The personal work of Jesus Christ alone.
And in chapter 6, he spends his time talking about how we are set free from the power of sin.
We'll begin reading in verse 15.
Beloved, let me remind you that this is God's word to us, written for his glory and our good.
And so we would do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
Paul writes,
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace? By no means.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
and having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness.
I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.
For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness,
so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves of God,
the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death.
The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Now there is a lot to unpack in this language of Paul's.
Some of these sentences are a bit complex,
and so sometimes when preparing sermons through texts like this,
it seems helpful to try to draw just a clean, straight line through it.
If we had more time, I would spend each phrase unpacking each thing,
but we're going to have to kind of get a little bit faster than that
and a little cursory if we're going to make it through the text today.
And so I have a four-point outline for our study,
which just for the fun of it, I've alliterated a bunch.
So here we go.
One of my favorite forms of music is rap music.
It's a little-known fact about me,
and I don't think I could ever pick up that skill,
but this is my little way that I scratch that itch.
Alliteration.
So here we go.
Number one, a question asked and answered.
Number two, a principle presented.
Number three, a principle practiced.
And number four, a glorious future guaranteed.
And I actually want to get us to point four fairly quickly this morning.
Number one, a question asked and answered.
Note there verse 15.
At the beginning of our text, Paul asks another anticipatory question.
He's been doing that all along.
He's anticipating the objections,
likely because he had already heard them many times.
So as he sits down to write this letter to these Roman Christians,
he's anticipating the kinds of objections that will arise.
And so he's answering them as he goes throughout the letter.
You do well when you read the book of Romans to read it in some swaths
because you'll often arrive at those objections
that you may be forming in your own thinking as you read it.
And there he says,
What then are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?
Grace, which is the case that he's been making in the previous verses.
And this question is really a restatement of the question he asked at the beginning of chapter 6.
Notice verse 1 where he says,
What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
The doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone
and the person and work of Jesus Christ alone
is often met with this objection.
If we are saved by grace,
if it becomes the ruling principle in our life,
then what this bearing does,
how does it have God's law act on our lives?
On the one hand, you will have the legalist arguing
that if you release people from the rule of God's law,
then they will forsake it and live however they want,
and this will never bring them into God's favor.
On the other hand, you have the antinomian,
which means without the law,
argue that the rule of grace does, in fact,
give them license to live however they want
because they are in God's favor.
And chapter 6 is dedicated to getting this relationship
between law and grace right.
So, Paul asks a similar question
with a slightly different perspective.
Are we to sin because we are not under law,
the reign of law,
but under grace,
the reign of grace?
Because those who are in Christ Jesus
have been set free from sin.
Notice verse 14.
Sin will have no dominion over you
since you are not under law,
but under grace.
And so Paul asks,
so then can we just go on sinning?
Can our lives not be transformed
if we are in Christ?
And his answer is, once again,
an emphatic no.
This Greek phrase is a strong no.
By no means is the way it's translated here in the ESV.
By no means.
We ought not go on sinning
because we have been set free from it.
And he seeks,
as he furthers his teaching in the text,
to help us understand this
by presenting to us a principle.
Note it here in verse 16.
So this is the second point.
A principle presented.
There he says,
do you not know
that if you present yourselves
to anyone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either of sin,
which leads to death,
or of obedience,
which leads to righteousness?
Paul employs here a principle
in the form of a question.
And the question begins with,
do you not know?
Suggesting that what Paul is saying
is known.
The principle here is axiomatic,
or it's widely understood.
He's saying,
you know this is the way the world works.
If a person, he says,
willingly offers themselves as a slave,
then they are bound to their master.
Perhaps we could think in terms of
being employed someplace.
If we go to work,
and we say to somebody,
you are my boss,
then you do what you're told to do,
until you change the nature
of that relationship.
Notice how Paul seems
to personify sin,
and to personify obedience,
as if they are slave masters.
Sin is a master that promises
the payment of death,
but obedience is a master
that leads to righteousness,
and promises the payment
of life everlasting.
So Paul is saying,
if you have been united to Christ,
then God is your master.
