Chico Alliance Church
October 28, 2001
Pastor David Welch
Title slide
“Free Slaves”
Review
In our study of John’s gospel I compared his writing to a marvelous musical or symphony of vital truths with the first chapter serving as an overture introducing the numerous themes developed throughout the book. As I laid in bed unable to sleep one morning this week I passed the time by reviewing Paul’s letter to the Romans. I have come to see Paul’s letter as a remarkable piece of art, a portrait painting depicting the unmistakable difference between those in Christ and those outside of Christ. Through the first eight chapters, Paul skillfully brings the contrasting details into focus. As I contemplated the contrasting portraits emerging on the canvas of Paul’s writing, I came to a deeper appreciation of God’s unspeakable gift of grace to all who will believe. Paul adeptly alternates between his two portraits through out his book. One moment he paints with dark bleak colors to portray those without Christ. The next moment he switches to bright confident colors to depict our new life in Christ. He continues alternating back and forth through the letter between the two images. If you have not yet made a decision to identify with Christ, please give attention to God’s estimation of your condition.
• Those outside of Christ are described as godless and unrighteous.
• They have exchanged the glory of the Creator for images derived only from the creatures.
• They travel on a path to eliminate any responsibility to a supreme being.
• God has turned them over to the destructive devices of their own unbridled passions.
• They are filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; gossip, slander, hate for God, insolence, arrogance, boasting, disobedience to parents and every conceivable form of evil.
• They live life without true understanding.
• They are untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Most of the time they don’t realize it.
• In fact, they think they have it together and condemn others while in their heart they violate the very principles they arrogantly apply to others.
• Their unrepentant heart toward God continually accumulates wrath and indignation waiting to be eventually poured out on the day of wrath.
• Even those who claim special privilege by being a Jew will not escape judgment.
• Paul in broad strokes of dark colors paints a dismal pretty picture. Only the first 2 chapters.
• There is none righteous, no not one.
• By their sin, they have hopelessly fallen far short of the divinely dictated criterion.
• Those outside of Christ remain God’s enemy.
• They have no hope of ever becoming what God designed them to be.
• The trials of life continue to reinforce hopelessness and despair without any sense of a redeeming purpose or sense of a loving God to bring them through.
• There is no hope of escaping the coming wrath.
• There is no hope of deliverance from the curse of death and decay.
• There is no joy in reconciliation with God.
• Their association with Adam brings death, condemnation, domination by death and continuous sin.
• A self-centered nature controls everything.
• Sin dominates every aspect of their life.
• They are slaves to sin.
This is the portrait up through our current study. Paul will add further dark colors to this portrait on through chapter 8.
• They continually serve sin as their master who pays wages of death and destruction.
• They are married to the law that pronounces condemnation and judgment and results in death and arouses continual sin and condemnation.
• They are bound to the law of sin and death.
• Their life is driven by their fleshly nature that controls their thinking.
• This fleshy nature is hostile toward God - unwilling and unable to subject themselves to Him.
• In fact nothing they do can please God.
• They are orphans dominated by an evil master.
• There is no hope of an eternal inheritance.
• There is no hope of renewing of the spirit, soul or body.
• There is no “wonderful plan for their life”.
• God cannot be on their side.
• They have no defense against he charges brought against them by the law.
• They are doomed to condemnation.
• There is no victory over the struggles of life.
• There are doomed to eternity separated from God and His love.
You say, that is not my portrait. You are looking in the wrong mirror. When we look in the mirror of God’s word, that is the image that appears. When we see ourselves as God sees.
Fortunately Paul adds another portrait along side this hopeless. He also describes the pathway to transformation. The other portrait looks strangely similar to Jesus. This is not just a face-lift but a whole life-lift.
I. Receive God’s gift of righteousness by faith in Christ
Because of the grace of God and the work of Jesus, those whose dismal destiny was death are shepherded into a whole new way of life. The means is justification as presented in chapter 3 and illustrated through Abraham in 4. Having been justified by God through faith in Jesus a new portrait appears; a new life emerges and develops day by day. Paul describes this new life starting in chapter 5 as the benefits of justification.
II. Apply God’s gift of righteousness by understanding
A. New peace and reconciliation with God (5:1)
B. New hope of a glorious transformation (5:2)
C. New appreciation for the struggles of life that serve to develop greater Christlikeness (5:3-8)
D. New guarantee of escape from the coming wrath (5:9)
E. New assurance of complete salvation (5:10)
F. New excitement concerning our new reconciliation with God (5:11)
G. New heritage and connection to Christ’s righteous life (5:12-21)
H. New baptism or identification with the death and resurrection of Christ (6:1-14)
In these chapters Paul tackled three issues or questions concerning this new life.
