Lesson 17b & begin 5:12-18 Lesson 18a

So we got, I think, up to question five, right? Because we talked about what the difference between a good man and a righteous man was. And then five was, whose idea was it that Christ was to die for us? Whose idea was it? Yeah, it's interesting because a lot of times we're so self-centered we don't realize That God didn't wait for man to do something about his own problem. He went ahead and acted and Christ died for man when man was at his worst. Which shows us that man's love needs a motivation. God's love doesn't. He just is. And it is. So love is part of what God's being is. This is the way God so loved the world. So he took care of the sin issue that was between him and man.

John Darby quoted I think last week, in Sovereign Grace, he rises above the sin, he loves without motive, save what is in his own nature and part of his glory, man must have a motive for loving. God has none but in himself and commended his love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, the best thing in heaven that could be given for the vilest, most defiled and guilty sinners."

Pretty cool paragraph. Question six, what conclusion can be drawn in verse nine from verses six through eight? So let's read them and see if we can come up with a conclusion. So we're at five, six through eight. Six, it starts, for when we were without strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Statement Conclusion Much more than having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." So, what's the conclusion? We know that Christ died for us while we were ungodly sinners, right?

What's the much more? Much more than having now been justified by his blood. I'm now justified. What's that mean? That I'm justified. You're declared righteous? I'm declared righteous by God. That's a little bit better, or a little bit more. And therefore, I'm going to be saved from the wrath in the future. What's he talking about? What wrath? Wrath against sin. The wrath against sin in the future. Is that coming? I thought he took it all out on the cross. That's why we're saved from it. We are saved from it. Did he not demonstrate his wrath against sin on Christ at the cross? He did.

But then there is this, we call it the tribulation that's coming. And if you've ever spent any time in there, it's awful to think about what's going to happen. And yet in the midst of all of that awfulness, Most men won't turn to Christ. They'll be hiding under rocks shaking their fist at God as he pours out his wrath against sin, but it's on man because they are sinful.

So we as believers are saved from that future wrath. How about the non-believer that died in 1000 BC? Who isn't going to be alive at the rapture or at the tribulation? What about him or her? Are they going to experience the wrath? That's judgment. Is judgment wrath? Wrath seems to be something carried out, an aggressive, I can't use the word punishment, Yeah, see that's the thing. We are saved from not only the tribulation, we won't be here, but we're saved from the fires of hell too.

Now, there's a principle here that we need to talk about. If you're looking at studying Newell's Romans, he's got this whole thing about the much mores There's what four or five times here in these verses say this and much more God had done this. What's that principle of the much mores? What is that about?

The larger always includes the lesser. That's what it means and it's really important for us to understand that because if you know yourself that there are times that there's a small thing and I'm all worked up about the Lord about And I can't sort of reconcile it in my mind and I have forgotten that if Christ took care of the sin issue on the cross, which was the big thing, won't he also take care of the smaller thing? A lot of times we don't think he will. Or we think it's trivial.

But the much more, what was done for me when I was a sinner, How much more will God do for me now that I'm a member of his family? Do you see that? It's a really important principle to keep in mind because a lot of times we walk around under a cloud because we think something we've done or some circumstance or some trial we have, God isn't or maybe doesn't want to fix it. Well, the trial is a blessing. And if he did the bigger thing, he certainly is going to do the smaller thing. So keep that in mind. It's always the larger includes the lesser. Question 7.

What does biblical reconciliation mean? And what does reconciliation mean just to start with? The war is over. Does it mean that I get out my checkbook and balance it? And reconcile my accounts? Kind of. But what does reconciliation mean? Could you say that it's the removal of the enmity between God and man? The removal of the enmity between God and man. Which one of us needs to be reconciled? God or me? Me. A lot of times we think, well God needs to kind of clean up his act. Am I not God too?

So, reconciliation to God, by God, not only to him, but by him, having Christ meet in his death all the claims of God's throne. All of them. His Majesty, His Holiness, His Righteousness, His Truth. All of those attributes have claims, and Christ meant them all.

When we receive it with joy in the Lord because of it, and you know what, the world can't do this. No matter where you search in the world, you are not going to find In spite of the fact that the mercy of God is acted towards and in connection with the gospel, God's wish is that none should perish, none. But it's important, when he gave his only son, he had the world in view, didn't he? Because he loved the world and he wanted to deal with, he was doing it as a gift.

Do you see that? Do you see why salvation is a gift? Why it's free? Why God doesn't expect people to come to Christ and then after they're saved he wants them to demonstrate to him how much they appreciate what he did. That means that they're trying to work to make it less of a gift and to try to find worthiness in them before God. What made it a gift?