So you should not have the attitude
of the antinomian,
thinking that you can go on sinning
because you are not under law,
but under grace.
You have been bought
with a price.
You belong to God,
and therefore,
he is your master.
It makes no sense
that you would go on living
how you want to.
It only makes sense
that you would press on
living how he would have you live.
Beloved, we were not created
to be without authority
in our lives.
We are people
meant to be reigned over.
Before the fall,
we were to be reigned over by God.
This was the state
of Adam and Eve
in the garden,
and what was the very temptation
presented to them
before they ate of that fruit?
That they would be like God.
Now we are image bearers of God,
which means we are also rulers ourselves.
We are given authority
over other things.
But we are not meant
to have ultimate authority
over ourselves.
We are meant to be brought back
into relationship with God
by the gospel of Jesus Christ
and submit ourselves
once again to him.
We are, at our very core,
all slaves to something.
You will serve something.
And so you will either be
a slave of sin
or a slave of obedience.
That's the principle
that Paul is presenting to us here.
So, which one will you
submit yourself to?
Jesus presents the very same principle
in Matthew chapter 6
and verse 24.
There he says,
No one can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one
and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one
and despise the other.
And if you're familiar with that,
verse 24 goes on to say,
You cannot serve God and money.
This could be principle applied
anywhere in our lives.
Devoted to one,
despise the other.
Hate one,
love the other.
We're all slaves to something.
So what controls you?
So there's a principle presented here,
and it's a principle,
Paul tells us,
is an accommodation
to our limited understanding.
Notice verse 19,
he says,
I'm speaking in human terms
because of your natural limitations.
It's as if he's saying
the allegory falls apart
at some point,
but it's meant to help you
understand a bit
of the nature of this relationship
in which you once walk.
This is a simple principle
that is worth wrestling with.
I know that some of you feel
like it is difficult
to understand.
Your experience complicates
the simplicity of it.
You desire to do good,
yet you find yourself doing things
that you do not want to do.
And Paul feels this alongside us,
and we're going to look at it
at length
in his coming writing
in chapter 7.
I must admit,
I often do a lot of helpful planning
in our Lord's Day,
and I get songs sent to me
that are planned to be sung,
and I didn't even look
at the song that we sang
just before coming up here,
but John Newton is with you
if you wrestle with this idea
of no longer being a slave to sin
and rather being a slave to God,
submitting yourself to him.
Why is it still so difficult?
Having been set free,
being under grace
and not under law,
why is our life still hard?
But that does not change this truth.
Experience does not define
the truth for us.
Scripture defines the truth for us.
And the work, then,
the labor is to bring ourselves
into conformity with it.
So Paul, we're going to see
in chapter 7,
helps us to see
and helps us to understand
what is happening
as we battle against our flesh.
But before he does,
he works out this principle
a bit for us
in today's text.
So you see beginning in verse 17,
this principle practice.
This is point number 3.
Let's note this morning
how this principle is practiced
in two ways.
First, let's notice
how it's practiced
as we were.
Now, when I say it that way,
as we were,
I'm speaking of the Christian.
If you have not repented
of your sin
and turned by grace
through faith
to Jesus Christ,
then this is the present state
of your soul.
For those who have repented
of our sin
and turned by grace
through faith
to Jesus Christ,
then this is who we once were.
And that is the way
Paul is addressing us
in his letter.
Verse 17, he says,
But thanks be to God.
Why?
Because we are justified
by grace alone,
through faith alone,
in Christ alone.
If we have been changed
from one nature to another,
we're not the ones
who did the changing.
God changed us.
We were once slaves of sin
and have now become
slaves of obedience.
It was a work that God did
in our hearts.
So notice who we were,
right?
Verse 17,
slaves of sin.
Verse 19,
we once presented
our members
as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness,
leading to more lawlessness.
Verse 20,
we were slaves of sin.
We were free
in regard to righteousness,
but we were slaves of sin.
And notice verse 21,
the end of those things
is death.
So rebels,
cut off from God,
right?
Presenting ourselves
for things that are
unpleasing to God.
Before Christ,
we were slaves of sin.
Our old self
was obedient to sin,
and we loved it.
