Romans No.11 Cheap Grace

Let's read together from Romans chapter 6 verses 1 to 14. If we have been united with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, for we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again, death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. A particular passage, shall we? I think that one of the most lovely pictures that we get in the New Testament is contained in the parable of the prodigal son. And you remember how that rebellious youth, who'd been away from his home country, and indeed from the place of his birth for some long time, comes back and he discovers much to his astonishment that the arms of his father are outstretched to greet him, to welcome him.

And he falls into that loving embrace. Did he deserve such a response? Did he deserve such a welcome? Could he have said, if his father hadn't been looking for him, that his father had treated him badly? If his father didn't welcome him, would the prodigal have any reason to suggest that, in some fashion, the father had treated him rudely? And the answer to all my questions, of course, is no, no, no, no. The father, in a way that the son never deserved, received him as his boy and brought him back into the paternal home.

Now that's grace. That's exactly what grace means. It's being treated in a way that you didn't deserve, simply because the person who was acting in such a kindly fashion loved you.

Someone has said this, there is no reason for grace but grace. Did you hear that? There is no reason for grace but grace. Why did God love you? There's no reason, apart from the fact that he does love you.

And the most wonderful commodity that there is in our world today is the grace of God. We live in what is known as the day of grace. That means the day of opportunity.

The day when men and women can respond to the gospel. That day will not always exist. When Jesus returns, that will be the end of the possibility of men and women being saved.

It will mark the terminus, the full stop of the day of grace. And someone has said this, he who is graceless in the day of grace will be speechless on the day of judgment. If you're not graced by the forgiveness of God in the era of grace, when you stand before God in judgment, you will be speechless.

Now, one of the great words of the Apostle Paul's writings, especially in this letter, is of course this word grace. We've come across it on several occasions thus far. And in one sense, the doctrine of justification by faith through grace in our Lord Jesus is the strongest doctrine that Christians believe.

It's also the weakest. It's the strongest in this sense. That you see, if you properly understand it, it means that you reckon your salvation to result from the kindly benevolence of God.

It's nothing that you did. It's all as a result of His kindness. Now, that's the strength of the doctrine.

You see, the Jehovah's Witness can't say that. The Mormon can't say that. You can go through all the cults, the Christian scientists, all the way down.

There's no exception to this rule. All the cults cannot say that. Because the cults are saying that you must add labour to belief in order to be saved.

But Christians say no. The Bible teaches that we are saved as a result of the grace of God. There's nothing you can do.

There's nothing we can do but believe. That's the strength of the doctrine of justification by faith through grace. But if you maltreat it, if you pervert it in your understanding, then it becomes the weakest doctrine.

I mean in this fashion. Well, we've come across the Apostle Paul actually explaining it for us, haven't we? I mean, he says, for instance, in an earlier chapter that some people have actually suggested to him, verse 8 of the third chapter, that he is teaching that people can do evil, that good may result. In other words, it doesn't matter how you live.

In fact, you perhaps would be doing God a favour if you sinned continually so that His grace might stand out in relief. There's a theological word to describe that. When it's translated, I'll not give you it as theologians do.

I'll translate it for you. It means living a lawless life. Live lawlessly so that the grace of God can be directed to you time and time again.

And if you handle the doctrine of grace in that fashion, then you prostitute it. You turn the strength of the Christian doctrine of salvation, in one sense, into a weakness. So here's the Apostle Paul, verse 1 of chapter 6, and he says, What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning? Shall we behave as we would please at the natural level so that the grace of God may increase? And very strongly, he denies that preposterous suggestion.

I think the NIV is terribly weak. By no means. Authorized version is better.

God forbid. I think F.F. Bruce takes the prize. Perish the thought.

You don't act in respect of God's grace in such a fashion as to pervert His grace in the way that you apply it to your own life. Perish the thought. God forbid.

You see, we can't live as Christians in a careless fashion. Why not? Well, you see, we're not in the division of people who live to please themselves. We were in that division, weren't we? Remember how the Apostle in the previous chapters talked about two men that are important in history? There's Adam and there's Jesus.

And the Apostle makes it clear that either you're an Adam man or a Jesus man. Do you remember that when we were working our way through that previous chapter? Now, if you've moved from the division where Adam is into the division where Jesus is in control, then you're a completely different person in the sight of God at any rate. Don't you know, verse 3, don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? What does Paul mean by that? Well, he's talking about Christian experience, isn't he? About being born again.

But Paul doesn't put it like a simple formula. Just believe that Jesus died for your sins and you'll be saved. Paul would have preached that.

