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Slaves to Righteousness

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Christ is the Christ and has acquired redemption from sin and death for this very purpose that the Holy Spirit should change our Old Adam into a new man, that we are to be dead unto sin and live unto righteousness, as Paul teaches Romans 6, and that we are to begin this change and increase in this new life here and consummate it hereafter.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer   “Sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Remember holiness is a flower, not a root; it is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies.” ~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), British preacher   “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.” ~“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” Charles Wesley (1707-1788), British hymn writer   “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” ~Matthew 6:24 (ESV)   “You must always be at it while you live; do not take a day off from this work; always be killing sin or it will be killing you.” ~John Owen (1616-1683), British theologian SERMON PASSAGE Romans 6:12-23 (ESV) 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Grateful Dead

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Someday, when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a mother, I’ll tell them: I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going, with whom and what time you would get home. ... I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover your friend was a creep. I loved you enough to make you return a Milky Way with a bite out of it to a drugstore and confess, ‘I stole this.’ ... But most of all I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it. That was the hardest part of all.” ~Erma Bombeck (1927-1996), humorist and mother   “‘You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,’ said Aslan. ‘And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.’” ~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in his book Prince Caspian   “…shame…is the emotional weapon that evil uses to (1) corrupt our relationships with God and each other, and (2) disintegrate any and all gifts of vocational vision and creativity.” ~Curt Thompson in The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves   “Christ releases you to be truly human, and you must now learn to express your true self according to the divine pattern, not in self-assertion but in self-giving.” ~N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar   “Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him…. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” ~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in his book Mere Christianity   “Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with Him; let us go down with Him to be raised with Him, and let us rise with Him to be glorified with Him.” ~Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), Roman Christian theologian and church leader   “Holy baptism…is tantamount to [Christ] saying, My righteousness shall be your righteousness; my innocence, your innocence. Your sins indeed are great, but by baptism I bestow on you my righteousness; I strip death from you and clothe you with my life.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer SERMON PASSAGE Romans 6:1-11 (NASB) 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

A Tale of Two Representatives

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION   “Dying is not a technical glitch of the human operating system; it’s a feature.” ~Belinda Luscombe, Australian journalist and author   “It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.” ~The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis   “The central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.” ~Tim Keller (1950-2023), American pastor and author   “So the final declaration of the supremacy and glory of God’s grace in this text is that it takes sinners like us who receive his grace and makes us kings and queens in the age to come. It is almost too good to be true. And if you believe it, if you humbly rest in it, this glorious truth will change your life.” ~John Piper, American pastor and author, on Romans 5   SERMON PASSAGE Romans 5:12-21 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. the free gift following

Enjoying What Is Ours in Christ

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” ~C.S. Lewis, British scholar, writer, and Christian apologist, in The Weight of Glory   “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 am for a glass of water is [the king’s] child. We have that kind of access.” ~Timothy Keller (1950-2023), Presbyterian pastor, author, and Christian apologist   “Without endurance, hope turns superficial and evaporates when it meets first resistances. In hope we start something new, but only endurance helps us persevere. Only tenacious endurance makes hope sustainable. We learn endurance only with the help of hope.” ~Jürgen Moltmann (1926-2024), German theologian   “We must ask, what are we necessarily affirming about Jesus when we say that he, unexpectedly, lives? What is the basic difference between a living person and a dead one? And surely we must say: the decisive difference between a living person and a dead one is that the former can surprise us as the latter cannot. Socrates, although he remains dead, is still powerful. But if I am surprised by him, this is because of previously inadequate knowledge. Whereas if Jesus lives, he is an agent in my life, and one whom I must expect to act freely, whom I could know perfectly and yet not always anticipate.… That Jesus lives means that his love, perfected at the cross, is now active to surprise us. That Jesus lives means that there is a subject who has us as his objects, and who wills our good in a freedom beyond our predicting.” ~Robert Jenson (1930-2017), American theologian, in Systematic Theology   “As we have taken the circle as a symbol of reason and madness, we may very well take the cross as a symbol at once of mystery and health. Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its head a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms for ever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its center it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travelers.” ~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), British Christian apologist, in Orthodoxy   SERMON PASSAGE Romans 5:1-11 (NIV) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The Misunderstood ‘Righteousness of God’: A Rapid Romans Overview

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Reality is too heavy for most people to carry. So they borrow illusions, soft dreams, sweet lies, and call it happiness.” ~Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Jewish Czech writer of German literature, known for his works marked by surreal and bizarre storylines   “The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.” ~John Chrysostom (died 407 AD), church leader in ancient Constantinople   The Letter to the Romans “is the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament. It is the light and way into the whole Scripture. No man can read it too often or study too well.” ~William Tyndale (c.1494-1536), scholar and linguist, considered the father of the English Bible   “This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest gospel and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word by heart, but occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer, in his commentary on Romans   “Because faith alone justifies… publicans and prostitutes will be first in the kingdom of heaven” ~Hilary of Poitiers (c.310-c.367), Gallic-Roman church leader   “God justifies the believer—not because of the worthiness of his belief, but because of his [Christ’s] worthiness who is believed.” ~Richard Hooker (1554-1600) in his Ecclesiastical Polity (1593)   “Of whatever virtue you may declare that the ancient righteous people were possessed, nothing saved them but the belief in the Mediator who shed his blood for the remission of their sins.” ~Augustine (354-430), North African theologian in Against Two Letters of the Pelagians   “God’s righteousness compels him...to have to judge the guilty. But then he offers forgiveness and says ‘I will not judge you according to your works.’ So...he sends his Son...so that now when he calls you his own...he has not compromised his righteousness.” ~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, writer, and hip-hop artist SERMON PASSAGE Romans 1:16-17 & 3:21-26 (Dr. Robert Gagnon’s translation of the original Greek) Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for effecting salvation to everyone who is believing it, both to the Jew first and to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, “And the righteous one from faith will live.”   Romans 3:21-26 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, though it is attested by the law and the prophets; that is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all sinned and are lacking in the glory of God, with the result that they are being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is available in Christ Jesus, whom God set before himself as an amends-making offering by means of his blood, through that faith, for an indicator of his righteousness, because of the letting go of the sins that occurred previously in the time of God’s holding back his wrath, with a view toward that indicator of his righteousness in the ‘now’ time, in order that he himself might be righteous and justifier of the person whose identity is derived from faith in Jesus.