Exodus 20: Fulfilment and freedom

Exodus 20

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Last week Petter said “When non-Christians want to embarrass Christians they use the Law in the Old Testament.”

It’s true isn’t it! “Haven’t you read” they say with a sneer. “Shouldn’t you be stoning the gays, not just voting against them?” or “Why do you wear clothing of two types of fabrics” or “why do you eat bacon or eat shellfish?”

And we mumble something like “We’re in the New Testament”.

But we’re confused. What IS the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. Why DON’T we have to stone people? Why can we eat pork? Why doesn’t God kill the priest who doesn’t wear his holy underpants? Important questions. And yes, holy priestly underpants is a requirement of the law! Ex 28:42-43

To most of us the Law, God’s Law, the Law given by Moses, is a mystery. We sort of dip in when we need it, quote a bit of “thus saith the Lord” when it suits us, and we think maybe the 10 Commandments are quite important – but apart from that we just don’t know what to do with it.

And that’s a problem. Because the Law given through Moses is a massive chunk of the Bible! Not just big parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy but the Wisdom literature like Proverbs and Psalms unpack the Law. And the history of Israel from Joshua to 2 Kings is in large part about Israel forgetting or disobeying or even obeying the Law. And the prophets are all talking about the Law.
The Law is a big deal!

So how are we to understand the Law?
Now there’s two mistakes we can make: we either ignore the Law. We say “doesn’t apply to us”. We’re Christians, not Jews.
Or we apply it directly to us. It’s God’s word. He spoke it, I believe it, and I’ll obey it. Now hand me those holy underpants so I can go to church without God killing me.

We can neither ignore it nor apply it directly. For there is both a continuity (continues to us) and a discontinuity (a break) with us and Old Testament believers.

A continuity because this is God’s Word to his people. (diagram1) It is his revelation of himself. To ignore this is to get a skew picture of God. And many Christians today have a warped view of God because they haven’t read the Old Testament. They don’t know Him. This, God’s Law, is written to us.

But there is a massive discontinuity: Jesus. (diagram2) We are here – on this side of the incarnation (God becoming man) and the cross and resurrection. Jesus is the complete revelation of God. This side is partial, but this side, after Christ, is complete.

So as we look at the Law, and indeed any Old Testament text, the questions we need to ask are: (diagram)

1. What did this mean for them then? Because there is a continuity between us and the Old Testament believers. We are God’s people, listening to God’s word.

2. How does Jesus change that? Discontinuity.

We read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament. We put on our New Testament “glasses” as it were. The New helps us understand the Old through Jesus.

2 points today.

1. What does the New Testament say about the Law?

2. Do the 10 Commandments apply to us?

So let’s put on our “glasses”: as we think about the Law, how does the New help us to understand it?

1. What does the New Testament say about the Law?

Well, we don’t need to go any further than the words of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 is a study on the law of God. Turn to Matthew 5:17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.” Or as other translations put it “I came to fulfil the law”

He did not come to abolish it, but to fulfil it. How? In what way is there continuity and in what way discontinuity?

Well, there is discontinuity because it can’t mean that we as Christians must keep the law! Like not eating pork and keeping the Sabbath and wearing priestly underwear. Jesus fulfils the law. He kept it perfectly. And so, Romans 8 in him there is now no condemnation…. 8:3 God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son…and declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

We are no longer under the law. In Christ we no longer have to obey the law.

Woah! That sounds a bit extreme, Daniel. Sure you’re right? Well, remember from reading Acts: this exact question was a big argument in the early church! Should the new non-Jewish converts be required to obey the law of Moses? (And should Jewish Christians). And the answer was no. No. Christ has fulfilled the law. It purpose is completed in Him. Christians are no longer required to obey the Mosiac law.

That is the discontinuity. Where is the continuity? Ah, we do not obey the law, but we do not abolish or nullify the law. In fact, we are called to go beyond the law. As Jesus continues in Matt 5:18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.…
20 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”

In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus extends the Law, saying it’s not just the outward but the inward that counts.
Our righteousness needs to exceed that of the Pharisees – and those were the most holy of holy people. They even went around cutting 10% of their herbs to give to God. And Jesus says that kind of fastidious (fussy, particular, detailed) legalism isn’t enough.

And that’s where the title of this series comes from: fulfilment and freedom. Fulfilment, because in Christ the righteous requirements of the law are fully satisfied for us (Rom 8:4). And freedom, because in His power we are free to be what we were born to be: more and more like Jesus. (Rom 8:29 we are called to be conformed to the likeness of his Son)

Not for us the letter of the Law – but now in every situation the Law of love: what would Jesus do in this situation? What will give him the most glory?

But that’s impossible! We cry! How are we supposed to be better than the Pharisees? How can we be like Jesus? That’s impossible!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Didn’t we get that sense last week as Petter unpacked chapter 19 and the first parts of 20? That our God is a holy God. Our God is a holy God and we are called to be his holy people.
Jesus says in Matt 5:48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Feeling distraught? Feeling worried? Don’t be. That’s why Jesus came. He fulfilled the Law. He kept it so you don’t have to. He has given us his righteousness. So you have already perfectly kept the law of God. In Christ you are perfect. So now live like it. Live out your new identity. We’re not called to obey the Law – we’re called to go beyond it, to exceed it, to not just keep the letter of the law but the Spirit of the Law.

Turn back to Exodus 20 and read v2. I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

2 comes before 3. They were rescued before they were given the Law. They didn’t keep the Law to be rescued. It was God’s mercy. And with us. We don’t obey in order to be saved. We obey because we are saved. By nature we do what the law says because we have a new nature.

So our New Testament glasses say: the Law is fulfilled in Christ. And we go beyond it.
But what should we obey? How do we then understand the Law? What about the 10 commandments? Surely they apply?

2. Do the 10 Commandments apply to us?

I want to propose a hypothesis – a way to understand the Law of Moses – that we can use over these next few weeks. And we’ll test it out today on the most important part of the law: the 10 commandments.

And this is it: fulfilment and freedom. Because the law is fulfilled in Christ, and we have his righteousness imputed to us (given to us) – we have already perfectly kept the 10 Commandments. We are free in regard to the Law of Moses! Free to even exceed the requirements of the Law!

So let’s test that out. And see if it works with continuity/discontinuity. Is it in line with God’s word to his people?

Ex 20:1 Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. 3 “You must not have any other god but me.”

Seriously? You think we are free from “you must not have any other god but me”. We can have more gods? Where’s the continuity?

Well, no. Because freedom from the law is not freedom to indulge our sinful nature. We too have been freed from slavery. Not slavery in Egypt, but slavery to sin. So now we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves of God, slaves to righteousness as Rom 6 puts it.

But more fundamental than that – we have been reborn. As Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3 “You must be born again of the Spirit”. Or one of my Dad’s favourite verses 2 Co 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

This is called regeneration. When you believe in Christ the Spirit changes you from the inside out. We are given a new heart. A new nature. We are recreated. We are not the same. On the day the called me to him I died and then I was reborn. The old sinful me died, the new me who wants to live for Christ was born.
As Christians our heart now cries out for God. Whereas before we at worst hated him, at best ignored him – now we long for him. We want to be with our Father. We want to know God. We long to stop loving all these other things that cry out for attention and we want to love him.

So, yes, we are free from the command to have no other gods, because our deepest longing is now to be with him. The Spirit within cries out to the Father. We have a new nature.
How can we have any other gods if we are the very children of God?

It is not law that keeps us from idolatry. It is identity. We need to remember who we are!

4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.

Are we free from this? Can we make images or pictures of God to worship? What about icons, holy relics, statues of saints, Mary, etc..?
Well, as the Unfortunate Incident with the Golden Calf in chapter 32 shows, making an image of God quickly turns to idolatry – we worship the thing instead of God. That quickly becomes our God, rather than the true and living God. Freedom from Law is not licence to sin!
But anyway, for us as Christians, why would we make an image of God when we already have the perfect representation of God in Jesus Christ? As Jesus said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14:9). Or Col 1:15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

As Petter pointed out last week, this is not about drawing a picture of Jesus or even movies – but it is about worshiping things instead of God, and trying to get power over God by reducing him to a thing that you can put away in a cupboard or something.

That’s why we need to get our view of God from the Spirit’s words to us in the Bible, so that we see Jesus more clearly. Not from artwork or films or memes or other “pictures” of God. We need to know the true God as revealed in the Living Word.

Just a note on v5. Why does God punish the third and fourth generations? Think about how sin affects people. I know a man whose father was a drunkard, who beat up his mom in front of him. That affects you. He bears scars which have affected his relationship with his own kids. He is a Christian so much of that has healed, but there are still issues. And his kids in turn will pass it on. Sin has a generational impact.

But God’s mercy is greater than our sin. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.

7 “You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.”

The third “word” in v7 is about how we speak about God. Yes, we are free from the law, so we can misuse God’s name, speak badly about him, drag his name through the mud. But can we?
That is the name we ourselves bear. It’s like me tearing down my father’s name – “that Jack Garratt, he’s a terrible man, an awful person, like all the Garratt’s”.
Why would I do that? I bear my father’s name. I love him. Therefore my words will honour him and respect him.

Likewise we bear the name of God. We are his children, his ambassadors, his priestly representatives on earth. Why on earth would a child of God misuse the name of Jesus?

