Transcript
If you were to ask the typical member of an evangelical church who was to some extent familiar with the epistle to the Romans, "what is the subject matter of the epistle to the Romans?", the chances are extremely good that they would tell you that the subject matter is justification by faith.
And no one would deny that Paul has some very, very significant things to say about that doctrine. And apart from the epistle to the Romans we would not know anywhere near as much about justification by faith as we do.
Nevertheless I think it is much more correct to say that the epistle to the Romans is concerned with the nature of Christian experience, concerned with the nature of Christian experience. But all true Christian experience must be built on the foundation of justification by faith. Justification by faith is the platform. Justification by faith is the foundation of true vital Christian experience.
So what we have seen so far is that the apostle has expounded to us the doctrine of justification by faith. And in chapter five of the epistle he makes a transition from that subject matter to the subject of Christian living.
Now before we begin in chapter five I’m going to do something that you would never do if you were reading an Agatha Christie mystery. I happen to like Agatha Christie and have read quite a few of her mystery novels. You do not begin by turning to the end of the volume to find out how it turns out.
However this is not an Agatha Christie mystery. And I think it would be profitable for us before beginning in chapter five to turn to chapter eight and to see how things turn out. So will you turn first of all to Romans chapter eight? And we want to look at two basic verses in Romans chapter eight as a starting point and launching pad for our discussion of Christian experience tonight. And those verses are Romans 8:10 and 11.
If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Let’s see if we can get this adjusted a little bit here. There is a sense in which we could describe Romans 8:10 to 11 as the solution to the problem of Christian living. Of course we will understand it more fully when we have moved through the material that precedes it.
But I want you to look first of all briefly at the solution. And then we will go back and retrace the steps that lead us to this. I have sometimes liked to call Romans 8:10 a snapshot of the Christian or a still-life portrait of the Christian. And Romans 8:11 as a video of the Christian. That is the Christian living the Christian life.
Let’s look at the snapshot first of all. It says, “If Christ is in you.” Obviously therefore the statement that follows is about the Christian. “If Christ is in you, the body is dead.” The major problem that we have in the Christian life, and the one that is coped with in Romans 5 to 8, is the spiritual deadness of the physical body in which we are living.
But he says, “If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Now this says to us that although we live in a dead body, spiritually speaking within us there is life. And we could use the term new man and old man to describe what is involved here. The human spirit has been remade by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. And the individual is now alive in Christ.
And in addition to that the Holy Spirit personally dwells within the physical body of the believer. I’ve often said in public ministry that if you look at yourself, if you were to look at yourself in the mirror the night before you got saved and then look at yourself in the mirror the night after you got saved, you know what you would see? You would see the same thing.
Because what happened to you when you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, what happened to you when you were justified by faith, did not affect the physical body. So the body in your unsaved state, in my unsaved state, was dead. And in my saved state the body is still spiritually dead. But a remarkable transformation has occurred.
Because within us before we were saved there was a spirit. If you want to put it this way, an inner man who was also dead. He was perfectly at home in the body in which he was living because he fit the spiritual characteristics of that body to a T. The body was dead. The spirit was dead.
However as a result of the regenerating work of God there now resides in the Christian person a new man who is alive in Christ. And therefore there has been a radical inward change while there has been no outward physical change.
Now the verse that we’re looking at does not of course describe, use the term old man or new man. And we do meet that earlier in these particular chapters. But if we were talking about this in terms of the old man and the new man we would say the old man before I was saved was alive and well. But when I got saved the old man was crucified with Christ. We will see that stated in Romans 6.
And what happens is that a new man comes to life. A new person. A person who is created in the likeness of the Savior who has saved him. And the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in the physical body along with that new person. So the still-life portrait, the snapshot of the Christian, is a living person inside a spiritually dead body.
Now this leads to an obvious problem. How does the living person inside the dead physical body manage to express his life through a body that is dead? How can he do that? The answer is found in verse 11.
If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead lives in you, then the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal body.
Not the body that we will have in resurrection but the present mortal body in which we live. This is not a reference to future resurrection but to a kind of resurrection miracle that can take place in the life of the believer here and now.
