Romans 5:19-6:2
The Problem of Ongoing Sin #1
Pastor Martin expounds Romans 5:19-6:2, addressing the pastoral problem of ongoing sin in the life of the justified believer. He identifies the problem as stemming from the definitive nature of God's justifying act (pardoning all sin and imputing Christ's righteousness) and the persistent reality of indwelling sin. Martin then describes two common, yet destructive, wrong responses: antinomianism (turning grace into a license for sin) and a soul-weakening legalism or sin-obsession that undermines the joy and assurance of justification. The sermon sets the stage for a biblical answer to holding these two realities in tension.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 9 sections · 67 min
- Introduction: The Culmination of History and the Doctrine of Justification 0:02
- Justification by Faith Alone, Yet Never Alone 7:55
- The Problem Identified: Justification and Ongoing Sin 10:37
- Reality 1: The Nature of God's Justifying Act 16:35
- Reality 2: The Presence of Sin in All Who Are Justified 30:26
- The Problem: Wrong Responses to Justification and Remaining Sin 47:30
- Wrong Response 1: Soul-Destroying Use of Justification (Antinomianism) 48:59
- Wrong Response 2: Soul-Weakening Response to Remaining Sin (Legalism/Sin-Obsession) 55:37
- Conclusion and Prayer for Wisdom 63:11
Key Quotes
“The apostle is saying there are no works that we can perform in any way that to the slightest degree contributes. There are works that contribute to the righteousness which is the ground of our acceptance with God. Whereas James is saying the faith that lays hold of that righteousness is never a dead faith, it is a faith that will produce works, not works that contribute to the righteousness of our justification, but works that validate that our faith is real.”
“Justification that once for all definitive declaration of God in the court of heaven, that all of the sins, past, present, and future are dealt with in the life of the believer as far as legal liability, a righteousness is put to his account that will not be improved upon a billion years into eternity.”
“Definitively, finally, irreversibly, so that sin and I will never meet in a courtroom of justice. We'll not meet.”
“The scriptures teach us that in every justified person sin no longer reigns as a welcome master. But it remains as a, as a vexing troubler.”
“but I say walk by the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh these are contrary the one to the other that you may not do the things that you would”
“sinless perfection is what my heart wants sinless perfection is what I have been stamped for the indwelling Holy Spirit is the earnest the down payment of my ultimate state and in the down payment sin has been dethroned but oh God I want it exterminated that's the heart of a Christian”
“since I am not saved by my law keeping but I am saved by Christ perfect law keeping and since any law of God that I break Christ died to pay the penalty and God will not exact the penalty twice at at the Savior's hand and then at mine therefore therefore therefore how I live is really not a matter of ultimate concern that's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness”
“they allow their sin to so fill their vision that they lose sight of who and what they are in Christ and so solicitous are they to deal biblically with their sins to mourn their sins to set right any sins at a horizontal level they become in a very real sense not Christ obsessed justified but imperfectly sanctified sinners they become sin obsessed justified sinners and their experience for the most part is joyless their experience for the most part is morose and heavy and dodgy”
Applications
All listeners
- May God have mercy on you if you don't care about sin, God, judgment, or hell.
- If the issues of justification and ongoing sin are not burning issues for you, be filled with loathing and shame, recognizing it as proof of spiritual deadness, and come to join those concerned about sin.
- Do you get up in the morning and say, 'Who am I?' and think of yourself in terms of your justified identity in Christ?
- Do you believe that not one legal claim can ever be brought against you with respect to sin, and do you live in the light of that joy?
- If sin is a reigning monarch in you, do not take comfort from this sermon; face the reality that you are lost and on your way to hell.
- Do not be careless or indifferent about identifying, confessing, pleading for forgiveness, watching, praying against, and mortifying sin, even though it has been judicially forgiven.
- Pray for the pastor to be wise in the scriptures as he prepares to lay out the biblical answer to holding the tension between justifying grace and remaining sin.
- If you sense your sin and danger, go out of yourself and lay hold of Christ, in whom God offers perfect righteousness and full pardon.
- For those toying with abusing grace, smite their consciences. For those fearing to abuse grace and holding back from salvation, help them cast their anchor into God's free salvation.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 124 paragraphs, roughly 67 minutes.
Introduction: The Culmination of History and the Doctrine of Justification
The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, August 5th, 2007, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.
Romans 5, 19 through 6, 2.
Having set out the comparison and contrast, Adam and Christ as the two great representative men, the Apostle writes, For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made or constituted sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. And the law came in besides that the trespass might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly, that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign,
reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.
