Romans 5 and 6 — F.J. Huegel

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen. I was really happy to come to know that some of the dear ones threatened have been desirous that I might turn back to my favorite theme.

Romans 6 as the Summit of Christian Liberty

And I don't have to be urged to turn to Romans. I think it is well, friends, for the matter that's been upon our hearts, perfect love for Jesus, springs after all from this source, Romans 6. I have entitled Romans 6 an Everest.

Romans 7, perhaps we will enter tomorrow evening upon Romans 7, a valley of tears. Strange, isn't it? We will discover why tomorrow. And Romans 8, a thousand hallelujahs. Indeed, a thousand hallelujahs.

Romans 6 really isn't just one passage. It's all the word of God, yes, but I was about to say Romans 6 isn't just one passage among many, many. It's a veritable Everest. Our English Christian brethren, friends, speak of it as the Magna Carta of our Christian liberty.

Paul’s Gospel and the Foundation of Romans

Now before we can enter upon Romans 6, we must turn back over the pages of the epistle and begin at the beginning. Very elementary, yes, but to truly appreciate the meaning of Romans 6, we must follow Paul right through these doctrinal chapters in the unfolding of his, may I call it, argument.

My brethren realize that the position of the epistle, it being the first in the series, does not obey the law of chronology. No, it wasn't the first written. There's another law, one akin to that which determines the procedure of an architect, of a constructor, in the raising of some great edifice.

First, the foundation. Here Paul lays the foundation stones upon which all rests. Here we have the apostle defining the gospel. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, he writes, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The Universal Diagnosis of Sin

Now the apostle proceeds, as physicians who want to proceed before a diagnosis, before any thought of treatment, of medicine, there must be a thorough examination of the condition of the patient. Heart and lungs, blood, organs, and then the diagnosis, and then medicines and treatment.

So the apostle subjects his patients to a thorough examination. There are really two. The Gentile, for Paul, of course, first of all a Christian, but still a Jew. There were two great families in the world.

On the one hand, the Gentile folk, you and I are Gentiles, and on the other, the Jewish folk. He turns, first of all, to the Gentile world, the discovery he makes. There are things here one cannot read without blushing, but of course the apostle must be true, a realist, in his analysis and in his diagnosis.

Men with men, women with women, in the most shameful perversions, and then the idolatry of which he speaks. We have a saying there in Mexico, the man who doesn't know the Lord, God will worship any old stick.

Well, really, if it had been sticks, it wouldn't have been so shameful. Well, Paul tells us that there in the Gentile world, people were worshipping four-footed beasts and serpents. And he goes on to say, as it is in the twentieth verse of the first chapter, that the pagan world was really without excuse, you might say, but why the Bible was not in the hands of the Gentile world, which Paul addresses himself later, of course.

We know. Why without excuse? Well, Paul thinks of the universe. Paul thinks of creation. Ah, and if in his day, how much more in our day. For now, it is known, as it was not in that day, that there's just no limit, three hundred million universes, as the world's being like the grains of sand on the shores of the sea.

As was stated the other evening, the universe, with its laws and with its order and with its beauty and with its glory and open book, the invisible things of him, the Lord God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, the invisible, by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but neither were thankful, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was. Paul turns then to his brethren.

Behold, thou art called a Jew. Now, of course, his own, his fellow countrymen expected from Paul a less severe and, in a sense, right, rightfully chosen people. In their hands, the law of God, tossed over the centuries by the great men of God, prophets sent to Israel, their temple one of the wonders of the ancient world.

The ceremony, sacrifices ordained of God back in the days of Moses faithfully performed from day to day the chosen people. But let us see. It would appear that Paul was even more severe in dealing with his own.

Behold, thou art called a Jew, beginning with the seventeenth verse, and restest in the law, makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou art thyself a guide of the blind, the light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth and the law.

Very well. Now the matter changes. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest, a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest, a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?

Thou that abhorst idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law through the breaking of the law dishonors God? Now that terrible false sword thrust, they never forgave him, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through how they hated him and how they persecuted him.

And when finally found him fell into their hands there in the temple, they would have torn him to shreds had it not been for a Roman captain who plucked him from the hands of the infuriated mother to carry him to a Roman castle.

And then that legal, what mockery, that process all before a Roman judge is accused by his own. The moment comes when to save himself from his own people and to fulfill his God-given mission, he must appeal to Caesar.

He must find protection under the Roman flag. I appeal to Caesar, to Caesar thou shalt go. Well, you know the story. Puts all the world under conviction of sin. There is not one. He goes on to say that it is just all his sin and comes short of the glory of God.

God’s Justice and the Problem of Sin

And now we leave that dark picture, that negative side of the question, and now we enter upon the field of the gospel. We know from the scriptures, friends, that man's sin postulated for the Lord God a great problem of a governmental nature.

