His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): With a word about how some abuse the grace of God, here's Pastor Matt.

Matt VanderVen: If God's salvation and approval are given on the basis of faith instead of works, which we've learned, wouldn't people just say, "Well, I believe," and then live as they please? Do we see that today? Do we even see that in the church?

See, grace can be dangerous to those that are immature in faith because they may not understand that this is really to teach us God's heart, His love for us. It wasn't something to be manipulated. He also de-emphasized the law by telling us we're not under the law to emphasize grace, to say that it's by love and faith. We don't want to trample on that.

Guest (Male): Hey, welcome to His Perfect Love. Thanks for finishing off the week with us. We've established already in our study of Romans that we are saved by grace. But does that mean we're free to just keep on sinning without restraint? The Apostle Paul is about to address that in Chapter 6.

How concerned are you about holiness? Some aren't concerned at all about it. Others go way overboard into unnecessary strictness, and still others have their own code of conduct. But what does God have to say about it all? Let's join Pastor Matt VanderVen and find out.

Matt VanderVen: This morning, we are continuing here in Romans Chapter 6. Paul has been building his case, really Chapters 1 through 5 here, specifically on justification by faith and the new nature. We talked a little bit about that. You'll hear me use a term: Adamic. You've maybe heard of that term before—Adam, referring to original sin, Genesis Chapter 3. So, if I use that term, that's what I'm talking about. And specifically, that nature that we receive from Christ. We use the term imputed.

We've studied so much. For some of us, this has been a vocabulary exercise in doctrine. We've talked about propitiation. We've talked about justification, a legal term, propitiation being substitution. We've talked about atonement. We've gone through the Greek and even looked at the Hebrew, that originally meant the mercy seat. It was always a picture with the blood being put on the mercy seat of one that would atone—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Well, if you've come this far in this book and you haven't realized already that this is a book of grace, the word grace in this book is used over 20 times—more than any place you will find in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Remember, Paul's in Corinth. He's seeing, quite honestly, despicable things: people getting drunk at the communion table, people sleeping with sexual immorality, a son sleeping with his father's wife—just horrible and deplorable things, sexually immoral things.

And he's writing to this church in Rome that he's never been to. Remember, the heart, I believe Paul's heart, is to say, "I know all these roads lead to Rome, but don't do what the church at Corinth is doing, maybe. Don't be like the world because I just spent a year and a half with Corinth, and they're beginning to look more like the world than the church or the bride of Christ."

Up into this point, as Paul's made his case, he's condemned everyone, if you will. God has, through His Holy Spirit, in Chapters 1 through 3 beautifully, and united us in the fact that we're all sinners and we fall short of the glory of God. And then in Chapter 4, he kind of took us on this sort of little bit of a slight turn to the right where he took us into understanding that this justification has always been by faith.

This isn't a New Testament teaching. This isn't something of the new covenant. This is something that God has always intended, that it was always justification by faith. It was never works. It was not something you added on. It wasn't Jesus plus something. This is not a new teaching. And what we see as he gets into Chapter 5 is then he pulls it back around and almost picks up from where he was in Chapter 3 and continues on this message of grace.

As a matter of fact, we see in Chapter 5, verse 20, the gift of grace abounds more than what? Where sin abounds. He says, "My grace abounds more than sin." And then that's what's going to lead us up to really the first verse we're going to read here in Chapter 6. And he says, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Again, I hear Paul talking to the skeptic. I hear Paul talking to the skeptic out there.

But I think it's important as we go through this, there is so much. I'm curious, how many of you have studied the book of Romans before? Okay, a few. How many of you have gone through a word study of every Greek term in here and understood the tenses being used in the original language? Okay, that's what we're going to do a little bit. This chapter's very, very important. I know for some of you it might be like, "Well, I was not very good at grammar." That's me.

I was not good at grammar. God did just, you know, the Holy Spirit, He's our teacher. We can all be grammarians. He's our teacher, okay? But it's really important because we see something in this chapter that we really just don't see anywhere else. And I think that without going into the original language, we lose so much of it without going into the Greek. And we don't have to be Greek scholars. I'm not a Greek scholar, friends.

But by studying and showing ourselves approved, God has been communicating something here so special for the church. And if we didn't understand that original language or somebody wasn't able to exegesis that for us or with us—oh my. And I have to be honest with you, I always am, a part of me went, "Okay, Lord, am I going to go too deep here this morning in this? It's going to really slow down a little bit. Is this going to go over a lot of heads here? Because that's not my desire."

