Sermons

8:18-23

Romans 8 is referred to as the “Hope” chapter…the foundational truth of Romans 8 is that there can never be eternal death for believers…not talking about head knowledge…but a true identification with Jesus that results in obedient actions …at that instant you were born into a heavenly inheritance that can never perish, spoil…fade…or be lost.

The emphasis is on “the Spirit” and the indwelling Spirit in the believer’s life… 16 times in the first 17 verses Paul uses the word “Spirit.”

In this chapter is the comforting truth that Christians have been delivered from the bondage of sin…that we are no longer a slave to sin as we once were…we are no longer under sin’s total domination and control…we are now free from sin’s bondage and its penalty…something unbelievers will never experience.

BECAUSE: Verse 5 –“…the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God…”
No matter how self-sacrificing…moral…or sincere…the life of an unredeemed person may seem to be…their nature [v. 7] “is they are hostile toward God” … …they are an enemy of God.

BECAUSE: Verse 7 –“the carnal mind is enmity against God…”
The unbeliever’s heart is unable to love and serve God…of himself…he cannot repent and believe…his heart is so desperately wicked that if left to himself he will never come to Christ. The sinner’s inability or lack of power to come to Christ is due to his depraved heart…his wicked heart loves sin and hates God.

BECAUSE: Verse 8 – “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The person who gives no evidence of the presence…power…or fruit of God’s Spirit…who demonstrates no desire for the things of God…has no inclination to avoid sin…no passion to please God…that person is not indwelt by the Holy Spirit…and has no legitimate claim to Christ as Lord and Savior.

BECAUSE: Verse 9 – “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

BUT…even though we are no longer under the domination and control of sin… Satan…the world…and a person’s own humaneness can still cause us to stumble and falter.

Starting in verse 18 Paul begins to reveal the result of the present suffering in this world and the promise of a future glory.

18 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. 19 For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 21 that creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of
the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only that, 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.

Paul doesn’t tell us as much about the Spirit as he tells us what the Spirit does.

1. The Spirit creates a new spiritual existence in us [vs. 1– 4]
2. The Spirit leads us into a new lifestyle [vs. 5–9]
3. The Spirit will ultimately raise our bodies from the dead [vs. 10–11]

In verse 17 Paul tells us how that is possible…when we are born into the family of God, we become God’s very own children…we are elevated into the irrevocable position of children of God by His grace and the promise that:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ [17].

The gift of God is that all who are ‘born’ into the family of God become God’s children and are elevated into the position of being a co-heir with Jesus.

The moment you trusted Jesus as Savior…not talking about head knowledge… but an identification with Jesus that results in obedient actions…at that instant you were born into a heavenly inheritance that can never perish…spoil…fade …or be lost.

But in the second part of that verse Paul reveals a transitional bridge that shifts from the glory of being co-heirs with God to something that must precede that glory…addressing the suffering of this present world…if indeed we suffer with Him [17].

What, then, does it mean to suffer with Christ…it may include the idea that Christians can expect to be persecuted because of our identity with Christ … something that is not experienced by Christians in this country.

So what is the application for us? …in Romans 8:18 Paul writes about the suffering of this present time…when you think about the suffering of this present time it can be appalling.

Because context determines meaning it’s important to know that here Paul is especially referring to the suffering that comes as a result of serving Christ.

But for us today…the application is for us to consider those who have had to endure the sufferings associated with floods…earthquakes…hurricanes… tornadoes…and famines that kill thousands of people every year.

In addition, there are those who suffer as a result of war…or those affected by car accidents…or afflicted with diseases that are the result of the frailness of our physical bodies.

As of April 25, there have been over 509 million people affected by Covid-19 resulting in over 6 million deaths…despite a recovery rate that is over 98%…if you’ve lost someone due to Covid it’s a tragedy that leaves us questioning why.

Again…the coronavirus does not fit as a divine judgment from God…or the wrath of God as some periodicals…Christianity Today…suggest…in fact…it’s most likely not going to be as terrible as other worldwide pandemics have been:

…the Spanish flu of 1917-1918 killed an estimated 50 million people
…the HIV pandemic in the early 1980s, has killed about 32 million
…WHO reports that cholera kills up to 140,000 people every year
… typhoid fever kills up to 160,000 a year.

What we see in the world today is not God’s wrath on sin…or the judgment of God…the Covid-19 virus will eventually run its course…in fact…last Wednesday Fauci declared that the U.S. was “certainly” out of the pandemic stage…but history has shown something else will take its place.

When God decides to inflict the world with His wrath…you won’t need to guess if it’s from God…the book of Revelation is God’s judgment on man…no guessing needed…Revelation records what will happen when the seven trumpets sound.

When the first trumpet is sounded a third of the earth is burned up
When the second trumpet is sounded a third of the sea becomes blood
When the third trumpet is sounded a third of the rivers are made bitter
When the fourth trumpet is sounded a third of the sun moon and stars are darkened
When the fifth trumpet is sounded locusts are released to torment unbelievers When the sixth trumpet is sounded angels kill a third of mankind

So based on what is occurring in the world today…this virus is not the judgment or wrath of God on us as a country…or the world.

Here’s some shocking news for you…the world is…has been…and will continue to be filled with suffering…hardships…and tragedies…until Jesus returns.

How difficult is it for us to come up with an answer to those who question how a loving…all-powerful God…can…will…or would…allow such terrible suffering in the world?

As a Pastor people expect you to give them a satisfactory answer to these questions…the answer that God loves us with an everlasting love is sometimes less than adequate to help explain the suffering of life.

This section of Romans is in direct opposition to the health and wealth gospel that many promote today.

Their version comes not from the Bible but from their own selfish evil desires …to tell someone that they will have no suffering if they would only give money is a gospel from hell.

False preachers like Joel Olsten who say come to Jesus and you won’t suffer anymore…or…that God is actually going to reward you is in direct opposition to what the Bible says.

Preaching the true gospel doesn’t fill churches…that’s why it’s not preached in a lot of churches…it’s not popular…it’s not appealing to the masses…it won’t grow mega churches…but it will grow the Kingdom of God in people’s lives… don’t be disillusioned by other people’s false gospel.

As humans we might wish things were different…we might wish God would remove the suffering in our lives and in the world…the reality is it is here…and it remains to some degree a mystery.

Paul, in mentioning “the sufferings of this present time”, is referring to an especially difficult period in the history of the Church…but the application can also be to the present age.

The whole history of creation since the fall has been marked by…struggles… wars…natural disasters…internal conflicts…and crime.

But why do we suffer? Suffering is everywhere. This is one of the most difficult truths of existence.

Three observations Paul shared regarding suffering:

1. The whole CREATION Suffers because of Man’s Fall into Sin.
   When Adam sinned, he took all of creation with him…people…animals… nature…the weather, all were corrupted by sin.

The thousands of deaths caused by floods…earthquakes…hurricanes… tornadoes…and famines…are the ultimate consequence and constant reminder of that initial sin.

Our creation is stuck in a cycle that is in constant repetition until the day that Jesus puts it all to an end.

2. BELIEVERS Suffer Because of Man’s Fall into Sin.
   This needs to be stated because there is a pervasive false teaching that God wants every Christian to be healthy and wealthy …that “If you’re sick or poor, then you need to claim your healing or your wealth by faith.”

Those who teach these lies are preying on people’s greed and their natural longing to be in good health…in reality, our everyday lives are a history of trials:

The trials of growing up…figuring out what to do in life…whom you will marry …rearing children… working through struggles in your marriage…at your job …growing old…facing declining health and death.

The physiological changes and decline in our physical bodies are the result of the aging process that is the result of man’s fall into sin.

We think, “It’s one thing if wicked people suffer such things, but how could a God of love allow precious little children to suffer?” …Paul shows that such things stem directly from man’s fall into sin…now the good news:

3. Suffering Does Not Undermine the Fact that God has a Plan and That He Will Accomplish His Plan.
   This is a truth that goes unnoticed…despite the little-known fact that Satan is the ruler of this world…but despite that…God has a plan…Satan or no one else can thwart that plan…a plan that will be realized.

People observe the suffering in the world and doubt God’s love or His power… the argument is especially emotional when we consider little children suffering physical ailments…sexual abuse…or the horrible effects of war or natural disasters.

This verse about the suffering of this present time also makes us think about the mental and emotional suffering in life.

We oftentimes wonder at the ability to endure the blows…the agonies…and the crushing griefs of life as a result of…unfaithfulness in a marriage relationship… the disappointment over a broken dream…the heartbreak of being forsaken or being betrayed by a close friend…because at times those sufferings can be overwhelming as well.

If you say, “That’s not fair,” you’re on dangerous ground to accuse God of being unfair! …you’re arrogantly implying that you would have done better than Adam did, so you don’t deserve to be penalized for his sin.

We would do well to not accuse God of being unfair for imposing suffering on the human race because of sin.

As a Pastor I just gave you the reason for those things…sin stems directly from man’s fall into sin…but Scripture promises that God is aware of them and it will ultimately work out for His glorious purpose.

If there is any consolation…any comfort…it is knowing that the suffering that God allows will ultimately work out for His glorious purpose [Rom 8:28].

For the Christian God has a purpose in suffering…especially suffering as a result of persecution…God is doing something in our pain…pain and suffering is meant for refinement…for character shaping…causing us to rely on God more…leading to greater rewards that unbelievers are not privileged to.

As we persevere through suffering, He is making us more like Christ…many other things may be going on in our suffering, but one thing is clear, God is doing something through it.

So, Paul gives us something to consider concerning the suffering of this present time [18].

Romans 8:19 promises two hopes for the believer:

1. Our hope for a new creation
2. Our hope for the resurrection of the body

Our hope for a new creation [19]:
The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God

Paul begins by showing that creation itself is waiting for God’s glory to be revealed in us…that’s what verse 22 means:

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

Why is all creation waiting on us? Because creation also needs to be redeemed …but…creation cannot be restored until God’s glory is first revealed in us as God’s children. [Gen 3:17]

Well hold it…I thought I was already adopted into God’s family when I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior…why does [23] say we are ‘waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons?’

So two things: …If I’m a child of God…1) why do I still suffer…and 2) if I’m not adopted into God’s family now…when does that happen?’

You became a new person when you trusted in Jesus, but your body is still ‘dead because of sin’ …you became new on the inside, but your body doesn’t change …it’s still mortal…subject to sickness…sin…and death.

Just as creation will be restored in glory so will our bodies…just as creation waits eagerly for God’s glory to be revealed…we wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies…until then creation waits for this glory to be revealed in us.

Our hope in the resurrection of the body:
Paul refers to the suffering we experience in this life as ‘pains of childbirth’ …the suffering we experience in this life are not death pangs but birth pangs.

God is doing something good out of your suffering…we fail to see it…because sometimes the suffering is so intense…BUT…the suffering and sorrow you experience in this life will eventually result in a new creation and the resurrection of our bodies.

Let me emphasize again…even though we are already adopted into God’s family when we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior our bodies are still subject to sickness…sin…and death…the fullness of our adoption is still awaiting the redemption of our bodies that will occur at the Rapture.

Previously Paul had been speaking about the future glory we have in Christ and the event that the whole creation is looking eagerly forward to but here he wants us to consider our present life.

Problem is…Christians seem at times to be earth bound…makes me wonder how much of a reality heaven is to Christians today…something I’ve said before is the decrease in the number of people who identify themselves as Christians… a number that has dropped nearly eight percentage points in just seven years.

The verses we’ve looked at this morning should confirm to us the reality of Heaven…but I’m not sure how certain people are of that fact…that Heaven actually exists…OR…if within some people…there still lurks a nagging suspicion that we might just not be quite good enough to make it into heaven.

Again, it’s important to remember Paul is writing to Christians…Paul is referring to the suffering experienced by Christians…and the promise of ‘if indeed we suffer with Him…we may also be glorified with Him’.

On the surface it may seem that this is a conditional sentence…that only ‘if’ we suffer with him we’ll be glorified with Him…but Paul is referring to any suffering that you meet on the road to heaven…persecution…calamity…disease …death… any hardship that might destroy your faith and lead you away from God

BUT…as Christians…we have a hope which is certain and sure…so we set ourselves on heavenly things…living in the light of the promise that ‘we may also be glorified with Him’ …that one day our hope will be realized when we enter into the joy of our Lord…when we shall receive our new heavenly body… when we shall be free from sin and death…when Satan will be no more.

Chapter 8

The question this morning is ‘Do You belong to Christ?” Now…you may say,

“Yes, I invited Jesus into my heart at Vacation Bible School when I was a child.” …but…do you belong to Christ?