Notice that we presented
our members as slaves
to impurity
and to lawlessness,
leading to more lawlessness.
That is,
we willingly gave ourselves
to this activity.
The phrase impurity
and lawlessness
refers both to an inward
and an outward sinfulness.
Every ounce of our being,
Paul doesn't leave
any of it unattended to.
Every bit of us,
our being
and our doing,
was given
to sin.
Paul tells us
this lawlessness
leads to more
lawlessness.
It just compounds itself.
John MacArthur,
in his commentary
on this phrase,
wrote,
like a cancer
that reproduces itself
until the whole body
is destroyed.
Sin reproduces itself
until the whole person
is destroyed.
Now,
your experience
may not feel this way.
You perhaps
were converted early
in your life.
I believe that I was.
But it's
but for the grace of God
that I didn't become
worse and worse
and worse and worse
in my sin.
Some of you have felt
the weight
and the depth
of your sinfulness.
Thanks be to God,
right,
that we are now
set free
from that power.
Oscar Wilde,
the 19th century writer
and deviant.
You can look up
why he was a deviant.
When his rebellious
lifestyle was made,
Public wrote this,
I forgot
that when a man
is in secret,
he will someday
shout aloud
from the housetop.
Become proud
of our rebellion.
And let's be careful
not to forget
who we once
were.
I think it's problematic
if we read
verse 17
and don't find
some pause
in our souls
at the phrase
but thanks be
to God.
Let's go back
to Romans chapter 1
verse 28
and following.
Paul includes
us
in this text.
He is not
excluding us
from it.
And since they
did not
see fit
to acknowledge God,
God gave them up
to a debased mind
to do
what ought not
be done.
They were filled
with all manner
of unrighteousness,
evil,
covetousness,
malice.
They are full
of envy,
murder,
strife,
deceit,
maliciousness.
They are gossips,
slanderers,
haters of God,
insolent,
haughty,
boastful,
inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents,
foolish,
faithless,
heartless,
ruthless.
Though they know
God's righteous decree
that those who practice
such things
deserve to die,
they not only do them
but give approval
to those
who practice them.
If we're in Christ,
that's who we once were,
presenting ourselves,
presenting our members
as slaves
to impurity
and to lawlessness,
leading to more
lawlessness.
But,
thanks be
to God.
By God's grace
and only by grace
through faith
are we no longer
slaves to sin.
Praise God
that in Christ Jesus
we have been set free
from its tyranny.
So that's how you see
in this text
that principle
practiced
as we
were,
but you also see it
and more importantly
you see it
as we now
are.
So again,
look through
these verses
with me,
verses 17 through 22.
Again,
thanks be to God
that you who
were once
slaves
of sin,
no longer
slaves of sin
but we were
once slaves
of sin,
have become
obedient from
the heart
to the standard
of teaching
to which you
were committed.
We have been
changed in our
very nature.
This language
from the heart
means at the very
core of
who we are,
we have been
changed.
And out of us
therefore comes
good and proper
things.
And,
verse 18 says,
we've been set free
from sin
and rather have
become slaves
of righteousness,
committing ourselves
to it.
And so the
encouragement becomes
in verse 19
that we are to
present our members
as slaves
to righteousness
which leads
to sanctification,
the setting apart,
the ever-growing
holiness that exists
in those
who belong
to Christ.
When we are
converted,
we are changed
in nature,
we are set free
from sin,
we become slaves
of righteousness,
but we do not
become perfect.
I wish that we did.
I think that God
in His sovereignty
means to work out
in us
our great need
for Him.
He means to help
us recognize
the sinfulness
of our sin.
One day we'll be
delivered from it
and we'll praise
Him for eternity
because we'll
understand some
measure of its
depth.
I think that He
means for us
to relate to
others,
not to present
ourselves as
perfect because
we're not,
but to say,
yes,
this is who I
once was,
and now being
set free from
sin,
I still go back
to that sin
and I need
Christ as much
as you do.
We are to
present ourselves,
we are to
submit ourselves
to God
as a slave,
Him giving to
us good
and proper
direction.
Verse 21,
notice one of
the marks of a
converted person
is that the
things we once
did,
we are now
ashamed of.
