Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
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A reading from Romans: Romans 6:6-11 (NLT)

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.

So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
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Reflection: Romans 6:6-11 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

United to Christ and enslaved to God (6:1–23)

God’s grace not only forgives sins, but also delivers us from sinning. For grace does more than justify: it also sanctifies. It unites us to Christ (1– 14), and it initiates us into a new slavery to righteousness (15– 23).

a. United to Christ – understanding our baptism (1–14)

(vs 6-7) Our former self was crucified with Christ in order that we might be freed from sin’s slavery.

The New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness in two distinct ways. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ. On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated ) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion.

We deserved to die for our sins. And in fact we did die, though not in our own person, but in the person of Jesus Christ our substitute, who died in our place, and with whom we have been united by faith and baptism. And by union with the same Christ we have risen again. So the old life of sin is finished, because we died to it, and the new life of justified sinners has begun. Our death and resurrection with Christ render it inconceivable that we should go back. It is in this sense that our sinful self has been deprived of power and we have been set free.

(vs 8-10) Both the death and the resurrection of Jesus were decisive events: he died to sin once for all, but he lives continuously unto God.

The guarantee of the continuing nature of our new life, beginning now and lasting for ever, is to be found in Christ’s resurrection…. Death no longer has mastery over him (9b). Having been delivered from its tyranny, he has passed beyond its jurisdiction for ever. As the glorified Lord himself declares: ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!’

Our Christian discipleship, which, by our union with Christ, begins with a once-for-all death to sin… continues with an unending life of service to God.

(vs 11) We must realize that we are now what Christ is, namely ‘dead to sin but alive to God’.

The major secret of holy living is in the mind. It is in knowing (6) that our former self was crucified with Christ, in knowing (3) that baptism into Christ is baptism into his death and resurrection, and in considering (11, RSV) that through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God.

We are to recall, to ponder, to grasp, to register these truths until they are so integral to our mindset that a return to the old life is unthinkable…. For our union with Jesus Christ has severed us from the old life and committed us to the new. Our baptism stands between the two like a door between two rooms, closing on the one and opening into the other. We have died, and we have risen. How can we possibly live again in what we have died to?
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Come Alive (Dry Bones)

Through the eyes of men it seems / There’s so much we have lost / As we look down the road / Where all the prodigals have walked / And one by one / The enemy has whispered lies / And led them off as slaves

But we know that you are God / Yours is the victory / We know there is more to come / That we may not yet see / So with the faith you’ve given us / We’ll step into the valley unafraid, yeah

As we call out to dry bones / Come alive, come alive / And we call out to dead hearts / Come alive, come alive / Up out of the ashes / Let us see an army rise / We call out to dry bones, come alive

Oh God of endless mercy / God of unrelenting love / Rescue every daughter / Bring us back the wayward son / By your spirit breathe upon them / And show that you alone can save / You alone can save

As we call out to dry bones / Come alive, come alive / And we call out to dead hearts / Come alive, come alive / Come up out of the ashes / Let us see an army rise / We call out to dry bones come alive

So breathe, oh breath of God / Now breathe, oh breath of God / Breathe, oh breath of God / Now breathe / Breathe, oh breath of God / Now breathe, oh breath of God / Breathe, oh breath of God, now breathe

As we call out to dry bones / Come alive, come alive / And we call out to dead hearts / Come alive, come alive / Come up out of the ashes / Let us see an army rise / We call out to dry bones come alive, yeah / We call out to dry bones, come alive
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
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A reading from Romans: Romans 6:1-5 (NLT)

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
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Reflection: Romans 6:1-5 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

United to Christ and enslaved to God (6:1–23)

Paul’s answer to his critics is that God’s grace not only forgives sins, but also delivers us from sinning. For grace does more than justify: it also sanctifies. It unites us to Christ (1– 14), and it initiates us into a new slavery to righteousness (15– 23).

a. United to Christ, or the logic of our baptism (1– 14)

(vs 2) We died to sin. This is the foundation fact of Paul’s thesis. How can we live in what we have died to?

What is true of Christ is equally true of Christians who are united to Christ. We too have ‘died to sin’, in the sense that through union with Christ we may be said to have borne its penalty…. The New Testament tells us not only that Christ died instead of us, as our substitute, so that we will never need to die for our sins, but also that he died for us, as our representative, so that we may be said to have died in and through him…. That is, by being united to him, his death became our death.

(vs 3) The way in which we have died to sin is that our baptism united us with Christ in his death.

Baptism signifies our union with Christ, especially with Christ crucified and risen…. So union with Christ by faith, which is invisibly effected by the Holy Spirit, is visibly signified and sealed by baptism. The essential point Paul is making is that being a Christian involves a personal, vital identification with Jesus Christ, and that this union with him is dramatically set forth in our baptism.

(vs 4-5) Having shared in Christ’s death, God wants us also to share in his resurrection life.

These verses allude to the pictorial symbolism of baptism…. Sanday and Headlam put it graphically: ‘That plunge beneath the running waters was like a death; the moment’s pause while they swept on overhead was like a burial ; the standing erect once more in air and sunlight was a species of resurrection.’ It is far from certain whether the first baptisms were by total immersion… but the symbolic truth of dying to the old life and rising to the new remains, whatever mode of baptism is used.

