Bible Story: Live for Jesus

Introduction

Now we come to the third section of the New Testament, the epistles, Romans through Jude. Years ago, one unenlightened fellow said he knew what the epistles were, they were the wives of the apostles. But we’re confident he was mistaken about that. In these 21 letters, we learn how to live the Christian life. And I’m convinced that a lot of people who claim to be Christians need to do a lot of reading and studying in these books. There is more immorality, more inconsistency in the religion of our Lord today than perhaps any other time. And one reason is we’re not well equipped with a knowledge of these twenty-one great books that tell us how to live for Jesus. It will do no good to obey the Lord and become a Christian unless we intend to live for the Lord and as the Lord directs.

1. The Gospel Is God’s Power to Save

And each one of these 21 books, 75% of the New Testament was written to Christians telling us how to live. And there’s a criminal imbalance in a lot of preaching today that discusses how to become a Christian, but leaves undone the larger area of study, how to live for Jesus. And that will be the purpose of the next few moments in this study, how to live the Christian life. The book of Romans has as its key verse the key thought of the whole Bible, Romans 1 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and to salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek. For therein, that is in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

That’s the key to the book of Romans. That’s the summary of the whole Bible. The gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s power to save. I’ve had many people ask me, what is Romans 1 17 talking about when it says from faith to faith? I believe it teaches, as Galatians 2 16 affirms, that since the gospel of Christ is a system of faith, it begets faith in our hearts. It makes us want to believe. Some have said it means from the faith of the old testament to the faith of the new. Others have said it means from the faith of Abraham, who had the promise of the seed given to him, Genesis 22. To the fulfillment of that promise in Christ. Others have said it means from the immature beginning faith of a babe in Christ to the mature faith of the fruitful, full-grown child of God.

2. All Have Sinned; The Gospel Is the Remedy

Now all of those points may be true, but I don’t believe Romans 1.17 is talking about that. It speaks of a system of faith, the gospel, which begets faith in our hearts. So it is based on faith, and that makes us want to believe, from faith to faith. Romans 2.16 says we’ll be judged according to the gospel by Jesus Christ, even our secret thoughts. And then in Romans 3, we learn, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You see, the book of Romans sets forth the premise that all the Gentiles, the pagans, the heathen of the first century, were in sin and in desperate need of Christ. Chapter 2 turns and says to the Jews, You’re inexcusable because you’re guilty of doing the same things you condemn the Gentiles for, and with lesser reason, for unto you the oracles of God were committed, you were God’s chosen people, you should have lived on a higher plane.

And then in chapter 3, he concludes, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre. The poison of asps is under their lips. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Well, what is the remedy? The gospel of Christ, God’s power to save, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And then in Romans 4, he says Christ was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. In Romans 5, he said, When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man would one die. Yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we should be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we should be saved by his life. And then in Romans chapter 6, after telling us that sin entered the world and death by sin through Adam and Eve, Romans 5 12, he speaks then of Christ’s coming as the remedy for that sin. What we lost in Adam we gain in Christ is the point he’s making. And in Romans 6 23, he says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You see, in Romans 6, he discusses the relationship of a Christian with sin. He says, We’re dead to sin. We have buried, crucified the old man. We’ve been raised to walk in a new life with Christ. We do not yield ourselves as servants to sin as once we did. Sin does not rule or reign in our mortal bodies, it shall not have dominion over us, for there’s no reward in sin, and the things we did in the past that we thought were fun, we’re now so deeply ashamed of them. And ultimately the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Romans chapter 7, we learn of the personal struggle with sin that men had under the law, for there was no power per se in the law to release us from the bondage of sin.