“Yes, I prayed the sinner’s prayer after someone shared with me the Four Spiritual Laws.” …but…do you belong to Christ?

“Yes, a co-worker told me that if I prayed a certain prayer I could be assured that I’m going to heaven.” but…do you belong to Christ?

As your pastor I hope that I can be assured that those who regularly attend The Branches do indeed belong to Christ…hopefully you can identify either the… event…time…or place you made your decision to belong Christ.

There are no set words to pray for salvation because words aren’t what gets you into heaven…nowhere in the Bible is there a specific prayer you can pray that will assure that get you into heaven…there isn’t one…the Bible has a lot to say about salvation…but very little to say about a certain prayer that will save you.

We cannot be saved unless we first recognize our lostness…sinfulness…and desperate need for a Savior…saying a few words even in earnest is not salvation…salvation is the intention in your heart to become a follower of Jesus.

The kingdom of heaven doesn’t belong to those who come to God with any sort of agenda…selfishness…pride…or lack of understanding of their need for Him.

Again…there seems to be a faulty interpretation being made regarding what’s expected of believers…easy believism has contaminated the salvation process.

Every instance in the gospels where someone accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they immediately began to follow him…saying the right words and checking the right boxes is not salvation.

The idea of praying a one-time prayer and I’m good to go…that I’m saved and that’s all that’s needed to get me into Heaven or keep me out of hell, is an insufficient view of salvation.

Salvation is a commitment…if you have been with us during our Sunday night ‘movie time’ The Chosen’…Jesus’ request of ‘follow me’ wasn’t met with “Well, first explain to me all the details of what’s going to take place…I’ll think about it and get back with you.”

The work of salvation is not easy…if people are unwilling to continue in faith it is evidence of a lack of true salvation in their lives [1 John 2:19].

ONLY when we are in Christ does everything change…only when we belong to Jesus is there no condemnation.

To be in Christ means that we are in an actual relationship with Jesus because we’re united with Him.

While there is no such thing as a “sinner’s prayer” that saves us…and we should never lead someone to think there is…it is the commitment that we make in response to God’s grace that results in salvation.

In the first 16 verses of chapter 8 Paul mentions the “Spirit” 16 times…one of Paul’s main reasons for writing Romans 8 was to give assurance to Christians who believe in Jesus that we belong to Him for eternity.

We talked about one of them last week…Romans 8:1.

There is…now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I put this verse right alongside John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9…this is one of the most important truths of the Christian faith as well as being one of the most comforting statements in all the Bible.

Paul’s mentioning of the “Spirit” is to emphasize the importance of realizing that salvation is not just praying a prayer…that’s Paul’s intent and the importance of emphasizing the Spirit and what it means for Christ to live in you.

Paul describes the Holy Spirit’s residency in us a number of different ways:
…in verse 9 Paul says, “the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Also…
…in verse 9 Paul calls the Spirit “the Spirit of Christ”
…in verse 10 Paul drops the word “Spirit” and says, “But if Christ is in you.”
…in verse 11 “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you”
…in verse 11…“through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

We need to see these as interchangeable terms:
…to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you is the same as
…having the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you which is the same as
…the Spirit dwelling in you which is the same as
…Christ dwelling in you…BUT…what does it mean to dwell in us?

Paul is defining the difference between the saved and unsaved…in one verse Paul describes what separates the two.

He begins by describing the saved…If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you verse 9 is somewhat confusing in our English translation.

Two words need to be looked at in that phrase otherwise you come away with a distorted understanding.

FIRST…the “if” seems to be casting a doubt over the believers’ salvation… that’s not the intent…Paul is talking about born again believers…there is no ‘if’ …the idea that a believer might not have the Holy Spirit living in them is an impossibility… that’s not what this phase is implying.

The word “If” (1512) in Greek is an emphatic marker of condition…the more literal translation is: since the Spirit of God dwells in you…it is stating a matter of fact.

SECOND…the word ‘dwells’ (3611) is in the present tense…it means to live or stay in a certain place continually…this emphasizes that the Spirit is not an occasional visitor but that He takes up residence in every redeemed believer.

That is the real test…the true mark of a born-again believer is that they are indwelt by the Spirit of God…who personally dwells in Christians the moment they become Christians (Acts 2:38).

This is what has misled people into believing they are saved because they believe they are spiritual.

,Here’s what’s interesting about being ‘spiritual’ …probably heard it said: “I’m spiritual but not religious”…approximately sixty-four million Americans—one in five—identify themselves as being “spiritual but not religious.”

So what does that mean? Americans are leaving organized religion in droves… disagreeing with the church on a number of issues so ‘Spiritual-but-not-religious’ becomes a nice category to be in…it doesn’t confine us to a specific denomination…that’s why community churches are so popular.

Spirituality offers a worldview that suggests there is more to life than just what people experience on a sensory and physical level…sounds a lot like religion… it suggests that there is something greater that connects all beings to each other and to the universe itself…sounds like religion.

It proposes that there is an ongoing existence after death and strives to answer questions about the meaning of life…how people are connected to each other… truths about the universe, and other mysteries of human existence…sound a lot like religion.

People may feel comfortable and comforted using spirituality as a coping mechanism for stress…helping improve their well-being…even using prayer to achieve a greater feeling of acceptability….and ultimately a decreased fear of death by being dedicated to God or a ‘higher power.’

Sounds harmless…even inviting when you consider those benefits…but what’s missing is a dedication to the true God…not some ‘higher power’ …in spirituality there is no mention of a commitment to God…or to a life controlled by the Holy Spirit.

As true believers…God has given us His Spirit that “we know that we live in Him and He in us” (1John 4:13).

Verse 14 points to the fact that it is the witness of the Holy Spirit who gives evidences in our life that we are His.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God

Here’s what’s exciting about the witness of the Holy Spirit…He confirms to you that you are a child of God…not by just whispering it in your ear.

The devil does that to an unbeliever…whispers in his ear…and I don’t doubt that the devil has whispered that in a lot of people’s ears because there are going to be people who think they have called Jesus “Lord,” and they really haven’t.

It is the witness of the Spirit who gives evidences in our lives that we are the children of God…speaking directly to each person individually.

That is one of the benefits of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit…in ancient times there was some direct communication between God and a chosen few…Noah… Abraham…Isaac…Jacob…Moses…Joshua…David…the prophets…God spoke audibly at times to them.

BUT today…there’s no biblical reason why God would audibly speak to us… granted He could speak to a person audibly today…but why…God speaking audibly would be the exception…there are those who may tell you they have direct access to God…that they speak to God audibly…I question that.

God doesn’t need to speak audibly to us…because He speaks to us every day… God speaks to every person in the world every day…even unbelievers.
(1) Through His written word
(2) Through the preached gospel
(3) Through our consciences
(4) Through nature
(5) Through relatives and friends.
The question is not, ‘is God still speaking? …the question is, are we listening because He is still speaking.

Without His Spirit…there would be no assurance of salvation…no sensitivity to sin…no power to live a godly life…more importantly…no personal relationship to Christ…Charles Spurgeon calls verse 9

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

“one of the most solemn texts in the whole Bible…to belong to Christ is the most essential thing for time and eternity” …here’s the importance of the statement ‘does not belong to Him.’

In the Greek that is referred to as ‘genitive of possession’…which conveys the idea of ownership…used to express a relationship of possession…what seems to be an insignificant statement is actually defining a person’s eternal destiny.

Paul’s point is that the one who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not “owned” by Christ and thus is an unsaved person.

This is what clearly separates those who are saved from those who think they are saved because of a prayer they prayed that was only superficial.

Paul then gives proof to those who have been justified…forgiven of their sins… what defines the difference between a professing Christian and a true believer.

Unfortunately, ‘professing Christians’ think they are true believers…example:

Oprah Winfrey had a program with women who were having affairs with married men. When the women were challenged on the morality of their adultery, one woman said, “Wait a minute. I’m a Christian, but I want everyone to know that my personal life and my religion don’t interfere with one another. I believe in a God who wants me to be happy. And if this man makes me happy, then God approves of the relationship.”

—here’s the meaning of that…if God didn’t want me to be happy, He wouldn’t have brought us together—let’s just credit God with this immoral relationship.

She goes on to say…it’s reasonable that the most important concern of God is for you to be happy…is it possible for one person to make any more stupid statements in such a short period of time…what we see is someone who professes Christianity but doesn’t profess Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Nowhere in Scripture does it say that God is concerned about your happiness …your happiness and success are not God’s end goals.
We like to think that our happiness is God’s highest goal because that fits our you-deserve-it idea of who God is.

We see the same mind set in same-sex marriages… in the Declaration of Independence is the belief that our founding fathers declared we have unalienable rights…that people have the right to pursue their own happiness…it says so… “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Same sex marriage is recognized as a legal contract that allows for this union to take place…people make the same conclusion…assuming that lifestyle is acceptable under the same premise…God wants me to be happy.

With just a little effort we can apply that justification to most anything in life… that God wants me to be happy…BUT what vast multitudes do not realize is… this is not the Lord’s definition of “happiness.”

The woman in Oprah’s example is clearly not possessing Christ…she might have knowledge of who Jesus is but her actions define her character as someone who is outside of Christianity.

Many times people have strange ideas about God or the Bible that are wrong because of something they were taught growing up.

The question for her is what I proposed in my opening statements…do you belong to Christ? …Paul gives the evidence of a true born-again believer [14]:

do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This is the emphasis in the book of Hebrews…why it’s filled with so many warnings and encouragements to keep the faith…the idea is not that salvation can be lost…BUT if their conversion was real in the first place.

When a person comes to faith in Jesus a radical change is expected…no…it’s required…when no change is apparent, we begin to wonder if there was a genuine conversion…if they truly understand God’s Word concerning sanctification and discipleship.

In the first 17 verses of Romans 8 Paul’s mentioning of the Spirit details three freedoms believers have:
Freedom from Condemnation
Freedom from the Sin Nature
Freedom from Abandonment

These are the results of having the presence of the Spirit living in us…it is the essential mark of a Christian.
The one who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not “owned” by Christ and thus is an unsaved person.

That’s a bold statement. It’s also a sad declaration…one that is true or it is not true…there is no in middle ground…what a tragedy for a person to go through life without belonging to Christ!

Paul provides one of the simplest presentations of salvation in Scripture:

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [Romans 10:9]

So, if we have a sincere heart…10 for it is with your heart that you believe… and if you openly confess Jesus as your Savior…it is with your mouth that you profess your faith…Scripture says you are saved.

There are no exceptions…no such thing as a select few…or a chosen few… or some…NO… Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [Rom.10:13]

So let me go back to my opening question…“Do You belong to Christ?”

Paul begins Romans 8 talking about what can God do for sinners like us.

Let me once again clarify the term sinners…we’re not all sinners…we all at times sin…but that doesn’t make us sinners…unbelievers are referred to as sinners…they have no choice to do otherwise…every place throughout Scripture except for one place Christians are referred to as saints…we are not sinners.

A sinner is someone who is living in sin…who is willfully and deliberately living a lifestyle that is opposed to Christian standards…Scripture doesn’t call faithful Christians “sinners,” it calls them “saints.”

So, in that sense NO… we’re not all sinners.

But that’s the mindset that deceives people into believing I’m not that bad… we’re all in this together…we’re all sinners…NO we’re NOT.

Last week I concluded my sermon with a dilemma that every serious Christian has probably repeatedly thought about…Paul ended chapter 7 crying out in frustration about his wretchedness…a dilemma that is present in the lives of every believer:

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not what I
want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I have the desire to do
what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing (Romans 7:15, 18-19)

Anyone who is serious about following Christ has experienced the frustration in what Paul is saying…of wanting to obey Christ…wanting to please God… wanting to do good…but it seems as if the power to do good is just out of our grasp…so we end up doing the things we hate.

Given this struggle, Paul says two things:
FIRST…There is a noticeable shift in Paul’s personal outlook from Romans 7 to Romans 8…in Romans 7 one of the words Paul identifies himself with is “I” …mentioned 33 times.

In Romans 8 Paul realizes that the only way a believer can live out the life God has called him to is through the ‘spirit’ …so in Romans 8 Paul uses the word “spirit” 20 times… previous to that he used the word “spirit” only 4 times.

Having come to that conclusion Paul reveals the answer to his dilemma:
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body
of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)

Notice what Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Wretched man that I am! What must I do?”…he says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me?”

First you have to know who your deliverer is before you can ask what must I do to be saved…the answer isn’t to try harder.

The second thing Paul says is what I want to look at today…what are the consequences of my actions?

There are consequences to sin…it affects us…affects family and friends… and affects our church…it affects our fellowship with God.

