Scandalous Grace, Part 4: Understanding the ABC’s of Living in Grace June 27, 2010

Scandalous Grace, Part 4

Understanding the ABC’s of Living in Grace
Romans 6:1-14
Sunday Morning
June 27, 2010
Church in the Boro
Rob Wilkerson

Introduction

The scandal of grace is sometimes too good to be true for many Christians. The thought of
being so completely and utterly free from sin that I am no longer a slave to it, no longer under
condemnation for it, is just so utterly unbelievable for some Christians that simply cannot
accept it. And that's because they are afraid of the consequences. You see the consequences
are simple, and they're summed up in one word: liberty.

People are scared of liberty. We read about it, watch movies about it, and dream about it. But
when it all comes down to it, the human heart is born into bondage to sin. And as a heart born
into bondage, it cannot live outside a structure that controls it and tells it what to do. We feel
somewhat helpless without controls, rules, standards, laws, structures, etc. These things make
us feel safe. It's all predictable. We know what's gonna happen next when we follow the
system. And even if the outcome isn't particularly desirable, even if it leaves us miserable, sad,
and lonely, somehow the very structure and system itself provides a sense of safety and
comfort. I may be sad, but at least I know how it works.

When grace enters the scene, all of this gets obliterated. We're really and truly freed. But
we're so used to bondage we're afraid of freedom. It's like the story I hear many times about
criminals who do their time in prison and are then freed. They've become s used to the
structure and system and predictability of prison that it feels safe to them. So many times they
confess to committing another crime so they can go back in. They confess simply being unable
to live free in society.

I distinctly remember housing an old homeless man named Red. He was blind, in his mid-
sixties, with tuberculosis, and had been homeless and drunk for almost 40 years. When we
took him in and told him he could live with us as long as he wanted to, he was grateful…until
about day three. That was when we began circling around town talking to various contacts
about trying to find Red a job. After attempt number two, he grew increasingly uncomfortable
with the whole scenario, and took me aside and graciously explained that it simply wouldn't
work. He was too used to living on the streets for 40 years and he believed he couldn't live any

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Scandalous Grace, Part 4: Understanding the ABC’s of Living in Grace June 27, 2010

other way. He didn't know how it would work…and just the thought of it all made it worth
more to live on the streets, even in light of the fact that he could and would die.

I've read a story or two by those who were delivered from the oppressive tyranny of the
communist regime in East Germany. When the wall came down in the fall of 1989 everyone
was freed. But as poverty encroached from a lack of government to replace it, some began
wishing they could go back. And while they knew they would be living under a tyranny, they
thought it was worth far more to their lives to be living under oppression than to be living
under freedom. And why? Because when they were under tyranny together at least they were
all together. And even though they were sad and miserable, at least they were sad and
miserable together. At least they had food to eat and clothes to wear.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? When I read one particular story my mind was transported back to
Israel after coming out of Egypt. They had just witnessed the most spectacular display of God's
deliverance and salvation in the history of their people. The waters parted, they escaped
certain death from the Egyptian army. And the waters closed in back on top of the army killing
every single one of them. Breathtaking. But just on the other side, the first time they felt
hunger pangs and got thirsty, they started longing for Egypt again. Why? Because they let their
tummies tell them what to do. They let their emotions tell them what to do. They let their
feelings call their faith into question. And later on, when it came time to take the promised
land…the very place God had already proclaimed to give to them as their new home…they got
scared and decided to stay in the wilderness.

This is what freedom does so often to so many. We've known bondage for so long that when
we're free we almost don't know what to do with ourselves. It feels strange. So people do one
of three things. They experience difficulty and become afraid and go back to what they knew
before. They go in the opposite direction and go insane with their freedom. Or, they learn how
to live as free men.

The last choice is the one the Holy Spirit teaches us to make: "Live as free persons, my brothers
and sisters. Only, do not use your freedom to satisfy your sinful desires. Instead, use your
freedom to serve one another in love" (Gal. 5:13). Don't choose to go back into bondage. And
don't choose to run into licentiousness, the idea that freedom means a license to sin. Instead,
learn how to live as a free person.

That's what I want to help us do this morning. I want to look at Romans 6 and learn from Paul
how to live as a free person. I want us to learn the ABC's of walking in God's grace.

How to Walk in God's Grace

Last week we established the truth we looked at in Romans 5, namely that sin and death
entered the world through sin in order that sin may abound, so that God could show His grace.
In other words, the function of sin in the world and in our lives is to provide a backdrop for the
grace of God that frees us from sin. Paul closes his letter with the truth that, "where sin

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increased, grace increased all the more." With that in mind, it would seem quite logical,
wouldn't it, to say that since grace explodes on the scene wherever sin is increasing, then the
more we sin the more we see God's grace explode on the scene. Right?

Wrong. Paul predicts that some people may have this mindset. He is anticipating the charge
that if we are just suddenly freed from sin through grace, then that will make people want to
take advantage of grace and just go on sinning more and more. That's a straw man argument.
It's knowingly building an argument only with the pieces of your opponents' arguments that
you think will help you defeat them more. It doesn't take into account ALL that the other
person is saying. It's taking their thoughts out of context and building an argument you can
knock down easily…a straw man argument.

There are people who will try the same thing today with reference to grace. They are called
legalists. They've been around ever since the days of the early church, and they'll always be
around. They're the ones who try to tell you that although you are freed from sin by grace, you
are (1) still bound to sin because you have a sinful heart, and (2) you still need OT laws to live by
in order to show that you are freed by grace. In other words, there are versions of Christianity
out there that teach people to live without grace, while telling their people that's what it looks
like and that's what it means to live in grace. Ironic and weird, huh?

But if you're really freed from sin, then you're really freed from its consequences, and you're
really freed from the path that led you there, which is OT Law. But in being freed from OT Law,
that doesn't mean you are freed from any and all laws at all! That's crazy! It doesn't mean
you're freed from the law of gravity, for example. If you decide to follow Jesus, then foolishly
decide to jump off the roof of your house, you WILL get hurt. Neither does it mean you're freed
from the law of aging. You're in a body that is growing older by the second. That means one
day you will grow old and die. Being freed by grace doesn't mean your body won't grow old
anymore.

Let's use the gravity illustration for a moment. Let's suppose that you were born on a space
ship. Suppose you were born there, where there is zero gravity, and suppose you've grown up
there all your life. You only know how to get around by floating, grabbing on to things to
control your direction, aiming yourself in the right direction, learning to propel yourself at just
the right speeds to get around, etc. Then suppose you suddenly came to earth one day. Now,
you have to operate under laws of gravity. It feels weird to you. All the laws that keep you on
the ground on earth, didn't apply to you in space. Everything is different now.

Now suppose someone said to you, "Hey, now that you're on earth and you are subject to the
laws of gravity, wouldn't it be cool if you went and jumped off a skyscraper…without a
parachute? You could feel what it was like to drop at terminal velocity! You could feel a new
and awesome sensation of weightlessness you didn't experience before. Just go ahead and try
it! It'll be loads of fun!" Obviously, if you're any sort of smart, you'll hear that and say, "Are you
flippin' crazy, man?" Just because the laws of gravity apply to you now doesn't mean you want
to run out and see what it's like to get hurt…or even die!

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That's where we run into Paul in Romans 6:1, 2. "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that
God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!" The Greek phrase or
word there at the beginning of verse two is, me genoito (may-geh-noy-tah). It is translated,
"God forbid!" and is considered perhaps the strongest expression of disagreement in the Greek
language. In English, suitable expressions might be, "Are you crazy?!" or "You're out of your
MIND!" or perhaps the more crude form of, "HELL No!" Simply put, it's so unthinkable that
even saying it or thinking it makes you look dumb.

And this is where we learn our first step of what it means to walk in God's grace of freedom.
I'm offering these steps to you this morning as A-B-C's. So we'll start with the first step which
is…

A - Assume: Assume You're Free in Christ!

I know what most people say about assuming, and I won't repeat it here. Let's just say that this
kind of assuming is good, because it's based on the truth. You see Paul begins to explain what it
means to walk in grace by starting first with things we need to know in order to walk in grace
and freedom. Knowledge is powerful, and knowing the truth about what happened to you
when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave is the most powerful knowledge Paul or I
could ever give you. This is how Paul begins the chapter in verses 2-10:

"Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you
forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him
in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we
also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will
also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were
crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no
longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the
power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.
We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never
die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once
to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God."

