I BELIEVE: THE APOSTLES’ CREED

(adapted from a sermon of the same title by J. Ligon Duncan III)

July 5, 2009 – East Side Presbyterian Church, Ashtabula Twp., Ohio

Sean G. Morris

Good morning. It is my pleasure to be with you here this morning, as I fill the pulpit in Pastor Shane Nanney’s stead as he heads off at this very moment in van full of 20+ teenagers, as one of several vehicles headed out on this year’s Ashtabula County Cluster of Presbyterian Churches Youth Mission Trip. They are headed off to Michigan and our prayers go with them for traveling mercies and God’s blessing as they do missionary work this week in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is my honor to come and preach the Word to you this morning. I am always honored and humbled when a seminary-trained pastor will entrust his pulpit to an undergraduate student. I hope what I have to say will be edifying and beneficial to you.

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans 4, as we study the Apostles’ Creed. If you are using the pew Bibles, it is on page (###) It is my understanding that Pastor Shane is beginning a sermon series next week on the various creeds and confessions of the church. And so to that end, I come to with an overview/lead-in of the most ancient of declarations, the Apostles’ Creed. As some of you may know, the Apostles’ Creed is an elaboration of a very old creed which had been circulating in various areas of early Christianity. In fact, you can find almost all of the component parts in the writings of some of the second century church fathers, Justin, Iraeneus, and Tertullian. But this creed, in the main, came together over the course of the second through sixth centuries, and it is the most important, universally employed confessional statement in Christendom, except for what call The Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed first began to come together at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, and then a slight modification in 381 AD at Constantinople.

The Apostles’ Creed, unlike the Nicene Creed, and some of the other formulations of early church councils, was used for multiple purposes. It was used for catechism training, for teaching Christians the basics of the Christian faith. It was also used as a baptismal confession. When believers came before the church to profess their faith in Christ, not having previously been baptized, they would be schooled in the Apostles’ Creed and then the minister would ask them each of the phrases of the Apostles’ Creed and ask them to affirm this as their faith, before they were baptized, not unlike the way we ask questions of membership, to adults who come to the church now to receive baptism and profess faith in Jesus Christ.

But the Apostles’ Creed was also used in worship. Unlike the other creedal formulations of the Church, especially in the Western Church, the Apostles’ Creed was incorporated and said as part of worship in the gathered services of the Church. And so, for hundreds of years the Apostles’ Creed has both served as an instrument for instructing Christians in the basics of the Christian faith, and as an instrument for Christians to express, in worship, their common confession in the one true God.

We recite it often in our worship services, we’re going to do so again at the end of this service. So then, that presses upon us a very significant question: and that is, “What does it mean?” What do we mean by the various phrases and stanzas of the Apostles’ Creed, and how do these biblical truths relate to our daily lives? Well, we’re going to try and answer some of those questions as we study through this ancient confession of faith phrase by phrase.

And I have several goals in mind as we do this. First of all, it is my desire to anchor the notion of belief in the text of Scripture. See, we don’t receive this creed simply because it is the tradition of the church; we receive the creed because we believe it is faithful to Scripture and that the tradition of the church, which has embraced it and perpetuated it is simply being faithful to Scripture in doing so. So, we want to see clearly that the Bible teaches these truths.

Secondly, we also want to address contemporary deterrents to belief. We live in an unusual age. Now faith has always had its challenges. There has never been a time when believers were not challenged in some way in their faith, but we live in a strange time when the very concept of belief is under fire. If you believe something to be absolutely true, you are suspect, and you may well be the root problem of all the problems in the modern world. And so, we as Christians need to respond to the cultural forces currently arrayed against historic Christian teaching. And I hope to do some of that as we work through this creed together.

Thirdly, and alongside of that, I want to affirm your confidence in historic Christian understanding of biblical truth. We want to encourage Christians to whole heartedly embrace the teaching of Scripture in these areas despite the fact that we are being very counter cultural when we do it.

Fourthly, it is my hope to arrest Christian defection from biblical truth. We have many Christians today who are working harder than some non-Christians to make Christians doubt these truths and we need to respond to that and I hope to do something along the way of doing that as we work through some of the clauses of the Apostles’ Creed.

And then finally, we want to apply these biblical truths to the specific situations of our daily lives. We want to see how good theology serves the good life. And so we want to see how the faith informs the Christian life, how doctrine informs practice, how those things are tied together. That will be among some of our goals as we pursue this study.

Now if you’d turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 4, we’re going to read a passage about a great believer, and we’re doing that because today we’re only going to focus on the first two words of the Apostles’ Creed—“I believe”. For that matter, all the creeds or confessions that Shane will be leading you through open with a statement of “I believe or we believe”. Today, we’re not even going to get into the stuff or the substance of the specific assertions today, we’re just going to address the issue of what does it mean to believe? I trust you will find this helpful as you go through and learn about the substance of all the confessions. So what better place to go to than the place where the Apostle Paul says we have the example par excellence of a believer in God—Abraham. And here we hear his story beginning in Romans 4:18:

Romans 4:18-22

In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also reckoned to him as righteousness.

Amen. This is God’s holy word. May we look to Him in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, this is Your Word. Grant us understanding and grant us the understanding of what it means to believe on you, to trust in you, to embrace you by faith for the saving of our souls. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have you ever thought about it? It’s a very counter-cultural thing to do in twenty-first century America, in fact, twenty-first century anywhere in the western world, it is a very counter cultural thing to do to stand up and confess the Apostles’ Creed. Our age is uncomfortable with absolutes. In fact, there is a postulate in our age which says that “The root source of all problems is people who think that they’ve found absolute truth. And if we could just get rid of people who think they’ve found absolute truth, the world would be a much nicer place.” And so Christians standing up and saying, “We don’t simply believe this to be true for us, but we believe this to be the truth—the truth about God, the truth about Christ, the truth about the Holy Spirit, the truth about the Church, the truth about reality—that’s a very threatening thing to a world that likes to live in the relative and in the subjective.

Our world likes to talk about values, not about morals. Our world likes to talk about opinions and perspectives rather than faith and facts and belief. It likes the subjective rather than the objective. And for this reason and more, it is very important for us to understand what we are doing when we confess our faith using the Apostles’ Creed. And so, I trust that Shane, in undertaking this study will help you to understand better by looking at this formulary phrase by phrase seeking to ground and explain each of these phrases its teaching in and by the Scripture.

Today I simply want to look with you at the first two words of the Creed: “I believe.” I want to do that for a specific reason. When you say, “I believe,” when you start off a conversation with a friend today and you say, “I believe,” they don’t hear you as I hope you mean that phrase. When you start off with, “I believe,” the average mortal thinks that you are about to express what is your subjective, personal and private opinion with absolutely no weight or bearing of what objective reality is. When they hear “I believe”, they translate it in their minds as, “This is my tenuous, temporary opinion on ‘x.’” But when we stand up and say, “I believe,” we don’t mean that when we’re saying The Apostles Creed. So, we need to pause for a few moments and think about what we mean by “I believe,” and there are four things I want to bring out. First, I want to bring out the importance of Christian belief. Secondly, I want to address obstacles that we face today, unique obstacles perhaps, with regard to Christian belief. Third, I want to look at the content of Christian faith, I want to look at the nature of Christian faith. What is it to believe? What is it to have faith? And then finally, I want to look at the importance of Christian faith, its vital, indispensable importance.

