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Brothers and sisters in the Lord, Paul's whole argument in the letter part of Romans chapter
5, you might recall from two weeks ago, is that in Christ everything that we have lost in Adam and a whole lot more is restored to us by faith.
Paul here says in Romans 5, 18 and 19 verses that summarize, indeed, the whole passage, as one man's trust was led to condemnation for all men.
One man's act of righteousness leads to equal and life for all men. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
We saw two weeks ago how Paul plays the two off against one another. He tells us that in Adam we have a two-fold legacy, number one were made sinners, number two because we are sinners were under a cloud of condemnation, nobody escapes it.
But he says when we put our faith in Christ, Christ who was righteous and obedient and who was received all of God's love and all of God's favor in Christ, we too share a two-fold legacy.
Number one, we are righteous and because we are righteous we are ears to the blessings that God has for his children. And the amazing thing about Paul's presentation of the gospel is that the right to receive this life, this realm of grace from the hands of God is not conditioned by anything that I am or anything that I have done.
As long as I acknowledge my sin, reach out to faith in Jesus, have a true willingness within my heart to forsake the realm of sin.
And I'm putting my trust in Jesus Christ, then when God looks at me, he sees in me the righteousness of Jesus. And because I am righteous in Jesus Christ, I now share in that realm of grace that has nothing to do with who I am or even the sins that remain in my life as Paul goes on to mention in the concluding verses of that passage.
As sin reigns in death, grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the gospel of grace that we are saved by faith through grace in Jesus Christ. It doesn't depend on my righteousness.
Now, if you understand this warning, there are a quality of that grace as Paul preaches it here in Romans, and particularly here in Romans, chapter 5.
Then you will know that it's a hop, skip, and a jump from an understanding of grace to a comprehension of what I like to call cheap grace.
Because you see, if it is true, that my place before God is not determined by my own righteousness.
If it is true as Paul says at the end of Romans chapter 5, that the more I see in, the more opportunity abounds for God's grace to be shown in my life, if that is true, then why not see in that grace way to bound?
I mean, that is the logical conclusion, is it not? And sometimes when you look at the lives of many of God's people, you'd almost think that's the kind of philosophy they embrace.
Why not see in that grace, may it bound? And that's the issue now that Paul takes up as he makes the transition into Romans chapter 6.
He says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in seeding that grace, may it bound?" And I want us to understand that that very question is a logical conclusion of the gospel of grace.
If nobody ever asks us that question in our presentation of the gospel, then we need to ask ourselves the question, am I making it clear enough?
That my status before God is not determined by anything that lives within my own heart, but that it is determined solely by the righteousness of Jesus.
And that because of his righteousness, I am eligible to the blessings of God. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in seed that grace, may it bound?
One of the accusations that Paul receives time and time again, he says concerning his gospel presentation, is that people ask that kind of question.
He says at Romans 3 verse 8, "Why not do evil?" That good may come as some people slanderously charges with saying, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in seed that grace, may it bound?"
And he goes on to give us the answer, "A categorical, resounding no, by no means." One of Paul's favorite expressions, "May Genoito and the Greek."
Literally means "May King James," I believe, translates it, "God forbid it is simply impossible," says Paul.
If you are truly in Christ to even begin to entertain that question because if you entertain that question, you don't really understand what it is when you are engrafted by faith into the person of Jesus Christ.
Are we to continue in seed that grace, may it bound, by no means, may it never be, it cannot possibly be.
And then on the rest of this passage that we've read together, it gives us the reason for that.
Here's how he puts it. He says, "How can we, and literally in the Greek it reads like this, we, how can we, who have died to sin, still live in it?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live or walk in newness of life.
How can we, who died to sin, still live in it? And when you read that passage in His explanation, it's a fairly difficult one, and many different people have given many different interpretations.
But I believe what Paul here is really saying is this, "When by faith we have been joined to Christ, we share both in the death of Christ, and we share in the resurrection of Christ.
When Christ died, He died to sin once and for all. When by faith I have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith in Him I have died to sin.
I have died to this whole realm of sin. I am no longer a citizen of the kingdom of the world, positionally by faith in Jesus Christ because I've died to it.
