The Wages of Sin vs. the Gift of God — Romans 6:23 Explained

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, ready to go, and again, we'd just like to welcome our television audience to this informal Bible study. And I like to constantly emphasize the informality of it all, because we're trying to just reach folks wherever they are, across all denominational lines. And as I said, just because I reach across denominational lines, I will never compromise in order to do so. I'm going to teach the book as I feel it's to be taught, and that was one of the first requirements I made when they asked if I would do this. I said, yes, but I'm going to have to have the freedom to teach as I see it, and not according to any guidelines or dictates from anyone. So we do claim to be just informal, and consequently, this is why you'll see our folk here with a coffee cup after a while. And I always like to inform the television audience that we tape four of these programs in succession on one afternoon, and so consequently, we'll be taking a break after a little bit, and we'll have a coffee break, and the next program, you'll see the coffee cups on the table. So anyway, we've now approached the end of our fifth year of television broadcasting. It doesn't seem possible. We'll be starting our sixth year now, and you've been gracious. You've supplied all the funds. We've never been in the And this year is the same as always. We're going to end up getting just enough to pay all the bills, and that's all, of course, we expect. Now, all the past programs for the last five years are available on video, as well as the little books now that have been transcribed word for word from the videotape, and we try to get these out as nominally as we can. We're not hoping to make money on them, but we do trust that if you can use them in a Sunday school situation or in a home Bible class or for your own private study, they're just word for word from the program. So what you hear here, you'll see in print or you'll have on the tapes. Okay, now then, we're still continuing our study in the Book of Romans, and I'm taking it slowly because I know that most of what I've been teaching, the average churchgoer, even the average believer very seldom has any contact with, and we're going to try to help you see that, well, that's that's going to have to be the, okay, they'll correct it. There you're coming. Okay, we got to get more sound, that most of your Sunday school material and so forth will not go into the very depths of these doctrines, and so consequently, as I said, we're going to take it rather slowly. All right, now we left off in our last program in Romans chapter 6 at verse 14 and 15, and then we'll go on into verse 16, and remember I've been stressing now in these last few lessons that when you see the word sin, singular, S-I -N, you can tell from the text whether you're going to do violence to it or not, but if it's set sin, it's agreeable with the text. S-I-N, sin, is the old nature. It's the old Adamic nature that we're born with, and that's why it's singular. It's the fountainhead then of S-I-N -S, plural, and so the old Adam is what produces sins, plural, and we always have to keep that separated as we study Scripture. So then in verse 14, and you can just always synonymously interchange, for old Adam, see, the old sin nature shall not have dominion over you. Now in our last program, I was stressing reigning like a king. You remember that? How old Adam will just reign like a king, or we can crucify him and let grace or God in the person of Christ and Holy Spirit can reign as a king. All right, now then Paul is coming back, and he says, the old Adam shall not have dominion over you. He does not have to reign like a king, because, or for, you are not under the law. You're under grace. Now I always have to stop and qualify, as I've done for the last several years, that when I maintain we're not under the law, that doesn't mean we cast aside the Ten Commandments as no good. They are still holy. They're still perfect. They are still the mind of God. They are still the criteria for social behavior, whether it's Christian or non-Christian. In fact, we talked about it in our class last night, that the Ten Commandments do not become a criteria of doctrine, and that's why I have no compunction about having the Ten Commandments in our public schools, because the Ten Commandments in themselves are not a religious doctrine. They are simply the mind of God, that everything within those Ten Commandments is for mankind's own good. And that's what we have to understand, that when we have the Ten Commandments sitting on a classroom wall, we are not demanding of maybe a Jewish child a particular set of teachings, or we're not demanding of maybe even a Mohammedan child, a Muslim, because regardless of what their religion may be, I don't care if it's even pagan, the basic laws or rules of the Ten Commandments just simply establish a good society. And when a society rebels against those tenets, they're in trouble, and consequently empires have fallen, one right after the other, because they ignore these basic tenets of God's law. All right, now when I say, then, we're not under the law, I'm not saying that the Ten Commandments are verboten. I'm not saying that they are cast aside. I'm just simply saying that the Ten Commandments are not a criteria for salvation. They are not a set of doctrines, and we're not under them as Israel was, and all of their legalistic priesthood and their sacrifice and so forth. That's what Paul is referring to. We're not under that legalistic system. We're under grace, and that's as different as daylight is from dark. And I trust that that's what a lot of folk have begun to understand, as I've been teaching now for the last several years, that when we're under grace, it just is something totally different, so far as our response to God is concerned, as it was for Israel to be under the law. All right, and then verse 15. What then? Shall we sin, or shall we let old Adam continue to rule supreme, because we're not under the law, but under grace? And then the answer in the King James is, God forbid. And I always like to emphasize, I think a better, more accurate translation is, banish the thought. Don't even think such a thing, because it's just nowhere near what God is trying to show us. All right, now then, as we go into verse 16. Know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are? Now, he just brings us into the everyday world. If you are employed by someone, then naturally he is the one who is going to tell you what he expects of you. He is the one who is going to be paying your wages. He is the one that you are to give your allegiance to, because you're his employee. Now, of course, the word servant here is implying the same thing. Now, of course, Paul again is going to bring everything back to this idea of old Adam. Now, I know maybe some people are beginning to get tired of hearing me use the term old Adam over the last few verses, chapters, but as I was again preparing my thoughts for this last night, I got to thinking, you know, I think the reason Paul is making such a big deal over these two things that we've been emphasizing over and over now, ever since we came into chapter 4. First, it was justification. You are justified. You're declared just as if you'd never sinned. And for almost two whole chapters, that was repeated over and over that you're justified by faith and faith alone. Now we come into this chapter 6, and over and over Paul is telling us that we have to deal with old Adam. Old Adam has to be crucified. Old Adam has to be put to death. I think I came to the right conclusion. I hope I did. And I think it's to show that no kind of human endeavor can do what is being accomplished in these two or three chapters. In other words, no amount of works, no amount of church memberships, no amount of baptisms, no amount of sacraments or elements or anything else you can put in here, nothing can do what Paul is teaching in justification by faith and in putting old Adam to death. Works can't do that. It has to be the work of the Creator God Himself. And I think that's where the emphasis lies. Because look, all around us, I don't care whether you live in the city or the small town or you live out in Timbuktu, most people are still of the impression that they have to do something. And this is just totally foreign to that kind of thinking. And so I'm going to go along with Paul. I'm going to just keep repeating it until he stops repeating it, which will be, of course, we get to chapter 8. All of a sudden, we're just going to break out into the sunrise of chapter 8. But until we do, we're going to keep repeating as he does. So, you are a servant to whom you are giving your obedience, and if you're a child of Adam, then that's the one that you're going to be serving. You're going to be under the control of Adam, the old Adam. All right, then he goes on the other side of the coin, whether of old Adam and serve him and bring about your spiritual death, or you can be obedient to the invitation of God and His grace and enjoy what? Righteousness, right standing with God, now and for all eternity. It's either or. See, that's the only choice in life. Whether we're living in America or Europe or the third world or whatever, there are only two choices for life, and that is, are you going to serve the old Adam, who is under the control of Satan, and be, what shall I say, and be entrapped in His eternal doom, or are we going to turn our back and take care of old Adam and enjoy God's righteousness and, of course, bliss and what we call heaven for all eternity? All right, now then move on in verse 17. I want to at least hopefully finish chapter 6 in this half hour, but God be thanked. See, God be thanked. We can't give ourselves any credit that you were. That's past tense. Remember how we've been looking at some of these verses, like Ephesians 2, verse 1, where Paul says, but you were dead in trespasses and sins. That was our past. And now again, thank God that you were the servants of the old Adam, but the flip side, you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you, that is, Paul's gospel, being then made free from old Adam. See how clear this comes out now after I repeat it over and over and over? Now then, being freed from old Adam, you become the servants of righteousness. See, it's either or. Verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. Now what's Paul saying in so many words? I'm coming down to your level. I'm speaking on your level because after all, you are still human, you're in the flesh, and I'm not going to come with some high and mighty