Redemption Explained: From Law to Grace (Romans 3 & 6)

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, let's pick up where we left off again last week, and again, for those of you watching on television, if you're watching us from week to week, we warn you that sometime we may just have to all of a sudden, because of the clock, cut it off. But we'll pick right up, as we are now again this evening. So turn back with me where we quit, in Ephesians chapter 4. And we've left this on the board, again specifically, so that we can make a quick review that when we're born of the Son of Adam, we're nothing more than body and soul, and that soul is an old sin nature, and something has to happen in order to get us back into a relationship with God. Now, a thought just came to mind, and I'm going to put it on the board so that I won't forget it. We're going to talk, if we've got time in this half hour, otherwise in the next one, we're going to talk about the Redeemer concept, because after all, to be redeemed means to be what? Bought back. Well, if we're bought back, then it means that something was lost somewhere along the line. Well, we'll look at that in a few moments, but for right now, let's go back where we left off, how that as a son of Adam, we recognize that we're sinners. According to Romans 3.23, we've all sinned, we've all come short, because we're born of Adam. Now, the Holy Spirit has somehow or other, and it's hard to explain it, but somehow or other the Holy Spirit opens our spiritual understanding that we can believe that Christ literally, physically, as well as spiritually, died the death that we deserved. He took our place. We call it substitution. He died in my place. And then as we saw back in Romans chapter 6, he reckons our old Adam now as crucified. That's the only thing you can do to deal with the old Adam, is to put him to death. And then Paul can go on and teach throughout the book of Romans that now since the old Adam is dead, we don't have to let him rule and reign in our lives. We reckon him dead. But all right, let's go back to Ephesians 4 and come in again to those verses we looked at last week. Verse 22, that you put off concerning the former manner of living or conversation, the old man, that old Adam, Ephesians 4.22, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts or desires, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, the new man, not the old Adam. We're going to do him out of the way. But the new man, which after God, in other words, after God moves in, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have a creation, a new created part of us. And it's created in righteousness and true holiness. Now when that happens, you see, Paul can continue then to instruct us. What's going to be part and parcel of the change of our living? Well, we're going to put aside all the things that before were rather commonplace. They're just natural, and we won't take time to read them. You can do that at your leisure. All right, now then, if you will again, come back to Romans chapter 3. Now you'll notice that a lot of these reference with regard to what God does in salvation come from the book of Romans. And again, the Holy Spirit was so careful in even the alignment of our New Testament books. I'm afraid a lot of people don't realize that because, you see, the book of Romans was actually written after Galatians and after 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and yet when the church leaders of—when was it?—in the 300-and -somethings came together and put our New Testament together, the Holy Spirit was so evident that He puts the book of Romans right after the book of Acts instead of Thessalonians or Galatians or one of His other earlier letters. And there's a reason for it. It's because the book of Romans is so basic in these salvation teachings. And so we come out of the book of Acts, and here we hit this book of Romans, and all the foundation is laid in this letter, and then as we, of course, have been doing, we put all the pieces together from our other epistles. All right, back to Romans chapter 3. Let's drop down verse 21. But now, well, maybe we should go back up to verse 20. Therefore, Paul writes, by the deeds of the law—now, when we see the word law, what's the first thing you normally think of? Well, the Ten Commandments. The law per se, of course, was that whole concept of the law of Moses. It was the ritual, their worship, their sacrifices. It was the Ten Commandments, the moral law, but it was also the civil law, how neighbor would deal with neighbor, and so forth. But here, when Paul refers to the law, he's talking about the moral law, the Ten, all right? Verse 20 again, therefore, by the deeds of the law, the keeping of the Ten Commandments, there shall—how much?—no flesh be justified in his sight. Why? Because the law only has one purpose in Scripture, and it is what? For by the law is the knowledge, not of God, but of what? Sin, see? Now, when God gave the Ten Commandments then, the Ten Commandments just literally showed the old Adam how he really operated, and that was all the law could do. All the law could do was show man that he was bent to take God's name in vain, he is bent to worship idols, he is just naturally bent to be envious, he is naturally bent to want to thieve, he is bent to all these things that the law prohibits. And so that's all the law was intended to do, was to show man his sin. All right, now then, if you will, come down to verse 21, but now, what's the now? Well, we're not under the law of Moses. Put your hand here in chapter 3, come over to chapter 6, because there are so many folk that don't understand the difference between law and grace, and there's all the difference in the world, because the Bible delineates it. All right, and here we come now then, in Romans chapter 6, dropping down to verse 14. And what does he say? For sin, the old Adam now, that old nature, shall not have dominion over you. He isn't going to rule you anymore, he's dead. For you are not under the law, but under what? Grace. See the difference? And then he comes right back and repeats the statement in verse 15, and he says, what then? Shall we sin? Shall we go ahead and do as we please, because we're not under the law, but we're under grace? Oh, don't think such a thing. Grace doesn't give us license, but on the other hand, we're not under that demand of the law. Thou shalt, and thou shalt not. That's a thing of the past. All right, now then, come back to chapter 3, and again at verse 21, but now, since we're no longer under the law, under the old Mosaic system, but now the righteousness of God without the law. Oh, people rebel at that. Oh, I don't know how many people have said, yeah, but I'm keeping the Ten Commandments. Oh, but listen, God isn't demanding that we keep the Ten Commandments per se. We have to recognize that now it's a whole different set of circumstances, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, or is put in the spotlight, if you please, with being witnessed by the law and the prophets. See, nothing flies in the face of that which is gone before. It all fits in its proper unfolding of the Word, and then you come to verse 22. Even the righteousness of God, which is not by law-keeping, not by being religious, but by how? By the faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that what? Believe. See the difference? To them that believe, for there is no difference. And why isn't there any difference? Because we've all sinned. The law-keeping Jew was a sinner. The unlaw-keeping Gentile were sinners. And so we have to recognize that it's only by faith in the gospel that we get to the place that we believe that Christ did indeed die for our sins and rose from the dead. All right, now I want to come back to verse 22 in light of when we go back to Genesis, and we are—don't think for a minute we've forgotten about Genesis—but when we get back to Genesis and we talk about Adam being covered by the skins of those animals that were no doubt sacrificed, we're going to see that it's fulfilled right here in this verse that we are clothed not with animal hides, but with what? The righteousness of God. In other words, again, coming back to our diagram, just as soon as the old nature is crucified with Christ, He's put to death, He's defeated, and God puts opposite Him a new nature, and He literally clothes us now with the righteousness of Christ, so that when God looks on us as a believer tonight, when God looks at you, when God looks at me, He doesn't really see me. He doesn't really see you. Who does He see? He sees Christ. And that's what it means to be in Christ. We are just literally clothed with Him, and this is what God sees. I'm glad God doesn't see me. I'm not worth looking at from that point of view, but He doesn't see me. He sees the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now you're in chapter 3. Go back with me again, if you will, to chapter 6. I hope I'm not confusing the issue, but anyway, now if you come back to chapter 6, now you'll find that after verse 6 that we looked at some time ago, that our old man is crucified with Him. He's been put to death. Now then, verse 7. He that is dead is freed from the old Adam. There's only one way we can get rid of old Adam. He is going to constantly be a sin nature until we reckon Him crucified. All right, now He's dead. Now, if He is dead, what can happen to the rest of us? It can take over. The new nature comes in, and then the Holy Spirit is going to take residence with our spirit, is the way Paul puts it. Now we've got this whole set of circumstances from God's side now beginning to put its influence on the body. What's it going to do to our life? Totally change it. It's going to totally change it. And as Paul says, the things we once loved, we now hate. And the things we once almost hated, now we love. It's a whole new ballgame, if I may use that expression. All right, but now let's go on. Now to verse 8. Now, if we be dead, in other words the old sin nature has been put to death, and we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also—what's the next word ?—live with Him. All right. I can cut this, I hope. What has happened? We have been crucified with Christ. We have died with Him. But now let's go one step further. I probably haven't got that straight. But anyway, when they took Christ from the cross, what did they do with Him? Where was He placed? In the sepulcher, in the grave. He was buried. Then after the third day and the third night, what happened? He rose from the dead. Now we've got to carry this identification all the way through. If we were with Christ on the cross and He died my death, then when they put the body in the grave and He was buried, who else was in the grave? You and I, see? Okay, here we are. We also are in the grave. But Christ didn't stay in the grave. He rose from the dead. And now since He rose from the dead, what can He impart to us? New life. All right. Let's follow this concept, if you will, to—come over here. They can cut it. That's one thing about taping. We hope they can. Now if you'll come over to John's Gospel, I think is where I was going to go. Go to John's Gospel, chapter 12. John's Gospel, chapter 12. Drop down to verse 20. John's Gospel, chapter 20. And remember, get the setting. We're in Christ's earthly ministry, but we're getting right close now to the crucifixion. It's probably just a matter of days away. And there was a great crowd gathering for the Feast of Passover. And remember, the Jews came from every corner of the Roman Empire to these feast days. And here this massive crowd of Jews have been coming from all over the then-known world, the Roman Empire, for the Feast of Passover. And they're meeting there in that temple complex. And no doubt many Jews had Gentile friends who they would bring along. I mean, after all, that was quite a trip to go all the way back to Jerusalem. But whatever the consequences, we get down to verse 20 of chapter 12. We see the account that there were certain Greeks. There were Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast—Gentiles. All right, verse 21. The same, that is, these Greeks came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee—in other words, one of the Twelve. And these Greeks say to Philip, Sir, we would see Jesus. Now, this is interesting, and without some in -depth teaching earlier, you won't comprehend it. But nevertheless, do you remember when the Canaanite woman came to Jesus and wanted Him to perform the miracle on her daughter? I think it was. And what did the disciples say? Send her away. She's a pest. And Jesus made no comment. And finally, after much begging, He finally condescended to her, and He granted her wish. But you see, on first glance He didn't, because she was a Gentile. And He told her in so many words, I am not come but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And you remember, she came back and said, Oh, but true Lord, but don't the dogs eat the crumbs? She says, Can't I at least have a crumb? All right, now you've got basically the same thing here. These Gentiles tell Philip, we would see Jesus. But Philip remembers all these things that have been taking place, and he says, Boy, I don't know now. What am I going to do? And so he goes to Andrew. Verse 22, Philip comes and tells Andrew. Well, they tell him, Hey, there's Gentiles that want to see Jesus. And Andrew doesn't want to know—doesn't know what to do with it. So it's just like a hot potato. And so Andrew and Philip says, Well, let's go in and tell Him. So they do. They go in, and I say go in, because I think that all this took place out there on the pavement in that great crowd, and Jesus was very likely in one of the other temple buildings. And so now they find Jesus, and they say, Lord, there's some Greeks that want to talk to you. All right, now here's what I was driving at. Verse 23, And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn or a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. What was Jesus referring to? His coming death, burial, and resurrection. And any of you that garden, every time you plant a seed in your garden, or a farmer plants his crop, he is rehearsing the whole plan of salvation over and over again. Why? Because, you see, as a seed is put into the ground, and it waits for the sunshine and the rain, unless it's put into the ground, it will never reproduce. You could leave it in the grainry, you could leave it in the seed packet, and it'll never reproduce. But as soon as it's buried in the soil, then what happens? New life. All right, Jesus was referring to His coming death, burial, and resurrection. And to these Greeks, these Gentiles, He could not be an object of faith until that had taken place. For the reason is that now in our gospel, this becomes our salvation. The fact that Christ died in my place, I am identified with Him. As He was buried, you and I were buried. But we didn't stay in the earth, we didn't stay in the grave. As He rose from the dead, we rose from the dead, and we have new life. Now let's go back again to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I think we can wind this segment of it up, and then our next lesson we'll be able to go back once again to the book of Genesis. All right, now in Romans chapter 8, following up this whole concept now, verse 10, if Christ be in you, and you can also take other portions, and you're in Christ, the body is dead because of sin, the old Adam. But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit—now here's the verse I wanted—but if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken, or make alive, your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Now isn't it all coming together? I hope it is. All of it comes together in this complete plan of redemption, and we'll look at that in the next half hour. But let's review it again. The Holy Spirit somehow makes entrance into our thought processes. He convicts us that we're sinners, we're sons of Adam, and that the gospel is the only remedy. All right? Then when we begin to understand that, yes, I'm a sinner, I'm without fellowship with my Creator, but the gospel is the remedy. All right, then we believe and we identify with the death of Christ, even though it was 2,000 years ago. To the Creator God, what is 2,000 years? A snap of the finger. He is just as aware of us in 1990 as He was in His own time or in the time of Adam. Time means nothing to God, so don't ever get the idea, well, how can a death 2,000 years ago have any effect on me in 1991? I guess it is. All right, so then as He was buried, signifying complete death, then also as He was resurrected, we also are resurrected to that new life. And that's exactly what Paul is talking about. Now let's continue on. In the moment or two we've got left here in Romans 8, verse 12, "...therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh," not to live, just to enjoy living, to satisfy the flesh. Verse 13, "...for if you live after the flesh," in other words, all you're concerned about is old Adam, "...you shall die," that is, spiritually, not physically. That's going to happen anyway. "...but if you through the Spirit," through the work of the Holy Spirit now in our lives, "...do mortify," or put to death, "...the deeds of the old body," the old Adam, "...you shall live." And then here it comes in verse 14, "...for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they might be, will hope to be," no, what's the verb? They are. See? And that's what we call taking God's Word. He said it, and we believe it, that when the Spirit of God has worked that work in us, we are the sons of God. Oh, we may not always behave like it. Any of us can fail, and we can always have our weak moments, but nevertheless God is faithful. All right, then come down to verse 16, and here's where we're going to kind of wind this up. In verse 16, "...the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Now look at that verse carefully in the light of our diagram. The Holy Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are no longer a son of old Adam, but as a result of God's plan of salvation, we are now what? We're sons of God. Now, if we're sons of God, look at the next verse, "...now if we're sons of God, or we're children, then we're heirs, and not just ordinary heirs, but we're heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Oh, I hope you can get a glimpse of what so many over the years have been able to see from just using these diagrams, how that our salvation is not just something that we glibly say, yeah, I believe it, but oh, that we can just enter into it, experience it, and know that the promises of God are ours, and we place our whole eternal destiny on them without fear, without any consternation whatsoever. The promises of God, and those promises are steadfast, they're sure, and we don't have to waver, we don't have to doubt. And all this is all I want people to do is to study the Word. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures, and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. 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