Are we to Continue in Sin

A Journey to Holiness - Series

Are we to Continue in Sin?

This morning we are going to continue in the series A Journey to Holiness that we started last week.

This morning we are going to be looking at Romans 6 if you want to be turning there, and will be looking at the Question Are we to continue in sin?

Paul wrote to the Roman church in the first five chapter about Justification and beginning here in chapter six her turns to Sanctification.

Justification is a Christian’s judicial acceptance by God as not guilty because their sins are not counted against them. In other words, believers are reckoned as righteous by God not on the basis of their good works but because of what Christ has achieved for them, received by faith.

Sanctification then is the ongoing supernatural work of God to rescue justified sinners from the disease of sin and to conform them to the image of His Son: holy, Christlike, and empowered to do good works. The triune God not only declares His children righteous but also progressively makes them righteous, setting them apart for Himself and freeing them from the entanglement of sin.

Paul closed out chapter five and the last section on Justification with Romans 5:20-21

Romans 5:20–21 NASB95

20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The point of the Law is to show us the sin in our life, so that we may see the need for Jesus as Savior of our life.

Paul says, as the Law came and points out our sin, we see more and more sin in our life, grace abounds, that is Jesus is enough, His sacrifice covers it all.

Sin reigned in death, grace reigned in righteousness, because Jesus defeated sin and death through His sacrifice on the cross, and His death, and resurrection.

Paul then begins our text this morning with some questions.

Romans 6:1–15 NASB95

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Pray

I. Are we to Live in Sin?

Romans 6:1–2 NASB95

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

As we seen Paul end chapter five with saying that God’s grace will cover all our sin, now Paul begins this chapter and section with a rhetorical question as he prepares for what he knows will come up.

If grace will abound, if grace will increase and cove our sins, then shall we just continue living in sin so that God can just increase His grace, and others can see God’s grace.

I mean sounds like a good question right, I mean Jesus is going to forgive us, so what is really the big deal right.

Paul answered the rhetorical question with a resounding - may it never be, or by no means!!

How could it be possible for those who have died to sin to continue in it?

Death separates. Death to sin removes the believer from the control of sin.

It is not sin that dies to the believer; it is the believer who has died to sin.

One theologian described death to sin in this way: “To obey the cravings of sin is to be alive to sin; but not to obey the cravings of sin or succumb to its will, this is to die to sin.”

II. Freed from Sin.

Romans 6:3–7 NASB95

3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

As believers we have been baptized into Christ, and that means to have been baptized into Christ’s death as well. Christ’s death for sin becomes our death to sin.

Sin lies on the other side of the grave for those who have in Christ died to it.

As believers we have been buried with Christ through baptism into death, but death and burial are not the end of the story, just as Christ rose from the grave we are raised out of the waters of baptism as a new creature, a new person to walk in the newness of life, free from the bondage of sin.

Ephesians 4:22–24 NASB95

22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

As we put on the new self, this new life in Christ is to be as different from our preconversion days as life is from death.

Romans 6:6–7 NASB95

6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

Our confidence in a resurrected life rests upon the fact that our old self was nailed to the cross with Jesus. We were crucified with Him.

We were crucified in order that our sinful nature might be stripped of its power.

With the old self rendered powerless, it is no longer necessary for a person to continue in bondage to sin. In Christ we are set free.

III. Dead to Sin

Romans 6:8–11 NASB95

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

To put verse eight simply is to say to live one must die.

Paul said it a little differently in Galatians in Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20 NASB95

20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 up for me.

In verses 9-10 Paul appealed to common knowledge among God’s people. Having been raised from the dead, Christ cannot die again.

His resurrection was unlike that of Lazarus, who had to meet death once again.

But Christ’s resurrection broke forever the tyranny of death. The cruel master can no longer exercise any power over Him.

The cross was sin’s final move; the resurrection was God’s checkmate.

The game is over. Sin is forever defeated.

Christ the victor died to sin “once for all” and lives now in unbroken fellowship with God.

In the same way, we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

1 Peter 2:24 NASB95

24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

When Christ died for sin, He also died to sin.

Now we are to take our place with Him and regard sin as something to which we also have died.

For the Christian to choose to sin is the spiritual equivalent of digging up a corpse for fellowship.

A genuine death to sin means that the entire perspective of the believer has been radically altered.

IV. Sin shall not be Master

Romans 6:12–15 NASB95

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

In Christ we have died to sin and are alive to God. So we should base our daily lives on that truth and live out our days from that perspective.

It follows, then, that we are no longer to allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies.

Sin is personified as a sovereign ruler who would make us obey the cravings of our bodies that are destined for death.

But in Christ we have died to sin. Sin no longer has the authority to enforce its demands. Death has severed the relationship

We are to transfer our obedience from sin to God.

We are no longer to place any part of our bodies at the disposal of sin to be used as an instrument of unrighteousness.

We are to present ourselves to God once for all as those who have been brought from death to life.

Alive with Christ, we are now to put ourselves at the disposal of God.

Our bodies are to be devoted to Him as instruments of righteousness, with that we need to ask God to examine us as Psalms says.

Psalm 139:23–24 NASB95

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

When we trust God to examine us and lead us - we can then live the life that God desires for us, a life not ruled by sin.

Does that mean we will be perfect, no, but we will not be ruled by sin, we will not be in a lifestyle of sin, and we will strive for that life of holiness.

We all fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23 NASB95

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

That is we all make mistakes from time to time, but we are not to live in sin, we are free from the bondage of sin, because as believers we have died to sin and it is no longer our master.

Therefore, we can turn to Jesus for forgiveness, repent of those sins that have had a strong hold in our lives and be free from them so that we do not continue in sin any longer.

1 John 1:9 NASB95

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.