This is such an amazing passage of scripture, that it is really difficult to boil it down to just one principle or doctrine.  It really is the summary of Paul’s gospel or good news, up to this point.  In this passage he gives us a continuing string of assurances and blessings and benefits for those who have been saved. In this chapter he is actually presenting the various stages of our salvation, from justification to sanctification, to our glorification.  And this summary reaches it’s crescendo in these last verses which talk about the surety and guarantee of our salvation because of God’s love for us.

We have been studying this chapter for a few weeks now, and while it is beneficial to break it down verse by verse and really examine in detail each of the doctrines presented here, the downside is that it’s possible to lose sight of the magnificence of the totality of what God has done in Christ Jesus for us.  It’s like listening to a symphony of a great piece of classical music, and skipping the earlier parts and just listening to the last segment when it reaches it’s crescendo.  That might be an interesting way to listen, but I think you would miss the various parts building up to the great climax.

So before we look today at the climax of Paul’s presentation of our salvation, let me first go back to the beginning of chapter 8 and just remind you of the highlights there, and that will hopefully serve to set up the grand finale.

Starting in vs 1, Paul talks about the beginning of our salvation, which is our justification, and said there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation! Consider that! All my transgressions, all my sins, all my shortcomings, all are wiped clean by Jesus Christ.  He paid my debt, and even further, God transferred His righteousness to my account.  

Furthermore, he says in vs 11 that having been made righteous, God has given us the means of sanctification, by His Spirit to indwell us.  Think of that!  The Spirit of the Living God has been given to indwell us that we might have spiritual life, that we might live righteously through His power working in us.

And the fact that the Spirit indwells sets up the blessing of sonship. Vs 14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”  Paul goes on to enumerate the tremendous blessings we are guaranteed as the children of God.  Those blessings include the immediate and intimate access to God as our heavenly Father.  And furthermore, that as children of God we share in the inheritance of Christ.  Imagine that!  The inheritance of Christ is to be shared with us – former slaves, former enemies of God, but now adopted into HIs family, made co heirs with Jesus Christ.

But part of what we share with Christ is the sufferings of Christ.  And that suffering is also a blessing.  It is a privilege to share in Christ’s sufferings, for to the degree that we suffer with Him, we shall also share in His glory.  vs 17, and if  [we are] children, [then] 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.”

And even suffering is a blessing,  because as vs 28 tells us, God is working all things together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose.  Just think of that!  God uses our weaknesses, our sufferings,  even things that were meant as evil towards us, to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.  In the process of our sanctification, God uses all things to work together for good, for His purpose.

And  His purpose – HIs eternal plan for us – is to bring many sons to the glory of His kingdom. He has predetermined that we would be His children from eternity past, and He has worked all things after the counsel of His will, so that those whom He foreknew, He also predestined, and those He predestined, He also called, and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified. God is the author and finisher of our salvation.  Our future is a certainty, so that God speaks of our glorification as though it has already been finalized.  Imagine that!  God’s plan is for our good, to give us a future and a hope, and it is certain and guaranteed by HIs word which cannot fail.

Now we come to the crescendo. And Paul himself seems to almost be at a loss for words at considering the incredible wonders of our salvation.  He says in vs31 “What then shall we say to these things?”  It’s as if he is exclaiming “What more can I say?” “How can I express the wonders of God’s love for us?”  And really, the wonders of our salvation should leave us speechless as well when we consider all that God has done for us.  Nothing that affects our salvation has been contingent upon what we might do for God but is founded upon what God has done for us. As Jonah 2:9 says, “salvation is from the Lord.”  Our salvation is all of God, God’s undeserved favor towards us. It was He who procured all these blessings for us.  

And since the Almighty God of heaven, the Holy Son of God Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirt have all cooperated and agreed together to bring many sons to glory, then we must conclude with Paul that “If God is for us, then who or what can be against us?”   We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ over every thing that might come against us.  

Consider for a moment that question, “If God is for us.” The devil would love you to get you to a  point through trials and difficulties of life so that you might ask “Is God really for us?” It sometimes seems that everything is against us, and in such times we might doubt even that God is for us. But Paul wants us to know for sure that God is for us, and he offers us proof in vs32, that God did not spare His only Son for our sake, but gave Him up to die in our place.  “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”  

There can be no greater assurance of God’s concern for us, and watch care over us, than the fact that God gave Jesus, HIs only, beloved Son, to be the sacrificial lamb for us, that we might be given eternal life.   God did not spare Jesus, He did not mitigate the severity of the punishment for our sin to any degree, so that our judgment might be paid in full, so that He could adopt us as HIs children. 

We can be assured that God is for us by the one verse of scripture that probably every Christian should have memorized; John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Certainly we can be assured that God is for us, considering what God has done for us.

And if that is true, then we can learn from the greater to the lessor that God will freely give us all things.  Vs32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”  What things is he talking about? This is not a proof text for “name it and claim it”.  Does he mean any thing we desire?  I would have to say that is not my experience.  I have asked for many things in my life as a Christian and God has chosen not to give them to me. And maybe it was better that I did not get everything I wanted or asked for.  

But what I think Paul is talking about are the things mentioned so far in this text which I highlighted while ago. All the blessings and benefits of my salvation are guaranteed.  He will not withhold them, but He richly pours out His grace upon me.  As the song “Great is Thy Faithfulness” says, “all I have needed thy hand has provided, great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.” So since God is for us,  who can be against us?

Paul rephrases that question who can be against us, by saying “who will bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died,  yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Perhaps the entity that Paul is referencing who is against us is none other than the enemy, which is Satan. Satan is called the accuser in Revelation 12:10 “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”  You will remember that Satan accused Job, God’s servant.  

But the answer that is given against any accusation against us that Satan might make is that it is God who justifies. We are justified by faith is what God has done.  How did God justify us?  By condemning His own Son, putting the penalty for our sin upon Jesus, that we might go free. Isaiah speaks of the reason God justified us in Isaiah 53:10-11 “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting [Him] to grief; If He would render Himself [as] a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.  As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”  God justified us on the basis of what Christ did for us on the cross.  And the accuser cannot ask God to engage in double jeopardy. Any accusations in the light of our justification have no validity. We have already been assured in vs 1 that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.  Now we are reminded in vs 34 that there can be no condemnation because Jesus was condemned in our place.

And as vs 34 tells us, Christ is now at the right hand of God, interceding for us.  It’s as if God is the judge, Satan is the prosecutor, and Jesus Christ is the Intercessor, our defense attorney.   And by virtue of HIs intercession we have no fear of condemnation from the accuser.

Jesus said during HIs ministry on earth that no greater love has any man than this, than a man lays down his life for his friends.  Jesus Christ willingly laid down His life for us, that we might be His friends, and even more than friends, His family.  That we might be adopted into the family of God. He loved us enough to leave the glory of heaven, to leave HIs place at the right hand of God, in order to humble Himself to become a man, that He might die for His enemies and procure their salvation.  And Paul emphasizes our assurance is secure because of the love of Christ.

Earlier Paul asked, “if God is for us?”  And I said that Satan often attacks us in hope that we will think that God is not for us.  That He does not care about our circumstances.  But we have seen many assurances that God does care.  However, another attack of the devil on those who are afflicted is often to make them think that God does not love us. Satan suggests that if God loved us, He would never let us go through what we are going through here on earth.

So Paul asks that question in vs 35. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”  Listen, our love for God may waver, but Christ’s love for us will never fail.  Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Paul gives us in this verse seven circumstances that the devil might use to try to convince us that God doesn’t love us. The first is affliction. Some commentators have said that affliction speaks of outward affliction and distress speaks of inward distress. I think of Job who was afflicted with boils.  Affliction is often physical, it may be an illness.  It’s on the outside, or comes from the outside.  But the second circumstance Paul mentions is distress.  Distress speaks of a inward condition.  It’s an inward distress of the mind or soul.  It’s being torn apart on the inside with fear or worry.

The third means of causing us to doubt God’s love is persecution.  Persecution can come from many sources, in many different forms, but it is a deliberate attack on your faith.  Famine is the fourth, and that may be hunger, but it may include any lack of necessities. I will tell you that God does not always supply all our needs immediately.  God sometimes allows us to suffer famine, long beyond when we think God should have answered.  And your faith will be tested in times of famine, to see if you will still trust the Lord when He seemingly does not supply what He has promised.

Nakedness refers to a lack of clothing.  Not necessarily actually naked, but in need of clothing. Clothing is a basic, fundamental need, and the lack of it is something that Satan would test us through. 

Peril is danger.  As a Christian we can sometimes experience danger.  In the hymn “Amazing Grace” it has the line, “through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come, but grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” Paul spoke of his own experience with danger in 2 Cor. 11 saying he had often been “in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.”

And the final circumstance that might be faced is the sword.  The sword refers to death, perhaps by execution.  It should be noted that every one of those trials were something that the apostle Paul had personally experienced up to that point, except the sword.  Paul writes in 2 Cor. 11:23 about all the hardships and difficulties that he had experienced as an apostle.  He had been stoned, whipped, shipwrecked, stranded at sea, hungry, thirsty, in poverty, etc, all during his ministry.  It must be understood that we too are going to experience such things from time to time.  The only thing Paul had not experienced at the time of this writing was the sword.  But within a few years, he would succumb to that as well, and lose his head at the hand of the Emperor Nero.

Thus Paul could agree with the Psalmist in quoting Psalm 44:22, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”  The reality of suffering in our Christian faith  goes against our contemporary theology a lot of times.  We somehow think that our Christianity is supposed to insulate us from suffering and sickness and death.  But in fact, Paul indicates that suffering is a very present reality.  