Again, it is not Law, but love, our new nature, our identity, that compels us to do what the Law requires. Fulfilment in Christ, free to exceed the law!

8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”

Ooh. Here we have a nice juicy topic. Maybe we’re happy that the laws about holy underpants don’t apply to us, but the Sabbath? C’mon. That applies, surely? Many of us grew up with that. No dancing on a Sunday. No card playing. No movies. No non-Christian music. That kind of stuff. By the way, do you know why you can’t have sex on a Sunday? Because it might lead to dancing.

But seriously, there’s a big problem with claiming the Sabbath as LAW.
Firstly, then why do you eat bacon and shellfish? In other words why are you being inconsistent and not keeping the other 637 or so laws?
Secondly, we’re not Jews.
Thirdly, Sabbath was a Saturday, not a Sunday. So if we’ve understood enough to change the day we honour God from the day the Jews had to the day when Jesus rose to life from the dead – surely we should understand that that desire to set aside time to honour Him comes from love and not from law.

Our key way of thinking about the Sabbath comes from Jesus himself. Mk 2:27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” 3:1 Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. 2 Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” 4 Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?”

The Pharisees had reduced the Sabbath to not working. Jesus points out that the purpose of the Sabbath is honouring God. We rest in order to spend time with God. The Sabbath is made for us, to help us to honour God. Not us made to conform to the Sabbath.

So as Christians we are not required to keep the Sabbath. That’s why we don’t stone our medical people for working on Sunday! Because love for those who are sick takes precedence.
And if you think that preaching is “resting” – it isn’t. I’m certainly working on a Sunday!

Now there is a timeless principle in here – did you see it? In v11. We are part of creation, and therefore we need to rest. So resting is a wise. A day of rest for the nation is a good thing. The Soviets tried a 10 day week and it failed. 6 days work, 1 day rest is the way God has designed things.

But I need to make sure I take some time to rest, to not work, recognising my limitations as a created being. Needing rest reminds me that I’m not God. And I need to set aside time to be with the Lord, and be with his people.
That’s keeping the Sabbath, exceeding the Sabbath.

As Christians we are in Christ, right at the heart of that God-given rest, that perfect relationship. That’s what we long for. So we honour God not just on a Sunday but every day. And we set aside time to rest and time to be with Him and His people, at church, at Bible study and beyond.

We don’t keep the Sabbath. We go beyond it. And yes, you can dance, and even play cards on the Sabbath as a Christian. In fact, on any day. Just be sure to honour Christ in everything you do!

Do you see why now Paul says in Romans 3:31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (ESV)

We uphold the law because we follow the law of the Spirit, the law of love. And that love compels us, because of our new nature, to honour God in all that we do. We go beyond Sabbath, beyond clean lips, beyond merely avoiding idols, to the very heart of God, the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit. By faith we are there. That is the arena of grace in which we now stand.

Now I had planned to go through the rest of the 10 words from God boomed out from the top of the mountain, but our heads are probably spinning now. So we’ll leave that to next week, along with the delightful prohibition against having steps up to the altar because people might look up your robe! Holy underpants alert! And we’ll think about what that could possibly mean for us today.

Dear friends, if we are in Christ we are no longer under the law. It has been fulfilled for us. We are caught up into the very relationship the Son has with the Father.
The Son does the Father’s will, not because he is obliged to (Law), but because his love for the Father is such that he cannot do otherwise. It would be to deny his very nature. (Gerald Bray).
And we have that same nature now within us. We do the Father’s will, not because of obligation, of Law, but because we love Him. We love Him and to act otherwise is to deny our nature.

That’s why before you meet Christ sinning comes naturally.
After Christ you are reborn and it grates to sin. As my Dad’s friend said “you can’t sin properly anymore”. It’s now against our fundamental nature! No law – it is fulfilled – but instead the freedom to be what we were reborn to be through the Spirit who gives life. Fulfilment and freedom!

Let’s pray.

Romans 16. People from every background are together in Christ. (united in the gospel)

Romans 16.

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After that reading you might be thinking: a whole sermon on a list of names? Seriously? That’s boring!

Well, hopefully not. Because you see, it’s not just a list of names.

For example, in this church there is a Samual and a Jerusalem, an Eyobed and a Sara, a Christian and a Johanna, a ‘Tori and a Peter, there’s Robyn, and Kolton, Kaleb, Jack, Marit, Glen Egil, Birthe, Mia, LJ, Torgeir, Eirik etc. What do all these names tell you about this church?

We’re an international church! People from all over with nothing in common except Jesus. We are united in the gospel.
And that’s what Paul is doing here. Showing just what he’s been talking about for 15 chapters! That the gospel is by grace for EVERYONE. For Jews and Gentiles, for women and for men, for slaves and free, for the rich and poor, no matter what your background – even if you’re from King Herod’s family, or you work for the Emperor of Rome – you can be saved by Jesus Christ.
You belong.
Isn’t that cool?

People from completely different backgrounds all with one common purpose: to live for Christ. To glorify him with their lives, and to spread the message of the good news, the gospel! That was them then and that is us now.

Not unity for unity’s sake. But unity IN THE GOSPEL.

1. Who’s who in the early church: a celebration of diversity

2. United in the gospel: together for Christ

1. Who’s who in the early church: a celebration of diversity

Remember that this letter was written by Paul to ask the church in Rome to support him. But they didn’t know him and he didn’t know them. So he tells them his message, in great detail, his gospel message which he will be preaching in Spain so that they are on the same page as him. United with him in the gospel. But then he also lists an unusually long greeting to 26 people in all. For two reasons.
1 to commend himself to them. They can vouch for Paul. He’s worth supporting.
2. To show the power of the gospel message. For all. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, male, female, slave, free, and whatever your political affiliation! Amazing diversity. United in Christ.

Let’s have a look at these names

First, surprisingly, is Phoebe – v1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deacon in the church in Cenchrea.
What?! A church leader in the 1^st century is a WOMAN? And Paul mentions her FIRST?
Actually, Paul mentions NINE women in this greeting! Misogyny (prejudice against women or hating women) is entirely non-Christian. In fact according to Genesis 3 it is Satanic! In Christ men and women are equal. So she is a church leader.

But God made us different, with different roles and responsibilities. We are equal, but not the same! And we are to honour those differences and respect them. There is a great deal of disrespect and hurt done to women in our society. Women are told that the only good woman is one who acts like a traditional man. How disrespectful and dishonouring can you get? To both men and women. Men and women, praise God, are different. We complement each other. Fulfil each other. Also in the church. We need each other.

So Phoebe is a church leader, but she is a deacon and not an elder. Deacons can be men or women, but elders are only men. What’s the difference? Elders have the overall responsibility for leading the church, and they MUST be men who regularly teach and preach the Bible. Because it is God who actually runs the church through His words. We’re just the messengers. So just like the husband is called to lead the family like Christ, self-sacrificially, and his wife partners him in that – equal, but different roles - so elders are called to carry the burden of leading the church, self-sacrificially, like Christ, and the deacons help the elders in that. Together the elders and deacons make up the leadership of the church, but if things go wrong, it’s the elders’ fault! Like if your family’s a mess – don’t blame your wife – roll up your sleeves and get to work! And pray for grace!

So, Phoebe, a church leader, who is to be v2 welcomed in the Lord as one who is worthy of honour among God’s people. Help her in whatever she needs, for she has been helpful to many, and especially to me.

The word “helpful” is patron or guardian, indicating someone with wealth and power.
So Phoebe is a powerful and rich businesswoman who is happy to “just” be a deacon.
And she carried this letter from Paul to the Roman church. No “posten” those days! If you wanted to send a letter you had to find someone that you could trust who was going there! So Paul trusted Phoebe.

Next on the list is a fantastic Christian husband and wife team. 3 Give my greetings to Priscilla (or Priska) and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. 4 In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches. 5 Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home.

We meet them first in Acts 18 in Corinth. They went with Paul on his missionary journey for a while, travelling to Cenchreae (where Phoebe is from). They were leaders of the church. When Apollos came to Corinth Ac 18:26 says “When Priscilla and Aquila heard [Apollos] preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately. Apollos was later one of the elders at Corinth together with Paul! They lived for Christ, even risking their lives to save Paul. The church met in their home. They are always mentioned together, never apart. Their marriage glorified God.

So we have Phoebe, the powerful and wealthy Gentile single woman, and Priscilla and Aquila, the Jewish husband and wife team, also businesspeople (tent-makers, like Paul).
Paul then goes on to name v5 Epenetus, a Gentile name, the first convert of many, still going strong in the Lord. Mary, or Miriam, a Jewish name, a hard-working woman. Andronicus and Junia, another married couple, fellow Jews who were imprisoned together with Paul for the sake of the gospel. v7 says they are highly respected among the apostles or more accurately “outstanding among the apostles” that is, those who were eye-witnesses to Jesus. How cool is that?

v8 Ampliatus and v9 Urbanus and Stachys and v10 Apelles are Latin (Roman) names. Gentiles.
Aristobulus was probably the grandson of King Herod the Great and Heriodion is also a name indicating a link to Herod.
So even amongst the household and family of the king of the Jews, who had rejected Jesus (Herod the Great tried to kill Jesus as a baby, his son Herod Antipas killed John the Baptist and mocked Jesus when Pilate sent him to him at his trial) – even in that horrible family and household – there are believers. Even Herodians can come to Christ!

