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Episode 837: In this episode, we delve into Romans 6, which states, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." We unpack the context of this verse, emphasizing the importance of understanding it within the broader narrative of Romans. We discuss how Paul addresses the tension between grace and sin, reminding listeners that while God's grace is abundant, it does not give us a license to continue living in sin.
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Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey everybody, good morning and welcome to the Bible Goods. Good morning. We are here in the middle of a series about God's promises. This week's theme is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. There you go. That made it sound like a you know, hey, that's right. But before we dive into that, Desiree has written a very interesting uh topic drop is what she's calling the segment and the way she wrote it as hilarious. So this is what she said. She said, today's theme is the gift of God is eternal life, and Christmas is fast approaching, so let's talk about some of the favorite gifts you've ever received. Wow. So she's comparing the gift of eternal life to my Sony Walkman in the eighth grade Christmas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you first pair of Jordan's because those are close, almost almost the almost the same thing. Yeah. So, I I said, right before we hit record on the on the podcast, I said, uh, she has done a terrible transition, remember, you know, because I'm referencing our terrible transitions. Hey, you know what else is a gift? You Sony Walkman in internal life, so uh yeah, And I referenced my Sony Walkman because I think, actually that was one of the best guests I. Ever received, favorite gift you've ever received. When I got my Sony Walkman in the eighth grade. It was cutting technology because I had auto reverse. Oo, automatically go back. But no, you don't have to take Yeah, you don't have to flip there. You just hit a button and it and it just plays tape in the direction. Ah yeah. So you know because every cassette tape boys and girls used to have one side and then the other side side b uh and and basically you had to find, uh you know which song, Hey, I'm in the mood for a song number four. Then you have to take the tape out, flip it over, figure out where you were, and either rewind it or fast forward through the other songs. And which, by the way, was actually mind blowing technology compared to the A Trax. Sure A Trex used to play in a loop and it was and it was like and so it was like if you're in the middle of like song one, you could hit a button to song two. It'd also be in the middle of song too, and there was no way to rewind it, right, There was only a way to just play. And then you literally had to listen through a song in order to be lined up with the next song. That's correct, and an if that song was longer, I mean you were messed right, You're like, I missed the intro. So the best thing you ever got, the best gift you ever got, are you saying? Was your sony Walkman with auto reverse. I think at the time it impacted. Is that the one that was the most exciting, Well because. Nobody had it, oh yeah, and I and I had And it was also a brand name, and I was a person who didn't have brand name anything. So I believe it or not, it was actually quite the gift. It was a big deal. Then you're you're at school going wash this and it comes at the end of the last song on Horiday, and then you're. Or in the middle of the song, right the middle the song. You just hit it and it just FLIPSI yeah, So anyway, but yeah, I was sort of the talk of the town. Youngstown hero. Yeah. Everybody was like everybody's like, did you see Jarbas watching him jealous, What do you steal that from? I wish I still had it because those things would be actually worth a little bit of money. That's awesome, Yeah, super great. So that was probably your best one. I think I have a couple. When I graduated from college, my uncle gave me a mont Blanc Meister Struck pen, and for whatever reason, I've always just liked mount Blanc the It's a Swiss watch company that also makes high end pens and other accessories. I just loved it, and he gave it to me, and it was crazy expensive. I still have it, so here I am twenty thirty years later and I still have that ben. So that was neat. And then I think maybe the most surprising gift for me. I'm not a I don't know, I'm not a magnet for gifts like people aren't, like, Oh, Jeff's gonna love this. So I was hunting, and I've told this on this show before, but I was hunting and I was going through a really, really really difficult time and I lost the place that I liked to hunt at. And a guy at our church came and said, hey, I don't know if you're looking for a place to hunt. You can hunt my farm. I said, yes, I just lost my place and I was afraid. And when I showed up, he said, hey, come over my truck, and he had a gun case and he wanted to give me this nice it's a black powder muzzleloader gun. You know, black powder like those old flint lock guns. Yeah, yeah, okay, it's kind of like that. It uses black powder, but it's nice. It was a nice one. And on the case he wrote Matthew six thirty three, which is seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you. And that was such a bad time in ministry. I was just getting beat up so bad, and I was starting to doubt, man, I'm making the right decision. And then you know, he gave me that. It also said was Matthew six thirty three on the on the cover of that that gun case, and that was I think it just felt so nice because it was on He'd already done me a favor, let me on his property. Then they give me that gun was a big thing. So yeah, those two I think are the two biggest ones for me. Third, I would say is when my mom gave me a land Speeder and an X wing Fighter the same Christmas. Whoa land Speeders were bad time, big time, big time, but. X wings were even more expensive. Yeah, I know, and I got them both for Christmas the same time. Wow. I remember my I got a land like nineteen seventy nine, nineteen eighty, yeah, something like that. And I remember I got a land Speeder, so I had one of those. I also had an X wing Fighter. But my friend Rich Frondorf, uh, he actually got an eight eighty Walker. Oh wow. Yeah, back back in like nineteen seventy nine, those were ninety dollars wow, which by the way, would be today like. Two hundred fifty bucks, three hundred buck even more. Probably yeah, yeah, yeah right. So you know, I wonder if I wonder, if they could answer this, how much would ninety dollars be today from nineteen seventy nine. I wonder if che chip is going to do it. I don't know, it says working with chet Cheap is trying to. Work it out. Adjusting for inflation, ninety dollars in nineteen seventy nine is approximately equivalent to three hundred and ninety five dollars. Oh I was close. Yeah, I was wow. Yeah, so a four hundred dollars Christmas present. Yeah, that's pretty good even for today. Yeah, I think so too. Did you know anybody who had the death Star? No? Yeah, I had a friend who had a death Star. Wow, that's pretty big too. So I'd bring over my land Speeder, my ex wing Fighter. Yeah yeah yeah, and he my yeah yeah, well you can use the X wing Fighter at you know, at it, not the land Speeder. Right. Land Speeder was just tattooing. So a few years ago I mentioned that on this podcast or in a church service something I can't remember. My mom was watching, and so she bought me all three because I also had a tie Fighter. She bought me miniatures of all three. They sit at my desk. Oh really, she said, hey fine, because I said, I don't even have me more, I'd love to have them again, and so she bought all three of them for me for Christmas. Call you know that. I saw something on Instagram. Sorry, we'll move on, but I saw something on Instagram just two nights ago that said that if you have the original Star Wars action figures in their packets, like you know, unopened from nineteen seventy whatever it is like Luke, Skywalker, Yoda of the Classics, Han Solo, Chewbacca, all those kinds of things. If you have them, they're worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars each unopened. Man, oh, man, and man. Can you imagine? Yes, can you imagine your parents giving you? Okay, Chrissy, here's what I'm going to give you this, but don't open it because one day you're gonna thank me. Yeah. Well, I mean you have ten of them, you can retire. Yeah. Oh yeah, if you have ten of them, if you have a set of those, you could retire. Yes, that's crazy. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah. Well, the best gift ever. Almost as good, almost as the gifts we're talking about today. Right yeah, thanks, thanks Desirabia, making those comparisons terrible. Okay, So we are talking about the gift of God is eternal life. And one of my favorite verses on this I quote it just about every time I share the Gospel YEP is Rome's chapter six, verse twenty three. But that's the last verse in the chapter. I want to start at the first verse in the chapter says, well then should we keep on sinning? So he's been talking about God's grace is so good that God's grace overcomes our sin. Yes, right, so he says, well, then should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace. Of course not, King James says, God forbid, God forbid. Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when you were joined with Christ and baptism, we joined him in his death. For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we've been united with Him and his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful lives were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin, for when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God. For you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead you live under the freedom of God's grace. Well, then, since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not, or once again God forbid forbid? Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey. You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God. Once you were once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you've become slaves to righteous living because of the weakness of your human nature. I'm using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous lines so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result. You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Yeah, and I think for a lot of people, you know, there are a lot of people who they've been Christians for a little while, they perhaps maybe even a ten heritage church, and maybe they've never read Romans six all the way through. And sometimes you know, when you hear a very famous verse, and you hear it in its context, it's sort of like John three sixteen, Right, You're like, what John three sixteen was given to one guy in a private conversation at night. You'd think that verse would be from the rooftops, right, But when you hear something like this, the context is actually like, oh wow, that actually gives even more insight to that truth. Right, And I love how. You know, just the other day I was that small group and our good friend Bill Stewart said, he goes, you know, he was talking about law versus grace and uh, you know Romans sixty seven, and he said six seven, and all the college students like he Roman and Bill goes, what did I say? That was funny? And then it was the old guy who goes and me who said it's because you said six seven then and all the collegents. But anyway, but in six seven, six and seven, he actually talks about this. He talks about grace versus law, and he talks about our current state now that we're saved. Uh, you know, we're in heaven, but but but but grace still abounds, right, so so yet you know, all the sins that we commit now we know that Christ died for all of them, right, That's what Paul was saying. Paula is saying Christ died for all of your sins. And then and then uh, and so some people were saying, well, then, hey, if if Christ died for all my sins and I know that all of my sins are going to be forgiven and I'm going to go to heaven, does my behavior even matter? Because after all, I used to believe that I had to do my best to obey the law, right laws and sacrifices. But now what you're saying is you're saying that Christ died for all sins. So therefore, why can't I just live my life sinning and do it and what I want? Because I know that no matter what, I'm going to go to heaven because Christ. You're telling me that Christ died for all of my sins. And so this is the issue I think that Paul is addressing. Yeah, there was a belief system, and Paul writes about it. He pushes back against it. In Galatians. He pushes back against it a couple of different times. John, I think, pushes back against a little bit in his writings. There was this belief, and it's partly it's kind of a leftover hedonism from the Greek mentality. So Paul's writing out to Romans who adopted a lot of the Greek culture, Greek ideas anyways, with regard to lifestyle. And so there were these two ideas. One, your body is so evil and wicked you have to oppress it and beat it down, and everything about you, every even the appetite to eat is a sin. All these say, right, is horrible. So they had one side. The other side was so hedonistic in the way that they viewed it that they were like, well, hey, this body's just gonna die someday, so just go buck wild because this body's gonna stop. And then when you get to have it, everything will be better. Right. And so he's kind of pushing back against both of those ideas, and he does it almost all of his writings. Most of the books he writes, he has a hint of one or the other a lot of the books, these writings. So he's also talking here that on the one side, what hey, then if grace is here, we can just give. If God delights in forgiving, let's just give him a lot to forgive, right, and because I just do whatever I want to do. Then most people don't think, you know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna go with a bunch of sin in that's what they're doing most of the time. What people think is I want to do it, so I'm going to do it. And they don't even care about anything else. And they're not even thinking what does God say about it? They're not They're not thinking about anything else. They're just thinking, I'm gonna do it because I want to do it. And he says, when that is your mentality, you're a slave to your own flesh. He said, But when you start thinking what would God want me to do, then you realize, actually, because what God did for me, I'm a slave to God. Right. That that's he said. Whatever you're focusing on, that's what you really Whatever your your your will drive your behaviors. But he does say, don't let sin control the way you live. He doesn't say God won't let sin control the way you live. Right, He says you need to choose it. And he said, so on one side, grace is enough. On the other side, quit making really bad choices, dummy, right, He kind of has both sides. Here he says, don't let sinc don't give into sinful desires, don't let any part of your body, any part of your body become an instrument of evil to sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God. And so he's always offering this alternative that there's God's part. He delights in forgiving, he delights in extending his grace. But dude, if you're grateful for what God did, then God forbid that you would just go keep on sinning. Instead, go ahead and fight that battle. I did. I did like a seven week series called License to Sin, and I did like a spy theme, and I had like like you know, clip arts and and things, you know, for this theme. But it was but basically this one verse was the heart of it. You know, if you know, if if we should if we're saved by grace, then should we continue to sin and let grace abound? God forbid? It was based off of that. And I love how Paul attaches baptism as a symbolism and he says, you were joined with Christ and baptism. And by the way, that that is commonly misunderstood