With respect to ourselves…as believers the Holy Spirit convicts us when we do wrong (John 16:7-8) then when we repent we’re made right again…however, in the case of the believer who refuses to repent, sin can catapult into deeper sin.

The consequences of unrepented sin is that God gives the sinner over to ‘the sinful desires of their hearts’ [Romans 1:24, 26, 28] …this means that God will allow you to serve the sin you have chosen as your god…and then let you reap the destruction of that choice…it is a fearful thing to be ‘given over’ to our own destructive ways.

Scripture reveals that certain sins may have lasting consequences…there’s a distinction between forgiveness and consequences…God will forgive the sin… but He may not remove the earthly consequences of that sin.

God’s pardon does not always eliminate the consequences of personal sin in this life…. many examples of earthly consequences of sin in the Bible reveal that sins do have lasting consequences.

—Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden
—Moses forced to flee Egypt after killing an Egyptian soldier
—Jonah swallowed by a fish for not obeying God
—Tiny town of AI defeated the entire nation of Israel
—Baby of David and Bathsheba died because of David’s murder and adultery.
—Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit and died instantly
—Korah and his associates died when the earth swallowed them alive.

Then there’s the consequences imposed on us by society…certain laws that the government has deemed illegal.

When people are caught committing these sins, even if they repent and are restored to renewed fellowship with God…they may suffer the legal consequences of that sin.

Then there’s the sin that hurts the church…my ‘private’ sin is my business…NO it’s not…it hurts the church… the truth is that as Christians we are not isolated …we are connected to other Christians and have a responsibility to one another.

Those who follow Jesus are family…we’re one body…sharing one baptism… worshipping one Lord.

What we do impacts others…there are benefits that flow from our connectedness to one another…our connectedness to other Christians means that as well as the potential for good…we have the potential to cause harm too.

Paul (1 Cor 5:6) explains how sin impacts the whole church using the metaphor of yeast…the metaphor stresses the influential impact that our actions can have …this metaphor is used as a negative example of one’s influence on others.

With respect to family and friends…like ripples on a pond our actions spread
out and affect others because everything is interconnected…our sins can have effects in the lives of other people and in other relationships…and to even further complicate that…we need to remember that our actions are irreversible.

Even if we don’t feel those effects…the fact is that all sin…both big and small is rebellion against God.

Need to realize that sin does not threaten the security of our salvation…BUT…
certain sins have lasting consequences…BUT the condemnation associated with those sins is forgotten.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1-2).

I put this verse right alongside John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9…this is one of the most important truths of the Christian faith as well as being one of the most comforting statements in all the Bible.

The foundational truth of Romans 8 is that there can never be the eternal death penalty for believers.

If you’re familiar with the name…Martyn Lloyd-Jones…this is what he has said about this verse: to get ahold of this idea is to discover the most glorious truth you will ever know in your life.

Paul starts off using the single word in the Greek (3762) we translate as ‘there is no’ which is a powerful negating conjunction…that word leaves no room for an exception…no such thing as well we’ll look at you on a case by case basis…NO …its meaning is emphatic, not one; no one, nothing…no condemnation.

Paul then uses a legal term…something he does regularly in Scripture…a word that is only used three times in the entire New Testament…the word ‘condemnation’ …used here it has a more severe meaning than what we think of in the English which is ‘the expression of very strong disapproval.’

In the Greek it’s stronger than that…it means a sentence handed down after due process…it is a legal term that includes both the sentence and the execution of the sentence.

In chapter 7 Paul built a case that we’re all guilty before God…there’s not one person…religious or not who escapes…nobody measures up to God’s standard …no one can stand before God boldly with their record exposed…we’re all in big trouble…as a result…comes the sentencing that accompanies that verdict.

BUT… Here’s what Paul says is the verdict…there is no verdict: (Romans 8:1).

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

We are completely free from any debt or penalty…it doesn’t even exist anymore …it’s gone forever…Here’s what that means:

If you are in Christ there is no reason why you should ever experience fear or apprehension about your relationship with God or your eternal destiny

The judgment and condemnation that accompanies sin no longer exists…It’s gone.

BUT…this is not for everyone…easy believesim has contaminated this verse… ONLY when we are in Christ Jesus does everything change…only when we are in Christ Jesus is there no condemnation.

To be in Christ means that we are in an actual relationship with Jesus because we’re united with him.

Paul says once we are united in Christ…in a relationship with him…then there is no longer any condemnation for us…it’s gone and it can never come back.

The problem for a lot of us is the mistaken idea that our standing with God is based on our performance.

To put it in theological terms…we base our justification (our standing before God) on our sanctification (our growth in holiness).

A misunderstand regarding these truths puts us in a precarious position…again Lloyd-Jones describes what it looks like if we don’t get this truth:

As Christians if we confess our sin and ask for forgiveness, it’s forgiven…at that moment we are not under condemnation…BUT…the mistaken idea is…if we should sin again, we’re back once more under condemnation.

So we go through life repenting and confessing…and being forgiven… constantly passing from one state to the other; back and forth; condemned, not condemned…according to Paul that is a mistaken notion, and a complete failure to understand forgiveness.

The Christian is a person who can never be condemned…can never come into a state of condemnation again…‘No condemnation!’ the apostle is referring to his position…his standing…his status…being justified…he can never again come under condemnation. That is the meaning of this word ‘no’. It means ‘Never’.

Here’s when this happens…it’s in the present tense…. It’s Not when we get older…Not when we get more mature….Not when we overcome our sinful habits…Not when we learn more of the Bible…Not when people start treating us nicely and with respect…Not when we get the praise we think we deserve …Not when our enemies stop persecuting us…Not when the wrongs against us have been put right…Not when we get our act together…IT’S NOW. (Sam Storms)

But that’s not all…need to understand Paul’s reasoning behind this declaration …this is where Resurrection Sunday comes in…Bible comments on the reason for Jesus’ resurrection:
And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. [1 Cor. 15:17]

Without Christ’s resurrection we would all still be condemned…Bible says so… you are still guilty of your sins.

Jesus’ resurrection is not a fairy tale but an historical fact that was witnessed by many hundreds of people…if Jesus had not been raised from the dead then everything about the gospel and our faith in Jesus would be false.

It means that Christ has not been raised…and all those who claim a bodily resurrection from the dead are wrong…and if the gospel is not true then a believer’s faith is foolishness.

Furthermore, it means that preachers have misled their hearers and are nothing more than liars…if Christ has not been raised from the dead, He certainly has not conquered sin…in fact sin has conquered Him.

Those who died believing in Christ are to be pitied for putting up with hardships and the hope of living a Christian life with the promise of a better life to come… because without Jesus’ resurrection there is no future life.

BUT…Jesus’ resurrection guarantees the resurrection of all believers…they will not merely be brought back to life, but they will enter into a new kind of life…one where death will no longer have any part…this victorious resurrection of believers will take place at Christ’s second return.

Here’s the warning that goes along with the promise of no condemnation…this blessing of no condemnation is not for everyone

It is only for those who are “in Christ Jesus.” …there are only two categories of people…those who are in Adam; and those who are in Christ…either you are saved or you are lost.

Those who are in Adam (unsaved) are under God’s condemnation and face His judgment for their sins…those in Christ have been declared righteous…His death paid the penalty for all of their sins.

It’s no trivial question to ask, “Are you in Christ Jesus?” …have you accepted Jesus as your Savior…as your only refuge from God’s judgment?

When God destroyed the world through the flood, the only thing that mattered was, were you in the ark? …you were either in the ark or you were back stroking…you may have thought that you were a decent person, but if you weren’t in the ark, you perished.

Countless people believed they would be in the ark…or believed that God wasn’t going to judge the earth because He’s too loving…just because they didn’t believe it didn’t change the fact that it happened…and only the ones who got on board the ark were saved…the rest were left to tread water.

So…on this Resurrection Sunday let me ask…have you “gotten on board” with Jesus …if you’re in Him, you’re safe from the judgment to come…if you’re trusting in your own ability, you’re under condemnation!

Why is the resurrection of Jesus important?

Stop cars on Blackbob and ask… ‘what today is’…it’s Easter…it’s Sunday… but are you aware that it’s Resurrection Sunday?

Saw an article regarding this thing called Easter…that sounds a little disrespectful…Easter is not a Christian holiday…the origin of Easter is a pre-Christian celebration of a goddess in England named Eostre that was celebrated at the beginning of Spring.

The importance of Jesus’ Resurrection is the very foundation of our faith…to a Christian it is one of the most significant days in history… the day that Jesus rose from the dead, having conquered death, hell and the grave.

Without His death there could be no resurrection from the dead, which is why Good Friday is so important…numerous times in Scripture (Matt. 16:21 / Matt. 17:22-23 / Matt. 20:17-19) Jesus talked about his death and His resurrection… if you read those accounts each time Jesus referred to His death He also…in the same breath…referred to His resurrection.
Jesus’s mission was not to be a martyr…but our Messiah…the One who would lead us back into our relationship with God as our living Savior…here’s the importance of Jesus’ resurrection:

1. It’s Central to Our Christian Faith
   The resurrection of Jesus is a crucial historical fact because it confirms that Jesus was indeed no ordinary man…the disciples of Jesus were for the most part unlearned men and for them they knew dead people stay dead.

Christ’s resurrection stands as a giant exclamation point which separates Jesus and Christianity from all other mortals…it proved that there is life after death…a fact that has never occurred in all recorded history.

2. The Resurrection is the Fulfillment of God’s Word
   The resurrection of Jesus is according to Scriptures and confirms the truths of what was prophesied regarding Jesus’ death and resurrection in the Old Testament.

…Psalm 2 describes fulfillment of God’s promised resurrection of His Son

…Psalm 22 is the graphic portrayal of Christ’s sufferings by crucifixion
…Psalm 16 speaks to Christ’s resurrection…the first eight verses are understood as Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane before His arrest and crucifixion.

…Isaiah 53 Nowhere in all the Old Testament is it so plainly and fully prophesied regarding Jesus’ sufferings and the advantages to mankind from His death on the Cross.

3. The Resurrection of Jesus proves He is the Messiah
   When people asked Jesus for a sign that He was the Messiah the only indication He would give was the prophet Jonah…for as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish, He would spend three days in the ground.

After spending three days in the grave Jesus rose from the dead…proving that His claims were valid.

4. The Resurrection of Jesus was a Physical Resurrection.
   The historical fact of Christ’s resurrection is confirmed by “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3), including His appearances to 500 people after He rose from the dead.

His appearance to the women and the apostles was the proof He had a physical body…He wasn’t some ghost…the resurrection of Jesus proves that we will also have physical bodies when we go to heaven.

But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him
for we shall see him as he is [1 John 3:2].

5. The Resurrection gives Us Hope for When We Die.
   Scripture declares that God has set eternity in our hearts. [Ecc. 3:11] This God-given awareness gives us the assurance that there is something more than what we experience in this world.

God created us to yearn for an afterlife…people have different ideas about where their loved ones go when they die…Jesus’ resurrection is the proof that you will see them again at the resurrection.

6. The Resurrection of Jesus Sets Us Free from Our Sins.
   Paul writes that if there’s no resurrection from the dead, we are still dead to our sins [1 Cor. 15:17]

The resurrection of Jesus confirms that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice for sin…that includes both Jesus’ death on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead that gives us access to a right relationship with Him.

7. Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension Invites the Promised Holy Spirit.
   If Jesus had not risen from the dead the Holy Spirit would never have come to earth…the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us now.

Since Pentecost the Holy Spirit has indwelt all believers…empowering them for sanctification…He does this in the life of a believer when He

…fills them [Acts 10:45]
…seals them [Eph. 4:30]
…communes with them [1 Cor. 10:16]
…fellowships with them [1 Cor. 1:9]
…intercedes for them [Heb 7:25]
…comforts them [2 Cor. 1:4]
…admonishes them [1 Thess. 5:12]
…sanctifies them [1 Cor. 6:11]
…enables them to resist sin [1 Cor. 10:13]

The giving of the Holy Spirit resulted in the amazing changes in the lives of the disciples after His resurrection that can only be contributed to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

8. The resurrection of Jesus means believers are justified before God.

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was
raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:25)

Justification means just as if I never sinned…to “be put right with.” Because of sin, humanity is cut off from a right relationship with God (Romans 6:28)

Without someone stepping in to correct this situation, we cannot have the relationship with God that He intended…in the death of Jesus, God put our punishment on Christ so that we could be justified before Him (2 Cor.5:21).

On the Cross God put our punishment on Christ so that we could be justified before Him (2 Cor. 5:21) …it is because of His resurrection that we are able to approach the throne of grace with the assurance that God hears our requests.

