Lawrence Taylor Ministry

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Teaching the Word with Dr. Lawrence Taylor. Each and every week, Dr. Taylor will be sharing a relevant message from the scriptures designed to inform and instruct us in the ways of our God. Dr. Taylor has been the pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church in the Midwood section of Brooklyn for the past 22 years. He brings a wealth of experience each broadcast, having been a New York City public school teacher and a theology professor. Stay tuned to the end of the broadcast to find out how to stream today's message. Now, here's Dr. Taylor.

Dr. Lawrence Taylor: Welcome everyone to Teaching the Word with Dr. Lawrence Taylor. My name is Lawrence Taylor, and I like to thank you for tuning in today. I like to also thank those who have contacted us. All you have to do is go to my website, lawrence taylorministry.com or dot org. Go to contact, leave us a message. And if you want us to get in touch with you, please indicate so. Remember, my website is lawrence taylorministry dot com or dot org. Today, we will look at Romans chapter 6 verses 12 through 23. The apostle just finished explaining verses 11 from verses 11 through 11 what it meant to die with Christ.

He was beginning his discourse on the doctrine of sanctification. In this next section that we're looking at, the apostle continues with the doctrine of sanctification. He uses priestly, military, and slave language to illustrate his points. Verse 12 reads, Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust. Paul tells us that we should not let sin rule as king in our bodies. The word for king, basileuo, word that I gave you last week, is that word that's translated in the New American Standard as reign. In essence, what Paul is saying is stop allowing sin to be king in your life.

The key word in this verse is the word mortal. The apostle acknowledges that there is no change in the body after you accept Christ. If you are 5 ft tall when you accepted Christ Jesus, you will remain the same height after you accepted him. You possess the same passions after you accepted Christ. Sinful desires do not disappear. Those cravings are still there. However, the difference in your Christian experience is that sin is no longer your master. The tyrant of passion has been dethroned. Paul wrote in verse 13, And 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.

Well, the body here, the soma, s o m a, the soma, is referring of course to our physical body. Paul says present your body. The Greek word present is paristemi. Let me spell that for you. That's p a r h i s t e m i, paristemi. The same word is used in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 where where Paul exalts Christians to present their bodies as living sacrifices. This picture in Romans 12 is cultic. It is reminiscent of a priestly sacrifice. The difference, however, unlike Christ is that when we present our bodies, we are presenting them as living sacrifices, not sacrifices to death.

Now, he also uses the word member or members. That is referring of course to our various parts of our bodies, our arms or legs, our hands or feet, whatever part of the body. Now, this whole idea is this, that when we were sinners, we sinned with our whole body. The various parts of our body, we sin with our hands, with our feet, with our eyes, with our mind. Well, the apostle Paul says now take those same body parts, those members and offer them to God. He tells the Roman Christians to now use their body parts as weapons of righteousness.

Note the priestly soldier analogy. The word weapon there is the language of a soldier. We are depicted in verse 13 as soldiers in a war. The enemy is our own lustful bodies. So, therefore, Paul says we are to offer every part of our body parts to the service of God. There he is giving us a picture of what true holiness means. Paul makes a contrast between our life prior to accepting Christ and our new life in verse 14. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. The contrast is really life under the Torah compared to life under grace.

This antinomistic and though that may not be a word you're familiar with, uh nomistic is n o m i s t i c. And it means pertaining to the law. Anti means against the law. This antinomistic uh comment that Paul makes is often been construed as something that is against the Torah. Well, let's note that Paul describes true freedom in liberation for the believer as a life free from the Torah. What would his Gentile audience know about life under the Torah? This verse intimates that the Roman congregation consisted of more than just Gentiles. It is clear that there were Jewish Christians also.

It is likely that these Jewish Christians were still following the Torah. They may have had an influence over the Gentiles in the congregation. Paul refers to them later in chapters 9 10 and 11 and also chapters 14 and 15. Suffice it to say that they did not buy into Paul's Torah-free gospel message. These Jewish Christians felt that the Torah was necessary to help the Christian live a holy life free from sin. They accused Paul of promoting, while here's another big word, antinomianism. Let me spell that for you. That's a n t i n o m i a n i s m, antinomianism.

Antinomian also means against the law. A teaching that said it was all right to live a life of sin since you are covered by the grace of God. The apostle repudiates this claim. Living under grace while diametrically opposed to a life under the Torah does not mean living a lawless life. The Christian has been set free from the power of sin. Paul describes one of the major deficiencies of the Torah. Its inability to sanctify a sinner. The Torah could not give the ancient Hebrew power to live a life free from the entanglement of sin. Sin had a victorious reign under the Torah.

Its reign has now come to an end under grace. The Christian has been manumitted. He's been set free. And now he or she is under the reign of grace. While we understand at this juncture what Paul meant when he wrote that you are not under law cuz the Christian is not and that means that the Torah lacks the power to sanctify the believer. I think we need to explain a little more in detail what it means to live under grace. This is obviously a an illusion to Paul's Torah-free gospel. Note what Paul wrote in verse 15.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be. The interlocutor, the adversary of Paul seizes on this proposition that the Torah is incapable of keeping a person from a habitual life of sin. And now he retorts in this manner. Since you say that we are free from the Torah, that we are not on the Torah, then that means that we will live a habitual life of sin. Well, we must examine Paul's rejoinder carefully in verse 16. Quote, Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin resulting in death, of obedience or obedience resulting in righteousness?

