Sin: The Redemption/Sanctification

Intro:

Unfortunately we know that slavery has been a reality for a large majority of human history. Still, terrible forms of slavery exist today. Thankfully, we are no longer openly accepting and practicing the slavery that was in our country for so long. But did you know that many of the slaves that purchased their freedom and were set free, willingly went back into slavery? Yeah, this was actually very common for one sad reason- when a slave was set free there were other racist laws in place that made them leave the location that they were in, often times having to move to entirely different states. But these people had spouses, family and friends there. So, many slaves bought their freedom only to willingly return to slavery so they wouldn’t lose their loved ones.

To be clear, this is an absolutely TERRIBLE reality that existed and an awful moment in human history. And they didn’t choose any of that, this was a forced decision by a terribly hateful, corrupt and unjust system that existed. However, it shows us one thing- people are literally willing to enslave themselves if they have a good enough reason.

We even see this in the Bible in a very different sense. The book of Exodus tells us the story of how the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt until God set them free and led them out of Egypt toward the land he promised to give them. However, all along the way, some of them grumbled and complained because the journey was difficult and they missed the comforts and food of Egypt. At multiple points the people said they wanted to go back to Egypt. They viewed their comfort in Egypt as worth the abusive servitude they had to endure.

The Bible talks about our lives before Jesus as being enslaved to sin. When we are set free by Christ, we don’t have to sin anymore, we can live in the new, eternal life of Jesus. However, many people struggle with going back to the very sin that Jesus has set them free from! How can this be? Why do we struggle and how do we walk in the new freedom we have in Christ? Here’s the thing, we must realize that Being set free from sin by Jesus isn’t the end of our story, it’s the beginning of a new one.

Becoming a Christian, being baptized, joining a church are all incredible things but they mark the BEGINNING of a brand new life, not the conclusion of one.

Following Jesus is a journey of becoming more like Jesus. That means when we turned to him to be saved we aren’t just done with our old life, we are beginning a new life. And it’s a terrible tragedy when we use our new life to go back to living like our old life.

This is the heart of our passage tonight as we wrap up our series on sin.

Paul is writing in Romans chapter 6 all about this struggle to walk in a new life instead of going back to our old way of sin. He uses some powerful imagery to show us just how ridiculous going back to sin is.

Turn to Romans 6 with me. As you do I want to recap what we have covered so far in this series.

We have covered a lot of ground:

Week 1: We have a big sin problem that needs to be take seriously. Sin is serious because it separates us from God and people.

Week 2: Sin has broken and corrupted every part of creation, and everything, including us, longs for redemption. But we ended by saying there is a future hope of redemption in Jesus! There is brokenness today but the best is yet to come.

Week 3: Jesus is the one and only answer to our sin problem! We always, only need Jesus. Because, through his sacrifice and resurrection he offers us justification- making us righteous, right with God, redemption- paying our price and setting us free from our sin, and finally atonement- he satisfied God’s wrath toward sin so that we wouldn’t face the judgement and penalty of sin that we deserved, he took that all for us on the cross!

Finally, last week, Week 4: Self-righteousness always resists repentance. We must accept that we truly have a sin problem and need saving if we will ever practice confession and repentance as Christians! It’s only when we truly accept how serious our sin is that we will do whatever it takes to get it out of our lives!

Now, Paul is bringing it all together to point out what the result of taking sin seriously and accepting the gift of salvation from Jesus is all about!

We are going to start in verse 15 but just before this passage Paul begins this conversation about the new life we have in Jesus by talking about the idea of Baptism. Paul assumes that every new christian get’s baptized very soon after they believe in Jesus as Lord. And he says this baptism with Jesus is a baptism into death WITH Jesus. Just as Jesus died for our sin, we now die with Jesus to our sin. And we are raised with Jesus in new life just as he resurrected to new life! That’s why we say those things when we baptize people, it’s a symbolic reminder as we declare to those around us- I follow Jesus as Lord and I have been buried with Jesus in the likeness of his death and raised to walk in His brand new life!

So, Paul is clear the old you DIED when you turned to follow Jesus and the new you is now alive in Jesus, and you didn’t earn or deserve any of this, it’s all because of God’s grace!. But what does that even mean. What do we do with this new life.

