A SUMMARY MESSAGE OF ROMANS CHAPTERS FIVE THROUGH EIGHT FOR March 1, 2015

1 A SUMMARY MESSAGE OF ROMANS CHAPTERS FIVE THROUGH EIGHT FOR March 1, 2015 This morning we conclude our series of messages from chapters five through eight in Paul s letter to the Christians in Rome. To provide a backdrop for these four chapters we need to think of what Jesus says in Mark 13:13 the one who endures [or, perseveres] to the end will be saved. The original language literally says, The one having endured to the end, this one will be saved. That s emphatic. His meaning is only the one who endures to the end will be saved. This is a very important promise but it also serves as a warning. Implicit in this promise is the truth a believer MUST endure to the end in order to be saved. Christianity is not a religion to be tried on like a sweater at Kohl s. Following Christ is a way of life that genuinely transforms people and he will be THE most important part of our lives until the day they die. That s what is implied in these word endure or persevere. Being a believer is not about having an emotional experience, praying a prayer of salvation, shedding a few tears but not living a transformed life. If a person has had only an emotional experience, but doesn t walk with God or live at all like Christ, he has no Biblical grounds for expecting to go to heaven because he prayed the prayer. It s the one who perseveres to the end who shows herself to be a genuine believer. This truth that only those who endure to the end will be saved when taken by itself, can feel a bit intimidating. We live in a sinful world with a devil that wants to steal kill and destroy us. We fail, sometimes miserably. The church which should be a source of mutual support and encouragement in our walk with God, sometimes doesn t seem to care where we are spiritually, or perhaps we don t even think to confess to anyone in the body of Christ our spiritual indifference or sinful habits. The enemy seems to increasingly own the culture we live in and being a Christian has perhaps never been harder than it is in 2015. Life seems to be full of things that would spiritually shipwreck us but Jesus says we ll not get to heaven unless we by his grace make our way through this spiritual obstacle course and remain faithful to Christ until the end. What makes it even more intimidating is the fact that we ve seen more than a few people who we were absolutely certain were believers they seemed to love God more than us but at some point, they just walked away from for the pleasures of this

2 world. Other people are hurt by the church and never again darken a church door they seem to lose their faith. Jesus says in Matthew 13 that some fall away because of the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. There surely has never been a nation where it was easier to be tempted by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches than in 21 st century America. Many who think they are believers allowed themselves to be choked off from God years ago. They may still go to church but they find it all rather boring and meaningless. Even genuine believers go through seasons where their spiritual lives seem dry and it s easy to become discouraged. Because the stakes are so high for us to persevere to the end, it s crucial that during those seasons of dryness we don t give up hope. We must believe that God has truly done a saving work in us and that we WILL persevere to the end. It s also crucial for us to be able to assure other believers who are feeling distant from God or who are trapped in a sin, that they ve not shipwrecked their faith--that the gospel gives them the power to fight off the temptations and sins of this world so we CAN endure to the end. We must believe that this increasingly dark and evil world cannot overcome the power of God s saving work of the cross and the Holy Spirit living within each believer. Paul writes Romans 5-8 to give us this hope we so badly need in order to be spiritually healthy. Today, we want to do an overview of these four chapters we ve spent 19 weeks looking at together. Before we do that, just a word about how these chapters fit into the larger context of Romans. When Paul writes a letter, he s writing an argument. The letter to the Romans is an argument for the necessity, sufficiency and saving power of the gospel. Except for a few personal greetings, everything in this letter is written in support of this thoroughly gospel-centered argument. The arguments in Paul s letters are very carefully and clearly structured. These were not letters he jotted down off the top of his head. That means that when we get to chapter five, it s not as if Paul says out of the blue You know, let me speak to the issue of assurance and hope in Christ as if that were just the next topic he needed to check off his list. No, these four chapters are seamlessly connected with Paul s larger argument in the first four chapters of the book. So, let s just do a paragraph summary of the first four chapters to see the larger flow of Paul s argument.

