Slave or Free, Romans 6:15-23

As we continue in chapter 6 of Romans, we are considering the question hypothetically proposed by Paul in vs 1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”  The emphasis in that question is shall we continue in sin.  From this question which Paul answered with a resounding “NO” he establishes the principle that as a Christian, saved by grace, we cannot continue in sin.  We cannot live a lifestyle of sin.  We will not live in sin, even though it is true that as sin increases grace abounds all the more. 

And in the first 14 verses Paul supports that principle by showing that continuing in sin is incompatible because we died to sin and now have new life in Christ. We have died to sin. We have been united to Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, and raised to newness of life. So we are a new creation, with a new life. The penalty for sin has been paid, and the power of sin has been broken, and we walk in a new life. We will not go on sinning so that grace may abound because we have died to sin, and we have a new life and a new nature.

But this is such an important principle that Paul doesn’t want to leave it at that.  And so he asks what seems to be basically the same question again in vs 15, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” And his answer is;  “May it never be!”

Now the question is fundamentally the same, but with a different emphasis. Many commentators believe that in this question, Paul is not asking can you continue in sin, or live in sin, but can you lapse into sin and still be considered ok because you are no longer under the law.  The answer is still the same - may it never be! Sin is still an offense to God.

But the premise of the question is also somewhat different. In this question, he asks, not just if we can sin while under grace, but rather, since we are not under law, can we sin? Now Paul previously explained the purpose of the law in chapter 5 vs 20 saying,  “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” The point made there was that the law did not save, but rather it convicted you of sin.  The law, Paul will say in Gal.3:24, is our tutor to show us to our need for a Savior.  The law, God’s standard of righteousness, only convicts us of sin, and magnifies our sin so that we might understand how sinful we are, and drive us to our need of a Savior.

So when Paul contrasts law and grace, he isn’t trying to show two ways of salvation; one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. Remember, he has already made the case that Abraham was saved by faith, not by the law.  But instead he is saying, that since you no longer have the condemnation of the law hanging over your head, convicting you as a sinner, but now you have been saved by grace through faith, are you now able to lapse back into sin and not have to worry about it.  Because, after all, the penalty has been done away with. Someone else has paid the fine, and since there can’t be double jeopardy, is it ok to sin? 

Well, the answer is still, may it never be! The goal of our salvation is that we might not sin, and that we would be delivered not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of it.  Now to illustrate his point, Paul turns to what would have been a familiar analogy to the church at Rome, especially in light of the culture that they lived in.  It is estimated that in Paul’s day, 30-40% of the population were slaves.  It’s very likely that even a larger percentage of the church at Rome were slaves.  And so Paul uses an analogy of slaves, or servants to illustrate this principle.

He says in vs16 “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone [as] slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

The equivalent of that phrase “do you not know” is like saying, “Isn’t it obvious?”  So, Isn’t it obvious that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?  Let’s just pause there for a moment.  You know, as bad as slavery was in those days, for some it was the only choice that they had.  Very often, people would voluntarily sell themselves into slavery, either because of no economic opportunity, or because they were an alien, or because they were in debt and it was either slavery or prison.  Now whether or not that is what Paul had in mind I’m not so sure, but the phrase that you present yourself to be a slave for obedience would indicate to me that something like that was possibly in the apostle’s thinking.  But regardless of how they became a slave, the idea is that a slave must obey the one who is his master.

Now the fact that he is using slavery as an analogy for obedience to sin or obedience to righteousness is evident from the context of that verse.  He says, “you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” 

So the point he is making is a believer cannot serve two masters. The Lord Jesus makes that very clear in the Gospel of Matthew. "No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to the one and despise the other." But he not only says that, he says in the next chapter in the 18th verse, "A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." That's why Paul then adds the fruit of sin or righteousness, saying,  “you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.”

So we cannot obey sin anymore, because we have a new Master. Our allegiance, our new life, our identification is with our new representative Jesus Christ. We've been given a new nature, new ownership, belonging to a new Master, and consequently, we cannot serve sin any longer. 

The fact is, if your master is sin, then you’re going to obey sin. If your master is righteousness, then you’re going to obey righteousness. There are two families in the human race: people are either in Adam or they’re in Christ. They’re either under the reign of sin and death or they’re under the reign of righteousness and life. They’re either under the reign of iniquity or they’re under the reign of grace. There is no middle ground.

The sad truth concerning slavery is that if a person was born to a slave, he was by birth a slave. If a person was born to a free man, then he was by birth a free man.  So because of our forefather Adam who became a slave of sin, we who are born as descendants  of Adam are born as slaves, born into sin.  And the outcome of that slavery is death.  You’re serving someone, either sin or righteousness. 

I cannot help but think of the song by Bob Dylan that was popular a couple of decades ago.  It was called “You Gotta Serve Somebody.”  I’m not too confident about all of Dylan’s theology today, but he got that part right. The song lyrics said, “Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”  You belong to one or the other.

Now as I said Paul is using the analogy of the slave market of his day. And a slave was responsible to obey his master all his life until death. But when he eventually died his obligation to his old master was gone. And so our obligation to our old master is now gone because we have in our representative died. We have been buried. We have been raised up together with Him to new life. Or we could apply the same analogy in a different way.  We could say here is a slave who is the servant of one master, but who is put on the auction block and sold to another master, and therefore, he is obligated to obey the other master and no longer required to obey any commands that the old master might extend to him. 

Likewise, our old master was sin. Jesus Himself said in John chapter 8: 34, “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.” And slavery to sin results in death.  And everyone, Paul has already established in the first three chapters, is a sinner.  Every man, woman and child is born in sin, under the dominion of sin.  The sin nature which we received from our forefather Adam instilled in us the corrupting principle of sin, that defiles all that we are and all that we do. There is none righteous, not even one. (Rom.3:10) So we were all born as slaves of sin. 

In vs17, Paul states that you “were” slaves of sin. Verse 20, you were slaves of sin. Again and again we are reminded that we were slaves of sin. Back in vs 6, the indication is that sin was our master. And the effect of sin is death, verse 21, the outcome of sin is death. And then in vs 23, “The wages of sin is death.” The whole human race is born into slavery to sin, with the ultimate outcome physical and spiritual death. Sin is like rampant cancer spreading to every organ of a body. It is incurable; it is terminal. And worse, physical death provides no relief. It only casts that sinful soul into an eternal death which is spiritual death.

