God’s purpose is that “grace might reign” leading us into righteousness, leading us unto eternal life. The idea here is that grace is leading us, reigning over us, governing our lives… regulating, compelling, provoking, inciting, controlling, directing us “to love God with all our heart, mind, body, and soul… and to love one another.”
In Romans 5:21, grace is causative. Grace causes us to see our utter sinfulness. Grace causes us to fall to our knees, repent of sin, and in baptism lay our lives down on the altar, dying to sin, that sin should no longer reign and be master. Grace causes us to bury our old self… to let our old self be hidden away in Christ Jesus, so that our sin can no longer be counted against us. Grace causes us to be raised up in Christ Jesus, to live a new life, to no longer walk in the flesh, to walk anew in the power of the Holy Spirit, to no longer offer our bodies as instruments of sin but rather instruments of righteousness. As we will see in Romans 8, Grace causes us to seek justification in Christ, sanctification by God’s Holy Spirit, and yearn for glorification on the day of Christ Jesus’ return.
It’s not an overstatement to say that God’s grace ought to be the single most compelling, causative, directive reality in a Christian’s life. Grace is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. Where sin increased, grace increased even more. Grace has the power not just to extinguish the power of sin in our lives, but to conquer death itself. There is nothing sin “has done” or “can do”, that God’s grace cannot obliterate! In Romans 6, our baptism marks the end of sin’s reign, and the beginning of the reign of grace in our life. The reign of sin is death, but God would rather that his “grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Lord is just another word for reign. The Lord Jesus reigns over us by his grace!
But this isn’t at all how we think about grace. We don’t think of God’s grace as causative, we think of grace as being purely retroactive. In other words, we don’t invite grace to lead, lord, govern, direct, shape, or compel. We only invite grace to fix-me-up, heal-me-up, cover-me-up, clean-me-up, and mop-up as we go on letting sin reign in our lives! We treat grace as a license to sin, a license to kill. It’s sad but true, that the majority of churchgoers subscribe to a false gospel. For the masses, grace is the power of God not for the transformation of sinners, not to dethrone the cruel power/authority of sin, but instead for the enabling of the sinner! To Paul’s question in Romans 6:1, “Shall I go on sinning so that grace may increase” some would say why not!
When you get baptized, you are deciding for yourself, to let grace reign. To let grace become the single most compelling and powerful reality in your life. You are deciding to let grace reign not just unto righteousness but also unto eternal life. You are offering God not your antagonism, but your cooperation! You are pledging yourself to first rest/sit in God’s grace, then crawl, then walk, then run, then soar in God’s grace! In baptism you are declaring YES, YES, YES to the “reign,” not just the “benefits” of grace.
Last week we introduced this idea of thinking of baptism like marriage. In marriage, you offer yourself at the altar, to belong to another. You are leaving one and cleaving to another. In baptism, you offer yourself on an altar. And Romans 6 couldn’t be more explicit. In baptism, you put your sinful nature to death. In baptism, you offer your good-as-dead-because-of-sin body on the altar of God’s mercy, and in baptism you trust God to raise you up in Christ Jesus so you can live a new life. It wasn’t my idea to correlate a marriage altar with baptism… it was Paul’s idea!
In Romans 7, Paul uses marriage to help us understand the power of grace. Now I understand that we think quite a bit differently about marriage now-a-days but I ask you to let the Bible speak. In Bible times, when you got married you were leaving the authority of one person (i.e. Mother/Father), and you were cleaving to the authority of another (i.e. Your Husband). Now I know the modern mind balks at any suggestion that a woman might be under the authority of her parents, or the authority of her husband. But in Bible times marriage was all about authority—and as a wife, you bound over to your husband for life, “until death do you part!”
Imagine being stuck in a bad marriage. You didn’t have many great options. (1) One option is wait around, hoping your spouse dies until you can be free. (2) One option was committing adultery, but adultery carried severe penalties even death. (3) Another option might have been homicide, but even if you somehow got away with cold-blooded murder, you’d one day face God’s judgment. (4) Another option was suicide—but if you’re whole goal is to live a better life, how could suicide possibly be a solution? As you can see there was virtually no escaping a bad marriage.