And what we will discover as an experience which Christians confront is that in their own strength, though they have life in Christ, they are unable to express that life through the physical body in which they live because the physical body is spiritually dead. What is required therefore is a kind of resurrection miracle in which the power of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for this dead body to become a vehicle and vessel and instrument for the life of Christ that is within us.
I also like to say, and I by the way I’ve got four good friends here from Victor Street Bible Chapel. They’re no longer with Victor Street Bible Chapel but we had them with us for years. And we have George and Joseph and John and Diane right down here in the second row. So some of the stuff that you’re going to hear me say tonight they’ve heard over and over again. And I’m going to watch them closely to see if they go to sleep on me. I don’t think they will. They didn’t usually go to sleep at Victor Street.
But I have often said in public ministry that if you see somebody living the Christian life, really living the genuine Christian life, you are watching a resurrection miracle. Let me repeat that. If you see someone who is genuinely living the Christian life you are seeing a resurrection miracle. Because they are living that life in and through a body that is spiritually dead. A body that in itself is impervious to the life of God. So a miracle that is on analogy like the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is necessary to live the Christian life.
Now that’s the solution to the problem of Romans 5 through 8. Turn back if you will to Romans 5. Can you see that or can you read it at all? By the way I understand that the church is making copies of these overheads. And I certainly don’t recommend that you try to copy down what’s on the overhead. It’s fairly illegible anyway. And so it would not be a profitable venture to try to copy it down. Just try to listen to the presentation. And if you’re interested in having copies of the overhead, neatly typed copies, I’m assuming aren’t right or just bare reproductions of what I did. Their reproductions. Okay. Well um thanks Arch. I’ll take that with granum salas. We’ll appreciate that.
All right. In Romans 5 to 8 we have a discussion of the Christian life. And we have in Romans 5:1-4 an introduction to that discussion. There are two things that are very important that are stated in the introduction to the Christian life section.
These two things I’ve suggested on the overhead. Number one we have access into the grace in which we stand. Have you been justified by faith? We have peace with God. That is something that comes to us as a result of justification. Through whom we also, in addition to peace with God, through whom we also have access into the grace in which we stand.
Have you ever thought of what an unusual expression that is? I get access into something I’m already standing in. But that’s what Christian living is all about. You see we already have a standing before God in grace. Now it is our privilege to gain access to the experience of that grace. And that is one of the things that Christian living is all about.
The second thing is that we can triumph in our suffering. There are two facets to the Christian experience which are very, very vital. We sometimes think that Christian living is simply a matter of living a life of victory over sin. And that is certainly a significant part of the Christian life.
But Christian living involves more than confronting the difficulties that sin imposes on Christian living. We also must confront the problems, the troubles, the difficulties, the sufferings of God. And we have not yet learned to live the full-orbed Christian life until we have learned to triumph in our sufferings.
Notice what Paul says. Not only do we have access into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We also glory, I beg your pardon, we also barely put up with our tribulations. That’s what we would probably have said. But we also glory in tribulations. Why? Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance hope. And so on. We know the value of tough times.
So let me caution you at the very beginning of this discussion tonight. Do not think that you have learned all that there is about the Christian life if you have gained a significant measure of victory over sin. One of the most basic tests of how effective your Christian experience is is how you cope with tribulation, how you cope with trouble, how you cope with hard times.
Are you surprised to be reminded that the latter part of Romans chapter 8 is about suffering? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So tribulation, distress, persecution, nakedness, famine, sword. We have to understand that Christian living is about triumphing over sin and triumphing over suffering.
Now Paul begins in his discussion of the Christian life with an observation about the love of God that leads us on into Christian experience. We’ve suggested on the overhead that God’s love is the basis of our salvation. By this time we’ve all got the idea that the salvation in Romans is salvation from wrath. Are you with me? Hello? Are you out there? Okay. Salvation from wrath.
Notice what Paul says here. In essence he says when we were sinners Christ died for us. Now on the human level somebody might die for a righteous man. Somebody might die for a good man. But God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Therefore how much more can we expect now that we have experienced the justification that He brings? How much more shall we expect that He will save us from wrath?
