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RADICAL GRACE By Johnny Tatum

The purpose of these Bible studies exegeted from the perspective of ‘radical grace’ is to present grace as the only hope for salvation and for sanctification.

DOES “OBEDIENCE” MATTER?

We believe strongly in the principle of obedience, and that a life of obedience is a life characterized by blessings. However, the issue is not whether obedience is a good thing or not; it is simply—

How do we get there from here? How does a biblical believer seek to arrive at a life of obedience?

A life of obedience can be obtained only by resting in God’s grace.

We hope that, as you read these Radical Grace Bible studies, you will prayerfully consider what the New Testament says about grace and obedience.

May the Lord richly bless you as you study His word and seek to follow Him by growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!





RADICAL GRACE Bible Study SERIES Radical Grace #1) We Proclaim Grace – with No Balance!

Radical Grace #2) Grace Is Not God Overlooking Sin; Grace Is God Killing Sin.

Radical Grace #3) Ten Attributes That Are Produced Only by Grace.

Radical Grace #4) Balancing Grace Hinders Grace.

Radical Grace #5) The “Yeah Buts” That Hinder Grace.

Radical Grace #6) Overview of Romans 1 Through 5 – Grace As Freedom from Punishment for Sins: Roaches!

Radical Grace #7) Introduction to Romans 6 – Grace As Freedom from the Power of Sin.

Radical Grace #8) Romans 6, Part 1 – Four Positional Truths: We Died; We Were Buried; We Were Resurrected; We Were Resurrected to New Life.

Radical Grace #9) Romans 6, Part 2 – “Slaves to Sin”; More Roaches!

Radical Grace #10)





Radical Grace #11) Romans 6, Part 4 – Giving Weapons to the One with No Weapons.

Radical Grace #12) Romans 6, Part 5 – Empowering the One with No Power – Are We Empowering Sin by Trying to Obey?

Radical Grace #13) The Human Dimension in Salvation and Sanctification

Radical Grace #14) Accepting Our New Identity





GRACE #1: WE PROCLAIM GRACE WITH NO BALANCE!

Worldnet Grace Ministries emphasizes the following:

Grace is the framework by which we interpret every passage of Scripture.

The Obvious Question: Is That Emphasis Biblical Or Do We Need Some Kind Of Balance?

Some people will object Grace is wonderful, but you need to balance it. To that objection, we ask: With what should we balance grace?

Many concepts are put forth as a suggested counterbalance of grace; perhaps the most common is obedience — We must balance the concept of grace with the concept of obedience. But it is not biblical to balance grace with anything, even obedience.

For those of us who stress grace, there is always a problem of others misunderstanding what we mean by grace. Therefore in this series, we will closely examine the biblical concept of grace, and we will not balance grace with anything.

Also, whenever we emphasize grace, there is a potential problem of others misunderstanding that we are making light of (having insufficient emphasis of) sin. Actually, when we emphasize grace, not only are we not making light of sin, but we are doing exactly the opposite; we are saying: Sin is devastating—serious—pervasive.

And herein lies the reason we emphasize grace—

Grace Is The Only Remedy For Sin.

It is really unfortunate that, in the Christian community, there are deep divisions over the issue of grace. This division is manifested between people who emphasize grace [alone] and people who say that grace needs to be balanced with something. And, as we have noted, some people say that we need to balance grace with obedience. For example, one admonition we often hear is You cannot keep emphasizing grace to new Christians; you also have to tell them that they have to obey.

Let me emphasize that we recognize fully the importance of obedience. There are many blessings in the Christian life that come only from obedience, and we know that, for a Christian, a life of disobedience is going to be miserable. So we agree on the importance of obedience.

The issue is not whether obedience is desired, but simply:





How can we become obedient? -or- How do we get there from here?

That is a valid question to ask, because we do not have any ability within ourselves to obey. In fact, in our own natural ability, we are just as incapable of obeying as we were before we were redeemed (saved). What we were in our natural selves (our flesh) did not change [at all] once we were saved.

We agree that obedience is the pathway to blessings, and we believe that the only way to arrive at the state of obedience is through grace. That statement may seem paradoxical, but in this series, as we analyze the concept of grace through the Bible, we will see many biblical paradoxes. Most importantly, we will see a fundamental, though paradoxical, truth.

The way to arrive at obedience is to rest in grace.

PATTERNS OF GRACE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT We emphasize grace because grace is the emphasis of the New Testament. In fact, the word grace is used 128 times—it is the most emphasized word in the New Testament.

The Apostle Paul used the word grace 94 times in his writings. As seen in the introductions to Paul’s epistles, there is an interesting pattern in his use of the word grace, as follows:

Romans: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I Corinthians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

II Corinthians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

I Thessalonians: Grace to you and peace.

II Thessalonians: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I Timothy: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

II Timothy: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.





Titus: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Philemon: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The pattern is obvious; Paul begins every epistle with Grace and peace; so what is he emphasizing?

Notice the same pattern in the closing to Paul’s epistles, as follows:

Romans: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

I Corinthians: The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

II Corinthians: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of Holy Spirit, be with you all.

Galatians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

Ephesians: Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.

Philippians: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Colossians: Grace be with you.

I Thessalonians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

II Thessalonians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

I Timothy: Grace be with you.

II Timothy: Grace be with you.

Titus: Grace be with you all.

Philemon: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Do you see what Paul is emphasizing? He is emphasizing grace in every greeting and in every closing.

Paul was not the only New Testament writer to stress grace; Peter wrote the following:

I Peter [introduction]: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.





II Peter [introduction]: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

II Peter [closing]: Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Obviously, both Paul and Peter used grace as a bookend around the letters they wrote!

There is another pattern involving the word grace that is very revealing. We see this pattern as we count the number of occurrences of the word grace in Paul’s epistles. The book of Romans contains the most instances of the word, grace, which makes sense—the book of Romans is Paul’s ultimate doctrinal exposition. All of Paul’s doctrine is contained in the book of Romans, and so, it is natural that he uses the word grace 27 times in that epistle. Grace is the bedrock of Paul’s theology.

We find another interesting pattern as we continue our word count. After the book of Romans, Paul uses the word grace most often in the letters to the Church at Corinth—books of I and II Corinthians—and to the Church at Galatia—book of Galatians. In these epistles, Paul uses the word grace 26 times.

Think about those two churches. People in the Church at Corinth demonstrated the grossest kind of immorality. And in the Church at Galatia, there were professing Christians who were in danger of abandoning Christianity and going back to [the religion of] Judaism. Would you not agree that of all of the churches, those two churches were abusing grace? Most certainly! So what does Paul do—He gives them more grace!

Today, we would say that those two churches certainly did not need more grace. And yet, the Church at Corinth and the Church at Galatia are precisely the two churches—the most immoral and the most unbiblical—where Paul emphasized grace the most.

There is another related pattern. Paul begins his epistles both to the Church at Thessalonica—books of I and II Thessalonians—and to the Church at Colossae—the book of Colossians—by thanking God for the obedience and for the fruit coming out of their lives. And then, Paul gives the credit to God’s grace!

In the letters to the Church at Corinth and to the Church at Galatia, Paul emphasizes grace the most. For the body of believers who show the most fruit, he uses the word grace only four times. But Paul deliberately emphasizes grace the most to the churches that are at rock bottom—the most disobedient, the most carnal.

That is not what we do, is it? For disobedient Christians (carnal believers), we say They do not need more grace; they need to be taught obedience. However, Paul emphasizes grace.

Why does it make sense to give more grace to those churches who we would say were abusing grace? To answer that we will want to have a fuller understanding of the power of grace.





The purpose of this study is to understand that grace gives us power for life.

GRACE #2: GRACE IS NOT GOD OVERLOOKING SIN;

GRACE IS GOD KILLING SIN

Let us remember:

Grace means—

We are never going to be punished for our sins.

Some people do not like to hear this emphasized; however, it is true—

We are free.

In fact—

We are totally free.

Some people do not like to hear that, and we seldom hear it taught, but—

We are either free -or- We are not free.

And that means—

We are free even to disobey.

Also—

We are free to suffer the normal consequences that might result from disobedience, but those consequences are not engineered by God to punish us.

And if we ever say anything less than that, we are not talking about grace anymore; so—

Grace Is Forgiveness and It Is Total





If a Christian says If I sin, God will punish me, then he does not understand grace; he is not resting in grace. Again, if a Christian says Since I am forgiven I can live, however, I can sin as much as I want and there will be no consequence, then he does not understand grace either.

What is ironic is that a Christian who is carnal (one living in complacent disobedience as a normal lifestyle) is not resting in grace. It is, indeed, a paradox.

We have begun to define grace in its simplest aspect as unmerited favor, complete forgiveness for sins. But there has to be more to grace than that.

One way we know that is to see a remarkable instance of God’s grace described in the book of Luke. Luke, the writer, speaking of Jesus says:

The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. (Luke 2:40)

Does that not sound a bit strange to say The grace of God was upon Jesus of Nazareth? That could not mean that forgiveness of sins was working there, because He did not need forgiveness—He did not have any sin.

Obviously, grace means more than just forgiveness of sins. A fuller description of grace is, as follows:

Grace Means Power For Life

That was the power operating in Jesus of Nazareth; there was no forgiveness of sins operating in Him since there was nothing to forgive. For Jesus of Nazareth, the grace of God meant the power to live life.

That is amazing! Jesus of Nazareth was born as a perfect human being, and yet, He could not have lived the life He did without the grace of God working in Him.

That is what we mean by a fuller understanding of grace — not trying to soften it, not bringing up discipline, not bringing up consequences of disobedience — to understand how it is that grace gives us power for life. Ultimately, the concept we have of the grace that saved us will be the same concept we have of the grace that sustains us. So, obviously, if we have a wrong idea of the grace that saved us, then we are going to have a wrong idea of the grace that sustains us.

For example, many people tend to think that grace is God overlooking sin; and that is just not true. Again, let me say—

Grace is 100 percent forgiveness, meaning we are 100 percent free and God will not take it back.





However, we want to see how it is that God can forgive sins.

God wants us to forgive sins of other people by overlooking their sins against us. We can overlook the sins of others because we are equally sinners before God and we are not holy. But God cannot do that.

The Lord God cannot say Your sin is okay or I am going to save you and now your sin is okay. If He were to do that, He would not be God anymore. However, what God did do was to put our sins on Messiah Jesus, and then He crucified Messiah Jesus:

Our sin went into the flesh of Messiah Jesus—He was carrying our sin with Him—and then He was condemned at the Cross—He was crucified, and our sin nature was killed with Him.

Grace is God forgiving our sins because He put them away. When we look at grace, we cannot just say that grace is God forgiving sin—although it is that 100 percent—it is more than that. Grace is God providing a remedy for sin.

When we emphasize grace, we are not emphasizing that sin is okay. We are emphasizing that sin is horrible and it is devastating to our lives; however, the only remedy for this horrible disease (sin) is grace. We emphasize grace because we acknowledge what sinners we are.

People stress obedience over grace and say We think too lightly of sin; however, I believe the exact o-p-p-o-s-i-t-e. Those who stress obedience over grace do not understand how deadly sin is. We are saying that sin is a monster that we do not have any ability to conquer in ourselves, although we hate it—we want sin out of our lives, and the only way to get it out is to rely on grace. That is why we emphasize grace.

When God saved us, judicially He killed our sin; in fact, judicially He killed us (our old man). The Lord God can now look at me as perfect because I have already paid the death penalty for my sin. That is the grace that saved me, but the grace that sustains me is really the same thing.

The grace that saved me was God judicially killing off every bit of sin at the Cross.

The grace that sustains me is God’s Holy Spirit gradually killing off actual sin in my life.

That is the grace we proclaim!





The purpose of this study is for us to begin to discover how grace gives us power for life.

GRACE #3: TEN ATTRIBUTES THAT ARE PRODUCED ONLY BY GRACE

In the New Testament, there are ten spiritual attributes—ten desirable attributes—for life that are produced only by grace, and some of them might be very surprising. We will begin with number ten, and we will work up to number 1, which is the most amazing.

Number 10: Grace Produces Comfort And Hope

Through whom [Jesus] also we have obtained our access by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope through (—how? —) grace. (II Thessalonians 2:16)

So what is Paul saying? As we live in this fallen world, there are disappointments, there are setbacks, and there is sin in our life that plagues us, but he says that we have a source of comfort and hope.

Now what is this source of comfort and hope? Is it hoping everything will work out okay? Is it thinking My sin will not be quite as bad tomorrow because I am going to try harder? No. Paul says that comfort and hope come from resting in God’s grace.

Number 9: Grace Stimulates Our Spiritual Gifts

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

Paul says that when God saved us, it was by His grace. We tend to think we are saved by faith and, really, we cannot say that is wrong; in fact, that was the whole battle cry of the reformation. However, if we are going to be very specific about it, we have to say that we are not saved by our faith — we are saved by grace, and faith is the instrument.

When Paul says that God saved us by His grace, it was a gift —the gift of grace. But when God gave us the gift of salvation, it was not one little package; it was a big package with many gifts inside, including the gifts of forgiveness and cleansing. Also included in that package were our spiritual, supernatural gifts; it is only by grace that these gifts are stimulated.





Number 8: Grace Produces Spiritual Fruit In Our Lives

Paul, speaking of the Gospel, says:

Which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also (—from where did the fruit bearing come? —) since the day you heard the hope and truly understood the grace of God in truth; (Colossians 1:6)

Paul was looking at the Church at Colossae and he was seeing some great-looking fruit being manifested in their lives; he says very clearly that they started growing that fruit [when? —] the day you understood grace.

So, do we want spiritual fruit in our lives? Sure we do! Now, one way to do it would be to get pictures of fruit (apples and oranges) and tape them to us. It would be totally ludicrous, but I think that is how we try to do it. We look at the fruit of the Spirit and say I am going to be gentle today – I am going to be meek – I am going to be long-suffering today. That is just as stupid as getting an Elm Tree and gluing supermarket-bought apples onto the tree; it does not work that way. Paul says that spiritual fruit comes from resting in God’s grace, and then, the supernatural fruit comes out.

Number 7: Grace Produces Good Works

Note: This is where the obedience factor comes in.

One of the most famous passages in the New Testament is from the book of Ephesians, as follows:

For 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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

During a recent evening youth program, the boys and I looked at this verse. We circled the phrase Good works. I told them a story about the explorers trying to find the source of the Nile River. One of the boys said that it would have been easy to find; just follow the river to the source. I said that it was not that easy, so we talked about it a little while. Then I suggested that we find the source of good works in this verse. So how do we do that? One of the young men suggested that we start with the good works and trace backwards in the verse. That was good thinking, so we proceeded.

We started with good works—Created in Christ Jesus for good works. Is the source of good works our own efforts? No, because [going back through the verse to find the source], the text says Not as a result of works. How could this be? It says We are created in Jesus for good works and then it says It is not a result of works. So, let us keep tracing it backwards.