In v12 we meet the sisters Tryphena and Tryphosa, the Lord’s workers. Their names indicate aristocracy (rich, upper class). Giving that up for the sake of the gospel.
Then “dear Persis”, another single lady, who has worked so hard for the Lord.

v13 I love. Greet Rufus, whom the Lord picked out to be his very own. If we turn back to Mark 15:21 we read A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.).
Isn’t that cool? The man who carried Jesus’ cross believed. And his whole family. Here is Rufus, faithful in Rome. Here is his wife, Rufus’ mother, who has been a mother to Paul! Isn’t God’s mercy amazing?

14 Give my greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who meet with them. 15 Give my greetings to Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas and all the believers who meet with them. 16 Greet each other with a sacred kiss. All the churches of Christ send you their greetings.

So, not a boring list of names, but a mighty celebration of the power of the gospel to bring people together! “Come as you are” indeed.

Those names tell us a lot about the early church:

· its surprising diversity: Jews, Gentiles, men women, singles, marrieds, rich, poor, slaves, free

· its surprising equality: men and women described as leaders in the church, husbands and wives mentioned together, women praised, Jews and Gentiles mentioned with equal love, and

· its surprising unity: all in different ways serving the same mission: to glorify God. Some through leading churches, some in business, some risking prison, some carrying letters. Living for Jesus and spreading the gospel.

Who’s who in the early church: a celebration of diversity

What does that then mean for us? How can we apply this passage? First: Anyone can be saved. No matter your background or religion or politics – you can be saved! So who do we think can’t be saved? Who do you know that you’ve written off because they’re Rødt or they’re Fremskrittsparti or Muslim or Hindu or atheist or pansexual or Filipino or too old or too young or… whatever.
We know what the gospel says – and this list of names is proof. There is always hope.
Perhaps there is someone you’d like to pray for during the communion.

Second: No matter who we are we can be used for Christ. It’s not only the rich, or the men, or the women, or the Jews, or those who’ve grown up in Christian families or… whatever excuse you use to think that God can’t use YOU.

Each of us with a part to play, like a puzzle piece – we’ve all got our spot, our gift, our service.

So what is it that holding you back? What excuse are you using?
Decide today to serve. Start where you are and use what you’ve got. How can I serve God in my home, at work, at school, in my family, at church? Do something, and see what happens. No matter how small. Start. And see.

We need each other. For we stand together for Christ.

2. United in the gospel: together for Christ

17 And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. 18 Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.

The church is fantastically diverse! And unity is so important. But that unity is not just unity for unity’s sake. It is unity in the gospel. And that needs to be defended.

That’s why Paul outlines the gospel so clearly. As he says in 15:15 “I have written to you quite boldly!”. And why after the celebration of unity in diversity of the past 16 verses, the Holy Spirit inspires him to warn us to protect that unity.
Watch out. Stay away. Strong words! They cause division. They deceive.

Because unity can be evil. Think about the Tower of Babel: humanity united against God. And that lead to judgement. Chaos and confusion.

If we want true unity, we need to know the Gospel. We need, as Romans has shown us, clear teaching. We need to know and live out the Gospel: we need to obey the words of the Lord, we need to be quick to forgive each other as Christ as forgiven us, to love each other as He has loved us – true, real, unity flows out from the gospel.

And that means rejecting or silencing or disciplining false teachers or sinful ideas. So if you see us doing that as leaders in this church, be thankful. And if we are accused of not being united, of being divisive, thank the Lord, for we are contending for the gospel.
And pray for us, that we ARE contending for the gospel, and not just being arrogant!

I must point out that this is difficult for us as Norwegians for we are very consensus-driven. Unity at all costs. But that is not what we believe as Christians. And this has damaged the church so much when we have not protected gospel unity and instead had fake unity.

18 Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.

We must listen to what people are actually saying. What are they teaching, and how does that affect their life? Are they living for Christ, or for themselves? Do their sermons bring glory to them. Put the focus on them as the gurus, the holy people?
Do they speak clearly and plainly, or is it confusing and mysterious and secretive? Smooth talk and glowing words. Watch out for teachers and preachers who make you feel good but say nothing! Those who tell you of their experiences and use that as an authority for teaching. No. We need God’s word, not someone else’s. Tell me what He thinks, not you. And tell me clearly and plainly in a way that I can understand, and that I can see where you get it from in the Bible.

19 But everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord. This makes me very happy. I want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

We are in a battle. But as we remain faithful to God and His gospel, Satan is “soon” or “swiftly” crushed. If we are not swayed from our secure foundation, Satan has no way to get us. He is defeated.

So, we are united in the gospel: together for Christ. And the final remarks show that

21 Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you his greetings, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow Jews. 22 I, Tertius, the one writing this letter for Paul, send my greetings, too, as one of the Lord’s followers. 23 Gaius says hello to you. He is my host and also serves as host to the whole church. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends you his greetings, and so does our brother Quartus.
25 Now all glory to God, who is able to make you strong, just as my Good News says. This message about Jesus Christ has revealed his plan for you Gentiles, a plan kept secret from the beginning of time. 26 But now as the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him. 27 All glory to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, forever. Amen.

Amen indeed. What a letter this has been. And what a reminder right at the end that whether Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, upper class or lower class, single or married, woman or man: we are equal in Christ, united in the proclamation of the gospel. Fantastic.

So - are we united in the gospel? Is our church showing this gospel diversity and gospel unity. Where can we be better at crossing those difficult social and cultural boundaries?
I want to ask you: are there ways we can be better? Do you feel side-lined or marginalised. Think about how things can be better, and then come with some ideas and we can see if we can do it together. Don’t just sit and feel lonely or out. Because we don’t know how you feel or why because we are not you. Not your culture, not your background. So speak. But not just moaning - think about possible solutions. Because you’re also the best for that!
The more we can stand united in our diversity, united in Christ, the better. And people will notice. Not just surface unity. But real unity.

1. Who’s who in the early church: a celebration of diversity.
Anyone can be saved. Who do you need to pray for?
Everyone has a part to play. What’s your excuse. What’s holding you back? Ask God to help you get started.

2. United in the gospel: together for Christ
How can we get more inclusive in this church? Pray for wisdom.

Romans 9. The wonderful doctrine of predestination

Romans 9

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Predestination. A doctrine that makes some people very angry, and others of us confused and worried. But it is a doctrine that is of great comfort and should bring us great joy!

How do I know I’m saved? Because God has chosen you and his mercy is upon you like it was on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The same promises are ours in Christ.

I know from personal experience that this passage can be difficult. But I hope it will also be deeply encouraging as we see how great and powerful and scary and full of mercy our God is!

Three points tonight:

1. I would save my people if I were God – but I’m not

2. I did not save myself – God did.

3. The difficult and wonderful doctrine of predestination

1. I would save my people if I were God – but I’m not

9:1 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.

Paul’s desire is for the Jews to be saved. But he knows that even if he offered to be cut off forever – such a dramatic gesture – that would not be enough. Only God can save. And Paul must himself bow the knee before God’s sovereign rule.

You can feel the passion. The anguish for his people. Especially when he reminds us that everything that now belongs to the Christian, as he’s shown us in the past few chapters, used to belong to Israel.

4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.

That’s what we have in Christ. All that was Israel’s is ours. The covenants, his glory, and adopted as His children – all ours in Christ. And so we worship him. In Christ we are God’s people.

5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Look at all that they had. But Paul’s heart is broken because they have thrown it all away. They have stumbled over Christ the stumbling stone. They rejected him and they have fallen.

Being Jewish is not enough. It is Christ and faith in him that is required, not your bloodline.

But this throws up a question in our mind: if the Jews had all these promises before me, but the gospel now says they don’t apply to them anymore, but to me – how do I know that the same won’t happen to me?

If God’s people, the Jews, have been rejected by God… can I trust God?

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfil his promise to Israel?

And the answer is simple: 6 No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!

Throughout the Bible there is Israel – those born a Jew - and then there is a smaller group: True Israel or the “remnant”. And the Holy Spirit now shows us through Paul’s words that the remnant or True Israel were those chosen by God. This has always been the case, and still is. If you are chosen by God his wonderful promises apply to you, and nothing you do can change that. His favour rests upon you like it did upon Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.

But if you are not chosen, then everything you do will lead you away from God and confirm your hardness of heart.

Remember what we have already learnt: We all are sinners without hope. All in Adam. No-one does good, not even one. Condemned. There is no way for us to save ourselves. Morality judges us. The law condemns us. We’re in trouble. Hard heart. We are the source of our condemnation. We do not choose God. We choose, in a sense, hell. That’s what the Jews are doing and Paul is grieving. They reject Jesus, God’s righteousness, and try to earn their own righteousness. And so they stumble.

But, oh glory!, remember 3:21 But now a righteousness FROM God is revealed in Christ. God is the source of salvation. And His Spirit brings new life, new life from within. Not by doing good deeds, not by following the law, but by trusting in Christ’s death and resurrection on the Cross. And tonight’s passage shows that faith comes not from within, but from God’s choice to include us in the promise. And so now there is no condemnation, we are God’s children, we are heirs, and nothing can separate us from God’s love because his promise stands.

We know this, and it brings us unspeakable joy. But it does mean that we cannot MAKE those we love accept the Lord, and we cannot MAKE the Lord accept them either. Even if we were to be cut off for their sake – it would make no difference. We have to simply trust God.

I would save my people if I were God – but I’m not.

2. I did not save myself – God did.

15 For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” 16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

This is the one point that tonight’s passage is making: Salvation is God’s domain. Salvation is God’s domain. We can no more choose it or work for it than a dead person can choose it or work for it. Without Christ we are spiritually dead. And it is God who raises us to life.

And this has always been the case. Just like in chapter 4 we are reminded that salvation has always been through faith – Abraham believed God and God credited to him as righteousness – now we are reminded that God’s word has all along promised salvation only to those whom God sovereignly chose. And the Holy Spirit through Paul uses two examples from Israel’s history to show that belonging to God’s people depends not on birth or on anything a person does, but on God’s call.

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfil his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.

The word translated “counted” is kaleo and means named or called, and is key to this section. It is the same word in v12 “he calls people” and in v24 we are among those whom he selected and v26 “there they will be called ‘children of the living God’”

A call is not an invitation. An invitation is “Would you like to come?”. A call is “Come here”. An invitation is your friend saying “Do you want to come to my house after school”. A call is your Dad saying “Come here we need to talk”!
In salvation God does not invite. God calls. He compels.

7b For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. 8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. 9 For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 10 This son was our ancestor Isaac.

Do you see the point Paul is making? As God called only some from among Abraham’s descendants to be his people (6b–13), so now he calls even some Gentiles (v24 Those not my people I will now call my people) and the remnant of the Jews 27 Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved. That’s the argument. God has always sovereignly chosen some to be saved, some to be “of the promise” and others not. Abraham had Ishmael and Isaac. But Isaac was the son of the promise, not Ishmael.

10 When he (Isaac) married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. 11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; 12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” 13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

Can we be sure we are saved? Yes. If God has chosen us, then we are saved, as surely as he chose Isaac and Jacob. If His favour rests upon you then your calling and election is sure. Your good or bad works matter nothing – what matters is the purposes of God.

And this is always the way God has worked. He has not been unfaithful to Israel because he had always made clear that a remnant would be saved, not every Israelite. That is, the mark of salvation was faith in God’s word, and the obedient life that followed from that, not being born a Jew.
Same as being born to Christian parents is not a mark of salvation. I needed to be born again by the Spirit of God. I was called by God out of darkness and into the light. I was on my way to abandoning the faith my parents held. I was following my heart into the darkness. My birth counted for nothing. What counts is God’s mercy.

I did not save myself, God did. You did not save yourself, God did. And if you think you saved yourself, then there is a very real danger that you are not saved. Because that’s what Romans 1-8 has shown us. There is no-one righteous. No-one seeks God, not even one. Not even you. Not until the Spirit breathes life into you.
By the way, if you’re thinking “but I’m seeking God” then praise God, because that means the Spirit is at work in you!

I did not save myself, no more than Isaac chose himself to be the son of the promise, or Jacob chose himself to be greater than his twin brother Esau. I did not save myself – God did.

And that’s what we call predestination or election. That God is sovereign over salvation.

3. The wonderful doctrine of predestination

What is predestination? Article 17 of the 39 articles of faith of the Church of England defines it like this:

Predestination to life belongs to God’s everlasting purpose. Before the foundation of the world, it is his unchangeable decree, in accordance with his secret counsel, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he has chosen in Christ, and to bring them by him to everlasting salvation, as vessels of his mercy.

In other words God has chosen who will be saved. He did this in eternity before even creating us.

14 Are we saying, then, that God was unfair?

Isn’t that our main objection to predestination. It’s unfair. We have a VERY strong sense of “fairness” in our Norwegian society. Everyone has to get same opportunity. Everyone has to get the same. If one gets a sweet, everyone has to get a sweet. So much so that sweets were banned in my daughter’s class because not everyone could get and some people might feel bad if some had an others didn’t. So no sweets, cakes or biscuits for anyone. Got to be “fair”.

But the gospel is not fair. If the gospel was fair it wouldn’t be good news because we would get what we deserve – eternal judgement.
Is God unfair? No, because he is God he can show mercy to anyone he chooses! 15 For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” 16 So it is God who decides to show mercy.

Just like it is perfectly fair for me to take my kids out on a Daddy date, and not take someone else’s kids out with me. Because I’m my kids Dad. I love my kids. No-one would say “that’s not fair”.
Same with God. He has mercy on those whom he loves. And what mercy! God goes on a rescue mission that involved being born a man, suffering and dying on a cross, in order to rescue us!

Now if you’re struggling with this, let me give you some comfort. You’re struggling because of your culture, not your morality. It is your cultural bias that is being challenged, not necessarily what is good and bad. If you were born in a different place or different time you would have no problem now. So let’s not give our gut reaction too much weight. Our culture is good, but has many flaws.

But our struggle is real. So let’s try to understand this. Because we often misinterpret this as “So you’re saying that I’m a robot!”.
No, the Bible is very clear that we are not robots, that our choices are real and that they matter. In fact it is our choice to reject God that sends us to hell. But the fact that we have real choice (sometimes called “free will”) does not mean that God cannot be sovereign over all things.

But how does that work? I don’t know. How is light a stream of photons and a wave at the same time. No-one knows. But it is. Start reading up on quantum physics. Weird stuff. Impossible stuff. But it happens every day all around us. We live in a complex world where things that seem to contradict and cancel each other out… don’t. Two things that we think should be exclusive aren’t. God’s sovereignty does not change our free choice, and our free choice does not exclude predestination.

Salvation is like a door: we see “Come and choose to be saved” but as we go through the door we see behind us “predestined from before time”. These are two sides of the same coin.

Predestination is fundamental to a gospel of grace. The gospel does not work otherwise. Our very concept of God does not work.
If we throw out predestination we throw out grace. Because grace is by its very nature “unfair”.
We deserve hell (Romans chapter 1,2 and 3) – that is what we chose by the exercise of our free will. But God in his mercy overrides our choice. Predestination. We who did not choose God are chosen by God… and so we then choose God. God changes our hearts so that we love Him and choose to follow him instead of reject him. Instead of us getting what we chose, what we deserve, Jesus takes it. He goes through death and hell so that we don’t have to. He is treated like us. And we are treated like him. Children of God. Eternal inheritance. No condemnation. Nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Without predestination none of that is possible. If you want grace you want predestination. If you want grace you want God’s sovereignty. It is not possible otherwise. This is a wonderful doctrine.

And then Paul goes and ruins it with v17!

17 For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” 18 So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

Woah dude. God hardens people as well? I didn’t sign up for this! God is a loving God!

Well, maybe it’s time we get rid of the idea that our God is a loving God?

God is a loving God to those whom he loves. But to those whom he does not love, he is not. In the end He is a terrifying judge bringing destruction and eternal damnation. If you don’t know Jesus as Lord and Saviour then be afraid! Fall to your knees and plead for mercy. Maybe He will hear your prayer.

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

Well, if God is sovereign over everything, then what’s the point? How can he judge us? How can I have free will, free choice? And the answer is…. God is God, trust him.

20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

This is both terrifying and greatly comforting. The world is divided up into two groups: those chosen in Christ to bring eternal glory to God. Those not chosen who are garbage. Ouch.
But if you’re in Christ, be free. Your salvation rests on God’s election, his eternal choice. You are secure!

Now the annoying thing is that God has not told us why or how he chooses some and not others, and how that lines up with his desire that all men should be saved. We are simply called to trust him, and trust his character revealed in our Lord Jesus, particularly in his death on the cross. When we see Him one day we will understand, and we will praise him.

See how the passage makes us focus on God and on his sovereign choice: over Isaac, over Jacob, over Israel, and over us.
Now there’s a very tempting theory out there called Arminianism which is not happy with God not revealing the reason why some are given saving faith and not others. Arminianism says that God looked into the future and saw our choices. That how he chooses who is saved and who isn’t. It fits well with our culture, it seems to solve the problem of God being a big bad who sends people to hell. Unfortunately it also removes assurance of salvation and puts us squarely in the centre of salvation. Oh, God chose me because I chose him. There’s three reasons why it doesn’t work:

1. God is not bound by time. He’s not looking ahead to see our choices. He’s already there, in the moment. And he’s at the end of time with those he has glorified (Rom 8:30)

2. He made us. He designed every part of us and the world we live in. it’s not like he doesn’t know the factors that will influence our decisions. So you still end up with the same problem: God designed some people in a way that meant they would choose him, but others were designed to reject him.

3. It rejects the Biblical teaching on sin. Rom 3:10 No-one seeks God. Eph 2:1 We are dead in our sins. Rom 5:12 death spread to all men because all sinned. Gen 6:5 every inclination of the heart of man is only evil all the time.
There is no way we can save ourselves because we are dead in sin. We cannot choose. Some people then respond “Ah, but Jesus’ death opened the way for everyone to choose”. But that’s makes all the clear teaching on sin nonsense: if Jesus’ death opens the way for everyone so that everyone can choose, then everyone can seek God – but the Bible says “no-one seeks God”.

4. And here’s a bonus reason: that not what tonight’s passage says! It’s very clear that God decides. Not us. He is the source, not us, no matter how much time is involved.

30 What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

Don’t stumble over the stumbling stone of Jesus. Trust him, not in yourself.

See, the doctrine of predestination is wonderful! As the 17^th article says: The reverent consideration of our predestination and election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable strength to godly persons, who feel the working in themselves of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly passions and drawing their thoughts upward to high and heavenly realities. This teaching is welcome to us both because it strongly establishes and confirms our assurance of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, and also because it kindles in us a fervent love to God.

Predestination is fundamental to the gospel and to our understanding of God. It is liberating. It is freeing. God is God and am not and his undeserved favour resets upon me so I’m free to serve him and love him and ador him and when I fail I am not worried because he loves me and has already glorified me – so secure am I!

Praise the Lord.

To end off, I want to give us a gentle push to those of us who are still struggling with this doctrine.

1. You already believe it. You believe that in the beginning God created everything from nothing. He is awesome in power, sovereign over all things. The God who speaks and things are from nothing, is supremely powerful! Of course he’s sovereign over our salvation too.

2. It goes against our culture. Be suspicous of doctrines that tell us what we want to hear.

3. It gives glory to God. We are small, God is big.

4. The greatest theologians of the church throughout history believe in predestination as the clear teaching of Scripture: The Apostle Paul certainly did. So did Augustine, Calvin and Luther, guys who took the Bible very seriously and changed the world.

5. No cults believe in predestination. None of them. Every single cult, whether Jehovah’s Witnesses or Iglasio ni Christo all reject the sovereignty of God and predestination. So does unbiblical nonsense like the prosperity gospel. Why? Because then I can’t get power over you. If salvation comes from God then you don’t need me! But if I can convince you that salvation comes from your own efforts, then I can say “and you need me to coach you, now give me your money”. Predestination protects us from dependence on sinners for salvation.

Brothers and sisters, we serve an awesomely powerful God. And for some reason he has chosen to lavish his love on us. Why, I do not know. But I am so grateful. He called me out of darkness to light, and he has called you. Praise God. Praise him with great praise!

And because He is sovereign, then anyone can be saved. There is always hope, because maybe your family member, your work colleague, your friend, or that stranger on the bus, is elect. Left to our own devices we all reject God. But God has mercy on whom he will have mercy. Amen.

Romans 7:1-8:1 We are free!

Read: Romans 7:1-8:1

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Ro 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Free. No condemnation!

Do you feel like that?

Or do you feel like a failure? Like a fraud? Last week’s message from chapter 6 that sin no longer has power over us and that we live to serve Jesus as his slaves…. but I don’t feel like that! I struggle with sin. We know in our minds what we want to do - but we face a war within ourselves. I want to do good – but I do evil instead. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Isn’t that how we feel sometimes? Such a failure as a Christian. We don’t feel like we’re set free from sin. We don’t feel like slaves of God, but slaves of sin!

Today we’re hammered with the truth that the answer is NOT to try harder, or to find the hero within ourselves, or to abandon Christianity because “it’s just too hard”. The answer is in v25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Ro 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

How does that follow? How can I be a slave to sin in my sinful nature and yet not be condemned?

And what’s this stuff about the mind? How can I want to obey God’s law in my mind, but still sin?

Well if you know Romans, you know that chapters 1-11 is the “mind” part of the letter. This is the stuff we need to KNOW before we can obey. We need to THINK right before we can ACT right. It’s all about how we are to think. This is the battle-ground up here. We must understand who we are in Christ. This is our identity.

It’s no surprise then that when we come to chapter 12 it begins: Ro 12 And so, … I plead with you to give your bodies to God [as] a living and holy sacrifice…2 Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

How should we then think of ourselves? Not under law! But how can we defeat sin without the law? We defeat it with grace.

1. Grace is more powerful than law

2. We fight sin with grace, not with law

3. Grace frees us from a life dominated by sin and death, which law cannot do.

1. Grace is more powerful than law

6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit

There are only two ways to live: by effort, or by grace. We are all judged by works – it just depends on whose works. Our own works – which reveal our sin and lead to eternal death. Or Jesus’ works, which are perfectly righteous and lead to eternal life. Do we trust in ourselves, or trust in him? The law or the Spirit?

4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ.

The law has no power over the one who is dead. We died with Christ. Just like if your spouse dies, you are free to remarry – the law of marriage no longer applies. Death breaks the power of the law. So if we have died in Christ, the law no longer applies to us. 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Because the law brings condemnation. The law like a spotlight reveals our sin and condemns us, rightly. But in Christ we have died to the law. It can no longer condemn us!

4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.

Interesting. The fruit of a life lived by the law is condemnation. The fruit of the free gift of grace through faith produces good deeds. So if you want to do good deeds – remember who you are. Don’t strive. Don’t beat yourself up with the law. Remember who you. Dead to sin, alive to Christ. Mitt kjøtt er dødt!

And why doesn’t the law work? Because v5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.

6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

We are free! Not only have we died to sin, but we are alive in the Spirit. We are not just saved FROM our sin, but also saved FOR God. And he breathes new life into us. We have his Spirit.

And that’s why it feels like there’s a battle-ground in us. Because have our old sinful nature still clinging on. No it’s my effort. And we have the new Spirit-filled nature, saying it’s all Jesus. And that creates conflict within us.

Imagine you were there when Jesus was being crucified. You see him beaten and bloodied. You hear his amazing words “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”. You see him cry out – and just before he’s about to breathe his last breath, his great work accomplished – you shout “wait!”. Jesus breathes in – surprise on his face. “Wait, wait, wait, I just need to add my bit in to this”. Jesus, his arms outstretched, nails in his hands, the mission complete, a life lived in perfect obedience to the Father, and now giving his life in perfect love, bearing all our sins in his own body, just looks at you with bemusement. As you rush forward, pulling out your wallet. Look! The stuff I gave to TV aksjon! And that time I helped my friend! And here’s my church attendance.

Foolish isn’t it? “My child, none of that is necessary. My work is sufficient.” Jesus says. And then cries out “Father into your hands I commit my spirit” and dies in the darkness of the noonday sky as the earth shakes and rocks split open and the Roman centurion says “Surely this man was the son of God”.

Jesus’ work is sufficient. Why do we think we can add anything to it?

Grace is more powerful than law. And he proved it by bursting forth from the grave a few days later. Who of us can do that? Stop trusting in yourself. Trust in Jesus! Be free! Grace is more powerful than law.

2. We fight sin with grace, not with law

14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin

What is the problem with the law? Me! I’m the problem with the law. The law is good. It is God’s good law. It came from his mouth. It is perfect. But as a way of salvation it is severely flawed. In fact, as Christian pointed out last week, the law itself recognises that it is flawed, because it has the sacrificial system built in to it for all the times you fail to keep it! “Here’s the law, guys, but you won’t be able to keep it, so here’s the way to be forgiven when you don’t keep it.”

The law was never the way to be saved. We are saved by grace. Abraham was saved by grace. David was saved by grace. There is no other way to be saved.

The law is an expression of God’s character. It is good and holy and pure – but as a way to be saved or a guide to holy living, it is horrible, and drives us to despair. There is no way you can live up to the standard of the law. As Christians, we do not look to the law to live the Christian life. Not if you take it seriously. For the summary of the law is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul” Who of us does that? Could possibly do that? Never mind the second part which is easier “love your neighbour as yourself”. We just don’t love our neighbour and that reveals that we don’t love God.

The law is remote and unyielding. It is perfect perfection, as hard as diamond, and it will break us. Its holiness, its perfection, is death to us.

7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

God’s law reveals my sin. Like a spotlight. The rational thing to do would be to repent! But then my sinful nature kicks in. 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

This past summer the kids and I were at a wildlife park, and there was this magnificent stuffed rhino on display. The real rhino were just over the fence – we could see them – but this one you could get close enough to touch. To feel the rough skin of the rhino. To feel as if you were right there.
But there was a sign on it. The sign said “do not touch”. Do you know, the sign did not make us want to touch the rhino less! In fact, it made us want to touch the rhino more. It was forbidden.

We touched it.

And that’s what we’re like with God’s law. God says “don’t do that”. And immediately we want to do it. Because if I’m pretending to be God in my life, I’ve got to show who’s the real boss.

Touching a stuffed rhino has little consequence apart from a few tut-tuts – but breaking God’s law kills us.

9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, 10 and I died.

14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

Brothers, let’s not fool ourselves. We cannot fight sin with the law. The law just makes things worse. We try to beat ourselves over the head with it – stop sinning, it’s wrong.
It doesn’t work. “Be better!” has never achieved anything. The law is powerless to change us. Only God’s grace can change us, because grace comes with the Spirit of God.

Let’s not say “be better” but “help me”. See, law-based religion is me-focussed. It’s my efforts that will help me. However much I talk about God, it’s actually me and my strength and my discipline which will help me succeed. Oh, God might help me, but it’s God helping ME. I’m in the arena, and he’s cheering me on. That will lead to frustration and death.

Grace is about recognising my helplessness. It’s not looking to me but to Jesus. He is in the arena fighting the battle I cannot win and I am cheering Him on. Yes Jesus, thank you, Jesus! He’s the focus, not me. And there is tremendous freedom in that. I am a slave to sin says v14. Do you believe that? Or do you still think with a bit of focus and discipline you can win? Is your trust in you or is it in Him?

We fight sin with grace, not with law.

3. Grace frees us from a life dominated by sin and death

24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

It’s all about Jesus. Whatever our problem, it is sin that lies at the root. And the ONLY solution to sin is JESUS. Every other solution is trying to fight sin with.. more sin. Even God’s perfect law, something from heaven, from the mouth of the living God, cannot solve our problem. Why do we look to our wife or husband or politicians, or therapists, or discipline or techniques? Sin has ruined them all.

There is only one solution: Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus, the man from Nazareth, born of a virgin called Mary. Jesus was born a human being in order to save us human beings from our sin. It is massive. Why do we think that “trying a bit harder” will succeed if God thinks that the only thing that will work is if he steps out of heaven and becomes one of us. Duh! What a miracle Christmas is.

Jesus the Man, became Christ: the rescuer, saviour, promised in the Scriptures. And showed that he is the Lord, the Living God, in his words, miracles, compassion, and his resurrection. Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you ever stop and just marvel at him. At his magnificence? At the beauty and wonder of the gospel. At the glory of Christmas? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

I keep sinning. Why? I know it’s sin – I agree with the law! 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

There are two of me inside. When you become a Christian, you enter a battleground. A battle in your mind. Two natures, fighting for control. Thanks be to God, the Spirit will win on the Last Day – but until then we are locked in a desperate battle against ourselves.

22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Not me! Not my wife. Not the therapist. Not the politicians. Not even the Christian preacher peddling gospel-lite pop psychology. Only Jesus has the power to defeat sin. Only he can change us from the inside out. Don’t forget that. One of the main weapons our old nature uses is deception – lies – by convincing us to rely on ourselves to solve the problem, rather than the freedom of relying on God. the law does not work and really can never work. We need to kill any idea in us that obeying a certain set of rules, being a certain way, going to certain meetings or avoiding certain foods or certain entertainment will make us right with God. We need to kill that idea. What will make us right with God is Christ. And nothing else. We cannot add anything to the work of Christ.

I experienced this recently. I was getting stressed, anxious. My joy went. I wasn’t excited about the next day – even when the next day was getting stuck in to the Word to prepare a sermon. Oh dear. Why? Because I’d forgotten who’s church this was. I’d forgotten who was responsible for all of you, and all those on the outside, and the churches in Oslo and Vestfold, and the state of the gospel in Norway and the church building and it wasn’t me! It’s Jesus. Fool I was. It took my wife and Petter to remind me that I am not the infinite Creator and Sustainer of all things. And when I let go of that burden which was not mine to bear – oh the lightness of being and the JOY that came back. Praise God.

In Christ we are free.

8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

We cannot add anything to the work of Jesus achieved on the Cross. So how do we apply this? Brothers and sisters, one thing we cannot do is go out of here relying on ourselves to live the Christian life. We are not the answer to our problems. We must humble ourselves and turn to Jesus. Jesus is not our life coach, helping us along – we fall at his feet as he lifts us up and turns us in to a beautiful shining example of his grace at work.

How does this work in practice? To fight sin with grace, rather than law, and embrace the freedom we have been given in Christ? Here’s an example: relationships problems! Those we love the most are often those we struggle most with as well. Why? Because you’re putting sinners together. Whether it’s your wife or your work colleague you’ve got two sinners put together and that creates issues. But this is the key: All relationship problems – ALL – are rooted in sin. Either yours or the other persons (or more likely, both!). The root cause is sin. Selfishness.
And who can fix sin? Not me, not you, but Jesus. Relationships are fixed vertically before they’re fixed horizontally. Remember the triangle – particularly if you’re married. You (L). Your spouse (R). God (Top). The closer you are to God, the closer you are to each other. How is it possible to love another person? Don’t rely on yourself – draw close to God, and He will show you how to love her. Draw close to God, and He will give you the power you need to love her with a fierce undying love. Draw close to God and things will fall into their right place. That’s why we’re gathered here tonight. Draw near to God in wonder and thankfulness and humility.

When we sin, we are reminded that we are weak and need grace. Don’t beat yourself up, but turn to him who arms full of grace died for you on the cross and then rose to life to give you his life-giving Spirit. There is not condemnation but power in humbling ourselves before Jesus. Power no law, no effort, no beating ourselves up can match. Because he lifts us up so that the glory goes to him and we stand in awe of what he has done in our lives. He is the hero in our story. Let’s live like it. Hooray for Jesus. Amen.

Romans 5:12-6:5 Jesus the new Man.

Romans 5:12-6:5

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Today I’m going to teach you how to cheat death. But wait! There’s more: I’ll give you the secret to triumphant living. To living in victory over your sin. I’ll give you the secret to eternal life. And all this for only 99 999! (We need to buy a building.)

No! Actually, Jesus gives us all this – for FREE! Not death, but life. And triumphant living, victory over sin – in dying to ourselves, and being raised to life in Jesus.

See our problem is that we are in Adam. We are human beings. Human beings sin. Sinners die. Uh-oh.

We need to be remade. We need to reboot the human race. And that’s what Jesus does. He is the new Adam. In Him, we die to the old way of Adam, and are spiritually raised to life. He is the new Adam. We are human beings 2.0. We are the gloriously restored humanity – humanity as we were meant to be, but better, because in Christ we will be raised incorruptible, perfect, not in the image of Adam, but the image of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Amen.

Just two points today.

1. Adam brought sin and death

2. Jesus brings grace and life

1. Adam brought sin and death

12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Sin entered the world. In the original Greek the first word in v12 is “therefore”. The Holy Spirit through Paul is coming back to and building on what has come before. Sin entered the world and we are all sinners. What’s the therefore there for? To remind us of what came before! Not 5:1-11 but chapters 1-4. I just want to spend a few minutes reminding us of what we have learned so far, because it all comes into focus in this passage.
Chapters 1 to 3: We are sinners, under God’s wrath. We see God’s wrath revealed in the world around us as He lets sinners sin. He gives us over, abandons us, to experience the sinfulness of sin. He gives us what we want, and that is terrifying (chapter 1). And chapter 2 says that following the law or being good is no help, because the law just shines a great big spotlight on our sin, and being good – well, it just reveals us as hypocrites, because the same things we criticise others for, we do. We all say lying is wrong, yet we all lie. Judged by our own judgement.

Do we see now why salvation must be by grace and cannot be through us? As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. (3:10).

And so we are made righteous by receiving the free gift of righteousness. We are given Jesus’ righteousness. In Christ we are reconciled to God because in Christ we are justified, redeemed, and propitiated.

This deals with the threefold problem we have with God.
1. We have broken his laws and are so declared guilty. As a righteous judge he must find us guilty.
2. We are slaves to sin. We can’t stop sinning, and are therefore cut off from God.
3. We are under God’s wrath. Because of our sin, which is saying to Him “I wish you were dead”, and seen in how horribly we treat each other, God is rightly angry with us.

So in Christ those problems are dealt with.

We are guilty, so God justifies us. God as judge says: righteous. It is a legal declaration. Under the law, we are righteous. No longer a spotlight on our sin, but now a spotlight on Jesus’ righteousness.

We are slaves to sin so God redeems us: God buys us from slavery to sin. Jesus paid the price on the Cross to buy us back. We now belong to God. Slaves of righteousness. We are twice bought. We belong to God because he made us, and belong to God because he bought us with his blood. So we are no longer slaves to sin, but servants of God.

We are under God’s wrath, so God propitiates us. God sacrifices himself. For the wages of sin is death because sin is rejecting God, and to reject God is to reject life and so we die. Instead, Jesus took our place as our substitute. In Christ we are no longer under God’s wrath because in Christ we died and so satisfied his right anger. There is now no condemnation, no anger for we who are in Christ.

In Christ we are justified, redeemed, propitiated. There is no further judgment over us. We are no longer slaves to sin. God is not angry with us anymore. We are reconciled to God, and we have peace with him. We live in the realm of grace.

Therefore.

12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

The Holy Spirit through Paul now ups the ante. He makes things much worse for the person who is still clinging to the delusion that he can make himself right, justify himself before God.

Because of the problem of original sin, even if we lived a perfect life, we would still be condemned. You see, we are “in Adam”. We have inherited his sin. He is our representative if Jesus is not.

How do we know that Adam is our representative? We die. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

“But” you might say “sin is breaking God’s law. There was no law to break before Moses, so how can you say they sinned?”

13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.
14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.

Death is the great evidence that we are sinners. No sin, no death. But we all die as proof that we are sinners. We grow old because we are sinners. We suffer because we are sinners. The only one who did not stay dead is Jesus. The resurrection is vital. If Jesus stayed dead, then he too was a sinner. But because death could not hold him, he proved his righteousness – a righteousness he gives to us. Because Jesus rose from the dead we – you and I – can be certain that in Christ, we are ALIVE!

The awkward phrasing in v13 is puzzling “But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break”. It’s puzzling because it’s something he’s going to address in chapter 7, so it’s just in seed form here, not really explained. There we read that we have died in Christ, and the law does not apply the dead people. You can’t say “hey, you disobeyed the law”. He’s dead!
So before the law came we couldn’t actively choose to disobey God’s law. God says “do this” and we choose to do the opposite. We can’t sin by breaking the law if there’s no law!

But, we still die! Even those who didn’t disobey the law still died. Why? Because they are in Adam. We all inherit his sinfulness. We are all condemned because he is our representative. So even apart from the law, we die.

So whether we actively rebel against God, or just passively go along “in Adam”, we’re in the same boat. 14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.
You can’t argue before God that “I didn’t actively disobey you, so you have to accept me”. Even if we didn’t sin like Adam, we still have Adam’s DNA, his sinful nature. If you don’t believe me – wait until you have kids. Because I did not sit them down one night and say “Kristin, Kaleb, an essential life skill you need to learn is lying. So I’m going to teach you how to lie.”
It came naturally from them, from within.
I didn’t teach them to fight, and argue, or disobey me. That came from the nature within. Every single one of us confirms with our words, thoughts, actions and inactions that we are children of Adam. And so every one of us will rightly deteriorate and die.

Adam brought sin and death

2. Jesus brings grace and life

18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.

V18 continues the sentence that was interrupted back in v12. Paul was going to contrast Adam and Jesus – directly, but then realised he needed to explain more. 12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned… v18 but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.

That’s the contrast and the comparison. Because Jesus and Adam are both alike and different. They are alike in that both stand as our representatives. Both did one act which determined our destiny. Adam sinned and brought death, Jesus died in our place and brought life.

But they are also different. For Jesus is greater than Adam. The second Adam is greater than the first.

15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.

Adam sins once, and condemns many. One to many. But the grace of God in Jesus Christ is that the many are swallowed up in the one act of grace. Imagine a jar full of marbles. It’s easy to smash that jar. One act. And many marbles . It’s easy to destroy, very difficult to restore.

So Jesus and Adam are similar in the one act affects many, but Jesus is so much greater because his one act fixes everything. Restores everything. V 16 continues: 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.

Sin breeds sin. From Adam’s one sin the world was plunged into chaos. Just think of how quickly things escalated: their firstborn son, Cain, murdered his brother Abel. From one act of disobedience, “no I’ll decide thanks for myself”, and then there’s jealousy, envy, hatred, and then a man standing over his brother with a rock.
In Greek mythology we read of Pandora’s box. Pandora, the first women on earth was given a present of a box (or jar) by the god Zeus, and was warned not to open it. Of course, full of curiosity, she opens it – only to unleash all the horrors of evil and death on the world. She desperately tries to close the box, but can’t. How can you close Pandora’s box once it’s been opened?

Well, you can’t. But Jesus can. The Pandora’s box of sin has doomed the world. One act of Adam has destroyed us. But Jesus is greater. Because his one act gathered all the doom of man from all of time and space, even deep within us. Our sin, all of our sin, sins in our past, sins now, sins in our future, sins we’re not aware of, sins we are aware of and should have stopped doing but we keep choosing to do – even those sins Jesus gathered. His one act of righteousness on the Cross pulled all these sins, this Pandora’s box of doom. From all of time and space and he pulled it all down onto his body and put it to death with his own death. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah! Praise Jesus. Because in him our sins have been dealt with. They have been killed. We have died to sin and so now live for Christ.

In Jesus we are humans as we truly are meant to be. Renewed, the new man. A new start. A new humanity. Adam is dust to dust. Christ is death to life. Eternal life.

And the law is no threat to this. Oh yes, the law shines a spotlight on our sin and says “Out! Out! Condemned!”. But v20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.

Our sin is no threat to God. The greater our sin, the greater his grace. It’s like when I was growing up and arm-wrestling my Dad – the stronger I got the stronger he got! Or that’s how it seemed. He obviously wasn’t using his full strength when we were arm-wrestling. But the harder I pushed, he just was able to effortlessly match it. I could not overcome his strength.
Likewise our sin cannot overcome God’s grace. The greater our sin, the greater his grace. He effortlessly matches it. So v21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can sum up the argument of this chapter like this: “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned, so righteousness entered the world by one man, and life through righteousness”

Or to put it very simply: In Adam we die. In Jesus we live!

Ok. But what does that mean for us then. How does that affect how we live. And so in these last few moments we’re going to let the Holy Spirit apply these truths to us through 6:1-5

Ro 6:1–5 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

The first effect this being in Christ and not in Adam should have is: obedience. We are set free from sin. We are no longer in Adam. We don’t have to sin any longer. We can do what is right.

3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 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. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

We are dead to sin, and alive in Christ. We have a new power in us.

You know we often get frustrated with our sin, but often it’s because we’re trying to fight sin in our own power. “C’mon, pull yourself together” “Do better” “You fool, you idiot” and so on. Berating ourselves, mentally beating ourselves up. This is not the way of the Christian.

Do we not believe that in Adam we are subject to sin that leads to death? And that we are powerless to stop it?

We cannot fight sin. But Jesus can. So we need to ask him for help. Jesus, I have sinned again. I can’t fight this, but you can. I believe in your grace, paid for on the cross, that means you will accept me. That means you hear my prayer. Help me to die to sin, and live for you, Lord!

We’ve had a few baptisms in this church, and they’re a great visual picture of this dynamic. We die to ourselves, and we live for Christ. We give up on ourselves, our own power, our own efforts, our self-reliance. We die as we go under the water, and we rise up to relying on Christ, on the Spirit’s power, on his one act that brings us all life.

Let us die to sin, and live for Christ. We are no longer in the old man, Adam, but in the new man, Jesus Christ. Let’s live like it. Amen.

Romans 4. Jesus was always Plan A

Romans 4:1-25

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A few weeks ago when Christian started us off in Romans he told us a story from when he was a young Christian. He said that he didn’t understand how God’s salvation plan worked – that it seemed like a lot of trial and error. He thought that God first tried Adam and Eve with just ONE RULE but then they messed that up, so then he tried a WHOLE NATION with MANY RULES, but that didn’t work – so finally he tried Jesus and oh my goodness that worked! Hooray.
And Christian’s not the only one who thought this. There are many today who believe in dispensationalism – that God had a number of salvation plan attempts. And many believe therefore, wrongly, that there are a number of ways to come to God!
But as Christian grew in his faith and read the Bible – like today’s passage - he realised, hang on a minute, that’s totally NOT how things worked. There wasn’t plan A, B and C – JESUS was plan A all along. Jesus has always been the plan. Jesus was always God’s plan to save the world.

Even way back in Genesis 3:15 we read “And I will cause hostility between you [Satan, the snake] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Right at the start God promises a rescuer will come – a human being, born of a woman, who will strike the head of the devil. (This verse by the way is called the “protoevangelion”: the seed of the gospel) The rest of the Bible is really a search for this serpent-crusher, the one who can defeat evil – but at great cost to himself, for he will also be struck.
The whole way through the Bible it points to Jesus who fulfils all things. Jesus is the serpent-crusher of Genesis 3:15 who defeated Satan. Jesus is the Noah’s Ark of rescue, saving everyone who trusts in him from the coming judgement. He is the seed of Abraham who blesses the whole world. He is the prophet like Moses who leads the whole world from slavery to sin and to the promised land of the new creation. He is the fulfilment of the Law, the perfect Sacrifice, our great High Priest. And Jesus is the King in David’s line, who was promised that an everlasting King would come from him who will rule in peace and prosperity forever.

The whole Bible points to Jesus, rests on Jesus. He is the foundation, the theme, the one great subject of all of the Bible. Amen!

(By the way, that means that if you don’t understand how a certain part of the Bible relates to Jesus, you haven’t understood that part! The Bible is like a diamond, and Jesus is at its centre. There are a thousand beautiful ways to see him from multiple different angles as we read the Word.)

And this is the theme in today’s passage. The Jews had fallen into the trap of thinking that they were loved by God because of who they were: because they were “good” people – better than those “out there”. (How often do we fall into the same trap?)
No, says the Holy Spirit through Paul. It is not by works but by faith, and has always been by faith. And here’s Abraham, your forefather, to teach you!

Ro 3:20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Three points tonight and in honour of 500 years since the Reformation two weeks ago, I’ve pulled in a few of the Reformation rally cries to help us. Excuse the Latin!

1. Sola fide (by faith alone) – we are saved through faith in Christ, not through works (which is faith in ourselves)

2. Sola fide, Solus Christus (by faith alone in Christ alone) - there is no other way to be saved except through faith in Christ

3. Sola Gratia (by grace alone) - our faith is based solely on the grace of God, not on ourselves. We are counted righteous.

1. Sola fide (by faith alone) – we are saved through faith in Christ, not through works (which is faith in ourselves)

2 If [Abraham’s] good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. 3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

Abraham had nothing to boast about, nothing he could go to God with and say “you owe me”. This was the absolute opposite to how Judaism viewed Abraham at that time (and still today). They view him as a great pioneer of ‘torah piety’, a man who pleased God above all by his obedience to the law. And many church groups and cults do the same thing. Because what we WANT in our heart of hearts is for it to be possible to earn our salvation and not be by grace. Why?

Because if it’s by grace alone then we have no control, no influence, no way to pretend to be God! The heart of sin is that I want to be God in my life. I want to answer to no-one but myself. I want to have faith in myself, my own efforts, rather than trust in (have faith in) God.

Because if I can jump through enough “good person” hoops, then God will owe me. God will be in my debt! I have something over God!
But if it’s by grace alone… then I am in His debt, He is God and I am not, and I must just submit to His will. Ooh. It’s hard.