His law reads, the soul that sinneth it shall die. In all his sin, what shall he do? He does not desire. Oh, on the contrary, how greatly he desires that men might be forgiven and justified and redeemed and brought back into the family of God.

But his law, his word, his government, his throne, his righteousness demands the death of the sinner. He cannot pass over the demands of his law. Problem of infinite dimensions postulated by man's sin.

There within the government of God. Now parents understand. Oh yes, we come now to something in comparison, we might say very, very tiny. And yet the same governmental problem is forever presenting itself in our homes.

The Grandmother’s Sacrifice and Moral Transformation

I cannot forget the testimony of one who arose to address a gathering such as this. And to tell of what we tell him is a little one. His parents passing on. Taken up as he was by a grandmother. He went on to say, oh, poor grandmother.

Well, friends, it comes to me in Spanish, que dolor de cabeza. Somehow or other it seems to me more expressive. And I note by your response that you all understand. Only too well. For he went on to say, I was once come home from school with things that were not mine, a knife, a tablet, a pencil, fountain pen.

And he said that grandmother did all that she could possibly do. Pleading with him that he might forego this vile habit. All in vain. Until one day grandmother threatened him. You see, my boy, this needle.

Well, grandmothers don't want to be there knitting with their needles, sewing. If you come again from school with something that's not yours, I'll thrust it into a flame until it's at white heat and I'll thrust the needle through your hand.

Do you understand? He went on to say that he understood only too well and for a month nothing was touched. Then again he came with something that was not his own and that grandmother observed it at once.

My boy, what do you have? Do you remember what I said yet? Well, now we'll have to fulfill the sentence. Else you will continue and finally spend your days in prison. We will have to fulfill the sentence.

And she thrust the needle into a flame and when it was at white heat, raised his hand only to lower it, he went on to say, and to raise her own hand and to thrust the needle through. Ah, the man went on to say, I could smell burning flesh.

It was the most tremendous moment of my life. I could feel in that instant how grandmother felt his regard. My heart, my sin, it wrought in me a mighty moral revolution. Years have gone by, now I'm a man and I can testify from that moment on.

My hands have been cleaned. Grandmother saved me. She healed me through her sacrifice. I say parents understand this problem of infinite dimensions in the government of God. Now theologians are not always prone to give their consent.

Justification While God Remains Just

I recall one with whom I spoke in Buenos Aires. No. God is love. Yes. There was no need. Yes. God is love. But he's a God of order and he hates sin and his word has been given and his word needs must be fulfilled.

Now the Bible itself tells us, we have it in Deuteronomy and we have it in the Psalms, that God cannot justify the wicked. What happens to the judge here on earth who justifies? And there are judges for one reason or another.

It might be money, it might be pressures from friends, influences. There are judges who justify the wicked. But they cease to be judges to become wicked themselves. God cannot justify the wicked. But he found a way, our friend, so wonderful.

He found a way whereby he might justify the wicked and yet be just. Now that's really the theme of Romans. He found a way. So that in justifying the wicked there might not fall upon his throne, his government, his law, even the faintest trace of a shadow of reproach.

And that's the gospel. Now Paul states it in this fashion. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely. Here it is. By his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.

Here's where theologians are wont to stumble. Ah, it comes as such a blow to our pride. Our pride. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. Yes.

For the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness. That he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus the wicked.

Which believeth in, well this brings us to the great doctrine, does it not, of justification by faith. Which Luther took up, you will recall, in what fashion it was sounded forth, proclaimed afresh. Therefore being justified by faith.

But I want for us to pause just a moment. Yes, by faith. But not faith, please observe, as the procuring cause. No. What do we read in verse nine? Being now justified by his blood. Here's the procuring.

That is to say, it springs from the cross. The fountainhead of our justification. The shed blood of our adorability. Faith, yes, of course. But let's not confound our faith with the procuring cause. I find no other word to express the fact that it springs from the shed blood of Jesus Christ our Lord for every sin.

I think it was that great British preacher, Muccini, used to say of mine, ooh, the body of Jesus my Lord. Yes, our faith. Faith necessary, of course. That the benefits might accrue to man's faith. He might receive, but it's only the hand extended for the gift.

The gift's our justification. It springs from the cross of Christ. Justified by his blood. Let's get that. In other words, it's not that because of some great merit in our faith. The merit is all in the crucified risen Lord.

We don't have to look and see if we have enough faith. And so stumble, as many do. Look away from your faith to the crucified and rest in his bleed, in his wound. But how wonderful that he should have been so honest for the sake of Christians all down the years.

Romans 7 and the Bondage of the Old Self

Because of the law, when I would do good, the good that I would do, I do. The evil that I would not do, I do. Yes, I delight myself in the law of God according to the inward man, but I find my members another law.