For if, verse 10, we when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, how much more then being reconciled we shall be saved by His life. Notice his argument. Here’s a very simple argument. God loved us enough to provide for our justification and reconciliation when we were still in sin. But now we are justified. Now we are reconciled. How much more then can we expect God to give us the experience of salvation from wrath? How much more can we expect God to give us salvation through our Savior’s life? This is the argument of these verses.
There follows what I think is perhaps the most complex passage in the book of Romans. The discussion that begins in verse 12 and carries on to the end of the chapter. But the fundamental idea that is at work here is that underlying the salvation from wrath, underlying the salvation by His life of which the apostle has spoken in verses 9 and 10, is the work of the second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And in speaking of the work of the second Adam he contrasts the work of the second Adam and the impact of his work with the sin of the first Adam and the effects of Adam’s sin. We might say that the second Adam is a mirror image of the first Adam. Now you understand that a mirror image is an opposite image, right? It’s turned around for you. That’s basically what the apostle is suggesting about the comparison between the first and second Adam.
Now to get the essence of the idea we want to skip down here to the bottom of the mirror. This is my effort to render a mirror up here. The summary of the material that he has gone over starting in verse 12. Let’s look at this specifically in Romans chapter 5 verse 19.
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Very simple observation here. The sin of Adam led to all mankind becoming sinners. The obedience of Christ, and by this I think he means his obedience in going to the cross, the obedience of Christ results in many being made righteous. This is of course justification by faith.
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded grace abounded much more. The law, he says, its function, one of its functions, was simply to show the heinousness, the seriousness of sin. But despite the fact that the law multiplied the seriousness of sin God’s grace was sufficient and super-abounded over sin.
With what result? Verse 21. “So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Paul says as a result of the first Adam’s sin sin has reigned over mankind producing death. Sin has reigned over mankind producing death. But the work of the second Adam is that grace might reign over men through righteousness. Once again Paul’s key term for justification by faith. Through the wonderful experience of justification by faith to eternal life.
Here I think he is talking about the life he is about to describe in the following chapters. And therefore that we are to understand this as meaning the experience of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So the idea here is grace reigns. It is able to reign in the lives of men through the wonderful process of justification by faith.
And when grace reigns what it can produce in the experience of men over whom it reigns is the experience of eternal life. So that’s what we’ve suggested on the overhead here right at the bottom. The first Adam, many were made sinners and sin reigns. The second Adam, many are to be made righteous. That is justified. And grace reigns unto eternal life.
Now looking quickly at the other elements here. In verse 15 he makes the simple observation that by one man’s sin many die. And as a result of God’s grace a gracious gift has also come to many. The contrast here is between the many who were affected by what Adam did and the many who are affected by what Christ did.
Verse 16. Verse 16 is perhaps the crux of this passage. So let’s look at it closely.
And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
I regret to say that it appears to me that the translators of the New King James Version as well as the old King James Version have missed a very important distinction which the Greek makes perfectly clear in verse 16. Where we read the word condemnation the word that is used there does not really mean a sentence of condemnation. The word that is used here really means punishment. It means the experience of the sentence itself.
One lexicographer of the Greek New Testament has offered as a translation for this particular word the term penal servitude. It’s a special word that occurs for the very first time here in Romans 5:16. Additionally in this same verse the word justification is used. But this is not the word for justification that he’s used in chapter four nor the word he uses just a verse or two beyond this. It is a word that really means righteous. A righteous deed or we could translate it as righteous action.
Now I’m going to reread the verse with these modifications of the translation in mind. Trying to follow me through this.
And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in punishment or penal servitude. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in righteous action.
Notice that the word resulted here is in italics meaning that the translators have also supplied that. The point that Paul is making is that the judgment that descended upon men as a result of the sin of Adam brought them under penal servitude. That brought them under punishment. What was that penal servitude? The following verses suggest that the punishment of the penal servitude was the reign of sin and death in their experience.
But by contrast to this the free gift from which men are justified from many offenses brings with it, can produce, righteous action. We are here therefore directly in the subject matter of Christian living. There is on the one hand the penal servitude under which man stands as a result of the first Adam’s transgression. But there is also the righteous action that can be produced as a result of the free gift by which we are justified from all our offenses.
I think it is the inadequacy of the translation of verse 16 that has blocked a lot of the understanding of the passage that we are looking at. So verse 16 is a very crucial and central verse.
Then notice also verse 17.
For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through One, Jesus Christ.
Notice the contrast here. As a result of the first Adam’s transgression death reigned through sin. But as a result of the action of the second Adam those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, what is the gift of righteousness? Justification. Can reign. Will reign in life.
It is not necessary therefore for the justified Christian to continue to live under the punishment under which the unsaved person lives. Instead he can reign in life. He can be victorious in his life. And he can produce righteous action.
You give this contrast. This is central. Absolutely central to the Christian life section.
Final contrast. Verse 18.
Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
Now this is the word for justification that is used in verse four. And it is hard to capture in English without paraphrasing the idea that seems to be locked up in the phrase justification of life. But perhaps the best way to paraphrase it would be the justification that leads to life. The justification that has as within itself new life.
Remember that in the theme verse Paul makes that statement by quoting Habakkuk 2:4. “The one who is just by faith shall live.” Life and justification are very closely linked for the apostle Paul. And justification produces life. Or life occurs when justification occurs.
And therefore on the one hand we have the punishment and penal servitude under which man lives as a result of the first Adam’s sin. And on the other hand we have a justification that leads to life as a result of the work of the second Adam.
We’ve already been told what that means. It means that those who receive the abundance of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life. It means that they don’t have to live under the punishment, under the penal servitude. That they can produce righteous action.
So the total contrast here is the contrast between the deadly and enslaving effect of the first Adam’s sin so that men become the subjects of sin and death. And the liberating action of the second Adam who first of all gives us the gift of righteousness. And that righteousness in turn carries with it eternal life. And therefore out of the experience of justification we can experience eternal life.
I say this is the most difficult passage in Romans just about. But if you get that idea that’s it seems to me the bottom line here. Under Adam, enslavement to sin and death. Under Christ, justification from all of our transgressions leading to the experience of eternal life.
Notice that he concludes chapter 5 with the statement, “even so that grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life.” The obvious question to ask here now is what is the reign of grace like? What does it mean for grace to reign? Does that mean that we can go ahead and do anything we want to do? Does that mean a continuation of a life of sin?
Notice chapter 6 verse 1.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
And he says certainly not. Far be the thought. “How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”
Without pausing to defend it I don’t think this is water baptism. I think this is baptism with the Holy Spirit. Because the whole passage deals with our identification with Christ and His life and death.
And this leads to a very fundamental statement made in verse 4 which capsulizes what the Christian life is about.
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Very simply when we trust Christ, when we are justified by faith, we are also baptized by the Holy Spirit into His death, His burial, and His resurrection. I’m going to repeat it. When we trust Christ we are of course justified by faith. But we are also baptized by the Holy Spirit into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And the reason that God has done that is that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Do you see already that this kind of life is a resurrection life? Just as we saw it in Romans 8 and verse 11.
The experience therefore to which the second Adam directs us is an experience of resurrection life. Walking in newness of life. Experiencing the power of the Savior’s resurrection in our own earthly body and in our own earthly experience.
Now in the following verses, verses 5 to 10, Paul elaborates a little bit on this identification with the life and with the death and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I want to do is just point out quickly to you the statement made in 5 and 6.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with. That we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Paul is saying here the old man has undergone the experience of crucifixion. And the reason he has been crucified is so that the body of sin, here obviously the reference to the physical body is the vehicle through which sin expresses itself, in order that the body of sin might be annulled. That its power, its effect might be annulled. That henceforth we should not serve sin.
Going back to the illustration that we had on our very first overhead, verse 6 suggests the inner self that was alive before we were saved has gone through the experience of crucifixion. There is now a new man, a new guy. In addition there is the Holy Spirit within us which was not true before.
And therefore it is possible for the body of sin, this physical body which impedes the expression of the life of God, it is possible for the body of sin to be annulled so that we are no longer slaves of sin.
What does this lead to? Well notice the statement that is made here in verse 11.
Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Inasmuch as God has united us by the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit with the death, resurrection of Jesus Christ we are now to consider ourselves. We’re talking about that innermost self that is the real person inside. We are to consider ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God.
This is where the process of Christian living has to begin. We have to understand that a deep constitutional change has occurred in us as a result of our salvation experience. I’m using now salvation in the broader sense. As a result of our conversion experience that the old man has been crucified. And that now the new person who lives inside is dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
We are to reckon that to be so. Even though he doesn’t use the word faith here it is obvious that it is an act of faith to reckon it that way. Now I am convinced that many Christians do not think of themselves in that way. They think of themselves as a sinner saved by grace. And there’s a sense in which the old hymn is beautifully and wonderfully true.
But they think of themselves more or less as the same old person who now God has given eternal life to. And this same old person must change his lifestyle. And there are elements of truth in that. What we have to understand however is that we are not the same person that we used to be. That our old man has been crucified with Christ. And now we have been united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. And we are to consider that to be true of ourselves.
We are not like, and I’m not criticizing the Alcoholics Anonymous because they’re doing a fine work, but we do not have to stand up and say I am a habitual sinner. We should stand up and say I am a justified person who is dead to sin and alive to God.
Now with this reckoning there should follow action. Verses 12 and following.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. But present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead. And your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Now here Paul gives us the command. First of all consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Secondly do not allow sin to rule your mortal body. But instead present the members of your body as instruments of righteousness to God. In other words use your body for God.
Now as we shall see shortly that’s easier said than done. Because the body is what? More than weak. Dead. “If Christ is in you, the body is dead.” This sounds like at this point an impossible demand. Once we understand that the body is dead then the problem becomes how do I take the members of my dead body and use them for God? Big problem. Am I right?
And every Christian discovers it sooner or later. If we came into the Christian life saying all I need to do now is to make up my mind to do it. You’ve all heard that. I’ll go further. You all have done that. I’ve done that. God wants me to do this so I’m going to make up my mind. I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it. God says to use my body for Him. I’m going to use my body for Him. I just work up the determination, the grit, and I pull it off.
It’s not that easy. It’s not that easy. We shall see that as we move along. But the bottom line here for this particular unit is basically, I think you can’t quite see that, I am not what I was before. Therefore I will not do what I did before. That’s what Paul wants us to decide. He wants us to decide that we are no longer enslaved to sin but alive to God. And he wants us to decide to use the members of our body as instruments of righteousness for God.
Why should we do it that way? Notice the last statement of verse 14. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” The reason sin does not have to have dominion over you is because you are no longer under the law. You are under grace.
But that raises a question. What does it mean to be under grace and not under law? Well one of the things it means is that we have freedom from servitude to sin. Look at verse 16.
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. You used to be slaves to sin but you are not anymore. Is what the apostle is saying here.
Notice therefore my little figure. The new man is now inside. The old man was chained to sin. That old inner self was chained to sin. Was a slave to sin. But through the wonderful grace of God the old man has been crucified. And the bondage of sin has been broken at the innermost level of our being.
And now there lives within us a new self which is not chained to sin. But to our surprise it’s chained to righteousness. Look at what he says verse 18.
And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Now he says I want to qualify this by saying I’m speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness to God. For when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
The plot thickens. The plot definitely thickens here. What are we talking about? We’re talking about the new man. The old man was enslaved to sin. The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness. And it is enslaved to righteousness. The only motivation, every contrary drive comes from the body as we shall see shortly. But the new man who lives inside the dead body is a slave to righteousness. He is a slave to God. It is holy. And holiness is the only thing it can produce.
I just might say in passing this truth is the fundamental basis on which the apostle John is able to say in First John chapter 3, “Everyone who is born of God does not sin, because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” He’s not talking about the total person. When he talks about the total person he says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves.
But when he talks about the inner man, the persona that is reborn by the regenerating work of God, he says that inner man, that regenerated self, does not sin and cannot sin. Are you surprised that John and Paul agree in this doctrine although expressing it quite differently? They mean it exactly the same way.