And when Christ was raised from the dead, because I'm in Christ, I have been raised with Christ into a whole new realm, the realm of grace, where now is my citizenship."
And Paul says, "Because I have been joined to Christ and have been transferred into the realm of God's amazing grace, He says it is inconceivable, it is impossible for me to continue living the way that I did in the old life because I don't live there anymore."
Now, Alice doesn't live there anymore. I have moved out of the realm of darkness into the realm of God's grace. I have died with Christ, I have been raised with Christ into a brand new way of life.
And my experience is that for a lot of God's children, that's really hard to understand. And one of the reasons it's so hard to understand is that we have a tendency to look at our life and to look at our experience and to confuse our experience with our position before the face of God.
And what to do this morning is share with you, I'm discreet in an illustration that a lot of you know that have been in New Members' Class, and I use it in an old Bible study, and every time I witness or share the gospel, I always draw this due to a lot of you have seen it before.
It's terribly profound, but it puts into words or rather into a picture form. The radical difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, and if we can lay hold on what it is to be in Christ, and where our citizenship is, then we can start stepping out in faith, and we can lay hold of the promises of God,
and we can consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Carol, if you can put that first picture on, please.
I even brought my little stick along this morning. I had to steal that from one of the kids croquet sets, I think.
I have seen those particular circles, but I use them to illustrate two different ways of life, the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God.
And there are some very fundamental differences between the two, but notice that the kingdom of the world, if you can read that, has God outside separated by a barrier.
Satan, the ruling principality and power in the world, the S stands for self, representing our lives, the arrows point inward, because in Adam we are all selfish and self-centered individuals.
There are many lines between here represent the conflict and the confusion that flows out of life when everybody is doing his own thing.
I think you can bear witness to that in your own life, in your family, in your marriage, in your relationships.
When everybody wants his own thing and holds on to his own thing, then the end is destruction and confusion, if we can have the second one, Carol, please.
So you know the characteristics of the kingdom of the world, there is that picture again, the left circle.
Notice here the characteristics number one, we are dead to God, we've looked at that in some detail.
The natural man in Adam has no relationship with God, you talk to him about God or spiritual things and leaves him cold.
And I'd conceive of having a fellowship with God because he's not interested in God.
Number two, he's dominated by sin and Satan, that is to say, he's a slave.
He may like to think he can do whatever it is that he wants to do, but the fact of the matter is he can't.
If you've ever tried to break off a bad habit or made a New Year's resolution,
then you will have discovered how hard it is to carry that out.
Because there is a law at work that wants to keep me in bondage.
Number three, he cannot please God.
No matter how hard the natural man tries, his efforts fall far short of the purposes of God, because he doesn't know the law of God and even if he did, he cannot live up to it.
Number five, spiritually, he's blind, and you'll find that oftentimes when unbelievers read the Bible,
or you try to share with them the gospel or make a presentation of the gospel, their eyes just sort of glaze over, it doesn't make sense.
Why would people get up early in the Sunday morning and gather for worship?
It's beyond their comprehension because they're hung over from the night before and Sundays are for catching up.
Characterized by doubt and confusion, everybody has his own thing, goes his own way, and there is war at every hand.
And ultimately, number seven, the Bible says concerning the kingdom of the world.
Its end is death. It's all part of the judgment.
It doesn't matter how strong you are, it doesn't matter how smart you are, it doesn't matter how capable you are.
Part of the whole process of life is that you lose whatever you have, and whatever you are, and you end up in the grave.
You lose whatever there was, you have no abiding inheritance. Back to the first one, Carol, please.
In opposition to that stands the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, you will notice that God is at the center of life.
These circles represent us. We draw our life from God, we worship God in return because God shares the deepest needs of our own lives.
We in turn can take what God has given us, and we can bless other people with it. On to the third one, Carol, please.
Here you have the characteristics of life in God's kingdom. We are alive to God.
That is to say, we can understand something of who God is, we can respond to who God is, we can start living for God.
We are set free, the Bible says, from the dominion of sin and Satan. We no longer have to be slaves by faith in Christ.
Number three, I am able to start living in a way that pleases God. Number four, I am able to start living in a way that blesses other people's lives.
