Romans 6

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0:00 Okay, so the new customer reading is from Romans chapter 6 and it's kind of a kind of a weird process when you just jump into it. So we'll look at it so we'll appreciate the weirdness and we'll back out a little bit and try and put it into context. So Romans chapter 6 was 19 to 23 because I'm seeking in human terms because of your natural limitations, for just as you once presented your

0:31 members displayed to purity and to law that's misleading, to more lawlessness, so now to take your members as slaves to rights that's the temptation. When you were slaves of sins you were free in regards to righteousness, but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you now are, you are now a shame. The end of those things is death, but now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God of the fruit. You get leads to sanctification out of

1:02 sin to eternal life and its end eternal life. For the way of the things death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. In fact, you just are loyal. It's like there's a lot there and like I remember years ago somebody gave me this little like a little business card size little craft. Have you seen these before? Where they write in sometimes crazy script, life, and then you turn it around the other way

1:34 and the same words have death and so on the topic of the wages of sin and then you turn it over in the wages of death price. Like that phrase is like been used and abused and atomized and randomized and taken out of context. So it's interesting to try and put it back into context and the first way for putting it back into context for me is to like look up we don't have to go all the way but there but understand what the argument that Paul has been

2:08 building in what we have a drone detector for and found. Remember that the chapter heading and even the verse heading have have almost no contextual relevance at all. I said this once before but I asked one of our exegetical professors who is now curating the Bible New Zealand. I asked one of my medical professors once what's something decide where to put the first markers and it says the story that I liked the best is that there was

2:40 a monk copying the scriptures making a copy of it sitting on the back of a donkey riding the keen town and they put up verse marker whenever it's pen hit the page in the bump on the road. That's the most sense they can figure out about various verse markers. There is no sense they cannot scholars cannot figure out any sense behind the verse markers at all. So that's to tell you we might bring that up and the same goes for the chapter heading. So when you take Paul's praises and you just pull them out and put them on a little vision card they

3:12 lose all their relevance or understanding. The only way we can even translate what those original words mean is to set them inside the context and then together all together they make meaningful. And so we're going to look at what we think about what Paul is saying in Romans chapter 4 and chapter 5 in order to get these few verses because the Romans would never just read them first in verses they would have put up and read the whole thing. The thing of Romans is a sermon not like an encyclopedia right and so in Romans chapter 4 Paul

3:47 spends much time that any builds on and chapter 5 trying to build the argument that the quarantining the exemplar of what it means to be a follower of Jesus is there are many but one is Abraham. He builds a lot of argument around look at Abraham. To build your notion of what it means to follow Jesus. God came to Abraham before Abraham knew who God was or had made any

4:17 choices about oxygen. Abraham now becomes the paradigm and patriarch of the faith and Paul says why? The main reason is that God came to Abraham. It said Abraham I'd like to give you a land more offering of stars are in the sky and make your name of blessing to the nation plus all the world's reading and Abraham said that sounds great I'll take it. This is the guiding cornerstone value of the people

4:50 of God throughout the story of scripture. They are failures all over the place in every order and time. They abuse people they kill people they exploit folks they have sexual exploits they're inside and outside of marriage they're inside and outside of power structures they're inside and outside of months they're a mess all over but the cornerstone of the people of God every leader every exemplar of the people of God throughout the story of scripture is that when God said I'd like

5:24 to give you good things more often than not they say yes I'll take them please thank you. Paul is building up a significant that says God's prerogative towards you is more important than one particular choice you have made or 10 particular choices you have and God's prerogative towards you is favorable it is good and uses Abraham as an example to say before Abraham knew who God was

5:59 or did anything God offered him everything and because Abraham was willing to receive he is now the patriarch of faith it's not nothing in that by the way meaning that willingness to receive I mean in order for Abraham to say yes I'll take good things he has to acknowledge that there is a God with the capacity

6:30 and ability and willingness to give good things yes to acknowledge that there is a God that the God is good and that the God is poor and receives good things that's not easy and Abraham even at that favorite time Abraham is defining value believe God will give him good things most of the time he does sometimes he doesn't and yet he gets counted as

7:03 right. One of my favorite examples right now of how hard it is to believe is the story of Israel remember when God rescued them from Egypt paraded Mounted the story for us right where they then got brought them into Egypt to protect them from famine they lived here for 200 years in ocean the arguably the best part of Egypt at the time and then for 200 years after two

7:35 years living they grew and multiplied the existence got scared that there were more Hebrews than Egyptians they might rebel and take over so they enslaved them and then for 200 years they've lived with this kind of a long time 200 years will take us almost to the 18th of this one I have double grade math and talking at the same time to the 1800s that's a long time to have been slaves that if you try to manage that and then in that into that world having been placed for 200 years of God comes and miraculously let them rest in the world.

