and reflect because so often when we talk with people about salvation, the first way that they want to think about their relationship with God is in terms of compensation. Im trying to live a good life. How often have you heard that? Whats your relationship with God? Well, Im trying to live a good life. The category of compensation immediately comes up. And the apostle Paul is saying here that that is not the way it is in justification. To reckon or to credit or to impute righteousness, that is what God does in justification. He doesnt look at you and say, "Okay, youre righteous, Im going to declare you righteous." He grants to us, by His grace, that we are credited as, accepted as, accounted as righteous for the sake of His son by faith. So he goes to this metaphor from accountancy. Just like justification is drawn from the law courts where the judge declares a criminal to be guilty and declares a person who has been shown to be innocent by the court to be acquitted, so also in this metaphor from accountancy, Paul says God imputes righteousness. He assigns that to your account. Its moved from one column to another. From one ledger sheet to another. And so in contrast to the Jews who argued that God justified Abram, that he chose Abraham because of his righteousness, Paul says, "Oh, no, if you look at the Old Testament, its clear that God imputed righteousness. He credited Abraham with righteousness because of his faith." And so Paul explains imputation by saying that God, through His sheer favor and gift and grant declared Abraham righteous according to his faith alone apart from works.

Whats so significant about that? Paul is saying if we are thinking in terms of earned salvation, then we are thinking in the wrong categories. For Paul, salvation is by grace, not by compensation. And because salvation is by grace and not by compensation, we thus receive it by faith rather than earn it by works. Salvation is by grace, not by compensation, and, therefore, we receive it by faith. We dont earn it by works. And Paul is explaining imputation to us so that we will understand precisely that truth. There is a temptation in every person with a religious inkling, who is unclear about what Jesus has declared in His word, and what His apostles teach in the word, there is an inkling, there is an instinct, there is a tendency in every person to seek acceptance by God via what we do. Im trying to be a good person. I try to keep the Commandments. I try and be charitable to other people, perhaps weve heard someone say. And the apostle Paul says, "You need to understand, that when it comes to acceptance by God, this is a matter of grace and faith, not compensation and works.

II. God imputed righteousness to Old Testament believers.

In fact, Paul goes on to elaborate that precise point in verses 6 through 8. Hes explained imputation in verses 4 and 5, God credits righteousness to our account, and He demonstrates it from the Old Testament in verses 6 through 8. Paul turns our attention to Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2, and he says, "David himself, in that passage, speaks of our lawless deeds being forgiven, covered and not imputed, or not reckoned." In other words, why does Paul turn in Romans 4:6 through 8 to Psalm 32:1 and 2. He turns there so that we will know that David understood justification by faith, that David believed justification by faith. That David taught justification by faith. Paul is saying that not only did Abraham understand, believe and embrace justification by faith, but so also David understood, believed and taught that justification is by grace alone, and it is received through faith alone. Paul, in order to confirm his teaching, goes again to the Old Testament. Just like in verse 2 and 3 he turned our attention to Genesis 15:6, now he turns our attention to Psalm 32. And not only does he go to the Psalms, he goes to David himself. So we have these two towering figures of the Old Testament. What better way to appeal to the Jewish Christians in the audience that he was not asking them to turn their back on the Old Testament scriptures. He was saying, "No, friends, you embrace what those Scriptures say." Those Scriptures have for you set forth the salvation, the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. And he goes right to Psalm 32 and he is saying, "Look, what is true about Abraham, is also true about David. He, too, knew that justification is by faith alone." And he says, "David recognized that the forgiven man, the accepted man, the man to whom his own sins had not been reckoned is a blessed man." Now thats very significant. David doesnt call him a deserving man, deserving is the man. Blessed is the man. Due to Gods divine benediction grant and favor, your lawless deeds are covered and forgiven and not imputed. And Paul goes right to that passage. Look at the end of verse 8. "Blessed is the man who sinned. The Lord will not take into account." Paul goes to that passage because of its use of that phrase, "take into account," its the same term that is used in Genesis 15:6. Just as God says in His word in Genesis 15:6 that He reckoned Abram as righteous, so also in Psalm 32 David says, "That the man who is blessed is not reckoned his sin." God does not reckon his sin. He does not take his sin into account. And the passage here, you see, focuses us on what we might call non-imputation. God does not impute our sins to us. He does not charge them to our account. In other words, David is rejoicing that his sin was not imputed, not reckoned to his account.

Now this is absolutely important to understand. Whereas our tendency, when we begin to talk about spiritual things, if we dont have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ our tendency is to say, "Well, Im trying to be a good person." "Im trying to keep the Ten Commandments, and Im trying to be a charitable person, and Im trying to do deeds of mercy." Notice that David says the blessed man is the man whom the Lord does not consider his works. The blessed man is the man that God accepts not on the basis of what he is, but on the basis of something else. In other words, far from standing before God and saying, "Lord, Im trying be a good person." David says, "The man who is really blessed is the man whom God doesnt consider that about." He considers something else about him. That he has trusted, he has placed his faith, he has believed on God and his promise as revealed in Jesus Christ. And as such is considered to be a righteous man.

This non-imputation points us to the three great imputations of Scripture. When we get there in a few weeks, in Romans, chapter 5, verse 12, we will learn of the first and the sad imputation. The imputation of Adams sin to us. It is a great mystery. It is one of the most unpopular teachings in all the Bible. But it is inescapably biblical and Pauline that all of us have sinned in Adam, that we bear the responsibility for the original fall of Adam. Now thats mind boggling, but Paul speaks about it in Romans 5:12 and following. Thats the first great imputation. The second two great imputations of Scripture are happy, however. And Paul begins to speak of them in Romans 5 as well, even as he is speaking of them now. That is, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to us, to those who believe in Him and the imputation of our sins to Him. David doesnt tell you in Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2 how it is that God could be righteous and not impute your sin to you. Paul does tell you how it is that God could be righteous and not impute your sin to you. He said it happens this way: Jesus dies for you. As your sins are imputed to Him, His righteousness conversely is imputed to you as you trust in Him. So that you are declared to be righteous in Him, and He is declared to be a sinner for you, and He receives in His own body on the tree your due penalty for sin. So that as you trust in Him, you go free.

Now the apostle is saying, "Thats what Im telling you, friends." Far from trusting in our works to gain us Gods faith, we should rejoice that by faith He doesnt count our works against us. You see our tendency is immediately to think of those few good things that we have done and hope they will commend us before God. And David says, "O Lord, I rejoice that Youve forgotten the things that I have done, and You have not credited them to my account. Youve not imputed my sins to me. Youve not reckoned them against my accounting. But you have declared me to be righteous out of Your free mercy and favor." Just as Paul could say to Philemon that if Onesimus has in any way wronged you or hurt you, in Philemon, verse 18, charge that to my account. So also Jesus Christ has said, "If that sinner in any way has offended you, charge that to My account." Paul says, that is what God does in justification. He charges your sin to Christs account, and grants Christs righteousness to your account, by His divine favor as you trust in Him.

Now let me just say there may be someone here today who has grown up in the church, been a member of the church all your life, and yet ultimately you think that the reason you ought to be accepted by God is because you are a nice person. After all, youre a Christian. You were born in Mississippi, haven't murdered anybody, haven't done anything really terrible, at least in your own eyes. Sure God should accept me. Ive tried to be good. The apostle says here, for anyone who is trusting in himself that way, because thats exactly what youre doing, youre not trusting in Christ, youre trusting in yourself. Youre not the blessed man. The blessed man is the man who is long past thinking that he can commend Himself to God because of what hes done. The blessed man is the man whom God looks over the things that he has done, and looks to something deeper and greater, what Christ has done.

Or perhaps youre a person who thinks, you know, this Christian God, this God of the Bible, this God is mean. Hes waiting to pounce on me. He is waiting to blast me into oblivion. How can you ask me, preacher, to love a God like that? And the apostle is saying here, "Let me tell you about my God. So willing, so ready was He to embrace you, to declare you to be righteous, though you are not. That He caused your sin to be imputed to His own Son that He might embrace you as a son, as a daughter." Thats the kind of God thats set forth in the gospel. Theres no God like Him in the world. All the other gods are fabrications of mens minds. This God is far beyond. Can you imagine Adam in the garden saying, "Lord, why dont you give Your Son?" And thats precisely what God does. He gives His Son.

And then to you, Christian. Who may, as youve been going on in the Christian life, have begun to think in terms of Gods favor towards you, that Gods acceptance towards you is based somehow upon you being good enough that particular day. Dont you need to be reminded that if your acceptance is based upon anything in you ever, youll never know the freedom which God has granted by the Spirit. Because you know, if you think about it long enough, that theres nothing in us that we have not corrupted by sin. And that the way to peace of mind and assurance of salvation is the recognition that our acceptance of God is not based upon an innate righteousness, but on an alien righteousness that has been credited to our account, imputed to us by divine grace. Christs righteousness, which is my own by faith, so that I have peace with God. Thats a gospel worth sharing, a faith to live by. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we pray that as we contemplate these words in their simplicity that you would enable them to become real by faith to us. That none would go from this place without belief, without assurance because theyve trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation as He set forth in the gospel. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Faith and the Covenant Sign of Circumcision - Romans 4:9-12

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:9-12)

Faith and the Covenant Sign of Circumcision

If you have your Bibles I would invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 4. Weve said a number of times as we have continued to work through the book of Romans that there is no more important question that we could ask and answer than how can a man be right with God? What allows a man to stand before God without fear of condemnation? Paul is giving us an answer to that question as he sets the gospel before our eyes in Romans 3 and 4. In Romans 3, he sets forth that truth of the gospel and focuses on justification and explains what he means by justification by grace through faith. Then in Romans 4 he defends that teaching from the scriptures. That is, from the Old Testament. He shows that this teaching is not some new teaching that he has invented which has nothing to do with the law and the prophets. Its found right there in the Old Testament. He defends it, in fact, from the life of Abraham, and as we saw last week even from the writings of David. And he elaborates on certain aspects of what it means to be justified by grace through faith in Romans 4.

The last time we were together in Romans 4, verses 4 through 8, Paul focused in detail on the truth of imputation. That is, that in Gods mercy He does not count against us our sins, and He does credit to our account, impute to us, reckon to us the righteousness of Christ as we trust in Him. And he speaks about that in verses 4 and 5 saying that Abraham himself was declared to be righteous and accepted by grace, by Gods gift, by Gods favor. Not because of anything that he had done, but because of Gods grace he was accepted, reckoned or counted as righteousness.

And then in verses 6 through 8 Paul goes on to say, and by the way, David believed that. David understood that. David even taught and wrote about it, and he takes us right to Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2, where David says blessed is that man whom the Lord does not reckon his sins against him. And Paul says, "See, David understood the idea that we are not justified, were not declared righteous by God because of something in us, because of our own righteousness, because of our own selves." Were reckoned as righteous because of what God has done in Jesus Christ, and even David understood that.

Today we come to Romans 4, verse 9. A section in which Paul explains the relationship between the old covenant sign of circumcision and saving faith and in that alien righteousness of Christ, which is granted to us in justification. Lets hear Gods holy and inspired word:

"Is this blessing then upon the circumcised or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say, Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised. That he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised. That righteousness might be reckoned to them, and the father of circumcision. To those who not only are of the circumcision but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father, Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our heavenly Father, we ask that this day You would reveal to us wondrous truth from Your word and that You would open our hearts, not only to understand but to embrace it. For those here this day who believe on Jesus Christ and yet who struggle sometimes with their assurance of the fullness of His love. We pray that by Your word that they would be strengthened and comforted and made strong in the grace which is in Jesus Christ. If others come not trusting in Jesus Christ, perhaps not openly rejecting Him, perhaps not rejecting fellowship with His people, or even membership in some local church, and yet who have never really dealt with Christ, theyve never trusted in Him. They are clinging to something else, something external, something different. We pray that they, too, would see precisely what Paul is saying here. The ground of all of our hope is Jesus, and if we are not united to Him by faith, there is no hope. And if we have Him, there is nothing else that we need. Help all of us to see the glory of that truth and to praise You. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Paul wants every believer to understand something about this glorious truth of justification. We may not end up being professors of theology somewhere, but He wants us to be understanders of the doctrine of justification. Its so important, isnt it? Some rudimentary understanding of justification is really necessary for you to have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. If you really think that you save yourself is it possible to receive the free grace that is offered in Jesus Christ? Paul knows you need to know something about what it means to be saved by grace through faith. Justified. Declared righteous by God, by His grace, receiving that righteousness of Christ by faith in order to participate in that salvation which He has planned for all His people.

But its not only important for salvation, its important for our assurance. There are many believers for various reasons: some of them personality reasons, some of them theological reasons who struggle with assurance. They have a hard time perhaps feeling the certainty and the enduring character of Gods love for them. They have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that God will never let them go. That theres nothing in them that He can later discover which will so displease Him that He will let go of His grip of grace. And they need to be reminded that Christ is the ground of their hope. Theres nothing in them that made them lovable to God. That His love for them was something that came out of His own heart. Its constant, its pure, He knew everything about us from the beginning, and yet He loved us still. Theres nothing that He will ever discover about us that He didnt already know. And as we trust in Jesus Christ, theres nothing that can ever distance us from His love. We need to know that assuring truth of His justification by grace through faith. Its absolutely essential if were going to be truly and rightly assured.

But its also absolutely essential for discipleship. How can we encourage the brothers and sisters in love and good deeds if we dont know how God saves us, if we dont know how God declares us righteous. How can we encourage a brother or a sister whos struggling with assurance. How can we help someone know how to come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ? You see, understanding justification is important for discipleship, too.

So Paul expects each of us to be theologians in a sense. There are some things that we need to understand the essentials of very clearly. And to understand justification also requires that we understand some other things, too. Among them how the New Testament relates to the Old Testament, especially in this whole area of circumcision and the ceremonial law. Because youll remember that in the Old Testament to refuse circumcision was to refuse God. To refuse circumcision was to repudiate the covenant community and the promises that God had made. In Genesis 17 it was clearly said, "He who refuses the sign of circumcision is cut off from My people." And here suddenly Paul is saying circumcision doesnt matter. Here Paul is saying, in fact, for those Gentile converts of the faith, they ought not be circumcised. And those who would force them to be circumcised are, in fact, themselves repudiating the covenant. And if youre a Jewish Christians, or if youre a Jewish hearer of those words as Paul is first saying them, perhaps youre scratching your head. And youre saying, "Hold on, let me get something straight. In the Old Testament, if I refuse the sign of circumcision, Im refusing God His promises in the covenant community. In the New Testament, if I demand that Gentiles be circumcised, Im refusing God His promises and the covenant community. What happened, Paul?" Well, Paul is anxious to explain that to us.

Now perhaps you have not been asking that question today. Perhaps you did not come here saying how could it be that someone who is not circumcised could receive the grace of Christ. I suspect that most of you were not thinking about that this week. And you may be saying well, how then is what Paul is talking about in this passage, how does it speak to me? It does. I promise you it does. Ill show you that it does. Be turning to Acts, chapter 15, verse 1, and as you turn there, let me say that this issue of whether the uncircumcised can participate in the justifying work of Christ, if we can receive the benefits which flow from the justifying work of Christ, is a very practical issue. Even if were not Jewish converts to Christianity, its a very practical question.

The whole issue of how your faith in Christ relates to outward rites and rituals is brought up by this issue that Paul is raising before us. For instance, many of you perhaps grew up in churches that taught that baptism was necessary for salvation. There are many churches that teach that a person must believe in Christ, repent and be baptized with water in order to be saved. Pauls words speak to that assertion, and in fact, meet that assertion with a negation as we will understand it here. Perhaps you thought that the way that person receives grace depends upon their participation in some sort of outward rite, whether it be some mystical experience in the Lords Supper as administrated by a particular church, or the receiving of some special kind of last rites by a priest. And Pauls words here speak to the relationship that saving faith has to outward religious rights. So lets concentrate on what Paul is telling us today.

I. Must one be a Jew in order to be justified?

Paul is explaining to us again the freeness of justification. He is, in verse 9, putting before us a question. Does one have to be a Jew in order to be justified? And again, you may not have been thinking that question. Most of us are Gentiles. There are relatively few Jewish converts to Christianity in our congregation. So we may not have been wondering if one can be a Christian without converting and to Judaism and receiving circumcision. But that was a very practical question for Paul. There were many people who taught and were teaching Christians that they could not receive the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ without being circumcised, without obeying the mosaic ceremonial law without becoming as it were "good practicing" Jews. Now thats not a surmise on my part. I just asked you to turn to Acts, chapter 15, verse 1. The whole controversy that began there in Jerusalem and which was eventually settled through the apostles and the elders as they met began this way. Listen to verse 1 of Acts 15. "Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." Paul practically had to face that question in his ministry. People said, "Look, justification by grace is true, but its only true for those who have been circumcised, those who have become good Jews. They accept the ceremonial code. For all those people justification is a reality and a possibility. But not for those who are not circumcised.

And Paul wants to pose that question: Does one have to be a Jew in order to be justified? In order that we will understand his very clear and mistakable answer, the main thing that he wants to get across in these four short verses is simply this: Justification is for everyone. Justification by grace through faith is for everyone, Jew and Gentile. Its by faith, its apart from circumcision. Its for everyone. Its not for the Jews only. Throughout his ministry, he faced those who claimed that Gentile converts to Christianity had to be circumcised and to keep the mosaic ceremonial code in order to be Christians in good standing and to be part of the church. He calls them Judaizers. And those are the circumstance that the church was dealing with in Acts, chapter 15, verse 1. And Paul here explains. He gives one reason why they are so wrong. And he does it by asking a question. He says imputed righteousness is the blessing of being counted a man who has been credited with the righteousness of Christ, and who has not been counted as sinful because of his own sins. Is that for the circumcised only, or is for the uncircumcised as well? Is that blessing, is that promise, is it only for Jews or is it for Gentiles as well? And he hints at the answer in verse 9 by quoting Genesis 15, verse 6 again. You remember hes already pointed us to that passage once. And he does so again. Faith, he says, was credited to Abraham as righteous.

Now Paul quotes that passage again for you because hes giving you a hint at the right answer to his question. Is the blessedness of being justified by grace through faith, for Jews only, or is it also for Gentiles? He says, well, let me quote it to you one more time. Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. He is asking you to think about the state Abraham was in with regard to circumcision, at the time when God made that pronouncement about him. Hes saying, "Think about Abraham. Was he a circumcised man or was he an uncircumcised man when God said Abraham, I accept you as righteous because of the faith which you have in me and in my promise." Pauls point for doing that is to emphasize that justification is available to everyone by faith. And that nothing that we do, whether it be ceremonial or whether it be moral, contributes to that justification, because the ground of that justification is not something in us, and its not something that we do, its grounded in what Christ does. And therefore, circumcision, and outward rituals contribute nothing to that justification.

And you see thats a word that we need to hear just as much as they need to hear, because there are all sorts of people that are ready to say as Christians, "Oh, Christ saves, but its Christ, plus water baptism." Or, "Christ, plus water baptism is the way we do it." Or, "Christ, plus some extraordinary experience of the Holy Spirit wherein you do miraculous deeds and speak in tongues and prophesy. Thats what you need in order to be saved." Or, "Its Christ, plus some mystic experience when you come to the Lords table." Theyre always ready to add one more thing, and Paul is saying, "No, no, no, you dont understand. Its Christ, and its faith in Him. No plus here. No plus here." Thats the main thing that Paul is wanting to emphasize in this passage, and he does it by working it out for us.

II. Abraham was declared righteous before circumcision.

Look at verse 10. He tells us the second thing there. Having asked us this question, does one have to be a Jew in order to be justified? He begins to answer it explicitly. Hes hinted at an answer in verse 9. Now in verse 10, hes going to begin to explicitly answer the question. When Abraham was declared righteous, Paul wants you to ask what sort of state was he in? When was it that Abraham was justified? When was it that he was declared righteous? Was it before his circumcision or was it after his circumcision, Paul asked. How then was it credited, when he was circumcised or when he was uncircumcised? In other words, Paul is saying the very timing of Abrahams justification is important, and it teaches you a truth. Paul wants you to remember that Abraham was imputed righteousness, he was counted as righteous, at least fourteen years before he was circumcised. In fact, by the Jewish reckoning, it was twenty-nine years before he was circumcised.

And Paul says, "Now think about that for a minute. If justification, as my Jewish opponents say, is only for the Jews, how could it be that the uncircumcised Abraham could have been justified twenty-nine years before he was circumcised." He says, "The very timing of Abrahams experience of justification proves that justification is both for the circumcised and for the uncircumcised." Its important for us to remember that circumcision wasnt just an ethnic mark, it wasnt just for people who were blood Jews, we might say. Its wasnt just a national mark, it wasnt just a non-religious or sort of a secular national sign that you are part of Israel. It was a spiritual sign.

Circumcision was the mark of belonging to the covenant community. It was not merely ethnic or national non-Jews, those who are not Jews by blood, who could become Jews by faith in the receiving of this sign of circumcision. This is clear from Genesis to the end of the Old Testament. In Genesis, chapter 17, verses 12 and 13, when circumcision was first commanded, isnt it interesting that God explicitly tells Abram that he is to give that sign even to the strangers, the foreigners, who dwell in his household, who have been bought with money from foreigners. Its not just people who are of the clean, pure blood line of Abraham that are to be given this sign. Everyone in his tent, foreigner or not, slave or free, is to be given this sign. But at the end of the Old Testament time frame, the same is true. If you were to turn to Esther, chapter 8, verse 17, youd find a very interesting verse there. You may remember that Haaman had a plot against the Jews. He wanted to wipe them out. He talked the king into making a decree that basically said that it was open season on Jews. People could attack them and take everything from them with impunity. Now in that particular area of Media-Persia, once the king made his declaration, he couldnt take it back. And so when Mordecai and Esther, through their own bravery and courage, made this plot known to the king, he couldnt withdraw that dictate, he had to come up with something else. So heres what he did. He said, "Okay, on that same day, on that same time that I had originally decreed that there was a free for all on the Jews, heres the new deal. The Jews can defend themselves. Im going to help them to defend themselves; Im going to help them defend themselves, and further anybody that attacks them, the Jews have the right, with impunity, to take everything that they own, everything that they have, and there will be legal recourse. In other words, if they take it from you, you never get it back. Your family, your lands, your inheritance, everything. Were told in Esther, chapter 8, verse 17, because of this decree and because of the work of the Lord, the fear of the Jews was on everyone. And, were told, that many became Jews. This is a strange thing. These are Gentiles. How could they have become Jews? Was it through intermarriage and through having sort of half-Jewish children? It was through receiving the sign of circumcision. They became part of the covenant community. They believed in the one true God of Israel. But Paul is saying here, in Romans, chapter 4, verses 9 through 12 that no religious rite makes you just before God. No religious rite, even circumcision makes you justifiable before God. No religious rite, even circumcision, is necessary in order to be justified before God, because Gods justification is without reference to our deeds. Its not based upon anything that weve done, even something that Gods commands us to do, like circumcision. Paul is emphasizing that the timing of Abrahams justification teaches us that circumcision is not necessary for justification.

Its a very important lesson for us to learn, because we still live in a day and time where people teach that there are certain religious rights that need to be done in order to be right with God. And its very important for us to know the difference between something which is necessary for salvation and something which is necessary for obedience. And its very important for us to know the distinction between something that is required in order to be accepted by God, and something that flows from and confirms that we have been accepted with God. Knowing that difference is very, very important, and Paul is pointing to it here. For instance, it is clear from what Paul is saying that to say that baptism, that water baptism is somehow necessary for salvation is wrong. You know Baptists and Presbyterians, for instance, have some differences over baptism. Who ought to receive it? How it ought to be done. Who are the proper recipients? Whats the right mode? But were absolutely agreed on this: water baptism is not necessary for salvation, and yet there are many who teach that it is; that if you do not receive water baptism, you are not and cannot be saved. So that in some cases, there are priests and people who will actually go to a dying infants hospital room and attempt to baptize the child before the child dies because baptism is necessary for salvation. And the apostle Paul is saying there is no rite which is necessary for justification, because justification is not based on what we do, its based on what Christ has done. And the righteousness that we received in justification is not our righteousness, its not our moral righteousness, its not our ritual righteousness, its Christs righteousness. "And furthermore," Paul says, "the ceremonial code pointed to a greater righteousness to come and that righteousness is the righteousness of Christ."

III. Even the nature of circumcision testifies to justification by grace.

And so he goes on verse 11 to make it clear that the nature of circumcision itself testifies to justification by grace. "Abrahams circumcision," were told by Paul in verse 11, "was a sign and a seal of the imputed righteousness which he received by faith." Paul is actually claiming that the nature of circumcision itself testifies to justification by grace through faith. Paul tells us three things about justification in that short verse: He tells us that its a sign, he tells us that its a seal, and he tells us that it sets forth imputed righteousness. Lets look at each of those.

Circumcision is a sign. Its symbolic. In other words God has ordained it as a spiritual symbol. Whats it a symbol of? Its an outward sign of an inward spiritual reality. It points to something. Now that in and of itself is an argument against circumcision actually saving. Does a sign actually get you to the place that you are going? No. It points there. When you get to the sign on Interstate 20 that says youre forty-two miles from Jackson and seven from Chunky, are you in Jackson? No. The sign points you there, but the sign does not bring about the reality. It points you there. Its a sign. Its a sign of the imputed righteousness by faith.

Secondly, its a seal. Its a confirmation. There again you see an argument against the sign bringing about the reality. What is a mark? Whats a seal? Whats a stamp? Whats a confirmation? Its there to reiterate the reality which has been pledged. Does it bring about the reality? No, it confirms the reality. Its there to assure us. The sign of circumcision doesnt bring about the reality of Gods love for Abraham, it confirms it. God is saying, "Look, Abraham, I love you, I love you so much. Listen to Me. Im going to put a mark in your flesh so that you cant even look at yourself without seeing that I love you." Did it cause Gods love? No. Was it the condition of Gods love? No. Did it motivate Gods love? No. It reminded Abraham that God already loved him.

Then Paul says astonishingly it was to sign and to seal, it was to point to and confirm what? The righteousness of faith which he had while uncircumcised. In other words, it was to confirm to Abraham that God had credited him as a righteous man not based on his deeds. And boy, was that ever important for Abraham, because he was going to fail in faith in the very next chapter after this was declared, chapter 16. He was going to fail, he was utterly going to flop. And that important for you to hear. Gods justifying word is not based on something in you. Its based on something that Christ has done for you. The nature of circumcision itself testifies to the reality that God saves us by grace.

IV. Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe.

And then finally, in the end of verse 11, in verse 12, Paul tells us this. The circumstances of Abrahams justification enabled him to serve as the spiritual father to both believing Jews and to Gentiles. "Abraham, in other words," Paul says, is the spiritual father of all who believe in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, whether circumcised or not." "Abraham himself was declared righteous," Paul says, "while he was a Gentile." He was uncircumcised. And so he is able to be the spiritual father perfectly well. Think of how this would have rung in the years of the Gentile Christians there who were perhaps thinking that they were sort of second class citizens. "Abraham was just like you," Paul is saying, "He was just like you when God declared him to be righteous. He didnt have the mark of circumcision, he wasnt even a Jew." And then he can turn to the Jewish people in the congregation, and he can say, "And Abraham is your spiritual father, too, because you followed his footsteps in faith." He believed in God and in His promises. Youve believed in God and in His promises. He believed in the coming Messiah. Youve believed in the Messiah that comes. Hes your father, too.

But you see the key there in either case is faith. Believing in Christ. Receiving Him as He is offered in the gospel, whether Jew or Gentile. Thats the thing. Its not anything else. Its not any outward righteousness. Its not any deed, its not any ceremonial righteousness. Its not even moral righteousness on your own part. Its Christs righteousness received by faith. Now thats an important lesson for all of us here to understand. If were not believers, or if were people who profess to be believers, and yet our trust is in something other than in Jesus Christ or in addition to Jesus Christ, we need to learn a lesson. Salvation is in Christ alone, and adding anything to Him is taking away from Him. If were believers we need to be reminded again and again, though certainly we take measure of our own growth and grace. Though certainly we take measure to see that God is growing us up in wisdom and knowledge in accordance with his word, ultimately the ground of our assurance is not in that which God is doing in us in sanctification. The ground of our assurance is found in what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, and everything else flows from that. These words of Paul are far from impractical. Every single one of us needs to come to grips with these things this day. May God make it so. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we are debtors to your mercy alone, your covenant mercy. Help us truly, oh God, to understand what this means. If there is anyone here this day who does not know what it is to trust in Christ alone, I pray that by Your Spirit you would open their eyes to see it, even through the help of friends who already know Christ, I pray that these dear friends would be led to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If we are believers struggling with assurance, I pray that You would bolster our faith and our assurance through Jesus Christ in an understanding of Your free justification. And all these things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Faith and the Law - Romans 4:13-15

13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. (Romans 4:13-15)

Faith and the Law

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 4, as we continue to study together through this glorious book. Our minds are very much on the incarnation just now. Were singing about it. Were listening to others sing about it. Were reflecting on it, perhaps individually. And its important to realize that the incarnation itself proves that salvation is by grace, and not by our works. If salvation were by our law keeping, if salvation were by our obedience to Gods commands, then Jesus would not have had to come in the flesh. He would not have had to live obediently under His Fathers commands on our behalf. And so His advent, His coming proves that salvation is by Gods promise, not by our obedience. Its by faith, not by works.

Thats the subject that Paul has been talking about since Romans 3:21, and weve said a number of times as weve worked through these passages that theres no more important question than how can a man be right with God? And Pauls answer to that question is that a man is made right with God by faith. That is, by faith, man trusting in Christ, receives the righteousness of Christ, and so Gods declaration that we are right with Him. In Romans 3, 21 through 31, he explains that teaching. In Romans, chapter 4, he defends that teaching from the Old Testament. In verses 1 through 3, he tells us that Abraham was justified by faith. In verse 4 through 8 he tells us that David understood and taught and believed in justification by faith. And he tells us a little bit about what it means to have Christs righteousness credited to us, using that wonderful word imputed.

In verses 9 through 12, he again asserts that justification by faith is open to everybody. Its not just open to physical descendants of Abraham who keep the ceremonial law of Moses. Its open to everyone, Jew and Gentile. And that brings us to the passage today. Paul wants us to understand justification. Its absolutely essential. Its something necessary for our salvation, for our assurance and for our discipleship. So lets give attention to Gods word here in Romans 4, beginning in verse 13. This is Gods word. Hear it reverently and attentively.

"For the promise to Abraham, or to his descendants, that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise nullified; for the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there violation."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Lord, this is Your word. We ask that all those who come believing this word to be Your truth, and those who come believing Jesus Christ to be the one offered for sin, and the only salvation of sinners. We pray that for them this word would be an encouragement, that they would be deepened in their understanding of what You have done for them that they might be called right with God. Heavenly Father, for those who come this day not trusting in Jesus Christ, not embracing Him as He is offered in the gospel. We pray that this would be the day of salvation, that they would have their eyes and hearts open to the truth of the word. As they see Your love displayed, and Your wisdom and Your plan of salvation. This we ask earnestly, in Jesus name, Amen.

Often, we hear people tell us that Christianitys exclusive truth claims are offensive to them. We live in a day and age where its okay to have your own opinion as long as you dont think that youre right. I mean its okay for you to believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world as long as you dont want everybody else to believe that. Or as long as you dont impose your beliefs on them. In that case, you would be narrow-minded and bigoted. We often hear Christianities exclusive truth claims criticized as being narrow and unloving. When we celebrate Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation, we are sometimes accused of being bigoted, prejudiced and arrogant. Those are the things we can put in print. Now, indeed, one reason so many people in our society want to expunge all traces of Christianity from the public sector is precisely derived from the offensiveness of the claims of the gospel. The gospel says that Jesus is the one way, whereby a man can be made right with God. And there are some people for which that assertion is, frankly, offensive. They take issue with it, and they dont want to have it in front of their eyes in the public sectors of society. They are quite happy for you to keep that to yourself in your own house, or perhaps in your own place of worship. But just dont bring that outside. Dont set that outdoors anywhere. Dont make any claims on them. Paul, in this passage, actually leads us to a very surprising truth. He reminds us that if there is salvation outside of Jesus Christ, then God is not more loving; Hes less loving. Now thats a fairly tantalizing and provocative statement. Im going to leave that dangling for a moment and come back to it in a few minutes. Id like to walk with you through this passage as Paul presses that argument, looking with you at three things.

First of all, in verse 13. Paul there announces that Abraham is the heir of the world, and thats a tantalizing phrase, too. Hes the heir of the world by faith. Hes stressing that its by faith that Abraham receives the promises. Then in verse 14 he goes on to make this argument: There cannot be two ways to receive Gods promise. There is only one way to receive Gods promise. And then finally in verse 15, he tells us that in this fallen world, sinners like ourselves cannot earn Gods favor by the law. The only thing that we can earn by the law is Gods punishment, Gods condemnation, Gods wrath. Now Id like to walk through those three things with you this morning. Lets look at verse 13 first.

I. Abraham is the heir of the world by faith.

Here, Paul tells us that Abraham is the heir of the world by faith. In this little verse, Paul teaches us that our personal obedience to Gods standards of righteousness is not the basis of our inheriting Gods promises. Our personal obedience is not the basis whereby we receive the things that God has promised to us in His word. Remember Paul is addressing a people here who have an enormous respect for law, and rightly so. The prophets had warned them that because of their disobedience, they were going to be sent into exile. They spent seventy years in exile, and when they came out of exile, I think one thing was emblazoned on their minds and hearts. Were not going to make that mistake again. And so they were very, very devoted to the law of God. Unfortunately, that devotion to the law of God became misshapen and warped. And they began to think that the law of God was the instrument by which they were made righteous before Him, and it was the instrument whereby they received all the promises that God had made to them. In other words, it led them into a rampant legalism which existed in Jesus and Pauls day. And here Paul, who had just pointed out to them, that Abraham was declared righteous. He was justified by faith before he was circumcised, before he was given that ceremonial sign of circumcision.

Now in verse 13 he is reminding them that the justification which Abraham received came more than 430 years before Moses announced Gods divinely revealed law from Mt. Sinai. So before Moses gave Gods summary of His moral code to the people of God by more than 430 years God had declared Abraham to be just. He had justified Abraham, declared him to be righteous by faith, long before Moses had delivered Gods summary of the law. And so its very clear from that that Gods law is not the instrument by which Abraham was declared accepted by God. And in this little verse, verse 13, Paul focuses our attention on three things.

Id like you to look at them with me for a moment. He shows us the object of Gods promise, he shows us the nature of the inheritance, and he shows us the means whereby that inheritance is received. And in all those things, he points to this truth of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

First of all, notice those who are the recipients, the objects of this promise, "To Abraham or to his descendants," he says in verse 13. The covenant of grace, in other words -- and Paul, this is not the first time that Paul has said this in Romans, and it wont be the last time, the covenant promises that God gave to Abraham were merely for him. Nor were they merely for his immediately family. Nor were they merely for the Old Testament people of God. The promises that God gave to Abraham were to his seed, his descendants. All those who shared like faith with Abraham in God and His promises. In other words, Paul is saying to the people assembled there, and hes saying to you, the promises that God gave to Abraham are for you. They are for us. Theyre not just something for the Old Testament people of God. Those promises are for us. Hes reminding us then that the objects of Gods promise are not merely Abraham and his physical descendants but all who trust in God, through Christ.

Secondly, notice he speaks of the nature of the inheritance, and he uses an extravagant phrase. Abraham was what? He was the heir of the world. Now dont let the Israeli Parliament find out about that. You see, Paul is using this extravagant word to describe what God has promised Abraham. Now we know in Genesis that God doesnt use exactly that language, but you know Pauls language here summarizes so many things that God did explicitly say to Abraham. Among them, he said that by Abraham, all the families of the earth would be blessed. You remember how the prophets looked for a day when all the nations would come to Mt. Zion and worship God there? Paul is saying that in the gospel that promise is being fulfilled, and that is a promise that is not only made to Abraham, but its made to every believer. We live in a world where often times our witness is rejected. And it can be very discouraging. But Paul is reminding us that one of the promises that God has given is that He will be faithful to bring the nations to worship Jesus Christ. He, you are the heir of the world in Jesus Christ. And its clear even from the nature of that inheritance, that salvation has to be by grace. How could you ever earn the right to be the heir of the world? You never could. So from the very nature of the inheritance, we see that salvation is by grace. But Hes not done.

He goes on to point at the means of the receipt of that inheritance. Notice again his words, verse 13: Not through the law or maybe better, not through law, but through the righteousness of faith. In other words, Paul is saying, "Faith, not obedience is the instrument by which we receive Gods promise." Even more importantly hes saying faith in and of itself doesnt say its the righteousness of Christ credited to us and received by faith that saves. The way you receive this blessing. The way you receive this promise. The way you become an heir is by faith. And yet as in Pauls day, so also today, there are many, many people who think that the way that you are accepted by God is to be good. The way that you are accepted by God is to be good. The way you are to be accepted by God is to be moral. The way that you are accepted by God is to keep His Commandments, or to keep moral commandments in general; to be a nice person is a downscale sort of way of describing that. And Paul is directly contradicting that. He knows its our natural tendency to think that we need to clean ourselves up in order to be accepted by God. And he is emphatic in stressing that that is not the way that God has appointed for us to be embraced. And, in fact, Im going to argue in just a few moments not only is it not the basis of our inheriting Gods promises, it calls into question the love of God. To say that we are saved by our own obedience calls into question the love of God.

Now how does Paul argue that case? Well, youll see it in verse 14. He says that there cannot be two ways to obtain the promise. "If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise nullified." Paul is saying here that the assertion that we can save ourselves by being good, actually assumes that God is less loving, rather than more loving. Ive already thrown that out and not answered it, so let me begin to answer that for you. Again, remember Paul is speaking to people who believe the victim that obedience to the law brings righteousness. If you obey the law, you will be pronounced righteous. And they also believe not only that the law brings righteousness, but they believe that those who are righteous will, by that righteousness, receive what? The reward, the inheritance, the promise. So its very clear. Youre righteous, youre pronounced righteous. Youre pronounced righteous, you receive the promise.

And to shock them out of their slumber, because the apostle Paul has already made it absolutely air-tight clear in chapter 2 and 3 that nobody keeps the law, nobody obeys the law, nobody fits into the category of being a good person, being a nice person, being a person who keeps the commands, being a person who keeps the law. He makes this argument to shock them out of their slumber, he juxtaposes obedience in law and faith and promise. And he says, "Look, it cant be both ways. If salvation is by being good, if salvation is by keeping the commands, then it makes faith and it makes the promise void. It deprives them of value, it renders them worthless. And so those who contend that we can be saved, that we can experience Gods goodness, that we can have a relationship with Him forever just by being good, are contradicting Gods promise," Paul says. Now how can that be? Well, he begins to spell it out here in verses 14 and 15.

II. You cannot be saved by being good.

He says basically it does it in two ways. First of all he says, "Having already made it clear that nobody is good," if you say then that the way you are accepted by God is by being good, then Pauls answer is, "Okay, well thats easy. Nobody will be saved. Youve made void the promise, theres nobody wholl receive the promise if youre saved by being good, nobody will be saved, because there is only one who is good, and that is God in Christ Jesus." So Paul says, "All those promises mean nothing if the way that you get them is through your own moral uprightness, through your own goodness, through your own law keeping, through your own obedience, through your own efforts." "Thats the first way," he says, "because no one has actually kept the law. You make the promise void."

Furthermore, and this is a second way that you make the promise void. You see if you suggest that God loves only those who earn His love, that God accepts those only who do enough to please Him, that God bestows His promise on those who first love Him. If you are to boldly, one who says God loves us because we first loved Him; because we first obeyed Him. We have turned the scripture on its head because thats not what the Bible says. The Bible says we love Him because He first loved us. Paul is saying "If you teach that salvation is by your goodness, if you teach its by your obedience, then youre saying that God only saves those who love Him and obey Him first. And because they love Him and obey Him, He saves them." In other words, they save themselves. They earn their salvation, they have to condition Gods love by their obedience. And you know what? It makes us more loving than God.

I dont whether youve been following the news about it recently, but since September the Vatican has been in a little bit of public relations nightmare. Cardinal Ratzinger released a document that basically said that the Roman Catholic church was the only way of salvation. And as you might imagine, the secular media didnt like that very much. And so recently, the Vatican has released another statement, and it says, "Oh, no, we didnt mean that. What we really meant was everybody who is good gets into heaven." And that was their way of trying to respond to that public relations nightmare.

Well, let me transpose that into a Protestant setting and say that we face that same kind of pressure from the world when we proclaim that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. People immediately respond, and they said, "Hold on, thats narrow minded. There are Buddhists out there. They dont believe we need salvation. There are Muslims out there. They dont think that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and for you to say that, well I mean its unloving, its narrow minded, its bigoted. It would be much more loving, more broad and great minded of you to say that everybody whos good is saved."

But I want you to pause and think about that for a minute. Paul is saying if you say that salvation is based on people being good, then you are saying that people have to save themselves, and God has to wait until theyre good in order to pronounce His blessing and promise on them when thats so different from the much more glorious story told in the word of God which is while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. He reached out to us not because we were lovely, not because we were loving, not because we were good, but in spite of the fact that we werent any of those things. And in Jesus Christ He gave His beloved Son to die in our place. Thats a far more loving God than a God who accepts those who are good and reject those who are not good enough. Now you see our salvation is not based on anything in us. Theres nothing in us that draws God to love us. His Sons righteousness, His Sons obedience. Thats the thing we need. And by faith we receive it. You see that is what Paul is talking about when you say that salvation is by being good, youre making God less loving, not more.

III. The Law will condemn us if we try to earn our salvation.

Finally, Paul concludes this argument in verse 15 by pointing out that in our fallen condition, as sinners, sinners that we are, the law can only ultimately earn us Gods wrath. It cant earn us Gods favor. Trying to earn Gods promises by being good will never, ever work. Your attempts at goodness will only bring Gods wrath. Remember again Pauls audience believed that the law brought righteousness. And he here boldly asserts, "Oh, no, in fact the law brings wrath." The law brings condemnation. We live in a fallen world, and apart from grace, the law only ultimately brings condemnation. The law demonstrates that we have violated Gods standards, and it brings wrath. And its very interesting to see how the tune of people changes when that reality of the law is brought to bear. You know, when the law is on your side, its amazing how people like to speak about the rule of law. But when the judgment goes as the opposite direction, its funny how insignificant the rule of law is to them. The people will give lip service to Gods standards and being good, but apart from grace nobody likes the law. Apart from grace, when you really sit down and think about the law, you know that it condemns you.

Weve seen a living example of this during the last month or so. There have been a lot of people who have made high-minded speeches about heeding the courts and the rule of law, but when the judgment went against them, what was the reaction? You see, its just like that with the law of God. People can talk about, well God will accept me because Im good. But you begin to tell them what Gods standards are, and you begin to tell them what Gods standard of judgment is against them, and you know what they will think of the law? Theyll hate the law. The law wont save them. The law condemns them.

But God, you see, God so loved the world that He gave His Son, and His Son came into the world and obeyed the law, that all those who trust in Him might receive His righteousness and be saved. Accepted by God, not because of something that they did, not because of something in them, not because of their being good, but because of His goodness. This is what Paul means when he says that we are justified by faith, not obedience. Were saved by the promise of God, not by the law. The law becomes our friend, once were saved. And we can say with the Psalmist, "How I love Your law, O Lord." But before that, the law with regard to our salvation is but our enemy, and well be condemned by it. So I pray that this season of the year of all seasons you wouldnt trust in yourself, youd trust in Christ. You wont trust in your goodness, or your niceness, but youll trust in Christs obedience. And when you do youll find that despite what you deserve, you will be accepted by God now and forever. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, these truths are simple but important. Help us we pray to grasp them. Help us to bear witness to Christ and to live out the glory of this truth that were saved by grace alone, through faith alone , in Christ alone. We ask it in His name, Amen.

Faith, Grace and the Spiritual Seed - Romans 4:16-17

16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:16-17)

Faith, Grace and the Spiritual Seed

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 4. Today, were going to try and answer a question, and that question is simple. Why is justification by faith? Why is it that God saves us by trusting in Jesus Christ as He has set forth has set forth in the gospel message, and all its glory, and the Christmas message, and the Easter message and the message of Christs birth and death on our behalf that we might be received into glory? Why is it that God uses faith and not something else as the instrument whereby we receive that gift that he has granted to us in Jesus Christ? Why is justification by faith?

Now perhaps youll appreciate somewhat that question a bit more if youll review with me for a few minutes what weve learned so far in the last few weeks, and in reviewing that why dont we listen in onto a conversation that Paul has been having with the Roman Christians. Remember, in the church in Rome there were two groups. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Christians who had grown up in Jewish homes, had learned the faith, had learned the Old Testament, and had embraced Jesus as the Messiah, taught in the Old Testament in the Bible of their day, and Christians who were from Gentile backgrounds. They had none of the advantages of learning the Old Testament, of learning the laws of Moses, of being taught the words of the prophets. Both of those kinds of Christians were together in the church in Rome. And Paul is anxious that both of them understand very fully the way of salvation. Hes concerned that they understand how God has made both of those groups to be as one. For so many years the Jewish Christians had been taught by their parents to keep strictly separate from the Gentiles. Now Paul is teaching that they are both groups now part of one body, one family, one people, the church. And he wants them to understand that. He wants them to know that the law apart from grace will condemn them. He doesnt want their trust to be focused on the law. Especially the Jewish Christians had experienced - there was a corporate memory of the exile.

Just like many of us still remember The War, and we know what war were talking about, so also they remembered the exile. And they remembered that God had said because of your disobedience to My word, and especially to My day, Im going to send you into exile, into captivity for seventy years. And they came out of that captivity making sure that they werent going to forget the law. But as a result, many of them trusted in the law as that which guaranteed for them the promises and inheritance that God had made for them. And Paul wanted them to understand that its not the law that saves them, in fact its the law that condemns them. Its grace that saves them. And then he wants them to know that the old signs of the old covenant mean nothing apart from their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Circumcision doesnt mean anything he says, unless you realize what it ultimately points to and signifies and that which has been accomplished and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And, of course, above all he wants them to know how it is that God goes about justifying us by faith. And so he lays out his arguments. In Romans 3:21 through 31, he gives his arguments for justification by faith, and then in Romans, chapter 4, he begins defending that argument, and elaborating on that argument. And you get a feel for somewhat of the objections that would have been coming against his teaching.

You can hear someone, for instance, at the beginning of chapter 4, saying, "Well Paul, look, Abraham was justified by works. It is very clear. He was such a righteous man, he was willing to sacrifice his own son. That surely earned for him the inheritance that God had given to him." And so Paul, in Romans 4, verses 1 through 3, says, "Well, actually, Abraham was declared to be a righteous man by God before he did that." Long before he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, he was declared by God to be a righteous man apart from those works. In fact, his failings are pretty apparent right around the incident in which he was declared to be a righteous man.

And then someone comes back and says, "But Paul, God tells us that He cares about what we do, and how we live. In fact, the Bible, speaking of the Old Testament tells us that He will judge us by our works, our lives." And Paul says, "Yes." But in Romans 4, verses 4 through 8 he points out that David asserts that the blessed man is not the man who is righteous in and of himself, but the blessed man is the man that God does not count his sins against him. So its very interesting. The blessed man is not the law keeper. The blessed man is the law breaker who is not counted as a law breaker. And David said that, Paul points out, in Psalm 32. Its not just any old Joe, its not just some Tom, Dick and Harry. Its David, the sweet singer of Israel, says, "The blessed man is the man that God doesnt count his sins against him."

And then someone says, "Yes, but the blessedness that David is talking about is a blessedness that is reserved for people in Israel. Its reserved for Israel, for those who are under the Mosaic law." And Paul again, says, "Actually, it is for Jew or Gentile." That blessedness is for Jew or Gentile, its for the circumcised and the uncircumcised, its for those who know and keep the Mosaic ceremonial law and trust in Jesus. And its for those who dont know the Mosaic law, have never heard of it and never kept it. And they trust in Jesus. Its for everyone, in fact. And he does so, he proves this by saying, "You know how I know that? Because Abraham was a Gentile when he was justified. Abraham was an uncircumcised Gentile when he was declared righteous by God. Therefore, salvation must be by faith and grace for both Jews and Gentiles. Because Abraham was justified as a Gentile before he was circumcised."

And then someone says, "Yes, but Abraham received his inheritance because of his own righteousness." And last week, we saw Paul respond to that in verses 13 through 15. He says, "Actually, Abraham became heir of the world, not by his own righteousness, but by faith. He received something that he didnt deserve, and he received it by faith. Not by law keeping, not by his own righteousness, but by faith. And furthermore," he says, "law will only get you condemned. If you put your trust in the law for your salvation, you will find that the law will condemn you." And then somebody responds to that, and they say, "Yeah, but Paul, God wants us to be holy. God wants us to live in righteousness, God wants us to obey His word. Why would He justify us by faith alone, if He wants us to be righteous? Why is justification by faith and faith alone?" Good question. Paul is going to get to it in the passage were going to look at today. Lets look at verses 16 and 17.

"For this reason, it is by faith that it might be in accordance with grace in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, A Father of many nations have I made you in the sight of him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your word. We pray that You would open our eyes by it to respond to Jesus Christ in faith. This we ask in His name, Amen.

Why is justification by faith? Youve heard the question. The objections that have been put to Paul. Paul, God wants us to be holy. He wants us to live as righteous people, He wants us to obey His word? Why would He justify us by faith alone then, apart from our own righteousness? Why would the main consideration be our trust in Him, apart from anything that we do if He wants us to be righteous people? Good question. In Romans 4, verses 16 and 17 is Pauls answer and explanation of that. And Id like you to look at it in two parts. First in verse 16, then in verse 17.

I. Why is justification by faith?

In verse 16, Paul answers that question. Why is it that God has determined to justify us, to declare us righteous, by faith alone? And he answers that question really telling us three things. He tells us that justification is by faith, because the law brings wrath. He tells us that justification is by faith because faith corresponds to grace, and he tells us that justification is by faith because faith opens the door to the Gentiles. All three of those things he says is in that tiny little verse. Lets look at it closely.

Why is justification by faith? Well, hes already told us in verse 15, the law brings wrath. Apart from grace, the progression is always law, transgression and sin. Paul is speaking to a people as weve already said, who has an enormous respect for the law. They had come to see how important it was to be loyal to the God of Israel by being faithful in obedience to His commands. But they had become warped in their understanding to the point that they trusted in the law as opposed to the promise. They put trust in their own law keeping as opposed to Gods gracious promises for their saving relationship with Him. And so the apostle Paul has to correct this misunderstanding of the law. If you had asked them, how is a man made right with God? "Well, by keeping the law," is the response. And he says, "Oh, no, far from it. In fact the law will bring you only one thing. Condemnation and wrath." Apart from grace the law will only bring you condemnation and wrath. Why? Because that progression is always there. Where there is law, there is law breaking. Every single one of us has this innate tendency. Were happily minding our own business, and then we find out that there is a rule. And the minute we hear that theres a rule there, were tempted to break it. And it works both ways. We may find out that were not supposed to do something, and weve never had the urge to do that before. And the minute we find out that were not supposed to do that, you say, "Oh really? Were not supposed to do that?" And you have this insatiable desire to do it. Or youre told to do something, and youve never had a problem with doing that before, but suddenly youre told to do it, and suddenly you dont want to do it. The parents even us this principle with children. Dont you eat that broccoli. What is it that works about that? Suddenly broccoli becomes appealing? Where there is law, there is transgression. There is this innate tendency in a fallen human being to go in the direction of breaking of transgressing Gods law. And so Paul says, "Dont look to the law to save you." The law is actually going to even exaggerate that tendency on your part to go against God apart from grace. So the progression will be law, transgression, and then, of course, Gods condemnation. Hes just. He doesnt just sweep sin under the carpet. Hes righteous, he deals with sin. He doesnt ignore it. He despises it, and, therefore, His condemnation - so dont look to the law for your salvation.

And again this objection comes to Paul. But wait a second, Paul. The law itself has a provision for Gods favor towards us even when we sin. I mean the law itself has a provision that if we repent, He forgives us. And the law itself has a provision that if we sin, we are to give alms in order to make restitution, and the law itself has atonement. You know, if we sin we make sacrifices, and were made right. So the law itself provides for ways that we can be made right with God according to the law. And Paul says, "You need to understand that this is far more radical than you ever dreamt. Repentance means nothing if there is not rectification of the problem. Atonement of animals, the blood of bulls and goats means nothing unless theres a real sacrifice that satisfies sin. So even those elements of the law which God graciously gave you in order to provide sort of an external reconciliation with Him mean nothing if theyre not fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Those arent sub-provisions of the law, theyre the big picture. Grace is a bigger category than just these sub-points in the law. Youve got to think about grace, and youve got to think about law in ways far different than youve ever conceived them before. And so he goes back to his argument.

Why is justification by faith? Not only because the law brings wrath, but also because faith is in accordance with grace. Thats what He says, in order that it may be in accordance with grace. Faith, the instrument, makes sense working with grace.

What is grace? Well, grace is Gods favor. Its more than that. Grace is Gods favor despite our deserving of condemnation. Sometimes youve heard the acrostic grace is Gods Riches at Christs Expense. Thats good. But more specifically, its Gods favor, despite our demerit. We not only dont deserve Gods favor, we have not only not done something positively to earn or to warrant that favor, we have done things negatively to even more not deserve that favor. And yet human beings so often think that they have a vested interest in and right to the favor and mercy of God. We like to think we can earn salvation, and when God isnt impressed with our labors, we take some umbrage at that.

I have lots of Uncle Rosser stories. My aunt had a very colorful uncle named Rosser, who had not parted with ninety cents out of every dollar that he ever earned. And one of her cousins worked for him all day one Saturday, starting at 6:00 in the morning and worked until the sun went down until about 8:00 at night. He rode his bike over to the house to work in the yard, and he worked like a dog. He didnt even take a lunch break, and he had visions of the huge income that he was going to make off of working for Uncle Rosser. I mean he was expecting  Im going to get at least twenty-five, thirty bucks out of this. Im going to be rich. At the end of the day Rosser comes out and hands him a five dollar bill. And he says, "Do you have change?" He was very disappointed. And yet thats the way a lot of us look at God. We think weve done so much, and that He owes us salvation. Weve earned it after all.

But thats not the picture. Its more like this. Someone pulls out their family silver. Its been in the family for six generations, ever since they came to the United States, its been in the family. They pull out the family silver, and they say, "Friend I want to give this as a gift to you." And you scrounge around quickly in your pocket, and you pull out three crumpled dollar bills, and say, "Oh, I couldnt accept this. Let me give you something for it."

You see, what we can offer God cant match the grace of His offering. Hes given His Son. What gift is it per chance that you were going to pull out of your pocket the offer for His Son. He sent His Son into the world to die for you. What gift is it? What earning are you going to do to merit. What are you going to do to merit, to warrant, to earn, to deserve Jesus coming into the world? Now you see Paul says, "Faith is in accordance with the principle of grace." Faith doesnt say, okay, what do I need to do to deserve this? Faith looks away from ourselves, and it looks to what God has provided. And with an empty hand, simply receives what God has given by favor. God didnt look at us and say, "Well, theres something in them that deserves so much to be saved, Im going to give My Son." The Father in His love, loved us apart from what we were, despite what we were, and gave His Son. And faith simply looks away from ourselves and looks to God. And so Paul says, "Look, faith works with grace." If salvation is a gift, does it make sense to say okay, salvation is a gift, Ill earn the gift by works. That makes no sense. You dont earn a gift. You receive a gift, and faith is in accordance with receiving that gift. Thats the second argument that Paul gives as to why justification is by faith. Because faith works with grace. Works dont work with grace. You cant earn grace, you simply receive it. And the way that God has appointed it is the way of faith. Why is salvation by faith? Why is justification by faith?

Thirdly, Paul says, "So that Gods covenant promise to Abraham can be fulfilled." This may be the most surprising thing that he says in the passage. The other two points hes really made at other points in his argument. This is something new though. He says, "Justification is by faith in order that God will be shown to be faithful to the promise that He made to Abraham." And youre like me, youre scratching your head. I dont know, help me here. I dont know. Explain that.

Well, Paul points out in this passage and in verse 17 that as part of the promise to Abraham, that those who are under the law and those who were not. Those who were circumcised, and those who were not. Those who were of Israel, those who were of the nations were going to be what? Spiritual children of Abraham. Look at what he says in verse 17. "A father of many nations I have called you." Now Paul says, "Think about that for a second. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Now if Abraham is going to be the father of many nations, then the way that you receive salvation cant be the Mosaic law, because no nation but Israel keeps the Mosaic law. No nation but Israel has circumcision as the command of Moses. No nation but Israel has the ceremonial code, the dietary laws, and the various other separation laws. No nation but Israel. So if God is going to give the nations to Abraham as his spiritual inheritance, then its got to be through some other means that the Mosaic law. Its by faith," Paul says. It had to be by faith, not the Mosaic code in order to come to both Jews and Gentiles. So justification is by faith. Why? Because the law condemns you. Because faith is in accordance with grace and because in order to be the father of many nations, God had to appoint a way for many nations to receive the promise apart from the Mosaic code.

Why is it by faith? Because the promise was not only for Abraham, but for all his descendants, Jew or Gentile. You see the picture of God sending His Son into the world is a picture of the way of salvation. God, when He looked down upon us in our misery, didnt say, "Okay, heres what Im going to do. Im going to establish seven principles whereby you save yourselves." He sends a rescue operation into the world through His Son. He says, "Theres nothing down there that can help them out of the mess that theyre in. Theres nothing within them that I can call upon or that they can call upon to save themselves. So Im going to send someone, My Son, from without their world and experience into their world and experience to live and die in their place. And by that, His righteousness, I am going to declare them righteous as they receive it by faith."

You so often hear people say, "You want to be successful? Look within." And there are a lot of people that sort of translate that into the spiritual world. Want to be successful? Look within. And thats exactly opposite from what God is saying. Hes saying, you want to be condemned? Look within. You want to be saved? Look up. Look out. Look to Jesus Christ. God sends someone into our experience in order to be righteous in our place in order to die in our place. This picture of God sending His Son into the world is a picture of the way of salvation. He provides it. We receive it by faith.

You know, its not often that you hear Mark Twain quoted with favor in this pulpit. But to show you that even pagans sometimes see this point, I ran across a quote a few months ago that goes like this: "Heaven goes by favor," he says. "If it went by merit, your dog would go in, and you would go out." You know, hes right. I wish he had believed it himself, but hes right. Justification is by faith because it accentuates divine grace. Were saved by Gods favor, by His mercy, by His gift. You cant earn that. Theres nothing that you can do to earn that. Thats the glory of every carol that you sing this season. Youre talking about God sending someone into the world that you didnt deserve.

II. Justification by faith is necessary for the fulfillment of Gods covenant promise

And secondly, in verse 17, Paul makes it clear that justification by faith is necessary for the fulfillment of Gods covenant promise. He really mentioned this principle in verse 16, but he elaborates on it here. As it is written, "A father of many nations I have made you, in the presence of he whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist." The promise of the inheritance of the Gentiles was central in Gods promise to Abraham. So there has to be a way to fulfill it. God had promised that the nations would be His children. And so there had to be a way for God to fulfill that. Whats the way? Faith. This promise was made by God Himself. Notice how Paul emphasizes, "In the presence of him whom he believed." Even God. But this also stresses, doesnt it, Abrahams faith. He was one who believed in God. Paul here is emphasizing Gods power when he says, "God who gives life to the dead." Perhaps hes alluding to the way that God opened the womb of Sarah, this woman who was way, way past the days of child bearing, and who was childless. And he opens that womb, which was as it were, a grave, and he brings life from Sarah.

And then he goes on to speak as well of the one who calls into being, that which does not exist. And this phrase perhaps points to that multitude of descendants. Abraham had this sort of name which was all out of proportion. He was a childless man, his name meant great father, exalted father. He had no children. He, too, was a man way past child bearing years. And God, in his mercy, granted him that which did not exist when he came to him in relationship with him, when He found him in Ur of the Chaldees. He opens up the womb of Sarah, and He gives multitudes of descendants to Abraham, when that was all but impossible.

Think of it, my friends. God made a promise to Abraham 4000 years ago that his spiritual seed would be numberless, and that he would be the father of many nations. And today, two billion people on this planet worship the seed of Abraham. Its an amazing thing, isnt it? God is able to do beyond all that we ask or think. But this phrase also reflects Abrahams faith in God, even in the case of Isaacs death. Would you turn with me to Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 19. While you do, let me make a confession. I always thought that Abrahams faith in God, during the time when God commanded him to go to a land, a mountain that he would appoint, and sacrifice his son, I always believed that Abraham thought that the Lord would provide a substitute. But Hebrews 11, verse 19, tells us that the way that Abraham was able to maintain his faith in the face of having sacrificed his own son, was not in expecting a substitute. Listen to what Hebrews 11:19 says: "He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which He also received him back as a type." You see what thats saying? Its saying that Abraham trusted God so much that he knew that if necessary God would raise his son, Isaac, from the dead to fulfill His promises. Thats the faith of Abraham. He takes Gods word, he believes it despite all the evidence to the contrary. And he believes it so much that he knows that his Father in heaven will raise his son from the dead, if necessary. And then Hebrews 11:19 says and by the way, that is a type of Christ. It points to Jesus Christ who died and who was raised again from the dead by the heavenly Father that we might share in the salvation which He has accomplished for us.

How do we receive that? The same way that Abraham received the promise we believe. Now, I want to pause, and I want to say there may be many people who are gathered here today because of friends and family, who really dont believe the Christmas message. They think its a little bit crazy. Really, you dont believe that that baby in Bethlehem was God? Really, you dont believe Jesus was divine, that He did all these miracles. That He died and He was literally raised again from the dead. Surely you dont believe all that? Well, I just remind of you of what Paul says in I Corinthians 1. He said that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. But those foolish things are the things of salvation.

Yes, as a matter of fact, we do believe that He sent His Son into the world. Yes, as a matter of fact we do believe that the Lord of glory had as His crib an animals manger. Yes, as a matter of fact, we do believe that He lived perfectly, and He died on our behalf. And yes, as a matter of fact we do believe that if you will trust on Him, you will live with Him forever, here and hereafter. And you say, well, thats just impossible. I say to you again, 4000 years ago God spoke to a man who had no children, and who would not have children until he approached 100, and He said to him, "One day your spiritual descendants will be numberless." Two billion people are worshiping the seed of Abraham. God can be taken at His word. I urge you to take Him at His word today. Let us pray.

Our heavenly Father, we thank You for the truth of Your word. We thank You for the message of the angels, and we sing glory to God in the highest because of the grace You have shown us in Christ. I pray that not one would go away from this place today having trusted in Him, having owned Him, having believed Him, having rested in Him for forgiveness of sins, and I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Abraham's Faith and Ours - Romans 4:18-25

18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness[a] of Sarah's womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." 23 But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:18-25)

Abrahams Faith and Ours

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to take them in hand and turn with me to Romans, chapter 4. In verses 16 and 17 Paul has been answering a hypothetical question that weve posed. Somebody says to him, "Well, Paul, we understand that God wants us to be holy, to live in righteousness, to obey His word. Why then would He justify us by faith alone? Why not faith and works? Why not mix some works and obedience in there for our justification, if He wants us to be a people thats set apart and holy and consecrated to Him and obedient."

And the apostle Paul explains his answer in verses 16 and 17. Why is justification by faith alone? Well, first of all, in verse 15 he had said its because the law will condemn you. We live in an age of entitlement. We think that God owes us heaven. We believe that we deserve it. The apostle is saying, be careful what you demand, because what you deserve is not what you think that you deserve. And so he says, "Look, if you get what you deserve, youll get condemnation. It is by faith in order that you would not be condemned, because the law will condemn you. It will bring Gods wrath."

Why is it by faith? Well, secondly, in verse 16 he makes it very clear that faith is in accordance with the principle of grace. Gods salvation is a gift; grace is a gift. How can you earn a gift. Moreover, how could you ever do anything that would earn the death of Christ which was the means whereby God forgave you? Paul says, "It is by faith  justification is by faith, your being declared righteous is by faith because thats the only thing which accords with this enormous gift of grace. You cant earn that gift of grace, you can only receive it." And thats what faith does. It stretches out an empty hand, and it receives a gift that you dont deserve.

Why is it by faith? Well, Paul also explained in verses 16 and 17 that God had made a covenant promise to Abraham. That covenant promise was that he would be the spiritual father of the nations, both Jews and Gentiles. Well, if hes going to become the father of Jews and Gentiles, then salvation cannot be by keeping the Mosaic ceremonial code or there would be no Gentiles who are saved. And, therefore, faith was the instrument, which God appointed.

And finally, Paul makes it clear that the promise that was made to Abraham was not only made to him, it was made to all those who believe in God, the same God of Abraham, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. And so faith was the way that God appointed.

Now in this passage, Paul comes to answer a slightly different question. Someone now comes to Paul here in verses 18 through 25 and says, "Okay, Paul, I give in. I want to trust in this God that youre talking about. I want to be justified by faith. What do I need to know? What do I need to do?" Paul is going to answer that here in Romans 4, verses 18 through 25. This is Gods word. Let us hear it reverently and attentively:

"In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall your descendants be. And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarahs womb; yet with respect to the promise of God he did not waiver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore, also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Our Lord, as we study Your word this day, we ask that we would not only understand saving faith, that we would not only understand justification by faith, but that we would exercise saving faith, and that we would be justified by faith. For every believer here this day, I pray that their appreciation of the freeness of Gods grace would be enhanced, and for every unbeliever I pray that his or her eyes would be opened so as not only to see and understand, but to embrace the gift which is held forth. In Jesus name, we ask it, Amen.

What must I do to be saved? That question was asked to Jesus by a young man in Matthew, chapter 19, verse 16. And after Jesus gave His response to that young man and engaged in a conversation not only with the young man, but with His disciples, you remember in verse 26 His disciples say "Well, then who can be saved?" And Jesus says, "With men its impossible. But with God all things are possible." Paul, in this passage, is answering that question. What must a person do to be saved, and he answers that question by answering three other questions for us in this passage, and Id like to like at that with you for a few minutes this morning.

I. What is faith.

The first question youll see in verses 18 through 22. And the question is basically is what is faith? What is saving faith? In verses 18 through 22 Paul is going to tell you about the nature of saving faith. In fact hes going to show you the character of saving faith in the life of Abraham. And this is what he teaches you. Paul teaches you that faith is trust in God and His promises despite our circumstances and the evidence to the contrary. Faith is trust in God and His promises despite our circumstances and the evidence to the contrary. In hope against hope. Dont those two little phrases sort of go in the opposite direction. In hope against hope. Really, they dont contradict one another. Abraham is simply doing this at the same time. In his thoughts he contemplates his human condition. And though there was no reason for him to hope at the human level against hope, yet he hoped in God, he believed in God and in His promise. So in hope against hope, he believed. Theres no reason for him at the human level to expect not only a son, but to be the father of many nations. Hes almost a hundred years old. Hes childless by his wife. Sarah is long past childbearing years. Theres no human reason for him to think that Gods promise is going to be fulfilled against hope. But in hope he still believes.

