Reformation's · Cry

The last time we met we launched into a study seeking to answer the question, “What pleases God?” Last week we talked about the fact that above all other things, God delights in His Son. The reason that he does this is because the Son is a perfect image or reflection of God, and therefore God looks at the wonder and beauty displayed in His Image and he marvels and is well pleased.

                The conclusion of our lesson last week was that God is the most excellent and worthy of all beings because God has always been abundantly happy within the Trinity. There is nothing about God that makes Him deficient. He is complete and completely happy. This means that God is not constrained by anything outside of himself to do anything that he does not want to do. God has never been lonely. He has never had to do something that he was displeased with doing. We have a hard time thinking about this because we have never been like this. There has always been something deficient in us, whether it is the fact that we had to grow and learn and mature, or that we can never seem to find satisfaction in what we do. But, God is not like that. He is complete. He needs no education. No one can offer anything to him that does not already come from him. No one can bribe him or coerce him in any way. In other words, nothing outside God’s own pleasure has constrained his choices and his deeds.

                So we come to the subject of this lesson, namely, “The Pleasure of God in All That He Does.” Tonight we are going to look at Psalm 135:1-7. The psalm starts out praising God and then he gives reasons as to why we should praise God. The main verse we want to focus on is verse 6: “Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” Psalm 115:3 says the same thing: “Our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases.” This teaches us that whenever God acts, he acts in a way that pleases him. God is never constrained to do a thing that he despises. Isaiah 46:10 uses the noun form of the same Hebrew word: “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my pleasure.” On the basis of these verses, we can understand that God is completely free to do whatever he pleases. He never becomes the victim of circumstances. He is never forced into a situation where he must do something in which he cannot rejoice.

                There is one passage, however, that seems to throw a wrench in the plans. Let’s look at Ezekiel  18:30-31. God is warning the house of Israel of impending judgment, and at the end of v. 31 it seems to imply that God is not pleased in judging impenitent sinners. Here God seems to be cornered. It seems that he is forced into judging them when he really doesn’t want to. So, is God really free to do everything according to his good pleasure? Or, does God’s freedom have limits?

                One solution to this dilemma might be to say that God does whatever he pleases in the natural realm, but He really has limited influence over the personal realm. We might say that we see that in Psalm 135:7. But to say that God has control over the weather is to say that he has been in control of every tornado and hurricane that destroys personal lives. So, the bottom line is that you cannot separate the two. If he is in control of the weather, then He can affect personal lives. Also, the text does not support this view. Verses 8-11 say that God’s sovereign freedom was shown in what he did to the Egyptians.  God was able to affect the very personal lives of the Egyptians.

                To make matters even more difficult, turn to Deuteronomy 28:63. In this passage, Moses warns of coming judgment on unrepentant Israel. But, this time it says something very different from Ezekiel. Now, God is saying that he is going to take pleasure in their destruction. How can this all mesh?

                The solution to the problem is this: The death and misery of the unrepentant is in and of itself no delight to God. God is not a sadist. He is not malicious or bloodthirsty. But, when a wicked, rebellious sinner is judged, God delights in the vindication of truth and goodness and of his own honor and glory. In other words, God delights in judging sinners, not because he likes to hurt people, but because that judgment vindicates His truth.

                God is not mocked. He is not trapped or cornered or coerced. Even on the way to Calvary he had legions at his disposal. “No one takes my life from me…” At the one point in the history of the universe where God looked to be trapped, he was totally in charge doing precisely what he pleased.

When Tim asked me to do a study this fall for Wednesday night services, I immediately thought of a series that I have always wanted to teach, but never had the audience or the time. This series is based on a set of sermons that John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. John Piper is a hero of the faith for me, and he is a great preacher and writer. In the 80’s, he preached a series of sermons entitled, “The Pleasures of God”, and it is this series that I wish to adapt and teach in the next 12 weeks. I give all of the credit to John Piper and his radio ministry at www.desiringgod.org. His website is a great resource for any study that you might want to do, and the neat thing about his site is that most of his sermon transcripts and recordings are free to download.

                The goal of this study is to seek to answer the question: “What pleases God?” Or, “What delights God?” You might first wonder what benefit a study like this has. To answer that, we have to look at 2 Cor. 3:18:

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

What Paul is teaching in this passage is that we are changed more and more into the likeness of Christ by beholding the glory of God. And, we know this to be true from our own experiences. The times when I have felt most motivated to pursue holiness is when I understand and behold the glory of God. When I catch of a glimpse of the glory of God, spurs me on toward holiness.

                Henry Scougal, in his book The Life of God in the Soul of Man, said “The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.” In other words, our worth is measured by the object of our love. What we love reflects our worthiness. If we love useless, unholy things, then our worth is diminished. If we love noble things, our worth is increased. If this is true, and I believe it to be, then can we not say the same thing about God? The worth and excellency of God’s soul is to be measured by the object of His love. So, if we are going to see and understand the glory of God, we have to ask, “What does God love?”

                To understand the love and delight of God, we have to start at the beginning. The first and most fundamental thing we can say about the pleasures of God is that he takes pleasure in his Son. We are going to unfold this in five affirmations.

                First, God has pleasure in his Son. Let’s turn to Matt. 17:1-5. We remember this story from Sunday school. Jesus goes up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and for a moment, God allows these three men to see Jesus in all of His glory. And, what does God say about His Son? He says two things in v. 5. First, “This is my beloved Son...” Secondly, He says, “…in whom I am well pleased.”  So, God says, “I love my Son,” and “I am pleased with My Son.”

                You might remember that God says this on one other occasion: at Jesus baptism. After his baptism, as the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus, God says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

                Also, in the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks several times about the Father’s love for Him: John 3:35; 5:20.

So, our first affirmation is that God the Father loves the Son, not by sacrificial mercy, but with the love of delight and pleasure. He is well-pleased with His Son. His soul delights in the Son!

Second, The Son of God has the fullness of deity. This truth keeps us from making a terrible mistake. See, you might agree with the affirmation that God has pleasure in His Son, but make the mistake that the Son is merely an extraordinarily holy man that the Father adopted for His Son after hosting a “Jerusalem’s Got Talent” show.

                Look at Colossians 2:9: “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” The Son of God is not merely a chosen man. He has the fullness of deity in Him.

                Then we have Colossians 1:19, which affirms, “In him all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell.” The NIV translates as “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him.” In other words, God was pleased to do this. He did not search the world over for that one special man and give him an extra dose of His Spirit. God himself took the initiative to bestow his own fullness on a man in the act of incarnation.

                From this, though, we might be inclined to think that God MADE a Son who was pleasing. And for this, we come to affirmation 3: The Son in whom God delights is the eternal image and reflection of God and is thus God Himself. Look at Colossians 1:15:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth.”

