Transcript
Well you have been an excellent audience. And I have been amazed at the good attention I’ve received from you. I always worry when I see someone with eyes closed and dreaming or they staring out into empty space. Or alternatively shaking their wrists to make sure their watch is still running. You know all of those things. I’ve seen a bit of that this week.
And I thank you very much not only for the privilege of being here but also for the privilege of having such an attentive and responsive group. Your questions after the meetings have indicated that you’ve definitely interacted with the material that we presented.
I may be entertaining an illusion tonight. But I intend to finish Romans. I not only intend to finish it. I intend to finish it with plenty of time left for questions. So we’re going to plow right ahead and see if we can accomplish that.
Will you open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8? We basically had considered the material in Romans chapter 8 down through verses 10 and 11. You remember that we considered these verses an important statement of the core of the Christian life material.
And I hope that you have not forgotten since last night that chant of verse 10 tells us that if Christ is in us the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. I’ve called this a snapshot of the Christian.
Now our problem therefore is how do we express the life that is inside us through a body that is dead? The answer to that of course is in verse 11.
If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.
He will make your physically dead bodies, your body, your physical bodies that are spiritually dead, He will make them instruments and vehicles for the life of God.
That leads to the conclusion that is expressed in verses 12 and 13. And you see that overhead to some extent almost all right. What he is saying in verses 12 and 13 is the result of the exposition that he has given is that we are no longer debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh. We have no obligation to live in sin.
Whereas before we were Christians there was nothing else we could do. Now we have the option. And notice that he says in verse 13,
For if you live according to the flesh you will die.
If I live according to the dictates of my physical body because my physical body is dead to the life of God the only experience that can mediate to me is an experience of death. That may be understood in terms of losing contact with God. And it can also be understood in terms of ultimately hastening my physical death.
But if we live our lives in accordance with the flesh since the body of flesh is dead our experience will be an experience of death.
But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.
And so by the power of the Spirit it is possible for us to experience eternal life and to live it out through our physical bodies.
Now in the following verses verses 14 to 15 he points out to us that the experience that he has been talking about the experience of living by the power of the Spirit is the experience of adult sonship.
As many as are led by the Spirit of God these are the sons of God.
One should compare this particular passage with Galatians 4:1-7 where the idea is that the law applied to men and treated them as minor children. But now that the Holy Spirit has been given to us we are in the status of adult children. And we live as adult children.
And the realization of this status as adult children it comes about when we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us and to direct and control our lives. In addition to this the Holy Spirit becomes our partner in the prayer life.
The Spirit that we have received is not a spirit of bondage. We are not under the bondage of the law. But a spirit of adoption. The Greek word here means sonship adoption. The Spirit of adoption whereby we cry out to God, ‘Abba, Father.’
And then we have the famous statement in verse 16.
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Please observe this verse does not say the Spirit Himself bears witness to our spirit but along with our spirit. This verse is often I think misapplied to the issue of assurance of salvation as if there were some form of subjective communication between the Holy Spirit and my spirit assuring me that I am saved by the grace of God.
Our assurance basically rests upon believing the promises that God has made to us as believers. And what is really being considered here is that the Spirit lives within us and when our spirit cries out, “Abba, Father,” the Holy Spirit joins in our prayers and also affirms before God our sonship.
Later on in verses 26 and 27 we will see more clearly what the partnership of the Holy Spirit in prayer really means. But the verse here does not refer to assurance but to the presence of the Spirit of adoption in our heart so that our spirit bears witness to God that we are the children of God and the Holy Spirit joins us in that witness.
And if we are children the Apostle says then that means we are heirs. And what is particularly interesting here is that there are two forms of heirship briefly suggested here.
If we are children then we are heirs
first of all heirs of God. And all of the children of God are heirs in the sense that there are certain things that they inherit in eternity which belong to all of the people of God: immortality, sinlessness, and so on.
But there’s also another form of heirship that is predicated on suffering. Notice what is said here.
Heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together.
You remember that the ancient law of heirship in the Jewish nation was that all of the children of a father inherited. But the firstborn son inherited a double portion. That was the way heirship worked. So what we may say that we have here is first of all the heirship to which all of the children of God are entitled. The immortality and sinlessness and presence of God that we inherit in the future.
And then also a share is open to us with the firstborn son. And if we are willing to suffer with Him then we can be glorified with Him. Another way of saying this is the way Paul puts it in Second Timothy 2:12.
If we endure we shall also reign with Him.
So this is the portion of the firstborn. This is the heirship that is open to those who endure suffering.
That leads the Apostle to the final section of the Christian life unit in which he addresses directly the subject of suffering. Let me see if I can get this up a little further so maybe you can see it a little bit better.
Now in the following unit which extends all the way from verse 18 to the end of the chapter in verse 39 the Apostle is telling us in essence that the sufferings that we endure in the fellowship of Christ are sufferings that point us toward the future glory.
