The children that need to be dismissed yet can be dismissed to Children's Church at this time. Last week my mic didn't work and we had to bring this back, but we're going to try it this week and see how it works. So Johnny, if you're having trouble up there, the Lord be with you to try to get my attention. You'll have to throw something at me from up there or something. But somehow let me know if this mic ceases to function properly. I guess just to say a little bit about our time on the mountain. It was just a really, really, a blessed time on the mountain. Some of us were up there Thursday. Some of the guys stayed over Thursday night. Others of us came up on Friday. stayed over friday night and then a few more joined us on saturday morning but it's just a rich rich blessing to just get away from the hecticness of this life and to get up there in the mountain where i know we're not any closer to the lord but maybe it might feel just a little bit like we're closer to the lord and we had just some wonderful times around the campfire a lot of really good discussions We had some just wonderful times in the Word of God. So it was a rich, rich blessing. And I thank all of those men that took part in that. It's such a blessing to be with the men during this time. And a big, big thank you to Larry. Larry just puts an awful lot of effort into that. Appreciate it very much, Larry. Pray that you just keep on chugging along. Larry's not getting to be any younger, but you wouldn't know it by the way he puts on this camp every year. But thank you very much, Larry. We greatly, greatly appreciate you. Appreciate your ministry to the Lord. But I want to encourage you now to take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 6. And we're gonna look at the last verse there in Romans chapter six. And I just with great humility say that this really is the highlight of our time together. We thoroughly enjoy our fellowship that we have together as the body of Christ, as a church family. We enjoy worshiping. We enjoy all the aspects of our time together Sunday morning. But nothing is more precious Nothing is more needed than the time we spend in His Word. And we really want this to be the focal point of our time together. We really plan the service so this is the focal point. And we pray that this is the focal point of your time this morning with us together as we sit under the preaching of the Word of God. Romans chapter six, verse 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The title of the message this morning is just very simply, The Way of Death and the Way of Life. The Way of Death and the Way of Life. We have put before us this morning, The Way of Death and the Way of Life. Let's pray. Again, God, as we come into your presence, I am immediately struck with the need to express my indebtedness to you, my gratefulness to you, to thank you, Almighty God, for your special revelation. We understand, Father, that your general revelation leaves us condemned. You reveal yourself through creation and every single one of us reject that revelation and because of that rejection we are condemned. And you had every righteous right to leave us in that condemned state. But because you are a gracious God, because you are a merciful God, because you are a loving God, you chose to give us your special revelation. And this morning, Lord, we thank you for the special revelation that you have given us in this verse. For this verse tells us, Lord, that we are headed down the path that leads to death, but this verse tells us that we need not continue down that path that leads to death, that there is a diversion from that path. That diversion is the person of Jesus Christ, and we can head down the path of eternal life. Thank you, Almighty God. Thank you, Father, for revealing this truth to us in the pages of inspired scripture. And thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Spirit of God. For continuing to renew the spirit of our minds that we might understand the depths of the eternal truth in such verses. We seek grace. We seek grace this morning. that for those of us who are on the path of eternal life, who are on the way of eternal life, that we will better understand this verse in such a way that not only will our assurance and the everlasting life with you, Almighty God, might grow, but that we might also continue to live like the slaves we are. We are no longer slaves of sin. We are slaves to you, God. We are no longer slaves of sin. We are slaves of righteousness, God. And it is time for us as your children, as slaves of righteousness, as slaves to God to begin to live like the slaves we are. And I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has given us this verse to help us be the slaves that we are. We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit would be pleased now to take this verse and use it in our lives in such a way that it accomplishes the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the purpose that you, God the Father, have given the Holy Spirit in this verse. What a tremendous blessing it is to worship a triune Godhead, to worship the Trinity. To you and you alone be all the praise, glory, and honor forever and ever. Almighty God. Almighty triune God. Amen. First thing I would like to do is talk about just the glory of this verse. And I found a quote by Charles Spurgeon that helps us to grasp the glory of this verse, the wonder of this verse. Many