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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's Word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life. Welcome to this period of Bible study. We are indeed thankful for the opportunity to study with you. And we hope that your time that is spent with us is considered to be beneficial and that you find it to be profitable. But most of all, that you find our efforts to be glorifying to God because they are faithful to His Word. We want to go back to the Bible for it all. And that means that we are committed to studying the Scriptures, to knowing them, to practicing them, to putting them into action in our lives, and then to teaching them and proclaiming them to the best that we can. We may fall short in some of those areas, whether it's in our understanding or perhaps in our practice, or maybe in our teaching. And if you hear or see any area where we are falling short in that, we want you to call attention to it because we want to be effective in our understanding, in our living and in our teaching. And so we want to be helpful and beneficial, and we want to honor God in the way that we do all of those things. And so we ask for your help as we seek to consider God's Word. Today I want to continue our study of the Book of Romans. And in our last study we made it to about verse 17 or so in Romans chapter 6. And so we will pick up there in just a moment. If this is the first time that you're joining us in our study of the Book of Romans, then you can go back and you can find previous episodes. You can go on YouTube and search for the Back to the Bible podcast Book of Romans series. And there are several programs so far that we have recorded through chapter six. And you can also go to our website, backtothebiblepodcast.com and there you can click on a link that will take you to previous episodes and you can scroll back and go back to what you've missed so far and listen through to see where we have come to in the Book of Romans. In Romans chapter six, I think we have a connection really from the end of five all the way to the end of eight is kind of a unit in the Book of Romans in which Paul is describing the life that we now live in Christ. So chapters one through four was about the means by which God's righteousness is displayed in Christ. That is, God has been faithful to his covenant promises, particularly those in Abraham, through whom now, through Christ, that We have received forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God. And by our faithfulness to Jesus, we can come into a covenant relationship with God. Now, I take it to be in those first four chapters that Paul is writing to Gentiles who are being pressed on by perhaps Judaizing teachers. Maybe they've already given in, maybe they are tempted to give in. And Paul is writing to those brethren telling them that God's righteousness was not going to be found in works of the law, that is, in Jewish people imposing this on Gentiles. But rather righteousness would come by faith. And that would be faith faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Then, as we come into chapter five, Paul is talking about the way in which we can have confidence that what God has done in Christ means something for our future. So in Romans 5, I think the idea there is, since God has already done all of this for us, that is, while we were his enemies, Christ died for us. We were sinners, we were separated from God. We were not righteous, we were not good. And yet in all of that God has demonstrated his love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If we can see what God has done for us already, then we can be assured that God will raise us up and give us eternal life in the future. And so you kind of have this. If God would do this, then we can know he would do this. And at the end of chapter five, I think the question that Paul is wrestling with is how is it that one man's act of righteousness, that is, how is it that the death of Jesus and his resurrection, that Christ event, how is it that that one act of righteousness could produce that effect for so many? And I think what Paul does is he parallels Adam's situation and Christ, and that in Adam all die. Now, there would be brethren who would disagree with me on this. And that's okay. I think you can make the case. But I would say that I think he's talking about here, physical death. That is, when we are born in Adam, we all die not because we are guilty of sin, but because that one transgression brought into the world death. Of course, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But people die before they are guilty of sin. Little people who die because they are born with some defect or because there was some crisis. Those children die in Adam not because they are guilty of sin. I think we can show that through the Scriptures, despite what others may say, but all die. I think we would see this parallel in First Corinthians. 15. And that is one passage that is so compelling to me as a parallel, because it's obvious that First Corinthians 15 is talking about physical death and physical resurrection, that this body will die, but we will be raised to eternal life. And so we come to Romans 5, and we see there that the idea is that in Adam all die, but in Christ, all are going to be made alive. That's what we see in 1st Corinthians 15. So in Romans 5, I think that's the idea. Now, of course, we come into Romans chapter six, because Paul just said, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. And so Paul puts a question in his conversation partner's mouth and says, so what are you saying then? Are you saying that we should sin more so that grace will abound? May it never be? Paul says, we have died to sin, and we're no longer living in it. But we have been raised to walk in newness of life. And Paul's point in this is that there was something that happened in our past for the Romans. They had been baptized, right? They had been buried with Christ in that watery grave, and they had been raised to walk in newness of life. In that baptism, in that moment of commitment, there was death, there was burial, there was resurrection and new life. And Paul says, since we now have this new life, we can't live like we once were because we're not any longer who we were. We've been raised up. But then he goes a step further and says, not only do we have life now, spiritual life, but we have hope of eternal life. We believe that just like Jesus was raised from the dead, we will be raised from the dead. And so Paul