Within ourselves we have no way of pulling it off. We don't. That's right. And he's the only one that has a way to do it. So what makes it a gift? Let's say I'm going to buy Courtney a gift, which is Last week I'm God, now you're not buying it. So I think about it. I think about what would be appropriate for him, from my judgment. And I go out and I buy it. I pay the price for it and then I give it to him. And I don't expect anything in return. Why doesn't he have to do anything in return? Because I paid for it. I paid for it. He didn't. I did. So it's a gift.

So parallel that with what the Father did with the Lord Jesus. There was enmity between man and God. God didn't need to be reconciled to man. Man needed to be reconciled to God. So God steps in and he solves from his point of view to his satisfaction the entire sin issue, the whole thing, against his throne, his righteousness, his holiness, everything. And he completes it. It's finished. The reason you know it's finished is how do you know God is satisfied about it? He's raised from the dead. At that point, he's standing there, outside the grave, Is he now under a covenant to offer salvation to man?

He's not, is he? Now most of us think that he is, but he's not, because if he was, it wouldn't be a gift. Do you see that? If I said to Courtney, I'm going to go buy you a gift, and she said, you better. And if you don't, we're not going to be friends.

Now I've got a problem because now I'm obligated. You see that? Yeah. You know what's interesting as you're saying that is that there's becoming this mindset, especially like in our country, where the gift is expected. You know, I'm the one who determines that you need to give me something because I deserve it for whatever reason. Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's kind of the mentality of the society, but that's the mentality of the sin nature. But I think what you're saying there is that God is the one who decides what righteousness is. Well, He's the only one who's righteous. Right?

Yeah. Oh, that's right. He did create me. Yeah. He is God. But that's what we've put aside, is that He is God. Parallel to that I think is the fact that probably the biggest lie of the sin nature that we all share is that I will be a scholar. Isn't that right? That's what Lucifer did. He looked in the mirror and he said, Hey God, you did a great job with me. Look how terrific I am. I think I want to take your place. And so what does God do? When the Jews wanted the commandments, what was the first one he gave them? I'm the Lord thy God, I will not have false gods before me. Who's the false god? All of you. All y'all. All y'alls are the false god.

So what does he do? He takes care of that enmity and he stands before us and he's under no obligation to offer salvation to man. None. But he loves us. He loves man. And so he comes to man and he says, look, I've taken care of everything. You want in on the deal? All you have to do is believe that I did. You believe what I tell you about my son, the Lord Jesus, and what he did to satisfy God, the Godhead, about the entire enmity between you and me. If you believe that, I'll give the whole thing to you for free. It doesn't get any better than that.

But our ego, our sin nature is so... What's the word I'm looking for? Rome? Evil that, you know, we think... Ungodly. Okay, ungodly. That we don't like the deal. We want to have skin in the salvation deal. No. We get no skin. We get faith, which is a non-meritorious act. We trust him and he gives us the whole thing. He reconciles us to himself. From the farthest we could be away, we're right here. Isn't that cool? So that's the beginning and understanding of what grace is. My Grandmother says, he loved, he served, and he gave. We did nothing. We did nothing. So when God gave his only son, he had the world in view and the love of the world was behind the gift. This reconciliation begins to all the ministry of reconciliation of which 2 Corinthians 5 speaks. 2 Corinthians 5 is that we've been given the job of reconciling. We're ambassadors of the reconciliation.

Believers are really brought to God in righteousness and love with every stain and discord removed and every fear banished forever. Isn't that something? Yet, given a set of circumstances, we go before God, or don't go before God, maybe is a better way to say it, with our baggage. And he says, wait a minute, I took care of all that. We were reconciled to God by God having Christ meet in his death all the claims of God's throne, all of them.

I've told you this before, I've had people call me up or text me and we're going back and forth about some sort of sin that they just can't reconcile in their mind. I've got kind of a weird sense of humor sometimes. So I say to them, oh that's right, my Bible says that your and that sin was not paid for at the cross, right? God missed that one somehow.

No. He got them all. He got them all. His majesty and holiness. So reconciliation is a very cool thing for God. And you know what else is interesting? He has reconciled the whole world. But you don't get in on the reconciliation unless you believe Him. You see that? He's not mad anymore. even though he's going to pour out his wrath against sin at some point, but he's not mad at man anymore because it's all been taken care of. He just wants you to believe him. It's pretty simple. It's actually too simple. I would have made it harder if it was up to me.

