Lesson 140
Romans Chapter Eleven
The Faithfulness of God
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
(Aside)
Their works become the proof of their unrighteousness and evidently also, the
basis of the degree of their punishment (cf. Matt.
g. Grace guarantees us of God’s
love and provision for anything we might face in life.
Hebrews
13:5-6 also Romans
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:
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.
He forgives us (Rom.
He justifies us
(Rom.
- 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
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.
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
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.
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.