The Son is the image of the Father. What does Paul mean by this? Well, there are some similar passages that help. Hebrews 1:3 says, “He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” Phil. 2:6 says, “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

                So, as long as there has been God, there has been the Word of God. Now we are walking up against a tall mountain that we cannot see beyond. For centuries, men and women have marveled at the concept of the Trinity. This truth is so profound and mind-boggling, that we just have to accept it on faith. But, sometimes I think we throw our hands up a little too soon. See, the Bible teaches that from eternity past the only reality that has always existed is God. And, this eternal God has always had a perfect image of himself, a perfect reflection of his essence, a perfect stamp of his nature, and a perfect form or expression of his glory. We talk about “self-image” all the time. We talk about the way we view ourselves and the image we have of ourselves all of the time. Well, as long as God has been God, he has been conscious of himself, and the image that he has of himself is so perfect and so complete and full as to be the living, personal reproduction of Himself. And this living, personal image or reflection of God is God, namely, God the Son. Jesus Christ is the very reflection of God, and so he is equal to God in essence and in glory.

                This brings us to our fourth affirmation: the pleasure of God in his Son is pleasure in Himself. God’s delight in his Son is delight in himself, therefore, the foundational joy of God is the joy that he has in his own perfections as he sees them reflected in his Son. He loves the Son and delights in the Son because the Son is God himself.

                Does this make God selfish? Does this mean that God is conceited? Well, for us to look at our reflection and be totally in love with ourselves would be the very definition of conceit. But, this is wrong for us because we were made for something bigger, namely, God. If our adoration is focused on our own image, then we are contradicting the very reason we were created. But, God is not. If God is the most beautiful, most valuable, most worthy thing in the entire universe, then he is completely righteous in loving and adoring himself.

                God loves his perfections. This is why sin is so grievous, not because it hurts us, but because it devalues the most valuable being of all. This might be the greatest obstacle to our salvation: for how can such a righteous God ever set His affection on sinners like us? But, in this we find the very foundation of our salvation, for it is precisely the infinite regard that the Father has for the Son which makes it possible for me, a wicked sinner, to be loved and accepted in the Son. God looks at a believer and he sees Christ, and because He loves Christ, he loves us.

                The final affirmation: God is the most excellent and worthy of all beings. He is this because he has loved the Son, the image of his own glory, with all of his perfect energy. In the four years I served as a youth minister, one of greatest errors I ever heard from the mouth of a young person was the statement, “God created us because He was lonely.” May it never be! God created us because the love He had for His Son was so great, he had to share it with someone else. The love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father was so great that it just spilled over into creation.

                We are created to know God and to seek His glory. May we never be so conceited as to place our own glory before His. May we never forget that God loves us because He loves Christ.

What is the biggest mystery of the Christian faith? What do you find to be the hardest thing to understand and know about our faith? For me, the thing I wrestled with for so long was the question, “Why would God send his Son to die for sinners?” I mean, after the fall of Adam, why didn’t God just wipe out Adam and Eve and start over? Why did He suffer with all of this sin and rebellion? And, on top of all of that, why did He send His Son to die for sinners? I struggled with this question because I just didn’t believe the typical answer of “because He loved us” really fully answered the question. Yeah, sure we see in Scripture that God loves us, but why? I suppose people would typically answer “God loves unconditionally, so there is no reason for it.” But, in reality, that isn’t true. Unconditional love does not mean purposeless love; it is a love that is beyond conditions. It is a love that exists in spite of our sin, but that does not mean it exists without a reason. So, why does God love us? Why would He set his heart to bruise His Son for our sake?

            Although this is not the central issue we are looking at today, I want you to keep this question in your mind, because it is crucial to who Christ is and what he does for us. For the next three weeks, we are going to look at Jesus Christ as our High Priest. And, as we study all that Jesus has done for us, we could easily assume a very man-centered view of what Jesus did. We could very easily start to think that Jesus Christ did all of these great works for us because there is something intrinsically valuable about us, but that would be a serious mistake.

            So, before we begin today, we have to answer the question I started with: Why would God bruise His Son for our sake? Or, in more general terms, why does God love us? The overwhelming answer from Scripture is “for His name’s sake.” In other words, God loves us so that He might make His glory known. Let’s look at this theme in Scripture.

1.

What do you think of when you hear the word “submit”? What do you think the world thinks of this word? Submission is not a popular subject, especially when talking about marriage. The good news today is that we are not talking about marriage, but we are talking about submission. We have been studying all of these amazing things about Jesus Christ, in particularly who he is or what we can know about him through the things we read in the Gospels. Today, we are going to look at Jesus Christ as the Servant King.

            Let’s look at John 13:1-5. How much authority and power does Jesus have? He has it all. He is the all-powerful God of the universe. Notice that is the first thing John affirms before telling this story. Notice v. 3. John is saying that Jesus had control over the situation. He was God, He was sovereign, and He was King. With this context, John starts to tell the most amazing story. What does Jesus do for the disciples? He washes their feet! I have to tell you, I have done my share of foot-washings. I have done them with the youth-groups I have been a part of. I can tell you, even with teenagers, who are so self conscious about their appearance, their feet stank. And, I’ve also noticed that girls’ feet stink more than boys. I can tell you, it is not a pleasant thing. I cannot imagine washing the feet of those who had been traveling for days and had not bathed in a week or more. Foot-washing was the assignment that was given to the lowest of servants, and it was the most demeaning thing someone could do.

            But, in this passage we see the King of kings and Lord of lords take a towel, tie it around his waste, and begin washing the feet of his disciples. This is unthinkable. This is beyond controversial. In Jewish society, the Rabbi was the most honored of positions, and most rabbis enjoyed their status. It was unthinkable for a rabbi to wash the feet of his disciples. It should be the other way around.

            Let’s go on and read v. 6-17. Now we find the reason for what Christ was doing. He was trying to teach the disciples and us a lesson. Notice again v. 14-16. A slave is not greater than his master, and we are servants of Christ. Therefore, if the master is willing to serve his servants, then the servants ought to be willing and ready to serve each other. Is this something we do naturally? No, not at all! The disciples did not do it naturally. Remember, Jesus caught them arguing over who was going to be the greatest in heaven. Look what Jesus told them in Matt. 20:26-28. The Law of Heaven is that the greatest will be least and the least will be the greatest. Jesus Christ was the greatest and best of this world, and he washed the feet of his disciples.

            Jesus turned the world on its head in every way. And, in being a servant, he shows the world how selfish it is. Jesus’ command to serve and love one another should affect us in everything we do: in our marriage (Eph. 5:22-25); toward other Christians (1 Pet. 5:5; 1 Pet. 22; John 13:34-35; Rom. 12:10), toward our neighbor (Matt. 22:37-39), and even toward our enemies (Matt. 5:43-44).

            I think it is sad how, even within the church, we do not love one another with brotherly love. I am amazed at how sermons that Tim preaches can so quickly offend the ego of some within the church and cause ripples of prideful gossip for weeks. I am disturbed that we can be concerned more about our own comfort and status in the church than the wellbeing and comfort of others. Notice Romans 12:10 again. Paul tells us that we should outdo each other in doing good to one another. We should have so much adoration and love for each other that we just lavish each other with good works. This is the Law of Heaven. In the beginning, there was so much love within the Trinity, between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that God desired for that love to overflow. So, He created this world. Now, God desires that we let the love that we have for God overflow to each other. And, that is the example that Christ has set.

What are some ways that people find fulfillment in life? Last week we started a study looking at the wonders of Christ. As I thought about it this week, I want us to study the wonders of who he is, the wonders of what he said, and the wonders of what he did. Last week we looked at the amazing truth that the eternal God entered time as Jesus Christ. This week, I want to look at the temptation of Christ and see how wonderful Christ is, even in that temptation.

