Dead to Sin, Alive to God
Notes
Transcript
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
There once lived a people that lived in great darkness.
They lived in a land that they were ruled by a heavy task master.
They were forced to live in bondage and slavery.
They were the people of Israel.
The people of Israel were placed under the heavy yoke of Pharaoh.
But metaphorically, we can see that Israel in captivity represents something far deeper.
In the story of bondage and slavery, we see our own story.
We see our own story of living under the rule and reign of Satan.
Romans 1-3 — Paul shows the slavery that all humanity lives under.
Romans 4 — Paul shows that we have been declared righteous in Jesus Christ.
Which makes the next section of Romans 5-7 to be a section talking about “realm transfer” (Doug Moo)
Romans 5 – Adam to Christ
Romans 6 – Sin to Righteousness
Romans 7 – Law to Spirit
We know how the story of Israel’s slavery goes.
We know that God judges the people of Egypt and rescues or liberates His people.
He removes them from any enemy occupied land and brings them to the wilderness.
Paul speak of it elsewhere as being “baptized into Moses” (1 Corinthians 10:1-2).
God takes them from their former life of slavery and brings them to freedom.
They are freed from enemy occupation.
They have been transferred from the realm of slavery to the realm of freedom.
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
Freedom from the Tyranny of Sin
MLJ used a similar illustration.
Two fields…
One where Satan ruled and reigned over those in the field.
The other is where God has taken us from the former field to live in His pasture (John 10).
“Think of the believer as sort of beginning life in one of those fields, a field where Satan roams, and reigns, and has absolute control of us. We are helpless slaves of sin.
In God’s grace, He sort of reaches down, takes us out of that field, and puts us in the field next door—a field where Christ reigns, and righteousness, and the new life is in control. We are in a totally new relationship.”
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Grace Abounding to Sinners
Grace Abounding to Sinners
(Romans 5:20-6:2)
The Law increased the trespass.
The Law increased the trespass.
Why did God give the Mosaic Law to Israel?
It was a common notion for Jews that,
“The more law, the more life.”
If we could only know what God commands, then we could have life.
They would have said,
“When we know God’s commands, then we will be able to obey them to life.”
Knowing God’s commands didn’t bring life to the Jews.
Knowing God’s commands increased transgression.
But this is the furthest thing from reality.
Notice again what verse 20 says..
Romans 5:20 (ESV)
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased…
The more law was given to Israel, the more they increased in sin.
The more law was given, the more they rebelled.
They rebelled to the point of being shipped off into exile.
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Grace outpaced the trespass for sinners.
Grace outpaced the trespass for sinners.
Think about it like this…
If every-time the law scored a point of trespass, then grace would score two points.
Grace found in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ outpaces our sin.
Grace found in the Jesus Christ outpaces and outscores the trespasses deserved in the law.
The power of the gospel truly can change anyone’s life.
Unbeliever
You may be sitting there thinking,
“There is no way that I can be changed.”
“There is no way that this is good news for me.”
But I want you to hear it from the text of Scripture.
Romans 5:21 (ESV)
…as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Salvation doesn’t depend upon you.
Salvation doesn’t look to your efforts.
Christian
If you’re discouraged in your Christian life, it’s possible that you’re looking too much at self and not enough at Christ.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer. 17:9. Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.
He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief! Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms.” —Robert Murray McCheyne
The Christian life isn’t about introspection.
It is about beholding Christ.
We believe they have been transferred from the kingdom where sin reigns to the kingdom under the Lord Jesus’ rule and reign.
Romans 6:1–2 (ESV)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means!
Amazing grace and habitual sin.
Amazing grace and habitual sin.
It is likely that Paul is not responding to particular people.
These objections to the gospel of grace that he has been preaching.
These objections are common when interacting with Jews and even pagan Gentiles.
Paul is an excellent teacher and so he seeks to teach well by asking hypothetical questions and answering them.
Paul seems to be responding to objections of the claims of Romans 5:20-21.
He has asserted that the Christian is no longer under law but under grace.
The logical question then is,
“If the increasing of our sin makes grace increase, why not keep on sinning?”
“Big sin equals big grace, why not sin big time then?”
Sin once had dominion over the believer.
But we believe that sin’s power has been broken in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
The Christian has been transferred from the realm of sin and death to the realm of life.
The realm that was dominated by sin has been broken in the life of the Christian and they now live in the realm of Christ’s Lordship over all.
Romans 6:1–2 (ESV)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means!
The word “continue” or “remain” brings with it the connotation of practicing “sin as a habit” (Rogers & Rogers).
Romans 6 is not with respect to individual sins but rather the power of sin.
The power of sin came through Adam (Romans 5:12-13), so sin is a power that leads to specific acts.
Paul’s answer to the increase of sin so that grace may abound is emphatic.
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
May it NEVER be.
Grace gives us the power to obey.
Romans 6:2 (ESV)
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Believers no longer live under the rule and reign of sin because they have died to sin.
“Death and life cannot coexist; we cannot be dead and living with respect to the same thing at the same time.” —John Murray
Paul picks up in another place the same idea that he is arguing for here that we have “died to sin.”
We have been transferred to the realm of living in Christ
The Letter to the Romans (Second Edition) 1. “Dead to Sin” through Union with Christ (6:1–14)
Living a life pleasing to God flows from the real experience of liberation from sin’s domain secured by God for us in Christ
Baptized into His Death, Raised to Resurrection Life
Baptized into His Death, Raised to Resurrection Life
(Romans 6:3-4)
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Plunged into the death of sin.