Let’s read in Romans 6:15-23

Romans 6:15–23 CSB

What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul says that we are all slaves to someone. That word for slave is doulos- it means slave but the concept of slave was a person who was the property of someone else. One person who belongs to someone else and must obey them.

Paul is clear, either we are a slave to sin or a slave to God.

Put in terms we understand a little better- we either belong to sin or we belong to Jesus. And here’s why that is so important:

Knowing who we belong to changes how we live.

Paul says slaves are always obedient to their masters and likewise we are obedient to whoever we belong to.

We once were slaves to sin and so we had to obey it. We lived according to our sinful thoughts, desires, and beliefs.

But, as Paul says, THANK GOD- even though we used to be slaves to sin, we are now enslaved to righteousness- remember that means right relationship with God and his law. The way Paul says it is interesting: Verse 17 says “…you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over…”

He is describing the conversion experience for someone.

Paul mentions that phrase “the pattern of teaching” In 2 Timothy 1:13 “Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is saying we have heard the truth about who Jesus is, what he has done and the salvation that is available to us through Him as a free gift. And Paul says you obeyed that teaching from the heart- meaning we obeyed the Gospel invitation whole-heartedly, giving our whole selves to Jesus to be saved.

Again, it’s the picture of our whole life changing. We were dead in our sins, then we died to our sins with Jesus and now we are alive in the new life of Jesus!

And through the process we change. We are transformed by the Holy Spirit from being a slave to sin to a slave to righteousness.

We now belong to Jesus, we are His. He owns us, not sin.

Knowing who we belong to changes how we live.

Since we don’t belong to sin anymore, it has NO power over us anymore.

You need to hear this tonight- Sin doesn’t own you, it can’t control you, it can’t force you to stop following Jesus, it doesn’t own you anymore.

The only power that sin has over us is the power we give to it!

If sin doesn’t own us anymore, and it has no power over us, that means that anytime we do sin, it’s because we chose to willingly chose to turn away from Jesus and walk back to our old life. I want to invite Matt up here with me.

Handcuff Illustration: Chain to Matthew. Have him start leading me around- I had to go wherever he leads me. I followed my sin around because it owned me. And We HATED being chained to this, especially once we heard the Gospel. Jesus came to us and offered the keys to freedom! He unchained us and let us finally live for the first time and we were so happy when Jesus set us free. It’s great, I can run and jump and follow Jesus anywhere.

But, then, I start to convince myself it’s not that bad with it/him, or I’ve never really gone anywhere without it, and we wander back out of habit, comfort, or giving into old desires. We chain ourselves back to our sin WITH THE KEYS IN OUR HAND! But sin doesn’t own us so it has no power over us, so now we struggle around, trying to move and follow Jesus and lead a small group, or lead in worship, while dragging our sin with us, and we’re like man why do I feel so burdened and worn down and not powerful and free like Jesus says I would? *POINT TO CHAIN*

We chain ourselves back to things that don’t own us anymore!

Knowing who we belong to changes how we live.

When we realize we belong to Jesus, we live a life of righteousness obeying Jesus and we don’t have to go back to our sin anymore!

But this is a struggle, it’s a process because we have been chained to our sin for as long as we know! We actually have to practice and learn how to walk free from it! When we are stressed, alone, bored, upset- we don’t actually know how to walk free from our sins.

But we aren’t on our own. We don’t have to figure it out ourselves or work hard enough to be free. We are free in JEsus and God’s work didn’t stop at the cross.

2. God changes us to become more like Jesus as we follow him.

Paul says that where we used to offer ourselves or give ourselves over to impurity and sin, we now need to begin to give ourselves to righteousness.

We must learn and practice offering ourselves up to righteousness- God’s will and design instead of our old sinful desires.

He says this is the process of sanctification. What’s that mean?

Sanctification comes from the same word that means holy, hagios, but it comes from the verb form. Ultimately it means to become holy.

Sanctification: the process of becoming holy, to become more like Jesus in every way as we follow Him every day.

The whole point of sending Jesus to the cross was not just so we could be forgiven of our sins, but so that we could receive brand new life with God because we are forgiven.