We are coming to a close of what is known as Holy Week…it started last Sunday with Palm Sunday…the day Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem …yesterday was Maundy Thursday…when Jesus instituted The Lord’s Supper…today is Good Friday.

SO…what’s so good about Good Friday…guess it all depends on who you’re talking to…it’s a day of extremes…good for us…not so good for Jesus.

A day of overwhelming sadness and a day of hope and joy….a day of evil… and a day of far greater love…a day of death and a day of life.

Good Friday is the day Jesus traded places with you and me…it’s a good day because it was the day Jesus conquered sin and death so that we will never be apart from God again because of what Jesus did when He died on the cross.

In two days comes Resurrection Sunday…the day death was defeated and Jesus rose to life.

Good Friday was an awful day for Jesus. He was tried, declared innocent, but condemned anyway…was almost whipped to death and then led to his crucifixion.

At Gethsemane we see the human side of Jesus…Mark’s Gospel (14:32-36) records…’They went to a place called Gethsemane where Scripture says His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death…Mark records that Jesus fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him.

Jesus repeats this prayer two more times…in Luke’s account we read of an ‘agony’ so great that ‘His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground’, and that an angel (had to come) to strengthen him (Luke 22:39-46).

Everything in his human flesh wanted to flee the impending physical torture of crucifixion…He explicitly asked God… for whom anything is possible…to ‘take this cup from me’…the cup for Jesus was the cross, and He doesn’t want it.

One reason His Spirit groaned…even more than His impending physical death…was the spiritual torture of being forsaken by His Father …for the first time in the history of eternity He is being separated from the Father.

Agony is an appropriate description of that moment…this is not a scene of serenity…of Christ peacefully coming to terms with his death…at this point He’s not even willing to accept that it’s part of God’s plan for salvation.

We believe that Christ was fully human and fully divine…in the garden we see His human side …struggling with mortality and the reality of pain and suffering…the crucifixion will be of great cost to Him.

So, was the Son of God doubting the mission for which he was sent …the plan to save humanity? …was he seeking to avoid it if he could? …for the Gospel writers, these are scandalous words to put in the mouth of your Savior. Yet three of them did just that.
Giovanni Bellini’s painting Agony in the Garden is a stunning portrayal of the Gethsemane event…we see the three disciples fast asleep as Christ prays.

Off to His right there’s an open gate that offers an easy escape from Judas and the Roman guards who are approaching in the background. Will he stay, or will he go? Christ had a choice.

He is surrounded by numerous winding pathways…He has a choice of which path to take…will he stay, or will he go? Christ had a choice.

Jesus tells God His Father ‘everything is possible for you’, but in a sense, everything was possible for Jesus too. 1) He could have run away. 2) He could have summoned the angel in front of Him to wipe out all his opponents…He could have simply walked through them untouched.

We know what ultimately happened, but our understanding is amplified when we recognize it was a free choice…a choice which was not the imposition of His will, but the relinquishing of it to a divine purpose.

At Gethsemane there was a paradox human words can’t explain…it runs the danger of suggesting an anti-trinitarian heresy by breaking up the will of the Father and Son…that somehow, they were at odds with each other…as though they had conflicting goals.
Here we see a deeply emotional encounter, Jesus embracing his Father with an honesty that we might share with our own human father.

Humanity is thus offered a glimpse into the life of the godhead…a situation that could have gone desperately wrong…a conflict between divine love and divine will that centered around human fear and agony.

Gethsemane could have gone another way, and yet for our sake, it didn’t.
Jesus then offers up nine unfathomable words…Yet not what I will, but what you will.
Jesus prays a radical prayer that everyone who has ever followed Jesus is invited to make their own.

The decision of Jesus to voluntarily complete the purpose for which He came to earth…to die for us…and His subsequent bodily resurrection demonstrates that the ultimate power of this world, death, does not have the last word.

The last word belongs to God whose Spirit continues to persuade and convict every person who has ever lived…of their need for salvation.

God’s desire is that we would all join in praying to God…not what I will, but what you will…that “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10).

No one understands better than God how difficult it can be for us to embrace the will of God…BUT…we have satisfaction in knowing that when Jesus calls us to follow Him, He is not calling us to do something He is either unwilling to do or has never done Himself.

So Good Friday is Good because it was on this day that through His death on the cross, we might life eternal…when sin and death were defeated.

1. On the cross, Jesus suffered so that we would not have to suffer.
2. On the cross, we were reconciled to God.
3. On the cross we have the hope of a resurrection and a hope for the future.

In chapter 6 Paul contrasted the relationship of the Christians’ “new-life-in-Christ” with the “old life-in-Adam”…he explained that before salvation we were dead IN sin but after salvation, we are dead TO sin.

That’s really the difference between someone who’s saved and someone who’s not…the non-believer is dead IN sin…Bible says so…the wage of sin is death …a person is said to be dead in sin when they make sin their business…when sin reigns in their lives and has dominion over them…when it dictates and controls how they live…when they delight in it…the result is death IN sin.

BUT…as Christians we are dead TO sin…a person who is both justified and sanctified is dead to sin:
…sin can no longer exert its power over them
…it does not have dominion over them
…it’s no longer a pleasure to them
…it’s not their course of life
…those who are dead to sin cannot permanently live in it.

Sin brings three kinds of death:
SPIRITUAL…because of Adam’s sin nature we adopted at birth we are separated from God’s spiritual presence…Adam experienced this immediately after his disobedience and it has continued down through humanity ever since.

PHYSICAL death…the cessation of all vital functions of the body.

ETERNAL…referred to in Scripture as the second death…this death is eternal separation from God’s presence.

We do not become sinners because we sin…we sin because we are already sinners…we became sinners at birth.

Before we were saved, we were separated from Christ by sin…Paul does not speak of sins…plural…but sin…singular…Paul is not referring to any ‘specific acts of sin’. He doesn’t list all the possible sins that could be committed…but rather focuses on one sin in particular…the single sin we are all guilty of.

The single sin Paul is referring to specifically is …the ruling power that all humans are subjected to… the sin of the deliberate and determined independence from God…that is the single sin we are all guilty of.

That is the sin that works in the heart of all humanity preventing us from obeying God…which leads us to say…I am my own god…I do as I please.
That single sin is what separates us all from God…Scripture doesn’t say God punished the human race because of their sins…plural… but the sin nature that is inherent within every person who has ever lived.

QUESTION – Why does the natural man believe he is acceptable to God?

ANSWER – universal answer: everybody sins…we’re all sinners…in the pure sense of the word ‘sinner’ we are all guilty…we have made a practice of sinning and we have committed sins against God… so we very much do deserve the label of “sinner.”

BUT…there is only one place in the entire New Testament where someone who is living a faithful Christian life is called a sinner [1 Tim. 1:15] …Paul refers to himself as a sinner…understanding the context in which this verse is written… Paul is holding up his former life as an object lesson for the entire world to see…I was a bad person…I used to be a sinner…I killed people.

Other than that, I know of no other passage in the New Testament where a servant of the Lord is called a “sinner” …every place throughout Scripture Christians are referred to as saints…sadly, the term “saint” has been hijacked to mean a status achieved by a handful of super-Christians. Not true.

A sinner is someone who is living in sin…who is willfully and deliberated living a lifestyle that is opposed to Christian standards…Scripture doesn’t call faithful Christians “sinners”, it calls us “saints.”

So, in that sense NO… we’re not all sinners.

But it is that mindset that ‘well we’re all sinners’ that deceives someone into believing I’m not that bad…we’re all in this together…they see no need of salvation …no reason for trusting in Christ.

It is only after having been saved by grace through faith that we are forgiven of our SIN and the accompanying sins we commit because of that single sin problem…and are now saints.

This was detailed in the previous chapter where Paul explained baptism…an important event in the life of a Christian.

Paul goes into a lengthy discussion showing how baptism pictures the spiritual union that we have with Christ in His death and in His resurrection…I read that as part of Peyton’s baptism this morning.

As believers we died with Christ and were raised with Him…it’s a public declaration that we died to SELF and the old sin nature…whereby we become dead to sin but alive to God in Christ.

By faith we are born again into God’s family and our life is hidden with Christ in God…that describes Peyton’s life now…hidden with Christ in God.

In chapter 7 Paul is referring to perhaps the greatest problem that confronted the church at that particular time…and because we’re not caught up in the debate that was occurring in that church 2000 years ago these passages are difficult to understand and seem to have no relevance.

The issue was Jewish Christians’ determination to bind certain parts of the law onto Gentile converts…Paul more than any other apostle was responsible for separating Christianity from Judaism.

At the expense of turning this into a history or seminary class on Jewish Law I just want to share the purpose of verses 1-13 because they are relevant.

In chapter 7 Paul uses the analogy of marriage…something everyone can identify with…using the woman as the example…the law of marriage is that the woman is bound to her husband as long as her husband remains alive.

This illustration regarding marriage and divorce comes from the teaching in both the Old and New Testaments where God is represented as being a husband to His wife Israel…and in the New Testament the Church is identified as the bride of Christ.

Two things about this illustration:
FIRST… this illustration has nothing to do with marriage and divorce.

SECOND…the teaching in Romans 7 is centered on the idea that as Christians and as believers in Christ…we are freed from any obligation to the law as a wife is free from her obligation to her husband at death.

As Christians we are no longer under Moses’ law…we are free to be united to another…leaving the old ties…the law of Moses…we are married to Christ.
Paul sums this whole idea up in verse 6:

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we (now) serve in newness of the Spirit

Here’s where the confusion comes in…hard to believe confusion in the Bible… in this verse and verses 6 and 7 of chapter 6 they seem to indicate:
that our old self was crucified with Him (that) we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin

does anyone this morning feel they are freed from sin…yet this verse seems to suggest the possibility that we are free from sin and can no longer sin.

This is the position John MacArthur takes…that the believer no longer has two competing natures, the old and the new…but only the one new nature. (The MacArthur Study Bible NASB [Nelson Bibles], p. 1670),

I respect John MacArthur but I strongly disagree with that statement.

There are teachers who teach that this passage suggests that as Christians we are free from sin and sinning…nothing could be further from the truth!

That response tends to lead believers to think they aren’t Christians because of the sin nature that still resides in every believer.

I don’t care whether you call it the old nature…the flesh…or indwelling sin… that nature resides in every believer and will until you die.

Even as mighty a man as Paul was, he went through it…this is a description of what every believer will go through again and again and again because sin has the power to deceive us and to cause us to trust in ourselves, even when we are not aware it is doing it.

Chapter 7 reveals the struggle that takes place in the life of every believer who is trying to live the Christian life…BUT because we all have a strong propensity toward sin that wars against a Christians’ new nature…we find ourselves asking the same question Paul asked himself.

A question I suspect ever person has asked themselves countless times… essentially…why do I do what I don’t want to do?

Has anyone not asked this question? …it leaves you questioning your salvation …your position in Christ as a believer…your promise of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit…leaving you feeling less than a true Christian.

The problem theologians face regarding this statement by Paul is in trying to understand Paul’s status:

1) is he referring to himself before he was a believer
2) is he talking about himself as a believer but an immature believer.
3) is he referring to himself as a mature believer.

Most agree that Paul is describing his struggle with sin as a mature believer… something mature believers struggle with that is common to all Christians.

What Paul says in this passage is something we can all identify with (v 15).

For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate that I do

This really counters John MacArthur’s statement that the believer no longer has two competing natures, the old and the new…Paul’s own life demonstrates the struggle with our sinful flesh that never goes away while we are on this earth.

Paul is sharing his frustration concerning the inconsistency between his new nature as a Christian and the old nature that is still at work in him…he wants to do the right thing but at times fails to do it…we experience the same thing at times.

The problem is the inconsistency of Paul’s own words that…on the one hand… we die to sin and are resurrected to new life (6:1-14) …and…on the other hand there is a war raging in my body and mind making me a prisoner of sin [23].

The issue is that Christians stand with one foot in the kingdom of this world and the other foot in the kingdom of God…it is the tension between those two worlds that confuses us regarding our being freed from sin.

As Christians our spiritual growth is a continuous process…a gradual growth process that continues throughout our earthly life and will NOT be fully realized until our resurrection… therefore:

…we find ourselves not understanding our own actions (15)
…we fail to do what we want and do what we hate (15)
…we know what is right, but fail to do it (18)
…we do the evil that we do not want to do (19)
…there is a war going on within us (23)
…and sin sometimes takes us captive (23).

Paul is wanting to serve God in his heart and mind and knew what he ought to do…but…he was unable to in his own strength because like us… Paul was bound by his fallen fleshly sin nature.

