BACKGROUND:Paul begins this section in almost the same way as the last one. He wants to make sure there is no misunderstanding of the nature of grace. It is not the chance to do anything we want. Rather, it is the opportunity to live the way God wants us to live. Ultimately, there are only two masters: sin and the Lord Jesus Christ. The choice is clear and required. The only rightful master is our Creator!
Paul’s wording in verse 14—that seems to set the law against grace—probably surprised his readers. It would look as though Paul was replacing the law with grace, thus giving people no law and, therefore, freedom to sin. This almost repeats the question in verse 1, and Paul’s response is the same: Of course not! As the argument develops, however, there is clearly a different matter at stake.
In verse 1, Paul was challenging the crude assumption that sinning will give God the opportunity to exercise more grace. Here, Paul is guarding against the assumption that because sin is no longer our master, we can indulge in sin without fear of being controlled by it. Being under grace and under the mastery of Christ allows us the freedom not to sin. Any attitude that welcomes, rationalizes, or excuses sin is not grace, but slavery to sin itself.
All human beings are enslaved. While this idea clashes with our goal of independence, the fact is that we were created for interdependence. You are a slave to whomever or whatever you commit yourself to obey. This means that friendships, goals, employment, citizenship, membership, education, career, debt, and marriage all include aspects of slavery. We should choose our slavery wisely. When sin is our master, we have no power except to do what it bids us, with the end being death. But when we choose to obey God, the one who created us, we become slaves to obedience and will receive God’s approval.
There are only two choices and no middle ground. This is as Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). To refuse to allow God to be master over your life is to choose slavery to sin. While service to sin leaves us powerless and leads to death, service to God leads to righteousness and eternal life.
Before accepting the salvation offered through Christ, all believers were slaves of sin. But now they have a new master because they have obeyed the new teaching from God, referring to the Good News of salvation ( Corinthians 11:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6). This message abolished the slavery to sin that they had lived under, and it outlined a new way of living—under grace.
It is impossible to be neutral. Every person has a master—either righteousness or sin. A Christian is still able to sin, but he or she is no longer a slave to sin. This person belongs to God. Believers are set free from the control of their evil desires and their selfish habits, free to become enslaved to righteous living. We serve the righteous God who is in the process of transforming us to become more like him so that we can one day share in glorious resurrection to eternal life. That’s not a bad master to have!
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
The Bible says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." If you see yourself as a loser you're going to tend to be a loser in life. If you see yourself as a victim, you're going to tend to put yourself in situations where you're victimized. If you see yourself as a failure, you're going to tend to reinforce what you feel about yourself and you're going to fail. It's very simple. The Bible says our beliefs determine our behaviors. The way we think determines the way that we act.
Here is why this is so key: Some of your beliefs are false, wrong, erroneous, mistaken. We pick up all kinds of beliefs growing up. For instance, maybe some adult said it to you when you were young, “you’re worthless”. Maybe you believed that and you accepted it as gospel fact. My guess is that there are many false beliefs you hold about yourself. That’s why today, I want us to look at what God says about you.
I want us to look at how God changes our mind and helps us not only see Him in a new light but see ourselves in a new light. I want us to look at God's view of you. Today I want us to look at four things that God says about you that are true because of His grace.
#1. I AM ACCEPTABLE.
That's pretty good to start off with because most of us spend our entire lives trying to be accepted by others. We want to be acceptable to our parents, to our peers, to our enemies, to people we envy, by total strangers. Most of us do not realize that the drive to be accepted is behind many of the things you do in life.
Your desire to be accepted influences the way you dress, the kind of car you drive, the kind of house you live in, the career you choose and many other things. People will do the craziest things in order to be accepted. People do all kinds of crazy things just to feel accepted by somebody – to just fit in with the crowd.
I’ve got good news for you today - your parents may have rejected you, your friends or family may have rejected you, a coach or a boss may have rejected you, but God will never reject you. Jesus tells us that this issue is settled when we accept His grace.