8:10 Marathi what the feast the Egyptian gods of the day and then after Red Sea defeats the Egyptian army of the day on the way to Sinai the feast the Amalekites and then al-Sinais comes down in a physical way takes the mountains speaks to Moses gives them the Ten Commandments then they walk up to the promised land member that story they sent twelve spies in all twelve come back and Penn say there's no way we can take that land we're just a bunch of

8:41 slaves. Two of them say yeah right if God wants to give it to him he'll give it to him but Israel couldn't believe that there was a God who could give them something that so the problem wasn't that they couldn't do it the problem was they couldn't believe it God is not asking anything but the need that he could give it to them and they could not believe it Paul spends chapter four and

9:16 five building up this idea that listen your options don't matter at all the choices that you've made you are no longer bound to the law you are set free from the law of Moses it is a matter for you we're going back to this Abrahamic covenant that says our relationship to God is based on his problems there is a God the God is good and the God is for you can you say yes

9:46 also if you say yes you get the righteousness of God right standing before again through the person of Jesus your actions actually are not the problem with the thing Roman chapter six verse one so then he then he's thinking a little bit more about it your actions are not problem first chapter six verse one what shall we say then I'll read a continue and sin

10:17 that grace may abound still using this idea of sins just curious just by so of hand who has a definition of sin in their mind already I say sin just raise your hand feel like you know what sin is just curious of the room has an experience with the idea of sin it's not a word that maybe

10:54 you use that work or even really a word that you use like in raising kids or in your marriage relationship it's not like it's not like on your little white board at home where you're setting out those for kids that you are talkboarding things out but somehow it's a word that gets loaded with a lot of emotion and

11:27 expectation Paul uses it pretty freely here and he's you know without going into the notion of sin you might think about the Ten Commandments you might think about specific Athens you may even when I first like the if I do a free word appreciation the idea of sin what comes to mind is places in my life instances very transactional my relationship my notion of sin instances of sin come to

12:04 my very quickly and that's because I have heard them I was really trained myself to do that yeah and so it's easy for me when I encounter the idea of sin over I think about the idea of sin immediately in the sense of sin come to mind maybe it's the same for you or maybe it's more an emotion or maybe it's more a reaction at some points in my life I was thinking about the Ten Commandments and I'd be

12:34 like well I haven't murdered anybody I haven't cheated on a wife I'm stolen anything like sometimes I talk to people like I mean I feel like I'm doing okay that's great I think for us sin when it started to get more robust and be a force in my life is when I got

13:05 into thinking about structural challenges that I can call that and said the question the purchases I made the things I acquired why I had them where they came from what happened to bring them to me when I started to look at the motivation for the way I was spending my time and it's implied around Paul start saying you

13:36 get to here look should we go on sitting because it doesn't matter and then he says in verse two of chapter six vinyl means which is like his strongest way of saying no but that's very true vinyl means how can we who died to things still live in it do you not know that all of us who have been back

14:06 I love this and we could spend a long time thinking about this but when Paul says why should I care my relationship to God is not based on the choices that I've made this is true no matter the choices you make now or going forward your relationship to God does not change is not effective you have to make up

14:37 ground if you spin out and make a whole through bad choices you don't have to now make up ground and pay for the person you need about you're standing with guys all the way through so then Paul says why can I care about the choices I make it all and I love that he doesn't say because you might as well be right instead of being wrong he says because why would you you don't have to you can make these good choices over here you don't have to make these bad cases over here and he still

15:12 stacks up that stands up helpful for us and righteousness is I was thinking about my notion of sin the transactional ideas that come to my mind and I was thinking about the reason those transactional instances of sin are worth avoiding is because God puts together body and soul and

15:43 model and so the things that we do with our bodies carries our spirit with us the places that we put our soul are I mean the place that we put our mind bring our soul with us you can only say so much before your hope subsidy puts your your notions of security it's tied up in the dollar you

16:15 can only chase titles and promotions so much before your sense of significance is tied up in the title you can only fixate on neither and rest and escape so much before your notion of safety is tied into your ability to escape he's talking about the reason he says it matters the choices that you make is you can wear your part where you put your hope affect your capacity to believe when

16:52 Abraham passed his lot with the God when he believes there is a God the God is good and the God is for him he's just believing in something else he leaves his family money-making teams his strategy his prestige building streams he needs those combines and goes with the God Paul says the choices you make the position you take in your life matters because it affects your heart and your soul your capacity to believe you and I

17:25 the work of being a follower of Jesus is not becoming something that we're not it's believing something that we already are and that's hard enough your actions are easy when it comes to the position of your heart Paul says why would you keep on with these actions they're pulling away pulling you away from who you are I was looking back thinking about the ideas of sin and I

17:56 was looking back at that old idea of the seven deadlucian or the seven capital it's a really interesting list and you can go down rabbit hole kind of figuring out how they extract them they're not really lifted neatly like the 10 commandments anywhere you think they would be but they're attracted and the cat and the cat is also called them like capital things because they kind of get other ones and they listed them as cloud luck gluttony

