Free from Sin
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
The question of verse 1 is brought up as a clarification of the end of chapter 5 when Paul strongly affirms that salvation is a gift and is not earned, and that the reason that the law is given is so that “the offence might abound,” so that we may realise our sinfulness in transgression of that law, and our utter helplessness to keep that law; when sin then floods our souls and our conscience is smitten and overwhelmed with guilt, then “grace did much more abound.”
Just as death is the result of sin, so righteousness (justification; right standing with God) is the result of grace.
Through grace God can turn our sinfulness into righteousness, and death into eternal life!
This what Paul writes at the end of chapter 5, and so talking as if he himself were a contending Jew critiquing his theology asks the question, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
There were many opponents of the apostles doctrine who argued that the doctrine of justification was an encouragement to do evil that good may come ().
On the other hand Gentile believers were also in danger of abusing their new found freedom as seen in .
So is a careful and vigorous explanation of what must follow a genuine experience of justification, namely, sanctification.
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
The apostle Paul answers the argument that might be put against him with recognising that is unthinkable (God forbid) that we should continue a life of sinning after we have received forgiveness! In fact he answers the question with a question, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
Paul shows here just how preposterous this idea is.
Life in sin cannot coexist with death to sin.
But what is meant by “dead to sin?” is the focal point the next several verses.
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 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.
Paul now points his readers to the sacrament of baptism and its deep spiritual meaning which is supposed to represent the experience of the one who is baptised!
Why does he bring up baptism when discussing the work of justification and sanctification?
Because faith in Christ and baptism not two distinct experiences, but are parts of one whole.
Verse 3 says that when we are baptised, we are baptised “into Jesus Christ;” and that those who are baptised into Jesus Christ are indeed “baptised into His death.”
Paul, when writing to the Corinthians, says that the Israelite nation “were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1 cor 10
What did Paul mean when he said that they were baptised “unto Moses?”
The word “baptized” here in this reference has the sense of not so much being immersed into water as it means elsewhere, but being initiated, or immersed as it were into the leader of the group.
The parting and crossing of the Red Sea was an experience that they were dedicated to Moses as their leader.
The evidence of God’s acceptance of Moses as His representative was witnessed by the Israelites in their passage through the Red Sea.
They recognised his authority and bound themselves to obey his instructions as the “visible leader” of their “Invisible Leader.”
Therefore, it might be said that by being baptised “unto Moses” they were pledged to obey God and serve Him.
31 And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.
So when in Romans Paul writes that those who were baptised were baptised “into Christ” and also His death we take the figure of Israel being baptised “unto Moses” and make a comparison.
To be baptised “into Jesus Christ” is a point in time when we have acknowledged Him as our Leader leading us from Egyptian bondage to the Promised Land.
The point of time we acknowledge Christ as our Leader and Instructor is when we have experienced deliverance already and seen His mighty hand work in our lives and have beheld the victory of the cross, just as the Israelites had already seen the power of God manifested in their behalf when the plagues fell on Egypt and broke the power that world power which had so cruelly treated God’s people.
So with us, before we are baptised we experience God’s power breaking the power of sin and Satan in our lives and are witnesses to His mighty power.
When we are baptised into Jesus Christ we in fact join our life in such close union with the life of Christ that two entities become, as it were, one spiritual unity.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
The word “put on” literally means ‘to be imparted’ or ‘be clothed.’
So when we read that those who have been baptised into Christ, their prior experience is that they have “put on Christ” or have been bestowed with the righteousness of Christ and that this has become their covering.
2 cor 10
What does it mean to be baptised into His death?
It means that corresponding to receiving Christ by faith, we also have died to sin.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christ became sin for us “who knew no sin” and died, He was buried, and He resurrected.
So the believer identifies with each phase of redemption.
The sinner dies to his sins and sinful nature, he is buried in baptism, and he “resurrects” to live a new life, a Spirit-filled life.
Death to sin and the old life is as much a reality as was Christ’s death on the cross.
Freed from Sin
Freed from Sin
6 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.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
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When Paul writes “knowing this” he is actually implying experiential knowledge.
Paul was not just writing from inspiration, but he was also writing from experience.
Paul knew what it was to be a sinner. He knew what it was to be a hypocrite. To keep the letter of the law without keeping the spirit. He persecuted others and supported the death of Christians.
He also knew what it was to be converted. To believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. To have his heart changed so radically that instead of persecuting others he could write the greatest exposition on love. That instead of hating those who were innocent, he could now love those who persecuted him and were the most objectionable in humanity.
He experientially knew that when a person takes hold of Christ for salvation that “our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
The “old man” is the person that we are prior to becoming a Christian.
The “old man”is corrupt according the deceitful lusts, or as a result of our sinful desires that are so consumed with selfishness!
Paul writes that the “old man” and the “body of sin” are crucified and destroyed in order that we might not serve sin any longer.
Paul also writes elsewhere how baptism is a fitting illustration of “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh.”
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
10-
The “body of sin” is the same as “motions of sin” in .
The word “motions” is a Greek word for “passions” quite literally means propensities.
Back to , we read that when the “old man” is crucified with Christ, the “body of sin” or our “propensities” are “destroyed.”
The Greek word for “destroyed” is “to be inactivated”. So it literally means that through divine power our sinful propensities become idle, inactive, or inoperative.
The power of Christ is come into the world to break the power of sin in our lives, or more closely, to break the propensities that exist in our flesh that motivate us to sin.
Instead, Christ replaces our sinful propensities with His sinless propensities.
The passions that motivate us to hate, covet, and take life are replaced with the passion of Christ that lead to love, unselfishness, and to give life.
So let me ask you, if Christ changes our heart, or the seat of our affection and propensities from being sinful to loving, unselfish, and to give our lives, then would it not be freedom?
How should we define freedom?
We seem to usually only use this word when it comes to it being a “political right.”
Freedom is defined as the quality or state of being free: as
the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.
liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another.
the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous.
6 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.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
The Bible defines that when we receive Christ and depend wholly upon Him for salvation and he performs the work of circumcision in our hearts and “puts off” the “body of sin,” that we “henceforth” or “no longer” should “serve sin” or be “dominated and a slave to sin.
The Bible defines freedom as liberation from slavery and the power of sin and Satan.
Yes we can claim that we are “free in Christ!”
He that is “dead” or has succumb to the new life in Christ and therefore dead to the old life, is released from the control of sin.
What happens when, after I accept Christ, things come up in my life that harass me?
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 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.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
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The sum of the answer is found in submission.
Our victory will not be according to how strong we are, but in whom we choose to obey and yield to.
This is great, because no matter how weak you are, you can always choose Christ.
When we understand this, “sin shall not have dominion over you.”
133 Order my steps in thy word: And let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
Our steps are ordered based on the word or literally command.
In other words, sin will not have dominion over me when my life is hid with Christ in God and He has fulfilled His word in me:
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
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