This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 12, 1993.
About this sermon
Romans 6:14 offers no license for antinomianism: the command to resist sin only makes sense after the prior fact that grace, not law, already rules the believer. Indicative always precedes imperative in Paul’s argument. Christ’s own resurrection life, pictured as a house believers now inhabit, is what actually does the work the command describes.
Sermon transcript
Tonight we are reading again from Paul’s letter to the Romans, and we are reading from the sixth chapter this evening. First of all, from the sixth chapter. And we are beginning at verse one. Let’s give our attention to the word of God. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him.
For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lust. Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be.
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves to obedience, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? The thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. Now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And then turning over to Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Let’s pray together.
Father, You draw us to Yourself in worship, and Lord, we mark our worship with the presentation of ourselves to You. Your Word truly is that which gives us instruction, marks out our life, shows us, indeed, the boundaries which we are to live in order to glorify You. Father, we treasure that Word and rejoice in it all the more as the glory of that Word is made more evident to us in our worship experience. So Lord, as we would offer ourselves to you, we would not do that in ignorance, but in keeping with what your word has said, what you have declared to be true, and in light of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray these things through him. Amen.
Allow me this evening to continue along the lines of the message that I delivered this morning, along the lines of the message that I gave this morning on Romans. This morning, I attempted at the conclusion of my message to speak out against those approaches that would break apart the phrase we find repeated in Paul’s letter to the Romans namely the phrase, the obedience of faith. You can find that phrase, again, I remind you, at the beginning of the epistle in the fifth verse of the first chapter. You can also find it in the 26th verse of the 16th chapter. These phrases, then, acting as sort of bookends to the entirety of the letter, the frame in which, then, a letter is written.
So then I have attempted, in light of this, to speak out against those approaches that would break apart and artificially divide faith and obedience to the detriment of obedience. But that is only a half thought at best. There is also that danger that comes from the other side.
There are those who would divide this faith-obedience connection that we find in Romans, not to the detriment of obedience, but to the detriment of faith. Let me explain. We all know that some To artificially divide faith and obedience, do so in the direction of what would be called an antinomianism. What is antinomianism?
Well, popularly, it is that movement that has focused on Romans 6.14, a verse that we have read this evening. The statement there that you find in that verse, we are not under law, but under grace. And it is understood, this verse, in such a way that it removes the Christian from obligation to the law. The movement is therefore antinomian, anti, against, nomos, law, anti-law, against the law.
Usually, the dispensational theology has been pegged by reformed people as antinomian. Recently, I read a letter to the editor in Expressions magazine. The writer was bold to suggest that some of the blame for the present lawlessness in our society must be placed at the feet of the Church, specifically the Church which for a hundred years has promoted dispensational antinomianism. for, in this writer’s estimation, dispensational lawlessness. The writer of the letter was calling the readers back to a position that promoted a positive view of the law and its use within Christian society, within the church. Now, we are aware of the dangers of antinomianism. As I have suggested already, there is the danger on the other side.
If there is a depreciation of obedience in the thinking of some, there is the depreciation of faith in the thinking of others, especially in the thinking of many of those by their emphasis on obedience inadvertently reintroduce salvation by works of all things. Or even a legalism or a legalistic frame in which to understand or appropriate the faith.
I remember sitting across the table from a woman a number of years ago tears streaming down her face as she described the deep frustration that she had experienced in much of her Christian life. She spoke of going to church year after year only to have what gospel had been given her during the worship service taken away from her by the service’s conclusion. Be sure, and she recognized this, during the service, the gospel had been presented in the true sense of that word.
Namely, Jesus Christ had been held forth as crucified and raised from the dead on behalf of sinners so that they, sinners, might have eternal life in the present world and in the world to come. Somehow, during the service, These great truths of the gospel and the gospel of grace, procreated as they are by faith, became detached from the response that the worshipers were then called upon to offer to God. Duties, responsibilities, obedience, all of these things detached from faith, separated from faith and from the gospel foundation, as if they had a life all their own, as if they were to be considered in their own right. And in this matter, then, these considerations keeping up upon the worshiper in such a way, by the service’s conclusion, that those worshipers felt as if a mountain of obligation A mountain of obligation had been laid upon them, but a mountain of obligation by which they then were to gain God’s favor. I have often observed in the course of much Reformed worship, while there is a proclamation of the gospel to the extent of driving away the doctrine of salvation by works, in fact driving it out the front door, By the service’s conclusion, that doctrine of works is brought in by the bank. And the worshipper does not then leave the worship experience, realizing afresh the glories of the gospel and the hope that it be found and realized in that gospel. Instead, the worshipper leaves with a tremendous sense of depression and distress.
It was much that way for this woman of whom I spoke earlier. This woman, being the good Protestant that she was, knew that it was impossible for her to gain God’s favor. So when works were reintroduced by the back door and she was confronted with this mountain of obligation, this laid upon her. She thus felt extreme despair. false phrase, the obedience of faith, would not have us lose either aspect of that of which it is composed.
It would not have us lose the obedience, it would not have us lose the faith. But in considering the relationship between the two now, the obedience of faith, neither would Paul have us to be moved off in any sense that foundation of grace grasped by faith, specifically in the realization of the priority of faith. We, insisting upon that from beginning to end, from the start of the worship service to its conclusion, from the beginning of our consideration of our God in relationship to us to the conclusion of us. The Apostle Paul then would not in any sense have us to be moved off the foundation of grace dressed by faith, nor away from the priority of that faith, even as we consider the phrase the obedience of faith. It is, after all, the obedience of faith, not the reverse that the Apostle sets before us.
Paul’s commitment here, therefore, is truly expositional of his gospel. And it comes to expression again and again throughout the entirety of Romans. And we’re only going to note a few instances of it here. Of course, we turn to Romans 6, the passage that we read this evening.
There will not be any minimizing of obligation. There will not be any lessening of the call for response on the part of the apostles. But neither will there be any relaxing of his grip with respect to that faith that he would have us hold onto. We note the opening of that sixth chapter, verses one and two.
Paul’s famous words at this point, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? May it never be, or God forbid, how shall we who died to sin live in it any longer?” The faith of that obedience of faith is honored in these words in which Paul emphasizes that we have died to sin. He speaks of that in the past tense. We have died to sin.
It is literally, then, out of the priority of faith that latches onto this reality, its most glorious, positive, gospel reality, that Paul then asks the questions that he does with respect to our continuance in sin. You see what has the priority. It is the realization of what God has done in Christ that forms the foundation that grabs hold of my faith, thus establishing the priori of faith. And the foundation then, out of which then the Apostle can go on to ask his questions about our continuing in sin, if in fact we will live in sin any longer. Now, the way in which The theologians have spoken of this, and I know when theologians begin to speak it becomes very confusing for many of us. But I will set in front of you one more time the way in which the theologians have considered to communicate this to us.
They have told us the best of them and the best of the Reformed tradition, that the indicative always precedes the imperative. The indicative being the thatness of gospel reality and accomplishment in and by God, which is definitive and objective, historical and irrefutable.
It is out of that foundation, then, that command rises. Only against the background of that accomplishment does obligation rise upon us. to us so that grace is never lost sight of, no, not for a minute. For is it not grace that has accomplished these things that the gospel declares to us, these historical truths that are set before us in the message of the gospel? Yes, grace is multiplied, and faith is the only means which God has established for appropriating the grace of the gospel, not works, but faith. So then, the indicative of God’s accomplishment always precedes the imperative of obligation. And obligation and duty rise out of the foundation of the indicative base laid in the Gospels. The theologians will go further in speaking to us particularly about this. It’s not a matter of becoming what we aren’t. When we consider the gospel as it is presented by the Apostle Paul, it is a matter of us being what we are.
And if you can’t see it, then there’s a problem. If you can’t respond to what you are hearing from the Apostle, then there is a problem. Now, do you understand? Do you understand what has happened so tragically, even in many Reformed circles and in many Reformed prophets? And why it is that works, having been driven out the front door, invariably come in by the back.
Because by the end of the sermon, and by the conclusion of the service, you are being told it is not a matter of being what you are, but becoming what you’re not. And since you’re not, you don’t have the will with all to become. It’s not a matter of you being a son. It’s not a matter of you becoming a son, or becoming the son that you are, realizing within yourself your sonship. It is a matter of you becoming what you are not. You are not a son and you must become one. So how are you going to become one if not by any other method than by your works?
So is it any wonder that companies of churches and congregations are left in a tremendous state of distress and depression when it comes to their spiritual life. If not, supreme disinterest. I can’t become it anyway, so why should I worry? No one takes this stuff seriously, so why should I? It’s all religious rhetoric. The pastor is under obligation to throw some duty on me that I can’t perform anyway, so why should I even listen to him? That is not, that is not the apostle’s approach.
He approaches his readers in terms of what they have become by virtue of the indicative action of God in the gospel. All of grace. Even now, if they are to perform any work, if they are to respond to any duty, it is literally that grace which is in them which is responding. It is also utterly and thoroughly positive and glorious. It is truly gospel indeed. It is nothing less than exhilarating. It is good news to you all, if in fact faith is yours. It does not leave you dormant then. It does not leave you inactive. It does not leave you in a state of presumption with regard to your soul and your future.
He is literally energizing you, because you realize that you are in Christ, who has the very power of resurrection life in Him, and that is what is at work in you. The Son has made you sons, and now the power of sonship is at work in you, that you might be what you are.
I have heard it compared to a house. You have been given a wonderful house. This is what your salvation has done for you. Now you are exploring all the rooms and appreciating its every feature and living in it and from it to the full. You are not in the process then of getting the house. The house has been given to you. of grace. And now you are learning to appreciate it to the very depth of your soul. So, of course, Romans 12 says nothing less than this. And I think that some of you were ahead of me. realizing that belief from 6 to 12 would indeed prove the same thing.
When Paul goes on to urge his readers, note the first verse, I beseech you, therefore, brethren. He calls them brethren, note. He is treating them as such. I beseech you, therefore, brethren. You are brethren. His urging of them is not irrespective of their identity through the graciousness of God. Their identity conferred through the grace of the gospel. And when he makes appeal to the mercies of God, it’s not an aside. It’s to bring before his readers the very heartbeat of his message.
By the mercies of God. Now you want to understand the mercies of God, then I challenge you to go back and read chapter eleven in Romans, and pick out all the times in that chapter that Paul speaks about mercy. And how that mercy has already been displayed to the world in what God has done in Christ.
Definitive. Indicative out of which now then arise obligations, duties, responsibilities, obedience itself, indeed the obedience of faith. Working itself out here in terms of the presentation of our bodies as living and holy sacrifices acceptable to God. Working itself out here in terms of our unwillingness to be conformed to this world, but our willingness to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That in keeping with the definitive, indicative work of God on our behalf. Minds renewed in terms of the accomplishment which God has done, brought forth.
The wellspring, then, out of which Paul then expects these Romans to respond to him is, in fact, the open display of God’s mercy in the gospel. Here, then, this pattern that is set before us by Paul in Romans, the obedience of faith, the two together, but always considering the priority of faith as a graspful of the reality of the gospel of God’s accomplishment in Christ of ourselves. At every point, then, might we not be a people that magnify God’s grace? Might this not be a pulpit that is consistent in its proclamation of that grace, so that as you have heard the gospel at the beginning of the service, you might also hear it at the conclusion? for your good and God’s glory.
Our Father, we realize that there are many things that we do not understand Presently and there are many things that we will never understand But our father we are praying in so far as we might understand the wonderful message of our redemption in terms of this phrase used by the apostle the obedience that we might grasp hold of the full range of his intention and and the intention of your spirit who caused him to write those words.
Father, we would glory in you and what you have done. We latching on to that by faith to be sure. And help wonderfully our God because of what you have done. Now, to obey you out of parts and souls, out of lives, that do not diminish in any respect that faith and the grace that you have shown to us. Lord God, we ask that we would not live in frustration or in despair, but in delight, rejoicing in that glory which is revealed in the gospel, but also in that obedience which you bring forth from us upon the foundation of that gospel.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.