continues to make that application. He says, if then we've been raised with Christ, then we have hope of being raised with Christ. So we're not slaves to sin anymore. We're not under law, but we're under grace. And I want us to see here that Paul's contrast between law and grace is not a matter of a contrast between obedience and taking it easy. It is a contrast between having the works of the law without Christ in view as our standard of righteousness versus having grace seen in Christ, demonstrated in his faithfulness and met with our faithfulness. It is by grace that we are justified. So in Romans, chapter six and verse 17, Paul says, but thanks be to God that though you were the servants of sin or slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from Sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. So Paul gives thanks. And I love that the word thanks there is the same word from which we get the word grace. Paul is so God has shown his grace. Now Paul is giving grace. Sometimes around a table we might ask someone to say grace. And you might say, how can we say grace? Well, here that word is about giving thanks. We could say more about the word grace. But it's almost as if there is this reciprocal relationship. There is this cycle of grace where God gives grace, we give thanks, we give grace, and that relationship continues. Now there are other places where disciples, Christians themselves, like Hebrews chapter 12, are called to give grace to God. How can I give grace to God? Well, I can't give grace to God in the sense that he has given me something. I can't match that gift. But I can give thanks and I can give myself in loyalty to him. And that cycle continues. But Paul is thankful because at one point they had been the slaves of sin, but now they had become slaves of righteousness. This is an important principle. Everyone is a slave, everyone is a servant. Now, that might not sound good newsy, that might not sound gospel y but it is good news that we were slaves of sin, but now we are slaves of righteousness. I want you to see here that whatever we understand Paul's distinction between law and grace to be, we should not, cannot, must not understand that as a distinction between obedience and no obedience, we can't understand the distinction between law and grace, a distinction between obedience and grace. Because here Paul says giving thanks to God that they had become notice obedient from the heart to that pattern of teaching to which they had been given over. And so here is a standard, here is a pattern that they had been given. And Paul says, you became obedient from the heart. As we read through the book of Romans, I think we will see a number of places where Paul emphasizes the obedience of those who have come to believe in Jesus. That rendering obedience and giving allegiance to Jesus is very much the characterization of what it means to be saved by faith. And so rendering obedience and giving allegiance to Jesus is obedience to the king to whom the law had been pointing, and not just submission to the law which had been fulfilled in him. And submission in some shallow way, that is Gentiles who would be obedient to the law, Were, as we see in the book of Romans, being obedient to something that had never been intended to be the ultimate end of things. But also, as we see in Romans 6 and in other places, they were obeying a shallow cut, miniaturized version of what it meant to follow even the law. And Paul will primarily point to the fact that it's because they had missed Christ. Now, beginning in verse 19, Paul says that he is using human language to communicate to them, despite their weakness. And I think this is a good place to show that it is right for someone to use an illustration in order to convey some deeper idea. We see that throughout Scripture, and not every illustration just has perfect comparison. But here Paul says, I'm kind of talking in a human way, in a limited way, in human terms, because they were weak. They were weak in their flesh. I think he is saying that they. They are having difficulty with this, but he's doing it in a way in order to communicate this deeper concept, this deeper idea. But they understood the concept. He says, just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. They knew that the consequences were going to be different given their new direction. They had been serving impurity. They had been devoting themselves to lawlessness. And what did that lead to? It just led to further lawlessness. If somebody's commitment is to impurity, if somebody's commitment is to lawlessness, it doesn't stop, it just continues. It mounds up on itself. It builds on itself. However, he says that's what they had been committed to. Now they needed to commit themselves as slaves to righteousness. So let's say a couple of things here. One, let's say that God had done something in this process. They had died, they had been buried, they had been raised a new life. But that didn't mean that they didn't have to be committed to this new way of life. They had been doing the presenting in the first way. Now they needed to be doing the presenting of their members to righteousness in this new way of life. What would that lead to? It would lead to sanctification. It would lead to holy holiness. It would lead to being separated for the special purpose of being God's people. Now beginning in verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then having from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now Having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification and the end. Eternal life for the wages of sin is death. But the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord. So Paul here says that one time they were slaves of sin and free regarding righteousness. Now I think it's important that we see this language. For example, Peter will use it over in second Peter chapter two and will say that there will be people. This is verse 19 of 2 Peter 2, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. But notice what Peter says at the end of second Peter 2, verse 19. For by what a man is overcome by this, he is enslaved. So what you have here is there will be people who will be coming along saying that they can be free from righteousness, but what they are doing is they are enslaving them in sin all over again. And I think that's what Paul is saying here is that yeah, sure, there was a time where you were free from righteousness, but you were enslaved to sin. And so he says, when you were enslaved to sin, what was the benefit that you