My desire is not to have a seminary class; otherwise, you would all attend seminary if that was your heart to do that. But I think this is unique and special because, again, the aorist tense that's used in here—and we're going to talk about what that all means—it's significant. It's more than 25 times in this chapter. We're going to go through that and explain. Some of you are looking at me like, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

We're going to get there, but I want you to understand God is trying to tell us, "This is done." This is a promise that's fulfilled. This isn't something we're looking to. Now, there is a future tense used seven times, and we'll talk about that. But what God and what Christ is trying to communicate to us is this isn't something that we have to turn around and go, "Okay, Lord, when I get to heaven, I'm going to receive this." No, He's communicating we've received it.

It's ours. It's ours now. And when we go through that and we start understanding from the original language and what Paul, through the Holy Spirit through revelation, was being told directly from God for you and I, the promises, the gift of grace, you're going to learn more about grace in this chapter than many other chapters of the Bible. Certainly, this book's all about grace, but it's also a chapter about sanctification.

This is not a chapter on salvation. Paul's dealt with salvation and he will continue to deal with it, but he's made that point that we're all under sin as I already mentioned, 1 through 3. 4: okay, justification by faith, it's always been that way. And 5: okay, well, now what are you going to do about it? And Chapter 6 is now: how do you live this out? You and me, born-again believers in Christ, this is for us today.

What does our life look like? How do we live out the word of God, the Scriptures, but how do we walk the Christian life as disciples of the living God? This is our instruction manual. This is our instruction manual. So I have to point that out because if we're staying in context, it's important to understand where he is. And it's going to build because as we go to Chapter 7 and 8, where I see most eisegesis happening in this book or in the teaching of Romans, is when everybody takes Chapters 1 through 6 and they're like, "Yep, got it. We understand context. Understand what Paul's saying."

And then they go to Chapter 7 and 8 and for whatever reason, they take off their cap of hermeneutics and they begin to create strange, odd doctrines that they kind of force into the text. And it's like, why did we change anything? It's a literal interpretation of the word of God. The Book of Revelation we taught is literal, and everything in the word of God is to be literally understood unless it's "like" or "as" and then we know it's a metaphor or simile.

But otherwise, we're to take a literal interpretation of this book. It's holy, it's inspired, and it's God-breathed. So if you've got a notebook, I encourage you, pull out your notebooks now. There's some notebooks in the back if you'd like them. Grab some pens. I encourage you to go back and listen to this one more time devotionally. Again, we're going to take a lot of meat off the bone here this morning, but I think if we look at one key verse in Chapter 6, I'd like to direct your attention to verse 10.

And then we're going to start really getting into the verse-by-verse here reading. But look at verse 10. He says, "For the death that He died, He died"—now, that's all in the aorist, and we'll talk a little bit about that—"to sin once for all. But the life that He lives, He lives to" who? God. That's the point. We are dead to sin. We're dead to that Adamic nature that we once had. He's already made that case because He said if there was one that could lead all of humanity into sin, that Adam, Chapter 5, there's one greater that could lead everyone into salvation and justification through the redemption by His blood, and that was Jesus, the greater one.

And He's made that case already in Chapter 5. If you weren't with us, go back and read that. So he's building on this, but he's saying now what do you do with that? Like the book of James. Have you read the book of James? James Chapter 1 and 2 says, "Hey, faith without works is dead." He says, "Now if you don't live this out and there's no transformation of your life, what have you done? It's just sounding brass. It's not done anything in the heart."

Now, I don't know about you, but that's heavy. That's convicting. I hear that as a born-again believer again, many years, and I'm still challenged by that. Thank you, Jesus, that it's not a creampuff sitting in your word. It's not a snowflake message. It's something that is going to change my heart and remind me who I am in You, and my identity is all caught up in how You see me, not even how I see myself.

Because my perspective and perception is off. I need calibration. I need calibration from the word of God because I can begin to believe the lies of the world. I can begin to believe that, am I going crazy because I believe Jesus Christ is coming? And oh, by the way, He could rapture us before this service is out. And I would say, as Paul says, certainly not. But we can be conditioned to listen to those voices, sometimes even worn down, if you know what I mean, worn down.

And I think He wants to renew our hearts. Well, let's talk. Look back in Chapters really 1 through 10. I'm going to sort of go through this with you. It used the aorist tense quite extensively. I'm going to read through my notes just so I help to give you some of the understanding a little more accurately in regards to what the aorist tense is and how it's characterized, more or less a definition.

When you use the aorist tense, what it's speaking is an emphasis on a definite, particular point of time or action. There is no direct translation in the Greek into the English. Many will say, "Well, it's like the past tense." Similar. But it's trying to speak to this point of time of action. And this chapter is almost exclusively 1 through 10, if not every two to three words, it's using the aorist tense either in the passive or active voice.

