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    Jan 24, 2021

    God’s Purpose in Forgiveness

    Passage: Romans 8:4

    Speaker: Steven Cooper

    Series: New Life in the New Year

    Category: Sermon

    Message Summary:  God’s promises and blessings come with a purpose. This passage shows us 2 of them:  1) God wants to deal with our sin definitively so that we have no doubt that our sins are condemned and forgiven because of the cross of Jesus. 2) God wants to invite us to live as part of the new world He is building by walking in relationship with Him.

     

    Discussion Questions:

    1. How can God condemn our sin without condemning us as sinners?
    2. How do you “walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”?
    3. How can you turn your morning routine into a sacred Liturgy?

     

    Here’s a sample MORNING LITURGY

    1. Wake up and know—God’s Spirit raises you from the dead
    2. Shower & know —God’s Spirit cleanses and invigorates you
    3. Put on your clothes & know-You put on&walk in God’s Spirit
    4. Eat/Drink & know—You are filled w/God’s strength & energy
    5. Go to work and know—God’s Spirit gives you mission:  to serve & earn & share

     

     

    VERSES: 

    Romans 8:1-4

    1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  

    2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  

    3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

     

     Romans 1:28-32  28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.  29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,  30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,  31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

     

    Exodus 28:29-30  So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the LORD…  Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the LORD regularly.

     

    Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity:

    Since you have believed, you are now wholly under the gospel. No one can say to you now, "Do this duty, and avoid this sin… If you don’t God will condemn you and damn you.” No, no, you [who are justified] are now set free from the commanding and condemning power of the covenant of works.

     

    Therefore, even if you do transgress any or all of the 10 commandments, you still don’t transgress the covenant of works: there is no such covenant now between God and you.

     

    And therefore, if you ever hear such a voice threatening hell and damnation to sinners and transgressors of the law; even if they are from the Bible, yet do not think that they are spoken to you. No, no; the apostle assures you that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, (Rom 8:1).

     

    And if that condemning voice should come to your conscience, and say, "You have sinned, and therefore you owe divine justice." If it says “good works must be done and the commandments must be kept, if you will obtain salvation"; then you answer, and say to that voice:  "I am already saved before you came; and therefore I have no need of thy presence, for in Christ I have all things: I need nothing more that is necessary to justification. He is my righteousness, my treasure, and work.  I confess, O law! that I am neither godly nor righteous, but yet this I am sure of, that he is godly and righteous for me. And to tell the truth, O law! I am now with him in the bridechamber, where it makes no matter what I am, or what I have done; but what Christ, my sweet husband, is, has done, and does for me.”