Rom 6

Date: 19 February 2009 D – 2 days

I know it’s been a while and I can’t even blame it on being excessively busy :). The content of Chapter 6 has kept me deep in thought for a couple days. As always, when I first looked through the chapter, I did not have much to say but then, as I digested it day after day, it came more to life and I kept writing, revising, writing, revising etc… Without a doubt Romans 6 has been the most difficult chapter for me yet. Paul discusses sanctification in fairly simple terms and I have been forced to ponder my own sanctification and attempt to convey in it both personal and biblically accurate language.

I also have a deployment update, I will be flying out of Fort Hood on Saturday. I am driving up tomorrow to drop off my bags, returning to San Antonio tomorrow night to eat at the Brazilian Steakhouse, then driving back up to meet my parents at Cracker Barrel for breakfast at 0930 Saturday morning. We are going to eat breakfast until 1115 then head to base, draw my weapon and say our final goodbyes before I get on a bus to go to the final ceremony at 1 PM. Everyone has said how difficult the ceremony is and recommended against family coming so I decided to say my goodbyes before the ceremony and go with only my friend Matt. Matt is going to stay with me until I board the final bus for the airfield later that afternoon.

Events:

15 Feb: Marla and I went to church with my parents on Sunday. Church was great, the pastor spoken on 2nd Corinthians 4:3-6, “3 and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Pastor’s emphasis was on letting our Christian light shine in the darkness of our current world. He posed a legitimate question as to why the Jehovah Witnesses’ are so passionate about evangelism while we Christians are not. The answer is that they are working for their salvation whereas through faith Christians have the assurance of salvation apart from works of evangelism, sacraments or piety. With this assurance, however, has come an apathy that is more indicative of the “dead faith” that James spoke so strongly against than the true, biblical Christ exalting faith that we are to display. The assurance of salvation should never be an excuse to ignore the Law or avoid Christ’s example. Instead, the assurance of our salvation based on faith (apart from works) should give us the confidence to participate in all sorts of evangelism and good works as the threat of failure has been removed. True love and faith will inevitably produce good works. Those of us who struggle with evangelism do not need a simplified, practical guide to sharing the gospel like the “Romans Road” (see below), but a greater reverence for God’s Holiness, a deeper appreciation of the desperation of the human condition and an all consuming love for the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice. From this perspective true and heartfelt evangelism will inevitably spring that serves not to convince our neighbor but to magnify God. True love is unable to keep silent about the amazing grace given in Christ’s death. Acts 4:20, "for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." After Church we went out to lunch with my parents and then spent the rest of the day with Marla’s Parents, sister and clay…so much fun!

16 Feb: Marla went back over to her parent’s house to spend time with Clay while I hung out with my parents for the morning. We went to Lupe Tortilla’s (my all-time favorite restaurant) for lunch and then headed back to San Antonio. Got home at 7 unloaded and went to bed early.

17 Feb: We got up early and drove up to Fort Hood so that I could check in and make sure I was available if needed. We took Sadie so we stopped a couple times to play, it was great. While I was up at Hood, I went through all the labs that had been ordered in my name to make sure I’m not missing something before I leave and I got quite a shock. Many weeks ago, I wrote about a complicated patient that I was asked to help out with. She had been admitted to the hospital in November for a kidney infection, discharged but had continued to feel extremely weak and had many seemingly unrelated symptoms the worst of which was a severe chest pain that seemed to be neuropathic (created by dysfunctional nerve) as it was burning, topical and painful to the touch almost like shingles without any blisters. I ordered a bunch of labs and Imaging studies and threw in a test for Lyme disease for Marla’s sake because she watches Mystery Diagnosis and says Lyme disease is always the answer. Lyme disease is rare and very difficult to diagnose. Lyme, like syphilis, is known as “the great imitator” because it can present with almost any and every symptom imaginable. So, when I’m completely stumped, before I label someone as crazy (as the ER had this lady) I start testing for the odd-ball stuff that physicians don’t typically think of…Lyme, Syphilis, Lupus, heavy metal poisoning etc. Lo-and-behold, the tests revealed the patient has been suffering from acute Lyme disease. I will hopefully be able to treat her with 10 days of a special antibiotic. It’s pretty rewarding to make a catch like this especially after everyone has missed it. Thanks mystery diagnosisJ!

18 Feb: We had a relaxing day around the house. I had a great weight workout then went to a killer Pilate’s class, then proceeded to another couples massage that was awesome. I have resolved to enjoy these last couple days around San Antonio so last night we went out to one of my favorite restaurants Sushi Zushi then watched American Idol and my favorite show Heroes (I know, I sound like Oprah).

