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know you more each day and teach our children of you Lord I pray that you do it Chuck as he preaches from your word and teaches us what you have to say before they would be changed by it
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from chapter 5 verse 12 through chapter 6 verse 9. we are in the core of the book of Romans theologically
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speaking from the standpoint of Paul's understanding of what God has done in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ in the light of all that God has has done since creation
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this passage is the heart of his gospel and I think it's a good place to remind ourselves the context the the historical context
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of this gospel because among Paul's writings it is unique in that it is not written to a church that Paul himself found it
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we talked about this when we began the study of Romans why did he write this epistle to the Romans you notice it doesn't have as much of
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the polemic he doesn't have as much of the corrective where he's telling them to do this and stop doing that and has the other letters other letters and that is because although Paul did
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know people in Rome we'll see that back in chapter 16 someday and that there were some things going on in Rome that he knew needed to be addressed and that's in chapter 14.
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what he's really doing is he's introducing himself introducing himself as the Apostle to the Gentiles with his intentions of coming to Rome and then from Rome probably as a base
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moving on eventually hopefully to Spain so he's shifting bases up to this point in his ministry his base of operation has been Antioch though he hasn't spent
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a whole lot of time there when he does return to home base it's Antioch in Syria but he says in this letter he's done all that he can do in this area of Asia Minor and Ikea and it's time to
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move west move west and so you're going to move his base of operations from Antioch to Rome makes sense but in order to do that he wants to make sure they understand who he is
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why he's coming and most importantly what is this gospel that he is preaching and so that is the background of of all of this which makes the the epistle to
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the Romans perhaps the most theological of Paul's writing certainly the most systematic it is probably the easiest to outline of all of his Epistles because it follows a
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pattern and that pattern begins with the creation of the world and predominantly or primarily with the fall of Man in sin and so right after he introduces the
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purpose of the whole letter in Rome in Romans chapter 1 starting in verse 16 he says for I am not ashamed of the Gospel the Gospel later he will talk about my gospel from
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Faith to Faith but before I reveal the righteousness of God Verse 18 of chapter one I need to reveal the wrath of God for the wrath of God is
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revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness refuse to honor God now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested
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even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ the righteousness of God of God is the heart of Paul's gospel God revealing his righteousness his
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faithfulness his Justice these are all similar words in both the Hebrew and the Greek revealing this to a fallen world through his son Jesus Christ
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but as I said he begins the flow of Paul's presentation as he follows human history human history but he's doing it through God's Redemptive history and he begins in
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chapter one chapter one with the progression of Redemptive history and the fall and wickedness of mankind so this is where it begins with the fall
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When God says to Adam and Eve and to Satan that the seed of woman would arise to crush the Serpent's head promising Redemption at the moment that man has
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rebelled and fallen in sin verse 21 of chapter 1. Paul writes for even though they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks
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now that chapter if you read those verses after Verse 18 it is a Litany of human wickedness and Rebellion against God and we think oh well that's where we go to
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prove that God hates homosexuality well we can also go there to God hates gossiping too okay it's all in there he hates
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covetousness and greed and all manner of idolatry which is which are merely representations of God of man's Rebellion against God
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even the Jews now Paul is a Jew and there are there is a significant Jewish population in Rome though it is probably still predominantly at this point a
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gentile Church gentile Church but even the Jews who think themselves to be different from other people because they are God's chosen people and God has given them the law but Paul is
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going to deal with that in chapter two where even Israel though chosen by God is yet descended from Adam
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and in the same state of fallenness in sin as the rest of the Gentiles so in verse 23 of chapter 2 Paul writes you who boast in the law through your
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breaking of the law do you dishonor God see there's that honor again the Gentiles know God but they refuse to honor him as God the Jews
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certainly know God but by breaking the law that God has given them what do they do they dishonor God and Paul immediately quotes from the Old Testament my name is blasphemed among
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the Gentiles because of you so he's Gathering up both Jew and Gentile into into one box and that box is a box of fallenness rebellion death
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Israel is distinct several times in this book Paul is going to ask the rhetorical question what benefit then is there to being a Jew what benefit is there that Israel exists well the benefit began with the with the