So what is the difference between anger and wrath? Question eight. Would you say that the wrath of God on Christ at the cross was punishment? I don't think so. I don't think it's punishment. Is it punishment? No. What would you say it is then? Pardon? What's that? What would you say wrath is if it's not punishment?

It's the act of judgment. Act of judgment. Act of judgment. And wrath is against the person? Sin. It's against the thing sin itself. Isn't that interesting? Could you say that when righteousness comes in contact with sin, wrath is the result? Oh boy, extend on that. That it's not an emotion, it's God's character coming in contact with sin, that wrath is is the result, it's not an emotion or it's just like oil and water, they cannot exist in the same. So when sin shows up, so let's define what sin is.

Missing the mark. Missing the mark, who's the mark or what's the mark? God. God himself, right? So he creates angels, men, he makes them responsible by giving him a will, and he gives him the opportunity to choose against him. And missing the mark is choosing against him, that's where you miss it. God has wrath against that which we call sin. It's not the person, it's the sin. But it's interesting, God gave man, through the work of Christ, the opportunity to be reconciled, but he didn't do that with the angels. Did he? When they fell, they fell. And then they got locked into place. They don't have an opportunity, the fallen angels, to exercise their will towards God. They're locked. They're locked in.

But man, he gave us a will. but he also gave us a remedy through the work of Christ. So anger and punishment mean that it would be personal on the person. Wrath is against the thing sin itself. So anger and punishment would be against the offender, but wrath upon Christ was against the thing sin. And as we're going to find out here in a couple of verses, the thing sin is not the bad things we all did. It's that nature. It's the principle of sin. That's where the wrath goes.

Christ bore the wrath which God's being and nature always and forever sustains towards sin. He's always like that towards sin because it doesn't meet the criteria of His holiness and His righteousness. It's his universe, it's his creation. A sinner, which is a person with a sin nature, can't come near to God or he'll die because God is holy. He must perish in the holy presence of God.

You've heard me say this again, not because God hates him, but because God is holy. leads to the question I've asked a jillion times. If the only thing that Christ did on the cross was to pay the penalty for your sins, that's all he did. He didn't do all the other things that we know about.

Can you say, oh good, I'm a forgiven sinner. I can walk in the room and go right up to God. Can I do that? No. Why not? Because we have to be positioned in Christ. And what does that position in Christ give us? Robert was sealed and was protected from his wrath for eternity.

As you stated that, does that mean it doesn't include dying unto the same nature? Say that again? Well, you made a statement and said is that enough? If you're saying it isn't enough, is it because it doesn't include he died unto the old sin nature? I don't understand exactly what you're saying.

It's being separated from us in nature. Yeah, and we're fairly close to laying that all out in 5.12 on through 6. How did God actually pull that off? But the point is, from God's perspective, those who are saved have the right to approach Him, as we learned in 5. Why? The first part of 5. because of our position in Christ.

We have the same acts as he has. But he still holds this question that he hasn't answered yet that's coming up. Well, what about the source of my sins? He has forgiven me my behavior, but what did he do about the source, which is what we call sin nature or the sin or the principle of sin. We'll get to that this morning. I somehow lost one of my pages. What's question nine? What does saved by his life mean? Oh, okay. Is that ten or nine? What it is, is we... Did I mess it up? Question ten is... Should it be nine? Yeah. Okay. All right, good.

We're not going there yet. So Christ died in that forsaken of God under wrath because it was bearing our sins in his body on the tree. So it was that sin being placed on Christ, judgment and wrath fell upon Christ. So he knows what it's like to suffer the wrath of God against sin. He knows.

You and I don't. He does. So it's also that the believer has not been appointed unto wrath. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9. The wrath fell on Christ. So we don't have to go under the wrath. And that's the frightening thing of talking to people you care about who aren't believers. They're headed to wrath. They are. I'm glad I'm missing that one.

Newell says, God indeed permitted man to inflict the terrible sufferings of crucifixion upon God's son, but those sufferings were not the cup that his father had given him to drink. Think about this. The cup was the cup of divine wrath against sin. And it involved his being cut off out of the land of the living under the hand of divine judgment. So when we do the Lord's Table and we stand up there in this cup, what are we talking about? Normally you think in your mind, well the cup has to do with the blood poured out and dying. What's really going on there, the cup was the cup of divine wrath against sin.

That's what the real deal is. See that? It's not just Christ dying. It's the wrath against the thing sinned and that's what the cup he had to drink. That's what he agreed to do. I'm going to take your wrath, God, against sin. That's the cup. Pretty cool, huh? Let's go to the other side of the coin.