Number five, my eyes are opened, I can begin to understand spiritual things.
My life, as it is yielded to God, is a life increasingly characterized by peace and by what the Bible calls shallow. And then this bottom one, destined for life, I have an inheritance that is eternal.
God not only promises to take me into a new realm beyond the realm of death, but He promises to be my God and Father.
He promises to lead me in pads of righteousness and to fill my life with everything that He is and everything that He has back to the first one, Carol, please.
Now what Paul here is saying in Romans chapter five and in Romans chapter six, and this is the critical issue that I want us to try to get hold of this morning.
That if I, that in Adam, this is where I am. And there is no human way that I can break out of that kingdom of darkness by myself.
But He says, when by faith I come to Jesus, and I am engrafted into the person of Jesus Christ, then all the benefits of this circle which Jesus has earned for me, now by faith legally and positionally are mine.
I want us to understand that. There was a day when I was a citizen of this kingdom. And when I lived as a citizen of that kingdom, the laws of that kingdom dominated and controlled my life.
But when I came to Jesus, I died to all of that positionally in Christ. And if I was united with Him in a death like His, Paul, much more certainly am I being united with Him in a resurrection like His.
And the upshot of that old brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ is that by faith in Christ, I don't live here anymore. I am a citizen of this kingdom. And I have a title to all of the grace that God has for me in Jesus Christ.
Positionally, I am now a citizen of God's kingdom. I am a life to God. I have a right to God's blessings. I have a right to God's answering my prayer. I have a right to God's power in my life. I have a right to live in the purposes that God has for me, not only in this life, but even in the life that is to come.
Now, as I said earlier, we have trouble with that. And Carol, you can put the screen back up if you don't mind, please.
We have trouble with that because we confuse our experience with our position.
Because what happens typically in your life and my life is this. We hear all this good stuff. We read in the Bible what we're supposed to be like and what we're supposed to do.
And how we're supposed to be a new creation in Christ and all of that. And then we look at our lives, don't we? And we see that we're very much alive to sin. I mean temptation comes along. It might as well have my name written on it.
And far from being dead, I feel very much alive. And God comes along and he wants me to live for him and to love him and to serve him. And I discover that my heart isn't half there, half the time. I'm alive to see in.
But so often I feel dead towards God. And what we need to understand is that what Paul is talking about here in Romans chapter 5 and 6 is not first of all experiential.
It is positional. It's what we are in Christ. And unless we understand what it is that we are in Christ, we can ever press onward to becoming all of the things that we are in Christ because we don't have the proper kind of legitimate foundation.
And part of the challenge of the Christian life is to take that which we are positionally in Christ. And we begin to live it out in our life and in our experience.
And let me share with you another illustration that perhaps will help to put some flesh on those bones because it's very important for God's people to understand this. Take the immigration experience.
A lot of us here today who are citizens of the Dominion of Canada were not born here. Many of us right here in this auditorium we came here as immigrants. Let me see just show hands. How many of you were born elsewhere?
Yeah, I see it's about a third of us about or more. Many of us were born in the Netherlands, the occasional individual here might have even been born in Great Britain.
And a few other places. And we were citizens of the country where we were born.
And there came the time and the day for whatever reason that we decided to emigrate from that country. And we chose Canada as our destination.
And we came to Canada and we were citizens of another country. And we had the dress and the speech and the behavior of people out of the country from which we came.
And there is no end to comical stories related to that. And if I have opportunity, I'll share a few of you of those with you to a few moments.
But it came a day when we lived in this country for a number of years. And we said to ourselves into one another, you know, this country's been good to us.
And if we're going to make this our permanent home, we ought to become citizens of this country.
And I remember the day when I and my family, I was 15 or 16 years of age, went to the courtroom, the judge asked some questions and we promised, I think, allegiance to the Queen.
Very hard to do for a Dutchman, I'll have, you know, at least that Queen. And we became citizens of the dominion of Canada. And a lot of you have been in that situation.
And when you and I become citizens of the dominion of Canada, at that point, all the privileges and all the rights of Canadian citizenship are ours.
When I, the age of 15 or 16 became a Canadian citizen, I was every bit as much a Canadian before the law as my wife, who was born in this country.