Here’s the question…with all of this talk of a new life in Christ…why do I still struggle with the old self? …how can we be free from sin and yet continue to do wrong? …Paul sums up this whole dilemma by saying:

Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Maybe the same question you’re asking yourself this morning…Paul feels wretched because he isn’t able to live according to his new nature…he feels trapped in a death-destined body…so he asks…“Who will deliver me….?”

In the next verse Paul give the answer to his own dilemma…

Thanks, be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! [25]

In Christ,
…we are free from the penalty of sin (judgment)
…we are free from the power of sin (hopelessness)
…BUT…while free we are still in the flesh and therefore
…not free from the presence of sin (temptations)
…not free from the possibility of sinning (failures).

Because I still struggle with the presence and possibility of sin…that is the reason why we must daily focus on Christ.

The chapter rightly ends with Paul answering his own question: thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord (v. 25).

The Lord has already freed us…it’s a done deal…A list of more do’s and don’ts won’t fix your struggle….God working through Jesus will rescue us from this body of sin and death.

I can remember the time when at the end of the service…people would be encouraged to come to the altar and pray…pray for family members…for issues in their personal lives…something that has virtually ceased in most churches… well at least in most Southern Baptist churches…because it gives the appearance that if I come down to the altar and pray people will think I have a problem.

That really is a Pastor’s hope for his church…that people realize they do have a problem and that’s why they’re here…if you aren’t aware of that…you’ve missed the whole point of Christianity!

The problem is…we want people to think we’re here at church because we are good people…that’s what good people do…they go to church …or because we don’t have issues in our life…again…the Christian life is a life free of problems …Christians don’t have problems.

We’re not here in church because we are all so good…because we’re not…or …that God has so blessed us that we have no problems…because we do…that goes along with being human…something we looked at last week that intensifies that is the inherent problem within us…a sin problem.

Paul dealt with the time between Adam and Moses…a time when there was no law…a time when sin was not identified as sin…the problem was people still died without knowing the reason why they died. Why did grandpa die…I can’t give you the medical answer but the Biblical answer is because of sin.

The purpose of God giving Moses the Ten Commandments was so that we might see how far we missed the divine mark…that’s what the Greek word sin means…it’s a Greek term in archery meaning to miss the bullseye.

God gave Moses the Law so that humanity could understand that there was a God-given standard of righteousness…and there was a penalty when that mark was missed…it’s called death…‘the wage of sin is death’.

It’s amazing the lengths people go to discredit the Bible and what it teaches …death for example…‘the wage of sin is death’ sounds pretty defining to me…BUT…people not wanting to accept the reality of a judgment at the end of their life come up with their own alternatives.

Bart Ehrman…onetime pastor and creditable theologian has now become an atheist who disputes the promise of eternal life and attempts to explain it away by suggesting that…the Hebrew Bible assumes that the dead are simply dead.
That when you die your body lies in the grave and there is no consciousness ever again…when we stop breathing, the ‘soul’ doesn’t continue on outside the body…because it doesn’t exist any longer…that’s how I get out of the reality that there is life after death…I just ignore the fact that it exists.

He goes on to say that the ancient Jews thought this was true of us all…No they didn’t…two examples…Mary at the grave of Lazarus told Jesus that ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day’ [John 11:24] … doesn’t sound like someone who thinks that the dead are simply dead.

Jesus gives the parable of the rich man and Lazarus to emphasize that there is life after death…the entire Bible is one of reconciliation…God wanting to reestablish the broken relations with man for eternity.

Revelation speaks of a new heaven and new earth where we will live for eternity …what foolishness to make a statement that is not supported by the Bible.

At the conclusion of chapter 5 Paul makes a comment about the law of Moses:

The law was brought in so that transgression might increase [20].

That was the purpose of the law? …you think that would have the opposite effect…knowing something is wrong would make you want to stop doing that… but here it’s suggesting…the law actually increases sin…how confusing is that?

If you know somethings wrong, you think you would stop doing it…but this verse is suggesting the more I know something’s wrong the more I want to do it.

BUT that’s not the meaning…the more people became aware of what sin was…the more their knowledge of what constitutes sin increased.

God’s Law expanded men’s awareness of their sins…it unmasked people’s transgressions…it doesn’t mean people purposely increased their sins…it means sin increased as people became more aware of what was considered to be sin…it increased their recognition of their deplorable sinful situation…and their need for reconciliation with their Creator.

The more men sinned…the more God’s grace increased…five times in five verses Paul mentions grace…Jesus chose to be the source of God’s free gift of grace…a choice that brings justification to everyone who receives it by faith.

Had a friend tell me he heard on TV that if you follow the Ten Commandments you could go to heaven…no grace needed there…I can do this on my own…this is not something new…the idea of people working their way to heaven… Jesus experienced this…the very issue Jesus had with the rich young ruler who asks:
what shall I do so that I may inherit eternal life?
(Jesus answers using the only way known at that time…the Ten Commandments) You know the commandments: ‘DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT GIVE FALSE TESTIMONY, Do NOT DEFRAUD, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER [Mark 10:17-20]

COUPLE THINGS…If you think the 10 Commandments are no longer in effect…that they’re out of date…they’re NOT…how do I know if something from the Old Testament is still applicable today… it’s repeated in the New Testament…and especially if God repeats it…good bet it’s still in force.

20 And he (the young man) said to Him, (Jesus) “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth.”

Really? …here’s the problem with keeping the Ten Commandments…if it was possible to not break any of the Commandants…to live your entire life and not do anything that violated those Ten…then kudos…that might possibly be the reason for the man’s answer I have kept all these things from my youth.

Problem is…in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus raised the bar…and in doing so Jesus exposed all the ways we have never and can never measure up to the law.

The Ten Commandments is not about following a set of rules…it has to do with the desires of your heart…by raising the bar Jesus wants us to recognize that as humans we can never elevate ourselves to a level that is acceptable with God.

Sinful behavior is only the outward sign of a much deeper problem…a problem that resides in a sinful heart, mind and will.

The standard is not doing the best we can do…the standard God has set for us is…be holy for I am holy [1 Peter 1:15] …that’s the standard.

Jesus didn’t come to do away with the Law…He came to raise the bar…Jesus didn’t raise the bar so you can jump higher, but so that you can see your need for Him and recognize the magnitude of the grace and love He bestows on us.

Having revealed the purpose and benefit of God’s abounding grace…Paul in 6:1 asks a question that he thinks may be on the minds of some of those listening:

Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

A rhetorical question posed by the imaginary dialogue partner from chapter 3.

If God in His grace has been so generous to forgive us of our sins…lets help God to be even more generous.

Another example of people twisting the Bible to satisfy their own sinful nature and behavior.

In the early part of the 20th century a Russian monk named Rasputin taught… lived…and believed the idea that those who sin the most require God’s grace the most by giving God more opportunity to forgive them…so why not just continue in sin that the grace of God may increase.

Those who are not in Christ live under the rule of sin…they have no option to do otherwise…they cannot avoid sinning…BUT for the Christian it is absurd to think that sinning is doing God a favor and for the Christian who thinks that and desires to continue in sin, Paul’s question is directed at them [1].

Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

Is followed up by a similar question in [15]:

Shall we sin because we are not under (the) law but under grace?

Paul’s answer is the same in both verses…in fact this is the third time Paul has used the same reply… ‘May it never be’.

The word ‘never’ used in all three of Paul’s responses is μή…this two-letter word rules out any possibilities…indirectly…or hypothetically …that there might be a hint of a chance that question could be true…the answer is an emphatic NO…it denies the idea that sinning allows God more opportunity to forgive us.

That’s one of the issues with ‘easy-believeism’ …if God’s salvation is given on the basis of faith…all I have to say is “I believe”…and God in His infinite grace forgives me…I can then live life any way I please because God forgives me.

From a purely secular viewpoint, grace is dangerous…because of that very reason…if you tell people that God saves and accepts them apart from how they live…they have no motive to be obedient.

That’s the reason many people don’t emphasize grace…that’s why many Churches don’t emphasize grace.

In their opinion…if they believe their position in Jesus is settled because of what Jesus did on the Cross…then the motivation for holy living is gone.

In verse 2 Paul asks the question that I believe goes along with the faulty notion that I can live however I want…which is in agreement with the proposed notion of the Lordship Salvation debate:

How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (2)

That question destroys the idea that because I’m saved, I can live however I want …I’m going to count on God’s grace of forgiveness and live however I want.

Something I have great difficulty with is why someone who claims to be a Christian continues to let sin dominate their lives…I’m not referring to the occasional sins we commit…there are two types of sins:

Sins of commission…things that you SHOULD NOT do but you do anyway.
acts of outright disobedience.

Sins of omission…things that you SHOULD do but you don’t do…things God expects us to do, but we don’t do them.

To claim to be a Christian and then to continue in a flagrant lifestyle that is in opposition to God’s commandments is the intent of: How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

There is death in sin, and death to sin…a person is said to live in sin when they make sin their business…when sin reigns in their lives and has dominion over them…when it dictates and controls how they live…when sin is their life, they delight in it…the result is death in sin.

BUT…as Christians we are dead to sin…a person who is both justified and sanctified is dead to sin:
…sin cannot exert its power over them
…it does not reign in or have dominion over them
…it’s no longer a pleasure to them
…it’s not their course of life
…its power is weakened
…those who are dead to sin cannot permanently live in it.

As Christians because of our sin nature…we do commit sins of commission and sins of omission…we’re not free from sinning…at times sin may have an influence in our lives…at times we may commit occasional sins…yet we cannot consistently live in sin…it does not have a dominating effect on our lives.

Which is suggested by the question…How shall we who died to sin still live in it? …it’s impractical…when someone lives a lifestyle that is in direct disobedience to God’s purpose which is…be holy for I am holy…that should cause us to question that person’s commitment to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Salvation is more than the mere acceptance of Jesus for salvation…it implies a lifestyle that is characterized by faith and righteous living.

When you made the decision to become a Christian, you gave up the right to yourself…you now belong to God.

That idea is illustrated in Paul’s explanation of the nature of baptism beginning in verse 3.

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death—symbolized by our being immersed under water—in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead —symbolized by being raised out of the water—we too may live a new life
5 For if we have been united with him in a death…we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his (how can you say there is no resurrection from the dead) 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him—the symbolism of being baptized—so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
11 consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus:

Read about a pastor who held off from preaching through Romans for 33 years …and after 45 years in the ministry he still struggles with what Paul is saying in chapters 6 and 7.

Could be I’m just simple minded but looking at what Paul is saying in [3-11] can be put another way… ‘don’t live in sin as you used to live because you aren’t the same person that you used to be.’

Paul is revealing that our union with Jesus is completely opposed to a life of continuing sin…the verb tense of the phrase ‘continue in sin’…is in a present active tense form making it clear that Paul is not describing the occasional sin we sometimes commit…but the practice of habitual sin.

Our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection frees us from the slavery to sin and allows us to walk in newness of life.

Here’s the problem…as humans…we can’t feel being crucified with Christ…we can’t feel being identified with Him in His death and resurrection…we can’t feel being freed from the slavery of sin…it’s something you believe.

Paul knows that we’re prone to forget our new position in Christ…which is the foundation for holy living…and so he hammers it home in these verses.

do you not know [3]: The implication is that Paul is dealing with fundamental concepts that every Christian should know. OK…let me share them with you.

As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. [3]: The Greek word for baptized is “to immerse” …when a person is baptized, they are immersed in water…no sprinkling…no pouring.

Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death [4]:
Water baptism is “acting out” the believer’s identification with Jesus in His death…burial…and resurrection…the immersion into water is an image of Christ’s death …and of the Christian’s death to sin…the coming out of the water signified the Resurrection of Jesus and the Christian’s birth to the new spiritual life in Christ.

for if we have been united with Him in a death like His we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His [5]: We are raised to a new spiritual life as He was raised to a new physical life.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? [2] …This explains why salvation by grace through faith is not an excuse to continue in sin.

“From this and other references to baptism it is plain that Paul did not regard baptism as an ‘optional extra’ in the Christian life.” (Bruce) It is one of the two ordinances Jesus commanded of the Church before His ascension.

count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus: [11]
What does that mean? I am dead to sin and freed from the slavery of sin.

Paul’s flow of thought is that we must change the way we think about ourselves …I might not feel that I’m being a part of Christ in His death…but I have the assurance that I am…we must no longer think of ourselves as being self-reliant …self-serving and independent.

Baptism pictures the spiritual union that we have with Christ in His death and in His resurrection…that we have become united with Him…we must think of ourselves as alive to God in Christ.