In verses 18 to 25 it reminds us the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain. The creation has been made subject to vanity because of the fall of the first Adam. And the creation is waiting for the manifestation of the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
So there is a glorious future ahead in which the sons of God will be glorified. And the entirety of the creation will be released from its bondage due to corruption and will enjoy the glorious liberty of God’s children. This is in verses 18 to 25.
We are also reminded that as we go through the experience of suffering we have the assistance of the Holy Spirit who prays for us. And this is one of the most comforting and encouraging pair of verses in the whole book of Romans in my opinion.
We all would admit that when we go through severe difficulties it is very difficult for us to decide how we ought to pray about those difficulties. And our immediate and initial inclination is to pray to God that He’ll take all the difficulties away.
And it is wonderful to know that when we go through difficult times there is someone who dwells within us and who makes intercession to God in accordance with the will of God. He knows what is good for us. He knows what He should ask for.
And God discerns the mind of the Holy Spirit who prays from within us. And He responds to the Spirit’s prayers. I’d like to think of this as a form of translation on the part of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reinterprets our prayers which oftentimes we can do not much more than groan and express our anguish and anxiety to God.
But the Holy Spirit with our groanings which cannot be put into words makes intelligent intercession for us in accordance with the will of God.
This leads to another very wonderful thing that can be accomplished as a result of prayer and in the midst of suffering. Verse 28. A famous verse.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.
This is not a general promise to all Christians whether they are living close to God or not. This is a promise however that those who love God, those Christians who are following the Lord Jesus Christ, those Christians who are allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them, that as a result of God’s grace toward them, as a result of the intercession of the Holy Spirit, everything however somber, however anguishing, however disappointing, however frustrating it may seem for those who love God everything has worked together for good.
And I think this is presented to us in immediate connection with the intercession of the Holy Spirit. So it is wonderful to know then in our time of urgent need we have an intercessor not only at the right hand of God in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but an intercessor who intercedes from our hearts.
And the result is that God responds and works all things together for good to those who are called in accordance with His purposes.
Finally in verses 31 to 39 we are told in essence that we are super conquerors in the midst of suffering through Him that loved us. He starts of course in verse 31 with the observation that if God is for us who can possibly be against us? God has justified us. Who can bring a charge against us? Jesus intercedes for us.
And then he says,
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
And this launches him into one of the most lovely and beautiful utterances that you will find anywhere in the Bible. That nothing present, past, future, angelic, human, whatever it may be can possibly separate us from the love of God.
For this reason verse 37 is true.
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
Now this brief survey of the remainder of Romans 8 certainly does not do justice to the depth and significance of the statements that are made here.
Now let me just underline for you what looking at the Apostle has brought us to the end of the Christian life section. And he has taught us two things.
Number one that we do not need to live under the dominion of sin any longer because the resurrecting power of the Holy Spirit can make these dead bodies of ours vehicles for the life of God.
And if we think that once we are walking in accordance with the Spirit that we are free from sufferings we misconstrue the nature of the Christian life. As a matter of fact it is precisely when we are walking in the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that we are very likely to encounter troubles.
Why? Because God is using these troubles to shape us and to prepare us for the glory that is yet to come. Or another way of saying this God is using these sufferings to prepare us for co-heirship with Jesus Christ.
If we are children we are heirs and we are joint-heirs or co-heirs with Jesus Christ if so be that we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him.
It is striking that when Abraham moved into the land in obedience to God one of the first things that he encountered was famine. And he could easily have said, “Where is God? I thought He told me to go here.”
And let’s remember that as we’re walking with God God leads us through the experience of difficulties and through the experience of sufferings. Not for our sins but in order to shape us for the glory and for the rewards of the future.
So when that happens let’s avail ourselves of the realities that apply to that. That the Holy Spirit is within us and knows how to intercede for us. That God is responsive to the Holy Spirit and will work all things together for good. Let us rest on the fact that the love of God has not departed from us. That nothing that we experience can separate us from His love.
And if we walk through suffering in that way we are super conquerors. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
That brings us to Romans 9 through 11. The question might be raised what is the connection of Romans 9 through 11 with the preceding material? One connection might be that since the Apostle Paul has said so emphatically that nothing can separate us from the love of God we might if we did not know God’s program and purposes say, “Well what happened to Israel? I thought Israel was the object of God’s love. What about the nation of Israel?”
But as we shall see as we go through these chapters very briefly what we discover here is that the Apostle wants us to understand our relationship to God in terms of God’s overall purposes for Israel and for the Gentiles.
One of the problems I think that we confront in contemporary society and in contemporary evangelical churches is that we tend to be interested in my experience, my personal experience with God. What is God doing in my life? What does He want to do with my life? And these are important considerations.
But we are not individuals who are the focus of God’s purpose all by ourselves. We are part of a grand mosaic. We are a part of an overarching purpose which God is working out in human history. And it’s important for us to know where we stand in that.
And the basic idea that the Apostle will get across in this unit of material is that Israel has still a future in the plans and purposes of God. Because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God is not going to desert or cast away His ancient people.
But temporarily, temporarily Israel has been set aside to give Gentiles an opportunity. As a matter of fact we are further humbled by the realization in these chapters that our salvation is designed to provoke the Jews to jealousy so that they will turn to God.
In other words it’s kind of like saying, “Look what God is doing for the Gentiles. We want that for us.” And so God has been pleased to make the unbelief of the Jewish nation an occasion for His mercy to the Gentiles. And we have to understand that that’s where we fit in the program of God.
And that the day will come when the Gentiles will be set aside as the center of God’s purposes and that Israel will once again be restored to the center of God’s program which will issue and eventuate in His kingdom.
Let’s try to say just a little bit more about the chapters that are involved here. In Romans 9 we are essentially told that the nation of Israel has become vessels of wrath. When the nation has fallen under the wrath of God in the first unit of chapter 9 the Apostle is informing us that God is perfectly capable of making distinctions between the descendants of Abraham.
So for example in the case of the descendants of Abraham personally He chose Isaac as the vehicle through which the covenant promises should flow. And Ishmael was allowed to be cast out of the Abrahamic family. So that we have the quotation here from Genesis,
And in Isaac shall your seed be called.
In the same way in the case of Rebecca who gave birth to Esau and Jacob God decided that Jacob would be the one through whom His promises would go. And therefore God fulfilled the prophecy that was made before either Jacob or Esau was born that the elder shall serve the younger.
Now the meaning of that back in the context of Genesis is very clear. It has to do with the exchange of the firstborn blessing which came to Jacob who was the second born and did not come to Esau who was the firstborn.
And remember that when Esau came into the tent and discovered that his blessing had been taken away by Jacob he besought his father for a blessing of his own. And one of the things that his dad said to him was, “I have made him,” what can I do for you? He says, “I’ve made him your master. I’ve made him your master. I’ve given him this and I’ve given him that.”
But of course as we know Isaac did manage to give Esau a blessing. But nevertheless the purposes of God were fulfilled in that the choice that God made was the choice of the younger of the two brothers. And it was through the younger of the two brothers that the Abrahamic promise was flowing.
God also has the right to harden those whom He will harden. And Pharaoh is used as an example of this. I’m going to pause to say a word about this section of the text. And I have a strong feeling that when the question-and-answer period opens I may be asked further questions about this.
Let me simply express this idea to you that it seems to me that Romans chapter 9 has been made to carry more theological freight than it was intended to carry. It is certainly true that in the background of his mind the Apostle Paul is dealing with the fact that in the current nation of Israel there were those who were still in the flesh. They were unsaved. And there was a remnant of Jews who were saved.
Now he is drawing upon Old Testament analogies to show that that is something that correctly reflects the way in which God works. But I would like to suggest that there is nothing here that suggests that Ishmael for example was necessarily unsaved. Ishmael was not allowed to take the place of a son in the household of Abraham. He was cast out.
But if you go back to the Genesis record you will find that God promised to bless Ishmael as well because he was Abraham’s seed. This goes double for Esau in my opinion. If I had to guess I would guess that Esau will be with us in the kingdom.
In fact in the book of Hebrews he is used as a warning to Christians about trading away their inheritance rights. Esau we are told was a profane man. Don’t let anybody be like he, so in the midst of you, says the writer of Hebrews, who was a profane man and who for one meal sold his birthright.
Now you will notice that the prophecy that is fulfilled here is not a prophecy that reflects the salvation of Esau at all. God said the elder shall serve the younger. And that was fulfilled. Even when we have the quotation from Malachi here,
Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.
It’s necessary as always to go back to the Old Testament context. And what we find in Malachi is Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated and I laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.
Long after Esau was dead God looked back on the way in which He dealt with Esau. And He said in effect by comparison with the love that I’ve had for Jacob my treatment of Esau is hatred. But there’s nothing in that text to indicate that God hated Esau before he was born and that God condemned Esau to eternal hell.
So I personally think that a great deal has been made out of the material in Romans chapter 9 that Paul did not intend for us to do. This is how God operates. God can differentiate between the physical seed of Abraham. He has done so in the case of Ishmael and Isaac. He has done so in the case of Jacob and Esau. And He’s doing so in Paul’s present day and in our present day too.
Because some of Abraham’s physical children are within the family of God and objects of the promises made to Abraham. And some are not. And I believe that’s the core of the message that is found here.
Now we noticed also that in the last part of the chapter we are told that this is exactly what He’s done here and now. Look particularly at verses 22 and 23.
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
Here He obviously has in mind the unbelieving Jews. God has put up with them a lot. Well there are objects of His wrath. On the other hand,
And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles.
So on the one hand God has exercised wrath toward the unbelieving portion of the nation. On the other hand God has exercised mercy toward the believing portion of the nation and toward the Gentiles themselves.
A very important text here is First Thessalonians 2:14. And I’d like you to turn with me briefly to that text to just take a quick look at it. First Thessalonians chapter 2. This more fully expresses the idea that is already present in Romans 9.