• Shall we keep sinning sin because grace is abundant?
• Shall we sin at any time because condemnation or law is absent?
• Since the law stirs up sin, is the law aberrant?
Reason the issue decisively
Realize the reality of your identification with Christ’s death and resurrection and its implications
Because of our identification with the death of Christ…
• our old self was crucified with Him,
• our body of sin is rendered powerless
• we are no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
Because of our identification with the resurrection of Christ
• We can walk in newness of life
• Sins hold was eliminated Christ’s life was established
We are dead to sin but alive to God.
Paul calls us to keep our thinking straight. Know these things. Contemplate the realities of your new spiritual life.
Reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.
Resist letting sin rule in your body any longer
Refuse to present your member to sin as sin as weapons of unrighteousness
Sixth, Render yourselves and your members to God as resurrected weapons of righteousness
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:13-14
In contrast, consciously decide to give yourself and your members to God’s righteous cause. In the course of answering the first issue concerning increased sin because of the abundance of grace Paul affirms that since we are identified with Christ, life is not the same. This is a whole new ball game. We now share in Christ’s resurrection life. Our life is about walking in newness of life.
Sin is no longer in charge. Sin has no legal jurisdiction over us. We are no longer obligate to serve sin. Law no longer dictates our destiny but grace.
Paul now tackles the second issue raised. Of course we should increase sin because of the abundance of grace. But should we not worry about sin because of the absence of obligation to the law. Since we are no longer under law but under grace why even worry about sin? Again, Paul categorically contests such thinking.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Perhaps we should pause a moment to clarify what it means to be under law or under grace. Living according to law is operate under a system that requires absolute obedience for salvation or acceptance. Everyone who does not keep the whole law comes under the condemnation and curse of the law. Under this system, sin becomes our master because it determines our acceptance and destiny. But we are not under law. God offers a new operating system – grace. Our acceptance depends on God’s favor not our fervor.
Paul answered the previous issues by calling our attention to our new union with Christ.
Paul answers this analogy by reference to a different analogy.
I. New master
We have been given over to a new master. This culture would have picked up on a slave/master analogy immediately. At least 1/3 of the population was slaves and many more had been slaves at one time in their life. The key point here is who has the authority or power or ownership. Slaves were owned by their masters. Regardless of whether they were good obedient slaves or not, they were subject to the authority of the one who owned them. Paul again applies paint to the two portraits.
The one outside of Christ is the slave of sin. The one in Christ has become a slave of God.
16Do you not know (intuitively) that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
Perhaps Paul makes reference to bondslaves who given the opportunity for freedom make a conscious choice to serve that master forever. Whoever you choose to serve and obey becomes your master. Some have chosen to obey sin resulting in ultimate death. Some have chosen to obey God resulting in righteousness. Paul reminds these Romans of their choice to obey God and its results.
17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
These believers chose to serve a new master.
They heard the truth and believed it and obeyed. Point time action verb.
“form of teaching” refers to a pattern of truth or body of doctrine regarding salvation in Christ. This is another way of saying they chose to become slaves to a new master and his ways. “to which you were committed” does not mean they committed themselves to the teaching but that they were delivered over into a way of living consistent with the new master.
Paul taught the Ephesians something similar.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephes. 2:10
In light of the fact that they had presented themselves as bondslaves of a new master and now were committed to live according to the principles of the new master, Paul urges them to follow through on that offering by presenting their members to his cause. This is a second time Paul urges such a commitment.
19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Paul draws our attention to the two portraits once again.
20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
Paul again compares life and death. Slavery to sin resulting in death and service to God resulting in increasing holiness and eternal life. He reminds them that the old master paid wages and those wages were death. The new master operates not on merit but grace and has offered eternal life as a gift of love.
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Absence of law does not encourage sin because we have become bondslaves a new master, which frees us from obligation to the law and sin along with their destructive consequences. Why should we return to the things the old master demanded of us that lead to our destruction when we have a new master committed to our eternal life?
J. New relationship to the law
In order to illustrate this principle, Paul draws on the analogy of marriage.
7:1Or 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? 2For 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. 3So 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.
The point is obligation. Just as the servant is obligated to serve the master a wife or husband is bound to their partner by the law of marriage. Paul applies the principle of marriage to the believers in the spiritual realm. Paul again adds detail to the contrasting portraits.
4Therefore, 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. 5For 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. 6But 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.
Embracing the law as a means for acceptance and entrance into heaven was futile. Because of our sinfulness any trust in the law for salvation could only bring condemnation.
Sinful passions became stirred up to continually violate the law. In that state there was none that did good, no not one. There was nothing we could do to please or serve God. Our obligation to perfectly keep the law had to be addressed. Therefore we were made to die to the law through our identification with the death of Christ so that a new relationship could emerge.
Rather than a focus on keeping laws, God joined us to Jesus. In the process of falling in love with Jesus we end up actually obeying the laws of God with a whole new attitude and dynamic. The heart that looks for an excuse to sin is a heart that seems to have either forgotten what God did to free them from bondage or has not been changed at all. To make being under grace an excuse for sin causes one to wonder if one is really under grace after all. Paul draws our attention to a funeral, a resurrection, a bondslave ceremony and a wedding ceremony.
Think about Paul’s portraits.
The one graphically portrays the person outside of Christ.
Like one condemned to die on death row. The impending sentence of death haunts your every waking moment. The choices you thought expressed your freedom have actually imprisoned and condemned you.
The other is a portrait of the one united to Christ.
• Granted peace and reconciliation with God (5:1)
• Excited about the hope of a glorious transformation (5:2)
• Excited about the struggles of life that serve to develop greater Christlikeness (5:3-8)
• Guaranteed escape from the coming wrath (5:9)
• Assured of future completion of the salvation God started (5:10)
• Excited about relationship with God (5:11)
• Granted a new heritage and connection to Christ’s righteous life (5:12-21)
• United with the death and resurrection of Christ bringing new life and hope
• In the service of a new master committed to give us eternal life
• Delivered from obligation to the law so that we might serve the law giver
Which picture describes your life?
If you are the one without Christ I can’t urge you enough, like the Romans, obey from the heart this word of truth today. You serve a master who operates on the merit system. The wages of sin is death.
Those of you who have obeyed…
Get your thinking recalibrated.
Visualize this Biblical portrait of the person in Christ until every thought of sin against God becomes repulsive and inconceivable in light of His glory and grace.
Remember the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,
Till the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
Jesus draw me close. Closer Lord to you.
Let the world around me fade away.
Jesus draw me close. Closer Lord to you.
For I desire to worship and obey.
Enlighten us
(Adapted from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in chapter 1)
By Pastor David Welch
Heavenly Father, we bow before Your throne.
Thanking You and praising You for those who are Your own.
Enlighten us so that we might clearly see,
All the things that You have done to set us free.
Open our eyes, O Lord open our eyes.
To all the riches that are ours in You.
Open our eyes O Lord open our eyes.
To all the riches that are ours in You.
Help us know the hope of our calling.
To know the glory of Your heritage in us.
To know the greatness of Your power.
The greatness of Your power
Your resurrection power in our lives.
Study/Application Guide
The following are some suggestions for remembering and applying the truths from this message along with some suggestions for possible further study.
Remember
• Try reading chapters 1-6 again keeping in mind the concept of two contrasting portraits. Look for descriptions of the two people. Watch especially for how Paul makes a contrast in the same passage or verse.
• Think again about the things that are new for the person in Christ beginning in chapter five. These are highlighted in these notes in the outline A-J. After reviewing what God declares as NEW, take some time to think of the opposite. I.e New peace with God contrasted with still at war with God.
• Think again about the two issues raised by Paul in chapter 6. Shall we sin because there is abundance of grace? Shall we sin because there is absence of condemnation? How does Paul answer those questions directly and what counter logic does he apply?
Apply
• The first thing is to be sure you have “obeyed from the heart.” Is there a time in your life that you turned to Christ? Which portrait is true of you?
• Paul calls those who have presented themselves to Christ to again present their members to Christ. Our members have to do with the abilities and capacities of our life like thinking, feeling, creating, choosing, touching, working, etc. Are you presenting these to God?
• Take some time to think about each analogy used by Paul in these passages. What is the analogy and what emphasis seems to be implied by each?
Spiritual united or connected with Christ – resurrection life. (Think of Siamese twins sharing the same heart)
Christ is our new master – obedience (think of being transferred to a new company with a new boss.
Christ is our spouse – relationship and fruitfulness (Think of a marriage union – a good one).
As you think through these contemplate the role of each person in the relationship. What are the expectations? What are the responsibilities?
• After you have spent some time thinking on these analogies spend some additional time reflecting on your own life and response to Christ. Am I drawing on the resurrection life offered by Jesus? Am I a good and faithful servant? Who really is the boss? Whose agenda do I serve? How would you describe you marriage to Christ in practical terms? Is there any tangible fruit to this relationship?
Further Study
• If you didn’t have a chance to study Colossians 3 from last time try it this week
• Read Galatians 3-4 and jot down everything you learn about our relationship to the law.