Now in vs 17,  we find what the famous preacher Martyn Lloyd Jones calls one of the most important statements in all of this epistle, in that it tells us exactly what a Christian is. “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”  Lloyd Jones says this is a definition of what a Christian is. He's a person that has obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine to which he was delivered.  He is no longer enslaved to sin, but a slave of righteousness.

The key to this transformation, Paul says, is obedience from the heart. It’s a change of heart resulting in obedience. And that is something that God does in you through His grace.  A change of heart results in a change of allegiance, and a change of allegiance results in a change of action.  Ezekiel 36:25-27 speaks to this divine transformation. ”Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

And that same change of heart resulting in obedience is spoken of in Jeremiah 31:33 “But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 

There is another important principle which Paul makes in that verse, and that is our obedience is from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were committed.  And the interesting word in that statement is the word translated as “form.” That word in the original Greek is “typos” which means a die or a mold. The picture is that of a mold which is made by the teaching of the gospel, into which we are poured into, so that we might be shaped or formed into the image of Christ. It’s a very beautiful word picture of how the preaching of the word conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ.  And that conforming that occurs reshapes us from the old man to the new man.  As 1Cor. 15:49 says, “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

And verse 18 describes that new condition, then, as having been freed from the power of sin. “Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” You have been purchased by a new Master.  You have been set free from the dominion of sin, from the enslavement to sin, from the power of sin over you.  Now, we are now under the dominion of righteousness.  We are servants of righteousness. Because of a change of heart, we have a love for God, and out of that love we are obedient to righteousness. 

Then in vs 19, Paul says that because of the weakness of our human condition, because we cannot comprehend spiritual things as we ought to, he is using a physical analogy to teach a spiritual principle. Vs19 “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in [further] lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” 

To present means to give, to yield.  And that indicates a willingness on our part.  In the old nature, we willingly presented our bodies to sin because we loved evil.  And we were enslaved by our affections and our passions.  But now that we have a change of heart, a change of loves, we are no longer compelled to serve sin.  It’s possible to willingly return to sin, but the point is that we do not have to serve sin any longer.  If we do serve sin, it’s going to be because we want to do it, not because we have to do it.

And so in that change of nature is our freedom from sin.  When we sin, Paul said, it always results in more sin, and more sin.  It’s the nature of sin to spread, to multiply, to consume, to corrupt completely.  But in the opposite of sin, when we respond to righteousness, it in turn leads to holiness, or what Paul calls sanctification.  Sanctification is simply becoming less sinful, and more holy in our behavior.  It is a process where God works in us the fruit of righteousness.  He planted, so to speak, righteousness in us through justification, and He reaps righteousness in us through the process of sanctification.  The process in which we become molded more like Christ as we die to the old nature, and out of our new nature  serve Christ from the heart.

And as a further incentive to serve the Lord, he says in vs 20, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.”   What that means is that when we were enslaved to sin, we had no claim to righteousness, but only the fruit of death. So what was the benefit of our life of sin?  I will confess that when I lived in sin at a young age, kind of in a prodigal son type of existence, I thought I was doing these cool things which even though I knew were wrong, I saw them as kind of marks of manhood, or marks of achievement that I could brag about later.  But I can tell you now from the vantage point of maturity, there is practically nothing that I did during those years that I am not ashamed of today.  In fact, I look back on much of my life and I am so ashamed.  There was no benefit, only shame, only emotional and physical scars on both myself and on others that I hurt.

And what Paul is saying, is from a believer’s perspective, as you look back on your life before you were saved, why would you ever want to go back to that for even a second?  Especially knowing the progressive nature of sin, that one little sin leads to another, and another, until you are completely corrupted, and the ultimate end of it is death.

Vs. 22 "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”  Listen, there is great benefit from sanctification. To be sanctified means to be set apart for good works. And there is a blessing and a reward that is promised for our service to the Lord. There is a peace that passes all understanding in knowing that you are right with God.  There are inherent blessings in following the Lord, and there are certainly future blessings from a life lived for God, as we enter into our reward in eternal life.

But Paul doesn’t equate godliness with an easy life. The life of a slave or a servant is sometimes trying.  It means that we sometimes have to give up our way for His way, give up our priorities for His priorities.  But the benefits to serving the Lord are an eternal, everlasting inheritance which cannot be taken away.  In Rom 8:16-18 Paul says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

So Paul clearly presents a choice for every man.  To live for sin and reap the reward which is death.  Or to live for the Lord and receive the gift of eternal life. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Consider the outcome of your life.  If you live for yourself, if you live for sin, then you will get your wages.  And your wages which you earned is death.  But if you live for the Lord, then you are given life.  You could never earn eternal life and all that is encapsulated in that promise.  But God is gracious to give us eternal life if we present ourselves to Him to be His servants.

Given all that Christ has done for us by dying in our place as the price for our sin, given all that God has given us in a new life, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and inheritance as co heirs of Christ, how could we ever return to the enslavement of sin?  How could we ever spurn the grace that God has given us, for the temporary, fleeting pleasure of sin that though it may look appealing for a moment, will put us back on the path of misery and death. 

Paul has spoken three times in this text about presenting yourselves, presenting your members.  And in Romans 12:1,2 he speaks still further about the need to regularly present ourselves to God and not be conformed to this world  And we do that by continually renewing the mind by the washing of the word of God that we might not sin against Him.  Romans 12:1,2, Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  

I urge you, to present your bodies to the Lord which is your spiritual service.  The benefits are eternal.  May God help us to leave behind the way of sin and to live as the free men and women God has made us to be. As Paul said in Galatians 5:1: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of bondage," (Galatians 5:1). You have been freed from the slave market; now walk as new men. This is Paul's exhortation to us.  I pray that you will be conformed to this gospel.

Dead to sin, alive in Christ, Romans 6:1-14

Have you ever let your imagination run wild and thought what it would be like to rob a bank and get away with it? No? I guess I am the only one with a criminal bent among us. But let’s just say I could guarantee that you would never get caught, could you imagine robbing a bank of millions of dollars?

Well, such a prospect might be more tempting for some of us more so than for others, but I would hope that most of you would never do such a thing, even if you knew you could get away with it.  But maybe robbing a bank is too much to consider.  Let’s just drop the severity of the crime down to, say, just a common sin.  Maybe something that wouldn’t get you arrested, but nevertheless something that you know is wrong. How about a little white lie? How about lusting after a woman? How about cheating on an exam?  How about hating someone?

The question is, if you know that you aren’t going to be caught, and take that a step further and say you don’t think that God is going to hold you accountable - because, after all, you’re under grace and not the law - would you go ahead and sin?  I’m afraid that if we are honest with ourselves, many of us might have to say, not only might I do such a thing, I probably already have done so on more than one occasion.

