Classic Christianity – Who Shall Rescue Me – Part 1 – 8-04-26
The Law and the Triumph of Grace
~ The law entered so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:20–21).
The law was given to lead us to Christ Jesus by revealing our utter inability to save ourselves. It exposes the depth of our sin and shows that human effort can never satisfy divine righteousness. God used the law to demonstrate how sin actually multiplies when we try to attain holiness through self-righteousness and the energy of the flesh. But as believers in Christ Jesus, we are called to see ourselves through God’s eyes—living in the freedom of truth rather than under the burden of the law.
As Paul instructs us:
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”— Romans 6:12–14
How do we walk in this reality? Certainly not by striving under the law, for relying on law-keeping only binds us to a standard we cannot fulfill. Victory over sin does not come from a relentless focus on “not sinning,” but from fixing our eyes on Jesus, who is our righteousness, our sanctification, and Grace Himself.
Because He bore all our sins on the cross, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Instead of striving in our own strength or insisting on our own way, we are invited to surrender our self-will, yield to His, and offer ourselves to Him as instruments of righteousness. Even when we stumble or revert to self-reliance, His faithfullness remains steadfast—because wherever sin abounds, His grace abounds all the more!
And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone. Luke 18:18,19
Jesus is God in flesh: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
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Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”
~ Bob George discusses the concept of grace and sin in Romans 5 and 6, emphasizing that the law reveals sinfulness to prepare us for God’s grace. He explains that sin increased under the law, but grace increased more, offering eternal life through Jesus. Bob argues that grace does not encourage sin but highlights the power of sin under the law. He stresses that true faith acknowledges our sinfulness and reliance on Jesus, not our own efforts. Bob also addresses the misconception that grace leads to sinning, clarifying that yielding to sin leads to control by sin, while yielding to righteousness leads to holiness.
“Now, up in verse 14 in chapter six, we see the second statement and the second question. Verse 14 of chapter six: Sin shall not be your master because you’re not under the law, but into grace. What’s he saying to us? As long as you are under the law, you’re under the power of sin. The power of sin is in the law, and if you’re under the law, sin is your master. Sin shall not be your master because you’re not under the law, but under grace. Meaning that when you are under the law, sin is your master. Now, guys, we’re going to get to this what we’re after today in just a minute, showing you that if you’re under the law, you have no way in the world of living the life that even you want to live, let alone the life that God wants you to live, you can’t even live the kind of life you want to live. Now, there’s an answer to that. Sin shall be your master because you’re not under the law but under grace. Well, here’s the other one. What then? What are you saying here, Paul? Shall we go ahead and sin because we’re not under the law but under grace? He says, “God forbid! Don’t you know that whatever you yield yourself to, that thing will control you? And it talks about the the fact that you become a slave to impurity instead of a slave to righteousness.” ~ Bob George
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Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
Bob George 0:29
Let’s turn to Romans five at the end of it. What we’re going to do is to go through some passages here together. What you’re going to see, what we’re going to be talking about here, is in these passages of Romans, you’re going to see a statement, and then you’re going to see a question. It’s a natural thing. You’ll see a statement that Paul makes in regard to a spiritual truth that we should be hanging on to, and then the question that people will naturally ask if they don’t understand what he’s talking about, and that’s exactly what these questions are. They’re coming from people who do not understand the intensity of what Paul is communicating to us, and so before he enables us to ask the question and sometimes show our ignorance, why he just asks it for us.
So the first thing that he statement that he made, or a summation of chapter five, is in verse 20, the law was added so that the trespass might increase. So in other words, God gave us the law with a purpose. Everything God gave us has a purpose to it. The purpose of the law was not to obtain righteousness, because, as Paul later on says, no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law. He gave us the law to show us our sinfulness, so that we will be able to identify from God’s vantage point, our spiritual condition, so that we will be prepared, therefore, for His spiritual provision, and until we see our spiritual death, we have no appreciation for His resurrected life, and so there’s a great deal of verbiage written here in order to get us to see that we do not stand a chance in the world of entering into the presence of God through our own efforts or our own works. It is all Jesus and none of us.