I like to ask people don’t you see this doctrine in Galatians 2:20? Remember it? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” What kind of a life does Christ live? Sinless. The only way to express the inner man that is born again is through holiness. That the inner man cannot express itself otherwise. Everyone who is born of God does not sin. Cannot sin. You are slaves to God. You are slaves to righteousness.
We live in a dead body. You follow me? I have for the last year or two finally they come out of the Neolithic Stone Age into the computer age. For years and years people have been telling me, saying you ought to do your writing on a computer instead of on tablets by hand. And I said that sounds good in theory but you know I’ve been doing it this way for years.
But finally, finally, finally they introduced me to the computer. And now I consider the computer. But I have to tell you that I’m a novice at the computer. And you know what? Sometimes the computer doesn’t function the way I tell it to. Sometimes the computer is very stubborn. And I punch in a command and I’m amazed at what I get. Or I just get a notice on the screen. Can’t find this file. Can’t do this operation. Mistake.
And sometimes the computer does things that I want it to do. And there is a sense, my friends, in which the physical body in which we live is a badly programmed computer. It is programmed with sin as we shall see shortly. And even though the new man always wants to do the right thing the machine doesn’t work that way very easily. That’s just another way of saying the body is dead because of sin.
Now as Paul has already made clear to us we are able to live the Christian life now because we’re not under the law but under grace. And there’s a little excursion here in chapter 7 into the subject of the law. And the first unit of this section which is Romans 7:1-6 tells us in essence that we have died to our old marriage partner which was the law. And we have been remarried to Him who rose from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ. That we might bring forth fruit to God. Verse 4 of chapter 7.
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you might be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
Paul says it was absolutely necessary to break the old marriage relationship with the law and to establish a new marriage relationship with the One who rose from the dead. Because it is your union with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection which is the secret of bearing good fruit for God.
Now that leads to the second major consideration. If that’s true something must have been wrong with the law, right? When we were married to the law and we couldn’t really live to please God until that marriage was broken. It’s like having a bad spouse, right? No. In this unit of the chapter the apostle is informing us that there was nothing really wrong with the law. But what was wrong was wrong with us.
And he goes into a little bit of detail here. As it turns out what is wrong with us is the body in which we are living. Notice verse 9.
For I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
And then he goes on to say how the commandment which was intended to bring life became death.
Almost every Christian, I would say every Christian, has had this experience at one time or another after they were saved. Maybe not very long after they were saved. They were living happily in fellowship with God and enjoying their newfound Christianity. And then suddenly some older brother or older sister in the Lord said you shouldn’t be doing that. And all of a sudden it was like letting the air out of the balloon. And we found ourselves no longer enjoying the freshness and vitality of our fellowship with God.
And guess what we were focused on? I’m not supposed to do that. I didn’t realize that was wrong. Do I really want to do that or not? The commandment came. Sin revived and I died.
Notice verse 18. What we discover when we become focused on the law even as Christians is that the body is impervious to our holy desires. Let’s look down at verse 18.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
What I discover now is I’m focused on the law. I’m focused on the command. And I can’t get the body to cooperate. What I want to do the body will not do. What I don’t want to do the body will in fact do. What is the result of this suggested in verses 24 and 25? But let’s read from verse 22 which is the sum and substance of it.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
The computer doesn’t work. I wanted to do this and it does that. I don’t want it to do that and it does this. It does it anyway. The computer doesn’t work. I find in the members of my body a contrary law that wages war with the innermost desire that the new man has. And wins. And wins.
Notice what it says here. “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
So now he’s reached the pits. And he says, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The body is what? Dead. “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
I remember reading a missionary biography about A. T. Pierson who went out to Africa to minister to the natives in Africa. And many of them were led to the Lord. And then the biographer says they began to come, it may have been here Pierson himself that was writing this. They began to come to Pierson and they said, me no want to do what’s wrong. But me do it anyway. I’m obviously adopting stereotypical dialect there. Me want to do right but we can’t do it.