We who are such as have died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?
Well, again, let's seek the face of God. God in prayer asking the help of the Spirit of God in the ministry of the Word.
Our Father, we have sung together that all our knowledge, sense, and sight lie in deepest darkness shrouded.
O God, we own the reality of those words. You must break in upon our hearts with supernatural light by the person who is in you. By the person and ministry of the Spirit. Or your word will mean nothing to us.
So we plead, according to your promise, that you would give the Holy Spirit to this company of your people and to your servant. For we are asking that he may be given to us in present, powerful, copious measures that we may understand your truth. And we may respond to it in faith and in obedience. Hear our cry and answer us, we plead.
In Jesus' name, amen. According to the scriptures that we hold in our hands, it is right to say that all of human history will culminate when Jesus Christ returns in power and in glory. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. God will have His day in His court with each and every one of us. For the scripture says, as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comes judgment. And Jesus said, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the tomb shall hear His voice and shall, come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil to the resurrection of judgment. If we have laid to heart what the Bible says about God, about ourselves, and about the only way in which sinful man can come out of God's court vindicated, then we will sing with some degree of understanding the familiar words, when he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness
alone, faultless to stand before the throne. The hymn writer understood the biblical doctrine, of justification, by the imputation of the perfect righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that standing in that righteousness alone will cause us to come out of God's day in court vindicated, hearing the words, come you blessed, into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
And believing that this matter of understanding and appropriating to ourselves what the Bible calls justification is indeed a matter of life and death, eternal life and eternal death, we have spent some 19 Sunday morning expositions addressing that wonderful provision of redemptive grace as it is taught in the word of God. We considered the importance of that doctrine, we considered the biblical context of that doctrine, and the bulk of our time has been spent seeking to grasp the substance of that
doctrine, using the definition of justification in the larger catechism as our framework for this biblical instruction. That definition says, in answer to the question, what is justification, justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all of their sins, accepts and accounts their persons as righteous in his sight, not for anything wrought in them
or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God, imputed to them and received by faith alone. And I likened that definition to a beautiful, well-furnished seven-room house, and we looked at the seven elements of the doctrine of justification as so beautifully, comprehensively, and in such a balanced way are set before us in that definition. Now, having completed the exposition,
of the substance of the doctrine, using that definition as our teaching framework, I'm now engaged in bringing what we might call some appendices to this instruction. Having completed our study using that framework, we found the last words received by faith alone, and last Lord's Day I addressed the truth that though we receive justifying grace by faith alone, the faith by which we embrace that privilege is never alone.
Justification by Faith Alone, Yet Never Alone
And the framers of our confession and also of our catechisms were careful to underscore that though we are justified by faith alone, we are not alone. We are justified by faith alone. That faith which is the result of God's regenerating act is never found in isolation from other graces. Our London Baptist Confession, following the Westminster, says faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification, yet it is not alone in the person justified.
But is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love. This led us then into a careful consideration of the major lines of truth found in James 2, 14 to 26. And one of the brethren gave me a lovely quote, directed me to it, and I took it out of my own. It says in this book, with respect to the different emphasis of Paul and of James, and this particular author expressed it this way, this is J. Gresham Machen, moreover, as the
faith which James condemns is different from the faith which Paul commends, so also the works which James commends are different from the works which Paul condemns. You get what he's saying? When we read in the writings of Paul especially, that we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, and yet James says we are justified by works, they are not speaking of the same kinds of works.
The apostle is saying there are no works that we can perform in any way that to the slightest degree contributes. There are works that contribute to the righteousness which is the ground of our acceptance with God. Whereas James is saying the faith that lays hold of that righteousness is never a dead faith, it is a faith that will produce works, not works that contribute to the righteousness of our justification, but works that validate that our faith is real. And so we must grasp that distinction.
The Problem Identified: Justification and Ongoing Sin
We must hold tenaciously to the truth that James was led to emphasize and the truth that the apostle Paul primarily emphasized, though the emphasis of both James and Paul are found in the writings of one another as well. Now today I begin to address a second major concern related to the doctrine of justification and its outworking in the world. the heart and life of the true child of God. I'm pressed pastorally to address this matter,
and I shall do so this morning and God willing again next Lord's Day morning. And the issue is this. Justification and the problem of ongoing sin in the life of the justified. Justification that once for all definitive declaration of God in the court of heaven, that all of the sins, past, present, and future are dealt with in the life of the believer as far as legal liability, a righteousness is put to his account that will not be improved upon a billion years into eternity.