So the the law was added so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. In other words, you can’t out sin the grace of God. Many of us have tried and are still trying, but you cannot do it. You cannot out sin the grace of God. So just as sin reigned in death. In other words, the wages of sin is what? Death, and so sin reigns in that fact. That as long as you’re under the death penalty, sin is going to reign. As long as you’re under the law of sin and death, then death is going to reign because you can’t escape it. A man who sins will surely what? Die, and you can’t escape death if you’re under the law. That’s why you cannot separate the law from the punishment of the law. There’s no such thing as the law apart from the wages of sin. Against that law is death. You can water it down, but God doesn’t water it down. The wages of sin is not out of fellowship. The wages of sin is not that God will give you paddling, or maybe make your business go bad. The wages of sin is death. Period. No exception. If you’re under the law, that’s the law you’re under. The wages of sin is death, and if you’ve sinned, which you have, you’re dead.
Now he says that’s where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also now, grace might reign through righteousness. So there’s good news to this. What we just said, that there is a way whereby we can be freed from this law of sin and death by the grace of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not in religion, not in being a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Christian, even, but being born again, being in Christ, coming to Jesus for what Jesus came to do-not just saying, “I believe in Jesus. Well, what do you believe He did? Do you believe He died on the cross to take away the sins of the whole world, or just some of them? Because if you believe. That Jesus just died for some sins, you have a different Jesus. And if He died for all sins, then what are we doing continually asking for what in Him we already have, instead of thanking Him, which is what faith says? Because apart from faith, it’s impossible to do what? Please God, believe me, folks. There’s no faith in asking God for what He has already provided for you. That is ludicrous to think that’s faith. That’s presumption, but it is not faith.
And so, just as sin reigned to death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life. Eternal life. Why do I have eternal life? Because of the eternal consequence of the cross, do you realize, my friends, that if Jesus went to a cross and did not take away the sins of the entire world, he could not have given you eternal life? Why? Let’s say he gave you life, but he didn’t take away all the sins of the world. What would happen the next time you sinned? You’d die. So you got a dracula theology: dead today, alive tomorrow. Dead today, alive tomorrow. If you can come up with a way of getting back alive once you’re dead again, so He gave us eternal life. There’s a there’s good news to this message. There’s the message that the bad news is you’re a mess. You’re dead. The good news is I came to give you life. That’s the good news, isn’t it? Now, how am I going to appreciate the good news if I don’t believe the bad news? If I don’t believe I’m a mess and that I’m dead as a hammer, what appreciation do I have for His resurrected life? Or why would He even want life? What do you mean, life? I got life. I’m okay. You’re okay. We’re all okay.
Now, Paul has a question with that, verse chapter six. What shall we say then? Because this is what happens when you teach grace. The first thing that people come up with when you teach the fullness of God’s grace is, “Oh, you just given me a license to sin. That’s the way we said in Texas. Sin. No, I’m not. No, I’m not giving you anything. I’m just telling you what the Bible says. I’m not. I can’t give you anything. I can’t forgive you. Can’t give you life. All I can do is communicate what Jesus did. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? In other words, what are you saying here, Paul? It kind of sounds stupid to me. What you’re talking about here-that God gives us eternal life-and doesn’t sound right to me. It sounds like we ought to be doing something here. So, is what you’re saying? It’s a sarcastic thing. Are you are you saying we should just keep on sinning so that this grace may increase, and he answers that. You need to read it. We’ve already covered it. That’s why I’m not going to cover it again. But so read it.