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father of Israel Abraham and so Paul in Romans 4 brings out that it was through Abraham the father of Israel that God showed the way of grace through faith
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and in this he may be doing this subtly but he's showing the Roman readers and us as well he's saying hey I'm not coming up with a
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new religion here because the old one didn't work didn't work and it's amazing how often within professing Christianity professing Christianity theologians have have resorted to that in their description of Paul's gospel
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they're saying well this is not what Jesus taught and this is not what Peter taught and this is just Paul realizing that Judaism just doesn't work it doesn't play in The Forum
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and so he's going to come up with a new religion for the Gentiles and start his own thing no he would never quote the Old Testament nearly as much if he were coming up with
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something new something new but he reaches back to Abraham because it's in Abraham that we have the first announcement of the Covenant of Grace that the seed of woman has now been
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narrowed down to the Seed of Abraham later of course it will be narrowed down to the son of David but it's through Abraham the father of Israel but also the father of the
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faithful and so in chapter 4 verse 16 Paul writes for this reason it is by faith that it might be in accordance with Grace in order that the promise may be certain
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to all the seed not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all
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but how do we know that the Gentiles are included in this promise and in this hope well chapter 5 he didn't he didn't the Covenant of Grace may have begun
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with Abraham with Abraham but the purpose of Grace began with Adam who was a type of the one to come and so it's through the Seed of Abraham
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Israel's Messiah Israel's Messiah but he is also the seed of woman the descendant of Adam who would redeem the human race as it was promised to
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Abraham that in your seed all the nations of the world shall be blessed see this is a problem that Israel did have and that is turning the grace of God into an ethnic religion
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and they were still having this within Christianity and Paul was encountering this everywhere he went this idea that you know yeah we'll agree that the Gentiles
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can come into the church but they got to become Jews first they got to be circumcised they've got to follow the law of Moses and the dietary laws and they need to observe the Sabbath
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and Paul's saying no you you miss the whole purpose of what God is doing here he was not simply calling out a People Israel that he
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might save Israel but rather through Israel he might save the world that through the Seed of Abraham he might redeem the seed of Adam
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and so Romans 5 brings us full circle and it's interesting that he uses a chiastic structure here in this outline in that he begins with man
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in general in sin then he moves to Israel in Abraham and then Israel Messiah and then back out to the world again and that's how
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the history of redemption has progressed so there's an outline superimposed of Paul's thought Paul's thought that is now going to govern his thought all the way through the climax of of
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Romans 8. Romans 8. where he speaks of the creation itself groaning and yearning for the revelation of the sons of God so this is a this is a full orbed
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picture and it's and he's saying I think he would say to us modern evangelicals here in the west he'd say it's not just about going to heaven when you die
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Adolf schlotter wrote but we are not keeping up with Paul if the only question of interest to us is how an individual becomes a believer and not also what the believer is to
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become so we have taken the gospel especially in the last 150 to 200 years and we've made it all about me and what happens to me when I die
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if you die tonight do you know that you would go to heaven that's the basic question of evangelism rather than do you know what God's doing in reconciling the world to himself
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in restoring his good creation through the work of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit and the building of his church
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we have no big picture anymore we've narrowed it down to a mirror what's what's in it for me and so much of church programming Church preaching
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is about how do I get more Me's in here how do I make the me's happy because the me's or the going through the Thursday evening study of the church in the world
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we've been talking about World Views and you're you might be familiar with the book I'm I'm pretty sure it's coulson's Book World Views in conflict and it's kind of a paradigm in modern
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apologetics that the world view of the church is in conflict with the world view outside the church but it occurred to me that there's another conflict that is even more
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significant and that is the conflict between the world view of the church today and Paul's world view of the church in his letters we we think we look at the world in the
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right way right way but we don't look at the world the way Paul looks at the world we don't look at the church the way Paul looks at the church we don't even look at the gospel the way Paul looks at the gospel
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and if our gospel has become me centered and it's all about me going to heaven when I die that is that not a false gospel and what did Paul have to say to
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the Galatians about any angel or man who preached the gospel other than the one he preached he preached let him be accursed so this is not just opinion it's not
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just what makes you feel good or what brings in the people it's what has the Lord said Lord said through his Apostle in his word