Jesus Himself promised suffering for His followers.  He said the servant is not above his master.  If they hated Him, they will hate us as well.  He said in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

So even though we will experience tribulation, any or all of those seven circumstances Paul listed, as Christ has overcome, so we will overcome.  Paul says in vs 37, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” We overwhelmingly conquer in spite of all these tribulations.  In the midst of these tribulations, in fact, even by means of these tribulations, we are more than conquerors. 

Remember back in vs 28 Paul talked about all things working together for good.  And we said that the things he was talking about was various types of suffering.  He was using suffering to conform us to the image of Christ.  And now Paul says that in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  They cannot hurt us, but even can be used to help us. They all work together for good.

He goes on to enumerate those things in vs 38, as the symphony builds to it’s grand finale; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Not even the greatest enemy, our physical death can defeat us, because we have been given eternal life. It can’t defeat us because He lives, and because He lives, we live and will ever live with Him. And life itself cannot defeat us, even with all it’s distractions, and worries and cares.  Life cannot separate us from God, because our life is given by God.  He holds our life in HIs hand.  By Him we live and breath and exist. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 

No angel or principality, whether a fallen or holy angel, as powerful as they may be, can separate us from the love of God. Speaking of the fallen angels, 1 John 4:4 says “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.  God loves us more than the angels.  When angels fell in sin, God did not send Jesus to die for them but held them in eternal condemnation.  But God so loved us, that even when we were sinners Christ died for us.

Neither can things present or things to come  separate us from the plan and love of God. I look at all that is going on in our country today, all that is going on in the world, and I am almost overwhelmed. The future seems almost hopeless. But God is not overwhelmed.  All things are going according to His plan.  And His plan includes me.  He plan is for me.  He has chosen me to be a child of God and to share His kingdom with Him forever.  He has promised good to me. And nothing that happens in this world can change HIs love for me.

Nor, says Paul, can any powers hurt me.  No power of government can separate me.  Government may take away my rights, they may take away my citizenship, they may lock me up in prison, but they can’t take away God’s love for me. Neither can height nor depth.  I think of that every time I fly in an airplane.  I am just as safe and just as loved by God at 30,000 feet in the air as I am on solid ground. Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.  He has promised to be with me in all things, no matter where I might go or how far.  

Psalm 139 says, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.  If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,  Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.  If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike [to You.]  For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, [And] skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;  Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained [for me,] When as yet there was not one of them.  How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.”

And back in Romans 8,  just in case Paul left anything out, he adds, “nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Nothing, absolutely nothing whatsoever, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

We that on Jesus have trusted and believed, God has secured for us a salvation that is beyond description and comprehension, that surpasses the tribulations and trials of this world, and in fact makes us more than conquerors in Christ.  As Christ triumphed over death and the grave, so we will triumph over death and the grave.  As He ascended into heaven, so we will ascend to heaven.  As He sits on a throne in heaven, so we shall sit on thrones in heaven.  As He lives forever more, so we shall live forever more with Him.  This is our inheritance. It is our future glorification, which is already in progress, so that we are already considered as seated in the heavenly places according to Ephesians 1:20.  Our name card is already reserving our place at the table, and God is preparing a place for us there with Him.  

I pray that you have these assurances of your salvation today.  If you do not have this assurance of your salvation, I hope that you will trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that you may have the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and be filled with the presence of His Holy Spirit.  Christ has made all these things possible through His death, burial and resurrection.  Believe in Him and be saved and receive the adoption as a child of God, and enter into the inheritance which God has prepared for those who love Him.  It is a free gift of God.  He loves you enough to die for you.  I hope that you will trust in Him and believe in Him as your Savior today that you might have life.

Among Christians, verse 28 is probably one of the best known, most often quoted verses in the Bible.  But as is often the fact in such cases, it is probably misinterpreted more than it is understood correctly.  And so today I want to focus just on this verse and the two immediately following it, in hope that we can gain a correct understanding of this passage.  Because it is a tremendously important text.  It states a doctrine that undergirds our faith.  And so it’s important that we understand it.  

Correct doctrine is important.  These truths of God’s word are what we base our faith upon.  We base our future eternity upon them as well.  And nothing could be more tragic than to assume a false doctrine is true, and pattern your life in accordance with that doctrine, only to find out eventually that it is a flawed doctrine.  That you thought it meant certain things, but in reality it did not.  And usually when you discover that, it comes at the worst possible time.

I will give you a personal example. I grew up in the church.  I was a pastor’s kid and I must have listened to thousands of sermons and teachings about the Bible growing up.  But in spite fo that, I had a superficial knowledge of the Bible. I had never proved some of those doctrines in the fire of trials, and it turns out, that some of the things I thought were true were not.  

About a dozen years after I was married, I had by that time a successful career, I had a nice home, a beautiful family, kids in private schools, and all the trappings of what I thought were the benefits of living as a Christian in America. And then began a series of illnesses that were not quickly diagnosed.  I was ill with one thing after another for about a year or so.  And I soon found myself unable to work as I used to be able to do.  My finances went upside down. I ended up in serious debt looking at the possibility of bankruptcy. 

I’ll spare you all the details, but suffice it to say that my faith began to take on a more serious note.  Nothing sends you to church and to your Bible like a crisis.  But somehow through the years I had developed a type of faith that had been influenced by what is often called the prosperity gospel.  I wouldn’t have called it that, but nevertheless I expected that God would make everything better soon.  If I had more faith, if I tithed more, if I went to church more, if I read my Bible more, God would soon rectify everything and all would return to normal, perhaps even better than normal.  

I found examples in the Bible which supported that kind of hope; such as Joseph who was cast in prison and then was exalted to the second position under Pharaoh. I found every reference in the Bible to God making everything right, or restoration, that I could find, such as with the life of Job, and I underlined every one. And particularly I found Romans 8:28 comforting as I believed it promised that God would make everything good again. I held onto that faith with all my strength, believing that the size of my faith, or the diligence of my faith would make God come to my rescue and fix all my problems.  After all, it only made sense that God could use me even more if I was successful and healthy than if I was a physical and financial wreck.  How could I be useful to the Lord as a failure?

Well, long story short, I eventually was forced to sell the dream home that I had built with my own two hands.  My health degenerated and left me practically incapacitated for over three years.  I developed paralyzing anxiety attacks that made me a psychological wreck.  To this day I have large sections of my memory which seem to be blacked out, particularly of my children at that time. I guess from stress.  I can’t remember some things.  I lost my new cars.  I ended up at the bottom financially and finally at the end of my rope we moved here to the beach to try to reconstruct my life, a  move which didn’t really improve my situation at all, in fact it may have made it worse.

Bottom line is, I found that a lot of the doctrines of my faith that I had wanted to be true, or which I believed to be true, were in fact not what the Bible teaches.  My faith became tested in the fire of adversity and what came out was quite a bit different than what I had wanted to believe.  I found that believing something does not make it true, and God is not obligated to fulfill my wishes just because I muster up some sort of fervent faith.  

And so I present this passage of scripture to you today not from the perspective of a theologian sitting in an ivory tower, but from the experience of someone who has proven the validity of these promises in the fires of tribulation and trials.  So let me just say unapologetically right from the outset that verse 28 is not some sort of promise that God is going to make everything work out the way you want it to.  God is not promising good to you in the sense that we most often think of what’s good.  When you lose a loved one to illness or an accident, perhaps a young person in the prime of their life, you will ask yourself then, “how can this be good?”  And if you’re like most of us, trying to understand life from our own perspective of justice and goodness and rightness, then we will end up disillusioned and in danger of your faith becoming shipwrecked.

The key then to understanding this verse is the context in which it is found.  Context is so essential in interpreting scripture correctly.  And the verse which summarizes the context up to this point best is vs 16 and 17. “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.]”  What Paul is saying here is that if we have become children of God by the new birth of the Holy Spirit, then we have a glorious inheritance that awaits us in eternity, but the path to glory goes through the valley of suffering in the present world.

Now we have already discussed this verse in previous studies, so I don’t want to belabor it again, but suffice it to say that what Paul is saying there is that suffering is an integral part of the Christian experience.  Health, wealth and prosperity is not typically the means that God chooses, but suffering is the way that God uses to bring His children to glory. It is the means that God uses to change us, to conform us to be like Christ in this present world.

I’m afraid that this principle is not something that gets a lot of airtime on Christian radio and television.  The expectation of Christian suffering doesn’t sell a lot of books.  We all want three steps to some sort of mountain top experience.  Or we want seven steps to a better, more fulfilling life as a Christian. And of course that usually includes all the physical and material “blessings” which we think will help us live out the American dream.

That may be the American dream, but it is not the Christian experience which the Bible teaches.  Let me just show you a few verses of scripture which indicate that suffering is the means which God has ordained for the Christian.  To the church at Philippi Paul said in Phil. 1:29 “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”  To Timothy in 2Tim. 2:3 “Suffer hardship with [me,] as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”  Peter in 1Peter 4:19 said “Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” Jesus said to the church at Smyrna in Rev 2:10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  1Peter 5:8-10 Peter says “Be of sober [spirit,] be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  But resist him, firm in [your] faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.  After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen [and] establish you.”  In John 16:33 Jesus said,  “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  

And we could go on and on.  Contrary to our expectations, the Beatitudes talk about suffering being a blessing of the child of God. Jesus talked about taking up your cross and following Him. We don’t have the time to exhaust all that the scripture says about that subject this morning.  But it’s important to understand that suffering is not incidental to the Christian life, but it’s essential.  And furthermore, suffering has a purpose, a Divine purpose.  

