Not Under Law? (Romans 6:14b, cont'd)

Introduction: The Dilemma of Romans 6:14b and the Ten Commandments

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, January 14, 1996, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn with me, please, in your own Bibles to the sixth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, Romans chapter 6, and follow, please, as I read the first 14 verses of this chapter of the Word of God written.

0:38 Romans chapter 6, beginning in verse 1.

0:44 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?

1:04 Or are you ignorant that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit. in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him,

1:47 that the body of sin might be done away or rendered inoperative, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin. For he that has died is justified or released, from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more. Death no more has dominion over Him.

2:22 For the death that He died, He died unto sin once, but the life that He lives, He lives unto God. Even so, reckon you also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lust thereof. Neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves unto God as alive from the dead, and your members,

3:04 as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Now for those who are not with us this morning, let me explain a bit of the dilemma that I faced in the afternoon hours in the course of our introductory service, in the course of our introductory service, in the course of our introductory service, in the course of our introductory service, to a detailed study of the Ten Commandments. We began this morning to take up some of the major passages which are often brought forward

3:46 in an attempt to overturn what we have established from nine major passages in the New Testament, namely, that the Ten Commandments are an abiding and binding standard of righteousness upon the Ten Commandments. And perhaps no text in the New Testament is more frequently brought forward in an effort to overthrow the fact that every Christian ought continually to have in his conscience the light and pressure of a full and biblical understanding

4:30 of the Ten Commandments. I say perhaps no text is used more frequently to overthrow that responsibility than Romans 6, 14b, where we read, You are not under law, but under grace. And in order to understand precisely what these words mean, we began to attempt to unpack them this morning. And in about three minutes, I want to condense an hour's worth of preaching and then complete the study of the Ten Commandments.

The Central Concern of the Context: Grace and Continuance in Sin

5:06 With some overtones that I trust will be appropriate for our communion, meditation, and preparation. We began, first of all, by considering the central concern of the context of the words in 14b. The words, You are not under law, but under grace, are the conclusion of an entire paragraph. And the context of these words, has as its central concern the issue addressed in verse 1 of the chapter.

5:45 Paul has expounded the glorious gospel which declares that acceptance with God is found in Christ alone, apart from the works of the law, and is received by faith alone, apart from any of our doings being added to the works of the law. And in doing this, he asserted at the end of chapter 5 that this grace, bringing such a salvation in Christ alone, received by faith alone, is displayed most abundantly when sin has manifested itself most grievously. The words are these,

6:29 where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly. Well, in the light of that reality, if we're not saved by our doings, but the doing of another, and that salvation is received by faith and not by our performance, and the glory of that salvation is seen more abundantly where sin has been manifested most grievously, then the question is raised, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? So the central concern of the context of Romans 6.14b

7:09 is the question whether or not salvation by Christ alone, received by faith alone, is a salvation that contributes to the continuance in sin of those who receive that salvation. That is the question that is the context of the statement of chapter 6, verse 14, b. So the central concern then must regulate any understanding of what verse 14b means. And if we come up with a conclusion that when Paul says we are not under law but under grace,

The Fundamental Point: Died to Sin, How Shall We Live in It?

7:53 that that means we can be indifferent to a life of holiness, we can be indifferent to the changeless standard of holiness, we have read into the Word something intangible, entirely foreign to the central concern of the very context in which they come. Then we began in the second place having looked at the central concern of the context of these words at what I call the fundamental point made in addressing that concern. And the fundamental point is set before us in verse 2a, God forbid, may it never be, we who are such,

8:36 as have died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Here Paul bluntly states the fundamental point in addressing the central concern. And the fundamental point is that if we are believers in Christ and thereby have put to our account the righteousness of Christ, we are such who in our very identity have died to sin. The faith that unites us to Christ puts us into Christ so that God imputes to us the righteousness of Christ

9:18 is the faith that so unites us to Christ that His death to sin becomes our death to sin. As surely as His resurrection to life becomes our resurrection to life. We are such as have died to sin that being true, how shall we any longer live therein? And I hope you will remember the extended practical illustration I sought to give of this.

9:47 When we die, we are separated from the realm, the universe of people and things and activities in which we lived. And whereas sin was our universe of thought and desire and activity, having died to sin, how shall we live? How shall we live any longer therein? So there we have a blunt statement of the fundamental point.

Explanation of Dying to Sin: Union with Christ's Death and Resurrection

10:15 Then in verses 3 to 10, it is carefully explained from being bluntly stated, we died to sin, it is then carefully explained in verses 3 through 10. Or are you ignorant? Do you not know certain facts? And then he carefully explains, the facts.