What does saved by his life mean? We could say saved in his life. What does that mean? We needed a savior who would be alive who could intercede for us. Take out the intercede part. We needed a living savior. Think about what's going on here. Christ rose from the dead, we did too. Yeah, and there was a brand new life there.

And this verse says whose life is it? It's His. Now this is not the principle of imputation. You know what I mean by imputation? I got it and I'm going to give some of it to you and some of it to you and some of it to you. No. So the resurrected life of Christ is not imputed to us. What it is, is that we all are gathered up and we are put into Christ and so now we have his very life. And that life, resurrected now, is the thing that saves us. So as a believer, do we drink that cup? No, we don't. We do it in remembrance of him. We remember him. But we're included in him, in his death. Right.

And as we'll find out when we get to six, this principle of sin that we were all born with, that principle is not forgiven. Do you see that? So if it can't be forgiven, in other words, if God can't come along no matter what he does and he can fix that thing, it won't fix because it's a nature. And a nature, like a principle, operates the same way every time. Like I can't make my dog into a cat. He's a dog. He does dog stuff. I'm a sinner. I do sin stuff. I don't do holy stuff.

What about, I think it's Romans 10, where we were cut out of an olive tree, it's wild by nature, and grafted into... To who? A good olive tree. And who's a good olive tree? The Lord. Yeah, and grafted in at the death, during resurrection site. And when we get to 6, I think a verse at a time explains exactly the steps there, what he did.

And when we get to Romans 8-3, we're going to find out that that sin nature was not forgiven. Your sin nature wasn't forgiven. What happened to it? Separated from me. But the nature itself, what happened to it? It's just taken alive. It's condemned. It's condemned. So if you, I don't think we have anybody on death row. Oh yeah, we got people on death row down here. They're condemned. The sentence just hasn't been carried out yet, but they're condemned. My sin nature and your sin nature is condemned. You're not, but that nature is. Okay?

So, saved by this life, meaning that the believer shares the risen life of Christ, that in the power of an endless life, the believer will abide both now and forever. As John says, we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world. What is he? Resurrected life. So now he closes up this section in verse 11. And not only so, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Why are we exalting? Why are we so excited? Isn't that that power? Yeah, the power. Well, maybe I ought to ask you. Are you excited? Are you exalting in God? Because we have already received the reconciliation? Because if you think about it, three chapters back we were under a rock. Under God's judgment, weren't we?

But now we're not. So. OK. So I'm going to go. You guys all have a copy of 12 or I'm sorry of the next. What's the next 18? Yeah. Let's do it. Let's let's go ahead with that because we can start into it. Any questions on what we just finished? So the next section, lesson 18. has to do with Romans 5, 12 through 18. Every once in a while in the Bible there comes what we would call a paradigm shift. Do you know what a paradigm shift is? You go from sins to sin. Yeah. But what in our world was a paradigm shift? Come on, smarty.

I laughed at this. We had the corporate world when I was at the big company. This was the big thing, a paradigm shift. If anybody used that word and came into my office, I told them to put two dimes on my desk. Paradigms. Paradigms. That's better than giving them a quarter and telling them to call somebody who cares about them. That used to be a big corporate thing, a paradigm shift. It's how you see something differently. Things change here.

We have been talking for five and a half chapters about sins, which are all the behavior pattern of that sin nature, right? about all of the stuff we have done and that Christ has come and paid the penalty for all of my actions as a sinner and all of the guilt associated with it. He has reconciled me and he has placed me in his son. But now he's going to start talking about something else and I dare say if you haven't If you don't have a copy of it, I'll bring them next week and hand them out.

Myles Stanford wrote a little paper, two pages long, called something about Romans 5.12. Adam or Christ?

No, it's called The Tragedy of Romans 5.11.

And what he says is really interesting, and I've quoted some of his stuff in here. that most of Christianity gets to Romans 5.11 and that's the end of their doctrine. They don't go beyond that. Forgiveness of sins, salvation saved by his life and reconciliation and they never go beyond that.

So Romans 5.12 Romans 6, Romans 7, and Romans 8 are very little talked about. Most of the Reformers talk very little about resurrection. Their whole focus is on the fact that Christ died for us. And that's what you hear. And the whole program is how do people get saved? That's the deal.