Yet the person thus justified so that the law of God has not been changed. It has nothing to say in the way of condemnation. It has nothing to say in the way of a falling short of a perfect righteousness that warrants eternal life. Yet that justified person is still a sinner. That justified person still sins. Sins in thought, sins in word, sins in deed.
And the scripture records sometimes sins shamefully, scandalously, and yet it is a justified man that sins, a justified woman that sins. And we need as the people of God to come to grips with what the Bible teaches concerning justification and the problem of ongoing sin in the life of the believer. And I will attempt to address this vital pastoral subject from the scriptures under two major headings. Number one, the problem identified. That will be this morning, and God willing next week,
the biblical answer to the problem. The problem identified. The problem of ongoing sin in the life of the justified grows out of two realities. Two realities. Number one, the reality of the nature
of God's justifying act. And secondly, the reality of God's justifying act. And secondly, the reality of the nature of God's justifying act. And secondly, the reality of the nature of God's of the presence of sin in all who are justified.
Now, for some of you, this will be as boring as if I were reading in Hindustani the record of some ancient Indian dynasty. You know why? Because you don't care a hoot about sin, or about God, or about judgment, or about hell. And all I can say is, may God have mercy on you, that while sitting around you are men and women and boys and girls who are deeply concerned about this issue, I want to know how I can deal with my sins.
I am trusting Christ and Christ alone as the one whose sacrifice has taken away all of my liability to the curse and to judgment and to hell. I am hiding in Christ and in His perfect righteousness as the ground of my acceptance with God and my title to heaven. That's who I am. I'm a justified man, a justified woman, a justified boy or girl.
Yet, yet, I know I sin. And I'm not sure what am I to do with those sins. Do I dishonor Christ's sacrifice if I confess them, mourn over them, grieve, am I denigrating what Christ has done by doing anything other than saying, oh God, I blew it and now I need to get on and forget it? Something in you says, no, that's not right.
But on the other hand, when you find yourself so crippled with that sin that you begin to doubt, well, really, has Christ truly forgiven me? Are my sins really pardoned? Am I really accepted in the Beloved? And you wrestle with, these things.
These are not detached theoretical issues. For you, as a child of God, they are burning issues. And I trust if you sit here and they're not a burning issue for you, you'll be filled with a sense of loathing and shame because this is a present proof that you are what God says you are, dead in your trespasses and sins, spiritually blind to the glory of God in the face of Christ. And just the fact that there's a preacher intensely engaged with these issues and many people engaged with him, I trust will be arrows of conviction to your heart
until you come and join this happy band who as part of their legacy as the justified are deeply concerned about the matter of sin in the life of the justified. Now, identifying the...
Reality 1: The Nature of God's Justifying Act
The problem, it grows out of these two realities. First of all, the reality of the nature of God's justifying act. In our study of the nature of God's justifying act, we opened up these words. In this act of God's free grace, He does two things.
He pardons all of their sins. He accepts and accounts their persons as righteous, in His sight. In other words, in justification, all of the claims of God's law demanding punishment for sin were swallowed up in the death of Christ. He has made full satisfaction for sin.
The writer to Hebrews put it this way. He has by one offering perfected forever their sins. Them that are sanctified. That is, those who are set apart unto God in the virtue of that offering.
He has made full satisfaction for sin. That's why Paul can throw out the challenge in Romans chapter 8 in verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies.
Who is He that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Then the apostle can exult. Earlier in that chapter, there is therefore now, in the present moment, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
The reality of the nature of God's justifying act is, number one, the pardon of all of our sins, past, present, future. In terms of God's law demanding punishment for sin, that has been resolved forever in God's justifying sentence. Definitively, finally, irreversibly, so that sin and I will never meet in a courtroom of justice. We'll not meet.
All of that was vented upon our substitute and our surety when He cried, It is finished! All of the wrath deserving this against my sins was swallowed up in the death of my Savior. And secondly, as our definition states, in His act of justifying, God accepts and accounts our persons as righteous in His sight. There is not merely a negation of our guilt and blameworthiness, but there is a crediting to us the perfect righteousness of the perfect life of Jesus
that entitles us to heaven. We are not left merely where Adam was before he sinned, no claim of law against him until Adam partook of the forbidden fruit. There was nothing in the court of heaven to charge him with guilt and wrath deservingness. However, there was nothing to credit him with a path and a course of obedience that would give warrant for him to eat of the tree of life.
The Lord Jesus takes us beyond where Adam was in his innocence. He not only pardons all of our sins, but we are accepted as righteous in His sight in the life of the Lord. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ, that life concerning which the Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. In that perfect righteousness of His perfect obedience, I now stand.