The Holy Spirit through Paul's writings wants to make sure you know exactly what happened to
you when Jesus died and rose again. Somehow, mysteriously, but really and truly when Jesus
died 2,000 years ago you also died with Him and rose again with Him. God somehow,
mysteriously, but really and truly, united you to Jesus on the cross and in the empty tomb.
Because of what God did, "we KNOW that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that
sin might lose its power in our lives." Did you get that? We KNOW.

We KNOW we are no longer slaves to sin.

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We KNOW that when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

We KNOW that since we died with Christ, we will also live with Him.

We are SURE of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he'll never died again.

When it comes to walking in grace, knowing is half the battle, as G. I. Joe was famous for saying
when I was growing up. At the end of every episode Duke would give some important message
to kids for real life, and he would end it with, "Now you know…and knowing is half the battle."
That's so true here when it comes to walking in grace. What you KNOW really will make the
difference. If you don't KNOW that you are united with Jesus, that you died with Him, that you
were raised to life again with Him, then you will live and feel and think that you are somehow
still in bondage to sin.

Let me ask you a few questions. How many men died on either side of Christ? That's
right…two. And is it true that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? That's right….it is true. How
many men did Jesus Christ choose to be His disciples? That's right again…twelve men. And did
Jesus Christ really cast out demons from people? You bet. He sure did.

Now let me ask you another question. Why do you believe all of this? That's RIGHT! You
believe it because the Bible says so! If you know these things then because the Bible says so,
then also know that you are dead to sin. That's a fact just as real as the other ones you know to
be facts. Now you've got the same authority for believing what God says about you through
Christ's death…because the Bible says so!

This one issue here is what prevents so many of us from entering into peace and rest in our
freedom in Christ. We choose to listen to our feelings and emotions more than we do the facts.
We often choose to live like the Israelites who knew the power of God, because they'd seen it
at the Red Sea. But when it came time to apply that knowledge to conquering the Canaanites
and overtaking the promised land, they were too scared and couldn't do it. So as a result, they
were confined to live in their unbelief in the wilderness for forty long years until every last one
of them had died. Then their children could enter in and do what their parents could not.

I get to experience this knowledge and a chance to apply it every week. I'm a man, for example.
And being a man, I am subject to a world where women don't dress so modestly. This creates
an opportunity to lust. I can be frolicking along in the Holy Spirit, praising God, praying in the
Spirit, walking in holiness and all of the sudden a lustful thought will enter my heart so fast my
head is spinning. I get taken aback by it sometimes because of how it happens.

Similarly, I'll be at home, parenting in some issue or conflict between the children. I'll be
counseling and teaching and praying, when all of the sudden one of the kids will act
dishonorably towards me or their mother and I'll feel this urge to just pinch their head off!
"Whoa! Where did that come from?!", I'll think to myself.

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So there I've been often, plagued with a lustful thought, plagued with an unforgiving or angry
attitude. And then I remember the chapter in the Bible my dad paid me $20 to
memorize…Romans 6. And I'll suddenly remember, "Hey your old self died with Christ and
you're freed from sin, according to verse 7. Dead people don't lust. Dead people don't feel
angry or unforgiving. Dead people are FREE!" And then the force of the freedom will often hit
me! And I start laughing to myself at the weakness of sin in trying to affect a dead man. It
would be as laughable as a brothel full of women dancing around a dead man in a casket trying
to arouse him to lust, or a room full of angry, disrespectful children yelling and screaming in
defiance at the dead man to try to arouse his anger. It will never happen.

And this is how we must think if we walk with Jesus. We ARE in FACT DEAD to sin! That is a
fact. And knowing that is half the battle.

The other half of the battle is applying the knowledge. Applying it is living like it is true even
though everything we can see tells us otherwise. Take Abraham for example, in Romans 4.
Paul says there that,

"Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would
become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, 'That's how many descendants
you will have!' And Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he
figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah's womb. Abraham never wavered in
believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He
was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises" (Rom. 4:18-21, NLT).

This brings us to the second point in our ABC's of walking in grace.

B - Believe: Believe You're Dead to Sin!

If knowing is half the battle, the other half is doing something with what you know. If you know
something to be true, but don't use it, then you're living like what you said was true isn't really
true. It's actually living a lie.

It's so funny to hear Christians talk about hypocrisy. I've heard so many speak of hypocrisy in
backward terms. You're not a hypocrite because you're judging somebody else whose doing
the very same wrong thing you are. You're a hypocrite when you're dead to sin and you keep
saying "yes" to it. That's not who you truly are. You truly are a dead man…dead to sin. Here's
how Paul continues to describe it in Romans 6:11.

"So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive
to God through Christ Jesus."

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Paul uses a Greek word here, logidzesthe (loh-gidz-esthe). It means to conclude something to
be true. It means to impute something. Remember we talked about that last week? To impute
is an accounting term meaning to take something from one column of a ledger and apply it to
another column. It is like reconciling your bank statements (for those who still do that, right?).
When you reconcile a bank statement, you are taking what the bank says about your
expenditures and deposits, and you are trying to figure out how to make your checkbook
register match up with what the bank statement says.

That's what Paul means here when he says, "consider yourselves to be dead to the power of
sin…" Look at what God says about you, and make it so in your life. The verb Paul uses is a
present middle imperative. The present tense means you gotta be doing this all the time, non-
stop. You can't ever stop believing what God says about you. The imperative means it's a
command. God is telling you to do this, to think this way. But the middle voice is interesting,
because it implies a cooperation going on here between you and God. You see, the active voice
in Greek means you're the one doing it. The passive voice means God's doing it. But the
middle voice means you're both doing it.

This means Paul is making a plea here that we as Christians assume we're free men, believe
we're dead to sin (something God has already done for us), and start living like it (something
WE have to do with what's been done for us). This means ignoring how you feel, and choosing
to believe the fact and acting upon it. This means saying no to whatever emotions are messing
with you, and saying yes to the truth of what God has said about you. The intensity of lust, the
deep desire of greed or covetousness, the rising blood pressure of irritation, the adrenaline
rush of anger…all of it, no matter what it makes you feel like, must be dealt with according to
fact and not feeling. YOU ARE DEAD TO THE POWER OF SIN. Period.

Let me illustrate with a recent trip to Nepal I made back in January. Nepal is almost ten hours
ahead of us here on the East Coast. We started our worship this morning at 10:00 AM Eastern
time, and at that precise time it was 7:45 PM in Kathmandu, Nepal. Now, when I landed there
it was in the middle of the night, I believe around 11:30 or so. But to my body it was still early
to mid afternoon, around snack time. I could have done one of two things when we landed
and the captain told us what time it was locally. I could have laughed and said, "How ridiculous
this guy is…everybody knows it's really 2:45! Who in the world does this guy think he is?" And I
could have gotten off the plan and started looking for a restaurant to eat a late lunch. I would
have then found that all the restaurants were closed that late at night. And I could have then
started yelling and screaming and throwing rocks at the windows of the restaurant, screaming
and yelling like a fool, that it was the middle of the afternoon so why were the restaurants
closed. I could have then gone back to my hotel and chosen to make some lunch and eat. And I
could have chosen to go to bed at a time that felt normal to my body, which would have
actually been the time I needed to get up in Kathmandu in order to get on with the ministry I
was doing there.

Or I could have taken the second option, which was in fact the one I ended up choosing. I chose
to believe what time it was the captain told me as we landed. And I chose to set my watch by

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the local time. I then chose to go to bed when I got back to my hotel, because it was bed time.
I was wide awake, of course, and getting to bed was very difficult, as was falling off to sleep.
But I made myself go to bed and did NOT stay awake, because I had to make my body live by
the time zone I was ministering in. Each day and night it got less and less difficult, until my
body had finally become accustomed to the new time zone. I lived by fact and not feeling.

But this obviously leaves us asking an important question. If I'm dead to sin, why does it FEEL
so powerful and intense? The urge to sleep during the day and eat when I should not have been
eating was tremendous! And the answer is easy. You live in body that hasn't been redeemed
yet. You see, while your inner man, the soul or spirit part of you, has been redeemed by God
through the death of Jesus, your soul is stuck inside a body that has NOT been redeemed yet.
To be sure, that's part of the big picture of God's salvation one day. Romans 8 goes on to teach
that our bodies are groaning and moaning under the intense pressure of the world and sin and
temptation. But God will eventually deliver us one day from it by giving us new bodies that
won't be subject to temptation, sin, suffering, pain, agony, or death.

But until that day comes, walking in grace is about assuming you're a free man, believing you're
a dead man, and third, commanding yourself to live what you believe and assume.

C - Command: Command Your Body to Obey God!

Here's what Paul says as we continue on in Romans 6.

"Do not let sin control the way you live;* do not give in to sinful desires. Do not
let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give
yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So
use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of
the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace" (Rom. 6:12-14,
NLT).

Even though you're dead to sin, sin is still looking for a place to take up residence and rule. It's
been kicked out of your heart and soul forever, and you are permanently freed…at least inside.
But while sin can't take up residence and rule in your heart, it can do so in your body. And it
seeks to do so everyday of the week. Everytime you are tempted to do something you know
you shouldn't do, sin is knocking on the door, tempting you to let it in, s that it can become your
master again.

This is why Paul is putting emphasis here on the "body." He says, "do not let any part of your
body become an instrument of evil to serve sin." As Terry Virgo has written, "Like a musician,
sin is looking for an instrument. It cannot "make music" without an instrument. As a renewed
person, you are to take authority over your body and its members and refuse to allow sin to
reign there" (God's Lavish Grace, p. 50). Instead, use your whole body as an instrument to do

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what is right for the glory of God. Let the Holy Spirit use your body as an instrument to please
Him (Rom. 8:12-14). Use your body as a living sacrifice for God (Rom. 12:1).

Sin is no longer your master. What do masters do? They give commands. But since you're
dead to sin, it can't command you anymore. But it will try to command your body. Instead, the
inner part of you, your soul, has the authority of God Himself now since the Holy Spirit of God
resides there. This gives you the ability to command your body. Since sin isn't a master
anymore, it can't command your body, even though it will try. But since Jesus is your master
now, you can command your body to do what you want it to…and you should do just that.

What's awesome about being a Christian is that we have that special, unique ability to
successfully command our bodies to do what they need to do to glorify God. The non-Christian
doesn't have this ability. Because they don't have the Holy Spirit, their heart or soul is in slavery
to sin, and sin is their master. They cannot suddenly jump up and command themselves to do
something they don't want to do, because their "want to" wants to sin. But Christians have the
ability to "want to" NOT sin and to serve God, and so we must use our authority and command
our bodies to straighten up and do what we tell them to.

And this is where wise choices come in. We must make wise choices about where to spend our
time, how to spend our time, where and how to spend our money, what and when to say
something, what and when and where to eat, etc. And this is where each Christian walks in the
Spirit and creates perhaps standards or principles that will help them make wise choices. You
absolutely must decide to do something so that you will keep yourself free from sin's efforts to
reign in your bodies.

But also note that legalism will try to creep in here and take what you've created to help
yourself, and then try to go and convince others that they should do these things too in order
to make wise choices. Be careful of this. Your wise choices are your wise choices, because you
only give an account of yourself to God, and not someone else. You are responsible for
yourself. So make choices, standards, principles, and rules to help you live by so that sin won't
reign in your body. But don't try to fence other people in or incarcerate one another in or with
things you've decided are right for you.

Conclusion

Paul makes some amazing categorical statements about who you really are now as a follower of
Jesus. Sometimes we let our bodies dictate what is and isn't true, however. We let our
feelings, desires, and appetites categorically deny the categorical statements of truth about us,
at times. But this is how we walk in grace. It is a process. This means it'll take a while to learn.
And because it's a process it inherently means progress, which means you WILL make progress
in your walk in grace. God's grace covers you every step of the way, His mercy forgiving you
every error and sin along the way.

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But the one thing that MuST drive you is the assumption that you are a free man. You have
really and truly been freed from sin. As Terry Virgo has written, "This is something that has
happened to you. You used to be sin's slave, at his beck and call, without freedom of choice,
dominated by sin. Now you have become the slave of righteousness. You are in bondage to
righteousness. Righteousness dominates your life and directs your days. You have been
purchased at the slave market. You are no longer sin's slave but belong to a new master. You
have a new identity and a new owner. Your responsibility is to yield yourself and your
members on a daily basis to your new master. As Jesus said, 'If the Son sets you free, you will
be free indeed' (John 8:36)" (God's Lavish Grace, pp. 50-51).

ASSUME you really are free in Christ.

BELIEVE you really are dead to sin.

COMMAND your body to obey God.

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