Lesson 140

Romans Chapter Eleven

The Faithfulness of God

 Israel’s Future  

 

The Doctrine of Grace (cont’d)

 

3.f.    Grace guarantees the believer’s salvation. It makes it impossible for any man to get out of the plan of God from the standpoint of his position in Christ.   Why? Because salvation depends on the character and work of God in Christ and not on man’s record or works.  Romans 8:33-39

 

Believers will be judged or examined for their works for rewards, but not as a basis of salvation.  1 Corinthians 3:12-15

 

Unbelievers will be judged on the basis of their works at the Great White Throne Judgment, but they are only at this judgment because they have rejected the grace work for them of Christ at Calvary.

 

(Aside) Their works become the proof of their unrighteousness and evidently also, the basis of the degree of their punishment (cf. Matt. 11:21 which implies degrees of punishment).

 

g.  Grace guarantees us of God’s love and provision for anything we might face in life.

Hebrews 13:5-6 also Romans 8:32-39 just noted

 

4. The Blessings of Grace

There are four main areas or blessings that God’s grace provision encompasses.

As an unbeliever being sinful and under the penalty of sin, separated from God and deserving of God’s wrath, grace means:

a. The Blessings of Acceptance when we believe in the Gospel.

Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

- being in Christ is a position of grace

1 Corinthians 1:29-30

 

Grace in salvation means we are completely accepted because of the perfect work of Christ which  includes:

He redeems us (Rom. 3:24),                    He reconciles us (2 Cor. 5:19-21),

 

He forgives us (Rom. 3:25; Eph. 1:6,7),   He delivers us (Col. 1:13), 

 

He  justifies us (Rom. 3:24; 5:1), and       He glorifies us (Rom. 8:30).

 
b.  The Blessing of Enablement (spiritual power and capacity) in life.

- that is the ability and the capacity to live a life that honors God.

- there is a balance between God's faithful provision and our response in using that provision;  meets our needs but more importantly it glorifies God, who makes the provision.   See that in  1 Cor  15:10 

 

Though weak and without capacity for spiri­tual things, grace means special divine ability is secured for the believer through the grace of God which is ours in Christ, DOA's.

 

This is stressed by the following:

1. No longer under Law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14; 2 Cor. 3:6-13).

 

2. Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).  How? (Indwelling H/S & BD)

 

3. Baptized and circumcised in Christ unto new life potential (Rom. 6:4f;      Col. 2:11).

- the removal   avpe,kdusij  lit. of taking off of one's clothes; fig. as here, of the believer being set free from the ruling power of the sin nature through union with Christ

- Wuest: for the believer it says the power of the sin nature is broken and it has no more power over the believer than the believer allows it to have.

- What we have here than is a statement that the physical body dominated by the sin nature is put away, rendered inoperative as we noted from Rom 6:6.

- Now the point is that our physical body is to be dominated by the new nature, the divine nature, the dynamic of which is the Word and the Spirit in you.

 

4. We are indwelt by the Spirit of God for power or ability to live the Christian life   (Rom. 8:2f).

 

Rom 8:2  Some observations

-  What Paul is leading up to here is that we as believers have a whole new way of living, a whole new means of enablement for living, having completely new resources available to us.  Part of the uniqueness being a church age saint in union with the King!

 

 

-  1st  Paul refers to two distinct laws:

The law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and death.

 

 

The law of the Spirit of life is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, which enabling power is related to newness of life (Romans 6:4; 7:6 whole new framework for life as believers in Christ).

 

 

In 7:23, the law of sin speaks of the ruling power of the sin nature, which ruling power always results in death, separation.  For the believer a separation from fellowship.

 

The reason that the believer is not condemned to a life of servitude to the sin nature is that the enabling power of the Holy Spirit has set him free from the ruling power of the sin nature.

 

    - 2nd   The freedom from the sin nature to which Paul refers to here is different from the freedom from that same nature to which he refers in Romans 6:7. Two things indicate this.

- #1 Paul uses two distinct words for freedom in these passages.

 

- #2  The freedoms of these two Passages are obtained through two different means.

 

>  The freedom of 6:7 is obtained through our identification with the death of Christ;

 

> The freedom of 8:2 is obtained through the indwelling Holy Spirit and His enabling power.

 

 

In Romans 8:2 Paul is saying that someone much more powerful than the sin nature has intervened on behalf of the believer and has set us free from the ruling power of our former master. That someone is the Holy Spirit.

 

 

  - The law of the Spirit is a higher law than the law of sin.  And is the grace provision for each of us giving us the under the enablement of the Word and the Spirit to live our lives producing divine good and bringing glory to God.

 

 

c.  The Blessings associated with a New Position

Ephesians 2:1-5

Ephesians 1:3  

Colossians 2:10  

Though in Adam and dead in sin before salvation, grace means the believer in Christ has a new position in Christ which brings every spiritual blessing into the believer’s life.