Romans 6 - March 6 2024

Introduction

I don’t know if you’ve seen this meme before …

It depicts something that seems to ‘LOGIC’, but it obviously doesn’t … it totally misses the point

“can’t be disappointed, if you don’t have expectations”

“can’t get rejected for a job … if you don’t apply”

“can’t lose in the finals, if you never make it”

“You’ll never be disappointed by an ending, if you don’t finish the book”

“If more sin means more grace - surely we gotta keep on sinning”

“Grace means no law, so we can be law-less’

#StreetLogic

we see the obvious holes in that logic … we laugh at it … I think if you haven’t arrived to this type of street logic … we haven’t fully understood the flow of the Romans 1-5 argument well.

This is what Paul has been saying so far:

The GOSPEL has achieved EVERYTHING the law was UNABLE to DO (3:21-26)

Declared us Righteous - is from GOD Not US …

it is for free i.e. it Can’t be earned. BY GRACE

it is for everyone - all nations - all who believe - THRU FAITH

“For free” Grace, and “for all”, go together. if its for free, then its for all.

Then surely … ‘we can’t be worried about sin, if we’re all about grace now, not law’

There is a fundamental misunderstanding there … but a very human, and predictable one to make (6:1, 15 cf. 3:8)

Paul raises this objection, to tackle that defunct thinking … To tackle ‘Grace abuse’. Ok i’ve got my grace card, i can live however I want. … the fancy word for those people are ‘antinomians’. he also wants to reign in the legalists … - ‘Paul, the gospel has ripped out any incentive to good works! We’ve got a good idea … what about a merit system’ …. But more on the law on friday (chapter 7) …

Paul defence in chapter 6, against antinomian thinking is … no … don’t you understand … Jesus has shared his victory over sin with us!!!

That’s the essence of the gospel … the grace part of that, is he has shared that victory with US he didn’t have to! …

so because of that grace …. it won’t it’ actually make us want to fight against SIN, and strive for holiness because of three things …

because of Jesus’ victory over sin …

We have a new status now … in Christ

We’re fighting a new fight … against Sin

For a great, and yet undeserved reward … eternal life.

#1 A new status (v. 1-14) #Dead2Sin #Alive2God #NewLifeWhoDis

Firstly, we have a new status.

Paul answers this objection in a nutshell in v. 2 - Ofcourse NO! We don’t continue in sin because we’ve DIED to sin. That is our new status:

We’re now Dead to sin, and Alive to God

I want to dig deeper a little under the assumptions behind that type of thinking … that we’re all prone to …

Sin is actually … ‘true freedom’, obedience/holiness is not. that’s burdensome … just more things to obey.

This is a fundamental misundersatnding of ‘freedom’.

It is also a fundamental misunderstanding of being a christian

Being a Christian is basically being handed a righteousness Pass.

Jesus has done it all, and now i have a free pass to do whatever i want.

Like a get out of jail free card.

Paul corrects us …

What Jesus did for us … is not like getting a free pass … or having God deposit a massive ‘grace’ check into our bank account, and now we can live however we want … as if God is detached from us …

No - Jesus TOOK US WITH HIM … He died. so we died. he was buried, so we were too … he rose again, and so we will be too!

That’s why he talks about the baptism into death and resurrection!

Don’t you know! that when Jesus went to the cross HE TOOK US WITH HIM!

It’s not a ‘here’s your grace card, here’s your righteousness verdict’ ok go now do whatever you want’ …

What Jesus did to set us free from tyranny of sin, he had to DIE

The death he died … he DIED TO SIN … So we too, have died to sin

And his resurrection … he lives to a new life!

that is our new status …

Because of our union with Christ … He has shared that victory over sin, with us … therefore, we no longer should sin, or want to sin! Jesus died to taken us out of sin’s hold over us!

Paul has already argued from ch1-3 - There was no way that anybody, could have taken themselves out of sin’s hold over us …

UNTIL JESUS CAME … He won the victory over sin and death … and has shared that victory with us …

Illustration: imagine … wining the grand final, the championship game … The champagne comes out, googles on, glasses being filled … confetti … ready to go … and you wander into the loser locker room … it’s inconceivable.