statements that you can't comprehend. I'm going to come down to your level, all right? For as you have yielded your members, servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. Now what's he describing? The life of the person out there in the world. Now, as I stressed in my class last night, and I think I have here on the program, never lose sight of the fact that every one of these Gentile converts that Paul has brought out of the darkness into the light of the gospel were pagan idolaters. Every one of them, every place he went. In fact, we looked at the verse last night, and it's still fresh in my mind, turning me to 1 Thessalonians. And this says it all. 1 Thessalonians. And oh, if I can just get people to understand that as Paul writes to these believers, he is writing to Gentile men and women who had been steeped in idolatry. They had been in all of the idolatrous and pagan practices that were rampant in the ancient world. You know, I always like to make mention of the fact we think that we're living in a whole new world. We're living in a whole new social strata. I mean, after all, we have finally arrived. No, we haven't. We're living in the same old sin that has plagued the world since the beginning. And idolatry and paganism promoted it more even than a lot of the things taking place in our society. But now in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, I'm going to not take the time to read several verses like I'd like to, but verse 9 and then go into verse 10. For they themselves, in other words, the people up there in northern Greece and southern Greece, that's Macedonia and Achaia, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how—here it comes—and how you turned to God from what? See that? Now Thessalonica was up there in northern Greece, not too far from Philippi, and every place that Paul gained converts, this would have held true. They turned from idols to the living God. Now that took something. And again, you want to realize that whenever people are saved and become believers and they come out of a culture that is totally different to Christianity, they come under pressure. They come under intense persecution. And so always remember that as Paul writes, he keeps this uppermost in his mind, that these new converts now did not have an easy role living in the midst of their idolatrous friends and relatives. All right, back to Romans chapter 6, verse 20 again. So when you were, past tense, the servants or the employees or under the domination of old Adam, then you were free from righteousness. What? Now God doesn't expect the unsaved person to live righteously. I've said it on the program before, and I'll say it again. You cannot legislate Christian morals and principles. We'd like to. Why, we think you'd make a better world, but you can't do it. You cannot legislate morality. Let me show you a man—it's been a long time since we looked at it. We'll be there probably in another month or so—but chapter 8 in this same book, Romans chapter 8. Now this shocks people when I point this out, and this certainly is not giving the unbelieving world more free reign than they already have. It's just saying what the Word of God says. Romans chapter 8, and let's see, I want to come down to verse 7. Romans chapter 8, verse 7. Because the carnal mind—now the word carnal, as Paul uses it, can be used in two ways. He'll speak of a carnal Christian. That is, a Christian who is still fleshly -minded. He's a believer, he's saved, he's in the body, but he has not come out of that old lifestyle as he's been begging him to do here in Romans 6 and 7. But he's carnal. He's more fleshly-concerned than he is spiritual. On the other hand, he can speak of carnal people as being totally unsaved. They are totally lost, and they're carnal. So the text always has to kind of define the word for you. But here he's talking about the unsaved carnal person, because the carnal mind, who is still in the natural state, the carnal mind is—what's the next word? Enmity. Now, what's enmity? Well, the other form is he's an enemy. Now, you go up and down the streets of Tulsa or any other great metropolitan city, and you try to tell people that they're enemies of God, they'd probably swat you. No, I'm not an enemy of God. I don't hate God. I don't detest Him. Well, whether they know it or not, the book says they do. See? They're at enmity with Him. All right, read on. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Now, this is what's shocking. For it, the carnal unbeliever, is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can he be. You see how that fits with what I just said? You cannot legislate Christian morality on the world. That's why we don't even attempt to try. God doesn't want us to, because it will not work. The only thing that'll work is to have them have and interchange the work of God in their lives. All right, back to chapter 6 in Romans. So he says, when you're the servants of old Adam, verse 20, then you're under no demands to live righteously. God doesn't expect it. Verse 21, what fruit you had then in those things whereof you are now ashamed. What's Paul doing? He's going back into their idolatrous lifestyle, and he says, what kind of fruit did you have in that kind of a life? Well, they had the fruit of ungodliness. That was the end result of their lifestyle in