Of Him are you in Christ Jesus who is made unto us righteousness. We have a positive standing before the law of God. So that all of the demands of the law for perfect perpetual obedience in order to have a title to eternal life were met in my surety and in my substitute, my covenant head and my representative.
Top Lady had it right. He could write in that marvelous hymn, the terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do with the law of God. So that all of the demands of the law my Savior's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from you. That's it.
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress. Mid flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head. When from the dust of death I rise to claim, in my mansion in the skies, even then, this shall be all my plea. Jesus has, what?
Lived. Has died. For me. You see, these hymn writers taught the biblical truth.
They made that distinction of the two categories of the blessing of God's justifying act, the pardon of all of our sins, the accepting and accounting of our persons as righteous in His sight. Professor Murray has stated it in our study of the nature of justification. We found that justification is forensic, legal, and respects a judgment of the court of heaven to the effect that the person justified is pronounced to be free from guilt and liability in reference to law and justice.
And is regarded as standing in an unimpeachable relationship to law. No sin to be punished. No good works to be performed as the ground of my acceptance. Now, it is the fact of God's justifying act that should be understood, believed, and become the foundation of a Christian's awareness of who he is.
I shall never forget when Pastor Donnelly was preaching a series of sermons at one of our family conferences on this wonderful doctrine. He was opening up Romans 5.1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, an aorist passive, and now's the time to bring in a little Greek grammar, an aorist in this setting speaks of a past point, definitive, completed action, being, and therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have had our access by faith
into this grace wherein we stand. Two perfect verbs. The perfect meaning of past action, the results of which continue into the present. We have an access.
We have been given and we retain an access by faith into this grace wherein we had an introduction and we continue to stand. And now a present tense verb. And we are rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. That's who we are.
That's our identity if we have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ with that living faith that is productive of these other graces. And we as the people of God must understand, believe, and regard as foundational our identity. And Pastor Donnelly said every Christian needs to get up every morning and go to the mirror and look in the mirror and say that is a having been justified by faith man. That's a having been justified by faith woman.
That's a having been given access, access into grace, standing in the corpus and in the framework of grace and living with hope. What? That I shall fall out of grace? That my sin shall negate?
No. Rejoicing in hope that I will share nothing less than the very glory of God. I will not only see the glory of God in the face of my Redeemer, but I shall actually share, share in that glory as Paul says in Colossians 3. We shall be manifested with Him in glory and the state of glory that is His, the outshining of His perfections will be shared as we are brought into total conformity to the image of Christ.
Sinless souls inhabiting deathless bodies. That's the first reality that creates the problem just, justification in relationship to ongoing sin in the justified. That's the nature of justification as revealed to us in the Word of God. That's a reality and as a believer I must grasp that.
I must live in the light of it. I must think of myself in terms of it. My fellow believer, do you do that? Do you get up in the morning and say, who am I?
Well, right now I'm a half-awake person that needs his first or second cup of coffee. I need to wash my face. I need to run a comb or a brush through my hair so I don't look like a banshee that just came out of the woods somewhere in the jungle. No.
Who am I? This is who I am. If I have been brought to the despair of Holy Spirit conviction in which I see there is nothing I am, nothing I can do to commend myself to God, if God deals with me in terms of naked law and justice, I'm damned. I've had it.
Hell will be my portion forever. But blessed be God, I've heard that there's one that came from the glory of heaven by way of Mary's womb, took to himself a true human soul and body that in my condition he might live out a life as my representative and covenant head, a life of perfect obedience to the very law which he himself created and then might go to the cross and there upon that cross take into himself all of the hell deservingness of my sins and in the language of the apostle Paul
be made a curse for me or in the language of 2 Corinthians 5 be made sin for me my representative sin bearer and in the light of that reality I've thrown myself upon the savior. I've brought nothing in my hands to try to commend myself to God. I cling to Christ and Christ alone in the naked hands of faith. My dear justified brother, sister, older, young, this is who you are in the court of heaven.
Not one claim can ever be brought against you with respect to the issue of sin. Not one legal claim. Not one. That's who you are.
Do you believe that? Do you live in the light of that? Do you know the joy that comes with that conviction? This is not a fantasy.
This is not some legal fiction. This is reality. This is who I am. In Christ Jesus I am righteous.
Remember Luther's words. Outside of myself and in Christ I am no sinner. Outside of Christ and in myself I am yet a sinner. Do I really believe that outside of myself and in Christ there can be no legal, legal claims against me?
