Two Logical Questions Romans 6

Overview of Romans

Proverbs 2:1–7“My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;”

The 5 Sections of Romans

Section 1 Introduction: Romans 1:1-17

Theme: Romans 1:16–17“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.””

Section 2 God’s Righteousness revealed. (The just shall live by Faith) Romans 1-8..

Our Guilt in Front of God (Romans 1:18-3:19)

Gentiles, Jews, all the World

Salvation by Grace through Faith (Justification) (Romans 3:20-4:25)

Explained

Examples before the law and after the law. (Abraham and David)

Sanctification (Past tense Romans 5:1-21)

7 Blessings of Justification

Peace with God, Access, Growth, Hope, Love, and Reconciliation. (5:1-11)

The Gift of Righteousness in Christ

Romans 5:19 “19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Sanctification (Present tense Romans 6:1-23)

Paul is Continuing His logical argument.

In Romans 5:1-11 He showed us 7 things that changed on our Justification.

Peace with God, Access to God, Growth in God through trails, Hope, Love, and Reconciliation.

These are ours after God saves us.

Romans 5:12–13 “12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”

Adam and sin are introduced.

Seeing we have been freed from Adam and His sin by Grace.

Romans 6:1 “1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

Law

Seeing we have been freed from the law by Christ

Romans 6:15 “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”

The First Question: Romans 6:1 “1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

Romans 6:2 “2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Of coarse not!!!! It isn’t even a real consideration!

We who have died to sin in Christ, how should we live any longer in it?

The sin that cost Christ His life to free us from.

Both the curse that we were under in Adam, and the practical outworking of sin producing death in our lives.

Sin is not something to be mourned, or loved, but to be despised / abhorred.

Romans 6:3–4 “3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Baptized or Immersed?

Baptized is Greek word that we use in English.

baptizo really means “to immerse”, To put into....

The idea of Baptism somewhat works. It is truly the idea of Baptism to show this, but it makes it appear as if Baptism saves us.

The result can be that only the baptised are in Christ. This is wrong. Baptism is an outward sign to the world of what we have experienced inside already.

This teaching is nowhere in the rest of Romans either. Our salvation is by grace through faith.

We also see this in Ephesians 2:8–9 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Baptism is a command to obey after salvation, confessing Christ and our new life in Him. Our union with Him happens before the sign of Baptism.

Paul will use the same thought in a different analogy in Galatians, but with different words.

Galatians 2:20 “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.”

Galatians 5:24 “24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

This passage in Galatians is a parallel passages. Notice the question that Paul asks just before Gal. 2:20.

Galatians 2:17 “17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!” (Same general thought as Romans 6:1 of a Christian continuing still in sin. Romans is asking about someone saying it is my right, Galatians is just speaking of when a Christian sins does Christ become a sinner with us.)

Yet both have the same conclusion: The Christian is to leave sin.

Galatians 2:18–19 “18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.”

Romans 6:4 “4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Paul will now switch to the idea of crucifixion in Romans 6 as well.

Romans 6:6 “6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

Paul’s third analogy Circumcision in Col 2.

Colossians 2:13–14 “13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Colossians 2:11 “11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,”

As we are ‘put’ into Christ on the cross, the body of our sins is cut off of us, forgiven and cast away, dead.

We are a new creation, a new people, and new relationship with the Lord when we are put into Christ and His work is used to atone for us.

Paul’s Conclusion is no different than the start.

Romans 6:10–11 “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 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Christ died for sin once and for all and now lives for the the Lord.

We as well should be reckoning ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God “IN” Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:12–14 “12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

The Second Question. (Very close to the first. The first dealt with sinning due to God’s great Grace. Of course not! Yet what about because we are no longer under the power of the law? Doesn’t that mean that the law has no authority over us so we can do anything we want?

Romans 6:15 “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”

Sin ruled over us and the law held judgment against us.

Now we are to be slaves of obedience. Romans 6:16 “16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

Our start was a start in Righteousness

Romans 6:17–18 “17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Our life should continue on in the same way.

Romans 6:21–23 “21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Freed from Sin, Having become (past tense) slaves of God… you have your fruit to holiness....

Wages of Sin is death… Why would you go to work for sin again?

Gift of God is eternal life… Gift Life.