The apostle changes the imagery from the pre-soldier analogy to now a slave. Paul tells us that everyone is a slave. You're either a slave to sin which results in death, or you are a slave to righteousness that results in eternal life. The description of our previous life is also depicted in verse 17. Quote, But 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. Paul unequivocally attributes our freedom from the rulership of sin to the gospel. It is the gospel that has freed us.

We should take notice of the voice of the verbs that are used in verses 17 and 18. Let us note. In verse 17, Paul said that from that form of teaching to which you were committed. And in verse 18, he wrote having been freed from sin. Also in verse 18, you became slaves of righteousness. In verse 17, the verb delivered. And also the other two verbs used in verse 18 and edutothete. Now, I'm going to spell these verbs for you just in case you want to write them down. The word which is the word for deliver is p a r e d o t h e t e.

The verb that's translated being freed as e l e u t h e r o t h e n t e s. And the final verb e d o u l o t h e t e. All three of these verbs are in the passive. Now, let's examine them. The passive voice implies that the work is being performed on the subject. What we learned from verses 17 and 18 is that the work of sanctification for the believer is something that is done to the believer. Note the believer is delivered. He's been delivered to the gospel.

Second, in verse 18, the believer has been set free. And let's note the third, the believer has been enslaved. Well, he has been delivered to the gospel. He has been set free from the tyrannical rulership of sin. And he has been enslaved to righteousness. In everyone of these verbs, it is something that is being done to the Christian. It is not something that the Christian is doing him or herself. Paul describes sanctification as a work that is done to the believer, not something the Christian strives to obtain. Paul tells the Roman Christians that they should take a lesson from their past again in verses 19 to 22.

Let me read that. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. But 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. 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? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life.

Prior to the Christian conversion, we were all slaves to our passions. We all served sin enthusiastically. And I mean enthusiastically. Um we didn't need an enlistment officer to recruit us. We gave sin our all. We served sin to the best of our ability. Whether it was drinking, smoking, parting, committing fornication, adultery, lying, cheating, etc. We were willing participants. But our fetters have been broken, our shackles have been unlocked. And so now we don't have to serve it anymore. And so what the apostle Paul is telling us is that you serve sin enthusiastically with great passion.

Well, that same passion, that same enthusiasm that you used to serve sin, use it now to serve God. Let notice, Jesus is our great emancipator. He has given his proclamation whom the son set free is free indeed. God has raised his omnipotent hand of sanctifying power and made us new creatures. If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. The sovereign on his throne of glory and grace has not only pardoned me, but has blown new life into my soul. The same victor is also my justifier.

My justifier is my sustainer. My sustainer is my justifier, and my justifier is my Lord and savior. He has delivered me, a child of Adam's race, from the adversary of God. Jesus has set us free from the arch enemy of humanity and has infused in us the holiness that only can come from God's throne. He has taken earthbound creatures enslaved to their own depraved appetites and set them on heavenbound road. The God of the universe no longer sees me as a sinful, rebellious reprobate, but as a child of God. The world may not see us that way.

But we are who we are because of Jesus. The world just sees us as ordinary people. When I was a teacher at Art and Design High School, a most unfortunate incident took place. A woman who was in front of the school waiting for the bus was knocked down. Some students bumped into her. It may have been by accident, but nevertheless, they knocked her down. She was an elderly woman. It just so happened that the bus stop was in front of the school. The insensitive students who knocked her down did not even excuse themselves, nor did they attempt to help this aged woman.

Other students standing around thought it was funny, and they ridiculed the woman. Fortunately, the woman was all right. She was not hurt. She came to the school the next day to file a complaint. The principal of the school refused to meet with her. This gracious woman tried on several occasions to meet with the principal, but to no avail. She did not meet with the principal, but the principal did send one or two assistant principals who tried to entertain the woman's complaint, but they were not really serious about the matter. So, the woman was fed up with this shabby treatment.

Now, the principal did not know that this was a very wealthy woman. This woman lived on Sutton Place in one of the most expensive apartments in the neighborhood. She had millions and a great deal of political influence. In fact, I want you to know that one day she invited a number of us, this is later on, to her apartment. She not only lived in the penthouse, but she had a special elevator that took us to her penthouse. This elevator was only for her. And she had special attendance, two cooks, butlers. It She was a multimillionairess.

Beginning back to the story, the principal did not take this woman serious until one day the woman came into the school um with a number of local politicians. Well, after that, everybody took her serious. The principal was terrified, and a special meeting was convened to deal with the problem. The woman was not only given an apology, but the bus stop was actually moved from in front of the school. The principal allowed this woman to establish an organization called the Friends of Art and Design. This woman was given her own office in the school building, and she was allowed to come into the building anytime she wanted.

The principal did not know who this woman was. She just assumed that this was an ordinary pedestrian. What I'm saying is that the world does not know who we are. They don't understand what God has done for us. But we are not ordinary. We are God's ambassadors. We are the branches in the vine. We are citizens of heaven. We are the elect of the almighty God. We are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. We are the jewels of the king. We are the temple of God. We are the vessels of mercy. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

We are super overcomers and saints of God. Glory. Hallelujah.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to today's program. This broadcast is an extension of the ministry of Dr. Lawrence Taylor and the Kenwood Baptist Church. To stream today's message, please go to lawrence taylorministry.com and click on lawrence Taylor ministry forward slash message. Please join us again next week at the same time for Teaching the Word with Dr. Lawrence Taylor.