Page 3 of 4

Posted on

The Spirit Empowered Life

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. (Romans 7:7-13 ESV)

Paul asks a question: “Is the law sin?” “What a ghastly thought!” Of course not. The law showed him what sin was. He illustrates with coveting. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” What happened when the law said, “Don’t covet.” He wanted to covet—as a matter of fact—coveting of every kind.

In verse 9, he says: “I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.”   In other words, before there was a law, I had no conscious awareness that coveting was a sin. But when the law came, I became aware and I began to sin. And that sin resulted in death for me.”

Notice the purpose of the law—its purpose was to bring life, not death. However, when sin got hold of the law, sin said, “The law says you can’t do this, but you really can and you will really enjoy it. As a matter of fact, the only reason the law says, “no” is because you will have so much fun doing it. So, go ahead. Have a great time. Covet your neighbor’s wife. After all, everybody else is doing it. And your neighbor doesn’t treat her wife quite right anyway.” What has happened? Sin has taken the commandment, “Do not covet,” and turned it into the most desirable thing to do.

“Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means!”   The law did not cause Paul to sin. What then, did the law do? The law simply pointed out what sin was. And not only that. The law made sin look exceedingly sinful.

I love the way Spurgeon explains this.

Paul here calls sin “sinful beyond measure.” Why didn’t he say. “exceedingly black,” or “exceedingly horrible,” or “exceedingly deadly”? Why, because there is nothing in the world so bad as sin. When he wanted to use the very worst word he could find, to call sin by, he called it by its own name, and reiterated it: “sin,” “sinful beyond measure.” For if you call sin black, there is no moral excellency or deformity in black or white. Black is as good as white, and white is as good as black, and you have expressed nothing. If you call sin “deadly,” yet death in itself has no evil in it compared with sin. For plants to die is not a dreadful thing; rather it may be a part of the organization of nature that successive generations of vegetables should spring up, and in due time should form the root-soil for other generations to follow. If you call it “deadly,” you have said but little. If you want a word, you must come home for it. Sin must be named after itself. If you want to describe it, you must call it “sinful.” Sin is “exceedingly sinful.”

That’s what Paul is talking about. The law says, “Do not touch.” We want to touch. And deep in us is a great desire for sin (called the flesh) and the flesh longs to be satisfied. The law simply pointed out sin. Sin used the law to make sin even more attractive. Look back at verse 6. There you see the new motivation. “new way of the Spirit.”

The law is an external, objective standard to which we conform. The Spirit is an internal, subjective Person to whom we relate.

Posted on

Scandalous Grace

Do you know the most compelling evidence to me of who we are in Christ? He is unnamed. We’re not exactly sure the crime he committed. We just know that it wasn’t by accident that he was scheduled to be executed the same day Jesus was crucified. Most executions were not attended by such crowds. Most crucifixions didn’t cause such a stir. But for this unnamed criminal, his most embarrassing moment became his most exhilarating. His most confining moment became his most liberating. He was crucified…and rightly so. He was guilty of crimes.

Jesus was crucified right beside him…and for no good reason. He was falsely accused.photo(The criminal beside Jesus: Photo by Chandler Frisbee)

This unnamed criminal, hanging naked, bleeding, writhing in pain on the cross, saw something in Jesus that the Romans soldiers couldn’t see. He saw something in Jesus that the Jewish leaders couldn’t see. He saw something in Jesus that the other thief couldn’t see. He also saw his sinful self.

Do you know what happened? That day, the naked, destitute, friendless, guilty criminal became a saint. What grace from the cross when Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” He had no time to join the church, to time to mend the wrongs he had done, no time to make restitution. He didn’t have to. He was crucified with Jesus…literally…and he was crucified with Jesus spiritually. He had a new relationship.

From criminal to citizen. From outcast to in. From a thief to a saint. In just one moment.

If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, that’s what happened to you.

I know. It’s scandalous. Grace is.

Are you living like it?

That’s what happened to you. I know. It’s scandalous. Grace is. Are you living like it?

Posted on

Guilt Replaced by Grace

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4-6 ESV)

So that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead. It’s one thing to be freed, but now what do we do? Since the law no longer has its condemning grip on us, are we to wander aimlessly through life without any sense of direction? How are we to live if the law no longer dictates our day-to-day activities?

Focus on that word “belong” as translated by the ESV. The NAS translates it “joined to.” The NIV translates it “belong to” and the KJV “married.” Joined, belong to, married are relationship words. Compare those words to the description of the married woman found in 7:2, “the married woman is “bound.”

A question. If you had your choice, would you rather be “bound” or “joined”?

Notice that, just as death frees the married woman to marry another, death frees us to pursue a new relationship. When we come to know Christ, we belong to him, are joined to him, are “married” to him. We are called the “bride” of Christ.  Guilt moves out and grace moves in.

In a sentence: Jesus loves you. He didn’t die on a cross to give you a new system for living: he died on the cross to give you and became your groom, your Savior. He loves you.

