Eternal Life and True Conversion: Inseparable Realities

Driving home: For the very faith that unites us to Christ, bringing the gift of justification, is the faith that so unites us to Christ that it secures the grace of sanctification.

Illustrates how God's grace superabounds over sin, using the metaphor of a mountain of grace overshadowing a mountain of sin, to explain the context of Paul's argument in Romans 6.

That is, God's design to save sinners and accept them in his presence, not upon anything they have done or anything they are, but solely upon the basis of what Christ has done and what Christ is. And in expounding that doctrine all the way from chapter 3 and verse 20 through to the end of chapter 5, the Apostle comes to this. He comes to this tremendous conclusion in verse 20, but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly. And so he says, it matters not how high the mountain of a man's sin may be, the mountain of God's grace unto justification overshadows it. And it overshadows it ...

2:04 - 3:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask if your supposed possession of eternal life has come in the way Paul describes: as a free gift and through true conversion.

Paul personifies sin as a living master giving orders, and the sinner as a slave rendering obedience, to convey the reality of servitude to sin before conversion.

master? Well, in the text, the old master is personified and called sin. Sin is taken out of the realm of an abstract concept, and Paul deals with sin in this passage as though sin were a living person. And he speaks of being a slave of sin. He speaks of sin giving orders, and these Romans rendering obedience. Notice how real this servitude to sin is in the thinking of the apostle Paul. Verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity. Why, he says, when sin spoke, you came a...

14:02 - 14:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask if your supposed possession of eternal life has come in the way Paul describes: as a free gift and through true conversion.

Describes how a slave of sin yields their eyes, feet, ears, and tongue to sin's commands, making the abstract concept of sin's mastery concrete and vivid.

And you said, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. And you said, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. When sin said, all right, sin, what shall I do? And when sin said, give me your eyes to be instruments of coveting, you said, yes, master, and you gave sin your eyes. When sin said, give me your feet to walk in forbidden paths, you said, yes, master, and you gave sin your feet. When sin said, give me your ears to listen to untruth, listen to gossip, give me your tongue to speak untruth and your tongue to speak uncleanness, y...

14:56 - 15:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies the first irreducible element of true conversion as a 'change of masters,' from sin (personified as a demanding master) to God and righteousness. He explains…

Describes the Great Emancipator (Christ) freeing from sin's servitude only to bring the believer into 'loving chains of servitude' at His feet, illustrating the willing submission to the new Master.

But the great emancipator has come, the one anointed with the Spirit to open the eyes of the blind, to open the prison to those that are bound. And the moment he loosed me from the servitude of sin, he brought me chained in loving chains of servitude to his own feet. And in the words of that hymn, I forgot the precise words of it, but it deals with that. I lie in willing chains, at the feet of the Savior.

25:41 - 26:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third element is a 'change of destiny,' from death to eternal life, which is the consummation of the life begun in conversion. He uses Christ's 'narrow gate, straight way…

Uses Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7:13-14 as a pictorial analogy for the 'change of masters' (gate), 'change of practice' (way), and 'change of destiny' (end).

What Paul gives us in theological terminology, our Lord gave us so beautifully in pictorial language. Who among us is not familiar with the words of Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14? Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there are that enter in thereby for, notice the three elements, narrow is the gate, change of masters, straight in the way, change of practice, that leadeth unto life, change of destiny, and few there be that find it.

33:33 - 34:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third element is a 'change of destiny,' from death to eternal life, which is the consummation of the life begun in conversion. He uses Christ's 'narrow gate, straight way…

References John Bunyan's allegory to further illustrate the 'gate,' 'way,' and 'end' of salvation, emphasizing that only those who enter through the gate and walk the way reach the Celestial City.

You have a gate, you have a way, you have an end. No one comes to the end, but they get there along the way. And no one is found along the way unless they come through the gate. What Paul gives us in theological language, our Lord gives in pictorial language, and John Bunyan picks it up and gives it to us in beautiful Christian allegory.

34:17 - 34:43 Read in full sermon