No Way! – Ministry of Grace Church

Tag: No Way!

Romans 4:8 – Blessed Through Faith

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Will

Blessed is the man whose sin the lord will no way take into account."

Truth to Learn

God considers those who believe His promises as sinless. As a result, He shows His favor to them.

Behind the Words

The word translated “Blessed” is makarios. We looked at the verb form of this word two verses back. It refers to one who possesses the fullness of God’s favor. Aristotle contrasted this word with endeēs, meaning “one who is lacking or in need.”

Another translation element that we want to look at are the words “no way.” This is the translation of the two Greek words ou me. The word me indicates relative negation and the word ou indicates absolute negation. In English, a double negative is not proper, but in Greek it is a form of emphasis. So the expression ou me means “absolutely not” or “no way.”

“Take into account” is from a Greek word that we have looked at before. It is the word logidzomai, which means, “to put to one’s account.” It is sometimes translated as “impute, reckon, credit or count unto.” It is an accounting term meaning that someone’s account has been (or hasn’t been) credited as having something. In this verse it says that the person unto whom God will not credit sin is full of God’s favor.

Meaning Explained

This verse is directly tied to the previous verse and it contains the crux of what Paul is trying to demonstrate. These two verses are quoted from Psalms 32:1, 2. In both these verses David describes the person as blessed. This is different from one who is happy because happy implies good luck (the root hap means “luck as a favorable circumstance”). A blessed person is one who is in the world but not of the world. That is, his or her satisfaction comes from God, not favorable circumstances. A person who is blessed of God is someone who experiences peace with or without pleasure.

What David is saying is that the person whose sins and acts of lawlessness are forgiven and the person unto whom God will absolutely not credit with sin is a recipient of God’s greatest favor. What is just as interesting is what David said at the end of this particular Psalm:

Many sorrows are to the wicked; but he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall embrace him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! (Psalms 32:10-11)

David tells us to be glad, to rejoice, and to shout for joy because we have not been credited with sin.

What Paul is getting to is this: the person who does not earn (or deserve) salvation but believes God, not only does not have sin credited to his or her account but does have righteousness credited to his or her account. Let’s see, do I want God to see me as a sinner or as sinless? Hmmm. That’s not very hard to decide, is it?

Application

Deep down inside we all know that we are sinners and God knows us even better than we know ourselves. But through faith, the blood of Christ covers our sins and God sees us as righteous and without sin. That’s God’s grace, that’s God’s supreme favor, that’s blessedness!

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 6:15 – Grateful Willing Restraint

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Will

Romans 6:15

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

Truth to Learn

Just because our sins are all forgiven doesn’t mean we should let our sin nature run wild.

Behind the Words

The expression “What then?” is from two Greek words, ti oun. The first word, ti (a form of tis), in an interrogative pronoun means “who?” or “what?” or “which?” Oun is used between two clauses or sentences to show a connection between them or a cause and effect relationship. Paul is using it here to express a question that shows the relationship between what he has just said and the rhetorical question to follow.

“Under” is translated from the pronoun hupo (or hypo), which can mean physically “under” or “under the influence or dominion of” as it is used here.

Meaning Explained

Paul now asks another one of his rhetorical questions. His purpose for asking the question is to answer an objection that might be raised. He has just declared that we are not under the dominion and power of sin any longer because we are no longer under the Law but under grace. Remember, the people to whom he wrote this letter were predominantly converted Jews living in Rome. They had been brought up believing that the way to righteousness was by obeying the Law. When they were saved, they continued to believe that it was necessary to obey the Law.

But Paul has skillfully demonstrated, not only are we no longer bound to the Law, but we are no longer under the lordship of our sin nature. We are freed from the bondage of the Law, and we are freed from the dominion of sin. To a Jewish Christian who has felt the weight of the Law and sin his or her entire life, this would sound like a freedom cry and permission to sin without repercussion.

So Paul asks his rhetorical question: Shall we sin because we are not under Law, but under grace?

In his typical style, Paul immediately answers the question with the Greek phrase, “me genoito” which, as we have seen before, means “May it not be!” or “No way!”

We Christians are funny people sometimes. We labor for years under the false impression that we will be punished for our sins. We are very careful to be as obedient and faithful as we possibly can for fear of reprisal from God, as if He were a giant ogre just waiting for us to slip up so He can pounce on us and make us pay. But as soon as we learn that all of our sins are paid for (past, present, and future) and that we are no longer under condemnation, but are declared to be righteous, we immediately want to throw off the mantle of self restraint and let our sin nature run wild.

Instead, we should endeavor to be as obedient and faithful as possible, not because we will be punished for sinning, but because we have been set free and we owe it to our Master and Lord to act the way He wants us to act.

Application

We should be so grateful for having all of our sins forgiven that we willingly restrain our sin nature and live for Him the way He wants us to! But that’s not the way we think, is it?

In God’s service, for His glory,

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:

Romans 6:2 – Sin? No Way!

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Will

Romans 6:2

Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Truth to Learn

Our lives should no longer be characterized by sinfulness.

Behind the Words

“Certainly not!” is a familiar expression with Paul. It is translated from the Greek words mē genoito. Mē is a particle of negation, meaning “not.” Genoito is a form of ginomai, meaning “to begin to be” or “to cause to come into existence.” In this expression it is used in the very rare optative mood (there are fewer than 70 examples of the optative mood in the entire New Testament). A literal translation of these two words is “May it not be!” In today’s vernacular we might say “No way!”

“Died” is from the verb apothnēskō, which is made up of apo, meaning “from” or “away from” and thnēskō, meaning “to die.” Hence, apothnēskō means “to die away from” or “to die off.”

We have talked before about the fact that Greek is an inflected language. That is, the form of a word indicates how it is used in a sentence. We see some of this in English. For instance “I” is a subject and “me” is an indirect object. The word translated “sin” is in the form of an indirect object. Hence, it could be interpreted as “in sin,” “to sin,” or “by sin.” Paul has already taught us that we are dead “in sin” and “by sin.” Now he is teaching us that we are also dead “to” or “with respect to” sin.

Meaning Explained

This verse is a direct response to the previous one: “Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?” Paul’s response is, “No way!” He is proclaiming that we should never even consider continuing our sinful ways just so that God’s grace will increase. Paul carries this even further by asking, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” In other words, if we have, indeed, died with respect to sin, how can we possibly live with respect to sin any longer?

In order to understand this better, it might be helpful to understand what the concept of death really means. We think of death simply as “absence of life,” whereas in reality it means, “separation from life.” By looking at it this way, perhaps you can understand what Paul is saying. We who have been separated from sin (because God has cast our sins as far from us as the east is from the west) cannot possibly be continually in its presence anymore.

Before we were saved, we had no choice but to continually live in a sinful manner. After all, we were controlled by our sin nature. But, because our sins have been paid for and our sin nature has been crucified with Christ, we now have a choice as to how we live.

Application

Paul says we have an obligation to stay away from a life of sinfulness because God has declared us righteous. We also should be motivated by an intense sense of gratitude to God for wiping out our sin debt, which should cause us to want to live an obedient life that will testify to God’s grace!

So I ask you, “How do you want to live? In sinful selfishness or in grateful obedience?

In God’s service, for His glory,

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –