Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
Notes
Transcript
So today we're going to break into chapter 6 of Romans.
We'll be in verses 1 through 14 today and so as we get into this text we want to see where God is leading this conversation.
What we need to do is remember where we've been in Romans...
What we know about Paul's approach so far is that he's been calling his readers to FAITH ALONE in CHRIST ALONE.
That justification before God comes by:
Faith not works
Grace not law
Divine power, not our own
And Paul, in writing this letter to the Romans is not only speaking to the Jewish Nation, but also to the Gentiles.
And so if we could picture ...
SLIDE:
Paul now, standing in the middle of a room...
...and on his right he has the Jewish Nation, and on his left he has the pagan Gentiles.
In the minds of the Jewish Nation, the Gentiles were evil, wicked people....who could not care less about God...
All the while, the Jewish Nation operating under the Law...
Pursuing God through the law:
Going to church every week
Involved in every ministry
Memorizing the Torah, front and back...
And so Paul standing in between these 2 groups...
...has been calling these people...BOTH SIDES
...to FAITH ALONE in Christ Alone
And so this week in chapter 6, Paul is directing traffic if you will...
We've seen the cops in the streets directing traffic...
telling this group to stop, and this other group to come through...
Well Paul is going to be directing traffic
And he's going to look at the Jewish Nation and say - Come on...Come on...
It's faith, NOT by works
It's by grace, NOT by law
Come on!
Join me here!
I'm standing on faith alone in Christ alone...join me!
And Paul knows that as he speaks these words, the Gentiles are hearing him as well...
..that it's by grace alone...
Do we agree that God knows the heart of man?
We know He does...
And God knows that as Paul speaks these words...
As he calls the Jewish Nation out from under the law, to FAITH ALONE...
He knows that the Jewish Nation will run to Paul...
and RUN right passed him to the opposite side of the room...
...to the opposite extreme...
and will join the pagan Gentiles and say what - "It's all of grace...let's continue in sin that grace may abound!"
This is how the Jewish Nation would respond, and Paul knows this...
On the opposite side of the room, we have the Gentiles, WHO...
when hearing Paul speak about:
faith NOT works...
grace NOT law...
God's power, NOT our own...
AND they see the Jewish Nation running to them...
In their minds they hear Paul and think - "Paul just affirmed for us...where we stand! - - This is awesome! Let's CONTINUE in sin that grace may abound!"
And Paul, standing in the middle of the room is saying - NO, no, I'm standing on FAITH ALONE...
...and FAITH ALONE does NOT throw works out the window!
Faith alone comes by grace...yet LEADS TO good works.
Works are not thrown out the window...
And so this is Paul directing traffic this week...
Saying to the Jewish Nation...
Come join me....stand with me...
Come out from under the Law, which leads to destruction...
Join me in standing on FAITH ALONE
And saying to the Gentiles...
Come join me....stand with me...
Walk away from yourself as your god, which leads to destruction...
Join me in standing on FAITH ALONE in Christ alone.
And so this week, in Paul speaking to these 2 groups, he's going to APPEAL to something, to help them see why and how they CAN join him in standing on FAITH ALONE!
Let's get to the text...
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 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.
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.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
So as we said, Paul is standing in the middle of this room called life, and he's calling all men, Jews and Gentiles...
to join him in the center, to stand on FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE!
And in doing so...he appeals to something.
What we can see in this text is that Paul, in calling men to Faith Alone, appeals to the effectual nature of Christ's redemptive work.
What does that mean?
We all know the concept of "cause and effect" right?
Well what is the effect of Christ's work...for me...in me?
This is what Paul appeals to, to get man to see how justification comes by faith alone...and how we can live lives of faith.
And so the first point we see today is this...:
SLIDE: By Faith In Christ: His Work of Redemption Becomes Our Work
By Faith in Christ
By Faith in Christ
God unites us to Christ's work of redemption, through our faith in Christ
That through faith alone in Christ alone, God unites us to Christ's work of redemption.
And so you may be thinking, yeah, well how does that apply to me?
Here's how:
Do you feel the crushing weight of your sin in your life?
Do you feel like you’re just not good enough?
Do you dread tomorrow, thinking it’s just another opportunity to disappoint God?
Do you feel stuck in a spiritual depression that won’t let you go?
If this is you, we must remember this truth.
Yes...while we should grow to hate our sin more and more...
Yes...while we should grow to hate our sin more and more...
as we draw closer to Christ, we must not forget the effectual work of Christ.
Because we will deal with sin on this side of forever, we must know what His work has done for us.
We asked the question last week - Are you only united to Adam, or are you united to Christ??
The answer matters!
When we look at the resume of Adam, we see a path that leads to destruction.
Sin enters the world through Adam
Death spreads to all men because we ALL have sinned...
Adam is our head, and so whatever happens to Adam, happens to us.
Being united to Adam, his end, will be our end...
Destruction.
If we're only united to Adam, then death and eternal condemnation will be ours...
But if we're united to Christ, then we're put on the path that leads to life.
Not because of our work, but because of His!
His resume?
Abundance of Grace (MUCH MORE than the trespass)
Perfection of Obedience
The Reign of Life
His work, COUNTED as our work!
And we see this in marriage don't we:
our spouse’s family becomes our family;
our spouse’s money becomes our money;
our spouse’s possessions become our possessions; (2 annoying cats)
our spouse’s fight with cancer becomes our fight with cancer.
Their victories become our victories,
their wins become our wins,
their trials become our trials.
And if you're single in here...
You've experienced this with your parents...
Their home becomes your home...
Their food becomes your food (ALL of their food becomes your food)
And so we've all experienced this in some form - that through certain unions, blessings come...
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
And so Paul here reaffirming for us, that IN CHRIST, we find a righteousness to CALL OUR OWN, yet that righteousness NOT BEING OUR OWN...
It is the righteousness of God....counted as ours...through the UNION of FAITH.
And so when trials come in life...Remember who you are IN Christ.
BECAUSE His work has become our work!
And since this is so...then...it leads to our 2nd point:
SLIDE: BY FAITH IN CHRIST, HIS DEATH BECOMES OUR DEATH
By Faith in Christ
By Faith in Christ
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death...
The fact that each of you are sitting here right now, points to the reality that each of you, at one point in time...were in your mother's womb.
I can say that with certainty...
And so we all know that when we look at a mother who is with child, we know that there is a special union there that is playing out.
If a mother, who is with child, gets sick and dies...left to themselves...
what happens to the child?
The child dies...
Left to themselves...the child dies...100% of the time...
The mother's death...becomes the child's death.
why?
Because of the nature of the union they share.
The mother's death becomes the child's death.
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Notice that Paul is speaking, yet claiming that he has died...
a death has occurred.
How can we (that includes himself) who DIED (past tense)...
And so we might think...I've died?
Let's have Paul explain it...
Romans 6:3–4 (ESV)
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death...
So what's this saying?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus -
He's speaking to a specific group of people - those who have been baptized into Christ...
This is not water baptism. - Water baptism doesn’t place ANYONE INTO Christ!
This is talking about a Spiritual New Birth.
...being born again.
The bible is full of metaphors is it not?
God takes divine truths, and wraps them in human language to help us understand them better...
Jesus spoke in parables to help us understand divine realities..
So this specific group of people - THOSE who have been baptized in Christ (those who have faith in Christ)...
...those people - Do you not know that those people were baptized into His death...
Do you see - His death, through FAITH, becomes our death?
And still you might say - who cares...
back to verse 2:
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
This death...that becomes ours...through faith...is a death TO SIN.
And so let's think through this now...
If we are united to Christ's death, through faith...
And the death that we're united to is a DEATH TO SIN...
...then that means Christ's death must have been a DEATH TO SIN...
jump down to verse 10:
Romans 6:10.
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Here's the union.
His death, through faith, becomes our death.
A death to sin...
So let's step back for a second:
God is Holy - he is perfect in every way. His attributes cannot be improved upon.
He is not partial in any way
From the beginning God planned to magnify His Son Christ, through the gospel (Rev. 13:8 - Before the foundation of the world, the gospel was the plan of God)
His plan included a way that His children would be reconciled to Him, thru Christ, as our substitute (Rev. 13:8, Romans 3:25)
His justice required payment for sin…(He is not partial...He sends His Son)
His mercy sought to be extended to those whom He pleased.
Both of them, His justice and His mercy…satisfied on the cross.
His justice…satisfied on the cross (sins paid for)
His mercy…extended to us through Christ on the cross…
On the Cross - WHICH IS THE ONLY WAY HIS MERCY COULD HAVE BEEN EXTENDED TO US, WITHOUT COMPROMISING HIS JUSTICE.
20 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 Faith, His death to sin becomes our death to sin.
And so where sin was once our Master and called for us to obey...through faith we're now dead to sin.
If you've seen the show Shark Tank, you've heard Kevin O'Leary (one of the billionaire investors on the show)...
You've heard him say to some of the entrepreneurs - "You're dead to me".
He's saying - I have no use of you - leave...you're dead to me.
When we put our faith in Christ, His death to sin becomes our death to sin...
Sin looks at us, and says - "you're dead to me...i have no ultimate control over you anymore"
Sin says - "sure, I may win a few battles in your life, but i can see that I've lost the war" - You're dead to me.
Remember this Christian.
When the sins that seem to crush us to the point of halting our worship of Christ...
...REMEMBER THIS!
We're now dead to sin...
His death has become our death...
and since this is so...it then leads to the 3rd point:
BY FAITH IN CHRIST, HIS RESURRECTION BECOMES OUR NEW LIFE
By Faith In Christ
By Faith In Christ
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.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Because through faith, we are united to Christ's redemptive work of dying to sin, we are also united to His resurrection.
We read of freedom in these verses...
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
The chains of sin are broken...
We are no longer enslaved to sin...we're free.
And it's this freedom that it took me a long time to understand...even as little as I understand it now.
verse 7 says - For one who has died has been set free from sin.
We read before that through faith, WE have died to sin...
So...we, having faith in Christ, have died to sin, and are set free from sin.
So...we, having faith in Christ, have died to sin, and are set free from sin.
My question always was - Then what about the sin that still battles me...everyday?
I thought I was set free?!
Before we put our faith and trust in Christ...
Before we become justified before God...
Before God unites us to the redemptive work of Christ...We are enslaved to sin.
Sin is our master.
That means, that regardless of what we do...
regardless of ALL the good things that we do...
regardless of how moral we are....
Our lives, our deeds, our actions, our thoughts, our minds, our hearts...
operate as slaves to sin...
meaning everything we do - is sin
We can't escape it.
Before Christ's redemptive work is applied to us through faith in Christ...
We are 100% enslaved to sin and everything we do is sin. (without faith it is impossible to please God)...
We can't escape this...we are forever chained to sin.
BUT...
BUT...
Having been united to Christ's death, and having been united to His resurrection....the chain is broken.
And we're free!
Free from sin...from the ultimate power of sin that would have lead us to destruction...to death.
We will still deal with sin in this life...but the chain is broken.
We're free to love Christ now...
We're free to pursue Christ...
We're free to walk in the paths of righteousness
Like the kid who views the grueling obstacle course, now as a playground....FREE to enjoy Christ.
Like the person who has been deaf their whole life, hears sound for the first time...
They're free now to enjoy their loved one's voice...the sounds of life.
And if we are now united to Christ in His death, and in His resurrection, then ALL of the implications of that belong to us as well!
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Death no longer reigns over us!
Christ, being raised from the dead, will NEVER die again..
Our souls, being united to Christ's resurrection, will never die...
We can see the importance of the gospel in the life of a Christian…!
When temptation comes and you're on the brink of:
responding evil for evil
clicking your mouse to view that picture
gossiping about that person
KNOW that His redemptive work has become your work!
His dying to sin has become your death to sin (sin has no use of you)
His resurrection has become your new life, that you would now walk in the newness of life (death has no dominion over you)
You're free to walk away from the evil responses...
Free to walk away from the computer screen
Free to walk away from the gossip session
And all of it in the newness of life...in obedience to God.
Only thru faith can those chains be broken, freeing us, to now walk in the newness of life. (rising with Him)
We’re now free to enjoy Christ and pursue Him, things we couldn’t do before believing in Him.
…and so when we pray to God to give us the strength to get thru something, or to let us be weak that we might follow Him, we should know that He has already supplied us with that power..HE ROSE!
IN CLOSING
And so as we take a step forward from ‘faith not works’, and ‘grace not law’, and ‘divine power not human effort’....
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Paul wants us to stand with him, on faith alone in Christ alone.
He’s calling us to a life of faith, and he show us today how we’re able to even do so.
By Faith In Christ:
His work of redemption becomes our work
His death becomes our death
His resurrection becomes our new life
When trials come, remember who you are IN Christ…
When temptation comes, meditate on your death to sin…IN Christ
When we fall to sin, remember that Christ rose!
We can walk in newness of life.
His redemptive work has become our work...and in this we can rejoice!
Let's Pray....