‘In other words,’ wrote C. J. Vaughan, ‘our baptism was a sort of funeral.’ A funeral, yes, and a resurrection from the grave as well. For by faith inwardly and baptism outwardly we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection, and have thus come to share in their blessings.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
__________

A reading from Romans: Romans 5:18-21 (NLT)

Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Reflection: Romans 5:18-21 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The two humanities, in Adam and in Christ (5:12–21)

b. Adam and Christ are compared (18–21)

Dr Lloyd-Jones: ‘Look at yourself in Adam; though you had done nothing you were declared a sinner. Look at yourself in Christ; and see that, though you have done nothing, you are declared to be righteous. That is the parallel.’
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c. “The reign of grace”

Nothing could sum up better the blessings of being in Christ than the expression ‘the reign of grace’.

• For grace forgives sins through the cross, and bestows on the sinner both righteousness and eternal life.
• Grace satisfies the thirsty soul and fills the hungry with good things.
• Grace sanctifies sinners, shaping them into the image of Christ.
• Grace perseveres even with the recalcitrant, determining to complete what it has begun.
• And one day grace will destroy death and consummate the kingdom.

So when we are convinced that ‘grace reigns’, we will remember that God’s throne is a ‘ throne of grace’, and will come to it boldly to receive mercy and to find grace for every need. And all this is through Jesus Christ our Lord, that is, through his death and resurrection….
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Ultimately our confidence is in the grace of God. Grace will ‘reign’ (21), grace ‘overflows’ (15), and much more will those who receive God’s grace reign in life (17). This repetition challenges our perspective…. Is this our vision?

In our view of ultimate reality, who is occupying the throne today? Are we still living in the Old Testament, with the whole scene dominated by Adam, as if he remained unchallenged and Christ had never come? Or are we authentic New Testament Christians, whose vision is filled with Christ crucified, risen and reigning? Is guilt still reigning, and death? Or is grace reigning, and life? To be sure, sin and Satan may seem to be reigning still, since many continue to bow down to them. But their reign is an illusion, a bluff. For at the cross they were decisively defeated, dethroned and disarmed. Now Christ reigns, exalted to the Father’s right hand, with all things under his feet, welcoming the nations, and waiting for his remaining enemies to be made his footstool.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
__________

A reading from Romans: Romans 5:15-17 (NLT)

But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
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Reflection: Romans 5:15-17 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The two humanities, in Adam and in Christ (5: 12– 21)

b. Adam and Christ are contrasted (15– 17)

How can the Lord of glory be likened to the man of shame, the Saviour to the sinner, the giver of life to the broker of death? The correspondence is not a parallel, but an antithesis…. ‘Adam and Christ stand there’, writes Anders Nygren, ‘as the respective heads of the two aeons. Adam is the head of the old aeon, the age of death; Christ is the head of the new aeon, the age of life.’

The differences concern the nature of the two actions (15), their immediate results (16), and their ultimate effects (17).

First, the nature of their actions was different. But the gift is not like the trespass (15a)…. Adam’s trespass was a fall (‘the fall’, as we call it) – a deviation from the path which God had clearly shown him. He insisted on going his own way. With it Paul contrasts Christ’s gift – an act of self-sacrifice which bears no resemblance to Adam’s act of self-assertion.

Secondly, the immediate effect of their actions was different. Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin (16a)….In the case of Adam God’s judgment brought condemnation; in the case of Christ God’s gift brought justification (16b)…. The secular mind would have expected many sins to attract more judgment than one sin. But grace operates a different arithmetic. ‘That one single misdeed should be answered by judgment,’ writes Charles Cranfield, ‘this is perfectly understandable: that the accumulated sins and guilt of all the ages should be answered by God’s free gift, this is the miracle of miracles, utterly beyond human comprehension.’

Thirdly, the ultimate effect of the two actions is also different (17)…. Formerly death was our king, and we were slaves under its totalitarian tyranny. What Christ has done for us is not just to exchange death’s kingdom for the much more gentle kingdom of life, while leaving us in the position of subjects. Instead, he delivers us from the rule of death so radically as to enable us to change places with it and rule over it, or reign in life. We become kings, sharing the kingship of Christ, with even death under our feet now, and one day to be destroyed.
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Wonderful grace of Jesus, Greater than all my sin; How shall my tongue describe it, Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, Setting my spirit free; For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea; Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain, All-sufficient grace for even me! Broader than the scope of my transgressions, Greater far than all my sin and shame; Oh, magnify the precious Name of Jesus, Praise His Name!

Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching to all the lost, By it I have been pardoned, Saved to the uttermost; Chains have been torn asunder, Giving me liberty; For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching the most defiled, By its transforming power, Making him God’s dear child, Purchasing peace and heaven For all eternity — And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
__________

A reading from Romans: Romans 5:12-14 (NLT)

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died — from the time of Adam to the time of Moses — even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come.
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Reflection: Romans 5:12-14 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The two humanities, in Adam and in Christ (5: 12– 21)

a. Adam and Christ are introduced (12– 14)

The topic of verse 12 is sin and death, and in it Paul describes three downward steps or deteriorating stages in human history, from one man sinning to all men dying…. Here then are the three stages — from Adam’s sin to Adam’s death , to universal death due to universal sin.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones summed up the rationale in these words: ‘God has always dealt with mankind through a head and representative. The whole story of the human race can be summed up in terms of what has happened because of Adam, and what has happened and will yet happen because of Christ.’

Paul ends this paragraph (12– 14), in which he has concentrated on Adam’s sin and death, with the briefest possible allusion to the corresponding figure of Christ. Adam, he writes, … was a pattern of the one to come (14b), the Coming One, the Messiah. He will develop the analogy in the next paragraphs. For now, it is enough to call Adam the typos of Christ, because he ‘prefigured’ (JB) and ‘foreshadows’ (REB) him. Like Adam, Christ is the head of a whole humanity.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen