Welcome to today's program. The beauty of grace and pastor Pete Norris of harvest fellowship, church, Goldsboro, North Carolina. And today we want to talk about the romance of grace. You know, in Romans chapter six, verse 14, we read a scripture that is everybody reads and everybody, uh, really believe they understand it. But I wanna, I want to help you today. Understand Romans six and 14 for sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not under the law, but you're under grace. Now. I want you to understand that, uh, when we read these scriptures, we sometimes don't understand the text. The word sin here is actually a noun and it's a person place or thing. So it's not talking about smoking, drinking, doing drugs. In other words, the sin nature that Jesus took away from you because he gave you his divine nature. The sin nature shall not have dominion over you anymore because you don't have the sin nature anymore for you're not under law, but you're under grace and grace and truth came through Jesus in John one. So we see something taking place here that really brings an enlightenment. As we begin to understand the nature of sin and everybody, when we read the word sin in Romans, we certainly immediately think about smoking, drinking and doing drugs. And I use that as a paraphrase in the church because so many people think about the acts or the actual behavior. If he goes study the scriptures in Romans there's only one in, I think it's Romans six in Romans seven.
Speaker 2:There's only one text
Dr. Pete Norris:That the actual word sin and I believe it's chapter, verse 15 is a verb. And it's an action where the rest of the time, their names, which means a person place a thing. So they're not showing actions. So it's not talking about smoking, drinking, doing drugs. It's talking about a sinful nature. Now I want to go to Romans chapter seven, one through four, and I want to start right there because I want you to get a revelation of the romance of grace for, do you not know, brother and four, I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man. As long as he lives. Now, we just saw where the law or seeing doesn't have dominion over you anymore in Romans six. And in verse seven, as long as he lives for the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband, as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives she marries another man. She is called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is no adulteress, though. She is married to another man. Therefore my brother, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another to him who was raised from the dead that we should bear fruit to God. Now we don't produce fruit because we're alive to the law. God's law is eternal. jesus' death became our, in other words, I was married to Adam. I was born into the world and I was born a sinner. And there's absolutely nothing that I can do about becoming a center because I was born in the Adam because of Adam's sin in the garden. Now I'm married to Adam. He's my husband. In other words, in other words, he is I'm married to him. But when Jesus came along, jesus' death, burial, and resurrection that cured me from the law. I'm no longer married to the law. Now I can be married to another. So now I can be married t o, t o grace, which is Jesus. And now I'm married to him. And so I'm no longer under the law, but I'm under g race. So when the Bible says f or sin shall not have any dominion over you, that's because the sin nature that you once had, a nd once you accepted Christ is gone, it does not say you're not going to smoke and drink and do drugs anymore. It says that it won't, that they'll send nature will not have any dominion over you a nymore, any control over m e anymore. So I'm free now to be married to Jesus because of jesus' death, burial, resurrection, I'm no longer under the law. He's given us a parallel between a husband and a wife, as a spiritual revelation between the law and grace. So we see here that I'm free to be married to another now, and now that I'm married to another, I'm no longer I become dead to the law. So the law has no more power over me because I'm dead to the law. You can find that in Romans chapter six, seven through 11, for he who has died, has been freed from sin Now, if we died with cross, we believe we also shall live with him. Knowing that cross having been raised from the dead dies no more death, no longer has dominion over. He who lives. He lives unto God. Likewise. You also reckon yourself to be dead indeed, to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So we see here immediately. He's telling us that death no longer has any more power over us. And we've been freed from sin. That's why sin has no more dominion over you because it's a noun. It's not smoking. Drinking, doing drugs is talking about the sin nature. Once you realize the sin nature is gone and that's not who you are, the smoking, drinking, and drugs or clean up in your life. And the people say, well, pastor, are you just giving people a license to see an absolutely not. I'm trying to let people discover who they are in the spirit. So they will not become the person they think they are in the flesh because that guy died Colossians three and three said, if he be dead, you are hidden with Christ in God. So you and I died with Christ. Now we're hidden with Christ in God. So when God looks down, he sees Christ. He doesn't see us. You say, well, pastor prove that what? Galatians two and 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life, which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I want you to realize today that you and I are crucified with Christ. I've been freed from the powers of the sin nature of sin now because of the blood of Jesus Christ. I live and move and have my being in him. That's the beauty of grace. And that's the romance of grace.