Notice again specifically what he believes there in verse 18. That he might become a father of many nations. He specifically believes in Gods covenant promise, despite their audacity. I mean, think of it. God hasnt even given him one child by Sarah yet. And God has already promised him that he will be the father of countless millions. And Abraham specifically believes Gods promises, despite their audacity and impossibility. I want you to think about that for a moment, because the sinner is in precisely the situation that Abraham is in. The sinner has no human hope of forgiveness. There may be some who are apart from Christ here today who dont have much in the way of the experience of human forgiveness. You may have failed in some relationship, and the result of your failure in that relationship has been unmitigated condemnation by the person whom you offended. And they show no signs of ever wanting to forgive you, and you cant even imagine that what youve done in the past could ever be forgiven by God, because you havent even experienced it at the human level. And yet the sinners hope must be in God, and in His divine and gracious forgiveness, even as Abraham had to believe something that seemed beyond possibility.

And also, the sinner says, "Well, you know this message that youre preaching, its wonderful, but, you know, its too good to be true. I just cant believe in all this heaven stuff, this forgiveness stuff. Its just beyond comprehension. Just let me remind you again that today there are two billion people, two billion people, more than two billion people who profess to be the spiritual seed of Abraham, worshiping the one who is the divine seed of Abraham. Now this man was childless 4,000 years ago. More than two billion people call on God and claim him to be their spiritual Father. You think God cant deliver? If youre a sinner, and you doubt Gods ability to deliver, you remember what He promised to Abraham and you look around you today. You look around at the people here today, most of whom have no blood relationship to Abraham, but who are his children by faith, and by Gods grace. God is able to fulfill what He promises.

II. Abrahams does not doubt.

And were told in verses 19 and 20 that the way that Abraham coped was not through denial. Thats one of my favorite ways of dealing with difficulties. Here in the south we love to do that. You know, the elephants in the room and you wont admit it. Youre sitting around the Thanksgiving table, and so-n-so and so-n-so have been mad at one another for nineteen years. And nobody says a word about it, you know. We all say happy things and get along. We love to cope by denial.

Thats not how Abraham copes. In fact, Paul tells us here in verse 19 that without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body. It wasnt that he said, "Im not going to think about it. Im not going to think about how old I am." No, he contemplated his own body. "Lord, Im a mess. Theres no way humanly that Im going to be a father." He was realistic about his and about Sarahs condition. He looked the situation square in the eye, and he still believed God. Faith uses divine, not human math. Friends, Abrahams faith is not possibility thinking, its not positive thinking, its not denial. Its not any of those things. Abrahams faith is trust in God. He doesnt cope with the situation by not thinking about the negative aspects. He doesnt cope with the situation by trying to think positive thoughts. He trusts in God.

I was listening to an interview with Alonzo Mourning who is an NBA center for the Miami Heat, and he is out this whole season with a liver or kidney ailment that is having to be treated. And as the interviewer was speaking to him, he said, "Well, what are you doing? How are you tackling this problem." He said, "Well, one thing is I make sure that nobody around me has negative thoughts. We all have to have positive thoughts about this thing. Were going to think positively. Im going to get better." My friends, that is not what Abraham did. Abraham didnt say, "Now, nobody around me remind me that I dont have a son. Well just think positively and a son will come along." Abraham is not doing possibility thinking. This is not Norman Vincent Peale that Abraham is doing here. Abraham is trusting in God.

III. Abraham trusts God.

And notice specifically that Paul tells you in verses 20 through 22 that Abraham trusted in God, in His promise, in His power, and in His purpose. Abrahams trust was not in his faith. His trust was not in positive thoughts. His trust was not in anything else but in God Himself, and specifically it was Gods power and Gods promise and Gods purpose that Abraham trusted in. Abraham believed that God had the power to do what He said. Abraham believed the promise that God had given to him, and in realizing that promise, Abraham knew that God had a plan of which he was a part, and he trusted in all those things.

Saving faith, my friends, is not possibility thinking. And, in fact, saving faith is far more than a momentary decision. We often talk about people making a decision for Christ. Well, it true. You do have to decide for Christ. But saving faith in Christ is far more than simply a momentary decision. You know, sometimes we run into people who make professions of faith by signing cards or praying prayers, almost like you do when you give in to a telemarketer. You know, theyve been on the phone with you for fifteen minutes, and you go, "Okay, okay, Ill buy anything. Just hang up and let me eat my supper." Thats not saving faith, my friends. Saving faith is not saying, "Okay, anything to get the witnessing team out of my house." Saving faith isnt "Okay, anything to get my neighbor off my back. Ill say anything." Saving faith is far more than that.

Saving faith is profound, ongoing trust in God and His promises especially focused on Jesus Christ. The object of saving faith is the power of God, the purpose of God, the promises of God. Now Id like you to take your hymnals and see this very clearly. If youll look all the way to the back of your hymnals to page 875 in the section on The Shorter Catechism, look all the way down to the bottom of the page and to the right-hand column at Question 86: "What is faith in Jesus Christ? Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered to us in the gospel." Now thats a mouthful, and we really could spend a few weeks just digesting it. But you see that faith entails a whole soul commitment to God in Jesus Christ. You rest upon Him alone, as Hes offered. You put the whole of your marbles in that basket. You put the whole of your hope in Jesus Christ, and you trust in Him alone. And then turn back a few pages to page 856. This is in the section on The Confession of Faith, chapter 14, section 2, in the middle of the page. And this gives you a little expansion on that definition by this faith. What kind of faith? Saving faith. "A Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word." Were going to see Paul emphasize this in verses 23 and 24. Believing what the Bible says, believing that its for you. A Christian believes "whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and," listen closely, "embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come." And then the confession goes on to say something that Paul is going to emphasize in verse 25. "But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace." Saving faith is trust in God and in His promises. No matter what our circumstances are, no matter what the evidence is to the contrary. Thats the first thing that God teaches in answer to the question what is faith?

IV. People are saved today in the same way as Abraham.

In verses 23 and 24 he answers the second question. The question is, "Paul, so what, what does Abrahams experience have to do with me? I mean youre telling me how Im made right with God. You take me back to this guy whos been dead for 4000 years, and you tell me about what happened in his life. What does what happened to Abraham have to do with me? What does his experience have to do with us?" Well Paul basically gives you the answer in this. He says, "The story of Abrahams justification by faith was written for us." Its not the only time that Paul says that, by the way. He says that in 1 Corinthians 20, verse 11, when hes talking about the Exodus experience of Israel. He says, "That happened and was written for us." What is Paul saying when hes saying this? People are saved. They are justified today the same way that Abraham was, by faith.

I want you to pause for a moment, looking at verses 23 and 24, and just thinking about the ways that our faith is identical to Abraham. Were in different circumstances, we live in a different land, a different time, different technologies. There are all sorts of differences that we could point to between Abraham and ourselves. But in these three ways our faith is identical to Abrahams faith.

First of all, notice that Abrahams faith was in God. What does Paul say in verse 24? We believe in God. Those who believe in Him. Abraham believed in God. We believe in God. Well, that seems fairly simple. You say why bring up that point? Because there are a lot of people today that think that youre saved by just believing hard enough. They think that your faith saves you in this sense. That you have faith in your faith. You just have enough faith, if you have the right kind of faith, then youll be saved. We think were saved in the believing, that the believing is the thing that saves us. But Abrahams faith is focused away from himself. Its not looking inside himself, "If I just believe hard enough, if I believe right enough." His faith is focused towards God. Hes not trusting in denial, hes not trusting in positive thinking, hes not trusting in his own strategies or attitudes, hes trusting in God. And so Paul says in verse 24, "That it is in Him. Those who believe in Him." So Abraham believes in God, looks away from himself. We believe in God and look away from ourselves.

Secondly, notice again, that Abraham believed in the power of God. He believed in Gods omnipotence. Look at what Paul emphasizes in verse 24: "To whom it will be credited as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead. We believe in the omnipotence of God. We believe in the all powerfulness of God because He raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. Abraham believed in the power of God, we believe in the power of God to raise the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. And Abraham believed in Gods promise. We believe in Gods promise.

Notice again this phrase. "Those who believe in Him who raised Jesus." The death and resurrection of Jesus was Gods stratagem for the fulfillment of his what to you? The fulfillment of His promise to you. His promise of what? His promise of the forgiveness of sins. Abraham believes in the promise of God. Hell be the father of many nations. We believe in the promise of God. He will forgive all who trust in His Son. Your faith is the same kind of faith as Abraham. You believe in God, you believe in His power, you believe in His promise. We dont put faith in faith, we dont put faith in self, we dont put faith in positive thinking. We put faith in God who is all-powerful and who promises us forgiveness in Jesus Christ. People are saved today the same way that Abraham was saved, by faith.

V. Who or what is the focus of our faith?

Finally, look at verse 25. Third question. "Okay, I know what faith is now, I know why Abrahams story is relevant to me, but what ought to be the focus of my faith? Where specifically, Paul, do you want me to look?"

Maybe I should put the question this way: Who ought to be the focus of my faith? Paul tells us here in verse 25 that faith looks to Gods promise accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. So we look to the promise of God for the forgiveness of sins, but we look to that promise as it is accomplished in Jesus Christ. So faith looks to Christ. I know whom I have believed. Not, I know that I have believed. Not, I know what I believed. Not, I know when I believed. But, I know whom I have believed. We look to Christ. We are justified by faith. That faith has to be directed to Jesus Christ. It is in union with Christ that we are justified. As we trust in Christ, we are united to Him, and His righteousness is credited to us. The righteousness of Christ is the righteousness whereby we are justified. Its not our own goodness that justifies us. Its Christs goodness credited to our account, as we trust in Him that justifies us. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the great event that accomplishes our forgiveness of sins and our being counted and declared as righteous before God, and it is through Jesus intercession for us that we come to stand in the presence of God, in the grace of justification. We look to the promise accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins. Thats where we look. The focus of our faith is upon Jesus Christ.

And thats the challenge for every one of us today. For the believer to continue to focus the hope and the ground of his life in the work of Jesus Christ. For the unbeliever to realize his problem, sin. There may be a lot of other problems out there pestering your life; bank accounts with no money in them; bad business deals; IRS back taxes; family problems. But the biggest problem you have is, however, is separation from God, alienation from Him because of your sin. That problem is only remedied, completely remedied in Jesus Christ. You look to Him, you believe in Him, you commit yourself to Him, you rest in Him, you receive Him as your risen Lord, and you find total peace with God, forgiveness of sins. May God deal with your hearts and work that truth in them. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, if we come to this place as Your children, refresh us with this glorious truth. If we come to this place, as those who are rebels and orphans not knowing the saving embrace of Christ or what it means to be a member of His family, we pray that You would show us our sin, and then show us the Savior, and then by Your divine grace enable us to believe. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Romans 5

Justification By Faith Means Peace with God - Romans 5:1-2

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

Justification by Faith Means Peace with God

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to take them in hand and turn with me to Romans, chapter 5. Throughout Romans 1 through 4 Paul has shown that Gods promises are obtained by faith. Beginning in Romans 5:1 he draws out the consequences of that great truth for the believer. And so today we are coming to a new section in Pauls argument in the book of Romans. Here in Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. This is Gods word. Lets hear it reverently and attentively.

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we exalt in hope of the glory of God."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessings to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, as we consider Your word this day we ask for those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ that they would find out more of the greatness of His loving heart and His redeeming designs. And for those who do not know Jesus Christ and have not trusted in Him for this life and the life to come, we ask that the very picture of the extravagance of Your gifts to Your people would be used by the spirit to draw them to Christ. In Jesus name, we ask it, Amen.

There are lot of people today that are on the market for peace. Whos against peace? Everybody wants peace, but there are more peaces out there than you might imagine. P-e-a-c-e-s, I mean, not p-i-e-c-e-s. What kind of peace is it that you are looking for? What kind of peace do you want? What kind of peace do you need? How are you going about getting it? Paul, in this great passage, wants to tell us about the one great peace that we all need but lack for want if we are apart from Christ; and have in full if we have trusted in Him. And in this verse, this man who has been so often rejected, who has been betrayed, who has been beaten, who has been cast out, who has been turned away, who has been undervalued is exultant and joyful and emphatic and assured. And you need to be asking yourself why is he like that? I mean, all you have to do is read those two verses again to yourself, and they brim with confidence and assurance.

And you have to pause, and you have to ask how can this marginal man, how can this man who is one of a tiny number of disciples in this vast empire and in this even vaster world of his own day, how can he be so confident, so emphatic, so joyful in the face of all the opposition? Of all the trials, how can he have this kind of joy? Whats the reason, whats the basis for that kind of assurance and exultation?

Paul has a very simple answer. Justification and its consequences. Paul has not spent three chapters telling you about justification for nothing. Its because of what God has done in justification, and because of the consequences of that, the implications of that for every believer. That Paul can be so assured, so confident, so emphatic, so joyful in the face of every circumstance. So if thats the case, and if hes telling us about the peace that we need, lets pray attention to him for a few minutes and listen to three things that he tells us are the result, or the implications of being just, of being declared right with God. The first one youll see right there in the first verse.

I. Justification results in our experience of the peace of God.

Paul tells us there that justification brings peace with God. Justification results in our experience of the peace of God. In the very first words of verse 1, Paul sums up his whole argument from Romans 1:18 all the way to Romans 4:25 in one phrase. "Therefore having been justified by faith." Well, there it is. The sum of everything that hes been saying for three chapters. And throughout the opening section of the book, hes been aiming at showing us the righteousness that we need in order to stand before God, in order to fellowship with God, in order to be accepted by God is provided to us in the gospel; and its received by faith. And hes explained how that works, and hes explained how thats a biblical truth; its not something that hes made up, its seen in the pages of the Old Testament, all the way back in the dealings of God with Abraham. Hundreds of hundreds of years before Paul wrote or lived. And hes explained to us then how it is that God justifies, accepts us, declares us to be righteous by the blood of Christ, and we receive that by faith.

Now, beginning in chapter 5 he wants to tell you the implications of that. In chapters 5 through 8 Paul works through successive implications of our being just, of our being declared righteous by God. In Romans 5 he tells us that if you are justified, then you are free from the wrath of God. In Romans 6 he tells you that if you are justified, you are freed from the dominion of sin. In Romans 7 he tells you if you are justified, you are free from the domination and condemnation of the law. In Romans 8 he tells you that if youre justified, you are freed from the curse of death. So successively hes walking you through all the benefits which God has packaged for you in Jesus Christ. And as you have received His free justification, you have also received those benefits.

And here, in Romans 5 where Paul is talking about our being freed from wrath, he introduces in verse 1 this great result of justification, that is, that we have peace with God. Now we need to be clear on what Paul means by that. I said there are a lot of peaces on the market out there. There are a lot of folks that are looking for tranquility. They are going through circumstances that are very trying, and they would like a little psychological and emotional relief. Theyd like a little peace. Paul is not, however, talking about tranquility. Peace with God means the cessation of hostility between God and man, not simply the tranquility of mind, which were looking for. That tranquility indeed flows from that cessation of hostility between God and man, but it is primarily that objective truth that Paul is speaking about.

In other words, the peace being talked about here is real and objective, it is not merely perceived and subjective. It is not a change of feelings, that Paul is talking about, it is a change in Gods relationship to us. Peace with God means an objective change in Gods relationship to us. You remember those words that weve heard about for many chapters from Paul? Just as guilt and condemnation indicate how things stand between the unrepentant sinner and God.

Now, those two words are two good words to describe the relationship between God and the unrepentant sinner. Guilt and condemnation. We are guilty, we are deserving of condemnation. So also, peace and justification perfectly describe the relationship between God and the redeemed believing center. Now, not just then, but now. And so to be justified means to have this standing of peace before God.

So the background of understanding justification, the background of understanding peace is understanding the centers alienation from God. If you dont understand that you are alienated from God, if you dont understand that sinners are alienated from God, it wont be good news to you that theres a reconciliation. If we think everything is hunky-dory, then its not good news to announce that there is now peace with God. But if you understand the reality of things, if you understand that you are under Gods righteous condemnation, that you are far from Him, then this is the greatest news that could ever occur. If we miss that, we miss everything. If we miss the alienation, if we miss the reconciliation to that alienation provided by God, we miss everything.

Peace with God denotes a relationship to God. Peace of mind may flow from it, and often does flow from it. But the peace of God is itself a new relationship with God and not merely a state of mind. This peace is absolute because its divine. Nobody can take it away from you, because nobody gave it to you. God gave it to you. It cant be changed by circumstances. Its non-circumstantial. Its not brought about because things are going well. Its not brought about because the Dow is up. Thank heavens. Its not derived from that. Its not derived from a cessation of hostility in your family life. Its not brought about because youve just gotten a raise and a promotion at work. Its not brought about because things are going well in your neighborhood. Its not even brought about because things are temporarily going well in the life of the congregation and nobodys backbiting. It is given to us by God. It is a new relationship. The alienation which was there before has been dealt with, and Paul says it has been dealt with through Jesus Christ.

This peace is accomplished with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through His mediation, His person, His work. We deserve condemnation. We had no way of making reparations, and God makes the reparations in the person of His Son. Imagine a nation or nations going to war against a nation or nations. The reason for the war were the wicked and cowardly and wrong deeds of these other nations. They were entirely at fault. At the end of the war, when the treaty of peace is being established, after the unconditional surrender has been made, the victorious side announces that no reparations will be demanded. But, that in fact they and their former enemies will enter into a joint partnership for peace, and they, those who are the conquerors, will invest in those who were the conquered in order to build them up in a life of justice and righteousness. You can hear a little bit of the background of the peace treaty between the Allied and the Axis powers at the end of the Second World War there, cant you? And thats precisely what God does here. We cant pay the reparations. Theyre too great. And so He has paid the reparations, and He has done all that is necessary to establish peace and to bring us into the participation of fellowship and friendship with Him.

Imagine that you are estranged from a friend. It is a serious estrangement. You are entirely at fault. Perhaps its your wife, perhaps its your husband, perhaps its a close friend that you have had for many years, perhaps its a business colleague. You are at fault. Youre bothered by it, but the breach on your part has been so serious that you see no possibility for the relationship to be restored. And then suddenly, the offended party does all that is necessary to re-establish the relationship and grants it to you. God does that in Jesus Christ for all who trust in Him. That is the objective peace that Paul is talking about here. Does it lead to a wonderful subjective sense of what God has done for us? Yes, and we seek in every way to encourage that was we study Gods word and study His truth. But the great fact which is prior to our emotional and psychological peace is this objective deed that God has done to reconcile Himself to us and us to Him. So Paul says, "Peace with God results from our justification." Were no longer His enemies. Were not simply His friends now. Were His children.

II. Justification results in communion with God.

Secondly, however, he goes on to say in verse 2, that "justification means access to the greatest grace." Justification brings peace with God, but it also results in communion with God. Even in this present age, notice how Paul speaks in the present tense, "though whom also we have obtained." Even in this present age through Christ we have gained access into personal fellowship with God.

By faith in Christ and through His redemptive work, we have been given introduction into access to the very presence of God. In the old covenant, only the priest once a year, twice on that day entered into the very presence of God. In the new covenant as the author of Hebrews reminds us, through Jesus Christ we have access into the very holy of holies. By Christ, Paul says, we have received a kings invitation.

I wonder if any of you here today have been invited to sup with dignitaries. I suspect that there are a lot of you, in fact, who have been invited to various festivities where you are to be a part, perhaps even at a table of honor with some dignitary. I wonder if there are some here today who have been invited to sup with a president or with a monarch. I suspect that there are some here today that have been invited to do so. Paul is talking about more than that. Paul is not talking about you being given a table for one night at some festivity with the king of kings. Hes talking about you being given intimate access into the private chambers of the king of the universe. Youve been granted an ongoing access to God. Perhaps many of you read just a few days ago in the local papers about some Mississippians who were called together to counsel and advise the president-elect. Think if you were given this privilege, you were going to given the ear of the president-elect. And over the next four years of his service, you are going to be advising him on crucial issues and sharing your heart with him. Think of the honor of that. Well, Paul is saying that we now have the privilege of going into the throne room of the one true God and pouring out the desires of our hearts in accordance with His will and fellowshipping with Him. We have communion with God.

As Moses was bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan, its very clear that for Moses, Canaan wasnt the big show. God was the big show. Canaan was nice, but what Moses really wanted was to see the face of God. Moses wanted intimate access into the fellowship. You know the Israelites miss that point sometimes. They are oftentimes given the option, "Okay, you can have Canaan without the presence of God. What do you want? Okay, all for Canaan," and they were ready to go. But not Moses. Moses would have rather have done without Canaan, if only he could have fellowship with God; to see him face to face. And at one point in the wilderness, he even asked God to reveal Him his glory. The audacity of that request. And you know what God does? God passes before Moses, and He shows him His back. And were told in the Old Testament that there was no prophet like Moses to whom the Lord spoke face to face. And Moses desired that above all else, even above Canaan. Its a good thing, too, isnt it? Moses never got Canaan, but he got God. I wonder whether God in His goodness decided not to give Canaan to Moses, because it would have been very disappointing. But God was not. And you see what Paul is saying here. Its not just Moses who gets God. Its all those who are justified by faith, who have access into the very presence of God. Its one of the implications of justification. If your great desire is truly to glorify and enjoy God forever, well then the apostle Paul is saying that justification brings that about. The enjoyment of God forever.

III. Justification means a certain future hope of glorification.

But hes not done. Theres a third thing here that Paul says is an implication of our justification. You see it at the end of verse 2. Justification means the final hope belongs to us. That final hope of glory is ours. Justification means a certain future hope of glorification. Justification means peace with God. Justification means communion with God, but justification means a certain hope of that future glorification.

I want you to notice how Paul continually says "we" in this chapter. Its actually begun in the verses immediately prior in Romans 4, verses 24 and 25 where Paul has been talking about what is ours. Here he says, "We, we, we, we have this, we have this, we have this." What better way for Paul to make the point that the promises of God in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17 to Abraham belong to you if you trust in God through Jesus Christ. Theyre your promises. We have peace with God. We have access into this grace in which we stand. We have this certain hope of future glory. Those promises are for you. Theyre not just for Abraham. When you are studying Genesis 12 and following, youre not just studying interesting Bible history, you are studying Gods word of promise to you. Paul is saying, "Its yours."

Well, what does he mean that we exult in hope of the glory of God. What does he mean the glory of God? This phrase, you see, assures us that the future glory is one that we will share in the consummation. We will participate in the glory of Gods own glory in the end. The lost glory of Gods image will be restored to us in full. What Adam lost for us in the fall will be restored to the full, so that we are once again what God made us to be without any defect, without any imperfection, absolutely righteous, absolutely splendid. Its called glorification. But what does glory of God mean? Why does Paul talk about that kind of glorification and use the language, "We exult in hope of the glory of God." Does he say that because God is the author of glorification or does he say that because God is the author of His own glory? Well, those things are true, but I suspect that he means something more here. His focus is on something different.

Remember that the entire New Testament, and especially Paul, emphasizes that in the consummation Gods own glory is going to be manifested. In the consummation God Himself is going to display, He is going to unveil His glory. In this world Gods glory has been veiled. Our sin has blinded our eyes as to how glorious He is. This fallen world has blinded our eyes to how glorious He is. Its veiled some of His glory. Even Jesus Christ to a certain extent is veiled to our eyes in this world, though he is the manifestation of the glory of God. When He came, His own received Him not. But then Gods glory will be open for all to see. Everyone will see just how glorious He is and even our glorification will be a part of that. Our glorification is ultimately going to glorify the God of glory.

You remember in the Garden, Satan tempted Eve and Adam to believe that God was not good, that God was not truthful, and that God was not worth serving; that he was actually cheating them out of the fullness of life. Satan was determined to convince them that God was not worth living for. He wasnt glorious. And you remember Job. Satan implanted circumstances in the life of Job in order to produce thoughts in the mind of Job to discount the glory of God. So that Job would say, "All this pain, all this trial, all this loss; not even God is worth going through this." Because Satan desires Gods people to think that God is not worth living for. And in the end the glory of God is going to be revealed. And everyone who has trusted in Jesus Christ will know that God was worth living for, and that His glory is beyond all question and all description. And the apostle Paul is saying, "You will be there, and you are going to be exhibit A that God is worth living for.

Now thats glorious news for a believer. To be looking forward to that final day of judgment and consummation, with the pure hope that it is going to be the day of your vindication and the day of the revelation of the glory of God. But my friends theres a problem, and the problem is for the unbeliever. Because when that glory is revealed, it will be too late for all those who have not trusted on God in Jesus Christ. It will be too late for all those who are not justified. And so now is the time, now is the day of your salvation, now is the day to cast your hope on the Lord. And then all these things will be true.

Have you noticed here how Paul says justification has implications for your past, for your present and for your future? You have peace with God. That peace with God refers to the alienation that you had with God because of your sins. Those past sins have been dealt with. You have access into the presence of God. Right now you have it in this age. You have this certain future hope of glory. See the implications of Gods work for you are past, present and future. But now, now is the day that you receive salvation. Now is the day to trust in God. And when you do, you, too, will find blessings past, present and future flowing from the redeeming work of God in Jesus Christ to all who trust in Him. But that you must do. You must trust in God.

Now if you already trust in God, use this final hymn that we are going to sing to reinforce the glorious things that God has done for you in Christs past, present and future. But if you havent trusted in God, use this hymn as a prayer to God that He would open your eyes, to behold the truth about yourself, that youre alienated, and the truth about His grace that He has reconciled all who trust in Him through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And use it to pray, to trust in Him. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, the peace which passes understanding is just that. That you have granted us enemies, renegades, radicals, peace, communion and the hope of glory is beyond all thinking. And thats precisely what You have done. We praise You for it in Jesus name, Amen.

Justification By Faith Means the Ability to Rejoice in Suffering - Romans 5:3-5

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

(Romans 5:3-5)

Justification by Faith Means the Ability to Rejoice in Sufferings

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 5 as we continue through this great book together. In Romans, chapter 1 and 2, Paul explains to us what our predicament is. What the big problem is. In Romans, chapter 3, he tells us the glorious news of what God has done to resolve our predicament. He gives His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He also announces to us in Romans 3 that if we will but trust on Him, if we will trust on Christ alone, as He has offered in the gospel for our salvation, we will find that we are justified by faith. That is, we are counted, we are declared to be righteous by faith. Not on account of our deeds, not on account of our inherent righteousness, but on account of Christs righteousness. In Romans, chapter 4, Paul defends that teaching from the Old Testament, his bible, the bible of his day. So, as to show that this is not some new teaching that he has invented overnight, its rooted in the revelation that God had given to his people over the last 2,000 years. In fact, he takes them right back 2,000 years to the life of Abraham. And in that life as Moses records it in Genesis 15 and 17, and he explains justification by faith; not only from Abraham, but also from David in Psalm 32. And so shows that this teaching on justification is one that is found in the Old Testament. Then, in Romans, chapter 5 he begins to talk about the consequences, or the implications of justification. Last week, we saw one of those implications in Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. We have peace with God. God has put things right through His Son, and we have received the benefits of what His Son has done simply by embracing Him by faith, by believing what He says about Himself, by believing what the gospel says about Him, and by trusting in Him personally, we have received those great benefits. He continues talking in that same line today because we really cut Paul off at mid-sentence. For Paul in verses 1 and 2 is actually carrying on a line of thought that continues several verses to go. So, lets hear Gods holy word here in Romans 5, beginning in verse 3:

"And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character and proven character hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He write His eternal truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Father we do bow before You, and we ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things from Your word. By Your spirit we ask that you would enable us to understand, to believe and to live these things that You have set out. We pray as well for those who know not Jesus Christ or are skeptical of Him or of His promises, that they, too, would see the benefits of His work; and they would be made to believe, drawn to Him by the Spirit. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Have you ever had anyone say to you, "You Christians just believe in pie in the sky, bye and bye." You know you are facing a trial and you express Your trust in God in the midst of that trial and somebody just sort of shakes their head. "Youre living in a dream world, not facing reality. You just believe in pie in the sky, bye and bye." Maybe somebody has said to you, "Christianity is just a psychological crutch for people who cant face reality. They have to deal with hard things, loss of friends, loved ones, children, husbands, wives; difficulties without number. And the way they deal with it is just through living in a fantasyland. They just dont face up to it. They deal with it by denial. Why, even that famed well-respected intellectual and politician, Jessie "the body" Ventura has recently told us that we Christians are weak-minded people. We cant quite cope with the difficulties of reality, and so we resort to religion. Religion is that crutch that kind of gets us through.

Well, it may bring some comfort to you to know that some of the apostle Pauls opponents thought that about his teaching, and especially about the teaching that he had just given in verses 1 and 2 of Romans, chapter 5. After all, he had said in that passage that we as Christians exult in the glory of God. Speaking of that glory to come, we rejoice in it, we boast in it, we exult in it, and these opponents sort of look around at this motley ravel of Christians. They are peripheral, they are marginal. They have been kicked out of the Jewish community. They are despised in the Greco-Roman community. Most of them are not wealthy, most of them arent from the acceptable social classes and here Paul is telling them that here they exult in the glory to come, and these opponents of Paul sort of shake their heads. Isnt it sad that Paul has to encourage those people to go to the rubble of life that they are experiencing now by giving them some flimsy hope in "pie in the sky, bye and bye." Some exulting in glory in the future. The apostle Paul is not finished though. Its easy to see, though, how a belief that God, through his grace, has put things right with us. Its easy to see how that would lead to great confidence about the future. Its easy to see how we can exalt in the glory to come. If weve been put right with God, and we fear no condemnation at the last day, its no wonder that you can rejoice about whats to come. Its no wonder that you can rejoice about the final day.

As Jim Phillip observes, "The believer, Paul means, rejoices in the glad assurance that he shall have a part and a place in Gods everlasting kingdom of glory." But to that literally glorious thought, Paul joins another. And that thought is this. We not only rejoice and boast and exult in the glory of God, we rejoice and boast and exalt in suffering. We rejoice and boast and exult in tribulation. You say, "Paul, youve lost your mind. What do you mean. What are you talking about? How?" Well, let me explain by showing you four things that Paul tells us in these three little verses. First, look with me at verse 3, in the very first section of that verse.

I. Our free justification enables us to rejoice in present suffering.

Paul here is talking about the present benefits and realities of justification. He had just been talking about the glory to come, and the hope now of that glory to come, of that future glory. Now, however, he talks about a present rejoicing. A rejoicing in present circumstances. And he relates it to justification. In fact, he says that Christians boast in tribulation and suffering and not nearly in the glory to come precisely because of their justification. Because we have been justified, because weve been put right with God by God through Jesus Christ. Because He has declared us to be righteous, we boast in tribulation, he says. In other words, our free justification enables us to rejoice in our present sufferings. Some of the Jews that Paul was writing to and who were opposing his ministry, some of those Jews boasted in the law. The thing that gave them distinctiveness, the thing that set them apart from the Gentiles and everybody else in the world was that they had received the law of God from the mouth of God and through his prophet Moses at Sinai. They, among all the nations have been given that privilege to receive the law. It set them apart and they exalted in it, they gloried in it that they were the nation that had received Gods law. Some of them gloried in the fact that they different from everyone else because they kept Gods ceremonial law. They were circumcised. They kept the food laws. There were some things that the Gentiles ate that they didnt eat because they thought they were unclean. They were unrighteous, so they exulted, they boasted in their own obedience and righteousness to Gods law. Paul, in Romans 5, 1 and 2 counters that boasting by saying, "Well let me tell you what we Christians boast in. You boast in the law. We boast in the glory to come. You boast in the law, we boast because we have peace with God.

Now He rocks them with another thing. He says furthermore Ill tell you another thing that we boast in thats better than what you boast in. We boast in our sufferings, and again His opponents are left scratching their heads because Paul is not running from reality at all. Hes saying, "Look at it, right now. Look at that suffering. Look at the child that weve lost. Look at the family Ive lost. Look at the spouse that Ive lost. Look at the job Ive lost. Pick any tribulation you want in my life. Heres what I want to tell you. I rejoice in the tribulation. I exult in it. I boast in it. And Paul introduces it in a way that we are familiar to in advertisements. Youve seen the advertisements. They tell you about what theyre going to sell you and they say, "But, wait, theres more." And Paul starts this verse out that way. Look at the beginning of verse 3. "And not this only." But wait theres more. We not only boast in exulting the glory to come, we boast and exult in our sufferings, and youre not waiting for that. Thats wasnt part of the package that you wanted, but Pauls going to tell you how, and youre still asking how. Paul says, "I want you to know that we glory in our tribulations." He doesnt say that we glory in spite of them. He doesnt say that we rejoice and exult even in the midst of them. He says we exult in them because of them.

Whats he talking about? Tribulations, of course, for Paul means anything that we suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself in Matthew 5, verse 11 says, "Blest are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil things about you for my sake." Pauls, of course, is talking about those kinds of tribulation. Any tribulation endured for Christ, the apostle is saying, he rejoices in. But you know Paul and the rest of the New Testament use that term 'tribulation' in a far broader sense.

Paul knows that anything that we experience in a fallen world by the way of trial and tribulation that is the result of the presence of sin now in the created order because of the fall of Adam falls into the category of tribulation and of blessed tribulation. In order words, he is saying there is no tribulation which you as believers have endured, which you cannot rejoice in. We exult in our tribulations, he says. We are enabled to rejoice in this present suffering because by justification God is for us and therefore nothing can be against us as the apostle is going to say in Romans, chapter 8.

How is it that you can rejoice in tribulation? The only way that you can rejoice in any and every tribulation is to know that in every tribulation you are seeing not a picture of God against you, but you are seeing a picture of God for you. For the unbeliever, he may well feel that the trials and tribulations of life are the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. For the unbeliever, you may look at the traumas and the difficulties of life and the trial of life and say, "You know, this universe makes no sense. I loved that woman, and You took her away from me by cancer. I loved that job, and I was wrongfully taken from it. I loved my child. I devoted myself to my child, and that child has been taken from me." And the young believer feels outraged and quandary and a feeling that the universe just doesnt make sense.

The apostle Paul says, trial and tribulation is not that way for the believer. Why? Because nothing in the universe is against him. And think of it, if God is for you, who can be against you. And even that in the universe which is warped by sin, God in His fatherly wisdom is ordering for your good. Paul is saying that we are able to rejoice in present suffering because nothing in this universe is against us.

Again, Jim Phillips says that this means that though grace, or through grace, evil has lost the initiative in the believers life and can no longer lord it over him. On the contrary, it becomes an instrument in Gods hands of furthering His purposes in your life. It may be chastening, fatherly discipline. It is not for your destruction. It is not for His amusement. He does not take your suffering lightly. But it is for His fatherly discipline and correction. It may be for your character. He desires to build you up for some great battle ahead or to glorify Himself and to help His people and perhaps to help you and your family in some way that you would never ever fathom through helping you through a particular trial. But in all of it, He has the design of your good. And we need to remember this as we ponder the example of our own Savior in His approach to His own sufferings. In Hebrews 12:2 we are told that He endured the cross for the glory set before Him despising the shame. Think of it friends. Paul makes it clear and so does the book of Revelation, that in the new heavens and the new earth, in our ascended state, when we are with God forever in the great day, even our human bodies, our ascended human bodies, will be transformed and perfected. All the infirmities that we have dealt with throughout our life will be taken away. Even our bodies, even the bodily aspect of our being, will be perfected. All the pains and difficulties that we have endured in this life, perhaps diseases, will be taken away. If weve dealt with blindness, well have sight. If weve dealt with deafness and dumbness, well be able to speak and hear. Every bodily infirmity will have been remedied. And, in fact, our glorified will have to pass these that our human bodies, even in a perfect state, had never had before.

But you know its also interesting that the gospels and the book of Revelation and Paul make it clear that Jesus continues to bear the marks of His crucifixion even in His ascended state. When the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Thomas, his disciple, Thomas had the ability to put his finger into the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the book of Revelation makes it clear that He, the Lamb of God, bears those wounds for eternity.

Now I want you to think about something for a moment. The present and permanent scars of Jesus Christ in His ascended body not only show His love for you. Think of it. Your body perfected. For eternity His body bears the marks to remind you of His love. But not only that, my friends, because He glories in His suffering. He exults in His suffering. He doesnt try to forget it. He glories in it for His people.

Now to you unbelievers who are hear today. Let me ask you a question. Dont you wish that you could look at your trials and tribulations in that way? Dont you wish that you could have that kind of triumph before cancer, before the death of a child, before the loss of a spouse, before the wreck of your career, before the loss of everything? Dont you wish you could have that kind of confidence, that kind of assurance, that kind of joy?

A dear friend of mine in Scotland did a Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow, and a famous early church history professor who would invite him in from time to time to speak with him. He was his supervisor. This gentlemen was a great historian of the early church, but he was not an evangelical believer in the gospel. And he would sit Andrew down, and he would say, "Andy, tell me again, what is it that you believe." And Andy would spend twenty-five, thirty minutes just telling him what it was that he believed in. At the end of those conversations, and he would shake his head, and he would say, "Andrew, I wish that I could believe what you believe." Well, maybe you are sitting there an unbeliever today saying, "I just wish that I could believe that." And I want you to see that the greatest realist in the world, the apostle Paul, who experienced more present pain than you and I have ever experienced, could say, "I exult in my suffering." And the reason that he could say that was because he had been put right with God through Jesus Christ. He was a justified sinner, and he stood before God right with him, and he rejoiced in His sufferings. And then theres this.

II. Our free justification enables suffering to serve the interests of sanctification.

Paul is not finished. If you look at the end of verse 3 and on into verse 4, Paul now connects our tribulations with God teaching us and growing us up in sanctification. He tells us that because of justification by faith, there is a chain of hope from tribulation to perseverance, from perseverance to character, from character to hope. In other word, Paul says that our free justification, our having been declared right by God, enables our suffering to serve the interests of sanctification. Nothing in our experience, no tribulation is designed for our destruction as believers. But every tribulation is designed for our growth, for our sanctification, for our maturity. Tribulation under Gods gospel providence is now bent to serve the purposes of His sanctification in our hearts, producing the endurance of faith.

Notice how Paul says it. He says, "Tribulation brings about perseverance." He doesnt mean this in some sort of a generic confidence man management sort of way. Well, you know, the hard times make the good times. Thats not what Paul is saying. Let me tell you, you and I know people who have gone through hard times, and its made them bitter, shriveled, little people. It hasnt produced good times. It has produced bitter, mean-spirited, hateful, broken people. Pauls not saying, "Show me a hard time, and Ill show you growth." Paul is saying, "For the believer, Gods specific purpose in every trial is not to destroy you, but to build you up. And therefore you glory in that trial." Paul says that tribulation, plus Gods gospel providence, produces endurance. It produces perseverance, and that tribulation, plus Gods gospel providence, plus grace induced, grace empowered endurance produces character. And character is the result of, the product of, the proof of grace in our lives. And that gospel providence with tribulation, with perseverance, with character produces what? A sure and settled hope. Someone who had already tasted Gods grace now doesnt wonder if hes going to taste Gods grace then in the hope of glory. Hes already experiencing Gods grace in his life now. Think of it my friends. Hebrews 5:8 says of Jesus, who was perfect, that although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. If that is true of Jesus, how much more is it true of us? We, who continue to have the remnants of sin in our hearts, how much more does God use the tribulations of life in order to promote our sanctification?

If we are justified by faith, Paul says, we have a new way of looking at trials in our lives. Have you ever paused, as a believer, in the midst of a trial and said, "Lord, thank You for this token that You are my Father and that you love me." Thank you God for breaking my heart so that I could again see that Your love is better than any love that can exist in this world. Thank you Father, for showing me again that You care so much for me that You will wean me away from the affections of the world to trust in and love You only. Turn with me in your hymnals to number 94. Hymn 94 is one that some of you probably have memorized, "How Firm a Foundation." Look at the fourth stanza of this great hymn. In that hymn we hear this. This is God speaking to His people, and we sing it as we say these words. "When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be your supply. The flame shall not hurt you; I only design your dross to consume and your gold to refine." My only purposes in this trial, my child, he says is to refine you in the image of My Son. We sing to the same effect.

Turn forward to hymn number 699. Were going to sing it in just a moment. Do you really believe what the third stanza of "Like a River Glorious" says? Every joy. Okay, Im with you that far, or trial falls from above. Every trial, every trial? Thats what Paul is saying. Every trial falls from above. That relationship with your husband that youve always wanted but have never gotten. The loss of that child thats ever with your heart. The loss of that brother, that sister. Youve never been able to get it out of your mind. The loss of that mate of fifty years, who knew you better than you knew yourself. The experience that you have rejection because of your faith in Jesus Christ. Every trial comes from above? Yes, Paul is saying. And I dont just endure it, I exult in it. You wonder why we are so excited about justification? Well, thats why, because if Im right with God, there is nothing else, nothing else that can rob the eternal joy that He has already set for me at His table. Lets come to His table in that light. Lets pray.

Oh Lord and our God, Your gospel is beyond that which we could ask or imagine. By Your grace bring us to the feast and enable us by faith to eat. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Justification By Faith Flows from the Love of God - Romans 5:6-8

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Justification by Faith Flows From the Love of God

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 5. As we continue to work our way through this great book of Romans, let me remind you where we have come from. In chapters and 2 the apostle tells us what the problem is, what our predicament is. In chapter 3 he tells us what Gods glorious solution is in Jesus Christ. And furthermore, having told us that Christ died for sinners in Romans, chapter 3, he says God declares sinners to be just freely because of what Jesus Christ has done. In Romans, chapter 4, he defends that from the Old Testament. And in Romans, chapter 5, he begins to talk about the consequences of that, the implications of that. So notice what he has done. In Romans 1 and 2 especially, he explains to us the reality and the necessity of justification by faith. In Romans, chapter 3, he tells us about the provision of justification by faith. In Romans, chapter 4, he tells us that justification by faith is scriptural. And in Romans, chapter 5 through 8, he explains how effective justification by faith is. Hes telling us consequences or implications of this great truth, this great reality of justification by faith. Its not just a doctrine, its something that impacts us every single day. Weve already seen some of those implications if youll allow your eyes to run over Romans 5, verses 1 through 5. Youll remember some of the things that weve seen already. Justification results in our experience in the peace of God. We have peace with God, having been justified, Paul said in verse 1. Secondly, justification results in our communion with God. The greatest grace a person can have eternal fellowship with the living God is brought about in justification. If we truly desire to glorify and enjoy God forever, it is realized and enjoyed in our justification by faith. We saw that as well in verse 2. Furthermore, in verse 2, we saw that justification means a certain future hope of glory. A certain future hope of glorification, the final hope belongs to us if we are justified. We not only have our sins dealt with, peace with God, we not only have a present experience of communion with God, we have a future expectation of glory all because of justification.

Pauls not done yet. He goes on. In the verses that we looked at most recently beginning in verse 3 and going into verse 4, to say that justification enables us to rejoice in tribulation. Not merely to endure tribulation, not merely rejoice in spite of tribulation, but to rejoice because of tribulation. And furthermore, justification says to us that every tribulation which we experience now, God intends to make serve His purpose of sanctification in us. In other words, He turns what would be an enemy against us into a friend for His purposes because there is nothing that can be against us since He is for us, since He has justified us. Its a glorious thing. Theres no meaningless suffering for the believer. Every drop of tribulation for the believer God has caught up in His purposes and will use for our good.

I remember many years ago in a college English class, having an English professor say to us, "Why is it that the Southern writers are the greatest writers of the American writers in the 20th century?" Now he wasnt a particularly religious man, but here was his answer. His answer was, "God, because Southern writers are still haunted by God. God has been forgotten in the rest of modern American literature." And he went on to say that there was no ultimate meaning in life, and how can you write if there is no meaning? Why reflect on what is meaningless? God makes all things meaningful, even tribulation and suffering are caught up into His purposes because we have been made right with Him in justification.

That brings us then to verse 6, and thats where we are going to start today as Paul continues this train of thought. Hes not done yet as he expresses to us the consequences of what it means to be justified. Lets hear Gods word in Romans 5, beginning in verse 6.

"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while yet we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He write His eternal hears upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Our Lord, we bow before You, and we ask that You would open our eyes to understand this truth. We pray that as believers that we would be rooted and grounded in the love of God displayed in the death of Jesus Christ. And as unbelievers we pray, oh God, that You would shock us with the unexpectedness and the magnitude of Your love. Enable us all then to praise You for that loving grace and to respond to it by faith. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

So, in the first five verses Paul has said that Gods grace in justification puts things right between us and Him, past, present and future. He goes on to say even in our sufferings we are enabled to rejoice by justification. But Hes not finished, He has something else to add to that. Not only do believers have the capacity to rejoice in suffering, they are also recipients, we could even call them receptacles of the lavish, the undeserved love of God. The whole focus of the passage before us is, of course, precisely that. The lavish and undeserved love of God. And Id like you to see four or five things Paul says to us about that love.

In fact, Id like you to sneak back to verse 5 because were going to pick up there. We didnt get to verse 5. And Paul begins this thought, this focus, on Gods love right in that verse. And he tells us first of all in verse 5 about the fatherly love of the judge. He also tells us about the agent of the fathers love in verse 5. In verse 6 he introduces to the love of God for sinners. This undeserved love of God. In verse 7 he tells us that this love is unparalleled in human experience. In verse 8 he tells us that what Jesus did is the proof, the demonstration that God loves us. Thats the question on many of our minds. We hear the words of "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know," and we ask the question to ourselves sometimes. "Well, how do I know that? I know the Bible tells me so, but there are a lot of Christians that wrestle with that. How do I really know that? How do I know that God loves me?" Paul is answering that question here. Lets here what he has to say. First, lets hear God as he speaks to us in verse 5.

I. Justification means that we are the object and recipients of God's amazing love and apprehend it.

"Hope does not disappoint," He says. "Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts. Justification means not only that we are forgiven sins, that we are acquitted, that we are accounted as if we were righteous; but it also means that we are objects and recipients of the Fathers amazing love. Think of it in a courtroom. If you go before a judge guilty of a capital crime, you are convicted of that crime in the course of that trial. The judge does this. He sentences you, and then he dismisses you. And never again do you have a relationship with him. The apostle Paul says look at the amazing difference between our just Father who is a judge, and the way that an earthly judge deals with us when we are guilty. The earthly judge, if we are guilty, convicts us. The heavenly Father, when He finds us to be guilty, and we all are, gives us His son in our stead to bear the due penalty of sin, and then He acquits us. But Hes not done. He doesnt dismiss us from the courtroom. He adopts us into His family. And He lavishes on us the love of God. Thats what Paul says there in verse 5. The love of God has been poured out within our hearts. He has lavished on us his love.

We said, perhaps the last time, this is the first time in the book of Romans that the love of God has been explicitly mentioned. Oh, ever since at least chapter 3, Paul has been telling us about the love of God. But here he explicitly focuses on the love of God, and hes talking not about our love for God, hes talking about Gods love for us. Thats clear, by the way, in verses 6 through 8, when he illustrates what hes talking about here in verse 5. And if you dont get it from 6 through 8 in general, look specifically in verse 8, and the very first words. He says there, "God demonstrates His own love for us." Clearly this is Gods love for us, not our love for God, which has been shed within our hearts. The reason we can glory in suffering, the reason that we can be assured of a hope that will not disappoint is because the love of God is certain. It has been poured out within our hearts. By the way, look back at verse 2, and then verse 4 and then verses 5 through 8. Notice the progression from faith to hope to love. You heard that triad before in Paul. Youll hear it, for instance, in I Corinthians 13. Paul likes to speak about faith, hope and love together, and here we see a procession of faith, belief in God. Hope being established in a certain hope, and then thirdly, love. The experience of love for us. Justification means that we are the objects of the love of God.

II. The Holy Spirit is the agent of God's love.

Now Paul, in the rest of this passage, is going to explain that glorious reality as a consequence of our justification. He tells us also in verse 5 a second thing. The Holy Spirit is the agent of that love. It is the Holy Spirit given to us who grounds us in that love. Justification is joined with this incalculable gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit. And its the Holy Spirit who ministers in us to root us in Gods love. Let me demonstrate that to you from another passage in Paul. Turn with me if you would to Ephesians, chapter 3 beginning in verse 14, Paul says this. "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name; that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." The one thing that I want you to see in that glorious passage, which is worth fifty sermons, is just this point: that the Holy Spirit is given to do what? To root us and ground us in the apprehension of Gods loves for us. He is the agent that God implants in our hearts that we might experience and know the love, which God has for us in Jesus Christ. Jim Phillips puts it this way: "The Holy Spirit is the executor of the Godhead. It is He who effectually applies the work of Christ to individual hearts, making it real to them. Without the Holy Spirit salvation remains merely something to hear about, never to experience. It is He alone who makes it ours. All that Paul proceeds to teach in the subsequent chapters presupposes this truth."

Perhaps youre an unbeliever today, and youre having a hard time getting your head around this gospel, and you cant quite accept and embrace it, perhaps an appropriate prayer for you would be "Holy Spirit, open my eyes, enable my heart to understand the gospel and to see the love of Christ for sinners." Its the Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to see the greatness of Gods love and grace. He alone grounds us in that reality. Paul means that Gods love has been sealed and applied to us in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Pauls not talking about some secret, second, subsequent, mystical blessing. Hes talking about something that God does in every believer by the Holy Spirit. As he justifies you, He vests with in you His Spirit that you might know the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ. What an amazing thing, this justification. Then he goes on, hes not done, he begins to explain this further.

III. God's love has been shed abroad not merely in the death of Christ, but the death of Christ for sinners.

We see a third thing in verse 6. Paul here in verse 6 gives an argument. In verse 7 he gives an illustration, and in 8 he gives a conclusion or he makes a deduction from the argument. Heres the argument in verse 6. His argument is Christ died for us while we were helpless and hopeless, while we were weak and sinful. While we were unbelieving and undeserving. In other words, hes telling us in verse 6 that Gods love has been shed abroad not merely in the death of His Son, not merely in the death of Christ, but His love has been shed abroad, but His love has been shed abroad in the death of Christ for sinners. Its not just nice people that Jesus has died for. In fact its not nice people at all. Jesus didnt die for the righteous. He didnt die for good people. Why? There are no good people, there are no righteous people. He died for sinners. And thats Paul emphatic point here in verse 6. Notice he uses two words, helpless and ungodly. What do you want on your obituary? Theres been a lot of talk about whats going to be the first entry in the encyclopedia about our former president, you know. Well, whats going to be the first entry in the divine obituary for you?

Well, heres Pauls description of you, helpless and ungodly. Thats you apart from Christ. Thats you apart from grace. Thats what you are. That sums you up. Helpless and ungodly. Helpless in the sense that apart from God, apart from Christ, apart from grace, we are under the power of sin. We are unable to free ourselves from it. We dont want to free ourselves from it. We enjoy it. Were unable to repent. Were unable to see the gloriousness of the offer thats being made to us. Were helpless. Were weak. Were ungodly. Were separated from God. Were in rebellion against him. Were not manifesting His image. Were created in His image, but were not manifesting that image in the way that we live. Thats how Paul describes us. He describes us from two perspectives as those who are captive to sin and to those who are out of a right relationship with God. Thats His summing us up. Thats us apart from Christ.

And he tells us that Christ died for people like that. Thats who Christ died for, people who are weak, people who are helpless, people who are captive, people who are sinful, people who are ungodly, people who had no relationship with God. Jesus loves me, this I know. How do I know? You know because Christ died. Thats how you know. He died for the ungodly. Think, my friends, think just for a second. Think of your sin at its worst point, or least at its worst point for you, because every time I think I know the worst about myself, God shows me something else. But think for a moment. Think about that thing or those things perhaps that you have worked hard even for those closest to you not to know. Those things that you think, you know, if my wife, if my husband knew that, theyd leave me in a second. When youre honest, in those few moments that youre willing to be honest with yourself, its precisely at those points that Christ loves you, that Christ dies for you. He knows the worst of you. Its not as if fifteen years later Hes going to discover 'O, you mean that person is that way? Ah, what big mistake Ive made.' He already knows you at your worst p point. He died for the ungodly at the very worst point. At that point believer, He loved you still in Jesus Christ.

The gospel is not just 'God loves you.' You see, 'God loves you' might convey the idea that well, were fairly loveable people. Pretty nice guy, hes reasonable, its a nice thing for Him to do. Its not even 'Gods loves you at the cost of His Son.' God loves you in this magnificent way. Thats true. Its 'God loves you, sinner, at the cost of His Son.' Thomas Boston once said, "If anyone knew my heart, I wouldnt have four friends left in Scotland. And its precisely there that Christ dies for the ungodly. He doesnt die for those whove got everything together. Theyre clean, they are well scrubbed, they have prepared themselves. He doesnt say, Im going to die for everyone whos going to help themselves. Im going to die for everybody who at least makes the effort to do what they ought to do. He says, 'I die for the ungodly.' Christ died for the ungodly. Gods love has been shed abroad not merely in the death of Christ, but in the death of Christ for sinners. Paul is saying, "Do you want to see the love of God? See it in who Jesus dies for." He dies for people who dont deserve it, people who are totally unworthy of it. Hes not done.

IV. God's redemptive love cannot be presumed upon.

In verse 7 he gives an illustration of this. His illustration points to the rarity of vicarious sacrifice on behalf of virtuous people at the human level. From time to time in our experience and perhaps in our reading we have heard about people who have nobly given themselves on behalf of another person. Perhaps it has been someone serving in the military who has been willing to lay down his or her life for the country. Perhaps its a spouse who saves the life of his or her spouse through some heroic act or saves the children. But in each of these cases Paul points out that we are doing it for someone who is to us good. Paul is saying here that we cannot even compare that kind of love with the love that God has shown to us in Jesus Christ; and we certainly cannot presume on Gods redemptive love since even human self sacrifice is rare, and we are undeserving. Paul is not making some sort of a nitpicking distinction between a righteous man and a good man as if nobody would die for a righteous, but some people would die for a good man. Thats not his point. His point is simply this. That at the very highest levels of human nature, at the very highest levels of human behavior, its almost altruistic. It is where we hear of someone giving their life for another. When we do, it is always the case that that person is giving their life for something that they consider to be good and righteous. A man laying down his life for his country. A man laying down his life for his family. A person of noble and upstanding character, and its precisely that point of discontinuity between the death of Christ and the death of people in a vicarious situation that Paul is drawing our attention to.

Paul is going to argue in verse 8 again that Christ did not die for good and righteous people, He died for criminals. He died for pagans. He died for sinners. Christs love for us. Gods love for us in Jesus Christ is not what the philosophers call the love of complacency. In other words, God doesnt look at us and say, "Oh, how lovely. How wonderful. Oh, I just couldnt go on without those human beings. They are just so excellent, so fine. Theres something in them that compels My love for them." Thats the love of complacency. Thats the love that attracts young men to young women and hopefully vice versa. We delight in something in someone else that attracts us to the other person. Thats not the love of God. The love of God is what the philosophers would call to love is spontaneity. It dwells up from within him. Its not conditioned on something in us. In fact, if it were conditioned on something in us, we wouldnt have received it in the first place; because were unlovely, were ungodly, were weak and helpless. Gods love for us in Christ is not based upon something in us or about us. Its based wholly and solely on something in Him and about Him. And its something, my friends, that you and I will spend an eternity, and we will never understand it to the bottom. The love of God, how deep, how wide, how surpassing all our knowledge it is. Even in glory, well never understand it until the end. And Paul is saying, "Thats the kind of love that God has for us. Its not like any other kind of love. Its rare," Paul says, "that a human would lay down his life for a righteous and noble person." Then how much more amazing, how much more unbelievable is it that God would give His Son for those who dont deserve it, for those who are sinners. The unparalleled love of God. But thats what Hes talking about in verse 7, but Hes still not finished.

V. God's unique love is expressed and proven in the death of Christ for unworthy sinners.

He brings it home, the conclusion of His argument is found in verse 8. He says, "The proof, the manifestation of Gods love for us is seen in the death of Christ for the ungodly." Gods unique love is expressed in and proven by the death of Christ for unworthy sinners. Romans 5:8 is the John 3:16 of Pauls writings. If John had been written when Paul was writing this, it's almost like Paul would have had it open to John 3:16, sort of rephrasing it, putting it in a slightly different way, but getting it precisely the same point. When he says 'demonstrate' in verse 8, He means that it is proven by argument. Gods love is proven in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. By the way, Paul is not saying that Jesus died to show us that He loved us or that God loved us. Jesus' death is far more significant than merely being a manifestation or an example, even the greatest example of Gods love. Christ died, as weve already said, in order to atone for our sins, to propitiate Gods wrath, to cover our sins, to expiate our guilt, to make us be able to stand before God accepted. But as a consequent in that, we see Gods love for us. He did not die merely to show Gods love for us, but in dying to save us from our sins, He has shown us Gods love for us.

Furthermore, I want you to note that Paul does not say, 'in this is love. God had only wrath for you, but because Christ died, Christ was able to entice His heavenly Father to love you.' Thats not what Paul says. In Romans 5, chapter verse 8, Paul is not saying that Christs death made God love us. The picture is not of the Lord Jesus on the cross when he says, "Father, forgive them," praying to some reluctant deity. He finds it so hard to bless His people who just wants to blast them into oblivion and has no love in His heart for them, and Jesus is somehow pleading with the heavenly Father, "Oh Father, love your people, please." Thats not the picture at all. The cross is the expression of Gods prior love for His people. If the Father had not loved His people, the cross would have never occurred. The cross doesnt make God the Father love His people. It is the expression, it is the consequence of God the Fathers love for His people.

Paul is saying that this death of Christ is the very manifestation of the Fathers heart of love for us. His love is unprecedented, and its unparalleled, and it is yours if you believe on Him. Its an amazing thing.

Now maybe some of you are still wrestling with that. "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." How do I know that. And maybe some of you are saying, "I have a hard time feeling that. I have a hard time accepting that. I have a hard time getting my heard around that." I understand that. Ive met a lot of Christians who have wrestled with that. But its a reality, my friend, for every believer. Gordon Reed tells the story of a man who many years ago got on a riverboat in Cincinnati, Ohio, to make his way to New Orleans. He didnt have a lot of money. He spent almost all of his money to buy a ticket to get on the riverboat. He didnt have any money for food, except for a little bit while he was going to be on this fairly long journey. And so he bought himself a supply of crackers and cheese. He was embarrassed by his poverty, and so he hid himself from the other passengers so he hid himself from the other passengers at mealtime. He knew that he would never be able to afford to eat in the ornate dining room on the riverboat. And so for days at a time when it come mealtimes, he would hide himself and eat his crackers and cheese. About the time he got to Natchez, he bumped into a fellow passenger who befriended him, and at mealtime he was going to creep off and eat his crackers and cheese, and his friend said, "Where are you going? Arent you coming to the dining hall." He said, "Oh no, I could never afford to go to the dining hall." And his friend said, "Take out your ticket." And his friend took out his ticket, and he said, "Now read it." And at the bottom of the ticket it said, "All meals included." Brister Ware tells me its the same way on the train today. You buy a bed, you get your meals.

Some people forget that. My friends, if youre justified, its not just that you can be. It is that you are awash in the love of God. Have you read your ticket? Christ died for the ungodly. Now eat the feast. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, what wondrous love is this that the king of bliss died for the saving of our souls, and yet oh Lord, we live as such paupers that we dont realize the wealth of the love of Christ, which has been given to us. Help us this day to embrace it and to walk in it and to live in it and to walk in it and to breathe in it and to praise You for it, in Jesus name, Amen.

Justification By Faith Means Freedom From God's Wrath - Romans 5:9-11

9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9-11)

Justification by Faith Means Freedom from God's Wrath

Through this great chapter in Pauls book, in which he speaks to us of the implications of justification. True believers love to meditate upon the doctrine of justification. There are many reasons for that. Reminds us of what our Lord Jesus has done for us that we might be brought into friendship and fellowship with the heavenly father, forever. It is also so important to our assurance, isnt it? Most of us, all of us from time to time, hear the voice of the evil one, or the voice of our own sins, bringing the question to our heart. Are you really in Christ? Are you really spared? Are you really justified? Are you really reconciled? And only a proper understanding of what God has done for us in justification will supply the right answer of heart to those accusations.

And that assurance is so important for our energy and our motivation in the Christian life. It is the assured believer who is the confident believer in the face of all challenges, and obstacles and that is what we want to be. We want to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. And so the apostle Paul spares no opportunity to talk about justification with believers. He takes it and he runs with it. And he repeats it over and over as I have, as we have worked through his book. And I dont apologize for that. Because Paul didnt apologize for it. So lets hear Gods word here in Romans chapter 5, and we will begin in verse 9.

"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exalt in God, through whom our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Amen."

And thus ends this reading of Gods holy word. May He add his blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God this is your word, we ask that by your spirit you would open our eyes to understand it. Our hearts to embrace it. Give us hearing ears, search us out, apply your truth to us in our own specific situations in our own particular needs. Help us all to bow the knee to the authority of your word, when your word is read, and proclaimed, you speak to your people. We pray as well for those who have never embraced Christ, or who thinking they have, have never known him truly. We ask, O Lord, that You would speak to them of the glorious benefits of a saving interest in Jesus Christ. And so draw them by faith to him today. Help us then we pray. May all the honor and praise be yours. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Left behind. It is all a rage. You may have already seen the video. May have read some of the books. May have been to Tinseltown to see the movie. Thirty years ago there was a similar rage going on. I bet there are a few of you that remember it. It wasnt Left Behind. That was a long time before Left Behind. It was Hal Lindseys The Late Great Planet Earth. And there were some chintzy little black and white movie, too, that went along with it, that scared the living bejabbers out of high school students when they saw it. You know, it had something about the rapture and this and that and the other, and we were all scared to death. And all sorts of people made professions of faith. I remember being in Mr. Belands seventh grade class at Beck Middle School. He read great books to us during reading hour. He read George Orwells Animal Farm to us that year. Never ever had an inclination after that to be a Marxist socialist. I want you to know, never ever. Though I sort of got excited about reading in Mr. Belands class. I am not sure whether I done a lot of it before then. One of the books I read was Hal Lindseys The Late Great Planet Earth. Gave it to my friend, Bobby Bradford, he was a young man whose parents were members at Springfield Baptist Church. Bobbys mother called me up the next week, said Ligon, thanks for giving that book to Bobby. He made a profession of faith and was baptized last week at church. Scared him to death. Isnt it interesting, we almost delight in scaring ourselves to death about the pictures, the realities of the end time. But it is interesting where we run for relief. Isnt it interesting how believers often run for relief in these apocalyptic visions of what is going to happen in the end. They run for relief to the hope that they wont be there. That is how I will manage that. I wont be there. They take comfort, oh, well, I wont be subject to the great white judgment throne. I wont be there. Isnt it interesting that that is not how the New Testament ever comforts us about the great and awesome day of the Lord? In fact, Jesus and Paul go out of their way to say, oh, yes, you will be there. All will be called to account at the judgment seat of Christ. No, you cant run for comfort into the hope that you wont be there because you werent one of the ones left behind. Though we will all be there in that great day. What then, enables us to have confidence in that great and awesome day? For surely the scriptures speak of such a great and awesome day. Well, the apostle Paul tells us in this passage, it is not your absence that will give you comfort in that great day, it is the finished and the ongoing work of Jesus Christ. All yours by virtue of your justification. I would like you to see three or four things that Paul says to us in this passage today. Beginning in verse 9.

And here is the first thing. Paul says in verse 9, that our salvation is future. And that future salvation is secure. Ever had someone say to you, brother, are you saved? It is a good question. Biblical question. But you know, the Bible just doesnt speak of saved in the past tense. Or saved in the present. It speaks of a future salvation, and that is precisely what Paul is speaking of here in Romans chapter 5, verse 9. Notice his words. Much more then having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God. Paul is saying, that by the work of Jesus Christ, you are not only justified, you are not only caused to be declared right with God now, with reference to the sins of your past, and carried along by his spirit in sanctification in the present, but in the future, you shall be saved. There is a future dimension to what you have received in Jesus Christ. And so, as you anticipate that wrath to come, and it will surely come, and let me say that the picture that the New Testament paints of that great day of the Lord makes Left Behind look like childs play. If you want to hear a more biblical rendering of the picture of the Apocalypse from Johns writing in the book of Revelation, come on Wednesday night and hear Derek Thomas as he unfolds that glorious book for us. But there is one thing that is certain. The New Testament tells us there will be a day, a day of the Lord, a great and terrible day of reckoning where he will call to account. And Paul says the reason that the believer does not tremble with slavish fear as he contemplates that is not that somehow we are going to be missed out in that. It is that the salvation which you have in Jesus Christ assures you that you will be secure in his hand, even in that great day. You have been saved. You are saved, and Paul says you shall be saved in that great day of wrath. Now it is just possible that there are few skeptics among us. And you think that this teaching about the day of the Lord the wrath of the God, this great day of reckoning to come, this is something that Charlatan preachers came up with to scare me into heaven. Or maybe at lease making a contribution to the church. And I want to assure you my friends, this is not the preachers weapon for scaring anybody into heaven. I couldnt scare you into heaven, if I wanted to. And that is not my method. Because the apostle Paul makes it very clear that the sharp point of the spearhead of salvation is the word of the cross itself. It is the message of the cross of Jesus Christ with which I lead to woo you into saving fellowship with God. That is the message that I preach, but I am also bound because I believe the word of God to teach all that it says and Paul and Jesus more than anyone else, emphatically asserts this day of the Lord to come, a day of reckoning. It is not designed to scare anyone into heaven, it is designed to brace you in to reality, a reality, which Paul has already said in Romans chapter 1, that all men already know in their hearts. All mean already know that they ought to praise God and that they are under his wrath. Now you say, still, I think this is something that preachers came up with. Let me bother you a little bit. Even the Pagan Greek Philosophers long before Plato, in Platos time, in Aristotles time and after believed that there would be a great day of reckoning. Even the Pagans know in their heart of hearts that there will be a day of reckoning. The New Testament is emphatic about it and Paul says this to believers. Brothers and sisters, you may rest easy, because as you have had faith in Christ, as you have been united to him, you will be secure in the wrath to come. You have nothing to tremble about in the wrath to come. Though indeed our hearts will be awed by the display of the justice of the Lord, we will be the singular recipients of his mercy. And we will rejoice even in that wrath to come. Paul is telling us here that our salvation is future too. Not just past and present, and it is secure. Because not only our present state of being declared right with God is the result of the work of Christ, but our future security in the day of the Lords reckoning is certain because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the apostle having said that in verse 9 wants to elaborate on that in verse 10. And so he tells us a second thing there. In verse 10, Paul tells us that if the shear extravagance of Gods provision of salvation has made us to be friends with God again in the hear and now, then it will also certainly assure us of this salvation to come. If God has already in the here and now declared us to be right with him, put us right with him, reconciled us to him, then certainly Paul says how much more will he save us in this wrath to come? Notice how Paul argues this. He argues it in stages in verse 10. First he says, if while enemies God reconciled us to himself, think about that. He points us specifically to what we were. We were objectively enemies against him. It is not just that we were rebelling against him. It was that as God looked upon us, he considered us to be enemies. And Paul says, now stop and think about this. While you were the considered enemies of God, he gave his son to die for you. That you might be drawn back into fellowship with him. Now Paul says, consider this my friends, if God did that for you, while you were his enemies, what do you think he is going to do for you now that you are his friends, now that you are his children? Do you think that he is going to reconcile you as enemies, and then fail to save you in the wrath to come? Of course not. Paul is making it emphatically clear that the work that God begins, he intends to bring to completion. My friends, if you had no other verses in the Bible to prove the doctrine of the eternal security of believers, the perseverance of the saints, you would need to go to no other verses than Romans 5, verses 9 and 10, where the apostle Paul makes it absolutely clear that once God has laid his hands on you, that once God has united you to Christ and justified you by grace through faith, that there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can separate you from his love. And the teaching that somehow one can become a justified believer, can experience the glories of union with Christ and then fall away from it, lose ones salvation is pernicious. It is monstrous. It is a pestilent view. And it contradicts precisely what the apostle Paul is saying here. If while enemies, God reconciled us to himself, how much more will he save us from the wrath to come? But that is just the first stage of Pauls argument.

In verse 10 he goes on, notice he says, if while enemies, God reconciled himself to us. Now wait a second you say, that is not how verse 10 reads. Look at it. It says that if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. Doesnt that mean that we reconciled ourselves to him? We reached out to him? We longed to be brought back into fellowship with him? Absolutely not. You say, well you are reading your theology into that. No I am not. Look at verse 11. Verse 11 says this reconciliation was not accomplished by us, it was not brought about by us, it was not initiated by us, it was received. Verse 11 says, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. The reconciliation which is spoken of here, is not our reconciliation to God, it is Gods reconciliation to us, initiated by himself, accomplished by himself, given to you as a gift. The result of it is that you are reconciled to him. And the apostle is saying, now think of it. You are the enemy of God. You are his enemy. He has done everything necessary to reconcile you to himself. Can you possible believe that having done that, he is going to let something slip in the last day? Can you possibly believe that he will have done all that is necessary to make you again, his friend, and somehow he will forget to save you from the wrath to come? Come on, Paul says. But he is not done.

That is just the second step of his argument. He says is while enemies, God reconciled himself to us, by his sons death. You see, Paul says, this is how I want you to think about it. Think about what you were. Think about what God did and then think about how much it cost him. Think about what you were. You werent lovely. You werent attractive. You were his enemy. Think about what he did. He did everything necessary to break down the barriers between you and him, and to assuage his just judgment on you. Your due penalty of sin, and he did it at the cost of his son. The most valuable thing in the universe. The most valuable thing to the heart of the father and that is the cost that he bore to reconcile you. And Paul says this. Now think about it for a minute Christian. You were his enemy. He reconciled himself to you. He did it at the cost of his son. He is going to forget something in the future. He didnt think about the wrath to come. He left that out. His sons blood would not avail for that. Oh no, the apostle Paul says. You need to understand that if you have Christ, you have salvation past, present and future. It is secure. Your sins are forgiven. The new life of God is poured out in you and you are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. You will certainly be glorified and you will be kept secure. The apostle is saying to us that if God in his shear extravagance provided justification for us now, and we have tasted of it, how much more, how much more are we assured that we will be saved? And that is the next step of his argument.

If while enemies, God reconciled himself to us by his sons death, how much more will we be saved by? And here he enters something new. By his life. Now lets pause and think about that for a minute. It is tempting, isnt it, to read Paul as saying, as the death of Christ, brought about our justification, so the perfect life of Christ, brings about our being preserved from the wrath of God. It is tempting, isnt it to read that as the active obedience of Christ as theologians call it. That during Christs life on this earth, prior to his ascension, he lived perfectly under the law of God fulfilling it in every aspect positively and negatively and that benefit of righteous accrues to our account. That is a glorious scriptural truth. That is not what Paul is talking about here. Paul begins by talking about the benefits which accrue to you because of the death of Christ, then he starts talking about this life of Christ. What life is it? It is my friends, the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ was raised again from the dead, he did not cease to be your mediator. When Jesus Christ ascended on high, leaving captivity captive and giving gifts to men and being seated at the right hand of God, the very control room of the universe, he did not cease to be your mediator. And the apostle Paul is saying, if the life and death of Christ availed, for you justification, how much more will his resurrection life which goes on even now at the right hand of God in which he ever lives to intercede for you, how much more will you be spared from the wrath to come because of that resurrection life? He ever lives to intercede. He didnt say, okay, I am going to justify you, now you take it from here. He ever lives to intercede. He is still your mediator. And the shear extravagance of Gods provision of salvation and justification assures us of this salvation to come. How much more will we be saved by his resurrection life? Now the apostle Paul says as we think of the great day to come, the way we find assurance is not in hoping that we will miss out on that bit, not in hoping that we will be sort of taken off the playing field during the tribulations of life. I wonder just how many of you think that you have been taken off the playing field in the tribulations of life? I think there probably just a few of you who know just a little bit about tribulation. That is now where our comfort is. Our comfort is in the shear extravagance of the provision of Gods love in Jesus Christ, which assures us that we are saved from the wrath to come, as well as justified by faith.

And then Paul, in verse 11, tells us a third thing. And frankly, it is a little strange. Because he says, we boast in God. We exalt in God. Now I say that is strange and I will explain why that is strange. Turn back with me to Romans chapter 2, verse 17. Paul had already criticized his Jewish opponents in Romans 2:17, and rely upon the law and boast in God. He had already criticized them for boasting in God. Furthermore, turn with me to Romans 3:27, he has said, that the Gospel puts an end to boasting. Romans 3:27 says where then is boasting? From Romans 3:21-26, he is giving you the summary of the Gospel. Where then is boasting is his response. It is excluded by what kind of law of works, but no, by a law of faith. Now, knowing that, you have got to be scratching your head when you get to Romans chapter 5 and saying, Paul what are you talking about? You open up Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2 saying, we boast in the hope of glory. He criticized the Jews for boasting. We boast in the hope of glory. Then you said, and then you said, and Paul, frankly we thought you were off your rocker. We boast in suffering. We boast in tribulation. Now you are telling me, Paul, that we boast in God and that was what you accused the Jews of doing in Romans 2:17. What are you talking about? And here is Pauls answer. We boast in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our boasting has nothing to do with our works. Our boasting has nothing to do with our righteousness. Our boasting has nothing to do with anything inherent in us which conditions and claims and constrains the love of God. We boast in God, knowing that we deserve damnation, and yet in his mercy, God has spared us in Jesus Christ. And therefore, we exalt in him. We boast in him. We glory in him. And our boasting is not about ourselves, or our status. It is a boasting about him. And you say to me that is unfair. That kind of mercy is unfair, and I say to you, yelp it sure is. And I exalt in the fact that I have received that undeserved mercy. And it has nothing to do with me. And it has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Has Satan ever come to you as a Rabshakeh, or a Sennacherib and said, God will fail you. He has failed everyone else. No need to trust in him, he will fail you. What have you said back? What have you said back? The apostles Paul answer is, I boast in God. Who has saved me and is saving me and shall save me in Jesus Christ, to the very end. J.I. Packer opens the book, Knowing God, with a story of a friend of his who had lost everything that he had always dreamed for in the advancement of his academic career, because of his profession of faith in Jesus Christ. And he tells us that as he walked in the woods with that friend, amazed at what had just happened in this mans life. His friend responded to him, it doesnt matter, because I have known God, and they havent. You see, a believer can boast in God, not because of anything in us, but because of what God has done by his undeserved mercy in Jesus Christ. In his death and in his continuing life. May God grant you such an assurance that you can respond to the voice of that great Sennacherib, the accuser of your soul with an exultant boasting in the certainty of the salvation provided by God. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, your word is hard to believe. Not because you are unfaithful, not because you are untruthful. But because our hearts are cynical and unbelieving and frankly because what you tell us in it is so glorious. Well it is just hard to accept. By the Spirit, help us believe the truth because it is glorious and because it is true in Jesus name. Amen.

The Broken Covenant of Works Brought Death into the World - Romans 5:12-14

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Romans 5:12-14

The Broken Covenant of Works brought Death into the World

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 5. Its been a month since weve been in Romans together, so let me refresh your memories. In Romans 1 and 2 the apostle tells us what the problem is. Our problem. The problem of sin and estrangement from God. Rebellion against Him. In Romans, chapter 3 he sets forth Gods solution, the only solution to our predicament, and that is justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. He set forth the atoning work of Jesus Christ, he set forth the importance of our trust in Him and in Him alone as Gods way of salvation, as His resolution to our predicament. In Romans, chapter 4 he defends that particular view from scripture. Particularly, he shows that it is an Old Testament idea that we are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone. Paul does not want to be accused of being an innovator in that regard. He wants to make it clear that he did not come up with the idea of God saving His people by grace alone. So he demonstrates justification by faith from the Old Testament, especially from the story of Abraham and David.

Having done that in Romans, in chapter 5, in the portion that weve already studied in verses 1 through 11, he begins to draw some implications from this glorious doctrine of justification. He tells us, for instance, at the beginning of Romans 5, that because we are justified by faith, we have peace with God. We are literally at peace with God. Weve been reconciled. He has been reconciled to us. So now for the first time in our experience we have peace with God.

He furthermore tells us that because we are justified by faith we have reason to rejoice in sufferings. He tells us that because we are justified by faith, we have an experience of being awash in the love of God, and He tells us that because we are justified by faith, we have no need to fear the final judgment. We have no need to fear the great tribulation. We shall be brought through it, and in it we shall glory in Him because we are secure in the one who has died for us.

Now having reminded ourselves again of those things which Paul has been speaking about, Paul is now about to launch into a new section of the book. From Romans, chapter 5, verse 12 all the way to Romans, chapter 8, verse 39, Paul is going to do a little bit of a recapitulation. Hes not going to say the same thing over again, but what he is going to do is hes going to say, "Now, having heard what Ive said so far, I want you to understand what is behind what I have said. What are the presuppositions? What are the theological points and premises on which what Ive told you about the gospel so far is based? And thats where we are in Romans, chapter 5 and well begin in verse 12. This is Gods holy word. Hear it tentatively and relevantly:

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the word and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned; for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come."

Amen, and thus ends this reading to Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessings to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, this is Your word. We ask this day as we come to it that as we understand it You would enhance our gratitude for the grace that You have shown to us; or if we have not yet tasted of that grace in Jesus Christ, that in the very hearing of this word, we would be driven to Him. This we ask earnestly in Jesus name, Amen.

Why cant we save ourselves by our own works? Why cant we do it? Why cant we do something to make up for our sin? There are a lot of people who think thats how youre saved. You do a few things wrong, you do a few things to make up for it and even out the account and youre accepted by God. Why doesnt it work that way? Theres a sense in which Paul, having gotten to Romans, chapter 5, verse 11, wants to pause right there and pull back and look at the presuppositions to which he has said, and he wants to explain to you again that salvation doesnt work that way. Why is that we cant contribute anything to our salvation. Why is it that we cant be justified any other way than by faith in Christ alone?

Well, beginning in Romans 5, verse 12, Paul supplies you a very ample answer to that particular question, and Id like you to follow his argument with me for a few moments. Paul is saying that everything that he has told you previously about the human predicament, about your sinfulness. And remember Romans 1 and Romans 2 where he talked about our sinfulness in heart. We didnt worship God as we knew that we ought to worship him. Hes talked to us about our sinfulness and perversion where weve actually inverted what God said. We glorified those things which He condemned, we have condemned those things which He glorified. Weve worshipped the creature rather than the creator. Weve perverted justice, weve perverted morality. So, he speaks to us of our sinfulness in heart. He speaks to us of our sinfulness in behavior, he speaks to us about sinfulness in worship, in all those ways. But in all those ways as he demonstrated our need for redemption, what had he done? He had focused on our sins.

Now, he says ,think about that predicament that Ive already talked about. You are sinful, youre in need of reclamation. But I want you to think about it a little bit differently now. I have talked to you in the past about your sinfulness, in view of your own personal sin, and perhaps the sin of your particular group, whether you be Jew or Gentile. Now, however, I want you to think in terms of your sinfulness because of the fact that you are related to Adam. I want you to think of your sinfulness in light of the fact that you are under Adam, your head and representative, and he sinned and rebelled against God, and because he sinned and rebelled against God, you are justly condemned. Let me just pause right there. Dont argue with me, yet. I know there are already some people saying, "Thats not fair, Paul." Well get to a chance to let you argue in a few moments. But right now hear Pauls argument out. You can start probing him with questions in a moment. But unless you understand what he is asserting, you wont understand the answers to your questions about what he is asserting.

Paul is saying, because we are in Adam, we bear responsibility and we are accountable to God because of his sin rebellion and defection. However unfair that may seem to you, understand what Paul is saying about it. This doctrine is called original sin. It has been one of those doctrines which people have loved to hate for years. But its right here in Romans, chapter 5. And Paul clearly thinks it is important for us to understand it in order to understand and appreciate the gospel. And he says, I want you to think of yourselves as in Adam. Youre part of his race. Youre descended from him. Youre descended from him ethically and morally. You act like he acted.

But more significantly than that, Paul is saying, Adam was your covenant head and representative. What Adam did, he did as a public person, he did as your federal representative. He acted as if you were acting when he acted in the garden in taking that forbidden fruit. And because of that, I want you to understand yourself in that light, I want you to understand that if you are in Adam, you are under an old order of existence, and in that old order of existence, there is only sin, death and judgment.

Now the reason Paul is raising this point is so that we will be able to contrast Adam and being in Adam with Christ and being in Christ. Adam the negative example. Christ the positive example.

But you will notice in verse 12 that Paul didnt even get to that part of his argument. You need to understand that Paul begins a statement in verse 12 that he does not complete until he gets to verse 18. Now already youre thinking to yourself, "Boy, I understand what Peter meant when he said that there were things in Pauls writings that were hard to understand." Okay, I hear you, but its not that hard. What Paul is going to say is going to be hard to swallow, but its not going to be that hard to understand. In fact, in verse 12, Paul makes an assertion; In verse 13 and 14 all he does is prove those assertions. Id like to look at three things with you today.

Before you do that though, notice, looking at verse 12, that Paul begins a sentence that he does not finish. And he does not finish that sentence until verse 18. You can see it. Look at the just as and the even so. Just as always begins as a clause thats going to be followed up by another clause that begins with even so or so also. Okay. Look at verse 12. You get the just as, but you dont get the so also. Where is the so also? Look at verse 18, "So then just as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men," hes basically repeating just what he said in verse 12. "So also, even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification for all like men. So understand the structure of Pauls argument. He starts off in verse 12. In the middle of his statement, hes thinking, you know theyre not going to have a clue what Im saying unless I tell them something else in five more verses. So he stops right there in the middle of a sentence; plunk right in the middle of a sentence, and he plugs in a very long explanatory paragraph. And then he comes back to his sentence again; he repeats the first half, and he gives you the sentence again. So the whole point of this section is to parallel Adam to Christ. To compare them and to contrast them to show what it means to be in Adam and to show what it means to be in Christ.

But the reason hes showing you this is so you will appreciate how grave your predicament is. Your problem is not nearly that you do a few sins here and there. Your problem is not nearly that you make a mistake every once and a while, and you need to be tidied up. The problem is more pervasive, its more comprehensive, its deeper, its more intractable than that. And Paul knows that unless you know what he is about to tell you in these verses you wont be able to appreciate that. So here are three things that we learn in the passage. For clarity, verse 12, point 1, our problem. Verse 13, proof of his point in verse 12, part 1. Verse 14. Proof of his point of his point in verse 12, part 2. Theres your outline. Three points.

I. Our problem - we sin because we are sinners.

Lets take the first verse and begin. Verse 12. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. What is Paul talking about here? Paul is telling you what our problem is. And the problem is this. We sin because we are sinners. Now its very important for you to hear what Paul is saying. We sin because we are sinners. In other words, it is not that we are sinners because we sin, but rather that we sin because we are sinners. The problem of our sin is that we are constitutionally sinners. We are sinners by nature because we are united with Adam. If we are not trusting in Jesus Christ; and we are human beings, we are united to Christ and we are constitutionally sinners. And that is the point that Paul is making in verse 12. We sin because we are sinners. Its not just because we do certain sins, we perform certain sins that we are called sinners. It is that those sins flow from a nature which is itself corrupted by sin at its core. And you see this in what Paul says in verse 12. Just as through one mans sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.

And youre saying to me I dont follow that. It sounds like Paul is saying Adam sinned, death came into the world because of that sin, death spread to all men because all men individually sinned. Thats not what Paul is saying. Paul is saying Adam sinned, death invariably accompanies sin and so the presence of death in the world means that there is sin in the world which means there is nothing wrong in the world. And, all men were implicated in that sin and death because of Adams sin. See, we could really translate that passage 'just as one mans sin entered into the world and so death spread to all men, because all men sinned in Adam.' Pauls point is not to talk here as he did earlier about your particular sins. You see it would be true if you said because of Adams sin, we sin. Thats true. Thats a true theological statement. I could give you a zillion Scripture references to back it up. Thats not what Pauls talking about here. Paul is saying, you sinned. You, youre sitting there in the pew, youre alive, youre breathing. You sinned in Adam. Pauls argument is that sin entered into the world through sin and death through sin. And death spread because all sinned in Adam. That is, sinners are united to Adam. He is our head and our representative. And what he did had implications for us. Its not simply that were sinful because we do specific sins, it is because we are by nature sinners. And Paul is arguing here, among other things, that death in the world is the result of sin, and the proof of the violation of Gods covenant of works. Pauls argument is that all have sinned in Adam, not that they have individually sinned as a consequence of Adams sin, though thats true, but that they had actually sinned in Adam.

Now I want you to think about this for a moment. Im not sure whether I buy that. That looks like hes talking about the individual sins of people. Let me give you six passages in this larger passage that make it clear that Paul is not talking about your individual sins, hes talking about Adam sin. First, look at verse 15. In verse 15, Paul says, "For many died by the trespass of the one man." Notice, he didnt say the many died because of their own sins. That might be true, but thats not what he said. The many died because of the trespass of one man.

Notice again verse 16. He speaks of the result of the one mans sin, not the result of your sins, but the result of the one mans sin. Notice again second half of verse 16. He says the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation.

In verse 17 he says, "By the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man." He doesnt say through the trespasses of us all sin reigned. That would be true, but thats not what he said. Through the trespass of one man.

Verse 18. The result of the one trespass was condemnation for all men.

In verse 19, through the disobedience of one man, the many were made sinners. Clearly throughout this passage what is Paul concerned with? Adams sin, and its implications for us.

In other words, Paul is saying the problem of sin is far deeper than you are usually willing to admit. Apart from Christ it is not simply that you from time to time do things which are out of accord with Gods word. The problem of sin is that by nature, if youre not in Christ, by nature you are a sinner. You have inherited from Adam a sinful nature; but you have also, because Adam is your representative, been implicated in Adams sin. In other words, Paul is saying this so we will say, "Oh, well no wonder we cant save ourselves. Were involved in something that is so much bigger than us, so much deeper than our own outward and superficial desires and actions may be, that we need rescue from the outside.

And Paul is sitting there waiting for you exactly. You do need rescue from the outside. Your redemption cant be affected by your turning over a new leaf. Making a few resolutions, tidying up this and that area of your life where you have some problems or mistakes or some shortcomings. Its more radical than that. It goes to the heart of who you are. It goes to the heart of the race. It goes to the very first man who stood in as representation of all men. Adam the representative, Adam, the federal head. You are guilty in Him.

I know there are a lot of you that are saying, "But thats not fair." I understand that. Ill help you as we work through this passage understand a little bit more of why this is a just way of Gods working. But consider this for a moment. Even in the Scripture we have examples of people standing in and doing things which have implications for the whole of the people of God. Think of David and Goliath. Now theres a story that you learned as a child. And in the story, you remember that the deal was whoever won the hand-to-hand combat between Goliath and whomever Israels representative was going to be, won the battle. If Goliath won the battle, the Philistines won the battle. If the representative of Israel won the battle then Israel won the battle. "Well thats fair," you might say, but that was the deal. Thats the way it was.

We see this, of course, in human history, as well. Theres a fascinating story from the Scottish wars of independence, Robert the Bruce had been in rebellion against the King of England was the first, and then his son, Edward II for maybe fifteen years or so. A British army marched north to Sterling in Scotland and laid siege to the castle. Roberts army was there. On the very first day of the battle, Robert was out inspecting his troops. When Sir Henry De Bohun, who was reckoned by some to be the third greatest knight in Christendom, and who was in Edward IIs English army, saw Robert the Bruce out in front of his troops, he said, "This is my change for glory. I am going to engage Robert the Bruce in hand-to-hand combat, and Im going to kill him." So he went charging across the marshes on this giant horse of his, charging against the King of Scotland. Now its a very interesting story, and I cant tell you a lot of it. But to make a long story short, if Robert the Bruce had been killed in that hand-to-hand combat that day, it would not have been, 'Oh well, the Scottish army goes home that night and regroups and fights again tomorrow.' That would have been not only it for the battle, that would have been it for the Scottish independence because Robert the Bruce was the only claimant to the throne in Scotland. If he dies, the war of Independence is over. So in that case, that hand-to-hand combat between the Bruce and De Bohun was the whole show. Bruce loses, game over. Now hint, he didnt lose. Ill tell you that story later. Its great. But the point is, what one man did had implications.

Now we live in the day of genetics. Its maybe a little less difficult for us to swallow the fact that somebody can have an impact on you, and you have no say in it. I have a friend whose family has a genetic eye condition that is passed along. His children have no say in whether they receive that eye condition or not. They may or they may not. And theyll have absolutely no say in it. And you say, "Well, thats not fair." Well, Im not ready to answer that question yet. Well get there. But it is the way it is. We know this even psychologically. Im thinking of a friend right now whose father left his father when he was a little boy. His dad in many ways never, ever got over that desertion on the part of his father. And it has impacted my friend profoundly in numerous ways. My friend had nothing to do with that action. But he was impacted by that action.

Suffice it to say that Paul is saying that you are all impacted by Adams sin. Not only subjectively, so that you follow his objective, but objectively so that he was your representative. He stood in for you, and as he stood in for you, and as he rebelled against God, you are implicated in that rebellion. And you might say, "I dont like that." Paul says, You shouldnt like that. But theres only one way out of that; and thats to get a new representative, and hes the One that I want to tell you about - Jesus Christ. But Paul isnt to that point in his argument yet. What hes wound up doing now is convincing you that what hes already said in verse 12 is true. And thats all I want to spend the rest of our time today doing.

II. Proof of the problem, part 1 - Universal sin demonstrates universal law.

Verse 13 is simply Pauls proof that what he said in verse 12 is true. Is it true that we sin because we are sinners? Is it true that we are constitutionally united with Adam and implicated in his guilt? Paul says, let me give you two lines of proof that what I have just said is true. First of all he says, 'for until the law, sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no law.' In other words, Paul says universal sin demonstrates universal guilt. Universal sin demonstrates universal law. Paul says here that there was sin in the world before the giving of Moses law. And so there must have been a law to break. You cant sin, you cant transgress unless there is something to transgress. You cant sin unless there is a law.

And so Paul is saying, Look, I know that Moses' law was not given until Sinai, but guess what? We also know that there was sin in the world before Sinai. You can see it in the lives of the patriarchs. Therefore, there was a law in the world before Sinai, and it was broken. Sin was in the world before the giving of Moses law, and so there must have been a law to break. And for Paul, that establishes that all men are under the covenant of works. God has given a command, all men are to give obedience to it. All men have been given a command, all men are to give obedience, they havent, theyve broken the law. They are under that covenant of works. Thats the first part of his argument. He says you can look out there in the world, and even the people who have not hear the law of Moses, sin." That shows that there is a law over them. That shows that they have an obligation to keep the law. That shows that they have violated that obligation, and they are guilty. All men are under obligation to obedience to God because of the covenant of works.

Our Confession of Faith gives a beautiful outline of Pauls point here in the sixth chapter. If you take your hymnals out and turn to the back, I think its page 852, look at the top of the page, sections 1 through 4. This is how The Confession summarizes it: "Our first parents being seduced by the sublty and temptation of Satan sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased according to His wise and perfect counsel, having purposed to order it to His own glory. By this sin, they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God. And so became dead in sin. And wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body." Now you might think well, thats it. They sinned. They bear the consequences. Look at section 3. "They, being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed." It was charged to your account. "And the same death in sin and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation." Thats you and every other human being except Jesus who did not descend from Adam by ordinary generation. But was the only, begotten Son of God. And so The Confession goes on to say, "from this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed and made opposite to all good and holy and inclined to all evil, do proceed to all transgressions." In other words The Confession, which is simply paraphrasing Paul, is saying, "The problem of sin is much deeper than youre doing something wrong from time to time. Your wrongdoing flows from a heart which has been corrupted by sin which itself flows from the original sin of Adam, which itself is a manifestation of the fact that you are in Adam, you are under bondage to his judgment. As he rebelled, you are implicated. Thats part one of Pauls proof of what he said in verse 12.

II. Proof of the problem part 2 - Universal reign of death from Adam to Moses proves the effect of his sin on us. Heres part two, look at verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam. Heres proof of the problem, part 2. The universal reign of death from Adam to Moses proves the effect of Adams sin on us. Everyone is under the penalty of the violated covenant of works. In other words, Paul is saying that when you look at the Bible, and you look at the time from Adam to Moses what do you see? Everybody dies. Everybody dies. Now they havent been given the law of Moses until that point. They havent been given that special revelation of the law of God from Moses mouth at Sinai. "But even amongst those who havent sinned against that special revelation, death reigned," Paul says. And that proves the radical and universal nature of sin. And it proves our solidarity with Adam in sin. Paul is saying that despite the fact that Moses law had not yet been promulgated, that before the time of Moses, death reigned. And that is an evidence that Adams sin had an impact on everybody. If we are to be extracted from this predicament, we are not going to be able to do it ourselves, because we are I involved in a web, in a complex of sin that is bigger than we are. If we are going to be extracted from this predicament, we require a mediator who is simultaneously like us and not like us. He is fully human, but he is without sin, and he comes from outside our predicament, and not under the bondage of sin which we are in Adam. And Paul is saying that is precisely what Jesus Christ does. Jesus Christ comes into the world to redeem people that are in this position. Its not just that they need to turn over a new leaf, or make changes in their lives, or get their act together. Thats not Christianity. Christianity is not doing your best to make yourself a little better. Were in a much worse situation than that.

This is so important to remember in evangelism. I had an evangelism professor in seminary who said, now look, when youre evangelizing, dont tell people this. Dont tell them what Paul said in Romans 5. Theyll get all hung up on it. Talk about their sins. Why, I understand that to a certain degree, but you understand that Paul is telling you this precisely; because if you dont know this, and if you dont understand it, you wont be able to evangelize. Because evangelism is not about getting somebody to switch from brand X to brand Y. Its not about you changing your name brand loyalty. Its not some sort of a detached decision that you make. You are involved in the greatest predicament that every existed, and you have not a clue about how to extract yourself from it nor anyway to effect your extraction from it. In evangelism we are sharing the message that God has done something to draw you out of that predicament, unilaterally, by himself, and you must receive it by faith. That is very, very different than sort of presenting the merits of one case, and the merits of the other, and saying, "Okay, its up to you now." The consumer approach. Ive got the better brand, try it, your life will be better.

Christianity, you see, is not making a new start in life, you see. Its receiving a new life to start with. And here in Romans, chapter 5, Paul is telling you why that is. Because you were involved in such a web of sin that you that could never extract yourself from it. Im thinking right now of a young man reared in an abusive home. His wife has born the marks of that abuse in his own rebellion. He is the recipient of things which he himself contributed nothing to. But he now bears the effects of it. If it is difficult for a counselor to come along side of that young man, and to bring restoration to his life, how much greater is the difficulty to redeem a people that are to the very core of their heart involved in a sin which has been existing and growing in our humanity for 6,000 years. Jesus alone can redeem that kind of person. Those kinds of people. And Paul is here to tell you that He can conquer there. But until you appreciate how bad the fix is, youll never see how glorious the fix is to the fix. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Pauls blunt words. None of us likes to hear that we are sinners in Adam. None of likes to hear about the implications of his actions upon us. But at the same time, none of us can deny those implications. Help us then to flee to the only place for hope, which is Jesus Christ, who was like us and yet not like us. He was human in every square inch of what it means to be human, and yet without sin. And He obeyed the law perfectly, and he bore the penalty of the law that we might be rescued out from this web of sin. Help us to then flee to Him. In Jesus name we ask it, Amen.

The Covenant of Grace Stands in Bold Contrast to the Broken Covenant of Works - Romans 5:15-17

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

(Romans 5:15-17)

The Covenant of Grace

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans 5, and look at verse 15. As we do so let me remind you where we have been. We said last week in Romans 5:12, Paul is beginning a new section of the book of Romans. He is recapitulating for us. He is actually providing us the underlying principles, those things which under gird the argument that He has made from Romans, chapter 1, verse 18, all the way to Romans, chapter 5, verse 11. Hes trying to show you the things which under gird this glorious gospel of grace which hes been explaining to you during that time. And he is showing us a bigger picture. Hes answering the question why it is so necessary to be saved by grace, not through works, to be saved by faith alone in Christ alone, by Gods grace alone.

And we said that as he began this new argument in Romans, chapter 5, verse 12, that he immediately interrupted himself. You can tell how excited Paul is in Romans 5, verses 12 to the end of the chapter, because he interrupts himself repeatedly. In Romans 5:12, he had begun with the assertion that all men through Adams sin were guilty, and that death had spread throughout the world because of Adams sin. And before he can get his very next phrase out, he pauses and thinks now I know theres somebody whos going to disagree with that. Theres going to be somebody out there that doesnt like that. They take issue with it, and so he pauses and in verses 13 and 14 he explains it. He demonstrates it scripturally. He goes back to the period of time prior to Moses and prior to the law, and shows that the principle that he sets forth in Romans 5, verse 12, is indeed true.

And then he gets to the end of verse 14, and he says something very interesting. He parallels Adam and Christ. He parallels the Old Covenant or the covenant of works with the covenant of grace, and he speaks of Adam as a type of Christ. Notice his words, Adam who is a type of Him who was to come. Its almost an after thought. He throws it out there, and hes ready to say his next word, and he realizes, O thats going to confuse some people. So he stops and in verses 15, 16 and 17, he wants to explain some ways in which Christ is different from Adam. Hes just asserted that there are certain parallels between Adam and Christ. Indeed, he has asserted that Adam himself was a foreshadowing in some ways of Jesus Christ. But the minute that He says that, he says, you know, Ive got to qualify that. Ive got to show you three ways in which Adam is not like Christ, and in which Christ is much greater than Adam and in which the covenant of works stands in, or the covenant of grace stands in bold contrast with the covenant of works.

Now you remember the reason that Paul has been doing this all along is to show us why salvation by works just wont work. Especially that was the focus of what he said in verses 12 through 14. Now in verses 15 through 17, indeed we can say in the whole of this section, he is concerned that our assurance of salvation would be grounded in what God has done in His covenant of grace, and not in our own righteousness. If its found in our righteousness, well never be assured; and if its truly grounded in our righteousness, our acceptance with God will be secure. And so Paul is concerned that we see the big picture, that we see this web of sin that were involved in, but that we also see the greatness of Gods grace in Jesus Christ. So lets study this passage together. Lets hear Gods holy word beginning in verse 15:

"But, the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many die. Much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression, resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one. Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired and inerrant Word. May He add His blessing to it.

Our Father, we thank You for this word. We pray that you would teach us by Your Holy Spirit what You mean, for as deep and as profound as are Pauls words. He wrote them us not to impress us with his grasp of your ultimate truth, but to comfort us with that truth, and especially with the reality of Your grace, as such he meant to be understood. By Your spirit, help us to understand and to respond accordingly. In Jesus name, Amen.

Whats so amazing about grace? A recent author has asked that question in his book title. Another recent Christian author has suggested that we need to put amazing back into grace. Both of them are, I think, are echoing the same sentiments. It seems that the Christian church in our time doesnt think that grace is that amazing. Grace is rather blasй. Grace is almost expected by many Christians today. Its our right. God has to show grace. There is nothing surprising about grace. Well, of course, God forgives. Of course, God shows mercy. Of course, God grants grace. Thats His job, after all. That seems to be the attitude. The apostle Paul in this passage is undercutting that attitude, not to be a spoiler, not to be an ogre to rain on our parade, but precisely in order that we might know the blessing of true grace. Because, as the apostle Paul will tell us in this passage, its utterly amazing, its utterly surprising, its utterly unexpected, and its greater than anything youve ever imagined. And hes calling those who are doubters to realize that. And hes calling on those who dont know the grace of Christ to taste of it, because theres nothing in the world like it.

And in this passage he underscores the glory of grace. The glory of what Christ has done in three ways. He makes three distinctions between what Adam did and what Christ has done in order to underscore for us the glory of grace, to drive us away from dependence upon our own works, and to woo us to trust in Christ alone. And Id like to tell you those three distinctions, just to help out lying in our own minds a passage which can be difficult. After all, the run on sentence here can leave your mind spinning. And let me outline those three distinctions, and then well come back to them, and see how Paul deploys them in his argument.

In verse 15, youll see the first distinction, the first discontinuity between Adam and Christ. The first distinction is between Gods justice in condemnation, and Gods grace in redemption. And that way the covenant of works and the covenant of grace are totally different.

The second distinction, or just continuity, youll find in verse 16. There Paul emphasizes that through one mans sin came death for all. Whereas, on the other hand, in the covenant of grace, many sins were covered by the righteousness of one man.

And then thirdly in verse 17, the third contrast or distinction or discontinuity between Adam and Christ is this. One mans sin led to the reign of death, Paul emphasizes. On the other hand, one mans death led to his peoples reign in life. Those are the three distinctions, the three differences that Paul wants to highlight between the work of Adam and the work of Christ.

Why does he want to underscore this? So youll understand how amazing grace is. And so that youll understand that what he is saying to you is not this: what was lost in Adam, was regained in Christ. You see, thats almost a parallel, isnt it? What was lost to Adam, is regained in Christ. As far as Paul is concerned, the story of redemption, the story of redemption, the story of salvation, the story of Gods grace is better than that. And it is that what God has done in His covenant of grace is beyond all that we could ask or imagine, and it so far outstrips what was lost in the covenant of works as it was broken in Adam that it will blow your mind to think about it. And he walks you through that argument in three parts. Id like to look with you briefly this morning at each of these parts of his argument.

I. The free gift is not like the transgression.

First, in verse 15, the free gift is not like the transgression, he says. For if by the transgression of one, the many die, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to the many. In other words, what Paul is saying is that universal judgment is not surprising. Gods universal condemnation is not surprising. Gods universal judgment is in fact warranted by the fact. There is absolutely nothing surprising about the bad news. There is nothing surprising about the condemnation to hell of men and women who have rebelled against God. Theres nothing surprising about that, Paul says. Its deserved. Its warranted. But salvation, even the salvation of one single, solitary soul is gratuitous, its undeserved, its unearned, its surprising, its amazing.

Now friends, very frankly, thats totally opposite from the way we think in our day and age. We think of salvation as an entitlement. We think that one person, separated from God and held for eternity, calls into question Gods justice and His goodness. The apostle Paul begs to differ. Paul sees the other way around. Paul says that because of Adams transgression, all deservedly die. But because of what Christ did, everyone in Him becomes the undeserving recipients of Gods grace.

Paul is deploying a much more extensive argument here. He is not just saying that what was lost through Adam was regained in Christ. No, he is saying more than that. He is saying that the gift of grace in Christ is incomparably greater than the condemnation which resulted from Adams sin. He gives us an escalating contrast. If all received the just sentence of death because of Adam, he argues, how much more is it true that all have received the super abundance in Gods grace in Jesus Christ. Whereas, one sin led to the consequence of universal death, and that death was justified, so also the righteousness of Christ led to grace super abounding, but grace which was undeserved, unearned, unwarranted by anything in us. And the apostle Paul wants you to see that this continuity from the judgment that has been visited on us because of Adams sin, and the grace that has been shown us by Jesus Christ. As far as the apostle Paul is concerned, it makes perfect sense that people go to hell.

Perhaps you have run into someone who thinks its unfair that God would send anyone to hell: "Well, I call into question any God that would send someone to hell." And the apostle Paul comes back to them, and he basically says, "Look, if youre going to complain about something being unfair, youre going to have to complain about heaven and grace." Thats unfair. Thats unwarranted. The pardon that God gives to us to open up the gates of glory, thats unfair.

Weve been thinking a lot about pardons recently, havent we? On the last day of our former Presidents presidency, he managed to stir up another controversy. And the Mark Rich pardon has obtained a great deal of discussion and scrutiny and criticism. And there are a lot of reasons for that. Theres the question is there a quid pro quo here, and furthermore there is the question that this man is a fugitive of justice. He was under indictment, with a great weight of evidence for the embezzlement of millions of dollars which belong to individuals and the United States government. He was engaged in activity that was immoral at best with the enemy, according to the indictment. He fled authorities as he was almost in their grasp, he went to another country, and there are a lot of question. What is the warrant for this pardon? What justifies pardoning a man like this?

And I want you to understand that what Paul is saying is that Mark Richs pardon is childs play compared to the pardon that God gave to you. Paul is saying, there is absolutely no warrant in you whatsoever for God to pardon you. And thats what He did in Jesus Christ. Theres nothing in your that commends yourself to a received pardon from the almighty God. And yet God has pardoned us. So if youre going to complain about something being unfair, then its heaven and grace that youre going to have to complain about. Youre going to have to complain that God let somebody in. If youre looking for human warrant, thats the only place that youll be able to complain against God. Thats how great Gods salvation is. Thats how great Gods grace is.

II. One mans sin leads to death for all.

But Pauls not finished yet. Look at verse 16. Here he argues again. The free gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. In the first discontinuity, Paul contrasts Gods justice and Gods grace. Gods justice is deserved when we are condemned. Gods grace is not deserved when we are pardoned. We havent contributed anything to the deserving of that grace. Here however, he focuses on the implications of Adams sin, one mans sin leads to death for all, whereas in Gods covenant of grace, many sins are covered by one mans righteousness. In other words, Paul says that Adams sin had race-wide implications. Everybody in the human race was involved, was implicated, was corrupted and deserved justice because of Adams sin, whereas, in contrast many, many, many iniquities, and by the way thats an understatement, not a hyperbole, were covered by Jesus Christ. Because of Adams transgression, because of one sin, all were judged and condemned Paul argues in verse 16. But in spite of millions of sins in the covenant of grace, Christ the one man, his righteousness caused all who were in him to be acquitted. So Pauls second contrast focuses on the consequences of Adams actions in distinction from the consequences of Christs free gift. Adams transgression, his deliberate transgression of Gods law, his rebellion against Gods will led to a just judgment in condemnation. But in contrast to this, on the contrary, the sins of all who believe in Christ are forgiven and their persons are justified and acquitted and pardoned by free gift and grant.

And think of this for a minute, it makes perfect sense to us to see how one iniquity can spread and ruin. Husbands, I know this has happened to you before. You walk in the house. One sinful cross word to your wife, and suddenly you are looking at three weeks of tension, because one thing leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to another thing, which leads to another thing, and it all just breaks apart. We are familiar with how one sin disrupts a relationship. Paul says, theres nothing surprising about that. Theres nothing surprising about judgment and condemnation flowing from the sin of Adam. But what is totally surprising is this picture of millions and millions and millions of sins. And suddenly, because of the superabundance of Gods grace, the pattern of sin is disrupted, and the pattern of condemnation is broken, and these people are acquitted and justified.

Perhaps you have friends whose lives are in shambles because of sin. Maybe its because they have sinned themselves. Maybe its because they have been sinned against someone else. And the apostle Paul says, you know its the most surprising thing in the world when I look out, and I see Gods grace reverse the effects of sin. You think of it. Adam is the only person in the history of the world who was an appropriate scapegoat in his life. Would you have liked to have been Adam living another 900 years after the fall. Hmmm, it would be pretty nice to live 900 years. But think about this: everywhere you go, somebody can point to you and say, "You know, this is all his fault. Its all his fault. He messed up. He got us in this mess." And Paul says, "You know, thats true, but think of the contrast. A hundred and fifty generations of generational sin and corruption reversed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ." You see its not just that Jesus Christ has put the lid back on Pandoras Box. Its better than that. Hes liquidated our debt. Hes absorbed our penalty. Hes acquitted us in court, and Hes transformed our hearts by grace. He has put a stop to the incessant seemingly immutable pattern of sin and judgment and condemnation. And Paul says thats surprising. You want to find something to be surprised about, dont be surprised about sin in a fallen world. Theres nothing surprising about that. Whats surprising is about the transforming grace of God.

III. Christs righteousness leads to life for believers

Thirdly, he goes on to argue in verse 17. Theres another difference between what Christ has done in the covenant of grace, and what was done by Adam in the broken covenant of works. One mans sin led to the reign of death. Thats what happened to Adam. But in bold contrast, one mans death led to His peoples reign in life. Adams transgression led to the reign to death overall. But Christs righteousness led to believers reign in life. The reign of death in this world, can be traced to Adam. Paul is telling us that believers here and now, as well as then and there, reign in life in Christ. Pauls third contrast compares the reign of death through Adams sin, with the reign of life with those who trust in Christ.

Now let me pause right here and draw your attention to two terms that are very important for you to understand. Throughout this passage you will see Paul use the terms "all" and "many." Does he mean something different by those terms. The answer is no. The words all and many in this passage are interchangeable as far as the apostle Paul is concerned. They are stressing two aspects of the same truth.

Let me prove my point. Look at verse 15. There it says by the transgression of the one, the many died. Now, does Paul mean that by Adams sin some people died, but not all people? Is that why he uses many there. No. Go back and look at verse 12. Through one man, sin entered into the world and death spread to all men. All in verse 12, and many in verse 15 are parallel. Paul will use many in this passage to stress the amazing multiplying effect of sin; even though it was one sin, many are impacted. Hes not saying many, but not all. He is saying, "Isnt it amazing that one sin can wreak this kind of destruction?" But the parallel between many and all is exact. Now, why do I raise that point? Because there are many well-meaning people who come to this passage and say, "Well, you know it says that all die because of that one sin, and it says that the many died by that one sin, and it says that all were justified by Christ, and the many were justified by Christ. So I guess what this passage is teaching is that everybody is saved." In other words, many people come to this passage and say, "Aha, Paul is teaching is teaching the doctrine of universalism here. Everybody is justly condemned, but everybody is also justified and saved through the work of Jesus Christ. And, therefore, they say to us its our job as Christians not to go out and say repent and be saved. It is our job as Christians to go out and say, Look, youre already saved. Gods already saved everyone. The gospel is to announce to everyone that theyre already saved." I want to tell you, my friends, that is a lie from the pit of hell, and people who tell you that are wolves in sheeps clothing. Universalism is absolutely false biblically and even this passage shows it. Lets look.

Verse 17 lets you know that Paul is not saying all are saved. Paul is not establishing universalism 2000 years ahead of time. Paul is not telling us go out and tell everybody they are already saved. Look at verse 17. "For if by the transgression of the one, death reigns through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace. And of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ." You see, the apostle Paul does not say the sin of Adam resulted in the reign of death overall and the righteousness of Christ resulted in the reign of life over all. Thats not what he said at all, is it? The parallel is this. The sin of Adam led to the reign of death overall. The righteousness of Christ led to all those who receive Him reigning in life by His grace. Thats the parallel. Those who receive Him are the ones who participate in this great gift. Those who receive Him by faith alone as He has offered in the gospel. Now of course, thats not Pauls prime point in this passage, but it is a truth which is invariably and unavoidably, appropriately and rightly deduced from this passage.

Pauls point, however, in this passage is to show you that whereas sin and judgment and death are inevitable, the super abundance of Gods grace is the most surprising thing in the world. We see the grace of God abounding when we see sinners reigning in this life, by faith in Jesus Christ, because of the grace of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the woman at the well. Heres a woman with five former husbands whos living with a man. And her timing is so perfect that she ends up standing next to the only sinless human being that ever lived. And she is out at the well at a time of day when nobody would have been drawing water. And why is she there? Because she knows that if she were there with the other women, they wouldnt have talked to her. They would have talked about her. And suddenly she is standing there before the King of Kings, the water of life. And suddenly her life is changed. And His grace takes over. And suddenly she is back in her little hometown and everybody is going, "What has happened to her? She has changed. What has happened?" Ill tell you whats happened. The reign of grace. Its not like the sin of Adam. Its unbelievable. It reverses generational patterns of sin. It gives newness of life. Think of Paul, he was a Christian hunter. He loved to see Christians captive imprisoned and killed. He held the cloaks while Stephen was stoned to death. And suddenly there he is, hes on the road to Damascus, and his life is changed. Hes made to be an emissary for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace changes things. Its not like the sin of Adam. That makes perfect sense, the pernicious influence and corruption of sin, but grace, its the most surprising thing in the world. Its also the most unexpected thing in the world. Maybe youre here today, and youve been blasй about grace, and youve forgotten about that initial excitement about the freshness of Gods mercy to you in Jesus Christ. Maybe you need to be reminded just how amazing Gods grace is. And Paul is waiting for you. And hes saying to you, "Christian, you need to sing the doxology for Gods grace." Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, theres nothing like Your grace, and we take it for granted. We underestimate our sin. We overestimate what we deserve. We are arrogant before You. We stand before You in our own pride, and we think that we can earn Your love. And we forget the words of Isaiah that You dwell in unapproachable light, You are high and lifted up, and yet at the same time You dwell with those who are humble, those who are lowly in heart. As we are humbled by Your word in this very passage, so exalt Yourself and exalt all those who humble themselves before You, trusting by faith in Jesus Christ and resting in His righteousness alone for salvation. Well give you all the praise and all the glory. In Jesus name, Amen.

The Parallels Between the Broken Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace - Romans 5:18-19

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)

The Parallels Between the Broken Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 5. Were going to be looking at verses 18 and 19, but let me ask you to allow your eyes to roam back to verse 12, because you will remember that in verse 12 Paul began a sentence which he did not complete. There is a "just as" for which there is no "so also" in verse 12. In fact the apostle interrupted himself mid-sentence to tell you two very important things. One thing he wanted to tell you in verses 13 and 14, another thing he wanted to tell you in verses 15 through 17. Having accomplished his purpose in telling you those two things before he completed his sentence, in verse 18 he now goes back to his original sentence in verse 12, phrases it slightly different and completes it. Thats where we are today. Lets hear Gods holy word. Romans, chapter 5, verse 18:

"So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one mans disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord, the sentences of this word are dense with truth, but clear as day. By Your spirit help us to understand and to respond to them in faith, belief, obedience and gratitude. In Jesus name, Amen.

The apostle Paul we have said from Romans, chapter 1, verse 16 all the way to Romans, chapter 5, verse 11 has been laying the groundwork for explaining why it was that salvation was by grace alone, or more particularly, why we are saved by grace through faith alone in Christ alone; why we are justified by Gods grace through the alone instrument of our believing on Jesus Christ as He is offered in the gospel. And when he gets to Romans, chapter 5, verse 12 he begins a new section of the book. In that section, which will run all the way to the end of chapter 8, he is concerned to pull back and give you a deeper, a broader background and understanding for what he has taught you so far. Hes not merely repeating himself, hes not merely recapitulating what hes already said, hes actually pulling back and saying, "Let me explain to you some of the underlying reasons for the purposes of God and why salvation has to be this way. Why it is that you cant save yourself. Why it is that you contribute nothing of your own righteousness to your standing of righteousness before God. Why it is that you have to look away from your works and to look to Jesus Christ."

And so beginning in Romans, chapter 5, verse 12, he wants to explain to you the parallels which exist between Adam and Christ, our first head, our federal representative, Adam, who fell in his rebellion against God from the state of righteousness and grace which God had blessed him with. And he wants to compare Adam to Jesus Christ so that we might understand, first of all, something of the web of sin that were involved in, and also some reason again for why we need to flee to Christ alone for salvation.

But before will discuss those parallels between Adam and Christ, he wants to explain a couple of other things, especially the discontinuities between Adam and Christ. He wants it to be very clear that Christ, in what He does to save us, is far more glorious and the fruit of it is far more glorious in comparison to Adam than the work that Adam did to bring us into this situation, and the situation which we actually find ourselves in. In other words you cant talk about Adam and Christ and compare them without drawing out the bold contrast that exists between them. And thats exactly what he did in verses 15 through 17.

Having done that, however, he now goes back to discuss the continuities or parallels between Adam and Christ. To put it another way, the parallels between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace here in verses 18 and 19.

Now you will appreciate this passage more if you will remember once more the audience context in which Paul is speaking this. Remember who the people are that are Pauls opponents. Paul has Jewish opponents and professing Christians who he will call the Judaizers. Those who will say that at some level our individual righteousness must commend us to God in salvation, either through the ceremonial law, or through our keeping of the moral law. Some of them said, 'Well Christ saves you, but its Christ plus circumcision.' And others said, 'Well yes, Christ saves you, but its Christ keeping the ceremonial law of Moses.' And others were saying, 'Yes, but its Christ plus keeping the Ten Commandments. You have to add some of your own obedience, some of your own moral rectitude in order to commend yourself to God.' In other words, a theology of plus pervaded the thinking of Pauls opponents. They thought Christ plus this, equals salvation. And what Paul wants to press upon them is that it is Christ alone who brings our salvation, and it is faith alone in what He has done alone that brings to us our right standing before God.

And so Paul, when he goes to this analogy between Adam and Christ; when he explains to us the covenant of works and the covenant of grace here in Romans, chapter 5, verse 12-19, is doing it in order to set at naught misconceptions of the right way of salvation.

Now having said that as introduction, I simply want to walk you through three things in this passage today. Theres a lot of truth in this passage, and we cant cover it all. But we can cover some of it. Id like to do it using these three categories. Your predicament, your culpability, and your only hope. Hang your hat on those three things as an outline for what were going to look at today. And then permit me to make one or two or three digressions along the away, and I think well have some sort of a grasp of this passage.

I. If you are counting on your own works for salvation, you are in a hopeless position. - Your predicament.

First of all, lets start in verse 18, the first half of the verse, and lets look at your predicament. The apostle Paul makes it clear in verse 18 again that if you are trusting in your works in any way for your salvation, you are in a hopeless position. Paul in verse 18 begins to restate the case that he had made in verse 12. Everything in between, from verses 13 through 17, consist of the two qualifications he wanted to make about what he was about to say. But see this parallel, its very clear. Look up at verse 12, you will see a "just as" in verse 12, but youll never see a "so also." Youll see protasis, but no apodosis for any of you grammarians out there. Youll see a "just as" and a clause associated with it, but youll not see a "so also," a responding, an ending clause, a concluding clause of the article. But if you look down in verse 18, youll see that in the first half of the verse, Paul virtually restates what he had said in verse 12. So then, as through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. The "so then" could also be translated "consequently," "therefore," or "just as." 'So then' is the perfectly good word for it.

But notice the perfect parallel. As through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all. Now look back at verse 12, just as through one mans sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. Notice the parallel. What you have in verse 18 that you didnt have in verse 10 is the "so also." Read ahead in verse 12: Even so, through the act of righteousness, through one act of righteousness, there is also justification of life to all men. So Paul is resuming his argument here in verse 18.

But in the beginning of this verse, and thats what I want you to concentrate on for a moment, Paul is asserting again that Adams one original sin resulted in the condemnation of all men. In other words, he is asserting that Adam was our representative. He was our federal head. And that his original sin had consequences for us.

Now again, before you argue with that, lets get one thing clear first. Heres what Paul is saying. Separate two questions. Some of you are saying, "Thats not fair." I know that. And I promise that I will give you an answer for that today, God willing. But before you get to the 'thats not fair,' lets first think about what Paul is saying, because before you get to verse 18, six times Paul says the same thing. Walk me through the passage beginning at verse 12.

Six times Paul reiterates that Adams sin impacts not only you, some of you, but all of you, all of us. All of us are involved in the guilty and condemnation of Adams sin. Look at verse 12: "Through one man, sin entered into the world." Look at it again. Youre saying, "That's not fair." Well, hold on. Through one man, sin entered into the world. Look again, verse 12: "Through one man death through sin entered the world." Look again, verse 12: Through one man death spread to all men because one man sinned through Adam is the implication there. Look at verse 15, "By the transgression of the one, the many died." Look again, verse 16: "The judgment arose, (that is the judgment of all of us) from the one transgression resulting in condemnation of us all. And again in verse 17: "If by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one." You see in all of these clauses, Paul is stressing that one mans sin, Adams, impacted everybody. He stressing not just the doctrine of original sin that Adam had rebelled, but hes stressing the doctrine of the imputation of Adams original sin to everybody in the human race. That is, in some way we bear a responsibility for that sin.

And look at the progression of Pauls thought. Adams sin resulted in what? Sin in the world, death in the world, judgment in the world, condemnation in the world, the reign of death in the world, and ultimately the condemnation of us all. So Paul here is focusing us on the one act of Adam as the problem for us all.

Now the reason he is doing that you will see, I hope later one, when we parallel what he says about justification. Because just as he says one act got us into this mess, one act, and one act only, can get us out of this mess. Now, thats very important because Paul is speaking to people who think that in order to be right with God theyve to do certain things. Theyve got to do this ritual, theyve to obey this command. Theyve got to commend themselves to God. And whats Paul trying to do? Hes trying to draw their attention away from their singular acts, from their individual acts, from their individual righteousness, to think about one act, one obedience, one righteousness done by Jesus Christ. So this is one reason why Paul is doing this Adam-Christ parallel. In other words, the one place to look for salvation is not our own works, or the works of other men even saintly men. But to the one man, the right man, Jesus Christ.

Now let me also say in passing, seemingly problematically, Paul does an interesting parallel in this passage. That is a parallel of two alls. Look at verse 18, the whole verse. He says, "Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men." Now once again, were back to that universalism thing. Is Paul teaching that everybody is saved? Our job is just to announce it. Everybody is saved. Why bother? Close up the church doors at home. Were all saved. Why bother? It looks like condemnation to all men, justification of life to all men.

Well, three reasons why Paul is not teaching that salvation has a universal scope or that the work of Christ results in the actual salvation of all men. First and foremost, Paul throughout the book of Romans has made it clear that salvation is for believers, and believers only. Think of Romans 1: 16 and 17 where he makes this point. Salvation is for those who believe. To the Jew first and also to the Greek, "To them that receive the gospel." As they believe in it. Think again of Romans, chapter 3, verses 21 through 26. Who is it who receives the benefits of Jesus atoning work? Those who believe on Him. Those who exercise faith in Him.

Secondly, in this very passage we saw last week in verse 17, that Paul stresses that Christs salvation is not for every last person that ever lived. It is for whom? For those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. This salvation must be received by faith. In this very passage, in other words, Paul makes it clear that the salvation of Jesus Christ does not extend to every last person, but to those who receive that salvation by faith.

And finally, if we were to look at I Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 22 and 23, we would find a verse that is very similar to Romans 5:18. That verse says, "As in Adam, all die; so in Christ all shall be made alive." So there again is that all parallel. But if you look at verse 23, you will see that Paul parallels all with something. What is that something? In I Corinthians 15:23 that something is those who are Christs. So the all of salvation parallels with what? With those who are Christs, those who belong to Christ, those who belong to Him by faith, those who have trusted in Him. So Paul is not teaching in this passage that all are condemned, and all are saved, speaking of every last person that ever lived.

Well then, you say, why then is he saying the word all? Isnt that a little confusing? Well, thats a very good question, and I think Ive got an answer for you. And it has to do with the very point that Paul is making. Paul is talking to Jewish folk who think that in order to be saved, youve got to become like them. And Paul is saying, "No, no, no. Salvation is for all, Jew and Greek; slave and free, male and female." The Jewishness of this thing means nothing. And so Pauls stress on all men is beautiful because hes saying all of us are condemned, and all of us have only one hope, and that is Jesus Christ and saving faith in Him. The reality of the broken covenant of works and the consequences that lie behind it, remind us of our inability to save ourselves. Paul in this passage is telling us about our predicament. All of us are involved in the sin of Adam. All of us are accountable to God for it. All of us are guilty for it, Paul says.

II. If you are counting on your own works for salvation, you are in a hopeless position - Your culpability.

Now theres a second thing Id like to see here. Now Paul not only speaks about our predicament, he speaks about our culpability. We are justly condemned because we are responsible in our sin to God. So we are not only in a predicament, we are personally culpable. You see, a lot of people hear that Adam brought sin into the world, or Adams sin brought sin into the world, and they think, "Well, thats not fair. Poor, innocent me. Poor innocent me, being caught up in this wicked thing that Adam has done." But Paul here says, "No, under the covenant of works, there is not only universal condemnation because were in union with Adam, in the covenant of works there is universal sinnerhood by virtue of our union with Adam.

Paul in this passage, stresses two more things. Look at the first part of 19. First, Id like you to see that he stresses the nature of Adams sin. Have you noticed in this passage Paul uses three words to describe Adams sin: Transgression, trespass, and disobedience. Now why is Paul using three different terms to describe Adams sin? Basically because Paul wants to sum up for you that Adam broke Gods law in about every way you could break it when he sinned against Him. It was transgression, that is, he crossed the line that God told him not to cross. He broke his command. God gave him an express command, and Adam broke that command. It was transgression. It was trespass in that Adam not only broke Gods commandment, but he did positively what God has explicitly and specifically, negatively told him not to do. Its just like the little boys, who want to go hunting on somebody elses property. They dont have permission. The sign up there says "No Trespassing." They go right past the sign on the ground, they did exactly what the sign and the law told them not to do. So its not just breaking the law, its breaking of an explicit prohibition. Dont do it, but he does it. Thirdly, its disobedience. In other words, Paul is saying it was willful. Adam didnt stumble into this. He wasnt tricked into this. Eve did not seduce him into this sin. Adam did, as Paul tells us as in II Timothy 2, Adam did exactly what he wanted to do. He knew exactly what he was doing.

So the apostle Paul is saying that Adam involved himself in sin in just about every way you can involve yourself in sin all at once. And as a result, that kind of sin nature pervades our race. Paul has already described it in you, especially at the end of chapter 1, chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3. Really, from 1:18 all the way to 3:20 Paul has been showing you that you were a sinner. Hes saying to you here, "Now dont forget, you are a sinner." Dont say, Oh Paul, youre saying the opposite of what the prophet is saying." You remember Isaiah and the late prophets often said to Israel, dont say, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge." In other words dont say, "Heavenly Father, our spiritual forefathers were wicked and evil and they did bad things, and were paying the consequences for it. Poor innocent us." The prophets told the people of Israel, dont do that because God was going to judge them for their own sins. And you can see somebody saying to Paul, "Well Paul, youre saying the same thing. Youre saying, Here we are Adam did something and were responsible for it." And Paul says, "Uh, uh, uh, youre a sinner." In every aspect of it youre a sinner." But Hes not done.

Theres a second thing. You not only see the nature of Adams sin here, but you see the fact of our sinnerhood. Notice the words. Look at verse 18 and then look at the parallel in verse 19: " As through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men." Now when he says that all men are condemned, all hes doing is summing up what he said so far. In verse 19, he says something a little more: "For as through one mans disobedience, the many were made sinners." Paul says, Through Adams sin, you not only became representative sinful, you became actually sinful. Gods condemnation is just.

Now youre still asking yourself, I still dont understand this whole imputation thing. I dont understand how it is that Adam does something and its imputed to me. I dont understand how he can be my representative. And that sin can be imputed  I dont understand this whole representative principle. Its not fair. Let me give you an answer to that. Id like to divide my answer in two parts.

First, Id like to speak to believers. Believers that are just scratching their heads and wondering, "I just cant make sense of this. Help me." Then, Id like to address unbelievers because is in a congregation of this size there have got to be a skeptics who are saying. "You know, you Christians, will fall for anything. Ive got a couple of things Id like to say to you."

So, lets start off with the believers. Believers, Ive got five answers Id like to give you to that question. How is it that it is fair? What are the reasons that we have for believing that the imputation of Adams sin is fair, that it is fair for Adam to be our federal representative. What are the reasons that we have for accepting and assuming it to be fair even if we dont understand it all? Five of them.

First, think of it friends, God was gracious in the way that He arranged the covenant of works in give Adam to us as our federal representative. Have you ever seen these half-time contests in college and professional football or basketball or baseball games where in-between innings or halves or quarters, they will bring out some person who won a drawing, and theyll either throw a football or theyll shoot a basket or theyll hit a long put, or theyll do something extraordinary and win a million dollars. You know, a guy has to stand at the fifty-yard line and throw ten straight passes through this shape, this thing fifty yards down the field. Okay, well in giving Adam as our representative, it would be like youre in a million-dollar contest at half time of the national championship game in April. And God says, "Look, youre not going to have to take this shot in order to win salvation. Im going to bring out Michael Jordan for you. Im going to let Michael Jordan take that forty-five foot jump shot for you. Or, youve got to sink a put from the fairway. Im going to bring out Tiger Woods to take that shot for you. Im going to let him hack away at that ball on your behalf. When God gives you Adam, as your representative, he is giving someone of extraordinary capacities that you could hardly even grasp. He is an optimal representative. Aristotle is but the rubbish of fallen Adam, who is the greatest intellect that ever lived in the history of the world, until Jesus Christ. You cant even concede what an unfallen human being has with regard to intellectual and moral potential. Thats your representative. And so God was generous even in the construction of the covenant of works. You might say, "Well, I would have done better." Well youre a sinner, and you cant even think about it. You cant even think about how you would have functioned as a non-sinful person. You cant even get out of yourself to think in those categories. And so God was gracious in the way that He constructed this. He gave us this optimal representative in Adam, and even Adam failed.

Secondly, why is it that the imputation of Adams sin is fair? Because God shows meticulous concern for justice in His covenant of grace. Think about it. In the way that God goes about saving us through Jesus Christ, He shows meticulous concern for justice. He doesnt say, "Okay, look, Im going to sweep those sins under the closet. Its kind of the good ole boys club, where you messed up, and they say ah, were going to just forget it this time." God says, "Okay, I love you so much that My Son is going to bear your sin. Why does He do this? Because He is concerned for justice and fairness. So if, in the way of grace, God is concerned for fairness and justice, is it not reasonable to work back to the fact that in the original relationship that He has sustained with man, that He was concerned with fairness and justice? And in that original relationship, what did He do? He appointed Adam as our representative as the representative of all humanity. Its clear that the covenant of grace and imputation is fair. And, therefore, looking back, you can see that the covenant of works is fair.

I remember being in seminary and a young man was arguing this point with a professor. We had been studying the imputation of Adams sin, but we hadnt gotten yet to the imputation of Christs righteousness. In other words, we had been talking about the fact that we were constituted sinners in Adam, but we hadnt yet been talking about the fact that we were constituted as righteous in Jesus Christ. And the young man started arguing with the professor. He said, "Its not fair, I didnt exist when Adam was brought into being in this world. Adam died at least 6,000 years before I was brought into being. Its not fair that what he did would impact me. And the professor said, "Well, let me ask you this. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Absolutely. Do you believe in Christ alone for salvation? Absolutely. Do you trust in what Jesus did and was for your salvation? Yes. Let me ask you a question. Were you alive when Jesus was alive? Um, no. Did you exist when Jesus came to this earth to live and die on your behalf? No. Is Jesus righteousness imputed to you. Yes. I dont know what youre complaining about." You get the point. Youre willing to accept the gracious imputation of the righteousness of Christ, but youve got real problems with the imputation of this Adams sin business. You didnt even exist when he did. You didnt exist when Christ did what He did, but you know what? Paul in this passage is going to tell you that if youre a believer, you are clothed in His righteous. So working back from the covenant of grace, to the covenant of works is another indication that it is fair.

Thirdly, there are biblical patterns that establish this, and teach us to expect us to expect this kind of representation on the part of others. There are numerous Biblical examples that show us the principles of representation. For instance, David and Goliath. David stands in for the army of Israel. Goliath for the army of Philistia. David wins, Israel wins. Goliath wins, Philistia wins. One man loses, one nation loses. One man wins, one nation wins. Not fair. Thats the way it was. David and Goliath provide an example. What about Abraham and his descendants? Abraham believes God. Abraham obeys God and his descendants are blessed and become Gods chosen people for evermore. Well, hold on, what about his descendants? Abraham believed, his descendants are blessed. Think again of David, in a less than favorable way this time. In I Chronicles 21 David takes the census. Hes proud. He wants to see how many army men he has. So David takes a census and 70,000 citizens of Jerusalem die. David the King, the representative, the head, sins, and Israelites die. Over and over in the Bible we see these principles. Pharaoh opposes God. You live in a mud hut in the south of Egypt, and youre an Egyptian and you pay because of his sin. Over and over we see the principle of representation in the Bible.

Fourthly, as weve just said in looking at verse 19, its not simply that we are imputed the guilt of Adams sin. We are made sinners in Adam. We are not only representatively sinners in Adam, but Paul tells us in Romans 5:19 that we are actually sinners in Adam. So we cant say, O, Lord, were just innocent bystanders, victims here. There was a car reck, and we just happened to see it. Were involved in this thing. No, we were driving the vehicle. We are sinners in Adam.

Fifth and finally believers. The character of God guarantees the justice of all His actions. There are going to be many things in this life that you can ask me about that Im going to answer you by, "I dont know, I dont have a clue But the character of God guarantees that He will do what is right. And when there are areas of mystery that we do not understand, we are on very good ground to assume God to be doing that which is right because He has proven Himself to us in the way that He dealt with us in His Son. So for all those reasons, let me argue that it is perfectly appropriate to accept as fair, the imputation of Adams sin.

Now to unbelievers, very briefly. Ive got three things that Id like to say. Youre sitting here saying, "Well, this is not fair." I want to say three things. First, youre not in a position to judge. You are standing in the dock. You are standing before the bar of Gods justice. Youre not here to judge the judge. You cant extract yourself from this situation. But let me say this. He is so sovereign that even if it were unfair, there would be nothing that you could do about it. Because Hes the judge, Hes in charge, thats just the way it is. Think of it, Hes sitting around in the time of Moses, and He decides that Hes going to take on the most powerful kingdom that ever lived, or ever was in that day, the king of Egypt. And He says, let Me see, how am I going to take down Egypt? I think Ill send frogs. Thats how sovereign He is. He can decide Hes going to wipe out the most powerful kingdom in the world. How does He do it? I think I will send frogs. God is sovereign. God has every capacity to bring you to the bar of justice.

Secondly, because of your sin, my unbelieving friends, you cant even think past the fall to think about fair. You cant get over the fact that we have fallen and get back into an unfallen world and think about how justice would have worked there. You cant even think there, your mind is darkened by sin. You are involved in sin. Its like a person who is slipping into dementia being asked to work through problems for which he no longer has the capacity to contemplate. They forgot where they were fifteen minutes ago. They forgot what they ate ten minutes ago. They forgot to whom they spoke five minutes ago. Thats you in a fallen world. You dont even have the capacity to think about whats fair.

Thirdly, and finally, let me say that for unbelievers, there is often a voice that says, "Thats not fair, reject Him." And I want to say that that voice has been heard before in human history. That voice once said to Eve, thats not fair, reject Him. And I can categorically, without having any prophetic powers or omniscience today say that voice that is whispering in your ear, "Thats not fair reject Him," thats the voice of the evil one, the enemy of your soul, Satan who is seeking to destroy you. That is not a word of somebody who cares about you, that is someone who wants to destroy you. And for all those reasons, I believe that your only wise response is to accept what God has said in His word, and flee to Christ for grace.

III. We must look away from our own deeds and righteousness to the act of the One Man - Your Only Hope

And that leads me to the last thing that Id like to say today. And youll see it at the end of verse 18 and the end of verse 19, and that is your only hope. Salvation is by works my friend, salvation is by works, or rather by one work. Salvation is by the one work of the one man, Jesus Christ. It is not by your works, it is by His one work. The work of which the complex is represented in His life and in His death on our behalf; and, therefore, we must look ahead from our own deeds and our own righteousness to the act of the one man for salvation.

Let me ask you to do one thing. Take your hymnals out and look at number 92. If you look at the second stanza of number 92, this is "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." And interestingly enough, the hymn that we are about to sing, makes the same point. But you know this hymn by heart, so let me just remind you of it. Hymn 92, stanza 2, notice what Luther says: "Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing. We are not the right man on our side, the man of Gods own choosing. Just ask who that may be, Christ Jesus, that is He. Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle." What is Luther doing? He is summarizing for you Pauls argument from Romans 5:12 to 19. And it is simply this: In your own strength confide, and you will lose. Trust in your own works, and you will lose. Seek to be righteous before God in your own strength, and you will lose, unless you run from your works to the one man, the one work, the right man, Jesus Christ.

But He will, in fact we can say, He has won the battle. Now Pauls whole point in this passage is you flee from your works. You make a heap of all your bad works; and all your good works, and you flee from them to the one work of Jesus Christ which alone saves. May God bless you as you do. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, grant that we would seek our only hope in Jesus Christ, receiving Your grace, accomplished by Him alone, by faith in Him alone. We ask it in His name, Amen.

The Law, the Covenant of Works, and Grace - Romans 5:20-21

20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21)

The Good News: There is an Alien Righteousness

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you turn to Romans, chapter 5, well begin in this passage that weve been looking at for a few weeks. Romans 5:12 until the end of the chapter, theres a passage in which Paul goes a long way to explaining why salvation has to be by grace alone. You know throughout this passage, Paul has emphasized that we sustain one of two relations, and those two relationships determine our everlasting future. We are either in relationship to our representative Adam, or we are in relationship to our representative Jesus Christ. We are either in this sphere of Adams influence, and part of his family, or by grace we are in the sphere and influence of Jesus Christ and part of His family. And the apostle wants to make it clear that everybody in the world is in one of those two camps. You are either in Adam or you are in Christ.

Paul is wanting to make that analogy between Adam and Christ to show the similarities and differences that exist between Adam and Christ precisely so that we will understand that the only place that you can flee for salvation is to Jesus Christ. Theres no third way. Theres no fourth way. Theres one way. Youre either in Adam, or youre in Christ. Its that simple.

Now having said that, the apostle has provoked the thoughts of the thinking members of the group that opposes His teaching. And they are wondering to themselves. Well, wait a minute, where does the law fit in? Sounds to me, Paul, that you dont have a place for the law. Where does the law fit in? They are thinking of this. Now they dont ask a question, at least Paul doesnt record the question that they are asking to themselves, or maybe even objecting out loud here in verses 20 and 21. But he certainly records their objections in chapter 6 and 7. And I want to suggest to you that the fact that Paul brings up the law here again at the end of a passage which has not, by and large, talked about the law, but which has compared Adam and Christ, and their particular headships or representative rolls or mediatory roles, how ever you want to describe them, the fact that he introduces the law here then, is an indication that he knows what his opponents are thinking. He knows the question that they want to press. He knows the objection that they have to his teaching, and he is pre-empting that objection before they even get it out of their mouths. So with that with a word of introduction, lets hear the word of God in Romans, chapter 5, beginning in verse 20.

"And the law came in that the transgression might increase, but where sin increased grace abounded all the more; that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired and inerrant word. May He write His eternal truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, show us Yourself in the Word, show us our sin in the Word, and then show us the Savior in Your Word, for Your glory and our good, in Jesus name, Amen.

Now Pauls skeptical opponents are thinking, "Well, what about the law. All this Adam and Christ stuff, no mention of the law." They are thinking to themselves, "Look, Paul, the distinctive thing about us as believers in the one true God is that God has granted us the law. When God through Moses gave us the law, moral, civil and ceremonial, it set us apart from the nations. And yet as you describe the way into saving fellowship with God, there is not one mention here of the law. All this Adam headship stuff, Christ headship stuff, and no law. What about the law, Paul?" And I want you to see that the answer that Paul gives to that unspoken as yet objection is as bold and as audacious as it could possibly be.

Lets remember that Paul, though he is indeed speaking to a mixed congregation, that is, there are some Gentile Christians there, as well as Jewish Christians, he is speaking in the context where Judaism and the religion of the Hebrews and the Scriptures of the Hebrews is very much dominant in the thought world. Even the Gentile Christians that are a part of this fellowship know the Old Testament well. And they know the teachings of the Old Testament; and they know the importance of the revelation of Gods law to Moses, and how that distinguished Israel from all the nations. And there are some of them who are just a bit suspicious of what Paul is saying, and they hear him speaking against the law, and they hear him speaking against Moses; not unlike His Master was heard by some who objected to His teaching, and they are suspicious of Paul here. And the apostle wants to take opportunity again to shock them into a realization about why salvation is by grace. Because of that, what Paul is saying to this original audience, is just as relevant to you and to me today as it was when He first spoke it. This is not just an interesting text thats two thousand years old that dealt with the specific cultural theological problem with a particular group of people that has no further reference or relevance to us. It has every reference and relevance to us. As Paul himself could say about the Old Testament. These things happened and were written for our benefit. Thats true of what Paul is saying today.

Now theres a lot in this great passage. But all I want to look with you at is two things this morning. Were really going to skirt over verse 21 because next week, Lord willing, were going to come right back to verse 21; and look at what it means for grace to reign in righteousness. Today I just want to concentrate on verse 20 with you. And Id like you to see two things there.

First of all, in the first phrase of verse 20, the apostle teaches that God gave the law to convict and to convince us of sin. And second of all, I want you to see in the second part of verse 20 that Paul teaches that despite the increase of sin by the law, grace has been even more expansive. Grace has super abounded, despite the increase of sin. Those are the two things that Id like to look at with you this morning in verse 20, the first part of the verse and the second part of the verse. And I think as we look at it, you will see the importance of grace and the reason why grace is the only way that you can be reconciled with God.

I. The law is not our Savior, indeed its presence exacerbates our predicament.

Lets begin in the first part of the verse. The law came in so that the transgression would increase. Paul is telling you here that one reason, and hes only giving one reason, and hes not saying more right now, but Paul is telling you that one reason that God gave the law, was to convict and to convince us of sin. Paul is saying this because it is vital that the Romans understand, and its vital that you and I understand that the law is not our Savior. Indeed, the very presence of the law exacerbates our predicament. You remember last time we were together, we looked at the predicament that Paul talked about that we were in? Well Paul says, "The law doesnt help that predicament." The law, coming along in the time of Moses, does not solve that problem that Adam plunged you into. The coming of the law with Moses was not Gods great solution to the Adamatic problem of sin, Gods great solution to the Adamatic problem of sin was Christ and grace. And so Paul wants you to understand that the law was never given to be your Savior.

The purpose of the law, not exclusively, but as Paul explains it here was to; listen to it, increase sin. Look, if youre paying attention at all, youve got to be asking what in the world are you talking about, Paul? Are you saying that God gave the law so that sin would increase? Are you saying that God caused the increase of sin? Are you saying that God wanted sin to increase, and so He gave the law to Moses? Are you saying that He gave the law to Moses because He desired for us to send more? Well, the answer of course is no. But if the answer is no, youve still got to ask, what in the world are you saying, that the law came in that transgression might increase?

Let me answer that question in four parts. And Ill give you four words beginning with "p" to sort of help outline this thing. Pauls answer is polemic, it is partial, it is pedagogical, and it is provocative. So there are four parts to the answers. Pauls answer is polemic. In other words, it is argumentative. The first thing I want you to see is that this phrase, the law came in that sin would increase, this phrase is deliberately designed by the apostle Paul to promote the maximal offense in his hearers. He wants everyone listening to be offended. Look, Paul is talking to people who are the descendants of people who were sent into exile in Babylon because they disobeyed the law. These people are serious about the law. They know, especially as people who are no longer part of a Jewish theocracy, that theyre under Roman domination, and that the one thing that sets them apart from everything else in the world is the giving of the law. And the apostle says here, "Now why did God give the law?" To make you special amongst all the nations? No. So that sin would increase. You couldnt have said something more offensive to these people if you had thought for a million years. Paul deliberately says this to shake them out of their tree. Paul wants them to be shocked. Paul wants them recalibrate. He wants them to, as one of my dear colleagues likes to say, he wants them to reframe. He wants them to look in a different way than they are looking. The law is not their instrument of salvation. No. In fact, he says, "The law came in that transgression might increase." Thats the first thing that I want you to see and understand in this phrase. Hes trying to shock them. Hes trying to shock us. Hes succeeded. Were all ears. Tell us more, Paul.

Secondly then, notice that what Paul says about the law here is partial. This is so very important. In the worship guide, if you want to sneak a peak real quick, under the section on the sermon, I mentioned that there are three phrases in this passage that are very, very difficult to understand and have promoted a lot of misunderstanding. This is one of those phrases because a lot of people have taken Paul here to be given the sum total of what he believes about the law of God. In other words, theyve said, "Aha!" You see this is what Paul says, and therefore, the law has nothing to do with the believer. Thats Old Testament; it doesnt have anything to do with the New Testament believer. But its very important for you to see that what Paul is saying about the law here is partial, it is selected. This is not all that Paul has to say about the law. If we would look at Galatians, chapter 3, verses 17-25, if we were to look at II Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 6 through 11, and if we would look at I Timothy, chapter 1, verses 8 through 11, in all those places Paul has more to say about the law than he has here. In fact, Paul is going to take up this very subject again in Romans, chapter 7; and hes going to have more to say about it than he says about it now. So its important for you to understand that this is not all that Paul has to say about the law, about its function, about its purpose, about how it relates to Christians. But what Paul is saying here is very, very important about the law. Its essential to understanding the role of the law. So what hes saying is its polemic and its partial.

Its also pedagogical. Hes telling us that the law is given to teach us something. Its a pedagogue. What is the law given to teach us? Paul is telling us here that the law served to teach us what sin is. It serves to expose sin. We might even put it this way. It serves to expose sin in us. Paul is telling us that the law serves a function of teaching us our need for grace. This is what the old Reformed theologians referred to as the second use of the law. It drives us to Christ by showing us our sin. As James speaks of the law, do you remember what he calls the law? He says, "The law is a mirror." You look at the law and what do you see? You see yourself. And its not a pretty picture. Its early in the morning; the makeup is not on yet, its not a pretty picture. The law shows you yourself, it shows you your need for grace. It shows you your sin, and thus by showing your sin and your need for grace, it leads you to the Savior. The Greek word pedagogue, for which we often use teacher, thats how we translate it today, actually referred to the slave that was a member of the household that took the children to school. So the pedagogue took you to the schoolteacher. Hes the one who led you to the one who was going to give you what you need. And who was that one? Jesus Christ. So the law leads you to the one that you need. Paul is saying that the revelation of the law that God granted to us especially in the days of Moses was designed to show us our sin, not to the be instrument of salvation. It is not our Savior; but if properly understood, it leads us to our Savior. The law apart from the Savior simply exacerbates our predicament. But the law rightly and spiritually understood leads us to our Savior.

Do you remember that scene in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame?" Im not talking about the Disney version. I mean the book. Read the book. You remember the scene where Quasimodo is with this beautiful thing that he has captured, and shes crying. And he says to her, "Why are you crying?" And she says to him, "Well, youre crying." And he says, "Well, yes, I am crying." And she says, "Well why are you crying?" And he says to her, "Because I never knew how ugly I was until I saw how beautiful you are." And my friends, thats the law. You never knew how ugly you were, until you saw how beautiful your God was. The law shows you the beauty and the glory and the honor and the uprightness and the holiness of God, and it humbles you. You never knew you were such a mess before the law. Furthermore, Paul is saying that the law had a distinctive role in Gods purposes and mankind. He said, "Look, before the law, we knew the difference between right and wrong. This wasnt a relativistic moral universe until God spoke to Moses from Mt. Sinai. From the time of Adam, and his fall, we knew the difference between right and wrong. If you had been around when Cain slew Abel, you would have known that what Cain did was wrong. If you had been around when Abram went down to Egypt, and told the leaders of Egypt that his wife was his sister, and sure, you can have her, you would have known that the seventh Commandment had been violated. You didnt need a copy of the Ten Commandments up on your school room board to know that. If youd been around when Lot went into the land of Canaan and chose the choice land before Abram, his superior, and the representative of the Covenant had the opportunity to choose his land; you would have known that Lot was greedy without having the Ten Commandments spelled out for you, or the Tenth Commandment spelled out for you as it is in Exodus, chapter 20. But, when Genesis is succeeded by Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you better believe you know about sin now. If you knew about sin then, after youve read through Leviticus, whew, boy do you know about sin. After youve read through Exodus 20 and not only the summarization of Gods ten moral commands, but the exposition of it from the Exodus 20 to 24, and the discussion of worship that runs from 25 to 40; then when you pick up Deuteronomy, and you see this gigantic farewell sermon by Moses thats about what the righteousness of God revealed in His law, you better believe you know about sin.

Paul is saying, "Look, God didnt send the law into the world to be the solution. God sent the law into the world so you would know that you need grace. You need to understand what sin is. But furthermore, in the very giving of the law, there is an expression of grace because in the sacrificial system, we are pointed to the answer. The sacrificial system points beyond itself. We know, as the Old Testament folk knew as well, to a certain degree what the author of Hebrews said, when he says, "The blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sin." So did the people of God think that by slaughtering calves, they were actually appeasing the righteous judgment of God? No. They knew that those sacrifices pointed to something greater, something beyond. And so the law itself reveals sin to us in ways that we have never known it before. But it also pointed to the Savior. "This is one thing," Paul says, "that the law was for." Thats the third thing that Paul is saying when he says, "The law came in that transgression would increase."

Fourth, and finally, Paul is saying, "The law is provocative." Paul may be indicating that the law provokes sin. You know how this works. The minute the boundaries are set, somebody wants to cross them. But thats why you can say to your young children, "Dont you eat those peas." And eighty-seven percent of the time it provokes the immediate response of eating the peas. Why? Because in a fallen world, once the righteous boundaries of God are laid down, there is an inclination in the wicked, human heart to find those boundaries and transgress them.

I had the privilege, when I was in Colorado Springs last week with the PCRT, of taking out the entire University of Arizona RUF group for supper. Now dont have in your mind Ole Miss or Mississippi State. This was ten people. But we went to Chilis. And as we drove into the Chilis parking lot, there was a bumper sticker on the back of a car that said "Keep your laws off my body." I thought, well, thats fairly in your face, isnt it? But, you understand the resistance there. How dare you tell me how to use my body. Isnt it interesting that when you lay down the good and perfect law of God, it instinctively provokes a rebellion in the wicked, sinful human heart. We resent the law. We dont like the law. We want to find every place that it can be bent, find every place that it can be aggravated. You see, once youve seen your sin, and once you understand that the law is not an instrument of salvation, then you have to look somewhere else. Thats why Paul is telling you this. The reason you cant be saved by the Mosaic Law is thats not what it was made for. It wasnt the instrument of salvation.

II. We need to look to grace, for grace superabounded and outdistances the increase of sin.

Now that leads Paul to the second part of this sentence, which is the thing that he really wants to say. And that is simply this: We need to look to grace for salvation. We need to look to grace for grace super abounded, it outdistances the increase of sin. If youre wondering what in the world Paul means when he says, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." He doesnt mean what some have said that he means, in saying that we ought to sin so that grace can abound. Pauls going to deal with that in just a couple of verses. In fact, if you want a good commentary on this Psalm, go back and look at that Psalm that we just sang, "Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord." That song is a commentary on that part of Romans 5:20. What Paul means is that God actually takes advantage of the negative functions of the law in order to exalt Himself in order to exalt His grace, and in order to foster His saving purposes. The more sin is multiplied, the more it is shown to us, the more aware we become of it, the more aggravated it is, the greater is the grace that conquers it, and the more that grace is known and appreciated. The reign of sin is trumped by the triumph of grace. Grace meets sin head on, and it defeats it.

Whats our favorite Southern way of dealing with sin and shame? Number one of my list is denial. Obstruction. Make sure nobody knows about it. If anybody knew that about me, they wouldnt like me. So lets pretend like its not there. The elephant is in the room, right behind me, but its not there. If anybody sees it, its not there. Denial. Thats our atoning work, denial. God is saying, "Grace operates in a far more effective way than that." Because grace, knowing that you ought to be rejected, if someone knew that about you, in fact, you ought to be rejected by God, but grace comes and says, I trump the sin, I conquer the sin, I justify the sinner, I destroy the old man, I raise him to newness of life, I give him a new life here, I give him a new hope in eternity. And all those things that you are afraid of your friends knowing about you, grace deals with. Not because God somehow didnt know that you did them or didnt know that you were that way, but he knows you better than you know yourself. In fact, He knows some of those things that you dont know yet about yourself. And in grace He comes to you, and He says, "Child, I know exactly who you are. I know exactly what youre like, and My grace is sufficient to conquer that sin."

Now dont run to your obedience for salvation, because your obedience is the problem. Dont run to your heart for salvation; your heart is your problem. Dont run to your deeds for salvation; your deeds are the problem. Dont run to making a new start in new start in life by making some new resolutions. Thats the problem, your will is the problem, your heart is the problem. You are the problem. Dont run to you, run to Me, run to Christ. Run to My grace, I am the solution. Thats what Paul is saying. Grace is greater than all our sin.

My friends that is so comforting, not only because it teaches us why salvation is by grace alone, but it also teaches us that no sin is greater than Gods grace. Now you hunt around some dedicated Christians from a little bit of time. You scratch around a little bit, and you talk a little bit. Theres going to be one of them somewhere struggling with something they just cant let go of because they think that that sin is a little special, its just a little beyond Gods grace. Paul is saying, "No, youve got it the other way around. Grace is greater than all your sins." But Paul, you dont know what Ive done. "Oh yes, I do. Im the chief of sinners, and youve got a ways to go before you catch up with me." Paul says, "I am the chief of sinners, and I can assure you that grace is greater than all your sins. Thats what Paul is saying here. Thats why you dont run to yourself, you run to grace, you run to Christ, and you will find that grace will triumph over sin. May God grant you the faith to believe. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we bow before you, and we ask the grace to believe. And then we ask, oh God, that grace would change us, transform us. In Jesus name, Amen.

Grace Reigns in Righteousness - Romans 5:21

21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21)

Grace Reigns through Righteousness

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with to Romans, chapter 5. Before we hear the scripture this morning, I want to do two things. I want to remind you where Paul has come in his overall, and then I want to walk you through the five points of his argument that begin at the end of verse 20 and run through verse 21. You will remember that in Romans, chapter 1 and 2, Paul has told us about our predicament. He has told us about the fact that we know God, and we ought to worship and adore Him, but we dont, and He makes clear that that predicament is universal. No one is righteous, no, not one. In Romans, chapter 3, he tells us Gods solution to that particular predicament. In His mercy He grants through His Sons atoning grace to those who trust in Him, and He accepts them as righteous because of Him. In other words, he teaches justification by faith in Romans, chapter 3.

Then in Romans, chapter 4, he defends that doctrine from Scripture, that is, from the Old Testament. He wants to make it clear that this is not an idea that he thought up, its one thats rooted in Gods redemptive design as far back as the covenant made with Abraham. And so he shows from the Old Testament, both from the life of Abraham and from the life of David, that this has always been Gods way of saving. Theres one of salvation in all days, in all ages, and that way is grace. He defends that in Romans, chapter 4.

Then in Romans, chapter 5, in the first eleven verses he wants to talk about some of the implications of this truth of justification by faith, this salvation by grace that he has been talking about. And so he tells us some things. He says justification by faith results in our having peace with God. He tells us that it enables us to rejoice even in sufferings. He tells us that it results in our communing with God. He tells us that it results in our security. The believer has a certain hope of future glory all because of justification. He wants us to sense something of the significance, something of the impact of this glorious truth of justification, this glorious reality of justification for all those who trust in Jesus Christ.

Then, in Romans, chapter 5, from verse 12 all the way to the end of the chapter, where we find ourselves today, we see Paul step back and say, I want to tell you one more time why it is that salvation can only be by grace alone, and why it is that your righteousness is not the vehicle of your reentering into a pleasant and blessed relationship of communion with God. Why it is that only through Christ can you be brought into a relationship of communion and blessing with God. And so by paralleling Adam and Christ, he says all who are in Adam under the reign of sin, the law condemns them, God condemns them for their disobedience. The result is death and final condemnation. But all who are in Christ, all those who have been united to Him by the Holy Spirit by Faith, what do they find? They find instead of condemnation, justification. They find instead of death, life. They find instead of separation from God, communion with God. And so he makes it clear that everyone who is in Adam, everyone who is still under the bonds of sin, there is nothing that they can do in their own righteousness to reenter into a relationship of blessedness with God, because they are the problem. You are the problem is what Paul is saying once again. But all those who are in Christ have turned away from themselves and looked to Him for their only hope of salvation. And thus Paul again shows us the glorious importance of salvation by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone.

And that brings us to Romans 5:21, the end of His argument. But to pick up the full argument, in this verse, you need to look at the last phrase of verse 20. So lets look at that verse together. The last phrase of that verse is grace abounded all the more. That phrase is very important for the first part of verse 21. Grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness. Pauls argument in the section that we are going to look at today has five parts. Its very simple, but because Paul uses so few words to explain so much more to his truth, lets just have clear in our mind the five parts of his argument.

His argument is first, grace abounded. Thats argument party one. Grace abounded. Heres part two: Grace abounded so that grace might reign. Thats the second part of it. The reason that grace abounded is so that grace might reign. Third part of His argument: Grace abounded so that grace might reign through the righteousness of Christ. Now youre looking down at your passage, and it just says through the righteousness of Christ. And youre saying ,where did you get this through the righteousness of Christ? Well, Ill defend that in a minute, but just wait. Fourth part of the argument: to eternal life. The result of this reign of the righteousness of Christ will be eternal life for all those who believe. And then the fifth part of the argument: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. And again, you are saying what is that mediation thing? Ill defend that in a minute, but heres the five parts of Pauls argument: Grace abounded so that grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life thought Jesus Christ our Lord. Get that outline and youve go the whole thing. So lets hear Gods word here in Romans, chapter 5, verse 21:

"That as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Father, this is Your Word, and we ask that by the Spirit You would open our eyes to understand it. We pray, O God, that all those who are believers on the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ, would be strengthened by a deeper understanding of the workings of the operations of the purposes of Your grace. And we pray that those who are not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, would be so stung by a sense of their sin and need, that they themselves would be compelled to flee to the only one who can help them, Jesus Christ. And find in Him more than they ever imagined. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

The function of Pauls words in this little verse, Romans 5:21 is to tell you the purpose of super-abounding grace. In other words, Paul, in Romans 5:21 is going to tell you why grace abounded. Why did it much more abound? Why did grace super-abound in comparison to sin? Paul is going to answer those questions in two parts in this one little verse. The first part focuses on the reign of sin. The second part focuses on the reign of grace. Id like you to see three or four very important things today.

I. The reign of sin is an ugly thing.

First, lets look at the first little phrase in verse 21, "So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace." Paul is reminding us again in Romans 5:12 through 21 for the last time that the reign of sin is an ugly thing. The reign of sin is what Paul is referring to one more time in contrast to the reign of Christ in grace, and He is telling us again that sin reigned in death. Sin dominates us when we are in Adam. Sin dominates us when we are under the law, when the law is our enemy. Paul characterizes life before Christ, he characterizes life apart from Christ in terms of the reign of sin. In other words, he is saying, "Sins relationship to you is like the reign of an absolute monarch. It completely controls you. You dont stand a chance. It has its way. If you could picture sin as a weight, many times the weight of your body, so much greater than the weight of your body that you could never lift yourself. You are flat on your back, and the weight is on you. You cant get it off. Thats the picture of sin that Paul paints for you. You are totally dominated by it. Theres nothing that you can do. And Paul is saying that because thats the problem, of course, your works cant fix the problem, because you cant lift the weight. Its too much for you. Sin totally dominates you. Dont tell me about you helping yourself in that situation. The whole point is you cant. You are totally morally dominated by this force of sin. Its not a pretty picture.

But then Paul goes on to say the result of this reign of sin is death. Death is both the natural consequence of sin, but it is also the express judgment of God against sin. Sin so often paints itself as something desirable, something liberated. "Ah, go on and do what you want. Dont let those fundamentalists ruin your life," perhaps you have said to you. Perhaps somebodys whispered that in your ear or perhaps someone has whispered that in your heart. Sin presents itself as attractive but it always results in the reign of death.

First theres the law of diminishing returns. As you go the way that you want to do and suddenly you find that you have to do more and more to satisfy, and then finally you get to a point where you cant be satisfied. And then theres that law of self-destruction which is woven into sin itself. Where sin, though it presents itself as something that is going to enrich you, eventually destroys you, it takes you apart, limb from limb; and it finally results in death. William Plumber, a great Southern Presbyterian commentator on the book of Romans describes it this way: "Look at how sin has reigned unto death in history. It is written in every graveyard, in every hospital, in every disease, in every groan, in every tormenting apprehension awakened by a guilty conscience, in every prison house of despair." So Paul for one more time has drawn attention to this reign of sin.

But the reason that he draws your attention to the reign of sin is because he wants to contrast it. The reason that he has brought this subject up again is not for you to fixate on it, but he wants to point you to a contrast. His purpose is to show you, look at the first verses, the first words of the verse, "So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace." In other words, Paul wants to draw your attention to the fact that God did something good even with the reign of sin. Thats how awesome it is. That He was able to do something good even with the reign of sin? What was it? He made it to serve the interests of the exultation of His grace.

Think about it. No man was ever more miserable than the prodigal son when he realized what he had done and been to his father. And when he came to the realization of the reign of sin in his life, it crushed him. But precisely because he realized the reign of sin in His life. Do you realize the impact of the sight of the outstretched arms of his father upon him? A man who finally knew that they he didnt deserve a father like that. Suddenly being welcomed back. You see the reign of sin taken away as the Holy Spirit came and granted the peace of repentance in that mans life, became the very thing that accentuated the grace of God. He suddenly realized, "This is mind-boggling. My fathers welcoming back me back as a son, and hes welcoming me back with a celebration. This is mind-boggling."

And think about that repentant publican, that repentant tax collector, hated by the Jewish people. In the temple, a betrayer of his own people, and suddenly he is struck by the Holy Spirit with the weight of his sin, and he sees the reign of sin in his life, and what does he do? He lifts up this prayer. God have mercy on me, a sinner. While meanwhile the self-righteous Pharisee is saying, "Lord, I thank you that Im not like that man." And you see, that Pharisee could never know the reign of grace, because he had never seen the reign of sin in His own heart. But precisely because that publican, that tax collector had seen the reign of sin, the reign of grace was far greater in his eyes. And so God has turned that reign of sin to His own purposes and those in whom He is working the work of faith and repentance, God delights in turning curse into blessing. He delights in liberating us from sin into the freedom of holiness.

And let me say that when we come to the Lords Table, we are being reminded of just what He has done to break the power of sin, to destroy the reign of sin: The death of His Son. How great must the Fathers love must be that He would break the power of sin at such a cost. How great must the power of sin be, that it required such a cost that grace might reign. We celebrate that as we come to the table. Thats the first thing that Paul draws to our attention. The reign of sin is an ugly thing. But the reign of grace is greater still.

II. By the Law, sin reigned in death, by Christ, grace reigns in eternal life.

Now Id like you to look at the second part of the verse for a few moments. "Even so, grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Paul is saying that by the law, in Adam, sin reigned in death but by Christ, grace reigns in eternal life. Hes saying that the work of Christ resulted in the reign of grace expressed in eternal life.

Paul tells you something that is four-fold about the reign of grace in the second part of this little verse. He tells you four things about the reign of grace. He tells you that grace reigns over sin, through the righteousness of Christ, in eternal life, and by Jesus Christ. Grace reigns over sin, through the righteousness of Christ, in eternal life and by our Lord Jesus Christ. Lets look at each of those four things as we consider this four-fold reign of grace.

Paul tells us that grace reigns over sin. The whole purpose of the reign of grace is the complete domination of sin in our life. Paul is telling us that the reign of sin is ended through the conquering work of the grace of God to all those who believe. The purpose of grace is to break the power of reigning sin, as one of our favorite hymns says. The purpose of grace is to break the dominion of sin in our lives not merely resulting in our forgiveness, but also resulting in our transformation. God doesnt give us grace so that He can sort of equalize for us, He doesnt give us grace so that we can get back to neutral and then earn our way up. He gives us grace that grace might totally dominate sin in our experience, not only so that we are accepted as righteous, but so also that we actually become conformed to the image of God in Jesus Christ. The purpose of grace is the total domination of sin. There is a hymn in our old hymn book written by Phillip Bliss that began like this: "Free from the law, oh happy condition, Jesus has bled and there is remission." And every word of the stanza of that hymn is true. By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we have been granted remission, weve been forgiven of sins. But that is not the whole story of grace. Theres more. Its a package deal, and God does not have in view our forgiveness, He has in view our transformation. And the sad thing is that some evangelicals rewrite that verse of the hymn, and they sing it like this: "Free from the law, oh happy condition, I can do as I please now that Ive got remission." You see, they want forgiveness, but they dont want transformation. They want the grace of God to set things right, to put them back to the neutral base, but they dont want the transformation of life that comes from grace. But the reign of grace reigns everywhere.

God doesnt forgive us and then leave us in bondage to our sin. He breaks the power of reigning sin. He sets the prisoner free, so that we are forgiven. And the process of transformation is begun. Its not perfect and never will be in this life. It begins, and incessant war with sin in our lives. In fact, its so incessant, and its so universal that you can say Christian, if youre not fighting against sin somewhere, youre not a Christian; but it breaks us free from the dominion of that sin, so that it has mastery over us no more. So this is the first thing the reign of grace is a reign over sin. Grace reigns on account of the one righteousness of Christ, righteousness is imputed to us, and has been imparted to us. We are forgiven based on His righteousness, we are credited as righteous on His behalf, and then God begins this glorious work of transformation. Grace reigns over sin.

Secondly, grace reigns through righteousness. Notice its Gods righteousness that is being spoken of here, not our righteousness. Pauls made it clear. Grace cant reign through our righteousness. Our righteousness is the problem. Grace reigns through righteousness. The reign of grace over sin is made possible by, its made actual by, the righteousness of God. And there are two things to be said about that.

First of all notice that God saves us by His righteousness, not our own. It is the righteousness of God that puts us right with Him again. If our problem is that we are under the weight of sin which has mastery over us, how cruel it would have been if the Lord would say, "Okay, work your way back into a relationship with Me." Thats the very problem - we cant. And so he emphasizes that its His righteousness, not our own by which grace reigns.

Secondly, notice that the way that God shows His grace to us in salvation is perfectly consistent with His righteousness. He saves us in such a way that He doesnt just sweep our sins under the carpet and say, "Im just going to forget about that, well just pretend that didnt happen." He deals with us in such a way that every last penalty for our sin is paid, and every last demand for righteousness is observed all through the work of Jesus Christ. So that when God shows you grace, He did not do it at the expense of His justice and righteousness. He does it in fact, in strict accordance with His justice and righteousness. And the beautiful thing about that is that He gives you more confidence than His grace, because now having paid the due penalty of sin, it would be wrong for God to visit condemnation and judgment against those for whom that judgment and condemnation has already been born through Jesus Christ. And so He saves us in such a way that His righteousness is exalted, and in no way mitigated.

Thirdly, this reign of grace is through eternal life, or in eternal life. This results in an eternal life begun in us now. It is life that death cannot invade, a life that cannot be forfeited. If grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life, does that not in and of itself speak of the security of the believer? Sin reigned in death. If grace reigns to eternal life, then who can be against us? And who can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If the result of the reign of grace is eternal life, does that not speak to the assurance of the believer, security of the believer, the perseverance of the believer. If the purpose of grace for reigning in your life is to give you eternal life, does that not comfort you that God will bring to completion that which He has begun in you?

And finally, grace reigns by the mediation of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Its almost redundant. Paul has said, what, thirty-nine times in the last five verses? Its all through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul comes to the end of this chapter, hes getting ready to launch into a new thought, and he cant resist saying it one more time. All of this is by Jesus Christ, our Lord. The supreme manifestation of the righteousness of God is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is His person and work that has secured our acceptance with God, because His righteousness is credited to our account. It is imputed to us, and, therefore, we are accepted as righteousness. Thats how grace reigns. It reigns over sin. It reigns through the righteousness of Christ. It results in your receiving eternal life, and it is all by Jesus Christ, your Lord. No, my friends, Paul then turns to you and says, "Now explain to me again how it is that you are going to commend yourself to God by your good works. And he says, "Look, thats fine. Go ahead and do this. All you have to do is be as righteous and as perfect as Jesus Christ, and I promise you, Hell accept you. Theres your good news. You just be as righteous as Jesus Christ, and Hell accept you.

But Ive got better news. Theres another way. You run from your own righteousness, and you run from your own deserved condemnation, and you run to Jesus Christ who will give you a supply of all the righteousness you need. And Hell uniteyou again in communion with your God. Heres what you do. You trust in Him, and it will change everything in your life. It will result in forgiveness, it will result in transformation, it will result in a new communion with God that youve never experienced before.

If thats where you are today, my friend, I want to urge you, theres only way to run. Theres only one to run to, its Jesus Christ, because your righteousness will not do. Unless you are ready to stand before God and say, "My righteousness has equaled and perhaps excelled the righteousness of Your own Son. Any takers? Do I flee to Christ? As Dixon told us so long ago, "I make a heap of all my works, all my good works and all my bad works, and I flee from them to Jesus Christ." That is the way of salvation. May God bless you to understanding and respond. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for the truth, for the encouragement of this verse, and we ask that You would burn it into our experience onto our hearts. For Christs sake, Amen.

Romans 6

United to Christ - Romans 6:1-7

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Romans 6:1-7

United to Christ

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 6. Weve been working our way through this great book, and in Gods good providence we come to a wonderful passage, which stresses the resurrection of our Savior and its implications for us. We remind you that in Romans, chapter 5, verse 20, if you want to sneak a peek back at those verses at the end of that chapter, the apostle had said something absolutely stunning, shocking to the Jewish Christian and Jewish audience around him, when he had suggested that the law came in order that sin might increase. And he said something even more shocking when he said where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. And that particular assertion caused some confusion on the part of some of his hearers. Some of his hearers were opposed to his teaching no matter what. In this they saw as a classic example of where his teaching would lead. It would lead to moral anarchy, to antinomianism, to wild lascivious behavior, based upon the idea that if where sin increases, grace abounds all the more, then why not sin more so that we can have more grace? On the other hand, some heard him actually encouraging that kind of response to grace. And so this was a statement of tremendous importance which was responded to in two wrong, but different ways.

Now the apostle had already corrected that misunderstanding in Romans, chapter 5, verse 21, when he had explained that grace reigns in righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace reigns over sin. It reigns in the righteousness of Christ. It reigns by His mediation, and it reigns to eternal life. This new life which has been granted us in Jesus Christ. And if we had understood what He had said in Romans 5, chapter 21, we wouldnt make the mistake which someone made which Paul records for us in Romans, chapter 6, verse 1. But you do need to know that though Paul has pre-answered the questions of Romans, chapter 6, verse 1, he does spend the whole of Romans, chapter 6, giving an expanded answer to the very first question.

Now this question is not Pauls question about his teaching. This is someone elses question about his teaching. It shows both an objection to his teaching and a misunderstanding of it. With that as introduction, lets hear Gods word here in Romans, chapter 6, beginning in the very first verse.

"What shall we say then. Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin, still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raise from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin: for he who has died, is freed from sin."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He write His eternal truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Father, this is your word. We ask that those who believe on Jesus Christ, hear it today in their ears proclaimed that they would be built up in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. And that those who do not know Jesus savingly, those who do not trust in Him, as He is offered in the gospel for their salvation. As they hear this word, that You would open their hearts to hear and receive and respond. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Why is the resurrection so important? Im sure that many of you have heard ministers and Sunday School teachers and Vacation Bible School teachers explain or give an answer to that question. And many of those answers may have been good and helpful. You may have heard a Sunday School teacher sometime or a minister say, "Well, Jesus had to be raised from the dead. It proved who He claimed to be. His resurrection was a witness that all He had claimed to be, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the World, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world. His resurrection is a proof that all of that is true. And thats a good answer, thats a biblical answer, but thats not all the answer. Some of you might think, well He had to be raised again from the dead, or we wouldnt have known that this supreme offering for sin had been received and accepted by God the Father; and thus, we, too, were accepted as that offering was accepted. In other words, the resurrection is an evidence of His victory over sin, and an evidence the Father has accepted it as the due penalty for payment of sin; the evidence that we are then accepted in the Beloved. And, if you answered that way, youd have given a good answer, and I would imagine that some of you even now have some answers on your mind that would be correct and biblical.

The thing that Paul emphasizes in this passage is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the source of both our justification and our sanctification. That is, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the source of our being accepted by God the Father. It is the source of our being counted as not guilty by God the Father. It is the source of our being forgiven. But it is also the source of our transformation. Not only are we accepted as righteous, but also we are transformed increasingly into righteousness by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus resurrection for the believer is a fountain of new life, and the apostle makes that clear here. He makes it clear many places in his writings. He constantly points to the resurrection of Christ as the starting point of the application of the work of Christ in the believers life, and so its a glorious thing, this teaching of Pauls about the resurrection.

But in this passage, he uses that teaching about the resurrection to counter a terrible misunderstanding of his teaching, and an important, a serious, and a grave, objection to his teaching. You will remember in Romans, chapter 5, verse 20 he had suggested that where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. Grace outstripped it, went beyond even where sin had gone. And this gave rise to two particular responses to Pauls teaching. On the one hand, some people said, "Look Paul, there is your teaching about grace, your teaching that God saves us not based upon our works or our righteousness, but He saves us on the basis of His grace, and your teaching about justification. The idea that our works contribute nothing to being accepted by God, but that God justifies us freely as we simply trust on Jesus Christ, if we simply believe on Him. They said, "Paul if you teach that, people will live immoral lives." So what youre saying is I can be accepted by God apart from my personal righteousness. Its not my personal righteousness that makes me accepted by God; and, therefore, theres no place for personal righteousness and godliness in a believers life. And they objected to this and said, "Paul, you see, your kind of teaching will lead people to live in immoral and godless ways. It will lead the people to dishonor the law of God and not to strive after godliness and holiness." They were saying, "Paul, your teaching will lead people down the wrong road."

Pause there for a moment and say, "Isnt it interesting that that is an objection to Pauls teaching." Even though there are churches today that teach that salvation is not by grace alone, its by grace, plus our works, and justification is not by faith alone, its not by faith alone, its by faith, plus works. Now I want you to know that people who teach that cant get the same objection that Paul gets here. You see if youre teaching Pauls doctrine of justification, people have to be able to say, "Well, gee, youve left our works out of justification." The answer is, "Right." If a church teaches that our works are in justification, its not teaching what Paul is teaching here. If Paul were teaching that justification was by faith plus works, nobody could have said to him, "Well, shouldnt we continue to sin so that grace might increase?" If he were teaching justification by faith, plus works, it would make perfect sense where works fit in the scheme of salvation. But it is precisely because he is not teaching justification by faith, plus works, that he gets this objection. So some people object, and they say, "Paul, your teaching is going to lead to moral anarchy. People are going to say, Oh, were saved and it doesnt matter how we live, because our works dont save us. Gods grace saves us and our words have nothing to do with justification." Thats one response to Pauls teaching.

The other response is this. "Oh boy, this is great. I see what youre saying, Paul. Youre saying that we ought to go ahead and sin so that grace can abound all the more." You see, there were some libertines out there lurking around, not just the legalists who were accusing Paul of downplaying the law, and downplaying the necessity of holiness. But there are some Libertines out there. People who just sort of want to be saved and live however they wanted. And they were saying, "Oh, I see what youre saying, Paul, youre saying that were right. You are saved by grace, and therefore you can live however you want because, after all, if grace abounds where sin abounds, then grace even more abounds where sin abounds. And Romans, chapter 6 is Pauls response to both those misinterpretations of what he had said in Romans 5, chapter 20.

And so he begins Romans, chapter 6 by stating the misunderstanding of him that many people were spreading. Notice the first question, are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? The rest of the chapter is an answer to that question. But today, I want you to see why the resurrection is so important. In three particular aspects as we work through this passage together. As Paul responds to that question, shouldnt we sin so that grace could abound? He gives three answers to it in verses 1 through 7.

In verses 1 and 2 he says, "No, were not to go on sinning so that grace might increase because of who you are. In verses 3 and 4 he says, "No, were not to go on sinning so that grace might increase, because I want you to think about what your baptism means." And thirdly, in verses 5 through 7 he says, "No, were not to go on sinning so that grace might abound because of the decisive change brought about in our lives by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Id like to look at those with you for a few moments today. Lets begin in verse 1 and 2.

I. Continuing in sin, living in sin, is a contradiction of grace and its purposes.

Verses 1 and 2 you kind of get a point counterpoint. Shouldnt we go on sinning so that grace might abound? Question. Notice how Paul answers the question in verse 2. He answers the question with a question. Its kind of like, "Au, contraire." You think about this question first. How can people who have died to sin, still live in it? In other words, Paul first wants to counter the idea that we should sin in order that grace would abound by considering who we are. Paul says, "Think about it for a minute. Think about who you are. If you will think about who you are in Jesus Christ, you will answer the question. And you will answer it in an emphatic negative. Of course, we shouldnt go on sinning that grace might abound because of who I am in Christ." Well, I dont see why. Oh yes, you do, its right there in verse 2. Notice what he says, "How shall we who died to sin continue to live in it?" Hes giving you a definition. Its not the total definition of what a Christian is. But hes saying, "This is what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who has died to sin. And so Paul is telling us that continuing in sin, living in sin is a contradiction of who we are. Its a contradiction of Gods grace. Its a contradiction of the purposes of Gods grace.

In His question, you see, there are two components. First of all, he tells us that Christians are those who died to sin. How shall we who died to sin, still live in it? And secondly, he makes it clear that it is an utter contradiction to go on sinning, to live a life of sin, having died to it. In other words Paul is appealing to the identity of the believer. Hes appealing to who you are, and hes saying, "Consider yourself as one who has died to sin. Thats what you are in Jesus Christ. Now how could you possibly suggest that you go on sinning in order to receive more grace, when who you are is a person who has died to sin."

Now, lets pause very quickly there and say that Paul is not pushing the power of positive thinking here. Hes not saying, "If youll just think hard enough that youre a person who has died to sin, well then, youll eventually youll die to sin." Paul is talking about a reality which has been wrought by God, and hes talking about you realizing that reality is not thinking it into existence. Paul is not also at the same time, encouraging denial. Hes not encouraging people who are whole-hog in love with the life of sin to just pretend like theyre not. Hes not saying, "Okay, you people that are in love with sin, just for a moment, pretend like youre not and pretend like youve died to sin." Hes not encouraging denial. He is talking about what happens when a person is united to Christ. Paul in this whole passage is talking about union with Christ. The reason the believer has died to sin is because he is united to Christ. In union with Christ, the believer dies to the penalty and the power of sin. Paul has been talking primarily about how the penalty of sin is broken to the believer up to this point. In Romans, chapter 6, it will be his concern to show you how the power of sin is broken to the believer through union with Christ. And so to the first answer to the question "Shouldnt we go on sinning so that grace might abound?" Paul says, "Well just think of who you are? You are a person united to Christ, and therefore, you died to sin." Question answered. But hes not done with you yet. He wants to carry on and give yet another answer to that. Just to lay that particular misunderstanding to rest.

II. Remember your baptism (into Christ and His death) and improve it!

Look at verses 3 and 4. Not only does he point to who you are, he points you to your baptism. He asks you to stop and reflect. What does my baptism mean? Hes reminding us of the significance of our baptism. What it symbolizes. And he basically says in verses 3 and 4, "Remember your baptism into Christ and into death, and improve it." Now, you know that word comes from our Catechism, and it says that if we attend the application of the sacrament of baptism of others, that we ought to improve our own baptism. That doesnt mean that we should trade it in for a new and improved model. It simply means that we should look as it is administered to others and we should remember the grace of God held out to us in our baptism. We should understand it more. We should thank God and appreciate it more. And we should grow in the graces which flow from it. And so Paul is saying, "I want you to reflect about your baptism, and I want you to reflect about two particular things.

First that you were baptized into Christ, and second that you were baptized into His death." And he focuses on that in verses 3 and 4. And he begins that focus by asking another question. And heres his question: "Dont you know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have been baptized into His death?" So he turns us the subject of baptism. Now let me pause and tell you why hes done this. Remember hes just said, "If youre a believer, you died to sin." This very much unnerved his opposition. And they start scratching their heads, and theyre thinking, "Well, when exactly was it that we died to sin?" And Paul immediately says, "Consider your baptism." Now Paul doesnt say that because water baptism saves you. Paul doesnt say that water baptism, whenever it was administered, to whomever it was administered, however it was administered, by emersion, effusion, or sprinkling, to infants or adults - thats not the point here. He is not saying that water baptism saves you. Nor is he saying that water baptism is the instrument that unites you to Christ. What he is saying is that water baptism is a symbol of our union with Christ. Thats one thing that baptism symbolizes. Thats one thing that baptism signifies. And so in responding to that question, "When did we die to sin," Paul is pointing to union with Christ. And then he is pointing you to the sacrament which illustrates union with Christ, which is baptism. And he says, "Dont you know that everyone who has been baptized, is baptized into Christ, into His person, and into His death, into His work.

Now think about that for a few moments. When he says, think about it, you were baptized into Christ. No longer is sin master over you, Christ is master over you. No longer is sin your lord. Christ is your Lord. Thats symbolized in your baptism. You are not under the dominion of sin, youre not under the condemnation of the law, you are now living in the free grace reign of the dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even your baptism shows that you shouldnt go on sinning so that grace might increase, because youre not of the dominion of sin. Youre under the dominion of your Lord. You are baptized into Christ, into His person, you are bound with Him. Youre in covenant with Him, youre united with Him. Youre a beneficiary of His work. And youre baptized into His death. Christs person and work can never be separated. And so if you were baptized into Christ, then you were also a beneficiary of His work, and one of His great works was His death. And His death was to break the power of sin. Not only as penalty, but as power. Paul will later in this chapter, in verse 5, and then again in verse 11 tell us that Christ died to sin, and hes telling us that Christ has broken the power of sin. Sins power is broken in our lives because we are united in His death.

And Paul emphasizes how radically the break of the dominion of sin is by his using three words. Crucified, died and buried. You couldnt find three words that better stress a discontinuity between the old life and the new life. If you have been crucified, you are good and dead. If you have died, you are good and dead. If you have been buried, you are good and dead. Youve heard the joke where the guy says, "Death is natures way of telling you to slow down." Well, death brings an emphatic end with the life that has gone before it. The apostle is saying, "Look, if youve been baptized, and that baptism accurately reflects the reality that the Holy Spirit has brought in your heart, or will bring about in your heart, then that baptism itself testifies to your death to sin. Your death to the dominion of sin. And the power of sin.

And furthermore, on the positive side, it points to this ability that we might walk in the newness of life. Look at verse 4. "Our death to sin was so that we might walk in newness of life. And this newness of life, this break with sin is not something temporary, but its permanent because Christ was raised never to die again, and so we are dead to sin and alive to God. So hes pointing to the resurrection there. So the first thing that Paul does in response to the question , Well shouldnt we go on sinning," is remember who you are. And then the second thing that he does is he says, "Think about your baptism. Your baptism symbolized what union with Christ actually brings about." It brings about death to sin, and the breaking of the dominion of sin.

Think of this picture. Theres a very talented young woman, shes graduated from medical school, shes married, she has children, shes a practicing physician. She is tops in her field. Shes a member of a local Christian congregation. She has a serious accident, and she has to go on pain medication during the course of her recovery from that accident. She becomes addicted to pain medication. She begins to steal pain medication from the hospital where she works, and the clinic where she works. She then begins to engage in other types of illegal activities. This comes to the knowledge of not only her colleagues, but also the legal authorities and suddenly, as her marriage is falling apart, and her parenting is falling apart, she is actually facing judicial problems. Shes called before the court, but a merciful judge says to her, "There are mitigating circumstances here. Therefore, Im going to let you off the hook. Im not going to put you in jail. I cant speak for the medical association. I dont know whether theyll pull your license. I cant help you with your marriage and with your family; but what I want you to do is, I want you to go into treatment, and I want you to deal with this drug."

Notice what the judge is doing. He is being very kind. He is saying, "Im going to spare you the legal challenges here. You are not going to face the penalties for the laws you have broken, but you are going to have to go out and as best you can, through therapy, and help yourself to deal with these personal problems that you have." Thats all the judge can do. Hes being kind. Thats all he can do. Hes being kind. He cant change her life. He cant fix her up. He cant repair the breach in her marriage. He cant repair the problems in her career. But he can try and help. He spares her the punishment that is due for her crime.

Now that is not what God is doing when were saved. And that is what Paul is talking about when he talks about resurrection power. Hes saying, "Look, when God forgives you, He doesnt call you in court and say, Look theres some mitigating circumstances, and Im going to let you off the hook, but the rest youre going to have do on your own." Thats not the picture at all. First all, youre pulled into court and God says, "Okay, Ive read the case. There are no mitigating circumstances. You deserve to fry. But because of My Son, the perfection of His life, His death on your behalf, and His resurrection, I am going to spare you. I am going to forgive you. The slate is clean. Now, Im not going to send you out to do it on your own, because you cant. What you need is new life. Youre dead in sin, Im going to put a principle of new life in you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That new life in you will bring about a total life transformation."

III. The transformation of grace is decisive.

You see that what God is doing is totally different. And how does He do it? Through resurrection power. Look at verses 5 through 7. He focuses on this. Paul is emphatic. The transformation of grace is decisive. He can even talk about the death of our old self, the death of our old man, freedom from the dominion of sin. Paul points us to who we are. Paul points us to our baptism, and what it signifies. Thats why we shouldnt go on sinning.

But ultimately Paul points us to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the emphatic change of life that comes about in us, for us, because of Christs resurrection. Look at verse 5: "If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also in the likeness of His resurrection." Paul is emphasizing the hope that is held out in union with Christ, because we not only die to sin, but because we are united to Him, we are raised with Him.

Now what resurrection is Paul talking about? He is not merely talking about the resurrection to come. He is talking about the first resurrection. He is talking about the resurrection that is granted to us now. Did you realize that believers experience the first resurrection before they experience the first death? Believers are raised to newness of life with Christ when we first believe on Him. We are granted a foretaste of resurrection, glory and power to come in our present experience, so that we are no longer under the domination of sin. And Paul is saying here that if you have died to Him, youve been buried to Him, then surely youll be raised in His likeness. And this doesnt just mean some day in the future. He means now. Believers experience the first resurrection. Youre going to hear about that when Derek gets to Revelation, chapter 20 on Wednesday night. And youve always wondered in Revelation 20, what in the world is John talking about when he talks about the first resurrection and second resurrection, and you think that all gets into millennial views. Well, this is the first resurrection. Read John 3, read Romans 6, read I Thessalonians 5, and then you look at Revelation 20, youll have no problem with the first resurrection. Youll have it sorted out. This is the first resurrection. And Paul is saying, when you believe on Jesus Christ, God grants you new life that flows from the resurrection of Christ. Its yours because youre united to Him. Does it mean you never sin? Well, you obviously havent read Romans 7. Does it mean you never have a desire to sin? Well, you obviously havent read Romans 7. Does it mean that you are no longer under the dominion of sin? Absolutely. You have new life granted you in Jesus Christ. Leslie put it this way, "Made like Him, like Him we rise." I think hes probably thinking of the second resurrection. I think hes thinking of the final resurrection when Jesus comes to bring His people home, and were raised from the dead. But you see, its just as true of this first resurrection. This new life. Made like Him, like Him we rise. Every believer has two resurrections before Him. The resurrection of newness of life, and then the resurrection to come when the body is united with the Spirit and with Christ forever. God made the Son of His love to be the object of His love, to be the object of His wrath in order that we who were the objects of His wrath, might be made the Sons of His love.

Thats true, but theres more. It is not merely that God made the Son of His love, the object of His wrath, that we who were the objects of His wrath might become the Sons of His love, but also that we would be made to be like the Son of His love. You know, when you look at the gospel, there are many interesting reactions to Jesus. There is that interesting reaction from the Centurion at the foot of the cross, and the disciples are all pealing away, and the crowds are dissipating, and the earthquake comes, and the rocks are falling around him, and the Centurion is standing there, and he says, "Surely this Man was the Son of God." Theres that great reaction from Thomas who is standing before Jesus with Jesus displaying the marks in His flesh, and saying, "Thomas, if you dont believe Me, just put your finger right in there." You know, its interesting. John never tells us whether Thomas took him up on His offer or not. But Thomas, whatever he did, he finally falls down before his Lord, and he says, "My Lord and my God. Its amazing these reactions that you hear." Nobody ever says, "What a great moral teacher." What practical advice Jesus gave. They are always stunned by this man, and who He is.

And I wonder if someone ever reacted to Him this way, by saying, "What kind of a Father must He have?" You know, to see the glory of His Person, and they say, "What kind of a Father has a Son like this in His glory?" You see, the Heavenly Father wants people to ask the same question when they see you. He wants them to say, "What kind of a Father does she have?" "What kind of a Father does he have?" Because the resurrection life of Christ in us, remakes us into His likeness. Thats what Paul says here in Romans 6:5. And if we are made into His likeness, then what is that likeness? It is the very image and exact representation of His Heavenly Father. John 1, Colossians 1. He makes us to be like Him. He morally conforms us to His Image. And the apostle is saying, "That by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by our union with Him, we are broken free from the power from the domination of sin."

The reason that I told you that story before, and used the example of addiction is because we believe that those who are addicted are under the domination of the habit. But friends, we dont believe that we are under the dominion of sin if were apart from Jesus Christ. We believe that we are perfectly free to do as we please. And my friends, Paul is making it clear in this passage that if you are apart from Christ, you are under sin and you are a willing slave to it; and you are just as much dominated by it as any addict, as any junkie. And you are in just as desperate a shape. And so it makes no sense to say to you, "Do better." It makes no sense to say to you, "Look deep within, and find something to pull yourself out of this mess." No, you need new life from the outside implanted inside, and the apostle Paul in verses 5 through 7, says, "That new life comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ." God does not save you and forgive you in order to get you back ground zero neutral, and then you kind of take it from there. God saves you, He forgives you, and He grants you new life so that you might walk in that new life. Justification and liberation go hand in hand.

The Father wants us to look like His Son. Were not only forgiven by the Son, were transformed by the Son. And if you have not experienced that forgiving and loving transforming power this morning, then I have good news for you. There is but one thing that you must do. That is to renounce yourself, repent of your sin, bow the knee, trust in Him. Its all one complex. Your turning from yourself and youre turning to Him. Youre recognizing that youre the mess, youre the problem, you have no solutions to bring to this situation. You must only hold out the empty hand of faith, and beg for mercy. And I can promise you this, if that hand is extended, the Father always responds in mercy. May God grant mercy to you this day. Let us pray.

Lord God, the resurrection is glorious; and the new life that comes with it is glorious. And we ask, O God, that all who hear, would respond to that word in faith, in Jesus name, we ask it, Amen.

Living in Christ - Romans 6:8-14

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Living in Christ

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 6. As you do so, I want to remind you of a fact that may catch you off guard. For six and a half chapters, the apostle Paul has been writing to us about various things. If you notice, that not one time has he told you do anything. Isnt it interesting that for six and half chapters, the apostle Paul hasnt told us to do a single thing. Now, you may have been wanting that a little bit. "Paul when are you going to get finished with justification." You may be saying, "Ligon, when are you going to get finished with justification?" But, the apostle, for a very specific reason, has not commanded you to do anything yet. Because it is more important, he believes, that you understand first, what you were, then, what God has done for you; then, what God has done in you, and then, what God has made you to be. Only then are you ready to hear and respond to His commands.

In the Christian life grace must be operative before obedience is a possibility. Gospel obedience flows from the realization of Gods work of grace on our behalf. And so the apostle Paul has been belaboring your previous condition apart from Christ, what God has done, what God has done for you, what God has done in you, what God has been making you to be before He gives you a command. And so we get almost into the second third, even close to the second half of the book of Romans before he gives his first command. I want you to bear that in mind, as we come to this passage, because in and of itself, it is a sign of Gods grace. We remember Augustins words from his Confession when he prayed to the Lord. He said, "Lord, command what You will, but give what You command." In other words, Lord I know what Your law commands me to do, but I dont know how to do it unless You give me the grace to do so. And Paul is stressing that very point in the way he lays out the book of Romans.

And so as we move from Romans 6:10 to Romans 6:11, we move from that section of Romans which is stressing what God has done for you in forgiving you, to what God is doing in you and how you respond to the grace of God. So lets hear Gods holy and inspired word here in Romans, chapter 6, beginning in verse 8:

"If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never to die again. Death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin, as instruments of unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God, as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Lets pray.

Father, this is Your Word. We pray that by Your Spirit, we wouldnt just be interested in it or made curious to understand it intellectually, but that we would be transformed by Your word, that we would respond to Your word by loving it, by desiring to be conformed to the description of Your purposes contained therein. We pray Heavenly Father, that in any of these things if we are unfamiliar with Your grace, that this would be a day of grace for us, and that we would come to know Jesus Christ savingly. But in all this, we pray that Your people would be instructed and those who were not Your people, would be drawn into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. These things we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

I. In faith union with Christ, the believer is not only dead to sin but also alive in Christ.

There are two things that we need to see to understand what is going on in chapter 6 of Romans, and the first is this. In the Christian life, Im going to use a grammatical phrase, in the Christian life, the indicative precedes the imperative. What in the world do I mean by that? Well, simply this. We do not obey in order to be redeemed, but rather we are redeemed, and that redemption enables us to obey. In other words, what we are in the Christian life, precedes our ability to obey that which God would have us to do. And this is emphasized not only by Paul, but we find it in the Old Testament as well. You will remember the story of the Exodus. How God sent Moses into the land of Egypt with the law, and he said, "If you would obey the law, I will bring you out of Egypt." Now already you are scratching your head, and youre saying, "I dont remember that story." Good, Im glad you dont. Its not there. He did not send Moses into Egypt and say, "If you will obey the law, I will bring you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and I will redeem you." No, He sent Moses into Egypt with a revelation of Himself, and a revelation of His covenant of grace. He had heard their cries because of the gracious covenant which He had made with Abraham, and therefore, He was going to bring them out of the land of Egypt, and once He got them out of the land of Egypt, lo and behold, at the mountain of Sinai He gave them the law. So He redeemed, and then He gave them the law.

And you see this emphasized by Moses even in the giving of the Ten Commandments. Turn in your Bible to Exodus, chapter 20, verses 1 through 3. In those verses, we have a beautiful display of how grace enables law in the Christian life. Or to put it another way, how the grace of God working in us, gives us new life, and thus the ability to be obedient to and to desire to be obedient to Gods law. In Exodus, chapter 20 verse 1, we read, "And God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me." Now note the order of verses 2 and 3. It does not say, I you will obey the command, you shall have no other gods before Me, then I will be the God who brings you out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. No, its the other way around. Ive already brought you out of the land of Egypt. Ive already brought you out of the house of savery. Now, therefore, as My children, this is the family law. This is the parental law. This is the fatherly law given to My children. Obey it. You see, the law does not redeem Israel out of Egypt. Gods grace redeems Israel out of Egypt. The blood of the shed Passover lamb redeems Israel out of Egypt, but the law then is given in response to Gods work of grace. What we are precedes what we are to do in Christian experience. What God has made us to be by His grace, enables us to do what He has commanded. Lets go back to Augustin again. Oh Lord, command what You will, but give what You command. Lord, what you command is right, but give me the ability to do that which is right. Paul stresses that beautifully by spending six and a half chapters to tell us about the indicative before He ever comes to tell us one time about the imperative, about the command, about the mandate. The first key to your understanding of Romans 6.

Secondly, you need to see this. In the Christian life, justification and sanctification are a package deal. As God grants us forgiveness in salvation, so He breaks our bondage to sin. Gods plan of salvation is that we would be delivered from both sins penalty and its power. In justification, He forgives our sins and accepts us as righteous. And in sanctification He imparts new life to us through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and enables us to become that which He intended us to be from the beginning. As God grants forgiveness in salvation, so He breaks our bondage to sin.

The problem is many Christians want forgiveness, but they dont want holiness. Now youve heard the prayer, "Sanctify me, Lord, but not yet." I dont know where these emails come that tell these stories about childrens prayers, but I get about one a week. I dont what the key source is on that. But a few weeks ago, I got one and I read this childs prayer, and I said, "Aha, that will work for Romans, chapter 6." And the prayer went something like this: "Lord, make me a better boy. But if you cant make me a better boy, its all right because I really like the way I am." Well, that is precisely the feeling of many Christians. They are perfectly happy being forgiven but not holy. They are perfectly happy being accepted, but not righteous, forgiven but not sanctified. And the apostle Paul does not consider that to even be a possibility if you are in Romans, chapter 6. Justification and sanctification are a package deal. Gods forgiveness and Gods delivering us from the dominion of sin in our lives, is a package deal. God doesnt just save us so that we can be forgiven and go on in our bondage to a life of sin, He saves us to deliver us from that life of bondage. Thats what Paul is talking about here in Romans 6 and especially here in verses 8 through 14, as He begins to set forth these imperatives, this becomes very apparent. And Id like to walk through the passage with you today.

Now in order that you can follow me clearly, let me tell you where were going. Verses 8 through 10, were going to look at how resurrection gives us new life, and it doesnt just give us new life then, when He comes again and we are raised again and united with our spirits, but it gives us new life now.

Then, beginning in verse 11, Paul gives the first of four commands for imperatives. The first command in verse 11 is know who you are. The second command in verse 12 is be who you are. The third command in verse 13, the first part of the verse is dont allow yourself to be used as a tool for sin. And the fourth command in the second half of verse 13 is give your whole being to God as a tool for righteousness. And then he gives a word of encouragement in verse 14. Thats the outline of what were going to do today. Lets look at verses 8 through 10 first.

II. In faith union with Christ, the believer is not only dead to sin but also alive in Christ.

Here Paul tells us that our resurrection in Christ begins at the new birth, not just at the Second Coming. When were united to Christ and when we are raised again with Christ, that not only points to the day when we will one day be raised again in our mortal bodies and given a glorious and incorruptible body and united with our spirits and reign with the saints in heaven forever and ever, but it points to the now in which God is working His grace in us. Hes not only imputed righteousness to us, He is imparting righteousness to us by His sanctifying grace. And so in union with Christ, when we trust in Jesus Christ, when we have faith in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit and we are united with Him, the believer is not only dead to sin but alive to Christ.

Paul has been teaching in verses 1 through 7 about what it means to be dead to sin. Now he wants to emphasize the positive side of being united to Christ. Were living in newness of life, were walking in newness of life because of Jesus resurrection life. Jesus resurrection life is the source for the new life that is in us. Have you ever wondered how exactly is it that a person is reborn? Nicodemus once asked that question to Jesus. Jesus talked to him about the nature of the new birth and He emphasized what? The work of the Holy Spirit. When Paul talks about that in Romans, chapter 6, he emphasizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ which provides for us a source of new life. And in this newness of life we experience a radical break with sin. You remember what Paul describes us as before we became believers or apart from Christ in Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 1? What does he call us? He says, "Remember you were dead." You were dead in sin. Well, in Romans, chapter 6, in order to emphasize to us how radical this transformation work by Jesus Christ is, what does He say? Not that were dead in sin, but that were dead to sin, and that were alive in Jesus Christ. So its a total contrast. Hes saying that Gods grace is a radically, transforming power. We are not justified by that new birth. In other words, God doesnt accept us because of the new life. He accepts us because of what Jesus did. He accepts us because of Jesus righteousness. And when He accepts us, He always gives us new life, too. In other words, they are a package deal. Forgiveness and the new birth come together. And so we are justified by grace through faith, but along with that we are given a new birth which enables us by Gods grace to walk in a newness of life. In Gods plan of salvation, He plans not only to forgive us, but to change us; not only to justify us but to sanctify us. Not only to free us from sins penalty, but to release us of the bondage of its power. And thats what Paul is talking about here in Romans, chapter 6. When he gets to the imperatives, it is important that we understand that particular principle. Gods grace perceives our ability to obey the imperatives, but in Gods plan He not only wants to forgive us, but to change us, to transform us, to make us like Him; to make us godly, to made us like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now having said that, lets look at each of these four imperatives.

III. Appreciate your union with Christ. Know who you are.

Look at what Paul says. Even so consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God and Jesus Christ." Heres the first imperative. "Know who you are." Isnt it glorious, that after going for six and a half chapters without a single command, the first command that we hear from God through the words of the inspired apostle Paul is simply this. Consider who Ive made you to be. Heres my first command for you. You think about what Ive made you to be. You think about who you are. Know who you are. Paul is saying appreciate, dwell on, take in, internalize, what you have been made to be in union with Christ. And this is so important because believers struggle with sin. I say this in just a few minutes, but its very clear that throughout this passage that Paul is saying these things because he knows that Christians do struggle with sin, not because Paul thinks that Christians want to struggle with sin. Dont be confused with that. Paul knows that when he says to you, "You are dead to sin," your instinctive reaction inside would never be to say in Sunday School class, "Well, I dont feel dead to sin. I mean, you may say that, Paul, but it sure doesnt feel that way. It sure doesnt look that way to me. When I look at my life, I dont feel like Im dead to sin." And thats precisely why Paul is saying this to you. Paul is saying this because we must actively, consciously appreciate, dwell on, take in and internalize what God has done for us in union for Christ because sometimes it doesnt seem like much has changed. And the most mature Christians are the quickest to see their own faults. And so it is vital that they pause to realize what God has actually done in them now.

When Paul says, "know who you are; realize what God has made you to be in Christ" let me tell you what he does not mean, because every mystical heretic in the history of the church has misunderstood this passage. First of all, Paul is not saying, "Go take a Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale "Positive Thinking" course and think positively about yourself. Hes not saying, "Look, okay, I know youre a sinner, but think real positive thoughts, have a good positive attitude about yourself, and then lo and behold, that will have an attitudinal affect on you and then youll not be a sinner." Paul is saying, "This is what you are. You are dead to sin. I want you to think about what God has made you to be, dead to sin." Hes not saying, "If you have a good positive attitude about it, maybe that will become the case." Hes saying that "It is already the case, and I want you to reflect on it."

Secondly, He is not saying in the manner of a new age guru, visualize yourself as dead to sin. If youve been in business or in sports sometime in the last ten or fifteen years you have suffered through some sort of seminar where they told you that you needed the art of visualization. You know what Im talking about. When Rocket Ismail ran that touchdown back from kickoff in a Notre Dame game a number of years ago, Sports Illustrated interviewed him, and he said, "Well, you see, I visualized that touchdown ahead of time. I stopped, I paused, I saw myself breaking through the line and going 100 yards for a touchdown; and, therefore, I made it happen." But the apostle Paul is not saying that. Hes not saying, "Visualize yourself as person who is dead to sin, and then maybe youll become one. Youll break through the line and become a person dead to sin." Notice he is saying this already is a reality. You are dead to sin. I want you to consider it. He is not saying to live in denial. He is not saying see yourself as dead to sin and, therefore, never admit that you sin.

Let me illustrate this in a conversation. Mother and daughter are having a conversation. Daughter says to mother, "Mother you were horrible to Barbara this morning. You were so mean to her." And mother says, "Oh, Im dead to sin. It was not possible that I could have been horrible to Barbara this morning." This is not what Paul is saying. Hes not saying that we should deny that we ever sin. Hes saying, recognize that you are dead sin, the power of sin, the dominion of sin, the bondage of sin in your life has been definitively broken. He is, furthermore, not saying that we should always think of ourselves as forgiven. You know, someone comes up to us and they say, "Well, Ligon, you know youve really sinned again me today, and Id like you to think about that." And you respond by saying, "Oh, Im already forgiven, and God looks at me as forgiven; so you need to look at me as forgiven, too." Now thats not what Paul is saying either. Paul is saying, by Gods grace He has made you to be dead to sin. He has destroyed the dominion of sin, the reign of sin in your life, and you need to realize it. Its like a young man whose been single a long, long time, and hes married a wonderful bride, but hes having a hard time remembering that hes not single any more. And hes doing things like going out and making major purchases without consulting his wife. And hes making social plans without consulting his wife. And an older and godly man pulls him aside and says, "Son, you need to consider that you are married." You see, its not that the guy has to sit there and say, "Now if I think hard enough, Ill be married." He already is married; he just needs to live like he is. Its like a woman who has grown up in the setting where she really hasnt been loved with devoted, caring, nurturing love; and suddenly, shes in a relationship with a man who is her husband who loves her. She really has a hard time taking that in. Its hard for her to believe that because she hasnt experienced that growing up, and a wise and godly woman takes her aside and says, "You know, he really is crazy about you. You need to think about that, and take that in."

Paul is telling you about a reality that God in His grace has already done for you, and you need to pause and reflect on what He has done. Consider yourself dead to sin. Know who you are. You are dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ. Its not only that Paul is saying, "Realize what the purposes of Gods grace are, to cause us to be made like Him, to be godly and righteous. But Hes saying, realize what Gods grace has already actually made you to be in the here and now. You know I think some Christians believe that God saved us back then, and that Hes going to save us in the future when He comes again in the great bodily coming of Jesus Christ, but in-between its kind of were on our own. And Paul is emphasizing that many of you never stop to think about what Hes done. Youve got this glorious gift, and you never, ever stop to think about it.

IV. In light of who you are, dont live like a slave to sin! Be who you are.

Secondly, notice what he says in verse 12. He draws a conclusion from this. And his second imperative is this. Be who you are. Act like who you are. Live like who you are. In other words, hes saying, in light of who you are dont be a slave to sin. Look at his words: "Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you obey its lust."

There are three things in that sentence I want you to lock on to. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey its lust. Look at those three components. This is a very important passage. Its clear that Paul is not saying, "Okay, as a Christian because youre dead to sin, you should never, ever sin again. And if you ever sin again youre not a Christian." He doesnt say, "Do not ever sin again." He does say, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body." You are not under the dominion of sin. Your life is not characterized by the addictive, controlling bondage of the desires of sin. It does not mean that you do not struggle with sin, if you dont believe me, look at Romans, chapter 7. Paul, by the way, wouldnt have to be saying this to us if we werent struggling with sin.

There are two things that you need to understand to understand verse 12. The first thing is this: that it is really true that sin does not reign over us as believers. The second thing is this: that believers really do struggle with sin. Paul wouldnt have to be telling you not to let sin reign if you werent struggling with sin. Think about that. If all Christians in the church were sinlessly perfected, would Paul have had to tell them "Do not let sin reign in your body"? No. So the very fact that he has to say that lets you know that you are a believer struggling with sin. So whats the issue? Dont let sin reign. Your life is no longer controlled by the desires of sin. Its no longer controlled by this agenda of sin. You are not under the addictive power of sin. Your new life in Christ has brought you new desires and new godliness and new birth.

Isnt it interesting that Paul realizes that before you can tell a Christian do what God says here or do what God says there, they have to recognize who they are. Pauls ethics are always like this. He never says become who you are not. He says rather, be who you are. Live what God has made you to be. And thats very important if youre not a believer today. Were not saying to you, become what youre not. Were not saying youre not a righteous person. You really ought to work at it. Were saying that you cant be a righteous person apart from the grace of God and Jesus Christ. And if youre not a person who is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only thing you can do is recognize your own need of His mercy and cast yourself upon that mercy, trusting in Him alone for salvation. Then, He imparts to you a new life because being a Christian is not making a new start in life, its receiving a new life to start with. And so the apostle Paul is saying, "Be who you are." Hes not telling you become what youre not. Hes saying act like what God has made you to be. Live in accordance with what God has made you to be. So sin is not going to reign.

Now I mentioned three phrases. In your mortal body to obey its cravings or lust. Lets take the last one first. Look at the end of the sentence. To obey its lust. Paul is pointing here especially to the realm of desires. I think it is very important to understand what he is saying when he says, "Dont let sin reign." One of the first ways that we know that God is doing a work of grace in our lives is that we no longer desire to live a life of sin. We desire to live a life of godliness. We desire to be like the Lord. We desire to see those things that are good and pure and beautiful. We desire after godliness. We can say then with the psalmist, "How I love Your law, O Lord." And Paul is saying that one of the evidences of sins reign, is that your desires are totally captive to sin. But when grace comes, you are liberated from that captivity to sin. New life brings a decisive break with the desires of sin, and it brings an advent of desires for righteousness. Now we dont always follow those new desires consistently. But thank God we dont always follow those old desires consistently either. And thats the evidence of Gods grace. Sin is not king any more, Paul says. Christ is King. God is King in your life. His grace is reigning in your life. So remember who is boss now. Sin is not reigning any more.

Notice also, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body." Paul is very aware that the body itself can become a conduit for sin that affect our desires. The cravings of sin often utilize the body in order to make their interest. Lust, greed, pride, untruthfulness, strife spreading, and worldliness. Oftentimes the body itself provides a conduit for these sins in our lives. And so Paul says, "Dont let sin reign in your body."

V. In light of who you are, dont be a tool for wrongdoing.

Thirdly, if you look in verse 13 Paul says, "Dont allow any part of yourself to be used as a tool for sin. This follows on this same idea that weve just been talking about. In other words, Paul says, "In light of who you are, dont be used as a tool for sin. You are now redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, youre forgiven of sins, you have broken free from the power and bondage to sin, so dont be a tool for wrongdoing. Dont let your body be used as an instrument for wickedness." Weve said that Paul knew that the flesh could be a conduit for sin. And so hes saying, "Be on guard of sins use of the portal of your body to be a gateway for sin."

Men, your eyes can be a portal for sin. Pornography, whether it may be written, whether it may be in video form, whether it may be on television, whether it may be on a move screen, whether it may be on the internet, it can become a portal for sin. And Paul is saying, "Do not let the members of your body become a portal for sin." In the same way the eyes can be a gate for adultery, or the lips can be the gate for the abuse of alcohol. And so the apostle is saying guard against the members of your body as instruments for sin.

Women, the eyes can be a gate for jealousy and envy. When we look around, we see someone who has things that we dont have, and we really desire to have those. Someone who has friends that we dont have, and we really desire to have them. Someone who has status that we dont have, and we really desire to have it. Someone who has acceptance in relationships that we dont have, and we really desire to have them. Jealousy can come in through the eye. Or perhaps the besetting sin is money or pride or clothing or status.

But God is saying to us, thought the apostle Paul, Christian, look at how the body itself can be used by Satan as a portal for sin, and dont let that happen; because youre not under the reign of Satan anymore in sin. You are under grace. And that means we are going to need to know our weaknesses, and were going to need to recognize our temptations, and were going to have to confront sinful practices that we know we have. And were going to have to stay away from known sources of temptation. And were going to have to invest time in good habits and activities and were going to have to consciously depend upon Gods grace to do it because we know the power of sin, and how it can bring us into bondage. And so well have to strive in order to say no to sin. And Paul is saying here, "Dont allow any part of yourself to be used as a tool for sin."

VI. In light of who you are, give yourself to God.

And then finally he is saying this. Verse 13, the second half. "Give your whole being as a tool for righteousness." Were not to allow any part of our bodies to be used for sin. We ought to give all of ourselves, inside out, all of the members of our body as well as our inmost being to God as a tool for righteousness. In other words, Paul is saying, " In light of who you are, a person who is dead to sin, and alive to Christ, give yourself to God. Present your whole being to God, as someone who is alive to God, dead to sin. Give your body to the Lord as a tool for righteousness, because sin shall not be master over you precisely because youre not under law, youre under Christ."

Paul knows that people will use that phrase, "youre not under law, youre under grace," as an excuse not to follow after the way of righteousness. And so he puts it the other way around. He says, "Why is it that we present the whole of ourselves to God as tools righteousness?" Well, the reason that we do it is because were not under law, were under grace. What in the world does he mean? He means this. The law doesnt have the power to enable you to do that, but grace does. The law tells you what you should do, but it doesnt have the power to help you to do what you should do. Grace gives you the power to do what the law tells you to do. And because youre not under law, and youre not under the condemnation of the law, therefore youre not under the opposition of the law and the conviction of the law because youre under grace. Youve been redeemed, youve been forgiven, youve been empowered. Do what the law tells you to do, because youre not under the law, but because youre under grace. So in light of who you are, give yourself to God. Live life in the conscious gaze of God. He is witnessing everything that we do. We live before his face.

This is so important both for our witness and for our assurance. Think about that for a second. Let me promise you this. Youre a believer. Youve been forgiven by God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are living in such a way that you are not pursuing this new walk of faith, this new life in Christ. I promise you will struggle with assurance. When David was in the midst of that nine-month sin with regard to Bathsheba, he tells us in Psalm 51 that "his bones waxed old." He was under the conviction of sin. Did he have assurance? No. God didnt want him to have assurance. He loved him too much to let him have assurance in a situation like that. If youre not pursuing after this new life, I promise you youll struggle with assurance.

But secondly, let me say this. This is so important for witness, because this new, this transformed life is crucial to our witness of the truth of the gospel. I had the privilege of eating supper with Eric Alexander last night, and I was asking Eric, "Eric, how did you become a Christian?" And he said, "Well thats very interesting that youve asked because theres no one in my family who was a Christian. My parents werent Christians, my grandparents werent Christians. As far as I know, my great grandparents werent Christians." I asked, "Did you come under the influence of some faithful, evangelical preacher?" "Well, actually no. Initially the influence was three friends in school who were Christians, and I could see in their lives that there was something totally different about them. They were different. God had done a work in them, and they were different. And then my brother was saved. And when I saw him again, I realized he was different, and that was what God began to use in my life. Transformed lives of Christians as a witness to Jesus Christ." It was very interesting. He went on to tell us that when he was twelve years old, a young man named William Still came to be the associate minister at their church where he had grown up. Eric was twelve years old, and already by the time he was twelve, he had decided he wanted to be a medical doctor. He did eventually go to medical school at the University of Glasgow. But there was a lady in the church who had a crush on Mr. Still, who was single. And she would find any excuse she could to get into a conversation with Mr. Still. So one day before Sunday School, she was talking to Eric, and she saw Mr. Still walking by, and she said, "Mr. Still, I want to introduce you to Eric Alexander." And so she drug him over to speak to little twelve-year old Eric. "Mr. Still, this is Eric Alexander, and when he grows up hes going to be a doctor." And Mr. Still leaned over, and he put his hand on Erics head, and he said, "Eric Alexander, whatever you grow up to be, I hope you grow up to be like Jesus." Isnt that interesting that thats precisely what happened, and its precisely these friends, who were like Jesus, that God used to bring Eric Alexander into a saving relationship with Jesus. You see, being transformed by the grace of God is a crucial part of our witness, and if we dont have the desire to walk in that newness of life, it is a definitive evidence that God is not doing His work of grace in us, and we need to seek that grace. May God grant that we would be both forgiven and transformed. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, we bow before You and praise Your Holy Name. We ask that You would enable us to walk in newness of life by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, Amen.

Under Grace - Romans 6:15-18

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[a] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:15-18)

Grace Under Fire

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn to Romans 6. Were going to be looking at Romans 6, verses 15 through 18 today. Id like to remind you of a couple of things before we read this passage. From Romans, chapter 3 through 5, Paul has especially reminded us that our forgiveness, our acceptance with God is grounded in His grace. Romans 6 has been stressing that grace transforms. In Romans chapter 6, he is stressing that we are not only forgiven by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, but we are transformed, we are changed; we are made a new creation.

Thats been one of the great themes of the first fourteen verses of this particular chapter. You will remember, if you look back at verse 1 of chapter 6, that it begins with a question: Shall we continue to sin in order that grace may abound? Now, youll notice that the passage that were going to read today begins with basically the same question, slightly rephrased. In Romans 6:1 it says, "Shall we continue to sin?" In Romans 6:15, the question is, "Shall we sin?" Paul is coming back to a similar question because hes getting to this issue of the relationship between the free forgiveness and justification that we have in Jesus Christ, and acceptance with God not based upon anything in us, Not based upon our works, but based upon what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, and how that relates to Gods transforming work in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so hes asking the question, once grace reigns, do we continue to live a life under the dominion and the mastery of sin? Or should we do so in order to show all the more the reign of grace? And this question has preoccupied his thoughts for the first fourteen verses. Hes made it clear so far that when God comes to us in His grace, He breaks not only the penalty of sin, but He breaks the power of sin. Hes going to assert that again in the passage today. And I just want you to note the relationship between the question in verse 15 and the question in verse 1.

The second thing I want you to note is in verse 14. Look back to that verse. At the end of the last section that we studied, Paul introduced an interesting phrase. The phrase is, "You are not under law, but you are under grace." Now it is that phrase which is going to spawn a misunderstanding of Pauls gospel, which he is going to correct by asking another question in the passage that we are studying today. So with that introduction, lets look at Gods holy word here in Romans 6, verses 15 through 18. This is the word of God:

"What then, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Father, we before You, and we ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful truths from Your Word. This passage is one that has confused many, perhaps it has confused us in the past. We ask though that not merely for an understanding of it, but we ask, O God, that by the transforming grace of the Holy Spirit, we would become Your faithful servants, those who delight to do Your will, to the praise and the glory of Your Grace, and by its power. In Jesus Name, we ask these things, Amen.

What does it mean to be free? We live in a culture that is obsessed with freedom. Freedom is a thing, a quantity, its a concept that we value highly and rightly so. We should never take the freedoms that we have and which have been transferred to us and protected and handed on to us. We should never take those things lightly. But we tend to be slightly freedom obsessed. So what is it to be free? What does that mean? Paul is exploring that question in the passage before you. What does it mean to be free as a Christian. What does it mean to be out from under the bondage of the law. What does it mean to be under the reign of grace. Its that kind of question that Paul is exploring, because hes been talking about some of the tremendous freedoms of God. You remember especially in Romans 5, 1 through 11, hes cataloged for you a list of these freedoms that you have: youre freed from the wrath of God, youre freed from the penalty of sin, youre freed from the fear of condemnation. Youve gotten this bank of freedoms handed to you. But in the meantime, in Romans, chapter 6, a shadow has cast itself across the page of Pauls gospel that is suggesting that some people have misunderstood these freedoms as a license to sin. They have understood these freedoms which we have been granted as an excuse to ignore the pursuit of holiness and godliness, and so in Romans, chapter 6, Paul has been correcting that misunderstanding. He started out by saying, are we to continue in sin so that grace might increase? And his answer has been an emphatic and an extended no.

And now in verse 14, having just said to us that sin shall not be master over you because you are not under law but under grace, he is confronted with another misunderstanding of his teaching. And he states the objection, the misunderstanding of his teaching rhetorically: What should we say then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace. Apparently there were some people who were saying, "Thats right, Paul, we are not under the law, were under grace, and, therefore, it doesnt matter how we live. We are freed from the law, oh happy condition, we can do as we please now that we have remission." And that was the philosophy of these people.

And the apostle once again says, "No, thats wrong." And he says it in a very helpful way. He says, "No, first, by re-asking their question in verse 15. Secondly, he says, "No," by counter-posing another question in verse 16. He offers another question in place of the question thats been asked of him. And then in verses 17 and 18, he gives this frankly shocking parallel between what it means to be a slave to sin, and what it means to be a slave to righteousness. Id like to look at Pauls description of what true Christian freedom is by looking at the question in verse 15, the question in verse 16, and this parallel in verses 17 and 18. Lets attend to the passage. Look at verse 15 first.

I. What is Gods grace designed to accomplish in us?

Paul is responding to a question. The question is basically this. Should we sin because we are under grace? Its a very similar question to the question in verse 1. Should we continue to sin in order that grace might increase? Should we sin because we are not under law, but under grace. Thats the question thats being asked. Paul is raising the issue in your mind of what Gods grace was designed to accomplish in me? What did God intend to do in me by His grace. Not simply for me, not simply in accepting me by the free justification which Jesus Christs sacrifice on the cross has accomplished, but what does Gods grace intend to do with me and in me? Paul is asking us to ask ourselves that question by posing this question in verse 15.

Now the question itself raises another question in our minds, and that is, what exactly does it mean that were not under law, but under grace? What does it mean to not be under law? Positively, what does it mean to be under grace? More fully, what does it mean to be not under law, but rather to be under grace? A lot of people give a lot of different answers to that. So lets walk through three wrong answers to that question, and work our ways toward a right answer to that question. Youll appreciate what Paul is saying.

A lot of people believe that what it means as a Christian that you are not under law but under grace, means that there are no longer any rules. You know, rules are sort of cramping our style. The Pharisees, they have all these rules, and the great thing about Jesus is He gets rid of all the rules. There are no more rules. This is what I call Outback Steakhouse theology. Youve seen the ad. No rules, just right. You know, I have been dying to go into an Outback Steakhouse, and when the waitress is serving another table, just walk up, introduce myself and say, "Blooming onion, right now. Drop those people. Blooming onion right now. I make the rules here." No rules, just right. And just right for me is my blooming onion right now. And when she comes by to pick up, you know, my card to pay for the thing, I say, "Uh, uh, empty the cash register right here, right now." No rules, just right. You see, this whole idea that rules are the problem is one of the dumb ideas of all time. Thats not what it means not to be under law, but under grace. It doesnt mean that the rules no longer exist. What a windless world it would be with no rules. We would all become our own little czars, you know, asserting our own individual wants and need at any particular time at the expense of everyone else. Being under law doesnt mean "Oh, youre under this terrible bondage of being order in the world, and now thank heavens, Jesus has gotten rid of all that order, and there are no rules now. Everything has just kind of fallen apart, and theres this divine anarchy going on." Thats not what it means to not be under law, but under grace.

Secondly, some Christians say, "Well, its like this. Its not that there are no rules, its that in the Old Testament you had to obey the rules, and in the New Testament you dont have to, but you do anyway because you want to." In the Old Testament you had to, in the New Testament you dont have to but you want to. Thats not what Paul is saying. You know Ive had Christians who believe that and they say to me, "We dont have to obey the Ten commandments any more." We do because we want to, but we dont have to. Ive even heard people say, "Well, we dont really have to obey the Sermon on the Mount. Thats about the kingdom age to come. We might do those because we want to, but we dont have to." Thats not what Paul is positing here either. If Gods commands are how we love God with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength, and how we love our neighbor as ourselves, then they are not optional. The point of freedom for the Christian is not that godliness become optional, and we do it when we feel like it. Thats not the freedom that Paul is talking about. Thats a wrong response.

Now other people will say, "Look, heres the freedom." In the Old Testament you had these ten commands. In the New Testament those commands are not repeated anywhere. Thats actually wrong, but they think that. At any rate, you know, in the Old Testament you have these ten commands. Now you dont have them any more. We have the moral principles of the New Testament. Well, its interesting if you look at those moral principles; they look a whole lot like the moral law of the Old Testament. Our freedom from the law means were not under the Old Testament moral law, now were under New Testament principles. Thats not what Paul is saying either. Paul and the author of Hebrews in different places make it clear that the culminating purpose of Gods grace in the covenant of grace can be typified in what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 31:31 through 34. And what did he say? What is the mark of a person who is the ultimate new covenant Christian? The law is written on their hearts. Which law? Gods moral law. Because Gods moral law is the reflection of His own nature. Its what Hes like, and He wants us to be morally like Him. Yes, its true that the ceremonial law has been abrogated, because it has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and yes, it is true that the civil law of Israel no longer pertains because the state has expired. There may be principles to learn from it, but the civil law is no longer binding, but the moral law is a reflection of Gods character. And the freedom that we have as Christians is not a liberation from Gods character. For surely we want to be like Him, we want to be like our Heavenly Father.

So if all those things are not what Paul means by not being under law but under grace, what does he mean? Well, some people might say this. It means that were not under the condemnation of the law. Thats true, but thats not what Paul is talking about now. He has talked about that, and he will talk about it again, but right now, he seems not so much to be talking about our forgiveness and our acceptance and our freedom from condemnation, as he is talking about the fact that we are no longer pawns of sin anymore. We are no longer dominated by this tyrannical master of sin. Hes telling us, here, that we are not under the law, but under grace in this sense. We are free from the domination of sin, and we are supported by the strength, by the power of grace, in order to be like God. Morality, godliness, holiness, obedience flows from the work of the grace of the Holy Spirit in us.

You see, the problem is not rules. The problem is not obligation to those rules. The problem is not even Old Testament moral law. The problem is sin. And the strength of sins dominion over us is found in the condemning aspects of the law. Paul makes that point. Turn with me to I Corinthians, chapter 15. In I Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 56, Paul says this: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin, the strength of sin is the law, and, therefore, as a believer, God has liberated you from the dominion, from the power, from the strength of sin. In that sense you are not under law. You live under the reign of the grace of the Holy Spirit. So that the law is not now public enemy number one, because its the number one source of your condemnation, and at the same time is totally unable to transform you. You live under the reign of grace where the power of the Holy Spirit becomes dynamic that enables you to say, "How I love Your law, O Lord. I mediate on it day and night, and I walk in those ways, because its a lamp unto my feet, and its a light to my path." And we sing about this all the time, and I think we probably miss it. Take your hymnal out and look at 499. I know most of you have this hymn memorized, and I thank God for that. But look closely because you may miss this wonderful statement or stanza one. "Rock of Ages, Cleft For Me," 499. First stanza. Hes singing initially about justification isnt he? Well, Christ is the one who is our Mediator, Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me. By the way, this is the wonderful Calvinist Augustus Toplady who wrote this hymn. "Rock of Ages, Cleft For Me, let me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power." You see,Toplady there is not only desirous to be forgiven, not only desirous of being spared the penalty of sin, hes praising God that from the work of Christ also flows the breaking of the power of sin. Its not just the guilt of sin thats been dealt with by God and Jesus Christ, its the power of sin. Ive not only been forgiven; Ive been transformed. I have a new master. Theres a new power at work in me. The power of grace, the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Theres a new situation in my life; theres transformation.

And if you turn forward thirty hymns, to number 529, another one that many of you have memorized. "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling." And if youll look in the second stanza in this hymn, "Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast," let us all in Thee inherit, let us find the promised rest, take away the love of sinning, Alpha and Omega be, end of faith as its beginning set our hearts at liberty." Look at the justaposition of those phrases at the end of the third section of this stanza, and the fourth section. Take away the love of sinning, set our hearts at liberty. You know, we Calvinists dont always agree with Charles Wesley. But on this, were in lock step. We agree entirely. Take away the love of sinning, set our hearts at liberty. Whats true freedom? When the dominion of sin is broken. When the love of sin has had its death grip loosed on us. We can breathe again, and we can seek after something greater and better. Take away the love of sinning, set our hearts at liberty.

What is Paul telling us here when he says that we are not under law, were under grace? Hes saying that grace is designed to answer sin in its penalty and power. Justification and sanctification were the other code words that we could use for that. Grace designs not only to forgive us, to freely justify us, but grace designs to transform us, to sanctify us. Its a beautiful thing. Thats the first thing that Paul draws our attention to. Grace is designed to answer sin in its penalty and power. Thats what it means to be not under law, but under grace.

II. Obligation is not optional in this world, the issue is to what/whom are you obligated.

Secondly, look at verse 16. Paul, you know this question is put out there, well should we sin, since were not under law but under grace? Well, in light of what we just said, thats sort of a ridiculous question. Paul knows that, and so he poses a counter-question. He says, "Let me give you a really good question. Thats not a very good question. Let me give you a little better one to think about." Verse 16. Heres my paraphrase of it. Dont you know that you are a slave of the one you obey? Dont you know that thats a reality of life? You are a slave of the one you obey. Whats Paul getting at here? Paul is telling you that obligation is not optional in this world. The issue is to what or to whom will you be obligated. Obligation is not an option in this world. You see, we live in a day and time where freedom means freedom from obligations. Freedom means, "Hey, I will do what I jolly well please to do whenever I want to do it, wherever I want to do it, however I want to do it." And unfortunately many Christians think, "Hey, thats Christian freedom. You know, Im forgiven now. Ill do what I jolly well please, whenever I want to do it, wherever I want to do it, however I want to do it." And the apostle Paul is saying, "That view of freedom is a myth. It does not exist. There is no such thing as non-obligation in life. You are always obligated to that which you are pursuing. Whether it be sin or righteousness, whether it be Satans agenda or self-agenda or Gods agenda.

Thats why, by the way, parents, its so important that as we encourage our children to pursue their gifts we do not to give them the advice of the world which says, you can be anything you want to be. My friends, that is a lie. You know, you may have a 52" son. Im afraid he is never going to be an NBA center banging around with Zoe (Jerome Moiso) in the paint. Its not going to happen. Now I understand that sometimes we say that to mean, "Look, if youre going to do anything in life, youve got to be committed to it. Youve got to want to do it. But strictly speaking, the counsel that you can be anything that you want to be is utter folly. But you see it on commercials, you see it on sports motivation, you see it in business, you can be anything you want to be. Thats terrible counsel. And let me say that is bondage for a child. Thats not freedom for a child. A child could go off pursuing something that they are not capable of pursuing out of belief in this myth that you can do anything that you want to do. No, You can do anything that God wants you to be, but you cant be anything that you want to be. And so we need to put that in context. Thats myth that we believe in our culture, that you can just sort of define yourself as you go along.

And the apostle Paul basically in verse 16 is exploding the myth, and he is saying theres no such thing as that kind of freedom, folks. Theres no such thing as freedom that has no obligations, that has no claims upon it. You always pay the piper, Paul is saying. You may be bound to sin, you may think youre free, but youre bound to sin. Paul says you are slaves of the one whom you obey. Either of sin resulting in death or obedience resulting in righteousness. Paul is reminding you here that sin often presents itself as you do exactly what you want to do, just because you want to do it, and, therefore, its the ultimate expression of freedom and is actually very enticing, very seductive and very tyrannical. Now a young person lies to get out of a problem. Their parents said, "Now look, dont do such and such." And the young person has done it. And the young person doesnt want to get in trouble, so when theres a possibility that persons going to get caught, he says, "Well, I didnt do it." And maybe he gets by with it. The lie works. He gets off the hook. And then another lie is produced in order to cover for that lie. And that worked pretty well, and so you begin to do it in other places; because its getting you what you want. And suddenly you find yourself in a web of lies that you make, and then you find a few years later that you were living in lies all the time. And you know what, youre not the commander, the lies are. Because youre always the slave of the one you obey; and if you obey the lie, you will be a slave of the lie. And thats what the apostle is saying here. It may look like its freedom, it make look like youre calling the shots, but youre not. Youre never calling the shots. Pauls point here is that nobody is ultimately their own boss. You either serve a beneficent, generous, loving master whose commands are always and only for your own good, or you serve a tyrannical master, self, and Satan and sin. And those are your choices. Everybody serves someone.

III. Gods grace brings power for whole-hearted obedience.

Finally, look at what Paul says in 17 and 18. Its a shocking parallel, and were going to pick this up, because Paul knows this is a shocking parallel; and hes going to try and explain himself in verses 19 through 23. Listen to what he says: "You were slaves to sin, now you are slaves of righteousness." What a shocking way to talk about freedom. Paul says, "Lets see, in order to illustrate to you what true Christian freedom is, I would like to introduce the subject of slavery. Now Paul wasnt being flippant in this, because very likely in the congregation that he is writing to, there are people who are either slaves or former slaves. They know what it is to be a bond slave. Pauls not being flippant. Paul is being deliberately shocking, because he wants to shock us into a reality.

And he says three things that Id like you to see in just these two verses. Hes explaining here that Gods grace is the thing which liberates, and true liberation is found in obedience, not in doing what we jolly well please. Hes telling us here that Gods grace brings power for whole-hearted obedience.

First of all, look at the very first phrase of 17: "Thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient. Notice that Paul is thanking God for the conversion of these Christians. Now look, if we save ourselves, either by our faith or by our works, what are you thanking God for? But if it is Gods grace who saves, who grants you the faith to believe, and who provides for us the works of righteousness in his son, then thats a really good reason to thank God. In other words, even in this first phrase in verse 17, Paul proving that salvation is by grace alone. Thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, now youre slaves to righteousness. Hes just proved that salvation is by grace alone. Or why would you thank God?

Secondly, notice what he says. "I give thanks to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart." Paul is saying that the obedience that was produced in these Roman Christians and is produced in all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior, is whole-souled obedience. Its not, "Uh, Im going to do it. I hate this, every step of the way, but Im going to do it. Im just going to bite my life and Im going to be obedient." This is whole-souled obedience where you say, "How I love Your law, O Lord." I dont want to be your reverend at all, but have you ever thought about the creation mandates that God gave to Adam in the garden? I mean, first he comes to Adam, and he says, "Now Adam, heres the situation. I want you to take dominion over the entire known universe. I want you to be my vice-ruler, and I want you to command creation, bring order to it, make it fruitful." Youre kidding? Why? Thats command number one. Okay. Next one. The second command is this: "Eve, I want you to fill the earth." Youve got to be joking. This is command number two. Right. Thats command number two. "And then, remember, theres mandatory rest for you every week, I dont want you to work like the work-alcoholic slaves. Every seven days you rest on My day, following My pattern." So theres a mandate to Adam for seven and a half weeks vacation every year. Youve got to be kidding? Right. "Now, next, I want you to get married." Thats the command? Right. Yes. Gods commands are good, and its only sin that makes us think that they are binding us, they are cramping our style. Gods sovereignty over us as His servants is always not only for His glory, but in our best interests. No wonder we are able to give whole-souled obedience.

Finally, look at what he says in verse 18. "Having been free from sin, you became sins of righteousness." In other words, Gods given you a new master. Hes your Master, righteousness is master. Sin was a tyrannical, dominating, taskmaster. It promised a lot, it delivered very little; may have wrecked your life; certainly would eternally. But He is a gracious master.

You know, I think that a lot of Christians think that freedom is getting to call their own shots; getting to call their own shots. Freedom from obedience, not obedience to obedience. Freedom from obligation, not freedom for obedience. Paul though reminds us here that to be a son is to obey. To be a child of God is to obey. To be a servant of God most high, is to serve Him. You remember what Satan said to Adam in the garden? If you want to be like God, disobey. Do you remember what the author of Hebrews teaches in Hebrews 5, chapter 8? "Although, He was a Son, He learned obedience through that which He suffered." In other words, if you want to be like God, if you want to be like His Son, what did His Son do? He obeyed. Paul is saying the freedom of grace is for obedience, and thats what it means what it means not be to under law, but under grace. Lets pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we ask that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we would be able to say with the Psalmist how we love Your Law, oh Lord, and not only with lip service, but with

the whole of our hearts. In Jesus name, Amen.

Slaves of Righteousness - Romans 6:19-23

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:19-23

Slaves of Righteousness

If you have your Bibles, Id invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 6. Paul has made it very clear especially from Romans, chapter 3 to 5, that our justification is by Gods grace. In other words, the forgiveness that we have, the acceptance that we have with God, is the product of Gods work, not our own work. We dont save ourselves, we dont work our way back into Gods good graces by attempting to be as good as we possibly can be, we dont attempt to make a new start in life, which gives us a new life with God. But God, in His mercy, freely forgives us because of what Jesus did. In other words, the reason why were accepted with God has nothing to do with anything in us or about us, and everything to do with Jesus Christ, in His person, in His work; in His life obedience, and in His obedience on the cross. We are accepted by God freely, were forgiven freely. Pauls been making that point in just about every different way that he can think of. God does that work. He does it by grace, and we receive it by the empty hand of faith. Paul has said that in numerous ways because sometimes it can be so difficult to believe that Gods grace is for you. In fact, the deeper your sense of sin, the harder it will be to believe that God has truly extended his hand of mercy to you.

Perhaps, you can think back in a situation where you have not only made a mistake, but you have committed a sin, the implications which are so deep and so lasting that you cant imagine God or anyone else showing you grace. And perhaps under those very circumstances, you have seen the grace of God minister to you. And thats a reminder of why Paul has to spend so much time telling us about this free gift of mercy and the acceptance and forgiveness of God which is in Christ Jesus. That is why He has told it to us so many different ways.

But then getting to Romans, chapter 6, Paul wants to tell us something else. You realize that some people will hear this message of forgiveness and think that this means that God doesnt really care how we live; that Gods grace doesnt bring with it any transforming power which changes our lives. So in Romans chapter 6, hes warning us to know that not only is there forgiveness by Gods grace, but theres also a transformation of life because of Gods grace. Not only is there forgiveness, by grace, there is holiness by grace. Not only is there justification by grace, so also there is sanctification by grace. And so Paul has been stressing that.

Now in the very last verse that we looked at together, verse 18, Paul had introduced a very provocative phrase. The phrase slaves of righteousness. And hes going to expand on that in the passage that were looking at today. Paul wants to shock us into one reality about life as unbelievers, and another reality about life as believers. And hes going to use this illustration, this metaphor, this analogy because he knows that it is not what were expecting. He knows how shocking this will be for us to take in. So with that as introduction, lets hear Gods Holy Word, beginning in Romans 6, verse 19:

"I am speaking in human terms, because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed. For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin, and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome eternal life, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of Gods inspired and inerrant Word. May He add His blessing to it. Lets pray.

Our Lord and our God, give us hearing ears, believing hearts as we come to this Your Word. Challenge us, awaken us, teach us, transform us all by Your grace. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

One of the greatest challenges for affluent Christians living in an affluent society is to value the things of God more than the things of this world. Precisely because we have much of this world, it is possible to be distracted by the things of this world, to become preoccupied with them, to use them sort of like a spiritual pacifier as the answer to any particular calamity; to find a greater delight in them than in the riches of God.

Now in order to be an affluent Christian in an affluent society and not to value the things of this world more than the things of God, you need to do at least two things. The first thing you have to do is recognize the difference. There is a difference between temporal blessings, and earthly blessings and riches and wealth and spiritual blessings. Sometimes they come together. Some of the godliest people of the Scriptures were people who had both, Abraham and David. Sometimes of course they dont come together. Some of the godliest people in the Scriptures were people who had absolutely nothing. We think of Lazarus. But you need to recognize, as you try and keep the difference in your mind, that there are many supposedly Christian preachers, who are doing their best to confuse you about that fact. In fact, if you turn on what is so-called Christian television, most of the teaching that you will be hear will be specifically designed to confuse you about these things and to lump together spiritual blessings and earthly blessings. So if you send in a five-dollar check, youll get a five-dollar blessing. And if you send in a fifty-dollar check, youll get a fifty-dollar blessing. And God promises you health and wealth if only you will just believe. So there are supposedly Christian teachers who are doing their best to confuse you about the difference. And the first thing you need to know in order not the value the blessings of this world over the greater spiritual blessings of God is that there is a difference.

The second thing you need to know, however, is the nature of true blessedness. What is it to be truly blessed? What is it to be truly free? What is it to be truly happy? You have to know what that means before you are able to resist the way the world attempts to trick you into a false blessedness that looks true. You must understand what true blessedness is. You need to know the genuine article if you are to avoid being tricked by a false substitute. And that is basically what Paul is talking about in the final verses in this chapter. Paul is setting before us, right here, what true blessedness is, what true happiness entails, what true spiritual riches are. But hes ironically doing it using the example of slavery.

Now I suspect, my friends, that this would be the last example that you would choose were you desiring to illustrate true blessedness. And the apostle Paul knows that. Remember, there would have been people in this congregation to which he was originally writing who would have themselves been either former slaves, or still slaves. No, Paul is not using an abstract illustration in a way that is irreverent and disrespectful to the people who are hearing him. He knows how shocking this example is going to be. In fact, he apologizes for the illustration in verse 19. Have you noticed that? "Im speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh." Paul knows that this is going to raise all sorts of questions in your mind when he says, "True blessedness is slavery." Paul knows there are going to be 15,000 objections and 35,000 qualifications that people want to make. But Paul is saying, "Bear me out."

So hear me out, my friends, Id like to point to two or three things that Paul makes very clear to us in this passage.

I. Having known the bondage of wickedness, become slaves of righteousness that you might know the freedom of holiness.

Look at verse 19. Paul argues here this. You were slaves of lawlessness and impurity. Thats how you were apart from Christ. You were slaves of lawlessness and impurity. Now, however, present yourselves as slaves of righteousness. Thats Pauls simple argument in verse 19. You were slaves of lawlessness and impurity. Thats what you were apart from Christ. "Now, however, present yourselves as slaves of righteousness." Paul is telling us here in verse 19, that we, having known the bondage of sin, must now present ourselves as slaves of righteousness in order that we would know the freedom of holiness. Now listen to the three parts of that: We have known the bondage of sin and we must now present ourselves as slaves of righteousness in order to know the freedom of holiness. Thats the logic of Pauls argument here. Now Paul knows that there are limitations to this illustration, and thats why he says, "Brethren, Im speaking in human terms, as I illustrate this to you. There are problems with this illustration. Human slavery is not an institution that one would naturally desire to be under." When you go around home room in second grade, and you ask, "Well, Bobby, what do you want to be when you grow up?" "Well, I want to be a doctor." "And Sally, what do you want to be when you grow up?" "Well, I want to be a lawyer." And you get to Joey, "Well, Joey, what do you want to be when you grow up?" "I want to be slave." My guess is no homeroom teacher has ever heard that here yet at First Presbyterian Day School, or anywhere else. This is not something that one generally longs for. But Paul chooses this illustration in order to shock us out of an illusion of which we are a part. And that illusion is that people are free apart from Christ. The illusion is that true freedom is doing what ever you want to do. The illusion is that we are freest when we are doing what we want to do apart from Gods will, apart from Gods word, apart from Gods law, without regard to them. Freedom by this definition is doing your own thing, fulfilling your own desires, thats true freedom. And what the apostle Paul wants you to understand is that is not freedom at all: Its bondage, and its bondage of the worst and most dire kind. Paul describes the nature of life apart from Christ in the starkest language. Heres his assessment. Heres the assessment whos apart from Christ: Well, you were giving your lives and using your bodies as slaves to impurity and to law breaking resulting in even more law breaking. You were slaves to your own wicked desires. Thats not a very pretty picture.

Now we know some people who we can identify very easily that are in that kind of a trap. We could, for instance, look at a sports figure, like Darryl Strawberry. Frankly, we can substitute 500 other names as well, but hes in the news right now. Heres a person with enormous talents and potential. And because of his addiction to a narcotic, he continues to throw his life away. Now we can look at a person like that and see how they are enslaved to their desires and how that is destroying their life. They are not free because they are able to follow out their addictions, but they are slaves because they are enslaved to their addiction. Thats very clear. And we can see an actor, like Robert Downey, Jr., and we can say, "Now heres a person who has potential, and he could really make it in the Hollywood scene, and yet he continues to throw his life away because of his addiction to a narcotic."

And we can see a person like that, and say, "That person is enslaved, but not me." Paul wants to say, "If youre apart from Christ, you are precisely in the same situation." It may be another desire, it may be more socially acceptable, but you are still a slave to your desires, and thus a slave to sin if you are apart from Jesus Christ. It may be a slave to sexual immorality, it may be a slave to greed, it may be a slave to ambition, it can be any number of sins, but you are still a slave to those desires apart from Christ. We may think of ourselves as free as long as we are allowed to do whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it, however we want to do it. But this, Paul says, is an illusion. True freedom is found elsewhere. And our society is in the grip of this kind of a struggle with our own desires, and our own seeking of self-fulfillment and slavery to it.

Many years ago, George Orwell wrote a book called Nineteen Eighty-Four. Sounds old fashioned now. Now its futuristic. He wrote the book long before the year 1984 came. And in that book he basically suggested that there was a possibility that in the future, because of the growth and technology and such, that there would be a day when there would be an impressive big brother state which would be able to control every aspect of our lives. And he raised this as a problem of civil liberty. But before Orwell wrote that particular book, a man named Aldous Huxley wrote a book called Brave New World. And in his book he basically said, you know, the problem is not going to be in an impressive big brother state. The problem is that were going to become slaves to our own desires. Neil Postman in the provocative introduction to his book, Amusing Ourselves To Death. And by the way, thats a book that we all need to read and think about in our own day and time, says this: "We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didnt, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held wherever else the terror had happened, we at least had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares. But we had forgotten that alongside Orwells dark vision, there was another, slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling." Aldous Huxleys Brave New World. Contrary to common belief, even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally opposed oppression. But in Huxleys vision, no big brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppressions and to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. In 1984 Huxley added, "People are controlled by inflicting pain." In the Brave New World they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right. I still get chills every time I think about that introduction because its so apparent to us that our society is in that kind of a grip. We are enslaved to our desires, were greedy, were ambitious, and were insecure because we find ultimate blessedness in things that we cannot hold on to.

In contrast to that situation, Paul comes along and he says something quite amazing. Look at the end of verse 19. He says, "You were enslaved to this kind of a life, so now Im going to tell you the way of true freedom. Im going to tell you the way of true blessedness. Are you ready for it? Here it is. Pursue slavery. You want true blessedness, you want true happiness, you want true freedom? Heres how you get it. Pursue slavery." Paul says, "Present yourself as slaves. Desire to be slaves. Give the members of your body over to slavery, to righteousness. This is unbelievable. We might have expected for Paul to characterize the Christian life as freedom in contrast to the slavery of bondage to sin. And he will do that elsewhere. But thats not what he does here. He says, "If you really want to be free, if you really want to be happy, if you really want to be blessed, give yourself as a slave to righteousness. The Christian is a slave to righteousness, and his slavery results in holiness which is the true freedom and blessedness." You see, it is what and who that you pursue that makes you free. It is what and who you pursue that makes you free. And the apostle is saying, "Pursue righteousness. Pursue God." And hes saying that the freest person in the world is the one who is a slave to righteousness and holiness. Thats the first thing that Paul says in this great passage. But theres another thing Id like you to see as well.

II. Freedom from righteousness is no freedom at all but the worst kind of slavery.

Look at verses 20 and 21. Here Paul again argues this. People apart from Christ are slaves to sin. Thats what they are. Thats a strong indictment, but thats how he describes them. People apart from Christ are slaves to sin. And the things they love and the freedoms they pursue will kill them. They may think those things are good, they may think those things are self-fulfilling, but they find in the end, however, that those things will kill them. Paul is telling us in verses 20 and 21 that freedom from righteousness is no freedom at all, but it is the worst kind of slavery possible. He characterizes life apart from Christ not as unchecked freedom, but as slavery of the worst sort. Its a kind of freedom, but its a false freedom, and its a false freedom that leads to death.

Now Paul isnt saying anything new here. Jesus in John 8:34 had talked about this same thing when he said truly, truly I say to you. And whenever Jesus said that buckle your seat belts, because He had something important. Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Slaves of temporal desire and temporal urges, slaves of earthly riches and earthly blessings, die more and more as the days go on, as they pursue those temporal desires and earthly treasures. And we see people like this all around us. We may be thinking, for instance, of a person who engages in sexual immorality in order to fulfill some deep need of satisfaction and fulfillment in his or her life. And yet that person contracts a terminal sexually transmitted disease. And we watch that person that we knew with great talent and energy and spirit shrivel and die before our eyes. And we can see how sin and misery and death is connected in a situation like that.

But my friend, there are all sorts of people around us who are dying, who dont look like it. I mean they look wonderful. They look tanned, they look fat, they look happy; but theyre dying because theyre seeking after the wrong thing. They are consumed by those things and they are seeking after things that will ultimately destroy them. And the apostle Paul is saying here that those who are wrapped up in that life are in the worst kind of slavery. They think that they are free because they have chosen what they wanted to do. They have pursued their own course. Theyve done it their way. But they are slaves. They are in bondage. They are in bondage to something that will kill them.

Just yesterday Don Breazeale sent me a copy of a speech that George Will gave at the United States Naval Academy. It is a remarkable speech. You need to read it. In the course of arguing about some other things, Will made some very canny observations about our society. I might just share some of them with you, because I think they will show you just how this kind of slavery has wrecked our society. He says this: "We live, it is said, in a me and now age. I want things for me, and I want them right now." Now, we also have an astonishingly low pain threshold in our society. We just went through Christmas retailing season, and all the papers said we had a bad, disappointing, sad, terrible Christmas retailing season. Now this Christmas retailing season was slightly better than last year. And last years retail Christmas season was the best in ten years, and yet this was a bad, sad, terrible thing. After that worst year in its twenty-nine year history, the NASDAQ, it is said, had its worst year in its twenty-nine years history. After that worst year in its twenty-nine year history, the NASDAQ is 16% higher than it was two years ago. It is said that one day last fall, October 12, the stock market lost 379.36 percent of its value in one day. The sell off started minutes after Home Depot, that great retailing chain, announced that its growth would be four percent instead seven percent. Now I dont know when four- percent growth became a national calamity. The trouble is, expectations were for seven percent. Who sets those expectations? Stock analysts. What do stock analysts sell? Stock. They sell expectations. The country is becoming slight neurotic. Last summer you may recall that we had a slight up tick in a gallon of gasoline price. Why? Well at one point, the price of a gallon of gasoline soared to about 40% of what it is in Europe. And so the government of the United States, a government that exists to feel our pain, tapped into the strategic reserve, a reserve which exists to protect this country against a major interruption of supplies, and this reserve was used instead to knock a nickel off the price of a gallon of gasoline. Think of this country. Americans driving around in their Lincoln Navigators, lurching, barely making it from one gas station to another, sipping designer water that costs more than a gallon of gasoline, and talking on their cell phones to one another about how much they are suffering." And he goes on. Its really astounding. But the point he makes is this: With all that we now have we have become a nation of whiners. Were so addicted to the things that we have, that when just a little of it is taken away, we go berserk. Well, my friends, you dont have to be addicted to cocaine in order to see addiction to sin. All you have to do is just look around you. The apostle Paul says those who are slaves of those temporal desires and urges, they die more and more every day.

III. Holiness is life, real living, true blessedness/happiness, true freedom.

So what is the solution when he tells you in verses 22 and 23. He says this: "That being a slave of God results in holiness of character and eternal life." He broaches a profound truth, and that truth is simply this: Holiness is life. Holiness is real life. Holiness is true blessedness and happiness and true freedom.

Look at what he says in verse 22. "Because we were slaves, and have been freed, and have become bond slaves to God, we receive an amazing benefit." You derive your benefit, he says. Now this is tremendous language. Perhaps some of the people who were literally slaves or who were former slaves in the congregation to whom he was first writing were slaves because of their debts. They had not been able to pay debts, they had to sell themselves into indentured slavery in order to pay off those debts. They knew that they were worth more and their labor was worth more to them out of slavery than in slavery. So to talk to slaves about benefits, was a little bit ironic, because if they had been non-slaves, their labor would have gotten them a lot more than as slaves.

But he says, "If youre slaves to God of righteousness, let me tell you about your benefits. Look at the package. Our new wage, our new benefit, our new income is what? Sanctification, holiness, the state of and progress in holiness. And what is it inextricably connected to? Eternal life. The apostle is saying, its a package deal. Holiness equals life, and God grants to us in Christ Jesus, by His grace, holiness and eternal life. Sin, on the one hand, leads to misery, and eventually to death. Grace, on the other hand, leads to holiness and eternal life.

Notice, by the way, the contrast in how you receive those wages. The wages of sin is death. You want what you deserve? Heres what it is. Death. Everybody in this line for the death penalty. Right over here. Okay. The wages of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life. This is not an earned benefit. At least its not earned by you. Its a granted benefit given by God in His grace, earned by Jesus Christ for all those who trust in Him. The free gift of God is eternal life. Grace not only leads to forgiveness, but grace leads to holiness and eternal life. And so when the world looks at the Christians, and it sees the man living in sexual fidelity in his marriage, and it says, "Oh, but think of what youre missing," it is the man who is faithful who is blessed, the not who is doing what he wants to do. And when the world looks at the Christian and says look what you could be doing with your money instead of giving all that stuff to charity, and to mission and to other type of charities. You could be having fun for yourself. It is the man who gives who is blessed. When the world says, but look how much fun you could be having on the Lords Day instead of being in church with those people and hearing all those boring preachers, it is the one who is honoring the Lords Day who is blessed.

It is the man who is a slave to righteousness that knows true blessedness, and the false freedom that passes for freedom in the world that says I can do anything I want to anytime I want, any place I want to, any way I want to, is not freedom at all the apostle says. Remember what Jesus says? The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His Life as a ransom for many. And He said that immediately after He had said this. Whoever wants to become first among you, must become the slave of all. It is the man who dies who lives. It is the man who is a slave, who is free. If you want to become free, Paul says, become a slave. If you want to live, die to your sinful desires. If you want to become first, become a slave. Robert Murray McCheyne, that great young minister last century, once prayed a very simple prayer, and Im glad somebody wrote it down. It went like this: "Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be." Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be. That beautifully sums up what Paul has been saying in Romans 3 to Romans 6.

There are two great blessings that come from Gods grace, justification and sanctification. Acceptance and forgiveness, holiness and righteousness. Both of these flow from the grace of God. Were incapable of giving them or receiving them apart from His grace. And so it ought to be every Christians desire not only to experience the forgiveness of God, but also to be a slave of righteousness. And in that slavery find true freedom. You know, Brister prayed during the morning prayer about Monica. She had prayed for her son, Augustin, many years as he lived a life of infidelity, as he cohabitated with a woman. And as she prayed for him, her prayers to God were not only for his forgiveness, but for his transformation. She wanted to see his life turned inside out. And God in His mercy answered the prayers of that woman. Should those be the prayers that we lift up for one another and for us? That God would grant us to be as holy as a pardoned sinner can be. May God make that a reality in all your lives. Lets pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. Make it a reality by Your grace. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Romans 7

The Newness of the Spirit - Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers[a]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.[b] 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6)

The Newness of the Spirit

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 7. We'll begin in verse 1. We move today into a new chapter of Romans, but not yet into a new section. In Romans 7, the first six verses, from 1 to 6, Paul has one more point to make about our union with Christ before he moves on to another topic. And then in verse 7, he's take up a new thought. But in general, however, we can characterize the teaching of Romans 6 and 7 as follows. In Romans 6, all the way to chapter 7, verse 6, Paul shows us that God's grace leads to holiness. In Romans 7, beginning in verse 7 and going to the end of the chapter in verse 25, Paul shows us that God's grace does not mean that the believer will no longer struggle with internal sin. That is, in Romans, chapter 6, Paul is especially responding to the problem of those who think that his teaching on justification by grace through faith means that they can do as they please. He is refuting Antinomianism. He is refuting a view that says, "I'm a believer now, and the law has nothing do with me," or even more boldly, "I am a believer now, and it doesn't matter how I live." And he's doing it with the doctrine of union with Christ. He's giving his teaching about what it means to be united to Christ, and he's refuting this misunderstanding of his teaching by teaching about union with Christ.

Then in Romans, chapter 7, beginning in verse 7, to the end of the chapter, he's addressing the problem of those who think that our break with past sin is so decisive and so complete, that we no longer struggle with indwelling sin as Christians. There have been many, and we might say many fine Christians over the years who have adhered to teachings that we call perfectionistic teachings or higher life teachings which say that the Christian either is or ought to be free from any struggle with sin; that we are perfected in such a way that we have a complete victory over sin in this life. And again, Paul in Romans 7, is showing how the biblical doctrine of union with Christ is incompatible with a perfectionistic teaching or a higher life teaching that says that, at some point in the Christian life we never, ever have to struggle with sin in this life before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, for Paul union with Christ not only explains why anti-law teaching is wrong, why Antinominion teaching is wrong, why licentious behavior by Christians is a contradiction of our identity and our profession of faith, but it also explains why perfectionistic teaching is wrong. And with that as an introduction, let's look closely and hear attentively what God's Word has to say here in Romans, chapter 7:

"Or do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law. That the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. For the married woman is bound by law to her husband, while he is living. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now, we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired and inerrant Word. May He write His eternal truth upon or hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord, and our God, we ask that you would grant us understanding as we come to a passage which is difficult, but important. We know, O Lord, that You intend Your people to know Your Word, and so we ask that You would grant us not only understanding, but that also would embrace this truth and be transformed by it. This we ask in Jesus' Name, Amen.

If you are burdened by weariness, even a weariness to the point of despair in trying to work for God's acceptance of you, in trying to get God to forgive you, and trying earn His favor, in trying to condition His grace, then Paul has some remarkably good news for you in this great passage. And even if you don't realize that you are trying to earn the favor of God in some way or another, Paul has remarkably good news for you, and if you will pay attention what Paul says will change your life.

On the other hand, if you are not burdened by your sin, and a sense of your inadequacy, and if you think that you commend yourself to God, apart from Jesus Christ, then Paul has some ominous news for you in this passage. And even if you don't realize that you are doing this, Paul is going to say something which will challenge your whole way of life, and especially the way that you think; that it is proper to relate to the Almighty and Holy God. But we are going to have to keep our eye on the ball, if we appreciate what Paul is saying to us here.

Paul, especially, for instance, in verses 2 and 3 in his illustration, is giving us some complex ideas, which have confused many. And especially when you get to his application in verses 4 through 6, he is very, very detailed, and difficult. And so we're going to have to keep our eye on the ball. I remember when was moving from slow pitch to fast pitch, that when those fast balls came, they were like bee-bees, and they scared me to death. And as they would get close to the plate, I would close my eyes and swing, literally blindly. And the coach would say, "Ligon, son, you're gonna have to watch the ball to the bat. And you're going to have to keep your eye on the ball." Well, we're going to have to keep our eye on the ball if we're not to get sidetracked by Paul's argument in this passage.

And to help you keep your eye on the ball, I want to do three things. First, I want to outline this short passage in chapter 7, verses 1 through 6, because the outline is clear as day. It is as simple as it can be. It's the substance of what is in the outline that gets difficult. But if you have the outline in your mind, it will help. Secondly, I want to ask you to look back to Romans, chapter 6, verse 1, and allow your mind to roam across that whole chapter and realize that what we are getting here in Romans 7, verses 1 through 6, is the third of three illustrations that Paul has given. He's been talking about union with Christ, and he's been telling you about what it means to be united to Christ, and he's giving you three illustrations of that. And then, I'd like you to go all the way back to Romans, chapter 5, and allow yourself to ask this question: What is the big picture being taught in Romans 5, Romans 6 and Romans 7, with regard to the implications to God's grace and His free justification by faith. What are the implications? Because in each of those big chapters, Paul focuses on one specific benefit or blessing or implication of God's grace. And by giving you that background, I hope to help you appreciate how radical what Paul is saying here is in Romans 7, 1 through 6.

First of all, let's do an outline in the passage. The outline is very simple. Verse 1 is Paul's statement of a principle. Verses 2 and 3 are Paul's illustration of that principle. And verses 4 through 6 are his application of that principle to us especially with regard to our relations to the law. So verse 1 is the principle, verses 2 and 3 are the illustration, verses 4 through 6 are the application. The outline, as I say, is very easy of what Paul is saying. But it's when you get to verses 2 through 6 that the difficult sections begin. But the outline is easy. Let's look at what Paul has been saying since Romans, chapter 6, verse 1. Remember that Paul started talking about union with Christ in Romans 6:1, and as he did so, he gave us two illustrations in Romans, chapter 6 of what it means to be united to Christ. In Romans 6, verses 1 through 14, he talks about baptism, saying that in baptism, we died to sin and were raised to newness of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well clearly, water baptism doesn't bring that about. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit in union with Christ does. So he uses water baptism as an illustration of the reality of union with Christ.

Then, in Romans, chapter 6, verse 15 to 23, he gives a second illustration. And that illustration surprisingly, in fact, we said shockingly last week, was slavery. He said, "Being united with Christ, is like having your master transferred. Suddenly, you have a new master, and now you are a slave to righteousness, instead of slave of sin.

And then finally, he says here in Romans, chapter 7, union with Christ is like marriage. It's like being married to another husband. It's like having your old relationship with a previous husband severed by death, and being joined to Jesus Christ. And so each of these are illustrations of what it means to be united to Christ.

Then, let's allow our minds to even go back further, all the way back to Romans, chapter 5, and let's review three implications of justification of grace through faith that Paul shares in this section. In Romans, chapter 5, Paul says, "That one of the implications of justification by faith is peace. Because we're justified by grace, because we receive that free justification by faith, we are free from the fear of condemnation, and, therefore, we have peace with God." That's what He says in Romans, chapter 5. He says more than that, but that's one big thing that he says there.

Then in Romans, chapter 6, he says this. "We have holiness because of God's work of grace, because of justification by grace through faith." He says, "That one of the implications of our being justified freely by His blood, is that we are made to be what He intended us to be by the grace of God. We are free, not only from the condemnation of sin, but we're free from the domination of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin," he says. "But, we are slaves of righteousness."

And then finally, in Romans, chapter 7, he says, "One of the implications of our justification is freedom." Now, we've been waiting for him to talk about that freedom for some time, because he's used a surprising metaphor in Romans, chapter 6, and for us, slavery doesn't seem to link with freedom. But it's here that Paul begins to speak about the kind of freedom that we have because of justification. And he means at least this: that we are free from the law, as a covenant of works. We are free from the law as the way in which we relate to and are accepted by God. And so, the believer is free from the law. Now in this passage, Paul is going to explain this glorious freedom. And I'd like to work through the passage with you in each of those three parts I've already outlined. Verse 1, the principle. Verses 2 and 3 the illustration. And verses 4 through 6 the application.

I. The Law cannot be the answer when it's part of your problem.

In verse 1, Paul gives us a principle, and let me scale down Paul's principles in just a few words. He says, "Do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person for as long he lives." What's Paul's principle? Paul's principle is simply this. Paul is telling us that you are under the law as long as you live. You are under the law as long as you live. It has a permanent jurisdiction. And, therefore, because it has been violated, it has a permanent relationship to you in condemnation as long as you live. So the law is not the solution to our problem. In fact, it becomes a part of our problem. Not because there is anything wrong with the law, but because we've already violated it. And if I could put it crudely, Paul is stating this because he wants you to understand that the law is not your 'go-to' guy. You know, in sports, often when the chips are down, and the time is ticking off the clock, there is somebody on the team into whose hands you want to get the ball. Well, the apostle is saying, "When the chips are down, and the seconds are ticking off the clock, and salvation is in the balance, the law is not your 'go-to' guy." That is not where you flee for hope. It is not where you flee for salvation. No, the principle is that you are under the law as long as you live.

Now, Paul's statement here in Romans, chapter 7, verse 1, actually takes you all the way back to Romans 6:14. I'm going to have to ask you to look at that verse, because what Paul is saying here won't make sense unless we look at that verse. Paul has said something very provocative in Romans 6:14. He had said that, "You are not under the law, but under grace." Now, perhaps you have been wondering ever since then what in the world are you talking about, Paul? What do you mean? What do you mean that I'm not under the law, I'm under grace." We've spent a lot of time saying what that doesn't mean. But so far, we haven't given much time telling you what it does mean. What Paul does in Romans 6:15 is he pauses, and he says, "Now, let me tell you what I don't mean by saying your not under law, you're under grace." And in the whole section there at the end of Romans 6, he's explaining that. And then when he gets to Romans 7, he picks back up the subject, and he says, "Now, let me tell you a little bit of what I mean when I say that you're not under the law, or that you're free from the law, or that you've been released from the law, and you're under grace." It's almost like there's been someone in the back of the class with a hand up the whole time ever since Romans 6:14, there's been a guy in the back of the class, "Ooh, ooh, ooh, Mr. Doctor Paul, I want to ask a question. What did you mean?" And finally now, Paul is coming back to that particular question.

And Paul states in answer to that question first, this principle: You are under the law as long as you live. In other words, he's reminding you again that the law, any law, is not the solution, it's part of your problem because of two things. You've already violated it, and it has a permanently binding nature. And so he's making it clear once again that the law cannot be a way of escape, it cannot be a way back into a restored relationship with the righteous, holy and heavenly Father. Now, he pulls back, and he says, "Let me illustrate that." And that's the second thing I'd like you to see in this passage.

II. You are just as morally bound by the law as a bride is legally tied to a husband.

In verses 2 and 3, he says, let me give you an illustration, take marriage, for instance. Paul here tells us that we are just as morally bound by the law when we are under the law. We are just as morally bound by the law as a bride is legally tied to her husband. He's saying, "Let me give you a picture of just how bound by the law you are. You're just as bound by that law, and you can't escape from that law any more than a bride can be being legally tied to her husband." Now, we've got to pause here immediately and say a couple of things. The first thing is this. Paul's illustration is complex. Look at verses 2 and 3. He starts off by talking about a woman who is joined to a man, and he speaks of the man dying, and the woman thus being freed from the marriage; but when he applies the illustration in verse 4, he speaks as if the woman has died. And it's all confused when you first think through it. Now Paul has to do this for several reasons. First of all, there are certain things that are not parallel between a human marriage and union with Christ, and he's got to bring that out, because Christ has actually died for us, and we've died in Him, as we've been united to him. So there are some differences between that and earthly marriages. Another thing is that usually women don't die and then get remarried. And, therefore, he has to alter this illustration in order for it to make sense.

The second thing you need to recognize is that Paul is not talking about every possible case that he can bring up with regard to marriage. You could easily gets sidetracked, and say to Paul, "Well, Paul, you're talking about the permanence of marriage. Are you saying that marriage is always permanent, and there are never any circumstances under which a marriage can be dissolved?" Don't get sidetracked in that. Paul, himself, will talk about that elsewhere. That's not his point. His main point is simply for you to look at this. The general principle of the inviolability of the law of marriage, wherein it is a lifetime vow. Now I realize that that's crumbling in our own day and time. In fact, some churches have modified their marriage vows to be a little more hip, and a little more relevant. Some vows say now, not "as we both shall live," but rather "as long as we both shall love." In fact, just a couple of weeks ago in the ministers' staff meeting, Brister Ware was telling us that he was at a wedding where those words were, in fact, used in the vows. And when the minister said out loud, "Do you promise to love and honor and cherish as long as your love shall last?" Brister, audibly groaned, and everyone in the church turned towards him. Well, Paul is speaking of the general circumstance under which a marriage and the law of the binding nature of marriage is a permanent thing, it's a lifetime thing. He's saying, "Take this as an example. That woman can't go marry someone else as long as that relationship is intact and her husband is alive." He's pointing to a general principle, and he's basically emphasizing this. As long as you're this, as long as you live, you are tied to the law, you are under its jurisdiction until death do you part. Think of it. You are under a relationship that says, 'do this and live, do that and be cursed.' You've already done that, so you can't do this in order to undo the do that. The law continues to be binding as long as you live. It can't be a way of undoing the things that you've already done in violation to it. It can't be the way back. It can't the way home. And Paul is illustrating that using the law of marriage, which everyone in the congregation would have understood, both Jew and Gentile.

III. Christ's death, and your death in Him, brought you into a new freedom and into anew relation to the law.

Then, having given that illustration, he wants to bring home the point, and you'll see it in verses 4 through 6. Here he gives a three-part application: You died, you are united, and now you serve in the newness of the spirit. Let's expand on that. He's saying to this. Here's the application. If the law is permanent, as long you live, then you need to understand that those of you who believe, those of you have stopped trusting in yourself, you've stopped trusting in your own works, you've stopped trying to commend yourself to God, you've stopped trying to purchase and cajole God into forgiveness, you've stopped trying to make yourself acceptable to them, and instead you've looked to Christ, you've thrown yourself at His mercy, you have sought forgiveness from Him. Those of you who have believed, you have died to the law, your old husband is dead, and you are released from that law that bound you to him.

Secondly, you are united to Christ. You now have a new husband. Your new husband is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And thirdly, you serve under the covenant of grace. Look at what he says in verse 4. "You were made to die to the law, through the body of Christ so that you might to joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead." And then look down to verse 6. "But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound so that we serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." In other words, Paul is saying this. Christ's death, and your death in Him brought you into a new freedom whereby you were freed from the condemnation of the law, which would have been on you until death do you part. But because you died in your union with Christ, and because He died in your place, the power of that law, the jurisdiction of that law has been broken. And you are as free as a wife, whose husband has died, to be united to another. And, in fact, you are freer than that, because in the very act of being freed from the old husband, you have been at that very moment joined to a new husband. A new relationship exists, and now the relationship that you had to the law before is entirely changed.

Paul contrasts law and grace. And when he does so, he always has a double contrast in mind. Now keep your eye on the ball, because this is the hard part; but this is where it's really worth it. Paul always has a double contrast in mind. We are not under the law. What does that mean? Well, sometimes Paul points to this reality. In terms of the progress of redemptive history, we are no longer under the Mosaic code, a ceremonial religion, because Jesus Christ has offered up the final and perfect sacrifice. And so the burdensome aspects of the old Mosaic code are not longer incumbent upon us. We have been freed from that code. We've also been brought into a fuller assurance, because the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ guarantees us the possibility of a conscience which is clean, and an assurance which is strong, because we don't have to repeat the sacrifices, the atoning offerings for sin year by year. It's been all done for us. We have but to receive it. So sometimes he's speaking of the progress from old covenant to new covenant.

But at other times, he is speaking in terms of the law as the covenant of works. The Law of Moses was not given as a different way of salvation. And yet in Paul's time, there were those who had virtually understood it to be such. And they were speaking of the inheritance of God by the law. They had misunderstood the function of the law. But there's more. Because, in fact, of the covenant of works with Adam, we are all obligated to perfect obedience, complete obedience, and all of us have failed under that arrangement. And yet we have an instinctive desire to try and right that relationship with God. But we attempt to right that relationship in the wrong way. We attempt to earn ourselves back into relationship, but the relationship has already been violated, and the law has already been violated. And so Paul is telling us here, "We are free from the law as a covenant of works, because the Spirit has united us to Christ, and brought us into a covenant of grace via that union with Christ." So what does it mean to be free from the law? It doesn't mean to be free from rule.

I was talking to a friend just last week, and he pointed this out. The New Testament is about a fourth of the size of the Old Testament. But did you know that there are twice as many commands in the New Testament as in the Old? So if you're looking for freedom from rule, you're not going to find any relief in the New Testament. So it's clear that freedom from the law doesn't mean freedom from rule. Nor, does it mean that there has been a change in standards. You know, maybe the bar has been lowered a couple of notches, moving from old covenant to new covenant. No, that's not the case either, because God's character is the source of law. Does God's character change? Not since I checked the last time. And so the standard of righteous has not changed. No.

When Paul says, "Not under law," he is pointing to a different ground of our acceptance by God. We are accepted through Christ. We are accepted by God's grace. We are justified freely by His blood, not through the law. The Jews of Paul's day, and many of their converts, had begun to think of the law as the central thing that characterized their identity, and the central thing which kept them in the blessing and covenant of God. And the apostle is saying, "No, the law is not the way back into fellowship with God. Only Christ is the way back into fellowship with God." And this leads to a totally different view of the law. If you have been approaching the law as the thing whereby you must please God so that He will accept you, you will not be able to say with the psalmist, "How I love your law, O Lord, I meditate on it day and night." It will the most strident, brutal, unkind, unfeeling burden that you could ever possibly imagine.

But if you have been freed from an attempt to cause yourself to be accepted by God and to condition God's grace by your action through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, suddenly your relationship with the law changes. Suddenly the law is sweet and is not burdensome, because it is an expression of love to a Heavenly Father who has redeemed us freely. That's why the preface of the Ten Commandments is so important. "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Now, therefore, you shall have no other gods before Me." It's not keep these Commandments, and I'll think about bringing you out of Egypt. It's I've already brought you out of Egypt. Now, keep My Commandments. Oh, that's being brought out from under the law and granted the blessings of the covenant of grace. It leads to a different view of the law. It gives us motivation to keep it. It keeps us the right goal for keeping it.

And, furthermore, there's a new dynamic. Paul emphasizes explicitly here in verse 6, the newness of the spirit. The law can't help you keep the law. But the Spirit can enable the keeping of the law. And the apostle wants to emphasize the work of the Spirit in the new covenant. Paul is contrasting law and gospel here. Two different ways of relating. And he is saying that we are free from the law as a covenant of works, that is, a way of being accepted by God; and we are now walking in the newness of the Spirit, having been freely accepted by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that sense, we are free from the law.

Well, so what, you say? So what? Well, here's what. If you are attempting to earn God's favor, you're finding frustration in that today because of your own realism. There have always been people who have been able to be realistic enough about their own efforts to be frustrated. Think, for instance, of Ghandi, who read the Sermon on the Mount, and coming to it from the legalistic frame of his own background, he read the Sermon on the Mount, and he said, "If I were a Christian, I could never sleep. For I've never seen an ethical system which made the demands of the Sermon on the Mount." But you see, Ghandi thought that that had to be obeyed in order to commend yourself to God. He was thinking as a legalist. He was thinking under law. And surely if that's the way you were thinking, the law would be a great burden, and it would be a great bondage.

And the apostle is saying to you today, if you're thinking that way, if you're trying to commend yourself to God by your own effort, your own works, your goodness, then I've got a better way. You are freed from the law, as you turn from your works, and you trust in Christ. That's why David Dixon can say, "I've made a heap of all my deeds. My bad deeds and my good deeds, and I have fled from them to Jesus Christ." And so the apostle is saying, "You're freed from that kind of burden."

On the other hand, if today you think you can commend yourself to God by your goodness, by your works, well then the apostle Paul has some bad news, which I hope will lead to some good news for you. The bad news is if you want to commend yourself to God by the law, that's fine. All you have to do is do it perfectly. You show up on judgment day, you've kept the law perfectly, you've done everything that God commands, you've done nothing that He has forbidden, and you're in. Anybody want to line up in that line? And the apostle Paul says, "If you take that tack, you will be condemned, because you are under the law as long as you live. But here's the good news. There are a lot of people who have gone down that road and they've have realized it. By the grace of God, they've realized it. And they turn back, and they've realized that "I can't commend myself to God that way." And when they do, that's called repentance, and when they turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, they find Him a cover for their sins. And they find the freedom from the burden of the law that the apostle Paul has been speaking about here. It's my prayer that you will find that freedom too, by His grace. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we ask that by Your mercy You would grant newness of spirit to all those who will turn from themselves and trust in You. We ask these things in Jesus' Name, Amen.

What Should We Think of the Law? - Romans 7:7-12

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Romans 7:7-12)

What Should We Think of the Law?

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to take them and turn with me to Romans chapter 7. We begin a new section of this chapter and book today. Paul has been speaking about the implications of justification. We have outlined some of those. In Romans chapter 5, he reminds us that there is peace with God as a result of our free justification in Jesus Christ. We have peace with God and he develops that idea in the first verses of Romans chapter 5. In Romans chapter 6, he says, interestingly, that holiness is one of the results of justification. He says this because God justifies us through union with Christ. And union with Christ not only means that we are spared the condemnation of sin, but we are spared the domination of sin. We have a new master. We have a new principle at work within us through our union with Christ and so justification by faith has with it the implication of a holiness, a godliness of life.

He goes on to explain, especially in Romans chapter 7, in the first verses that we have been looking at that as a consequence of justification, we are as believers free from the law. Especially he means by that, that we are free from the law as that which justifies us before God. That which causes us to be accepted with God. That which causes us to be made right with God. It is not our law keeping which causes us to be accepted by the Lord. It is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His perfect law keeping, actively and passively and perceptively and penally and through that we are accepted by God and therefore our law keeping has nothing to do whatsoever with our being freely accepted by the Lord. That is one of the implications of our free justification.

And so having talked about some of those implications of justification, he turns now in verse 7 of Romans chapter 7 to discuss the issue of the law itself. Now let me bring to your attention two interesting things about Romans 7, beginning in verse 7. In verses 7-12, first of all, Paul talks about the nature of the law itself and then in verses 13-25, he talks about the ongoing struggle of the believer in the Christian life with sin. And in verses 7-12, Paul talks as a converted man looking back upon his preconversion experience when he was under conviction of his sin. But in verses 13 and following, he speaks as a Christian still wrestling with sin. And so there are some very interesting things going on in Romans chapter 7.

Now you may wonder why Paul pauses at this point to talk about the law. To inform us of certain basic things about the law that we need to know. It is really fairly obvious. He said some provocative things, not only in Romans chapter 7, verses 1-6, but he has been saying these things in Romans chapter 3. Let me ask you to turn back in your Bibles, to Romans chapter 3, verse 20. Because in Romans 3:20, Paul denies that anyone can be justified by the law. And it may seem there that he is attacking the law. It certainly did to some. Some thought that he was attacking the law by saying no one can be justified by the law. And then if you look down to Romans 3, verse 28, and you read verse 28 in combination with the first words, the first sentence of verse 21, you will see that some people thought that Paul was nullifying the law completely by his teaching that no one is justified by the law. They even ask him the question. And he states it rhetorically: Do we then nullify the law? Obviously there were people who listened to Paul who thought that, that was precisely what he was doing.

And then if you turn forward to Romans chapter 6, verses 14 and 15, you see there that Paul asserts twice that believers are not under the law. And then he gives you a string of punches in Romans chapter 7. Look at the first six verses for a moment. First of all, in verse 3, in the midst of an illustration he speaks of our being free from the law. In verse 4 of Romans chapter 7, he says that the believer has died to the law. In verse 5 of Romans chapter 7, he says that the law arouses sinful passions. And then in verse 6 he says that we have to be released from the law in order to walk in newness of life. Now you can imagine in the cavalcade of statements about the law there are some who think that Paul is denigrating the law. That Paul is attacking the law. That Paul sees some problem in the law for which it needs to be rejected. And others think that Paul is saying well, it is not that the law is bad in itself, it just has absolutely no role whatsoever in the Christian life. And so it makes perfect sense that Paul would pause here and say, now let me tell you a few things about the law that you may not understand if you take the statements that I have made previously out of context. Because, in fact, in Romans chapter 3, verse 31, and in Romans chapter 6, verses 1 and 2, Paul has gone out of his way to say two things: First, I am not against the law. And secondly, I am not interested whatsoever in promoting the idea that one can be saved by grace without being transformed by grace. I am not interested in doing either of those two things, denigrating the law, promoting the idea that one can be saved by grace without be morally transformed by grace.

Now, add to that that Paul is speaking to people who are very committed to the law. They have a very high view of the law, though they have a misunderstanding of the law. I would like to mention to you the historical backdrop for both of those elements. They have a high view of the law for very good reason. These people were the descendents of people who had been sent into captivity because of the breaking of the law. The children of Israel had been unfaithful to the law of God and God sent them into captivity. Now they learned an important lesson. It is not a good thing to break the law. They learned in a very real way the consequences of breaking God's law. So much that when they came back, they wanted to make very sure that they did not do that again. Let's remember not to do that again. Now that is a good lesson so far as it goes, but unfortunately, to this they added a misunderstanding of the use of the law, and they believed that it was in the keeping of the law that they confirmed and secured God's electing and saving love and grace towards them. This was a serious mistake and Paul has addressed it elsewhere and we will address it again, not only in this book, but in other writings. And so the reason for his sustained assault on the law was because of the misunderstanding of the law, which was so pervasive in the community to whom he was speaking. Now Paul has said radical things to people who have a high view of the law. That sets us up for what he says here in Romans 7. Let's hear God's word.

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin accept through the law. For I would not have known about coveting, if the law had not said,' you shall not covet.' But sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law, sin is dead. And I was once alive apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. And this commandment which was to result in life proved to result in death for me. For sin taking opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed it. So then, the law is holy. And the commandment is holy and righteous and good." Amen.

This is God's word. May He add his blessing to it. Let's pray.

Father, help us to understand this word. We pray O Lord, that we would understand it in such a way that we would ever flee to Christ for our acceptance with You. And having fled to Christ, and rested in Him would seek to come to have His attitude towards Your eternal word and law. In Jesus' name, we ask it. Amen.

Now before we even start we need to ask a question. Why is it so important for a believer to have a right view of the law? Why is it so important for a mother with young children, with toddlers running around the house who would just really like to keep her blouse clean and her house straight, why is it important for her to know anything about the law? Why is it important for a businessman to know anything about the law? Why is it important for him to understand the function of the law, the nature of the law, the uses of the law in the Christian life. Now that is a good question to ask. There are a couple of ways that I could answer that question.

Let me pull back and say, one reason it is important for us as believers to understand the role of the law in the Christian life is there is so much bad teaching on it today. We live for instance, in a society in which ethical standards are eroding. And the old commitment to transcendent ethical norms is being washed away before our eyes and in the insecurity that that brings, many people are saying, 'what we need to save this society is a reassertion of those old ethical norms.' Now we may have a great deal of sympathy with that, but we must also recognize that that, in and of itself, is not an adequate solution for the saving of a society. Nor is it an adequate solution at a personal level for disobedience, to simply reassert the absolute ethical norms. And so there are many people who have been unwittingly led down the road to legalism through realizing that my ethical standards are crumbling in the society. The answer is, 'let's reassert the old norms.' So it is important for us to understand how the law functions in the Christian life, just because we live in a world like that.

But on the other hand, we live in a society where there are many people who are seeking freedom from driveness. They have driven themselves; they have been driven by their parents. And one of the things they have an instinctive revolt against is authority, and with authority rules, commandments, laws. And they believe that true freedom is freedom from those kinds of restraints and commands and laws. And they go to the New Testament and they read Paul, and they say, "Ah ha, Paul is telling us that the essence of the Gospel is freedom from laws. Freedom from rules, freedom from commandments." And in doing so, they grossly misunderstand Christianity and they grossly misunderstand the Gospel, and they grossly misunderstand the purposes of grace in the Christian life. And so for that reason, we need to understand the role of the law in the Christian life.

But let me give you another, a simpler, in fact a biblical reason why we need to understand the role of the law in the Christian life. And you will find in I John 5. I John 5, verses 1-3 says this: "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the Father, loves the child born of Him." John is basically saying this: The evidence of you being a new creation in Jesus Christ, the evidence of you being born again is your faith in Jesus Christ. And a person who has faith in Jesus Christ loves God and he also loves those who are the children of God. He loves those who are born again.

Now he doesn't stop there. He goes on to say something else. This is what he says: "By this we know that we love the children of God, that when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome." Do you hear what John is saying? The evidence that you are in fact a child of God, born again, trusting in Jesus Christ is that you show the love of God and you show the love of God for His people by keeping His commandments and you don't view the commandments as burdensome. Well that is huge. For that reason alone, we need to understand the functions of the commandments in the Christian life.

And that is Paul's point in this passage. He is not going to tell you everything about the law in the Christian life, but he is going to tell you three important things about the law. What Paul wants you to see is, is what the law is not, what happens when the law comes home and what the law is. That is what I would like you to see this morning in this passage. What the law is not. What happens when the law comes home, and what the law is.

I. What the law is not.

First what the law is not. Look at the first half of verse 7. There Paul says, 'What shall we say then," asking this question rhetorically, "is the law sin?" And his answer: "May it never be." God forbid. Heavens no, he is saying. Absolutely not. The law is not sin. He is telling us here what the law is not. It is not sin, it is not sinful, it is not evil, it is not bad, it is not the source of our problems. Paul has explained to us that we need a liberation from the law. Not because of the law, but because of our sin. That is why we need liberation from the law, because of our sin.

Now again, you may be asking why in the world would someone have thought to have said to Paul, are you saying that the law is sin? But remember, Paul has said some fairly radical things, including in the first part of this chapter that the law itself aroused sinful passions. And so there are people saying, now Paul, are you saying that the law is sin? And his response is, absolutely not. But he has asserted some fairly radical things about the law.

For instance, Paul has asserted that the believer is absolutely free from the law in every respect with regard to his justification. Paul has made it clear that you contribute absolutely nothing, zero, nada, it is a nil set, the category of those things which you contribute to your justification. Justification is something that God does. God provides the grounds of your acceptance with Him. You do not condition in any way, by your obedience, your law keeping, or by anything else, God's free acceptance of you in Jesus Christ. So Paul has been very blunt about that. There is no contribution from you to your justification in law keeping.

Notice also, that Paul has made it clear that you can't even begin to be godly until you are free from the law. Now that is kind of a radical statement. What does Paul mean by it? Paul makes it clear that you have to be free from the law, as to justification, before you can pursue righteousness. Not until you have renounced your own self-righteousness, and your attempts at gaining God's acceptance, are you even ready to pursue true righteousness. Paul realizes that as long as we see the law as the tool by which we get acceptance with God, a, we will be frustrated because it will never work; and b, we will be diluted because if we think it is working, it is not; and c, we will never be able to get on with the real business of godliness, because we are using the law for the wrong ends, in our Christian experience.

Indeed, for Paul, neither justification nor sanctification is by law. Now what do I mean by that? I mean this. That the agent of God in justification is what? Not the law, though the law is the standard of justification. Jesus keeps what law? God's law. Jesus pays the penalty of the violation of what law? God's law. That is what He does in order to ground and provide our justification. But what is the agent of justification? God's grace. And how is that grace received? Through faith, not through the works of the law. So the agent of justification is God's grace, working through the law work of Jesus Christ. Not our law work. But it is also the agent of God's sanctification. The law is not the instrument, which God has chosen, the dynamic that God has chosen by which to sanctify us. God's grace, working through the Holy Spirit is the agent, the dynamic of our sanctification.

Now the law still remains the standard of our sanctification. God's character is the standard of the believer's conduct. God's law is merely a reflection of, a mere image of His character and the law continues to be the standard. But Paul has made it very clear in saying these things that the law is not the solution to the problem of sin. It is actually a complication of the problem. It exacerbates the problem for those who are attempting to commend themselves to God. In other words, Paul is saying that the law is not the source of our problem. Nor, is it the thing that we need ultimate deliverance from. Indeed, Paul is saying that we need to be delivered from thinking that our law keeping can deliver us from our problem, which is sin.

Did I confuse you enough on that? We need to be delivered from our thinking that our law keeping can deliver us from our problem, which is sin. It is only when we are delivered from that kind of thinking that we are ever able to keep the law as it is meant to be kept. And yet, in our day and time, it is viewed that the ultimate expression of the Christian life is that there is no further duty or obligation to law. So Paul is telling us here that the law is not sinful and we need liberation from the law, not because of the law, but because of our sin.

II. What happens when the law comes home.

And then in verses 7, second half of the verse, all the way down to 11, he tells you a second thing. And that second thing is this. What happens when the law comes home? What happens when an unbeliever under conviction, finally realizes what the law is asking him to do? What happens when the unbeliever finally understands that he is not measured up to the teaching of God's law? Paul is telling us in verses 7-11, that we don't ever understand the Bible's teaching on the law, until the law's fullness has humbled us. The only person who can understand the law Paul says, is the one who has been humbled and crushed by the law. Paul gives an example of the essential righteousness and goodness of the law in verse 7, when he says, that it was the law that taught him the sinfulness of sin. Now Paul is not saying that I would not have known right from wrong, unless I had had a copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall in my room at home. It is not what Paul is saying. Paul has already argued that everybody knows that there is a difference between right and wrong. And that God has even written on their hearts the works of the law so they know the categories of right and wrong, and they know many of the specifics of right and wrong. It is ingrained; it is put on their consciousness by the finger of God.

So Paul is not denying that there is a universal sense of right and wrong. But what he is saying is this: That the law, when it came home, when it registered with him, showed him the inwardness of sin, and the inwardness of the law. Think about it. What commandment does he use as an example? The tenth commandment. You shall not covet. Now friends, you can think that you have kept the command, you shall not murder, as long as you have not physically gone out and murdered somebody. And you can think that you have kept the commandment, you shall not commit adultery as long as you have not gone out and physically committed adultery with someone. But my friends, there is way to externally covet. That is a matter of the heart. And it was Paul saying that he gets to the tenth commandment and suddenly he realizes that there is a lot more to those first nine commandments than just merely refraining from doing what they say point blank on the surface. That there are a lot of ways to break those first nine commandments without ever going through the physical action of committing murder or adultery or stealing or lying. Paul is saying that coveting taught him that the law was inward, and that righteousness was inward, and suddenly he realized that he had never kept the law. And furthermore, even when he realized that coveting was wrong and it was inward and it was pervasive in his experience, he didn't stop doing it. In fact, even though he them knew that it was wrong and he was convicted by it, he not only continued to do it, but he did it more and he did it more heinously than he had ever done it before. So just knowing the standard of God didn't do him any good. In fact, it made the situation work. He tells us in verse 8 that the mere knowledge of the law was no barrier to his sin. Indeed apart from grace, it produced in him, more and more worse sin.

And in verse 9, he goes on to say, I once thought of myself as a holy person, but when the fullness of the law hit home, I died under its condemnation. I thought I was a righteous man, and then suddenly I realized just how deep, just how great were the demands of the law, and I died under the weight of its condemnation.

In verse 10, he says, now of course, that wasn't the law's original purpose, the law wasn't given to kill me. The law was given that it might bring life. But because of my sin, it didn't produce life. It only produced death. And so, he says ironically, in verse 11, sin used the vehicle of the law in order to bring me under the law's condemnation. You catch the irony of that? Sin used the vehicle, the instrument of the commandment so that I would be brought under the condemnation of the commandment. And it is for this reason that the believer must be freed from the law in order to walk in newness of life. Paul says the law is unable to deliver you in that circumstance. Paul says, we don't understand the Bible's teaching about this subject until the law has humbled us when it comes home. When it brings under conviction. And for that reason, the believer must be freed from the law in order to walk in newness of life.

III. What the law is.

And then he wants to say one more thing. In verse 12, he says what the law is. He has told you what the law is not, it is not sinful, it is not bad, and it is not the source of our problem. Secondly, he has told you what really happens when the law really comes home, when it really registers, when we really realize that we are incapable of keeping this, and we are not in fact keeping it. The third thing he wants us to know is what the law is. And he tells us point blank, it is holy, it is righteous, it is good. That is what the law is. It is holy, it is righteous, it is good. Anybody out there, who wonders what I think about the law, Paul is saying, here is what I think about the law, it is holy, it is righteous and it is good.

He is reminding us here that we must not credit our blame to God or to His law, for the law is simply a reflection of His character. His character is holy, righteous and good. What does he mean by that? Holy, righteous and good? Well, it is holy in the sense that the law reflects the transcendent purity of the character of God. God's character produced the law. And in Isaiah 6:3, tells us that God is who? He is holy, holy, holy. He is the Lord God Almighty. And the law is holy, because it is a reflection of His character. And the law is just. In other words, the law is righteous. It doesn't make unfair demands. Sometimes you have perhaps been given a command that you felt was unfair and Paul is saying here, the law of God is not like that. It never puts unfair demands on people. It is equitable. It is never unjust. The law of God is just. And it is good. It is designed with our welfare in mind. It is beneficent in its outlook and its aim. Paul has already said that, hasn't he, in verse 10. Its purpose was to bring life, not to bring death. Its purpose was good for us.

Think of the commandments and how they were meant to provide for us an environment in which we have securely the best things of human experience. And when those commands are not paid attention to, you don't have more life, you have less life. You have less joy, you have less fulfillment. And so the apostle tells us, what do I think of the law? Here is what I think of the law. It is holy and it is just and it is good.

And so Paul is saying that every believer must have at least these two parts in his or her understanding of the law. On the one hand, every believer must understand that the law is not the solution to our sin. My law keeping is not the solution to my sin. Indeed, I need to be rescued from my law keeping. I need to be rescued from my sin. Because I am under the condemnation of the law. The law is not the solution to my sin. That is the first thing that every believer needs to understand about the law.

Secondly, however, every believer must understand that the law is good and it is designed for my benefit as a believer. And it's it those two things in our society, in our setting today that are so hard to keep together. Think of it, my friends, a radio talk show host that all of us listen to. And perhaps we agree with her eighty percent of the time. But here is the basic proposition that comes out in the conversations: You find out what the moral thing is to do and you just go and do it. All of life is solved that way. You find the moral thing to do and you do it.

The apostle Paul is saying, my friends, when you find out the moral thing to do, your problems have just begun. That is not the way of salvation. Because Paul says, the irony is you find out the moral thing to do and then suddenly you find out that your heart wants to do the exact opposite. So how do you deal with that, Paul wants to know? So you see there is that solution being given to us in our society, "Well, you just find out the moral thing to do and you do it." Paul says that is not the way of salvation, and the believer needs to understand that. Law keeping is not the answer; it is part of the problem, not because of the law, but because of our hearts. Not because of the law, but because of our sin.

But secondly, you need to know this. The law is good and it is designed for our benefit as a believer, and the law is not the ultimate source of our problems. I am going to quote to you from a Christian in a book that is wildly popular in our day. I am not even going to tell you the name of the book, because many of you have read it and liked it. Now here is a quote. I could find dozens of quotes like this in the book: "Jesus doesn't care about rules. Right and wrong are incidental to Him." This is the Christian on Jesus on rules. Ever read Matthew 5:17-19? Jesus seems to have a little bit different opinion about rules. You remember what He said about rules in that passage? Now I am going to give you Jesus on rules: "Do not think that I came to abolish the laws of the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until the heaven and the earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then a nulls one of the least of these commandments and so teaches others, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Jesus doesn't care about rules; right and wrong are incidental to Him. My friends, that is not Paul's point. That is not Paul's point.

The problem is not that there are rules out there and that God has just got to liberate us from these horrible rules. The law is good and equitable and right. The problem is that we are sinners. And that law can't get us back into relationship with God. But when He recreates us in Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul says, in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8-10, He creates us for good works.

Now where do you find out where those good works come from? I John 5:1-3. The commandments of God. Now we see the law is not the problem. Our sin is the problem. And Paul is teaching us that today. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, teach us to say with the saints, how we love Your law, and at the same time, never ever trust in it, for our acceptance with You or our justification. These things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Believer's Struggle with Sin - Romans 7:13-25

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:13-25)

The Believer's Struggle with Sin (pt1)

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans 7. As we do so, let me just make three or four introductory remarks about this great passage. Paul, so far in Romans 7, especially in verses 7-12 has made it clear that the believer's attitude towards the law as a gauge of the vitality and reality of his faith and that the believer's view of the law has to have two parts. Every believer has to look at the law in both of these ways simultaneously. First of all, every believer needs to understand that the law is not the solution to his or her sin. Indeed, we need to be rescued from the condemnation of the law. But secondly, the believer must understand that the law is good and it is designed for his benefit. Now Paul has been speaking in this great passage about the role of the law and indeed the role of the law for the believer.

In this passage, we come to what most commentators quickly confess is the most controverted portion of all of the book of Romans. It may be the hardest section to understand in all the book of Romans. Because of that, I am going to do something a little bit different today. Something that I don't normally do. And that is, I am going to do a verse-by-verse exposition of the passage. We are going to walk through, verse-by-verse, and simply see if we can follow Paul's argument. The reason I am doing that is, first of all, I think this will become apparent to you as I read this aloud, if it hasn't already become apparent to you, as you read this to yourself, that Paul's argument can sound or can look at first glance or at first hearing convoluted. He repeats himself. And you wonder, well, does that relate back to what he just said three verses ago. How did it relate to that? What exactly is he saying? He uses terminology that is difficult to get into. And if I outline for you what Paul says and you are not convinced that you can see that that is how Paul says it and that is what he is in fact saying, then you will have less confidence in the comforting application of this truth. And so, we are going to look at this passage twice. Today we will just walk through it verse by verse, so that you can follow Paul's argument for yourself, because though it is hard in some ways, it is not impossible. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate what Paul is saying here. The other reason I do this is because it is so important for the Christian life. And I will make my argument for that in just a few moments. But just remember this, as we walk through this passage, today, Paul's general subject in Romans 7, is how the believer is free from the law, and of what the role of the law is in the believer's experience. If you will bear that in mind, it will help you greatly in understanding Paul. With that as introduction, let's look at Romans chapter 7, beginning in verse 13. This is God's word.

"Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be, rather it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment, sin might become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing that I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good, is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing that I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then, the principle that evil is present in me. The one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin."

Amen. Thus ends the reading of God's holy word. May he add his blessing to it. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we need Your help. We confess with Peter that some of what Paul says is often hard to understand. And at the same time, we confess that you did not give us Your word to confuse us or confound us. You meant it to be understood. So by the Spirit open our eyes that we might understand what Paul is saying, what You are saying to us. And then give us some inkling of just how important it is and its specific relevance to our own day and age and our daily lives. These things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

A famous and godly man climbed up the steps to the pulpit of a Bible college chapel and he began to preach a sermon in which he promoted to the students and commended to them the view that believers ought to live a higher life, a victorious life, in which they get a victory over sin, which sets them free from conscious sin, and in the course of his sermon, he said to this gathered assembled group of students, "I have not sinned in three years." And in the group of the people who were attending that particular message were two young folks. They had just been married for about a year. They had met at the Bible college. They were both committed to the Lord. They wanted to go into missions. Both of them had come to that desire before they ever met one another. When they met one another they both had a desire to go the mission field. They very quickly fell in love with one another and they got married and in the course of their studies, they were preparing to go together to the mission field. But like many Christians they were struggling with sins, sins from their past, sins that were impacting their relationship and giving them enormous struggles. As they sat there and they heard this man say that he had not sinned in three years, they heard him go on to say this: "And if you're still struggling with sin, it is because you don't have enough faith. If you only had enough faith, you would have the victory over sin, and you could live the higher life, the blessed life and experience perfect love." They began to ask some of their friends who were at the message, "Have you experienced this higher life? Have you found victory over sin?" "Oh, yes," they were assured by their friends around them. They began to wonder, "Is there something wrong with us? Are we the only people struggling on this mundane plain with sin? Have we just because of a lack of faith failed to achieve the higher life?" That is the impression that they got from their teachers and from their classmates. They came to Reformed Theological Seminary a year later under enormous, enormous emotional and psychological pressure from the sense that they were somehow failing God, because they were continuing sin in their life. They were muchly relieved to find that this teaching that they had heard was not in accord with the Scriptures, and that the Scriptures' teaching actually liberated them from the false guilt they had, in order to deal with the real guilt that they needed to deal with. And so, you can see how an understanding of the believer's life and the ongoing struggle with sin in the believer's life is far from an academic question. We are not going off to the Ivory Tower of the theologians today to pick nits. This is something that hits you where you are and it hits all of us where we are everyday.

And by the way, there are many variations on the theme that that particular chapel speaker gave in that chapel message that day. For instance, imagine this scene. A daughter who has had a difficult relationship with her mother over the years goes home to confront that particular mom about some of those issues with the desire of clearing the air, dealing with sin, and having the kind of relationship that the two of them have always wanted to have, but which has been obstructed because of unconfessed sin. The daughter, with fear and trepidation, raises some of the issues which have brought a barrier between her and between her mother. But unfortunately her mother has imbibed teaching based upon Romans 7:13-25, which says, that she is no longer a sinner. She doesn't sin; it is the flesh that sins. And so, when her daughter raises these things, she says, "Well I don't sin. It is the flesh that sins in me. You can't ask me to ask you for forgiveness because I didn't do it. The flesh did it." The daughter is crushed because she was fearfully raising these questions with a genuine desire of restoration and yet she is sidestepped by her mother who claims that she didn't do it and that it was the flesh in her and she appeals to the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7 for support for her particular view.

Or perhaps worse, we could imagine this scene. A Bible teacher has collected a group of people to follow him, and in the course of teaching them, he explains to them, that he in fact no longer sins, because it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him, and he no longer sins. And the group is somewhat confused by that, but compelled by his personality and they are lead astray in their teaching. Or perhaps it is someone who comes to this passage, and says, you see, if Paul had only understood that he was free from the law, he wouldn't have bothered with sin. His conscience wouldn't have bothered him. The fact of the matter is that Paul is still trapped under a sense that he needs to obey the law. That is why he has a guilty conscience. Well, my friends, there are a thousand different permutations on misunderstanding of this passage. And those misunderstandings directly impact the way that we live as Christians. And so it is well worth our time to work through this passage together and appreciate what Paul is teaching.

As we do so, all I want to do is two things today. I want to stress two applications and I want to walk you through the passage. The two applications are this, and I am going to tell them to you at the outset, because I am not going to finish this. The two applications are this. First of all, believers still sin. Mature believers still sin. Godly, growing, not backsliding believers still have an ongoing struggle with sin in life. Paul makes that amply clear here. Secondly, the law is not the answer to the believer's struggle with assurance. It is not the answer to the problem of salvation or assurance. And indeed apart from Christ, it is part of the problem. And therefore, the believer must run some place else other than to the law in order to find true assurance. Now those are the applications that I am going to make for the passage. But what I would like to do is walk through the passage with me and just follow Paul's argument.

Now before we do that, let me say just one last word of preface. We know that Paul in this passage is a mature Christian for at least three reasons. First of all, because in verses 13-25, unlike verses 7-12, Paul speaks in the present tense. He speaks looking back to the past in 7-12. In verses 13-25, he speaks in the present tense. Notice over and over again, how he says this. "I am of the flesh." Verse 15, "for that which I am doing, I do not understand. I am not practicing, I am doing the very thing, I do the very thing, I do not wish to do. I agree with the law. I confess it as good. It is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin. I know that nothing good dwells in me. The good that I wish, I do not do. I practice the evil that I do not wish" and so and so on. He is speaking in the present tense. He is not looking back to the misty past. He is speaking in the present tense.

Secondly, we know that this is a mature Christian Paul because of his estimation of the law. He calls the law spiritual and he calls the law good. Now both of those are signs that he has come to view the law like God views the law. The law is spiritual and the law is good, and this is an indication that Paul is speaking as a mature Christian believer. And finally we see that he is a mature Christian believer in this passage. If you will look at verses 22 and 25, because of his description of his relationship to the law. How does he describe himself as relating to the law? Well this is what he says, I joyfully concur with the law in the inner man. Now ever met a Pagan who said that? That he joyfully concurred with the law in the inner man? And then he goes on to say, that he is serving the law in his mind. Now only a Christian can do those things. Only a Christian can serve the law of God in the very depths of his being.

And so for all these reasons, the apostle Paul it is clear, is speaking of himself as a mature believer. Why do I say that? Because many interpreters argue that Paul here is speaking as an unconverted man. Or as a man under conviction of sin but prior to conversion. And some even suggest that this is an immature backsliding apostle Paul at the beginning of his Christian experience but not as a mature believer. And I want you to understand that that is a major mistake in the approach to this passage for each of those three reasons. I well remember one of the godliest men I know, Robert Rayburn, standing up at a chapel and preaching on this passage and saying, "If the apostle Paul is not a mature Christian in this passage, then I am not a Christian." It made a real impact on all those present. And I appreciate that particular indication, because of the importance of that to understanding this passage for us today. So, let's walk through it verse by verse together and see if we can follow Paul's argument.

Verse 13, Paul says, therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be. Rather it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting death, my death through that which is good, so that the commandments, through the commandments sin would become utterly sinful. Now Paul is telling you two things in that verse. First, Paul is telling you that the law of God was not the cause of his death. Sin was. The law of God was not the cause of his death. Sin was. And Paul is telling you that not just because he wants you to know something autobiographical, not just because he wants to tell you a human interest story, but because that is the case for everyone. For everybody, it is not the law that kills you, it is sin. The law is not the cause of our death, sin is.

Secondly, he wants you to understand this. That the very sinfulness of sin is seen by the fact that it uses something so good, the law of God, as a weapon against us. We see the sinfulness of sin, the insidiousness of sin, that it takes something good and holy and honorable and pure like the law and uses it against us. By the way, isn't it interesting that Satan and the flesh will take this good law of God and use it as a weapon against us? And it might seem, as it were, to overthrow God's plan. But think of this my friends; God shows His sovereignty in overruling even sin and using that for the good of His people. Think of it, the most wicked deed ever performed in the history of humanity was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and it was God's stratagem to conquer sin. So if Satan uses the law to thwart the purposes of the law that is life in order to promote sin and death, God trumps him by using even evil, for ends which are ultimately for His glory and for His people's good.

At any rate, Paul's argument continues in verse 14. We know that the law is spiritual, he says, but I am of flesh. Again, Paul is telling you two things in this passage. First, he is telling you that the law of God is spiritual. That is capital 'S' my friends. In other words, it is of the Holy Spirit. The law of God is of the Holy Spirit. It is the product of God, the Holy Spirit. It is not derived from man, it comes from God Himself. It is a reflection of His character. Secondly, however, this is how he characterizes himself. Paul says, I am of the flesh. Now I want to say two things about that. Paul is not saying here, I am fleshly and immature, like he uses a similar word in the book of I Corinthians. Paul is saying here that he still has a human nature. A sinful human nature. When he says, "I am of the flesh, I am sold into the bondage of sin," he is saying, you need to know two things about me: I have died to sin, and I have been raised to newness in Christ and I still have a sinful nature. You remember he has already told you the first thing in Romans chapter 6. Now he says, let me tell you one more thing about me. I still have a sinful human nature. I am not entirely sanctified. I am not completely perfected. I am not without sin. I still struggle with sin. So when Paul says, I am of the flesh, he is not telling you everything about him, because he has already told you that he is a new man in Jesus Christ in Romans 6, but he is telling you something else about him that you might have been tempted to overlook or deny if you only had heard what he said about himself in Romans chapter 6. So the law of God is spiritual and Paul still has a sinful human nature. That is what he tells us in verse 14.

Then in verse 15, he says this, "for what I am doing, I do not understand. For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very things that I hate." Again, two things that Paul is telling in verse 15. He is complaining here, first, that his actions are not in accord with that new heart, that new mind, that new spirit that God had given him. We have all died to sin in Christ. We have all been raised to newness of life. And the apostle Paul is saying here, my actions are not consistent with my being a new creation. They are out of accord with it. That is why he can even say, I don't understand them. It doesn't make sense.

Secondly, he is saying, that the fact is that some of these deeds that he is doing, these sinful deeds are out of accord with what he really desires to do in his heart of heart. The things that he really wants to do and the things that he really doesn't want to do don't necessarily reflect themselves in what he ends up doing or not doing. In other words, Paul is showing you that he is a new man from the fact that he has a desire to do what is right. But he is showing you again, experientially, that he has a sinful nature, because he doesn't always do that which he knows he ought to do and that which he really wants to do.

In verse 16, he expands on this. He says, "if I do the very thing that I do not want to do, I agree with the law, confessing it as good." Now you may be looking at the verse and saying, "Well, help me understand how I am confessing the law to be good by sinning." Well, here is the argument. First of all, it is crystal clear that Paul is saying here that the law is good. If Paul wanted to argue that the law was the problem this was his chance. In this verse, he could have said, "you see the whole problem was, you see, I still care about the law. And if I would just forget about the law and I would go on just having a good personal relationship with Jesus Christ, everything would be solved." But Paul doesn't do that. He says not, "the law is good. There is nothing wrong with the law." The law is right when it says that is right and that is wrong. And I have got to deal with that. But look this is how he gets there. He indicates that his conscience actually bears witness to the fact that the law is good, by reminding him of the difference between what he knows that he ought to do and what he really wants to do on the one hand, and on the other hand, what he actually ends up doing. In other words, Paul says, every time I don't do what I know that I ought to do and what I want to do in my heart of hearts, I am being reminded again that God's law is good, and I am the problem.

In verse 17, he expands on this. And by the way, friends, in verses 17-20, Paul is going to work the same theme over and over and over again. So don't get confused. In fact, verse 20 is a recapitulation of verse 17. But this is a very important verse because every heretic for the last two thousand years has hopped on verse 17 and verse 20 to come up with some crazy doctrine, so listen closely. Verse 17, "so now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells within me." Now Paul is not trying to get himself off the hook here. He is not making excuses. It is not that someone has come to him and said, "Paul you have sinned," and he said, "ah, the devil made me do it." He is not saying, "oh, that wasn't me, that was someone else. That was the old man still in me." You know, sort of as if there was this autonomous being within him creating a split personality. That is not what Paul is saying. His point is not to get himself off of the hook.

Why is he telling you this? Well, for three reasons. Look at the three things that he asserts. First, he is asserting the new creation and he has already said that every believer is a new creation in Jesus Christ and we are raised to newness of life, Romans chapter 6. He says the sin which is still in him, is not the product of that new creation. He says, when you look at me, and you see me still sinning, you need to understand this; that sin doesn't come from the work of the Holy Spirit in me, in which I came to saving union with Jesus Christ. That is not where that sin comes from. That is the first thing that he wants you to understand.

Secondly however, he wants you to understand that there continues to be a sinful nature in him. He does go on sinning. And the presence of that new man does not mean that he does not sin. And third and finally, he wants you to understand where that sin comes from. It is the continuing product of the sinful nature. That nature does not represent his truest self. It doesn't represent the deepest part of his being, which has been impacted by the new man, but it is still there. And so Paul affirms all three things in verse 17.

Then in verse 18, he says, "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not." Paul here, again, makes it clear that his still sinful nature leads him to affirm that nothing good dwells in him. You all remember the quote from Augustine in The Confessions, he is going along in The Confessions and he pauses with a little prayer to the Lord. He says, "Lord, the good in me, You wrought. The rest is my fault." That is how he sums up his whole life. "The good in me, You did. The rest is my fault." That is a little bit of what Paul is saying here. He is affirming that nothing good dwells in him. But again, he is not characterizing his deepest self; the new creation because he says there is nothing good that dwells in me, that is in my flesh. And so Paul doesn't say, well, there is no good in me in the inner man, because he knows that God in His grace has wrought good in him.

For example, Paul says, "I want to do the good, but I don't." This is an evidence of the flesh, the ongoing sinful nature, and thus, of his lack of ultimate goodness. That is how he proves that there is nothing good in his flesh, because he wills to do right, but he doesn't end up doing it.

Then in verse 19, he goes on to say this. "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." In other words, he says, you can see my lack of goodness in two ways. Through sins of omission and commission. I don't do the things that God tells me to do, I do, do the things that God tells me not to do. And so both in my not doing those things that I ought, and in doing those things that I ought not, I show that I lack goodness.

Then in verse 20, he says," if I am doing the very thing that I do not want, then I am not longer the one doing it, but the sin which dwells in me." Now again, he is going right back to what he said in verse 17, and he is elaborating on it. And what is he telling you? Well, two things. First, the very fact of the presence of sin in his life is proof that there are two principles at work in the believer. His deepest self is the product of God, and grace and union with Christ. And is characterized by Christ and the Spirit and the law of God. But on the other hand, the flesh, the sinful nature, is characterized by sin. That is the first thing that Paul makes clear.

Secondly, notice how he refers to sin here. It is almost as if it is an alien force. He is not, again, doing that in order to try and get himself off of the hook; he is doing that to indicate that it doesn't make sense, it doesn't go with and it is not produced by the new creation that Jesus Christ has wrought in us. And so he goes on to elaborate on this in verses 21-23.

Now look at verse 24. In verse 24, he cries the cry, "Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death?" Because of his feelings of bondage to sin, he cries out in misery. Notice the believer can never ever be complacent about sin. The believer, when confronted with sin, can never say, "Nah, who cares, big deal." Paul is miserable, because the believer just doesn't want to be forgiven; the believer wants to be rid of sin. The believer wants to live in a state in which we are free not only from the domination of sin, but from the presence of sin.

The problem is that some believers think that happens now. But it doesn't happen until glory. And so the apostle Paul cries out, "Wretched man that I am," and I want you to see that in crying this, he once again proves that the law cannot give you salvation or assurance. Think of it. What is the big struggle that Paul is having? The struggle is this. He knows what he ought to do, but he is not doing it. Now help me here. How can the law help him with that? You know, Paul comes in to your office, he sits down, he says, you have got to give me some counsel. I am frustrated here. I know what I ought to do, but I can't do it. And your answer is, "Well, just obey the law." Paul says to you, "No, I don't think you understand. That is my problem. I know what the law says, and I am not doing it." "Well, just obey the law, then you will assurance of salvation." Paul says, "That can't be the answer. That can't be." And notice what his answer is, verse 25: "But thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." In other words, the answer to my salvation and my assurance is not my law keeping; it is God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul, even in reminding you of the ongoing struggle of the believer with sin, is also reminding you again that salvation has to be by grace. And so does assurance. Because our law keeping will never ever measure up to what we know the law demands.

And so in this passage, Paul summarizes for us these two great principles. First, believers, mature believers, still struggle with sin. Secondly, the law isn't the answer to that problem. In fact, it is part of the problem, when we are apart from Christ. It is part of the weaponry of sin against us. So there must be some other answer. What is that answer? Jesus Christ. Now pull back one more time, friends. Remember the big topic he has been talking about? Freedom from the law. It makes perfect sense. Paul is telling you, my friends, if your freedom and your salvation and your assurance and your salvation, depended upon the law, look where even I would be, a wretched man. But thanks be to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, I am saved by grace. And so Paul, even in the present experience of the believer has showed you again how the grace of God brings you freedom from the law and we will apply that truth next week. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for Your word, and we ask that by Your Spirit, that You would help us to come to a sure grasp of its truth and rest in its comforts, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Romans 8

Delivered by the Spirit by Death of Christ - Romans 8:1-4

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 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, 4 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 8:1-4)

The Righteousness of God for Salvation

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. We plunge into a new section of this great book. Romans 6, 7 and 8 we've already said are part of a portion of this book in which Paul is emphasizing how grace reigns in righteousness. It's not that justification isn't on his mind anymore, you're going to be reminded that it is, as soon as you get to Romans, chapter 8, verse 1. But, it is also that Paul is interested in you understanding the principles by which God sanctifies us. He speaks about union with Christ in Romans, chapter 6. He talks about the ongoing struggle of the believer with sin in Romans, chapter 7, as well as the believer's relationship to the law. And in Romans, chapter 8, he explains again why our struggles with sin do not ultimately undercut our assurance of salvation if we are in Christ Jesus. And so, justification and sanctification continue to be considered by the apostle Paul.

But again he is concerned in Romans 8 to talk about some of the implications of our free justification in Jesus Christ and some of the implications of God's ongoing work in us by the Holy Spirit. In fact, it wouldn't be inappropriate to call Romans, chapter 8, Paul's study of the work of the Holy Spirit in the light of the believer, because Paul is concerned to show here how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of Christians in this great chapter. And let me give you an example of how he does that. If you look at verses 1 through 4, Paul is addressing the issue of how it is that we are able to grow in grace despite indwelling sin. And, furthermore, he is addressing how we can retain an absolute sense of our assurance even as we continue to wrestle with the patterns of sin.

In verses 5 through 11, he deals with the issue of how you can tell the difference between worldliness and godliness in yourself. What's a heart that is set on things above, what's a heart that is set on things of the flesh? And he tells you how in verses 5 through 11.

In verses 12 through 17, he tells you how the Holy Spirit shows us that we are children of God. That's vital for healthy Christian growth. And he's going to tell you that in those verses in Romans, chapter 8.

Then again, in verses 18 through 25, he explains to you an issue of vital importance for every Christian. How is it that our present sufferings, our present trials, our present tribulations, our present difficult circumstances, how is it that God uses those to work for our future glory. That's an issue that every Christian here is, has or will be dealing with. And so, that's a super, super important thing for us to understand as we work through Romans 8. Paul is addressing that issue. Again, if you look at verses 26 and 27, he deals with the issue of how is it the Holy Spirit intercedes for you? We know that we're to intercede for one another. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ ever lived to intercede.

But did you know that the Holy Spirit intercedes for you, and how does He do it? Well, Paul tells you in verses 26 and 27.

Then again, in verses 28 through 30, Paul answers the question, how is it that a believer can be certain that God's promises to him will be fulfilled? How is it that we are going to be absolutely certain in every circumstance of life that God's promises will be fulfilled to us? Well, Paul tells you in verses 28 through 30.

In verses 31 and 32, Paul explains to you how you as a believer can understand how much God is for you. Every believer needs to understand that. And Paul says if you will listen to what I say here, you will understand how much God is for you.

In verses 33 through 34, he explains how we can be secure in God's justification of us. How can be certain, how can we be secure in God's justification? Well, he tells you in verses 33 and 34.

And then in verse 35 to 39 at the end of the chapter, Paul is addressing the issue how is it that we who feel like sometimes we're limping along, sometimes all we can do is just get our feet out of bed in the morning. Sometimes we feel as if the world is going crazy. Sometimes we feel like sheep being led to the slaughter. Our hearts are being broken every day. How is it that we can be more than conquerors? That's exactly what Paul is dealing with from verses 35 to 39. How can we be more than conquerors even though we feel like sheep being led to the slaughter? Well, you can see the practicality of all those questions that Paul addresses in this chapter. So we're going to feast on his answers to those great things and look for help in our own Christian growth as we work through this chapter together. And so with that as introduction, let's hear God's Holy Word in Romans, chapter 8, verses 1 through 4:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did; sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's look to Him in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we do ask that as we read Your word, that by the Spirit You would grant us an understanding of what it is to have the Holy Spirit of life working in us, and that we would take new confidence as we contemplate our own condition. And thereby resting in Your free justification, and Your Holy Spirit's work of sanctification, we would be able to say indeed in the midst of the trials of life and the struggles of our hearts that we are more than conquerors, and there is no condemnation. We ask, O God, that You would bring this truth home to us, savingly if necessary, and certainly for spiritual growth in all Your children, because we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Let me ask you a question. How is that you can be sure that you will not be condemned when you stand before the tribunal of God? That's a wise question for every human being to ask and answer. How is that you can be sure that you will not be condemned when you stand before the tribunal of God? Paul has been spending much of his teaching in this book making sure that we Christians know the right answer to that question, that our trust is in right place, that our confidence is not misplaced. And that question continues to be on Paul's mind in Romans, chapter 8.

And various people have given various answers to that question. Perhaps you know friends who call themselves agnostics or atheists, and their answer to that question is well, there is a god or if there is a god, it really doesn't matter, and, therefore, I don't think there's going to be a tribunal and, therefore, I'm okay. I don't need to fear about being condemned before the tribunal of God, because the tribunal of God doesn't exist. There are some people that take comfort in that particular answer. There are others, maybe more of these, who are basically universalists. They think this: The reason I don't need to fear being condemned before the tribunal of God is that God is going to bring everybody into His Kingdom. And there are different reasons they believe this. Some of them think that God is a giant Santa Claus in the sky, and He's just going to bless everybody. In other words, He hasn't been making His list and checking it twice. He's just going to bless everybody. And others think well, you know, really in us there's a spark of goodness. God is going to sweep under the rug those things that are evil, and there's a spark of goodness in us all; and surely He's a kind and merciful God. He's just going to accept us all. And that's how they come to some sense of assurance that there is no condemnation for them before the tribunal of God. God is just going to accept everybody. And then there are some people that are more defiant. This past Monday, a condemned mass murderer received capital punishment from the Federal authorities for the first time in some thirty years. The Federal government was involved in administering capital punishment for a horrendous capital crime. And he was given an opportunity to give his last words. And perhaps some were waiting for words of contrition, words of remorse, words of expression of sorrow for those who were victims, innocent victims for his acts of violence, but none of those were forthcoming. No, instead Timothy McVeigh left us with the words of W.E. Henley's poem Invictus. Remember it? "Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole. I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud, under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears, looms but the horror of the shade. And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul." Now that's the answer that he gives. He fears no condemnation at the tribunal of God, because he is the master of his fate. He is the captain of his soul. Such flimsy words of bravado will appear mean and insubstantial on that great day.

But Paul is not so much asking us now to contemplate what the unbeliever takes comfort as he stands before the tribunal of God, but he is bidding us ask the question: "What do you, struggling believer, what do you, believer, who still knows the onset of sin, what do you, believer, who still wrestles with the habits of sin, the principles of sin in your own experience, what do you, believer, who from time to time can say with Paul, oh wretched man that I am, what is it that you trust in that enables you to say there is now no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus?" How is it that you get that kind of confidence? I was listening to the tapes of Joe Novenson's John Reed Miller Lectures at Reformed Theological Seminary. And in those lectures, what wonderful sermons they are, you would all do well to hear them, they will bless your soul, he tells the story that as a seminarian, Joe wanted to go meet with one of his fallen heroes. A man who is probably one of your fallen heroes. His name is Gordon McDonald, and he was the pastor of a very large, evangelical Baptist church in New England. He became, eventually, the president of Intervarsity Fellowship. He authored many books, books that have helped so many Christians all during your private world and others. And Gordon McDonald fell into sin. He had an affair with his church secretary, and he had to leave the presidency of Intervarsity Fellowship and the ministry for a period of time. And yet, he was a believer, and he was contrite and repentant; and he did what he could to confess himself publicly and to rectify the things which he had done wrong. Now, how does a man like that deal with this question? "How can I stand with confidence before the tribunal of God?" I've fallen, I've publicly fallen, I've seen the depth of sin in me; and Joe Novenson wanted to go talk with Gordon McDonald and learn some hard truths from him. In the course of their conversation, Gordon McDonald said to Joe, "Now Joe, you're a Calvinist, right?" And Joe sort of sheepishly said, "Um, yes." And then Gordon said, "So you understand, Joe, that there is enough evil in you to destroy the world three times over?" And Joe said, "Yes." And Gordon McDonald said to him, "Joe, I didn't believe that. And I paid the price." But the question, you see, still looms, how can a person whose seen his own sin, he's been with Paul in Romans 7:24, he's cried out, "Wretched man that I am," how can he have the kind of absolute confidence of Romans 8:1, "There is now therefore no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus."? How can he have that kind of confidence? My friends, that's exactly what Paul is speaking to us about in Romans 8: 1 through 4. And I want you to see three things that he teaches you which will help you greatly. If you have seen yourself, and you've seen your sin, and you know how black it is, and you're trusting in Jesus Christ, that's not the issue. But if you're still wrestling with "How can I possibly be assured of the certain goodness of God to me in light of the fact that I continue to struggle with these things?" then Paul is waiting for you in Romans, chapter 8, verses 1 through 4 to help you.

And I want you to see the three things that he says. First, in verses 1 and 2, he makes it clear that the principle of sin in your life is not the whole story. He made that point very strongly in Romans 7:13 to the end of the chapter that believers still wrestle with sin. But here in verses 1 through 8, he wants you to be sure that the principle of sin continuing in your life is not the whole story. There's another principle at work in the believer's life. That's the first thing that he wants you to understand. Then, in verse 3 he's going to explain how it is, how it is that that principle works, and how it is that it helps you understand your freedom in Christ. And then in verse 4, he's going to indicate to you that Christ's victory over sin not only liberated you from the curse of the law, but it frees you to the obedience of the law. And I want you to see those three things as we study this passage together today.

I. Even the struggling believer can be assured of salvation/no condemnation/justification.

First, I direct your attention to verses 1 and 2. Paul here makes it clear that the principle of the sin in our lives is not the whole story for believers. There's another principle at work in us, and it's not simply the principle of our desires. It's the principle of the spirit of life. In other words, Paul is telling you that the story of your battle with sin is not the battle between your renewed desires and sin. It's the battle between God the Holy Spirit and sin. Now it's true that you have renewed desires, you are a regenerate person, you've received the new birth of your trusting in Jesus Christ. Yes, your desires are warring against sin, but that's not the only truth; that's not the only truth. The fact of the matter is, God the Holy Spirit is at work in you warring against sin.

And so Paul is telling us here in verses 1 and 2 that even the struggling believer can be assured of salvation, even the struggling believer can be assured that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Even the struggling believer can be assured of his justification because of two realities. First of all, the reality that his justification was accomplished by God not by himself, and secondly, because of the reality that it is God Himself, God the Holy Spirit who is working in him. It's objectively God working in him. It's not just him working as he can; it's God who is at work in him.

And you see those truths in verses 1 and 2. Condemnation is the opposite of justification. And Paul's great theme is the complete and irreversible nature of God's justification. When God justifies you, that does it. He has already given you the end time verdict. He's already pronounced the verdict of 'not guilty' over you that you will one day hear before the tribunal of God. And it's irreversible. And so Paul glories in that fact that there is no condemnation. But, he doesn't stop there.

He says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see what Paul is saying. The only people who can take comfort from that particular reality that they will not be condemned, are those who are what? "In Christ Jesus." He's saying that salvation is in relationship with and through the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. And my friends, sadly, that's something that many Christians are losing today. Just this past week, a major Presbyterian denomination, not our own, refused to affirm that salvation is in Jesus Christ alone. Now I just don't understand that. I would understand it if a Muslim came to me, and he said, "Well, I'm a Muslim, and I'm certain about this whole — there is one god, and Mohammed is his prophet thing." I would expect a Muslim to believe that. Just as I would expect a Christian to believe that there is salvation in no other name but Jesus Christ. Paul is not confused about that. It is in Christ Jesus that salvation is experienced and is provided.

At any rate, Paul goes on to wrestle with us about this question. Here's the question: What gets me out of the mess when my renewed desires conflict with the principle of sin in my members? I'm a Christian; I long to be like Christ. I long to walk in the ways of God; I long to walk in the ways of righteousness; but I find myself struggling with sin, serious sin, at every turn. What do I do in that kind of a mess? How can I have comfort? How can I be confident? And here is Paul's answer. "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." In other words, Paul says, verse 1, you contemplate your justification, God did that. Then, verse 2, you contemplate God the Spirit's work of sanctification and those things ground your sense of freedom. Paul wants you to take confidence, not because of how you feel, not because of what you are doing, not because of your circumstances, but because of what God has done, and God is doing. God has done justification; God is doing sanctification; and, therefore, you are to take confidence.

In verse 2, Paul is calling on us to contemplate how powerful the energy is that is worked within us. If you were to turn to Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 18 through 20, Paul is speaking about the same thing there. He begs, he pleads, he says, "Believers I pray that God would enlighten the eyes of your heart to understand this, the surpassing greatness of the power of work of God's work in you." And what does he say is a description of how great that power is? Well, he says this. He says that power is the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and caused Him to ascend on high, leaving captivity captive and sit at the right hand of God from which He rules the world for the good of His people. That same power that did that in Jesus Christ is the power that is at work in you.

And here Paul is saying, when you wrestle with a sense of condemnation, you remember the justification that God has done, verse 1, and you remember that it's the Holy Spirit of life that is working in you. Don't you underestimate the power of God at work in you. Think about this. We sang about it just a few minutes ago in A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, especially stanzas 1 and 2. "Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing." That's truth for justification and sanctification. And Paul is reminding you here that you may be confident not only because of God's work of justification, but because of God's work of sanctification. That's the first thing that Paul wants you to see.

II. God accomplishes what we could never accomplish and what the law could not accomplish through Jesus.

And secondly, if you look at verse 3, Paul will elaborate on how this works. How is it that you can view yourself as free from the law's curse? How is it you can view yourself as free from sin's guilt and power? In some ways it's easier for use to believe that we are free from sin's guilt, than it is for us to believe that we are free from the dominion of sin's power because we know sin in our lives day by day. And we wonder sometimes whether we will ever be able to get victory over it. And Paul tells us in verse 3 that God accomplishes what we could never accomplish, and He accomplishes what the law could never accomplish because of sin, through Jesus Christ. And he gives you five things that he wants you to think about just in verse 3. Look at them.

First, Paul tells you that the basis of your freedom is in what God has done, not in what you have done, not in what you are doing, not even in what you are not doing. The basis of your confidence of freedom of condemnation is in what God is doing. Look at his words. "For what the law could not do, . . God did." What's he doing? He's saying don't look at what you did and what you're doing. Look at what God did and what God is doing. God accomplished this. He's the source. He's the author. How is it you can have freedom from condemnation, even though you're continuing to struggle with sin, because your confidence is not based on you, it's based on Him. So God did. That's the first thing Paul wants you to see.

The second thing is this. Not only did God do this, but He did it at the cost of His Son. Look at the phrase. "God did it by sending His own Son." Now can you imagine God sending His Son to do what He did, to endure what He underwent without intending to accomplish something? Can you imagine that God would have done that for nothing? Do you think that God would have sent His Son to endure the shame for nothing? Paul is just pressing that in your face, and He is saying, "Now remember it's not just that God did it, but that He did this at the cost of His own Son." That's what the whole hymn And Can It Be is about. It's this amazing love and can it be that thou My God should die for me. How could we possibly think that God would have done that for nothing. Paul says that's why you take confidence, that God did what you couldn't do, what the law couldn't do, and He did it at the cost of His own Son.

Thirdly, he says, think about this. God did this by bringing His Son into the closest possible relationship to us. Notice the language he is using? It's shocking. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. In other words, Jesus experienced all the infirmities of living as a human in a fallen world, yet without sin. He was made in the likeness of human flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh. Now Paul is using that phrase very carefully to emphasize two things. First, that Jesus experienced all the infirmities common to human beings living in a fallen world, and at the same time, that He was completely without sin, His nature, His humanity was not fallen. The idea that Jesus was fallen, His humanity was fallen is a heresy. But when Paul says that He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, he's telling you that God brought His Son into the closest possible relation to us, yet without sin.

Now you may be saying, "But wait a minute. How can He really understand me if He's never had to deal with the inner-stirrings of sin?" I mean isn't that a discontinuity between Him and me that keeps Him from being able to sympathize? And here's my answer. No. In fact, the fact that Jesus was perfect, and the fact that He was an unfallen human being living in the infirmities of a fallen world, made it harder for Jesus, and, in fact, makes it easier for Him to sympathize with us. Now you say how in the world? Well, let me ask you this. What would it be like to be a person with perfect pitch singing in a tone deaf choir for your entire life? Now there's Jesus. The man with perfect pitch singing in a tone deaf — He's bombarded on every side by wickedness and the effects of sin to the point that it vexes His soul every second of His earthly existence. And yet He's sympathetic toward us. You know, you think of a woman, she's suddenly fallen under conviction over gossip. She's hurt a lot of people in her life gossiping. By the grace of God, God works a real work in her heart, and she turns from that and she purposes not to tear people down with her words. And she's amongst her friends one day, and the gossip begins. She doesn't participate. But she feels filthy just hearing it. She feels like she just needs to go home and take a shower. She hasn't participated in it. She hasn't given in to it. But just hearing it bothers her, because she's worked so hard to put that away. Or a man who is trying to be clean in the way he looks at people, especially women. He's careful what he looks at on the internet, he's careful at what he looks at on the racks in the stores, in the book stores, and such. And yet one day he's walking into the grocery store. He's just going to get milk, and all he has to do is pass by the rack. And these are acceptable magazines. These aren't pornographic magazines. And he glances over there, and he says, now where do my eyes go now? Where do my thoughts go now? He wasn't trying to get himself in trouble, he wasn't lured in the direction of doing this, but all it had to do was this bombarding from the outside, and he feels like he needs to go take a shower and confess to his wife. And Jesus lived under that kind of bombardment every conscious moment of His experience. Don't tell me that He doesn't understand. It's precisely that discontinuity between Him and us that makes Him able to sympathize with us like no one else. And Paul is telling us here that God accomplished this salvation for us by bringing His Son into the closest possible relationship to us.

Then again, he's telling us that God sent His Son into the world for the purpose of dealing with sin. Notice the phrase "and for sin God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin." We slightly disagree with the translation there. Not 'sin offering,' but He sent Him 'for sin,' and the original says 'for sin.' In other words, Paul is telling us here that God sent Jesus into the world for the purpose of dealing with sin. Here you are a Christian, you are wondering, "I wonder if I can be accepted because of my sin?" Paul is saying, "Um, excuse me, He sent him into the world because of sin. He sent him into the world to deal with sin. Do you think that somehow he left yours out? He thought of everybody else's, but no, he just doesn't factor in your sin. That's the one sin that he hasn't factored in." Paul is saying"Tthink about it. He came into the world because of your sin to deal with it. Don't think that you were left out of the equation." So Paul says, you take confidence. And he's not finished.

He says at the end of this verse 3 that Jesus has vanquished sin's power, and He's freed us from enslaving dominion. He has condemned sin in the flesh. Paul has given us five reasons here that we are free from the curse of the law, and why we ought to believe we are. And you say to me, but I don't feel like I'm free from the dominion of sin. I don't care. Paul says you are. Paul says you are, and you need to be on your knees saying, "Lord, help me to believe what is true even though I don't feel like it. And in Your mercy, help me to be able to feel like it one day." But it's true. Paul says, this doesn't depend on how you feel. It doesn't depend on how you are doing this week, whether you a little bit better this week than last week, this is true. Believe it.

III. God accomplishes not only our justification by but our sanctification through Jesus Christ.

And then one last thing he says in verse 4. He says that Christ came into the world to vanquish and to conquer and to condemn sin in order that, what? That 'the requirement of the law might be fulfilled,' and what are you waiting for? You are waiting for Paul to say 'for us,' but he doesn't say that. Rather, that the requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us. God justifies precisely because this is His goal to sanctify us. God grants us pardon and declares us to be free from the condemnation of sin because His goal is to work the requirement of the law within us so that we ourselves actually become those who are godly and holy. Christ died so that we would become holy. He died so that the requirements of God's law would not only be fulfilled for us, but in us. And so Paul teaches us that God's work of justification is inseparable from His work of sanctification.

But you say, doesn't that lead me right back to where we were to begin with? Because I so struggle with the imperfection of this work of sanctification. And Paul's words to you are "Patience, God is at work. It's God the Spirit at work in you." He never promises this work to be done in this life, but He Himself is carrying it out. Now it's time for you to join in. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for the confidence of no condemnation in Jesus Christ, and we ask now that You would bring about the reality increasingly of the spirit's maturing work in our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord, we ask it, Amen.

Flesh and Spirit - Romans 8:5-11

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[a] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:5-11)

Flesh and Spirit

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. For the summer months we're going to be in this great chapter. It's a chapter that many of us have turned to in time of need, a chapter of great encouragement. We said that there's a theme that runs throughout this chapter, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And one of the first ways we saw the Spirit working in an encouraging way in our lives was looking at verses 1 through 4 of Romans, chapter 8, and answering the question: well, we've learned from Romans 7:13 to the end of the chapter that believers still struggle with sin; that believers aren't sinlessly perfected, and they continue to have this principle that sin within them that the spirit wars against and constantly there are struggles and sometimes discouragements. So, how in the world then can a believer have assurance in that kind of a setting? How can a believer be joyful? How can a believer go on with a sense of victory and triumph and ultimately hope?

Well, the apostle answers right in the first four verses of this great chapter. And he says there's another principle at work in you, it's the principle of the Holy Spirit. It's not you versus sin; it's the Spirit versus sin in you. And so because of that the believer is able to be assured, and the believer is comforted and encouraged even in the midst of his struggle with sin.

Well, Paul has more encouragement in store for us in this great chapter, as he works through the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And today in particular, he shows us a contrast between a person who is in the Spirit, in whom the Spirit dwells, and a person who is not in the Spirit, but rather in the flesh in whom the Spirit does not dwell. And he says, look at the difference of the character, look at the difference of the desires, the attitudes, the conduct between someone who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and someone who is not. Now in the course of sharing this, the apostle's goal is to encourage Christians. But surely as we think on that kind of a subject, all of us ought to take stock and ask ourselves whether God has done a work of grace in us, and whether we are, in fact, trusting in Jesus Christ. So with that in mind, let's look to God's word, and begin in Romans, chapter 8, verse 5:

"For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired Word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord, this is Your Word. By Your Spirit, teach us the truth that Your Word reveals to us about the Spirit, and especially about His work in us. This we ask in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Recently there have been a number of news programs devoted to some of the calamities that we see happening around us in the culture. One recent news program was looking at the increasing number of incidents of parents showing incredibly aggressive behavior at their children's sporting events. And these aggressive behaviors are not only becoming more frequent, but they are becoming more intense. In fact, you'll remember that around a year ago, there was a man at a hockey rink, who literally killed a another man in the context of a child's hockey game. And during the course of one of these youth programs, the people were debating, and the question was asked, can psychologists and others who read the culture and who read people tell us who is going to act this way? Can we predict the persons who are going to use this kind of violent behavior, who are going to explode in this kind of anger? One of the things that everyone was frustrated about on this particular program was that no one could actually predict who is going to be this way. They can't distinguish. A person may act very normally, and they have no inappropriate socially aggressive behavior, and suddenly you put them in the context of a sporting event, and they turn into someone that you've never known before.

I had a professor in seminary that got so carried away, that he was actually asked to never come back to the basketball league games that his son played in. And when he was being ejected for the last time, someone said, "What does he do?" And, of course, there was a mumbling of, "Well, he's a professor at the seminary," not Reformed Theological Seminary, by the way. But they can't predict. Perfectly normal people completely lose themselves in these circumstances.

Well in this passage, Paul is saying, from God's perspective, notwithstanding those kinds of difficult predictions, there are fundamental differences between those who are in Christ, and those who are not. There are fundamental differences between those who are in the Spirit, and those who are in the flesh. There are fundamental differences between those who are godly, and those who are worldly. And he is concerned to set those out before us. But his primary reason for doing so is to show us what life is without the Spirit, to remind us that it is the Spirit who gives us life, and then to remind us just how great the power of the Holy Spirit is. And that's really the outline of our passage. In verses 5 through 8 we see the absence of the spirit, and it's result. In verse 9 we see the presence of the Spirit and its result. And in verses 10 and 11 we see the power of the Holy Spirit. And perhaps that will serve as an outline for those of you who are outlining. But don't get frustrated, I didn't get through point one last time. Well, let's look at this passage together in these three parts.

I. Believer and Unbeliever contrasted.

In verses 5 through 8, the apostle is giving you the marks of someone who is after the flesh. Now when we say in the flesh or after the flesh, or controlled by the flesh, and the mind set on the flesh, let's be clear what we are talking about. Paul is talking about the flesh as human nature corrupted, directed and controlled by sin. And so when he says after the flesh, or speaks of someone who mind is on the things of the flesh, or who walks after the flesh, he's talking about a basic moral condition, an inward frame of mind. And a practice that comes from that inward frame of mind which is not Spiritual with a capital S. It's not produced by the Holy Spirit. It's characterized by an absorption with the things of this world and our own agenda. Some of those things are good, but they're not sought after in the frame of glorifying God. Some of those things are evil. And this is what Paul is speaking of when he speaks about after the flesh or walking in the flesh.

And in this passage, he actually, from verses 5 to 8, describes for us a person who is walking after the flesh. And it may surprise you. He doesn't give you a list of horrific crimes that this person commits. He doesn't give a list of sins, which are so grave that they set themselves apart from the other kinds of sins that people commit. No, he actually talks more about the disposition of the heart towards God and His Word.

Look at what he does. In verse 5, he says That those who are after the flesh, he's speaking of pagans here. That pagans set their minds on the things of the flesh. They're thoughts, they're interests, they're desires, they're purposes are focused on this life. And they do not look at the things of this life from the standpoint of God's glory, or their neighbors good. They are self-centered, and they are pursuing their own agendas, and they have set their mind on the things of the flesh, things that will pass away.

Secondly, notice in verse 7 at the very beginning of that verse. He indicates that they are hostile to God. "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God." So the reason the mind set on the flesh is death is because it is hostile to God, to be against God, to reject His rule by doing what they want to do rather than what the Lord commands. This, by the way, doesn't indicate some sort of an outburst of anger against God. We have perhaps known friends, in the midst of tremendous trials in their lives, who have become angry toward God. The apostle is not talking about that here. He's not thinking so much of an emotional reaction against God. He's not even talking about something you could necessarily see outwardly. He's talking about a person who decides, "I am doing this my way, I don't care what God says. I know that God says for me to be faithful to my wife, but I don't want to. I know that God says for me to have these as my priorities, but I want these as my priorities." This is a person who is going to do his own way; he's hostile toward God.

And, Paul goes on to say thirdly, that his mind does not subject itself to the law of God. Look at the second part of verse 7. He says, "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God." In other words, Paul is saying, a concrete manifestation of this hostility to God is that it refuses to submit to God's word. God's word says, "Do this." And the hostile mind says, "Well, I don't want to." God's word says, "Don't do this," and the hostile heart says, "Well, I do want to." The concrete manifestation of hostility to God is a resistance of His Word, a resistance of His rule. And how often do we see people who grind their teeth against the restrictions of God's word, or its positive commands? And the apostle says that's an example of a mind that is set on the flesh.

Fourthly, notice again at the end of verse 7. He says that the pagan mind is not even able to subject itself to the law of God. Paul is saying here that it is morally impossible for the pagan to subject himself to the law of God. Now you might be thinking, "Well, that doesn't seem fair. God holds him responsible for it. Why would he do that if it's morally impossible for him to do?" Paul is not saying, "Well, somehow there's this grand scheme whereby God forbids people from doing what they want to do." He's pointing to the heart again, and he's saying, "Look, if your heart is set on the things of the flesh, it is impossible for your heart to at the same time be set on the things of God, the things of the Spirit." If I may borrow Jesus' words, "You cannot serve both God and mammon." It's impossible to do. It's a moral impossibility to seek after the things of God while you are wholeheartedly seeking after the things of the flesh.

And so, he says fifthly in verse 8, that the pagan cannot please God. It is absolutely impossible to please God and love the flesh and love mammon at the same time. And so Paul gives these indications of a person who is in the flesh, a person who is apart from the influences of the Holy Spirit.

Now, he describes for us the Christian by contrast. He only gives one explicit contrast between the pagan and the Christian. You see that in verse 5. Whereas, the pagan's mind is set on the flesh, the Christian's mind is set on what? The things of the Spirit. But by implication and by inference in the rest of this section, he tells us what a Christian looks like. A Christian sets his mind on the things of the Spirit. His heart is controlled by the Spirit. His reason, his desires, his will reflect the Spirit's work. His purposes are spiritual. He's at peace with God because of justification. He is reconciled to God, and he has life, a true knowledge in fellowship with God, and he has a tranquility, a peace even in the midst of difficult circumstances because of that justification that God has granted to him.

In verse 7, the Christian, in contrast to the pagan, does subject his mind to the law of God. The mind of the believer is subject to the law of God. He has a reverence for, a love for, a subjection to the law of the Lord. It's the mark of the spirit. He wants to be a Bible Christian. He wants to obey what God commands in His Word.

Fourthly, the Christian is able to subject himself to the law of God. Whereas the unbeliever is not even capable of subjecting himself to the law of God, the believer is able. Because of the Spirit's change of our hearts, we love the law. And notice again the Christian in verse 8 is able to please God in contrast to the pagan, and he does. The Christian loves to fulfill the law, the Christian loves to fulfill his chief purpose in life, his chief end in life, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. It's something that he delights in.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie, "Chariots of Fire" never happened. It's the scene where Eric and his sister, Jenny, are arguing on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. Jenny, by the way, was totally supportive of his athletic career, but in order to make the movie have a little bit of tension, the screenwriter of the movie wrote in this argument between Jenny and Eric. And you remember, perhaps if you saw that movie, that she is objecting to the fact that he is continuing to train for the Olympics and continuing to run races when he ought to be preparing for the mission field, when he ought to be involved in Christian work. And you'll remember his response. His response is that he loves the Lord's work. And that he loves to be involved in it, and he's going to be involved in it, and he has not been sidetracked from it. But he goes on to say this, "But Jenny, God made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure." His running was entirely framed with the purpose of glorifying God. And as he glorified God, he experienced the pleasures of God.

And so the Christian is just that way. It is not that the Christian is simply thinking about spiritual things all the time and never thinking about the things of this life. It is that the Christian is indeed glorying in these spiritual things, the truth of the word. But even when the Christian is thinking about this life, he's thinking about this life Christianly. He's thinking about the resources, the job. He may be a woodcarver. He may be a truck driver. He may be a doctor. He may a lawyer. He may be a banker. He may be a paralegal. He may be someone in a fairly menial position. He may be a CEO. It doesn't matter. In everything that he does, he looks at it Christianly. He has a frame of reference, which is entirely different from the flesh. And the apostle is saying here that God's work of saving grace always produces a heart change in believers that manifests itself in their lives so that their attitudes, their goals, their purposes are different from those who are unbelievers.

II. So what makes the difference? The presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now friends, that presses some very serious questions on us, because in a congregation of this size, surely there's someone who is walking after the flesh. And Paul has given you a checklist to ask yourself, "Are you walking after the flesh?" Now if you answered the question Yes, I am." You are still only part of the way down the road, because you need to know, okay, what next? So, maybe I am. What do I do? Well, the apostle Paul is waiting for you. He's talked about what happens when the spirit is not present. Now he talks about the presence of the Holy Spirit in verse 9. What makes the difference between a person who is walking after the flesh and walking after the Spirit? And the answer is simply this: The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's not that one person is inherently better than another person; it's not that one person is inherently a more faithful person than another; it is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Why is it that some people walk after the flesh? They are not indwelt by the Spirit. Why is it that some people walk after the Spirit? Because they are indwelt by the spirit, the apostle says in verse 9.

Paul expresses his confidence in the state of these Roman Christians in verse 9. But he also gives them a warning. Look at what he says. "You are not in the flesh but in the flesh." He says, I'm not accusing you of not being believers. You're not in the flesh; you're in the Spirit. But he does want to stress to them in the second half of the verse that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Paul immediately sets these Christians at ease by reminding them of his estimation of them. They are believers indeed.

But what makes them that way? Well, Paul tells them in the second half of the verse. The life-giving force in the believer is the Holy Spirit. He's the difference between their being in the flesh or not. You know, sometimes we will say, when we're apologizing to someone for something that we have done, we'll say something like this, "Oh, I was in the flesh." Now usually we know what we mean. Usually we assume that a person who says that to us is saying that they were acting out of character, they weren't acting in a Christian way. But that is not how Paul uses these terms. "In the flesh" is a description of a permanent moral condition, which always attends the one that is apart from Christ. And "in the Spirit" is a permanent moral condition, which attends the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit. And Paul is saying the difference between a person who is like that and a person who is in the Spirit is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Notice how this verse reminds us of the inseparableness of Christ and the Holy Spirit. It shows us that a Christian by definition is in Christ. You know, so many people will teach that first you receive Christ, and then at some later time you receive the Holy Spirit. Well, the apostle Paul would have said, "What?" For Paul, to be in Christ is to be in the Spirit, and to be in the Spirit is to be in Christ. And if you are not in Christ, you are not in the Spirit. And if you are not in the Spirit, you are not in Christ. You see the inseparableness of Christ in the Spirit.

In fact, if we were to pause today, verses 9 through 11 would actually supply us tremendous material for a study of the doctrine of the Trinity, because in this passage we see the deity of Christ set forth. We see the procession of the Spirit, not only from the Father, but also from the Son, what the Western Church called the filioque. We see the mutual inherence of the three persons of the Trinity and the essence of the one true God, what the theologians call circumincessio or perichoresis. And I know you're thinking to yourself, "Thank heavens, he's not going to talk about that, "but it really would be glorious if we could. But in the context, you see Paul is lavishing your plate with truth. You don't have enough time to think about it, but his point in telling you this is precisely this: The believer turns and looks at his own life, and he says, "Well Paul, I've seen all too many marks of the flesh in me." And the apostle Paul says, "The difference in you is the Holy Spirit. That's the difference in you." So it's not that you are trying to keep the law a little bit more than someone else. The Holy Spirit in you is the dynamic, is the life-giving force. It's the Holy Spirit who is the power that enables your Christian living.

III. The indwelling of the Spirit assures the believer of the resurrection of his mortal body.

And then he gives you a promise at the end. He knows that believers are all too aware of their own shortcomings, of their own failings, of their own sins about not measuring up to what we ought to be in Jesus Christ. And so he says, I want you to think about this for a minute. He offers an amazing word of encouragement for the believer. He says this. The indwelling of the Spirit assures your resurrection. Verse 10 is a difficult verse, but the thrust of verse 10 and 11 is very clear. Paul is basically asking you to ask two questions as you hear what he says in verses 10 and 11.

First, he's asking you to ask the question who raised Christ from the dead? And he gives you this answer. God, the Father, raised Christ from the dead by the Spirit. And he does that by calling the Spirit a special name. He calls him the Spirit of the Father. He's the Spirit of God. He's the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

And then he wants you to ask a second question. Who is it that is dwelling in me? And his answer is the same. The Spirit of the Father is dwelling in you. And then Paul wants you to contemplate for a minute. If God the Father by the power of the Spirit raised Jesus Christ from the dead, what is it that is at work in me? Who is it that is at work in me? It is the Spirit of the Father who is at work in me. And if He raised Christ Jesus from the dead, then I am assured that I, too, will be raised from the dead. And not only raised from the dead, but He will continue to perfect in me that which God had first begun. And so the apostle Paul is pointing again to the fact that the law in and of itself cannot supply the power to save, it cannot supply the power to sanctify. It continues to be the standard of sanctification, the believer loves it as he embraces Christ in grace, but it is the Spirit that enables us to live the Christian life.

Now let me come back to those of you who may be saying, "I'm sure whether I've seen the marks of the Spirit in me. I see the marks of the flesh. What do I do?" Well, there's nothing you can do. There's absolutely nothing — you can bring nothing to the table. Clairveaux himself said, "It's not my sins alone that keep me from God, it's my righteousness." There's no righteousness that you can bring to reconcile yourself to God to condition His grace. No, you must cast yourself on the mercy of the Lord. And you must trust in the one whose righteousness made for the provision of the Holy Spirit, and as you trust in Him, and you say, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Your cross I cling." Then you will find that God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, will not only ground you and transform your life, but He will grant to you the security that belongs to only those who have abandoned their own attempts to come into relationship with God and have begged for the mercy of God and have found it. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we ask that by Your grace, the Spirit would descend upon our hearts, wean us from the love of this world and woo us to the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask it in His name, Amen.

Children of God - Romans 8:12-17

12 So then, brothers,[a] we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons[b] of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:12-17)

Children of God

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. We've said that Romans, chapters 6 through 8 speak of the issue of how grace reigns in righteousness, and that Romans, chapter 8 in particular, discusses the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And in our first two studies, we've been able to look at some of the specifics of Romans 8. In verses 1 through 4 for instance, we learned how it is that we are able to grow in grace, despite indwelling sin. In verses 5 through 11, we saw the difference between a life of worldliness and life of godliness, and how the Spirit makes those things distinct.

And the passage that we are looking at today in verses 12 through 17, we will see how the Holy Spirit shows us that we are the children of God. Verses 18 through 25 show how God uses our present sufferings for our and His future glory. Verses 28 through 30 show us how we are certain that God's promises are going to be fulfilled in us and to us. Verses 31 and 32 remind us of just how much God is for us. Verses 33 and 34 remind us how secure God's justification of us is. And verses 35 to the end of the chapter show us how we can be more than conquerors, even though we feel like we're sheep being led to the slaughter. And so, all of the content of this chapter serves, among other things, to encourage and comfort and to strengthen Christians. It's no wonder that we so often turn to this great eighth chapter in Romans in time of need. But as we continue our study through this Book, and through this particular chapter, it will be helpful for us to catch something of Paul's argument so far in Romans 8, verses 1 through 11.

So what I'd like to do is to direct your attention to verse 1, 2, 4, 5 and 12. And I believe by giving you a synopsis or a brief summarizing statement of those verses, you'll be able to follow Paul's argument and appreciate better what he is attempting to do in the passage today. He says, beginning in verse 1, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So then brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." You see here, then, a typical Pauline pattern. He speaks first of what we are, and then of what we are to do. He speaks first of what God has done for us and in us, and then he speaks of our response to what God has done. He speaks of the indicative, and he moves to the imperative. He tells us what we are, and then he challenges us with what we ought to be do.

In this case, specifically, he explains that by the Holy Spirit's work, we have been truly set free from the dominion of the flesh. Then, he exhorts us not to live according to the flesh. He exhorts us to put to death the flesh, to be led by the Holy Spirit. These are the great evidences that we are the children of God. So with that by way of introduction, let's hear God's holy and inspired word, beginning in Romans, chapter 8 and verse 12.

"So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting the death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out 'Abba! Father!'" The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord, you have given us Your word, not simply to intrigue us, but to instruct us and to ground us and to equip us for righteousness. We ask then by Your Holy Spirit, we would not only understand this Word, but embrace it, embrace it, for Your glory and our good. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Paul in this great passage is speaking to us with a two-fold purpose. He is speaking both to exhort us to holiness, and also to assure us; to grant us confidence in the salvation which God has for us. Isn't it interesting that Paul's teaching on growth in grace, Paul's teaching on discipleship, Paul's teaching on sanctification always does two things at the same time. It always energizes us to godliness and assures us of salvation. And if a teaching on sanctification fails to do both of those things at the same time, it's not Pauline, and it's not Biblical. Paul always energizes us to growth in grace, and he always assures us of salvation. And he does that in this passage. In fact, his goal is two-fold; on the one hand he wants us to understand the grounds on which we may be assured that we are children of God, and the other hand, he wants us to act like children of God. And so he urges both of these things upon us in these few verses simultaneously. In fact, this passage in and of itself is expansive enough in the things that it teaches to give us a well-rounded view of sanctification.

Now we can't do justice to all of the things that are in this passage. Perhaps if we do a five-week sermon series on this passage, we could begin to scratch the surface. But what I'd like to do is I'd like to walk you through these five or six verses, and I'd like you see five things. First of all, in verse 12, let's begin to follow Paul's argument.

I. Christians are under obligation to God not to live the way someone lives apart from Christ.

Paul is saying this. In light of all that God has made you to be, in light of the Holy Spirit's work in you, in light of the Holy Spirit indwelling you, live this way. Now, of course, in verse 12, he doesn't put it in the positive. He actually puts it in the negative. Look at his words. "So then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh." And then he pauses his thought, because he has got to tell you something else in the next couple of verses. But his point here is that Christians are under obligation not to live the way someone lives apart from Christ, but to live a different way. We have no debt or obligation to the flesh, Paul is saying. Our new life didn't come from the flesh. We don't owe the flesh anything. It's the work of God that has given us this new life, and, therefore, we ought not to live for the flesh or for its goals. We are under obligation to God not to live according to the principles and aims of a corrupt human nature.

And Paul appeals to the work of the Holy Spirit and to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in this passage, as the reason why we are under obligation to be consecrated; why we're under obligation to grow in grace; why we are under obligation to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is telling us then, here in verse 12, that we ought to grow in grace, because we are in debt to God. We are obligated to God, especially because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You know, we often say that in the Christian life the great motive of the Christian life is gratitude. In other words, we don't obey in order for God to love us; we obey because has loved us savingly in Jesus Christ. In other words, it was God's initiative and love, which has provoked our response and obedience. And that is, of course, entirely true.

But the New Testament makes it clear that there are a whole plethora of motivations for living the Christian life. And Paul is bringing out attention to that right here. He's not bringing before us a motivation of gratitude, he's actually bringing before us a motivation of obligation. Here's how Jim Philip put it: "Such is the hope that believers have that it lays them under obligation to live as men claimed for that destiny of glory. Such is the hope that believers have that it lays them under obligation to live as men claimed for that destiny of glory." And so Paul is telling us that Christians are under an obligation not to live the way someone would live apart from Jesus Christ. That's the first thing that he says in this great passage.

II. Christians know the divinely revealed secret of mortification/life nexus -those who kill sin live!

Then, in verse 13, we'll see a second part of his argument. This point that I've made in verse 12 is important because of the unbreakable link between sin and death on the one hand, and between mortification and life on the other hand. Now listen to this closely because it's a little paradoxical. Paul says in verse 13 that sinful living is always inseparably linked to death. But he also says that putting sin to death is inseparably linked to life. Now that's interesting isn't it? Sinful living leads to death, putting death to sin or putting sin to death always leads to life. It's paradoxical. But Paul is pressing it home. He's indicating, by the way, in this verse, among other things, that the believer is always at work in sanctification. The very phrase "put sin to death," or "you are putting to death the deeds of the body," indicates that. The indicatives of grace never produce passivity in the true believer. But rather, they produce a strong, grace-dependent, faithful activity on the part of the believer.

But Paul, in this verse, is announcing a fundamental reality. It's a law of God's universe. "Live according to the flesh," he says, "you die." "Put to death the flesh, you live." And we see reflected here that paradoxical statement of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew, chapter 16, verse 25. Remember what He said? "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

And what's more, in this verse before us in Romans 8:13, Paul is emphasizing not just sanctification in general, but mortification. Putting sin to death. The very topic that Derek was addressing to us

last Lord's day evening. And if you missed that sermon, you need to get the tape and listen to it again. It will help you. But Paul is picking up on that very theme. And he's seeing mortification as a sign that we are sons and daughters of God. Mortification is a sign that we are children of God. Mortification is a sign that the Holy Spirit is alive and well within us and working to make us what God intends us to be.

Notice, however, even in this verse with its emphasis on our activity and mortification, Paul makes it clear. How is that the deeds of the flesh are mortified? By the Spirit. It's not me versus the flesh, it's the spirit versus the flesh, and I am drawing on the power of the Spirit as I war against the flesh. Look at each of the phrases in this verse, and let's consider what Paul is saying. When he says, "put to death," he is indicating our responsible activity.

When he says, "put to death the deeds of the body," he doesn't just mean physical sins. He means those practices which characterize the sinful nature, and which are often expressed in a physical way. But it doesn't just means actions of the body. He's saying, "put to death all the characteristic practices of the sinful nature." When he says, "by the Spirit," he's reminding you that mortification, that killing sin, that warring against sin is something that flows from the resources and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And when he speaks of life at the end of that verse, you will live, he's referring to that fullness of eternal life that the saints enjoy in fellowship with God.

Now Paul's point in this verse is not works salvation. Nor is it even works sanctification. He is, however, pointing out the unvaried connection between sinful living and death, and mortification of sin and life. God saves us from the flesh, but He doesn't save us in it. He saves us from the flesh, and He wars against that flesh in us. And so Paul tells us first in verse 12, we ought to grow in grace because we are under obligation, and then in verse 13, we ought to grow in grace because sin kills and putting sin to death brings life. So he's giving you a second reason for growing in grace, and a second way of being assured of your salvation.

III. Christians realize that sanctification is the great accompaniment and evidence of sonship.

Thirdly, if you look in verse 14, he goes on to make another point. Paul says, following up on verse 13, indeed it is precisely those who are being led by the Holy Spirit in sanctification that are true sons of God. It is precisely those people who are growing in grace by the work of the Holy Spirit who are the true sons of God. Paul is saying again that Christians realize that sanctification always accompanies and is the evidence of sonship.

How do you know that you are a son? Because the Spirit is working in you for sanctification. And your growth in grace is an evidence that you are a child of God. This verse provides an explanation for the basis of the believer's confidence mentioned in the last words of verse 13. You remember, Paul says you will live, "if BY the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Well, Paul is telling you how is that you know how you live? This is how you live because all who are being led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God.

Now, what does he mean being "led by the Spirit?" Are only super Christians led by the Spirit? Those who have reached an entirely different plain than the rest of us mere mortals? No, Paul is speaking about something that is characteristic of all believers; all believers are led by the Spirit. Nor, is he speaking about something that is merely momentary. He's not saying, you know, in a moment of real trial and inspiration, that Christian was really led by the Spirit. No, he's talking about something which is the normal situation for the believer in every aspect of life.

So what does he mean when he says that we are being led by the Spirit? Well, it means a lot of things, and we don't even have time to answer that question fully. But let me suggest five things that are involved in being led by the Spirit. First of all, when Paul says that we are led by the Spirit, he means that we are governed by the Spirit constantly. He's not saying that, well, you know this Christian was up against this particular trial, and it was like the Spirit just took over. Now you may feel like that sometime, and the Lord may help in extraordinary ways, but that's not what Paul is talking about here. Paul is talking about the believer constantly, not sporadically, not occasionally, not two or three really extraordinary times in life, but constantly every second being governed by the Holy Spirit. Notice, you see this even in the language. 'He leads us.' You know it's not that the guide is there with you for five minutes, he drops off the trail for several days and comes back and meets you again for another five minutes, and then drops off the trail for a few days. He's there with you every step. He's constantly leading you.

Secondly, notice that the leading of the Spirit, as you look at this context, is primarily about correcting not protecting. Paul gives no indication whatsoever that the Holy Spirit protects us from suffering in this passage; in fact, the opposite. The final words of this passage indicate that just because you are led by the Spirit, does not mean that you are not going to go through trial. On the contrary, if you are a true son of God, Paul says you will. So, the Spirit's leading here primarily is in correcting us. He's knocking off rough edges; he's making us to be like the Heavenly Father.

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit does not merely guide us. When we speak of the leading of the Spirit, we're not speaking merely of guidance; it is that the Holy Spirit empowers us. It's not like an Indian guide who sort of takes you across the mountains through the treacherous passes because he knows the way. He doesn't just have information that you need, but he is actually the force that keeps you going. He's the one who gives you the energy to start the trail in the first place, and to finish it just as surely. So He is empowering you from within.

Fourthly, notice that the leading of the Holy Spirit doesn't mean that you are lost. The Holy Spirit doesn't come in and replace some part of you. The Holy Spirit doesn't displace you; instead He encourages and ages you. It's truly you who are growing in grace. It's truly you who are following in the way of the Spirit. And the Spirit is encouraging you and aiding you and helping you in that; not displacing your personality. It doesn't mean when we say that it's Christ in me, it doesn't mean that somehow I has been evacuated, and I don't exist anymore, and I don't have no personality, and I'm sort of part of the board now. That's not what Paul is talking about. The Spirit is encouraging and aiding us, our true self. And it's helped and encouraged by the Spirit.

Finally, when the Holy Spirit leads us, He always leads us in the way of truth. How many times have you had Christians come to you and say, "Well, you know, the Spirit is leading me to do 'X.'" And you're sitting there scratching your heard, and you're thinking, "That's wrong. What you're saying that you're being led to do is wrong." So I know it's not the Holy Spirit that is leading you to do that, because the Holy Spirit leads us in the way of God's word, God's law, God's truth, Psalm 1, Psalm 19, Psalm 119. You can get a hundred other passages. The Holy Spirit never leads against the word of God. He never leads against the will of God. He never leads against the truth of God. He always leads with them. Now we could say a lot more about the Holy Spirit. Indeed, we've only scratched the surface on touching this subject of His leading, but we have said at least that. And the apostle Paul, don't miss the point here.

The apostle Paul is saying something astounding in verse 14. He is saying that eternal life invariably issues from sonship. If you are a child of God, you have eternal life, and it issues from it. And, he is saying, that sanctification is the invariable expression of that sonship. Those who are the children of God are growing in grace, and those things always go together. And so Paul is telling us in verse 12 that we ought to grow in grace because we are under obligation, in verse 13 we ought to grow in grace because sin kills and putting to death brings life. And in verse 14, we ought to grow in grace, because we are sons of God. And the purpose of the Holy Spirit in making us sons of God is to make us to be like our Heavenly Father.

I have a picture in my den at home, and it's a picture of me at the age of twenty-one and my father at the age of twenty-one. He's in his Marine Corps uniform getting ready to leave. It was taken when he was getting ready to be shipped off to the South Pacific to fight in the Second World War, and I'm in my blue blazer in college. And we look sort of alike, and when people come in they will often say, "Oh, Lig, I didn't realize that you were a Marine. I kind of puff out my chest, not just because it's nice to be confused for being a Marine, but because I like it when people think that I look like my dad, because I loved my dad, and I'm not the half the man that he was. And I would love to be like he was in so many ways. And you see, the Holy Spirit's purpose in indwelling you is to make you look like your Heavenly Father so that people say, "You know, you have a striking family resemblance to the good and perfect and just and righteous Heavenly Father that rules this universe. Could you be family?" Yes, yes. I'm a son of that God; I'm a daughter of that God. By grace I've been adopted into His family, and the Holy Spirit is making me be like Him. So I am beginning to have some of the character qualities that He has. That's what the Holy Spirit is doing in us. And that's why we ought to grow in grace, because we're sons of God.

IV. Christians are sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit of adoption, by whom we approach God as Father.

Quickly, then, verse 15. Paul goes on, the fourth thing. Paul here says remember, you're being led by the Spirit, and those of you who are being led by the Spirit you're the sons of God, and this because you're not being sanctified by the spirit of bondage, you're being sanctified by the Spirit of adoption. In other words, Paul's point in verse 15 is that Christians are sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit in adoption through whom we approach God as Father. Now this is a tough verse. Commentators differ on how we're to understand the phrase "the spirit of bondage" or "a spirit of bondage." Some say that that spirit refers to our spirit. We have a spirit of bondage. Others say, "No, that's actually speaking objectively." "The spirit of bondage" as opposed to "the spirit of adoption." How do we understand it? Is this talking about the Holy Spirit, or is it talking about our spirits? Well, I'm going to take that former view that it's speaking of the Spirit Himself, the spirit of adoption.

Paul is saying in verse 15 that Christians are to be mindful of who the spirit is that they have received. He's basically saying this. The Holy Spirit who indwells you is not the Holy Spirit of bondage. He's the spirit who came to set you free from the domination of sin and guilt. He's the spirit of adoption. He's the one who brings home the benefits and the effects of the fact that the Heavenly Father has received you into His family. That's the one who indwells you. So, of course, you ought to be growing in grace and in the family resemblance. The Holy Spirit's goal is that you would actually live life as sons, both in the freedom and the privileges of sons and in the responsibility and the obedience of sons. And because He's the Holy Spirit of adoption, and because He's at work in us, grow in grace, Paul is saying, and be comforted and assured that God is at work in you.

V. Christians are assured of their sonship and inheritance by the witness of the Spirit, and their perseverance in suffering.

And then finally in verses 16 and 17, Paul makes it clear that the Spirit witnesses, He Himself witnesses along with our spirit, that we are truly children of God, and thus heirs of God. Christians are assured of their sonship and their inheritance by the witness of the Spirit. And, interestingly, Paul says, look at the end of verse 17, in their perseverance and suffering. In other words, Paul is saying that this assurance that God gives you is not merely subjective or objective, it's both. Your spirit bears witness, but the Holy Spirit also bears witness. But furthermore, he says that the Holy Spirit's bearing witness that we are sons of God does not mean that we're not going to suffer. In fact, precisely because He bears witness that we are true sons of God, we may expect to suffer in this life. One of the old Puritans said, "God has one Son without sin, but none without suffering."

So what is Paul's point in this passage? Paul's point is that you have been so united to the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit of adoption, that you are one with Him in His sufferings, and you will be one with Him in His glory. And when you doubt that you will be one with Him in His glory, you remember that you are one with Him in His sufferings. And it is just as certain that you will be one with Him in His glory, as it is that you are going through trials now. That's what Paul is saying. Every trial that you go through in life is a witness of the Spirit that you are going to share in the glory of the inheritance of the Son of God.

And so the apostle says, grow in grace because you are under obligation, because sins kills, because you're sons of God, because the Holy Spirit of adoption is at work in you, and because the Holy Spirit is in you bearing witness that you are sons of God. Now live, Paul says, in that light. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, the truth of Your Word is rich, beyond our comprehension. Bring home some it we pray, for Your glory and our good. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Present Suffering/ Future Glory - Romans 8:18-25

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:15-25)

Present Sufferings/Future Glory

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to take them and turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. We've already said that in Romans 6 through 8, God is teaching us how it is that grace reigns in righteousness. In Romans, chapter 6, He teaches us the fountain, the source of all godliness, union with Christ. In Romans, chapter 7, He explains to us that even in believers, believers united to the Lord Jesus Christ, there continues to be a strenuous conflict with sin, for there is a remnant of sin, an indwelling of sin, and thus because of the very indwelling of the Holy Spirit; there is a war engaged that does not end until sin itself is conquered and removed in glorification.

And then in Romans, chapter 8, Paul begins to comfort us, comfort us with powerful truths as he teaches us about life in the Spirit. In fact, the whole of Romans, chapter 8, is really devoted to teaching us about the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer. In Romans 8, verses 1 through 17, we have seen a particular Pauline pattern that we have seen elsewhere before. First he tells you what you are, then he calls you to live out what you are in Christ. He tells you what God has done for you, and then he says now live this way, because of what God has done for you and in you. And we have already seen that pattern begin to develop.

But here, beginning in verse 18, Paul is going to turn his attention to the subject of suffering. And in the course of this discussion, he is going to do two things at the same time. On the one hand, he is going to teach you some very important truths about suffering in Christian experience. On the other hand, his goal is going to be to comfort you with very powerful truths as you cope with that suffering. Indeed, the passage that we are going to concentrate on today, verses 18 though 25, is the first of three comforts that Paul gives to believers who are struggling with trials and tribulation and suffering. And so with that having been said, let's turn to God's Word and hear it, beginning in verse 18. This is the Word of God:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's Holy, inspired and inerrant Word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord God, give us seeing eyes and hearing ears and open hearts to respond to this Your Word of truth. And by the Spirit speak to us right where we are, and make us to be what You intend us to be. In Christ we ask it, Amen.

What do you think about suffering really? What do you think about suffering? When you're not in Sunday School, when you're not having to give the right answer, when you're not having to give the theologically correct answer in a room full of Presbyterians, what do you really think about suffering? Are you a stoic? Do you endure it with grit? Do you sort of grit your teeth and brace your back, and you just make it through. Are you bitter and cynical? Have you been through so much that your heart has become hardened, bitter? You've been run over by disappointment and suffering to the point that you can hardly respond to comfort without a wry, sarcastic smile developing inside and thinking, yeah. Are you angry with God? Have the circumstances in which you have found yourself left you feeling betrayed, deserted, abandoned, let down? Or are you just numb, and you don't know what you think about suffering, because it's been so intense that you don't have any feelings left in your hands or your heart. What do you think about suffering?

For the apostle Paul it's very important that Christians think rightly about suffering. He talks about it a lot, not just in this book, but in all of his writings. He talks about suffering, because he knows that suffering is an attendant reality to human experience in a fallen world. And he knows that the believer's response to suffering will, in large measure, indicate the quality of his joy in the midst of a fallen world. And so he knows that it's vital for Christians to have right views on suffering, to have right views about how we respond in our hearts to trial and tribulation. And that's what he's talking about here.

And I want you to look at these verses with me, and see four things that Paul wants us to learn about suffering. It's not a total theology of suffering; he has more to say elsewhere. But, he's got at least four things that he's got that he wants us to learn. The first thing is this.

I. Life in the Spirit is a life of suffering because we live in a fallen world.

Christians suffer. Christians suffer. If you look at the very first words of verse 18, Paul teaches you that life in the Spirit is a life of suffering, because we live in a fallen world. Just because you are filled with the Holy Spirit, just because you are a child of God, just because you are justified freely by His blood, you are not thereby guaranteed a painless life of bliss. And the apostle Paul wants you to pause and contemplate again that life in the Spirit does not mean an absence from pain and suffering. But life in the Spirit is accompanied by suffering as we live in a fallen world. Even though we have new life in Christ, even though we are new creations, even though we are sons and daughters of the most High, we suffer precisely in fact because we are children of God. And we live in a world that hates God, and we live in a world where the forces of the world itself, the flesh and the devil, conspire against our Lord and our Maker, we suffer. And this is vital for us to understand as Christians in light of the various mistakes that are out there on the Christian market.

On the one hand there are the health and wealth teachers who say that if you do not have health, if you do not have success in all your endeavors of life, if you are not wealthy, if you are not healthy and whole, if you are not experiencing triumph upon triumph, it is clearly a result of a lack of your faith; because God wants you to have an abundance. He wants you to be successful. He wants you to have health. He wants you to have riches. And if you don't, it's clearly because you haven't had the faith. And the apostle Paul wants to pause right here and say, if your understanding of Jesus' promise of the abundant life is that it means a lack of suffering, you have misunderstood what Jesus said.

And on the other hand, there are others who cope with suffering by saying, well, God just can't help it. God wasn't able to control that. When bad things happen to good people, it's just another sign that though God wishes that He could help us in those circumstances, it's just out of His control. So take comfort. It's out of the control of God.

And the apostle Paul wants to say to both of those solutions, wrong, wrong. Paul is stressing here that it's a huge mistake to miss the point that the believer will suffer, and that God is sovereign in suffering. He makes that clear in verse 20, by the way, that it is God Himself who has subjected this creation to frustration and suffering, in hope. He's still in charge, even in the sphere of suffering and frustration and vanity. God is in control, and suffering is part of His plan for His people. Life in the Spirit is a life of suffering. That's the first thing that Paul wants you to know. And that's so important for you to know, because some of you have been surprised by that suffering.

Now, of course, there's a sense in which all Christians ought to feel a tension about suffering. We know that these things ought not to be. But, at the same time, every Christian must realize that until the consummation, until the glory to come, there will be frustration, there will be vanity, there will be suffering. And that's so important. How many times have you run into a friend who has said this, "You know, with all my heart, with all my might, I have attempted to be faithful to the word of the Lord. I've attempted to follow His will. I've attempted to follow His leading. I've sought wise counsel. I've sought the counsel of His word. I've sought the counsel of godly men and women. And I've followed in the way of faithfulness to the Lord, and I thought as best I can discern, that I was doing exactly what the Lord would have me to do. And I have never been in a place where I am more frustrated. And I have never been in a place where I am more lonely. And I have never been in a place where I'm more despairing than I am now. Surely, this is a sign that I misunderstood."

And here's the apostle Paul saying, no, child, no. Your circumstances do not indicate a failure in your hearing the will of God; your circumstances indicate to you the reality which I am saying to you now, which is in this life believers suffer. It's as if Paul is pointing at you, and he's saying, look at Jesus in that garden. Now what took him to that garden? The will of God. Now what happened when he got to that garden? Pain free, success, triumph, wealth, happiness? No. I see the Savior there. I see Him weeping. I see Him sweating. I see Him trembling. I see Him brokenhearted. I see Him praying, "Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass." And what is it? It's the will of God. And so the apostle is saying, dear Christian, dear Christian, do you think that the Father would have called His only begotten Son that way, and would not have called His adopted sons and daughters that way? He calls us to glory through the way of suffering, and that is always the way it is. Now we are able to rejoice in suffering, we are able to experience abundant life in suffering, but honest to goodness, faithful Christian living always entails trial tribulation and suffering. And if someone tells you otherwise, they have a disagreement with God.

II. Our trials here are real but the glory is beyond compare.

Secondly, look again at verse 18. Paul's main point, of course, is not merely to barely assert that our sufferings continue in this life, his concern is to assert that our sufferings pale in comparison to glory. Paul wants us to learn not only that we continue to suffer, but Paul also wants us to know that life in the Spirit gives us a perspective on suffering that no one else can have. Paul wants us to understand that our trials here are real, and sometimes they seem as they are beyond endurance; but the glory then, he says, is beyond compare. Your suffering now may seem beyond endurance, but the glory then is beyond compare. Paul wants to contrast the suffering of the present with the glory of the future in the most dramatic way and on the grandest scale. And these sufferings which he is speaking of include those inward battles with sin that we continue to have, and the frustration which arises from living in a fallen world, as well as coping with the injustices of this life or dealing with the opposition or persecution that the child of God faces in one shape or form no matter when or where he or she lives. These sufferings attend every believer. And the apostle wants us to appreciate this. That those sufferings of the present time are nothing in comparison with the glory that is to be revealed.

Now I want you to understand that Paul is not saying that, "You're going through these enormous trials now, but what you see when you get to glory is just going to blow your mind, and it's going to cause what you've gone through to pale in comparison." He's saying something even better. He's not simply saying that the glory to come is going to be revealed to you as if it's the curtains of a theatre being drawn back, and you're a spectator seeing some incredible theatrical spectacle. Have any one of you ever been in one of those circumstances where you have been a witness to something that takes your breath away because of it's grandeur or magnitude? Maybe you have rounded the corner and some great gallery of the world and seen some piece of art that you have always wanted to see, and it's absolutely staggered you when you finally saw it with your own eyes. Or maybe you've been at some great sporting event, and you've seen feats done that absolutely boggled your mind and you sat there as a spectator of this spectacle of glory. Well, the apostle is not saying, "Look, what you're going to see then, is going to cause everything that you've experienced to pale in comparison." Paul is saying that his is a glory not simply revealed to you, but upon you and in you. Paul is speaking of your own glorification. And he is saying to you that not only that glory that you see when He comes, but that glory which you yourself will be made to share in when He comes, will cause everything that you have endured now to pale in comparison.

And my friends, it is most unfortunate when we fail to meditate upon that reality, because the very thought of that glory which we are going to be stokes hope now. The apostle Paul is saying to you, I don't care what your bodily maladies have been. There will be a day in the redemption of the sons of God when you are transformed. And he's saying, I don't care what those spiritual and moral deficiencies have been that have so marred and frustrated your assurance and your Christian experience, there's going to be a day when I have worked glory in you in such a way that you have been transformed. And he's saying to you no matter what heartbreak that you have endured, you will come to a day when heartbreak shall end. And I'm always conscious of this when I look upon the lives of other believers. I see believers taking care of family members that suffer from enormous handicaps and physical difficulties, and mental difficulties. And I see them lovingly caring for those family members. And I think of that day, when through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ there's going to be a complete transformation. There's not just glory that is going to be shown to them, it's that the glory is going to be shown in them. Can you imagine that day? And there's going to be a day when every believer who has been frustrated by sin, the believer knows what we ought to be in Christ, and yet we never live up to what we know we ought to be in Christ. And there's this frustration that we live with, and suddenly there's going to be a day where it's there. You know, old athletes sometimes find themselves at a point in their careers where they can't do things that they used to be able to do, and it's enormously frustrating to them. You know, the Christian kind of lives there all of life, because we know if we listen to God's word that says what He has made us to be, and what we ought to be, and then we look at what we do, and we don't measure up, we're frustrated. And the apostle Paul says, when that day comes, the frustration is gone, because the glory has been displayed not only to you, but in you.

III. The who universe waits for the consummation, and groans.

Thirdly, the apostle not only wants us to not only understand that suffering is a continuing reality, he not only wants us to understand that life in the spirit gives us a perspective on that suffering that no one else can have, and it does so be reminding us of the glory to come. But He wants us to know this. We are not alone in this frustration. You are not the only one who must patiently await the consummation. Paul says, in verses 19 through 22, that the whole creation is groaning. You're not only groaning under this frustration, the creation itself is groaning under this frustration. The whole universe is caught up in the plight of the fall and the hope of future glory.

And the apostle wants us to understand two things in these verses. First of all, he wants us to know that we are not alone in the frustrations of this life. The universe itself has been subjected to these frustrations. Notice what he says, "The creation," verse 20, "was subjected to vanity." In other words, the creation experiences the same frustrations, that result from the fall, as we do. And notice again in verse 20, that the creation was not subjected to this of its own will. God was the one who subjected the creation as a consequence of the fall.

And notice again in verse 20 at the end of the verse, and into verse 21. That this creation was, however, subjected in hope. God has even in the frustration of the universe, he has even in that frustration of the universe a design for its ultimate deliverance. And so the apostle is saying two things for you. He's saying you're not alone in frustration. The whole created order is frustrated. But you need to understand this as well; God has a good purpose in it. Believers who find themselves in the belly of the beast need to remember those truths. And these believers were in the belly of the beast. Where was Paul writing to? Rome, the center of world authority and power, soon to become the center of opposition to the people of God. And here's the apostle saying, when you are in opposition and persecution, when you endure estrangement, when you are marginalized, when you are trampled under, when you experience suffering, remember you are not alone, for the totality of the created order has been objected to the effects of the fall as part of God's design not simply to bring glory to Himself, but to bring glory to His creatures.

IV. The Christian perseveres in confident anticipation, looking to the future glory.

And then finally in verses 23 through 25, he goes on to say one more thing. We need to know that suffering is a continuing reality of Christian experience. We need to suffer in light of the glory to come. We need to remember that we are not alone in this, that God's pattern of purpose is seen in the creation as well as in us. We also see in verses 23 through 25, that life in the Spirit, though it entails groaning, also entails an inextinguishable hope. The Christian perseveres in confident anticipation, in hope, in confident anticipation looking to the future glory.

You see in verse 23 that alongside this groaning creation, Paul adds, there's a groaning church. There's a groan of Romans 7:24, "A wretched man that I am," characterizes the Christian experience until final salvation. And Paul makes it clear that because of that, and because of what we are through the work of the Holy Spirit, there is always a forward looking to the Christian's life. He's always anticipating the time of his future redemption, his future adoption, his future salvation.

You know all those terms are used both in the present and in the future tense in the New Testament. Isn't it interesting? Paul has already said you are adopted; here he says you're waiting for your adoption. He's already said you've been redeemed. Here he says you're waiting for your redemption. That is, though there is a present reality of our redemption, through there is a present reality of our adoption; we are waiting for a full bestowment. We are heirs, but we have not yet received the fullness of the inheritance. We have within us the first fruits of the Spirit, but we have not yet received the fullness of what we will be in the revealing of the sons of God. And so every believer always lives with this forward-looking Spirit, living toward the sunrise, looking for His coming.

Notice that even factors in the words of institution of the Lord's Supper, that "we will show forth the death of Christ" what? "Until He comes." The believer is always looking on the other side until He comes for the consummation of all things. And thus, the believer is always ready to say, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," because he has an eye on the future.

Now in all these things Paul means to minister to those who are enduring frustration and trial and tribulation and difficulty here. And he means to minister to them in encouragement. You know, many of you have gone to visit perhaps a favorite city with a desire of seeing some great architectural sight. Maybe it's a castle or a cathedral or a great monument. And some of you have had the experience of getting there and finding out that this thing that you wanted to see, that you perhaps had been waiting years to see, is shrouded in scaffolding. And it's frankly the ugliest thing you've ever seen. And you want to go back home and fire your travel agent. And you want to say, why didn't you tell me that this was shrouded in scaffolding? I've waited twenty years to see it with my own eyes, and I couldn't see a thing. And the apostle is saying, you know, there's something like that to the Christian experience. Because we look at our lives, and sometimes they look ugly. They're shrouded in scaffolding, and we can't see what God is doing in there. But there's going to be a day when He comes, when the scaffolding comes down, and it's not simply that the glory is revealed to us, but the glory that He has worked in us is revealed to the world. And the apostle Paul says, Christian, you've got to live in light of that hope for you, looking forward to His coming.

Now my friends, I want to say one last thing. This hope doesn't come to everyone. This hope is only for those who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. We live in a day and age where I think people think that death itself is a vehicle of moral transformation. The most wretched human being and God hater simply because he died, is uniformly and regularly said in our society to be immediately in the arms of God. Timothy McVeigh, not long ago, we were assured had entered into the arms of God. Now friends, I have no problem with death row conversions. They happen. But there's no evidence that there was any conversion to Christ there. And I simply want to say this: The Christian hope is not pie in the sky, bye and bye. It's not some sort of faint, feeble, moral wish that people who die are going to a greater place. It is a sure hope, based upon trust in Jesus Christ as He is offered in the gospel. And only those who trust in Him, as He is offered in the gospel entertain that reality in their own experience. And it's so important for us to remember that this hope of glory set before us, is one that is grounded squarely in faith in Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, give us hope as we look forward to the glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Spirit Intercedes for Us - Romans 8:26-27

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because[a] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)

The Spirit Intercedes For Us

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. This great chapter is a favorite of so many of us, and we turn to it time and again in our times of need. And no wonder, for this chapter not only shows us about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, but so much of that work concerns comforting believers who are really in the midst of it. You are undergoing trials and tribulation and suffering, and we've already found great encouragement in this chapter.

In fact, the last time we were together looking at verses 18 through 25, we saw the first of a number of comforts that Paul offers to believers who are enduring suffering. He reminded them that that was going to be the state, that they were going to expect in this fallen world; that all believers were going to endure from time to time in different ways, various types of suffering. But, he held out to us the hope of glory to help us endure our present suffering. And so this was the first of the comforts that Paul offers to us in this passage.

We turn today then to a passage which slightly shifts the focus. There's a sense in which Paul is talking about suffering from verse 18 all the way to the end of the chapter, as you will see. But there's another sense in which Paul slightly changes the focus in verses 26 and 27 to talk with us about not simply suffering, but our weakness. So let's hear God's holy and inspired word here in Romans 8:26.

"And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's Holy, inspired and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's look to Him in prayer.

Lord, we do need the help and the understanding of the Spirit to understand this inspired and infallible word about the work of the Holy Spirit, especially with regard to our prayer. And so we pray right now that you would bring to pass the promise to Your people contained in this word. And that we would be encouraged by Your fulfillment of this promise, even in our hearing of Your Word this day. Make the Word to be plain to us and understandable and cause our hearts to respond with joy and comfort, we ask these things in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Have you ever noticed how often that the Bible emphasizes that Christ and the gospel come especially to the aid of those who are weak. The Old Testament is filled with such assurances. The Psalmist often prays that God would come to rescue the weak. Those who can't protect themselves, those who are oppressed, those who are poor, those who are despised, those who are weak. Jesus not only ministered to those who are weak, but on one occasion at a crucial point in the history of redemption, in the Garden of Gethsemane when His disciples slept while they need to be praying, He would say of them kindly, but very truthfully, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Have you ever thought how often Paul talks about ministering in weakness and ministering to those who are weak, and Christians being careful not to harm those brothers and sisters who are weaker than themselves? You know, we live in a world and a culture and a community where everyone is working very hard to look strong. We don't pull for the weakling. We like it when the underdog shows himself to be strong. In sporting events, we like the teams that win the championships. We don't celebrate the teams that lose. They may have beat all sixty-three other teams, but they lost the championship game, and so as far as we're concerned, they're a bunch of bums. The number two team is a washed up has-been. We like the professionals that get the most prestigious positions. We like the scholars that give the most prestigious fellowships and residences. We like the students who get the best scholarships. We like the businessmen who make the most money, and who are most successful. And those who struggle, we so often ignore or even look askance upon. But as far as Paul is concerned, we are weak. Is that how you view yourself? Do you view yourself as weak? That's how Paul viewed himself. Do you remember what he prayed in 2 Corinthians 12, and what the Lord's answer to him was in verse 9? This is what the Lord said to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness." And do you remember what Paul said in response to that? Remember, he's ministering in the strong-crazed Corinthian community. The Corinthians loved the strong, they loved the powerful, they loved the prestigious. And here's what Paul says to them: "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." Paul has a word of encouragement in the passage we are going to study today for the week. And that's good news. Many of you came here today knowing that you were weak. There may not have been many around you who knew your weaknesses, and there may be few who know the nature of those weaknesses. But many of you came knowing your weakness, and knowing that you were in need of aid. And if so, I have good news for you. Paul has a word of incredible strengthening and encouragement and comfort. And if you came today viewing yourself as strong, I have good news for you too. For when you take off the mask, and when you stop the charade, and when you stop trying to convince everything and everybody else around you that everything's all right, you've got it together. Paul has a word to meet you in that moment of honesty. A word of hope and comfort which will bring you more relief than all your charades ever have.

I. Just we are are helped in our suffering by the hope of glory, so we are helped in our weakness by the Spirit.

And I want you to see three things in particular that Paul does as he gives us a grand comfort in these two tiny, but profound verses. First, I'd like you to look at the first part of verse 26. Paul says there, in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness. I want you to understand two very important things there. Paul takes our weakness as a given, and he makes it clear that even in that weakness, God ministers to us by His Spirit. Now, notice what Paul has done so far. In verses 18 through 25, he has been helping you deal with your suffering. In response to your suffering he's offered a support. What is that support? He says this, "Your present suffering is helped, and you're coping with your present suffering is helped by your realization of certain future glory. The hope of glory helps you cope now, helps you bear up under your present suffering." And he's talked about that at length in detail. Now he says, "Now, I've got a word of encouragement to you as you deal with your weakness. As you're looking in the mirror, and as you're acknowledging the weaknesses that are there, maybe nobody else knows them, but you know they are there, I've got a word of encouragement for you. In your weakness, I've helped you in your suffering, now here's the word of encouragement in your weakness. And the word is that in your weakness, God grants us the Spirit to help. You see what Paul is saying here. He's saying that we are weak, and we all stand in need of aid. And God generously supplies that need in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Just as we are helped in suffering by the certain future hope of glory, so also, we are helped in our weakness by the person and work of the Holy Spirit. That is what Paul is saying.

Notice that Paul does not say that God removes our weakness in the same way the Spirit removes our weakness. No, no, no, no. In the same way the Spirit helps our weakness. He does not transpose us into strong men; He aids us at the very point of need. But we remain constantly dependent upon Him, that His power might be perfected in our weakness. And notice what it is that God does in our time of need. He grants us the spirit. You're looking at a friend who is struggling through things. That friend is a friend in Christ. That friend trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're wondering who is helping that friend in the hour of his need or her need? And here's Paul answer, the third person of the trinity. In your weakness God, the Spirit, comes to aid you. At that moment where you need it the most, the person who realizes that he is weak finds this comfort God the Holy Spirit has come to aid him. At that moment when you need it the most, the person who realizes that he is weak finds this comfort. God the Holy Spirit has come to aid him. You know sometimes we run up against things, and we literally don't know what to do. When I was ten or eleven years old, my youngest brother had a seizure. He was upstairs. He was playing, talking with my other younger brother. They were playing games. It was about bedtime. Mother had let him stay up for about fifteen more minutes, and his lips began to turn blue, his face went ashen, my brother taught he was teasing with him. And it frightened him. And he said, "Mel, stop doing that." And then suddenly he fell over unconscious and not breathing. My brother, John, called, and mother and dad rushed upstairs, and they immediately began to administer CPR. And dad said to me, "Lig, go down and call Dr. Wyatt. Tell her to meet us at the Emergency Room." I managed to dial the number. When Dr. Wyatt's nurse answered, all I could say was this. "My brother needs help. My brother needs help." And to every question that that dear nurse tried to ask me, I had only one response. "My brother needs someone." I didn't know what to do. I dialed the number, but I didn't know what to say. I didn't know the words, I had no idea. And at just that moment my father came, and he took the phone away, and he said, "Now here's what is happening, and here's what we need." And the apostle is saying when you come to those moments, and you don't know what to do, God is sending His Spirit to your aid. He's coming to help you. When you're saying I can't do one more thing, I don't have it in me, I don't have the energy, I don't have the knowledge, I don't have the wisdom, I don't have a clue what to do, God the Spirit is coming to your aid. That's Paul first encouragement for you in this passage.

Now look at the rest of verse 26, because Paul is not finished. He's got another word of encouragement, and it's not just that God the Holy Spirit Himself is coming to the aid as the rescuer of His people. He tells us something else about our neediness that we see in prayer. You know, prayer is an exercise of admitting we're in need. Why do you pray unless you're in need? Well, one example of our neediness is indeed our practice of prayer. And it's precisely there that we see how the Spirit helps us. Look at what he says.: "We do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings to deep for words." In other words, Paul is saying this. The Spirit's help in prayer to us is a great comfort for our prayer shows our need, and our expression of our need in prayer itself is needy. Follow my argument. Prayer show that you need. Paul says you don't even know how to say to God that you're in need. You don't even know what to express to God in prayer that you need. And so even your expression of need is needy. Your prayer itself falls short. You don't even know how to express your need very well. And it's precisely at that point Paul takes his example. It is precisely that the Holy Spirit helps us.

Most of us are keenly aware of our deficiencies in prayer. And I want to give you a word of encouragement in that regard. Isn't it great that the apostle Paul in this verse does not say, now, you do not know how to pray as you should, but I've got good news for you. The Holy Spirit will help you in your weakness. Now me, on the other hand, I do know what I need to pray for, and I don't need the help of the Holy Spirit. That's not what Paul says. Paul says this. We do not know how to pray as we ought. But the Holy Spirit helps us. The apostle Paul, who prayed Ephesians 3, 14 through 19, and if I could just pray one prayer like that in my life on my own that I thought up, I could go on home - the Paul that prayed that prayer says we don't know how to pray.

You see, sometimes we're in circumstances where God doesn't reveal the future to us, and we don't know frankly what we ought to pray. Moses once prayed Lord, let me into the promised land with Your people. Moses didn't know how to pray did he? Because that wasn't God's plan. Jeremiah once prayed, Lord, let your people hear the Word and return to You. God's response was I'm sick and tired of hearing these people. I'm going to judge them. Paul didn't know how to pray. Once upon a time, he prayed Lord, take this thorn in the flesh from me. The answer was, "No." Sometimes we just don't know what to pray for. Sometimes there's nothing there. The breath has been taken out of us. There's nothing left in us to offer up a prayer. We're stunned, we're numb in silence. Sometime we're just fumbling around, and we can't even concentrate.

One of the more encouraging things, and I know this is a little bit morbid, but one of most encouraging things I even discovered was that Calvin struggled with prayer. I was reading along in the Institutes in the Golden Booklet of a Christian Life. He's talking about prayer, and suddenly he talks about the struggle with wandering thoughts in prayer. And I started, and I said, "You mean John Calvin's mind wandered when he prayed?" This is great news. I'm not alone. No, as far as the apostle Paul is concerned, we, all of us, don't know how to pray as we ought.

We, all of us, need help. And he gives two great encouragements in the second part of verse 26. First of all he reminds you that if you're a child of God, if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have not only the Lord Jesus Christ as your intercessor, you have another intercessor. You have two intercessors. There is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, ever living to intercede for you. You have the Holy Spirit who dwells in the tabernacle of the flesh interceding for you here. You've got an intercessor on both ends of the line, the apostle says. And furthermore, this intercessor groans with you. This intercessor, he says, joins in with your groans. These unutterable, these inexpressible things which you try to lift up to God, but you can't find words for, the Spirit joins in those groans, and He causes those groans which emanate from the believer's heart to become the vehicle of His intercession to the Heavenly Father. And though they are unarticulated, and though they are unarticulatable, yet he causes them to serve the interests of intercession. The Spirit takes our groanings, and He makes them to suffice for intercessions beyond our capacity of expression. Daniel is praying, and he's praying for the return of Israel to the land. God not only grants that prayer, but in the course of it, uses words that are beyond Daniel's own knowing to indicate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. God answered him beyond his comprehending. He answered him beyond his asking. And the Spirit who meets us in those groans of frustration, and He turns those groans into intercession on our behalf; so that Plummer can say, "By the work of the Spirit, a heart without words may bring down the blessing of God." He's got no words. You've come to the end of your rope. You don't know what to say. You can't even say it, even if you knew what to say. The breath has been taken away. There's no voice. It gets here, and it chokes. No words come out. You're Hannah, and your heart is torn up within you. And you're there, and you're lips are moving, but the words won't come out. And Eli thinks you're drunk because you're moving your lips while you pray in the courtyard, and no words are coming out. And the spirit takes the groaning of that heart, and makes a prayer that Mary will copy at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul is saying don't you underestimate what the Spirit will do with your groans. But he's still not finished. The Spirit is your aid. He intercedes for you with His own groans joining yours.

II. The Spirit expresses our heart's longings perfectly to the Father, and is perfectly understood.

And thirdly, notice what he teaches us in verse 27. It's a huge encouragement, and that encouragement is this: That the Father knows the mind of the Spirit. There is this huge encouragement in prayer, and it is the Father's knowledge of the mind of the Spirit. Look what he says. "He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." What is Paul saying there? He is saying that the Holy Spirit expresses our heart's longings perfectly to the Heavenly Father. And they are perfectly understood by the Heavenly Father, even if we can't quite comprehend them all ourselves. The Spirit expresses our heart's longings perfectly to the Heavenly Father, and they are perfectly understood by the Heavenly Father. We don't know what to pray for or how to pray for it, and God is still able to discern the voice of the Spirit in our groans.

Have you ever been at that point where you didn't know what to pray for? Where you were so beaten down you couldn't pray? I've been riding around listening to some sermons by Don Carson for the last two or three days. He tells us an acquaintance he knows in Illinois. They have seven children. All seven children are hemophiliacs. Six of the seven children have died of AIDS, contracted through blood transfusions through no fault of their own. Now what does a parent do who has lost six children to AIDS through no fault of their own? What do you lift up as a prayer to God? Just as I left the sanctuary at the end of the last service, a friend came to inquire about the PCA minister at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, who was killed just hours ago. He's got a two-month old child. What words does his wife lift up to God? Now I don't know where you are. I don't know what end of the rope you're on right now. But I know this. The apostle is saying when you don't know what to say, God the Father still knows the mind of the Spirit, and it is the Spirit that is interceding for you.

Do you see what he is saying? It's so easy for us to become discouraged in prayer because we do it so badly. And because we get to points in our experience, where we don't know what to say. And here is the apostle Paul saying the Spirit makes our groanings His own, and He makes them as acceptable and understandable as the intercession of Christ. I want you to listen to that again. He takes your groanings, and He makes them as acceptable and as understanding to God the Father as the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you're saying, "Where in the world did you get that from?" Look at verse 27. "He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is." What is he saying? The Father knows the mind of the Spirit, and it's the Spirit who is interceding for you. So even though your mind is so befuddled that you don't know what you think, God knows the mind of the Spirit interceding for you.

And, furthermore, in the second half of the verse, "The Spirit intercedes according to the Saints according to the will of God." Every prayer that the Spirit renders up through your groanings is in perfect accordance with the will of God Almighty just like the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein He says not My will, but Your will be done." And every groan, every sigh, every moan, every unuttered and unutterable expression, every word that gets stuck in the throat and cannot come out, the Spirit makes it to be as acceptable and understandable as the intercession of our perfect Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's Jeremiah. He doesn't know what to pray for. And the Spirit makes his prayer acceptable. He's there in Jeremiah 20. He's begging God to end his life. He's cursing the day that he was born. He has no clue. He is so torn up inside, he doesn't know what to pray. And the Spirit is taking that prayer and correcting it even as it goes up. There's David lifting up his broken sentences. He can't even get a full sentence out. How long, oh Lord? And the Spirit is rendering it up in perfect accordance with the will of the Heavenly Father in such a way that He turns it into Scripture and makes it a model prayer for you and me.

God is so gracious and so sovereign, that He makes groans without words to be understood and to prevail by the work of the Holy Spirit. Even when through the pressures of life, and the accompanying spiritual darkness, we grow helplessly and inarticulately in prayer, God still hears. For confused or even mistaken as we may be, He discerns the voice of the Spirit in our prayers, and He is not confused, even if we are. But the Spirit is interceding for the Saints according to the will of God.

And that is so important for your own understanding of the spiritual life because in the fight of fate, there are times when the pressures are so great that you are left bewildered and darkness assails your soul, and it's impossible to be clear eyed. You don't know what you think about you, you don't know what you think about your circumstances, you don't know what you think about God, and you don't know what you want to say to Him. And often that real, horror of darkness comes down upon the Spirit, and words fail us for prayer. We can't even come up with clear thoughts. And it is then when you can do no more than groan, that He groans in your groans with an unutterable intensity. And that nameless and wordless agony of the Holy Spirit, God understands. So don't forget it. When you're at the end of your rope, and your weakness is manifest at least manifest to you, it is the Spirit who intercedes. He intercedes for you in groans to deep for words but in perfect accordance with the will of God. Now if that won't encourage the weak, I don't know what will. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, hear our prayer, help is, O Spirit, in Jesus' Name, Amen.

The Purpose of God - Romans 8:28-39

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can beagainst us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.[ 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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. (Romans 8:28-39)

The Purpose of God

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. Romans, chapters 6 through 8 tell us what it looks like to live in the grace of God. What grace looks like in the life of a believer. And it doesn't tell us that grace means that there is no suffering and pain in the Christian life. It doesn't tell us that there are no challenges in the Christian life. It doesn't tell us that there is miracle after miracle in the Christian life and success upon success. But it does tell us that the work of the Spirit is real, and that God is in the midst of us doing His business of conforming us to Jesus Christ. There is struggle with sin, there is struggle within, there's persecution, there's trial, and in all these things we are more than conquerors.

In Romans, chapter 8, Paul has described what we are in the first seventeen verses. And then in the seventeenth verse he has introduced this idea of the connection between the glory and the suffering, the glory that we will participate in, the suffering in which we now are involved. And having introduced that subject of suffering, beginning in verse 18, really to the end of the chapter, he gives us encouragements as believers for dealing with the trials, the tribulations and the sufferings of life.

In verses 18 through 25 he is giving us the encouragement that there is a certain future hope for every believer in the Lord Jesus. There is a glory to come, which we will all participate in. And he gives that to us as a consolation in the face of our suffering.

In verses 26 and 27, he says secondly, in addition to that future hope, we have right now the Holy Spirit Himself, the third person of the Trinity, who intercedes for us. And when we have come to the end of our rope, and we have no words, we have no capacity to express even our needs to God, the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And His prayers are understood and heard by the Father, because the one who searches the heart knows the mind of the Spirit. And so with those two encouragements, Paul calls us to go on, to move on, to continue on, even in the midst of trials. He's not finished though. The whole of the rest of the chapter is an encouragement. We come to the third consolation, the third encouragement in this great passage in Romans 8, beginning in verse 28. So let us hear God's holy word.

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon your hearts. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, there can be few of us who have gone with You for any time at all, who have not turned to this word, this passage in time of need. And so it is familiar to us, perhaps it is so familiar that we have lost something of its force, of its power. On the other hand, there may be some who have been so much under the weight of burden, that they have had a hard time believing the truth of this word. It just doesn't seem possible or real. Whatever the case, we ask that by the Spirit, you would bring the truth of this word home today, that we would believe it and trust You and rejoice. This we ask in Jesus' Name, Amen.

How do you trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding? How do you do that? How do you do that when you don't understand what you are going through? When it makes no sense? When the experience that you are undergoing is so heavy and so dark that you can't make the end of it from the beginning. You don't know up from down yourself, you can't breathe it's so heavy on you. How do you trust when you're absolutely non-plus by the meaning of your circumstances? It doesn't make sense; you can't see how it's going to work out in the end. You don't even how it's going to serve the interests of your own sanctification. How do you go on in that circumstance? What do you do when the phone rings, and you pick it up, and there are the words, "It's cancer." Or the phone rings, and you pick it up, and the answer is, "She's gone." What do you do in those moments when everything has been taken out from under your feet? The apostle is speaking to Christians precisely in that kind of a circumstance. For a variety of reasons they are enduring and will endure tremendous suffering. What do you say to a person in those circumstances, and how do you help them trust? Now, my friends, is the time to learn those lessons. Because as the friends who sit around you right now will tell you when you are in the midst of those trials, it is very difficult to learn new truth from the word. You must resort to truth already learned. It may be truth that is experienced at a new level and in a new dimension, a truth that you learned long ago. But then it is very difficult to hear new words of comfort. Now, before those valleys are entered is the time to learn that truth. That's what we are going to do today. For Paul is speaking to those who are under the weight of it. And he's saying to them this is how you trust, this is how you go on. And I want you to see three things in particular that Paul teaches in this passage.

I. Absolutely everything is ordered by God for your good.

First of all, in the first part of verse 28, Paul gives an amazing declaration about providence. He says that everything, even evil, everything, even evil works for your well-being and God's glory. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good" he says in the first part of verse 28. In other words, Paul is telling you that absolutely everything in this life is ordered by God for your good.

Now before we tackle that tremendous assertion, we need to understand what Paul is not saying. Paul is not saying that all things are good in the believer's life. There are many things that are not good. Some of those things are things that are done to us, or which we experience which are no fault of our own. Others of those things are things that we do ourselves. They are not good. And Paul is not saying all things are good to believers. No, he is saying that God uses all things, even evil, even pain, even suffering. He uses all things, everything individually, comprehensibly for the good of the believer. So Paul is not asserting that all things are good.

Secondly, Paul is not asking you to take a Que Sera Sera approach to life, whatever will be, will be. Now, whatever the origins of that Spanish proverb may be, most of us know that via Doris Day. I know that the under thirty crowd doesn't even know who Doris Day is. You will have to go rent an old movie, but the counsel of the mother to the daughter in Que Sera Sera is not what Paul is getting at. Paul is not saying, "Look, honey, don't you worry your pretty head about who you are going to marry one day, and whether you are going to be rich. It's all going to work out in the end." That's not Paul's answer here. Paul is not saying it's all going to work out just fine, don't worry about it. That's not the counsel of peace that he has. He's not asking you to have a hopeful resignation to your fate in the future. That's not his counsel. Nor is Paul saying generically, oh, things always turn out for the best. You know sort of a rosy, blind optimism.

But maybe you have been with a friend, and there's been a child in a life-threatening situation, and you've wanted to say, "Well, everything is going to turn out fine." And then thirty-six hours later, you have had to say, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how you feel." Things don't always just turn out for the best. That's not what Paul is saying. Paul is talking about the special providence of God. And when he says to you that "We know that all things work together for good", he is saying that all things work together for good for the saints because God presses them into His service. God uses every event of our lives for the express good of his people.

Now you know that there are translational difficulties and differences in this passage. If you are reading from the King James this morning, the passage reads, "We know that all things work together for good." If you're reading from the New American Standard Version it reads, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good." If you're reading from the NIV it says, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." So there are different translations. What do you do with this? Well, very briefly, let me say the King James probably is the best translation here. But the sense of both the NIV and the New American Standard are perfectly appropriate. They give the sense of what is said.

It is clear that what Paul is talking about in verses 28 through 30 is not just sort of things working out by themselves, but God causing those things to work for the good of His people. This is absolutely clear when you look at verses 29 and 30. When it is clear that it is the purpose of God, which assures that everything conspires for the good, the ultimate good, the final good of His people.

At any rate, you may be asking, "Why would Paul in Romans 8:28 resort to this particular subject? Why would he talk about all things working together for good?" Well, remember this, in verses 26 and 27, Paul has just said to you what? That the Holy Spirit helps you in your weakness and in your infirmity, and intercedes for you when you can't even find the words to pray to the Lord. And someone out there may be tempted to say, "Well, it doesn't feel like the Holy Spirit is interceding for me. And it doesn't feel like the Holy Spirit is helping my infirmities. I feel weaker than ever. My circumstances are so dire I feel abandoned by God."

And the apostle Paul is waiting for that person. He says, I've got a third consolation. It's not only that there's a future hope that's certain for you, it's not only that the spirit intercedes, it is that every event in your life is used by God to work for your ultimate good. Paul is saying in this grand declaration that even our messes are used by God for our ultimate good. He even introduces his statement by saying, "And we know." Now Paul does that a lot in Romans. He usually does that to emphasize two things. When he says, "And we know," first of all he is talking about something that every Christian knows or ought to know, but perhaps hasn't connected with their present circumstance. Every Christian knows that God's special providence is upon him or her. Working out all the events of their lives for his glory and their good. We know that, Paul says. But Paul is asking these believers in Rome to take that in. Drink that in, think about that. He's asking you to drink that in. Think about that. Do you think about the fact that all things are worked together for the good by God to them that love Him. You think about that, he says.

But there's a second reason he says this. He says we know, because this is an undeniable truth, it's an absolutely undeniable truth, but you know, we sometimes chaff at it. We chaff at it because the pain can be so intense, the embarrassment can be so intense, the disappointment can be so intense in the experiences that we are going through, that we become angry. And the mere suggestion that God is using those very things that embarrass us, disappoint us, or hurt us for our good kind of grates against our natural inclination to rebel against God. And the apostle wants to emphasize this is an undeniable truth, this is not up for discussion. This is a reality, and ultimately it's a reality for our encouragement. Paul is not simply saying that all the nice things work together for our good. He is saying that every obscene evil that you can imagine is turned by God to your best interests: death, illness, marital strife, vocational problems, persecution because of your belief, your child has been diagnosed with an incurable disease. God causes all things to work together for good. A parent has been murdered. God causes all things to work together for good. Your husband is having an affair. God causes all things to work together for good. Your wife wants a divorce. God causes all things to work together for good. Your sister has been kidnapped. Your job has been terminated, and on and on, and on. God causes every single isolated, individual event in your life and experience to work together for your ultimate good. Leon Morris says this, "Believers may be depressed at the harsh conditions of their lives, but they should bear in mind that through it all God is working out a great purpose. No matter what the circumstances, that purpose will not be overthrown, and it culminates in final glory.