of us realize that this verse is part of what is called the Roman's Road. There are people that will use what they call the Romans Road to share with people their need to trust in Jesus Christ and find forgiveness of their sins and to be made right with God, to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. to be taken off of that default destination to hell and to be put on the destination to heaven. And in this Romans road, they will use this verse for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And this is what Charles Spurgeon believed this verse was. He believed it was a golden statement of a divine statement of a truth worthy to be written across the sky. write it across the sky. so that all the world might see it, as they see the general revelation of God, as they see the mountains, as they see the thunder, as they see the oceans, as they see the meadows, as they look up to the stars in the sky at night, as they contemplate the infiniteness of the universe, and as they contemplate the depths of the ocean, as they contemplate all this, let them see that the wages of sin is death, The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. This is a fitting final verse to the end of the chapter that powerfully and clearly defines the believer's freedom from sin and freedom to righteousness. There is a transference of allegiance that has been made for the believer to where the believer is no longer in allegiance with sin, but in allegiance with God. This transference of allegiance means that the believer is no longer alive unto sin and dead unto God, but the believer is now dead unto sin and alive unto God. There has been a transference of allegiance made in our lives. We come into this world with an allegiance to sin. We come into this world alive unto sin and dead unto God, but God himself, God made a transference of this allegiance and God made us allegiance to him. And when we became allegiance to him, we became dead to sin and alive unto God. And that thought ought to create within you a euphoric sense of joy that you want to express. And for Paul, this is a summation of what has taken place between verses 19 and verses 20, but it's also a summation of the entire chapter. For Paul, the way that he expresses his euphoric joy over this transference of allegiance is to tell us the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. This verse ought to be a means by which we express the euphoric joy when we really begin to comprehend, I was a slave to sin, now I'm a slave to God. When we really begin to comprehend, I was alive to sin and dead to God, but now I am dead to sin and alive to God. What a joy, what a thrill, and how do I express it? Through ages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. This is a summary of Paul's thoughts. It's a summary of his argument as he argues against these absurd statements. Remember these two absurd statements that we saw in Romans 6? The first absurd statement was that if grace comes the more we know of sin, then we better sin more and more that we might find more and more grace. Paul says that is absurd. May it never be. And he summarizes the absurdity of such a thought that I need to sin so that I can receive more grace by telling us the wages of sin is death! The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. It's absurd to think that you should sin more. You need to sin more to have grace. Sin leads to death. That's absurd. And then he had that second absurd thought that he took on and that he declared to be absolutely absurd. The absurd thought that we should just continue to sin that we may experience more grace. That's absurd. Don't you realize? sin leads to death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus he's summarizing everything that he has been saying it's interesting that when you go to to verse 23 and you look for a verb you don't find one There's no verb in verse 23. The last imperative verb that we saw was way back in verse 19, where we are told, as we presented ourselves to sins, as slaves to sin, we are to present ourselves to righteousness as slaves to righteousness. And then he begins verse 20 with a for, telling us why we are to present ourselves as slaves to righteousness, why we are to live out righteousness. Then he begins verse 23 with another for. Again, he's telling us why. This verse that we love so much is really just a secondary thought. The main thought is you need to present yourself as a slave to righteousness. That is the main thought. Why? Why do you need to present yourself as slaves to righteousness? Because the wages of sin is death. You need to present yourself as slaves to righteousness because the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. You see, Paul is using this verse, he's using these two ways for a very specific reason. The reason is to motivate us. to present ourselves as slaves to righteousness. That's the reason for this verse. It is to motivate us. And throughout Scripture, throughout Scripture, we are given two ways. And these two ways, as they're presented throughout Scripture, are always meant to cause us to live by faith, are always meant to cause us to live for God, are always meant to cause us to flee sin and to live for God. Just listen to a list of these two ways that we find in the Bible. Right there in Genesis chapter four, you see the first mention of two different ways. You have the way of Cain and you have the