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<div>#REDIRECT [[Faith: The Root and Trait of All Spiritual Gifts]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Faith:_The_Root_and_Trait_of_All_Spiritual_GiftsFaith: The Root and Trait of All Spiritual Gifts2008-10-08T18:45:47Z<p>Kryndontpay: Faith The Root and Trait of All Spiritual Gifts moved to Faith: The Root and Trait of All Spiritual Gifts</p>
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<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 12:1-8'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members,and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.<br />
</blockquote><br />
Today we move beyond verse 3 and begin to look at Paul’s comparison of the church to a human body. As a body has many parts but is one body, so the church has many members but is one interconnected body. Let’s read verses 4-6 just to make sure we have the picture before us: “For as in one body we have many members,and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. [''There were few if any punctuation marks in the original Greek manuscripts, and this period is a judgment call by the translators. The next clause may be a continuation of verse 5''] 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith.” <br />
<br />
==== Why Is the God-Given Measure of Faith Our Standard for Self-Assessment? ====<br />
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Now to build a bridge to these verses I want to go back and give one more answer to the question we posed about verse 3. In verse 3 Paul says, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” So we asked, “Why, Paul, do you make the God-given measure of faith that each believer has the standard for his self-assessment?” We have given three answers to that question. <br />
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1. Because the unique nature of faith deflects glory from us and draws all attention to Christ. Faith is a looking away from ourselves to the infinite worth of Jesus and the treasure that satisfies our souls. So making faith the measure of ourselves means that my value as a person is my valuing of Christ—or at least my potential valuing of Christ. <br />
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2. Faith is the standard of our self-assessment because faith is a gift from God and, you can’t boast in a gift. So if my faith grows, and my usefulness increases, there can be no boasting. To God belongs all the glory. <br />
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3. Faith is the standard of our self-assessment because faith is measured out to believers in different proportions which leads us to a kind of interdependent unity in diversity that is more difficult and (therefore) more beautiful and more God-glorifying than if we all had the same degree of faith. <br />
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Now we come to the fourth and last answer to our question which builds a bridge into verses 4-6 and the comparison between the church and the human body. <br />
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4. I would put it like this: '''Paul makes faith the standard of our self-assessment because faith is the ''root'' of all spiritual gifts and the human ''trait'' of spiritual gifts that makes them ''spiritual'' gifts and not merely ''natural''; and therefore faith makes all spiritual gifts, no matter how great or small, a tribute to God and not to ourselves.''' <br />
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First let me try to explain what I mean by faith being the ''root ''of spiritual gifts and the ''trait ''that turns natural gifting into spiritual gifting. Then we will look at three parts of this text to support this understanding. <br />
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==== Faith as the Root and Trait of Spiritual Gifts ====<br />
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What I mean by faith being the ''root ''of spiritual gifts is that faith looks away from our own resources and our own natural abilities and embraces the all-sufficiency of Christ as the source of all grace which spiritual gifts transmit to other people in the body of Christ. And I call faith the human ''trait ''that turns natural abilities or actions into spiritual gifts because without faith our abilities and actions don’t transmit supernatural grace. Natural abilities transmit natural things. Spiritual gifts transmit spiritual things—faith, hope, love, joy in God, longing for purity, courage in the cause of Christ, and so on. <br />
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So faith is the root of spiritual gifts that depends on and draws up the life-giving grace of God, and faith is the defining ''trait ''of gifts that transforms them from natural to spiritual. Faith draws up grace from the river of God’s bounty and, by means of spiritual gifts, transmits that grace to others. This is the way Peter describes gifts in 1 Peter 4:10, “As each has received a gift (''charisma''), use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace (''charitos'').” If your faith reaches down for fresh measures of God’s grace and then delivers that grace to others so that their faith is strengthened, that means of delivery (whatever it was) is one of your gifts. Whatever ability or action transmits grace by faith from God to people is a spiritual gift. <br />
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Take the example of teaching. You may have a great natural ability to teach. And of course if you do, this is a gift of God, even if you are not a Christian. You may be so naturally gifted in teaching that any subject you explain, people understand it quickly, and you get the reputation of being amazingly helpful in making things clear and practical. But that is not the same as the spiritual gift of teaching referred to, for example, in verse 7. <br />
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The only thing that a natural ability to teach can do for others is transmit natural things. It cannot transmit saving grace or sanctifying grace. But if a gifted teacher is converted to Christ and stops leaning on his own understanding, and stops depending on his own abilities, and instead trusts Christ for receiving and transmitting supernatural grace, then his ability to teach may become a spiritual gift—that is, it may become a means of transmitting God’s grace to others for their everlasting spiritual good. And it is also true that God can take a person with no natural ability to teach and work such a change in his mind and heart that both ability and spiritual gift are created together. <br />
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That’s what I mean by faith being the root of spiritual gifts and faith being the trait that turns natural gifting into spiritual gifts. Now look with me at three parts of this text that support this understanding and explain it further. <br />
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===== 4.1. Gifts Differ According to the Grace Given to Us =====<br />
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First, look at verse 6a: “Having gifts (''charismata'') that differ according to the grace (''charin'') given to us.” Gifts differ according to the grace given to us. There are different kinds and degrees of grace that God intends to transmit through us to others. This is what makes our gifts differ. So gifts are the God-given human means of transmitting grace from God to others. <br />
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You can see it even more clearly when you know that the word used for “gifts” here in verse 6 is ''charismata'', from which we get the word “charismatic,” and the word for grace is ''charin'', from ''charis''. So you can hear how the words are related. A gift, a ''charisma'', is an expression of charis, of grace. James Dunn says it like this: <br />
<blockquote>Particularly evident here [in verse 6] is the character of ''charisma ''[gift] as the embodiment, concrete manifestation in word or action, of charis [grace]. . . . The essential balance between the two words is maintained if we see ''charis ''[grace] as the resource which comes to particular expression in ''charisma ''[gift], the fountainhead from which the particular draft or more regular stream is drawn. (James D. G. Dunn, ''Word Biblical Commentary, Romans 9-16, p. 725'') </blockquote><br />
In other words, “gifts” are expressions of, or extensions of, “grace.” Gifts transmit God’s grace through human means to other people for their strengthening in faith and hope and love and healing and guidance, etc. All I am adding is to say that faith is the act of the soul that looks away from our own resources and receives this grace and depends on its power to pass through us for the good of others. <br />
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This is what Paul said back in Romans 1:11-12, “I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” I think this shift from “I want to extend to you a spiritual gift” to “I want to strengthen you by my faith” shows that faith is what we use in the transmitting of grace and strength to others. <br />
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I think it’s fair to say that whenever God’s grace is arriving to us and working in us and passing through us, the instrument that God uses for us to receive it and transmit it is faith. So let’s not think of our spiritual gifts more highly than we ought to think. Let’s think with sober judgment: Measure them by faith, and keep in mind that faith looks away from ourselves to the bounty of God’s free grace—not only for justification and not only for sanctification, but also for spiritual gifts. <br />
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===== 4.2. Paul Models What He Teaches About Spiritual Gifts =====<br />
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Now consider a second observation from this text to support this understanding. Consider the first words of verse 3: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you . . .” Compare that to verse 6: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” What this shows us is that Paul is modeling for them in the way he writes what he teaches about spiritual gifts. He has the gift of apostleship (Romans 1:5). He know that it brings tremendous authority (2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10). None of us has that gift. The apostles were foundational to the church. We build on what they taught, we don’t expand it. Their gift was revelation and foundation (Ephesians 2:20). Ours is understanding and application. <br />
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But in spite of all that authority, Paul makes clear in verse 3 that when he speaks and writes as an apostle of Christ, he still has at least one great thing in common with everyone who exercises a spiritual gift: he is looking away from himself and depending utterly on God’s grace. “''By the grace given to me'' I say to everyone among you. . .” Moment by moment as he speaks for Christ, or writes for Christ, he is ''leaning ''on grace and not on himself. That is what it means to use a spiritual gift. And that leaning is called faith. <br />
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So Paul keeps himself humble—not thinking of himself and his apostolic gifts too highly—by making explicit that every blessing that flows from the book of Romans to the church of Christ is all of grace through faith. There can be no boasting here of one member over another, not even the boasting of an apostle. <br />
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===== 4.3. Use Your Gifts in True Proportion to Your Faith =====<br />
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Now look again at verse 6 for the third consideration in this text to show that faith is the root of spiritual gifts. “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy,''in proportion to our faith.''” <br />
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Here Paul makes explicit the relationship between at least one spiritual gift and faith. In the case of prophecy he says, use that gift “in proportion to your faith.” That phrase, “''in proportion to your faith'',” sounds very similar to the end of verse 3, “Think with sober judgment, ''each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned''.” The “measure of faith” in verse 3 and the “proportion of faith” in verse 4 are probably the same. <br />
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So just as the point in verse 3 is not to think too highly of yourself but to think according to the measure of your God-given faith, so here in verse 6 the point would be: Don’t fake the performance of some gift to look more spiritual than you are, but use your gifts in true proportion to your faith. In other words, the issue in both verses is pride, and the antidote to pride is faith. Yes, use your gifts to bless people. Yes, transmit grace to each other. Don’t hold back out of false humility. But don’t fall into the trap of religious gamesmanship. Don’t do the religious thing just because you have learned how to look spiritual. Instead, serve each other with words and actions “in proportion to your faith.” <br />
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Here some examples that I think illustrate how this works. <br />
<blockquote><br />
*As your faith increases, the clarity of your vision of Christ increases. So using your gift in proportion to this faith will mean using it to show Christ with greater clarity. Your words about him will be more lucid and compelling and biblically illuminating. <br />
*As your faith increases, your treasuring of Christ’s worth will increase. So using your gift in proportion to this faith will mean using it with greater passion for Christ’s value. <br />
*As your faith increases, you will trust more fully in Christ’s promises of help. So using your gift in proportion to this faith will mean using it with greater confidence and boldness and courage. <br />
*As your faith increases, you will trust Christ’s constancy and faithfulness more and your faith will be rugged and durable. So using your gift in proportion to this faith will mean using it more steadily and with more resilient perseverance. <br />
*As your faith increases, you will see and savor Christ’s mercy more clearly and feel your own unworthiness more keenly. So using your gift in proportion to this faith will mean using it with more lowliness and meekness. <br />
*As your faith increases, you will see and savor Christ’s all-satisfying greatness more fully. So using your gift in proportion to this faith will mean that you use it with more joy.<br />
</blockquote><br />
Paul’s point is: Don’t try to fake these things. Don’t be a religious hypocrite. Don’t pretend passion and courage and lowliness and joy. Don’t put your energy in building a façade. Put your energy in building faith. Gifts are real and life-giving only when they come from faith and in proportion to the faith we really have. Fight for that faith. Don’t fight to keep up a façade. <br />
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==== Summary ====<br />
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In summary then: <br />
<br />
Paul makes our God-given measure of faith the standard by which we measure ourselves because faith is the root of all spiritual gifts and the trait that turns natural abilities into spiritual gifts. So faith (which looks away from itself to God’s grace) makes all spiritual gifts, no matter how great or small, a tribute to ''God’s grace ''and not to ourselves. <br />
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We saw it in verse 6a: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” Gifts are the transmission of grace received by faith. <br />
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We saw it in verse 3: “By the grace given to me I say to everyone.” Paul sets an example and shows that even the exercise of his own apostolic teaching gift is by grace, and he leans on that grace for every word. <br />
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Finally, we saw it in verse 6b: “Let us use [our gifts]: If prophecy, in proportion to our faith.” In other words, in the life of the body of Christ at Bethlehem, don’t try to look great. Just be real. Pray for faith, and seek to grow in faith. But do your ministry—use your gifts—in proportion to the faith you have.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Measures_of_Faith_Gifts_of_Grace_Ministry_in_Small_GroupsMeasures of Faith Gifts of Grace Ministry in Small Groups2008-10-08T18:44:54Z<p>Kryndontpay: Measures of Faith Gifts of Grace Ministry in Small Groups moved to Measures of Faith, Gifts of Grace, Ministry in Small Groups</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Measures of Faith, Gifts of Grace, Ministry in Small Groups]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Measures_of_Faith,_Gifts_of_Grace,_Ministry_in_Small_GroupsMeasures of Faith, Gifts of Grace, Ministry in Small Groups2008-10-08T18:44:54Z<p>Kryndontpay: Measures of Faith Gifts of Grace Ministry in Small Groups moved to Measures of Faith, Gifts of Grace, Ministry in Small Groups</p>
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<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 12:1-8'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
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. 2 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. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== Small-Group Sunday ====<br />
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I remain with the book of Romans this morning, but depart from our sequence in chapter one, and ask you to focus with me on chapter twelve, especially verses 3-8. The reason for this is that we put a tremendous weight on participation in small groups at Bethlehem, and this is Small-Group Sign-Up Sunday. <br />
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We think that living the Christian life calls for small groups. And we think that shepherding the church calls for small groups. The elders are committed to overseeing the small group leaders, and the small group leaders are committed to helping a small flock - a small group - care for each other. We believe in the New Testament teaching about the eldership and the priesthood of all believers. All Christians are ministers, but not all are overseers. The ministry of the church does not belong to the elders; it belongs to the body, the flock, the saints, the believers. Overseers exist to equip and to protect and to guide; but all of this is done to liberate and empower (Ephesians 4:12) the priesthood of the believers (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; 5:9). <br />
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So my aim today is to take you into the mind of the apostle Paul and the mind of God in regard to the kind of mutual, one-another ministry that we believe small groups are all about. My prayer is that you will love what you see, and that you will join a small group that exists, or get the training to start your own. Staying with the book of Romans, this meant going to Romans 12:3-8. <br />
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==== Connecting with Romans 1:16-17 ====<br />
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Let me begin by connecting the great gospel truths of Romans 1:16-17 with Romans 12:3-8, about the mutual ministry of believers in the body of Christ. We have seen that all of us are ungodly and unrighteous and under the wrath of a holy and just God. In ourselves there is no hope for us. We are sinners and our hearts are rebellious against God. <br />
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There is only one hope: that the righteousness that God demands from us, he himself will give to us. Not because we have earned it with good works, but because we receive it by faith. That is what the book of Romans is about: this great salvation of sinners by the free grace of God imputing to us sinners a righteousness not our own, so that a holy God may not only now receive us into his presence, but devote his infinite energy to saving us from every enemy and giving us every blessing imaginable. "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies! Who is to condemn, it is Christ Jesus who died" (Romans 8:33-34). In other words, "the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). "Having been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him" (Romans 5:9). <br />
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Now the danger with all this is that a person might begin to think that God's purposes are very individualistic. Each is a sinner. Each is guilty and under condemnation. Each must believe. And each will be saved if he or she does believe. That is all very true. The gospel is addressed to individual sinners. No one can believe for us. <br />
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==== United to Christ - United to His Body ====<br />
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But when we believe, we are united to Christ in a way that also unites us to each other. That is what needs to be stressed today. Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." So the gift of God's righteousness comes to us and takes away our condemnation "in Christ Jesus." That is, in relation to Jesus. In spiritual union with Jesus, created and preserved by the Spirit through faith. <br />
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Now notice the link with Romans 12:4-5, "For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ [note the phrase], and individually members one of another." So the faith that unites us to Christ, also unites us to the body of Christ, the church. <br />
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Now consider this carefully. You may have never thought about how utterly crucial the local church is to your life in Christ. Verse 5 says that "we are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." What does that last phrase mean - "individually members one of another"? It means that in belonging to the body, we belong to each other. Connection with Christ means connection with each other. If one arm is bleeding badly, every limb in the body will grow weaker, not just the arm. If one arm is working hard to feed the mouth, every limb will be strengthened. <br />
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But think about the importance of this for your relation to Christ. What would it mean if one limb of the body said to the other limbs, "I don't need you and I don't like you, so I choose not to be attached to you; I want no relationship with you"? What would that mean? Well, that limb would be saying: I choose not to be in Christ. You can't have it both ways. Paul says, "In Christ we are individually members one of another." That is a reality. We don't make it a reality. It is a reality. And if we reject the reality, we reject Christ. In other words, the reality of the church - the local body of believers - is crucial. <br />
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==== Why a Body, a Church? ====<br />
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Now why is this? Why would God set it up this way? Why not just a great multitude of individuals all justified by faith and relating with Christ directly and only dependent on the Holy Spirit and not on each other? <br />
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The answer is given in Romans 15:5-7: "Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God." <br />
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Notice that two times Paul explains what the aim of Christian unity and mutual acceptance is, namely, the glory of God. God has ordained that a church be a unified body of diverse individuals and not just a collection of isolated individuals. Verse 6: "[Strive for unity] . . . so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify God." God gets more glory through a body of believers functioning in a unity of truth and love than he would through a host of supposedly holy individuals who don't relate to each other or minister to each other or worship with each other or do missions with each other. <br />
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Then he says it again in Romans 15:7: "Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God." Christ accepted us in our sin and misery, and loved us and saved us. Why? To glorify his Father (John 12:27-28; 17:4-5). So Paul says, Let that be your motive as well. That is why God designed salvation the way he did. Being united to Christ means being united to a body of believers, because this way God will get more glory than if he had saved us another way. God does everything to magnify his glory. That is why the church exists, and that is why small groups exist. <br />
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A group of people learning how to love each other in the power of the Gospel and in the power of the Spirit glorifies God more than single individuals relating to Christ in isolation. That's not hard to understand. It's easier to stay at home and watch TV than to get together with people different from you and carry their burdens in prayer and minister to them with your gifts and strategize with them to reach the lost. But God doesn't get more glory when you just do the easy thing. He gets more glory when you depend on him to help you do the hard thing - and especially when you do it with the joy of hope. <br />
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==== Spiritual Gifts and Faith Are Both from God ====<br />
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Now that idea of depending on God to help us minister to each other brings us to a very crucial teaching in this text - the idea that ministry to each other in the body of Christ is done with spiritual gifts and by faith that are both the work of God's grace in our lives. And the reason for this is so that God gets the glory. <br />
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So I want to show you that we must trust God's grace for the gifts we need to help each other in our small groups, and that we depend on God's grace for the very faith we need to receive and use our gifts. In this way, God gets all the glory, and the ultimate purpose for small groups and the church and the universe is fulfilled. <br />
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First consider a principle that runs through the whole Bible: working in our own strength magnifies us, shows that we have too high a view of ourselves, and gets the glory for us. But working in the strength that God supplies magnifies him, and shows that we have a sober, dependent view of ourselves, and gets the glory for God. This principle is stated most clearly in 1 Peter 4:11b, "Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." You see the principle: the giver gets the glory. If you go to your small group not in your strength, but utterly dependent on God's strength to help you and use you for the good of others, then God will get the glory in your ministry and in the group. And that is the goal. <br />
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Now this helps makes sense out of the amazing emphasis in Romans 12:3-8 where Paul really emphasizes that not only are spiritual gifts a work of God's grace, but even the faith that depends on God's grace is a work of God's grace. In other words, small groups are a great work of sovereign grace. Let's see this in the text. <br />
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In verse 3, the first thing Paul does is call attention to his own dependence on grace in the use of his apostolic gift: "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think." He's saying, in other words, is, I could easily begin to think too highly of myself as an apostle were it not for one thing: all my calling, all my gifts, all my authority is a work of free grace in my life. I don't deserve it. I didn't muster it up. It isn't owing to my self-wrought abilities and skills. It is all of grace. <br />
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Then he calls attention to the same thing in regard to all of our spiritual gifts. Verse 6: "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly." The phrase is almost identical with the one in verse 3: "according to the grace given to us" (verse 3: "through the grace given to me"). We don't choose our gifts, and we don't design the body of Christ so that it has the diversity that it has. Paul says that God's grace is what does that. We have gifts and they differ not according to our will, but according to God's grace. <br />
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This is because God means to get the glory for all things, including the ministry of small groups. We get the gifts and the help and the blessing, but God gets the glory. <br />
<br />
==== Thinking too Highly of Ourselves ====<br />
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But now comes the final remedy to thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think - which is what Paul is very concerned about (Romans 12:3a), since it robs God of his glory. One might be tempted to say, "Well, yes, our gifts are a work of grace and we cannot boast in them. But the use of the gifts is up to us and, and so there is some reason for pride in whether we use our gifts or not." What is the remedy for this final vestige of pride in our small groups? <br />
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The final remedy is stated in verse three at the end: "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think [so the issue is clearly pride; but what is the remedy? He goes on. . . ]; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith." There's the remedy. Sound judgment about yourself is based on the recognition that the measure of faith you have to receive and use your gift is "allotted" to you. Varying measures of faith to use our gifts, as well as differing gifts themselves, are the work of God's grace. God allots differing measures of faith to each of us from time to time (see also Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 1:29; 2 Timothy 2:25). <br />
<br />
==== If God Is Working, Why Do I Need to? ====<br />
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Therefore all boasting is excluded. But a great danger looms just over the horizon - namely, the danger that we will become passive and say, "Well, if I am to do my small group ministry by faith, and faith is a work of God's grace, then there is nothing for me to do, and I will just stay at home and watch TV." Now that is an unbiblical and irrational response. <br />
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We know it is unbiblical because, right here in the text, the whole point of verses 6-8 is to exhort the Roman Christians to do something. "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." In other words, exercise your gift. Don't let it lie dormant. Take hold of it by faith and use it. <br />
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Resist passivity and look to God and say: "Lord, I know that you have given me a gift. I am tired, and I am anxious that I will not do a good job. But, Lord, I trust you, not me and not my gift. I trust your enabling grace. In fact, I trust you now to help me trust you more. And I go tonight to my small group in the strength that you supply, so that in everything you might get the glory" (1 Peter 4:11). <br />
<br />
We also know that passivity is unbiblical because of Paul's own testimony in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." He labored more than all of them! That is not passivity! But look at the conviction beneath it: "Nevertheless it was not I but the grace of God with me." <br />
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The great words, "Not I but grace" are not energy-destroying words, but energy-producing words. Listen to Paul again from Colossians 1:28-29, "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." Paul labors. Paul strives. But it is by the mighty power of Christ that works in him, enabling him. <br />
<br />
==== God Wills His Will through Our Willing ====<br />
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The point is this: God does not will his will instead of our willing; he wills his will through our willing. God does not work instead of our working, but through our working. God does not energize us instead of our having energy; he energizes our energy. Therefore it is unbiblical and irrational to say that, because the grace of God produces in us an active trust in God, we don't need to exert an active trust in God. Is it not irrational to say, "God enables us to trust him; therefore we don't need to trust him"? <br />
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At the end of your life, after decades of ministry in small groups, being used by God to stir up the obedience of faith in others, do you know what you are going to say - you saints and sages? You are going to use the words of Paul in Romans 15:18, "'For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles.' If I had a gift, and if I had the faith to use the gift, it was of God. To God be the glory!" <br />
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The Lord has given spiritual gifts to every Christian in this room. Let us pray that this year he will measure out to us mighty measures of faith. Find your gift. Embrace it by faith. Use it in the strength that God supplies, so that God will get the glory and you and your small group will get the joy.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Pastoral_Implications_of_Greg_Boyds_View_in_Dealing_with_SufferingPastoral Implications of Greg Boyds View in Dealing with Suffering2008-10-08T18:44:10Z<p>Kryndontpay: Pastoral Implications of Greg Boyds View in Dealing with Suffering moved to Pastoral Implications of Greg Boyd's View in Dealing with Suffering</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Pastoral Implications of Greg Boyd's View in Dealing with Suffering]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Pastoral_Implications_of_Greg_Boyd%27s_View_in_Dealing_with_SufferingPastoral Implications of Greg Boyd's View in Dealing with Suffering2008-10-08T18:44:10Z<p>Kryndontpay: Pastoral Implications of Greg Boyds View in Dealing with Suffering moved to Pastoral Implications of Greg Boyd's View in Dealing with Suffering</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<br />
Greg Boyd's view is that God's knowledge of the future and his rule of the future is limited in such a way that one may not say that "a good divine purpose lies behind all particular events" (God at War [Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997], p. 41, see also, 20, 38, 40, 49, 53, 166). Pastorally the way this plays out is as follows: <br />
<blockquote>Within the limits set by God, an individual may purpose to do things which are utterly at odds with God's ultimate purpose. Thus, when an individual inflicts pain on another individual, I do not think we can go looking for 'the purpose of God" in the event. . . . I know Christians frequently speak about "the purpose of God" in the midst of a tragedy caused by someone else. There was a young girl this year at Bethel who was killed by a drunk driver, a lot of students were wondering what purpose God had in "taking her home." But this I regard to simply be a piously confused way of thinking. The drunk driver alone is to blame for the girl's untimely death. The only purpose of God in the whole thing is His design to allow morally responsible people the right to decide whether to drink responsibly or irresponsibly. (Letters from a Skeptic [Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1994], pp. 46-47).<br>I read some of this to my congregation during my exposition of Hebrews 11:29-38. I did not tell them the name of the book or the author, though some knew where it came from. I expressed my strong disapproval of that last sentence. I made clear, I hope, the distinction between strong disapprobation of a person's conviction and the judgment or even the affection toward the person himself. </blockquote><br />
I do not see how Boyd's view and its pastoral implications squares with Hebrews 12:3-11. <br />
<br />
The teaching of this passage seems to be that the persecution which Christians are receiving, as they follow the example of Jesus' own endurance, is the discipline of a loving Father with the purpose of producing in us and those around us more holiness. So it seems that individuals are inflicting pain on others (to use Boyd's sentence) and that this is interpreted by the writer of Hebrews as the discipline of God who has a clear purpose in it. So it seems, contrary to Boyd's sentence above, that the writer does look for "the purpose of God" in the pain inflicted by others on Christians. <br />
<br />
Here's the evidence as I see it: <br />
<br />
First, Jesus is put forward as a model for our encouragement and imitation. <br />
<br />
Hebrews 12:3 "For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart." <br />
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I am curious if Boyd believes that his sentence above ("Thus, when an individual inflicts pain on another individual, I do not think we can go looking for 'the purpose of God' in the event") applies to the pain inflicted on Jesus by others? Is Boyd saying that we should not look for the purpose of God in the evils of Judas, Pilate, Herod and the Jews and Gentiles as they conspired to torture Jesus. But I doubt that he means this, since our entire Christian faith stands or falls on the saving purpose of God in the pain inflicted on Jesus by evil men, not to mention the fact that Acts 4:27-28 says that God predestined these inflicted pains through Pilate, Herod, Jews and Gentiles. <br />
<br />
But my main concern here is not with the purpose of God in the pain inflicted by others on Jesus, but with the pain inflicted by others on the Christians. Should we look for a purpose of God in this? <br />
<br />
Immediately after telling us that we should "consider [Jesus] who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that [we] may not grow weary and lose heart," the writer tells us (in verse 4), "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." Along with F. F. Bruce and most commentators, I take this to mean that the readers have endured "hostility by sinners" like Jesus did, only not nearly so severe, and particularly, not to the point of "shedding blood." We have seen the persecution, for example, in 10:32-34 which involved imprisonment and plundering. And we will see in 13:13 that this "hostility from sinners" will involve personal reproaches. <br />
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Now in the next verse (12:5) the writer interprets this experience of "hostility by sinners" as discipline from God. He says, "And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, 'MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.' It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons." <br />
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The word "endure" in verse 7 links our experience with the experience of the Lord in verse 3: "he endured such hostility by sinners." Now we must "endure" similar hostility by sinners. Only our endurance of hostility by sinners is interpreted as the discipline of a loving heavenly Father. <br />
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And what follows in the text is a description of the purpose that God has in our being treated so painfully by others. Verses 10b-11: "[God] disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." <br />
<br />
So here are two kinds of situations where Boyd's sentence above seems contrary to Scripture: the sufferings inflicted on Jesus by others and the sufferings inflicted on Christians by others. In both cases, the teaching of Scripture seems to be that God did indeed have a purpose in the very acts of inflicting pain: the salvation of his people in the one case (through Jesus' suffering), and the sanctifying of them in the other (through our suffering).</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Gods_Ultimate_Purpose_Vessels_of_Mercy_Knowing_the_Riches_of_His_GloryGods Ultimate Purpose Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory2008-10-08T18:42:54Z<p>Kryndontpay: Gods Ultimate Purpose Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory moved to God's Ultimate Purpose: Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[God's Ultimate Purpose: Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/God%27s_Ultimate_Purpose:_Vessels_of_Mercy_Knowing_the_Riches_of_His_GloryGod's Ultimate Purpose: Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory2008-10-08T18:42:54Z<p>Kryndontpay: Gods Ultimate Purpose Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory moved to God's Ultimate Purpose: Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory</p>
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<div>{{info}} <br />
<blockquote>'''Romans 9:23-24''' </blockquote><blockquote><br />
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory- 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'" 26 "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" 27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay." 29 And as Isaiah predicted,, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah."<br />
</blockquote><br />
Let’s begin and let’s end today with the wonder of being vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory. Whatever we may not fully understand about the way God works in this world, one thing is clear and wonderful in verse 23: His ultimate purpose – in all his wrath and all his power and all his mercy – is this: "to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." <br />
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If you are a Christian today – if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead – this is what you are: a vessel of mercy prepared before the creation of the world for glory – that is, to know the riches of the glory of God. <br />
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Open your heart to the wonder of this in your own case as you ponder with me three aspects of it. Let’s look at 1) "vessels of mercy," and then 2) "prepared beforehand for glory," and then 3) "knowing the riches of glory." <br />
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==== Vessels of Mercy<br> ====<br />
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God’s purpose in verse 23 is "to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." <br />
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As a Christian you are a vessel of mercy. You were called out of spiritual deadness and sinful darkness by mercy, through mercy, and for mercy. By mercy, because in our rebellion we didn’t deserve to be awakened and opened and subdued to God. Through mercy, because every influence that worked on us to bring us to Christ was a mercy from God. For mercy, because every enjoyment that we will ever have, forever and ever, will be a merciful enjoyment. And mercy itself will be supremely pleasant to taste and know. <br />
<br />
We are vessels of mercy. Which means that in all our thinking about election, and why we are saved and another not, we must continually focus on this: We do not deserve to be Christians. We do not deserve to be chosen or called or saved or transformed or heaven-bound. It is all mercy. Undeserved. Oh, may believers hear this as humbling, and unbelievers hear it as hopeful! Nothing in us was the decisive influence on God to make it happen. That we have received anything good – any forgiveness, any acceptance with God, any glimpse of his glory, any hope of everlasting joy – this is all mercy. <br />
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And here the words of the Lord Jesus fly over our lives like a great banner, and ring in our ears like a great trumpet-call to sacrifice: "Freely you received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). Oh, may the glorious doctrine of unconditional election – election unto mercy! – never, never, NEVER lead to pride, or cliquishness, or bigotry, or provincialism, or smug indifference to the perishing. Test yourself to see if you are in Christ: Mercy produces mercy and receives mercy again. We become merciful by being shown mercy. And we show mercy to obtain more mercy again. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy" (Matthew 5:7). Freely you received mercy, freely give – and you will receive more and more, "pressed down, shaken together, running over" (Luke 6:38). Mercy upon mercy. <br />
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That is what it means to be a vessel of mercy. It means being able to say, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me – pursue me – all the days of my life." There will not be one day – neither the day of my delight nor the day of my death – when mercy does not track me down and make me a vessel for his blessing. <br />
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==== Prepared Beforehand for Glory<br> ====<br />
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We are still in verse 23, God’s ultimate purpose for your life: "to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." <br />
<br />
I think the focus here is on being prepared for God’s glory, not our glory (though that too is part of our hope – Romans 8:30). I say this because verse 23 says the purpose of God is "to make known the riches of his glory." That is what we are prepared for. <br />
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The word "prepared" underlines that this is all of mercy. We did not make ourselves fit to know God’s glory. God did. And he did it out of "the same lump" of clay that others came from who do not see or love the glory of God (Romans 9:21). If you see and savor the glory of God today, you didn’t get to be that way on your own. You were shaped and molded and sometimes pounded into a vessel able to know the glory of God. This word "prepared beforehand" simply underlines and emphasizes that our ability to see and savor God’s glory is all because of his mercy. <br />