I. The importance of Christian belief.
First, looking at Romans 4:18-22, and looking at this whole issue of Christians as believers. Christians believe and are believers, and Paul takes Abraham as a paradigm of faith, and as a paradigm of belief for Christians. And I want you to notice three components of Abraham’s faith, because we’re going to come to these again. The first component of Abraham’s faith is his response to God’s revelation. In other words, God takes the first step, God comes to Abraham, and God makes a promise. Look at Romans 4, “He believed, in hope against hope.” What did he believe? “According to the word which was spoken, so shall your descendants be.” In other words, Abraham’s faith was first and foremost a response to what God had already said to him. It wasn’t blind faith, it wasn’t contentlessfaith, it wasn’t faith in faith; it was faith in what God had said to him--His promise. He believed. He heard the promise of God and he responded to that promise of God.

How did he respond? First, he responded by believing it. He embraced what God had said, essentially by replying “Yes, God, what You have said to me is true. I believe it.” So, there is response to what God has said, there is belief in what God has said, and then there is trust in God. Abraham believed the word that was spoken, and he trusted God to fulfill His promises. So, in Abraham’s faith there was both belief in the things that God had said to him - in other words, he believed the propositions that God had made to him - and there was a belief in a person. You often hear people today say, “We believe in a person, not in propositions.” That’s a false dichotomy. We believe in a person, and we believe all the propositions God has made about that person. So, we believe God and we believe what God has said. And any time someone tries to set those things against one another, let the alarm bells go off, because something is about to get slipped under your door. To reiterate, Abraham responds to God’s word, he believes what God has said, and he trusts in God, and there we see the components of Abraham’s faith.

Now, have you noticed how many times Christians are called believers in the New Testament? Sometimes they’re called disciples, sometimes they’re called followers of Christ, sometimes they’re called followers of the Way; sometimes they’re called Christians. Actually, fairly rarely, first in Antioch (Luke tells us about that), but at least a dozen times they are called believers. (Acts 5:14) “All the more believers in the Lord were constantly added to their number.” Acts 10:45, Luke records those who were Jewish believers by calling them “circumcised believers” that came with Peter and were amazed. 2 Corinthians 6:15 says, “What harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?” In Galatians 3:9, Paul calls Abraham “the believer.” He’s the believer par excellence.

I Thessalonians 1:7 Paul writes: “So that you will become an example to all the believers in Macedonia an Achaia.” Even Peter speaks of believers, “Believers in God,” he calls them I Peter 1:21.

Over and over, at least a dozen times in the New Testament, Christians are called believers. And there’s a good reason for that, because belief is at the very heart of what Christians are and do. We believe and we are believers. Have you ever noticed how many times in the New Testament we are called to believe? Think of Paul, speaking to the Philippian jailer, Acts 16:31, “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.” Think of what he says in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him again from the dead, you will be saved.” In the creed we confess with our mouth what we believe from the very depths of our being, from our heart. Christians believe and are believers, and so confessing our faith is a natural part of being a Christian. We don’t just confess our faith because it’s a nice thing to do and it’s received by tradition. It’s the very essence of what we are; we are confessors, we are believers, we are testifiers, we are witnesses to the faith which God has granted us in His grace. That’s the first thing.

II. Obstacles to Christian belief.
The second thing is this. We live in a really weird time when it comes to belief. Christians must now believe in a very challenging time for belief. I’m not talking about the specific beliefs. There have always been people who have quibbled with the beliefs of Christians. I’m talking about this is a weird time for the belief of Christians.

You are suspect if you believe something to be absolutely true in our day and age. Now that may have been true in the day and age of the time of the Apostles. So this is not an entirely new phenomenon. The Roman world understood relativism and pluralism so I don’t want to go overboard and say that post-modern times are like nothing that has ever happened before. But it is a little strange, isn’t it? In times past, people argued with you about what you believe. Now they argue with you that you believe. Or that you believe something is absolutely true. And so Christians have to believe and they confess in a very challenging time for belief.

There are many misconceptions about faith amongst Christians out there. Many Christians view faith as merely personal opinion. When you ask a person to describe their faith or to express their faith or to explain their faith, what they hear you saying very often is, “Well, I’ll share with you my personal opinion about ‘x.’”

So the lady on the talk show stands up and says to the host, “I’m a deeply spiritual person. I’m a Christian and I believe in reincarnation, and I’d like to ask you a question.” And your head is shaking. You’re a Christian and you believe in reincarnation? Hm-m-m, Christians don’t believe in that and you do—strange.

Do you remember Casey Kasem on ‘American Top Forty’? OK, I know that’s the dark ages—frankly, I don’t remember it, but I did read this story, so I share it with you. Nearly 25 years ago, a man from India calls up Casey and says, “I’m a Christian from India and I met this girl in New York when I was there last summer. I haven’t seen her since. I want to send out a song to her.” What song? “Imagine” by John Lennon. Now folks, have you listened to the lyrics to “Imagine”? It’s like a Marxist manifesto, and I’m going—“Ok, you’re a Christian, you’re from India and you want to send a message to your girl friend—this is not the song that I would send. “Imagine there’s no heaven?” That’s the way the song starts and it goes down hill from there. Christians put weird stuff together today. It’s cognitive dissonance, people call it—two things that don’t go together and they throw it out, and that’s what they think that “x” is.

Do you remember the song that Don Williams sang another 25 years or so ago? It was entitled “I Believe in You.” Do you remember the second verse of that song? “I don’t believe that heaven waits for only those who congregate. I like to think of God as love. He’s down below, He’s up above, He’s watching people everywhere. He knows who dies and doesn’t care.” Well, now isn’t that comforting?

But in the second place, that is a typical post-modern view of faith. Faith is just whatever I happen to believe right now about this. That’s not what we mean when we say, “I believe.” This is not just sort of what we came up with yesterday. We’re not making this up as we go along, folks. So there are misconceptions about faith. But there are also barriers to faith in our day and time. There are people who believe that faith is an opiate; it’s a narcotic. It’s something to anesthetize you from all the pain of life. You really can’t handle it; you need a little crutch. And so faith is there to sort of help you through. Karl Marx thought that, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Tell that to a monarch overthrown by a Calvinist, and we’ll talk about that later. But at any rate, that is what he thought.

There are some people who think that faith is dangerous. People who believe they’ve found truth are dangerous. You’ve heard the saying that there are two types of people in the world--those who believe there are two types of people in the world and those who don’t. And this is the view of the post-modern. He thinks that those people who think that there are two types of people in the world, the right and the wrong—they’re the problem. They think that you are dangerous if you believe in absolute truth. If you divide the world into people who are right and people who are wrong, you’re a problem. You are a social threat.

Then there are people who think that faith is relative. When you say “I believe” all you’re saying is, “Oh, I believe that for me, but for you it may be different.” We are saying none of that when we say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” We’re saying something for more than that and far other than that. And Christians must be graciously, but self consciously, counter cultural when we say, “I believe.”

III. The content of Christian faith.
And there is a third thing. Let me ask you to turn to Luke 24, page ### in your pew Bibles. When Christians say, “I believe,” we are stating the content of our faith about the object of our trust. When we start to give you The Apostles’ Creed, we are telling you the what of what we believe and the whom of what we believe. We’re telling you about our belief in God and the content of that belief in God and we’re telling you about the God in whom we believe.

In other words, our belief is both personal and propositional. We believe in a person and we believe specific things or propositions or sentences or proposals about that person which that person has told to us himself. And we’ve already seen that in Abraham. Abraham’s faith is not a blind faith. God comes to him first and makes a promise to him. Abraham responds to that promise and lives for years upon God’s providence, believes God’s promise, trusts in God. His faith is both personal and propositional.

