Our Incredible Salvation - 3

Some of the most amazing statements about the power of grace in our lives are found in this episode.  Enjoy!

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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Jeff's Bible Trek. We are in season four, which is a study on our incredible salvation. It's been exciting from my end so far. We're working our way through the book of Romans, which, as I mentioned previously, is kind of like Paul's doctoral thesis on the subject of salvation. In the last couple of episodes, we covered Romans 5 on almost a verse-by-verse manner. And in this, our third episode, we're going to cover the sixth chapter of Romans, not every single verse in the chapter, but just the highlights. Chapter 5 was so foundational to this study that it really was necessary to cover all of it. Now, toward the end of chapter 5, Paul made the famous statement in verse 20 that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. In the Passion, it says it this way, and yet wherever sin increased, there was more than enough of God's grace to triumph all the more. I love that. As chapter 6 begins, he says, So if that's true, that the more sin, the more grace, then maybe we should just sin a lot so we can experience a lot more grace. And to that thought, Paul says, What a terrible thought. Because we died with Christ on the cross, and our baptism in water symbolizes that. Which brings us to verses four and five, which read as follows, and I quote, sharing in his death by our baptism means that we were co-buried with him, so that when the Father's glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with him. We have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life. For since we are permanently grafted into him to experience a death like his, then we are permanently grafted into him to experience a resurrection like his and the new life that it imparts. Unquote. My goodness, it is hard to fathom how incredible this is. We died with him and we were raised from the dead with him. Now you'll say, Well, that's a stretch. How have we died and risen from the dead? Great question. I'm glad you asked. You see, in the same way, God is three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we have three parts as well. We are a spirit, we have a soul, which is the mind, the will, and the emotions, and we live in a body. In the Garden of Eden, God warned Adam that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that day he would die. Well, he obviously didn't drop dead on the spot, so how did he die? It was his spirit that died, that place where we inwardly commune with God. Now, when we receive Christ into our lives, his spirit comes and quickens our dead spirit and brings it back to life again. In effect, he raises us from the dead. This is where we get the phrase born again, because our spirit is quickened back to life. I love the promise in verse 4, where we are now empowered to walk in the freshness of new life. I uh reflected back on my salvation experience, and I can tell you that I experienced this immediately when I received Christ at the age of 22, laying in a sleeping bag next to my motorcycle in a campground in Northern California. I felt a fresh quickening right when it happened, a quickening that kept me awake the rest of the night. That freshness of new life is still felt nearly five decades later. And then verse six read this way, and I quote, could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deprived of its power? For we were co-crucified with him due to dismantle the stronghold of sin within us, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin's power. And it's in reference to that last phrase, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer, submitted to sin's power. An alternate translation could be, and I quote, that the body of sin might be annulled or put out of business. To beg, and this the quote continues, to beg God for victory over sin is a refusal to understand that we have already died to sin. Our joyful task is to re is to believe the good news rather than to seek to quote crucify ourselves, unquote. Sin is not suppressed by the cross, it is eliminated. Upon this water, quote unquote, God commands us to step out and walk, for we are now in him. These are incredible truths that show us the triumph, the victory of grace over sin. Romans six really is all about the power of grace. Verse eight goes on to say, and I quote, and if we were co-crucified with the anointed one, we know that we will also share in the fullness of his life. I was intrigued by that word fullness. Here's what it means it means the quality or state of being filled completely or to utmost capacity. Oh, but it doesn't stop there. It also means the state of having eaten enough, especially more than enough. That kind of brings new meaning to Ephesians 320, where Paul says, and this is so powerful in the Passion, never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination. He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you. Now let's move on to verse twelve, and I quote, this is an interesting, this begins with an interesting phrase. Sin is a dethroned monarch. So you must no longer give it an opportunity to rule over your life, controlling how you live and compelling you to obey its desires and cravings. Think about how that looks in the world among world leaders. Think about kings and czars of the world in history who ruled with an iron fist, but one day were taken down by another power, leaving them in utter humiliation and disgrace. That is what has been done to the power of sin in your life due to our incredible salvation. Moving down to verse 16, this verse contains some very cool thoughts, and I quote, Don't you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant, bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness. Five times the word choose is used in this verse. You know, I think we often feel, we may not say it out loud, but sometimes we feel that sin has totally enslaved us, and we really don't have a choice. But that may be because we have chosen sin so many times that its tentacles are inescapably wrapped around our lives. But with God's help, we can break free from it. The more we choose God, the more sin's grip is loosened from us. You know what I think? You probably don't, but I think we need to give ourselves some help on this. When we're tempted to sin, we need to have a pre-planned diversion ready. Have a prayer list handy, whether you're at home or on the road, one that you can pick up and start pouring yourself out for others in prayer. As you're praying for someone, call them on the phone and check in with them. Pray with them right then and there. What other diversions can you think of that will move you into kingdom activity and away from sin? How about turning on some worship music? Well, I know there are unlimited ideas out there among you who are listening to me. Let's look at verse 18, and I quote, and now you celebrate your freedom from your former master, sin. You've left its bondage, and now God's perfect righteousness holds power over you as his loving servants. And that is because of the choice we now have to either give ourselves to sin or give ourselves to God. It's called freedom. The next time you're worshiping God with your brothers and sisters in Christ, think of that time as a celebration of your freedom. I believe your worship will become more meaningful for you. Well, we finish chapter six with verse twenty three, and this is a famous verse. We've been taught to use it in soul winning conversations, and I quote, For sin's meager wages is death, but God's lavish gift is life eternal, found in your union with our Lord Jesus, the anointed one. Sin's meagre wages. Interesting phrase. Have you ever had a job where you made meager wages? It might have been because gross profit margins in the business were thin, and thus there were meager resources to pay people better. It might have been because the owner was a cheapskate. I don't know, it happens. Either way, sin's wages are meager. Probably because those wages are death, spiritual death, which doesn't compare to the eternal life that God promises. There's a great footnote in the Passion Bible on meager wages, and I quote, the Greek word translated meager wages actually means the wages of a foot soldier. This Greek word opsonian is taken from the word used for a piece of dried fish. Well, that doesn't sound very attractive or tantalizing to me. It sounds kind of meager, actually. Our English word for meager means deficient in quantity or lacking, lacking fullness or richness, scanty, inadequate, having little flesh, lean or thin. In contrast, God's gift is lavish, which means using or giving in great amounts. That's what I'm talking about. And those lavish amounts of eternal life benefits come to you by way of grace, which comes to you because of, as Paul says, your union with our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. And even better, it's part of our incredible salvation. Well, that brings Romans six, the power of grace to a close. We'll launch into Romans seven and part of chapter eight in our next episode. Until then, God richly bless you.