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If you are a Christian – or willing to become one by faith in Jesus Christ – you were prepared beforehand for glory – that is to know the glory of God. This is the ultimate purpose of God for your existence: Verse 23: "to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy." Oh, how I plead with you, let this sink into your heart. Because once it penetrates to the deep part of your heart – once it takes hold of you – you will never be the same again. You were made to know the glory of God. <br />
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Now be careful here lest you intellectualize the word "know." "Know" here cannot mean "be aware of intellectually while feeling indifferent." That would not mark you as a vessel of mercy. It would mark you as a vessel of wrath. What does chapter one say? "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who . . . exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man . . ." (Romans 1:18, 23). That is, they know the glory of God but did not treasure it. They exchanged it. <br />
<br />
God’s purpose is not to be known as glorious and then exchanged for images. His purpose is to be known as glorious and treasured as glorious. When Paul says God’s purpose is to make known God’s glory he means make known as infinitely precious and infinitely pleasing. You were made to know the glory of God, to taste and see the glory of God, to treasure the glory of God, to enjoy the glory of God. <br />
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Do you live for this? Do you hear this design for your life and feel a passion to pursue it? <br />
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If not, I wonder why. <br />
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===== "This is Impossible for Me" =====<br />
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Perhaps you feel it’s impossible for you. If that’s how you feel, please remember it is all mercy. Impossible to you, yes, but not to God. "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27). <br />
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===== "I Don’t Want to See Glory, I Want to Be Glory" =====<br />
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Or perhaps you don’t pursue this purpose for your life because you don’t want to see glory, you want to be glory. I could say some very scary things to you about that. But perhaps I should just say, "If you seek your own glory rather than seeing and savoring God’s glory, you will be bitterly disappointed in the end. Because in the end you will not be glorious, and everyone will see that and turn their face away." For your own souls, don’t make that mistake. <br />
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===== "I’d Rather Accomplish Something Great Than Behold Something Great" =====<br />
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Or perhaps you turn away form God’s design by saying: I don’t want to be lost in the crowd of ogling spectators standing in front of a work of art, saying, "Oh, look at the glory, look at the glory. I want to do something and accomplish something great." To you I would say two simple things: first, beware how you speak about those who praise the glory of God; and second, in all of history the people who have seen the glory of God most, accomplish most for this world. Remember the words of Paul, "Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18), and glory-reflecting people are not fruitless. <br />
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===== "I Have Never Tasted the Glory of God" =====<br />
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Or perhaps you don’t pursue with passion to know the glory of God because you simply have no taste for it and don’t know what it is and therefore cannot feel drawn to it. To you I would say: The glory of God is shining everywhere. You live and move and have your being in God. When the psalmist says, "The heavens are telling the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1), it does not mean that sunrises and sunsets are the glory of God. It means, their magnificence across the bow of the earth, and their spectacular array of colors, and their evocative power to awaken deep emotions are tiny reflections and mere shadows of the glory to which they point. God is reaching out to us to say: it’s like this, only better – lots better! <br />
<br />
C. S. Lewis once said: <br />
<blockquote>Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I do not see how the "fear" of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the "love" of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed. (The Four Loves [London: Fontana Books, 1960], pp. 23-24) </blockquote><br />
In other words, to you who say, you have never tasted the glory of God, I say, you have tasted many of its appetizers. Have you ever looked up? Have you ever been hugged? Have you ever admired anything? Have you ever sat in front of a warm fire? Have you ever tasted sexual desire? Have you ever walked in the woods, sat by a lake, lain in a summer hammock? Have you ever drunk your favorite drink on a hot day or eaten anything good? Every desire is either a devout or a distorted enticement to the glory of heaven. <br />
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You say you haven’t tasted God’s glory. I say. You have tasted the appetizers. Go on to the meal. You have seen the shadows; look at the substance. You have walked in the warm rays of the day; turn and look at the sun itself. You have heard echoes of God’s glory everywhere; tune your heart to the original music. <br />
<br />
And the best place to get your heart tuned is at the cross of Jesus Christ. "We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). If you want the most concentrated display of the glory of God, look at Jesus in the Gospels, and look especially at the cross. This will focus your eyes and tune your heart and waken your taste buds so that you will see and hear and taste the glory of the true God everywhere. <br />
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That is what you were made for. I plead with you: don’t throw your life away. God made you to know his glory. Pursue that with all your heart and above all else. <br />
<br />
==== Knowing the Riches of His Glory<br> ====<br />
<br />
Now thirdly focus for a moment on the word "riches." Verse 23: God’s final goal is "to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." <br />
<br />
Why does he use that word? The point of using that word – the word for wealth and riches – is to waken in us a sense that our inheritance in God is infinitely greater than the greatest riches on earth. Oh, how foolish we are to labor for the bread that perishes. Oh, how foolish we are to lay up treasures on earth when the glory of God is our portion. If we had all the money in the world we would be paupers compared to those who have only the glory of God. <br />
<br />
Paul said these riches are unimaginable: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined . . . God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). He said these riches are immeasurable: "In the coming ages he [will] show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7). In other words, because the riches of glory are infinite it will take ages for us to know it fully – eternal ages! In other words, we will never know it fully, but will know it more fully every day forever and ever. Our knowledge of the riches of the glory of God will increase forever and ever, world without end. And therefore, so will our joy. His mercies will be new every morning. And there will be not one boring day in heaven. Nor one day without fresh awe-inspiring discovery. Not one day without the accumulated weight of old glories ripening in memory, and the thrill of new glories breaking on our sight every day. <br />
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Therefore, Christ commands us, mercifully, in view of these infinite riches of glory, not to seek earthly riches but to seek the kingdom; and he promised us this: "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). <br />
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You were made to know the riches of the glory of God. <br />
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Jew and Gentile! The people of this inheritance are not defined by ethnic relations. They are defined by God’s call. Do you see that in the way verse 23 flows into verse 24? God’s great purpose is "to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory – 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles." <br />
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The issue for you this morning is not your background or race or your ethnic connections or your denomination or your parents’ faith. This issue is: do you hear in this message the call of God? If you do, obey it and believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. All the riches of God’s glory are in him. They can be had nowhere else.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Gods_Word_Stands_Not_All_Israel_is_Israel_Part_1Gods Word Stands Not All Israel is Israel Part 12008-10-08T18:40:59Z<p>Kryndontpay: Gods Word Stands Not All Israel is Israel Part 1 moved to God's Word Stands: Not All Israel is Israel, Part 1</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 9:6-12'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED." 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. 9 For this is the word of promise: "AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON." 10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." 13 Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED."<br />
</blockquote><br />
To understand Romans 9 we must constantly keep the flow of Paul’s thought before us. In verses 1-5 he expresses his grief over the lostness of his kinsmen, the Jewish people. He says in verse 3, "I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." And what receives the emphasis in verses 4-5 is not that Israelites are Paul’s kinsmen but that they are God’s kinsmen. It says, "[They] are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants." So the crisis in verses 1-5 is not only a personal one for Paul, it is a theological one all of us whose eternity hangs on God’s faithfulness. The crisis created in verses 1-5 is that Israel is God’s chosen, covenant people, and that most of them are accursed and cut off from Christ and from salvation. Has God been faithful to his promises? If not, what are we hoping in? <br />
<br />
==== The Crisis: If God Doesn’t Keep His Promises to Israel, Will He Keep Them for You?<br> ====<br />
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Every week we must keep in mind that this is the crisis Paul is dealing with in Romans 9:1-23. Israel is God’s chosen people and most of them are perishing, cut off from the Savior, Jesus Christ. And the reason it is a crisis for you, and not just for Jews, is that, if God’s promises to Israel do not hold true, then there is no reason to think his promises to you will hold true. The rock solid security of God’s elect in Romans 8 (Verse 33: "Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies!") – this security that we exult in, at the heart of our faith, is worthless if God proves unfaithful to his covenant people. If God does not keep his promises to Israel, will he keep the promises he makes to us? <br />
<br />
That’s the crisis that Paul is dealing with as we begin today’s text. We will spend two weeks on verses 6-13 because Paul deals with two illustrations of his point in this paragraph: one is the illustration of Isaac as the child of promise, not Ishmael (verses 6-9); and the other is the illustration of Jacob as the child of promise, not Esau (verses 10-13). Today we will deal with verses 6-9 and the illustration of Isaac’s birth as a child of promise, not a child of the flesh. <br />
<br />
==== Is It True That the Word of God Has Not Failed?<br> ====<br />
<br />
Verse 6 states the main point of the whole chapter. "But it is not as though the word of God has failed." That is Paul’s assertion over against the crisis described in verses 1-5. Yes, it is true that many in the covenant people are accursed and cut off from Christ, and yes it is true that God chose Israel and made a covenant with her and gave her promises, but, no, it is not true that the word of God has failed. That is Paul’s assertion. And so far it is only that: an assertion. <br />
<br />
But everything else through this chapter, and indeed almost everything through the next three chapters, is an argument or a support for this assertion. He does not just make the assertion and then leave us hanging. He makes it and then gives reasons for believing it. And so keep in mind as we move through this chapter that some of the clearest and most forceful statements in the Bible about unconditional election and the sovereignty of God in salvation are made here in the service of God’s faithfulness to his promises. Paul doesn’t deal with controversial doctrine in the abstract – as if it would simply be interesting to know – he deals with it because it is needed to help us understand and enjoy God’s faithfulness. In Paul’s mind these great doctrines had a direct bearing on the way we live. If that’s not the case with you, you might want to rethink what does shape your responses to life and your plans or living. If not the great truths about God, what then? <br />
<br />
Now then, what is Paul’s argument in support of God’s faithfulness? How can he say that the word of God has not failed even though many Israelites are accursed and cut off from Christ? He states his answer three times in verses 6-9 and gives two Old Testament quotations to support it. <br />
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==== 1. Ethnic Israel and True Israel<br> ====<br />
<br />
First, in verse 6b he says, "For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel." In other words, Paul’s argument is that the promises of God always hold true for the true Israel, the spiritual Israel, but not all ethnic Israel is true Israel. That’s his first statement of the argument: "They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel." The assumption is: there is a true Israel; God’s saving promises are made to them; and these promises have never failed. <br />
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==== 2. All Descendants of Abraham and the Children of Abraham<br> ====<br />
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Second, in verse 7a he says it a little differently, but makes the same point: " Nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants." In other words, he is distinguishing here between two kinds of "children" – there are all of Abraham’s descendants, and there is a narrower group in that number whom he calls here "the children," or we could say, "the true children" since the others are physical children also. The assumption is that the promises of God hold true for the true children of Abraham but not for all the descendants of Abraham. So in verse 6 he says that not all Israel is Israel, and in verse 7 he says that not all the children of Abraham are children. There is a true Israel and there are true children. The word of God has not failed, because it was meant for the true Israel, the true children, and it has never failed any of them. <br />
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==== 3. The Children of the Flesh and the Children of God<br> ====<br />
<br />
Third, in verse 8 Paul states the argument a third time in more general terms without naming Israel or Abraham so that we see the principle involved. "That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants." This, he says again, is why the word of God has not failed –why the promises of God have not failed – even though many of Israelites according to the flesh are accursed and cut off from Christ. It’s because the promises are for the children of promise – the children of God – and not every child of Israelite flesh is a child of promise. <br />
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When Paul distinguishes "children of the flesh" and "children of God" he means that not all physical Israelites are "children of God." And that means that the term "children of God" is not a mere ethnic or physical or historical term. It has its full saving meaning just like it does in Romans 8:16, 21, and Philippians 2:15 (cf. Hosea 1:10). And when he then says that these "children of God" are "children of promise," he means that they have their spiritual position not because of their physical connections, but because of God’s effective promise. The promise produced the position. <br />
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==== What Is the Old Testament Support?<br> ====<br />
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Now this is where we need to look at Paul’s Old Testament support for this. But first remember that we have seen three different statements of Paul as to why the word of God to Israel has not failed. 1) Verse 6b: "They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel." 2) Verse 7a: " Nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants." 3) Verse 8: "It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants." That is why the word of God has not failed even though so many Israelites are accursed and cut off from Christ. They were not true Israelites. They were not true children of Abraham. They were children of the flesh but not children of promise, that is, children of God. <br />
<br />
Now where does Paul see this idea of a people within a people in the Old Testament? Where does he find the idea that the promise of God is not simply for every Israelite, but for those who are children of promise? And what does that mean – children of promise? <br />
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==== The Case of Isaac and Ishmael<br> ====<br />
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Paul gives two illustrations in verses 6-9 (and another one in verses 10-13 that we will look at next week). The first is in verse 7. After Paul says, "Nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants," he quotes Genesis 21:12. "But: ‘Through Isaac your descendants will be named.’" The context here in the Old Testament is where God is saying to Abraham, even though you have an older son, Ishmael, he will not be the heir of the promise. Rather "through Isaac your descendants will be named (or called)." What Paul sees here is that being a physical child of Abraham, and even being the oldest, did not make Ishmael an heir of the promise to the covenant people. <br />
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Then Paul adds another insight from Genesis 18:10 in verse 9. After saying in verse 8 that "the children of promise are regarded [God says] as descendants," then he quotes Genesis 18:10, "For this is the word of promise: ‘At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.’" The context here is tremendously important. God had promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3) and that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). But Abraham had no offspring and his wife Sarah was barren. What was the solution? Abraham’s answer should have been, "I’ll trust God for a child of promise. I’ll trust God that the divine promise itself is powerful enough to bring itself to pass." But instead Abraham did what he could do in his own strength: he used Hagar, a maid of Sarah, as a concubine and produced a child named Ishmael. Abraham helped God out of his pickle. And produced what Paul called a "child of the flesh." He was "born according to the flesh" (Galatians 4:29). That is, his position was owing to no more than what man could do. <br />
<br />
Abraham wanted Ishmael to be the heir God had promised. In Genesis 17:18 Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" But God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac." That’s the context of Paul’s quote in Romans 9:9. God promises: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." You see the sovereign purpose of God’s word here. I make the promise, God says. And I bring it to pass. My promises are not predictions of what may come about with your help. My promises are declarations of what I intend to bring about by my sovereign power. "I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." Barren Sarah and old Abraham will have not a child of the flesh, but a child of promise. <br />
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So what is a child of promise (child of God)? A child of promise is an heir of God’s saving grace, not because of ethnic origin or physical birth, or, as we will see next week, any human resource. But because of God’s sovereign word. The birth of Isaac is a picture of how every child of God spiritually comes into being. The decisive work is God’s work. Not Abraham’s and not Isaac’s and not ours. But God’s. <br />
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==== The Answer to the Crisis<br> ====<br />
<br />
What then is the answer to the crisis of verses 1-5: Has the word of God failed because many Israelites are accursed and cut off from Christ? Have the promises of God come to naught? The answer is no. And the reason Paul gives three times is that the promise of God itself accomplishes its purpose, and that purpose is make for himself a true Israel. The promise and purpose of God was never that every Israelite would be guaranteed salvation. The promise was: God will see to it that the true Israel is brought into being and saved. And we have seen, and will see again; this true Israel includes Jews and Gentiles. <br />
<br />
==== Application for Today<br> ====<br />
<br />
How shall we apply this to ourselves? <br />
<br />
We are moving to the Lord’s Supper; so let that be the application. The way God brings into being the true Israel is, finally by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, as the true Seed of Abraham, the true Son of David, and, in a profound sense, the true Israel himself. Jesus fulfilled all that Israel was destined for. And now every person, Jew or Gentile, who trusts in Christ, is united to him and becomes part of this true Israel in Christ. <br />
<br />
The question facing you this morning as we move to the Lord’s table is: Do you trust in Christ Jesus as your Savior and Lord and Treasure? Are you united to him? Has he made you a child of promise, a true Jew, a child of God? If so, eat the Lord’s supper and enjoy fellowship with him. If not, trust him now. Amen.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/The_Absolute_Sovereignty_of_God_What_Is_Romans_Nine_AboutThe Absolute Sovereignty of God What Is Romans Nine About2008-10-08T18:39:21Z<p>Kryndontpay: The Absolute Sovereignty of God What Is Romans Nine About moved to The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What Is Romans Nine About?</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 9:1-5'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.<br />
</blockquote><br />
There are two experiences in my life that make Romans 9 one of the most important chapters in shaping the way I think about everything, and the way I have been led in ministry. One happened in seminary and turned my mental world upside down. The other happened in the fall of 1979 and led to my coming to serve this church. <br />
<br />
When I entered seminary I believed in the freedom of my will, in the sense that it was ultimately self-determining. I had not learned this from the Bible; I absorbed it from the independent, self-sufficient, self-esteeming, self-exalting air that you and I breathe every day of our lives in America. The sovereignty of God meant that he can do anything with me that I give him permission to do. With this frame of mind I entered a class on Philippians with Daniel Fuller and class on the doctrine of salvation with James Morgan. <br />
<br />
In Philippians I was confronted with the intractable ground clause of chapter 2 verse 13: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure," which made God the will beneath my will and the worker beneath my work. The question was not whether I had a will; the question was why I willed what I willed. And the ultimate answer – not the only answer – was God. <br />
<br />
In the class on salvation we dealt head on with the doctrines of unconditional election and irresistible grace. Romans 9 was the watershed text and the one that changed my life forever. Romans 9:11-12 said, "Though they [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad – in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call – she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’" And when Paul raised the question in verse 14, "Is there injustice on God's part?" He says, no, and quotes Moses (in verse 15): "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." And when he raises the question in verse 19, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" He answers in verse 21, "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use?" <br />
<br />
Emotions run high when you feel your man-centered world crumbling around you. I met Dr. Morgan in the hall one day. After a few minutes of heated argument about the freedom of my will, I held a pen in front of his face and dropped it to the floor. Then I said, with not as much respect as a student ought to have, "I [!] dropped it." Somehow that was supposed to prove that my choice to drop the pen was not governed by anything but my sovereign self. <br />
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But thanks be to God’s mercy and patience, at the end of the semester I wrote in my blue book for the final exam, "Romans 9 is like a tiger going about devouring free-willers like me." That was the end of my love affair with human autonomy and the ultimate self-determination of my will. My worldview simply could not stand against the scriptures, especially Romans 9. And it was the beginning of a lifelong passion to see and savor the supremacy of God in absolutely everything. <br />
<br />
==== The Fall of 1979<br> ====<br />
<br />
Then, about ten years later, came the fall of 1979. I was on sabbatical from teaching at Bethel College. My one aim on this leave was to study Romans 9 and write a book on it that would settle, in my own mind, the meaning of these verses. After six years of teaching and finding many students in every class ready to discount my interpretation of this chapter for one reason or another, I decided I had to give eight months to it. The upshot of that sabbatical was the book, The Justification of God. I tried to answer every important exegetical objection to God’s absolute sovereignty in Romans 9. <br />
<br />
But the result of that sabbatical was utterly unexpected—at least by me. My aim was to analyze God’s words so closely and construe them so carefully that I could write a book that would be compelling and stand the test of time. What I did not expect was that six months into this analysis of Romans 9 God himself would speak to me so powerfully that I resigned my job at Bethel and made myself available to the Minnesota Baptist Conference if there were a church who would have me as a pastor. <br />
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In essence it happened like this: I was 34 years old. I had two children and a third on the way. As I studied Romans 9 day after day, I began to see a God so majestic and so free and so absolutely sovereign that my analysis merged into worship and the Lord said, in effect, "I will not simply be analyzed, I will be adored. I will not simply be pondered, I will be proclaimed. My sovereignty is not simply to be scrutinized, it is to be heralded. It is not grist for the mill of controversy, it is gospel for sinners who know that their only hope is the sovereign triumph of God’s grace over their rebellious will." This is when Bethlehem contacted me near the end of 1979. And I do not hesitate to say that because of Romans 9 I left teaching and became a pastor. The God of Romans 9 has been the Rock-solid foundation of all I have said and all I have done in the last 22 years.. <br />
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==== Jonathan Edwards’ Testimony to God’s Absolute Sovereignty<br> ====<br />
<br />
I feel about the truth of God’s absolute sovereignty over my will and over this church and over the nations the way Jonathan Edwards did – even if I don’t have his powers to see and savor God’s truth. I read the following story because it may have been the story of many in this church, and may yet be, I pray, the story of many: <br />
<blockquote>From childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, in choosing whom he would to eternal life, and rejecting whom he pleased; leaving them eternally to perish, and be everlastingly tormented in hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. But I remember the time very well, when I seemed to be convinced, and fully satisfied, as to this sovereignty of God, and his justice in thus eternally disposing of [dealing with] men, according to his sovereign pleasure. But never could give an account, how, or by what means, I was, thus convinced, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a long time after, that there was any extraordinary influence of God’s Spirit in it but only that now I saw further, and my reason apprehended the justice and reasonableness of it. However, my mind rested in it; and it put an end to all those cavils and objections. And there has been a wonderful alteration in my mind, in respect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty, from that day to this; so that I scarce ever have found so much as the rising of an objection against it, in the most absolute sense, in God’s shewing mercy to whom he will show mercy, and hardening whom he will. God’s absolute sovereignty and justice, with respect to salvation and damnation, is what my mind seems to rest assured of, as much as of any thing that I see with my eyes, at least it is so at times. The doctrine has very often appeared exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. (Jonathan Edwards, Selections [New York: Hill and Wang, 1962], pp. 58-59). </blockquote><br />
==== A Brief Overview of Romans 9<br> ====<br />
<br />
Now all of this is a bit misleading as an introduction to Romans 9. But only a bit. It might give the impression that Romans 9 is a treatise on the sovereignty of God. It’s not. Romans 9 is an explanation for why the word of God has not failed even though God’s chosen people, Israel, as a whole, are not turning to Christ and being saved. The sovereignty of God’s grace is brought in as the final ground of God’s faithfulness in spite of Israel’s failure, and therefore as the deepest foundation for the precious promises of Romans 8. For if God is not faithful to his word, we can’t count on Romans 8 either. <br />
<br />
Consider this brief overview. Verse 3 shows us that Israel as a whole is accursed and cut off from Christ, "I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." We will deal with Paul’s arguments next week. Only notice now that this is the plight of Israel: "accursed and cut off from Christ." Now that raises a huge problem! What about the word of God – the word of promise to Israel and covenant: "I will be your God, and you will be my people!" (Jer. 31:33). <br />
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So Paul answers this question in verse 6: "But it is not as though the word of God has failed." You can see what was at stake. It looks as though the word of God has failed! But Paul says no. Then he gives the explanation that launches him into the doctrines of unconditional election and divine sovereignty over human willing. His explanation in verse 6b is: "For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel." Not all physical Israel is true Israel. In other words, the word of God has not failed because the promises were not made to all ethnic Israel in such a way that secured the salvation of every individual Israelite. <br />
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Verse 8 says it again: "It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants." In other words, not all the physical descendants of Abraham are the beneficiaries of the covenant promises. Who then is? And here Paul goes right to the bottom of the explanation. He says, The beneficiaries of the promise are the children of promise. But, we ask, who are these? What are the conditions they must meet to be the "children of promise"? <br />
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Paul’s answer to this in verse 11, with the illustrations of Jacob and Esau, confronts us with the ultimate sovereignty of God in choosing who the beneficiaries of the promise will be. In referring to Jacob (who became the heir) and Esau (who did not) Paul says: "for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad [there’s the unconditionality, and here’s the reason for it], so that God's purpose according to election would stand [there’s the explanation deeper than human conditions – God’s sovereign purpose], not because of works but because of Him who calls [notice: he did not contrast works with faith, but with "Him who calls" – not even faith is in view here as a condition], Rebecca was told, "The older will serve the younger." <br />
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All this raises the question of God’s justice. Paul is hiding nothing here. He is putting it all out in the open. In verse 14 he says, "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?" Paul’s answer is no. And after quoting Moses about God’s freedom to have mercy on who he has mercy (v. 15) he repeats the absolute unconditionality of being chosen by God to be a child of promise. Verse 16: "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." <br />
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Which leads, then, to the question in verse 19, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" Those are the questions we are confronted with in this chapter. Are all Israel the "children of promise" or only some? If only some, what makes one person a child of promise and another not? If it is ultimately God’s unconditional, free, sovereign electing mercy, then is he unjust? If he is that free to have mercy on whom he wills and harden whom he wills (v. 18), and if it does not depend on man who wills or man who runs (v. 16) then, why does he still find fault? <br />
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==== The Point of Romans 9: An Explanation and Defense That the Word of God Has Not Failed<br> ====<br />
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So you can see that the issue of divine election, and human will, and God’s justice, and human blame, and God’s sovereignty are all here in this chapter. But they are not here for their own sake. They are here to explain this burning question: How can God’s elect people, Israel, be accursed and cut off from Christ if the word of God is reliable? How can verse 6a be true: "But it is not as though the word of God has failed." That’s the issue in this chapter. <br />
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==== Will the Promises of Romans 8 Stand?<br> ====<br />
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And it is utterly crucial for us as we move to the Lord’s table. Will the promises of Romans 8 stand? Will the blood-bought promises that we Gentiles and Jews are staking our lives on stand? Will God stand by his commitments, sealed with the blood of his Son? Will he work all things together for our good? Will the predestined be called and the called be justified and the justified be glorified? Will he give us all things with him? Will nothing separate us from the love of God in Christ? Is there really now no condemnation, and will there be none tomorrow? <br />
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Romans 9 comes after Romans 8 for this utterly crucial reason: It shows that the word of God’s covenant with Israel has not failed, because it is grounded in God’s sovereign, electing mercy. Therefore the promises to the true Israel and the promises of Romans 8 will stand! That is the gospel of Romans 9. The promises purchased by the blood of Christ will be performed by the sovereign power of God. <br />
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Oh, how thankful, how humble, and how confident we should be as we worship the Lord at his table.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/A_Passion_for_the_Supremacy_of_ChristWhere_He_Is_Not_NamedA Passion for the Supremacy of ChristWhere He Is Not Named2008-10-08T18:37:07Z<p>Kryndontpay: A Passion for the Supremacy of ChristWhere He Is Not Named moved to A Passion for the Supremacy of Christ--Where He Is Not Named</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 9:17'''<br />
</blockquote><br />
Today my aim is to build the message on several different Biblical texts around the theme of missions instead of dealing with only one text. When Tom and I talked a few months ago about missions week, what struck us was how few people are here today who were here when the driving convictions of our church in missions were being formulated. Probably fewer than 10% were here in 1983 when the Battle Cry of Christian Hedonism was sounded, and a few more in 1984 when the first Missions in the Manse was held, a few more when "90 by 90" was conceived and achieved, and a few more between 1985 and 1988 when the Maninka were adopted and the goal of "2000 by 2000" was resolved in 1990. But most of you are newer than that, and even members of long standing can use refresher courses from time to time. <br />
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Bethlehem had a vision for missions long before I came in 1980. Ola Hanson went out and planted the church among the Kachin in Burma 100 years ago. In the mid '40's when the BGC was forging its own missions agency, the members of Bethlehem and pastor Sjolund were in the thick of it. <br />
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But the period of missions I know best is the last 16 years. It would be good to review it so that God's mercy and the force of our convictions will be seen. They say words are cheap, show us your check book and we will know your values. So consider the checkbook of Bethlehem for a moment. <br />
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In 1981, the missions budget was $62,270 and was 22% of the over-all budget. In 1996, the missions budget is seven times as large—$439,661—and is 32% of the budget. To give this a sharper point, keep in mind that during the same period the percentage of the budget devoted to staff compensation has dropped from 52% to 46%. In other words, comparatively, we are doing more in missions for less outlay at home, and that is good. <br />
<br />
But there is another statistic that probably shows even more clearly the transformation of values among us. In 1981, the average missions gift per week of each Sunday morning attender was $2.50. Today it is $8.90. In other words, the annual missions budget divided by the average weekly Sunday attendance divided by 52 has increased 356% in the last 15 years. In other words, the reality here is not so much about growth in dollars or people; the reality is about altered values. New priorities. Many of us believe that the end of debt in three weeks will usher in another period of remarkable growth in missions at Bethlehem. This is the main aim of ''Freeing the Future''. <br />
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==== What Drives this Vision?<br> ====<br />
<br />
So the question should be asked. What is the vision driving this amazing commitment to missions among the people at Bethlehem? <br />
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Tom and I thought that this missions week should be an effort to get as many of you on board with the driving convictions as possible. Part of that was the reaffirmation last Wednesday of our adoption of the Maninka. Part of it was the uniting of worship and missions last Friday. And another part is this morning's message about the convictions that drive the missions engine of this church. <br />
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There are at least seven convictions that have driven our commitment in recent years. The leadership knows them and loves them. They shape all we do. If you are a part of Bethlehem, you need to know them too. May the Lord cause them to capture your heart, and fill you with fresh zeal for the greatest cause in the world. There are only three kinds of Christians when it comes to world missions: zealous goers, zealous senders, and disobedient. May God deliver us from disobedience! <br />
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==== ''Conviction'' #1: God is passionately committed to his fame. God's ultimate goal is that his name be known and praised by all the peoples of the earth.<br> ====<br />
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In Romans 9:17, Paul says that God's goal in redeeming Israel "that ''[his] name may be proclaimed in all the earth''." In Isaiah 66:19, God promised that he would send messengers "to the coastlands afar off that ''have not heard my fame or seen my glory''; and they shall ''declare my glory among the nations''." We believe that the central command of world missions is Isaiah 12:4, "Make known his deeds among the peoples, ''proclaim that his name is exalted''." <br />
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The apostle Paul said that his ministry as a missionary was "to bring about the obedience of faith ''for the sake of [Christ's] name ''among all the nations" (Romans 1:5). The apostle John said that missionaries are those who "have set out ''for the sake of the name''" (3 John 7). James, the Lord's brother, described missions as God's "visiting the nations to take out of them a people ''for his name''" (Acts 15:14). Jesus described missionaries as those who "leave houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, ''for my name's sake"'' (Matthew 19:29). <br />
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Back in the mid-eighties God drove home to many of us that a God-centered theology must be a missionary theology. If you say that you love the glory of God, the test of your authenticity is whether you love the spread of that glory among all the peoples of the world. Or another way to say it is that worship is the fuel and the goal of missions. Missions exists because worship doesn't. God's passion is to be known and honored and worshipped among all the peoples. To worship him is to share that passion for his supremacy among the nations. <br />
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==== ''Conviction'' #2: God's passion to be known and praised by all the peoples of the earth is not selfish, but loving.<br> ====<br />
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God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the ultimately loving act. And the reason is easy to see. The one and only Reality in the universe that can fully and eternally satisfy the human heart is the glory of God—the beauty of all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore God would not be loving unless he upholds and displays and magnifies that glory for our everlasting enjoyment. If God were to forsake or dishonor or disregard the infinite worth of his own glory he would be unloving in the same way that a husband is unloving who commits suicide. <br />
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Perhaps the best way to see that God's passion for his fame is an expression of his love is to notice that God's mercy is the pinnacle of his glory. This is what he wants to be honored for above all else. You can see this in Romans 15:9 where Paul says that the reason Christ came into the world was so "that the nations might ''glorify God for his mercy."'' <br />
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Do you see how conviction #1 and #2 come together in that little phrase: "''glorify God for his mercy''"? God gets the glory, we get the mercy. God is praised, we are saved. God gets the honor, we get the joy. God is glorified for his fullness, we are satisfied with his mercy. <br />
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So to sum up convictions #1 and #2: there are two basic problems in the universe: God is profaned and people are perishing. Conviction #1 says that God will not suffer his name to be dishonored indefinitely, but will act mightily to vindicate his name and glorify himself among the nations. Conviction #2 says that God has planned a way to do this by saving the perishing through the death of his Son, Jesus, and making them a worshipping people who enjoy his glory. In the sacrifice of his own son for the sake of the nations, God reveals the pinnacle of his glory—his mercy. So the salvation of the nations and the glorification of God happen together in missions. They are not at odds. It is a loving thing for God to pursue his glory like this. <br />
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==== ''Conviction'' #3: God's purpose to be praised among all the nations cannot fail. It is an absolutely certain promise. It is going to happen.<br> ====<br />
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When Jesus gave the great commission in Matthew 28:19, he gave it a massive foundation of certainty. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore . . ." In other words, nothing can stop him: "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). "This gospel of the kingdom ''will be preached ''throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). <br />
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When I was at Wheaton last weekend I said to the students gathered for the World Christian Fellowship that there are four reasons we can be absolutely sure that the mission of God will triumph in the world. First, the word of Jesus is more sure than the heavens and the earth (Matthew 24:35). Second, the ransom has already been paid for all God's elect, and God did not spill the blood of his Son in vain (Revelation 5:9). Third, the glory of God is at stake and in the end he will not share his glory with another (Isaiah 48:9-11). Fourth, God is sovereign and can do all things and no purpose of his can be thwarted (Job 42:2). <br />
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In the September 16, 1996, issue of ''Christianity Today ''(p. 25) Steve Saint, whose dad, Nate Saint, was martyred in Ecuador in 1956 by the Auca Indians, wrote an article about new discoveries made about the tribal intrigue behind the slayings of Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully and Pete Fleming. He wrote one of the most amazing sentences on the sovereignty I have ever read from the son of a slain missionary: <br />
<blockquote>As [the killers] described their recollections it occurred to me how incredibly unlikely it was that the Palm Beach killing took place at all; it is an anomaly that ''I cannot explain outside of divine intervention''. (italics and bold added) </blockquote><br />
There is only one explanation for why these five young men died. God intervened. This is the kind of sovereignty I mean when I say no one, absolutely no one, can frustrate the designs of God to fulfill his missionary plans for the nations. In the darkest moments of our pain God is hiding his explosives behind enemy lines. <br />
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==== ''Conviction'' #4: domestic ministries are the goal of frontier missions.<br> ====<br />
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This conviction addresses the tension that develops in a mission-driven church between those who have a passion for ministering here to our own desperately needy culture, and the radical advocates of taking the gospel where they don't even have access to the Source of any ministry at all. <br />
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By domestic ministries I mean all the ministries that we should do among the people in our own culture. For example, ministries relating to evangelism, poverty, medical care, unemployment, hunger, abortion, crisis pregnancy, runaway kids, pornography, family disintegration, child abuse, divorce, hygiene, education at all levels, drug abuse and alcoholism, environmental concerns, terrorism, prison reform, moral abuses in the media and business and politics, etc., etc. <br />
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Frontier missions, on the other hand, is the effort of the church to penetrate an unreached people group with the gospel and establish there an ongoing, indigenous, ministering church. <br />
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Now stop and think about that. What this means is that frontier missions is the exportation of the possibility and practice of domestic ministries in the name of Jesus to unreached people groups. <br />
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Why should there be tension between these two groups of people? The frontier people honor the domestic people by agreeing that their work is worth exporting. The domestic people honor the frontier people by insisting that what they export is worth doing here. <br />
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==== ''Conviction'' #5: The missionary task is focused on peoples, not just individual people, and is therefore finishable.<br> ====<br />
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Many of us used to have the vague notion that missions was simply winning to Christ as many individuals as possible in other places. But now we have come to see that the unique task of missions, as opposed to evangelism, is to plant the church among people groups where it doesn't exist. <br />
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Revelation 5:9 is a picture of how Christ's death relates to missions: "Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals for thou wast slain and didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation." When the church has been planted in all the people groups of the earth, and the elect have been gathered in from all the "tribes and tongues and nations," then the great commission will be complete. Missions will be over. The task of missions is planting the church among all the peoples, not necessarily winning all the people. <br />
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==== ''Conviction'' #6: The need of the hour is for thousands of new Paul-type missionaries—a fact which is sometimes obscured by the quantity of Timothy-type missionaries.<br> ====<br />
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Timothy left Lystra, his hometown (Acts 16:1), and became a church worker (a Timothy-type missionary) in a foreign place, Ephesus, (1 Timothy 1:3) which had its own elders (Acts 20:17) and outreach (Acts 19:10). This is the model of a Timothy-type missionary: going far away to do Christian work where the church is fairly well established. It has Biblical precedent and it is a good thing to do, if God calls you. <br />
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But that's not what Paul was called to do. His passion was to make God's name known in all the unreached peoples of the world. He said that he made it his ambition "to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named" (Romans 15:20). One of the most stunning things Paul ever said is in Romans 15:19, 23: "From Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fulfilled the gospel of Christ. . . . I no longer have any room for work in these regions." This stunned me, when I finally saw its implications. <br />
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No room for work between Jerusalem and northern Greece! His work there is done in spite of all the unbelievers that remain! He is now moving on to Spain. How could he say this? The answer is that he was a frontier missionary, not just a cross-cultural missionary. He was called to reach the unreached peoples, where there is no church to evangelize its own people. <br />
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What most Christians don't know today is that there are probably ten times more Timothy-type missionaries in the world than there are Paul-type missionaries. And yet there are still thousands of people groups—especially Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and tribal peoples—who have no access to a gospel-preaching church in their own culture. <br />
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Therefore my prayer for our church is that we put a very high priority on raising up and sending frontier missionaries—Paul-type missionaries. Not that we diminish the sacrifice and preciousness of the Timothy-type missionaries, but that we realize what the utterly critical, uniquely missionary need is in the world, namely, there are thousands of groups with no access to the saving knowledge of Jesus. Only Paul-type missionaries can reach them. That must be a huge priority for us. Without the gospel everything is in vain. <br />
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==== ''Conviction'' #7: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him; and our satisfaction in him is greatest when it expands to embrace others.<br> ====<br />
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It is amazing how those who have suffered most in the missionary cause speak in the most lavish terms of the blessing and the joy of it all. Start with Jesus: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it" (Mark 8:34-35). We save our lives by giving them away in the cause of the gospel. This is what Paul meant when he said, "This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17). And: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18). <br />
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Samuel Zwemer—after fifty years of missions labor (including the loss of two young children in North Africa)—said, "The sheer joy of it all comes back. Gladly would I do it all over again." And both Hudson Taylor and David Livingston, after lives of extraordinary hardship and loss said, "I never made a sacrifice." <br />
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When people who have suffered much speak like this, their God is magnified. If God can so satisfy their souls that even their sufferings are experienced as steps into deeper joy with him, then he must be far more wonderful than all that the earth has to offer. Psalm 63:3 must really be true: "The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life." <br />
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These are our driving missions convictions at Bethlehem. If God opens your heart, you will see that there is no better way to live than in the wartime lifestyle that maximizes all you are and all you have for the sake of finishing the great commission. Because in this way God is magnified; we are satisfied; and the nations are loved. <br />
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When it comes to world missions, there are only three kinds of Christians: zealous goers, zealous senders, and disobedient. Which will you be? <br />
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==== Appendix More Convictions Behind Our Missions Vision<br> ====<br />
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==== 1. Prayer is a wartime walkie talkie not a domestic intercom. (John 15:16)<br> ====<br />
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John 15:16 <br />
<blockquote>"You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you. </blockquote><br />
James 4:2-4 <br />
<blockquote>You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? </blockquote><br />
Matthew 6:9-10 <br />
<blockquote>"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. </blockquote><br />
2 Thessalonians 3:1 <br />
<blockquote>Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as''it did ''also with you; </blockquote><br />
==== 2. We are called to a wartime lifestyle for the sake of world evangelization because there is a war going on with devastation and urgency far outstripping anything in World War II. (Luke 14:33).<br> ====<br />
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Mark 10:28-30 <br />
<blockquote>Peter began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You." 29 Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, 30 but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. </blockquote><br />
Philippians 3:7-11 <br />
<blockquote>But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from ''the ''Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which ''comes ''from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. </blockquote><br />
==== 3. Worship is the fuel and the goal of missions. (Psalm 22:27)<br> ====<br />
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Goal: the nations are coming to worship the Lord. <br />
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Psalm 86:9 <br />
<blockquote>All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; And they shall glorify Thy name. </blockquote><br />
Psalm 22:27 <br />
<blockquote>All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations will worship before Thee. </blockquote><br />
Fuel: You must be glad in God to authentically say "Be glad in God" to the nations; hence fuel. <br />
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Psalm 67:1-4 <br />
<blockquote>God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us. 2 That Thy way may be known on the earth, Thy salvation among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; Let all the peoples praise Thee. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For Thou wilt judge the peoples with uprightness, And guide the nations on the earth. </blockquote><br />
==== 4. Suffering to "complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ" (namely, a personal presentation of his sufferings, through our sufferings, to those for whom he died) is the way that the Great Commission will be completed. (Colossians 1:24)<br> ====<br />
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Colossians 1:24 <br />
<blockquote>Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions. </blockquote><br />
Philippians 2:29-30 <br />
<blockquote>Therefore receive him in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard; 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. </blockquote><br />
The gift to Paul was a gift of the church as a body. It was a sacrificial offering of love. What was lacking, and what would have been grateful to Paul and to the church alike, was the church's presentation of this offering in person. This was impossible, and Paul represents Epaphroditus as supplying this lack by his affectionate and zealous ministry. (Marvin Vincent, ''I.C.C., Epistle to the Philippians and to Philemon,'' p. 78) <br />
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While I was working on the missions book in May, I had an opportunity to hear J. Oswald Sanders speak. His message touched deeply on suffering. He is 89 years old and still travels and speaks around the world. He has written a book a year since he turned 70! I mention that only to exult in the utter dedication of a life poured out for the gospel without thought of coasting in self-indulgence from sixty-five to the grave. <br />
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He told the story of an indigenous missionary who walked barefoot from village to village preaching the gospel in India. His hardships were many. After a long day of many miles and much discouragement he came to a certain village and tried to speak the gospel but was driven out of town and rejected. So he went to the edge of the village dejected and lay down under a tree and slept from exhaustion. <br />
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When he awoke people were hovering over him, and the whole town was gathered around to hear him speak. The head man of the village explained that they came to look him over while he was sleeping. When they saw his blistered feet they concluded that he must be a holy man, and that they had been evil to reject him. They were sorry and wanted to hear the message that he was willing to suffer so much to bring them. <br />
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So the evangelist filled up the afflictions of Jesus with his beautiful blistered feet.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/It_Is_God_Who_JustifiesIt Is God Who Justifies2008-10-08T16:35:14Z<p>Kryndontpay: It Is God Who Justifies moved to It Is God Who Justifies!</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:28-32'''<br />
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(Romans 8:31-37)<br />
</blockquote><blockquote>What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 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? 33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. </blockquote><br />
Imagine that week after week during the preaching of Romans 8 you are sitting there unregenerate, that is, without being born again by God’s Spirit through the gospel of Christ (1 Peter 1:3, 23). You sit there with no new spiritual nature, but only the old fallen, sinful nature. You don’t really love Christ; you don’t cherish his fellowship and long to know him and follow him more closely. Instead you love pretty much what the world loves and trust what the world trusts. You love looking cool. You love being in control and not letting anybody dictate to you how to sit or walk or dress or talk or drive or work or play or study or spend your money. You love doing things in a way that will show nobody tells you what to do. You especially love to be made much of by cool people and to be thought pretty or strong. And you love physical pleasures like sexual stimulation and foods and drink and crawling inside the skin of a TV soap sister, or sitting through a violent, suspenseful, mind-hammering movie and walking out of the theater supremely unaffected. <br />
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Something keeps you coming. A girlfriend, or boyfriend. The music. Fear. Curiosity. Surprising glimpses into your own soul. I have pondered often: What becomes of Romans 8 in the mind of a person who keeps on listening but not believing? I suspect that for some the goodness of God in all this good news may make them feel like everything is OK. It may make them feel safe in their sin and pride and rebellion and love of the world and indifference to Christ. <br />
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You recall that this is exactly the way some of Paul’s listeners responded to his gospel. You can hear what they were saying by listening to Paul’s response. Romans 6:1, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" Romans 6:15, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" In other words, Paul knew that as he preached the glorious good news of grace some were misusing it. They were liking what they heard. They were not moved by it to love Christ, but to feel safe loving sin. And I don’t doubt that happens every Sunday in this room. <br />
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==== <br>A Warning, a Reassertion, and a Prayer<br> ====<br />
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Why do I mention as we start this morning? Two reasons. One is to warn those of you who feel better in your life of unbelief because of the goodness of God that you hear in these songs and messages of this service. The warning is this: the saving, powerful promises of God to work all things together for your good belong to those "who love God and are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). You can’t earn these promises. They are a gift. But you can prove that you don’t have them because you love others things above Christ. Loving the giver is not the same as earning a gift. Loving the giver simply means the gift has had its saving effect. You have seen in the gift the glory of the giver, and loved him above all the world. So be warned. In the end God will not be merciful to those who prefer the praise of men to the glory of God. <br />
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The other reason for saying these things here at the beginning is to give me a chance to assert that, in spite of all the misuse that is made of the gospel of sovereign grace, I will not try to make it less free or less powerful or less sweeping or less absolute or less God-initiated, or God-sustained, or God-empowered or God-glorifying or anything short of all encompassing. I will not make the almighty, saving, keeping, blessing covenant mercies of God sound less stunning for believers just to make them a little harder for unbelievers to misuse. Week after week, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that these things belong to those who have faith in Christ, not those who don’t. <br />
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My prayer is that the breathtaking goodness of the good news in Romans 8 will not comfort you on the path to destruction, but lead you through faith to the path of life. Lord do it. <br />
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==== Where Paul Is Going<br> ====<br />
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In verse 33 Paul continues marveling at the security and joys of the believer. He is not doing this only for himself, but for you and me. He wants us to be stunned and humbled and satisfied by God’s massive promises to be for us and do for us all we need. Why? Because when he gets to the end of these first 11 chapters he wants us to join him in saying and singing: "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36). God saves us in a way that mill maximize our joy and his glory. That’s what Romans 8 is about. <br />
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But he also writes like this because he is aiming to write chapters 12-16 which are about the radical way we must live if we believe these things. He pleads: In view of these massive, free, almighty mercies – to save you and keep you and make everything work together for your good, and bring you to everlasting joy – be transformed in your values, don’t be conformed to the world. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Outdo each other in showing honor. Be patient in tribulation. Give to the needy. Don’t return evil for evil. Bless those who persecute you. Weep with those who weep. Don’t be haughty. Make peace. Feed your enemy. Overcome evil with good (Romans 12). That’s where Paul is going. And Romans 8 is how to get there. <br />
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==== Who Will Bring a Charge Against God’s Elect?<br> ====<br />
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So here he goes in verse 33, the almost unspeakable good news, saying again and saying another way: "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" Answer: Nobody. It’s the same way he spoke in verse 31: "If God is for us who is against us?" We said, "Well, lots of people are against us, but none successfully." We know that from verse 35. People can bring against us tribulation, distress, persecution, nakedness, peril, sword. But we have seen in Romans 8:28 that what men plan against us, God designs for us. So even when they think they are succeeding in ruining us, they are refining us. Even the devil himself (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). <br />
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That’s the same way Paul is thinking here in verse 33: "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" Answer: Nobody. Well, yes, the devil accuses us in our own conscience, and even at times in heaven (Job 1:9; Revelation 12:10). Jesus promised us that people would speak evil against us falsely, and that we should rejoice when they do (Matthew 5:11). It was false witnesses and accusers who brought about the death of Stephen (Acts 6:13; 7:57-60). So what does Paul mean? <br />
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He means nobody can make any charge stick against God’s elect in the court of heaven. The chapter began with the words, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And it is coming to an end with the words, "For God’s elect no charge against them can stand." <br />
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==== The Remedy for the Paralyzing Effects of Charges Against You<br> ====<br />
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O hear this, all you who grew up in homes where there was only charge after charge after charge against you, and almost never an encouraging word. Hear this, all you who are so burdened by your own self-indictments – who seem to be wired to bring constant charges against yourself with oppressive and paralyzing effects. Hear this, you who rarely if ever say a positive, praising, thanking word, but criticize and murmur and grumble and gripe and complain till no one wants to be around you. Hear this: Romans 8, especially verse 33, is God’s remedy, God’s medicine, God’s cure for the paralysis that comes from charges against you – whether from yourself or from other people or from Satan, and for the ugly, sinful side effects of being a cynical, self-absorbed, whining, critical person. <br />
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The remedy is the utterly undeserved, freely given grace of never being charged successfully with any fault before God. Who can make any charge stick against God’s elect? Nobody? Let yourself feel the force of that freedom! Feel the clean, clear, morning air of: All charges dropped. You’re in a courtroom. You know you are guilty. You are awaiting a terrible sentence. Your future is over. Then, to the gasps of the courtroom, the judge says, "All the charges against you have been dropped." This is not meant to make unbelievers in this room comfortable on the way to destruction. It’s meant to help all of you love the one who bought your freedom. <br />
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==== Who Is This For?<br> ====<br />
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Who is it that can count on no charges? God’s elect. "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" Why does he use that phrase to describe believers here? Because his whole design is to deepen our sense of unshakable security in the face of horrible suffering (vv. 17, 18, 35-36). So he uses a word that will call up all the glory of verses 29-30. <br />
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Who is it that that has no charge against them? Those who are foreknown – that is fore-loved, chosen, elect – and who are therefore predestined to be like Jesus for Christ’s sake, and who are therefore called from darkness to light and death to life and proud unbelief to humble faith, and who are therefore justified – counted righteous in Christ – and who are therefore glorified. This is what is true of God’s elect. God has chosen them and planned and performed their salvation. The point is unshakable security in the face of terrible suffering. <br />
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==== The God Who Justifies<br> ====<br />
<br />
Then after using the phrase "God’s elect" to call up all that unshakable saving work in verses 29-30, Paul focuses on one great act at the end of verse 33: "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies." Out of all the five acts of salvation in verses 29-30 (foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying) Paul picks one to emphasize here: justification. <br />
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But, no, that is not quite right. In fact he does not focus on justification. He focuses on God who justifies. Notice carefully. It’s as clear in English as it is in Greek. "God is the one who justifies." He could have said, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" and then answered, "No one! We are justified." That’s true. But that is not what he said. He said, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" Then he says, "God is the one who justifies." The emphasis is not on the act but on the Actor. <br />
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Why? Because in that world of courts and laws where this language comes from, the acquittal of our judge might be overturned by a higher one. So what if a local judge acquits you when you are guilty, if a governor has the right to bring a charge against you? So what if a governor acquits you when you are guilty, if the emperor can bring a charge against you? So here’s the point: above God, there are no higher courts. If God is the one who acquits you – declares you righteous in his sight – no one can appeal, no one can call for a mistrial, no one can look for other counts against you. God’s sentence is final and total. <br />
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So hear this, all who will believe on Jesus, and become united to Christ, and show yourself among the elect – hear this: God is the one who justifies you. Not a human judge. Not a great prophet. Not an archangel from heaven. But God, the Creator of the world and Owner of all things and Ruler of the universe and every molecule and person in it, God is the one who justifies you. <br />
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The point: unshakable security in the face of tremendous suffering (vv. 17, 18, 35-36). If God is for us, no one can successfully be against us. If God gave his Son for us, he will give us everything that is good for us. If God is the one who justifies us, no charge against us can stand. <br />
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==== The Weeks Ahead<br> ====<br />
<br />
Before I give a closing application, let me tell you where we are going in the next weeks. Next week I will focus on verse 34 and the work of Christ to secure our freedom from condemnation: He died, he was raised, he sits at the right hand of God, and he intercedes. Paul is piling work upon work that God in Christ has done to secure us in the face of suffering. <br />
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Which will bring us to September 8, the Sunday before the first anniversary of 9/11. We will craft the Sunday morning service with a view to ministering to people that you might invite to service for the occasion. We will have a leaflet by Joni Earickson Tada to give you to next Sunday called "Why?" about 9/11, and we hope you will use it to minister the gospel to people in this season of reflection. I will stay here in these glorious words of Romans 8:35-39 next week. Then we will have special prayer service on Wednesday evening September 11. Be praying earnestly that God will use this time of seriousness in our culture (no ads on one TV station), to waken us to the reality of sin and futility and frailty and death and eternity and our need for the Savior. <br />
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==== <br>Whose Approval Do You Want?<br> ====<br />
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I close with this: Whose approval do you want? God says, "In Jesus Christ, my Son, I approve you. I count you righteous. I affirm you and love you as my holy child." How should this affect our feelings about the approval or criticism of others because of our faith? The answer is: it should make us free from fear. Free from craven people-pleasing. Free to need the approval of none and love the good of all. Free to forget about ourselves and be thrilled with God and a life of humble service and love – no matter the cost. <br />
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Remember: God is the one who justifies. Fear the accusation of none. Love the good of all. <br />
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<br></div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/What_Happens_When_You_Die_Glorified_and_Free_on_the_New_EarthWhat Happens When You Die Glorified and Free on the New Earth2008-10-08T16:01:01Z<p>Kryndontpay: What Happens When You Die Glorified and Free on the New Earth moved to What Happens When You Die? Glorified and Free on the New Earth</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:18-25'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
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. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 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. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 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. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.<br />
</blockquote><br />
==== Why God Revealed What Will Happen When We Die <br> ====<br />
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The reason God revealed to us in the Bible what will happen when we die is that knowing what happens to us when we die takes away fear and fills us instead with hope and confidence and anticipation. And when fear goes and hope in God overflows, we live differently. Our lives show that our treasure in God is more precious than the fleeting attractions of sin. <br />
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When we relish the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2), we don't yield to the sinful pleasures of the moment. We are not suckered in by advertising that says the one with the most toys wins. We don't devote our best energies to laying up treasures on earth. We don't dream our most exciting dreams about accomplishments and relationships that perish. We don't fret over what this life fails to give us (marriage, wealth, health, fame). <br />
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Instead we revel in the wonder that the owner and ruler of the universe loves us and has destined us for glory and is working infallibly to bring us to his eternal kingdom. We live to meet the needs of others because God is living to meet our needs. We love our enemies, and do good, and bless those who curse us and pray for those who despise us because our reward in heaven is great and we are not enslaved to the petty pleasures that come from returning evil for evil. <br />
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All this flows from our unshakable hope. When you know the truth about what happens when you die—and you believe it—that truth makes you free. Free from the short, shallow, stupid, suicidal pleasures of sin. <br />
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I am preaching <u>these messages </u>to make you free to live for the glory of God. <br />
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In this fourth message in the series I want to talk about the final, eternal state. Where is it all going to end up? Before we look at our text in Romans 8 let me give an answer from another place in the Bible and pose a problem that I think our text answers. <br />
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==== Revelation 21:1–4 ====<br />
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Let's look first at Revelation 21:1–4. John says that there will be a new earth and that heaven will come down, as it were, and God will make his eternal dwelling among men on the new earth. <br />
<blockquote>1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, 4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." </blockquote><br />
This is a beautiful picture of what is coming: a new earth, the people of God living there with no death, no pain, no tears. And best of all, God will not be far away, but will pitch his tent, as it were, in our midst, and dwell among us forever. <br />
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===== "The First Heaven and the First Earth Passed Away" =====<br />
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The question raised here is this: When John says in verse 1, "The first heaven and the first earth passed away" (cf. Matthew 24:35), does he mean that the earth we live on and the sky over our head will be totally done away with and that God will start over with a totally new creation? It's a question like the one<u>two weeks </u>ago concerning our resurrection bodies: will God raise us up or will he start over with a totally new creation of different bodies for us? I argued for continuity between our bodies now and our bodies in the resurrection. And this is what I am going to argue for concerning the earth. <br />
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===== The Present Heavens and Earth Will "Be Destroyed" =====<br />
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But what does John mean, "The first heaven and the first earth passed away"? Peter, in his second letter says something similar, but even more graphic. In 2 Peter 3:10–13 Peter describes how the present earth and heaven will "pass away." <br />
<blockquote>10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. </blockquote><br />
Peter says that our great hope for the final state of eternity is new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells—the same as John in Revelation 21. He also speaks of the heavens passing away (v. 10). And he goes farther and three times says that there will be destruction of the present world. Verse 10: "the elements will be destroyed with intense heat." Verse 11: "these things are to be destroyed." Verse 12: "the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat." <br />
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The question then is: Does this mean that the earth we live on and the heavens we live under will be totally done away with? And will God start over with a totally new creation? <br />
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===== What Does "Be Destroyed" and "Pass Away" Mean? =====<br />
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First, I would say that when Revelation 21:1 and 2 Peter 3:10 say that the present earth and heavens will "pass away," it does not have to mean that they go out of existence, but may mean that there will be such a change in them that their present condition passes away. We might say, "The caterpillar will pass away and the butterfly emerges." There is a real passing away and there is a real continuity, a real connection. Or we might say, "The tadpole passes away and the frog appears." <br />
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And when 2 Peter 3 says that this heaven and earth will be "destroyed," it does not have to mean entirely "put out of existence." We might say, "The flood destroyed many farms." But we don't mean that they vanished out of existence. We might say that the immediate surroundings of Mt. St. Helens were destroyed. But anyone who goes there now and sees the new growth would know that "destroy" did not mean put out of existence. <br />
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And so what Peter may well mean is that at the end of this age there will be cataclysmic events that bring this age and this world to an end as we know it—not putting it out of existence, but wiping out all that is evil and cleansing it, as it were, by fire and fitting it for an age of glory and righteousness and peace that will never end. <br />
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Well, it may mean that. But does it really mean that? <br />
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==== Romans 8: Four Evidences for a Renewed Creation <br> ====<br />
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Now we are ready to read this morning's test from Romans 8 with this question in mind. There are at least four reasons in these verses suggesting that the creation we know and the earth we live on will not be annihilated but will be renewed for our eternal joy. <br />
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===== 1. God Subjected Creation to Futility ''in Hope'' =====<br />
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In Romans 8:19–20 Paul says, "The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope. <br />
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In verse 19 he pictures the creation—the heavens and the earth—as having longings and eager expectation. Something is coming that makes creation, as it were, stand on tiptoe that something good is going to happen to her. Then verse 20 gives part of the reason why creation is so full of longing and expectation, namely, because the futility of creation—the decay and disaster and disease and pain—is a temporary curse that God put on creation, but there is a great hope coming. "The creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope." God did not curse the creation with futility as his final word. He did it "in hope." <br />
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This means that creation is not appointed for annihilation but for restoration. He subjected it in hope. <br />
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===== 2. The Creation Will Be Set Free from Corruption =====<br />
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The second reason Paul gives for why we should not expect creation to be annihilated is found in verse 21 (the content of the hope). "The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." <br />
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The creation is not destined for annihilation. It is destined for liberation. It will be set free from the "slavery to corruption"—the futility that God subjected it to in hope. I think this is the clearest statement of all that the earth and the heavens will not "pass away" or be "destroyed" in the sense of going out of existence. Paul says plainly, they will be set free from corruption. The futility will be destroyed. The bondage to corruption will be consumed in the purifying, liberating fire of God's judgment. But the earth will remain. And there will be no more corruption. No more futility. No more crying or death or pain. <br />
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===== 3. Creation Is Suffering Labor Pains =====<br />
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The third argument Paul gives against the annihilation of the present creation is found in verse 22: "We know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." <br />
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What he says here is that the upheavals of creation are like labor pains during the last stages of pregnancy. In other words, something is about to be brought forth from creation, not in place of creation. Creation is not going to be annihilated and recreated with no continuity. The earth is going to bring forth like a mother in labor (through the upheavals of fire and earthquake and volcanoes and pestilence and famine) a new earth. <br />
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Jesus used the same imagery of labor pains when he said (in Matthew 24:7–8), "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs." <br />
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This earth is like a mother about to give birth to a new earth where righteousness dwells and where God reigns in the midst of his people. <br />
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===== 4. The Redemption of Our Bodies =====<br />
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Finally, Paul gives one last argument against annihilation of the earth in verse 23: "And not only this [not only does the natural world groan], 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." <br />
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The reason this is so crucial is that he connects the redemption of our bodies—that is, the resurrection and restoration of our bodies after a lifetime of groaning—with the restoration of the creation. Our bodies are part of this present creation. What happens to our bodies and what happens to the creation go together. And what happens to our bodies is not annihilation but redemption: "we await the redemption of our bodies." Our bodies will be redeemed, restored, made new, not thrown away. And so it is with the heavens and the earth. <br />
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==== Our Final Habitation: This Earth Made New <br> ====<br />
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So my conclusion is that our final habitation will be on the new earth, which will be this earth made new. <br />
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In Matthew 19:28 Jesus calls it "the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne." Creation will be "born again." In Acts 3:21 Peter calls it "the times of the restoration of all things of which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets." <br />
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And what did the prophets say about the new earth? Isaiah 11:6–11 gives us an example. <br />
<blockquote>6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. 7 Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. 9 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. (Cf. Isaiah 65:25; Micah 4:3.) </blockquote><br />
So history as we know it will come to an end with God at the center. His glory will be so bright as to make a moon out of the sun (Revelation 21:23). And on the earth there will be a great sea of knowledge reflecting the glory of the Lord back to him. And just as the rejection of that knowledge brought a curse on the creation, so the restoration of that knowledge will bring blessing to the creation and the animals themselves with be free from the curse and reflect the beauty of the Lord.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Children_Heirs_and_Fellow_SufferersChildren Heirs and Fellow Sufferers2008-10-08T15:55:35Z<p>Kryndontpay: Children Heirs and Fellow Sufferers moved to Children, Heirs, and Fellow Sufferers</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Children, Heirs, and Fellow Sufferers]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Children,_Heirs,_and_Fellow_SufferersChildren, Heirs, and Fellow Sufferers2008-10-08T15:55:35Z<p>Kryndontpay: Children Heirs and Fellow Sufferers moved to Children, Heirs, and Fellow Sufferers</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:14-18'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 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. 18 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.<br />
</blockquote><br />
Today we move into the ''spectacular ''and scary promise of verse 17. Spectacular because it says that all the children of God are his heirs – we will receive the inheritance of God, and there is no greater inheritance in the universe. And ''scary ''because verse 17 says that we will have to suffer in order to receive it. "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." <br />
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==== How the Spirit Testifies that We Are Children of God<br> ====<br />
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But first let's review the main point of the previous verses. Verse 16 says, "The [Holy] Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God." If you belong to Jesus Christ, as verse 9 says, you have the Spirit of Christ. And what does he do in you? He testifies that you are the child of God. How does he do that? We saw at least two ways from last Sunday's text. <br />
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First, we saw the connection between verses 13 and 14. "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." So we concluded that one of the things the Spirit does to show that you are the child of God is ''lead ''you, that is, lead you into war with sin so that by his power you put to death the deeds of the body. <br />
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Second, we saw from verse 15 that the Spirit gives rise to the cry "Abba, Father!" Verse 15b: "You have received a spirit of adoption as sons ''by which we ''cry out, "Abba! Father!'" Notice the words "by which." This is the work of the Holy Spirit. When believers in Jesus find rising in our hearts the cry, "Abba! Father!" this is the testimony of the Spirit that we are the children of God. <br />
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Let's see this in relationship to 1 Corinthians 12:3. There Paul says, "No one speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus is accursed'; and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit." In other words, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit when we cry, "Jesus is Lord!" But that is not the only cry the Spirit prompts in our hearts. Another is, "Abba! Father!" In other words, the Spirit produces two profound changes in us toward God: One is a humble demeanor of submission: Jesus, the Son of God, is my Lord, my Master; I am his subject; he is my ruler, my sovereign. And the other is the joyful, bold, childlike demeanor of confidence: God is my Father. <br />