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and it is not just about going to heaven when we die in verse 1 of chapter 6 and we know that the chapter divisions
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and the verse enumeration came later that Paul did not divide his letters by chapters and that some of our chapter divisions are somewhat unfortunate this is one of those unfortunate ones
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I mentioned a few weeks back that Paul frequently uses his phrase What then shall we say or what then a shortened version
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and what he's doing at each point and and it's it's a very important phrase that as you're reading through Romans when you read that phrase you should pause and I don't care what your daily
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Bible reading says you're supposed to read you should pause and think okay what did Paul just say because now he's going to posit a
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rhetorical question rhetorical question that is ridiculous but logical okay he's not going to just make something up like a straw man and then
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knock it down he's going to say okay from what I've been saying you might say this he does that explicitly in Romans 9. and he answers who are you o man to answer
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back to God so he says okay follow my logic and it might take you this way don't go there okay you go there you're making a
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catastrophic mistake that's what he's doing here when he says What then shall we say we say that's referring back to what he has just said just said and what he's just said is quite amazing
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this is the logic of Paul's definition of grace of grace he said that through the one transgression transgression Came Death in the first Adam
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but through the many transgressions came life in the last atom okay one offense and we all die but many offenses by each one of us
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and not a single one of us has failed to commit many transgressions so the transgressions as it were are piling up one upon the other
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at one point it gets so messy he's got to clean out the whole place with a flood and then after that it immediately starts getting messy again and it has been for the past six thousand years
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multitudes of transgressions and yet one act of righteousness and God forgives and his grace is poured out and he says through the law
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sin abounded and he's going to go into that in Romans 7. remember I mentioned that oftentimes in Romans he'll say something very provocative and then he's gonna unpack it later
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so in chapter 5 he says the law was given that sin might abound it's like what and then in Romans 7 he's going to unpack that
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unpack that and he's gonna he's gonna use a personal example about his own life under the law but we'll get there Lord willing we'll get there and so he says through the law sin abounded but under under the law
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remember Jesus was born in the fullness of time born of a woman born under the law and under the law Grace
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super abounded super abounded and I wish we could do in the English what Paul is able to do with the Greek and that is AD prefixes
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we have the word um super which kind of comes from the prefix in the Greek but there's this in the Greek
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two prefixes are added to the verb abounding so we might say it's super duper abounded okay
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abounded okay now I guess I'm glad we don't have an English word like that but we can't do that with our English but one writer says that if if this if sin abounding is
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a comparative Grace Super abounding is a superlative and and Paul again he makes it he's saying okay we're sin abounds
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Grace Super abounds and so we might think hey this is a pretty good gig let's keep sinning that Grace might keep super abounding
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right there's a logic there isn't there in fact he's going to say it again a little bit later in this chapter verse 15 once then shall we sin because we are not under
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the law but under grace and he gives the same answer may it never be okay and so this is how we can
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Paul's definition of grace and notice in his answer to the question where he says may it never be by the way some of your Bibles say God forbid
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that is a very bad translation there is no textual variant and and the name of God isn't there um and the point that Paul is making is
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going to be missed because may it never be and that this is getting a little technical I apologize but may it never be is an ontological statement it has to do with what is
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and with what ain't and he says this ain't okay he's not saying God forbid as if it could be and God could stop it he's saying may it never be
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because it cannot be how can we who died to sin still live in it he's introducing a situation and a state that is impossible to conceive how could you
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then conceive it okay so may it never be but notice what he does not say and this is very crucial because this is how the church has often missed Paul's
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definition of grace [Music] by and large we are afraid that too much grace will lead to
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licentiousness and that if we ease up on the strictures and the Commandments then people will run wild and they'll get out of control and there'll be so much sin
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so Paul doesn't say oh no no no you misunderstand me about Grace you must still obey the law and live under the law you must live under the
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ordinances and do this and don't do that you know don't get carried away with this Grace stuff no he doesn't say any such thing
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he doesn't impose new rules he doesn't bring us back under the law he doesn't Retreat one step from what God has done through Jesus Christ by grace
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and so if we're teaching Grace let's say just in church in general or a church and there's a teaching on Grace and nobody in hearing this thinks
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well you know what that's going to kind of let the shackles off and people are going to run riot then we're not teaching Grace the way Paul taught Grace
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okay if our Grace is safe it's not Paul's Grace and therefore it's not God's grace God's grace if our Grace cannot in an unredeemed mind lead to resentious licentiousness
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then it's not God's grace it's not Paul's Grace why shouldn't we be afraid why shouldn't we be careful
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because of the Holy Spirit the one member of the Trinity is the least welcome in most churches the Holy Spirit
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then we might lose control and by we I mean the clergy the moral police the people whose job it is to make sure you all behave
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no that's not our job at all not at all it is the Holy Spirit and Paul's understanding of the Holy Spirit allows him to say
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may it never be it's not ontologically possible that we who died to sin can live still therein and so we don't have to be controlling
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we don't have to establish rules we don't have to be careful that people might get a little bit too carried away well yeah they might that's not my
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problem that's their problem before God but in general the Holy Spirit will guide his people as he has promised to do
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to do and so yes Paul will bring in way back in chapter 13. he's going to bring in the law the law and so the whole issue of well is there
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a law or isn't there a law Paul resolves by saying yes and no oh no actually he says no and yes because in the New Covenant what is written on our hearts
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the law the law so it can't have completely gone away it has gone inside and who is it that wrote that law God and by whom did he write it His Holy
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Spirit and so any any teaching of Grace any preaching of Grace that does not respond or bring about this response
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this response and I'm going to quote again Paul from chapter 3 verse 8. he says and why not say as we are slanderously reported and as
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some affirm that we say let us do evil that good May Come their condemnation is just he doesn't
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he doesn't reason with them he simply says this is what God has done and anybody who would pervert that their condemnation is just
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anybody who would take the freedom that God has given us in Jesus Christ and turned it into bondage to sin and licentiousness their condemnation is
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just I don't need to worry about them because God will take care of them I simply need to announce what God has done through Jesus Christ Paul's may it never be cuts to the very
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heart of the matter it's not a moral pep talk or even a guilt trip God loves you so much see he sent his son to die for you
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again this is modern hymnology this is modern preaching God has has done he sent his son his son has died look at his hands look at his feet look at his
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side how can you still sin against such love that's not what Paul's saying God has done so much for you what can you do for him
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that's not what God's saying here's a church that we pass by on the way home and away from home it's sadly right where we always go and their Marquee is
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only that which is done for Christ will last it's that attitude that I now need to do for God because he's done so much for me how can you
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live like that how can you sin he died for you and it's a guilt trip or as I said sometimes it comes out much more encouragingly it's a pep talk he's
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put his spirit in you he's given you everything you can do this you can live without sin without sin of course never mind the fact that John tells us that if we deny we sin we deceive ourselves
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deceive ourselves so there's some something going on here different than what we have made it in terms of our moralizing Christianity Paul says no how can we who died to sin still live in it
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there has been a transfer in Christ from Death To Life those who have been transferred through faith can no longer live under sin may
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it never be because it cannot be and that is the biblical definition of Grace very rarely does Paul your
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as a domain remain as they may not call it still calls it sin so how do we do to educate our children the right the United States spends more and we know how much good that is grades
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where there used to be innocent it's simpler and better enforcement of the law over after we're gonna we're gonna that's what Paul's going to teach us in
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Romans 7. Romans 7. laws are only something I may not have ever thought ever thought laws are always something I may not have ever thought is going to rejoice in it but death of sin is death
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is a is a path I see this law in every human being their conscience sinners and this is the heart of Paul sinners
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and this is the heart of Paul be yours he had nothing well to hook be yours he had nothing built a Hook Once once
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father and the new no sin to pay the wage and the new no sin to pay the wages super dutched by that blood first in chapter 8 verse super duplushed by that blood
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first in chapter eight verse talking about the fact about the fact that we he condemned it transfer to us could hold him in the grave send the Holy Spirit baptism would
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baptism would in Galatians through lives in Galatians through lives in me by when in the day that you eat of it because he didn't he did not of his is
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going to be cast out of the ring of his is going to be cast out or the presence of God but there was a station of life life and so just as Adam was the head there which is the realm of Grace and
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righteousness and life the Dominion has been defeated and he says he
