Eric Bancroft | ”Pastoring From a Beach Chair: What the Doctrine of Passive Righteousness Teaches..”

Well, I bring greetings to you from the

brothers and sisters of Grace Church in

Miami, Florida.

It is indeed a joy to be with you this

morning.

Uh

I consider uh Boyce College and Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary very near

and dear to my heart. As Dr. Mohler

said, I had the privilege to be a

student here a number of years back.

I count a number of the faculty of this

great institution dear friends.

Uh time doesn't permit me to express to

each and every one of them my

appreciation for them, but sincerely a

joy to be with you this morning. I also

feel very kind or appreciative rather to

Dr. Mohler and his friendship to me and

to my wife and to our children. Uh

indeed his expression of friendship to

me is an example of his heart of mercy

ministry.

Uh as he has shown love to me over the

years and uh it's a joy to be with you

this morning. These songs that we have

sung have been wonderfully rich with

truth that will relate to even what I

intend us to look at this morning in

Romans.

It was 23 years ago, almost 24, that I

walked across the platform

graduating from seminary for the first

time.

And in those 23 years since then, I've

had the opportunity to serve as an

associate pastor for 6 years,

to serve as a senior pastor of a church

in Indianapolis for 10 years at a

111-year-old church,

and then in five these last years to

serve as a pastor in Miami where I've

had the privilege to plant and to pastor

Grace Church.

Over those years, I've had the

opportunity to see a number of ways in

which the Lord has blessed and also a

number of challenges to ministry.

I have seen the power of God's word as

it's given life to the the

raising people from the dead who are

dead in their trespasses and sins. I've

had the opportunity to go through the

reality of people who would Sunday after

Sunday stage boycotts, walking out of

the sermons every single week to protest

the disagreement with me being their

pastor.

I've had the opportunity to have gay

activists boycott me and the ministry of

the word and our preaching of the word

of God, and yet have had the joy of

raising up new elders and the

opportunity to see those men being

stalled into ministry as faithful under

shepherds serving. And yet other men who

have left the church because they would

not be recognized for the leaders that

they perceive themselves to be worthy

of.

In all of life, be it in pastoral

ministry or in personal reality, there

are these ups and downs.

And you and I know the reality, no

matter how old you are and no matter how

you have or will be called to serve the

Lord in whatever occupation or vocation

accordingly, there will be good days and

there will be difficult days.

This is not unique to our generation nor

to your place of ministry or occupation.

It is common as the pages of church

history record.

Now, what I want to talk to you about

this morning is what will sustain you

through all of that.

What will be a buoy, if you will, to

keep you from going down under

in those waters of trial and difficulty?

Because I think this morning is what

we'll look at this morning will be so

edifying, so encouraging to you that you

will be able to be sustained

accordingly, not simply with endurance

that you might make it through,

but with joy.

If you do so, please open your Bibles to

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5 will be our text this

Romans 5 · chapter mention

morning.

As you turn to Romans chapter 5, the

Romans 5 · chapter mention

title of my message is pastoring from a

beach chair,

what the doctrine of passive

righteousness teaches you about life and

ministry.

Some of you might think that this is a

recruiting tactic to get you to come to

Miami, Florida.

Is that what you guys do in Miami? You

just pastor from a beach chair?

Well, I would disappointingly tell you

that's not the case. But you're welcome

to come to Miami and join us on mission

and as you graduate from Boyce College

or master or here at the Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary and come to

be with us there. We'd love to have you

be with us in ministry and help plant

more churches as the Lord is giving us

the opportunity to do so.

But rather from the reality of what it

means to rest.

Our text this morning is Romans chapter

Romans 5:17–19

5 verses 17 to 19. If you would follow

along as I read it to you.

Paul writes

For if because of one man's trespass,

death reigned through that one man,

much more will those who receive the

abundance of grace

and the free gift of righteousness reign

in life through the one man Jesus

Christ.

Therefore,

as one trespass led to condemnation for

all men,

so one act of righteousness leads to

justification and life

for all men.

For as by one man's disobedience, the

many were made sinners, so by the one

man's obedience, the many will be made

righteous.

We'll stop there for our purposes this

morning.

But for our time together this morning,

it's not my intention to necessarily

take you through a detailed exegetical,

expositional working through this text,

rather to help you, I hope encourage you

personally and for future realities,

pastorally for those pursuing such, to

be encouraged by what we learn here in

the text doctrinally.

What I want us to first of all see

is the doctrine of passive righteousness

is great news for you personally.

Personally.