way of Abel. And then there's the way of darkness and the way of life. You have the wide gate and the narrow gate. You have the broad way and the narrow way. You have the way of the law and you have the way of grace. We studied that in Romans chapter five. What does the way of the law lead to? It leads to sin. The way of the law results in sin, and sin results in death. What does the way of grace result in? It results in righteousness, and righteousness results in eternal life. There's the way of human achievement, and then there's the way of divine accomplishment. There's the way of those who are alive under sin and dead unto God, but then there's the way of those who are dead unto sin and alive unto God. There's the way of the slave of sin, and there's the way of the slave of righteousness. There's the way of sin and the way of the slave to God. There are all these ways, and we come to this last use of two different ways, the way of death and the way of life. And again, Paul's motivation for giving us an understanding of the way of death and the way of life is so that we might be motivated to live like we truly are. Who are we? What are we? We're not slaves of sin, we're slaves to God. And we need to live like slaves to God. We're not slaves of sin, we're slaves of righteousness. And we need to live like slaves of righteousness. And we realize that we need the grace of God to live like a slave to Him. We realize we need the grace of God to live like a slave of righteousness. Where do we find the grace of God? We find the grace of God in Scripture. Scripture is the power that God uses to enable us to live like a slave unto Him. And this morning, the Apostle Paul has given us this very clear statement. The wages of sin is death. The wages but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. This morning, we're going to look at the identity of these two different ways. We're going to look at the nature of these two different ways. And then we're going to look at the diverter on these two ways in order to help us to truly begin to live like the slaves that we are. So first of all, I want to consider the identity of the two different ways. What are the two ways? It's the way of death and the way of life. There's a narrow definition that we think of when we think about the way of death and the way of life. And that narrow destination has to do with the soul's destination beyond this temporal life. When we think of Paul's teaching on the way of death and the way of life, There is a tendency for us to look at it in a narrow view. He's talking about the believer's destination. He's talking about the unbeliever's destination beyond the grave. What happens to you when this temporal life is over? There are two ways you will take. You will either take the way of death or you will take the way of life. There are only two choices. There's no middle ground. One or the other. The way of death or the way of life. The way of death, we think of death for every unbelieving soul in the sense of what we read in Revelation chapter 20, verse 14. When we're thinking of the way of death in this narrow sense, it's what we see in Revelation 20, verse 14 and verse 15. Then death and Hades were flown thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire when we think of the way of death in the narrow sense, in the narrow definition, we're thinking of the second death. The second death is not a cessation of life. The second death is a continuation of life under judgment, under the unmitigated wrath of God that is the lake of fire. There is a sense that that is what we're talking about when we talk about the way of death. We're talking about the lake of fire. We're talking about the second death. And when we think of death in this limited, narrow sense that takes place after your temporal life is over here, we realize that there is a resurrection that is associated with it. And we read of this resurrection in John 5, verse 28, where John quotes Jesus Christ as saying, do not marvel at this for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, there's coming a time When all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, everyone who has died will hear His voice, and they all will come forth, those who did good deeds to the resurrection of life, good deeds, i.e., trust in Jesus Christ, they will come forth to a resurrection of life. Those who committed evil deeds, i.e., did not trust in Christ, to a resurrection of judgment. What does it mean to receive a resurrection of judgment? It means to receive a resurrected body that is specifically and specially designed to endure a conscious, non-ending torment in the lake of fire. How can the lake of fire be a place of eternal, conscious, non-ending torment if it is a fire? Doesn't fire burn up things? Not the resurrected body under judgment. The fire will not burn up that body. That body is specifically and specially designed To enable a person, to allow a person, to be sure a person deserves and gets what they deserve, an eternal, non-ending, everlasting, conscious torment in the lake of fire. That is a narrow definition of the way of death. Likewise, we have a narrow definition of the way of life. We think of eternal life as a counterpart to this view of death. We think of eternal life as that which the believer will experience after this temporal life is over. We saw the body that's associated with that also in John 5, verse 28, especially