I can’t think of a better New Testament passage to illustrate that than Luke 24. Now allow your eyes to fall across the whole passage. You know the story. It’s the story of Jesus after the resurrection on the road to Emmaus with the disciples who are doubting. Their hopes have been crushed; Jesus has been crucified. They are wandering back home on their way to Emmaus and who comes along but Jesus? Now this is beautiful. Friends, if the existentialists are right, this is the perfect opportunity for a wordless encounter. This is the perfect opportunity for an “I”- “thou” moment that has nothing to do with propositions. And look what happens. These discouraged disciples are on their way back to Emmaus and Jesus comes up. Look at verses 44 and 45 particularly. Jesus comes up and says, “Oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe Me.” No, that’s not a variant text. “Oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” This is beautiful. The person Jesus Christ, who is the focus of saving faith is saying, “You know what your problem is—you don’t believe the Bible; let’s do a quick study.” And He walks them through the Scriptures so that they might learn what the Scriptures testify of Him.

If what you think about Jesus and what you think about the Bible doesn’t matter, this was Jesus’ perfect opportunity to express that. And He doesn’t. He says that the problem with the failure of your faith, friends, is that you didn’t believe the Bible. Let me explain it to you. And at the end of verse 45 we are told, “He opened their minds to the Scriptures.” And when they get back home and He is departed, do you remember what they report? Scripture says that “their hearts were burning within them as He taught them the Scriptures about Himself.” A beautiful combination of Christ coming to them—taking the initiative—opening to them the Word, grounding their faith in the Word and then pointing them by the Word to His person.

Faith is belief in the propositions of Scripture and trust believing into the person of Jesus Christ. Faith is three things: it is a response to revelation, it is embrace of truth, and it is trust in a person. Biblical faith is not blind faith. Get the scene from Indiana Jones going after the Holy Grail out of your mind. This is not a leap of faith. You’re not putting your feet out onto the chasm in front of you. This is not what God is asking you to do.

If I could give you an illustration it would be like this: You and your friend are climbing a mountain. Maybe you are in the Swiss Alps and a fog has come in and cut you off from one another and there is no visible contact between you. You are chained together by a rope and your friend is already down on a ledge below. But the fog has now cut you off from visible sight. Your friend is standing there and he says, “The only was you are getting down is to jump.” You say, “I can’t see the ledge.” Your friend says, “I’m standing on it. Jump or you’ll freeze to death.” Now it is not blind faith for you to trust your friend to jump down there. You cant’ see it. Faith is not sight, but it’s also not blind, and it’s also not foolish. You trust your friend. That’s your best friend and he’s saying, “Jump. I’ll get you. The ledge is here. Jump down.” You can’t see it but it is a very logical thing to do to trust your friend.

And biblical faith is a response to God’s revelation. It’s not asking you to contradict all known laws of rationality. It’s asking you to trust in a God who has proven Himself over and over in His Word and in His providence and in His Son. New Testament faith involves knowledge and belief and trust. Now one last thing.

IV. The importance of Christian faith.
Here’s my fourth thing. Faith is vitally and indispensably important for both salvation and growth. Turn over to Hebrews 11:6. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” It is impossible to please God without faith. The author is saying there that faith is indispensable for salvation. Paul has said that in Roman 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and if you believe that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

Faith is indispensable; it’s the means, it’s the instrument, the tool of the Holy Spirit to unite us to Christ. It’s absolutely indispensable. Most of us are evangelicals who have been in churches all of our lives. Most of us know that and believe that faith is indispensible, but we need to pause to remember as well that faith is also indispensable for Christian growth. It’s a root grace in our hearts and it’s productive of other graces. Go back to Romans 4 and look at verse 20. “With respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but he grew strong in faith.” Over a course of a life of having to trust and believe, Abraham grew. Faith was a root grace in his life. That is why the author of Hebrews 1 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” We are saved by grace through the instrument of faith and we grow in grace through the instrument of faith.

Faith, as the gift of grace, is the source of every part of the spiritual life. It’s the holy energy and activity of the whole soul exerting itself towards God in Christ. It’s the means by which we’re united by the Spirit to Christ; it’s the means by which we grow. It is vitally important. So when we say, “I believe” we are saying something of no mean consequences. May God grant us to know better what we believe, and to believe more firmly what we profess. Let’s pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for Your Word and we thank you for the gift of faith. Lord, we believe; help our unbelief. In Jesus’ name. Amen

LIKE HIM WE RISE

April 19, 2008 – First Baptist Church, Sharon, Pennsylvania

Sean G. Morris

Introduction:

Preface of/to the text:

Introductory prayer:

And now a reading from the Gospel according to John chapter 20, verses 1-10.

Listen to the inspired and infallible Word of the Living God:

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that^(B) the stone had been taken away from the tomb. ²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple,^(C) the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and^(D) we do not know where they have laid him." ^3(E) So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. ⁴Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵And stooping to look in, he saw^(F) the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, ⁷and^(G) the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’^[a] head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. ⁸Then the other disciple,^(H) who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹for as yet^(I) they did not understand the Scripture,^(J) that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰Then the disciples went back to their homes.

And from Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 15, verses 35-49:

³⁵But someone will ask,^(Z) "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" ³⁶You foolish person!^(AA) What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. ³⁸But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. ³⁹For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. ⁴¹There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

^42(AB) So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³It is sown in dishonor;^(AC) it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. ⁴⁴It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵Thus it is written,^(AD) "The first man Adam became a living being";^[d](AE) the last Adam became a^(AF) life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. ^47(AG) The first man was from the earth,^(AH) a man of dust;^(AI) the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven,^(AJ) so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹Just^(AK) as we have borne the image of the man of dust,^(AL) we shall^[e] also bear the image of the man of heaven.

From this passage I hope we will discover or re-realize our need to believe God’s promise of the resurrection and live our lives as if we really do believe it. We say we believe that the dead will be raised and that we will be raised with them and with Christ, yet we often live as if this world is it. Let us then consider what the Lord has to say in His Word regarding these matters.

Exegesis:

Paul begins this section in verse 35 by noting that undoubtedly a skeptic or heckler, one who is disinclined with an unregenerate heart towards the Christian faith and to the Gospel, will boldly ask, “How are the dead raised?” How is this even possible, he will demand. “What kind of body will it be?” The mocking will continue. Surely this notion that the dead will rise again is absurd, and with what bodies will they return? No doubt the bodies would decay as time wanes, and a great many believers had already become martyrs for their faith, and their bodies were no longer in existence: marred by flames, or torn asunder by lions, how could these believers possibly return with their bodies?

And, as if those mere questions were not enough to sow doubt into the minds of men, we can infer that the Corinthians hypothetically posing this question would have probably been influenced by dualism, a pagan philosophy that contrasted the immaterial with the physical and argued that the immaterial was good but that the physical was evil. It was from this line of thinking that some Christians had developed disdain for the human body, probably distorting ideas about sexual relationship. They seem to have thought that since the body was evil, the doctrine of the Resurrection meant that dishonorable bodies would be raised. Paul regards this notion as foolish, and gives extensive discussion to the matter.

And so Corinthian Christians were subject to two misrepresentations of the body of man: questioning as if it were implausible that the Lord God would be able to raise decayed, dead, mutilated bodies, or since the body itself was inherently evil, because it was physical, according to pagan teaching, why would God bother raising it at all?

In verse 36: unless it dies: because God is the creator of the world, the processes of nature reflect in various ways how he works. Nature provides useful metaphors of the divine work of salvation. Jesus uses a seed as an illustration of spiritual truth in John 12 when he says “if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Here Paul uses the same picture, but to illustrate the striking difference between what is planted and what eventually grows from the seed. Rather than being contrary to reality, Paul demonstrates that the resurrection is so far from being against nature, that we have every day a clear illustration of it in the course of nature itself — in the growth of the fruits of the earth. For from what but from rottenness spring the fruits that we gather out of the earth? For when the seed has been sown, unless the grains die, there will be no increase. Corruption, our corruption, because of our sin, then, is the beginning and cause of production: and what is produced? Glorious resurrection. We first die, in order that we might be raised to new life.