I wonder how many of you who are married

understand the challenges that sometimes

you'll have in marriage where you're

seemingly in some train of thought,

maybe even one existing conversation,

and then your spouse, in this case my

wife poses to me, I wonder what she's

going to do about that.

And I'm who is the she in this sentence?

Was there some conversation that I

missed, some antecedent that I did not

recognize? Who are we talking about

here?

My wife sometimes thinks that I could

just read her mind and is picking up

where she's last left off in thought.

Well, here in our text, as we parachuted

into Romans chapter 5 verses 17 to 19,

Romans 5:17–19

we are coming into a middle of a

construct, if you will, an argument, a

case that Paul is making.

He speaks in these earlier reverses

about the reality of Adam. Earlier in

Romans chapter 5, Paul has been talking

Romans 5 · chapter mention

about Adam, our original, if you will,

spiritual older brother.

But then he talks about the new and

better Adam, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5, while the cross is

specifically in view here, the entire

righteous life of Jesus Christ is

implicitly considered here.

It's what earlier would be said by Jesus

in Matthew chapter 5 when he's having a

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

conversation with John the Baptist.

And John the Baptist is a little

disoriented by Jesus asking him to be

baptized. And John is disordered by that

reality. And Jesus would say, "Let it be

so now. Thus it is fitting for us to

fulfill all righteousness."

Later on in the famous Sermon on the

Mount in Matthew chapter 5,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

uh Jesus would say in verses 17 and 18,

"Do not think that I've come to abolish

the law or the prophets. That I've not

come to abolish them, but to fulfill

them. For truly I say to you, until

heaven and earth pass away, that not an

iota, not a dot will pass from the law

until all is accomplished."

Friends, understandably and

appropriately,

we are captivated by the cross. It is

Paul himself who speaks about preaching

Christ and him crucified.

The significance of what was taking

place in that event.

But friends, let's not miss the reality

of what Paul is referring to here.

The reality of not simply the

crucifixion of Jesus, but the life of

Jesus prior to such crucifixion.

Here in Romans chapter 5 verse 18, Paul

Romans 5:18

is speaking about a justification, the

act whereby God graciously declares

rebellious and guilty sinners righteous.

Not doing so based on their merits or

their good works, rather he does this

entirely based on his son's

righteousness.

Which is imputed, which is credited.

Earlier in Romans chapter 3 verse 24, he

Romans 3:24

would say, "We are justified by his

grace as a gift through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus."

Now, how important is this doctrine of

justification?

Well, historically, we know of such

figures like John Calvin who would write

in the Institutes, quote, "Justification

is the main hinge on which salvation

turns."

It is the foundation of truth, the

subsequent construction of the Christian

life, and will not collapse.

Which you can see in contrast of Romans

Romans 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5

is this point of compare and contrast

earlier.

Death, thanks to Adam. Life, thanks to

Christ. Sin, thanks to Adam.

Righteousness, thanks to Christ.

This is where we get the reality of what

it means of what Christ has

accomplished.

His active obedience

accomplishes our passive righteousness.

Passive in the sense that we've done

nothing for it. Now, we think about

righteousness, and I know that I'm

treading into complicated waters here

with such theological minds that are in

the room, but we understand

righteousness as it's described to us a

number of ways. For example, forensic

righteousness, this legal declaration,

if you will.

This declaring the sinner indeed free,

no longer guilty, but now pardoned.

We think about the idea of imputed

righteousness, the idea of something

being credited. It's like going to the

ATM machine and having your negative

balance of all the money you owe to now

going to it and having a printout of all

the billions you have in it.

Here I mean to highlight the

significance of passive righteousness.

Passive because the Christian does not

actively earn, achieve, or inherently

possess the righteousness through their

own efforts, through their own good

works. He is passive. Christ is active.

This is what Paul would say in

Philippians chapter 3 verse 9, "Not

Philippians 3:9

having a righteousness of my own that

comes from the law, but that which comes

through faith in Christ, the

righteousness from God that depends on

faith."

Think about passive righteousness. You

think about the reality that has an

external source. It's Christ's

righteousness, not the Christians. It's

a free gift, not an achievement. It

comes through faith. It's the instrument

by which God gives it. Even that itself

is a gift. It's a legal declaration.

Uh friends, I I don't trust that I'm

saying anything necessarily

groundbreaking here at an institution

like Boyce College and the Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary, all of

which you could be saying through the

songs you're singing, the sermons you've

heard in this very pulpit, the lectures

you're hearing in your classrooms. Yes

and amen.

But friends, if I can sort of make sure

that we stop and stare at this, not for

its place in history with the Great

Reformation,

not for its position doctrinally as to

what it's saying versus not, as to where

our hope is found, but to you

personally.