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Jesus is my Lord! God is my Father! That is the humble, hope-filled cry of the Spirit-indwelt Christian. And out of this humble confidence we are led "by the Spirit" to make war on our sin and put to death all that does not exalt our Lord and honor our Father. <br />
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==== Verse 17: Our Spectacular and Scary News<br> ====<br />
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Now in verse 17 Paul gives us added reason to exult over the truth that God is our Father. And don't miss this. Clearly Paul wants us to rejoice! You don't tell someone spectacular news about his future if your aim is to discourage him. And verse 17 is spectacular news. Yes, it has a scary side to it. Almost all good news does. But that doesn't take away from how spectacular this verse is. In fact it probably adds to it. <br />
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"If [you are] children, [you are] 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." There are two great truths in this verse: one is that we are going to receive a great inheritance, including our own glorification; and the other is that we are going to have to suffer in order to receive it. <br />
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==== Our Great Inheritance<br> ====<br />
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Let's take them one at a time and ponder what they mean for us. First, then, you are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ and you will be glorified with Christ. <br />
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What is the inheritance promised here? As you face the pleasures and the pains of what remains of your life here on earth, what are you hoping for beyond all this? Do you have a hope beyond this life that makes the present pleasures look smaller than the present pains look manageable? This is what Paul had. He wants us to have it. You see it in verse 18: "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." Paul wants us to share this tremendous hope: the inheritance on the way to us is so great that it makes every trouble in life seem small by comparison. What is this inheritance? <br />
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There are at least three aspects to the inheritance. <br />
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===== 1. The World =====<br />
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First, the inheritance is the world. Romans 4:13, "The promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be ''heir of the world ''was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith." In other words, if you share the faith of Abraham, then you are a fellow heir with him, and the inheritance, Paul said, is "the world." <br />
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If you are an heir of God, then you will inherit what is God's. And God owns the world. Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it." So if the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, then the heirs of the Lord will inherit the earth and everything in it. In Psalm 2:8 God says to his Son, "Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession." And if we are fellow heirs with the Son, then we shall inherit the nations. <br />
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Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, "For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God." What is our inheritance? The world. The earth and all that is in it. The nations. All things. <br />
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But practically what does that mean? At least it means this: that everything that exists will serve your happiness. Nothing will have the final prerogative of trumping your joy. "All things are yours" means that even the negative things – Paul mentions life and death in 1 Corinthians 3:22 – will serve you in the end. In the end God does not merely defeat every enemy of your good, but turns enemies into servants. "Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword" – we don't just conquer, we "''more than conquer"'' (Romans 8:35-37). All things are yours – life and death – all things are yours. All things will serve your everlasting joy. <br />
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===== 2. God Himself =====<br />
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Second, the inheritance is not only the world, but God himself. In fact, if we said that our great inheritance was mainly the things God had made, and not God himself, we would be idolaters. Consider Romans 5:2b: "We exult in hope of the glory of God." In other words, the great joy of our hope is that one day we will see and savor the glory of God himself. And lest you think that his glory is something different from God himself, consider verse 11 of that same chapter, "And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "In God!" Not the gifts of God. And not in this verse even in the glory of God, but in God. <br />
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The great high hope of the Christian church is described in Revelation 21:3 like this: "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God." This was the capstone of the hope of the Old Testament saints, even thought they had strong hopes for a land of their own. Psalm 73:25-26, "Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." <br />
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This is our great inheritance: the Lord himself! O how we need to cultivate a great taste for him and his fellowship. If he is not precious to you, what a stranger you are to your inheritance! If you love his gifts, think on how wonderful the giver must be. And think what an insult it is to take a gift from someone's hand and delight in it more than you delight in the giver. God himself is our portion. We were made for him. And all the good things that he has made for us are meant to reveal more of him and send our hearts singing to God (1 Timothy 4:1-5). <br />
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===== 3. Redeemed and Glorified Bodies =====<br />
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Third, there is one more aspect of our inheritance found in the following verses in Romans 8, namely, redeemed and glorified bodies. The reason this is so crucial is that if we are to enjoy the world and all that is in it, and if all these good things are not to compete with God and become idols, then we must have bodies capable of deeper, higher, fuller joys than we presently have. And we must be rid of all the pain and crying and tears of this world. So Romans 8:22-23 says, "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." <br />
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This is a key part of what it means in Romans 8:17 to be glorified. We will share in the glory of God in the sense that we are enough like him (conformed to the image of his Son, Romans 8:29) to enjoy him and all his gifts the way he does. It will all be from him and through him and to him, and our joy will be full and his glory will be unmistakably central. <br />
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So our inheritance as children of God includes at least this: the world and all that is in it; God himself as our final and ultimate portion and reward; and new, glorified bodies that can enjoy more fully and deeply God and his gifts with no hint of idolatry. <br />
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==== Suffer with Him in Order to Be Glorified with Him<br> ====<br />
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Which leaves now one more question: what does it mean that we must suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with him in this way? Remember what the text (Romans 8:17) says: "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." Our glory with him – our inheritance – is conditional upon our suffering with him. <br />
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Jesus said it. Luke 9:23, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Paul said it. 2 Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." The author of Hebrews said it. Hebrews 12:6-7, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises ''every son ''whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons." Peter said it. 1 Peter 4:13, "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." <br />
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No pain, no gain. No cross, no crown. No suffering, no inheritance. That's the way it is. And if you ask, "What kind of pain? Is it just persecution he's talking about? Or is it other miseries we face in this life?" I answer from the following verses in Romans 8 that it is all the groaning that comes with the futility of this fallen age – persecution, calamity, disease, death. Any suffering that you meet on the road to heaven and endure by trusting in Jesus. Any hardship that might destroy your faith and lead you away from God. Read Romans 8:18-25 and see for yourselves. We will look at it next week. <br />
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==== Why? Because Suffering Works the Perseverance of Faith<br> ====<br />
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But I close by asking why. Does Paul tell us why suffering must precede glory? We can give at least part of the answer. It's found in Romans 5:3, "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance." There's the clue: Suffering, or tribulation, works endurance or perseverance. Perseverance of what? Faith. How? By knocking the props of self-reliance (and trust in things and people) out from under us, and making us rely more on God (see 2 Corinthians 1:8-9). <br />
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If there were no afflictions and difficulties and troubles and pain, our fallen hearts would fall ever more deeply in love with the comforts and securities and pleasures of this world instead of falling more deeply in love with our inheritance beyond this world, namely, God himself. Suffering is appointed for us in this life as a great mercy to keep us from loving this world more than we should and to make us rely on God who raises the dead. "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). <br />
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There is no other way. Do not begrudge them. They are hard to bear. I know they are. But if you keep your inheritance before you, and if God gives you the grace to see what Paul calls "the riches of the glory of his inheritance" (Ephesians 1:18), then will you not say with the apostle, "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"? <br />
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==== My Carriage Is Broken!<br> ====<br />
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Picture this life as a journey on your way to receive a spectacular inheritance. It will protect you from idolatry and make all your burdens lighter, and quiet all your murmurings. <br />
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Here's the way the old John Newton put it: <br />
<blockquote>Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, "My [carriage] is broken! My [carriage] is broken!" (Richard Cecil, ''Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton'', in ''The Works of the Rev. John Newton'', Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985), p. 108.) </blockquote><br />
Amen.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Subjected_to_Futility_in_Hope_Part_2Subjected to Futility in Hope Part 22008-10-08T15:48:07Z<p>Kryndontpay: Subjected to Futility in Hope Part 2 moved to Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 2</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 2]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Subjected_to_Futility_in_Hope,_Part_2Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 22008-10-08T15:48:07Z<p>Kryndontpay: Subjected to Futility in Hope Part 2 moved to Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 2</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:18-25'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
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. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 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. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 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. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
<br />
I argued last time that verses 18-25 are written to help you endure the suffering required in verse 17. "If you are children of God, then you are heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ, ''if you suffer with him'', in order that you might be glorified with him." I said that the sum of the argument was this: "It's worth it." In other words, whatever suffering may be necessary in your life as a Christian, it's worth it in view of what you will gain if you trust Christ – and what you will lose if you don't. <br />
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This means that the main point of verses 18-25 is to give you hope. But instead of moving straight to the hope of these verses, I spent all of last week putting a kind of sober, even fearful, support under your hope. I know that sounds odd – a fearful support for hope. But it's true and it's real. There is a painful realism in this text, and it is meant to help you hold on to your hope as a Christian. The realism is this: It helps us endure our suffering in this life to know that it is part of a global, divinely-ordained futility (v. 20) and decay (v. 21) and groaning (v. 23). In other words, the sufferings of this life are part of a universal, God-decreed collapse of creation into disorder because of sin. God subjected the world to futility – that's verse 20 – because of sin. And therefore all the misery of the world – and it is great – is a bloody declaration about the ghastly horror of sin. <br />
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==== Does "Suffering" Refer to All Pain, or just Persecution?<br> ====<br />
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And let me clarify here a question that I have been asked several times, namely, Do you mean all suffering, or just the suffering that comes because we are Christians? Do I mean all pain, or just persecution? Answer: I mean all pain that you meet on your way to heaven and endure by trusting Jesus. <br />
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I grant that Paul has in mind in verse 17 suffering for Christ that comes from our adversaries. But I deny that this is ''all ''that he has in his mind. For two reasons: one is that the rest of the text from verses 18 to 27 unfold a futility and corruption and groaning and weakness that are broader than that. The suffering "of this present time" in verse 18, which follows right after verse 17, is the suffering that comes from the world being subjected to futility (v. 20) and leads to the groaning that makes us want to have new resurrection bodies (v. 23). It is universal suffering that comes with a fallen creation, not just the suffering of persecution. <br />
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And the second reason I don't think Paul limits suffering to persecution in verse 17 is because at root the threat of all suffering is the same – whether it comes from human persecution or from Satanic attack or from natural disease or disaster – namely, the threat that our faith in God's sovereign goodness will be destroyed. In the end, the issue is not whether your pain is triggered by man or Satan or nature, but whether you trust the sovereign goodness of God over it all and through it all to bring you to everlasting glory. <br />
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The comfort and encouragement of this text is not that God has nothing to do with hostile humans or hateful demons or harmful nature, but that in it all and through it all he has hope-filled designs for his children. This is what verse 28 is going to say in summary: "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." So when I talk about hope in suffering, I mean any and all suffering that you must endure on your way to heaven which you endure by holding fast to Jesus Christ. <br />
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Now let's look at the way Paul helps us keep on hoping in Christ when our suffering is great. I will point you to six things that Paul says – at least – maybe more depending how you break them up in pieces. <br />
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==== 1. God Promises that after This Time of Suffering We Will See an All-satisfying Beauty and Greatness<br> ====<br />
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Verse 18: "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." "Glory" I take to mean "overwhelming, all-satisfying beauty and greatness." "Be revealed to us" I take to mean, "we will see it." There is much more to our hope. But let's just take this part and let it sink in. <br />
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Seeing beauty and greatness is one of the passionate desires and deep longings of the human heart – built into us by God. We get pleasure from seeing beauty and greatness in movies and museums and world-class sporting events and art galleries and concerts and the Boundary Waters and the Grand Canyon and the Rockies and the ocean and sunrises and meteor showers. Seeing beauty and greatness is a huge part of our joy in life. <br />
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All of these earthly things are images, reflections, pointers to a greater beauty and a greater greatness. They all point to the glory of God. Seeing this will be the end of our quest for beauty and greatness. This is why Jesus prayed for us the way he did in John 17:24, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory." This was the greatest thing Jesus could pray for on our behalf. It was the climax of his prayer. Seeing the glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was the best gift Jesus could pray that we would receive after we had suffered in this life. <br />
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Assuming one thing! That we will be glorified and changed and able to savor what we see. Which leads us to the second statement about our hope. <br />
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==== 2. God Promises that the Children of God Will Be Revealed with Glory of Their Own<br> ====<br />
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Verse 19: "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." So verse 18 says that something will be revealed to us, and verse 19 says that we ourselves will be revealed. What does this mean? <br />
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It means that right now the children of God do not look glorious. We look pretty much like everyone else. We get hungry and tired and sick. We age and we die. And on the way to the grave we make some progress in overcoming our selfishness and pride and greed, but we never get beyond the need to be justified by faith alone because of Christ alone, and we will say with Paul till the day we die, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). So we don't not look all that great. We are not titans. We have our gospel treasure in jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7). <br />
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But Jesus said in Matthew 13:43, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." And Paul said in Colossians 3:4, "When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." And most relevant of all, consider verse 21 here in our own text: "The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." The freedom of the glory of the children of God! <br />
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So when verse 19 speaks of "the revealing of the sons of God" now we know what will be revealed. "The freedom of the glory of the children of God." This is what we saw at the end of verse 17 – that we would be glorified with Christ – that our bodies and minds and hearts would be so completely renovated that nothing would stand in the way of savoring Christ for all he is worth. <br />
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So in verse 18 God promises that we will see the greatest glory in the universe. And in verse 19 God promises that we will savor that glory because we will be changed by that glory so completely that we are free from anything that would frustrate our joy in God. <br />
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And don't miss one other massive truth in verse 19: all of creation is oriented on the revelation of the children of God. God made the universe for us, not us for the universe. We inherit the world, the world doesn't inherit us. Of all God's created universe which has fallen into futility and decay and groaning, only human beings have the capacity to glorify God with conscious worship. So all creation is standing on tiptoe waiting for our revelation – as glorified worshippers. <br />
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==== 3. God Promises that His Ultimate Design in the Decree of Futility Is Hope for His Children<br> ====<br />
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Verse 20: "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope." The effect this is supposed to have on us is to make us seriously and soberly hopeful. Serious and sober because God has decreed the fall of the universe into futility and decay and groaning and weakness. That makes us sober. It makes us tremble with a due respect for the infinitely holy God who rules over the universe with justice and hatred for sin. <br />
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But the point of verse 20 is that this futility and judgment is not his ultimate design. The words "in hope" at the end of verse 20 show that God's aim in his judicial decree of futility and pain is hope. So when you feel almost overwhelmed by your own pain and the pain of the world, remember: this was not God's final design. If you will trust him and hold fast to him as your treasure, then it will all be turned for your good. That's what the word "hope" means at the end of verse 20. <br />
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==== 4. God Promises that All Creation, not Just the Children of God, Will Be Freed from the Present Misery of Futility and Corruption and Groaning<br> ====<br />
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Verse 21: "The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." We've already seen from verse 19 that the children are going to be revealed with glory that suits them to enjoy the glory of God. But now we see the other part of the promise in verse 21: Creation too will be freed from its slavery to corruption and decay and futility. In other words, the universe will be changed into a place perfectly suited for the perfected and glorious children of God. <br />
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No more destructive tornadoes or hurricanes or floods or droughts or plagues or diseases or accidents or harmful animals or insects or viruses. The prophecy of Isaiah 65:17 will come to pass: "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind." And the prophecy of Revelation 21:1-5 will come to pass as well: <br />
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I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. . . . 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." (See also 2 Peter 3:13) <br>You recall that I have said several times, based on verse 17, that we must be glorified in order to be able to respond with appropriate joy to God and to the gift of the world that will be given to us for an inheritance. But now it might be better to say: the world will have to be glorified so that it is a suitable environment for freedom of the glory of the children of God. In other words, our freedom and our glory will be so great that only a glorified world will be adequate to suit our almost infinite capacities for happiness. That's what verse 21 promises: "The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." <br />
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==== 5. God Promises that the Miseries of the Universe Are not the Throes of Death but the Labor Pains of Childbirth<br> ====<br />
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Verse 22: "For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." This is another way of saying that God subjected the creation to futility in hope (v. 20). That is, in the hope for something much better than the pain coming out of all this. <br />
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If you are in a hospital and you hear a woman across the hall groan or scream, it makes all the difference in how you feel if you know you are on the maternity ward and not the oncology unit. Why? Pain is pain, isn't it? No. Some pain leads to life. And some pain leads to death. And what verse 22 promises is that for the children of God, all pain leads to life. All the groanings of this world are the birth pains of the kingdom of God. If you are part of the kingdom – a child of the King – all your sufferings are labor pains and not death spasms. And I mean all of them – even the death spasms! <br />
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==== 6. God Promises that Our Bodies Will Be Redeemed from All Groaning<br> ====<br />
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Verse 23: "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." Listen to the way Paul sings over this truth in 1 Corinthians: <br />
<blockquote>Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:51-55)<br></blockquote><br />
O you who trust in Jesus Christ for the fulfillment of all his promises to you, know that in this hope you have been saved, and if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it – with groaning and patience and unconquerable joy. <br />
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And to you who are not trusting Christ, remember the words of the Lord: "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). And if children, heirs of all these promises. Receive him. Trust him. Amen.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Subjected_to_Futility_in_Hope_Part_1Subjected to Futility in Hope Part 12008-10-08T15:47:33Z<p>Kryndontpay: Subjected to Futility in Hope Part 1 moved to Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 1</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 1]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Subjected_to_Futility_in_Hope,_Part_1Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 12008-10-08T15:47:33Z<p>Kryndontpay: Subjected to Futility in Hope Part 1 moved to Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 1</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:18-25'''<br />
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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. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 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. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 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. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
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Last week we focused on the inheritance of the children of God in verse 17. If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and Treasure, then God has given to you the right to be called a child of God (John 1:12). And if we are children of God, Paul says, then we are "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." <br />
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We saw that our inheritance includes the world and all that is in it. And, best of all, we saw that it includes God himself for our everlasting joy. We also saw that our inheritance includes our own glorification. And this is not merely tacked on as a third benefit. It is the basis of our ability to enjoy the rest of the inheritance. If we stayed in our present condition physically and emotionally and spiritually, our capacity to enjoy the new heavens and the new earth and God himself would be pitiful. So God promises us not only an incomparable inheritance, but vast, new capacities to enjoy it forever. That is what it means to be glorified. We must have glorious capacities to enjoy infinite glory. <br />
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Finally, we saw that we will have to suffer with Christ in order to receive our inheritance with him. ". . . if we suffer with him in order that we might be glorified with him" (8:17). Now what we see today in verses 18ff is that this suffering is worth it. So these verses, 18-25, are meant to help us persevere in faith and not throw away our hope, but to stand firm with Christ in all the frustrations and hardships of life. Don't throw away your hope in Christ when you suffer, because it's worth it and will surely lead to glory. That's the point of these verses. <br />
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Verse 18 states the point: "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." That's what Paul wants us to believe with all our hearts. And you need to believe it in your heart and not just your head, because when the sufferings come it will take a deep, deep conviction and hope not to throw in the towel. You will be tempted to say: "If this is the payoff for trusting Christ, I'm done." If that were not a real temptation, Paul would not write this paragraph. He is writing to help us not throw away our hope in Christ when the miseries and groanings of this present time are overwhelming. <br />
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So please listen carefully. If you have not suffered much, your time will come. And God has inspired this section of Scripture so that you will be ready and able to fight the fight of faith and not be conquered by despair or unbelief. <br />
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How then does Paul go about strengthening our faith and deepening our hope by these verses so that we won't be shaken by the suffering we must endure? <br />
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==== Our Suffering in a Global Context<br> ====<br />
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He does something remarkable. He puts our suffering into a global context. I say this is remarkable because if we were looking for help with our suffering, that might not be the way we would go about getting relief or strength to endure it. But here we need to learn from God and not dictate to him. This is what we need to know about our suffering so that we can say with Paul: it's worth it. We can endure it. <br />
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There are three ways that Paul puts our suffering in a global context. Let's look at them one at a time. This is what we will do today, and then next week we will look at this same text with a view to the incomparable hope that he holds out to us six times in this text. But today let's see how Paul helps us with our sufferings by putting them in a global context. <br />
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==== 1. The ''Whole ''Creation Groans<br> ====<br />
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First, he shows us that all creation is involved in groaning, frustration, and corruption, and suffering. He says it three times in three different ways. Verse 22: "For we know that the ''whole creation ''groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." The "whole creation" is groaning. In other words, don't think that when you suffer it has to do only with you and your personal situation. You are part of a groaning that the whole creation experiences. <br />
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Verse 21: "The ''creation itself ''also will be set free from ''its slavery to corruption ''into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Notice: the creation is in slavery to corruption. Your groaning and your suffering in this world are part of a universal slavery to corruption. Your suffering is not merely personal. There is a much bigger explanation for it. It is part of something global. There is in the world of nature a decay, a ruin, a dissolution, a perishing. There's something out of order and harmful about it all. It's not just you. Beware of thinking of all your suffering as if it all has to do with something you did individually. <br />
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Verse 20: "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope." Notice: it's the creation that is in the grip of futility. Not just mankind, and not just you. <br />
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So the first thing Paul does to put our suffering in a global context and give us perspective and help us endure our misery is to show us that all of nature is involved in this suffering that we must endure to inherit with Christ. <br />
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==== 2. The Whole of History Is Included from the Fall to the Coming of Christ<br> ====<br />
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Second, Paul shows us that all this suffering is historical and not just momentary. In other words, it not only grips all of nature, it grips all of our present history – what Paul calls in verse 18 ''"this present time''": "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." <br />
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You can see this historical dimension of our suffering in the time references throughout the paragraph. For example, verse 20: "For the creation ''was subjected ''to futility." There is a historical event in the past long ago. Then verse 21: "The creation itself will be set free." There's the end point of the suffering in the future. So between the distant past and the indefinite future, all of history is part of this suffering and groaning. So don't think that you or your family or your time are necessarily singled out for suffering. This groaning and corruption and futility have been in the world for all of history, and will be till Jesus comes again. <br />
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Or, we should say, "almost all" of history. Because the third way that Paul shows the global dimension of our groaning is to point to the fact that it had a beginning and that this beginning is not merely natural, but judicial. <br />
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Here's what I mean. Look at verse 20: "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope." Here is the beginning of the futility and corruption and groaning of creation. What is he referring to? Don't miss this, because this is the most important point so far. <br />
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Paul is referring here to God's action is subjecting the creation to futility and groaning and corruption. How do we know it was God that he is referring to? How do we know it was not Adam by his sin, or Satan by his temptation of Adam and Eve? We know this because of the words "''in hope''" at the end of verse 20: "The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, ''in hope''." Adam did not subject the world to futility in hope. Adam had no plan for the revelation of the children of God in due time. Satan did not subject the world to futility ''in hope''. Satan had no plan for the revelation of the children of God in due time. <br />
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The person referred to in verse 20 is God: "The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope," namely, God. In other words, Paul is talking about the same thing he referred to in Romans 5:12: "Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." When Adam sinned, death and suffering and futility and groaning came into the world. Why? Because God said it would. Eat of this tree and you will die. <br />
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==== 3. The Subjection to Futility Is Judicial, not just Natural<br> ====<br />
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Which leads us to a massive and incredibly important truth: the futility and corruption and groaning of the creation are judicial, not just natural. They are a divine, judicial decree, not just a natural consequence of material events. God decreed the futility and corruption and groaning of the world in response to sin. It is a judicial act, not just a natural consequence. <br />
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The second law of thermal dynamics, sometimes called "entropy" – that the universe is running down, that it has a built-in tendency now to disorder – is not a natural quirk or accident. It is part of God's decree. Since the fall, futility is built into the universe. <br />
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It is amazing how many Christians are so desperate to remove God from the suffering in the world that they are willing to become "deists" in order to keep God out of the equation. A deist was a person who thought of the universe as created by God and then set apart like a clock to tick on its own with no divine interference. Everything was explained in terms of merely natural laws, not divine decrees. <br />
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The saints of God have not gotten comfort from that vision. It is not a biblical vision. The biblical vision is given in verse 20: "The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope." The miserable condition of the world today – its futility and corruption and groaning – are owing to the judicial decree of God in response to sin. <br />
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==== The Meaning of Misery: Sin Is Horrific<br> ====<br />
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Therefore, the meaning of all the misery in the world is that sin is horrific. All natural evil is a statement about the horror of moral evil. If you see a suffering in the world that is unspeakably horrible, let it make you shudder at how unspeakably horrible sin is against an infinitely holy God. The meaning of futility and the meaning of corruption and the meaning of our groaning is that sin – falling short of the glory of God – is ghastly, hideous, repulsive beyond imagination. <br />
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Unless you have some sense of the infinite holiness of God and the unspeakable outrage of sin against this God, you will inevitably see the futility and suffering of the universe as an overreaction. But in fact the point of our miseries, our futility, our corruption, our groaning is to teach us the horror of sin. And the preciousness of redemption and hope. <br />
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So let me sum up what we have seen and then relate it to our personal suffering. Three ways Paul puts our sufferings in a global context.&nbsp; <br />
<blockquote><br />
*First, he shows that the futility and corruption and groaning of the world is a judicial decree of God, not just a fluke or a law of nature. God subjected the creation to futility. <br />
*Second, he shows that this subjection includes all history from the fall to the coming of Christ. There is no period of history that escaped or will escape from this decree of futility. But it is temporary. It had a beginning (verse 20), and it will have an end (verse 21 – "the creation will be set free from his slavery to corruption"). <br />
*Third, he shows us that all creation, not just part of it, is involved in the futility. Verse 22: "The ''whole ''creation groans." <br><br />
</blockquote><br />
All of this global context Paul tells us because he wants to help us understand our situation and endure our sufferings with faith and hope. We will focus on the hope next week. But notice in closing the personal point of this global vision of suffering. Verse 23 brings it down out our personal situation. "And not only this [that is, not only does the whole creation groan], but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves." I stop there. I know the next phrases are full of hope. <br />
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I will glory in them next week. But let us be helped this week by the realism of Paul about our present situation. We too groan. Do you see the point now of the ''global ''vision? The point is that we are a part of it. Even we who have the down payment of our inheritance. Even we who have a sovereign God who works all things together for our good. Even we who are the bride of Christ. Even we for whom God gave his only begotten Son. Yes, even we groan under the curse of creation. <br />
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==== Don't Overly Personalize Your Suffering<br> ====<br />
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In other words, don't overly personalize your suffering. Don't assume that this is some particular punishment or result of a particular sin. Search your heart in the time of pain. Let it make you serious and vigilant and humble. But don't add misery to misery that is not intended. The whole creation groans. It is a general divine decree on the whole world. And Paul's point is: even the precious children of God must suffer with Christ in it. <br />
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So let us humble ourselves and take our share of suffering with patience and hope. Because we consider with Paul that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/He_SpiritLed_Are_the_Sons_of_GodHe SpiritLed Are the Sons of God2008-10-08T15:39:30Z<p>Kryndontpay: He SpiritLed Are the Sons of God moved to The Spirit-Led Are the Sons of God</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[The Spirit-Led Are the Sons of God]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/The_Spirit-Led_Are_the_Sons_of_GodThe Spirit-Led Are the Sons of God2008-10-08T15:39:30Z<p>Kryndontpay: He SpiritLed Are the Sons of God moved to The Spirit-Led Are the Sons of God</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:13-17'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. <br><br />
</blockquote><br />
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As we move from verse 13 to verses 14-17, there is a new theme that becomes dominant, and it is one of the most precious themes in the Bible. The theme is our sonship – that Christians are children of God. Nowhere in the book of Romans up till now have we been called sons or children of God. But now the words come thick and heavy and full of freedom and joy and love and hope. <br />
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Verse 14: "All who are led by the Spirit of God are ''sons of God''." Verse 15: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of ''adoption as sons'', by whom we cry, ''"Abba! Father''!" Verse 16: "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are ''children of God''." Verse 17: "If ''children'', then ''heirs'', heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ . . ." <br />
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So a theme that had not turned up anywhere before in Romans is now mentioned in every verse of this unit. It's clearly the new focus, and it's something that we need to see and savor as part of our glorious salvation. What Paul is doing here is telling us Christians about ourselves and who we are and who God is in relation to us. And he is telling us how we can know this about ourselves and what it implies about our experience. <br />
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So let's simply take this unit one verse at a time and see what Paul has to teach us about the Holy Spirit and our adoption as children of God. We will take three verses and save verse 17, with its emphasis on our inheritance as heirs, for next week as a kind of transition to the next paragraph. <br />
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==== "Killing Sin by the Spirit" Explained by "Being Led by the Spirit"<br> ====<br />
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First then, verse 14. It is given by Paul as the ground or the basis of verse 13. We spent three weeks on verse 13, "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Kill sin or it will be killing you. And we put a lot of emphasis on the words "by the Spirit." "If ''by the Spirit'' you put to death the deeds of the body you will live." And you may remember I said at one point "by the Spirit" does not mean that the Spirit is a tool or a weapon that we wield. The Spirit is Person. We are in his hands, not he in ours! So killing sin "by the Spirit" means having a mindset through which the Holy Spirit works to free us from the power of sin. And that mindset is the mindset of faith in the blood-bought promises of God. <br />
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Now to confirm that we were on the right track when we said, the Spirit is not an instrument in our hands but we are an instrument in his hands, consider what Paul says in verse 14. He says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." The "for" means that he is giving the basis and explanation for verse 13. So "put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit" in verse 13 is explained by "led by the Spirit" in verse 14, and "you will live" in verse 13 is explained by "you are the sons of God" in verse 14. Ponder those two pairs with me for a moment. <br />
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"If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (14) ''Because ''all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Paul restates "putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit" with the words, "you are led by the Spirit." So here is our confirmation that we were on the right track last week: Doing something "by the Spirit" means being "led" to do it by the Spirit. He is not an instrument in our hands. We are an instrument in his hands. We are not leading him. He is leading us. He is not a mere responder to us. We are being moved and led by him. <br />
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So then what is it to be led by the Spirit in verse 14 in view of its relation to verse 13? It is to be moved by the Spirit to kill sin by trusting in the superior worth of our Father's love. When you fight sin by trusting in Christ as superior to what sin offers, you are being led by the Spirit. Don't take this verse out of its context and make it mean mainly, "If I am led to the right college I am a child of God." Or: "If I am led to the right spouse, I am a child of God." Or: "If I am led to the right job, I am a child of God." <br />