And Pierson made this interesting observation. He said they didn’t know a single thing about Romans 7 but they were in it. They were in it. Every Christian goes through Romans 7. Because you see the easiest thing for us to do in the Christian life is to think that the Christian life is done by just screwing up our resolve and stirring up our determination and getting it done.
And God allows us to go through a sufficient experience to discover that it doesn’t work that way. When we really come to collide with the programming of our dead bodies what we discover is without the assistance of God the body wins.
That leads us to Romans 8 and to the final overhead for this evening. I think it will be best for us this evening to stop before the suffering section and to do the moral living section. We’ll pick it up in the last half of Romans 8 next time.
We obviously have reached a point in Romans 7 where the apostle himself is recording his own experience. And he is baffled by it. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” And then he says, hmm, I thank God Jesus Christ does. That leads us to the opening statement of Romans 8:1.
And may I say two things before I read this. The word which we met in chapter five about punishment, penal servitude, occurs here. And when I read the verse I’m going to change it to include that. And the last part of the verse about walking according to the flesh and the spirit belongs in the text despite what you may have heard to the contrary. It is found in the overwhelming majority of the Greek manuscripts of Romans and belongs here.
So now let’s read it.
There is therefore now no penal servitude to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
In order to experience deliverance from the punishment, the penal servitude which sin imposes, we must learn to walk according to the Spirit. Now the Spirit is introduced as the critical influence and person in the life of the Christian.
Notice how he proceeds.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin or as a sacrifice for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
All right. We already begin to see the solution here. While I attempted to do it in my own strength and I attempted to force the body to do what I wanted it to do I failed. But now I have a partner. And my partner is the Holy Spirit. And what I must do therefore is learn to walk according to the Spirit. Because then the penal servitude can be lifted. Then the bondage to sin can be broken. And as we’ve already seen the dead body can become a vehicle for the life of God.
But part and parcel of walking according to the Spirit is having a spiritual mindset. Let me repeat that. This is number two on the overhead. Part and parcel of walking according to the Spirit is having a spiritual mindset.
Let’s look at it. Verse 5.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Notice here that the apostle is advocating the spiritual orientation of the inner faculty of the mind. The spiritual mind. That those who are after the Spirit set their mind on the things of the Spirit.
Now I have to admit to you that the Greek word that is used here and which is used here for the first time in the book of Romans is hard to adequately convey in any single English translation. It isn’t just that we’re being told to think about these things. It isn’t just that we’re told to investigate them. It’s that we have a mentality that is oriented to them.
The same word occurs in Colossians, I think it’s chapter 3. “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.” The old AV has set your affections on things above. The New King James Version has set your mind on the things above.
Let’s look at some other scriptures which also essentially say the same thing. Turn if you will to Second Corinthians 3:17-18. We’ve already quoted Colossians here. Second Corinthians 3. The context of course is Moses gazing at the countenance of God on Mount Sinai.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. And when I look into the mirror of the Word the Spirit wishes me to see the glory of Christ. And as the Holy Spirit shows me the glory of Christ I am being transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ by the transforming work and power of the Holy Spirit.
What we are talking about here is not something that we can bring to pass on our own. It is obvious I think that we are saying that I have to turn my attention and I have to turn my interests to the things of God and to the things of His Word. I have to go to the Word to see the Lord Jesus Christ and to see the nature of my relationship to Him. The experience that I should have in Him and all of these things.
But the Holy Spirit must make those things vital, real, powerful, and transforming. The great difference between law and grace is that under law there is no empowerment within the law. And the law says to me do it. And if I can’t do it tough. I condemn you.
Grace says here’s what the Lord Jesus Christ means to you. Here is the One who has saved you. Here is the One who has called you. Here is the One who is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on Him. Set your affections on things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. For you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Now I can quote that to you and there may be people out in the audience to whom it means almost nothing. It’s just words. Just words. But if that excites you, if that thrills you, then the Holy Spirit is working with you.
One of the things that I learned from teaching seminary is that you can take the Bible and you can make it a textbook. And it has no more impact on you than any other textbook almost. Because you are coming to it as a person who’s investigating it and taking it apart and analyzing it and learning it. And you have no sense of the need of the Holy Spirit to take the truth that you are dealing with and to make it real and vital, dynamic, and transforming.
