Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

Verse 1 What shall we say, then?Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound?The 5th Chapter ends up in this way, that "where sin abounded, etc.. Jesus Christ our Lord." Then he goes on to say, "What shall we say, then?" What inference shall we draw from the fact that where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound? Shall we be base enough to draw a wicked inference from a gracious statement? Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound? It is a horrible suggestion and yet it is one which has come into the minds of many men, for some men are bad enough for anything—they will curdle the sweet milk of love into the most sour argument for sin! "Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound? God forbid!" With all the vehemence of his nature, he says—

2. God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?The Grace of God makes us dead to sin. This is the Grace of God which delivers us from the power of evil—and if this is so, how can we live any longer therein?

3. Know you not, that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? If we are in Christ at all, we are partakers of His death and as His was a death for sin and a death to sin, we are made partakers of it—we are really dead because Christ died and we are in Him. Therefore we are dead to the old life, to the old way of sin. We signify that by our baptism.

4. Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Our Baptism, solemn as it was, was a great acted lie, a living pretense unless we are dead to our former way of living and have come to live unto God in a new life altogether, by virtue of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead!

5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness ofHis death, we shall be also in the likeness ofHis Resurrection. If we have partaken of His death, we partake also of His rising power. We live because He lives and we live as He lives, not after the old manner, but in newness of life.

6. Knowing this, that our oldman is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.We are to regard ourselves as persons that have been dead. We are ourselves, it is true, and yet in another sense we are not ourselves. We are not to look upon ourselves as though we owed any kind of service to the power which we obeyed before we knew the Lord. We are new people—we have a new life and have entered upon a new exis-tence—the old man is crucified with Him

7. 8. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.There was no getting free from the power of sin except by dying to it but, being dead to it, we are free from it and, now being dead that way, we have entered into a new life that we might live as Christ lives!

9. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him. So we, being raised from our former death, shall die no more—death has no more dominion over us. That is to say, sin cannot reign in us again—we are dead to it, we are brought into a new life that can never end, even as our Lord Jesus Christ is. There is a parallel between us and Christ, even as there is a union between us.

10. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God. And so do we! We have died unto sin once, but now that we live, we live unto God.

11. 12. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead, indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof It is in the body that it tries to reign. These poor things, these mortal frames of ours, have so many passions, so many desires, so many weaknesses, all of which are apt to bring us under the dominion of sin unless we watch with great care.

13. Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. "Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin"—neither eyes, nor ears, nor hands, nor feet—neither suffer any of these to become the tools of sin, "but yield yourselves unto God." He is ready to use you! Lay all the powers of your nature out as tools for Him to use. "Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead." He is not the God of the dead—He cannot use the dead, but He is the God of the living—and as you profess to have received a new life in Christ, yield up all the faculties of this new life unto the living God, "and your members as instruments of righteousness unto

God."

14. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the Law, but under Grace. When you were under the Law, sin did get dominion over you! That Law which was ordained to life, worked towards death. The evil concupiscence of your nature revolted against the command and led you astray. But now, Beloved, it is of love and Grace, and now sin cannot get in—stronger motives shall hold you to holiness than ever held you before, and the Grace of God, itself, like a wall of fire, shall guard you from the dominion of sin!

15. What then?Shall we sin because we are not under the Law, but under Grace? God forbid!That must not be! Again the evil spirit crops up, trying to turn the Grace of God into licentiousness, and to make us feel free to sin because of God's love—that must not be!

16. Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?It is a wonderful heart-searching text, is this! Let us put ourselves under its power. Whatever you obey, that is your master! And if you obey the suggestions of sin, you are the slave of sin! And it is only as you are obedient to God that you are truly the servants of God. So that, after all, our outward walk and conversation are the best test of our true condition. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord, nor can he have any reason to believe that he belongs to God.

17. But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Or into which you were delivered. God has taken you, melted you down, and poured you into a new mold! God be thanked for that—you are not what you used to be. Although you are not what you hope to be, yet you have reason to bless God you are not what once you were—you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which you were delivered.

18. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. The fetters are struck off, the lusts of the flesh do not hold us any longer. We are the Lord's free men and women—and out of gratitude for this glorious freedom, we become the willing servants of the righteous God!

19. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanliness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holi-ness.It needs no explanation. In the days of our sin, we sinned with all our power. There was not one part of us but what became the willing servant of sin and we went from iniquity into iniquity! But now the Cross has made us entirely new and we have been melted down, poured out into a fresh mold. Now, let us yield every member of our body, soul and spirit to righteousness, even unto holiness, till the whole of us, in the wholeness and consequently the holiness of our nature, shall be given unto God.

20. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. You did not care about righteousness then. When you served sin, you felt it was utterly indifferent to you what the claims of righteousness might be. Well, now that you have become the servant of righteousness, be free from sin! Let sin have no more dominion over you, now, than righteousness used to have when you were the slaves of sin! "What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?" What profit did they ever bring you? There was a temporary delight, like the blossom on the tree in spring, but what fruit did you find? Did it ever come to anything? Is there anything to look back upon with pleasure in a life of sin? Oh no, those things whereof we are now ashamed were fruitless to us, "for the end of those things is death."

22, 23. But now beingmade free from sin, and being servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is a Chapter which you have read hundreds of times, perhaps. I am sure it is one that needs no comment from me. I shall read it through with scarcely a sentence of comment.

Verses 1-9. Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm ofthe LORD revealed? For He shallgrow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorro ws and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out ofthe land ofthe living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He has done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth A strange reason for making His grave with the wicked, and yet remember, if it had not been that He had done no violence, He would not have been fit to be a Substitute for sinners! And so He was numbered with transgressors to redeem men.

10, 11, 12. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed. He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure ofthe Lord shall prosper in His hands. He shall see ofthe travail ofHis soul, and shall be satisfied; by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore willIdivide Him aportion with the great, andHe shall divide the spoil with the strong because He has poured out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. How clearly you have before you, here, our blessed Redeemer, and how strong are the expressions used by Isaiah to set forth His Substitution. If he intended to teach us the Doctrine that Christ suffered in the place of His people, he could not have used more expressive words. And if he did not intend to teach us that Truth of God, it is marvelous that he should have adopted a phraseology so likely to mislead. Yes, we believe and hold it fast, that Christ did take the sins of His people verily and truly upon Himself and did, in proper Person make a complete expiation for the guilt of all His chosen! And in this we find our hearts' best confidence—

Our soul can on this Doctrine live,

Can on this Doctrine die!"

Have you and I an interest in this Atonement, or must the complaint be made concerning us—"Who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" While I was reading just now, could you say by faith, "Yes, surely He has borne our griefs and carried oursorrows"? Have you an appropriating faith which takes the sufferings of Christ to be its own? Do you now humbly, but yet confidently, look to Jesus Christ, the great Burden-Bearer on yonder tree, and know that your guilt was there? If so, rejoice and walk worthily of your calling! If not, Soul, you do not know the first letters of the alphabet of religion! May the Lord teach you, for His name's sake.