            Let’s start by reading Matt. 4:1-4. To be honest, this passage has been one of the biggest mysteries for me. Why did Jesus Christ have to go and be tempted by Satan? Was it not enough that He had lived sinless up until this point? Why did he have to have this big showdown with Satan? Well, let’s look at 1 Cor. 15:21-22. Paul explains here and in Romans 5 that Jesus was the second Adam. God made the first Adam as the pinnacle of his creation, and he gave him a choice. Adam could east of the Tree of Life and follow God and be righteous, or he could eat of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and become a sinner. Adam faced Satan’s temptation and lost. Then, God sends His Son, the very image of God, to live as the second Adam, and so Jesus had to face the same choice. And the choice really comes down to this: in what do you find your absolute fulfillment? Isn’t this what Adam faced? He had a perfect life with a perfect wife in a perfect Garden, and he had an on-going, personal, and intimate relationship with his Creator. And the question that Satan posed to Adam was basically “Is God enough?” Is God enough to meet every need in your life? Eve said that there were three things that were enticing about the fruit: it was pleasing to the eye, it was good for food, and it was able to make one wise. In saying that she was admitting that the beauty of the Garden that God had given them was not enough, the wonderful food that God had provided them was not good enough, and that God, the source of all wisdom, was not wise enough. Adam and Eve sought fulfillment in something else besides God.

            So, Jesus had to be faced with the same question: Is God enough? We see in the passage that we just read that he was faced with this very question. After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights (which, as I understand it, is right at the limit of what a human can bear) Jesus faces Satan. How does Satan tempt Him? Satan tempts him with his immediate need. “You haven’t eaten in days and you have the power to make bread appear from nowhere. Turn some rocks into bread and meet your immediate need.”

            Oh, this is the one that gets us so many times. God has told us that he will meet our every need, but when things aren’t going our way and we have been in the wilderness for 40 days, we look for ways that we can fix our problems on our own. In doing so, we are saying, “you are not enough, God.” And, this is what Jesus was facing. Sure, he could have turned the stones into bread, but God sent him into the wilderness to fast and pray and trust in Him. To use his power to provide for his immediate need would have admitted that God was not enough.

            How does Christ answer Satan? Look again at v. 4. He basically answers, “My God is enough, and I am completely satisfied in Him.”

            Let’s read v. 5-7. Satan tries this same trick from another angle now. Instead of appealing to his immediate need, he is now appealing to his pride. Why did he want him to jump off of the temple? The temple was the center of the nation of Israel. It was a place of business. It was a place of worship. And it was a place for social gatherings. If a man jumped off the temple, people would notice. The temptation here is to rush God’s timing. When Satan quotes this passage of Scripture, he is acknowledging that Christ is the Messiah. The passage is a promise that no harm will befall the Messiah. Satan is tempting Christ to take the easy road. He is saying, “Why don’t you skip out on the 3 years of poverty, misery and rejection? Just jump off the temple, let your angels come in and save you, and then everyone will know that you are the Messiah.” How does Christ answer him on this one? He quotes a passage that teaches us not to test God. In other words, we are not to put God’s promises to the test. The promise that angels will protect those who, by God’s plan, are put into danger does not necessarily apply to those who voluntarily put themselves into danger to prove God.

            Let’s read v. 8-11. This one, to me, is the easiest temptation to understand. Satan tells Jesus that he will give him all of the kingdoms of the world, if he will bow down and worship him. Here again, Jesus is faced with the temptation of the easy road. He could admit that Satan was worthy of worship and able to provide things that God could not, and he could avoid all of suffering and pain that was in God’s plan. So many times we are tempted with accomplishing a good end through sinful means. We avoid hurting someone’s feelings by lying to them. We justify poor business practices by thinking of all the good we could do with the money. And, Jesus was faced with this same dilemma. He could have control of all of the kingdoms of the world right away and be able to do so much good with it, or he could trust God and suffer the cross. How does Jesus answer him? He answers with a frank rebuke in v. 10. God is the only one we are to worship and serve. God is more than sufficient.

            The wonder of Christ is that He found his complete fulfillment and satisfaction in God. When tempted with his immediate needs, he trusted that God could supply for his needs and acknowledged that there are things in life that are more important than food. When tempted with testing God’s promises and using God to get out of bind, he trusted that God’s timing and wisdom was better than his own. When tempted to worship Satan in exchange for quick control over the world, he trusted that God’s plan was best. In all of these things, Jesus proved that God alone is able to meet all of our needs, that His way is best, and that He is our source of complete fulfillment.

Today, I am starting a new series that I am calling “The Wonders of Christ”. I got the inspiration for this series while reading a book by John Piper called What Jesus Demands of the World. That book caused me to think a great deal about the person of Jesus Christ, and I realized something about my own walk with Christ and even what I teach. What I realized is that an honest understanding, adoration and study of the person and works of Jesus Christ are almost absent from our discussions and life within the church. I am not saying that we do not mention the name of Christ, nor am I saying that we do not talk about him in church and at home. But, I believe that we spend most of our times studying the commandments, practical advise, and mysteries of the Bible, and we spend very little time trying to understand, adore, and follow Jesus Christ. This was a shocking realization for me in my own life, because, as a Christian, I am supposed to be modeling my life after Christ. But, I found that I understood very little about him. It is not that I did not know the facts and the stories about him, it is that I had never bothered to understand who he was (his character, desires, and will) when reading those stories and facts.

            Let me explain further by contrasting what I mean against the ways that we study Christ’s works now. When we study the works of Christ in the Gospels, we tend to look at the life of Christ in three different ways. First, we tend to study the purpose of his works. In other words, we try to understand why he raised Lazarus from the tomb or healed the blind man or died on the cross. While this is a worthy study and should be pursued, it has a tendency to focus on the recipient of the work of Christ rather than on the person of Christ. In our study, instead of looking at the end result of the works that Christ did, we are going to look at what these works tell us about his character and heart.

            Secondly, we tend to study the practice of his commandments. If studying the passage where Jesus says “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, we tend to look at how we might live out that command or how that command affects us. Here again we, many times, end up focusing on ourselves rather than the person of Christ.

            Finally, we tend to study the benefits of his service. When speaking of the work of Christ on the cross, we focus on the benefit that this act had for us, and there is an obvious benefit that should be stated. But, what does this act tell us about Christ? What does it teach us about the heart and will of God himself?

            I hope that by looking at some familiar passages and stories through this new lens, we might grow in our relationship with Christ, and in doing that, we will be able to live to be more like him.

            So, today we are looking at one of the wonders of Christ that I have titled “The Eternal God Enters Time”. As a child, what was the hardest thing to understand about God? For most people it is the issue of his eternality. “Where did God come from?” is the way we hear our children ask it. We see that everything around us has a beginning, and so we wonder, when was God’s beginning? Who made God? Let’s just establish in our minds that God is eternal. Look at Isaiah 36:4; Jer. 10:10; Dan. 4:3; 1 Tim. 1:17; Deut. 33:27; Isaiah 46:10.

            God is eternal. He had no beginning and he will have no end. He is the force that is greater than all other forces, the mind that is greater than all other minds, the will that is greater than all other wills. He is the great “I AM”, which is to say that he is always present. He just is.