10:38 That all, without exception, every single person who has been baptized or incorporated into Christ, everyone who has been united to Christ has been incorporated into His death. We were buried therefore with Him through baptism or incorporation into His death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk not in the realm of sin, but in newness of life. For if or since we become united with Him in the likeness of His death,

11:20 we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, again, more facts set before us, that our old man, all that we were in Adam, the totality of what we were under the reign of sin, under the power and dominion of sin, in condemnation, our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away or rendered inoperative, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin. For he that has died is justified or released from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

12:05 knowing, you see, here we're coming back to the explanation of facts, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more, death has no more dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died unto sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives unto God. Now you'll notice in those verses, there is not one command, there is not one exhortation, there is not one entreaty, it is simply asserting facts and the implication of those facts. Facts are stated, their implications are explained.

12:41 And at the heart of those facts is this expansion of this fundamental point, which is crucial to the question, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Bluntly stated, the answer is, God forbid, may it never be. Why? Because we are such as have died to sin, how can we, live any longer therein?

Parable of the Slave and Two Kings: Illustrating Death to Sin's Dominion

13:09 And then the Apostle explains carefully what that means. And in order to just give a distillation of that explanation, I was laboring away on a parable to try to clarify it, when lo and behold, in studying one of the commentators, I found someone had already gone before me and done a better job. And now I quote from Stuart Elliott's book, The Gospel As It Really Is, his commentator, Arianne Romans, and he gives this parable. There was once a poor slave who was kept as a prisoner in the castle of a tyrannical usurper king.

13:49 The slave had to do all that his cruel master commanded and became more and more miserable because the tyrant exploited him and made his life one of unceasing labor and toil. Sometimes the slave tried to escape by leaning a ladder with ten rungs against the outside wall. But he could never get very far up on the ladder before his master appeared and snatched off a couple of the rungs and beat him almost to death. There seemed to be no way of getting out from this bondage and its sufferings.

14:30 It so happened that nearby there lived a great and a rightful king of the land who out of love for the poor prisoner planned a marvelous way to release him. We need not go into details except to say that the righteous, gracious king killed the imprisoned slave by crucifixion. The tyrant usurper king came looking for his slave, but he found him dead. This meant to his great annoyance he could make a new life.

15:07 He could make a new life. He could make a new life. He could make a new life. He could make a new life.

15:07 He could make a new life. He could make a new life. He could make no more demands of him. None of the rights which he had previously exercised over the slave could operate anymore.

15:17 The master-slave relationship that had existed for so long was now at a permanent end because the slave was dead. Now when the slave's body was buried, the great and gracious and rightful king of the land came along, raised him from the dead, and took him into his own domain. The slave was overcome with thankfulness for the fact that he had been delivered from his condition in such a remarkable way and was overjoyed that he now found himself in the home of a king so wise, so gracious and powerful. His heart was filled

16:02 with sincere love and affection for his great deliverer king and he determined that he would now serve him. The old relationship to that tyrannical king had been ended by his death. Yet, he was now alive. He recognized that having been given such newness of life, there was only one whom he could now serve.

16:27 He was dead to his old master and alive to his new one.

16:35 Begin to see the point? Stuart, all it goes on to say if you are a Christian, you need to understand your relationship to sin. The old master who once ruled you, you have undergone a death. Read verses 2 to 6 again and note how the apostle brings out this point.

16:55 You have died this death. Sin is no longer to be the controlling factor in your life. Being dead, you are released from sin's dominion. It once dominated you.

17:08 It was your master, your ruler. Like a tyrant, it kept you in bondage and misery. But that relationship is now completely ended because you've undergone a death. You are dead to sin.

17:22 Instead, you have a relationship with a new master who is God. After your death to sin, a resurrection took place. Verses 4 and 5. You are now alive with no possibility of dying again any more than Christ can die again.

17:38 Amen. Can we die again and go back then and as it were be resurrected in the kingdom of that tyrannical usurper, renegade, sovereign? You are dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. One master and only one has any legitimate claim upon you and that master is God Himself.

Practical Application: Reckon, Don't Let Sin Reign, Present Members to God

18:07 Well, this is what the apostle, carefully explains in verses 3 to 10. Then, he practically applies it beginning with verse 11 and continuing through verse 14. So you have the fact bluntly stated in verse 2. We are such as have died to sin.

