FROM GUILT TO GLORY:

STUDIES IN ROMANS

Ray C. Stedman preached two separate series of messages on Romans at

Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California.

This second Romans series consists of 39 messages, (Discovery Papers

#3501-3539 inclusive), dates from 1975-77 and is also available in book
form.

From Guilt to Glory: Explained

1 Introduction to Life (Romans 1:1-17)

2 The Tragic Sense of Life (1:18-23)
3 The Deepening Darkness (1:24-32)
4 The Sinful Morality (2:1-11)
5 According to Light (2:12-29)
6 Total Wipeout (3:1-20)
7 But Now (3:21-31)
8 The Father of Faith (4:1-12)
9 The Faith of our Father (4:13-25)
10 Rejoicing in Hope (5:1, 2)
11 Rejoicing in Suffering (5:3-10))
12 Rejoicing in God (5:11-21)
13 Can we go on Sinning? (6:1-2)
14 The True Baptism of the Spiirt (6:3-14)
15 Whose Slave are you? 6:15-23)
16 Free to Win or Lose (7:1-6)
17 The Continuing Struggle (7:7-25)
18 No Condemnation (7:25-8:4)
19 Why Not Live? (8:5-13)
20 The Sons of God among Men (8:14-17)
21 The Agony and the Ecstasy (8:18-28)
22 If God be for us (8:29-39)

From Guilt to Glory: Exhibited

23 Has God Failed? (9:1-13)

24 Let God be God (9:14-33)
25 How to be Saved (10:1-13)
26 Have they not Heard? (10:14-21)
27 There’s Hope Ahead (11:1-24)
28 Our Great and Glorious God (11:25-12:1)

From Guilt to Glory: Experienced

29 Living Day by Day (12:1-3)

30 Who Am I, Lord? (12:3-8)
 31 How to Hug (12:9-21)
32 God’s Strange Servants (13:1-7)
33 The Night is Nearly Over (13:8-14)
34 On Trying to Change Others (14:1-12)
35 The Right to Yield (14:13-23)
36 Our Great Example (15:1-13)
37 An Adequate Ministry (15:14-33)
38 All in the Family (16:1-24)
39 The Great Mystery (16:25-27)

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Reformatting and error-correction by Ben Whitney , July 23, 1997.

INTRODUCTION TO LIFE

by Ray C. Stedman

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I don’t know any letter that is more fundamental and foundational than
Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is unquestionably the greatest of all of
Paul’s letters and the widest in its scope. It is most intent and
penetrating in its insight into the understanding of truth; therefore,
it is one of the books of the New Testament that every Christian ought
to be thoroughly familiar with. If you haven’t mastered the book of
Romans and aren’t able to think through this book without a Bible before
you, then I urge you to set that as your goal.

Master the book of Romans -- be so acquainted with it that you can

outline it and think of its great themes without a Bible open before
you. That requires reading it and studying it and thinking it through in
careful detail. I think it is safe to say that Romans probably is the
most powerful human document that has ever been penned.

This week, the Freedom Train is in this area, bringing to us some of the
great documents of our American history, such as one of the original
copies of the Constitution and Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the
Declaration of Independence. I hope all of you will see this exhibit. We
value these great documents. In many ways, our freedom rests upon them,
and we Americans rightly honor and respect them. But even these great
documents of human liberties could not hold a candle to the effect and
impact the epistle to the Romans has had upon human history. To this
letter we owe some of the greatest leaders of the church of all time:
* St. Augustine, whose shadow has loomed large over the church since
the fourth century, was converted by reading just a few verses of
the 13th chapter of the book of Romans.
* Martin Luther, studying the writings of Augustine, came to an
understanding of faith. The 16th verse of the very first chapter of
the letter spoke volumes to Luther’s heart as he thought and
meditated on the great phrase, "The righteous shall live by faith."
This book’s effect on Luther ushered in the great Protestant
Reformation, the greatest awakening that our world has seen since
the days of the apostles.
* John Bunyan, studying Romans in the Bedford jail, was so caught up
by the themes of this great letter that out of it he penned
 Pilgrim’s Progress , which has taught many people how a Christian
relates to the world in which he lives.
* As you know, John Wesley, listening one day to Luther’s preface to
the commentary on Romans, found his own heart strangely warmed and
out of that came the great evangelical awakening of the eighteenth
century.
* In our own day, Karl Barth has been associated with studies in
Romans that have shaken the theological world. We may not always
agree with everything Barth writes, but one thing is clear -- his
arguments on the book of Romans absolutely demolished liberal
Christianity about two or three decades ago.

somewhere around the middle of the first century, when the apostle was
in Corinth on his third missionary journey.

As you read this letter, you can catch glimpses of the conditions in the
Greek city of Corinth. Those of you who have visited the site of Corinth
know this city was located at the crossroads of trade in the empire. It
was one of the notoriously wicked cities in the Roman world and much of
that atmosphere is characterized here in the letter to the Romans.

This letter was written only about 30 years after the crucifixion and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Today is December 7, Pearl Harbor Day,
and many of us realize that it was 34 years ago today that the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor. The events of that day are etched unforgettably in
the memory of many of us who lived through that time. Anyone of us who
was over 10 years old then knows what he was doing when the news of the
bombing of Pearl Harbor came. Such was the impact of the crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus. The memory of it still was sharply etched in the
minds of Christians all over the Roman Empire.

This letter was sent to them to teach them and instruct them and bring
to their remembrance the meaning of these fantastic events that had so
startled and amazed men in that first century.

The first seventeen verses of this letter constitute an introduction. In

this introduction are the great themes of this epistle, the things that
Paul is going to return to again and again as he boldly puts forth these
tremendous concepts that have so fantastically altered and changed the
lives of men. There is both a literary and a logical order to these
themes. The literary order, of course, follows the pattern in which they
appear here in the epistle to the Romans. The logical order is not quite
the same, but I am going to combine the two orders. The progression
forms a kind of target. The bull’s-eye, the heart of the target, is the
theme: Jesus is Lord. We can see this theme in the first seven verses of
the introduction.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and

set apart for the gospel of God -- the gospel he promised
beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant
of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared
with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the
dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name’s
sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from
among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus
Christ.
 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. {Rom 1:1-7 NIV}

At the heart of Paul’s argument is this central personage: Jesus Christ,

our Lord. That, certainly, is the theme of the epistle to the Romans, as
it is the theme of all Paul’s writings and all of the New Testament.
Union in Christ is the central truth that God wants us to see. As Paul
himself wrote in the letter to the Colossians, "Christ in you, the hope
of glory," {Col 1:27b}. That is the great truth from which all others
flow.

Now, sometimes commentators and Bible teachers identify certain of the

great emphases that come from that truth as being the central truth. For
instance, they emphasize justification by faith, or sanctification, that
is, solving the problems of sin. But these themes all stem from the
great central theme -- union with Christ. That is why the person of the
Lord Jesus is central in all of the apostle’s thinking, just as it is
central in God’s program for mankind everywhere.

We are not simply followers of a philosophy, or even of a philosopher,

but of a savior, a redeemer, a person -- and he must be central in all
things. From this central point, Paul builds a logical progression of
concentric circles, like a target. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
is the next theme flowing out from the central personage of Jesus. Next,
the gospel is brought to us through the apostle, so Paul will speak of
himself as the great apostle to the Gentiles, through whom the gospel is
spread. Then, the recipients of that gospel are the Christians, the
Roman Christians to whom this letter was written, and to ourselves as
well, the twentieth century recipients of the letter to the Romans.
Then, as the final out thrust of this tremendous involvement which
begins with the Lord himself and flows through the apostle and the
Christians, the gospel reaches out to the nations of the world -- Jew
and Gentile alike.

We’ll see this logical order as we go through the introductory paragraph

of this letter.

In his introduction, Paul points out that the Lord was promised to us;
he came as predicted in the Old Testament. The gospel was promised
beforehand through the "prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his
Son." One of the most important {things} that we can learn about our
faith is that it comes to us through the anticipation and prediction of
centuries of teaching and preaching. We are familiar with the predictive
passages in the Old Testament. We remember that when Jesus walked with
the two men on the road to Emmaus, beginning with Moses and all the
prophets, he taught them "the things concerning himself," {Luke 24:27
RSV}. Jesus saw himself predicted in the Old Testament. We can see
clearly the great messianic passages in the Old Testament that point
unerringly to Jesus. When you read the Old Testament, you are gripped by
the feeling that someone is coming! All the prophets speak of him, all
the sacrifices point toward him, all the longings and dreams and
yearnings of men are hoping for someone to come who will solve the
problems of man. When you close the Old Testament, he has not arrived
yet. But the first thing the New Testament tells us is that the angels
appeared to the shepherds abiding in the fields at Bethlehem and sang a
great song of hope to them: "Unto you are great tidings of joy, for unto
you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the
Lord," {cf, Luke 2:10-11}. The promised one appears on the scene. Paul
reminds us, in his introduction, that Jesus is the one who was promised
beforehand.

When he comes, he is presented to us in two unique ways: first,

concerning his human nature, the apostle says he was a descendant of
David. Now the actual Greek here is much more blunt and earthy than
that. It says he comes of the very sperm of David, emphasizing his
intense humanity. We all came that way. We came by the union of sperm
and ovum in the miracle of conception, and Jesus came in the same way,
through the sperm of David. Thus, his humanity is emphasized and
underscored. But secondly, linked with that, is the deity of him who,
through the spirit of holiness, was declared with power to be the Son of
God. And there Paul begins with that phrase, "the Son of God," that
unmistakably declares the deity of our Lord. He was God. Paul will
emphasize this many times throughout his letter. But he also stresses
the fact that in the uniqueness of his personality he combined together
all that was human and all that was divine. And yet, as we will learn in
this letter and in other passages of Scripture, he laid aside the
exercise of his deity. He didn’t come to act as God; he came to act as a
man filled with God. This is what is hopeful and helpful to us. If we
are called on to act like God, we might as well give up right now. We
can’t make it. But if we are called on to be men possessed by God, then
that is the level on which Christ lived and the level on which we too
can live.

That is the heart of the gospel.

This is what God has made it possible for us to do. We can live as he
lived and follow his example in that way. Paul will develop these
thoughts much more thoroughly in this epistle.

There were three things, Paul says, that marked the deity of Jesus:

First, there was power; he came by power. This is a reference to the

miracles that he did, the displays of remarkable power that he
manifested among men. These miracles were a sign that he was the man of
God, the man fully indwelt and possessed by God.

Second, he came by the spirit of holiness. I’ve always been concerned

about this word holiness because I find people misunderstand it so. We
don’t like the word holy. We think of it as something that is bad --
good, but bad. We don’t like to be called holy ourselves. When we say
somebody is a "holy Joe" we are using a term of disparagement. And yet
it is a great word. I think its meaning can be recaptured for us if we
will use a similar term that comes from the same root, the word
wholeness . Paul is saying that when Jesus came, he was a whole person.
He demonstrated whole humanity -- humanity as it was intended to be,
exactly. And that is how we are called to live. We are called to be
whole persons. The glory of the good news is that God’s goal for us is
to make us whole, so that we are capable, able to cope, able to handle
life, to walk through the midst of the pressures and the turmoils and
the tragedies of this world and be able to handle them -- whole persons
-- holy persons. That wholeness is what Jesus demonstrated.
The third great mark of Jesus’ deity was the resurrection; his deity was
authenticated "by his resurrection from the dead." That is where our
faith ultimately rests. We can have confidence that God has told us the
truth by the unshakable fact that he raised Jesus from the dead. No one
can remove that fact from the annals of history. It happened, our faith
rests on it, and whenever anybody pursues you and tries to shake your
faith, ask them to explain the resurrection. Ask them what they do with
it -- because it cannot be explained away. It is the unshakable fact
through which God has broken into our time, and he rests the whole story
upon that great fact. This, too, will be explored further in this
letter.

Now, in the literal order of this letter, the apostle says much about
the Roman Christians. And what he says about them also applies to us. In
Verses 6-7, he says, and you also are among those "who are called to
belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called
to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the
Lord Jesus Christ."

First, Paul says the Roman Christians, the saints, are called . This
word called is an adjective, not a verb. We are not self-made saints, we
are not man-made saints; we are called saints. God called us. Now, every
one of us can tell a different story of how it happened -- how God’s
voice was heard, how you felt the drawing, the pulling of God’s spirit
in your life. You were called that way. This is true of every Christian.
It reveals a remarkable thing: God sought us! We really didn’t seek him
-- we thought we did, but he sought us. That is why Jesus said to his
disciples, "All that the Father has given me will come unto me, and him
who comes unto me I will never cast out," {cf, John 6:37}. And thus we
came, called of God, sought of God.

The remarkable thing about that calling is underscored here by these

words of Paul’s: "We are loved by God." Paul always starts out on the
basis of God’s love for us. He may have to scold these saints he is
writing to, he may have to correct them, he may have to speak very
sharply to some of them; but he always starts out by reminding them they
are loved by God.

Paul understands that this is the fundamental relationship we have with

God. He loves us. That is a fact we ought to remind ourselves of every
day, as I am sure these Roman Christians did. The grace and peace God
gives to his saints is proof of his love for them. The word grace stands
for all the empowerment and enrichment that God can give; all that he is
able to pour into human life, We don’t earn grace, but it is given to us
in terms of our daily needs. All those moments when strength and courage
are infused into our lives, when we are discouraged and God’s word
comforts and heals us -- that is God’s grace. And the result is peace ,
rest! Grace and peace are our inheritance as Christians. These two
things ought to characterize Christians everywhere, all the time, so
that we live differently before the world. That is the inheritance we
can draw upon and reckon on.

Paul points out a second characteristic about the Roman Christians in

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,

because your faith is being reported all over the world. {Rom
1:8 NIV}
Notice that it was the faith of the Roman Christians that was being
talked about -- not the number of buses that they operated or the size
or cost of the organ, or the size or cost of the building in which they
met. It was the faith of these Christians that startled the Roman world.
These were vital Christians. Now a clue as to why that was true is given
in the next thing Paul says.

God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel

of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my
prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s
will the way may be opened for me to come to you. {Rom 1:9-10
NIV}

Their faith was reported all over the world because the apostle and
other Christians were praying for them.

Now Paul had never been to Rome, had never met these people. He had met
some of them elsewhere, but he had never known many of them. He prayed
for them, he prayed for them constantly! "How constantly I remember you
in my prayers at all times." That is why this church flourished. If
there is one thing that I would say we need more than anything else
today, it is to recover again this sense of concern and prayer for one
another. I am as guilty as the rest of you in not doing this. But I
think it would make all the difference in the world if we began to
uphold each other in prayer regularly.

The third characteristic about the Roman saints that Paul points out is

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual

gift to make you strong -- that is, that you and I may be
mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. {Rom 1:11-12 NIV}

That is what makes a congregation strong, the exercise of spiritual

gifts in its midst. When Paul says, "I want to impart to you some
spiritual gift," he doesn’t mean that he has all the gifts in a bag and
he goes around like an ecclesiastical Santa Claus doling them out to
people wherever he goes. He doesn’t mean that. Impart really means
"share with you." It isn’t something Paul gives to them; only the Holy
Spirit can give spiritual gifts. Paul wants to share with them the gifts
God has given. He wants to minister to them, as they are expected to
minister to him with the spiritual gifts that they have; thus they will
be mutually strengthened by one another’s faith. That is how God wants a
church to function -- the saints ministering to each other, building up
one another by their faith and sharing and exercising the gifts God has
given them.

Next in this logical outline is Paul himself as the great apostle to the
Gentiles. God is building a structure with Jesus at the center, then the
gospel, then the apostle. It is through the apostle that the Christians
are being reached. What does Paul say about himself as an apostle?

Called is used as an adjective again here. Paul is not called to be an

apostle -- he is a called apostle. God did the calling. This happened,
Paul tells us in Galatians, before he was born. That is when God calls
us -- before we are born. This is the wonder of the God we serve. He
doesn’t have to wait until we appear in human history. He calls us long
before we are even conceived, long before our family tree ever began to
take shape. Then he sets us apart. Now that is the process of history,
and that is what happened to Paul. All the events of Paul’s young life,
including his training under Gamaliel and his rising up in the group of
the Pharisees and his antipathy against the gospel, all this was part of
God’s process of setting him apart to be an apostle. And when the time
came, God pulled the trap door and Paul fell through. He was caught.
That is what happens to us all; that is the way God works in our lives.

his name’s sake we received grace and apostleship to call people from
among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith," or, more
literally, "the obedience of faith." An apostle is to call people out.
As Paul himself tells us in Verse 14,

I am obligated both to the Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the

wise and foolish. {Rom 1:14 NIV}

Paul had a deep sense of an imperative to tell people the gospel because
he knew they desperately needed it.

If you were the sole possessor of a remedy for cancer, would you be
quiet about it or would you feel an imperative to share with others the
secret? That’s what Paul says urged him on -- this constant
consciousness that he had the secret of release that people desperately
needed.

As an apostle, he journeyed out to carry that secret to them. He tells

heart in preaching the gospel of his son..." Here is a whole-hearted
man, single-minded, with his spirit fully engaged in this work. Then he

That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who

are at Rome. {Rom 1:15 NIV}

If Paul is going to reach the nations, why does he preach the gospel to
the Christians at Rome? It is by means of the Christians that the
nations are to hear. It is the changes God works in the lives of his
people that cause others to begin to take note. That is how evangelism
occurs. Paul says, "that is why I want to preach the gospel to you at
Rome." Now, by the gospel, Paul does not mean simply explaining how to
become a Christian. That is what we often think it means, but that isn’t
what Paul means here, because these Romans were already Christians. The
gospel is all the great facts about humanity and about God that God
wants to impart to us and that will enable us to be whole persons.

That, therefore, brings us to the message itself -- the gospel which the
apostle will preach to the Christians, and thus reach all the nations.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God

for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew,
then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from
God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first
to last, Just as it is written: "The righteous will live by
faith." {Rom 1:16-17 NIV}

This quotation from Habakkuk that Paul uses is the Scripture that
gripped Martin Luther’s heart. Paul says that this is the great fact
that he is expounding in the gospel. He is not ashamed of it, he says,
and that is a way of saying that he is proud of it. He can’t wait to get
to Rome.

Paul especially is not ashamed of the gospel in Rome because the Romans
appreciated power, just as Americans do. The Romans prided themselves on
their power. They had military power that could conquer all the nations
that stood in their path; they had a tremendous program of
road-building; they had some of the greatest law-makers of history; they
had the power to write literature and create art. But Paul knew that the
Romans also were powerless when it came to changing hearts. They were
powerless to eliminate slavery; half of the population of the Roman
Empire were slaves. They were powerless to change the stubborn, hostile,
hateful hearts of men and eliminate violence; the Roman Empire was full
of violence and corruption and the suicide rate was extremely high. The
Romans could do nothing about these things. And Paul says that is why he
is so proud of the gospel -- because it is the power of God to do those
very things that men cannot do. We never need to apologize for the
gospel. It is absolutely without rival.

a book by Charles Colson, one of the men who went to prison in the
conversion of Charles Colson -- how he became a Christian. Halverson
said the story is so remarkable it can only be compared with the
conversion of the Apostle Paul. It is so drastic and so different that
even today people struggle with accepting and believing it. But he said
there is no question -- this man is a changed man. Now what got hold of
his heart and changed him like that? The gospel of the blessed God --
the good news about Jesus Christ. It is the power of God to salvation.

Second, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it reveals a

righteousness from God. Righteousness is an old word that we don’t
understand very much. I would like to substitute for it the word worth ,
a worth before God. A sense of acceptance before God is given to you.
You can’t earn it, you certainly don’t deserve it, but it is given. God
really accepts you because of the gospel, because of the good news of
the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Therefore, it is something that
you, or I, or anybody else can have, and it is complete, perfect. That
is what Paul is going to be talking about throughout the book of Romans
-- the gospel of God.

The last thing Paul says is that this righteousness is received by

faith. It is not something we can ever earn; it is something we can take
anytime we need it, and that is good news. Our worth before God is not
something we receive once, by faith, at the beginning of our Christian
lives. It is something we remind ourselves of every time we feel
depressed, despairing, discouraged, defeated, etc. God has loved us,
restored us, and we have perfect standing in his sight. He already
accepts us and loves us as much as he possibly can; nothing more can be
added to it. That is the righteousness that is revealed in the gospel,
by faith, to all who believe, no matter what their background or
training may be.

These are the great themes of Romans.

As we go through this book together, I hope these themes will have their
effect upon our hearts as they had an effect upon the hearts of many in
the first century church.
Prayer

Our Heavenly Father, as we come now to celebrate the Lord’s

supper, we pray that we may understand again what this means
to us -- how hopeless, how dark and bitter our condition would
be were it not for the gospel of the grace of God. How
thoroughly we would be enmeshed in evil and how deeply we
would be involved in horrendous and hurtful things were it not
for the intervention of the gospel of the grace of God. Keep
us, Father, from vainly imagining that we have arrived at this
stage of deliverance, even the deliverance we now experience
by ourselves. Help us to know that nothing could have saved us
from the wicked machinations of the evil one had it not been
for the intervention of the gospel of grace. We ask in Jesus’
name, Amen.

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Title: Introduction to Life

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 1:1-17
Message No: 1
Catalog No: 3501
Date: December 7, 1975

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THE TRAGIC SENSE OF LIFE

by Ray C. Stedman

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The first sixteen verses of Paul’s letter to the Romans are an

introduction that concludes with a great statement by the apostle: "I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God for
salvation unto everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith," {cf, Rom 1:16-17}.

By that tremendous declaration, Paul sets in focus for us the great

theme of this letter: The power of God to heal the hurts of men and to
give us liberty and freedom from the bondage of evil in our lives. With
the power of the gospel comes the righteousness of God, the sense of
worth to give significance and meaning to our lives. The power of God
frees us from the control of sin; God frees us from the meaninglessness
of despair and guilt.

This power and righteousness is available to us, the apostle says, "by
faith." That means the gospel can reach anyone, anywhere, at any time.
Now that is the good news, that is the startling message that the church
of Jesus Christ has for the world. There is nothing like it anywhere in
the world, there is no rival to it. There is nothing that remotely
approaches it in its possibilities in human affairs; therefore, we can
say with Paul, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

sounded. This section introduces the most extensive, careful and logical
analysis of the human dilemma that has ever been found. It extends from

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the
godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by
their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain
to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the
creation of the world God’s invisible qualities -- his eternal
power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse. {Rom 1:18-20 NIV}

In the preceding verses, Paul has already spoken of the Son of God --
the key and the heart of the gospel. He declared the power of God that
is released among men by believing the gospel; he declared the
righteousness of God which is granted to us as a gift which we cannot
earn or ever deserve, but which is ours, nevertheless, by faith. But now
Paul speaks of the wrath of God. This is the first negative note that
has been sounded in this letter, yet it is a very necessary note because
it introduces this passage that tells us why we need the gospel of God.
We need it because men everywhere are suffering from the wrath of God.

What do you think of when you hear that phrase, "the wrath of God"? Most
people think of the wrath of God as something that is yet to come,
something that follows death -- the judgment of God. It is true that
hell and all that may follow are an expression of the wrath of God. But
that is not what it means at this point. Most people think of the wrath
of God as thunder and lightning and judgment, fire and brimstone and the
sudden destruction and catastrophes that come upon obviously guilty
sinners. And these are all manifestations of the wrath of God. But
actually, the wrath of God is not something to come, it is present now.
As the text says, it is "being revealed from heaven" -- that is, it is
going on right now. When something is revealed from heaven, it doesn’t
pour down from the skies upon us. No, it is everywhere present because
it is coming from invisible forces at work in our lives. Therefore, it
is absolutely inescapable; everyone is confronted with, and suffers
from, the wrath of God -- without exception. His wrath is everywhere
present, it is being manifested by the invisible resistance of God to
the evil of men. And that is what is meant here by "the wrath of God."

In 1962, I visited Mexico City with a group of businessmen from this

area and we were invited to hold witnessing sessions in homes with some
of the businessmen and wealthy leaders of Mexico. In order to properly
orient us to the culture of Mexico, we had a session in a downtown hotel
in Mexico City. Dr. Baenz-Camargo, a local Christian and a very wise
university professor, instructed us in the uniqueness of Mexican
culture. In a most beautiful and elegant way, he captured the heart of
Mexican life and set it before us. He said there were five traits of
Mexican society that he wanted us to understand. I won’t dwell on these
at any length, but for your interest, here they are:
1 He said that the first thing about Mexican people is that they have
a sense of the dramatic, they love eloquence and oratory.
2 With that comes a love of beauty and pageantry.
3 Thirdly, and stemming from these first two characteristics, is a
deeply embedded sense of inferiority -- the Mexicans feel they are
a small nation and an inferior people, desperately trying to catch
up with the rest of the world.
4 That sense of inferiority, of course, produces the fourth mark of
Mexican society, a resistance to authority. Rebelliousness and
revolution are close to the surface in Mexico.
5 All of these traits find their ultimate expression in a kind of
fatalism.

As Dr. Baenz-Camargo developed the first characteristic for us, this

awareness of the dramatic in life, he used the phrase "the tragic sense
of life." Mexicans are aware of the tragic aspects of life. I have not
forgotten that because I find that it applies not only to Mexican
people, but to people everywhere. We are continually confronted with
this tragic sense of life. It is the wrath of God Paul is talking about.

Why is it that tragedy is so close to the surface? Even in the moments

of joy and gladness, we experience it. We’ve all felt this bitter-sweet
character of life, when, in the midst of all the warmth and joy of the
home circle, there is an underlying sense of fear, of the probability of
the whole thing suddenly being turned into tragedy and sorrow. Why is
that? This is Christmas time, the season of the year when men are
traditionally more glad and joyful, more mellow, perhaps, than at any
other time of the year, and yet statisticians tell us that the suicide
rate mounts alarmingly at Christmas time. Anyone who has experienced it
knows that the loneliness which can be borne throughout the year can be
deeply etched in bitter symbols upon our hearts during Christmas. That
sorrow and grief seem to be more dark and gloomy and foreboding than at
any other time. Now why is that? It is because of the wrath of God.
God’s resistance against human evil is creating this sense of tragedy
and darkness that we live with. I think Moses, in the 90th Psalm,
expresses this perfectly. He says.

four-score;
{Psa 90:9-11 RSV}

The shortness of life, the brevity of it, the sorrow of it, the tragedy
of it -- this is all part of what Paul captures here under this phrase
"the wrath of God ... being revealed from heaven." No one escapes God’s
wrath; it is revealed, and we have to face it.

explains that it is "the godlessness and the wickedness of men who

suppress the truth by their wickedness" that cause God’s wrath. The
tragic aspect of life is caused by the attitudes men have and the
subsequent actions that follow. Notice the order of this -- godlessness
and then wickedness. The order is never reversed. It is the godless
attitude that produces the wicked actions, and that is why the wrath of
God is being revealed constantly from heaven against man. What is
godlessness? Godlessness isn’t necessarily atheism, the belief that God
doesn’t exist. Godlessness is acting as though he doesn’t exist,
disregarding God. That attitude is widespread in our society today; it
is what we call the "secular" attitude. It doesn’t necessarily deny that
there is a God, but it never takes any account of him; it doesn’t expect
him to be active. That is the attitude of godlessness which the apostle
speaks of here.

As a result of godlessness, there is unrighteousness or wickedness,

selfish and hurtful acts of men toward one another. Why do we act
selfishly? Why do we hurt each other? Because we disregard God. That is
Paul’s analysis. By means of these hurtful and selfish acts, the truth
is suppressed. Now that is the problem!

Here we are in a world in which truth from God is breaking out all
around us, but we are busy covering it up, hiding it, suppressing it,
keeping it from being prominent and dominant in our thinking. That’s the
picture. Against that attitude of hiding truth, suppressing the truth,
the wrath of God burns among the human family. The reason why life has
turned tragic in so many cases is because the world is deprived of the
truth that is necessary for life and liberty and freedom and godliness,
and it is hidden by men and suppressed by them.

suppressed:

... since what may be known about God is plain to them,

because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation
of the world God’s invisible qualities -- his eternal power
and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood
from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. {Rom
1:19-20 RSV}

The truth that men labor to suppress is the existence of a God of

eternal power and majesty; they suppress the greatness of God. This is
hides. There is, as you know, an evident conspiracy not to mention God.
Don’t talk about him; don’t act as though God has anything to do with
our common affairs in life; admit that there is a God if you want to,
but don’t expect him to interfere or to do anything with us. Don’t,
above all else, mention his name.

Isn’t that strange? Somebody has put it this way in a little poem
entitled, The Humanist .

He exists because he was created.

He’s here because he was placed here.
He’s well and comfortable because divine power keeps him so.
He dines at God’s table.
He’s sheltered by the roof that God gave him.
He’s clothed by God’s bounty.
He lives by breathing God’s air which keeps him strong and
vocal to go about persuading people that hether God is or not,
only man matters.

Man, in his puniness and weakness, struts about acting as though there
were no God. That is the truth that men suppress. But there are times
when men cannot evade the fact of God; and when those times come, when
they just have to speak of God, people resort to euphemism. They don’t
use the name of God, they call him something else. They may call him
"nature." "Nature" is responsible for the way we are. Well this, of
course, is because nature is what we are; nature is the sum total of all
the phenomena of the natural world. To say that the sum total of the
phenomena of the natural world accomplishes what is the phenomena of the
natural world is nonsense. Yet everywhere this is the way men talk. That
is simply a way to avoid mentioning that God is at work in human
affairs.

Sometimes men call it fate, or karma, or destiny.

And yet, I think it is one of the ironies of life that God, who sits
above the heavens, often laughs at the foolishness of men. He has
arranged it so that they can’t even rip off a round oath without
mentioning the name of God. You never hear people go about saying, "By
nature I’m going to do this." You never hear them say, "Fate damn you!"
But, in order to be emphatic, men must use the name of God. Though they
will not use him in other ways, God sees to it that they recognize his
presence when they swear. Isn’t that strange? But that’s what happens.
The great God who made all things is ignored and treated with this
conspiracy of silence, and yet we can’t even swear without him.

How has God made truth plain? The Scripture says that God has revealed
himself to man. Truth is not a vague, invisible, difficult thing to
comprehend; it is clearly seen. God himself has insured that. How? The
Scriptures say, "It is seen in that which is made," i.e., creation. From
the creation of the world it is visible; i.e., it has been always and
everywhere present. There is no one who is left out -- all can read this
revelation of God if they want to do so.

One night my daughter, Laurie, and I were walking at Forest Home in the
mountains of Southern California. It was one of those beautiful nights
when the stars were out in all their glory -- we were above the smog --
and we walked through the darkness and looked up into the skies and saw
the stars and felt the sense of awe that comes upon the human spirit on
occasions like that. I began to point out the Milky Way and explain to
her that it was part of the galaxy that we belong to. I told her there
were millions of galaxies like that whirling on in their determined
courses in their appointed ways, never late, always on time, strange and
almost unexplorable by man. I pointed out the Big Dipper, the North
Star, Pleiades -- and we talked about the universe. And then, in a
joking way, I said to her, "But remember, dear, all this happened just
by chance; all these things came together by chance." And she began to
laugh! How ridiculous that in all this vast, impressive, imposing
display of beauty and light and order anybody should ever say it all
happened by chance! She sensed the nonsense of that claim. How can we
say that only by intelligence and wisdom and skill can a watch be built,
but hearts beat and babies grow and roses smell simply by chance. Isn’t
that ridiculous? You only have to put it that way to see how foolish,
how absurd, a statement like that can be.

This argument from design and order has never been answered. Those who
disregard God cannot explain it because truth about God is breaking out
everywhere around us. Elizabeth Barret Browning wrote,

blackberries.

Thus, says the Scripture, men are without excuse. No one who really
wants to find God need miss him. One of the great verses that confronts
the problem of what happens to those who never hear the gospel is
Hebrews 11:6. It says: "He that comes to God must believe that he is and
that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him." Just two
things are necessary:

First, he must believe that God is there. Everything in his life is

telling him that. Everything about himself is yelling at him, shrieking
at him, that God has planned all these things. The easiest thing in the
universe to believe is that God is there. You must work hard at
convincing yourself that he is not there, and only the very intelligent
are able to do it. The rest of us, who simply see facts and believe
them, will accept the fact that God is there.

Those who never hear the gospel first must believe God is. Then they
must diligently seek him. If men don’t find God, it is because they
don’t seek him. The Scriptures promise us that if we seek after him, he
will give further light on himself, and that light will eventually lead,
as other Scriptures tell us, to the knowledge of Jesus Christ; for
without the Son, no man can come to the Father. There is no other "name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" {Acts 4:12b
KJV}, but the name of Jesus. It starts with where you are and the
revelation that is in nature and in yourself about the majesty and the
power and the greatness of God.

the truth about God.

For although they knew God they neither glorified him as God
nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and
their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they clamed to be
 wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the
immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds
and animals and reptiles. {Rom 1:21-23 NIV}

Paul tells us in detail how men suppress the truth about God. There are
three steps traced for us here and the effects they have upon the race:

First, they neither glorify God nor give thanks to him. In other words,
they ignore him. There is this obvious conspiracy of silence. That is
why we are not allowed to sing carols in our public schools at Christmas
time; that is why there is great resistance against having the Bible
read on almost any public occasion today. No one wants to admit that
there is a God They do not glorify him as God, neither do they give him
thanks.

Last year Senator Mark Hatfield led the Senate in passing a resolution
calling this nation to a day of prayer and repentance, and many of us
sought to fulfill this by having public meetings on that day. At
Foothill College, a number of our young people tried to hold a public
meeting for this purpose. Two of our young men went there dressed like
the prophets of Israel in burlap sack cloth and with ashes on their
foreheads. They held up a sign that said. "Repent and give thanks." They
told me that people would pass by and glower at them, and two people
came over and spit at them. One man even left his appointed path and
came over and kicked them. That is testimony to this statement in
Romans. Men resist acknowledging the presence of God.

The effects of this are immediate. Paul says two things are immediately
created in society when this attitude prevails. First, the peoples’
thinking becomes futile; second, their hearts become darkened. Futile
thinking means that clever ideas and procedures and programs will fall
apart and come to nothing. In my own lifetime I have lived through the
New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Society, Peace with Honor, and the
Great Recovery. All of them have failed dismally! They all started with
brilliant promises, glowing words of hope and expectation; and every one
of them came to the same dismal end.

When hearts are darkened, human needs which ought to evoke emotions of
pity and response are passed by. People lose compassion and awareness of
the struggles and needs of others. Some of us have been horrified at the
accounts in the paper of people in desperate need, calling out for help,
while people wait right by and ignore them because they don’t want to
get involved. That is the sign of a darkened heart, and it is the result
of ignoring God. The first device men employ to suppress the truth is to
ignore God.

The second device they use is to claim to be wise. In other words, they
imitate God. They claim to know and be able to know everything and to
run anything. The result of that is put in one brief, blunt, pungent
word: They become fools!

Remember the old story of the sorcerer’s apprentice who, picking up the
magician’s wand, loosens powers that he doesn’t know how to handle?
Finally he cowers in terror at the tremendous forces that he has
unleashed. Just read the intellectual magazines of our day and see how
clever the secular writers are. They are masters at taking some simple
discovery and making it sound impressive and profound, as though it were
on a parallel with the creation of the universe as recorded by Moses.
They claim to be wise, but they become fools.

The third device men employ to suppress the truth is that they exchange
the glory of the immortal God for images made like mortal man. They
exchange the glory of the undying God for images made like dying men,
and birds, and animals, and reptiles. Notice the descending order. When
idolatry begins, it begins first with men making images of men. The
world is filled with statues, most of them reflecting the images of the
ancient Greek and Roman world. These, of course, are merely symbols of
ideas that men worship, and we still have such images today. But these
images invalidate God; they debase him by substituting something for God
and making God seem to be less than what he is. That is what idolatry
always does. It is a very destructive force in human affairs. Idolatry
begins first with men, then birds (which are at least heavenly), then
animals, and finally it ends up with reptiles. Man is at one end and a
snake at the other.

Do you think people don’t worship images and bow down before idols now?
What are movie stars and football heroes? They are dying men and women
who are idolized and worshipped in our day. And I, personally, don’t
believe that it is any accident that we tend to name our cars after
animals. We once named them after men: Lincoln, Ford, Chrysler and
Dodge. But now we are naming them after animals: Impala, Cougar,
Mustang, Pinto, Jaguar, Rabbit, Panther, and there’s even a Greyhound
bus! It is God’s ironic way of forcing men to name what is going on
inside. We already have a car called the Cobra. And perhaps we will soon
be naming our cars for the python, vipers, and maybe, for the slower
models, the crocodile.

These are our gods, aren’t they? We worship rockets, planes, guns,
bombs, tanks. We worship power, military power, or forces like sex, and
money, ambition, and greed; or concepts like comfort, beauty, youth,
adventure, life. We’ve exchanged the glory of the undying God in all his
majesty and greatness for images. What are movies but images? What is
television -- images of mortal men, birds, animals, and reptiles.

The effect of idolatry upon a society is profound and terrible to

contemplate, and that is what we are going to see next week. Paul is
going to analyze our society for us as he analyzed the society of the
first century, and we will find it is exactly the same. We are right
where they were. We will see what happens in a society when men
everywhere begin to worship men and women, birds and animals, reptiles,
and the ideas that these represent.

The amazing thing to me is that this description of the wrath of God is

wholly and fully met by the righteousness of God. God’s righteousness
wipes out his wrath.

Wouldn’t you think, therefore, that men everywhere would be eager to

discover this marvelous gift of the righteousness of God? That is what
heals our hurts and corrects our errors and gives a sense of peace and
joy and forgiveness to the heart. The wrath of God creates the hurts of
life; all the pain and heartache and darkness, the death, the
depression, the despair all come from the wrath of God. They are the
products of ignoring God, trying to imitate God, and invalidating God in
our lives.

Wouldn’t you think that men everywhere would long to hear this good
news? Yet the wonder of our times and the revelation of the twisted,
demoralized, distorted world in which we live is that we cling to our
hurts and refuse the healing of God.
Prayer

Oh mighty God, our Father, we are amazed as we think about

what is happening in this world. In our own hearts we see it
through these apostolic eyes and we know indeed that this is
the truth. It is confirmed and supported by every fact we can
observe in life around us and in our own affairs. Help us,
therefore, Lord, to heed to the righteousness of God, the gift
of God which is Jesus Christ, our Lord. May there not be one
among us that does not open his or her heart to the healing
thrust of the Son of righteousness who rises with healing in
his wings that he might forgive and heal the hurts of
humanity. We pray in his name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The Tragic Sense of Life

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 1:18-23
Message No: 2
Catalog No: 3502
Date: December 14, 1975

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE DEEPENING DARKNESS

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

It may seem strange to preach a Christmas message from the latter part
of the first chapter of Romans, but I think this section is exceedingly
appropriate. Romans is probably the most contemporary, the most
continuously up-to-date human document that ever has been written. In
this chapter, Paul has been analyzing the civilization of the first
century Roman Empire. He describes the moral life of great cities like
Ephesus and Corinth and Rome. But the letter describes exactly what
happened last night in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, and New
York. The moral climate of today is the same as the moral climate of the
first century Paul wrote about. That gives rise to the question, "Just
how much progress have we made in twenty centuries of human existence?"

The apostle says there were two characteristics of the civilization he

lived in, and those characteristics describe our society today too. The
first characteristic is godlessness; the second is wickedness.
Godlessness is a disrespect of God, and this results in wickedness --
injury and hurt done to other human beings. The fundamental thesis upon
which this epistle to the Romans is built is that in every generation
there is godlessness, which results in wickedness.

The apostle has traced for us how this godlessness came about. He begins
with the self-disclosure of God in nature; God has spoken to this world
and has shown himself in the natural scene. Nature includes mankind
itself, for we are part of nature too. God has made himself visible in
every age and place. The truth about God pours out toward us from every
direction, if only we have eyes to see. This truth, the apostle says,
has been met with an unspoken agreement among men to suppress it. There
is a conspiracy of silence everywhere to ignore the truth that is
everywhere present.

In the first part of this chapter, Paul explains that mankind follows a
three-fold process in suppressing the truth:

First, he ignores God. He does not glorify him or give thanks to him.
This is characteristic of our day in the way the media ignores God. We
act as though he does not exist and has nothing to do with our world.

The second step in the process of suppressing truth is that men imitate
God. They claim to be wise; they claim that they are able to handle all
the problems of life and that they understand all that has happened in
human affairs.

Some of you have followed the rather remarkable presentation by Jacob

Bronowski and the Public Broadcasting System, called The Ascent of Man.
Here is a very clear example of man’s attempt to trace all that has
happened to mankind without a single reference to God.

The third process by which man suppresses truth is to choose substitute

gods and to make God appear to be much less than he really is.

By these means, men suppress the truth of God and have become godless.

of this godlessness in human society -- the wickedness which inevitably

follows. When men lose God, they always lose themselves. They do not
understand what is happening in human affairs and are not able to
diagnose the sicknesses and problems that break out in society because
says hell is made up of people who live at an infinite distance from
each other. That is the result of the loss of God in our life.

This wickedness at work among human beings also follows a three-step

process which is identified for us in this passage by the
thrice-repeated phrase, "God gave them over." Paul repeats this phrase
on in our culture. Let’s look at the first reference to this phrase in
 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their
hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies
with one another. {Rom 1:24 NIV}

The first mark of wickedness in a godless society is widespread sexual

immorality -- the degrading, or the dishonoring, of the body. Note that
the sentence begins with the word "therefore." This immorality is a
result of the idolatry into which men fall. Idolatry is common in our
day. We do not worship idols and images so much anymore, but concepts
and ideas are idolized and deified as much as any of the idols of the
ancient world. The result of idolatry is widespread sexual immorality.
Many people think this account describes all the evil things men do and
then says that God, in effect, gives up on the people who do them. They
think God washes his hands of them because they are so filthy and dirty.
That certainly is not what this account says. But because men run after
other gods and refuse the testimony of their own hearts and the world of
nature around them, because they run after other gods and do not glorify
or thank the true God, God removes his restraints from society so that
what is done in secret is allowed to break out into openness and
acceptability. That is the mark of the wrath of God at work. The first
sign of wickedness in a civilization is that sexual immorality, which is
always present in human life, becomes widely accepted.

God allows us to experience the full effects of our attempts to satisfy

our hungers and our cravings and our desires without him. He allows us
to discover that we don’t have the answer. God removes the societal
restraints to let these things come to the surface. By that means, he
forces us to experience the full effect of what we do. God forces us to
harvest the crop we insist on sowing. We like to sow our wild oats, but,
when they begin to sprout and the results begin to appear, we want to
abandon the field and run to another one, and just keep sowing our wild
oats. But God says you cannot do that. You are going to have to live
with the results. This is what Paul, earlier in the passage, calls "the
wrath of God" at work among us.

You may ask, "Why is it that sex always seems to be singled out as the
sign of God’s judgment? Why is sexual immorality the first sign of a
disintegrating civilization?"

There is a good reason. Many Christians have wrongly concluded that

sexual sins are the worst kinds of sin. But that is not true. Sexual
this fact very accurately. In a paragraph from his book, Mere
Christianity , he says,

If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the

supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are
bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst
pleasures are purely spiritual. The pleasure of putting other
people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling
sport, and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For
there are two things inside me competing with the human self
which I must try to become: they are the animal self, and the
diabolical self; and the diabolical self is the worst of the
two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig, who goes
regularly to church, may be far nearer to hell than a
prostitute. But of course, it’s better to be neither.
Those words are true, and this passage in Romans bears it out. It begins
with sexual impurity and proceeds to sexual perversity. But the final
result, the ultimate climax of the chapter, is not sexual sins, it is
the sins of the spirit. Widespread animosity, hatred of the heart --
these are the worst sins.

There is good reason, however, why God allows heterosexual practices to

become publicly detectable. He allows it to show us what is going on in
our spiritual lives. It highlights the fact that sex is linked with
worship. Any serious reading of the Scriptures will make this crystal
clear. Sex is man’s longing after worship. Sex, you see, is a desire to
possess another body and to be possessed by another. It is a deep-seated
craving inherent in every human being.

We have all heard the statement, "Girls give sex in order to get love;
boys give love in order to get sex." This is true, superficially. But
what both are really after is not sex at all; they are after worship.
They really want to worship and to be worshipped. They really want a
sense of total fulfillment, a oneness, an identity. That is what they
think they are getting when they indulge in illicit sex.

The Scriptures tell us that only God can give that fulfillment. Only God
can satisfy that deep sense of longing for complete identity and unity
with another person. That is what we call worship. When we worship, we
are longing to be possessed of God, and to possess him fully. That is
why the highest description of the relationship possible to a believer
you," {cf, John 14:20}. When men think that they are going to find that
fulfillment in sex, God, in effect, says to them, "Look, it won’t work.
But you won’t believe that until you try it out." So he removes the
restraints and allows immoral sexual practices to become widely
accepted, understanding that men indulging in these things will finally
find themselves just as dissatisfied, empty and hopeless as they were
when they started. Thus they will learn that God is trying to teach them
that sex is not the way by which men find fulfillment. This is true even
in marriage. Men only find their fulfillment in a relationship to God.

This brings us to the second mark of a godless and wicked society, found

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and
served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever
praised, Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even

their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In
the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with
women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men
committed indecent acts with other men, and received in
themselves the due penalty for their perversion. {Rom 1:25-27
NIV}

Homosexuality is the second mark of a godless and wicked society. In the

first step of this process, bodies were dishonored. In this second step,
Paul speaks of shameful lusts arising from inside, desires that are part
of the soul of man. The apostle describes the growth of widespread
psychological confusion. Notice the irony of this. This is God’s silent
way of forcing men to demonstrate their sin so they can see what is
going on in their lives. Paul says because they have exchanged truth for
a lie and exchanged the Creator for created things, God allows them to
exchange natural functions for unnatural functions -- to use a man for a
woman, and a woman as a man. The restraints are removed, so
homosexuality becomes widely accepted in society. In this first-century
world in which Paul lived and wrote, homosexuality was a commonplace
thing. All the great philosophers extolled it and practiced it, for the
most part. Men like Socrates, and other great names of Greece, were
homosexuals. Out of the first fifteen Roman emperors, fourteen of them
were homosexuals, and some gave themselves blatantly and openly to this
vice. This was common in the Roman world, as it is becoming common in
our own day. Once again, the restraints are being removed, and these
things are thrusting themselves into public view.

The truly awful thing about the rise of homosexuality today is that
homosexuals are allowed to believe the lie that this is a biological
condition which they cannot help, but to which they should adjust. Even
churches are falling into this trap and consenting to this deceit. The
papers carried a report this week that the Santa Clara County Council of
Churches accepted into membership the Homosexual Church of San Jose. The
arguments reported in the local papers were unbelievable. Pastors stood
up and said they could not make a judgment as to whether homosexuality
was good or evil. Yet I was encouraged this week by a paper which was
sent to me by a Christian who is an ex-homosexual. The paper was written
by a group of Christians who were homosexuals, but who have been
delivered by the grace and the gospel of the Lord Jesus, by the power of
Christ in their lives. In order to help those still enmeshed in this
vice, they are publishing a paper that makes a forthright plea to those
trapped in homosexuality not to believe the lie so widely circulated
today, that this is a biological condition and they cannot help
themselves. This lie is what holds them in a fatal grip. As long as
homosexuals believe that, there is no help for them. But if they
understand that homosexuality is a sin, like other sins, that it can be
forgiven and they can be delivered and freed from this sin by the power
and grace of Jesus Christ, then there is tremendous hope in the midst of
their darkness.

Paul speaks of a "due penalty" for this perversion. Anyone who has spent
any time with those involved in this unfortunate condition know what
this penalty is. It is a loss of their sense of identity, an uncertainty
as to their role and place in life. It creates an almost unbearable
tension as to who he is, and what he is, and what he or she is here for.
We see this manifested in considerable degree in the Women’s Liberation
Movement, as well as in dress styles and the emphasis on unisex in
education. This sexual confusion that abounds on every side is an
attempt to mar and to defeat God’s precise delineation when he made them
male and female.

The third and final mark of a godless and wicked culture is given in

Furthermore, since they did not think It worthwhile to retain

the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to
do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with
every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are
 gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and
boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey
parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
{Rom 1:28-31 NIV}

This is a terrible list of sins, but it is the mark of a civilization

that is nearing collapse -- this growing spirit of contemptuous and
arrogant disregard for other human beings. In one word, this describes a
desire to exploit other people. Godlessness eventually brings us to the
place where we will see these things in society.

"Depraved mind," used here, literally means an unacceptable mind, a mind

that cannot be lived with, that simply will not fit into any kind of
civilization or culture or society. A depraved mind destroys, rends, and
fragments everything it touches. It is an unacceptable mind, and its
public hostility is marked by increasing cruelty and violence. I think
the most vivid demonstration and documentation of this in our day is
probably given in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book, The Gulag Archipelago ,
where you find an entire culture characterized by this terrible,
senseless cruelty. But we in the Western world are not escaping either.
Every day our newspapers report the skyrocketing rise in senseless
vandalism and vicious and unprovoked attack upon innocent and often
helpless people. The rise in child abuse is a symptom of this in our
society.

of callous disregard:

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do

such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these
very things, but also approve those who practice them. {Rom
1:32 NIV}

Knowing that harm is coming from their wickedness, nevertheless they

attempt to spread it more fully. They invade the field of education;
they dominate the media; they seek legal status for their wickedness and
defy all attempts at control. As you can well recognize, this is what is
going on today.

Thus the Apostle Paul traces the deepening darkness of his own day. And
yet it is {true of} ours as well. Though this is an honest record, it is
also clear that God does not turn his back on man. This account is not a
record of what God despises, and thus turns aside with contempt. Man is
never treated here as an object of contempt, or as a worm. Rather, God’s
concern underscores this whole passage. He is at work to try to bring
men to their senses, to wake up a civilization as to what is going on in
its midst, and to show it how desperately it is in need of deliverance
-- which can only come as a gift of righteousness from God’s hands.

You may ask, "Why does God give a civilization over to this kind of
thing?"

He does it because it is only when darkness prevails, and despair and

violence are widespread, that men are ready to welcome the light.
Remember Isaiah’s prediction? "They that dwell in darkness, upon them
has the light shined. They that live in the land of deep darkness, unto
them a great light has shined," {cf, Isa 9:2}. In the first century, the
world was sunk in the darkness of despair. Idolatry had penetrated the
whole world; men had turned from the true God, whom they could have
known. Hopelessness and rank despair lay like a heavy blanket upon the
earth.

In that hour, in the darkness of the night, over the skies of Bethlehem,
the angels broke through and a great light shone about. A multitude of
heavenly hosts were heard praising God and saying to a group of lonely
shepherds, "Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord," {cf, Luke 2:10-11 KJV}. The
hope of the world has always been that the Savior would be born again in
a human heart, as he once was born in a stable in Bethlehem. From that
hope all light streams. The angels’ message is the coming of the Lord
Jesus, the availability of the gift of righteousness from God. It is
against the growing darkness of our own time that the light of this
Christmas story goes out again this year.

Everywhere we need to make this message as clear as we possibly can --

by our testimony, by the way we live, by the joy and peace of our heart.
God has found a way to break through human weakness, arrogance, despair,
and sinfulness to give us peace, joy, and gladness once again. Just as
Jesus was born in Bethlehem so long ago, so he can be born in your heart
now. This is the good news of the gospel. In this decaying world in
which we live we can see again the glory of this truth as it delivers
people from their sins. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins," {Matt 1:21 KJV}.
Prayer

Our heavenly Father, we see how accurately these words have

described our own times, our own civilization, our own
country. As we see the marks of godlessness on every side, in
agreement with the description in Romans, we know three
things. First, we know you have not forsaken this world.
Second, we know that the message of truth and light is still
as available as ever. And third, we know that love is behind
it all. Your love reaches out to broken, fragmented, hurting
man, and longs to set us free from the results of our own sin.
Father, we thank you for this. We pray that many today may
find this new life in Jesus Christ our Lord. In his name we
ask it, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The Deepening Darkness

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 1:24-32
Message No: 3
Catalog No: 3503
Date: December 21, 1975

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

SINFUL MORALITY

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2 of Romans is part of Paul’s penetrating analysis of the

first-century civilization, beginning with its rejection of the God who
had revealed himself in nature and in man’s conscience. Rejecting the
true God, men turned to false gods and widespread destruction of the
home occurred because of sexual immorality and perversion. A spirit of
violence and cruelty was rising and a total disregard of human rights
was spreading throughout the first-century world. And yet, to our
astonishment, we see how accurately the apostle has analyzed the
civilization of twentieth century civilization as well. All that is
recorded in the first chapter of Romans took place last night in San
Francisco and Los Angeles, up and down the West coast, and throughout
this nation, and the world in which we live.

Yet there are many people who would say they do not belong in this
picture. I am sure there were thousands in Paul’s day, and I know there
"That isn’t talking about us. We’re not like that. It may describe them,
but it does not describe us."

Whenever you read this first chapter of Romans you find that division
immediately evident -- them and us. They are the wicked, the obviously
gross, wicked people; we are not. Many people would say, "We’re
law-abiding, home-loving, clean-living, decent people." Many of these
people have been church members most of their lives. Others perhaps do
not go to church at all, but nevertheless pride themselves on their
moral standards, their ethical values, and their clean, law-abiding
lives. They say the world may be in its present condition because of the
wickedness of gangsters, radicals, revolutionaries, prostitutes, pimps,
and perverts of our day; but they themselves are the salt of the earth.
It is on these people that the apostle turns his spotlight in

We will see his argument developed in three separate steps. The first is

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on

someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you
are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the
 same things. {Rom 2:1 NIV}

Here Paul talks about those who pass judgment on others. If there are
any here this morning who do not belong in that category, we will excuse
you. You are free to go, because I want to talk to those who have, at
one time or another, passed judgment on someone else. The apostle makes

First, he says that these people know the difference between right and
wrong; otherwise they would not presume to be judging. They have a clear
understanding of a standard. They know that one thing is wrong and
another thing is right. They are clearly aware, therefore, that there
are things that are wrong, and which merit the judgment and wrath of God
primarily God’s removal of the restraints upon human wickedness,
allowing evil to become widespread and publicly evident. That is the
aware that there are things that bring forth the wrath of God, things
that cause society to degenerate.

Paul’s second point about these people who have a clear view of what is
wrong in society is devastating. He says they are guilty because they
are doing the same things themselves. The judges are as guilty as the
ones they have in the dock.

As a practiced, self-righteous hypocrite, I always have a feeling of

surprise at that statement. I feel that whenever moral people, those who
pride themselves on a degree of righteousness and a standard of ethics,
read a statement like this, they are taken by surprise. "What do you
mean? How could this be?"

This reminds me of our Lord’s account of his return, when all the
nations are to be judged before him {cf, Matt 25:31-46}. He will
separate them into two bands, the sheep and the goats. The test of
judgment is made on the basis of how people treat others. He will say to
the sheep, "When I was thirsty, you gave me to drink, when I was hungry
you fed me, when I was naked you clothed me, when I was in prison you
visited me." To the goats he will say, "When I was thirsty you did not
give me to drink, when I was hungry you did not feed me, when I was
naked you did not clothe me, and when I was sick or in prison you did
not visit me." Both groups are taken by surprise and say, "When did this
happen? When did we see you thirsty or hungry or naked? We don’t
remember that!" This feeling of surprise is highly indicative of how
little we understand ourselves and why we need a passage such as this.
We are all guilty.

I am going to use myself as an example, simply because I feel I am such

an excellent example of what the rest of you are like. As I have been
thinking this through, I see three ways by which I try to elude the fact
that I am guilty of the things that I accuse others of doing:

First, I am congenitally blind toward many of my own faults. I just am

not aware of them. I do not see that I am doing the same things that
others are doing, and yet other people can see that I am. I don’t see
it, and neither do you see it in yourself. We all have these blind
spots. One of the greatest lies of our age is the idea that we can know
ourselves. We often argue, "Don’t you think I know myself?" The answer
is, "No, you do not know yourself. You are blind to much of your life."
There can be areas that are very hurtful and sinful that you are not
aware of.
I stayed with a pastor and his delightful family not long ago. They had
three children, two boys and a girl. The oldest boy was about sixteen,
and, like all sixteen-year-olds, he was very concerned about the
undisciplined life of his twelve-year-old brother. One day, his mother
said, he came in all upset at something his brother had done. He said,
"Who does he think he is? Why, he acts as though he’s as good as the
rest of us!" What a typical example of the attitude we all have, only he
was honest enough to say it.

I caught myself the other day saying to someone, " Relax! Take it easy!
" It was only afterward that I heard my own voice and realized that I
was not relaxed, and I was not taking it easy myself.

Have you ever lectured your children on the sin of procrastination? Then
did you barely get your income tax report in on time, or not get it in
at all?

How blind we are! We are congenitally blind toward many of our own
faults. We just do not see them. In that way we can indeed be guilty, as
the verse says, of doing the very things we accuse others of doing.

A second way we try to elude the fact that we are guilty of the very
things we accuse others of doing is by conveniently forgetting what we
have done that is wrong. We may have been aware of our sin at the time,
but somehow we just assume that God is going to forget it. We do not
have to acknowledge it in any way -- he will just forget it. As the sin
fades from our memory, we think it fades from his, as well.

For example, let’s consider our thought life. Much of this passage must
be understood in the light of our Lord’s revelation in the Sermon on the
Mount. Jesus says that God, who looks at the heart, sees what is going
on in the inner attitude and judges on that basis; he doesn’t judge as
men judge, according to what is observable from the outward life. In the
Sermon on the Mount we learn that if we hold a feeling of animosity and
hatred against someone, if we are bitter and resentful and filled with
malice toward an individual, then we are guilty of murder, just as
though we had taken a knife and plunged it into that person’s breast, or
shot them with a gun. If we find ourselves lustfully longing to possess
the body of another, if we play with this idea over and over in our
mind, and treat ourselves to a fantasy of sex, we have committed
fornication or adultery. If we find ourselves filled with pride, yet we
put on the appearance of being humble and considerate of others, we are
guilty of the worst of sins. Pride of heart destroys humanity.

We think these things will go unnoticed, but God sees them in our heart.
He sees all the actions that we conveniently have forgotten. He sees it
when we cut people down, or speak with spite and sharpness, and
deliberately try to hurt them. He sees it when we are unfair in our
business tactics, when we are arrogant toward someone we think is on a
lower social level than ourselves. He sees it when we are stubborn and
uncooperative in trying to work out a tense situation. All these things
God takes note of. We, who condemn these things in others, find
ourselves guilty of the same things. Isn’t it remarkable that when
others mistreat us we always think it is most serious and requires
immediate correction. But when we mistreat others, we say to them.
"You’re making so much out of a little thing! Why it’s so trivial and
insignificant."

The third way we try to elude the fact that we are guilty of the very
things we accuse others of doing is by cleverly renaming things. Other
people lie and cheat; we simply stretch the truth a little. Others
betray; we simply are protecting our rights. Others steal; we borrow.
Others have prejudices; we have convictions. Others murder and kill; we
exploit and ruin. Others rape; we pollute. We cry, "Those people ought
to be stoned!" Jesus says, "He that is without sin among you, let him
cast the first stone," {cf, John 8:7}. Yes, we are all guilty of the
same things we accuse others of doing.

asks two questions; here is the first:

Now we know that God’s judgment against those that do such

things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass
judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you
will escape God’s judgment? {Rom 2:2-3 NIV}

What a ridiculous ground of hope! How tenuous to hope that God, who sees
all men openly and intimately, who sees not only what is on the outside
but also what is on the inside, will pronounce judgment on these other
people, but not on you.

People will say, "How can a just and loving God permit the injustice and
vileness that takes place in this world? How can he allow a tyrant like
Hitler or Stalin to arise and murder millions of innocent people? How
can he allow these godless regimes to come into power and crush people,
usurp their rights, put thousands in prison, and spread destruction and
sorrow across the land? Why does he allow these things to go on year
after year? Why doesn’t God judge these men?"

The question we ought to ask is, "Why didn’t he judge me yesterday, when
I said that sharp, caustic word that plunged like an arrow into a loved
one’s heart and hurt him badly? Why didn’t he judge me? Why didn’t he
shrivel my hand when I took a pencil and cheated on my income tax? Why
didn’t he strike me dumb when I was gossiping on the phone this morning,
sharing a tidbit that made someone look bad in someone else’s eyes? Why
didn’t God judge that?" The God of truth and justice sees the one as
well as the other. Paul asks, "Do you think that you will escape the
judgment of God?"

Then Paul asked the second question, the other horn of the dilemma:

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness,

tolerance and patience, even realizing that God’s kindness
should lead you to repentance? {Rom 2:4 NIV}

Paul’s question is, "Why are you acting the way you are?"

Why do you judge others so critically and so constantly, yet never seem
to judge yourself? Surely it can’t be that you think you are going to
escape! If you know that God judges according to truth, you must be
included in that judgment as well. If it is not that you think you’ll
escape his judgment, then it must be that you are treating with disdain
the opportunities God gives you to repent. Why are you allowed to live?
Why are you permitted to experience life, to find a new year lying ahead
of you, with all its chances to correct these wrong attitudes and
conditions? God’s goodness, tolerance, and patience are exhibited in his
giving you a chance to change, a chance to acknowledge your sins and to
be forgiven.

We have to see all our life in this respect. A faithful God, judging the
inner part of life, does give us these opportunities. He knows we are
blind. He knows that we often struggle at recognizing what is wrong in
our life, and so he gives us these opportunities to repent and change.
These moments of truth are very important.

and describes what lies ahead for those who refuse to face the actual
condition of their lives:

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart,

you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s
wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will
give to each person according to what he has done." To those
who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and
immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are
self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there
will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress
for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, and
then the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyoe who
does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God
does not show favoritism. {Rom 2:5-11 NIV}

I am amazed to see in my own heart how many times I expect God to show
favoritism. Even as a Christian, I expect him to overlook areas of my
life without any acknowledgment on my part that they are there. I expect
him to forget them without revealing to me what their true nature is.
Yet the Scriptures tell us that God is constantly bringing to our
attention times when we see ourselves clearly. What valuable times they
are!

Paul says that when we refuse to judge these areas we are storing up
wrath for ourselves. The word is "treasures." We are laying up
treasures, but the treasure is wrath. This is the same word that Jesus
employed when he said, "Lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven,"
{Matt 6:20 KJV}. We are constantly making deposits in a bank account
which we must collect one of these days. In his wrath, God allows us to
deteriorate as human beings. We become less than what we want to be. I
book, Mere Christianity, he says,

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain

in which God says, "If you keep a lot of rules, I’ll reward
you; and if you don’t, I’ll do the other thing." I do not
think that’s the best way of looking at it. I would much
rather say that every time you make a choice, you are turning
the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something
a little different than what it was before. And, taking your
life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your
life long you are slowly turning this central thing either
 into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either
into a creature that is in harmony with God and with other
creatures and with itself, or else into one that is in a state
of war and hatred with God and with its fellow creatures and
with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heavenly, i.e.,
it is joy and peace and knowledge and power; to be the other
means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal
loneliness. Each of us, at each moment, is progressing to the
one state or the other.

In very eloquent terms, that is saying the same thing Paul brings out
here. God is a righteous God. He judges men and he assesses wrath
against those who do wrong. No matter what the outward life may be like,
he sees the inward heart and judges on that basis. There is a righteous
judgment awaiting. It comes, in part, all through life, because we
experience the wrath of God even now. But a day is coming when it all
will be manifested, one way or the other.

The question Paul brings out here is this: What do you really want out
of life? What are you seeking?

If you are "by persistence in doing good seeking glory and honor and
immortality," i.e., if you want God’s life, you want to be his kind of a
person, you want to honor him and be of value to him -- if that is what
you really want above everything else, then you will find it. God will
give you eternal life.

In the context of the whole Scripture, this means you will find your way
to Jesus Christ, for he is life eternal. You will find him as your
Redeemer and Lord and Savior. You will grow increasingly like him, as
you judge these evil areas of life, and honestly confess them, not
assuming that God will pass over them. But what do you really want?

If what you really want is not God, truth, life, glory, and immortality
-- if you really want pleasure and fame and wealth and power and
prominence, if you want to be the center of things and have everybody
thinking of you and looking at you and serving you -- then, according to
this passage, "there will be trouble and stress for every human being
who does evil, first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile." God plays
no favorites. Church member or pagan, civilized or savage, white, brown,
red, black or yellow, it makes no difference before God.

Now if all this sounds very harsh, if it sounds unloving, it is because

you have not read the passage in its context. For this is not
inconsistent with the picture of a loving God, who loves humanity and
wants to restore it. It is a picture of a loving God who loves us so
much that he tells us the truth, and that is true love. He will not
allow us to deceive ourselves, to be tricked and trapped by falling into
self-deceit. He tells us the truth. There is no way out, except one, and
that is what he wants us to see. God’s love is helping us to see that
there is only one way to deal with sin -- admit it is there, and
recognize that God has already dealt with it in Christ. On that basis,
God offers us full and free forgiveness. There is no other way.

Any person who thinks he will escape by taking another route, or

listening to some of the other voices that try to trap us into ways of
rationalizing these feelings, and accepting them on other terms rather
than dealing with them as ugly sins before God, will discover ultimately
that he has stored up a treasure house of wrath. That is why God tells
us the truth now. God, in great love and at tremendous cost, has
provided a way out. It is that we surrender self. We give up
self-seeking and living for ourselves, and begin to live for the God who
made us. By the power of the Lord who forgives us and restores us and
says the principle of giving up self runs all through life, from top to
bottom:

Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your
life, and you will save it. Submit to the death of your
ambitions and your favorite wishes every day, and the death of
your whole body in the end, submit with every fiber of your
being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing.
Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really
yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised
from the dead. Look out for yourself and you will find, in the
long run, only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and
decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with
Him, everything else thrown in.

This is the gospel. This is what this tremendous passage is aiming at,
that we might realize there is no hope, none whatsoever, except in a
day-by-day yielding to the plan and the program of God, as we find it in
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Perhaps there are some here this morning who have seen themselves in a
new light. Perhaps you have seen that you need to stop justifying and
excusing yourself, and are in need of forgiveness from God just as much
as though you had been a red-handed murderer. We all are.

Perhaps there are many Christians here who have realized that when we
protect and allow areas of our life to be given over to this kind of
judgmental condemning and criticizing of other people, we are blocking
the flow of the life of God to our lives, keeping back the joy and peace
that he would have us enjoy. These areas need to be judged in the
Christian life as well as in the unredeemed life.

Above all else, this process is designed to make us take seriously God’s
way of escape. There is a way of escape: Admit your sins freely, and
receive the forgiveness of God -- on the basis of the work of Jesus
Christ in his death on the cross and his resurrection life available to
us.
Prayer

Our heavenly Father, we thank you that you do tell us the

truth. You are the God of truth. You do not deceive us, you do
not delude us; you tell us the blunt, stark, naked truth, that
we might know exactly what we are, and what we can do about
it. Save us, Lord, from the folly of trying any other method.
Save us from the folly of trying to protect and rationalize
and justify these areas of evil in our lives. Grant to us,
Lord, the grace to confess and be forgiven. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Sinful Morality

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 2:1-11
Message No: 4
Catalog No: 3504
Date: January 4, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

ACCORDING TO LIGHT

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

and preach the gospel, for, above all else, it is exactly what Rome
needs to hear. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power
of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew,
then for the Gentile," {Rom 1:16 NIV}. Paul took pride in the gospel,
and rightfully so. The gospel is what men and women everywhere
desperately need. In the gospel, God has found a way to condemn our sin
and to destroy it without destroying us. No man can do that. When we
want to correct evildoers, we have to punish them by imprisoning them.
Sometimes, to protect society, we have to take their lives.

But God does not do that. Jesus, the center and heart of the gospel,
changes people. He has found a way to change our most fundamental urges
from self-centeredness and selfishness, to loving concern for others, so
that the very basis of our urges has been altered. In the gospel God has
made divine power available to us. God has promised to us and provided
for us an ultimate destiny that is mind-blowing, beyond all our wildest
dreams. And yet it is amazing that when people hear this good news, they
often resist it and stubbornly hold out against accepting it.

Of course, the reason for this struggle is that the gospel can never be
accepted until you admit your need. Men will never accept this message
until they come to a place of hopelessness and helplessness. But that is
the problem; we do not like to admit we need any help. We want everybody
to think we are able to handle what is coming our way. We struggle
against this humiliation (as we see it) of stooping to receive from God
something that we cannot earn or gain for ourselves.

In Romans, Paul describes the four types of men who resist and refuse
the gospel. Two of these types we have already looked at. There is the
obviously wicked person who, in essence, simply defies God. He is
righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not
only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who
practice them," {Rom 1:32 NIV}. This type includes the whole world of
people who flaunt morality, defy the words of God, and who encourage
people to get involved more deeply in things that are hurtful and
destructive.

the gospel, the self-righteous moralist, who is outwardly decent,

good-living, and clean-cut. Inwardly, however, he is filled with
resentments, jealousies, murder, hatred, and envy; and his attitudes are
as wrong as the actions of those who are outwardly evil. The problem is
that such men delude themselves by thinking that everything is going to
be all right with them. Because they have maintained a certain
respectable facade, they think that God is going to overlook the inner
sins of their life and that there is going to be no judgment for them
because everything appears to be fine.

Now we come to the last two types of people who resist the truth:

One of these is the unenlightened pagan. Here we are dealing with the
question of what to do about the people who have not heard the gospel.
What about those who live where the Bible is unknown, or those who are
in a different religion where there is no reference to the facts of the
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? In this passage Paul says
that their problem is that they defile their consciences.

The other and last type is that of the religious devotee who seeks
deliverance from the judgment of God by religious practices, rituals,
performances, and knowledge of the truth.

These two types of people are introduced by a statement of the universal

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the
law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in
God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be
declared righteous. {Rom 2:12-13 NIV}

Now this is probably the strongest statement from the hand of Paul and
it answers the question non-Christians ask Christians more often than
any other, "What about the people who have never heard of Jesus Christ?"
Usually they are thinking of savages in jungles. They seldom think of
the savages in the concrete jungles of our cities, but both are in the
same condition, as we will see. Paul’s answer to this question is that
they will be judged by their own standards. God judges men, not
according to what they do not know, but according to what they do know.
They will be judged by their own standards.

So far in Romans, Paul has made three great statements about the basis
of the judgment:

according to truth, i.e., it is realistic. He only deals with that which

is actually there. God does not falsely accuse anyone, but he judges
according to truth.

works. Now that is interesting, because that shows God is patient. God,
who does see what is going on in our inner lives and who judges wholly
on that basis, nevertheless waits patiently until our inner attitude
begins to work itself out in some deed, speech, or attitude that we
manifest openly. Therefore, God allows men to be their own judge, to see
for themselves that what is coming out is a revelation of what is
inside.

is according to light. That is, God is not going to summon all mankind
and tell them they are going to be judged on the basis of the Ten
Commandments.

(By the way, I was taken to task because I speak only about what God
says to men. One woman got very disturbed because she wanted to be
included in this; so I want to make it clear that when I say men I am
using it in the long-standing generic sense in which men stands for
mankind . That has always been a grammatical feature of the English
language, and, before that, of the Greek and Hebrew languages. All
languages have this grammatical device and it is simply ridiculous to
say that this is a sexist term, when used in that generic sense.)

But man , in this generic sense, is certainly going to be judged

according to light. That means that God will say to that individual.
"What did you think was right and wrong?" When the individual answers,
God’s question then is, "Did you do the right, and not the wrong?" By
that standard, of course, everyone fails. Paul makes clear that this is
true. He says, "All who sin apart from the Law will also perish apart
from the Law." The fact that such men never heard the Ten Commandments,
or anything else that is in the Bible, does not mean that they are going
to be acceptable in God’s sight. They will perish, not because they did
not hear, but, because what they did know was right, they did not do.

Now Paul goes on to take up the case of the unenlightened pagan in

(Indeed, when the Gentiles, who did not have the law, do by
nature things required by the law, they are a law for
themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they
show that the requirements of the law are written on their
hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their
thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will
take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets
through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. {Rom 2:14-16 NIV}

in parentheses because this all comes within the context of Paul’s

argument that there is a day coming when God is going to judge the
secrets of men everywhere and all that is hidden will be revealed. In
Luke 12:3 Jesus himself spoke of that: "What you have said in the dark
will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear
behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops," {Luke 12:3
NIV}. Now there were some in Paul’s day who said that because the Jews
possessed the Law and knew God’s truth, they would not be condemned in
that judgment. But Paul is saying, "Look, if your knowledge of truth is
what saves you, then everybody will be saved, even the savages and the
pagans, for they show that they have a law, too. They know a great deal
about the Law; it is written on their hearts, and their consciences act
as judges within them, just as they do within those of us in the more
civilized world." On that basis, you see, everyone would be saved. But
God does not judge that way.

Now here we have a revelation of what goes on in the primitive world.

Men and women who have never heard anything about the Bible, Jesus
Christ, Moses, the Ten Commandments, or any standard that we are
familiar with, nevertheless are subject to judgment because they have
truth written in their hearts. They do know what is right and wrong.
They show it in their own lives.

I have just finished reading an amazing book called Peace Child, which
has been made into a movie. It is a wonderful and remarkable story,
taking place in the last couple of decades in the island of New Guinea.
Some missionaries went there and found a tribe of people who were so
degraded, so sunken in immorality, that they actually idolized
treachery. They admired the man who could win someone’s love,
friendship, and trust, and then betray and murder him. Such a man was
held up as an admirable person to follow. When the missionaries first
came among these people, they despaired of ever reaching them, for there
seemed to be no ground of appeal to a people that had so reversed the
moral standards of life. However, as they lived among them and got
better acquainted with their culture, they discovered that this moral
reversal was universal, except at one point. There was one situation in
which they recognized that men and women were bound to a moral standard,
and that was in the case of an exchange of a peace child. If a tribe
gave a baby or a child from their tribe to another, then that other
tribe would be bound to keep its agreements and to honor its treaty with
the first tribe. If they did not, they would lose face and be regarded
as a despicable people. It was at this point the missionaries were able
to introduce the gospel, for they pointed out that God had given up a
peace child in Jesus Christ. Thus these people were bound to honor God.
It is a remarkable story, but it shows clearly how God had prepared the
way for the gospel by building into this culture a concept that would be
ready and waiting when the gospel came. Now these people were living
according to the rule of conscience; and the conscience, as Paul points
out here, never brings a settled peace. These tribes are a continual
testimony to that fact.

People say, "Let your conscience be your guide." That is a recipe for
unhappiness. If that is all you have, it is a certain way of plunging
into a life that alternates between fear and momentary peace.

In the latest issue of Christianity Today there is a very interesting

article by Rachel Saint, widow of one of the five men who were cruelly
murdered by the Auca Indians on the banks of a river in Ecuador twenty
years ago. In this article she describes the way the Aucas lived before
the gospel came and the tremendous work going on in that tribe since
then. She writes,

The Aucas have been thoroughly acquainted with demons and

devil worship for many generations. The result of this is a
religion of terror. The witch doctor is the central authority,
 and he controls the tribe. Any death is supposed to be caused
by the witch doctor. Then that death has to be avenged and the
feuding starts. They are afraid that they might be speared at
night in their own houses. Everyone is a potential enemy. If a
father loses a son, he feels he must kill his daughter. If the
group loses a marriageable girl, a grandmother is killed. Why
should a worthless old woman live if a marriageable girl has
died? This kind of thinking permeates their culture.

Now this sort of thinking goes on not only in the jungles of South
America and other places, but also in the concrete jungles of San
Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and everywhere else. A reign
of terror always ensues when people are governed only by the law of
conscience. Yet, even under their own law, they perish, just as much as
those who are judged by God’s Law.

Now Paul goes on to take up the case of the religious devotee of his
day, the Jew. Today we need only substitute the title "church member" to
bring it up to date -- because we American church members are in the
same condition as the Jew was in the culture of Paul’s day. We have a
great body of truth that we delight in, and we feel proud of our
knowledge and our understanding of it. But unfortunately, we oftentimes
hope and think that knowledge, in itself, is what is going to deliver us
in the sight of God.

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law
and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will
and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by
the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the
blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of
the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law
the embodiment of knowledge and truth -- you, then, who teach
others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against
stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not
commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols,
do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you
dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God’s
name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." {Rom
2:17-24 NIV}

Paul lists here the five great advantages which the Jews of his day had
and on which they relied for their position before God:

First, they relied on possessing the Law. There are many people in the
churches of America today who rely upon the fact that the Bible is
available to them. We have the Bible in twenty-five different versions
and many take great pride in owning a specific version. "I am a King
James Christian! If it was good enough for the Apostle Paul, it’s good
enough for me!" Or "We’re liberated! We have the American Standard
Version!" You hear people bragging about this! Well, that is exactly
what the Jew was doing in Paul’s day.

Second, they bragged about their relationship to God. The Jew made it
clear that he had a special inside track with the Almighty. You hear
people talking like that today. "God, Billy Graham, and I were just
talking the other day..." We make it clear that we have a special
standing with the "Good Lord," as he is usually called, and in some way
we brag about our relationship to God.

Third, the Jews were people who knew the will of God. They had the
Scriptures, they had the Ten Commandments, and the knowledge of what God
wanted. There are many today who boast about their knowledge of the Word
of God and who rest upon that fact.

Fourth, these Jews approved of what was superior, i.e., they rejected
certain attitudes and actions in life and chose only that which was
regarded as morally superior. Many, many church members do this. They
take pride in the fact that they do not do certain things. I am amazed
at how many people think that God is going to be impressed by the things
they do not do. "We don’t dance, we don’t drink, we don’t go to the
movies, we don’t go to theaters, we don’t play cards, we don’t drink
coffee," and on and on.

Finally, the Jews were instructed in the Law. There were many who could
quote great passages of Scripture and they took pride in that. Now,
there is nothing wrong with any of these advantages except that the Jews
and many of us today depend on them for righteousness. We feel we have a
special standing with God because of them; and that is what is wrong.

Paul goes on to list four privileges which the Jews felt were theirs
because they had these advantages:

First, they felt they were a guide to the blind. Today we have those who
are always ready to correct anybody around them, to impart truth to
those unfortunate people who have not learned anything yet.

Second, the Jews felt they were a light to those in the dark. Every now
and then we run into people who are quite ready to dazzle us with their
knowledge of the Scriptures. They know all about the antichrist, they
know when Christ is coming again, they know all the elective decrees of
God, they are thoroughly acquainted with the superlapsarian position of
the people before the Fall, etc., and they take great pride in this
knowledge.

Third, the Jews felt they were instructors of the foolish. A lady came
up to me after a service on Sunday and told me a long, painful story of
how she had injured her wrist in an auto accident. The emergency doctor
who took care of her happened to let slip a couple of curse words while
working on her. She lectured him at great length about how she was a
Christian, how she wouldn’t listen to this kind of language, and how
terrible it was that he took the name of God in vain. This attitude is
typical of many who feel they are instructors of the foolish, because
they have a knowledge of the Scriptures.

The fourth privilege which the Jews possessed was that they were
teachers of children. I am amazed at how many want to teach Sunday
school classes for the wrong reason. Now there is a right reason, but
many want to teach because they feel they are imparting truth to people
who need it, and they take great ego satisfaction in doing it.

Paul’s judgment of such people is, "You are guilty yourself." This
attitude of the Jew is the same one Paul condemned earlier in the moral
Gentile. "You are outwardly righteous and correct, but inwardly you are
doing the wrong thing." They were envious, proud, covetous, lustful,
bitter, dangerous people. Religious zealots are dangerous people. The
Jews were notorious in the Roman empire for being over-sharp in business
deals. That is why Paul says, "You who preach against stealing, do you
steal?" They were not above a little hanky-panky with slave girls they
had to deal with. Paul says, "You who say that people should not commit
adultery, do you commit adultery?" They were ready to profit from trade
with pagan temples. He says, "You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?"
They bragged about the Law, but Paul says, "God’s name is blasphemed
among the Gentiles because of you." That was the ultimate judgment upon
the Jews. To them, blasphemy was the worst of sins. Yet Paul says,
"Though you claim to have so much, and to be so knowledgeable, yet what
you have done is to blaspheme God. People have been turned away from God
because of you."

I do not think I have to detail how true that is of American

Christianity as a whole. And not only in this country, but around the
world, Christians have caused people to turn from God because of our
attitudes and the way we approach people. I have often thought it is
amazing how the people who keep close records on how many they win to
Christ never keep any records on how many they drive away. And the name
of God is blasphemed because of that.

Now Paul seizes upon and singles out the supreme symbol of Jewish

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you

break the law, you have become as though you had not been
circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s
requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were
circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet
obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the
written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. {Rom 2:25-27
NIV}

The Jews, of course, prided themselves (and still do today) on the rite
of circumcision, the symbol that they were God’s people. You only need
to substitute baptism, confirmation, or church membership to apply that
to the twentieth century, to Protestant or Catholic American. So many
Americans rest upon the fact that they have been baptized, confirmed, or
accepted as members of a church, as the sign that they belong to God.
Paul says that is useless and worthless, if something has not happened
in the heart.

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is

circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew
if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the
heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s
praise is not from men, but from God. {Rom 2:28-29 NIV}

That last phrase is a play on words. The word "praise" is taken from the
word "Judah," from which we get the word "Jew." Paul says the Jew is not
praised by men but by God; but he also makes clear what constitutes a
true Jew in God’s sight.

Now this is one of the most hotly debated questions in the state of
Israel today. The Israelis are constantly trying to decide what is the
basis of Jewry. What makes a Jew? Is it religion? Is it observing the
Old Testament Law, keeping a kosher kitchen? Many Jews are atheists,
having no use for the Old Testament, and yet they claim to be Jews
because their ancestry is Jewish; their mothers and fathers, as far back
as they know, were Jews. Is that the basis on which to claim Jewishness?
There are black Jews who are petitioning to belong to Israel. But other
Jews say you have to be white to be a Jew. What makes a Jew?

God says that nothing outward makes you a Jew. One becomes a Jew when
his heart is changed. As with Abraham and Jacob, you become a Jew when
you believe in Yeshua Hamashiach , Jesus the Messiah. The Jews for Jesus
group is telling people this today. What makes you a Jew is not the
culture from which you came, the ritual through which you have gone, the
circumstances of your life, or your background, ancestry, or history,
but the fact that you have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. That is
what makes you a Jew.

Paul wrote in Galatians 3:29:

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and

heirs according to the promise. {Gal 3:29 NIV}

man without Christ is hopelessly lost. Though he defies God, deludes

himself, defiles his conscience, or denies what he himself teaches, he
is absolutely, hopelessly lost until he comes to know the Lord Jesus and
lives on the basis of that relationship. That is what makes a Christian.

It is not a question of whether you are baptized, galvanized,

sanforized, or pasteurized. The question is: "Do you have faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and have you received the gift of righteousness which
God gives to those who do not deserve it, cannot earn it, but receive it
by his love and grace?"

We will see what additional problems this raises with the Jews in the
next section of the book of Romans.
Prayer

Our Father, we pray that if anyone here today is resting upon

empty ceremonies, fancy moral standing, or decent or good
living for their righteousness that they will see the
hopelessness of such justification before you, the God of
reality, the God of truth. We pray that they will receive the
gift that you so freely offer in Jesus Christ our Lord. He
alone can change us. He alone can set us free. He alone can
instruct us, guide us, and make us into the men and women you
want us to be. He accepts us on that basis, and for that we
give grateful thanks. In his name, Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: According to Light

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 2:12-29
Message No: 5
Catalog No: 3505
Date: January 11, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

TOTAL WIPEOUT

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been interesting to note, as we have gone through this letter to

the Romans, how logically and powerfully the Apostle Paul develops his
subject. He evidently possessed a very vivid imagination and used it
skillfully and with great power to illustrate and illuminate what he
wanted to say. I never fail to be delighted at how the mind of the
Apostle Paul works as he sets this truth out for us.

parts. The first eight verses are an imaginary dialogue that the apostle
description of the condition of mankind before God.

The first part, the dialogue with the Jews, grows out of the close of
Romans 2, in which the apostle answers the question that is still being
hotly debated in the State of Israel today: What constitutes a true Jew?

The State of Israel has never been able to settle that question. Is it
religion? Is a Jew someone who believes the Torah, the Law and the
Prophets? Is it someone who is culturally a Jew, who keeps a kosher
kitchen and observes all the dietary restrictions, who lives as a Jew
and observes the traditions of Judaism? Many claim that this is the
answer. Others say, "No, you can be an atheist and ignore all the ritual
and ceremony of Judaism, but if you were born of Jewish ancestry you are
a Jew." Still others think it is the facial features that make a Jew:
the hooked nose, brown eyes, olive skin. But there are millions of Jews
without these physical characteristics. So the argument rages.
Paul answers that question in Chapter 2. He says a man is not a Jew who
is one outwardly. In God’s sight, a Jew is one who has faith, who has
the presence of the Spirit of God in his heart, who inwardly has faith
in Jesus the Messiah. That is what constitutes a Jew and nothing else;
all these other distinctions are laid aside. It is not the knowledge or
possession of the Law that makes a man a Jew; it is not the rite of
circumcision; it is not the claim to a special relationship with God.
The only thing that makes a man a Jew is faith in the Messiah.

At this point the vivid imagination of Paul comes into play. He imagines
a Jewish objector standing up and arguing with him at this point.
Perhaps this actually happened many times in the course of Paul’s
travels throughout the Roman Empire. He had stated these things in many
synagogues and surely at one time or another some knowledgeable Jewish
rabbi would stand up and argue with him. That is what he is sharing with
us now. In some ways this is a rather difficult passage. I invite you to
pay close attention to it as we look through and see what these
arguments are. Paul imagines three arguments from this Jewish objector.

In our own culture, you can place any religionist in place of the Jewish
objector -- a Mormon, a Christian Scientist, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a
Mohammedan, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a Catholic. Anyone who counts on
religion will offer the same kind of argument.

Paul imagines a Jew standing up at this point and saying, "Now, hold it!
Wait a minute! These things you say don’t count are the very things God
himself has given to us." Circumcision came from God; God asked it of
the Jews. And the Law was given by God to the Jews. It was God who
called them his chosen people.

The argument is, "Paul, you’re setting aside what God has established.
If these things don’t count, what advantage is there in being a Jew?"
That question, and Paul’s answer, are phrased in the first two verses of

What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value

is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all,
they have been entrusted with the very words of God. {Rom
3:1-2 NIV}

When Paul says "first," he does not mean first in a long list of
advantages, though he did see many advantages in being a Jew. What Paul
means by "first" is supremely, chiefly. The great glory in being a Jew
in Paul’s day was that the Jews had the Law. They possessed the written
Word of God. That advantage is claimed today by many non-Jews, Catholics
and Protestants who are proud of their knowledge of the Bible. Paul says
that is a tremendous advantage. Already he has shown that everyone is
under law. Even the savages in the jungle, who have no knowledge of the
Bible or the Ten Commandments, still have the Law written in their
hearts. Nobody is without a moral standard. The conscience lays hold of
that law written in the heart to tell people whether they are doing
right or wrong. So light is given to everyone. As John puts it in his
Gospel, "There is a light that lights everyone coming into the world,"
{cf, John 1:9 NIV}. Nobody lives in darkness.

But even though everyone has that light, the Jews had an additional
degree of light. They were given the written Word on stone, so that it
was permanently preserved. Thus they had a knowledge of the mind and
will and character of God that other people did not possess. They had a
greater opportunity to know and obey God than anyone else in that day.
Therefore they had a tremendous advantage. Implied in this is the fact
that, though the Jew had this tremendous advantage, he failed to make
use of it, and therefore it did him no good at all. He was no better off
than if he had never known the Law at all because he did not put it to
its intended use.

This parallels the situation in our day. We have billions of people who
have been raised in Sunday school and church, who know the Scripture,
and have even read the Bible from cover to cover. We live in a land
where Bibles are available by the dozens and we can take our choice of
versions. The mind of God is available, and yet millions of people are
no better off than if they had never heard of the Bible. They are as
lost as if they were savages in the jungles of Africa because the light
they have is not put to use.

Just imagine, for instance, an island in darkness, populated with

people. There is only one way to escape the island, a narrow bridge over
a deep chasm, but the darkness is so great that only a few find their
way over that bridge. Everybody on that island has been provided with a
little penlight that enables them to dimly illuminate a small space
around them, barely enough to avoid the more obvious obstacles in their
path. But a certain group of people is given a powerful searchlight that
can shine thousands of yards into the darkness. It is given to them not
only so that they can find the bridge, but also so they can show others
the way out. Yet these people, who have so much more light than the
others, spend their time utilizing this powerful searchlight to look for
needles in a haystack. They turn that searchlight on a mound of hay and
search for needles. That, in essence, was what the Jews were doing.

The rabbis were arguing constantly over infinitesimal theological

differences. Jesus called this "straining at a gnat, but swallowing a
camel," {cf, Matt 23:24}. They argued over how many steps constituted a
violation of the Sabbath and whether spitting on a rock is permissible
on the Sabbath, or whether spitting on mud is a violation. One would be
right, and the other wrong. This is what they used the Law for. Though
the Jews had a tremendous advantage in having the Law, Paul says, they
failed to use it properly.

The imaginary rabbi comes back with a second objection and Paul responds

What if some did not have faith? Would their lack of faith
nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and
every man a liar. As it is written:

The Jewish rabbi says, "Paul, are you suggesting that if some of the
Jews did not believe (He is ready to admit that as a possibility) that
God could forget his promises to all the Jews? Are you saying that just
because some of us didn’t measure up to what God required in the Law,
everyone in Israel has lost the promise that God gave them? You seem to
suggest that God is not interested in the very rituals which he himself
instituted. Are you saying that circumcision and all these things mean
nothing to God? Are you saying that God is upset by the disbelief of
just a few Jews and so he has canceled all Israel’s prerogatives?"