Paul is holding out for us this truth of the special providence of God over His children. And my friends, it is one of the most comforting truths of the Bible, because in it we learn that there is no meaningless suffering in our life. There is no wasted suffering in our experience. There is no purposeless experience at all in the totality of our life. Every single isolated event, God in His wisdom uses to bring about His purpose for your glory. That's what Paul is saying in Romans 8:28. And that's what he's saying as an encouragement to every believer if we'll drink it in in any difficult circumstance of life.

II. The only ones who can claim this comfort are believers.

Secondly, if you look at the second half of verse 28, Paul goes to say to whom this encouragement belongs. He said that absolutely everything is ordered by God for your good. Well to whom is that promise made. To whom is that commitment made? For whom is that encouragement intended? He is disclosing in the second half of verse 28, the particular recipients of this encouragement. And notice what he says very clearly. The only ones, the only ones who can claim this comfort are believers. This promise, this encouragement, this providence is not generic. It's not for everyone. It is restricted. We might even say it is discriminatory. Paul is not talking about some sort of general principle of the universe. You know, when our football coaches tell us it takes the hard times to make the good times, no pain, no gain; that's not what Paul is saying. He is not saying, "You know, going through suffering makes you a better person." It's far grander than that. It's far more purposeful. This is not just a mechanistic principle in the universe. This is a specific activity of the sovereign God on behalf of His children whom He has drawn into a saving relationship. It is only for believers. It's only for those who have trusted and rested in Jesus Christ. We cannot assure unbelievers with these words. For the unbeliever, for the one who has rejected God, for the one who does not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ I cannot say this suffering will result in an indescribable weight of glory. This suffering will surely be followed by the completion of God's purposes in you. I cannot give that comfort. For this promise is only made to believers.

And I want you to see the two components of Paul's description in the second half of verse 28. To those who love God, and to those who are called according to His purpose. These are not two different categories. You know, on the one hand God works all things for the good of those who love Him, and on the other hand, He works all things for good for those who are called. As if these are two different groups. These are two descriptions of the same group of people. Paul is describing believers in two ways. And it's very important for you to see how he's describing. One the one hand they are those who love God. Doesn't that make perfect sense in light of I Corinthians 13? "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am but a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol. If I have faith to move mountains, if I give my body to be burned, if I give all my possessions to feed the poor and have not love," what does Paul say in I Corinthians 13, "I am nothing." What is he telling you there? He is saying, I shouldn't even be considered a believer, if I am not possessed for love for God and neighbor. Because love is the indispensable evidence of the grace of the Spirit in the life of the believer. And so he is describing the believer here from the standpoint of the product of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. He's saying, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have trusted in Him alone for your salvation as He has offered in the gospel, you will be possessed of the love of God. Because we love Him, because He first loved us, because He's done a work of grace, we are those who love Him. But he doesn't just say it that way, because he knows that there are some people who might think if he only said those that love God, it might seem as if God's encouragement here is entirely based on our performance. And so he immediately stops, and he says, "And let me remind you that those who love God are called according to His purpose. And the reason they love Him is because He called them. He reached out to them. He sweetly drew them in as we say, and consequently, we love Him." So it looks at it from our perspective and from God's perspective, from our response and from God's initiative, from our love to God in response to His love, and from the perspective of God's call to us which created our love to Him. And the apostle Paul says "It's those who love God, it's those who have run to God for His grace who may be comforted to know that there is no event in their life which I do not rest for the purposes of their good."

III. God has purposed before the world's foundation to glorify you.

And then the apostle thirdly, begins to describe to you what those purposes are. He tells you that there is no event in life that God doesn't use. He makes it clear that that promise is for believers, those who trust in Him. He begins to delineate God's glorious purpose, and you will see that in verses 29 and 30 which give us an outline of God's purposes for us from the beginning to the end.

And Paul teaches us here that God has purposed before the world's foundation to glorify You. God has purposed before the foundation of the world to glorify you. And He heaps up a description of this purpose. He says four things about it in verse 29, he adds three more things about it in verse 30 that is stretched from the beginning to the end of God's purposes.

First of all, if you look at verse 29, he emphasizes that God has foreloved us. Look at what he says. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined." Now I want you to notice a few things about this. Though there are passages in the Bible and in the New Testament, such as in Peter, where the word foreknew means for God to foresee or to have foreknowledge of future events, that is not what foreknew or foreknow means here. Here it means God setting His love on His children before the foundation of the world. It means for love.

Now, how do I know that? Well, notice that this passage does not say, as some of our non-Calvinistic friends like to say from time to time, that God foresaw that we would choose Him, and, therefore, chose us. Now, of course, that makes no sense whatsoever. But, even if it did, even it did, that can't be what Paul is saying, because he does not say, "for what He foreknew," but he says, "for whom He foreknew."

In other words, this is a personal relationship that he is talking about. He is talking about a personal relationship of love when he uses the term foreknow. He's not talking about God seeing something that we do or some choice that He makes; he's talking about the Lord God of heaven and of earth, setting His love on you before you existed. For whom He foreknew those he predestined. See, this is the foreknowledge of relationship.

Just as Genesis tells us that Adam knew Eve, he doesn't mean that he knew her name and address. He had the deepest of marital relationships with her. And just as the Old Testament speaks of God knowing His people, it doesn't mean He knows what you look like. It means that He is involved in a love relationship with you which sets you apart from every other being in the world. So also Paul is saying, before the foundation of the world God loved you, and because He loved you, secondly, He predestined you. That is, He chose you. He chose you, and He set out a purpose for your life before time, and that purpose is invincible.

And here's Paul word to you. You're in the midst of it, and you can't see. And you don't see how things are going to work out. You think this time I'm done for. This time I don't see how I can make it through. This time I don't see how the pieces are ever going to fit together. And here's Paul, and he comes in, and he says, God set His love on you before the foundation of the world, and He predestined you, He chose you. He set His purposes on your life, and those purposes are not able to be overthrown. They are invincible. There is nothing, there's no circumstance, there's no opponent in the world that can overthrow those purposes.

IV. God has purposed before the world's foundation to glorify you.

And thirdly, He goes on to tell you what those purposes are. He says that He predestined you to share in the likeness of His Son. Look at verse 29. "He predestined us to become conformed to the image of His son." Now we know how often that language is used in the New Testament to indicate a believer being morally transformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean that we participate in the very being of the trinity. It means that God makes us to be morally like His Son. He sanctifies us. He sets us apart. He makes us holy. We begin to love the things that the Lord Jesus loved, and hate the things the Lord Jesus hates, and live like Him and love like him and care like Him.

And though Paul certainly must have some of that in his mind, the context suggests that he means something far more than this. He's thinking of that exaltation of Christ. He's thinking of the resurrected Christ and the ascended Christ who right now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. He rules the universe. He's coming back on clouds of glory surrounded by hosts of angels. The whole world will bow and worship Him, and the apostle Paul is saying, you think about what the Lord Jesus Christ is, you think of the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God is going to grant that you would share in His likeness. You're going to share in His glory. Did you hear that illustration that Isaiah gave of the glory of the people of God being brought back out of captivity by their captors? And the people who had abused them and held them hostage, the soldiers are carrying their children on their backs and on their shoulders. And they are cheering as they come back into the land. And the apostle Paul says, let me tell you something better than that. Let me tell you something better than that. You are going to share in the glory of the ascended, the resurrected, the reigning Lord Jesus Christ.

But he's not done there. He goes on to say, notice that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. So our justification doesn't diminish the exaltation of Christ; it enhances it and manifests it. That is, as we are glorified, and as we share in the glory of our older brother, our elder brother, isn't it glorious to be able to refer to the Lord Jesus Christ that way- we share in the glory of our elder brother. His glory will not be diminished. In fact, it will be manifested because He is the reason we are participating in that glory. You think of Peter, and you think of Peter's participation in Jesus' humiliation when, in the hour of Jesus' need, Peter denies Him three times. And the Lord Jesus turns to Him and looks at him, and what comes to Peter's mind? Those words. "Peter, Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you."

Now I want to ask you this. On that day in glory, do you think Peter is going to have an inkling that he had anything to do with the reason that he is there sharing the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. No. He's going to know, and you're going to know, and God our Lord is going to know that the reason that he is there is because of what Jesus has done. And so our participation in that glory itself is going to be a display of the fact that Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren. He is the first fruits of the resurrection. He's the first fruits of the ascension, and we, too, will share with Him. The dust of the earth will sit on the throne of heaven. In our flesh we are oppressed. In our flesh we shall see God. And that will only enhance His glory. And the apostle Paul says, that's God's purpose for you. That's the purpose that He has set out for you. And no event of your life can interfere with that purpose, and in a strange way the suffering of our lives is connected by some inexplicable nexus to that glory which we are going to participate in. And I can't explain that to you, all I can say is look at Jesus life and look at how every event of His life, every event of His humiliation is a part of His exaltation now. I don't understand that, and that's so helpful because there are going to be experiences in your life that you don't understand. You may not understand them now, you may not understand them in five years, you may not understand them in twenty-five years, you may never understand them in this life. You may not even understand them in glory. But, the Father says, even if you don't understand, I do; and I am causing these things to serve the interests of your glory and your good. That's mind boggling.

And then in verse 30, Paul says now everyone that God has predestined, God has done three more things for. He has called them, He's justified them, and He's glorified them. God is the one who has called you. He's irresistibly drawn you savingly to Jesus Christ. When you would have done anything else in the world but bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, He has sweetly drawn you to Him. You remember C.S. Lewis talking about his conversion? He said he came kicking and screaming. He was the most miserable convert in England, he said. He didn't want to be saved. He didn't want to bow the knee. God didn't care. He drew him sweetly to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was called, he was effectively called, he was irresistibly drawn to the Savior.

Everyone that God predestined is drawn to the Savior. And then they are justified. They are declared to be right with God, not on the basis of their work or merit, but on the basis of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done.

And then notice what Paul says in the past tense, "And you have been glorified." You are glorified. He says it as if it has already happened. It's so certain that you're going to share this glory with God that he speaks of it in the past tense.

This is the good, which Paul is speaking about in verse 28. This is the good, which God conspires to bring about in every event of your life. I don't understand that. I don't have to. All I have to do is believe God's word and trust in Him. May God grant that you would be able to do so. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, grant that we may believe the Word, and trust in You with all our heart, leaning not to our own understanding. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

God is for Us, So Who is Against Us? - Romans 8:31-32

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)

God Is For Us, So Who is Against Us?

Please turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. When we come to Romans 8:31, we come to the culmination of Paul's argument in the first eight chapters of the book. From Romans 8:31 to 35 Paul will asked a series of four questions. And those four questions are meant to summarize the main arguments from the first eight chapters of the book. And so when he asks the question in verse 31, what shall we say then to these things, he's not simply referring to verses 28 through 30 as glorious as they are; he's not simply referring to the whole rest of the argument in Romans, chapter 8, as glorious as it is; he's referring back to the whole of the book. And you can see this, for instance, as you look at the question of verse 31, where we find "If God is for us, who can be against us." Now by saying if, Paul is not intending to raise doubt. We could retranslate what he is saying as since God is for you, who could possibly be against you? What is that question answering? It's a rhetorical question. It's meant to be self-answering. It's answering the predicament that Paul had himself pointed to in Romans, chapter 1, verses 18 through 32. God is against us, so how could it be that God could also be for us? Well, he's spent eight chapters explaining how God is for you in Jesus Christ. And if God is for you in Jesus Christ, then Paul raises this question, what could it possibly matter if anybody else other than God were against you? You see, Paul is not saying there is nobody against the Christian. He's not saying that there's no opposition for the Christian in Romans, chapter 8, verse 31. He is saying there is no opposition worth taking account of compared to God being for you. If you've been reconciled to God, if that enmity with God, and God's enmity towards you has been solved in Jesus Christ, then there is no enmity worth even taking into account. See, the rhetorical question is designed to draw your attention to a truth that Paul has explained to you in Romans previously, and bring it to bear upon your heart, so that you gain security and comfort and strength.

Now, Paul knows that it's hard for us to really drink in the message of Romans 8:31 and the rhetorical question. And so he spends verse 32 reinforcing the truth which he meant to evoke from the question in verse 31. You see, the fact of the matter is many of you struggle with really believing that God is for you. You say you believe it, and I don't doubt that you really do. But, many of you have a hard time really taking that in. There are many reasons for that. But sometimes it frankly doesn't seem as if it's so. Sometimes it's your circumstances that make it hard for you to believe that God is for you. Things are so bad that you can't possibly believe that this glorious truth is true. For others of you, it's your background. There may have been a relationship with a parent, father or authority figure that makes it very difficult for you to really accept that you are loved in totality and completeness by the great God of the universe. For whatever reason, it is important for Christian experience that we understand that. And Paul clearly thought it so, for after he had asked the question which he intended for you to supply the answer, he reiterates this truth in verse 32. And we're going to give our attention to verse 32 today. Let's hear God's Holy Word, beginning in Romans 8, verses 31 and 32.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?"

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we ask that by the Spirit, You would bring the truth of the Word home to us, comforting or convicting, strengthening, and causing us to bless You for the blessing that You have given to us. In Jesus Christ, these things we ask in His Name, Amen.

Paul wrote these words with a very practical purpose in mind. The Roman Christians to whom he was writing were wrestling with great problems, and they needed to be assured of God's love for them, of God's grace towards them, that God was for them. And so Paul points them to this magnificent demonstration of the love and the grace of God. And he says to them, here is the measure of God's love for you. This is how you can know that God is for you. And in those moments when we question the love and goodness of God, and we ask if we have or can find the resources to continue, Paul is waiting for us in these great verses. And he's here to offer to you four conclusive proofs that God is for you. That if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that have you rested on Him alone for salvation, that God is for you. And I'd like to walk through those four great proofs and helps today. And you'll see the first one in the very first words of verse 32.

I. We see God's love for us because He was involved in our redemption.

Here Paul tells us that we see how much that God is for us, in the Father's involvement in our salvation. Look at what he says. He says, "He did not spare His own Son. But He delivered Him up for us all." You see these words remind us of the involvement of the Father in our salvation. Now, in what I am about to say, I do not want in any way to diminish the involvement of the Lord Jesus Christ in our salvation. And I do not want to denigrate in any way the unique work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. But I want you to understand that that's not Paul's focus here in Romans 8:32. His focus is on the love of God, the Father. It is He who did not spare. It is He who delivered up His Son. In other words, Paul is focusing our attention on the priesthood of God the Father.

And this is a very important truth for us to learn, because sometimes our whole picture of God the Father is wrong in our salvation, as if, somehow, salvation were wrested grudgingly from the hands of a reluctant deity. As if Jesus were somehow on the cross pleading to get the Father involved in His people's plight, pleading to get the Father to love His people, pleading to get Him involved in the redemption of His people.

But that is not the biblical picture at all, and it's certainly not the picture of Romans, chapter 8, verse 32. Indeed, it all began with the Father's love. He loved. He sent. He helped the Son through His earthly ministry. And in the final analysis, He is the one who renders up His Son as a sacrifice for our salvation. And it's so important that we catch this Biblical emphasis as we contemplate the truth set before us here, and as we contemplate the truth of God being for us. When we allow unbiblical notions to control our understanding of the cross, our appreciation of its glory is dimmed. When we look at the cross, we are moved by what we see happening to the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing about it. And we're moved by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do not pause to think how the Father was moved by what was happening at the cross. When we go to Old Testament passages like Genesis 22, and we read of Abraham being called to offer up his son, Isaac. And as we hear every syllable of that directive being driven home, Abraham, Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and offer him up as a sacrifice to me in the land of Moriah," we know that Abraham's heart is breaking. Moses doesn't have to put in a verse to say, and by the way, Abraham was absolutely brokenhearted at the thought of losing his precious son, Isaac. We know that. Moses doesn't have to tell us that. But Abraham was a mere shadow of the Creator who made him, and Abraham's heart of compassion and love for his son was a mere shadow of the love of the Heavenly Father for His son.

And so how can we think that the Father is looking at Calvary and being unmoved by what he is seeing? When we hear Joab, David's general, come in in 2 Samuel 18:33 to announce that Absalom, the traitorous son, the son who had attempted to take the kingdom away from King David, has been killed in battle by the troops of David, we understand the reaction of David that Joab absolutely didn't get. When David tears his robe, and goes into mourning and cries out, Absalom, Absalom, my son, Absalom, would that it were I who had died instead of you, we understand that kind of love. But David's love for his son, Absalom, was simply a pale reflection of the love of the Heavenly Father for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we take that into account, then there is no way that God the Father, Himself, is unmoved by the spectacle of what is happening on Calvary. And not only what is happening on Calvary, but what He is causing to happen.

The Father longs to answer the question, My God, My God why have You forsaken Me? Because it's His precious Son who is on the cross. And we see the Father's for-us-ness in the fact that He is involved in the rendering up of His own Son. We think of the Son losing the Father's face as He bears the wrath of God for us on the cross. But so often we forget to think that corresponding to the Son's loss, there is the Father's loss. And just as the Son comes to that point where He loses the sense of the Father's grace and presence and love, so also the Father comes to that moment, that cry - and how that moment relates to the eternalness of God I have no idea - and He faces the loss of His own Son. And I want to say that the whole glorious principle of the divine compassion is a reflection not only of the suffering of the incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but that God the Father has been down in that suffering, down in that dereliction too. And He remembers that we are dust. And He is touched by the feeling of our infirmities. And when we pray Abba, and when we say our Father, let us remember how the Father loved and how the Father was involved and how He bore the cost, and how He endured the pain, and how He did not spare. A realization of the Father's involvement in our salvation is absolutely essential to healthy Christian experience.

So here's Paul's first word to you. Do you want to know how God is for you? Do you want to know how much God is for you? Look at the Father's involvement in salvation. The Father didn't have to be coaxed into this work of redemption. It was His plan, and He effected it at every point and was involved at every point along the way. He didn't have to be dragged into it; He produced it. There's the first great word of encouragement that Paul has for us. We know that God is for us because of the Father's involvement in salvation.

II. These words emphasize the divine glory of the Son.

But he goes on, and you see again in these words in verse 32, how they emphasize the divine glory of the Son. He did not spare His own Son. Paul is telling us that we see how much God is for us when we contemplate the exceeding preciousness of the Son. It is His own Son, whom the Father has given up. You know the Father's love for the Son is absolutely unique, and the Son's mutual love for the Father is absolutely unique. The Son was loved as no human Son has ever been loved. And He was loving as no human son has ever loved. When we hear those words of God to Abraham in Genesis 22, "Take your son, your son, your only son, Isaac is his name. The one that you love." Every syllable of that directive pierces our hearts, because we know what is going through Abraham's mind. We know the loss that he is contemplating in this precious son of his. And when we hear those words can we not contemplate the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father Himself. After all, we're told in John, chapter 1 that "In the beginning was the Word," and the Word was towards God, with God, mutual relationship, communion from eternity. And in Colossians, chapter 1, verse 13, He's called the Son of the Father's love. Fortunata, the early church hymnist, contemplated that in that great incarnational song that he wrote Of the Father's Love Begotten. I don't see far into those words, but we see here a glimpse of the great love for the Father for the Son, and for the Son for the Father.

But on the cross all that glory, and all that relationship and all that love was obscured. If you and I had been standing at the cross, we would have seen what all the other non-disciples saw. And that is a condemned criminal. Perhaps a thief, or a rebel, or some sort of a lawbreaker. He was in the form of a man. He was scarred, He was marred, He was bruised, He was beaten, and there was nothing of glory about Him. There was nothing about Him which would have indicated that this was the being in the universe that God loved more than everyone else. That this was the most valuable thing in the world to the one true and living God. But that's not what God the Father saw when He looked at the cross. When He looked at the cross He didn't see a man who was despised and rejected and forsaken; He saw His own Son. He saw the Son of His love. He saw the very last person in the universe that He wanted to be there. The very last person in the universe that He wanted to bruise. The very last person that He wanted to forsake.

And I want you to pause, and I want you to reflect that at the moment that the Lord God of Heaven and earth is pouring out His wrath on the Son, the Son is exceedingly precious to Him. He had always been an obedient Son. He had always caused His heavenly Father delight. We read the stories of baptism, and the Father is publicly announcing Him to the world as He speaks from heaven, and He says, "This is my Son, My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The Lord Jesus Christ, in devoting Himself to this earthly ministry which would culminate in His own death, pleased the heavenly Father. And the Father broke forth in His love for the Son, and announced it to the world this is the Son of my love, and I delight in Him. At the transfiguration, when just for a moment the veil was pulled back, and the disciples, that inner circle of disciples could see for just a few moments the true glory that was the incarnate Son of God, and Peter begins babbling on about building tabernacles and staying up on top of the mountain, the voice comes again: This is My Son, the Son of My love. Listen to Him, Peter. And then there are those words that come to the Lord Jesus Christ at the beginning of the Passion Week, just a few days before He would die. And the shadow of the cross is already coming to His heart, and He is trembling with the thought of it, and His heart is deeply troubled. And He says, Father, glorify Yourself in this. Don't allow this to go on without You getting the glory for it. And the Father again speaks from heaven, I will glorify it. I will glorify You. I will glorify Myself. I've heard your prayer, My Son. And the Father delighted in the work of the Son.

But on the cross, the Son is exceeding Himself. Greater love had never been seen. There had never been a point in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, where the heavenly Father more wanted to say, This is My beloved Son. Look what He's doing for you. But when the Son cries out from that tree, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" there is no answer. And I want you to think about it.

We think about Abraham, and we think about David, and we think about all those Old Testament parallels, but you know the thing that is so striking about this passage is what's unlike those passages. Because Abraham, as he raises the knife, hears this voice from heaven which says, touch not the lad. And when the death angel approaches Jerusalem, and David has lifted up this prayer, there's this word from heaven, cease, do not destroy. But when the sinless Son of God is on the tree of Calvary, and He renders up the cry in all his perfection, and in all his agony, My God, My God, why have you abandoned Me? There is no voice. Because the Son is bearing sin. He was sin. He was a curse. He was bearing the curse that we ought to have born. And you'll never understand the cross until you understand how intense the love of the Heavenly Father was for His Son on the cross; or how glorious was the obedience of the Son for His heavenly Father on the cross. My friends, contemplation of the preciousness of the Son in His obedience to the Father, and the cost to the Father leads us to a deeper appreciation of God's for us ness. And so Paul tells us God is for you. Look at the Father's involvement in salvation. God is for you. Look at the preciousness of the Son.

III. The totality of the Son's sacrifice.

But He's still not finished. Look at it again in verse 32 where He says, "He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." For we see how God is for us in the severity of the penalty meted out to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the extremity of the punishment meted out to the Son. You see these words emphasize not only the Father's involvement, and not only the Son's preciousness, but they emphasize the totality of the Son's sacrifice. He did not spare but delivered Him up. These words point to the utterly unreserved sacrifice of the Son. The sacrifice of the Son is without limit. There is no sparing, there's no mitigation of the wrath which is visited on him.

And I want you to pause, and I want you to think for a minute about this fact. He was not punished more than we deserved. Now you think of the limitlessness of His punishment, and the unsparing of God, and you contemplate what we deserve in our rebellion against God. But the point here is that He is pushed to the outer edger of the cosmos, and He is left alone. And I want to say it reverently, my friends, but there was no being in the universe who was ever less prepared to be forsaken of God than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think about it for a minute. You and I, we have walked with the Lord for many years, and yet there are those times in our own experience where we will go for days or weeks or even months, and we will suddenly realize that we have been far from God. And the saddest thing about it is we have never noticed it until the Lord has brought it to our attention. But He had been going out and coming in with the heavenly Father from eternity. There had never been a time when He was not conscious of the Father's favor. And then suddenly there on that cross, there's this hour when this darkness falls, and when the bruising comes, and the penalty comes, and He loses the Father's face. And it's not simply that He's not spared, but He's delivered up. You remember Jesus had told the disciples that He would be delivered up into the hands of His enemies. And they didn't want to believe Him. You're the Messiah. You're not going to be delivered up. And after He taught them that He was going to be delivered up, He went on to say something else. And by the way, my friends, He said, I'm going to be delivered up by the most godly men of your time. The religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they are going to deliver Me up. And His disciples didn't want to believe it. And He said, I've got another thing to tell you. I'm going to be delivered up by one of you. And they said, no, absolutely not, Lord, it's not going to be one of us. We're going to stick to You to the end.

And then the most horrendous thing we find, we find in Matthew 27, verse 46 where Jesus makes it clear that in the end it was not the Jews, and it was not His disciples, and it was not Judas, it was His Father who had delivered Him up. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And Paul picks that up. Notice the words that He uses here. He, the Father, delivered Him up for us all. Delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, Peter would say, in Acts, chapter 2, verse 23. Well, my friends, it's not just the negative action, it's not just the not sparing, and it's not just the delivering Him up, it's the positive action of the Father that Paul has in view here. He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might be the righteousness of God in Him. Or as Isaiah puts it, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief. We must never forget, my friends, that we can never go where the Lord Jesus Christ went because He went there not with us, but for us, and in our place. And when He bore the bruising, and when He was delivered up, and when He was not spared, He was absolutely singularly alone. No one stood with Him. He took it by Himself.

And I want to say that in your darkest hours and in your blackest nights, and in those times when sorrow and tribulation overwhelm your very souls, and you feel as if the Lord is not hearing your cries and prayers, you are still never where He was, because He stood there alone. And even when God metes out his disciplinary measures against His people, it's always mitigated by the Lord Jesus Christ standing in-between. We never get what we deserve, because He stood there for us. And I also want to say this to you, my friends. It's one of the great solemnities, and one of the great ironies of the faith that when we get to the gates of glory, by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, we may meet every person there. And we'll never meet one who knows what it is to be forsaken by God, except the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he stood there by Himself receiving the severity of our penalty.

Paul is pointing here to the price of free grace. We rightly sing about the free grace that we have received from the Lord God. But there's a price to that covenant of grace. And Paul's word to us here is that this is the costliest free gift ever given. And you are the recipient of it. You can't imagine a gift more costly, and it's freely offered to you.

IV.

But that's not all. Paul has one last thing. Paul wants us to understand how much God is for us by looking at this matchless substitution, because it's not only that He didn't spare His own Son, but that He delivered Him up for us all. It's one of the great misfortunes of our lives that we have never stood before the angriness and incomprehensibility of the cross. The cross is brutal, the cross is monstrous, the cross is unjust, the cross is immoral. Why am I saying that? Because on the cross, the wrath of God is striking out at the one place in the universe where it has no right to strike. If it had been you and me, it would have made sense. If it had been the whole human race, it would have made sense. If it had the whole of the universe, it would have made sense. But the combination of Christ and cross, that makes no sense. But you see, we have domesticated this cross, and we've gotten it under control, and we've made it manageable, and we think it makes perfect sense. And here when we look at the cross and its brutality, we have to ask the question, how can this be that the sinless Son of God can be on the tree? And Paul has this word for us. For us. You see, that little phrase links Jesus to His people and renders Him vulnerable to the penalty due our sin, and explains the purpose of the cross and vindicates it from injustice, and makes it instead to be the instrument and the stratagem of salvation. Its delivering up of Christ for us as a reminder of the sheer extravagance of God's love. Can you imagine Adam in the Garden after his rebellion? The Lord comes to seek for him in the cool of the day, and He determines what he has done. Can you imagine Adam saying, okay, Lord, I've got a plan. I know I've sinned and plunged the whole of the universe into calamity and fallenness through my rebellion, but why don't you sacrifice Your own Son in my place? Well, that's ridiculous. And that's precisely what God did. You see, that's God's love. It's going too far. It's prodigal, it's wasteful, it's ridiculous. All the angels would have said so. That's God's love. It' going too far. And in the Lord Jesus Christ He has given the greater, He's given the greatest. And the accumulation of all things else do not measure up to that which He has already given.

And so the apostle is saying, do you want to know how much God is for you? Look at His involvement in your salvation. Look at the preciousness of His Son. Look at the severity of this punishment and look at this divine, this transaction, this substitution which He has done on your behalf. And then you ask yourself a question. Is God for me? Paul says, how can you answer that question any other way. But yes, He's for me. Who can be against me? Since He is for me, who can be against me? With that great encouragement, my friends, we can face anything. May God enable you to do so. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, bring home Your word, we pray for Jesus' sake, Amen.

God Has Justified Us, So Who Can Condemn Us? - Romans 8:33-34

33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:33-34)

God Has Justified Us, So Who Can Condemn Us?

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. We'll be in the 33rd and 34th verses today. We are continuing in this section of Romans 8, which is the climax of Paul's argument in the first eight chapters of the book. When you get to verses 31 to the end of the chapter, Paul is summing up. He's giving you a grand demonstration in summary of what he has taught you so far. They sum up the main argument of the first eight chapters. And he does it by way of a series of enormous questions. Questions with tremendous significance. The first of those grand questions we saw asked back in verse 31. Who is or can be against us? In other words, if God is for us, all opposition against us is of no account. It doesn't mean that we don't have opposition or enemies, but it does mean that the center having been surprised by the grace of God realizes now that God is for him. And so fears no other. And so the apostle wants to drive home this truth that God is for us in this particular passage. And he does it through this series of four questions. We are going to look at the second of those four questions in the passage today.

But I do want you to look very briefly at verses 33 and 34, and then look down to verses 35 through 39. Because you will notice that in the three questions that are asked from verse 33 to 35, that Paul is basically reinforcing the argument that he made in verses 31 and 32, with two illustrations. One illustration, one that we will look at today in verses 33 and 34 comes from the court of law. It's an illustration drawn out of the law courts to show how much God is for us. Then in verses 35 through 39, the question that is asked in verse 35, gives a relational illustration of how God is for us. Now notice how Paul puts the illustration of the law court side by side with the relational illustration. It's very common in our own day to set in opposition a pattern and illustration in the word which are in fact complimentary. And sometimes we will hear people say, well, I want a God who is relational, not a God who is legal. Well, in fact, Paul gives both a legal and a relational illustration here at the end of Romans 8, precisely to comfort our souls. And we don't want one or the other, we want both. And so we see a beautiful illustration of how this forensic or judicial or legal metaphor or illustration comes to the aid of Christians wrestling with a sense of continuing sin, and fearing potential condemnation. He'll give a relational illustration to buttress it, but the two illustrations basically affirm the same message. They are not in opposition to one another; they are complimentary to one another.

Now with that as illustration, or as introduction, let's then look to God's Holy Word here in Romans, chapter 8.

"Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the One who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes rather who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord, this is Your word. Bring home its truth to us that we might grow in grace and praise Your name, both now and forever more. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Many of you struggle with knowing, with experiencing, with really existentially embracing the benefits of God's redemption. We talk about the benefits of God's redemption, and by His grace we really do believe them. But sometimes it's very, very hard to really know, or experience or feel those realities. Many of you struggle with assurance. Many of you struggle with a sense of God's love. You don't feel forgiven. Your heart is flooded with a thousand accusations. You believe the truth of Shorter Catechism 36. I know you all remember it, but why don't you pick your hymnals and turn to page 872. That's not a hymn, that's a page number. The back of your hymnal, look at question 36. It asks, "What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?" And it says, "The benefits which in this life." Notice in this life, not sometime later, but "in this life do accompany and flow from justification, adoption and sanctification are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace and perseverance therein to the end." And we believe it. We really do, and we rejoice in it. But sometimes it is so hard to say that those realities have really gotten through. Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit. There are some circumstances in life which are inimical to those things. Some of us carry baggage from our backgrounds which makes it very hard for those things to ever get through. Paul knows that. That's why he's writing this passage. Paul wants believers to be awash in the sense of God's love, assured of His grace, completely aware of the reality that He is for them in ways that transcends comprehending. So what do you do about it? You struggle with assurance. You are not fully aware of God's love. You fear God's rejection, perhaps His condemnation. What can you do about it? Where can you go for relief? Of course, the first and greatest answer to that is to God Himself. But how do you go to God with this? In His word. Paul's waiting for you, you see. He's waiting for you right here in this passage with yet another strengthening word of consolation. And here's the word. No one can successfully accuse and convict you, because God Himself has shown that He is for you by justifying you. He has acquitted. So who else out there is going to convict? He has freed you from pardon and penalty. He has pardoned you and given you freedom from penalty. Who is it who is going to condemn you?

That's Paul message. And he brings it home from two perspectives in these little verses. In verse 33 he wants to show you how God the Father is for you. In verse 34 he wants to show how what God the Son has done for you, assured that God is for you. But in both verses he is looking to bring home the same point from different perspectives. He's wanting to give you a certain answer to your fear and your sense of guilt and the fear of accusation in verse 33, by pointing you to the Father's love, and to the Father's justification. In verse 34, he wants to give you an answer to your fear of condemnation by pointing to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at these two verses together today and see these two great comforts that Paul has for us.

I. Every consolation of this life flows from God's fatherly kindness and His free justification.

First of all, he says in verse 33, asking a question. "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies." This is the second of four grand questions that Paul asks from verse 31 to 35. We'll see the third of those grand questions in the very next verse. In this question, Paul is relating to the statement that He had made back in Romans, chapter 3, verse 19. You remember where he had said that all the world was found guilty and accountable before God? He, after making that grand argument from Romans 1:18 all the way to 3:19 had demonstrated that the whole world was accountable, liable to punishment, justly under the condemnation of God. And in contrast to that, here he says no one can bring you a charge. No one can charge successfully the elect? Why? Because if we have been freed by God's grace from the guilt of condemnation about which Paul spoke in Romans 3:19, what other charge can be brought. And if God Himself is the One who has freed us from that charge, who is going to appeal this to a higher court? What person or being in the universe greater than God is going to reintroduce this charge? And so the apostle says this in order to give us a sense of how much God is for us. And behind these words are that marvelous passage that we just read earlier in the service from Isaiah 50, verses 8 and 9. I couldn't have planned this if I had tried. Months ago we were on the chart to read through Isaiah. Months ago. And who knew where we were going to end up working through Romans. And here they coincide. Because behind Romans 8:33 is Isaiah 50, verses 8 and 9. Turn with me there. This is an incredibly important passage. Isaiah 50, verses 8 and 9 are part of that servant's song. In other words, they are part of that passage in which Isaiah records God's prophetic word about the servant, the suffering servant, the servant of the Lord, the Messiah. The incarnate Lord Jesus Christ come to redeem His people. And this is the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah 50, verses 8 and 9, speaking about Himself. Look what He says. "He who vindicates Me is near. Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against Me? Let him draw near to Me. Behold, the Lord God helps Me. Who is He who condemns Me?" Now the apostle Paul takes that servant song, which Isaiah puts in the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a word of confidence in the Lord. Even though the world rejects Him, even though He comes and His own receive Him not, yet He knows the Lord will vindicate Him, even though He is condemned to death by the religious leaders of His own people, yet he knows the Lord will vindicate Him by resurrecting Him. And so the Lord Jesus speaks.

But the apostle goes back to these words, these words that Christ, as it were, is speaking about Himself, and He applies them to you and me. Now that's an amazing move, isn't it? But you remember that Paul intimately understood the doctrine of union with Christ and not only from studying it in the scriptures, but from experience. You see in Acts, chapter 7, when Stephen was stoned. Paul had stood by holding the cloaks. He had been involved in the persecution and death of Stephen, the great martyr of the church. And when Paul was met by the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, you remember what Christ said to him? "Saul, Saul, why did you persecute Stephen?" No, that's not what He said. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" You see, the believer is united to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you touch the apple of the Lord Jesus Christ's eye, and you touch Him. So the apostle Paul knew from experience that what happens to the Master, happens to the disciple, and so he takes hold of this servant song in which Jesus speaks about the Lord God vindicating Him, and he applies it to you.

Now what's the significance of that? Well, there are a thousand of them. But here this one. Paul is not saying here that God is for you. Let me show how God is for you. You've got God to judge on judgment day. Satan, the accuser comes, he brings a charge against you, and then Jesus, the defense attorney, comes in, steps in-between and pleads with His heavenly Father to acquit you. That's not Paul's picture.

What's Paul's picture? Paul's picture is that the judge and the justifier is the heavenly Father. God the Father is for you, because He is your Justifier. He will vindicate you just as the Son had confidence that the Father would vindicate Him. This is so important to understand, because this is indeed usually our picture. What do we do to persuade our fears of condemnation on judgment day? We think of the fact that we have an advocate with the Father, and that is true, but we draw a wrong deduction from that particular truth. The deduction that we draw is that somehow Jesus has to get the Father on our side. And that's not Paul's picture at all. First of all, Paul generally likes to talk about Jesus as the Judge. Secondly, Paul's explicit emphasis here is that God, the Father, is the Justifier.

So here's the picture. It's the final day of judgment, and we stand before the bar of justice, and the accuser, the evil one, Satan, hurls, slings arrows and accusations at us, just like he did to Job; just like he's done to God's people all along. And what's worse? Those accusations ring so true. We've known those accusations somewhere before, and it is not that Jesus Christ steps in and begs the Father to love and to forgive. It is that the Judge from the seat says I dismiss all the charges. This man, this woman is free. I am for him. The deck is stacked. The Judge of the court is the Justifier. It's the Judge from the bench who speaks as the defender as the justifier, as the acquitter. That's the picture. Paul wants you to see how much God is for you. It's God the Father who is for you. Every consolation of this life flows from God's fatherly kindness and from His free justification.

Calvin has a beautiful sentence describing the truth of this passage. He says the first and chief consolation of the godly in adversity is to be persuaded for certain of the fatherly kindness of God. And that is precisely what Paul wants you to see. Paul wants you to see that the judge is also the Father who is for you and the Justifier of His people. You know, we so often try and make God a little more approachable, a little less frightening. We will hear religious leaders attempt to scale down the reality of God as Judge. You know they will say things like this, God isn't a judge, He's a Father. Or they will say things like this, God isn't a hanging Judge. You know, indicating that maybe He grades on the curve. He allows things to slide, sort of slip in a pardon here, even though you don't deserve it. That's not how Paul comforts you about God. Paul's comfort to you is this: Our God is like no hanging judge that you've ever known. He's the most compassionate God of straight and upright justice that you could possibly imagine. He is a God who is strict in His justice, and is more compassionate than you can ever imagine. And He metes out His judgment in such a way that His mercy is visited upon you. And He visits His mercy upon you in such a way that His justice is not denied, but rather glorified. That's how Paul raises before your eyes a God who can be approached, not by downplaying His justice for judgment; but by saying alongside of His justice and judgment, you must also learn about this the one true God. That His mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is great. Well, there's his first word of comfort to you. How is it that the believer can take in this assurance that He will not be condemned, because the judge is for you. He's the justifier.

II. The grounds of our confidence of salvation: the justice of God, the vindication of Christ, His heavenly rule, for us.

Secondly, he then wants to press home the reality that this judgment of God, this acquittal that God visits on us is just. You see, if we don't believe that what God does in justification is just, we'll always question our justification. If we think that God is somehow letting us off the hook, and that the due penalty of sin is not being dealt with, we will always question our justification. But the apostle goes on in verse 34 to make it clear that we have a four-fold ground of confidence of our salvation. And that confidence is in the justice of God, the vindication of Christ, the heavenly rule of Christ, and in the heavenly rule of Christ for us.

Look at what he says, asking this third question. Who is he who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died the death of Christ. Yes, rather who was raised. The resurrection and vindication of Christ who is at the right hand of God. The session of Christ, the heavenly rule of Christ who also intercedes for us, the heavenly intercession of Christ for us. These four grounds give us confidence of our salvation.

You see in verse 34, you're meeting the third grand question of Romans 8, 31 through 35. Who was the one who condemns? This question relates to what Paul taught you in Romans, chapter 6, verse 23. You remember that? What is the wage of sin? Death. The wages of sin are death. That's the penalty of sin. It's the due penalty of sin. It's the right penalty of sin. That's what sin deserves. That's what sin will get without divine intervention.

Now the apostle says, how is it that a person stands before God on judgment day, and doesn't fear that? Because we know that what we have done warrants that. We know that what we have done merits that penalty. How is it then that you can face your Judge and Maker unafraid? Four words of confidence. First, Christ Jesus is He who died. Here we see the judicial substitutionary death of Christ. Paul is pointing us to the costly justice of God. And he is saying the costly justice of God secures you. It gives you security standing before the Lord. Think of it my friends. If you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, and if the Lord Jesus Christ has died bearing the due penalty for your sin, what is the Bible's answer to this question? Is it just for God to bring to bear the punishment of satisfaction of His justice upon those for whom Christ has died. And the answer is absolutely not. God cannot punish those whose sins have already been dealt with in Jesus Christ by His own decree. So the apostle is saying, look at who died? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of His love. He died. Those for whom He died will never, ever face the wrath of God in His satisfaction because the Son has faced the wrath of God in His satisfaction for them. And, therefore, you have every ground that you will not be condemned.

But He's not finished. In fact, his next phrase is, how much more? He says yes, rather, how much more? Christ Jesus who was raised. He's pointing to the vindicating resurrection of Jesus Christ, the raised and vindicated Lord Jesus secures us. You know in the New Testament the resurrection isn't something sort of tacked on at the end of Jesus' death as an afterthought. It was one of the central events of redemption. And it doesn't just show that Jesus was divine, or let us know that our sins have been forgiven. It is fundamental, it vindicates the claims and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows the heavenly Father's acceptance of His work on our behalf. It recognizes His divinity. It is essential for our salvation. And the apostle Paul is saying, the fact that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we serve a resurrected and living Lord, secures us when we contemplate the final judgment of God.

Thirdly, he goes on to say that this resurrected and vindicated Lord, this One who was raised is at the right hand of God. Paul says, think of the heavenly session. When that phrase right hand of God comes to mind, Psalms 110 comes to mind. And we think of the one who said, "The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool." This speaks of the sovereignty and dominion of Christ. When we say that Christ is seated at the right hand, we are talking about the fact that God has made Him to be sovereign and exercise dominion over the universe for His people. Think of how Paul emphasizes this. He has been put over all things, He says in Colossians. Now Paul says this. You fear condemnation, the One in whom you trust is sovereign in His dominion over all things. But the best is yet to come. Because He's not only sovereign in dominion over all things, He is sovereign in dominion over all things for you.

Look at the next phrase. He intercedes for us. That is very important for you to understand. You shouldn't have a picture of Jesus somehow pleading in prayer for His Father to bless His people. That picture is wrong from two perspectives. It's wrong from one perspective because it doesn't do justice to the status and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is seated at the right hand of the heavenly Father. In other words, He is the power in the universe. His dominion and authority is unquestioned. It also doesn't do justice because it pictures the Father as someone who is not involved in His people's salvation. And He's already on their side. He's already justified them. He's already given them the Son.

So what's the picture there? That He ever lives to intercede. That He intercedes for us. Here's the picture. Christ rules providence for the good of His people. Now go back and think what Paul told you in Romans 8:28. And you correlate it with what Paul is telling you in Romans 8:34. He's telling you that every time you think of the truth that "all things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to His purpose" you remember that the One who works all things together for good is the Lord Jesus Christ. Who, in His sovereign dominion is at the right hand ruling the world by His word and Spirit, so that individually and personally and specifically and comprehensibly everything in your experience works for your good. That is what Paul is saying. He's saying, in light of that what possible fear can you have of condemnation? Think by the way of the contrast. In the Apostle's Creed we say that Christ died and was raised and sits at the right hand and what? Comes to judge. Now notice the Pauline emphasis in this passage. Paul emphasizes all four of those things. But here it's Christ died and was raised and sits at the right hand and not comes to judge but intercedes. What is Paul reminding you? The judge, Jesus Christ who will indeed come to judge. Paul himself says this in Romans 2. Christ is coming to judge the world. But the judge is interceding for you. The judge is on your side. How can you fear condemnation?

You know all of us from time to time we face our sins, and when we face our sins, there is a certain tendency to tremble and to fear condemnation. And those times when some of my severest detractors have spoken to me face to face and made me aware of my own sins. I must confess to you my friends, I've had to think inside. You don't know the half of it. You don't know the half of it. And that fear, that fear robs us of that great and full assurance of salvation and assurance of God's love that He wants His people to experience. And when that fear comes, the apostle is waiting, and he is saying this. Who can bring a charge against the elect? God is the one who justifies, and Christ Jesus is the one whose blood and sovereignty guarantees that that verdict will never, ever, ever be anything other than not guilty.

You know in this life whether we are accused rightly or wrongly, there is always a pall of guilt that attaches in our own minds we can never get away from. But when this verdict is finally written, then given, we will be rid forever of the least smidgen of fear of rejection by the sovereign God. Because in Him we are more than conquerors. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, the realities of Your word is so grand that they are hard to believe. But You mean us to believe them. By the grace of Your Spirit, bring these truths home. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

More than Conquerors - Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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. (Romans 8:35-39)

More Than Conquerers

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 8. Today we come to our final study in this great chapter. We'll be looking at verses 35 to 39. But before your eyes fall on those verses, let me invite you back to verse 1. Let me outline where we have been so far. There will be lots of legitimate ways to outline this material, but perhaps this will help you feel something of Paul's argument.

In verses 1 through 11 Paul gives us the indicative. In verses 12 through 17 he gives us the imperative. In verses 18 through 30, he gives us words of comfort and then finally in verses 31 to 39, he gives us a summary. That's the four-point outline of Romans 8. It's a legitimate way of looking at this passage.

If you look at verses 1 through 11, he tells you what Christians have been made and are through the grace of God and the work of Jesus Christ. He tells us there is no condemnation for us, and that we do not go on living after the flesh because not only of what God has done for us in Christ, but what He is doing in us through the work of the Holy Spirit. We are a new creation. And so He spends the first section, 1 through 11, telling us a reality about us - that we have contributed nothing. This is the work of God, and by His grace, this is what we are.

Then, having told us what we are in Christ, he goes on in verses 12 through 17 to give an imperative. That is to give an exhortation. He says, okay, now in light of this, in light of this truth about you, don't live after the flesh. You're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you're a new creation. Don't live after the flesh. And so he gives us practical exhortation to Christian obedience and duty.

And then in verses 18 through 30, he gives us words of comfort. The old Puritan called this section paranetics, not paramedics, but paranetics. By that word they meant biblical application of doctrinal truth from the Scripture in order to help Christians who are suffering under trials and tribulations. You see why they use just one word for that. This is something which Paul is very often desirous of doing. Taking a biblical truth and applying for Christians especially who are dealing with some sort of obstacle, or suffering or trial or tribulation in their life. And that's precisely what Paul does. He talks about the glory which is to come as something that enables us to go through trials. He talks about the Holy Spirit interceding with us, with groans too deep for words, in order to encourage us in trials. He talks about God's Fatherly kindness and compassion in His providence over all things. He piles up reasons for us to keep on going and keep on trusting in the worst times of life.

And then when you get to verse 31, he throws out four questions for the purpose of encouraging us to remember the truth that He has taught us, not just in the eighth chapter, but in the whole book of Romans. You will remember in Romans 8:31 the very first question is who can be against us? And in that question, Paul is referring us back to Romans, chapter 1:18 and following, where Paul makes it very clear that apart from Christ, the one who is against us is God. He's the one against us in our sin when we are apart from Jesus Christ.

And so Paul, having told us about this glorious work of redemption done at the behest of God, at the initiative of God, now says if God is now for us, okay, well then who out there is there left to be against us? It's the big concern that we had in our reality is that God is against us in our sin apart from Christ. And if that has been remedied, through God's work in sending His Son Jesus Christ, and in His work of the Holy Spirit uniting us to Jesus Christ, well then, who can be against us?

Then in verses 33 and 34, He asks two more questions. The second question is who can accuse the chosen ones of God? And the third question is who is the one who condemns? If God was our accuser when we were in our sin apart from Christ, and if God has come to our rescue in Christ, and is now no longer our accuser, but our justifier, Paul is saying, okay, exactly who is it out there who is going to take up this old accusation?

And then He says, furthermore, who is going to condemn us? If God has condemned Christ in our place for all those who believer in Him, who is it exactly who is going to raise the condemnation against us when Christ has been condemned in our place, and God's justice has been satisfied? And so by all these means Paul is summarizing the main teachings of his book, and he's attempting to buttress our assurance because he knows that Christians struggle with assurance. We struggle with the security of our salvation, we've struggled with confidence with God's unchanging love, because we know the fickleness of our own heart. We know that we are prone to wander, Lord, we feel it, prone to leave the God we love. So how do you encourage Christians who are realistic about themselves? And they know that they are prone to wander. You point them to the great objective truths of God's word to which we contribute absolutely nothing. And that is what Paul is doing right here again today. So let's give attention to Romans 8, verses 35 through 39. And look at the fourth question that Paul poses and answers in order to bolster your assurance. This is God's word.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, 'For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor thing to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Amen.

This is God's Word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Our Lord, some truths of Your word are so marvelous that we want to believe them more than anything else. But we have to confess that because of the weakness, the smallness of our faith, they are hard to believe because of the experiences and circumstances of our life. We somehow don't seem to be able to get our hearts around them. By the grace of Your Holy Spirit this day, bring home this truth to Your people and to those who are not Your people, who have not trusted in Jesus Christ. By Your Spirit, set forth these truths before them in such a way that they will be impelled to embrace the one who loves with an everlasting love. We ask this in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Have you found yourself in circumstances and conditions of life which have made you doubt God's love? Have you found yourself, having done certain things, which make it hard for you to believe that God loves you, still loves you, will love you to the end. Has your assurance been undercut by situations that you have gone through in life which have been so painful and so inexplicitable that you have not been able to make sense of them. But the first glance impression that you have gotten from those experiences is that they indicate surely God is against you. Or worse. There is no god out there and there's no sense in this world. Well the apostle Paul had been through kinds of experiences himself as a believer, and yet trusted in God and knew a fullness of assurance. And he knew that these Roman Christians were about to go through those same kinds of circumstances. You see they would face the persecution of Nero. They would face the focus of attention on that small group of believers in the very heart of the empire that would lead many of them to lose their lives, many of them to be exiled to the salt mines and never to return to their loved ones to experience the worst kind of tribulation in life. And so the apostle Paul, before they ever got that point, wanted them to know, and to be confident of and have firm conviction of the certainty of God's love, and the goodness of His plan. And so He has heaped these questions in order to assure them of those very things.

You will remember back in verses 33 and 34 that the second and third questions that He had given to them pertain to justice. In other words, He was attempting to show them that though it is true that God's salvation of them was gracious and free and merciful, that is, not due to anything that they had done and not earned by anything that they had done. Yet at the same time, it was just. In other words, God's righteousness had not been swept under the carpet. God's righteousness had not been ignored. God's justice had not been impeached by the way that He had saved them. No, he had dealt with His justice strictly in Jesus Christ, so that though their salvation was gracious and merciful and free, it was also just.

Why does he brother to tell them this? Because He knows that if you think that somehow your salvation does measure up to the strict demands of God's justice, that if your forgiveness has not been warranted to a strict fulfillment of God's punitive justice, you will question whether you have really been forgiven, whether your sins have really finally been dealt with. You will be tempted to think, well, I need to add something else to this now. And so he puts these two questions out, he speaks in judicial categories for the purpose of assuring you of God's unchanging love.

When he comes to the fourth question here in verse 35, he shifts to relational terminology. And he begins to say to, "Not only are you judicially certain of God's unchanging love, but you are relationally certain of God's unchanging love. The fourth question is who shall separate us. Is there anything there that can divide us from the saving love of God? Is there anything that can divide us from His gracious and merciful forgiveness of sins. Is there any thing that can separate us from Him in this life.

And of course this too answers to a point that Paul has made. What does sin do? This too answers to a point that Paul has made. What does sin do? Sin separates from God. And so Paul has been at labors and pains in the book of Romans to show us how God has dealt with sin through Jesus Christ, and therefore if sin has been dealt with in Jesus Christ, and we've trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation, then sin itself can no longer separate us. And if sin cannot separate us from God what is there left out there to separate us? This is the line of Paul's argument. This is, of course, supremely seen in Jesus' cry of separation from the cross. In Matthew, chapter 27, verse 46 those words are recorded. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And Paul is reminding us here that since Jesus has cried the cry of separation, since He has experienced separation on our behalf, we will never experience that separation from God as we trust in Him for salvation. We will never experience that separation because his cry of separation secured for us salvation.

And so the apostle Paul wants to expand on this in verses 35 through 39 in order to bring it home. And he says two or three very important things for us to attend to. I'd like to look first at verse 35, then together at verses 37 and 37, and then at verses 38 and 39. And look at three things that Paul has to teach us about this insufferable love of God. First look at verse 35.

I. No earthly circumstance, exigency, contingency can divide us from God's saving love.

Here Paul makes it clear that the Christian need never fear separation from our loving redeemer. Again, he's speaking in relational terminology, and that relational terminology doesn't contradict the judicial or the forensic or the legal terminology used in verses 33 and 34. It complements it. It's another way of looking at the same truth. It's another result of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. And Paul's purpose for piling up this list of challenges to Christians security at the end of verse 35 is to make it clear that no earthly contingency, no earthly circumstance, no earthly exigency can divide us from God's saving love. His list perhaps is not comprehensive, but it is meant to stand comprehensibly for everything out there in earthly experience which might unsettle our sense of God's love for us.

And now I want you to know two or three things about this little verse. First, the emphasis here is on Christ's love for us. And of course, ultimately on God's love for us, as we see in verse 39, not on our love for God. If our assurance, if our security depended ultimately on the consistency and the quality of our love to Christ, none of use would ever be assured. Paul is not saying, if you love Christ, if you love Him rightly, if you love Him enough, if you love Him with perseverance, then you will have assurance. He is saying I want you to stop, Christian, and I want you to contemplate His love for you. Not in the first instance, your love to Him in response, but His love for you. It is that, Paul says, which secures our sense of salvation, our assurance, our servitude, that God will redeem us in the end.

And then having pointed us there because our security resides in something that flows from the heart of God and nothing circumstantial, he is able to say, because our security resides in God's love, there's no circumstance that can interrupt it. There's no circumstance that can defeat it. There's no situation in life that can overthrow it. And he begins to pile up instances, and you see this in the end of verse 35. Seven words he uses. These terms that Paul piles up are graphic specifications of the comprehensiveness of our security. He says tribulation can't separate us from the love of Christ. Distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, none of these things can separate us from the love of Christ. Let's look at the words specifically.

Paul says tribulation or trouble cannot separate us from the love of Christ. He's speaking of those strong external pressures that sometimes come upon us in the difficulties of life. Distress, he says, secondly, or hardship cannot separate us. These are perhaps the inward pressures that accompany those external pressures on us. When things are going badly on the outside, when we're facing unbelievable grief or suffering or trial on the outside, they tend to produce inner turmoil. So it's not simply what you're facing out there, it's what you are facing in here which becomes a source of disconsolation. And the apostle says that can't separate you from the love of Christ.

From time to time, I will receive letters from those who listen to us on the radio or who watch television ministry. After the message on Romans 8:28 through 30, a dear lady who is member of another congregation here in Jackson, wrote a brief note that was very meaningful, and I want to share just a few words that she said that indicate the kind of tribulation and the stress that a Christian goes through, but also which indicate the faith with which a Christian bears those tribulations. She says this. "My life has been a mystery. My mother died when I was four. My husband of twelve years died when he was thirty-four. My younger daughter died at age thirty-two. My second husband, who was a minister died in 1989. God has allowed these things to happen. I am the richer for having had these experiences, but I do not understand them. This I can say, I can't wait for my ultimate glorification to His glory. Those experiences have not separated her from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And she can see, even in this life, despite the things the things that she does not understand, the good purposes of her loving heavenly Father.

Paul doesn't end there, however, he goes on to speak of persecution, something about which he understood on both sides. He speaks of nakedness and hunger. He speaks of peril. Again, something that he knows about. You'll remember that he uses this very same word in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, nine times to speak about his own experience. Peril, danger. We'll come back to that passage in a moment. He even speaks of the sword, he's, of course, speaking of execution, and He's indicating that sometimes state leaders will simply because a person has committed a crime of being loyal to Jesus Christ, take your life. And all of these things, Paul says, none of these things can separate us from the love of God. Why? Because the ultimate ground of our assurance is not found in our circumstances, nor in our love for God, but in His purposes for and His love for us. And if that's the case, there is nothing in this life that can get at that love. There's nothing that can displace it. There's nothing that can undercut it. There's nothing in our experience which can reduce it or remove it. John Murray says, "The more accentuated is the kind of adversity denoted by Paul here, the more decisive is the assurance given of the unchangeableness of Christ's love." In other words, the worse it is for you, the more decisive is Paul's assurance that God's love is unchanging. That's the first thing that Paul wants us to see. No earthly circumstance can separate us from the love of Christ because the certainty of that love doesn't depend on circumstances, and it doesn't depend on our love ultimately. It depends upon the unchangeableness of God's saving love.

II. We Christians are hyper-conquerors not in spite of but actually in all these things.

Secondly, if you look at verses 36 and 37, Paul says that that's not all that I want to say. See, for many Christians we will either say something like this, "You know God has helped me to endure some of the most difficult trials of life." And Paul wants to say, "Um, I'm saying a little bit more than that." On the other hand, sometimes we'll say, "You know, those trials made us stronger, going through that hard thing made us stronger," and there's nothing inherently wrong with that statement. Unless we are thinking for a moment that the trial itself is what produced the grace. And Paul again says, "I want to say a little something more than that." And the little more is really not a little something more, it's a big something more. And the big something is this: That you are more than conquerors in all these things. Now that is absolutely phenomenal.

Verse 36, you see is a quotation from Psalm 44, verse 22. And that psalm and that quotation reminds us that it has always been the lot of God's people to suffer. God's people are no strangers to suffering. Just because you love the one true God doesn't mean you don't experience suffering. Furthermore, it doesn't mean that you don't experience suffering which is explicitly for Him. Notice the words, "for His sake we are being put to death all day long. Like sheep we are being led to the slaughter." And we must pause today and contemplate the real possibility of soon, of near persecution, even in the western world. But we also must pause as we think of persecution as something that is part of a misty path. It's part of Romans feeding Christians to lions, and things in the days of the Reformation, and remember that during the twentieth century, more Christians died for their faith than in all the nineteenth centuries prior put together. So persecution is not a thing in the misty path for most Christians in the two-thirds world. It may be for us, but I doubt it will be for long. And so the apostle is saying that we, too, like the saints of old must be ready to stand and fall as believers.

And he's reminding us as well that persecution is a sign of believers bearing the reproach of Christ. You see, when believers are persecuted, it signifies again that we are joining in the fellowship of His sufferings. It's a sign of our union with Christ, and Paul understood this intensely and experientially. He had been involved in the persecution of Stephen. Jesus had met him on the road to Damascus, who said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Stephen? No. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" Paul understood that the persecution of believers was ultimately a persecution of Christ. Because believers share in and are united with Christ, not only in their belief, but in His sufferings. Not only in His benefits, but in His persecution. And so suffering persecution is a function with union with Christ. Paul understood that. But even in persecution Paul wants to get this through. Even in persecution we are conquerors.

You see here's the surprising thing that Paul wants to tell us. That we are more than conquerors in all these things. Go back to the list in verse 35. He says pile it up, all those things. You are more than conquerors in all these things. It's not that you just sort of barely get by, by the skin of your teeth. You're a hyper conqueror he says. And it's not just in the good things. It's in all these things. It's in all those bad things, all those adversities, all the adversities you can list right now. In those things, God has made you to be more than conquerors. And He hasn't done it through those things Himself. He's done it through the love of Jesus Christ. Through Christ's love as exercised and exhibited in the cross, you are more than conquerors. Notice what he is saying. He is saying that in those experiences that we are made more than conquerors not in spite of those experiences, but in them. You know that happened, and you were still a conqueror anyway. No it's precisely because that happened. Precisely because that was the decree of God. God made you to conquer in an extraordinary way. And furthermore, notice it wasn't the trial itself that produced the character in you. It was the grace of God working in the trial. It was through Him who loved us. That is what made you to be more than conquerors.

You know sometimes in sports, we'll say, it takes the hard times to make the good times. As if simply going through hard times makes good times. But you know that's not true. You've had all sorts of friends who have gone through horrendous experiences, and it hasn't made them beautiful, glowing, faithful people. It has made them shriveled up, bitter, angry, cynical people. You see, trials can produce two totally opposite results in people. And Paul is not saying that trials inherently, through some general natural principle, make us better people. They don't always. But he is saying this. That for those who trust in Christ, every single trial is an instrument of God's grace in which you are displayed as more than a conqueror.

Now that's mind boggling, but Paul knew that from experience. You remember in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, when he was talking with the Corinthians, at that point, sort of despised Paul. They thought he was weak. They taught they were strong. He kind of took advantage of that, and beginning in verse 23, he says, "Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane. I more so, and far more labors and far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I receive from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without food, in cold and exposure and apart from such external things there is a daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches who is weak with out my being weak, who is lead into sin without my intense concern, if I have to boast, I'll boast of that which pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and so escaped his hands." Here is Paul, the great apostle, and he says here's the picture I want you to think of me. When you think of me, you think of this tiny little man being let out of a window in a basket to escape in the middle of the night for his life. That's what you think of me. But I'm more than a conqueror, because God's power is manifested in my weakness. When you think of Paul, you think of that weak little man. And then you think of what God in His might and power has done in and through him and by Him. And you'll see that God's power is perfected in weakness. We Christians, Paul is saying in verse 36 and 37, are hyperconquerors, not in spite of, but actually in every kind of adversity. And then finally there is this.

III. No spiritual, supernatural, supertemporal, created reality of the invisible world can disjoin us from God's love.

In verses 38 and 39, Paul tells us that he has a firm conviction that no created thing whether it's time or heavenly hours or space or distance can divorce us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ. No spiritual, supernatural, supertemporal created reality of the invisible world can divorce us, can divide us from the love of God.

When Paul says he is persuaded, he is expressing the fullness of his confidence about this reality. He has already told you in verse 35 that no earthly thing can separate you from God's love. Now he's saying there is nothing in the invisible world of spiritual reality that can separate you from God's love. Paul knows that every Christian knows that there's more to life than meets the eye. There's a bigger battle going on. Job tells us that, the book of Job tells us that. Daniel emphasizes that, that in the midst of the story of Daniel and the captivity there's a bigger picture, there's a bigger conflict.

There's a famous story from Francis Schaeffer when he sat down in the Bible Presbyterian Church in St. Louis with a gentlemen to witness to him about the gospel. And he wanted to see if the man had any spiritual realities, and he asked the man, as they were sitting on pew in a empty sanctuary, "Start naming for me what you see in this room." "Well, I see hymnals and pews and I see a communion table, and I see a pulpit." "Okay, what else do you see?" "Well, I see an organ, I see windows, I see a balcony." "Okay, what else to you see?" He did this about eleven times until the man had named everything that he saw. And Schaeffer said, "Is that all you see?" And the man sort of said uh, "Yes," knowing that was not supposed to be the answer. And Schaeffer said, "I'll tell you what I see. I see powers and principalities and forces in high places. Worry over issues of eternal consequence and over your soul in this place." He wasn't claiming to have some sort of a physical vision or a miraculous manifestation. He was simply saying there is a reality more real than the pew you're sitting on, man, and it is going on around you all the time. Well Paul knows that, and he says to Christians, I want you to understand that even those things can't separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. Nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ because of Christ victory over those principalities and powers. The believer is secure even against them.

You see, Paul's point is for believers to have this kind of confidence as they face trials in the world. Paul is not just telling us this because he had some sort of a secret miraculous manifestation that enabled him to be confident and assured, he's telling you this because he wants believers to be characterized by confidence in the certain of God's love in the gospel. Because we're not, we're crippled. So he's telling you this in order to say to you, okay, now you need to go out have some sort of a miraculous experience so that you can feel the assurance of God's love. He's telling you this so you'll be driven back to God's Word, back to God's promise to believe in the certainty of His love. And that's a message that makes life worth living. Let's pray.

Lord and our God, by the grace of Your Holy Spirit, teach us that Jesus lives and so shall we. We ask it in His Name, Amen.

Table of Contents

ROMANS 1

Greetings from an Apostle - Romans 1:1-7

Paul's Prayer Report - Romans 1:8-10

Paul's Purpose to Preach - Romans 1:11-15

Paul's Good News (The Theme of Romans) - Romans 1:16-17

We Have No Excuse - Romans 1:18-20

We Know God, But Don't Glorify Him - Romans 1:21-23

God Gave Them Over (1) - Romans 1:24-25

God Gave Them Over (2) - Romans 1:26-27

God Gave Them Over (3) - Romans 1:28-32

ROMANS 2

We Have No Excuse - Romans 2:1-3

Contempt for God's Kindness - Romans 2:4

God Will Judge Justly - Romans 2:5-11

God's Righteous Judgment on All - Romans 2:12-16

The Jew's Confidence Empty - Romans 2:17-20

The Jew's Failure - Romans 2:21-24

The Difference Between Inward and Outward Righteousness - Romans 2:25-29

ROMANS 3

Objection Overruled (1) - Romans 3:1-4

Objection Overruled (2) - Romans 3:5-8

All Are Under Sin - Romans 3:9-18

The Law Can't Save You - Romans 3:19-20

The Righteousness Which Comes by Faith (1) - Romans 3:21-26

Justification by Grace Through Faith - Romans 3:21-26

God, in the Gospel of His Son - Romans 3:21-26

Justification by Grace Through Faith (2) - Romans 3:21-26

The Instrument by Which We Receive the Righteousness of God: Faith - Romans 3:27-31

Faith Alone - Romans 3:27-31

The Implication of Justification - Romans 3:27-31

ROMANS 4

The Bible Says Abraham Was Justified by Faith! - Romans 4:1-3

David Understood Justification by Faith - Romans 4:4-8

Faith and the Covenant Sign of Circumcision - Romans 4:9-12

Faith and the Law - Romans 4:13-15

Faith, Grace and the Spiritual Seed - Romans 4:16-17

Abraham's Faith and Ours - Romans 4:18-25

ROMANS 5

Justification By Faith Means Peace with God - Romans 5:1-2

Justification By Faith Means the Ability to Rejoice in Suffering - Romans 5:3-5

Justification By Faith Flows from the Love of God - Romans 5:6-8

Justification By Faith Means Freedom From God's Wrath - Romans 5:9-11

The Broken Covenant of Works Brought Death into the World - Romans 5:12-14

The Covenant of Grace Stands in Bold Contrast to the Broken Covenant of Works - Romans 5:15-17

The Parallels Between the Broken Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace - Romans 5:18-19

The Law, the Covenant of Works, and Grace - Romans 5:20-21

Grace Reigns in Righteousness - Romans 5:21

ROMANS 6

United to Christ - Romans 6:1-7

Living in Christ - Romans 6:8-14

Under Grace - Romans 6:15-18

Slaves of Righteousness - Romans 6:19-23

ROMANS 7

The Newness of the Spirit - Romans 7:1-6

What Should We Think of the Law? - Romans 7:7-12

The Believer's Struggle with Sin - Romans 7:13-25

ROMANS 8

Delivered by the Spirit by Death of Christ - Romans 8:1-4

Flesh and Spirit - Romans 8:5-11

Children of God - Romans 8:12-17

Present Suffering/ Future Glory - Romans 8:18-25

The Spirit Intercedes for Us - Romans 8:26-27

The Purpose of God - Romans 8:28-39

God is for Us, So Who is Against Us? - Romans 8:31-32

God Has Justified Us, So Who Can Condemn Us? - Romans 8:33-34

More than Conquerors - Romans 8:35-39