It is not good works, but it must be something that we are supposed to do. No, because it says And that not of yourselves. So we kept tracing back, trying to find the source of good works. Faith must be the source. No, because it says Through faith, so faith is the instrument by which we appropriate something. And, of course, we keep going back and we find the answer at the very beginning of verse 8 — for by grace. Now we have explored and found the source: The source of good works is grace.

Number 6: Grace Produces Signs and Wonders

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. (Acts 6:8)

In context, Stephen is speaking of gifts that were used in the apostolic era. Though we are not part of the signs and wonders movement, there is a general principle that the Christian life should be characterized by supernatural activity and power — as the world sees us, they should see signs and wonderful things coming out.

For Stephen, what was the source of the signs of the wonders? He was full of grace and power. And the conjunction grace and power is a hendiadys (two connotative words connected by a conjunction used to express a single, complex notion); he is saying that Stephen was full of grace that is power.

Number 5: Grace Produces Actual Holiness In Our Lives

For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. (II Corinthians 1:12)

Paul is talking about his holiness; he makes it clear that his holiness came from the grace of God — not from fleshly wisdom.

In our subtitle, we use the term actual holiness to make a distinction. When we were saved by grace, holiness was placed onto our account. How much holiness? 100 percent —whatever amount of holiness Messiah Jesus has is how much we got. Now the problem is: In our actual lives, we fall far short. So, we were granted positional holiness as a gift—a gift of grace.

How is actual holiness incorporated into our lives? Actual holiness is produced in our lives by the same process that granted us positional holiness — through grace — when we were saved, grace produced positional holiness. So now, resting in grace is the way for actual holiness to be manifested in our lives.

Number 4: Grace Produces Labor For Christ





But 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, (and to make it clear, he adds—) yet not I (not my self labor), but the grace of God with me. (I Corinthians 15:10)

This is another paradox; actually, this is one of my favorites.

Resting in grace is, in a way, a passive decision. Think how many commands in the New Testament are passive: Be transformed by the renewing of your mind —not transform yourself— Yield, Submit, Rest in grace… These are passive decisions.

What is really ironic is what comes out is not passivity. In fact, if passivity comes out, then that person is not resting in grace. If a Christian is actually resting in God’s grace, then what is going to come out is labor. But it will not be labor from his own striving; it is going to be the grace of God working within him. Anything we do—any labor we perform—no matter what comes out, if it is not on the basis of God’s grace working within us, then it is just flesh and it is worthless (it is going to be burned). So, Paul says Yes, I labored more than all of them, but it was not my own strength. He says Yet not I, but the grace of God within me. So if we are resting in grace, what will come out is labor.

Number 3: Grace Produces Strength

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (II Timothy 2:1)

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and then establish you. (I Peter 5:10)

Here is another paradox: Grace produces strength. I think this is difficult for us to grasp, because we tend to think of strength as something that we develop—we build up—and that will produce strength. However, the Bible forces us to be humble; it says that strength in our life—the power to deal with life—comes only from grace.

Here, Paul uses a word for strength that means being perfected, meaning brought to maturity. Therefore, we do not react to things in the world as children do in anger, out of selfishness, or from being shortsighted. Instead, we face situations with wisdom and good judgment. That would be a great way to deal with the world; certainly, it is very desirable. And Paul is saying the only way we get that is through grace.

Paul uses another word establish. He means that when we are established, our emotions are not chained to the ups and downs of life. Our outlook on life is based on the fact that we are sunk into Messiah Jesus. It would be great to face the world that way, although it is not attainable by self-effort. Paul says it is a gift that comes from grace. So, we have another paradox: Resting in grace produces strength.

Number 2: Grace Produces Growth





“And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:32)

but grow (—how?—) in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (II Peter 3:18)

Here is another concept that is difficult. We [Christians] have the tendency to think that spiritual growth comes from a variety of things, including some degree of self-effort. We want to say that spiritual growth comes from our spiritual discipline — spiritual growth comes because I am making correct moral choices. That may be the most common error concerning the issue of spiritual growth—

As you make wise moral choices day to day, it becomes easier to do it and every time you make a correct moral choice, you are growing spiritually.

That may sound right, but it is not right: Obedience is a result of spiritual growth, not the cause of it.

Peter says Grow in grace, and again, this word in means by the instrument of grace. When he says Grow in grace, he does not just mean grow by learning more about grace. He means we are to grow in grace by resting more and more in grace. So, we have yet another paradox: Resting in grace produces spiritual growth.

Number 1: Grace Releases Us From Slavery To Sin

In Romans 6, there is another amazing verse; the more I read it, the more I do not understand it—

For sin shall not be master over you, because you are not under Law, but under Grace. (Romans 6:14)

Have you ever really thought about what that says? It does not seem to make sense, does it? And yet, I believe, this is the most important aspect of grace in our lives—even though it is the most difficult aspect to understand, and in fact, the opposite makes sense.

Here is what would make sense to me For sin shall not be master over you because you are not under Grace but under Law. But Paul is saying that because we are under grace, we are totally free—we are totally forgiven—and because we are in that position, sin is not to be master over us. But this does not seem to make sense.

It may be clearer from another perspective. He is saying that since we are under grace, then sin does not have to be master over us. Now if that is the case, he is obviously telling us something about being under Law. Since you are under Grace and not under Law, then sin does not have to be master over you.





First, let us look at what Paul means by Law. I do not believe that he is talking about the Mosaic Law because he was talking to a mostly Gentile audience, and like most people today, they did not know what the Mosaic Law was.

When he is talking about Law, he is talking about any kind of system of discipline, self-effort, rules, and/or regulations to which we bind ourselves. So, he is saying something that is just amazing, something that goes counter to human reasoning:

If you are a slave to a Law for your spiritual life, if you are a slave to legalism, a slave to rules and regulations, that also means you are a slave to sin.

Is that not amazing? Again, it goes counter to human thinking.

Conclusion

We have seen ten spiritual qualities that are produced only by Grace. So we emphasize grace because:

We want —

Comfort and hope.

Spiritual gifts developed.

Spiritual fruit in our lives.

Good works.

Our lives characterized by supernatural power.

Actual holiness in our lives.

To labor for Messiah Jesus.

To be strong.

To grow.

To be from the slavery to sin.

We want those things, and the Bible says that those are only attainable through Grace.

In future Radical Grace studies, we will focus on Number 1: Grace Releases Us From Slavery To Sin. However, let me make a distinction now. We are never going to be free from sin in this life; we are always going to sin, –every day, –all day. I have heard people talk about how many





days they have gone without sinning I have gone three or four days without sinning. Those individuals are either completely oblivious to what sin is or to what we are as sinners. They are separating individual acts of sin from the fact that we are just sinners. So, the question How long have you gone without sinning? is a ridiculous question.

Again, we are never going to be free from sin in this life — that will not change until we drop off these bodies — but until then, a Christian does not have to be a slave to sin. [It bothers me that…] There are some very prominent people in the evangelical community who are trying to quantify the amount of sin in a person’s life as a test of salvation; however, we know instinctively when we are slaves to sin and we know if there is some sin that is absolute master over us. So the normal Christian life includes sin, but the normal Christian life does not have to include sin being a master over us.

The purpose of this review of the Radical Grace Bible Study Series is to see why we do not balance grace with obedience and discipline, and to see how it is that grace produces a life that is free from the slavery to sin.

GRACE #4: BALANCING GRACE HINDERS GRACE

In this Radical Grace series, we are emphasizing grace and we are affirming that, for the believer, it is not biblical to balance grace with anything.

There are many Christians who believe that grace is good and who, unfortunately, also say that we must balance grace with something. And what they mean by balance is that we weaken (soften) the concept of grace by adding our obedience plus God’s discipline to balance GRACE.





Actually, there is a biblical concept of balance; however, it is not the case that we have one extreme over here, another extreme over there, and then we look for some middle ground and call that balance. In the Bible, balance is holding both extremes simultaneously.

As we have been seeing in this series, the Bible emphasizes grace — in the New Testament, the word grace is used 128 times. In fact, there is just one word that occurs more often—the word love. Interestingly enough, there is a very reasonable connection between the two words grace and love, because it was the Father’s love that caused Him to offer us His grace. Furthermore, Paul begins and closes each of his epistles with a reference to grace.

The main reason we emphasize grace is that through the New Testament, we find many wonderful spiritual qualities that are supposed to be part of the Christian life; and as we look at them, we see that all of them are produced [only] by grace.

Let us begin by reviewing the highlights of our study Grace #3: Ten Attributes That Are Produced Only By Grace. In our lives, Grace:

Produces comfort and hope.

Stimulates spiritual gifts.

Produces spiritual fruit.

Produces good works.

Produces signs and wonders.

Produces actual holiness.

Produces labor for Messiah.

Produces strength.

Produces growth.

[and the important one—] Releases us from the slavery to sin.

So you see, we emphasize grace, not to make light of sin, but because, in our lives, we want comfort and hope–spiritual fruit–good works–signs and wonders–actual holiness–labor for Messiah–strength–and growth produced, spiritual gifts stimulated, and to be released from the slavery to sin. It is amazing that all of these attributes come through grace!





However, it is not just the case that if we have grace we will have good works–comfort and hope–spiritual gifts–spiritual fruit–growth, etc. It is more than that. It is the case that there is no alternate way to receive these wonderful attributes; it is not as if grace is one way to get those aspects—it is the only way. But again, we have to say more than that. Not only is grace the only way to have these things in our lives, but also, if we try to add something to grace, then the process of producing this spiritual fruit is hindered. In fact, you can add so many things to grace that Paul says you can nullify grace working:

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Messiah died needlessly. (Galatians 2:20)

Again, let us clarify what grace is not: Grace is not God overlooking sin and Grace is not God saying that sin is okay. If someone emphasizes that concept of grace, then he is wrong. And, as we saw in our Grace #3 study, if we have the wrong idea of the grace that saved us, then we will have the wrong idea of the grace that operates in our lives (sustains us).

When we were saved, it was not that God said Your sin is okay. God’s grace was not His accepting sin; He cannot do that. God’s grace that saved us was His taking our sin, putting it in the flesh of Messiah Jesus, and allowing Him to be crucified. So, when Jesus died, what died with Him? Our sin. That means legally, judicially, if God were to look at the body of sin we had committed, He would see that it had been killed. And that is what grace is: Grace was God judicially, legally, killing off our sin.

Now, the grace that sustains us is not God saying Since you are now a believer, your sin is okay. The grace that sustains us is very similar to what God did when He saved us. The grace that sustains us is grace killing off sin in our actual lives.

One way to look at it is this:

Saving Grace was getting our sin off the books, and

Sustaining Grace is getting sin out of our lives.

At the Cross the power of sin was broken, and grace working in our lives is a gradual, consistent process of the power of sin being broken in our actual lives.

A review of the three points in this study is as follows:

First: Each of these 10 attributes (comfort and hope, spiritual gifts, spiritual fruits, good works, signs and wonders, actual holiness, labor for Messiah, strength, growth, release from the slavery of sin) comes through grace.

Second: These attributes come only through grace, meaning there is not an alternate path to getting those things.





Third: If we attempt to add anything to grace, we are hindering the grace process; in fact, Paul says that we can nullify it.

Do you see why we do not try to balance grace with something? We do not want to hinder that process of having holiness in our lives, and if we add something to grace, that is exactly what we will do.

ADDRESSING CRITICISMS

People have said that we should add—mix in—the concept of obedience into grace. The reason we do not add anything to grace is that if we do, we are going to subtract from it. And, why do we not want to subtract from grace? Because we want spiritual fruit in our lives, and if we subtract from grace, it will not happen.

Another thing we are told is that when we emphasize grace [as we do], we are making light of sin. Actually, those who stress obedience are making light of sin. What is making light of sin? Saying that sin can be harnessed by discipline, that sin can be kept under control by doing our very best to obey. That is saying that sin is not that big a problem and that sin can be harnessed by partial obedience. That is where they do not tell the rest of the story; they do not go on to say that the obedience, which they emphasize, is something that we cannot do.

What is the best anyone can do trying his hardest to obey? Would you say it would be partial obedience? How about very partial? How about very superficial?

In light our own efforts toward obedience, let us consider the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20), as follows:

You Shall Not Murder – Is it possible for a human being to go his whole life and not commit an external act of murder? Yes, I would say most can and do. However, is it possible for someone to go his whole life and not hate anybody?

You Shall Not Commit Adultery – Is it possible for someone to go his whole life and not commit adultery? Of course it is. But is it possible for anyone to go his whole life and never have lust in his heart?

You Shall Not Steal – This is a tough one. Can someone go his whole life and never steal anything? Possibly. [I do not know about this one, but I do know that—]

You Shall Not Covet – It is not possible for someone to go his whole life and never covet anything.

As you can see, the very best we can possibly do through self-effort is to obey partially, superficially.





So stressing grace is not making light of sin. We are saying that sin is such a monster—it is so horrible—that we do not have the resources to conquer it. We want it out of our lives because we know sin can be devastating and sin has consequences; however, we also see, from the Bible, that the only way to get sin out of our lives is by resting in grace. So obedience comes through grace—not vice versa—and that is why we do not soften grace by adding something to it as a balance.

SOFTENING GRACE

We have been looking at grace in its two aspects, as follows:

1. Grace as the freedom from punishment for sins, and 2. Grace as the freedom from the power of sin.

We have to look at grace in those two aspects, or we will not understand grace. However, God really does not see grace as two aspects; He looks at grace as just one power, and this one power gives us freedom from punishment and freedom from the power of sin.

So God sees grace as one power accomplishing two things, which means that if we soften one aspect, we will weaken the other aspect. That is what worries me.

The first aspect of grace is we are totally forgiven; we are not going to be punished for our sins ever. So if a believer says If I sin, God will punish me, he does not understand grace at all.

The second aspect of grace is that grace releases us from the power of sin, which does not mean that we are going to stop sinning. We are going to be sinners as long as we live, but what we can have is a situation where we are not slaves to sin. So, if a believer says Since I am under grace, I can do whatever I want, I am going to go sin it up, and there will be no consequences, he does not understand grace at all either.

If we soften the first aspect of grace, which is forgiveness, the fact that we will never be punished for our sins, we are going to weaken the second aspect, which is grace freeing us from the power of sin. But that is precisely the mistake we make. We want to soften that first part. And I do not know why we are always so anxious to do it, but we all are. Whenever someone says God is not going to punish me ever for my sins. I am totally forgiven. The sin I am going to commit tomorrow was pre-forgiven, the inevitable yeah buts begin, those dreaded monsters, the yeah buts. Do you know what those deadly monsters are?





The purpose of this Bible study is to understand that we are so free in Messiah that we are free to disobey.

GRACE #5: THE “YEAH BUTS” THAT HINDER GRACE

In our Grace #4 study: Balancing Grace Hinders Grace, we saw that God sees grace as one power accomplishing two things, as follows:

First Aspect Of Grace: We Are Totally Forgiven.

We are not going to be punished for our sins ever. So if a believer says If I sin, God will punish me, he does not understand grace at all.

Second Aspect Of Grace: Grace Releases Us From The Power Of Sin.

