|
December 3, 2000 John
Piper, Pastor |
Bethlehem
Baptist Church |
(Romans
6:14-19)
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Last week we tried to answer the
question raised by verse 14: What does it mean to be “under grace” but not
“under law”? My answer was that being “under law” means that we are bound to
make lawkeeping the righteousness by which God justifies us. “Under law” means
that justifying righteousness comes from our own lawkeeping. On the other hand,
being “under grace” means that our justification is a gift of grace on the
basis of Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s lawkeeping, Christ’s perfect obedience of faith
(including his atoning death). (See the 11-26-00 sermon.)
Now today’s question is: Why does
being “under grace” guarantee that sin will not master us? Notice the logic of
verse 14: “Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under
grace.” This is a promise: “Sin shall not be master over you.” It is not a
command like “Thou shalt not kill.” It is a promise of what must be and will be
for all who are under grace. We can tell this because verse 14 is given as the
basis of a command in verse 13: “Do not go on presenting the members of your
body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as
those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to
God.” That’s a command. Now verse 14 adds the reason: “For sin shall not be
master over you.”
This is the striking way that New
Testament ethics is structured. “Don’t let sin master you, because sin is not
going to master you.” If that strikes us as strange, which it does at first,
it’s because we come to the Bible with our man-centered bias toward
self-determination. In other words, we come with the bias that if the Bible
tells us to make a choice (like “don’t present your members to sin”), then in
the moment of that choice we, not God, have the final say. And if you come with
that bias – that genuine, responsible choice means ultimate self-determination
– the connection between verse 13 and verse 14 will probably make no sense.
Don’t yield to sin (verse 13) because
sin will not be master over you (verse 14).
But if you learn from Scripture to see
the sovereignty of God and the real responsibility of man in such a way that
God is ultimate and decisive, then this is the way you will learn to talk about
the choices of the Christian life: I choose not to let sin reign in my body, because God is at work in me and will
not let sin reign in my body (see Philippians 2:12-13; 3:12; 1 Corinthians
5:7).
Now keep in mind that we have seen
this same way of thinking already in verses 1-2. Romans 6:1-2: “What shall we
say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never
be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Do you see how Paul argues?
You can’t go on living in sin,
because when you were united to Christ by faith, you died with Christ to sin.
And so, since you can’t go on living
in sin, therefore don’t continue to
sin that grace may increase. You see the reasoning: Your death with Christ
ensures that sin will not be master over you. Therefore, don’t let it be master
over you. O may the Lord give us grace to adjust our thinking in line with
Biblical thinking!
So the question today is: Why does
being “under grace” ensure – guarantee – that sin will not be master over those
who are under grace? Verse 14: “Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under
grace.” What is it about being under grace that guarantees that sin will not be
master over us?
I will mention three things, two from the wider context of
Romans, one from the immediate context.
1. When we are under grace the wrath of
God is entirely removed from us, so that all God’s action toward us is saving
action.
All his power flows in the service of his mercy, and not the
service of his wrath or punishment. He is for us and not against us. Therefore
our chief enemy, sin, will not defeat us.
Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus” – that is, for those who are “under grace.” And what does
this imply about our future? Let Romans 8:31-32 answer: “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did
not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also
with Him freely give us all things?” In other words, if God did the hardest
thing in justifying us – putting us under grace – at the cost of his Son, then
he will do everything necessary to save us, including not letting sin be master
over us.
Being “under grace” means being out
from under wrath. And when we are out from under the wrath of God, all his
power stands in the service of his mercy to help do whatever it takes to get us
to glory (Romans 8:30). So the first answer is: being under grace guarantees
that sin will not be master over us because being under grace means being out
from under wrath, and having all the power of God on our side and not against
us.
2.
Second, when we are “under grace,”
paralyzing guilt that makes us hopeless in the fight with sin is taken away.
This was my argument from Romans 6:6b-7.
So I will not dig into it again here. Notice the last phrase in verse 6: “. . .
so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” That’s the goal we are after in
this chapter: real freedom from sinning. Then comes the foundation of this
liberty in verse 7: “For he who has
died is freed [literally: “justified”] from sin.” Which is the same as saying,
“For he is under grace, not under law.”
In other words, justification by faith alone is the foundation for not being a slave of sin. Which is another way of saying that being “under grace” is the foundation for not being a slave of sin. And the point I made some weeks ago was that one reason that some people are enslaved to sin is that they feel so hopeless they won’t even make the effort to change. That is what the teaching and the reality of justification by faith alone is meant to overcome. So the second reason we see that being “under grace” guarantees that sin will not be master over us is that being under grace means being out from under the kind of guilt that is so paralyzing and hope-defeating, we don’t even take up the fight with sin.
3.
Now, finally, when we are under
grace, God is at work in us to will and to do his good pleasure.
That’s a quote from Philippians 2:13,
but let me show it to you from the immediate context of Romans 6:14-19. The key
verse on this point is verse 17: “But thanks be to God . . .” Notice that
carefully. What is he going to thank God for? What has God done? “Thanks be to
God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to
that form of teaching to which you were committed (literally: to which you were
handed over).” What is he thanking God for? He is thanking God for their
obedience to the teaching of the apostles. And it is not mechanical, but “from
the heart.”
This is what happens under grace. When
the wrath of God is removed, and paralyzing guilt is taken away, the saving
work of God is sanctifying work. That is, God inclines your heart to obey the
form of teaching to which the apostles handed you over. “Thanks be to God that you became obedient” from the
heart!
You see this again in the wording of
verse 18. Notice the passive verbs. Who is doing the acting in these verbs:
“And having been freed from sin, you
became slaves of (literally: were
enslaved to) righteousness”? Here again it is God at work. God “freed” you
from sin. God “enslaved” you to righteousness.
So there are two supports for this
third point. When we are “under grace,” God works in us to do his will. That is
why sin will not be master over us if we are under grace. We see it first in
the words of verse 17: “Thanks be to God that you became obedient.” And we see
it secondly in the words of verse 18: We “were freed” (by God!) from sin and we
“were enslaved” (by God!) to righteousness. This was God’s doing and it is
marvelous in our eyes.
To sum up, then, we’ve been asking why
being “under grace” guarantees that sin will not be master over us. Reason one:
because under grace, the wrath of God is entirely removed and the power of God
flows to us in saving, helping, keeping mercy, not punishment. Reason two:
because under grace, paralyzing guilt is taken away and we are given hope that
it is worth it to fight sin. Reason three: because under grace God himself
comes into our lives and inclines our hearts away from sin and toward
righteousness.
So let me close with three short
exhortations.
1. Do not jump to the conclusion that
when Paul says, “Sin will not be master over us,” it means that we will be
perfect in this life. Paul makes plain in Philippians 3:12 that he is not
perfect nor has he already attained his goal, but he presses on. He says that
we are being changed from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).
And when we get to the struggling Paul of Romans 7, who says, “I do the very
thing I do not want to do,” we will see that even though he says sin is the
culprit (7:20), he takes responsibility for his complicity and says, “Wretched
man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (7:24). We
will not be perfect until we are transformed fully in the presence of Christ (1
John 3:2).
When Paul says that sin will not be
our master, he does not mean that the defeated and dethroned foe is driven from
the castle at once, but in stages, and the Christian life is to fight that
fight and to fight it as those whose victory is sure: “Sin will not sit on this
throne.”
2. When you hear that God is sovereign
and that he has guaranteed that those under grace will not be defeated by sin,
do not jump to the conclusion that the battle is a charade, and nothing hangs
on your choices. Don’t say, “Let us sin that grace may increase” (Romans 6:1).
Don’t say, “Let us sin because we are not under law but under grace” (Romans
6:15). In other words, don’t come to the Bible with the assumption: if it does
not depend on what I choose ultimately, it does not depend on what I choose at
all. That is man-centered, unbiblical thinking. Rather say, “Since it depends
on God ultimately, there is hope that I, a dead and hardened sinner, may choose
what is good and live a life pleasing to the Lord. Let the sovereignty of God
make you hopeful that change is possible, not passive as if no change were
necessary.
3. Finally, realize that Paul is
teaching us in this chapter how to live for the glory of God, not the glory of
ourselves. That is why God’s action is ultimate and ours is dependent on his.
That is why God doesn’t say, “Just do it.” It is why he says, “Because you are
under grace, do it.” And: “Because you have died with Christ, don’t do it.”
And: “Because you are enslaved to righteousness by God, do it.” “Just do it” is
man-centered. Do it because “God is at work in you to do it” is God-centered.
Putting it this way keeps the work of God front and center in your life. That
is where he will get the glory.
I close with the way Peter put it in 1
Peter 4:11, “Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so
that in all things God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the
glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
That’s our goal – the glory of God
through Jesus Christ. So, know that by faith you are “under grace,” not “under
law.” Therefore, sin will not be master of you. Fight it by faith because
victory is sure.
Copyright 2000 John Piper
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