(re-read each verse prior to each exposition) Verse 37: Paul is arguing that it is not to be wondered that bodies rise from rottenness, inasmuch as the same thing takes place as to seed; and secondly, that it is not at variance with reason, that our bodies should be restored in another condition, since, from bare grain, God brings forth so many ears of corn, clothed with admirable contrivance, and stored with grains of superior quality.

Verse 38: By this clause he restricts what he had said respecting another body; for he says that, while the resurrection body that we receive is different, it is in such a way as to retain, nevertheless, its particular kind.

Verses 39 and 40: For when Paul says, flesh regarding the body of a man as well as of various beasts and animals, the flesh in those two cases is different. He means by this that the substance indeed is the same, but there is a difference as to quality. In short —whatever diversity we see in any particular kind is a sort of prelude of our coming resurrection, because God clearly shows that it is no difficult thing with him to renew our bodies by changing the present condition of things.

Verse 41: Not only is there a difference between heavenly bodies and earthly, but even the heavenly bodies have not all the same glory; for the sun surpasses the moon, and the other stars differ from each other. This dissimilarity, accordingly, appears in the resurrection of the dead. A mistake, however, is commonly fallen into in the application; for some supposed that Paul meant to say, that, after the resurrection, the saints will have different degrees of honor and glory. This, indeed, is perfectly true, and is proved by other declarations of Scripture; but it has nothing to do with Paul’s point here. For he is not arguing as to what difference of condition there will be among the saints after the resurrection, but in what respect our bodies at present differ from those that we will one day receive—how different is the glory of the moon and sun, how greater is glory of the sun than the moon. Likewise how greater the glory of our resurrected body that the current glory of or earthly body, which already contains a degree of glory because it is made in the image of God.

Verses 42 and 43: Finally the illustration is applied to the human body that dies and is buried, and is transformed in its resurrection. Paul does not suggest that the resurrection body is a different body altogether. Just as a plant arises directly from its seed, so a resurrection body is in essence the same as the body that “is sown.” And in just in case there was any doubt remaining, Paul explains himself, by unfolding the difference between our present condition, and that which will be after the resurrection. He figuratively compares the time of the present life to the seed-time, and the resurrection to the harvest; and he says, that our body is now, indeed, subject to mortality and ignominy, but will then be glorious and incorruptible. He emphasizes the astounding change that will take place: from “perishable”, “dishonor,” and “weakness” to “imperishable”, “glory,” and “power.” He says the same thing in other words in Phi_3:21 :Christ will change our vile body, that he may make it like to his own glorious body.

Verse 44: As he could not express each particular by enumerating one by one, he sums up all comprehensively in one word, by saying that the body is now natural, or possibly rendered animal, but it will eventually be spiritual. Now that is called animal because it is given livelihood by the soul (in Latin anima, hence animal), whereas that which is spiritual which is given livelihood by the Spirit. Now it is the soul that quickens the body, so as to keep it from being a dead carcass. After the resurrection, on the other hand, that quickening influence, which it will receive from the Spirit, will be more excellent even that what the regenerate believer has of the Spirit currently. Presently the soul’s quickening of the body, that is effected through the intervention of many helps; for we stand in need of drink, food, clothing, sleep, and other things of a similar nature. Hence the weakness of animation or the natural body is clearly manifested. The energy of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, for quickening, will be much more complete, and, consequently, exempted from necessities of that nature.

Verse 45: Paul here quotes from Genesis 2 to emphasize that Adam, the first man, was indeed had his body quickened by the soul, so that he became a living man. And in this instance soul means vital motion, or the very essence of life itself. Now as to his calling Christ the last Adam, the reason is this, that as the human race was created in the first man, so it is renewed in Christ. All men were created in the first man, because, whatever God designed to give to all, he conferred upon that one man, so that the condition of mankind was settled in his person. He by his fall ruined himself and those that were his, because he drew them all, along with himself, into the same ruin: Christ came to restore our nature from ruin, and raise it up to a better condition than ever. They are, or two roots of the human race. Hence it is not without good reason, that the one is called the first man, and the other the last. A similar comparison occurs in Rom_5:12 which reads: ^“Therefore, just as^(A) sin came into the world through one man, and^(B) death through sin, and^(C) so death spread to all men because^(D) all sinned.”

Verse 46: This is simply a matter of factual assertion stating that before we are restored in Christ, we derive our origin from Adam, and resemble him. So, it’s simple that we as humans are “natural or carnal” first before we become spiritual—that is led an indwelt by the regenerative Holy Spirit of God. again, if we begin with the living soul, in the same way being born precedes in order being born again, so living precedes rising again.

Verse 47: we are subject to live the carnal or worldly life first, because the earthy man, Adam came first. The spiritual life will come afterwards, as Christ, the heavenly man, came after Adam. Although the first man had an immortal soul, nevertheless, savoured of the earth, from which his body had sprung, and on which he had been appointed to live. Christ, on the other hand, brought us from heaven a life-giving Spirit that he might regenerate us into a better life, and elevated above the earth. We have from Adam that we live in this world, as branches from the root, of sin. Christ, on the other hand, is the beginning and author of the heavenly life.

Verses 48 and 49: Let us observe that this is not an exhortation, but pure doctrine, and that Paul is not speaking here of newness of life, but pursues, without any interruption, the thread of his discourse respecting the resurrection of the flesh. The meaning accordingly will be this: “As the carnal nature, which has the precedence in us, is the image of Adam, so we shall be conformed to Christ in the heavenly nature; and this will be the completion of our restoration. For we now begin to bear the image of Christ, and are every day more and more transformed into it; but that image consists in spiritual regeneration. But then it will be fully restored both in body and in soul, and what is now begun will be perfected, and accordingly we will obtain in reality what we as yet only hope for.” If, however, any one prefers a different reading, this statement could have served to spur forward the Corinthians; and if there had been a lively exhortation for the believers to demonstrate lives of sincere piety and a new life, it might have been the means of kindling up in them at the same time the hope of heavenly glory.

Application

We that’s all fine and dandy, Sean, now that you’ve inundated us with all this theological jargon and exegetical technique, but how is this useful for my living?

I believe we can derive several things from this passage:

1. We have clear and evident promise that we will receive resurrected, glorified bodies. We are hearkened back to the promise in 1 Thessalonians 4 when Paul writes, ⁵For this we declare to you^(AH) by a word from the Lord,^[d] that^(AI) we who are alive, who are left until^(AJ) the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For^(AK) the Lord himself will descend^(AL) from heaven^(AM) with a cry of command, with the voice of^(AN) an archangel, and^(AO) with the sound of the trumpet of God. And^(AP) the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be^(AQ) caught up together with them^(AR) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so^(AS) we will always be with the Lord.
1. Though we may die and leave this world before the Return of Christ, God’s Word assures us that on that Great and Awesome Day, our souls which have been with Christ, shall be reunited with our bodies. And those bodies, along with those who remain alive for the Second Coming, shall undergo a Transfiguration—not unlike our Lord. The bodies that we are reunited with and with which we shall enjoy eternity, are not endowed with their earthly frailties, but are glorified, they are resurrected—not unlike the glorified, transfigured, and Resurrected body of Christ Jesus. Gospel accounts tell us of the nature of His body during his time on Earth before his ascension, and from this passage in 1 Corinthians, we learn that we too shall receive a body like that—our corruptible body inherited from Adam shall be transformed into an incorruptible, pure, Christ-like body in which we shall reign with him for eternity!
2. This gives us incredible incentive to maintain the temple of the Holy Spirit that is our body. As believers, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and charged to maintain his dwelling place pure and undefiled. How much more the incentive then, knowing that we are stewards of these bodies, that God has given them to us on loan, only to return to redeem them, and claim them back unto Himself.
1. When we are given an object of any value from a friend who is kind enough to let us borrow, do we not feel a sense of obligation and propensity to return it to them in a better condition than which we found it? Of course! How much more than, shall the Lord return and desire to see that we have been faithful over a few things which we have been given? This passage serves as an exhortation to be faithful stewards of the body which is on loan to us for our duration on this earth, knowing that the Master is coming to reclaim it.

i. And please do not think that this is some simplistic plea to keep our bodies healthy, fit and in shape, as useful advice as that is, but rather to be living in accordance with the Gospel, and to keep these temples from defilement by fleeing sin which pollutes, defiles, and so easily entangles, and rather to pursue whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, whatever is excellent, whatever worthy of praise.

