November 11, 2002

LifeWay Family Bible Series for Nov. 24

Love steers Christians away from sin, not law
___ Romans 6:12­23
___By Rick Willis
___First Baptist Church, Roscoe
___What is a Christian lifestyle supposed to look like? The world gets confusing signals today. On the one hand, highly visible Christian figures seem to present a strict, moralistic picture of Christianity. On the other hand, sex-charged young music performers often wear cross jewelry and publicly thank Jesus Christ for their success.
___These two extremes might represent a tension within the gospel itself. The true message of Jesus Christ is all grace, God's free and undeserved acceptance. Yet the result of receiving God's gift is a different life.
___The real gospel message is not just another moralizing insistence to "be good." It is a radical invitation to be forgiven! Yet the good news of Christ reveals God will make a whole new person, a person whose character keeps moving above reproach.
___Why not sin?
___Romans 6 indicates the gospel was misunderstood virtually from the beginning. However, the misunderstanding seems to have been rather one-sided. When people heard the message of God's amazing grace, they could hardly conclude he aven is for people whose good works outweigh their sins! Efforts to earn God's favor by morality always fail. No exceptions (Romans 1–3).
___The New Testament shows no indication that Paul had to correct his hearers for thinking, "I could never be good enough to belong to Christ's church." Instead, Paul had to battle the opposite misunderstanding. After hearing Paul's message, no one seems to have asked, "How can I be saved since I've done such bad things?" His preaching was met with the question, "Why not sin?"
___One measure of how accurately we communicate the gospel is how we are misunderstood. If people get the impression they must obey a set of rules before God (and we) will accept them, then our message is not the gospel (Galatians 1:6­7).
___God let the cat out of the bag announcing, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). So why not sin?
___Two illustrations
___Paul faced this question explicitly in Romans 6. To paraphrase verse 1, "Why not sin? The more the sin, the more the forgiveness, and the more God's generosity is praised!" Or again to paraphrase verse 15, "Why not sin? If we're all justified unconditionally by God's grace, what difference does it make what I do?"
___Paul answered the question with one interjection and two illustrations. To the question, "Shall we sin?" Paul answered "By no means!" (The expression loses something in translation; the best attempt may still be the King James Version: "God forbid!")
___Romans 6:12­14 makes a transition between the two illustrations. In the previous verses, Paul declared a person's state before and after conversion is as different as death and life. When Jesus died and rose again, the Christian's life of revolt against God died, and the new life of revolt against sin was born. Therefore, it only makes sense for the Christian to offer his desires, will and behavior to God as instruments of his purpose, "as those who have been brought from death to life" (6:13).
___In the following verses, Paul turns to an illustration from ancient slavery, "For sin shall not be your master" (6:14).
___One master or the other
___Romans 6:19 explains that Paul wrote in verses 16­22, "using the illustration of slaves and masters, because it is easy to understand" (New Living Translation). To obey the selfish urge to sin is to belong to sin and death like an ancient slave belonged to the master. Likewise, to obey God is to belong to God and life.
___The emphasis in Paul's answers to the question "Why not sin?" falls on this point: There is no middle ground. A person will be either free from the reign of sin or free from the reign of God, but not both.
___One Christian writer has captured the sense of Romans 6 through a marriage illustration. Suppose a newlywed couple sits down together on their honeymoon. The husband asks his new wife, "Now that we're married, Honey, just how far can I go with other women? Can I still date other women occasionally? Can we hold hands? Kiss?"
___We recognize the husband's question as absurd. He has entered into an exclusive relationship and a new life with his bride. In accepting the grace of her love, he also accepts a solemn obligation to be hers alone. So it is when we accept the grace of God.
___The best reason not to sin is because you don't want to sin. In full context, Romans 6­8 assures us that when we trust God's risky message of grace in Jesus Christ, God gives us himself in the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit brings with him a whole new set of "want tos" (Romans 8:12­27).
___Questions for discussion
___ Verse 17 refers to teaching "to which (new Christians) were entrusted." What teachings would you include in a new Christians' class? Does your church have special instruction for new Christians?
___ Discuss the statement: Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone.

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