EPISODE 98 ROMANS CHAPTER 6 " No way that's nuts

Welcome to Share the Word podcast. Whether you're a first-time listener or you've been here before, we are grateful for this time together in God's Word. Let's get started with Romans chapter 6, and never forget that we receive salvation by God's grace through faith in Christ. Romans chapter 6. No way, that's nuts! Thanks for coming back to Share the Word, the best way to learn your way through the New Testament, and for more of Romans, the most complete writing in the New Testament about what Christians should believe and how Christians should behave.

So far, in the early chapters of this epistle, we have discussed many of the biggest concepts that must be understood in order to understand biblical Christianity correctly. And some of you serious learners are keeping a growing list of theological vocabulary words, right? I suggested to you that you make your own flashcards with a key term from Romans on one side and its concise definition on the other. I hope you're doing that. If so, you have cards so far with these key terms: gospel, as in chapter 1, verse 16, where Paul wrote, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Our first three key terms actually came from that verse, if you remember.

The gospel is the good news, the message about Jesus, who he was, what he did for us through his life and death to reconcile us to God. And next, salvation, coming from the same verse. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, or leading to salvation. Salvation means being in the position of having been forgiven and reconciled to the God who made us. Someone in that place, in the position of a restored relationship with God, is said to be saved in New Testament parlance. That's why Paul wrote elsewhere, The message of the cross, that is the gospel message, sounds like foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the very power of God.

And the third key term from that verse was believe. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. The root meaning of believe is to rely on, to trust in. Believe is the verb form of the hugely important New Testament term faith, a noun used over 275 times by New Testament writers. It's so essential that one New Testament author says, Without faith, it is impossible to please God. The faith God is looking for in us, the kind that will actually save us, is for us to believe the gospel message, and so to believe into, to come to fully rely on Jesus as our Savior.

When we confronted the bad news in Romans in the early chapters, we came upon the term righteousness. As Paul used that term, righteousness, he meant perfectly conformed to God's will and character. Righteousness is a characteristic of God's, but not ours. Paul wrote in chapter 3, verse 10, There is no one who is righteous, not even one. Not even the best of us, he's saying, comes close to measuring up to God's perfect righteousness. The best of us are sinners.

There's another big term, sinners. We sin a lot. There are certainly key terms in Romans we need to understand, and this is one of them, or we'll never get what Paul is saying, and not only understand it, own up to it. The term means missing the mark. In our case, the mark is God's expectations, what God says is right, and we can miss the mark by violating any of his laws, because sin is the violation of the law, according to 1 John chapter 3, verse 4, or We can miss the mark by failing to do good when we have the opportunity to do it. James 4:17 says, To him who knows to do good and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

So, the fact is, we're all sinners coming and going. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standards. This is a big problem because the wrath of God is coming against sin, we're told in Romans. Wrath. That was also one of our key terms. Wrath is God's righteous anger against sin and rebellion.

Remember, Romans 1:18 said, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. If we do not see the storm clouds gathering, if we do not come to grips with the fact that God is a holy and righteous judge who is angry at sin every day, as Psalm 7:11 puts it, we will never feel the need to flee from the wrath to come. That's how Jesus warned his generation, and it's certainly coming. On Sunday, October 8, 1881, Charles Spurgeon, the renowned Baptist preacher in the late 19th century, delivered a sermon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London titled, Flee from the Wrath to Come. At the conclusion of his message, he declared this, I'm quoting, I sometimes tremble as I think of the account I have to give concerning the many thousands who crowd this place to listen to my voice. What if my Master should say to me at the last, 'You flattered them.

You tried to run with the times. You did not dare to preach to them the old-fashioned gospel and to tell them of hell and of judgment and of atonement only by the blood of Christ.' No, Spurgeon said. My Master will never say that to me, because with all my faults and all my infirmities and all my imperfection, I have sought to declare the truth so far as I know it. I implore you to flee from the wrath to come. Escape, he said, by quitting your sins and laying hold on Jesus and do it this very moment, or you may never have another opportunity to do it.

May the Lord, in His infinite mercy, grant you the grace to trust in Jesus. Boy, you don't hear those kind of messages today, do you? But Spurgeon believed what God has warned repeatedly in His Word, that is, that wrath against sin and unrighteousness is coming, and that Jesus and His blood atonement on Calvary is the only remedy. I'm sure Spurgeon's advice at the end, that heartened people. It has to. It heartened me when I read the quote, because he finally said, The way of escape, our hope, is to quit our sins and lay hold on Jesus.

And then he said, May the Lord, in His infinite mercy, grant you the grace to trust in Him. Grace. That was one of our last terms for review. Grace means receiving favor we don't merit or deserve. The Bible is clear that because we are sinners by both birth and choice, we are dead in trespasses and sins. We are bankrupt of any righteousness a holy God would accept.

But thankfully, our Creator is a God of mercy and grace, because our only hope is in God's grace, receiving favor from Him we do not deserve. God's amazing plan to make salvation possible offers us a way to escape the penalty of our sins by transferring our debt onto Christ. And crediting His righteousness onto us. God promises He will do that. He will do exactly that if we will repent of sin, which offends His holiness, and put our faith into Jesus, the Savior He provided. That's the way of escape from the wrath to come, the only way: salvation by God's grace through faith in Christ.

It's not only critical that we understand these big ideas. Christianity is not a Gnostic religion. What's most critical is that we act on them. As Charles Spurgeon urged, lay hold of Jesus. It doesn't matter where you've been or what you've done in your past. If you're ready to turn away from sin and embrace Jesus as Savior and Lord, act on God's offer.

Reach out from your heart by faith and trust in Jesus as your Savior. Chapter 5, verse 20 promises, If you in sincerity do that, where sin abounded, grace will abound all the more. God's grace is more than enough to save you, no matter who you are. Now, in chapters 6 and 7, the apostle turns from all these big theological concepts to a very rubber-meets-the-road kind of question: What is the relationship between those who have believed into Jesus vis-à-vis sin now, going forward for them? In chapter 6, verse 1, he raises a question that I feel sure came from a charge some of his opponents were raising against him and against the gospel of grace he preached. So, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of this wonderful grace?

If grace can overcome in God's eyes even the worst sins, like, say, Carla Faye Tucker's violent acts we heard about in episode 92, it should not matter if we continue to sin, because more sin means more of God's grace, right? Paul's reaction to that notion at the beginning of chapter 6 couldn't be any stronger. Different translations try to capture the force of it with, By no means, or, Perish that thought, or, May it never be, or, No way, that's nuts. Okay, that last one, I just made that one up. But should someone who has received God's gracious gift of salvation continue in their sinful life patterns so they can experience more and more of God's grace? No way.

That is nuts. That's a good enough translation, actually. Here's why. Paul asks, Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Jesus in baptism, we were joined in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism, and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the power of the Father, so we may also now live new lives. His point is, something real and life-changing happened when you believed into Christ.

You were united with him in a very real way. You died to your old self then and were spiritually raised up, were spiritually born again. You can't die and rise again without it actually changing your life thereafter. Then he continues, We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose power in our lives. We're no longer to be slaves to sin, for when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. When Jesus died, he died to break the power of sin.

But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Consider yourselves, he says. Mark that idea. It's unclear whether by baptism there Paul is referring to a believer's water baptism, the kind of initiation rite Christians then as now practice, or whether he was referring to what that represents, our spiritual union with Christ's death and resurrection. Probably both.

Both the picture and the reality point to the fact that our old sin-dominated self legally died when we repented of sin and put our faith in Christ. We were born again at that point. We need to know this and own this as reality. It's not a feeling. It's a fact. This actually occurred.

Embrace that truth. In your new life as a Christ follower now, he says, consider yourself dead to your past sinful life patterns. As I've said many times before, Jesus didn't die to save us in our sins, but to save us from our sins. Jesus died to defeat the power of sin. So don't allow the old self dominated by sin, like a zombie, to keep rising up and taking charge in your life. The old self is dead unless we give it power to continue.

Someone who claims to have been rescued from the power of sin and death, but who continues living as before, who's comfortable living in their past sins, something's wrong with that picture. As a dog returning to its vomit. So is a fool who keeps repeating his folly. That's Proverbs 26:11. How is that for a word picture? If you're a believer now and have experienced God's grace and forgiveness, when you're tempted to go back and indulge in the very sins that Christ died to save you from, visualize that, like Fido going back to eat his own vomit.

I like the zombie image too I alluded to a moment ago. Remember when The Walking Dead shows and spinoffs were all the rage? Our old sinful self has been dealt a death blow, Paul says. It was crucified with Christ. Don't let that zombie keep coming back on you. Don't empower him.

As verse 11 says, Consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Well, exactly how would that work, you might be thinking? It's really not complicated. It's just a challenge to implement. And verses 12 and 13, Paul says, Don't let sin control the way you live. Don't give in to its sinful desires.

Don't let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God. For you were dead, meaning before you received Christ, but now you have new life. So use your whole body now as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. That's how the modern New Living Translation puts it. I actually memorized those verses, Romans 6:12 and 13, as a teenager in the old King James Version, which goes like this: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

For sin shall not have dominion over you. Do you know there's power in memorizing God's Word? If you're a believer now and want to win battles that come your way against sin from your past, I suggest you memorize those verses, Romans 6, 12 and 13, and have them at the ready. So when your old self tells you, Hey, it's just a small thing. It won't hurt this one time, then you answer, No, I'm no longer yielding any part of myself to sin and its wrong desires. If you feel tempted by, Hey, everybody does this.