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There is a sense in which the children of God ''will ''lean on the Spirit for guidance in all those areas. But that is not the focus of this text. This text says, Kill sin by the Spirit, because "all who are [THUS] led by the Spirit are the sons of God." In other words, the evidence that we are the children of God is that the Holy Spirit confirms his presence by leading us into war with our sin. The children of God hate sin. The children of God have the values and priorities and preferences and tastes of their Father. They are chips off the old block, as it were. <br />
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And the reason they share these traits of God their Father is because they have his Spirit who leads them this way. He gives them the new tastes and new preferences and the new values and the new pleasures and the new sadness. And so the evidence of our sonship is: Do we fight sin in our lives, or do we feel blasé about sin in our lives? <br />
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==== The Promise of Life Is Rooted in Our Being Sons of God<br> ====<br />
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Now notice the way the other pair of ideas in verses 13 and 14 relate. The first pair is "killing sin by the Spirit" explained by "being led by the Spirit." The second pair is "''you will live''" in verse 13 and "you are ''sons of God''" in verse 14. "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (14) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." What this shows is that the promise of life is rooted in our being sons of God. <br />
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You know that you have eternal life because you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. That's verse 13. And you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit because you are led by the Spirit. That's the commandment between verses 13 and 14. And being led by the Spirit shows that you are a child of God. That's verse 14. And so it is your status as a child of God that guarantees your eternal life. That's the point of verse 17: "If children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ." Heirs of what? Everlasting life and all the glory it contains. <br />
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So what verse 14 does is explain killing sin by the Spirit in terms of being led by the Spirit, and it explains "you will live" in terms being sons of God. And then it makes being led by the Spirit the evidence and demonstration that we are the sons of God. Which means that killing sin by the Spirit is the evidence of our sonship and therefore the path to everlasting life. <br />
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And Paul means for you to enjoy this. He is telling us these things for our joy and our triumph over the adversities and fears of life. This becomes really plain in verse 15. <br />
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How Does the Spirit of God Relate to Our Sonship?<br>Verse 15 comes in now to explain more fully how the Spirit of God relates to our sonship. He says, (v. 14) "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (15) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'" He is answering the question: Why does the leading of the Spirit prove that you are a son of God? And he is answering the question: How does the Spirit lead? <br />
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The reason the leading of the Spirit proves we are children of God is that it is "the Spirit of adoption." It is the Spirit given to us to confirm a legal transaction carried out by the Father, namely, adoption. Listen to what F. F. Bruce says about this term "adoption as sons" in the Roman world of Paul's day: <br />
<blockquote>In the Roman world of the first century ad an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate; he was no whit inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of nature, and might well enjoy the father's affection more fully and reproduce the father's character more worthily." (Quoted in John Stott, Romans, InterVarsity Press, 1994, p. 232) <br></blockquote><br />
There are dozens of children and young people and adults in this church who have been legally adopted. You are all loved by your parents with a deep, true, unshakable love just as much or more than if you had been born into your family. And that is the way it is with God. This reality of adoption is a massive, firm, legal reality. And it is a deep, strong, full-hearted emotional reality. <br />
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When the Holy Spirit is called in verse 15 the "Spirit of adoption" the meaning is the Spirit confirms and makes real to you this great legal transaction of adoption. If you have trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior and Treasure, then you are adopted. John 1:12, "To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." If you receive Christ, you are adopted. <br />
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==== The Spirit Leads by Stirring Up Family Affection<br> ====<br />
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Now to seal this and confirm it and make it experientially real to you, God sends the Spirit into our hearts. Here is the way Paul says it in Galatians 4:5-6, "[Christ] redeemed those who were under the Law, that we might receive the ''adoption as sons''. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" The Spirit is poured out into our hearts to confirm and make real our adoption. <br />
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How does he do that according to verse 15? He does it by replacing the fear of a slave toward a master with the love of a son toward a father. "You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" He is contrasting the fear of a slave with the affection of a son. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to change our slavish fears toward God into confident, happy, peaceful affection for God as our father. <br />
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Now relate that to the ''leading of the Spirit ''in verse 14. This is the other question I said Paul is answering in verse 15: How does the Spirit lead? "All who are led ''by the Spirit ''of God are sons of God." How does he lead? How does he move us and enable us to put to death the deeds of the body – to kill sin? Answer: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons." The Spirit does not lead by stirring up slavish fear. He leads by stirring up family affection. He does not get you to kill sin by making you a slave who acts out of fear. But by making you a son who acts out of faith and affection. <br />
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You can get a lot of external compliance with enslavement and fear. A Vietnamese man just told me last night that this was so. We asked if the people in Vietnam liked Communism. He said no, but then added, "They have the guns." So if you have the guns you can enslave and create enough fear so that there is a lot of external compliance. But that is not what the Holy Spirit does to get us to kill sin. <br />
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How then does he shape our wills and lead us to put to death the deeds of the body? He does it by making real to us the truth of our adoption and the value of our Father in heaven. How does he do that? He does it by working in two directions: one by bringing God's fatherly love to us, and the other by bringing our childlike affections for God. <br />
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==== The Spirit Leads by Bringing God's Father Love to Us<br> ====<br />
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We have already seen the first work of the Spirit in Romans 5:5. Recall how Paul said, "Hope does not disappoint, because''the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit ''who was given to us." This is a real, present experience, not just an idea or a future promise. It is something that happens in Christians: the love of God – that is, God's love for his children – is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit of adoption making real to us the love of our Father. Applying it to us so that we know we are loved. It is an experience of divine love. That's the first direction the Spirit works to make the truth of our acceptance and the value of our Father real to us. He pours out the love of the Father into our lives. <br />
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==== The Spirit Leads by Awakening Our Childlike Affections for God<br> ====<br />
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The second direction that the Spirit works to lead us is by awakening our own childlike affections for our Father. This is what the last part of verse 15 and verse 16 are referring to. "You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by ''whom we cry, 'Abba! Father''!' (16) The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." <br />
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The Spirit brings about a response in our hearts to the love of God that cries out, "Abba! Father!" The witness of the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God is not a testimony to a neutral heart with no affection for God's fatherly love so that your neutral heart can draw the logical conclusion that it is a child of God and then try to muster up some appropriate affections. That is not the picture. No. The witness of the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God is the creation in you of affections for God. The testimony of the Holy Spirit IS the cry, "Abba! Father!" <br />
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And the reason Paul uses the word "cry" and the Aramaic word "Abba" is because both of them point to deep, affectionate, personal, authentic experience of God's fatherly love. He didn't say that the testimony of the Spirit was that we affirm doctrinally that God is father. The devil knows that doctrine. Doctrinal affirmations, as important as they are, don't make children. What he said was that the testimony of the Spirit that we are God's children is that from our hearts there rises an irrepressible cry – a ''cry'', not a mere statement, a ''cry'': "Abba! Father!" <br />
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We don't ''infer ''logically the fatherhood of God from the testimony of the Spirit. We ''enjoy ''emotionally the Fatherhood of God by the testimony of the Spirit. The testimony of the Spirit is not a premise from which we ''deduce ''that we are children of God; it is a power by which we ''delight ''in being the children of God. <br />
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==== Don't Wait for a Whisper – Look to Jesus!<br> ====<br />
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If you want to know that you are a child of God, you don't put your ear to the Holy Spirit and wait for a whisper; put your ear to the gospel and your eye to the cross of Christ and you pray that the Holy Spirit would enable you to see it and savor it for what it really is. Romans 5:8, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." <br />
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The testimony of the Spirit is that when we look at cross we cry, "Jesus, you are my Lord!" (1 Corinthians 12:3), and "God, you are my Father!" So look to Christ! Look to Christ!</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/How_to_Kill_Sin_Part_3How to Kill Sin Part 32008-10-08T15:37:23Z<p>Kryndontpay: How to Kill Sin Part 3 moved to How to Kill Sin, Part 3</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[How to Kill Sin, Part 3]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/How_to_Kill_Sin,_Part_3How to Kill Sin, Part 32008-10-08T15:37:23Z<p>Kryndontpay: How to Kill Sin Part 3 moved to How to Kill Sin, Part 3</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:10-17'''<br />
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If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But 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 dwells in you. 12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- 13 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. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 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.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
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Three weeks ago I promised a third message on verse 13 about how to kill sin. "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." I get the words "kill sin" from this verse: "If you put to death (=kill) the deeds of the body. . . ." So this verse says, If you want to live, you must kill. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. <br />
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==== A Violence against Our Flesh<br> ====<br />
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There is a mean streak in the Christian life. There is a violence. There is a militancy. But it is exactly the opposite of selfish violence against people. It is a violence against the "flesh" or against "the deeds of the body" – ''our flesh ''and ''our body''. The Christian is not mean to others. He is mean to his own sinfulness – his own flesh. <br />
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We saw the meaning of "flesh" in Romans 8:7, "The mind that is set on the ''flesh ''is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot." The flesh is what we are when rebellion against God and insubordination and hostility to God rule our bodies and our minds. So the way you put to death "the deeds of the body" is to strangle the air that sinful deeds breathe. Strangle the flesh. Cut the lifeline. Pinch the air pipe. Stop the blood flow. Sinful deeds must be killed before they happen – by severing the root of distrust and hostility and insubordination toward God. <br />
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==== "By the Spirit" and through the "Things of the Spirit"<br> ====<br />
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So we asked, How do you do that? Paul says it is "by the Spirit." Verse 13b: "If ''by the Spirit ''you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Now what does that mean? This is a key to the Christian life. Putting to death the deeds of the body "by the Spirit." Killing sin "by the Spirit." <br />
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Now what is that? We argued that putting sin to death "by the Spirit" is probably related to what Romans 8:5 says about "setting the mind on the things of the Spirit." "Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." In other words, one way to kill sin "by the Spirit" is to "set your mind on the things of the Spirit." <br />
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So we asked, What are the "things of the Spirit." We answered from 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 which says this: "We speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit. . . . But a natural man does not accept the ''things of the Spirit ''of God, for they are foolishness to him." Here we have the very phrase of Romans 8:5, "things of the Spirit." What are they? The words of God, spoken by the apostles, taught by the Spirit, not human wisdom. <br />
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So to put to death the deeds of the body (as Romans 8:13 says) "by the Spirit" we must set our minds on "the things of the Spirit," which we now see means: set your mind on the word of God in scripture. What makes this ring so true is the connection with Ephesians 6:17 where Paul says in our battle against evil we must "take the helmet of salvation, and ''the sword of the Spirit'', which is ''the word of God''." <br />
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Among all the spiritual armor that we are to "put on" in our warfare there is only one offensive weapon that is used for killing. The sword. And what is it? It is described in two ways that link it with Romans 8:13. 1) It's the sword "''of the Spirit''." So if we are to kill the deeds of the body "by the Spirit," and the one killing weapon in our armor is the sword and it is called "the sword ''of the Spirit''," we have good reason to think that the agent for killing sin "by the Spirit" is this sword. 2) And second, what is this "sword of the Spirit"? Ephesians 6:17 says it is "the word of God," which confirms our connection with 1 Corinthians 2:14. The sword that kills sin is the word of God. And the way we kill sin "by the Spirit" is to set our minds on "the things of the Spirit," that is, the word of God in Scripture, which becomes then the sword of the Spirit. <br />
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==== The Paradox of Who Is Doing the Work<br> ====<br />
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So the question we are asking and trying to answer is: What can I do tonight to bring the power of the Holy Spirit into vigorous, sin-killing action in my life? Because you see the paradox in Romans 8:13, don't you? On the one hand, killing sin is something Paul says you must do. ''You'', must do it. "[''You''] put to death the deeds of the body." But on the other hand, it says, you do it "by the Spirit." Now the Spirit is not a tool or a weapon. He is a person. He is God. Put to death the deeds of the body by means of God, the Spirit. So, evidently, the Spirit is the decisive killer. That's the paradox: you do it; but you do it in such a way that it is he who does it. That is the difference between the Christian life and a moral self-help program. <br />
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This is what Paul was saying in Romans 15:18, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what ''Christ has accomplished ''through me." And what he was saying in 1 Corinthians 15:10b, "I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." I labored, but it was not I, but God's grace – God's Spirit – in me and with me. <br />
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So it is absolutely right that we are asking, What can I do tonight to bring the power of the Spirit into vigorous, sin-killing action? If we are going to live the Christian life – not just an imitation of it – we must experience Romans 8:13: We must put sin to death in a way that it is decisively the Spirit which puts it to death. The glory of God is at stake here. Because the ultimate sin-killer will get the greatest badge of honor. You or God. <br />
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By Works of Law or by Hearing with Faith?<br>So we ended last time by looking at the key text in Galatians 3:5. Here Paul answers the question, How do you bring the Spirit into vigorous sin-killing action? He asks, "Does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" In other words, he is asking, How does the Holy Spirit flow with miracle-working power in our lives? How does He come into vigorous, sin-killing acting in our lives? <br />
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He mentions two options: by works of law, or by hearing with faith. And the answer he expects is clearly: not by works of law, but by hearing with faith. Now why does he say "by ''hearing ''with faith" instead of just "by faith"? The Spirit comes and works mightily in our lives, killing sin, not just "by faith" but by "''hearing ''with faith." Why does he say it that way? The answer is that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, and it's the word that you hear and believe. When the word of God – the Sword of the Spirit – is heard and believed, the Spirit is moving with vigorous, sin-killing action. <br />
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In other words, the connection between the Holy Spirit and you is the word of God and faith. They are like socket and plug. When the plug of your faith goes in the socket of God's Word, the Spirit is flowing. And when he flows, he kills sin. <br />
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==== Before I give you some practical illustrations how this works there are two important things to say.<br> ====<br />
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==== We Kill Sin the Same Way We Get Saved<br> ====<br />
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One is that you can see that we kill sin the same way we get saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Faith, not works, is the way we are made right with God; and faith, not works, is the way we engage the Holy Spirit to kill sin. So if you are here this morning and you are not a Christian, what you are hearing in this sermon is not some remote advanced form of Christian living way down the line of Christian maturity. This is how you become a Christian. And this is how you grow as a Christian. <br />
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To become a Christian you believe the promises of God: like, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:12). And to fight sin as a Christian, you believe the promises of God: like, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). When Christ died for us, he bought with his blood both justification and sanctification. And both are obtained by faith. That's one thing that needs to be said. You never outgrow your need to live by faith. We begin and end by trusting the gift of imputed righteousness and the power of God's grace to kill sin and impart practical righteousness. <br />
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==== The Glory of Christ Is at Stake in Living This Way<br> ====<br />
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The second thing that needs to be said is that the glory of Christ is at stake in living this way. All of life is meant to make much of Jesus Christ. Everything we do should magnify his greatness. Now ask yourself: Why isn't the way to bring the power of the Spirit into vigorous, sin-killing action simply to pray for it to happen? Why not just ask God to kill the sin in your life? "Ask and you will receive" (Luke 11:9, 13). <br />
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Well, we should indeed ask. Prayer is crucial. But that is not the sum total of what "put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit" means. Paul says, the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you does so by hearing with faith. Not just asking, but hearing. And not just hearing, but hearing with faith. Now, why does God design his triumphs in this way? <br />
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For this reason: if God simply killed sin when we ask him to without making our hearing and believing a part of the process, Jesus Christ would not get the glory for our holiness. Jesus said, "When the Spirit of Truth comes . . . he will glorify me" (John 16:13-14). The work of the Spirit, in killing our sin, is to do it in a way that gives glory to Jesus Christ. Now how can that happen? It happens because the Spirit only flows through "hearing with faith." And what we ''hear ''is, at root, the gospel of Jesus Christ. <br />
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Yes it includes all the promises of God. Because, as 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, "All the promises of God find their Yes in him." In other words, Jesus paid for every promise for those who trust him. So every promise that you hear and believe, gives glory to Jesus Christ. If we merely pray and ask God to kill our sin, without hearing the gospel of Christ or any of its promises, Christ would not be honored by our holiness. And God means for his Son to be magnified in justification and in sanctification. So he does not design sanctification to happen by prayer alone, but by hearing the Christ-exalting, blood-bought promises of God and believing them as we ask God to kill our sin. <br />
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That's the second thing that needs to be said. Killing sin in our lives must glorify Jesus. And Jesus is glorified when we kill sin by the Spirit, that is, by hearing and believing the promises that he bought and secured by his own blood. <br />
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==== Illustrations of How This Is Done<br> ====<br />
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Now let me close with some illustrations. Right now three of our missionary families are being forced out of Tanzania within 30 days. One of the missionary wives compared their situation to the disciples after the death of Jesus and before the resurrection: "They are sitting quietly and numbly at someone's house . . . and they don't know about the resurrection that is to come. That's what this time feels like to us in many ways: darkness, and an unknown future. Out of the blue, we're packing up and leaving the country, our home for the last 7 years, the only home our children have known." <br />
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Now what are the dangers of sin here? What are the sins that need to be killed before they get the upper hand? Anger. Despair. Self-pity. Fear. Impatience and irritability. So how do you put to death those sins and the deeds of the body that might come from them? <br />
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Here is the answer from that same email from the missionary wife: <br />
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We are clinging to these truths: God is good, He is in control, He loves us more than we can comprehend, and He has plans to give us hope and future, plans to prosper us (Jeremiah 29:11). Our spirits are understandably low, we are emotionally and physically exhausted. BUT . . . "because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23). <br />
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In other words, they are putting to death the deeds of the body – they are killing sin – by the Spirit. They are hearing the promises of God and believing them. And by that means the Holy Spirit is flowing and sustaining and sanctifying. <br />
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Here's another illustration. A missionary couple was with us ministering among refugees here in the Cities until last year. Now they are headed with three small children to a country in Africa which is so sensitive they can't name it. Their February prayer letter was one of the clearest examples of how to put sin to death by the Spirit that I have ever seen. <br />
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They listed the sins that were threatening them and then gave the promises of God that they were using to put the sins to death. <br />
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"Whereas the Constitution of [this country] may state one thing, the Word of God says, "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). <br />
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Where fear says, "what if . . . happens?" faith says, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10). <br />
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When worry surfaces, faith responds, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27). <br />
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When doubt and frustration scoff, "They'll never change, this is a waste of time!" Jesus looks us in the eye and responds, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." (Mark 10:27). <br />
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Learn from our missionaries. Learn from the apostle Paul. Put to death the deeds of the body ''by the Spirit''. Not by the works of the law. Kill sin ''by the Spirit''. Not by works of the law. Glorify Jesus Christ by taking the sword of the Spirit, the promises of God, purchased by his blood, and set your mind on them. Bank on them. Be satisfied by them. The power of sin will be broken. Sin will not have dominion over you. Jesus Christ will be magnified in your body! Amen.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/How_to_Kill_Sin_Part_2How to Kill Sin Part 22008-10-08T15:36:53Z<p>Kryndontpay: How to Kill Sin Part 2 moved to How to Kill Sin, Part 2</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:10-17'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But 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 dwells in you. 12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – 13 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. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 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.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
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<br />
Two weeks ago I directed our attention to verses 12 and 13 and tried to answer one of four questions. These verses say, "So then, brethren," – and the "so then" follows from the glorious truth in verse 11 that our mortal bodies are going to be raised from the dead and made alive by the Spirit of God, so that we can enjoy God forever as he created us to be, body and soul – "So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh [that old, rebellious self], to live according to the flesh" – you don't owe the flesh anything but enmity and war. It's been trying to kill you since the day you were born. Don't join forces with your enemy and pay for your own destruction by giving in to the flesh. You are not a debtor to the flesh. <br />
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Now he continues in verse 13, "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." You don't owe the flesh anything. You owe the Spirit of God everything. He is going to make you alive in the resurrection (verse 11), and even now, you can only have victory over your sins "by the Spirit." "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live." You owe your final resurrection life to the Spirit, verse 11; and the perseverance you need to make it to the resurrection as a believer in war with sin, you owe to the Spirit. If you try to survive as a Christian in any other way than "by the Spirit," you will not survive. You will die. What I tried to show last time is that this threat is real and the demand to fight is all-important. <br />
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Until you believe that life is war – that the stakes are your soul – you will probably just play at Christianity with no bloodearnestness and no vigilance and no passion and no wartime mindset. If that is where you are this morning, your position is very precarious. The enemy has lulled you into sleep or into a peacetime mentality, as if nothing serious is at stake. And God, in his mercy, has you here this morning, and had this sermon appointed to wake you up, and put you on a wartime footing. <br />
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Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." Do you want to enter the kingdom of heaven? Take it violently! But violence against whom – or against what? Listen to Jesus' answer: "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire" (Matthew 18:8). Do you want to enter life? Take it violently. Cut off your hand or your foot if you must to keep from stumbling. It's a picture of the most radical kind of assault on our own sin. Not the sins of others – our sins. <br />
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Lay that on top of Romans 8:13, "If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Do you want to enter into life? Do you want to live? Get violent. Get a wartime mindset. Stop making peace with ears and eyes and tongues and hands and feet that betray you like Judas, and go over to the side of the enemy and become instruments of sin and make war on your soul. Put to death the deeds of your body. <br />
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==== The Violent Warfare of the Christian Life<br> ====<br />
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Ed Welch, in preparation for his book called ''A Banquet in the Grave'' (Presbyterian &amp; Reformed Publishing, 2001), said: <br />
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. . . there is a mean streak to authentic self-control. . . Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. . . . The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. . . . There is something about war that sharpens the senses . . . You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little of no sleep, war keeps us vigilant. <br />
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There is a mean, violent streak in the true Christian life! But violence against whom, or what? Not other people. It's a violence against all the impulses in us that would be violent to other people. It's a violence against all the impulses in our own selves that would make peace with our own sin and settle in with a peacetime mentality. It's a violence against all lust in ourselves, and enslaving desires for food or caffeine or sugar or chocolate or alcohol or pornography or money or the praise of men and the approval of others or power or fame. It's violence against the impulses in our own soul toward racism and sluggish indifference to injustice and poverty and abortion. <br />
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Christianity is not a settle-in-and-live-at-peace-with-this-world-the-way-it-is kind of religion. If by the Spirit you kill the deeds of your own body, you will live. Christianity is war. On our own sinful impulses. <br />
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So let's work on this a little bit more this morning. I said there were three questions two weeks ago that we did not get to. <br />
<blockquote><br />
#What are "the deeds of the body" that we are to put to death? <br />
#What does killing them mean? What is this putting to death? <br />
#How do you do it "by the Spirit"? What does "by the Spirit" mean? <br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== 1. What Are "The Deeds of the Body" that We Are to Kill?<br> ====<br />
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Paul is picking up here on what he had said already in Romans 6. So go back there with me and let's remind ourselves of a few things. Take three verses to shed light on Romans 8:13. First, Romans 6:13, "Do not present your members [=your bodies] to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness." What then are "the deeds of the body" that we are to kill? They are those deeds that we are about to do (you kill them before they happen) when our bodies are "instruments or unrighteousness." <br />
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Second, Romans 6:12, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts." When the mortal body is taken captive by sin and made to obey lusts, then and there we see "deeds of the body" that should be put to death. <br />
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Third, Romans 6:6, "Our old self was crucified with ''Him'', in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin." I cite this verse to remind you of the all-important distinctively Christian truth about killing the sinful actions of the body, namely, in union with Jesus Christ by faith alone, you are already dead to sin and alive to God, and what you are doing when you put to death the deeds of the body is becoming in practice what you are in Christ. "Our old self was crucified, in order that our body of sin might be done away with!" When Christ died, we died in him if we are united to him by faith. And we died with him so that we might demonstrate this death by putting to death the sinful deeds of the body. Because we already have the victory we can succeed in our violence against sin! He breaks the power of ''cancelled ''sin. We can only kill the sin that has already been killed when we were killed in Christ. This is Christianity, not moral self improvement. <br />
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So the answer to the first question, "What are the deeds of the body in Romans 8:13?" is the deeds that we are about to do prompted by sin or lust or unrighteousness. Sin is deeper than deeds. The deeds are the instrument of the sin. And when that is what our bodies are about to do – go over to the side of the enemy – we put that action to death. In this war with ourselves, traitors are put to death. <br />
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==== 2. What Is This Putting to Death?<br> ====<br />
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The answer is that you suffocate the sinful deeds of the body. You cut off the life-line, the blood flow. Deeds of the body come from somewhere. Jesus said, "The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. (19) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. (20) These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man" (Matthew 15:18-20). Sinful deeds have a life line that must be cut. <br />
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In other words, there is a condition of the heart that gives rise to the "deeds of the body." It's a heart issue. We must cut off the hands and gouge out the eyes, not literally – that would do no good – but with that kind of violent heart-work. You kill the bad fruit by severing the bad root. <br />
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What's the bad root of "the deeds of the body"? You can see it in Romans 8:7. "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." The root of "the deeds of the body" that have to be killed is the flesh that is hostile to God and unwilling and unable to submit to him. Verse 12: "If you live according to the ''flesh ''you will die." Flesh is the great enemy here. And it's an enemy because it is insubordinate and hostile to God. It doesn't like God and does not want to be told by him what to do. <br />
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So to kill "the deeds of the body" that this enmity produces, you have to cut the life-line. Pinch the air pipe. Stop the blood flow. Deeds must be killed before they happen by severing the root of hostility and insubordination that rejects God. <br />
<br />
==== 3. How Do You Do This "By the Spirit"?<br> ====<br />
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Let's get at answer by following three steps, each with a different text. <br />
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==== Step One: Set Your Mind on the Things of the Spirit<br> ====<br />
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Step #1. Notice Romans 8:5-6 and how Paul speaks there of the flesh and the Spirit (the same pair he contrasts here in verse13): "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] the ''things of the Spirit.'' (6) For the mind set on the flesh is death (as verse 13a says!), but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace (as verse 13b says)." So the first step in the answer is this: putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit involves "setting the mind on the things of the Spirit." You don't just look at the temptation and say NO. You do that! But if you are going to put it to death ''by the Spirit'', you have to do more: you direct your mind, your heart, your spiritual focus another way, namely to the "things of the Spirit." <br />
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==== Step Two: Set Your Mind on the Words of God and the Realities They Stand For<br> ====<br />
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Step #2. What are "the things of the Spirit"? If we are going to rivet our minds and hearts on them in the hour of temptation so as to kill sin, what are we looking at? Here the key text is 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 where Paul talks about his own teaching as God-inspired words. This is the only other place in the New Testament where the very phrase "things of the Spirit" is used. He speaks of his revelations like this: ". . .which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit. . . . (14) But a natural man does not accept the ''things of the Spirit ''of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." <br />
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So here "the things of the Spirit" are the words of God spoken by the apostles. From this I infer that when Romans 8:6 says that "those who are according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit" he means that they set their minds on the words of God and the realities they stand for. These are the "things of the Spirit" that the natural person rejects and the spiritual person embraces. So to put to death the deeds of the body "by the Spirit" is to "set your mind on the things of the Spirit," which we now see means embracing the words of God (and the reality they point to) spoken by his inspired spokesmen. <br />
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This is especially significant because the "word of God" is called "the sword of the Spirit" in Ephesians 6:17. And swords are used for killing. And that is what we are to do "by the Spirit" in Romans 8:13. Kill the deeds of the body by the Spirit, that is by fixing your mind on "the things of the Spirit," that is, by welcoming and embracing the "word of God" in your mind and heart, that is, by taking the Sword of the Spirit which is the deadly sword for sin-killing. <br />
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==== Step Three: By Hearing with Faith, not Works of the Law<br> ====<br />
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Step #3. Very practically what do you do to bring the power of the Spirit by the word of God into vigorous, sin-killing action? The answer is clear in Galatians 3:5, "So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" The answer is that the Spirit is supplied to us for the miraculously mighty killing of sin not by works of the law but by "hearing with faith." <br />
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Why does he say "by ''hearing ''with faith" instead of just "by faith"? To emphasize that what faith hears and receives and embraces is something heard, namely, "the word of God," which is the sword of the Spirit, which kills sin. <br />
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How does it do that? Well, let's save that for a whole sermon when I come back. But we are not left helpless this morning. What we are saying is that when temptation comes, alongside a very powerful and resolute NO!, you look to a word from God, especially a word that promises he will be more for us and do more for us than what this sin promises. And if you believe him – there is the main battle – you will sever the root of sin. <br />
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So immerse your mind and heart in the fountain of truth and life and power – the promises of God, and when the temptation comes, take this all-satisfying word, this sword of the Spirit, and believe it, and by it sever the root of sin. Kill it.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/What_the_Law_Could_Not_Do_God_Did_Sending_Christ_Part_1What the Law Could Not Do God Did Sending Christ Part 12008-10-08T15:28:32Z<p>Kryndontpay: What the Law Could Not Do God Did Sending Christ Part 1 moved to What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 1</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 1]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/What_the_Law_Could_Not_Do,_God_Did_Sending_Christ,_Part_1What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 12008-10-08T15:28:32Z<p>Kryndontpay: What the Law Could Not Do God Did Sending Christ Part 1 moved to What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 1</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:1-4'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. <br><br />
</blockquote><br />
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Verse 1 declares that in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. God does not condemn us for our sins if we are in Christ Jesus. Jesus is a safe place from the hurricane of God's holy and just wrath. Verse 2 declares that in Christ Jesus there is freedom from the power of sin. Not yet perfect and final freedom, but decisive and irrevocable freedom. That is, the triumphant blow has been struck, the dominion of sin has been broken, and its final defeat is sure. <br />
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The reality of verse 1 is called justification, and the reality of verse 2 is called sanctification. And the relation between them is that the freedom of verse 2 supports acquittal of verse 1 as evidence, but not as cause. We are not justified because our lives have changed. Our lives are changing because we have been justified. That's what we saw last week. <br />
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Now we look at verse 3. "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh." It has four statements in it. 1) God condemned sin in the flesh. 2) He did this by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. 3) The law was not able to do this. 4) The reason the law could not do this was because of our flesh. <br />
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==== "God . . . Condemned Sin in the Flesh"<br> ====<br />
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Let's draw out some of the wonders in these statements. First, "God condemned sin in the flesh." Notice three wonderful things about what this statement says. <br />
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===== 1. Sin Has Been Condemned, not Merely Shown to Be Condemnable =====<br />
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First, sin has already been condemned. What does that mean? It does not mean that sin has been criticized and called condemnable – as when we say, President Bush "condemned" the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. We know it does not mean this because this is something the law could do and did do quite well. The law criticized sin and called it condemnable. The law says, for example, "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:17). And the law pronounces punishments on law breakers (Deuteronomy 28:15). So the law clearly "condemned" sin in this sense. <br />
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But Romans 8:3 says, "What ''the Law could not do'', weak as it was through the flesh, God did." So God did something more than merely criticize sin and call it condemnable. What then does Paul mean when he says, "God condemned sin in the flesh"? He means that in Jesus' flesh – in his suffering and dying body on the cross – God executed a final sentence of condemnation on the sin of everyone who is in Christ. In other words, "God condemned sin" means God found sin guilty and sentenced sin to be finally punished and carried out the penalty of suffering in the death of his Son. <br />
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That's the first wonderful thing about this statement, "God condemned sin" – in the death of Christ, sin was not merely shown to be condemnable, it was condemned, it received its full and just sentence and penalty – for all who are in Christ Jesus. <br />
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===== 2.''Our ''Sin Was Condemned in the Suffering and Death of Christ, Since He Had no Sin to Condemn =====<br />
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Now here is the second wonderful thing about this statement: There was no sin in Jesus Christ to condemn. Paul says it here indirectly and says it directly elsewhere. Here he says, "Sending His own Son in the ''likeness ''of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh." Notice that word "likeness." He says "likeness of sinful flesh" because he was not sinful. Jesus had no sin. His flesh was human, and it was like sinful flesh. But it was not sinful. <br />
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So how could God condemn sin in his flesh? There was none there to condemn. The clearest answer is given in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "[God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." There it is. Paul says it as clearly as it can be said: "He knew no sin." Jesus never sinned. Of all the people who have ever lived, Jesus is the only one who did not deserve to die. Jesus is the only person who ever lived who did not deserve to suffer. But he died and he suffered. <br />
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So the question is: Whose sin was condemned when Jesus' flesh was tortured and killed? God condemned sin in the flesh of his completely innocent Son. Whose sin? The answer is given clearly. Romans 4:25, "He . . . was delivered over because of ''our ''transgressions." 1 Corinthians 15:3, "Christ died for ''our ''sins according to the Scriptures." Galatians 1:4, "[He] gave Himself for ''our ''sins." 1 Peter 2:24, "He himself bore ''our ''sins in his body on the tree." 1 Peter 3:18, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for ''the unrighteous''." Isaiah 53:5-6, "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for ''our ''iniquities; The chastening for ''our ''well-being fellupon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him." <br />
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The answer is that our sin was condemned in the suffering and death of Christ, not his. He had none. Which practically means what? Let Paul say it the way he likes to say it in Romans 8:33-34, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; (34) who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died." When the question rises, "Who can condemn God's elect?" the answer understood here is, "Nobody." Nobody in heaven or hell or on the earth. Why? Answer: "Christ Jesus is he who died." <br />
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And now we know why the death of Jesus Christ takes away all my condemnation. Because when he died God was condemning sin, sentencing it, and punishing it completely and fully and finally for all God's elect – all who are in Christ by faith. Therefore it was my sin that was being condemned and sentenced and punished completely and fully and finally when Christ died. And if my sin was punished there finally and fully, I will not be punished for it again. <br />
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Brothers and sisters, there is no other cleansing agent in all the universe that can clean your conscience, besides this one. There is no other shield that can protect you from the white hot wrath of God, besides this shield. There is no other argument that will hold up in the final courtroom of heaven than this argument: Christ died for my sins. Christ bore my condemnation. Christ absorbed all the divine wrath that would and should have come on me. <br />
<blockquote>I need no other argument,<br>I need no other plea,<br>It is enough that Jesus died,<br>And that he died for me. </blockquote><br />
That's the second wonderful thing about this statement that "God condemned sin in the flesh." The first is that sin has already been condemned, sentenced, punished, executed in Jesus. The second is that Jesus had no sin to condemn. It was ours that was punished. "[God] made Him who knew no sin to besin on our behalf." <br />
<br />
===== 3. ''God ''Condemned Sin in the Flesh =====<br />
<br />
The third wonderful thing about this statement is that ''God ''did it. "''God ''condemned sin in the flesh." Two things are powerfully relevant for us here. <br />
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==== The Love of God Rescued Us from the Wrath of God<br> ====<br />
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3.1 One is that Jesus Christ did not put himself forward between God and man to reconcile them to each other. It's not as though God is only angry at sinners, and sinners are hostile to God, and Jesus loves sinners and puts himself between his angry Father and sinful man to rescue man from God's anger. That is not what Christianity teaches. That is not what happened. <br />
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The text says – and the whole Bible is built on this view – that ''God ''did this. "Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God!] condemned sin in the flesh." Jesus did not put himself forward between God and man; ''God ''put Jesus forward between God and man (Romans 3:25). ''God ''"sent His own Son." ''God ''saw to it that the eternal, uncreated Son of God took on "the likeness of sinful flesh." ''God ''poured out his wrath on the Son as the condemnation and punishment of our sins. Jesus didn't butt in to save us from God. God ''sent ''him in to save us from God. God himself saved us from the wrath of God. <br />
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When you ponder the cross, don't just ponder the love of Jesus rescuing us from the anger of God. Ponder the love of God rescuing us from the anger of God. If you know Jesus, you know the Father. The heart of Jesus is the heart of the Father. Jesus is as angry at sin as the Father is. And the Father is as caring for sinners as Jesus is. <br />
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Jesus said in John 14:7-9, "'If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.' (8) Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.' (9) Jesus said to him, 'Have I been so long with you, and yetyou have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how canyou say, "Show us the Father"'?" <br />
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So be crystal clear on this: the work of Jesus the Son of God is the work of God the Father. If you know Jesus, the Son of God, you know God the Father. If you love Jesus, the Son of God, you love God. <br />
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God did it. God condemned sin in the flesh. And the first thing that is so relevant about that for us is that it keeps us from playing Jesus and God off against each other. It helps us see that the Father and the Son have one heart and one mind as they take their different roles in saving us from our sin. <br />
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==== The Exclusivity of the Gospel of the Glory of God in Christ<br> ====<br />
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3.2. The other thing that is so relevant about this third point (that it was God himself who condemned sin in the flesh of the Son of God), is that this does not fit in with other major religions, like Islam or Judaism or Hinduism or Buddhism. The point here is not to be inflammatory in a tense global situation. The point is to preserve the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4), the divine Son of God and only sin-bearing Mediator between God and man, in the midst of a cultural stampede toward inclusivism. <br />
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What I mean by inclusivism is the teaching that all religions are legitimate paths to God. There is a fear today to speak of the exclusivism of the gospel of Jesus – that he is the Way the Truth and the Life and no one goes to the Father but by him (John 14:6). But this is what Paul is saying here in Romans 8:3. God – the one and only Creator of the universe – sent his Son (his pre-existing, divine, eternal Son) in human flesh to bear the outpouring of his wrath in condemnation on sin. THAT is who God is. If you say, "God did not do that," then the God you worship is not God. <br />
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Who is the true and only God? The true and only God is the God and Father of Jesus Christ who was in "the form of God" and "equal with God" (Philippians 2:6) and took on the form of a servant in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that all the fullness of deity dwelt in him bodily (Colossians 2:9). The true and only God sent this divine Person into the world and in his flesh condemned sin – sentenced it, punished it, executed it. Yours and mine. And everyone's, who by faith are in Jesus Christ. <br />
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This is the gospel we preach to the entire world – to every religion. There is one God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the uncreated, eternal, divine Son of God, whom God sent in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin in order to die for sinners, so that all who believe might be saved – from his wrath and for his glory. The most loving thing we an do for Muslims is to peacefully, meekly, and sacrificially proclaim to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, without which no one will be saved. <br />
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To love people like this will require that you have come to see Romans 8:3 as the most precious event in the history of the world. God did it. God condemned sin in the flesh of his own Son. There is no other cleansing for the conscience. No other protection from wrath. No other argument in the last judgment. <br />
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Let's believe it, bank on it, live it, and sing it. <br />
<blockquote>My faith has found a resting place,<br>Not in device nor creed;<br>I trust the ever living One,<br>His wounds for me shall plead. ''I need no other argument,<br>I need no other plea,<br>It is enough that Jesus died,<br>And that he died for me.'' Enough for me that Jesus saves,<br>This ends my fear and doubt;<br>A sinful soul, I come to him,<br>He'll never cast me out. My heart is leaning on the Word,<br>The written Word of God,<br>Salvation by my Savior's name,<br>Salvation through his blood. My great Physician heals the sick,<br>The lost he came to save;<br>For me his precious blood he shed,<br>For me his life he gave<br></blockquote></div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/What_the_Law_Could_Not_Do_God_Did_Sending_Christ_Part_2What the Law Could Not Do God Did Sending Christ Part 22008-10-08T15:27:46Z<p>Kryndontpay: What the Law Could Not Do God Did Sending Christ Part 2 moved to What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 2</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 2]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/What_the_Law_Could_Not_Do,_God_Did_Sending_Christ,_Part_2What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 22008-10-08T15:27:46Z<p>Kryndontpay: What the Law Could Not Do God Did Sending Christ Part 2 moved to What the Law Could Not Do, God Did Sending Christ, Part 2</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 8:1-4'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
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We are picking up in verse 3 where we left off three weeks ago. "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh." We said that it has four statements in it. <br />
<br />
#God condemned sin in the flesh. <br />
#He did this by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. <br />
#The law was not able to do this. <br />
#The reason the law could not do this was because of our flesh.<br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Last time we focused on the first two. Now we focus on the last two. <br />
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So what I hope to do this morning is answer two questions: What was it that the law could not do? And, Why couldn't it do it? The reason I think this is worth a whole message is that the two things that the law could not do are things that are absolutely necessary for us to experience if we are to have eternal life, and, even though the law could not and cannot do them, people still turn to the law to get them done. In other words, it is tremendously relevant to your life to know what the law cannot do for you, lest you go there for the help you can only get from Jesus Christ. <br />
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==== The Law Could not Justify or Sanctify Us<br> ====<br />
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First, then, what is it that the law could not do? The answer is given twice in Romans 8:1-4, once in verses 1-2 and once in verses 3-4. Verse 1 says, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." This is what we call ''justification ''– if we are in Christ Jesus – that is, if we are united to Jesus by faith in him – our condemnation from God because of our sin is taken away. God acquits us. Counts us righteous. Justifies us. He does not look upon us any longer as guilty and condemned, but as forgiven and righteous because of what Jesus did for us. <br />
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Then comes verse 2: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." This is what we call ''sanctification''. After we are justified, and because we are justified, the Spirit of God is poured out in our lives and begins to free us from the dominion of sin and death. This means that Christians are not only "counted" righteous in justification, but actually transformed by the Spirit of God into more and more actually righteous, loving, holy people. This is the practical evidence that we have trusted Christ and are united to him and are justified in him. <br />
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Now my answer to our question is that these two things are what the law could not do. The law could not justify us and the law could not sanctify us. It was powerless to do both of these things. The first sign of this is that verse 3 begins with "for." You could read it like this: Justification is "in Christ" (verse 1), and sanctification is "in Christ" (verse 2), ''for ''the law could not do these things, only Christ could, and so God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. That's the first answer to the question from verses 1 and 2. Justification and sanctification come to us by union with Christ Jesus ("in Christ") for the law could not make them happen. <br />
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Now the same answer comes in verses 3 and 4 as well. Verse 3 says that what the law could not do is condemn sin in the flesh, that is, it could not deal with sin, absorb its punishment, remove our condemnation. So God did this by sending Jesus into the world to die for us: "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh." So here we have the same point as verse 1: There is no condemnation because God executed the condemnation for our sin on his Son. That is the basis of our justification. That is what the law could not do. It could not remove the condemnation for our sin. It could identify it and name it and point away from it and stir it up and rub it in. But it could not remove our punishment. God did that in Jesus' death. So again we see that justification is something the law could not do. <br />
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Now verse 4, like verse 2, says that this justification leads to sanctification, which was also something the law could not do – since it could not justify us. Notice verse 4 begins with "''so that''." This is a purpose of God's condemning sin in the flesh. God put our condemnation on Jesus and provided the basis for our justification "so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Walking according to the Spirit is what we mean by sanctification. So what we see here again, as in verses 1 and 2, is that sanctification is the result or the effect of justification. And that means that both justification and sanctification are what the law could not do. <br />
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You can see it most easily if you just say verses 3 and 4 like this: What the law could not do God did, namely two things: he condemned sin by sending his Son to die for us, and because of this ''basis ''for justification he enables us to fulfill the essence of the law by giving us the Holy Spirit. That is what the law could not do: justify us and sanctify us. It could not remove our condemnation or bring about our transformation. And yet both of these are absolutely necessary if we are going to be saved in the last day and have eternal life. <br />
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==== The Law Could not Justify Us Because We Were of Flesh<br> ====<br />
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So we need to ask now: Why could the law not do these two things? Because if we can see the reason for this weakness clearly, we will be protected from the deadly mistake of counting on the law for justification and sanctification. And, even better, we will know where to look for the ''declaration ''that we are right with God and for the ''transformation ''that follows. <br />
<br />
And that is so crucial for us all. You may have come today wondering how these Baptists think about salvation and about how to get right with God and have eternal life. Well we think about it the same way Biblical Christians have thought about it for centuries: this is historic Christianity, not just Baptist Christianity. The law – the ten commandments and the other rules that Moses gave the people of Israel – cannot make you right with God and cannot transform you into the kind of righteous and loving persons you want to be. <br />
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Why not? Verse 3 answers: "For what the Law could not do, ''weak as it was through the flesh'', God did." The problem with the law is not that its commandments are evil (Romans 7:12), but that we are evil (Romans 7:14). The word "flesh" does not mean skin, in Paul's vocabulary. It means our old fallen nature. We will see this next week in the following verses where he contrasts the mind of the flesh and the mind of the Spirit. The flesh is what we are and what life is without God and his gracious, saving work by the Spirit. That is what the law encounters when it comes to us. <br />
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So what is the weakness of the law? The weakness of the law is that it was not designed to redeem fallen, condemned, rebellious, selfish people like us. <br />
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Think about this first in relation to justification. The reason we need to be justified is that we stand under the condemnation of God because we are fallen. Remember Romans 5:18, "Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men." Flesh is what we are by human nature, and what we are by human nature is under condemnation. What is the remedy for condemnation? If you are guilty of a capital offense and under the condemnation of a death sentence from God, what will save you? <br />
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I'll tell you what will not save you. Commandments will not save you when your problem is guilt and condemnation. What happens when commandments come? Paul tells us in Romans 7:9, "When the commandment came, sin came alive and I died." The commandments don't bring about redemption, they bring about wrath. Romans 4:15, "The law brings wrath." A man who is guilty and under legal condemnation will not be saved by commandments; he will be saved by acquittal. He needs a judge to pardon and forgive. He needs justification by faith and not by works of the law. That's why Paul comes to the end of his long indictment of the human race in Romans 1-3 by saying, "By works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). <br />
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So the law could not do what absolutely has to be done if we are to be rescued from our guilt and condemnation: it could not justify us. It could not set us right with God. It could not take away our guilt. It could not absorb our condemnation. What it did was show us our guilt (Romans 3:20; 7:7) and to make us even more sinful by stirring up the rebellion of our flesh (5:20; 7:5). "Through the commandment sin [becomes] utterly sinful" (Romans 7:13). <br />
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==== Trust Jesus, not Law-Keeping<br> ====<br />
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So this morning, if you want to be set right with God, don't look to the law. If you want to be acquitted and justified, don't depend on law-keeping. No amount of law-keeping can turn the verdict of guilty to not-guilty. One thing can change that verdict that hangs over your head: the perfect Son of God living and dying in your place. For his sake alone God counts you to be righteous when you trust him. Hence Romans 3:28, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." Trust Jesus, not law-keeping. <br />
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So the law cannot justify us because we are in the flesh, meaning we are fallen and condemned. And commandments of the law cannot remove guilt and condemnation. Only Christ can. <br />
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==== Why Is It that the Law Could not Sanctify Us?<br> ====<br />
<br />
Now we turn to sanctification. Why can't the law sanctify us? Why can't it make us holy and righteous and loving people? Now here there is so much to say that I think I would do a disservice to the truth if I tried to pack it in here at the end of the message. So let me just tell you where we are going, Lord willing, next week as we take up this question and move with it into verses 4-8. <br />
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It is a burning issue today how Christians can live in love and righteousness in the fragile world we have just moved into where fear and anger lie just beneath the surface of our lives. Fear of anthrax and bombs and the collapse of life-sustaining infrastructures we have always taken for granted. And anger at someone or some people and we are not even sure who. <br />
<br />
Do you have the resources in you to be confident and fearless and courageous and patient and kind and fair and loving and sacrificial, not returning evil for evil, but blessing those who curse you and praying for those who persecute you (Romans 12:17; Matthew 5:44)? Where will you look for this? Will you look to the law? <br />
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It won't work. Look to Christ. The living, divine, loving, omnipotent Lord who died for you and rose again and promises to be with you and help you and satisfy your longings in life and death. Look to him. The law cannot sanctify you, but Christ can. That is what we will take up next week, if God wills. <br />
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Till then, if you need to get right with God this morning, look to Christ, not the law. And if you need help being a loving and righteous person this week – and who doesn't – look to Christ, not the law.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man_Part_6Who is This Divided Man Part 62008-10-08T15:18:43Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 6 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 6</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Who is This Divided Man? Part 6]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man%3F_Part_6Who is This Divided Man? Part 62008-10-08T15:18:43Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 6 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 6</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:14-25'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what 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. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== ====<br />
<br />
==== You Cannot Love the Bible and Despise the Mind<br> ====<br />
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You cannot love the Bible and despise the mind. It's true that if you love the Bible, you won't have any rosy notions that the unaided reasoning power of man will save anyone or go very far to solve the deepest problems of our lives. But you will not be able to turn away from the mind and say: Emotion or Spirit or Action is the key to living for Christ. <br />
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I say this because, as I come to the end of the first seven chapters of Romans, I am gripped again by the amazing demands that this divinely-inspired book puts on the minds of its readers. God, who inspired this book, must intend that his people, who are called to meditate on the Word of God day and night, engage our minds and give ourselves to the mental labor that it takes to follow the flow of thought in this book. Don't let your mind become weak and lazy. If you do, you cut yourself off from great blessing. <br />
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Another reason I say that you can't love the Bible and despise the mind is because of what Paul says here in Romans 7:25, "On the one hand I myself ''with my mind ''am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." The instrument with which Paul serves God is his mind. "With my mind I am serving the law of God." So don't despise the mind. And don't belittle the mind. And don't neglect the mind. And don't raise your children without strong mental exercise and training. Devote your mind to God. Help your children use the mind for God's glory. He means it to be an instrument of service. "With my mind I am serving the law of God." May that be said of every one of us. <br />
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==== So let's think more closely about this closing verse of Romans 7.<br> ====<br />
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I've given you nine reasons for believing that the divided man described in Romans 7:14-25 is a Christian – a converted man who is truly saved, justified, born again, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but who also lives with remaining corruption and indwelling sin and the power of the flesh. Now I close this exposition of Romans 7 with one last argument, namely, verse 25. Here's the way the argument works. <br />
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==== 10. The Sober Summary of Verse 25b<br> ====<br />
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Those who believe that these verses are the description of pre-Christian experience generally see in verse 24 and the first part of verse 25 a turning point that leads to the triumphant living of Romans 8. Romans 7:24 poses the question: "Who will set me free from the body of this death?" And then it answers in verse 25a, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" This is usually taken to mean that, after all the failure of Romans 7:14-24 Paul now arrives at a point of triumph and transition. He is moving from the defeated experience of Romans 7 to the triumphant experience of Romans 8. <br />
<br />
But for this interpretation, Romans 7:25b is an embarrassment and a stumbling block. Verse 25b does not fit this understanding. Just when this view expects a triumphant statement about how the divided man is finally united in victory, and beyond conflict, and entirely under the sway of the Spirit, what do you get in verse 25b? You get just what you would expect to get if Romans 7 is really about the normal Christian experience of conflict and struggle. You get a summary statement of the struggling and divided life. Verse 25b says, "So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." <br />
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That's Paul's summary of his experience ''after ''the glorious shout of triumph in verse 24-25a: "Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" "Who will set me free?" He asks. Not: "Who ''has ''set me free?" Then ''after ''the shout of thanks that Christ is the one who ''will ''set him free he says: until that final and decisive deliverance I will be a divided and embattled man. Verse 25b: "So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." <br />
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So argument #10 is that Paul's shout of victory in verse 25a, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord," is ''not ''a signal that he has moved to a new, triumphant kind of life above the battles and losses of Romans 7. Instead this shout of hope is followed by a sober, realistic summary of everything we have seen, namely that Paul, the Christian, is both a new man and an old man. He is both indwelt by the Spirit and harassed by the flesh. He is freed from the dominion of sin and indwelt by remaining corruption. This will be his lot until he dies or until Christ comes. That is the Biblical realism of Romans 7. <br />
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But let's think more closely about this last part of verse 25: "So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." What kind of life is Paul describing here? He is not describing a life that only has failureor only has success. His point here is not how successful he is, or how often he is triumphant or defeated. He is only saying that these two realities exist in him and they explain why he and other Christians are not perfect. The culprit is not the law of God. The culprit is the ''flesh''. Or what he calls in verses 17 and 20, "''indwelling sin''." Or what he calls in verse 21, the "''evil ''that is present with me." <br />
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==== The Mind Is not Intrinsically Good and the Body Is not Intrinsically Bad<br> ====<br />
<br />
And there's another clarification we should make about this verse. We must not get the notion that "the mind" is intrinsically good and the body is intrinsically bad. No, the term "flesh" in this verse does not mean simply "the body" and the term "mind" does not mean simply the natural thinking organ. The "mind" that serves the law of God is Paul's ''renewed ''mind, not the "depraved mind" that Romans 1:28 refers to. Remember Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the ''renewing of your mind ''so that you may prove what the will of God is." In other words, the mind has to be "renewed" in order to prove what the will of God is. So when Paul says in Romans 7:25 that he is serving the law of God with his mind, he means that God is renewing his mind and giving him a measure of victory over the flesh to discern and approve the will of God. <br />
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And the "flesh" is not merely the body. In Galatians 5:20 the "works of the flesh" include "strife, jealousy, anger," not just "immorality, impurity, sensuality." The flesh is the part of Paul's fallen, sinful human nature untransformed by the Holy Spirit. It might come to expression through the body. And it might come to expression through the mind. Colossians 2:18 even refers to "''the mind of the flesh''." So we must be careful here not to elevate the mind to a position of perfection while lowering the body to a position of impurity. That is not the point. Flesh is not the opposite of "mind," but the opposite of the renewed mind. And flesh can also be the opposite of the body when the body is being presented to God as an instrument of righteousness. <br />
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So what Paul is saying in this last verse is that his life of obedience comes from his mind being renewed by the Holy Spirit so that he can prove what is the will of God, and when he fails in thought or feeling or word or act it is the flesh – the old fallen nature – harassing him and getting the upper hand. <br />
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Now, let's step back and ask again how we should live in view of this Biblical Realism we have seen in Romans 7. Let's draw in the other things Paul has said about our nature as Christians. <br />
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==== Already: Decisively and Irrevocably Free; Not Yet: Finally and Perfectly Free<br> ====<br />
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==== Two things should be deeply rooted in your mind as a Christian:<br> ====<br />
<br />
One is that when you believed in Christ, you were united to him and experienced a decisive deliverance from the dominion of sin. Paul says it again and again in Romans 6. Verse 6: "Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin." Verse 14: "Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." Verses 17-18: "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." Also in Romans 8:2, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." When you trusted Christ as your treasure there was a decisive and irrevocable event of deliverance. <br />
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The other thing that should be deeply rooted in your mind is that, even though a decisive deliverance from the dominion of sin has happened, a final and perfect deliverance from the effects of indwelling sin has not yet happened. That is what we have spent five messages unfolding in Romans 7:14-25. "Indwelling sin," "flesh" "evil" are present with us still and threaten to take us captive at any moment. <br />
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So the question is: How are we to live in view of this double truth about ourselves? The answer comes from watching the amazing way that Paul speaks to us about our deliverance and our newness in Christ. What he does again and again is to say: This new man is who you decisively and irrevocably are in Christ. This free man is your deepest and truest identity. Now act on it. Look to Christ, trust his help, and by his Spirit become what you are. <br />
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If your besetting sin is anger, affirm that in Christ you have died to that identity and in Christ you have his patience and kindness. Look to him and trust in him and rejoice in him. And fight against anger as one who has the victory in him. <br />
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If your besetting sin is heterosexual or homosexual lust, affirm that the truth that in Christ you have died to this fallen and distorted identity. I recall many conversations with Joe Hallett who came out of the homosexual life and lived among us with AIDS for 10 years and died a few years ago. He never tired of saying: Do not say "I am a homosexual." Say rather, "I struggle with homosexual desires." That was not a superficial mind over matter trick. It was a profound Biblical insight into Romans 6 and 7: In Christ our old selves have died – whatever their distortion and corruption – and we are decisively and irrevocably new. In Christ Jesus homosexual, fornicator, adulterer, covetous, thief, alcoholic, are ''not ''who we truly are. Affirm that by faith in Christ. Trust him as your all-satisfying treasure and look to him for the help to become (as much as possible in this life) who you truly are in Christ. <br />
<br />
==== Become What You Are<br> ====<br />
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Let's close by looking at how Paul says this, so that you can see it is really there in the Word of God. The way he does it is with a strong statement of fact that Christians are new, accompanied by an equally strong command that we become new. Here are some of the examples in the New Testament. <br />
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1. ''Statement of newness'': Romans 6:14, "Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." ''Command to become new'': Romans 6:12, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body." <br />
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2. ''Statement of newness'': Romans 6:18, "Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." ''Command to become new'': Romans 6:19, "Present your members as slaves to righteousness." <br />
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3. ''Statement of newness'': Romans 6:6, "Our old self was crucified with Him." ''Command to become new:'' Romans 6:11, "Consider yourselves to be dead to sin." <br />
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4. ''Statement of newness'': Colossians 3:9, "You laid aside the old self with its evilpractices." ''Command to become new'': Ephesians 4:22 "Lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit." <br />
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5. ''Statement of newness'': Colossians 3:10, "You have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." ''Command to become new'': "Ephesians 4:24, "Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." <br />
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6. ''Statement of newness'': Galatians 3:27, "All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." ''Command to become new: ''Romans 13:14, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ." <br />
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7.''Statement of newness'': Galatians 5:24, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." ''Command to become new'': "Romans 13:14b, "Make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." <br />
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8. ''Command to become new'': 1 Corinthians 5:7a, "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump [of dough]." ''Statement of newness'': 1 Corinthians 5:7b, ". . . just as you are in fact unleavened." <br />
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When Paul says in Romans 7:25b, "I myself with my mind am serving the law of God," he means, By the transforming power of the Spirit I set my mind on the treasure of Jesus Christ and all that God is for me in him (2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 2:3, 9); and all that I am in him (2 Corinthians 5:17) and all I will become through him (Philippians 1:11). And I believe him and trust in his help and power. And I act on that faith. And if I stumble, I do not yield to the temptation to deny Christ or my true life in him. I repent and I revel in his forgiveness and I fight on. <br />
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Let's join him. Do not be conformed to this world but by the renewing of our minds let us serve the law of God!</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man_Part_5Who is This Divided Man Part 52008-10-08T15:18:11Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 5 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 5</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Who is This Divided Man? Part 5]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man%3F_Part_5Who is This Divided Man? Part 52008-10-08T15:18:11Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 5 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 5</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:14-25'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what 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. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
<br />
Is the experience of this divided man in Romans 7:14-25 the experience of Paul, the born again, Christian man – and therefore a picture of part of our own Christian experience – or is this divided man a description of Paul before he was converted? We have answered: It is Christian experience. And therefore there is much to learn here about who we are as Christians. And oh, how crucial it is that we know ourselves realistically lest we become proud with the ''presumption ''of perfection in this life, or become hopeless with the ''impossibility ''of perfection in this life. Pastorally, the great aim of these messages on Romans 7 is to draw you away from presumption to humility and away from despair to hope. <br />
<br />
I have given you seven reasons, so far, for seeing the passage this way. Today I will give you two more, and then wrap up Romans 7 on the following Sunday – at least that's my plan. And, as always, the point is not merely to argue for the view that this passage is about Christian experience, but to explain the view and show its relevance to all of us. Reasons for believing something usually explain better what you are believing. That is what I hope happens today – with the effect of humble hope and hopeful humility in our lives. <br />
<br />
==== 8. The Body of This Death<br> ====<br />
<br />
Some would ask, "Can a real Christian cry out with the words of verse 24b, 'Who will set me free from the body of this death?' Is a Christian trapped or enslaved or imprisoned in a 'body of death'"? My answer to this is: "Can a real Christian NOT cry out, 'Who will set me free from the body of this death?'" <br />
<br />
Of course the cry is accompanied by the answer to the cry in the following words in verse 25, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" In other words, God will set me free from the body of this death. And he will do it through Jesus Christ our Lord. <br />
<br />
But we must ask, "What does it mean not to be set free now from the body of this death?" That is what gives some people pause – to think that a believer should think of himself as unfree, or imprisoned in a "body of death." What does that mean? And what does Paul mean by being set free from this body of death? <br />
<br />
First, let's make sure we clarify what he does not mean. Someone might hear Paul talk about being set free from the body of death and think that he regards the body itself as evil and the spirit as good, and that salvation consists in the spirit flying free from the carcass of the body. There are philosophies and religions that think that way about body and spirit, the material world and the immaterial world. Spirit is good. Body is bad. The material stuff of the universe is unreal and burdensome. But the immaterial stuff – the spirit – is real and good. Salvation means shedding the material and being caught up in and united to the universal Spirit. <br />
<br />
That is emphatically not what Christianity teaches. Paul faced that kind of teaching about the material world and about the body. He was emphatic in denying it. For example, when some people in Corinth said that certain foods were unclean, he said in 1 Corinthians 10:25-26, "Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience' sake; for the earth is the Lord's, and all it contains." In other words, God made it, God owns it, and it is good. You are free to eat it. <br />
<br />
But what about the body? In 1 Corinthians 6:13 he said, "The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body." The body is not a piece of throw-away junk that we are glad to get rid of at death. It is designed by the Lord for the Lord: "The body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body." In 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20, Paul says, "You are not your own. For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." Christ died to buy your body. For what? It does not belong to you. You have it as a trust for one ultimate purpose: to use it in ways that make God look like an all-satisfying treasure – to glorify God. That is what the body is for. (See Philippians 1:20; Romans 6:13, 19.) <br />
<br />
==== Resurrection, not Throw-away Junk<br> ====<br />
<br />
That is why the Christian hope is resurrection of the body, not trashing of the body. You will have a body forever and ever. If being set free from the curse of a material body were the Christian hope, then Paul would not have taught us that our bodies will be raised from the dead. In Philippians 3:21 he says, "[Christ] will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory." You will have a body in the resurrection forever and ever – either a glorious, satisfied one in the kingdom of God, or a horrible, suffering one in hell. <br />
<br />
So when Paul says in Romans 7:24b "Who will set me free from the body of this death?" he does not mean that the body is evil and that salvation is to shed the body the way a butterfly sheds a cocoon. What then does he mean? What does "body of this death" refer to? <br />
<br />
He means two things, at least: First, the body is going to die because we all inherit the curse of Adam (Romans 5:12); and second, the body joins forces with sin and bears fruit for death (Romans 7:5). The body is going to die because we are all fallen creatures; and the body is going to die because it is a traitor. It partners with sin to bring us into bondage over and over again (Romans 6:13). So the body is a "body of death" not because it is intrinsically evil, but because it is fallen and sells out to evil. <br />
<br />
Paul explains the term "body of this death" a few verses later in Romans 8:10. He says, "If Christ is in you, though the ''body is dead because of sin'', yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness." This body is as good as dead. It is going to die. That's the effect of the curse. <br />
<br />