But let’s suppose you have done something that you know is a sin.  The question might be asked, so what?  Or you might even ask the question, why not?  After all, Paul has already established that as Christians we are not under the law, nor the penalty of the law, but we are under grace. So there is no condemnation to those under grace.  Furthermore, we might argue that grace glorifies God because it shows that our salvation is not because of how righteous we are, or how much good we might do, but grace glorifies the love of God, the goodness of God. 

So you might even go so far as to justify your sin by saying that your sinfulness demonstrates the grace of God and therefore glorifies God.  After all, Paul said in 5:20 that where sin increased, grace abounded more.  So unfortunately, for some of us, this isn’t a merely theoretical question.  We have already willfully sinned so that grace might abound. We don’t worry about condemnation because Romans 8:1 says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  We don’t worry about divine discipline because Paul said that where sin increases grace abounds more.  So the more I sin, the more grace God bestows on me.

Now Paul is saying in this passage that kind of thinking is counter to the doctrine of salvation. And as a means of disputing that kind of twisted logic, Paul asks the rhetorical question, “Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase?”  In asking this question Paul isn’t denying that there will be no sin in a Christian’s life.  There will be sin occurring in a Christians life as long as he is in the body.  John said in 1John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.”  So Paul isn’t saying that Christians will never sin.

But what he is questioning is the attitude that accommodates sin, that says, “I don’t need to be concerned about sin, and in fact I can deliberately practice sin without being worried about it, because increasing sin causes more grace to abound, and grace glorifies God.”

And we know that such thinking was  prevalent in some circles in the early church because Jude said in vs 4, that certain individuals had crept into the church and turned the doctrine of grace into a license to sin.

So to answer his own rhetorical question, Paul gives an emphatic “No!”  He says, “God forbid!” The very suggestion that the end justifies the means is abhorrent to Paul.  And he equates such thinking as being as incompressible as having died to sin, and then living in it.  He is likening someone who has died from a terrible, corrupting disease and then being brought back to life, only to continue to live in the corrupted filth which caused the disease in the first place.

Peter speaks of the same principle using the analogy of animals.  He says in 2Peter  2:22  “It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, [returns] to wallowing in the mire.”  I can tell you as someone speaking from experience, someone who has a couple of dogs, that nothing will make you lose your own lunch quicker than watching your dog throw up, and then go back over to it and try to eat it.  I get sick thinking of it.  But Peter uses such a disgusting analogy in order to explain how abhorrent it is to return to sin when you have been delivered from it.  The idea that a Christian would voluntarily give opportunity to sin to operate produces a revulsion in Paul, as it should in us.

So the better question is not should you sin that grace may abound, but how can we live in sin when we have died to sin?  What that question teaches us is that in Christ we have died to sin. Remember in the last chapter we talked about the representative man?  That we were all once under the representative man who was Adam according the flesh, and suffered the sin nature and the condemnation of death as a result of our relationship with him.  But then Paul showed that Christ is the second Adam, and by faith we can change our allegiance and identify with Christ, who died on the cross for us as our substitute so that we might have life.  

The principle then is that as Christ our representative died for sin, so we too die to sin.  Our conversion comes as a result of faith in what Christ did - dying on the cross for our sin as our substitute.  And as we believe that, and trust in the efficacy of what He did, we too die to the old man, we die to sin vicariously with Christ.  Listen folks, this is why I emphasize again and again that repentance is necessary for salvation. Repentance is dying to sin.  Repentance is nothing less than realizing the awfulness of our sin, and realizing that our life in sin needs to pass away. Repentance is turning away.  It is a desire to change, to do a 180, to leave the way in which we were living, to turn to God for a new beginning.  We need to be wiling to renounce sin, to let go of sin, to die to it, to change, to be converted.  Asking God to make me a new person, to give me a new life because the old man resulted in death.

The problem is that I’m afraid many of us have not truly repented of sin. We may have reached a place where we want out of the predicament that we are in.  We may want God to help us get out of the crisis that we have ended up in.  And so perhaps we call on God, or turn to God, or pray to God for help.  And maybe God does help us get through that crisis.  But maybe also we have never repented of our sin. Maybe we have never recognized how really sinful we were, and that no matter what I have to give up, no matter what I have to let die, it is worth it, and it is even necessary, if I am to have new life.

I’m afraid a lot of the church is like Israel after God delivered them from slavery in Egypt and brought them out into the wilderness to travel towards the promised land of Canaan. But they weren’t many days out of Egypt and Exodus records them whining about how much they missed the delicacies of Egypt.  And it wasn’t long until they even were thinking about how they could return to slavery in order to feed their desires.  Unthinkable, and yet such is the nature of sin that is not repented of.

In 1Cor. 10:1-6 it says concerning Israel in those days, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea;  and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;  and all ate the same spiritual food;  and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.  Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.  Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”

Now the analogy to what we are talking about today should be obvious. But there is something else I want to point out to you that parallels this passage we are looking at today.  Notice it says, “they all were baptized into Moses.” Obviously Moses did not baptize the Israelites, so what is he talking about?  He is using baptism as a metaphor for identification with Moses. That is a primary function of the ordinance of baptism.  In baptism we publicly identify with Christ.  And in light of what Paul has said about Christ being our new representative man, to whom we have allegiance by faith, then I think it makes vs 3 of our text more clear.  

Vs3, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

So in light of the relation to baptism as being identified with someone, whether Moses or Christ, Paul says that to be baptized into Christ is to be brought into identification with Christ.  To be brought into a personal relationship with Christ.  And to be baptized into Christ is to be baptized, or identified with His death.

Now I hope that you have all been baptized.  But the ordinance of baptism is not so much being taught here as it is being used as a metaphor for our relationship to Christ by identification as our representative.  And by extension, we identify with Christ’s death. But also, the very act of baptism illustrates the necessity of death.  Paul says, “you have been baptized into His death.” When you are lowered into the water in baptism, you are in effect saying that I die to the old man, being buried with Him in death, and then being raised to newness of life in Him. When you recognize the horror of your sin, the inherent death that sin causes, then certainly you agree with Christ that there needs to be the death of sin.

So Paul speaks to that reality of dying with Christ in Galatians 2:20 saying, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Now for those that are crucified with Christ, who have become united with Him in death, Paul says in vs5 they shall also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. Vs 5 “For if we have become united with [Him] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [in the likeness] of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with [Him,] in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for he who has died is freed from sin.

So the point is that if we have died with Christ, then we shall live with Christ. Paul isn’t talking about the resurrection of the body here which is to come at the end of the age.  But he is saying that if you die with Him you will also be empowered to live with Him. He is talking about the new life that comes as a result of our conversion.  He is speaking of a likeness of the resurrection, that is, we that die to sin are raised to live a new life, empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

Instead of wallowing in sin in order that grace may abound, we are washed, we are cleansed, we are dressed in righteousness, and we are empowered by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so that we might live as He lives.  Listen, dying to sin and being justified by grace results in a transformation.  We are transformed from death to life.  We are transformed from sinners to saints. We are changed from slaves to sin to servants of righteousness.  

Let’s go back to Galatians 2:20 again for a moment:  "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  Because I die to sin, I am crucified with Christ, therefore I am made alive by faith in His life, and I am changed from the old man to a new man, from allegiance to Adam to allegiance to Christ.  So by faith we receive the righteousness of Christ, the life of Christ, the mind of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the inheritance of Christ, and even the body of Christ when we are glorified on that day when we shall see Him and be like Him.

That great and awesome reality of new life is stated succinctly in vs 8,9; “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”  Christ in His death died for sin.  But in His resurrection He triumphed over sin and death.  And because He is my representative, He establishes the same reality for me.  Death has no hold over me because sin has lost it’s grip on me.  Because He lives, I have power over sin and death, because He has conquered sin and death.  

Let me try to illustrate that idea of a representative man again with a familiar story.  It’s the story of David and Goliath.  Goliath was the dread champion of the Philistine army.  And every day he came out and challenged Israel to send a man to fight him, and the result of their battle would determine the outcome of the larger battle between Israel and the Philistines.  David, you will remember, upon visiting his brothers heard the giant give that challenge.  And in the power of God he went out to meet the giant on the field of battle and slew him.  And then all the Philistines fled before Israel, as the Israeli army chased them and defeated the Philistines.  Now that is a picture of the representative man.  David is a type of Christ, who defeated the enemy so that we might have victory over sin through Him. He represented us, and we achieved victory through Him.

Now those are the principles or doctrines of being dead to sin and the new life that we have in Christ.  Paul then adds to the doctrine exhortation in the last four verses of this passage.  Exhortation simply means emphatically urging someone to do something.  He has given us the reasons why we should, now he exhorts us to make sure we do so.

He gives us three exhortations by way of application.  First, he says in vs11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  The key word there is consider.  To consider is to think, to contemplate.  Sin starts in the mind.  It starts with an attitude. We must constantly bear in mind that we are not what we used to be.  We must constantly remember that sin leads to death.  And we have died to sin so that we might live to Christ.  Don’t let the devil tempt you to go back to the slavery of Egypt because he makes it seem like the old sin wasn’t really that bad.  I don’t know how many millions of people have gone back to drinking or drugs because they started thinking that I could have a couple and it won’t hurt me.  I know that I used to be addicted and it caused me a lot of problems.  But I can just have a little bit and it won’t hurt me. That’s a lie from hell and it will drag you back into depravity and death.  Sin starts in the mind.

Second exhortation is in vs 12; “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.”  The key there is sin reigns. If the devil is able to find a chink in your armor, no matter how small, then he will continue to exploit that opening.  It’s like a boxer who recognizes his opponent is weak in his stomach, and so he continually jabs the same weak spot, again and again until he is able to defeat you.

As I said earlier, Paul isn’t saying that as a Christian you will never sin.  But it’s another thing to give into it, and let sin rule in your life.  It’s another thing to go back to the enslavement to sin.  It’s another thing to surrender to sin. The author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:4 “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.”  There is a battle in your body, in your members, between sin and godliness.  And we are to put sin to death even as Jesus Christ shed His blood in His battle against sin.  Don’t let sin have it’s way.  Guard against any encroachment.  As Psalms 119:11 says, hide the word of God in your heart that you might not sin.  And if you sin, confess your sin immediately, repent of it and ask God to cleanse you from it.  Don’t surrender to it.  Don’t wallow in it.

The third exhortation is in vs13; “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin [as] instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness to God.”  What he means is stop putting the parts of your bodies at the disposal of sin, but instead present your bodies to Him to be used as weapons of righteousness.

I think Romans 12:1,2 speaks to this very clearly; “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Instead of presenting your body to sin, and letting the your bodies be conformed to the world’s ideas and passions and way of thinking, he says instead present your bodies to God. 

I really think that verse is an injunction to go to church, in person, in the body.  That verse is one of the reasons that I feel so strongly that church cannot be done effectively online.  I don’t doubt that good things can be accomplished through an online study or online preaching.  But there is something about presenting your physical body to the Lord in the assembly of other believers.  It is the means God uses to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ.  The church is His body, and that body is spiritual, but it is also physical.  And the temptations of sin are those which for the most part are done in the body.  And so the discipline of putting yourself under the authority of the church, presenting your body to the Lord, to be held accountable to the other members of the body, and to be conformed to Christ by the preaching of the word is something that cannot be accomplished any other way.  The physical, local church is God’s blueprint for the sanctification of the saints and nothing else can be substituted for God’s plan with anywhere near the same degree of success.  Paul says if you want to be free from sin, then offer your body to God.  And that is done in the assembly of Christ’s church.

Sin starts in the mind, but it bears fruit in the body. Die to sin while it is still in the mind and it will never get acted out in the body.  And the way to die to sin in the mind is to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that as the word of God cleanses and informs you you are no longer conformed to the world, but conformed to God.

Finally, Paul gives an assurance.  He has given us the doctrines, the principles of our sanctification.  He has given us three exhortations to be sanctified.  And now he gives us the assurance that we are being sanctified in vs 14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

If you know these things, if you consider and contemplate on these things and then if you put these things into practice, then sin will not rule over you.  Sin’s reign over you will be broken.  You are not under law, not the judgment of the law nor the condemnation of the law, because thank God you are under grace.  

Paul answers that question he started with; what then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound. And the answer is no, God forbid, for we are not under the law, but we are under grace.  And the demands of grace are even more binding upon me when I consider all that Jesus has done for me, than the law which I never could accomplish.  So rather than grace being a license to sin, it should be the means of liberation from sin, and liberty to live as Christ lives in me, empowering me through His Spirit.

I trust that you have truly been converted today from the old man to the new man.  I trust that you have repented of your sin and died to sin so that you have been given new life in Jesus Christ.  Salvation is not just an intellectual assent to the facts of Christianity.  But salvation is a supernatural transformation that God accomplishes in the heart and mind of a man or woman.  If that transformation has not happened in your life then I urge you today to call upon the Lord and ask Him to save you, to forgive you, to change you and remake you and give you life.  He will not turn you away, for His purpose in dying on the cross was to save sinners.  

Much More, Romans 5: 12-21

First of all, let me begin this morning by making a few remarks about Easter. After all, today is the holiday we know as Easter and it’s important that we know why we observe it. Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. which many believe was on this date, or close to this date. But what some may not realize is that we celebrate the resurrection of Christ every Sunday morning.  The Sabbath was discontinued as a Christian observance on the first day that Jesus rose from the dead.  Contrary to some misinformation out there, Sunday service was not instituted by the Emperor Constantine around 300 AD.  It was instituted in the first century at the time of the resurrection, and it was called the Lord’s Day.  Consequently, as Christians, we do not observe the Sabbath, but we observe the Lord’s Day, which is Sunday, the day that Jesus rose from the dead.  And you should be very glad we do not try to hold onto any part of the Sabbath laws.  

So while I certainly appreciate that traditionally this day has been appointed to be celebrated as  Easter, to remember the Lord’s resurrection, I would also point out that we already celebrate it 52 Sundays of the year.  That is the reason the church began to meet on Sunday instead of Saturday, and we have been continuing that for 1990 years or so.

Secondly, let me remind you of why Christ’s resurrection is important. We studied this passage a couple of weeks ago, but perhaps you could use a refresher. Romans 4:25 tells us  “[Christ] who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” So His resurrection was because of our justification?  “Now wait a minute,” you might say, “Romans 5:9 which we looked at last week said we were justified by His blood. So which is it, are we justified by His blood or by His resurrection?” 

The answer is we are justified by His blood, but His blood was verified and validated as sufficient to pay the price of our justification by the fact that God resurrected Him from the grave.  So God raised Him, 4:25 says, because of our justification.  Because Christ’s sacrifice was considered sufficient for the sin of the world, because His righteousness was considered sufficient God resurrected Him from the grave.  And I would say to both of those points, that his sacrifice and his righteousness was considered “much more” than sufficient.  So Christ’s resurrection is proof that we are justified by His sacrifice.

And futher more we celebrate His resurrection because  His resurrected life is the power of our resurrected life. Because He lives, we shall live. Because He is our representative, because He is the first fruits of the resurrection, we too shall live.  Not only spiritually made alive, but physically our body will be resurrected to new life at His coming.  And so because He lives we live.  We that are Christians by faith in Christ shall never die, but we shall be raised at the resurrection with a new glorified body.  And I should emphasize that fact should characterize our life.  Especially in light of the fear of death that we see spread throughout the world because of this Corona virus, Christians should stand out from the world because we have no fear of death. Because Jesus lives, we know that we will never die, but our spirit will live forever, and our body will be resurrected when Christ returns for His church.

Not only that we will one day experience the resurrection from the dead at His coming, but the power to live now a new life is available because He lives. As Paul says in 5:10, “much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” So the fact that He lives guarantees our salvation. As Heb 7:25 says, “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”  And much more than that, because He ascended to the Father, He has sent to dwell in us His Spirit, who is able to give us power from on high to live this new life. If He had not risen, we would not have the Spirit indwelling us with power.

So that is the significance of Easter.  And as I said, we celebrate His resurrection every Sunday, not just today.  But as important as that is, Jesus did not command us to celebrate His resurrection, per se, but to celebrate His death.  On the night before His crucifixion, as He ate the Passover with His disciples, He terminated the observance of the Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper, which He said commemorated His death.  And He said as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of Me. And I want to use that as an segue to plug our Wednesday night service this coming week.  We are studying 1 Cor. 11 and this week we will be looking at Paul’s instructions concerning the Lord’s Supper.  There seems to be a lot of confusion lately about the Lord’s Supper and about it’s predecessor, the Passover.  And so we will be looking at that in depth this Wednesday night. I would encourage you to join us online for that time together to see what God has to say about this ordinance of the church.

Now as we look at the passage before us today, we see that Paul uses the expression “much more,” again and again to describe the benefits of our justification.  And that is the title of my message today; “Much More.”  Paul uses this expression “much more” repeatedly in this passage to describe to us the immeasurable grace that God has bestowed upon us because of our justification which was purchased by Christ.  Paul has painted a dark picture in the first few chapters we have looked at so far, describing the condition of sin in the world and the death and condemnation that comes to all men because all have sinned.  But now in chapter 5, Paul breaks out into a series of exultations at the surpassing greatness of God’s grace which has been poured out to us who have trusted in Him.

And Paul does so by comparing the darkness and despair of sin with the abundant grace and hope of the gospel, and by expressing that contrast again and again with the expression, “much more.”  The first “much more” we find in last week’s passage, vs 8,9 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  MUCH MORE then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath [of God] through Him.”

The second is found in vs10; “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

The third reference is in vs15 “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, MUCH MORE did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”

The fourth reference is in vs 17; “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, MUCH MORE those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

And the fifth reference is in vs 20 as translated in the KJV; “Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” 

Now this list of contrasts could be expanded even further if we did not restrict ourselves to the literal expression “much more,” but took into account where it is indicated in other verses.  And what Paul wants to illustrate here in this passage might be called  a representative style of government.  We have a representative style of government in the United States. You often hear that we have a democracy.  But more specifically we have a Republic.  And in a Republic government there is a representative which is suppose to represent the people.  And in a similar sense, in God’s government we have a representative government.  And Paul is going to illustrate this system of representation as the heads of two parties, to show these principles of our salvation by contrast.  So Paul uses what he called a type who is the representative of the natural man which he compares to the representative head of the spiritual man. 

And the type or anti type he uses is Adam, who of course you will remember from the Genesis account. Adam was the first man, and Paul indicates here that as such he is the representative man. He is the head of the human race. And Adam is both a type and an anti type of Christ. Notice in vs 14, it says “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is a type, (that means a figure or foreshadowing) of him that was to come.”  So Adam is a type of Christ in the sense that he is the head or representative man of the human race, the natural man.

Now the counter part to that type is found in 1 Cor.15:45, which says this concerning Christ; “So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam [became] a life-giving spirit. ... 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. ... 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”  Christ then is the head of the heavenly man, or the spiritual man.  And as such He is called the second Adam, confirming that Adam is a type of Christ.

So then following this “much more” metaphor, let’s look at these principles according to the contrasting parallel of Adam to Christ.  I have tried to put them on a chart which I hope will help you to see it more clearly as we work through this passage.  

