Dead But Alive: Click | View Series

Romans 6:11-12—"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions."

How intimately the believer's duties are interwoven with his privileges! Because he is alive to God, he is to renounce sin, since that corrupt thing belongs to his estate of death.

Sin Wants To Reign Over You

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions."

1. Sin has great power. It is in you and will strive to reign.
• Sin remains as an outlaw, hiding away in your nature.
• Sin remains as a plotter, planning your overthrow.
• Sin remains as an enemy, warring against the law of your mind.
• Sin remains as a tyrant, worrying and oppressing the true life.
2. Sin's field of battle is the body.
• Its wants—hunger, thirst, cold, etc.—may become occasions of sin, by leading to murmuring, envy, covetousness, robbery.
• Its appetites may crave excessive indulgence and, unless continually curbed, will easily lead to evil.
• Its pains and infirmities, through engendering impatience and other faults, may produce sin.
• Its pleasures, also, can readily become incitements to sin.
• Its influence upon the mind and spirit may drag our noble nature down to the groveling materialism of earth.
3. The body is mortal, and we shall be completely delivered from sin when set free from our present material frame, if indeed grace reigns within. Till then we shall find sin lurking in one member or another of "this vile body."
4. Meanwhile we must not let it reign.
• If it reigned over us, it would be our god. It would prove us to be under death and not alive to God.
• It would cause us unbounded pain and injury if it ruled only for a moment.

Sin is within us, aiming at dominion. This knowledge, together with the fact that we are nevertheless alive to God, should:

• Help our peace, for we perceive that men may be truly the Lord's, even though sin struggles within them.
• Aid our caution, for our divine life is well worth preserving and needs to be guarded with constant care.
• Draw us to use the means of grace, since in these the Lord meets with us and refreshes our new life.

Let us come to the Table of Communion, and to all other ordinances, as alive to God. In that manner, let us feed on Christ.

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

Gospel-Centered Discipleship

In this book, Jonathan Dodson calls us to fight the good fight of faith in the strength of the gospel. Read a free chapter and get the book here.

Know Your Heretics series: Click | View Series

The Rise of the Judaizers

A problem arose in the early church when the apostles took the gospel of Jesus to Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles. When Gentiles responded to the gospel, a conflict arose that threatened to divide the church.

A group called the Judaizers opposed Paul and Barnabas at the Council of Jerusalem (AD 50) in Acts 15. They were uncertain that the benefits of the covenant people of God were to be extended to the Gentiles, thus doubting their conversion by the gospel.

Paul's response assures them that the Gentiles had indeed been made partakers in the blessings of the covenant, namely, the Holy Spirit: "And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8-9).

The Judaizers' View of Salvation

The Judaizers were teaching that God still required everyone to observe certain rituals and statutes in order to be accepted by him as Father.

Paul, in recounting his confrontation of Peter before the Judaizers, gives us an insight into the teaching of this group (Gal. 2:14). Apparently, the Judaizers were attempting to force Gentile Christians to live under the regulations of the Mosaic Law.

They are also called the "circumcision party" (Gal. 2:12), because one of the specific elements of the Law that the Judaizers were forcing the Gentile Christians to live by was the practice of circumcision.

Peter had withdrawn himself from eating with Gentile Christians, fearing the opposition that would come from the Judaizers. Eating with Gentiles would have rendered Peter ceremonially unclean under the Old Covenant, by breaking an important element of the Mosaic Law. However, Paul said Peter's conduct was "not in step with the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:14).

The Orthodox Response

Paul's response is given in Galatians 2:16: "We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified."

Paul's other response is found in Galatians 5:12: "I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!" He suggests self-castration for those who require circumcision for others. Paul made his point clearly.

According to Paul and the response drafted at the Council of Jerusalem, the Gentiles were not obligated to follow the restrictions of the Law. They were free in Christ, who had fulfilled the demands of the Law. Paul exhorted the Gentiles to abstain from practices associated with pagan idol worship, not to earn their salvation, but as a response to the life-changing message of the gospel and in gratitude for God's gift of salvation.

Why Does All This Matter?

While the heresy of the Judaizers was put to rest by the Apostle Paul, the idea behind their erroneous belief still permeates the church today. The issues are no longer circumcision or ceremonial uncleanness, but the question of how the law relates to salvation—or how works relate to righteousness—is still something that many Christians remain confused about today.

Paul's exhortation to the Judaizers remains as important as ever. It is not by works that we are saved, but solely by the grace of Christ. In fact, to add anything to the work of Christ for salvation actually negates God's grace. Paul says, "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose" (Gal. 2:21).

Preaching & the Emerging Church

This ebook offers a thorough critique and evaluation of the preaching of four leaders of the emerging church movement. Get it here.

Click through to the Resurgence if you can't see the video.

I recently sat down with Matt Chandler, Pastor of The Village Church (A29) at the recent Acts 29 Retreat in Vail, Colorado. Matt shares some insights from what he has learned through his experience with cancer and how to lead yourself and your church through suffering.

For more from Dustin Neeley, check out his blog Church Planting for the Rest of Us.

Acts 29 Network

A network of churches planting churches for the glory of Jesus. Get more info.

Word and Spirit series: Click | View Series

The Ability to Obey

Obedience is the continuing testimony of the power of God. The illumination that produces regeneration and sanctification also produces obedience. Erickson notes that new birth produces “a new sensitivity to spiritual things, a new direction of life, and an increasing ability to obey God” (Christian Theology).

Luther understood that saving faith comes by the Holy Spirit working through the preached Word and becomes efficacious after the Holy Spirit works on the heart of the hearer. “Where the Word is, the Spirit inevitably follows” (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology). The Holy Spirit reveals with the Word and not apart from it and the subsequent result is empowered obedience. Hoekema observes the Holy Spirit’s work that “enables the hearer of the gospel call to respond to his summons with repentance faith, and obedience” (Saved by Grace).

An Expression of Redemption

The Holy Spirit illumines the understanding of Scripture. The obedience that follows is both in careful study of the Word, speech, and action. The obedience to Scripture, therefore, is an expression of redemption. Redemption is accomplished by Christ and applied to the believer by the Holy Spirit as testified in Scripture. John Frame has reportedly stated, “Scripture is only completely understood when obeyed.”

Illumination and empowered obedience are inseparable and are joined in the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration. New life and forgiveness are followed by fruit that gives evidence of the Word as God’s people are strengthened to obey.

Scripture Wallpapers

Download free Scripture wallpapers for your desktop and iPhone. Get them here.

Dead But Alive: Click | View Series

Romans 6:11-12—"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions."

How intimately the believer's duties are interwoven with his privileges! Because he is alive to God, he is to renounce sin, since that corrupt thing belongs to his estate of death.

How intimately both his duties and his privileges are bound up with Christ Jesus his Lord!

How thoughtful ought we to be upon these matters; reckoning what is right and fit; and carrying out that reckoning to its practical issues.

What Does It Mean To Be Dead to Sin?

"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

1. We are dead with Christ to sin by having borne the punishment in him. In Christ we have endured the death penalty, and are regarded as dead by the law (verses 6 and 7).
2. We are risen with him into a justified condition, and have reached a new life (verse 8).
3. We can no more come under sin again than he can (verse 9).
4. We are therefore forever dead to its guilt and reigning power: "Sin will have no dominion over you" (verses 12-14).

This reckoning is based on truth, or we should not be exhorted to it.

To reckon yourself to be dead to sin, so that you boast that you do not sin at all, would be a reckoning based on falsehood, and would be exceedingly mischievous. "For there is no one who does not sin" (1 Kings 8:46; 1 John 1:8). None are so provoking to God, as sinners who boast their own fancied perfection.

The reckoning that we do not sin, must either go upon the Antinomian theory, that sin in the believer is no sin, which is a shocking notion, or else our conscience must tell us that we do sin in many ways; in omission or commission, in transgression or shortcoming, in temper or in spirit (James 3:2, Eccles. 7:20, Rom. 3:23).

To reckon yourself dead to sin in the spiritual sense is full of benefit both to heart and life. Be a ready reckoner in this fashion.

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

Free Posters

Download free posters explaining key theological ideas like Expiation, the Incarnation, and the sinlessness of Jesus. Get the posters here.