Paul’s answer uses the strongest words in the Greek language to say a
thing is false. "By no means! Not at all!" (Literally, "May it never
be!" Or, as it is translated in some versions, "God forbid!") That would
suggest that God is the failure. It would suggest that God gave a
promise and then did not keep his words, just because a few people
failed to measure up. So God would be at fault. Our human hearts always
tend to blame God for what goes wrong in our life, for our inability to
fulfill what God demands. Paul says, "Never let that be! Let God be
true, and every man liar." God is going to keep his word no matter how
many fail.

Paul then quotes David’s fifty-first psalm, that wonderful psalm written
after the twin sins of murder and adultery, in which he was caught
red-handed. When David repented, he wrote this beautiful psalm, in which
he confesses his sins to God,

{cf, Psa 51:4b}

For a year and a half, David tried to hide his sins and refused to admit
them to God or anyone else. He went on acting as though he were
righteous and let people think that he was still the godly king of
Israel. He let that hypocrisy go on for eighteen months; then God sent
Nathan the prophet, who speared him with his long, bony finger, and
exposed; he admitted them and confessed to God. He said, "It isn’t you
who are to blame, God; I did it." Paul says, "Let God be true and every
man a liar."

Even if all the Jews fail in their belief, God will still fulfill his
promise. How can God do this? God has said that some will believe. If
everybody fails to believe, how can he keep his word? Paul says, "That’s
your problem; it’s not God’s problem." When certain of the Pharisees
boasted to Jesus that they were "children of Abraham," Jesus said,
"Don’t you understand that God can raise up from these stones children
unto Abraham?" {cf, Matt 3:9, Luke 3:8}. If men fail, God has unlimited
resources to fulfill his promise. So there is no objection at that
point. God will still judge the Jews, and all religionists, despite the
failure of some.

But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more

clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his
wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) Certainly not! If
that were so, how could God judge the world?" {Rom 3:5-6 NIV}

As Paul says, this is a common human argument. You still hear it today.
People say, "If what we’re doing makes God look good because it gives
him a chance to show his love and forgiveness, how can he condemn us?
We’ve made him look good. We’ve given him a chance to reveal himself,
and that’s what he wants. So he can’t condemn us for our sins. In fact
(as Paul will go on to show the logical conclusion), let’s sin the more
and make him look all the better!" People today say, "If God is
glorified by human sin and failure, as the Scriptures say, then let’s
sin all the more."

Paul’s answer is, "Let’s carry that out to its logical conclusion. If
everyone lived on that basis, then nobody could be judged and God would
be removed as judge of all the world." It would demean God. God would be
no better than the worst of men. God himself could not act as a judge if
he actually arranged things so that sin would glorify God. If God cannot
judge, he is demeaned; if he does not judge, the entire world is locked
into perpetual evil. There would be no way of arresting the awful flow
of human evil in this world. Therefore, this is a ridiculous argument.

The fact is, sin never glorifies God. Sin always has evil results; it
does not produce good. As the Scriptures say, "He that sows to the flesh
reaps corruption; he that sows to the Spirit reaps life everlasting,"
{cf, Gal 6:8}. This is an ordained law of God which no one can break.

Paul strengthens this argument with a personal illustration in

Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God’s

truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still
condemned as a sinner?" Why not say -- as we are being
slanderously reported and as some claim that we say -- "Let us
do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.
{Rom 3:7-8 NIV}

The text adds the words, "Someone might argue," and that does not belong
here. If your text does not add this, it is more accurate.

Paul is saying that he includes himself in the circle of condemnation.

He says, "If my falsehood... " If you look back in Romans you can see
O man, who judges another, you are without excuse." Then in

I love this because it means that Paul does not consider himself, even
as a believer, beyond the judgment of God; he is just as capable of
falsehood as anyone else. When that happens, that area of his life is
subject to the condemnation of God, the same as anyone else. Paul does
not hold himself up as better than anyone else.

Paul says, "Let’s go on to say the logical thing: Let’s do evil that
good may come." What a ridiculous argument, he concludes. Why, that
removes all differences between good and evil. This is what people are
saying today. "There’s no such thing as good or evil. Whatever you like
is good; whatever you don’t like, that’s evil. It’s only in your mind
that there’s any difference between good and evil." You see how
up-to-date this argument is? Paul says it is ridiculous. The logical
conclusion to that thinking is moral chaos and anarchy. Nobody could
judge anything. We simply would plunge into a tremendous abyss of
immorality in which anybody could do anything, and nobody would dare to
raise a hand in opposition. This would produce moral anarchy. So, Paul
says, the condemnation of this kind of reasoning is well-deserved.

answers it.
 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We
have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are
all under sin. {Rom 3:9 NIV}

I think it would be a little better to change this phrase from, "Are we

any better?" to "Do we have any standing at all?" For that is what Paul
is really saying. He has looked over all of mankind, and says, "Is there
any ground by which a man or woman can please God apart from faith in
Christ? Is there any way you can try to be good an make it?" His answer:
None at all. No one can make it on those terms.

He has already demonstrated the universal condition of both Jews and

Gentiles. He showed that the blatantly wicked people end up defying God,
therefore they cannot make it. The morally self-righteous people, who
pride themselves on their good conduct and clean living, simply delude
themselves, so they cannot make it. The unenlightened pagans in all the
jungles of the world, the concrete jungles as well as the green tropical
jungles, defile their own consciences; they do not make it because they
do not live up to their own standards. The religious zealots deny in
deeds what they teach in words, and so they cannot make it. They are all
wiped out.

Now comes the final touch. Paul gathers up what the Scriptures say on
this subject. I like that. We are living in a day when what men say is
really considered the final word. The Scriptures are considered, but are
not really taken as authoritative. But the apostles never treated
Scripture that way. They listened to what men said, but when it came to
the final authority, they said, "What Scripture says, that’s it!"

We need to return to that in our preaching. Every preacher ought to

close his message by saying, in effect, what Walter Cronkite says at the
end of every broadcast: "That’s the way it is, this Sunday, January 18,
1976."

Paul gathers up a compilation of Scriptures from the Psalms and Proverbs

and Isaiah to show that what he has described, God has already said. The
Scriptures he uses divide into three very clear groups. First, there is
the character of man, as God sees it; the conduct of man, in both speech
and action; and the cause of all this.

3:10b NIV}

Isn’t that an amazing statement? Just think of all the nice people that
you know. They may not be Christians, but they are nice people -- good
neighbors, kind and gracious people who speak lovingly. God, looking at
them, says, "There’s not one among them that is righteous, not even
one." I think the total depravity of the human heart is revealed by the
fact that when we read this kind of statement, "There is no one
righteous, not even one," we mentally add, "except me." Right?
Think of all the people today who are searching to understand the
mystery of life. All over the world, in temples, schools, universities,
in the jungles, before idols, people are searching to find the answer to
the mystery of man: Why are we like we are? And in all that vast array
of searchers, God says there is not one who understands, not one.

What a claim this is! Here are all these religious people going to
temples, going through various procedures, observing rituals, flocking
to churches, filling up worship areas all over the world. What are they
looking for? We would say they are looking for God, but God does not say
so. He says there is no one searching for God. They are looking for a
god, not the God. They are not looking for the God of truth and justice,
who is behind all things.

worthless.
NIV}

That could hardly be made any clearer. There is no one who does good,
not even one. Do you struggle with this? Then imagine that someone has
invented a camera that records thoughts. Imagine that at a Sunday
morning service, where all you fine-looking, moral, clean-living, decent
people come, we would let you pass through a security section like they
do at the airport and all your thoughts would be recorded. During the
service, the camera is scanning, picking up your thoughts --
* What you thought when you sat down,
* What you thought when the person next to you sat down,
* What you were thinking when we sang the hymn, and
* What you were thinking when I led in prayer.

Then we announce that the next Sunday, instead of the regular service,
we would hold a screening of the film from that camera. I wonder how
many would show up?

But this is the stark revelation from Scripture of what God sees when he
looks at the human race. There is no one who does good, not even one.
Then he details why.

First, their speech:

bitterness." {Rom 3:13-14 NIV}

This covers the whole realm of the speech. It begins deep down in the
throat, it comes then to the tongue, then the lips, and then the whole
mouth. It moves from the inward to the outward. What do you find? Deep
down, Paul says, God sees an open grave with a stinking, rotten corpse
and a horrible stench coming up from it that reveals itself, ultimately,
in vulgarity.

Do you ever wonder why children love toilet talk? Kids especially like
to talk toilet talk. Why?

Why do adults like words with double meanings? You hear them on
television all the time.

What is down in the heart comes out in the speech -- not only vulgarity,
but hypocrisy. "Their tongues practice deceit."

Those little white lies, the way we erect facades, the way we claim to
feel one way when we actually feel another; we think all this deceit is
harmless and unnoticed. But God sees it.

"The poison of vipers is on their lips." This is a picture of the tongue

used to slander, to plant poison in another person’s heart -- the
put-down, the sharp, caustic words, the sarcasm that cuts someone off
and depersonalizes another being. We are all guilty. This is what is
inside, and this is what God sees with the realism of his eye.

"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." If you do not believe
that, just step out on the street and hit the first fellow that comes by
right on the mouth and see what comes out -- cursing and bitterness!
Cursing is blaming God; that is profanity. Bitterness is reproaching God
because of the way he has run your life. This is what we hear all the
time, even from Christians. We hear complaints about your circumstances,
where God has placed you, and what he is doing with your life -- cursing
and bitterness.

Look now at the deeds that follow.

{Rom 3:15-16 NIV}

Wherever man goes, ruin follows. Do we need any documentation of that

today? Why do cities always develop ghettos and slums? Why do our
beautiful mountains and streams become polluted? It is because of the
heart of man.

3:16b-17 NIV}

I have often thought this would be an appropriate slogan for the United
Nations! "The way of peace they do not know." An intense and cruel war
is being fought in Lebanon today and the United Nations is helpless to
stop it because "the way of peace they do not know." The cause of this
follows, in just one sentence:

3:18 NIV}
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the
godlessness ... of men..." When men reject God, they lose everything.
All these things follow because "there is no fear of God before their
eyes."

In the last two verses we have a clear vision of why God gave the Law.
Since the Jews were so convinced that their possession of the Law gave
them special privileges in God’s sight, Paul now turns to that subject.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who
are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the
whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be
declared righteous in his sight by observing the law [That was
a fantastic statement to make] ; rather, through the law we
become conscious of sin. {Rom 3:19-20 NIV}

When you read this terrible description of the human race as God sees
it, it is almost impossible for us to believe that God is not going to
say, "Enough! Wipe them out!" If all he sees is wretchedness, misery,
evil, deceit, hypocrisy, vulgarity, profanity, slander, and all these
evil things that are in every heart -- every one without exception --
our natural instinct is to say, "Then God doesn’t want us." But the
amazing thing is that across this kind of verse he writes, "God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son," {John 3:16a KJV}. God did
not send the Law to destroy us (and this is very important); he sent the
Law to keep us from false hope.

The worst thing that can happen is to be going down a road to an

important destination and think you are on the right track and spend all
the time necessary to get there only to discover that the road peters
out into nothingness. You find you have been on the wrong track and it
is too late to go back. That was what was happening. So God, in his
loving kindness, has given us the Law to keep us from taking a false
path. Though the Law condemns us, it is that very condemnation that
makes us willing to listen, so that we find the right path.

Paul says the Law does three things to us:

First, it stops our mouth. We have nothing to say. You can always tell
someone is close to becoming a Christian when they shut up and stop
arguing back. Self-righteous people are always saying, "But -- but this
-- but I -- yes, but I do this -- and I do that." They are always
arguing. But when they see the true meaning of the Law, their mouth is
shut. When you read a statement like this, there is really nothing left
to say, is there?

I had a friend who told me she was given a traffic ticket one day. She
was guilty of doing what she was charged with, but she felt there was
some justification for it, so she thought she would go to court and
argue it before the judge. She imagined in her mind how she would come
in and the judge would ask her if she was guilty. She would say, "Yes,
but I want to explain why." She would proceed to convince the judge and
all the court that what she did could hardly be avoided and that she was
justified in doing it. Her argument was ready. "But," she said, "when I
came into that court and stood up there all alone, and the judge was
there on the bench, dressed in his robe, and he looked over his glasses
at me and said, ’Guilty or not guilty?’ all my arguments faded. I just
said, ’Guilty.’" Her mouth was stopped.

That is the first thing the Law does: it shuts you up, and you do not
argue with God anymore.

Second, Paul says, "The whole world is held accountable to God." That
makes us realize there is no easy way, no way by which death suddenly is
going to dissolve all things into everlasting darkness, forever
forgotten. The whole world has to stand before God. Hebrews puts it so
starkly, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment," {Heb 9:27 KJV}.

Finally, the Law reveals very clearly what sin is. What does the Law
want of us? Jesus said that all the Law is summed up in one word: Love.
All the Law asks us to do is to act in love. All these things the Law
states are simply loving ways of acting. When we face ourselves before
the Law, we have to confess that many, many times we fail in love. We do
not love. That is what the Law wants us to see, because, then, when all
else fails, we are ready to listen to what follows.

from God has been provided. That is what Paul wants us to hear. When we
take that one way, we find we have learned to love -- not by the Law,
but by the provision of the Son of God.
Prayer

Father, we thank you for loving us enough to tell us the

truth. Thank you for loving us enough to shut up all other
ways -- to block them out and tell us they are wrong and they
do not lead anywhere -- so that we give up trying to make
ourselves good enough to belong to you. Help us to take the
only way that has ever been provided, a righteousness that is
given to us, which we never earned, and cannot earn, but which
is ours because we believe the Lord Jesus. We thank you for
that. How rich we are because of it. May anyone here without
this now turn and open his life to you, knowing that this is
the only way out of the judgment of God. We thank you in
Jesus’ name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Total Wipeout

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 3:1-20
Message No: 6
Catalog No: 3506
Date: January 18, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible
Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
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permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

BUT NOW

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The title of our study this morning is taken from the opening words of
sigh of relief in those two words. After God’s appraisal of man’s
efforts to achieve some standing before him, given to us in the verses
previous to this, now come God’s words of relief, God’s total answer to
man’s total failure. Paul has concluded his description of what humanity
is like as God sees it, with his ability to see everything about us.
Nothing is hidden from his eyes, not our thoughts, our hearts, our
intents, or our motives. We saw last week that there is clearly no one
us that:

That is God’s appraisal. "But now," Paul says...

But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been
made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. {Rom
3:21 NIV}

This is God’s great "nevertheless" in the face of man’s failure. In the

subsequent paragraphs, the Apostle Paul develops this in his usual
reasoned and logical style. For a little guide to this section, here is
the way it breaks down:
obtained.

Let us look together now at this great statement beginning with

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been
made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. {Rom
3:21 NIV}
This is what Paul elsewhere calls "the glorious gospel of the blessed
which consists of a gift that God gives us -- the righteousness of God
himself. We have already seen that this word, righteousness , is highly
misunderstood in our day. Often it is associated with behavior. If
people are behaving in a right way, we say that they are behaving
righteously. But in the book of Romans, righteousness does not directly
touch on behavior. It is not what you do ; it is what you are! That is
even more important, because your behavior stems from what you are. The
gift Paul is talking about, the gift from God, is that of a righteous
standing.

But the real meaning underlying this word, as understood by us today, is

found in the word worth . People everywhere are looking for a sense of
worth . In fact, psychologists tell us that this sense of worth is the
most essential element in human activity, and that without it you cannot
function as a human being. Therefore, whether we know it or not, or
describe it in these terms, we are all looking for a sense of worth. But
the gospel announces that it is given to us. What other people work all
their lives to achieve is handed to us right at the beginning, when we
believe in Jesus Christ. According to the gospel, we cannot earn it, but
it is given to us. Now that is the good news, and what a wonderful
statement that is.

The other day, in reading an article on some of the movements of our

day, I cam across these words by Dr. Lewis Smede, a professor at Fuller
Theological Seminary. This is what he said.

Anyone who can see the needs of people today must recognize
that the malaise of our time is an epidemic of self-doubt and
self-depreciation. Those whose job it is to heal people’s
spiritual problems know that the overwhelming majority of
people who seek help, are people who are sick from abhorring
themselves. A prevailing sense of being without worth is the
pervasive sickness of our age.

That comes from a man who spends a great deal of time trying to help
people with emotional problems and personality difficulties in their
lives. He says the basic need is a sense of worth. There are millions of
people today who are openly acknowledging that they need help, and who
come looking for help. There are others who never ask, but behind their
smiling facades and confident airs, there are insecure hearts and a
consciousness of deep self-doubt. This is the basic problem of mankind.

This gospel, therefore, is dealing with something tremendously

significant. It does not have to do only with what happens when you die.
I think this is one of the reasons why hundreds of churches today are
half-empty; so many people do not know that self-worth is what the
gospel is all about. Young people today are looking for a ground of
worth. They want to be loved. We just read this prayer request of a boy
who desperately needs to know that his dad loves him, and I sensed a
murmur of concern throughout the congregation as we identified with that
feeling of needing to be loved.

Well, far, far deeper than the need to feel that some human being loves
us is our need to know that God loves us, and that we are acceptable in
his sight, that we have standing and value and worth to him. Something
about us, that bit of eternity planted in our hearts by God himself,
bears witness to us that this is the ultimate issue. Somehow life can
never be satisfying if that question is not settled. Therefore this good
news comes with tremendous relevance today. What God is offering is a
gift of righteousness -- his own perfect righteousness, that cannot be
improved upon, a perfect value. By faith in Jesus Christ, he gives us a
sense of worth and acceptance, and there could be no better news to
mankind.

Paul adds two things to this, so as to make it clear to us:

First, this righteousness is apart from the Law. That is to say, it is

not something that you earn; it is a gift. You cannot earn it by doing
your best to be pleasing to God, and anybody who approaches God on those
terms has already failed. There is no way anyone can measure up to God’s
standards. The sweetest, dearest little old lady that you know of cannot
make it, because God knows her heart. Nevertheless, God has found a way
to give us that gift, and therefore it is apart from the Law; it is not
something we can earn.

Second, Paul says, it is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. This is
not something entirely new in history, something that only Jesus Christ
brought to light. He did make it known, so that we understand it far
more clearly because of his coming, but it is found in the Old Testament
as well as in the New. The saints who lived before the cross knew and
experienced the wonder of this gift just as much as we do today,
although they came to it by a different process.

The Law bore testimony to this righteous gift of God providing a series
of sacrifices. The Jews knew, somehow, that they did not measure up to
God’s standards, so the Law itself provided a system of offerings and
sacrifices that could be brought and offered on the altar. This system
pictured the death of Jesus; the whole sacrificial system of the Old
Testament is a witness to mankind that One is coming who will be "the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world," {John 1:29b}. They
bear witness to this righteous gift.

The prophets also -- these well-known names of the Old Testament:

Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others -- not only talked
about this gift, but experienced it themselves. In one of the Psalms
that we will read in the next chapter, David is quoted as saying,
"Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, to whom the Lord
will not impute iniquity, whose sins are covered,"{cf, Psa 32:1}. David
understood that God had found a way to give the gift of worth to a man,
even before the cross occurred in history. This is not new, Paul says;
nevertheless, it is clearly explained and made fully available to us in
the cross of Jesus.

In the next division Paul tells us how to obtain this gift. Perhaps you
are looking for this sense of worth, this sense of value, of being loved
and wanted by God. How do you get it? Here is Paul’s answer.

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus

Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came
by Christ Jesus. {Rom 3:22-24 NIV}
There is one way -- expressed here in four different aspects, but only
one way -- through faith in Jesus Christ:

Notice first how Paul’s answer centers immediately on the person of the
Savior, not only on his work or his teaching, but on his person. It is
by faith in Christ himself that you come into this standing. He is the
Savior; it is not what he taught, not even what he gives; but it is he
who saves us. Therefore the gift involves a relationship to a living
person.

That is why in John’s gospel he does not say, "Believe in what Jesus
did" but rather, "As many as received him, to them he gave power to
become the sons of God," {cf, John 1:12}. That means there must come a
time when you open your life to Christ, when you ask him to be what he
offers to be -- your Lord. Later in this epistle Paul will say, "If you
confess with your mouth, ’Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved [another term of this
gift of righteousness]. For it is with your heart that you believe and
are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are
saved," {Rom 10:9-10}. Jesus himself said, in the book of Revelation,
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and
opens the door [the door of your will, of your heart] I will come in to
him and eat with him, and he with me," {cf, Rev 3:20}. There is no other
way. No way can be found in all the religions of earth that can bring
men into a sense of value and standing in God’s sight, and of worth and
love before him, except this way by faith in Jesus Christ.

Second, Paul stresses the fact here that it is all who believe who are
saved; it is not automatically and universally applied. People are
teaching today that the death of Christ was so effective that whether
people hear about it or not, they are already saved. They do not even
need to know about it, for they are saved by the death of Jesus. But
Paul is careful to make clear that this is not true. You are saved when
you personally believe. Faith, therefore, is the hand that takes this
gift that God offers. What good is a gift if you do not take it? Gifts
can be offered, but they cannot be used until they are taken. When that
occurs, then the gift becomes effective in the life of the one who takes
it.

The third element that describes how we obtain this gift is in the
phrase, "justified freely by his grace." Do you see what that says? It
is God who does this. If you try to say, therefore, that there is
anything man must do to be justified, you will destroy the gift, because
it is all of God. We are justified, declared righteous, declared of
worth in God’s sight, by his grace. If you add baptism to that, or
church membership, or anything else, then you destroy the grace of God.
It is freely and completely and wholly God who saves us. We do not
contribute a thing. Have you ever sung the hymn, "Nothing in my hand I
bring; simply to Thy cross I cling"? That is one beautiful way of
expressing this truth.

The last word in this section is this: It is "through the redemption

that came by Christ Jesus." That is, Christ is the one who accomplished
something that does the work of redemption. Here we are brought
face-to-face with the cross, with the death of Jesus, and the apostle is
underlining this fact. Many churches are given over to following the
teachings of Jesus, but hardly ever refer to his cross. If you find a
so-called Christianity that does not emphasize the cross, you are
listening to "another gospel" which is not the true gospel. The real
gospel is based only upon the redemption which Jesus accomplished in his
cross.

Paul now gives a brief explanation of how and why this redemption works.
verses that follow.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith

in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because
in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand
unpunished -- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the
present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the
man who has faith in Jesus. {Rom 3:25-26 NIV}

I want you to give very careful attention to these words. This is the
heart of the gospel, and the ground of assurance. Many people, even
though they become Christians, struggle with assurance. They do not rest
upon the fact that these words are true, so they are filled often with a
struggle of doubts and uncertainty. They have a sneaking suspicion, deep
inside, that perhaps, despite all these wonderful words, God is still
not quite satisfied; if something should happen to them, they might be
lost. I want you to pay very careful attention to Paul’s argument here,
because this is the answer to that struggle.

First, he says that God has accomplished a propitiatory sacrifice. God

presented Jesus as a "sacrifice of atonement" (that is the phrase here)
through faith in his blood. His words, "sacrifice of atonement" are
really translating a single word in Greek ( hilasterion , for you Greek
students), which is translated "expiation" in some versions, and
"propitiation" in others. I know that those words are theological terms,
and may not make much sense to you. But I want you to understand their
meaning, because this is the heart of the gospel.

Expiation is that which satisfies justice; propitiation is that which

awakens love. Both of these terms are involved in the death of Jesus,
but expiation does not go quite as far as propitiation. Propitiation
carries us clear through to the awakening of God’s love toward us. That
is why I think "propitiatory sacrifice" is a better translation than the
word "expiation."

Let me illustrate the difference. In these days we often read of

industrial accidents. Let us say that someone has been injured in the
course of his work, and has been partially paralyzed. The company is at
fault, having neglected to provide safety equipment, thus creating the
conditions that put this man in danger. So the company is held
accountable for the man’s injury and subsequent paralysis. Therefore the
court awards this man a tremendous sum of money, to be paid by the
company. When the money is paid, the company has expiated its
wrongdoings; it has satisfied the demands of justice. It no longer has
any responsibility toward this man; it has paid its costly debt. That is
what expiation means.

But that does, not say anything about how the man feels toward the
company. He may yet be filled with resentment, bitterness, even hatred.
He may spend the rest of his life abhorring the name of that company,
even though it has given him all the money he could possibly use. The
debt has been expiated, but it has not been propitiated.

What Paul is saying here is that human sin has injured God, just as that
man was injured by the negligence of the company. Our sin has hurt and
injured God, and justice demands that we be punished for that sin in
some way. In the death of Jesus that punishment was accomplished, so
that God’s justice was satisfied. If you read this as expiation, that is
all the cross means. In a way, it means that it paid God off, so that he
no longer holds us to blame. But that is not all that Paul is saying
here. The word means also that God’s love has been awakened toward us,
and he reaches out to love us, and grants us the feeling of worth and
acceptance and value in his sight. That is what propitiation means, that
is what the death of Jesus does. It did satisfy God’s justice, but it
went further; it awakened his love, and now he is ready to pour out love
upon us.

Paul shows us why this had to happen, beginning in the middle of

He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his

forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand
unpunished -- {Rom 3:25b NIV}

What is he talking about? He is referring to all the centuries when God

apparently had done nothing about the wrongdoings of men. We find people
questioning this yet today. They say, "Where is the God of justice? How
is it that a just God lets these tyrants rise up and murder millions of
people? How can he let people live in poverty and squalor and filth? He
never seems to do anything about oppressors! Where is the justice of
God?" Those questions have been raised for centuries; in fact, we even
find them in the Psalms.

We have to face the fact that the last time in history that mankind got
a clear idea of God’s holy justice was the time of the flood. In
response to the wickedness of men toward other men, God wiped out the
whole human race, except for eight people. The flood was a testimony to
God’s sense of justice, but there has never been a manifestation of it
to that degree since that time. So the question arises in human hearts,
"Doesn’t God really care? It doesn’t matter whether you do wrong or not,
God will let you get away with it. God won’t do anything to you." David
writes, "Why do the wicked flourish, and the righteous suffer? Where is
the God of justice?" Now, God has been patiently restraining his hand,
in order that the human race may continue to exist, but people do not
see that. Therefore the justice of God seems to be compromised by his
self-restraint.

But the cross settles that. The cross says that God remains just. All
the stored-up punishment amply deserved by the human race, is now poured
out without restraint upon the head of Jesus on the cross. God did not
spare his Son one iota of the wrath that man deserves. Just because
Jesus was his beloved Son, he did not lessen the punishment a single
degree. All of it was poured out on him. That explains the cry of
abandonment that comes from the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" {Matt 27:46, Mark 15:34}. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
Jesus faced the possibility of being shut away from all love, all
beauty, all truth, all warmth, all acceptance, the possibility of being
forever denied all that makes life beautiful. There he faced the
eternity of emptiness in the judgment of God, and this is what he
experienced on the cross; all of it was poured out on him.

Paul’s argument is that he did it to demonstrate his justice at the

present time -- so as to be just, and yet be free to extend love to us
who deserve only his justice. That is the glory of the good news of the
gospel. God’ s love has been freed to act toward us, and his justice
satisfied, so that it is no longer compromised by the fact that he
forgives sinners.

In the closing paragraph, Paul gives us the results of this forgiveness.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle?

On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we
maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing
the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of
Gentiles, too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one
God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the
uncircumcised through the same faith. Do we, then, nullify the
law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. {Rom
3:27-31 NIV}

Paul raises and answers three simple questions to show us the natural
results of this tremendous acceptance that God gives us in Jesus Christ:

First, who can boast? No one, absolutely no one. How can you boast when
everyone receives the gift of grace without any merit on his part? This
means that any ground for self-righteousness is done away with, and this
is why the ugliest sin among Christians is self-righteousness. When we
begin to look down on people who are involved in homosexuality, or
outright wickedness, or greed, or gambling, or whatever -- when we begin
to think that we are better than they are -- then we have denied what
God has done for us. All boasting is excluded. There are no grounds for
anybody to say, "Well, at least I didn’t do this, or this, or this." The
only ground of acceptance is the gift of grace.

Then, no one is excluded from grace, Jew or Gentile. No special

privilege or favor counts in God’s sight. He has no most-favored-nation;
they are all alike before him. Paul argues, "Is God the God of Jews
only? Then there must be two Gods -- one for the Jews and one for the
Gentiles. But that cannot be; there is only one God; God is one."
Therefore he is equally the God of the Gentiles and the God of the Jews,
because both must come on exactly the same ground. This is the wonderful
thing about the gospel. All mankind is leveled; no one can stand on any
other basis than the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

Paul’s third question is, "Does this cancel out the Law or set it aside?
Do we no longer need the Law?" His answer is, "No, it fulfills the Law."
The righteousness which the Law demands is the very righteousness that
is given to us in Christ. So if we have it as a gift, we no longer need
to fear the Law, because the demands of the Law are met. But it is not
something we can take any credit for; indeed, whenever we act in
unrighteousness after this, the Law comes in again to do its work of
showing us what is wrong. That is all the Law is good for. It shows us
what is wrong, and immediately, all the hurt and injury accomplished by
our sin is relieved again by the grace of God, the forgiveness of God.

Receiving God’s forgiveness is not something we do only once; it is

something we do again and again. It is the basis on which we live,
constantly taking fresh forgiveness from the hand of God. John’s letter
puts it this way:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us

our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That is God’s gift, and we need all the time to take it afresh from the
hand of God. When we find ourselves slipping into self-righteousness,
when we find ourselves looking down our noses, when we find ourselves
filled with pride and acting in arrogance, being critical and calloused
and caustic and sarcastic toward one another, or feeling bitter and
resentful -- and all these things are yet possible to us -- our
relationship to a holy God is not affected, if we acknowledge that we
sinned. We can come back, and God’s love is still there. He still
accepts us and highly values us. We are his dearly loved children, and
he will never change.

That is what God’s gift of righteousness means to us. It is wonderful

good news indeed, that we never need fear. The God of ultimate holiness,
the God who lives in holy light, whom we cannot begin to approach, has
accepted us in the Beloved, and we stand on the same ground of worth
that he himself has. We can remind ourselves, as I seek to do every day,
of three things:
* I am made in God’s image -- therefore I am able to act beyond the
capacity of any animal on earth. I am not an animal; I am a man
made in God’s image.
* Second, I am possessed of God’s Spirit -- that means I am forgiven,
I am freed, and I am filled.
* Third, I am part of God’s plan -- I am part of the working out of
his purposes in the world today, and God will make everything I do
fit into his plan.

Therefore I can go on with purpose, and with confidence, and with love;
without guilt, nor any sense of inadequacy or fear. I have perfect
freedom to concern myself with the problems around me, and not be all
wrapped up with the ones inside. Those are all taken care of, and that
is truly wonderful.
Prayer

Our heavenly Father, these words are so remarkable, we can

hardly believe them. In fact, our hearts still struggle with
them at times. We just cannot believe that this can be
accomplished. But this is the clear declaration of your Word.
And we know that millions before us have believed these words
and found them to be true, and have gone shouting off to face
death itself with a confidence that they had nothing to fear
before your throne. We thank you for that. We pray that we may
live on this basis, and thus find the ground of forgiving each
other, and being tenderhearted and loving toward one another,
 knowing that we already have that gift ourselves, in Jesus
Christ our Lord. If anyone here has never yet come to that,
Lord, we pray that even now he or she might open his heart to
you, and say, "You are my Lord, and I invite you to reign in
my heart, and deliver me from my guilt." We thank you that
this will be accomplished as your Word has declared, in the
name of Jesus our Lord, Amen.

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Title: But Now

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 3:21-31
Message No: 7
Catalog No: 3507
Date: January 25, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
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made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE FATHER OF FAITH

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Today we are studying Romans, Chapter 4. Do you remember how this letter
from the Apostle Paul began? After a brief introduction, Paul declares,
in striking terms, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes: first for the Jew,
then for the Gentile," {Rom 1:16 NIV}. In those words you have the theme
to the book of Romans. It is the "glorious gospel of the blessed God"
possesses something that men desperately need and search for everywhere.

Yesterday morning in Cincinnati, I spoke to a beautiful young woman who

had been divorced a few weeks before. Her husband had deserted her and
had run off with another woman. This young woman was a Christian, but
she was very much afraid even to contemplate what was ahead for her. She
confessed that she was upset and nervous, uncertain of what to do,
afraid of the future. As I talked with her I could see that what was
troubling her was a lack of any sense of self-worth or respect for
herself as a person. Therefore she lacked confidence in herself and
feared what would happen to her.

Today you can buy books by the score on the subject of the need for
self-worth. It is called self-image, or a sense of significance to your
life, or loving and being loved, or accepting and being acceptable:
These things are what is meant by the word righteousness in Scripture.
Righteousness lies at the heart of the gospel. Paul says in Romans 1:17
{NIV}, "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed." Paul is
talking about that gift of self-worth, that gift of significance, which
you can have in the gospel, not only at the beginning of your Christian
life, but every day thereafter. It is the ground upon which you face
life and the place from which you operate -- it is a gift of the grace
of God.

One of the clearest examples of this in Scripture is Abraham, and, in

this fantastic gift of righteousness, this gift of worth and standing
and acceptance and significance before God. Abraham is one of the great
names of all history. There are very few names that are known and
honored throughout the world in the entire record of human history, but
the name Abraham is. He is known, revered, and honored by three faiths.
Jews, Muslims, and Christians all honor the name of Abraham. Here is a
man who, by any reckoning at all, stands head and shoulders above most
of the human race. Paul uses Abraham as an example especially for the
Jewish readers of this letter.

morning. In these twelve verses Paul discusses three important questions

about Abraham:
1 How was Abraham made righteous?
2 When was Abraham made righteous?
3 And why was Abraham made righteous?

That is the outline of our study this morning. Let’s take this first
one, as Paul introduces it in Verses 1-3:

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather,

discovered in this matter [that is, in regard to being
acceptable before God] ? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by
works, he has something to boast about -- but not before God.
What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness." {Rom 4:1-3 NIV}

Paul says that Abraham our forefather discovered two ways to gain a
sense of worth: One, Paul suggests, is by works. Abraham was a man of
good works. In Genesis, the very first account of Abraham, when he was
living in the city of Ur of the Chaldea in the Mesopotamian Valley,
describes him as a religious man. Abraham was an idolator and worshipped
the moon goddess. But he was not deliberately seeking to evade God. He
worshipped the moon goddess in ignorance. It was in the midst of that
condition that God appeared to him and spoke to him. Abraham believed
God, responded to his call, and set out on a march without a map. He
trusted God to lead him to a land he had never seen before, to take care
of his family, and to lead them into a place that would fulfill the
promises of God. So Abraham appears in the Scripture as a man of great
works.

Paul says, "If in fact Abraham was justified [i.e., made righteous] by
works, he had something to boast about." Abraham thus discovered early
in his life one way of gaining a sense of significance, importance, or
self-respect -- performance. If you can give a good performance in any
endeavor you will be highly thought of, you will gain a sense of being
appreciated, you will have a feeling of self-respect, and you will be
able to function on that basis.

Paul admits that if Abraham was righteous because of works, he had

something to boast about. Works always give you something to boast
about. You can look at the record, you can show people what you have
done and why you ought to be appreciated. You may not boast openly, but
we all have very subtle ways and clever tricks of getting it out into
the open so people can see what we have done. You can drop a hint of
something you have done, hoping that people will ask some more about it.
Somehow you manage things so that people will know you are a person of
significance. That is the way the world is today, and the way it was in
Abraham’s day.

That may work before men, but not before God. God is never impressed by
that kind of performance. In fact, God, who sees the heart, is not
looking at outward performance; he knows what is going on. He knows the
selfishness, the greed, the grasping, the self-centeredness, the
ruthlessness with which we cut people out and harm those we profess to
love. He sees all the maneuvering and manipulating, the clever arranging
that goes on in our lives and in our hearts. Therefore, to his purposes,
that beautiful performance is utterly invalid, worthless, to God. That
is why the sense of righteousness that results from our performance
before men never lasts. It is but a temporary shot in the arm that we
need to repeat again and again, almost as though we were addicted to it.
But it will always let us down in the hour of crisis. It is only the
righteousness that comes from God that is lasting and will work -- not
only in time, but for all eternity. That is what Abraham discovered. He
discovered that righteousness which comes from performance is worthless.

How did he discover this? Paul says, "What does the Scripture say?" Paul
refers to the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, where God appeared before
Abraham. He took him out one night and showed him the stars in the
heavens. "Abraham, look up!" Abraham looked up into the stillness of
that oriental night, with the stars blazing in all their glory. God said
to him, "If you can number those stars, you can number your descendants.
Their number will be far more than all the stars of heaven." And, Paul
says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness" -- self-worth, standing before God, acceptance, a sense
of love and value in the sight of God.

It says that "Abraham believed God," but we have to be careful. These

Old Testament accounts are highly condensed versions. They do not give
us the details. We have to fill them in from elsewhere in Scripture, and
oftentimes we need to use a bit of sanctified imagination, guided by
what the passage gives us. From other passages we know that God did not
just say, "Abraham, see the stars? So shall your seed be." But we learn
that God explained to Abraham what he meant by "seed."

In the letter to the Galatians, Paul tells us that God made it clear to
Abraham that when God said, "so shall your seed be" {cf, Gal 3:16}, he
was talking about Jesus Christ, who would be the seed of Abraham. God
evidently explained to Abraham that there was One coming who would
fulfill all the promises that Abraham would have a heavenly seed as well
as the earthly seed of his physical descendants. With regard to his
spiritual descendants God said his seed would be Jesus. It is through
Jesus that all Abraham’s seed would be fulfilled.

That is why, on one occasion, when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees,
they said to him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them. "If
Abraham were your father, you would believe me, because Abraham saw my
day and was glad," {cf, John 8:56}. So God evidently explained to
Abraham, and Abraham understood by faith that the seed of righteousness,
Jesus the Lord, was coming and that he would die on the cross to remove
the penalty and guilt of man’s misbehavior and to settle the question of
the justice of God. He would rise again from the dead as a living Lord
to give his life to men and women everywhere, thus fulfilling the
promise to Abraham. Abraham believed God. He believed God’s promise
about the seed, and so he was justified, made righteous, given the gift
of a sense of worth.

Interestingly enough, when James quotes this passage from

credited to him as righteousness," then he adds, "and he was called
God’s friend," {Jas 2:23 NIV}. That is acceptance, isn’t it? Abraham
became God’ s friend -- not because he behaved so well, or because he
was a godly man and obeyed God -- he became the friend of God because he
believed God’s promise about the seed. Abraham is a beautiful example of
what Paul is talking about here in Romans.

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a
gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not
work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is
credited [or reckoned] as righteousness. {Rom 4:4-5 NIV}

Here is an illustration taken from common life, and it is very up to

date. Tomorrow I must sit down and fill out my income tax. There is a
very tantalizing regulation in the income tax law that awakens my
cupidity every year. The rule says that if you have money given to you
as a gift, it is not taxable. I keep looking for ways that will make it
appear to the IRS that all the money I receive from my various functions
as a pastor is really a gift. But the IRS will never buy it. They insist
that if you work, what you are given is not a gift, but wages, and must
be reported.

This is exactly the argument Paul uses. If you work for something, then
what you get is never a gift, it is what you have earned. You have it as
a result of your labor; it is an obligation that must be paid. Therefore
you yourself can take the credit for having earned it. But then Paul
work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as
righteousness." He is reckoned righteous -- not because he earned it,
but as a gift. Who is Paul talking about? From the context it is clearly
Abraham. This could read:

However, to this man Abraham, who does not work, but trusts
God who justifies the wicked, the ungodly, his faith is
credited to him as righteousness -- worth, acceptance,
standing, and love from God. {Rom 4:5 RCS Paraphrase}
This is an amazing declaration of the gospel. It is startling to think
that Abraham was a wicked man, but he was. Anybody who tries to earn
acceptance, to earn God’s love, to earn a place of respect and standing
before God by trying hard to do things for him, is a wicked person. That
is what the Scriptures say. We are trying to gain something by our own
merit that can never be gained that way. Therefore it is the height of
wickedness.

Many, many Christians fall back into this trap. Having once accepted the
Christ and believed on him for their eternal destiny, they spend the
rest of their lives trying to gain a sense of God’s approval and love by
hard, exhausting, committed, dedicated labor. And you can never win
God’s love that way. You never know when you have done enough. You
cannot earn the gift of love, but it is yours if you take it by faith in
Christ, fresh every morning.

Paul now brings in another illustration from the Old Testament to

confirm this. He says David expressed the same idea when he spoke of the
blessedness of the man to whom God credited righteousness apart from
works. Paul says David is another man who gained this wonderful basis of
operation -- not by his performance, but by his faith. In

against him." {Rom 4:7-8 NIV}

Those of you who heard Stuart Briscoe Wednesday night heard a marvelous
exposition of similar words in the fifty-first Psalm. During a Monday
morning breakfast, he gave a beautiful exposition of the thirty-second
Psalm which Paul quotes here. The remarkable thing is that David found
this gift of self-worth before God when he was tortured by a guilty
conscience. His hands were red with the blood of the murder of Uriah the
Hittite, and he was troubled with a wrong spirit that had plunged him
into deep evil as the king of Israel.

Paul points out that Abraham failed to find righteousness by being

devout and moral; he found it when he believed in Jesus, the seed. He
was called the friend of God, not because he was such an obedient
servant, but because he believed in what God said. And the
bloody-handed, lustful king, David, failed to find righteousness by
being the king of Israel. In the midst of his evil he found it in Christ
when he believed God; he believed that God did not require the sacrifice
of animals, but a broken spirit that trusted in what God had to say
about the great sacrifice that was yet to come. And David is called a
man after God’s heart.

Now, would you like to be a friend of God, a man or a woman after God’s
own heart: This is what Paul is telling us. There is a way -- not by
your performance, but by your trust in Jesus’ life and death and work
and what it means for you every day.

The apostle moves on to take up the question of when this happens. He

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the

uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was
 credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was
it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It
was not after, but before! And he received circumcision as a
sign and seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while
he was still uncircumcised. {Rom 4:9-11a NIV}

I find a lot of people today who are very embarrassed by God’s emphasis
upon circumcision. Because of their upbringing, these people feel that
sex is dirty, and that our sexual organs are never to be discussed or
mentioned. They think that our bodies end at the waist. That, of course,
represents a very twisted view of human sexuality. God frequently
discusses circumcision. He chose it as the symbol of this marvelous
truth that we are talking about this morning, and he gave it to the Jews
for a specific purpose. God is not in the least embarrassed by that
fact, and I don’t think we should be either. Those who fail to think
through this whole matter of circumcision miss some very powerful
insights into human life.

Paul makes two points here:

First of all, Abraham was circumcised fourteen years after he was

pronounced righteous by faith, fourteen years after he was called the
friend of God. Therefore the ritual of circumcision cannot have any
saving value whatsoever. Abraham was already God’s friend fourteen years
before he was circumcised. You can see how effectively that wipes out
all the arguments of the Jews, from Paul’s day on, who claim that it is
the ritual that makes you acceptable. This, of course, cancels out the
modern equivalent of circumcision -- baptism. People are justified --
made righteous, accepted in God’s sight -- not by being baptized, but by
faith in the Lord Jesus, in his work and in his death.

I will never forget the young man who came into my study one day, Bible
in hand, and announced that he had been reading the Bible. He didn’t
know a lot about it, but he said, "Would you circumcise me?" I blinked
three or four times, then said, "Why?" He said, "I’ve been reading in
this Bible that if you want to know God you have to be circumcised. I
want to know God, so I want to be circumcised." I had the joy of telling
him what circumcision meant, that it was simply a sign of something that
was already true by faith. That boy became a Christian and is still in
our congregation and growing in the Lord.

The second point that Paul makes here is that not only is ritual
valueless in saving anyone, but that the real purpose of circumcision
was two-fold: It is a sign and a seal.

Now let us not be prudish at this point. I do not want to offend anyone
by what I say, but I just want to point out that God thinks this is
highly important. God says that he chose the place on a man’s body where
this sign, this rite of circumcision, would be placed. God chose to put
it on the male organ, and I think it is obvious why. God wants us to
remember what this ritual stands for. The most important thing you can
remember in your life is where you find love and self-acceptance and
standing and significance before man and God. So God placed it -- out of
all the parts of the body he could have chosen -- on this organ, because
a man, by nature, has to handle it several times a day. It is a sign,
therefore, that would be impossible to overlook.

Furthermore, Paul says, it is not only a sign, but a seal. A seal is a

guarantee of permanency. Once again, the rite of circumcision, which
removes the foreskin of the male organ, is an unchangeable act. Once it
is done, it cannot be undone. Therefore it is a guarantee of the
continuity of this great truth. It is God’s expressive way of saying
with visible force, "This is the ground of your life, the secret of your
functioning as a human being, this great truth of acceptance before me.
And it will never change."

righteous. Beyond the personal salvation of Abraham himself, God had

another reason.

So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been
circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to
them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not
only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the
faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
{Rom 4:11b-12 NIV}

The words "so then" really should be, "it was to make him" a father.
Paul is not talking about circumcision; he is talking about what
circumcision stands for: The gift of being made acceptable before God,
being loved by God, a gift of worth from God. That was given to Abraham,
not only for his own personal purposes, but to make him a father of many
more yet to come. Remember the stars in the heavens? That promise is yet
to be fulfilled.

We here today are not, for the most part, physical descendants of
Abraham. I happen to be. I learned several years ago from the
genealogist of the Stedman tribe that the Stedmans go back to Abraham,
through Ishmael. That makes me a physical descendant -- but I am not
boasting of that. However, we are spiritual sons and daughters of
Abraham when we, too, have received worth and self-respect by believing,
as Abraham did, that God meant what he said. And he gives us this gift
in Jesus Christ, quite apart from any merit on our part. This is what
fatherhood means.

Jesus illustrated this when he said to the Pharisees of his day, "You
are of your father the devil," {cf, John 8:44}. Now Jesus did not mean
that in some way the devil had been involved in their conception. What
he means is they were following the philosophy of the devil. They were
agreeing with and controlled by the philosophy of the devil, so they
were sons and daughters of the devil. The devil was their father.

Likewise, we think and act like Abraham when we trust that the basis of
our acceptance by God is what Jesus is and has done for us -- not
anything that we are doing. In this way Abraham is our father and we are
his spiritual descendants. Paul says this is true for those who are
uncircumcised, and yet who keep on believing in Jesus; and it is true of
those who are circumcised, the Jews, who also walk in the footsteps of
the faith of Abraham. So Jews are not saved by being circumcised; they
are saved by trust in God.

This is the great secret of life.

What a change this makes in your motivation if you know that you do not
have to earn God’s love, God’s favor, God’s forgiveness. It is already
yours.

You do not have to earn it, it is yours every day. There is nothing I
know that will set you free more than that.

You do not need to take your sense of worth from other people. You do
not need to maneuver and manipulate and cleverly show yourself as a
person of some significance. You are set free from that. You already
have the only standing that ever counts -- your standing before God.

So you can relax and give people love without demanding anything back.
That is what Christianity is all about.

That is a great gift, a fantastic gift.

Let us thank God for this.

Prayer

Father, we ask that you will forgive us for any lingering

desire in our heart to try to earn a standing before you, for
any hungering after the righteousness that comes from men -- a
gift of self-worth and self-image extracted from others
through manipulating and maneuvering and clever posturing.
Forgive us that, and help us accept this marvelous gift of
acceptance before you, this gift of worth given fresh every
day. Help us to live and operate on that basis as Abraham did,
and as Moses did, and as the other mighty men and women of God
did in the past. We know that these words are true. This is
the way you operate, and we can find the effect of them in our
lives today. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The Father of Faith

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 4:1-12
Message No: 8
Catalog No: 3508
Date: April 4, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE FAITH OF OUR FATHER

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning we are going to talk about faith -- a simple thing, but
hard for many to comprehend. Many people are confused on the subject of
faith.

Some think that faith is nothing but a mental assent to a truth -- that
if you believe a thing is true, then you are exercising faith. But faith
is more than simply believing something is true.

Some people believe that faith is a feeling, a feeling of confidence. If

you happen to have confidence, you have much faith; if you do not have
confidence, then you have little or no faith. Your faith depends upon
how much feeling you can generate. But that is not true faith, and that
kind of definition of faith deceives many people.

There are some who think that faith actually is a type of

self-deception. Somebody has said that faith is a way of believing what
you know is not true. There are people who actually try to believe
something that they know is not true. They talk themselves into
believing it and call that faith.

If you really want to know what faith is, you have to see it in action.
That is why the Apostle Paul, in Romans 4, brings in Abraham, the man of
faith. He is by no means the only man who has faith, but he is
pre-eminently qualified as a man of faith. Looking at Abraham you can
learn what faith is.

Abraham -- that gift of self-worth, that essential element which every

one of us desperately needs in order to function as a human being. We
found that it comes as a gift from God when you believe. That is what
the word "righteousness" really means. Abraham obtained righteousness by
faith. Today we are going to look at the faith of Abraham.

There are four things that the Apostle Paul points out about Abraham’s
faith:
1 First, we will look at the opposite of faith -- what faith is not.
Sometimes the best way to learn what a thing is, is by learning
what it is not.
2 Second, we will look at the effects of faith -- what faith does,
what it accomplishes.
3 Then we will look at what faith actually is -- the nature of faith.
4 Last, we will consider the beneficiaries of faith, or whom faith
helps.

It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received
the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through
the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live
by law are heirs, faith has not value and the promise is
 worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law
there is no transgression. {Rom 4:13-15 NIV}

Here Paul tells us that faith is not trying to obey and fulfill some
kind of law. It is not doing your best to try to live up to a standard
that you think you ought to live up to. That is the law, and no matter
what the law is or where it came from, trying your best to live up to it
is not faith. In that case, Paul points out, you are not living by
faith, you are living by works. Faith is not expecting God to accept and
love you simply because you have tried your best to obey some standard.
In fact, if you live on those terms, you will find that you cannot
receive what God wants to give you. Abraham is proof that this method
will never bring you the gift of righteousness. If you think that God is
going to accept, love, and forgive you because you have tried hard to do
what you think is right, you are on the wrong track. It will never work,
and Paul tells you why.

First, notice that Abraham received the gift, the promise of

righteousness, long before the Law ever was given. "It was not through
the law," Paul says, "that Abraham and his offspring received the
promise." In fact, if you look at Galatians 3:23-29, you find that
Abraham received the gift of righteousness 430 years before the Law was
given. So righteousness could not come by law, that is clear.

Second, the Law renders the promise worthless. "For if those who live by
the law are heirs [of the promise], faith has no value and the promise
is worthless." Now let me help you to understand that. If there is
anyone here who is quite athletic, I would like you to do something to
demonstrate this for us. I want you to stand here before the pulpit and
jump up and touch the ceiling. If you do that, I promise I will give you
a thousand dollars. I might have to borrow it, but I will give it to
you. Are there any volunteers? I’ll even let you stand on the platform.
No volunteers? Why? Because, you say to me, "Look, your promise is
worthless! You are asking something that no one can do. No one can jump
up and touch the ceiling by their natural strength. Your promise is
worthless." Even though I sincerely mean it, it has no value to you
because you cannot do it. This is what the Scriptures tell us.

What does the Law require of man? Basically, it requires something that
he cannot do. It asks us to love. That is all that the Law asks. It asks
that we love God with all our heart and strength and mind, and our
neighbor as ourself. That is all the Ten Commandments ask, that you act
in love all the time, without fail. Very simple, isn’t it? Jesus said
that love is the fulfilling of the Law. When you love people, you are
doing what the Law asks of you. Don’t say that by not being angry with
them or not hurting them you are loving them. Love is a positive thing.
Love is reaching out, and the Law requires that you reach out in love.

Now, if you cannot do that, the promise that comes with the Law is
useless. The promise is: "Do this and live." If you obey the Law, God
will accept you as righteous -- worth, value, and approval will be given
to you because you earned them by doing what the Law demanded. But if
you can’t, then the promise is worthless. And we can’t. We can’t love
everybody, and we don’t. We can’t love God like we ought. It is not only
that we won’t, but we can’t. Therefore the Law is worthless in obtaining
the promise.

But Paul does not stop there. He says there is another reason why you
will never be able to gain righteousness by trying to meet the
requirements of the Law. The Law brings wrath. It actually subjects you
to punishment if you don’t make it. And this is what we find. The Law
brings wrath. Wrath is defined in the very first chapter of Romans. It
is God’s removal of all divine protection -- you can do what you want.
Wrath is the removal of restraints from human beings. Three times in
up... God gave them over..." {cf, Rom 1:24, 1:26, 1:28}. That is wrath.
That is God saying you can have your own way.

of just two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done,"
and those to whom God is saying, "Thy will be done." That is wrath.

When God removes the restraints, we begin to fall apart. Therefore wrath
always results in the disintegration of the human personality.
Emptiness, meaninglessness, loneliness, and worthlessness possess us
because we feel abandoned and lost. We do not know where to turn, and
despair and depression press down on us heavily. That is always the case
when wrath comes in. The Law brings wrath.

Paul amplifies this by saying, "Where there is no law, there is no

transgression." He is explaining why the Law brings wrath. Where there
is no law, people do not deliberately disobey God; they disobey in
ignorance.

There are a lot of people today who fall into this category. I find many
young people who are living in immorality, living together without
marriage, in all innocence of any transgression. I actually believe that
many of them have no idea that there is anything damaging or destructive
or wrong about this. Some of them are so ignorant of reality that they
actually think that it is not hurting them or anyone else. This attitude
is widespread in our day. What these people lack is light. They have not
yet learned that what they are doing will cause them to fall apart. They
don’t see that it is destroying them in many subtle and effective ways
and that ultimately it will lead them into death and hell.

What Paul means when he says, "Where there is no law, there is no

transgression," is that death and hell are taking their toll on men
whether they know it or not.

reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not yet transgressed
(according to Adam’s transgression). By that he means that they were
acting in ignorance, and yet they were falling apart. When the Law comes
in, it makes you aware of what is wrong. In one sense, that only makes
it worse, because then you deliberately begin to disobey what God says.
But the Law also brings hope, because when things get bad enough, you
are ready to turn to the way that can deliver -- faith in the work of
Jesus Christ. That is why the Law will never bring us righteousness.
Faith is not works.

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by

grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring -- not
only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of
the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is
written: "I have made you a father of many nations." {Rom
4:16-17a NIV}
Here is faith in action. If law cannot achieve righteousness, what does
faith do?

First, the promise comes by it. You actually obtain what you are
desiring, this sense of being approved and loved and wanted and accepted
before God himself. You are a part of his family and you are forgiven of
all the past. All that is achieved by faith, not by seeking to earn it.
The promise comes by faith. What works could not do, faith does. That is
a fantastic promise.

this personal self-worth before God, which Abraham achieved, but it also
makes you the heir of all the world. In First Corinthians 3:23, the
Apostle Paul says, "All things are yours... and you are Christ’s; and
you will be indwelt, as Abraham was, with the Holy Spirit of God.
Galatians 3 makes clear that Abraham received that promise by faith, and
we receive it the same way Abraham did. So faith obtains the promise.

The second thing that faith does is to introduce the principle of grace.
Law and grace are opposed to one another in certain ways. They do not
cancel each other out, they simply do two different things. We need
both; we need law and we need grace. Do not ever say, "I am under grace,
therefore I have no need for law." The Bible never takes that position.
It is Law that helps you come to grace, and without it you never would
come. But law and grace do not have the same functions. It is grace that
lays hold of the promise.

Now what is grace? There are many ways to define it. I love the one that
says it is enrichment that you don’t deserve: God’s Riches At Christ’s
Expense. It is all the richness of life -- love, joy, peace, and the
fulfillment of the heart’s longing -- all that enriches your life and
that you do not deserve. It is given to you, therefore it is a gift.
There is an old hymn that puts it well:

"Do this and live!" the Law demands,

But gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better word is "Grace doth bring."
It bids me fly, but gives me wings.

The Law condemns; grace enables. When grace comes in, it guarantees the
promise. If you and I had to earn the standing that we have before God
-- not only at the beginning of our Christian life but every day through
it -- we would certainly fail somewhere along the line. If it depended
upon us, somewhere we would blow it and lose the whole thing. But if it
comes by grace, if it is purely a gift and it does not depend upon us at
all but upon God alone, then it is guaranteed to us -- because he is not
going to fail. That is why Paul says, "Therefore the promise comes by
faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s
offspring -- not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who
are of the faith of Abraham." There are offspring of Abraham to whom
this guarantee is made. We will see more of that in just a moment.

ready now to consider what faith actually is.

 He [braham] is our father in the sight of God, in whom he
believed -- the God who gives life to the dead and calls
things that are not as though they were.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the

father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So
shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he
faced the fact that his body was as good as dead -- since he
was about a hundred years old -- and that Sarah’s womb was
also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the
promise of God," {Rom 4:17b-20a NIV}

Paul gives us three things that tell us what faith is:

1 First, he says the key is the object of faith. Don’t miss that.
2 Next, he shows us the obstacles to faith.
3 And then he tells us the objectives of faith -- where faith will
bring us.

Abraham, Paul says, believed God. God is the object. The quality of your
faith depends upon the object in which that faith has placed its trust.
The amount of faith you have has nothing to do with it. That is why
Jesus told us that even if we have a little tiny faith, like a grain of
mustard seed, it will work. The object of your faith is the important
thing.

You may leave this service this morning and go out to the parking lot
with the utmost faith that when you get into your car and drive down the
driveway and into the street your car is going to work just as it was
working when you parked it there this morning. But maybe, while we were
sitting here this morning, someone took off the hubcaps and removed the
lug bolts from the front wheels of your car, and then put the hubcaps
back on so you cannot see any difference. That may have happened. And
though you have the utmost confidence that you car is going to work
properly, when you get onto the street and turn the corner, sooner of
later the front wheels are going to fall off. You might end up dead --
killed by faith! On the other hand, some of you who have been worried a
bit by what I have just said may go out to your car after this service
and take off the hubcaps and examine the lug bolts to make sure they are
there. And even then, not too confidently, you may start your car and
drive it rather timidly down the driveway, still thinking that something
might go wrong and it may fall apart. But if no one has tampered with
it, you are perfectly safe -- even though you have little faith --
because the object of your faith is strong. That is why you should not
talk about your faith ; talk instead about the God in whom your faith is
fixed!

That is what Abraham looked at. It is not a question of how little or

how big your faith is; it is a question of how big your God is! What
kind of a God is he?

There are two things about this God that helped Abraham tremendously:
* First, he is the God who gives life to the dead -- the God who
makes dead things live, who takes things that once were alive,
vibrant, and full of life, but have died and become hopeless, and
brings them to life again; and
* Second, he is the God who "calls things that are not, as though
they were." He calls into existence the things that do not exist.
He is a creative God.
In the book of Genesis, it is recorded that God said, "Let there be..."
and there was. Over and over, for a week, God said, "Let there be..."
and there was. Until, after six days, he rested. That is the kind of God
that Abraham had: The God who gave life to the dead and who called into
existence things that did not exist. It was that God in whom he fixed
his faith.

Now let us look at the obstacles to faith. Whenever you have faith or
are called to exercise faith, there are obstacles. Abraham teaches us
this. There are horrendous obstacles, and Abraham faced two of them.
First, there were hopeless circumstances. "Against all hope, Abraham in
waver [or stagger] through unbelief regarding the promise of God..."
That is, the promise itself was the second obstacle to faith because it
had such staggering possibilities. It was too good to be true! It was
beyond belief that God would make him heir of all the world and give him
a standing before God that he didn’t deserve. It was too good to be
true, so it was an obstacle to faith. Isn’t that interesting? There are
two obstacles to faith: hopeless circumstances and staggering
possibilities. Let us see what Abraham did with them.

What were the hopeless circumstances Abraham faced? Paul tells us there
were two: Abraham’s body and Sarah’s womb. Abraham’s body was a hundred
years old and was sexually dead. The promise of God hung on the fact
that there must be a child born to Abraham and Sarah. Through that child
would come all the descendants from the nations of the world that would
be blessed by Abraham. And, more important yet, through that child would
come the Seed, which was Jesus Christ, whom Abraham saw and rejoiced in,
and who would make possible the gift of righteousness. Everything hung
on the birth of a baby.

Abraham looked at the circumstances and saw his hundred-year-old body

and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. She was ninety years old and had
never had a baby. They had been trying for years and years, and no baby
had come. These were the hopeless circumstances.

Now, here is the beauty of Abraham’s faith. Paul says that he faced the
facts. I love that. In this translation it says that "without weakening
in his faith, he faced the fact..."

Many of us think that faith is evading the facts -- escapism, some kind
of dreamy idealism that never looks at facts, a kind of unrealistic
adventuring in which you hope everything is going to work out. It is
never that!

Abraham looked at the facts. He faced them head-on. He considered his

dead body and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. He sat and thought about
it, and he saw how hopeless the situation was. There was no chance at
all! His body was a hundred years old and Sarah’s womb was ninety years
old and had never borne children. She was far past the age of
childbearing. It was hopeless.

There was no hope, yet Abraham believed in hope. How? Because when he
looked at his dead body he remembered that he had a God who raises the
dead. And when he thought about Sarah’s barren womb, he remembered that
he had a God who calls into existence the things that do not exist. That
would take care of everything, wouldn’t it? And so, against all hope, he
believed in hope, because of the God in whom his faith was fixed.

Then he did one other thing. It is not mentioned here, but this has
always intrigued me. He told Sarah what God said. I have often wished I
could go back in history and observe certain times, and this is one of
them. I would have loved to have been a bug on the tent wall when
Abraham came in to tell Sarah this news! Can you just imagine it? He
came in and she said, "Well, dear, your eggs are ready. What have you
been doing?" He said, "Oh, I’ve been having devotions, and what a
wonderful time I had! God told me something." She said, "Well, what was
it?" Abraham said, "Well, I don’t really know how to put this." "What do
you mean?" Sarah asked. "Well," he said, "you’d better sit down. God
told me something very startling that is going to happen to us." "That’s
interesting!" she said. "What is it?" Then, like a man, he just blurted
it out. "You’re going to have a baby!" And Sarah said, " What? " Abraham
said, "That’s what God said. You’re going to have a baby." "What, me ?"
"Yes, you!" "Why, how can it be? Abraham, did you stop at the wine shop
on your way home this morning?" And Sarah laughed. It says so in
Genesis. Sarah laughed, "Ha! God said that I’m going to have a baby?"
{cf, Gen 18:12}.

But then Sarah did something else. God had said something to Abraham
that applied to Sarah and Abraham must have told her. And I am convinced
that Sarah must have made a little plaque and put it over the kitchen
sink and meditated on what God said. He said: "Is there anything too
hard for God?" {cf, Gen 18:14}. When God says that he will do something,
is there anything too hard for God? And you know, when Sarah began to
feel pregnant, her faith laid hold of that promise again. And when the
baby came, Sarah was a woman of faith, because she had been thinking of
the God for whom nothing is too hard.

There is the faith of Abraham. How did he deal with these staggering
possibilities? It is unbelievable that all nations should be blessed
through them. He would be heir of the world, he would be called the
friend of God. Could it be? But Abraham remembered that he had a God who
gives life to the dead and a God who calls into existence things that do
not exist. And so he believed.

... but [he] was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to
God," {Rom 4:20b NIV}

His faith was made strong. Faith grows. Jesus said it would. If you have
faith like a tiny little grain of mustard seed, but the object of your
faith is trustworthy and has promised to do something, then exercise
your faith and it will grow. Obey. Abraham did; and as he believed and
obeyed, he was strengthened in his faith and he gave glory to God. Faith
never glorifies man; it glorifies God. It is God who acts, not we. What
is accomplished is not something we do on behalf of God; it is God who
does it by us and through us, on his own behalf. God, therefore, is
thanked; and God is glorified. So faith grows, and faith glorifies.

... fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had

promised. That is why "it was credited to him as
righteousness." {Rom 4:21-22 NIV}
Faith grounds us on the truth, as it did Abraham. He was fully
persuaded. This is the faith that was credited to him as righteousness.
Faith grasps the promise. Faith lays hold of what God has offered. As
Abraham’s faith grew, he grasped the promise and found himself loved and
accepted by God, a friend of God.

The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him
alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness
-- for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from
the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was
raised to life for our justification. {Rom 4:23-25 NIV}

Isn’t that interesting? This happened two thousand years before Paul,
but Paul says God did not write those words for Abraham alone. For whom
were they written then? For us, today. We look at the faith of Abraham
and say, "That was extraordinary faith." Paul says it wasn’t; it was
ordinary faith. Anyone can exercise such faith if they want to.

You can have righteousness too. You can be a friend of God, accepted
before him, with worth and value in his sight -- not just once as you
begin your Christian life, but every day, taking it fresh from his hand.
You are forgiven of your sins, restored, every day afresh and anew -- a
thousand times a day if you need it. All that Abraham had -- the
promises of the world, the indwelling of the Spirit -- all are ours as
well.

This verse says the gift of righteousness is for those "who believe in
Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." He is still the God of
resurrection, the God who can raise from the dead. "He was delivered
over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our
justification." So we live by his death and by his life. Now if we
believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead and we are ready to
live on the basis of his death and his life for us, we, like Abraham,
are heirs of all the world. All these things are yours, Paul says. The
indwelling of the Spirit is granted to us moment by moment, and day by
day, all our life long. And we, like Abraham, are the friends of God.

If you have a God who can raise things from the dead and who can call
into existence the things that do not exist, you are going to be a very
exciting person to live with. You will never know when a thing that is
dead and dull and lifeless may be touched by the grace of God and
brought to life again. When something that you cannot possibly hope for
-- something which does not now exist, but which will be called into
existence by the God who calls into existence the things that do not
exist -- when such a thing is promised by a God like this, life is an
adventure.

That is faith, when all things are yours.

Do you have that kind of God?

You can settle that now in your own heart as we bow in prayer.
Prayer
 Father, how we thank you for this example of Abraham. What a
tremendous example of faith he is. How richly he has endued
us! By the example of faith, he has taught us how to trust
against the circumstances that surround us, when we have a
promise to oppose against it, the promise and a God who says
he will do something and who cannot fail. May our eyes
therefore be fixed upon that God. May we take from his hand
this morning the gift of righteousness which we need daily.
Lord, may we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus
Christ our Lord. We pray in his name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The Faith of our Father

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 4:13-25
Message No: 9
Catalog No: 3509
Date: April 11, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

REJOICING IN HOPE

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul’s letter to the Romans is a description of the power of God let

loose among the ruin of men. It is about the good news, the gospel of
Jesus Christ. God has found a way, through the death and resurrection of
the Lord Jesus, to justify the ungodly. Now, that includes us all,
because we are all ungodly. Romans teaches us that as God sees and
understands our hearts, he understands all that is there. As a result,
no one is able to stand upon his own righteousness in the presence of
God. As Paul has told us, "There is none righteous, no, not one," {Rom
3:10b KJV}. There is no sweet little old lady, or strong virile man, or
boy, or girl, who has lived a clean, moral life and who is able to stand
in the presence of the demands of the Law and the love of God.
Therefore, we are ungodly to start with.

If you understand that you are ungodly to start with, then you can be
justified -- because we have a God who has found a way to justify the
ungodly. As we have seen, to be justified means to be given the gift of
righteousness, the gift of loving acceptance before God. That is where
our lives start. If we are ungodly, we qualify. As long as we remain
self-righteous, we don’t have a chance. I hope we are facing facts as
they really are in our lives.

having been justified by faith. We can see this from the opening word of
the chapter: "Therefore ..." Obviously, as a result of what he already
has said, Paul is coming to certain conclusions:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
have gained access by faith into his grace in which we stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. {Rom 5:1-2
NIV}

That little word "rejoice" is the key to this whole fifth chapter. You
will find it again in the very next verse. In these first two verses
Paul says there are three results when we have really believed in Jesus
Christ for our justification, and we rejoice in these results. In
sufferings, ..." Have you gotten that far yet? That is a higher stage of
the apostle, with his very logical mind, says, "Not only is this so, but
we also rejoice in God ..." This is the third level of Christian growth.

There is the outline of the whole chapter: learning to rejoice at these

various stages.

As a Christian, if you really understand your theology, you will be

rejoicing, even in the midst of suffering. As I look around at
Christians, sometimes I wonder if they ever will grasp this idea. Some
of them look like they have been marinated in embalming fluid. They
never seem to rejoice. But Christian teaching and doctrine is designed
to produce a spirit that can’t help but rejoice. It is not something
artificial -- screwing on a smile and pretending that you are happy when
you are not. When you really understand Christianity, it will produce a
rejoicing spirit. (If you’re a glum-bum, just study the fifth chapter of
Romans and it will turn you into a glad-lad!)

In subsequent studies, we will look at this three-fold division of

1 First, we learn to rejoice in our spiritual position;
2 Then, to rejoice in our present troubles; and
3 Finally, we come to the place where we rejoice in God himself, our
powerful Friend.

This morning we will look at these first two verses only.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
 have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. {Rom 5:1-2
NIV}

When you find a word in Scripture that is repeated three or four times,
it is reasonable to conclude that it represents what the passage is all
about. The first thing that you learn as a Christian is that you are
justified by faith. To help us understand what that actually means, the
apostle brought in the example of Abraham. Way back before the Law was
given, before the ritual of circumcision, or before anything that we
usually associate with religion came into operation, Abraham was
justified by faith. Those two terms, "justified" and "faith," are
explained to us and demonstrated for us in the person of Abraham. "He
was justified" means that he was declared to be the friend of God. He
was acceptable to God, he was loved by God. He was God’s friend. What we
need to understand is that Abraham didn’t earn that. He was given that
right at the beginning of his relationship with God, when he believed
God. And that is what faith means. When Abraham believed that God could
and would do what he had promised, Abraham was declared the friend of
God and he entered into that close relationship with God that
characterized his life. Now that is what it means to be justified by
faith, to be given as a gift, this closeness, this nearness, this
dearness to God. You receive this with no merit on your part, but by
faith alone -- by believing the promise of God, according to the work of
his Son. That is justification.

Then, Paul says, there are three ways by which you can test whether you
really do believe that and have been justified by faith:

Since we have been justified by faith, the first result is that we have
peace with God. As you think about your life and your relationship with
God, if you really have believed that God justifies the ungodly, you
will have peace with God. You are a Christian. That means you are in the
family, you belong to the family of God. The war is over. All the
conflict between you; and God is ended; you are at peace with him.

ended in Europe, but that was a long way from the South Pacific. Though
we were glad that the fighting in Europe had ended, we still had a war
to fight. Out in the South Pacific there were many bloody battles yet to
come. But I will never forget the day it was announced that peace with
Japan had been signed in Tokyo Bay. All over the world, World
the people simply poured out into the streets. All over the city, lights
that hadn’t burned in years went on. There was dancing and shouting and
music and laughter, with thousands of people jamming the beaches and
streets of the city, rejoicing because they were at peace.

That is something of what happens in the heart when we understand that

we have been justified by faith. The war is over, we are at peace with
God. All conflict has ceased. I think there are at least four things
that are true immediately when you are at peace with God:

The first one is, you lose your fear of God. I think there is something
in all of us that instinctively fears God. I remember how awesome the
person of God seemed to me as a boy. My guilty conscience troubled me
when I thought of God. I thought God as a heavenly policeman, always
watching me, a stern and forbidding judge, ready to correct me and
straighten me out. I will never forget the joy that came into my heart
when I realized at God was no longer my judge -- he was my Father. When
you have been justified by faith, you no longer fear God as a Judge
because, according to this book and the promises of Scripture, it is no
longer necessary that God function as a judge in relationship to you. He
is now a loving, tenderhearted, compassionate father. Now, as a father,
he disciplines. That is what love does. But God is no longer a judge.
That beautiful picture our Lord gave us in the story of the prodigal son
-- is the picture of God as we learn to see him. Having been justified
by faith, we immediately lose our fear of God.

Second, we lose our fear of death. If we have been justified by faith,

we no longer are afraid to die. As a boy, I lived for a while in the Red
River Valley of North Dakota in a little Scottish settlement named after
Ayr, Scotland: Ayr, North Dakota. It was a Presbyterian settlement and
held to the old custom of ringing the bell of the church when someone
died. I can remember yet, lying in my bed, listening to the tolling of
the bell, knowing that someone had died, and feeling the cold clutch of
fear on my own heart as I faced the possibility of my own death. Someday
I would die. It could even happen while I was a boy. I knew it could,
because a friend of mine had died. I knew it could happen to me, and I
felt the fear of death.

Last week Hal Lindsey shared with us that certain psychologists and
psychiatrists are now admitting that the basic fear behind all other
human fears is the fear of death. The conflict with which we constantly
live is this shadow of the end that hangs over us all, this awareness
that someday this life is going to come to a close for us. Hebrews 2:15
speaks of that. It says, Jesus came "... that he might destroy him who
has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who
through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage," {cf, Heb
2:14b-15 KJV}. So when you come to understand that you’ve been
justified, you’ve been given a righteous acceptance by a loving father,
you immediately lose that fear of death. You are not afraid of what lies
beyond. You know it is not judgment, but glory.

Third, when you have peace with God, you have the answer to the attacks
of doubt and fear that the devil is able to bring into your life. I
think this is one of the things that troubles many young Christians.
They start out their Christian life with a sense of rejoicing and an
experience of peace. But after a while, there will come a time when all
that they have been believing and resting on and rejoicing in seems to
turn dull and cold and unbelievable. They don’t know what has happened.
They think they have just been kidding themselves about Christianity,
and now they have awakened to the cold reality of life. They do not
understand that the Scriptures tell us that this is the power of the
devil. Through his angels, he has access to us through our thoughts. He
can insert these troubling doubts and fears into our minds without our
being aware of it -- even against our will, at times.

I know there are some who think that after you’ve been a Christian
awhile you should reach a point when you never again have any doubts.
But you never do. I know some people think that pastors never have any
doubts about their salvation or their relationship with God. I can tell
you, that’s not true.

When I first came here to Palo Alto, there was a dear old Presbyterian
pastor associated with the work of this church when we met in the
Community Center. Some of you here will remember him. His name was
dear, alert, godly man, who was a tremendous help to me as a young
a call from him, asking me to come see him. I found him in deep distress
over his personal salvation. He told me, "I just feel like God is angry
with me. If I were summoned into his presence now, there is nothing I
could offer to him." I had to help that dear, godly old man, and remind
him again that he had been justified by faith in the work of Christ. I
reminded him that his salvation had nothing to do with what he was like,
but with Jesus, and what he had done. This is how you can deal with
these doubts and fears if you have believed you have been justified by
faith.

If you do not have that sense of peace, the way to get it back is not by
working on your feelings but by reviewing your justification. Go over
the facts again, remind yourself of what God has declared, and what kind
of a God he is -- Abraham’s God, who can raise the dead to life and call
into existence things that do not exist. He is able to perform what he
has promised. Then your faith is restored and you can handle these
doubts and fears.

Fourth, if you have peace with God, you have an answer to the accusation
of your own conscience when you sin. I know that many young Christians,
in that glory and first flush of love in their relationship with the
Lord, really think that they are not going to sin again. Sin seems to
them an impossible thing. Their hearts are so caught up with the love
that God has shown to them that they cannot imagine themselves going
back and doing some of the things they once did. But sooner or later
they will be back doing some of those things. Old habits will reassert
themselves, old ways of thinking will return. Perhaps they will not go
back to all that they did formerly, but they will go back to some. They
will sin again. Or it may be that after years of Christian life and
service, they will fall into some terrible thing they thought they never
would or could do again.

What do you say to your accusing conscience that says to you then, "Are
you a Christian? Could you possibly be a Christian and act like this?"
That is where justification by faith comes in. You remind yourself at
that time: "My standing and my acceptance by God does not depend upon
me. Even my sin doesn’t cancel it out. The whole essence of this truth
is that God has found a way to put aside my sin, by faith in the work of
his beloved Son on my behalf." That is why you read, at the close of
raised to life for our justification," {Rom 4:25 NIV}.

These are the ways you can test whether you really have believed it:
* Do you have peace with God?
* Are you freed from the fear of God and the fear of death? And
* Do you have an answer to the doubts and fears and attacks that come
from the enemy, those "fiery darts of the wicked one" {cf, Eph 6:16
KJV} that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6?
* Do you have an answer to the accusations of your own guilty
conscience when you fall, or sin?

Here is where the answer lies: You have been justified by faith.

Notice that Paul is careful to remind us again that our justification is

through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is never through ourselves. We have no
merit before God ourselves. We never deserve this, we never earn this,
and no matter how long we have served God as a Christian, and have lived
a clean and moral life, we can only stand on the ground of the work of
the Lord Jesus on our behalf. That is why Paul insists on saying this
again and again. He knows our prideful flesh. He knows that after we
have cleaned up some of the bad areas of our life we will begin to take
credit for it and think that we have deserved something from God. So he
faithfully reminds us that we are not deserving in this matter at all.
The first mark of our justification by faith, then, is that we have
peace with God.

The second mark is found in verse 2:

... through whom also we have obtained our introduction by

faith into this grace in which we stand. {Rom 5:2a NIV}

We have access to continued grace, to enable us to stand in the midst of

pressures and problems and trials and difficulties. This is a constant
supply, because we have instant access to God himself, the God of all
grace. That is the second way you know you are justified by faith -- you
see that you have this instant access to the grace of God -- to the
throne of grace, as the writer of Hebrews puts it.

There is a beautiful picture in the book of Esther that illustrates

this. Remember Esther, that lovely Jewish maiden, a captive in the land
of Persia? The king, seeking a bride, found her and made her his queen.
After Esther ascended to the throne as queen, a plot was hatched against
the Jews. The king, unwittingly, signed a decree that meant death for
all Jews in the land of Persia. Esther’s godly uncle, Mordecai, said it
would be necessary for her to go to the king and tell him what he had
unwittingly done. Esther knew that was a dangerous thing, because it was
the law of the Medes and Persians that no one could come before the king
without first being summoned by him. It meant death for anyone to dare
come before the king in that manner. There were no exceptions -- even
for a queen -- for this was the law of the Medes and the Persians and
could not be changed. Unless the king extended his golden scepter to
that person, he must die. Yet Esther knew that she had to dare to take
her life in her hands and go before the king.

The story tells us that she fasted for three days and three nights
before she went. I am sure that was to prepare her heart and her
courage. It doesn’t say what else she did during that time, when she was
getting ready to come before the king. With a wife, four daughters, and
a mother-in-law in my home, I’ve observed women getting themselves ready
for some years now. I’m sure that what Esther was doing was fixing her
hair. It probably took three days and three nights to get ready! Then we
are told that she dressed herself in robes of beauty and glory. When she
was all ready, she stepped into the audience hall of the king, appearing
all alone before him. The king was so smitten with her beauty that his
heart went out to her. He stretched forth his scepter and accepted her.
She had access to the king.

This is a picture of what Paul is telling us. Who would dare stand
before the God of all the earth, the God of majesty and power and
greatness and glory, unless he has been given access to the King. The
wonder of this promise is that, by being justified by faith, we have
been given access into his presence. Esther received from the king’s
hand all that she needed to handle this problem which was a threat to
her life. That is what this portrays for us. Dressed in robes of beauty
and glory that do not belong to us -- for they are the garments of Jesus
-- we have access to the King, to receive from him all that we need to
handle any threat that has come into our lives. We have continual
acceptance before him.
One phenomenon of our day that has always astonished me is the
persistent popularity of the program "Hogan’s Heroes." My daughter is a
fan of "Hogan’s Heroes," and every night I can hear the story of these
and how they always confound the German commandant by the schemes they
come up with. To the continual dismay of Colonel Klink, they keep coming
up with all kinds of unique weapons and various other things. They have
an unseen, undiscovered link with Allied Headquarters, and the
Underground supplies them with things they could never get otherwise. I
am sure the popularity of that program is due to the fact that we all
love to think that there are hidden resources supplying the underdogs
and keeping them going in the face of all kinds of difficulties. Surely
that is exactly what Paul is talking about here.

We do not get our strength from our circumstances; we get it from our
continual access to the power and presence of God in our lives in the
midst of danger or difficulty, trouble or pressure. Hebrews 10:19, 22
puts it this way:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the

sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, ... let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance of faith, {Heb 10:19, 10:22a NIV}

That means we have a supply, a resource, given to us in the hour of need

or danger.

Now look at the third thing that comes as a result of being justified by
faith:

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. {Rom 5:2b NIV}

That means that as we look at life ahead, even though life comes to an
end (and it will) that is not the end of the story. There is a confident
anticipation that something is beyond. We rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God.

Hope is not a word that means a mere possibility, a good chance. Hope,
as it is used in the Scriptures in this way, is speaking of a ringing
certainty, based upon the words of Jesus himself. "Because I live, you
shall live also" {cf, John 14:19}. "If I go to my Father, I will come
again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, you may be also,"
{cf, John 14:3}. That is the certain hope of everyone who has been
justified by faith. If you really have been justified by faith, you know
that you have the promise of God that he will do this, and that he is
able to do what he has promised.

That promise is given to us regardless of what our conditions here on

earth may be. It may be tough here. For some people it is very tough.
There are some Christians today who have nothing of the freedom and the
joy of relationships that you and I experience together. They are under
persecution, they are in danger, they wake up every morning with the
dreary expectation that they are going to have to live under the
watchful eye of some hostile person. Life may be cold and hard, it may
be filled with pain and sorrow, but the minimum promise to all who are
justified by faith is that there is a glory beyond death that is
absolutely certain.

I have a friend who lives in the Midwest. He told me one day of an

experience he had. He lives in the country, and one stormy morning, in
the dead of winter, he looked out his window and saw the mailman drive
up and leave something in his mailbox. Wanting to see what it was, he
dressed warmly and went out into the bitter cold, with the snow swirling
about him, and walked about a quarter of a mile down the lane to where
the mailboxes were located. He opened the mailbox and, to his
disappointment, all that was there was a seed catalog. But he opened it
up and began to thumb through it. You know, there is nothing like a seed
catalog to capture the beauty and brilliance of the flowers and
vegetables. As he stood there in the snow, suddenly he felt as though
spring had come. He could taste the crunch of a cucumber and smell the
fragrance of those red roses and feel the juice of a red-ripe tomato
running down his chin. It seemed as though winter faded away for the
moment and he was caught up into the beauty of spring and summer.

I think that is something of the experience that we get at times when we

read the Scriptures. Here, in the midst of "the winter of our
discontent," something of the glory that is waiting beyond, the hope of
the glory of God, breaks through.

I will never forget reading, as a young Christian, the words of Samuel

Rutherford, that dear old seventeenth century Scottish Covenanter. At a
time when the English Church was persecuting the believers in Scotland,
he was a dear and godly man who had come to know and love the Lord Jesus
and to understand these great truths in the Scriptures about the inner
strengthening that can come through faith. As he was lying on his
deathbed, he received a summons from the king of England to come to
London and appear on trial for his life. He knew he was dying. Samuel
Rutherford sent back by the messenger of the king this word: "Go and
tell your master I have a summons from a Higher Court; and ere this
message reaches him, I’ll be where few kings and great folks ever come."
That was the spirit of the man. He wrote many letters that reflect the
glory of his faith and expectations. Anne Cousin has gathered them up
for us. Some of them are arranged as hymns. One, which was D. L. Moody’s
favorite hymn, and mine also, is one we have sung many times.

The sands of time are sinking,

The dawn of heaven breaks,
The summer morn I’ve sighed for,
The fair sweet morn awakes.
Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
But dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.
O! Christ He is the Fountain,
The deep, sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted,
More deep I’ll drink above;
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.
With mercy and with judgment,
 My web of time He wove,
And eye the dews of sorrow,
Were lustered by His love.
I’ll bless the hand that guided,
I’ll bless the heart that planned,
When throned where glory dwelleth,
In Emmanuel’s land.
The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face:
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of grace;
Not at the crown he giveth,
But on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Emmanuel’s land.

That is the first stage of the Christian life -- just the beginning.
That is what you get, without fail, when you believe that you are
justified by faith; but it is just the start. Then we go on to handle
life and its suffering, and, finally, we end up rejoicing in God. But
everyone who has put faith in what Jesus Christ has done on his behalf
-- not in what he himself has done -- has come to a place of complete
assurance, continual acceptance, and confident anticipation. When you
have those, you know you have been justified by faith.
Prayer

We thank you, Father, for these riches that are given to us so

freely in Jesus. We don’t deserve them -- we never can, and
never will, Lord, but we have them because we have believed
your great and mighty promise. How we thank you for it. What
courage and strength this imparts to our feeble and faltering
hearts, as we face the problems of our life with these great
certainties underlying us. We have peace with God, we have
been reconciled. We have acceptance in your presence and
continual access to your help. We have been propitiated, and
we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. How we thank you
for that anticipation. We pray that we will be able to walk in
these terms and rest upon them all through this day and
through this week, and in every relationship that confronts
us. In the name of Jesus our Lord, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Rejoicing in Hope

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 5:1-2
Message No: 10
Catalog No: 3510
Date: April 25, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

REJOICING IN SUFFERING

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

When I was in Virginia this past week I met a number of wonderful

Christians -- some of whom I had met before, others who were new to me.
But one thing that impressed me was the number of people who were going
through very severe trials and suffering.

I met a man who was in bed with his wife one morning a year or so ago,
when their teenage son suddenly appeared in the doorway with a gun in
his hand. Without a word, he suddenly shot them both. When the mother
tried to crawl away, the boy shot her a second time. They both managed
to escape and called the police, who came and took their son to a mental
hospital. This man and his wife managed to survive that terrible time,
but I heard him speak to a group of men about it, and he said that God
had gotten his attention through that ordeal. He began to learn things
that he had never learned before.

I met another man whose son is so mentally disturbed that he has to be

kept in a very expensive hospital for treatment which costs $50,000 a
year. I met others who were battling with cancer. I was simply amazed at
the number of people struggling with severe problems.

I share this with you to let you know that our brothers on the East
coast have as much trouble as we do. So if some of you are going through
difficulty or danger, you are not alone. Suffering is something that all
Christians are called to experience in one way or another. And yet I
suppose there is no question that is more difficult for us to handle
than this one. "Why do Christians suffer?"

The theme for this study from the fifth chapter of Romans is how to
the results that come in a Christian’s life when he truly and genuinely
believes that God has given him the gift of righteousness in Jesus
Christ our Lord. If you have been justified by faith, then certain
results will be obtained. As we have already seen, these results come in
various stages, or levels of maturity.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have

 peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
have gained access into this grace in which we now stand. And
we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. {Rom 5:1-2 NIV}

The rejoicing comes immediately. We rejoice because we are going to be

with the Lord. We have a hope for the future, a hope beyond death. That
is the initial and introductory phase of Christian growth. But Paul goes
on. Not only is this so, but there is something more, and this is the

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we

know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance,
character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint
us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. {Rom 5:3-5 NIV}

It is clear from this that Christians are expected to experience

suffering. We don’t like that fact, but, nevertheless, it is a fact. In
Apostle Paul puts it very plainly, "For it has been granted to you that
for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also
suffer for his sake," {Phil 1:29 RSV}. So those who think that becoming
a Christian will remove them from suffering have been seriously misled
and self-deceived, for the Scriptures themselves teach that we are to
expect suffering.

The Greek word for suffering, basically, is translated as "tribulation,

something that causes distress." It can range from minor annoyances that
we go through every day, to major disasters that come sweeping down out
of the blue and leave us stricken and smitten. These are the sufferings
that we might go through, the tribulations.

rejoice: "Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings." Here is where
many people balk. They say, "I can’t buy that! Do you mean to say that
God is telling me that when I am hurting and in pain, going through
mental and physical torment, I am expected to be glad and happy and
rejoice in that? What kind of a nut is this Paul, anyway? It’s not
human, not natural!"

There are many who feel this way. I think we all easily reflect the
attitude of the lady whose pastor went to see her when she was going
through trouble. She kept complaining and grousing and griping about it.
He stopped her and said, "I don’t think you should talk that way.
Christians are not to do that." She was very upset. "Why, I don’t
understand, pastor. I think that when God sends us tribulation, he
expects us to tribulate a little bit!"

Most of us would feel the same way. We feel like tribulating, and we do.
But it is instructive to note that not only does Paul tell us to
rejoice, but this is the unanimous testimony of every writer of the New
Testament. We are told by all to rejoice in our suffering. First Peter
4:12 says, "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is
coming upon you to test you, as though some strange thing happened to
you." It is not strange, it is normal. James 1:2 says, "Count it all
joy, my brethren, when you fall into various tribulation." There is that
word again: joy, rejoicing. Even the Lord Jesus told us, in the Sermon
on the Mount, "Blessed are you when men persecute you for righteousness’
sake, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. [What
does he say?] Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward
in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets before you," {cf, Matt
5:11-12 KJV}. Paul’s call to rejoice in suffering is found everywhere in
Scripture.

Let us take a closer look at what this really means. There are certain
things it does not mean, though many people think it does:

First, it is clear from Scripture that rejoicing in suffering is not

simply stoicism. It is not simply a ’grin and bear it’ attitude, or
’tough it out’ and see how much you can take, or ’just hang in there
until it’s over’ and ’don’t let anything get you down,’ or ’keep a stiff
upper lip.’ Many people feel that if they do that, they are fulfilling
the Word and "rejoicing in suffering." But that is not it. There are
non-Christians who can do that. Many people pride themselves on how much
they can take. Sometimes people who are not Christians will put us to
shame by the things that they can take without complaining. Rejoicing in
suffering is not merely being stoical.

What else is it not? We are not merely expected to enjoy the pain. There
are some people who think "rejoicing in suffering" means that you are to
enjoy your pain and hurt, that somehow Christians ought to be glad when
terrible tragedy occurs and their hearts are hurting. That is not what
Paul is saying. But there are people who feel that way -- they are
called masochists -- they like to torture themselves. You have met
people like that, who aren’t happy unless they’re miserable. If you take
their misery away from them, they are really wretched, because it is
their misery that gives them a sense of contentment. That is a twisted,
distorted view of life. That is not what Paul is saying.

Nor is he saying that we merely are to pretend that we are happy. Some
think this passage is saying that when you are out in public, you should
put on an artificial smile and act happy, when inside your heart is
hurting like crazy. Now that is not it. Christianity is never phony.
Phoniness of any kind is a false Christianity. Neither the apostles nor
the Scriptures ever ask us to be unreal and phony. This Scripture
clearly tells us to have a genuine sense of rejoicing.

