Romans 6:15-23 - Saving faith wants to please God

Good morning, church. Let's read together. This is Romans 6, verses 15 to 23.

Romans 6:15–23

! Slaves to righteousness. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?

By no means. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey?

Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God, that though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations.

Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness, leading to holiness.

When you are slaves to sin, you are free from the control of righteousness.

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?

Those things result in death.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

That's great. Thank you, Elle. Let's pray together as we come to God's word. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we want to pray and ask for your help now as we come to your word.

We come as hungry people who want to feast on the delights of your truth.

So we pray, please, that you would give us attentive hearts, that you would give us open ears,

for me to speak clearly and faithfully, that you might be honoured and that we all might be done good, we pray.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

We are back in the book of Romans after our Christmas break, and we are landing in the middle of chapter 6.

So what I am going to do, under the sort of suspicion that you might have forgotten all that we looked at previously,

is I'm going to try and give you a little bit of a catch-up so that we know where we are in the book of Romans.

I want you to imagine with me for a moment that you are the headteacher of a school,

one of those schools that says good school on the outside, you know, or maybe even outstanding school on the outside.

If you're going to be the headteacher of one of those schools, what is it that is going to make it a good school or an outstanding school?

Let me suggest that you have to insist on two things, probably more, but for the sake of this, two things.

One is that you have to, as the headteacher of a good school, insist that disobedient children are punished, held to account.

Students in a good school, if they punch the teacher, if they don't hand in their homework, if they abuse the other children,

they will be disciplined. Probably not with a stick, you are not allowed to do that anymore,

but maybe with a detention or maybe with removal from class.

Good schools do not tolerate bad behavior from their pupils.

But as well as punishing disobedience, the other thing as a headteacher that you will need to be committed to

is some sort of moral agenda for the school, some kind of way that you want the school to be,

that the values that that school is going to have, you might write them on a banner and stick them around the hall,

the expectations that you're going to have of the students, we're going to be generous,

we're going to be kind, we're going to be tolerant of one another,

we're going to be thoughtful, whatever it is.

Now, you might not call it that, but those two things, those two things of discipline and a sort of moral agenda,

theologically, those two categories are justice and holiness.

Justice, a commitment to punish wickedness, and holiness, a pattern of right living.

And the Bible is really clear from the beginning to the end that God, not as the headteacher of a good school,

but as the creator and lord over this world that he has made, is committed to justice,

he holds the world to account.

And he's committed to holiness, because there is a way to live that pleases him.

He has a culture.

He has a pattern for life that he insists on.

And Romans 1 and 2 presents us then with a massive problem,

a problem that we all feel and all know deep down,

which is that we ourselves have disobeyed this God of justice and holiness.

And more than just that,

our offense against the God of justice and holiness is so bad

that it is not possible for us to satisfy his justice

by a commitment to future holiness.

This is really important.

Listen up.

Go back to school again.

Let me try and imagine

that you're actually a pupil in the school rather than the headteacher.

And your offense is not so much that you didn't hand your homework in.

If that was your offense, right,

and you were given an after-school detention for not handing your homework in,

you might be able to go to the headteacher

and sit down in that detention and say,

listen, this is, you know, I know I deserve this,

but can I just plead for your mercy?

If I promise that I will do all future homeworks,

will you let me off this detention?

Imagine the headteacher might say,

well, you know, that's a, it is a minor offense.

I will let you off.

But imagine if your offense was greater than that.

Imagine you'd lurked outside the school,

mugged the headteacher, stolen his car,

locked him out of his office and broken into his home.

What would you then be able to do?

Surely you can see that you are not going to be able

to hand in future homework to satisfy his justice.

He wouldn't believe you even if you said it.

And Romans 1 and 2 tell you that this is our problem with God.

It is not so much that we've just committed a few minor moral offenses

that we could perhaps atone for by a pledge of future holiness.

Rather, the issue is that we have lived in God's world

with no reference to him.

We have tried to overthrow God and his rule.

