The Freedom of Holiness
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
I have said it before and I have to say it again the desire for holy life or even thinking of living holy is a struggle, it’s overwhelming to think about.
We feel that it is something that is impossible to acheive. We feel defeated right from the start because we feel that the challenge is too great. It is easy to give up on a life of holiness due to these feelings. But anything that is hard is worth fighting for in my opinion. God is certainly worth the effort and what He brings to my life and what He can bring to yours is certainly worth it my friend.
We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
The strong commands given to us in scripture tends to overwhelm us and frustrate Christians.
Seeking to live holy by our own will power is what we set out to do. We try our best and agonize in prayer over it without success.
What should I look to God for and what am I responsible for myself?
Sometimes the line gets blurred between our “old” ways and our “new” ways.
We fail to reckon with our tendency to cling to our old sinful ways. We are told to stop trying and start trusting, to let go and let God, to turn our sin problem over to Christ and rest in His finished work on Calvary.
The question we may ask is if our old sin has died then why do we struggle with sin?
Well this morning that is the purpose of this message is to help us understand what is going on here.
We get delighted to be told to let go and let God and those other idioms because after we struggle so much to be told that God’s got it the pressure gets relieved and we just now need to rest in Him, in His finished work. Phew what a relief right?
It is like a life preserver thrown to a drowning man.
Why can’t I experience the victory described that others experience? Is there something wrong with me?
That is when despair sets in.
Satan tries to confuse the issue of what God has done for us and what we need to do for ourselves.
God’s Provision
God’s Provision
God has made provisions for us to live a holy life but has also given us a definite responsibility.
Let’s take a look at:
God’s provision for us
Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.
The first thing to notice in this passage here is:
a) The pursuit of holiness - this is not allowing sin to reign in our mortal bodies
This is something that we have to do.
Paul gives a statement of exhortation by saying “Do not let sin reign”.
The experience of holiness is not a gift we receive like justification but it is something we have been exhorted (rather clearly) to work at.
So do not be overwhelmed or discouraged or fall into despair because of holiness.
b) Do not let sin reign in your mortal body - pursue holiness because certain facts are true. These facts are given in Rom. 6
Rom. 6
Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
we died to sin
how can we live in it any longer?
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
It is evident that the word “therefore” in verse 12 refers back to this fact that we died to sin. Because we died to sin, we are not to let it reign in our mortal bodies.
Die to Sin
Die to Sin
It is vital that we understand what Paul means by the expression we died to sin.
a) Our dying to sin is the result of our union with Christ. (v. 2-11)
Because Jesus died to sin, we died to sin. Our dying to sin is not something we do but it was something Christ did and the value of this act is given to all who are united with Him. All those who have asked Christ to be Lord of their life and asked Him to forgive them of their sin.
b) Dying to sin is a fact that whether we realize it or not.
Because Christ died to sin, all who are united with Him died to sin. Our dying to sin is not something we do, or something we make come true in our experience by reckoning it to be so. Some have misunderstood this and gotten the wrong idea that to have died to sin means to somehow be removed from sin’s ability to touch us.
Reckon - Consider/Count
Reckon - Consider/Count
We are told we must reckon ourselves dead to sin according to verse 11.
Let’s take a look at what that word reckon means here.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reckon is used in the KJV but in other translations the word consider or count is used here.
We are told that if we are not experiencing victory over our sin, it is because we are not reckoning on the fact that we died to sin. We are not considering the fact that we died to sin. We need to count or consider ourselves dead to sin, but our counting or consideration does not make it true even in our experience.
Because we are dead to sin through our union with Christ, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. Our daily experience when it comes to sin is determined by our will - whether we allow sin to reign in our bodies . Our will must be influenced by the fast that we died to sin.
What does Paul mean by the expression died to sin?
What does Paul mean by the expression died to sin?
He means we died to the dominion of sin or the reign of sin. Before we trusted Jesus for our salvation we were in the kingdom of sin (satan). We followed the ways of this world and the ruler of that kingdom (the devil).
You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
We were under the power of Satan and the dominion of darkness
For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
Paul said we were salves of sin
Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.
We were born into the kingdom of slavery, sin and death.
But through our union with Christ we have died to this realm of sin. We have been set free from sin.
Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
Rescued from the dominion of darkness
For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
Turned from the power of Satan to God.
to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’
What has God done for us? What difference has Jesus made?
What has God done for us? What difference has Jesus made?
Before our salvation we were in bondage to sin under the rule and reign of sin. No matter how decent and moral we were we needed salvation, we needed union with Christ. Through that union in Christ in His death to sin we have been delivered out of the realm of sin and placed in the kingdom of righteousness.
We died to sin - Prof. John Murray
It is because were were in this realm of sin and under its reign and rule we began to sin from birth/infancy.