about you know, salvation being joined in baptism or you know, that that's attached to salvation. But that's not what he's said because because baptism, he's actually saying baptism is a symbol of the death, beryl and resurrection of Christ. So he's actually pointing to the death, barrel and resurrection of Christ as our salvation. Right. He says, you were joined with Christ, join with Christ and baptism. And by the way, the operative word with that is joined with Christ. So we're joined with Christ in salvation. But the symbol of symbolism of baptism is he says, just as Christ went under the earth, don't you know that we too have died to our old selves. And what he's doing is he's connecting a spiritual truth and he's saying, listen, there's something happening spiritually in you that you have to remember, which is this. You're no longer slaves to sin. Your old sinful nature has been buried. Your old self has been buried with Christ on the cross. And just as Christ in his you know humanity, you know he was you know, he subjected himself to become one hundred percent of human right and and the and and he took upon himself sin Jesus literally became sin, and then he died, and then he rose to life, and uh, and he conquered sin, He conquered death, and he walked in a brand new life. You know, what do you tell Mary, don't touch me, for I'm not yet a sent it to my father, you know, don't touch me. Don't don't don't get your sinful germs on me. I have yet, I have yet to have sin. To my father, Jesus conquered death. He left sin in the grave. And what Paul is saying is is he's saying, and he talks about in Corinthians as well, but he's really encouraging people and saying, connect yourself to a spiritual truth. Your old self has died and you no longer have to be a slave to sin because you have the Holy Spirit in you. You have the spirit of God which overcomes sin. It gives us the power to conquer sin. And so yeah, you shouldn't submit to sin. You should submit to the Holy Spirit which conquers sin. As he writes, he's always writing through a lot of Romans. He's about back, then, now, and someday, and he flips back and forth through them so much so the power of sin has been broken for you, and someday you'll be completely free from it. Yeah, but back then you were completely consumed by it. Right now, stop trying, right, stop, don't give your body over to sin. Fight it right. And he's talking all three at the same time. And what we want is we want it all solved. Now it has been in God's mind solved. When we get to eternity, we will never sin again. Today, I still walk around in this body. This body has to die before sin stops in me, right, And yet he forgave me so he sees me as sinless, even though sometimes I'm tempted to sin. But I'm no longer a slave like I used to be. Now I can be free. But it's possible for a slave to go back and say no, you know hey. In Egyptian times, in Roman times, slaves sometimes when they would serve their sentence of you know, seven years or whatever, if they if they loved living in that household, they could go and make themselves an indentured servant. They would punch, puncture the ear, put a hoop through the ear, announcing now I'm choosing to stay in this house, right, and they can stay. And if the and then now I'm going to be a servant in the home. So we've been set free. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. And yet sometimes we just like, yeah, but I'd like to go put the shackles back on right, and we give ourselves back over. And so we have to fight that part of it. And that's why right in the middle, it's so don't you've been raided. You've already been made right in God's sight through the blood of Jesus. So now don't give your bodies over to the bad sin. The shackles are broken, why are you putting them back on rights? That's what he's talking about. So back then in the future, but right now, just make these decis. Don't give your body over. And I was talking to some of our young adults a couple days ago, and we were talking about this idea. And I had a roommate in college who was working about forty five hours a week, he was taking like fifteen credit hours, and he was only sleeping like five hours a night, and so he was just a zombie. Right. He'd stand up in every class all these things but he was my roommate, and he could sleep so soundly. We could pick him up on his mattress and multiple times we did it, carry him through the hallway and just put him on a snowbank out in the snow, and he'd wake up like forty minutes later. Really yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah. Well he just never feel it. He just slept so soundly. So he set three alarm clocks because he kept he flunked out of a whole class wow, because he couldn't wake up and we couldn't wake him up. So he'd set three very loud alarm clocks. He set one rate above on a little shelf right behind his head that would startl him. He set one up underneath his dresser and that was very loud, and then one over on his desk. Cussrooms. She had to get up and move to get him turned off, and it was usually by the third one that finally stumbling along like around like a zombie, brushes teeth and good class. But he was he was so convicted about the fact that his flesh was willing it was was weak that he said, I'm going to set up every possible solution to overcome this, right, this