Gooding, David: 11 - Not Under Law but Under Grace

If we are to keep to our program, then in what follows, I shall must content myself with pointing to general principles rather than to detail exposition. But at Romans six fifteen, we get a second question. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid. This is the second in that series. The first one came in chapter six verse one. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And you will notice how exact that is in the context. The one in chapter six verse one, what shall we say then, is followed by, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, because that's what, what, that was what he was talking about at the end of chapter five, verses twenty and twenty one, He was talking about the grace of God being far more than the damage, uh, done by Adam's sin. Now, when you come to six thir- uh, 15, he doesn't just repeat himself, what shall we say, shall we sin? It's not now, uh, that grace may abound. This is because we are not under law. Do you see, that is what were verse fourteen has said, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. And this time again, that expression, you're not under law, could be grievously misunderstood. Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under law. Um, and we saw the reason that for that, to say, law as a principle. We're not under law, and therefore, if as believers we sin, then confessing our sin, we are not held down by sin, like some great tyrant which now has captured us again, and we can't escape, because we're not under law with its penalties. We are under grace. That leads then to the question, shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. But now we must be very careful to notice what the reasons are, are now are give- what reasons they are that now are given in the rest of that chapter. Not now you died with Christ, you've been buried with Christ, and you're raised with Christ. They are not the reasons given for not sinning. These are practical re- uh, things. You'll see in ver- chapter six, verse, um, 13, neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves unto God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. You don't have to obey a sin and its lusts. Free, present your members to God. Does that mean because we're not under law, but under grace, we're free to sin? Well, that would be nonsense. Because now another fact we must know. Namely that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants you are, his slaves you are, whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But thanks be to God that whereas you were servants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered, and being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness. And here the reason why we're not to continue in sin is because of the practical fact that if you present yourselves to someone, to some master, to do what he says and thus to obey him constantly, you become that master's slave. You constantly present your members to sin and its desires, you will become a slave to sin and those desires. And to say, why shouldn't I carry on sinning because I'm not under law? But that's a nonsense. Do you want to be a slave again? Yes. So our Lord, talking to those that profess to believe on him, John chapter eight, said, if you continue in my word, then are you really thy disciples, and and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They said, free from what? He said, free from sinning, gentlemen. For whoever continues practicing sin is a slave to sin. Oh, that they got enraged, daring to suggest that they were slaves to sin. Oh. But you see, he said, if the son, the slave doesn't, uh, stay in the house forever, the son stays forever, and if the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Those who profess to believe, therefore, need to remember this. Don't go on sinning. Why not? Because it will enslave you. We know at the ordinary psychological level that if you continue in an action, you become habit, it becomes a habit forming. And habits, once formed, are remarkably difficult to break. From a practical point of view, therefore, to go on sinning is foolish. It leads you to slavery. Now he talks about their conversion, but thanks be to God. Uh, that, well, let me put the, first of all, put the other side of view. If you present your members to sin, you see, you become a slave. But if you present your members to God and obey him, it will lead to practical righteousness. It forms a habit of righteousness. And the formation of good habits are exceedingly important in our spiritual training. We have to exercise ourselves unto godliness, says Paul to Timothy. Train at it because then it develops a habit. Now he refers to their conversion, verse 17, but thanks be to God that whereas you were servants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. That's a very interesting phrase. They were slaves of sin, all the habits of that old way of life. But they, you see, became obedient from the heart, not only trusted the Savior, but became obedient, uh, from the heart to that form of doctrine into which they were delivered. There comes to my mind, uh, the things that my mother used to use in the kitchen for forming jellies and other such things, and they were made of tin, and they were a certain shape, you'll see, with knobs on or decorations of various kinds in the tin itself. And when the old jelly was put in, and then it set and you took the tin off, the jelly had taken the form of the tin, yeah? And you were delivered to a certain set of doctrines. You were put into it, so to speak, a conversion, and you obeyed it from the heart. And of course, it began to form you to the doctrines into which you were delivered. It is vastly important, gentlemen, not to be content with a, a I trusted Christ in nineteen hundred and five, and I've been saved ever since, and I haven't read the word either. It's important to read the whole doctrine, isn't it? Because it's a mold into which we are poured, and it begins to mold us, and rightly. We needn't be afraid of its molding us, so long as our interpretation is true. And so being made free from sin, you were became servants of righteousness. Because, having found the scripture and the doctrine and its commands and this, that, and the other, you accepted them and obeyed them, it began to form you. And you become... it's no good, you know, objecting to the, the metaphor, you become servants of it, slaves of it. Listen to Paul. I, Paul, slave of Jesus Christ. You'll say, yes, delivered to the form of doctrine. The Lord's doctrine, and it molds him. He becomes a servant to it. That's a happy slavery, that is. Now he is, he says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, the habit gets stronger, gentlemen. Getting a habit to one iniquity will lead you on to other iniquities. Even so, now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Notice now the practical side of this. It isn't that one morning I shall wake up and say, hello, I feel a bit different. Uh, wait a minute, what's happened? I feel a bit holy. I know what, I've become holy overnight. It happened that way, gentlemen. It's a very practical thing, as I start obeying scripture that the Lord puts before me. It will, as it now says, you'll come servants of righteousness unto sanctification. That will be its effect practically. Mm-hmm. Then the implications of his analogy. For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. It's a little bit of a irony there, isn't it? You became servants to sin, you were slaves of it, then you felt yourself free from, and you didn't come anywhere near righteousness. Pray, look upon it and see what fruit did you then have at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now that verse twenty three is often preached in the gospel, and rightly so. Notice its context here, however. This is talking about the, a practice of developing sanctification. And it invites us to ponder the fact that when we were servants of sin, what did you get out of it, ultimately? What were its consequences? And the consequences, he says, uh, you're now ashamed of some of those things. The end of those things is death. Now being made free from sin by obeying the truth and becoming servants to God, slaves to God and to his word, you have your fruit unto sanctification and the end eternal life. Now here we shall have to think, uh, uh, uh, a little bit more deeply. Eternal life, you say, I, the night I trusted Christ, the day I trusted Christ, I received eternal life. So you did indeed. But what is it now you've got it, this eternal life thing? It's not a bit of paper, is it? Certificate handed out the night you trusted Christ. Here's the certificate. You now have eternal life. You say, that's marvelous. I'll put it in my strong box in my home so it'll never be destroyed by fire. And there it is. Now and again, I should get look at, take it out and have a look at it and say, yes, it says here I have eternal life. Marvelous. Put it back in the box, and that's that. When the Lord comes from heaven, I shall say, Lord, half a minute, I want to get my certificate out of the box, which says I have eternal life. Yeah, no, no. Eternal life is a life. It is therefore to be developed and entered into. We are to lay hold of it and develop it. And how do we develop all the potential of our eternal life? By this process of allowing ourselves to be molded by the doctrines to which we have been delivered. This is exceedingly practical stuff. This is not airy fairy holiness, sudden s- feelings coming, tingling up the spine, and I feel I've got holy. This is by this process of presenting ourselves to God. It starts at conversion. But it's an ongoing process. The wages of sin is death. As the people have pointed out, wages are given for hard work, and sin is hard work in the end. Now we have the free gift of God as eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, but pray exploit it. By continuing and developing obedience to the truth and to the doctrines. If you continue in my word, says Christ, you shall, uh, be my truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. It's a continuing process of learning and obeying and being molded by the truth. Surely the eternal life is a gift. We get it at once. A babe has physical life. Twenty years from now, it could be an Olympic gold medalist. You'd never have dreamed it when you saw the babe, it had the potential for that. But the potential developed, yes, but it had to be encouraged by rigorous, deliberate, uh, training. And the training increases the potential and has its rewards. You'll see. But now we come to another important point, that this eternal life that is a free gift of God, uh, uh, in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is no eternal life without Christ, you know. We can't say, now Lord, you've given me eternal life. That's marvelously generous of you. Thank you, Lord, very, very much. Uh, now I'm busy. Meet you in heaven, Lord, when I get there. Uh, because I, I don't need you now anymore for the time being. I mean, I got eternal life, you see. You've just given me eternal life. So goodbye for now, and uh, I'll say a word for you now and again, but we'll meet in heaven, Lord. That's a nonsense that is. Christ is your life, says Peter, Pope says Paul. You don't have any eternal life apart from Christ, you know. And you won't be able to say when you get to heaven, say, Lord, it's marvelous to be here and to think you, your grace, have brought me here. That's stupendous, you know. But now, Lord, as you might might expect, heaven is such an interesting place. I can't have much time to talk to you now, Lord, a a lot, you see, because I've got this is infinite experience to explore and whatnot, Lord. So hope to see you next three hundred years. I I shall be involved in... I've got eternal. No, you haven't, says Christ. Not apart from me, you haven't. Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourself. That remains true of us. Christ is our life. We don't have any eternal life apart from him. Sure we don't. What did you symbolize by your baptism? When you rose again? It wasn't that now you're forgiven, you're going to try very hard. It was that you were, you were buried with Christ. Now you're risen with Christ. It's your being joined to Christ that brings you eternal life. But now there's a question arises, and we have to come to this another big fact that we are to know. Or are you ignorant, brethren, for I speak to men that know the law, how that the law has dominion over a man for so long as he liveth? And now, uh, the principle is illustrated by a particular law. For the woman that hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband while he liveth, but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. That's a particular law that illustrates the general principle that a person is bound by the law as long as he lives. Uh, she's, if her husband die, she's discharged from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives, she be joined to another man, she should be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another. So there's the law, the general principle. It, uh, has, uh, uh, jurisdiction over us as long as we live. Take a particular law, the law of marriage. It's binding sound the wife as long as her husband is alive. Her husband dies, she's free from him. You see. Right? Now the analogy applied. Wherefore, my brethren, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ. That you should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God. And what is the point of it? We now e- uh, enter a chapter that asks us to think of the relationship of law as such to sanctification, and particularly the law of Moses. This would be special relevance to Jews who were brought up under the law of Moses. And the law repre- uh, Paul represents the law as, so to speak, a husband. And the people were bound to the law. And the law is not going to die. So the only way, uh, people could get out from under this contract with the law was to die themselves. Why all this? Because you can imagine a Jew brought up under the law, suddenly realizing, oh, do you know the law is a bit of a hard master, and it's, it stands enormously high, and I have come short. I tell you what, ha ha, I'll ditch the law, uh, and go off to some other principle. And the Lord say, no, you don't. Can't just run away from the law like that, and what do you, what do you mean? There's no way, the law isn't going to die. You'll not get from under the law... just by saying, well, I- I- I got fed up with that, that didn't work, so I'm now going to try something else. No, you can't. You're bound to the law. Until one or other of you dies, and the law isn't going to die. The only way you'll get out from under the authority of law, the law, is to die. And this is what has happened. We've died to the law. In the body of Christ. So that now we can be joined to Christ, because there are two different principles behind sanctification. You can try it by being joined to the law. And trying to fulfill its demands. The law says you must do this, so I must try and do that. You'll see. And the law drives you because it's your master. Well, there is Christ. The two husbands then, if I might carry on the analogy. The law is your husband. It'd be an uncomfortable husband to live with. Poof. The law's a bit of a perfectionist, you know. Ha. Or there is Christ. You can't just switch from one to the other, except you die to the law, and the fact is we're dead to the law through the body of Christ, that we might be joined to Christ. Go, I say, the analogy, I know it's only analogy, but it's a delightful one, isn't it? It tells us at the heart of sanctification is a love story. It's not just trying to satisfy a code of rules and regulations. It is being joined to another husband, that is. It's a love story, gentlemen. Joined to another. And a different principle. And what that principle is, he now goes on to tell us. Verse five, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law wrought in us, in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wi- wherein we were held, so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of the letter. The old way was the oldness of the letter. The new way is we serve in the newness of the spirit. It is important, gentlemen, at this juncture, to understand what that verse is not saying, and then to understand what it is saying. We can often hear the expression, well, I kept, I kept the spirit of the law. I didn't keep the actual letter of the law, I kept its spirit, you know. Uh, you can't always keep the actual letter of the law, you have to keep the spirit, you see. Um, here's an ambulance driver, oh, an ordinary chap, you see, and the police gong him because he's going on the speed limit thing, doing sixty through Belfast, you see. And when he's been brought to the magistrate, they said, you see, you broke the law, didn't you? Well, he'll say, sir, I, I, yes, I, I certainly broke the letter of the law. But you know, the spirit behind that law is that you mustn't endanger human life. And normally I keep the law to the letter, and I wouldn't endanger human life, but I happen to have a person whose heart was bad. The only hope of saving him was to get to the hospital, and to keep his life, I had to break the letter of the law, but I kept the spirit of the law. Yes? And some people talk like that about the commands of the New Testament. You can't always take them literally, but you keep the spirit of it. This is not what it's talking about whatsoever. That's nothing to do with the topic. The difference between the keeping the letter of the law, the spirit of it. Here Paul is referring to the difference between the old covenant under which Israel lived, covenant based on the law, Mount Sinai. The difference between that and life lived under the new covenant, which comes in effect through Jesus Christ. And here the terms letter and spirit refer to the two different systems, and how they work in actual practice, we can see when Paul explains it a bit more in two Corinthians chapter three. What about looking at that for a moment? Two Corinthians 3. Are we beginning again to commend ourselves, or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you? Of course not. For you are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men, being made manifest that you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh. You'll see. Verse six, who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. He's talking about what happened at the conversion of these Corinthians. And Paul, in their conversion, was a minister appointed by God, a servant of the new covenant. And what are the terms of the new covenant? Well, you'll find them in Jeremiah, You'll find them also repeated in Hebrews chapter eight. In the new covenant, God says the old covenant in the end failed. And they didn't continue in it. So says God, I will have a new covenant. And on the terms, it runs thus, I will put my laws into their hearts, and on their minds will I write them. That's what happened at your conversion, says Paul to the Corinthians. The living Christ took me as his pen. The equivalent of the ink was the Holy Spirit. And what the living Christ did was to write his laws in the power of his spirit on your hearts. That's conversion, of course. Now, writing commands on a bit of stone, well, it's comparatively easy, I suppose, if you're a good mason and you've got a sharp chisel. Because the stone is pretty solid and doesn't keep, it isn't fluid, you know. And you can write the, the, the laws on a bit of stone if you like. Well, God did. And Moses brought the stones down the mountain, and there they were by the ark, and you only had to look at the stones. They told you what to do and what not to do. There was a difficulty with it, of course, because they told you what to do but couldn't give you the puff to do it with. And they told you what not to do, but they couldn't give you the strength not to do it. They were just laws on a bit of stone. The new covenant is different. It writes the laws of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, not on tables of stone, but on tables of flesh, of hearts and minds. And writing laws on flesh is very difficult, gentlemen. They are so fluid. Hearts are, I mean, and minds. This is the miracle of the new birth, performed by the Spirit of God, not only bringing assurance of forgiveness and salvation, but beginning the new life, the new principles of living, written by the Spirit as a living thing on our living hearts. That's the difference between the two. Just having a code book with the rules in, and you do your best to keep them, and having a heart on which Christ has written the laws of God, minds in which they're written, with the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the difference between the two, and how we should indeed remember it, shouldn't we? We're now joined to another. It's being joined to him with his laws written on our hearts and minds that we're finding the motivation and the power for sanctification. This is so important that every time you attend the Lord's Supper, you know, you will be aware, won't you, that what you are thereby symbolizing is the New Covenant. I just underline it as we pass by, because there arose at one stage a form of dispensationalism that says the New Covenant is nothing to do with us in this age. The New Covenant is a covenant that God is going to make with the Jews after the church is gone. And therefore the New Covenant has nothing to do with us. I speak humbly, I, I hope, but that is quite false. The New Covenant was made when the covenant victim was sacrificed. And when was that? Well, at Calvary, you say. And the new covenant has already passed into law. Hebrews chapter eight, a new covenant which has been enacted. That is, it is passed into law. It has been set up. Hebrews eight verse 6, but now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted. Not will be one day. It has been enacted. On better promises, better than the old law, you see, the old covenant. This is the new covenant. When Moses was used of God to celebrate the old covenant, the blood of the animals shed, he took a basin and he sprinkled it on the people, and holding it up, he says, this is the covenant that the Lord makes with you, this is. You've just assented to its terms. And he sprinkled them with the blood. There came a moment when the new covenant was inaugurated. When Christ, with his apostles around the table in the upper room, took a cup of wine, and holding it out, he said, gentlemen, this is the new covenant in my blood. Shed for the forgiveness of sins. I want you all to drink it. And Paul, talking to the Corinthian church, one Corinthians eleven says, I want you to remember that the night in which he was betrayed, our blessed Lord took bread, and he took the cup, saying, This is the new covenant in my blood. This is it talking to the Corinthian church, majority of Gentiles in it, I suppose, but explicitly said, in like manner also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. And when at the Lord's Supper we take that cup from the Lord's hand, these are his words of command. What is this cup about? This cup, says he, is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And to take that cup from him means I agree to the covenant and to its terms. It would be odd if after forty years of taking that cup at the Lord's Supper, we couldn't even recite the terms of the New Covenant. That would be odd, wouldn't it? And the terms of the New Covenant are? I will write my laws on their hearts, and on their minds will I inscribe them. I shall not teach every man, saying to his neighbor, know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. That is, each will have direct access to Christ. And I will be merciful to their transgressions, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Marvelous this. This is not the old letter of law written on stones. This is the new covenant, celebrated in remembrance of the Lord who instituted it, and its first claim is, I write my Lord laws on your heart. So that every time I come to that supper, I better s- uh, examine myself and be prepared for the Lord to show me what is wrong with me, and to confess my sin, because of what the promise is. He's pledged himself to write the his laws on our heart, and therefore to take that cup and then go out, careless of how we behave, whether we keep the laws or not, would be denial of what we've come to celebrate. Yes? The constant observation of the Lord's Supper, therefore, is an exceedingly practical thing in the question of our ongoing sanctification. And the final part of chapter seven, and I'm not going to expound it here in detail, just to point out the significance and the logic of it. It is now saying what the function of the law is. If we're not under that old law of the letter, but under the new law of the spirit, what are we then saying? Verse seven. what shall we say then? Seven verse seven. uh Are you saying that the law is sin? No, no. Are you saying that the law is carnal and not spiritual? No, no, no. The law is jolly good, it's spiritual. But it can't produce true holiness. As a principle, law as a principle, which is command plus penalty, that drives us to try and keep it. And Paul confesses what happens. With my mind, he says, I serve the law of God. Yes, I can see intellectually that what the law says is that it's a sensible way to live. I can see that intellectually. So I tell myself, you're, you're going to do it. Don't succeed. I can see it. I delight in the law of God, says Paul. You know, when I read the law, I say, this is marvelous stuff. I- I'd like to live like this. I would really. It's a marvelous. Yes. So it's intellect and emotions. And then Paul says, I, I, I, uh, I tell myself, I take myself in hand now, the thing I will to do, the good I will to do, I bring my will to bear on it. Intellect, emotions, will. I will do it. And then I break it. And the good I would do, I don't do, and the evil I wouldn't do, I do. Which shows us what? That the law, though very good and necessary for various reasons, and being spiritual, by itself as a law code written down on paper, on stone, simply as a law code, cannot bring us sanctification. We don't speak despise- despisingly of the law, but we have to face what its reality is in the relation to our sanctification. The only thing that will s- may enable us to live holy lives is now described in chapter eight, and that is this ministry of the Holy Spirit under the terms of the new covenant, delivering us from the principle of, uh, uh, sin and of death. Now, may that be that has, I've not explained things as clearly as I should? But, uh, uh, that's a beginning anyway, and you may come back with all your guns a-blazing, and I'll give you at least five minutes in the next section to raise your profound and pointed questions. But the time tell- timetable tells me, uh, let me see if I can get it, that I stopped at two twenty five. That