So what is Paul crying out for when he says in Romans 7:24, "Who will set me free from the body of this death?" He is not crying out for separation of body and spirit. He could accomplish that with suicide. He is crying out for deliverance from the body's temptations now and finally for the redemption of his body at the resurrection. Romans 8:11 goes on to say, "But 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 dwells in you." Your body is going to be raised. That's what he yearns for – a redeemed resurrection body. <br />
<br />
In other words, the redemption – the liberation – that Christ purchased on the cross is applied to us in stages, not all at once. We saw it in Romans 8:10, that your spirit is alive and will never die but your body is doomed to die. Or look how Romans 8:23 says it: "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." Our redemption comes to us in stages: Already, now we have the Holy Spirit. And already now our spirits are alive because of Christ's righteousness. But we still groan. Why? Because we must wait for our bodies to be redeemed. When will that happen? At the resurrection. <br />
<br />
"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" That is the real cry of a Christian saint. Not because we are not redeemed, but because the redemption Christ bought for us comes to us in stages. First, life in the Spirit and justification and progressive sanctification; ''then ''at the resurrection, the redemption of the body. Till then it is a body of death, and we groan. We groan because of its diseases and we groan because of its treasonous complicity with sin. Romans 7:24 is a Christian cry. <br />
<br />
==== 9. The Law of Sin and Death<br> ====<br />
<br />
How shall we answer the counter-argument that Romans 8:1-2 seems to signal that in Christ the failures of Romans 7 are left behind? Paul begins Romans 8 with these words: "Therefore there is now [!] no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." Many commentators take this to mean that the experience of Romans 7 is past and done with. <br />
<br />
Note especially the term "law of sin and death" in verse 2 and compare it to Romans 7:22-23, "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me''a prisoner of the law of sin'' which is in my members." There you see the term, "law of sin." It is a principle or power or rule of sin working through the body (just as we have seen – making the body a "body of death"), and taking Paul captive so that he does what he doesn't want to do. <br />
<br />
But in Romans 8:2 it says, "''Now ''. . . the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from ''the law of sin''." So those on the other side of this debate say, "You see, Romans 7 is describing the experience of a person before they are in Christ – before they are Christian. Before you are a Christian and have the Holy Spirit, the 'law of sin' takes you captive. And after you become a Christian and have the Holy Spirit, you are free from the law of sin." <br />
<br />
But is it that simple? Does Romans 8:2 have to mean that after you become a Christian this principle or rule or authority of sin never gets the upper hand? I have tried to show for several sermons now that this is not what Paul teaches. In fact, he teaches just the opposite. Sin does threaten –all the time – to get the upper hand in the Christian life and we must fight against it. Verse 13 of chapter 8 says, we must "put to death the deeds of the body." Romans 6:13 says, "Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." The battle is real. Temporary defeat is possible. <br />
<br />
So what does the freedom of Romans 8:2 mean then when it says, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin"? I think it means exactly what Romans 6:14 means when it says, "Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." Virtually nobody takes that to mean that at the moment you are justified you become sinlessly perfect. Most people agree that it means: the decisive, final power of sin to dominate and destroy your life is broken. You enter a new freedom. With the power of the Spirit you can defeat sin. <br />
<br />
So when Paul says in Romans 7:23 that the "law of sin" takes him captive, and then says in Romans 8:2 that the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him free from the law of sin, I think he means that the defeat and captivity of Romans 7:23 is not his chief or final condition. The Spirit ''has ''set him free from the "law of sin" as the decisive, final power to defeat and destroy him. The Spirit often gives him the victory. And increasingly gives him the victory. And in the end will give him the final victory. And he cannot be destroyed by the "law of sin" because the back of the enemy has been broken. His head has been severed from his body. We fight him as we fight a defeated foe. And in Christ Jesus who has bought the victory we will win. Let me close with this application. In view of the Bible's description of our human condition – that there is a "law of sin and death," and that the body is under a curse and becomes the base of operations for this law of sin, and is therefore a body of death, and in view of the fact that our redemption in Christ Jesus from the "law of sin" and the body of death comes progressively and in stages – all this should prepare us not to be surprised or unduly shaken when we meet in ourselves and in others excessive and distorted bodily desires that tempt us to sin. <br />
<br />
==== Excessive and Distorted Desires<br> ====<br />
<br />
We see excessive desires for leisure tempting us to laziness. We see excessive desires for food tempting us to gluttony. We see excessive desires for drink tempting us to alcoholism. We see excessive desires for sex tempting us to lustfulness. And on top of that the law of sin not only stirs up excessive desires, it produces distorted desires. We see distorted desires for food tempting people to eat gray river clay in some southern states or binge on bags of cookies. We see distorted desires for sex tempting people to go after satisfaction with people of the same sex. We see people with distorted desires for pleasure tempting people to use marijuana or speed or cocaine or LSD. <br />
<br />
And what I want to do, as always, is point you to a Biblical realism in Jesus Christ. By faith in Christ we are united to him. He becomes our pardon and our righteousness. And his Spirit is given to us. And the issue now is not: Do you have excessive desires or distorted desires? The issue is: Will you continue to cry out with Paul: "O wretched man that I am" and look away from yourself to Christ as your only hope, and fight in the power that he supplies and put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13)? Or will you surrender and sell out finally to an alien slave-master and make peace with the body of death and the law of sin? <br />
<br />
Jesus Christ, who died to purchase your body for his glory, is worthy of your fullest allegiance. Christ can save. No one else. Don't forsake him for the fleeting pleasures of the law of sin and the body of death.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man_Part_4Who is This Divided Man Part 42008-10-08T15:17:37Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 4 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 4</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Who is This Divided Man? Part 4]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man%3F_Part_4Who is This Divided Man? Part 42008-10-08T15:17:37Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 4 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 4</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:14-25'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what 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. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== ====<br />
<br />
==== A Christian's Own Experience<br> ====<br />
<br />
The last time we were together on June 24 we were focusing our attention for the third time on Romans 7:14-25. I gave five arguments that persuade me that the experience of this divided man, who doesn't do what he wants to do (verse 19), is in fact Paul's own experience. He is describing himself at times in his Christian life, and he is describing all of us at times in our Christian life. <br />
<br />
Some of you might not be aware that there is quite a dispute even among sound Biblical scholars over whether the description of Paul in this text is Paul before he was a believer, or Paul after he became a believer. Or is it some other non-Christian or pre-Christian experience? The view I am arguing for is that this is Paul's own experience as a believer – and ours. <br />
<br />
Just to review, I am not saying that Christians live only in defeat. But I am saying that no Christian lives only in perfect victory over sin. And in those times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:14-25 shows us the normal way a healthy Christian should respond. We should say: <br />
<blockquote><br />
#I love the law of God (verse 22). <br />
#I hate what I just did (verse 15). <br />
#Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death (verse 24)? <br />
#Thanks be to God! The victory will come through Jesus Christ my Lord (verse 25). <br><br />
</blockquote><br />
In other words, no Christian wants to live this way – in defeat. No Christian settles to live this way. But if we do live this way for a time, we shouldn't lie about it. No hypocrisy. No posing. No boasted perfectionism. No churchy, pasted smiles or chipper superficiality. God save us from blindness to our own failures and the consequent quickness to judge others. God help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others. God give us the honesty and candor and humility of the apostle Paul in this text! <br />
<br />
On vacation I read a book published in 1797 by William Wilberforce, the Christian Member of Parliament in England who spent decades fighting the slave trade. It is called ''A Practical View of Christianity'' (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1996, orig. 1797). It is a penetrating and insightful book, especially when you realize that the author was a politician, not a professional theologian. <br />
<br />
I mention it because he spoke several times about the experience of Romans 7 and the remaining corruption and depravity that is in every one of us. <br />
<br />
For example, in one place he is arguing for a deeper sense of our natural depravity that most of the church in England in the 1790's were insensitive to. He offers as one evidence of it the testimony of every "watchful, diligent, self-denying Christian." <br />
<br />
He will tell you, that every day strengthens this conviction; yea, that hourly he sees fresh reason to deplore his want of simplicity in intention, his infirmity of purpose, his low views, his selfish, unworthy desires, his backwardness to set about his duty, his languor and coldness in performing it: that he finds himself obliged continually to confess, that he feels within him two opposite principles, and that 'he cannot do the things that he would' [see Romans 7:19]. (p. 17) <br />
<br />
In another place he argues that the "seminal principle" of new life in Christ must grow and bear fruit in a spiritual and moral climate of this world that is highly inhospitable to the fruit of holiness. It's like trying to grow a peach tree in Minnesota. There will be fruit in the Christian life. God will see to that. "But while the servants of Christ continue in this life, glorious as is the issue of their labors, they receive many humiliating memorials of their remaining imperfections, and daily find reason to confess that they cannot do the things that they would [see Romans 7:18-19]" (pp. 81-82). <br />
<br />
==== Balancing Between Pride and Hopelessness<br> ====<br />
<br />
That is the view that most Christians have had of this text for twenty centuries and that is the view I am arguing for. Romans 7:14-25 is Paul's description of true Christian experience. Last time I gave five arguments and I have five more – at least. I don't multiply these arguments mainly to make you good arguers. Good arguers often get big heads and just try to win debates for the sake of ego. I multiply these arguments so that you will know your real condition as a Christian and will walk the precarious line between cocky presumption that you are above sin, and hopeless despair because you never live up to the demand for perfection in this life. My goal is to push you away from pride toward humility, and away from despair toward hope. The biblical realism of Romans 7 is meant to save you from ''moral pride ''on one side and ''immoral hopelessness ''on the other side. Romans 7 is a great help in balancing on this tightrope. <br />
<br />
So let's pick up where we left off on June 24. The fifth argument that shows Paul is talking about real Christian experience came from the life of Peter. We all know he failed miserably by denying Christ three times. He did not do what he wanted to do. And when he was weeping bitterly we may safely assume he was saying something like Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am!" <br />
<br />
But not all of us may realize that he failed again in the same way years later, as Paul describes it in Galatians 2. This is after seeing the risen Christ, after Pentecost, after being filled repeatedly with the Holy Spirit. The failure was so serious that Paul felt he had to rebuke him in public and then record it in a letter for all the world to read about. <br />
<br />
Peter, as a Jew experiencing his freedom in Christ, was eating with Gentiles in Antioch. Then some strict Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem who did not understand Christian liberty. Paul says in Galatians 2:12, "When they came, [Peter] began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, ''fearing ''the party of the circumcision." Notice the sin of fear. It was the same old besetting sin that defeated him at the trial of Jesus. Years later he was still struggling with the same sin. This is what I think Romans 7 is referring to. A great saint, an apostle, being defeated temporarily by sin. So much so, that Paul says the effect was terrible and the very gospel was compromised. Verse 13: "The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy." <br />
<br />
So I argued that Paul gives us a good illustration from the life of Peter of what he means by the experience of Romans 7 – not a pre-Christian experience, but a Christian experience of failure: "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." <br />
<br />
That was argument # 5 from last time. Now let's stay here in Galatians for argument # 6. <br />
<br />
==== 6. A Divided ''You''<br> ====<br />
<br />
Argument # 6 is that in Galatians 5:17 Paul uses language very close to Romans 7, but everyone agrees that in Galatians it is a description of Christian experience. He is talking to Christians who have the Holy Spirit and yet who also have another power at work in them. He calls it the flesh. He says in verse 17, "The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that [now here comes the language of Romans 7] you may not do the things that you please." <br />
<br />
Notice this carefully. Paul does not merely talk about Spirit opposing flesh and flesh opposing Spirit – as though we somehow were innocent bystanders watching the battle happen. No, he does the same thing that he does in Romans 7 and talks about a divided ''you''. So at the end of Galatians 5:17 he says, "''you ''do not do the things that ''you ''please (i[na mh. a] eva.n qe,lhte tau/ta poih/te)." You want to do one thing. You do another thing. There is a divided will. I think this is the very experience of Romans 7. In Galatians, it is the experience of the Christian person who has the Holy Spirit. So this is argument # 6 that Romans 7 is Christian experience. <br />
<br />
==== 7. Sin as a Slave Master<br> ====<br />
<br />
Argument #7 is an attempt to answer the strongest argument against the view that I am defending. I think the strongest argument that Paul is not describing Christian experience here would be the wording of Romans 7:14b, where Paul says, "I am of flesh [or, I am carnal, or fleshly], sold into bondage to sin [literally: sold under sin]." Would Paul really say of a Christian, "I am sold under sin"? The imagery of being "sold" is the imagery of slavery. A slave master seems to have bought him and he is sold. The slave master is sin. Can a Christian ever say, "I am sold under the slave master of sin"? <br />
<br />
I admit this is a very good argument. If it weren't for all the other counter-arguments I would be persuaded by it. For example, at least six times in Romans 6 Christians are spoken of as freed from the slave master of sin (verses 6, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22). Verse 18: "Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." <br />
<br />
It is not impossible that Paul could speak of a Christian as temporarily "sold under sin." Paul doesn't have to be saying that the person who sins moves from being a Christian to being a non-Christian. He may only be saying that in the moment of failure, sin got the upper hand, like a slave master temporarily getting control of a person who is not really his. <br />
<br />
Isn't this exactly what Paul warns against in Romans 6:12? He says to Christians, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts." In other words, since you are ''not really ''slaves of sin and sin ''will not ''have dominion over you, therefore act like it. Stay free. Don't give sin any victories as an alien slave master. Don't sell yourself to sin! But the assumption seems to be: We might for a season "let sin reign," that is, give in to the old slave master. <br />
<br />
In Galatians 5:1, Paul says something even more striking and helpful in this regard, suggesting that Christians do need to watch out for slavery. He says, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." Don't give in to the old ways as Peter did. Why? That would be like going back to slavery. Paul uses the very language of slavery to describe what might happen to the Christian, temporarily, if he is not vigilant. We might for a time "let sin reign" or "submit to a yoke of slavery." <br />
<br />
This is what I think Paul is describing in Romans 7:14b when he says, "I am carnal, sold under sin." When he gives in to temptation and does what he does not want to do, he knows that he has temporarily been mastered by sin and he is like a sold slave. So, even though the argument is strong, I don't think it is unanswerable. <br />
<br />
==== How Does This Af fect My Life?<br> ====<br />
<br />
Let's save the remaining arguments for next week and close by asking, "What then should we do? How then should we respond to this condition in living the Christian life?" <br />
<blockquote><br />
#Remember the promise that we are justified by faith apart from works of the law (Romans 3:28) and trust in him who justifies the ungodly (4:5). Christ is our righteousness (Romans 10:4). Receive him; embrace him as your only hope of life before a holy God. <br />
#Remember the promise that we are also sanctified by faith. A life of fruitfulness for the glory of God does not come first and decisively through law-keeping, but through personal union and satisfying fellowship with Christ by faith. Romans 7:4 is one of the most important verses in the whole book of Romans on how to live the Christian life: "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, [Why? Why dead to the law? Why joined to Christ? Answer:] in order that we might bear fruit for God." You die to the law and are joined to the risen Christ so that you might bear fruit for God. <br>A radically changed life that honors Christ does not come first or decisively through the law. It comes through being joined by faith in an all-satisfying fellowship with Jesus Christ. So get to know him! This is why I wrote ''Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ''. Get to know him. See him. Receive him. Trust him. Enjoy him. Walk with him outside the camp of comfort on the Calvary road of love and sacrifice. <br />
#Remember that there is a world of difference – a difference between heaven and hell – between a soldier who experiences tactical defeats, but keeps fighting on his way to victory, and a soldier who surrenders to the enemy because war is just too painful and the enemy territory just too attractive.<br />
</blockquote><br />
There is a difference between the divided man of Romans 7 and a sellout. Don't sell out. Trust Christ and fight sin.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man_Part_2Who is This Divided Man Part 22008-10-08T15:16:53Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 2 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 2</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Who is This Divided Man? Part 2]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man%3F_Part_2Who is This Divided Man? Part 22008-10-08T15:16:53Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 2 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 2</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:14-25'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what 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. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== ====<br />
<br />
==== The Law Doesn't Justify or Sanctify<br> ====<br />
<br />
Paul's aim in Romans 7:7-25 is to support the teaching, up to this point in the book, that the Law of Moses - or the law written on the heart of all men - is powerless to declare us righteous before God and powerless to make us righteous before God. We are sinners by nature and by action. Therefore the Law condemns us and stirs up rebellion within us. It doesn't justify and it doesn't sanctify. <br />
<br />
Therefore God, in his mercy, has made his righteousness available for us another way, apart from the Law (3:21), namely through Jesus Christ his Son. So to be declared righteous (to be justified) we must turn from ''our ''law-keeping to ''Christ's ''law-keeping. We must receive Christ as our treasure, and be declared righteous because of our union with him by faith, not because of any righteousness in us. That's how we are ''declared ''perfectly righteous before God. <br />
<br />
Then to ''become ''righteous (to be sanctified) we must also turn from law-keeping, or as Paul says in Romans 7:4, we must die to the Law and be united with Christ so that we might bear fruit for God. So ''justification ''is by faith in union with Christ, and ''sanctification ''is by faith in union with Christ. And both involve turning away from the Law as the decisive means of ''getting right ''with God and ''becoming like ''God. <br />
<br />
Romans 7:7-25 is written to support that teaching. In an unusual way. It answers an objection. The objection is that all this teaching on justification by faith and sanctification by faith - all this talk about getting right with God "apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:21) and bearing fruit for God by "dying to the law" really undermines the law and makes it sinful and deadly. That's the objection. <br />
<br />
Paul had already faced it back in 3:31 where he said, "Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law." Now in Romans 7:7 he asks, "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin?" And in verse 13 he asks, "Did that which is good become a cause of death for me?" You see that he is answering an objection: Paul, you are saying that the law of God is sinful and poisonous. If that is true, then Paul's doctrine is false. So he defends and supports his doctrine of justification by faith and sanctification by faith by arguing that the Law is holy, just, good, and spiritual. It is powerless to justify and sanctify not because it is sinful and deadly, but because I am sinful and my sin is deadly. Therefore this objection to his teaching on justification by faith and sanctification by faith falls to the ground. And the glorious truth of the gospel stands. That's the point of Romans 7. <br />
<br />
==== A Peculiar Way to Defend the Law<br> ====<br />
<br />
Now here's a crucial question - and it leads to something very practical for your life: Why did Paul go about defending the Law and answering this objection in this peculiar way - namely, by describing the experience of this divided man in Romans 7:14-25? The man who says in verse 19, "The good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." How does this long, drawn-out description of this man's turmoil and sense of wretchedness (verse 24: "Wretched man that I am!") serve his purposes? Why not just say that the Law is holy and good and that sin is the real culprit? Just say it. <br />
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To answer this question I need to tell you where I stand on who this divided man is. Remember from last week, some say Romans 7:14-25 is Paul's description of his experience before he was a Christian; and some say that it is his description of his experience as a Christian. <br />
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Well, I think the second position is right. Paul is speaking about himself here as a Christian. Let me say immediately that I do not mean we should settle in and coast with worldly living and a defeatist mentality. We should not make peace with our sin; we should make war on our sin. Defeat is not the only, or the even the main, experience of the Christian life. But it is part of it. I agree with J. I. Packer who wrote an article on this passage two years ago to defend the view that I am taking here. He said <br />
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Paul is not telling us that the life of the "wretched man" is as bad as it could be, only that it is not as good as it should be, and that because the man delights in the law and longs to keep it perfectly his continued inability to do so troubles him acutely. . . . The "wretched man" is Paul himself, spontaneously voicing his distress at not being a better Christian than he is, and all we know of Paul personally fits in with this supposition. <br />
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So I think what Paul is saying is ''not ''that Christians live in continual defeat, but that no Christian lives in continual victory over sin. And in those moments and times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:14-25 is the normal way a healthy Christian should respond. He should say, <br />
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·''I love the Law of God''. Verse 22: "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." <br />
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· ''I hate what I just did''. Verse 15: "I am doing the very thing I hate." <br />
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· ''Oh the wretchedness I feel in these times! I long for deliverance from this body that constantly threatens to kill me, and that I have to mortify day after day''. Verse 24: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (see Romans 6:6; 8:10, 13). <br />
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Nobody should want to live this way. Or settle to live this way. That's not the point. The point is, when you do live this way, this is the Christian response. No lying. No hypocrisy. No posing. No vaunted perfectionism. Lord, deliver us from a church like that - with its pasted smiles, and chipper superficiality, and blindness to our own failures, and consequent quickness to judge others. God give us the honesty and candor and humility of the apostle Paul. <br />
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So that is the view I want to defend. Romans 7:14-25 is part of Christian experience - not ideal, but real. <br />
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==== The Law and Indwelling Sin<br> ====<br />
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Now what? Well, now we can go back to what I called a crucial question a moment ago: Why did Paul go about defending the Law in this peculiar way? Remember, that's what he's doing: answering the objection that the doctrines of justification by faith and sanctification by faith treat the Law like sin and poison. Why did he defend the Law by describing his experience in times of Christian failure? "The good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want" (7:19). How does dealing with the imperfect Christian and the Law help him defend the Law against this false charge that he is making the Law to be sin and death? <br />
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Well, here's the problem with Christian experience: Paul has just said in Romans 7:4 that Christians must die to the Law and embrace Christ in order to bear fruit for God. But, the objector says, look at Christians. Look at the church of Corinth; look at the church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:17); look at Bethlehem. You know what you get, Paul, when you die to the Law? You get Romans 7:19, "The good that I want, I do not do." You say in Romans 3:31 that your doctrine is really establishing the Law. You say in Romans 8:4 that those who live by the Spirit fulfill the Law. But look at real Christian experience. Look at your own! You know what your problem is Paul? You don't love the Law. And you treat the Law as the problem, not the solution. <br />
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So what's his answer to this objection? Well first of all, his answer is to tackle the problem head on. He deals with Christian experience. And we can see the essence of his answer in four pairs of statements. One half of each pair says that Christians love the Law and delight in the Law, and the other half says that our failures are not owing to disrespect for the Law but to the power of indwelling sin. So his answer is twofold: esteem for the Law and acknowledgement of indwelling sin. <br />
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==== Pair #1 ====<br />
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· ''Esteem for Law: ''Romans 7:14a, "For we know that the Law is spiritual." <br />
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· ''Acknowledgement of indwelling sin:'' Romans 7:14b, "But I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin." <br />
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==== Pair #2 ====<br />
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· ''Esteem for Law'': Romans 7:16, "But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good." <br />
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· ''Acknowledgement of indwelling sin'': Romans 7:17, "So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me (''he oikousa en emoi hamartia'')." (Here is where the term "indwelling sin" comes from. And you can see it again in 7:20: "But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me&nbsp;[''he oikousa en emoi hamartia'']). <br />
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==== Pair #3<br> ====<br />
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· ''Esteem for Law'': Romans 7:22, "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." <br />
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· ''Acknowledgement of indwelling sin'': Romans 7:23, "But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members." <br />
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==== Pair #4<br> ====<br />
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· ''Esteem for Law:'' Romans 7:25b, "So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God." <br />
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· ''Acknowledgement of indwelling sin'': Romans 7:25c, "But on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." <br />
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So Paul's answer is that the Christian loves the Law of God, esteems the Law of God, delights in the Law of God, concurs with it, regards it as good, and does not blame the Law for his own failures. Instead the Christian admits – and here is a crucial and practical teaching that I will close with - that there is in all of us Christians, as long as this fallen age lasts and we live on the earth, the reality of "indwelling sin" (7:17, 20). <br />
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In other words, the Law does not cause our defeats, the Law defines our victories. Indwelling sin causes our defeats. And Paul is very jealous in chapters 6-8 that we not overstate or understate the measure of holiness possible in this fallen age where Christians are delivered from the dominion of sin and yet groan awaiting the full redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23) and the "law of sin" connected with them. <br />
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==== A Personal Example from J. I. Packer's Life<br> ====<br />
<br />
I'll end with a personal illustration from J. I. Packer's life that shows how crucial it is that we not get off balance here with either extreme and begin to say either that there is no holiness necessary or that perfection is possible in this age. (Packer teaches theology at Regent College in Vancouver.) <br />
<br />
I've heard him tell the story in person, and I've read it in two different books. In 1944 he was studying Latin and Greek in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and playing in a jazz band called "Oxford Bandits." One evening he attended a meeting of the Christian Union and heard a sermon from a relatively unknown preacher named Earl Langston. He said, "The scales fell from my eyes . . . and I saw the way in." <br />
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But soon came the crisis. There was a good bit of false teaching around Oxford, especially regarding perfectionism and the possibility of a second experience of "sanctification by faith" - by which they meant a crisis experience after which you wouldn't have any more struggle with sin, which is not what I mean by that term! Packer had a very sensitive conscience and could not deceive himself. He was not perfect and no matter how many times he reconsecrated himself to God there was still no perfection. He said it could easily have led him to suicide if it were not for two great discoveries: the writings of John Owen on indwelling sin (especially volumes 6 and 7 of his ''Works'') and the writings of J. C. Ryle (especially his book on ''Holiness''). Here he learned the Biblical realism of "indwelling sin" and the ongoing fight of faith and the glorious rest that comes from God's righteousness imputed to us in Christ by faith alone. <br />
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We have barely gotten our feet wet in this river of truth. There is so much more to say about this divided man of Romans 7. But I pray that what we have seen will be used by God to cause scales to fall from your eyes, and help you find your way between hopeless perfectionism on the one side and hopeless defeat on the other. The mark of the Christian is not perfection, but the fight of faith showing itself in imperfect love by the power of the Spirit and in the joyful confidence that God justifies the ungodly. So take Christ as your righteousness and fight to treasure him and his ways above all things.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man_Part_1Who is This Divided Man Part 12008-10-08T15:16:18Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 1 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 1</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Who is This Divided Man? Part 1]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Who_is_This_Divided_Man%3F_Part_1Who is This Divided Man? Part 12008-10-08T15:16:18Z<p>Kryndontpay: Who is This Divided Man Part 1 moved to Who is This Divided Man? Part 1</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:14-25'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what 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. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== ====<br />
<br />
==== Christian or Non-Christian? – To Be Continued<br> ====<br />
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This is one of the most famous texts in the book of Romans and one of the most controversial. Here we have the well-known words of verse 19: "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." Here we have a divided man, or a man with a divided will, or a divided heart. There is the part of him – the "I" – who wants to do good and does not want to do evil. And there is the part of him – the "I" – who does not do the good he wants but does the evil he does not want. <br />
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One of the biggest disagreements over this text is who this man is. Whose experience is Paul describing? Is this the experience of Paul, the believer? Or is this the experience of Paul, the unbeliever? Christian or non-Christian? Or should we pose the question with more precision: Is this a morally awakened but unconverted Paul? Or is this the spiritually quickened converted Paul who is new and immature in the faith? Or could this be the mature Christian Paul, but in times of lapsed faith and vigilance? I don't think I will tell you today what I think the answer is. I would like you to be thinking and studying this passage for yourselves without being sure what I think. <br />
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I do believe you can make a more or less plausible case for all of these possibilities and that none of them necessarily leads you into false teaching on the larger, over-all view of sanctification. In other words, it is possible to be wrong on our interpretation of one text but right in our view of the Christian life. You might say, "This text is ''not ''about Christian experience," and still believe that Christians have experiences like this - sometimes doing what we don't want to do. Or you might say, "This text ''is ''about Christian experience," and still believe that much more victory over sin is possible than this in the Christian life. <br />
<br />
So what we conclude (about whether Romans 7:14-25 refers to Christian experience or not) does not describe our whole view of Christian experience. There are dozens of other very important texts in the New Testament that we have to stir into the mix to see the bigger picture of the Christian life. Beware of people who build their views on isolated passages. That is where most cults and quirky interpretations come from. <br />
<br />
But before we talk about the pros and cons of these various views, note the main purpose of the text. It may be surprising to you, but I think the main point of this text will stand clear and unassailed on any of the views I just mentioned about whether this divided man is a Christian or not. Now what is that main point? Why are these verses here? Where is Paul going? <br />
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==== Someone Else's Righteousness Credited to Us by Faith<br> ====<br />
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Let me try to sum it up for you. <br />
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The book of Romans is about how sinful human beings - that is, all human beings (3:9) - who have fallen short of God's glory (3:20) and dishonored him with our lives (1:21) and therefore deserve his wrath (1:32; 2:5), are made right with God - that is, are justified on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done for us in his life and death and resurrection (3:24-25; 5:18-19). <br />
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Paul's answer to the greatest human problem - namely, our sinful guilt before a holy and just God - is that God himself, through his Son, Jesus Christ, has provided a righteousness for us that is not our own, but is imputed or reckoned to us through faith alone, not through works. You see this especially in Romans 4:5-6, "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works." So you see this enormously important word "credited" - or "reckoned" or "imputed." At the end of verse 5: "His faith is credited as righteousness." And the end of verse 6: "God credits righteousness apart from works." <br />
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The glorious gospel truth of Romans is that God provides a righteousness that is not our righteousness and he credits it to us through our faith. Faith looks away from our own deeds and performances of the Law as a hopeless way to be justified, and trusts in Jesus Christ alone as the basis for God's crediting us with an alien righteousness, which is not our own. <br />
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Whose then is it? Romans 3:21-22 tells us: "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of ''God ''has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe." The righteousness that is credited to us through faith is "the righteousness of God." It is God's own righteousness, not ours (see Philippians 3:9). <br />
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You can see even more clearly in Romans 10:3-4 whose righteousness this is that justifies us: "For not knowing about ''God's ''righteousness and seeking to establish ''their own'', they did not subject themselves to the ''righteousness of God''." What does that "subjecting" ourselves to the righteousness of God look like today, which is so different from "establishing our own righteousness"? Paul answers in verse 4 (which says literally), "For the end (or goal) of the Law [is] Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes." <br />
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To submit to the righteousness of God, instead of establishing your own, is to realize that the goal of the Law was to lead us to "Christ for righteousness." And that we have "Christ for righteousness" by faith - it is for everyone who believes. So when Paul says in Romans 5:19, "For as through the one man's disobedience [namely, Adam's] the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous," I think he means that Christ so obeyed God and his Law that by faith in him and union with him his obedience, or his righteousness, becomes mine. It is God's righteousness because it consists in keeping God's will perfectly and it is enabled by God and it is acceptable to God and it is God's gift to us in Jesus Christ. <br />
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So Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "[God] made [Christ,] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." In Christ we "become the righteousness of God." This, God's righteousness accomplished by Jesus Christ, is credited to our account the way our sins were credited to his account. This is the glory of the gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. This is the main thrust of the book of Romans. <br />
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It is gloriously good news for sinners. And O how I hope you feel the wonder and preciousness of this gospel this morning. Do you see it and savor it? I beseech you, on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God this morning by looking away from your own works and receiving Jesus Christ as your only justifying righteousness - the treasure of your life. <br />
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==== The Law Is a Big Problem in Getting Right with God<br> ====<br />
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But what's the point of chapter seven? How does it fit into this main purpose of Romans? <br />
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Here's the problem. Along the way, Paul has argued passionately against justification by works of the Law. We do not get right with God by law-keeping, but by faith alone. And in the process he even seemed to say that the Law is part of our problem, not part of our rescue. For example: Romans 3:20, "By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." Or Romans 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." Or, even more shockingly, Romans 5:20, "The Law came in [God gave the Law at Mount Sinai] so that the transgression would increase." That makes the Law sound like the accomplice of sin. <br />
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In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that if you want to bear fruit for God - that is, if you want to be sanctified as well as justified - you have to die to the Law. Romans 7:4, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God." You can't bear fruit for God if you don't die to the Law. Law-keeping is not the first and decisive way to bear fruit for God. Being joined to the risen Christ is the first and decisive way to bear fruit for God. If Christians wind up fulfilling the Law of God (as the law of Christ) it will be only because we have first died to the law and pursued obedience another way, namely, by union with the risen Christ, where we stand completely justified before we make any progress in law-keeping at all. <br />
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Well, we could go on to show from Romans 7:5-6 that Paul sees the law of God as a big part of our problem in getting right with God. So the huge question that he has to answer is stated in Romans 7:7, "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin?" Or, a little differently in verse 13, "Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me?" Here are two huge questions raised by Paul's gospel of justification by faith apart from works of the law: Is the law sin? and Does the law cause death? Or to be more specific: If you have to turn away from law-keeping to the righteousness of Christ to be justified, and if you have to die to the law and be united to Christ to be sanctified, then isn't the law sin and isn't it the cause of death? <br />
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If the answer to these two questions is yes (the law is sin and causes death), then Paul knows that his gospel is undermined. There is no future for a gospel that turns the law of God into sin and death. <br />
<br />
==== But the Law Is not Sin<br> ====<br />
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So with all his might in verses 7 and 13 Paul says, ''No''! "May it never be!" "By no means!" The law is ''not ''sin; sin exploits the law and uses it. The law is holy, just, and good (verse 12). The law does ''not ''cause death; sin causes death through what is good, the law (verse 13). <br />
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The purpose of writing Romans 7:7-25 is to explain and defend that answer. Don't miss this. It's all about justification by faith and sanctification by faith. If these two foundational doctrines imply that the law of God is sin and causes death, they are doomed and cannot be true. <br />
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So when Paul is done with Romans 1-7 he has accomplished two great things: on the one hand, he has shown that we must die to the law to be accepted by God (justification, 3:28) and we must die to the law to bear fruit for God (sanctification, 7:4-6). And on the other hand, this necessity to die to the law to be justified and sanctified is ''not ''because the law is sin or poison. It's because in our dreadfully sinful condition we must have Christ for the ground of our justification, and Christ for the power of our sanctification. The law cannot do what only Christ can do. <br />
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==== I Am Sinful and My Sin Is Deadly<br> ====<br />
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So now we are in a position to see why the identity of this divided man in Romans 7:14-25 does not change the main point of the passage. If the man is a Christian or not a Christian, in either case his misery ("O, wretched man that I am," verse 24) is caused by his indwelling sin, not by the Law. The Law is not sinful and the Law is not poison. I am sinful, and my sin is deadly poison. <br />
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Three times at least Paul makes the point. Verse 14: "The Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh." Verse 16: "If I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good." Verse 22: "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." So the Law is "spiritual" and "good" and a "joy." <br />
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This is true whether we decide that this divided man is a struggling believer or a conscience-quickened unbeliever. In either case, Paul's main point is the same: Justification by faith apart from works of the Law (3:28) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison. And sanctification by faith through death to the Law (7:4) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison. <br />
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That is where we will leave it today. <br />
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You need not fear that receiving the gift of justification by faith alone will tarnish the Law of God. You need not fear that bearing fruit for God by dying to the Law will tarnish the Law of God. On the contrary when you turn to Christ for justification and when you turn to Christ for sanctification you will ''honor ''the Law of God. Because the goal of that Law is "Christ for righteousness for all who believe" (10:4). And the fruit of love inspired by Christ (7:4) is a fulfillment of the Law (13:10). <br />
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O how full and deep is the salvation Christ has provided for us in his life and death! Come to him. Everything you need is in him.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Dead_to_the_Law_Serving_in_the_Spirit_Part_4Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 42008-10-08T13:41:06Z<p>Kryndontpay: Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 4 moved to Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 4</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 4]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Dead_to_the_Law,_Serving_in_the_Spirit,_Part_4Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 42008-10-08T13:41:06Z<p>Kryndontpay: Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 4 moved to Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 4</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:1-6'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For 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. 6 But 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.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== ====<br />
<br />
==== Not a List of Rules, but a Person<br> ====<br />
<br />
What we saw from verse 5, the last time we were together, was that when the Law meets the flesh it becomes in the hands of the flesh the instrument of defeating its own demands. Let's read that verse again and get that truth before us. Verse 5: "For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law [or literally: "the passions of sins ''through the law"''], were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death." So sin took God's "holy, just and good" law (Romans 7:12) and made it an instrument of fruit unto death. <br />
<br />
We argued that the reason this happens is that the essence of sin – or the essence of the flesh – is self-deification. We prefer being our own god. We do not like to be told what to do. We are not just lawbreakers; we are law-haters. We love autonomy and hate submission. This is what we are by nature ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, who preferred their own wisdom to God's. So when the "law of commandments" (Ephesians 2:15) comes to us in our flesh (without the Holy Spirit and without faith) it produces not the fruit of love – which Paul teaches is the fulfilling of the whole law (Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14) – but fruit for death (Romans 7:5). <br />
<br />
Therefore, Paul argues, if we are going to bear fruit for God (verse 4) – if we are going to be transformed, Christ-like persons – we must die to the law. Not just have stronger willpower to obey it better, but die to it. Verse 4: "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to ''die to the Law'' through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God." <br />
<br />
So the key to living the Christian life – the key to bearing fruit for God – the key to a Christ-exalting life of love and sacrifice – is to die to the law and be joined ''not ''to a list of rules, ''but ''to a Person, to the risen Christ. The pathway to love is the path of a personal, Spirit-dependent, all-satisfying relationship with the risen Christ, not the resolve to keep the commandments. <br />
<br />
==== Freed from Sin, Dead to the Law<br> ====<br />
<br />
Now let me illustrate this way of life – this new, non-law-oriented way of holiness and love – by comparing Romans 7:4 and Romans 6:22. The parallels are very illuminating. Romans 6:22 says, "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit [literally: "you have your fruit"], resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life." Now let's compare this with Romans 7:4. <br />
<br />
Corresponding to "having been freed from sin" in 6:22 is "you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ" in 7:4. <br />
<br />
Corresponding to "and [you were] enslaved to God" in 6:22 is "so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead" in 7:4. <br />
<br />
Corresponding to "you derive your benefit [literally: "you have your fruit"], resulting in sanctification" in 6:22, is "in order that we might bear fruit for God" in 7:4. <br />
<br />
· Freed from sin – dead to the law. <br />
<br />
· Enslaved to God – belong to Christ. <br />
<br />
· Bear fruit unto holiness – bear fruit for God. <br />
<br />
Why do I think "freed from sin" in 6:22 corresponds to "dead to the law" in 7:4? Because in 7:5 it is "through the law" that sin worked in our members to bear fruit for death. "The sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death." In other words, law and sin are partners to ruin our lives. If we are going to be free from sin (6:22), we must be free from law (7:4). If we are going to die to sin, we must die to law. <br />
<br />
==== But Isn't God's Law Good?<br> ====<br />
<br />
How can I say that about God's good and holy law? I say it because Paul says it. He not only says it here in verse 5; he also says it in 1 Corinthians 15:56, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." The power of sin is the law. That is true of the Law's ability to condemn (Romans 3:19-20), and it is true of the Law's ability to hold in practical bondage (Romans 7:5). Law and sin are partners in ruining life and killing people. <br />
<br />
I say this also because Paul said it in Galatians 3:22-23, "But the Scripture [and the context makes it plain that he means "the law"] has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed." In other words, God gave the holy, just, and good law to have a temporary imprisoning effect. It imprisons to sin. It "increases the transgression" (Romans 5:20; see Galatians 3:19) and causes sin to become "utterly sinful" (7:13). <br />
<br />
So here's the crucial point: Freedom from sin into a life of fruit-bearing for God does not come through the law, it comes by dying to the law and its partner sin, so that you can belong to another – not to sin [the first husband in Romans 7:1-3], but to a new living, powerful Person, Jesus Christ, the risen ''Son ''of God, or to God the ''Father'', as 6:22 says; or to the ''Spirit ''of God, as Romans 8:9 says. Whether it is the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit – the key to the fruit-bearing Christian life is not the written law, it is the living God defining us, shaping us, guiding us, satisfying us. <br />
<br />
==== And Isn't Our Aim Love, the Fulfillment of the Law?<br> ====<br />
<br />
Now let's try to get as practical as we can here to see if we understand what this really means for our daily lives. And here's the test to see if we understand: Why is it that we must die to the law if our aim is the fruit of love, and love is the fulfillment of the law? If the law is summed up in love, and love is the fruit God wants, then why must we die to the law? Romans 13:8, 10: "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. . . . Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Galatians 5:14 says, "The whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'" So why die to the very thing you want to fulfill? <br />
<br />
''Because God has ordained that the goal of the law be fulfilled in us through Christ-loving, not law-keeping.'' <br />
<br />
Let try to say it with a picture. And I will tell you at the outset that the picture has a truth in it and a falsehood in it. I'll use it for the truth and then I will scrap it because of the error. <br />
<br />
Suppose the law is like a house with a front door and a back door. And in the house is the treasure of love, the fulfillment of the law. We want to be there. We want to become radical, loving, sacrificial, Christlike people. On the locked front door are written the laws for getting into the house. They are the combination to the great padlock on the door. Right turn, don't kill; left turn, don't steal; right turn, don't lie; left turn, don't commit adultery; right turn, don't covet; and so on. <br />
<br />
Paul says, if you want to get into that house – if you want the treasure of love – you must die to the front door as a way in. And when you die to the law as the door to the house, you are joined to Christ who picks you up, takes you to the back door and carries you in. He alone has the power to do it. You can only get in by trusting him and riding in him. You must be united to him if you would get into the treasure of love. In him and by him you bear the fruit of love and fulfil the law. <br />
<br />
In other words, to fulfill the law you must die to lawkeeping as a way in, and replace it with Christ-loving. Attachment to the living Christ, not the written law, is the key to life and love. That is the truth in the picture: If you want to fulfill the law, you don't approach it through the front door of lawkeeping, but through the back door of Christ-loving. <br />
<br />
Now what's wrong with this picture? <br />
<br />
==== The Law Is the Servant of Christ<br> ====<br />
<br />
What's wrong with it is that it puts the law at the center and makes Christ the servant of the law, instead of putting Christ at the center and making the law a servant of Christ. Or to say it another way, it makes the law the goal of our being in Christ, instead of making our being in Christ the goal of the law. The danger is that what we may want is to get into this house of law; and to that end Christ becomes useful as a key, a doorkeeper. <br />
<br />
Oh how easy for us to come so close to getting the Christian life right (the newness of the Spirit – Christ! – instead of the oldness of the letter – law!) and then fall right back into the old legal way of living by making Christ a new list-giver and a new means of finally getting the old list "right." And so we wind up going from room to room in the house turning all the combinations that we got from Christ. And we think that is the aim of the Christian life. <br />
<br />
I don't think this what Paul means when he says in Romans 7:4 that we "die to the law so that we can belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead," Jesus Christ. He didn't mean: Die to the law so that you can belong to the one who can really help you to belong to the law. He was saying: The law is not the goal of history; Christ is the goal of history. The law is not the goal of your life; Christ is the goal of your life. Christ did not come into history to lead us to the law; the law came into history to lead us to Christ. The law is not the goal of Christ; Christ is the goal of the law. Marriage is not for the sake of wedding vows; wedding vows are for the sake of marriage. <br />
<br />
==== What Do Christians Do with the Law of God?<br> ====<br />
<br />
What then shall we, as Christians, do with the holy, just and good law of God? Answer: we will look into this law for two purposes. 1) We will look into the law to see Christ so that we can know him and trust him and love him more. 2) We will look into this law to test ourselves to see if we do know and trust and love Christ as we ought. God's law reveals Christ in many ways, and we may use it to know him and stir up our love for him. And the law is a litmus paper to test the genuineness of our love to Christ. Christ is the key to unlocking the meaning of the law; and then the law displays Christ for our heart's satisfaction – and transformation (see John 5:39; Luke 24:27). <br />
<br />
Let me illustrate this by taking you to 2 Corinthians 3. Notice first that the issue of living by law or living by the Spirit is what is at stake here. Verse 6: "[God] made us adequate servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." <br />
<br />
Now having said that, he describes the old covenant – the Law of Moses – as having come with great glory on Mount Sinai. Then he says that Moses' face shone with a reflection of this glory when he came to the people, and he put a veil on so that the people would not see this glory as it faded away. And then he treats this veil as a symbol of how the true glory and goal of the old covenant was concealed from most of Israel. Then, starting in verse 2 Corinthians 3:14-17 he relates this to Christ: <br />
<br />
But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. [Seeing the goal and glory of the old covenant happens in Christ.] But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, thereis liberty. <br />
<br />
This is what happens to us Christians in the fulfillment of the new covenant: the veil that concealed the glory and goal of the law is removed, and we see what it was all about. And in seeing that, we experience its rightful aim. What is that? Verse 18: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord [the goal and glory of the old covenant!], are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." <br />
<br />
What we see when the veil is lifted is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ: "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." This is the way to look at the law – in order to see Christ. We have died to the law as a means of lawkeeping that the veil might be lifted and we might use the law as a means of Christ-seeing and Christ-loving. <br />
<br />
And what happens when we do? How does the Christian life work to produce love, if we have died to lawkeeping and turned to Christ-seeing? "Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." This is the Christian life. A life of seeing and savoring Jesus Christ and being changed by that sight and that savoring from one degree of glory to the next into his image. <br />
<br />
Therefore, for the sake of Christ, and for the sake of your own soul: give yourself utterly to knowing Christ and to trusting Christ and to loving Christ and you will be changed from one degree to the next into the image of Christ. You will bear fruit for God, not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the Spirit.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Dead_to_the_Law_Serving_in_the_Spirit_Part_3Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 32008-10-08T13:40:31Z<p>Kryndontpay: Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 3 moved to Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 3</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 3]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Dead_to_the_Law,_Serving_in_the_Spirit,_Part_3Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 32008-10-08T13:40:31Z<p>Kryndontpay: Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 3 moved to Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 3</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:1-6'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For 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. 6 But 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.<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== ====<br />
<br />
==== Known by Our Christ-like, Christ-exalting Love<br> ====<br />
<br />
Paul is absolutely passionate that we Christians be known by our Christ-like, Christ-exalting love – love for each other, love for our neighbors, love for our enemies, love for the unreached peoples of the world, love for the weak, love for the suffering. And that we not devote ourselves to maximizing our material ease and our physical comforts or our religious reputation, but that we devote ourselves to doing as much good for others as we can, both for time and eternity. And because that love is his passion for us, he is equally passionate that we be dead to the law. <br />
<br />
That is what I want to talk about this morning and next week in a more focused way. I want us to think about the Law of God. What is it? What role does it have in relation to sin and to love? What is the role of the Law in relation to justification and sanctification? Why do we need to die to this Law in order be loving people? After we die to it, does it have any authority and usefulness in our lives? Those are the questions I want us to take up today and next week. <br />
<br />
First, why do I say that Paul's passion is that we be known by our Christ-like, Christ-exalting love? For this reason: notice at the end of verse 4 that his aim is "in order that we might bear fruit for God." That's the aim of the Christian life. "Bearing fruit for God." What is this "bearing fruit?" Well, the first and main fruit of the Spirit is love. Paul says in Galatians 5:22, "The fruit of the Spirit is ''love''." <br />
<br />
But does Paul have in mind here the fruit of the Spirit? Yes. Because look at the end of verse 6 where he states the same aim as verse 4, only in different words: "so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." The aim of our life is to "serve in newness of the Spirit." Now "bearing fruit for God" in verse 4 is parallel to "serving in newness of the Spirit" in verse 6. So the fruit Paul has in mind is the fruit of the Spirit, namely, love. <br />
<br />
We could go to Galatians 5 and find this powerfully confirmed. In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery," meaning slavery to the Law (see Galatians 5:2-4). So he is talking there about the same release from the Law that he is talking about here in Romans 7:4-6. Then in Galatians 5:13 he writes about the relationship between love and this freedom from the law. "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Don't say, "Because we are not under Law but under sin, let's sin." Freedom from the Law is for the sake of love. Then he says in Galatians 5:18, "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law," just as he says here (in Romans 7:6) that we "serve in newness of the Spirit not in oldness of the letter." Then he gives a list of the fruit of the Spirit, especially love, and adds in verse 23, "against such things there is no law." <br />
<br />
So I conclude that the passion of Paul's heart for us Christians is that our lives be marked by love. That is what happens when we "bear fruit for God" (verse 4) and when we "serve in the newness of the Spirit" (verse 6). <br />
<br />
But now why do I say that because of this passion for love, Paul is therefore passionate that we die to the Law? The reason is absolutely amazing. The reason is that the Law, which itself can be summed up in love, becomes the instrument of defeating love. The Law winds up defeating the very thing it demands. We know the Law is summed up in love because in Romans 13:8b Paul says, "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." And Romans 13:10 says, "Love is the fulfillment of the law." <br />
<br />
==== Love Requires Death to the Law<br> ====<br />
<br />
But why do I say that we must die to the Law in order for love to flourish in our lives? I say it because this is what verses 4, 5, and 6 say! <br />
<br />
Verse 4: "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God." Dying to the Law is the means of bearing fruit for God – we must die to the Law that demands love ''in order to'' bear the fruit of love for God. <br />
<br />
Verse 6: "But 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." We die to the Law, Paul says, "so that" – this is the means – we can serve in newness of the Spirit – that is, serve one another in love! Death to Law is essential to love. <br />
<br />
So the deeper question is Why? Not just, why do I say so, but why must it ''be ''so? <br />
<br />
We've seen that Paul's passion is that Christians live lives of love. We have seen that for this to happen we must die to the Law. Now the question is Why? Why must we be "united to Christ in the likeness of his death," as Romans 6:5 says, and thus die to the Law? <br />
<br />
Romans 7:5 gives the answer. It's because until we are united to Christ in his death, and rise with him to newness of life, we don't have the Spirit of God and are merely "flesh." That is, we have only a fallen, sinful human nature without the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And what does the Law become when it meets this "flesh," or this fallen, unredeemed human nature? It becomes, in the power of sin, an actual instrument in defeating its own demands. <br />
<br />
Verse 5: "For while we were in the flesh [=mere fallen, unredeemed human nature], the sinful passions, which were [aroused] by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death." The Law itself is "holy, righteous, and good," Paul says in verse 12. But when we meet the Law while we are "in the flesh," our sin joins forces with the Law to "bear fruit for death." The Law itself becomes an instrument to multiply the very sins that the Law itself condemns (see 7:8, 13; compare 13:9-10). <br />
<br />
That's why Paul says we must die to the Law if we are going to bear fruit for love. <br />
<br />
==== The Good Law a Partner to Sin?<br> ====<br />
<br />
But to understand what this death to Law is, we need ask: How does the Law (which is good) become a partner with sin in bringing about the very things that the Law condemns? <br />
<br />
The key to that question is in the meaning of the word "flesh." Verse 5 says that this happens when we are "''in the flesh''." "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." There's the key: "in the flesh." <br />
<br />
What does that mean? Look at Romans 8:7-9. Here we have a description of what it means to be "in the flesh" and what the opposite is. "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, (8) and those who are in the flesh [there's our phrase from 7:5] cannot please God. (9) However, you are not in the flesh [there it is again] but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." <br />
<br />
Here we have the person of Romans 7:5 described. To be "in the flesh" is described in four ways: 1) verse 7a, "the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God;" 2) verse 7b, "it does not subject itself to the law of God;" 3) verse 7c, "it is not even able to do so [to subject itself to God's law];" 4) verse 8, "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." And the opposite of being in the flesh is being "in the Spirit" (verse 9a); or to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you – to be a Christian, to belong to Christ (verse 9b). <br />
<br />
Now think about this with me. The essence of our sinful condition before our conversion – before we die with Christ and receive the Holy Spirit – is not that we break specific laws. The essence of our condition is that we are hostile to God (verse 7), and so we do not and cannot submit to God's will – God's law (verse 7b). The essence of our sinful condition is the unwillingness to be told what to do. The essence of sin is a passion for self-rule. We will decide for ourselves where joy is to be found. We will not admit any final, decisive power or authority above self. In short, the essence of sin is self-deification – the passion to be our own god. That is what it means to be "in the flesh." <br />
<br />
So sin is not first lawbreaking; it is first law-hating. And even before that, it is self-rule-loving. Being "in the flesh" means we will not be told what to do. We will be our own god. <br />
<br />
Now we are in a position to understand Romans 7:5 and how law itself becomes a partner with this sinful nature in bringing about the very things that the Law condemns. Take an example. Suppose that you are a fairly unflappable, easygoing, thick-skinned person "in the flesh" – an unbeliever without the Spirit of Christ. And suppose the Law says, "Bless those who curse you." You don't know this law and nobody says it to you, and so in general, you seem to act like that. You're not quick to fight back. You like to make peace and don't easily get upset. <br />
<br />
Then comes the Law. Somebody, or some book (like the Bible) says, "Bless that person who cursed you." And suddenly the you that was seemingly peace-loving and compliant (as long as you were in control and calling the shots) bristles with resistance at being told what to do. And the very thing that you might have done outwardly – smooth things over to make peace, say something nice – you now refuse to do. You were doing it outwardly as long as you were in charge. But as soon as someone or some book was elevated above you with the right to tell you what is right and what is good for you, your sinful nature wakens (comes to life as it were, verse 8), and you do not bless. <br />
<br />
So the Law came, and sin partnered with the Law – took occasion in the Law, was aroused by the Law – to do the very thing which the Law condemned. The Law itself stirred up active disobedience to what the Law demanded. This is what is happening in Romans 7:5, "For while we were in the flesh [while we loved being god and hated being told what to do], the sinful passions, ''which were aroused by the Law'', were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death." <br />
<br />
So now we have seen how the Law (which is good) becomes a partner with our self-deifying, insubordinate, sinful nature to bring about the very things that the Law condemns, and to hinder the very thing that the Law commands, namely love. <br />
<br />
==== The Newness of the Spirit<br> ====<br />
<br />
So, Paul says, for love's sake you must die to the Law (Romans 7:4, 6), which itself is summed up in love (13:8, 10). You go out of existence with reference to the Law. That's Paul's solution to the catastrophic conspiracy of flesh and Law coming together to multiply sins. We must die "through the body of Christ" (7:4; 6:5). By faith in Christ we die with Christ. Galatians 5:24, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." Our old, insubordinate, rebellious, self-deifying, law-hating self dies with Christ. And we rise to walk in newness of life (6:4). And this newness is "the newness of the Spirit, not the oldness of the letter (the Law)" (7:6). <br />
<br />
Now we are in a position to love, Paul says. And love fulfills the whole Law (13:8, 10). <br />
<br />
So what I want to do next week is get very practical and ask: All right, how then do we live the Christian life? Do we read the Law anymore? What about commandments in the New Testament? Does the Law have any place in the life of a believer who is "dead to the Law"? <br />
<br />
But for now, how shall we apply today's message? <br />
<br />
==== Three brief applications:<br> ====<br />
<br />
1. Realize how willful and rebellious we are by nature apart from Christ and the work of his Spirit. Be aware of the remaining corruption within you. Oh how we should be humbled by the remnants of our bristling rebellion and resistance to being told what is good for us. Have you not tasted this even this past week? I have. I see it in the world, in my family, and most painfully, in myself. See it. Know it. And be humbled by it. <br />
<br />
2. Reckon yourself dead to this old nature. Yes, we have died to sin. But we must also reckon ourselves dead. In Christ we are dead with him to sin. But now we are to put on the new nature. We are to become in practice what we are in reality in him. Become what you are in Christ – dead to proud sin and alive to humble love. <br />
<br />
3. When you stumble and fail in the path of love, do not look to the Law as the remedy of your failure. The Law is not designed by God to provide the righteousness for your justification or the power of your sanctification. Verse 4 says that you died to the Law "so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead." The Law is not the answer to our failures to love. Christ is the answer. The risen, living, powerful, present Christ – he is the key to love. Know him. Trust him. Love him. Treasure him. Amen.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Dead_to_the_Law_Serving_in_the_Spirit_Part_2Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 22008-10-08T13:40:01Z<p>Kryndontpay: Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 2 moved to Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 2</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 2]]</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Dead_to_the_Law,_Serving_in_the_Spirit,_Part_2Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 22008-10-08T13:40:01Z<p>Kryndontpay: Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 2 moved to Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 2</p>
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<div>{{info}}<br />
<blockquote><br />
'''Romans 7:1-6'''<br />
</blockquote><blockquote><br />
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For 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. 6 But 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. <br />
<br />
<br><br />
</blockquote><br />
==== An Ocean of Depth and Majesty ====<br />
<br />
I said last week that there was an ocean of meaning under verse 6, especially the phrase, "So that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." Today I want to show you some of the shores of that ocean and take a dive into it. One of the benefits of doing this is that it gives you a taste of the depth and majesty of God's way of salvation. <br />
<br />
What I mean by that is that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ – if he is your treasured Savior and Lord – then you are caught up in something that is not small and insignificant but deep and majestic. It began in eternity when God planned your salvation, and it was prepared for you through thousands of years of history leading up to Jesus' incarnation. God was doing things – great things – in history so that you could be saved. What happened to make you a Christian – to put away all your sins, and remove your condemnation, and make you a child of God, and give you personal fellowship with the living Christ, and lead you to everlasting life – what happened so that you could enjoy all that, is so deep and so great that it is like an ocean of depth and majesty. <br />
<br />
And you will trust God more and love Christ more if you know something of this ocean of depth and majesty that is under your salvation. So that is why I want to linger over the last half of verse 6 and take you to some of the shores of this ocean elsewhere in the Bible. I want you to know what he has done and why he does it so that you trust him more and love him more. Trusting God hour by hour to guide our lives and meet our needs and be our treasure is what we need more than anything. Because the practical aim of life is love, and love comes from "a pure heart and a good conscience and a ''sincere faith''" (1 Timothy 1:5; see Galatians 5:6). <br />
<br />
First let's clarify the immediate context. <br />
<br />
==== Why Freedom Produces Love, not Lawlessness<br> ====<br />
<br />
These six verses are Paul's answer to the question of why our being under grace and not under Law produces love and not lawlessness. He's explaining his answer to the question asked back in Romans 6:15, "Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!" But why not? Why does freedom from the Law not result in lawlessness, but in the sacrificial service of love? <br />
<br />
He set's up a comparison between marriage and the Law, on the one hand, and the believer and the Law on the other. In verses 1-3 he says that if one of the partners in the marriage dies, the law that makes a second marriage wrong is nullified. So death sets free from the Law. That is the point of the comparison that is picked up in verses 4-6. <br />
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So verse 4 says, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another." In other words, by faith we have been united with Christ (as 6:5 says) so that his death becomes our death. And therefore, Paul says, we have died to the Law. Christ bore the punishment that the Law required, and Christ fulfilled the perfect obedience that the Law demanded. So in him I am released from the Law. You see that in verse 6a: "But now we have been ''released ''from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound." <br />
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But verse 4 goes on and tells us God's ''purpose ''in arranging this death for us in Christ: "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, ''so that you might be joined to another''." So we are released from the Law, Paul says, like the woman in the marriage, so that we could marry again without breaking the law – and the marriage he has in mind is union with the risen, living Jesus Christ: ". . . so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead." So your salvation is a ''liberation ''from law and ''unification ''with a living Person, Jesus Christ – who, according to Romans 6:9, will never die again. Which means your salvation is eternal and secure. <br />
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And the verse goes one step further and explains not only why we died to the Law – namely, to be joined to the living Christ – but also why we are joined to the living Christ – "in order that we might bear fruit for God." This fruit is love. So now we have Paul's answer to why being freed from the Law does not produce lawlessness, but love. It's because of this new union with Jesus. We are not cut free from the Law so we can float in the air, free from all guidance and help. We are freed from the Law precisely to be joined to Jesus. Your relationship with Jesus becomes everything. Paul said, "To live is Christ." To live is not lawkeeping. To live is Christ. <br />
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Now verse 6 simply says the same thing as verse 4, but in different words, and brings us to the edge of the ocean of what the Bible calls the "new covenant." Let's look at verse 6 and then go to the shores of the "new covenant." <br />
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"But now we have been released from the Law [we've seen that in verse 4], having died to that by which we were bound [we've seen that], so that we serve [that's the same as saying, "so that we bear fruit"] . . . . But now come the words that are laden with new covenant meaning: ". . . so that we serve ''in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.''" <br />
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Notice the contrast between Spirit and letter. That is one of the differences between the old covenant and the new covenant. What does it mean? What does it mean to say that the Christian life – your life – is "in the newness of the Spirit" not "in the oldness of the letter"? <br />
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Well, let's visit a few places on the shores of the ocean of meaning in the new covenant. This is where we will find out what Paul is talking about here. <br />
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==== New Covenant<br> ====<br />
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First let me show you why I think Paul is, in fact, talking about this thing called the new covenant. Consider 2 Corinthians 3:5-6. Paul says, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the ''letter ''but of the ''Spirit''; for the ''letter ''kills, but the Spirit gives life." So here we have the closest parallel to Romans 7:6, where it says that we "serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that the apostles are "servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." And here Paul makes it explicit that he is talking about the "new covenant." <br />
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So when he speaks of serving by the Spirit and not by the letter, he is talking about the way the new covenant works. So what is it? What is this new covenant? Let's go back to the promise in the Old Testament to find out. <br />
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In Jeremiah 31:31-34 the prophet holds out this promise: <br />
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"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, (32) not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt [not like the Ten Commandments – the heart of the Mosaic covenant], My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. (33) "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel [and not only with them but with all who are children of Israel by faith] after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (34) "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." <br />
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That is ''the ''classic text on the new covenant. The book of Hebrews quotes it several times as the basis of its new covenant teaching. What do we learn there about the terms of the new covenant? 1) We learn that in the new covenant the Law will no longer mainly be external, written on stone (that's what "letter" means), but will be mainly internal, written on the heart (verse 33). In other words, the decisive thing about the Law will no longer be that it is a ''demand ''from outside, but it will be a desire from inside. 2) Or, as verse 34 puts it, knowing God will not be an external command so much as an internal experience. 3) And the last clause of verse 34 gives the foundation for these internal experiences of grace: "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." So in the new covenant, God provides a way to wipe all our sins away, gives us an experience of personally knowing him, and writes the Law on our heart so that we love to please him. <br />
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So you should ask, "But what about the Spirit? I see the contrast between external demand, or letter, and internal desire; but where is the "newness of the Spirit"? <br />
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==== Newness of the Spirit<br> ====<br />
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For that we go to the prophet Ezekiel where he gives a similar promise, but in different words. First, consider 11:19-20. "And I will give them one heart, and put a ''new spirit ''within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God." Then look at Ezekiel 36:26-27. "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." <br />
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These are promises of what Jeremiah calls the "new covenant" – different from the covenant made with Israel when they came out of Egypt, that is, different from the Law, the Mosaic covenant, the one written on stone, the covenant "in oldness of letter." <br />
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Now when does this new covenant get inaugurated? The answer is: in the work of Christ – specifically in his death and resurrection and in the outpouring of the Spirit on Christ's people. Jesus spoke the decisive word in Luke 22:20 during the Lord's Supper, "And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, 'This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.'" <br />
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What this means is that the death of Christ – the blood-shedding of Jesus – is the foundation of the blessings of the new covenant. When Jesus says the new covenant is "in my blood," he means that everything that the new covenant promised is provided by the blood of Christ. 1) Because of the blood of Christ, our sins are forgiven, as Jeremiah 31:34 promises. 2) Because of the blood of Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit, as Ezekiel 36:27 promises. 3) Because of the blood of Christ, we know God personally. 4) Because of the blood of Christ, the Law is written on our hearts, not just on tablets of stone. <br />
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So now we come back to Romans 7:6, "But 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." Now we see that being dead to the Law – the letter – and "serving in newness of the Spirit" means serving as beneficiaries of the new covenant. God planned the inadequacy of the "old covenant" with a view to the great superiority of the new covenant in Christ – so that Christ would get greater glory. The old covenant was designed to lead us to Christ and to his Spirit and to faith. If we want to honor Christ the way we should, and enjoy him the way we should, then we need to see the greatness of the work of God in the new covenant beneath our salvation like an ocean of depth and majesty. <br />
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So let's sum it up. What does it mean now to see our life – our "serving in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter" as a blessing of the new covenant? <br />
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The Foundation under Our Lives <br />
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It means, first, that underneath our lives is the massive foundation of the blood of Christ – the "blood of the eternal covenant" (Hebrews 13:20). Oh, never forget that our life is blood-bought. Think of it often. I just read yesterday that one reason fantasy is so popular in contemporary literature is "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." But the Christian commentator said, "That ought not to be the case for people who have been to the cross." Oh, never move far from the cross. It is will be your wisdom in life and your comfort in death. All your serving is blood-bought. <br />
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Second, this means that your freedom from the Law is because of what Christ did on the cross. Christ bore the Law's penalty and fulfilled the Law's demand for all who believe. The Law's condemnation and demand for perfection have been satisfied for all who are in Christ. So, as verse 6 says, "We have been released from the Law." This is a blood-bought, new covenant blessing. Glory in it for Christ's sake! <br />
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Third, therefore all your sins have been forgiven. "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Preach this to yourself this week when Satan assails you with accusations. Remind him and yourself of the new covenant promise of Jeremiah 31:34 and the all-sufficient payment of the blood of Christ. <br />
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Fourth, a new Spirit has been given to you; God has put his own Spirit within you. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the Father. <br />
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Therefore, fifth, you know the Father not just as the first great commandment, but as a Spirit-given experience. And you have fellowship with the Son by his Spirit. You died to the Law so that you might be joined to another. You know him and you walk with him and you fellowship with him. To live is Christ. <br />
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And therefore, finally, the Law of God is being written on your heart. The will of God does not crush you from outside with its demand for unattainable perfection. That Law is satisfied in Jesus. Now the will of God rises in your heart as the Spirit transforms your desires and makes you free. <br />
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O, blood-bought Christian, know your blessings! Know your privileges! Know what it is to be the beneficiary of the new covenant. And, unbeliever, this is free for all who believe. Turn from self-reliance, and receive Christ as the treasure of your life. <br />
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[1] See also Deuteronomy 30:5-6, "The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live." <br />
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[2] Richard John Neuhaus, "While We're at It," ''First Things'', February 2001, no. 110, p. 71.</div>Kryndontpayhttp://gospeltranslations.org/wiki/Dead_to_the_Law_Serving_in_the_Spirit_Part_1Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 12008-10-08T13:39:23Z<p>Kryndontpay: Dead to the Law Serving in the Spirit Part 1 moved to Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 1</p>
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<div>#REDIRECT [[Dead to the Law, Serving in the Spirit, Part 1]]</div>Kryndontpay