Lesson 57b

We had gotten down through, well, just to set this up, we're in lesson 57 in the Romans class. We're working ourselves down through seven through nine, but actually going a little farther than that. So JD, at the end, are you on? Are you up and running, JD? Yes, sir. So last week, right at the end, we started a conversation about position and condition, whether these were positional truths or not. And so make your case. I won't necessarily make a case as much as just agree with the last statement.

I think it was Cheryl. I think they're both. That's where I landed. What's that? I think they're both positional and conditional. Yeah, and that's kind of where I was coming from as I thought about it during the week. And I think this affords us just a quick opportunity for those who have not spent time in position and condition class. Let's just do a two minute review. Number one, the first thing, if you're going to talk about position or condition, The first thing you have to define is what a principle is. A principle is what? Somebody tell me what it is. It's a law. It's a law. I'm just kidding.

And that's the best way, the contrast of principle to law is probably the easiest way to explain it. Yeah, it's not a statute though, right? It's like gravity, where gravity exists no matter what you do. It's just a truth that is true regardless. Right. A principle is a law, or it's not a statute, but it's a law in which it operates and acts exactly the same way every single time. It never varies.

And gravity is one of them. Well, we talk about the way things work. The way things work. The way things work. Yeah. Or fundamental truth. Yeah, fundamental truth. It's a premise on which we base our beliefs on, basically. That's exactly right. So we have spiritual principles in which, in the Word of God, things are absolutely principled. And those principles are positions. did Christ die on the cross for my sins? Yes, he did. Did he die for the sins of the world? Yes, he did.

The best example, I think, is probably Colossians 3.1, where both condition and position are talked about.

Colossians 3.1 says, since you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. The sense we were risen with Christ is a principle of position. That's a position. Every single believer enjoys that position. we were risen with Christ. Now, based on that position, Paul exhorts us to do something, which is a condition. Condition is to seek those things which are above. Now, a couple of aspects. Positions never change. They're always the same.

Your condition can vary all over the lot. Your spiritual condition can be plus or minus or some point where in the middle it may line up with what your position is, it may not. So, you could say that spiritual growth is really based on your condition vis-a-vis the work of the Holy Spirit in and through you. Your condition becoming lined up perfectly with your position. And so, that's really important. So, when you look at these verses, predominantly we're talking about condition, but they're like all conditional verses, they're based on position. Mike, can I interject something? Say that again? Can I say something a second? Well, okay.

Okay, so the, Chip McCauley had a point on the faith in verse 1. Yes. Okay, that's an article before it. Okay, so that is the faith, and that is a position of our belief in the faith in the Word of God. And so the key is that it is the faith, not just our individual personal faith. So that's a positional statement. That's correct. That's correct. When you have the definite article in front of the word faith, it points to something very specific. And the faith can be the whole doctrine of the Christian faith, or it can talk about a specific aspect. of that positional truth. That's a positional truth. It's true. So, when we're working ourselves down through verses like 7, 8, and 9, Romans 14, 6 through 9, when Paul says, for none of us lives to himself, none of us dies to himself.

Condition or position? Come on. Position. Position. So living is a position? The action word here is live. So I say it's conditional, don't you? Yeah, living is conditional. So what makes it positional? The fact that we are sitting in heavenly places. living unto the Lord. Yeah, I guess just to tag on to what Cheryl was saying there, what is life? Are we actually talking about physical life here? Yeah. We're talking about your activity condition, walking around everyday existence. Verse 8 says, for if we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. We are the Lord's is a positional truth. but living and dying are activities, aren't they?

Yeah, that's what we do here on Earth. What's that? That's what we do here in our physical body on Earth. Yeah, that's right. Now, for this sin, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. Is this no truth? I think so. Yes.

So the point that Paul is trying to make, I think, here is that my life as a believer is not to be lived unto myself. In the way he states, whoops, there went the mouse. Set a trap. Set a trap. That was a condition. So, The point is, is that we do, in verse seven, we do live under ourselves a greater part of the time, don't we? Or do we? Yeah, that's a condition. That's a condition. So if I'm living, how do I say this?