Under Adam as our representative man, Paul says sin came through him. vs 12, “Wherefore, just as through one man sin entered the world…. “ That one man is Adam.Those who have been born since Adam inherited their sinful nature from him. The Bible teaches that as Adam sinned, all sinned.  As the corruption of sin spread in him, it was imputed to all men who inherited his nature.  And our sinful nature is evidenced by our personal sin. That is our natural condition.

But by faith, we are able to have our government changed.  By faith in Christ, we come under the headship of Christ as our representative, and so we see that where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Vs 15, “For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.” If we inherit sin on the basis of our representative Adam, then we inherit grace on the basis of our representative Christ.

Paul goes on to say in vs 12, in regards to Adam, as our representative man, that through him sin entered the world, and death through sin and so death passed to all men.  As we are like Adam in sin, so we are like Adam in death.  We received the condemnation of death that was given to Adam.  And that process of dying began immediately when Adam sinned, and the condemnation of death began immediately with us.  Paul says this condemnation of death was passed to us because all sinned.  

But in contrast, under our representative Christ there is no imputed sin because it is taken away in Christ.  And in exchange for our faith, there is imputed to us His righteousness. Paul speaks in chapter 4 vs 20 of Abraham who “did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.  And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” So through Christ our representative is imputed righteousness.

The next contrast that Paul makes is that from Adam, death reigned. Sin was in the world even before the law was given, as evidenced by the fact that sin’s punishment, which is death,  reigned from Adam to Moses. vs.14 “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”  Even though men had not sinned the same sin of Adam, yet they still broke the unwritten law of God and they lived under the government, the reign of death as a consequence of their allegiance to sin.

So Adam was a type, Paul says, of the One who was to come, Jesus Christ. From Adam came the enslavement to sin of the entire human race, and from Christ comes the salvation of all who come to Him in faith. Vs. 15 “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”

So sin, Paul says,  was not equal to grace.  Grace is much more effective than sin. Through the sin of Adam many died.  And notice how Paul ties the sin with the punishment of death. “by the transgression of the one the many died…” The death that Paul refers to is first physical, and then spiritual/eternal. As Paul says in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Our Lord is a title of government, our representative. So in contrast to the sin of Adam, much more does the grace of God through Jesus Christ overflow to the many. Vs. 16 says, “The gift is not like [that which came] through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment [arose] from one [transgression] resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift [arose] from many transgressions resulting in justification.”

So through Adam’s one sin came judgment upon all men, but in Christ,  through His one sacrifice for many sins, comes grace resulting in justification for all who believe in Him. That’s the amazing thing about Christ’s sacrifice.  It was once for all, and sufficient for all, and for all the sins of all men.  And that is why His resurrection is so important.  It was proof that Christ’s righteousness and His sacrifice was sufficient, and much more so.

Now in vs 17, Paul returns to the contrast of death and life as illustrated in each representative.

Vs17 “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.  So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.”

The contrast is presented as a dominion, a reign, a government if you will; from Adam, came sin, which was commuted to all men, and death reigned because of sin. So from one transgression came the dominion of sin and death for all. But in Christ we have so much more.  Through the One, came the gift of righteousness, and through one act of righteousness came justification resulting in the dominion of righteousness and life for all who believe. And again, that justification for all is only possible because of the surpassing value of His life.  Through Christ, we were transferred from the dominion of darkness to the dominion of light. Col.1:13 says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”  And in that dominion we have everlasting life.

The next contrast between Adam and Christ is that of disobedience versus obedience.  Look at vs19 “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”

Adam’s disobedience caused many to be made sinners.  Sin is disobedience against God’s law.  And Adam’s disobedience was passed on by progeny to his descendants, resulting in their sinfulness. But as tragic as that is, much more does Christ’s obedience benefit us by righteousness.  Much more does the obedience of Christ mean that many will be made righteous.  

Now in terms of Christ’s obedience you should remember that we talked about Christ being submissive to the Father last Wednesday night in our Bible study.  Remember in Phil. 2:5-8 it says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  So we see that as Adam’s disobedience result in our sinfulness, so much more does Christ’s obedience to the Father, result in our righteousness.

Paul comes to the conclusion of this litany of our blessings in Christ in vs 20 and 21; saying, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

Paul has said that sin came through Adam, and now he expands on that to say that the law came as a result of sin. Odd though it sounds, he says the law came so that sin would increase.  Now God is not the author of sin, nor did God give the law to make men sin.  But what the law did is it magnified sin.  Sin already existed evidenced by the fact that it reigned in death.  Paul made that clear back in vs 13 and 14.  But when the law came, it acted like a magnifying glass which made our sin more apparent.  It made sin stand out more clearly. And that magnification, or increase,  was necessary to drive men to their need for a Savior. Gal. 3:24 says, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

Now contrast that effect of sin with the grace of God in Christ Jesus. In response to the increase in sin, grace abounded much more.  Much more did grace might reign though righteousness to bring everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  As great as our sin might be, Christ’s righteousness is greater.  As much as sin increased, much more did grace abound.  And as much as sin reigns in death, how much more does the grace of God that causes us to reign in righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

The summation of all of this is simply this.  We are all under the headship of one representative or the other, either under the dominion of sin through Adam, or under the dominion of righteousness through Christ.  We are all naturally born under the dominion of the first Adam. But by faith it is possible to be reborn under the dominion of Christ our Lord.  If you continue in your natural condition, the end will be eternal death.  But if by faith you change allegiance to Jesus Christ you can be saved from that condemnation, and be changed from death to life.

The good news is that we receive this transformation as a gift of God. Have you received this gift of God’s grace today?  Have you believed in the sacrifice on your behalf that Jesus paid so that you might be justified and made righteous before God? Grace is a gift, and like a gift, it must be received.  We have inherited our sin and it’s punishment from our earthly representative man.  But we receive our righteousness and everlasting life as a gift from God, through the payment of Jesus Christ.  Believe on Him today, that you might be saved from the condemnation from Adam, and be transferred to the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Substitutionary Atonement, Romans 5:6-11

When John the Baptist saw Jesus walking towards him, he cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  That was a statement of tremendous significance. On the one hand, he was saluting Jesus as the Savior, as the One who came from God, the Messiah.  And in that, he was indicating the true mission of the Messiah.  Not a military mission, not a political mission, not a mission of social activism, but a mission to save sinners. 

And additionally, John was referencing a prophecy that was typified by a Jewish holiday which was known as the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That was the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and it had been celebrated since the days when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery to Egypt. It’s interesting that Jesus began His ministry with this clarion call of John that the Passover Lamb had entered on the scene of Jewish society, and 3 and a half years later Jesus would be crucified on the day of Passover.