But this is where you really need to pay attention. Because Paul is not talking about any kind of human marriage in Romans 7. He is using marriage as an analogy, to explain how at one time we found ourselves married to, and under the authority of, the Law. Very interesting! And in Romans 7:1-3 (you can read this for yourselves), short of waiting, adultery, or death… there was no legal way out of your marriage to the Law.
But there is more. We’re being asked to imagine the Law is our husband, and we are the Bride. So what might it look like to be married to the law? Well first of all, from a moral standpoint, the Law would be a very good man. In Romans 7:7 Paul tells us the Law is most “certainly not” sinful (exclamation points)! In Romans 7:11 Paul tells us, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” Could you imagine being married to someone who was always holy, right, and good? You always hear people say they want to be married to Mr. Right, but do you really want to be?
Paul waxes eloquent about what happens when you are married to “Mr. Right”, or rather “Mr. Law.” On the positive side, you know exactly what every sin is, because Mr. Right coldly, and correctly, calls every spade a spade. In Romans 7:7, Paul says, “I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘you shall not covet.’ Imagine if every time you asked Mr. Right for a new car, or home, or television set, or iPhone, or a new dress, or shoes, or a purse… imagine if Mr. Law called out your fatal flaw and said, “Honey, you’re coveting again.” How many wives would appreciate your husband ever saying such a thing! How many would complement your husband’s spirituality, and discernment, and righteousness? You may think you’re “Mr. Right,” but guys, I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut if the wife wants to go shopping and buy stuff!
We laugh, but we all know exactly how a wife, married to Mr. Right (i.e. married to the Law) behaves… and its exactly how all of us behave under the authority of the law. We hear what the law says to us, but we rebel. We say to Mr. Law, “Nobody tells me what to do! I’m not under anybody’s authority! If I want a new phone, or dress, or shoes, or purse, or puppy dog, or dishware, or knickknacks… you ain’t stopping me!”
Positively, Mr. Right might be right. But negatively, Mr. Law arouses every evil thing within us. In Romans 7:5 Paul says, “when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore the fruit of death.” In Romans 7:7-8 Paul says “I wouldn’t have known what covetousness was except for the law. . . But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.” In other words, “I was so ticked off at Mr. Right pointing out my covetousness, I grabbed the credit card and went on a shopping spree! I sure showed him!” In Romans 7:9 Paul says, “Once I was alive apart from Mr. Right (Mr. Law); but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life. . .”
But here is the great irony of being married to Mr. Right, Mr. Law… Mr. Right is always right! Covetousness is sin. But not only is covetousness sin, the credit card bill is coming due, and the payment due for all that covetousness is death. Look what Paul says in Romans 7:9, “sin sprang to life and I died.” Romans 7:5, “we bore fruit of death” Romans 7:10, “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.” Romans 7:11, “For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.”
Now our impulse here is to draw a wrong conclusion. You can see how the wife would want to blame Mr. Law. “Mr. Right made me do it! He provoked me, he incited me, he’s a jerk, he’s so evil and and diabolical!” In Romans 7:13 Paul says, “Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means!” It’s the same thing he says back in Romans 6:1, “Shall we go on sinning so grace may increase? By no means!” Romans 7:13… Mr. Law is good, and he has been there to help us recognize our sin problem. He was there to help us connect the dots between sin & our debt (death).
In Romans 7:14-20, Paul shows us how utterly wretched it is to be married to the Mr. Right, Mr. Law. Tell me if you can relate to what Paul says! “14 We know that the law (i.e. Mr. Law) is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law (Mr. Law) is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”
“21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
Friends, what ever are we to do, should we find ourselves in a dead, fruitless marriage? What is a dead, fruitless marriage? It’s a marriage where not only do you find your fatal flaws being exposed, but you find your fatal flaws being exacerbated. It’s a marriage where you find that although your spouse may be “cold and correct” and “spiritual and right”… he’s not very “encouraging and gracious,” he’s not very “present and helpful.” In such a marriage, you would feel condemnation and fear, and you’d question whether there’s any love and hope or grace!
