Living under grace

He was married to the job. You’ve probably all heard the phrase and maybe you know someone for whom that was true. What does it mean? Everything they did in their life was about their work, all other things took second place, family, friends, community, if it got in the way of work, work took priority - sometimes even to the destruction of those other things. Such a person defines themselves only by reference to their work, sometimes being so connected to their work that they keep working well past the time where most would have retired. Their work defines them.

What is it that defines you?

There’s a multitude of options today, seemingly endless - a popular one currently is sexuality or gender identity but there are others ethnicity, family, work, nationality, political preference, sport, sporting team, special ability (music, art, literature), age, working status, medical condition(s).

I once met with a man in hospital who wanted to see a Presbyterian minister and after I’d introduced myself, he gave me a run down of his family history - who he was was defined by his family history.

In Romans 6 Paul tells us what it is that defines a Christian and what that means for our life lived under the reign of God’s grace.

Do you know who you are as a Christian? Do you know how to live according to who you are?

These are the questions that are being answered in Romans 6.

1. Know who you are (vv. 1-11) and;

2. Be what you are (vv. 12-23).

Know who you are

First, then, know who you are, learn how you are defined now that you are justified by faith.

At the end of Romans 5 we learned about the law, “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.” For those who are under grace, one of the functions of the law now is to see just how often sin was in our lives and then to see how more abundant and powerful God’s grace has been displayed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ in destroying sin’s influence and the end that sin promised, death.

When we open Romans 6, the question is asked, should we sin now so that grace may abound? In v. 15, a similar quesiton is asked, should we sin because we’re not under law but under grace?

The answer to both questions is an emphatic, “No!”, “By no means!” as our text puts it.

Why not? What’s the reasoning?

Romans 6:2-11 tells us the reason why we should no longer sin and it’s because of who we are now.

It starts with a rhetorical question, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” The obvious answer is, well we can’t. But how did we die to sin?

Verses 3-4 tell us that when we were baptised into Christ, we were baptised into his death and we were buried with him.

When Paul talks about those who are baptised into Christ in v. 3, he is talking about those who have been made alive through the Holy Spirit and have a clear testimony of faith in Jesus Christ. Those who now have the assurance of the promises of God made to them in baptism, applied to them through the Holy Spirit. Those whose sin has been washed away because they’ve trusted in Jesus and in the death he died on account of their sin.

If you have a clear testimony of faith in Jesus Christ, you have been baptised into Christ. Therefore you have been baptised into his death and you have been buried with him. You are now linked with Jesus, when he died on account of your sin, your sin was taken from you, you died to it. As Jesus was buried, so too now, is all that sin that Jesus died for, the sin that once defined you is now buried.

I had a car once that had a leaky radiator, the steering was never right (and couldn’t be put right), the starter motor frequently needed a whack with a spanner so that it would work, one of the doors didn’t open properly and it was covered in dents from being in a hail storm. Finally there came a day where it wouldn’t work at all, it was less than no good. I got rid of it, it ended up at a wreckers being so useless that even the wreckers said it wasn’t worth anything. It was gone because it was dead and useless. Your old life, that one where you were under sin and death, is gone from you, gone from the moment you were made new through the Spirit and could confess with clarity that your faith was in Jesus Christ.

Something much more remarkable has occured though, Jesus is not just your representative, but you are united to him, you are joined to him; there is an inexplicable one-ness that you have with Jesus. You can see that in v. 5, “we have been united with him in a death like his” which also means, “we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” You are inseperably joined to Christ now and forever.

When our children were younger and to a certain degree still today, where we went, they went with us and, for the most part, it was good for them to be where we were. With even more certainty, when we are regenerated and our faith is in Jesus, we are so united with him that where he went we have been (“united to him in a death like his” and where he is now is where we will be (“we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his”. Verse 8 puts it quite simply, “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

Jesus died on account of our sin so, “united with him in a death like his...our old self was crucified with him.” All that we once were, we are no longer. The moment we were regenerated by God’s Spirit and put our faith in Jesus, we were completely transformed. No longer dead and enslaved to sin, but now made alive to God in v. 11. Why? Because that’s where Jesus is, “the death he died, he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.” He died to sin, so you’ve died to sin, he lives so now you live, in v. 4 it’s put this way, “just as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.” Jesus being raised from the dead alive means that you can walk in the newness of life. Where he has gone you will go, united to Christ by the Spirit you have a new life in Jesus by that same Spirit. In Ephesians 2:4-5, Paul writes, “But God...even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” and in in Galatians 2:20, he says, “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.”

Christian, you who have put your faith in Jesus Christ, who are you?

You are united to Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, you have died with him, you now live in the newness of life through the Holy Spirit and you have everlasting life in him.

So, should you sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! Because of who you are through your union to Christ.

Maybe there is someone here today who is not a christian, you haven’t put your faith in Jesus Christ. Today is a day of opportunity, an opportunity to know what Christ has done, to know what he offers, today is a day where you can declare your faith in Jesus, a day where you can be completely transformed and brought to life and unity with him that lasts forever. If that is you, please take the opportunity to speak with me and let me help you.

Be what you are

As someone who is united to Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, someone who lives in the newness of life through the Holy Spirit, the call upon you is to be what you are.

Be alive to God. What does that look like?

Romans 6:12 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” Sin no longer has to dominate your life, you don’t have to give in to those temptations anymore. Once we were powerless and under the influence and reign of sin that leads to death.