Some of you are looking at me like, "This is not normal." This is not normal what you read in your Bible if you exegesis the Greek. You won't see this tense used so often. Not that it's foreign, but it's just a lot, and it's unique that it's kind of grouped. And we're going to talk about the groupings. But it could technically be regarded as the past, the present, or even the future. Just think about that for a minute.

There's a tense like that. We don't have that in a single tense in the English language or grammar. So most of the times when we're translating it from Greek to English, most scholars or scribes are going to turn around and make it past tense. Okay, well, what does that connote? That means it's already complete. But it's something that could be immediately received because it's past, present, future, and it's an immediate action.

It's not something we receive and then wait 20 years and then, oh by the way, receive more of it. We've received our fullness of it, the fullness in it. Glorification is an example of that. Are we in our glorified bodies today? No. Take your glasses, your cheaters, look at them, right? Our hearing aids, our canes, our wheelchairs—everything, right? Not our glorified bodies. But there's coming a time where we will be.

But have we not received glorification as a promise already? Yes, we have, according to the word of God. Have we not begun the process of sanctification? But is the sanctification something you receive all at once and then you no longer receive? No, it's a marathon. Every day you're growing in sanctification. It's not by you; it's by Christ in you who began and will finish the work. He's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He will finish what He started.

What about salvation? Are you saved? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Yes, you did. Yes, you have. And when doing so, it's not as though you're saved every day. You don't come up for an altar call and say, "I want to re-get saved." No. That's a good example of the aorist tense. Even on the cross, we see the aorist tense, but we also see another tense too. But anyway, everybody got that?

So there's really no direct translation for that tense. It's used 24 times in this chapter. And I'll point out as we go through it this morning, and forgive me, I'm setting this up a little bit in our introduction. We are going to go line by line. I won't have to do this again. Once we've done this, I'll now be able to direct everybody back, if they're ever looking for times to handle the word through a word study, back to this study so they understand the different tenses that they'll see.

We also are going to see the future tense. It's used seven times, and that's the same in the English. It's much like future; it's the same way we would use it. We're also going to see something called the imperfect tense. It's used four times. If you're taking notes, in your Bible verses 17 through 21 particularly, you're going to see this imperfect tense. And what it actually connotes or means is it generally represents something that's continual or repeated action.

So let me give you an example. They are asking. The imperfect tense of that, if we read it in the English, it would say, "They're asking." We would understand it in the Greek, if it's written with the imperfect tense, as they kept on asking. They kept on asking. It's a continual effort. It's a continual asking. Yes, I'm asking, I'm asking, I'm asking. I'm seeking. I've been forgiven, I've been forgiven, I'm still forgiven. You with me? That's the imperfect tense.

There's another tense: perfect tense. This is used three times, specifically in verses 7, 9, and 16. Now, the perfect tense in the Greek corresponds to the perfect tense in the English, again, much like the future tense, and describes an action that's viewed as being completed in the past once and for all, not needing repeating. Can you think of an action like that that we all hold on to as we look at Calvary and we look at the cross?

When Jesus said something on the cross, what did He say? He said, "Tetelestai," right? He said, "It is finished," or "teleo" in the Greek. That's a great example of the perfect tense. That's how we know in the Greek that we don't have to take Jesus and put Him back on the cross, that whatever sin we commit—because we're not without sin, you know, the Bible says in 1st John he says we have no sin is a liar, right? We have sin.

We're not conquered by our sin any longer. We don't have the Adamic nature. We now sin, but we sin by free choice. We're going to talk a little bit about that. I just made a very strong doctrinal statement there. We're going to see where Paul says it in the word specifically, because it doesn't matter what I think. But that's the understanding of tetelestai or, what He was saying is the atonement was accomplished completely once and for all time.

Do you see the richness of that? Are you guys tracking with me? But if you didn't know that in the Greek, if you didn't know to even look at the word study or you didn't know how to, you might go, "Well, can I lose my salvation? Do we have to come forward if I sin again to say Jesus, I blew it, am I not saved? Can I lose my salvation?" Well, if He went to the cross and it's past, present, and future, we would expect our salvation to be any different?

Because if He's forgiving sin that we haven't even committed yet, He's already taken care of it. But if we didn't know it was in the perfect tense, we could begin to doubt. The enemy is so clever. He loves to do that. He loves to twist and get in there, and it's exactly what we see in Matthew Chapter 4 when He was being tempted as the Holy Spirit led Him out. Half-truths are full lies.

And He said, "Did you not know Deuteronomy? It says man shall not live by bread alone, by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." What did He do? How did He combat the evil? How could He combat the spiritual warfare? With the word of God and the fullness of its truth. But if we don't know that, we're missing a great promise that God has for us in His word.