Everybody does what makes them feel good from time to time. If your God says that's wrong, then He's unreasonable. Anyway, isn't God supposed to be a God of grace? He'll cover you. You know how to respond to that, right? No way, that's nuts.

Jesus met temptations with the Word of God, and He did, then so should we. So learn that scripture and a few more like it. Don't let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to its sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourself completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have a new life.

And the Fido thing, yeah, keep a hold of that image. Any part of my body, Paul? Yes. You have feet, right? Don't let them take you places you shouldn't go, where you will likely sin. Yield your feet to God.

Only let them take you places a follower of Christ should be going. You have eyes, right? Don't let them watch things that cause you to sin. Yield your eyes to God now. Let them watch things that are wholesome and beneficial. Let them read things that are good for your mind and heart, because you want to be dead to sin, right, and alive to righteousness now.

You have a tongue. Don't let it speak in ways that are sinful: cursing, tearing down other people, lying. Yield your tongue to God now. Use it in ways that glorify Him and build up other people. That's the idea. It's not complicated.

It's very practical. Use your whole body, he says, as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God, now that you are united with Christ. In a parallel passage to this, Colossians chapter 3, Paul is instructing another group of early Christians and puts it this way: Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. I like that. He means, since we have trusted in Christ and been born again spiritually, the Holy Spirit has come to live inside of us, and He wants to renew the image of God in us that was so damaged because of sin.

That's His objective in us. God's righteousness, His justice, His compassion, His goodness, His mercy, His patience, all these good things that God is, the Holy Spirit wants to see all of these qualities being restored in us as His sons and daughters. So every day, cooperate with the Holy Spirit with that. Put on the new self. Put Him in charge. You decide who's in charge, after all.

Every morning, when you put on your outfit and you put on your shoes deliberately in the very same way, put on your new self. Think like this, or even say it out loud: I'm yielding the members of my body to You today, Lord. I want them to be instruments of righteousness. I don't want any part of my body to be used for wickedness or be an instrument of sin today. I want them to be tools You can use and work through for good. Strive to live each day in that new reality.

The more we say yes to the new self and no to the old sinful self, the more we get free from the power or dominion of sin in our life, the more sanctified is the big word we become. That's Paul's term for this ongoing transformation in verse 23. It's a good word, too, for those definition cards. Sanctified means set apart for God's purposes. The noun sanctification in the New Testament is the ongoing process by which you are becoming more and more of who God wants you to be. I heard someone illustrate the big idea in Romans 6 like this, which I thought was on target.

Imagine you rented a house only to find out that the landlord was not at all who he seemed to be when you signed the lease. At that point, they acted nice and easy to get along with when they showed you around the place, but in time, after you moved in, you realized they were a truly awful person, a bully actually. They demanded extra payments for this and that, things you never agreed to. They let themselves into your house uninvited whenever they felt like it. They even threatened you with physical violence or legal action if you didn't meet their commands. You just found it easier, actually, to give in because there was really no other place to move.

Plus, you were intimidated by this person. There didn't seem to be any good way out of this situation. But then, out of nowhere, you learn about a much better place to live that's opened up. You're not able, but a loved one pays all the money owed on your old lease agreement, and you move out that very weekend. You're so free of that situation. You're so happy.

You're settled into your new place. But then, to your horror, your old landlord shows up there, and he's demanding more money, and he's threatening to take you to court if you don't pay it. He says you still owe him. Oh man, that old instinct inside to just give in to this guy comes back, and you're tempted to pay him just to get him to leave you alone. But then you remember, I'm not his tenant anymore. My debt to him was completely paid.

Nothing more is owed to him. He has no legal power over me any longer. So you buck up your courage and you tell him to get out of your new place and to stay away from you. He still demands $500 more to leave you alone. You know what to say to him at that point, don't you? No way, that's nuts.

Take a hike. That's what Paul is telling us to do, essentially, in Romans 6. We're no longer slaves to fear and to the devil and to sin. If you're a believer now, you've been legally freed from their dominion by the power of God. So don't yield to the voices that try and pull you back. Their old authority over you has been broken legally.

When the old man tries to reassert his claims, tell him, No way, that's nuts. I'm not yielding to you anymore. I'm yielding to God now. This is the way to live in the reality of who God's Word says we are now. For we know that our old selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. So consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

This has been Paul for Share the Word. Once again, thanks, Paul. I am grateful every day knowing that I, for one, am able to praise and worship God and share God's Word without experiencing the physical suffering and the price many around the world endure. You're thinking, where did that come from? But hear me out. Do you put on your new self every day, or is it an accessory that you leave at home when you feel uncomfortable or you fill in the blank?

Think about that. Until next time, from all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.