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Part 10 of 20
Grace and Peace: The Gospel in Two Words
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The book of Romans is known as the believer's constitution. If you want to understand what Christians believe and what it truly means to be a follower of Christ, Romans is where you turn.
Throughout this study, we've established that you can boil the gospel down to two words: grace and peace. Grace comes before peace because peace is our destination, and grace is how we get there. Grace is the vehicle; peace is the destination.
Jesus comes to the cross and gives you everything he has. On the cross, he takes everything you have. He says: "Give me all your shame, all your shortcomings, all your sin, all your imperfection, all the guilt, all the nagging lies, all your brokenness, all your frustration." And in exchange: "Here's all my righteousness, here's all my goodness, here's all my love, all my hope, all my joy, all my peace. You can have my perfect stand."
How do you view forgiveness in your relationship with God? God extends pardon, grace, and forgiveness. But here's the critical question: Is God's approval and acceptance of me based on what I'm doing, or is it still anchored in what Christ did?
The reason why most people are walking around insecure in their faith is because they have a works theology, not a grace theology. They slip back into thinking God's acceptance depends on their behavior.
Would you just live so amazed by how much God loves you? Would you just live so at peace with your relationship with your maker? Would you live so anchored in his sufficient, abounding, abundant, life-altering grace? Would you live moved by hope and empowered by love?
When are you going to trust Jesus? When are you going to stop going through life with all these self-loathing, self-deprecating thoughts, continuing to crack the door for Satan's lies to fill your mind? When are you going to rise up in faith, saying, "No, what Jesus did is enough. I died with Christ. I was buried with Christ, and I have resurrected in Christ. He set me free. He brought me from death to life, and I now live as a new creation in him."
God's ability to work redemptively through all things is what we should take away from this. God is not insincere. He's not unfair. He's not unjust. And he's not inconsistent.
Moreover, this God has made significant promises and declared them over your life as a believer. Anyone who opens their heart to God can discover his life-altering grace. How does Paul describe it? Riches. His grace is abundant. It is abounding. It doesn't play to our preferences, but it exceeds our expectations.
If you're wanting to understand this idea of grace and riches, turn grace into an acronym:
G.R.A.C.E. — God's Riches At Christ's Expense
Learn to say: "I want to live a worshipful life that praises God and does not lose sight of his grace and his work in my life."
It's crucial to understand the context in which Paul wrote Romans. Paul is writing to a church in the Roman Empire on the doorstep of Nero's palace. Nero was an absolute maniac. At one point, he had a temper tantrum and set part of the city on fire. When this became bad press and people discovered it was his doing, Nero tried to change the narrative. He told the community that it wasn't him—it was this minority group of followers of Christ.
Nero threw a festival together and turned all these Christians into human torches. Here's the remarkable thing: all these individuals had to do to come off those beams and not be a human torch was to denounce their faith in Jesus Christ. Caesar was demanding that people declare him as Lord and pledge their allegiance.
Paul is writing to these believers and saying: "No, Caesar, you are not Lord. Jesus Christ is our Lord and he deserves our full devotion and allegiance."
What's amazing is these early believers had so much steel within their spine, so much belief and confidence in who their God was. They were so resolute to continue following after him despite whatever they faced.
This should put some confidence—not arrogance, but resolve and courage, an unwavering stability—into each of us as we face what comes our way. Yes, there's wickedness in the world. Yes, there's darkness. Yes, there's going to be trials. But come what may, we understand who our God is and we live faithfully after Jesus.
When we follow Christ with conviction and resolute faith, we honor those who came before us who carried the gospel forward despite extreme inconvenience and hard times. Learn to say: "The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back. I have decided to follow Jesus."
J.I. Packer has this quote about the book of Romans:
"All roads in the Bible lead to Romans, and all views afforded by the Bible are seen most clearly from Romans. When the message of Romans gets into a person's heart, there is no telling what may happen."
The individual who truly, sincerely surrenders their life to God and says, "Okay, you're Lord. I'm giving my life to you. I'm placing my belief, my trust, my confidence in you"—that person is saying all bets are off. There's no telling what God might do in the life of an individual who places their life in God's hands.
