Paraklesis
[‘encouragement’, ‘exhortation’, for life and ministry]
July 2024
Peter Adam
Beloved fellow-believers and fellow-workers in Christ,
In June, I encouraged you to know and to teach others that the Gospel is about more than individual salvation. It is about God’s plan to create his own people. God said to Abraham, ‘I will make you a great nation’ [Gen 12:2]; and Jesus said ‘I will build my church’ [Matt 16:18]. The Bible is more about God’s people than it is about individuals, and in the Bible God speaks to his people more than to individuals. One of God’s many gracious gifts is to place believers in Christ’s church, the body of Christ, the temple of his Holy Spirit.
This month I want to remind you that the gospel is not just about getting saved, being born again, being justified. The atoning death and resurrection of Jesus our Saviour and Lord don’t just make us believers, miracle of grace though that is. Christ’s death and rising again also have the power transform us daily until our death [and also enable our resurrection on the last day]!
It is so important that people have gospel assurance! We saved by God’s grace alone, by the death and resurrection of Christ alone, by the atoning sacrifice of Christ alone; redeemed by Christ alone, delivered from judgement and death by Christ alone, and accepted and welcomed by God in Christ alone.
But so often I meet people who have gospel assurance … but are making no progress as believers. To use traditional Christian terms, they are ‘justified’, but not being ‘sanctified’. Not only are they not being sanctified; but they have no expectation of sanctification, transformation into the likeness of Christ, no expectation putting sin to death, of crucifying themselves so that the fruit of the Spirit may flourish more and more in their lives. ‘Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires’ [Gal 5:24].
I have heard many series of sermons on Romans. The take-home message? ‘You have to believe this gospel!’ ‘You have to preach this gospel!’ No doubt both are good applications of the book.
However, when we are pondering the purpose, the intended outcome of a book of the Bible, it is always worth looking for its imperatives, its instructions.
The first instructions in Romans are found in chapter 6. Please pay close attention both to the instructions, and to the theological basis for the instructions.
Please read these Bible words aloud!
Theological basis:
… if we have been united with him in a death like his [Christ’s], we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Instructions, imperatives:
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness [6:5-13 NIV11].
Here are some questions:
Do you know that the only way you can die to sin is through the power of Christ’s death?
Do you know that the only way you can live a new life is through the power of Christ’s resurrection?
Are you making use of that power? Are you making progress in your fight against your habitual sins?
Are you counting or reckoning yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus?
Are you stopping sin’s reign in your mortal body, and refusing to obey its desires?
Have you stopped offering yourself to sin to be an instrument of wickedness?
Are you constantly offering yourself to God as one brought from death to life through Christ?
Are you offering every part of yourself day by day to God as instruments of righteousness?
Are you making steady long-term progress in sanctification?
I am not suggesting for a moment that you can live a sinless life! We will only experience the full effects of Jesus’s death and resurrection in our resurrection bodies. What a relief and joy that will be!
But are you making progress? Here is Pauls similar teaching in Galatians.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires [Gal 5:19-24].
And here is Paul’s own example:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me … I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus [Phil 3:12-14]. I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize [1 Cor 9:27].
[You will find a good range of sins to put to death in Colossians 3:5-11, and the complementary range of good replacements in Colossians 3:12-17].
You might also notice that in Romans 6, as in Galatians and Colossians, Paul is actually addressing the church. So it is not just that I should be living this way, but that we all should be living this way.
Are you living this way? Are you teaching and encouraging others to live this way? Are you teaching people to ‘pursue holiness, because without holiness no one will see the Lord’ [Heb 12:14]? [This holiness based, of course on Heb 10:10 ‘we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all’.]
Let’s see the gospel flourish in the daily lives of all believers. ‘We … are being transformed into his [the Lord’s] image with ever-increasing glory…’ [2 Cor 3:18]. This ‘bigger gospel’ transforms us!
Resources:
- Training in caring for ourselves, for those with mental health issues. https://therapyresources.com.au/
This is an excellent and easily understood training program which combines godly wisdom from the Bible and psychiatric practice. It is provided by Dr Rod Smith, a Melbourne Psychiatrist, being interviewed by Andy May, from Bundoora Presbyterian Church. [I should tell you that Dr Smith is soon to retire, and is not taking any new patients.]
2. Theology and Bible.
3. Musical!
I have a robust upright piano in good condition looking for a good home in Melbourne or Victoria. It is an Australian-made Wertheim, so well able to cope with the local climate! It would like to go to a home or a church.
Let us pray together:
Gracious Heavenly Father, please may the gospel bear fruit in our lives in our daily transformation into the image of your Son, our Saviour. Please help us to die to sin by the death of Christ. Please help us to live a new life by the resurrection of Christ. Please work these gospel miracles of grace in our lives, and in the lives of our fellow-believers in our churches and ministries, for the glory of Christ. Amen.
Yours,