You may not be able to rejoice right at the moment of trial.

present is pleasant. But afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it," {cf, Heb 12:11}.
Right at the moment of hurt, you are not going to feel like rejoicing,
but it should soon follow that you rejoice in your suffering. And that
is what Paul plainly says: "We also rejoice in suffering."

I heard a man some years ago put this very clearly. Some of you may
remember this man. He was going through great physical trouble, and one
of his legs was amputated. That did not arrest the course of his
disease, and he ultimately died because of it. Just a few days before
his death I visited him in the hospital and he said something to me that
I never forgot because it so perfectly expresses what Christian
rejoicing in suffering means. He said, "I never would have chosen one of
the trials that I’ve gone through, but I wouldn’t have missed any of
them for the world!" Now that is saying it. There is an awareness that
this suffering has done something of supreme value; therefore, you
wouldn’t have missed it. But you wouldn’t have chosen it, either! That
is rejoicing in suffering.
How do you get to the place where you can rejoice in suffering? That is
what this passage brings before us, and that is what we need to know.
The apostle’s answer is, "We rejoice in suffering because we know..." We
rejoice because we know something. It isn’t just because it’s such a
great feeling to be hurt, it is because we know something about it. It
is something our faith enables us to know, a kind of inside information
that others do not share. Worldlings lack it totally. Something that we
know will cause us to rejoice in our suffering.

What do we know? Paul says, "Knowing that suffering produces..."

Suffering does something, accomplishes something. It is productive. It
is of value. We know it works, and that is what makes us rejoice.

Watch a woman in labor; watch the expression on her face. If you have
any empathy in you, you can’t help but feel deeply hurt with her because
she is going through such pain. And yet, there usually is joy in the
midst of it because she knows that childbirth produces children. It is
the child that makes it all worthwhile. There are probably women here
this morning who will gladly go through childbirth again because they
want a child. Suffering produces something worthwhile.

Then what does suffering produce? The apostle says there are four things
that suffering produces:

First, suffering produces perseverance. In some versions the word may be

patience . The Greek word literally means "to abide under, to stay under
the pressure." Pressure is something we want to get out from under, but
suffering teaches us to stay under, to stick in there and hang with it.
These are some of the expressions that we use today, and I think they
are very valuable. Perseverance is the opposite of panic, of bailing
out. The best translation I can think of is the English word
"steadiness." Suffering produces steadiness.

When I was a boy in Montana, I used to help a man break horses, working
in a corral with 3-year-old horses that had never had saddles on their
backs. I was always interested in watching the horses when they first
felt a saddle thrown on their back. That must be a frightening
experience to an animal. They don’t know what in the world is happening
to them. Some horses will react with anger, rearing back and trying to
get away -- even striking out with their forefeet at their trainer.
Their nostrils flare, their eyeballs roll, and they panic! Others will
just stand there trembling, shaking like a leaf. They won’t move,
they’re so afraid. They don’t know what’s happening to them.

I think Christians respond that way, too. Do you remember when you first
became a Christian and went through a trial? How easily you panicked and
cried out to the Lord, "What’s gone wrong?" You were in a panic over
what was happening, fearful that it would wreck everything and destroy
your hopes and dreams. You were just like the disciples in the boat on
the Sea of Galilee when the storm was raging. They panicked. They came
to the Lord and shook him and said, "Wake up! Don’t you know we’re about
to perish?" {cf, Matt 8:25, Mark 4:30, Luke 8:24}. And the Lord did as
he does with some of us. He stood up and said, "Don’t panic." Then he
said to the storm, "Peace, be still," {Mark 4:39}. And quiet came.

That is what suffering does. It steadies you. You go through a time like
that and you’re all panicky; then the Lord stills the storm and you
think, "Thank God that’s all over. I’ll never have to go through that
again! I’ve learned my lesson!" And two weeks later, there is another
storm. But this time you’ve been through it once, so you steady up a
bit. You don’t get quite so panicky.

You learn something -- you learn about yourself, first. You learn that
you’re not as strong as you thought you were. You learn that you don’t
have the ’stick with it’ that you thought you had. You wanted to bail
out much sooner than you thought you would.

Then you learn something about the Lord -- you learn how gracious he is.
You learn that he can handle events in ways that you couldn’t dream of
or anticipate. You see him work things out in ways that you could never
have guessed. So the third and fourth times a trial comes up, you are
steadier. You don’t panic, you don’t bail out. You stay under and let it
work itself out. That is what Paul is saying here. Suffering produces
steadiness. If you didn’t suffer you would never have that quality.

Second, not only does suffering produce steadiness, but steadiness, Paul
says, produces character. The Greek word for character carries with it
the idea of being put to the test and approved. It is the idea of being
shown to be reliable. Steadiness produces reliability. You finally learn
that you are not going to be destroyed, that things will work out.
Steady up, and people start counting on you. They see strength in you,
and you become a more reliable person.

We have all seen the tire advertisements on television. A car is

equipped with four tires and is put through horrendous tests -- driven
through desert sands, bogs, swamps, and marshes, driven over rough,
hard, cobblestone roads, over roads with holes and chuck-holes, over
boards studded with nails. The tire is twisted and pulled and stretched
in every direction, and you are amazed at what that tire can take! After
the test is over, they hold the tire up and it looks like it’s never
been out of its wrapping! Then the ad comes: "Buy Sock’em Tires! They’re
tested, proven!" Now that is what this word character means. God is
building you up so he can hold you up and say, "He’s approved, he’s
tested." God is in the process of making veterans. I have always like
that word. A veteran has been through something and has been tested and
proven. Let me read to you from the Living Bible a passage I have always
loved, Second Corinthians 1:8-10:

I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time
that we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and
overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. We
felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to
help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything
into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can
even raise the dead. And he did help us, and he saved us from
a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and

Now, that’s a veteran speaking. He’s been through some tough things, but
he knows that God can take him through them, and he will. He isn’t
saying, "It’s all over." No, he is saying, "There’s more coming, but God
will take us through." That’s a veteran.

Years ago I stayed in a home and asked a 9-year-old boy there, "What do
you want to be when you grow up?" Usually you get the standard answers,
but I was amazed at his. I’ll never forget it. He said, "I want to be a
returned missionary." He didn’t want to be just a missionary, but a
returned one -- one that’s been through it and it’s all behind him. Here
Paul tells us that God is in the process of building returned
missionaries.

Third, we find that reliability produces something. Suffering produces

steadiness, steadiness produces reliability, and reliability produces
"rejoicing in hope," the hope of sharing the glory of God, a hope for
the future beyond death. But here is hope that we will share the glory
of God, which is God’s character, right now. We have the hope that God
is producing the image of Christ in us right now. That’s a great thing!
And this hope is a certainty, not just a possibility.

We are being changed. We see ourselves changing. We are becoming more

like Jesus. We can see that we are more thoughtful, more compassionate,
more loving. We are being mellowed. We are becoming like Christ --
stronger, wiser, purer, more patient. To our amazement, a certainty
grows in our hearts that God is doing his work just as he promised. He
is transforming us into the image of his Son.

That brings us to the fourth step that Paul mentions here, and that is
that hope does not disappoint us. (Although I am disappointed in that
translation.) I like the King James translation better. It says, "hope
does not make us ashamed." That is a figure of speech called litotes ,
which is the use of a negative to express a positive idea. Paul does
this in Romans 1:16 when he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Jesus Christ because it is the power of God..." What does he mean? He
means he is proud; he is confident and bold. I think that is the term
that we ought to use here. Hope makes us confident. Hope, or certainty,
produces confidence and boldness.

The man I mentioned earlier, who had gone through the terrible trauma of
having been shot by his son, stood up last week before a group of men
and told them how God used that situation to get his attention. He began
to study and to grow. As he spoke, it was evident that a man who
previously had been ashamed to speak of Christ was now confident and
bold. What the Lord had shown him, and how the Lord supported and
sustained him through this terrible tragic time means so much to this
man that he didn’t care what anybody thought about it. He shared openly
what God had brought him through. We lose our fear of ridicule and shame
and we speak up and share out of the reality of our experience of what
God has brought us through.

Paul goes on to explain why our hope does not disappoint us. He says it
is "because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, whom he has given us." Now, to my mind, this is one of the most
important verses in the book of Romans. It is a very significant verse
because it is adding a thought that we have not had in this book up to
now. It is the explanation, above all else, of how to rejoice in
suffering. You can see how important this is, because it is the first
mention in the book of Romans of the Holy Spirit. This is also the very
first time in this book that the love of God is brought in. Up to now,
Paul has not said anything about the love of God, but now it is "the
love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, who
is given to us."

We need to be very careful to see how Paul presents this concept here
because the love of God is the subject he develops in Verses 6-10. That
connection is important because these verses have been extracted from
their context and used for evangelistic preaching so many times that we
have forgotten what they originally meant.
 ... God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, whom he has given to us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a
righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly
dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more
shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when
we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the
death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall
we be saved through his life! {Rom 5:5b-11 NIV}

The argument here is extremely important. It will explain to us how to

rejoice in suffering. I know some Christians who are suffering, but are
not being made steady and reliable and confident. Instead, they are
being made bitter and resentful and angry, even to the point of denying
their faith. Suffering, you see, does not produce these qualities
automatically. You can go through suffering as a Christian and be filled
with anger and rage and resentment against God. What makes the
difference?

As Paul explains here, the difference is in seeing your suffering as

evidence of God’s love, and not his wrath. Then you will experience that
love in the midst of the suffering. The Holy Spirit will shed abroad in
your heart an experience of the love of God so rich and radiant and
glorious that you will not be able to help but rejoice in your
suffering. But, if you see your suffering as evidence of God’s wrath,
you will be rendered frustrated and angry and resentful and miserable.
That is why Paul brings in this description of God’s love for us.

I am sure that anyone who has gone through any degree of suffering knows
that in the moment of pain and hurt it is easy to feel that God does not
love you. It is easy to feel rejected, unloved. We are so used to
thinking that love is something that blesses us and warms us and takes
care of us that it is almost impossible for us to think we are being
loved when we are hurting. It is hard for us to believe that the one who
is doing the hurting is doing it out of genuine love for us. We feel
broken, we feel worthless, we feel forgotten. That is why we need to

Paul says there is a place where every Christian knows that God loves
him, even though he himself is worthless and useless and forgotten. What
is that place? It is the cross. In the cross of Jesus Christ you always
see two things: First, you see yourself. You see, as Paul puts it here,
that you are helpless. If there were any other way to get to God, then
there never would have been a cross. But the cross is God’s testimony
that there is no other way. That is why it says, "At the right time, in
due time, Christ died." At that time in history God amply demonstrated
to all the world that man could not save himself.

The great Hebrew prophets had spoken, and that didn’t help. Greek
philosophers had taught, and that didn’t help. The Romans had come in
with their military might, and law and order was imposed over the course
of the whole world of that day, and that didn’t help. At the right time,
Christ died on the cross so that men could see how helpless and
powerless they were to save themselves.

As we look at the cross we see how ungodly we are. We are not like God,
we don’t act like God. We have the capacity to do so, but we don’t. We
even want to at times, but we don’t. Therefore, we see in the cross how
unlike God we are. We see that we are sinners. We are involved in things
that are hurtful. We are destroying ourselves and others. We find
ourselves lawless and selfish at times, and we know it was man’s sin --
our sin, yours and mine -- that nailed Jesus to that cross. It was not
his own sin, but yours and mine. There we learn that we are enemies of
God, enemies sabotaging God’s plan to help us, wrecking everything he
tries to do to reach us. For years we fight back and resist God’s
efforts to love us and to draw us to himself.

We are the enemies of God. And yet we know, if we are Christians at all,
that in that place where man’s inadequacy is so fully demonstrated, we
also have the clearest testimony that God loves us. "God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son," {John 3:16 KJV}. Jesus came
to break through all our despair and weakness and shame and sorrow and
sin, all man’s ruin and disaster. He came to demonstrate a God who loved
mankind and would not let it perish.

Now we come to the force of Paul’s argument. If you clearly knew God’s
love when you became a Christian -- when you were enemies and helpless
and powerless -- how much more can you count on the fact that God loves
you now that you are his child? Even though you are suffering, even
though you don’t feel loved right now, even though it seems as though
God is against you, how much more you can count on the fact that God
loves you.

Paul is arguing from the greater to the lesser. If God could love you
when it was so evident to you that you didn’t deserve it, how much more
must you reckon upon his love now that you know that you are dear to him
and loved by him. Therefore, this suffering is not coming into your life
because God is angry with you; it is coming because God loves you. It
comes from the heart of a Father who is putting you through some
development that you desperately need to grow into the kind of a person
you desperately want to be. And he loves you enough that he will not let
you off, but will take you through it. Therefore it is not his anger you
are experiencing, but his love.

disciplined by the fathers of our flesh, and we know they love us, why
can’t we believe that God loves us when he puts us through times of
testing and pressure and suffering. When you see that truth, then you
can rejoice, because you know that suffering will produce the things
that make you what you want to be. There is a hymn that I think
expresses this idea beautifully. It goes like this:

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed, ’ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure;
His power no boundary known unto men.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
Prayer

Our Father, it is encouraging to us to realize that you are a

God of utter realism, that you know thoroughly and completely
the raw hurt, the agony, the pain, the bleeding that we can go
through. You don’t try to dress it up and make it look any
different. But nevertheless, Father, we thank you that you
assure us and reassure us that we are being loved all through
this time, that we are being tested and developed and made
into something we need and want very badly, and that you know
what you are doing. You are faithful and do not allow us to be
tempted above that which we are able to bear. You are even
showing us how much we are able to bear, when we think we
can’t bear very much. Thank you, Lord, for that. Thank you
that through the pressure and testing you give a deep sense of
joy. And as we understand that this is coming from your loving
hand, you, by the Holy Spirit, will release in our hearts your
love to us, to steady us and enfold us and keep us strong and
rejoicing. We thank you for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Title: Rejoicing in Suffering

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 5:3-10
Message No: 11
Catalog No: 3511
Date: May 16, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

REJOICING IN GOD

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
true Christian is that he always rejoices. Three times in this chapter
we are given reasons for rejoicing, as believers:

First, we rejoice in our spiritual position. Having been justified by

faith, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God," {Rom 5:1b-2 NIV}. That is our spiritual position.
The moment we believe in the Lord Jesus, we can rejoice in the hope of
sharing the glory of God.

Then we are to rejoice in our growing conformity to the character of

Christ. This is produced by suffering. Suffering helps us to become like
Jesus now. And as we suffer, knowing we are undergirded, protected, and
covered over by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, we learn to rejoice in our sufferings.

Verse 11:

Not only is this so [Paul has said that twice in this chapter]
, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation. {Rom
5:11 NIV}

In my book Authentic Christianity, I call this "an unquenchable

optimism." Christians always have grounds for rejoicing. No matter what
happens, you have a ground for rejoicing. The three kinds of rejoicing
not necessarily chronological levels, but they are levels of
understanding truth and responding to it that reflect a continually
growing and deepening maturity.

The third level is rejoicing "in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation." Notice again that
Paul, as he so frequently does, reminds us that everything that comes to
us comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the way to God. He
himself said so: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man [-- no
man --] comes to the Father but by me," {cf, John 14:6 KJV}. Therefore,
when you see the greatness of Christ, you have seen the greatness of
God. It is he who reveals the Father. Remember how John begins his
gospel?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God ... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. {John 1:1,
1:14 KJV}

That is the way we see God. When we see the greatness of Jesus, we see
the greatness of God. When we see and know the love of Jesus, we know
the heart of God. Therefore, we are to rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
How do you do that? How do you see the greatness of Christ? Paul says it
is by understanding the reconciliation. If you want to know how great a
person is, you look at the record of his achievements. What has he done?
record of the greatness of Christ, his achievement of what Paul calls
the reconciliation.

This passage, admittedly, is one of the most theologically important

chapters in all of the Bible. It is a very complicated statement, in
some ways, and I am going to ask you to follow it very carefully, for it
is tremendously important. In this passage is the clearest statement in
the Bible on what is called "original sin," that is, the blight that has
been passed on to our whole race as the result of the sin of our father
Adam. Also, here is the complete answer to those who doubt the
historicity of Adam and Eve. There are some who claim that the first
chapters of Genesis are merely legend, or myth, that Adam and Eve were
not real people. But this chapter shows that that belief is false. For,
all through the passage, Adam, as an individual, is contrasted and
compared with the person of the Lord Jesus. This section also lays the

I have found that, if you get involved in the details of the passage,
and it would be easy to do so, it would be possible to preach a month of
Sundays on this one section alone. People invariably get lost in the
argument and lose the main point the apostle wants to make, which is:
The greatness and the glory of the Lord Jesus -- the reason why we can
rejoice in God through him. So, instead of dwelling on the argument in
detail, I want to summarize it for you.

There are four movements in this section:

1 First, in Verses 12-14, Paul begins with us in Adam, where we start
as a human race -- in Adam.
brought to if we are in Christ, as contrasted with what we were in
Adam.
master logician, the Apostle Paul.
4 The chapter closes with a brief explanation of the relationship of

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and
death through sin, and in this way death came to all men,
because all sinned -- {Rom 5:12 NIV}

My version has a dash here, which means it is an incomplete sentence. I

am going to read that verse again to you, because I don’t agree with
this translation. Notice that Paul starts out by saying "Therefore, just
as..." When you get a "just as," you grammarians know that you have got
to have an "even so" a little later. Paul is making a comparison here.
The Greek text actually has an "even so," but for some reason, the New
International Version doesn’t translate it, so we’ll correct it. (This
is the Stedmaniac version, with which you are all familiar.)

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and
death through sin, so also [or, even so] through one man death
came to all men, because all sinned. {Rom 5:12 RCS Version}
This is Paul’s argument. He starts with two undeniable, indisputable
facts: the universality of sin and the universality of death. We can’t
deny these. Everywhere we look there is evidence upon evidence that what
he says is true, that we are victims of the twin evils of sin and death.

There are some who may not accept the idea of sin. There are people
today who do not like this word. You can call it anything you like, but
the fact remains that there is clear evidence wherever you look in the
human race that something has gone wrong with our humanity. You can call
it karma, destiny, fate, evolutionary darkness, or whatever -- but it is
said, "Whatever else may be said of man, this one thing is clear: He is
not what he is capable of being." I think any line of evidence will
substantiate that. Some kind of a twist has come in, something that we
cannot explain -- a taint, a moral poison that makes us act in
irrational ways -- so that even when we know that something is wrong or
hurtful, we want to do it.

I don’t have to go any further than my own heart to find evidence of

that. There are things that I know would destroy me and my family, and
yet at times I catch myself wanting badly to do them. And so do you, so
don’t look so pious! That is what is called "original sin." And it is
not only evident in adults. The striking and remarkable thing is that it
is found in babies. Sin is there at the beginning of their life, they
are born with it as conclusive proof of what Paul is saying here. It is
something that has gripped the race.

My two-year-old grandson comes over to our house frequently and tears up

the place. It takes us two days to get it back in shape after a visit
from him. His mother was telling us the other day that if she says to
him, "Now, eat your food," that’s the one thing he doesn’t want to do.
So she has learned how to make him eat his food: She says, "Now, don’t
eat your carrots." And he gobbles them up. Anything that is prohibited,
that’s what he wants to do. Nobody had to teach him that. We’ve never
sent him to school to learn how to disobey. He’s only two years old, but
he knows how to resist instruction and command; he wants to do what he
ought not to do.

I think this universal tendency to evil has been stated most clearly by
a totally secular agency. The clearest statement on original sin that I
have ever read comes from the report of the Minnesota Crime Commission.
In studying humanity, the commission came to this frightening and
factual conclusion:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely

selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he
wants it -- his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s
toy, his uncle’s watch. Deny him these wants, and he seethes
with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous, were
he not so helpless. He is dirty. He has no morals, no
knowledge, no skills. This means that all children, not just
certain children, are born delinquent. If permitted to
continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free
reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every
child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.
This is a clear statement on the universality of sin and of the fact, as
Paul says here, that by one man, sin entered the world. And along with
sin came death. Everyone acknowledges the universal presence of death in
our society. Even babies are starting to die. We look at a newborn child
and say, "Here is someone who is starting to live." But it is equally
true to say of that child, "Here is someone who is starting to die,"
because death is at work in that child from the moment of birth. We are
born to die. This is the story of our race. We don’t need to argue it;
it is evident on every side. Later on in this passage Paul says, "Death
reigned." Still later on, he says, "Sin reigns." So in these two forces
that have been introduced into humanity, we have a pair of royal tyrants
who rule over men. King Sin and his evil and cruel queen, Death, who
hold in their remorseless hands every human being, without exception.

How did sin and death get control of our race? The apostle answers:
through one man. That is the key to this whole section. Again and again
Paul rings the changes on that phrase: through one man, by one man. Paul
is contrasting two men, actually, Adam and Jesus. But, in either case,
what comes to us, comes from one man, either Adam or Jesus.

It was through Adam that sin and death gripped our race. We sin because
we are sons and daughters of Adam, and we die because we are sons and
daughters of Adam. We don’t die for our own sins. Normally, we would die
for our own sins, but, as Paul goes on to argue, there are even some --
babies, for instance -- who haven’t sinned at all, and yet they still
die. Therefore, Paul traces the reign of sin and death back to Adam.

For before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is
not taken into account where there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even
over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam,
who was a pattern of the one to come. {Rom 5:13-14 NIV}

Paul’s argument is simply this: Death is the punishment for breaking a

command. In the Garden of Eden, God said to Adam, "Do not eat of the
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of evil. In the day that you eat
thereof, you shall surely die," {cf, Gen 2:17}. Adam broke that
specific, clear-cut command; he ate of the fruit. That was not merely a
little incident, a peccadillo, Adam actually was choosing to be an
independent creature and denying his dependence upon the God who made
him. It was an act of rebellion; it was an act of idolatry. He was
enthroning himself as a god, in the place of God. Those were the
implications of his action. Adam broke the command and, as a result,
death and sin passed upon all his descendants. Paul is saying that death
is the result of breaking a command -- and you need a law in order to be
able to break a command.

How many of you have driven down your street for years and never had to
stop at a certain intersection because there was nothing that required
it. Then one day a stop sign is erected. Now the law has come in. From
that time on, to fail to stop at that intersection is to break a
command. If you fail to stop, you are subject to a penalty, even though
you have been driving through that intersection without stopping for
years without any penalty. But now the law has come in, and thus you
break a command if you fail to stop.
In order to have death, Paul says, there had to be a command to break.
But people were dying long before the Law was ever given. People died
from the time of Adam to Moses, even people who never had a command to
break. How could that be, if death is the result of breaking a command?
Paul’s conclusion is: The whole race actually sinned when Adam sinned.
We broke the command in Adam.

At this point, many people say, "Well, that isn’t fair! God is punishing
us for Adam’s sin, and that’s not fair!" People who argue that way
simply are revealing how little they understand the facts about the
nature of our humanity. People who talk that way think of themselves as
individuals quite separate from other people when, as a matter of fact,
we are tied in together, all a part of one great bundle of life. We
share life together. We recognize this fact when we speak of the
brotherhood of man, and when we say, "No man is an island." But, at
other times, we choose to think that we have a right to stand alone, as
though no one else exists. Whether you understand it or not, this
passage reveals the fact that when Adam sinned, he plunged the whole
race into disaster. We are all born with sin at work in us and, as a
result, death is taking its toll. So we sinned in Adam.

The most important phrase in this paragraph is the last one: Adam "was a
pattern of the one to come." Through the rest of this passage, the
apostle is going to show us how Adam is a kind of picture of Christ; and
yet there is a great contrast between the two, as well. So the verses
that follow draw both a comparison and a contrast between Adam and
Jesus. Let’s take these verses one at a time and restate the argument so
that we don’t get lost in this passage, then we’ll move on to the
conclusion that the apostle makes.

But the gift is not like the trespass. {Rom 5:15a NIV}

The gift, what every human being is always looking for, is the gift of
righteousness, a sense of worth, a sense of significance to life. That
is what righteousness means. And it comes as a gift from the Lord Jesus.
The trespass is Adam’s disobedient act in the Garden of Eden. The gift,
Paul says, is not like the trespass.

For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, Adam, how
much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace
of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! {Rom 5:15b
NIV}

Paul is saying this: Adam brought a single experience of death to all

people. We only die once, don’t we? Adam brought that death to us. But
Christ brought a repeated and ever-growing experience of life to all
that are in him. That is the contrast. We can take life from Jesus a
thousand times a day. We can take the gift of worth over and over again.
Whenever our spirit feels put down, or crushed, or insignificant, or
inadequate, or insecure, we can be renewed, we can take again the gift
of life and righteousness from him. So Christ Jesus is greater than
Adam; for though the trespass of Adam brought death once, the sacrifice
and the death of Jesus brings life a thousand times.

Again, the gift of God is not like the result of one man’s
sin. The judgment followed one sin, and brought condemnation.
But the gift followed many trespasses, and brought
justification. {Rom 5:16 NIV}

Adam’s single trespass brought in judgment, i.e., death. Adam trespassed

once and brought death to all that were in him. Christ died once and,
despite thousands of trespasses, brought justification to all that are
in him. That is the contrast. Adam trespassed once and brought death to
all. Jesus died once and brought life -- despite thousands of
trespasses.

What Paul is saying here is amplified before this in the repeated

forgiveness of sin. One trespass brought death; the death of Jesus
brought forgiveness for thousands of trespasses. All your life, as many
times as you sin, you cannot out-sin the grace of God. No matter how
many trespasses are involved in your record, there is freedom in Christ
and forgiveness for all of them.

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through
that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s
abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ? {Rom 5:17
NIV}

His argument: Adam’s transgression permitted sin to reign over the whole
race. This is talking about more than just the funeral at the end of
your life. True, that funeral happens because of Adam’s trespass, but
there is more to it than that. Not only does death come to us at the end
of our life because of Adam, but it reigns throughout our life because
of Adam. Paul is talking about forms of death other than the mere
cessation of life.

What is life? Life is love, joy, and excitement. It is vitality,

enrichment, power; it is fulfillment in every direction, in every
possibility of your being. That is life. Death is the absence of life.
Death is emptiness, loneliness, misery, depression, boredom and
restlessness. How much of your life is made up of death? A lot of it,
right? Some people never seem to have anything but death in their lives.
Death reigns because of Adam’s transgression.

Paul is saying that Christ’s death provides such abundant grace and
loving acceptance, which are available again and again and again, that
all who are in him can reign in life -- now. You can have life in the
midst of all the pressures and circumstances and suffering and troubles.
Your spirit can be alive and joyful -- experiencing fulfillment and
delight. Life in the midst of death! We reign in life now. Love, joy,
peace, glory, and gladness fill our hearts even in the midst of all the
heartaches and pressures of life.

Paul is drawing this parallel so that we might see how much more we have
in Jesus than we ever had in Adam. What we lost in Adam, we regain in
Jesus, plus so much more. Just as a climber on a mountaintop can
dislodge a pebble which rolls on and accumulates others until it begins
to launch an avalanche that will move the whole side of a mountain, so
Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden dislodged a pebble that has built into
an avalanche of sin and death that has swept through our entire race.
But, Paul tells us, Jesus has launched another avalanche of grace, and
in him there is ample counteraction against all that Adam has brought.

Consequently, just as the result of the one trespass was

condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of
righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
{Rom 5:18 NIV}

Paul is saying that death, i.e., judgment or condemnation, comes to us

not because of our own sins, but because of Adam’s. It is a gift from
Adam. What a terrible gift it is, isn’t it? And thus the acceptance and
worth that we need to have, the love that we human beings desperately
crave and must have in order to function, is also a gift, a gift from
the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have all that we want, anytime we need it.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many
were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one
man the many will be made righteous. {Rom 5:19 NIV}

There are some people who claim that we are righteous because God
declares us righteous. But here it is stated very plainly that we are
made righteous in Jesus Christ. Paul is saying that since we are born in
Adam, sin and guilt are not an option with us -- we have no way of
choosing. We will sin because that is part of our nature. And so, when
we are in Christ, having worth and love is not something that we have to
choose to earn -- it is a gift from the Lord Jesus.

Law in this matter.

The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But
where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that,
just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign
through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. {Rom 5:20-21 NIV}
Someone might raise the question, "Why then did the Ten Commandments
have to be given?" Paul’s answer is, "The Ten Commandments never were
given to make men do right." That is what we think they were given for,
but they were not. They were given to show men how wrong they already
are. The commandments actually were given to make men sin more, to
increase the trespass. Isn’t that strange?

As in the example of my grandson, the Law makes you want to do wrong

even more. It increases the trespass.

But a strange thing happens at that point. Paul tells us that the worse
we get -- the more we fling ourselves into rebellion and sin and evil
that we know to be wrong -- the closer we are to being broken, to coming
to the end of ourselves and discovering how foolish and hurtful this
whole thing is, and the closer we are to discovering the grace of
restoration, cleansing, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

Last night I listened to a tape by Charles Colson, who was called ’the
hatchet man of the Nixon Administration.’ He was put in the federal
penitentiary because of his involvement in some of the things associated
with Watergate. On the tape he told of his experience in prison. In that
dark and lonely place, crammed in with forty other men, he found a
brother in Christ. The two of them met together and began to pray for
others in that prison. They didn’t know what God could do -- they almost
despaired that anything could happen -- but as they began to pray, God
began to work. They found that the Spirit of God swept through that
prison in a remarkable way, and men were broken. Hardened, violent,
brutal men, who had spent their lives in resistance to right and truth
and good, and had given themselves over completely to hardness and
cynicism and brutality, began to break and to find forgiveness.

Do you know that there is a spiritual awakening going on in our prisons

today? I read last week that last year alone, in the Los Angeles County
jails 256 prisoners received the Lord. Prisoners are open to Christ
because they have allowed the law to drive them into trespass to such a
degree that they are ready to hear the gospel. Sometimes this happens
without outward rebellion. Sometimes we become frustrated and hard and
cynical. When that happens we learn that the grace of God will abound
more and more, for the increase of sin only increases the grace of our
Lord Jesus.

The point of all this is that the one who breaks through is Jesus. Adam
ruins us all. Only Christ can set us free. Sin and death will never
loose their filthy hold on us except at the command of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, the one to whom we look is the Lord Jesus, the one who broke
the terrible death grip on us and set us free -- Jesus, the head of a
new race, the beginning of a new humanity. Jesus is Lord. As we see him
thus, we discover what the Scriptures say, that the blessed Lord, who
broke through death and sin, has come to live within us, to give himself
to us, and to infuse us with his strength and purity, his wisdom and
power. All that he is is available to us. Thus we rejoice in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made for us the reconciliation. When you
understand that, you will sing, along with Christina Rossetti, these
words:

None other Lamb, None other Name,

None other Hope in heaven or earth or sea,
None other Hiding Place from guilt and shame,
 None beside Thee.

My faith burns low, my hope burns low;

Only my heart’s desire cries out in me,
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,
Cries out to Thee.

Lord, Thou art life, though I be dead;

Love’s Fire Thou art, however cold I be;
Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head,
Nor home, but Thee.

Prayer

By your Spirit, Father, we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We rejoice in who he is, and what he has come to do in our
wretched, miserable lives. We rejoice because he has broken
the shackles of evil and death and sin that held us, and he
has set our spirit free and has given us the opportunity to
draw from him the grace and mercy we need every day.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Rejoicing in God

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 5:11-21
Message No: 12
Catalog No: 3512
Date: May 23, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

CAN WE GO ON SINNING?

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me ask you a question. Now that you are a Christian -- now that you
understand that the grace of God forgives your sins, past, present, and
future, that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf settles the
debt for sin, no matter when sins occur -- do you then have the
privilege to go on sinning, living as you were, knowing that the grace
of God will cover those sins?

That is a very relevant question, because a lot of people today are

asking it, and a lot of people are saying that we can go on sinning:

who claims that he has the right to go on living in a blatantly sinful

way because, he says, his sins are forgiven.

Last week I heard of a man in this congregation who admitted that he was
a homosexual and was living as one. He claimed that he did not need to
make any change in his life because, as a Christian, his sins are
forgiven.

I just quote these to show you that this is not an out-of-date question,
but one we all wrestle with and one that we must confront. The Apostle
Paul faces this question in the sixth chapter of Romans.

us the tremendous change that was introduced by Jesus Christ when he

died on the cross and rose again from the dead -- the breakthrough in
history that came when the second Adam came in to undo, by means of his
death and resurrection, what the first Adam did to us the Garden of
Eden. That great contrast runs all through the second part of

deal with two very practical questions:

the sins of believers?" This whole chapter is devoted to answering
that question.
about the Ten Commandments and their demands upon us?"

carry on with the description of the tremendous results that came in

Jesus Christ, as opposed to Adam. Perhaps this outline will help us a
bit as we deal with these passages.

seen, the Apostle Paul always states the truth first, in a kind of
nutshell summary, a very pithy statement of what he wants to say -- then
he logically takes his argument step by step and explains and expounds
it until it is perfectly clear. That is what he does here. The whole
truth that answers the question, "Can we go on sinning?" is dealt with

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace

may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in
it any longer? {Rom 6:1-2 NIV}

That is the whole argument, right there. Paul is dealing with the answer
to that question, and he will deal with it very logically in the steps
that follow. But for now he puts it in this one brief statement: "We
died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"

I want you to notice three things about this brief statement:

First, notice that the question is logical. "Shall we go on sinning in

order that grace may increase?" That is a very good question to ask. If
your teaching or preaching of the gospel does not arouse this question
in somebody’s mind, there is likely something wrong with your teaching,
for it is the kind of question that ought to be asked at this point.
There is something about the grace of God and the glory of the good news
that immediately raises this issue. If sin is so completely taken care
of by the forgiveness of Christ, then we don’t really need to worry
about sins, do we? They are not going to separate us from Christ, so why
not keep on doing them? It is a perfectly logical question. It was
raised everywhere Paul went, and it is a question that ought to be
faced.

But, second, notice that even our very nature would have us raise this
question. It is not only logical, but it is also natural. That is
because sin, basically, is fun, isn’t it? Oh, come on -- you can admit
it. Sin is fun. We like to do it. Otherwise we wouldn’t keep on doing
it, we would not get involved in it. We know sins are bad for us. Our
mind tells us, our logic tells us, our experience tells us they are bad
for us. But, nevertheless, we like to do them. Otherwise we would not.
Therefore, any kind of a suggestion that tells us we can escape the
penalty for our sin and still enjoy the action arouses a considerable
degree of interest in us. It does in me, anyway. So it is quite natural
that this question would come up.

We must clearly understand that the Apostle Paul is talking about a

lifestyle of sin, not just a single act or two of failure. He is talking
about Christians who go on absolutely unchanged in their lifestyle from
what they were before they were Christians. The word for "go on sinning"
is in the present continuous tense. It means the action keeps on
this chapter deals with the effects of a single act of sin in a
believer’s life and what happens when we fail even once. We will come to
that in due course. But here Paul is talking about a habitual practice,
or something that frequently occurs in a believer’s experience,
something that was there before he became a Christian. Can we go on
living this way?

Finally, notice that this question is put in such a way as to sound

rightly motivated and even pious. "Shall we go on sinning, so that grace
may increase?" This suggests that our motivation for sinning is not just
our own satisfaction -- we are doing it for the glory of God, so that
grace may increase. God loves to show his grace. Therefore, if we go on
sinning, he will have all the more opportunity. What a chance for God to
show his grace! It is clear that this question is not asked by a
complete pagan or by a worldling, but by someone who seems intent on the
glory of God. Having said that, we come now to the answer, the positive
answer of Paul.

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace

may increase? By no means! {Rom 6:1-2a NIV}

Paul immediately reacts with a very positive statement, bluntly put: "By
no means!" Or, as it is literally in the Greek, "May it never be!"
Absolutely not! It is interesting to me to see how the other versions
translate this phrase. The King James Version sounds horrified: "God
forbid!" Phillips seems to catch this same note of horror: "What a
ghastly thought!" The New English Bible puts it very simply, "No, no."
So here is a no-no in the Christian experience. Can we sin? No-no. I
gather from all this that the Apostle Paul simply does not agree with
this philosophy that you can go on sinning and be forgiven. Why? In his
inescapable logic, Paul answers in just four little words: We died to
sin.

We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? {Rom 6:2b

NIV}

Here is the whole truth that Paul wants to confront us with in answer to
this question. The rest of the chapter is but an exposition of what he
means by that. We are going to take that exposition step by step because
there is tremendous understanding involved in it. But Paul is not going
to make any advance on his original statement. When we get to the end of
the chapter, he has simply made clear what he means by, "We died to
sin." There is the whole argument, and if we understand what he means,
we will see why he asks this question, "How can we go on living in it
any longer?"

Now let’s look at this phrase.

First, it does not mean that sin is dead in me. It doesn’t mean that, as
a Christian, I have reached the place where I cannot sin, although many
people take it to mean that.

Some years ago I was working in the city of Pasadena and I went to get a
haircut. I soon found that the barber was a Christian. As we began to
discuss some things, he started to tell me about his Christianity. He
told me that seventeen years before, he had been ’sanctified,’ as he put
it, and he was no longer able to sin. For seventeen years he had lived
without sin. He made it very clear that he had no sin at all. So I began
to discuss this with him, and I brought in certain other passages, and
we got into kind of an argument. The longer we went, the hotter he got
-- all the while he was cutting my hair. He worked himself up into a
lather, just as angry as he could be. I finally said to him, "Look, if
you can get so upset, so angry, when you have no sin in you, what would
you be like if you were a sinner like the rest of us?" It was two weeks
before I dared to appear in public after that haircut!

This passage doesn’t mean that sin is dead in us; nor does it mean, as
some have taken it, that we should die to sin. There are movements and
churches based upon this idea. They say that Paul is teaching us that we
ought to die to sin. You can attend meetings, conferences, and camp
meetings where you will be exhorted to die to sin. We are told that this
is the way by which we come to a victorious life. We are told we ought
to begin to crucify ourselves, and die to sin. Now I submit to you that
Paul is not saying that we ought to do this; he is telling us it has
been done. We died to sin.

Third, neither does Paul mean by this that we are dying to sin. There
are some people who take it that way. They say this means that the
Christian is gradually changing and growing, and the more he does so,
the more he is dying to sin, and there will come a time when he will
sort of outgrow all his evil. It doesn’t mean that at all. Once again,
we must face clearly the flat statement the apostle makes. He puts it in
the Greek aorist tense, which means this is once for all: We died to
sin.

contrast with what we were in Adam, and what we are now, as Christians,
in Christ. "If in Adam," he says, "we will sin." There is no way we can
escape it because Adam has passed on the taint of sin and death as his
heritage. And therefore, in Adam we will sin. We all do. But then he
says, "If we are in Christ (and the implication is clear that we are),

...so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might

reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. {Rom 5:21 NIV}

Now whatever else those words mean, it is clear that what happens in
Christ is canceling out what happened in Adam. If death and sin come to
us from Adam, then life and deliverance come from Christ. You can see
already one reason why the apostle would add, "If this is true, how can
we go on sinning?" We need to clearly understand his line of argument in
received the gift of God -- which is Jesus himself -- and the gift of
righteousness which he brings, then you are no longer in Adam but in
Christ.

I have to admit that I quarrel with a very commonly taught doctrine

among evangelicals that there are two natures in the believer. I don’t
believe that. There are two natures, but only one of them is yours!
There are two forces at work within us, and we feel the conflict that
they arouse -- but only one of them belongs to us. We once were in Adam,
but now we are no longer in Adam but are in Christ.

And yet, having said that, we have to face the fact that Christians, who
are no longer in Adam but are now in Christ, do sin, and they do die.
transgression. How can we be free from Adam and still suffer the results
of Adam’s transgression? That, I think, brings us to what we clearly
need to understand -- the nature of our humanity. More than anything
else that I have found in Scripture, I have been helped by what
Scripture reveals about who we are as human beings. When we see that, I
think we’ll understand what Paul is saying.

The first thing the Scriptures tell us about ourselves is that the most
important part of us is our spirit. We are spirit; we have bodies and
souls, but we are spirit. That may sound a bit spooky to you. The reason
we struggle with this is because we can see our bodies, and feel our
souls. We have been brainwashed by the world, which says only those
things that can be seen and felt are real -- and who can see or feel a
spirit? So we have a struggle at this point. But the Scriptures clearly
tell us that basically, down deep, the very nature of our being is
spirit, and God is Spirit. You can’t see it, nor can you feel it, but
that is who you are.

The Scriptures explain and help us to understand the nature of that

spirit by a beautiful little symbol. Since we can’t see our spirit, we
have to view it through a symbol, a visual aid. The most common visual
aid in Scripture to describe our human spirit is to call it a vessel.
You can think of your spirit as a little cup inside of you, made to hold
something.

The Scriptures tell us that, in the beginning, this cup was made to hold
none other than God himself. All the greatness and glory of God could be
poured into that tiny human cup. That is what Adam was, as he came fresh
from the hand of God. But in the fall, that cup was emptied, and filled
again with a kind of poison. This satanic twist began to poison all our
humanity.

I realize I’m speaking in symbols, but this is what we must do in order

to understand the nature of spirit. We find in our experience that when
the poison that Adam brought in fills our spirit, it spreads into the
soul. Now the soul is the realm of soul experience: It is the
functioning of the mind (the reason), the will (the power to choose),
and emotion (the power to feel). Scripture tells us that this poison has
touched us in all those areas, so that we don’t think rightly, we don’t
feel rightly, we don’t choose rightly. That is why things go wrong
wherever human beings are involved.

You can see this even in a little tiny baby. A baby grows and begins to
develop, and sin shows up in his reactions, in his attitudes, in his
soul feel will be expressed finally in the body’s action. That is the
way we are made. What the body does is always the reflection of what the
spirit and soul are doing. That is, if we have fear (one of the forms of
evil and death within us) it will express itself in several ways.
Shyness or timidity may be one way; anxiety and worry, another; bluster
and boasting, still another way. All these reflect the fear inside.

If we feel angry and hostile, it comes out in sharp words, or even

violent actions. We poke someone in the jaw, or we yell at the top of
our voice, or storm out of the house and slam a door. All this is
revealing what is inside, what is filling the cup of the spirit. If it
is self-love that is there, as it certainly is, it comes out in terms of
greed and possessiveness and selfishness, or in terms of sexual
promiscuity, satisfying self despite the exploitation of another person.
Or it may be ambition, power -- hunger, whatever. All of this comes out
from within. Remember, this is saying nothing more than what Jesus

"What comes out of a man is what makes him ’unclean.’ For from
within, out of men’s hearts [that is the word for spirit],
come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
adultery, [Ho, you say, you haven’t got me yet! Well, hang
on!] greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance
and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man
’unclean.’" {Mark 7:21-23 NIV}

Paul is saying the same thing that Jesus said. It all depends, you see,
on what is filling the cup of the spirit. If it is Adam’s life, then
that is what is going to come out. There is nothing we can do to stop
it. All we can do is to try to pretend that it is something else. We are
all adept at giving the things we do different names than we do when we
see others doing the same things.

But what happens when that spirit fully and truly turns to Christ, when
it receives the gift of God’s grace, the gift of worth? Then, according
spirit is emptied of its satanic content -- sin -- and it is filled
again with the Holy Spirit, who releases to it the life of Jesus. That
is what the Holy Spirit has come to do. Our human spirit, our essential
nature, is no longer in Adam, in any sense at all. It is now in Christ.
We are tied to Christ.

Now that is the teaching of Scripture from beginning to end, from

Genesis to Revelation.

But, you see, the problem comes by the fact that our souls and bodies,
which have been functioning for years under the control of sin in the
cup of our spirit, are still going on in the same old way, functioning
according to those patterns built up under the control of sin. Our
habits, thoughts, and actions, already are established along wrong
lines. That is where the evil and sin in a believer’s life is coming
from.

It is a struggle to re-educate the soul and the body, and we experience

many failures until we allow the Holy Spirit to bring it under the
control of the new life in Jesus Christ in the cup of our spirit. But it
will happen, and it must happen , Paul argues. If Christ is in the cup
of the spirit, then just as we could not evade sin because we were in
Adam, so in Christ we cannot evade righteousness. Isn’t that clear?

The life of Jesus is more powerful, more persistent, more insistent than
the life of Adam ever was. That is the meaning of all the "much mores"
in this section {i.e., in Rom 5:9-10, 5:15, 5:17}. If we had to sin in
Adam, then for the very same reason, we have to begin to practice
righteousness in Christ. It is not something we can help; it just will
happen. That is why Paul asked the question, "Having died to sin, how
can we live any longer in it? Why, it’s impossible. It’s not a question
of should we; it’s a question of can we ?" His answer is, "No, it can
never be."

In our neighborhood, right next door to us, is a home that was built a
number of years ago and has been inhabited now by several different
families. The first was a rather difficult family, the kind of people
who would never keep a yard or house in order. Soon after they moved in,
the brand new home began to show the effects of their style of life. The
yard was littered with trash and garbage, the lawn was dead for lack of
care. When it was replanted, it died out again. To enter their house was
to enter a shambles. It never was clean or in order, never. These
neighbors moved out, and new neighbors moved in. It wasn’t very long
until it became evident that a different kind of people lived there.
They cleaned up the house and painted it. The yard was cleaned up, the
lawn was dug up and replanted, and it has been cared for adequately ever
since. Things are completely different -- what happened? It is
impossible that there would not be a change, because there was a change
in those who dwelt therein. This is what Paul is telling us here. There
has to be a change!

Now someone asks, "What if a Christian does go on sinning, living in

sin, claiming forgiveness, but goes on without any change in his life
whatever?" What about that? There are people who are doing that. The
answer, in light of this Scripture is very simple: These people simply
are revealing that they never truly have been justified by faith; they
are not Christians. Let’s put it as bluntly as the apostle himself put
it. They are deceiving themselves and deceiving others. Though they may
do so with good intent, and with utter sincerity as far as they know --
nevertheless the case is clear.

It is impossible for your lifestyle to continue unchanged when you

become a Christian. It is simply impossible, because a change has
occurred deep in the human spirit. And those who protest, and say they
can go on living this way, are simply revealing that there has been no
change in their spirit, there has been no break with Adam. They are
still in the same condition. The Apostle Paul makes that very plain in a
couple of places, and I want to share them with you so that we may
clearly understand what he is saying:

The first is in Ephesians 5:5:

For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy

person -- such a man is an idolator -- has any inheritance in
the kingdom of Christ and of God. [He is not a Christian yet.
He is claiming to be, but he is not. And lest we be fooled by
his claims, the apostle goes on to say,] Let no one deceive
you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath
comes on those who are disobedient. {Eph 5:5 NIV}

In very much the same terms, Paul puts it again in First Corinthians
6:9:

Don’t you know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived [there it is again] : Neither the
sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor male
prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit
the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. [They
were; they are no longer. Some of them are still struggling,
and some of them do occasionally fail and go back to some of
these things. But there’s a vast difference. They no longer
are that way -- there has been a break, a change in their
lifestyle.] But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God [and therefore there cannot be the same

I think that is clear and fully answers the question, doesn’t it?

Paul is saying that there is great hope for those who are caught up in
any of these things. There is a way of deliverance. It is not a way that
involves going on with the same style of life. Jesus Christ came to free
us from sin, and not to allow us to continue in it.

The question we must face about ourselves is, "Have you really begun to
hate sin deep inside of you -- your own sin, the things you do wrong
and, for the moment, choose to do? Have you begun to hate it? Do you
want to be free from it, want to be delivered, want the power of it
broken in your life?" You can only want that because there has come into
your heart a new Spirit, there has come into the cup of your spirit the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And from that vantage point, he is
beginning to assert the control of his purity throughout your whole
life. You can’t settle for sin any longer.

but here he makes it unquestionably clear. Can we go on sinning? May it

never be!
Prayer

We thank you, Father, for the honesty of your Word. How

clearly it deals with us, always tenderly, always in love, but
very plainly, never deceiving us or handing us a line,
softening things that we need to face, but truly telling us
where we are. We thank you for the grace of our Lord Jesus,
who has the power to break the grip of death upon our lives.
Thank you that it begins in our spirit, and grows to control
our souls, and ultimately will redeem our bodies in
resurrection. For this we give grateful thanks, in Jesus our
Lord, Amen.

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Title: Can we Go on Sinning?

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 6:1-2
Message No: 13
Catalog No: 3513
Date: May 30, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE TRUE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The book of Romans is a tremendous revelation of what happens in the

believer’s life when he comes to Christ.

apostle is dealing with the question of whether the believer can go on

living in sin after he has come to Christ. Can he go on in a lifestyle
that is basically wrong and sinful? Can he live as an alcoholic, or a
swindler, or an adulterer, or a homosexual, or a slanderer? Is it
possible to maintain such a lifestyle and be a Christian?
The apostle’s answer -- as we have already seen in the first two verses
-- is, "By no means!" {Rom 6:2a NIV}. It is impossible, Paul says,
because, as he puts it in these four little words, "We died to sin,"
{Rom 6:2b NIV}. Paul’s conclusion is: "How can we go on living in it any
longer?" {Rom 6:2c NIV}.

to unfold this conclusion so that we might understand in detail what

that change means in our lives.

When you become a Christian, when you really, truly receive Jesus Christ
as Lord, something happens that makes it impossible to go on living a
lifestyle of evil. We died to sin -- and this is what we are examining
in this message. The apostle uses two marvelous visual aids that God
likes to employ to help us to understand truth. One of them is baptism,
and the other -- which may be more difficult for you to see -- is
grafting, as a plant or a branch is grafted into a tree. Let’s see what
the apostle says about baptism in Verses 3-4.

Beginning at Verse 1:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace

may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in
it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. {Rom
6:1-4 NIV}

It is always interesting to me that when some people hear the word

baptism they immediately smell water.

When I was a boy in Montana, I had a horse that could smell water from
farther away than any animal I ever saw. You could be riding across the
dry, parched plains, when suddenly he would prick up his ears, lift up
his head, and quicken his pace, and you knew that he smelled water
somewhere and he was heading for it.

There are people who are like that. Whenever they read these passages,
and see the word baptism , they smell water. You can just see them prick
up their ears, lift up their heads, and head for it. But there is no
water here. This is a dry passage.

This passage is dealing, of course, with the question of how we died to

sin, how we became separated from being in Adam, how we became joined in
Christ. No water can do that. That requires something far more potent
than water. It is, therefore, a description for us of what is called
"the baptism of the Holy Spirit" elsewhere in the Scriptures.

John the Baptist, who made his reputation because he baptized in water,
said, "I indeed baptize you with water, but there comes One after me,
greater than I, who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," {cf, John
1:33}. That is what Paul is talking about here -- the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, which places us into Christ.
Paul says exactly the same thing in First Corinthians 12:13: "For we
were all baptized by one Spirit into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free -- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink,"
believers were baptized into one body. We were placed into Christ. You
are not a Christian if that isn’t true of you. Therefore, people today
who say you need to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit after you
become a believer do not understand the Scriptures. There is no way to
become a believer without being baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the Spirit happened first, historically, on the day of

Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon 120 people who were gathered
in the temple courts, fusing them into one body, joining them to the
head, which is Jesus, and thus formed the church, one body in Christ,
all members one of the other and members of the Lord Jesus himself. That
is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is not something that is felt; it
is not something you can know through your senses when it takes place;
it is something the Spirit does to our human spirit. Yet this baptism is
very essential to becoming a Christian. It is part of the process by
which we share the life of Jesus Christ.

Notice some things that Paul says about the baptism of the Spirit in
this passage:

First, he says that we are expected to know about it. "Don’t you know
that we were all baptized into Christ, into his death?" Paul asks. He
expects these Roman Christians, who had never met him or been taught
personally by him, to know this fact. It is something new Christians
ought to know.

Now, how would they know it? Here is where water baptism comes in. Water
baptism teaches us, by symbol, the meaning of this baptism of the
Spirit. The one is the shadow, or figure, of the other. The people Paul
was writing to had been baptized in water after their conversion and
regeneration, and Paul supposes that their water baptism had helped them
to understand the reality of what the Spirit had already done to them.

Some time ago, Ron Ritchie told me of an experience that he had on

Easter Sunday during a baptism service in the ocean near his house. I
tell you, you really have to love Christ to be baptized in the frigid
waters of the Pacific! A woman came up to him and asked him to baptize
her nine-year-old daughter. Ron was reluctant to do so without finding
out whether the girl really understood what was happening, so he began
to question her and to teach her about the reality behind the water
baptism. He was gesturing as he talked to her, and noticed that, as he
was using his hand, the shadow of it fell on the sand. So he said to the
little girl, "Do you see the shadow of my hand on the sand? Now, that is
just the shadow; the hand is the real thing. And when you came to Jesus,
when you believed in Jesus, that was the real baptism. You were joined
to him, and what happened to him happened to you. Jesus was alive; then
he died, was buried, and then he arose from the dead. And that is what
happened to you when you believed in him." He pointed to the shadow on
the sand and said, "When you go down in the water and are raised up
again, that is a picture of what has already happened." The girl
immediately caught on and said, "Yes, that is what I want to do because
Jesus has come into my life." So water baptism is a picture, a symbol
worked out for us, to teach us what has happened to us when we believed
in the Lord Jesus.

Notice also that the apostle says, "This is how we died to sin." The
great statement of this passage is that when we became Christians, we
died to sin. Paul is still discussing the question, "Can a believer go
on sinning?" "No," answers Paul, "because he died to sin." How did we
die to sin? This is how, Paul explains: The Spirit took us and
identified us with all that Jesus did. Now, I don’t understand that.
That means that somehow this is a timeless event. The Spirit of God is
able to ignore the two thousand years since the crucifixion and
resurrection and somehow identify us, who live in this twentieth century
-- as he has all believers of past centuries -- with that moment when
Jesus died, was buried, and rose again from the dead. We participate in
those events. That is clear.

I don’t think we need to struggle with this, because something similar

this is what happened to us in Adam. By being born into this human race,
we became part of what Adam did. Way back at the dawn of history, Adam
sinned, and we sinned in Adam. I don’t fully know how that is true, but
I certainly believe it. Every evidence of history demonstrates it to be
true. Men sin from the moment they are born. Babies sin. Babies are
filled with sinful attitudes and sinful reactions, as we have already
shown. If nothing enters their life to help them control these things,
they grow up to become criminals and rapists and murderers, because sin
is there from the beginning.

Therefore this is not theological fiction; it is fact. Adam sinned, and

we sin. Adam died, and men ever since have died. Every funeral
throughout the ages has testified to the reality of that fact. The
apostle is saying that what was true in Adam has now been ended and now
we are in Christ, by faith in Jesus Christ.

Once Adam’s actions affected us; but now what Christ did becomes our
actions as well. Christ died, and we died; Christ was buried, and we
were buried with him; Christ rose again, and we rose with him. So what
is true of Jesus is true of us.

Here Paul is dealing with what is probably the most remarkable and
certainly the most magnificent truth recorded in the pages of Scripture.
It is the central truth God wants us to learn. We died with Christ, were
buried, and rose again with him. That union with Christ is the truth
from which everything else in Scripture flows. If we understand and
accept this as fact, which it is, then everything will be different in
our lives. That is why the apostle labors so to help us understand this.

Notice one other thing about this paragraph -- the purpose for which all
this happened. Paul says, "We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
Remember, Paul is answering the question "Can a believer go on sinning?"
His answer is, "Absolutely not." We cannot because we have died, have
been buried, and have risen again with Jesus, and therefore we, too, may
live a new life. If you are a Christian, there will be a noticeable
change of behavior because of a radical change of government. If you do
go on living as you were before, then your profession of Christianity is
false. There must be a change, and there will be, if there has been a
change in the heart.

revelation of what has happened to us. Paul now uses the figure of
grafting.

Verse 5:
 If we have been united with him in his death, we will
certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. {Rom
6:5 NIV}

In other words, you can’t pick and choose. You can’t die with Christ and
not be risen with him. If you died with him, you must be risen with him
as well. Paul uses a word from botany here. The word united means "to
graft a branch into another." Some of you have fruit trees and you have
done grafting. You have taken a branch from a nectarine tree and grafted
it into a peach tree. The branch is tied together in such a way that the
life from the trunk of the tree flows into the branch and they grow
together until finally you can’t tell the difference between the graft
and the natural branch. The life is fully shared. This is the figure
Paul is using here to describe our tie with the Lord Jesus. His life
becomes our life. We are no longer in Adam, in any sense. The tie is
totally broken. We are now in Christ, and he is our life from now on.

This is one of the most important concepts to understand. In order that

we might understand it, Paul now gives us both sides to this parallel --
Christ; Verses 8-10 explain what it means to be risen with him. We want
to look at these verses very carefully because it is so important for us
to know the meaning of the death and burial of the Lord Jesus and our
death and burial with him.

Verses 6 and 7:

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that
the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no
longer be slaves to sin -- because anyone who has died has
been freed from sin. {Rom 6:6-7 NIV}

Paul is tracing this parallel. Jesus was crucified, and we were

crucified too. Our old self, the old man, the man who was in Adam, the
tie with Adam, has been broken by death. All that we were as a
natural-born human being ended when we believed in Jesus.

Paul is referring to the essential you , the spirit within you. We need
very much to understand biblical psychology. Biblical psychology tells
us that basically we are spirits dwelling in human bodies. You body is
not you. Even your soul, which is produced by the union of the body and
the spirit, is not wholly you. You are your spirit.

Next, Paul explains that Jesus was crucified in order that the sin which
was in his body on the cross should come to an end, that his body be
rendered powerless with respect to sin. You say, "Now, wait a minute.
There’s something wrong here. There was no sin in Jesus." That is true.
Scripture is very careful to help us see that in Jesus there was no sin.
He did not sin; there was no sin in him until the cross. But this tells
us an amazing thing about our Lord when he was on the cross. There, Paul
believer, is located in the body. Therefore, it was described in Jesus
in terms of the body. His body became possessed and controlled by sin.
That is why his body died. His body was rendered powerless with regard
to sin. That is why he was buried.
Why do we bury a corpse? We bury it because it is useless, inert,
inactive. There is nothing it can do any longer, and so we bury it.

That is why Jesus was buried -- to prove that the sin in his body was
ended. The body was useless, unresponsive. Paul says that is what
happens to us. When our spirit has died in Christ, then the body of sin
will be rendered powerless.

What does Paul mean by this term "body of sin"? He means the physical
body that is dominated and controlled by sin. In Adam, sin filled the
whole of man -- our spirit, our soul, and our body. Therefore, we had to
sin. That is why, before you became a Christian, even when you tried to
be good, you couldn’t. Something always went wrong and you ended by
fouling up in some way. You were a slave to sin, and no matter how much
you wanted to be different, you couldn’t be. But now that bond has been
broken. In Christ your spirit is freed. It has been united with Jesus;
it has risen with him, and it is free from sin. This explains that
rather interesting passage in First John 3:9, which says, "No one who is
born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he
John is talking about your spirit, the essential you. In that sense, it
is proper to say of believers, "We cannot sin."

power trying to dominate and control our bodies and our souls. It is the
presence of the spirit in the body that produces the soul, just as
electricity in a light bulb produces light. The soul is our conscious
experience and is produced moment by moment as we live, as light is
coming from a light bulb moment by moment. Paul makes it clear that our
spirits were freed from sin. They do not sin, and cannot sin, because
they are linked with Christ, so that we may be able to control the sin
which is in the body.

From here on, we do not have to sin. If we do, it is because we allow it

to happen. But we are no longer slaves to sin. Throughout the rest of
this account Paul deals with this theme. The body is the means by which
we are tempted to sin. There is nothing inherently sinful about our
bodies -- they are perfectly all right -- but somehow an alien power
remains in them, and that is where we are tempted all our life long.

I think I can illustrate this for you. When you sit at the table to eat,
you are satisfying a very normal appetite that God gave to your body. It
needs food; it needs replenishment of energy. There is nothing wrong
with eating. But when we get to the table and find plenty of food on it,
each one of us has something within us that makes us eat too much. We
eat more than we should. We say that we have a weight problem. What we
really have is a sin problem. There is this sin within us that wants to
take a natural function of the body and push it beyond what it ought to
-- and thus it becomes sin. That is why, when we sit at the table, many
of us are going to sin by becoming gluttons and gourmands. (Do you know
what a gourmand is? He is someone who eats greedily, who delights in
luxurious food, someone who lives for the taste of food.) We are all
tempted this way because sin, as a principle, is still in control of the
functions of the body. But our spirit opposes it, and we don’t have to
give in. That is the point.

The body requires rest from time to time. The body of Jesus grew weary
and needed rest. But somehow there is in us a principle that wants to
overindulge, and we become lazy, slothful, apathetic. We want other
people to work and to serve us while we rest. This is so natural that it
is even hard to know when we go over the line.
The mind, that amazing instrument of the body, functions in such a way
as to reason and to logically deduce and to produce an amazing variety
of inventions and technological advances. Yet the mind, with its ability
to think and reason, can easily move beyond what it should into evil
thoughts and prideful reactions and attitudes of jealousy and lust. We
sin with our minds.

Consider the tongue, that member of the body that is so little, James
says, yet can be "set on fire by hell," {Jas 3:6 NIV}. With our tongues,
designed to be that by which we bless God, we curse him instead. The
tongue is like the rudder of a ship, that turns the whole life in the
wrong direction because of the words that we speak.

Consider the glands and hormones. Physiologists tell us that they are
linked somehow with our actions. Just as the brain is linked with the
mind, so the glands are linked with emotions. They are responsible for
the way we feel, often. They pour out hormones into the bloodstream and
affect the body. Some hormones make us over-react. Instead of normal
fears that are designed to protect us from evil, we become paranoid,
worried, filled with anxiety; we become lustful and indulge in wrongful
attitudes. We become angry, so that we hate and feel jealousy. We
indulge in what the Bible calls "inordinate affections," {Col 3:5 KJV}.
Even our loves become twisted. That is sin in the body -- no longer in
the spirit, but in the body. I don’t have to describe this in terms of
our sexual appetites. These are normal, legitimate, valid appetites,
made by God to be satisfied; but something within us wants to satisfy
them too soon, or with the wrong person, or sometimes in the wrong way.

That is where evil comes from -- the body, not the spirit. I hope this
is clear, because it is a very important picture, one that will govern
the rest of the book of Romans, as well as all the New Testament. The
regenerated spirit cannot sin. It is born of God and it cannot sin. It
has been set free of sin in order that we may begin to exercise control
over the body of sin, so that it may be rendered inactive and we no
longer need to be slaves to sin.

Not only have we been set free to choose not to sin, but a new power to

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live

with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the
dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over
him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the
life he lives, he lives to God. {Rom 6:8-10 NIV}

Once we have reckoned ourselves dead to sin with Christ, there is

nothing left but to go on to life. Jesus does not go back into sin; he
does not go back into death. Sin and death are over, as far as we are
concerned, because that is what is true of Jesus. He lives now, and he
lives under the will and by the power of God. Therefore, Paul says, the
same thing is true in our lives. Not only do we need to recognize that
we died to sin with Christ, but also that his life is in us now. His
power is available to us. When we decide not to sin, we have the power
to carry it out, because Christ is living in us.

Therefore, it all comes down to two simple steps that are described in
asked to do anything; this is the first exhortation in all of Romans. Up
to now, everything Paul has written has been about what God has done for

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God
in Christ Jesus. {Rom 6:11 NIV}

When you feel temptation in your body or your mind, then there are two
things you are to do:
* First, remember that you don’t have to obey sin. You just don’t
have to. You are free to refuse it. You are free to say, "No, you
don’t have the right to use that part of my body for a sinful
purpose." And,
* Second, remember his power is in you to enable you to offer that
same part of your body to God, to be used for his purposes.

Now, that may mean a struggle, because the strength of sin is very
strong. When we start to turn away from evil in our bodies, the habits
of our lives are so deeply engrained that oftentimes it is very
difficult, and we struggle. But we have the power not to sin because we
have God himself within us -- the living God.

I have mentioned before a group of ex-homosexuals who live in San Rafael

and who have a great ministry with those who are involved in
homosexuality. This week I received another one of their papers and I
was struck by this paragraph. The writer is describing how tough it is
to turn from these evil practices and be different once you have been
deeply involved in them. He says:

This very weekend one of our brothers said to me, "How can I
last through even one more year of this?" I said in response,
"How can I last one more week?" But I will last, and so will
he. For we have each other, and the sharing and fellowship and
caring are God’s ingredients to healing -- long-lasting
healing -- that will impart strength beyond endurance, as God
does it in His time and in His way.

struggle; it is not always easy, but we have the strength to do it and

we have the right to do it. We have the freedom not to sin and the
desire not to sin. That is what God has brought to us in Christ. Now you
will see how the rest of this fits in. Paul is describing the two steps
that we are to repeat over and over again, in dealing with evil in our
lives.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that

you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body
to sin, as instruments of wickedness, {Rom 6:12-13a NIV}
Step number one is to reckon yourself dead to sin.

Step number two is found in Verse 13b: Offer yourself to God.

... but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have

returned from death to life; and offer the parts of your body
to him [your tongue. your mind, your stomach, your hands, your
feet, your sex organs -- offer them to God] as instruments of
righteousness. {Rom 6:13b NIV}

That is the way to win over temptation. Then Paul closes with this
greatest verses in all Scripture:

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under
law, but under grace. {Rom 6:14 NIV}

Why does Paul bring in the Law? He brings in the Law because he is
dealing with one of the most basic problems of the Christian struggle,
the thing that oftentimes depresses and discourages us more than
anything else -- the sense of condemnation we feel when we sin. You see,
the Law produces condemnation. The Law says that unless you live up to
this standard, God will not have anything to do with you. We have been
so engrained with this that when we sin, even as believers, we think God
is angry and upset with us and he doesn’t care about us. We think that
way about ourselves, and we become discouraged and defeated and
depressed. We want to give up. "What’s the use," we say.

But Paul says that is not true. You are not under Law. God does not feel
that way about you. You are under grace, and God understands your
struggle. He is not upset by it; he is not angry with you. He
understands your failure. He knows that there will be a struggle and
there will be failures. He also knows that he has made full provision
for you to recover immediately, to pick yourself up, and go right on
climbing up the mountain.

Therefore you don’t need to be discouraged, and you won’t be.

Sin will not be your master because you are not under law and
condemnation, but under grace. And even though you struggle, if, every
time you fail, you come back to God and ask his forgiveness, and take it
from him, and remember how he loves you, and that he is not angry or
upset with you, and go on from there, you will win.

I will never forget how, as a young man in the service during World
This verse leaped out of the pages at me. I remember how the Spirit made
it come alive, and I saw the great promise that all the things I was
struggling with as a young man would ultimately be mastered -- not
because I was so smart, but because God was teaching me and leading me
into victory. I remember walking the floor, my heart just boiling over
with praise and thanksgiving to God. I walked in a cloud of glory,
rejoicing in this great promise: "Sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under law, but under grace."
Looking back across these more than thirty years since that night, I can
see that God has broken the grip of the things that mastered me then.
Other problems have come in, with which I still struggle. But the
promise remains: "Sin shall not have dominion over you. You are not
under law, but under grace."
Prayer

How grateful we are, Father, for this word of assurance that

though we are left to struggle with evil that is resident in
our body, it has not touched our spirit, and it cannot do so.
There is a part of us, the very essence of us, which does not
sin, and which remains in control despite temporary failures
that we experience in body and soul. Lord, we thank you for
this assurance that the struggle is to an end, that we will be
victorious, that those of us who are in Christ will not need
to be depressed and discouraged and need not fail, for there
is nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin shall not have dominion over us,
for we are not under law, but under grace. Thank you in Jesus’
name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The True Baptism of the Spirit

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 6:3-14
Message No: 14
Catalog No: 3514
Date: June 20, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU?

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I invite you now to turn to the book of Romans, where we are going to

In this chapter we are dealing with a very practical problem, one that
every Christian must wrestle with. The problem is stated by the apostle
very plainly in the first verse of this chapter: "What shall we say,
then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"

This whole sixth chapter deals with what happens when a believer sins.
We do not like to think that believers do sin; but, unfortunately, we
this question. Now that you have become a Christian and Christ has
entered your life -- you have been joined to him by faith in his work,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by baptism into his death and being
made a part of his resurrection -- the question arises: Can you go on
living as you once did? Can you continue on in a lifestyle of sin, just
as though nothing had really happened to you except that you will go to
heaven when you die?

Paul’s answer is: "Absolutely not!" You cannot do that; if you do, it is
proof that you never really participated in the death and resurrection
of Jesus. In other words, you are really not a Christian. Anyone who
goes on in an unchanged life after having professed that they have come
to Christ is simply giving testimony to everyone that he really has not
been changed in his heart at all. He belongs to that crowd of people of
whom our Lord Jesus himself said, "Many shall come to me in that day and
say, ’Lord, Lord, did we not do many mighty works in your name and cast
out devils?’ And I shall say, ’Depart from me, I never knew you,’" {cf,
Matt 7:22-23}.

The apostle is dealing with a very important subject here, one that we
"For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but
under grace." In verse 15, he raises the question again, but in a
slightly different way:

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under
grace? {Rom 6:15a NIV}

You can see that is a slightly different question than you have in
on abiding in sin, living in a lifestyle of sin?" Paul’s answer is:
"Absolutely not! You cannot do it. If there has really been a change in
your life, if Christ has entered your heart, there is no way that you
can go on absolutely unchanged, justifying the same style of life that
you have always had." But now the question is not "can we" but "shall
we." Paul is raising the question of whether a Christian ought to choose
to sin occasionally because he enjoys the momentary pleasure that sin
gives.

That is the situation that every one of us faces from time to time. Sin
is fun, isn’t it? Sometimes we run up against some especially delicious
temptations. At times, we all are confronted with the feeling "Why not
give in? After all, I’m not going to hell because of this. My salvation
rests on Christ and not on me. And actually, God is not going to reject
me because of this, for the Law does not condemn me any longer. I am not
under Law. It is love that will discipline me; Law will not condemn me.
I can be forgiven; I can be restored -- so why not sin?" I have heard a
lot of Christians talk that way, and I have felt the full force of this
confrontation in my own experience. Why not give in and enjoy a sin --
we are not under law, but under grace. Do you see the thrust of the
apostle’s question? It is a very real, very practical one.

In the verses that follow, Paul answers that question. He asks, "Shall
we sin?" His answer is: "No. By no means!" If you, as a Christian, go on
and sin deliberately, even if it is only occasionally, you must face
what sin will do to you. You must face the full results of what will
happen when you and I, as believers, choose to do what we know to be
wrong, even though we have been set free in Christ and need not do these
things.

Paul’s answer is three-fold:

Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no
means! {Rom 6:15 NIV}
1 First, sin makes you a slave (Verses 16-19).
2 Second, sin will make you ashamed (Verses 20-21).
3 Finally, sin will spread death throughout your whole existence

tells us that sin will make slaves out of us:

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to

obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey --
whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to
obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God
that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly
obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. You
have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak
in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of
your body in slavery to impurity and to every-increasing
wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness and
holiness. {Rom 6:16-19 NIV}

Paul says he has gone into the common experiences of the world of his
day to give us a picture of what humanity is like. He uses the phrase
"slaves" to describe us. In other words, he is dealing here with a very
profound psychological fact: human beings are made to be mastered.
Somebody has to master us.

Some years ago in Los Angeles I saw a man walking down the street with a
sign on his shoulders. The front of it said, "I’M A SLAVE FOR CHRIST."
On the back of it, as he passed, you read, "WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU?" It is
a good question because all of us are slaves to one or the other of
these two masters -- sin or righteousness. We have no other choices. By
the very nature of our humanity, we are made to serve and to be
controlled by forces beyond our power.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched the Republican Convention and was

struck by the fact that as these people gathered in Kansas City to make
a choice, they were aware that they had to decide between two men,
Ronald Reagan or President Ford. The whole convention was gathered
together for that one purpose -- to make a decision, to make a choice.
Everybody there felt that he was free to make the choice he wanted to
make, according to what he saw was important or what commitments he had
made previously.

And yet, as I watched that convention, I was struck by the narrowness of

the choice they had. There were only two men to choose from. There could
have been -- and probably were -- many there who gladly would have
chosen someone other than those two men, but they had no opportunity to
do so. There may have been some there who would have chosen me, strange
as that may seem. I don’t know that there were, but they had no
opportunity to do so. You can see what a fantastic loss the Republican
Party has suffered because of that. We think we are creatures of
sovereign choice, but we are not. Our choices are very narrow, very
limited.

The great question is: Who controls the choices that we have to make?
Who controls that narrow band? What forces are at work to limit us to
such a narrow range throughout our lives? The answer is: It is always
something beyond us that controls these choices. God is at work; Satan
is at work. We are given very limited ability to choose.

Paul then speaks of these two kinds of slavery. He says that we

Christians have been set free from the slavery to sin. Once we had to
sin. Before we came to Christ, there was no choice; no matter whether we
chose what we thought was good or chose what we thought was wrong, we
ended up making a choice that led to evil. There was no other way out.
Even the right things we tried to do were tainted with evil, with
selfishness. We have seen experiences that confirm this in our own
hearts.

Well then, what happens when we sin as believers? Now we are free, and
yet we go back and choose to do something that is wrong. We are
confronted with this temptation to give way for the moment and indulge
ourselves in some sin we want to do. Most of us try to kid ourselves
into believing it is not very serious. "It won’t hurt us anyway," we
reason, so we make the choice.

Paul says, "Let’s look at what happens. First of all, don’t you know
that you have set in operation a basic principle of life?" The principle
is this: If you yield yourself to sin, you become the slave of sin.
Jesus stated this in John 8:34: "Verily, verily, I say unto you [that is
a little formula that means he is stating basic, fundamental, absolutely
foundational truth], he that commits sin is the slave of sin," {cf, John
8:34 KJV}

Now, what does this mean in practice? A slave, of course, is someone who
is not in ultimate control of his own actions, someone who is at the
disposal of another person, someone who has to do what that other person
says. When we choose to tell a lie, we give one of the clearest
evidences of the operation of this principle in our lives. Have you ever
noticed what happens when you tell a lie?

A man said to me the other day, "I told what I thought was a little
white lie. I thought that would handle the matter. But, you know, I
found out that I had to tell 42 other lies -- I counted them -- before I
finally woke up to what I was doing and admitted the whole thing and got
out from under." You can’t tell one lie. You see, you are not in control
of the events. You choose to tell one lie, and before you know it, you
have to tell another.

The same thing is true with anger. Have you noticed that? You decide you
are going to put a little sharpness in your voice when you answer
someone. You want to cut him down just a little bit. You don’t want it
to go too far -- after all, you do like him -- you just want to hurt him
a little bit. So you do. What happens? He answers back in kind. So you
cut a little deeper, and before you know it, you are embroiled in an
argument and a battle that you did not want. It happened because you
were a slave to sin. Sin pushed you further than you wanted to go. There
was no way you could escape.

Secondly, sin not only takes you further than you desire to go, but it
also infects others with the same attitude. Did you ever notice that?
You wake up in the morning feeling surly and grouchy, and you snap at
somebody. Then the other person snaps back, and soon the whole household
is reflecting your attitude. You choose to do something a little shady
in your business, and soon others begin to do the same thing. So sin
begins to spread, like an infection. If you think the Legionnaires’
Disease was a killer, you should watch what happens when sin begins to
operate. Years ago I heard a little rhyme that said:

I said a very naughty word only the other day.

It was a truly naughty word I had not meant to say.
But then, it was not really lost, when from my lips it flew;
My little brother picked it up, and now he says it, too.

That is the way sin begins to spread. And part of the slavery is that
when you yield yourself to something, and do it two or three times
before you wake up to what is going on -- it is getting out of control
and going beyond what you wanted -- it becomes difficult to begin to
change.

Something resists every opportunity you take to try to change. It is

hard to go back. A habit has begun that is hard to change. Just as an
illustration, somebody said to me the other day, "It’s easy to quit
smoking; I’ve done it dozens of times!" What a testimony that is to the
power these things have to grip us and to control us. Paul is right, for
we become the slaves of that which we obey.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of
righteousness. What benefit [or what fruit] did you reap at
that time from the things you are now ashamed of? {Rom 6:20-21
NIV}

Each of us can look back in our lives at something we are ashamed of. It
leaves a stain in our minds when we think about it. Shame is the
awareness of unworthy actions and irreparable damage that we do to
others and our painful feeling about it. We have all experienced shame
at times. Sin -- no matter what it is or how small it seems -- always
leads to shame. The memories of the past are stained and blotted by this
sense of shame that we experience. We all know what it is like -- those
shameful deeds that we would like to forget, but can’t; hurtful words
that we wish we had never said; strained relationships that go on for
years, so that whenever we meet certain people we feel uncomfortable in
their presence.

This is the inevitable fruit of sin, something that Paul reminds us of

many times. In Galatians 6:7-8 he says, "Do not be deceived [don’t kid
yourself]; God is not mocked," {Gal 6:7a RSV}. "For he who sows to his
own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption;" {Gal 6:8a RSV}. You
can’t drop the seed of evil into your heart without reaping from it the
harvest, the fruit of corruption; "but he who sows to the Spirit will
from the Spirit reap eternal life," {Gal 6:8b RSV}. That is exactly what

The third reason why we should not give way to sin is found in

Those things result in death! But now that you have been set
free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you
reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. {Rom 6:21-23 NIV}

Life and death -- the two results. What is death? When Paul talks about
death here, he is not talking about a funeral which comes at the end of
your life (though that certainly is what death is). He is talking about
something that you experience right now while you are alive. Death is
both physical and moral; the one is a picture of the other. Physical
death always involves darkness, the end of light and life. It involves
limitation, for a corpse is helpless -- what can it do for itself? And
it involves, ultimately, corruption -- the corpse begins to stink and
smell, it becomes foul and decayed, rottenness sets in.

That is what happens when we sin as believers. These same elements of

death are present. There is, first of all, darkness. I can look back in
my own life and see how, as a young Christian, there were times when I
struggled and struggled to understand passages of Scripture. I couldn’t
seem to grasp them; they were closed to me. Others understood them and
seemed to be rejoicing in them, but I couldn’t -- until God, in his
mercy, began to deal with me about things that I was doing that I knew
were wrong. Finally, God led me to the place where I would be free. I
would repent and turn from these things and come into the freedom that
God had given me in Christ. Then I would discover that the Scriptures
began to open up, and light came into my darkness.

I meet Christians all the time who do not seem to understand many of the
truths of the Word of God. I don’t know if this is always the
explanation, but in many cases it is -- because they are deliberately
allowing things in their lives that they know are wrong. They don’t
realize that these things spread death. Darkness sets in, and they
cannot see the light. Paul reminds us in Second Corinthians, "The god of
this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, so that they
cannot see the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ," {cf,

Not only does darkness set in when we sin, but there are limitations,
too. Remember the account in the Old Testament about Moses in the
wilderness. He became angry one day when the people tested him and
frustrated him. God told him to speak to the rock and it would give
water. Instead, in his anger, Moses struck the rock with the rod, {cf,
Num 20:8-11}. That was just a little thing, a momentary blowup. For a
few seconds, he lost his temper. But God said, "Moses, because you have
done this, you will not be able to enter the Promised Land. When the
people enter the land, you must stay behind because you have done this
thing," {cf, Num 20:12}.

I am not suggesting that there are things that we do that forever limit
the opportunities God gives us. But I know that as long as we cling to
things that we know are wrong, justifying them in our lives and refusing
to enter into the freedom that God gives us, there is a loss of
opportunity. That is why many Christians never seem to have occasion to
discover the adventure of serving God. They sit with folded arms,
watching other people having fun and excitement, while nothing opens for
them. Oftentimes it is because of this very thing -- the choices of sin
that we make.

Death means a lessening of our experience of freedom and delight in the

things of God and an increase in boredom and banality. Sometimes our
lives become utterly nauseating to us. Have you ever felt that way?
Sometimes your whole Christian experience almost stinks in your own
nostrils. That is a sign of the death that sin brings with it.

Now, throughout this account, Paul stresses over and over again the
words "set free." "You have been set free," he says. "You no longer are
the slaves of sin. When you came to the Lord Jesus, a change occurred;
you have been freed. You are no longer a slave to evil, but a slave to
righteousness." Paul says, "Just as you used to offer the parts of your
body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now
offer them in slavery to righteousness and holiness."

Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God,
all this business of being limited, of experiencing death and shame, is
totally unnecessary to a believer. That is the tragedy of sin in a
believer’s life. We don’t have to experience death in our lives; we only
have it because we choose to. Therefore, any experience of these things
in our lives is something that has come because we have chosen to let
it, although we were free to choose otherwise.

A member of our family is currently learning to ride a bicycle. I won’t

say who it is, but she is learning how to balance herself on the wheels
and pedal down the street. And she is doing very well at it. But so far,
the only way she has ever found to stop is by running into something. I
am constantly picking her up out of bushes and off the sidewalk because
the only way she has been able to stop is by running into something. The
other day I was helping her, and said, "You don’t have to run into
things to stop; there is another way to do it. A provision has been made
so that you can stop this bicycle without having to run into things." I
showed her that all she had to do was to reverse the pedals and the
coaster brake would bring her to a stop. I had shown her this before, so
when I said that to her, she looked at me and said, "Well, I am sure
relieved to know that there’s another way to stop." I realized that she
didn’t need me to tell her that. What she did need was to actually do it
when it was time to stop. What good does it do to have a bicycle that
has a provision for stopping if you never use it? You might just as well
not have it.

The question the apostle raises in this passage is: "What good is it to
be set free from sin by Jesus Christ and have every opportunity and
every possibility of walking in holiness (wholeness, a whole person, one
who has got it all together) and in righteousness (a sense of worth, a
sense of security, and assurance that you are loved by God and are
valuable to him), if, at the moment of choice, we ignore these things
and go right on as though we were slaves to sin?"

As I travel across America, I am often struck by the fact that the

various cities into which I come are always cities filled with churches.
In almost every corner you can find a church. And those churches are
often filled with Christians. It seems as if this country has a
fantastic opportunity to see a new quality of life demonstrated -- a
quality of life so uniquely different from how the world lives that we
ought to have people stopping us on the street to ask, "What goes with
you? How come you have such peace in your eyes? How come you have such
love in your heart? Why are you so different?" Instead, with our cities
filled with churches and our churches filled with people, all the world
sees is the same old, tired reactions that they themselves are so
familiar with and so tired of.

to be a king, free to have a sense of worth, free to be secure in your

own personhood, knowing who you are before God. He set you free to be a
whole person, so that you are not torn by a dozen different conflicting
interests, but, with a single eye, you can live to the glory of God,
free from the control or the blame or the censure or the praise of men.
You are free at last to respond to the greatest calling that a man can
have -- the call to know God, this amazing Being.

That is what this closing verse means. "The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life." Jesus described eternal life in John
17:3: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent," {John 17:3 NIV}. Here we
are, called to this kind of living, called to this quality of existence,
and yet, because of the foolishness of our hearts and the weakness of
our spirits, we choose to give way to these momentary indulgences that
lock us into slavery and shame and death.

May God help us to set sin aside and to live as the free men and women
God has made us to be. As Paul said in Galatians 5:1: "It is for freedom
that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves
be burdened again by a yoke of bondage," {cf, Gal 5:1 NIV}

You have been freed from the slave market; now walk as new men. This is
Paul’s exhortation to us.
Prayer

Our Father, we pray that there may be among us today, young

and old alike, men and women who will dare to respond to the
challenge of your Word, to be what we are capable of being in
Christ, who will dare to say, "Yes, by the grace of God, I
want to enter into this freedom," who will dare to live
according to this and turn away from the subtle, silken claims
of evil in our lives, and say "Yes!" to you. We pray that we
might manifest this wholeness, this beauty, this reality, this
liberty of the children of God. Lord, help us here at
Peninsula Bible Church, and those at other churches across
this land, to begin to respond to this truth. We pray that
this nation, under God, may have a new birth of freedom and
that men may come to see the unique quality that Jesus Christ
brings into a life. We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Whose Slave are You?

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 6:15-23
Message No: 15
Catalog No: 3515
Date: September 5, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

FREE TO WIN OR LOSE

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is an election year, and we are hearing plenty about it. On

television and radio and in newspapers we are confronted with the
question, "What is wrong with this country?" Both of the major
candidates are telling us what they think is wrong; and if you listen to
them, you hear that the problem is always the other party. But, in our
hearts, we know that both parties are wrong, because the problem really
isn’t in our politics -- it’s in us. In those immortal words of Pogo,
"We have met the enemy, and he is us."

The book of Romans agrees with this, for the Scriptures are always
telling us that the problem with man is man himself. Until we deal
successfully with that problem, there is little hope in any political
change. All we do is rearrange the pattern of the problem when we elect
another party’s candidate; we really haven’t changed the problem itself.

Romans tells us that God’s solution to the problem of man is to begin a

whole new race. He doesn’t start with halfway measures; he doesn’t patch
up the old; he doesn’t try to improve what’s there until it gets good
enough to live with. He cuts us right off at the root and begins a new
race. But the wonder and the glory of it is that he starts the new race
within the shell of the old. Outwardly, we remain unchanged. Our bodies
are still subject to decrepitude and decay and death. Yet, within, a new
man has begun if we have exercised faith in Jesus Christ. God’s solution
is to end the curse of Adam and to release within us the power of a new
life, the life of Jesus himself.
Paul brilliantly describes this solution in these opening chapters of
picture of what happens when we put our faith in our Lord and what he
has done. We enter into an identification with his death and his
resurrection, and the death of Jesus cuts us off from the old Adam that
we all began life with. The resurrection of Jesus, Paul says, introduces
us to a whole new power -- the life of Jesus available to us.

creates. Basically, it is the question, "Can we still sin as believers?"

As you remember, his answer is, "Yes," and "No." No, we cannot go on in
the same lifestyle which we had before we came to Christ. There must be
a change. The radical transformation within us is going to result in
some change in our attitude and outlook and value system, and,
therefore, it will result in a change of lifestyle. Anyone who remains
basically unchanged is fooling himself about being a Christian, because
he is not a Christian unless there has been this inner change.

But, yes, we can still sin as believers. This is what Paul tells us in
cannot escape the enslavement that sin will bring, and it carries us
further than we want to go. It will involve us deeper than we would
like; it will spread darkness and corruption throughout our lives; it
will lead us to do things of which we will be terribly ashamed. Though
we can choose to sin, we will not escape the effects of sin in our
experience.

another question before he goes on to develop more fully this wonderful,

help us, as believers, to handle the problem of sin in our lives?"
Again, the answer is both, "Yes," and "No." Yes, the Law does help us --
but only up to a point. It will help us to define the problem. But no,
the Law is no help at all when it comes to delivering us. It can’t help
us -- in fact, it will only make things worse.

he shows the necessity of being freed from the Law in order to handle
the problem of sin in the life of the believer. We can’t handle our
problem with the Law hanging over our shoulder; we must be freed from
that. I think you can see already that this is a very pertinent problem
in our day. Every Christian believer rejoices in what he reads in the
Scriptures about our identification with Christ and about these
tremendous terms -- being freed from sin, dead to sin, and alive unto
God, alive to righteousness, wholeness, power. Yet our experience tells
us that we do not often achieve this. We are aware that we all have a
problem with sin in our lives. We still like it, and we still do it. We
experience what Paul says we will experience (enslavement, death,
darkness, unhappiness, and shame) as a result of our sin. This is true
in all Christendom today. Churches everywhere are filled with Christians
who are struggling with this.

What’s wrong? Basically, it is the same problem that Paul describes in

want regulations and detailed instructions to follow so we can be freed
from our problems. Yet, when we try, even with the best of intentions,
it still doesn’t work. That is what Paul is dealing with in this
chapter.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I am speaking to men who know

the law -- that the law has authority over a man only as long
as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to
her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies,
 she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she
marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is
called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released
from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she
marries another man. {Rom 7:1-3 NIV}

This is a simple illustration taken right out of life. This situation

occurred again and again in Paul’s day, and it occurs again and again in
our day. It is an illustration intended to clarify this whole problem of
our relationship to the Law. And yet, I don’t think there is any passage
in Romans that has become the source of more confusion than these
opening verses -- not because the illustration is confusing, but because
the commentators are. They twist the illustration. There is a unique
phenomenon here that only those acquainted with theological journals and
commentaries of our day would see. For some strange reason, this
illustration, which is simple and clear, is often twisted by many
commentators who insist on applying this as though the first husband is
the Law.

In the illustration the woman clearly is a picture of the believer --

you and me. This woman had a husband, her first husband. According to
the commentators, that first husband was the Law of Moses. But when you
start with that understanding of this illustration, you are bound to end
up with hopeless confusion.

In fact, many of the commentators go astray even before this. They fail
to note to whom this whole passage is addressed, although Paul carefully
underlines it for us. Notice the first verse again: "Do you not know,
brothers -- for I am speaking to men who know the law -- " In other
words, if you are going to understand this paragraph, you must know
something about the Law -- you must know its functions, its purpose, and
its effects. If you don’t know or understand the Law, you are going to
end up confused with this paragraph. As Paul says, "I realize that the
ones to whom I am writing here are men who understand the Law."

Now, before we plunge into this, my question is: Do you understand the
Law? Just as I thought -- not one of you here is a lawyer. As Paul
points out here, we have to understand the Law. Let’s stop a moment and
see just how much we understand about the Law:

First, do you know that the Law Paul mentions here is a reference to a
standard of conduct, or behavior, which is expected of men. There are
other uses of the word law . Sometimes it is used in reference to a
principle that governs our lives, such as the law of gravity. But here
Paul is talking about a standard of conduct that we are expected to live
up to.

The most obvious and perfect expression of that standard of behavior is

the Ten Commandments. Everyone has heard of the Ten Commandments --
right? The Ten Commandments tell us: "You shall have no other gods
before me. You shall not make for yourselves a graven image... You shall
not take the name of the Lord your God in vain... Remember the sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Honor your father and mother... You shall not
kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not
bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet..."
(Exodus 20:3-17). That is a standard of conduct, isn’t it? That, of
course. is the Law that Paul talks about here -- the Law that was given
to Israel.
sense, the Law is present among men everywhere. Have you ever listened
to people talking about their experiences and relationships with other
people? Listen for a while, and you will hear a phrase like this: "I
don’t think that is fair." What do these people mean? What is it that
determines whether a thing is fair or not? It is obviously some unspoken
standard of conduct or behavior that both the speaker and the listener
have in mind which is universally understood without speaking.

Some might put it this way: "I think this is the right thing to do."
There, again, is an unspoken standard of behavior. Somebody says, "I’m
going to get even!" How do you know when you are "even"? There is an
Law really is everywhere; it is embedded in the hearts of men. There is
an undescribed, unspoken standard of conduct to which we all refer.
Every man everywhere thinks in these terms, no matter what his
background may be. Now, that is the Law. It is the unspoken agreement
that we all understand and which we must measure up to. Do you know that
this is what Paul calls "the Law"?

Let’s see what more you know about the Law. Did you know that the
purpose of the Law is to condemn failure? The Law never pats you on the
back when you do right. It takes for granted that you ought to do right
anyway, and it never says thank you for doing right. But if you do
wrong, the Law condemns you. In one way or another, it points out and
punishes wrongdoing. It does this in the laws of our land, in traffic
laws, and even in our so-called "moral" laws. Evil and wrongdoing always
take their toll. Therefore, the nature of law is that it condemns
failure. Did you know that?

Now, do you know that the effect of the Law is to discourage people? If
law condemns -- and no one likes to feel put down and condemned -- then
the effect of the Law, invariably, is to discourage, to produce a sense
of defeat, and, ultimately, a sense of despair. That is what the Law
does. That is why, in our land and in all the nations of the earth, law
is producing a sense of despair. That is a major problem that people
wrestle with today.

No one likes to feel despairing, and so we react in various ways. Do you

know that there are certain invariable signs that you can detect in
people who are still under the Law? Paul is writing this to those
believers in Christ who were still under the Law. In their minds, at
least, they thought they had to live under the Law, and there are
certain signs of people who live like that.

One of the first signs is that they are always proud of their record.
You say, "Wait a minute! I thought you said that the Law’s effect was to
make you discouraged and defeated. Someone who is proud of his record is
not discouraged or defeated." Well, that is a diversion. The Law is
making them discouraged and they don’t like it. In certain areas of
their lives they see defeat, and so they attempt to get people’s
attention off this area of failure and onto areas where they feel they
have succeeded. That is why they are always pointing out the areas of
their success and boasting about how well they are doing. They want to
keep us from looking at that other area where they are failing. The Law
produces failure. Therefore, one of the first marks of a person who is
living under the Law is that he is always pointing out how well he is
doing. Isn’t that strange? Did you know that? I speak to those who know
the Law, and you ought to know this.

Another mark of people who are living under the Law is that they are
always critical of others. This is another diversionary tactic. Why are
people critical of others? Well, if you succeed in getting your friends’
eyes fastened on other people, they won’t look at you. And you feel
justified because the faults you point out in other people aren’t the
same faults you feel guilty of. You know, God plays some amazing tricks
with us. He so blinds our eyes, or allows Satan to do so, that
invariably the things we criticize others for are the very things that
we ourselves are guilty of. And we don’t know it! You see, the Law is
producing this sense of failure and defeat, and we are constantly
adjusting to it and compensating for it by criticizing others.

Another mark of those under the Law is that they are always reluctant to
admit any error or fault in their own lives. It is hard to get them to
admit it. I have just finished reading Born Again , Chuck Colson’s book
about his terrible experiences during Watergate. I was interested in his
characterization of former President Richard Nixon. This was one of
Nixon’s problems -- he could never admit he was wrong in anything. In
fact, Colson said that even when Nixon obviously had a cold -- nose
running, face red, sneezing, all the symptoms of a cold -- he would
never admit it. That is the mentality of those who are under the Law.
They feel very heavily the standard of conduct they are expected to
have, so they pretend they are living up to it, even though they don’t.
They hate to admit defeat because that means they must change.

Another symptom of those under the Law is that they invariably are
subject to times of inner boredom and depression, and oftentimes
experience outward symptoms of depression and discouragement and defeat.
They go through times of utter, sheer boredom. That is the sign of
someone under the Law. The Law is doing its work condemning, and that
sense of condemnation produces depression of spirit. Did you know this?
You see, you can’t understand this passage unless you know what the Law
does. That is why I keep asking "Do you know it?" If you know this, you
can see that this is a major problem in the church today. This is what
has gone wrong with so much of the church in America today.

Now, therefore, we must understand Paul’s application of this

illustration. Let’s get it now in Verses 4-6:

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of
Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was
raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to
God. For when we were controlled by our sinful nature [i.e.,
the flesh] , the sinful passions aroused by the law were at
work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now,
by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the
law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in
the old way of the written code. {Rom 7:4-6 NIV}

Here is the way out, the way to be free from the Law! But I doubt if you
understood it. Let’s work through this passage so we can see it.

Let’s go back to the illustration: The woman is you and me.

She has two husbands, one following the other.

Now, the point of this little story is not that the woman has two
husbands. Although that is important, it is not the major point. What
Paul is getting at here is what the death of the first husband does to
the woman’s relationship to the Law -- not what it does directly to the
woman herself, but what it does to her tie to the Law.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as

long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released
from the law of marriage [or, the law of her husband] . {Rom
7:2 NIV}

Do you notice three factors here? First, there is the law; second, there
is a woman; and third, there is the husband. None of those are the same
thing, are they? Therefore, the husband cannot be the Law. Many
commentators say this woman (us) is married to the Law, and they have
missed the point of this illustration. It is not that. It is the Law
that binds the woman and her husband together. The Law is outside,
saying "You two must stay together because you are married." The Law is
not the husband, that is to clear.

If the first husband dies, Paul says, the woman is released from the
Law. Not only is she released from her husband, but she also is released
from the Law. If her husband dies, the Law can say nothing to her as to
where she can go and what she can do and who she can be with. She is
released from the Law. The death of the husband makes the woman dead to
law.

Now, who is this first husband? According to the context, it is very

clear. We have been looking at it all along. The first husband is Adam,
this old life into which we were born. We were linked to it, married to
it, and couldn’t get away from it. Like a woman married to an old,
cruel, mean husband, there is not much she can do about it. While she is
married she is tied to that husband.

So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still

alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies,
she is released from the law and is not an adulteress, even
though she marries another man. {Rom 7:3 NIV}

Now, that is plain, isn’t it? The woman cannot have two husbands at
once. She cannot have a second husband while she is married to the
first. She is stuck with number one and she has to share his lifestyle.
As we have already seen, that lifestyle is one of bondage and corruption
and shame and death. That is why we who were born into Adam have to
share the lifestyle of fallen Adam. It fits perfectly, doesn’t it?

Now, if this woman, while she is married to her first husband, tries to
live with another -- for this lifestyle is sickening to her -- she will
be called an adulteress. Who calls her that? The Law does. The Law says,
"You are a hypocrite." That, you see, is the spiritual counterpart of
the physical term "adulteress." The Law condemns her, it points out her
failure, it calls her an adulteress. It is only when the first husband
dies that she is free from that condemnation of the Law and thus can
marry again. When she does, the Law is absolutely silent; it has nothing
to say to her at all.

Now look at verse 4:

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of
Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was
raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to
God. {Rom 7:4 NIV}

What a fantastic verse! Here is the great, marvelous declaration of the

gospel of our Lord Jesus. Notice how Paul draws the parallel: "So ...
you also." We fit right into this. The key word here is "you died to the
law through the body of Christ," and the body of Christ refers to the
death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. He died in a body. He came to take
a body, that he might die.

Paul is referring to what the Scriptures say in many places -- that on

the cross the Lord Jesus was made sin for us. He took our place, as
sinful humanity, on the cross. I don’t know how, but he did. In other
words: He became that first husband. Do you see that? It is very
important. On the cross, he became that first husband, that Adamic
nature to which we were married. And when he became that, he died. And
when he died, we were freed from the Law.

The Law has nothing to say to us anymore. We are free to be married to

another. Who is this? It is Christ risen. Our first husband is Christ
crucified; our second husband is Christ risen from the dead. We now
share his name, we share his power, we share his experiences, we share
his position, his glory, his hope, his dreams -- all that he is, we now
share. We are married to Christ, risen from the dead. The Law,
therefore, has nothing to say to us. Isn’t that clear?

Verses 5 and 6:

For when we were controlled by our sinful nature, the sinful

passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so
that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once
bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve
in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the
written code. {Rom 7:5-6 NIV}

You see, while we were married to sin, the old Adamic principle, we
often tried to act as though we were married to someone else, didn’t we?
We tried to act righteous and loving and kind. Many of us did. We really
tried to behave ourselves, but we found we couldn’t. The Law refused to
go along with us. The Law judged us. It said. "You are really not that
way, you are just acting like that. You are pretending." The Law called
us hypocrites, and it was right. That is what we were. We were religious
hypocrites, many of us, attempting to give the impression that we were
OK, and right, and loving, and moral, and kind, and good, when we
weren’t at all. Inside, all our attitudes were selfish and self-centered
and loveless; but we were pretending. And the Law saw through it and
named us what we were: hypocrites.

But, according to this, we died to the Law through the death of our
first husband. When Jesus was crucified, that first husband died. And
now we are free from the condemnation of the Law. We are married to
another, Christ risen from the dead. So now, when we seek to be
righteous and to do righteous things and to be loving and kind, we are
no longer hypocrites. This is the point Paul wants to make. We are doing
what we really are. We are tied to Jesus. His life is ours and we are
acting according to our true nature.

We are married to a new husband. And because we share his life and
power, we are not only able to be what he is, but we are also free from
any condemnation or failure in our struggle along the way. We don’t
always act right, but the Law doesn’t condemn us. The Law’s purpose was
to condemn, and we can’t be condemned anymore because we are not
hypocrites. We are doing what we were designed to do. We have a new
identity. No longer bound to our failures, we can admit them and forget
them. We don’t have to have them clinging to us; we no longer have to
believe that God is unhappy with us because we don’t always live exactly
right. He has made provision for this. It is not a fraud when we go back
to God again and again and accept from his hand his forgiveness.

Therefore, it is not law that straightens us out, it is love. We no

longer need the Law to straighten us out, but we have love to do so. We
are free to fail and still be loved. And we are also free to win in the
new power given to us.

The question Paul asks is, "Is the Law worthless, then, and
contemptible?"

His answer, of course, is, "No!"

Some Christians talk that way about the Law, but Paul never does. There
is a place for it, and it is valuable in a certain way, but it can do
nothing to deliver us from evil. Only our relationship to love can do
that.

Father, our hearts are singing,

Free from the law,

Jesus hath bled,
Cursed by the law
Grace hath redeemed us
Prayer

We thank you for this Father, and we pray that we may

understand more and more fully that we are not under
condemnation. Even though we struggle and don’t always catch
on to these truths very quickly, and don’t always act on the
principles revealed to us, nevertheless, you don’t reject us,
you don’t cast us aside. You are not angry with us, but you
lovingly forgive us, and help us, and restore us, and lead us
on. That is what will make us free more and more. Thank you
 for it, Father, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Title: Free to Win or Loose

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 7:1-6
Message No: 16
Catalog No: 3516
Date: September 12, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE CONTINUING STRUGGLE

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

As we have been reading through this great letter from Paul to the
Romans, we have seen the gospel of Jesus Christ which is able to set men
free. This is the central declaration of the gospel: Christ has come, he
has died, he has risen again, and he has come into our hearts by means
of the Holy Spirit in order that we who believe in him might be free.

That is what the gospel is all about -- freedom! Freedom from

self-centeredness, freedom from hostility and bitterness, freedom from
anxiety and all kinds of fears, freedom from bondage to evil habits of
any type -- this is the freedom Christ has come to give us. He has come
to release us, to free us to be the men and women that God has designed
us to be, living in the midst of (as Paul describes it) "a generation of
crooks and perverts," yet being lights shining in the darkness of our
day. As we have seen all the way through this book, and especially in
Christ. Yet there are at least two ways we can miss this, even though we
are Christians.

you can give yourself over to the bondage and slavery of sin. You can
continue to give way to sin. You may think it is not worth your while to
fight or you may enjoy the pleasure that sin gives you, so you keep on
doing the things that are wrong. This is what theologians call
antinomianism , which means, simply, "against the law." Antinomianism
reflects an attitude that unfortunately is common among us -- the idea
that God, in his grace, will forgive us, so why not indulge in sin? I
will go ahead and sin because I know God will forgive.

The Scripture says that if you do live on that basis, sin will enslave
you, it will shame you, it will limit you, it will defile you, it will
spread corruption and death in your experience. And though you may be a
Christian, you will have a very unhappy, miserable Christian life
because you cannot give way to sin without being enslaved by it.

The second way we can miss God’s freedom for us is exactly the opposite.
We attempt to handle this problem of sin by trying our best to do what
God wants. By discipline and dedication of heart and the exercise of
determined willpower we seek to do our best to do what God asks, to live
according to the Law, and to fulfill the requirements that the Law
demands.

Now, this takes many forms. Sometimes it comes as a challenge to take

certain steps by which we can overcome certain problems. It all sounds
very good, because it is an appeal to do that which is right, but it is
what the Scriptures call legalism -- the exact opposite of
antinomianism. It is a whole-hearted attempt to do what God wants. And
the end result of attempting to live on that basis is that we become
defensive, self-righteous, critical of others, proud of our own record.
But also, we become unaccountably bored, dull, discouraged, depressed,
and even frequently despairing. That, basically, is the story of

this. Legalism is not the answer, either, and there is no need for it.
dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace." In the
woman with two husbands -- the woman representing us, and the two
husbands representing our being tied to sin in Adam (our first husband),
then freed by the death of Jesus on our behalf. Not only are we freed
from sin, as Paul points out, but we are freed from the Law as well. The
Law condemns us, but we are no longer under Law if we are resting in
Christ. Therefore, the Law does not serve any useful purpose in
delivering us from sin.

That raises the question: "What, then, is the purpose of the Law in a
Christian’s life? Is the Law really contemptible and worthless? Ought we
just to dispense with it? There are many Christians around us who say,
"I’m a Christian, saved by grace. The Law has no meaning to me at all.
The Law was given to Moses for the Israelites but it doesn’t apply to a
Christian. Let’s dispense with it."

Now, Paul never speaks this way, and neither does Jesus. In fact, Jesus
tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that if anyone disparages the Law,
changes it, or waters it down in any degree whatsoever, he is under the
curse of God. The Law abides forever.

Therefore, we must clearly understand what Paul is teaching here about

the function and purpose of the Law. We must know (1) that the Law
cannot deliver us from sin. It simply cannot do so. But (2) it can
always do one thing well -- even with Christians -- it can expose sin in
us and drive us back to Christ. That is what the Law is for, and that is

This section falls into two parts:

kills the believer. That is the term he uses: the Law kills us.
how the Law exposes sin and kills us -- but this time it is not
explained, it is experienced.
In the first section Paul tells us how it works; in the second section
he tells us how it feels. This is a feeling generation, and, therefore,
this is a passage that ought to strike a very responsive chord in your
heart, for Paul describes how it feels to be under the Law as a
Christian. He describes what it does to you and just exactly how it
feels.

in relationship to the Law:

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Far from it! Indeed I
would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not
said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity
afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of
covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was
alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin
sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment
that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For
sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,
deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. {Rom
7:7-11 NIV}

This is Paul’s experience. It is clear that he is describing something

that he himself went through. But, also, Paul employs the past tense
throughout this passage, which suggests that he is describing his
experience before he became a Christian. This probably happened not long
before he became a Christian, but Paul is describing something that is
common to the experience of many of us today. No doubt many of us have
had exactly the same experience that the Apostle Paul describes.

Paul, as we know, was raised in a godly home. He was raised a Jew in the
city of Tarsus. He was brought up to be a typical Jewish son, and he was
taught the Law from birth. So when he says he lived "apart from the Law"
he doesn’t mean that he didn’t know what it was. He simply means that
there came a time when the Law came home to him. "The commandment came,"
he says.

We have all had that experience. We have read Scripture that was just
words to us -- beautiful words, perhaps, but we didn’t understand them.
Then, years after, an experience that we go through makes those words
come alive. This is what Paul is talking about here. He knew the Law
from birth, but he did not know it in the sense of understanding what it
was saying until he went through a certain experience. Here he describes
that experience, one that he had before he became a Christian.

In this home in which he was raised, Paul, like many of us today, was
protected and sheltered and kept from exposure to serious temptations.
He was raised in the Jewish culture, where everyone around him was
sheltered also. Therefore, he grew up relatively untroubled with
problems of sin.

Now, there are many people like that in this congregation. You have
grown up in a home where you have been protected and sheltered, and you
have run with a crowd of friends who, likewise, have been kept from
exposure to various things. You haven’t fallen into evil.

Many young people, like Saul of Tarsus, think they have handled the
problem. What about keeping the Law? It’s not hard! Hardly any
temptations come under these circumstances. These people think they have
no struggles along this line. They have the world by the tail -- they
can handle it. As Paul describes it, they are alive apart from the Law.
But then comes a time when they are exposed. They are thrust out into a
different lifestyle, a different crowd of people. They move out on their
own and suddenly they find themselves removed from the shelter and
protection and love and cultural defenses that have been theirs from
childhood on. Perhaps the new crowd -- as a way of life -- does things
that these sheltered young people have been taught are wrong.

Now, for the first time, they feel the force of the prohibition of the
Law. The Law says, "Thou shalt not covet, commit adultery, murder, steal
..." -- whatever it may be. And yet the crowd around them says, "Let’s
do it -- it’s fun!" For the first time, they begin to feel the
prohibition of the Law. Then a strange phenomenon happens. Something
about that situation arouses within them a strong desire to do the
things that are prohibited. Maybe they are able to resist them for
awhile, but, nevertheless, they find themselves pressured, pushed by
something within them that wants very badly to do these things.

Now, that is what Paul discovered. It was the tenth commandment, "Thou
shalt not covet" {Exod 20:17a KJV}, that got to him. He thought he had
been keeping all the Law because he had not done some of the external
things prohibited in the other commandments. But this one commandment
talks about how you feel inside, your desires, you imagination, your
ambitions. It says, "Thou shalt not desire what another has." Paul found
himself awakened to this commandment and discovered that he was
coveting, no matter where he turned. When the Law came, he found himself
aroused by it and brought under its power. It precipitated an orgy of
desire. Many of us have felt this same way.

I have seen this happen. When young people, raised in sheltered homes,
move out on their own -- perhaps when they go to college, or get a job,
or move to another city -- they find that suddenly all the control they
had seemed to be exercising over evil vanishes. They give way and are
plunged into an orgy of evil, in one form or another.

I was in the Colorado Rockies this past week. A man met me to take me
into the mountains for a conference. When I came out to the curb, he was
waiting in his new, powerful, shiny Lincoln Continental. I got into the
car and expected him to turn on the ignition. But to my amazement, he
started driving without turning on the engine -- or at least that’s how
it seemed to me. I suddenly realized that the engine had been running
all the time. It was so quiet that I hadn’t heard it. As we moved up
into the Rockies, the power of that engine became manifest. We traveled
up the steep grades in those great mountains without difficulty because
of the power released by the touch on the accelerator.

Now, that is something like what Paul is describing here. Sin lies
silent within us. We do not even know it is there. We think we have got
hold of life in such a way that we can handle it without difficulty. We
are self-confident because we have never really been exposed to the
situation that puts pressure upon us -- we never have to make a decision
against the pressure on the basis of the commandment of the Law "Thou
shalt not... "

But when that happens, we suddenly discover all kinds of desires are
awakened within us. We find ourselves filled with attitudes that almost
shock us -- unloving, bitter, resentful thoughts, murderous attitudes --
we would like to get hold of somebody and kill him, if we could. Lustful
feelings that we never dreamed were there surface and we find that we
would love to indulge in them if only we had the opportunity. We find
ourselves awakened to these desires. As the great engine surges into
life at the touch of the accelerator, so this powerful, idling beast
within us called sin springs into life as the Law comes home to us. We
discover something that we never knew was there before.

Now, is this the Law’s fault? No, Paul says, it is not the Law’s fault.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy,

righteous and good.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means!

But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced
death in me through what was good, so that through the
commandment sin might become utterly sinful [exceedingly
sinful] . {Rom 7:12-13 NIV}

That is what the Law is for. It is to expose the fact that this evil
force is in every one of us, waiting only for the right circumstance in
order to spring into being, overpower our will, and carry us into things
we never dreamed we would do. Many of us experience this. According to
this passage, the great power of sin is that it deceives us. We think we
have got life under control -- and we are fooled. All sin is waiting for
is the right occasion when, like a powerful, idling engine, it roars
into life and takes over at the touch of the accelerator and we find
ourselves helplessly under its control.

The Law is designed to expose that sin, and to make us feel this way so
that we begin to understand what this evil force is that we have
inherited by our birth into this fallen human race. The Law shows sin to
be what it is, something exceedingly powerful and dangerous, something
that has greater strength than our willpower and causes us to do things
that we are resolved not to do.

time in terms of how we feel when it happens. There is only one major
difference between this section and the previous one. In this section,
Paul switches to the present tense. That is significant because it means
that he is now describing his experience at the time he wrote this
letter to the Romans. This, then, is a description of the Law as it
touches the Christian’s life. It does exactly the same thing as it did
before we became a Christian, only now we have it from the point of view
of the Christian, the believer who is deceived by the sin that is still
resident within. Verses 14 and 15:

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual

[carnal, fleshly. Paul gives us now an excellent definition of
carnality] , sold as a slave to sin. I do not know what I am
doing. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I
do. {Rom 7:14-15 NIV}
Some have been convinced, from this verse alone, that Paul was a golfer.
If you have ever tried golf, you know that this is the very thing that
happens. What you want to do, you do not do. What you do not want to do,
that is the very thing you do. Of course, Paul has a much greater
problem than playing golf.

Paul says. "It deals with my spirit. It gets right at the very heart of
my being." Fundamentally, as we have seen, human beings are spirits. The
Law is spiritual, and it touches us in that area. "But I am carnal,"
Paul says. "I can’t respond to it. I am sold as a slave to sin."

be to God that, though you used to be slaves to in, you whole-heartedly

obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. You have been
set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness," {cf, Rom
6:17-18 NIV}. If he could write that to the Romans, surely it was true
of him as well. And yet, how could a man write that he had become in
Christ a slave to righteousness, and just a few paragraphs later write,
"I am carnal, sold under sin, a slave to sin"?

Many have said that Paul is all confused here. Of course, he is not
confused at all. He is simply describing what happens when a Christian
tries to live under the Law. When a Christian, by his dedication and
willpower and determination, tries to do what is right in order to
please God, he is living under the Law. And Paul is telling us what to
expect when we live like that -- for we all try to live that way from
time to time. Sin, you see, deceives us. It deceived Paul as an apostle,
and he needed this treatment of the Law. It deceives us, and we need it,
too.

Now Paul tells us what happens. There are two problems, basically, which
he gives us in Verse 15: "I do not know what I am doing. For what I want
-- there are things I would love to do, but I cannot do them. The second
problem is: "... but what I hate I do."

In the verses that follow, Paul takes the second problem first, and
shows us what happens in our experience. Verses 16 and 17:

And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is

good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is
sin living in me. {Rom 7:16-17 NIV}

That is a very important statement. Paul makes it twice in this

paragraph, and it is the explanation of and the answer to how we can be

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful

nature [or my flesh] . For I have the desire to do what is
good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good
I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep
on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no
longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
{Rom 7:18-20 NIV}
Let’s examine this very carefully. Paul says that as a Christian,
redeemed by the grace of God, there is now something within him that
wants to do good, that agrees with the Law, that says that the Law is
right. There is something within that says what the Law tells me to do
is right, and I want to do it. But also, he says, there is something
else in me that rises up and says "No!" Even though I determine not to
do what is bad, I suddenly find myself in such circumstances that my
determination melts away, my resolve is gone, and I end up doing what I
had sworn I would not do. Have you ever felt that way?

So, what has gone wrong? Paul’s explanation is, "It is no longer I who
do it; it is sin living in me." Isn’t that strange? There is a division
within our humanity indicated here. There is the "I" that wants to do
what God wants, and there is the sin which dwells in "me," which is
different than the "I." We must understand what this is.

Human beings are complicated creatures. They are not simple organisms.
We have within us a spirit, a soul, and a body. These are distinct, one
from the other. What Paul is suggesting here is that the redeemed spirit
never wants to do what God has prohibited. It agrees with the Law that
it is good. And yet there is an alien power, a force that he calls sin ,
a great beast that is lying still within us until touched by the
commandment of the Law. Then it springs to life, and we do what we do
not want to do.

Notice that Jesus himself agrees with this. On one occasion he said, "If
your right hand offends you, cut it off," {cf, Matt 5:30}. He did not
mean that you should actually chop off your right hand, because that
would be a violation of other texts that indicate that God made the body
and made it right and it is morally neutral. What he means is that we
should take drastic action because we are up against a serious problem.
He indicates that there is a "me" within us that runs our members, that
gives orders to our hands and our feet and our eyes and our tongue and
our brain and our sexual organs, and controls them. That "me" is giving
an order to do something wrong, but there is another "I" in us who is
offended by this. That "I" does not like it, does not want it. And so,
Jesus’ words are, "Cut it off." In a moment we are going to see how that
happens, what it is that cuts it off and thus enables us to handle the
problem. That is the way man is made. Our will power is never enough;
sin will win, and we will do the evil that we swore not to do.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is

right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s
law; but I see another law [another principle] at work in the
members of my body, waging war against the law [or principle]
of my mind [my agreement with the law of God] and making me a
prisoner of the law [principle] of sin at work within my
members. {Rom 7:21-23 NIV}

Here is the same problem exactly. You want to do right and determine to
do right, knowing what it is and swearing to do it, only to find that
under certain circumstances all that determination melts away and you do
not do what is right. You do exactly what you did not want to do. So you
come away angry with yourself. "What’s the matter with me? Why can’t I
do what is right? Why do I give way when I get into this situation? Why
am I so weak?" This is right where we live, isn’t it? This is what we
all struggle with. The cry of the heart at that moment is

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of
death? {Rom 7:24 NIV}

What is this? Well, right here you arrive at where the Lord Jesus began
the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven," {Matt 5:3}. Blessed is the man who comes to the
end of himself. Blessed is the man who has arrived at spiritual
bankruptcy. Because this is the point -- the only point -- where God’s
help is given.

This is what we need to learn. If we think that we have got something in

ourselves that we can work out our problems with, if we think that our
wills are strong enough, our desires motivated enough, that we can
control evil in our lives by simply determining to do so, then we have
not come to the end of ourselves yet. And the Spirit of God simply folds
his arms to wait and lets us go ahead and try it on that basis. And we
fail, and fail miserably -- until, at last, out of our failures, we cry,
"O wretched man that I am!" Sin has deceived us, and the Law, as our
friend, has come in and exposed sin for what it is. When we see how
wretched it makes us, then we are ready for the answer, which comes

Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! {Rom 7:25a

NIV}

Who will deliver me from this body of death? The Lord Jesus has already
done it. We are to respond to the feelings of wretchedness and
discouragement and failure, to which the Law has brought us because of
sin in us, by reminding ourselves immediately of the facts that are true
of us in Jesus Christ. Our feelings must be answered by facts.

We are no longer under the Law. That is the fact. We have arrived at a
different situation; we are married to Christ, Christ risen from the
dead. That means we must no longer think, "I am a poor, struggling,
bewildered disciple, left alone to wrestle against these powerful
urges." We must now begin to think, "No, I am a free son of God, living
a normal human life. I am dead to sin, and dead to the Law, because I am
married to Christ. His power is mine, right at this moment. And though I
may not feel a thing, I have the power to say, "No!" and walk away and
be free, in Jesus Christ."

Some of you know that my wife and I were in Virginia Beach, Virginia,
and made a recording for a television broadcast. With us on that program
was a pastor from Canada who had been raised in Russia. He had a burden
on his heart to get the Word of God into Russia and was part of an
organization (among several that exist today) to get Bibles into Russia.
He told us about his first experience of crossing the Russian border
with a load of Bibles in the trunk of the car. He wasn’t going to try to
smuggle them in; he just was counting on God to get them through
somehow.
He and a friend loaded the boxes of Bibles into the car, and as they
drove up to the border, all his resolve and courage began to drain away.
Within a mile or so of the border, his friend said, "How do you feel?"
He said, "I feel scared." So they stopped alongside the road and there
they simply told the Lord how they felt. "Lord, we are scared. We didn’t
get into this situation because we want to be here. It isn’t we who want
to get this Word into Russia; it is you. This is your project, and this
is your situation. We are willing to take whatever risks you ask, but
you have got to see it through. We are scared and we don’t know what to
do. We don’t have any wisdom, we don’t know how to handle this situation
when we get to the border, but we expect you to do something." He said
that as they prayed that way, totally bankrupt, wanting to do good,
unable to do it, but committing the matter to the Lord Jesus, they felt
the inward sense of the Spirit of God witnessing to them that God would
act. They didn’t know how or what he would do, but they felt a sense of
peace.

They drove on to the border, and when the guard asked for their papers,
they gave them to him. He examined them, then said, "What do you have in
the trunk?" They said, "Some boxes." He said, "Let me see them. " So
they opened up the trunk, and here were the boxes of Bibles. They
expected surely that his next question would be, "What’s in them?" But
he didn’t ask it. He simply said, "Okay," shut the door, gave them their
papers, and on they went. Now, that is what this passage is describing
for us. This is the way we are to live, the way we are to face every
challenge, large or small.

something a Christian goes through once, then he gets out of it and

Nothing could be further from the truth! Even as mighty a man as Paul
went through it again and again. This is a description of what every
believer will go through again and again in his experience because sin
has the power to deceive us and to cause us to trust in ourselves, even
when we are not aware we are doing it. The Law is what will expose that
evil force and drive us to this place of wretchedness that we might
then, in poverty of spirit, cry out, "Lord Jesus, it is your problem;
you take it." And he will do so.

be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" The next sentence belongs
the way of deliverance for Christians. We do need the Law. We need it
every time sin deceives us. But the Law will not deliver us from sin;
Law will only bring us, again and again, to the mighty deliverer.
Prayer

Thank you, our Father, for the simple and clear teaching of
this passage. Help us to understand that we are freed from the
Law once it has done its work of bringing us to the knowledge
of sin. We cannot control ourselves by that means or deliver
ourselves from evil, but we can rest upon the mighty deliverer
who will set us free. We thank you in Jesus’ name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The Continuing Struggle

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 7:7-25
Message No: 17
Catalog No: 3517
Date: September 19, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
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file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
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permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

NO CONDEMNATION

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The eighth chapter of Romans is the favorite chapter of many of you, I

know -- and not without reason. This is one of the most significant
chapters of the Scriptures. Somebody has likened this to "the brightest
jewel in the casket of gems in the Word of God." I like to think of it
as a great mountain, like Mt. Shasta, rising above all the surrounding
hills and capturing the attention of all. Yet, the interesting thing
about this is that it is not until you get to the middle of the chapter
words of this chapter he is simply gathering it up, bringing it to
focus.

But first I want to point out that you have to ignore the division
between Chapters 7 and 8. I believe that the text of the Scriptures is
inspired by God -- "breathed out" by him -- but I believe that the
chapter divisions were put in by the devil! Many times they come right
at a place where they actually obscure truth. Sometimes these divisions
break the continuity of a thought and take it out of the context. Then
we may miss something tremendously important. That is certainly true
you read them that way, it will help explain the struggle and darkness

As you remember, Paul is in a very intense struggle because, as a

believer, he is trying to keep the Law. Anybody who gets involved in a
discipline of the spirit and dedication of the heart to obey God, but is
trying to do it through his own efforts, willpower, and determination,
will have the same problem. The problem is really legalism. Here you see
the tremendous harm that legalism causes throughout the existence of the
church. There are thousands and millions of Christians who are
struggling like this today because of the power of the Law in their
lives. Paul tells us about the struggle: "The things that I would not
do, that I do; and the things that I would do, I do not do," {cf, Rom
7:14-20 NIV}. We have all felt this way and can identify with his
struggle.

But Paul does not leave it there. It is a struggle that does not have to
go on. That is the point. How does he resolve this struggle? He
immediately answers with this one, great, flashing word of relief in

Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! {Rom 7:25a

NIV}

says, "Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in

my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. [That summarizes
don’t stop there, for there should not be even a period
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the
Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
to open with the word "but." It is a contrast that shows the
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,"] {Rom
7:25b-8:2 NIV}

The only reason this verse does not open with "but" is because some
clown put a big "8" there, and that has thrown off all the translators.
Now, what is Paul saying in this passage when it all is taken together
like that? First, it is evident that there is a struggle in the
Christian life. There is a struggle between what he calls "the sinful
nature" and the Spirit.

(I am not sure I like that term "sinful nature" too well -- the word is
"flesh," and, as the word is used in the Scriptures, it not only means
the body, but it means the sin that finds its seat in those bodies.) You
see, it is by the body that we are linked with our father, Adam.
Genetically, all that we have in our bodies is traceable back through
the stream of human history to Adam. God made a body for Adam that is
like ours -- with two eyes, two ears, a nose, etc., and we have these
characteristics because Adam had them. But we also have inherited from
Adam this principle of sin that is in us. Now, it is hard to define this
principle of sin. In some way, it describes the access that the devil
has to our humanity. It is the means by which Satan is able to implant
in our minds "the fiery darts of the wicked one" {Eph 6:16 KJV}, as Paul
calls them in Ephesians. This refers to those obscene and lustful
thoughts, and selfish attitudes, and hostile, bitter feelings that we
have toward others -- thoughts that come suddenly, unbidden, into our
minds when we least expect them. They come from this root of sin that is
in our bodies.

the flesh:

For the sinful nature [or the flesh] desires what is contrary
to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful
 nature [the flesh] . They are in conflict with each other, so
that you do not do what you want. {Gal 5:17 NIV}

That really is a verse of hope. Paul says the Spirit struggles against
the flesh, so that you cannot do the things that you would. That is what
myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law." That is, as he said earlier,
"I want to do good. I believe in it. I delight in God’s law in my inner
being. I am changed; I agree that the law is good. But I find I can’t do
it."

In his mind he is awakened to the value and the righteousness of God’s

law, and this has come about by means of the Spirit. How else can you
ever come to the place of agreeing that God is good and holy, his Word
is right and the Law is good, except it be by the Spirit of God in you?
It is only when a man is filled with the Holy Spirit that he is able to
talk like that. Therefore, it is the Holy Spirit, within Paul’s human
spirit, agreeing with God’s law. But set against that is this sin that
is in his flesh that takes hold of him and makes him a slave to the law
of sin, even though he does not want to be.

How does he break this hold? He breaks it, as he says, by calling upon a
new view of himself that is true because he is in Jesus Christ. That is

But there is a struggle, and some of us have been very much aware of it.
If you ever have watched an alcoholic, or perhaps have struggled with
alcoholism yourself, you know that this is an intense struggle. An
alcoholic can come to the place where he can see everything evil
happening to him because of alcohol. He wants to quit; he determines to
quit. He knows he is going to lose his wife, his children, his
reputation, and everything if he doesn’t quit. I have seen these people
resolve never to drink again. Yet, in a moment of temptation, the very
overpowered by sin. They give in, and then they hate themselves for it.

Those who struggle with homosexuality feel the same way. Habits of
reaction have settled in and they find it very difficult to say, "No,"
even though they want to. Born again, they want to be delivered -- but
it is hard.

And it is not only these things that grip us like this. A hot temper or
a habit of overeating can do the same thing. How many of you resolve not
to eat as much? Perhaps right now you are saying, "When I go home, I am
going to take just a very light meal." And someone will spread out a
beautiful roast, and apple pie, and, before you know it, your resolve is
gone -- and so is the food.

This is a problem of the will, isn’t it? We are weak, and we know it.
This is what Paul is describing here. This is the struggle of the
Christian life. It comes again and again, but it does not have to
continue. That is what this passage is about. It is a struggle that we
find ourselves in, and sometimes we aren’t even aware of it at first.
But the struggle does not have to go on.

Some Christians resent the fact that the struggle is there at all. They
have gotten a false idea of Christianity. They think Christianity means
that God takes this struggle away and removes the temptation so they
never have to struggle again. Unfortunately, that is not true; and many
people have been hurt, and have become angry with God, because he
doesn’t do that. I have seen young Christians become very upset at times
because they thought they were free and then they found that they
weren’t.

The text goes on to tell us that this can cease only when we reckon on
who we really are in Christ. Basically, what we need is a new
self-image. That is what will deliver us, for that is what is true of
us. And when we see who we really are, we can say "No" to the flesh and
make it stick; then we can say "Yes" to the Spirit and discover a whole
new walk of life.

The second major thing the apostle is saying is that not only is there a
struggle, but, and this is very important, the struggle is without
condemnation. Though I struggle at times, Paul says, there is no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The reason there is no
condemnation is given in just one little phrase: "in Christ." That goes
right back to our justification by faith. We came out of Adam, we are in
Christ, and God will never condemn those who are in Christ. He never
will.

Now, we have to understand what "no condemnation" means. What is Paul

talking about? Certainly, the most basic element in it is that there is
no rejection by God. God does not turn us aside, he does not kick us out
of his family. If we are born into the family of God by faith in Jesus
Christ, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell within us, and he will never,
never leave us. No matter what we do, he will never leave us. And God
will never cut us out of his family or treat us as anything less than
sons and daughters.

One of the most beautiful stories of the Scriptures is that of the

prodigal son. The prodigal son left home, got into deep difficulty,
wasted his life in riotous living, and ended up in the pigpen. I was
listening to Dr. Vernon McGee the other morning on the radio and, in his
colorful way, he asked, "Do you know the difference between the son in
that pigpen and the pig? The difference is that no pig has ever said to
himself, ’I will arise and go to my father.’" He is right; only sons say
that. That is why there will be no condemnation, no rejection, by God.
He will always treat you as his child, and not as his enemy.

The second thing "no condemnation" means is that God is not angry with
you when this struggle comes into your life. You want to be good, or you
want to stop doing bad, but, when the moment of temptation comes, you
find yourself overpowered and weak, and you give way. Then you hate
yourself. You go away frustrated, feeling, as Paul described, "Oh,
what’s the matter with me? Why can’t I do this thing? Why can’t I act
like I want to?" And though you may condemn yourself, God does not. He
is not angry with you about that. He knows, as the Scriptures show us,
that you are a child in his family, learning to walk.

The beautiful figure is that of a tender, loving father, watching his

little boy begin to take his first steps. No father ever gets angry with
his little son because he doesn’t get right up and start running around
the first time he tries to walk. If the child falls and stumbles and
falters, the father helps him; he doesn’t spank him. He lifts him up,
encourages him, and shows him how to do it right. And if the child has a
problem with his feet, maybe one foot is twisted or deformed, the father
finds a way to relieve that condition and help him to learn to walk.
That is what God does. He is not angry when we are struggling. He knows
it takes awhile -- quite awhile, at times. And even the best of saints
will, at times, fall. This was true of Paul, it was true of the
apostles, and it was true of all the prophets of the Old Testament. Sin
is deceitful and it will trip us at times. But God is not angry with us.

The third thing "no condemnation" means is that there is no punishment.

God will never take us to the woodshed because of our struggles. He
isn’t angry and he isn’t going to punish us. We may punish ourselves, we
may be frustrated, we may cry out, "Oh wretched man that I am!" But God
doesn’t say that -- he doesn’t punish us.

Now, let me caution you. When we deliberately decide to sin, and like
it, then he will punish us. This is the discipline of a father described
ourselves back into sin once we have been set free from it, then, as a
loving disciplinarian, God will sometimes correct us, and punish us, and
even scourge us, until we begin to see what has happened. He does this
out of love, just as an earthly father would.

But that is a different condition than the one we are facing here. Here
Paul is addressing the times when we want to do good, and we are trying
to do good. But we are weak, and, in a moment of temptation, we fail.
And we fail again and again. But there is no condemnation to those that
are in Christ Jesus. Even when we are being punished as disobedient
sons, we still are not condemned. That remains true no matter what
happens to us. Why are we not condemned? The answer that Paul gives in

... because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life
set me free from the law of sin and death. {Rom 8:2 NIV}

Paul was not left with a continuing, constant struggle; God came in and
did something about it. God reminded him of what he knew to be true, and
he began to believe it. Paul brings out three reasons why there is no
condemnation.

good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to
do what is good," {Rom 7:18a NIV}. His heart is right. Then again, in
{Rom 7:18 NIV}. Paul really wants to do right, his heart is right;
therefore there is no condemnation.

Second, and obviously connected with this, Paul explains that sin has
deceived us and overpowered us. It is too much for us. We can’t handle
this wild beast raging within us when it is awakened by the demands and
prohibitions of the Law. And God doesn’t condemn us for that, he knows
that it is more than we can handle.

Third, and this is the most important, God has already made provision
for our failure in Christ, and our very struggle is driving us to
Christ. When you have come to the place of saying, "Oh wretched man that
I am!" the only thing left, if you want any escape at all, is to ask,
"Why am I thinking of myself in this way?" and to realize, "God says I
am different." Reckoning on that difference that has come to you in
Christ, you can rise up to act differently as well. That is the way out.
God knows that even your failures are driving you to that moment; and,
as a loving Father, he is patiently waiting for it to come.

The third major thing that Paul says is that a provision has been made
for victory. The law of the Spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus,
will set you free from the law of sin and death, which is in your
members. That is why Paul cries, "Thanks be to God -- through our Lord
Jesus Christ!" {Rom 7:25a NIV}. This law of the Spirit of life is your
faith in what God has already said he has done for you in Christ. He has
cut you off, made you a different creature, brought you into Christ, and
married you to him -- you are not any longer the same man.

When we are failing, and angry with ourselves, our natural way of
thinking about ourselves is something like this: "I’m a mess, a
hopeless, helpless mess! Why can’t I do what I want to do? Why can’t I
stop this thing that is hurting me so, and hurting others, too?" You are
all wrapped up in your own feelings and you think you deserve to be
whipped and punished and cast into hell.

At that point God says to you, "What is wrong is your view of yourself.
That is not what you are; that is only a temporary delusion to which you
are giving yourself over. The truth is, you have been cut free. You are
married to Christ. Your human spirit has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit
and it cannot sin. It has not sinned and does not sin. Now, you
yourself, as a person, have been deceived by the sin in your flesh, and
it has taken over and has gotten you into this difficulty. But that is
not who you are. Don’t believe that about yourself anymore. There is a
fresh provision of the forgiveness of God and the righteousness of
Christ waiting for you. You are in Christ -- this is who you are. Take
his forgiveness, believe it, thank God for it, and go on, and know that
your struggle has ended." That is why Paul says in Galatians 5:17, "They
[the Spirit and the flesh] are in conflict with each other, so that you
do not do what you want," {Gal 5:17b NIV}.

Of course this does not mean that God has ended the reign of the flesh
in our lives. It is still there. The law of sin and death, like the law
of gravity, goes on working all the time. But the moment you believe
what Jesus Christ says is true about you, and you believe what he has
done for you, a new law comes in. This new law is stronger than the law
of sin and death; it even uses that law to accomplish its end.

When I was a boy, I discovered that there was a law at work in my

members that was affecting my eyesight. It was what I later learned to
call the law of myopia, which is nearsightedness. It was in my members,
right in my eyes, so that I could not see what other people could see.
Finally, I went to a doctor about it, and he told me that I had a law in
my members that was constantly working and it affected my eyesight so
that I could not see what others saw.

Then I discovered a new law, the law of contact lenses -- two little
pieces of plastic which I could put in my eyes every morning and they
would keep working all day long. All I had to do was put them in. They
did not eliminate the law of myopia -- they actually used it. But the
result was that I saw perfectly, with 20/20 vision. Now, if I got cocky
and decided I didn’t need those contact lenses anymore ("I can handle
this situation without them!") and took them out -- immediately the law
of myopia would take over and I would have the same old problem again.
But if I put the lenses in, the law of contact lenses would cancel out
-- overcome -- the law of myopia, and I could see perfectly.

That is what Paul is telling us here. God has given us a new image of
ourselves. We are not what we feel we are. As a result of that, we can
be set free anytime we employ that law, anytime that we, by faith,
reckon that what God says is true and we begin to see ourselves that
way.

The fourth major point that Paul makes in this brief paragraph is given
in Verses 3 and 4. It is a review of the basis for victory:

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened

by our sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful man [flesh] to be a sin offering. And so he
condemned sin in the sinful man [the flesh] , in order that
the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us,
who do not live according to our sinful nature but according
to the Spirit. {Rom 8:3-4 NIV}

This is a beautiful description of the good news in Jesus Christ. There

is nothing new here; we have had it all before. Paul says the Law is
powerless to produce righteousness. It cannot do it. It cannot make us
good -- no way. It can demand and demand and demand, but it cannot
enable and it never will.

This, by the way, is why nagging somebody never helps. Did you know
that? Nagging is a form of law, and God will not let the Law nag us
because it doesn’t help. It only makes it worse. If you try to nag your
husband or wife or child, you will find that the same thing happens
there. Nagging only makes them worse. Why? The reason, Paul says, is
because the Law only stirs up the power of sin. It releases this force,
this beast within us, this powerful engine that takes over and carries
us where we don’t want to go. That is why nagging, or any form of the
Law, will never work. It is not because there is anything wrong with
what is being said -- it is because of the weakness of the flesh that it
The Law keeps sin going, it stirs it up.

To break through this vicious circle, Paul says, God sent forth his own
son. There is a beautiful tenderness about this. He sent "his own Son."
He did not send an angel, he did not send a man -- he sent his own Son
as a man, in the likeness of sinful flesh. Notice that. He did not send
him just in the likeness of flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Jesus had a real body, a body like yours and mine. Since sin has been
done in the body, it has to be judged and broken in the body. Therefore,
Jesus had a body. But it was not just a body of sinful flesh, it was the
likeness of sinful flesh. It was like our sinful bodies, in that it was
subject to infirmities (Jesus was weak and tired and hungry and weary),
but there was no sin in him. Paul preserves that very carefully here.

In that body of flesh, without sin, he became sin. As we read here, he

was offered as an offering for sin. And in the mystery of the cross,
which we can never, never understand, no matter how long we live,
somehow the Lord Jesus, at the hour of darkness, gathered up all the
sins of the world, all the terrible, evil, foul, awful injustice, crime,
and misery that we have seen throughout history, from every person,
gathered it into himself, and brought it to an end by dying. The good
news is that somehow, by faith in him, we get involved in that death. We

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that
the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no
longer be slaves to sin -- {Rom 6:6 NIV}
(Christ-made-sin) was the first husband to whom we were married: And he
died. The first husband died, and therefore we were free to be married
to the second husband, who is Christ-risen-from-the-dead. Thus he has
tied us to himself as a risen, ascended Lord, and that is who we are
from now on.

This is not just for a few Christians who have gone beyond all the rest
and have some special experience; all Christians are this way. If you
are a Christian at all, this is who you are. It is always who you are.
To let yourself believe anything else is to delude yourself. To believe
your feelings about yourself at any moment of evil or sin is to fool
yourself. This is who you are. By the gift of God, without earning it,
or without ever deserving it, you are righteous in his sight; just like
Jesus, you are righteous with the righteousness of God. The very
righteousness which the Law demands is fulfilled in us the minute we
believe what God has done about our evil and trust him for it. That
righteousness is ours continually, as a gift.

The last thing the apostle says is that this becomes real to us when we
choose to live according to the Spirit -- not according to our sinful
nature. When we believe what God says about us and see ourselves in a
new way, then we will change the way we act. This is always God’s way of
deliverance. We think that we have to change the way we act in order to
be different; God says, "No, I have made you different, and when you
believe it, you will automatically change the way you act." Do you see
the difference?

Remember that story that Hal Lindsey shared with us on Easter Sunday? It
was a beautiful story about a girl who was the daughter of one of the
royal families of Europe. She had a big, bulbous nose that destroyed her
beauty in the eyes of others -- and especially in her own eyes. She grew
up with this terrible image of herself as an ugly person. So her family
hired a plastic surgeon to change the contour of her nose. He did his
work, and there came the moment when they took the bandages off and the
girl could see what happened.

When the doctor removed the bandages, he saw that the operation had been
a total success. All the ugly contours were gone. Her nose was
different. When the incisions healed and the redness disappeared, she
would be a beautiful girl. He held a mirror up for the girl to see. But,
so deeply embedded was this girl’s ugly image of herself that when she
saw herself in the mirror, she couldn’t see any change. She broke into
tears and cried out, "Oh, I knew it wouldn’t work!" The doctor labored
with that girl for six months before she would finally accept the fact
that she was indeed different. But the moment she accepted the fact that
she really was different, her whole behavior began to change.

We act from what we know we are. If the evil in us deceives us into

thinking that we are not what God says we are, then we are going to keep
on acting that way. That is why the way to break the power of the most
vicious and evil habit is to see yourself as God sees you. Then you
begin to act that way. You can’t help it. As this verse makes clear, you
are one with Jesus and you share his life, and he himself, with the
beauty of his character, is one with you. He is married to you and you
to him and there is no distinction. If you can see this when you have
temporarily believed something false about yourself and are struggling,
then you will be free.

Many of us can testify to the fact that this works. God sets us free in
this way. This is what Paul has been saying all along. Sin shall not
have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law, with its nagging
demand that you be different before you can be accepted, but you are
under grace, with its affirmation that God has already made you
different -- now believe it!
Prayer

Our Father, I am sure there are many here today who have been
struggling against very powerful forces in their lives, many
who have been wanting to be free from destructive things -- an
evil temper; a critical, judgmental spirit; a hostile,
defensive attitude; selfishness; lust; sexual desires that are
hurtful and wrong. Lord, thank you that you have found a
different way out. Thank you that the way out is not by
forcing ourselves to be different, but by seeing that we
already are different. We have been cleansed and purified and
made whole in Jesus Christ our Lord. He is our life, and we
belong to him and always will. What a difference that is! Help
us to believe it and to act that way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Title: No Condemnation
By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 7:25 - 8:4
Message No: 18
Catalog No: 3518
Date: September 26, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

WHY NOT LIVE?

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

to the key word in this epistle -- the word "righteousness." Basically,

this is something that we all are looking for -- whether we know it or
not -- for righteousness is really self-worth. It is knowing yourself to
be of value, to be approved, to be desired; it is a feeling of
self-respect, self-esteem.

Psychologists call this by various terms. It is the basis for

confidence, courage in facing life, or a sense of security about
yourself. We know from what psychologists tell us, and from experience,
that this is an absolute essential to human life. Jesus said the same
thing. When Martha had lost her confidence, her perspective, her focus
on life, he said to her, "One thing is needful," {Luke 10:42 KJV}. This
is what he was referring to, this sense of being needed and wanted, of
having security, self-respect, a basis for self-worth.

Now, the gift of righteousness is exactly that -- a gift from God.

Romans teaches that the theme of the good news is that righteousness,
this essential quality of human living, comes only as a gift of God.
There is no other way to get it. You can try to get self-worth from what
other people think of you; but, as the Bible clearly helps us to see,
and, as life will teach us, if we live long enough, that never really
works. This way of finding self-worth is inadequate, a shot-in-the-arm
that needs to be repeated again and again. It is very unrealistic, and
it lets you down just when you need it the most. So, we are talking here
about the gift of righteousness, which comes by faith in the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, as applied to you personally, as a
helpless human being in Adam, and, therefore, mastered by sin.

The gift of righteousness is used in two ways in the epistle to the

Romans, and at this point we have to make the distinction between them
very clear. We have already seen righteousness is a gift that is
instantly imparted to our human spirits when we believe in Jesus; and,
from that vantage point within us, it is continually available to us. We
can turn to it any time we feel pressure or insecurity or need. It is
available continuously by faith. That is what the Bible calls
"justification by faith." It is our new identity which we have because
we are in Christ -- we are no longer in Adam.

But now a new form of righteousness comes before us. It is what we might
call "righteousness displayed." It is righteousness in the spirit that
has worked its way out to visibility. That is, it is actually seen in
our actions and deeds and words and thoughts. We are acting like Christ.
As well as being like him in the spirit, we now begin to act like him.

For what the law was powerless to do [i.e., produce

righteousness] in that it was weakened by our sinful nature,
God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man
to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
in order [and here is the point] that the righteous
requirements of the law [the right behavior which the Law
insisted on] might be fully met in us, who do not live
according to our sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.
{Rom 8:3-4 NIV}

That is what the Bible calls "sanctification," i.e., righteousness

manifest. That is our new behavior. And it is ours, the apostle says,
when we do not live according to our sinful nature, but according to the
Spirit.

morning, follow immediately and expound and explain those two

possibilities for the Christian. Just being a Christian does not mean
that automatically you begin to look and act and talk and think and
react like Jesus Christ. You do not become Christ-like when you become a
Christian. Your human spirit is, for it is linked with him, but you may
not act that way for quite some time. It depends on whether you are
walking (behaving) according to the flesh or according to the Spirit.
Those two things are made crystal clear in the passage before us.

I am reading, as you know, from the New International Version of the

Bible. Up to this point, it has been an excellent version; but now, for
some reason, it confuses this issue a bit, and I will have to make some
changes as we go along. This has to be done for every version in places.
The Revised Standard and American Standard and King James versions are
better translations of this passage than the New International.

possibilities in our Christian life: Are we going to live according to

alternatives for us so that we can identify them and recognize them in
our lives:

Those who live according to their sinful nature [i.e.,

according to the flesh] have their minds set on what that
nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the
Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. {Rom
8:5 NIV}

There is the difference. There are two possibilities before us, as

Christians, that will determine whether or not we manifest the
righteousness which the Law demands, depending on whether we walk
according to the Spirit or according to the flesh. Notice that the
difference is what you set your mind on, i.e., what you are thinking
about all through the day, what is important to you, how you view life,
what you think is important about the things that are happening to you
from day to day. Is it the viewpoint of the flesh, which governs the
thinking of the world? Or is it the viewpoint of the Spirit -- God’s
viewpoint -- on life? That is the determining factor -- what you do with
your thinking. Where you set your mind is going to make the difference.

Now, what is the mind set of the person who lives according to the
flesh, or, as this version puts it, those who have "their minds set on
what that [sinful] nature desires"? You only have to look around to see
what that is. You only have to listen to the television or radio, or
read the newspapers, or observe people -- even yourself -- and you will
see what this is. It is the natural viewpoint of life.

What do people want in life? Basically, they want to make money, because
money provides comfort and conveniences and pleasures that we would like
to have. People want to have fun. The world is committed almost entirely
to that. In every way we are being approached to buy this or buy that in
order that we might enjoy ourselves. People want pleasure. That is what
life seems to be all about -- the pursuit of pleasure. We want money, we
want pleasure, and we want fame. People are always manipulating people
and circumstances to acquire some degree of fame, to be seen and known.
There is a passion in the human heart to be known. People will give
their right arm to gain influence and standing and prestige and
following. Finally, I think that people desire to fulfill themselves.
They want to manifest every capability that is within them. They want,
somehow, to feel fulfilled. That is what the world lives for, isn’t it?
And it wants it all now, not later. That is the natural point of view.

You say, "Well, what’ s wrong with that?" There really is nothing wrong
with that -- unless that is all you want. If that is all you want, then
it is very, very wrong. This is what the Scriptures help us to see --
that there is another point of view, which is life viewed according to
the Spirit.

"Ah," you say, "I know what that means!" That means you have to forget
about making money and having fun and fulfilling yourself. All you do is
go around memorizing Scripture and thinking about God all day long.
Whenever anyone asks you to do something, you’re too busy thinking about
God and too involved in spiritual things to get your hands dirty. So you
become a religious recluse. You go around reciting Scripture verses and
telling people what is wrong with their lives -- and that is being
spiritual!"

Unfortunately, a lot of people think that is what we are talking about

when we say that we are to have our minds set on the things of the
Spirit. But, of course, if you see people like that (or if you are
somebody like that), you soon discover that kind of life does not
produce the results this passage tells us should be there. That is
really nothing but another form of being run by the flesh -- it’s a
religious form of it, but it is actually the same thing.

What does it mean, then, to have your mind set on the Spirit? It means
that, in the midst of making money and having fun and gaining fame and
fulfilling yourself, you are primarily concerned with showing love,
helping others, speaking truth, and, above all, loving God and seeking
his glory. The only trouble with the world is that it is content with
just making money, having fun, and fulfilling itself -- that is all it
wants. The end is man. But the mind set on the Spirit desires that God
be glorified in all these things, which are proper and right. When your
mind is set on the Spirit you look at the events of life from God’s
point of view, not from the world’s. Your value system is changed and it
touches everything you do. You no longer see that the important thing
must be to make a lot of money. The important thing is that, in seeking
to fulfill your needs, God be glorified. That is what makes the
difference. That is the mind set on the Spirit. It does not remove you
from life -- it puts you right back into it. But it does it with a
different point of view.

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by

the Spirit is life and peace, {Rom 8:6 NIV}

I am going to change this a bit to make it a little more accurate

according to the original text:

The thinking of the flesh is death, but the thinking of the

 Spirit is life and peace, {Rom 8:6 RCS Version}

What happens when you, as a Christian, let yourself live just like the
world does and never bring the perspective of God into what you do? Then
you are living according to the flesh. And the thinking of the flesh is
death, while that of the Spirit is life and peace. In other words, this
describes the results that come right now in our experience. Death is
not something waiting for you at the end of your life; it is something
that you experience right now, whenever you live according to the flesh.

What is death? If you study through the Scriptures you will find that
death, in this present experience, always comes down to four basic
things: fear, guilt, hostility, and emptiness. Those are the forms of
death, and they come when you have your mind set on those things -- and
only those things -- that the flesh desires: making money, having fun,
fulfilling yourself, and gaining fame. If that is all you want out of
life, then you will also have with it fear, guilt, hostility, emptiness,
in all their various forms:
* Fear can appear as worry, anxiety, dread, or timidity.
* Guilt can show up in your life as shame, self-hatred,
self-righteousness, or perfectionism.
* Hostility will manifest itself as hate, resentment, bitterness,
revenge, or cruelty.
* Emptiness can show up as loneliness, depression, discouragement,
despair, meaninglessness.

These are all symptoms of death.

As if that were not enough, these symptoms of death not only have this
immediate effect upon our feelings, but they actually go on to settle
into the body and affect our physical functioning. As many of us,
perhaps, have already found from our various experiences of death, we
can develop nervous twitches, tics, rashes, eczema, ulcers, stuttering,
heart attacks, cancer, and many other diseases. This, literally, is
death. We are producing death in our experience if, as Christians, we
continue to live and think and act like the world lives and thinks and
acts. If, on Monday morning, we go right back to living just like
everyone else does, and reacting like everyone else does, living for the
very reasons they live for, death will be produced in our lives. You can
see this in the world around. All around us we see testimony to the fact
that fear, guilt, hostility, loneliness, and emptiness are the results
of thinking like the world thinks.

What, then, is living with the mind set on the Spirit? It is facing all
these things -- seeking to make money, having fun, fulfilling yourself,
even seeking a degree of fame -- but nevertheless realizing that God is
at work in this. He supplies the power to do these things. Expect him to
be at work and to be glorified in all these things. What will be the
result of this kind of living? According to this, it produces life and
peace, two marvelous qualities.

What is life? Once again, if I may summarize all that the Scriptures say
on this, life includes four basic things that are opposite qualities to
death:
* If death is fear, then life is trust, hope, and confidence.
* If death is guilt, then life is a feeling of acceptance, security,
and assurance.
* If death is hostility, then life is love, friendliness, kindness,
 and reaching out to others.
* If death is emptiness, then life is a sense of well-being,
fulfillment, excitement, vitality, and fullness of life.

With life comes peace, which, of course, is an inner calm, a quiet

spirit, a remarkable sense of being able to cope and to handle life.
That is what comes when the mind is set on the Spirit.

But the apostle does not stop with that; he gives us the reasons why
produces death:

... because the sinful mind [or the thinking of the flesh] is
hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do
so. {Rom 8:7 NIV}

That is what is wrong. The mind set on the flesh brings death because it
is hostile to God and it can’t obey the law of God. It opposes it, in
other words. Anybody who thinks that life consists only of making money,
pleasing himself, having fun, and gaining a degree of notoriety is
hostile to God. That thinking is against God. As James 4:6 says, "God
opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble," {Jas 4:6 NIV}. It
scares me to think that whenever I am trying to live for myself, for my
own advancement, that God is lined up against me, he resists that kind
of thinking. That is why James 3:16 can say that "where jealousy and
selfish ambition is, every evil work is present," {cf, Jas 3:16 KJV}.
God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.

Although it is not stated here, the implication is clear. The mind that
is set on the Spirit pleases God. That is what God wants; and God gives
grace to that, he advances it and helps it. He works on behalf of one
whose outlook on life is not that of proud confidence in self, but is
one of humble trust in the living God who is ready to work with him and
through him to do whatever needs to be done. That is the difference.

brings in because he wants to show us the difference between a Christian

who lives "according to the flesh" and a non-Christian, who is "in the
flesh". These terms are entirely different and need to be carefully
recognized as such.

Those controlled by their sinful nature [literally, it is

those who are in the flesh, who live in the flesh] cannot
please God.

You, however, are controlled not by your sinful nature [i.e.,

you are not in the flesh] but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of
God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he does not belong to Christ. {Rom 8:8-9 NIV}

That is as plain as you can make it. Nothing could be plainer than that.
If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to
Christ. You see, you cannot tell if a person is a Christian by what he
does at any given moment. He may do exactly the same thing as a
non-Christian, and he may be very cruel, vindictive, natural, lustful,
and sinful in every way when he does it. At that moment, you cannot tell
any difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. But there is
a difference, Paul says. One has the Spirit of Christ in him, the Holy
Spirit, and eventually that will make a fantastic difference in his
behavior. The other does not, and he will continue in sin and even get
worse and worse.

In fact, the apostle suggests by this that the actions of a

non-Christian may actually be much better than those of a Christian.
There are non-Christians who are kinder, more thoughtful, and more
gracious than Christians. People say, "Look at them! If their lives are
so nice and pleasant, surely they must be Christians." But it is not
necessarily so. He that does not have the Spirit of Christ is none of
his. The difference will show up in the ultimate tests of life. When the
crunch comes, one will collapse and fall and the other will rise and,
eventually, conquer. A Christian can live "according to the flesh" even
though he is not "in the flesh." Those distinctions have to be made very
clearly.

what he is aiming at:

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet

your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the
Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your
mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. {Rom
8:10-11 NIV}

That is a great statement. Notice, first of all, the helpful teaching

about the Spirit here. The term "Spirit" is used. He is called the
Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Then it is made clear that the
Spirit actually is the means by which Jesus Christ himself is in us. All
this refers to the work of the Holy Spirit. These terms all refer to the
same thing. By means of the Spirit, Christ is in you. And if Christ is
in you, your body is dead because of sin. You may not realize that, but
it is true.

The problem is, our bodies are yet unredeemed. As a consequence, they
are the seat of the sin that troubles us so. And the sin that is in us
-- still there in our bodies -- affects the body. That is why the body
lusts, the body loves comfort, and the body seeks after pleasure; that
is why our minds and attitudes react with hate and bitterness and
resentment and hostility. Sin finds its seat in the body. That is why
our bodies keep growing old. They are dying, dead, because of sin.

I have been watching some of you through the years. Although I haven’t
noticed much change in myself, I have noticed that you seem to be
deteriorating. You are growing older and getting weaker. Your hair is
turning gray, you groan and creak where once you leaped and ran. And if
you don’t believe that people get older, I invite you to come up here
and take a look at what I’m looking at. Our bodies are dead because of
sin.

For one who is not a Christian, that is the whole story. The body is
dead, and so is the spirit. It is falling apart, and will continue to do
so. But that is not the final answer for the Christian. The spirit in
the Christian is alive because of the gift of righteousness. Christ has
come in and we are linked with him. Paul puts it so beautifully in
Second Corinthians 4:16: "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet
is the joy of being a Christian. Though the body, with the sin that is
within it, is giving us trouble and difficulty, tempting us, confounding
us at times, nevertheless, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
Sin has its seat in the actual physical body, and it rises up (as Paul
Law, it can rise up and attack us, overwhelm us, and conquer us. But we
have an answer. It is put very beautifully in First John 4:4: "The one
4:4 NIV}. In other words, the Spirit of God within us is stronger than
the sin that is in our bodies. Therefore we have strength to control the
of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised
Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
his Spirit, who lives in you."

Unfortunately, many of the commentators say that this verse refers to

the promise of the resurrection at the end of life, when God is going to
make our bodies alive. But that is not what Paul is saying. He is
talking about the Spirit in us, giving life to our mortal bodies. Now, a
mortal body is not yet dead. A mortal body is one that is subject to
death. It is dying, but it is not yet dead. Therefore, this is not
talking about the resurrection. Later on Paul will come to that, but in
this chapter he is talking about what the Spirit does in us now. He says
that though sin in our mortal bodies is going to tempt us severely, and
at times rise up with great power (we have all felt the power of
temptation in our lives, this urgent, almost irresistible desire to do
something that we know is wrong), we must never forget that because our
human spirit has been made alive in Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God
himself dwells in us, we have the strength to say, "No!" to that
expression of evil.

We cannot reverse the processes of death -- no one can. Our bodies are
going to die. But we can refuse to let the members of our bodies become
the instruments of sin. We do not have to give in; we can refuse, by the
power of the Spirit within, to let our members be used for that purpose.
We don’t have to let our eyes look at wrong things. We can say, "No." We
don’t have to let our tongues say evil, hurtful, sarcastic, and vicious
things; we don’t have to let them lie. We can say, "No," to that. We
don’t have to let our ears hear things that are hurtful. We don’t have
to let our minds give way to thinking about things in a wrong and
vicious fashion. We don’t have to! We don’t have to let our hands be
used for wrong purposes. We don’t have to let our legs and feet lead us
into places where we ought not to be. We don’t have to let our sexual
organs be used for wrong purposes. We don’t have to let the members of
our bodies be used wrongly. That is what Paul said back in

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that

you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body
to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer
yourselves to God, as those who have returned from death to
life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments
of righteousness. {Rom 6:12-13 NIV}

That is as plain as can be. We don’t have to sin. By resurrection power,

by the power of the one who raised Jesus from the dead and who lives in
us, we can say, "No!" to these temptations and desires for evil that are
Paul says: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to
offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- which
is your spiritual worship," {Rom 12:1 NIV}. And we can do that.

only one obligation:

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation -- but it is not to

our sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live
according to the sinful nature, you will die [literally, you
are about to die; death becomes your experience in your
present existence] ; but if by the Spirit you put to death the
misdeeds of the body, you will live. {Rom 8:12-13 NIV}

You will live, with all that that means in terms of security and trust
and fulfillment and vitality and joy and peace. Notice that Paul
stresses that this must be done by the Spirit, that is, simply by
believing what the Spirit of God has said. That is the way you act by
the Spirit -- by faith. When you believe that God has said that these
sins in your body do not need to be there -- that they can be
controlled, they have been crucified with Christ, they are worthless,
they cannot help you, nothing worthwhile can come from them -- then you
can say, "No," to sin and you can live by the Spirit. Then you can make
money, have fun, gain fame, and fulfill yourself. And through it all,
God will be glorified. You will manifest, in you present experience, joy
and love and peace and the grace of Jesus Christ. The very righteousness
which the Law demands is fulfilled in those who walk, not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. That is beautiful, isn’t it?

showing a soldier in conflict with a tank. I remember the picture

vividly because it was in color and it showed a tremendously huge army
tank bearing down on the tiny figure of the soldier, about to crush him.
How frightened he was, as this massive tank was about to overwhelm him.
The picture was designed to show the odds involved when a foot soldier
with a rifle faced a tank. Then it showed what happened to that
soldier’s odds when the bazooka (a rocket launcher) was invented. It
showed him standing with a bazooka in his hands. It was the same
soldier, but he had a different weapon. The next picture showed the
tank, shrunken in size, with the soldier at least equal in size, if not
a little larger.

This is what Paul is saying to us. Without the power of God released in
our lives, we are like an infantry soldier in the presence of a tank. We
cannot do a thing. It is too much for us. But, by trust in the power of
the living God at work in us, we can rise up in the face of temptation,
and, armed with the bazooka of the Spirit, we can say, "No!" and make it
stick. We can turn and begin to live as God intended us to live.

The question this raises, then, is this: Why not live?

Why spend most of your Christian life weak, and pitiful, and constantly
experiencing guilt and fear and loneliness and depressions and
discouragement? Why not live?

Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life and that they might
have it more abundantly," {cf, John 10:10 KJV}
Paul is simply describing how we might, indeed, live!

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Title: Why not Live?

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 8:5-13
Message No: 19
Catalog No: 3519
Date: October 10, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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THE SONS OF GOD AMONG MEN

by Ray C. Stedman

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The song Thank You, Lord , by Dan Burgess, says:

It goes against the grain

To put my human nature down
And let the Spirit take control.

That is a very honest reflection of the struggle that we all feel when
we are under severe temptation.

We want to do what is right, but we also want to do what is wrong; so

the battle is on! The way that you win at times like that is to remember
is to remind us of who we really are before him. We have learned that we
are no longer in Adam if we believe in Jesus Christ; we are in Christ,
we are tied to him, we belong to him.

are also in the Spirit. That helps us to understand something that is

confusing to many people today. The Spirit and the Lord Jesus belong
together; it is the work of the Spirit to make Jesus real. So, to be in
Christ means to be in the Spirit. Romans 8:5-13 tells us that if we are
in the Spirit, we have the possibility of walking according to the
Spirit, and thus we have power to overcome the sin that is within. Now,
that is a very important matter, and one that we ought to understand
clearly. Because we do not always feel that we have power to overcome
sin, we need to recognize that certain facts are true, whether we feel
it or not. The fact is that, because we are in Christ, and in the
Spirit, we have the power to walk according to the Spirit -- if we
choose to. As Paul says in Galatians 5:25, "If we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk by the Spirit," {Gal 5:25 KJV}. That is the way to
victory.

What we really are saying is that behavior depends on seeing and

recognizing who you are and the basic facts about your identity.
Psychologists tell us this. They say that only when you have a clear
idea of who you really are can you then act that way. But you can’t turn
the two around. You can’t act like something you would like to be, and
thus gradually become that kind of person. That is what confuses so many
people today. Millions of people today are operating on the basis that
they will become the kind of person they would like to be if they act
that way. But that is wrong. The Word of God tells us the truth -- the
way to become different is to become changed at the very basis of your
being by faith in Christ, so that you are something different. And if
you believe what you are, you will begin to act that way. What a
difference that makes!

of what being in Christ and in the Spirit actually means. The apostle
has been leading us step by step to understand more fully our new
identity in Jesus Christ. The more we understand that identity, and the
more we believe it to be true, under all circumstances, the more quickly
we will begin to act that way.

letter. He says,

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For
you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to
fear, but you received the Spirit who makes you sons. And by
him we cry, " Abba , Father." {Rom 8:14-15 NIV}

For the first time in this letter Paul uses the phrase "the sons of
God." Now, I want to make something clear. This is a generic term that
includes both sexes. There is no necessity now of referring to a female
person as something different than the male. All believers in Christ who
really trust him and have received the gift of righteousness by faith
are sons of God -- regardless of whether they are male or female. There
is no need for any differentiation of the sexes here. That is why the
Scriptures speak of us -- all of us -- freely as the "sons of the living
God," {Hos 1:10, Rom 9:26}. You see, this speaks of something that is
true of our spirit, and our spirit is sexless. Spirit is not
identifiable by male or female, so what is true of the human spirit is
quite apart from what is true of the body.

It is important in understanding this to recognize right off that not

of God by faith in Jesus Christ. That is what makes you a son of God,
nothing else. It is true that we are all creatures of God by natural
birth. When Paul was preaching in Athens, that great intellectual
center, he mentioned to the Athenians that even their own poets
recognized that men came from God. We are the offspring of God, and in
him "we live and move and have our being" {Acts 17:28}, he said. That is
true of all human beings everywhere in the world at all times. We are
creatures of God. We are the offspring of God.

But Paul is careful to use quite a different word in Romans. Here the
word is "sons of God." We are in the family of God, and this is a very
distinctive term. I want to underscore how important this is for us to
understand, because it is something that God intends for us to return to
when we are in trouble. If you are having difficulty handling your
behavior -- whether you are not doing what you want to do, or doing what
you don’t want to do -- the way to handle it is to remind yourself of
what God has made you to be. This terminology is tremendously helpful.

In other words, in the struggle that you have with sin within you, you
are not a slave, helplessly struggling against a cruel and powerful
master; you are a son, a son of the living God, with power to overcome
the evil -- even though it is a struggle to do so. And though you may be
temporarily overcome, you are never ultimately defeated. It cannot be,
because you are already constituted children of God. That is why Paul
you are not under law but under grace," {Rom 6:14 KJV}. And in this
gracious relationship, we are made and constituted sons of the living
God. No matter what happens to us, that is what we are. Nothing can
change that. That is the place from which we start.

It is important also for us to see how we become sons of God. Paul says,
"You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear."
When the Spirit of God came into your heart, he did not make you a slave
to fear. Remember how Paul puts that again in Second Timothy 1:7: "You
have not received a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a
Spirit. What did the Spirit do? Paul says, "You received the Spirit who
makes you sons," or, literally, "the Spirit of adoption, who adopted you
as sons." How did you become a son of God? Well, the Spirit of God found
you, and found me, and he adopted us into God’s family.

I was with a family the other night where there were two adopted
children and two natural-born children. I watched all evening long to
see if I could tell which were the adopted ones and which were the
natural ones. I finally had to ask the parents because I couldn’t tell
any difference -- even with their looks. Two were adopted into the
family and two were natural-born children, but they were all treated so
beautifully and so naturally that I couldn’t tell the difference.

Some of you may be saying at this point, "Look, you are confusing me.
What do you mean when you say we are adopted into the family of God? I
have been taught from the Scriptures that I was born into the family of
God. I have been born again." That is the term that is being bandied
about these days. Even politicians are boasting, "I’ve been born again!"
Thank God, some of them are. "But," you say, "some passages talk about
the new birth, about being born into the family of God. I thought we
were born, not adopted. What do you mean by adopted?"

I am glad you asked that question. You see, the truth is that both of
these are true. You are both adopted and born into the family of God. As
Jesus said on another occasion, "With man that is impossible, but with
God, all things are possible," {Matt 19:26}. You can’t be both adopted
and born into a human family, but you can in God’s family. God uses both
of these terms because he wants to highlight two different aspects of
our belonging to the family of God. You are said to be adopted because
God wants you to remember always that you are not naturally part of the
family of God. We have been seeing all along in this letter that we are
born into Adam’s family, and we are all children of Adam by natural
birth. We belong to the human family, and we inherit Adam’s nature. All
his defects, all his problems, all the evil that came into his life by
his acts of disobedience -- all these were passed along to us by natural
birth. So by nature we are not part of God’s family. This is just like
some of you, who were born into one family, and, then, by a legal
process, were taken out of that family and were adopted into another
family. From then on you became part of the family that adopted you.

This is what has happened to us. God has taken us out of our natural
state in Adam, and, by the process of the Spirit, has made us legally
sons of God, and we are part of his family. But he reminds us that we
are in his family by adoption so that we might never take it for
granted, or forget that if we were left in our natural state we would
not have a part in the family of God. It is only by the grace of God
that we come into his family.

But it is also true that we are born into God’s family. Once we have
been adopted, it is also true that, because God is God, he not only
makes us legally his sons but he makes us actually partake of the divine
nature and we are born into his family. We actually share the nature of
God! It is an amazing statement! This tie with Jesus is so real that we
are seen to be actually one with him, and we share the divine nature.
Peter puts it this way: "We have been made partakers of the divine
family as if we had originally been born into it, and we are born into
it by the grace of God.

So both of these statements are true. There is nothing more wonderful to

remind yourself of, morning by morning, and day by day, than this great
fact: If you are a Christian, you are a son of the living God, adopted
and born into his family. Because you are his son, God loves you, God
protects you, God provides for you, God plans for you, God hears you,
God claims you and openly acknowledges you, God chastens and corrects
you, and God honors you. All of that is true because you are his son.

We know how we treat our natural children. There is a difference between

them and the neighbors’ children. Our children are considerably
superior, of course. We may love the neighbors’ children, they may be
delightful children. We have some wonderful children in our neighborhood
whom we love and admire, but they are not our children. We have a
special relationship with our children. We care for them, we hurt for
them, we love and protect them, we plan for them, we watch out for them.
We are specially tied with them. That is what this is saying to us. God
has a special relationship to us. We are the sons of God turned loose
among the sons of men.

It would be helpful, I know, if God would put a little mark on us that

would indicate that we are his sons. If we had a little red star on our
foreheads, then we could tell all the other sons of God. Or perhaps if
we had a special glow. (Sometimes that does show, anyway.) But there is
no special mark. Outwardly, there is no distinction; but inwardly, there
is a tremendous distinction, and that is what we need to understand. We
can’t tell by looking at anyone whether he is a son of God or not,
though often there is an underlying sense that reveals itself and
identifies brothers and sisters in Christ. But there is a vast
difference within, and because of that difference, there is a special
relationship that God has with us.

Now, the great question in all this is: "If this all depends on my being
a son of God, how can I be sure that I am a son?" Paul has been leading
up to this question all through this letter. If the thing that is going
to make the essential difference in your life (not only now, in the way
you behave, but for eternity, in the destiny you are headed for) is
whether or not you are a son of God, then the greatest question in life
is, "Am I or am I not a son of God?"

You can’t ask for a more important question than that to settle. Your
whole behavior, your happiness as an individual, your ultimate destiny,
your whole relationship to the greatness and the glory of God, is all
dependent on that question: Are you or are you not a son of God? That is
why the Apostle Paul in this passage gives us three very practical tests
-- three levels of assurance -- by which we can know whether we are sons
or not.

First, Paul says, if you are led by the Spirit of God, you are a son of
God. Now, to be led by the Spirit means that you are under the control
of a being other than yourself. This, therefore, is a level of proof
which arises from our circumstances, from our experiences, from the
events and reactions that happen to us, over which we have no deliberate
control. Paul is saying that we can learn the answer to this question by
observation. This is proof addressed to the mind. You can reason it; you
can observe it. You can look around in your life and see if you are
being led by the Spirit of God. If there is proof that you are, then you
are a son of God.

What are some of these signs? There are certain things that the
Scriptures tell us the Spirit of God is going to do when he comes into a
life. If he has done them, and you can see that he has, you have
immediate assurance that you are a son of God. "Those who are led by the
Spirit of God are the sons of God." So let’s look at the signs of being
led by the Spirit.

I think the most evident sign, at least one of the most important to me
and obviously something that doesn’t come from man, is that when I read
the Scriptures I am taught by the Spirit. He opens our minds to an
understanding of the Word of God. He is called the Spirit of truth.
Therefore, when he comes into our lives, the first thing he will do is
to make the Bible a living Word to us. We see it as truth -- we know it
as truth. Our eyes are opened to understand that here at last is
reality. This is the work of the Spirit of God.

Have you ever been reading a passage of Scripture when suddenly

something just leaped out at you? The passage takes on a new and fresh
and glowing meaning. If that has happened, you are being led by the
Spirit of God. He is doing his work of opening the truth to your minds
"If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will
live," {Rom 8:13 NIV}. He is talking about our understanding of what the
Spirit of God has already done with the flesh within us, how it was
crucified with Christ, and how, therefore, we can be freed from it. We
can rise up and refuse to obey that flesh because its connection with us
has been broken. If you understand that, you are being led by the Spirit
of God, and, therefore, you are a son of God.

Some years ago when I was in a city some distance from here, I was
rather discouraged, and I opened the Scriptures and read one of Paul’s
letters. I was so impressed with a statement that he made about
Christians. He said, "Remember that you are chosen of God, and precious
this applied to me. I was chosen of God, and precious in his sight! That
kind of an experience is something done by the Spirit of God within us,
teaching us the truth.

The Spirit also arouses us to pray. Have you ever felt that you just had
to pray, that you just had to get away somewhere and have a few moments
of quiet? You may not have prayed for several days, but suddenly you
can’t stand it any longer. You have got to find some time when you can
open up and talk to your Father. Now, that is being led of the Spirit of
God. It is he who arouses in us the desire to pray. And those who have
had these experiences can know by them that they are children of God.

Another thing the Spirit does is awaken a love for the brethren. When
you meet somebody and learn they are a Christian do you ever feel a
special bond with them right off? Have you ever longed to be with
Christians? Sometimes do you get tired of even the closest of friends
who are not Christians and long to be with those who are? Do you long to
be with brothers and sisters in the family? That is what makes the Body
Life service here on Sunday night such a beautiful time, and what brings
people in week after week, year after year. The Spirit awakens within us
a love for the brethren. John says in his first letter that if you have
a love for the brethren it is a sign that you are in Christ {cf,

Another sign is that the Spirit makes the world empty, and makes God
real. The Spirit directs us and checks us at times. Do you ever feel
this? These are signs that we are being led by the Spirit of God.

Of course, ultimately, the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in us

{cf, Gal 5:22-23}. If we have evidence at all that we are truly loving
-- especially when it is hard to be loving -- if we feel love and joy
and peace and gentleness and compassion and goodness and faith, then we
know these have all been awakened by the Spirit of God. "As many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," {Rom 8:14 KJV}.
That is one test by which we can know if we are sons of God.

There is another level of assurance of our sonship mentioned in the

closing part of Verse 15: "And by him we cry, ’ Abba , Father.’" Abba is
the Aramaic word for father. Of course, the Greek word is translated
"father" here, also. So, by means of the Spirit, we are given an
emotional response to God in which we are aware of his fatherhood, and
our soul cries out within us, "Abba, Father." Abba is a baby’s word.

I remember years ago hearing this story about Dr. Alan McRae, a great
Bible student and Hebrew scholar. Some time after the McRae’s baby boy
was born, Dr. McRae had to go away for three or four weeks. When he came
back, this wife was showing him how the baby had learned to say a few
words. When Dr. McRae, this eminent Hebrew scholar, came in, his little
son stretched out his arms and said, "Ab-Abba, abba!" Dr. McRae said,
"Look, he’s speaking Aramaic already!" The closest and most intimate
relationship you can have is the awareness that you belong to a father,
with a father’s arms around you, a father’s heart concerned for you, a
father’s wisdom planning for you, and a father’s love protecting and
guarding you. If you have ever sensed the fatherhood of God, the
brotherhood of Jesus, it is because the Spirit of God has awakened your
heart to sense that you belong to the family of God.

I have seen this happen with people in a congregation like this. I have
seen tears come to their eyes when something from the Scriptures reminds
them of their relationship to God the Father. It can happen when you are
driving your car, or sitting with your family, or going through a time
of sorrow. Suddenly and unexpectedly, that wonderful sense that you
belong to the Father comes, and you cherish that relationship, and your
soul cries, "Abba, my Father!" This, by the way, is the word Jesus
himself used in the agony of Gethsemane. As he knelt to pray in his hour
of anguish, he cried out, "Oh Abba -- my Father!" {Mark 14:36 NIV}. Even
in his anguish he was aware of that relationship.

Spirit is in us:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s
children. {Rom 8:16 NIV}

This is the deepest level of assurance. Beyond the emotions, beyond the
feelings, is a deep conviction that is born of the Spirit of God
himself, an underlying awareness that we cannot deny that we are part of
God’s family. We are the children of God. I think this is the basic
revelation to which our emotions respond with the cry, "Abba, Father."
That is our love to him, but this is his love to us. It is what Paul
shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit which is
given unto us," {cf, Rom 5:5 KJV}.

As I look back on my own life, I can understand how this is true. I

think I became a Christian when I was about eleven years old, in a
Methodist brush arbor meeting. I responded to the invitation, and, with
others, came and knelt down in front and received the Lord. I had a
wonderful time of fellowship with the Lord that summer and the next
winter, and there were occasions when I just would be overwhelmed with
the sense of the nearness and dearness of God. I used to sing hymns
until tears would come to my eyes as the meaning of those old words
reflected on the relationship that I had with God. Then I used to preach
to the cows when I would bring them home. Those cows were a very good
audience too; by the way; they never went to sleep on me.

But that fall we moved from this town where I had Christian fellowship
to a town in Montana that didn’t even have a church. Gradually, because
of that lack of fellowship, I drifted away from that relationship with
God, drifted into all kinds of ugly and shameful things -- habits of
thought and activity that I am ashamed of. I even developed some liberal
attitudes toward the Scriptures. I didn’t believe in the inspiration of
the Bible. I argued against it, and during high school and college I was
known as a skeptic.

But all through those seven years there was a relationship with God I
could not deny. Somehow I knew, deep down inside, that I still belonged
to him; and there were things I could not do, even though I was tempted.
I could not do them because I felt that I had a tie with God. This is
that witness of the Spirit. Calvin called it "the testimonial of the
Spirit," which we cannot deny and which is especially discernible in
times of gross sin and despair. First John 3:20 says, "If our heart
knows all things. There is a witness born of the Spirit which you can’t
shake, which is there along with the ultimate testimony that we belong
with the children of God.

Now, this is where to begin when you get into trouble. Go back to this
relationship. Remind yourself of who you are. You can see it in your
experience as you look around. You are led by the Spirit of God. You can
feel it in your heart. There are times when your emotions are stirred by
the Spirit, and you can sense at the level of your spirit that you
belong to God.

deeper relationship. I am not going to take time on this verse because

it introduces the next section in the passage, but I just want to read

Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and

co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in
order that we may also share in his glory. {Rom 8:17 NIV}

These words introduce the very climax of this epistle. We learn of the
glory that is awaiting us and its tie with the sufferings that we go
through now. I just bring this in here to show how the apostle has led
us along:
* We started in Adam;
* We are now, by faith, in Christ;
* If we are in Christ, we are in the Spirit;
* If we are in the Spirit, we can walk according to the Spirit;
* If we are in the Spirit, we are therefore led by the Spirit; and
* If we are led by the Spirit, we are the sons of God; and
* If we are the sons of God, we are heirs of God.

All that God owns is to be committed to us.

That is a staggering, mind-blowing thing, but that is what the apostle

writes, and it runs all the way through the Scriptures. There is a
thread that runs all the way from Genesis right through Revelation. In
subtle and sometimes open ways it is constantly hinting that something
fantastic is coming. What God has in mind for this beguiled and driven
race of men who are now redeemed by faith in Christ is beyond
description! That is what Paul is going to bring before us now, as we
consider the heritage that is waiting for us in Jesus Christ.

But all this is for us to remember when we get into trouble. This is not
just hope for the future; it is deliverance for the present. If we
remember who we are, by an absolute psychological certainty, we will
start acting like who we are. When we do, we will find that there is
power available to say "No" to the flesh, to say "Yes" to the Spirit,
and to walk in a way that glorifies God.
Prayer

Our Father, we ask you to help us to understand these things.

We thank you for the work of the Spirit. We are not often
conscious of his working, except as these things are pointed
out to us in the Scriptures and we see them and recognize them
to be true. But we thank you, Lord, for the working of the
Spirit of God. O mighty Spirit! What a wonderful thing it is
that you have called us to be children of the living God. Help
us never to forget it, and to walk worthy of such a calling.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: The Sons of God among Men
By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 8:14-17
Message No: 20
Catalog No: 3520
Date: October 24, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

First John 3:2 says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; but it does
He deals with two themes: the sufferings of believers, and the
glorification of believers.

First John 3:2 has always been a comfort to me, as a pastor, because it
reminds me that, though we are all sons of God, sometimes we don’t
appear to be his sons. Sometimes when I am beset by saints who come to
me and criticize various things that are going on, I have a difficult
time relating to them. Then I have to remind myself, "Well, they are
still children of God, even though it does not yet appear what they
shall be." As I see the increasing decrepitude in people’s deteriorating
physical bodies as they grow older, I have to say again, "It does not
yet appear what we shall be." Things are moving toward a great day, but
it is not here yet; and until that day, we have to put up with the
difficulties and the hardships and the sufferings that our current
situations bring us to.

These are the themes that Paul links together in this great section of

Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and

co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in
order that we may also share in his glory. {Rom 8:17 NIV}
This verse links together two things that we probably would not put
together: sufferings and glory -- hurts and hallelujahs. They belong
together, and you find them together in almost every passage of
Scripture that deals with the suffering of the Christian. In fact, the
Apostle Paul links them directly together in Second Corinthians 4:17:

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an

NIV}

So, our sufferings as believers -- physical, emotional, whatever they

may be -- are directly linked with the glory that is coming. The
important thing we need to see is that both the sufferings and the glory
are privileges that are given to us.

It is easy for Christians reading these passages to get the idea that we
earn our glory by the sufferings that we go through -- those who go
through the greatest suffering will earn the greatest degree of glory.
But it is wrong to see it that way. We never earn glory. As this passage
makes clear, glory is given to us as part of our inheritance in Christ.
And suffering, also, is our inheritance in Christ. Suffering is a
privilege committed to us. Paul says this again very plainly in
Philippians 1:29:

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to

believe on him, but also to suffer for him [or, for his name’s
sake], {Phil 1:29 NIV}

In the early part of Acts, it is recorded that the early Christians

actually did this. They rejoiced in their sufferings. They rejoiced
because they were counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Lord. And
though they were beaten and mistreated, they went away rejoicing because
God had counted them worthy to bear suffering for his name’s sake. I
think this is the transforming view that makes it possible for us to
endure suffering and, more than that, to actually rise above it with
triumphant rejoicing. We can do this when we see that our sufferings are
privileges committed to us. Our Lord Jesus said this himself in Matthew
5:11-12. He said, "Blessed are you when men persecute you and say all
manner of evil against you falsely for his name’s sake. Rejoice and be
exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted
they the prophets who were before you," {cf, Matt 5:11-12 KJV}.

Nothing will help us more in enduring suffering than a clear view of the
glory that is linked to it. That is the theme of this section in Romans

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing

with the glory that will be revealed in us. {Rom 8:18 NIV}

The theme of that verse and the next nine verses is that incomparable
glory lies ahead -- glory beyond description, greater than anything you
can compare it with on earth. A magnificent and fantastic prospect
awaits us. All through the Scriptures there has been a thread of hope, a
rumor of hope that runs all through the Old Testament, through the
prophetic writings, and into the New Testament. This rumor speaks of a
day that is coming when all the hurt and heartache and injustice and
weakness and suffering of our present experience will be explained and
justified and will result in a time of incredible blessing upon the
earth. The whisper of this in the Old Testament increases in intensity
as it approaches the New Testament, where you come to proclamations like
this that speak of the incomparable glory that lies ahead.

