A high-level outline of the Book of Romans, Part 4

Pastor/Teacher
John Farley
Friday,
October 9, 2009

This is a high level view of the entire argument of the Book of Romans.

The finality, fullness, and the absolute certainty of the Christian’s salvation is the big subject of Romans 5-8.

God the Holy Spirit has given us chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 in order that we might be assured of our future complete glorification in Christ.

The first reason the believer is secure is because it is God’s work and not his.

Second, God the Holy Spirit places us into His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and we are in union with Him forever.

1Co 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

Third, and finally, the Holy Spirit has been given to us and indwells us as a seal of our eternal status.

First, in Romans 5:1-10, Paul introduces these three themes of eternal security tied to each member of the Trinity.

Next, in Romans 5:11-21 (the rest of chapter 5), Paul deals with our union with Christ who is our head.

But now every believer has been taken out of Adam and placed into Christ.

In Romans 6:1, Paul is once again using the debater’s technique.

Here in Romans 6, and again in Romans 7, Paul is dealing with objections and difficulties with respect to this teaching.

Paul, what’s gotten into you? Have you become one of those antinomians?

“Antinomian” does not appear in the New Testament, but it does come from two Greek words:
anti = against
nomos = law.
It means lawlessness.

Paul realizes that legalistic people will hear his teaching on the grace of God and eternal security and accuse him of teaching lawlessness.

This is a total misrepresentation of salvation by grace through faith, but it is one that any pastor who teaches the Gospel correctly leaves himself open to be attacked concerning.

The key to understanding Paul’s argument in chapter 6 is the doctrine called Retro-active Positional Truth.

In Romans 3, 4, and 5, Christ died for our sins and believers are alive forever in Christ.
In Romans 6 we discover that the sinner died with Christ.

The legalist thinks that the only way to deal with people who sin is to give them a law that tells them not to sin. That will force them to stop sinning.

Paul is going to tell us in Romans 7 the undeniable truth that the law came in so that the sin would increase!

Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

At the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit baptized you. He placed you in permanent union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The key to understanding Romans 6 and Paul’s answer to the charge of antinomianism is to master the doctrine of Retro-active Positional Truth.

Retro-active Positional Truth =
at the moment of salvation when you were baptized into Christ you were identified with Christ in His spiritual death, physical death, and burial.

Current Positional Truth is identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension, and session.

In Romans 7, Paul deals with the Mosaic Law. He shows its purpose and its limitations.

His main point in this chapter is to show that just as the Law could not justify sinful man, the Law cannot sanctify the believer either.

The Law, then, is a hindrance and an obstacle to sanctification.


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