Here it is. Holy Paul? You know, well, I mustn't go into Romans 7. I was about to say there are many who just can't reconcile Romans 7 with Paul. It just couldn't have been Paul, the apostle. It must have been Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee.

But there are great problems when you take that view, because the Pharisee, as we read in Philippians 3, never went through this kind of agony as to the law. Irreprovable. You see that, Pharisee? Paul speaks of the law of sin.

When I would do good, I find then a law. Evil is present with me. Now guess what's the nature of that law? Well, it's come down through the centuries. It's in man's blood since the fall, that turning away, that spirit of rebellion, that turning in on self, that the center might be self, when all things referred to self rather than to God, the true center.

There's a law agonized on occasion, have we not, friends? To rid ourselves of ourselves of this selfish principle of the law of sin, be free from this overwhelming turning in on ourselves. Well, perhaps you would define this law in a different fashion, however it may be.

Here it is. Sin engenders slavery. Man, in his own strength, cannot break. Paul goes on to say, what shall we say, then shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Well, now there are a lot of folk that hold to this.

You just mustn't expect too much from the gospel, from the Lord Jesus Christ. You just mustn't expect too much. Just go along, just go along like that old horse I used to see years ago up there. They used to saw wood up there in Wisconsin, get ready for the winter, and this old horse, this old nag would be turning that thing all day long.

He never got anywhere, but he caused the wheels to go around and the saw to cut. He never got anywhere. Shall we go on like that old nag and never get anywhere in this struggle with our ugly, we have in Spanish the word, I don't know just how to translate it to mean, malgenio.

Shall we continue in sin? You know, Paul states elsewhere that where sin abounded, grace yet more. Shall we continue in sin? Oh, perhaps not as formerly. And yet secretly, the victims of this very refined vice cry, shall we continue in sin?

Union with Christ in Death and Resurrection

Is there no more? Paul goes on to question, and then that cry. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

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. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, and here's the heart of the matter, that our old man, no, as it is here in the King James, no, is, no, was, perhaps you have a version there where it reads, Knowing this, that our old man was something already consummated within the economy of God on Calvary's cross, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. In other words, there on Calvary, Calvary's brow, a blow, a cosmic blow to sin as a principle, sin as a law, sin governing in the structure and nature of man.

And the blow was dealt utterly and absolutely mortal. The old man was, yours and mine, the old creation life was terminated. I like the way Watchman Nee of China puts it, the curtain went down on history at the end.

Judicially, I guess there's still much sin and pride, we know, but judicially, if one died for all, you will recall the verse over in 2 Corinthians 5, and all have died. Judicially, the Lord Christ took to death an end of you and an end of me, in this sense.

Now this we must receive by faith. We're entering here upon the sphere of the gospel, friends, it's sad, isn't it, but it's practically unknown in the life of our churches. I've spoken of it as the lost chord in the symphony of divine, ah yes, how we sing, and it is well, for even in glory, we read that the redeemed millions upon millions sing, sing worthy are thou, O Lamb of God, for thou was slain and is redeemed as to God by thy blood, it is well.

We cannot overemphasize the glory of this fact. But what about this? Do we sing about this? Do we give thanks? Do we believe it? Are we willing for anything so drastic in our faith? The overthrow, the crucifixion, the old sinful nature?

Well, God says here in his words, it's already a fact, whether you believe it or not. Ah, but that it might become effective, that the Holy Spirit might apply it, you must believe. Just so it is with a sinner, Christ died for all, unless some of you hold to a limited atonement, and yet it's written that he is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but the sins of the whole world.

Reckoning Ourselves Dead to Sin

But that sinner's got to believe it, receive, and so the Christian, he has to believe this if he wants to enjoy the fruits, and the fruits are glorious. And now comes the apostles' command. So you see here, we're commanded to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We're commanded to do that. And it's only saying amen, really, to what Christ has already done. It's only ratifying what in the economy of God has been consummated. You say amen, I accept it, Lord. And then as it is in the 22nd verse, but now being made free from sin, here's where our liberation comes in from ourselves, friends.

Oh, so many of us just spend our days fighting an ugly disposition and getting no. Why not just accept God's verdict, that he's already terminated, that there on the cross, the Savior took it to death?

You say, but that's a mystery, I can't understand that. You don't have to understand it. I don't understand it either. I don't understand how the Lord Jesus could have borne all my sins. I don't understand that either, but he did.

And God doesn't expect us to understand. Perhaps our theologians who do, very well, but that won't help them either, supposing they do. The question is, will you obey, do what the Lord commands you to do?

He works through the cross, brethren. The Savior said he wouldn't speak of his sins, fowl. He glorifies Christ. He throws all his life upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, so wondrously consummated on Calvary's cross.