Posted on

The New Landlord

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4-6 ESV)

Larry Christenson, in his work The Renewed Mind, describes it this way:

Let’s say that you live in an apartment under a demanding landlord. The rent has to be paid on time, every time, and if you’re a moment late, you’re penalized. Every month, it seems, the rent increases. Your landlord comes into your apartment at will and checks to see that all is perfectly arranged—he keeps a clean house.

One day you hear the news. Someone has come in and bought the apartment complex. You meet your new landlord and to your surprise discover that you don’t even have to pay rent. It’s free! You never have to undergo the meticulous inspections again. This landlord visits you, sometimes dropping by just for an occasional chat. He brings you things He thinks you need. You don’t know how to act.

Then one day, you hear a knock on the door. It’s a familiar knock—you know it too well. You go to the door, knowing who’s standing there. It’s your old landlord. And before you know it, you’re opening the door. He’s demanding payment, even though he does not own the apartment complex. Without thinking, because you’ve done it for so many years, you pay up—money you don’t even owe him!

You don’t have to open the door. The old landlord, the law, has no right in your home. He can exact no payment from you. You have a new landlord, who is also your friend.

You belong to another.

Posted on

A Crucial Crucifixion

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.  (James 2:10 ESV)

The law is a package deal. If you keep one law, you must keep them all. When you break one law, you have broken all of them and are found guilty. We carry the law as a heavy weight on our shoulders. We are sad when we can’t achieve, disappointed when we can’t perform. We’re never good enough, never quite make it, never get it just right. The law is perfect, and when we fail in one point, we have failed in all points and we are judged guilty.

But there’s good news. Don’t miss this.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19-20 ESV)

If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have been crucified with Christ. This is great truth and sometimes hard to grasp. Notice the grammar of the statement: “I have been crucified.” This is the present perfect tense—denoting an event in the past with continuing effects. When were we crucified?   When Jesus died. Jesus died a substitutionary death—he died in our place. He stood in on our behalf.

The law that brought to Paul the awareness of sin, and the guilt to you, brought Christ to the cross. And on the cross, he died, once for all, for the sins of all people. The law always required a sacrifice. Jesus’s sacrifice was perfect—the law was perfect. Jesus’s sacrifice was complete, fulfilling the obligations of the law. When you chose to accept Christ, whether you knew it or not, you accepted Him as your representative before God and His death as fulfilling the law.

How should this change the way we live?

One word: focus. Do you focus on your sin problem or on the One who freed you from your sin problem? When you fail, do you wallow in guilt, or turn to the One who took your failures to the cross and seek His forgiveness?

Posted on

A Sheep’s Prayer to His Shepherd

Compassionate Lord,

Your mercies have brought me to the dawn of another day, vain will be its gift unless I grow in grace, increase in knowledge, ripen for spiritual harvest.

Let me this day know you as you are, love you supremely, serve you wholly, admire you fully.

Through grace let my will respond to you, knowing that power to obey is not in me, but that your free love alone enables me to serve you.

Here then is my empty heart, overflow it with your choicest gifts; here is my blind understanding, chase away its mists of ignorance.

O ever watchful Shepherd, lead, guide, tend me this day; without your restraining rod I err and stray; hedge up my path lest I wander into unwholesome pleasure, and drink its poisonous streams; direct my feet that I be not entangled in Satan’s secret snares, nor fall into his hidden traps.

Defend me from assailing foes, from evil circumstances, from myself.

My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature; they cling to me as my very skin; I cannot escape their contact.

In my rising up and sitting down down they barnacle me; they entice with constant baits; my enemy is within the citadel; come with almighty power and cast him out, pierce him to death, and abolish in me every particle of carnal life this day.

Form The Valley of Vision (page 216-217)

Posted on

Heaven on Earth

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:19-23 ESV)

You have a choice. If you sin, you will sin more and more. One sin leads to another. When you present yourself to your old habits, you heighten the desire for more sin. And you can’t get enough. Before you know it, you are engaging in sin you thought you would never commit. You look back and wonder how you ended up where you are. If you do the right thing, you will do the right thing more and more.   One act of obedience leads to another…and another…and another. As you continually obey, the old habits begin to fade. You are no longer feeding your flesh. Your will sin less and less.

For when you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. In other words, before Christ, when you were enslaved to sin, you had no desire to please God—righteousness had no claim on your life.

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. (Romans 6:21 ESV)  What fruit were you producing before you came to know Christ? What fruit came from your life—that life that you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. There is pleasure in sin for a while—but sin always leads to death.   “What kind of death?” you may ask. For the believer who engages in sin, sin leads to spiritual death. When a believer continually sins, his is a death-like existence. He dies a spiritual death. There is an inner turmoil that drains him emotionally and physically. His life is a living nightmare and he feels trapped between what he knows to be the right thing (that’s the Holy Spirit working on the inside) and the wrong thing he continually does.

There is good news. Look at verse 22. But now. Now—that’s today. That you have been set free from sin (you no longer have to report to the old master) and have become slaves of God (you have a new master), the fruit you get (there are great rewards from this new master), leads to sanctification (living the life that pleases God), and its end, eternal life.