If we're talking about judging servants We answer to our own master. And then the issue of one person regards a day above another and another regards a day the same. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind, et cetera. He who observes a day observes it for the Lord. And he who does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one of us dies to himself.

That's verse seven. So is that where you think it's a position, JD? Well, as I continue to look at these verses, these are bookends, right? Living and dying are bookends. And they are, they're physical. We are born, we live, we die. Paul is encompassing everything about the life of a believer. And at the very end of verse eight, he talks about, he really wraps those bookends up with this idea of possession.

We live where? Where do we live? Who do we belong to? And that's really, I think, and it's not a possession in a negative sense, but it's a positive sense of our life and our death is wrapped up in who we belong to. The, you know, is this one where we think we live for ourselves and we die?

It's not. It's for we are the lords. And we may think we live for ourselves. We may think, you know, all of dying, whatever, the book ends. It's all in his control and his, you know, our life is his life. You know, he gives us every day. So we may think we live for ourselves. Is this, you know, kind of what he's saying too? If you think you're living for yourself, you're not.

You're the Lord's and the life you have is his. And you know, so I think it's, I think it's, kinda pointing out we think we are in control or it's our life and we think that and we think we control all this but we're in his control. It's his life and the life we have here is regulated by him.

I think this might be wrapped up in the attribute of sovereignty and recognizing where you fit in that with relationship to your your life and your death. We belong to a sovereign God, which is a comfort. It's not something that is restrictive in the sense that it would control us in a negative way. It is something that is a positive comfort to be in the sovereignty of God, life and death. We belong to Him.

That's kind of like when all of the work that he wants us to do is done, we're done. We're out of here. So the death part. So he gives us life and when we're done with all he has for us, we go home. So I think that's what, you know, if we think we live and we think we die and it's all our control, it's not. You know, I think he's just pointing out that fact. We think we live, we think we can control when we die or whatever.

Not. Go ahead, Kathy. Well, Paul said to me, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Dying is not just the act of dying, but it would also encompass eternal life after this life. I mean, in my thinking. So, no man dies to himself, and no man lives to himself. So, living is here, and dying is in eternity, in my thinking. or maybe both of what we're talking about here.

So, the answer to question five, what's the all-determining importance for the Christian conduct? What is it? Because it can be based on, at any given time, not in alignment with our position in Christ. So, what determines What is the most important factor that determines my conduct as a believer? I think I've heard humility before God is one thing. So I have to be humble before God will act? No. He's going to act whether we do good or bad or whatever. He will act through us.

So again, give me the factor. Are you walking in the spirit or sowing to the flesh? There you go. OK. So we're getting there. What is walking to the spirit then? What are you doing? One of my favorite questions. What are you doing when you're walking in the spirit? What's going on behind your eyeballs? What are you thinking about? Where's your focus?

It's on Christ. That's exactly the point. That the all-determining importance of Christian conduct is beholding Christ. That's the most important thing. It isn't finding out what's expected of you and then trying to imitate him. It isn't going to seminary. It's not doing spiritual push-ups every day so God will be more pleasing to you. It's a real simple thing.

It all has to do with the relationship and intimacy with the Lord Jesus. That's where it all is, because there's so much, and that's why these verses, seven, eight, and nine, talk so expansively about what knowing Christ is all about. Because if I know him, I recognize that I don't live to myself, and I don't die to myself. It's determined by him. I recognize that if I live, I live unto the Lord. That's what I'm doing. But to actuate that has to be based on what's my relationship with the Lord Jesus? So what's my intimacy with him? Is it close, personal with the Lord Jesus? If it is, then all of this fits. If it's not, then I'm so into the flesh and I don't see any of this, and I'm totally focused on living to myself. and aggrandizing myself, okay? What do you think about that? Well, that's true. I totally agree.