First Thessalonians 2:14. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
Notice how this fits our whole discussion of wrath. This is not something that lies in the future for the nation of Israel. This is something that has happened now. The nation of Israel is under the wrath of God to the uttermost. Because look how contrary they are. In everything they’re opposed to God. They persecute. They killed the Lord Jesus. They killed their own prophets. They’re contrary to all men. Wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
Romans 10 tells us something very obvious. That Israel therefore needs to be saved. I want to suggest of course saved from wrath. And I am going to come back to this particular chapter at the very end because as we all know the famous two verses Romans 10:9 and 10 are here. And I’d like to reserve a discussion of those for the very end.
But let me just point out that two points at least are made in Romans 10. Israel needs the message that Paul preaches. But unfortunately Israel has heard the message and has rejected it.
Romans 11 however gives us the upside of things. The nation of Israel will be ultimately restored. For the present the majority of the Israelites have been hardened. But there is an elect remnant that carries on the plans of God for that nation and are the recipients of the Abrahamic promise. So that God has not utterly cast the nation away.
But the setting aside of Israel as a whole gives opportunity to the Gentiles. And God’s mercy is going after the Gentiles during this period in which Israel is rejecting the message of Christ.
Within this section comes the very famous illustration that Paul uses about the olive tree. You know sometimes the illustration of the olive tree is wrongly taken as if it were something of a statement about eternal security. And some who do not believe in the doctrine of eternal security have construed it as denying that doctrine.
I think that’s a wrong approach to that particular unit. And it would seem to me that the olive tree, the natural olive tree, is an illustration of or figure for the Abrahamic covenant. The natural beneficiaries of that covenant, the natural branches that belong within the covenant, are the physical descendants of Abraham.
However most of them have been cut off through unbelief. And out of the wild olive tree of Gentile nations have been cut the olive branches of those who have believed in Christ. And they’ve been grafted into the olive tree. And they partake of the root and fatness that come from the roots of that olive tree.
In other words they have benefited from the Abrahamic blessing. “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
However Paul has a warning. The Gentiles should not be high-minded. Because if God was willing to cut out the natural branches and graft in the wild branches He would be willing to do the reverse. He would be willing to cut out the wild branches and graft the natural branches.
And again this is of course a way of talking about the fact that God will at some point, and we believe not in the very distant future, return His purposes to the nation of Israel. With the rapture of the church every single Christian will be removed from the world. Where will God start? He will start in Israel. With whom will He start? He will start with the two witnesses.
And then with the converts won by the two witnesses. And then the converts of the two witnesses will include a hundred and forty-four thousand people who will serve as evangelists all over the world. And there will be a revival sponsored by the evangelism that emanates from the nation of Israel.
We Gentiles should not be so haughty as to think that God is finished with the natural branches. There are forms of theology in the Christian Church today that do in fact say that Israel’s history as a nation or special role in the plans and purposes of God is finished. Not so. Israel is only temporarily set aside.
Let me call your attention to chapter 11 verse 25.
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that hardening in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
This hardening, this setting aside, is only temporary. And when God considers that the fullness of the Gentiles is brought in,
So all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’
Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.
God has promised certain things to the physical descendants of Abraham and to national Israel and to David. And God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable. And God will fulfill those. There is a temporary hiatus now in which God is reaching out to the Gentiles. But that hiatus is not going to be permanent. And the nation of Israel will be restored to its central role in the plans and purposes of God.
And then notice that Paul concludes this unit with a doxology.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.
What Paul does here is to focus us for a little while from our own personal affairs as important as those are to God. And to give us the big picture. Within the big picture we are simply Gentiles who have been grafted in out of our wild backgrounds into the wonderful covenant that God made with Abraham.
And we should not get the proud idea that our position on the olive tree is permanent. Because it isn’t. And that Israel’s behind this is permanent. Because it isn’t. And God will restore Israel to the destiny that He has for them. And He will be glorified in that because the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.
Aren’t you glad that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable? Because the gifts He’s given to you are irrevocable just as they are irrevocable to Israel.
Finally we come to a section that returns us to Christian experience. And the key verses here of course are the famous verses in Romans 12:1 and 2.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Notice that the phrase mercies of God refers us back to the immediately preceding discussion in verses 9 to 11. God has chosen to have mercy on us Gentiles. And so says Paul in the light of His mercies to us present your bodies to Him as a sacrifice.
Notice present your bodies of what kind of a sacrifice? Living. What was wrong with our bodies? Dead. What we have here is a recapitulation of the Christian life truth that we met in Romans 6, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
We were to take these bodies of ours which are spiritually dead and we were to turn them over to God by the power of the Spirit. And there to become living sacrifices. We use our bodies for God in a way that is acceptable and pleasing to Him.
Notice that this is accompanied by and goes along with a process of transformation. As we indicated when we discussed this yesterday.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And we talked yesterday as you remember about minding the things of the Spirit. About the spiritual orientation. The work of the Holy Spirit to take the truth of God and to impact us with the truth of God so that we are changed by that truth.
All of this is here. So we’re to take these bodies and turn them over to God as sacrifices that are lived out in obedience to Him. And if this happens and while it is happening our mind is being renewed by the Word of God and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit so that we are being personally transformed and can experience the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
Now how will that work itself out in detail? Well the following unit tells us this. And I simply can’t spend a lot of time on this. But notice the various areas in which we will ensure if we walk by the power of the Spirit experience and demonstrate and realize the good and acceptable perfect will of God.
This will happen in relationship to the use of the spiritual gifts that God has given to us. It will happen through the production of good character and good conduct. It will happen through submission to government as submission to God. It will happen through Christian love which is the fulfilling of the law.
It will happen through renouncing evil deeds, turning our backs on the works of darkness, and all the more as we see our final salvation from wrath approaching us in the coming of the Lord. It will happen through our sensitivity to the conscience of weaker brothers. This is the longest section in here and in our day and time probably the most needed.
This would if we had time be worthy of a whole sermon. But basically the idea is we don’t insist on our own rights. We do not please ourselves even as Christ did not please Himself. Well the weaknesses of the weak are borne by those who are strong.
Finally we should glorify God for His mercy. Turn if you will to 15:8. In this final unit the Apostle says,
Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.
Here’s the bottom line in a sense. God has visited us with His wonderful mercy. We have been justified by faith. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are to experience resurrection life. In experiencing resurrection life we are to work out the will of God in all of the areas that we have up here.
We’re to work out that will. And the bottom line of everything is that God is glorified. And the Christian life is not lived effectively unless the result of our Christian living is glory to God.
And that’s where the hortatory section of the book of Romans concludes.
The final section is right down here at the bottom of the overhead. Romans 15:14 to the end is the conclusion of the epistle. It’s more personal than the remainder of the letter. And includes things like Paul’s reason for writing, his travel plans, his greetings to those in Rome, and the greetings of those with him to the Christians at Rome.
Believe it or not we finished the book of Romans. And we have one more overhead to look at.
I would like to redirect your attention to a couple of passages where the idea of salvation from wrath occurs and where it is not always recognized as occurring. The first of these is in Romans 8. Will you turn back to Romans 8 verses 23 and 24?
Verse 23 of Romans 8. And not only they. And we should probably read 22 for smoothness of connection.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now. And not only they, but we also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees?
I want to suggest very simply here first of all that the firstfruits of the Spirit, I believe I’m correct in saying this is the only place in the Pauline literature or anywhere in the New Testament where this phrase occurs. The firstfruits of the Spirit it seems to me must be interpreted contextually. And that would be the resurrection lifestyle which the Spirit empowers according to Romans 8:11.
In other words through this dead body, this physical body of mine which is spiritually dead, God can give me something that is like the experience of the resurrection itself. But it’s only a firstfruits.
You know what I’m talking about. You remember that in the ancient harvest the first collection of the grain or the fruits that was brought out of the field or out of the vineyard was called the firstfruits. And the quality of those fruits said something about the future quality of the entire harvest.
So when we experience the resurrecting power of the Spirit of God in our personal life and experience we are experiencing the firstfruits of the full-orbed harvest when our bodies will be redeemed and completely freed from sin and when they will be absolutely perfect vehicles for the expression of eternal life.
No wonder therefore that as we begin to live in the power of the Spirit we groan. We discover the power of our body, the impediments that our body places against the life that God wants us to live. And we long for the time and we set our hope on the time when all those impediments will be gone and our body will be transformed perfectly into the likeness of our Savior’s own glorious body.
Finally let me invite your attention to Romans chapter 10. But first of all two verses. One, two, three. Please remember that in chapter 9 the Apostle has talked about the unbelieving portion of Israel as being vessels of wrath. He has shown us very clearly that God’s wrath is upon that nation.
Now chapter 10. First one.
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
Consistently I think with his use of the word saved here that means saved from the wrath under which they stand. There is an impediment to their experiencing that salvation. And it is the fact that they are not seeking righteousness in the right place.
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Now is everybody wide awake? And you think about the very first night that we discussed Romans. And the theme verses Romans 1:16 and 17.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation, meaning salvation from wrath, for everyone who believes. And why is it the power of God to salvation? Because in it is revealed the righteousness of God. Where is the one who is just by faith who will live?
Don’t you see the connection here? Salvation is available through the gospel precisely because the gospel reveals and grants to the believer a perfect righteousness. Israel needs to be saved. The righteousness of God. So right here at the beginning of the chapter we see the same distinction that we saw back in the theme verse.
Now let’s go to the very famous verses in Romans 10:9 and 10. And let’s start with verse 8, shall we?
But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
I grew up this would mean to many preachers who had the gospel perfectly straight and on most days they were able to present it clearly as based on faith alone. But once in a while these same preachers would apparently feel obligated to throw in Romans 10:9 and 10 and to add as an additional condition for salvation confession.
I’ve heard it done many times. And we’re not talking here about lordship people. We’re talking about people that understood that the gospel was by faith alone. And yet this inconsistency hovered in their presentation from time to time.
And fortunately I think it was the mercy of God. I grew up and it wasn’t particularly bothered by this verse. Hell I got off to college and then I was bothered by it. And as I was answering a question by Monty the other night it was Romans 10:9 and 10 that opened up the whole book of Romans for me.
I want you to notice it again.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Here Paul splits it up. And he says in the heart you believe for righteousness. What is righteousness in Romans? It’s justification. And here we find that justification is by faith alone by what goes on in the heart.
But confession is made for salvation. And then the mind should travel back to the discussion of salvation Romans 5:9 and 10 and back to the theme verses in Romans 1:16 and 17.
And what we have therefore is the same truth that we met right at the outset of Romans. That to be saved from wrath we have to first believe in our heart. And secondly says Paul we have to confess. What does that mean? Well let’s look at the following verses.
For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
I would like to collect $100 for every time I’ve heard that verse quoted as how to get to heaven. But if you will look back in the context from which it is quoted which is Joel chapter 2 you will find that Joel is discussing the wrath of God in the end times. The moon is turned to blood. The stars fall. Etcetera. Etcetera.
But whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved from that wrath. And what Paul is doing is lifting out that statement and applying it as a principle. And what this refers to as does the word salvation consistently through Romans is not salvation from hell but salvation from wrath.
And it is something that is not identical with faith. I can prove that from the text. Are you ready to follow it?
Verse 14.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace!’
Now let’s work at this from the back way forward. And that’s what we’ve done on the overhead here. The first step according to Paul is sending the preacher. How can they preach unless they be sent?
The second step obviously is the preaching of the preacher, right? The third step is the hearing of the hearer. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? You have to hear first.
And then the next step is believing in the one they’ve heard of. But there’s another step: calling on the name of the Lord. How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Calling on the name of the Lord is not an action of an unbeliever. It’s an action of a believer.
Wow. How shall they call on Him in whom they’ve not believed? A very simple process here. God sends the preacher. The preacher preaches. The hearer hears. Hopefully the hearer believes. And after he believes he calls on the name of the Lord.
And the same Lord over all is rich unto all them that call upon Him. Deliverance from wrath is possible through calling on the name of the Lord. How will the Lord do it? Obviously by leading us into the spiritual process that we have looked at in Romans 5 through 8.
So I already know that your preacher has never gotten up here and said that you have to confess in order to go to heaven. And you should be very grateful for a preacher who never says that. Because whoever says it it’s wrong. Calling on the name of the Lord is something that believers do. Not something that unbelievers do.
So bottom line always. Not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why? Because it is the power of God to salvation from wrath to everyone who believes. Why? Because in the gospel is revealed the righteousness of God that is bestowed by faith so that the one who is just by faith shall live.
Okay. We’re ready for some questions here. Yes, Jeff. Okay let me try to restate. I was going pretty fast so this is probably very good for me to go over that. First of all the English does not say that the Spirit bears witness to our spirit although in English the word bear witness with someone could sometimes mean to bear witness to.
But what we need to notice first of all from the English standpoint is that the English really doesn’t say the Spirit bears witness to our spirit but with our spirit. When we get behind this into the Greek however it seems to me that it is impossible to make this mean the Spirit bears witness to our spirit. The word that is used is the word that some, martureo, means to bear witness along with.
Some wedding. This you remember that the Jewish law of witnesses, witnesses, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. And this is like saying when we pray to God there are two witnesses to the fact that we are children of God. Number one our spirit bears testimony of that because we have assurance of our relationship to God.
Number two the Holy Spirit who joins us in our prayers confirms our witness. And He bears witness along with our spirit that we are the children of God.
I believe that the use of this verse for assurance has tripped some people up. Because what has been produced out of it is a very big doctrine about the Spirit somehow or other communicating with us that we’re saved. And who can know when that happened or how it happened.
Okay. Already stripping me of my transparency. Okay that’s fine. I know. So the with should be taken as accompaniment and not a communication of Spirit to our human spirit. We should find our assurance of salvation on the basis of the promises that God has made to the believer.
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes on Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
That’s one. That’s the verse by the way on which my father found assurance. But there are many such verses. And we rest our assurance on what God has promised and not on some vague inner feeling that we’re saved.
Why am I bringing what up? Well I’m trying to first of all disabuse ourselves of the false notion that we have to look for a witness of the Spirit to confirm that we’re saved. But the second day because the context shows that what we’re really talking about is the Spirit’s ministry inside of us in prayer. Remember as we get down to verses 26 and 27 we find that the Spirit makes intercession for us. We have a partner in prayer who lives within us. And this is the first reference to that partnership. And it’s elaborated in verses 26 and 27.
Thanks for the question, Jeff. That was appropriate. Yes, Bob. Well yeah I think the gospel is used more or less in the same sense that we expect the gospel to be used. It’s the message of justification, regeneration, etc. But the person who believes the gospel has something happen to him which imparts to him the power of God that enables him to realize salvation from wrath.
This is another way of saying what we say in many other forms and an expression when I’m saved I’m regenerated. I get a new nature that makes it possible for me to live out a new nature and a new kind of life. Or as the Apostle Peter stated in Second Peter 1 God has bestowed upon us through the knowledge of Him who called us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
At the moment of faith we get everything that we will actually need to live the Christian life. And then we must learn to live it. So I think that’s the idea here. The gospel is still the message of justification, the message of eternal life through faith. But when the gospel is believed the power of God becomes available to the believer to experience salvation from wrath, to live anew.