And finally, Paul paints the picture in terms that we are able to understand. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. When the Christ-follower engages in sin, her paycheck is death. When the believer is enslaved to obedience, her paycheck is eternal quality of life. Her life on this earth will have an eternal nature that she thought before was impossible.

This is what I call Heaven on earth.

Posted on

What a Ghastly Thought!

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14 ESV)

In 1824, Peru won its freedom from Spain. Soon after, Simon Bolivar, the general who had led the liberating forces, called a convention for the purpose of drafting a constitution for the new country. After the convention, a delegation approached Bolivar and asked him to become their first president. Bolivar declined, saying that he felt someone else deserved the honor more than he did. But the people still wanted to do something special for Bolivar to show their appreciation for all he had done for them, so they offered him a gift of a million pesos, a very large fortune in those days.

Bolivar accepted the gift and then asked, “How many slaves are there in Peru?” He was told there were about three thousand. “And how much does a slave sell for?” he wanted to know. “About 350 pesos for an able-bodied man,” was the answer. “Then,” said Bolivar, “I will add whatever is necessary to this million pesos you have given me and I will buy all the slaves in Peru and set them free. It makes no sense to free a nation, unless all its citizens enjoy freedom as well.”

It didn’t make sense in 1824 and doesn’t make sense in 2015. Why free us from the penalty of sin (through the cross) and not free us from the power of sin? Paul had similar concerns.

Paul again affirms the truth—we are not under law but under grace. What does this mean? Let me illustrate. The law says, “The speed limit is 65 mph.” And since the law says this is the speed limit, if you go 66 mph you have broken the law. The state trooper pulls you over, points out that you were driving 66 mph. He can give you a ticket. Instead, he instructs you to slow down, gives you a warning, and you go. That’s grace. Now let me paraphrase what Paul is saying: “Speeding shall not be master over you, because you are not under the rule of the speed limit, when you are pulled over, you will receive grace.”

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:15 ESV) Some translations render that, “What a ghastly thought!”

What then? Should I drive 75 mph because, when I get pulled over for breaking the law I will not be given a ticket? May it never be! Or, as we discovered last week, of course not! What a ghastly thought! God forbid!

Posted on

Jesus, the Selfless Master

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18 ESV)

Either: you have a choice. You can either obey sin or you can obey righteousness. No longer must you show up to the taskmaster of your own flesh and say “yes.” You can say, “no.” Why does Paul saturate this description with slave language? A slave among the Romans was considered his master’s property, and he could do with him as he wanted. Under a bad master, the slave lived a dreadful life. His ease and comfort were of no concern; he was treated worse than an animal; and, in many cases, his life hung on the mere whim of the master.

That’s what the old slave master, sin, does. Satan cares nothing for you. And when you come to Christ, his hatred for you intensifies. Your old nature, the sinful nature that you possessed when you came to Christ, you still have. Deep within you is the desire to sin. When you give in to that old sin nature, you are throwing away the freedom given you in Christ. Your own evil lusts and appetites become your most cruel taskmasters.

The truth is that you choose your master—and you do not have to show up at your master’s house one more day. You can be free. As a Christ-follower, slavery to sin is voluntary.   Look at what Paul says. You are a slave either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.

Why use the same term, slave, to refer to believers? It more forcibly shows that we are our Master’s property; and that, as he is infinitely good his service must be perfect freedom.   Jesus Christ asks no obedience from us that he does not turn to our eternal advantage because He has no self-interest to secure. You see, before Christ, you had no choice. The temptation came along, you gave in, and you fell to it. Now you have a choice. You have God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, living inside you. When temptation comes, you don’t have to say yes.

Posted on

Who’s Your Master?

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16 ESV)

Every day we present ourselves—either to God or to Satan, either to the Spirit or to our flesh, either to the ministry of the Church or the ways of the world.

Obedience results in slavery.

Maybe you struggle with this statement. Let me ask you a question. How many of you thought about how to put on your shoes this morning? How many of you actually thought about the way you brush your teeth? You didn’t. You’ve done it for years. It is, as we say, “second nature.”

So what happens? Before you come to know Christ, you have habits—bad habits—that you already practiced. In some cases, God immediately frees people from those habits. For others, freedom is a process. Healing doesn’t take place over night. That old habit still wants to be your master. You still find yourself waking up with a bad attitude. You lose your temper with small things. You still think lustful thoughts. “Why is this happening?” you may think. “What is going on inside me? I thought God changed my life. I gave my heart to Christ, yet I still struggle.”

The question is, “To whom or what do you present yourself.”To present is to hand oneself over, to surrender oneself. If slavery is not optional, if you are going to be slaves of the one you obey, the problem comes when what you obey is the sinful desires that dominated your life before you came to Christ. Did you present yourself to God or to your old habits today? Did you offer your body to God for His service or did you give Satan an opportunity to establish a stronghold in your life?

Whoever you obey becomes your master.