We have taken the place that we've reserved for God

and put ourselves in it.

We have become self-centered instead of God-centered.

We've put our desires ahead of his desires.

We've lived as if our lives were from us and for us and to us

when really they're from him, for him, and to him.

And so now you understand, don't you,

we cannot offer to satisfy God's justice

by a commitment to future holiness.

God, if I obey you from now on, will you forgive me for the things

that I've done in the past?

It doesn't work because our offense is too great.

You cannot pitch God's holiness against his justice like that.

So we have a problem with God's justice.

And the focus of Romans 3, 4, and 5 is how is a God of justice

ever going to be satisfied by people like us?

How can condemnation-deserving people like us

ever be saved by a God of justice without him ceasing to be just?

And Paul's point has been that God in Christ has solved this problem.

He himself has satisfied justice.

Andrew referenced this earlier.

In Romans chapter 3, Paul writes,

Romans 3 · chapter mention

we are justified freely by his grace

through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

In other words, God in Christ has offered free satisfaction

for his justice, released from guilt as a free gift,

received by faith, whereby you and I can be declared not guilty.

Not because God is lying or cooking the moral books or anything,

but because we've received it by faith

through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.

An empty hand of a new heart that receives what it could never earn.

That's Romans 3, 4, and 5.

God's justice satisfied.

But when we come to chapter 6,

there needs to be more than just the satisfaction of God's justice

because God is also holy.

He is committed to holiness.

Go back to school again and just see what I mean.

Imagine that you're that child that mugged the head teacher,

took his office, stole his car, plundered his house,

and now you're sat with him,

and through some means that we don't need to explain,

he has forgiven you.

Justice has been satisfied.

And you sit there, it has been offered to you freely.

There's no price left to pay.

But the question now is, what are you going to do now?

What about holiness?

What's going to stop this forgiven kid from running back to the classroom

and causing further havoc?

What's to say this kid won't rob the head teacher again?

What's to say he won't do something worse?

Satisfying justice is one thing,

but what about a commitment to holiness?

Where's that going to come from?

Those are the questions of Romans 6, 7, and 8.

You might remember, if you were with us,

that this question was asked at the beginning of Romans 6.

Take a look at Romans 6, verse 1.

Romans 6:1

Paul writes there, what should we say then?

If God's justice is satisfied,

and we've been released back into the world,

if you like, released back to the classroom,

shall we go on sinning that grace may increase?

Really, the question there is,

is there just an endless loop?

You know, the rebellious sinner is sent back into the world,

forgiven by grace,

goes back into the world, rebels some more,

comes back to receive some more grace,

goes back into the world, rebels some more,

and just goes around this endless loop.

Well, the answer that we saw last time,

Romans 6, verse 11,

Romans 6:11

the very first instruction in the book of Romans,

no, it's not the answer.

That's not what happens,

because we should count ourselves dead to sin

and alive to God.

One, I am dead.

Two, I will be alive.

In other words, this is the key to all this.

The faith that receives forgiveness from the Lord Jesus

is not an intellectual persuasion of an unchanged person,

but it is the life breath of a new heart

that has been made alive by God himself,

and that life longs to live.

We were dead.

We're now being made alive.

So the child returning to the classroom

is not just forgiven,

but in receiving forgiveness has been made new.

They're a new person,

and this new person wants to live for God.

The sin loop is broken.

Now, that's Romans 6, verses 1 to 14,

Romans 6:1–14

and now, at the start of our passage

that El just read for us,

in chapter 6, verse 15,

there is a very similar,

but slightly different question.

Look down at it with me.

What, then?

Here the concern is not so much about an endless loop of sin and grace,

but rather if we are saved by grace and not by obedience,

then what will teach us obedience?

If the law, if God's rules which were over us,

and they were showing us where we were going wrong,

if they are no longer binding on us and over us in that sense,

how will we know what to do?

Now, again, just go back to the headteacher's office for a moment.

Imagine you've been forgiven for your offense of mugging the headteacher

and have been returned to the classroom.