That's the first reality that creates the problem. But now there's a second reality. And it's the reality of the presence of sin in all who are justified.
Reality 2: The Presence of Sin in All Who Are Justified
Now hear me carefully.
The scriptures teach us that in every justified person sin no longer reigns as a welcome master. But it remains as a, as a vexing troubler. You hear me? The scriptures are clear that in every justified sinner sin no longer reigns as a welcomed master but it remains as a vexing troubler.
Let me try to illustrate. Someone usurped the throne of the rightful king back in the days when they had kings. They had kings. They had kings.
They had kings. They had kings. They had kings. They had kings.
They had kings. They had kings. And rulers who were monarchs. And in time the rightful king amasses his army, assaults the usurper king and dethrones him and reestablishes his righteous rule and reign in that dominion.
However, there are pockets here and there of insurgents whose loyalty was to the former usurper king. And they are constantly seeking to hurt him. To harass the loyal subjects and to harass the rightful king. Though that usurper king has been dethroned and deposed and sent into exile, there are these pockets of insurgents who continually fight against and try to disturb the rule and reign of the rightful king.
That's a little picture of what happens when we are truly united to Christ. When by the operation of the Holy Spirit in regeneration we are brought to repentance and faith, sin, the usurper master on the throne of the human heart that didn't belong there by creation but has come in by the fall, that master is dethroned. Sin is no longer the welcomed lord of the heart and of the life. No longer the welcomed master.
But though sin is dethroned and does not exercise lordship over us, Romans 6.14, sin yet operates like these little pockets of insurgents constantly seeking to express their loyalty to the old dethroned usurper king. And therefore, even in passages like Romans 6, where Paul demonstrates in the first 14 verses, the faith that unites us to Christ so that we have justifying righteousness in union with Christ, that faith that unites us to Christ so that we have his justifying righteousness so unites us
to Christ that we share in the virtue and power of his death and resurrection. So he can say, we who are such as died to sin, how shall we any longer live there in the world and then he goes on to open up this truth that when we are united to Christ we enter into the sin-liberating virtue of his death and of his resurrection. However, right in the midst of those 14 verses he says there is still a problem. Verse 12, Do not let sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey the lust thereof.
It is still possible to lend some allegiance to those insurgents, those lusts that would still call for gratification at the expense of obedience to your rightful king and master. Therefore, he says, don't present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves unto God as alive from the dead your members as instruments of righteousness unto God for sin shall not exercise lordship over you for you're not under law but under grace. In that act of faith in laying hold of Christ
you are no longer standing before naked law condemning and galling and inciting to sin. You have entered into a justifying righteousness, yes, but in union with Christ you've died to the dominion of sin and you are now walking in newness of life but the insurgency operations are constantly seeking to insidiously encroach upon the reign of Christ and of God and of righteousness and then in verses 15 to 23 he changes the imagery and he says by nature sin was our welcomed master. What then?
Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? God forbid. Know you not that to whom you present yourselves servants to obedience? His servants you are whom you obey whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness.
God be thanked that whereas you were the slaves of sin everyone welcomed the reign of sin by nature. But what happened? Paul says verse 17 you became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching whereunto you were delivered and being made free from sin you became slaves of righteousness. He says there's a change of masters.
When by faith you lay hold of the gospel you are delivered into the mold of the gospel. A gospel which comes announcing you shall call his name Jesus he shall save his people from their sins not in their sins. Save them not only from the condemnation save them not only unto a perfect righteousness but save them from having sin as their willfully owned master. You have a new master and that master is righteousness that master is God as he states it in verse 22 but now being made free from sin and become slaves to God you have your fruit unto sanctification.
