Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture- Rom 4-7
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: It's good see you today. My name is Philip Thomas, Pastor of Journey here in Elgin, and this is our journey through Scripture. We are in ⁓ Romans. We're gonna go ⁓ chapters four through seven today. Four through seven. So we just finished ⁓ chapter three, which ended with the very well-known verse: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, right? That there is there is no distinction. There's no distinction between whether you were Jewish or not, no matter how good you are, ⁓ all of us. have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so now Paul starts to go, so so where does that leave us? You know, where how can we be justified with God? How can we be made right with God? And he starts off in chapter four talking about Abraham, of course the the father of ⁓ the Jewish people, says ⁓ verse three says, For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. So what is he saying? He's saying Abraham, his faith, it was counted as righteousness. It was not because of what he did. It was because of who he believed in, that he believed in God and he trusted God, and that was counted as righteousness. So we're starting to see, okay, the way that we're justified doesn't appear that it's going to be on our works because all of us have sinned and fallen short. So who's to say whose works are good enough and who has done enough good works? Or, you know, how do we balance all of that if it's only based on works? But but what it Paul is writing, he says, the Abraham, it was not based on his works. It was his righteousness was based on his faith. And then you continue, it talks about the same thing with David. Again, these are heroes of their faith. ⁓ it says, by his faith accounted for righteousness, just as David also described the blessedness of the man whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, but ⁓ whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. and ⁓ so so you even see David is recognizing it's not all about actions. ⁓ that there's there's something very important about faith that ⁓ that our faith is where we find justification. ⁓ and then Paul will continue on because some people would just like to okay then I can do whatever I want as long as I believe the right thing. No, that's not it. so then you Paul spends some time again that Abraham actually was justified before he was circumcised. Right? The circumcision was after. That was in response ⁓ to his belief in God. But that he was justified to God because of who he believed in. ⁓ verse 12, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of faith, which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. So he's making the case. Anyone can walk in faith, right? ⁓ because Abraham did before he was circumcised. So therefore, people can walk in faith now, even if they're not circumcised. ⁓ then it Talks about the pop the promise that is granted through faith. It says in verse 14, for if those who are this is ⁓ chapter four, verse fourteen, for if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Verse 13, for the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not. To Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Right? So he again is making the case, this isn't just for the Jews. This is for everyone. It extends to everyone. So even those who do not have the law, who do not follow the ⁓ scripture, that a at that time that they were not living under the Ten Commandments, basically, ⁓ they still can believe in who Christ is. Right, they can still be justified if they believe in the w the the one who g gives the law. and ⁓ continues on ⁓ he he ⁓ verse 22, excuse me. ⁓ and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness, right? That that Abraham again, it was his faith that is what was counted as righteousness. Then you get to chapter five. ⁓ it says, Therefore, having been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So we we can stand in the presence of God because of what Christ has done that and our faith in him allows us ⁓ to have that hope in the glory of God. And then ⁓ verse three of chapter five, and not only that but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produces perseverance, perseverance, character, character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. Right. So I I I love how it says, but we also glory in the tribulations, right? Because when you start to try to follow the law, it it can bring tribulations upon you. Right? But we rejoice in that because that ⁓ it br ⁓ helps us to per persevere, which builds character, which gives us hope. It is it is in the the struggling process, if you will, that we actually find hope. Then it talks about again, Christ ⁓ is our hope. Verse six, for when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one day die, yet perhaps a good man, someone would d even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Isn't that such a powerful truth that we need to hold on to? That Christ died for you, no matter where you were in your relationship with him, whether you were a good person or a bad person, because all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have sinned, so we are all unworthy. But yet Christ died for for us. ⁓ that is so important for us to remember. It can bring humility, ⁓ and it so that you do not look at yourself higher than you should. It also brings hope that no matter where someone is, how far away from God, how far away from following the law they may be, that Christ died for them. That Christ wants them to come into a saving faith of Him so that their sins can be forgiven. ⁓ says Verse nine, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if we were enemies, we were not reconciled to God through the death we were reconciled through to God through the death of his son. Much more having now been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation. So it's That we can we have been reconciled to God because of what Christ has done, not what we have done, but what Christ has done. We then turn and we believe in Him. Then He he ⁓ spent some time talking about how sin entered through one man, through one man, that is in Adam. ⁓ and there therefore grace and forgiveness comes from one man. ⁓ as is Jesus. That is why God entered into the world. He he just as sinfulness entered in through man, now Christ becomes man ⁓ in order to bring about to bring ⁓ about forgiveness and reconciliation. The very end of chapter five here, ⁓ verse twenty says moreover the law entered that the offense might abound But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through the righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So Paul's acknowledging that the law is what alerts us to sin. But that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing. But sin abounded because as we start comparing our actions to the law, we realize how far short ⁓ we fall. ⁓ and that that's kind of representative by Adam ⁓ choosing to to go his own way. ⁓ but just as sin abounded because law entered, grace abounds ⁓ even much more because Christ entered. Then he he he goes he knows the questions that are gonna be there, right? That ⁓ well if if ⁓ grace is so wonderful and I experience it because I have fallen short and haven't followed the law. Maybe I should just not follow the law more so I can receive more grace. Right? says ⁓ verse chapter six, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who die to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. So he's saying this if if you truly understand what's going on here and that you are justified through faith by what Christ has done for you, you are not going to want to continue to sin. You are going to desire to follow God. Now, does that mean you're going to do it perfectly? No. Are you going to fail? Yes. Paul's going to get to that as well. But the the notion That you can just say, ⁓ you know what? I believe and I accept God's grace and forgiveness, and now I'm just going to keep going on s sinning so I can continue to receive that grace. That means you didn't get it the first time, right? That you didn't understand what's going on the first time. ⁓ verse 7: ⁓ for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been freed. Raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we die to sin, we are raised to live a new life ⁓ in Christ. Then he uses the example being slaves to sin. ⁓ God ⁓ verse seventeen, but God be thanked. That though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. Right? ⁓ that and then he goes on in chapter seven, freed ⁓ from the law. do you not know what I speak, that the law has dominion over man as long as he shall live? Verse four. Therefore, chapter seven, therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you be may be married to another. To him who was raised from the dead that should that we should bear fruit to God. For when we are in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. God's way, the life that Christ has given us, not just by trying to follow all the rules, because we're going to fall short if we just try to follow all the rules. ⁓ and then he he ⁓ has the ⁓ some just powerful ⁓ back and forth. Verse 12, therefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Right? So he's saying the law is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. But if you're relying on the law to save you, to justify you. You you are only going to be found wanting. and he starts saying, you know, we continue to sin because we are human, right? Yet we know in our spirit that it is wrong. ⁓ and this is where ⁓ he goes in ⁓ verse four fourteen. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am car carnal souled ⁓ under sin for what I am doing. I do not understand, I do ⁓ what I will to do. That I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do it. If then I do what I will not do, I agree with the law that it is good, but now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Right then ⁓ verse ⁓ twenty-five, twenty twenty-one I find then a law that is evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity. ⁓ of law of sin which is in my members, I ⁓ wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with that mind I I I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of the sin. Right? So he's he is acknowledging I fall short here. I but that doesn't mean that I cannot be justified because I'm justified by grace that comes from Christ, not by how well I follow the law. But that doesn't mean I don't try to follow the law. I try to follow the law because I've been justified by grace and I desire to live my life for Christ. All right. We're going to continue on. We'll do eight through through probably eleven. Probably eight through eleven. We'll see you then. Thanks.