The first eleven verses of Romans chapter 5 transition us from the theme of justification to the nature of the new life that believers enter into as a result of that justification…and the gifts that accompany that justification.

God dealt with our human cluelessness by doing the gracious thing of sacrificing Himself to rescue those who were so lost they didn’t even realize they were lost.

Somehow in the midst of our ignorant lives God came and rescued us not by scaring us…frightening us…but by demonstrating His love for us by offering up His Son as the only sacrifice that could satisfy God’s anger because of sin.

Paul has made it clear in Romans 1:18 to 3:20 that the whole world is guilty before God…that no one can be saved by living a ‘righteous’ lifestyle.

It’s impossible to earn a righteous standing before God through personal obedience…Old Testament prophet Isaiah declared it in [Isaiah 64:6]…a verse we’ve probable all heard before… ‘your righteousness is like filthy rags’ …that’s exactly the way God sees any efforts on our part to earn salvation.

The problem is we don’t have a good understanding of how repugnant that verse really is…at times translators soften what was really written in Scripture…Isaiah, wanting to show how foolish it is to assume you could work your way to God by doing good things, expressed it in more graphic wording…not translated accurately in any translation…the wording ‘filthy’ is a toned down meaning of the actual Hebrew word.

We generally think about filthy rags as those used in the garage when working on the car…or the rags used for cleaning around the house…BUT…because the word ‘filthy’ is so revolting it’s used only one time in the entire Old Testament.

In wanting to show the futility and foolishness in trying to work to please God by our own efforts…wanting to emphasize the repulsiveness of any attempts to be righteous on your own before a holy God, Isaiah uses the word ‘filthy.’

The actual meaning of ‘filthy’ is referring to the rags a woman used during her menstrual cycle…probably a little more graphic than what we want to hear this morning but that’s how God sees any attempt by us to be righteous on our own.

God’s plan for salvation has always been by God’s grace through faith…in Chapter 4, Paul introduces us to Justification, the righteousness of God apart from the Law…beginning in Chapter 5 he reveals nine benefits as the result of being justified…nine benefits we have looked at in depth.
—We have been declared righteous by faith – Romans 5:1
—We have peace with God – Romans 5:1
—We have obtained access by faith into His grace – Romans 5:2
—We rejoice not only in hope but in affliction – Romans 5:2-3
—We have God’s love poured out in our hearts – Romans 5:5
—While we were still sinners Christ died for us – Romans 5:8
—We have been declared righteous by His blood – Romans 5:9
—We have been saved from God’s wrath – Romans 5:9
—We have been reconciled – Romans 5:10-11

The follow on to those 9 blessings is in [Romans 5:12-21] …something about these verses…Paul’s thoughts are complex and difficult to follow… reviewing the text reveals that Paul is taking us deep into the very structure of humanity …into salvation and God’s deity.

As you read verses [12-21] Paul is speaking on the topic of humanity’s relationship with Adam and its relationship with Christ…a topic that can be very complex and difficult to understand.

The difficulty with the text is not with the main idea…which is fairly clear…if you’ve been in church any length of time the idea is relatively simple…BUT… because of the many details…just about every word or phrase generates pages of discussion and debate among scholars.

Paul begins this section with a common expression in Greek (Διὰ τοῦτο) meaning ‘so then’ or ‘on account of this’ …can be translated ‘therefore’ indicating that what follows [12-21] is a conclusion based on preceding material…something we’ve previously looked at.

As an inspired apostle I don’t think Paul is confused or befuddled…instead he is dealing with the saving work of Jesus at a level at the time it was written pushed the limits of the human mind.

12Therefore, through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned
13 sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who had not sinned by breaking a command as Adam did who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of one many died, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many.
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One many will be made righteous.

Don’t be discouraged if you find the flow in these verses difficult to follow… they are difficult…but this should encourage us to linger over these verses and meditate on them to understand the full meaning of what Paul is wanting to share with us.

That’s the importance of the first eleven verses in chapter 5…that because of justification and reconciliation the Christian can be certain of TWO THINGS… 1) being delivered from the wrath of God…2) stressing eternal security for the believer.

Being reconciled to God is the highlight of that entire 11 verse discourse…the message of the gospel is the message of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is the restoration of the favor of God to sinners who repent and put their trust in Christ.

The only way that reconciliation can take place – is if the barrier, the offense, which in our case is sin…is removed…but it must come from the offended.

The connection between 5:1-11 and 5:12-21 can be summarized as such…since Christians have been completely delivered from God’s wrath…as outlined in verses 1-11…then Christ must have completely overturned the effects of Adam’s sin as revealed in verses 12-21.

In [v12] Paul begins a comparison between the effects of Adam’s sin and the effects of Jesus’ obedience…as Christians it is imperative that we have an understanding of that comparison.

Here’s where the whole thing of sin and its consequences is explained…where did sin come from…why is it here…why did God allow it…whose fault is it.

Adam represents the entire human race that descended from him…when Adam sinned, all mankind sinned….and the sin of Adam was passed on… or as some translate it…imputed…to all of his descendants.

[1 Cor. 15:22] –“In Adam all die”…“
[Romans 5:12] “death spread to all men, because all sinned” no exception.

These verses actually validate the accuracy of the Genesis story of creation… leaving no room for the idea of gradual evolution from one (non-human) species into another (human) species…that man evolved from an ape….that there was a time when Adam, along with his wife Eve, were the only human beings in a perfect world accountable to God in which neither sin nor death were present.

Paul’s teaching in this chapter and for his whole argument depends on the premise that the entire human race was the descendant of the one man, Adam.

There was no sin in the world when God created it. There was no death in the world…when Adam chose to disobey God it brought death to himself and every one of his descendants…each one of us is trapped under the power of sin and the consequent death that entered the world through Adam’s original sin.

Sin brings three kinds of death:
First kind of death is SPIRITUAL…separation from God’s spiritual presence …Adam experienced this immediately after his disobedience.

Second kind of death is PHYSICAL death… the cessation of all vital functions of the body.

Third kind of death is ETERNAL…referred to in Scripture as the second death…this death is eternal separation from God’s presence.

Notice…Paul does not speak of sins…plural…but sin…singular…Paul is not referring to any ‘specific acts of sin’ he doesn’t go down a laundry list of all the possible sins that could be committed…he doesn’t list the Ten Commandments…but rather focus on the principle of sin.

That single sin is what separates us all from God…but if you look at this verse it doesn’t say that God punished the human race because of their sins…plural… but the sin nature that is inherent within every person who has ever lived.

Specifically, the ruling power that all humans are subjected to is the single sin of the deliberate and determined independence from God.

Which leads us to say… “my claim to my right to myself”…self-sufficiency…“I am my own god”.

This whole sin thing can be confusing…Paul is not saying that sin originated with Adam…sin was in the world prior to man’s fall…even before they ate the fruit…sin existed in the form of Satan. God is not the author of sin.

Gen. 1:27 states that “God created man in his own image,” that image implies personal holiness and righteousness which means Adam and Eve who were made in God’s image were absolutely sinless.

When Adam succumbed to temptation in the garden, he willed to sin in his heart…that is the KEY…every person since Adam does exactly the same thing…they ‘will’ to sin in their heart.

The hearts of all people are full of evil, and there is madness in their hearts during their lives—then they die. [Ecclesiastes 9:3].

Sin did not originate in human nature as God originally made man…it resulted when Adam was tempted…gave into temptation…and sinned.

Once Adam had sinned, the entire human race fell with him, losing the original righteousness in God’s image [Gen 6:4] whereby we share in Adam’s sin [Rom. 5:12,18] so henceforth each individual human originates as a sinner [Ps. 51:5].

People do not become sinners by sinning…but as members of the human race. We do not become a sinner when we sin. We sin because we are already a sinner.

In verse 15 Paul answers a question that people were asking…how could there be sin if people don’t know what sin was…the same question Paul asks back in 4:15 where he states…where there is no law there is no violation.

If there’s nothing that says stealing is wrong, how can I be charged with stealing …how can you break a law if there’s no law to break?

Before Moses there was no law…the law came along in order that we might see how far we missed the mark…that’s what the word sin means…a Greek term in archery meaning to miss the bullseye.

But if you can’t see the mark or know what it is…how can you know how far you have missed it? …how can you be held accountable for doing something wrong when you didn’t know you were doing something wrong?

The law came along that we might see how far we missed the divine mark…how far we’ve come from living a life that was acceptable and pleasing to God.

God gave people the Law so that sin could be identified as sin even though sin was already in the world before the law was given.

To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone where there is no law [5:13].

God is fair…God does not condemned people for sin until there is a law to tell them the difference between right and wrong.

God did not hold people accountable before the law in the same sense as He held those after the Mosaic law…before the Mosaic law men were sinners but they were not aware of its significance.

God did not charge them with the sins they committed because of something they did…but…they still died because of the sin of Adam…his transgression was passed on to them…the sin of one became the sin of all.

Here’s the importance of [14] Adam who is a type of Him who was to come …there is some sort of analogy or resemblance between the results of Adam’s act and the results of the work of Christ.

Put in a simplistic way…Adam messed things up and the Lord straightened things out.

Adam’s disobedience had its influence over all people…condemning us all…the work of Christ affected all people as well…delivering them from the fall and into the restored favor of God.

We are justified by God’s grace and forgiven of all our sin by faith because we believe that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…that He was buried… and that He was raised on the third day.

He washed away our sin with His own blood and imputed to us His own perfect righteousness.

15 …For if by the transgression of one many died, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many.

At times I don’t think we fully understand the importance of God’s grace as revealed in this verse.

The story is told that a group of Christians were discussing the question: what is the most unique thing about Christianity, what is so special about the Christian faith?

One man said, “It’s because God became man.” Others quickly reminded him that is not that unique because there are other religions that teach that God became man.

Another man stood up and said “Well, I think what is unique about Christianity is that there is resurrection from the dead” …once again others contended “No, that’s not true, because other religions also teach the resurrection from the dead.” And so, the debate went on.

Near the end of the debate CS Lewis stepped into the discussion and said: “The answer is easy, what is unique about Christianity is grace.”

Grace is a word that is used in so many ways, but we don’t quite understand it.

As you sing the song “Amazing Grace” you may be wondering…what’s so amazing about grace anyway…I sing those words, but what’s so amazing about grace?

Between verses 16 and 18 Paul continues to compare the impact of two pivotal choices made by two men at two points in the history of the world.

Adam, who introduced sin into a world that knew no sin…a choice that caused all born after him to be born into sin…Jesus chose to be the source of God’s free gift of grace that brought justification to everyone who receives it by faith.

In verse 19 Paul sums up the whole discourse regarding Adam and Jesus:

For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.

Who are “the many” mentioned here…does it include all people including infants…or just those who are at the age of accountability… Paul doesn’t mention anything about infants who die…so what is their fate?

An extremely controversial topic depending on what denomination you belong to because even in the Church there is no consistent agreement on what happens to infants who die.

Scripture says we will be judged by our works…if God judges the lost according to their works that means they must possess both memory and a conscience to understand why they are being punished.

Infants who die have neither memory nor conscience of evil works… therefore infants who die before attaining an age when they might believe go to be with the Lord. God has his own way of saving the innocent.

So—in these verses Paul pulls together all he has taught so far reaching back to [1:18]…speaking on the topic of humanity’s relationship with Adam and its relationship with Christ…how death entered the world and the reason why death reigns over all of us…it’s not because of our individual sins…even before people knew of a law…they still died…it’s the consequences of Adam’s sin imputed to us.

And…conversely…the reason eternal life reigns in us is not because of our individual deeds of righteousness…nor by our own obedience…nor by our own obedience and Christ’s together…but because of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us by grace through faith.

When we chose…by choice…to disobey God’s commands, that choice brings death…because we are all one of his descendants…but…the central declaration of the gospel is…Christ has come, He has died, He has risen again, and He has come into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit in order that we who believe in Him might be free. That is what the gospel is all about!

This morning we’re continuing to look at the 9 blessings associated with being declared righteous as revealed in verses 1 through 11 of Romans chapter 5 …blessings that are described by Charles Spurgeon as marvelous treasures which belong to the people of God.

If you’ve been with us over the past two weeks we have looked at 5 of these blessings and the potential they have to impact our lives…I sincerely hope you have a grasp of these 9 blessings and the benefit they offer to us as Christians every day.

Three weeks ago we started off in verse 1 ‘having been justified by faith’ … This verse is actually something Moses wrote about Abraham thousands of years ago and has gone full circle back to the basic doctrine taught throughout the Bible.