18:26 flop raw and large block when I was thinking about some things that might be areas of struggle for me I was looking at money and hoping in money for security I was looking at title and counting on title for significance I was thinking

19:00 about things and assembling things or running out the things acquiring things in order to be happy I was thinking about sex and time-set direction to love and I was thinking about stacking up neither as though escape was safe and realizing in these areas I have opportunities to believe in the guy the problem is money

19:33 does not make me say titles do not communicate it's current thing do not generate lasting happiness sex does not leave her certainly or skated this is how you get to when Paul said the wages of when I count on money for my safety it does not

20:13 make me think about it all of these things bind you down like almost an addiction cycle where it doesn't ever give you the thing you want it's just like infinite line down to more and more and more that they listen to a call talking about it not that not that the wages of sin is that meaning God will condemn you if you make wrong choices that's not what he's saying he thinks sin will naturally need you into places

20:47 of destruction of a brilliant of endless downward spirals into nothing it is not helpful it's not as though God would judge you and make you wrong it says you are walking away from the free gift the wages of sin is down and then he says the gift of God is a kind of a line I put in the in the little email this week of

21:24 reminder I was like picking up this old text conversation on my phone this week and I and the last text I had shared with a friend was like running a know that my granddad had died my dad's dad and and I I depend on who you are like simple to the family have stories about the prickliness of my granddad and it's younger challenges he had but but I didn't see that granddad my granddad

21:58 when he was in my 60s taught me the water seat when he was in his 60s taught me the water seat right when he was in his own 70s with climbing trees with me in our backyard he loved to do projects he collected old student bakers he passed about five or six searches in the Midwest and and when you were there in the in the 60s and 70s there would be all these two bakers in people's past years that were riding they'd get into the pastor he collected them in his rebuild and

22:29 I thought he was hilarious he made me laugh all the time I don't I try and tell his skills to my kids and they're not as funny as I don't have the right to read and I have really cool moments memories about faith with my granddad I remember one time he was telling me about his favorite hand that he got older in life we were sitting here in a beer and he was telling about his favorite hand and the joy of being taken back into heaven and seeing the ones that he loved I have really good memories of my granddad I loved him a lot learned a lot from him

23:06 and then he died his funeral was I was so taken by his funeral it was traditional Lutheran in a traditional Lutheran church he got rolled in in a casket I found out later it's that day when they roll the casket in normally they put the feet towards the front so that the person is facing your altar but when it's a pastor they flip it around so that he's facing the church that he's captured one last time and when

23:39 they when the pastor there in a traditional service he went down to the closed casket laid his hand on the closed casket and they made a garden created this body who baptized and confirmed this body raised this body and bones up out of the grave on the day of this beautiful confidence and hope in the resurrection the gift of God's eternal life I was remembering this that my granddad and as I let her in the

24:09 text on a red song to the bottom and the friend of mine and I have in common this the CS Lewis book that we both read called the great divorce anybody read the great divorce really cool picture and it all spins out of this idea from the Hebrew word for glory which has in its notions its weightiness so CS Lewis is building out this idea of what heaven might look like based on the Hebrew word for glory cause those that everything is waiting and important when

24:42 the body come off the place of heaven there they're less substantial they're less real they're less glorified they're less waiting than the world that they live in or that they want to live in that they're moving forth so the grass hurts their feet because they're not substantial enough to bend the blades of grass the grass is more real they bend down the trunk pick a whole leaf that's falling on the ground and they can't lift it because the leaf is so in heaven is so much more substantial than they are they need to be changed from glory

25:15 into glory as they move towards the mountain they can see in the distance of mountains just glowing with this light and the message is so it's because of the king that sits on the throne that gives us the light and as you move towards the king your body and your essence is changed into sports more substantial and I was looking on the text read through remembering my granddad dying and read the notes of my friend that said make further and deeper towards the mountain may we go Paul is reminding us that the choices that you make bind us to

25:52 the cycles that get smaller and smaller or lift us up to who we will be forever bind us to the God that is good who gives good gifts so good they're hard to believe that he has set aside an eternity for me wagering forever with him the wages of sin is eternal life

26:26 I have been asking God that in the midst of all the opportunities seven decades in the 10 command means the money in the title and the leisure that in the midst of all the opportunities for hope and trust and faith I will put my faith in him the love me to protect me to provide for me to give me good things

27:02 because there is where I have it in my life nowhere I wonder why that maybe you could be that here hey Lord thank you that we get to be church together and reminded of your good news and stir up in the face of Abraham that amidst all the options as a capacity to believe in your existence your benevolence your mercy in your generosity and to see the gift of

27:37 those things that we might find eternal life now and forever with you in Jesus