But here he doesn't express it quite like that. He goes deeper because when the Apostle refers to salvation, he's referring to something that affects not just the mind but the total personality. He's talking about being united with Christ in the same way, or at least by the way of an analogy, the unity of marriage is expressed in its physical consummation.

Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? You see, some very remarkable things happened to our Lord Jesus historically, didn't they? And we as Christians identify with certain aspects of the life, indeed with every aspect of the life of our Lord Jesus. He was crucified. Now you and I, in one sense, have been crucified when we gave our lives to the Lord Jesus.

He was buried, wasn't He? And in one sense we have been buried to our old way of life, not so? He was resurrected. And you talk about being born again, being raised, if you like, from the death of the old way of life. Our Lord Jesus was exalted, not so? And when Paul writes about Christians in Ephesians chapter 1, he speaks of those who sit in heavenly places.

The historical events of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ have a great importance for us as illustrating, if you please, what has happened when we became Christians. We died, we were buried, we were raised, we're exalted. That's what he says.

And if all these things have happened, as we link ourselves with the historic experiences of our Lord Jesus Christ, if all this has happened to us, then it's impossible that we could deal in a cavalier fashion with sin. Take the grace of God and exploit it. Use it in a pernicious fashion.

Perish the thought, says the Apostle Paul. Look, some of you had good parents, a good mum, a good dad. Maybe you went through the First World War or the Second World War.

And you remember just how kindly they were to you. Would you take that kindness and exploit it? Would you have done that 30 years ago or 60 years ago? Let's say that your old father left you some money when he died. Would you have taken that money and used it, squandered it heedlessly when he'd earned it by the sweat of his brow? No, you wouldn't do that, would you? You wouldn't do it on the human level, not if you had an affection to the person who had enriched you.

Now, says the Apostle Paul, you can't do this with the grace of God, because you have been identified with the death, with the burial, with the resurrection, with the exaltation of the Lord Jesus. Your salvation was bought, and it's given to you freely, but it's not cheap, and grace is not cheap. So the Apostle takes us on to the second stage in our argument, where he contrasts death and freedom.

Look at verse 5, will you, and let's go from 5 to verse 7. If we have been united with him, that is, our Lord Jesus, in his death, see, he's still talking about this consummation with Christ, this union that you and I have with him. If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. Isn't it interesting that Paul incorporates the adverb certainly just there? There's no doubt about it.

There's not one hesitation in the mind of Paul that as Jesus died and was raised again, so we, having died to sin, will be united with him in his resurrection. Now, the reason for his confidence is expressed in verse 6. It's all to do with our old self, the old Adam. The sort of man or woman that you and I were before we became Christians.

Now, that's dead. At least, ideally, it's dead, utterly dead. For we know, verse 6, that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

It's a terrible thing, don't you think, to be a slave? One of the marvels of the 20th century, though it's not completely eliminated slavery, but at least one of the blessings of the 20th century is that you rarely come across it. Do you ever think about the old slave in the plantations in the West Indies or in the southern states of America or there in southern Africa? Imagine being a slave. You know, it was slavery that gave rise to some of the great Negro spirituals, wasn't it? We shall all be free.

Deep in my heart, I do believe we shall all be free someday. There was that old Negro cotton picker with all the horror of his life. And he dreamed that one day there would be an emancipation.

One day he'd be released from this. And so they had these songs that they sung. Now, didn't you, or don't you, recall a time when you were just like a cotton-picking slave? You didn't like the life.

There were certain things about your lifestyle that you hated, and you wanted to be free. Now, the reality of conversion, which as I say is not just a mental thing that affects the mind, the reality of conversion is worked through as the chains that bound you fell off. As the old nature which dragged you down and down and down was crucified.

We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, so that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Jesus said, if the sun shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and follow thee.

The freest men in the world are Christian people, not so. And the amazing thing about the freedom that the Lord Jesus brings is that you can be politically a prisoner, you can be literally in a jail, and yet have a free spirit. I mean, the freest men in the dungeons in Caesarea Philippi were Paul and Silas, not so.

They were singing the praises of God at night. You cannot imprison the spirit that Jesus has set free. You may be able to imprison the body, and the freedom that you have in your spirit is as a result of the death blow to the old nature, the old self.

And this is the heart, of course, of the Christian gospel. The apostle Paul says that he is crucified with Christ. His chains have fallen off.

In effect, you see, the Christian is like a man who has died, and as a result his debts have died with him. Look at verse 7. Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Do you remember one of the socialist politicians years ago? Well, not that many years ago, about a decade ago, got himself into great financial difficulty.