It’s been said that
…Moses gave 613 commands or laws
…David reduced them down to eleven (Psalm 15)
…Isaiah further reduced them to six [33:14]
…Micah bound them into just three [6:8]
…Jesus said there are two [Matt. 22:37-38] …but later reduced that down to just one commandment

that you love one another as I have loved you [John 15:12].

Some have suggested because of the importance that faith plays in our lives that Habakkuk condensed them all to just one…going back to square one…that is really what the initial justification for Abraham was in the first place…the righteous shall live by faith…people adding to that just complicated God’s plan.

It’s interesting that as time went by there was actually an effort to reduce the number of cumbersome laws that were impossible to keep…in that one phrase Habakkuk echoed a timeless truth that was first spoken about Abraham thousands of years ago and is still applicable to us today… “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Something the Christian faith promotes is the importance of knowing that no one can be made right with God by following a set of rules.

Faith is so important to God that the only way we can be declared righteous…is by faith.

The difference between being declared righteous versus being made righteous… is being declared righteous doesn’t mean I’m living righteously so therefore I am righteous…you can’t live a righteous life.

Being declared righteous is something that is pronounced over you, it’s not because of who you are…or what you’ve done.

This morning we’ll look at the remaining 4 blessings that are the result of being justified or declared as righteous.
—While we were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly – Romans 5:8
—We have been declared righteous by His blood – Romans 5:9
—We have been saved from God’s wrath – Romans 5:9
—We have been reconciled – Romans 5:10-11

Being reconciled to God is the highlight of this entire discourse…the message of the gospel is the message of reconciliation.

—While we were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly – Romans 5:8
Verse 6 tells us that Christ died for the ungodly…that was God’s plan for humanity…“…at the right time, when we were still powerless, [without strength] Christ died for the ungodly.”

Need some clarification…First…there are two words in the Greek that mean time…καιρός and χρόνος that obviously have two separate meanings…in the English there is only one word for time so we don’t see the impact of the phrase ‘At the right time’.

In the Greek the word used here for ‘time’ is καιρός…which is different than χρόνος time…[Gal. 4:4] explains χρόνος time…“when the fullness of time had come”…so…we have two kinds of time…at the right time…and at the fullness of time.

Καιρός time used in verse 6 is divinely appointed time…. Jesus came into the world at καιρός time – at precisely the right time.

Χρόνος time is sequential time…calendar time meaning in the history of world events God had a precise time in sending Jesus into the world…when the fulness of time had come…at the moment in history when God would accomplish the most good for His plan.

When Rome had unified much of the world allowing for safe travel…and the Greek language was the common language spoken throughout the empire making it an opportune time for spreading the gospel…it was at that time God sent Jesus into the world.

BUT He also came in God’s divinely appointed time… καιρός time…He did not come at some random time…He came precisely at the moment God designed from eternity…Christ came at a climactic moment in history ending the period of the Mosaic law and inaugurating the new age of grace.

God is never late…He always acts in His time…at the right time…the best time…the needed time…His appointed time…in due time “at the right time”.

Here we see something of the character of God…we see God working not only in our salvation…but in our everyday prayers…God’s timing is always perfect …at just the right time…He will respond.

As Christians….it is a lack of faith and obedience on our part to not trust in God’s judgment and timing…we question whether God really always has our best interest in mind…and here’s why we do that.

A common sin of God’s people is slackness in prayer…if there’s one sin that should be a concern to us maybe more now than at any other time…it’s our lack of prayer time…that omission is the reason for our spiritual leanness…the reason for many of our trials…our lack of joy…and a loss of confidence in God.

I am persuaded the longer I observe my own self, and certainly the longer I observe others, is that when we grow weak in our prayer life it is a sign of weakness throughout the entire person.

How can we expect to know much about God’s love if we don’t allow time for meditation…in searching the Scriptures…engaging in prayer…when there is no time in your life for communion with God then we miss out on what God would like to say to us.

The modern view of Christianity is that Jesus died for our sins out of sympathy …OR…we’re acceptable to God because of what we’ve done…OR …because we have promised to give up certain things…OR…because I’m sorry for my sins…OR…because I have repented of my sins…the list goes on.

It is not repentance that saves me…repentance is when I realize what God has done through Jesus and I stop continuing in a lifestyle that I know God does not approve of…I repent…I stop doing that…that is not salvation…that’s the danger of putting emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause.

Because man by nature is utterly devoid of the strength to do anything that is good…at least, anything which is good and acceptable to God…there must be an intermediary between us and God.

Man finds himself in a sad condition…he is weak…helpless…lost…and hopeless apart from God…worse…he finds himself in a condition that he is unable to help himself out of…with no visible means to save himself from that deplorable condition. That’s what ‘when we were still powerless’ means.

When I turn to God and by belief accept what God has done through the atonement of the Cross…instantly…I’m placed into a right relationship with God solely because of the death of Jesus…and for no other reason.

Paul says that Christ died for the ungodly…“ungodly” …what is that? …that speaks to our activity in opposition to the ways of God…ungodly is the designation given to sinners who refuse to worship the God who created them while living contrary to His holy character and commands.

“Christ died for the ungodly.” as one writer has said…those are five of the most heart-humbling…awe-inspiring…joy-producing words you’ll ever hear.

—We have been declared righteous by His blood – Romans 5:9

The full verse reads:
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.’

Much more indicates what follows…that what follows is even more overwhelming and significant than what was previously stated…the preceding paragraphs dealt with the depth of God’s love as seen in the cross…BUT…in the following section Paul reveals the vastness of God’s love. TWO THINGS.

FIRST…verse 9 of Chapter 5 provides the strongest argument for the assurance of salvation in the Bible…it is something I stress continually in my sermons because of the insecurity people have regarding their salvation.

Here again we have the promise of eternal security…Paul uses a writing technique scholars call “arguing from the greater to the lesser.”…much more is referring to the greater…justification by Christ’s blood is the greater…the lesser is because of that justification we are spared from God’s wrath.

Another way to look at this phrase is…if Christ was willing to die in order to bring men into a right relation with God (the greater), how much easier will it be for Him to save us from God’s wrath (the lesser).

Once again Paul is using the statement ‘declared righteous’ …in [v1] Paul stated we have been justified by faith…declared righteous…here in [v 8] he states that we have been justified by His blood…is there a difference?

Actually, Scripture says there are four ways that we are justified:

Justified by God’s grace. “Having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).

Justified by Jesus’ blood. “…having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 5:9).

Justified by faith. “Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified [declared righteous] by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28).

As forgiving as God is…even in His grace He could not justify us as righteous or forgive our sins because God requires that sin be paid for by something dying.

That’s how important the blood of Jesus is to our salvation.
 There is no forgiveness without it. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Heb 9:22+)
 It satisfies the claims of God. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Exodus 12:13
 It redeems the believer. “you were not redeemed with perishable things”…but with the precious blood of Christ” (1Pet 1:18,19+)
 It cleanses from all sin. “The blood of Jesus Christ… cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7+
 It justifies the believer. “Being now justified by His blood” (Rom 5:9+)
That could only happen when God gave His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sin…TWO THINGS

FIRST…Propitiation…God taking His hatred of sin and putting it on Jesus… Jesus suffered and died on the Cross in our place…He received the penalty of God’s judgment because of our sin.

SECOND…The word begotten…the Greek word for “only begotten” is (μονογενῆ monogenes) and means a couple things:

Jesus was “uniquely born” …He had a “one-of-a-kind birth” …Jesus is the only person to be born of a mortal mother and an immortal father…nothing like it had ever happened before and will never happen again… a “one-of-a-kind birth” … the uniqueness of His birth is why Jesus is called the Only Begotten Son of God.

From His Father, He inherited divine powers…from His mother, He inherited mortality and became subject to hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain, weakness and death.

Earlier I gave three ways that we are justified…by grace…by faith…and by blood… the final proof of our justification is the resurrection.

The fourth proof of our justification…Christ “was raised again for our justification.” [Romans 4:25]…our justification is dependent upon Jesus’ shed blood…had Jesus not died, He could not have been raised…BUT…had He not been raised, that would be the evidence that His death did not satisfy God’s holiness.

BUT…because Jesus was raised we have the assurance that we are justified…it is the seal of our righteous standing before God. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.” (1 Cor 15:17)…as a result:

—We have been saved from God’s wrath – [5:9]

The second statement that reveals the vastness of God’s love…we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

The Bible records numerous accounts where God unleased His wrath on people…on nations…and at times on the whole world as a result of people’s unfaithfulness and disobedience.

There are accounts of God bringing His wrath on individuals…the people of Sodom and Gomorrah…Ananias & Sapphira…David’s disobedience caused 70,000 people to be killed [1 Chr. 21]…Moses not allowed to enter the Promised Land…God’s curse on Cain…God does bring His wrath on individuals.

There are accounts of God exhibiting His wrath on nations…the 10 Plagues on Egypt…the Assyrian captivity…the Babylonian captivity…of Israel…then there’s the plague God sent that killed over 24,000 people [Numbers 31].

Let me share with you how God works in these seemingly terrible occurrences …a common objection people have regarding how God works in His creation.

The Assyrian and Babylonian capture of Israel and Judah was the result of Israel’s failure to honor God…to be monogamous…they despised His covenant and abandoned His commandments…even burning their children as offering to pagan gods.

God demonstrates His wrath by handing people over to the natural consequences of their own destructive decisions…which at times ultimately leads to their death.

Then there’s God’s curse on the whole world…the Flood…but most notable of God’s wrath is seen in Revelation when He pours out the seven bowls of wrath …unrolls the seven seals…sounds the seven trumpets…just before Jesus’ return.
Again…we should be careful how we read this…there is the controversial topic people have regarding end time activities…more commonly referred to as pre-trib… mid-trib…post trib…referring to the timing of God’s judgment on the people who are living on earth just before Jesus’ second coming.

I’ll make this short…Paul in not suggesting those who are in Christ will experience God’s wrath…because they won’t…Bible says so…God did not appoint us to suffer wrath…[1 Thess. 5:9].

Those who are justified…declared righteous…through faith in what Christ has done will never suffer God’s wrath for sin.

What happens in Revelation 5 through 11 is God’s unleased wrath on an unbelieving world…God’s promise is ‘we will be saved from God’s wrath’.

At the conclusion of these promises…in verse 11 is the last blessing in this 9-blessing promise of being declared righteous by faith…we have been reconciled.

—We have been reconciled – Romans 5:10-11

Being reconciled to God is the highlight of this entire discourse…the message of the gospel is the message of reconciliation.

Reconciliation…it’s the restoration of the favor of God to sinners who repent and put their trust in Christ.

Which means we’ve been acquitted…been made righteous and brought into a right relationship with God.

Think about reconciliation on a personal level…reconciliation involves a change in a relationship…if two friends disagree and there’s a breach in their friendship the only way reconciliation can occur is if the one who has been offended is willing to forgive.

Our separation from God was caused by sin…God is the one who was offended …our relationship with God was we were enemies…but because of Jesus’s sacrifice our relationship has changed from being enemies of God to being friends.

The only way that reconciliation can take place – is if the barrier, the offense, which in our case is sin…is removed…but it must come from the offended.

Paul notes the importance of how reconciliation happens:

God reconciled us to himself through Christ. [2 Cor 5:18].

These eleven verses state the incredible blessings that are available to us in Christ…hopefully you’ll not leave here today unchanged.

We have been fooled by Satan to focus solely on the here and now…we live our lives, day-in and day-out, just going about our business and passing the time… oblivious of the blessing…and hope…and purpose that awaits us.

My prayer this morning is that God helps us to awake from our slumber…wipe the sleep from our eyes…and actively pursue the life God has prepared for us and enjoy the blessing of that life as described in these eleven verses.

Last week we started looking in chapter 5 of Romans at the blessings associated with being declared righteous…starting in verse 1 and ending in verse 11 Paul shares 9 blessings associated with being declared righteous…Charles Spurgeon describes these 9 blessings this way “What marvelous treasures are those which belong to the people of God!”

—We have been declared righteous by faith – Romans 5:1
—We have peace with God – Romans 5:1
—We have obtained access by faith into His grace – Romans 5:2
—We rejoice not only in hope but in affliction – Romans 5:2-3
—We have God’s love poured out in our hearts – Romans 5:5
—While we were still sinners Christ died for us – Romans 5:8
—We have been declared righteous by His blood – Romans 5:9
—We have been saved from God’s wrath – Romans 5:9
—We have been reconciled – Romans 5:10-11

Last week we looked at three blessings associated with being justified by faith:
—We have been declared righteous by faith – Romans 5:1

The difference between being declared righteous versus being made righteous… being declared righteous doesn’t mean I’m living righteously so therefore I am righteous…being declared righteous is something that’s pronounced over you, it’s not because of who you are…or what you’ve done…or because of a behavioral modification in your life.