were having? And notice he says this, what was the benefit of those things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death, separation from God, the penalty for which in Adam is death. And now they have been freed from that sin and now they are enslaved God. Well what's the benefit of that? The benefit of that is holiness is sanctification is being set apart for God's special purposes. And in the end eternal life. Do you see that? One devotion has the result of death, the other slavery. The other captivity has the end result now of sanctification. And in the end it has eternal life. So sin earns death. The wages of sin is death. Do you see that when I go to work, my wages are what I have earned. They are paying me for my time. The wages of sin is death. We need to see that again. In Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through 32 we see the sin that characterized the world for which the wrath of God was coming upon them because they had rejected God and had spiraled into wickedness. And we see that at the end of Romans chapter one that they do them and those who approve them, they deserve death. But God's gracious gift is eternal life in Christ. He intervened in their death bound way of life to provide a gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ we did not earn that gift. It was a gracious gift of God to us in Christ. So how do we respond to that. We respond to that by giving our allegiance to Jesus as king, dying to sin, being freed from sin, and being raised to walk in newness of life. Alright, we have a few more minutes, so we're going to continue into chapter seven. And some have struggled with chapter seven. I will say that I think that reading this from the perspective of Paul, talking to Gentiles, I think is helpful in understanding Romans chapter seven. And so you'll have to at least consider that with me as we go into this chapter. Let's begin with the first few verses there. I'm going to read verses one through six and we'll consider that. Or do you not know, brothers? For I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is master over a person as long as he lives. For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband. 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. So, my brothers, 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. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law was, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now, having been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. So we come to Romans 7 and Paul opens up, calling the audience he wrote to as brothers. Now some might point to this as an indication that he is writing to them as Jewish people. But I want you to see that this is Romans 1:13 and listen to Paul's language. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often have planned to come to you and have been prevented so far that I may have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. So him calling them brothers does not indicate that they're Jewish brothers. He doesn't indicate that they are blood related. But what he is saying is, is they are still his brothers. They are still his family in Christ. Now he is saying that this people, they know the law. But he's saying that the Torah, the law, only has authority as Long as a person lives, the law is master over a person as long as he lives. Now, this audience, I don't think he's saying that they are under the law or that they had been under the law, but rather that they were positively disposed to it and that they know it. So he wants to show them that, that it cannot deliver them from their sins. Something else has to do that. So he uses the marriage illustration of that principle. He has already used the imagery of life and death, and then he used the idea of slavery. And now he uses the image of marriage. And he explains that death sets a spouse free to remarry without being adulteress. Now, the word here, where it says she shall be called an adulteress, that word is used as the divine calling. That is, this is not just some people might call her that, but that she is in fact an adulteress. Now here's the application. They had died to the law, right? You see that down there in verse four, they had died to the law. Now the question might be how had they died to the law if they had not been under the law in something else? Well, what happened is that they had died through Christ so that they were free from sin and death. Though they were Gentiles, they needed to die to the law because they had tried to come under it or because they were being influenced. Now, note who died. It was not the law that died, it was them to it that died. So they were free from the obligation and the curses of the law. And now they were free to be productive fruit bearing covenant boundaries to God through Christ. Now, both Jews and Gentiles had been enslaved to sin. The law, the Torah pointed out that sin of ours and then brought judgment down on it. Ultimately, on its own, it could not be the means for freedom from sin and death for either group. Now, of course, I think we're emphasizing the relationship of the Gentiles to the law. They had been enslaved to sin. Then, there may have been some who thought that the law would be the solution to that. But all the law did was make their sin even more obvious. But now, but now there was freedom from the law's decree of sin against us. We are in Christ transformed from the inside out, not just imposed on from the outside. Maybe we could summarize it like instead of providing the path for a virtuous life and freedom from sin's dominance, the law had confirmed that Gentiles were indeed enslaved to sin and sentenced to death. But in Christ's death, there was freedom from subjection to the law, and now they could be freed from their sinful passions and their desires under the reign of Christ. So what we have at the beginning of chapter seven is that Paul is beginning a consideration of the Gentiles having died to the law, having having been now committed and engaged, married in one way to Christ, and thus they are free from the consequences that would come from being under the law only. But now in Christ they had freedom, and as Chapter six said, they could be sanctified and had hope of eternal life. We'll consider, Lord willing, the rest of chapter seven next time. But until then, we bid you a pleasant good day. Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea, God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step, every in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.