Grace Alone
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Introduction
Introduction
This morning I want us to walk through a series of messages, pictures of God’s grace and love through Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 has been a widely studied chapter, and rightly so for the message it bears,
Just over 500 years ago, a famous man wrestled with this chapter heavily.
Back in the 1500’s, God raised us a man who would become a Augustinian monk, move on to become a professor of Theology at the University of Wittenberg , and priest of the City church there in Wittenberg.
This man was Martin Luther, the great reformer of the middle ages.
Wrestling with Romans chapter 8, Luther keep going back to the source, he said the Bible (Hebrew and Greek) to understand God’s plan for the redemption of humanity, and the truth that our justification is God’s work in us, His grace ministers and helps us, saves us through faith.
This truth would lead martin Luther away from the Catholic church as he would see to reform the church and thus giving birth to what we know as the Protestant (non - catholic) faith.
Now that we have had a little history lesson if you will, lets find ourselves in that chapter and today I hope we will have a better understanding of Justification by and through the grace only, which comes about as we exercise faith in the Lord Jesus.
So I hope you brought your Bibles with you today, and lets go ahead and find Romans chapter 8, verses 1-4
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
So right off the bat, we jump into this heavily theological section that Paul writes to the believers in Rome to remind them that if they are in Christ, they have been set free from the the curse of the law, death no longer reigns in their mortal bodies..
They have been set free and my friends so have we.... So lets walk through these 4 verses and unpack the wondrous truths that God has for us.
1. In Christ our Past is Dissolved....
1. In Christ our Past is Dissolved....
Let me say this, and just hear me on this one, but if there is one thing I can identify that holds people back, that keeps people from living and reaching their great potential in Christ, it is our past.
Our past faults, sins and life hold us back… and why does that happen when the truth is, if we are in Christ we are forgiven.
Our
In Christ our Past is Dissolved....
First of all the devil doesn’t want you to live in the freedom. The devil stands against you and will use every resource at this finger tips if you will to distract, to discourage and to make you feel less than acceptable in the eyes of God.
But I want to encourage you today, if you are in Christ, your past is dissolved.
Now why did I choose the word, “dissolved”? I like the imagery there, consider this picture in mind. Your sin, guilt and shame…it is like a film over a pond, it looks dirty, slimy, nasty… not something very worth while. that us the the law of God, it reminds us of how dirty, sinful and shameful we are in front of God before salvation, we are in truth condemned in front of God.
But in the midst of that pond, a drop of Jesus blood hits it and suddenly the water is clear, clean and pristine. It has been cleansed. So are we...
Lets look at verse 1.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Now hear me the law of God is important, I am not down playing it or anything of the nature.
The word condemnation refers to the “adverse judgment of God against sin.” The law reveals our sin, our faults before God. I like the imagery of a mirror.
The law reveals our sin, our faults before God. I like the imagery of a mirror.
Looking in the mirror we see our faults, blemishes and imperfections, the law reveals our blemishes, our crooked ways, our lies and the fact that we need a Savior. We are hopeless and helpless in that state before the law.
But… its changed.. the moment Jesus died , was buried and rose again. It changed! that is the Therefore in verse 1. His death took the condemnation we deserved and placed it upon His back, he took our suffering, our pain and our death upon His own life.
Because of Jesus, we no longer are under condemnation. the past is dissolved, it is dead and devil you cant hurt me with it anymore.
It is entirely God’s work and not mine! Amen
Jesus has changed my life, my state and my future… and the past, is just that and I do not have to worry about it any more… We are in Christ! hallelujah!
Wow,
Stop considering your past, to hold onto it and trying to amend it is like your are trying to work for your own salvation. and our salvation is through grace by faith. his work and not ours.
Trust Him, the Savior to take care of you completely.
So now lets move on today my friends.
2. You are Free.....
2. You are Free.....
Have you ever had a debt hanging above your head, it was so large you felt trapped, like a car payment. and you just wanted it gone..
So month after month you made your payments and suddenly the last one went and it was paid off… wow. The debt was paid in full! You felt a sense of relief?
The very same thing has happened in our life, we were under a debt, a penalty because of the sin’s presence in our life, and the law revealed to us the exact nature of that penalty.
Paul reminds us in Ephesians chapter 2, just how serious our condition was..
Listen to verses 1-2 in
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Ephesisans
The way we naturally lived, our condition prior to Jesus whereby we walked in accordance to the prince and power of the air, the devil. In that condition we were guilty according to the law of God. The commandments of God broken and the penalty was death.