            And, we find in Jesus Christ the most amazing thing. Look with me at John 1:1-5. We see in Jesus Christ four eternal characteristics of God. First, in v. 1-2, he is the eternal Word of God. For as long as God has existed, Christ has existed. He is the personification of the Word and Will of God. In v. 3, we see that he is the eternal Creator. John tells us that nothing would have been made without him. In v. 4-5, we see that he is the eternal Sustainer of our lives. We also see that he is the eternal Light. In other words, he is the eternal Good, the eternal Right. Jesus Christ is this amazing, transcendent, eternal God, but yet, we learn that he did something totally mind-boggling. This eternal God stepped into time. The eternal Creator became a part of his creation. The eternal Sustainer entered the world that he sustained. The eternal Right and Good was subjected to all the evil and wrong in this world.

            Let’s look at v. 9-18. John tells us in v. 9-11, that he came into a world that was ready to reject him. He came ready to do His Father’s will, but he came knowing that, for the most part, he would be rejected. John also gives us this amazing imagery in v. 14, “the Word became flesh.” The very will and word of God was standing on the earth proclaiming the truth to all who would listen. The very glory of God, the very image of God, was walking the earth teaching people about the will of God. I hear people say sometimes, “I would believe in God if he would just reveal himself, you know come down and dwell with us.” Well, he did. We can look at Jesus Christ and we know everything we need to know about God. He is the very image of the Father.

            We see in this that Jesus was ready to do the will of His Father, no matter what the cost. He was the Prince of Glory. He was already the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But, God’s perfect will was to send His very Son, the very image of himself, to earth to live among and to teach his people. God’s perfect will was to pay for the sins of His People by sending a perfect sacrifice. Look at John 17:1-5. The heart and desire of Jesus Christ was to glorify His Father. Sure, he desired to save people through his sacrifice, but this was simply a means to the end of glorifying his Father. He humbled himself and became one of us, He suffered all of his life, He offered himself up as a sacrifice, and he did it all for the glory of God. What a wonderful man! What a wonderful savior! What a wonderful God!

As I mentioned last week, we have been through the first 8 chapters of Romans and we have learned some marvelous truths. We have learned that we have a problem called sin and we are unable to save ourselves or do anything to contribute to our salvation. We learned that God has provided a way to be righteous through faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. We learned that, because of what the Holy Spirit does in the heart of believers, believers no longer have the desire to chase after the things of the world and pursue the temptations of the world. And, we ended with one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture, summed up in Romans 8:28: “For we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose.” And so, now we start the second half of Romans, and Paul is going to address some very weighty issues facing these Christians in Rome and facing us today.

            But, before we launch into Romans 9, I want to make some very brief comments about a topic that is going to dominate this chapter. Chapter 9 is a very hard chapter for any Christian, not because it is hard to understand, but because it is hard to accept. The primary subject of this chapter is the Sovereignty of God, or the control of God, over all that he has created, even man. Throughout history, Christians have been divided into basically 3 groups with respect to this teaching. On the one side, you have a group known as the Calvinists. This belief was held by most of the reformers, including Martin Luther and John Calvin. This belief states that God is absolutely sovereign, and because of this, God is absolutely sovereign over the salvation of men. In other words, he gives salvation to whom he wishes. On the other side is the Arminians. Jacob Arminius is the name-sake of this belief, and John Wesley, a key founder of the Methodist church is a famous example of someone who held to this belief. Arminius taught that man is absolutely free and can decide by his own volition whether to follow God or turn away from God. There is a third position that has become popular in the 20^th century, and that is what I would call a mediating view. This view is held by the majority of Baptists today and basically is a blending of the two beliefs, taking the good points of both and leaving the sticky ones.

            I do not feel that I have the time or that it is necessary to go into all that these three groups teach. I, personally, stand squarely as a Calvinist and I think that it is important that you know that.

            As we study this today, I can see three responses to this passage and to this lesson that I would say are bad responses. So, I want to address them head on so that we do not fall into their traps and then we will launch into Romans 9.

            The first response to this teaching would go something like this: “I have heard about this predestination stuff before, and you know what, it is just way to controversial. I think we should just ignore passages like these and go on to how to be a better husband or wife.” I hope you won’t respond in this way for one reason. This is God’s Word. God deemed it necessary to inspire Paul to write chapter 9 to a young Roman church that was struggling. It meant something then and it is necessary for us today too! Let’s not run from it because controversy surrounds it.

            The second response would say the following. “This is just way too deep for me. Why should this issue of God’s sovereignty matter to me anyway?” This response would not work with my wife. I can’t imagine saying to Leah, “Honey, there are things about you that I just don’t understand; I’m going to just focus on those things I like and understand about you.” We are in a relationship with God and we should desire to know and understand all that we can about him. I will be the first to admit that there are things that I just don’t understand about God, but that makes me want to know even more.

            The third response would simply be that of anger. I am going to present some things today that may seem totally outside of what you know and understand about God. Please don’t get angry. In saying this, I am not saying that you should not be troubled and desire to search and find out more about this matter and what you believe. But, I believe we can have an honest discussion about differences we might have without destroying our Christian love and respect.

            With all of that said, I would ask that you take all of that and put it in the back of your mind. Our focus today is not on Calvinism versus Arminianism, but on what God desires us to learn from Romans 9. So, lets just dive right in by reading v. 1-18.

            How did the Jews, as a whole, respond to Christ and to the Gospel in the early days of Christianity? How do the majority of Jews respond to the Gospel today? Patrick and I work with Jack, who is a Jew. Jack is a great guy and a hard worker, but Jack is neither a faithful Jew nor a faithful Christian. Many Christians at our work have pleaded with Jack to believe in Christ, but Jack just will not do it. It is not because of what he believes or for any good reason, but simply because he is a child of Abraham. Jack, from the day he was born, was taught that his salvation was based on his blood line, the fact that he was born a Jew.

Paul is writing a mixed group of Romans believers, both Jew and Gentile, understanding that as a whole, the Jews have rejected Christ, the Messiah. But this raises a fundamental problem for Paul, because God made a great many promises in the Old Testament about the salvation of the Jews. Read Gen. 12:1-3; Psalm 53:6; Psalm 98:3; Isaiah 49:6. If God made all of these promises, why isn’t he keeping them now that the Messiah has come? Why aren’t we seeing massive numbers of Jews being saved? Why has the nation of Israel, as a whole, rejected their Messiah?

You see, this ties directly into chapter 8, where God made this huge promise that he is working out everything for the good of all Christians and that nothing can separate us from God. If God cannot keep his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, why should we believe that he is going to keep these new promises he has made to us? This is the reason Paul is taking on this issue. And, he does it by showing that God is keeping his promises. Look again at v. 6-8. Paul reveals something very telling here: not everyone that is born a descendant of Abraham is a child of Abraham. Paul gives us this example of Abraham’s children. How many children did Abraham have? He had two, Ishmael and Isaac. But, Paul says that the promise of Abraham, the promise we read about in Gen. 12:1-3, was extended to Isaac and not Ishmael. God chose to bless Isaac. And God is faithful in his promises because he chose to bless certain individuals within the family of Abraham.