I think the thing is that once you know Christ, you know who you are, because you're in Christ. And that's the conforming to the image of Christ. That is getting the mind of Christ. That's all those things. And so the intimacy is the conforming to Him, because once we know who He is, we know who we are in Him. So, well, and to steal from you, Courtney, this is all based on faith. I mean, you wrap this whole, all these truths up.

And that's a really unique term for us as believers, right? Faith is central. And in this particular point, it's not the faith as representing the entire doctrine of the Christian truths. This is your faith in the person of Christ. And it's very personal. And what makes it personal is the work of the spirit revealing the person of Christ to me in the word. That's what makes it personal.

Now, let's put it in the context of these verses. The argument in 7, 8, and 9 is that we are not in any sense one another's lords. In other words, you know, JD doesn't lord it over me and I don't lord it over Courtney whether I wish to or not. But we all belong to Christ alone, who died and who lives. For what reason? That he'll rule over us. And not only are we lords, we are not lords to each other, or are we the faith of another? It's us.

And so it sets up the great question in verse 10 and 11. But why do you judge your brother? or again, or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall give praise to God.

So why is that question asked? Why do you judge your brother? The reason it's asked is because if the Lord were in view and we were focused on Christ, it wouldn't be a question because we would be looking at Christ and not paying attention to how our brother was doing. I wouldn't even care what you as my brother were eating or where you were hanging out or uh... that kind of thing or whether you abstain from something uh... or that you did something that it's none of my business because my business is the lord jesus he's my total business in terms of judging conduct and behavior i really like what you just said there mike uh... it's not my business my business is the lord jesus that was really Yeah.

Well stated. You know, J.D., when we come to realize that we don't belong to ourselves and that the Lord Jesus paid an incredibly valuable price for each one of us, which was his own blood on that cross, we realize that that price that he paid gave him the right of life and death to us. We are his possession, which is really a comforting thought in my mind because we're his and this grounded on his dying and living in resurrection. The grand doctrine of this epistle and the basis of all Christianity is that we belong to Christ. So many believers I run into think that Christ belongs to them and that they can dictate what he's supposed to do to help them out.

And that's not the way it is. We belong to him. And he gets to decide. He's the Lord of all. And boy, when you put the, like you were saying, JD, you put the box ends on either end, living and dying. From the living to the dying part, he's in charge. And that's the way you want it as a believer.

That's the way. So- Yeah, it kind of reminds me of, Maybe some of you will remember the movie Jerry Maguire this kind of idea of like help me help you That's not that's not what this verse is talking about or these set of verses. This is not me helping you This is not us calling out to God to help us He, we, we, we are possessed. We, we, we belong to a loving father and it's not a help.

It's a, it's a life. Um, and as you mentioned earlier, it's, it's a focus, Courtney. It's a, uh, where, where are your eyes? Um, who are you beholding? And yeah, it's, it's not a, it's not a, um, a situation where I'm gonna do something and then God's gonna do something. I mean, this is a relationship that is very much centered on the Lord himself. Think of the chaos in eternity if Christ belonged to us versus the other way around. Those are the people that are gonna be in hell.

Now, a couple of things, Mike. It goes back a little bit, well, also what we've just, remember, we're dissecting a letter, a full letter. So all the things that have come before. Remember, we just learned about being at peace with, if at all possible, be at peace with one another. And now we're saying judge your brother. What are you doing that for? Be at peace with everyone.

The other is, under the grace teaching, what is our sphere of authority? Do I have the right to tell you not to eat something? That's not my sphere of authority. Under grace, God gives various spheres of authority. elders over church, husbands and wives, parents over kids. Those are spheres, but it doesn't give us the right to go over and judge somebody. So this fits with the grace terminology.

And the other is, I think this goes back to what I always say, you choose to be offended. That's your choice. You willfully are choosing to be offended, and I'm going to judge the brother because you offended me. And again, it's a willful choice on your part to do that. And that goes against all the teaching that we've been through, Romans and Grace and all that.

I might move that choose to be offended up to one more notch, and that is, if I choose to be offended, what I've done is I've forgotten my place, who I am and where I am in Christ, and I don't have any right to be judging or to be offended. I don't have a right to be offended because, I don't know, pick a simple thing like whether you drink a beer or not. Now, you may come to me and say, well, what do you think about me drinking a beer? I have no judgment about that. If you're drinking a beer under the Lord, fine. I may not drink a beer. because that's where I am with the Lord, but I don't have any right to judge you, just like you don't have any right to judge me as abstaining from that, so. I do have a question.

Is offense the same as judgment? I think so. I think when you judge somebody, you're offended. Don't you think, Courtney? And I think judgment comes out of offense. The reason why you're judging somebody is you're offended. So the root of the judgment is your personal offense. So if I'm offended, I went and walked in the flesh, and that's what's offended. Is it my resurrected life in Christ that's offended? Or is it my old Adamic life that's offended? That's a great point. Flesh.

Well, and I guess my point is, can you be walking with the Lord and be offended by someone that says something to you? Is being offended okay? I guess that's really my question. And to Courtney's point, it's always a choice, but is it always a bad choice? If someone uses the Lord's name in vain, can you be offended? That's a good point, Jimmy. Yeah, that's a really good point. Are things offensive? I think so.

The Lord's name in vain is a good one because I have personal experience with that. When I became a Christian, the day before I was a Christian, I was taking the Lord's name in vain all the time. The next day after I got saved, some friend of mine took the Lord's name in vain and I was offended. It really, it's like he slapped me in the chest because he now belittled my savior. Well, am I okay doing that? That is a perfect example of my question. Go ahead, Kathy. Go ahead, Kathy. There's a difference between being offended at someone taking the ward's name in vain and saying, that's a bad person. You know, if you say that's a bad person, then you're judging them. But if, I mean, the activity is reprehensible.

Well, I think a lot of us, I don't know, we look at stuff that goes on in our society and we think, boy, that must really be offensive to the Lord, and I'm not too happy about it either. The point is that I can't judge what they do. I can certainly see what goes on in the world, but we're talking about brothers here in Christ. And I think with the focus of everybody, every brother, to be on the Lord Jesus Christ, then what my brother does, left or right, is of no consequence to me, unless it's a blatant, sinful situation and you're in a position to have to talk to him about it, like we've talked to like Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, where he's given instructions about a man who is living with a stepmother. That's a different kind of a thing. We're talking here about judging in matters that have, that are not sinful, unless, of course, unless if I decide that drinking a beer is sinful and I drink one, it's sinful to me, If it isn't sinful to you, it's not sinful to you.

I'm persuaded, you know? Persuasion has a lot to do with whether it has an effect on you or not in terms of should I do this or shouldn't I do it? It's where I'm persuaded. And like Paul says, and we talked a lot about it in the grace tapes, that I'm, Paul says, I'm free to do anything, but I modify my freedom based on how my behavior affects you, because you're important to me. And if I don't live under myself and I live under the Lord, then your well-being is more important to me than mine, really, is what it comes down to. So.

I also think about the offense when you said about you know, taking the Lord's name in vain. And I think about that, what you said before you were a believer and after you were a believer. I think of Christ, they know not what they do. And so you didn't know what you were doing before you were saved. So they don't know what they're doing when they take the Lord's name in vain.

And again, be at peace with all. above all love. Are you personally offended because he's attacking your Lord? Again, they don't know what they're doing. That's a different realm than what we're talking about here. These are believers and judging inconsequential things.

I agree with you, and I think that you can cringe when someone takes the Lord's name in vain, but you can also have compassion and grace towards that person and pray for them right on the spot. Say, Lord, bless that person. He doesn't know what he's doing. Yeah, it gives you opportunity. And again, just we're saying, the Lord controls your life and your death. He allows those people into your life. And you're the ambassador for Christ.

And so, I mean, again, I just want to point out, it's kind of two different things we're talking about. Those who are unbelievers, like Mike, you didn't know beforehand. You had no clue until you were a believer. And so how do I hold you accountable for that? Now we're talking about believers, and we're talking about things that are, you know, eating and judging and festivals and yada, yada, yada, or judging, you know, your brother under some thing that's inconsequential. You're not supposed to do that. So. Moving on.

Question seven says, and what's going to happen at the judgment seat of Christ? So we're certainly going to end up sitting in front of the Lord and giving an account of our life as believers from the time we were saved to the time he took us home. The most important premise is that this will not be an issue of sin because all of our sins were not only paid for at the cross but put away. So each one of us is going to have to give an account concerning concerning christ himself couple of verses second corinthians five ten for we all must appear before the judgment seat of christ so that each one may be recompense were rewarded for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad so so but mike this is a this is an award ceremony this is not a we're not get we're not have we we are not going to be giving an account uh... and I just wonder about that terminology. We're not having to answer for, we're simply being given recompense, to your point, for what? Do you think this is giving an account for?

If you go back up to 1 Corinthians 3.13, it says, for each man's work will become evident, for the day shall show it. because it's to be revealed with fire, and fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on remains, it will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss, but he himself will be saved. Yeah, so it's a gain and a loss, but I'm just wondering about the term, give and account for. An account like what?

Am I guilty, Lord, of all the things that have been exposed here? Yeah, like you're being put in, you know, in the jury or not the jury, but you're being put up on the stand and he's sitting there like, you know, knelling you for the things you did or you didn't do or like.

Yeah, there's just some terminology there that I think there's a couple of things there that are kind of cool. One is. I'm pretty excited that the stuff that I did during my Christian life that wasn't of him is exposed. That's one thing. But the second part of it is, he's the only one that gets to judge it. Nobody else does. And what does he do? He puts it away.

It's never going to be an issue going forward. I had to give an account. I did. live up to the standard, gets burned, it's gone. So for all eternity, starting from that point on, there's no remembrance of any of that. There's certainly no remembrance of sin. And like you say, JD, we all get to live in the rewards for all eternity. I love that, you know. I love the fact that nothing got swept under the carpet.

Wait, Don's got a question here. faith is the only thing that's pleasing to God, right? Faith is the only thing that's pleasing to God, right? If we're given an account, faith would be the only thing that would bring honor to God, right? Faith would be the only thing that we would bring before God for reward? Yeah, I totally agree, Donna. But faith is a non-meritorious act. But it's the account. It's the only place we have to stand. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think it is.

But do we get anything for faith? So it's not meritorious. Yes, that's the basis for our stand, you know, but it... Well, maybe this is mincing words a little bit, but we receive eternal life because of faith. However, personal faith, our faith itself is not meritorious in the sense of a work, but we do receive something as a result of faith. It still has an effect.

I think the result is the works that will be rewarded by faith. The end result of our faith is whatever works that we have that we will be rewarded for is on the basis of faith. But it's the action or the work that we did that will be rewarded. What is that reward?

Those are the crowns. Isn't there like eight different crowns for... It's gotta be Christ himself. Right. but we don't need to visit jimmy's exactly right jimmy you're exactly right it's christ himself you know but but but they it does speak of the crowns and over and had like a different crowns you know crap ground for being diligent for watching and waiting for a crisis you know all sorts of of crowns but there is sheryl's right the minute we get and we throw it at his feet and it's all about christ though, but there are definitely rewards that are called out.

The thing I think of, and I just, it sounds really weird, it's like, I always wonder about this at the judgment, everything's going to be revealed. So it's like watching a really bad movie with a couple good parts. And at the end, we get a crown for a few of the good parts, but a lot of that movie is really bad. And so, I mean, do we sit there and watch this bad movie of our life with a few highlights that we did for Christ that we're gonna get crowns for? That's a really weird position, I think.