So in the context of the suffering that we will endure as children of God, Paul says in vs 28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.”  God causes all things, even what we might think are bad things, He uses our suffering to work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.  God uses our suffering for good. Now that is a hard doctrine, but that’s a true doctrine.  A fundamental doctrine.  

Probably the best illustration I can think of for that principle is that of Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, spent 13 years in prison for something he was not guilty of, only to eventually be released and put second in command under Pharaoh.  But what’s important to see in that was how Joseph responded many years later when his brother’s finally came and bowed down to him as he had dreamed they would when he was but a boy.  They were afraid that he would put them to death for what they had done to him.  But what did he say to them?  “You meant it for evil, but God used it for good.”

Notice that please.  It was evil that they did to Joseph.  He suffered tremendously for many  years. He was sold into slavery because of their hatred and he suffered greatly. But what purpose did God achieve in Joseph through that suffering? God used Joseph’s suffering for good. He made Joseph like Christ.  Joseph became the means of salvation for his people.  He became a type of Christ.  He was able to love his enemies like Christ loves.  He was able to forgive his enemies like Christ forgives.

So what Paul calls “good” is not necessarily the kinds of things we might call good, depending on the circumstances we find ourselves in.  What he calls good must be examined in light of the fact that the Christian loves God.  Notice that is how Paul phrases this; “God works all things together for good to those who love God.” Now we talk in the church all the time about love, especially Christian love.  We just finished studying what is called the great love chapter in 1 Cor. 13 in our Wednesday night Bible study.  And so we know that this is not an emotion base or sentimental love Paul is talking about.  The love which God has for us, and which we are to have for Him, is a sacrificial love.  It’s a selfless love.  It’s a love which wants what is best for the other, not what is best for us.  It is a love for God that is born out of the fact that God first loved us, so we love Him.  And this is love, that Christ suffered and  died to save sinners.  Oh, that kind of love then.  The kind of love we are talking about is a love that lays down his life for his friends.  That suffers all things, bears all things, endures all things, for the sake of the One whom we love.  To that person who loves God as He loves us, God causes all things to work together for good, even our suffering.

Then to  even further delineating this providence of God, Paul gives the caveat that those who love God are also called according to His purpose. So it’s not my purposes, my grand design, my 25 year plan that God is obligated to fix everything so it works out nice and tidy and I get what I want, so that I can rub my hands together and say “boy, life is good!”  But if I am called according to His purpose, if I am enjoined with God’s purposes, if I love God so much that I am willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary to do His will, then God will cause all things to work together for good, to accomplish His purpose.

Ok then, the next logical question is what is God’s purpose?  I believe the question has already been answered to some degree by the illustration of Joseph.  But nevertheless, Paul makes it clear in the next paragraph. Look at vs29, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” 

Now right about here, most theologians and a lot of preachers stop preaching, and start talking about theology.  And theology is necessary and it has it’s place.  But it’s possible to spend an hour or two on a dissertation of Calvinism  and completely miss the point of what Paul is saying here.  What I find discomfiting sometimes in discussions of theology is that we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to define what God can and can’t do, as opposed to figuring out what God wants us to do.  We spend a lot of time trying to define the undefinable, to know the unknowable.  To explain where the beginning and end are in eternity. 

But my take on a lot of high minded theology is to simply say that if God said it, then I believe it.  I don’t have to understand it.  Predestination and foreknowledge and election are things that my finite mind cannot comprehend.  And so talking about what I think God can and cannot do is not very productive. If you can understand eternity, then maybe you can figure out election and predestination. But God doesn’t use a lot of pen and ink trying to explain such things.  He just declares them.  But He does spend a lot of time explaining what He requires of us.  And so I think we would be better served to focus our time and energy on what He requires of us, and let God take care of being God.

That being said, however, we can clearly take away something important inn what Paul says here.  And that is that God has a plan. God has a purpose.  We may not understand exactly how foreknowledge and predestination work, but anyone can understand that you have to have a plan and a purpose for there to be foreknowledge and predestination. How can you predestine something unless you first plan what it is you want to accomplish?  So God has a plan and a purpose from eternity past.  And that plan and purpose is to bring many sons to glory.  

Hebrews 2:10 says, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” That’s exactly what Paul is indicating here in vs 29. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined  (that means God planned, He predetermined) for many people to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that Christ would be the firstborn among many brethren.”  Notice the last part of that statement, so that Christ would be the firstborn among MANY brethren.” Same thought as in Hebrews; Christ bringing many sons to glory.  God’s purpose in sending His Son to the world is to bring many other children to Him.

And to make them sons, or children, that are similar to Christ is the purpose of God.  Paul has already established earlier the benefits of being adopted into the family of God.  That we are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. Now he makes the point that the purpose of God is just not to save them from hell, but to make them like Christ.  Notice how he says this; “He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.”  That is God’s purpose, to bring them into conformity to the image of Christ.  To make them look like Christ, to act like Christ, to have the righteousness of Christ, to have the Spirit of Christ, to do the works of Christ.  That’s what it means to be in conformity to the image of Christ.  Paul is talking about our sanctification. 

Sanctification is the process of being remade in the image of Christ.  Now that happens in the chain of salvation.  And Paul states that chain of events which results in our salvation.  Remember as  I have told you before that salvation has three parts; justification, sanctification, and glorification.  Justification occurs when we accept Jesus as our Savior, believing in what He did on the cross on our behalf, and as a result of our faith in Him God forgives us of our sins, and transfers the righteousness of Christ to us. At that point we are declared righteous, and we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

So having become what Jesus called “born again”, He begins the process of sanctification in us.  This is the life of a Christian.  It’s the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in this present body, in this present life.  And as Paul has just indicated, God uses suffering to shape us into Christ’s image. Suffering is one of the tools that God uses to chip away the dross, to chip away the weights and the sin which so easily besets us, and to shape us into a work of art, really a work of love, in which we begin to take on the characteristics of Christ as we deny the flesh and walk in the Spirit. Suffering is the means of our sanctification.

Now that process of sanctification lasts until the last phase of our salvation, which is when we are gathered to be with the Lord.  That last phase of our salvation is glorification, in which this body of flesh will be made incorruptible.  We will be changed physically to be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.  We will receive a glorified body that will not have the sin nature any longer.  A body that will never die.  It will never have disease.  Because it will have no sin. And in that phase we will ever be with the Lord.  In that glorification phase we will inherit what God has prepared for those who love Him.  In that stage, the eternal plan of God to bring many sons to glory will be realized finally and completely.  The plan of God, which cannot fail, which was predetermined before the world began, will be brought to it’s consummation in the Kingdom of God.  And as Paul indicated earlier, heaven and earth will be remade to be the Paradise of God, where we that love God will be able to be with Him and live with Him, and love and serve Him forever.

So that is the good that God causes to work together for our sakes, to bring many sons to glory.  To conform many sons and daughters to the image of Jesus Christ.  That many sons and daughters will share in the inheritance of Christ.  That brings us back to the verse we started with, vs 17, 17 “and if [we are] 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.”

Oh Christian, if you hear me today, do not be dismayed at the fiery trials which have come upon you, which come upon you for your testing, as if some strange thing were happening to you, “but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”  

John Cowper wrote a hymn of which the following verse is famous.  He said, “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.”  Let us trust God in the suffering, in the trials and in the storms.  He has a purpose and a plan to call many sons to glory through suffering with Christ and being conformed to the image of Christ.  And He has promised to make sure that the chain of salvation is completed in us.  He will not lose even one of His sheep.  

Perhaps there is someone here today that has heard the call of God upon their heart.  Today if you hear the voice of God calling you, do not harden your heart.  Call upon the Lord when He may be found.  If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He will adopt you into His family so that you will receive the inheritance of glory.  If God is calling you today I hope and pray that you will answer Him, that you may become a child of God.  

Last week we looked at the blessings and benefits of what Paul described in vs 15 as adopted into the family of God, as a child of God. I would remind you that adoption as children of God is not a natural condition. Contrary to popular opinion, we are not naturally children of God, but Jesus said we were naturally children of our father the devil. Consequently we are all sinners and under the condemnation of death by natural birth. But for those who have believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, who have trusted in His substitutionary atonement on their behalf by His death and resurrection, then they are born again spiritually, and at that point they are adopted into the family of God.

Now last week we looked at some of the blessings that are promised to the children of God. Not the least of which Paul states that we are now heirs of God. He says in vs17 that we are heirs. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” Just think, we are co heirs with Christ. We will share in the glory that is going to be given to Christ. That’s an incredible, incomprehensible blessing that is part of our inheritance as the children of God.

Now verse 17 connects two things that we would normally never put together: sufferings and glory, or what someone has called the hurts and hallelujahs. And you will find that these two things they are almost always connected in the scripture.There is a popular false doctrine that is being taught in some churches today that claim hardship or suffering or illness or lack of anything you desire is contrary to the gospel. But if you read this passage you must conclude that that doctrine is in error. The road of Christianity is one of suffering and glory. But the cross comes before the glory.

Suffering and glory belong together, and you find them together in almost every passage of Scripture that deals with the suffering of the Christian. For instance, the Apostle Paul links them together in 2 Corinthians 4:17 saying: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

John seems to reference that two dimensional experience of a Christian in 1John 3:2 saying, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” Again we see these presumably two opposing dimensions of our Christian life connected. There is a present condition that is typified by suffering, and a future dimension in which we will be like Christ in glory. And so in this passage we are looking at today, we see these two dimensions detailed in three arenas; in the arena of the creation, or nature, in the human arena, as in our personal experience as the children of God, and then even in the spiritual arena, as the Holy Spirit suffers with us.