Now, up in verse 14 in chapter six, we see the second statement and the second question. Verse 14 of chapter six: Sin shall not be your master because you’re not under the law, but into grace. What’s he saying to us? As long as you are under the law, you’re under the power of sin. The power of sin is in the law, and if you’re under the law, sin is your master. Sin shall not be your master because you’re not under the law, but under grace. Meaning that when you are under the law, sin is your master. Now, guys, we’re going to get to this what we’re after today in just a minute, showing you that if you’re under the law, you have no way in the world of living the life that even you want to live, let alone the life that God wants you to live, you can’t even live the kind of life you want to live. Now, there’s an answer to that. Sin shall be your master because you’re not under the law but under grace. Well, here’s the other one. What then? What are you saying here, Paul? Shall we go ahead and sin because we’re not under the law but under grace? He says, “God forbid! Don’t you know that whatever you yield yourself to, that thing will control you? And it talks about the the fact that you become a slave to impurity instead of a slave to righteousness.
That just as you used to offer parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing witness, now wickedness rather now offer them in slavery to righteousness, leading to holiness. That’s whatever you yield yourself to. If you yield yourself to Jack Daniels, Jack Daniels is going to control you. If you yield yourself to wickedness, wickedness is going to control you. If you yield yourself to being a crook, being a crook is going to control you. That’s what controls your life, crookedness. If you yield yourself to it, if you yield yourself to honesty, what is going to control your life? Honesty. That’s why the answer is. Shall we go on sinning because we’re not under the law, but under grace is ludicrous? Because the the thing of it is, if Jesus lives in you, which if you’re born again He does, does He lead you to go out and live a dishonest life? No, He does not. Does He go out and lead you into adultery and fornication? No, He does not. That’s not Him leading-that’s you, your flesh leading. And if you give yourself over to the leading of the flesh, that flesh is going to control you. You can’t say, “Well, I’m 90% good, but I just got a little 5% here that I have a little trouble with. Because if you’re having trouble with 5% it says a little bit of yeast does what? Spoils the whole loaf. Don’t kid yourself, guys, and don’t con yourself. You cannot continue that way, and and experience the joy of the Lord.
And so, sin shall shall we shall we go on sinning because we’re not under the law but under grace? By no means, he says. You’re going to get controlled. Whatever you yield your life to, it’s going to control you.
Now let’s go down to chapter seven, beginning in verse four. So, my brothers, you died to the law. Now, guys, the whole issue of this whole deal is you’re born into this world under the law, and you’re born into this world under the consequence of the law, which is what? Death. You’re not born alive spiritually; you’re born alive bodily, but you’re dead spiritually. You’re born that way. You’re born in Adam, dead as Adam became, you are dead. Now, if you’re dead, you got a problem, because if you’re dead or anything you can do to get life, someone’s going to have to impute it to you if you’re going to come alive, and that’s the work of Jesus, my friends, that’s the good news of Jesus, is He came to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, and but we use the law to go out and try to obey it and and and get God’s blessing through my obedience to the law. You’re not going to make it; it’ll show you here in a minute.
So he says, “Die to it, guys. The law isn’t going to die to you. When it says die to sin, sin isn’t going to die to you. Sin’s going to be here. The law’s going to be here. You’re going to have died to it. It isn’t going to die to you. It’s always going to be there with its temptations. You got to die to it, and that’s why he’s saying here, my brothers. So you died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, not to the law any longer, but to Him, Jesus, who was raised from the dead, in order that you might bear fruit to God. For when we are controlled by our flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law. Get that, folks. The passions that are within you and me are aroused by the law.