Because we were slaves we acted like slaves, we developed sinful habits and sinful character.
God has delivered us from this realm of sin yet our sinful natures still reside in us. Even though sins dominion and rule are broken the remains sin in this world and we still have a sinful nature. Sin still remains and fights us.
But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
In this passage, Paul confirmed that the old man we were in Adam was crucified with Christ. In this passage, Paul specifically uses the term “the body of sin,” which means the body as we live in today.
What we need to do
What we need to do
As a Christian, your old self is dead, but your mortal body has not yet been delivered from the effects of sin and the fall. Sin still has a rule on our body and so we should be longing for the redemption of our bodies, which will come!
Illustration:
Warfare - two competing factions were fighting for control of the country. Eventually with the help of an outside army, one faction won the war and assumed control of the nation’s government. But the losing side did not stop fighting. They simply changed their tactics to guerilla warfare and continued to fight. They were so successful that the country supplying the outside help could not withdraw its troops.
The same is true for Christians. Satan has been defeated and the reign of sin overthrown. But our sinful natures resort to a sort of guerrilla warfare to lead us into sin. This results in the struggle between the Spirit and our sinful natures which Paul wrote about in Galatians.
The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
We are born sinners (sinful nature from birth) and from birth we have developed habits of sin. We all tend to act according to these sinful habits that have been engraved in us from long practice. Habits are hard to break especially habits related to sin.
For example if you have a leg that is injured and develop a limp. Then you have surgery and the lameness is cured but after the surgery you still have a limp out of habit.
Or someone who is overweight looses weight but still thinks and treats him/herself like that overweight person.
A Slave worked for years as a slave is one day emancipated but it takes a while for it to register that they are free!
These things happen because the habit has been developed by a pattern and that pattern is hard to break.
Christian’s tend to sin out of habit, does that make it ok no it does not please hear me.
It is our habit to live for ourselves and not for God. When we become Christians, we do not drop all our bad habits over night and become the perfect Christian. God wants us just as we are remember!
We spend the rest of our lives putting off these bad habits and putting on the habits of holiness.
You and I are a work in progress but we still need to choose not to sin and work towards pursuing holiness.
We have been slaves to sin and we also still live in a world that is still populated by slaves of sin. The world will try to conform us to its sin mould.
Be we know the difference and need to make sure we do not comform.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Though sin no longer reigns in us it will constantly try to get at us. Though we have been delivered from the kingdom of sin and its rule, we have not been delivered from its attacks.
Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones says in his exposition of Rom. 6
“though sin cannot reign in us, that is, in our essential personality, it can, if left unchecked, reign in our mortal bodies”
It will take natural instincts of our bodies and turn into lust.
Natural appetites into indulgence, our need for clothing and shelter into materialism and our normal sexual interest into immorality.
We need to guard our hearts against sin.
Conclusion:
This is why Paul exhorted us to be on our guard so that we will not let sin reign our bodies.
Before salvation - before our death to the reign of sin - such an exhortation would have been pointless.
You cannot say to a slave “live as a free man” but you can say that to someone delivered from slavery!
Now that we are in fact dead to sin - to its rule and reign - we are to count on that as being true. We are to keep before us this fact that we are no longer slaves. We can now stand up to sin and say no to it. Before we had no choice and now we have one.
When we sin as Christians we do not sin as slaves, but as individuals with the freedom of choice. We sin because we choose to sin. Keep that in mind friends and pursue holiness for all that it is worth.
We have been set free from the reign and rule of sin. Our deliverance is through our union with Christ in His death. When Christ entered this world He voluntarily entered the realm of sin, though He never sinned. When He died, He died to this realm of sin.
When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.
Through our union with Him we died in this realm also. We are to count on this fact that we are dead to sin’s rule, that we can stand up to it and say no. Therefore we are to guard our bodies so that sin does not reign in us.
God has made provision for our holiness. Through Christ He has delivered us from sin’s reign so that we no ca resis sin.
But the responsibility for resisting is ours.
God does not do that for us!
To confuse potential for resisting (which God provided) with the responsibility for resisting (which is ours) is to court disaster in our pursuit of holiness.
Friend if you are on the fence in your decision to ask Jesus to be Lord of your life. Wonder no more choose Him right now!
If you are worried about being able to serve Him, He walks with us and wants us just as we are. He equips our steps as we surrender to Him.
Trust God!
Christians we need to realize that we may get overwhelmed with pursuing holiness at times because we don’t want to take responsilbility for the choices we make. We have to understand that we have chosen God therfore when we sin we are sinning with the knowledge that we are sinning. We need to not think of God as a magic magician who will put an invisible shield around us to stop us from sinning. There are things in our life where we need to work at breaking habits and putting God first and pursuing His standard of holiness always! Keep pursing Him!