We don't
desire to do
those things,
although we do
still do them,
but we are
ashamed of those
things that we
once did,
willingly presenting
ourselves to
sin in this
way.
But now,
verse 22 says,
we've been set
free from it
and we have
become slaves
of God.
The fruit you
get leads to
sanctification
and its end,
eternal life.
Having changed
hearts,
God brings
forth from
who we are
good fruit.
and this
evidences the
faith that He
is working
in us.
It's important
that we get
this balance
right.
Law and
grace.
We're saved
by grace
alone,
through faith
alone,
in Christ
alone.
And that
is a faith
that works
out in
our lives.
And it
happens and
ebbs and
it happens
and flows.
That's why
if you're here
this morning
and you're not
a member of
a local
church,
you need to
be a member
of a local
church because
this is one
of the
authorities that
God has
given to you
to help
you discern
whether or
not you
are in
fact in
the faith.
To help
you examine
your life.
When you
join a
church,
the church
is saying
to you,
with the
kind of
judgment
we can
pass as
people,
we believe
that you're
in Christ.
We see
faithfulness
coming out
of you.
We are
bearing
witness to
the good
fruit that
exists.
We want
you to be
called
gods.
In the
same way,
we practice
discipline.
To say
to people
who we
once had
a confidence
they were
in the
faith,
we're not
as sure
as we
once were.
We no
longer think
we can
call you
brother.
For your
sake,
we're not
going to
let you
go on
thinking
that you're
in Christ
because all
of the
fruit that
you're
bearing
runs in
contradiction
to that
profession.
John Calvin
in his
commentary on
Romans wrote
the following
quote,
as soon
as the
godly
begin to
be
enlightened
by the
spirit of
Christ
and the
preaching
of the
gospel,
they freely
acknowledge
that the
whole of
their past
life,
which they
lived without
Christ,
is worthy
of condemnation.
So far
from trying
to excuse
it,
they are
in fact
ashamed
of
themselves.
Indeed,
they go
farther and
continually
bear their
disgrace in
mind so
that the
shame of
it may
make them
more truly
and willingly
humble
before God.
To give you
my simple
summary of
what he's
saying,
he's going
to this
little phrase
in our
text,
verse 21,
the things
of which
you are
now
ashamed.
And he's
saying that
this becomes
a fuel
for us
to not
do those
things any
longer,
to not
return
to those
things,
to make
us humble,
but by
the grace
of God.
Paul says
of himself,
a sure
and confident
thing,
that he is
the chief
of sinners
and we
all ought
to feel
the same.
If it
weren't
for the
grace
of God,
I would
be the
worst.
So back
to the
beginning
of verse
17,
but thanks
be to
God.
He's
given us
such reason
to present
ourselves
to him
and to
pursue
holiness.
And on
top of
all of
that,
right,
this changing
in our
nature,
this has
promised
for us
something
to come,
which is
our last
and final
point,
a glorious
future
guaranteed.
Verse 23,
for the
wages of
sin is
death,
but the
free gift
of God
is eternal
life in
Jesus Christ,
our Lord.
Before we
can address
the glorious
future guaranteed
in this text,
we must
first address
the absolute
truth that
those who
continue in
their sin,
those who
do not,
by grace
through faith,
turn from
their sin
and flee
to Christ,
deserve the
penalty
of death.
It is the
wage that
they have
earned.
That is not
how I want
to spend
the last
moments of
our time
together.
Rather,
I want to
remind you
a future
reward.
Those of
us who are
in Christ,
I want
us to
drink
deeply
at the
well of
God's
grace as
we remember
what he
has granted
to us
in Christ.
I think
that we
understand
that a
gift is
free,
but lest
Paul leave
us with
any doubt
of God's
gracious
kindness
toward us,
he says
the free
gift
of God.
It wants
to be so
clear that
we are
saved
by
grace,
right?
Undeserving.
And that
free gift
is eternal
life.
In Christ
Jesus,
our Lord.
The scope
of eternity
future is
incomprehensible
for our
feeble minds.
What will
that look
like?
Life
forever
more.