However right in the midst of this where he's saying that if you're a true Christian sin no longer reigns as a welcome master he assumes that there can still be these skirmishes. Look at the language of verse 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity to iniquity even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. There has to be the conscious effort on our part no no no when sin was my master and he spoke and said give your
eyes to uncleanness give your eyes to covetousness we obeyed him he said no once you did that no longer you have a new master now you present your members your eyes to look upon objects that are pleasing to God your ears to listen to sounds that are pleasing to God your hands your feet all that you are but the reality is in these two passages of Romans 6 clearly teaches that the justified are such as in whom sin no longer reigns as a welcome master but it remains as a vexing troubler this is why
Paul in other passages makes this abundantly clear I'm skipping over Romans 7 14 to 25 and yet not persuaded that Paul is not speaking about his present experience but there may be some listening to me who take a differing view so I don't want my case to rest on something you might negate listen to Paul's words in Galatians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 5 I'm trying to establish the reality of the presence of sin in all who are justified not as a reigning monarch don't anyone go out of here who's under sin as a reigning monarch and take any comfort don't do it
I'm not saying that the Bible doesn't say that if sin is a reigning monarch in you you're lost and on your way to hell my friend face that but sin remains as a vexing troubler within the soul and within the life Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and 17 the apostle here clearly states what every true believer pathetically grievously knows verse 16 but I say walk by the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh these are contrary the one to the other that you may not do the things that you would there's that contrariety flesh against spirit spirit against flesh not as two equal and opposite principles as some teach because Paul says in verse 24 and they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lust thereof so some take this and say oh well you know I've got these two I've got old man and new man and whichever dog I feed that's the one that wins no no no yes there is this
lusting of the flesh against the spirit there is this indwelling internal vexing troubler here called flesh that wars against the spirit and even though there's been a fundamental crucifixion of the flesh with the passions and the lust there has not been an extermination of the flesh and of its lust the Bible nowhere teaches that there is an extermination in this life turn to the book of first John only trying to establish convincingly the truth of the reality of the presence of sin in all who are
justified not as a governing monarch but as a vexing troubler of the soul first John chapter one verse five this is the message we've heard from him and announced to you God is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him and walk about in the darkness we lie and do not the truth if walking in the darkness if the monarch of your soul is the darkness of sin and you say you have fellowship with God and with Christ you're a liar truth has never set up its reign ,
in your heart but verse seven if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another the converted sinner with his savior and his God and in that fellowship what happens and the blood of Jesus his son continually cleanses us from all sin well if there's no sin to be cleansed how can the blood of Jesus continually cleanse us from sin the assumption of John is there is sin that needs to be cleansed but apparently there were some who were denying this so John goes on in verse eight
if we say that we have no sin we don't need to have the blood of Jesus continually cleansing we have no sin we are so accepted in the beloved that God doesn't see any sin in us and if he doesn't see it we shouldn't see it so forget it John we don't need this promise he says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins assumption there will be sins to confess he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say we've not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not
in us and my little children these things I write unto you that you may not sin and every true Christian says oh God would that I would never sin again sinless perfection is what my heart wants sinless perfection is what I have been stamped for the indwelling Holy Spirit is the earnest the down payment of my ultimate state and in the down payment sin has been dethroned but oh God I want it exterminated that's the heart of a Christian so when he hears these things I write unto you that you may not sin and the true Christian says oh God
would that it were so that I never sinned again but here's the realism and if any man sin at the point of his sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous so John agrees with Paul that though sin is dethroned and is no longer owned as a welcomed master Lord and King sin remains as a vexing troubler in all the justified Peter agrees that's why Peter had to say in 1 Peter 2 11 I beseech you as strangers and sojourners
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul the fleshly lusts are there crying out to be gratified abstain from them they war against the soul the Lord Jesus said after this manner pray our Father who art in the heavens hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive our trespasses even as we forgive those who trespass against us
and then the only petition he expands is that one of the six petitions that's the only one he expands for if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your heavenly father forgive you your trespasses and then biblical history God's filled his word with the accounts of justified men and women who have sinned sometimes sinned grievously sinned shamefully sinned in ways that crippled them for the rest of their days but there's no indication they became
unjustified people well those are two realities that create the problem of justification and the problem of sin in the justified you have on the one hand the reality of the nature of God's justifying act the pardon of all of the sins the lifting of any legal claim against a justified man on account of his sin the full acceptance of their persons as righteous there's one part of the problem and then on the other hand the reality of the presence of sin in all of the
The Problem: Wrong Responses to Justification and Remaining Sin
justified now why do I say it's a problem because some make a wrong and soul destroying use of the doctrine of justification as they confront the problem some make a wrong and soul weakening response to the reality of remaining sin and between those two soul destroying uses of the doctrine of justification and a wrong and soul weakening response to the reality of remaining sin I don't want either of those for any of you that's why I'm taking the time to address this matter and I recognize this is
spiritual neurosurgery and I'd rather get on to something that is less liable to misunderstanding and a slip of the scalpel here or there can cause tremendous damage let me in conclusion this morning try to describe for you these two wrong responses to that problem of the nature of justification on the one hand coupled with the reality of remaining sin in believers on the other number one some make a wrong and soul destroying use of the doctrine of justification the wrong use we might even say
Wrong Response 1: Soul-Destroying Use of Justification (Antinomianism)
an evil and wicked use of the doctrine of justification works itself out along these lines doesn't the bible say once justified always justified doesn't the bible say Romans 8 30 moreover whom he did predestinate then he also called and whom he called with effectual calling without exception then he also justified and whom without exception whom he justified then he also glorified isn't there an unbroken chain from God's predestinating
grace to glorification whom he predestined then he called whom he called he justified whom he justified he glorified and he people say well I believe in God's indefectible grace and since my justification rests upon God's eternal sovereign purpose in predestination and will culminate in my glorification I need not take too seriously the matters related to my remaining my indwelling sin if and when I sin since the sin has been judicially forgiven
on the basis of the death of Christ I need not be too concerned to quickly identify that sin sincerely confess it earnestly plead for God's forgiveness set myself to watch and pray against it where necessary engage in brutal mortification Jesus likens it to plucking out eyes and cutting off hands no my sin has been judicially dealt with whatever problems it causes I've got heaven and last so what's the big deal that's making a wrong and soul destroying use of the doctrine of justification further such people say
since no sin can bring me back under legal condemnation there is therefore now no condemnation didn't Jesus say he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has passed from death unto life and shall not come into condemnation I believe that I'm going to honor Christ by saying I believe his word therefore I can be careless I can be indifferent well this wrong and soul destroying use of the doctrine of justification reared its ugly head in the very age of the apostles yes it did Jude 4 says that there are those who turn the grace
of God into lasciviousness that word means unbridled living since I am not saved by my law keeping but I am saved by Christ perfect law keeping and since any law of God that I break Christ died to pay the penalty and God will not exact the penalty twice at at the Savior's hand and then at mine therefore therefore therefore how I live is really not a matter of ultimate concern that's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness
and Paul had to deal with it as long well as Jude Peter had to deal with it Paul had to say to the Corinthians 1 Corinthians 6 9 and 10 don't be deceived do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God don't be deceived neither fornicators nor adulterers nor idolaters nor homosexuals he names the courses of sin that will block the door of heaven if someone stands there and recites the larger catechism definition of justification and expounds it for three hours they'll be sent to hell
turning the grace of God into lasciviousness I've heard them quote the verse from numbers 23 21 in the prophecy of Balaam Balaam said he has not beheld iniquity in Jacob neither has he seen perverseness in Israel he said thee with all the sins that Israel has committed but God does not behold iniquity in Jacob he has not seen perverseness in Israel therefore why should I be concerned with what God doesn't see all he sees is me in Christ now you see what's happened
they've taken the truth of justification and turned it into a license for sin and rather than deal biblically with their sin they deal wretchedly not only with the doctrine of justification but the nature of God's saving work that's why I started in the beginning and I said when we consider justification consider it in its biblical context who God is what his relationship is to us as creatures and what is the full scope of his saving purpose justification is just one aspect his great end is to restore us to the moral likeness of his son and to make
us holy as he is holy and therefore to say I love the doctrine of justification but I'm indifferent to sanctification and holiness is to talk nonsense though I can never make any progress in sanctification if I'm not confident that my guilt and hell deserving this has been dealt with in the bloodletting of Christ and in the perfect life of Christ justification is foundational to the Christian life but it's not the whole house and God's committed to build the whole house of salvation around every one of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam whom he redeems
Wrong Response 2: Soul-Weakening Response to Remaining Sin (Legalism/Sin-Obsession)
some then make a wrong and soul destroying use of the doctrine of justification but secondly some make a wrong and soul weakening response to the reality of remaining sin some teach that the sins of a child of God a justified sinner can place them back in God's courtroom to where the law condemns them to where the righteousness of Christ is not imputed to them I received a couple of months ago an 800 page book by a man trying to persuade the Christian world that that's exactly what happens when a Christian sins
he is no longer in a justified state he is no longer under the canopy of the righteousness of Christ what a soul weakening thing and I know that by experience I was reared as a little boy in the salvation army where when I was a boy they taught classic Arminian theology that you could be saved and lost and God put together in my mother's womb a little boy with a very sensitive conscience and a tender spirit I cannot remember a time when I was not conscious of my sin fearful of hell and they had at the front of the salvation army
