Total Transformation—Jamaica 2012

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Friends of Christ United in Service (FOCUS)

Romans, Justification, and the Third Angel's Message

Norman McNulty

Romans 1—The Totality of Justification

Romans 2&3—The Totality of Human Depravity

Romans 4—Fully Persuaded

Romans 5-8: Totally Transformed

So this will be our last little stretch of the conference for this weekend.

Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we thank you that we can study the book of Romans this afternoon.

Thank you for bringing us back, and may we learn a few more things that will help us in our understanding of the gospel and of the 3 angels' messages.

So how many of you were here for the 3 sessions yesterday?

And then a few of you have joined the group.

We're glad to have those of you who have joined as well.

Is anybody missing a handout for the class?

So what we have covered thus far in the 3 sessions we had.

We went through Romans 1 through 4, and the goal is to get through chapter 8.

We have about an hour and a half, and I'm going to break it up into 2 40 to 45 minute sessions here.

So we won't have time to get through every detail of the last 4 chapters of Romans, but we're going to hit the high points.

Romans chapter 1, Paul introduces the gospel and he introduces it with a teaching that the just shall live by faith.

We see that that is the power of the gospel because the righteousness of Christ is revealed in the lives of those who have experienced justification by faith.

Then the rest of chapter 1 and 2 are showing that all of us need the gospel because all of us have sinned, whether we're the wicked people of the world or the professed believers who have chosen to sin.

So when we get through the end of the first 2 chapters, what we see is that all of us need the gospel.

And Romans chapter 3 shows that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So we all need a Savior, we all need forgiveness, and we all need God's power to live a righteous life.

So Then in Romans chapter 4, the question arises, if all of us need the gospel and the gospel tells us that salvation is for all who believe, what does it mean to believe?

And Romans chapter 4 shows us what it means to believe.

And we see with Abraham's faith, it says that Abraham believed God, it was counted to him for righteousness.

But we saw at the end of Romans 4 that The way Abraham believed was that he was fully persuaded that what God promised he was able also to perform.

So faith or belief that leads to salvation is being fully persuaded that when God says I will give you a new heart and a new life, you believe that.

And you believe that God will perform that work in your heart and in your life.

So that's a brief summary of what we looked at yesterday.

Now, let's look at the key points of Romans 5 through 8.

In Romans chapter 5, there's really 2 main sections.

The first section describes a little bit more the experience of justification.

Chapter 5, verse 1, Paul says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So when we have justification, when we believe in God's saving power in our lives, we are now at peace with God.

We aren't fearful of condemnation from Him, we are at peace with God.

And then he goes on to show that in the experience of justification, we grow in our justified experience through the trials of life, specifically tribulations, which teach us patience, experience, and hope.

The trials of life that we go through help us to trust more in God, And that strengthens our justified walk with him.

Then in the last half of Romans 5, Paul shows us a little bit more in detail how we receive salvation and why we need salvation.

We need salvation because Adam had an effect on all of humanity that because he sinned, all of us were born with fallen human natures that lead us to choose to sin as well.

So his choice has affected all of humanity.

And what Paul then goes on to say though, is that just as Adam had an effect on the entire human race, Christ also has an effect on the entire human race.

And if you choose to serve him, his effect is much greater and has the potential to have eternal saving consequences if we choose to follow him.

Romans 5 can get a little bit technical, a little bit theological, so that's all the time we're going to spend in Romans 5, with the exception that in Romans 5, verse 10, it's interesting where Paul says, For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." What's interesting about that statement?

When we think about being saved by Jesus, what do we usually think about?

Usually we think about His death on the cross, and that's obviously part of the salvation that He gives us.

But we also see that not only are we saved by His death, We are saved by His life.

We're going to talk about that now as we move on to Romans chapter 6.

Look at verses 20 and 21 of Romans chapter 5.

You see in verse 20 of Romans 5, "...moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." And you know what people say?

Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.

The more I sin, the more grace I receive.

But if you study Romans 5 carefully, the point that Paul made is that Adam sinned, but the grace that Christ offers has a greater effect for humanity than the sin that Adam did.

And then the other point is that when we choose to sin, Christ's grace gives us forgiveness so that sin that we had committed will no longer rule our lives.

But what it does not say is that we can keep sinning so that we can receive more grace.

Paul actually dealt with that already in Romans chapter 3 and he says if you teach that and believe that, your damnation is just.

And then verse 21 says that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

So sin reigned because of Adam, but righteousness reigns because of Jesus Christ.

And the righteousness of Christ is more powerful than the sin of Adam.

Now we get to Romans chapter 6, and if you follow along in your handout, you'll want to follow along, just look at some of the key points, and you can go back and look at some of what I said in Romans 5 as well.

But Romans chapter 6, if you look at the heading for that chapter, I believe is 1 of the greatest chapters in the Bible.

And it's 1 of the chapters in the Bible that we as Christians don't really believe.

We might say we believe in the Bible, and we might say that we try to follow the Word of God, but when it comes to Romans chapter 6, we think that Paul must just be speaking in general terms that can't really specifically be true.

But let's read Romans chapter 6, and I'm glad that all of you are here for this because Romans chapter 6, we've laid the foundation so that we can get to Romans chapter 6.

Paul wrote everything else thus far to get us to Romans chapter 6.

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Some people are saying we're ascended abound, grace did much more abound.

He says God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

So he's saying look, when you are justified by faith, you are dead to sin.

Sin no longer has any dominion or power in your life, so you don't keep sinning.

The gospel is not about grace abounding so that we can keep sinning so that we can be covered until Jesus comes.

No, the gospel is so that we will be dead to sin and not live any longer living a life of sin.

Because the power of the gospel that leads to salvation removes sin from our lives.

Now he goes on, Verse 3, Know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death?

And there you see the concept of being crucified with Christ.

If you're buried with Christ by baptism into death, that means you are crucified with him.

If we are buried with him by baptism into death, we are dying the same death.

And if we die his death, we also have his resurrection.

Notice verse 4, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." So look, Jesus died, He was crucified.

Jesus didn't stay in the grave though, he was resurrected.

And when we are crucified with Christ, we are raised to live a new life.

And that's what Paul was talking about back in chapter 4 when he says, look, Abraham was fully persuaded that what God promised he was able also to perform, therefore God imputed righteousness to him or declared him to be justified.

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Romans, Justification, and the Third Angel's Message

Romans 5-8: Totally Transformed

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Recorded

The Hebrew Mind

49m

God’s Righteousness In Us

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Norman McNulty: The Book of Romans

Romans 8:12-39 “The Final Class - Justification”

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The Justified Life

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Romans, Justification, and the Third Angel's Message

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Norman McNulty: The Book of Romans

Romans 6:15-23 “Servants to God and the 144,000”

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