©2001 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

2/18/01 Changing Through Grace Romans 5:20-21

2/18/01 Change Through The Grace Of God

Rom. 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Rom. 5:21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Last week we started, but did not finish,
      our study of these last two verses
            of the 5th chapter of Romans.

In that study
      we saw Paul outlining for us
            two vastly different 3 step processes.

We even put them into a little chart:


And before we stopped
      we took the time to work our way
            through the first of those two 3-step progressions.

We saw the law,
      and God's initial purpose for giving the law,
            as God alone could reveal it to us.

We saw why God tells us that, "... the Law came in that the transgression might increase..."

The moral law of God
      as it was initially given to man
            was carefully structured in such a way as to arouse our inner rebellious hearts.

God could have phrased His commandments to us
      in a style and language
            that would have been far easier for us to receive.

He could have talked with us
      about the logical, reasonable,
            sensible principles
                  behind each of His commandments,
enabling us to see clearly
      the wisdom of His ways,
            and the utter stupidity
                  of violating His principles.

But He did not.

Instead He simply,
      powerfully declared,
THOU SHALT NOT!!!!!!

And as soon as we hear those words,
      at the same time we hear another voice from within ourselves,
            the voice of our inner spirit of rebellion saying,
"Oh ya? Well you just watch me!"

And God's first great purpose for His moral law
      is to enrage our sinful passions
            and force us into overt rebellion against Him.

Now why would He want to do that?

Because our Creator loves us,
      and because, from the very beginning
            it has never been about our behavior,
it has always, only been about our heart response to Him.

Shall I make it real simple?

Until our hearts respond to Him
      no amount of nice behavior will change anything.
Once our hearts respond to Him
      He will begin to reshape our behavior from the inside out.

The moral law of God
      has never made anyone righteous.
And when we encounter that moral law
      prior to the submission of our spirits to Christ,
            the Law does just three things:

1. It demands obedience and submission.
2. It arouses our sinful passions, driving us into sin.
3. And then it condemns us as guilty offenders against God
      and sentences us to eternal separation from God.

That's all it can do.
      That's what God designed it to do.

And the Law came in that the transgression might increase...

The Law demands obedience,
      drives us into sin,
            and then sentences us to eternal death.

Now, we are going to move on to God's answer to this hideous mess we're in,
      but before we do,
            I want to take just a little side-track.

When I was writing up these notes,
      and looked back over what I've just shared with you so far this morning,
            it suddenly hit me how all of us
                  spend most of our lives
utterly blind to the real issues of life.

I have to be careful hear
      that I don't come across sounding like a preacher,
             because, if I do, I run the risk of you missing what I want us to see.

It is assumed that preachers will go around saying things like,
      "God is the most important thing in life,
            and we need to keep aware of that fact."

But the thing that hit me so strongly when I was writing up these notes
      was not some vague religious notion
            that we should all be more aware of God in our daily lives,
but rather the realization
      of how utterly blind we are
            to the way life really is.

We are like fish
      debating the existence of water.

Each day we find ourselves fighting our way through
      to some vague reaffirmation
            of God's personal love for us,
                  and interest in us,
                        and involvement in our lives.

And here and there
      we get just fleeting glimpses of the truth.

I made a quick run to British Columbia this past week
      to help my daughter find a used car.

We knew the amount we had to spend,
      and two days to do all the looking.

I got off the plane,
      got in my rental car,
            and spent the next ten hours
going through the paper,
      and then going from car lot to car lot,
            and at the end of those ten hours
                  everything I saw that met our criteria was at least $3000.00 more than we had to spend.

Then I stopped into a gas station
      and just happened to notice
            one of those Little Nickel Classified Adds.

It was several days old,
      but I turned to the car section
            and saw car advertised
                  for $3000.00 below Blue Book value.

It was still $425.00 more than we had to spend,
      but I called and found out it was still available.

When I arrived at the apartment of the people selling it
      I found a super clean car in perfect shape with just 57,000 miles on it.