The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, Hebrews 10 4, and the high sacrificial system they had could not cover their sin, Psalm 32 1. And so Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from the body of this death? I do the things I shouldn’t do, don’t do the things I ought to do. I’m sold under sin, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Romans 7 13 and 14. And so finally he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. In Romans 8, he mentions 14 specific blessings for those who are in Christ Jesus. He closes in the exquisitely beautiful refrain, I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3. Tied to Abraham Through the Seed of Promise

In Romans 9, he begins the deep doctrinal treatise, Romans 9 10 11 in this great book. In fact, many have said it is like a lawyer’s appeal before a pack court, before jury. And in Romans 9, he says, I wish that I could barter my saved soul for all the lost souls of those of my Jewish brethren. But he said salvation doesn’t work that way. He makes it very clear that just to be tied to Adam in a physical way won’t do. For Hagar and Ishmael were tied to Abraham in a physical way, but they were bond servants and cast out, unless we’re tied to him through the seed of promise. In the spiritual strain and genealogy that produced the Savior, and his seed was Christ, Galatians 3 16, then we lose out.

And so there’s a lot of difference in the way we’re tied to Abraham. In Galatians 3, he will say, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ to put on Christ, there’s neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male or female. You’re all one in Christ Jesus. Now notice, and if you be Christ, then are you Abraham’s seed and errors according to the promise. So in Romans 9, he makes it clear that you are not Abraham’s seed unless you’re tied to him through the spiritual son of promise, unless you are Israel, those who have power with God, because you have obeyed God and have become a prince of God. Read Hosea 12, 1 to 4, to get this background. And then in Romans chapter 9, in the last verse, he says, Instead of men being saved by the Lord, he has become a rock of offense and a stone of stumbling for those who are spiritually blind and will not see.

For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. He said, Some of you are saying we’ll go down into the abyss and bring Christ up, or we’ll reach up into heaven and bring him down. And he said, That’s unnecessary. The word is now you, it’s even preached unto you. How beautiful are the feet of them that bring the glad tidings, as he quotes from Isaiah. And then he says, So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But they’ve not all obeyed the gospel, he cried. Though their sound has gone out into all the earth, men have had an opportunity to hear, they will not listen.

And finally, he says, All day long, as the Lord stretched forth his hands to a gain saying and disobedient people. The gospel of Christ is still God’s power to save, and when men reject it, they do so to their own condemnation. In Romans 11, he discusses the fact that any Jew who wants to become a Christian can become one, for he, Paul, is exhibit A, that Jews can be saved by the gospel. He had been a leader of the Jewish faction. He had persecuted Christians, he had killed, helped kill that faithful martyr Stephen, as he said in his speech on the castle stairs in Acts 22. And yet he became a Christian when he obeyed the simple gospel of Christ. One reason Paul was so hated by the Hebrews was he had turned away from Judaism and had become a Christian.

And he was an unanswerable argument against their pleas for Judaism revived and the old testament still lived. And so Paul makes his appeal to these people.

And then he turns to the Gentiles and he says, Don’t you be arrogant. Just because the gospel has been preached to you and you’re now in covenant relationship with God. Don’t you be like the Hebrews were of old and become cocky and arrogant, or you’ll be cast off just like they were. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God on them that fail severity, but toward thee goodness. If thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off. And then he says, And so all Israel shall be saved. Through the Redeemer that comes out of Zion, and he quotes Isaiah 59 20, which was future tense when Isaiah wrote it, but present tense when Paul quoted it, the Redeemer had already come out of Zion, Jesus Christ.

And so those who had power with God through the spiritual tie to Abraham’s seed would be saved through the Redeemer that came out of Zion according to the covenant and the gospel of Christ. God would not turn his back upon his promises and his provisions. The seed of Abraham had come, the Redeemer had come out of Zion. The gospel of Christ is God’s power to save. And from the day of Pentecost to the end of time, men can be redeemed through the Redeemer, even Jesus the Christ. Job cried, I know that my Redeemer lives and shall stand upon the earth in the last days. Job 19 25. And that Jesus did, as he walked among men, and lived a perfect life, and left a matchless, glorious, glad tidings gospel for men to believe, repent, confess their faith in him, and be baptized for the remission of sins, Acts 2 38, that they might come into covenant relationship with God, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Acts 3.19, Acts 5.32, and glorify God, because they were not their own, they had been bought with a price.