You know, don't you, then,

that your relationship with the headteacher

is not based on your works, but on his kindness to you.

That's how you've related to him.

You related to him in a way that doesn't reflect what you do

because you did the worst,

but a way which reflects who he is, which is kind.

So that his rules and his pattern of holiness

is not the basis on which he's related to you.

You were liberated from that.

He related to you by his kindness

and not your rule keeping.

So if that's the case, the question in your mind is,

if rule keeping doesn't rule my relationship

with the headteacher, what am I supposed to do?

How do I live?

If the spell of the law has been broken,

if you put it that way,

what is left to teach me?

What's the incentive?

What's the motivation to behave well

if my behavior doesn't secure my relationship

with the headteacher?

And that's the question here.

If you're justified by grace

and the law, rules for obedience,

had nothing to do with it,

then the law is defunct.

There's nothing left to teach you how to live.

So do we just sin because we don't know what to do?

Are we destined just to be ignorant of God's holy ways?

That's the question we're asking this morning.

Now let's take a breath, right?

I realize that the danger this morning

is all this is very theoretical,

perhaps a little intense.

Maybe you're sitting there thinking

this feels like a philosophy lecture and not a sermon.

Actually, I've never been to a philosophy lecture,

so I don't know, but maybe it does.

But perhaps you're struggling to connect

with what's been said.

I know what it's like to be sat where you're sat,

and I know that ultimately we are hungry, aren't we,

to hear what God says from his word.

And going on in our minds are all the different troubles

and struggles that we've had this week

and which we're anticipating next week.

You know, we've got the rent to pay.

We've got the worries about work.

We've got the relationship struggles.

I don't want to hear about teachers and detentions

and, you know, theories about justice and holiness.

I just want to hear what God says to me,

and I just want to be encouraged this morning.

Listen, if that's you, maybe that is,

I mean, it's really, it's all of us, isn't it?

Let me just try and say to you

that these aren't abstract ideas.

These are urgent truths.

The truth is, I think, if you don't have good answers

to the questions of Romans 6,

if you don't know the connection

between being saved by Jesus

through his grace and his mercy

and living a holy life

to keep pleasing him,

if you don't know the connection between those two,

you will not know how to live the Christian life

wherever it is that you're living it.

If you don't know how the grace of forgiveness

relates to the work of holiness

in which we're engaged,

life will be a mystery to you, right?

We won't know what difference

being a Christian makes to us on Monday morning

or when we cook the dinner on Tuesday night.

I don't want to overstate it.

Preachers can overstate things, can't they?

Vanessa accuses me of that from time to time.

Are you just talking like a preacher, Steve,

or is it really that bad?

I don't want to overstate it.

But I think it is fair to say

that many of the sort of ground level struggles

that we have in our Christian life

are because we don't understand this.

So many churches, you know,

bigger churches than ours,

go wrong in answering this question.

And it screws up the life of the people there.

So listen up, because this is really, really important.

I want to show you firstly the big idea.

The big idea.

Look down with me at the passage.

Let's see how Paul answers the question.

Verse 15, let's start again.

What then?

Shall we sin because we are no longer under the law,

but under grace?

Are we just going to do whatever we want

because we don't know what to do?

By no means.

Don't you know that when you offer yourself

to someone as obedient slaves,

you are slaves of the one you obey?

Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death,

or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin,

you have come to obey from your heart

the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

You have been set free from sin

and have become slaves to righteousness.

Notice the big idea then.

The grace that forgives does not leave us

without a concern for holiness

because grace, the grace that forgives,

is both about a transfer of ownership

and a transformation of desire.

This is the language, isn't it, here?

It's the language of slavery.

Really the idea of belonging.

It wasn't strange in the first century in Rome

for people to own other people and dictate what they did.

Now, Paul is not condoning that.

He's just using it for an illustration.

And his point is that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

experienced in salvation, received by faith,

has liberated us from the master of sin,

from slavery to sin.

But no longer to go our own way,

but rather transferred our ownership to obedience,

the ownership of God.