Now, we tend to make careful note of our suffering. Just the other day,
I received a mimeographed letter from a man who had written out in
extreme detail (even though rather humorously) a report of his recent
operation. He said he had had to listen to all the reports of other
people’s operations for years, and now it was his turn! We make detailed
reports of what we go through in our sufferings. But here the apostle
says, "Don’t even mention them! They are not worthy to be mentioned in
comparison with the glory that is to follow."

Now, that statement would be just so much hot air if it didn’t come from
a man like Paul. Here is a man who suffered intensely. No one in this
room has gone through even a fraction of the suffering that Paul
endured. He was beaten, he was stoned with rocks, he was chained, he was
imprisoned, he was shipwrecked, starved, often hungry and naked and
cold. He himself tells us this. And yet it is this apostle who takes pen
in hand and says, "Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with
the glory that shall be revealed in us." The glory that is coming is
incomparable in intensity.

Our sufferings hurt us, I know. I am not trying to make light of them or
diminish the terrible physical and emotional pain that suffering can
bring. It can be awful, almost unendurable. Its intensity can increase
to such a degree that we actually scream with terror and pain. We think
we can no longer endure. But the apostle is saying that the intensity of
the suffering we experience is not even a drop in the bucket compared
with the intensity of glory that is coming. Now, you can see that Paul
is straining the language in trying to describe this fantastic thing
that is about to happen, which he calls the revelation of the glory that
is coming.

This glory is not only incomparable in its intensity, but it is also

incomparable in its locality. It is not going to be revealed to us, but
in us. The word, literally, means "into us." This glory is not going to
be a spectator sport, where we will sit up in some cosmic grandstand and
watch an amusing or beautiful performance in which we actually have no
part. We are to be on the stage. We are going to be involved in it. It
is a glory that will be "revealed into us," and we are part of it. I
this more accurately than anyone else. I would like to share with you a
paragraph or two from his message, The Weight of Glory :

We are to shine as the sun. We are to be given the morning

star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of
course, God has given us the morning star already. You can go
and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings, if you get up early
enough. "What more," you may ask, "do we want?" Ah, but we
want so much more. Something the books on aesthetics take
 little notice of. But the poets and mythologies know all about
it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though God knows even
that is bounty enough -- we want something else which can
hardly be put into words -- to be united with the beauty we
see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe
in it, to become part of it. That is why the poets tell us
such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could
really sweep into a human soul. But it can’t. They tell us
that beauty, born a murmuring sound, will pass into a human
face. But it won’t -- or not yet, at least.

[Lewis sums it up in a previous sentence in this way]

The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will
open at last.

That is what Paul says is about to happen. This is the incredible glory
that God has prepared for those who love him, that he has given to us --
not because we have been faithful, not because we earn it, but because
we are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. And also we are called
and entrusted with the privilege of suffering for humanity. All
Christians suffer. There are no exceptions. If you are a true and
genuine believer in Jesus Christ, you will suffer. But we are not only
given the privilege of suffering with him now, but also of sharing in
his glory that is yet to come. We can endure the suffering, and even
triumph in it, because we see the glory that is to follow.

In the paragraph that follows, the apostle shows us two proofs that
confirm this hope of glory. The first one is that nature itself
testifies to this, the second is our own experience. Paul says the whole
created universe bears witness to this day that is coming.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to

be revealed. {Rom 8:19 NIV}

The word in the original language which is translated "eager

expectation" is an interesting word. It is a word that pictures a man
standing and waiting for something to happen, craning his head forward.
That is why I think Phillips translates this correctly when he says,
"The whole creation is standing on tiptoe, eagerly awaiting the
revelation of the sons of God." The word means "to crane the neck, to
look on with a visible sense of anticipation that something is about to
happen." That is what Paul says the world is doing. It is eagerly
awaiting this remarkable event toward which the world is hastening, and
has been hastening, since the beginning of time.

Paul goes on to explain why he makes such a statement in

 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own
choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to
decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of
God. {Rom 8:20-21 NIV}

Paul is saying that creation not only is waiting for something, but that
it is doing so because it is linked with man. Creation fell with man,
the apostle declares. Not only did our whole race fall into the bondage
of sin and death, as the earlier chapters of Romans explain, but the
entire physical universe fell as well. It was man’s sin that put thorns
on roses. It was man’s sin that made the animals hate and fear each
other and brought predators and carnivores into being. With the fall of
man came the spreading fear, hostility, and hatred in the animal world,
and the whole of nature testifies to this fact. It is, as Paul describes
it here, subjected to frustration.

Recently we have been hearing a lot about how plants are sensitive to
people, how they even understand something of what we say, and how our
attitudes are conveyed to them. Can you imagine how frustrated a plant
can get when it wants to produce and grow, and yet it is always treated
with a circumstance or attitude that frustrates it. Some of us have to
live with these frustrated plants in our homes. Think of the beauty of
nature -- and yet every area is spoiled by thorns and thistles, and
various things that mark this decay. Futility prevails in the natural
world.

This phrase "the bondage to decay" is a very accurate description of

what scientists call the second law of thermodynamics. This is the law
of infinite increase of entropy. Everything is decaying; everything,
with no exception, is running down. Though for a while something may
seem to grow, eventually it dies. Even human life dies, and so does all
that is with it. All of this is because of the fall of man.

I just spent a few days in the beautiful High Sierra, where the great
Sequoia trees grow. As I walked about, I was sad to see how the crush of
man has spoiled what is left of the beauty of creation. In the area
where I was, there was once a great forest -- the world’s greatest
forest of sequoia trees, those great redwoods. But man came in, and in
less than a decade there is nothing but blackened stumps and rotting
logs where once there were thousands of trees. Ironically enough, though
it was all done in the name of profit, nobody made a dime on the whole
operation. At least half of the lumber that was cut was never removed
and was left to rot. This is how man despoils creation wherever he goes.
He pollutes the air and ruins the environment. This is all a part of the
bondage to decay that we see all around us.

But the apostle argues that, if that is true, it is also true that when
man is delivered from this decay, nature will be delivered as well.
Therefore, when the hour strikes when the sons of God are going to be
revealed -- when it shall appear what we are, as John would say, when
what we have become in our spirits, sons of the living God, shall become
visibly evident to all -- in that hour, nature will be freed from its
bondage. It will burst into a bloom and fecundity that no one can
possibly imagine now. The desert will blossom like the rose, the prophet
says, and the lions will lie down with the lambs. None shall hurt and
destroy in all of God’s holy mountain. Rivers will run free and clear
and sweet again.

All that God intended in nature will come into visible manifestation in
that day. Nature will be delivered into "the freedom and the glory of
the children of God." That is a literal rendering of what Paul says
here, and it means that glory has a great deal of freedom about it. It
is a stepping into an experience of liberty such as we have never
dreamed, such as has never come into our imaginations at any time. It is
incomparable glory.

Now, in anticipation of that day, the apostle says, nature groans, but

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the

pains of childbirth right up to the present time. {Rom 8:22
NIV}

As Paul has said earlier, nature groans in the hope that the creation
itself will be liberated from its bondage of decay and brought into the
glorious freedom of the children of God. Somebody has pointed out that
all the sounds of nature are in the minor key. Listen to the sighing of
the wind. Listen to the roaring of the tide. Listen to the roar of the
cataract. Even most of the sounds of birds are in the minor key. All
nature is singing, but it is singing a song of bondage. Yet it sings in
hope, looking forward to that day, Paul says, when it shall step into
the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Not only does nature testify to this bondage, bearing witness to the
hope that is waiting, but, Paul says, we ourselves have this testimony.
Our present experience confirms that this glory is coming. Paul sets

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were
saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for
what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet
have, we wait for it patiently. {Rom 8:23-25 NIV}

In some ways, I think that is the most remarkable statement in this

remarkable paragraph. Paul says here that though we ourselves are
redeemed in spirit, our bodies are not yet redeemed; we, too, are
groaning. All through this paragraph there is a constant contrast
between the groan and the glory; yet there is a link between the two.
Nature groans; we groan. And yet the groan is producing the glory. I
remind you again of what Paul said in Second Corinthians 4:17:

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an

4:17 RSV}
Have you ever thought of afflictions in that way? Our afflictions are
working for us. Every time we groan, it is a reminder to us of the
promise of glory. I do not think anything will transform our sufferings
more than remembering that.

My daughter, Laurie, has reached the stage where she delights in

mimicking me, repeating back to me the things that I say in the way that
I say them. I must admit it is a great help. It’s just like holding up a
mirror before me. I have been so struck by the fact that in the tone of
voice she employs in mimicking me there is often a groan. I am groaning
all the time. I groaned this morning when I got up. So did you,
probably.

Our lives consist of groans. We groan because of the ravages that sin
makes in our lives, and in the lives of those we love. We groan because
we see possibilities that are not being captured and employed. We groan
because we see gifted people who are wasting their lives, and we would
love to see something else happening. It is recorded that, as he drew
near the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus groaned in his spirit because he was so
burdened by the ravages that sin had made in a believing family. He
groaned, even though he knew that he would soon raise Lazarus from the
dead. So we groan in our spirits -- we groan in disappointment, in
bereavement, in sorrow. We groan physically in our pain and our
limitation. Life consists of a great deal of groaning.

But the apostle immediately adds that this is a groaning which is in

hope. As nature groans in hope, so we believers groan -- but we groan in
hope too. For in this hope we were saved, in the anticipation that God
has a plan for our bodies as well. Among the Greeks, it was taught that
the body was evil, and that the best thing was to get out of it, to get
away from it, to escape into whatever glory awaited the human spirit,
for the body was a prison, holding us in.

I am afraid that this pagan concept is more prevalent among Christians

than we like to think. I find a lot of Christians who have an
ejection-seat mentality. As soon as they get into difficulty, they want
to pull the ejection chord and zip off into glory. They want to get away
from it all. We are all tempted to feel that way, but that is not the
Christian point of view.

The Christian viewpoint is that, though the body is in pain and

suffering and is limited now, this is an important aspect of our lives.
It is something that is part of the whole program and plan of God, part
of the privilege committed to us as Christians. We suffer with Christ.
As he suffered, so do we, that we might also be glorified, as he is.
Therefore, what is happening to us now is something that we never need
to see as meaningless. It holds great meaning. That is why I think that
boredom is the most non-Christian attitude that we can have. Boredom is
an attitude of enduring, waiting for something better to come, but
seeing nothing meaningful in what you are going through at the time. I
don’t think the Scriptures ever support that idea of Christians.

We are saved in hope, Paul says, and by that hope we live. It is true
that hope, by its very nature, is something yet in the future -- "But
hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."
But what makes it possible to wait is that we already have the
firstfruits of the Spirit. We know that the Spirit of God is able to
give joy in the midst of heartache. He is able to make us feel at peace
even when there is turmoil all around. This happens to even the weakest
and newest among us. This is what Paul calls the firstfruits of the
Spirit -- the power of God to make a heart calm and restful and peaceful
in the midst of turbulent, trying, and difficult circumstances. Because
we have these firstfruits we can wait patiently for the hour when, at
last, even our bodies will be set free, and we shall step into an
incomparable glory, such as we have never imagined or seen before. No
one, in all the wildest dreams of science fiction, has ever imagined or
conceived of something so vast and so magnificent as the glory God has
waiting for us.

There is more involved in this program of patient waiting, as the

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do

not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And
he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance
with God’s will. {Rom 8:26-27 NIV}

Now the Spirit is groaning. There are three groans in this passage.
Nature is groaning, we are groaning, and now the Spirit is groaning with
words which cannot be uttered. This passage helps us in our
understanding of prayer. The apostle says that we do not know what to
pray for as we ought. We lack wisdom. I want to point out immediately
that this is not an encouragement to cease praying. Some people think
this means that if we don’t know how to pray as we ought, and if the
Spirit is going to pray for us anyway, then we don’t need to pray. But
that would contradict many other passages of Scripture, especially James
4:2, which says. "You have not because you ask not," {Jas 4:2b NIV}. God
does want us to pray, and we are constantly encouraged to pray. Jesus
taught on prayer. In Philippians 4:6, Paul tells us that we are never to
be troubled or anxious, but in everything, with prayer and supplication,
we are to let our requests be made known to God.

There are many times when we do know what to pray for. But there will
come times when we won’t know what to pray for. My wife and I had a time
like that last night. We knew something was wrong, but we didn’t know
how to analyze it, or how to explain it, or how to ask God to do
something about it. We were without wisdom. It is at that time, the
apostle tells us, that the Spirit of God within us voices, without
words, his request to the Father.

I have always been amazed at people who emphasize the gift of tongues
and take this verse as proof that the Spirit prays in tongues through
us. This verse could not mean that. Paul tells us that this praying of
the Spirit is done with groans which words cannot express . Now, tongues
are words, words of other languages. If this referred to the gift of
tongues, it would merely be putting into other languages the feelings of
our heart. But this passage has nothing to do with that. This describes
the groans of the Spirit within, so deep and so impossible to verbalize
that we cannot say anything at all. We just feel deeply. The apostle
says that when that happens, it is the Spirit of God who is praying. The
Spirit is putting our prayer into a form which God the Father, who
searches the heart, understands. The Spirit is asking for something
concerning the situation that we are trying to pray about. Now, what is
the Spirit asking for?
 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
{Rom 8:28 NIV}

Never separate this verse from the previous two verses. The apostle is
saying that what the Spirit prays for is what happens. The Spirit prays
according to the mind of God, and the Father answers by bringing into
our lives the experiences that we need. He sends into the life of those
for whom we are concerned the experiences that they need, no matter what
they may be.

Now, that means that even the trials and tragedies that happen to us are
an answer from the Father to the praying of the Spirit, doesn’t it? You
may leave this service this morning and become involved in an automobile
accident on the way home. Someone may steal your purse. You may get home
to find your house is on fire. There are a thousand and one
possibilities. What we need to understand is that these things do not
happen by accident. They happen because the Spirit which is in you
prayed and asked that the Father allow them to happen -- because you or
someone close to you needs it. These are the results of the praying of
the Spirit.

The joys, the unexpected blessings, and the unusual things that happen
to you are also the result of the Spirit’s praying. The Spirit is
praying that these things will happen, he is voicing the deep concern of
God himself for your needs and mine. Out of this grows the assurance
that no matter what happens, it will work together for good. This verse
does not tell us that everything that happens to us is good. It does say
that whether the situation is bad or good, it will work together for
good for you if you are one who is loved and called by God. What a
difference that makes as we wait for the coming of the glory! God is
working out his purposes within us.

Paul is telling us here that we can wait with patience because nature
testifies his glorious coming, and our own experience confirms it as
well. We are being prepared for something -- we can’t really tell what
it is, specifically, but we are getting ready for something. And one of
these days, at the end of our lives, if not before, we will step out of
time into an incredible experience of glory, something that begs
description -- a glory that Christ himself shares, and that we all shall
share with him.

This is what God is preparing us for. No wonder the apostle then closes
this passage with one of the greatest paeans of praise in the
Scriptures. As we face the sufferings we are going through now, what a
blessing, and what a help it is to remember the glory that has been
granted to us. We have been counted worthy to suffer for his name, that
we may also share in the glory that is to come.
Prayer

We thank you, our Father, for these mighty promises. How

 magnificent they are, how rich they are! We thank you for
them. We know that one day these words, which are essentially
forms and empty sounds to us, will be filled with a content
that is beyond description. You will astonish our minds and
our hearts by what you have prepared. We pray that we may
understand this, and thus be able to endure patiently and with
thanksgiving what we are going through now, knowing that it is
the very suffering that is working and producing the glory. We
ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The Agony and the Ecstasy

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 8:18-28
Message No: 21
Catalog No: 3521
Date: October 31, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

IF GOD BE FOR US

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

title of The Agony and the Ecstasy , none of us knew that this very week
a family among us would be passing through an experience of deep and
heart-felt agony, and that mingled with that agony would be the joy and
ecstasy of a new life. Little did we know that a baby girl would be born
to a couple from this church on the same day that they suffered the
death of their son. But life is like that -- a strange intermixture of
good and bad, of heartache and joy, that we oftentimes find very hard to
understand. But the glory of Christianity is that, whether our hearts
are aching or rejoicing, there is no incident or circumstance -- no
matter how trivial -- that is without purpose or meaning. God has
declared that "all things work together for good to those who love him,
who are the called according to his purpose," {cf, Rom 8:28}.

That great statement of the apostle in this eighth chapter introduces to

us the climax of this letter to the Romans. It is capsulized in Verse
28, which I just quoted. We are called "according to his purpose." God
has a purpose. There is purpose in life. What seems to be a meaningless
jumble of events in history is not meaningless at all; there is a
purpose to every event. Everything is moving to accomplish a desired
end, and that end is the subject of this whole letter to the Romans.
That is what it is all about: How God works through human history to
accomplish his one great and enduring purpose.

in effect, is to have many sons, all of whom will love him with all
their hearts. That is what God is after. That takes us back to what
Jesus said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
all your mind and all your soul and all your strength. This is the first
and greatest commandment," {cf, Matt 22:37-38 NIV}. To accomplish that,
God called the world into being, set up the whole universe, peopled the
earth with a race of men, permitted them to fall, sent into this
sin-ridden earth his own beloved Son, accomplished the cross and the
resurrection, and now, as Paul so clearly says, "works all things
together for good to those who love him, who are the called according to
that great purpose," {cf, Rom 8:28}.

In this we have a tremendous statement of what life is all about. We see

that God’s purpose is to have a race of people, his own children, who
will love him. Love is the end and aim of life. To accomplish this, Paul
summarizes the process that God follows. Paul looks back through this
letter to the Romans and sums up in five brief steps the process that

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to

the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those
he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also
glorified. {Rom 8:29-30 NIV}

These are the five steps that God takes, stretching from eternity to
eternity -- far greater than any of our individual lives would suggest.
Nevertheless, this is what brings us to faith. I want to make clear that
in this passage the Apostle Paul is not touching the question of why
some people believe and some do not. That is the problem of election,
to reason and think can comprehend about that subject is clearly stated
in the ninth chapter. But that is not what Paul is talking about here.
He is not facing the mystery of election. He is simply describing what
is back of those who believe, what has already happened when, as
Christians, we look back to see how God brought us to this place. There
are five steps:

The first step is that God foreknew us.

A lot of people talk about how God foreknew what we were going to do, he
foreknew that we would believe in Christ. There is a certain line of
teaching that says God looked down the corridor of time and saw that we
would believe in Christ, and therefore he chose us to be part of God’s
elect because of what we were going to do. Now, this verse, as I have
already suggested, is not dealing with that question. This verse says
"those whom he foreknew," not "that which he foreknew." It is concerned,
therefore, with the question of existence. It is telling us that from
among the tremendous number of human beings that have been spawned onto
this earth since the creation of man, God foreknew that you and I would
be there -- as well as all the believers who have preceded us or who
will follow us in the course of history.

Now, when you consider the fact that at every birth the chances that you
and I should be the one that should emerge from that union are somewhere
in the range of one to one or two hundred million, this is a remarkable
statement. Because of the abundance of sperm to one ovum, doctors tell
us that the possibility that any one particular person could be foretold
and foreknown is fantastic -- the odds are one to two hundred million
for every single birth. So, when you consider that, out of all those
possibilities, God has seen that we would be the ones who would come --
and not only us, but all believers of all time, in all ages -- you begin
to get some staggering understanding of the mind and the wisdom of God.
It is simply mind-blowing to think that God would have the ability to do
this.

We are impressed by great computers that amass huge numbers of facts and
put together amounts of information that none of us as individuals could
ever handle. But these computers are nothing! They are children’s toys,
compared with the greatness of the mind of God, who saw all the
fantastic possibilities and yet knew that we would be there. Not only
that, but he knew it long before the world was ever called into being!
That is the amazing statement of the Scriptures. Before the foundation
of the earth, God foreknew that we would be here. Now, I cannot go any
further than that. That baffles me, and bewilders me, but, nevertheless,
it is fact. This is where Paul begins.

Then, Paul says, the next step is that God predestined .

"Ah," you say, "I know what that means! That means God looked over the
whole group and said, ’Now these will go to hell, and those will go to
heaven.’" Predestination has absolutely nothing to do with going to
hell. In the Word of God, predestination is never related to that in any
way whatsoever. To think of predestination in those terms is completely
unbiblical. Predestination has to do only with believers. It simply
tells us that God has selected before hand the goal toward which he is
going to move every one of us who believes in Christ. That goal is
conformity to the character of Christ. Everything that happens to us
focuses on that one supreme purpose.

If we understand that, it will help to explain some of the conundrums of

our lives. We think that God’s primary objective is our happiness, but
the Scriptures never say that. God is interested in our happiness, and
eventually our happiness is involved in all that God does, but that is
not his primary concern. His primary concern is for our character. God
knows we can never develop the character he wants without times of
difficulty and trial and suffering. That is why suffering is an
inevitable part of the picture. It helps us to remember that God’s
primary objective is not that we be happy all the time. He is not that
kind of a father. Rather, his primary objective is that we be holy,
which means "whole," "complete," all that we were intended to be,
functioning as God intended us to function, like Jesus.

We have all noticed that God is forming a lot of characters. In fact, he

is going to end up with a whole heaven full of them. But one distinctive
thing about those characters is that they are all like Jesus. They all
have different personalities, but they all have the same, basic,
fundamental character: loving, gracious, gentle, wholesome, helpful,
compassionate -- all the things that marked that magnificent life of
Jesus interpreted in a thousand and one different ways in our human
lives. That is the wonder and the glory of God. That is what he has
predestined: {that} there shall be many brethren, and {that} Jesus
should be the firstborn among many just like him.

The third step is that God called us.

Those who God foreknew he also predestined; and those he predestined, he

also called. This is where we get into the act. Up to this point, the
passage has been concerned with God’s mind and purpose, but now we
suddenly become involved in the picture. Those whom God has foreknown
and predestined, he now calls.

I could not begin to describe to you the mystery and wonder that is
involved in this. This means that the Holy Spirit somehow begins to work
in our lives. We may be far removed from God, we may have grown up in a
non-Christian family, we may be involved in a totally non-Christian
faith, or we may be from a Christian home. It does not make any
difference. God begins to work and he draws us to himself.

Jesus said, "All that my Father has given me shall come unto me. Not one
shall be lost," {cf, John 6:65}. This is what he means. The Holy Spirit
begins to draw us and woo us and open our minds and create interest in
our hearts. We think we are getting religious, but we are only
responding to the drawing of the Spirit of God. We are not aware of this
-- we think it is our choice. In a sense, we do have to make a choice,
free will and God’s sovereign choice. Nevertheless, we are being drawn
in ways we do not understand.

The Apostle Paul was converted in the brilliant light on the Damascus
road when he saw the glory of the Lord shining about him greater than
the sun. He heard a voice that said to him,. "Saul, Saul, why do you
persecute me? Is it not hard for you to kick against the goads?" {Acts
26:14b NIV}. By that last phrase the Lord Jesus indicated that he
understood that Paul was fighting, struggling, kicking, trying to hold
on to his independence -- but he was being dragged relentlessly to a
fate he could not escape. That is what happens to all of us. We do not
understand it, but it is true.

Dr. Harry Ironside used to tell about a man who gave his testimony,
telling how God had sought him and found him, how God had loved him and
called him and saved him, delivered him, cleansed him, and healed him --
a tremendous testimony to the glory of God. After the meeting, one
rather legalistic brother took him aside and said, "You know, I
appreciate all that you said about what God did for you, but you didn’t
mention anything about your part in it. Salvation is really part us and
part God, and you should have mentioned something about your part."
"Oh," the man said, "I apologize. I’m sorry; I really should have
mentioned that. My part was running away, and his part was running after
me until he found me."

That is what Paul is saying here. God called us. Those whom he
predestined, he also called.

Fourth, those God called, he justified .

All along in this letter we have been looking at what justification

means. It is God’s gift of worth. Those who are justified are valuable
in his sight. They are forgiven, cleansed, and given the position before
him of being loved, accepted, wanted, and endeared. This is
justification -- being given the gift of worth without any cause on your
part at all. By the cross, God was freed to give the gift of
righteousness. Had he given it apart from the cross, he could have been
properly accused of condoning sin -- but the cross freed him. It
established his righteous justice on other grounds, so that he is now
free to give to us the gift of worth without any merit on our part.

Then, finally, those God justified, he also glorified .

Paul writes as though this had already happened. It has already begun,
it is true. Glorification is what Paul calls "the revelation of the sons
of God," {cf, Rom 8:19}. It is the exciting day which the whole creation
is anticipating, when God is suddenly going to pull back the curtains on
what he has been doing with the human race. Suddenly, the sons of God
will stand out in glory.

But in a sense, as we have said, this has already begun. It is what we

call, in theological terms, sanctification . Sanctification is the
process by which the inner worth which God imparts to our human spirit
by faith in Christ begins to work itself out into our conduct. We
actually begin to change. We begin to be like what we actually are.
Therefore, our attitudes change, and our actions change, and our habits
begin to change, and we stop certain things and begin others. Our whole
demeanor is different; we become much more gracious, happy, wholesome
persons. That is called sanctification, and that is the process of
glorification; it has already started.

We all know how this works. We all are aware of how wonderful it is when
someone we know to be nothing but a ding-a-ling begins to change. How
much easier that person is to live with! We see that the glorification
has already begun.

That is the process that Paul says is inevitable. God has started it,
that is what he is doing, and that is what he is going to complete at
the day of the revelation of the sons of God. So Paul writes here as
though it were already done: "Those whom God justified, he also
glorified."

There are none lost in the process. Those whom he foreknew, before the
foundation of the world, he also predestined to conform to the likeness
of his Son; the same number of people he called; and the ones he called,
he also justified; the very ones he justified, he also glorified. No one
is lost in the process, because God is responsible for it. It is going
to involve pain and toil, death and tears, disappointment, bereavement,
sorrow, sin, stumbling. failure, falling, forgiveness -- all these
things. But it is going to happen, because what God sets out to do, he
does -- no matter what it takes.

At this point Paul asks the final question:

What, then, shall we say in response to this? {Rom 8:31a NIV}

What can you say? All you can say is "Thank you. How great thou art!"
The response of the heart is, "Father, I love you." And that is what God
is after. He is after the love of men -- the uncoerced, unforced love of
men, despite their pressures, their problems, their heartaches, whatever
they go through. Therefore, the rest of this letter is a beautiful
description of how to love God.

The nature of love to God is outlined for us in three questions which

the apostle asks in this last section.

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare
his own Son, but gave him up for all of us -- how will he not
also, along with him, graciously give us all things? {Rom
8:31b-32 NIV}

If you have understood all that God has done for you, your first
response of love is to say to yourself, "If God is for me, who can be
against me?" You love God when you work out and reflect on the
implications of his saving commitment to you. The moment you think this
through, and say to yourself, "If God has done this, and God is for me,
then this and this and this must be true," and you rejoice in that
truth, you are loving God. You are responding as he intended you to
respond to his love for you.

Now, what is the effect of this realization? It is clear from this

passage that it is the removal of fear. If God is for us, who can be
against us? All fear of successful opposition is removed. It is not that
there is no opposition. The devil is still there, the Democrats are
still there, the Communists are still there -- there is still going to
be opposition. But Paul is saying, "If God is for us, what difference
does it make?" If God is for us, who can be against us? (And I don’t
mean "us" as Republicans, either!)

A few weeks ago at our elders’ meeting, Barney Brogan was telling us
about his grandson. His daughter has moved to Missouri with the boys. As
some of you know, their father is Chicano, and the children look like
their dad. Their 13-year-old ran into a tremendous nest of White
Supremacy at school. Because of the prejudice against blacks and
Chicanos, that little innocent lad began to suffer very unjust torment
and persecution. He didn’t understand it; he came home weeping, beaten
up because of his looks. His mother didn’t know what to do, and so she
wrote and asked us to pray for this situation, and we did.

A week or so later a letter came back and described how one night the
biggest kid in school appeared at their door and said that he was a
Christian, that he knew they were Christians, and that he had come to
tell them that he had gone to every kid in school who had beat up on the
boy and told them that if they ever did anything like that again, they
would answer to him. I don’t know what that boy’s name was, but let’s
call him Mike. I can imagine this little boy going back to school,
walking in the shadow of Mike, with all his tormentors looking at him.
He probably would be saying to himself, "If Mike is for me, who can be
against me?" That is what God is saying here. That is what David said in
the twenty-seventh Psalm:
That is what we ought to be saying when trouble strikes, when difficulty
comes, and when opposition appears. We ought to think it through, and
say, "This is the way we love God. And if God be for me, who can be
against me?"

Not only does our belief in God’s love for us remove our fear of
want:

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all
-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us
all things? {Rom 8:32 NIV}

He who has already given us the best, the greatest, the dearest, the
most precious thing he has, and who did so while we were sinners --
while we were enemies, while we were helpless -- will he not also give
us some of these trivial, piddling little things that we need?

If someone thinks enough of you to give you a costly, brilliant,

beautiful, flawless diamond, do you think he will object when you ask
him for the box that goes with it? If a mother will give up a baby, do
you think she will object if they ask to take his clothes too? And if
God has given us his own Son already, do you really think God is going
to withhold anything else that we need? Paul’s argument is unanswerable:
Of course he won’t. We can say with David in the twenty-third Psalm,
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," {Psa 23:1}. The first sign
that we love God, then, is that fear is removed. We begin to face our
lack, face our enemies, and say, "If God be for us, who can be against
us?"

The second question Paul asks of those who know God’s love for them is

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ
Jesus, who died -- more than that, who was raised to life --
is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
{Rom 8:33-34 NIV}

This is a reminder of the work that God has done. We love God when we
trust in the full effect of his work on our behalf. Paul is looking back
over the letter, and sees two great works that God has done:

The first is justification. "Who will bring any charge against those
whom God has chosen?" Who can? It is God who justifies. Justifications
means that nothing and no one anywhere can accuse us successfully before
God. Now, the devil is the accuser of the brethren. He will try to
accuse us constantly. This verse tells us that we must not listen to his
voice. We must not listen to these thoughts that condemn us, that put us
down, that make us feel that there is no hope for us. These thoughts
will come -- they cannot be stopped -- but we do not have to listen to
them. We know God is not listening to these accusations. Who can condemn
us when God justifies us? Therefore we refuse to be condemned.
We don’t do this by ignoring our sin or trying to cover it over, or
pretending that it isn’t there; we do it by admitting that we fully
deserve to be condemned, but that God, through Christ, has already borne
our guilt. That is the only way out. That is why Christians should not
hesitate to admit their failure and their sin. You will never be
justified until you admit it. But when you admit it, then you also can
face the full glory of the fact that God justifies the ungodly, and
therefore there is no condemnation.

Then Paul raises the question, "Who is he that condemns? Who is going to
do this? The only one who has the right is Jesus -- and Jesus died for
us. And more than that, he was raised to life for us, he is now at the
right hand of God in power for us, and he is also interceding for us. So
there is no chance that he is going to condemn us. This is a reference
to the power that we have to take hold afresh of the life of Jesus. Not
only is our guilt set aside, but we have power imparted to us -- his
life in us, his risen life made available to us now.

So we can rise up and say "No!" to the temptations that surround us and
the habits that drag us down; we can be a victor over them. That is not
a mere dogma; we are in touch with a living person. That is the glory of
Christianity. The unique distinction of Christians is that we have
Jesus.

I know that every cult, every new faith, every false faith around, old
and new, offers some kind of an experience, perhaps a mystic experience,
or some sense of peace or freedom. That is what they are all based on.
We must not discount these, for they can do some of these things. But
the difference is that they do not have a grounding in history. There is
no assurance that these experiences are reality. But we Christians have
a grounding in the history of Jesus. He came, he died, he rose again.
These are unmistakable facts. Therefore, when we come to Jesus, we come
to someone we know exists. We know he is there. Therefore, the
experience that we go through is real.

states it like this:

The teaching of the New Testament is that now, at this very

moment, there is a Man in heaven appearing in the presence of
God for us. He is as certainly a man as was Adam or Moses or
Paul; he is a man glorified, but his glorification did not
de-humanize him. Today he is a real man, of the race of
mankind, bearing our lineaments and dimensions, a visible and
audible man, whom any other man would recognize instantly as
one of us. But more than this, he is the heir of all things,
Lord of all lords, head of the church, firstborn of the new
creation. He is the way to God, the life of the believer, the
hope of Israel, and the high priest of every true worshiper.
He holds the keys of death and hell, and stands as advocate
and surety for everyone who believes on him in truth.
Salvation comes not by accepting the finished work, or
deciding for Christ; it comes by believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ, the whole, living, victorious Lord who, as God and
man, fought our fight and won it, accepted our debt as his own
and paid it, took our sins and died under them, and rose again
to set us free. This is the true Christ; nothing less will do.
Our whole relationship rests upon that magnificent person.

That brings us to the third and last question: How do you love God?
Well, you love him by reminding yourself of the implications of his
continual, unchanging commitment to you. You love him by remembering and
trusting the full effect of his work for you. And finally, you love God

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? {Rom 8:35a NIV}

Who or what is going to do it? Is there any force, anywhere, that can
come between you and Jesus?

Here the apostle is facing the question that many people ask. Is there
any way to lose your salvation? Who can remove us from Christ, once we
fully come to him? Paul’s answer is, "Let’s take a look at the
possibilities."

First, can all the troubles and dangers of life separate us from his

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or

nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
slaughtered." {Rom 8:35b-36 NIV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through

him who loved us. {Rom 8:37 NIV}

Trouble is catastrophe and disasters, such as we have just had this

week. Will hardship do it? That means the tight, narrow places we have
to go through sometimes. Will persecution do it? That is hurt
deliberately inflicted on us because we are Christians. Will famine,
lack of food and money do it? Will nakedness, or lack of clothes? Will
danger, or threat to our lives? Will the sword (war, riot, uprising) do
it? "No," Paul says, "In these we are superconquerors." Why? Because
rather than dividing us from Christ, they draw us closer to him. They
make us cling harder. They scare us and make us run to him. When we are
independent and think we can make it on our own, these things strike,
and we start whimpering and running for home, and we cling all the
closer. We can never be defeated then, so we are more than conquerors.

What about supernatural forces? What about people and power and demons

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels

nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
 powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation [literally, anything even in a different creation] ,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. {Rom 8:38-39 NIV}

There is nothing left out of that list, is there? Everything is there --

demons and dark powers, black magic and angels, truth and error, death
and life -- whether in this creation or any other creation. Paul takes
everything in and says that nothing, no being or force, is capable of
separating us from the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. So we love God
when we say, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" We love God
because of what he himself has done on our behalf, and the nature of
that commitment is that he loves us. Nothing can separate us from that.

This is the highest point of the letter. Obviously, Paul cannot go

beyond this, and neither can we. What can you say? What can you do but
love when you are confronted by a God like that?

I want to close by reading a modern version of this verse put in the

terms of a specific individual, Ruth Harms Calkin, who wrote:

God, I may fall flat on my face; I may fail until I feel old
and beaten and done in. Yet Your love for me is changeless.
All the music may go out of my life, my private world may
shatter to dust. Even so, You will hold me in the palm of Your
steady hand. No turn in the affairs of my fractured life can
baffle You. Satan with all his braggadocio cannot distract
You. Nothing can separate me from Your measureless love --
pain can’t, disappointment can’t, anguish can’t. Yesterday,
today, tomorrow can’t. The loss of my dearest love can’t.
Death can’t. Life can’t. Riots, war, insanity, unidentity,
hunger, neurosis, disease -- none of these things nor all of
them heaped together can budge the fact that I am dearly
loved, completely forgiven, and forever free through Jesus
Christ Your beloved Son.

Can you add anything to that?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: If God be For Us

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Explained
Scripture: Romans 8:29-39
Message No: 22
Catalog No: 3522
Date: November 7, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

HAS GOD FAILED?

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

There is a verse in the book of Jeremiah that comes to mind as we begin

to study the ninth chapter of Romans. On one occasion, when Jeremiah was
very troubled about some things that were happening to him, he came to
God and told him how he felt. Instead of being comforted, as he thought
he would be, the Lord said to him, "If you have fainted when you run
with footmen, how will you contend with horses?" {cf, Jer 12:5}.

the ninth chapter? For, in this chapter, the apostle brings before us
some of the toughest questions ever faced by man as he contemplates the
actions and workings of God. All the bitter and denunciatory accusations
that man brings against God are faced squarely in this chapter.

Perhaps it will be helpful to remind you of the divisions in this letter

to the Romans:
1 Chapters 1 through 8 constitute the first major division of the
letter and deal with Paul’s explanation of the gospel of the grace
of God, the full plan of redemption, as God has worked it out. It
is a marvelously brilliant explanation -- the best, the most
accurate, the most theologically complete detailed explanation that
we have in all of the Scriptures.
that we will be commenting on in just a moment.

In Chapters 9, 10, and 11, the apostle seems to start all over again. He
has been talking about the grace of God and the gospel of God, and he
he goes back over it again -- but this time his purpose is not to
explain the gospel, but to exhibit it. These chapters are an exhibition
of the grace of God.

Many of you have been to Fisherman’s Wharf, and perhaps you have gone
into the Wax Museum and viewed the exhibitions of scenes from various
historic moments and the wax figures of various renowned characters in
our national and world history. I don’t know whether that kind of thing
appeals to you, but I like it. It helps me to grasp more clearly what
those historical incidents were actually like.

This is what you have in these three chapters of Romans. It is a

demonstration -- in terms of people -- of how God works in human
history, how he redeems and saves.

helpless to save himself. There is not a thing we can do to save

ourselves. We have power to choose, we are expected to choose, and we
are free to choose, but, nevertheless, as Paul has made clear, God is
behind it all. We don’t understand that, and so Paul turns the spotlight
on Israel to demonstrate just how God works. We will learn many
important things from this section of the epistle to the Romans.

This is a sad and rather sobering story about Israel. Here is a nation
that counted itself as having an inside track with God, and saw itself
as the people of God, the chosen nation close to God, with various
advantages which no other nation had. The Israelites regarded
themselves, therefore, as having a specially privileged position with
God. And yet Paul begins this section with a clear acknowledgment that
this nation is far, far away from God. Despite all the possibilities
that they enjoyed, nevertheless, they are a long, long way away.

Now, Paul does not come on in anger at that fact, nor does he come on
with accusations. He begins, as we will see in his opening words, with a
description of the personal anguish that this causes him. Listen to
these words:

I speak the truth in Christ -- I am not lying, my conscience

confirms it in the Holy Spirit -- I have great sorrow and
unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself
were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my
brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. {Rom
9:1-4a NIV}

I am sure that to the Jews of his own day the apostle sounded like an
enemy. As he preached and taught the riches that are in Christ Jesus and
centered and focused everything on the Person of Messiah, the Person of
Christ, he became, in the eyes of the Jews of his day, their enemy. This
has remained true of the nation of Israel. They see him in that way. Had
a Jew read the letter to the Romans, he would have regarded it as a
gigantic put-down to the whole nation. Paul’s ministry everywhere
stirred up the antagonism of the Jews. He made them angry and upset,
even violent in their rage against him.

And yet, he is not their enemy, as he himself makes clear here. He is

their loving, hurting friend. It breaks his heart that he has to tell
them these things. The hurt is real.

Paul tells us that these are not crocodile tears that he is shedding.
This is no phony protest on his part, like some people who say, "I’m
only telling you this because I love you," and then proceed to cut us to
pieces.

"No," Paul says, "my conscience supports me in this, and the Holy Spirit
himself confirms that my anguish is genuine and real. It is deep and
lasting." He describes it as "great sorrow and unceasing anguish."

I am sure there must be many here this morning who have grieved over a
wayward loved one, and I join you in that. If you are grieving over
someone you love who is trending away from Christ and the things of God,
you know how that anguish is always there beneath the surface of your
heart. You may be enjoying yourself outwardly, and you may be at peace
in many ways, but it is there, like a deep knot. The moment your
thoughts go back to it you feel it -- that unceasing anguish of heart. I
don’t think there is anything that can be more devastating and more
deeply felt than the love and concern of someone who sees another
drifting into hurt, destruction, danger, despair, and perhaps even
death, and is helpless to do anything about it.

That was the apostle’s position. That anguish was so deep that he
declares that if it were possible (fortunately, it isn’t, but if it were
possible), he would be willing to take their place in hell, if only they
could find Christ! That kind of commitment is rare in humanity.

In Exodus 32, there is an account of Moses, who said something very

similar. He came down from the mountain and found the people dancing
around the golden calf, conducting themselves in riotous ways, and he
intervened before God on their behalf. "Lord, if it be possible, blot
this sin from their lives," he said, "but if not, blot me out of your
book," {cf, Exod 32:32}.

That reaches me. I confess that I have loved ones for whom I would be
willing, gladly, to die that they might be in glory. I would be glad to
give up the rest of my earthly life. But I can’t think of anyone for
whom I would be willing to give up my hope for eternity. And yet that is
what the apostle’s heart is feeling. He knows it isn’t possible, but he
says, "If I could, I would."

And so we begin this chapter with the recognition of the depth of the
anguish of Paul’s heart. What a lesson this is on how to approach
someone you want to help, someone who isn’t very eager to receive what
you have to say. You never come on -- Paul never does -- with
accusations, or with bitter words, or denunciations, or even with the
issues that separate you. Paul first identifies with their deep hurt; he
feels with them.

I have told you before about the man who said to a friend, "I hear you
dismissed your pastor. What was wrong?" The friend said, "Well, he kept
telling us we were going to hell." The man said, "What does the new
pastor say?" The friend said, "The new pastor keeps saying we’re going
to hell too." "So what’s the difference?" "Well," the friend said, "the
difference is that when the first one said it, he sounded like he was
glad of it, but when the new man says it, he sounds like it is breaking
his heart." That is what Paul is saying here. It is breaking his heart
as he has to tell us these things.

Now, part of the reason for this anguish is made clear in what Paul says
next. Paul recognizes the tremendous possibilities that the Jews had and
which they seemed to have failed to take advantage of, Verses 4-5:

Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the

covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and
the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is
traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all,
forever praised! Amen. {Rom 9:4b-5 NIV}

Last week I was reminded of a young man with whom I shared a ministry a
number of years ago in Southern California. I was in Southern California
this past week, and someone reminded me of the wonderful time we had
when this young man came in and ministered with us. He had a brilliant
mind, a powerful personality, keen insights into the Scriptures, great
effectiveness in what he said, and he was a convincing speaker. This
past week I learned that he is now a broken man, having drifted from the
faith -- an alcoholic, dying. What sorrow that brought to my heart, as I
thought of the great possibilities he had that are now being wasted.

This is the way the apostle feels about the nation of Israel. Look at
these advantages -- there are eight of them listed:

First, they were chosen as the people of God. There is no doubt about
that. God makes it very clear that he separated this nation -- the
descendants of Abraham, the twelve sons of Jacob and the tribes that
came from them -- as his people. He called them that: "Behold, Israel is
my son," {cf, Exod 4:22 KJV}. He dealt with them as the specially chosen
people of God. Gentiles have not always understood that, and many times
I think we resent it. Somebody has said, "How odd of God to choose the
Jews." But God really did choose them. Their position was different than
any other nation of their day, and Paul acknowledges it.

Second, to the Jews was given the glory, Paul says. By that he means the
Shekinah, the bright cloud that followed Israel through the wilderness
and later came into the holy of holies in the tabernacle and marked the
presence of God himself among his people. Centuries later, when the
temple was built by King Solomon, the cloud of glory came and filled the
holy of holies, and the people knew that God had recognized his ties
with this remarkable people and was living among them in a very real
sense. They had the glory.

The Jews also had the covenants, Paul points out, these remarkable
agreements that God made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, with Moses
and David, in which God committed himself to do things for that nation,
and he has never gone back on those covenants. God took the initiative
to make these covenants with this strange and wonderful people.

Fourth, Paul says, the Jews had the Law. This was their dearest and
greatest treasure, and it still is. A few weeks ago I finished reading
the book In the Beginning by the contemporary Jewish writer, Chaim
Potok, in which he describes how the Jews loved the Torah, the scrolls
of the Law. They have a service set aside in which the men of the
congregation take the scrolls of the Law and dance with them. Potok
records how one of the young lads says to himself, "I wonder if the
Goyim (Gentiles) ever feel this way about the Word of God?" Yes, the Law
was their greatest treasure. God gave it to Moses -- not to Charlton
Heston!

Also, Paul argues, the Jews had the temple worship. Not only did they
have the Law, but God had carefully and meticulously described how the
people should conduct themselves. He told them the kind of offerings to
bring, the ritual to carry out, and he designed beautiful ways of
reminding them of the truth that he had taught them through these
rituals and services. The Jews had the temple itself, one of the most
beautiful buildings ever built by men. It was the glory of Israel, and
it was still there in our Lord’s day, and even while Paul was writing
this letter.

Sixth, the Jews had the promises. Those are still to be found in the
pages of the Old Testament -- promises of a time when the Jews would
lead the nations of the world. There would be universal reign, a world
King, and Jerusalem would be the center of the earth. Government would
flow from the city of Jerusalem throughout the whole earth. Those
promises are still there, and God means to fulfill them.
Seventh, Paul says, the Jews had the patriarchs, those tremendous men
whose names are household words all over the world -- Abraham and Moses
and David. We think we are blessed having leaders like Washington and
Jefferson and Lincoln, but even they are not as widely known as these
great names from Israel.

Finally, the supreme blessing was that Jesus himself, the Messiah, came
from Israel. From the Jews is traced the human ancestry of Christ.
Notice that Paul does not say that Christ belonged to Israel -- he came
from them. He belongs to the world because, as the apostle adds, "He is
God over all, to be praised forever!" This is one of the most clear and
definite statements of the deity of Jesus that comes from the apostle’s
pen. I know there are manuscripts suggesting that this is to be
translated as a closing doxology that says "God be blessed and praised
forever." But the best manuscripts do not put it that way at all. The
most ancient manuscripts agree that this is what the apostle wrote:
"Christ is God over all, blessed and praised forever!"

And yet, with all these fantastic advantages, with the remarkable
achievements and possibilities of this nation, the Jews of Paul’s day
were violently anti-Christian. They could not stand the idea that Jesus
was their Messiah. Paul could see evidence, even at this date, of the
approaching crisis between the Jews and the Romans that would result in
the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and judgment upon this nation.
They would be scattered throughput all the nations of the world for
centuries. Paul saw that coming.

moving to bring about that final confrontation when the Roman armies
would surround the city and eventually break through the walls, destroy
the temple, level it to the ground, and take the Jews captive and send
them out into all the nations of the world, fulfilling the word of Jesus
that this would occur. And yet, despite these fantastic advantages,
remarkable and unique in all the nations of the world, Israel had proved
to be faithless. That is what breaks the apostle’s heart.

Now Paul raises a question, and here he gets into the heart of this
chapter: Did this also mean that God was faithless? Has God failed? Did
Israel’s failure come about because God is not able to save those whom
he wants to save? Is that the problem?

A lot of people think that is the problem. They wonder if God is really
able to save someone whom he calls. So this is a problem that is
relevant in our day.

Paul answers by launching upon a great statement that sets forth the
faithfulness of God -- but in terms that we struggle with. I want to
warn you before we get started that you are going to have a difficult
time with the ninth chapter of Romans. Way back in the prophet Isaiah’s
day, God had said to Isaiah, "My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts
are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your
thoughts," {cf, Isa 55:8-9}. Whatever else those words might mean, they
certainly imply that there are times when God is going to act in ways
that we don’t understand, ways that seem absolutely contrary to the way
he should act.

I think this is one of the major problems that we face in dealing with
God. There have been times when I have been bewildered and baffled by
God’s behavior. I have seen solutions to problems of deep importance, I
could see how to work them out -- but God seemed totally unable to catch
on. Even when I have told him how to solve them, rather than take the
simple steps that would have worked out the solutions (as I saw them),
he persisted in going into deeply involved relationships and
circumstances that seemed to have no bearing at all in the working out
of this problem. I am confronted, finally, with the truth of Isaiah’s
words. God is beyond me. Now, that is the attitude we must keep in mind
as we go through this chapter.

Paul begins to introduce this to us by showing us some of the principles

by which God works in carrying out his great work. There are three
principles that we want to take this morning. The first one is that we
must understand that great opportunities and special privileges that God
may grant to nations or to individuals, such as those he has just listed
for Israel, do not necessarily imply that God intended in any way to
save those people.

Here is how Paul establishes his argument:

First, he says, salvation is never based on natural advantages,

It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are
descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his
descendants are they all Abraham’s children. {Rom 9:6-7a NIV}

Now, two of the patriarchs are mentioned, Jacob and Abraham. Israel, of
course, is another name for Jacob. God named him Israel after Jacob
wrestled with the angel, for Israel means, "A prince with God." God made
Jacob, the usurper, into a prince. But those who are his descendants are
not necessarily involved in all those promises. Even those who are
physical descendants of Abraham, the greatest of the patriarchs, are not
all included in the salvation promise of God.

Therefore, we can draw the conclusion that salvation is never based on

natural advantages. It is not inherited.

Your family may have been Christians, but that doesn’t make you a
Christian. You may have had great opportunities for Bible study and
Bible knowledge, and maybe you have taken advantage of them -- but that
doesn’t necessarily make you a Christian. These special privileges that
come to us by natural means are never the basis for God’s redemption.
That is the first thing we have to understand.

But, in contrast to that, the second thing is that God’s salvation is

always based on a divine promise. Now look at what Paul says,

On the contrary, "Through Isaac shall your offspring come." In

other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s
children, but it is the children of promise who are regarded
as Abraham’s offspring. For this was how the promise was
stated: "At the appointed time I [God] will return, and Sarah
shall have a son." {Rom 9:7b-9 NIV}
This takes us back to the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, where God said
to Abraham and Sarah, "I will come back, and Sarah, whose womb has been
barren all her life -- who has never had a child, who is now ninety
years of age and, from a natural point of view, couldn’t possible have a
child -- is going to have a baby," {cf, Gen 18:10}. It was a biological
miracle, and that was God’s promise. It involved his own supernatural
activity. His promise is based on what he does, not upon what men do.

As we well know, Abraham had another son, Ishmael, the oldest boy. He
was thirteen years older than Isaac, the firstborn of Abraham. By
rights, he should have inherited the promises that God made to Abraham,
but he didn’t. Instead, Isaac inherited those promises. Ishmael stands
as a symbol of the futility of expecting God to honor our ideas of how
he is to act.

Remember how Ishmael was born? Sarah said to Abraham one day, "Do you
expect God to do everything? He has promised you a son, but you are
getting old. Time’s wasting. Surely, God doesn’t expect you to leave it
all up to him!" {cf, Gen 16:1-2}. So she suggested that he take her
Egyptian servant. He did, and she conceived and bore a son whose name
was Ishmael. Ishmael was brought before God by Abraham, who said, "God,
here is my son. Will you fulfill your promises to him?" {cf, Gen 17:18}.
God said, "No, I won’t. That is not the one. He must come by divine
promise," {cf, Gen 17:19-21}.

I think this is a very important principle in Scripture. I find a lot of

people who get an idea of what they think God ought to do. They ask him
to do it, and, because they have asked him to do it -- in line with what
they think are the promises about prayer -- they think God has to do it.
They misread all the promises about prayer and think that if they get an
idea of what they want, God has to do it. But what this teaches us very
plainly is that God is committed to do only what he has promised to do.
If you want God to act on your behalf, find a promise that he has given.

Some of you this week saw the film on Aimee Semple McPherson, that
rather remarkable woman evangelist of the early part of this century who
was the first of the well-known faith healers of this country. She and
others who have followed her since have taught people that God has
promised that he would heal all physical ailments. They tell people to
claim healing from God. They say that if we would just claim what God
has promised, God will do it.

You know, I’ve been studying the Scriptures for thirty years or more,
and I can’t find that promise! It just is not there! God has never,
anywhere, promised to heal all physical illnesses. I would invite you to
share it with me if you know where it is. He does heal, and often he
will respond to the requests of his children -- but he has never
promised that he will. Therefore, we are wrong when we try to claim from
God something that he never promised to do. That is why anything
expected from God must rest upon a promise that he has already given.
Otherwise it is merely his grace that supplies an answer to our
requests. That is the second principle here.

Now we come to the, third, which is even more difficult to handle,

Not only that, but Rebecca’s children had one and the same
father, our ancestor Isaac. 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 --
she was told, "The older will serve the younger." {Rom 9:10-12
NIV}

Do you remember who Rebecca was? She was Isaac’s wife. He found her
through his servant, who had been sent to find God’s choice for Isaac.
Now, that is a remarkable statement, and Paul confirms it with a
quotation from Malachi 1:2-3:

Just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." {Rom

9:13 NIV}

Many have struggled over those words. But all the apostle is saying is
that it is clear from this story that:
* First, ancestry does not make any difference (these boys had the
same father), and,
* Second, what they will do in their lives -- including the choices
they will make -- ultimately will not make any difference.

Before they were able to make choices -- either good or bad -- God had
said to their mother, "The elder shall serve the younger." By that he
implied, not only that there would be a difference in the nations that
followed (the descendants of these two men) and that one would be in the
place of honor and other wouldn’t, but, also, that the personal
destinies of these two men were involved as well. I think that is clear
from the record of history. Jacob forevermore stands for all the things
in men that God honors and wants them to have. Jacob was a scheming,
rather weak character -- not very lovable. Esau, on the other hand, was
a rugged individualist -- much more admirable when he was growing up
than his brother Jacob. But through the course of their lives, Jacob was
the one who was brought to faith, and Esau was not. God uses this as a
symbol of how he works.

I remember hearing of a man who said to a noted Bible teacher, "I’m

having trouble with this verse, ’Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated.’ How could God ever say ’Esau have I hated’?" The Bible teacher
said, "I have trouble with that verse, too, but my problem is not quite
the same. I have no trouble in understanding the words ’Esau have I
hated.’ What bothers me is how God could ever say ’Jacob have I loved’!"
Read the life of Jacob and you will see why.

Now, I do admit that we must not read this word "hated" as though God
actually disliked Esau and would have nothing to do with him and treated
him with contempt. That is what we often mean when we say we hate
someone. Jesus used this word when he said, "Except a man hate his
father and mother and brother and sister and wife and children and
houses and land, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple," {cf,
Luke 14:26}. Clearly he is not saying that we have to treat our mothers
and fathers and wives and children and our own lives with contempt and
disrespect. He clearly means that he is to have pre-eminence. Hatred, in
that sense, means to love less. We are to love these less than we love
him.
God didn’t hate Esau, in the sense we usually employ that word. In fact,
he blessed him. He made of him a great nation. He gave him promises
which he fulfilled to the letter. God did not hate Esau in that usual
sense. What these verses imply is that God set his heart on Jacob, to
bring him to redemption, and all Jacob’s followers would reflect the
possibilities of that. As Paul has argued already, they were not all
necessarily saved by that, by any means, but Jacob would forever stand
for what God wants men to be, and Esau would forever stand as a symbol
of what he does not like.

Do you know the final confrontation of Jacob and Esau that is recorded
in the Scriptures? It was when Jesus stood before Herod the king. Herod
was an Idumean, an Edomite, a descendant of Esau. Jesus was, through
David, a descendant of Jacob. There, standing face-to-face, were Jacob
and Esau! Herod has nothing but contempt for the King of the Jews, and
Jesus will not open his mouth in the presence of Herod. This is God’s
strange and mysterious way of dealing with humanity. Now, I don’t
understand it, but I have to submit to the fact that God is greater than
I. His ways are not my ways, and his thoughts are not my thoughts.

What Paul is teaching us here is that God has a sovereign, elective

principle that he carries out on his terms. Here are those terms:

Salvation is never based on natural advantages. Never. What you are by

nature does not enter into the picture of whether you are going to be
redeemed or not.

Second, salvation is always based on a promise that God gives. This is

why we are exhorted in the Scriptures to believe the promises of God. It
includes, in some mysterious way, our necessity to be confronted with
those promises, and to give a willing and voluntary submission to them.
I do not understand that, but Paul brings this up a little later in this
chapter when he discusses the harmony, as far as we can understand it,
between the free will of men and the sovereign elective choice of God.

The third principle is that salvation never takes any notice of whether
we are good or bad. Never! That is what was established here. These
children were neither good nor bad, yet God chose Jacob and passed over
Esau.

Now, I want to close at this point, because it is too much to take along
with the next section. But I want to ask you this question: "How do you
react to what we have covered so far? Is there something in you that
wants to cry out to God and say, ’God, that’s unfair! That isn’t
right!’"

When I preached this message at the 8:30 service this morning, a man
walked out the door cursing God because he treated men this way. Do you
feel something like that? Then relax, because you are normal. There is
something in us called the flesh that reacts to this; it doesn’t like
it. Paul is going to pick that up later in this chapter and we are going
to face it squarely and find out what we can about this sense of
unfairness that we have toward God in this regard. But, in the meantime,
let us reverently accept the fact that God is greater than we are. He
knows more than we, he knows what he is doing, and everything he does
will always be consistent with his character. God is love. Whether we
can understand it or not, that is where it is going to come out.
Prayer
 Our Father, once again we have to admit we don’t understand
very much. We are finite creatures, and how much we feel it at
this moment! We certainly are not gods, and we don’t
understand how you act. But we believe you are faithful to us,
and that you tell us the truth, and that it does us good to
seek to understand. We will seek to do that, Lord, but keep us
from being rebellious, from charging you with injustice. Help
us to be open and teachable in spirit, that we might recognize
the marvelous grace that has reached out to us and found us.
Help us to understand what you are doing with the rest of the
world as well. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Title: Has God Failed?

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Exhibited
Scripture: Romans 9:1-13
Message No: 23
Catalog No: 3523
Date: November 21, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

LET GOD BE GOD

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a time when almost everybody on earth believed that the earth
was flat. At that time, this was a very comfortable theory to live with.
It was safe, easy to understand -- it was comfortable. Now, believing
this did not make it true, but it was easier to handle and it made life
more predictable. In reading accounts of the time, we learn that people
got rather upset when some evidence that this was not true was
presented. As more and more scientists began to say that the earth was
really round and not flat, contrary to the way it looked to their eyes,
and that it was spinning on its axis and floating in a great sea of
space, people got very upset.
Religious people, especially, were upset, for they believed with all
their heart that the Bible taught that the earth was flat. They would
quote certain passages that seemed to indicate this. So there was a
great deal of controversy over the issue. It was a long time before
people began to realize that the new evidence really made God appear
more wonderful and more powerful than he ever had before. They began to
discover, too, that there were certain verses and passages which they
had overlooked before that supported this new evidence. They could see
how the old viewpoint could be fitted within the context of this new
truth that was appearing.

You know, I think that is our problem when it comes to a passage like
is flat, that he is rather safe and easy to understand and that he fits
very comfortably into the pattern that we have made for him. He is
predictable, and we find ourselves very secure with these little
the kind of passage that is designed to break through and kick the sides
out of those kinds of boxes. I hope that is what has been happening to
some of the boxes that you have tried to fit God into. God is greater
than any human box we can design.

We have already learned that it is very easy for us to misread God’s

actions. We look at history, we look at what is happening in
contemporary events, we look at what the Bible itself records about
God’s actions, and it is easy for us to misread those and to think that
God is intending to do something that he really is not. That is what we
he gives us rich privileges. And when he gives us special blessings, we
tend to jump to the conclusion that God has chosen us, that he likes us,
that we have an inside track with God, for he likes us better than he
does other people.

That was the problem the Jews had in Paul’s day -- and they still have
it today, in many ways. They felt the same way we do. I think we in
Christendom (although not necessarily the Church) tend to do the same
thing when we point the finger at our Jewish friends and accuse them of
being proud and conceited about their position before God. Paul has
already told us that God has a different reason for setting people up
and giving them special privileges, and in the opening verses of
They are the reasons God himself gives for his actions. These are the
principles upon which he acts.

natural privileges: inheritance, ancestry, education, opportunity. All

these natural privileges, though they may be granted to an individual
and may give him great access to knowledge about God, do not guarantee
that a person is chosen of God.

The second principle is that with those whom God chooses, God always
precedes that choice in history with a divine promise of his activity on
their behalf. God himself promises to act. He never bases salvation upon
what human beings are going to do, except as they respond to what God
does. We have to understand that. Redemption always has at the heart of
it a promise that God has given and that we are to respond to. Paul
makes that clear.

Third, Paul points out that God’s choice is never based on the behavior
of individuals, whether good or bad. Now, that is the tough one. That is
what we have a hard time believing. But Paul proves it in the case of
Jacob and Esau, in which a choice was made before the boys were born,
before they had opportunity to do anything, either good or bad. God made
a choice. Therefore, salvation or redemption never is based on human
works. We have seen that all the way through Romans, but here it is put
in a very positive form.

Well then, what is the basis on which God chooses? If it is not works,
if it is not the natural advantages which he himself gives, then what is
it? Paul’s answer, which we take up now in the second half of
God has a right to choose. That is the final resolution of that problem.

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says
to Moses,
have compassion."
It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but
on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised
you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in
you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he
hardens whom he wants to harden. {Rom 9:14-18 NIV}

Now, I do not know how you react to that. I do not know what you feel
about what it says -- but it is clear what it says, isn’t it? It does
not say that salvation is based on human effort or human choice -- it is
God who chooses. I think that is very clear. You may not like what it
says, but that is what it says. The ultimate reason for God’s choice of
anyone is that God chose him. He chooses whom he wants.

I think this is the truth about God which men dislike the most. We are
having to face the fact that God is a sovereign being. He is not
responsible to, or answerable to, anyone. He is totally, absolutely
sovereign. We don’t like that, because to us sovereignty is always
connected with tyranny. To trust anyone with that kind of power is to
put ourselves into the hands of someone who might destroy us, and we
instinctively fight that.

We fight it in our national life, we fight it in our family life, we

fight it in our individual relationships. We do not trust anyone with
absolute power over us. The very Constitution of the United States is
based on that presumption. No one can be trusted with absolute power. We
have checks and balances built into our government. We divide it into
three divisions and put one against the other, so that they all watch
each other. We do not believe that even the best of us can be trusted
with absolute power.

It is no wonder, therefore, that when we come to the Scriptures and

confront the fact that God has absolute power, we become uneasy and
troubled by this. But you see, if God had to give an answer to anyone,
that being or person to whom God had to account would really be God. The
very idea of God is that he is sovereign. He does what he pleases. He
does what he wants to do. What we must do is get rid of the idea that
his sovereignty is going to be destructive to us. It isn’t at all. As we
will see before this is over, his sovereignty is our only hope!

Paul says that God declares his own sovereignty. God says to Moses, "I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom
I have compassion," {Exod 33:19 NIV}. Now, Moses was a great example of
God’s choice of someone to bless. Who was Moses that God should choose
him? Moses was nobody in himself. He was a murderer; on one occasion, in
a fit of temper, he killed a man. Then, instead of turning himself in
for justice, he hid the body in the sand. He was a criminal, a murderer,
a fugitive from justice. For forty years he had been living in the
desert, a nobody. No one had heard of him. But God picked him up and
made him a messenger of God and gave him a name that became known
throughout history. He set him in authority over the greatest king the
world had ever known at that time and used him in a most remarkable way.
Why? God chose to do so. That was his elected choice. He had the right
to do that.

On the other hand, God demonstrated his sovereignty with Pharaoh as

well. He took a man who was no better than Moses (in fact, Scripture
tells us God often puts in power the basest of men) and put him on a
throne and gave him authority and power over all the nation of Egypt.
Then, when Moses confronted him, God allowed Pharaoh to continue to
resist God’s will. God could have stopped him, but he didn’t. He allowed
him to do what all men do by nature -- resist God. So Pharaoh held out
against God in order, as this verse says, that God might demonstrate his
power and attract the attention of men everywhere to his greatness.

That bothers us, too. We think anybody who boasts about his greatness,
who tries constantly to get people to think about how great he is, is a
braggart, he is conceited. We don’t like such people -- largely because
we are jealous of them! We want to be the one standing up there getting
people to admire our greatness.

But you see, God is the one who must do this. In our constant tendency
to think of God as nothing but an enlarged man, we attribute to God our
own motives. When man does this, he is destructive. He must necessarily
put others down in order to elevate himself. But what God does is
necessary to the welfare and benefit of his creatures. The more his
creatures understand the goodness and greatness and glory of God, the
richer their lives will be, and the more they will enjoy life. Jesus
said, "This is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," {John 17:3 KJV}. So when
God is inviting men, and seeking to find ways to have men think about
his greatness, it is not because God’s ego needs to be massaged -- it is
because God’s creatures require that for their very welfare. Therefore
God finds ways to do it, and he uses men even to resist his will in
order that there might be an occasion to display his greatness and
power. Paul’s conclusion, therefore, is that God has mercy on whom he
wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Immediately somebody objects. We all feel this objection, I am sure. We

One of you will say to me, "Then why does God still blame us?
For who can resist his will?" {Rom 9:19 NIV}

In that brief statement is hidden all the accusations and all the bitter
charges that men bring against God: "God is the one responsible for all
our human evil. It isn’t us; it is God, ultimately, who is to blame!"
This accusation appears in many different forms in human history.

What does man do with this essential truth about God’s nature, his
sovereignty? He uses it to blame God for all human evil. Verses 20-29
give us Paul’s answer to this, and we will look at that in due time.
But, right now, I want to spend a moment with this charge that men bring
against God. What it is really saying is,

"All right, Paul. You say that God uses men for whatever he
wants to use them for. Men cannot resist him. Pharaoh could
not resist God’s use of him. God used him to oppose what he
sent Moses to do in Egypt. Pharaoh was merely an instrument in
God’s hands. So God uses men to do evil, then he turns around
and blames them for the evil and punishes them for doing what
he made them do! That’s not just, that’s not fair! God himself
must agree that it is not fair to make somebody do something,
and then punish them for doing it. The very sense of justice,
which God himself gave us, is offended by that!"

That sounds logical, doesn’t it? The logic of it sounds unanswerable.

Many people argue this way. With calm reason and devastating logic they
point out that Scripture teaches that God can use men however he wants,
for good or for evil; therefore he has no right to condemn them or to
punish them because they do evil.

How do you answer logic like that?

Let’s see what Paul does. Paul has four things to say in reply, and
let’s examine them carefully:

The first one is found in Verse 20. Basically what he says here is, "All
right, you man, whoever you are, you are going to charge God with
injustice. You say he is not fair because he does this! Let’s examine
your credentials."

Who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed
say to him who formed it, ’Why did you make me like this?’"
{Rom 9:20 NIV}

"Let’s take a look at this," Paul says. "Let’s compare and consider the
difference between man and God. Here is man, finite (that means his
knowledge is limited, his understanding is limited). He is not only
finite, but he is frail. He has very limited strength. He only lasts a
little while -- a breath of air and he is gone. He is very weak, unable
to do much. The record shows us through the whole course of man’s
history that not only is man finite and frail, but, despite all the
logic that he seeks to employ, time and time again man demonstrates that
he is foolish. With all his logic he makes atrocious blunders. He ends
up doing things that are extremely hurtful when he thinks he is doing
the right thing. With all this array of logic and of reason and ability
to think, he ends up making the most foolish mistakes. Now, that kind of
man is daring to stand up against the God who is infinite in knowledge,
infinite in power and majesty, mighty, wise, knowing all things from
beginning to end -- not only all the things that are, but all the things
that could be as well. This puny pipsqueak of a man is daring to stand
up and challenge the justice of a God like that!"
What Paul is saying is that even our logic is wrong, because there are
mysteries we do not reckon on, objectives that we cannot discern, there
is resistance that we know nothing about. So who are you, man, to stand
and question the rightness of God? That is a good argument, isn’t it?
Are we equipped to challenge God in this way?

I think the most helpful book in the Bible on this score is the book of
Job. Job was not a cavalier; he was not a skeptic, an atheist arguing
against God. He was a devout man who loved God deeply. Yet he was a
deeply puzzled and bewildered man who could not understand what God was
doing with him. You know the story. Job was afflicted with a series of
terrible boils and physical afflictions, his family and all his wealth
disappeared in a series of terrible catastrophes that came like a
trip-hammer, one after the other.

To top it all, he was afflicted by three torturers, who called

themselves his friends, who came to argue with him in his pain and
despair with the presupposition that all suffering must be caused by
sin. Therefore Job’s suffering meant that he somehow was a deep-dyed
sinner, and all his pain was coming because he refused to let people
know the terrible evil that he must have done. They hounded poor Job and
examined every crack and cranny of this argument and searched it to its
depths. Finally, in despair, Job cries out. He doesn’t blame God though.
That is the glory of this book. He never once blames God. He just says,
"Lord, I don’t understand it! Oh, if I could just come and stand before
you and plead my case, I could show you how unfair it seems to me!"

Job, you wanted a chance to argue. You wanted to ask me some questions
-- here I am. But before you ask me a few, I have some to ask you, to
see if you are qualified to ask them of me. Here are my questions: Where
were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Where were you when
the morning stars sang together, and I flung the heavens into space?
Were you there? Where were you when all these things began to be worked
out? Can you enter into the secrets of the sea? Do you understand how
the rain works, and how the lightning appears? Do you understand these
things, Job? Why, these are simple to me. How are you doing on them?"

Job has to hang his head.

God goes on: "Look at the stars, Job. Can you order their courses? Can
you make the Pleiades shine forth in the springtime? Can you make Orion
stride across the winter sky, always on time? Can you handle the
universe, Job?"

And Job says, "No, I’m sorry; I don’t qualify." God says, "All right,
let me ask you some more questions."

Then, in a tremendous section that is really the key to the book of Job,
God uses the figures of Behemoth and Leviathan, two strange and
formidable creatures, to examine Job’s qualifications to handle satanic
power. "Can you handle Satan? Do you know how to handle this fantastic
dragon who can wreck a third of the universe with his tail? Are you able
to take him on?"

Finally Job ends up on his face in the dust before God and says, "Lord
God, I didn’t know what I was getting into! I just meant to say a few
things to you, but you are not in my league at all! I repent in
sackcloth and ashes; I put my hand on my mouth. I have nothing to say to
a God like you."
That is Paul’s argument here: "Who are you, O man, to reply against God?
You don’t understand even a tiny fraction of the things to be known, so
how can you argue with a God like that?

Paul’s second argument follows. Even among men, isn’t there a form of
sovereignty that we exercise and don’t we have the right to do so?

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same
lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for
common use? {Rom 9:21 NIV}

Nobody questions that, do they? Doesn’t a potter have the right to take
the lump of clay that he is working with and divide it in half and make
of one half a beautiful vase for the living room and out of the other
make a slop jar? Why yes, he has that right. Nobody tells the potter
what he can do with his clay. Men exercise sovereignty like that and
nobody questions it at all.

Well, at this point many people say, "But we’re not clay! It’s all right
to do that with unfeeling clay, but human beings are not clay. We’re
people. We have feelings, sensitivities, and wills. Your analogy doesn’t
hold!" Well, you can extend the analogy to things that have feelings.
What about the ways we treat plants and animals? Doesn’t a gardener have
the right to move plants around wherever he’d like? Just last week I
tore out some plants and threw them away -- good, healthy plants. Did I
have the right to do that? Do my neighbors have the right to swear out a
warrant for my arrest because I didn’t ask permission of the plants
first? No. Does a farmer have the right to send cattle to slaughter, to
pick out certain ones that he thinks are nice and fat and slaughter
them, while he keeps others awhile longer? Do we ever challenge that?
No.

Men have that kind of authority -- a kind of delegated sovereignty that

they exercise. When flies come into your kitchen, do you housewives have
the right to swat them, or must you put up with their nuisance
endlessly? You folks who ate turkey for Thanksgiving, do you blame the
poultryman because he planned to raise turkeys for that very purpose?
Ought we to go over and picket his turkey farm because he did this? No,
of course not. Men exercise this kind of sovereignty. And if men
exercise this delegated sovereignty, can we deny it to the one being
who, in all the created universe, has the right, above all else? That is
Paul’s argument. It is hard to answer that, isn’t it?

"But," somebody says, "it still doesn’t solve this problem of justice.
It seems unfair." Paul’s third argument says, "Then let us consider two

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power
known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath --
prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the
riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he
prepared in advance for glory -- even us, whom he also called,
not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says
in Hosea:
 people;
is not my loved one,"
and,
was said to them,
[Those are the Gentiles -- us.]

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

like the sand by the sea,
with speed and finality." {Rom 9:22-28 NIV}

What Paul is saying in all this is that God may have purposes and
objectives that we do not see. And doesn’t he have the right to do it?
And what if one of those objectives is not only to display his power and
his wrath by allowing and permitting man to oppose him and to resist
him, but also to display his amazing patience and longsuffering this
way? Did you ever think about that? Did you ever think of how, for
centuries and centuries, God has put up with the snarling, nasty,
blasphemous, accusing remarks of men, and has done nothing to them? He
has listened to all the cheap, shoddy, vulgar things that men say about
him, and allowed them to treat him with hostility and anger and never
does a thing but patiently endure it and put up with it. Paul says,
"What if God does all that. What if it takes that kind of a display of
the wrath of God and the patience of God to bring those of us whom he
chooses to himself?" Something has to appear to us that makes us
understand God. We are not being forced to come to him, we are drawn to
him. Therefore we have to respond, and something must make us respond.
Is it not the wrath of God and the patience of God that draws us on?

All this, then, is necessary to bring some of us to glory. In other

words, for some to be saved, some must be lost. Now, I admit that is an
inscrutable mystery. I don’t understand it. But I don’t have to
understand it! That’s the whole thing. I can’t understand it at this
point. There are factors in it which God cannot reveal. He will some
day, but he doesn’t now -- not because he does not want to, but because
I can’t handle it. And neither can you. We have to accept it,
nevertheless. Paul suggests here that without the display of wrath on
God’s part, no Gentiles ever would have been saved -- only the elect of
Israel, and only a remnant of them. But, as it is, the Gentiles, those
of us who never had the advantages that Israel had, are included, as
Hosea and Isaiah both predicted.

Now the final and clinching argument, the fourth one, is found in Verse
29:

It is just as Isaiah said previously:

9:29 NIV}

This past June we drove past the sites of Sodom and Gomorrah. I don’t
think there is a more desolate place on the face of the earth -- just
dreary, dry desert, with a briny sea in which nothing will live, and
around which nothing will grow. It is the most terrible place of
desolation on the face of the earth! What Paul argues here is that if
God had not chosen to draw us to himself by an elective decree --
something that makes men wake up and stop resisting him and start
listening to him -- none of us would ever be saved.

You see, we start thinking on this from the wrong premise. We start by
thinking that everybody is in neutral, and unless they have an
opportunity to be saved, they just remain in neutral until it is too
late for them to have a chance. But that isn’t it at all! The truth is,
we were born lost. We are already lost. We were lost in Adam. Adam lost
the race, not us. But we are victims of it. There isn’t a chance that
any of us will do anything but resist God. Paul has said in
none that seeks after God, not one!" {cf, Rom 3:10-11}. So you see, God
is not shutting us away and not giving us a chance. It is his grace that
reaches out to us, and without it, nobody would ever be saved at all.
The whole race would be lost. God’s justice could allow the race to be
lost; God’s mercy reaches out to save many among us. And that is his
sovereign choice! That is where we must leave it.

The passage closes with a very remarkable paragraph. People ask at this
point, "How can we tell whether people are chosen or not? If you can’t
tell by the advantages they have, how can you tell?" Here is the answer

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue
righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by
faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not
attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but
as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling
stone." As it is written:
stumble
shame." {Rom 9:30-33 NIV}

God says there is a way you can tell whether you are being drawn by the
Spirit unto salvation or whether you are being permitted by God to
remain where you already were, lost and condemned: The way you can tell
is by what you do with Jesus. God has planted a stone in the midst of
society. Now, when you walk down a path and come to a big flat rock in
the middle of the path, there are two things you can do. You can stumble
over it, or you can stand on it, one or the other. That is what God says
Jesus is.

The Jews, who determined to work out their salvation on the basis of
their own behavior, their own good works before God, stumbled over the
stone. That is why the Jews rejected Jesus, and why they reject him to
this day. They don’t want to admit that they need a Savior, that they
are not able to save themselves. No man is. But for those who see that
they need a Savior, they have already been drawn by the Spirit of God,
and awakened by his grace, and made to understand what is going on in
their lives. Therefore, their very desire to be saved, the very
expression of their need for a Savior causes them to accept Jesus. They
stand upon that stone. Anyone who comes on that basis will never be put
to shame.

Now that, God says, is the testing point. The crisis of humanity is
Jesus. You can be very religious, you can spend hours and days or an
entire lifetime of following religious pursuits and apparently honoring
God. But the test will always come: What will you do with Jesus? God put
him in the midst of human society to reveal those whom he has called,
and those whom he has not.
Jesus taught this very plainly: "No man can come to me except my Father
draw him," {cf, John 6:44}; and "all that my Father has given me shall
come to me. Him that comes to me I will never, never cast out," {cf,
John 6:37 KJV}.

So what is left for us? To respond to Jesus, that is all. And to thank
God that in doing so, we are not only doing what our own hearts and
consciences urge us to do, but we are responding in obedience to the
drawing of the elective Spirit of God, who, in mercy, has chosen to
bring us out of a lost humanity.
Prayer

Our Father, how this passage puts us in our place! How it

makes us realize afresh how desperately dependent we are upon
your saving grace. We did not save ourselves -- we could not.
We did not even initiate the desire to be saved -- that comes
from you. But we thank you that you have not left us, as you
could have, in utter justice, to destroy ourselves and end, at
last, in separation from all your goodness and grace. But you
have called us and redeemed us and brought us to yourself, at
infinite cost to yourself, and thus, Lord, we give ourselves
afresh to you this morning, that you may use our lives for
whatever way you please, and that we may be the willing
servants of a loving God. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Let God be God

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Exhibited
Scripture: Romans 9:14-33
Message No: 24
Catalog No: 3524
Date: November 28, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
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file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
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permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

HOW TO BE SAVED
by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the

Israelites is that they may be saved. {Rom 10:1 NIV}

I do not think there is any word in the Christian vocabulary that makes
people feel more uncomfortable than the word "saved." People cringe when
they hear it. Perhaps it conjures up visions of hot-eyed, zealous
buttonholers -- usually with bad breath -- who walk up and grab you and
say, "Brother, are you saved?" Or perhaps it raises visions of a tiny
band of Christians at a street meeting in front of some saloon singing,
"Give the winds a mighty voice, Jesus saves! Jesus saves!" Whatever the
reason, I do know that people become bothered at this word.

I will never forget the startled look on the face of a man who came up
to me in a movie theater. The seat beside me was vacant, and he said,
"Is this seat saved?" I said, "No, but I am." He found a seat across the
aisle. Somehow this word threatens all our religious complacency and
angers the self-confident and the self-righteous alike.

And yet, when you turn to the Scriptures you find that this is an
absolutely unavoidable word. Christians have to talk about men and women
being saved because the fact is that men and women are lost. There is no
escaping the fact that the Bible clearly teaches that the human race
into which we are born is already a lost race. This is why the good news
of John 3:16 is that "God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish -- not
perish -- but have everlasting life," {cf, John 3:16 KJV}.

We can never deal realistically with life until we face up to this

fundamental fact: People are not waiting until they die to be lost --
they are already lost. It is the grace of God that reaches down and
calls us out of that lostness and gives us an opportunity to come to
Christ and be saved. Therefore "saved" is a perfectly legitimate word to
use. It makes us uncomfortable only when we refuse to face the fact that
men and women are lost. They are born into a perishing race in which
their humanity is being put to improper uses and is gradually
deteriorating and falling apart, and they are facing an eternity of
separation from God. These are the facts as the Scriptures put it.

is our model for understanding how God works. Paul is answering the
question of why some who have little knowledge are saved while many who
have much knowledge are not saved. Part of his answer was given in the
ninth chapter, in which he explained that behind this strange mystery is
the elective, sovereign choice of God. God chooses to call men to him --
but not all men. Paul has dealt at length with that subject in the ninth
chapter. But now he turns to the other side. Now we are confronted with
the fact of human responsibility. It is true that God draws men to him:
it is also true that no one will come unless they respond to the appeal
of God.

Now, to us, this is an apparent contradiction. That is why we call it a

paradox, a seeming contradiction. We cannot resolve it because at this
greatly with that. We do not understand even a fraction of how God
works, therefore human knowledge is too limited to resolve this apparent
conflict. But both sides are true. God calls men by an elective decree
that is irresistible, and yet they must respond by a choice of their
will, which they are free to make or not, as it pleases them. Let’s see
how Paul introduces this other side of the picture and brings before us
Israel’s responsibility.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the

Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about
them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not
based on knowledge. Since they disregarded the righteousness
that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they
did not submit to God’s righteousness. {Rom 10:1-3 NIV}

Probably the most outstanding thing about this paragraph is that despite
Paul’s profound conviction that God saves whomever he will by an
irresistible, elective choice, nevertheless this does not stop Paul from
praying and yearning over his kinsmen according to the flesh, the nation
Israel. You see, prayer is not inconsistent with God’s call. It is never
right for us to say, "If God calls, there is nothing we can do about it.
We might as well sit down, fold our hands, and do nothing." That
response fails to see that the way God calls is through the preaching of
the Word and the praying of Christians, the yearning of their hearts
over those who are not yet saved. Therefore, that is part of God’s
program, and Paul exemplifies this beautifully for us here. We need to
see the importance that prayer has in reaching people. Paul prayed for
men. He writes in First Timothy 2:1-3, 8:

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers,

intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone -- for
kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful
and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good,
and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and

I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without

some very helpful things in this regard. Speaking of prayer, he says,

When we are praying about the result, say, of a battle or a

medical consultation, the thought will often cross our minds
that, if we only knew it, the event is already decided one way
or the other. I believe this to be no good reason for ceasing
our prayers. The event certainly has been decided. In a sense,
it was decided before all the worlds. But one of the things
taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the
things that really causes it to happen, may be this very
prayer that we are now offering. [He then adds:] Thus,
shocking as it may sound, I conclude that we can at noon
become part causes of an event occurring at ten o’clock.
That is, even our prayers after an event affect the event. Now that is
strange to us, but I think it is true. We are up against a great mystery

There is no question whether an event has happened because of

your prayer. When the event you prayed for occurs, your prayer
has always contributed to it. When the opposite event occurs,
your prayer has never been ignored; it has been considered and
refused for your ultimate good and the good of the whole
universe.

Those are deep matters, but perhaps that will help us. At least it is
clear that Paul does not hesitate to pray, even though he knows God
chooses whom he will.

The second emphasis in this paragraph is the zeal that Paul notes about
Israel. "I bear testimony that Israel is zealous for God." And indeed
they are. Perhaps the most noteworthy difference between an orthodox Jew
and the average Gentile is right there. Jews take God seriously. Any of
you who have seen Fiddler On The Roof or have read any of the writings
of Chaim Potok, or other contemporary Jewish authors, know how true this
is. The Jewish way of life is built around God. God is the most
important element in all their thinking. They sacrifice anything and
everything to the centrality of God in their national and community
life.

This is in stark contrast to the average Gentile. Gentiles have

religious feelings -- all men do. Gentiles think of God, but God is out
of the periphery of Gentile life. I think we all demonstrate this. We
are more casual about God. He isn’t the center of life, as he is in
Jewish thought and action. Paul takes note of this fact. It was true
then; it is true today.

A Gallup poll taken recently discovered that 43% of Americans -- largely

Gentiles -- said that their religious feelings really were of very
little significance in their lives. And yet the thing that amazed Paul,
and amazes us today, is that the casual Gentile, who is not necessarily
looking for God, nevertheless finds him. At our Thanksgiving service we
had two testimonies by people of Gentile background who found God
suddenly intruding into their lives when they didn’t expect him. They
found peace and rest and joy even when they weren’t looking for it. And
yet the Jew, with all his zeal, with his consummate desire to discover
and to know God, fails to find peace and forgiveness and is not reborn
into joy and love.

Paul tells us why this is so. The reason is that the Jews sought to
establish their own righteousness, and therefore they missed the gift of
God, which is the righteousness of Christ, obtained without works. This
is the reason why anyone, Jew or Gentile, who seeks to try to establish
his own righteousness, is going to be in the same boat. This was the
problem with the Jews. They were constantly trying their best to obey
the Law of Moses. They were failing to do so, of course, but they were
not willing to admit that they failed. Thus they kept hoping and seeking
and believing that God was going to accept them, even though they did
not obey the Law.

Now, there are many people like that today, both Jew and Gentile. In
fact, to show you how true it is that Jews still think this way, I would
like to quote a paragraph from a letter that a boy from this
congregation with a Jewish background received recently from a rabbi,
who wrote because he was troubled about the boy’s faith in Christ:

The basic question about religion is how to elevate man, and

bring him into closer relationship with God. [That is the
rabbi’s view of the purpose of religion. It is to elevate man,
not to change him.] We believe that God revealed to us in the
Torah [the Law of Moses] how he wants us to live, so that we
can be in harmony with his divine purpose. Our role and
religious purpose is to obey God’s laws -- to love him and to
obey him. We exercise our free will to proper intention and,
through having done the good deeds [notice that, through
having done the good deeds] , are elevated so that it becomes
progressively easier and more natural to continue to do good
and to resist evil.

That is the Jewish view of how to be right before God -- simply keep
trying until it becomes easier and easier, and finally you stand
righteous before God. Paul says that is the problem. Anyone who seeks to
come before God on that basis is doomed to failure. They cannot obey the
Law. Paul goes on to show us why they can’t and to reveal to us that the
issue is always Jesus.

Listen to his words:

Christ is the end of the law so that there may be

righteousness for everyone who believes. {Rom 10:4 NIV}

If your version, as mine, says "the law," I suggest you take a pencil
and cross out the word "the." It is not "the law," as though it affected
only the Mosaic Law, it is "law." Christ is the end of law -- any kind
of law -- so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Of course this doesn’t mean that Christ does away with law. He does away
with law as far as bringing you to God is concerned; he makes a total
end of it. And, as we have seen in this letter, the reason is clear.
What was the purpose of law? Why, to make us aware of the fact that
there is something wrong with us. If you don’t have a standard to try to
live up to, you have no idea that there is anything wrong with you. You
think everything you do is natural, and therefore right. You hear this
argument all the time today. Anything that is natural is right. That is
because more and more today the Law is being set aside.

Now, the Law was given to make us realize that there are things that are
wrong, that are destroying us. All the injury and death and darkness
that come into our lives come because of the things that we are doing,
the attitudes we have. We are producing the problem. We think it comes
from everyone else, but law helps us to see that we are what is wrong.
But once it has shown us that, what good is it? It can do no more.

At that point, unless we come to Christ, there is no way out. The Law
cannot cure our evil; it can only show it to us. At that point, the Law
becomes our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, as Paul puts it in
Galatians 3:24. That is the end of the Law, that is its purpose. It has
been fulfilled when it does that work and brings you to Jesus Christ. He
can change you. He can give you new life. He can wipe out the old
pattern of failures and all the hurt and agony and anguish that you have
been going through and give you a wholly new heart. Therefore Christ is
the end of law, that there may be righteousness to everyone who believes
in him.

Now, Paul, in his logical way, is very careful to show us how this

Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the

law: "The man who does these things [the righteousness that is
by the law] will live by them." {Rom 10:5 NIV}

Moses said that in Leviticus: "Here is the Law, the Ten Commandments.
Anybody who does these things will live," {cf, Lev 18:5}. That is, God
will bless him, fulfill his humanity, make him to enjoy all that God had
for man in the beginning. It will all come if a man will simply obey
these ten rules.

You know, when you read the Ten Commandments, they always seem so
reasonable, they seem like such an easy thing to obey. This is the way
people have always reacted to them. You say to yourself, "Why, this is
not difficult. I can do that easily. All I have to do is just decide to
do it, that’s all!" But when you actually start to do it, you soon
discover that there is a rebelliousness inside that sooner or later
stops you from doing what you want to do. We have seen this all through
Romans.

Therefore, the Law reveals the evil that is in your life. Moses said the
Law was given to make people try to live this way. He said that he who
did these things would live. Now Paul goes on to quote Moses again. He
doesn’t say that Moses said the next part, but he did. He sets the

But the righteousness that is by faith says, "Do not say in

your heart, ’Who will ascend into heaven?’" (that is, to bring
Christ down), or "’Who will descend into the deep?’" (that is,
to bring Christ up from the dead). [The comments in
parenthesis are Paul’s.] But what does it say?
heart";
that is the word of faith that we are proclaiming. {Rom 10:6-8
NIV}

It may startle you to realize that Paul is saying here that Moses taught
salvation by grace through faith just as much as Paul did. Moses knew
that the Law would not work. Why, even as Moses was bringing it down
from the mountaintop, the people at the bottom of the mountain had
broken all ten of the commandments before they were given to them.

Moses knew that the people could not keep them, and therefore Moses also
taught that God had provided another way by which people could be
delivered when they failed to keep the Law. He saw clearly that God
would lay the foundation for salvation in the incarnation and the
resurrection of Jesus. That is why Paul quotes these words from
Deuteronomy. Moses saw the coming of Christ down from heaven; he saw the
resurrection, the raising of Jesus from the dead. Paul clearly indicates
that all along God had this basis in mind for how people were to come to
Christ.

Therefore, when the angels sang the song to the shepherds in the
darkness of the night on the plains of Bethlehem, and the glory of the
Lord broke out upon those humble shepherds out there in the fields and
the angel said to them, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all men; for unto you is born this day in the city of
David a savior, who is Christ the Lord" {cf, Luke 2:10-11}, this was the
historic fulfillment of the basis on which God had been saving people
for centuries before this. Now it is being worked out in history -- but
God had been saving people who saw beyond the Law to the work of Christ
long before that.