Romans chapter 12 begins with Paul's pastoral appeal. He says: "I beseech you."
Notice: Paul is not saying, "I command you." He's not saying, "I demand." He is not putting a finger in the face. He's putting a hand on the shoulder. The root word for beseech is the same root word Jesus used when he announced the Holy Spirit—calling him an advocate, a comforter, someone who comes alongside us as a helper. This word is packed with pastoral, gentle, endearing appeal.
"Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God." — Romans 12:1–2
Your spiritual journey with Christ can be broken down into three categories:
Salvation — Freedom from the penalty of sin. The moment you place your trust in Jesus Christ, you're saved. You believe that he died on a cross, was buried, and three days later resurrected, establishing himself as Lord of all.
Sanctification — Freedom from the power of sin. This is a process that takes the rest of your life. You grow in stature, grow in spiritual maturity, and grow free from the power and influence of sin. God is not concerned with the speed of your growth as much as he is with the strength of your growth. He's a good Father who walks with you daily.
Glorification — Freedom from the presence of sin. When we step fully into eternity, there is no evil, no wickedness, no sickness, sorrow, or mourning—only perfection with our heavenly Father.
Now that we've solidified the doctrine, Paul shifts from doctrine to devotion. The question becomes: How do you live a life that looks like Jesus? How do you begin to take on his character and likeness? How do you live a life that truly resembles Jesus in a world full of chaos, strife, hate, evil, wickedness, and darkness? How do you live a life that shines light where it is needed?
The more curious you become of God, the more confident you'll arrive at your faith. Come what may, there's more to this faith than you probably realize. And Paul is providing us with a framework in Romans chapter 12 for how sanctification works out.
The first element of this framework is motivation. What is going to get you out of bed in the morning and really inspire you to live a life for Christ? What's that driving force that is going to propel you to live this good, righteous life in the world we're living in?
Paul makes this statement: "Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God."
Anytime you see the word "therefore" in Scripture, you have to ask: "What's it there for?" Paul is saying that everything we've exhausted in doctrine—everything we've been building up in this letter over these weeks of gradually going through the doctrine so everyone has clarity about what we as Christians believe—therefore, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
When we talk about motivation, it breaks down into a dynamic of external and internal forces. That's a great question for you to consider: What motivates you?
Motivation breaks down into a dynamic of external and internal forces. External forces pull us toward peers, social media, and the approval of others. But Paul is pointing us toward something deeper: internal motivation rooted in our identity in Christ.
When you understand that you have been sealed by grace, secured by grace, and are justified in Christ, it awakens your soul to the reality that you are now a new creation. The same Spirit that rose Christ from the dead resides in you. You now have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, where from the inside out, God is doing a new thing.
We live not dependent on external things. Instead, we live from the depths of our soul, harnessing God's work in our life. It is through His work and His doing that righteousness and a life honoring God are produced. Our motivation is anchored in what God is doing in us, not what has taken place around us.
Human will breaks down into two components: the intellectual side (beliefs) and the emotional side (affections). Paul establishes both in Romans.
First, he wants us to be confident intellectually in what we believe. I am not confused. I am not naive. I know what I believe, and because it makes sense, it makes a difference.
But Paul goes further: by the mercies of God—note the plural. Think of how many ways you've experienced God's mercy: you've been adopted, chosen, empowered, called, set free, delivered, loved, adored, and forgiven. There is so much that God has done in your life to captivate not only your mind, but your heart.
When you truly surrender your life to Christ and grasp this doctrine, the natural byproduct is a life that lives in the direction of Jesus, looking more and more like Him every single day.
Paul also says, "I therefore beseech you, brethren." Not only do we have this rock-solid belief system and the mercies of God stirring our affections, we belong to a spiritual family. We are part of something so much bigger than the part we play.
People who live with a sense of urgency have beneath that urgency a sense of agency—they know what they're part of. You wake up to a pure motive every day: I know what I believe. I know what God's doing in my heart. I know what I belong to. Therefore, it guides and propels my life forward in a way that honors God.