Though we will not stop sinning, we are not slaves to sin. So if a believer says Since I am under grace, I can do whatever I want (sin it up) and there will be no consequences, he does not understand grace at all either.

If we soften the first aspect of grace (we will never be punished for our sins), we are going to weaken the second aspect of grace (grace frees us from the power of sin). But that is precisely the mistake we make, and we all make it — we want to soften that first part. Whenever someone says, God is not going to punish me ever for my sins. I am totally forgiven. The sin I am going to commit tomorrow was pre-forgiven, the inevitable yeah buts begin. Do you know what those deadly monsters are?

Here are some examples—

I am totally forgiven

Yeah, but…

God will never punish us. Yeah, but…

Those dreaded monsters, the yeah, buts!

WHY DO WE SAY YEAH, BUT?

I confess that I throw out the yeah buts. Whenever I hear someone say If you are a believer, God will never punish you for your sins, I think Yeah, but… Everybody does it, and that is a





serious problem, because if we soften the first part of grace, we are going to weaken the second part of grace.

Why do we do that? Why do we start saying Yeah, but…when we hear that we are totally forgiven and God is not going to punish us for our sins? I do not know. I ask: Is it because it is more comfortable having limits?

I believe that is one key. It is more comfortable having limits. That is why we do not want to rest in the first aspect of grace, which is why we experience so little of the second aspect. Grace is the power that kills off the power of sin in our lives, but we experience very little of that because we have never gotten past the first part of grace—we are forgiven. We are totally free, but we want those limits. Give me a life where I have very simple rules and regulations; that is what I want—Yeah, but… When we say We are free, we have got to go all the way and say We are so free in Messiah that we are free to disobey. We are free—without the yeah buts.

A second reason for the yeah buts is that there is guilt in humanity that does not really want to be assuaged. Human nature cries out for justice. And we really do not want to let go of punishment for what we have done wrong.

A third reason it is so hard to understand is that it is so contrary to human thinking. It does not make any sense to think that the way to reach a point of obedience in our lives is through resting in the fact that we are forgiven and we will not be punished for when we sin. It does not make any sense, does it? But then Paul himself says that it is foolishness:

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. (I Corinthians 3:19)

Whatever the reason is, if we are not resting on the fact that we are forgiven, if we are not resting on the fact that grace means we will never be punished, then that means we are hindering the aspect of grace that releases us from the power of sin.

So far we have seen a lot of doctrine, which is essential because if we do not have the correct doctrine (correct understanding) about grace, then the application will never come in our lives. On the other hand, if there is no application of these principles in our lives, then it is useless to know about grace.

Therefore, we want to see how we incorporate these principles in our lives. How do I incorporate this in my life? How do I access this in my life? How do I get comfort and hope–spiritual fruit–good works–signs and wonders–actual holiness–labor for Messiah–strength–growth produced, spiritual gifts stimulated, and released from the slavery of sin?

We will see that resting in grace does not mean that we sit on the couch all day and say Oh, wow! Since God has not moved me, I will just sit here all day, because if I do anything else it will be self-effort.





The purpose of this Bible study is to present grace as a remedy for the power of sin in our life and a remedy for sin.

GRACE #6: OVERVIEW OF ROMANS 1 THROUGH 5 ––

GRACE AS FREEDOM FROM PUNISHMENT FOR SINS

In the book of Romans, Paul explains very clearly both aspects of grace [that we have been discussing] and how to incorporate them into our lives, as follows:

In Chapters 1 through 5, Paul describes the first aspect of grace, which is forgiveness. Paul explains grace in the sense that there is no punishment for our sins ever, that we will never be punished for our sins, that we are totally forgiven.

Beginning in Chapter 6, Paul discusses the second aspect of grace, which is grace in its power to release us from slavery to sin.

So, before we look at Chapter 6, let us establish the context of Chapters 1 through 5.

Paul begins the book of Romans by saying There is good news for the human race. [And we ask What is the bad news?] And then he spends almost three chapters explaining the bad news:

Everybody is condemned.

Every human being has been weighed in the balance and has been found guilty.

That is bad news indeed, but it gets worse. Paul tells us the aspects of the bad news, which follow:

First: Everybody is born a sinner and is guilty; because of our sins, we are all condemned to hell.

Second: Everyone is helpless to do anything about his or her sin.

Third: Nobody even wants to do anything about his or her sin, because there is a problem of will in the human race.





Fourth: [And really bad news is––] God requires 100 percent righteousness and the human race offers the exact opposite, 100 percent sinfulness.

So the situation is, humanly speaking, impossible.

But then, in Romans 3:21, Paul uses one little word—three letters—and you could make a case that this one word is the most important word in the whole Bible. It is the word but. He has spent three chapters describing the situation as completely hopeless. God requires 100 percent righteousness, no one comes close, and there is no way out. Everybody is condemned. Then, in Romans 3:21, Paul begins the verse with the word but, and I believe that word is the pivot of the Bible.

This is the pivot of redemption:

But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. (Romans 3:21)

Do you see why the word but is so important there? Righteousness is required. Nobody has it, but there is good news. Righteousness is available. Furthermore, it is available as a free gift.

So, at the end of Chapter 3, Paul is saying that righteousness is available as a free gift.

Question: Does everybody in the world get this righteousness?

Answer: No, it is available only for those who trust in Messiah Jesus as their Savior.

For those who trust in Messiah Jesus, His righteousness is credited to our account so that we can appear before God with a clean, spotless record.

In Chapters 4 and 5, Paul gives more details on how faith in Messiah Jesus gives us the free gift of righteousness. And here in this passage Paul describes three biblical imputations (God credits something to another person’s account), and all three are found in these two chapters, as follows:

1. Adam’s sin was placed on our account. 2. Our sin was placed on Jesus’ account. 3. His righteousness was placed on our account.

The First Imputation is that Adam’s sin was placed on our account. That means when Adam sinned, his whole being changed. He was drastically altered. He acquired a sin nature. Adam’s sin nature was not just an ability to sin nor just a tendency to sin, it was an absolute compulsion to sin. Adam was a slave to sin because sin was master over him. And that sin nature was passed onto Cain, Abel, Seth and every descendant of Adam, except one. [Of course, that exception was Jesus of Nazareth; He did not have a biological, human father, so he did not inherit that sin nature.]





So Adam’s sin was imputed to us. Do you know what that means? That means when we were born our account with God was not clear. [Even though there is a period of time when He does not hold it against children, their account is not clear.] When we were born, we had sin on our account, and it was Adam’s sin. It does not seem fair––does it? However, a fuller understanding will demonstrate that this is indeed fair.

Illustration:

GET OUT THE ROACH SPRAY!

What would you say is the value of a roach? Let us make it really gross. Let us say a roach is in the flour, which is in the pantry. What value would you assign to that roach? Or let me ask you this—before you kill it [which I am assuming you would do], would you investigate to see if that roach deserved to die? Or, would you investigate to see what that particular roach had done?

Would you do that? After all, it could be that the roach that you just killed so coldheartedly was not as bad as other roaches. What if he was not doing all the things that other roaches do? What if this roach was a good roach? What if he took care of other roaches? Would you care?

None of that would matter, would it? We do not really start to analyze what all he might have done because we do not really want to know, especially if it is in the pantry. We do not want to know what he has been doing. We just kill him. The reason we do it is not because of what we think he has done or think he might do. We kill him because he deserves to die, because of what he is. He us a roach.

Analogy: That is the condition to which Adam brought the human race. He brought the human race down to a filthy race. So, that is why the whole human race is condemned to hell, according to the first three chapters of Romans.

From God’s perspective, humanity is a filthy race, and as you know, when a roach is born you might as well kill it right then. In fact, if you can kill the eggs you would do so, because a roach cannot produce anything good. This is the human condition, and this is why it is absolutely just that we are born with Adam’s sin on us.

You may be thinking It is really not fair to compare us with roaches. I agree, it is really not fair at all, so I apologize. The reason that it is not fair is that the difference between God and humans, and humans and roaches is much different. We are much lower than roaches from God’s perspective, so it was not a fair analogy!

Even if you think that is not a fair imputation that Adam’s sin was put on us, the second imputation is definitely not fair. No question; it is not fair. The Second Imputation is that our sin was placed on Jesus. That is certainly not fair. That is a horrible trade. Jesus of Nazareth





was sinless; He lived a life of 100 percent righteousness. And what is really important is that His righteousness was achieved, not as God, but as man. That is where it is important to us.

It does not impress me that God could live a sinless life. However, it does impress me that a man could do so, and that is what Jesus of Nazareth did. This means that His righteousness as a human being could be put over in our account.

And that is the Third Imputation: Jesus’ righteousness was placed on our account, because he achieved it as a human being. So, legally, judicially we are 100 percent righteous.

In the first five chapters of Romans, Paul is talking about righteousness. God requires 100 percent of it and it is available by grace through faith and as a result, our sins are forgiven. And it is not God overlooking sin. It is not God saying Your sin is okay. Grace was God taking our sin and putting it on Jesus; then when He died, that sin of ours that was on His body died with Him.

That means that the power of sin was broken. When we were born, we were born like a little Adam—like a little roach—and sin was our master. We were not aware of it, because we had incorporated so much sin into our lives that we just were not aware that we were slaves to sin but we were. But when God took our sin, put it in Jesus and then struck His own Son, what He was doing was breaking the power of sin in our actual lives. So now we have forgiveness of sins and we have a remedy for the power of sin in our life, which is grace.

Before Paul goes on to Chapter 6, he emphasizes one other aspect of grace, and that is grace is a 100 percent remedy for sin. In fact, he says that the more we sin, the more grace springs into action doing two things. What does grace do to sin? It forgives it and it kills it. And he says that every time we sin, grace comes up. The more we sin, the more grace abounds.

So, you see, through Chapter 5, Paul has explained the first aspect of grace––there is no punishment for our sins. We are totally forgiven and we are totally free, which is the first aspect of grace: grace as freedom from punishment for sins.





The purpose of this Bible study is to understand that saving grace took sin off of our books and sustaining grace takes sin out of our lives

GRACE #7: INTRODUCTION TO ROMANS 6 –

GRACE AS FREEDOM FROM THE POWER OF SIN

Through Romans, Chapter 5, Paul has explained the first aspect of grace: For the believer, there is no punishment for our sins. We are totally forgiven and we are totally free.

Beginning in Romans, Chapter 6, Paul emphasizes the second aspect of grace: Grace is not only the basis for total and complete forgiveness, grace is also the power to remove sin from our actual lives.

We are often criticized for emphasizing grace too much, and for not presenting a more balanced view. We see here that Paul was criticized for exactly the same reason. And, as we have seen, the two churches to whom Paul emphasized grace the most were the churches at Corinth and Galatia—one was totally immoral and the other was about to go back to Judaism.

Paul always emphasized grace, but whenever he did, people would say You cannot just emphasize grace, because people will think it is a license to sin as much as they want without consequences. So, Paul was criticized for emphasizing grace for exactly the same reasons we are.

In Romans 6, Paul says:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? (Romans 6:1)

If you are teaching grace and somebody says Based on what you are saying, people can do whatever you want, their conclusion is not correct, but the fact that they asked the question means that you have correctly taught the concept of grace. In fact, if they do not ask the question, you probably have not sufficiently explained the concept of grace. In that case—if you are teaching grace and no one asks that question—you should go back and explain the concept of grace again.

When someone asks if grace is a license to sin with no consequences, what is the answer? Paul answers: May it never be! That is a weak translation; actually, it is an expression of extremely strong indignation—





Of course not! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:2)

Recognize that the way Paul answers this question is proof of the importance of grace alone.

Let us think about something. Paul has been emphasizing grace and someone says to him You cannot just keep preaching grace and only grace; people will think they can do whatever they want. If grace needed to be balanced, there is no doubt that this would have been the perfect opportunity for Paul to have said right here No, it is not just grace—but he did not. Paul did not back off one bit; he did not soften it; and he did not try to balance grace by mixing it with obedience and/or discipline. Paul has just taken five chapters to emphasize grace alone, and then here, in Chapter 6, he does not withdraw or back off—he holds firm on grace.

So, Paul says How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Again, that is why we presented the first five chapters of Romans, so this will make sense.

Every human being:

Is born a sinner

Is born an absolute slave to sin.

And then, here comes Messiah Jesus:

He has no human father; therefore, He was born without a sin nature.

He lived a life of 100 percent righteousness, but our sin was put on Him.

When He died on the Cross, our sin was killed off with Him and the power of sin was broken.

Now for all believers [in our flesh], we are in this position:

In our lives, the power of sin is broken, and yet,

We still sin—we will always sin, because in our flesh, we are natural born sinners.

In our flesh, we will always be just as much slaves to sin as we were before we were saved. Right now, our flesh is exactly the same as it was before we were saved, and it will always be that way until we get rid of this body. The difference is:

We do not have to be slaves to sin, because grace broke that connection.





Now here are the two aspects of grace: Since we are believers, we are free, and, yes, we are free to disobey and God will not punish us. We are free to live a life like that. But a life like that for a Christian is incongruous—it is possible, but it is absurd.

Illustration:

KILLING THE WEEDS

This morning I noticed I have a good number of weeds in my garden. Some of them are fairly good sized and some of them are pretty impressive but they are ugly. However, I am free to have them; I will not be punished since I have them; no one will fly down from Washington and order me to get those weeds out of my yard; nothing will ever happen to me.

The shame is that in my garage, I have a container of weed killer that is earth friendly —I even think dolphins can drink it -sic! It gets rid of weeds—it does not just mask (hide) them—it kills the weeds by going right down to the roots and killing them off. So, I am free to have those weeds in my yard. Yes, they are ugly, they are unsightly, but I will not be punished for them. However, it is absurd that I do not use the weed killer that I have. Yes, I am still free, no one will punish me, but as I look at those ugly weeds I can see the real problem: they are choking out things that might be good.

This is a picture of a Christian who is a slave to sin. It is like having ugly weeds in our yard that can get rampant and out of control. For a Christian who lives that way, God will not punish him. He is free to keep living that way; he is free to disobey; he is free to have those weeds in his life that are choking out good things; but it is incongruous.

There is a remedy for sin —grace— and it is free.

Grace is like that weed killer. It does not mask over our sins like we try to do. That is what we try to do, correct? We deal with sin this way: we confess it, we sort of halfway forget about it, and we sort of halfway think God forgave us and we hope it is just kind of covered up. Grace does not deal with sin that way.

Grace goes down to the very root and kills it all.

So, a Christian can live under the bondage of flesh, under the mastery of sin, but it is incongruous for a Christian to not use the power of grace that is available. Again, that individual is still free to live that way and God will not punish him, but it is absurd because that is not the Christian life that is pictured in the New Testament.

The Christian who lives that way will suffer, not because God is punishing him, but because those weeds will be choking out all the good things that would otherwise be in his life. So, he is free, but he will have a miserable life.





By the way, this is where discipline comes in. Discipline is when we reach the point where those weeds are choking out every good thing in our lives and, finally, God reaches the point where He says I cannot stand to watch you having a miserable life with these weeds. You sit down here and I will go kill those weeds for you.

You may ask Why is it painful? The only reason it is painful is because we become so attached to those weeds that we start thinking they are pretty. Everybody else knows that they are ugly, but we think they look nice. So that pain comes after God intervenes These weeds are killing you, let Me sit you down here and I will go pull up those weeds because we have been attached to those sins for so long that it hurts for Him to pull them out. That is discipline.

In closing, let us remember that when we emphasize grace, we are not emphasizing that sin is okay. We are emphasizing grace in two aspects:

First: Grace is freedom from punishment for sins.

Second: Grace is freedom from the power of sin.

If we soften the first part, which is freedom from punishment, we will weaken the power of grace, which is to get sin out of our lives. The only way to reach the point where sin is not master over us is to rest in grace.





The purpose of this study is to present four positional truths; and to know that all of them are tied to the Cross, the Tomb and the Resurrection, and that none of them require that we do anything.

GRACE #8: ROMANS 6, PART 1 – FOUR POSITIONAL TRUTHS:

WE DIED

WE WERE BURIED

WE WERE RESURRECTED

WE WERE RESURRECTED TO NEW LIFE

In this series, we are looking at the biblical concept of grace, and explaining why we proclaim grace with no balance.

To review: We—

Are not saying that sin is Okay.

Are not making light of sin when we stress grace.

Do not back off from the fact that grace means total freedom—that grace is freedom in two ways:

1. Grace is freedom from punishment for sins — We are completely, utterly, absolutely forgiven; God will never punish us (believers) for our sins in this life or after.

2. Grace is the freedom from the power of sin — The same grace that gives us freedom from punishment for sins also gives us freedom from the power of sin.

We will never totally fathom what that means. In a broad sense, the first aspect of grace, which we saw in our previous studies of the review of Romans 1 through 5, is fairly simple to understand. That is the grace that leads to salvation. However, it is the second aspect of grace that is more difficult to understand, which is what we begin to see in Romans 6. That is the grace that leads to sanctification.





Beginning in Romans 6, Paul explains the second aspect of grace: Grace that leads to sanctification. What is sanctification? In our lives, sanctification is actual holiness – obedience – separation. Positionally, we are already 100 percent holy, but in our actual lives, we all fall far short.

ROMANS 6 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

2 Of course not! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For since we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

6 knowing this, that 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;

7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

This passage, beginning here in Romans 6 and extending through Chapter 8, is the very best passage in the Bible to understand how it is that grace frees us from the power of sin. In Romans 1 through 5, Paul has made it clear that the basis of our justification is our identification with Jesus Christ. Beginning in Romans 6, Paul makes it very clear that the basis of our sanctification is also our identification with Jesus Christ.

Justification is an act of God whereby He declared us righteous by grace, and sanctification is a process of God making us righteous by grace. When we were justified, God declared us righteous; as God sanctifies us, He makes us righteous.

Another Way To Look At It:

In Romans 1 through 5, God is our exterior decorator — He removed the guilt of our sin. He washed our sins away so we can stand before Him spotless. In fact, He wrapped us up in Jesus Christ.





In Romans 6 through 8, God is our interior decorator — By grace, and with our permission, God moves into our hearts through the Person of Holy Spirit, and then He actually cleans up our lives. Really, it is an extension of the way He saved us.

Beginning in verse 1 of Romans 6, Paul is explaining that preaching grace is not synonymous with preaching there is license to sin. He says:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

Paul spends the rest of this chapter demonstrating that preaching grace does not lead to more sin — preaching grace leads to sanctified lives, because grace is the power that breaks the power of sin in our lives. So in verse 2, he says:

Of course not! (Or, That would be ridiculous!) How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul is using grace as the foundation to explain how we can have lives where the power of sin is broken.

I believe this passage, along with Galatians 2, presents the heart of New Testament life. Unfortunately, however, Romans 6 is one of those chapters that we read and then we move on – very quickly. We even forget that we read it. That is because this is a difficult passage. This is definitely not milk. This is meat; in fact, this may be the meatiest part of the New Testament. It must be chewed; it takes work. You cannot just read over Romans 6 and say These are five principles all beginning with the letter Z for our lives and then Next! It takes work and, above all, we must have the help of Holy Spirit or we will never understand it. If we would really work at understanding Romans 6, the blessing in our life would be unbelievable. Our lives would be changed — they would never be the same again — if we would really assimilate what is here.

Another reason we read Romans 6 and then move on is that Paul appears to be saying things that are ridiculous. He appears to be saying things that have no basis in reality in our lives, as we see in the following verses:

In verse 2, he says We died to sin.

In verse 6, he says So that our body of sin would be done away with.

In verse 7, he says We have been freed from sin.

In verse 11, he says Consider yourselves dead to sin.

It seems as if he is describing a level of life that has no bearing to reality. Actually, this picture Paul paints is not even a picture of himself — that is, in his own natural self.





Let us take a moment to preview Romans 7 here. In Romans 7, Paul is speaking about himself — not about an unbeliever. In fact, he is speaking of himself as a mature believer. Remember, this is the person who says in Romans 6 that he died to sin. Now let us listen to what he says about himself in Romans 7.

ROMANS 7

15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

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

Does that make you feel better? Is this not a more accurate picture of our lives as a Christian?

Romans 6 is describing a person who died to sin, the power of sin has been broken, and

Romans 7 is a picture of the average Christian life.

[Back to: Romans 6.]

Romans 6 does not seem to make much sense, does it? Paul is talking about a life where he died to sin. That is the basis of the chapter. Before we begin to study this passage in depth, we have to have some precautions.

First Precaution: There will be parts that we do not understand fully, meaning we will just have to accept them as facts, by faith. Paul will tell us some things that are true, and yet when we look at our lives, what we see will not fit with what he says. And that is when we have to believe it by faith. We will never be able to process this information by natural reasoning. That is precisely what makes these passages so difficult. Is natural reasoning the process by which we process information? When our eyes and ears take in information, before we can assimilate it with our mind, we have to understand it. I believe that is true of the human brain. We cannot assimilate something into our brains unless we have understood it. That is the way it works in the natural world. But the information here in Romans 6 is spiritual information. It must be assimilated and processed by faith.

Second Precaution: We want to understand that Paul knew we would not understand what he meant when he says We who died to sin, because he spends the rest of the chapter explaining what he meant. When Paul wrote that we died to sin, he knew that we would look at our lives and say Sorry, but I am not dead to sin.

Paul begins to explain in verse 3:





Or do you not know

He was being kind. What he means is I know you do not know. What do we not know?

that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death.

First, let us make it clear that Paul is not talking about water baptism. When he talks about our baptism, he is referring to the fact that we have been identified with Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying that when Jesus of Nazareth was on the Cross, I was there with Him and you were there with Him. God saw His Son on the Cross, and He saw you there too.

God has an infinite ability to see. He did not see the church on the Cross with Jesus; He did not see thousands and thousands of people on the Cross with Jesus. God saw you there, He saw me there; He can do it one at a time. All He saw was you on that Cross with Jesus. As we know, that is what brought about our salvation.

What was your part in putting yourself on that Cross? It is interesting that crucifixion is something you cannot possibly do to yourself. Have you ever thought about that?

There are a variety of ways someone can commit suicide, but crucifixion is not one of them. Oh, you could [possibly] nail one wrist/hand down, but then what are you going to do? It is ridiculous to think that someone could crucify himself. Something external has to be done to you; in fact, someone has to do it to you, and that is what God the Father did: God put you up on that Cross with His Son — you died [about] 2,000 years ago.

When He put His Son on the Cross, He put you there, He put me there. That is how closely He identifies Jesus with you, with me. He does not separate us in His sight. He saw His Son on the Cross, and He saw you there in Him. And that not only pertains to our salvation, it also is the basis of our sanctification.

Beginning in verse 3, Paul is going to tell us four positional truths that are essential for our sanctification; and we want to say the following two things about these truths:

All of them are tied to the events at the Cross, the Tomb, and the Resurrection.

For each of these items, which are essential for our sanctification, none of them require that we do anything.

There are four positional truths. What are positional truths? Positional truths in the Bible are statements of fact of who we are in Jesus, where we stand in Him. What do we do with positional truths? We just know them. Whenever we have a positional truth in the Bible, we are just to know it as a fact – that is the totality of the application!





Again, these positional truths will be difficult to understand, to accept. They are going to be contrary to what we see in our lives, but knowing them is important, because practically speaking, we are not going to experience sanctification in our lives if we do not know these things. It is impossible.

First Positional Truth

[We have already seen it in this study.] When Jesus was put on the Cross, you were put there too. That is something that we are to know. And that relationship between you and Jesus —me and Jesus— was so close that it extended beyond our death on that Cross.

I like pictures of an empty Cross. [I do not care for pictures of Him on the Cross because He came off of that Cross.] Whenever we see a picture of a Cross, instead of just thinking That is the Cross where Jesus died, we can also say That is the Cross where I died.

Second Positional Truth

In verse 4, Paul says:

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,

Again, in God’s minds this is not just symbolic; in God’s mind you were there —I was there— and then when Jesus was put in that Tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea (see Matthew 27:57-60); you went into that tomb also.

Whenever we see pictures of the empty Tomb, instead of just saying That is wonderful that He came out of the tomb alive, we can look at the picture and say I went in there and I came out of that tomb.

Third Positional Truth

From Friday to Sunday morning, Jesus was in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and so were you; however, He did not leave us in the tomb. On resurrection Sunday, He came out of that tomb and guess who He brought with Him?

Paul says:

in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might

walk in the newness of life.

He brought you out, me out; we were resurrected with Him. It is very important to know that it was the same Person who went in and who came out. If that is not the case, we are not redeemed (saved).





Fourth Positional Truth

The key of this verse is newness of life. Do you see our Newness of Life is based on the Resurrection, and not on something we do?

To understand newness of life, we have to recall the events that happened after the Cross. In fact, after the Resurrection, Jesus came out of that tomb that Sunday morning, and He did not ascend immediately to His Father. He spent 40 days here on earth in His glorified condition before He went to His Father. That is an aspect of His life we do not think of very often, but there were 40 days after His resurrection that He lived here on earth.

Remember, we identify with Jesus every step of the way, meaning we should see that same pattern in our lives. In other words, after Jesus came out of the tomb, He lived right on earth for 40 days, and so there should be a similar pattern in our lives. What is important is that when He came out of that Tomb, He came out with a different level of existence.

Jesus was the same Person, but He had a different type of existence. Before the Cross, Nazareth was tied to Him humanity. It was voluntary and He could have shed His humanity at any time, but He was bound by His humanity. That is why He got hungry and that is why He got tired. However, when He came out, He was glorified. He had a higher level of existence. It was a different life than before the Cross. In fact, it was dramatically different. That is why, until He started talking to people, normally, they did not know who He was. And then once He started talking, they recognized immediately that He was the same Person. The point is, after the Tomb, it was not the same kind of life that He had before the Tomb; and that is what has been enabled for us.

Since I was with Him on the Cross, I was with Him in that tomb, and I came out of the Tomb with Him. However, the difference is that the person that comes out of the Tomb with Jesus comes out with a higher level of existence than the person who went in. So when we came out of that Tomb with Jesus on Sunday morning, we stepped out into newness of life, a different level of existence. In our case, the person who came out of the Tomb with Jesus is not even the same person who went in. If we think about it, what we were before we were saved was so hopeless, God was not going to kill him and then raise up the same old loser. What would that have accomplished? That is why He had to kill us, so that a new person could come out.

What should be our focus? We always talk about the life of Jesus as an example, and there is some truth in that. The problem, however, with Him as our example, is that He was sinless and we are sinful. The pattern for our lives should be the life Jesus had during the time interval after He was Resurrected and before He ascended to His Father. That is the newness of life; that is the picture of what is available to us; and that is what is called resurrection life. Jesus lived that life after He was resurrected.





How is that resurrection life manifested in our life? It is appropriated by grace, the same grace that saved us. Obviously, there is a huge difference between Jesus and us. The main difference is this: Jesus Christ was sinless before the Cross and after the Cross — that did not change. We are sinful people before we are saved and we are sinful people after we were saved. However, there should be a tremendous difference in our pre-Cross life and our life after the Cross.

Do we think the difference should be once we are Christians, that we do not sin quite as much, that we are better morally than we were before? That is not the difference. There are many people in cults whose moral lives put ours to shame, so that is not what He is trying to accomplish. He is trying to give us resurrection life, and the power supply for that is not ourselves. The power supply for that is the same power that pulled Jesus out of the Tomb.

Obviously, until we get rid of these bodies, we will be sinners; however, the big difference is that after the Cross, sin does not have to have absolute power over us anymore.

If we would ever understand that sanctification is the same as our salvation, that understanding alone would radically transform our lives. Remember, salvation was a free offer, and all we had to do was let Him do it – and sanctification is the same process.

What is God’s plan for our lives? The reason I ask that is – How many times have you heard on the radio the question Friend, what is God’s plan for your life? Or how many books have you seen, or tracts, entitled What Is God’s Plan for Your Life? They do not know what God’s plan is for my life. They do not know me! However, ultimately, God’s plan for our life does not involve merely which school we attend, or matters such as that. God’s plan for our life is that we be resurrected from the level of life we are living, and that we simply let Him bring us into a higher state of existence as Jesus had, and that is newness of life.

Through verse 5, Paul has given us an overview of what he will cover in the chapter. What have we seen? First, we have seen that we died to sin. That is a positional truth. That is something we are to know. Then he emphasizes the reality of that death—we died—to emphasize the reality of it and to show it is not just some fiction, it is not just a symbolic death; in God’s perspective, I was there on the Cross and so were you, and we died. And then to emphasize the reality of that, he adds that not only was I on the Cross, in the Tomb, I was also Resurrected — I was Resurrected with Him to Newness of Life.

So far there are four positional truths that we are to know. We will never understand them fully, but we are to know:

1. I was on the Cross with Jesus, 2. I went into the Tomb with Jesus, 3. I came out of the Tomb (Resurrected) with Jesus, 4. I came out of the Tomb with Newness of Life.





We are to know those things!

Beginning in verse 6, he is going to back up and cover the same territory, but give more details, because he is still explaining what it means when he says that we died to sin.

The purpose of this study is to present what it means that we died to sin.

GRACE #9: ROMANS 6, PART 2 –

“SLAVES TO SIN”

Through verse 5 of Romans 6, Paul has given us an overview of what he will cover in the chapter. What have we seen?

Paul says that we died to sin. That is a positional truth; that is something we are to know.

Then, he emphasizes the reality of that death—we died—to emphasize the reality of it and to show it is not just some fiction; it is not just a symbolic death. In God’s perspective, I was there on that Cross, you were there on the Cross, and we died.

And then, to emphasize the reality of that, Paul adds that not only was I on the Cross and in the Tomb, I was also Resurrected in Newness of Life with Him.

These are positional truths that we are to know. We will never understand them fully, but we are to know: I was on that Cross with Jesus, I went in the Tomb with Jesus, I came out of the Tomb with Him, and I came out of the Tomb with Newness of Life with Him. We are to know those things!

Beginning in verse 6, Paul addresses the question:

What does it mean to be a slave to sin?

ROMANS 6


Knowing this





This is a positional truth, which is something we are to know.

Knowing this that our old self was crucified with Him that our body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

Paul is explaining what it means that we died to sin—there are three parts, as follows:

1. Something happened 2. So that something else would happen 3. So that something else would happen

Let us examine the three parts:

First: It was my old self that died with Jesus.

Second: The reason that happened was so my body of sin could be done away with.

Third: What did that accomplish? Now I no longer have to be a slave to sin.

If someone asked you What are your five goals for life, where would you put Not being a slave to sin? Would that be the top two or three?

At the supermarket checkout lines, you will often see numerous tabloids and magazines that have banner titles on the front cover, including “Career Goals” — “What Are Your Goals?” — “Getting Rid of Cellulite” — “Getting the Man of Your Dreams”. However, how many times do you see a headline entitled “No Longer Being a Slave to Sin”? That does not appear very often, does it?

Or, whenever the contestants of national/international beauty pageants are interviewed, they are [always] asked What are your goals for your life? Have you ever heard one of the contestants respond I want to use my crown to bring world peace, so that I will no longer be a slave to sin? I have never heard that.

I am not critical of them, because if someone were to ask me to name my top goals, I assure you that not being a slave to sin would not make my top twenty. I do not think about it very much.

That is our problem. However, if we could get a glimpse from God’s perspective of our life, if we could see what our lives would be, and if we were to have the power of sin broken, we would desperately want that. I know we would.

I truly believe that if we had God’s perspective on our life, we would be shocked at how many of our difficulties come because we are slaves to sin. Let me be very careful — it does not mean that if we are having a lot of difficulties, we are to automatically conclude it is because we are slaves to sin.





Jesus’ disciples made that mistake [when discussing a man blind from birth]:

And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? Jesus answered, “It was neither this man sinned, nor his parents.” (John 9:2-3)

The man’s blindness was not because of specific sin.

So we cannot conclude that if we are having difficulties, it means we are slaves to sin. However, it is a biblical truth that if we were to have the power of sin broken (not become sinless, but have the power broken), our lives would be dramatically different and there would not be as many difficulties.

That is why it would be a desirable thing—not because it would make us more religious—because our slavery to sin brings disaster into our lives. And I believe that many times we do not see the connection; if we could, we would want it broken.

Paul is saying that it already was broken. That is what he means when he says Our old self died. But this is difficult to understand. For one thing, I am still walking around. He says I died, but I am here—seemingly alive. And another thing, I was born in the 20th century; how could I have died in the year 31 A.D.?

In verse 6, we learn that it was Our old self that was crucified with Jesus. Old does not mean aged; it means former or previous. It means the person that we were before we were saved (redeemed).

There is something else that is obvious from this verse—we see something about what we were like before we were saved. He said that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Logically, what does that imply that we were before? That seems to tell me that we were slaves to sin before.

What does it mean to be a slave in regard to freedom? What kind of freedom does a slave have? None. So Paul is saying that sin was our master and we were obligated to do his bidding.

What I love about this passage is that here, and in Romans 7, Paul personifies sin: he presents sin as this person – an evil person – our master with an agenda. And he says that we were his slave. We had no choice; we had to do his bidding. What was his bidding? His bidding was that we sin!

This is a little bit strong though, to say that before we were saved we were slaves to sin. It is a little bit strong to say that every unbeliever is a slave to sin. Many unbelievers are very moral people. Some of them go to church – take care of their families – they are honest – they would not steal anything. How could they possibly be slaves to sin?

This is a classic example of how very differently God sees things that we do.





The Bible says that there are two kinds of external activities that can be produced by human beings; and they are divided up, not by the quality of what comes out, but by their source:

Human activity—

-Either- Springs from Holy Spirit (from Spirit of God) -Or- Springs from flesh (from self)

When God is judging works, He does not look at the externals—He does not look at what comes out. God only looks at the source, which are activities produced by Holy Spirit. For these works, God goes right through those activities; He identifies the source That work came from My Spirit; therefore, they are good, acceptable, perfect works.

However, let us say that there is activity produced by the flesh. God does not even look at those activities, per se. He cuts right through them and asks What is the source of that? It is flesh; therefore, it is sin.

If the source of the work is the flesh, it does not matter what comes out. All that matters is the source of those activities, because the flesh can produce a variety of different things, such as going to church – giving money to charitable organizations – living a good, moral life – being a murderer. The Bible says that it is all flesh. And what amazes me as I look in the Bible, especially through the Old Testament, is that flesh is always pictured as just about the same. There is really no differentiation among the various works of the flesh. If it is flesh, it is bad, it is all filthy. Do you know why? It does not matter what the work is; all that matters is the source of the activity.

Illustration:

MORE ROACHES!

Is it really fair that God does not even look at what is produced? He ignores the activity and looks at the source only. Is that fair? Sure it is.

Remember, in a previous study (see Grace #6), we discussed roaches—the ones you find in the flour, which is in the pantry. How about the one you find in your salad? How about the half of one you find in your salad? How about that one? As we saw, if you see a roach in your food, you are not going to sit there and try to analyze the totality of things that he does, are you? You would not think He probably does not do all things bad, so let me just check him out and see. No! You would kill him as soon as you





possibly could – and violently. And if you flush it, you will flush two or three times to make sure he does not swim back. You do not care if he was a pretty good roach.

Do you know why? You are doing what God did. You are not even thinking about the actual activities produced by that roach. We do not want to know about his activities, do we? When we see a roach, we are not thinking I wonder what all he does? The reason we kill the roach is because we have already judged his works to be bad because the source came from a roach – because of the source, and that is what God does. All that can come out of a roach is roach stuff, because he is a slave to his roach hood. Since the source is a roach, anything he does is filthy. And even if they had a little roach church somewhere, we would track them down and kill the whole church, no matter what they are doing.

It is totally fair for God to completely ignore the actual works that are produced, whether it is going to church or being a murderer, and to go straight to the source—if it is produced by flesh, it is sin. It is filthy. For someone without Holy Spirit living inside, the only possible source of activity for that person is flesh. There is no other choice; therefore, everything he does is sin; he is a slave to sin and he cannot change. Can a roach decide I am tired of being a roach, so I believe I will be a robin? Absolutely impossible? He is a slave to being a roach.

Even a Christian can go to church every Sunday, can read the Bible everyday, can lead a very good, moral life, but if the source of all activity is flesh, then it is all worthless. There will not be any judgment—there will not be any condemnation—it is just worthless.

Paul says that is the way we were before we were saved. Although our works were manifested in a variety of ways, God did not see them in that way. God saw the following:

Sin was our master; Sin was our boss.

Sin did not have us work for free; Sin paid us.

Everyday he would whip us—make us do his bidding, which was sin—and then he would pay us.

Do you know how Sin pays though?

Sin pays with death—

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)

Sin is the brutal master. He not only forces people to do his bidding, he repays people for their loyalty to him by offering them up death.





The purpose of this study is to present that in our lives, grace is the power that simultaneously kills Sin (the root) and individual sins (the rotten fruit).

GRACE #10: ROMANS 6, PART 3

OUR BODY OF SIN—“DONE AWAY WITH?”

As we saw in our last study: Before we were saved—

We were slaves to sin. We did not want to change.

Sin was an unrelenting master.

However, God did something both to the master and to the old slave.

The first thing God did was to deal with that old self. How? We know that God did not rehabilitate (improve) our old self. Why not? Our old self was so closely tied to that sin master, He could not extricate (remove, extract) it. So God the Father put our before-the-Cross old self onto the Cross and He e-l-e-c-t-r-o-c-u-t-e-d us.

I say that because we have glorified the cross, which we should—

In the cross Christ I glory. (Galatians 6:14)

However, it is not easy for us to recognize that the cross was the electric chair, because today in Christianity, we see so many crosses that we tend to mellow it. [It is like having a chain necklace with an electric chair drop. I am not saying that is wrong; however, that is what the cross was—the electric chair.]

Execution! — That is what God the Father did to our old self. He did not take our old self and say Let us work on some thing. No, He killed our old self. What did this accomplish? Paul says that the Lord God did this so that our body of sin would be done away with. That is difficult to understand, right?

Let us look at our body of sin. Paul is not talking about the human body; the body is neutral since it is just matter. By body of sin, he means the sinful nature that lives on in our bodies — our sin nature was done away with.





However, we still have a problem. Paul says that our sin nature was done away with. Because of this, people have drawn some very wrong conclusions, including the following:

I have reached the state of sinless perfection because it says right here that my body of sin was done away with. There are two problems with this conclusion, as follows:

The first problem is that everyone who knows these people knows that they sin. [Talk about pride!]

The second problem is—

If we say we have no sin, we make him a liar. (1 John 1:10)

It is obvious that Christians are sinners still.

The Christian does not have a sin nature anymore because it was done away with. —

One problem with that is I have yet to hear them give a satisfactory explanation of sin in our lives.

Anybody who says the old sin nature was eradicated has to explain why it is that we still have a tendency to sin, and why it is that a Christian can still be plagued by sin.

The sin nature was not eradicated. In fact, in Romans 7, the apostle Paul makes it clear that his sin nature had not been eradicated; if his sin nature was not eradicated, then I do not believe mine was either! Our sin nature is going to be with us until we are glorified. In our flesh, we are just as bad as we were before we were saved, because our flesh does not improve; it does not get better; it does not change. Remember, flesh is just flesh.

So what does it mean in verse 6 when Paul says—

in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Actually, done away with is a very unfortunate translation. The word done away with (one word in the original) is the same word used in Hebrews 2:14. Referring to Satan, the text says he was rendered powerless. Rendered powerless is what the word really means — that our body of sin might be rendered powerless.

Was Satan done away with? No, but he has been condemned. Has Satan been annihilated? No, but he has been defeated. Satan has been deprived of his power, and that is the way it is with our sin nature. Our sin nature was not eradicated, but it was deprived of its power.





However, we still have a problem. Satan still has power and our sin nature does still have power. So what is the similarity between Satan and the sin nature? Both of them are powerless unless they are empowered.

Our sin nature has been deprived of power. The reason it does not seem that it has, and the reason that it still exercises power, is that we empower our sin nature, not by behavior, but by wrong thinking.

Before we were saved, our sin nature was our boss. At the core of our being sin was ruling like a tyrant; and even if we had wanted to break free from him, we could not have. It is academic; we did not want to break free from him. The only way for us to have that power broken was for a power from the outside —God— to do two things:

(1) To kill the old slave, and

(2) To deprive the old master of sin of his power.

The sin nature is still around; Christians have a sin nature since it was not eradicated. The difference is we do not have to submit to it anymore. In verse 7, Paul says:

for he who has died is freed from sin.

Here, I like to think of that Sin [with a capital S], because Paul has been talking about Sin as a person. He who has died is freed from Sin—that old master. Even though Sin is going to keep making demands on us, Paul says that we do not have to listen to him. Sin has no authority over us anymore.

Paul is saying:

When Jesus was on the Cross, you were there – I was there.

When Jesus went into the Tomb [of Joseph of Arimathea], you were there – I was there

When Jesus rose up from the grave, you went with Him – I went with Him.

That means the old sin nature does not have to have absolute power over you anymore. Because the person who came out of that tomb with Jesus is a person who came out, not as a slave anymore, but as a free person—

A person free from the punishment for sin and

A person free from the power of sin!

[Again, we are always seeing the two sides of grace: (1) Freedom from punishment for sins, and (2) Freedom from the power of sin.]





The root problem of the human race is not really specific acts of sins; the root problem of the human race is sin. It is a disease; it is an underlying condition. It is that old person, and the core being of every human being is self – flesh – sin, which is the power supply for everything that comes out in a person’s self life.

Again, how does God judge works? God judges works (activities) by the source of the works, by the power supply. So, for every person, it is all sin. Sin is an underlying condition (the disease) that produces fruit (rotten fruit), and Sin, as a condition, produces specific instances of sins.

The Good News: Grace works on both of them!

Illustration:

WORKING AS A WEEDEATER!

We discussed weeds in a previous study.

Note: Please refer to our Grace #7 study.

Weeds: I have weeds in my backyard, and I am free to have them.

Picture: I am free to disobey; I am completely free.

Weeds: Those weeds in my yard are ugly, but no one is going to arrest me because I am free to have them. I am also free to experience the ugliness of those weeds.

Picture: While I am free to disobey, I am also free to experience suffering this life of Sin.

Weeds: I could go out and mow those weeds down, but they would come back since the root has not been dealt with.

Picture: The same thing applies to sins versus Sin — sins are the individual weeds that come up, and Sin is the root that produces all sins.

Grace, The Weedeater: Grace kills weeds in our life as a weedeater. Grace moves constantly over our lives, knocking those weeds of sins off. In fact, grace works so quickly, that as soon as one sin pops up, before it can even pop up, grace knocks it off. That is a picture of grace forgiving us for our sins. So for a Christian—for the rest of his life—every sin, before it even surfaces, is forgiven and washed. It is grace working as a weedeater on our sins.





That is the grace with which we are familiar, and that is the grace that people think we can abuse. In fact, Christians can abuse grace. But when we preach grace, we proclaim grace in its two aspects:

1. Grace is the weedeater knocking those weeds of sins off all of time, and

2. Grace is, simultaneously, God sending His grace to kill off the root of Sin if we let Him.

That is the process of sanctification—

Saving grace is keeping us clean on the top.

Sanctifying grace is the same grace; it is accessed by faith too. It is going underneath and killing off the roots.

There will still be a lot of weeds of sins, but the underlying problem, which is Sin, has been addressed—those roots are being killed.

CELEBRATING EASTER

I think it is very appropriate that we are talking about sanctification at Easter (Resurrection Sunday), because if we understand grace in sanctification, we will have a different concept of Easter than we do now.

How does the world see Easter? According to secular magazines, Easter means spring – new beginnings – touchy feely things – pastel colors.

How do believers see Easter? We remember the following:

Jesus died.

Jesus was put in the tomb.

Jesus was resurrected.

[Then we add—] And there are implications for the elect because of those things that happened to Jesus.

Let me say: that is good to do, and that is what we should do. However, we cannot stop there. Easter is not when we remember things that happened to Jesus a long time ago, things that have implications for me.





For a Christian—

Easter is when we remember events that actually happened to you – to me.

Many Christians celebrate their spiritual birthday based on the day they were saved, and I like that. But there is a way to have another birthday: Easter is every Christian’s birthday. It is not just something that happened to Jesus; it is something that happened to me – to you.

On [Good] Friday, my old self was nailed to the Cross.

On Saturday, my old self was placed into the Tomb.

On Sunday, I came out of the Tomb, but I did not come out the same person.

I was put on that Cross on Friday as a slave to sin and I came out of the Tomb on Sunday morning with the power of sin broken.

We do not act as though the power of sin is broken in our lives. That is very unfortunate. Though our sin nature was not eradicated, its power was broken. The reason the old sin master still exercises power over us is that we are empowering him. He does not have to have the power; we empower him.

As we will see [in our next studies], we empower Sin in the following two ways:

1. By not doing some things we should do, and 2. By doing some things we should not do.

And let me stress—

This Has Nothing To Do With Our Behavior…

THIS IS 100 PERCENT CONTINGENT UPON OUR ATTITUDE!





The purpose of this study is to present that when the old Sin master calls us, Jesus Christ, who identifies with us, steps in and says I am [insert your name]—our problem is we choose to overrule Jesus and to respond to Sin.

GRACE #11: ROMANS 6, PART 4—

GIVING WEAPONS TO THE ONE WITH NO WEAPONS

In this series, we are focusing on grace, specifically, why we stress grace. We have seen that for every good and desirable thing that can be part of the Christian life, as presented in the New Testament, the source is grace.

We have seen that grace is absolute freedom in two aspects:

(1) It is freedom from punishment for our sins, and

(2) It is freedom from the power of sin.

Grace must be embraced in both parts. If we just embrace the first part of grace—we are totally free, totally forgiven—and we do not really care about the aspect of grace—the agent of breaking the power of sin—then we are abusing grace. On the other hand, if we do not accept the first part of grace, then we are in danger of going into legalism (trying to obey the Law through SELF-effort). So, we have to embrace both aspects of grace.

During this series, our main focus is on the second aspect of grace: How grace breaks the power of sin in our lives. If grace does not bring about drastically changed lives for a Christian, then it does not matter what our theology about grace is. It is totally academic. It means nothing.

Grace is the avenue for changed lives, and the key is in Romans 6, which is the very best place in the whole Bible for understanding how it is that grace produces changed lives.

Please Note:

To make sure there is no misunderstanding, we emphasize that everything we say about grace applies only to Christians. There is not a power available for changed lives for unbelievers. What is a Christian? I mean someone who at some point in his/her life believes Jesus Christ is his/her Savior—His work on the Cross is the atoning death for that person’s sins. Paul says:





We (Christians) who died to sin. (Romans 6:2)

To Unbelievers:

In your life, do you want the power source, which is God’s Grace, so that you will have freedom from the punishment of your sins (total forgiveness) and freedom from the power of sin? We have good news for you! Paul says:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Romans 6:23).

So how do you receive this free gift? Simply say:

Lord God, I confess I am a sinner and I deserve to go to hell because of my sins. But I believe that when Jesus Christ died on the Cross, He was paying the penalty for my sin. And when He arose again, He rose to give me eternal life.

Paul says:

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

Today, I really want us to personalize all this, so I will use the pronoun, I, or I will use [insert your name]. When you read I just say I; if you read [insert your name], just substitute your own name. Pretty easy—right?

The way I died to sin was this: Before I was saved—before the Cross—I was tied to sin in two ways:

The first way I was tied to Sin: Sin was my master. Remember, Paul personifies Sin [with a capital S]; Paul has been talking about Sin as an evil person. Before I was saved, Sin was my master. He was a tyrant. He forced me to do his will, which was to sin. It was not always gross, external sin. It was just self; getting the needs of SELF met in the world. That is what Sin does. My compulsion to Sin was my master, and that compulsion was so strong that Paul calls him a person.

The second way I was tied to Sin [which is a way that is opposite of the first]: I was irresistibly attracted to Sin. He was my master and that is just what I wanted. Before I was saved, Sin was always pulling me down. That pull was always on me, pulling me down like gravity, and I always responded. In fact, I was a willing accomplice. In responding to that pull of the Sin master, I was actually doing just what I wanted!





But before I was born, God the Father put me in Jesus Christ, and beginning with the Cross, Jesus Christ was my representative. When Jesus Christ was there on the Cross, I was there with Him.

Now in what sense was I there? As—

The person that was an absolute slave to sin.

The person who could not possibly resist that call of sin.

My old man.

My old self.

I AM IDENTIFIED WITH JESUS

I was crucified on the Cross with Jesus of Nazareth. Then Jesus went in to the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and I went in to the Tomb as well. I was in there for three days. The reason that is important is that it shows that in God’s perspective, my old self was really dead, because He was in that cave for three days. But then when Jesus came out, I came out with Him. In fact, Jesus came out as a different person, and so did I; He came out to a newness of life, and so did I.

JESUS CHRIST IDENTIFIES WITH ME

Before the Cross, Jesus Christ was associated with sin. Let me say very quickly: It was not His sin; it was ours. However, He was associated with sin because He had voluntarily taken mine on Him. What a picture of love: He was willing to identify Himself with me even though I was a sinner! Furthermore, He did not identify Himself with me after I was saved; He identified Himself with me while I was still His enemy.

That is why I love the passage in Hebrews where it says that Jesus Christ was not ashamed to call us His brethren—

He is not ashamed to call them brethren. (Hebrews 1:11)

He had every right to be ashamed of us, but He did not mind stepping in and saying I will be [insert your name]’s representative, even though I was a sinner.

Since I was identified with Jesus at the Cross, there is a fundamental difference in my life. Before the Cross, the old Sin master would call, and it is not just that I responded every time, it is that I had no choice every time.

After the Cross, the old Sin master still calls—just like he always did—and he calls me by my name: [insert your name]. But when he calls, [insert your name] does not answer. Instead,





Jesus answers and says What? The old Sin master calls [insert your name], and Jesus says I am [insert your name]. That is what identification means.

So the Sin master says You certainly do not look like [insert your name]. And Jesus says I am identified with [insert your name]; now, so when you call [insert your name], you have to go through Me. That shows how willing Jesus is to identify Himself with us.

When the old Sin master calls, Jesus steps in and says What do you want? But the problem is that we are overruling Jesus and we are choosing to respond to the Sin master.

The old Sin master does not have authority over me anymore. His power is broken. That is how I am dead to sin. Jesus took my place; He is my representative; He is in me. When the Sin master calls with a new temptation, Jesus steps in, and Jesus is totally, completely dead to Sin. Since Jesus is dead to Sin and He is my Representative, then I am dead to Sin. I can consider myself dead to Sin.

Being dead to Sin means that Jesus, who is totally dead to Sin, is my representative, He is in me. So when the old Sin master calls [and he does all the time], Jesus is willing to intervene and say What? If you have any problems, you have to come through Me. So Paul says Consider yourselves dead to Sin.

“DIED TO SIN” versus “DEAD TO SIN”

Let us look at an interesting distinction. Paul says that we died to sin, but he does not say that we are dead to sin, does he?

That is because in our own nature, we will never be dead to sin. It is Jesus in us who is dead to sin. We become dead to sin in our lives as we identify with Jesus, who is dead to sin and who is within us. As we identify with Jesus, we are Considering ourselves to be dead to sin.

But that is very difficult to do, because it does not seem that we are dead to Sin, does it? It certainly does not seem to me that I am dead to sin. What does that mean?

WE ARE EMPOWERING THE SIN MASTER

To consider ourselves dead to sin is simply to believe the truth that the old Sin master does not have power over us anymore because Jesus took away his weapons at the Cross. So he does not have power; however, we empower him. He has no power, but we give him power.

How do we give the old Sin master power? It is not by sinning. Sin is a result of our empowering the old Sin master; it is not the cause of it. We tend to think that if we sin more, we are empowering the old Sin master. No, it is just the opposite.





We have given him power and that is why we are sometimes slaves to sin. We empower him, not by our behavior, but by our wrong thinking. Actually, to make it more blunt, it is by our ignorance.

HOW ARE WE ARMING HIM?

Next, we will begin to see how it is in our actual lives that Sin does seem to have power. This is very difficult to understand because in Romans 6, we get the impression that Sin is not even a factor in our lives anymore. We are dead to it. Our attachment to Sin is history. Then in Romans 7, Sin comes up again. It is hard to understand. We are going to see how it is that we are arming the old Sin master, who does not have any weapons of his own anymore!

The purpose of this study is to present that when the old Sin master calls us, Jesus Christ, who identifies with us, steps in and says I am [insert your name]—our problem is we choose to overrule Jesus and to respond to Sin.


GIVING WEAPONS TO THE ONE WITH NO WEAPONS

In this series, we are focusing on grace, specifically, why we stress grace. We have seen that for every good and desirable thing that can be part of the Christian life, as presented in the New Testament, the source is grace.

We have seen that grace is absolute freedom in two aspects:

(1) It is freedom from punishment for our sins, and

(2) It is freedom from the power of sin.

Grace must be embraced in both parts. If we just embrace the first part of grace—we are totally free, totally forgiven—and we do not really care about the aspect of grace—the agent of breaking the power of sin—then we are abusing grace. On the other hand, if we do not accept the first part of grace, then we are in danger of going into legalism (trying to obey the Law through SELF-effort). So, we have to embrace both aspects of grace.





During this series, our main focus is on the second aspect of grace: How grace breaks the power of sin in our lives. If grace does not bring about drastically changed lives for a Christian, then it does not matter what our theology about grace is. It is totally academic. It means nothing.

Grace is the avenue for changed lives, and the key is in Romans 6, which is the very best place in the whole Bible for understanding how it is that grace produces changed lives.

Please Note:

To make sure there is no misunderstanding, we emphasize that everything we say about grace applies only to Christians. There is not a power available for changed lives for unbelievers. What is a Christian? I mean someone who at some point in his/her life believes Jesus Christ is his/her Savior—His work on the Cross is the atoning death for that person’s sins. Paul says:

We (Christians) who died to sin. (Romans 6:2)

To Unbelievers:

In your life, do you want the power source, which is God’s Grace, so that you will have freedom from the punishment of your sins (total forgiveness) and freedom from the power of sin? We have good news for you! Paul says:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Romans 6:23).

So how do you receive this free gift? Simply say:

Lord God, I confess I am a sinner and I deserve to go to hell because of my sins. But I believe that when Jesus Christ died on the Cross, He was paying the penalty for my sin. And when He arose again, He rose to give me eternal life.

Paul says:

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

Today, I really want us to personalize all this, so I will use the pronoun, I, or I will use [insert your name]. When you read I just say I; if you read [insert your name], just substitute your own name. Pretty easy—right?





The way I died to sin was this: Before I was saved—before the Cross—I was tied to sin in two ways:

The first way I was tied to Sin: Sin was my master. Remember, Paul personifies Sin [with a capital S]; Paul has been talking about Sin as an evil person. Before I was saved, Sin was my master. He was a tyrant. He forced me to do his will, which was to sin. It was not always gross, external sin. It was just self; getting the needs of SELF met in the world. That is what Sin does. My compulsion to Sin was my master, and that compulsion was so strong that Paul calls him a person.

The second way I was tied to Sin [which is a way that is opposite of the first]: I was irresistibly attracted to Sin. He was my master and that is just what I wanted. Before I was saved, Sin was always pulling me down. That pull was always on me, pulling me down like gravity, and I always responded. In fact, I was a willing accomplice. In responding to that pull of the Sin master, I was actually doing just what I wanted!

But before I was born, God the Father put me in Jesus Christ, and beginning with the Cross, Jesus Christ was my representative. When Jesus Christ was there on the Cross, I was there with Him.

Now in what sense was I there? As—

The person that was an absolute slave to sin.

The person who could not possibly resist that call of sin.

My old man.

My old self.

I AM IDENTIFIED WITH JESUS

I was crucified on the Cross with Jesus of Nazareth. Then Jesus went in to the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and I went in to the Tomb as well. I was in there for three days. The reason that is important is that it shows that in God’s perspective, my old self was really dead, because He was in that cave for three days. But then when Jesus came out, I came out with Him. In fact, Jesus came out as a different person, and so did I; He came out to a newness of life, and so did I.

JESUS CHRIST IDENTIFIES WITH ME

Before the Cross, Jesus Christ was associated with sin. Let me say very quickly: It was not His sin; it was ours. However, He was associated with sin because He had voluntarily taken mine on Him. What a picture of love: He was willing to identify Himself with me even though I was a sinner! Furthermore, He did not identify Himself with me after I was saved; He identified Himself with me while I was still His enemy.





That is why I love the passage in Hebrews where it says that Jesus Christ was not ashamed to call us His brethren—

He is not ashamed to call them brethren. (Hebrews 1:11)

He had every right to be ashamed of us, but He did not mind stepping in and saying I will be [insert your name]’s representative, even though I was a sinner.

Since I was identified with Jesus at the Cross, there is a fundamental difference in my life. Before the Cross, the old Sin master would call, and it is not just that I responded every time, it is that I had no choice every time.

After the Cross, the old Sin master still calls—just like he always did—and he calls me by my name: [insert your name]. But when he calls, [insert your name] does not answer. Instead, Jesus answers and says What? The old Sin master calls [insert your name], and Jesus says I am [insert your name]. That is what identification means.

So the Sin master says You certainly do not look like [insert your name]. And Jesus says I am identified with [insert your name]; now, so when you call [insert your name], you have to go through Me. That shows how willing Jesus is to identify Himself with us.

When the old Sin master calls, Jesus steps in and says What do you want? But the problem is that we are overruling Jesus and we are choosing to respond to the Sin master.

The old Sin master does not have authority over me anymore. His power is broken. That is how I am dead to sin. Jesus took my place; He is my representative; He is in me. When the Sin master calls with a new temptation, Jesus steps in, and Jesus is totally, completely dead to Sin. Since Jesus is dead to Sin and He is my Representative, then I am dead to Sin. I can consider myself dead to Sin.

Being dead to Sin means that Jesus, who is totally dead to Sin, is my representative, He is in me. So when the old Sin master calls [and he does all the time], Jesus is willing to intervene and say What? If you have any problems, you have to come through Me. So Paul says Consider yourselves dead to Sin.

“DIED TO SIN” versus “DEAD TO SIN”

Let us look at an interesting distinction. Paul says that we died to sin, but he does not say that we are dead to sin, does he?

That is because in our own nature, we will never be dead to sin. It is Jesus in us who is dead to sin. We become dead to sin in our lives as we identify with Jesus, who is dead to sin and who is within us. As we identify with Jesus, we are Considering ourselves to be dead to sin.





But that is very difficult to do, because it does not seem that we are dead to Sin, does it? It certainly does not seem to me that I am dead to sin. What does that mean?

WE ARE EMPOWERING THE SIN MASTER

To consider ourselves dead to sin is simply to believe the truth that the old Sin master does not have power over us anymore because Jesus took away his weapons at the Cross. So he does not have power; however, we empower him. He has no power, but we give him power.

How do we give the old Sin master power? It is not by sinning. Sin is a result of our empowering the old Sin master; it is not the cause of it. We tend to think that if we sin more, we are empowering the old Sin master. No, it is just the opposite.

We have given him power and that is why we are sometimes slaves to sin. We empower him, not by our behavior, but by our wrong thinking. Actually, to make it more blunt, it is by our ignorance.

HOW ARE WE ARMING HIM?