Why does this matter to you personally?

Think of what Martin Luther wrote.

He said, "It's called passive

righteousness because we do not have to

labor for it.

It's not righteousness that we work for,

but righteousness we receive by faith.

This passive righteousness is a mystery

that someone who does not know Jesus

cannot understand.

In fact, Christians do not completely

understand it and rarely take advantage

of it in their daily lives."

He continues, "When there is any fear or

our conscience is bothered, it is a sign

that our passive righteousness is out of

sight and Christ is hidden.

Person who wanders away from the passive

righteousness has no other choice but to

live by works righteousness. If he has

does this, he does not depend on the

work of Christ. He must depend on his

own work.

Can I ask you a question?

Do you struggle with anxiety?

A form of fear?

Perhaps insecurity as to who you are who

you are not.

What you know and what you do not know.

What you have accomplished and not

accomplished.

How you compare to your classmates or

perhaps older siblings and where they

are in their professional careers.

Those of you are single who aspire to be

married. Those who are married and want

to have children or want to have more

children.

There is lurking behind every

observation, every point of reflection,

a temptation to think

wherever I am, whoever I am

it's not enough.

I don't mean to denounce ambition. I

don't mean to denounce desire.

But I mean to get to the heart of issues

of insecurity

and identity.

I think it's important to remember in

the earliest pages of Romans.

Paul who is writing to these Christians

says in verse 7 of Romans chapter 1 to

Romans 1 · chapter mention

those who are in Rome who are loved by

God and called to be saints.

Grace to you and peace from our God and

Father the Lord Jesus Christ. These are

Christians. He is an apostle wanting to

He's set apart for the gospel of God in

verse 1.

But notice what he says in verse 15.

I am eager to preach the gospel to you

also who are in Rome.

Friends, how important

is it that we as Christians, we who are

saints,

do not graduate from, do not move beyond

the gospel?

When we come to the waters of Romans

Romans 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5,

again to our text,

this one man's trespass, Romans 5:17,

Romans 5:17

death having reigned, and then again in

verse 17, the the free gift of righteous

reigned in through Christ, that one man

Christ.

By one man's obedience, verse 19, the

many will be made righteous. When we

come to that,

I want us to not simply understand it

theologically.

I want us to soak in it personally.

Why is this important?

Let's do a pop quiz.

Would you be described as a joyful

person?

I don't mean your temperament. I don't

mean your personality.

I mean as the Bible describes joy.

Paul so commonly would say in

Philippians, rejoice in the Lord.

We do simply to know him in the sort of

theological realities of who God is. I

mean to ask a question, where is your

joy found?

Understandably, perhaps you have good

days and bad days.

Providentially, personally,

and perhaps accordingly, your joy can

rise and fall accordingly.

I'm reminded of with the disciples as

they're sent out into the ministry, sort

of the the first short-term mission trip

if you will, as Jesus sends them out and

they come back and they're like shocked

in the ministry that took place and

Jesus says to them, "In all these

things," he says, "rejoice that your

name is written in the Lamb's Book of

Life."

Friends, too often as Christians,

though we stand in our identity

and our confidence in the gospel, we

functionally often operate out of our

own merit, our own reality of our

circumstances, not in who we are in

Christ.

The joy that should come from

understanding everything we have

relationally, everything in our security

is because of Christ.

Uh those words of Luther earlier are a

sign that our passive righteousness is

out of sight and Christ is hidden.

It's important to recognize the the

doctrine of passive righteousness is the

reality by which we can find our

identity.

Too commonly, it's this idea that we do

not think this.

We do not recognize this.

We understand it by profession, truly.

But by the practical daily reality, it

can be a struggle for us.

We need to remember what Paul says in

Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 to 9

Philippians 3:7–9

after reflecting on his life before

Christ with his religious resume, he

would say, "Whatever gain I had, I

counted as lost for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as lost

because of the surpassing worth of

knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of

all things. I count them as rubbish in

order that I may gain Christ and be

found in him, not having a righteousness

of my own that comes from the law, but

that which comes through faith in

Christ.

The righteousness from God that depends

on faith.

For those of us who are

in pastoral ministry, we have a number

of guests here this morning who are part

of the Pillar Network who serve in

pastoral ministry around the country and

beyond.

Others of you being trained for pastoral

ministry or already in pastoral ministry

while you're attending as a student here

at Boyce College of the Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary.

It's common in ministry

to recognize

that there can be an opportunity in

which our well will run dry. Our joy can

dissipate. Our motivation can cease.

Why?

Because oftentimes we forget our own

righteousness in Christ.