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Bob George 13:49
All you have to do-we understand that with children. All you have to do to get a kid to do something is tell him don’t do it. Isn’t that right? That’s all it takes. Just tell him don’t do it, and you’ll see him heading toward it. These passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore the fruit of death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, and what do we die to? The law that was what bound us. We have been released from the law, so that we serve in a new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Man, if anyone be in Christ, he is what? He’s a new creation. Why are you a new creation? Because you’re not under the law anymore. You’re under grace. That’s why you’re a new creation. We love to say, “Well, I used to do this, but now I don’t. Praise Jesus. That isn’t what’s talking about. It’s talking about the fact that you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, and God has now made you alive with Christ. He forgave all of your sins. You’re born forgiven. Do you understand that, guys? It isn’t the case of I get forgiven. If you’re in Christ, you are forgiven. As a matter of fact, you’re forgiven if you’re not in Christ. You just haven’t received it yet. That forgiveness that was provided for you at the cross 2000 years ago. How many of the sins of the world did He die for? He said, “I not only died for your sins, but the sins of who? The whole world was forgiven. Now, if the whole world is forgiven, how much more forgiveness is there to be executed on your behalf by God? We right or wrong? If there, if it’s done, and what did He cry out from the cross? It’s almost finished. Is that what He said? What’d He say? It’s finished. There is no more forgiveness to be executed on your behalf by God. It’s finished. Now, where is that forgiveness that was provided for you then received? Where is that received? In His resurrected life. In Him you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Are you in Him, or are you still seeking? I’m not saying are you a Baptist or a Presbyterian or people to peopleer. Are you in Him? Have you come to a point in your life where you said, “I’ve had it. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ve had it. I can’t do it. I need you, Jesus. I can’t do it. He says, “How much of me do you need? About 95 percent. I’m I’m by 5% okay. He said, “I’m sorry, you’re not ready for me yet. It’s when you and I get to the end of ourselves when people come to say, “I’m at the end of my rope. I say, “Grease that sucker, because that’s where you’re going to find Jesus. Let go and let God. So he says here that dying to what bound us. We have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
So now the next question comes up: What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Are you telling me then that the law is sin? The law is the problem? No, he said. But I’m going to tell you what the law is for. I wouldn’t even known what coveting was. I wouldn’t even known what sin was except through the law. And he used coveting. It’s interesting that in the Catholic Church a number of years ago that they did a survey among all the Catholic churches in America, and the survey was which sin is the most confessed in the confessionals? Do you know in all of the United States the coveting was never used one time, never mentioned as my sin. Paul used it. Why? Well, because coveting’s under the skin, so I don’t need to confess that. Nobody knows what’s going on under the skin. I’ll just confess the outward stuff. Never used. Paul uses it, and he says, “I wouldn’t have known what coveting was had the commandment not said, ‘Don’t covet. But sin seizing the opportunity that was afforded by this commandment, it stirred up every kind of covenant, desire in part of me, and he said, “I died. I found out I was dead. Apart from the law, sin is dead.
So he says, then down in verse 13, “Did that which is good, the law, become death for me? He said, “No, no. In order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in you. It didn’t become death for you; produced it. It showed you that you’re dead. That’s the purpose of the law, not to try to live up to it because you can’t, but to show you you can’t. Why do we have our confessions and our First John one nine emphasis that we have in evangelical circles? Because we’re trying to obey the law, and we can’t. But I can confess my sins and get forgiven. I can go to my confession book and get forgiven. If I was still a HEBREW, I can go back to my Day of Atonement and get forgiven. I’m under the law, but I know I have trouble keeping it. But you know, every now and again I slip just a wee bit. But I can go confess it and get forgiven. That’s why the emphasis is on confession for forgiveness. Is because you still think you’re under the law? If you were not under the law, why would you need to do that? Would there be any need for doing this if you weren’t under the law? The Christian world is under the law. That’s why we have all of these traditional things to do when you’re under the law. When you’re under the grace of God and realize that the reason I’m under the grace of God is because Jesus is grace and Jesus took away my sins, what does your mind tell you to do if something’s already been accomplished for you? To say thank you, not keep short accounts, not to think. Oh, there’s a black mark up there that I got to get erased, but to say thank you, Lord, I blew it.