hall what they called the penitent form they would call it in some places the altar and they would invite you to come down and kneel and pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart and God alone knows how many times with tears conscious of my sin I would come and ask the Lord Jesus to come in and I can remember singing the song into my heart into my heart come into my heart Lord Jesus come in today come in to stay but he never stayed long stayed sometimes a couple of months then I would find myself back in patterns of sin in the next quarterly decision Sunday they had it every quarter every three months down I'd
go again often with tears I'd get it I'd lose it get it lose it that's a soul weakening response to the reality of remaining sin others say well if God can do all that he's done to take care of the legal aspects of your sin by the death and life of Christ surely the Holy Spirit can take care of the moral aspects of your sin there is an experience of an infilling of the Holy Spirit a baptism of the Holy Spirit a cleansing of inbred sin different terms are used whereby it is possible for you
no longer to sin Wesleyan perfectionism
those are soul weakening responses because sooner or later reality catches up with the person who thinks they've had the experience whereby they are free from inbred sin and reality smacks them in the face and they either gotta call it a mistake or when they feel irritated to their husband or wife they gotta call it sin and then they gotta go back and say but what was that experience and then they're caught up in a maelstrom of horrible spiritual confusion and there are others and this is where I think the danger of some of you is sitting here others who know their Bibles better that we can't lose
the salvation that is truly ours God's committed not only in conferring it but securing it to the end he who begins the good work will perfect it until the day of Christ they know their Bibles too well to buy into the notion that they could lose their justified state they know their Bibles too well to buy into any notion they can get rid of this vexing indwelling sin so what do they do they allow their sin to so fill their vision that they lose sight of who and what they are in Christ
and so solicitous are they to deal biblically with their sins to mourn their sins to set right any sins at a horizontal level they become in a very real sense not Christ obsessed justified but imperfectly sanctified sinners they become sin obsessed justified sinners and their experience for the most part is joyless their experience for the most part is morose and heavy and dodgy
and when they see anyone that seems to be on the verge of clapping their hands or dancing for joy they are very suspicious they probably really don't know the depth of their sin and that's not a straw man I'm describing some of you that I've known at various periods in your Christian life what's the problem? The problem is you've not yet come to grips with the Bible's answer to this issue how do I hold tenaciously to every provision of justifying grace and yet at the same time deal biblically and thoroughly
with the realities of my remaining sin and it is no simple thing to hold in tension those two categories of biblical reality two major wrong responses to the fact of ongoing sin in the life of the justified I've tried to describe them a wrong and soul destroying use of the doctrine of justification a wrong and soul weakening response to the reality of remaining sin would you pray with me that as I seek to prepare for next week's ministry and lay out what I've tentatively
marked out as four vital principles that embody the heart of the bible's answer to this question how do I cling tenaciously to the reality of what I am as a justified man or woman boy or girl while at the same time deal righteously and faithfully with the reality of my remaining sin dear people as I said this is spiritual neurosurgery cut a little too much one way or the other and I can do you damage pray that God will make me wise in the scriptures I'm relying much upon the old masters of the human heart the Puritans
Conclusion and Prayer for Wisdom
seeking to make sure that they act like a quality control upon what I think I see in the scriptures but I want to do your souls good let me close with one other hymn that captures the glory of our state as justified men and women and I trust if I'm speaking to some who this morning have come to a sense of what your sin is and how odious it is to God in what danger you presently are that you go out of yourself lay hold of Christ in whom God offers to the vilest of sinners a perfect righteousness and full pardon
listen to the words of John Wesley in these two stanzas of a wonderful hymn that captures the heart of what God holds out to every sinner in Christ join earth and heaven to bless the Lord our righteousness the mystery of redemption this this the Savior's strange design man's offense was counted his ours his righteousness divine in him complete we shine his death his life is mine fully I am justified
free from sin and more than free guiltless since for me he died righteous since he lived for me see how he captures it again the death and the life of Christ and what does it do it causes the hymn writer to exclaim join earth and heaven to bless the Lord our righteousness oh may you bless him out of the felt joy of knowing that of God you are in Christ Jesus who is made to you righteousness let's pray
our Father what can we say when our puny little minds try to wrap their fingers around so glorious a provision as that which you have made for guilty hell deserving helpless sinners in the person and work of your beloved son so we can only pray that by the spirit you will shine upon the face of Jesus make him and his righteousness precious to some who before have never known the wonder and the joy of being able to look in the mirror
and say with honesty I am a having been justified by faith man or woman Lord establish your people in the truth for those who may be toying with turning this gracious provision into an excuse for sloppy dealings with sin smite their consciences we pray and for those our Father who fearing they would abuse grace hold back from casting their anchor into the boundless ocean of your free salvation Lord help your people we pray seal your word to the prophet of each one we plead
in Jesus name Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage serves as the foundational text, introducing the contrast between Adam and Christ and the central question of whether believers should continue in sin.
Texts Expounded
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