4. The Practical Nature of Christianity

1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. The book of Romans is a brilliant book, and in the last few chapters of the book, chapters 12 through 16, he tells us of the practical nature of Christianity. We’re to present our bodies a living sacrifice. We’re not to return evil for evil, but good for evil. And as much as it depends upon us, be at peace with all men, we’re to love our enemies, pray for those that despitely use us. And then also in chapter 13 of Romans, though they were persecuted by the authorities, he was telling the Christians to obey the rulers, to pray for them, to pay their taxes, to be good and noble citizens, and to owe no man anything but to love one another, Romans 13 8.

In Romans 14 he spoke of our influence upon our brethren, even on indifferent matters, such as eating of meats offered idols. The exact situation doesn’t obtain today, but the principle of influence upon a weaker brother still exists, and we need to live in harmony with Romans 14. For Christ pleased not himself, and we’re not to receive our brothers to doubtful disputations, but to their edification. Romans 14 19, Romans 15 3. And then at the end of Romans 16, he says, The churches of Christ salute you. Mark them that cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine you have received and avoid them. The book of Romans is a glorious book that speaks of the obedience of faith of all nations, Romans 1 5 and Romans 16 26.

And that’s the key. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith, Acts 6 7. Elamus turned men away from the faith of the gospel, Acts 13 8. Felix wanted to hear Paul concerning the faith, Acts 24 24. Jude said, Contend earnestly for the faith, once delivered the saints, Jude 3. And thus were children of God by faith, Galatians 3 26, this system of faith, the gospel of Christ, which men must obey. The book of Romans then is a grand and glorious treatise that brings the whole Bible into focus. The law of Moses had been fulfilled. The gospel of Jesus Christ, now God’s power to save. Christ is the end of the law, Romans 10 4. We’re dead to the law, that we should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God, Romans 7 4.

5. 1 Corinthians: Problems in the Early Church

And so the gospel of Christ, God’s power to save. It is a system of faith which begets faith in our hearts, it makes us want to believe. And when men obey this system of faith, the gospel, they become new creatures in Christ, raised to walk in a new life, Romans 6 3 to 5. The book of Romans, then, is a synthesis book that brings together and ties together the old and new testaments. The book of 1 Corinthians is an unusual book. Sixteen chapters that tell us of problems in the early church. You see, members of the church are just human beings. And all too often we take on the nature of the world about us. Corinth was the most wicked place in the whole world in the first century.

In fact, in the Grecian amphitheaters and the pantomime plays they would have, if a man staggered across the stage drunk, they said, Oh, he’s from Corinth. They were a wicked bunch of people. 500,000 people in Corinth. Up on the hill, looking over Corinth was a temple erected to the worship of Aphrodite and one thousand female priests given over to adultery, prostitution in the name of their goddess. The main streets of Corinth were named after famous orators. So from immorality to exalting men would be about as deep and strong as the Corinthians were. It was difficult to plant the cause of Christ firmly in Corinth. They had the problem of exalting men too much, a problem of misunderstanding of the nature of the inspiration of the Bible and the revelation of truth.

They were divided over men. They had immorality in the church, and Paul said, Withdraw from that ungodly fellow, 1 Corinthians 5. They went to law with their brethren before the heathen, and Paul chides them and says, Don’t you have a single wise man in the church in Corinth that can help decide this matter? They had problems with marriage, divorce, and remarriage, 1 Corinthians 7. Problems with eating of meats offered to idols, problems with support of gospel preachers, problems with the Lord’s Supper and with women in the church, their proper place. Problems with spiritual gifts, chapters 12, 13, and 14. Problems with the resurrection of Christ, they misunderstood even that. And problems with the contribution upon the first day of the week. Truly, the church at Corinth had problems, but Paul wrote to them trying to correct it, saying, I preach Christ and him crucified.

And what a great book this is. He says, Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel, 1 Corinthians 9 16. How they needed the gospel of Jesus Christ. He even mentioned that they were eating and drinking damnation to their souls when they tried to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Isn’t that a strange phenomenon? These then are the practical points in the book of 1 Corinthians. Next we will study 2 Corinthians’ reaction to that first epistle and Paul’s defense of his true apostleship.