We were like those on death row, we were “dead men walking...” Deserving of nothing… but then something wonderful happened...
Jesus came into our hearts at the moment we acknowledged our sin and called out to Jesus for Salvation. Listen to verse 2 in ...
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
The law of sin and death is what Paul is speaking about in .. In our very nature there is no good thing, and Paul points out, even though he desires to do good, those intentions are just that, good intentions. He finds himself doing the very thing he said he would never do…
Why?
Because of the death, sin that reigns in His life. It is impossible for man to do good apart from Christ Jesus…
Now I know there are really good people, who never mention nor care about God, but their actions, their works are not good enough. They are still dead to sin… They have broken the law of God, somewhere, somehow and in that they stand condemned.
But...
Jesus came to redeem us and to set us free from our sin debt. Think of it this way .. there are two forces at work in this world. The dark side, the law of sin and death and the law of life.
Illustration - The dark side, like in the movie Star Wars pushed the main character Anakin Skywalker deeper and deeper into his selfish, jealous, pitiful nature, it lead to his death. The good, the force brought life and happiness, peace....
For us, the new law, the new covenant established in the sacrificial death of Jesus brings life.
Jesus told us the same thing in
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Jesus set us free from the misery of death.
Gomer in the OT, the wife of the prophet Hosea was a unfaithful wife, she chased after other lovers and other gods and eventually found herself enslaved in sin and was now captive and to be sold. God told Hosea to take all that he had and buy her back, redeeming her from the penalty that enslaved her. He thus restored her, and She was free.
We to have been redeemed, the sin debt we owed has been paid in full and we are free....
Wow… listen to Paul’s words in , verses 5-6
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Wooow, set free and restored… raised up and seated with Him… Now you tell me what is better than that my friends, not a thing.
You are free....
And if you are free, why would you ever allow yourself to be enslaved again…?
Be careful in the way you live, as to not endanger your freedom.
And this brings me to one last thought...
3. Jesus Satisfied the Requirements of the Law...
3. Jesus Satisfied the Requirements of the Law...
Now we have already been touching on this idea in the last point but hopefully we can expand it here for all to understand and see just how rich the meaning is my friends,
Lets jump back to the word of God, verses 3-4 of
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The law, Paul points out could not do what Jesus did, it could not save and it could not bring life.
The law of God, the Ten Commandments point out how we are to live in front of God, how our actions are to be contained. But there was a problem.. no one could keep the law.
Some have claimed too, like the rich young ruler. He attested to Jesus that He has kept the law since his youth, but when Jesus told him to divest himself of his wealth.. He went away sad… why? he loved money more than following God.
Money had become his God in a sense. The problem wasn’t money it was the love of it when God says you can have no other ‘gods” before me.
So the law truly did what it was supposed too. It revealed our downfall, it pointed out our sin.
Now verse 3 says God did what the law could not, He saved mankind.
How?
By sending His son into the world. Look at verse 3 again
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
God sent Jesus to take our sin upon himself. to be sin for us and thus taking our punishment upon His own body.
Let me ask you a question… have you ever been somewhere where you found yourself right in the middle of conditions so bad you felt dirty? You know you are in a roach infested house and you feel like they crawling on you.
You encounter a person with lice and suddenly your own head begins to itch..
And your response is to flee.. get away from it hoping you have carried none of it away.
Illustration I can remember one year when I was on staff at BBC we had a outbreak of lice int he Christian school. and those kids had ridden on a certain bus for a filed trip. I had to clean that van out… when i was done I just wanted someone to hit me with a pressure washer , my skin was crawling with bugs that were not there… I just wanted it all gone...
Here is the truth of the matter .... In our natural condition we couldnt get away from it. But Jesus took our place, the penalty for sin that we deserved and carried it all on his own body.
He took our death to the cross and died in our place. Thus the natural requirement of the law was forever satisfied, sin had been put to death in His body..
Thus we were innocent, forgiven and made right in the sight of God.
Romans chapter 5 tells us verse 1
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because of His sacrificial death on the cross, I am now at peace with God.
It was grace alone that made it all happen
Paul reminds the believers at Ephesus about what has happened in their lives
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God’s grace, unmerited, undeserved was given to us freely, His gift that enables us to enjoy life.
Grace alone.
Do you know that grace today?
Do you know the wonderful sin forgiving person named Jesus?
Are you walking in a right relationship with Jesus?
Do you need prayer
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.