Secondly, Paul calls us to presentation: "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice." We often separate our emotions, mind, and soul from the idea of our physical body. We care deeply about our intellect and spirit but are casual about the stewardship of our temple.
But Paul says: in light of this truth, give all of yourself to God. Not just part of yourself. Not just the easy parts. God gave all of Himself to you. Therefore, give all of yourself to Him.
Up until this point in the New Testament, everything in the Old Testament was a dead sacrifice. The wages of sin is death. But through the sacrificial system, the people were buying grace on credit—anchoring their hope to God's promises that someone would come and pay the debt in full.
When Jesus declared on the cross, "It is finished," He used a clerical term: debt paid.
But now Paul says: "A living sacrifice—moving forward, you live a sacrificial life for Christ, not out of guilt, but out of gratitude. Not one that ends in death, but one that leads to life."
Here's the challenge: the problem with a living sacrifice is it has the tendency to crawl off the altar. There was a season when you were sold out for God, focused and devoted. Then you got distracted—by a relationship, by social media, by something else. Before long, you started to drift.
One of the enemy's best strategies is not destruction, but distraction. We drift unintentionally. I didn't wake up bent on rebellion. I wasn't trying to dishonor God. I just somehow got distracted.
Imagine snorkeling in Florida, chasing turtles and fish. You come up out of the water, look at the beach, and realize you've drifted 300 to 400 yards down the shore—completely unintentional, yet it happened. Sometimes that's what happens in our faith.
Paul wants us to wake up daily resolute: No, God, I'm surrendering all that I am to you. You can have all of me.
Maybe the question is: what parts of your life have you yet to surrender to God? You might think: God, you can have my career, but not my politics. You can have my children, but not my finances. You can have my hobbies, but not my time.
We have a way of delineating the things we'll trust God with and the things we won't. But the person who understands what Christ did—He did WHAT for me?—that captivation propels them every single day to set their sights on Him and make Him the target of their life.
There's a concept called strategic incompetence. In a household, a wife can cook beautifully, so the husband never cooks. If he starts cooking, it becomes an option—the wife might say, "Well, you cook tonight; I'll take the night off." So he just plays helpless: "I don't know how to cook."
This is rampant throughout the Western church. I don't know how to read my Bible. I don't know how to pray. I don't know how to serve. I don't know how to give. I don't know how to worship. We develop this strategic incompetence and masquerade as spiritual strugglers when we're really just spiritual slackers.
But what if you started cooking? You'd figure some things out. What if you cracked open God's Word? It illuminates things in your heart. What if you tried talking to God? You'd find out He listens. What if you lived generously? You'd discover it's better to give than to receive.
You don't have to be perfect at this. You just have to give it a try: God, you can have all of me.
Dallas Willard says it this way: "We don't believe something by merely saying we believe it or even by believing that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true." Lip service is out the window. How you live your life is the truest telling of whether or not you believe what you say you believe.
Think of Evil Knievel. He was paid not to land the jump—people bought tickets whether he crashed or landed it. Evil Knievel was paid to make the attempt. The reward was in the attempt.
You are not rewarded as a child of God to ace the test and get it perfect. You stand on fulfilled law, on a firm foundation. What Christ did is enough. Any good that comes out of you is extra credit. You are on the honor roll. The person in Christ gets extra credit when they live for God.
Just give it a try. See what might happen if you gave your life fully to God.
Part of sanctification is consecration. Paul says: "Present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God." When we hear "holy," our inner critic reminds us of all the ways we're not holy. But in its simplest form, holy means to be set apart.
You know how to do this more than you think. You don't share your toothbrush with others—it's set apart for you and you alone. With your children, you buy them nice basketball shoes and say, "Don't wear these in the mud. Wear your Crocs instead." You set things apart for certain purposes.
The person marked by the gospel wakes up every day and says: "I've now been set apart for the purposes of God. I'm living on mission for His will." It's a desire, a privilege—not something to fear in guilt. It's the overflow of gratitude in our life.
Dallas Willard, in Renovation of the Heart, describes what God is after: not redecoration, but renovation. He's not just dressing up our lives; He's altering them from the inside out.
