WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:03.449 --> 00:00:09.560 For by the law is the knowledge of sin but now the righteousness of God without the law 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:13.820 is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:20.060 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all 00:00:20.060 --> 00:00:26.020 them that believe being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in 00:00:26.020 --> 00:00:27.890 Christ Jesus. 00:00:27.890 --> 00:00:34.649 Now to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith 00:00:34.649 --> 00:00:37.870 is counted for righteousness. 00:00:37.870 --> 00:00:43.130 Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the 00:00:43.130 --> 00:00:46.709 man to whom the lord will not impute sin. 00:00:56.720 --> 00:01:08.220 [Singing] 00:01:08.220 --> 00:01:23.459 As I sat listening I knew that this was what I needed too. 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:30.639 My heart cried out that I needed God's son to bear my sins for me. 00:01:30.639 --> 00:01:37.220 I wondered if my girl Barbara was feeling the same way, I decided she wasn't. 00:01:37.220 --> 00:01:45.090 So I started out alone to accept God's free gift, his gift of eternal life through Jesus 00:01:45.090 --> 00:01:58.460 Christ and so my new life in Christ began. 00:01:58.460 --> 00:02:00.329 New life did I say? 00:02:00.329 --> 00:02:06.459 Well sort of but not so that you would notice. 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:15.570 My life was filled with studies, the team, the dramatics, club social functions, and 00:02:15.570 --> 00:02:18.310 most important with Barbara. 00:02:18.310 --> 00:02:23.625 I didn't seem to have time for spiritual things. 00:02:23.625 --> 00:02:45.560 [Musical Interlude] 00:02:47.042 --> 00:02:50.379 Barbara just was not the kind of girl you went with by absent treatment she loved to 00:02:50.379 --> 00:02:55.810 go places and do things. 00:02:55.810 --> 00:03:03.980 So I kept living in the same old world and while enjoying the thrills and excitement, 00:03:03.980 --> 00:03:07.709 I found no peace or satisfaction in my heart. 00:03:07.709 --> 00:03:12.390 I began to wonder if my faith in Christ was the real thing. 00:03:12.390 --> 00:03:20.910 I had sincerely asked God for salvation through Jesus Christ but was I really a Christian? 00:03:20.910 --> 00:03:25.930 One day on campus I happened to meet Ann Bailey, the girl that had invited Barbara and me to 00:03:25.930 --> 00:03:30.334 the evangelistic meeting. 00:03:30.334 --> 00:03:49.420 [Musical Interlude] 00:03:49.420 --> 00:04:08.219 It seemed like the most natural thing in the world when Ann opened her bible and we started 00:04:08.219 --> 00:04:15.319 to study from the book of Romans. 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:22.200 As we studied I began to see what my relationship to God really was. 00:04:22.200 --> 00:04:27.350 I realized that I had been given right standing before God simply because I had trusted in 00:04:27.350 --> 00:04:34.970 Christ. 00:04:34.970 --> 00:04:39.780 In Romans 5 I learned that Christ died for us before we turned to him. 00:04:39.780 --> 00:04:43.730 While we were still his enemies. 00:04:43.730 --> 00:04:48.920 So now that I was justified by his blood I could be sure that the same great love made 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:55.250 me safe from the coming wrath of God. 00:04:55.250 --> 00:05:00.280 As we continued in chapter 5 I saw that when[inaudible glitch - Adam sinned] he brought on the curse 00:05:00.280 --> 00:05:18.130 of sin and death so I and the whole human race inherited sin and death from him. 00:05:18.130 --> 00:05:24.660 But as one man Adam brought sin and death to all of humanity, one man Christ brought 00:05:24.660 --> 00:05:33.130 the gift of right standing and eternal life to all those who receive him. 00:05:33.130 --> 00:05:38.250 Yet because right standing and eternal life are freely given to me through trust in Christ 00:05:38.250 --> 00:05:45.000 should I continue to live sinfully? 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:54.660 Certainly not, Romans 6 made the reason clear Jesus Christ was my savior but my relationship 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:57.180 to him went deeper than this. 00:05:57.180 --> 00:06:01.880 For I being baptized into Christ was united with him. 00:06:01.880 --> 00:06:08.460 I was united with him in his death, in his death my former self was crucified and my 00:06:08.460 --> 00:06:14.430 slavery to sin died forever. 00:06:14.430 --> 00:06:20.160 I was united with Christ in his resurrection in his resurrection I was raised to live in 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:24.920 newness of life having a new relationship to God. 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:31.150 Then as one alive from the dead I must not let sin rule my mortal body but instead I 00:06:31.150 --> 00:06:42.470 must give to God all the members of my body to be his instruments of right doing. 00:06:42.470 --> 00:06:48.370 Christ had made me free, I was told to consider myself dead to sin. 00:06:48.370 --> 00:06:55.830 I wasn't even under law but I certainly mustn't serve sin when I had died to it. 00:06:55.830 --> 00:07:00.080 I didn't tell Anne but I began to wonder if I had really died to sin? 00:07:00.080 --> 00:07:04.370 How could I kid myself when every day I found myself sinning? 