A House Divided
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Intro:
Intro:
I know what I need to do I just don’t know why I can’t seem to do it!
This is the kind of thing that I hear all the time as I counsel or just hang around with Christian friends.
I wish that I only knew about this question because of others but truthfully this is something I deal with all the time as well.
We deal with sin on a daily basis in our lives.
The book of Romans teaches us to make a major shift in our view of sin.
that we will see today is a central piece in what our view of sin, salvation and sanctification should be.
In there is a very powerful statement that we saw last week.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Where sin did abound grace did MUCH MORE abound.
What an amazing statement.
What a powerful thought.
But think for a moment what could be the natural result of believing what Paul says!
No matter what I do, when sin abounds then grace abounds more.
So no matter what I do I will be forgiven and loved then why not just live it up and enjoy my life however I want to right now?
Why even worry about how I live my life?
Why should I care?
Paul knows that this isn’t just something that we might think but that the Roman church might deal with that as well.
Because of this possibility he begins the next part of his letter trying to explain to us our relationship with sin, the cross and the resurrection.
There is one thing to make sure we notice here.
In this passage Paul will talk about SIN not SINS.
He speaks in singular not plural.
He is focusing not on various sins that people commit.
Instead he is focusing on the underlying fact, or principle, or power of sin.
The truths that we find here are truths no matter what the sins are that we deal with daily.
I do not know of many passages of scriptures that have more potential to impact our lives and change our daily walk than the passage we are going to look at today!
Let’s open our Bibles to .
The first thing we will see in the first 5 verses is our relationship with Christ in death and resurrection.
I. Our Relationship to Christ -
I. Our Relationship to Christ -
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
As a result of and grace abounding more then because of that what shall we say?
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Should we just continue in sin so that grace can abound?
You know, maybe we could even help God show how much grace he really has?
This question could be coming from those that are living as if the law doesn’t even exist.
Or it might be coming from the Jewish leaders that were concerned that the idea would lead people to think that their life and how they live it truly doesn’t matter either.
These seem like fairly reasonable questions.
Brace for impact as you hear Paul’s answer.
will answer that question.
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
His answer leaves no question about his thoughts!
GOD FORBID!!!!
If he sent this in 2017 it would be all caps and an angry emoji (if he would use emojis which I seriously doubt).
How dare we that are dead to sin live any longer in it?
Dietrick Bonhoeffer, refers to viewing grace this way as Cheap Grace.
Cheap Grace says: “I have been forgiven and I will go on being forgiven whatever I do, so I can do whatever I wish.”
God Forbid!
The question about whether we should stop sinning or not is a crazy question.
I think this slide shows and explains a lot about the truth we live in as Christians.
These verses say that we are dead to sin but this slide tells a lot about our reality.
Slide of Dead Man’s eviction.
Wait did he say we were dead to sin there?
I don’t feel like that is true at all.
Don’t we know that if we were baptized into him we were also baptized into his death?
In the same way that Jesus has been raised from death we are raised for a NEW WALK!
We were resurrected with him as well.
Martin Lloyd Jones spoke of an analogy that really explains the struggle that the Christian deals with.
He spoke of two British fields or gardens.
They would have looked kind of like this.
Slide of Garden Walls.
He says to consider two fields that are enclosed by high rock walls.
Every person begins life in one of those fields.
We start in a field that is ruled over by Satan and sin.
We have no chance of scaling the walls and escaping the field on our own.
But God, in his grace, reaches down and takes us out of that Satan dominated field and sets us down in the field right next to it.
This field is ruled by Christ and righteousness.
A decisive change in our position has taken place.
We are in a whole new relationship to sin.
The problem is that we can still hear the enemy calling across the wall from the old field where we used to live.
Many times out of habit we obey his voice even though we no longer have to.
Is this not what we deal with almost daily in our lives?
he shifts into how we are baptized into Christ.
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Baptism is something that really matters and it has a reason and a purpose.
Baptism is an ordinance to the church and its purpose is to identify ourselves with Jesus.
Not being baptized or not getting baptized is like telling your wife that you married at the court house.
Hey I love you and all but please don’t put any reference to our marriage on Facebook.
I don’t plan on wearing a ring or anything on my finger.
But hey the positive thing is that I do love you. :)
We identify with his death, burial and resurrection through baptism.
We are saying, Hey I have no shame in the fact that I am a follower of Christ.
II. The Result of Death -
II. The Result of Death -
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
This is where it starts getting really good.
We tend to consider death as a completely negative concept, but what we find here is that death is the gateway to life.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Our old man (before Christ) is crucified and destroyed and because of that from here on out we shouldn’t serve sin.
We were crucified with him in order that our sinful nature might be stripped of its power.
In our day and age we like thinking and talking about our freedom.
We tend to think anything at all that we want to do is fine as long as it is something we enjoy.
They live as if said:
What shall we say? Should we not be able to do what we desire? After all Grace over abounds over all of my sin.
The sad thing is that many think that they find their justification for doing whatever they want in the scriptures, but here is the truth.
Any justification (salvation) that does not lead to sanctification (holiness or a change in our daily walk) is a sham and any sanctification (outward actions) that isn’t founded on our justification (salvation) is an exercise in legalism and doesn’t deserve the name of Christianity.
III. The Result of Resurrection -
III. The Result of Resurrection -
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
If this is true then we will live with him too.
You see death and burial is not the end of the story.
In God’s plan burial is followed by resurrection.
Just like Jesus where death has no control or dominion over him, the same way, sin has no dominion over us.
Do you understand how powerful of a statement that is?
Because of this, everything has changed.
As Jesus was raised from the dead showing God’s amazing power we also are raised to an entirely different way of living.
We used to serve sin but now we serve God.
We lived to sin but now we live unto God.
The life of a believer is to be as different from before they were saved as life is from death.
That cruel master can no longer exercise any power over him.
The cross and death, was sins final move; the resurrection was God’s checkmate.
The game is over.
Sin has been forever defeated.
IV. The Result of this Relationship -
IV. The Result of this Relationship -
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Because of that then we must reckon (act as if it is true) that we are dead to sin.
You are dead to sin and alive to God because of Jesus.
This word that is translated Reckon here is used 41 times in the New Testament and 19 times in Romans.
It is the same word that is translated: count, reckon, and impute in
It means to put into ones account.
It comes down to this. Believing that what God says in his Word is really true not just for others but in our lives as well.
Paul doesn’t say, FEEL as if you are dead to sin, or even UNDERSTAND fully that you are dead to sin.
He says act on God’s word and claim it to be true in your life.
If Brenden gives me a check for $1,000,000 I will smile and say hey isn’t that cute.
But I would never believe that he actually has that currently in his account.
I wouldn’t show up to Bank of America and ask for them to cash it for sure.
Now I might keep it for a few years and then try and cash it later. :)
This is the way that we tend to treat the word of God.
Isn’t that cute what God says to me?
NO STOOOOOP!!!! Go to the bank and cash it.
Reckoning is acting on what God says as if it is fact.
God never commands us to become dead to sin, he says you are dead to sin.
Now act on it! = YIELD
On September 22, 1862 Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation in which he said:
All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.
Booker T. Washington was 9 when the emancipation reached his plantation in Virginia. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery he says.
The most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.
But the practicality of this emancipation took a very long time to come to reality all across the board.
Being free on paper and being free in life was a different issue.
You can read in many books how while some were officially free that little changed for them practically.
This legal emancipation presented slaves with the OPPORTUNITY to live as free men and women.
Turning their legal status into actual experience would require an internal transformation.
Many who found freedom too daunting chose the uncomfortable familiarity of slavery instead.
No doubt, slavery was an atrocity but it can be hard to escape even if the shackles are off.
We all know deep down that the cost of freedom is sacrifice.
Either ours or someone else’s.
While this sounds crazy the truth is that this is the exact place we find ourselves living as Christians.
The truth about death is that death separates.
Death to sin removes those that believe from the control of sin.
Because of that don’t LET sin reign in our day to day walk.
You realize that the word LET there tells us that if sin is reigning in our lives it is because we LET it.
The scripture does not state that sin dies to the believer; it is the believer who has died to sin.
Don’t yield (like the sign) yourself to be an instrument of unrighteousness for sin.
Instead yield yourself to God.
When sin calls to us we must stop reporting for duty!
When you serve in the service you are used to presenting yourself to do stuff.
You do what you are told, when you are told every time.
I had a friend tell me that one of the most confusing days of his life was when he left the service.
He says don’t let and then he says neither, so DON’T LET THIS EITHER!
He no longer had to answer to his captain but every time he heard his voice he jumped to.
That is the kind of thing we deal with as people that no longer have to serve sin too.
He says don’t let and then he says neither, so DON’T LET THIS EITHER!
To obey the cravings of sin is to be alive to sin; but not to obey them is dying to sin.
Don’t yield yourself to sin.
But he doesn’t stop there at all.
It is so easy to be negative and say stop this but God says through Paul to stop stuff but then he says instead you are going to present yourselves.
Don’t let but also decide to give yourself to him.
There is no middle ground, there is no neutral position between serving our God and serving sin.
To obey the cravings of sin is to be alive to sin; but not to obey them is to die to sin.
Act as if, live as if, Reckon it to be so give yourself to him.
Why?
Because sin this way will not have power over you.
Remember you are not under law but you are under grace.
There is a saying that says that, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Many times when looking back on past sins, we tend to live by this saying.
The problem is that we tend to forget the consequences but we remember all the appeal.
We romanticize those things that enslaved us before.
We must always seek to live in a way that identifies with Jesus.
Remember that while we were still his enemies, he redeemed us and gave us hope.
The thought of going back is crazy but daily we have to remember this.
Death is forever, with no option of return, and this is how Paul wants us to view our old, sinful life as well.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The contrast to what was called “cheap grace” has 3 possibilities.
The moralists will feel that sin is a human problem with human solutions.
Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps etc.
The legalists try and conquer sin through legislation.
If we make this against the “rules” then that would make everything better.
Paul teaches here that sin can only be handled through truly having a relationship with Christ.
We are not in a performance based relationship.
We don’t do more to feel better.
We fall in love with Jesus and as that happens it changes everything about the way we live.
This doesn’t mean at all that the Christian life is a passive life.
We must KNOW, RECKON and YIELD.
We have to know the word but it doesn’t stop there at all you have to Reckon, appropriate, make it yours.
Live like it is true.
Then you must yield every day, every hour and every minute of the day.
These three steps help us to conquer the false reign of sin in our lives.
This is a daily attitude in our lives.
This is the way to grow in grace that will change the way we operate.
Every time we find a new spiritual truth this is what we must do with it.
KNOW, RECKON and YIELD
We must be in the word with him getting to know Jesus more and more.
No matter how you decide to walk daily, both walks require submission to someone or something.
You can submit to the Spirit or you can submit to the world.
Can you understand how powerful of a passage this truly is?
Can you see how the truth that we find in here has the potential to help us live in a way that brings him glory and will help us to live in a way that we can look at the guy in the mirror with more ease?
Can I ask you this week to not give yourself to something that is dead to serve it?
The Puritans used to say, “God does not take away our ability to sin; He gives us the power not to sin.”
How about let’s trying to live as if this was true?
Can I ask you to think daily on the truth that sin has no dominion over you that the only time you sin is when you decide to give yourself to sin?
Let’s leave here today empowered by the truth that he has freed us from those things that we pretend we are still slaves to!
Fighting bulls in Peru.
Slide of fighting bulls
Let’s finish up today trying to put some perspective on what we see in this passage.
The idea of responding positively to sin’s invitation should strike as insanely morbid.
When we choose to sin it is like digging up a corpse to hang out with.
Genuinely being dead to sin means that our entire perspective has changed.
After going through this passage we know that we are no longer slaves to sin, the sad thing is that when we decide to sin we are nothing but volunteers in its service.
Just consider what that means, you are saying to sin let me know what to do because I have volunteered to become your slave.
Let us decide that we will not at all give ourselves to sins service but that instead we will present ourselves to our God daily for whatever he wants.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
The question of who we will serve is one of the most important questions we will ever ask.
Will we serve sin, ourselves, our family or will we live a life that serves God?
Our inclination is to serve anything other than God.
We will find ourselves getting busy and being preoccupied with anything but him.
Slide: Who will you serve?
Will we ALLOW sin to reign in our bodies and serve sin:
Or, will we present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness?
When we go back to obeying sin’s desires it means that we are allowing it to reign in our bodies.
Who are you going to serve?
Let’s leave today and purpose to ask that question each and every day this week.
Questions for Discipleship / Small Group
Questions for Discipleship / Small Group
What difference does dying with Christ make to your sense of identity?
Do you truly believe that you don’t have to sin? What difference does/would it make?
In what area of your life is sin fighting particularly hard at the moment?
Are there sins you have grown tolerant toward?
Think of a way you struggle not to sin. What would it look like positively to offer that part of your body/character to righteousness?
How will you “know” more clearly and more regularly that you died with Christ?