The Four Cornerstones of Romans (Part 5: Gaining Knowledge)

Start this post series from the beginning, here.

The Four Cornerstones of Romans (Part 5: Gaining Knowledge)

Keep in mind that this post is a small part of a greater study. To understand this part in its proper context, one must evaluate it based on the full context of the whole study.

We are advancing through the understanding of the second cornerstone of the Romans foundation. This cornerstone deals with God’s grace, and this post follows the understanding that grace starts with justification. What is justification? It is the absolute salvation of a person by the grace of God through their faith in Jesus Christ. The following verse puts justification in a perfect summary,

Rom 4:5  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

So, justification, simply put, is that God has saved you from the penalty of sin. The topic in this post advances to the next step in grace, sanctification, which simply put, is that God is saving you daily from the power of sin. How does this happen? Let me explain.

Grace is a big topic. There are a few levels of understanding necessary to grasp the extent of God’s free gift of grace. At salvation, grace brings us to justification, but grace must continue into transformation, sanctification, and service. This makes grace a journey, or an ongoing process that should increase and flourish in our lives. Having dealt with justification let us now focus on this transformation that grace should bring into our lives.

How does grace transform us?

Paul has led us through the positional aspect of justification in Romans chapter 5. Justification is a verdict of righteousness and innocence declared upon you by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. It is God’s work and something that happens outside of our influence and control. We are literally transferred from the administration of Adam into the administration of Christ. We are now, positionally, under the influence of righteousness and life. In this position, Adam’s administration has no dominion over us. Our life is utterly saved.

However, what happens to the flesh? Are we not still partakers in this sinful and corrupt world? Yes. In other words, we are absolutely justified, but absolutely nothing has changed in our flesh. What are we to do? How must grace continue in this state?

If we read Romans chapter 6, we pick up an some interesting phrases that Paul writes. Let’s review a few of these,

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 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.

Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is made very clear by these verses that we have died. We are declared dead. We have been crucified with Christ. We have been spiritually baptized into His death. We are buried with Him. We are to reckon ourselves dead. What is all this death about? If you look at your body and shake it about, it’s pretty clear that we are not dead, but still very much alive? So, what then is Paul talking about? What does this mean?

Let’s take a quick detour to learn something about death in the Bible. The Bible refers to a few different types of death. The primary ones are as follows,

1. there's physical death, when the body dies and is buried in the ground
2. there's spiritual death, in which a man is alienated from the life of God before he gets saved
3. there is the second death, which occurs at the final (Great White Throne judgement) where a guilty man is sentenced eternally to the lake of fire
4. there is your union to the death of Christ, which happens the moment you believe the gospel (ie: baptized into his death) and are spiritually saved
5. there is death concerning something that doesn't operate or function the way it's created to do. An example of this death is when Paul uses it in Romans chapter 4, talking about Abraham and Sarah; he said Abraham, not lacking faith, considered not his own body nor the deadness of Sarah's womb. So, death in this context is that Abraham’s body was now at a point where it no longer operated, or functioned as it was created to do. Sarah's womb was dead in the fact that it couldn't bear children which it was created to do.

In Romans chapters 5 to 7, the predominant type of death that is mentioned is that of point number 5. When Paul says, dead to sin, buried with him by baptism into death, crucified with him, and he that is dead is freed from sin, all these references of death refer to our new position in Christ and our regenerated spirit does not operate or function in sin. It is not created to function that way. Now, this is true spiritually, BUT, we need to get our mind in conformity to this spiritual reality.

We have learned that we are dead to sin positionally in Christ. The object now is to bring our physical state of mind and experience into the same conformity of our spiritual position. Without renewing our mind to conform to our positional standing, we are never going to overcome sin in our daily ‘earthly’ walk. We need to come to the realization that we have died to sin positionally, by the cross. If we don’t understand this, we’ll continually put ourselves back under law, and condemnation, by trying to do something about it in our own strength. We have just seen that Paul dedicates a whole chapter on this very mindset. Surely this means that it is of critical importance to know about, —to be renewed about it in our mind?

Now, before we can continue in this topic, let me deal with an enormous elephant in the room. When we come to this point in grace, that we are justified 100%, but we are still in the flesh, how can this be? How can God declare us righteous and holy if it's still possible for a Christian to sin. Isn’t this foolish and controversial? The answer is yes in all regards! We are still in the flesh. We are still sinners in our very core and nature. It sounds foolish and controversial. But, we are pronounced dead to sin because it is something that happened in the spirit. It is positional. It is what God has declared over us. We are judged by Christ’s righteousness imputed to us, not by our own performance and fleshly condition. Our death is death to sin in the eyes of God. Although it has done nothing to change this flesh body, we are adjudged to be righteous and holy to God by His choosing, simply because we believe in His Son.

Paul deals with this proverbial elephant by instructing us to renew our thinking. It is the next step in grace. Where Romans chapter 5 emphatically states our positional death to sin, Romans chapter 6 emphatically tells us to start learning and knowing some things about this truth and to start doing something about it. We cannot skip this step. It is vital that we start to think differently, taking our positional standing and applying it to our thoughts and responses. Paul says we are to reckon (consider, understand) ourselves as dead (non-functional) to carnal things.

Have a look again at the following from chapter 6. We are instructed to know things,

Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 

Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 

Rom 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 

Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death (unfruitful), or of obedience unto righteousness?

Rom 7:1  Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 

Can you see that this next step of grace is to get our noses into the Bible and to study, and learn, and renew our thinking. We need to be reprogrammed so that we can learn to know God’s way of thinking. We need to learn His will. We need to respond to how He would respond in any given circumstance. We need to be able to execute good judgement and act upon it in the same way as God would, by being of the same mind as God, 1 Cor.2:16.

When we can start thinking this way, this is the beginning of mortifying the deeds of the flesh. This is where grace is not just a spiritual status of justification, but when it becomes evident in our thinking, in our behaviours, and in our living. This is when Christ starts to get formed in us and where sin starts to diminish, not by us setting laws for ourselves, not by trying to defeat sin by our own strength, but simply because we are walking in the spirit and bringing glory to Christ.

Rom_8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. … 9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

This post is becoming too long now, so I will continue this topic in the next part.