Sermon Tone Analysis

Paul wanted his opponents in Rome to understand that it is impossible for those who are under grace to continue in habitual sin.

Friend, if you are positionally under grace it will be impossible for you continue in habitual sin.

You will still struggle with sin as long as your person is corrupted by sin, but you will not relish SIN!

Why is it impossible for those who are under grace to continue in a lifestyle of sin?

Paul gives us several reasons why believers, who are now under grace, cannot continue in habitual sin.

Reason #1: Whatever power you habitually offer yourself to reveals your true master (v.

16)

Reason #2: The message of the Gospel makes obedience inevitable (v.

17)

Repentant faith leads inevitably to obedience!

Why is it impossible for those who are under grace to continue in a lifestyle of sin?

Reason #3: When you become a Christian you also become a slave of righteousness (vv.

18-23)

Romans 6:18 (ESV)

18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Having been set free- to cause someone to be freed from domination, free, set free (John 8:36- if the Son sets you FREE you shall be FREE indeed!)

Aor, pass, part, pl-

Aorist Tense: You were set free from sin.

Not a process that happens over time.

But a once and for all act that happened to you the moment of your salvation.

The moment you put your faith in Christ for salvation you were, at that moment, free from sin.

Passive: You have been set free from sin.

The setting free of sin was not something that you did yourself.

Being set free from sin was something that was done to you, by someone outside of yourself.

This is part of the wonder of our salvation.

One of the God-intended miracles of becoming a Christian!

The moment you put your faith in Jesus, you were made a new creation, you were made a new-man, you were born again.

Part of what that means is that you were made free from sin.

What does it mean that you have become free from sin?

Certainly not that you are now sinless or perfect.

It does not mean that you no longer have a sin nature.

Different from our OLD MAN! Who is dead and gone forever.

It does not mean that you will no longer be tempted by sin.

When you were made free from sin, the power and the dominion and the rule of sin over you was broken.

It was destroyed.

Before salvation you were a slave of sin.

But now, when you became united to Christ, and you participated in all of the benefits of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, you died to sin, you were buried to sin, and you rose again to walk in newness of life.

In that sense, the power of sin that once was over you is now broken.

You have been set free from sin through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:18 (ESV)

18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Have become slaves of righteousness- to be dominated by ⇔ be a slave to v. — to be or become entirely dominated by some influence or person.

Here is the contrasted idea.

You have been set free from sin.

But, you are not free to be out on your own.

Your old master was sin, your new master is now righteousness.

Aorist tense: You have become- Not you are becoming.

Not speaking of a process.

This is not talking about progressive sanctification that is worked out in our lives over years and years.

This is talking about an event.

A change in position.

At the moment of your salvation you were set free from sin, but you were also made a slave of righteousness.

Passive: You have become slaves of righteousness.

Again the idea is the action of being made a slave of righteousness comes from outside of yourself.

It is all an act of God by His glorious grace.

God not only graciously set you free from sin, He also gracious made you a slave or righteousness!

What if the idea of slavery, even if it is slavery to righteousness, doesn’t sin quite right?

Romans 6:19 (ESV)

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.

I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh.

Because we still have the presence of sin remaining in our whole person, affecting every detail about us, including our spiritual understanding, Paul states that he is speaking about being slaves of righteousness in terms of a human analogy.

Why?

Paul used analogy in other that his readers may better understand what he was talking about.

Paul wants to make the truths of the gospel as clear and plain as possible.

In making the truths of the gospel as clear and plain as possible Paul is safeguarding the truth.

NOT AL ALL!

Here is the truth!

Paul is safeguarding the truths of the gospel so that it makes it extremely difficult for error to go un-debunked.

3. Paul, however, clarifies this analogy, that he is merely speaking in human terms to indicate that we should not press his illustration too far.

No illustration is perfect and if we press it too far we will end up in error.

So you once were slaves of sin, but now you are slaves of righteousness.

But, there is a kind of slavery in the Christian life, but it is not identical to the old slavery to sin.

The new form of slavery is not exactly like the other.

Paul is warning us, I just used the terms slaves to righteousness.

Do not be mechanical in your interpretation and say that slavery is identical in every respect with the other slavery to sin, because THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!

The two slave relationships are not identical.

There is a major difference.

And Paul wants us to see that and think on that.

In what way are the slave relationships like each other then Paul?

Idea 1: for just as you once offered your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness

IN PARALLEL WITH

Idea 2: In this same way now you must offer your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification/holiness

The similarity is in the way we offer or present our members to our master.

Just like you used to present or offer yourself to impurity and lawlessness that lead to more lawlessness—in the say way offer or present yourself as slaves to righteousness.

IMPERATIVE: present your members as slaves to righteousness!

Why does Paul issue a command?

Didn’t he just tell us that we already are slaves of righteousness?

Didn’t that happen to us? Didn’t God gracious make us slaves of righteousness through Jesus?

Why then does Paul need to command us to present our members as slaves of righteousness?

It goes back to what Paul has already explained as the reality for the Christian.

KNOWING, CONSIDERING, PRESENTING- that is the reality Paul wants us to remember.

KNOW

Romans 6:6 (ESV)

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

This is an OBJECTIVE TRUTH for every believer.

We know this to be true.

But, knowing is not enough.

Remember the three elements of trust or faith we have been talking about lately?

Notitia- faith is, first of all, a kind of knowledge

CONSIDER

Romans 6:11 (ESV)

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

We must consider it to be true of ourselves.