idolatry. It was the fruit of ungodliness. See? All right, you let a person—what's the word I'm looking for? You let a person produce nothing. But bad fruit throughout his entire sojourn on earth. What's his end? Spiritual death. See? Separation from God forever and ever and ever. All right, look at the rest of that verse now, then. Or let's read the whole verse. Maybe it'll make a little more sense. What fruit, what was the end result? What did you produce when you were in those things whereof you are now ashamed? In other words, when you were living in idolatry and paganism. For the end of those things is death. The book says it. I'm not. The book says that that's the end result of a person who's going to live under the total control of old Adam, and he passes off the scene having done nothing different. Death is the result, not only physical but spiritual. Got enough minutes left. Go back with me to Revelation so that we clarify before we go any further. What is the spiritual death that Paul is referring to? He's not just talking about dying physically. He's talking about a spiritual death. Now back in Revelation chapter 20. I haven't got time to go back and review the whole chapter, so we'll have to just jump in at verse 5, honey. In Revelation chapter 20 and beginning at verse 5, and of course chapter 20 now is at the end of the tribulation and the millennial reign of Christ. The kingdom has come in. It's going to rule and reign for a thousand years. All right, now then in verse 5, John writes, "...but the rest of the dead," that is the lost who have not experienced resurrection, "...the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished." In other words, that's when the great white throne will come about. This is the first resurrection. That's only believers. Verse 6, "...blessed and holy is he who hath part in the first resurrection of all the believers, from Adam clear down to the end of the tribulation." On such, on the believer, what are the next two words? The second death hath no power. See? So what's the second death he's talking about? The eternal doom, when they will be sent away from the presence of God, back over here in chapter 20, verses 11 through 15, at the great white throne, and then they will be sent to their eternal doom never again to have any contact, any kind of conversation with their Creator God, because they are totally separated. That is the spiritual death, separation from God. That's the second death. That's spiritual death. All right, now then back to Romans. It's the same thing that Paul is talking about here, that either we can take care of old Adam and enter into this righteousness, which we call salvation, and have eternal bliss in the presence of God, or we can just let old Adam reign supreme and pass off the scene, never having done anything about it, and go to the second death. All right, now then verse 22. But now, see? But now, in their saved estate, now being made free from old Adam and become servants to God, you have your fruit. Now you're producing something totally different. You see the difference? The old Adam produced fruit to nothing but condemnation, nothing but evil. But now, being made free from old Adam, you've entered into the salvation experience that God has offered, and you become servants to God. Now you have fruit unto holiness for this life, but the end what? Everlasting life. Now, that's beyond our comprehension again. We can't comprehend what it's going to be to live forever in God's presence. But nevertheless, that's what the Scripture is talking about, that if we enjoy the saving grace of God in this life, that's one thing. But it's not going to stop at the grave. It's going to take us right on into the everlasting life, that eternal abiding with God Himself. And see, this is what Paul is just burning himself out for. You know, when he sets himself up as an example, I always say, you know, that's something I can go for because he was just as human as I am. Paul was just as human as you are. And he suffered all those privations for the sake of the gospel beyond what you and I can even imagine. But he was just as human as we are. Never lose sight of that. All right, then verse 23. For the wages that old Adam pays, now I'm paraphrasing, for the wages of sin, S -I-N, the old Adam, the wages that Adam pays is what? Death, the second death again, eternal doom. But the flipside is that opposite Adam, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, I think the key word in this verse is G-I-F-T, gift, gift. Now, you're all acquainted with gifts. We all like to get a gift. But you see, as soon as you contribute something to the cost of that gift, it's no longer a gift. And there again, that's what the major majority of even, I think, Christendom is trying to take away the gift aspect of salvation, and they want to work for it. They think they have to do something. And of course, I always have to qualify what I'm talking about. I'm talking about salvation. Then, of course, after we've entered into salvation, yes, then all these other things have to fall in place. There have to be the good works. There has to be the manifestation of our saving faith. There has to be this whole idea of bringing honor and glory to God. And as the Catechism says, enjoy Him alone forever. 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