What is also interesting is that this week, starting on Wednesday is the beginning of the celebration of the Jewish Passover according to the current Jewish observation of it.  Christians today do not celebrate Passover per se, but we do celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which is the Christian celebration of the Passover.  In Luke 22:15-20  Jesus said to the disciples, "With [fervent] desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide [it] among yourselves;  "for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."  And He took bread, gave thanks and broke [it], and gave [it] to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." Likewise He also [took] the cup after supper, saying, "This cup [is] the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”  So with that meal, Jesus transformed the Passover into the Lord’s Supper which we celebrate today.

The Old Testament Passover which Jesus and His disciples were taking part of, finds it origin in Exodus 12. I’m sure you are very familiar with the story of how God delivered the children of Israel from captivity and from the angel of death.  You will remember that God had exercised a series of judgments upon Egypt who had continued to harden their hearts against Him.  Finally, Moses announced to Pharaoh that God would execute the first born male child of all the families in Egypt at midnight. 

In preparation for this judgment, God told Moses to instruct the Jewish people to take a lamb, spotless and without blemish, on the 10th day of the month, and they were to live with it until the 14 day of the month,  then at that time to slay the lamb and put the blood upon the door posts of their house.  That night they were to roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs.  And at midnight the angel of death would pass by throughout all of the land of Egypt, and if he saw the blood on the door post, he would pass over that house and they would be spared the Lord’s judgement. And of course all that transpired just as the Lord said it would, and the Israelites who had the blood on the doorposts were passed over, but for those who had not done so, the first born son died.

Now as I said, the Passover was a type, a foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ would do on the cross.  Jesus was the Passover Lamb, whose blood was shed so that the judgment of God might pass over us, we who had the condemnation of death upon us.  Notice the parallels of the Passover lamb to Jesus; first, Jesus lived on earth with man as a member of the human family before He was sacrificed for them. Second, the sacrifice of Christ has to be appropriated personally to each home, not simply on a national or community scale.  Third, Jesus was the spotless, perfect Lamb of God, not stained by any sin or moral failing. Next, it was only the blood of Jesus, His sacrificial death, that could atone for sin.  Then, in His death, Jesus drank the bitter cup of God’s judgment against sin. Another parallel is that the work of Jesus, as with the Passover meal, has to be taken in full, without leaving anything out. And finally, the Passover of Jesus for those who believe in Him and have appropriated His sacrifice for their sins, provides deliverance from death/wrath, and deliverance from the enslavement to sin.

Another important element of the Passover is the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.  On the day of the Passover, the Jews were to make careful search of their house for leaven.  And they were to expunge any old leaven from their homes and not eat any thing that was leavened for 7 days afterwards.  And what we learn from the New Testament especially, is that leaven is symbolic of sin.  Paul said in 1Cor. 5:6-7  “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are [in fact] unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”  

So in the Passover feast, the Jews were to, in effect, repent of sin and be cleansed of sin, which is analogous to what transpires in our salvation. 

Now in this passage in which we are focusing today, Paul is expressing the characteristics of our justification and particularly that which in theological terms is called “substitutionary atonement.”  This principle is illustrated by the Passover lamb in which the innocent is slain for the guilty. It’s the principle that one person dies as a substitute, or in place of, another.  The blood of the innocent lamb was a substitutionary atonement for the Israelites living under the condemnation of death in Egypt.

Paul spent the first three chapters of Romans showing that all men are under the condemnation of sin, and were due the wrath of God, which is death.  And then Paul showed that though no one is righteous on the basis of their own merit or works, yet by faith in Jesus Christ and His righteousness, we might be made righteous in Him and by His work on the cross.  So now Paul wants to explain how that is accomplished.  How sin is dealt with by God so that He might be holy, and just, and yet merciful and loving.  How God can reconcile sinners to Himself without denying justice and the law of God.

The point of why Jesus came to earth was to save sinners.  He said so Himself. He came to die for sin, and from the beginning of His ministry He set His face resolutely towards that hour that was predestined and prophesied, the hour of His crucifixion, when He would offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin.  But not only a sacrifice for sin, but a substitute for sinners.  Isaiah 53:5 says, “But He was wounded[a] for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

Christ died for sinners, thus it is necessary that to be delivered from death that one must first recognize he is a sinner.  James said, “Confess your sins one to another that you may be healed.”  Christ died for the sins of the world, but all the world is not saved; only those who confess and repent of their sins and by faith accept the substitutionary death of Christ for their sins.  Remember the serpent that was raised on the pole by Moses after the nation of Israel was bitten by vipers.  Whoever looked at the serpent on the pole was healed, but he who did not look at it perished.  The one who looked must first recognize that he has a disease unto death, he must believe the message that if he looks to it he will be healed, and then he must turn to it, look to it, to be healed.

Now as we go through this passage before us then I just want to use some words to act as headings for the principles of our salvation, so that it might help us to learn the essential elements of our justification as laid out in this passage. And the first word I would like to suggest is the word motivation.  What was the MOTIVATION for our salvation? 

The answer is, that God’s motivation for Christ’s atonement is love. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)  Paul says in vs 8 of our text, that “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love is the reason that Jesus offered Himself in our place.

It’s interesting that in describing the condition of those who Christ came to save in vs 6 is that Paul says God loved us when we were powerless. Not only did He choose to die for sinners, but for those who are powerless, that is helpless and hopeless.  The corona virus that has paralyzed our country is stark evidence that we are powerless as humankind to really determine our safety or insulate ourselves from death and disease. It should heighten our recognition of our need for a Savior.  I only pray that it does.  

Mankind is powerless to help ourselves from the effect of the fall. Mankind is hopelessly, helplessly bitten by the sting of death and we cannot heal ourselves.  Because of our sin nature we are powerless to be righteous according to the standard of God’s righteousness. We are estranged from God, we cannot reach up to God, so God had to condescend to us.  And so Christ, motivated by love, stooped to become man, to dwell among us, to live a perfect life without sin, and yet die for our sins as our substitute, so that we might be healed.

Christ’s love is even more significant because it is given not on the basis of our deservedness, but even when we were undeserving.  Paul says that it’s possible, though not likely, that someone might offer to die for a good person.  But Christ’s love is so remarkable because He chose to die for the unrighteous.  He chose to die for His enemies.