Romans 15:7 says "Christ has accepted you." PERIOD. Notice there is no condition. It doesn't say, "Christ will accept you if you go to church every week." It doesn't say, "Christ will accept you if you promise to be perfect... if you keep the Ten Commandments." No, it's unconditional because it's based on God's grace not your performance.
Most of you have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart and life. You've stepped across the line. You're on God's side. You've asked God to bring you into His family. You've accepted Christ. But have you ever realized that God has accepted you? 1 Peter 2:9 says, "You have been chosen by God himself". How awesome is that?
Remember at recess way back in elementary school when teams would get chosen for kickball? Everybody kind of huddles around and two kids are doing the picking. And you're praying, "Oh, God! Don't let me be the last person to be chosen!" You don’t want to be the reject. Here in this verse, God says I CHOOSE YOU. YOU’RE MINE.
How about this scenario. Maybe some of you grew up with an unpleasable parent. No matter what you did, it was never good enough. If you got C's, they wanted B's. If you got B's on your report card, they wanted A's. If you got A's they wanted you to take extra curricular activities and add that in too. No matter what you did, either they were unwilling or unable to give you the approval and the acceptance that you craved.
Some of you today are still trying to earn your parent's acceptance. They may be dead. They may live in another state. But in the back of your mind you're hearing, "You're never going to amount to anything." And you're thinking, "I'm going to prove them wrong. I'm going to prove it to them." You're still reacting toward your parents, rather than responding to God.
Let me be honest with you, very frank. If you did not get your parent's approval or acceptance as a child, in all likelihood you're never going to get it. Let me say something else even more important: You don't need it. You don't need their approval to be happy in life. If God accepts you, then they've got a problem. It's not your problem. Psalm 27:10 says, "Even if my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will receive me." God says, "I accept you." Because of Grace, I am acceptable.
But God doesn't leave it there. #2. God says I AM VALUABLE.
I am worth something. How much do you think you're worth? I'm not talking about your net worth. I'm talking about your self worth. Net worth and self worth have no relationship whatsoever. Your value has no relationship to your valuables. So let me ask you, how much do you think you’re worth?
You say, "I don't know. How do you judge the value of a person?" How do you judge the value of anything? There are two things that determine value in life. One, who owns it. Two, what is somebody willing to pay for it. Those two things create value.
First, the ownership determines the value of something. We all know that something that's owned by a celebrity is far more valuable than something that's owned by one of us. For instance, would a car owned by Elvis sell for more than your car? How about a pair of tennis shoes owned by Michael Jordan rather than a pair of your tennis shoes? Any difference? The fact is, the owner of something adds value to something that is normally just common. Who do you belong to?
1 John 4:4 says "You belong to God." Imagine your value. When you come to Christ and say, "Jesus Christ, I accept Your gift of salvation, I accept Your gift of grace," and you step across that line, God puts you in His family. All of a sudden you now belong to God. Everyone is created by God but everyone does not belong to God. If you've accepted Jesus Christ, you belong to God. That means you're priceless. You're valuable.
The other thing that determines value is what somebody's willing to pay for it. How much is your house worth? It's only worth whatever anybody's willing to pay for it. You may have paid $250,000 for your house. But if somebody else is only willing to pay $200,000, guess what it's worth? $200,000. It's worth whatever the market will pay for it.
So let me ask, how much was paid for you? 1 Corinthians 7:23 says "You have been bought and paid for by Christ so you belong to Him." In other words, Jesus gave His own life for you.
God said, "You are valuable enough that I will give My own Son to die for you." That's how valuable you are. If you want to know your value, look at the cross. Jesus with outstretched hands says, "This is how valuable you are." This much. When people say to you, "You're worthless. You don't amount to much," they're dead wrong. They're lying. I love Isaiah 43:4, Listen: "God says, `You are precious to me." Would you take that to heart today?
#3. The Bible tells us because of God's healing grace I AM LOVABLE.
That one sure feels good when somebody has rejected you -- girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife/parent/whatever -- you don't feel lovable, you feel like a dufus. "Nobody loves me! I'm not worth anything! I'm not loved by anybody." You're wrong.