By also a good question. Yes, sir. Mm-hmm. Yeah well the question is if we say that in our flesh dwells no good thing how is it that unsaved people do some good things or things that we would call good? One answer that I’ve given to that is I remember the huge statement he makes in Romans, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
And there is a sense in which God does not accept as a genuine good work even a good deed if it’s not done out of faith in Him and out of faith in His Son. Another way of saying this is many unsaved people realize that it’s in their best interest to be good at some level and to some extent.
So if we analyze motive and faith behind all of this we would probably say that even though the things are good in terms of their external character they are not ultimately good in terms of motivation and faith that lie behind them. To be genuinely good without faith it is impossible to please God. Is that right?
Yeah. The human estimate of what is good and the divine estimate are not necessarily the same. We are certainly happy that not everybody is a murderer or that not everybody is a thief. But of course there are more than one reason for not being a murderer. One is I don’t want to get caught and go to prison for it.
And in any case if I am living a moral life without faith in God that means that the root of that action is not what it should be. The motive really can’t. Uh-huh. It’s not just what I do but why I do it. What God looks on the heart, right?
That’s why also by the way Paul says in Corinthians, “Judge nothing before the time when God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart. And then shall every man have praise of God.”
God this is in a Christian context. I can do the right things as a Christian for the wrong reason. And since I’m a preacher I may as well bring it close to home. I could get up and try to feather my own nest by my preaching or enhance my reputation by my preaching. And God won’t reward me for feathering my nest or enhancing my reputation. I should be serving Him, should I not?
And so at the judgment seat of Christ God is going to evaluate not only what we did but why we did it. And that’s why we can’t judge anything definitively. We can say yeah that was a good message. And we all as preachers appreciate that when you say it. But in our hearts we should be saying I hope God thought it was as good as that or maybe just a little bit good.
So God is going to examine us in terms of reality on which we only partially see as human beings. An answer. Okay. And of course that’s a question frequently asked. An important question. What happens to those who have never ever heard the gospel of Christ?
The first thing I would say based on Romans 1 is that God gives a testimony to Himself as the Creator. And the creation, the invisible things of Him are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse.
So first step is everybody on the face of the globe ought to draw the conclusion there’s a Creator up here. Then the logical next step would be to seek the Creator. Why did He create me? Why am I here? What is His purpose for me?
And where there is a genuine seeking of the Creator God always meets the person who seeks Him. He’s a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.
Now it is fairly clear from certain scriptures in the New Testament that God considers it more serious to reject the message after having heard it than to be lost having never heard it. And that certainly appears to have some effect upon the degree of punishment in hell.
It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than it will be for you Capernaum or for you Bethsaida. If the miracles that had been done in you had been done in them they would have repented.
So God takes into consideration the difference in opportunity. But finally all men are responsible to the light of creation and should seek God. And if they do not God is justified in condemning them for not doing so. Because had they sought Him they could have found Him.
I remember hearing a very impressive story years ago given by a missionary to Persia. And he was an elderly man at the time and had spent quite a few years over there. And that would be your country I think, Nasir. And this is the story he told.
He said he went into the interior of Persia and to the city square. And he was met by a stranger. And the stranger invited him into his home that night. And so the missionary went with him. And after they had settled down and began to talk this Persian native said this to him. He said, “I had a dream.” And he said, “In my dream I was told there will be a stranger coming to your city. Receive him into your house and he will tell you the true way.”
And the missionary testified the fact that he led the man to saving faith in Christ that night. What I would conclude from that is that that individual was already a seeker after God. The gospel was nowhere around him. But God knew how to get the gospel to him and the person of this missionary.
So God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. You remember that what Abraham said I think is what we all fall back on here. We don’t understand all the complexities of this type of issue. But Abraham says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
That’s an indisputable fact. The Judge of all the earth will do right. Whatever He does will be fair and just and right. And I think He will have an obviously fair and adequate basis for condemning those who have lived their whole life under the impact of nature and have never responded to it.
Significantly one of the things that I’ve often said to people as a preacher is that you know I’ve been a preacher now for more than 40 years. And I am surprised at how rarely, now very rarely, maybe if I stop and I think I can think of an incident. But how very rarely anybody ever comes up to me and says, “Then you’re a preacher. Could you tell me how to get to heaven?”
And don’t happen very often folks. Forgive the grammar there. I have to go and call them. And so you should be thinking about where you’re going. That’s the way it works. People should seek God. They have no excuse for not seeking God. But they don’t.
A very perceptive question I think. Obviously what we’re talking about it seems to me in the quotations in Romans 3 is natural man or unsaved man and that to himself completely. And so when I think I would want to say it we know that there are people who do seek God. The Persian in the interior of Persia that I just talked about was apparently such a person. But if he does it is because God has done something in his life and then his experience that prompts that. But that’s the man. Man left to himself doesn’t do it.