4 When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. 5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.

If we could work for our salvation then we could earn it. But we can’t. The Scriptures don’t say “Abraham earned his salvation and so was righteous” but they say “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous”.

Righteousness is given, not earned. It cannot be earned. It was never earned. Abraham, the “great man of faith”, the forefather of the Jews – he did not earn his righteousness, but it was given to him. And King David, Israel’s greatest king – he also did not earn his righteousness, but it was given.

6 David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: 7 “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. 8 Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of sin.”

We are saved, declared righteous, worthy of standing before God - only through faith in Christ, not through works, which is faith in ourselves.

How can we apply this?

Well, if we understand that the heart of sin is “I want to be God” and I want to earn my salvation and declare MYSELF righteous, we can understand the world a lot better.

For example, this gets to the heart of the transgender debates. Because they’re really about who will be God. I am God and I will determine my reality. My sex will change to conform with my perception of reality.
That’s why seemingly intelligent people are jumping on this bandwagon. Because it’s a great way to declare that we are independent of God. He cannot determine our sexual reality. I will. So I will support your campaign to determine your own gender because I support above all your right to determine your own reality, your right to be God.

Because if I say you can’t – well, then I’m admitting that there are boundaries to what we can do, that it may not be possible for us to determine our reality and that it may be that we are not God.
It is sin, the desire to be God, which lies at the heart of all this transgender foolishness.

So let us have grace, and present the gospel, because Jesus is the only solution to sin. Angry posts on Facebook and ugly protests are not going to save anyone or win anything, but push people away from Jesus. When we understand that sin is the underlying issue, the real problem, then we can have compassion, and come with grace and open arms – because that’s how Jesus accepts us.

You can certainly think of many other applications in the world today! And closer to home. Why is there conflict amongst us, in our homes. Is it not because I’m pretending to be God, and you’re pretending to be God, so when we meet – who’s going to be God? Fight!

Jesus is the solution. When I understand that I am a sinner who has been GIVEN righteousness and therefore I have nothing to boast about - not even ABRAHAM could boast… then I can meet others more and more with Christ’s love and Christ’s forgiveness.

Sola fide (by faith alone) – we are saved through faith in Christ, not through works (which is faith in ourselves).

2. Sola fide, Solus Christus (by faith alone in Christ alone) - there is no other way to be saved except through faith in Christ

11 Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith. 12 And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13 Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.

Circumcision was the mark of being a Jew. If you were a Jew you were circumcised to show that you belonged to God. A bit like being baptised into the church. But just like baptism, people began to mistake the outward sign of God’s grace as the thing that really mattered. They thought that having the mark was what was important, not the actual reality of God’s grace behind it. I’m circumcised, I can do what I want. I’m baptised, I’m safe now, I don’t have to bother with this Jesus fellow any more.

That’s like me saying “have you met my wife” and then pulling out a picture of Debby. And then talking to the picture and kissing the picture and sleeping with the picture – and never saying a word to Debby! That’s replacing the reality with the symbol.

Because circumcision was just a sign, nothing more. Circumcision without faith in Jesus is useless, just as baptism without faith in Jesus is useless.

And the Holy Spirit shows us this by pointing out that Abraham received God’s promises BEFORE he was circumcised. Circumcision was a sign of the grace he had been given.

In Genesis 12 God calls Abraham and promises to be with him and bless the world through him. In Genesis 15 he reconfirms his promise to Abraham (after Abraham had sinned) and that’s where he says in 15:6 And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith. In Genesis 18, 29 years later, Abraham is circumcised. He is declared righteous, and then receives the sign.

Therefore we who are Christians, if we have faith like Abraham in the promises of God – he is our spiritual father, whether we are Jewish or not. Whether Jew or Gentile, we who trust in Jesus are the sons and daughters of Abraham, the people of God.
But if you’re Jew but don’t believe in Jesus – well then your sign of circumcision is worthless and condemns you.

In the same way, baptism, taking communion, even serving in the church – is all worthless without faith in Jesus. If you are doing things to impress God, to get God in your debt, you are lost. Repent quickly and receive God’s grace!

We are baptised because we believe in God’s word that we who believe in Jesus are 1. justified (declared righteous); 2. redeemed (set free from sin); 3. and propitiated (the wrath of God is satisfied). That’s what we learned last week: the court, slave market, and sacrifice. The judge has declared us righteous in Christ. In Christ we are no longer slaves of sin but now set free to serve God. And the wrath of God like a blazing fire was taken by Jesus, and satisfied in his death on the cross. Hallelujah!

Therefore we as Christians serve with joy! We are declared righteous and so we want to live like it!

To give a personal example of this. A few people have remarked on how Debby and I can just keep on serving. And serving. And serving. Year in year out. And this is the secret – what we’re learning in this passage. Because it’s not about our efforts, what I can do, but what Jesus has done. We are saved through Christ alone. Our eyes are on him, not ourselves, and so we are filled with His strength.
Our friends who are Jehovah’s Witnesses are confused. They can’t understand how we can work and work and work and still be happy and full of energy. Because they cannot keep up with us! As Jesus say “Our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees”. And I’ve seen the same amongst many of you as well. You give and give and never are exhausted. Because the love of Christ burns in you. What a witness that is to those around us. The way we love each other burns blindingly bright!

Because others serve out of self-reliance, faith in themselves. Whereas we serve out of the joy of faith in Jesus. So I’m free! I’m free to give up my career and to move to Norway. I’m free to work only part-time in order to plant a church. I’m free to serve and serve in as much energy as the Lord gives me because my worth is not attached to my output. I’m already declared righteous. I’m God’s son! So whether I’m sick for two weeks like recently, or whether I’m meeting with forty guys and preaching ten times – my standing before the Lord is unchanged.

And faith is trusting in that truth.
Sola fide, Solus Christus (by faith alone in Christ alone) - there is no other way to be saved except through faith in Christ. And that sets us truly free!

3. Sola Gratia: Our faith is based solely on the grace of God, not on ourselves. We are counted righteous.

You may have noticed now that I'm just saying the same thing three times! That’s because this whole chapter just says one thing. We are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone. But look now at what that means in practice. How God sees us.

20 Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21 He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. 22 And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. 23 And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded 24 for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.

Now here it’s useful if you’ve read the story of Abraham. Because if you have – isn’t v20 weird? How can Abraham be described as “not wavering in his faith” and “his faith grew stronger”. Hasn’t Paul read the Old Testament? Did the Holy Spirit make a mistake?

Because when we read the story of Abraham we see someone who “wavered” many times and outright disbelieved God’s word! Abraham lied because he was afraid of Pharaoh. He didn’t trust that God would protect him even though God had promised him exactly that. Instead, he lied and put his wife at risk - in fact, she became part of Pharaoh's harem. That is, he allowed another man to abuse his wife sexually because he did not believe in the word of God. Is this the man of faith?

But it get worse. Abraham was sexually immoral, raped his servant Hagar, and then abandoned her to die in the desert!

My wife also pointed out that another sin was that he “listened to his wife”. When Sarah came up with the suggestion, “Why not be unfaithful to me and sexually abuse my servant Hagar?” he said “ok”. He was the “nice man” and said “yes dear”. Just like Adam, he did not take responsibility for saying “no” to his wife. He didn’t want to be unpopular. Anything for a quiet life…

I want to spend a bit of time on this because it’s a big issue today. Men who aren’t leading, aren’t taking responsibility, but instead are “nice”. The nice man. We are called to be much more than nice - we are called to be godly! Love demands that you take responsibility and say “no” when necessary.
Because it is tempting to be “nice”. It looks like you're a modern man who values his wife - but it's really just laziness. You just say “yes dear, whatever you want”. And then when things go wrong, you just say “It's not my fault, she said ...”.

You know, God wasn’t fooled when Adam tried that, nor when Abraham tried it, and he won’t be fooled when you do either. And neither will your wife. A friend of mine is a nice man. He bent over backwards to satisfy his wife. He’s now divorced. Because what he thought was being “nice” and even perhaps “other-person centred” she experienced it like this “He's lazy! He doesn’t care about me. He just sits on the couch and says ‘yes dear what you want’. He doesn’t love me”.

Don’t be nice. Be godly. Have faith that God's way is the best way, no matter what our culture and norms say. Who knows better? God or us?

Back to Abraham. He wasn’t godly with his wife, he was a liar, abuser, and so on... but he is described here in Romans as one who “did not waver in his faith” Why?

Because this is how God works. The point of “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” is not Abraham's faith but God’s faithfulness. Our faith is not what matters. So often we have such weak faith. We doubt. We waver. We act in disbelief and disobedience. Just like Abraham.
But because God is faithful, Abraham and you and I are counted as righteous. And so God says about us “Daniel Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.” Put your own name there into v20 and lets read it together.

Do you believe that? Because if God is for you, who can be against you (8:31)?

If you feel like you've messed up, like you've sinned, that you're not worthy of forgiveness – that’s right! Admit that now as we confess our sin together. I am a sinner. But keep listening, don’t get distracted: because after confession comes communion. When we are reminded of Jesus' masterwork on the Cross, and we are reminded that though we may be unworthy and unrighteous, he is worthy, he is righteous, and he has given us his righteousness! Abraham understood this. He believed in what God said: “You are righteous.” Let's do the same.

We are saved through faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone. Glory to God in the highest! Soli Deo Gloria! Amen.