He will take of mine, the Savior said, and make it known, yes, he draws out from the wounded side of Jesus the Lord these treasures. But he can make them real in your life, only on the ground of faith.

But now be made free from sin, in a new way, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness. Words have sort of gone out of our Christian vocabulary. You have your fruit unto holiness. And after all, you know, it's just wholeness.

Yes, it's just being whole. Of course, because the only thing that makes you less whole, complete as a man is sin. Your fruit unto holiness at the end everlasting. Here it is, brethren. Here's why Rome 6 is in Everest, highest peak, in the peaks of redemption.

A Personal Testimony of Victory Through Faith

Some years ago down in Columbia, I was speaking to young people at a retreat, and a young man called me aside at the close of a meeting. He said, what am I to do? I took him to my room. What am I to do?

He lay bare his heart, his sin, and he surely had plenty to be hanging his head in shame about. What am I to do? He said, I do love Jesus. I am a Christian, but I can't. Well, I said, that doesn't surprise me.

Paul couldn't. And I read him Romans 7. Paul couldn't. No one can. Only God could and did. Well, that brought a degree of comfort to his heart. And then I took him through Romans 6. And Ephesians 2, Colossians 3, opened up to him the word.

It regards the Christian's position, for God judges him as one who in Christ died to sin and with Christ arose. I said, now my boy, you accept this by faith. You haven't been able to overcome. You've been proceeding on the wrong basis, the basis of struggle, your own efforts.

What you haven't been able to do, the Lord Jesus has already done for you. Just thank him, begin all over, that you died. It sounds rather strange, doesn't it? Yes, he would. We got on our knees, but he couldn't.

He began to beg. Oh, Lord, help me. Help me, Lord. Help me. I had to quiet him, stop him. No, I said. Then I opened the word again to him. This is already yours as a believer. Just accept it by faith and give thanks, and it'll begin to work.

So I went over the ground afresh and invited him to get down on his knees and give thanks. He couldn't. All he could do was beg. And I had to stop him again and went over the ground again with him. I said, the Lord says, this is a fact.

The old man was crucified. That's yours. Believe and give thanks. A third time we went to our knees, but he couldn't. So I had to stop him afresh and say, now, my boy, I'm going to say the prayer. Will you just repeat it?

Yes. So I just offered a very short prayer. Thank you, Lord. You see, I died to sin. Thank you, Lord. That I arose with thee. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Amen. You know, when he got up from his knees, I saw a transformed lad.

And here's the proof. Four years later, I was again in Columbia preaching here and there. One evening, there in Columbia, a lad walked in with a princely air and sat down. I said to myself, I know that lad.

Who is it? To close, he came forward to shake hands with me. Are you the boy over at the camp with whom I was in prayer? Yeah. How goes it, my boy? Victory! Hallelujah. Are you surprised? You shouldn't be.

Romans 6 as the Only Foundation for Christian Progress

You shouldn't be surprised. For according to God's word, this is the fountainhead of victory. And there is no other. How dare you expect from some other source this, which costs the Lord Jesus Christ so much on Calvary's cross.

It's this! You're like that nag, you know, you just keep at it and keep turning the wheels, and there you go, but you get nowhere. You're making no progress. Actually, in the Christian life, real progress.

I don't know. I'm going to say something here. You may call me to time. Dare I say this, categorically, that there's no real progress until you come through Romans 6. How could there be? With the old man still in the saddle and you just fighting, you just struggling.

Yes, as a Christian. I did it for eight years, preaching the gospel. Finally. Oh, my defeat was so great and my shame. I think I'd have died if the Lord hadn't opened up his word to me in a new way. Flipping away one day to the temple where I was wont to preach, I bowed on me and I said, Lord, I accept this now.

I'm here to reckon myself dead to sin, no life unto God, in and through thee. Thank you, Lord. Oh, when I left that chapel, it was as though you had taken a mountain of oppression from yourself. And that was the beginning.

Oh, yes, I had begun as a Christian. But I hadn't passed through Jordan, the promised land of all life and victory. It was the Lord Jesus Christ in death and resurrection. It's for you, my dear brother, my dear sister.

Accepting Christ’s Finished Work

It's for you. Don't worry about the mystery of it. Just make up your mind right now to do what God commands you to do. No getting around it. You believe Christ bore your sins, now believe tonight that he bore you and took you as he also took you in the power of his resurrection into what has been called throne life.

May we just have, you know, sometimes after giving the message of Romans 6, I ask those to stand, and I'm always sorry afterwards, who are willing to seal this by some act of acknowledgement. I'm always sorry afterwards, and I feel reproved for this reason.

It's for all. And so let's just bow our heads for a moment. And you do with it, of course, it's up to you. But if you will, in silent prayer, say, Amen, Lord. I accept it. It's the end of me, but it'll be the beginning of you.

In your fullness, you will receive the blessing of the gospel.