Next, we will begin to see how it is in our actual lives that Sin does seem to have power. This is very difficult to understand because in Romans 6, we get the impression that Sin is not even a factor in our lives anymore. We are dead to it. Our attachment to Sin is history. Then in Romans 7, Sin comes up again. It is hard to understand. We are going to see how it is that we are arming the old Sin master, who does not have any weapons of his own anymore!

The purpose of this study is present grace as the only power for obedience in our lives.


EMPOWERING THE ONE WITH NO POWER ARE WE EMPOWERING SIN BY TRYING TO OBEY?

In our grace study, we have been looking at the Romans 6. Paul is explaining that our old self—the person we were before the Cross—was rendered inoperative at the Cross. Beginning in Romans 6:11, Paul explains how it is that the old Sin master does not have power anymore, but we empower him:





Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin will not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:11-14)

Here, Paul gives us the principle: The old Sin master does not have power, but we are empowering him.

We empower the nature to sin with the Law! In Romans 7, Paul explains specifically how it is that we empower that Sin master:

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. 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. 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. (Romans 7:4-6)

Right in the middle of that passage we see The sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law. We will see that the Law is wonderful and perfect in itself, however, when it comes in contact with sinful humanity, the Law produces more sin.

However, we have been released from the Law, and if we are released from the Law, we are also released from the power of sin. We will see—

Anybody who is a slave to Law,

Anybody who is a slave to performance,

Is automatically a slave of sin.

The Law produces sin!

Specifically, what stirs up more sin is our trying by self-effort to obey the Law.

Beginning in Romans 7:22, Paul explains that to achieve obedience by self-effort is hopeless:

For 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Romans 7:22-24)

In self-effort, there is no hope. But Paul closes this passage with good news: There is deliverance available from the power of sin and it is available through grace.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25)

The sin nature does not have any inherent power anymore. The problem is that when he is pulling on us, it certainly feels as though he has power. Again, it is that we are empowering him, as we see in the following verse:

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, (Romans 6:12)

The verb means do not keep letting. He is saying Do not keep letting him reign in your bodies.

Paul is saying that the old Sin master is not our king, he does not have a throne. But do you know what we are doing? We are pulling up a chair for the old Sin master—he does not have a throne, but we let him rule. Again, we do not do that by sinning. Sin is a result of that process. We pull up a chair for the old Sin master and then let him rule. We do not do this by poor performance, by poor behavior. And it is not that we really want to let him rule; we are not intentionally saying I would like for the Sin master to rule over my life. How do we let him rule? It is by ignorance.

We are in a similar situation as the people to whom God was referring in Isaiah 5:

My people are going into exile for their lack of knowledge. (Isaiah 5:)

The Sin master does not have a throne, but we pull up a chair for him.

In the next verse, we see that the old Sin master does not have weapons, so we arm him. Paul says:

and do not go on

Actually, the text says and do not keep on—

and do not keep on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:13)

The old Sin master does not have weapons of his own anymore; if we are not presenting our members to him as weapons, he will not have any at all. The problem is that we are giving him arms – legs – brains – bodies.





Think about all the controversies about giving arms to the enemy. Well, we are literally giving our arms to our enemy—the old Sin master —who [in himself] does not have any weapons. Paul is talking about arms and legs, about members of our body. I think he is being figurative; what he means is that we are just giving the old Sin master the use of our body. We are saying Here I am Sin master. Use me.

You may be thinking I have never said that. In fact, you may be thinking The concept of that is repugnant to me. I really do not want the Sin master to use my body. Unfortunately, we do not have to specifically say that. We do not have to [specifically] say Sin master, I am yours. We do not have to consciously, deliberately do that. All we have to do is to present ourselves to that old Sin master; all we have to do to present ourselves to him is to remain ignorant. Paul say Do not keep letting him rule. Do not keep giving him weapons.

Let us think about this for a minute. If he says Do not keep doing that then there is an implication. If he says Do not keep letting him rule; do not keep giving him weapons then it is obvious we are doing that; otherwise, he would not say Do not keep doing it. It is obvious that we are doing it.

Did you notice it does NOT say disarm him? It does NOT say that we are to take away his weapons. Why not? Because the old Sin master does not have any weapons of his own. However, we are giving him weapons.

Again, the way to stop doing that is not to change our behavior. It is also not to resolve not to do that I am not going to give him any more weapons. That will not work.

DEALING WITH THE OLD SIN MASTER

In Romans 7, Paul gives a very specific way that we are empowering the old Sin master, and we may not even be aware of it. In fact, this way is a way that does not even seem possible; it is going to be the opposite of the way we think.

The Way We Empower The Sin Master Is Trying Through Self-Effort To Obey.

As shocking as it may seem, any kind of Law system — not just the Mosaic Law — any kind of performance system that says I have got to do this to be accepted; I have got to do this and that is the kind of Law system that does not keep sin in check. It does not even reduce sin. None of those things reduce sin; they create more sin.

That is why we have the principle in the Bible that if someone is a slave to performance, to Law, that person is also a slave to sin because the Law produces more sin in two ways.

The First Way The Law Produces More Sin: In verse 7 of Romans 7, Paul says:

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be!





Paul begins by saying there is nothing wrong with the Law in itself. In fact, the Law is perfect and holy. It is God’s righteous standard. Then he says:

On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7)

Paul is saying that the Law in itself is fine. He says when he really started looking at the Law, specifically You shall not covet, and he knew he was in trouble. Before that, Paul thought because he did not steal things and because he did not commit gross, external sins, that he was keeping the Law and that he was obedient.

Then Paul realized something. When he saw his neighbor’s boat —though he did not ever thinking about stealing the boat; it never occurred to him to steal it—he wanted it. He really wished that he had the boat and his neighbor did not. Paul realized Wait a minute. That is sin. And he knew he was in bad trouble because he could tie his hands behind his back so he would not steal things; he could, by self-effort and discipline and avoiding trouble, avoid adultery; he really was not going to kill anybody. However, Paul knew there was no way to handcuff his thoughts; he knew he was in trouble. Paul was thinking Wait a minute. All this time I have wanted things that other people had and I have been jealous of them. I have been sinning my whole life.

The first way the Law produces more sin is just by revealing the sin that is already there. In that

sense, the Law produces more sin, but the Law itself is good.

Analogy:

REVEALING SIN ALREADY THERE

You have a glass with dirty water in it. If you let that water settle long enough, all the sediment, the dirt, will fall to the bottom and then the water will look clean again. If you just look through the glass, the water will look clean.

Suppose you get a spoon, and to keep our analogy straight, let us say the spoon is perfectly clean and sterile, it is perfect. But you put it down into that glass and stir. What happens? All of the dirt that is down at the bottom of the glass is going to come up and be revealed.

That is what the Law does. The Law is perfect and good, but it is like that clean spoon. As it stirs, it reveals the trash that was really there all the time. The Law reveals sin that is already there.





The Second Way The Law Produces More Sin: This is where it really gets shocking. The Law produces more sin, not just by revealing sin that is already there, the Law actually generates more sin!

Let us look at what Paul says in the next verse:

But sin (the old Sin master), taking opportunity through the commandment (the Law), produced (not revealed, but produced) in me coveting of every kind;

And then he says…

for apart from the Law sin is dead. (Romans 7:8)

From his perspective, Paul’s sin appeared dead because it was not visible. It was at the bottom of that glass. The top of the glass was visibly clean—no adultery, no killing somebody—but down at the bottom of the glass was hidden dirt (a hidden sin like most of ours are)—coveting. The Law stirred Paul up and it revealed coveting there, but it also did something else. It produced more coveting.

Let us stress that the Law is good and the Law in itself does not produce more sin. The problem is that when God’s perfect Law comes in contact with a sinful, human nature, it produces more sin. And the real problem is that every human being is sinful. That means every single time God’s Law comes in contact with a human being, more sin is going to be produced. And that is a universal truth: It is true for unbelievers and it is true for believers, who are in the flesh.

If we set our face to keep the Law, to obey the Law, if we marshal up every bit of willpower and self-discipline in order to obey, what will happen? More sin will be produced.

The Law always produces fruit, but it is the fruit of disobedience. If we really think about it, this makes sense.

Illustration:

PRODUCING THE FRUIT OF DISOBEDIENCE

Along the coastline in Galveston, Texas, there is a hotel called “The Flagship”. On the pier level, there is a restaurant, which is a great place to eat because the whole floor has glass, so while you are eating, you can view the ocean. However, the hoteliers were spending a fortune replacing broken glass. The windows were not breaking because of storms, but because people, in the hotel rooms above, were fishing off the balconies. In many cases, it was a long drop, so they would put heavy lead sinkers on the





lines. Then they would cast out their lines, and, you know what happened, the lead sinkers would crash into the glass windows below.

This problem went on for years. The hoteliers spent a fortune, and they could not do anything about the problem. They made the warning signs in the rooms stronger and stronger: We will kill you instantly –sic! They made the signs stronger and it kept getting worse. Finally, one day they did something. It took them half a day to do it, and since that time—it has been five years now—it has never happened again. No one has fished from the balconies again. Do you know what they did? They took down the signs in the rooms that said “No Fishing From The Balcony”. They took those signs down; nobody has done it since.

The Law always produces the fruit of disobedience.

If we are looking at some kind of performance standard that we want to generate by self-effort, self-discipline, willpower, not only is it not going to work, it is going to produce more sin.

The Law commands obedience and the Law punishes for disobedience, but the Law does not give the power to obey. On the other hand, grace does give the power to obey.

This is paradoxical, correct? It is not the way I would think. The same grace that forgives me for not obeying releases me from the obligation to obey and then it gives me power to obey. That is why we stress grace: We want obedience in our lives and grace is the only way to get there.

We agree with everyone that obedience is the expected fruit of the Christian life. We all agree that is the desired destination. However, the problem is that self-effort through trying to obey will make us less obedient. Self-effort discipline is not just that it will not work — it will make us more sinful.

In Romans 7, Paul makes it very clear that we have zero capacity to obey through self-effort:

For 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. (Romans 7:22-23)

Paul is describing a pretty miserable person — a prisoner of the law of sin. So who is this person? Despite what some say, Paul is talking about himself. The great apostle Paul —just as we are— wanted to obey, but in his flesh —and in ours —there is no ability to obey.






For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me,

It is normal for a Christian to want to obey, and there is something else that is normal…

but the doing of the good is not. (Romans 7:18)

Do you see the dilemma? In our spirit (our new man, our inner man), we want to obey, but in our flesh (our natural self) there is no power to do so.

We are like Paul in verse 24:

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

Before we answer this question, do you see that Paul does not ask What will set me free from the body of this death? He asks Who will…

There is no formula, no religion that is going to accomplish it. It is only a Person. And notice something else; it is something outside Paul:

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25)

In the flesh, we all serve the Law of sin, although in the inner man (new man) we want to obey. Paul makes it clear that only Jesus Christ can deliver us from the power of the flesh. Likewise, only Jesus can work obedience through us!

If that is the case, why is it that Christians are so drastically different? If Jesus is responsible for our sanctification, why are we not all equally sanctified in our actual lives? Let us find out.





The purpose of this study is to understand that salvation is all God’s doing; and, if we understand the human dimension to it, we will understand how it is that we are sanctified.

GRACE #13: THE HUMAN DIMENSION IN SALVATION AND SANCTIFICATION

We are looking at grace in its two aspects, as follows:

1. Grace is absolute freedom from punishment for our sins. That is the grace that gave us our salvation.

2. Grace is freedom from the power of sin. That is the grace that gives us sanctification.

POSITIONAL versus PRACTICAL SANCTIFICATION

We want to make a distinction between positional sanctification and practical sanctification. As far as our position with God the Father, when we were saved we were 100 percent holy, and that will never change. From God’s perspective, He sees us as totally righteous, because we have the righteousness of His Son. However, in our lives, righteousness — the holiness that we have before God — is worked out in practice, and the ideal situation is that it is p-r-o-g-r-e-s-s-i-v-e. It is actually worked out practically.

The Principle: In our life, practical sanctification is all God’s doing. Just like it was when we were saved, we did not bring anything to the table for our salvation. It was not a cooperative effort – it was not a joint venture between God and me where He did His part and I did my part – it was all God’s doing. It was all His doing, and that is the way our actual sanctification is accomplished.

We know that our sanctification is not achieved by our contributing something to it. On the other hand, there must be some human dimension, just like in our salvation. We did not contribute anything to our salvation, though there has to be some human dimension, and that is the way it is in sanctification.

We do know that we are sanctified the same way we are saved, as we see in Colossians 2:

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord,

That is our salvation, our positional sanctification.

so walk in Him, (Colossians 2:2)

That is our practical sanctification.





Paul is saying that the way you were saved is the same way you are to walk in Him. How were we saved? We are going to look at that today, because if we really understand how it is that we were saved, then we will really understand how we are sanctified.

We will see that our salvation and our sanctification come from the same source and they are accessed the same way.

When we were saved, it was all God’s doing, it was not our self-effort; however, there was a human dimension, and if we understand that, then we will understand how it is that we are sanctified.

Question: What Was The Human Dimension Of Our Salvation That Did Not Involve Self-Effort?

In Ephesians 2, we read the answer:

For 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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Does it seem strange that when we are talking about sanctification, the passage we go to is Ephesians 2:8-10, a salvation passage? But Paul is not just talking about salvation here. He is also talking about sanctification.

In verse 10, he says:

Created for good works

There is our sanctification.

Do you see the source of the good works? Back in verse 8—the source of salvation and the source of sanctification is the same:

By God’s grace

It is God’s grace.

Do you see salvation and sanctification are also accessed in the same way? What is the [same] human dimension? It is:





Through faith

Paul says:

You have been saved

That is our salvation. What is the source?

By grace

How was it accessed?

Through faith

What is the result?

You have been saved

Paul is also talking about positional sanctification; he says:

Created in Christ Jesus for good works

That is our actual life of holiness here.

What was the source of the good works?

By grace… created in Christ Jesus

Did we create the good works ourselves? No, it was His work.

How are these good works accessed? Back in verse 8:

Through faith

FAITH IS WHAT ACCESSES OUR GOOD WORKS!

To re-emphasize that our good works are not created by us, Paul says:

Which God has created beforehand

Before I was born, God created the good works that I am to walk in.





Grace is God’s power that saved me. It was not my doing, but there was human dimension, because I accessed—by faith—the salvation God worked out for me. Salvation did not have a human part—there was not a human part in our salvation—it was all God’s doing, but there was a human dimension to it. What was that? The human dimension was our faith. Our faith was doing nothing more than letting God put us into position to receive His grace. I think we tend to give too much credit, too much power, to our faith. Actually, our faith was the weak link in the whole salvation process.

Faith was just letting God put us into position to receive the free grace that He had for us. In other words, God said I have prepared this salvation for you at the Cross; I have done it all. We also know that God created the faith that we have. So He said I have done it all. What was our dimension? Just to give up and say Okay. That was it. There was no self-effort, but there was a human dimension to our salvation, which was just to say Okay. Obviously, that is not self-effort; that is getting our selves into position.