Bible:

Rom 6

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bible Thoughts:

1. In Romans 6, Paul continues to move systematically through soteriology (doctrine of salvation). As a great example of evangelism, Paul first established our need-- In Romans 1-2 Paul demonstrated that first we “gentiles” (Rom 1), then Jew (Rom 2) are alike victims of sin. Then in Rom 3 Paul explains that the Law given to Moses (Ten Commandments and 603 other rules) is in-fact impossible to keep and never meant to justify (make right before God) but meant only to enumerate how far from God’s standard both Jew and Gentile had fallen. In the later half of Romans 3 the Gospel is presented… we are sinners, in need of a foreign (not our own, i.e. Christ’s) goodness that is granted not secondary to our good works but by a God given saving faith that recognizes first our debt (sin) and secondly the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice to pay that debt. Romans 4 is then posed as a defense that salvation has always been through Faith (with Abraham as the example, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as Righteousness) and not through work or ritual. We see a shift in Romans 5 that continues for the rest of the Letter. In the first 4 Chapters of the letter, Paul has focused on our Justification, that is, the Gospel. However in Chapter 5 we see a shift towards the teaching of sanctification and doctrine. Sanctification is a big word for spiritual maturity. In Romans 5, Paul demonstrates one of suffering’s many purposes…our sanctification as exemplified in turning from false hope/ assurance in the worlds flawed relationships, comforts and material goods to a correctly placed hope in the one relationship that will not fail (Christ), the reward and hope that can never be taken away, our eternal life in the Glory of God. In the latter half of chapter 5, Paul introduces the doctrine of Original Sin and sin’s systemic effect on natural man’s will from birth to death. Paul then moves into Chapter 6 where he again announces good (but this time challenging) news that through our Faith in Christ, we are no longer victims of the original/systemic sin, we are no longer under the dominion of this original sins compulsion to value ourselves above God. Having been freed from our compulsion to sin, our sanctification plays out in our lives as we repent and flee from all of the sins that we were “entangled in” when we first believed and cling stronger and stronger to the Gospel. This is the fruit that Jesus speaks of when he says, “By their fruit, you will judge them for it is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit or a bad tree to bear good fruit.” And why James says,”faith without works is dead.” We are saved by “faith alone but not faith that is alone.” Meaning, at justification (when we first believed) we inherit salvation that can never be earned or lost by works but this salvation will invariably produce evidence in a God fearing, Christ loving conformity to the way of life that the bible ordains. With Christ’s imputed (given) righteousness at salvation we are also given the Holy Spirit who works inside us to convict us of our sinful disobedience, leading us out of the life we lived to ourselves and into the life that we will more and more live for Christ—by loving his law. Chapter 6 emphatically pushes the new believer to leave the sin in their lives and instead exemplify the truth that they have been set free from this bondage to sin.
The reason that I have gone through this lengthy summary is the importance of discriminating justification (found in chapter 1-4) from sanctification and doctrine (Chapters 5-16). Paul flows seamlessly between the two and the distinction while dramatically apparent as you read through the letter in one sitting is not as apparent when we spend a day per chapter. It is vitally important not to confuse the two or else we will never feel the assurance and peace of Christ that Paul promises in justification. The explosion that occurred in the protestant reformation was a direct result of Luther’s rediscovery of the distinction between these two doctrines and righting confusion between justification and sanctification that had defined the 16th Century church. Luther, trained as a lawyer, understood the Law. As I have discussed before, it is only through knowledge of the bad news (law and condemnation) that the gospel is valued as Good news. Luther felt the daily condemnation of the law and, as was taught by the church, would spend hours in confession every day in order to ensure that he had repented from all sin that would have condemned him to hell. When he had finished confessing all of his sins, he would feel good for a couple minutes until he walked out of the confessional and saw the rest of the Monks then pride would well up inside, landing him straight back in the confessional. Luther was every priests nightmare as he would occupy the majority of their day. Because the church had confused justification with sanctification, Luther came to hate God. Luther despised a God that had set the standard so high that he could not go one minute assured of his salvation, instead having a great understanding of Romans 1,2 and 3, the only thing that he felt assured of was the vileness of this own soul. The problem with the catholic church of the 16th century is the problem with the catholic church of today…they have confused justification with sanctification. Justification is the moment we are declared once and for all righteous and inherit eternal life. This occurs at the moment that we truly believe the Gospel and it is a gift of God not based on our works. This gift, imparted at one moment in time (for me August of 1999) assures us that no matter what we do, as long as our true faith endures (again a gift of God) we are saved. We refer to justification as both “forensic” and “monergistic.” The term forensic refers to the courtroom-like nature of justification where the sinner is declared righteous one-time for all-time. There is no process of falling out of salvation then repenting (working) our way back in, instead we are declared righteous by faith in Christ’s work and as we did nothing to earn this salvation, we can do nothing to lose this salvation. The Monergistic nature of justification refers to the fact that there is one party working—God. We do not work with God to earn our salvation; it is God who gives both the righteousness of the gospel and the faith to believe the gospel. Of vital importance though is to distinguish this forensic, monergistic justification from the synergistic sanctification. The synergism of sanctification is what Paul will spend Romans 6 and 7 discussing. The term synergism refers to the two parties (God and Man) working synergistically towards the believers spiritual maturity. God gives us the grace and conviction to know the right from wrong but what we actually do is up to our newly freed will. This is a bumpy road; some describe it as a roller coaster, as the flesh (old sin) wars with the newly imputed Holy Spirit. Since, in justification, we have been set free from our compulsion to sin, we are now free like never before to follow the Holy spirits conviction away from sin leading to maturity or follow the flesh’s desire (no longer a compulsion) towards sin and immaturity. The importance of discriminating justification from sanctification though is fundamental to the assurance and strength that we find in the gospel. As we are being sanctified, no matter what we do, we never lose our justification. As Luther rediscovered this truth in the 16th century through his study of the scripture and earlier Catholic tradition, his spirit was refreshed, he realized that he no longer needed to spend hours a day repenting of his thousands of sins and then his pride when he was done, instead he realized that his salvation was secured in the justification that rested in Christ’s work. He was then free to truly love God and keep the law as never before realizing that the law had been given out of love and meant for his good (maturity) not his condemnation.

2. Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? The fleshly argument goes, if my blackness magnifies God’s grace i.e. the more I sin, the more God’s grace abounds, then why not go on sinning. Anyone able to pose this argument is in a very dangerous place as Paul says in Romans 3, “Their condemnation is deserved”. As we discussed in Romans 5, the evidence that we have a true and saving faith is that we develop a love for God’s law. The person that poses this argument comes from a perspective of a greater love for his sin than for God. This is an irrational argument that clings to sin and ignores the vast amount of biblical regulation to love God in action by following the law. And following the law is a matter of loving the law. Treating God’s law as sacred not with resentment. As I have said before, through the punishment and condemnation of the law has been removed for those who possess a saving faith, the offense (i.e. the pain) our sin causes the Father is likely magnified as through faith, we have become not strangers but children of God. It is, of course, far more painful when your very own child disobeys and rebels against you than a stranger who knows no better. If we value the love and forgiveness that our Father has granted us through the gruesome crucifixion of his son then the above argument would be incomprehensible.

3. 10 For the death he died he (Christ) died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. The “all” here (Greek: ephapax) refers to all time not all people. Christ’s death destroyed sin’s curse on the faithful that temporally preceded him and sin’s reign over the faithful that would temporally followed him. Now that Christ has died and in doing so ended our compulsion to sin, we are able, like him, to live a life of joy devoted to the one eternally satisfying occupation of glorifying God in our daily relationships and vocation.

4. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. As we discussed in Roman’s 5, we are no longer under the dominion of the total/radical depravity of Adam’s Original sin and corruption of our will, instead we have been monergistically (God alone) redeemed to synergistically (God and I) work out our sanctification using our bodies the instruments of righteousness they have been freed to become or instruments of unrighteousness that our bodies were formally slaves to. As Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” Matt 6:24. It should be impossible after we have tasted the sweetness forgiveness and lived for a moment without guilt to willingly sin again, so why does it seem so hard?

5. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. Notice that Paul here does not say, “present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to justification,” but “leading to sanctification.” This is further evidence (as if you needed more) supporting the truth of the graph on the left depicting a once and for all justification (salvation), followed by a stepwise effort-based sanctification, versus the graph on the right. Truly, works have a place in the Christian faith but not in our salvation, only in our maturity, some would say our varying degrees of heavenly reward. As an example, I would like to share how sanctification has played out in my life. Though my eternal salvation is secured in Christ and I have great confidence in my heavenly welcome-home party, out of love for God and hate for the sin that lives inside me, every day it seems I battle from the opening of my eyes in the morning to their closing at night to remove the plank. ( “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” Matt 7:3-5) It seems there are a million points in my day when I can decide to follow God’s will of follow my own. As the “Force” in Skywalker was strong, so the sin within me is strong. Each day I battle for patience with my wife, caution with my eyes and mouth, correct motive in good, correct attribution of thanks for blessings (God not luck) and to live joyfully and thankful in every moment. Every moment is a war to control my flesh. Far from worrying about the good that I may do tomorrow as some of my more sanctified brothers are able to do, I have enough sin to overcome in a day to keep me busy all week. I have far too much sin to overcome to ever be in a position to judge my neighbor. Therein is the heart of sanctification, as the Holy Spirit continues to demonstrate to me how sinful my heart and worthless my life, my love of Christ, my thankfulness for Calvary explode. So it is with sanctification, as sin is more and more revealed in my life, I am driven to the depths of humility (first element), at the same time my view of God is growing through biblical learning and experience (second element) leaving an ever widening chasm that is filled by the third element of sanctification, an ever increasing appreciation of Christ’s sacrifice that bridges the gap between my humility and God’s infinite worth. The biblical view of sanctification echo’s John the Baptist’s instructions to his disciples, “He must increase, but I must decrease" John 3:30. If ever in our walk with Christ we begin to feel our self esteem or worth increasing apart from the death of Christ, we deceive ourselves and are actually backsliding. Far from self-glorifying, sanctification and all Christian growth for that matter, is Christ-glorifying. It is a devaluation of the self and magnification of God’s holiness and Christ’s work in our lives. From this we can find our esteem in the great love of Christ for our sinful hearts.

6. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? Many have said, “Live your life before an audience of One.” No matter if we are completely alone or surrounded by a hundred people, there is only One significant, important audience always watching. If the world disapproves (as promised) of what we do but God approves we are to have no shame, but what the world condones and God condemns, with the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we become greatly ashamed. Throughout the New Testament there is promise that nothing is kept secret from God. “36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” Matt 12:36…”for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Matt 10:26”…”13 and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” Heb 4:13. Much to my dismay, when my good friend and Pastor Dave Phillips died, I felt a new sense of shame over my sins. It was as if I was unashamed of my secret sins committed against and before God’s holiness, but now that Dave may be checking in on me, I needed to get my act together. The moment that I felt this new conviction, I realized the utter irrationality of it and was ashamed that after 6 yrs of walking with Christ of how far short of a mustard seed my faith had “grown” to be. What did it say of my faith in the majesty and holiness of God that I would fear Dave’s opinion and judgment of my secret sins over God’s? While I realized I wasn’t moving any mountains with my faith, this saga was incredibly humbling and forced me to acknowledge how little faith in God’s omnipresence and coming judgment I actually had and how great I valued man’s judgment over God’s. Therein is the heart of sanctification, a series of disappointments with the self leading to an ever increasing view of God’s holiness and continuous filling of the created void with the sufficiency of the cross.

7. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the third step to the famous “Roman’s Road” (sort of an Idiot’s Guide to sharing the Gospel). If you are ever brain fart when someone wants biblical proof of the true gospel just pull out these 5 verses.

a. Step 1: Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” We must all realize that we are sinners and that we need forgiveness. We are not worthy of God’s grace.
b. Step 2: Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Through Jesus, God gave us a way to be saved from our sins. God showed us His love by giving us the potential for life through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.
c. Step 3: Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If we remain sinners, we will die. However, if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and repent of our sins, we will have eternal life.
d. Step 4: Romans 10:9-10 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved.
e. Step 5: Romans 10:13 “For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” There are no necessary religious formulas or rituals -- Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

Sun Tzu:

“Therefore, in a chariot battle, reward the first to capture at least ten chariots…if you reward everyone, there will not be enough to go around, so you offer a reward to one in order to encourage everyone.”

The Intellectual Devotion (Kidder, D. & Oppenheim N. The Intellectual Devotion, Rodale. NY, NY 2006):

Byzantine Art: The Byzantine Empire takes it’s name from the city of Byzantium, renamed Constantinople in the 4th century by the Emperor Constantine, who moved his court there from Rome. Today the city is known as Istanbul. The subject of most Byzantine art is religious, Biblical narratives and idealized representations or icons, of holy figures predominate. The goal was less to represent the actual likeness of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or saint than to capture his or her spiritual essence. Shunned were the nude figures and life size sculptures of the Greco-Roman culture. Byzantine architecture is typified by the use of domes resting on pendentives giving the illusion of weightlessness. In Byzantium, religious images were worshiped with such passion that in 726 the emperor placed a ban on icons, claiming they led to idolatry. For nearly a century all images of Christ and Mary were prohibited. The so-called iconoclasts (image-destroyers) obliterated such images wherever they could find them. Later, the opposition party, the iconophiles with the assistance of the pope had the ban repealed in 843.