Paul is speaking here of the present sufferings of the children of God, and their future glorification. And I would add that suffering can take many forms. It may involve persecution, though I would say we haven’t seen a lot of that in this country. However, I think we are heading in that direction. But it can also take the form of family reproach. It can come from situations in your career or job as a Christian. It can take the form of isolation, loneliness, as it becomes difficult to have friends or loved ones because of your Christian convictions. Jesus said the world hated Me, so don’t be surprised if it hates you. There are many ways you can suffer as a Christian.

However, the Bible teaches that suffering is used by God for a good purpose. That’s what vs 28 is talking about. Vs 28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.” Paul issn’t saying that everything in life is going to work out fine. Don’t worry, be happy. But he is saying that God will use everything, even suffering, for His purposes, and His purposes are good. Suffering is used to purify His people, to sanctify us, to shape us into the image of Jesus Christ as we share in His sufferings.

So, our sufferings as believers – physical, emotional, whatever they may be – are directly linked with the glory that is coming. The important thing we need to see is that both the sufferings and the glory are privileges that are given to us. It is easy for Christians reading these passages to get the idea that we earn our glory by the sufferings that we go through. But as this passage makes clear, glory is as part of our inheritance in Christ. And suffering, also, is our inheritance in Christ. Suffering is a privilege committed to us. Paul says this again very plainly in Philippians 1:29: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.”

In the early church, it is recorded in Acts that those Christians actually rejoiced in their sufferings. Peter and John, Paul and Silas and many others rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Lord. And though they may have been beaten and mistreated, they went away rejoicing because God had counted them worthy to bear suffering for his name’s sake. That kind of perspective is what makes it possible for us to endure suffering and, more than that, to actually rise above it with rejoicing. James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” We can only consider suffering joy it as a privilege to share in Christ’s sufferings, and a means by which He makes us like Christ.

The blows by the hammer on the steel may be hard, and the fire may be intense, but what is produced on the anvil will be a weapon that will be fit for service to God.

Jesus promised a blessing in Matthew 5:11-12 for those that suffer. He said, “Blessed are you when men persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for his name’s sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.”

So the theme of this passage is found in vs 18; “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” The theme is that incomparable glory lies after a time of suffering – glory beyond description, greater than anything you can compare it with on earth. A glory that will make the present suffering seem but a drop in the bucket of what God has planned for us. We have a tremendous inheritance that awaits us as the children of God after we go through a temporary time of suffering here on earth.

So the apostle says, “Our sufferings are not worthy to be even mentioned in comparison with the glory that is to follow.” Now, that statement could just be written off as hyperbole if it didn’t come from a man like Paul. He was a man who suffered immensely. I’m sure that no one listening today has gone through even a fraction of the suffering that Paul endured.

Paul listed some of his sufferings in 2Co 11:23-28 saying to some who had criticized him, “Are they servants of Christ?–I speak as if insane–I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine [lashes.] Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. [I have been] on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from [my] countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; [I have been] in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from [such] external things, there is the daily pressure on me [of] concern for all the churches.”

Even though Paul suffered tremendously, yet he still asserts that the suffering we experience is not even a drop in the bucket compared with the immensity of glory that is coming. This is the incredible glory that God has prepared for those who love him.

We can endure the suffering, and even triumph in it, because we see the glory that is to follow. But the future glory is preceded by three types of suffering, which Paul describes as characterized by groaning. So there are three groanings that he makes mention of in the remainder of this passage, which are but precursors of the glory which is to follow.

The first groaning is that from nature. Paul says that creation is suffering while waiting for the glory that is coming. Verse 19 tells us that nature is waiting for something: “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” The word in the Greek language which is translated “anxious longing” is an interesting word. It is a word that pictures a man standing and looking for something to happen, craning his head forward.

Paul goes on to say that the creation was subjected to futility, or frustration. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly (not by original design), but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

Paul is saying that creation not only is waiting for something, but that it is doing so because it is linked with man. Creation fell when man fell. Not only did our whole race fall into the bondage of sin and death, as the earlier chapters of Romans explain, but the earth fell as well. God said in Genesis 3; “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face. You will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

It was man’s sin that caused thorns and bramble to overrun nature. It was man’s sin that made the animals to fear and devour one other. With the fall of man came the curse of death upon the earth. And so the earth was subject to futility. It no longer is what it was intended to be; a paradise which was made for man to enjoy.

But Paul argues that it is also true that when the Christian is delivered from the corruption, nature will be delivered as well. Therefore, when the time comes when the sons of God are going to be revealed – when it shall appear what shall be, as 1 John 3:2 says, when what we have become in our spirits, sons of the living God, shall become evident – in that day, nature will be freed from its bondage as well and reborn as the Paradise of God.

That is the time on earth spoken of in Isaiah 11:6-9 “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.” That is the renewal that creation looks forward to.

But for now, under the weight of the curse, yet in anticipation of that day, the apostle says, nature groans, but it groans in hope (Verse 22): ”For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” As Paul said earlier, nature groans in the hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage of decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. It groans under the suffering of sin that has kept it in bondage to futility. And so Paul likens the suffering of creation as to the groans of a woman in labor, as she bears with the suffering, because she has a hope that something much better will be produced through her present labor and hardship.

A point that should be emphasized perhaps is that this teaches us that nature is made for man. It was to be his domain, under his rule. And when man fell, his domain fell under a similar judgment. God cursed the ground because of man’s sin. So in like respect, when man is regenerated in glory, then nature will be regenerated into glory as well. Peter speaks of the fact that heavens and earth will be burned with a fervent heat, but we look forward to a new heaven and new earth. The end of the earth as we know it will not be by flood, but by fire. A purifying fire from which the earth will produce a new vegetation, a new animal life, in which there is no decay, no effects of sin, which will be compatible to the new glory which man will also enjoy.

The second groaning that Paul describes is that of the children of God in their present condition. Vs23 “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for [our] adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he [already] sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”

Paul says here that though we ourselves are redeemed in spirit, our bodies are not yet redeemed; and so being in the corrupt flesh, we, too, are groaning. He said as much about his own experience in chapter 7 concluding “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” It was as if Paul is groaning in his spirit because of this great conflict within him between what he wants to do to please God, and what his flesh is found to be doing in spite of his best intentions. Because of his justification he has the first fruits of the Spirit. He is seeing some evidence in terms of the fruit of righteousness because of the inward dwelling of the Holy Spirit. But he is frustrated by the lack of perfection that he wants to achieve. And so he groans in his spirit in suffering under the burden of the flesh, and yet anticipating the future glory of the body at the consummation.

All through this passage there is a constant contrast between the groan and the glory; yet there is a link between the two. Nature groans; we groan. And yet the groaning, or suffering, is producing the glory. I remind you again of what Paul said in Second Corinthians 4:17: “For momentary, light affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Suffering is preparing us by sanctifying us, conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ by sufferings.

PhIl. 3:10-11 says, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Our sufferings, our groaning, is producing in us a future glorification as we are being made like Christ spiritually, and will one day be like Him in body as well.

But in the meantime we groan because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We groan because of the havoc that sin makes in our lives, and in the lives of those we love. We groan because we see opportunities that are not being taken advantage of. We groan because we waste the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that, as Jesus drew near the tomb of Lazarus, He groaned in His Spirit because he was so burdened by the ravages that sin had made in the lives of those He loved. He groaned, even though he knew that he would soon raise Lazarus from the dead. So we groan in our spirits — we groan in disappointment, in bereavement, in sorrow. We groan physically in our pain and our limitation. Life consists of a great deal of groaning. But the apostle immediately adds that this is a groaning which has hope.

The Christian perspective is that, though the body is in pain and suffering and disappointment now, this is an important tool that God uses in our lives. It is something that is part of the purposes and plan of God, part of the privilege committed to us as Christians. We suffer with Christ that we might be like Christ. As he suffered, so do we, that we might also be glorified, even as He is. As vs 17 said, “if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” That is our hope that makes the suffering bearable. We have a hope that is not now realized, it is in the future, but it is nevertheless a sure hope. A hope which the author of Hebrews calls the anchor of the soul. And so again, we are taught that our hope of a life of pleasant living, of everything working out, a life of health, wealth and prosperity is not God’s plan for the life of a Christian. But there will be trials, there will be suffering, their will be groaning, and yet there is a firm conviction which we call the blessed hope, which will make it all worth it all when we see Jesus.

Then there is the final groaning which is found in vs26, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for [us] with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to [the will of] God.”

Paul says the Spirit is groaning. The Spirit is groaning with words which cannot be uttered. This passage helps us in our understanding of prayer. The apostle says that we do not know what to pray as we ought. We lack wisdom. I want to point out that this is not an encouragement not to pray. Some people think this means that since we don’t know how to pray as we ought, and if the Spirit is going to pray for us anyway, then we don’t need to pray. But that would contradict many other passages of Scripture, such as James 4:2, which says. “You have not because you ask not.” God does want us to pray, and we are constantly encouraged to pray. Jesus taught us to pray. He asked His disciples to continue with Him in prayer in the Garden of Gethsamane. In Philippians 4:6, Paul tells us that in everything, with prayer and supplication, we are to let our requests be made known to God.

But the great encouragement should be that the Spirit prays with us, according to the will of God, to help us in our weakness. That weakness is our weakness in temptation, it’s our weakness in steadfastness. It’s the weakness of our body of flesh. And the Spirit who is in us, who understands and emphasizes with us, who also knows the heart of God and the will of God, helps us by praying with us.