Jesus has shared his victory over sin with us, he has pulled us OUT of sin to raise us to new life with a status.

That status …

DEAD 2 SIN

ALIVE 2 GOD

#2 A new fight (v. 15-18) #FreedForTheFight #NotFreeFromTheFight #FightForRighteousness #FightAgainstSin #SlaveToWho? #FightForOurNewMasterNow

Along with our new status, comes a new fight … we fight against sin …

But wait … didn’t we just say, our new status is DEAD2SIN?? and now we’re fighting sin? Because Paul says it in v. 12 - because of your new status … then …

‘Don’t let it reign in your mortal bodies’

because of our fleshly minds … there’s no perfect illustration to capture what Jesus has done for us, and what the christian life is now …

Because we’re not resurrected in all the ways Jesus is - there’s still a battle to fight.

The war has been won, but the battle ain’t over.

Paul recognises that in v. 19 - ‘I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations’ …

- He’s using Slavery language - Master and Slave to illustrate our new relationship God and with Sin.

He’s using military Military language - offer yourselves as instruments, or more specifically weapons … to illustrate that this is a fight …

We need to also recognise … Because of our fleshly minds, and mortal bodies … Even though we have this new status … there’s still a very real possibility that we walk right into the sin-dressing room …

we might forget that Jesus has won us that victory over sin …

We might even say ‘we’re dead 2 sin’ that means fighting sin is a thing of the past …

No way … with the new status, comes a new fight …

The new status means we’re not freed from the fight … but freed for the fight …

Illustration: classic kidnapping movie scene … being held hostage by an evil kidnapper. Your hands are tied up … you’re totally under the mercy of the kidnapper. But somehow! you’ve figured out how to unlock the handcuffs … and now you’re free to fight!

Put in a kick, grab the broom, a punch …

Before Christ - we were helpless … Now Jesus has freed us to fight against sin …

We’re freed for the fight, not from the fight.

SIN was our master. We revelled, sin … Sin blinded us, telling us that ‘we’re free because i can do whatever i want’

But Christ, has rescued us from that mean, terrible old master, and now we serve a new master who loves us. We have a new LORD now …

Verse 13, 16 Paul intentionally uses here, military language,

“presenting yourselves, offering yourselves to God”

to show your allegiance, your loyalty to your new MASTER! your new LORD! by fighting against sin, and fighting for holiness … fighting for God.

illustration: charles manumua. I’ve never seen or played with a guy more loyal than him. He would throw his body into every tackle. He’d give it 110% into every single play. There was no selfishness, he wasn’t playing for any stats or accolades. he was just a loyal, passionate soldier for his team … for the boys …

To be cliche … he fought for the name at the front of the Jersey, that said Ingleburn high school … not the one at the back that says ‘Charles manumua’.

Another reason for the slavery imagery is to say that …being free from sin, isn’t about having no master now … but fighting for a new master who has given us a new status. we fight for him …

- It doesn’t, that you’re self-employed now, you can set your own lunch times, days off, vacation … as good as that sounds - it aint like that …

There’s no such thing as having no master. It’s either, sin is your master, or God is …

Jesus’ victory over sin, has also meant - a transfer of ownership! Sin is NO LONGER our MASTER … and transferred us to a new master, a new LORD - Jesus Christ

What might seem like ‘freedom’ - i can live however i want now - is not ‘freedom. it’s sin …

no such thing as being your own boss … It’s under you’re in Adam, and therefore under Sin …

Or in Christ, and therefore freed From sin from the tyrrany of sin

We have a new master now … we live for him, we fight for him …

_________

#3 A great reward/gift (v. 19-23) #ItsSoWorthIt #NotAshamed

We have a new status, fighting a new fight … to receive a great, yet undeserved reward … If there’s any doubt why we should present ourselves as Loyal to God … all we need to do, is to look at the bottom line … look at what living in sin, this so called ‘freedom’ will get us …

Verse 221 -

Romans 6:21 NIV

21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!