3. Finally, we are reminded of the Supremacy of Christ and His redemption. Christ did not merely promise to save our souls, but He promises to redeem, to restore all things unto Himself. He shall redeem and restore even the very Creation to its purity. Christ is at work even now to conform us to His image, to sanctify us. And as Christ has purchased us, and we no longer fall under the condemning image of Adam, but are in Christ, He conforms us to Himself, and He stores our entire beings to their divinely ordained intention. As Christ puts his mark on His people, as he calls us His own, we bear then His qualities and characteristics, God as our Father, Christ as our Brother. And so Christ conforms even our bodies. How? He redeems them in that Coming Day, by giving them resurrection glory, just like the Risen Christ. In this we see divine grace: yet as we struggle with our calling to imitate our Savior, God is his glorious beneficence has ordained that we will imitate our Savior. God has ordained by His will that we have no choice but to imitate our Savior, and to bear his likeness. J

And so we have this hope of glory: we are made like him, indeed, like Him we rise. Shall we pray.

O my Son Absalom!—What Every Father Needs to Hear

(adapted from sermon of the same title by Rev. Dr. Mike Milton, President of RTS Charlotte)

2 Samuel 18.24-19.2

I’m not huge on dictating the course of the Lord’s Day worship service on the fact that it happens to fall on a government-declared federal holiday. Nevertheless, many of you are probably anticipating a “Father’s Day Sermon” and God’s Word has much to say on the notion of biblical fatherhood and the high calling thereof. So let’s explore together.

The Bible is very practical and plain. Sometimes, disturbingly so. Like in the case of the historical account of King David and his son, Absalom. David was a great man but he was guilty of great sin. And his sin infected his home. In 2 Samuel 12.11-13, Nathan confronts David about his sin with Bathsheba. Bathsheba was not his first sin. He had been married seven times before. David had seven wives when he took Bathsheba from his servant Urriah the Hittite. In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan says that David’s great sin had resulted in a judgment. The sword would not leave his home. The universal laws of God had been violated. And David’s sin had produced family pain. By Chapter 13 it happens. Chapter 13 unfolds the damage done. Chapter 18, the climax of the sordid story. And I read from 18.24-19.2:

Introduction to the Sermon

This week, I read of a story about a man who is going through a divorce, and the loss of his family. His nightmare is coming true. He is going to lose his newborn son, his wife lives in another country, and he seems destined to a life of heartbreak. Sin and sadness have conspired together to bring hopelessness to this young man’s life.

Every person here has either known this situation personally or has encountered it in your family or in your friendships. I know it is present in this and every congregation in our day. We are so much like Israel in Nehemiah’s day that had wandered from God and taken up with the foreign women of a pagan nation. We are infected with the sensuality of this present evil age.

But that never stopped God from bringing hope and healing for broken people then. And there is hope and healing for broken fathers, and children today.

As I heard this story of pain I was reminded of the sad story of David and his son Absalom. I would draw every father’s attention to words that we never want to utter but words which we should all pay close attention to today. What does this father’s lament tell us?

Few stories match the gripping grief-struck tale of David and Absalom. Two great truths can be seen in this passage that can bring hope to broken fathers and fractured families.

1. The secret sins of earthly fathers will brings sorrow to their families. And thus today is a day of repentance.

I say this based on the soul-shaking cry of King David as he learns of his rebellious son’s tragic death, even as he was seeking his father’s kingdom. David’s cry, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” is an awful statement of remorse and regret. And we see in that cry and in that story how it came about.

I am concerned as I repeat David’s words that many will hear this and know their own grief. I know that some hearing this, though they have been forgiven and God is working redemption in their lives and families, will be drawn by the past pain to withdraw from this message, but I implore you, to be drawn by God to prayer for others. I ask you as a sojourner in the pathway of family pain to bear with me, my brothers. If you have known God’s love, pray that in this message, the Word of God will do its mighty work in the hearts of unrepentant men who hear this—drawing them to see their sins, see their Savior and stand on His salvation on the cross to see hope. Will you stand with me now, who have been healed of your own sins in this area, and bravely testify with me to the tragedy of what secret sin will do to man and his family?

Now let me return, along with these praying men, to see this passage. It is a hard one for all of us. It is hard for those women who have suffered because of the sins of their husbands. It is hard for children who have suffered because of sin in their own homes. But we must look up to be healed or else forever wander hollow-eyed and depressed in the wilderness of our own seething pain. Jesus bids you look up to see your redemption drawing nigh.

But we must begin with confronting the terrible cry of David in this passage before us. How did David, and all broken fathers, end up with such a painful plea of the soul as to cry, “O my son, my son…?”
And here are the answers.

Such Remorse begins with Rejection

He rejected God’s law and its set into effect a judgment that reached through his generations. David rejected God’s law with his many wives. This was never condoned by God and was a direct rejection of God’s intention. For Jesus said of the unbiblical marital arrangements in his day that it was not so in the beginning.

“…He who created them from the beginning made male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh…”

And Paul teaching on the qualifications for an officer in the Church further instructs us on the intention of God, that man should have one wife. And David rejected this.

David also rejected the Law of God in coveting what was not his. When you break one commandment, you break them all. And David’s sensual sin caused him to worship the flesh, have other gods before him, and we could go through each commandment. He became deceived by the devil and succumbed to his own flesh and the result was devastating.

In Genesis chapter 6, the chapter where we see the word of God that He will destroy the earth and the call for Noah to build an ark, God shows us the pathway to destruction. For that generation it began with men governing themselves by the lusts of the flesh rather than by God’s will. For they took women who were the daughters of ungodly pagans rather than marrying a woman who was faithful. The result was that their sin bred violence in the land. Sexual sin is a sin against God’s laws for life and always results in pain and even in violence in the land.

Men of God, the spirit of this age seeks to destroy your life, and I know this as a young man, by promising you fulfillment through sensuality. It is a lie from the pit of Hell that must be rejected by trusting in Christ, honoring your wife, thinking of the great damage that could come to your children, and the horrors of Hell.

The Rejection of the Father leads to the Rebellion of the Child

And David’s children rebelled. The sin of Amnon with Tamar, the sin of Absalom against his brother (which should have been handled according to the law not through vigilantism which only compounds the crises), and the sin of Absalom against his father’s kingdom, all came about as a direct rebellion against David. Nathan the Prophet prophesied this after David’s heinous crime of adultery and murder.

Covenant children rebel when they see duplicitous living in their parents’ lives. Covenant children rebel when they see a demand for holiness that their parents do not adhere to. But let us be careful to say that the child is responsible before God for his own faithfulness to God. And children, the Bible instructs you to turn to Jesus now. Your parents are not perfect. And you cannot use their sins to disguise your own. God calls you to repent and to be obedient to them and should they fall, then be obedient to God the Father and continue to pray for and show honor to your parents no matter their condition. This God will bless.