Then, Paul gives us another example, the example of Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau. How many years separated Jacob and Esau? You might remember, they were twins, but Esau came out first and so he had the birth right. According to Isaac’s plan, Esau was to “inherit” the promise of God. But, look at v. 10-13. God told Rebekah before either child was born, “the older will serve the younger.” It is important to notice the point that Paul makes in stating in v. 11, “yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls…” God chose Jacob over Esau before either one had done anything good or bad. In other words, it was not based on their works or anything that they would do to earn his approval, but on His purpose in election. He chose Jacob because he had purposed to choose Jacob.

Now, Paul goes right into the question that I am sure a lot of you are wondering at the moment. Look again at v. 14-18. Is God unjust in deciding to bless one person with the promise and leave another to his demise? I mean, we are all valuable to God, right and surely we have a right to make our own way and earn his approval. Paul answers by going to another Old Testament example: the example of Moses on the mountain-top with God. Moses has asked to see God’s face, and God tells him that he will pass by and Moses will see his back-side and the glory surrounding God. And, as he is getting ready to do this, God tells Moses what is found in v. 15, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion”. In other words, it is totally the right of God to be merciful to whom he will. We are all sinners! We have all rebelled against God and turned our backs on him. He has every right and would be completely just to condemn us all to Hell. And so, He tells Moses, I will show my mercy and my grace to whom I will.

Notice, then, v. 16. It does not depend on our works, our desires, or our efforts, but on God’s mercy. He repeats this idea in v. 18, which is a bit harder to accept.

The only thing left to ask is why? Why would God choose to show mercy to some and leave others in their sins? Look at v. 22-24. Notice v. 23 says that he did this to make known the riches of his glory. He does it to show his glory. On the one hand, he shows himself just and intolerant of sin by judging sinners, and on the other hand he shows himself merciful and gracious by saving sinners. And God gets the glory for both.

God alone is sovereign over all things. God alone has the right to show mercy to whom he will show mercy. So, how should we respond to God’s sovereignty? The only proper response is worship and adoration. We should praise him for being merciful to us even though he did not have to be. We should trust that his promises to us will ring true because he is able to do what he says. We should worship him as the one being in all of the universe who is worthy of worship.

Last week we left off with another one of these pits that Paul likes to dig us into. We left off at the end of chapter 7, where Paul says that we have this problem because, even as Christians, we still do the things we hate. With our minds we desire to do the will of God, but with our flesh we desire to do the will of the world and there is this constant war waging between the new life that God has given and the old life that we used to live. So, Paul digs us down to the very bottom where he asks in v. 24: “Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?” Now, if we were to leave it right there, Christians would be a pretty depressing bunch. But then Paul exclaims in v. 25, “Thanks bee to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” But, thanks for what? How does Jesus Christ answer this issue of the sinful flesh? And that is where we pick up today. Paul is going to give a final answer to this issue of overcoming sin in chapter 8.

            Let’s look at Rom. 8:1-11. Paul says that there are two mindsets that exist in this world. The one is the mind that is set on the flesh, the mind that desires to do the will of the flesh, the mind that desires to glorify itself. The other is the mind that is set on the Spirit, a spiritual mind. It is a mind that desires the things of God, a mind that desires to glorify God. As we have seen before, we are born with the former, but God gives us the latter. Remember that Paul is still answering this issue of how a Christian deals with sin, and his final answer starts in v. 2. The law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin. How does he do this? Look again at v. 6. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. He does it by changing our minds. By God’s Spirit, no longer do we desire the things of the flesh. No longer do we desire to answer every call of temptation in our lives. No longer do we struggle and fight so hard just to do the right thing. This Spirit brings life and peace. So, God enables us to overcome sin by giving us a Spirit of life.

            Look at v. 12-17. Not only has God’s Spirit given us life, but look again at v. 15. He has given us the ability to become children of God, so that we cry out “Daddy, Daddy!” Not only has he taken away those old desires and given us new desires through a new life, but he now considers us His children, and the Spirit gives us the desires to be children. Children have a natural desire to love their parents. Even the most abused children still desire to love their parents. So, God has transformed us, by His Spirit, into children who naturally desire to love our Father. God even goes beyond this, look again at v. 16-17. He makes us heirs. Heirs of what? We are fellow heirs with Christ, which means we shall rule with Christ. We are princes and princesses of God’s Kingdom.

            So the Spirit takes away our old desires, gives us life and new desires, and makes us children of God. But there is much more to what the Spirit does. Let’s look at v. 18-30. What is all this business about the creation groaning and us groaning within ourselves that Paul is talking about here? Paul is extending this idea that we are heirs with Christ. Well, heirs have a kingdom, and the whole earth, all of creation, is longing for God to finish his work and completely bring about his kingdom. Have you ever just wanted God to finish it all and completely reveal himself, completely show his glory, judge the world and take us home? I know I did this weekend. I got into a philosophical wrestling match with some folks who would not believe, and at the end of all of it I wanted so badly to see Christ in his glory, to have my beliefs affirmed, to see the completed kingdom of the one I have been serving. And this, Paul says in v. 26-27 is another way that the Spirit helps us. When we are down, when everything is falling apart, when we are suffering, persecuted, tried, and beaten down, the Spirit prays for us when we are just to exhausted to pray, when we just don’t know the right words to say.

            And then we get to this triumphant hope that is given in v. 28: For God causes all things to work together for our good, who are called according to His purpose. Wow! When everything is falling apart, when things just don’t seem to fit together, Paul says that God causes all things to work together for our good. First, we see in this verse that God causes all things to work together. God is sovereign over the situations in our lives, from the diseases we face to the difficulties and successes at work, the joys and the trials, the temptations and the triumphs. God is in control of all of them, and he is causing them all to work together for something. For what reason do they work together? They all work together for good. Who’s good? The Called, literally “the called out ones” or “the elect”. An unbeliever cannot claim this promise, but God is working all things together for the good of His called out ones.

            Then we get to v. 29. This is an expansion and explanation of how God causes all things to work together for the good of His elect. I asked you to do some research on the word “foreknow” here because it is very important that we understand what this word means. If we make assumptions as to what it means we could miss the point of this passage, and consequently chapter 8. What does the word “foreknow” mean? Quite literally it means “to know before”. But, how does God know us? Is it that he looked down through the annuls of time and saw us and knew what we would do, knew that we would believe in Christ? Or, is it that He knew who we would be, he purposed, he thought about, he set his mind upon us? Well, let’s look at some passages that use this same Greek word. Read Rom. 11:2. Here it is used to say that God chose Israel. He set His favor upon Israel. Of all the great nations of the world, God chose Israel to be His special people. He knew them in the way that a father knows his children. “Foresee” does not fit here. He did not foresee who they were or what they would do and then choose them, he just knew them. Another passage is 1 Pet. 1:20. This passage is speaking of God’s knowledge of Christ. God knew Christ; he had a relationship with Christ before the world ever began. In this same way, Paul is saying here in v. 29 that God knew us before the foundation of the world. As He was decreeing all that would be, He decreed a place and a time for Nathan Skipper. He saw me and he set his favor upon me. What does this have to do with living for God? What does this have to do with suffering for Christ? What does this have to do with all things working together for our good? It has everything to do with it! When our world is falling down around me, when I am struggling with temptation, when nothing goes my way I can know that God is causing all things to work together for my good because God knew me, he chose me, he loved me before the word ever began.