This verse is commonly misinterpreted to try to vouch for some kind of ecstatic speech, speaking in tongues, or an unintelligible prayer language of our spirit. But to make such an extrapolation from this verse is very simply bad exegesis. Paul makes it clear that it is the Spirit praying, not us praying. He is praying for us, because we are weak. Because we are prone to sin. Because we live in a fallen world and in fleshly bodies. Because we don’t always know the will of God. And so God has given us a Helper, who prays for us according to the will of God.

I am reminded of Jesus’s admonition to Peter when He said, “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” So as the Spirit of Christ continues the ministry of Christ as our Helper, as our Comforter, He also prays for us, that our faith will not fail, that we might do the will of God. And that kind of intercession is essential to the process of our sanctification. We would never be able to do the will of God without the Spirit of Christ working in us, and helping us, and praying for us.

Everyone that is living on this earth will suffer from the effects of the fall to some degree or another. No one gets out of here alive. It is appointed for man to die, and after that the judgment. But for those who have trusted in Christ as their Savior, who have repented of their sin and been born again as children of God, there is a hope that this is not all that there is. We have a promise of God, who cannot lie, that we will receive an inheritance that is equal to the inheritance which is Christ’s. That hope gives us assurance and even joy as we live our lives with a view towards the future. If you are here this morning and you don’t have that hope, but have come to the realization that life without the Lord is hopeless, then I urge you to come to Christ today as your Savior and Lord. He who believes in Him will never die. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And you can know the same hope that we have. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. Don’t waste this opportunity. Call on Him today and He will make you a child of God, an heir of salvation, and give you a future inheritance of glory with Christ.

The point that I think Paul is making here is who is in control of your life.  He has made the case very clearly, starting in chapter 7, that there are two natures at war in your body; that which is flesh, and sinful, and that which is Spirit.  Paul uses the phrase or something like it again and again in this passage, a phrase like “of the Spirit,” “or by the Spirit,” or “led by the Spirit.”  

Now the question arises what is meant by “in the Spirit?”  A lot of people get off track on this whole subject of the Spirit.  The primary mistake they make is thinking that the Spirit is an unseen force rather than the third person of the Godhead.  So it’s not a matter of how much Spirit you have as if He is like electric current; ie, 110 volt or 220 volt, etc.  No, He is a person of the Godhead and we receive Him at salvation.  As Paul said in vs 9 “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”  So the Spirit is not just an unseen force but He is the Spirit of Christ, so that Paul say’s in the next verse that “If Christ dwells in you…”  So there is a oneness in the Godhead that enables us to have the Spirit of Christ in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The other mistake that is commonly made is that being in the Spirit is communicated by a feeling.  They talk about getting goosebumps or succumbing to tears or feelings of ecstasy or  exuberance or some sort of feeling which they attribute to the Spirit.  So the Spirit is relegated to an emotion that moves you inwardly or makes you feel something.  But the Bible never relates the presence of the Spirit as a feeling, but as in knowledge. We know the presence of the Spirit because of knowledge based on God’s truth, not by some experience.

The Bible teaches that the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.  He is a person that dwells in us.  And as God, He gives life to our spirit, so that we are spiritually alive in Christ, and our spirit is now reestablished in the hierarchy that was ordained by God in Creation, but which was overturned at the fall.  That hierarchy is spirit, soul and body.  And that reestablishment of our original design as humans was accomplished by the Spirit when we were born again. Jesus said in John 3:6 says “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Before our salvation we were living in bondage to the body, or flesh, but now our renewed spirit is governing our soul, or mind, and our mind is exerting control over our body or flesh.  That is the divine order that we are to operate under as born again Christians.  And our spirit is in communion with the Holy Spirit who indwells us and controls us.  

Now the old nature, the flesh, still remains in us.  And Paul says that the way we give control to the Spirit, or live by the Spirit, is to kill off the flesh. We don’t need to seek more of the Spirit, but we need to have less flesh. God said in Genesis 6:3, ““My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh.” We are not obligated to listen to the flesh any longer nor to obey the flesh any longer.  Notice vs 12, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  

So though the flesh remains we are not obligated to it. But we are indebted to the Spirit. 1Cor. 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  We belong to a new Master.  We have been married to a new Bridegroom.  If we were to continue to live according to the flesh he says in vs13 the outcome would be death.  But by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh and the outcome is life. So Paul says in 1 Cor. that he buffets his body and makes it his slave.

But what does Paul mean, by “the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body?”  Does that mean we don’t do anything, we just lay back and watch the Spirit of Christ put to death the deeds of our body?  No, Paul relates this as something we are responsible for.  Notice that Paul says “you are putting to death the deeds of the body.”  Our body is something that is under the control of our mind, whether consciously or unconsciously.  So how do we by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body?  Well, the answer must be, by the controlling influence of the Spirit, by the wisdom of the Spirit, we deliberately put to death anything that we would do  that is contrary to God.  We recognize by the illumination of the Spirit that certain things are sinful, that they are contrary to God’s will for us, and we decide in our will that we will not respond to those desires of the flesh. We choose to die to those things that the Spirit of God tells us are wrong. And we choose to live to those things which are of the Spirit.

In Joshua 24:15 the Israelites were told; “choose you this day whom you will serve.”  And in Matthew 7:24 Jesus told a parable about a man who built his house upon the sand, and another man who built his house upon a rock.  They made a choice which life they were going to live, based on hearing the words of Christ and acting or not acting upon them. There is a choice whom we will serve. We have a responsibility to choose whom to obey.

So then to the degree to which we yield to the Spirit and deny the flesh, then we do things of  the Spirit, and by the Spirit.  He controls us.  Paul states it that way in 2Cor. 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

Now if you are being controlled by the Spirit, if you are choosing to serve Him and denying the flesh, then you are obviously being led by the Spirit.  He is leading, we are following His leading.  So Paul says in vs 14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”  Paul is now going to enumerate further the benefits of our relationship with God.  Paul has used the analogy of slaves to a new master, and he has compared us to the bride of Christ, and now Paul says we that are led by the Spirit are sons of God.  Now sons of God means children of God, as we can see in vs 16. But the reason that he generically lumps us all together as “sons” is because in that culture, the sons were the ones to whom was left the inheritance. 

We have already addressed this concept of being led by the Spirit. It means our sanctification (that is as we are formed into the image of Christ) is something that is orchestrated by the Spirit as He indwells us, as He corrects us, as He teaches us, as He controls us, as He illumines our hearts and minds, as He gifts us, and as He produces in us the fruits of the Spirit.

And since we are led by the Spirit, Paul says we are not under the spirit of slavery, which leads to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption.  Consider how tremendous our salvation is in light of this verse.  We once were enslaved to sin and under the penalty of death.  But the blood of Jesus Christ was the payment by which we were bought by a new Master.  Under this new Master we were purchased to be slaves of righteousness.  But God was not content with keeping us as slaves.  Lo and behold, God loved us so much, even when we were slaves, that He wanted us to be HIs children, and so He adopted us. God chose us to be His children.   

Imagine a low level slave in Rome in the first century.  He is put on the auction block for sale.  And an incredibly wealthy and wise man buys that slave and takes him to his home.  But instead of sending him to the fields, he washes him, cleans him up, dresses him in the finest clothes, and announces to him that he is going to adopt him to be his son.  And then before the startled slave can comprehend how great it is to be a son, the master tells him that he is also going to make him the heir of all that his estate.  This formally worthless, penniless, hopeless slave is made an heir to an incredibly wealthy estate and is able to live with this man, not just as his master, but as his father.  That’s a picture of what God has done for us.

The apostle John writes in 1John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and [such] we are.”  I don’t know if the tremendous blessing of the fact that God is our Father has escaped you.  I fear that it has for me to some degree.  I have accepted the reality of my salvation to be sure.  I know that I am saved.  But I must confess that I have not fully comprehended all the wonders of the fact that I am a child of God, that He has chosen me to be His son and all the blessings that go with that.

Listen, in a great house in the time of the Romans, there would have been a tremendous difference between the way a son lived and acted, and the way a slave acted.  A son has an assurance and confidence as he lives in the house that comes from knowing that all belongs to him.  Whereas a slave lives with the awareness that nothing belongs to him, and his very life belongs to his master.  And so there would have been a sense of dread upon the slave, but a sense of freedom and confidence in the son.  And that is the relationship that we have with God as His adopted children.

And because we are adopted into God’s family as His children, we can call out to Him, “Abba, Father!”  Abba is the Aramaic for father.  Paul, as did Mark, adds Father after Abba for their Greek and Roman readers.  But it’s not necessary to say both.   Father is an intimate expression of our relationship and of His love for us.

Perhaps you have seen photographs of President John F. Kennedy  that were taken in the Oval Office, and his young son is hiding under his desk.  Here is the most important man in the world, and yet when his son calls out “Daddy” he stops everything he is doing, and scoops up the young boy and sets him on his lap.  That’s a picture of the relationship we have with our Father, whose ears are tuned to hear our cry of “Abba.”

Jesus called the Father “Abba” in the Garden of Gethsemane. He used “Father” when He taught His disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer. He constantly referred to God as His Father. And the amazing thing is that we have that same privilege that Christ had as the Son of God, as we are the children of God.

Now as to that assurance that we are indeed the children of God, it says in vs 16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”  So there are two that bear witness to our relationship with God.  The Holy Spirit gives evidence to us by the fact that we are filled with His presence, and by the fact that He leads us.  If we had not the Spirit of Christ, Paul said earlier, then we would not belong to Him.  But the fact that we have the Spirit in us is evidence that we are His children.  

But also Paul says that our spirit bears witness that we are His children as well.  How is that? John gives us an indication of how that occurs in 1John 3:10, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

So as our spirit is in communion with the Holy Spirit and under His leading, then it controls the mind and body so that the deeds of the flesh are put to death and the works of righteousness are accomplished in us, is that not evidence that our spirit is regenerated and that we are children of God?  Paul says that it certainly is.  

Now that sonship that Paul speaks of expands logically into heirship. Vs 17, “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.]”  The state of being a child implies the benefit of being an heir, which of course, means that there is an inheritance in store for us.  This is an immediate benefit and blessings which comes from being a child of God, but there is also a future blessing which comes as Paul says at the end of this verse “that we may also be glorified with Him.”

In an inheritance, there is a will. It’s often called the last will and testament of so and so.  And the one who is writing the will, is called a testator.  So who is the testator of this will?  It is no less than God, our Father.  Christ of course is the main heir of the Father, but again the amazing thing is that He has declared us to be co heirs with Christ. 

Let’s consider the inheritance that God has promised us.  Like the imaginary master who adopted his slave, our Father’s estate is beyond our imagination.  Haggai 2:8 says that all the gold and silver are His.  Psalm 50:10 says that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and all the animals in the forests. Everything belongs to Him, and He is ruler over all. Solomon in all his glory can not begin to compare with the glory that belongs to God. 

According to Revelation 3:12 we will inherit a new name.  In Rev.4:4 John says we shall receive a crown of gold. In chapter 20 vs 4 John says with Him we shall reign. Probably the greatest aspect of our inheritance is found in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”  We will be like Him.  What an amazing thought, that we will become like God.

In vs 18, which we will be looking at in more detail next week, Paul says, “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.” 

In 1Cor. 2:9  Paul quotes from Isaiah saying, “but just as it is written, ‘THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND [which] HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.’”  The long and short of it is our inheritance cannot be even comprehended.  And what is known, especially that the glory which was given to Jesus is the same glory that we are promised to share with Him, that we will rule with Him, we who were slaves will become kings with God,  is unfathomable.

The caveat though is that there will be suffering experienced here if we are God’s children. If we will share in Christ’s glory, then we will also share in Christ’s suffering. And perhaps that is another witness of the fact that we are children of God.  The devil certainly recognizes the Spirit of Christ in us and he will do all that he can within his power to make us suffer, hoping that we might deny Christ, even as Job’s wife urged him to deny Christ to end his suffering. 

But if we are children of God, and if we believe the promises that our Father has given to us, then we cannot deny our Father. And the promises that we have are the hope that is within us, that enables us to suffer with Him, so that we might be glorified with Him in the resurrection. 

Suffering as a Christian can take many forms.  It can mean alienation from loved ones.  It can cause problems on the job, even possibly losing your job because of your testimony or your refusal to participate in certain things that they want you to do.  Suffering may take place at school, for those who are still of that age.  It may take the form of being a social outcast. 

But it’s important that if we suffer, as Paul indicates, it’s because we are a Christian, and not because we have done wrong and suffer the consequences of it.  Peter says in 1 Peter 4:12-19  “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;  but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.  If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.  Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler;  but if [anyone suffers] as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.  For [it is] time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if [it] [begins] with us first, what [will be] the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?  Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

Let me close then by reminding you of what we started with.  That if you are of the Spirit, if you are being led by the Spirit, then you are being controlled by the Spirit.  The Spirit of Christ works in you to sanctify you. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, you “are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.”  I urge you then as children of God to yield to the Spirit of Christ.  He will speak to you the words of Christ and bring to your remembrance the things that He has taught us.  He will correct you and convict you when you stray from the way of righteousness.  Listen to Him, follow him, and He will direct your paths.  And that path is the path of righteousness, whereby we are being conformed to the image of Christ here on earth, that we might share in the glory of Christ in the future consummation of the kingdom when Christ returns for the children of God.  You are children of God.  May the grace of God enable  us to live as such. 

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.

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.

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.

In preaching classes, they teach you that illustrations are essential to a good sermon.  I tend not to use them as much as many other pastors do.  Last week I used one regarding the great chasm between man and God, and I think I can say confidently that it was not a good illustration.  I find that the best illustrations for a sermon come from the Bible itself. And in Paul’s message on Romans we come now to an illustration from the life of Abraham.  You might say that Abraham is the best personal illustration of the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith and I think we will see that as it is presented in this passage.

Now Paul has already established in Romans 1:17 that the righteous man shall live by faith, which is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4. Then Paul thoroughly evidenced that there is no one who is righteous on the basis of his own merit, not even one person. And finally, in our last passage we studied, Paul showed that there is a righteousness which comes from God, apart from the works of the law or our human merit, which was spoken of in the Old Testament scriptures, and it is available to all men through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now to illustrate this faith that results in righteousness from God, Paul presents the faith of Abraham.  And you should understand some things regarding Paul’s decision to chose Abraham as the illustration of saving faith.  Abraham, of course, was considered the father of the Jews.  And we would agree with that. But the Jews went much further in their adulation of Abraham than what we believe.  They taught that God chose Abraham to be the father of their nation because God found him righteous above any other man on the earth. They taught that he began to serve God at the age of three, and that his righteousness was completed by his circumcision and his fulfillment of the law by anticipation.  They taught that though the law had not yet been given, Abraham anticipated it, and kept it and therefore because of his righteousness, he was deemed worthy of God’s favor.  So for anyone who was either Jewish or knowledgeable of Judaism, Paul choosing Abraham as an illustration of righteousness would have been very significant, because they held that Abraham was righteous, and therefore selected by God, the very opposite of what Paul was arguing.

And it’s apparent that the church at Rome probably had a large number of converted Jews in attendance, especially in light of the fact that Paul uses the title regarding Abraham as “our forefather according to the flesh.” The Jews would have agreed with that as they saw him as their forefather. However, it should be noted that God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, which included his offspring that became the Ishmaelites and Edomites, so in a sense he is the father of both Jews and Gentiles.  And as we progress in this passage we will see that Paul considers Abraham to be the forefather of all who have faith.

So Paul says in effect that given the divine blessings upon  Abraham, what can we learn from the life of Abraham about how to be righteous before God?

And Paul begins to answer that question in vs2 saying that “if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about.” However, previously in chap.3 vs 27 Paul said boasting was excluded, because God justifies on the basis of faith and not because of works.  But as I pointed out a moment ago, the Jews believed that Abraham was righteous on the basis of his merit, particularly by keeping the law of circumcision. 

But notice how Paul phrases it, “If Abraham was justified by works, then he has something to boast about, but not before God.” In other words, from God’s point of view Abraham had no reason to boast in his own merit.  As the author of Hebrews indicates, Abraham was called by God’s sovereign grace even while he was living in Ur of the Chaldees, among a pagan people. It was Abraham’s faith, not his works, which was the thing which God rewarded.  Listen how Hebrews summarizes Abraham’s life. Heb. 11:6, 8-12, 17-19 “And without faith it is impossible to please [Him,] for he who comes to God must believe that He is and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. … 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.  By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign [land,] dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;  for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, [as many descendants] AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE. … 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten [son;]  [it was he] to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.”  He considered that God is able to raise [people] even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.”

Now back in our passage in Romans Paul goes again to the Old Testament scriptures for validation to his argument that Abraham was righteous by faith.  And ironically, he goes to the very one his Jewish opponents might have also claimed.  The scripture he references is found in Genesis 15:6.  Paul says in vs3, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’”

The principle of saving faith in this verse is so important that it is repeated in a couple of other epistles, namely, Galatians 3:6 and James 2:23. And so I would like to examine this statement thoroughly. First of all, please notice that Paul says Abraham believed God, not that he believed in God. Abraham was not justified on the basis of believing in God’s existence, but by believing God.  Look at the context of Gen. 15:6 and it’s apparent that Abraham had already exhibited that he believed in God.  He had followed God’s command to leave Haran and go to a country that God would show him.  The context of Genesis 15:6 shows that God is making specific promises of a son who would come from Abraham’s body.  And so in regards to God’s  promises Abraham believed God.

And I think that is an important distinction. Because James 2:19 says the devil’s believe in God, and tremble. So merely believing in the existence of God does not save, it is believing in His word.

The other important thing we need to understand is the principle of reckoning, or credited, or accounted, depending upon your translation.  What this means is that God counted as righteousness what Abraham appropriated by faith, which was the righteousness of Christ. The Lord reckoned, or credited this unrighteous man, Abraham, to be righteous, even though he was not.The Lord was able to do this without himself being unjust, because of the certainty that Messiah would come and voluntarily sacrifice himself for all those who would have faith in Him. He would be Abraham’s substitute, paying the penalty for Abraham’s sin, and transferring His righteousness to Abraham in exchange.

This great exchange is spoken of in 2 Cor. 5:21 which says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  So we see that it’s not a degree of righteousness which has to be added to, and added to, in hopes of obtaining enough righteousness to please God, but it’s the full measure of God’s righteousness which is applied to our account.  But our justification is not God making us perfectly righteous, but counting us as perfectly righteous. And after we are counted righteous, then God begins making us truly righteous, culminating at our resurrection.

So in other words, God put to Abraham’s account, placed on deposit for him, credited to him, righteousness… Abraham possessed righteousness in the same way as a person would possess a sum of money placed in his account in a bank.  Furthermore, we should understand that righteousness is  more than the absence of evil and guilt. It is a positive good, meaning that God does not only declare us innocent, but righteous.

And Paul makes sure that we understand it is credited to us on the basis of faith, not works or merit. He says in vs 4 “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.  But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

The word translated as favor in my version is the Greek word “grace”.  You may remember we talked about grace last week and described it as unmerited favor. The point is, if you work, you expect a paycheck for your labor.  But if you don’t work, then what God gives you is grace, unmerited favor, which is credited to you as righteousness.  A lot of people today get their paychecks by direct deposit into their bank account.  But God gives us a divine deposit of righteousness, for which we do not work, for it is a gift of God deposited in our account.

The Greek word charis was used in those days by secular authors, usually referring to a spontaneous gift or favor given to a friend.  But in the New Testament, charis takes on a new dimension, in that God is not giving grace to his friends, but to his enemies.  And Paul echoes that in the use of the description of the recipient of grace being the ungodly.  He says, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.”   As the Jews thought concerning Abraham, they might expect God would only justify a godly man, but because of what Jesus did on the cross, God can justify the ungodly. Jesus came to save sinners.  No one is godly on the basis of their own merit.

Imagine having a large sum of money, and you spent it foolishly.  You wasted it on every luxury and trivial thing until you had none left.  And furthermore, you then went into debt for much more besides until you were way over your head in debt and absolutely broke, with no hope of paying it back.  And then imagine someone wiping out your debt, paying it in full, and then depositing an immense sum into your bank account.  That is what God has done for us.  Not on the basis of whether we deserved it or not, but on the basis of His mercy and grace.

So from start to finish, right standing with God is a gift of God.  And it is appropriated by faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore all the glory for our salvation belongs to God. There is no room for boasting in human works or merit.

Now to this illustration of Abraham, Paul adds another well known Old Testament figure, and that is of David.  All of us I’m sure are aware that though David was called a man after God’s own heart, and he achieved great things for the Lord, yet he was a man who fell into grevious sin. And so no one could make the claim like they did with Abraham that it was David’s inherent righteousness that gave him a right standing before God.  

But Paul emphasizes David’s righteousness  in vs6, saying, “just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.”  And then he quotes David from Psalm 32:1,2, saying, “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

David is joyful because he knows that his sins are forgiven. But he also indicates the same blessing is available for all those who partake of God’s grace.  David knew the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.  

Some commentators believe that Paul, who studied under Gamaliel is using a method of interpretation called “analogy” favored by the school of Hallel, which basically said that an earlier interpretation of a word connects to a later use of the same word, so that you may interpret the later usage by the older usage.  I have often referred to a similar method of hermeneutics which is called the principle of first mention.  For instance, if you want to know what Romans 12:1 means when it refers to worship, then go to the earliest use of that word and it will help you to understand the later usage.  In that example, the first use of worship is found in Genesis 22:5 when Abraham is taking Isaac his son to be offered as a sacrifice in obedience to God, and Abraham says to the men with him,  “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  So by that hermeneutic we learn that worship involves sacrifice.

The similar point  that commentators are making in regards to our passage in Romans is that the use of “reckon” in the verse concerning Abraham, instructs us in the meaning of the word “reckons” in the quote from David in vs8.  He is showing a connection. The phrase rendered “take into account” is the same word “logizomai” which is translated “reckoned” in Genesis 15:6. Therefore, what David is saying by means of the correct interpretation of that word, is that God credits or reckons righteousness apart from the law.  

David speaks of the blessedness, not of the one who is justified through works, but of the sinner who is cleansed through imputation. The emphasis is on what God places upon us  (which is the righteousness of Jesus), not on what we do for God.  Paul will go on to elaborate on the point of our unworthiness in the next chapter, saying, Rom 5:6-9 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  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.”

Having confirmed the justification that comes from God through grace and not from works by the passage from David,  Paul goes back to the example of Abraham to make another correlating, important point. He says, Abraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised; therefore he was not counted righteous because he was circumcised.

Let’s read the text in vs9 “Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, ‘FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’  How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised;  and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,  and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.”

The point Paul wants to make is the blessing of righteousness is all the more significant because Abraham could not have earned it.  And another tremendous aspect of the blessing is that it is not only given to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well, even to all who believe.

Now the standard Jewish belief was that God’s blessing came only to the circumcised.  Even as the first church was being formed, there were some who came from Jerusalem to the Gentile churches and tried to get them to become circumcised, saying that they could not be saved without adding certain laws to their faith.  So Paul wants to put that false doctrine to bed.  And he does so in a masterful way by showing that Abraham was declared righteous and credited with righteousness before he was circumcised.  In fact, it was at least 14 years after Gen.15:6, Abraham being then 99 years old and Ishmael was 13 years old when he and Ishmael were circumcised according to the command of God.  When God credited him with righteousness in Gen.15:6 Ishmael had not even been conceived.  And so Paul is able to show chronologically that righteousness is not based on the works of the law because Abraham was uncircumcised at that time.

It’s also important for application to us that we notice that Paul refers to “the sign of circumcision.” A sign indicates a later reality.  Thus in the cutting away of the flesh in circumcision it typifies the excision of the guilt and corruption of sin, which is a picture of justification and sanctification.

Paul also referred to circumcision as a seal. To Abraham it was the mark or seal of a guarantee that God would keep His promise. Sins and seals can be very helpful in our faith. But it’s also possible to over emphasize them. In the old dispensation there was the rites of circumcision and the Passover.  And in the new dispensation there is the rites of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  But those rites to do bring about justification, but are merely signs pointing to it.  They are a great educational value to our faith, and a great way of reminding us and testifying of what God has done.  But they are not the means of justification, only the signs of it.  So never should they be overrated and given the promise of removing sin.  They merely are outward signs of an inward transformation.

So Paul makes an important point by the fact that circumcision does not justify anyone.  They are justified by faith alone, through grace alone.  And by extension we need to understand that observing signs and seals does not impart righteousness. In fact, Abraham, the father of all those who believe, was declared righteous while he was still uncircumcised. Therefore, how could anyone then say (as some did in Paul’s day) that Gentiles must be circumcised before God would declare them righteous? Or how could anyone say that without baptism no one can be saved as certain churches today teach? 

The Jews of Paul’s day thought circumcision meant they were the true descendants of Abraham. But Paul insists that to have Abraham as your father, you must walk in the steps of the faith that Abraham walked in. Look at vs 12, “and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.”

As Paul stated in Gal. 3:7 “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” That directly corresponds to the statement in chapter 2, vs 28, where Paul said, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

It is faith, then, not a ritual, that saves. It is faith, not ritual, that makes people right with God. And it started with Abraham in the sense that he’s the father of the faith. So we can share the faith of Abraham, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile. Faith is the operative principle of salvation, and Abraham is the model of salvation by faith apart from any ritual. There are no rituals or observing of signs or sacraments that can save, only by faith, through grace.

I pray that you have appropriated by faith in Christ the righteousness of God that you may be counted as righteous in the sight of God.  It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.  It has been paid for by Jesus Christ.  Simply believe in Him as your Lord and Savior and you will be justified, credited with the righteousness of God, that you may become sons and daughters of God, an co heirs with Christ, guaranteed the blessing of God. 

The thesis of Paul’s message in Romans is found in Romans 1:16-17. He says there, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it [the] righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS [man] SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

This message is the gospel, the good news, that the righteousness of God has been manifested to man on the basis of faith. Paul gives us in that statement a synopsis of the gospel. God is righteous, and in order to have life from God we must be righteous as He is righteous, and that righteousness is accomplished by faith. But then almost ironically, he spends the next 2 1/2 chapters talking about the fact that all men have failed to measure up to that standard of God’s righteousness, and that all men are sinners, and thereby condemned to death. Rather than focusing on the good news, Paul first focuses our attention on the bad news. All men are under the judgment of God because of their sinful nature and their unrighteousness.

But in the passage which we are looking at today, having shown that all men are unrighteous, Paul presents a series of principles of righteousness which by believing we become righteous in the sight of God. And he starts by defining the righteousness that God requires by the law. He has already shown that all men – the pagan, the moral man, and even the religious man – are sinners under the condemnation of God’s judgment. So in vs 19, Paul presents the principle of righteousness defined. “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.” Paul says the law defines righteousness, God’s standard, and all men are held accountable to that standard.

This condition of man’s sinfulness and hopelessness is described in Isaiah as the whole world being in darkness. In Isaiah 59:9 it says, “Therefore justice is far from us, And righteousness does not overtake us; We hope for light, but behold, darkness, For brightness, but we walk in gloom. In vs2 Isaiah said, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden [His] face from you so that He does not hear.”

So our sins mean that righteousness has been denied to us on the basis of keeping the law. Paul says in vs 20, “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin.” The second principle then is righteousness denied. Righteousness has been denied because of our sin against God’s law. We cannot attain to His standard of perfect righteousness. And so we are all denied the righteousness that God requires, and condemned to the penalty of sin, which is death. Notice the phrase, no one is justified in His sight, because of their sin as attested by the law.

But as Isaiah prophesied, God’s hand is not so short that it cannot save. Isa.59:15, “Now the LORD saw, And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.”

Then in Isaiah chapter 60, the light shines forth in the darkness of man’s despair and depravity. 60 vs 1, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.”

This ray of hope in a dark world, this radiance of the Son of Righteousness that appears, comes not from below, not from the world, not from man’s efforts, but from above, a righteousness from God which is revealed to a world in darkness. So in vs21 we see the principle of righteousness manifested. Vs21 “But now apart from the Law [the] righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”

Notice, that though the law defined righteousness, this righteousness which comes from God comes apart from the law. That is, it is not attained by keeping the law. We have already seen that if we could not keep the law. The law condemned us as unrighteous. So righteousness comes apart from man’s efforts. God comes to the rescue. God accomplishes what man could never do. His own arm, or God’s own efforts, brought about salvation.