And so now we obey not to earn forgiveness

because fundamentally we now belong to God.

But there's more to it than just that.

Because being transferred from the ownership of sin

to the ownership of God himself

also comes with a transformation of desire.

Notice it, verse 17.

We now obey from the heart the pattern of teaching

which has now claimed our allegiance.

Here it is then, our experience of the saving work

of Jesus Christ, our faith in him,

which comes from these new hearts

that he's given us by the Spirit,

that comes with a whole new set of desires.

So that obedience is no longer external obedience

to a set of external rules

with the hope of receiving merit,

but an internal desire on an internal law

that's written on our hearts,

driven by a love of the Lord.

Let me try and explain how this works.

Imagine in the classroom,

there is a set of rules on the wall, right?

Hand in your homework on time.

Don't stand on the desks.

Address the teacher with respect.

Wear a tie.

Okay?

These are the school rules.

They're on the wall.

Imagine three different students looking at those rules.

Number one is only really interested

in getting their own way.

They're a rebel, right?

So they read the rules and they go,

I hate this school.

I hate being here.

This list of rules is the way that I can ruin this school

and I can show my rebellion against the school.

So I read, hand your homework in time.

What am I going to do?

I am definitely never going to hand my homework in time.

That's definitely not what I'm going to do.

It says, don't stand on the desk.

So what am I going to do?

I'm going to stand on the desks.

I know that will offend them.

Address the teacher with respect.

So I will swear at the teacher.

I will wear a hoodie instead of a tie to school.

Do you see the thing?

They're a rebel.

They want their own way.

So they read the rules and they go,

this is what I rebel against to get my own way,

to be my own person.

But suppose there's another child in the class

and that child, they really want to be a doctor or a lawyer,

something fancy, right?

And they've worked out, listen,

the best way for me to be who I want to be,

a doctor or a lawyer or whatever it is,

the best way for me to be that person

and get to be who I really want to be

is to keep the rules, right?

So they read, hand your homework in.

And they think, well, the best way for me to become a doctor

is for me to hand my homework in on time.

So I'm going to hand my homework in time.

I know that the best thing for me to do

is not offend or upset the teacher.

So I'm going to keep those rules.

Do you see that between those two students,

there's no difference in their motives?

Both of them want their own way.

Both of them are mastered by their own desires.

One of them is persuaded that rebelling against the rules

is the best way to do that.

And one of them is persuaded that keeping the rules

is the best way to do that.

But there is no difference.

And that's what it's like in this world, right?

Like humanity says to God, I want to be in charge.

I want my own way.

I want to control my own destiny.

I want to live as if you're not here.

And it's as if the law says to people,

as if God's law in the Old Testament says to people,

listen, here you go then.

This is the operating system of the universe.

This is how you need to live.

And the rebels go, well, if that's what you say we need to do,

I'm going to do the opposite, God.

I'm going to do whatever I want to do.

I'm going to go my own way.

And other people, often religious people, go,

well, if that's the operating system of the universe,

then I will keep that.

And then you will have to do what I tell you to do, God.

But both of them are mastered by their own desires.

Both are wicked.

Both are selfish.

But imagine a third child in the classroom.

That child has just received forgiveness,

free forgiveness for mugging the headteacher,

robbing his house, taking over his office.

And the receipt of that forgiveness has come with transforming power

and transformed desires.

They were owned by themselves,

and they're now owned by the forgiving affection of the headteacher.

They're on his team.

How do they read the rules?

Well, they read them and go, do you know what?

I love this teacher.

The headteacher loves me.

He is full of mercy, kindness.

He's forgiven me a debt I could never pay.

I want to please that headteacher.

And so the rules are not over me to earn anything,

but they're a guide as to what pleases God himself.

So I'm going to do my best to hand my homework in.

I'm going to sit in my chair.

I'm going to respect the teacher and wear a tie,

because that is what I want to do,

because I want to please him.

Now that's it.