3 When Paul begins this section in 5:1 with, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, that s a summary statement of the contents of chapters one through four. The first four chapters of Romans speak to our need for a relationship with God that makes us acceptable to him whose wrath against sinners is real and being revealed in this world. Paul s main point is that--through the saving work of Christ on the cross, God has now made it possible for a sinful person through faith alone in Christ to become part of God s people. Paul uses Abraham the Father of the Jews as an example of being made acceptable to God through faith, not by what he did, but because he placed his trust in God. The Old Testament looked forward to a time when both Jew and Gentile could be made acceptable to God through faith. The fulfillment of these Old Testament promises of salvation by faith are highlighted and explained by Paul in chapters one through four of Romans. Both Jew and Gentile can be justified before God because of the saving work of God in Christ. In chapters five through eight Paul connects the faith required for salvation he has discussed in the first four chapters to the hope of eternal life that comes through this salvation. That is--believers can be confident that they will, through faith persevere to the end. They will be saved to the end. This salvation, which begins before they were born and is made real to them at their conversion WILL endure they we face opposition from the powers of sin and the law that conspire to try to pull us down. This salvation through the gospel is powerful enough to bring us triumphantly through this life of sin and temptation and cause us to be glorified when these bodies die and we stand before God. In chapters one through four, the emphasis is on justification being made right with God through faith. In chapters five through eight, Paul riddles us with hope that this justification will of necessity and without exception terminate in glorification. Along the way, believers will increasingly learn to draw on the gospel s saving power through the Holy Spirit to overcome the power of sin and death. In other words, as Luther said, we are justified by faith alone, but faith is never alone. Rooted in justification is the fruit of holiness and increasing obedience to God. If there isn t any holiness and the fruit of obedience to God, it means there IS no justifying work in us because sanctification living an increasingly obedient life is absolutely and completely rooted in justification. Mike Bullmore says that our justification through by grace through faith is pregnant with sanctification by grace through faith. God s

4 justifying work in us WILL give birth to an increasing love for God. Justification WILL result in the fruit of sanctification. Paul treats four ways in which the gospel can and will deliver us from the final wrath of God. He treats four defeated enemies of the believer that, though powerful, will never be able to permanently derail a believer. In the second half of chapter five he explains that DEATH cannot stop the gospel s power to save us. Paul makes his argument by explaining that humanity is divided into two camps. First are those whose only spiritual ancestry is only through Adam who brought death into the world. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. [5:12] anyone who shares only the nature of Adam is not acceptable to a holy God. Second are those whose spiritual heritage is traced back to Jesus Christ. Though they ve been given their physical life as part of Adam s race, they ve been made spiritually alive through Christ. Believers have been united to a new race of people through their union with Jesus whose victory over Adam s sin gives eternal life to those who trust in him. The way of Adam is the way of sin and eternal death, but God has defeated sin s power to condemn us through grace found in Jesus. Paul explains something very important about the relationship between sin and grace in 5:20. where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. That is the more sin a person has, the more grace God gives to overcome the penalty of that sin. If you trust in Christ, it s impossible to have too much sin for God to save you there s always enough grace to bring you to God and keep you saved. Do we believe that? That raises a question Paul had heard 1000 times in his ministry. That is as he says it in 6:1, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, does all this sin-cleansing grace give us the right to sin as much as we want on the assumption it will be forgiven? At this point, Paul treats a second threat to the believer that the gospel overcomes. He teaches that the power of SIN can never successfully hinder the gospel s saving power over us. Paul responds by teaching that the grace of God found in the gospel not only forgives us from the penalty of sin, it also gives us a brand new relationship to the power of sin. When we place our faith in Christ, we re united to his victory over sin on the cross. Through our faith in Jesus, we have been united in his victory over the power of sin. This power to overcome sin s power to destroy us assures us that sin can never

5 overcome God s saving work in us. For if we have been united with him [Christ] in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Because the power of the gospel to save a believer has broken sin s power to destroy us, we can successfully wage war against it. That war looks like this: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. The progression of Paul s argument is a great example of how way the gospel works in our lives. In the first half of chapter six, Paul teaches at least four truths of who I am in my union with Christ. First, through Christ I can live a new life above sin s power (vss.2-4). Second, my old self that was only part of Adam and under his control died with Christ so that sin s power to dominate me is broken. (v.6) Third, since I died with Christ, I shall live with him. (v.8). Finally, Sin no longer has power over me since I live under grace and not the law. (v.14) All of that is true of every genuine believer in Jesus. Notice how Paul s argument progresses. He spends several verses pounding in the truth of this new relationship to sin we ve been given our new identity in Christ. Then, on the basis of our new identity in Christ, he commands us to live it out. He s saying in essence, Since you no longer have to don t let sin reign in our body. Since you are a new person in Christ, don t offer yourself to the power of sin. Since you ve been set free, present yourself to God, not sin when you are tempted. The commands to live above sin s power are always, always based on what God has done for us. So if we as believers are failing in our struggle against the power of a particular sin, a big part of the reason is because we are not believing what God has done for us through the gospel. The way to overcome that sin is not to knuckle down and willfully try harder, it mainly through going back and reminding ourselves that this sin is completely inconsistent with who God has made us through Christ. In chapter seven, Paul explains how another possible threat to our salvation could never overcome the gospel s power to save us. That is the power of the LAW to condemn us could never overcome the power of the gospel to rescue us. Paul debunks a popular but badly mistaken understanding of the Law of Moses common among the Jews. The Jews believed that God gave the law to help us be holy. The Law told us what God expected and pushed us to obedience. Paul explains that

6 while the Law has the power to tell us what to do, it has ABSOLUTELY NO POWER to help us do what it tells us to do. That means that the Law actually condemns people. He also teaches that the Law reveals how wicked sin is because sin actually uses the holy Law of God to increase sin and bring condemnation to people. Paul gives us great hope as he teaches that we no longer live in the era of the Law but the era of the Spirit who DOES supply the power to obey God. One commentator says, The decisive mark of the people of God is no longer the Torah [law] but the Spirit. 1 Paul teaches, But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not the old way of the written code. Paul clarifies that if we sin, the problem is not the law, but the fact that even though believers have been given the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin s power, there remains within all believers their indwelling sin that will not be destroyed until we die. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Paul explains that this indwelling sin can be a very frustrating to the believer. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells within my members. (6:22-23) He describes this as a battle against the sin that lives within us a battle where the believer can even be taken captive to sin at times. This is why believers can at times sin as rabidly as unbelievers. It s not because they don t have the power to overcome sin. It s because when they don t by faith battle against sin, it can and does make them a captive of sin s power making them feel helpless even though they are not at all helpless. We must not ever just accept this sin-we must make war against it. Paul uses his own experience to help us not only identify with him, but also to show us how to get out of the bondage of our indwelling sin. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!... Paul models here what the believer must do when he falls captive to the sin that indwells them. First, they must cry out in complete dependence upon God utterly renouncing their own efforts to free themselves from sin s power at work in them to hold them captive. Wretched man that I am! Second, they must look outside of themselves for a deliverer. They must by faith look to someone else to rescue them. Who will deliver 1 Schreiner, Romans. P. 248.