One writer says, "Pastors of all people

must be constantly re-centered on the

gospel or they will inevitably drift

into legalism, moralism, pragmatism, or

some other ism that undermines their

effectiveness and joy."

What happens as an alternative?

Things go well, you're tempted towards

pride.

They don't go well, you're tempted

towards despair.

We need to recognize the reality of

Romans 5 here is what it means to not

only be positionally

but relationally right with God.

Not paying him back.

Not filling out an IOU slip and giving

it to God in life.

Even for those of you who are pastors,

may I remind you, dear pastor,

before you were a pastor,

you were a Christian.

And the day will come when you no longer

be a pastor, but you will still be a

Christian.

For that to comfort your heart,

to not let the

job steal the joy of being a son

adopted by God.

Uh secondly, we can see here for

reflection, passive righteousness is

great news specifically for pastoring

people, for Christianity in community.

May I just draw your attention back to

the text in Romans chapter 5. Let's make

Romans 5 · chapter mention

sure we see the text and the tone of it.

Back up earlier to verse 15, Romans 5.

It begins this cascading repetition,

but the free gift is not like the

trespass.

He goes on and says, "Much more have the

grace of God and the free gift by the

grace of that one man Jesus Christ

abounded for many."

Uh verse 16, "And the free gift is not

like the result of one man's sin.

For the judgment following one's

trespass brought condemnation, but the

free gift following many trespass

brought justification." And later on, he

would say again in the middle of verse

17, "The free gift of righteous reign in

life through the one man Jesus Christ."

Have you ever been to one of these

conferences or exposés, perhaps at the

Cross Conference or some other

conference, and you have a number of

vendors who've set up their tables, want

to introduce you to their product or to

their ministry or to their school, and

want you to attend? And inevitably, they

have on the table some handout, some

giveaway. It could be a Frisbee, it

could be a little disc golf, could be a

pen, it could be a piece of candy. If

you've ever been to the Southern Baptist

Convention, the annual gathering of the

Southern Baptist Convention, it's just a

whole floor of a

of just free gifts.

And they'll actually give you bags where

you just kind of fill it up, fill it up,

fill it up. And you're like, you

sometimes wonder like, "What am I going

to do with all these things?" I don't

know, but it's free.

It's free. I just love free stuff.

Free food.

Free frisbees. Free candy.

I mean, I'm a grown man. I have a job. I

can afford to pay for things. I love

free things.

We're so easily satisfied by the idea of

getting something for free.

PAUL IS SAYING HERE, THERE'S NOTHING

MORE JOYOUSLY WONDERFUL than to

recognize the FREE GIFT OF GOD.

THE FREE GIFT OF GOD. Nothing you can do

to earn it, secure it, or keep it.

Nothing you pledge to do once you accept

it. IT'S YOURS FOR FREE.

BUT, we've grown so cynical and

skeptical that if you get a call,

somebody offering you something, you're

like, "What's the small print?" Somebody

knocks on the door and offers you an

advertisement, some sort of deal on

solar, whatever it might be, you're

like, "Yeah, but what's the small

print?"

Infamous time share sales pitches, "Yes,

but how much is it going to cost me as I

have to deal with this?"

There's no small print here.

THERE'S NO SMALL PRINT.

IT'S YOURS FOR THE TAKING.

I don't want us to simply be clear in

the doctrine. I want us to be

overwhelmed by the doctrine.

And the reason this is significant

because I think it's significant to

recognize we're not simply doing what

pastors and ministries should do, which

is really teaching sound doctrine,

refuting false doctrine, making sure

we're protecting the sheep from the

wolves. All of that is good and right

and true. But, to inviting people into

the reality of the gospel for those who

are lost. And anybody here who does not

know that, to understand, friends, you

do not earn your relationship with God

based on what you know, but based on

what Christ has accomplished.

And for those of you, and I trust most

of you, if not all of you, have done

that, to surrender your life to Christ,

to live in that reality.

To not just understand it and to mind

the truths of which are unsearchable,

but how it reshapes you.

For those in pastoral ministry,

currently or future aspiring to,

does not denounce the responsibility of

ministry.

Does Paul not say, some might say, in

Colossians chapter 1, verse 20 and 29,

Colossians 1:20

him we proclaim, warning everyone,

teaching everyone with all wisdom, that

we may present everyone mature in

Christ?

He says, for this I toil, struggling

with all his energy that he powerfully

works within me. Yes, it says that.

Does he not say in Galatians chapter 4,

Galatians 4:19

verse 19, my little children, for whom I

am again in the anguish of childbirth,

until Christ is formed in you? Yes, it

says that.