Saving faith, the faith that receives justification,

satisfaction for God's justice through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That faith wants to please God.

Not in an effort to get what it wants,

but because it loves him,

because it's alive to him,

because it's grateful to him,

to be owned by him.

So it reads the scriptures,

it scours the law,

it shapes its life around it,

because it longs to live in a way that pleases God,

that makes him smile.

And here's the point.

It is only that kind of obedience that pleases God,

because all other kinds of obedience are selfish.

It's why the writer of the Hebrews says,

without faith, it's impossible to please the Lord.

Because keeping the rules,

while at the same time sort of flipping God off in your heart,

is not good, it's wicked.

Let me speak to you this morning,

if perhaps you're not a Christian,

and you assume that you can keep a certain set of rules

and get God off your back,

and he will do what you want him to do.

Let me tell you, that is not how this works.

That is selfishness.

That is flipping God off,

while also trying to keep his rules.

It doesn't go together.

Actually, what we need is a new heart,

a heart of faith,

that receives from God his free forgiveness,

and then loves to live to please him.

That's the big idea here.

Faith comes with a new ownership,

and new ownership comes with new desire.

There is also a big instruction.

So let's see this in verse 19.

Look down at verse 19.

Paul writes,

This is the do this moment of the passage.

This is the application.

If you're making notes,

this is what I am to do

as a result of what I've learned this morning.

Here it is.

Offer yourself as a slave to righteousness

leading to holiness.

Notice how Paul explains it.

He draws a parallel, doesn't he,

between our previous commitment

to impurity and wickedness,

and our new commitment to holiness.

You see, prior to our forgiveness

received through transforming faith,

we offered ourselves to wickedness.

That's how he put it.

In other words,

we took every opportunity

for self-exaltation,

every opportunity to get ahead,

to get our own way.

We were ambitious for our own success,

for our own crown.

We would do whatever it took

to get ahead of the crowd.

We were interested in ourselves,

in our own plans, our own desires.

We would sacrifice to them.

We would go without sleep and without food

if we thought it meant

that we would get what we wanted for ourselves.

We would live in poor conditions.

We would compromise our consciences.

We would break the rules

just to get on an extra rung

of the ladder of the glory of me.

But now we're to swap all that out.

Holiness in the life of the believer

sees what God has done,

that God has transformed us and owned us.

That faith is not just the empty hand

that receives the free gift of forgiveness

and justification from Jesus,

but is also a life force,

a driving new desire to please God.

So now I sacrifice.

I take up my cross.

I endure hardship and loss,

but not for my glory or my fame,

but for God's.

I'm following Jesus.

Wherever he takes me, I will go.

Whatever will drive me deeper into him,

further on with him,

that's what I'm going to do.

If that means I'm going to go

against the pattern of this world,

I will go against the pattern of this world.

If it means that my friends

all go in one direction

and I go in the other direction,

I will do it.

If it means that God leads me

to a country not my own

and to a people not my own,

I will go.

If it means that God asks me

to love my wife,

care for my kids,

belong to church,

read my Bible,

love people different from me,

share the Lord's Supper

with people with whom

I only have Christ in common,

I will do it.

If it means leading an anonymous life,

living under the radar,

a life of quiet generosity,

prayerful love of a small group of people,

a lifetime of witness to a community

that doesn't know a savior,

I will do it.

Not in my strength for my glory,

but for Christ and in the strength

that faith in him brings.

Lord, I am yours.

Take me and use me.

I'm reading a really helpful book

at the moment called Ordinary

by a guy called Michael Horton.

And in that book,

he quotes someone

who is describing

the particular challenge

that she faces

in her Christian life.

She spent much of her earlier years

as a young person

on mission in South America

working with street children.

And now she finds herself at home

looking after her own children.

And she says that it is taking

more spiritual courage and faith

to love her husband,

listen to her kids,

tell the same stories

over and over again,

wash the dishes,

get home ready for another day

than it did to pick up sticks

and go and work in South America.

That's it here, right?

The call of Romans 6

is not the call to be brilliant.

