Sermon No. 3203: Christ Made Sin
Exposition: ROMANS 5:1-10; 2 CORINTHIANS 4; 5.
Romans 5:1-3. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this Grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. Faith has such wondrous power that it makes us rejoice even in trial! It helps Christians to be glad even in the midst of sorrow.
3. Knowing that tribulation works patience. The more trial you have, the more spiritual education you receive. You cannot learn the virtue of patience without tribulation any more than a man can learn to be a sailor if he stays on shore! "Tribulation works patience."
4. And patience, experience. If you bear the trial patiently, it leaves the mark of its engraving tool upon your spirit, and you thus become fashioned into an experienced Christian.
4. And experience, hope. What God has once done, He may do again. And as He has shown us so much favor, we may reasonably hope that He will show us some more, and that He who has given us Grace, will give us glory.
5. And hope makes us not ashamed. Our hope brings us courage—no longer are we trembling and diffident, but we feel like children do towards a loving father—we are happily, restfully at home with our God. "Hope makes us not ashamed."
5. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. [See Sermons #829, Volume 14—THE PERFUMING OF THE HEART and #1904, Volume 32—THE PERSONAL PENTECOST AND THE GLORIOUS HOPE.] When Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointed the feet of Jesus with the very costly ointment of spikenard, "the house was filled with the odor" of it—and in a similar fashion the love of God perfumes every part of our nature.
6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."'[See Sermons #1191, Volume 20—for
What a wonderful statement! "Christ died for the ungodly." Yet it was no slip of the pen, for the Apostle takes up his own expression and preaches the following little sermon upon it—
7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. If a man is known to be sternly just, like Aristides, nobody would care enough for him to die for him.
7. Yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to di. For a benevolent man, a true philanthropist, a lover of his race, there are some who might say that they would die for him. Yet the Apostle only says, "Perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die." It is not very likely, but it is possible.
8. But God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. [See Sermon #104, Volume
2—LOVE'S COMMENDATION.] Certainly we were not "good" men, we were not even "just" men, but we are included in this black description, "sinners." And "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He died for us as sinners—He did not come to save saints, but to save sinners—and it was for sinners that He died.
9. Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. This is a fine piece of argument and strictly logical. If, when we were sinners, Christ died for us, will He let us be condemned, now that He has washed us in His precious blood? Is it possible that after dying for us, He will let us fall from Grace and perish? That will never be! Notice the same kind of argument again—
10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. [See Sermon #2587, Volume 44—"MUCH MORE."] There is a threefold argument here. If Christ died for us when we were His enemies, will He not save us, now that we are His friends? If He died to reconcile us to God, will He not completely save us, now that this great work has been accomplished? And as we were reconciled to God by Christ's death, shall we not much more be saved by His life? There are three arguments and each one is sound and conclusive. The Believer in Jesus must be eternally saved! If Christ died for sinners, what will He not do for Believers, who are no longer enemies, but are reconciled unto God by the death of His Son?
2 Corinthians 4:1. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Stern was the labor of the Apostles, but they felt that their work was so all-important, so Divine, that they must not grow weary of it, though they were, doubtless, often weary init.
2. But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. It is no part of the business of Christ's ministers to modify the Truth of God which He has entrusted to them, or to put new meanings into it which God never meant, draining away the very life-blood of the Gospel and leaving it dead and useless! But it isboth our duty and our privilege to state it just as we find it and to proclaim it in as plain a language as possible so that everybody may understand what the teaching of God really is.
3. But if our Gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost. [See Sermon #1663, Volume 28—THE true gospel is no hidden gospel.] It was not hidden under fine language and oratorical flourishes on the part of the Apostles—there was a far more terrible barrier in the way of its entrance into the hearts of some who heard it.
4-7. In whom the god of the world has blinded the mind of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus 'sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.There is nothing remarkable in us. We are, in ourselves, poor, frail, fragile creatures, like earthen vessels of no particular value! Yet this we do not regret, for there is a good reason for it—
7-10. That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life, also, of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. He who wishes for an easy time of it must not become a minister of the Gospel! If he is determined to preach it faithfully, fully, simply, straight from his heart, he will often find himself in such circumstances as the Apostle describes in these verses.
11. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus 'sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal fles. The Apostles were always to the front where the shots were flying the thickest and with the deadliest aim! There they stood, the officers of the army of Christ—and Paul rejoiced that, for one, he was able thus to make himself to be nothingthat Christ might be the great All-in-All!
12. So, then, death works in us, but life in yo. So long as Paul could be the means of the salvation of the souls of men, he did not mind what became of himself. Though it should be death to him, he would count it as nothing so long as it should bring life to them!
13, 14. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and, therefore, have I spoken; we also believe and, therefore, speak; knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us, also, by Jesus, and shall present us with you. Note the assurance of Apostolic preaching and writing. There is no, "if," here, no hesitation, no doubt. The Apostles knew what they believed and knew why they believed it—and they spoke with conviction— nobody was led into doubt by their hesitancy.
15, 16. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant Grace might through the thanksgiving ofmany redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not.Paul had said before that they did not faint, and now he reiterates it that though his ministry was enough to bear him down, and lay him prostrate in the dust, yet he did not faint.
16, 18. But though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 5:1. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. [See Sermon #1719, Volume 29—the tent dissolved and the mansion
ENTERED.] Is not this grand courage on the part of the Apostle?
With all the world against him and he "always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake," he looks at the new body, the new house that God is making for him and he reckons that to shuffle off this mortal coil will be no loss to him, since when he loses the tent in which he lives, here, he will go to "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
2-4. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed— We are not impatient to enter the disembodied state—
4-6. But clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now He that has worked us for the same thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident.Note the ground of the Apostle's confidence. He is quite sure that, inasmuch as Christ rose from the dead, so all His followers must. And though they die in the Lord's service, yet they shall not be losers thereby, but they shall the more speedily ascend to their reward! "We are always confident"—
6-9. Knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight): we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. [See Sermons #413, Volume 7—to die or not to die! and #1303,
Volume 22—THE BELIEVER IN THE BODY AND OUT OF THE BODY.] To be well- pleasing to God everywhere, in everything that we do, should be the one aim of a Christian, whether he is in the body or out of the body.
10-13. For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad, knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust, also, are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have something to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we are beside ourselves. And men said that these Apostles had gone out of their minds. Festus said to Paul, "you are beside yourself, much learning does make you mad." So Paul says, "Whether we are beside ourselves"—
13. It is to God: or whether we are sober, it is for your cause. "In either case, we have but one objective and that is to glorify God through your salvation."
14-15. For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again. The life of the saved man must never be lived for himself! He is false to his profession if it is so. He must henceforth live as earnestly for God as, aforetime in his unregeneracy, he lived for himself, for he now has a new life which is not his own to do with it as he pleases, but it belongs entirely to Him who purchased it with His own most precious blood.
16. Therefore, from now on, we regard no man after the flesh. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. We do not see Christ with our natural eyes. We do not hear His voice with our natural ears. He is now to us a spiritual Person who communicates with our spirit through His own ever-blessed Spirit.
17. Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.There could not be a greater change than that which is worked by regeneration! It is a new creation, the passing away of the old, and the making of all things new. [See Sermons #881, Volume 15—THE BELIEVER A NEW CREATURE and #1328, Volume 22— CHRIST THE MAKER OF ALL THINGS NEW.]
18-21. And all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the Word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.