11-13-11 In His Own Words...Sort Of

Before we do what we’re going to do during the next few minutes

I need to prepare you for what’s going to happen.

We began our study of the book of Romans on March 14, 2010,

which means, of course,

that we have been studying this book

for more than a year and a half.

One of the strengths of such a long study

is that it allows us to look closely at a wealth of detail within the book.

And we have certainly done that.

But there is a major down side to such a long study as well.

It is very likely that, after spending nearly two years studying this book

most of us would still have difficulty stating in simple, clear statements

the heart of what Paul has been trying to say to us.

And so, in our final time together in the study of this book,

we are going to back way off from it

and see not the tiny pieces,

but the book as a whole.

And we’re going to do it in a way

that I hope will make it both a little more enjoyable

and a lot more accessible to us

than just chugging through an outline together.

In order for this to work

you’re going to have to let your imagination run a little bit.

What I want us to imagine is this -

I want us to imagine that Paul himself has miraculously chosen to visit our little gathering here for the morning.

We have him with us for just 25 or 30 minutes.

And he has consented to share with us in his own words

what it is he was really trying to say to us in this amazing letter.

So from here on out,

I’m no longer Larry,

I’m the Apostle Paul...

There’s so much confusion in our world

about our Lord Jesus Christ,

about why He came,

and what He did,

and what it means for us.

I wrote that letter to the Christians at Rome

so that there would be no misunderstanding,

no confusion.

For you see, I am not ashamed of the good news of God, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

for the Jew first

and also for the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God Himself is revealed

from faith to faith;

just as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith. (1:16-17)

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Before the good news will make any sense to you,

you’ve got to hear the bad news first.

And the really bad news is that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.(1:18)

The truth about God -

about His existence,

His righteousness,

and about our accountability to Him as His creation,

should be obvious to all,

for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (1:20)

It isn’t that God has been in any way unjust

or unfair with us.

If we could have lived perfectly,

if we could offer Him a life of sinless perfection

He would have given us eternal life. (2:7)

The problem is There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;(3:10-11) because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes just one thing...

through the law comes the knowledge of sin. (3:20)

And that’s all that can ever come

through trying to reach God

through His moral law - nothing but the knowledge of our own sinfulness.

And that, of course is the really bad news -

left to ourselves

we have no hope whatsoever.

Our sinfulness has separated us forever from our God for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,(3:23)

and it doesn’t matter how hard we try,

we simply can’t get to God on our own.

But that isn’t where the message of our God to us stops,

not by any means.

And this is where you need to listen to my words so very carefully.

This is where what I say

will seem to make no sense at all

because it is so hard for our minds to grasp the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love for us.

For you see, now apart from the Law, apart from anything we could ever do

or ever not do,

apart from anything we could ever offer God,

the righteousness of God has been given to us by God through nothing more than our simple faith in Jesus Christ. (3:21-22)

We have been justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (3:24).

His death,

His body hanging on that cross,

His blood running down those timbers

was not defeat,

it was not failure,

it was not the triumph of evil,

it was God’s greatest victory on our behalf,

it was His public proclamation to the entire human race

that He Himself was paying our debt for our sin.

And all He asks of us,

the only thing we have to offer

in order to share in this sacrifice

is our recognition of our need for His forgiveness,

and our simple trust in His promise

that Christ really did pay our debt in full.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.(3:28)

And you know something?

In truth it has always been this way,

even before we saw so clearly

the fulfillment of God’s plan for us

through our seeing the death of Christ.

From the very beginning

all man could ever offer God

was faith -

faith in Him

and in His promises to us,

and in His ability to somehow deal with our sin.

Look at the life of Abraham.

It was no different for him

than it is for us now.

For what does the Scripture say? "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."(4:3)

And just so you can begin to get

a little glimpse of what God has done for us,

let me share with you

a few of the things He has already given to every one of us

the instant we turn to Him through faith in Christ.

First of all, most of all, from now throughout all of eternity we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (5:1)

But it doesn’t stop there.

Not even close!

By that same simple faith, we have obtained our introduction into this grace in which we stand. (5:2)

Do you understand what that means?

It means we now live with Him

every single day

on the same basis as we came to Him-

not on the basis of our ability to perform good enough to make ourselves acceptable to Him,

but on the basis of His grace,

and His assurance that this day, too,

all of our sins have been placed onto Christ and removed from our account forever.

And there is so much more.

He also places His own Spirit within each of us,

giving the Spirit one specific purpose above all others.

His Spirit is given to us so that an awareness of the love of God can now be poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (5:5)

God’s Spirit is given to us

to lead us step by step,

day by day

into the discovery of the endless depth of the love of our God for us.

And obviously we never ever again

need to fear His wrath,

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. (5:10)

Now don’t misunderstand me here.

I’m not saying that,

since we now live forever at peace with God through Christ,

and because we have been freed from His wrath,

and are now immersed in His grace,

it then follows that it doesn’t really matter how we act.

No! Of course not.

For, even though our sins can never ever again separate us from our God,

they can and they will have a dramatic impact on the quality of our life here and now.

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? (6:16)

Sin always brings with it slavery.

It drives,

and dominates,

and destroys.

But now, in Christ, for the first time in our lives

we can be absolutely honest about the real results of that sin in our lives.

For truly, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.(6:21)

You knew that was true even back then,

but you could never admit it

because you had no way to escape your slavery,

and all you could do is to pretend that you were “free”.

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.(6:22)

And let me explain to you

just exactly how God brings about this freedom in our lives.

There are two major ingredients in the freeing process.

It begins by His telling us

that we were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ that we might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. (7:4)

You see, it’s like this,

While we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. (7:5)

Every time God said, “THOU SHALT NOT!”,

our flesh screamed back, “OH Yeah? I WILL TOO!”

