Truest Freedom

Introduction

Today we’re looking Romans 6:1-14

Pencil & Eraser ILL - Ever make a BIG mistake (pencil)? Add an extra digit to a check, or do something you wish you could make go away?

We all do, but there is a difference between a mistake and purposely going about to sin saying, “It’s okay, God lets me sin.”

We’ll come back to this at the end of this message. (eraser at end of message)

POINT - Salvation by grace alone is not a license to do whatever you want.

Once Christ is center in a life, obedience is mandatory.

Last night people partied, many got drunk. Some don’t remember midnight.

Our message would not made last night so festive for many.

But don’t get this wrong, its because God loves us He calls us to keep His commands:

John 14:21 CSB

The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

When you love someone, you are careful not to hurt them.

God does not want to hurt us, nor should we want to hurt God. That’s what love does to people; we don’t want to willingly hurt people we love.

Now, if its bad to hurt God, how much worse it is to willingly sin.

Paul is addresses this in our passage today.

What Paul noted earlier is addressed fully in our text today:

In Romans 3:8

Romans 3:8 CSB

And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

Sin might feel good for a moment “fleeting pleasure of sin” (Hebrews 11:25).

Just ask the hangover crowd this morning.

When faced with the questions “sin all the more” Paul is clear with his answer in v.1:

CSB Absolutely not!

KJV God forbid.

ESV By no means!

NASB95 May it never be!

NIV84 By no means!

Clear enough?

Paul is asking:

Romans 6:1–2 CSB

What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

His questions again, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

Paul answers this question in vv.3-14.

To help us grasp our passage, I’ve divided it into three segments:

Grasping What We Have in Jesus

Getting Where We’re heading with Jesus

Giving Whenever We Can for Jesus

ILL - Decades ago, before I married Jennifer, I lived in a bachelor pad. The one bedroom tiny apartment was built for the Army in the 40’s and lacked insulated walls and ceiling. In the winter, water collected running down the walls making the place damp and smelly. In the summer, the wall unit A/C kept the air in one room cool, while everyplace else was an oven.

I was happy to move out from that apartment into a small rented house. I had no desire to return.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I still have no desire to go back to that apartment because I remember just how terrible it was to live there.

But with sin, it seems we tend to forget the consequences and remember the appeal.

Once we turn to Jesus, we are dead to sin. Why go back to inhabit a dead body. They stink!

Paul wants us to remember there is no going back to the stinking dead life of sin.

What does living a new life look like?

Grasping What We Have in Jesus

Romans 6:2–10 CSB

Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Paul asks “are you unaware” “we know” and “because we know” to express comprehension, experiential knowledge, and cognitive knowledge.

Our duty adheres to doctrine. That is Paul wants us to know and understand what it is we have in Jesus.

To help us know and understand, Paul uses the familiar illustration of baptism.

Recall the popular memory verse:

Galatians 2:20 CSB

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The old self dies to Christ. This is the picture of the practice of baptism. We are buried with Christ, dunked below the water, and raised to new life all cleaned up by what Jesus did for us.

Why would we ever want to go back to a life of sin when we know the outcome?

Why go back to the horrible guilt and shame to face judgement?

This is Paul’s point.

If something is dead, how can you go back to live in it? That is crazy.

APP - When tempted, and you will be tempted, remember the bad stuff, don’t dwell on the appeal of sin. Remember why you left that way of life. This is why programs like AA and NA work. People get real about living the right sort of life and face the reality of what bad living did. Don’t be fooled.

The only hope you have to live free from sin is to die to it.

Identification with Jesus’ death and resurrection is our key to overcoming the power of temptation and power of sin in this life.

v.5 uses a botanical term “united with” Him.

We are organically united with Jesus, grown together with Him.

Jennifer and I were hiking a trail a few weeks ago when I notice a tree, and growing about half way up that tree, another tree growing out of the first. These two trees grew together as one.

Thats a picture of what our life is like in Christ.

Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 12:13 CSB

For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink.

We all sinned in Adam, likewise it is possible to have died to sin with Jesus.

But unlike the death we had in Adam, in Christ we have life.

The “old self” (v.6) was put to death, rendered powerless.

Paul notes a person who died, is free from sin.

vv.8-10 notes that if we died with Him, we also will live with Him because Jesus is the resurrected Savior!

Paul uses a phrase frequently used in Hebrews, “once for all” which is a technical term expressing the finished work of Jesus.

We know that Jesus will never face the powerful force of sin or death again.

We began with noting the false assumption some have turning grace into license to sin.

Already we learn two things:

We are one in Christ Jesus. We don’t fully understand, but we know we are one with Jesus, died with Him, and resurrected with Him.

In Jesus the power of sin is broken. This is the Truest Freedom.

What we have is Jesus is a new life with real power to live as we know God would have us to.

It’s not so much “what would Jesus do?” as “Look at what I have in Jesus.”