And when the angels, in the brightness of the Easter sunrise, said to
the woman at the tomb of Jesus, "Go and tell his disciples that he is
risen, as he said" {cf, Matt 28:6-7}, that was the culmination of God’s
program to work out human redemption quite apart from any effort on
man’s part. Jesus had done it all. That is why Paul points out here that
Moses understood that the way to lay hold of and personally appropriate
the value of these incredible events was by believing the divine
announcement with the whole man, with your whole being. That is why he
adds,

But what does it say?

heart";
that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: {Rom 10:8 NIV}

The mouth is the outward man, the intellectual understanding of what has
happened, expressed in words; the heart is the inner man, the will, the
spirit deep within us understanding the basis on which God saves. And

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and

believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and
are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and
are saved. {Rom 10:10-11 NIV}

Now I don’t think it could be put any clearer than that. That is the
clearest statement in the Word of God on how to be saved. It is very
simple, isn’t it? Paul makes it very simple. He says that it begins with
the confession of the mouth that "Jesus is Lord."
Now, don’t twist those words to mean that you have to stand up in public
somewhere and announce that you believe Jesus is Lord before you are
saved. Paul does not mean it that way, although it does not exclude
that. He means that the mouth is the symbol of the conscious
acknowledgment to ourselves of what we believe. It means that we have
come to the place where we recognize that Jesus has the right to
lordship in our lives. Up to this point we have been lord of our lives.
Up to this point we have run our own affairs. We have decided we have
the right to make our own decisions according to what we want. But there
comes a time, as God’s Spirit works in us, and we see the reality of
life as God has made it to be, that we realize Jesus is Lord:
* He is Lord of our past, to forgive us our sins;
* He is Lord of our present, to dwell within us and to guide and
direct and control every area of our life;
* He is Lord of our future, to lead us into glory at last.
* He is Lord of life, Lord of death, he is Lord over all things.

As Jesus himself said after his resurrection, "All power is given unto
me, in heaven and on earth" {Matt 28:18 KJV} -- all power! He is in
control of history. He is running all human events. He stands at the end
of every path on which men go, and he is the ultimate one we all must
reckon with. That is why Peter says in Acts 4:12:

"Salvation is found in no one else; for there is no other name

under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." {Acts
4:12 NIV}

You cannot read the book of Acts without recognizing that the basic
creed of the early Christians was: "Jesus is Lord."

These are days when you hear a lot about mantras, words that you are
supposed to repeat when you meditate. I suggest you adopt this as a
mantra: Jesus is Lord. Say it again and again, wherever you are, to
remind yourself of this great truth. When Peter stood up to speak on the
day of Pentecost, this was his theme, "Jesus is Lord." And all the
thousands of Jews listening to him could not deny what he pointed out --
that Jesus had lived a unique life, had been witnessed to by the
prophets before him, had been raised from the dead in a most astonishing
way, had died a most remarkable death, then had poured out supernatural
signs from heaven, evidences they could not deny, and they had to
recognize the fact above all facts, that Jesus was Lord -- whether they
liked it or not. Therefore, the great question of all time is "What are
you going to do with Jesus?"

Paul tells us here that Jesus is Lord, and if you have come to the place
where you believe in your heart that he is risen and available, and you
are ready to say to yourself, "Jesus is my Lord," then God acts. At that
moment God does something. No man can do it, but God can. He begins to
bring about all that is wrapped up in this word "saved." Your sins will
be forgiven: God imparts to you a standing of righteous worth in his
sight; he loves you; he gives you the Holy Spirit to live within you: he
makes you a son in his family; he gives you an inheritance for eternity;
you are joined to the body of Christ as members of the family of God;
you are given Jesus himself to live within you, to be your power over
evil -- over the world, the flesh, and the devil -- and you will live a
life entirely different than you lived before. That is what happens when
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead.

I think it is very helpful to see that nowhere in all the Scriptures are
men ever asked to believe in Jesus as Savior. They are asked to believe
in him as Lord. When you believe in him as Lord, he becomes your Savior.
But you don’t accept Christ as a Savior -- you accept him as Lord, as
the one who is in charge of all things, including you. When you come to
that point, when you respond with the whole man, then God says the work
of redemption is done. The miracle occurs.

"Well," someone says, "what if I’m not elect? What if all the time I’ve
been wanting God and seeking God, and then it turns out I’m not chosen?"
Anyone who talks that way -- and people do talk that way -- are
indicating they have never understood what Paul is saying here. You see,
if you believe in Christ, you have given proof that you are elect. As
Jesus himself put it, "No man can come to me except my Father draw him,"
{John 6:44}. You can’t believe in God until God has called you and drawn
you. The very desire to believe is part of that drawing, therefore we
needn’t struggle over this apparent conflict.

What Scripture everywhere confronts us with is the necessity for every

individual to settle the question, "Is Jesus Lord of your life? Is he
your Lord? Have you enthroned him and acknowledged him where God has
placed him, as king over all the earth, the Lord of glory, the one who
is in charge of all things?" When you do, that is the moment when
redemption begins to occur. Now, see how Paul confirms this in the

As the Scripture says, "He who believes in him will not be put
to shame." [Here Paul quotes Isaiah. It is not on the basis of
works, but on the basis of belief -- he who accepts what
Christ does, who believes on him, will not be put to shame.]
For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile -- the same
Lord is Lord of ail and richly blesses all who call on him,
for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved." [That is the word of Joel the prophet.] {Rom 10:11-13
NIV}

These verses indicate that this is not something new with Paul, but it
is something all the Scriptures have taught, both Old and New Testaments
alike -- that faith is the way by which we lay hold of what God has to
give us. It is never gained by earning it, or by trying to be good, or
by the good outweighing the bad, but simply by acknowledging that Jesus
Christ has done it all on our behalf.

Probably some of you here this morning have been coming to this church
for weeks, and even years, and yet you have never come to the place
where you have acknowledged Jesus as your Lord. You have been religious,
but you are not saved, you have not been redeemed and changed. I am
asking any who have never settled this, to say to the Lord, "Jesus, you
are Lord, I accept you and receive you as my Lord because I believe you
rose from the dead and you are available to me right now." That is the
basis on which God says he will act.

"If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." That is the
way it happens. At this time of the year I always think of that
beautiful little carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem . I love the third
verse:

How silently, how silently,

The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

Some of you can be born again this morning, as we bow together in

prayer, if you silently say these words:

"Jesus is Lord -- my Lord."

Ask him to enter your life as Lord, and at that moment, God says, his
gift is given. John 1:12 tells us:

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave
power to become children of God; {John 1:11-12 RSV}

So if this morning you asked him to come into your heart, and you
received him as Lord, and you mean to allow him to be the controlling
center of your life from here on, I can tell you on the authority of the
Word of God, that you have been saved. God has begun already the new
life that will change you from the inside out, and you will never again
be the same person.
Prayer

Our Father, we give grateful thanks for these clear words from
Paul. We know how he himself struggled and sought to establish
his own righteousness, and tried hard, Lord, to be acceptable
before you in his own strength, and he, too, failed, until
there came that wonderful day on the Damascus road when he met
Jesus and he was changed into a new creature in Christ. Lord,
we thank you that simple but marvelous miracle has been
occurring again and again throughout the centuries since. We
pray that this morning there were some who opened their hearts
to Jesus, made him Lord in their life, acknowledged his
lordship, realized that he was the one who had died for them
and had given himself on their behalf, and made possible the
blessings of the glory of God in their life. Now we pray that
we may serve you together. Through this joyful Christmas
season may we remember that the purpose of his coming to the
manger in Bethlehem and to the cross of Calvary is that we may
 be saved, and that no one should perish but should live
eternally with you. We thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Title: How to be Saved

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Exhibited
Scripture: Romans 10:1-13
Message No: 25
Catalog No: 3525
Date: December 5, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

HAVE THEY NOT HEARD?

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

frequently asked questions we hear, especially from non-Christians. That

question is, "What happens to all the people who never hear about
Jesus?" That question in phrased in a variety of forms, but basically it
is the expressed concern of many -- especially when they hear Christians
talking about the uniqueness of Jesus. When we say, as Paul so strongly
says in this passage, that Jesus is Lord and it is only through him that
men come to God, immediately it raises the question, "Well, what about
those who never hear of Jesus?" We are going to come to the answer to

any individual person to be salvaged from the wreck of humanity, he must

call upon the name of the Lord. Notice how Paul quotes the prophet Joel

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,

{Joel 2:32a NIV}

Well, how do you do that? How do you call on the name of the Lord?
I’m glad you asked that question. It gives me another opportunity to
preach a message on it.

essential to salvation -- calling on the name of the Lord.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not
heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to
them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is
written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good
news!" {Rom 10:14-15 NIV}

Now, there are five steps involved in calling on the name of the Lord.

Paul begins with that final step, the call itself. He traces it back for
us so we can see what is involved in bringing people to the place where
they cry out to God in a sense of need and desperation and are saved,
born again, changed, regenerated, made alive in Jesus Christ. Paul
begins by stressing the fact that each person individually must call on
God. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." The
important thing, therefore, is to bring people to that place.

As we have already seen, in the first part of this chapter, this is not
just a routine matter. It involves the whole being. The heart must be
involved, that is, the inner consciousness, the deep conviction of the
will. Then the mouth must acknowledge it. There must be a willingness to
consciously confess that Jesus is Lord, and this must be done before God
and others as well, to evidence a deep-settled conviction that Jesus is
Lord. This means, of course, that God does not hand out salvation like
some free coupon that comes in the mail; it is yours whether you like it
or not. There has to be this individual, personal conviction. It is not
enough to come and sit under the hearing of the gospel. Some people
think that if they go to church regularly and hear the gospel they will
be saved. No, there has to be a time when you personally call on the
name of the Lord. I want to stress that, as the Apostle Paul does here.

But behind the call is belief. Paul says, "How, then, can they call on
the one they have not believed in?" So there has to be belief. That
means the mind has to be engaged -- the intellect is called into play. I
think this is important because so many times today we think it is
enough to get the emotions stirred up. I have been in many evangelistic
services where people were stirred emotionally but they did not
understand anything about what God had done. They had nothing to believe
in; they were just stirred up to want something.

Years ago there was a great evangelist named Gypsy Smith. He was born a
gypsy in England and came to Christ as a boy. Gypsy Smith used to preach
saying that Gypsy Smith came to Moody Church on one occasion and held
meetings and told about his conversion and about his gypsy life. The
people would sit, entranced with these wonderful stories he told. At the
end of the meeting he would give an altar call, and people would surge
they were coming for. Did they want to be gypsies, or what? They had
really been given nothing in which to believe. I so well recall
saying to us in class, "Men, remember, you have never preached the
gospel until you have given people something to believe, something God
has done that their minds can grasp, something they can use as a basis
for understanding what God has offered to them -- their salvation."

Behind the belief, Paul says, is a message -- something heard. "How can
they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?" Something has to
be preached. Some message must come. Again, this is a very important
aspect of Christian faith. These days we are hearing much of the ’isms’
and ’asms’ and spasms that are coming into being, new cults that are
springing up on every side, dominating the religious field. Often they
make their appeal to some mystical feeling or philosophy, some idea that
men have of what could work. But it is not grounded in any historic
entity.

Now, the glory of Christianity is that it has a message that is grounded

in history. It is objective truth, not just something that happens
inside of you. It is not some feeling that you are following that you
hope will work out; it is the story of historic events. One of these
events is the coming of Jesus as a baby in the manger of Bethlehem, the
coming of the wise men from the east and the uproar and unrest that it
caused in the kingdom of Judea, beginning with Herod the king himself.
That is all part of history. Then there was the resurrection and the
events that followed in the church. These are all historic events --
objective truth. The great thing of the Christian faith is not that we
are presenting some philosophy, but a faith that is grounded in events
that cannot be explained away. That is our message.

Behind the message, of course, is the messenger. "How can they hear
without someone preaching to them?" There has to be a messenger speaking
forth this message. This is why I believe God has always used some
object or person to convey truth and that this method will never be
superseded. All the marvelous machinery and inventions that we have
today -- the media of communication -- are only ways of conveying the
preaching of the Word of God. You can preach today on television, on
radio, on cassette tapes, and on video tapes. You can have the message
flung up to satellites and back to the four corners of the earth. But in
every event, someone has to deliver the message. God has chosen
preaching as his means of conveying this great truth in every
generation. That is why I don’t believe that the distribution of the
Scriptures alone will ever be sufficient to win men.

Now, I do not demean that ministry, because it is a very important one.

The translating of the Word of God and the spreading of the Scriptures
all over the earth are important. But they are only supplementary. That,
alone, will never reach and change nations as does the gospel when
proclaimed by a human messenger. God has sent men out everywhere,
therefore, to preach this word and to proclaim the truth.

And behind the messenger, as Paul brings out, is the sender. "How can
they preach unless they are sent?" I don’t think there need be any doubt
as to who does the sending. Jesus himself said, "Pray the Lord of the
harvest, that he may send forth laborers," {cf, Mark 9:38, Luke 10:2}.
It is God who sends men. The great initiative in the process of
redeeming men and women, healing them and restoring them, healing the
fragmentation of their lives, is the great heart of God that sends men
out. He calls out men and women and sends them into the far reaches of
the earth.

I think that Paul has brought all this before us in order that we might
understand what a wonderful and beautiful thing this is that God has
done. That is why Paul quotes Isaiah here: "How beautiful are the feet
of those who bring good news!" {cf, Isa 52:7}. What a welcome and
beautiful thing it is to think of God sending out men and women all over
the earth with this message. What a marvelous thing it is when this
message takes root in the human heart! We never forget the ones who
bring it to us. I am sure that many of you can think of people who came
to you with the message of Christ, and they are dear to you because of
that. "How beautiful are the feet" ... feet are not usually the most
beautiful part of the body, but even they become beautiful when the
message is conveyed and God delivers and frees and heals us and makes us
whole.

I have often thought it is like turning on a light switch. You flick the
switch on the wall and the lights go on. It seems like such a simple
thing. Yet behind it is a very complicated process. There are the
transmission towers, the substations, the dam that was built to hold
back the water, the poles on which the wires are strung -- a tremendous
complexity lies behind the simple act of turning on a light switch.
Every time you do it, power surges forth -- and it comes only because
that complicated process has been gone through.

Every time an individual comes to the place where in quietness he calls

out to the Lord, a tremendous process is behind it. There is the
darkness and anguish of the mystery of the cross, the birth at
Bethlehem, the wonder and miracle of the resurrection, the sending forth
of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost -- all this is the process
behind a single individual when he calls on the name of the Lord. God is
behind it, he has started it. The apostle wants us to understand this
activity of the sovereign character of God.

But what if all this is provided, but still men do not respond? That is
the problem Paul is facing here, with regard to Israel,

But not all the Israelites responded to the good news. For
Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the
message is heard through the word of Christ. {Rom 10:16-17
NIV}

Paul is telling us here that a strange reaction occurs when people hear
this message. It is what we might call the puzzle of unbelief. Isn’t it
strange how some people seem to be so suspicious, so self-dependent,
that even when good news comes, they don’t want to receive it? This is
the reaction that preachers and other who tell the good news run into
all the time.

I have a young friend living in Fresno who told me the story of his
conversion. As a young man he became a Christian. He was a man of
considerable wealth, and he tried to reach his friends for Christ after
he himself became a Christian. He told them, with tremendous enthusiasm,
what had happened to him, how the Lord had changed his whole life and
saved his marriage. But he found that his words fell largely on deaf
ears. They were not interested. His wealthy friends patted him on the
back and went on their way. Finally he decided on a rather strange and
remarkable demonstration -- both for his sake and the sake of his
friends. He sat down and wrote out a check for a million dollars (and he
was good for it too!). Then he took his check around to his friends and
said, "I have always highly regarded you as a friend. I have always
wanted to do something for you. Would you receive this check as a gift
from me?" People would look at the check and, when they saw the amount
of it, they would hand it back and say, "I can’t take that from you." He
tried to give that check out to a dozen or more of his friends and no
one would take it, although it was a valid offer. Finally he faced the
fact that there is something deeply embedded in human nature that
doesn’t want to hear good news, doesn’t want to be helped too much,
doesn’t want to be the recipient of great riches without having some
part in it.

This is what is universally discovered by those who bring the good news
of the gospel. Even the prophet Isaiah discovered this when he came to
the people of Israel at a time in their history when they were
surrounded by enemies. They were about to be overrun by the nations
around them, they had turned to the idols of the nations about them,
degrading practices had come into the national life, and peace and joy
had fled from the land. Isaiah the prophet, in the dark days, 725 years
before Christ was born, came and preached to this people good news about
one who was coming. And on the basis of this person’s life and death,
God would work on their behalf. He had to confess, as Paul brings out
here, that they would not believe his message. The great and luminous
53rd chapter of Isaiah begins with those words:

been revealed?
at him,
him.
grief;
not.
way;
all. {cf, Isa 53:1-6 RSV}

Yet the nation of Israel said "No!" to that tremendous revelation of

Isaiah the prophet -- at least, most of the Israelites did. Now Paul
comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the
word of Christ."

This, by the way, is a more accurate translation than the Authorized

Version, which says, "and hearing comes by the word of God." It is
really "the word of Christ."

Paul says that faith is aroused by hearing. If you hear a message, then
you either have to believe it or disbelieve it. Your faith is aroused by
the message. But if it is to be saving faith, he says, it must be a word
about Christ. Once again, Paul sets Jesus right at the center of the
universe. He is the very issue of life. Even back in ancient Israel,
when they heard the news about Jesus, it precipitated the puzzle of
unbelief. People refused it, and that word "refused" brings the whole
project of God’s enterprise to reach men to a point of failure.

Last week I shared with you some paragraphs from a letter written by a
rabbi to a boy of Jewish background who is now in this congregation. The
rabbi was greatly concerned because the boy had become a Christian, and
in his letter he explained to him what he saw as the difference between
what the Jews believe about the messiah and what Christians believe.
Perhaps you would be interested in his words:
 The Messiah question is central to Christianity. This is the
hub around which their whole theology rotates. To make this
your major concern is to play their game. We [Jews] have a
belief in a messiah, but this is not too rigidly defined, nor
of central concern. According to our belief, the messiah is a
man, descended from the house of David, since God had promised
not to replace the line of David with another, who will defeat
the enemies of the Jews, restore the people to the land of
Israel, rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and reign there and
introduce an era of peace. The advent of the messiah has to do
with God’s plan for actualizing his plans in the world.

That is the usual Jewish position regarding the Messiah. He was a man,
not a divine Being; he was to come into history only to deliver the Jews
from their oppressors, in fulfillment of the promises to Israel of
leadership among the nations. But they ignore the passages such as
The rabbi goes on,

The situation is quite different for the Christian. He

believes that nothing that man does can help. Man necessarily
exists in a state of sin. Ethical living, obedience to God,
goodness, all are of no avail. The only way that a man can get
out of a state of damnation is to believe that Jesus is his
Savior or Messiah (quite a different meaning for the word).
Thus the whole purpose of religion is for man to be in Jesus,
i.e., to accept this belief in Jesus as his Savior.

Now, that betrays a considerable degree of understanding of the

Christian position and of the gospel. To show how thoroughly he
understands it, he goes on,

The Law is not only ineffective, but unnecessary, because once

one has accepted Jesus, one of the byproducts is that he is
essentially good and needs no direction from the Law. From
this point of view, one of the most basic and almost exclusive
concerns of religion is the Messiah. Don’t be shifted to that
question without realizing the difference in import and
meaning that places messiah, as used by a Jew, and Messiah, as
used by a Christian, worlds apart.

This is the position that Jews still take today regarding Christ. Paul
says that is the issue. Well, someone says to me, "The trouble is that
the Jews never really heard the gospel. Maybe the problem is that it
never reached them!" This brings up the question about what to do about

But I ask, did they not hear? [His answer,] Of course they
 did:
{Rom 10:18 NIV}

If you have read the 19th Psalm recently, you know that this is the
great Psalm that details nature’s witness to God. It begins with the
words,

handiwork.
world. {Psa 19:1-4a RSV}

There has been a universal proclamation of the gospel through nature.

Now, this is not a lot of light about God, but it is light. In the first

... what may be known about God is plain to them. For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities -- his
eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen,
being understood from what has been made, so that men are
without excuse. {Rom 1:19-20 NIV}

The answer to the question "What about those who have never heard about
God?" is: "There aren’t any people who have never heard about God."
Everywhere men and women know something about God. He is revealed in
nature. There is a universal proclamation that has gone out. And if it
is observed, if it is noticed and followed, more light will be given.

... without faith it is impossible to please God, because

anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that
he rewards those who earnestly seek him. {Heb 11:6 NIV}

First, there must be belief, or faith. Then you must believe that God
is, and, then, that he rewards men who diligently seek him. So all men
everywhere are responsible to seek the God who is revealed in nature.
Now, they may have no more light than that. But, if they, are obedient
to it, that is enough to bring them through gradually dawning light to
the knowledge of Christ. God will see to it that they have further
light. And Israel had that proclamation. No matter how low they sank in
their understanding, no matter how dark it became in the land, they at
least had that universal proclamation of truth that would have brought
them back to truth and to God.

But that isn’t all. There is another stage of the revelation of God.
God, in his grace often gives more light even when people refuse the
light of nature. No one deserves more light, but God gives it
nevertheless. I think the United States of America, above all nations,
ought to be grateful for the grace of God that has poured light out upon
us when we did not deserve it anymore than anyone else. God has given us
much light. But we must remember that more light does not necessarily
mean more belief.

To turn up the light brighter does not mean that people are going to
believe more than when it was dim. Unbelief can reject bright light as
well as dim light, so more light does not necessarily mean more belief.
That is why this nation, with this great and shining light pouring so
brilliantly upon it, is still a nation filled with unbelievers. God

Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

not a nation;
has no understanding."

Then Isaiah boldly says,

ask for me." {Rom 10:19-20 NIV}

God sent the prophets to Israel. He sent Moses and Samuel, Elijah and
Elisha, Isaiah and Jeremiah, and all the other prophets in the Old
Testament. Through many years and centuries he sent them to this people
-- and he did it in order to arouse them to jealousy through the fact
that although they often rejected the prophets, the nations around would
believe. This would be true more fully in the day when the Gentile
nations would suddenly turn to God in large numbers while the Jews
remained obdurate in their unbelief. This, of course, is exactly what
has happened in history. Paul singles out the specific principle here
that God uses to arouse belief, even when people tend to reject truth --
jealousy.

I was watching my grandson play with his cousins the other day. He was
playing with a certain toy, then he got tired of it and threw it away.
One of his cousins picked it up and started playing with it, and
immediately the little boy ran over and grabbed the toy away. "No,
that’s mine!" he said. He wanted to play with it only because he was
made jealous by someone else having it.

You see, God understands this principle in fallen human nature. He even
uses it at times to make people wake up. This is why God pours out
blessings upon an individual or a family, with one member of the family
receiving spiritual insight. He does it in order to make the others
jealous so they will listen to him. This is why God will pour out
blessings upon one nation in order to make other nations jealous. "What
is the secret of your blessing?" they will ask. Thus they might hear the
witness about God.

If you understand some of these things, you will be able to read your
newspapers differently than you ordinarily do. What is God doing in the
human events of our day? We see them as simply a conflict of warring
factions of humanity. But God is using these events to arouse people to
jealousy. Paul gives two instances of this:

First, he points out that Moses said that God would use a people far
less intelligent than the Jews. One of the striking things about Jewish
history is the brilliance of the Jews. It would be impossible to list
the many Jewish leaders in the fields of science, philosophy,
literature, art, and music in our day. They dominate the field. Over 12
per cent of the Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish. And yet, these
brilliant people, with their tremendous minds, are often confronted with
people, savages in the jungles, untaught, dark and clouded in their
thinking, who find God and become Christians and are delivered and given
blessings, hope, peace, and even prosperity. God is doing this only to
arouse his people and awaken them.

Then Isaiah came along. Not only will God use those who are less
intelligent, he says, but God will use people who are less motivated: "I
was found by those who did not seek me: I revealed myself to those who
did not ask for me." Another characteristics of the Jew has been his
zeal for God. Paul has talked about that already. Jews seem to be
haunted by God, driven by a fanatical loyalty to the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. And yet, despite all that, careless Gentiles, who are
not even thinking about God very often, through Christ, learn to revel
in the grace and love and blessing of the living God. This is to arouse
the Jews to jealousy. God uses this principle with Gentiles too. That is
why people watch Christians. There is blessing there that the Gentiles
can’t understand. God is trying to use it to awaken them to listen, that
they might be saved, to turn and settle the issue at the feet of Jesus.

There is a final stage of divine pursuit that is described in

But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out
my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." {Rom 10:21
NIV}

What a beautiful picture of the character of God. Here is his patience

-- all day long! That day has stretched now for almost four thousand
years of human history. Four thousand years ago, Abraham set out. Four
thousand years later, God is still holding out his hands to this
stubborn people, wanting to draw them to himself. He is not only
patient, but loving. He held out his hands. This is the stance of God
toward those who resist his will -- with wide open arms, all day long he
is waiting to draw them back.

Remember how Jesus put it to the Pharisees of his day? "You will not
come unto me that you may have life," {cf, John 5:40 KJV}. And looking
over the city of Jerusalem, he wept as he saw the stubbornness of this
people. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered you
under my wings, as a hen gathers her chickens, but you would not," {cf,
Matt 23:37, Luke 13:34}. With those sorrowful words, he comments on the
stubbornness and the pride of people who will not admit their need. This
is being repeated again and again throughout the world today. God longs
to draw men to himself. He must somehow arouse faith in the individual.
In order to do so, he sent messengers with a tremendous message, and
still there is resistance to the will and purpose of God.

So the chapter closes with this picture of God standing with his arms
open, longing to draw men to himself, admitting that the problem is a
disobedient and obstinate people.

I think the most amazing thing from this account is to realize that in
order to perish, i.e., in order to go to hell, you must resist the pleas
of a loving God. God never damns anyone to hell without a chance. Don’t
ever let anybody tell you the Bible teaches that. It does not teach any
such thing. It teaches us that no one, no one, will end up separated
from God who has not personally resisted the claim and appeal of a
loving God who sought to reach him.

The historic fulfillment of God’s longing to draw men to himself began

at Bethlehem, in the very event that we celebrate this Christmas season.
If there are any here who have never settled this with God, I urge you,
in the name of the Lord, not to resist his plea any longer, but to open
your heart to him that you might be healed by the word of Jesus.
Prayer

Father, we scarcely know which is the greater wonder, that men

should resist such a beautiful appeal on your behalf, or that
you should so patiently and lovingly wait for them to turn.
But we thank you for it. We thank you that you have drawn us
to yourself, and that you have given us grace upon grace, that
we might be drawn to you, and filled our inner life made
whole, and our spirit redeemed, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We give thanks for him and for his coming, and for his
presence in our lives and hearts today. In his name we pray,
Amen.

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Title: Have They not Heard

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Exhibited
Scripture: Romans 10:14-21
Message No: 26
Catalog No: 3526
Date: December 12, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THERE’S HOPE AHEAD

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The eleventh chapter of Romans deals very strongly with Israel -- its
hope, its promises, and its relationship to the church.

I think everyone here knows that Hanukkah and Christmas are celebrated
at the same time of the year. They have something in common, in that
Hanukkah is a celebration of the cleansing of the temple for the
ultimate coming of the Messiah, whom the Jews expected would come to the
nation of Israel, while Christmas celebrates the actual coming of that
Messiah to a sinful, weary, and waiting world. I think these two
ceremonies, very diverse in nature, nevertheless symbolize the close
relationships that the nation of Israel has with the church of the
living God.

We must never forget those relationships, and I think this chapter,

perhaps more than any other passage of Scripture, will help us in
understanding that.

Unfortunately, the church and Israel are often like two relatives who
can’t get along with each other. Through the centuries, disagreement and
outright persecution and unhappy situations have prevailed. But chapter
eleven of Romans gives us some very helpful insights into how to live
with our Jewish friends and neighbors.

Twice in this passage the Apostle Paul asks the question "Did God reject
his people?" That is, is God through with Israel because of their
rejection of the person of Jesus and the crucifixion and resurrection of
Christ? Because they turned a deaf ear to that, has God wiped them out?
Has he said they no longer have any place in his scheme of things?

Twice Paul raises that question here, and twice he answers it: "By no
means!" That is, God is not through with the Jews. Anyone who teaches
that the church has now inherited all the promises of Israel had better
take a second look at the Scriptures, especially the eleventh chapter of
Romans. It is amazing how many people take all the blessings and glories
that were promised to Israel in the Old Testament and apply them to the
church, but take all the cursings and all the punishments and apply
those to Israel. That does not treat the Scriptures fairly. So let’s
take a look at Paul’s answer to the question "Does God reject his
people?"

I ask then, Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an

Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of
Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.
{Rom 11:1-2a NIV}

Those among the Jews whom God foreknew, he did not reject. Paul is the
great example of that. Here we have clear evidence that God has never
set aside the Jews, in respect to individual salvation. Through all the
Christian centuries Jews have been coming to Christ, coming back to God,
coming into the fulfillment of the promises of Abraham by faith in Jesus
Christ.

Paul is an excellent example of this. Notice how he refers to himself as

one of those foreknown, i.e., one of the elect, one whom God had set
aside to be his. In the letter to the Galatians the apostle reminds us
that this was done from his mother’s womb, so that all through those
years of resistance and pharisaical anger at the claims of Jesus, when
Paul was persecuting the church and "breathing out threatenings and
slaughter" {Acts 9:1 KJV}, Paul was, nevertheless, one of the elect.
Though he was struggling, he was one whom God inexorably was drawing to
himself -- and Paul never forgot that. In every one of his letters he
marvels at the grace of God that took him, a blasphemer and persecutor
of the church, and drew him to himself, changed his heart, and made him
into a new creature in Christ. He is but one example of the many
millions of Jews through the centuries who have believed in Christ.

But even that does not exhaust the position of Israel in God’s program.
Not only do some Jews become Christian, but there are many who remain
Jews who, nevertheless, are born again, saved individuals. Paul cites an
example from the prophet Elijah:

Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about
Elijah -- how he appealed to God against Israel: "Lord, they
have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the
only one left, and they are trying to kill me." And what was
God’s answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven
thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too, at the
present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by
grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would
no longer be grace. {Rom 11:2b-6 NIV}

There was a time in the life of the prophet Elijah when he thought he
was the only one left. It was after that tremendous encounter with the
from heaven and wiped out all the sacrifices. Queen Jezebel mounted a
persecution against all the prophets of God, including Elijah, and
brought Elijah to the place where he felt that he was the only one left.

Have you ever felt like that? "O Lord, they have all left you. I’m the
19:10-14}. Have you ever felt that way? That was how Elijah felt. But
God said, "Elijah, your computer is broken. You only see one left; I see
seven thousand who have not yet bowed the knee to Baal. I have kept them
from it. I have reserved to myself seven thousand who have not bowed the

Elijah, like many of us, made a lot of mistakes. First, he forgot about
man’s limited knowledge about any subject. We don’t see very clearly; we
don’t understand all the issues. I do not think there is anything that
we know everything about. Therefore our knowledge as to what is
happening is always to be taken with a grain of salt. It is never as bad
as it looks, no matter how bad it may get in these coming years -- and
it may get bad. But it will never be as bad as it looks, because our
knowledge does not encompass all the ones who remain faithful.

Second, Elijah forgot about God’s unlimited power. The situation is

never as bad as it looks because God is never as weak as he seems.
Sometimes we think that God must have lost the battle, that the powers
of darkness are so strong and violent and so in command that God has
given up. But when we think that way, we have forgotten what the
Scriptures tell us again and again -- that it is the very opposition of
the enemy that God is using to bring about his purposes. Never forget
that. God cannot lose because he uses the very opposition against him to
win. Elijah had no reason to despair.
Third, Elijah forgot about life’s unmixable principles. If salvation is
by grace, then it can’t be by works. And if it is by works, then it
can’t be grace. Grace, you see, is God at work. Works is man at work.
The processes of salvation are much less complex than they appear. We
think we have to earn our way to heaven. I find this revealed in the
thinking of many Christians.

A man said to me the other day, "Why should this happen to me? What have
I done that I should have to go through this kind of a trial?" I
realized that I had said the same thing not long before. That kind of
thinking reveals that I really thought that I had put God in my debt,
that I had somehow earned something, and deserved something better from
him. Now, that is works, and Paul reminds us here that you cannot mix
works and grace.

If God is going to call you and save you and deliver you, then it is not
going to depend on your works. As James points out, your works will be
there if your faith is real, because it is faith that produces works.
But the works aren’t the saving factor. That is what Elijah forgot.

So there were thousands in Paul’s day, and there are thousands of Jews
today, who perhaps have never really heard about Jesus. I think there
are many Jews today who are earnest, devout, humble souls, trusting in
the Old Testament record, who have never really heard anything about
Jesus that would make them feel that he really is their Messiah. And yet
they have believed what is revealed in the Old Testament about the
Messiah. There are probably hundreds of thousands of Jews today who are
still faithful believers in the only bit of Christ that they know --
that which is revealed in the Old Testament.

At any rate, Paul has made it clear that God is not rejecting
individuals out of Israel. And yet the majority are turning away

What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain,

but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written:
And David says,
for them.
see,
11:7-10 NIV}

Now, those are horrible words, but they represent the reaction that God
has determined should accompany unbelief. When you hear truth, it is
always very important that you do something about it. If you know
something is true, then you had better act on it. If you don’t, you lose
your capacity to recognize truth. Gradually the dry rot that is
described here, that is so visibly evident among many in Israel today,
will set in. Paul calls it a blindness. Their eyes are blinded, so that
even when the truth is there they cannot see it. Their ears are deaf.
Even when loving appeals and warnings are set before them, they don’t
hear them. Their table, their food, becomes a snare and a trap, leading
into slavery.

The food of Israel referred to here is the Law, the Scriptures. Jews
highly value the Law. Now, they don’t know a lot about it. Many Jews
today are hardly acquainted with anything in the Old Testament. The
rabbis have given themselves to the study of it, and yet all that
intensive study only seems to make them sink deeper and deeper into the
trap of legalistic slavery. They are bound by rituals and spend their
days constantly working out interpretative details.

Not long ago I was reading about Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda
minister among the Nazis, who, on one occasion, asked a Jewish rabbi to
teach him how the Jews approached the Scriptures. "I understand that you
Jews have a peculiar way of reasoning when you come to the Talmud and
the Torah (the Old Testament), and I want you to teach it to me." The
rabbi said, "I’m sorry, but you’re too old for that." "What do you
mean?" he asked. "Well," the rabbi told him, "we have three questions we
ask a boy before he enters into the study of the Talmud. If he can
answer them, we let him into the study. If he can’t, he has no chance."
Goebbels said, "Ask them of me. What’s the first question?"

The rabbi said, "The first question is this: Two men fall down a
chimney; one comes out clean and the other is dirty, which one washes? "
Dr. Goebbels said, "Oh, that’s easy. The dirty one washes, of course."
The rabbi said, "Wrong. It is the clean one that washes." "How do you
reason that?" The rabbi said, "When they fall down the chimney, they
look at each other, and the dirty one sees the clean one, so he thinks
he is clean, too; but the clean one sees the dirty one and thinks he is
dirty, so he washes." "All right," Goebbels said, "there is a strange
logic about that. But give me the second question."

"The second question is this: Two men fall down a chimney. One comes out
dirty, and the other clean. Which one washes?" Goebbels said, "That’s
the same question." "No it isn’t, it’s an entirely different question."
"Well," Goebbels said, "I think I can answer that. It is the clean one
that washes." The rabbi said, "Wrong. They look at each other. The dirty
one looks at the clean one and says, ’Isn’t it wonderful that two men
can fall down a chimney and come out clean?’ But the clean one looks at
the dirty one and says, ’Look how dirty we’ve gotten.’ And the dirty man
holds up his hands and sees that they are dirty. So he washes."

Goebbels says, "What’s the third question?" "Two men fall down a
chimney..." Goebbels says, "That’s the same one!" "No it isn’t," the
rabbi says, "it’s an entirely different problem! What’s the answer?"
Goebbels said, "I don’t know." The rabbi said, "Neither of them wash
because it is a ridiculous story to begin with! How could two men fall
down a chimney and one come out dirty and the other clean? So unless a
boy can answer those questions, we never admit him to the Talmud."

It is this kind of strange, penetrating, and yet difficult reasoning

that accounts for much of Jewish unbelief. I have here a paper printed
and distributed by Jewish rabbis in which the differences between
Christianity and Judaism are described. One rabbi writes about Paul:

Paul claimed that obedience to the Torah (the Law) could not
guarantee salvation; rather, salvation was obtainable only
through acceptance of and faith in Christ Jesus. To believe
that a person could atone for his own sinful condition through
any efforts on his own, as, for example, by obeying the laws
of the Torah, was accordingly a delusion. But Paul eagerly
announced that what man could not himself accomplish, namely
salvation, could still be accomplished for him. Only God,
however, was powerful enough to atone for man’s sinfulness,
and Paul held that the death of Christ Jesus was that act of
 divine atonement.

Then he adds,

We Jews have rejected this Gentile Christian view. Judaism, as

shaped by our rabbis in Palestine, conceived of the body as a
gift of God, and to this day we regard the body as holy and
wholesome, not as a prison from which to escape. Any
inclination by man to commit a wrongdoing, we hold, resides
not in his body but in his heart or mind. And this inclination
can be overcome by a change of heart or mind. Thus man, by
himself, does indeed possess the power to atone for his own
misdeeds, and we Jews have, in our Torah, the guidance
directing our hearts and minds to righteous living.

On that basis, the Jews say, they can win their way to acceptance before
God without dealing with the sin problem and without ever taking into
consideration the full teaching of the Scriptures. Paul says, therefore,
that many have been rejected because of that.

Again I ask, "Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?"

Not at all! {Rom 11:11a NIV}

This question deals with the national promises of Israel. Individually,

in any age, Jews can come to Christ, and have. But what about the
national promises God gave to Israel? Has the nation lost those? By no
means! Paul gives us five arguments to prove that Israel must someday
become a godly nation once again, and become the leading nation of
earth:

The first argument is that the salvation of the Gentiles was intended to

Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to

the Gentiles to make Israel envious. {Rom 11:11b NIV}

If you have read the book of Acts, you know that everywhere Paul went he
began his ministry with the Jews. It was only when the Jews would refuse
to hear that he would turn to the Gentiles. So, in all these cities, the
Gentiles were blessed and enriched by his ministry only because the Jews
had refused it. Gentiles were allowed to believe and to become different
people in order to make the Jews jealous.

Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that we Christians ought
to be so alive, so vital in our Christianity, so excited and full of joy
and love toward one another that every Jew we contact will say to
himself, "How come they have it and we don’t? How come they have a light
on their faces and joy and love in their hearts?" We have to hang our
heads in shame and admit that through the centuries there has been very
little in the church to attract the jealousy of Israel. It has been the
other way around. But Paul says this was God’s intention, that the
Gentiles should become so alive as to awaken the Jews.

Paul’s second argument is that Israel must ultimately return to God

because worldwide blessing will come only when that happens

But if their transgression means riches for the world, and

their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater
riches will their fullness bring!

I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to

the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I
may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of
them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the
world, what will their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
{Rom 11:12-15 NIV}

When I was at the Congress for World Evangelization at Lausanne,

Switzerland, a couple of years ago, I was moved to see that every nation
on earth was represented at that congress. The gospel had in some way
penetrated every nation on the face of the earth. To some degree, at
least, the riches of the gospel had come to every single nation. Now,
those riches really speak not of material prosperity, but of freedom,
the human spirit made free. It is a fact today -- you can take your
globe and check it -- that everywhere the gospel is freely proclaimed,
you have a free people. But where it is resisted or rejected or ignored,
you have people drifting into violence, anarchy, exploitation, and
tyranny. This is because human freedom comes by means of the gospel. We
in the Gentile world ought to give thanks to God for the riches that
have come our way because of the blindness of Israel.

But Paul’s argument is this: If that kind of riches has come because of
the Jews’ rejection, what will it be like in the day when Israel comes
again into its proper position? According to the prophets, that is the
time when the earth shall blossom like the rose, when there shall be no
more war, "nothing to hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain" {cf,
Isa 11:9}, when the earth shall move into a golden era. Israel is the
key. That is why every Christian should keep his eye on that remarkable
people and see what is happening to them.

If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then

the whole batch is holy; If the root is holy, so are the
branches. {Rom 11:16 NIV}

Now, it would take a good Jew to really understand this. Paul is

referring to the offerings and sacrifices in the tabernacle. For the
offering of the firstfruits, a pile of dough was made up, and someone
would take a handful of it and present it to God. Paul’s argument is
that if that first handful was acceptable and holy before God, the rest
of the dough would be too. Now, the firstfruit here is Abraham, the
father of the Israel nation. Abraham was accepted before God; therefore
his descendants will be too. They are not cut off from God or from his
relationship with them; they are claimed by God.

Paul’s fourth argument has to do with the olive tree

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though
a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and
now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not
boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do
not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say
then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted
in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief,
and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For
if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare
you either. {Rom 11:17-21 NIV}

Once again Abraham is symbolized by the olive tree. The New Testament
tells us that when a Gentile becomes a Christian, he, in a sense,
becomes a son of Abraham. He becomes an Israelite. But when a Jew
becomes a Christian, he doesn’t have to become a Gentile. You see, the
natural fruit of the olive tree is the Jews. It is we who are grafted
in.

the only normal human being in the world." What do you think of that? He
goes on, "Everyone else is, from one point of view, a special case dealt
with under emergency conditions." That’s how we got in. God sort of
opened the back door and let us in as an emergency case. But the ones
who really belong are the Jews. It is healthy for Gentile Christians to
remember that. The Jews are not hanging around waiting for us to be nice
to them. It is they who have been nice to us. We ought to remember that
and respond with gratitude and humility to what God has done in placing
us in this olive tree.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God:

sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided
that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be
cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be
grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all,
if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature,
and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive
tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches,
be grafted into their own olive tree? {Rom 11:22-24 NIV}

The olive tree is the position of the faith of Abraham, the position of
receiving blessing from the God of the earth through sheer grace,
without any merit on our own part. According to Paul here, we who were
like a wild olive tree, with hard, shriveled up, bitter fruit, were
taken and grafted into this rich olive tree. But what happens is
contrary to what happens in nature.

If you take a nectarine branch and graft it into a peach tree, what does
the branch grow from then on -- peaches or nectarines? It still grows
nectarines. The fruit is determined by the branch, not by the tree. The
peach tree will grow nectarines on a nectarine branch, and plums on a
plum branch, and so on. That is what happens according to nature.
Following Paul’s analogy here, if we, a wild olive branch, were grafted
into a rich cultivated olive tree, the fruit that would continue to grow
would be the wild olives, bitter and shriveled, that which we already
were producing. But God does a miracle with us. He changes us so that
the fruit that comes forth is the fruit of the Spirit, and we begin to
produce the rich, wonderful, fat fruit of the good olive tree in our
lives. Again, Paul argues, if God can do that with bitter fruit such as
we Gentile believers are, how much more will he produce richness with
the true branches?

Then Paul speaks of the kindness and the severity of God. I want to
close on that note, because it recognizes what determines how God
appears to you. If you come to God needy and repentant and acknowledging
that you need help, you will always find him to be a loving, gracious,
open-armed, open-hearted Sovereign, ready to help you, ready to forgive
you, ready to give you all that you need. But if you come to God
complaining, excusing yourself, justifying what you’ve been doing and
trying to make it look good in his sight, you will always find that God
is as hard as iron, and as merciless as fire, as stern as a judge. God
will always turn that face toward those who come in self-pride and
justification in their own strength.

This is the secret of the mystery of Israel and its blindness today. As
long as the Jews come to God in that manner, they will always find a
hard, iron-willed, stern God. But when they come in repentance, and, as
Zechariah the prophet describes, when Jesus appears and they look at him
whom they had pierced and they ask him "Where did you get these wounds
in your hands?" he will say, "These are those which I received in the
house of my friends," {cf, Zech 13:6}. Then they will mourn for him as
one mourns for any only child, and the mourning of Israel that day will
be like the mourning for King Joash in the battle of Jezreal. The whole
nation will mourn. Then God will take that nation, and they will
replenish the earth.

This is what Paul looks forward to.

Now, as we come to the close of a year, and look on to the beginning of

a new one, I think this is a reminder to our own hearts of the
faithfulness of God. His promises will not fail. God’s purposes will
never be shortchanged. God is going to accomplish all that he says he
will do. Though it may be a long way around, and though it may lead
through many trials and temptations and hurts and heartaches, what God
has said he will do, he will carry through.

On that basis we can enter this new year with a deep awareness of the
faithfulness of our God.
Prayer

Thank you, Holy Father, for you faithfulness. Thank you that
 you are the God of glory and the God of mercy, and also the
God of justice and the God of truth. We do stand amazed at
both the kindness and the severity of God. Lord, teach us that
you are not someone we can manipulate and wind around our
finger, someone to do things for us and run errands for us.
Help us bow before you in humble adoration at the grace that
reaches out to us when we are ready to admit our need and come
before you trembling and contrite. Thank you, Lord, that you
love us and have drawn us to yourself. We pray for our Jewish
friends, and ask that they, too, may have their eyes opened to
see this beloved One who has come in their midst to be their
Redeemer, who has power to set them free and to bring them
into beauty and truth and fulfillment such as men have never
dreamed of before. Help us to be faithful and loving to them.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Title: There’s Hope Ahead

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Exhibited
Scripture: Romans 11:1-24
Message No: 27
Catalog No: 3527
Date: December 26, 1976

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
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made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

OUR GREAT AND GLORIOUS GOD

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In the eleventh chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul is tracing for us a

very strange connection between a largely Gentile church and the nation
of Israel. Through the centuries many have wondered about the tie
between these two remarkable peoples -- the church of God, which is made
up now largely of Gentile believers, although there are Jews among us --
and the Jewish nation, that strange nation which now occupies a
prominent place on the stage of the world.
As you know, there is no nation today quite like Israel. It attracts
worldwide attention when anything happens to it -- attention that is way
out of proportion to its size and its power. Let something occur in
Jerusalem, or anywhere in Israel, and it is blazoned across headlines
around the world. The eyes of the world are on this strange nation of
the Jews. And Jews, as a people, constitute a strange, unusual power
bloc in any country in which they are found today. Someone has suggested
that it might be well for the United States to guarantee the permanent
possession of Jerusalem to the Jews if they will agree to give New York
and Miami back to us. Surely there is no nation quite like the nation of
the Jews.

and twice he asks the question, "Has God forgotten his people?" Will God
forget this people because of their rejection of Messiah? Has he turned
his back on them? Twice he answers the question, "No, never. God has not
forgotten his people."

In the first part of this chapter Paul gives us five reasons why it is
evident that God has not forgotten his people the Jews.
1 The first one (and one of the reasons why God has turned to the
Gentiles and is saving men and women from among the Gentiles) is
that he desires to arouse Israel to jealousy. God is reaching
Gentiles because, ultimately, he wants to reach Jews.
2 Second, Paul says the promises of worldwide blessing that fill so
many prophetic passages of the Old Testament hinge upon the
restoration of Israel to God. Worldwide blessing can never come
until Israel is back in right relationship with its God.
3 Third, he says that if the first Jews (the patriarchs, Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob) could be made holy by God, then God is able to
make Jews holy after thousands of years have passed. Therefore
there is hope for Israel.
4 In Paul’s fourth argument he uses the figure of an olive tree. The
natural branches of the tree are broken off and unnatural branches
are grafted on. He points out that even the Gentiles, when they do
become believers, become spiritual Israelites. When a Jew becomes a
Christian, he doesn’t change his spiritual heritage at all; he
fulfills it. Jews who become Christians today are "completed Jews,"
but Gentiles who become Christians become spiritual Jews.
5 Therefore, Paul argues, not only is that true, but, fifth, if God
could do that to the unnatural branches, if he could take a
twisted, deformed Gentile and make him into a son of the living
God, how much more can he do this with the natural branches, the
Jews.

prophesies the restoration that is coming to Israel. Up to now he has

been arguing this from reason, but now he prophesies what this

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so

that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a
hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has
come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
Jacob.

As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your

account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved
on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are
irrevocable. {Rom 11:25-29 NIV}
Perhaps the striking thing about this passage is that Paul calls the
Jews’ present resistance to the gospel a mystery. Now he doesn’t mean
that it is obscure and difficult to understand. The word "mystery" does
not mean that in Scripture. What it means is that it is something
supernatural. It is not caused by natural causes. It cannot be observed
by the normal observation of human beings.

I do not know if you have had any occasion to try to witness to a Jew.
If you have, perhaps you have run up against what seemed to be a rock
wall of indifference and objection and resistance to what you were
trying to say. If so, you may well have been experiencing what Paul is
talking about here, a strange hardening toward the gospel on the part of
the Jews.

When Paul calls this a mystery he means that it is a supernatural

phenomenon that has to be revealed to us. You can’t explain it by the
normal reasons for resistance to the gospel. It is not because the Jews
are inferior in intelligence -- they are among the most intelligent of
people. Scores of the greatest intellectual leaders of our time have
been Jewish in background. So it is not because they are dumb; they are
not dumb. And it is not because they don’t want God; they are among the
most religious of all people. In fact, they have been called the most
religious people of all time. They want God. Ordinarily you would think
they would be open to hearing the good news of how God, in grace, is
ready to reach men and change them and indwell them and enrich their
lives. And yet those who go among the Jews often find this strange
resistance, this anger that is awakened because of the preaching of the
gospel. Paul will say more about that later.

First he points out that it has been prophesied that an awakening will
come. There will be an awakening. But Paul says three things about this
hardness that we must take careful note of: First, it is a hardening "in
part." That is, not all Jews are afflicted this way. We are not told
here how big a part of Israel is going to be hardened -- whether 10 per
cent or 90 per cent. All we are told is that there are going to be some
Jews who simply will not hear, who will not receive the gospel. Whether
you are talking to one who is hardened or one who is not is very
difficult to determine. It may mean, as it does oftentimes, that the
person needs to be witnessed to and loved and reached over a period of
time. No one can say that any given person belongs to that hardening.
But we can say that there will be, as has been evident in history, a
strange, remarkable resistance to the gospel. I have been to Israel five
times, and I am always amazed at how resistant the Jews there seem to be
to the claims of the Lord Jesus.

Not only does Paul say that this hardening is in part, but it is also
limited {in} time. It is not going to go on forever. A hardening of the
heart has happened "until the full number of the Gentiles come in." So
this is not something that they are bound to experience forever. It
isn’t something that can be explained by natural causes, and it is not
going to last forever.

What does "the full number of the Gentiles" mean? I really do not like
that translation. The word the apostle uses is "the fullness of the
Gentiles." We have to ask ourselves, "What does that mean?"

Some, obviously, have interpreted that to mean that a certain number of

Gentiles are going to be converted. God has a certain number in mind and
he is going to let the gospel go out to all the world until that number
of Gentiles has been converted, and then he will release Israel from its
blindness, its hardness. But I don’t think this refers to a certain
number.

Actually, this is the second time in this chapter where the word
"fullness" is used. It is used not only of the Gentiles, as here, but
also of the Jews. There is a fullness of Israel mentioned here. In
riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how
much greater riches will their fullness bring?" There is the same word,
pleroma , which means "that which fills." Notice that it is set in
direct contrast to the words "their loss" or "their fall." That refers
to the time when Israel was driven out of Jerusalem by the armies of the
the earth.

This does not mean there is a diminished number of Jews. The Jews have
increased in number throughout all these centuries of dispersion, so it
is not a lower number of Jews that is in view. This is not talking about
quantity at all. Paul is talking, rather, about diminished spiritual
riches. The Jews have lost the quality and richness of their
relationship with God. Though they have the outward trappings of faith
and the very books of the Law, still they have lost that richness of
relationship that sets the heart aglow and the face radiant with the
light and love and beauty and grace and character of God. This is the
loss; therefore the "fullness" means "these riches restored."

So, when Paul uses this phrase "the fullness of the Gentiles," he is
talking about a Gentile church which is going to become so rich and full
in its spiritual riches that it will awaken again the envy of Israel.
That is what God has said in this chapter. He turns to the Gentiles in
order that he may arouse the Jews to envy. Anyone who reads church
history knows that there hasn’t been a great deal in Gentile churches
that would awaken the Jews to envy! They see among Gentile Christians,
for the most part, enemies. Oftentimes the Jews have been oppressed and
persecuted and terribly treated -- all in the name of Jesus Christ -- by
those who profess to be Christians. But if this interpretation is right,
and I think it is, it means a very hopeful thing for us. It means that a
day is coming when the Gentile churches are going to be enriched with
such spiritual blessing that the Jews will say, "We should have that!
That’s the way we should be!" And the Jews will be open, as never
before, to the gospel of the grace of God.

I think we are seeing a taste of this now. This is one reason why Jews,
in greater number than ever before since the time of the dispersion,
have been open to the gospel and turning to Christ. This is an amazing
and encouraging thing. This is what the apostle says must take place.

Paul then says the prophets have told us this is going to happen: "The
deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from
Jacob." That is a promise in the Old Testament prophets. Furthermore,
quoting from Jeremiah, he says, "And this is my covenant with them when
I take away their sins," {cf, Jer 31:33-34}. The deliverer is coming and
forgiveness is going to be granted to Israel. That is clearly stated in
the gospel.

And so the apostle closes with two important things we ought to remember
about the Jews. I don’t know if you have Jewish friends and neighbors or
not. I have had, and have enjoyed contact with them. But whoever is in
touch with Jews today ought to remember these two things from
on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on
account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are
irrevocable." God’s gifts and his call cannot be taken back.

Now, the Jews may treat you as an enemy. That is due to this strange and
supernatural hardening in part that has happened to Israel. This has
been the experience of many who have gone as missionaries to the Jews.
They have been treated as though they were attacking the Jews instead of
trying to minister to them and help them. They have aroused the enmity
and anger of the Jews.

Our friends the "Jews for Jesus" have told us how they have gone into
Jewish communities to share and talk about their experience as Jews who
have found the glory and the grace of God in Jesus Christ. They have
been met with violence and attack upon their persons and enmity against
them.

I read last week that two thousand Jewish orthodox rabbis held a
conference in New York City to determine what to do about the ravages
that were being made in the Jewish community by the "Jews for Jesus"
movement. The rabbis estimated there must be five thousand "Jews for
Jesus" in New York City. The "Jews for Jesus" people say there are only
thirty members there -- including secretaries. This is the fearsome
front that any missionary movement among the Jews seems to create. It
causes consternation among Jewish ranks and very grave resentment.

So remember, you may be treated as an enemy. But remember also that the
Jews are loved by an unchanging God. God loves every Jew, without
exception. No matter how stubborn or resistant they may be, he has set
his love upon them. And the nations of the world had better not forget
it. God still has chosen the Jews.

Now the apostle moves on to see God’s principle of salvation for all men

Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now
received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too,
as a result of God’s mercy to you, have become disobedient in
order that they too may now receive mercy. For God has bound
all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them
all. {Romn 11:30-32 NIV}

That is an amazing statement! In this you see something of how the mind
of God works and some of the strange wheels-within-wheels {cf, Ezek
1:16, 10:6-10} with which he moves in current history to bring about his
purposes. Paul says that God used the Jews’ disobedience, their
rejection of their own Messiah, in order to give opportunity to
rebellious Gentiles to receive mercy and grace from his hand. In this
very letter Paul recounted for us how the gospel went out to the
Gentiles only because it had been rejected by the Jews. Paul said that
in all the cities he came to, he started first in the synagogues. And he
would have stayed there, had the Jews accepted the message. But when
they rejected the message, he turned to the Gentiles. And it was only by
the Jews’ disobedience that the gospel went out to the Gentiles.

That, by the way, answers the question with which this whole section
Since he obviously has been trying to reach the Jews and has sent his
own Son as their Messiah and they rejected him, does that mean that God
has failed? The answer is now clear: No, God has not failed. He used
that as a means to reach the Gentile world, which he had intended to
reach all along. That was his way of bringing it about.

Then, Paul adds, after having shown mercy to the Gentiles, God now uses
the very mercies he has shown to the Gentiles to make the Jews mad and
rebellious in order that they, too, can receive mercy. What Paul is
saying here is that, unless you realize how rebellious your heart is,
there is no chance for you to receive mercy. And so God works in human
history to make us aware of our basic, inherent rebellion against him.
Paul concludes that everyone is a rebel, and God desires that everyone
admit it, so they can receive mercy.

What is the thing that keeps any individual or nation from receiving
mercy from God? It is always a self-righteous, self-confident attitude.
"I don’t need help. I can handle it myself. I am able to handle all the
problems of life on my own. I don’t need God." Any individual or nation
with that attitude has cut himself off from receiving the mercy of God,
for without mercy there is no way we can ever fulfill our humanity. So
God, as Paul puts it here, has "bound all men over to [the knowledge of
their] disobedience so that he may have mercy upon them all."

We have had an outstanding illustration of this in the fact that in the

last few years two prominent national figures have remained etched in
the public mind as an aftermath of Watergate: Richard Nixon and Charles
Colson.

Charles Colson came to the place where he saw his own rebellion and
disobedience to God. He finally came to a place where he was driven to
his knees, where he saw that without recognizing it or knowing it, he
had been involved in evil things. He began to recognize the extent of it
and the control it had in his life. At last he was driven to the place
where he openly committed himself to the mercy of God. God changed him.
In his book Born Again he tells how God changed him, healed him,
delivered him from prison, and sent him out again to have a new life. He
is traveling across the country now, telling his story, involved deeply
in a great and helpful ministry to prisoners. He is alive and enjoying
life to the full.

Richard Nixon, on the other hand, has isolated himself in a self-imposed

exile in which he refuses to admit he has ever done anything wrong.
Tormented with the past, he has become a national pariah, and his life
is limited and narrow, crabbed, because he does not yet know of the
mercy of God that is available to one who admits disobedience.

That is the way God works in history. He is constantly moving in many

ways in our individual lives to bring us to an awareness of our
self-righteousness and dependence on ourselves. Paul says the Jewish
nation has not availed themselves of the righteousness of God. Because
they are so determined to establish their own righteousness, they cannot
accept the righteousness that comes by faith. That is their problem.

Now all this awakens in the apostle’s heart an outburst of praise and
adoration for the wisdom and the greatness of God. He closes this
section with these words (Verses 33-36):

knowledge of God!
his paths beyond tracing out!
 things.
{Rom 11:33-36 NIV}

This reminder of the strange ways God works awakens within the apostle a
tremendous outburst for God’s inscrutable wisdom and his ways with men.
As you look at these verses, you can see certain things that have amazed
the apostle:

There are the deep riches, as Paul calls them, the deep riches of God’s
wisdom and of his ways. They are beyond human exploration. There is no
way we can finally fathom God.

I received this week in the mail a pamphlet written by a group that is

trying to analyze and understand intellectually all the doctrines of the
Scriptures. They struggle, obviously, to put God in a box where they can
get hold of him and analyze him. But if they succeed in that, they have
only reduced God to the size of a man. God is greater than man. He is
beyond us. We must always remember that. Our minds cannot grasp the
greatness of God! We can understand what he tells us about himself, but
even beyond that, there is much more that we cannot know. There are
depths of riches. That is why we are always being surprised by God if we
trust him. He is always enriching us in ways that we don’t anticipate.

Then Paul speaks of God’s "unsearchable judgments." We are going through

one of these unsearchable judgments right now. People cannot understand
this strange drought that has gripped the whole country. Meteorologists
are baffled. They say, "Why does this high pressure system sit off the
coast up here, and not down by Baja, where it belongs?" They are hard
pressed to find somebody to blame for it and they have no control over
it. They keep telling us of storms that are coming that never show up.
Why? Because God’s ways are unsearchable, and his ways, who can trace
out? He is beyond accountability. No man can call God to account and
say, "You have no right to do that!" We do it all the time, but we have
no right to do it. For God is beyond us; he knows so much more than we
do.

If you have any trouble with this, just read the book of Job and see the
amazing list of questions that God asked and that Job could not answer.
God says, "Look, this is just A-B-C stuff. If you can’t answer these,
then you have no right to quiz me on what I am doing! If you don’t
understand this simply kindergarten level of knowledge, how am I ever
going to explain to you the vast, involved, and complex things that I am
doing?"

Paul then is impressed by the untraceable ways of God, the paths of God
that are beyond understanding. We can’t put it all together. We can
believe it, but we can’t explain it.

For instance, it is clear from Scripture that nothing God ever planned
interferes with human responsibility. Nothing God has ever said will
happen in any way infringes on our free will or choice. We are free to
make choices. We know it. We feel ourselves free to decide to do this or
that, to do good or bad. Nothing God ever plans interferes with that
freedom of human choice. And yet the amazing thing is that nothing
humans ever do can frustrate God’s sovereign plan. Isn’t that amazing?
How can you explain that? No matter what we do, whether we choose this
or that with the freedom of choice we have, ultimately it all works out
to accomplish what God has determined shall be done. That is the kind of
God we have.

Paul is not only impressed with God’s inscrutable wisdom and ways, but
he contrasts it with the impotence of man. He asks three very searching
questions. If you have trouble with this, try to answer his questions:

His first one is, "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" What he is
asking is, "Who has ever anticipated what God is going to do?" Have you?
Have you ever been able to figure out how God is going to handle the
situations you get into? Oh, we all try, but it never turns out quite
the way we think it will, does it? There is a little twist to it that we
never could have guessed.

You see this in the case of Jesus. Remember how the Pharisees asked him,
"Should we pay taxes to Caesar?" They thought they had him. If he said
"No," the Romans would be mad at him; if he said "Yes," then the Jews
would be mad at him. Do you remember how he handled it? He called for a
coin and said, "Whose picture is on this coin? They said, "Caesar’s." He
said, "All right. What Caesar has put his image on, you give to Caesar
(i.e., pay your taxes); but what God has put his image on, you give that
to him," {cf, Matt 22:16-22, Mark 12:13-18, Luke 20:19-26}. God had put
his image on man, and that is what they owed to God -- themselves. The
Pharisees couldn’t handle that kind of an answer. It wiped them out.

Remember the woman caught in adultery? Her stern and self-righteous

accusers were ready to put her to death. Then Jesus came. He didn’t do a
thing at first; he just sat and wrote on the ground. He looked up,
finally, and said, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the
first stone," {cf, John 8:7}. They stood there, puzzled and transfixed,
then every one of them began to think of other places they ought to be.
Soon they were all gone, and no one was left except the woman and Jesus.
How could you ever have anticipated that he was going to handle it that
way? How unsearchable are his judgments! Who has anticipated what God is
going to do? No one.

Second question: "Or who has been his adviser?" or "Who has ever
suggested something that God has never thought of?" Have you ever tried
that? I have. I have sometimes looked at a situation and saw the way to
work it all out and suggested to God how he could do it. I thought I had
been very helpful to him. But in the final outworking of the matter, it
turned out that he knew things that I didn’t know and he was working at
things that I never saw and couldn’t have seen. God’s final outworking
of it was right, and mine would have been wrong. So the question
remains, "Who has ever suggested something to God that he has never
thought of?"

Paul’s last question is, "Who has ever given to God, that God should
repay him?" That is, "Who has ever given God something that he didn’t
already have?" Who has put God in his debt? "Why," Paul says,
"everything we are and have comes from him. He gives to us; we don’t
give to him." There is nothing we could give to God that he doesn’t
already own or have in abundance, or could make, if he had to. There is
nothing.

And so he concludes with this great outburst: "For from him and through
him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."

God is the originator of all things; all things come from him. He is the
sustainer of all things; they all depend on him. As
very power that makes it possible to argue at all!" He is the end
purpose. All things will find their culmination in God. He is the reason
why all things exist. Therefore, "to him be the glory forever! Amen."

Then there occurs what must be the most terrible, tragic separation that
has ever been made in the Bible. The chapter division here cuts off
Paul’s conclusion from all the tremendous arguments which have led up to
it. For Paul goes right on to say, "Therefore... "

Therefore [because God is like this and you are like that] , I
urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer
yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God --
which is your spiritual worship. {Rom 12:1 NIV}

I don’t like that translation of "spiritual worship," either. Literally,

it is "logical service." You see, it is only reasonable for man to be
available to God. It is even your logical reason for existence.
"Therefore," he says, "bring your bodies." If you are Christians, your
spirits have already surrendered to God. But you are trying to live
split lives, schizophrenic lives, if your body does not follow what your
spirit has already done. Now put your body where your mouth is, and
follow through with what your spirit has said to God. Be his available
instrument.

At this point, traditionally I should give an altar call, in which you

all would bring your bodies forward. But I am not going to do that
because what Paul is describing here is not an act of the moment -- it
is a commitment for the rest of your life. You are going to make your
body available to God for as long as you live. Paul does not talk about
your soul or your spirit because you never can do anything without your
body in this life.

So put your body on the line. Bring it, a living sacrifice, and the God
of greatness and of glory, of infinite riches and wisdom and power, will
fill that body with his own amazing life, and you will never find life
to be the same again.

What an adventure of faith that will launch you on!

Prayer

We thank you, our amazing Father, for this look at something

of the wonder of your Being. How far beyond our stumbling
words your greatness is! How mighty and vast you are, Lord,
how powerful among the nations of earth. How terrible that we
should ever feel afraid, with a God like you. How stupid,
Lord, that we should ever think that we can outwit you, or
cheat you, or rob you, or get away with something in your
presence. How foolish, Lord, that we should ever forget that
you love us and have declared that love in unmistakable ways,
and that your love can only enrich us and bless us,
ultimately. Therefore, Lord, lead us to the place where, in
our inner spirit, in the innermost chambers of our wills, we
submit ourselves to you, gladly and cheerfully and thankfully.
We are thankful that we have the inestimable privilege of
 being children of the living God today. We ask you to lead us
and send us out into the world around us this week with that
truth governing all that we say and do. We pray in Jesus’
name, Amen.

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Title: Our Great and Glorious God

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Exhibited
Scripture: Romans 11:25 - 12:1
Message No: 28
Catalog No: 3528
Date: February 27, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
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made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

LIVING DAY BY DAY

by Ray C. Stedman

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I believe it ought to be against the law to read or quote the first two
have been cut off from the ones in the preceding chapter. The two verses
your body to God and give it to him to use. But all the great reasons

knowledge of God!
things.

Therefore, ... {Rom 11:33-12:1a NIV}

Because he is like this -- rich and wise and great and glorious, a God
of love and mercy, and you are like this -- ignorant of the future,
forgetful of the past, unable to control the present --
 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to
offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to
God -- which is your spiritual worship. [Literally, "which is
your logical service, that which makes sense."] Do not conform
any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect
will. {Rom 12:1-3 NIV}

These are familiar words. I know you have read them many times. I like
the way the Jerusalem Bible translates the first sentence:

Think of God’s mercies, my brothers, and worship him, I beg

you, in a way that is worthy -- by offering him your living
bodies. {Rom 12:1 Jerusalem Bible}

That is what we sing in that great hymn, When I Survey The Wondrous
Cross : It closes,

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

That is what Paul is urging us to do here. He says God is interested in

you bringing your body and making it available to him. When he says to
"present your bodies," he uses what the Greeks call the aorist tense.
That means it is something you do once for all; it is not something you
do over and over again. You do it once, and then you set the rest of
your life on that basis. So there comes a time when God wants you to
bring your bodies to him.

It amazes me that God would ever want our bodies. Why does he want my
body? I can hardly stand it myself, at times! But God says, "Bring your
body." Perhaps the most amazing thing is that Paul has been talking
about the body all the way through this section of Romans. In fact, he
tells us the body is the seat of what he calls "the flesh," that
antagonistic nature within us that does not like what God likes and does
not want to do what God wants. We all have it, and somehow it is located
in or connected with the body. Our body is the source of temptation. It
is what grows weak and wobbly. That God would want this is amazing! And
yet he does.

Some of us, I know, feel like saying, "Lord, surely you don’t want this
It has a bad heart, Lord. It has a dirty mind. You don’t want this body.
I have trouble with this body. It is always tripping me up. My spirit is
great, and I worship you with my soul -- but the body, Lord, that’s what
gets me down!" But the Lord says, "Bring your body. Let me tell you
something about it. I know all about it. I know more about it than you
do. I know all the things you tell me about it plus some things you
haven’t learned yet. Let me tell you something. By means of the blood of
Jesus, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, I have made it (what does
Paul say?) holy and pleasing to God."

That is the beautiful appeal of this verse. It is not telling us we have

to get all cleaned up and get our lives straightened out in every way
and become perfect before we can offer ourselves to God. Paul’s word is,
"I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer
yourselves as living sacrifices. Bring your bodies (that is what it says
in the Greek word -- your bodies , not yourselves ) as a living
sacrifice unto God." Bring it, with all its problems, with all the
difficulty you have with it, with all the temptations and all -- bring
it just the way it is! I don’t know how that affects you, but that
encourages me greatly. All the other religions that I know of in the
world tell us that somehow we have to straighten out our lives first,
and then offer them to God. God never talks that way. He says, "You come
to me just the way you are. I am the answer to your problems; therefore,
you must start with me. You can’t handle those problems yourself. Don’t
start with thinking you have to get them straightened out. Come to me,
because I have the answers for your problems."

Furthermore, Paul tells us, this is the only thing that makes sense.
"This is your logical worship." This is the way you worship God. I hear
a lot of people talking about worship these days. When you come to a
church, you come to worship corporately, together. But worship doesn’t
start or end in church. You are worshipping or you are not worshipping
all week long, depending on what you do with your body. Is it his? Is it
his to use right where you are -- at your work, in your home, with your
family? Worship is allowing God to use your body and to be the dynamic
that works through that body in every situation. God says that is your
logical worship. That is the only thing that makes sense.

God says if you use the body that you have, you will misuse it, abuse
it. You will use it for things the body was never intended to be used
for. Or you will use it in such a way that it will be destroyed or hurt.
We know this is true. But if you give your body to God, he says he will
use it rightly. You will either ruin it, if you use it yourself, or you
will spend so much time preserving it, painting it, pouring lotions on
it, exposing it to the sun, and all the other things we do, that you
will never get around to using it for what God has intended it. "So
bring it to me," God says, "and I will use it wherever you go, and I
will use it in such a way as to bring peace and to give joy and to heal
hurt and show love and healing and grace wherever you are. I will bless
the world through your body."

Therefore, the only logical, sensible thing to do with your body is to

bring it to the Lord and say, "Lord, here it is, just as it is, without
any attempt to improve it or make it better. Take me, Lord, and begin to
use me."

Well, that sounds like a great deal, doesn’t it?

You say, "Okay, Lord, but how do I do this? How does it work?"

The Lord says, "Well, you bring your body, and then there are two things
I want you to do after that. Once you bring your body to me, I will take
it. But then there are two things that you need to keep doing. First,
’Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.’ Second, ’But
be transformed by the renewing of you mind. Then you will be able to
test and approve what God’s will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect
will.’"
These two commands are both in the present tense.

That means they are things that you keep on doing. You bring your body
once -- you give it to God and you base the rest of your life on that
commitment -- then you go out and do these two things every day:

First, "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world." Literally,

this means "the schemes of this world," the schemes that men come up
with, by which they regulate and run their lives. The word of the Lord
is, "Stop being conformed to that." "Oh," you say, "I know what that
means. I know exactly what you are talking about. That means you should
not smoke or drink or play cards or, if you are really, really
spiritual, you sell your television set and never drink coffee or tea
again." You say that is being spiritual and not being conformed to the
world.

There are a lot of Christians who have thought that. I grew up thinking
that if you stopped all these things that the world does you were being
spiritual. And there was always a particular list of forbidden
activities. A lot of other things the world did were not on the list,
but the things mentioned above were always on it. And if you stopped
doing those things you were not being conformed to the world. I had to
learn, through rather painful experience, that has nothing do with
spirituality at all. Those things are neither good nor bad in
themselves.

I know people who have given up all of them, and yet they are still
saturated by the spirit of the age. That is what this word really means.
It doesn’t mean "be not conformed to this world," it means "be not
conformed to the pattern of this age, the spirit of the age, the
philosophy of thought and of life that surrounds us on every side." God
says, "Don’t give way to the schemes of men, the schemes by which they
live their lives."

The spirit of the age, you see, is always the same. It never changes
from generation to generation. The basis of it is clearly the
advancement of self. Everybody in the world lives to advance himself.
Just listen, and you will see how true that is. You hear them talk about
it. "What do I get out of this? What is in it for me?" That is the
spirit of the age. "What’s my angle; how can I work this for my benefit?
Unless there is something in it for me, I’m not interested!" That is the
spirit of the age.

What the Word is saying to us is "Don’t be stuck in that kind of

thinking, because that is what is wrecking life among men. That is what
brings the heartache and ruin and disaster into our lives. Don’t live on
that basis anymore. Don’t get sucked into that kind of thinking; it’s
wrong! It is an approach to life that is twisted and distorted, and it
won’t work. Don’t be trapped by it."

What is the spirit of this age? We all know what it is. It is my

personal happiness. If the advancement of self is the basis for all
life, then the goal of all life is my happiness. You hear that on every
side. Unfortunately, it has infiltrated the church as well. Christians
talk this way just as much as anybody else. They say, "The reason why I
am working and living is so I can have my needs met, my desires
fulfilled." I hear people talking about church this way. "Why do you go
to church?" they are asked. "Because it meets my needs." Or you will
hear them say, "I’m thinking of leaving this church and going to another
one." If you ask them why, they’ll say, "Because this one doesn’t meet
my needs." As though the only reason for ever going to church is to have
your needs met! That is the thinking of the world; that is the spirit of
the age. And to be conformed to that way of thinking is to be conformed
to the world, regardless of whether you drink or smoke or chew or play
cards.

Then there are the methods of the world. You only have to look around to
see what those are. They are rivalry and competition, getting ahead of
the other guy, getting there first, grabbing what’s mine before someone
else gets it, hanging onto everything I’ve got no matter what it costs
in terms of hurt or pain to someone else. That is the method of this
age, isn’t it? That is very clear.

The apostle is saying, "Be not conformed to this world. Do not conform
any longer. Don’t let the world around you pressure you into thinking
that way any longer." No doubt every one of us realizes how much
pressure we are subjected to. The pressure to conform pervades all of
society. Even in the church itself people talk this way, think this way,
live this way. All around us is a whole climate of life that is saying,
"Conform!" It is pressuring us, squeezing us, insisting we conform,
making it costly to us if we don’t.

I heard this week of an incident in the life of Jerome Hines, the

Metropolitan Opera singer. Many of you know the story of his life --
how, as a boy growing up in California, he became convinced that he had
a good voice. Someone urged him to train it, and so he did. He became
possessed of a desire to become a star in the Metropolitan Opera
Company. That was what he lived for. He built his life around that, gave
up all other activities, all other pursuits, all other pleasures, to
give himself to the necessary work of training to become an opera star.
He learned the arts of intonation, of musical projection. He learned
several languages so he could sing operatic roles. He gave himself to
that tremendous desire within him to be a star in the Metropolitan
Opera. It finally came true. He became a star. And he said it was empty,
hollow. One day he heard a man singing. The voice was as good as his,
and the man could have done what he did. He heard Beverly Shea singing,
"I’d Rather Have Jesus." The words he sang were,

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold,

I’d rather be His than have riches untold,
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or land,
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hands
Than to be the king of a vast domain,
And be held in sin’s dread sway.
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

That song got to Jerome Hines. He began to think about it, and, out of
that incident, he became a Christian. But he didn’t quit the opera. A
lot of people thought he should have. They thought the opera was
"worldly"! No, opera is not worldly -- except to those who think like
worldlings and live like wordlings in the opera. Jerome Hines stayed in
opera, but everything was different. He was not longer singing for the
advancement of Jerome Hines, he was singing for the glory of God. He
dedicated his art, his work, his all to that purpose. That is right. God
doesn’t take us out of the world; he wants us to live in it, but to
change our thinking. Jerome did.

A few years ago Hines had an opportunity to sing the role that he had
always wanted to sing. He trained for it, with months and months of hard
work, and he was given the role. He was contracted to sing that role in
the opera for ten years. When he went to the opera to practice he found
some people performing a rather lewd dance. He asked, "What is this?" He
was told, "This is the choreography that introduces the opera." He said,
"There’s nothing in the opera like this!" "No," they said, "we’re
changing it a bit, modernizing it, bringing it up to date." Jerome Hines
said, "I won’t sing if you are going to have this kind of a dance in
it." He was told he had better go talk to Mr. Bing.

Jerome Hines went to Rudolph Bing, the Metropolitan Opera general

manager, and said to him, "Sir, if you have that dance in the opera then
I am not going to sing in it." Bing told him, "If you don’t sing, you
will be ostracized and blacklisted in opera because you are under
contract to sing." Hines said, "Sir, I can’t sing in that opera. I am
not going to let my name be used to entice people to come in to see
filth like this. You can break me, sir, and the union can break me. I’ve
worked hard for months to train for this role, but I will not sing in
your opera if that dance is in it." Bing said, "Jerome, you don’t have
to sing. If you really feel that way, you don’t have to sing; we’ll get
someone else. But we can’t change the contract."

So Jerome Hines had to give up that role. It cost him, over the period
of ten years, something like a hundred thousand dollars. How many of you
are willing to give your body to God in such a way that you would be
willing to give up a hundred thousand dollars rather than do something
with your body that would be offensive to your Lord?

That is what Paul is talking about by not being conformed to this world
-- not going along with its pattern of thinking, not being willing to go
in for all that it goes in for in its pursuit of pleasure and happiness.
"That’s tough," you say. You bet it’s tough! If you do that day after
day it gets very hard, because you are under constant pressure -- and it
gets to you after a while. "Everybody is thinking this way, everybody
wants to do that, nobody understands you -- so why don’t you give in?"

There is only one answer to that question. In order to stand up against

that kind of pressure you need what Paul talks about next: "but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind." There is no way that you can
keep from being conformed to the world unless you are being transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Something has to happen to your thinking.
You can’t go on thinking the way the world around you thinks and still
not give in and be conformed to what it does. What we need is a change
of thinking. That comes day by day by being renewed again and again and
again. You need a mind that will see through all these silly schemes of
the world. There is that kind of a mind. In the Scriptures it is called
"the mind of Christ." The mind of Christ is the way of looking at life
as Jesus does, seeing life as he sees it. It is seeing what is really
there and not what seems to be there, seeing what really is important,
not what looks to be important. You can’t have that mind unless you are
having your mind renewed every day.

The mind of Christ, of course, looks at the world and does not say that
the basis of life is the advancement of self. When it looks at the world
it says that the basis for living, the reason for life, is to serve God
and to advance his will. Not your will, but his will be done; not the
building of your kingdom and your empire, but the advancement of his
kingdom. This is the basis for life. This is really what human beings
are here for. And to maintain that kind of thinking in the midst of the
world takes a renewed mind.

I was talking with a young businessman this past week. He told me that
he sat down a few months ago and made a list of all the reasons why he
is working at his company -- the advantages it gave him, the salary, the
prestige and status, the opportunity to rub shoulders with men in his
profession who could help him, the opportunity to be involved in work in
which he found intense pleasure and delight. Then, when he finished the
list, he looked at it and said to himself, "That’s just the human list
-- the things that just anybody would put down. I’m a Christian. I ought
to have other reasons than these for being here." So he took another
piece of paper and sat down and began to list all the reasons why God
wanted him there. He began to see things that he hadn’t seen before. He
saw that God had him there because the fellow at the desk next to his
needed help. He had an opportunity to bring a witness to that whole
organization that wouldn’t be there otherwise. He had occasions to help
people with their problems and give them Christian insights to help
solve their personal and emotional problems. He began to list all the
reasons why God had him there. When he finished, he began to realize
that these were the reasons why he was in that job. How much money he
made and his advancement were really very trivial; the enduring thing,
the thing that would last forever, was not what he got out of it, but
what God got out of it.

That is what this passage is talking about -- renewing your mind so that
you see life the way God sees it. The mind of Christ sees that the goal
of living is not to please yourself but to please God. And the way you
please God is to depend on him, to expect him to work through you, where
you are; to expect that he has the power and the wisdom and the strength
to somehow, in the situation in which you find yourself, do things in
ways that you can’t anticipate or even dream of. God is pleased when
people venture out in faith.

This past January, at the men’s conference, I shared with the men a
paper that I had found describing the two kinds of theology there are in
Christian life today. It was put in terms of the Old West. One was
called "Settler Theology, " and the other, "Pioneer Theology." This
paper had some very interesting ways of expressing these differences. In
Settler Theology the church is the courthouse in a little town; it is in
charge of everything. In Pioneer Theology the church is a covered wagon,
out on the trail, never stopping, moving on and on, involved in battles
and bearing the scars of many fights, getting stuck in the mud and
getting pulled out again. That is the church, a covered wagon.

In Settler Theology, God is the mayor. He lives up on the top floor of

the courthouse and keeps an eagle eye on everything going on in town. In
Pioneer Theology God is the trail boss, rough and rugged and tough and
hard-hitting; he won’t let anybody stop -- he keeps them going down the
trail. He gets down, shoulder to the wheel, when they get stuck in the
mud.

In Settler Theology, Jesus is the sheriff. He wears a white hat and goes
around and plugs all the bad boys that come into town. He is always
determining who goes to jail and who doesn’t. In Pioneer Theology Jesus
is the scout, out ahead of the party, telling where the wagon is to go
next, exposed to all the dangers of the trail. He is the pioneer
par-excellence, everyone looks to him as the model of what a pioneer
ought to be.
In Settler Theology, the Holy Spirit is the saloon girl. She keeps
everybody comforted and happy. In Pioneer Theology, the Holy Spirit is
the buffalo hunter, out providing the meat for the wagon train, feeding
them daily. He amuses himself by going up to the courthouse window every
Sunday, when all the settlers are having an ice cream party, and firing
off a tremendous blast from his shotgun that scares the living daylights
out of all the people inside.

In Settler Theology, the preacher is the banker. He keeps all the

resources in town under control. Everything has to go through him. In
Pioneer Theology, the preacher is the cook. He just dishes out the food
that the buffalo hunter provides. He’s no better than any of the other
pioneers, he just keeps them fed.

This paper is a tremendous gathering-up of New Testament Christianity.

Christians are not sent into the world to build their own little nests,
to feather them up and keep them nice and comfortable, and to try to get
by without being polluted by the things around them. That is what we
often think, and that is what we often hear, but that is not what it is
all about. We are sent into the world like sheep in the midst of wolves,
Jesus said. We are exposed to danger and pressure and trouble and battle
all the time. The only thing that will keep us from succumbing to all
this subversive propaganda to which we are constantly exposed is that we
constantly have our minds renewed by the Word of God.

How do you get your mind renewed?

Well, it happens at church, to name one place. This is why we have the
exposition of the Scriptures on Sunday morning when we come together and
hear once again what the truth is -- not what everyone around is telling
us is true. That philosophy is wrecking everybody else’s lives, but here
you learn what the truth is, what really helps and heals and works.

Your mind is renewed in your personal Bible study, when you sit down
with the Word of God. When you are confused and don’t know where you
are, you renew your mind by reading through a passage and thinking it
through and letting the Word speak to your heart. Then you go back to
your routine and determine that your life will be in line with the Word
of God.

The rest of the book of Romans is designed to tell you how to have your
mind renewed so you won’t be conformed to the spirit of the age. This is
where we learn that the methods of the Christian are not rivalry and
competition, but obedience to the Word of God and a heart that expects
God to operate. Then life becomes exciting. God wants your life at work
and at home to be exciting, with this constant battle around you, so
that you might understand how to live and overcome and conquer in the
name of Jesus.

I don’t know what you are going to be doing this week, but I know that
living a Christian life isn’t something that is done only in church. It
is done wherever you are. It starts with a change in your thinking. You
don’t let yourself think like other people around you think. That can
only come as you are exposed to the truth as it is in Jesus.

Now, what are you going to do with your life? Are you going to wrap it
up in a napkin of affluence and bury it in forty years of
self-indulgence? Well, that would be the dullest experience you could
have. When you get before the throne of God, all you will find out is
that you have wasted all those years. Oh, you will be there, if you know
the Lord, but you will find you have wasted your life, and it will be
worth nothing before his throne. And you will have lived the dullest
kind of existence.

But if you are willing to bring your body to God and say, "Lord, here it
is. I have trouble with it, and I’m sure you will too, but here it is.
You wanted it. I give it to you for the rest of my life, to be your
instrument for whatever you want." God says, "All right, I’ll take it."
If you then, on that basis, begin to recognize the systematic
brainwashing of the world and refuse it, and constantly renew your
thinking in the truth as it is found in Jesus and the Word of God, then
I will tell you something: You are going to have an exciting life,
beyond what you ever dreamed. It will never be dull. It will be awfully
hard sometimes, but never dull, never boring.

What are you going to do with your life?

I had a friend many years ago who was walking through the Union Station
in Chicago. It was a busy, crowded station. He had been thinking of what
he might do with his life. It suddenly dawned on him, as he was walking
across that crowded station, that the only logical thing he could do
with his life, since it belonged to God and had been redeemed by the
Lord, was to give it to him and ask him to use it. Right in the midst of
the crowd he stopped and drew a little mark with his toe. Then he stood
on it. He said,

"Lord, here I am. I am yours. The rest of my life, whatever

you want me to do, if you will show me and convince me that is
what you want, I will do it. The attitudes you want me to
have, that is what I will have. As I study and read your Word,
I will try to carry out what you tell me to do, and think the
way you tell me to think. Here I am, Lord; you do with my life
as you want."

Now, that was a commitment service held in Union Station in Chicago that
nobody knew about but this man and God. But God picked that man up and
began to use him in remarkable ways. He has traveled the world and has
touched hundreds of lives because God used him that way.

If you want to stand where you are now and draw a little mark on the
floor with your toe, that’s fine. Give yourself to God, if that is what
you want. He doesn’t make anybody do this.

That is why Paul puts it in these terms: "I beseech you, brothers, I beg
you. It is the logical outcome of your life, the only thing that makes
sense." But will you give yourself to him, so you can never forget that
you did it right here and right now? Every time you come back to this
spot you will think about it. "This is where I gave myself to God. This
is where I said he had a right to use me. He can use my body and all
that I am for the rest of my life."

Some of you have already done this, and I am not asking you to do it
again, unless you feel that you need to renew that. But for those of you
who have never given yourself to God, this is the place. I beg you,
brothers, to present your bodies as living sacrifices unto him. Be not
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds, and you will prove that God’s will is not only good, but it is
acceptable and perfect, as well.
Prayer

Our Father, you know what each heart here is saying and
thinking before you. As you read our hearts now, Father, as
you hear a cry that says,

"That’s what I want to do with my life. I want to be your

man. I want to join the pioneers. I don’t want to settle
down and be a religious settler trying to enjoy the same
comfort and self-indulgence and ease that the world
around me is enjoying, but covered over with a religious
glaze. I want to be a man or woman out on the firing
line, out in the frontier, living life as you want it to
be lived, challenging the forces around and resisting the
brainwashing of the world. Lord, I give myself to you for
that reason. Take me and use me just as you please."

Lord, wherever you hear that cry, we pray that you will help that
person to understand that this is exactly what you are doing, that
you mean this, that you will take them and use their lives for your
glory. May this moment never be forgotten. We ask in Jesus’ name,
Amen.

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Title: Living Day by Day

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 12:1-3
Message No: 29
Catalog No: 3529
Date: March 6, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.
WHO AM I, LORD?

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Last week we saw that the only logical and sensible thing that a
Christian can do with his body is to turn it over to the Lord, present
it to him, and ask him to use it in everything he does. We have quoted
these words from Scripture many times: "Whatever you do, in word or
deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus," {Col 3:17b RSV}.
That means by his strength and by his power. That is what Paul is
exhorting us to in Romans 12:1-2. "Present your bodies a living
sacrifice" {Rom 12:1b RSV}, not just to come to church in, but to do
everything in terms of that power and strength which God supplies to
you.

There are two things that are necessary to make that happen:
1 One is to "stop being conformed to the world," {cf, Rom 12:2a}.
Stop acting like everyone else around you. As we saw last week,
that does not mean making up a list of ten no-no’s to quit doing.
This is not a negative thing so much as it is a positive one. It is
not that you stop doing a few things that other people are doing
that are regarded as "wrong," it is more that you start doing some
things that they don’t do at all -- like loving your enemy, and
forgiving when you have been injured, and returning good for evil,
and showing kindness to those who are ungrateful and selfish. These
are the things we are called to do. This is not being conformed to
the world.
2 The only way you can do this is to take the second step, to "be
transformed by having your mind renewed," {cf, Rom 12:2b}.

is talking about what it means specifically to have your thinking

changed.

The place to start is with yourself. That is always where God starts. He
never wants to change others until he has changed you. Jesus said,
"First remove the beam that is in your own eye, then you will see
clearly how to help your brother remove the little sliver that is in his
eye," {cf, Matt 7:3-5, Luke 6:41-42}. The order of this is so important!
Start with yourself first.

thinking of ourselves: First, what to think about who we are; and then
what to think about the gifts God has given us.

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not

think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think
of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the
measure of faith God has given you. {Rom 12:3 NIV}

Paul is saying, first, to think about yourself.

Many people get the idea that the Christian life consists of never
thinking about yourself. Because we know that ultimately we are to reach
out to others, we think that there is never any place for thinking about
ourselves. That is wrong. It is true that some Christians have abused
this to such a degree that all they think about is themselves. I know
Christians like this who are forever going around taking their spiritual
temperature, feeling their spiritual pulse, and worrying about their
spiritual condition.

The Scriptures tell you to examine yourself to see whether you are in
the faith or not, "to see whether Christ be in you," as Paul writes to
of nothing but yourself, but it is quite right to take time,
occasionally, to evaluate yourself and where you are in your Christian
life and experience. The apostle says so. In fact, he exhorts us with
his apostolic authority to do so. "For by the grace given to me," i.e.,
the gift of apostleship, on the basis of that office he exhorts every
one of us to take time to think through where we are and what is going
on in our lives. Every one of you is to think about yourself.

Now, Paul stresses that you have to do this in a way that avoids
overrating yourself. "Do not think of yourself more highly than you
ought." I am sure he puts this first because this is such a natural
tendency with us. But feelings can change and fluctuate a thousand times
a minute. They are dependent upon so many factors over which we have no
control, such as whether our glands are working properly, or whether the
sun is shining, or whether we ate too much at a previous meal, or
whether we got enough sleep the night before -- all these factors affect
our feelings. Therefore the most foolish thing in the world is to judge
yourself on the basis of how you feel at any given moment.

Now, feelings are important, and I don’t mean to rule them out entirely.
Sometimes people get the idea that feelings are all wrong. No, feelings
aren’t wrong; they are just not what you base your evaluation of
yourself on. This is what the Scriptures tell us in many places.

Well then, on what basis should you evaluate yourself? The answer, of
course, is how God sees you. That is reality -- what God says you are.
That is the realistic way to think about yourself. It is a two-fold
evaluation, as the apostle makes clear in this verse:
1 First of all, he says, "Do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment." So, first,
think soberly about yourself. What does that mean? What will sober
you? Well, surely that refers to the teaching of the Scriptures on
the Fall. We are all fallen creatures. We all have within us this
Adamic nature which is not to be trusted at all. And as long as we
are in the flesh, in the body, we are going to have this nature.
Therefore, the first thing to remember about yourself is that there
is something you have to watch. There will be something within you
that you can’t quite trust. There will be thoughts and attitudes
and temptations in your life which are distorted and wrong. And
they will always be there. Therefore, first of all, think soberly
about yourself.
2 But then, second, think with "the measure of faith that God has
given you." That is, look back over all God has told you about what
has happened since you have come to Christ. The degree to which you
accept what God has said about you will give you confidence and
courage and ability to function as a human being any day, or at any
given task. You have that courage and ability according to how much
you believe what God has said.
 And what has God said about you? Look back over all the tremendous
truth given in the first eight chapters of Romans: We are no long
in Adam, in our spirit, but are now tied to Christ. He lives with
us, his power is available to us. The Holy Spirit has come to
enable us to say, "No," to all the evil forces and temptations that
we come up against, so that sin shall not have dominion over us,
for we are not under the Law but under grace. That is the way to
think about yourself. Remember that you are always going to have to
be on guard because of the evil of the flesh within you, but you
can always win because of the grace of God and the righteousness of
Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit which you have.

When I get up in the morning I try to remind myself of three things:

* First, I am made in the image of God. I am not an animal and I
don’t have to behave like an animal, because I have an ability
within me, given by God himself, to react and relate to God.
Therefore I can behave as a man and not as a beast.
* Second, I am filled with the Spirit of God. The most amazing thing
has happened! Though I didn’t deserve it in the least degree, I
have the power of God at work within me. I have become, in some
sense, the bearer of God, and God himself is willing to be at work
in me in terms of the little problems and the little pressures that
I am going to go through this day.
* And third, I remind myself that I am part of the plan of God, that
God is working out all things to a great and final purpose in the
earth and I am part of it. What I do today has purpose and
significance and meaning. It is not just a meaningless thing that I
am going to go through. Even the smallest incident, the most
apparently insignificant word or relationship, is involved in that
great plan. Therefore it has meaning and purpose.

I don’t know what that does for you, but it gives me confidence without
conceit. You see, I have a sense of being able to cope, of being able to
handle life. And yet I know that I don’t deserve this gift of worth and
grace, and yet I have it. Therefore I can’t be conceited about it, but I
can be confident in it. I don’t know anything else that can set you on
your feet like that. If you succumb to the thinking of the world around
you, you will end up either as bigheaded and as boastful and as
loudmouthed as Mohammed Ali, or you will end up certain that you can’t
do anything and as unwilling to attempt anything, as meek and fearful
and timid as a mouse. But God has provided a way that we can face life
daily with confidence, and yet without a vestige of conceit, because we
know that it doesn’t come from us.

Now Paul moves to our life in the church and he takes up the subject of
the gifts that God has given. Not only are you who you are because of
the work of Christ, but you have what you have because of his work too.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these
members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who
are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the
others. {Rom 12:4-5 NIV}

That is a beautiful picture of the church. I don’t know what you think
about the church. Most of us have grown up with various backgrounds and
experiences in churches, and I am sure all of us have a mental picture
of what the church ought to be. But here is where we need our thinking
changed. We need to be renewed in our mind. God has told us that his
church is like a human body. If you want a good course in ecclesiology,
just stand in front of your mirror some morning without your clothes on
and examine your body. That is what the church is like.

The first thing that will impress you is that there is only one body
there, not two. There is only one church in all the world. All
Christians belong to it, and it doesn’t make any difference whether they
have a denominational label or not. If they have been born of the Spirit
of God, they are members of that church, and there is only one church.
Therefore, wherever the members meet one another, they already belong to
each other. Whether you have your name on a church roll somewhere is of
no significance whatsoever. There is only one church, one body, yet
there are many members.

The second thing that will strike you as you look at your own body is
that it has members. It isn’t just a trunk, but it has arms and legs and
feet and toes and fingers and eyes and ears and a number of other
interesting protuberances. And they are all for a purpose. They are part
of a body, they belong to the body. And so the church of Christ has many
members, and they are different. That is what I like about the church --
the diversity of it. And yet that is so contrary to the spirit of the
age. In this age in which we live, the spirit of the world around us is
one of uniformity. Everybody is pressured to look and act and talk and
think alike. You join a club and you have to dress like they dress,
drive the same general class of car, etc. You join another club and you
have to change your way of speaking. This is the Christian life. I don’t
know why it is that we have this mentality that we have to Xerox
everything. Even in the church, people want to turn out Christians like
so many sausages -- all alike. No matter where you cut them they are
still bologna.

But that is not God’s idea of the church. His idea is to have diversity
within the church. There are many members, and they are not to be alike.
That is the joy of it. They don’t come from the same class or the same
race or the same color, and they don’t even have the same gifts. They
have many gifts. A true church is one where people are beginning to
recognize that diversity more and more and rejoice in it. They let
people be different and don’t try to grind them all out alike.

I have been with Christian groups in which you could discern who the
members were by the fact that they all carried the same Bible under
their arms -- the same version and even the same color. Sometimes they
even would have identical notebooks.

That isn’t the way God runs his church. Each member is to be different,
with a blessed diversity. And yet, Paul says, though these members do
not all have the same function, each one belongs to all the others. That
is unique. No other organization in the world can say that about itself.
In all other organizations the members are individually there for what
each can get out of it. But in the church of Jesus Christ, we belong to
one another. We share with one another. Paul says we are to have the
same care, one for another. Isn’t this remarkable! How terrible it would
be if all Christians were exactly the same.

Years ago, Ron Ritchie was our high school pastor and was teaching First
painted a football like one huge eye, a human eye, with a big, round
pupil. He wrapped it in a blanket and put it under his arm and showed it
to the kids. "What do you think of my baby?" he asked. They would look
at it and say, "Oh, gross!" Here was this eye staring out at them. He
asked them, "What if your girlfriend was just an eye? If you took her
out on a date there would be this great big eye sitting across from you
in the booth. What a date that would be!" He drove home this point very
forcibly: We are not just one member; we are many. We are to have the
same care one for another. Even though we are different, we are to love
each other because we belong to each other. We share the same life
together.

That is why you are to get along with other Christians -- not because
you like them, necessarily, or that they are very nice, but just because
you belong to each other. They are your brothers and sisters. And when
they hurt, you will hurt, whether you know it or not. And when they are
honored, you will be honored, whether you know it or not.

A number of years ago I fell and injured my wrist rather severely. It

swelled up and got very painful. And the rest of my body felt so bad
about it that it sat up all night to keep it company. That is what the
body of Christ is to do when one member is hurt. We are tied to one
another, and when one hurts, all hurt.

Not only is that true, but Paul goes on to point out that we have gifts

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a

man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his
faith. If it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging,
let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of
others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him
govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it
cheerfully. {Rom 12:6-8 NIV}

That is only a partial list of gifts. There are many others that are
list of gifts that are available to us. But the point the apostle makes
is this: God has given gifts. Paul calls them "graces," and we have
different gifts, according to the specific gift of grace that is given
to us. I like that term for gifts because it indicates something about
them. Graces are graceful. Something graceful is a delight to watch in
action. This is true about a spiritual gift. It is an ability God has
given you because he wants you function along this line. It enables you
to do this thing so naturally and smoothly and beautifully that others
will take note of it, and ask you to do it, and enjoy watching you do
it. And you will enjoy it, too.

A spiritual gift is a fulfilling thing when you are using it. You enjoy
doing it, and that is why it is called a "grace" that is given to you.
It is not a hard, painful thing to do; it is something you delight in
doing. And you can improve in it as you do it. Therefore it is one of
the things that will make life interesting and fulfilling for you.
Imagine how hurt you parents would be if you gave gifts to your
children, wrapped them all up in beautiful packages and put them under
the Christmas tree, and then handed them out to your children and the
child just took it and laid it aside. What if he said, "Thank you," and
never bothered to open it, never made any effort to find out what was in
it.

Can you imagine how the Lord must feel when he has given gifts to us
that he intends us to use and we never take the trouble to find out what
they are, and never put them to work, and excuse ourselves by saying
that we can’t do anything. But the Word of God tells us there is not a
single Christian who is left out in this matter of the distribution of
gifts. It is clear from this account that the gifts Paul lists here are
intended to be used. That is what Paul stresses here.

the gift you ought to covet earnestly to be manifest in your midst,

because basically it is the gift of expounding Scripture, making
Scripture come alive. It comes from a root word in Greek that means "to
cause to shine," and it refers to the ability to take the Word of God
and make it shine. Everybody sees what to do, and where to go, and how
to act, and function. Peter says, "We have a more sure word of prophecy
Calvin describes prophecy as "the peculiar gift of explaining
revelation." Paul says if you have the gift -- and it is not just for
people who go to seminary; there may be many in a congregation who will
have the gift of prophesying -- then use it. But use it according to the
proportion of your faith. That is, stay with what you know. Don’t try to
get into areas that you don’t yet understand. That will come later as
you grow in the use of your gift. Start where you do understand
Scripture, make it clear to people, explain it. That is the gift of
prophesying.

There are some who have the gift of serving . This is a very beautiful
and common gift. Many people have it. I think it is the same gift which
12:28 KJV}. It is the word from which we get our word deacon. It is to
deaconize, i.e., to serve as an usher, to do banking on behalf of the
church, or caring for widows, serving on committees -- whatever. But it
is the ability to so help people with such a cheerful spirit that they
are blessed by it. You know people like that. You are thinking of some
right now who have the gift of helps. You just love to have them around
because they are so eager to serve and they do it so willingly and
cheerfully that everybody is helped and blessed by it. What a tremendous
gift that is! The church runs by those who have this gift. Many of you
have it, so put it to work. "If [a person’s gift] is serving, let him
serve."

"If [his gift] is teaching , let him teach." Teaching is the ability to
impart knowledge and information, to instruct the mind. You see,
prophesying goes much deeper. It instructs the heart and moves the will.
But teaching instructs the mind, and is the basis for much else that
comes in the Scriptures, in terms of gifts. Therefore the gift of
teaching is a great gift, and widely established in the body. I suspect
that at least 30 per cent or more of any Christian group would have the
gift of teaching. If you have it, don’t wait for somebody to ask you to
teach. The church didn’t give you these gifts. The pastor didn’t give
you these gifts. God gave them to you -- you put them to work. Don’t
wait for somebody to come around and invite you to exercise your gift.
That may happen, and be glad if it does, but you still have the
responsibility to use the gift God has given you, whether anybody asks
you to or not. You find the occasion. Find somebody who doesn’t know as
much as you know and teach them, if you have the gift of teaching.

Then there is the gift of encouragement . That was the gift that
Barnabas had. He was called "the son of encouragement," which is what
Barnabas means. His name was Joseph, but no one called him Joe; they
called him Barney. In the stories of Barnabas in the Scriptures he is
always found with his arm around somebody’s shoulder, encouraging him,
comforting him, urging him on. This is a marvelous gift in the church.
If you have the gift of encouragement, start anywhere and use it. God
gave it to you, therefore use that gift.

Then there is the gift of giving, contributing . Did you know that is a
gift? That means God will give you something to give, and then he will
give you a desire to give it. If you have that gift, use it! The more
you use it, the more you will have to give. It is part of the way you
function in the body of Christ, and many can use that gift. Paul says,
"Let him give generously." That is not quite an accurate translation.
What Paul is really saying is, "Let him give with simplicity." It means
without ostentation, without calling people’s attention to it.

I heard of a man who stood up in a meeting and said, "I want to give
$100 anonymously." You can’t give that way if you have the gift of
giving; you give with simplicity, without making a big deal out of it.

Just give the gift as unto God and delight in the opportunity to be used
by the hand of God.

Then the gift of leadership is mentioned. That specifically is a word

that means "leading meetings." It comes from a root which means "to
stand up before others." If you have that gift, there are all kinds of
meetings waiting to be led. But when you use it, Paul says, do it with
diligence. That is, don’t wing it. Do it thoughtfully, think it through
in advance. Make yourself ready for it, and use the meeting to its
fullest purpose. The gift of leadership is a great gift.

Then, finally, Paul mentions the gift of showing mercy . I just delight
in some of the people of this church who have the gift of showing mercy.
I watch them in the congregation at times.
* There is a young girl who comes and brings retarded children, sits
with them in her lap, and interprets the service to them.
* There is another young girl who brings a dear old lady who is
partially crippled and nearly blind. She brings her almost every
Sunday and ministers to her.

Mercy, you see, is helping those who are undeserving or neglected by

others. The gift of showing mercy is a marvelous gift within the church,
and many have it. If you have it, don’t wait for somebody to show you
what to do -- start doing it.

Sometimes great and marvelous organizations have grown up out of a

single person beginning to exercise his gift. This ministry for retarded
children, called Green Pastures, has grown up out the exercise of the
gift of mercy by a single individual. There is another ministry that is
just starting to take off that is reaching out to the vast crowd of
homosexuals in this area. It was organized by someone who had a vision,
a gift of showing mercy. They had an understanding of the homosexual’s
need and a desire to help. These people are starting out alone, but
others will join them -- so organizations come into being by individuals
exercising their gift. That is the way the church functions.

There are many other gifts that are not mentioned here, as I said, but
no matter where you find a list of gifts, there are always two
says,

Each one should use whatever spiritual gift he has received to

serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its
various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one
 speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do
it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God

first four gifts listed have to do with speaking; there are three have
to do with serving. There are two basic functions, then, of every
believer in the body of Christ. Either you speak, or you serve -- one or
the other. And everybody is to be involved.
the local church:

It is urgently needful that the Christian people of our charge

should come to understand that they are not a company of
invalids, to be wheeled about, or fed by hand, cosseted,
nursed, and comforted, the minister being the Head Physician
and Nurse; but a garrison in an enemy’s country, every soul of
which should have some post of duty, at which he should be
prepared to make any sacrifice rather than quitting.

Now that, I think, is a biblical picture of the church, a church

functioning as God intended it to function.

Now we close with this question: Who are you, anyway?

Every morning you ought to ask yourself that. Who am I? And your answer
should come from the Scriptures. I am a son of God among the sons of
men. I am equipped with the power of God to labor today. At the very
work that is give to me today God will be with me, doing it through me.
I am gifted with special abilities to help people in various areas, and
I don’t have to wait until Sunday to start to utilize these gifts. I can
do it at my work, I can do it anywhere. I can exercise the gift that God
has given me to do. As soon as I begin to find out what it is, by taking
note of my desires and by asking others what they see in me and by
trying out various things. I am going to set myself to the lifelong task
of keeping that gift busy.

That is why Paul had to write to Timothy to say, "Stir up the gift that
1:6}. Timothy was letting it slide. But we are expected to stir it up.

At our last elder’s meeting, all the elders of the church sat down and
started writing all the names of people in this congregation who, to our
knowledge, had no ministry and perhaps no awareness of their spiritual
gift. You know, within a space of five minutes or less, we had a hundred
or more names of men and women here. We will devote ourselves over the
next year to contacting these people and helping them to discover their
gifts and employ them as God intends them to. They can choose the place
where they employ their gifts. It can be here, at work, at home,
wherever they like.

We just want to help you find your gift. I hope you present your bodies
afresh today, so you can find that gift and put it to work and be busy
doing what God has sent you here to do.

Perhaps you want to renew again your request to God to lead you in the
search of your spiritual gift and to lead you to put it to work, with a
view toward the day when you stand before him and he says to you, "What
did you do with the gift that I gave you?"
Prayer

Our Father, we pray that you will indeed enable us to

understand these great themes and discover the excitement and
the joy and fulfillment that come to our lives when we begin
to move according to the program that you have for us, and not
our own self-centered desires. Lord, help us to discover who
we are before you, and then to fulfill that, that we may bless
your own heart, and fulfill our own lives. We ask it in Jesus’
name, Amen.

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Title: Who am I, Lord?

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 12:3-8
Message No: 30
Catalog No: 3530
Date: March 13, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

HOW TO HUG

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to comment briefly on the title of this message, How To Hug .

This was suggested to me by a story I once heard about a man who was
walking down the street. He passed a used book store, and in the window
he saw a book with this title, How To Hug . He was taken by the title
and, being of a somewhat romantic nature, went in to buy the book. To
his chagrin, he discovered that it was the third volume of an
encyclopedia and covered the subjects "How" to "Hug."

I have often thought, as I think of that story, that the church is like
that. Everyone knows that the church is a place where love ought to be
manifested, and many people have come to church hoping to find a
demonstration of love, only to discover an encyclopedia on theology. But
I am grateful that God is changing that today. Thank God that hugs are
returning to the churches. Here we often greet each other with a hug,
and I think that is great. In the early church the Christians actually
greeted one another with a holy kiss. You don’t see that too often these
days, but perhaps it is coming back. At least we have begun to hug one
another. Once in a while you see somebody greet someone with a kiss -- I
don’t know if it is holy or not -- but we have at least begun to hug.
That is great, because that is what the church is to be like.

If you have read through this passage, Romans 12:9-21, you can see that
the theme is clearly given in the very first sentence: "Love must be
sincere." Our English word "sincere" comes from the Latin sincerus,
which means "without wax." It stems from a practice of the early Roman
merchants who set their earthen and porcelain jars out for sale. If a
crack appeared in one, they would fill it with wax the same color as the
jar, so a buyer would not be aware that it was cracked. But astute
buyers learned to hold these jars out in the sun, and if the jar was
cracked, the wax would melt and the crack would be revealed. So the
honest merchants would test their wares this way and mark them sincerus
-- without wax. The word literally reflects what the Greek says here,
"Let love be without hypocrisy." The Revised Standard Version translates
it, "Let love be genuine." Phillips says, "Let us have no imitation
Christian love."

All this indicates clearly that the primary character of the early
Christian community was that it was a place where love was demonstrated
-- so much so that people began to imitate it. You can see this emphasis
in the New Testament. Every writer in the New Testament stresses the
need for love. In First Timothy 1:5, Paul writes to his young son in the
faith and says, "The end of our endeavor is love." That is where it all
comes out. "The end of our endeavor is love, out of a pure heart, a good
conscience and a sincere faith." Peter says (1 Peter 4:8), "Above all
else put on love." Paul reminds us here and in other places that this
love must be a genuine love, not phony, not hypocritical.

In those early days of the church it was easy to imitate love if you
didn’t really have it because it was so widely valued and so visibly
manifested. So people fell into the habit, as they do today, of
pretending they loved, using loving terms and gestures, but really not
feeling it in their hearts. This, of course, is hypocrisy, and this is
what this passage warns against. Don’t let your love be hypocritical,
don’t put it on. We are living in an age in which this is the very
spirit of the times -- to project an image, to pretend you are something
that you are not. All the world holds that up before us, through the
media of television and radio and all the rest. We actually are
encouraged to be something we are not.

No one seems to see how phony this is. But in the church it is
intolerable. That we should be in any sense phony in our love is a
violation of all that the Lord came to do. Sham love, of course, comes
from the flesh. It comes from that pretender that is down inside all of
us that wants to be thought well of even though we really are not worthy
of it. And so we easily succumb to this desire.

But true love, as we have been seeing, comes from the Holy Spirit. In
Romans 5, Paul says, "The love of God is shed abroad in your heart by
the Holy Spirit which is given unto you," {cf, Rom 5:5 KJV}. True love
is manifested by learning from the Word of God how you should behave in
a certain situation, and then, depending on the Spirit of God to give
you the strength to do it, moving out and doing that very thing. That is
the way you love -- by acting in obedience to what the Word tells you by
the power of the Holy Spirit within you.

13 set forth love as it is manifested in the family of God, the church.

out in the world. This outline will be our guideline as we look at this
passage together. Let’s take each of these two sections separately and
see what is covered by each of them.

First, love in the church is described in Verses 9-13:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is

good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one
another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep
your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope,
patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s
people who are in need. Practice hospitality. {Rom 12:9-13
NIV}

This describes love among Christians. Notice that it consists of six

things which the apostle brings out very clearly. In order to understand
them, let’s look at them one by one.

First, true love rejects sin but not the person. That is what Paul means
when he says, "Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." He is talking
about people. That is, hate what is evil in people, but don’t reject the
person because of the evil. The person is good. God loves him. He or she
is made in the image of God. Therefore, true love learns to hate evil
but not to reject the good. I grant you that this is difficult to do.
But notice that hypocritical love, love that pretends to be Christian,
does the opposite.

Hypocritical love rejects the person because he doesn’t behave according

to an acceptable standard. You find many churches that do this. In fact,
this is one of the things in the church that has turned off more people
than anything else. People come and hear the great words of the New
Testament about love and peace and joy, and expect to find them
exhibited, but instead they find all the world’s attitudes -- rejection
and prejudice and even contempt and disdain for people. The church cuts
them off and sets them aside, not wanting to have anything to do with
them because they don’t meet a certain standard of performance. That is
what this word warns us against. It is hypocrisy to reject persons
because you don’t like their behavior.

But you can go to the other extreme in this, too. It is also

hypocritical to condone sin because you accept the person. Christians
often realize that it is wrong to cut people off and have nothing to do
with them because they are not behaving rightly. But some Christians
accept these people and say nothing about their evil or sin, and even
defend it on occasion. We are seeing something of this today in the
matters of homosexuality and alcoholism. People want to defend these
sins, as though they were right, simply because they want to accept the
person. "Hate what is evil [loathe it]" -- but "cling to what is good."
Second, notice that true love remembers that relationship is the ground
of concern, and not friendship. That is why Paul says, "Be devoted to
one another in brotherly love." This doesn’t refer to just anyone that
is in need or in trouble; it specifies your brother or sister. The basis
of concern for one another is not that we know each other well or enjoy
one another, it is that we are related to one another -- even though we
may never have met before. If we are Christians, we know that we already
have a tie that ought to evoke concern and care for one another. They
are our brother, our sister. It is because we are related that we treat
our brothers and sisters warmly and with acceptance and forgiveness.

Third, Paul says that true love regards others as more deserving than
yourself. "Honor one another above yourselves." I like Phillips’
translation here. He says, "Be willing to let other men have the
credit." That is a practical application of this. Years ago I ran across
a sign that has helped me many times when I have done something, that I
wanted to be credited with and yet people had credited others with it. I
would be on the verge of pointing out that the credit belonged to me,
but I would be stopped by the remembrance of this little sign: "There is
no limit to the good that a man can do, if he doesn’t care who gets the
credit." If you really don’t care who gets the credit, then you can just
enjoy yourself and do all kinds of good deeds. Just be glad that it is
done, and don’t worry about who gets the credit. Again, our flesh
doesn’t like that. It is very eager to be acknowledged and promoted and
recognized. But the Word tells us that real love will not act that way.

Fourth, real love retains enthusiasm despite setbacks. "Never be lacking

in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." I think that
one of the most noticeable marks of a Christian walking in the Spirit is
that he retains enthusiasm, always rejoicing, rejoicing in hope. He
never lets his spiritual zeal flag or sag, but maintains it. After all,
the one thing that the Lord cannot put up with, as he tells us in the
letters to the churches in Revelation, is lukewarmness {cf, Rev 3:16}.
It is nauseating. He will spew you out of his mouth if you are
indifferent, neither hot nor cold, just going along with the crowd.
Jesus says that lukewarmness is very distressing to him.

I have always enjoyed the Old Testament story of David and Goliath.
Remember how all Israel was sunk in despair because of their fear of
this giant? The whole army of Israel was helpless because of the taunts
of this man. But little David is fearless. He is only a stripling, but
he is not afraid. He looks at Goliath, in all his impressive height and
great strength, and says, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, who
dares defy the armies of the living God? Who does he think he is?" {cf,
response? David tells us. He says, "The battle is not ours but the

This is what Paul is saying here. The answer to keeping your spiritual
fervor is that you are serving the Lord. It is not your battle; it is
his. It is not your resources that are required to work it out; it is
his. After all, why should you be afraid or distressed or want to give
up? It doesn’t depend on you. You are serving the Lord! That is why it
is important that Paul adds the phrase "serving the Lord" here -- to
help us remember that the only thing that will keep our enthusiasm high
is an awareness that we are serving the Lord.

I have always appreciated Paul Winslow, who is on our pastoral staff,

because he always is excited about things. Even when they go badly he
looks at it as a chance to do something a different way. I like that.
And this is what the apostle is telling us here.
Fifth, true love rejoices in hope. "Be joyful in hope, patient in
affliction, faithful in prayer." The way to rejoice in hope is explained
by the two others things mentioned here. You can rejoice in hope because
you are patient in affliction, and you are patient in affliction because
you have been faithful in prayer. That is what makes you patient. So,
when trials come, the thing to do is to begin with prayer. As Paul tells
us in Philippians, "In everything, by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving, make your requests known unto God," {cf, Phil 4:6 KJV}.
Take them to him. If you are faithful in prayer, you will be able to be
patient in affliction. You won’t be dropping out, or copping out, or
quitting, but you will be staying in there, waiting until God works it
out, not getting impatient and angry and resentful, but quietly waiting
for God to accomplish what he had in mind in this whole trial. That, of
course, will make you rejoice in hope -- because you will discover that
God has a thousand and one different ways of working things out, ways
that you can never imagine. That makes you begin to rejoice. You rejoice
because God knows what he is doing and he is able to work it out.

Then, six, true love responds to needs. "Share with God’s people who are
in need. Practice hospitality." In these days when we have so much
social help available -- unemployment insurance, Social Security,
welfare, Medicare, etc. -- we tend to forget that there are still human
needs and that we have a responsibility to meet them. I think we need to
be reminded at times that people are still hurting and that it is a
direct responsibility of Christians to care for one another’s needs.

I can suggest two ways that you can help to meet this responsibility:

One is through the Need Sheet. Did you know that every week a sheet that
lists the needs of people is published and handed out at the door at the
Body Life service? It is also available at the table in the back of the
auditorium after the morning service. Every week this list is fresh.
Items are never carried over from week to week. Every week it lists
needs that you can meet. Here is one:

"Help needed! Someone to fix my dryer, or at least tell me

what is wrong with it." There is a name and a phone number to
call. Here is something for some of you electricians to do in
response to a need.

Here is another:

"High school girl needed to spend a few hours on Saturday with

a high school girl who is in the educable mentally handicapped
class in high school." Here is a ministry for a high school
girl.

There are other needs every week, so I suggest that you pick up a Need
Sheet and help out.

Another way of helping is through our Need Fund. We have a fund that is
set aside for the pastors to dispense to people who are in need. Every
week people are without food, without money for rent and other things,
and their needs are met through this fund. You may not know about direct
needs, but you can give to that fund and we will try to help others
through it.

But first of all we are to do what Paul says here. "Practice

hospitality." Hospitality -- to have your home open for a bed or a meal
that somebody needs -- is a manifestation of love.

This is the way that you manifest love in the church. There are six ways
to do it. Let me review them quickly for you:
1 True love rejects sin but not persons;
2 It remembers relationship is the ground of concern;
3 It regards others as more deserving than themselves;
4 It retains enthusiasm despite setbacks;
5 It rejoices in hope by being patient in affliction and faithful in
prayer; and
6 It responds to needs in direct and personal ways, and especially by
practicing hospitality.

Now Paul moves on to describe love exhibited to a non-Christian world.

Tomorrow morning you will all be back in your shops and offices and
schools and places of business, and Christian love is to be manifested
there as well as it is here. So Paul gives some very practical help on
this. Again, he gives us six ways to do this, Verses 14-21:

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice
with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in
harmony with one another. Don’t be proud, but be willing to
associate with people of low position. Don’t be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is

right in the sight of everybody. If it is possible, as far as
it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take
revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is
written: "It is mine to avenge, I will repay," says the Lord.
On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is
thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will
heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good. {Rom 12:14-21 NIV}

First, love speaks well of its persecutors. That is a tough one, isn’t
it? "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." That is
getting right down to where the rubber meets the road, isn’t it? That
means you don’t go around badmouthing people who are not nice to you.
You don’t run them down or speak harshly about them to others, but you
speak well of them. You find something that you can approve, and you say
so to others. That is a tough one. I confess that that is not my natural
reaction. When somebody persecutes me, I persecute back! At least I want
to. But this is what the Word tells us we don’t need to do and we should
not do. I think this applies to such practical areas as traffic
problems. Have you ever been persecuted in traffic? It happens all the
time. Somebody cuts you off, and you want to roll down the window and
shout, "Melonhead!" But according to this, you are not supposed to. Now,
this doesn’t tell you what to call them, but it tells you to bless them,
anyway.
Second, true love adjusts to other people’s moods. "Rejoice with those
who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." When somebody in your office
is feeling low and gloomy, don’t come in and sit down and whistle away.
When they obviously don’t respond, don’t say, "What’s the matter with
you? How come you’re so down all the time? Why don’t you be cheerful
like me?" There is nothing worse than a cheerful person when something
has gone wrong for you. No, Paul says, adjust yourself. Mourn with those
who mourn, and rejoice with those who rejoice. I think he puts rejoicing
first because that is so hard to do sometimes -- especially if it
awakens our envy or self-pity. If there is something someone else has
achieved that we think we ought to have, it is hard to go up to that
person and say, "I’m so glad for you." But that is what love does, and
it is possible to do it -- for those who walk in the Spirit.

Third, true love does not show partiality to persons. Paul says very
precisely, "Live in harmony with one another. Don’t be proud, but be
willing to associate with people of low position. Don’t be conceited."
That is amplified in these words, "Don’t seek high-up people, but
associate with ordinary people."

When Jesus came to Jerusalem he stayed with Mary and Martha and Lazarus
out in the little suburban town of Bethany instead of at the
Intercontinental Hotel in Jerusalem.

Many of us have been rejoicing over the way President Carter is seeking
to manifest this kind of a spirit in his high office. He is spending the
night with the ordinary people in little towns in New England and
various other places. The whole nation is caught up with the beauty of
that kind of approach -- we love it.

This is what the apostle enjoins Christians to do. And he suggests that
the real reasons for respecting persons and for name-dropping and that
kind of thing is really personal conceit. "Don’t be conceited," he says.
"Don’t think highly of yourself." That is what makes you always want to
be associated with the high-ups. But if you have an honest view of
yourself, you know that you are no better than anybody else and
therefore you will be willing just to enjoy the ordinary people. And you
will find a rich, rich manifestation of love and humanity among them.

not to give back evil for evil, but to plan to do right, out in the
open, before all. "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do
what is right in the sight of everybody." I think that Paul is telling
us not to take silent revenge for imagined or real insults and not to
resort to subterfuges to get even.

I remember hearing of some officers during the Korean War who rented a
house for themselves and hired a Korean houseboy to work for them. He
was a cheerful, happy soul, and they were young and had a lot of fun
playing tricks on him. They would nail his shoes to the floor, and they
would put water up over the door so that when he pushed it open the
bucket would fall on him. They played all kinds of tricks, but he always
took them in such a beautiful, good humor that they finally became
ashamed for themselves. They called him in one day and said, "We’ve been
doing all these mean thing to you and you have taken it so beautifully.
We just want to apologize to you and tell you that we are never going to
do those things again." He said, "You mean no more nail shoes to floor?"
They said, "No more." He said, "You mean no more water on door?" They
said, "No more." "Okay then," he said, "no more spit in soup!"
So you see, it is possible to take silent revenge. But the Word of God
warns us against doing it. Don’t be sneaky and underhanded about your
actions, it says, but "be careful to do what is right in the sight of
everybody."

Fifth, true love seeks to live at peace with everyone. "If it is

possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."
There are people who just will not allow you to be at peace with them,
but don’t let it start with you. Remember the old song, It Takes Two To
Tango ? I think that last word ought to be "tangle." It takes two to
tangle. If you refuse to tangle, at least the conflict does not depend
on you and is not traceable to your actions and your attitudes. That is
what love really does.

Then, finally, love does not try to get even. Listen to these words
again. "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath,
for it is written, ’It is mine to avenge, I will repay,’ says the Lord."
Revenge is one of the most natural of human responses to hurt or injury
or bad attitudes. We always feel that, if we treat others according to
the way they have treated us, we are only giving them justice. We can
justify this so easily. "I’m only teaching them a lesson. I’m only
showing them how I feel. I’m only giving back what they’ve given me."
But any time you argue that way you have forgotten the many times you
have injured others without getting caught yourself. But God hasn’t
forgotten. This always puts us in the place of those Pharisees who, when
the woman was taken in adultery, were ready to cast stones and stone her
to death. Jesus came by and said to them, "He that is without sin among
you, let him cast the first stone," {cf, John 8:7}. That stopped them
all dead in their tracks, because there wasn’t a one of them who wasn’t
equally as guilty as she. They needed to be judged too. We must never
carry out revenge, because we are not in the position of a judge. We,
too, are guilty. We need to be judged. Therefore, Paul’s admonition is,
"Don’t try to avenge yourself." You will only make a mess of it. The
inevitable result of trying to get even with people is that you escalate
the conflict. It is inescapable.

When I was in school in Montana, I used to watch the cows in the corral.
They would be standing there peacefully, and then one cow would kick
another cow. Of course, that cow had to kick back. Then the first cow
kicked harder and missed the second cow and hit a third. That cow kicked
back. I watched that happen many times. One single cow, starting to kick
another, soon had the whole corral kicking and milling and mooing at one
another, mad as could be. This happens in congregations, too.

Paul gives two reasons why you should not avenge yourself:
1 One is because God is already doing it. "Leave room for God’s
wrath." God knows you have been insulted or hurt or injured. He
knows it and he is already doing something about it.
2 Second, God alone claims the right to vengeance because he alone
can work it without injury to all concerned. He will do it in a way
that will be redemptive. He won’t injure the other person, but will
bring him out of it.

We never give God a chance; we take the matter into our own hands. And
Paul says that is wrong. It is wrong because we don’t want that person
to be redeemed; we want them to be hurt. We are like Jonah when Ninevah
repented. When God spared it, Jonah got mad at God. "Why didn’t you wipe
them out like you said you would?" We get angry because God hasn’t taken
vengeance in the way that we would like. Paul reminds us that God is
already avenging, so we should leave him room, and God claims the right
to vengeance because he alone can work it without injury to all
concerned.

You say, "What do you expect me to do? Somebody hits me -- do you expect
me just to sit there and do nothing? Oh, no. There is something you can
do. Look what it is: "On the contrary: ’if your enemy is hungry, feed
him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you
will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good."

Two things will happen if you refuse to avenge yourself and let God do
it:

First, you will be enabled to act positively instead of negatively. That

will result in what Paul, quoting Proverbs {25:21-22}, calls "heaping
burning coals on his head." This doesn’t mean that you are going to get
even by another process -- burning his head. No, this refers to the
ancient way of lighting fires. They didn’t have matches in those days,
so if you wanted to light a fire in your home, you couldn’t go and
borrow a match. But you could go and borrow some coals from your
neighbor. Of course, you took along an earthen jar that would not burn.
Then you would ask your neighbor if you could borrow some coals to light
your own fire. Now, if he was a good neighbor, he would fill the jar and
you would carry the padded jar home on top of your head. This became a
picture of an ample, generous response to a neighbor’s need. Because of
that, it became a metaphor for responding so generously to your neighbor
that it made him ashamed of himself for his attitude toward you. That is
what Paul is suggesting here.

The second result of leaving vengeance to God is that you win the
battle. If there is a conflict going on, you will win it if you respond
with doing good instead of evil.

I was reading one day a story about a boy who was in the army. He was a
Christian and had formed the habit of praying beside his bed before he
went to sleep. He kept up this practice in the army, but he became an
object of mockery and ridicule to the entire barracks. One night he
knelt to pray after a long, weary march. As he was praying, one of his
tormentors took of his muddy boots and threw them at the boy, one at a
time, hitting him on each side of his head. The Christian said nothing
about it, and just took the boots and put them beside the bed and
continued to pray. But the next morning, when the other man woke up, he
found his boots sitting beside his bed, all shined and polished. It so
broke his heart that he came to that boy and asked him for forgiveness.
That led, after a time, to that man becoming a Christian.

This is what Paul means when he says you overcome evil with good. As
Abraham Lincoln once said, "The best way to overcome an enemy is to make
him your friend."

Three times in this passage the apostle has stressed the fact that you
states it. So, throughout this passage it is underscored that the major
way we express love in the world is by not reacting in vengeance when we
are mistreated by the world.

Can you imagine what would happen on this Peninsula if the Christians
would begin to act this way? How many times we turn people away from
Christianity by assuming the same attitude the world around us has.
Surely this is a practical way Paul has of reminding us that we are not
to be conformed to this age. We are not to think like they do.
It is recorded of the Lord Jesus that when he was reviled, "he reviled
not again, but committed himself to him who judges all things
admonition, that we might behave as Jesus did in the midst of the world.

What a testimony of grace that would be!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: How to Hug

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 12:9-21
Message No: 31
Catalog No: 3531
Date: March 20, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

GOD’S STRANGE SERVANTS

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Our study in Romans has brought us to that famous passage in

the government. It isn’t very hard to think of President Jimmy Carter as
a servant of God. His personal profession of a new birth has been well
publicized. But I wonder if you have ever thought of Leonid Brezhnev as
a servant of God? Or Idi Amin? Or even Adolph Hitler? And yet the
amazing thing that this passage declares is that men like that are, in
some sense, servants of God.

I think this shows how much we need to have our minds renewed, our
thinking changed, as the twelfth chapter of this letter tells us, in
order that we will not be conformed to the thinking of the age. I find
that those who are not Christians have great difficulty in thinking of
governmental leaders who are tyrannical, vicious, or cruel, as, in any
sense, being servants of God. And yet, if we Christians are going to
conform our thinking to reality, i.e., proof as God sees it, this is
what we must begin to think. We need to have our minds renewed to what
the Scriptures say, and to think along those lines about the life around
us, in order that we might be able to present our bodies available to
God to use in whatever situation we find ourselves.
The first thing the apostle tells us about our government is where it
comes from: Where does it originate? The answer is given in the very
first verse:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for

there is no authority except that which God has established.
The authorities that exist have been established by God. {Rom
13:1 NIV}

When Paul refers to "governing authorities," he uses a phrase that can

best be translated "the powers that be." He is not just talking about
heads of state; he is talking about all levels of authority, all the way
down to the local dog-catcher. These are the powers that be, those that
exist. He tells us that the thing we must think about these governmental
offices is that they are, in some way, brought into being by God
himself.

I often hear people ask, "Which form of government is the best? Which is
the one God wants us to have?" We Americans would love to think that
democracy obviously is the most God-honored form of government. But I
don’t think you can establish that from the Scriptures. In fact, the
Scriptures reflect various forms of government. So when you ask, "Which
government is the best kind? Is it a monarchy? An oligarchy (i.e., ruled
by a few)? Is it a republic? A democracy?" The answer of Scripture is
not necessarily any of these. It is whatever God has brought into being.
That is best for that particular place and time in history. God has
brought it into being, considering the makeup of the people, the degree
of truth and light which is disseminated among them, and the moral
conditions that are prevailing. For that condition, for that time and
place, God has brought into being a particular government.

Now, that government can change. God doesn’t ordain any one form of
government to be continued forever. If the people grow toward
understanding of truth, and morality prevails in a community, the form
of government may well take on a democratic pattern. Where truth
disappears, government seems to become more autocratic. But, in any
case, the point the apostle makes is that whatever form of government
you find, God is behind it. Don’t ever think of any state or any
government as something that in itself is opposed to God, because it
isn’t. That includes communism as much as any other form of government.
That is the clear statement of this passage. I think we have to begin to
clear our thinking along that line.

This truth is not confined to the New Testament. You find it in the Old
Testament as well. In the book of Daniel, Daniel stood before one of the
greatest monarchs the world has ever seen, one of the most autocratic of
kings, and said to him, "God changes times and seasons, God removes
kings, and he sets up kings," {cf, Dan 2:21a RSV}. There it is made
clear that God definitely has a hand in whatever is going on on the
earth at any particular time. Sometimes we are tempted, or even taught,
to think of God as being remote from our political affairs, that he is
off in heaven somewhere turning a rather morbid eye on us human beings
struggling along with our political problems down here. But Scripture
never takes that pattern. He is not on some remote Mount Olympus; he is
right among us, involved in the pattern of governments; and he raises up
kings and puts down others, raises up rulers and changes the form of

I think we Americans are slowly learning that not every body of people
in the world can handle democracy. There was a time when, naively, we
thought democracy was the best and only enlightened form of government,
and all we had to do was go around the world and set up democracies and
people would begin to function properly. Democracy would solve all their
problems. Now, after many painful experiences, we know better than that.
We know there are times and places where democracy just won’t work. It
can’t work. People aren’t ready for it. They can’t handle that kind of
liberty, that kind of responsibility. Therefore God doesn’t give it to
them. The government they have is better suited for their purposes than
the one we have. We are slowly catching on to that.

When Paul wrote this letter to these Christians, they were living in the
capital city of the empire, Rome itself. Rome by this time had already
passed through several forms of government. It had been a monarchy, a
republic, a principate, and now it was an empire. Nero had just begun
his reign as the fifth emperor of Rome when Paul wrote this letter. What
Paul is saying to these Christians is that whatever form of government
may be in control, they are to remember that God is behind it.

Not only is God behind the forms of government we have, but he is also
responsible for the incumbents, the ones occupying the offices at any
particular time. That may be a startling thought for some of us, but
that is what this verse says. Listen to the way the New English Bible
translates the last half of Verse 1: "There is no authority but by act
of God, and the existing authorities are instituted by him." Not only
are the forms of government brought into being by God, but the very
people who occupy the offices are put there by God.

So if you thank God for Jimmy Carter and say that God gave us a godly
born-again President, remember that he also gave us Richard Nixon, Spiro
Agnew, and all the others that we have had some trouble with. They came
from God too. You see, God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. He is
not a socialist, or a Marxist, or even an American! The biblical picture
is that God not only sends us good men sometimes, by his grace, to lead
us and heal us, but also he sends us bad men at times, to punish us. And
we deserve them. Therefore, when Hitlers, Stalins, and other ruthless
individuals come to the throne of power, God has put them there because
that is what that people needed at that particular time in history. This
is the biblical position with regard to government, and it is rather
startling. And yet, it is the clear statement of this passage.

You find this position supported by other passages of Scriptures. We

read this morning the passage from First Peter which says we are to
one who was seated on the throne. Christians are to be subject to the
governing authorities, Peter tells us. In the book of Daniel we are
taught the same thing. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty monarch, had been
brought low before God by God’s dealings with him. In a great decree,
which he had issued throughout his kingdom, he testified to that effect.
He said God had taught him painful lessons "to the end that the living
may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to
whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men," {cf, Dan 4:17 RSV}.
Isn’t that remarkable? God sometimes deliberately picks a man that is
not capable, the lowliest of men, and puts him into power. So the first
thing we need to recognize is that, regardless of the form of government
we may be up against, the hand of God is in it. And not only is this
true of the form of government, but also of the very ones that occupy
the positions of power. God has put them there.
The second thing we need to know about our relationship to our

Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling

against what God has instituted, and those who do so will
bring judgment on themselves. {Rom 13:2 NIV}

Clearly, if God is behind governments, then those who oppose the

government and would overthrow it are really opposing God. I realize
this has to be handled very carefully, because there are those who would
use a statement like this to justify everything the government does --
no matter what it is. But we must recognize, first of all, that
governments do have a God-given right to punish those who would
overthrow them, to punish treason, to resist overthrow, to control
riots, and to seek to preserve themselves in power by legitimate means.
Governments do have that right. This the apostle makes very clear.

But, though Paul doesn’t go into this side of it in this particular

passage, we also must remember that Scriptures show us that such a right
is always held under God. I thank God for the enlightened soul, a few
decades ago, that set in line a motion that added to our pledge of
allegiance the words "under God." That reflects biblical truth. This
nation exists as a nation under God. What that is saying, of course, is
that nations are to recognize that they have limited power. They are
agents of God, but they are not God.

There are some things that nations have no right to do, or governments
have no right to get into. The Bible is clear on what those kinds of
things are. This is what Jesus clearly referred to in that famous
incident when he was asked about paying taxes. He took a coin and held
it up and said, "Whose image is on the coin?" They said, "Caesar’s." He
said, "All right, then give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar;
but give to God the things that belong to God," {cf, Matt 22:20, Mark
12:16-17, Luke 20:24-25}. By this he clearly indicated that there are
limits to the power of government. Caesar has his image on certain
things; therefore they belong to him -- and rightfully so, Jesus is
saying. What Caesar put his image on belongs to Caesar. By implication
he extends this to the world of things.

Governments have authority over what we do with our property and how we
behave with one another, but our Lord clearly indicates they have no
right to touch what God has put his image on, which is the spirit of
man. In other words, Caesar has no right to command the worship of man
or forbid his obedience to the Word of God. Rulers are under God;
therefore they have no right to command men to do what God says ought
not to be done, or to command men not to do what God says should be
done. These are the limits of governmental powers. Governments are not
to enslave men, because men belong to God. Governments are not to
oppress men, because men bear the image of God. What bears God’s image
must be given on to God, and not to Caesar -- just as what bears
Caesar’s image must be given to Caesar, and not necessarily to God. And
so I think that though this passage doesn’t deal at length with this, it
indicates clearly that believers have a right to resist oppression and
religious persecution by nonviolent means, as they have opportunity, but
they are not to resist the legitimate functions of government. We are to
accept government as a gift of God.
The legitimate functions of government are further described for us in

For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for
those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the
one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend
you. {Rom 13:3 NIV}

Do you hear what Paul is saying? If you are driving down the freeway and
want to be free from having to look constantly in your rear view mirror,
then keep the speed down! The officer will pull you aside and say, "Sir,
you were driving so beautifully that I just want to commend you." Well,
no, he won’t do that. He may wish he had time to, but he will just pass
by and wave at you.

For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong,

be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is
God’s servant, an agent of justice to bring punishment on the
wrongdoer. {Rom 13:4 NIV}

This is a very helpful passage, and it says that there are two basic
functions of government. Governments are to protect us from evil. That
is, they are to preserve the security of people. They are to protect us
from attack from without and from crime from within. And for that
purpose, governments properly have armies and police systems and courts
of justice to preserve us from evil in our midst.

This is why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s
servants, who give their full time to governing. {Rom 13:6
NIV}

Notice that in these three verses Paul calls government agents "the
They are the deacons of God. I don’t suggest that the next time you pay
your taxes you call the person who takes your money a deacon. But
Scripture calls these governing agents deacons, for they are servants of
God. The next time you are called up in traffic court, you must look at
the judge as a deacon of God. He is a servant. The point these verses
make here is that these things exist as an arm of God’s work among men.
It is really the way God is doing things. Therefore, God is behind them.

This not only involves punishment of crime and wrongdoing, but also the
commending of good. Governments are to honor those who live as good
citizens. They offer rewards of various sorts for those who have a
record of keeping the law. Occasionally you hear of such commendations
or rewards.

Even the courts are set up to recognize the right motives of people. Not
long ago I read about a man who was hauled into court because he had
stolen a loaf of bread. When the judge investigated, he found out that
the man had no job, his family was hungry, he had tried to get work but
couldn’t, tried to get funds for relief but couldn’t, and so in order to
feed his family he had stolen a loaf of bread. When the judge found out
the circumstances, he said, "I’m sorry, but the law can make no
exceptions. You stole, and therefore I have to punish you. I have to
assess, therefore, a fine of ten dollars. But I want to pay the money
myself." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a ten dollar bill, and
handed it to the man. As soon as the man took the money, the judge said,
"Now, I also want to remit the fine." That is, the man could keep the
money. "Furthermore, I am going to instruct the bailiff to pass around a
hat to everyone in this courtroom, and I am fining everybody in this
courtroom fifty cents for living in a city where a man has to steal in
order to have bread to eat." When the money was collected, he gave it to
the defendant. That represents the good side of justice. A court that
will, on occasion, recognize the right motives of people, even though
there may be wrongdoing involved. That is a legitimate function of
government. But the government also has the right to defend, to maintain
an army and a police system and courts of law, and thus fulfill what the
Constitution of the United States calls "to provide for the common
defense, and insure domestic tranquility."

There is also the function mentioned in Verse 6: providing various

services. Here the word that is used for "servants of God" is not the
word deacon ; it is priest , ministering priests . The idea here is that
the government is not only to provide for our defense and security, but
also to provide certain common services that we all need and to function
as priests among us, helping us in our needs. Out of this grows the
function of government in providing mail service, utilities (water,
sewage), schools, relief agencies, and many other functions of
government. Now these are all proper functions of government agencies.

In order to make these services possible, governments, by God’s grace,

have two powers given to them. This the Scriptures clearly teach. One,
they have the power of using force. That is what is meant by "he bears
not the sword for nothing." The sword is the symbol of the right to use
force, even to the taking of life.

I don’t think there is any area today in which people are more confused
and muddled in their thinking than in this area of the use of force by
the government, even to the point of capital punishment. Right now the
state of California is debating this once more. Amazingly enough, the
people of the state have declared with a loud voice that they want
capital punishment, even though some of our leaders do not. I respect
the conscience of these leaders, but I think the Scriptures indicate
that there is a place for capital punishment. What people need to
understand is that when the state, acting in line with the judicial
system, functioning as it was intended to function, finally passes
sentence on an individual to yield his life for a certain crime, then
that is really not a man taking a man’s life. God is taking that life by
means of the state. That is what we need to understand. God has the
right to take human life. All through the Old Testament you find him
doing that very thing. He has also the right to set up human channels
for doing this. This is what is meant here. This means that governments
have the basic right to maintain armies for their defense, and that
people -- even Christians -- are to serve in them.

I know I am touching on matters that are hotly debated, and I haven’t

time to fully defend these statements at this point, although I am glad
to do so in private conversations or at other times. But governments
have the right to maintain armies, police forces, to take life in
capital punishment for certain crimes -- all with the recognition that
these powers can be abused and have been abused. There is no question
about it. Citizens have every right to protest these abuses and to seek
to correct them. But it is folly to try to eliminate the rightful uses
of authority because some of them are being abused. What we need to do
is to correct the abuses and not eliminate the things Scripture ordains.
I am not going into that any further, but much more can be said on this
subject.

The second power this passage says governments rightfully have from God
to enable them to perform their function of protecting, securing, and
providing various common services, is the power to collect taxes. Now
you may not like the amount of taxes that your government collects, but
you can’t object to the principle of taxation. Taxes are right, and
governments have taxed their citizens from time immemorial, and will
continue to do so. The apostle makes clear that the government has the
right to collect taxes, and Christians should pay them.

Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not

only because of possible punishment but also because of
conscience. {Rom 13:5 NIV}

This has to do with our attitude about taxes and arrests and judicial
systems, etc. We are not to obey the law just because we are afraid we
are going to get caught. We are not to keep to the speed limit just
because there is a police car in sight. We are not to pay our incomes
taxes just because we know the government now has tremendous computers
that can review any number of records and might catch us. That is a
factor, and many more people are honest about their taxes because of it,
but that ought not to be the Christian’s reason for being honest in
paying his taxes. The Christian’s reason is that it is the right thing
to do before God. Your conscience ought to be clear. You ought to pay
the taxes because that is what God says to do, and not what man says.

I am sure you heard of the man who wrote to the IRS and said, "A few
years ago I cheated on my income taxes. My conscience has been troubling
me, and I haven’t been able to sleep. So I enclose a check for fifty
dollars. If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send you the rest." No, conscience
demands that we keep the record clear for God’s sake, and not for man’s.

Give everyone what you owe him; if you owe taxes, pay taxes;
if revenue, then revenue [Revenue refers to those hidden taxes
such as sales taxes, customs duties, etc.] ; if respect, then
respect; if honor, then honor. {Rom 13:7 NIV}

Here the apostle is dealing with our actual response to what these
demands of government are. We haven’t the right to withhold taxes if the
government doesn’t use them quite the way we think they should.
Governments are made up of fallible men and women just like us, and we
can’t demand that the government always handle everything perfectly.
Therefore what Paul wrote to these Romans, who had the same problems we
have about taxes, was, "If you owe taxes, pay them." You know, I think
the proof that God is behind all this is that this message comes the
week before our income taxes are due and before property taxes are due.
I didn’t plan it that way, but that is the way it worked out. I don’t
get any refund on my income tax for preaching this kind of message
either.

The point the apostle is making clearly is: Don’t resent these powers of
government. This is all set within the context of Paul’s word in Chapter
12, "Be not conformed to this present age," {cf, Rom 12:2a}. Don’t act
like everybody else acts about taxes. The world grumbles and gripes and
groans at paying taxes. You have a right, of course, as does everyone,
to protest injustice and to correct abuse. There is no question about
that. But don’t forever be grumbling about the taxes that you have to
pay.

I have had to learn some lessons on this myself. I remember the first
time I had to pay an income tax, a few years ago. My income had been so
low for a long time that I didn’t have to pay any taxes. But gradually
it caught up and I finally had to pay. I can remember how I resented it.
I really did! In fact, when I sent my tax form in I addressed it to "The
Infernal Revenue Service." They never answered, although they did accept
the money. The next year, I had improved my attitude a bit. I addressed
it to "The Eternal Revenue Service." But I have repented from all those
sins, and I now hope to pay my taxes cheerfully. The largest amount I
have had to pay is due this year, but I want to send it off with
thanksgiving to God for the government that we have -- bad as it is in
many ways.

I don’t hold up any defense for the gross injustices that prevail in our
American system. But the very fact that we can meet this morning and
don’t have to hide behind closed doors, the very fact that we have
relative freedom from attack when we walk about is due to the existence
of a government that God has brought into being. I want to make every
effort I can, as a good citizen, to improve it and to see that it does
things better. But I just thank God for the privilege of paying my
taxes. This is what the apostle is after. He wants us to have a
different attitude than the world around us about these matters. We are
not to come on with gimlet-eyed fanaticism, attacking the government and
seeking to overthrow it because it doesn’t behave quite as we think it
ought. But rather, we are to understand that God has brought it into
being, and he will change it if the hearts of the people of the land
warrant that.

Somebody has well said, "Every nation gets the government it deserves."
And so as we pay our taxes, let us do so cheerfully. Remember that the
apostle says not only that we are to pay our taxes, but if we owe
respect, we are to give that; if honor, give that. Never forget that the
worst of governments are, nevertheless, better than anarchy, and serve
certain functions which God himself has ordained.

Therefore let us respond as Christians, with cheerfulness and gladness

for what we can do under God, and let us do so in such an attitude that
people will see that there is something different about us. Thus we
commend ourselves to God and the people around.

Thus endeth the reading of the lesson: Pay your taxes.

Prayer

Our Father, we thank you for these practical words. How

eminently practical they are in our lives, how deeply
concerned you are even about such matters as this. Forgive us
for ever thinking that you aren’t concerned. Help us to be
good citizens, Lord, but above all, to be faithful to our
responsibility to show honor to those to whom honor is due,
and respect to those who deserve it. Even though they may not
personally be men and women deserving of our respect, the
office they hold demands it. Thus we pray that we may adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior. We ask in your name, Amen.

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Title: God’s Strange Servants

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 13:1-7
Message No: 32
Catalog No: 3532
Date: April 3, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
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made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE NIGHT IS NEARLY OVER

by Ray C. Stedman

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I am sure that many of you feel like I do about Easter. I love Easter --
the triumphal notes of the music, the joy it expresses. I love the hope
for which Easter stands, and even the time of year in which it comes,
with the beauty of the springtime flowers around us. I always look
forward to Easter. Even though I have sung the hymns nine times over
this morning, I still love and enjoy them. But I never go through an
Easter without feeling, at the end of each year, that something has been
missing. Some great truth has remained unexpressed. Somehow or other we
focus on some of the great and well-known themes of Easter and miss this
one which, in many ways, I think, is the greatest note of all in the
Easter Message.

I rejoice with you in singing that Jesus is alive again. The very
thought that he survived the grave, that he came back from death, is an
encouraging thought, and we rightly celebrate that all through this
Easter season. And I rejoice with you that we therefore have a hope
beyond the grave, that when we come to the end of life and stand at the
river of death, we can hear Jesus’ words, "Because I live, you shall
live also," {cf, John 14:19}. We can cry with the Apostle Paul, "O
death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" {cf,
I rejoice also that truth will surely live; that evil will not triumph
ultimately, but God’s goodness and truth shall reign throughout the
earth. But it seems to me that the true glory of this Easter message,
the greatest message that this day can have for us, is to remind us that
in the risen Lord Jesus we have an endless supply of power to love. That
is what Easter is all about -- the fact that we have an ability to love.
Love is the greatest need of the world today. I don’t think I have to
argue that point with you.

When Paul wrote this letter to the Romans in the capital city of the
Roman Empire, surely love was the thing that was most lacking in that
empire. These people, under the subjugation of a military machine and a
cruel, relentless emperor, needed desperately to learn how to love and
how to display love amidst the pressure and oppression of that day. This
was what was needed in the city of Corinth, with all its immoral sexual
practices and its abandonment to pleasure, the city from which Paul
wrote the letter to the Romans. In the midst of seeking after merriment
and pleasure the Corinthians needed to learn the gift of love. Love is
what is needed in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Los Altos, and
Sunnyvale, all up and down the Peninsula, across the Bay, across the
country, and around the world. The greatest need of men anywhere today
is to learn the secret of how to love. Love would make a difference.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to

love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has
fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery,"
"Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever
other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one
rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to
its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
{Rom 13:8-10 NIV}

Have you ever struggled to obey the Ten Commandments? Have you found it
difficult to face up to obeying these demands that you shall not murder
or lie or steal of commit adultery? Well, Paul says it is really easy.
All you have to do is love. Act in love toward people and you won’t hurt
them. You can’t. The solution to all the problems we struggle with is
this one thing. Have you ever thought of what would happen in this world
if people could be taught how to love -- and then they did it?

The first result that occurs to me is that all the impending divorces
would be happily resolved. Couples ready to split up because love has
left their marriage could go back together and learn how to work it out.
It wouldn’t automatically solve all their problems, but it would make
possible their solution. And think what would happen if all the divorces
that this country is facing today would suddenly cease to be, and homes
and families would be secure. What a tremendous thing that would be in
this country!

If we could teach people how to love we wouldn’t fight in wars. We

wouldn’t have to worry about disarmament. We could send the atom bombs
and nuclear explosives and missiles off into space somewhere and let
them join the rest of the space garbage. What a remarkable thing that
would be! Think of how much energy and money is being expended in
keeping up this endless array of armaments simply because we can’t trust
people to love each other. That is the whole problem.

If we could love each other, there wouldn’t be any more crime. The
streets of San Francisco would be safe to walk once more, and in all the
great cities of our land you would feel safe and secure -- if people
would learn to love. Of course, if there weren’t any crime, you wouldn’t
need any prisons. All the money we spend on prisons and reformatories
could be spent on something more useful. And you wouldn’t need any
courts of law, or police -- except to regulate traffic a little bit now
and then. We need all these things because we are so deprived in this
ability to love. And think what would happen to our tax burden if we
could get rid of all wars and crimes and police and courts! It would be
reduced to practically nothing! All the wealth that is poured into taxes
today could be used to spread beauty and harmony and sufficiency of
living to everybody on earth. Our biggest problem is our lack of love,
our inability to love one another. Everything we know in life revolves
around that problem.

This passage is telling us that the ability to love -- that and nothing
less than that -- is the radical force that Jesus Christ has turned
loose in this world by his resurrection. Therefore it has the power to
radically change the world. Notice what Paul says about this to these
Roman Christians.

He implies that this has to start with us. If we are Christians, if we

know Jesus Christ, we have the power to love. There is no doubt about
that. If you know him, then you have the power to love. You don’t have
to ask for it; you’ve got it. If you have Christ, you have the ability
to act in love, even though you are tempted not to. That is the whole
issue.

Therefore, Paul says, when you come up against people, when you rub
shoulders with them, remember that your first obligation is to love
them. Act in love. Show courtesy, kindness, patience, understanding,
longsuffering -- whatever it takes, whatever the scene demands, you can
show that. It is a debt you owe that person. That is the first thing
Paul says: "Owe no man anything but to love one another." Paul says very
plainly that we are to think of this as our obligation to everyone.

I wonder what kind of radical things would start happening among us if

we were to start living on this basis. Every day, every person we would
meet, we would say to ourselves first, "I need to show some love to this
person. No matter what else happens, I have an obligation to pay him
that debt."

I have owed money to people in my life, and I have noticed that whenever
I meet people I owe money to, that is the first thing that comes into my
mind. I remember the debt that I owe them, and I wonder if that is what
they are thinking about too. This is what Paul says we are to do about
love. We are to remember that we have an obligation to every man -- to
love him.

The second thing Paul says is that this obligation is to everyone. This
is designed for your neighbor. Who is your neighbor? You think
immediately of the people who live on each side of you. They are your
neighbors. Why? Because they live next door to you. They are in contact
with you. When you hear the word neighbor you think of them. But you can
see that it really includes everyone. The people sitting next to you now
are your neighbors. And so are the people you meet in business, and in
your shopping. Wherever you are, the people you make contact with are
living right beside you and are your neighbors for that moment. The word
to us is that, since we have the ability to love, we are to love our
neighbor as ourselves. The butcher, the baker, the cadillac maker -- it
doesn’t make any difference, they are your neighbors.

The third thing Paul says is that, when you love like this, you go
beyond the Law. The Law says to you, "Don’t injure your neighbor." You
can do what you like with you own property, but it stops at your
neighbor’s line. You can’t do what you like with his. If you do, you are
answerable to the law. But you see, love goes a step beyond that. It
doesn’t stop with the negative, "Don’t injure your neighbor"; it says,
"Do good to your neighbor." Love him, reach out to him, minister to him,
help him. It is simply impossible to help your neighbor and hurt him at
the same time. It is impossible to reach out to your neighbor and, at
the same time, injure him.

That is why, as Paul says, love will not sleep with your neighbor’s wife
or husband; love won’t commit adultery. Love will not murder your
neighbor, or poison his dog, or throw garbage over the fence into his
back yard, or do anything harmful to him. Love will not steal from your
neighbor, or even keep his lawn mower for more than a month. Love will
not covet what is your neighbor’s, it won’t drool over his pool, or stew
about his new Porsche. Love does not want what your neighbor has, but
rejoices with him over what he has. That is love. Love, therefore,
fulfills the Law. You don’t have to worry about keeping the Ten
Commandments; all you have to worry about is acting in love, paying the
debt that you owe every man, every woman, every child, every person you
meet. If you pay them the debt of love you will not injure them.

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come
for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is
nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly
over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of
darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave
decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness,
not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and
jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of
your sinful nature. {Rom 13:11-14 NIV}

The thing that strikes me about this paragraph is the opening words.
Love your neighbor, Paul says, pay the debt you owe him, understanding
the time. That is, there is something about the age in which we live
which, if you understand it, will compel you, motivate you, drive you to
love your neighbor. If you understand the times, you will be able to do
this. There are three things Paul points out about the times.

First, he says it is time to get going: "The hour has come for you to
wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when
we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here." It
is time to wake up, time to get going, time to look around and see all
the opportunities to love that abound around you.

I am amazed to see how many times in my own life I pass over the
opportunity to love. I am always looking for opportunities with other
people out there, further away. And yet I am surrounded in my own family
with opportunities to show love, even when it is difficult. It is to
love the unlovely that Christians are called. I am always amazed by how
easily people can want to help somebody further away and yet ignore the
present needs right around them.

A couple brought some clothes down to the church one day to take to the
Rescue Mission. The lady was very concerned about the poor people’s need
for proper clothing. But I noticed that her husband had to hold his
pants up with a nail. It struck me as very strange that people can get
so concerned about helping others when there is such an obvious need
right at hand. But that’s the way we are, isn’t it? Paul is telling us
to wake up and to look around, because every day holds opportunities for
us to pay this debt. If we wake up we can begin to see them.

Now, we don’t have a lot of time to do this. The time is short. As Paul
puts it, "our salvation is nearer than when we first believed." That is,
the deliverance to which we are looking, when Christ returns again, is
nearer than when we first believed. No one can argue with that. The
Christian message has been going for 1900 years -- but how much nearer
we have grown to the time when Christ is coming back! There is no doubt
about that. "The night is nearly over," Paul says, "the day is almost
here." On one occasion Jesus said, "I must work the works of my Father
while it is day. The night is coming, when no man can work," {cf, John
9:4}. Jesus was aware of the urgency of the time, and the fact that he
had to labor because the day was almost gone. On another occasion he
said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," {John
9:5 KJV}. That is what created the day. When Jesus was present on earth,
then it was daytime. But when he left us physically, when he was buried
in the grave, the night came. That night has been running on now for
1900 years. As the Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the
Colossians, "We Christians are to be like lights shining in the darkness
of the night," {cf, Phil 2:15}. The night is all around us, but the day
is about to come. The night is nearly over; the day is at hand.

You say, "Wait a minute. Paul wrote this letter 1900 years ago, and he
said it was nearly over then. How can we say that it is nearly over now?
How could it be nearly over then, when 1900 years have gone by?" When
you look at it from that point of view, it is difficult to understand.
But there is a sense here in which these words are always true of every
one of us. I am sure this is the way the apostle meant them for himself.
Regardless of whether or not this is the generation in which Jesus
Christ returns to fulfill his promise, the truth is that the night is
nearly over for every one of us.

I look out on this congregation and I see several gray heads. I have a
few gray hairs myself. And, for us, the night is nearly over; the day is
at hand. If we are ever going to love, it has to be now. We can’t wait
much longer. But how about you young people, fresh and strong and filled
with excitement and energy?

I often think of the words of George Bernard Shaw, "Youth is such a

wonderful thing, it’s a shame to waste it on the young."

But let me ask you young people, "How much time have you got left?" Who
knows? We live on the edge of eternity. The night may be nearly over for
any one of us, no matter whether we are old or young.

So the argument of the apostle is powerful. He is saying, "If you are

going to love, now is the time to do it. Now! You can’t wait for
tomorrow. You can’t plan on doing this after you graduate from school.
Start now. Now you must begin to love one another. "The night is nearly
over; the day is at hand."

The second thing we need to understand about time is that it is time to

give up some things: "So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put
on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in
orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in
dissension and jealousy." If you are going to live in love, then there
are some things that are going to have to go. There are some things that
are incompatible with love. You can’t do these things and love at the
same time. Facing that fact, there are some things that have to go, and
Paul has three categories of them.
1 The first one is, "Don’t live for endless pleasures. Give up orgies
and drunkenness." That covers a whole spectrum of things and means,
"Don’t devote your life to endless good times, things that you plan
over and over again for your own self-indulgence, an endless round
of parties or plays or concerts, opera, or even watching
television." You can’t love and do that. You are wasting your life.
You’ve got only so many precious moments to show this mighty power,
this release, this radical power of love. If you spend your moments
in endless self-indulgence, you will never be able to live in love.
1 Second, "Don’t live for sex." Sex is a powerful force that is
highly exploited today. We are constantly surrounded with silken
and sensuous temptations to give ourselves to. A new love affair, a
new romance, a new sexual liaison will satisfy us, please us,
fulfill us. That is what we are after. And the world urges us on to
try it. There is no harm in it, they tell us. Paul says there is.
He says if you live for these things, you can’t fulfill what God
wants you to fulfill. You will miss the excitement and the radical
glory of loving people. You can’t love people and live for sex.
Paul covers the whole range of immorality here -- fornication,
adultery, homosexuality, pornography. You can’t indulge in these
things and love; you will hurt people. You will hurt yourself. You
will destroy others and destroy yourself. This is so essential that
in order to experience the glory of what God wants, you have to lay
aside these cheapened, tawdry things. I like what

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink

and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us.
Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies
in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the
offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily
pleased.
 This is what Paul calls us away from.
2 The third category is this: "Don’t live for strife, causing
dissension and jealousy." Again, it is amazing to me how many
people get kicks out of being the cause of dissension. They can’t
seem to enjoy themselves unless they get people fighting and upset
and angry -- either with them or with one another. It is amazing
how many Christians do this. I remember a word of Jesus which has
always helped me very much when I am tempted along these lines. He
said, "He that is with me gathers; but he that is against me
scatters," {cf, Matt 12:30, Luke 11:23}. There is a way to measure
your life. What is your effect upon people? Do you harmonize them?
Do you gather them together? Are they noticeably happier because
you have come in? Or do strife, division, and separation
immediately begin to break out because you are there? What is your
life doing? That is the way you can tell whether you are with Jesus
or against him. If you are with him, you gather people; if you are
against him, you scatter them.

So Paul says it is not only time to get going, and time to give up, but
it is time to put on, above all else: "Rather, clothe yourselves with
the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to satisfy the desires
of your sinful nature."

When I got up this morning I put on my clothes. And so did you, I

notice. I put on my clothes with the intention that they would be part
of me all this day, that they would go where I go and do what I do. They
will cover me and make me presentable to others. That is the purpose of
clothes.

In the same way, the apostle is saying to us, "Put on Jesus Christ when
you get up in the morning. Make him a part of your life that day. Intend
that he go with you everywhere you go, and that he act through you in
everything you do. Call upon his resources. Live your life in Christ."
That is the way to love.

Notice that Paul uses the full name of Christ, "the Lord Jesus Christ."
I think he does this deliberately, because Lord stands for his power to
rule, his authority, his power to change and alter events, and control
history, "to open and no man shuts; to shut and no man opens," {cf, Rev
3:7}. When you put on Jesus Christ, you are putting on a power to
operate and change events and effect people that you don’t have without
him.

When you put on Jesus , you are putting on the capacity to love. Read
the Gospels and you will find that the striking thing about Jesus of
Nazareth was his ability to love. He would put his hand on a loathsome
leper to heal him, even though the law forbade that. He would reach out
to a lost woman or a drunkard and speak a healing word in their lives.
He treated the lowly the same as he did the higher-ups. He loved people.
Everywhere people were struck with him. When you put on Jesus, that is
what you are putting on -- the capacity to love.

When you put on Christ , you are putting on the power to deliver. Christ
is the word for anointed ; it means Messiah . It refers to his work.
Christ came to deliver us, to set us free. And when you put on Christ,
you have an amazing power to free yourself and others from what they are
going through.

So put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Remind yourself of his presence all
through the day. Reckon on his power to supply love when you begin to
obey the command to love. When you start to pay the obligation, he will
supply the power to do so. And, as Paul says, "Do not think about how to
gratify the desires of your sinful nature." Stop doing that, planning
for evil and self-indulgence. That always ends in strife and rivalry and
jealousy and debauchery. But rather, learn to love by putting on the
Lord Jesus Christ.

These words have forever been made famous by their connection with the
conversion of Saint Augustine. Augustine was a young man in the fourth
century who was what we would call a swinger. He lived a wild, carousing
life, running around with evil companions, doing everything they were
doing. He forbade himself nothing, went into anything and everything.
And, as people still do today, he came to hate himself for it. One day
he was with his friend in a garden, and he walked up and down, bemoaning
his inability to change. "O, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! How can I
free myself from these terrible urges within me that drive me to the
things that hurt me!" And in his despair, as he walked in the garden, he
suddenly heard what he thought was the voice of a child -- perhaps some
children were playing in the garden next door -- and the voice said,
"Take and read, take and read." He could not remember any children’s
games with words like that, but the words stuck. He went back to the
table and found lying on it a copy of Paul’s letter to the Romans. He
flipped it open, and these were the words he read:

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies, and

drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in
dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the
Lord Jesus Christ, ... {Rom 13:13-14a NIV}

Augustine said that at that moment he opened his life to Christ. He had
known about him, but had never surrendered to him. But that moment he
did, and he felt the healing touch from Christ cleansing his life. He
was never the same man again. He went on to become one of the greatest
Christians of all time -- Saint Augustine.

A couple of weeks ago Eldridge Cleaver was telling me about his days as
a Black Panther. He said that while he was a Black Panther he was filled
with a terrible, roiling feeling of hatred and violence against any law
enforcement agency. He couldn’t help himself. Every time he would get
with them he would feel this terrible sense of anger and murder and rage
within him. It made him the leader of the Black Panthers, the violent
militants of the early ’60s. But a year or so ago, in the south of
France, in a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, he had a vision,
an inner view, of the face of Jesus Christ, coming out of his boyhood to
and over again. He said that ever since that time on the balcony, he had
never had that feeling of hatred again. He has looked for it, and
expected it, but instead there has been a feeling of love for everyone
he meets.

Now, that is what Jesus Christ is capable of doing. He gives us all the
power to love. If we but choose to exercise this power in the moment
that needs it, we can release in this world this radical, radical force
that has the power to change everything around us. It will change our
homes, our lives, our communities, our nations, the world -- because a
risen Lord is available to us, to live through us.
 Let us be Christ’s men from head to foot, and give no chance
to the flesh to have its fling. {Rom 13:14

That is the way to live.

Prayer

Our Father, there may be some here this morning who have never
surrendered themselves to this living, loving Lord. On this
Easter morning we pray that this may be their spiritual
birthday, that right now as we are praying, they will open
their lives to you and say, "Lord Jesus, come in, be my Lord.
Rule in my life, and give to me this amazing ability to love."
We ask in his name, Amen.

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Title: The Night is Nearly Over

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 13:8-14
Message No: 33
Catalog No: 3533
Date: April 10, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

ON TRYING TO CHANGE OTHERS

by Ray C. Stedman

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We are back in the fourteenth chapter of Romans this morning, and we are
going to be discussing the favorite indoor sport of Christians, that is,
trying to change each other. As this passage indicates, this has been a
major problem in the church for centuries. All through the history of
the church, the problem arises from the attitude that most of us share,
I am sure, that God is clearly pleased with the way we live -- but there
are those others around. They drink beer and play cards; they go to
movies; they smoke cigars; they work on Sundays; they wear lipstick;
they dance; they play musical instruments; they use zippers instead of
buttons. There is an endless list of things that can be included,
debatable matters that the church has never been able to settle because
of a misunderstanding of the principles that are set forth here in this
very passage.

We are dealing, of course, with the problem of Christian taboos, all the
no-no’s of the Christian life that we encounter from place to place, and
from time to time. We are facing the question of how much fellowship you
can have with somebody who lives in a different way than you do, who
does things that you do not approve of as a Christian.

This is the problem of Christian ethics, the problem of so-called

legalistic behavior, and this passage is a rather extensive one, which
indicates the extent of the problem. The passage runs all the way

But we are not going to try to cover all that this morning. I want to
look at just the introduction to it and to see the principle that will
lead us to a solution of this problem. I think it is very important to
note that this whole section dealing with this problem is part of an
extended commentary of the Apostle Paul on the command of Jesus to love
one another. This is part of how you love one another, and this has been
the subject ever since the apostle turned to the practical part of this

1 First, love must be serving. That is its nature; love serves. That
is why we are given spiritual gifts, so that we might serve one
1 Second, he tells us that love must be genuine. It cannot be phony
or sham; it cannot be "put-on" love. It has to be real.

especially to the authorities, to the state, and the powers that be,
because they are put there by God. And in the latter part of
to everyone without exception. "Owe no man anything, but to love one
another," {Rom 13:8a KJV}. That is a universal debt which we must
continually be paying to everyone we meet.

of other people’s views. It begins with our actions towards someone whom
we regard as less enlightened than ourselves. Think about who that is
for a moment and then listen to what Paul says to do about it

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on

disputable matters. {Rom 14:1 NIV}

That is very plain, isn’t it? Do not reject him; do not ignore him; do
not treat him in a second-class way. Accept him, but not for the purpose
of arguing with him. Do not accept him in order to debate with him, but
"without passing judgment on disputable matters."

To "accept him," of course, means that regardless of where you may

struggle with someone and about what you may struggle, you must realize
that they are brothers and sisters in the family of God, if they are
Christians at all. You did not make them part of the family -- the Lord
did. Therefore, you are to accept them because they are your brothers
and sisters. And you are not to accept them with the idea of immediately
straightening them out in the areas in which they are weak. I think that
is a very necessary, practical admonition because many of us love to
argue and sometimes the first thing we want to do is straighten somebody
out.

I remember years ago when, after preaching from this platform on a

Sunday night, a man came up to me and started talking in a rather
roundabout way. He said, "Let me ask you something. Do you believe that
two Christians who love the Lord and are led by the Holy Spirit will
read a passage of Scripture and both come out believing the same thing?"
I said, "Yes I think that sounds logical." "Well," he said, "can you
explain why, when I read the passage you preached on tonight, I believe
it teaches there will be no millennium, but when you read it, you
believe there is going to be one. What do you think of that?"

Being young and aggressive I said, "Well, I think it means that I

believe the Bible and you do not." That immediately precipitated an
argument and, with several other people gathered around, we went at it
hammer and tongs for an hour or so.

Afterwards, thinking it through, I realized how wrong I was. I had

immediately started arguing. I had to write to that brother and tell him
that I was sorry I had jumped on him like that. Of course, he had jumped
on me, too, but that was his problem, not mine. I had to straighten out
my problem, so I apologized to him and said, "I am sorry that I did not
recognize the parts where we agree before we got on to those things over
which we differ."

Paul wants us to understand that this is what we are to do. First of

all, accept people, let them know that you see them as a brother or a
sister. Establish the boundaries of your relationship by some gesture or
word of acceptance so they do not feel that you are attacking them
immediately.

The Greek here says not to accept them in order to argue about your
differences, or, as the New English Bible puts it, "without attempting
to settle doubtful points." First, let there be a basic recognition that
you belong to one another.

Paul goes on to define more precisely the areas of debate that he has in

One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man,
whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. {Rom 14:2 NIV}

Did you hear that, you vegetarians? This is not dealing with nutrition,
of course. This arises out of the background of the early church in
which there was a real moral question about eating meat. Not only were
there the Jewish restrictions against certain forms of meat -- Jews did
not eat pork, and even beef and lamb had to be kosher -- but it had to
be slain in a certain way. So a Jew, or even one raised as a Jew, after
he became a Christian, always had great emotional difficulty in eating
meat. I still wonder what the Apostle Paul’s reaction was when, as a
Christian, he was first handed a ham sandwich. I think he ate it, but I
do not know what his feeling about it was. He may have struggled at that
point.

Then there was the problem in Rome and in other pagan Greek and Roman
cities about the matter of eating meat that had been offered to idols.
Some Christians said that if you did that it was tantamount to
worshipping that idol. You were no different than the people who
worshipped and believed in the idol, and therefore, it placed a stigma
on your faith to eat meat that had been offered to idols.

Other Christians said, "Oh, no. How can that be? Meat is meat. The fact
that someone else thinks of it as offered to idols does not mean that I
have to." In these pagan cities the best meat was sold in the butcher
shop next to the temple because that is where the sacrifices were sold
to the populace, who bought it without any question. So there was a real
problem in the church.

As in every area of this type, there were two viewpoints. There was a
liberal, broad viewpoint that said it was perfectly all right to do
this, and a stricter, narrower viewpoint that said it was wrong to do
this. It really does not make any difference what you are arguing about
if it is in this area that is debatable -- something about which the
Scriptures themselves do not speak -- then you always get this two-fold
division. You can put many of the modern problems that we have into this
category. Should you drink wine and beer; should you go to the movies;
should you dance; what about card-playing; what about work on Sunday?
Some of the things I have already mentioned fall into this category.

Let us be very clear that there are areas that Scripture speaks about
that are not debatable at all. It is always wrong to be drunk. It is
always wrong to commit adultery or fornicate. These things are clearly
wrong. In both the Old and New Testaments, God has spoken, he has
judged, in these areas.

Christians are exhorted to rebuke and exhort and reprove one another,
and, if necessary, even discipline one another according to patterns set
out in the Scriptures. This is not judging each other in those areas.
The Word of God has judged; it has already pronounced what is wrong.

But there are all those other areas that are left open, and the amazing
thing to me, and the significant thing here, is that Scripture always
leaves those open. Paul will not give a "yes" or "no" answer about some
of these things because God does not do so. There is an area, in other
words, where God wants to leave it up to the individual as to what he or
she does. And, as we see later on, he expects it to be based upon a deep
conviction of that individual. But it is up to them. This is the area
Paul is talking about here.

It is also clear that he calls the "liberal party" strong in the faith,
while the "narrow party" is regarded as being weak in the faith.

I point out that the translation that I am reading from, the New
where it translates: "Accept him whose faith is weak, ..." It has
nothing to do with the strength or weakness of the individual’s faith.
It is not talking about someone whose faith is weak. It is talking about
someone who is weak in the faith. The problem is doctrinal here. The
problem is that he does not understand truth. Remember, Jesus himself
said, "If anyone continue in my word, he shall be my disciple indeed and
he shall know the truth and the truth will set him free," {cf, John
8:31-32 KJV}.
Therefore, the mark of understanding truth is freedom; it is liberty.
That is why Paul calls the person who understands truth clearly one who
is strong in the faith, while those who do not understand it clearly are
weak in the faith. They do not understand the delivering character of
truth.

I think William Barclay in his commentary on Romans has handled this

well. He says:

Such a man is weak in the faith for two reasons. (i) He has
not yet discovered the meaning of Christian freedom; he is at
heart still a legalist; he sees Christianity as a thing of
rules and regulations. His whole aim is to govern his life by
a series of laws and observances; he is indeed frightened of
Christian freedom and Christian liberty. (ii) He has not yet
liberated himself from a belief in the efficacy of works. In
his heart he believes that he can gain God’s favor by doing
certain things and abstaining from doing others. Basically he
is still trying to earn a right relationship with God, and has
not yet accepted the way of grace. He is still thinking of
what he can do for God more than of what God has done for him.

That is the problem here. It is the problem of a Christian who is not

yet understanding fully the freedom that Christ has brought him, who
struggles with these kinds of things, and who feels limited in his
ability to indulge or to use some of these things -- while others feel
free to do so. One is strong in the faith; the other is called weak in
the faith. Every church has these groups. We have them right here. Paul
puts his finger precisely on the natural attitudes which each group
would have toward each other that must be avoided if we are going to
accept one another as he says.

The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does
not, ... {Rom 14:3a NIV}

That is the first thing. In other words, the strong must not reject the
one who is still struggling, who is still weak. The word "look down"
here is really a word that means "push him out." The strong must not
push him out; they must not exclude him. That involves several things:

First, it means that he must not think about him in a disdainful or

contemptuous way. He must not let himself look down on these people.

I think this is a tendency that some of us have who feel that we are
free in certain of these areas. We tend to regard those who are not yet
free as weaklings, which in some sense they are. But we are not to
regard them as deliberately so, as if it is their own fault that they
are that way. Thus we get offended when they do not behave as freely as
we think they should. This is wrong. Paul says, "The strong must not
reject the weak." You must not think wrongly about him. You must not say
wrong things about him. You must not ridicule him.

Someone has defined a legalist as someone who lives in mortal terror

that someone, somewhere, is enjoying himself. But we must not think of
legalists that way, because that is not the motivation that governs them
and creates legalism in their attitude. There is another reason and,
therefore, we must limit ourselves to that, and not think of them as
motivated simply because they want to spoil it for everyone else.

We are not to exclude these people from our contacts with one another.
We must not form little cliques within the church that shut out people
from social fellowship with people who have different viewpoints. We
must not think of our group as being set free while this group over here
is very narrow and we have nothing to do with them.

This is wrong, and Paul clearly says so. In fact, he implies that if any
of the so-called strong exclude weaker brothers, look down on them,
treat them as though they are second-class Christians, they have simply
proved that they are just as weak in the faith as the ones they have
denied. Strength in the faith means more than understanding truth. It
means living in a loving way with those who are weak: The truly strong
in the faith will never put down those who are still struggling.

On the other hand, the apostle goes on:

... the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the
man who does, for God has accepted him. {Rom 14:3b NIV}

Here is the other side of it. Those who struggle must not look down on
those who have freedom in these areas. Those who think it is morally
wrong for a Christian to drink wine or beer must not look down on those
who feel free to do so. They must not judge them. The word "condemn"
means to sit in judgment on them and it involves several things.

It involves, first, no criticizing of such people or censoring of them.

We are not to go up to them and tell them, "I do not see how you can be
a Christian and do things like that." That has nothing to do with being
a Christian. Their Christianity is established on grounds other than
those.

It means no categorizing of such people, no classifying them as carnal

Christians or reproving or rebuking them. In these areas we have no
rights to reprove or rebuke. The church has no authority in these areas.
It means no legislating against them; no imposing of behavioral
standards or codes without the agreement of all those who are affected
by them. These are areas in which the Scriptures say we are to make up
our own minds and we are to go along only with that with which we agree.

Now, there are sometimes good reasons for limitations. We will go into
some of them as we get further into this section next week. But they
must be reasons which the individual accepts and makes. They are not to
be imposed upon him by others, that is the point. What has happened
often in the church is that those who are weak in the faith, i.e., those
who do not fully understand the freedom in Christ, are the majority
party and they often make artificial standards for Christians and impose
them on everybody who comes into the church, with the implication that
you really cannot be a Christian unless you do these things or do not do
these things.

That has given rise to a tremendous distortion of Christianity in the

eyes of the world. It has given rise to the idea that Christianity is a
"do not do something" idea, a "don’t" religion. This distorts the
freedom that is the message of the gospel. It propagates the feeling
that Christianity is a set of rules to be obeyed, and the freedom of the
sons of God is denied. The world therefore, gets a totally false idea of
what the church is all about.

This has happened widely in our day and for the most part, I think, the
"narrow party" has triumphed in the evangelical churches. This is why
many people will not touch the church with a 25-foot pole, even though
they are fantastically interested in the gospel. They see the church as
having imposed standards and rules of conduct that have nothing to do
with the Scriptures. These are artificial regulations that only the
church has brought about.

Now, as a fourth main point, we come to the reason that governs this
central part of this section. The apostle sets forth three great facts,
all supporting and explaining the great principle involved.

The first reason why you must not look down on the weak or judge or
condemn the strong is because it is not your responsibility to change
your brother in this area. He is not your servant. This is what Paul

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master
he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to
make him stand. {Rom 14:4 NIV}

That is very plain, is it not? The reason we are not to judge each other
is that we are not responsible for one another’s conduct in this area.
Such responsibility is not defined in the Scriptures. This is an open
area that each one has to decide before God, and, therefore, we have no
responsibility to change each other and no authority to do so.

He is not your servant, Paul says; the Lord chose him. The Lord, then,
is the one responsible to change him. The Lord chose him without asking
you or me. Half of you would not be here if I were choosing you! Oh, I
do not know about that. I do not know you that well. But I did not
choose you, therefore I do not have to change you, either. Nor do you
have to change me. We are not responsible for each other in this area.

consideration is being changed. He is on his way to standing. He will

stand, Paul says. "Stand," of course, means that he will be straightened
out if he is doing wrong in this area. If it is really wrong, God will
straighten him out and it is not up to you to do it. This is why I enjoy
so much that little pin that Bill Gothard gives out with the letters
is, "Please be patient, God is not finished with me yet."

We are all in the process of change. The Lord is doing it, and he will
do it. He is changing us, and if we will just wait a little while we can
see some of the changes. Now, if the problem is one of not understanding
truth, the solution is teaching the truth more plainly. As people hear
it and understand it, they will be freed from this. To try to force them
into some kind of compliance with something they yet do not understand
is ridiculous and futile. Therefore, be patient. If they are being
exposed to truth, they will change. Let the Lord change them; it is his
responsibility. Not only will he do so, but he is perfectly able to do
so. God is able to do it. I like Phillips’ translation here. He says,
"God is well able to transform men into servants who are satisfactory."
That is exactly what Paul is relying on here.

Now, if the first point is that it is not your responsibility to change

these people, the second one is that God is reading the heart and he

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another
man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully
convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special,
does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for
he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the
Lord, and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself
alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we
live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So,
whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. {Rom 14:5-8
NIV}

That is a very impressive point. What Paul is saying is that God can
read hearts and you cannot. These distinctions and differences of
viewpoint arise out of honest conviction which God sees, even though you
cannot. Therefore, the individual is not simply being difficult because
he does not agree with you. He is acting on the basis of what he feels
is right, so give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

Believe that he is as intent on being real before God and true to him as
you are, and if he feels able to indulge in some of these things you
think are not right, then at least see him as doing so because he really
feels that God is not displeased with him on that basis. Or, if he does
feel limited and he feels he should not do certain things, do not get
upset with him because he has not moved into freedom yet. Remember that
he really feels that God would be displeased if he did those things; it
is an honest conviction. The apostle makes clear here that every man
should have that kind of a conviction, if he acts this way. "Let every
man be fully persuaded in his own heart," {cf, Rom 14:4b KJV}.

Do not just act from tradition, because you were brought up that way or
because you just feel it is right. Find some reason in the Scripture for
it. Seek justification out of the Word of God. You may change your mind
as your understanding of truth develops, but at least let it be on the
ground of a conviction of the heart and of the mind.

The next thing Paul says is that God sees both of these men and both of
these viewpoints as honoring him. The one who thinks Sunday is a special
day that ought to be kept different from all other days is doing so as
unto the Lord, therefore honor that, respect that viewpoint. The one who
says, "No. When we are in Christ, days do not mean anything. They are
not set aside for any special purpose. Therefore, I feel every day is
alike, and I want to honor the Lord on every day." Okay, do not feel
upset at that. He is doing so out of a deep conviction of his heart.

The one who drinks beer gives thanks to God for the refreshment of it
and the taste of it, and it is perfectly proper that he does so. The one
who says, "No. I cannot drink beer. I only drink coffee," gives thanks
for the coffee. The coffee may do as much physical harm as the beer,
but, in either case, it is not a moral question. It is a question of
what the heart is doing in the eyes of God. Sometimes we are too harsh
with one another in these areas.