Now, I ask you a question: Is it unusual to blow it under the law? No. I’m going to read to you guys, we’re going to start now in verse 14, and it’s very interesting because what you’ll see here, I ask people to circle if they they mark their Bibles. And number, first of all, hope you have one, and secondly, I hope you realize there’s a difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, the old testament and the new testament. We’re in the new testament. We’re in the New Covenant that went into effect at the death of Christ, and this book is not one to just sit and stare at. It’s one to use. It’s a work book. It’s got work in it. So circle these things, eyes and the me’s. The first time I read these passages, I thought somebody had been peeking on me, because this is your life, guys. When I came to Christ, I wanted to serve Jesus with all my heart. Man, I was out working at it. Have you ever worked at it, trying to keep yourself holy? Have you ever? I mean, just really giving it a college try to keep myself pleasing to God. How many of you have tried to be pleasing to God? Do you know what God says pleasing to me? Faith. You know what faith says? Faith says what God says. I am wretched, folks. If I don’t see myself as wretched, what in the world would I need with Him? I’m not 90% okay, or 80% okay, or 20% okay. Without Jesus, he said, “I’m nothing. What are you? How do you look at yourself. Lord, just give me enough time. I’ll keep. I’ll just let me work at it. I’ll. I’ll get there sooner or later. Well, here’s what Paul says, and you know Paul wasn’t too bad of a Christian. Here’s what Paul says, and he’s saying this. If people say, “Well, is this him talking about being lost or saved? It doesn’t make any difference. It’s someone under the law. Whether you’re lost under the law or saved under the law, this is your lifestyle under the law. That’s why Christians look like they’ve just eaten a skunk on Sunday morning. Most of them miserable, straight laced, sober, and sad people.
I know that the law is spiritual, Paul says, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. How many can relate to this one? I don’t understand what I do. How many of you now? Honestly, how many of you relate to that passage? I do not understand not what I do, but what you do? I know you don’t understand what I do. I I don’t understand what I do. So there’s an honest statement. For what I hate, I do. How many of you find yourself the things I really don’t want to do, the things I really hate? I keep on doing it. How many of you hate being critical? How many of you are critical? How many of you are lying right now? Now let’s do that over again. Either you’re paralyzed or something’s wrong. How many of you are critical? That’s that’s better. I think. And how many of you hate being critical? Yeah. Okay. Now we’re now we’re all together, but we are critical. Now, he so he says, I don’t. I hate that, and I do what I do not want to do. The if I do what I don’t want to do, I agree the law is good. There’s nothing wrong with the law. It’s holy and good. But when it flows through me, what’s it do? Kills me. I agree the law is good, but as it is, it’s no longer I myself who do it, but it’s sin living in me. So it’s kind of like sin. Don’t blame me; it’s sin in me. But that’s what he’s saying. Sin lives in you, and you know what sin is doing? Deceiving you, lying to you every day of your life, sin that lives in you is lying to you, telling you to do something different than what God says to do. Every day of your life, it’s there. I know that nothing good lives in me. Me, that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good. But I can’t carry it out. How many have found that to be true? I know what I should be doing, but I can’t carry it out. How many have found that to be true? That’s part of lifestyle, under the law. For what I do is not the good that I want to do. The evil that I don’t want to do this I keep on doing. Talk about frustrating. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it’s no longer I who do it, but it’s sin living in me that does it. In other words, sin is working in you and me to continually get you to do the things that even you don’t want to do. Are we together? So I find this law to work. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Folks, we have the life of Christ living in you. If you’re in Christ, and I put the if in there because I’m not talking about going to church and being religious. I’m talking about a time in your life when you totally gave yourself over to Christ Jesus, when you totally gave up on yourself and came to Christ Jesus. Lord Jesus, I can’t. I don’t even want to try anymore. I give up. I’m ready to surrender to your forgiveness, and I’m ready to surrender to your life, because I can’t live the life that I want, even I want to live, let alone the one you want me to live. And I’m through, and I give up. It’s like the old World War One movies where the flag goes up, and they’re saying, “I don’t care what you do with me. You can kill me, put me in prison, set me free, but I give up. I’m in your hands, and folks, that’s what we do when we come to Christ. We put the flag up and say, “Lord, I’m in Your hands. I don’t care what You do with me. The beauty of that is we know what He does with us. He makes us into a new creation.
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Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help, that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.