To go back to the original question, “should we continue to sin?” Paul makes clear that if life is no different, the person is very probably not a Christian.

TRANS - We wait for immortal bodies and the Holy Spirt gives us what we need so we don’t fall into the trap of sin. Sin may still bother us, but we can choose who we will serve.

Who will you go with sin or the Savior?

Let’s make some very practical application of this passage in our own lives as we look at our second point.

Getting Where We’re heading with Jesus

Romans 6:11 CSB

So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Ever hear the phrase “Dead man walking?” It’s what’s said of a person on their way to face a sentence of death as punishment for their crime.

In a way, every person since Adam is a “dead man walking.” The literal translation for Adam is mankind. The Bible’s punishment for sin is death and in Adam, all humankind sinned and deserve death.

When we become a Christian, we stop being “dead” and become “alive in Chirst Jesus.” We go from death to life. Our mortal bodies fail, but our eternal soul has new life.

A Christian follows Jesus, and is heading on a new path, and heavenly highway if you will.

Our text “you too consider yourself” consider is a very important word. Paul uses it 19 times in Romans. You must understand this word to make sense of this letter.

“Consider” is a commercial term that means “to impute to one’s account.”

That is we need to note what we have in Jesus:

1) dead to sin

2) alive to God in Jesus.

Jesus paid my ransom, the penalty for my sin. To conquer sin, Jesus had to conquer death too. A death sentence is required.

Jesus rose from the grave, Easter, and because of that, it means He cannot die again.

If the body is without sin, like Adam before the fall, their is no fear of death.

In Christ a person dies to sin. When our body dies, we get a new one like Jesus’s own sinless body. We don’t have a reason to fear death anymore.

Baptism does not save us, but its a great expression of our identification with Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We express our new path in life with Jesus is going someplace, now in this life, and when we leave this place to go be with Him.

TRANS - What would you do for someone who gave you a HUGE gift? Say enough money for the rest of your life. Or, perhaps they pay off all our churches expenses for the next 10 years. What if they give you a new car, a cruise around the world, or perhaps the cure for cancer?

All pretty awesome gifts?

Now in Jesus, even those gifts can’t compare.

You and I are heading to eternal life where we’ll not want for any of this stuff because as where were heading with Jesus we won’t want for any thing again. All our needs are fully met in Jesus and heaven awaits all the saints.

If Jesus did and does, all this for us, what should Christians be willing to do for Jesus?

Giving Whenever We Can for Jesus

Romans 6:12–14 CSB

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

This last part of our text is in three parts:

The negative “do not let sin reign” don’t serve sin

The positive “offer yourselves” do serve God

Not under law, but under grace.

Who will you serve?

While free from sin, believers still live in bodies inclined toward sin. We have to choose who we serve.

After deciding to serve we report for duty.

We offer ourselves to God to be used “as weapons for righteousness.” That is we get busy serving the Lord not burying talent like the unworthy servant.

ILL - Central Baptist in Leesburg recently called a Pastor Dan as their new leader. Pastor Dan was delivered from multiple sclerosis.

Today Pastor Dan sees his opportunity to live a life for Jesus with great zeal. Pastor Dan saw his life ending, only to be freed to live and now he gives everything to Jesus.

Believers have a new fresh start in life. Grace makes this life possible so long as we choose to serve God and not serve sin.

APP - Not sinning is half our duty. Serving is the other half.

Jennifer and I went to Germany in September. Do you know why I purchased “round trip” tickets. Because half way didn’t get us home and Jennifer and I wanted to complete our trip by coming home.

Not sinning is just one part of your journey home to be with Jesus. Serving Him now is the other part.

Outside of being good, attending church, and studying your Bible, what do you do to “serve” Jesus?

The new year is a great time to start some new manner of participating in some way serving Jesus and I am more than willing to help you find your way.

Pastor Ben, our deacons, our committee folks, especially the building and grounds team, all have ideas for you to get involved.

Don’t miss out on your round trip tickets.

Pencil & Eraser ILL - Recall that BIG mistake? You will make a mistake. Christian or not, you will make mistakes.

The BIGGEST by far is not confessing mistakes and not seeking forgiveness for sin.

If today you need forgiveness, and you are a Christian, why not take time now to pray and ask God to forgive you.

If you’ve never come to confess to God you believe in Jesus, why not start your new year with a new life in Jesus?

Big mistakes (pencil) need big fixes (eraser).

Jesus is the only fixer able to wipe away sin and any Christian here today can tell you a great story about that.

Closing

“Truest Freedom”

Grasping What We Have in Jesus

Getting Where We’re heading with Jesus

Giving Whenever We Can for Jesus

(end)

Invitation

A - Accept

John 3:16 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

B - Believe

Numbers 23:19 CSB

God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?

C - Confess

Romans 10:9 CSB

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Numbers 6:24–26 CSB

“May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’