And in terms of privileges and responsibilities, they are the same for a naturally born Canadian as for a naturalized citizen of this country.
That does not mean, however, that at the moment that we become citizens of a given country, that in all of our thoughts, words and actions, we behave like people that have been raised in this country for many, many years.
Because we carry with us a lot of the characteristics and a lot of the behavior of where we come from.
If you were older than 15 years, give or take a year or two of age, when you came to this country, I can almost guarantee you that you speak with an accent.
Because beyond that age, it's very difficult to lose every trace of your native tongue.
When we first come to this country, we have speech patterns that go back to where we came from.
And I think I've told you this story once before, and my father, who was a very agreeable man, was in the early days of our immigration talking to a neighbor of ours, who wanted to buy a cow.
And my father didn't understand a word of what it was that he was saying, but he kept nodding his head and saying yes, and sold a cow without knowing that he sold one.
Real learning experience very early in the stages of immigration. Our dress patterns tend to go back to where it is that we come from in the early stages of that process.
Some of you have heard me tell me, for me, nightmarish story of the day when I, as a youngster, got sent to school with bloomers. Do you know what bloomers are?
Those are those pants that have a rubber band at the bottom, and they they puff out.
And back where I came from in those early days, those were very fashionable as a matter of fact, it was my Sunday go to meeting parapans. And for some reason or another, I had to wear that to school.
Now you got a picture of this, this is tough, you know. I mean, I got to walk a mile and a half to school, and I'm trying all the way there to figure out how I'm going to avoid being noticed in my parapans.
Now I was doing pretty good until my friend who was going to school with me at a certain stage, and I had noticed he kept looking at me kind of funny.
He finally blurted out the question. He said to me, "What kind of pants are those anyway?"
And I nearly died on the spot. My worst nightmare had come true. And a lot of us have experiences like that. One of the favorite stories that I tell my brother-in-law is that when he first came to this country and was learning to speak English, his sister, with whom he was staying and who had been in this country a little bit longer than he had been, sent him to the store for some eggs.
Now if you're a Dutchman, eggs and axes sound a lot the same. So he goes stomping to the store, puts his best foot forward, and he asks for two dozen axes.
The storekeeper looks at him and says, "Two dozen?" You know, like, "What do you want to do with two dozen?" "Yeah, two dozen." Well, he says, "I don't know if I've got two dozen." But I'll go look so. He goes off into his storeroom, and he comes back shaking his head sadly and saying, "Well, I'm sorry, but I don't have two dozen. I only have half a dozen."
Well, I'll take those then, and sure enough, you know, there he comes with half a dozen axes, hung over his shoulders, and a real rapid learning experience.
And many of us have our own stories to tell, of how embarrassed we were, and how we got misunderstood, or we miscommunicated.
And part of the whole process of acclimatizing yourself to a new country and to a new culture is that you learn to put off the old, and you put on the new, "I never wore bloomers to school." Again, I want you to know.
And when my mother tried it with shorts, when shorts were not fashionable, and the same thing happened, "I never wore shorts again for who knows how many years?"
Part of acclimatizing yourself to the culture in which you live is that you put off the old, and you put on the new.
And now there are limitations to the analogy, because one culture isn't necessarily better than another culture in the natural. But Paul here is talking about how we have been citizens of the world. We are now citizens of God's kingdom.
And it is impossible for me to continue living as once I lived, because in Christ I died to all of that stuff. I have been raised with Christ into a new kingdom, and I must now consider myself dead to sin, and alive to God.
I don't live there anymore. And the challenge of the Christian life is to start living out the position that I now have in the person of Jesus Christ, and I begin living like a new creation, because in Jesus Christ I cannot help but live as a new creation.
Which is why Paul, when he goes on, later on in Romans chapter 6 and the Lord willing, will have occasion to look at that someday, goes on to tell us, let not sin therefore, rain in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions.
Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as members who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. Consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God.
In Jesus Christ I have everything that it takes, to be what God wants me to be, by the grace that He provides for me. That doesn't mean that I'm necessarily experiencing it.
Some of it I won't experience until the age to come, but it is mine to take by faith, and I need to press forward, and I need to live out the reality of the new life.
That I have in Jesus Christ. Consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God, in Christ Jesus.
Now why do I make such a fuss about that? Well why does Paul make such a fuss about that?
Because you see fact of the matter is in all of our lives, we're going to end up living out what we think we are.
And if I think that I am alive to sin, and did to God, then that's going to be the way that I approach life.
If I look at myself, and I see myself as a hopeless sinner lost in the power of sin, and the power of the devil, and I belabor the wickedness of my own heart to the degree that I can never be any different,
and I begin to talk about how big the devil is, and how strong temptations are, and how much the world is with me, and how it's impossible for me to get out of that, that's going to characterize my life, is it not?
I'm going to walk around like a Christian, defeat it, and discourage it, and broken. God doesn't love me, God doesn't understand me, God's not going to hear my prayers, God doesn't care about me, God doesn't love me, poor little old me,
I'll just have to go along trying to do the best that I can throughout the course of my life, that's what happens if all you can see is what you are in Adam.
I want you to know something.
I deal with people all the time who have received and inheritance psychologically, spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, that makes them slaves to see you.
They just cannot be any different than what they are, and as long as they and all the rest of us keep looking at what we are,
and how we were raised, and all the problems had come out of that, my life will never be any different, because it is a hopelessly big cloud that just weighs me down, and breaks me.
We all know people like that, but when my eyes are opened, I begin to see who Jesus is. I begin to understand that in Jesus Christ, I'm a citizen of God's kingdom, and God's my Father,
and God's grace in Jesus Christ is there, not only to forgive all my many sins, but to transform my heart and to change my life and He is promised to take all things and work them together for good.
And I have been in Christ's race from the dead to walk in newness of life, and there isn't a mountain that God calls me to climb, but I can climb that. And there isn't a sin that God calls me to overcome, but in Jesus Christ, the power is there to overcome it, and even death itself has been defeated, because you know, in the New Testament Christians never died.
You notice that they all fall asleep, and they fall asleep, because death has been conquered in the person of Jesus, even death cannot separate us from the love of God.
If I begin to understand who it is that I am in Christ, and how God's realm of grace is there to transform and to change my life, and to hold on to me even in my own stubbornness, and in my pride, and in my rebellion, that's going to transform my life.
Because then I'm going to look forward all the time to God's grace being revealed, and I begin to climb up on the wings of faith, to begin to live out what it is that God is calling me to be.
And the starting point in that process is Paul is to consider ourselves dead to see and alive to God. That word "consider" there is a mathematical term. Older translations use the word "recon." It's a word for accounting.
Count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Take hold of the views, Paul. Look at yourself in the way that Christ looks at you.
But somebody says, does that mean I'm without sin? Does that mean that I'm without struggle? Not an actual experience, but before the face of God you are, because you are in Christ.
And if I begin to live in that kind of reality, God's grace will be there to reveal the Father heart of the Father, to take me by the hand and to make me look at my sin and to help me to forsake my sin, to overcome those areas of character with which I struggle.
And my life becomes increasingly fruitful in a way that gives glory to God.
Therefore, you too must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus to the glory of God the Father. Let us pray.
We confess Father that sometimes it's more comfortable to think of ourselves as sinners who cannot change their way of life.
Because, Lord, it gives us justification for holding on to things that we may not be ready to give up. It gives us justification for the despair that sometimes we feel that nothing is ever going to change or be different because we've tried so many times and it just hasn't worked.
Help us to understand, Lord, who we are in Christ, how much you love us in Christ and that in Him you give us everything that we need for our life and for Godliness and Lord out of that position of faith.
Help us to believe that whatever it is that we struggle with, whatever it is that needs changing, whatever it needs that needs undoing, you've committed yourself to it in Christ and you will work it out in our life and you will present us before your presence with glory in the rejoicing of your love.
If we don't know the reality of Jesus' Father, then I pray that you would demonstrate to our lives His beauty, His glory, His power.
Help us, Lord, to be a people who are radiant in faith that truly in Jesus Christ we are dead to sin. We are alive to God to the praise of your glory. Thank You for hearing us in His name. Amen.