Romans – The Play Part 2

Hey, I got a question. He said back there earlier when we were in that law court, somebody jumped right up in the middle of the court and challenged you on something, and I didn’t understand your answer, and it’s not clear, and it’s bothering me. You’re telling me that I don’t have to work anymore for my justification. I’m a Gentile. You told those Jews that they don’t have to obey the law for their justification, for their righteousness, that it is now a free gift.

Now, if my relationship to God and my acceptance by God is based on nothing but His free grace, where is the encouragement to stop sinning? Well, you know it’s free grace—my acceptance in Him, my acceptance. Here it is. I got it. It’s free. I don’t merit it by my works. As a Gentile, I worked really hard for justification, but it didn’t work. Jews over there trying to do all that, and it’s obvious they couldn’t do it. But those were motives for not sinning. Now you’re giving me justification free in the face of my sinfulness just because I believe in the death and resurrection of my Lord? What’s my motive for stopping to sin? Why not increase my sinning so that the free gift might pour only more and more and more? It poured out. I was sinning and sinning and sinning, and the free gift came and gave me justification and righteousness.

Well, if it works that well, why don’t I just keep it up? If sinning provoked my conversion, my righteousness, why not sin more? Am I going to hear a little voice that says to me, “Go ahead and sin, because it’s alright. You’re justified by faith and not by works. Give up the works. Give up the law. Give up the goodness. You’ve got grace, and you’ve got the freedom.” Is there going to be a little voice telling me, “Go ahead and do it”? Shouldn’t I just keep on sinning and sin bigger? Get more and more grace?

He says, “You don’t understand what happened to you. You died to sin.”

Well, that doesn’t make any sense to me. What do you mean, I died to sin? You died to sin. How could you possibly live in sin any longer? Now, I want to explain to you what I mean by that. That doesn’t mean that you’re incapable of it. How could you live to sin any longer? That doesn’t mean you’re no longer capable of it. I mean, how would you dare do such a thing? That’s what I mean when I say that. What a shocking thought. Did you dare even consider such a thing?

Now, I’m going to step out—Paul, just a minute. I’m going to talk to you all like… I’m going to talk to you like somebody who doesn’t like Baptist preachers. No, I am a Baptist preacher. But anyhow. Ricky, you have been a minister. And you remember how we preached the gospel to people. And after we preached the gospel to them and they got saved, then we said to them, “Stop dancing and smoking.” Do you remember, Ricky? That was the big thing we were trying to get Baptists to do: don’t drink anymore, don’t smoke anymore, don’t cuss anymore, don’t dance anymore. What a low, low level. What a low, low level. And yet, that was where the battle is fought. Go to any conference. “Is it wrong for a Christian to dance? Is it wrong for a Christian to cuss? Is it wrong for a Christian to…” Mostly it was dance. That was the big one. “Is it wrong for a Christian to dance?” And that got asked, and here we were dealing with the elemental things. And that’s about as far as we ever got up above that moment when Christ became ours.

Alright, now then, let’s watch what our brother Paul does. That’s not where he starts. He starts here, and this becomes ridiculous. He said, “Listen, don’t you know what happened to you? Do you have any idea what happened to you? We’re not talking about little stuff here. Big things happened to you. How dare you!” It’s not your fault. And he’s not talking about stopping sinning. And here is one of the most wonderful things I appreciate about what Paul does. Have you ever presented a supposition anywhere in your life? I’ve been a teacher—and of course I’ve been a Christian too—but I’ll talk about teaching. I’ve been a teacher, and I’ve made a suggestion in a faculty meeting and gotten devoured. Well, I maintained my stance, but I qualified it, and I backed up a little bit, and I clarified, and I held my ground, but I just watered it down a little bit and tried to make it a little bit more palatable.

Paul of Tarsus doesn’t back down. This is the third time. There are three times here in a short passage that this is thrown at him. Obviously, Paul has had this thrown at him a lot of times. And Paul doesn’t back down. He doesn’t qualify. He doesn’t anything. It shows how much he understood the gospel.

Okay. Do you not know what’s happened to you? You were plunged in the moment of this simple, little, mystical, misty, vague thing called believing. No, not then, but at some time or other. We’ll find out a little later when. You were plunged into Christ. Now, I did not say “E-N.” I said “E-I-S.” I’m speaking to you in Greek. “E-N” is “in.” “E-I-S” is “inside of.” You were plunged inside of Christ. You were made one with Christ. You’re not in Christ in some vague way; I mean, you are placed into Him. You were placed into your Lord. Let your Lord speak to you and say, “You are inside me. You are inside of me, the Son of God—immersed into me, plunged into me, lost in me, one with me.”

How one, Lord? So one, that when I died, you died.

The most famous Siamese twins who ever lived were utterly joined to one another. But on the day one of them died, the doctors had to operate because they knew that it would be a matter of just hours before the other one died. When one died, the other one would die. So finally, even though they were quite old, they operated to separate them. Because one dies, the other dies. How one with Christ? So one with Him, that when He dies, you die. And when He died, you died. That—how utterly one you were with Him.