Again, Being set free from sin by Jesus isn’t the end of your story, its the beginning of a new one!

Ultimately, this whole concept boils down to one statement: Who you belong to, determines who you are becoming.

Do you belong to sin- then you are becoming more like sin each day. Meaning death is creeping into every area of your life more and more every day.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do you belong to Jesus- then you are becoming more like Jesus as you follow Him each day. Meaning you are experiencing and sharing more of His life each and every day.

It can’t happen any other way. But we interfere with that process when we belong to Jesus but still act like we belong to sin! Going back to it, never cutting it out completely, always leaving a little space in case we need to go back.

So, how do we actually practise this and experience the fruit of sanctification in our lives as Paul talks about?

Remember your identity.

You belong to JESUS! You are a child of God now. Your identity in Christ is your number one weapon against the devil. When he attacks you with lies about who you are and how you should live, you can immediately start praying and declaring who you are in Jesus- I am saved, I am forgiven, I am set free, I am no longer a slave to sin, I am a slave to righteousness. Sin has NO hold on me anymore! Sin will not rule over me because I am under grace as Paul says in verse 14!

And to be clear, I mean say these things out loud in that moment of temptation! Jesus declared God’s Truth out loud when he was tempted in the wilderness, so we can declare it out loud when we are tempted at school, at home, on the field, in our room, or anywhere else! Remember who you belong to and declare it in your moments of temptation.

Be with Jesus consistently.

We always say Christianity is all about being with Jesus, becoming more like Jesus, and doing what Jesus does. If you never spend time with Jesus in His word, prayer, worship and Church, you will really struggle to become more like Him, and if you aren’t becoming more like him then you will struggle to do the things Jesus does.

I know it sounds like the Pastor answer, but seriously, if you aren’t in the Bible consistently, you will really struggle to experience any growth in your life. The Holy Spirit is in you and He will speak to you and strengthen you and transform you, but one of the biggest ways he will do that is through your time in the Bible! If you need a bible or need to know where to start let me know tonight and I will help you out!

Finally, Confess your sins immediately.

We’ve talked about this the whole series but really confessing sins- saying them to God and other believers and turning from them is key to your sanctification!

It’s always said that your spiritual maturity can be measured in the amount of time between when you sin and when you confess it and repent. And can I just tell you that the fact you belong to God now and He is your loving Father who has already forgiven you gives you the ability to confess your sins even in the middle of it! You can stop in the middle of whatever you are falling to and confess it to God- he isn’t angry at you, he isn’t disappointed in you, He LOVES You and wants to help you! So, confess your sins immediately when you do fall and let God heal you and lead you out of it!

This series on sin was for two reasons- to help each of us take our sin more seriously and begin practicing confession and repentance more consistently. And also, to give us a heart to go reach our friends who are still lost, still slaves to sin and only experiencing and heading towards death because of it!

The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord! So let us share this truth with the world and walk in the holiness of Jesus together because we belong to Him!

Let’s respond together. Bow your heads with me and close your eyes.

If you are here and you have never had a moment in your life where you realized you really had a sin problem and your sin keeps you from a personal relationship with God. You need to realize that you do! You are still a slave to sin. But here’s the good news, there is hope and salvation for you available today. This is the Gospel. God made you and loves you so much. But you have sinned against God and are separated from Him by your sins. But because God loved you so much, He sent Jesus to live a perfect life and die on the cross, and he rose from the dead so that you could be forgiven for your sins, brought back into a relationship with God, and given new, eternal life with Him today and forever.

Is there anyone here tonight that needs to turn away from their sins and put their faith in Jesus to receive hope and salvation tonight?

2. Well Christians here, you know the response. If there is sin you keep going back to, struggles you feel stuck in, a burden you feel weighing on you as you try to follow Jesus- CONFESS THAT to God tonight. Don’t carry it any longer. Ask God to remind you that you belong to Him tonight! You are His and you are free from sin.

Lift that up to God tonight, and again, there is healing in confessing our sins to one another as well! So, whether it’s during the song or before you leave, if you need to talk about anything you are struggling with please come talk to me or one of the other leaders tonight so we can listen and pray for you!

PRAY.