Romans 6_1-10 Dying to Live

Secular:

My uncle…
Smoked something fierce…
Started in his late 20’s… and smoked hard for 30 years
He had been a boxer… strong… in shape…
Smoked… got the hack
Smoked… his lungs rattled
Smoked… snored like truck
Hard on his exercise… smoked
Hard on his fitness… smoked
Hard on his health… his body… smoked
Diagnosed with Cancer of the Oesophagus
Had to sign a paper
Had it removed
Stomach connect to back of his mouth

Couldn’t lay down… mix solids and liquids

Stopped while in hospital…
Never got victory…
Never one…
Knew but never was able to seize hold…
Never did it…
Died of cancer 5 years later…

We do not have to let sin ravage our lives…
Take away our joy, our life…
We have a Path to Choose Adam or Christ
Life or death…
Eternal Victory… or eternal defeat

Biblical:

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Personal:

Bridge:

Dying to Live
Believers must be aware of three facts…

We Have Been Crucified with Christ (6:1-3)
We Have Been Resurrected with Christ (6:4-5)
We Are both Dead and Alive (6:6-10)

Body:

We Have Been Crucified with Christ (6:1-3)

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

Let’s deal with the ridiculous first…. May it never be!.... this is an outrage!!
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
It is one of the funny…. Hmmm not so funny things…. I find about newly marrieds…

One spouse… most often… but not always the guy…
Dumb Questions!
I can still hang out till all hours of the night with my friends?
I can have friends that are women/girls that we do stuff with?
I can go out with the guys with no regard to what you have planned?
Can I wear whatever I want to your family functions…?

Any woman married for any length of time would quickly respond….
May it never be! How shall you who died to singleness still live in it?
Marriage fundamentally changes who were are…
How life changes… it is about one instead of two…
It becomes you first instead of me first…
You CAN NOT be married and live as a single…
You can not serve both God and mammon
God and self
(Incompatible themes)

Path of Adam… of Sin and Death
Path of Christ… of Justification, Sanctification and Eternal Glory
One road or the other…
How shall we who died to sin still live in it?... Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Not live in the world
Not live in self

We have been crucified…

Not a pleasant term… really.
As a Christian we get dulled to terms… crucified… in his blood… even sin… we hear them so much we tend to forget the impact of the words.
Those who were baptized… immersed… gave public declaration of their faith in Jesus Christ have been immersed into his death.
Remembering it was a bloody, painful, shameful, ordeal… so hideous that the Romans were forbidden to carryout this form of punishment on their own citizens.
What shall we say then….

Sin is Christ’s torment on the cross…
Sin is being in opposition to God…
Sin is choosing evil over righteousness.
No… we choose to die with Christ…
We choose to stand in the light of his grace
We choose not to increase the suffering of our Saviour

No more lashes
Not one more second on the cross
No more weight of the Father’s righteous anger

We choose to declare his glory

Have you ever been crucified before… pretty traumatic event…
Interesting phrase Paul uses… not sure it would have been all that warmly recieived?
When we talk about Christ’s death we us some pretty heavy words… substitutionary, atoning, expiatory, propitiatory…

And they all related to the fact we were immersed or baptized into Christ… completely and permanently immersed in Christ and into his death
Baptism… to align with his sacrifice
It means that our sin… those who have surrendered to Christ… our sin not generally but specifically hung from the cross…
It was my sin that held him there….

Not only that… but I have joined Christ in his death and my sin has perished… I have been pardoned… the old flesh is dead…
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be!
It doesn’t give us license to sin… those who truly believe…. It gives us liberty in Christ!
It isn’t about license…. It is about liberty… freedom in Christ…
We Have Been Crucified with Christ (6:1-3)

We Have Been Resurrected with Christ (6:4-5)

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

The crucifixion story in scripture would be lovely… without the resurrection… but would not offer any hope to us. Our sin would be paid for… paid for what…? Death won…

It would be like receiving the death penalty…
Lit up in old Sparky… and then told okay you’ve paid for your crime…. Carry-on

We followed Christ into death… relinquished our sin… and our old flesh to the cross… gave up what we were… and what we are capable of… so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father… so we too might walk in newness of life.
We said hands down God… what I have to offer pales in comparison of what you have offered… take my unrighteousness… take my sin nail it to the cross…. Crucify the old me… I am sold out to Christ….
In the battlefield for souls… for all eternity… I bind my destiny to my general…
My general’s victory is my victory…
In John Chapter 11 we get the story of Lazarus…

Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus…
He is warned of Lazarus’ illness and imminent demise…
Yet Christ waited… He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was
He made sure old Lazarus was good and dead when he got there…
People were panicked when he decides to open the tomb… (warm place…)
John 11:44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Lazarus physically died but was no longer physically dead… let him go… don’t leave him there wrapped up… do not treat the alive as dead… let him go…
We too have died… but live with the promise of the resurrection… the newness of life… don’t stay there all wrapped up in grave clothes… do not treat the alive as dead… let go…through off the shackles of sin and death….
We shouldn’t get stuck living a “betweeners” – Weirsbe
Stuck between Egypt and Caanan… or between Good Friday and Easter.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
No guessing…
The reality of new life… of living the resurrection…
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Don’t get stuck… a betweener… live in the newness of life…
In the power and promises of Christ
We Have Been Resurrected with Christ (6:4-5)

What does In the power and promises of Christ Look like…

We Are both Dead and Alive (6:6-10)

Dead to Sin (v.6-7)

6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

The path of Adam is natural to us…

Living for ourselves… not God
Making choices to sin… versus choices to serve
Choosing self over Saviour….

The path of Christ… is to crucify the old self… not over and over and over again… but to live that reality now!

Living for Christ
Making the choice to serve
Choosing our Saviour over ourself

That is freedom…

Not licence to sin
But the liberty to live

There is no freedom in sin…

It binds
It wears away
It condemns

There is liberty in Christ

He frees us from the pain, guilt, shame and suffering – only what we keep….
He renews and strengthens us
He justifies, sanctifies and ultimately glorifies us

I choose death…. Death to sin!!

That I may be Alive in the Saviour (v.8-10)

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Sin and death have no dominion over Christ
Sin and death have no dominion over his Followers
It is over…
That has passed… Christ is my master… He has mastered sin… he has mastered death… I have been crucified in Christ… but now I live.
He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
He is the perfect sacrifice… There is no purgatory… no suffering to come… no fear of the grave….
Because he died… my sin has died… because He lives… I live in him to the glory of the Father for all eternity…

We Are both Dead and Alive (6:6-10)

Dead to Sin (v.6-7)

Alive in the Saviour (v.8-10)

Conclusion:

Believers must be aware of three facts…

We Have Been Crucified with Christ (6:1-3)

Not Licence
Liberty

We Have Been Resurrected with Christ (6:4-5)

In the Power and Promise of Christ

We Are both Dead and Alive (6:6-10)

Dead to Sin
Alive to Christ