But please do not confuse responsibility

with results.

That's the work of God.

I say this because in ministry,

we can often find ourselves

feeling well with the Lord if it's going

well with ministry.

A number of years back, I

under the

conversation and counsel of

dear friends, like Dr. Mohler and

others, talking with our own elders in

our church in Indianapolis,

I made a decision to step down from

where I was pastoring

in Indianapolis.

Gladly and joyfully doing so, which I

thought I would be there for the rest of

my life.

And I made a decision

to step down and to return back to Miami

after having been gone for 20 years,

place where my wife and I had met and

married back in the '90s

to plant a church.

Church planting is typically a young

man's game.

No marriages, no mortgages. You're like,

"If it works, it works. If it doesn't,

that's okay. I'm a fool for Christ."

I had three teenage sons.

Two were 15 and one 17.

I'm stepping down. I I live 2 miles from

my church.

My house will be paid off in 4 years.

We started number of works. We've done a

number of things.

This initially looks like a midlife

crisis.

What's happening, Eric? What's going on

here? Just stabilize. Just go buy a

convertible or something. Don't like

take the, you know, commit ministerial

suicide here.

Through a lot of prayer, through

fasting, through conversation,

stepped down, moved my family to Miami

to plant a church.

Became members of a local church,

eventually covenanted as a church in

2019

to this booming core team. IT WAS

GIGANTIC.

IT WAS 16 people.

Back room of my house.

And I felt,

be it my flesh

or be it the evil one,

tempting me

to think,

"You're a failure.

What have you done?"

If we had 35 people on a Sunday night,

it felt like we're ready to go

multi-site.

We're like back at having revival.

We're killing it.

Books are going to be written about how

successful we are.

And then COVID happens, shuts us down.

I did not appreciate that.

Could not meet for 5 months. The church

we're renting from on Sunday night said,

"We'd like to keep charging you rent,

$3,500 a month to meet one time a week,

but you can't meet." I'm like, "Uh

that's I untenable. I I I need a place

to meet. I can't do this."

Wrote to another church.

Throughout that time as God was showing

me the reality that this very doctrine I

preach to you had gone out of my

purview. It had gone out of my

peripheral vision.

I was finding my hope and my identity

and my security and how things were

going ministerially.

And I didn't see a number of heads in

the room as I wish I had seen here today

that are here now.

And I felt like I was a failure.

And I had to recover the gospel and the

reminder

to recognize in ministry,

whether it be for you personally in

ministry or if you experience it with

others relationally,

is to recognize that we need to go back

to the gospel to be reminded of these

truths.

God had given me a free gift that all

that I wanted I'd already received in

Christ.

Did that not mean I was not praying? No,

it just meant that my relationship with

the Lord was not dependent upon how it

went.

God has given his word accordingly.

I think it's important to recognize this

even personally or pastorally that we

differentiate between our positional

righteousness and our practice

righteousness.

Good days and bad days, good ministry,

hard ministry.

The reality is that the doctrine of

passive righteousness is a doorway into

great news for you personally, and great

news for you pastorally.

Think about the significance of this.

Just recently we saw the

Seattle Seahawks

defeat the

New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.

The Seahawks fans were losing their mind

with cheering cuz it'd been since 2014

since they had last won the Super Bowl.

And just hundreds of thousands of fans

cheering,

"We won! We won! We won!"

No one interrupts them and says, "No,

you didn't."

The 53 men on the roster won. You didn't

do anything.

They won.

They felt that sense of victory that

somebody else had accomplished for them.

Friends, we can chant confidently,

"We have won."

We have won, not because of anything

that we have done, but because Christ

has accomplished for us.

That is our joy in life and in death.

Some of you will know the name

Gresham Machen.

Used to be a professor at Princeton

Seminary.

Eventually left to found the Westminster

Theological Seminary in 1929.

Shortly before he died on January 1st,

1937, he dictated a final telegram to

one of his friends.

It was only 13 words.

Here's what he said in that final

telegram.

I'm so thankful

for the active obedience of Christ.

No

hope

without it.

Friends, at the end of your life, you

will not send a telegram.

You might send a text.

Those final words are sent from you.

What will you say?

I pray it'll be something very similar

to that.

Let's pray. Lord,

thank you for this truth.

How it washes over us with comfort and

encouragement.

For the reminder of not who we are,

but who Christ is and who we are in him.

God, I pray your ministry,

Holy Spirit, to encourage and comfort

those who perhaps have lost sight of

their identity in you.

Be it personally or pastorally.

And may they find the joy that comes

from knowing

that their name is written in the Lamb's

Book of Life.

Amen.