thing. And I think that that's what Paul's trying to say is don't don't give yourbody over. And so, you know, for you and me, people used to preach personal standards as if they were gospel, like you're a horrible sinner if you don't have the same kind of standard I have. Right, well, you know what, I only needed one alarm clock. I didn't need three. I didn't need his set of rules to help me get up. But he had some pretty big rules in his life in order to make sure and sure that he never flunked out of another class again. He got up. And so for some if you're deciding, hey, I'm going to fight this physical spiritual battle in me right now, and I have a certain temptation. Alcohol's a temptation for me, well, then don't drink any and don't go anywhere there where there is any alcohol. But I don't have to be mad at you if you have a cold one on a Friday night, right right, there's a new because that's not that that's my standard to help me not give into the flesh. Now, now, if I also know you're struggling, I might say, hey, dude, here's what I'm doing maybe you should be teetotal to too, or if lying is an issue, you just need to say, you need to decide you're going to go ahead and embarrass yourself by saying, actually, technically that's not true, right, and immediately, as soon as all history tells you, speak up and say that if stealing stuff is a temptation, or if you know, having an affair as a temptation, get away from those things and build a wall so high you can't get over it, protect yourself from it. And that's what Paul's trying to say is it's already been forgiven. You've been cleansed by the blood of Christ. You are perfect in God's sight in the future. But listen, the price for sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. The alert you have a choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Hey. By the way, just as a fun little side note, because we're almost out of time, I've I think I've made this statement publicly maybe a hundred times. But I come from a family who so much divorce right right right, like mom and dad, uncles, brothers, I mean, just multiple divorces, affairs, everything else, and so one of the things that I've just you know, decided on a long long time ago. It's like, hey, if my marriage ends, it's not going to end that way, right, Like I may mess it up another way. Yeah, yeah, right, murder, murder, yeah, but not divorce. That's not affairs. Not affairs. And so it's like Liz, if Liz ever disappears, we know I haven't no, no, no, no no. What I meant was what I meant was it's not going to be from an affair. Oh. So what I'm saying is what I'm saying is so a long long time ago. I just decided, like in my early twenties, if I find anybody attractive, these are the walls, right, nothing that it's a temptation for me. It's not. In fact, it's sort of the opposite. But if I ever find somebody attractive, I would just tell people. Isn't that funny? And so I would literally just say, like, if I'm working with somebody and I find somebody attractive, I'm like, I have to tell somebody. I just I don't want that to be something that I think and that nobody else knows. And so I'll literally tell this. I'll be like, hey, I just want to let you know I find her attractive, and and she's like, oh, and that can that could backfire? Right, But but then then I started later on in life, then I started telling like our good friend sonya Maletta, right, who's who is my who's my campus director? Uh? In the context of like, you know, being a leader at a church. She was my campus director. And I just say, hey, I just want to let you know, just so that somebody knows I just find her attractive. And she goes, really, all right, I'll have her killed. I will have her I will have her fired today, you know. But but but but it's exactly what you're saying. It's like it's built I don't even want to come close, right, It's that it's that fifth alarm clock, right, It's like I just want to make sure that somebody knows, right, just so that I could never ever have that be a. For so building personal standards in your life is like putting guardrails on the cliff edge for you. Yeah, right, you know where that's at. And then stay away from the guardrails, don't scratch up your car, stay as far away as you can, and the whole idea is don't go over the don't go over the edge. And this is I think that he says, don't let sin control your lives, don't give into sinful desires, don't let any party body become an instrument. He's kind of really driving this home that there is a decision involved. You can choose you're no longer a slave to sin, but you can still choose to put the shackles back on. So just don't don't do it, and your life is going to be way better. And then he said, because you used to be you're shamed of the things you used to do. And the way that you know that you're a shamed is because you don't want to tell anybody. Yeah, right, you want to keep it a secret. And he goes, you don't have to live a life full of shame anymore. The wages of sin is death. You're free to make your choices, but just understand the ransom for that is death' that's the price for you choosing to keep going in that direction. But the free gift of God as he turned a life through Jesus Christ the Lord, and just take the free gift. That's awesome. Well that's our time, So hopefully we'll see tomorrow. I'm the Baba Gus