Willard writes: "I am certain that amidst all the confusion in the contemporary world, there is one thing that still speaks to people in a way that nothing else does, and that is the quality of a life lived. People are always ready to listen to that."
Everybody's trying to live the good life—the Buddhist, the Muslim, the humanist, the atheist. But Paul argues in Romans: because of the gospel, the believer is not better than people. They're just better off because they have spiritual faculties that nothing else can provide.
They have:
People notice. They ask: Tell me about your approach to marriage. Tell me about how you're raising those children. Why do you endure suffering differently than the rest of us? People pay attention to a quality of life.
Wake up every day saying: God, would you help me live daily as a reflection of you? Jesus, you are the author, the perfector, and the finisher of our faith. You are the pinnacle and the standard of what it means to be perfectly human. The best version of me is found in you.
That's why you wake up every day saying, "I'm going to be the best Christian I can be." Because the best follower of Christ you can be is the best husband, the best parent, the best friend, the best employee you can be. It governs your life.
Then there's the application piece. Paul says: "This is your reasonable, logical service." You now have governing principles, values, and convictions that steer your life. You apply things that honor God to the best of your ability.
Up until this point in Romans, Paul has been adamant about telling us what to think and believe, not what to do. He wants us to know the Christian faith, to know the gospel. Don't run around chasing performance. Know what you believe first.
But by chapter 11, you realize: Okay, Paul, this is a lot of information. What do we do with it? That's where application comes in. Application is what carries us through and encourages us to walk like we know Jesus.
Up until this point, it's been all doctrine. But in the next 12 verses, Paul is going to give us 28 practical steps as to how we can live this out.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good. This is where we actually have some things in common with our atheist friends because everybody to some degree hates what is evil. But here's the difference: we all have a gripe about evil, but they just don't have a grip on what is true. It's not just having a gripe; it's also having a grip.
Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn.
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. Paul's saying, listen, you're going to be mistreated at times. Let God handle it. You just walk forward with integrity.
He ends by saying: On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. That's Paul's Greco-Roman way of saying, "Hey, kill him with kindness."
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Man, that's hard to do. Anyone ever found something where you're trying to live a life that honors God, but some people are just really good at the evil part or there's just so much wickedness and hatred and darkness in the world?
Here is what the gospel is declaring over your life: Because of the gospel, because of what Christ has made available to us, and because of the Holy Spirit's work in us, there is a capacity for goodness that is hardwired within every single one of us. You just wake up every single day and you discover He continues to renew your strength and His mercies are new every morning. And somehow you can live a life with spiritual buoyancy where even though the waters and the tides may rise, your head stays above water and you are able to overcome the evilness of this world by simply doing good and honoring God.
If you were in a life group, that list would be something to go down and just rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10. How good am I at being generous to those in need? How good am I at practicing hospitality? How good am I at responding in a way that honors God to persecution?
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. What comes into your mind will eventually come out through your life.
Do not conform to the patterns of this world. One theologian said it this way: Do not let the world force you into its mold. Haven't you found that there is a pressure for you and me to be forced into the mold? The world wants us to be polarized in our politics. Wants us to be cynical in our worldview. Wants us to be apathetic in our spirituality. Confused in our gender. Casual with our sexuality. Divided in our communities.
But you say: "No, no, no. I'm not being pushed into the mold. I am a child of God. I'm living anchored to these values, and I am pursuing Christ come what may. And I am going to be renewed by the transformation of my mind every single day, surrendering all that I am to Him."
Paul's challenge is: Would you live as a living sacrifice? There's a meme that circulated of Mel Gibson on the set of The Passion, in conversation with the guy playing Jesus. The meme said, "This is me explaining my sacrifice to Jesus. You want me to live as a living sacrifice?"
But the believer wakes up every single day realizing what He did for me and the price He paid and the fact that He gave His all. And so all I should be doing is saying thank you, thank you, thank you. Not looking for a loophole. Not looking for a way out. But looking for an opportunity to honor Him in gratitude to the best of my ability.