verse 29, and will come forth those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life. a resurrected body unto life, a resurrected body that is like that of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, he's quoted as saying in John 11, verse 25, as he's talking to Martha, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, live even if he dies, will live even if he dies. That is the eternal life. That is a broad view of the eternal life. It's the life that the believer will receive after they die. He goes on then to say, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? What does Jesus mean by that? Listen to those words again. And think about what he must mean. He says whoever believes in me Will live and never die Whoever lives in me will live and never die all kinds of believers in Jesus Christ die. What's he talking about? They'll never die and that they'll never experience the second death. They'll never experience the way of death that we just got done describing. There is that narrow way, that narrow definition of the way of death and the way of life that refers to the hell for those that do not trust in Jesus Christ and for the eternity and the everlasting presence of God for those who do believe in Jesus Christ. That is a narrow definition of these two different ways. But then there's a broader definition to these two different ways. And if we are going to receive all the spiritual juices out of this word. Men, if we are going to allow the word of God to abide in us, and if we are gonna abide in the word of God, that we might abide in the branch like we talked about yesterday morning on the mountain. If that's gonna take place, we need to also understand not just the narrow definition of the way of death and the way of life, but we need to understand the broad definition of the way of death and the way of life. I want to first of all look at the broader definition of eternal life. John 17, verse 3, we've looked at this many times. John 17, verse 3, this is eternal life. Jesus is going to describe for you. He's going to define for you a broader understanding of eternal life that is more than just an everlasting life with God. And I shouldn't use the word just. It's more than the everlasting life with God in heaven. There's more. to eternal life than that. As great and as fantastic as that is, as that will be for all of us who pass out of this world into the next world, there is something of eternal life for us on the here and now. Jesus says this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. There is an aspect of the eternal life. Johnny, do I need to bring that other mic over? I really don't want sound to distract you. I really don't want that. Friends, you need to understand the word eternal has a quantitative aspect to it. Everlasting, never ending. My mom is there right now, right now. You know, when you lose, you don't lose someone, but when you let someone go, and you don't let them go, I don't even know how to describe it, but when you know someone's in heaven, you think more about it. Mom is there, Linda, Terry is there right now. He's experiencing that quantitative aspect of eternal life. And certainly an understanding of the quantitative aspect of eternal life should help us to live like slaves of righteousness and slaves to God. But God in His mercy, and you would think that would be enough, but God gives us more than that. This word eternal has a qualitative essence to it. And the quality of eternal life is something that is for now, for every day, for the here and now. It is to know God, to know Him, and to know the Son whom He sent. This is a broader understanding of the concept of eternal life. But the free gift of God is eternal life. The free gift of God is your ability to know Him today. and to constantly grow in the knowledge of who God is and to constantly grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Those are things that we must grasp. Those are things that we must understand if we are truly going to have the Holy Spirit's help, if we are truly going to be attached to that vine and get the spiritual juices that the vine wants us to have that we might produce fruit. We must have more and more knowledge of who God is and more and more knowledge of his son. We must understand the quality aspect of eternal life. And there is a correspondence definition to death that goes along with that quality aspect of eternal life of knowing who God is. And you begin to understand that corresponding aspect of sin, that leads to death, the way of death when we look at Isaiah chapter 59 verse 1, Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save, nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. Why is that? That my sins separate me from God because there is a death that has already taken place. There's a death that takes place the moment you are in sin. And we go back to Romans chapter five, and those of us that are here, when we studied Romans chapter five, we realized that we are born in sin because we are born in Adam. We are born with a spiritual death. We are born with an inability to know God. We are born with a sin that separates us from God. The wages of sin is a separation from God that is happening right here and right now. And Adam and Eve, they experienced that separation the moment they disobeyed God, the moment they sinned. And we read it here in Genesis 3, verse 8, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and the wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Why did they hide themselves? Because they sensed the spiritual death that had taken place within them because they had sinned. Prior to that sin, they had a perfect relationship with God. Prior to their sin, they were able to talk with God, walk with God, commune with God. There was no problem between Adam and Eve and God prior to their sin. But the moment they sinned, their sin separated them from God and they knew it. They felt it. They knew they had to hide from this God that created them. They knew they had to hide from this God who had given them the Garden of Eden. They knew they had to hide from this God that had given them each other. They knew they had to hide from this God who had done nothing ever but good for them. They had to hide from him. Why? Because spiritual death immediately took place in them as soon as they ate from that forbidden fruit. The wages of sin is death, is death. When we talk about the way of death, We are definitely talking about an eternal separation from God and the everlasting conscious torment of the lake of fire. And when we talk about the way of life, we are definitely talking about the absolute assurance that if we were to die in the very next moment, we would immediately enter into the presence of Jesus Christ and forever and ever enjoy unmitigated communion with him and his father, who's also our heavenly father. But when we talk about the way of death and the way of life, We are also talking about the everyday here and now relationship with God. We are talking about how the way of death separates the sinner from God in the here and now to such an extent that the sinner has no relationship with God and no access to God and no true knowledge of God. We are talking about the way of life that says one can every day in the here and now grow in the knowledge of God and experience more and more each day of their lives, a deeper and deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. Those who are slaves to sin, every day, every moment they sin, they continue to build a wall between them and God. It's an ongoing thing. The moment they sin, they deserve that narrow sense of death, the everlasting punishment in the lake of fire. You only need to sin once to deserve that, but they keep adding onto their sins day after day after day after day. That's what the slave of sin does. And they mount up more and more wrath against themselves, and they build the gap between them and God longer and bigger and broader and thicker and higher. The free gift of God is eternal life. The moment they receive that free gift of God, they have the promise of everlasting life with God. And the moment They receive that free gift of God, that wall is torn down and they can begin to grow in their knowledge of God. And my friends, if we're going to be true slaves of God, if we're going to be true slaves of righteousness, we need to contemplate, we need to meditate on both aspects, the narrow and the broader view of the way of death and the way of life. The second thing I want us to look at this morning is the nature of these two ways. That's the identity of these two ways. Let's look at the nature of these two ways. The way of death is the way of justice. The way of life is the way of grace. The way of death is the way of justice. For the wages of sin is death. How do we look at wages? How do we look at our daily wages? If we go to work and we say we're gonna go to work for someone who says he will pay us $25 an hour and we work eight hours, we expect to receive $200. Eight times 25 is $200. If I'm working at $25 an hour and I work 8 hours, I deserve $200. That is justice. Anything less than $200 is not justice. When I sin, justice says I deserve death. The nature of the way of death is justice. That's justice. When we sin, we get exactly what we have coming to us, and that is death. You want justice in God's eyes in this world? It's death. It's eternal death in the lake of fire, and it's spiritual death today. You want God to be just with you? Want God to be fair with you? That's what we have coming. That's what Paul is telling us. That's what our lives were like when we were slaves of sin. We were getting exactly what we deserved, death. Now you contrast that with the nature of the way of life. The way of life is the way of grace. It is the way of grace. I don't want justice. I want grace. I don't want what I deserve from God. I want His grace. I don't want what this nation deserves from God in the election. I don't want that. I want Him to be gracious to this nation, to be merciful to this nation. I don't want justice. I'd like to have grace, mercy, and certainly when it comes and comparing the way of death and the way of life, I don't want the justice that comes with the way of death, I want the grace that comes with the way of life. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. What is the gift of God? The gift of God is the very idea of forgiveness by faith. The gift of God is God's plan of redemption. That is the gift of God. In order to receive the gift of God, I need grace. Does that grace come from me at all? Is there anything that I have done to deserve that grace? Is that grace because I decided today I'm going to believe? And because today I decided I'm going to believe, God responds in grace? It's impossible. It's an oxymoron. It is a total misunderstanding of the word grace. Grace means you have nothing coming to you. Grace means you did nothing at all to receive the way of life. You have done nothing. God has done everything. It is all of God. Why would God choose to give someone who deserves sin to give them life? Why would he choose to do that? He's a just God. What's up with you, God? You're just God. Why don't you give us all what we deserve? Because, praise God, because He let sin in the world, we begin to find out that He's not just a just God, He's a merciful God. You would never know the mercy of God if it wasn't for the sin in the world that caused you to deserve death. You would never know that. That might give you a different perspective on why God let sin into this world. Again, what's happening to me? I'm expressing here eternal life. I'm expressing here the quality of eternal life. I'm expressing here how God has enabled me to learn more and more about him. How I'm even able to come and see, well, I can see some good now as to why sin is in the world. I can see why God allowed sin in the world, so that he could demonstrate his justice and he could demonstrate his mercy. I know God better because of sin in the world than I ever would have if sin wasn't in the world. Just this understanding of this is eternal life. understanding grace, the magnitude of grace, studying that word, thinking upon that word, meditating upon that word, abiding in the word of Jesus Christ, that we might abide in the branch, man, that we might get all the spiritual juices that Jesus Christ wants us to have, that we might produce the fruit and that God might be glorified. Everything that we talked about yesterday morning is right here. The way of life is the way of grace. If it wasn't for the grace of God, we would have no life. The way of life is the way of grace. Another contrast that I want us to consider is that the way of death is a problem creator. The way of death is a problem creator. And we've somewhat already talked about this. And when I think about sin and I think about the problem of sin, I always express it in these two terms. There's a judicial problem and the relational problem. I don't know for sure, I'm 99% sure, but I think I got those two ideas from Jesse Johnson. Not sure, but I think it came from Jesse Johnson. It certainly wasn't mine. It's something I heard from someone else. And as soon as I heard it, I thought that is a very, very good, biblical, sound, theological way to describe the problem with sin. We all have a sin problem. Well, identify that sin problem for me, will you, Dale? All right, I'll identify that sin problem for you. Sin creates a judicial problem. Sin creates a judicial problem. Just go back to Romans 3, verse 23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then jump now forward to Romans chapter six, verse 23, or Romans chapter six, verse 23, the wages of sin is death. Every single person sins. And the wages of that sin is death. That's a judicial problem. That's justice. That's a judicial problem. That's a problem with sin. It's a judicial problem. The judge says you must die. And then there's also the relational problem. We've already looked at that when we looked at Isaiah 59, verse one and two, where sin separates us from God. That's a relational problem. Sin creates those two problems in your life. The way of death is because that sin creates two problems in your life, a judicial problem and a relational problem. The way of death is a problem creator. But the way of life is a problem solver. The way of life is a problem solver. By God's grace, He solves both of those problems. Daniel chapter nine, verse nine, to the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness for we have rebelled against Him. We need to have our sins forgiven so that we will not have to experience the judicial problem of sin, so that we will not have to experience the judgment upon our sins, we need to be forgiven. And Daniel tells us to the Lord, our God belongs compassion and forgiveness. Psalm 86 verse five, for you Lord are good and ready to forgive. The Lord God is good and he's ready to give an abundant loving kindness to all who call upon him. Isaiah chapter 55 verse six, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. He will abundantly forgive. Our God is a forgiving God. The way of life is a problem solver. The way of death is a problem creator. It creates a judicial problem, but along comes God's grace and the way of life, and it solves the problem, solves that judicial problem. Look with me in Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one, verse seven. In him, that is Jesus Christ, In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. The way of life is a problem solver. It solves the judicial problem that comes along with sin. In Christ Jesus, there is the redemption. the forgiveness of sins that is lavished on us, is lavished on us according to God's great grace. God also solves the relational problem. The way of life is also the problem solver to the relational problem. Look with me in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I want to begin in verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. For those of us who have faith in Christ, for those of us who have been baptized into Christ, we become new creatures. Verse 18, now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. What does it mean to be reconciled? It means to remove the enmity. It means to bring two sides together. It means to heal, to solve the relational problem. We need to understand, and this is something that I didn't understand for many, many years as a Christian. I didn't understand that I needed more than to just be forgiven of my sins. Again, God allowed me to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Him, and He allowed me to begin to understand I need more than just to be forgiven. I'm forgiven of my sins, but I'm still a sinner. How can I have access to God? I'm still a sinner. Okay, He's forgiven me. Okay, He's not gonna condemn me to an eternity. in the lake of fire, but how am I going to have access with Him? Okay, I can see how I might have access with Him in heaven because He will completely change me and I'll no longer be a sinner, but how can I have access with Him today? How can I, a sinner, a forgiven sinner, have access to God today? I'm a sinner. My sin is still separating me from Him. We are at enmity. We have a broken relationship. We need to be reconciled. I can't do nothing to reconcile myself with God. I'm forgiven, but I have no relationship with Him. My sins still separate me from Him. I need to be reconciled and God reconciled me to Him through Jesus Christ. God is the great reconciler. The way of life is a problem solver and it solves the relational problem by allowing Jesus Christ to reconcile us. God reconciled me. I didn't deserve to be reconciled with Him. I didn't deserve to have my sins forgiven. He's gone and forgiven my sins. He can just continue to let me live on this life till I die and go and be in heaven with Him and live my life separated from Him. No, He loves me way, way too much for that. He didn't save me just so that I could escape the lake, the fire, and be with Him in heaven. He saved me that I might have a relationship with Him today. And that's why I want to live like a slave to God. That's why I want to live like a slave of righteousness. and it's possible because of this reconciliation that we're reading about right here in this verse we go on now in verse 19 namely that Christ that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors of Christ as though God were making an appeal through us we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him We beg you, as Christians, we beg the unbeliever, be reconciled to God. Do you not know that God made Jesus Christ sin so that we might become the righteousness of Christ in Him? That when God put Christ on the cross, He made Him sin. That doesn't mean He became sin. That doesn't mean He became a sinner. It means He treated Him like a sinner. Although Jesus Christ is perfectly righteous, free of any sin, He's treated like a sinner, and the wrath that my sins deserved is poured out upon Him. How does God treat sinners? He pours His wrath out upon Him. So He poured His wrath out upon His Son. He made His Son be sin, and He poured His wrath out upon His Son, and because His Son satisfied the wrath of God against me, that's why I'm forgiven. Okay, I'm forgiven, I keep telling you that. I'm forgiven, but I want a relationship with Him. I'm a forgiven sinner, I got no relationship with Him. Just as God took my sin and put it upon Christ and treated Christ, though he was sinless, treated him like a sinner, the moment I put my faith in the righteousness of Christ and not in my own righteousness, God takes that righteousness of Christ and he puts it upon me. And just as he put my sin on his son and treated his son like a sinner, though he was not a sinner, so he puts his son's righteousness upon me and he treats me as a righteous one even though I am a sinner. not a righteous one." That is reconciliation. That is the way of life. The way of life is a problem solver. Praise God, the problem of sin has been solved. You have forgiveness. You have reconciliation. Not only are your sins forgiven, you are made like Christ. You are justified. And throughout our study of Romans from chapter three, verse 20 up to now, we keep talking about being justified by faith and the word justified. In this context scenes, God looks at you and he says, guilty sinner, not guilty. not guilty you are declared to be not guilty because we are justified by faith how can that be because when we put faith in the righteousness of christ alone the way of life solves the relational problem and god sees me as he sees his own son he took the righteous deeds that jesus christ committed as a man from the time that he was born to the time that he was crucified. All those righteous deeds, that's why he lived a righteous life. It wasn't just that he might be the perfect sacrifice. It's that he might have a perfect human righteousness to be put upon me. He lived that righteous, perfect life so that when I trust in his righteousness, all those righteous deeds are put on me. And when God looks at me, he sees the actions of his son, and he doesn't see me, and I'm reconciled with him. Relational problem done. The way of life is a problem solver. How do we ever get diverted, diverted from the way of death to the way of life? But the free gift of God is eternal life in whom? Jesus Christ, our Lord. Christ Jesus, our Lord. He's the diverter. He's what diverts you from the way of death to the way of life. Acts chapter 10, verse 38 to 43. Turn there with me. Acts chapter 10, verse 38 to 43. Acts 10, verse 38. You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. We are witnesses of all these