18:29 How shall we live any longer therein? Then he carefully explains what it means that we have died to sin in our union with Christ in His death and in His resurrection we have been raised to newness of life. Now he comes to practically apply this. Here is the first exhortation, verse 11, and several others.

18:56 And in applying it, you have four lines of thought. And again, I can only just give you the bare bones of the passage for your own reflection and meditation. You have the foundational, positive exhortation, verse 11. Even so, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

19:21 That is the foundational, positive exhortation. By the use of a present imperative form of a verb, which means to count on the thing being so. It has nothing to do with your feelings. It has to do with realities that are established by God and you are to count on those realities.

19:45 If I raise this glass of water and begin to tip it, I count, I reckon, on the present operation of the law of specific gravity. I don't need to experiment as to what will happen if I keep tipping this glass and tipping it and tipping it until the water comes over. To the edge. It's not going to go out that way and land on your head.

20:10 It's not going to go up that way and spatter on the ceiling. It's going to go down and land on the floor. Now, I don't feel the law of gravity. I don't stand and say, whoop, whoop, there it is.

20:23 No.

20:25 You say, how ludicrous to operate and whether or not you're going to tip the glass on the basis of whether you feel the law of gravity. I reckon on its presence and I reckon, on its presence because it is a fact of the world that God has made. And the apostle says to these Christians, even so, reckon, count on the reality of yourselves indeed being dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. You must count on the fact that through death you have been taken out of the realm where sin reigns

21:09 where sin is king and master where sin calls the shots and you are its lackey and its slave and its errand boy. You must reckon on this fact that by faith you have come into union with Christ and united to Christ you have died to sin's dominion. You have risen to newness of life. You are in a new realm, a new universe, the universe of communion with God, the favor of God, the smile of God, the ways of God, the word of God, the people of God, the glory of God is your new universe of life.

21:51 You have died to that realm of sin. That's the foundational positive exhortation. Then in verse 12 you have the foundational negative exhortation. Look at it.

22:05 Let not, therefore, let not, therefore, here's the foundational negative exhortation, let not sin, therefore, reign. The verb is basileuo. It's the word that means to reign as a king.

22:28 The noun form of this, if you were talking in Greek and saying King George, you would use the same rude word. This is the verbal form, to reign as a king. Do not let sin act as a king in your morals, mortal bodies, by obeying the lusts thereof. That former renegade, tyrannical king knows that you're now alive.

22:56 Knows that you're now alive has reached his ears to go to the parable that Mr. Alviatt lays out in his commentary on Romans. In fact, a strange thing has happened. While we were his servants, he embedded under our skin beepers.

23:13 By which he could send signals to us.

23:18 And though we have died to his reign and have been raised to newness of life, the beepers are still in our mortal body. And he still barks his orders. From his realm of kingship and authority, he barks his orders to us in our new realm. Saying through, look at the passage, let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey, the lusts thereof.

23:47 This lust speaks saying, indulge me. And it speaks with a kind of regal authority. Don't let sin exercise such kingly authority over you. Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts thereof.

24:08 The lusts will cry out. They will speak their orders. Don't let it. Reign.

24:15 Why? Because you no longer belong in that realm where your former master has any rights to bark orders to you.

24:27 Then from the foundational positive exhortation, reckon, count on the fact that you have died and risen with Christ. The foundational negative exhortation, let not sin act as king in your mortal body, verse 13 is what I'm calling an expanded practical. How does this actually work out in details? Neither, here's the expanded practical exhortation, neither present your members unto sin as instruments or weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourselves unto God as alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

25:12 In this expanded practical exhortation, he says, don't put at the disposal of sin any of your members, that is, any of your God-given faculties, capacities, appetites, or powers, physical, mental, emotional. Rather, present your entire redeemed being unto God, conscious of your resurrection to life in union with Christ, and in presenting yourself, present all of your faculties, all of your appetites, and powers as instruments to perform what is righteous. That's the expanded practical exhortation.

25:55 All based upon the facts asserted in verses 3 through 10. We are to reckon those realities as true. And on the basis of them, we are negatively not to put at the disposal of sin any of our members, but we are to put at God's disposal as a constant activity of the mind and the heart and the will our whole redeemed humanity and all of our faculties to the end that they may be instruments of righteousness unto God. Now then, the $64 question.

Crowning Affirmation: Sin Shall Not Exercise Lordship Over You

26:39 The foundational positive exhortation, reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus. Then we have the foundational negative exhortation, don't let sin reign. The expanded practical exhortation that presents the very real possibility for the child of God that he does not have to be one who is constantly falling before this and that lust and passion contrary to the will of God. Is this all?