00:07:04.370 --> 00:07:11.210 Was I the only one of God's children who was still weak, wretched, and surrounded by temptation? 00:07:11.210 --> 00:07:16.100 Was I alone still battling sin? 00:07:16.100 --> 00:07:29.110 As we studied all Paul's personal experiences in Romans 7 and 8, I began to understand. 00:07:29.110 --> 00:07:34.810 The apostle Paul wrote that in Christ we are delivered from the law to serve God in a new 00:07:34.810 --> 00:07:40.690 and spiritual way, not the old legalistic way. 00:07:40.690 --> 00:07:46.300 Paul knew that God's law was holy, just, and good and deep within he delighted in that 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:48.300 law and wished to obey. 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:54.800 It he was wretched to find that although he desired to keep the law the sin in his human 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:04.940 body led him to disobey God's law, his cry was: who can deliver me? 00:08:04.940 --> 00:08:08.560 And yet Paul thanked God that Jesus Christ did deliver him. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:15.120 He wrote there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for life in Christ 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:19.830 has set us free from the power of sin and death. 00:08:19.830 --> 00:08:26.330 I began to understand that the law gave me a standard of holiness but my sinful self 00:08:26.330 --> 00:08:32.530 rebelled against God's holy commands so the law instead of making me holy brought about 00:08:32.530 --> 00:08:40.940 my greater condemnation. 00:08:40.940 --> 00:08:47.050 I saw that Jesus Christ did what the law couldn't do, he came in a body similar to ours and 00:08:47.050 --> 00:08:49.690 bore our sin for us on the cross. 00:08:49.690 --> 00:08:58.390 For that reason we are not condemned, instead our sin nature was judged and sentenced to 00:08:58.390 --> 00:09:01.070 death. 00:09:01.070 --> 00:09:07.030 In this way Christ made it possible for us to walk in the spirit, to live in a way that 00:09:07.030 --> 00:09:10.840 is acceptable to God. 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:15.980 But men who live by the standards of their human lower natures give their attention to 00:09:15.980 --> 00:09:18.280 the things of the flesh. 00:09:18.280 --> 00:09:24.860 Death walks their path with them and they cannot please God. 00:09:24.860 --> 00:09:29.460 However in Christ I had been placed on a new spiritual plane. 00:09:29.460 --> 00:09:37.430 My spirit was given life by God's holy spirit within me and in Christ I was dead to sin. 00:09:37.430 --> 00:09:44.430 My human body was still dying because of the sin that was still in it yet I knew that the 00:09:44.430 --> 00:09:52.840 one who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will give life to my mortal body. 00:09:52.840 --> 00:10:00.300 My obligation then was to put to death by the spirit the doings of my lower nature. 00:10:00.300 --> 00:10:08.470 For if I lived according to my old sin nature then death would call me home in shame. 00:10:08.470 --> 00:10:12.560 However God had not called me to be in bondage to fear. 00:10:12.560 --> 00:10:14.750 I was God's son. 00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:17.730 I was made a fellow heir with Christ. 00:10:17.730 --> 00:10:23.830 My heart rejoiced in the knowledge of my adoption and sonship to God. 00:10:23.830 --> 00:10:29.940 But I saw that the time of testing was not yet over I must wait with all creation for 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:35.390 God to break all bondage to decay. 00:10:35.390 --> 00:10:37.890 I must wait for the unveiling of my sonship. 00:10:37.890 --> 00:10:41.260 I must wait for the redemption of my body. 00:10:41.260 --> 00:10:53.450 And yet I already had the foretaste of the spirit helping me in my weakness. 00:10:53.450 --> 00:10:59.070 I wanted to study more in Romans but since it was getting late I thanked Anne for taking 00:10:59.070 --> 00:11:10.380 time to study with me. 00:11:10.380 --> 00:11:30.450 Then I started home still thinking of what God had done for me. 00:11:30.450 --> 00:11:36.110 That night I promised God that whatever happened I would live to serve him. 00:11:36.110 --> 00:11:47.850 I promised to seek to follow his will and depend on the holy spirit within me for power. 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:52.460 It wasn't until the following Saturday that I got a chance to talk to Barbara about my 00:11:52.460 --> 00:11:56.680 decision. 00:11:56.680 --> 00:12:01.250 But Barbara just didn't seem to understand when I didn't want to take her for an evening 00:12:01.250 --> 00:12:13.480 of nightclubbing she became upset and made me take her home. 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:17.440 After I left Barbara I got to thinking. 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:21.620 Maybe I had made a mistake? 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:27.520 After all it wasn't a crime to dance. 00:12:27.520 --> 00:12:31.500 And I didn't have to get drunk just because I went to a nightclub. 00:12:31.500 --> 00:13:21.320 [Musical Interlude] 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:26.930 As we danced I thought that everything in the whole world was right and good stars seemed 00:13:26.930 --> 00:13:36.630 to shine in Barbara's eyes never before had I realized how much I loved her. 00:13:36.630 --> 00:13:47.680 But later when I was at home alone I knew that all was not right my thoughts kept stumbling 00:13:47.680 --> 00:13:58.550 over each other and I just couldn't get to sleep. 