But from 512 forward, salvation is now in place But the next question is, well, what caused me to do these things, this sinning thing? And so there has to be a source for your sins and my sins. And if there is a source, did God do anything about that source? The answer is, yes, he did. Yes, he did. And so that's what 5.12 into 6 and 7 and 8 talk about. Actually up to eight. That's the real issue of the source of my behavior. Why do I do what I do? Again, why does a dog bark? Because he's a dog. Why do dogs act like dogs? Because they have dog natures. Why do I sin? Because I have a sin nature. Question number one.

Up to and including 5.11 in Romans Paul is setting forth the saviors substitutionary death for our sins. Everybody clear on what substitution means? He died in my place. Starting in 12, what change does Paul begin to deal with? The actual sin nature. He alone could die for our sins, past, present and future, right? I seldom think we realize that when Christ died on the cross and paid the penalty for my sins, all of our sins in this room are future. Did he die and pay the penalty for them? Sure he did. The sins of the whole world. He had to get them all, not just those that would be saved. He had to get them all because they were an offense against God himself. So he had to cover them all.

And he paid the penalty for that, redeeming all who believed. being justified freely through twenty four and five says be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins and then four seven is blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered so we have this new birth portion of the word of God and that's what we're going to talk about that Christ languishes rightly seeking the salvation of the lost, but inadequately ministering for the growth of the saved.

From now on, the focus is on ministering to those who are saved." Do you see that? We just finished the salvation part. Now the ministry to those who are saved begins. Like Mike said and Sam said, you said, he's no longer dealing with your sins, S-I-N-S, the things that you did, but now he's going to deal with the principle or the source of indwelling sin. That's what we're going to deal with. And it's personified in the fallen Adam.

Isn't that like the alcoholic can dump all his beer bottles, drain, but what good is that because the liquor store is down the street? Yeah, and behind the liquor store is the factory still producing them. That's right. So it's one thing to go around and break all the beer bottles, it's another thing to put the factory out of business. Still doesn't change man's desire to drink beer. How about dealing with the desire in your heart to drink beer? That's what we're doing.

So, let's look at verse 12. Would you say, based on this verse, that man is basically good or bad? Does anybody think man is basically good? Ungodly. Yeah, well that's a little worse than bad. Yeah, man is basically evil and the world tells us no, man is basically good. No they're not. It's like a forgiven thief is still a thief. A forgiven pedophile is still a pedophile. A forgiven unfaithful husband is still an unfaithful husband.

Why? The reason is that it is the source of what I do. The acknowledgement of that is the sins. Say that again. The acknowledgement of the source is the sins. How do you mean that? Because I think sin is an act. Sins are acts. If we didn't sin, we wouldn't know that we're sinners. Put it this way, Mike.

If I could take your soul and your spirit and your sin nature out of your body, you couldn't sin anymore because you don't have the vehicle to do it with. Do you see that? And that's why when people who are non-believers, when they die, they stop sinning. committing sins because they don't have the vehicle to do it with anymore. It doesn't change the fact that they've got the nature that is sin itself, the principle.

And so that's what we're talking about. So you have to settle on the fact that man is basically evil and the only thing he deserves is death. The good guys don't win in this game. The good guys all die. Last week I was sitting with my buddy out there at the hospice, and just he and I in the room, and I was in there for a half hour just kind of praying for him and thinking, you know. And he was struggling breathing and that kind of thing, and he couldn't really communicate. And I was thinking, you know, I've known this guy 58 years. That's how long I've known him. I knew him as a freshman in college. Tells you how old I am.

And he's a believer, but his body is going to die because of this thing, sin. He's going through this thing because of sin. And we would wish that it wouldn't be like that. But it is like that. If we had never sinned, we would never die. Would we have a sin nature? No. No. Because that's what 12 tells us. Is that the second buzzer? No, it's the second. So next week we'll answer your question, which is verse 12. It's a really interesting verse.

This is again when we expand back to what we read in Romans 1 through 3. Again, that sets up everything that he says here. The litany of how good we are, you know, quote, you know, we're all sinners. We're an open grave. We're tongues like ass. You know, it's like that takes us back. And yeah, but I mean, it's it's. continuation on building what he's already done through all the first chapters. Well, that's why, and that's also why Courtney and I have license to kid each other about our holiness, or lack thereof.

Mike, is it true that when a non-believer dies, they die attached to that sin nature? Yes. And so the Bible says they die in their sins. Because the sin nature and the sins, you don't separate them. When we put our faith in Christ, we're separated from that sin nature. We're safe and secure in Christ.

And that's very important. Well, your sin nature goes to Arvada. That's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your work on the cross. your work against the wrath of sin, and as we're going to find out, your work on separating all of us from the very source of sin. We thank you and we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.