Isaiah 54 says "`The mountains and hills may crumble but My love for you will never end,' so says the Lord who loves you." God's love will never end.
God says to you, "I love you period! No conditions. No qualifiers. Just in My grace." You don't ever have to ask, "I wonder if God's going to love me tomorrow? I wonder if God's going to love me today? I wonder if God's going to love me next week? Did I pray enough? Did I do enough right things? Is God going to love me now because I had a quiet time?" His love is not conditioned upon your performance. That's grace.
#4. The Bible says because of His grace I AM FORGIVABLE. That's a good one because I need that one a lot. I blow it. I make mistakes. I need to know and be reminded constantly that I am forgivable.
Did you read about the guy going up to Lake Tahoe to his cabin. On the way, driving up, he ran out of gas. He got out of his car but he forgot to put the brake on and so the car backed over the cliff. So he starts walking up to his cabin. On the way up the mountain, a storm came in. He got completely soaked and drenched. He's shivering to the bone and knows he's going to get pneumonia. He's feeling lower and lower. Finally he sees his cabin he starts running toward it and just then, lightning struck it and it caught on fire. He began to cry out, "Why me, God? Why me?" And all of a sudden he hears this voice from heaven, "Because some people just tick me off!" (HA)
I tell you that joke because some of you really feel that way about God. Anytime anything goes wrong in your life you think, "God's getting even with me. He knows that stupid thing that I did." And anything that goes wrong in your life you attribute it to God getting revenge.
Does God really do that with His children? No. The Bible says in Isaiah 43:25 "I am the God who forgives your sins and I do this because you deserve it. NO. That's not what it says. "I do this because of who I am." God doesn’t forgive you based upon who you are, but upon who HE is. He says, "I will not hold your sins against you." Isn’t that great news?
The Bible says when we give our lives to Christ, He forgives our sin because Jesus paid for all our sins on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, which sins did He die for? All of them. That not only means the sins you've already committed, but it also includes the ones you don't even know you're going to commit yet. The ones next week, next year, next decade.
Ones you haven't even thought of yet. New sins. He's already paid for them all. They're covered. God doesn't go around trying to get even, trying to get revenge, trying to get back at His children because all that punishment was paid for on the cross. If Jesus paid your punishment, you don't have to pay for it yourself. Folks, that good news is, when I receive Christ into my life, all my sins are wiped out -- including the ones I haven’t committed yet. Folks, that's grace.
Folks, when you fill your mind and life with the truth of God, then Romans 15:13 will be true in your life. Listen to this great verse - "May the God of hope fill you with joy that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope." Folks, God wants to fill your life with the joy and hope.
How does God do that? Two ways. #1When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, joy and hope invade your life. They fill your life. #2. When you accept His truth. When you start seeing yourself like God sees you. You stop playing those old tapes that you used to believe about yourself and you start rehearsing and remembering what God says about you. I am acceptable, I am valuable, I am lovable and I am forgivable. God never lies.
Prayer: Thank you Father, that You can heal broken hearts and bitter memories and damaged self esteem. Thank You that patterns can be erased and reversed. Thank You dear Jesus that You can turn nobody's into somebodies. Jesus, today I ask You to touch hurting hearts and hurting minds with Your healing touch of love. Please save people today and help them to see themselves through Your eyes of grace.
Would you pray. "Dear God, I've never understood this before but I thank You that You have accepted me totally by Your grace. Today, Jesus Christ, I accept You into my life. I want to know Your purpose, the purpose I was made for. And I want to fulfill it. I want to have a relationship to You. Help me to see myself not on the old tapes of the past but the way You see me. Thank You that in Your eyes, I am forgivable, because I do need Your forgiveness. Thank You that I am covered with Your love because of what You did on the cross. Thank You that to You I am acceptable and I am valuable enough to die for. And I'm lovable and I'm capable with Your power to handle whatever comes my way in the future. As much as I know how, Jesus Christ, I invite You to control every area of my life. I'm not going to worry about what other people think, but I'm going to focus on Your truth about me. In Your name I pray, Amen."
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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