Monday, October 29, 2012

Monday, October 29th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is John 11
Today's scripture focus is Romans 5:20-21

20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John Piper maintains that there are two things that need a remedy.....
One is our sinful nature that enslaves us to sin, and the other is our original guilt and condemnation that is rooted not first in our individual sinning but in our connection with Adam in his sin....The problem of our condemnation in Adam God remedies through justification in Christ. The problem of our corruption and depravity he remedies through sanctification by the Spirit. Or to put it another way: The problem of our legal guilt and condemnation before God is solved by his reckoning to us the righteousness Christ; and the problem of our moral defilement and habitual sinning is solved by his purifying us by the work of Spirit. The first remedy, justification, comes by imputed righteousness. The other, sanctification, comes by imparted righteousness. Justification is instantaneous; sanctification is progressive...

They are not identical, and they are not separable. Justification comes first by faith prior to any deeds done by us in righteousness. By this we are forgiven and put right with God legally. We are acquitted and counted righteous with Christ's righteousness. Then on the basis of this secure and reconciled standing with God, we are gradually transformed into the likeness of his Son by the Spirit. Justification and sanctification are inseparable because both are by faith. The faith that unites us to Christ for justification also breaks the power of sin in our lives. Woe to us if we try to get right with God by faith alone, and then try to become good people by some other means.
When we think about man's depravity and our legal condemnation in Adam, it does several things.  It makes us humble - morally and intellectually. We need something we cannot produce on our own, and our human minds cannot even fully comprehend this doctrine of original sin.  But the more we know about our fallen nature, the more grateful we become for our salvation.  As difficult as original sin is to comprehend, it does help us explain the world we live in and the universality of evil.  It also gives us insight on how government should be established - we are not good enough to govern ourselves, rather we are so bad that no one can be trusted with absolute power.  It should also produce in us compassion for others - we are all in the same boat of sin, all equally powerless to do anything about it on our own.  And, perhaps most importantly, the reality of original sin and the knowledge that salvation is through the grace of Christ alone, should motivate us in evangelism.


MacArthur reminds us of some important truths in these last two verses of Chapter 5...
A very interesting statement is made by F.F. Bruce. He says this, biblical scholar, "The law has no permanent significance in the history of redemption." Very interesting statement. "The law has no permanent significance in the history of redemption." There are only two things that have permanent significance in the history of redemption, only two. This is MacArthur talking to you. This is my own sense about this. One is the act of Adam, two is the act of Christ. For the act of Adam will be that which damns the lost forever. And the act of Christ is that which redeems the saved forever. They are the only two permanent elements in the history of redemption. The law is not one of them. The law was a complementary element. The law was a corollary. The law, if you will, was a temporary measure with a purpose that never was redemptive. The law does not damn people to hell and the law does not bring people to God. The law doesn't do either one of those things.

So what does the law do?

Sin obviously existed before the Mosaic law, because people died and death proves sin.  But God did not give us the Mosaic law to diminish sin.  In fact, according to v20, having the law actually incited sin.  It's like the forbidden fruit - as soon as something is forbidden, it becomes enticing and attractive to us.

The law also gave us an awareness of our own sin.

The law was not able to produce righteousness, it just made us aware of desperately we need it!  But, and this is quite interesting to me, once we received that righteousness in Christ, the law became a standard that we wanted to keep in order to outwardly manifest the righteousness we received.

To the sinner it manifested sin, to the righteous man it becomes the pleasure of his heart. Isn't that amazing? On the one hand, to the unregenerate it excites their sin, on the other hand it restrains their sin to the regenerate.

I love v20b.  When sin and evil increased, grace simply increased even more.  And just like the law incites sin for the lost, grace incites righteousness in the believer.  And grace overpowers sin.  Every. single. time.

And that's exactly what v21 reiterates.  Sin reigned in death.  Grace reigns in life. Grace met sin head on and defeated it. Grace becomes the controlling reality.

And how is this possible?  v21b.  through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Every one of us should bow before God in humiliating consciousness that we are vile sinners worthy of death. Every one of us should realize that apart from the work of Jesus Christ we would be doomed to eternity forever without God because God hates sin. But O my, where there was the reign of death, God came with His grace and overpowered that and death is overruled by life for all who believe in Jesus Christ.

What a tremendous promise, what a secure reality.  When we believe in what Jesus Christ has done for us, grace wins.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 6:1-4
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Luke 17:11-18:14

2 comments:

Miriam said...

I love this post. I am really enjoying exploring Romans a couple of verses at a time. I feel like I'm learning a lot about faith, grace, sin, justification... good stuff.

Tammy said...

I've been loving it too - learning sooo much!