All of us and there’s a mystery here and I don’t want to please don’t let me fall off the cliff into the issue of sovereignty and free will because that would take us the rest of the night and I would miss my plane in the morning. Meeting that a totally aside. All of us I think and look back at our personal experience and we can pinpoint a lot of things that God did that moved me in the direction of the moment of faith.
The first thing that He did for me by the way was allowing me to be born into a Christian family. But not everybody is. And God has other ways of doing His work. And then all of the exposures that I had. All of the many times that I heard the gospel. All of the people talked to me about it. And all sorts of other things that inclined me to the moment of saving faith.
So when we look back on it we say yeah I got there at that point crucial point in time because God was working with me. You remember that in Genesis chapter 1 in the chaos of creation which by the way the Apostle Paul ties in in Second Corinthians 4:6 to conversion. What we find first of all is that the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters in the darkness. In the darkness the Spirit of God is moving.
And then God says, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And always I think before a person has the light of the gospel dawn on them the Spirit of God is working in the darkness of the heart and preparing the way for the moment when God says, “Let there be light.”
The application that he remember is in Second Corinthians 4. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shone into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So we are indebted to God’s work up to the very moment of our conversion and in the moment of our conversion and for every moment after it.
Yeah. Well I answer that. That’s not what I see. What I see in unsaved people is a bunch of trouble. Marriage is coming apart. Kids in difficulty. All sorts of things happening as a result of their sin.
Now we can find people like the psalmist was talking about who do not seem to be plagued by anything. Well it may be only because our perception is limited. You remember the psalmist says, “Then I went into the sanctuary. Then I understood their end.” And then I said I was just a dumb animal before you and I didn’t realize what I was saying. It looks that way but isn’t that way.
And very often I remember a pastor friend of mine telling me about an individual that he knew. In this case it was a Christian as I recall it. And away from the Lord for many years. And nothing ever seemed to happen to him. And you know he, my pastor friend was saying, “Where’s the chastening of God?”
And one day this individual who was sort of well-to-do said to my preacher friend, “You know,” he says, “I cannot understand it. All of my plans collapse. All of my undertakings fail. Why does this happen to me?” But he was he was a good actor and he concealed some of the things that were gnawing at his soul behind an impressive facade.
I believe that’s a question. I certainly won’t take it as a question. And a good one too I might add. I thought we were talking to me the other night about the fact that it was Romans 10:9 and 10 that really opened up the book of Romans to me. Because I’d always heard these verses treated in the very traditional way.
But I was struggling with the apparent inconsistency between making confession a condition of salvation when there were so many verses that didn’t even mention confession. And in fact there are passages in the Gospel of John where we’re told that the believers did not confess.
So what happened to me was that I confronted the problem. Now for a long period of years I just kind of took it the way it was normally presented. But for some reason or other and I can’t trace in my memory exactly what got me started here. But for some reason or other I confronted the passage as a freshman in college.
I studied it. I thought about it. I prayed about it. And I’m very satisfied the Lord solved my problem by opening up to me this distinction which I can now trace through Romans. And we can trace the backward movement of this and all of that here.
But what was happening to me I was seeking God’s answer here. Now for many years I did what I think most Christians do. They just slide over the passage. They never really asked themselves why is confession here? Why isn’t it in John 3:16? Why isn’t it in John 5:24? Why isn’t it in John 3:36? 6:35? I mean wouldn’t it be a logical question?
So what happens to all of us and I’m not saying you can by any means it’s happened to me and I’m sure it’s happening to me in other passages that I have not addressed. That I don’t focus on the passage. I don’t look for the answer from God.
And once again this is the principle. He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. If I mean business about understanding the Word. If I confront the difficulties that I can perceive in the Word and seek the help of God. God wants me to understand His Word and He will bring it to me. I’m convinced.
You or any other Christian could have come to this solution in time. But then the other side of it is, Chad, that those of us who teach it’s our responsibility, you know I wasn’t thinking to myself as a teacher of the future and my first year in college. But those of us who teach are up here to point out some things to those whom we teach that they should notice in the Word.
And hopefully you’ll all go back and read Romans carefully and see if the things that you’ve heard here line up with the reading of Romans now that they’ve been pointed out to you. But hopefully all of you will internalize it as your own.
So it isn’t that God doesn’t want us to have teachers. It’s sometimes that we don’t give Him a real good chance.
Thank you very much for four nights of very good attention. Let’s close the discussion and the conference in prayer. And I’ll turn it over to Arch.
Father I want to thank You for these brothers and sisters who come back night after night because they have a hunger for Your Word. And they are interested in this very crucial book of Your Word. And I want to pray that You will bless the study that we’ve had together. I want to pray that each and every individual may take these things to heart. May search the Scriptures. Search the book of Romans to see that these things are so.
And may they appropriate whatever has come from Thee. We just pray that You will make Your Word fruitful in the hearts of each and every individual in this audience. And that it be for Your glory. We realize that as Gentiles we’ve been brought into Your mercies. We are profoundly indebted to You for those mercies. We pray that we may glorify You in our bodies and in our spirits which are Yours. And we ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.