things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put him to death by hanging him on a cross. God raised him up on the third day and granted that he become visible not to all the people, but to the witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. And he, that is the crucified, buried, and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, he ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly testify that this is the one who is appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Of him, all the prophets bear witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. How are we transferred from the problem of sin that is dealt with with the way of death The judicial problem, it's through the diverter, Jesus Christ. Believe in Jesus Christ. Believe in his death on the cross, his burial, and his resurrection. Believe in that as the only payment for your sins. Nothing else you add to it. That and that alone. That is the only reason my sins are forgiven. It's because of Jesus Christ's death on the cross. You believe in that and you are forgiven. And half of the problem of sin that comes with the way of death is already dealt with. You're almost completely diverted now from the way of death to the way of life. Just a little bit more needs to be done. We need to still see that relational problem being taken care of so that we can be completely and fully diverted from the way of death to the way of life. And here's where we want to consider Romans 3, verse 21. Romans 3, verse 21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. Earlier in chapter 3, it became absolutely obvious that no law could ever provide for us the righteousness of God that we need to be made right with Him. The law was never written. Even God cannot come up with a law that will enable us to gain the righteousness of God that we need to be right with Him. Even God Himself can't come up with a law. Do not think that you can dream up some effort, some list of do's and don'ts that if you follow it, you can be right with God. God Himself could not do that. It cannot be done. Impossible to be done. But apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God. And here we are talking about the righteousness of God that we need to be made right with Him. The righteousness of God that we need to deal with that relational problem. The righteousness of God that we need does not come from the law. It comes through faith in Christ Jesus for all of those who believe, for there is no distinction. Doesn't matter who you are. Ethnicity doesn't matter. Your gender doesn't matter. Nothing matters. If you are a human being, you are a sinner, and your sin has separated you from God, and your sin has created a judicial, a relational problem between you and God, and the solution is in Jesus Christ. You are on the way of death because your sins created a judicial problem. The diverter from that problem is Jesus Christ. You are on the way of death because your sins have created a relational problem. The diverter from that relational problem is Jesus Christ because of our faith in Jesus Christ. And yet the way of life is the free gift of God. Again, we come back to our faith in Jesus Christ. We take no credit for it. It's all the free gift of God. Let it settle on your hearts, let it meditate on the reality that you would never be diverted from the way of death to the way of life if it wasn't for God, if it wasn't for the kind intention of God. if it wasn't for God's desire to see Himself glorified through us being slaves to Him and slaves of righteousness, rather than to see Himself glorified as us being slaves of sin. Either way, we glorify Him. Either way. Why does it matter so much to God? Because it's who God is. It's not because of who we are. Contemplate, meditate on the fullness what it means to know that the way you were on was the way of death. Not just eternal death in the lake of fire, but separation from God, never knowing God. But by the grace of God, He allowed you to have faith in Jesus Christ, and He diverted you from that way. You're diverted now. You are now on the way of life. The way of life, for not only do you have the hope and the promise and the assurance of an everlasting life with no pain, no suffering, and the presence of God, and the presence of God the Father, and God the Son, and all the redeemed, and all that comes with heaven. Not only do you have that hope, but you have the here and now advantage of knowing. You can continue to grow in the knowledge and the grace of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can continue to grow in the knowledge of God. And I pray that the Holy Spirit will take these truths and help us, help us to truly live like we are. We are slaves to God. We are slaves to righteousness. Let us meditate on this glorious verse and live like slaves to God and slaves of righteousness. Let's pray. I praise you, almighty God. There is. There is no one worthy of our praise. You and you alone are worthy of our praise to you and you alone belong all glory. All power. All honor. Father, we praise you. I praise you, Father, that even now, I know you hear my voice. You hear my prayer. Even now, because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I've entered into the presence of your holiness, and you hear. What a blessing to know that you're here. Oh, Father, may we desire more to be, live like, to live like slaves to you. We pray in your most precious Son's name.