That is also the way in which we are sanctified. There is no human effort to it. We do not contribute anything to our sanctification. It is all God’s doing. But there is a human dimension, and that is just allowing Him to put our selves in position to receive His grace that sanctifies us. God says I have given you the power to be sanctified. I am the power supply for it. I have all the resources available. I want to just give it to you. To be sanctified in this life, what do we do? We say Okay—just the same way we were saved.

We also have to say for our salvation, there must be a specific content of faith. Different believers are going to word that content a little bit differently, but there are some essentials that must be there. For the faith that accesses our sanctification, there must be a specific content to that faith. And it should not be surprising that the content of the faith that accesses our sanctification is the same as the content of the faith that accessed our salvation.

OFFSETTING THE LAW OF SIN

As a Christian, my flesh is still drawn to sin the same way my whole being was before I was saved. In my flesh, I still have that compulsion to sin and it is too strong for me to do anything for – about – with.

Illustration:

If I hold a book, I can feel the pull of gravity on it. And if I drop the book 20 million times, every time (apart from the Rapture happening first –sic!) I let it go, it will fall. That is because the law of gravity cannot be nullified; in this physical system, the law of gravity cannot be changed. However, if I place the book on top of the podium, it will not fall. Did the law of gravity stop working on that book? No, it is





still pulling on it, but that law of gravity has been offset because I placed this podium between the book and the law of gravity. Gravity is still there, but the power has been offset.

That is the way it is with our tendency to sin that lives on in our flesh. The pull of sin is always there and we cannot offset that power. We cannot offset that power of the pull of sin by willpower. We cannot offset that power of the pull of sin by discipline. We cannot do anything with it. But do you know what we can do? We can allow God to put us in position so that pull is offset.

The power that offsets the power of the pull of sin is Holy Spirit. If we let God put Holy Spirit under us, then we are resting, as on a podium, and that pull of sin is still there, like gravity, but we do not feel it. God’s Holy Spirit absorbs it. We let Him put us into position to receive His grace, through the Person of Holy Spirit. The Law of Holy Spirit is stronger than the Law of Sin.

In Romans 8, Paul says:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

What is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? Holy Spirit. Paul is saying that the Law of Holy Spirit is the only power stronger than the pull of sin on our flesh.

Again, if the podium is a picture of Holy Spirit, then the [sinful] book is a picture of us. We do not even have the power to move ourselves onto position on the podium. All we can do is let God slide the podium (Holy Spirit) under us.

That is an easy thing to grasp, and that is clearly the biblical teaching. It is not a hard principle to understand, but it is very hard to know how to apply it.

Here is the dilemma—

We accept that:

Sanctification is not achieved by self-effort

Sanctification is all achieved by grace

Sanctification is all a result of grace

We cannot do anything to sanctify ourselves





We cannot add anything to sanctification by self-effort

However, we know there must be a human dimension. For sanctification, we want to find that human dimension that is not self-effort.

Let us look at the following things that have been proposed by some people as additions toward sanctification:

Reading the Bible

Does reading the Bible produce spiritual growth? The answer is No. But reading the Bible puts us into position to receive God’s grace, to rest in grace. When we read the Bible in the power of Holy Spirit, that is one way of letting Him slide the podium [of Holy Spirit] under us. When we do that, then God causes us to grow. However, growth does not happen because I read the Bible.

Quiet Time – Prayer – Meditation – Bible Study

Do these good activities produce spiritual growth? The answer is No. Holy Spirit produces spiritual growth by killing off sin in my life and by molding me into the image of Jesus. But those are very good things to do because those are the best ways I know to let Him slide the podium under me and rest in His grace. When I am resting in His grace, He is going to make me grow.

Discipline

This is a very common addition. Does discipline produce spiritual growth, or even contribute to it? The answer is No. Discipline is not bad; discipline is good. In our lives, in our business, in our home, discipline is a wonderful thing. What is bad is to believe that our discipline contributes to our growth.

One Very Serious Mistake People Make About Discipline: Many Christians present their discipline to God as something good they have done. That does not work. People make the mistake of thinking it is their discipline that creates spiritual growth. It does not happen. Again, it does not mean discipline is bad. If you can discipline your life and you feel comfortable with it, you enjoy it because it gives you time with your Father so He can make you grow, discipline is wonderful.

Another Serious Mistake People Make About Discipline: People say This is what you need to do – This is what you must do – You must structure your life like this or you cannot grow. Do you know there are many Christians who are not disciplined in that sense and they grow? In fact, one of the godliest men I know is extremely undisciplined in the classical sense. He is totally scatterbrained; he does not know what he is going to do tomorrow. His desk always looks like a cyclone his it, and that is after he has cleaned it up. In the classical sense, the man is completely undisciplined and he does not care. In fact, he even flaunts his freedom. It is worse than freedom; it is almost sloppiness. But he is resting in





God’s grace, and he is allowing God’s Holy Spirit to clean up his life and molding him into the image of Jesus Christ. That is what makes people grow.

Correct Moral Choices

Many Christians believe that we assist in our sanctification by making good, moral choices. This attitude is often expressed, as follows: You cooperate with God and you make moral choices the best you can. Even though it is a struggle, you keep making those moral choices. As you continue to make those correct moral choices, you are cooperating with Holy Spirit and you grow that way. I grew up hearing that—I grew up hearing something that was wrong. Moral choices do not produce spiritual growth. Making correct moral choices is a result of spiritual growth. And you would agree that something cannot be the cause of something and the result of something of it also? Making correct, moral choices does not contribute to our sanctification. Our sanctification is produced by our faith, just as our salvation.

We do not add anything to God’s work in sanctifying us, even good things.

The purpose of this study is to present the content of the faith that facilitates our sanctification.

GRACE #14: ACCEPTING OUR NEW IDENTITY

We have been examining the biblical concept of grace, particularly as the avenue for our practical,

actual sanctification.

Grace is God’s vehicle for producing changed lives!

Clearly, the New Testament presents the following principle: For sanctification, we do not focus on trying to change our behavior; our focus is to let God change our thinking.

Question: How do we let God change our thinking?

It is amazing how many times in the New Testament we see that the Christian life is a matter of asking the right questions of God. James says:

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you ask wrongly. (James 4:2-3)





God has answers that we need, and we are not asking the right questions. It is not as if God is playing 20 Questions with us.

I have heard people say You better be careful what you ask for, or God will give it to you. I hate that because that implies that if you pray Lord, grant me fleas—I mean, peace then He is going to say No, you said fleas. No take backs. Here are some fleas.

That is the impression I get when people say You had better be careful, or God will give it to you. You said it. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. You get fleas. God is not that way, and it is not as if He is saying Okay, if you ask the right question, I will give you the answer. Nope, you missed it. Uh-uh. You did not put it in the form of a question.

Asking the right question means our heart is in the right position. I think if we really reach the point where we ask the question Lord, how can I rest in You so that You can change me? —and it is our honest desire to know—we would have the answer.

The Key Thing That Is Wrong With Our Thinking: The Concept Of Identity.

To change our concept of identity, we reject who we think we are and we accept who God says we are. There is a drastic difference between who I think I am and who God says I am. The real problem is that who I think I am seems to give a much stronger case. But God’s good news to me: Who I think I am is NOT the real me, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

When we look at ourselves in the flesh, we see people who are born sinners. We see the same person Paul saw in his flesh—somebody who wants to obey, but who just cannot do it (see Romans 7). If you look at your life in the flesh and do not see what Paul saw, then you had better look again. And if that does not work, go ask somebody; they will set you straight!

ACCEPTING THE REAL ME

We always hear a lot about balance. We tend to have a wrong idea about what balance is. We tend to think of balance as follows: Here are two extremes; let us find something in the middle. However, I cannot find any instances of that type of balance in the Bible, but I do find a lot of instances of balance there.

Biblical Balance: Here is an extreme over here and here is an extreme over there; hold them both simultaneously.

Application: In our flesh, we are total enemies of God who are hostile to His Law; therefore, we are unable to keep the Law because we do not have the slightest desire to do so. That side is that is not the real me—not at all. Who is the real me?





The real me is the person who is identified with Jesus.

The real me was not even the person who was on the Cross.

The real me was not even the person who went in the Tomb.

The real me is the person who came out of that Tomb with a new nature.

In my new nature, I want to obey; and in the power of Holy Spirit, I can obey. That is the real me who is dead to sin. In my flesh, I am very much alive to sin, but in my new nature I am dead to sin because Holy Spirit offsets the power of that pull towards Sin. That is the real me. Do you know that is a fact, and not some theory? That is not the real me in the symbolic sense; that is the real me.

The reason I am stressing the real me as a fact is that God is not asking us to believe something that is not true. This is NOT the power of positive thinking. The power of positive thinking—according to the worldly view—is you decide something is true, whip up some belief, and it will become true. However, they have a false premise, because they believe something is true when it is not.

Illustration:

I know a man who got a job selling vacuum cleaners. I was worried from the beginning because he could not sell vacuum cleaners. But every day he would say to himself I can sell vacuum cleaners. I can sell vacuum cleaners. I can sell vacuum cleaners. However, there was one slight problem—he could not sell vacuum cleaners; he did not sell any vacuum cleaners.

Application: This is not God saying to believe something that is not so. He is saying believe something that is a fact although it does not seem that way.

God says to reject who you think you are. What does it mean to reject? To not believe that the sinful person you see is the real you. It is that simple. Disown him (disavow him), because that is not the real you.

However, we accept who God says we are. The Bible says Put off the old and Put on the new, as expressed in Ephesians:

In reference to your former manner of life, you put aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24)





Be renewed is a positive command, so let it happen—in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness. Let us rearrange that for a clearer translation:

Which has been created in the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness of truth.

The King James Version (KJV) calls this the old man and the new man. I like that. My old self is the person I used to be before the Cross; the old self who—

Was an absolute slave to sin,

Did not want to obey,

Did not have the slightest desire to obey,

Was not capable of good,

Was only capable of sin.

Had a sin nature, the only nature I had.

But my old man died. He is not still around; he died. He was even in the Tomb for three days. The problem is that his effects linger on in my flesh. So the Bible says to put him off and to put on the new man.

Let us think about this: It is always Put off the old; Put on the new. It is NEVER Do not put on the old and it is NEVER Do not take off the new. NEVER! There is an implication here, since it is always expressed Put him off; Put on the new.

Think of the old man as a dirty coat—it is always Take that thing off; it is never Do not put that thing on. That means if we do not make a deliberate choice to put him off, then that old man is on. Also, it is always Put on the new; it is never Do not take off the new. That means if we do not make a deliberate choice to put him off, we are wearing the old man!

Okay, then how can we be wearing the old man since he died? Even though he died, he left his old ways in my flesh. Physiologists tell us that every time we do something, it leaves a little rut (groove) in our brain, and the more we do something, the deeper those little ruts get. That is where the old nerve synapses tend to follow — down those old grooves.

Note: People say Christians are square; No, Christians are groovy -sic!

The old man died, but he left major freeways in my brain to sin. So he died, but he left the old ways.





Illustration:

WHERE ARE THE NEW RUTS?

It is like an old man I used to go hunting with. [That is why I always think of this, because he was an old man—about as old as dirt.] He used to take a bunch of us young men hunting for birds. Now he was a good, old man, but he was a horrible driver. We would get into the back of his pickup truck and we would just brace ourselves, because he would always head for the creek, and then drive down into it – every, single time. And he would always have to call on his radio for someone to come pull out the truck – every, single time.

After he died, I was allowed to use his truck to go hunting. And even though he died, the old ruts were still there. I would get into the truck and I would drive toward our hunting area. And there was a certain place I had to remember to turn, which was a very difficult turn to remember since this was in West Texas—the place where the only reason you know your vehicle is moving is because of its vibration; basically, you cannot tell you are moving. There was a certain place I had to remember to turn, but there was no scenery marker—no Rabbit B—no scenery mark there to tell me to turn. And if I did not make a deliberate choice to turn exactly in the middle of nowhere, do you know what would happen? I would go the normal way; I would get into that rut, then the rut would get gradually deeper and deeper, and I would be in the deep ruts thinking Here I go to the creek. And then Wham! Into the creek the truck would go.

It was a real challenge for me because I have always tended to drive on automatic pilot anyway—especially if it is a place I go to all the time—I had to make a deliberate decision not to follow those old ruts. And the key was: I did not have to decide to follow the old ways. All I had to do was make NO DECISION. If I made no decision then, by default, I would go into those old ruts.

Application: That is the way it is in our lives, and that is why the Bible always says Put off the old man. He does not say Do not put him on, because if we do not make a deliberate decision to put him off, we are going to walk in his ways.

How Do We Take Off The Old Man?

First, we must say that it is not by changing our performance. It is NOT by saying I am going to stop acting like him. It is not that. It is by rejecting him as the real me. Again, if we do not make that decision, then we are wearing him in the sense that we are going back into his old ways.





That is alarming! How often do we make a deliberate decision to put off the old man? Probably, not very often. That means most of what we do is in our flesh. If we do not make a deliberate decision I do not want him as the real me; he is not the real me, then we are in the flesh.

How much of what we do is in our flesh? How much of our Bible study – how much of our going to church – how much of our worshipping – how much of our giving – is in the flesh? [That means that what we are doing is in the flesh.] If we do not make a decision, then we are going to default into the old ways of the flesh. We are to reject that person. That is not the real me.

Second [and more importantly], I accept who God says that I am as the real me. Once we were saved, our will was regenerated. There is power in that will, which we are not aware of. By an act of our will, we say That person who is dead to sin is the real me.

If we would do nothing else in our Christian lives than to accept that identity, it would make a tremendous difference in our lives. It would change our behavior.

Illustration:

It is like the princess of the royal family in England. This princess was not particularly attractive, and I do not want to be unkind, but—her nose was big! The real problem was what that nose had done to her psyche. Because of her nose, she never really thought of herself as a princess—as opposed to today when every member of the royal family acts with g-r-e-a-t dignity. She did not. She had a hard time conducting herself as a princess, and it was based on the way she looked.

So the royal family hired the very best plastic surgeon to take care of her nose problem. He spent a whole day reconstructing her nose, and he got it corrected. In fact, everyone who saw it was astounded, because her nose was beautiful. However, just to make sure, they did not let the princess see her nose until all the swelling and redness was gone. They could not wait for the young lady to see how beautiful she was. Finally, they brought the mirror to her, and then they waited for her response. She said I knew it would not work!

It took the princess months and months to accept who she really was, however, as she began to accept her new identity, amazingly enough, she acted more and more as the princess that she was.

Application: The more we accept by faith our new identity in Christ, the more that behavior will come out.





My salvation was accomplished when I accepted, by faith, that when Jesus was on the Cross, I was in

Him.

My sanctification is achieved as I accept, by faith, that in my life Jesus is in me.

Both salvation and sanctification are rooted in our identification with Jesus. And that is why we stress grace.

What else do we have?

We express our deepest appreciation to Mitchell and Dawn Kolodin for their excellent work in editing this entire Radical Grace series.

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