            But, he did not stop there. Paul says that he “predestined” me. The word literally means to “determine beforehand”. God, before the world began, knew me and determined my destiny, that I would be conformed to the image of his Son. Praise God! He has already done it. When we are struggling with sin we can know that God has already worked it all out. He has already purposed and planned that we will be conformed to the image of His Son. Paul also says, not only did he know me and predestine me, but at the right time, he called me and, when I responded in faith, He justified me. God has worked EVERYTHING out for our good. Before the world began, he had purposed our lives, he loved us, he determined that we would be like His Son, and at the right time he called us and justified us. And, when it is all said and done, He will glorify us. It is done, finished, completed. God has caused it all to work together for our good!

            Let’s end with v. 31-39. This is why we Baptists believe in the Security of the Believer. If God is the one that does all of these things, who can pull us away? God will accomplish what he sets out to do, who can stop him? Paul even says that very thing in v. 31, “if God be for us, who can be against us?” Who will say that God’s called out ones are not good enough if God is the one that justifies them. In other words, if everything is right with God, who else is there that can defeat us? Then Paul lists out all of these things that cannot pull us away: not tribulation, stress, persecution, famine, nakedness or peril or sword. All of these physical difficulties come to us because God has allowed them, and he is working them all together for our good. They cannot pull us away from God. Then, in v. 37-39, Paul goes into spiritual things that cannot pull us away, and he concludes in v. 39, “no other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” Nothing, not even Satan, not even all of the demons and all of the angels, nothing can pull us away from the saving, perfecting love of God.

            I’m sure you find, as I do, that sometimes it is hard to live for Christ. The world thinks we are crazy; I was told several times this weekend that I was crazy and a fool. On top of that, it is so hard to live up to the standard that Christ set. Temptations can come at you from every direction. But, in all of that God is causing all things to work together for our good, because He chose us, he predestined us, he called us, he justified us, and he will glorify us. And, nothing can take that away from us.

For the last few weeks we have talked about justification and the fact that we are made right with God because Christ justified us before God by dying on the cross to pay for our sins. Last week, we covered Chapter 6 and we had to answer this question: if all that is required for salvation is faith in Christ, why is there any need to change from our old ways? Why don’t we just go on sinning that grace might increase? Paul pointed out that if we have truly trusted in Christ as our Savior and Lord, then it means there is a change that has taken place in our lives. We have died to the old ways in which we used to walk and we have taken up new ways, the ways of God. It is no longer simply our nature to sin; now we have this second nature, this spiritual nature.

            But, Paul still hasn’t answered this question for everyone. Some people, especially the Jews, are wondering, what about the Law? Paul has been saying that we are dead to sin and to the Law; does that mean that the law is bad? Should we just through out the law and forget about it since we are to live by faith?

            I saw an article on Baptist Press this week that told of a research project that was recently done. This research project was performed by the research arm of “Planned Parenthood”, which is a pro-abortion advocacy group. The ultimate conclusion of this study found that 95 percent of Americans have had premarital sex. Now, I am not going to get into all the political propaganda surrounding this, but suffice it to say that Planned Parenthood would benefit greatly from such a result, as they could prove that Abstinence education is not affective. In fact, the lead researcher on project concluded that premarital sex is normative in our society and it is therefore useless to preach abstinence to children and youth. Regardless of whether or not this study might be biased, does his argument hold water? Does something automatically become right when 95% of the population is found to be doing it? There is something that tells us that abstinence before marriage is right and should be practiced, and this is the law of God.

            Let’s read Romans 7:7-13. Why is it so hard for children to do the right thing once they know that they shouldn’t do it? My nephew, Austin, who is 5, will do things just because you have told him not to do it. You might tell him, “Austin, the plate is hot so don’t touch it.” If you say that, you better not turn your back, because Austin will be checking to make sure it’s hot. Does that mean that I should not tell him that certain things are wrong? Is my telling him causing him to sin? This is the question that Paul is answering. Would sin be sin if we did not have the law? What does he answer? He says, in v. 7, that the law shows sin for what it is. I would not know that it is wrong to covet unless God said, do not covet.

            But sin does a nasty thing. Look again at v. 8. Our sinful nature desires to do that which is against God. So, when God tells us not to covet, we then desire to covet because we know it is against God. What does he mean by saying, then, that “apart from the Law, sin is dead”? Doesn’t he mean what we just said he doesn’t mean? He means that apart from the law, sin is not known as sin. If we did not know that coveting was sinful, then we would think it was acceptable and part of life. If we did not know that premarital sex is sinful, then we might reason that it is acceptable and part of life.

            So, sin uses the law of God to bring about death in our souls. God commands “do not make idols” and our nature then desires to rebel and make idols. The nature was there before the act, but the law points out what is expected, and our nature is to go against that.

            This is why I believe it is so important to teach your children the laws of God. The reformers and the puritans believed that the proper way to lead our children to Christ is by teaching them what God expects, because then and only then do they realize that they do not meet the expectations of God and they understand the need for a savior. Look at Gal. 3:24. The law is our teacher, our guardian that points to Christ.

            Let’s look at v. 14-25. Before we can go very far in this passage, we have to answer the question, “Who is this divided man that Paul is taking about?” Look again at v. 14-15. Is Paul describing an unbeliever that has been quickened by God or is he describing a Christian who is struggling? Well, to answer this we have to understand our context and grammar. First, in the order of Paul’s discussion, we are talking about obeying Christ as a believer. So, it would be reasonable to assume, since this follows chapter 6, that we are talking about the struggles of a Christian. Also, you will notice that Paul uses the present tense in describing this struggle. This is not something that he struggled with as an unbeliever. If we accept that Paul is talking about the struggles of a Christian, then what does he mean by v. 14? I thought that he said we had died to sin. Now it sounds like he is saying that we are still in sin. Paul is making a division here between the spirit and the flesh. When we where saved, Christ’s spirit came to abide in us, but we still have our flesh, which has been corrupted by the world and still has worldly desires. Therefore, as Paul says in v. 15, we want to practice one thing, but instead, we do what we hate to do. I must admit I know exactly what Paul is saying. There are times when I have walked away from have committed a sin and wept and wondered “why on earth did I do that?” I know that I have hated the very things that I have done. Paul teaches us another important lesson in v. 18. Nothing good dwells in me, in my flesh. I might want to do what is good, but I find that I am often unable to do it because of my sinful desires.

            Finally, Paul just breaks down and asks the question we all wonder in v. 24. Oh, how terrible I am, who can save me from myself? Paul’s answer to this question is beautiful. Look at v. 25. When I cannot do anything for myself, Christ is there. So, Paul concludes, I will go on serving the will of God with my mind and will work to overcome the will of my flesh.

            This chapter is important to understand as we come to the beginning of chapter 8, and we will be looking at that next week. We are going to find that God can enable us to overcome this will of the flesh.

I love commercials. Sometimes I like to watch TV, not for the program that is on, but for the commercials, like during the super bowl. You can always count on some over-the-top commercials during the super bowl. I wonder, maybe, if you can identify the brand that goes with some of these commercials:

1. Be all that you can be – The Army
2. Because your worth it – Suave Shampoo
3. Get the justice you deserve – Mike Sloakam law firm
4. Have it your way – Burger King
5. Just do it - Nike

All of these commercials, and most commercials on TV, have one thing in common: they are promoting that it is all about you. Your worth it, you deserve it, you can do it and you can have it the way you want it. There’s an old saying that says, “Get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can” and that really sums up the way the world is.