And he mimicked his death and endeavored to bring, as a result, the insurance company to pay a large sum of money. Actually, he hadn't died, and his sin caught up with him, and eventually he was brought to book. But there are some people for whom death, at the physical level, might well be a way out.

You know, they've accumulated so much debt, so much financial debt, and death comes, and they run away, so to speak, at least at the human level, from all their troubles. Now, that's not what the apostle is referring to here, when he speaks about the Christian, the spiritual person, you and me. Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

It's true that when we committed our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, the debt that we had, we left. But we didn't leave it unpaid. Jesus paid the price for our sin.

We moved from debit into credit, from the red into the black, because of our Lord Jesus, because of his death, because of the enormous grace of God directed towards you and me. Not because we deserved it, well, only because he's a loving, heavenly Father. Wonderful grace is this, isn't it? So let's move on to the third section, at least for the convenience of our study this evening.

The eighth to the tenth verse, the death of death. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.

Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. There's an amazing book written that I'm not recommending for you to read.

It's a very difficult book, though it would be worth some of you, perhaps, occasionally studying it. It's called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. It was written by a man called John Owen, a great theologian of two or three hundred years ago.

The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Do you remember on one occasion, in the Gospel of John, our Lord is brought face to face with his antagonists, with his enemies, the Pharisees. And in the eighth chapter, the twenty-first verse, he says this to them.

They've not accepted his teaching, you see. And he says to them, you will die in your sins. There's a double death, you see.

There's a physical death that you and I will one day have to confront. Everyone bows to physical death, sooner or later. But there's another death.

There's, if you please, spiritual death. Not so? Now, when Jesus spoke about death, he never really suggested that the former death was anything to be terribly afraid of. Physical death.

What he said should be shunned was physical death within the context of spiritual death. Now, let me take that again, in case you haven't followed. Here are these Pharisees.

They look alive. The blood is racing round their bodies. If you've got a doctor to give them a medical, the doctor might well say that they're physically fit.

But when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, he said, you're dead in your sins. And the day will come when physically you will die. And therefore, it will be a double death.

The death of death in the death of Christ. Why did you die on the cross? Well, we've answered the question, haven't we? He died for our sins. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought.

My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to his cross. And I bear it no more, blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul. Now look, the Lord Jesus died once, not so? Look at verse 9. We know that since Christ was raised from the dead, then he cannot die again.

Death no longer has mastery over him. The writer of the Hebrew epistle, who some of you mistakenly think was Paul. Everybody knows that it was Priscilla.

In the epistle to the Hebrews, on several occasions, referring to the death of Christ, we're told that Christ died once, not so? Once in the end of time, hath he appeared. That word once deals a blow to the Catholic doctrine of the offering of the body of Christ on the altar time and time again. You can remember the death.

You can't re-enact the death. Once he died. Never again will Jesus carry the cross up the skull-shaped hill.

Never again will the hammer blows of the Roman soldiers rain down upon the hands and the feet of our Lord Jesus, fixing him to the cross. He died once. Now death no longer has mastery over him.

He's been raised in the power of an endless life, right? Now look, you people who are united to Christ through salvation, you have benefited by the annihilation of second death. That's what Paul is saying, isn't it? Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once.

He offered it as the payment for our sins. But God raised him in the power of an endless life. And as he raised him, so he has raised us.

Back to verse 8. If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. So your eternal life did not start, or does not start at the grave. It started the moment that you became a Christian.

You're already living your eternal life. Even though physically you will die, your spirit will live on to go with the Lord, to be with the Lord who made it. Now at this point, I'm expecting that you'll all stand up on your chairs and cheer.

Because it is really a very, very interesting, in fact not just a very interesting, it's a very thrilling doctrine, isn't it? So do smile, you'll give the preacher a great encouragement. The death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God.

So here is the death of death in the death of Christ. John Owen is quite right. I mean, it's not the title I would have chosen for a book.

I think it's too long, quite frankly. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the book isn't read very often. But it really is a good book.

That's what the Lord has done. Now, in as much as Christ died to death and has been raised in newness of life, verse 11, in the same way, says the apostle Paul, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. You see, Paul will never be accused of being a purely academic theologian.

He's a good teacher. This is what happened historically. This is what happened to the Lord Jesus.

Now, in the same way, work it through for yourself. If this phenomenal event occurred for the Lord Jesus, lifting him from one phase of life to another, so in the same fashion, you have to imagine yourself, count yourself, compute yourself, reason yourself to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Do you do that? You see, in one sense, I said that you should be standing on your chair and cheering.

But in another sense, you should be groveling on the floor in utter despair. You see, this is much easier to preach than it is to live, isn't it? I wish I could say, hand over my heart, brothers and sisters who I love dearly in the Lord and with whom I've been for so long here in Worthing, I have walked in this pathway all my life. But you've only to have five minutes conversation with my wife and you discover evidence to the contrary.

But I can say this with my hand over my heart. This is the way that I want to live. This is the path along which I want to go.

All right, says the apostle, then don't think that this is just academic teaching. You reason this through yourself in the same way. Apply logic.

In fact, the Greek word which I checked just half an hour ago, so I must have got this one right. In the same way, reason. Reason it out.

This is what has happened to you. You're no longer in the sight of God, alive to sin. You're dead to sin, but you're alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Then start more diligently to work it through in your life. Two do nots. Verse 12, do not let sin reign in your mortal body.

Verse 13, do not offer the parts of your body to sin. You see, there are things that you can do to make yourself holy. Did you get that point? Holiness is not some mystical experience that will hit you one day in the tabernacle as you get a little bit souped up in singing enthusiastically a hymn.

I thank God for the stirring of emotions in hymn singing. But if there was a formula through which you could go into an absolutely holy life as a result of one instantaneous experience, then I'm sure we'd all be sort of crowding in on it. But it hasn't occurred.

It doesn't occur. You have to work for your holiness. Therefore, there are certain things that you will not do.

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. Samson deliberately went into Delilah's lair, didn't he? He should have given her a pass. He should have gone anywhere near.

This was his weakness. Now, it may not be that you've got a sexual weakness, but you may have a weakness in other areas. Therefore, don't go into a situation where your weakness might be exploited.

Back off from it. And you can work at that negative. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness.

The word instruments there, the same translation as in the authorised version, actually literally from the Greek, it's weapons. Don't offer them as weapons for wickedness, but rather offer the parts of your body as weapons for righteousness. In fact, that's what he says in the latter part of the verse, isn't it? But rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments for righteousness.

You see, if you're going to be holy, there are things that you won't do, and you will work at not doing them. But positively, inverting it, there are things that you can do, and you'll work at doing those. It was Mary Magdalene, a greater preacher, alas, than ever I'll be, and he died at a much earlier age than myself.

He died at 33, so he died at least two years before me. He said, a man is as holy as he wants to be. Isn't that incredible? A man is as holy as he wants to be.

Do you believe that? That's what Paul is saying. And your holiness really is worked out the more you understand the grace of God. John Stott, the secret of clean living is clear thinking.

When you've got it straight in your understanding of holiness, the probability is that you'll get it straight in the area of your clean living. Listen to Dr. Scroggie, a preacher of an earlier generation that some of you will remember. The grace of God will do very little for us if we resolve to do nothing for ourselves.

God calls us to cooperate with him in the perfecting of character. To cooperate. Are you doing that? Are you doing that? You see, the apostle Paul has told us that sin and death have no mastery over our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not so. But he uses exactly the same expression in the 14th verse. For sin shall not be your master.

It will not be your master. So how do you avoid dealing in cheap grace or cheapening the grace of God? I've suggested to you in one or two final practical comments, survey the cross often. The thing that kept me going as a lad in my middle teenage and late teenage days, and those are hard days, aren't they, in some ways, was coming around the Lord's table week by week.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I would never go to a church that didn't break bread on a Sunday regularly. It's to me so absolutely necessary because then I re-evaluate the cost of the grace of God, the broken body, the shed blood.

Survey the cross often, my friend. It will help to keep you holy. Remember who you are, whose you are, and who you serve, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have a goal. Set yourself targets in this area of holiness. And when you fall, as fall you will, then get up from off your backside.

That's blunt, isn't it? But it's true. Get up and start again. Knocked down, says the Apostle Paul in a slightly different context, but not knocked out.

Always ready to start again, knowing full well that in the infinite grace of God, He's always ready to pick you up again, to give you a hug, and to send you on your way. Never cheapen the grace of God. Reckon it to be the most precious commodity on planet Earth.

Let's stand and sing Amazing Grace, shall we? How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. You didn't have that earlier, John, did you? Where are we? No, no.

Number 50. And some friends who've been praying earlier who'd like to slip out, you're very welcome. In fact, if anyone wants to slip out, you're welcome.

We don't want you all to go, but if you need to go, then do, during this singing of this hymn. Number 50, we'll stand and sing. Could we have some of God's fresh air by leaving those doors open for a little while, please? Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. It was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. It is grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures. Yes, when this hardened flesh shall fail, and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace. When we've been there a thousand years, bright shining as the sun, oh, if no less grace to sing God's praise than when we first begun.

Let's sing that. Thank you.