The call is not to change the world.

God has that covered, right?

The call is to surrender

and hand it all over to him.

To lay down your crown

and take up your cross.

You know, anyone can build

some kind of Christian version

of fame and self-fulfillment.

People do that all the time.

But that's not holiness.

Instead, the faith-fueled

Christian life says to the Lord,

all the glory belongs to you

and so do I.

Take me and use me.

I offer myself to you.

That's the instruction.

Offer yourself to God.

Finally, though,

there's a big incentive.

Look down at verses 20 to 23.

When you were slaves to sin,

you were free

from the control of righteousness.

But what benefit did you reap

at the time from the things

you are now ashamed of?

Those things result in death.

But now that you have been

set free from sin

and have become slaves of God,

the benefit you reap

leads to holiness

and the result is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God

is eternal life

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I think Paul here

is anticipating

some kind of objection, isn't he?

Listen, this idea of

being an obedient slave to God,

that sounds kind of dangerous, right?

That idea sounds

almost sort of scary.

Why am I going to give up so much?

I would understand

a commitment to holiness

in order to earn salvation.

That equation makes sense to me.

But holiness is surrendered

to a God who owns me

and gets all the glory.

Why would I do that?

Well, Paul asks,

listen, what was the benefit

of living life

for your own glory?

You know, all that kind of immorality

and that self-exaltation,

that life that you lived

where basically it was about

getting up another rung

on the ladder

of the glory of you.

How was that for you?

How did it work out?

Where was it going?

Oh yes, I remember.

Death.

That's where it goes.

But the gift of God

to belong to him,

to be his obedient slave,

the life of holiness,

where does that lead?

Oh, that leads to eternal life,

don't you remember?

Life eternal.

Again, notice how this works.

Notice that the implication

is that Christ forgives

and makes us holy.

The gospel is not just justice,

it's also holiness.

Because we are not just

returned to the world

the same people,

but we are transformed

by the Spirit

through faith in Christ.

So it's not just forgiveness

that brings us eternal life,

it's holiness

that brings us eternal life.

Not because the holiness

is ours in the sense

that we are earning eternal life

by our credits,

but rather because holiness

is the growth in us

and the flourishing

of what Christ has done for us.

It is us becoming more and more

who we are in Christ

so that we are slaves

that receive life,

not as wages,

but as a gift.

It's an oxymoron, isn't it?

You know, it's a kind of

contradiction here.

Notice this, right?

Slaves are normally worked to death,

used, abused, and dispensed with.

It's why slavery

is never condoned by the Bible.

Slavery is really the peak

of inhumanity, isn't it,

to others.

But slavery to God,

ownership by Him,

is not being worked to death,

it's being worked to life.

In fact, it's not even

worked to life as a wage,

it's worked to life as a gift.

This is the great incentive.

Why would you not want

to offer yourself to God?

Why would you not want

to lay down your crown

to live for His glory

and not your own?

Why would you not want

to do that?

Because that is the road

to life and joy.

Every other way of living

is full of death and decay.

You know, live for yourself

and you will die

from the inside.

Even if your life

looks brilliant, right?

Even if everyone else

around you thinks,

wow, look at Him.

Inside you're dying

and you will die.

But live for God,

live for Him in holiness

and joy will grow

and flourish and blossom

even in the ordinary moments

of life

until one day,

as Natasha was saying to us,

we will be with the Lord Jesus,

seated with Him,

enjoying eternal life

in holiness forever.

Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you

that in the Lord Jesus,

not only have you done

everything that was required

for our forgiveness,

you have also done

everything that is required

to make us holy.

Thank you that in the Lord Jesus,

through faith in Him,

by the power of the Spirit,

we have the strength

to live lives

which please you,

not for our glory,

but for yours.

Lord, we know

because we're honest

that there's a way to go

still for each of us.

Oh Lord, so please we pray,

might you continue

to make us into

who we already are in Jesus.

Make us more and more

like Him, we pray.

In His name.

Amen.

Amen.