7 me from this body of death? Finally, they must see that it is Christ who has already done the work to free them from sin s captivity. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It s as we believers humble ourselves and admit that we are trapped because of our sin that we begin to be free. Sometimes this humbling comes as we confess to other believers that we have allowed ourselves to be trapped by a sin. We find victory over sin as we are encouraged to look intently for a deliverer outside of ourselves and through faith thank God that he s sent Jesus who has done all the work necessary to free us from the power of sin when we through unbelief fail to fight it off. Up to this point, Paul has filled us with hope as he has explained that neither death, nor sin, nor the law can defeat the gospel s power to cause us to endure to the end. All of those are defeated enemies that can never keep the believer from enduring to the end through the power of the gospel. In chapter eight, Paul brings this section to an amazing crescendo by saying: There is NOTHING that can keep the power of the gospel in the life of the believer from doing its saving work and bringing us to God in glory. 2 Not death, not sin, not law, not NOTHING can keep the genuine believer from realizing the saving power of the gospel and reaching glory. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. To learn to increasingly lean on the power of the Spirit is a hallmark of a genuine believer. It s as we walk in the power of the Spirit that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. This is a remarkable promise because Paul is saying that as we walk in the power of the Spirit love the fulfillment of the law will increasingly mark our lives in Christ. This dependence upon the Spirit is so important that Paul includes two warnings connected to this. First, For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. [8:6] A few verses later he says, For if you live according to the flesh you will die [eternal death], but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The believer has been given the grace to fight sin. That means we must not allow our minds to become dominated by it but instead kill the sin by seeing the beauty of Jesus in the gospel. As God allows us to do that, the sin we re fighting will lose its appeal to us in comparison to what we have in Christ. It s the Spirit of 2 This outline of defeated enemies is found in Moo s commentary on Romans, p. 293.

God that makes us sons of God who prompts us to cry out in dependence upon God, Abba, Father. 8 In the second half of chapter eight, Paul ends this section as he began it in chapter five with a tremendous, rapid fire set of assurances of the future glory of the believer. He argues that though God subjected this creation to the fall it was subjected in the hope that Jesus would come and overcome the effects of the fall. During this time after Jesus has saved us, but before he completes that salvation, we must live with a tension a delight in God and the gospel but also an inward groaning as we await our full redemption as God s children. But during this time of tension, the Spirit of God helps us in our weaknesses. He intercedes for us so that we might pray as we ought to so that God s will is done in our lives in spite of our weaknesses. We know that nothing can overcome the saving power of the gospel because God uses even the trials that could discourage us during this time of tension to instead further his saving work in us. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. We know that nothing can stop God s saving power of the gospel to cause us to endure to the end because he s already given us far more than we could imagine in sacrificing his Son for us. If he will give us Jesus, there s nothing he won t supply and that includes the faith to trust in him and his promises in the gospel. We know that the power of the gospel to bring salvation cannot ultimately be defeated in the life of the believer because the gospel s power to save us was enacted in God s mind before the creation of the world when he foreknew and predestined us for glory. We know the gospel s power to save us to the end cannot possibly be overcome because once you have been predestined, the other aspects of salvation must, must, must follow. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. That means there are no drop-off in this process. This salvation process ignited by the saving power of the gospel cannot be broken in any way once it s initiated. Though there be trial which we should expect as believers in a fallen world, there is nothing that can separate us from God s love in Christ. God the Father, along with Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all for us in our salvation to glory.

9 These truths are crucial for us to know and believe if we are to live with the assurance of our salvation the assurance that we will endure to the end God intends for us. The promises of Romans five through eight should be as familiar to us as the ABC s or the pledge of allegiance. If you re here today and you haven t placed your trust in Jesus, then the gospel s saving power over death and sin and the law and everything else that would try to hinder salvation is not something you possess. That means that all of those enemies of your soul are free to drag your soul to hell. You must by faith trust in the good news of the gospel that God sent his only Son Jesus to die on the cross to die a death that we deserved to die that he lived a perfect life for us that we could never live so that we could enjoy a heaven that we could never deserve. If you don t believe that you re so bad he has to save you, and so loved he is glad to save you, you have no reason to believe you are going to heaven. If you don t believe the message of the gospel then its saving power cannot be applied to your life and you have no legitimate hope for heaven or for any lasting joy in this world. Come to Christ today place your trust in his work on the cross so that you can know this invincible hope of the gospel. May God give us the grace live in this glorious gospel hope for our joy and his glory.