So, grammar class is over. You all can wake up and tune back in. Some of you closed your eyes, you're like, "Okay, you're back." All right. But I just wanted to give you some extra information here. I pray that it enriches your study. I pray devotionally this enriches your study and that you'll get a better understanding really of what he's trying to communicate here.

So, let's look at verse 1. Let's begin here. "What shall we say?" When we say "we say," that's in the future tense, excuse me. That means keep saying. "What shall we keep saying?" It's not we say it once; "What shall we keep saying?" Okay. Then: "Shall we continue," constantly continuing again in the future tense there, "in sin that grace may abound?"

Because he had left off on Chapter 5, verse 20 and 21, saying that where sin abounds, grace abounds more. He's saying, so do we just keep sinning? I mean, after all, he introduced this idea in Romans Chapter 5, verse 20. And it appears Paul, looking at this here, is concerned or somewhat concerned about the truth that this implies in the life of the Christian.

Will the Christian turn around and think that they can live a life of sin and that it doesn't matter since grace abounds more than sin because God will overcome it because grace is greater? You know what I mean? Have you ever met people that, again, we're not judges, we're fruit inspectors, but you begin to look at their lives and you don't even really know, are they saved?

And they might say they're saved and, look, we can't judge that; nobody could ever know. But it is curious sometimes when you wonder, maybe they take the Lord's name in vain. Maybe they're doing things that would be contrary to the gospel, and you begin to wonder, has there transformation that's begun in the heart? I think it's a good point because the skeptic can often say, "Well man, I've got grace." And I love grace, don't get me wrong, guys. I love grace.

But are we to take and trample under the grace of God? Because there's power in grace, but that grace comes from the Lord. We're going to read that as we get to verses 10 and on. I think it's a good point because people can abuse grace. If God's salvation and approval are given on the basis of faith instead of works, which we've learned, wouldn't people just say, "Well, I believe," and then live as they please? Do we see that today? Do we even see that in the church?

Grace can be dangerous to those that are immature in faith because they may not understand that this is really to teach us God's heart, His love for us. It wasn't something to be manipulated. He also de-emphasized the law by telling us we're not under the law to emphasize grace, to say that it's by love and faith. We don't want to trample on that. Some people, they believe you tell them that God saves except them from what they deserved or what they're merited, that's what grace means, they may have no motive to be obedient.

I mean, that's the reality. Some people think, "Well, I can do whatever I want." Meanwhile, Jesus Christ says, "I know who loves Me, those who keep My commandments and My statutes." It's really not what's right in our own eyes. They wrote a whole book about it; it's the Book of Judges. Jesus wrote a whole book about it that way. So he says, "Shall we continue in sin?"

And again, the verb tense here is a future active tense. So he's saying, "Should we continue to continue in sin, living our lives continually like this, just sinning and sinning and making more sin?" He makes it clear that he's talking about habitual sin. He's not saying that we as believers know we're not going to sin and make mistakes. We do; we blow it. I blow it. Maybe you don't blow it; I blow it. I'll start there. I blow it.

But he's telling me that this is not about blowing it. This is about a habitual sin that I keep doing over and over again, and then I turn to God and say, "I'm sorry, I repent, Lord Jesus." I could have turned it left for you all over here. I turn to God and I say, but at the end of the day, I go right back to the vomit. Again, I know you guys don't know what I'm talking about, right? None of you have ever seen that. None of you have ever faced that in your life. I know, it's a stretch, Paul.

"Certainly not," I should go verse 2. "How shall we who died to sin live," living, future tense, "any longer in it?" So he's saying, I mean, "certainly not," if you don't know Paul's going to use that, he's saying, "No way, Jose," right? A modern paraphrase. "No way" is what he's saying. "Absolutely not." It's a strong phrase. He says, "How shall we who died to sin live?" Remember, he's already handled that. The Adamic nature is dead. It's dead as dead as dead. There is no reviving it; there is no pulling it back. We're going to learn through Paul that he's going to explain, he's going to teach us there's a difference.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. We're developing our study in Romans, and if you enjoyed today's message, we'd like to know. Email us at our website, HisPerfectLove.org, and be sure to include your prayer requests. And while you're there, you'll notice a place to listen to Pastor Matt's sermons, including all of Romans. That's at HisPerfectLove.org.

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We want all of our listeners to have access to the word of God. So if you're in need of a Bible, we'd like to get one into your hands. Just email us through our website and ask for the free Bible offer. Here's our web address again: HisPerfectLove.org. This has been His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you back here next time when we'll share another study in Romans.