Going back to the start of Romans 7, your options for getting out of such a marriage aren’t so great. Option 1: Wait, survive, deal with it. Option 2: Adultery, have an illicit affair with sin. Option 3: Kill the Law… which of course is impossible, because not even the smallest stroke of the pen of the law will ever disappear Law or Prophets. Or Option 4: suicide, give up, succumb to sin, let the devil have his prize, your soul.
It’s a good thing it’s not up to us to figure out how to fix bad marriage! There is actually yet another option, a gospel option! In Romans 7:25 Paul shifts from talking about his wretched go-no-where marriage to the Law and exclaims, “Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Delivers? What is Paul talking about?
He’s talking about your repentance and baptism, back in Romans 6. You see, when you invited grace to reign in your life through faith, repentance, and baptism. . . God delivered you out from under the authority/reign/and oppressive power of sin and put you under the life-giving authority /reign/and limitless power of grace! You see, he allowed you a way to die that didn’t cost your soul. He provide way for you to die and bury your old life, so you would no longer be under the authority of the sin, death, Law.
Look back to Romans 7:4, “You also died [past tense] to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” Look back to Romans 7:6, “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
I’m sorry it’s not on your bulletin insert. But listen to Paul’s stunning conclusion of what our new marriage to Christ entails! Romans 8:1-4, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Our marriage to Jesus “Mr. Righteousness”, takes us where our marriage to “Mr. Right, the Law” could never carry us. First of all, Jesus offers to pay the credit card debt of our covetousness (and every other sin we’ve committed). He lays down his life, he dies in our place taking the penalty of sin that was upon us. He becomes our righteousness and justification. But second, Jesus sets us free to by his Holy Spirit to become holy, righteous, and good… not fearfully trembling, under the weight of condemnation… but rejoicing in hope, and being catapulted to new heights by God’s own mercy and grace!
In Ephesians 5, Paul tells us what it’s like to be married to Jesus. Now again, you have to use your imagination. We’re not talking about human marriage, we’re talking about our relationship with Jesus!
"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” Oh no, here we go again! The authority thing!
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
When grace reigns, when Jesus is your Lord, he serves you. He isn’t cold. He isn’t correct for correct’s sake. In his righteousness, Jesus never condemns. Rather he loves, he gives, he sacrifices. . .
The Pharisees tied up huge burdens on people, and wouldn’t lift a finger to help. That what deadbeat husbands do! Not Jesus, he serves, he makes you holy, he cleanses you by washing you with water (yes that’s a reference to repentance and baptism), he presents you to himself without stain, wrinkle, or blemish but holy and blameless! He does not hate, nor despise… he feeds and cares for you by his Spirit, by his Word! He doesn’t tear you down, he lifts you up!
If by faith you decided to leave your sin, and leave Mr. Law… if by faith you decide to embrace and betroth yourself to Jesus... through Christ Jesus our Lord “grace will reign in righteousness leading to eternal life” (Romans 5:21). By the way, we ought all love our wives like Jesus but that’s another sermon for another day!
Baptism & Communion, two sacraments of Church, are an altar call. Who do you want to marry? Sin, Law, or Grace? If you choose for grace to reign, for Jesus to be your husband, the Lord/authority of your life… then you must let him set the terms for the new relationship.
The terms are faith. This grace is available to all who call upon name of the Lord.
The terms are repentance—you must die to self, die to sin, die to the Law. Your death frees you from the power of sin, and the Law.
The terms are baptism—you must offer your body in baptism to die, and be buried… you must lay your life down on the altar, as Paul says in Romans 6, “offer yourselves.” Nobody can do this for you, no priest, no parent, you must decide.
The terms are you must allow Jesus to be your justification and sanctification. He will take up your life from waters of baptism, he will take up your good-as-dead life from the altar, and raise you up to live a new life! He will fill you with his Holy Spirit, so you can achieve your goal of righteousness in the new way. In your new marriage to Jesus, God’s grace will enable you to soar, and sin will no longer be your master, and you will find in Jesus, everlasting joy and peace! This new life will be the subject of next week’s message…