What benefits did sin even give you?

That’s right nothing .. .so much so, that you’re ashamed to even mentioned …

Sin does not pay well … its wages SUCK!

No days off

No Lunch breaks

You work 28 hour days

No superannuations

All you’d have to show for it day-in and day-out is … SHAME

Only to be paid in the end of a wage … of DEATH.

The fruit of sin … is shame …

The bottom line … of sin .. is death …

Daniel Ah-Sin …. he grew up in south-west sydney, around my age … He was sharing his testimony … he used to play rugby league and made it pretty far, but then shortly after, his life went down in a spiral of partying, drugs … and even into a life of crime … He spent considerable amount of time in Jail … now he’s out of Jail and found Christ since that time …

Ask him 10 years ago … if he was free … he would’ve said - HECK YEH! I get to do whatever i want! party as long as i want, live for myself! He used to boast about the things he did.

Ask him now … he doesn’t even want to mention his old lifestyle … He’s ashamed … Since finding Christ he can see with new eyes what a shameful life he lived … That wasn’t freedom … It was a facade of freedom … all he could do was sin, and his debaucherous lifestyle landed him in trouble … He’s experienced first-hand what this ‘freedom’ got him in…

But now, since he’s found Christ … He knows what true freedom is. He doesn’t have to sin no more! In fact he now hates sin, and wants to, with every fibre of his being to live for Christ … to be holy …

Sin only leads to shame, which leads to death …

But now that we’ve been set free from sin, we fight sin sin …

this will lead to holiness (or sanctification) v. 19 and ultimate to the great yet UNDESERVED reward of eternal life (v. 22)

Romans 6:22 NIV

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Our justification > leads to sanctification … The aim is not PERFECTION … but progress … that’s what sanctification is …

[I was watching this DC Superhero TV show and they were introducing a new main character.

And like all superhero stories, it was an experiment Gone wrong…a scientist held against her will was forced to combined the DNA of Lex-Luthor (Super villain, full of evil) and the DNA of Superman (Superhero).

His whole story is about his struggle for his desire to be and do good, but then this evil side of him sometimes takes over and he stuffs up…He hates it when it happens, but what motivates him to change is because of his relationship with the person that knew him best, the scientist that was there from day 1. There was someone who knew him, and loves him..] ..He’s not perfect … but he strives to get better at it every day ….

.. The tension between our mortal bodies, and new self is real … we can’t deny that … but what motivates us to fight sin, to strive to change - is our relationship with our new master - who rescued us from that terrible old boss, and to live for God … and for that great yet undeserved reward … A GIFT - of eternal life.

Conclusion/Implication/Application

How are we to grasp all this? How do we overcome that defective ‘street logic’ … The answer is KNOWLEDGE …

By GRASPING and UNDERSTANDING the gospel. Notice how many times Paul uses the words

‘Don’t you know’ (v. 3, 16)

‘We know’ (v. 6) again in (v.9)

v. 17 - ‘Thanks be to God …. you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching’

We have to grasp, the CORRECT teaching …

#1 Know your new status in Christ! We share in Jesus’ victory over sin

Therefore, V. 11 - CONSIDER YOURSELVES as dead to sin, alive to God.

Know your status.

#2 Know that you’re still fighting sin!

Jesus has won the war, but the battle ain’t over.

Therefore, v. 12 - DON’T LET SIN REIGN in your ‘mortal bodies’

FIGHT the Good fight. we fight as ones sealed by the H.S - we’re God’s now … We don’t fight for the name at the back anymore.

You have a new master now.

The master who died for you, and freed you from the power and consequence of sin

#3 Know the great, and yet undeserved reward of eternal life …

Therefore, v. 13, 19 … OFFER YOURSELVES as instruments of righteousness …

Go ALL IN! present your whole bodies to live for God and to fight sin ….because you know in the end,

Sin leads shame, leading to death,

But … righteousness, leads to holiness/sanctification, which leads to that great gift of eternal life.

Let’s pray …