Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Intro:

This morning I want to look at how the grace of God works in our lives. In recent Church teaching in America, there has been a deceptive message about the grace of God that has pleased the ears and hearts of man, but stands in opposition to the kingdom of God.

There has been a distortion of the grace of God in the American Church. The false message is that you can live any way you desire without the need for change. Just pray and ask God to forgive you, because He knows that you are going to sin anyway. We are under God’s grace.

This false grace message has created a mindset that has caused people to reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit which leads to holiness and consecration. It rejects biblical correction writing it off as religious legalism. While ultimately empowering the flesh and diminishing the work of the Holy Spirit.

If we believe we can live how we want, and simply ask for forgiveness without the need for true repentance and change, we are gravely mistaken. This mindset will inevitably lead us into deception in our lives.

Remember this morning that Paul in the Book of Romans is giving the most systematic presentation of Christian Doctrine.

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Submit:

As we begin, Let me submit this to you.

We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, and alive to God. Romans 6:1-4.

Romans 6:1–4 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 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.”

Right from the start we see a staggering question. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? The response is what should be expected. Certainly Not!

He follows up with another question. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Hold up, stop the music, what did Paul just say? How shall we who what? DIED to sin! live any longer in it?

When we surrender our lives to Christ we do two things:

1. We are to become dead to sin.

2. Walk in newness of life.

The grace of God does more than cover sin, it gives us the power to walk free from it. The outworking of the grace of God in our lives empowers us to walk away from the nature of the old man, and helps us to put on the nature of the new man who has been born again by the Spirit.

Romans 6:5-7 “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 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. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”

Sloppy grace leaves us under the power of sin as slaves where kingdom grace helps us to walk free from it.

Romans 6:8–10 “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

The issue of sloppy grace vs. kingdom grace is dominion. Dominion means to exercise control over someone as his master. Sloppy grace causes a person to remain under the control of sin whose master is Satan, Kingdom grace causes you to comes under the dominion of Jesus. One leads to bondage. The other to freedom.

The main issue here is what master we are presenting ourselves to. Romans 6:11-16.

Romans 6:11–16 “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 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. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 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?”

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Apply:

What is it then that sets us free?

Romans 6:17 “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.”

What doctrine? The doctrine of the kingdom, and becoming slaves of Christ. Where we hide His word in our hearts and it leads us into transformation.

Paul tells us in Romans 6:18–19 “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.”

The nature of the born again man is to live righteous and holy before God. The grace of God meets us in our point of need when we fail, and then through repentance and the renewal of the mind with the word of God it empowers us to live free from the failure.

Change is difficult, habits can be hard to break, but why make the effort to change?

Romans 6:20–23 “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 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. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Fruit leading to holiness in the end leads you to everlasting life. Sin brings guilt, shame, and condemnation. The simple contrast Paul makes begs the question. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?

He is literally telling us to take an inventory of our lives. When you truly look back what did you have that was better than what you have in Christ? What is there that is worth going back to? All of those things left you heavy, hurting, and ashamed. Why would you want to walk away from the freedom you have in Christ and go back to bondage?

Without a doubt it would not be worth it.

REFERENCE 2 Corinthians 4:7-18. Cast Down but unconquered. Hard Pressed but not crushed.

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Closing:

The only reasonable response is to lean into kingdom grace that leads us to an overcoming life in Christ.

The late Billy Graham wrote a great thought about our response to grace, and I want to share it with you.

When we truly love someone, we want to please them. When we disappoint loved ones, it grieves them, and eventually ourselves. When we receive God’s Son as our Savior, His Spirit comes in and changes us. We begin to love the things that please God.

The Bible says, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:5-6).

Those who love God have no desire to make a mockery of God’s forgiveness and grace, or the cross upon which Jesus died for the sins of mankind. God’s Word also tells us that sin should not be our master (Romans 6:14). When we keep on sinning without ever attempting to turn from it or restrain it, it is because we are still sin’s slaves.

We must never forget that sin is God’s enemy and Satan’s friend. Sin is so serious that it caused Jesus Christ to leave Heaven’s glory and come into the world to die as the final and complete sacrifice for sin. We must not take sin lightly, but repent of it when it rears its ugly head, and with God’s help cast it out. This is done through the reading and studying of God’s word and praying that He will empower us to live for Him.

What a perfect way to say it. Our love and admiration for God provokes us to love His ways. We willfully, and wholeheartedly choose to align ourselves with Him simply to please Him. The vastness of His grace leads us to a place of deeper intimacy and relationship. The deeper we go in relationship the more free we become!

My prayer today is that we lean into him, like never before!

Let’s Pray!

Father help us to lean into kingdom grace. Help us to receive biblical correction. Give us a heart that longs for and seeks the truth.

Salvation.