27:17 Is this all a kind of noble idealism with no real chance of attainment in practical experience? No, because after the foundational exhortation, positive, the foundational exhortation, negative, the expanded practical exhortation, alas, we finally have come to what I call a crowning affirmation, verse 14. Now verse 14 comes along as the capstone over everything else for, for sin shall not exercise lordship over you. Many of you have heard the word lord in the Greek is kurios,

28:02 master, sovereign. Here we have the verbal form, kuriouo, to exercise a role of a lord or a sovereign over another. And here in verse 14, as the crowning affirmation, this is not exhortation now, this is back to an affirmation, a fact. Sin shall not exercise lordship over you.

28:28 That's the essence of the affirmation. Sin shall not exercise lordship over you. Remember the original question? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

28:40 God forbid! Why? For if you're in the realm of grace, sin shall never exercise lordship over you. Its lordship has been broken through death and resurrection.

28:56 It cannot any more than Christ can ever be put to death again.

29:02 And after he gives the essence of that affirmation, he gives the rationale. Now we have another for. For you are not under law, but under grace. You see the connection?

Understanding 'Under Law': Condemnation, Bondage, Incitement to Sin

29:16 Sin shall not exercise lordship over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. Now we're in a position to understand what these words mean. In this context, what do the words under law mean?

29:34 Most simply stated, it means to stand before God as a creature, accountable to God in terms of the law of God with no mediator between me and God. That's to be under law. To stand related to God with nothing but the law of God between me and God. What then does that law have a right to do and say to me?

30:11 It commands and demands of me perfect obedience to God in terms of its dictums. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make unto me unto you any graven images. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

30:31 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

30:41 All ten commandments in the full breadth of their significance, the law and being under the law means that that law commands and demands my perfect perpetual obedience. Furthermore, it pronounces blessing if I render perfect obedience. Galatians 3.12 The law is not of faith, but he that doeth them shall live in them.

31:08 And if I rendered to that law perfect obedience, life would be my possession. To be under the laws, to be under its commanding, demanding authority, under its pronouncement of blessing for perfect obedience, it's to be under its curses for perfect obedience. It's to be under its curses for perfect obedience. It's to be under its curses for anything less than perfect obedience.

31:29 Galatians 3 tells us in verse 10, Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. The slightest infraction or failure to obey, the slightest sin of omission or commission brings me under the curse of the law. You've heard it said, almost is only good in horseshoes and in hand grenades. Almost is not enough for God's law.

32:01 Furthermore, that law exposes and convicts of sin. Romans 3.19, by the law comes the knowledge of sin. Romans 7.7 and following,

32:10 I have not known sin except the law said. Romans 13b, sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. And even more so, to stand before God with nothing but the law between me and God is not only to stand before a law that commands, and demands, a law that promises blessing for perfect obedience, a law that pronounces a curse for anything less than perfect obedience, a law that exposes sin. It's a law that actually incites and galls to sin.

32:44 The very fact that God says, thou shalt not, the human heart being what it is, is stirred up to do the very thing God forbids. You may walk by a park bench that seems to have shining lights, any new paint on it, day after day, and you're never tempted to touch it, let alone sit on it. But one day when you go by and a sign says, wet paint do not touch, what happens? You stop, and you go over, and you touch it.

33:13 It provokes disobedience. That's how the law functions. And just as the pure rays of the sun cause a dunghill to stink, so the pure holy law of God coming upon the human heart actually stirs it up to more sin. That's what the law does.

33:35 And to be under law is to stand before God with nothing but the law and what God has ordained the law can do between me and God. That's what it means to be under law. Powerless, guilty, condemned, galled into sin, exposed as a sinner, no way of forgiveness, no way of breaking my chains. That's what it means to be under law.

34:09 To be under law is to be under condemnation. It's to be in a state of bondage. That's what God gave the law to do. What has God not given the law any power to do?

34:25 It can never let its violators off the hook, much less justify, There's no bribery. There's no plea bargaining. Romans 4.15 says, The law works wrath.

34:38 Why? Because we've broken it. We are condemned by it. It stirs us up to sin.

34:44 It can do nothing to justify its violators. Romans 3.21 and 28, Galatians 2.16, By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

34:57 And it can do nothing to break the bondage to sin which is in our hearts. 1 Corinthians 15.56 even says, The strength of sin is in the law. Now that's what it means to be under law.

35:12 To stand before God in the light of His law and nothing else influencing your relationship to God.