00:13:58.550 --> 00:14:03.480 I couldn't find any peace or rest until I decided that I would tell Barbara exactly 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:05.610 how I felt. 00:14:05.610 --> 00:14:10.630 I had to make it clear to her that I was going to try and devote my life entirely to serving 00:14:10.630 --> 00:14:18.620 my lord and savior Jesus Christ. 00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:30.920 The next morning I persuaded Barbara to go to church with me she had made us some sandwiches 00:14:30.920 --> 00:14:43.800 so after church we went out to the park for our picnic. 00:14:43.800 --> 00:14:48.191 When I first started explaining that I had given my life over to God's service I was 00:14:48.191 --> 00:14:55.190 afraid that Barb was just going to be angry but she seemed to realize how much in earnest 00:14:55.190 --> 00:15:00.100 I was. 00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:04.980 When I finished explaining she promised that since I was going to try to live for God, 00:15:04.980 --> 00:15:09.260 she would try to live for him too. 00:15:09.260 --> 00:15:14.660 The months that followed were very happy for me. 00:15:14.660 --> 00:15:20.440 Barb and I found many new Christian friends. 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:26.980 We never missed church, young people's society, or prayer meetings. 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:37.750 But one thing bothered me I still wasn't able to talk freely of spiritual things with Barbara. 00:15:37.750 --> 00:15:44.240 And then it happened, one night after prayer meeting Barbara told me that she just couldn't 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:48.480 stand all the piousness and Psalm singing. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:16:03.240 She said she had tried to go my way but she just couldn't. 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:27.620 Barb, Barbara? 00:16:27.620 --> 00:16:32.760 And so for the second time Barbara walked out of my life. 00:16:32.760 --> 00:16:35.250 My heart ached when Barb left. 00:16:35.250 --> 00:16:41.230 But as months and then years past I learned to trust more in Jesus Christ, I learned to 00:16:41.230 --> 00:16:42.860 depend on him. 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:48.770 The fellowship of other Christians and the privilege of working with them in spreading 00:16:48.770 --> 00:16:59.050 the gospel gave me great joy. 00:16:59.050 --> 00:17:04.480 As I studied my bible more, the passage Anne first showed me in Romans chapters 5 through 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:12.049 8, became my favorite sometimes I would review the teaching something like this. 00:17:12.049 --> 00:17:17.889 Because I was born a descendant of Adam I inherited a sinful nature and was born under 00:17:17.889 --> 00:17:22.689 the curse of sin and death. 00:17:22.689 --> 00:17:29.710 When I turned to Jesus Christ I became God's child and received God's free gift of justification 00:17:29.710 --> 00:17:33.529 and life in Christ. 00:17:33.529 --> 00:17:41.239 Because I was united with Christ, my old self died in his death and in his resurrection 00:17:41.239 --> 00:17:46.659 I was given newness of life. 00:17:46.659 --> 00:17:53.289 My sinful nature makes me unable to keep God's law but in Christ I cannot be condemned by 00:17:53.289 --> 00:18:02.929 the law and the holy spirit within me enables me to live in a new spiritual way. 00:18:02.929 --> 00:18:09.049 So knowing that I am God's son I am waiting for the day when my sinful dying human body 00:18:09.049 --> 00:18:13.700 will be made like Christ's risen body. 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:17.340 Now I see that all things are working together for my good. 00:18:17.340 --> 00:18:20.919 For before I came into existence God knew me. 00:18:20.919 --> 00:18:26.869 Before I was born God so ordered things that I will someday be transformed into the likeness 00:18:26.869 --> 00:18:29.509 of his son Jesus Christ. 00:18:29.509 --> 00:18:33.529 Since God is for me who can be against me? 00:18:33.529 --> 00:18:36.730 Who can accuse me when God acquits me? 00:18:36.730 --> 00:18:43.740 Who can condemn me when Christ died for me and is actually representing my cause at God's 00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:45.779 right hand? 00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:51.450 What then could separate me from Christ's love, not sufferings or trials. 00:18:51.450 --> 00:18:57.259 For through Christ I am made to conquer and what is left that could separate me from the 00:18:57.259 --> 00:19:06.370 love of Christ, not my life or my death, not my present or my future, not angels principalities 00:19:06.370 --> 00:19:13.639 or powers, not evil forces above or below, not anything in all creation can separate 00:19:13.639 --> 00:19:22.130 me from the love of Jesus Christ my lord. 00:19:22.130 --> 00:19:28.360 I do not believe I will ever entirely understand God's love to me but I do understand God's 00:19:28.360 --> 00:19:46.419 love more since he has given me a little son to love. 00:19:46.419 --> 00:19:50.929 God has indeed been good to me. 00:19:50.929 --> 00:19:54.139 I'm very proud of my boy and my wife, Anne.