Plunged into the death of sin.
Paul assumes these believers should know the reference of baptism.
In Paul’s day, all believers were baptized.
But that wasn’t Paul’s main focus.
His main focus was preaching the “good news” of Jesus.
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Baptism then must be understood in light of the gospel.
Everyone had experienced what he was was speaking of.
In 2015 I had the opportunity to be in Nepal and be with believers there.
But it was the first time in 20 years that people were arrested for baptizing.
This is why still in other countries when people are baptized, they are persecuted.
This is why nations will actually outlaw baptisms.
To baptize is to commit one’s way of life in the direction with Jesus.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
What does it mean that “buried with Christ”?
Baptism is not a believer laying in their own grave.
A believer is baptized and laid beside Christ in His death.
A believer is baptized and they have died to sin.
“The picture in baptism points two ways, backwards to Christ’s death and burial and to our death to sin, forwards to Christ’s resurrection from the dead and to our new life pledged by the coming out of the watery grave to walk on the other side of the baptismal grave.” — A. T. Robertson
Baptism first points down toward burial into Christ’s death.
Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.
Then Peter picks up on Noah and shows how the flood prefigured Christian baptism.
In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.
It’s not that Jesus went to hell to preach the gospel.
It means that through the preaching of Noah, righteousness was declared and people saved.
And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you—not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.
It is the burial of Christ that gives meaning to His resurrection.
If the Son of God was not truly dead and buried, then there is no sense to celebrate His resurrection.
But because He has truly died and buried, we can rejoice in His resurrection.
The Christian & Sin
How does the believer now think of sin?
Does this mean that we get out of the tank and we’re sinless?
No! This is by no means what Paul means.
But there is a fundamental breaking with tyranny of sin over the life of the believer.
Sin no longer reigns as supreme within the believers life.
So when we hear Christian’s saying things like,
“I can’t obey this.”
We need to be very careful.
This is because we have been delivered from sin’s tyranny.
But we have also been given a new power to obey in Christ’s resurrection power.
Raised to walk in resurrection life.
Raised to walk in resurrection life.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Don’t miss the logical progression of this statement.
We were buried into Christ’s death to sin.
SO THAT we would walk in NEWNESS of life in His resurrection.
Jesus Christ was raised “through” the glory of the Father.
This reality showed more than any other the glory of the Father in the raising of His Son in power.
The resurrection of Christ was the manifestation of the glory of the Father that you and I in our baptism get to participate in.
For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
The resurrection shines forth the glory of the Father in the face of His beloved Son that you and I are called to identify ourselves with.
“[B]aptism into Christ signifies simply union with him and participation of all privileges which he as Christ Jesus embodies.” —John Murray
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Grace as POWER
Grace is like the engine of the car.
If we are trying to obey God’s laws without God’s power, it will be a fruitless endeavor.
We’re not just saved by grace.
We live by grace.
We have everything by GRACE.
If salvation is getting us out of Egypt – Slavery to sin.
Then sanctification is getting the Egypt out of us – Fighting for holiness.
It assumes that you have actually come out of Egypt.
If a person gets baptized and they first have not come out of Egypt, then they are MERELY getting wet.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
United in His Death and Resurrection
United in His Death and Resurrection
(Romans 6:5)
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Weeds in the Junk Yard
When equipment would sit for months it would begin to have weeds grow up into it.
If it sat for too long, weeds would encase it.
The phrase here for “united with him in a death like his” conveys the idea of being “grown together.”
The only other place this word is used in the NT is in reference to the seed “grew up with” the thorns (Luke 8:7).
When we saw “united with Him in a death like his” you need to picture the kind of united that happens when grass grows up with thorns and thistles.
When we were changed in conversion, God took us from the previous garden of satan.
God took us from the garden of destruction and planted us in the God of His Son.
“In baptism, you are planted into the death of Jesus, in order that you may now live as a renewed human being, planted also in his resurrection life.”
How can grace lead a person to more and more sin?
It CANNOT.
It only leads to freedom!
Christian
If you’re walking in an experience of grace that only leads you to more sin.
It’s NOT grace that you’re living under.
It’s living under the power of sin to continue in habitual sin.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Grown together in death and life.
Grown together in death and life.
“as the twig derives substance and nourishment from the root to which it is attached, so those who receive baptism with true faith truly feel the efficacy of Christ’s death in the killing of their sin, and the efficacy of his resurrection in the empowering of the Spirit.”
Institutes of the Christian Religion (Chapter XV: Of Baptism)
We have been “grown together in the likeness of His death.”
This leads him to assert that we will likewise be “grown together in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom 6:5).
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Through baptism, we are united to Christ in death and life, freeing us from the tyranny of sin.
Baptism Time
Grab the nursery workers.
Amazing Grace
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Baptism is a church's act of affirming and portraying a believer's union with Christ by immersing him in water, and the believer's act of publicly committing him to Christ and His people believer to the church and marking him from the world.
It’s the church’s act of affirming a person’s faith.
It’s a person’s act of publicly committing themselves to Christ and His people.
Blake Gives His Testimony
Questions for Blake
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God?
Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins and was raised on the third day?
Do you trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation?
Do you make profession of repentance toward God and of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you promise, by God’s grace, to follow him forever in the fellowship of his church?
Question for the Church Body
Do you affirm Blake's profession of faith and pledge yourself to him as a member of Christ’s body?
Blake, upon your profession of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Buried with Christ in His death, raised with Christ in His resurrection.