Understanding 'Under Grace': Justification, Liberation, New Life

35:22 But He says of all believers, you are not under law, but under grace. And what does that mean? Well, simply stated, it means that I now stand before God as a creature accountable to God in terms of His law. There's God and there's His law.

35:45 But between me and that law stands a mediator, the God-man, Christ Jesus.

35:55 And to be under grace means that all that He has done to live out a perfect obedience to that law, on behalf of His people, to bear in Himself the curses of that law on behalf of His people, to send His Spirit into the hearts of His people, applying the virtue of His death so that His death for sin becomes their death to sin, applying the virtue and the power of His resurrection so that His being raised to life becomes their resurrection to new life. To be under grace in this context

36:39 means that and nothing less. That's what it means to be under grace. It means that by the grace and favor of God, I no longer am related to God simply in terms of naked law, but I have a Redeemer between me and that law, a Redeemer who has borne all of the guilt and hell-deservingness that is mine, and a Redeemer who in the virtue of His work on behalf of sinners sends His Spirit into the heart of every believing, repentant sinner,

37:23 bringing Him out from under the dominion and power of sin and bringing Him into newness of life. Do you see the contrast? Under law, condemnation, objectively and legally, cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law. Subjectively, it's to be in bondage to sin.

37:50 Jesus said, whosoever practices sin, commits sin, is the slave of sin. Romans 8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be so that they that are in the flesh, the flesh cannot please God.

38:07 To be under law is to be guilty in the court of heaven, is to be in bondage in the theater of our own hearts. To be under grace is to be in a state of justification objectively and legally in the court of heaven to be declared as righteous as Christ is righteous. For He has made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness. To be under grace means that in Christ my Redeemer, all of the demands of the law have been met on my behalf in His perfect life and in His horrible, excruciating death

38:51 upon the cross so that legally I am declared in heaven just as if I'd never sinned and just as if I had fully kept the law. There is no just claim against me. There is a just title to heaven for me. Nothing can be found to charge me with guilt.

39:18 That which merits my entrance is there in the record book of heaven earned by the life and death of the Lord Jesus. And to be under grace means that He has put me in a condition of liberation, subjectively and experientially. I have in union with Christ died to the dominion of sin. I have died to sin as a master and a lord.

39:48 I have been raised with Christ to newness of life. In the context, this is what it means to be under grace. To put it in the most simplest terms, what Paul is contrasting in Romans 6, 14 is this. The impotence and the provisions of the law on the one hand and the potency and the provisions of grace on the other hand.

40:18 And when he says, for we are not under law but under grace, he is saying that either we are living monuments of the impotence of the law to forgive, to liberate, to bring us peace with God and therefore still in a state of condemnation and bondage or to be under grace. We are under the canopy of the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus. We have His perfect righteousness put to our account and we have experienced His glorious deliverance

41:02 from the dominion of sin and we are seeking by grace to deal, with those signals that come from the beepers embedded in our flesh and when our former Master calls for this and that member, my mind, my affections, my tongue, my eyes, my ears, to serve Him as I once did, I can say, No! I died to you! I was released from your kingdom and your kingship by death. I have a new Master and I present myself unto Him in my eyes and ears and affections and capacities and abilities and energies as one who is alive from the dead.

Conclusion: Grace Reigns Through Righteousness and Love for God's Law

41:47 In conclusion, let me state it as bluntly as I know how as I did this morning. This passage in Romans 6, far from teaching that a Christian should never let the Ten Commandments get into his conscience to enlighten him as to what is pleasing to God and what is displeasing to God is one of the most powerful texts of the Bible. It's indicating that if you're a true Christian and sin is not exercising lordship over you, but you're under grace, one of the most telling evidences will be that you want to work out this life of righteousness. You want to present yourself unto God as alive from the dead

42:32 and your members as instruments of righteousness because you love God for His redemptive mercies and love manifests itself not by following its own self-made rules, but Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Law is love's eyes and without it love is blind. And therefore, when we can say, I'm no longer under law, but under grace, we will also be able to say, oh, how I love thy law.

43:08 It is my meditation all the day. I delight after the law of God with my inward heart. Why? Because now, I no longer have that fear that brings bondage and that terror that paralyzes me.

43:24 I know I am a born son or daughter in the family of God. I have a perfect record credited to me in the court of heaven. I have been brought under grace. I'm Christ's free man to bring forth, fruit unto holiness.

43:44 And what is holiness but conformity to the standard of the law of God in the power of the Holy Spirit out of love to Jesus Christ. So if anyone ever waves Romans 6.14 under your nose to say, a Christian should not be concerned about the Ten Commandments, much less the broad and deep and expansive significance of their meaning. And you ask them, well, what makes you say that?

44:14 And they say, well, look what it says in Romans 6.14. You're not under law, but under grace. I trust you'll be able to sit down and say, my friend, will you give me a half an hour and let's walk our way through Romans chapter 6.

44:28 And when you come to that final, glorious, capstone affirmation, sin shall not exercise lordship over you, for you are not under law, but under grace, that you will be able, able to show them why Paul could say, and this is the last text I ask you to look at, just go back to the last verse of Romans 5, where he had made this comparison between sin and its entrance through the one man, Adam, justifying righteousness and its procurement through the one man, Christ Jesus. Verse 21, that as sin reigned in death, and surely the sin

45:12 that came into the human race through Adam has reigned, and surely the sin that came reigned in the realm of death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whenever you come under the canopy of grace, it is always reigning grace. Just as surely as when you were under the canopy of sin, it was reigning sin. Sin reigned, and its realm was death, even eternal death, grace reigns, and it issues in eternal life, but it reigns how?

45:53 Through righteousness. A righteousness imputed on the basis of Christ's obedience and Christ's death. And a righteousness imparted in the virtue of our union with Him in His death and in His resurrection. And if anyone says, oh, I've got grace, you ask them, is grace reigning through righteousness in your life?

46:27 Is grace teaching you in the language of Titus 2 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age? If grace is not effectually teaching you that, you know nothing of grace. You're perfect. You're turning the grace of God into a license for sin.

Communion Meditation and Prayer: Living Monuments of Grace

46:52 If your professed knowledge of grace does not plant your feet joyfully and willingly in the path of holiness and in pursuit of that path, God's holy law is not the exclusive light upon our path, but is a major illuminator upon the path of holiness and righteousness into which grace, grace, and righteousness are placed. So as we come to the table, and I have gone over, I try to make conscience of communion meditations, but verbally and in writing, some of you communicated to me before I left here today, urging me to complete our study,

47:35 and I trust in the light of the fact that there'll be two weeks when I'm not preaching to you, you'll at least forgive me by bits and pieces over the next two weeks for going on beyond the ordinary communion meditation time, but I, I trust you've grasped at least the heart of this passage and that you with me will pray that more and more God will make us the living monuments of the fact that salvation that we now will proclaim at this table comes to us totally on the grounds of the work of another. We take bread and the fruit of the vine and we eat and we drink. In so doing, we're saying our salvation has been wrought

48:19 totally outside of us by a person called Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God, and it was His death in the body He assumed for us. It was the shedding of His blood in that violent death. In that alone is our salvation and acceptance with God. And surely if we've come under the canopy of that grace, sin no longer is exercising lordship over us.

48:51 We are to take the posture of reckoning ourselves to have been crucified with Him, to have died with Him and risen to newness of life on that basis. We are not to present our members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but present ourselves and our members instruments of righteousness unto God. And when at times the struggle between our remaining sin and the operations of grace, becomes so violent, or when we have miserably fallen and we wonder, is there any use going on? Go to verse 14.

49:28 Sin shall not exercise lordship over me because I'm no longer under the mere canopy of law, but I am under the canopy of grace. O Lord, may the dynamics and the privileges and the pronouncements and all of the provisions of grace be operative in me. That I may bring glory to Him who loved me and who gave Himself for me. Let us pray.

49:57 Our Father, how we pray that You would take Your holy word and apply it with power to every one of our hearts. We pray for those who sit here tonight under law, condemned, exposed by the law as sinners. No refuge, no hiding place. All their efforts to do better, better bring them into greater bondage to sin.

50:30 Lord, show them that the only way out is by embracing the offered Redeemer and Savior, the Lord Jesus. We pray for us who are Your people that You will help us in the light of our study today, never to be shaken from our conviction that indeed Your will for us, Your creatures, yes, for us, Your redeemed creatures, is expressed in summary form in the holy law that You spoke upon Mount Sinai. That to us who are Your people no longer is a threatening law, but a gracious guide as to how we may please You.

51:13 No longer is it a condemning law, but it is that law by which You direct our steps into paths of righteousness. Help us, our Father, and establish us in these vital aspects of our life and walk together. And as we come to the table, may it be with a renewed appreciation of what our Lord Jesus has done for us that we might no longer be under law, but be found this night under grace. Hear us and answer us for His name's sake.

51:49 Amen.