And even though what we were doing

was destroying our lives,

we did it just to prove we were in control.

And here is the really amazing thing -

that response is so much a part of our flesh

that even now,

even now when we have seen the reality of God’s love through Christ,

our flesh still responds to the law in the same way.

And so, in order to break the power of that battle between the law and our flesh,

God released us forever

from a relationship with Him

that was in any way based upon our performance as measured by His law,

and now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. (7:6)

Oh, I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking it didn’t work.

You’re thinking something about this plan has gone terribly wrong in your life

because you’re still at times

fighting intense battles with sin

and you feel anything but free.

And I’ll be honest - there are times in my own life

when I feel as though I am still sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. (7:14-15)

So let me share with you

the second major ingredient

in God’s program for freeing us from the power of sin in our lives.

The first step, of course,

is the one I just mentioned -

He defuses that explosive response

between us and the law

by removing us forever

from a law-based walk with Him

and replacing the law with Christ Himself.

And the second major step

is freeing us from the paralyzing power of self-condemnation

by teaching us the truth about our real identity.

You see, as long as you are in this physical body

with a physical mind and emotional response system that was trained to view all of life

from the assumption that God either wasn’t there,

or didn’t care,

or couldn’t be trusted,

you will always be facing impulses from your flesh

that war against the life of Christ within you.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. (7:18-19)

And here is the trap.

When those flesh impulses appear

Satan will be there too,

telling you that those impulses are the real you,

telling you that nothing really changed when you entered into Christ,

telling you that you are a failure,

a reject from the family of God.

But don’t you believe his lies.

Sure, it’s true that our flesh is sometimes

a stubborn and rebellious servant to the new spirit God has created within us,

but right here is the discovery

that has enabled me to be able to break the power of sin in my life.

You see, by the grace of my God I finally saw that,

if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. And I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. (7:20-21)

You don’t see it, do you.

When I finally stopped my endless self-condemnation long enough

to look honestly at myself,

I saw what my God has seen from the very beginning,

I saw the true longing of my heart

and I realized that through Christ

I really have been recreated at the deepest level of my being,

and now I, the real me, I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man (7:22).

And even though it is true that I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, (7:23)

for the first time in my life

I am free to bring my sin battles out into the open

where my God can then lead me into growing victory,

knowing that those sin impulses

in no way define who I really am.

Sure my flesh still rebels at times,

but I am not my flesh.

I am God’s holy one,

recreated in righteousness by Him,

and now I can face those battles honestly,

and find God’s pathway to freedom and victory

without the paralyzing power of shame,

and guilt,

and self condemnation.

For, when our God looks at this ever present tension

between our righteous inner spirit

and the sin impulses that continue to dwell within our flesh,

He wants us to know without doubt

that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (8:1)

And as we continue to walk with Him

and grow in Him,

because Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. and if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. (8:10-11)

I’m certainly not saying it’s easy.

There are times in this life

when our union with Christ

and our battle for righteousness

will increase our suffering.

But 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. (8:18)

And, especially at those times when we hurt,

we need to know that

right here and now,

in this physical world,

on this side of the grave,

God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (8:28)

Let me give you in a single, concise statement

the very heart of what God is saying to us through Christ.

And here it is:

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 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, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:31-39)

I suppose you may be wondering

what all of this means

to the Nation of Israel.

I mean, now that God has stepped into human history

and, through Christ, told the entire human race that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, (10:9)

then what happens to all those still unfulfilled promises that He made to Israel?

I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! (11:1)

For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. (11:25)

What that means is simply this -

because God wanted to force His message of salvation through Christ

out of the Jewish world

and into the hands and hearts of all people everywhere,

He closed the eyes of the Nation of Israel as a whole

to the truth about their Messiah.

But when the fulness of the Gentiles has come then all Israel will be saved. (11:26)

And then finally,

let me offer just a few words

about the foundation principles upon which the Body of Christ is designed to operate now here in this world.

And here is where life and growth in the family of God begins - we are called to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (12:2)

All true change in our lives

begins with our allowing our God

to show us the lies we are believing

and then replacing those lies with the truth.

Whenever and where ever you see performance and behavior problems in your life

know this with certainty -

underlying that behavior,

and driving it forward

there’s a lie you’re believing,

a lie that’s driving you into the behavior.

If you attempt to alter the behavior

without first recognizing the lie

and renewing your mind through the truth

it’ll only lead to flesh-based sprints that end ultimately in failure.

Learn to think like the child of God you are

and you will act like the child of God you are.

Then, too, know that God has made every one of us different,

unique in all the world,

and since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly (12:6).

Don’t look at what God is doing in or through the person next to you,

look for and trust what He’s seeking to do through you,

rejoicing in your uniqueness.

And when it comes to our relationship

to the human authorities in our world,

Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities, (13:1)

for it is through them that God holds back the forces of evil both in our world and in our own lives.

And then, love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. (13:8)

Finally,

those of you who are strong,

I want you to use your strength

to encourage and support those who are weaker,

and determine this-- not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. (14:13)

We are in a warfare every day we live.

It is a warfare being fought

against forces bent on destroying us

and blinding us to the truth about the life of Christ within us.

But I want to end this morning

by sharing one final truth with you.

The human mind can focus

on only one thing at a time.

And if you truly seek to live in victory with your King,

I want you to focus your mind

not on the enemy,

but on the Victor,

our Lord Jesus Christ,

and on the truth that flows from Him.

And if you do this,

I promise that

even in the fiercest battles you will ever face,

the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you, to whom be the glory forever. Amen. (16:20, 27)