I drove it, offered him $425.00 less than he was asking,
      and my daughter is now driving a car
            that she bought for $3500.00 under Blue Book value.

It is not just chance
      that allowed me to find that car
            at that price
                  on that day.
It was my God loving me
      in a very tangible way.

And I was keenly aware of His love,
      and His care in that whole process.

But the truth is,
      that's really rather pathetic!
Why should it take an event,
      a happening,
            a visible demonstration of His love
to pry my eyes open
                  to the greatest truth,
                        the greatest constant of our existence?

My awareness of His love in that experience
      is just a tiny glimpse
            of the true, total reality of who He is
                  and how He relates to me.

And there are some of you hearing these words of mine right now,
      who, inside, are responding,
"Well, of course God would do something nice like that for him -
      he's a preacher!
            He has special points in heaven.
He's faithful, devout,... different."

And if you find yourself
      sort of thinking thoughts like that,
            you have completely missed
                  the very heart
of everything I'm trying to say here.

God's love for us,
      and His intimate involvement in our lives
            has nothing to do with our behavior,
                  or our performance,
                        or our profession,
or our religious devotion.

It is not something we can earn by being good,
      or loose by being bad.

God's personal, intimate involvement in our lives,
      is the result of just three things:
1. He exists.
2. He created us.
3. He loves us.

We enter this world
      with spirits strongly resistant
            to all three of those truths
because all three of them
      carry implications that would demand that we totally restructure our lives
            if we accepted them as being true.

But the truth is,
      that is the way things really are.

The thing that got me into all of this
      was realizing the tremendous effort and design
            that God placed into just the first phase of His redemptive plan for us,
                  that of confronting us with our need for Him
      through imposing His moral law on us
            in order to force us to face our own inner rebellion against Him.

He loves us enough
      to force us to face the cancer.

And doing so meant that He not only had to carve out those stone tablets
      with those 10 Commandments on them,
but that He also had to write that moral law
      into the heart of every person who has ever lived.

It is no accident,
      no genetic flaw,
            no social fluke
that every human being who has ever entered this world
      has struggled with a sense of guilt
            and moral failure,
knowing we have violated
      what we know in our hearts is right.

Without that moral law of God etched into our lives,
      compelling us into sin,
            and then confronting us with our guilt,
we would never have been driven
      to cry out to our God for help.

I need to say it once again,
      I need to say it so that I can hear it myself -
from the very beginning of everything,
      it has never been about us being good
            or being bad,
it has always, only been about us becoming aware of our separation from Him,
      and being restored to Him as our God,
            and His love as our reason for being.

Which brings us back
      to God's alternative to:
the law
      driving us into sin,
            resulting in our eternal death.

In the little chart we pulled out of those last two verses in Romans 5
      God's alternative had
GRACE
      bringing about righteousness,
            resulting in our eternal life.

In the exact words of the verse
      Paul says this:
"...even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

And the first thing I want us to see here
      is the foundation upon which
            everything else is built.

Do you see it?

It is the grace of God.
      It all begins with the grace of God.
            It is all built upon the grace of God -
the righteousness,
      the changed heart,
            the changing performance,
                  the eternal life with God,
all of it is built upon,
      and grows out of the grace.

And as we begin to work our way through this,
      it will help to keep Paul's contrast in mind.

The LAW produces sin,
      the GRACE produces righteousness.

Which means
      if we are having trouble
            growing in practical righteousness,
in other words,
      if our life isn't changing
            the way we long for it to,
it is very likely because
      we are continuing to pursue righteousness through the Law,
            rather than pursuing it through Grace.

What I am going to say to you
      in our remaining minutes this morning
            will sound dangerous to some of you,
it will sound as if I am suggesting
      that the way we act
            really doesn't matter all that much.

And so, to help disarm that misconception,
      I want to begin at the end.

I want to begin
      by stating where God wants to take us,
            and why approaching God,
                  or approaching righteousness through the Law
      will simply never get us
            where God wants us to be.

And let me start to ease us into this
      by approaching it through a flawed
            but, I think, helpful
                  human parallel.

I want you to think, for a moment,
      about your relationship
            with someone you love deeply.

When I say that,
      I know some of you will think about a girl friend,
            or a boy friend,
                  or a husband or wife.

If you have been married for at least several years
      and your marriage partner
            is the first one that came to your mind
                  when I asked you to think of someone you love,
                        that's great,
because you've had some time
      to discover the difference
            between physical attraction and true love.

But if you're still in the dating thing,
      I think it would be better
            for you to think of some other love relationship for this illustration.

Maybe your mom,
      or your dad if you have a good relationship with them,
            or maybe a brother or a sister.

If you are a parent with children
      perhaps the best option would be your relationship with one of your children.

Now here is my question for you -
      how does your love for that person
            affect your actions toward them?
How does it cause you
      to act differently toward them
            than you act toward anyone else in the world?

I'll use my relationship with my daughter, Joni, as an example.

This past week began for me
      as most weeks do,
            with a whole bunch of duties and responsibilities.
It was a full week.

Then Monday afternoon
      I found out my daughter
            was facing some transportation problems it would have been much easier for her to resolve
                  if I could be there to help her.

Monday night at 11:45 p.m.
      I was on a plane heading to Vancouver, B.C.

Now why in the world
      would I suddenly so dramatically and drastically alter my entire week
            without even giving it a second thought?

Obviously, it's because my love for Joni
      motivates me to do things
            I would never do under normal circumstances.

God's whole plan for transforming our lives
      is based upon His bringing us to the place
            where our love for Him
                  becomes the greatest motivating force in our existence.

But the only way
      we will ever begin to love God
            is if we are first confronted with,
                  overwhelmed with His love for us
                        in a way we simply cannot deny,
                              and cannot hide from.

John said it perfectly in a single phrase
      in I John 4:19:
We love (Him), because He first loved us.

And this is where the whole conflict
      between Law and Grace
            comes in.

You see, it is impossible
      to discover the reality of God's love for us
            as long as we believe we must continue to attempt to approach our relationship with Him
                  on the basis of our obedience
                        to the His moral Law.

With the law comes the message,
"I will love you IF..."
I will love you if you obey Me.
      I will love you if your performance
            meets My standard."

But it is a standard
      we can never perfectly fulfill.
We always fall short of the perfection
      that would justify acceptance
            on the basis of our performance.

And even at those times
      when we feel as though our performance is measuring up,
            it does not bring us
                  an awareness of the love of God
                        that has the power to heal,
because we know
      it is not us He really loves,
            it is our performance.

In the end
      any approach to God
            based upon our performance
                  will bring one of two possible results -

1. If we feel we have done pretty well at keeping the rules
      it will bring an arrogant,
            judgmental pride.
We will despise and reject those who don't keep the rules
      the way we think they should be kept,
and like the elder brother
      in the parable of the prodigal son,
            when we see the Father wrapping our sinful little brother in love and honor,
                  it will cause a rage to surge up inside us.

2. Or else,
      if we fail to keep the standard
            the way we think in should be kept,
we will cower in the corner of the family of God,
      knowing we must displease Him,
            filled with guilt,
                  and self-condemnation.

But not so with the grace of God.
For through His grace
      He steps into our life,
            our world,
                  our helplessness,
                        our inability to become what we know we should be,
and He says simply, "I love you,
      I accept you just as you are."

Let me put it simply.
To the filthy,
      smelly,
            wretched beggar curled up in the alley
      the law says,
"Clean yourself up and I will love you and accept you."
The grace of God says,
"I accept you and love you just the way you are.
      And because I love you
            I will bathe you,
                  and feed you,
                        and cleanse your wounds."

The only thing that has the power
      to transform our lives
            is the discovery that our God loves us
                  even if our lives are never transformed.

And when Paul tells us that grace brings about righteousness,
      he is simply telling us
            that the only thing that will ever have the power to change our lives
      is our response to being confronted with the love of God
            that comes when we discover He loves us
                  even if our lives are never changed.

Rom. 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Rom. 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son ...