There's no tears in it. Well, he said he'd wipe away all tears. No tears, but I'm cringing for a lot of parts of this movie. And this is probably good for you, Courtney, that this all happens in eternity and not time-space. Bro, hopefully it's instantaneous, done and gone. Back to the verse that says we suffer loss, and you can look at that like, oh my gosh, that sounds bad, but if you look at it from the perspective that the loss is things that maybe we did in the flesh that weren't worthy of the works, it's really something that's joyous, because that's gonna be wiped out forever. And not only that, all of our brothers and sisters in the Lord are suffering the same kinds of losses. We're getting rid of all of that. So I think we can look at that as nothing but positive. I agree, that's really good. Yeah, I would definitely agree with that too. Yeah, I think that's really good. The BEMA is a positive thing overall. Oh yeah, and I agree with that. It's just I keep thinking of looking at my life and the stupid things, and I got to look at that? Yes, Jim, I agree totally that it's joyous.

It's gone, but is it kind of painful to look at all the stupid things I did? during this, because it says all's going to be revealed and some of it's going to be burned up. Those are the bad parts of the movie. And unfortunately, that's a lot of the movie.

Yeah, but in the Lord's presence, it's going to be beautiful, I think. Yeah, I agree. We are not going to be able to focus on ourselves in the presence. There you go. The movie, and I apologize for maybe disagreeing a little bit there, you're going to be so encapsulated with the glory of the Lord Jesus the I agree with that.

It's just kind of the weird thought that we're going to see our whole life go through. You're right. Jim, I also agree it's going to be wondrous to see the Lord say, I paid for it all and all the wonderful things. It's just my contorted thoughts that you have to look at your life and all of it will be revealed and be burned up. Jim, I agree that that'll be a joyous thing.

It's gone forever. It's just kind of a weird thought that you're going to see your whole life and all those stupid things. Yeah, and it's everybody else going to see the same thing, right? It's got to be instantaneous, though, because there'll be billions of people.

Hold on, Tom's got a question. Not a question, but a further comment. Under the judgment seat of Christ, we're actually noting, as it proceeds, You guys all hear that? I'm hoping you did because I can't repeat it. Okay, we've only got a couple of minutes, so let's close with question eight. In verse 13, the word therefore draws a conclusion. What is the conclusion?

What's cool about this is you get to judge here. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this. not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in front of our brother. So if we're gonna judge or if we're gonna be paying attention, what are we doing?

We're to focus on our behavior would be in such a manner that we wouldn't inhibit any other brother's path to Christ. You know, it means, to put him in a position to destroy him or to, leading to violate his conscience or to drive him back away from Christ. or to put him in a lawless situation. I'll read something from John Darby. He said, it's uncharacteristicable, it's uncharacteristicable, can't say that, to destroy as far as the hearing of an act goes and leading him to violate his conscience or to drive him back from Christ as if made lawless the one for whom he died. A really good point that he makes there that I'm not to judge my brother. My brother doesn't judge me.

I'm responsible before Christ myself. And I'm never in a position ever to somehow inhibit your intimacy with Christ. I'm never in a position to do that. And so if I'm gonna judge my behavior, my behavior draws a conclusion that if I'm gonna concentrate on anything, what I concentrate on is what would enhance your intimacy with Christ, not take away from it, the stumbling block would be something I would not even consider. I may have to, because we'll talk a little bit about stumbling blocks starting next week.

But it's really interesting how when the focus is on the Lord Jesus, we always The behavior pattern of the believer is always to enhance the spiritual growth and understanding and intimacy with Christ for my brother. Never the opposite of that. It's always promoting the benefits, the spiritual benefits of my brother. Okay, 946, we're done. I'm gonna close in prayer.

Father, how we thank you for your word, how we thank you for again for us being able to get together and share and I thank you for the conversation that we've had today and we recognize the work of your spirit in amongst us and we thank you, we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.