The Rebellion of Children to the Father’s Sin leads to a Repeating of the sin

Thus, the rebellion led to a repeating of his sins in David’s own household. Amnon and Tamar represent a rebellion that tragically mimicked David’s own lustful situation with Bathsheba. Absalom, who sought revenge of his full sister against the half brother, Amnon, represented the murderous act of David, who had Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle.

The warning of God is clear:

You shall not bow down to them or serve them [speaking of the gods of the surrounding nations]; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, Deuteronomy 5.9

There was once a ruckus that happened in a little Scottish village. Stores were broken into, damage was done on a Saturday night spree by youth. One of the men in the town darted out of his house with a big stick. He began to follow the suspected pathway of the wayward youth. He marked all of the signs of their presence, noted all of the damage they did along the way, followed closely, and came to a house. It was his own.
The truth is that the children follow us all the way.

Today is a day of repentance for men who are caught in sensual sin

Many of you may be familiar with the sad marriage of the great Russian playwright, Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy’s marriage was a saga of bitterness. His wife carped and complained and clung to her grudges until he could not bear the sight of her. When they had been married almost a half a century, sometimes she would implore him to read to her the exquisite, poignant love passages that he had written about her in his diary forty-eight years previously, when they were both madly in love with each other. As he read of the happy days that were now gone forever, they both wept bitterly.

God does not want you to weep bitterly as you think of what could have been. God is the business of transforming lives today, giving hope today. And new life begins with the rejection of the old, which has brought sorrow, and the embracing of the new, which brings life. And today is a day that God has visited you and called you to return to Him. Today is a day where you must see the awful consequences of your sin. Though your sin be done in secret, the defiance of God in the most private of areas will become the devastation of your family and your soul in the most public of ways. Do not go another moment without confession of sin and a prayer to Almighty God for His deliverance and His hope.

Jesus said that if you eye offends you pluck it out. And Jesus was using extreme language to address a heart issue that demands extreme and immediate attention. It is a call to repent, to turn from the sin in order to embrace healing and renewal and life. And the way to turn from something that is powerful is to be compelled by a greater power. And the power I show you is the power of God’s love in Jesus Christ. The power I show you is something you can relate to now: the power of God the Father in His brokenness in sending His only begotten Son for you.

And this is the second and final truth I bring from this passage on this Father’s Day:

2. The holy love of our heavenly father through the suffering of His one and only Son will bring salvation to broken father’s and their broken children. And thus this is a day of resurrection hope

Perhaps you have been wondering, why is he preaching such a morose and depressing subject on this holiday. I say again, The holy love of our heavenly father through the suffering of His one and only Son will bring salvation to broken father’s and their broken children. And thus this is a day of resurrection hope

David’s cry ended with “My Son, My son” but Jesus’ cry, in David’s place, was “My God! My God! Why Have you forsaken Me?”

The cry of David was the cry of a broken father.
The cry of Jesus was the cry of a forsaken Son.
The cry of David came from failure to follow God’s plan for living.
The cry of Jesus came from fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation for those who have failed.
The cry of David brought only more remorse.

The cry of Jesus on the cross brings miraculous resurrection.

I hope and trust that I will have the faith to believe that there will never be a case that comes before me where I say, “Well, no hope here. No way to mend this. No answers.” No, my beloved, God in Christ is a Redeemer. He came to bind up wounds and set captives free.

Broken fathers—from Adam, whose sinful son Cain murdered Abel to Abraham whose sinful unbelief led to seeing his first born son, Ishmael, led away with his mother from the camp; to David, pale in comparison with the brokenness that had to occur as a result of a covenant between God the Father and God the Son. For it was ordained from before the foundation of the world that God the Son would leave His Father’s glorious presence in heaven to come down to live with men, to be rejected by the very ones He came to save, and then to be abandoned on the Cross with all of the wrath of God coming down on His pure soul. But you see, broken fathers and fractured families are healed by the brokenness of God the Father sending His Son to be forsaken on Calvary’s Cross for you. And not only that, but in Jesus’ being forsaken by His Father on the cross, He was sent to the grave. But God did not leave Him there, but raised Him up on the third day. And forever more, praise God, there is hope and renewal for broken fathers and fractured families through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become she righteousness of God.” 2Corinthians 5.21

And there is reconciliation for estranged families, renewal and hope for remorseful fathers and mothers, restoration for prodigal children, through Jesus Christ:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Colossians 1.19-23

I believe with all of my heart and I have experienced it through all of my short life that through Jesus Christ the redeemer, families can be brought together, marriages can be healed, abandoned spouses and children can be ministered to and given a new life, heart-broken children can be mended, and the cycle of pain that afflicts generations can be immediately snapped by the broken father, broken not by remorse but repentance before a holy God who is quick to receive you back because of His Son Jesus.

And maybe there is someone here, like the young father we heard of earlier. You don’t see a way out. You don’t see how God can redeem your situation. You look into the future and see pain and more pain because of your sin or the sin of another.

I end with the words of a wise woman, Elizabeth Elliott.

“The disorders and sorrows in my own life, whether attributable solely to my own fault, solely to somebody else’, perhaps to a mixture of both, or to neither, have given me the change to learn a little more each time of the meaning of the cross. What can I do with the sins of others? Nothing but what I do with my own – and what Jesus did with all of them – take them to the cross. Put them down at the foot and let them stay there. The cross has become my home, my rest, my shelter, my refuge.”

And so I ask:

Fathers, is the cross of Christ your home for your sins past and present?

Children, is the cross of Christ your rest and your shelter from disappointment? Or pain?

Dear women, is the cross of Jesus your refuge?

Regret and remorse are covered in the precious blood of Jesus when our problems are placed at His feet. And on this Father’s Day that is good news for David, good news for any would-be Absalom and good news for all of us. Let us pray.

O Father, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you have blessed the world with fathers. And yet, too often we have obscured the fatherhood that you intended by the consequences of our sin. We ask you to redeem fatherhood in our families, in our nation, in our lives, through the instruction of Scripture, the grace of Jesus and the transformation of our souls. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

GREETINGS FROM AN APOSTLE

June 14, 2009 – The Presbyterian Church of New Lyme, New Lyme Twp., Ohio

Sean G. Morris

(adapted from a sermon of the same title by J. Ligon Duncan III, senior minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS)

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 1, as we begin our study in this great what we could call the gospel of Paul to the Romans. And the book of Romans, as we have already mentioned this morning, has been used mightily by God over the course of church history. Many examples come to mind.

You can think a thousand years after the time of Augustan in the life of Martin Luther, a young man who was a professor of New Testament in the City University in Wittenburg, had been wrestling with the idea of the justice of God. In fact, he tells us when he came to Romans 1:17, it just made him hate God because that passage spoke of the justice of God, the righteousness of God, and Luther knew he had no righteousness himself to offer to God. And so he felt as if he were undone and destined to be rejected, no matter what he did. And he did everything that the Roman Catholic church of his day told him to do to be right, to feel right with God, and he had no peace. And he tells us that when he finally understood what Paul was talking about in Romans 1:17, it was as if the gateway to heaven had been opened to him. And the rest, as Paul Harvey would say, is history. Five hundred years of Christianity impacted by the grasp of this Augustinian monk’s understanding of Romans.