            The world wants you to believe that you are it. You’re important, you’re special, you’re unique, and you’re precious. But you know, Christ said something different. In Matt. 16:24-26, Jesus says this about living for him…

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?

(Mat 16:24-26)

Jesus is so counter-cultural. I mean, think about it. He told us that in order to see the kingdom of heaven, we have to born again. He said that we should love our enemies, that we should go the extra mile, that we should be meek, that the first shall be last, and all of these other crazy things. And now, in this passage, he tells us that if we are going to follow after him, we have to deny ourselves and take up our crosses. The Christian life is not an easy life. It is a life of submission to Christ. It is a life of giving, of sacrifice, of service. It is a life that is not about you. It is a life that is about giving glory to God. The cool thing is that it is a life of truth. Jesus said in John 8:

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

(Joh 8:31-32)

You see, Jesus offers what the world can’t, and that is a life of truth, life that is real, the life that God created you to live.

This idea of taking up our cross and following Christ is not the picture that the world wants us to buy. This would not make a very good marketing slogan for a company. The sad thing is that the church has bought into the marketing method of the world. We don’t read this passage much in our churches. We don’t talk much about following after Christ, suffering for Christ, denying ourselves and all the things that Christ expects. In stead, we talk about how Jesus can help us with our homework, our taxes, our marriage, our family, our friends, and our hobbies. We try to make Jesus into something acceptable, something marketable, something cool. This could not be any truer than in a youth group. We worry about playing the latest contemporary worship song, having the wackiest games, the best speakers, the coolest bands, and the whole time we ignore the message of Christ to lay down our lives and follow after him.

What are you to expecting to get out of life in this new year? Are you looking to find a boyfriend/girlfriend? Maybe you are looking to get into the popular crowd, or keep your status in the popular crowd. Maybe you want to make a little money, go somewhere exciting, or maybe you want to see your team win the championship. In all of that, Jesus calls you to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. What do you expect to get out of Christ? Do you go to church expecting to feel connected, to feel loved, to meet friends, to hear music you like, to hear a the latest joke that the pastor has? Jesus calls you to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. Your life is not about you, it is about glorifying the one true God and his Son Jesus Christ. What will you do with this new year?

For the last several weeks we have been focusing on some big ideas. First, we established that we (humans) have a problem: we have all rebelled against God. Not only that, we all have a nature to rebel. But, we also learned that there is hope; there is a way to be seen as righteous, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ. We saw that by placing our faith in Christ, we are justified, which means two things. On the one hand, it means that Christ’s death effectively paid for our sins. On the other hand, it means that when God looks at me, he sees the righteousness of Christ.

            We left off last week with this statement out of Romans 5:20-21: “And the law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And now Paul smells another objection. One might ask, “Well, Paul, if I am justified simply by grace through faith in Christ, why don’t I just go on sinning and that Christ might be shown all the more gracious?” Not only that, but Paul is going to deal with a very real issue and belief, and that is Antinomianism. Antinomianism is a belief that sprang up in the Church almost immediately, and it is the belief that, since justification is solely by faith alone, then there is no need for a believer to keep the laws or worry with obeying God. This belief was strong then, and it is still alive and well today. We don’t see it in quite this form, but we do see it in the empty pews on Sunday, in the two-thirds of our church membership who never darken the door of our church, and in the “carnal Christians” that claim to love the Lord but live like the devil during the week. These people may not admit that they have this view, but their actions reflect their beliefs. Their actions say, “I ran down the isle and got what I wanted out of God, now leave me alone.” Or we might see in their actions this statement: “I love the Lord, but going to church and working in the church really isn’t my thing.” Underneath those statements is the statement: “I understood justification to be a simple statement of belief, not a lifestyle of faith.” So, Paul is going to explain why this view is wrong and we are going to look at it now.

            Let’s read Rom. 6:1-14. Paul starts with the question we just talked about, “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?” Paul is quick to answer with a rhetorical question: “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” He then goes on to draw some symbolism from baptism, and you might have heard a pastor say this phrase before. Baptism is symbolic of us being buried with Christ in death, in other words, identifying with Christ in his death, and being raised with him in life. This, by the way, is why we Baptists make such a big deal about the way someone is baptized, because it is a symbol of what has occurred in a person’s heart.

            In order to understand this symbolism, though, we have to take on a common misconception in the church today. To a large extent, the empty pews and the inactive members are partly the result of poor teaching and crack-shot evangelism. In order to make the Gospel something that is digestible and quick, we have reduced it down to a simple act of walking down the isle and saying the “sinner’s prayer”. But, faith is not a one-time event. Faith is not belief; faith is full commitment to a belief.

Let’s look at some passages: Matt. 10:34-38; 16:24. In these two passages, Christ teaches us that believing in him is more than just a thought; it is a full, day-by-day commitment to Christ. Faith is about making Christ Lord of your life. The problem is we have so wrongly communicated this idea that we are left only with the idea that all being a Christian is about is paying lip service to God.

So, Paul teaches us that placing our faith in Christ is similar to baptism. Going down into the water symbolizes that, in trusting in Christ, we die to our old self. Coming up out of the water symbolizes that we are made alive in Christ.

What is Paul saying through this example and how does this answer the question? Well, if we died to our old self, our old nature, then we should no longer be under the spell of sin. Notice v. 7: dying with Christ means that we are set free from sin. Sin no longer has the hold on us that it once had. How is that? Because our nature, our desires, our will has changed. Instead of desiring to do evil, God has changed us to desire His will. It’s funny watching Eden sometimes. She is at the age where she knows what she wants and she is going to let you know that she wants it. When she decides she wants something, there is nothing that can dissuade her from that goal. If she wants a cracker, no other temptation will pull her away from that desire until that desire is satisfied. Are we really any different? As unbelievers, we desired to do sin, and although we did not sin all the time, when given the opportunity, nothing could dissuade us from sinning. But now we are dead to those desires. Is it not amazing that, as believers, we can be faced with a terrible temptation and simply walk away from it unfazed? This ability comes because our desires have changed, and that came by dying with Christ.

Not only have we died with Christ, but we have been given life in Christ. Look at verses 8-11 again. So, not only have we been freed from our old desires, but we have been given new ones. What are these new desires? They are to serve God and glorify Him. They are to love one other, to love our enemies, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, to go the extra mile, to give a cup of cold water, to be peace-makers and many more. We now desire the things that God desires.

Not only have our desires changed, but our goals have changed. Look again at v. 12-13. Paul says that there was a time when we used our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness, but now we are to use our bodies as instruments of righteousness. What are some ways that we can do that? We use our mouths to speak words of truth rather than spreading rumors and filth. We use our ears to listen to the truths of God and to the needs of others rather than the lies of this world. We use our hands to serve others and to build up rather than to fight or bring about our own glory. We use our feet to take the Gospel to others rather than to go to places we should not go.

So, is the teaching of justification by faith just an excuse to live a life of sin? As Paul says, by no means! If we have faith in Christ, then we have committed to a life of cross-carrying. If we have faith in Christ, then we have died to our life of sin and are free from the draw of it. If we have faith in Christ, then we are alive to live for God.

The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or – if they think there is not – at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But, the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.

Last week we covered Romans 3, and we established first, that no one on earth is righteous before God. As Romans 3:10-11 states, mankind has turned away from God and wants nothing to do with him. Paul, at the end of this point, states in 3:23, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” At this point, we might ask of Paul, “where is that ‘power of God unto salvation’ that you stated the Gospel has in chapter 1:16-17? Where is the good news of the Gospel?” And, that is precisely what Paul wants us to ask. Paul began to reveal to us, in Chapter 3:21-31, that there is hope. There is a righteousness that is apart from the Law. A righteousness that is by faith!

I am afraid, though, that I made to little last time of this issue of justification, and so I want to talk about it in more depth today, and Romans 4 is exactly the place to do it.

A few years back, before Pope John Paul II died, he gave a sermon here in America on Hell. In his sermon, he was unapologetically faithful to the idea that Hell is real, it is terrible, and many people are going to be there. But, his main point was that hell is not something God imposes on us, but a condition we bring about through separating ourselves from God. “Hell is not a punishment imposed externally by God, but a condition resulting from the attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life…Hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy. So eternal damnation is not God’s work but actually our own doing.”

With all due respect to the late pope, and many other people I know that hold this view, this is not the God of the Bible. God is not sitting back, anxiously twiddling his thumbs worrying over the plight of men. God is the God that judged Sodom and Gomorrah. He is the God that sent 10 plagues on Egypt, destroyed Jericho, and many other terrible things because He hates sin. He is a God that demands payment for sin, and therefore, He judges sinners.

Why is this a big deal? Because, if we are going to make God a big teddy bear, then we completely devalue the work of Christ on the Cross. Christ’s death on the cross was not an effort to make people realize how loved they are and boost their self-esteem. It was provision by God to satisfy his justice. Look with me again at Rom. 3:25-26. Notice, “this was to demonstrate his righteousness…that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.” How did God demonstrate his righteousness through Christ’s death? Because sin was paid for. The law demanded death for sin, and a righteous man died for the unrighteous. We have often heard and said that Christ died to save us from our sins, but this is misleading. Christ died to save us from God’s wrath.

At this point in Paul’s letter, a Jew would be thinking “well what about Abraham? Wasn’t he a righteous man?” And that is why Paul starts chapter 4 with Abraham. Let’s read 4:1-8.

Who was Abraham? Let’s look back to Gen. 12:1-4. Abram was just your average pagan in the land of Mesapotamia. Not much is said about him before this passage, and there is good reason for that: he was INSIGNIFICANT! But then, one day, God speaks to Abram and tells him to get the wife and kids, load up the R.V. and head west. Why did God pick Abram of Ur? Well, by the time of Paul’s day, the Jews had begun to assume that there must have been some good quality about Abram that God liked. And also by this time, they had begun to assume that Abram was a great and righteous man. Does anyone remember what Abram did every time a difficult situation came his way? He ran and hid. He compromised any way he could. He gave up his wife to the king of Egypt and later slept with his wife’s slave to try to have a child. There was certainly nothing grand about Abraham. So why does God all of the sudden show up on the scene and decide bless Abram? Because of His GRACE! Because He wanted to! Because God had a plan that stretched throughout time and that plan started with that insignificant man in Ur of the Chaldees and it ends with us, the Church.

So Paul asks the question in verse 1, what did Abraham find? Was Abraham righteous because of his works? NO WAY! He also points out that Abraham would have been bragging and boasting and would have had a reason if he had been made righteous because of his works, but he could not boast before God. This is the beautiful thing about Justification: God gets all the glory. There is no glory to be had in the fact that a righteous man had to die for my sins. But, because God is merciful and gracious in providing forgiveness for sinners who do not deserve it, he gets all the glory.

Paul clears the whole matter up by quoting Gen. 15:6, and we see in this that Abraham was made righteous because he completely trusted in God’s provision. This statement was made at the point where God promises Abraham again that he will make him into a great nation. Paul states in 4:23 that the statement in Gen 15: 6 was added for our benefit, so that we would know that God imputes righteousness through faith.

In v. 4, Paul just reasons with us from common sense. When an employee does what is asked of him, he is paid at the end of the day, not because the employer is just being nice, but because the employer owes the employee something. But God does not owe us anything. And, any works that we do come no where close to making up for the debt that we owe. Therefore, it is foolish to think that we can justify ourselves by doing good.

Finally Paul quotes David’s Psalm 32 in saying “blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven”. Here is that Good News! The one whose sin is forgiven is blessed. Not blessed in the sense that everything will be rosy. Not blessed in the sense that his kids will always behave, he will always get a raise at the end of the year, and he will never face difficulty. No, that is not the Gospel. He is blessed because he is now right with God, and that is comforting. Knowing that, we can be at peace, even during the hardest of times.

Justification is a two-fold truth. The closing two verses of chapter 4 sum it up, “… as those who believer in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised for our justification.” In the one side, we see that Christ died to deliver us from our sins. He paid our penalty for us. On the other side, we see that Christ was raised so that He could stand in our place, so that when God looks at us, he sees Christ.

Wilbur Chapan told this story:
Two young girls came to my office the other day and asked me if I would pray for them. I said: "Why cannot you ask for yourselves?" and they said: "Why, we are not worthy to ask for ourselves;" and then they told me about a dear friend and a cousin of theirs, and one of them said: "The Major could ask things from God, because he is good, but I could not ask so much." I said: "God would not give Major anything because he is so good. If he gives him anything, it is because he has put to his credit his own righteousness. If he should ask for anything according to his own merits he would be cast out, a poor, undeserving sinner, and so would I." Then I said: "Suppose you had a kind friend visiting you in New York, who was pretty well off, and after she was here two or three weeks she should say 'I am going to leave two hundred dollars with Mr. Macy for you to purchase goods, and I want you to get whatever you wish;' I said: Suppose you should go down there, you would not say 'I should not dare to buy a hundred dollars' worth here; I will buy four or five dollars' worth.' Who would get the benefit of that except Mr. Macy? Why, he would say to you 'This money is paid, the same as if you had paid it; it is to your credit, and you are very foolish if you don't get the benefit of it.' Now you are entitled to two hundred dollars' worth, and I will venture to say that you would not let any of that money be lost, but it would all be claimed to the last cent, and you would feel that you were entitled to it, although you hadn't paid a penny yourself. That is the way we go to God. We have nothing to present to him as a claim, but on the books of God to our credit the infinite righteousness of Christ has been deposited, and God comes and says: 'In his name, ask my help as far as that credit will go. You have not any right, but he has a right, and he gives it to you.' 'Oh!' she says' 'I see it. Why, I think I could ask anything of God now.' "

This incident illustrates the meaning of justification; it is not that you are pardoned and slipped through on sufferance. That is not very creditable; but you are lifted right up into the peace of Jesus himself, and you stand where he stands. The very moment after you have come to him he puts you in his place and represents you to the Father. Now that is justification. We are made righteous through the righteousness of Christ. There is no difference between Major and his little cousin; no difference between George Muller and you poor sinners. Both are perfectly justified as much as Christ is, the moment you accept Jesus as your righteousness.