The Christian life, my friends, is not a do-it-yourself experience. The Christian life is partnership with the Holy Spirit. It is partnership with the Holy Spirit. And I have to realize that if the Holy Spirit does not work with me through the Word I’m not going to get changed.
What does that imply? It implies that for one thing I start praying about the Holy Spirit’s work in me, right? If I don’t give the Holy Spirit any time in the Scriptures how is he going to use the Scriptures to transform me, right? Some very obvious steps can be taken here. But finally only the Holy Spirit can do it. Only the Holy Spirit can change you.
You must be open to the Holy Spirit. You must be desirous of His transforming ministry. But you will not pull it off alone. He’s the one who does it.
That brings us back to our initial overhead and to the conclusion of our talk tonight. The Christian life is a miracle. But here we are living people inside of a dead body. And I cannot overcome the programming of that body by myself.
However if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in me, then the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead can also quicken this mortal body. He can overcome the spiritual deadness of this body. He can reprogram me, if you want computer terminology. He can transform me. And He can make my physical body a vehicle through which the will of God is accomplished. Amazing. Wonderful. But we need Him. And we can’t do it without Him.
Okay. Let’s have some questions. We went a little longer than usual tonight but we’ll take a few minutes for questions. Yes, right back here. Okay. I think one of the things we need to keep in mind is that if we approach the Scriptures with our mental faculties alone just trying to study them and figure out what they said we could probably go a long way in the Scriptures just figuring out what they said. And in fact there is a whole cottage industry of liberal scholars who are doing exactly that. They churn out book after book after book on the Pauline epistles, on the Petrine epistles, on the Johannine epistles, and on the New Testament, its background, their lives are given to the study of the Bible.
But in some cases they’re not even saved. In other cases they’re not even being transformed by that. Why? Because they’re doing this without the Holy Spirit. So the issue is whatever I do and however far I go in the Scriptures I must do it in the company of the Holy Spirit. And I must rely upon Him to make these things real, vital, dynamic, motivational, and transforming.
Yes. You’ve used it correctly. I had it in the chart there and due to pressures of time I skipped over it. You’ll notice the preceding verse says, “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end,” that is the result of the holy fruit, “everlasting life.”
Now the question is why is that possible? The answer is because the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And the word gift immediately carries us back to Romans 5. Now I have heard some people who have grasped the idea, I’m glad you brought that question up by the way, that I really shouldn’t be allowed to get out the door without addressing that question. I have heard people bring up Romans 6:23 and say it’s right in the middle of a Christian living section and therefore it doesn’t refer to salvation. It refers to Christian living. I beg to disagree.
The context is larger than Romans 6. The context goes all the way back to Romans 5:12. And it is in Romans 5:12 and following that we have the word gift used repeatedly. And the free gift is righteousness. But it is also the righteousness of life. Life’s righteousness.
So Paul’s concept is that with justification there is the impartation of eternal life as part of the free gift of God. And that is why it is possible for me to experience eternal life when I live for God. So I urge you to keep on quoting this verse to unsaved people. I do it all the time. Thank you.
I think that’s probably good enough for tonight. Thank you for your attention to a rather long discussion. Tomorrow night hopefully the discussion will be quite as long and you can wrap up some of the questions that you may think of overnight.
Let’s close in the word of prayer, shall we?
Father, we want to thank You for Your Word which confronts us first of all with the reality of Your grace to us but reminds us of the weakness that we have. That we are individuals though born again living inside a body that is dead and impervious to Your will and to Your purpose apart from the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit.
Father, we pray that we may never fall into the trap of thinking that we can live the Christian life just by deciding to do so. But we pray that we may always rely upon the fact that we are indeed alive to You through Christ our Lord. And that the Holy Spirit lives in us and can help us to express what we are through the physical body in which we live.
And realizing the struggle that we will always have with the physical body we are anxious for the day when our body itself will be transformed into the likeness of our Savior’s own glorious body. And then our bodies will be perfectly conformed to what we are already as those who are alive in Your Son. Hasten that day. And in the meanwhile help us to experience Your transforming power. And we ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.