And so we come today to study the epistle to Romans together. Now I want to mention just in passing before we read the section that is our text today, I just want to mention that this is the longest greeting of all of the apostle’s letters. Ninety-three words of greeting he brings in the epistle to Romans. But one thing I want you to see even in these first seven verses that we look at where Paul is basically saying I’m Paul and I’m sending this letter to you. Notice how, though he doesn’t give us a definition of the gospel, already in the first seven verses of the epistle, everything in his greeting surrounds and is infused with the gospel itself. In the very first words of greeting in this letter, Paul is already talking about the gospel of grace. So let’s hear God’s holy and inspired word here in Romans, chapter 1:

Romans 1:1-7

Our Father, so many of us come with preconceptions about the gospel and about You that blind s us to Your glory and to the sheer extravagance of grace in the gospel. We pray that by the work of the Holy Spirit You would not only enable us to understand the truth of Your word as Paul sets it forth; but that You would take from our eyes the scales which prevent us from appreciating the glory of this tree, enable us to see, to believe, to trust and obey. We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Now I want to state my agenda up front and clearly. It’s my hope that as we study the letter of Paul to the Romans together that it is going to challenge your understanding of Christianity, that you will see as we study this book together just how radical the gospel of grace is and just how radical are the claims of truth which Paul presses here. And in the passage before us today, in particular, I want us to begin looking at the gospel immediately, and if you look at the passage in three parts, in verse 1, I think you’re going to see Paul telling you something about the authority of that gospel.

Then if you look at the end of verse 1 and all the way down to verse 6 you’re going to see Paul telling you something about the nature of the gospel itself. The gospel is rooted in the Old Testament. The gospel is Christ-centered. The gospel is for all the nations.

And then if you look at the end of verse 5 and all the way down to verse 7 you’re going to see Paul saying that the gospel is radically transforming. It defines who we are and what we are for. And so those are the sections that I’d like you to look at in this opening word of greeting that is before us today.

I. Paul’s ministry, authority and purpose.
In verse 1 we see Paul describe his ministry position, his ministry authority and his ministry purpose. In verses 2 through 6 we see Paul set forth before us three great things that we need to know about the gospel. And then at the end of verse 5 and down to verse 7 especially, Paul tells us several important things that we need to know in order to have a proper self-understanding as Christians, as the body of Christ. So let’s look at these verses together today. First, in verse 1 where Paul opens up by introducing himself to these Roman Christians telling them what his ministry position is, telling them what his authority is in ministry and telling them what his own purpose is in ministry.

Notice Paul’s words. He says three things in this little verse. First, that he is a servant of the Messiah. That’s who he is. I’m a servant of the Messiah who is Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, Christ Jesus is my master. And so Paul introduces himself to the Romans as a servant. Now that is an important balancing truth to the next truth that he announces to them. Because the very next thing he’s going to say is that he’s not only a servant of Christ but he is a called apostle. That is, God Himself, and Paul could say specifically the Lord Jesus Christ, visibly and audibly met him and called him not only to salvation but to service as an apostle. You remember when Paul was encountered on the way to Damascus by the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul was going to persecute Christians. Not only did the Lord Jesus humble him, bring him to repentance, convert him, but as Jesus Himself spoke to the Christians who had gathered around Paul and were a little bit wary about Saul of Tarsus being welcomed into the Christian community in Palestine, the Lord Himself said ,I will show him how much he must suffer for My sake. From the very beginning of his conversion Paul was set apart called by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to be an authoritative messenger and representative of God. And so Paul says, I’m a servant of Christ. I’m not here, as it were, to Lord it over you.

But you need to know at the same time that I am an authoritative messenger, a called apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul gives us some inkling of what that means in I Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13. Would you look there with me. In I Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13 he gives a compliment to the Thessalonian Christians. He says, "And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." Paul is saying to the Thessalonians, I want to thank God for you that when you heard me proclaim the truth you understood that my words were not just men’s words, they weren’t just my opinions, my thoughts, my reflections, my experience. It was God’s word. You accepted it for what it is. And in this way the apostle is saying here to the Roman Christians, I am an authoritative messenger, a representative of God.

And then he goes on to say, and I’m a man wholly devoted to proclaiming God’s good news. I am set apart for the gospel of God. Yes, Paul can say it’s my gospel elsewhere. But ultimately, it’s the gospel of God. Paul is here to serve someone else’s agenda. And that someone else is the Lord Most High. It’s God’s gospel that Paul comes to serve.

And you need to understand the radical implications for what Paul is saying, even in this first sentence. Not only for the Roman Christians who first heard this 2000 years ago, but for us today. We need to understand the radical truth claims that Paul is making here, and the radical authority claim of the gospel. We live in a day and age where people are uncomfortable with authority and with truth. I once heard of a Russian history professor who was teaching on the Soviet Revolution, and he said to his students, "The Bolsheviks are a lot like Christians. They think they’ve found truth with a capital T." And then he stopped to give us some pastoral advice about this. He said , "If you ever run into anybody who believes in truth with a capital T (that is absolute truth), you run in the opposite direction as fast as you can." You see the world is very uncomfortable with absolute truth claims because the world is afraid that that’s going to restrict its freedom to do as it pleases. Now, of course, it’s right. It is going to restrict to a certain extent its freedom to do as it pleases.

But let me tell you something, authority is the only thing that will save you from authoritarianism. It is only the belief in a transcendent truth that does not change, that saves you from the tyranny of the fifty percent plus one majority. If a man tolerates you only because he believes that there is no truth, or that what truth exists is relative, he can change his mind tomorrow. But if a man tolerates you on transcendent principles that cannot change, you have a relationship which can have some endurance to it. But you take away belief in transcendent truth, you are in trouble. And the apostle Paul comes with truth and authority.

But let me say that the truth and the authority that he comes with is a freeing truth and authority. And it’s so important for us to face up to those authority claims. He is wanting us to see the consequences of the truth that he presses. When he says, I am an apostle, and I’ve got a message from God for you, he wants you to understand that his message has consequences for the whole of your life; for the way that you think, for the way that you live, and for the place that you will spend eternity. Paul is claiming to address us directly on behalf of God. Paul is saying, now this is not the church’s opinion. He’s not saying, this is the church’s opinion, this is the community of faith’s opinion, this is my individual opinion, this is the result of my private mystical encounter with God. He is saying, no, this is God’s word for you. This is the good news of God. And my friends, it is vital for us to face up to that challenge. We must embrace, my Christian friends, we must embrace the gospel, not because we think it’s good for us, but because it’s true. And if it’s not true, it’s not good. And we live in a day and age that is not comfortable with truth. We’re much more comfortable with well that works for me. But that’s not how Paul presents the gospel. He doesn’t present the gospel as one of many options that might work for you. He presents it as the one and only truth of how God relates savingly to sinners. If it’s rejected, it means eternal damnation. If it is embraced, it means eternal bliss. It’s that simple. That’s not popular, but that’s what Paul is saying. And I want you to feel something in the force of that in this relativistic, pluralistic age in which we live. Paul is laying down the gauntlet, and he is saying ,this is God’s message for you. There’s one way, one gospel, one hope, one Lord. And so the gospel that Paul preaches is authoritative.

II. The gospel
And then if you’ll look with me at the end of verse 1, all the way down to verse 6, you’ll see the three great things that Paul says that those Roman Christians need to know about the gospel. Three great things that we still need to know about the gospel. He says the gospel is rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures. He tells us that the gospel is Christ-centered, and he tells us that the gospel is for the Gentiles. Look at what he says here in these verses.

He tells us, first of all, that the gospel of God was promised beforehand through the prophets, in the holy Scriptures. He’s telling us that the New Testament gospel is rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures. The New Covenant presentation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ in the gospel is the fruition of, the fulfillment of, what God had already set forth in the Old Covenant Scriptures spoken through the Old Covenant prophets. Paul really is picking up right where Matthew left off as he presents to us the gospel. So the gospel is something rooted in that Old Testament revelation. He’s saying to these Gentile Christians that you can’t just ignore the Old Testament. You can’t say, oh, it’s wonderful, we’ve got these New Testament revelations, and we’ve got these New Testament books and we’ve got these gospels, we don’t need to bother with Genesis anymore. We don’t need to bother with Isaiah any more. Paul is saying, no, the gospel that I am preaching is rooted in the Old Testament. You can’t forget the Jewishness of Christianity, he says.