I heard some time ago of a girl who was a converted nightclub singer, a
fresh, new Christian, who was asked to sing at a church meeting. She
wanted to do her very best for the Lord whom she had come to love, and
so she dressed up the best way she knew how and she sang a song that she
thought was expressive of her faith. She did it in the "torchy" style of
the nightclub singer. Somebody came up to her afterwards and just ripped
into her and said, "How can you sing a song like that and claim to be a
Christian? God could never be happy with a Christian who dresses the way
you do, and to sing in that kind of a nightclub style must be offensive
to him." The poor girl was so taken back, she just stood there for a
minute, and she broke into tears, and turned and ran.

Now, that was a wrong and hurtful thing to do to her. Granted, later on
she might have changed her style, but God has the right to change her,
not you. Her heart was right and God saw the heart and honored it. I
think that was something he was pleased with, not displeased. We must
remember that we are not to make distinctions where God would not.

The last thing Paul says in this area is that our relationship with one
another is more important than our life style (Verses 7, 8): "For none
of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we
live, we live to the Lord; and if die, we die to the Lord. So, whether
we live or die, we belong to the Lord." Basically, what Paul is saying
there is simply that living is liberty and dying is limitation. In the
context, this is surely what this means. He is not talking about
funerals, and life and death in that sense. He is talking about those
who feel free to enjoy liberty to the fullest. They are living, while
others, because of deep convictions of their own, limit themselves, and
to that degree they are dying, because death is limitation.

"But whether we live," Paul says, "or whether we die, that is not the
important thing. The important thing is that we belong to the Lord. He
understands." That, therefore, is what we ought to remember in our
relationships with one another. We belong to the Lord. We are brothers
and sisters. We are not servants of each other. We are servants of the
Lord and he has the right to change us.

The third and final fact that supports this governing principle is that

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that
he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You,
then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down
on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment
seat. It is written:
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
{Rom 14:9-12 NIV}

That is clearly stating the fact, again, that the Lord alone has the
right to judge us in these areas and he has the ability to do so because
he has been involved in both death and life. He died, so he knows what
ultimate and utter limitation is. He gave himself up to death and he
deliberately restricted himself in many things so that he knows what
that is like. And he lives, so he is free to do anything and everything
that he desires, and he knows what that is like. Therefore, he alone has
won the right to judge us. He understands us both.

So Paul says, "Stop trying to take his place. Stop trying to be Christ
to the rest of the church or playing God to each other. You, the weak,
why do you judge your brother? And you, the strong, why do you look down
on your brother? It is wrong. You are trying to take Christ’s place when
you do that. But remember that all of us, men and women alike, all
brothers and sisters together, must individually stand before God’s
judgment seat."

This is true in both a present and future sense. There is a sense in

which we are before him all the time and we have to give an account to
him and to him alone. But there is also coming a day that Paul mentions
the things that we thought nobody ever saw will be brought out to the
light. We must then give an account to the Lord.

That is where we stand. Again, Paul sums up everything in the first

part: We are not servants of each other; we are brothers and sisters; we
are all struggling; we are all in the process; we are all subject to
change; we are all trying to understand truth more clearly as we go on
and we are all being freed by it. But, in the process, the only one who
has a right to do anything about it is the Lord. So stop judging each
other in these areas. That is what Paul is saying.

There are other things we need to explore in this area, and later in the
section which we will take up next week, Paul goes further into them to
show us how we are to carry them out.

But here is the great principle: In these areas we are to quit judging
one another; quit treating each other with disdain and contempt and
ridicule and separating from one another. We are to love one another and
show it by accepting one another.
Prayer

Thank you, our Father, for these searching words which make us
all feel a bit guilty. We have all been guilty of this,
whether strong or weak. We have judged our brother, and
condemned him. Forgive us for that, Lord. Help us to see that
we have been usurping your place, Lord Jesus, in doing so.
Help us to stop that, and to begin to answer only for
ourselves before your throne, and upholding and praying for
our brother or sister if we feel they need it. Grant to us,
Lord, that illuminating understanding of truth that sets us
free. We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Title: On Trying to Change Others

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 14:1-12
Message No: 34
Catalog No: 3534
Date: May 29, 1977

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE RIGHT TO YIELD

by Ray C. Stedman

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question of different views on such matters as dietary restrictions

(whether it is all right to eat meat at certain times or days, or
whether we should be free from that); on ritual regulations (such as
observance of Sunday or other special days, such as Lent); on
ceremonies; and especially, personal preferences in the matter of
drinking wine and beer and alcohol, smoking, movies, cosmetics, or
whatever.

We are right in the middle of the apostle’s treatment of these kinds of

problems, and I remind you that this all comes in one great section,
matters, showing how much they were a problem in the early church, as
they are in churches today.

The section falls naturally into three divisions:

1 What you must not do about these things;
2 What you can do about them; and
3 What happens when you handle them in the right way.

Last week, we looked at what you must not do. We saw that the apostle
tells us that we must not criticize or condemn each other in these
matters. There is an area of freedom in anyone’s life which only God has
the right to correct. We must not judge each other in these matters; we
must not try to regulate one another’s conduct by legislation, by
majority rule, or by artificial codes of behavior. These methods are
wrong because, as Paul brought out, they are taking the place of Christ.
He alone has the right to judge. He alone has the right to criticize or
condemn in these areas. And he will do so. Therefore, when Christians
take this on themselves, they are usurping the place of Christ. I think
that argument was very clear.

This morning we want to look at what you can do about these matters; how
we are to behave toward one another in these areas.

Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another. [That

summarizes what we have covered so far: we are not to judge
one another.] Instead, make up your mind not to put any
stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. {Rom 14:13
NIV}

I have always appreciated the fact that Scripture is never merely

negative. It never says, "Do not do something," without suggesting a
positive action to take its place. If all the apostle had to say was,
"Stop judging," that would be like saying to someone, "Do not worry,"
which is a futile thing to say, unless you give them a basis on which
they can stop worrying. If you try to stop worrying without any reason
for doing so, you will find yourself worrying all the more; that is the
nature of worry. Someone said,

The worry cow would have lived till now,

If only she’d saved her breath.
But she got so afraid she was going to worry,
That she worried half to death!

Scripture never says anything like that. It does not merely say, "Stop
judging"; it says, "Stop judging, but, if you want to judge, fine! Start
with yourself; judge yourself." Are you pushing liberty so hard, are you
insisting on your rights in certain areas, and your freedom to indulge
in something, that you are upsetting others and forcing them to act
beyond their own conscience? That is what you ought to judge. What is
the effect upon others of your attitudes about some of these things?

The apostle goes on to give us two reasons why we must not judge others,
but must judge ourselves first in this area.

As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no

food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as
unclean, then for him it is unclean. {Rom 14:14 NIV}

Now, there is a fundamental, psychological insight into life that

governs our behavior in these areas, or it ought to. It is one thing to
be free yourself to partake of something that others are not free to
indulge in. And, like the apostle, you may have arrived at that by some
direct teaching of Scripture, even as Paul did in the case of the Lord
Jesus himself.

Actually, it does not really say in the Greek text, as this version
translates it, "As one who is in the Lord Jesus," that is, as one
speaking as a Christian. What Paul really says is, "As one who has been
taught by the Lord Jesus, no food is unclean in itself." The Lord Jesus
did say that. It was he who said, "No food is unclean." He does not mean
that all foods are good for you; some foods are not; some things you can
eat are highly poisonous. Jesus does not mean that everything is all
right to take in; he means that there is no moral question about food.
It is never wrong, morally, to eat what your body may enjoy. Jesus
taught that himself, and Paul says, "That is enough for me. That sets me
free."

But that is not the only problem involved. The conscience needs to be
trained by this new insight into liberty. One person’s conscience may
move much slower than another’s, therefore, we are to adjust to one
another’s needs along this line.

I liken this to crossing a swinging bridge over a mountain stream. There

are people who can run across a bridge like that, even though it does
not have any handrails. They are not alarmed by it, they can keep their
balance well. They are not concerned about the swaying of the bridge, or
the danger of falling into the torrent below. That is fine; some people
can do that. But others cannot. You watch them go out on a bridge like
that, and they are very uncertain. They shake and tremble; they inch
along. They may even get down on their hands and knees and crawl across.
But they will make it if you just give them time, if you let them set
their own speed. After a few crossings, they begin to pick up courage,
and eventually they are able to run right across.

It is like that with these moral questions. Some people just cannot see
themselves moving in a certain area that they have been brought up to
think is wrong; they have difficulty doing so. As in the case of the
swinging bridge, it would be cruel for someone who had the freedom to
cross boldly to take the arm of someone who was timid and drag them
across, to force them to run across. They might even lose their balance
and fall off the bridge and suffer injury.

If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are

no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your
brother for whom Christ died. {Rom 14:15 NIV}

It is wrong to do that. It is not loving to force people to move at your

pace. To refuse to indulge a freedom that you have for the sake of
someone else, to adjust to their pace, is surely one of the clearest and
truest exercises of Christian love. That is what the apostle urges us to
do here.

The second thing Paul says in this regard is that the issue of freedom
versus non-freedom does not really demand unyielding firmness. There are
some issues that do demand that. There are certain doctrines in the
Scriptures we are to stand fast on, and refuse to let anyone change us
on. But not on one of these questions. We are not to take that kind of

Do not allow what you consider as good to be spoken of as

evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and
 drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is
pleasing to God and approved by men. {Rom 14:16-18 NIV}

If you are going to create division by arguing so hard for your rights,
or your freedom, or by flaunting your liberty in the face of those who
do not agree with it, then you are distorting the gospel itself, Paul
argues. He actually uses the word "blaspheme." You are causing that
which is good, Paul says, the good news about Christ, to be blasphemed
because you are making too much of an issue over a minor matter. You are
insisting that your rights are so important that you have to divide the
church over them, or separate from a brother or sister who does not
believe as you do. That is saying to the watching world around that
Christianity consists of whether you do, or do not do, a certain thing.

I heard of a church some time ago that got into an unholy argument over
whether they ought to have a Christmas tree at their Christmas program.
Some thought that a tree was fine; others thought it was a pagan
practice, and they got so angry at each other that they actually got
into fist fights over it. One group dragged the tree out, then the other
group dragged it back in. They ended up suing each other in a court of
law and, of course, the whole thing was spread in the newspapers for the
entire community to read. What else could non-Christians conclude other
than that the gospel consists of whether you have a Christmas tree or
not? They made such an important issue over it, they were ready to
physically attack one another.

Paul says that is utterly wrong. The main point of the Christian faith
is not eating or drinking or Christmas trees. The main point is
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. A non-Christian,
looking at a Christian, ought to see these things, not wrangling and
disputing and fighting and law courts, but righteousness.

You have seen that word, "righteousness" many times in Romans, and you
know what it means. It means God’s gift of a sense of worth about
yourself. It means that, because of the death of Jesus on your behalf,
you are loved by him; you are accepted by him; you are a valuable person
in his sight. In fact, he cheerfully and delightedly calls you his
beloved child. That is righteousness, and from it, when we understand
that, comes a sense of dignity, a sense of self-respect. That is what
the world ought to see. The world ought to see you confident as to who
you are, with that kind of underlying assurance that is without conceit;
that shows you have a basis of self-acceptance that the world knows
nothing about.

The second thing the world ought to see is peace. That comes across
visibly as a kind of calmness, an inner core of unflappability that is
undisturbed by the minor irritations of the moment. It is that quiet and
calm assurance that God is present in the situation; that he will work
it out for his glory, and therefore, we need not get upset or angry, or
vindictive toward someone.

It is hard for the world to get that impression of peace and calmness if
they see two people screaming at one another over what they disagree on.
That does not look very calm. The important thing, therefore, is that
you manifest that gift of God, which is peace.

The third element is joy. These three always go together: righteousness,

peace, and joy; they are gifts of God. They do not come from you; they
come from him. Joy is that delight in life that always finds life
worthwhile, even though it may be filled with problems. Joy, in a
Christian, does not come from circumstances.

I was down south a couple of weeks ago, and I met a lady who has been
lying in her bed for 13 years. She has arthritis so bad that her joints
are disconnected and she cannot even raise her hands. But the smile on
her face, the joy that is evident in her, is an outstanding witness to
the fact that joy of this kind is a gift of God. It comes out of
relationship, not out of circumstance. She has a tremendous ministry to
the community around her because of that.

Paul is saying that if that is what you have discovered, if that is the
center of your focus and interest, then you can easily give up some
momentary indulgence in a pleasure that you enjoy and are free to
participate in, if it is going to bother someone, or upset someone, or
make them move beyond their own conscience.

Sometimes, when you enter a main highway, you see a sign that says
"YIELD." Now, I would not suggest that you steal one of those, but it
would be good if you could make one and put it up in your dining room.
That is a Christian philosophy -- to yield, to give way. Do not insist
on your rights under these circumstances.

What should guide us in that? Paul takes it up more fully in the second

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace

and to mutual edification. {Rom 14:19 NIV}

There are the guidelines. Enjoy your liberties, indulge them wherever
you desire, if you do so in such a way that you do not destroy peace, or
mutual building up in truth, or arrest the learning process for someone
else. Paul enlarges on these guidelines for us. Whenever you are doing
something that threatens the peace of a community, or a church, or a
group, or an individual, so that they cannot handle it, so that they
become angry and upset, then back off. You who are strong, bear that
burden. Do not insist on your rights.

Some Christians get so intent on having their rights that I have seen
them indulge in the very presence of people they knew would be highly
offended by what they did, simply because they wanted to show how free
they were. Paul says that kind of thing is absolutely wrong. He goes on
to say,

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. {Rom
14:20a NIV}

Peace is the work of God. Nothing can produce lasting peace among
people, especially those of different cultural backgrounds, except the
work of God. It is the Spirit of God who produces peace. So, if for the
sake of some right that you have, some liberty you feel, you destroy
that peace, you are destroying what God has brought about. Do not do
that. It is not worth it.

The apostle’s second guideline is that you stop exercising your liberty
whenever it arrests someone else’s learning process. All Christians
ought to examine these issues more and more. They ought to investigate
for new truth from the Word, in a sense, constantly keeping an open mind
on these matters. And they will, if you do not push them too hard. But
if someone flaunts his liberty in such a way as to anger people and
upset them, it will often harden them in their resistance to change, so
that they no longer want to examine the question. That, Paul says, must
be the limit to those who indulge in their liberty. Do not push people
that far, or press them that hard. Rather, we are to help them
understand the reason for our liberty.

I think it is a healthy thing for a Christian who has liberty in some of

these areas to indulge it on occasion. I do not think the cause of
Christ is ever advanced by having every strong Christian in a
congregation completely forsake their right to indulge in some of the
things. What happens then is that the whole question is settled on the
basis of the most narrow and most prejudiced person on the congregation.
Soon, the gospel itself becomes identified with that kind of view. That
is why the outside world often considers Christians to be narrow-minded
people who have no concern except to prevent the enjoyment of the good
gifts of life that God has given us.

It is a good thing for people to indulge their liberties. It makes those

who are not free raise questions in their minds, especially when they
see that that indulgence is linked with a clear manifestation of
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It makes you think,
when you see a godly person whom you admire and respect feel perfectly
free to indulge in something that you have never been able to indulge
in, and yet you cannot deny that he is a godly person. I think that kind
of thing is right, and Paul is suggesting this, as we will see in our
next study.

But, Paul says, be careful, and judge how far you are going. If what you
are doing upsets people and hardens them in their views so that they
will no longer examine and investigate, then stop, you are going too
far. That should be the limit. This is what the apostle means when he
says,

All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything

that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat
meat or drink wine or do anything else that will cause your
brother to fall. {Rom 14:20b-21 NIV}

Now, be careful there. Paul does not say it is wrong to make him think;
it is never wrong to indulge your liberty to such a degree that your
brother has to ask questions about his viewpoint. That is all right. But
it is wrong to persist in it to such a degree that you cause him to act
beyond his convictions in order to feel acceptable.
 So whatever you believe about these things keep between
yourself and God. {Rom 14:22a NIV}

Unfortunately, that is not a very good translation. It suggests that you

are to keep quiet about your liberties, that you do not say anything to
anybody, that you keep it between yourself and God. That really is not
what Paul is saying. What he is saying is, "if you have faith, have it
between yourself and God." That is, let God and God’s Word be the basis
for your faith, and nothing else. Be sure that what you are doing is not
because of pride on your part, because you want to show off how free you
are -- you are doing this because God has freed you by his Word. And,
Paul says, if you do that,

Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he

approves. {Rom 14:22b NIV}

If you have really based it on that, then your action will be one in
which your conscience is free. You will not feel guilty and troubled as
to whether you are acting beyond what the Word of God really says. You
will be happy, free, blessed.

But, if you do not, if you really have not settled this on the basis of
Scripture, but are acting only because you want to indulge yourself; if
you like this thing but you still feel a bit troubled by it; if you act
then, you are going to be condemned by your conscience. And if you are
condemned by your conscience, you will feel guilty. And if you act
because you feel guilty, you are not acting out of faith, and,
therefore, you are sinning. This is Paul’s argument.

"Without faith," Hebrews says, "it is impossible to please God," {Heb

11:6a}. Faith means believing what God has said. Thus, you must base
your actions in Christian liberty on what the Word of God declares --
not about any specific thing, but the great principle of freedom which
is set forth. Now, if you understand that, fine, Paul says. But be sure
that you yourself are acting not out of pride, not out of mere
self-indulgence, but out of a deep conviction that rests upon the Word
and revelation of God.

To sum up, what Paul has said to us is:

1 Do not deliberately stumble or shock your brother or sister. Do not
deliberately do things that will offend them, or even make them
feel uncomfortable. Think about them, not yourself.
1 Second: Give up your right when it threatens the peace or hinders
the growth of another individual. Be alert to judge in that area.
1 And third: Never act from doubt. Act only from conviction, by the
Word, and by the Spirit of God. If these problems are all settled
on that basis, a congregation will be moving gradually toward the
great liberty that we have as children of God.

What will happen in the eyes of the watching world? Christians will be
seen to be free people, not controlled by scruples that limit them and
narrow them in their enjoyment of God’s great gifts. Yet, these things
will not be of such importance that they are put at the heart and center
of everything. The world will begin to see that the heart of the Gospel
is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the gifts of God.
Those gifts, then, are the basis for freedom in all these areas.

But you are just as free to say, "No," to the indulgence of a gift as
you are to say, "Yes," to it. That is true freedom. You are not free if
you think you have won your rights. That is not freedom. Freedom is the
right to give up your rights, for good and proper cause. That is what
the watching world will begin to see.

These are wise words. Properly followed, they will gradually work out
the differences of viewpoints we may have. But if they are ignored, the
church is bound to go along with one side or the other, and division,
anger, and upset will follow, and the whole cause of Christ will be
injured by that.

In our next study, we are going to see how Christ is our great example
in this, and what will happen to us when we really begin to live on
these terms.
Prayer

Thank you, our Father, for words that help us to understand

these problems, and the way of working them out peacefully and
cheerfully and joyfully, "preserving the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace." Teach us Lord, to walk softly before
you in this, with a concern for our brother and sister; to be
patient and to learn to enjoy our liberties only as they do
not injure or hurt another. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: The Right to Yield

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 14:13-23
Message No: 35
Catalog No: 3535
Date: June 5, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.
OUR GREAT EXAMPLE

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

We are in the fifteenth chapter of this epistle of Romans, and Paul is

concluding his discussion of the different views on what is wrong and
what is right for Christians.
* Is it morally right for a Christian to drink wine, beer, or
cocktails, or is that wrong?
* Is it morally wrong for a Christian to keep special days, such as
Lent, or is that right?
* Is it morally wrong for a believer to smoke, or is that right?
* Is it morally right to eat pork, or is that wrong?

These are but some of the questions that Christians have asked through
the years. You could go on and on, for there is an extensive list along
these lines.

I was just reading this morning that Dr. Carl McIntire, the flamboyant
fundamentalist Presbyterian preacher, is now attacking Christians for
going along with the change from Fahrenheit to Celsius, or centigrade.
He says it is nothing but a sneaky Communist plot to take over the world
by degrees!

So there are a lot of things you could get upset about and divide over.
The apostle has been giving us some very helpful guidelines and I am not
going to retrace these arguments for you as our messages are in print.
There is really no need to retrace them, anyway, for in the opening two
verses of Chapter 15, Paul summarizes them for us.

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak,
and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his
neighbor for his good, to build him up. {Rom 15:1-2 NIV}

There are two thumbnail rules to follow when you have to make a quick
decision as to whether you ought to insist on liberty in a certain area,
or give way to someone else’s qualms, or prejudices, or differences of
viewpoint.

The first rule is: .Cchoose to please your neighbor rather than
yourself. Do not insist on your way of doing things; be quick to give
in. After all, this is what love does. Love does not insist on its own
are loving in your approach, love will adjust and adapt to others. I

We who have strong faith ought to shoulder the burden of the

doubts and qualms of others, and not just to go our own sweet

The second rule, however, says to be careful that your giving in does
not allow your neighbor to be confirmed in his weakness, that you do not
leave him without encouragement to grow, or to re-think his position. I
think this is very important, and it reflects some of the things that
Paul has said earlier in this account. We are to seek to build one
another up. As I have pointed out before, in all these kinds of
questions, if we do nothing but give way to people, and give in to their
weaknesses, the church eventually ends up living at the level of the
weakest conscience in its midst. This presents a twisted and distorted
view of Christian liberty, and the world gets false ideas about what is
important, and what Christianity is concerned about. So this helps to
balance the situation. Please your neighbor, but for his own good,
always leaving something there to challenge his thinking, or make him
reach out a bit, and possibly change his viewpoint.

In Sacramento this past week, a man made an appointment to see me. He

told me he was a teacher in a Christian school there and he had been
asked by the board of the school to enforce a rule prohibiting students
from wearing their hair long. It was a rule that he did not agree with,
so he found himself in a serious dilemma. If he did not enforce the
rule, the board had given him clear indication that he would lose his
job. If he did enforce it, he would be upsetting the students and their
parents, who felt that this was a matter that did not merit that kind of
attention. Our culture has long since changed from regarding long hair
as a symbol of rebellion, so this man found himself in between a rock
and a hard place. His plea to me was, "What shall I do?"

My counsel, whether right or wrong, in line with what we had learned

liberty to the degree that they would upset the peace. So I said to him,
"For the sake of peace, go along with the school board and enforce the
rule for this year. But make a strong plea to the board to re-think
their position and to change their viewpoint. At the end of the year if
they are unwilling to do that, perhaps you might well consider moving to
a different place, or getting another position. That way you would not
be upsetting things, and creating a division or a faction within the
school."

Now, I think that illustrates what Paul is bringing before us here.

These kinds of decisions are not easy to make. Oftentimes people can
lose sight of the main objectives of being together as Christians, and
they get so focused in on these issues that a church can split right
down the center. Or else these issues will create such arguing,
bickering, fighting and dissension within the group that everyone is
made unhappy, and the whole atmosphere of the church is changed. Paul is
saying to us that this is really not necessary as there are things that
can be done to work these problems out. To encourage us in this, he
gives us three factors that we can count on for help with these
problems.

The first one is the encouragement of example that comes to us from the

For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written:

"The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." For
everything that was written in the past was written to teach
us that through endurance and the encouragement of the
Scripture, we might have hope. {Rom 15:3-4 NIV}

Paul’s first example for us is Jesus himself. He ran into this kind of
problem though he was perfect, though he never did anything that was
wrong or out of line. Even though he never on any occasion conducted
himself in a way that was in the slightest degree displeasing to God the
Father, nevertheless, he ran into these kinds of antagonisms. As Paul
says, Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures that predicted that those who did
not like God’s methods would take it out on him. "The insults of those
who insult you," he says, "have fallen on me," {cf, Psa 69:9 NIV}. And
so our Lord had to bear with all the unhappiness and sometimes the
insults of those who could not be pleased even with what God himself was
doing.

keeping the Sabbath properly? They were very upset because he did things
they felt were wrong to do on the Sabbath. Now what did our Lord do? Did
he give in to their desire? No, he did not. He ignored their protest and
went ahead and did things that upset them even more, because if he had
gone along with their desires, they would never have learned what God
intended the Sabbath to be. So the Lord did not adjust to their
antagonism.

But on another occasion the Lord was accused of not paying his taxes.
When the disciples told him about this, he sent Peter down to the lake
to catch a fish, and in the fish’s mouth he would find a coin sufficient
to pay the tax for both Peter and himself. Jesus said he did this in
order not to offend them. That is, he adjusted to their complaint at
that point.

If we think we have difficulty in applying these rules we must remember

that the Lord himself had difficulty in this, and there is still a third
occasion when he publicly acknowledged that there was no way to please
everybody. Jesus said, "When John the Baptist came to you, he came
neither eating nor drinking." That does not mean that John did not eat
food; it means that he carefully observed certain dietary restrictions.
He was probably a Nazirite and had taken a vow never to touch any kind
of alcoholic beverage. So Jesus said, "When John came neither eating nor
drinking, you said of him, ’He has a demon.’ But when I came both eating
and drinking, you called me a glutton and a drunkard. So how can I
please you?" {cf, Matt 11:18-19, Luke 7:33-34}. Jesus simply recognized
the impossibility, at times, of adjusting to everybody. Thus he went
ahead and did what God had sent him to do and he let God take care of
the difficulties.

I think this is what Paul has in mind here. He tells us that our Lord is
the example, and there will be times when you cannot please anybody.
There will be other times when you can, and, if you can, you should. But
there will be still other times when if you did, you would hinder people
in their spiritual growth, and then you should not seek to please them.

Not only do we have our Lord’s life as our example, but the Old
Testament also helps us here, especially in the matter of yielding up
our rights. Remember when Abraham and Lot, his nephew, stood looking
over the valley of the Jordan River? It was evident that they would have
to divide the land among them, and Abraham, who was the older of the
two, and the one who, by rights, ought to have had the first choice,
gave that choice to Lot. Lot chose first, and he chose the lush,
beautiful, green areas of the Jordan valley, leaving Abraham the barren
hills. Now Abraham is an example of graciousness; he gave up his rights.

Remember when Moses, according to the record, gave up his place as a

prince in the household of Pharaoh? As Hebrews tells us, he gave it up
in order that he might "suffer reproach with the people of God for a
season," {cf, Heb 11:25-26}. This is a beautiful example.

Remember David and Jonathan who were such close friends? We see Jonathan
so gracefully yielding his right to the throne to David, his friend,
because he knew God had chosen him. And Jonathan also supported him
against the wrath of his own father. What a beautiful picture this is.
Jonathan is willing to give up in order that David might gain.

When you come to the New Testament there is that scene when John the
Baptist says of Jesus, "He must increase; I must decrease," {cf, John
3:30}. And yet none of these men who gave up ever lost anything. Now
that is the point the apostle is making. These men gained by this. God
was glorified, and they themselves ultimately gained, because, in giving
up, they achieved the objective that God was after. So Paul gives us
this picture of willingness to give up, refusing to do so only when it
is going to be hurtful to somebody, leaving them ignorant of the
principles of Scripture, bound to some narrow, rigid point of view.

So we get help from the past. Not only that, Paul goes on to show us

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a
spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,
so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. {Rom 15:5-6 NIV}

There is no need to panic or to be afraid that we cannot work these

problems out, Paul says. God can drastically change the situation. He is
that kind of a God. The apostle suggests two things we can do when we
get involved in a disagreement like this.

First, there ought to be prayer, prayer for unity. Paul prays himself
that God may grant "a spirit of unity among yourselves." In Luke 11:13
{NIV}, Jesus said, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him!" Now Jesus does not mean
that is the way to get the Spirit of God to come into your life. He is
talking there about problems and difficulties in your life when you need
a special ministry of the Holy Spirit. He says, "If you know how to give
good gifts to your children, even though basically you have evil in your
nature, how much more willing is the heavenly Father to give the Holy
Spirit to you in times of problems and difficulties, to preserve the
spirit of unity that you desperately need."

This very week I learned of a situation of two brothers in Christ who

had a serious difference of viewpoint. Not only did it bring them to a
deadlock where they were not able to resolve it (for both felt they were
right, and neither was able or willing to give in), but it affected a
whole program that God was putting together, one that depended upon
their working together. It looked as though the whole thing would come
to an ignoble end; nothing could be worked out. But when others heard
about this, and the two men involved began to pray, asking God to
intervene, then, at the final meeting that was scheduled to try and work
this out, one of the men said, "There is no need for us to talk about
this, because God has already been talking to me. He showed me that I
had been stubborn and obstinate about this, and I’m sorry. Let’s go on
to other things now; let’s get the program started." The whole
difficulty just faded away because God is able to change situations and
bring about unity. So prayer for unity is one of the most important
things we can do when there is this kind of disagreement among us.

The second thing the apostle says is to praise God for the relationship
you already have, "so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." With one heart and mouth.
Remember that you are brothers. Give God thanks together for what unites
you, and minimize the things that divide you. Remember the important
thing is that in the eyes of the watching world you manifest the unity
of brotherhood that God has brought about. You did not make yourselves
brothers and sisters: God did. Therefore he desires that to be visible
to the world around. That is why, in Ephesians 4, we are admonished to
be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,"
{cf, Eph 4:3}. One of the present helps we have is to pray, to ask God
for the spirit of unity, and then to praise him for the unity that
already exists.

We have had encouragement from the past, and encouragement from the
present, and now Paul tells us to be encouraged by what the future holds

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in

order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has
become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to
confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the
Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, so it is written:
Gentiles;
Psalm 18:49]
Again, it says,
32:43]
And again,
peoples." [cf, Psalm 117:1]
And again, Isaiah says,
nations;
{Rom 15:7-12 NIV}

Now what Paul is saying here is that God is already working out a great
program that involves reconciling the Jews and the Gentiles. God has
announced that he is going to do that, and he will bring it to pass. It
has already started. It started when Christ accepted both Jews and
Gentiles, regardless of the great differences between them.

I do not know if you have ever been involved in a church fight over an
issue like drinking or smoking or movies or dances or whatever, but if
you have, you know that tempers can get very hot. People can get very
upset, and factions can form; divisions and feuds break out. And yet I
have never heard of a church fight on those grounds that was any worse
than the attitudes that Jews and Gentiles had toward one another in
Paul’s day. The Jews held the Gentiles in contempt; they called them
dogs. They would have nothing to do with them. The Jews even regarded it
as sinful to go into a Gentile’s house and they would never dream of
eating with a Gentile. They regarded them with utter contempt. In the
book of Acts, Peter got into serious trouble with his Jewish friends
because he went into the home of Cornelius the centurion, and ate with
him. It was only because Peter was able to show that the Holy Spirit
sent him there, and used him there, that he was able to justify his
conduct to his friends.

Of course, if the Jews felt that way about the Gentiles, the Gentiles
paid it right back in kind. They hated the Jews. They called them all
kinds of names; they looked down on them. This is where modern
anti-Semitism was born. These were opposing factions who hated one
another, and would have nothing to do with one another, Yet, Paul says,
that kind of division God is healing by the work of Jesus. And how did
Jesus do it? Paul’s point is that Jesus began his work by becoming
himself a minister of circumcision. The version I have says he "became a
servant of the Jews." That is based on the idea that what Paul wrote
was, "Christ became a minister of the circumcision," which is another
name for the Jews. Actually what the text says is, "he became a minister
of circumcision," which does not necessarily refer to the Jews as a
people, but refers to their customs and rituals and ceremonies.

What the apostle is arguing is that the Lord healed this breach between
the Jews and the Gentiles by his giving in and limiting his own liberty.
He who designed the human body, he who made it perfect, exactly as it
ought to be, he himself consented to the act of circumcision. His body
was mutilated. That part of his body which was the mark of the flesh was
to be cut off. Jesus consented to that and limited himself in that way.
He became a circumcised Jew. He who declared in his ministry that all
foods are clean, and thus gave clear evidence that he understood the
liberty that God gives us in the matter of eating, never once ate
anything but kosher food. He never had a ham sandwich. He never had
bacon and eggs for breakfast. He limited himself to the Jewish diet,
even though he declared that all foods were clean.

He who was without sin insisted on a sinner’s baptism. He came to John,

and John said, "Why are you coming to me? I need to be baptized by you.
You do not need to be baptized." Jesus said, "Allow it to be so, for in
this way it becomes us. It is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness," {cf, Matt 3:15}. So he who had no reason to be baptized
consented to be baptized. He who longed to heal the hurts of the world
said that when he came, he limited himself to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.

Now, Paul’s argument is that the results of that limitation were that
Jesus broke the back of the argument and of the contempt between the Jew
and the Gentile. He reached both Jews and Gentiles to the glory of God.

If you trace this through you can see that what Paul is saying is that
in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God showed his faithfulness to
the Jews in fulfilling the promises made to the patriarchs; and he
showed his mercy to the Gentiles, saving them who were without any
promises at all. Thus the two, Jew and Gentile, shall fully become one,
just as the Scriptures predict here.

You have quotations from the Psalms (the Writings); from Deuteronomy
(the Law); and from Isaiah (the Prophets). So you have the Law, the
Prophets, and the Writings all agreeing that God can work out these
kinds of problems. >From the past, from the present, and from the future
there is encouragement to work them out. What Paul is really saying is,
"You do not need to separate; you do not need to split; you do not need
to fight; you do not need to sue one another; you do not need to quit.
You can work the problems out, for there is help available from all
these sources, and God is honored and glorified when you do so."
 May the God of hope fill you with great joy and peace so you
trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power
of the Holy Spirit. {Rom 15:13 NIV}

What a magnificent verse! Whenever I am asked to give an autograph, I

almost always include this verse in it. It is such a beautiful
expression. Look how much you have got going for you. All the great
words of the Christian faith appear here: hope, twice (once it is called
"overflowing hope"); and joy, great joy; and peace, calmness and
confidence; and trust, belief in a living God; and finally, the power of
the Holy Spirit, the invisible force that can open doors and no man
shuts them, and can shut and no man opens -- the power of God released
among us.

Now I think we Christians need to remember this. I am delighted that

here at Peninsula Bible Church we have had very, very little of this
kind of strife. I am just so grateful for it. I have been in places
where the whole testimony of Christ in a community has been wrecked by
the divisions and the attitudes that people have had toward one another
in these areas; when we presume to write one another off because one has
liberty we do not feel they should have; when we talk down to people and
disparage those who do not have the faith and strength to act in liberty
such as we do, we destroy the work of God.

What the apostle is urging us to do is to unite on the great positive

words of our faith, and that we allow these qualities of hope, and joy,
and peace, and trust, and power to be visible when others see us
gathered together as Christians. When they hear us talking about each
other we are to reflect these qualities, rather than the miniscule
divisions and arguments that many of us have.

In some ways the letter to the Romans ends with that verse. Paul goes
on, it is true, to give some personal words about his own ministry which
we will be looking at together next Sunday, and in the sixteenth chapter
there is a long list of his friends, and his greetings to them. But, in
a sense, the whole argument of this epistle is drawn to a close with
this tremendous benediction:

May the God of hope fill you with great joy and peace as you
trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power
of the Holy Spirit. {Rom 15:13 NIV}

How I hope these will be the characteristics that we manifest to the

world around.
Prayer

Our Father, we do thank you for the peace and joy and
righteousness that are gifts to us from your Spirit at work in
our hearts. Thank you for the liberty and freedom that you
 give us in these areas. We pray that we who regard ourselves
as strong, may be willing to bear the burdens of the weak, and
not to offend them or to hurt them or to slash at them. May
love be evident among us, Lord, but above all else, we pray
that we may manifest a spirit of unity to the watching world
that knows no way to get divergent factions together. We thank
you for this miracle of unity among us, and ask that it be
preserved in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Our Great Example

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 15:1-13
Message No: 36
Catalog No: 3536
Date: June 19, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data
file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be
copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in
any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances,
displays or other products offered for sale, without the written
permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

AN ADEQUATE MINISTRY

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

We are drawing to a close in our study of this great epistle to the

Romans, and this letter closes just as it began, with a personal word
from the apostle about himself, and about the church in Rome. There are
two themes in the closing section of Chapter 15 -- one is the church at
Rome, and the other is the ministry of the Apostle Paul. I hope you will
follow in your Bible, for this is a rather extended passage, and one
that I am going to have to move rapidly through. The apostle says

I myself am convinced my brothers, that you yourselves are

full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to
instruct one another. {Rom 15:14 NIV}
When I was in Sacramento last week, I was introduced to the congregation
of the Arcade Baptist Church by the pastor, Dr. Lee Toms. He not only
introduced me to the congregation, but he introduced the congregation to
me. He said he wanted me to meet the finest congregation in the United
States, including Alaska and Hawaii. But I demurred, saying that I knew
of one congregation that was finer. We had a polite little exchange over
that but, since I was the speaker, I had the last word.

Those who know anything about the ancient city of Rome know that it was
built on seven hills. The largest of those hills was called the
Palatine, and you can still visit the Palatine, down by the Roman Forum.
I have always imagined, as I read this letter to the Romans, these early
Christians gathering somewhere around the foot of the Palatine hill,
studying this letter and other Scriptures as well. Since they were a
church that understood and knew the Scriptures, I am sure they called
themselves the Palatine Bible Church -- PBC!

Now, the Scriptures do not actually teach that. You only discover that
kind of information as a result of what might be called "sanctified
imagination." But there are many similarities, I think, between the
church at Rome and Peninsula Bible Church. You remember that this letter
began with the recognition of the apostle that the faith of these people
was known around the world; and even in a much bigger world than Paul
knew, this is true of this church here. God has given us a very deep
responsibility, in that many people around the world know of this church
and its faith.

In this chapter of Romans, Paul gives us a little further insight into

this church, and tells us certain things that were true of it that,
there are three things that he says about this church, three great
qualities that they possessed.

First, he says, "I am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are

full of goodness." That is, their motives were right. They had come to
the place where they were motivated by a sense of goodness, and I
believe that this is also true here at PBC. Certainly, this church at
Rome was a responsive church, a compassionate church. It reached out to
people who were in need. It responded to those who had hurts and burdens
and concerns. I think this is one of the qualities I have appreciated
most about this congregation here. Whenever a need is shared, there is
always a compassionate response. I feel it could be said of this church,
as it was said of the church at Rome, that the congregation is "full of
goodness."

The second thing that the apostle says is that they were complete in
knowledge. Now that is rather remarkable. Here was a church to which
Paul did not need to give any new theology. He acknowledges that they
had it already. Though this is one of the most deeply penetrative
theological treatises in the New Testament, Paul did not write it
because these people did not already know the truth that he was giving
them. If you think back through the letter, there were certain themes
that the apostle emphasized:

One was justification by faith, i.e., the gift of worth in God’s sight.
This gift could not be earned: It was a gift because of the work of
Jesus Christ on our behalf. It was not earned by trying to do good works
before God -- this is impossible, and they understood that. They knew
that though they did not deserve anything from God, nevertheless, they
were his dearly loved children, and God accepted them fully. This, I
think, is one of the great truths that has always rung strong and clear
throughout the Christian centuries. For it is the one truth, above
almost anything else, that God wants us to know to start our Christian
lives with. It is the basis for worth. If we know God loves us, then we
know we can love our neighbor and we can accept others, because we
ourselves have been accepted by God. There is a profound psychological
reality here that these people understood.

And they understood the nature of the flesh, the need for
sanctification, to use the theological term. They knew that even though
they had been redeemed, they were still possessed of an old nature. The
old Adam was still there, giving them trouble.

I still struggle with the old Adam, and so do you. I can see you doing
it. Young Philip Melancthon, the colleague of Martin Luther, once wrote
to Luther and said, "Old Adam is too strong for young Philip."

These people at Rome understood this truth and they knew that this would
be the struggle of their Christian lives. Paul did not have to tell them
that; they knew it before he wrote. But they knew also that God is
working out a great plan, that he is creating a whole new humanity, and
building a new creation. Right in the midst of the ruins of the old, he
is producing a new man, and they were part of it.

They understood the great themes of glorification, and of the eternal

ages to come. So Paul writes and says they were complete in knowledge,
and I think in many ways we can say this about PBC. We are well taught,
deeply understanding the great truths and the great themes of Scripture.

The third thing the apostle had to say about this church was that they
Adams gets the title of his well known book, Competent to Counsel .)
What the apostle said here was, "You are able to counsel one another." I
think that is a remarkable thing.

This is the answer, by the way, to all the terrible pressure that is
placed upon pastors, who are expected to solve all the problems of their
congregations, and to counsel everyone first-hand. That was never God’s
intention. The plan of God is that the whole congregation be involved in
the work of counseling. The whole congregation is to be aware of what is
going on with neighbors and friends and brothers and sisters, and do
something about meeting their problems. And the way this is done is by
the imparting of the gifts of the Spirit.

I think this is something we can rejoice in here, that so many are

ministering in this area, sharing the load of counseling -- and, by the
way, there are many more who could be involved.

So the church at Rome had the right motives, they had complete
knowledge, and they had the full range of gifts, so that they were able
to do many things within their church community and in the city of Rome.
But Paul also recognized that there were three things they lacked

I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to

remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to
be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the
priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the
Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God,
sanctified by the Holy Spirit. {Rom 15:15-16 NIV}
Now, you would think that a church that was theologically knowledgeable,
able to instruct and counsel one another in the deep problems of life,
and filled with a spirit of goodness and compassion, would hardly need
anything more said to them. Yet it is to that kind of a church that Paul
addressed his letter to the Romans. And he wrote, he says, because they
needed three other things that he sets forth here.

First, they needed a bold reminder of the truth. "I have written you
quite boldly on some points, to remind you of them again."

I saw a man the other day with a string around his finger. The string
was to remind him of something. The fact that we so easily forget things
is somehow built into our humanity and I think one of the greatest
proofs of the fall of man is that we have such a hard time remembering
what we want to remember, yet we so easily remember what we want to
forget!

We even need to be reminded again and again of these great themes of the
renewed by the Holy Spirit," {cf, Rom 12:2}. That is one reason to
gather together every Sunday: We need to have our minds renewed. We need
to be called back to a vision of reality.

Living out in the world, as many of you are, working every day among
non-Christians, it is so easy to be sucked into the attitudes of the
world around. It is so easy to get the idea that life is designed to be
a pleasant picnic, that we can work toward the day when we can retire
and enjoy ourselves. I find that attitude prevalent among people
everywhere, but that is not what the Bible says.

The Bible says we are in the midst of a battle, a battle to the death,
against a keen and crafty foe. He wants to discourage us and defeat us,
and to make us feel angry and hostile. He knows how to do it, and he
never lets up. This life is not designed to be a time of relaxing. There
are times when we need recreation and vacations, when we can slow down a
bit. But you never see the Apostle Paul talking about quitting the
battle. You cannot quit, as long as life is there.

So Paul tells us that we need to be reminded, day by day and week by

week, that we are in a battle and that we have a crafty foe. This life
is not all there is, by any means. This is school time, a training
ground, where we are to learn our lessons. This life is getting us ready
for the real thing that is yet to come.

The second thing the apostle said the Christians at Rome needed was a
priestly ministry. He told them, "You not only need to be reminded of
the truth, but you need an example to follow. You need somebody you can
see doing this kind of thing. That is what God has given me the
privilege of doing. I have been called of God into this ministry, not
only to be an example of leadership, but also to be like a priest
working in the temple, to awaken among you a sense of worship, a sense
of the greatness of God."

I think we need this frequently. I know I do. Ron Ritchie was saying to
me before the service this morning that he feels sort of dead inside. I
get that way, and so do you. Despite all the exciting things happening,
despite all the tremendous encouragement on every side, there are times
when we need to lift our eyes from our circumstances and stand before
the greatness of God and see who it is we have to deal with, who it is
that is working through us. That is why Paul wrote the book of Romans.
That is why we have in the eleventh chapter that passage dealing with

knowledge of God!
11:33 NIV}

The third thing they needed, Paul says, is that the Gentiles "might
become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."
Every congregation needs this. We need to labor, to pray, to work, to
counsel, to evangelize. But all of the activity of the Christian life is
of no avail if it is not sanctified by the Holy Spirit, if it does not
have in it that touch of God, that unction from on high, that divine
wind blowing upon the dead bones and making them come to life. I think
Paul is reminding them here of the ministry of prayer, and the need to
remember that God himself must touch something -- otherwise it is dead
and useless. So Paul calls this church at Rome back to this tremendous
reality. They had so much, but they needed this as well.

Today at Peninsula Bible Church we have so much, but we need the same
thing; we need daily reminders of the truth. We need our minds renewed,
or else we are going to slip right back into thinking like everybody
else. We need a model, and there are models among us that we can follow,
men and women who are exercising this kind of ministry. And we need the
touch of God above all else, that sense that God himself must make it
go.

Now that brings us to the theme that the apostle develops here on his
own ministry. Here is a fantastic passage, where, for the first time in
this letter, we get a close look at this mighty apostle himself.

Did you ever stop to ask yourself what influence the Apostle Paul has
had in your own life? He lived two thousand years ago, and yet there is
not a man or woman, boy or girl among us, who has not had their life
drastically affected by this man. The whole course of history has been
changed by the truths he taught. In fact, for the most part, history
itself has been built around the letters and teachings and doctrine and
ministry of the Apostle Paul. We would not even be here, for America as
a nation would not exist if this man had never lived. Even today we feel
the freshness of his spirit, the greatness of his mind, and the fullness
of his heart. He touches us all.

Paul tells us three things about his own ministry in this last section:
The principles that he worked under; the practice by which he carried
them out; and finally, a word about the power that he relied upon

Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I

will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has
accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by
what I have said and done -- by the power of signs and
miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem
all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the
gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the
gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be
 building on someone else’s foundation. {Rom 15:17-20 NIV}

Concerning the principles of his ministry, Paul tells us five things:

First, everywhere he went he found himself rejoicing. He said, "I

rejoice, I glory in Christ Jesus, in my service to God." Why? Because
when this man came into a city, he usually found it in the grip of Roman
authority, and ruled with an iron hand. He would find the people in
widespread despair, empty and longing for something they could not find,
and fallen into terribly degrading habits that were destroying homes and
the very fabric of society itself. He would find them in the grip of
superstitious fears. No church existed where he went, but after he had
been there a while, and had begun to preach these tremendous themes,
light began to spring up in the darkness. People were changed; they
began to live for the first time. They discovered why they were made,
and excitement appeared in their lives.

So Paul just spent his life rejoicing over what was happening. That is
the kind of ministry he had, and he gives us the secret of it in
Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God
by what I have said and done." That is the greatest secret God has to
teach man -- that man was designed, not to do something to make God
happy, but to let God work through the man. God would do the work --
that is what Paul said, "... Christ has accomplished through me."

Not a week goes by but half a dozen posters and pamphlets across my desk
promoting the work of some man, telling me how much he has done for God.
I get them all the time, and so do you, these boasting, promotional
pieces trying to convince you they are God’s gift to earth. I have
learned to throw most of them into the waste basket unopened. In fact, I
recognize them from their titles by now, and I just throw them away. You
never hear that from Paul. You never hear him telling how much he has
done for God. Everywhere it is how much God has done through him, and
that is the secret of a truly effective life. It took the apostle ten
years to learn that secret.

Like many young Christians, he started out with a great amount of zeal
and desire to turn the world upside down, and he thought he had the
equipment and the gifts to do it. It took God ten years to show him that
his brilliant mind, his mighty gifts and great personality and influence
and contacts were of no value in the service of God. All God wanted was
the man himself; he would work through him. And when Paul learned that
secret, he launched upon this great ministry that changed the history of
the world.

A young man asked me this week, "Why did God punish King David for
numbering Israel?" That is one of the puzzles of the Old Testament. Why
did God severely punish the king and his people when he took a census of
Israel? That does not sound like a very serious aim, does it? But that
represented David’s departure from the principle of dependence upon God
to be his resource, and a shift to the world’s resource of numbers.
Nothing has contributed more to the weakness of the church than this
dependence upon numbers, as though a great crowd of people can do
something. When you meet a man or a woman who is willing to trust God to
work through them, there is no limit to what God can do. This is the
secret of Paul’s ministry.

Then its manifestation, which is power (Verse 19): "by the power of
signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit." These signs and
miracles were the signs of an apostle. Paul tells us in Second
Corinthians that wherever he went he performed signs and wonders. People
say today, "Well, why can’t we do them?" The answer is because they were
the mark of an apostle, and only apostles did these things. Today we do
not need any more apostles; we have the original ones, and their
writings are available to us. What we have is what Paul mentions, the
power of the Spirit, and its impact on human lives. Remember he wrote to
the Corinthians, who had the nerve to write him and say, "The next time
you show up in Corinth, how about bringing a letter of recommendation
from Peter and James and John?" Paul wrote back and said, "Do you mean
that? Could you really mean that? Why, don’t you understand that you are
my letter of recommendation? Look at what’s happened in your lives: You
used to be drunkards and homosexuals and thieves and murders -- such
were some of you! But what are you now? Look at the change! You are all
life and ministry were constantly characterized by the display of the
power of God to change lives.

Then look at how widespread his ministry was (verse 19): "So from
Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the
gospel of Christ." You really have to have a map to see that. Jerusalem
is way down on the eastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia.
Paul had traveled up and down that coast, on into what we call Turkey,
in Asia Minor, up and across the Dardanelles, into Europe, then into
Macedonia and Greece. He had gone, as he tells us here, into what we
call Yugoslavia. Illyricum is Yugoslavia, now dominated by the
Communists, but the Apostle Paul preached there, and the nature of his
ministry was pioneering (Verse 20): "It has always been my ambition to
preach the gospel where Christ was not known." He never wanted to build
on another man’s work.

Some weeks ago I shared with you a little booklet I ran across that
described the difference between "Settler" theology and "Pioneering"
theology -- a very interesting and humorous little booklet. This book
says there are two kinds of Christians: Some want to be Settlers, to
live around the courthouse and let the mayor run everything. They have
lost all desire to reach out. But then there are the Pioneers, like
Paul. They want to be getting into new areas that have never been
touched adequately. I believe this is characteristic of the Spirit of
God. He loves to thrust out into new areas.

Some of us are praying for a thrust into East Palo Alto, to touch folks
who have never been touched much. We ask you to pray with us that we may
reach into these areas, that something will develop that will have the
touch of God upon it. And this is Paul’s great hunger. (Did you ever
notice that the word for news, as in good news, is made up of the first
letters of north, east, west, and south?) We are to reach out with the
good news, as Paul did.

Now for a paragraph on how he practiced this ministry

This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. But
now that there is no more place for me to work in these
regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see
you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you
while passing through and to have you aid me on my journey
there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. {Rom
15:22-24 NIV}
There is Paul’s word about how practical his ministry was. It always
involved three things.

First, it involved planning for the future. I am always running into

Christians who think that God gives his orders directly to them while
they are moving. They think of the Christian life as going on automatic
pilot, where they just float around, waiting for orders as they go. They
never think of planning or looking ahead. But Paul did not live like
that.

For many years he had longed to go to Spain, and he planned to do so.

But notice something about his planning.
1 First, it was flexible; he did not have a timetable. He went
according to the way God opened the door, but he planned to go in a
certain direction; he had it clearly in mind. He did not tell God
how or when it had to be. Now that is Christian planning.
2 Second, he was persistent; he did not give up. He had set his heart
on Rome and Spain, and that is where he was going. It did not
matter how long it took, he just kept plodding steadily toward that
goal. There is no record that Paul ever got to Spain, although
there are some hints in Scripture that he undertook a fourth
missionary journey after he wrote the letters to Timothy. Perhaps
he did get to Spain. That was the direction he had set his heart
on.
3 The third thing about Paul’s planning was that it always involved a
team. He never went alone, and he says to these Romans, "When I
come to Rome, I expect you to help me to go on." Perhaps to supply
some assistants, and some money, and to pray as he went, Paul never
worked independently, as a prima donna; he always involved others.

The second factor about his planning is found in verse 25 and on:

Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of

the saints there. For Macedonia and Achaia [Greece] were
pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints
in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe
it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’
spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with
them their material blessings. So after I have completed this
task and have made sure that they received this fruit, I will
go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come
to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of
Christ. {Rom 15:25-29 NIV}

Now, not only was Paul practical in that he planned, but also he
fulfilled past commitments. Some Christians, I find, are always jumping
into new things before finishing the old. But Paul did not do that. Many
years before this, in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, which tells about
the council of the church, Paul and Barnabas were sent to Antioch with a
letter to the church, settling the question of circumcision for the
Gentiles. In that letter, Paul was specifically asked that he be careful
to remember the poor in Jerusalem. Now, many years later, he is
fulfilling that requirement. He has taken up an offering every place he
has gone, and now he wants to deliver it personally to the
famine-stricken saints in Jerusalem. And notice that it is not beneath
the apostle to give material help. He is not going up there to preach to
these people; he is going to help them with material things.
Christianity involves that as well.

I read the other day that Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher,
was once invited by a wealthy man to come down and preach in a country
church in order to help them raise funds to pay a debt. The man told
Spurgeon he was free to use his country house, his town house, or his
seaside home. Spurgeon wrote back and said, "Sell one of the places and
pay the debt yourself." That is how practical he was.

Paul was willing to take up offerings and personally carry the money to
those in need. But here he gives us the principle of sharing
blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material
blessings." If somebody blesses you spiritually, and the only way you
can thank him is with material things, then do it, Paul says. That is
God’s program, to give back in material things for the spiritual
blessings you have received. Notice it says, "After I have completed
this task..." He is not going to quit until he is through. He will wrap
it up well and do it right. "When I have made sure that they have
received this fruit, then I will go to Spain and visit you on the way."

The third aspect of the practical character of Paul’s ministry is his

trust in the power of God (Verse 29): "I know that when I come to you, I
will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ." He counted on
God to come through.

That brings us to the last paragraph, where you have his touch on the

I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love
of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for
me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea
and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the
saints there. Then by God’s will I can come to you with joy
and together with you be refreshed. The God of peace be with
you all. Amen. {Rom 15:30-33 NIV}

What was behind this mighty apostle’s ministry? Why has it lasted for
two thousand years? What was it that opened the doors and gave him
access even into Caesar’s household, and before the throne of the
emperor himself? Paul would tell you it was because of the prayers of
God’s people for him. He was well aware of the ministry of prayer, and
he urges them to pray.

You get a brief word on the nature of prayer. What is the basis of it?
"I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the
Spirit..." Prayer is born of the Spirit of God within us, awakening a
desire to help, a sense of love and compassion. We pray to honor the
Lord Jesus.

This is what will stir people to pray more than anything else -- not
beating them with a whip. I learned that long ago. It is when people
begin to see that the honor of Christ is involved, and the love of the
Spirit is fulfilled when you pray, that they will really begin to pray.
That is what the apostle appeals to here.

"Join me in my struggle." Life is a struggle, as we have seen already,

and Paul sees prayer as a way of fighting in that combat. It is a great
weapon which can batter down doors and open others. It can remove
obstacles, withstand tremendous pressure and forces, and uphold people
and sustain them. So Paul seeks this kind of prayer.

I would say that if there is one thing we need more than anything else
at PBC, it is this kind of prayer. This is a critical hour in our
church’s history. We are making changes in various directions within the
staff. We have great opportunities before us. But what we need above all
else is people who will pray that we can lay hold of the need of the
hour.

Notice what Paul requested of them: "Pray for protection from the
unbelievers, and for acceptance from the saints." The reason he asked
that is that these are the two areas that Satan loves to attack. If he
can lay a person low with physical illness, or spiritual attack, this is
what he will do. Prayer is particularly powerful at this point. It can
protect someone in danger. When Paul arrived in Jerusalem, as we learn
from the book of Acts, there came a moment when he was set upon by a mob
in the temple courts. They were out to kill him, right on the spot. They
had rocks in their hands, and were going to stone him to death. But it
just so happened that at the critical moment, the commander of the Roman
legion on the other side of the wall, in the castle of Antonia, looked
over into the temple court and saw what was going on. He came down with
a band of soldiers ant rescued the apostle in the nick of time. So that
prayer was answered, and Paul was protected from the unbelievers.

Earlier in Acts, Luke tells us, when Paul came with his gift, there were
many Christians there of Jewish background, who did not want to accept
Paul. They regarded him as a renegade, a traitor to the Jewish cause.
They were turning their backs to him. But James, in answer to prayer,
interfered, and asked Paul to show that he was not an enemy of the Law,
and to take on a certain commitment in order to demonstrate to the
people that he was not against the Law. That turned the tide, and Paul’s
ministry was accepted.

Then, the results (Verse 32): "Then by God’s will I can come to you with
joy and together with you be refreshed." The book of Acts closes three
years from this time, with the Apostle Paul finally in Rome, after being
shipwrecked, and after arduous travels. Now he is on his way toward the
capital city, and he is met by a delegation of Christians from the
church of Rome. There in a place called the Three Taverns, they sat down
and had joy and refreshment together. What an encouragement to the
apostle’s heart, that these Christians were able to come out and meet
him. He was coming as a prisoner chained to a Roman guard, on trial for
his life, and sentenced to appear before the emperor. But they
encouraged his heart and refreshed his spirit.

That brings us to the final chapter in this letter to the Romans.

friends, but there are some interesting things about it.

I hope that this review of Paul’s ministry will remind us that we are in
a battle and we cannot take time out. We have to maintain the task, and
we have to be faithful to what God has called us to do. Above everything
else, we must seek that mighty unction of the Holy Spirit on all that
happens, that it may not be just a mechanical process, but the power of
God released among us.
Prayer

Our Father, we thank you so much for the many things to

rejoice over among us today -- the many changed lives; the
many homes that have been made right and happy, where once
they were sad and hostile; the many lives that have been
filled with joy and peace and thanksgiving. But Lord, we pray
that we may not forget that we are still in the battle, and we
are still to be your instruments. Help us to partake of the
apostle’s spirit and press on, until you are ready to call us
home. We thank you for the privilege of it, in the name of
Jesus our Lord, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: An Adequate Ministry

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 15:14-33
Message No: 37
Catalog No: 3537
Date: June 26, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a
ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its
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permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be
made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield
Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

We have finally reached the last chapter in our study in Romans. Some of
you are old enough to remember when we started! I am not going to finish
it today, however. The last paragraph is reserved for next Sunday and
our Communion service.

Many people ignore this chapter, I think, because they see in it nothing
but a list of names of people long since dead and gone. But in many ways
this is one of the most exciting chapters in Romans, as I think you will
see.

There is something in all of us that wants to see our names preserved.

Years ago I visited the Natural Bridge of Virginia. There were thousands
of names and initials scratched on the rocks, but high up on the side of
it, above almost every other name, was scratched "George Washington."
Even the father of our country felt the urge to gain a kind of
immortality by carving his name on the rock.

knew that they were going to be famous. I am sure that if they had known
that mention in one of Paul’s letters was to give them undying fame,
there would have been a long line of people outside his door urging him
to include them in the letter. But these names are mentioned only
because they were personal friends of Paul’s in Rome, to whom he was
writing, or they were with him in the city of Corinth, from which he
wrote.

In these first 24 verses there are 33 names mentioned. Nine of these

people were with Paul -- eight men and one woman. There are 24 names
mentioned in Rome -- 17 men and seven women. There are two households
mentioned, and two unnamed women -- the mother of Rufus and the sister
of Nereus -- as well as some unnamed brethren. So there is quite a list
of people the apostle knew personally in Rome, though he himself had not
yet visited that city -- these are people he had known somewhere else in
the Roman Empire. We tend to think of those ancient days as a time of
limited travel, and they were. It took weeks to reach cities that we now
reach in less than an hour by plane. Nevertheless, these people got
around, and here is a record of that fact.

This passage has three simple divisions:

1 First, Paul’s greetings to the brothers and sisters at Rome (the
first 16 verses),
2 Then a brief warning about phony Christians who were there in Rome,
and
3 Then greetings from the brothers who were with Paul as he wrote.

The letter to the Romans was carried by a traveling businesswoman,

Phoebe, and she is introduced to us in the opening verses of this
chapter:

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in

Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way
worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need
from you, for she has been a great help to many people,
including me. {Rom 16:1-2 NIV}

The whole church can be grateful to this woman for her faithfulness. She
bore and preserved this letter all along that hazardous journey from
Corinth to Rome. She is called by the apostle "a servant of the church
in Cenchreae." Cenchreae was the port of Corinth, located about nine
miles east of the city. Evidently, a Christian church had grown up
there, and Phoebe was a deacon in it. (That is really the term, not
"deaconess," as the King James Version puts it. That is a sexist term.
The word is the same for male or female.) That does not mean that she
held some governmental office in that church; we sometimes read
present-day meanings into these words. It means that she had assumed a
ministry on behalf of the church. She represented them in some labor,
and whether it was material, physical, or spiritual, she was very
faithful in it. So Paul commends her to these Christians in Rome, and
asks them not only to receive her, but to help her. "She has been a help
to many others," he says, "and to me."

number of women Paul mentions -- many more than in any other literature
of that day. Women occupy a prominent place in these letters of the New
Testament. Evidently, they handled very important tasks within the
church, according to the gifts they had. There is strong suggestion here
that Phoebe was a teacher or an evangelist -- a laborer for the gospel
with Paul. We do not know much more about her, but her name has been
preserved forever because of this mention.

Paul now turns to greet those he knew in Rome, and he begins with a very

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.

They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the
churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

Greet also the church that meets at their house. {Rom 16:3-5
NIV}

We meet this couple in other letters of Paul. We see them first in

by trade, who were driven out of Rome by the decree of the Emperor
went to Corinth, took up their trade there, and met this strange young
Jew, also a tentmaker, who had come from the north. Evidently, Saul of
Tarsus moved in with them and soon led them to Christ. Theirs was
probably the first home in Corinth that started a church. Luke tells us
that after two years there, Paul left to go to the great city of
Ephesus, and Priscilla and Aquila went with him. Again, they took up the
trade of tentmaking and again opened up a church in their home.

They also ministered in the synagogue, for Luke tells us that one
morning they heard a mighty and eloquent man named Apollos preaching,
but it was evident to them that he did not understand the fullness of
the gospel, for he preached only what John the Baptist taught, that "One
was coming, who would do mighty things." After the service they invited
him home to dinner (that is a wonderful thing to do for a preacher!) and
instructed him more fully. Because of their ministry to him, Apollos
went on to Corinth, where he had a mighty ministry in the Word of God.
Incidentally, of the six times their names are mentioned, four times
Priscilla’s name is put first -- which indicates that she had the gift
of teaching, rather than her husband. Now they are in Rome, having
traveled from Corinth and Ephesus. Paul greets them, and reminds the
church that they had risked their lives for him. That was probably in
that uproar that broke out in the city of Ephesus, recorded in the
latter part of Acts, when the whole city was upset, and a mob was intent
on taking Paul’s life. He reveals the fact that everywhere this couple
went they had a church in their home.

In these early days, Christians did not meet in buildings like we have
now. In fact, for 300 years there is no mention of church buildings
{either in church history or} in Scripture. What a relief, not to be
where they could for larger meetings. But here in Rome there were at
least three, and probably many more, house churches where Christians
gathered and one of them was in the home of Priscilla and Aquila.

Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who was the first convert to

Christ in the province of Asia.

Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. {Rom 16:5-6 NIV}

Epaenetus was never forgotten, for he was the first one to believe the
gospel when Paul came to the province of Asia, of which Ephesus was the
capital. You never forget that first one you lead to Christ. No matter
how many others follow, you never forget the firstfruits. We do not know
what Epaenetus was doing in Rome, but he was cherished because he was
the first to exercise faith in Asia. And associated with him is Mary,
whom Paul calls "Mary the toiler." She is one of the group of unknown
women in the Gospels who had the gift of helps. She could not teach or
preach or evangelize, but she could work, and she did. Paul is very
careful to remember these women and men who had the gift of helps.

Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in

prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and
they were in Christ before I was. Greet Ampliatus, whom I love
in the Lord.

Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend

Stachys.

Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ. {Rom 16:7-10a

NIV}

Andronicus and Junias were relatives of Paul, and since he says they
were "in Christ before me," this takes us back to the very first days of
the church, back to the ministry of Stephen in Jerusalem. What it must
have meant to the young Saul of Tarsus, who was breathing forth
threatenings and slaughter against the Christians there, to learn that
two of his own kinsmen had become Christians! Undoubtedly the prayers of
Andronicus and Junias affected the apostle. It is hard to tell whether
this is a husband and wife team, or two brothers. It all depends on the
name "Junias." If it is "Junias" with an "s," as we have it here, it is
a male; if it is "Junia," as the King James Version has it, it is
female. But whoever they were, they were Jews, relatives of Paul, who
had become Christians. There is a wistful note here as Paul remembers
that they were in Christ before him, and no doubt they were praying for
him. Somewhere along the line they shared a prison term with him. There
is no better place to make friends than in jail. You have to get to know
your fellow-inmates -- there is no escaping them! They became fast
friends, as well as relatives, and Paul speaks highly of them. He says
that even the twelve apostles in Jerusalem held them in high regard.
What they were doing in Rome we do not know -- doubtless they were
leaders in the church there.
Ampliatus in an interesting name. In the cemetery at Domitilla, found
among the catacombs in Rome, there is a highly decorated tomb with the
single name "Ampliatus," written on it. A single name like this implies
that the man was a slave, but as the tomb is rather ornate, it indicates
that he was a Christian, and highly respected by the leaders in Rome. We
cannot be sure that he was the same person Paul mentions here, but he
most likely is. Therefore this man, though a slave, had a great ministry
among the brethren in Rome.

Urbanus and Stachys we know no more about than what Paul mentions here.
Somewhere, Urbanus joined Paul’s team, and also "his dear friend
Stachys," and that is all we know. But I have always been fascinated by
this man Apelles, whom Paul says has been "tested and approved in
Christ." (I wish that is what I would merit on my tombstone. Would not
that be a great inscription, "Tested and approved in Christ"?) This man
will forever be known as one who endured a testing of his faith and who
stood against the pressure. Thus he has been approved in Christ. His
name means "called," and he certainly proved himself to be one whom God
had called.

mentioned, involving Christians and, perhaps, non-Christians as well:

Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

Greet Herodion, my relative.

Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.

{Rom 16:10b-11 NIV}

the background of Biblical stories, tells us that Aristobulus may have

been the grandson of King Herod the Great, who lived in Rome. He was
behind the scenes politically, but was the close friend of the Emperor
Claudius. When Aristobulus died, his household, i.e., his servants and
slaves, became the property of the emperor (and by this time Nero was on
the throne, succeeding Claudius, who had been murdered), but his
household was still known as the household of Aristobulus. It is this
group, probably, that Paul is referring to. If so, it means that even in
the royal household there were a number of Christian servants and slaves
who exercised great influence on the leaders of Rome -- even the emperor
himself. This is supported, I think, by the fact that Paul mentions his
relative, Herodion, in connection with these servants. You can see from
his name that this man had connections with the family of Herod. This is
also a hint to us that Paul himself had some connection with the ruling
family of the Jews. His relative, Herodion, had become a Christian, and
was living there in Rome as part of the household of either Aristobulus
or Narcissus.

The most famous Narcissus we know in Roman history was a former slave
who became the personal secretary of the Emperor Claudius. He gained
much wealth, because he was in charge of the correspondence of the
emperor. (His palm had to be greased before a letter got through to the
emperor.) When Claudius was murdered, Nero took over, and he also took
over the household of Narcissus. Shortly after Nero came to the throne,
he forced Narcissus to commit suicide, as he did many men. But it is
very clear from this mention here that there were Christians among his
household. "Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the
Lord." Already, in the heart of the Roman Empire, a Christian witness
had been established, and Paul sends greetings to the slaves and
servants in the house of Nero.

Next, we get another band of hard-working ladies, and also another

Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa [I have always enjoyed those

names!] those women who work hard in the Lord.

Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very
hard in the Lord.

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been
a mother to me, too. {Rom 16:12-13 NIV}

These words of Paul open up hidden vistas that bring the whole flavor
and color of this first-century Christian life home to us. Here were
Tryphaena and Tryphosa. I can just imagine them knitting and darning and
crocheting, these dear maiden sisters who worked very hard. We do not
know what they did, but there is a delicate irony here. When Paul wrote
this he probably smiled to himself, for their names mean "dainty" and
"delicate" -- yet they were hard workers. Their names are suggestive
that they were probably aristocrats, women who were born to a high
class. And yet, they who did not have to work for a livelihood worked
hard in the service of the Lord.

We know nothing about Paul’s dear friend Persis, other than that she too
had worked with him somewhere, perhaps traveling in his company of
evangelists.

had been a mother to the apostle too. There seems to be little doubt
that Rufus, along with his brother Alexander, mentioned in the Gospel of
Mark, were the sons of Simon of Cyrene. In the Gospels we are told that
as our Lord was making his way down the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, on
his way to the cross, he was so weak from loss of blood that he tripped
and fell. The Roman soldiers laid hold of a passing stranger whom they
compelled to bear the cross to Calvary. That man was Simon of Cyrene, a
Jew coming into the city for the Passover. His home was in North Africa,
and he evidently had little or no interest in the things of Christ until
he was forced to carry the cross of Jesus. Though we do not know the
details, it is evident that this man became a Christian and there is a
hint in the book of Acts that he was present on the day of Pentecost.

His two sons, Alexander and Rufus, became outstanding men in the
Christian community. There is an Alexander who comes to the rescue of
Paul in the city of Ephesus, at the time of the outcry there. There is a
Rufus here in Rome, who is well known, and Paul sends his greetings to
him, and reminds him also that Rufus’ mother had been his mother too, at
some time. This again takes us back to the earliest days of the gospel
ministry when perhaps young Saul of Tarsus, coming to Jerusalem to sit
at the feet of Gamaliel, the great Jewish teacher, had probably stayed
in the home of Simon of Cyrene and his two sons, Alexander and Rufus.
Later they became Christians, and Paul cherished them as friends he had
known even before his own Christian days. We cannot be certain of all
those details, but much is suggested by this.
 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the
brothers with them. {Rom 16:14 NIV}

Here is a kind of male commune, all with Greek names, suggesting that
these were young businessmen who had come to Rome and formed a group.
They had all become Christians and had another house church going in
their bachelors’ quarters there. Paul sends his greetings to them and
all the brothers with them.

Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas

and all the saints with them.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the churches of Christ send greetings. {Rom 16:15-16 NIV}

Philologus means "a lover of the word," and this was probably a nickname
given to him, just as Barnabus was called "the son of consolation," even
though that was not his name. Here was a man who loved the Word of God,
and gathered with him these men and women -- Julia, Nereus and his
sister.

may have been the housekeeper of a prominent Roman citizen named Flavius
Clemens, later to become Consul of Rome, the highest political office in
Domitian because he was a Christian. His wife, Domatilla, also a
Christian, was banished by the emperor. Here is a hint that in the
household of Flavius Clemens was a Christian slave, Nereus, who was
undoubtedly a great influence in leading this prominent Roman citizen to
Christ, and who would later give his life as a martyr for the cause of
Christ.

We can see from these names that Roman society had already been
infiltrated by the gospel before Paul ever arrived in the city. That is
why, at the beginning of this letter, he says, their "faith is being
reported all over the world," {Rom 1:8 NIV}. These prominent Christians
had already penetrated society from top to bottom.

That is the way Christianity should work. I do not think it makes its
best progress by massive campaigns. I think it makes its best progress
when it infiltrates all levels of society and brings them all together
in the church of Christ.

Now we have this warning paragraph. Paul is evidently thinking of his

own trip to Jerusalem and the threat that awaits him from the Judaizers

I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause

divisions and put obstacles in your way, contrary to the
teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such
 people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own
appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds
of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I
am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what
is good, and innocent about what is evil.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. {Rom 16:17-20 NIV}

There is a very helpful passage here on what to do about problems within

the church. Here is a group of people who are professing Christians,
but, who, to judge by the apostle’s language, are not truly believers.
The danger, as Paul outlines it, is that they create factions within a
church -- that is, little dissident groups that gather about and
emphasize one particular point of doctrine or teaching, to the exclusion
of everything else. That is always a problem within the church when
people think one particular thing is most important. We have people
today who emphasize tongues, or prophecy, or some phase of teaching that
they think is the mark of a true believer, to the exclusion of
everything else. Paul warns about this.

The second thing they do is introduce practices or ceremonies that Paul

calls "obstacles to faith," certain rituals or practices that these
groups insist are the marks of true Christianity. They build a sense of
superiority. They say, "If you have this mark, then you really are a
Christian." Their motives, Paul says, are not to serve Christ, even
though they say they do. These factions are really out to advance
themselves, to get a following, to gain prestige. You can tell by the
way they act that is what they want. Their methods are to come on with
smooth and plausible talk. They always use scriptural language. They
always appear to be the most dedicated and devoted of believers. Have
you noticed how many of the cults today are trying to go back to the
Scriptures, arguing from them a groundwork for their faith?

Another method is flattery. They make Christians feel important. They

lift them up above the rest and give them a peculiar mark of
distinction, and flatter their egos as being members of the true church.
These factions always cause division. When some group like this appears,
many of us tend to want to rush in and excommunicate them, read them out
from the pulpit, or violently attack them. Paul does not say to do any
of those things. His advice is to keep away from them. Ignore them. "You
Christians in Rome have a reputation for obedience. You have a spirit of
wanting to obey what the Lord says. Now here is your word from the Lord:
Do not follow them; do not get involved with these separatist groups.
When you obey this, God will work. The God of peace, who will preserve
the peace of the church, will also crush Satan under your feet."
Something will happen to open the eyes of people to the unscriptural
position of these groups, and they will lose their following. The peace
will be preserved without a lot of warfare and dissension.

Corinth:

Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greetings to you, as do

Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.
 I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.

Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy,

sends you his greetings.

Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our

brother Quartus send you his greetings. {Rom 16:21-24 NIV}

That brings us to the final paragraph when, as was his custom, Paul
takes his pen and writes the last words himself.

Up to this point he has been dictating this letter to a man who

identifies himself in Verse 22: "I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter,
greet you in the Lord." Evidently, the apostle said something to him,
such as, "Tertius, you’ve written this whole thing and you must have
writer’s cramps by now. Just write another line and send your own
greetings." The name indicates that he, too, was a slave, because his
name means "Third." In slave families they did not bother to think up
names; they just numbered the children, First, Second, Third, Fourth,
Fifth, etc. Here are Third and Fourth of a family of slaves. (His
brother, Quartus, Fourth, is mentioned in Verse 23.) They are educated
slaves who have become Christians. They can read and write, and are part
of this group in Corinth.

You can picture them gathered in the home of Gaius, this gracious,
genial, generous host of the city, mentioned in Paul’s first letter to
the Corinthians. Gaius opened his house to the entire Christian
community, so here is Paul, sitting there with his friends. Tertius is
writing down the letter, and the others are gathered around listening to
Paul as he dictates, and profiting much from the writing of these great
truths. With Paul, of course, is his dear son in the faith, Timothy,
whom we know so well from the two letters addressed to him. Paul spoke
of him always in the highest terms; his beloved son in the faith, who
had stayed with him so long and remained faithful to the end. The very
last letter Paul wrote from his prison cell in Rome was to Timothy.

Paul also mentions Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, his relatives.

Here in Romans 16 are six members of Paul’s family, kinsmen who are now
Christians. Some were Christians before him, but some Paul influenced
toward Christ. They come from various places. Lucius appears to be the
one of the teachers in the city of Antioch. Jason was evidently Paul’s
host when the apostle went to the city of Thessalonica, in Macedonia.
Paul stayed in Jason’s home when a riot broke out in the city. Sosipater
may be the man from Beroea, mentioned in Acts 20 as "Sopater." Paul met
him in Macedonia and may have accompanied him to Jerusalem with the
offering to the churches there.

The final name is Erastus, director of public works in the city of

Corinth. You can see how the gospel penetrated all levels of society,
with slaves, public officials, consuls, leaders of the empire, all
sharing an equal ground of fellowship in the church of Jesus Christ. All
class distinctions disappeared within the church and that is what
happens whenever the church works.

I think the thing we need to remember from this list of names is that
these Christians were noted for their steady, tested commitment, their
faithfulness to the gospel.
I must say that I am troubled today when I see Christians succumbing so
easily to the world’s philosophy of life -- live for your own pleasure,
try to retire as early as possible so you can do as little as you can. I
think that is a deadly philosophy. The early Christians did not believe
that.

Four things ring clearly throughout their lives:

* One, they were not their own. "You are not your own; you are bought
did not have a right to direct their lives any longer. God had sent
them into the world, and God would take them through it.
* Second, they believed that life is a battle, a battle to the death.
It is not a picnic. They were engaged in warfare that never ended
until they left this life, so they kept on fighting.
* Third, they believed that there is need for rest and leisure at
times, but only to restore them to go back into the battle. They
never envisaged retiring and enjoying themselves for the remaining
years of their lives. They only envisaged getting adequate rest in
order to come back and fight through to the end.
* Finally, they understood that the gifts of the Holy Spirit among
them opened up a ministry for every single believer. No Christian
was without a ministry. Some of these dear people had only the gift
of helps (although I should not say "only" the gift of helps, for
that is a great gift.) They could not teach or preach but they
could help, and they did, right to the end.

I think this passage reminds us that God has called us all to a

ministry, and we all have to give an account for what we have done with
our gifts. We had better find out what they are and get to work, get
involved in the battle, because God has not called us to a picnic
ground. He has called us to a battleground.
Prayer

Our Father, we thank you for these names of men and women who
long ago preceded us in the pilgrimage of life. And what a
testimony they left us. Men and women who were tested, tried,
and approved, who stayed steadfast in the long martyrdom of
life itself. We pray that you will grant to us, Lord, similar
faith that we too may share with you in a time of testing, a
time of rebuke and pressure and persecution and trouble, and
stand steadfast to the end, for your name’s sake. Until you
see fit to remove us, Lord, keep us at the work. In Jesus’
name, Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: All in the Family

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 16:1-24
Message No: 38
Catalog No: 3538
Date: July 10, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible

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Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.

THE GREAT MYSTERY

by Ray C. Stedman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

We have seen that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Romans from
Corinth. And now we have come to the very last paragraph of the letter.
Very likely at this point, Paul took the pen and wrote the closing
paragraph in his own hand.

Paul tells us in Second Thessalonians that this was his custom

one thing, but also to bear a personal greeting to those to whom he was
writing. I think almost all scholars agree that the apostle probably
suffered from a serious eye problem. The letter to the Galatians
suggests that. So Paul wrote these marvelous words in large letters with

Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the

proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and
made known through the prophetic writings by the command of
the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey
him -- to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus
Christ! Amen. {Rom 16:25-27 NIV}

Those remarkable words constitute a summary of the whole letter to the

Romans -- a beautiful finale to this great epistle. I have chosen this
as the central study around which we may gather as we come to the table
of the Lord this morning.

You will notice that the goal the apostle has in view in writing this
letter and summary is that we who read this letter may be established.

Have you ever had the desire to be established?

Many people think they are established when actually they are simply
stuck in the mud. Most of us think that being established means that all
progress ceases. We sit down, camp there, and that is it. In that sense,
there are a lot of Christians who are established. But when Paul speaks
of our being established, he means putting us on solid, stable ground.

Have you ever erected a picnic table and tried to find a place where all
four legs touched the ground at the same time? You tried to establish it
so that it would not rock, or become shaky, or uncertain.

That is the idea that Paul has in mind in this word establish . God
wants to bring you and me to a place where we are no longer rocking or
shaky or unstable, but solid and secure. The idea is basically what all
human beings look for -- an inner security from which you can handle all
the problems of life. You become dependable, and have a true sense of
worth, so that nothing gets to you, or shakes you up, or throws you off
balance.

This is the goal of all Christian teaching in the New Testament (and
especially the goal of the letter to the Romans) that we believers might
be brought to that place of security where we are not shaken by things,
so that we do not lose our tempers easily, or get frustrated, angry,
resentful or hostile; where we do not scream at our children, or yell at
our mates, or get upset at the neighbors.

Notice the resource that the apostle counts on to make that happen: "Now
to him who is able to establish you..." It is God himself who is
responsible for this. You and I are not given the final responsibility
to bring this about. Isn’t that encouraging? Now there are things he
asks us to do: We are to understand what he is saying to us in this
letter, and we are to willingly cooperate with it and give ourselves to
it. But even if we do not, Paul is saying, we do not have the ultimate
responsibility to bring this about. God will do it.

I am sure as the apostle wrote this he had in mind all the instances and
circumstances from the past that are given to us in the Old Testament to
encourage us.
* God did this with Abraham, who was an idol worshiper. Abraham could
not tell the truth about his wife. He was always lying about her
because he thought that would save him from difficulty. He had
various character faults but God stabilized him, established him,
and brought him to a place where he became one of the great names
of all time.
* God did this with Moses and David and, of course, with Paul
himself. Paul was a brilliant young Jew with an ambitious heart, a
sharp mind and a strong sense of achievement, due to his notable
gifts and his desire to become famous. Yet God broke him, softened
him, changed him and put him through circumstances that Paul did
not understand at the time. This finally established him, so that
no matter what came, he remained strong, steady, trusting and
certain. That is the great good news of this letter. "Now to him
who is able to establish you..."

Paul goes on to give us three things that God will use during that
process.

First he says, "Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel

..." Now, do not misunderstand that little phrase. Paul does not mean by
this that he has a unique gospel. Unfortunately, some teachers have
taken these words in that way, and have concluded that the Apostle Paul
was giving a special revelation that no one else possessed -- one that
Peter, James and John and other writers of Scripture did not know. That
teaching has been widespread among certain men of our day, and people
have followed that delusion. That is not what Paul means. He answered
that accusation in First Corinthians. He said, "Some of you are
following me; some are following Apollos; some are following Cephas, and
this is wrong. We are not different; we all have the same gospel. You
1:11 ff}. He rebuked them for tending to divide and to follow certain
leaders and teachers.

What Paul means is that he was given a unique revelation of this gospel,
of First Corinthians: "For I received from the Lord what I also passed
on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and
when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ’This is my body, which
at the Lord’s supper. I was not even a Christian then. I have not talked
with Peter or James or John about this, and none of the men who were
present there told me what happened in that room. I know what happened
because Jesus himself appeared to me and told me. And I told you only
what I received from the Lord himself." The Lord taught Paul the same
gospel that the other apostles believed and that is what Paul means when
he says, "According to my gospel..." The practical impact of that upon
us is this: That the test of all true Christian messages is that they be
in line with the apostolic writings. The apostles are the ones who tell
us the truth about the gospel. That is why we must always check what we
hear today that claims to be Christian and see if it fits with what the
apostles gave us. Paul says that is what God will use to establish you:
"My gospel -- that which was given to me."

The second element is "the proclamation of Jesus Christ." Here Paul is

unfolding to us the heart of his gospel. Paul was a mighty theologian.
There has never been a greater theologian in the church. I sometimes go
to seminaries, and I am tempted to say to the young men and women
studying there, "Why waste your time with these fourth-rate theologians,
when you could be spending your time with the first-rate theologians:
Peter, James, John and Paul." Theology was not the heart of Paul’s
gospel. The heart of his gospel was the revelation of a Person, Jesus
himself. All through this letter Paul has emphasized that fact again and
again -- everything centers in Christ. He is the heart of it all.

Therefore, a gospel that leaves out Christ is a phony gospel.

Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes
to the Father except by me," {cf, John 14:6}. There Jesus declared the
uniqueness of his position. In the whole realm of theology there is no
one like Jesus Christ. In all the history of the religions of the world,
there is no one that is equal to him, or that can be remotely compared
to him. Therefore, any gospel that minimizes Christ, or puts him on the
level of other names, is a perversion of the true gospel of Jesus
Christ. Christ is the central figure of all history, of all time, of all
faith.

There is a third element, the apostle says, which has been the theme
throughout Romans, although it is not always called by the same terms.
Paul says, "God will not only use my gospel and the proclamation of
Jesus Christ, but what he will use to establish you is the explanation
of ’the mystery.’"

... according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long

ages past, but now revealed and made known through the
prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that
all nations might believe and obey him -- {Rom 16:25b-26 NIV}
There is the mystery. Here is the ultimate test of any Christian
message: Does it proclaim the mystery?

There are thousands of places in this land today where people are
meeting, as we are, in Christian churches. They are singing the same
hymns we sing, and reading the same Bible, and praising God in the same
way. And yet, in thousands and thousands of those churches, there is
nothing exciting happening, nothing that reaches out and touches the
community. Do you know why? Because the mystery is not being proclaimed.

After the early service this morning someone told me of a town in

California of about 8,000 people, where there are 22 churches. And
according to this individual, almost all of these churches are lifeless.
Nothing is happening because they do not understand the mystery. Here is
the heart of the gospel, this amazing mystery. The question we need to
ask about any church is, "Does it ask men and women to live on the basis
of that fantastic secret, which was once hidden but is now fully
revealed?"

What is this mystery? There are several references to it in the New

Testament, sometimes referring to a part of it, sometimes referring to
the whole. The only other reference to this mystery in the letter to the

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so

that you may not be conceited [when Christians become
conceited it is because they have forgotten the mystery] :
Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full
number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be
saved, as it is written: {Rom 11:25-26 NIV}

Now that is part of the mystery. Paul is referring to the fact that God
intends to unite both Jews and Gentiles into one body. For this to
happen, the Jews must be partially blinded for a while, in order to
allow the Gentiles to see. That is what has been going on for 2,000
years of human history: a partial blindness in Israel.

We do not understand fully what is involved here, but it seems to be

necessary in the program of God.

That aspect of the mystery is also referred to in Ephesians 3:2-6:

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace

that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known
to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In
reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight
into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in
other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to
God’s holy apostles and prophets [The New Testament apostles
and prophets] . This mystery is that through the gospel the
Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of
one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus.
{Eph 3:2-6 NIV}
Now that is a very important part of the mystery. But these references
to parts of the mystery are not to be regarded as distinct and separate
mysteries. They are all one, as we will see. The heart of the mystery is
given to us in the opening chapter of Colossians. Here is one of the
clearest statements on it (Verses 24-27):

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in

my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s
afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I
have become its servant by the commission God gave me to
present to you the word of God in its fullness -- the mystery
that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now
disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known
among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. {Col 1:24-27 NIV}

There is the mystery. All that God is, wrapped up in a Person and given
to you and to me -- the only hope we have of ever discovering the glory
that God intended for us as human beings: Christ in you, the hope of
glory.

There is another reference to the wonder of this mystery in First

Timothy 3:16. Paul describes it in terms of a hymn of the early church.
He says,

Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:

3:16 NIV}

Jesus himself is the mystery. By means of the virgin birth of Jesus, by

means of his holy, sinless life, by means of his substitutionary death
upon a violent and cruel cross, by means of his startling break-out from
the prison of death, and by means of the gift of the Holy Spirit on the
day of Pentecost, God has given Jesus -- all that he is and all that he
has -- to you and to me. This enables us to do two things:
* To deny our natural abilities and strengths, and
* To rely wholly on Jesus’ ability and strength --

and thus to live our lives today as though Jesus himself was living
them.

That is the mystery. That is the radical, powerful secret of authentic

Christianity: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Do you know that mystery?

Do you know it, not only in your mind, but do you live it?

It is the knowledge of it and the living of it that turns Christianity

into an exciting adventure. It may be demanding, it may even be scary,
but I can guarantee you one thing: It will never be boring, because the
mystery is at work.

If you are filled with the secret, the indwelling Christ, it does not
make any difference if you are a Jew or a Gentile. All the divisions of
class and sex and national origin are eliminated by that secret. It does
not make any difference whether you are rich or poor, slave or free, all
are one in Christ Jesus by that mystery. And whenever a Christian lives
on that basis, really trusting the fact that God is in him through Jesus
Christ to be his wisdom, his power, his strength; when he attempts
things only on the basis of expecting God to fulfill that promise, and
moves out to do things by his grace, he finds himself "established."

If you want a place of security, it is not going to come by your

reckoning on what you can do for God. That will never work. It is going
to depend on how much you believe God is ready to do something through
you. That is the radical promise.

Paul says two additional things about this:

First, though the results of this lifestyle were experienced by men and
women of God in the Old Testament, no explanation was ever given of how
this happened. When you read the Old Testament you find men and women
puzzled as to how God was going to put together all its great promises
and themes. There is the promise of the restoration of Israel. There is
the promise of the forgiveness of an individual’s sins. There is the
mighty promise of the healing of the nations and the cessation of war.
Then it began to unfold. Jesus came. He was the secret. He would be the
one who would bring to pass all the tremendous promises and themes of
the Old Testament. Therefore, the historic appearance of Jesus was
required to put this victorious lifestyle in such vivid light that it
could be preached and demonstrated to the nations of the world. That is
what Paul means when he says that the mystery was "hidden for long ages
past, but now revealed."

The second thing Paul says is that it was "made known through the
prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God." There is a
reference to the New Testament as we have it today. The apostles and
prophets wrote the gospel down for us so that we might have a clear
picture of who Jesus is, and what he can be in us. This is why we must
study the New Testament, particularly, and the Old Testament as well,
that we might understand how to live on this basis.

And so Paul closes with a great doxology,

-- to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ!

Amen. {Rom 16:27 NIV}

What a plan! What a program! What a change happens when people really
capture this and begin to operate on it.

We are going to close the service with the Lord’s Table which is itself
a dramatic retelling of the mystery of the gospel:
* When we take the cup, we are being reminded that, by the death of
Jesus, God cut off all the natural abilities and strengths that we
have, and rendered them worthless. The New Testament teaches us
 that the flesh cannot please God.
* But when we take the bread, we are reminding ourselves that Jesus
himself, the bread that came down from heaven, is available to us.
His strength, his power, operating through the channel of our
gifts, can accomplish what we could never do by ourselves. God at
work within us; that is the mystery.

When we come to the Lord’s Table we are reminding ourselves of this, and
renewing our promise, our commitment to fulfill that mystery not only
here at church, but in every situation throughout the week. Every moment
of pressure and every demand upon us are simply opportunities to respond
by realizing again the validity of the mystery.

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Title: The Great Mystery

By: Ray C. Stedman
Series: From Guilt to Glory -- Experienced
Scripture: Romans 16:25-27
Message No: 39
Catalog No: 3539
Date: July 17, 1977

PBC Homepage | Discovery Publishing | Ray Stedman Library

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