Grace vs. Sin Series [Part 2 of 5]: Click | View Series

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1-2)

Zombie Culture

Elementary school would have been drastically different for me had it not been for Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Not only was it the most groundbreaking music videos of its time, it was also what introduced me to the concept of zombies. Although numerous books and movies have incorporated zombie culture, my first understanding was that zombies were to dance. In essence, they’re the walking (or dancing) dead. Of course, this is fictitious, for the nature of being dead is that there is absolutely no life at all.

Functional Death

Paul uses the language of “functional” death in Rom. 6:1-2: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” The nature of death is its finality and hopelessness of life again. Those who are living under grace are not to return to the dead state of hopelessness. Playing on this “functional death” imagery, Paul asserts the idea of the living acting like the dead as well as the dead acting like the living.

Dead to sin vs. Dead in sin

Elsewhere, Paul addresses being dead in sin: “You were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). But in Rom. 6:1-2 he addresses being dead to sin. Formerly, apart from Christ, we were dead in our sin. But the gospel is that the dead are made alive by grace through the person and work of Christ. It is common to think that the gospel gives license to sin. The Pharisees in Paul’s day actually thought the gospel led people to sin. Paul speaks differently: not that believers are “functionally dead”—dead acting like the living—but we are truly alive in Christ (v. 8). This means we are no longer dead in sin, but dead to sin (v. 11).

Paul teaches in Romans that life in Christ is deadness to sin. Just as the dead cannot act like the living, the living should not act like the dead. As Christians, we live amongst the walking dead. May we not reinforce the hopelessness of death by affirming zombie-like deadness but rather proclaim the gospel through our lives.

To be continued.

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Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

Grace vs. Sin Series [Part 1 of 5]: Click | View Series

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).

Grace vs. Sin

Grace is one of the most defining words of the Christian faith. It is at the core of the gospel. Grace is “God’s generous initiative and sustaining faithfulness culminating in the powerful, restorative activity of God on behalf of humanity” (New Dictionary of Biblical Theology). Grace, therefore is a character trait of God that is independent of human influence, yet sufficient and effective in transforming those to whom it is displayed. Scripture uses words such as “lovingkindness” and “favor” to describe grace, and the result is the recipient’s ongoing delight in God.

Conversely, sin is characterized by ongoing delight in godlessness or other-godness: delighting in self or various other idolatries. While the Old Testament concept of sin implies “missing God’s standard,” “iniquity,” “guilt,” “wickedness,” “distortion,” “rebellion,” and “emptiness,” the New Testament furthers the idea by using “debt,” “trespass,” “transgression,” and “injustice” (New Dictionary of Biblical Theology). The core of sin is the ongoing state of corruption, brokenness, bondage, and emptiness.

Hopelessness State vs. Empowering Promise

Sin is in essence an ongoing state of corruption and lack of conformity to God’s standard. Sin manifests itself in various ways, both in wicked acts, idolatry, heart attitudes, and ill-motivated “good” deeds, all of which affects the sinner and others, but most of all defying a holy, gracious God. Sin is enslaving. Sin empties sinners of true humanness and their created purpose.

Foretaste of a Future Reality

In Romans, the Apostle Paul addresses the sinful state of mankind and God’s redemption of them by his grace (Rom. 3:24). His grace restores the empty and hopeless sinner in both action and essence. Understanding that Christ’s mission was to deal with sin once for all, Paul gives believers an empowering promise to live under grace: For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (Rom. 6:14). This is a proclamation of the person and work of Christ and a declaration for those identified in him. The result is participation in the mission of a new life that displays the promise of grace: a present outworking as a foretaste of a future reality.

The person and work of Jesus Christ informs our identity as Christians, the mission of the church, and the future hope of the kingdom. This series will further explore Romans 6 and the concept that living under grace is not a command, but a promise.

To be continued.

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There are two ways to read the Bible. We can read it as law and threat, or we can read it as promise and assurance.

If we read the Bible as law, every page will feel like God glaring at us: “If you ever . . . .” And since we are all law-breakers at heart, the Bible will crush us. Even the promises will come across as law: “God will bless sinners—well, the ones who deserve it.”

If we read the Bible as promise, every page will be hope from God. It will breathe new life into us. Even the commands will be sweetened with grace: “God will bless sinners—yes, sinners who break these laws.”

Which way of reading of the Bible is correct?

The apostle Paul explains: “The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. . . . God gave it to Abraham by a promise” (Gal 3:17-18).

Here is Paul’s point. If we want to know whether we should read the Bible through the lens of law or promise, we can start reading on page one and see which comes first. And in fact, promise comes first—God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12. The law is a later sidebar, in Exodus 20. The category “promise” is the larger, wraparound framework for everything else.

The deepest message of the Bible is the grace of God for sinners. The Bible presents itself this way. The laws and commands and examples and warnings are all there. Let’s revere them. But we can read them with this as our foremost thought: “Jesus obeyed it all. He died for all my failure. And now he is changing my heart. I can read this page of the Bible with hope in his grace.”

When it comes to the subject of leadership in action, one of my favorite Old Testament characters is Nehemiah. In his book we see every facet of leadership lived out. I admire the depth of his prayer life, his love for God, and his sterling character. I admire his courage in the face of crises, his willingness to make tough decisions, his perseverance to stand for what is right, and his candor in dealing with people. He is a man of prayer, a man of faith, a man of vision, a man of courage and a man of action. We find him praying, watching, working and warring. He's my kind of leader.

I have studied my way through Nehemiah with two groups of leaders, and each time was insightful and challenging. It is a book rich in leadership principles. As to lessons we learn from Nehemiah, J. Sidlow Baxter says, "There is no winning without working, no opportunity without opposition, no triumph without trouble, no victory without vigilance."

INTRODUCTION

Each of our lives is defined by various moments, events and decisions as we travel in life from beginning to end. The journey we travel has twists and turns, ups and downs requiring a unique perspective if we are "to see" our way forward in the mission of Jesus. Often people look to the life of Jesus to find a moral example, to find encouragement, or to learn a life lesson. We find all of these when our gaze finds the living Jesus. Yet the story of Jesus is much more than the recounting of a great person and his teachings – it is the story by which all of us are defined.

This article has a few ambitious goals. First, we want to introduce the New Testament and its relationship to the rest of the Scriptures. Second, we want to look at a particular genre of Scripture, that of gospel literature. In doing so we will look specifically at what are known as the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Psalm 19:7-11

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Christian Hedonism is very much aware that every day with Jesus is not "sweeter than the day before." Some days with Jesus our disposition is as sour as raw persimmons. Some days with Jesus we are so sad we feel our heart will break open. Some days with Jesus fear turns us into a knot of nerve ends. Some days with Jesus we are so depressed and discouraged that between the garage and the house we just want to sit down on the grass and cry. Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before. We know it from experience and we know it from scripture. For the text says (Psalm 19:7), "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." If every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before, we wouldn't need to be revived.

Galatians 5:6-12

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who called you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine; and he who is troubling you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But if I, brethren, still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves!

Verse six of our text is one of the most important verses in the whole book. I want us to spend most of our time with it. But first, let's take a brief walk through verses 7-12. I think they function mainly as a warning about how serious the main issue in verses 5 and 6 really is--the issue of whether faith is sufficient for receiving the fullness of God's blessings, or whether some of those blessings must be earned by works.

Search the Scriptures.
John 5:39

When the Sadducees came to our blessed Lord, and put to him the question, "whose wife that woman should be in the next life, who had seven husbands in this," he told them "they erred, not knowing the scriptures." And if we would know whence all the errors, that have over-spread the church of Christ, first arose, we should find that, in a great measure, they flowed from the same fountain, ignorance of the word of God.

The publicity brochure of the New Revised Standard Version sounds so sensible. At last, we are told, misleading, masculine-oriented language has been removed from the Bible. Jesus no longer says, "and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (RSV), but instead, "And I...will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32, NRSV).

This is an improvement: the word men isn't specified by the Greek text, and all people is a faithful rendering of the Greek pronoun pas. Changes like this use "gender-neutral" language without sacrificing accuracy in translation. In addition, the NRSV has not gone as far as some people wanted, because it still calls God "Father" (not "Parent"), for example, and calls Jesus the "Son of God" (not "Child of God")--probably in large measure due to the conservative influence of the chairman of the NRSV translation committee, evangelical New Testament scholar Bruce Metzger.

But there are many other changes -- literally, thousands -- that should cause evangelicals much concern. The translators consistently disregarded precise, grammatically correct English equivalents and resorted to gender-neutral paraphrases. The preface explains that the copyright holder (the Division of Education and Ministry of the National Council of Churches of Christ) required that "masculine-oriented language should be eliminated as far as this can be done without altering passages that reflect the historical situation of ancient patriarchal culture." To fulfil this requirement, the translation committee explains that it had to depart from its ordinary principles of making "essentially a literal translation."

Hebrews 11:29-38

By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days. ³¹ By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. ³² And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received back their dead by resurrection; [note shift] and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; ³⁶ and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ³⁸ (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

Blowing Away the Fog About What Faith Is

Christians and non-Christians can have defective views of what the Christian life really is. Preaching the word of God aims to bring our views of God and his ways more and more into line with the truth. We do this for unbelievers so that you can embrace Christianity on the basis of a true picture of it, rather than a distorted one; and we do it for believers so that you can live your lives on the basis of true views of God and his ways, rather than distorted and deluding and discouraging views.