And then he goes on to say, the gospel is supremely about God Himself. Notice that it’s concerning His Son. It’s the gospel of God concerning His Son. It’s supremely about God Himself, and especially His redemptive plan as it’s revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And that’s a message that we need to hear today.

So often you ask a person, "Well what is the gospel?" The gospel is that you’re to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Nope. You’ve started with a response to the gospel. The gospel is, though you are under the righteous condemnation of God by virtue of your sin and rebellion and your participation in Adam’s original rebellion, God in His mercy and grace has sent His Son to die on your behalf, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. That’s where the gospel starts. Not with our response. Until you understand that the gospel is about God and His initiative, you don’t have a full view of the gospel. And so Paul begins by saying the gospel of God concerning His Son.

And notice the things that He says that it concerns about His Son. First of all it’s about His Son’s person. Look at verse 3. He says that His Son is truly human, and that according to the flesh, He is descended from David. And therefore, even genealogically, He is rooted in the Davidic hope and promises and all those promises of the Messiah to come through the line of David.

Notice again in verse 4 he speaks of Christ’s exaltation. He was revealed who He claimed to be the very Son of God by the resurrection, by the testimony of the spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. He was exalted in our eyes.

Notice again that he goes on to say in that same verse that He is in fact Jesus, the Messiah, who is our Lord. That is He is our God, and He is our Master. He is the One, Paul goes on to say, who has called me into service to bear testimony to the Gentiles.

And then Paul goes on to say, having said that the gospel is rooted in the Old Testament, having said that the gospel is about God and especially about His redemptive plan in His Son, now he goes on to say that the gospel is for all nations through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His sake. And Paul again is announcing something radical here. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, and even as we read in Isaiah 10, God’s judgment of the nations because of their wickedness. Here Paul is announcing the good news of God to the nations. Not only is his message good news for the Jews who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, but it is to all the Gentiles, to the Greek, because God is bringing together Jew and Gentile, slave and free, barbarian and Scythian. He’s bringing them all into this kingdom that He is building up. The gospel is for all nations.

And my friends, in light of what Paul says even in this introduction, we need to radically relearn what the gospel is. If we view the Old Testament as basically irrelevant to our Christianity, we don’t understand Paul’s gospel. Paul says that the Old Testament is the very foundation for our Christianity. If we view the gospel as primarily about something that we do, we need to rethink it in light of what Paul says. Paul says the gospel is about God. It’s about what He is and does. And that it’s about what the Lord Jesus Christ is and does for us. And if we think that the gospel is simply something that’s fine for other people, people that need a religious crutch, people that are just not quite all there psychologically, and need a little something to help them through the trials of life. But if we’re self-sufficient, we don’t need it. Then we need to radically rethink what the gospel is because Paul says this gospel is for all nations. "That’s fine for you" is not an option in response to what Paul says. It’s not an option to say, "Look, if it works for you, that’s great. I just don’t need it." This is the one gospel for all nations, the apostle Paul says. Now Tom Houston has hit the nail on the head when he says the gospel begins and ends with what God is, not with what we want or think we need. We need to radically rethink the gospel in light of what Paul says here.

III. The implications of the gospel.
And then if you look at the end of verse 5 all the way down to verse 7 you’ll see Paul show us here just how radical are the implications of the gospel for how we view ourselves. For our own self-understanding. He knows that these Roman Christians, he knows that you and I need to understand what the gospel does for us. The gospel is not a little dollop on top of our ice cream scoop. It’s not a little dollop of whipped cream. You know it’s kind of a nice thing to add to what you are. The gospel transforms you. It infuses your reality. It changes who you are. God’s grace is transforming. The gospel defines what we are and are for. And look at four things that Paul says, just in this word of greeting. Four things that Paul says that the gospel means for who we are and what we are for.

First of all, if you look at the end of verse 5 and verse 6, Paul makes it clear that we are part of a united body that includes both Jew and Gentile, slave and free. We are now united by gospel bonds. God is doing a great work to bring the Jew and the Greek, Israel and the nations into one church and to unite us across all the things that separate us in an absolute unwavering conviction and confession of the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel so that we have this gospel bond now which transcends every other distinction and differentiation. We are part of the united body. That’s who we are. The gospel redefines it. It changes the way we look at one another. It changes the way we look at the world.

Notice again, look at verse 6. He goes on to mention specifically that we are called by Jesus Christ Himself. You are the called of Jesus Christ. Think of yourself that way. You are called by Jesus Christ. If you have responded to the gospel in faith as you have heard the word proclaimed, then you have heard Christ Himself speaking to you by His word, calling you into relationship to Himself. You are called by Christ Himself. Think about yourself that way, the apostle Paul says. You’re not only brought into this body a Jew and Greek, all united in gospel bonds, you are called by Christ Himself.

Notice again. Look at verse 7. You are beloved of God the Father. Think how important that would have been for those Roman Christians. They were hated by the world around them. Many of them would die for their faith. They were thought to be part of a sect, a superstition, to believe incredible things. They were accused of all sorts of immoral behavior. They were hated by their contemporaries. But the apostle Paul says you are the beloved of God and later he will specify that that God is God, your Father. You are beloved of the Heavenly Father even if you are hated by the world. And Paul is saying, Christian, think of yourself in these terms. This is who you are. The gospel means that this is who you are now. You are a person beloved by God the Father.

And then if you’ll look, he goes on to say in verse 7, "You are beloved of God. You are called as saints." So he not only tells you what you are, he tells you what you are for now. He goes on to tell you that you are called by Christ as holy ones to the pursuit of holiness. Roland Hill, the great teacher said, "I don’t care for any kind of Christianity that doesn’t mean that a man’s cat and dog are the better for it." He didn’t care for any kind of Christianity that didn’t bring about a transformation in the character and behavior of a person. And here Paul says Christianity not only changes who you are, it changes what you’re for. You now are saints. You are saints. You are holy ones and you are created. You’re created for the pursuit of holiness. You’re created to become the image of God. You’re created to walk in righteousness. It’s changed everything that you are. It’s changed your whole purpose for existence. The gospel changes everything. Even in his words of greetings, the apostle Paul presses home the authoritative character of the gospel, he tells you the nature of the gospel. It’s rooted in the Old Testament. It’s about God and especially about the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s for all the nations, and it tells you that the gospel changes everything. You can’t be indifferent about the gospel. It’s an all or nothing proposition.

For those of us who live in a cultural context where it’s very tempting to want to keep one foot in the world, and the other foot in the bounds of the body of Christ, the apostle Paul is issuing a tremendous challenge. The gospel is all-consuming. The gospel claims every area of your life. Gospel grace transforms every area of your life. And for those who in this culture, have bought into the relativism of this culture, which says everything is relative, there’s no absolute truth, for those, like Oprah, claim that there are many ways up the mountain—false. Reject that notion. The apostle Paul says that is the sure road to hell. That is the sure road to hell.

No, the only way into eternal saving fellowship with God is to recognize that there is one truth represented in one Savior who is the Lord Jesus Christ and having embraced the gospel of what He has done you find life eternal in the only way that there is to find it. Paul’s words to the Romans are radical. And I hope that in the weeks to come we will see our own lives transformed by the radical grace of the gospel and so come to a new appreciation of what it means to be a Christian. Let’s pray.

Our Lord and our God, we pray that You would humble us and exalt the Savior as we learn the gospel together, in Jesus’ name, Amen.