But the
glory that
is found
in it is
not diminished
by our
weakness to
comprehend it.
It is an
incredible,
vast thing
for us
to think
about.
This is
the promise
that pulls
us through
the trouble
of this
life,
the pain,
the persecution,
the problem
of our
flesh,
the sickness
and the
sorrow,
the weariness
and the
wars,
the destruction
and the
death.
The future
reward is
what spurs
us on.
This life
is but a
vapor.
we can
bear up
and we
can press
on.
We can be
ashamed of
those things
we once
did and
present
ourselves
as slaves
of righteousness
that we
might press
on to
the end,
kept
by our
God.
So we
are to do
this,
present our
members as
slaves to
righteousness,
which leads
sanctification.
I want to
read from
you just a
little bit
from,
this is
John MacArthur's
commentary,
this is a
quotation
inception,
because I'm
going to
read from
John MacArthur's
commentary,
him citing
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer from
his book,
The Cost of
Discipleship,
in which he
quotes Martin
Luther.
Bonhoeffer,
I commend
the book
to you,
Bonhoeffer
wrote a
book called
The Cost
of Discipleship,
and it was
just easier to
find this
quotation in
MacArthur
than in the
book,
but in
there he
juxtaposes
cheap grace
and costly
grace,
and he
does this
at great
length,
and you've
heard me
present this
idea to
you before,
the difference
between cheap
grace,
people who
think that
they are
saved,
therefore they
can live
however they
want to,
the antinomian
he would
have called
cheap grace
Christians.
So he
says this,
Cheap grace
amounts to
the justification
of sin
without the
justification
of the
repentant
sinner who
departs from
sin and
from whom
sin departs.
Cheap grace
is not the
kind of
forgiveness of
sin which
frees us
from the
toils of
sin.
Cheap grace
is grace
without
discipleship,
grace
without the
cross,
grace
without
Jesus
Christ.
Costly
grace,
on the
other hand,
is the
call of
Jesus
Christ at
which the
disciple
leaves his
nets and
follows him.
When Martin
Luther spoke
of grace,
he always
implied as a
corollary that
it cost him
his own
life,
the life
which was
now subjected
to the
absolute
obedience
of Christ.
Happier
they who,
knowing that
grace,
can live in
the world
without being
of it,
who by
following
Jesus
Christ are
so assured
of their
heavenly
citizenship
that they
are truly
free to
live their
lives in
this world.
Costly
grace that
grants us
a sure,
a guaranteed
reward.
Revelation
chapter 21
verse 1
through 4,
John gives
us a
glimpse of
what will
come.
There he
says,
Then I
saw a
new heaven
and a
new earth,
for the
first heaven
and the
first earth
had passed
away and
the sea
was no
more.
And I
saw the
holy city,
new Jerusalem,
coming down
out of heaven
from God,
prepared as a
bride adorned
for her
husband.
And I
heard a
loud voice
from the
throne saying,
Behold,
the dwelling
place of
God is
with man.
He will
dwell with
them and
they will
be his
people and
God himself
will be
with them
as their
God.
He will
wipe away
every tear
from their
eyes and
death shall
be no
more.
Neither
shall there
be mourning
nor crying
nor pain
anymore,
for the
former things
have passed
away.
And so we
have in this
text a
question asked
and answered.
Should we
go on
sinning?
Absolutely
not.
A principle
presented,
like we're
all slaves
to something.
To what
do you
present
yourself
and a
glorious
future
guaranteed?
So,
some brief
application.
Firstly,
if you have
not repented
of your
sin and
fled to
Christ for
the salvation
of your
soul,
do so
today,
for the
wages of
sin is
death.
Secondly,
if you
are in
Christ,
and I
do hope
that you
are,
remember
who you
once
were,
be ashamed
of your
former sins
and do
not return
to them.
Hold in
your mind
that you
have been
set free
from your
past
sinfulness.
And third,
if you are
in Christ,
and I hope
that you
are,
remember
who you
are.
you
have a
glorious
forever
future
awaiting
you.
Let this
wonderful
future
truth
drive
your
pursuit
of
holiness
now.
Let's pray
together.
Let's pray
together.
Let's pray
together.