Being declared righteous is the result of a heart transformation that produces righteous living.

—We have peace with God – Romans 5:1
The only way we can have peace with God is by allowing God to resolve our sin problem…one we inherited from our first parents Adam and Eve, we are born with a disposition to please ourselves…we resisted God’s rule over our lives and as a result that rebellious nature sets us at odds with God.

In our sinful state we cannot have peace with God no matter how hard we try.

BUT God took the initiative in pursuing peace…Jesus’ crucifixion guaranteed our justification and brough peace between us and God.

—We have obtained access by faith into His grace – Romans 5:2
One of the most powerful promises in the Bible… through faith in Christ we have gained full access into God’s presence.
The doctrine of the priesthood of the believer states that all believers in Christ share in His priestly status…there is no special class of people who mediate between us and Christ.

All believers have the right and authority to read… interpret…apply the teachings of Scripture…and pray to God without going through a priestly class of people…continuing on Paul reveals another blessing:

—We rejoice not only in hope but in affliction – Romans 5:2-3
Paul does not discuss whether a Christian will experience sufferings; it’s a given …a Christian will experience suffering! …there’s no doubt and no debate… the Christian life is a hard life…sometimes God makes it that way.

Two things we’re not told when we become a Christian…1) at times God will make life difficult and 2) rejoice in affliction.

It’s not a natural reaction to rejoice when times are less than good…Paul is not suggesting that when we’re going through suffering…hurt…and pain…we just put a smile on our face and pretend the pain isn’t real and gloss over it… that’s not what the Bible is talking about here or anywhere else.

The problem with suffering is that prosperity preaching claims God will bless you socially…physically… and financially as a result of your faith in Jesus…so that when problems arise, we’re left confused.

Prosperity teachers claim that the more faith you have, the more material blessings you will receive…that’s a lie.

False teaching about prosperity has infiltrated many a Christian’s understanding of what it means to follow Jesus…many well-meaning Christians have proclaimed that “life will be better and easier when you follow Jesus.” isn’t true.

Jesus, along with all 12 apostles, were homeless…beaten… and killed for their beliefs…so where were their material blessings?

Faithfulness does bring spiritual blessings…obedience brings spiritual blessings …but God does not promise financial and physical blessings as a result of following Jesus.

The Christian life is not a life measured by material blessings or the avoidance of suffering…said earlier…the Christian life is a hard life…Christians will suffer far more in this life than unbelievers will…Bible says so…something we don’t tell people when they become Christians.

Paul wants to help us see the purpose God has in our tribulations so that when they come we won’t be knocked off balance and think God has turned against us.

In the life of a Christian trials are going to come in a number of different ways and reasons that unbelievers will never experience.

1) Chastisement…2) Character development…3) Suffer for Christ’s sake…4) to help someone who’s in a similar situation.

And herein lies the problem…for many…religious tradition teaches the idea that suffering is somehow “payback” for sin…or…I don’t mind being a Christian but I don’t want any difficulties in my life”…spoiler alert… Jesus warned His disciples to expect difficulties as they obeyed His will…if you’re a Christian you will experience those 4 trials in your life.

For Christians suffering matters…it counts for something…for those in Christ suffering has a purpose…in the midst of suffering we see God refining us.

Does Jesus give us life to the fullest…YES He does…but not as some believe the ‘abundant life’ to be (John 10:10) again the prosperity teachers have polluted Scriptures…the abundant life does not mean material wealth and prosperity.

The abundant life means gaining a heavenly perspective [Rom. 12:2] …that leads to a growing trust and knowledge of God [2 Pet. 3:18] …while living a life full of the fruit of the Spirit [Gal. 5:22-23.]

In this verse Paul might well have been referring to the suffering resulting from persecution the Christians were receiving as a result of their faith in Christ…but there’s an additional side…those difficulties God allows or sends into our lives.

Trusting God is not about ignoring your feelings…it’s not pretending that everything is OK when it isn’t.

Suffering in the life of a Christian accomplishes a good in us…Paul lists the chronological order of what persecution…affliction…distress…tribulation…and suffering produces.

As bad as they are, Paul says they produce another positive characteristic in us…endurance…the ability to keep going when we feel like stopping.

Endurance is the ability to trust God during those the long stretches of time when illness or sickness persists…it’s during those times that provide us with an opportunity to trust God at a deeper level through difficult times.

God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development

Because suffering produces endurance…and endurance produces character… and ultimately…all of that is producing hope…but not as the world sees hope.

Worldly hope is founded on irrational thinking…empty vanity…a humanistic philosophy…and deceitfully inspired prospects…all resulting in disappointments, frustration, confusion, and shame.

But Christian hope is founded on an altogether different principle which is rooted in God’s trustworthiness that is centered on the never-failing Word of God and His promises.

Christian hope is the positive assurance that what God promised will happen and the certainty that what we cannot see does exist.

It’s believing the Word of God to be factual even when evidence in the natural world says it ain’t so…even when the testimony of our physical senses says that’s not possible…and is denied by logic.

When you look at how Paul uses the word ‘hope’ it seems there’s a possible misunderstanding…between [v. 2] and [v. 4]…in verse 2 ‘we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God’ and [v 4]… ‘proven character produces hope.’

It might sound like at the end of verse 4 that hope is the product of being tested by tribulation…that we only acquire hope when things are going bad in our life because it says, proven character [brings about] hope…So is hope only what comes after affliction?

What about the hope that is first mentioned in verse 2 that ‘we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God’, what about that hope? …sounds like we have some confusion about the ‘hope of the glory of God’ [2] and the hope that comes as a result of affliction [4].

There is no confusion…nobody would be able to persevere in faith if we did not first have hope that God is for us…I don’t understand how unbelievers go through life and the difficulties of life without the firm knowledge that God is for us and will bring us through affliction because even during difficult times God is always working it for His good…not necessarily for your good.

Here’s where stories like the men in the fiery furnace…and Daniel in the lion’s den …poses a serious problem because…countless tens of thousands of people throughout history have not been saved.

That’s why it’s important to know that during difficult times God is always working it out for His good…not necessarily for your good.

That’s where the confidence comes in when knowing God is in the midst of our trials…and He will bring you through that affliction.

We don’t first get hope because of perseverance and proven character…we already have hope by being declared righteous by God…which provides us with the ability to endure trials…a hope that does not disappoint [5:5].

We don’t find peace with God first by passing the test of perseverance…we pass the test of perseverance because we first have peace with God.

We stand firm in Christ before we have tribulations…we don’t enter tribulations wobbling in our own power…but standing firm in the power of grace…this is the work of Christ before we meet trials so that we will be able to stand in trials.

—We have God’s love poured out in our hearts – Romans 5:5
Three things about this verse…this is the first time Paul mentions love in the letter to the Romans…Second…here’s where the Greek at times is confusing.

In the Greek it literally reads…‘the love of God has been poured out into the hearts of us’ …the issue with theologians is whether it’s in the genitive construction…“love of God,” meaning the love that we have for God…OR…the subjective meaning…the love that God has for us.

The NET Bible argues for a plenary genitive…a sort of middle of the road meaning…which is probably more realistic…that both love from God and our love for God is meant…it seems an appropriate work of the Spirit both to communicate God’s love to us and to make it possible for us to love God.

Third…in the opening 11 verses of chapter 5 Paul makes mention of the trinity …God…our Lord Jesus…and the Holy Spirit…hard to deny the existence of the triune God when each one is mentioned separately.

This is the single issue Christianity has against both Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons…Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the Trinity doctrine…and Mormons believe that God is three distinct persons…not one singular being.

In the Greek it says that the love of God ‘has been poured out’ …this wording is especially meaningful…that’s one word in the Greek…that verb is in the perfect, passive, indicative, 3rd person!

Here’s how powerful that meaning is to us…don’t see it in the English.

First…the statement ‘has been poured out ‘ is in the perfect tense…meaning it’s already happened! …the perfect tense describes a completed action that occurred in the past with the result continuing into the present.

The Holy Spirit is universally given to all justified people….if you have been justified, you have the Holy Spirit already.

It’s not something you get when you’re baptized…or through a laying on of hands experience…at salvation the Holy Spirit comes and instantly dwells in you.

Second…It’s not up to us! The verb…has been poured out…is in the third person…meaning it’s God who’s doing the action…God is the active person… we are the ones receiving His love that He poured out…we don’t have to work for it, or do anything for it.

Third…It is real! the verb is in the indicative mood which means according to Paul what is being described is actually happening and it’s happening now…it’s not just a feeling, it is actual.

Paul goes on to say…the love of God has been poured out within our hearts—here’s the KEY– through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

I want to talk about this for a few minutes because it is so important in the life of a Christian…God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit…we are infused with God Himself.

Christians can easily identify with God the Father…and His Son Jesus…but… the Holy Spirit is without a body and a personal name…seems distant to many.

No Christian can fulfill God’s will for his life apart from being filled with His Spirit…we can do nothing that involves God’s will apart from His Spirit.

When we are saved, the Holy Spirit does a number of things to us and for us:

We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit [1 Cor. 3:16] …means to take up residence or to inhabit…the Holy Spirit lives within every believer.

We are baptized in the Spirit [1 Cor. 12:13] …into one single spirit of unity… we all equally belong to Christ which makes us all equal members of one body.

We are sealed by the Spirit. [Eph. 1:13]

Nowhere are believers commanded to be indwelt…baptized…or sealed by the Holy Spirit because that all occurs automatically at salvation…we do nothing.

In [2 Cor. 2:22] Paul refers to the Holy Spirit as a pledge (ἀρραβῶνα) …that word is translated a number of different ways…but pledge is the more accurate meaning…in the Greek it indicates partial payment…it’s like earnest money given in advance as a security that the whole will be paid afterwards…the Holy Spirit is a pledge of future things.

The instant you are born again you receive the Holy Spirit…God does not give you something …He gives you Himself…the Holy Spirit is God…living out His
life through you as you fulfill His purposes.

This goes back to Ephesians 5:18…Paul’s command to ‘be filled with the Spirit,’ …that one single statement is a sermon in itself.

That statement is in the imperative mood indicating a command…the problem is for many the Holy Spirit is this mystical Casper the ghost like figure that looms around unseen and undetectable…the name alone implies some cosmic force.

Here’s where the confusion comes in…in separating being baptized in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit…two entirely completely different concepts.

All Christians are baptized in the Spirit at conversion…you don’t have to do anything to be baptized in the Spirit except trust Jesus as your Savior…at that point you are…indwelt…baptized and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

BUT… being filled with the Sprit does not happen at conversion.

The filling of the Spirit is not getting more of the Spirit…at conversion you already have all you are ever going to get…the filling of the Spirit is allowing the Holy Spirit to get more control of you.

Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit…once and for all…BUT…the filling of the Holy Spirit is NOT a matter of how much of the Spirit we have…but how much the Spirit has of us…that’s the difference between being baptized in the Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Without the filling of the Holy Spirit…we will always be out there just doing things on our own…in our own strength…trying to make ourselves better … trying to be acceptable to God by our human efforts.

KEY— not all Christians are filled with the Spirit because they have not fully surrendered themselves to God…this is why we are unsuccessful in our Christian life…this is why we are not experiencing a closer walk with God…this is why situations continue to overwhelm us.

HOLD IT….I’m a Christian…If I have been baptized with the Spirit…isn’t that surrendering myself to God…NO IT IS NOT…as long as I am self-sufficient doing what I want to do…living how I want to live…attempting to fix my circumstances on my own…I will never be in a position to be fully surrendered to God…the importance of making Jesus the Lord of your life.

That’s what the phrase…“Spirit-filled life” means…to be filled with the Spirit is to voluntarily put yourself under the influence of the Holy Spirit…to be under the control of the Spirit…just as someone who is drunk and is controlled and dominated by being intoxicated.

BUT…just like someone who drinks too much…eventually the effects of the alcohol diminish…so does the filling of the Holy Spirit …that’s why [Eph. 5:18] should be translated… “keep being filled.”

The continuous aspect of being filled—being kept filled—involves day-by-day, moment-by-moment submission to the Spirit’s control…here’s the KEY to being kept filled:
…it involves confession of sin
…surrender of our personal will
…it requires the death of selfishness
…being kept filled is only achievable when God is able to work through our willing submission.

As we study these blessings it’s no wonder Spurgeon describes them “What marvelous treasures are those which belong to the people of God!” …looking at the remining 4 blessings that await every person who has been justified by faith we can only in humble submission to God thank Him for His Grace… God treating me as I don’t deserve to be treated.