Another point that is made in that verse which is important is that this righteousness which comes from God was attested by the scriptures. Paul is speaking of the Old Testament scriptures, which were referred to by the Jews as the Law and the Prophets. What Paul is saying is that even in the law, the Old Testament scriptures, it was revealed that righteousness comes through faith. Now we have already seen that evident in Romans 1:17, which says, “THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” That is a quote from Hab.2:4. It’s also referred to in Genesis 15:6 which says “Then [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” It’s also found in Psalm 32:1,2. “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!” So, in the law and the prophets righteousness is manifested, from God, apart from the law.

But though righteousness comes from God apart from keeping the law, righteousness must be received. This principle of righteousness is shown in vs22. “Even [the] righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.” This righteousness of God apart from the law must be received through faith in Jesus Christ. We receive righteousness through faith in what Christ did on our behalf. All those who believe in Christ’s righteousness are given the righteousness of God. Now faith, Paul says, is believing, but it’s much more than just believing in Jesus’s existence. It is believing in who He is, and what He accomplished, and what He promises to do. Faith is believing and then putting that belief into practice. Acting on that belief in who Christ is, and what He has done, and what He promises to do.

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.” So faith is believing that transaction of our sins to Christ and God’s righteousness to us was accomplished for us by Christ. And Paul adds, there is no distinction. Or there is no exceptions, everyone must appropriate God’s righteousness. No one comes to God on his own merit or by his works. No one comes on the basis of his nationality or race or religion. They must come by faith in Christ in order to appropriate the righteousness of God.

On the basis of our own merit, Paul says all fall short of the glory of God. Vs23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In this verse we see the principle of righteousness defaulted. On the basis of man’s efforts, or man’s nationality, they have defaulted in meeting that righteous standard which God requires. Sin in the Greek language is hamartanō, which means to miss the mark. It’s a reference to shooting an arrow, in which one misses the target.

But here Paul uses another analogy; that of falling short. It’s as if he is saying that between us and God there is a great chasm, which no one can leap and everyone falls short. The other day as I was flying out to LA for the pastor’s conference, I started thinking about this verse. And I began to imagine a fictitious scenario as an illustration of how we all fall short of the glory of God. I began to imagine a scenario in which all our church were lined up on a high cliff overlooking this great chasm between us and God. And as I began to imagine various people in this congregation trying to jump this chasm I started laughing out loud, and I think other passengers were starting to get worried that I was losing it or something. For instance, I thought of Bill, and how we might think that he looks fit, he seems athletic, a team captain kind of guy, and if anyone could jump that chasm then I guess Bill could. And I imagined all of us lined up on this cliff overlooking this giant chasm between us and God and cheering Bill on. So he flashes a smile, walks back 25 yards, and then takes off running for the cliff to the sounds of our cheers. And in my mind’s eye, Bill makes a grand effort, and he manages to fly really far through the sky, but he falls far short of the other side and he’s gone. Very sad. He really looked like he could do it.

Then I imagined we called up Nick. After all, he was the goat herder. Nick though didn’t seem too confident. He complained about his back not being right. But we pressed upon him, and finally Nick took a running start and he sailed through the air as we cheered him on. Maybe it was the bad back, I don’t know. But he didn’t get as far as Bill got. He too crashed and burned.

Then just when it seemed like all hope was lost, Lou showed up. I didn’t have a lot of hope for old Lou, seeing he was kinda short, but then I figured, well, at least he is enthusiastic. Lou was all excited about an idea he had. He had cut down a really long bamboo pole. He said “Pastor, I”m going to pole vault that thing.” Well, it was a good idea, but though Lou got really high, he didn’t get very far. Poor Lou.

Now, I am being silly. I hope I’m not being sacrilegious. And I probably managed to hurt at least 3 people’s feelings. That’s why I don’t normally use illustrations. But I hope you at least get the picture. All of us have sinned and fallen short. No distinctions. Even the best of us fall far short. Even our best efforts fall short of God’s glory. It’s hopeless in our own efforts to attain to the standard of righteousness.

But it’s interesting to notice the flow here in these verses. Paul was just talking about the righteousness which comes from God by faith, and then he mentions believing in Christ, and then for some reason he goes back to this idea of man’s sin. You would think that he has already exhausted that subject. Why bring up man’s sin again now that the conversation has moved on to the principle of faith? And I believe the answer is that there are two aspects of faith. One is believing, the other is repentance. And so when Paul tells us in vs 23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God it is to emphasize the need for repentance, a confession of our sin, a desire to be forgiven, a desire to be freed from sin. Repentance is a necessary part of what it means to have faith. And so I think that is why the text flows as it does in vs 22 and 23. Faith is believing and repentance which appropriates the righteousness of God.

The next principle builds on that by saying that though righteousness is defaulted on our part, it is nevertheless granted by God as a gift of grace. I call this principle, righteousness declared. That is what happens when God justifies us. He declares us as righteous by the transference of Christ’s righteousness to us, and our sin being transferred to him. Let’s see how Paul phrases this principle of righteousness declared. Vs24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

In response to our faith in the atoning work of Christ on our behalf, God looks at us and declares us to be righteous, just as if we never sinned. That’s what justified means. God declares us righteous on the basis of what Christ did on our behalf. It’s not something that we earn, or merit, as we said earlier, but because of what Christ did. Therefore, it is called grace, “charis”, which means a gift. Grace is unmerited favor. So justification is a gift from God.

But notice, that though it costs us nothing, yet justification does cost something. God doesn’t just declare us righteous because He decided to forget about our sin and the payment that was due. God did not stop counting sins, He just counted them against Christ. Paul says we are justified by grace through the redemption which is in Christ.

Now what is redemption? It’s buying something back in exchange for payment. My mother, and probably yours as well, used to collect S and H Green Stamps. In those days, every time you bought groceries at the grocery store they would give you some S and H Green Stamps according to how much you bought. And when you collected enough stamps to fill up a book, you could take the book to the store and get a frying pan or something like that. That was called redemption. You paid for them, and eventually you cashed them in for the object that you wanted.

Jesus paid the price for sin. He died the death that we were supposed to die. He suffered the punishment in full for our sin. Gal 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us.” Listen, sin has a price. Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death…” Jesus paid the price of death for us that we might be set free. That’s redemption.

But there is another principle that is closely aligned with that redemption, and that is the principle of righteousness satisfied. That principle is found in vs 25, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. [This was] to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.” This is the principle; that the justice of God demanded a penalty for sin which is death. God in His justice accepted the payment for my penalty by Jesus dying in my place. That’s what is meant by a propitiation in His blood. Propitiation means appeasement. It means God’s judgment was satisfied. Our debt was paid in full by the death of Jesus Christ. He shed His blood, He died in my place, and God’s justice was satisfied.

The next principle of righteousness that Paul presents here is that of righteousness demonstrated. This is such an important principle that it is repeated twice, both in vs 25 and 26. Let’s read them again: [Paul is speaking of Jesus] “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. [This was] to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, [I say,] of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Now there are two time frames that are indicated there. First, there is the time before Christ’s crucifixion. In the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed. I have learned about forbearance in regards to paying back student loans. If for whatever reason you are unable to pay what you owe, you can apply for a forbearance. That’s not debt forgiveness, it’s putting off what you have to pay until a more appropriate time. You still owe it, just don’t have to pay it now. And that is what happened under the old covenant. The blood of bulls and goats were not able to take away sins. They were merely an acknowledgement of the person’s sin, and an agreement that the penalty for their sin would be paid at a later date. So they were looking forward through their sacrifice to the One who would be the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world. They still were declared righteous by faith. Faith in what was promised to come, the Messiah, who would be the Savior of the world by His final sacrifice for sin.

The second time period in the demonstration of God’s righteousness was after the cross, when those who were declared righteous by faith looked back to the death of Christ on the cross. In both cases, in both the old and new covenant, Paul says they were justified by faith in Christ. And that is important to understand, because that illustrates that no Jew was ever saved by keeping the law. He was saved by faith. And as we look at chapter 4 next week, we are going to see Abraham, the old covenant patriarch, the father of the Jewish nation, as an illustration of saving faith.

So Paul has presented this series of principles of righteousness as essential to our salvation. But in the greater context of his message, he is still delineating the difference between Jews and Gentiles in regards to salvation. And so he comes back to that argument that there is no distinction on the part of God towards the Jew’s requirements as contrasted with the Gentile. The Jews had been entrusted with the law, with the scriptures, and the promises. And so there was some advantage in that they had the word of God to lead them to salvation. Paul made that argument back in the beginning of the chapter. But greater responsibility means a greater culpability. They still had to be saved through faith, not by keeping the law. And so Paul summarizes that principle of justification by faith, in the closing verses of chapter 3, saying, “Where then is boasting? (speaking of the Jew’s boast in the law) It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God [the God] of Jews only? Is He not [the God] of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

As Paul says in Gal. 3:24 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” The world is under the condemnation of the law. Sin and righteousness is revealed through the law. The law teaches us the character of God. The law requires a penalty. But thank God we do not attain righteousness through keeping the law. But we attain righteousness as a gift from God through faith in the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I pray that you have accepted the tremendous gift of righteousness that was provided for you by the death of Jesus Christ. I pray that no one makes the mistake of thinking that he will be accepted by God on the basis of how good of a person he thinks he may be, or what good work that he has done. There is no other way to be justified before God, but by faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us. Repent of the fact that you are a sinner, and trust in Him as your Lord and Savior, and receive the gift of righteousness that gives us eternal life.