So the first word is motivation.  The second word I would like to give you is PROPITIATION. Propitiation means to satisfy or appease. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died to satisfy the wrath of God against sin. Paul says Christ died at the right time,  The right time was the time which had been prophesied.  It was the time which was typified by the Passover.  Christ died on the Passover at the appointed time.  And in dying for sinners, Christ satisfied the justice of God. 

Around the turn of the 20th century, Dyson Hague, an Anglican theologian wrote this about propitiation, or satisfaction. “As sin is debt, there are only two ways in which man can be righted with God; either by incurring no debt, or by paying the debt. But this, man cannot do, and herein comes the glory of the Gospel of the atonement, securing at once the honor of God and the salvation of the sinners. No one ought to make satisfaction for the sin of man except man, and no one can make satisfaction except God Himself. He who makes the satisfaction for human sin must, therefore, be man and God; and so in wondrous love, the God-Man of His own accord offered to the Father what He could not have been compelled to lose, and paid for our sins what He did not owe for Himself.” Jesus satisfied, propitiated, atoned for our sin.

1 John 2:2 says, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for [those of] the whole world.” All who would come to Him for salvation He will in no wise cast out.  He alone could satisfy the demands of God’s holy law, and pay the penalty for the sins of the world.

The third word is SUBSTITUTION.  Another word for substitution which you may have heard before is vicarious.  Vicarious means to experience for yourself what is done by another.  Vicarious is from the Latin word vicarius which means substitute. Paul says four times in vs 6-8 that Christ died for sinners, that Christ died for us. He uses the Greek word “hyper” which means vicarious, or about, in the place of, for the sake of, or on behalf of. And in the KJV of 1 Cor. 5: 7 it says, “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.” The word translated as “for” there is the word “hyper.”  And Peter states the same principle of substitutionary atonement in 1 Peter 3:18, saying, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”

And so as the Passover lamb was slain as the substitution for the children of Israel, so Christ was slain as a substitute for  those who would believe in HIm.  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  Christ died for your sins, so that you might be made righteous with His righteousness, and that He might pay the penalty for your sin, if you will just believe in Him, and receive His atonement on your behalf.

The next word that we should consider is DEMONSTRATION.  Actually, Paul uses the word “demonstrates,’ present tense in vs8.  What he means is that though it happened in the past, it remains an ever present reality. The object of this word really is the same as the object of motivation.  God’s motivation was love. And God demonstrated His love, or God manifested His love. How did God demonstrate His love?  By sending Jesus to die for us, even while we were yet sinners.  Jesus said “Greater love has no man than this, than a man lays down his life for his friends.” But what Paul indicates is so astonishing about God’s love is that He laid down His life for His enemies. When man was in rebellion against God, still Jesus loved us so much He was willing to die for us.  He demonstrated His love in a way that is beyond comprehension.

The next word I want you to notice is JUSTIFICATION. Vs9, “Since then we have been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”  Justification is our legal standing before God. Believers are those who by the gift of God received righteousness from God, a right standing before God. The demands of God’s justice concerning our sinful condition is the wrath of God, which is death.  And that death was satisfied by the death of the Lamb.  The blood points to an offering, a sacrifice, so that we are saved from God’s wrath.  We escape the judgment of death that has been pronounced upon all men, even as Israel escaped the  death on all of Egypt which was pronounced as God’s judgment. 

The next word I want you to consider is RECONCILIATION. In vs 10 it says,  “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Reconciliation means to make friends between warring parties, to make peace between two opposing factions. God loved us so that He might make us His friends, HIs people, His family, who formerly were His enemies. We were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.  

Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:10, “Be reconciled to God.” That indicates there is human responsibility to respond in faith and repentance, to surrender to Him, to love and obey Him. It requires obedience.  Phl. 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.” To be reconciled to God is to surrender your will to God, to claim a new allegiance, and submit to His authority as Lord.

The next word should need little explanation.  And that is SALVATION. In vs 10 Paul says we shall be saved through His life. The Spirit of God works in us to complete in us the work of salvation, from justification, to sanctification, to glorification.  From beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord.   

In vs 9 Paul says having been justified we are saved from wrath. Then in vs 10 he says having been reconciled by His death, we are saved by His life.  What’s the difference?  That by His death we vicariously died to sin, and by His resurrection He lives, and because He lives, we live and shall live with Him forever.  And then for the second time, Paul uses the phrase “Much more then.” It means, if this is true, then how much more is the other true?  So if God justifies sinners by HIs death, how much more will He certainly save His friends, His family by the power of His risen life. Because Jesus said after His resurrection He would ascend into heaven, and then send His Spirit to dwell in us, so the Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies.  We live, because He lives in us. That is the power of Christ in me and in you, that we now have the Spirit of God living in us, giving us the power to live the new life He gave us.

Now that realization that the Spirit of Christ lives in us should bring rejoicing.  That rejoicing is articulated in what Paul describes as EXULTATION. That’s the last word I want you to consider, exultation.  Look at vs 11, “And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” This is the third time Paul uses the word exult. In vs 2 he says, we exult in hope,  speaking of the coming glory of the Lord in which we joyfully look forward to.  And then in vs 3, we exult, or rejoice in tribulations, because though we suffer tribulation now, we know that tribulations are the fiery trials which are used by God in our lives to refine us as gold.

And then now in vs 11, We exult in God through Jesus Christ, because of our reconciliation.  Because of our reconciliation through the death of Christ we are now the friends of God, we are the family of God, we are the chosen seed which God has promised to bless and love forever and secure forever.

What a tremendous blessing it is for those who have been reconciled to God. Just think of it.  God loves the unloveable.  God loved us even when we were sinners. How much more does He love us now that we are adopted into His family?  Not only has our legal standing been changed from guilty to righteous, but our relationship to God has changed.  Justification, as I said earlier,  speaks to our legal standing before God. But reconciliation speaks to our relationship to God. Through Christ’s death His former enemies are changed into friends, and adopted as His children.  So if God is willing to die for His enemies, then how much more is He willing to do for His children?  He will certainly deliver us from the wrath to come, He will certainly give us all that we need for life, and He will certainly give us the inheritance in glory that He has promised us. And for that we should rejoice, even though now, for a little while we may suffer tribulations.  But for the joy set before us, we endure the shame and hardship of this fallen world, looking for that blessed hope of the glory of Christ revealed at the end of the age. 

I pray that you have turned and looked to Jesus. Heb. 12:2 says, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” I pray that you have trusted in Him for your salvation.  Be reconciled to God.  He has offered you peace with God though His sacrifice.  I pray that you receive that gift of salvation. Look to Jesus and be saved.