Paul use the picture of slavery to show what your life was like when you were a slave to sin, in v. 6 Paul says we were once enslaved to sin. In v.19 he shows us that that looked like, “you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness.” You were heaping up sin, upon sin, upon sin. And then in v. 21 he asks, “But what fruit were you getting?” answering the question with “For the end of those things is death.” In Romans 2:5 he says it this way, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” What a miserable state we were once in. We were slaves to sin, we had to obey it and we were headed for disaster.

But for the one who is united to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, Paul says, “sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

How do we take on sin, we can, but how do we do it? Paul puts it like this in Romans 8:13, “if you live...by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body...” By deeds of the body, he is referring that which we do that is sin, that is an act of disobedience to God.

It is only by the work of the Spirit in us that we can put sin to death; and that doesn’t mean that we are passive. This is something that we must work at, identifying the sin, whether it’s a thought, the way we speak to others, our actions, the way we think about people, things, work, money, family. Where is that sin? We need to identify it, we must be able to capture those thoughts, those words and those actions and ask, is this right in God’s sight? How does this thought, these actions, those words measure up with my identity as one with Christ, alive to God? Do I need to work at something in all this?

The law, the ten commandments, still play the role of “increasing your knowledge of sin”, not with the end to show you that you will face God’s wrath for it (you are saved by grace) but now they are your guideposts, showing you where there is still a battle agaisnt sin to be fought. It forces you to ask how and where am I missing the mark? Where do I need to correct myself? Where through the Spirit, do I need to change?

It is true that everyone who is made new by the Spirit and has put their faith in Jesus is now justified - declared just, because Jesus’ death and resurrection and because we are united with him. But until we enter into the fullness of God’s kingdom, we have a battle to fight, against sin, to strive to become more and more like our perfect Saviour, Jesus. This is what we call sanctification, or growth in holiness and it is work, it is hard work and it is the everyday work of every christian and part of that work is putting sin to death.

We are Christ’s, one with him and we need to show it through our efforts at putting sin to death in our lives.

When I was 10 or so I played soccer and in one of the last matches I ever played, I ran the ball down the field, shot and scored… the only trouble was, it was for the other team.

When we give in to sin, that’s what we’re doing, we not being who we are, we’re not shooting goals for the right team. We need to pay more attention to ourselves, more attention than I was able to in that soccer match.

Are you united to Christ? Here’s a test for you, do you have a desire to put to death sin in your life?

We’re not just striving to put sin to death, but we have become slaves to something else. We have become slaves to righteousness.

Look at vv. 17-18, “you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

Everyone, says Paul, is either a slave of sin, or they are a slave of righteousness. Where once we could do nothing but obey sin, now we need to be obedient to righteousness.

And something in you has changed so that you can be an obedient slave to righteousness.

Look again at vv. 17-18, “you have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” That’s what happens when the Holy Spirit renews you when he revives you, you get a new heart. That’s what God said he would do, we read it in Ezekiel 36:26–27 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Now you are working to live positively for God, becoming obedient to him and to Jesus, it is a hearfelt whole-person desire born in you through the Holy Spirit and this too is work. Yes it is work that is aided by the Holy Spirit and it is from him that we are given the strength to live positively for God as we seek to become more like Jesus. But it is our work to do, a work of obedience to the commands of God, to the teaching of Jesus.

The ten commandments of God and the teaching of Jesus are not just pointers to where we have to still battle sin, but they are positive directions about how to live out our love for Jesus that has become our Spirit-wrought desire.

We see the command to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and we now look for how we can do that. How can I learn more about who God is? How can I be in greater fellowship with him? How can I honour him and make his glory the centre of my life?

We see the command to love our neighbour as ourselves and we now look for how we can do that. Where are there people in need around me? How can I help them? Where are those who don’t know Jesus? How can I connect with them? How can I tell them about him? We actively look for opportunities outside of our christian circles, because our whole-person spirit-wrought desire is to obey Jesus. We are now slaves to righteousnes, because we are united to Christ.

Are you united to Christ? Here’s another test for you, do you have a heart-filled whole-person desire to live for God, to live for Jesus in obedience to them?

What comes from being a slave to righteousness?

In v. 19 we find that if you are a slave to righteousness, it leads to your sanctification, and in v. 22, if you are a slave of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Have you seen that in yourself? Have you seen growth in sanctification? A greater likeness to Christ and obedience to him?

I was talking to someone recently and they spoke of a particular struggle with sin that they were able to overcome and it was hard work, the process of sanctification can be hard work. But one thing that I said to this person was that if you look back over your life, sometimes over many years back to the person you once were, you can see where, through the Spirit working in you, and by your striving, you have grown in sanctification, grown into the image of Christ.

For myself, there was an initial period of growth that was dynamic and intense. There have been other periods where over years there seems to have little progress but then still other moments where there’s great strides made in one area or another. But there is always growth as we seek and strive to live for God, to become like Jesus.

Have you seen that in your life? It is proof positive that you are one with Christ, that you are a slave to righteousness so keep striving, keep living out that heart-filled spirit-given desire to live for Jesus.

All of us who are united to Christ, who have been renewed and revived through the Spirit, we are now alive to God in Christ. We are slaves of righteousness and so we must work at becoming more and more so. Putting sin to death, seeking to live in obedience to God and the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be hard work, it can be painful but we are not alone in it as we strive. The same Holy Spirit who revived us now works in us, driving us, helping us as we seek to live for Jesus.

We end where Paul ends, once we were slaves to sin and Paul says, “The wages of sin is death,” that was our dreaded end. But you are revived, regenerated, united to Christ, slaves to righeousness and under grace and Paul says to you, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”