Romans 6

Unified With Christ

In Romans 6, Paul instructs believers in the truth of the death and the resurrection of Christ. Paul makes several points throughout this chapter. To say that we are alive in Christ means we are dead to sin. To say that we are unified with Christ means that we are unified in His death and resurrection. We die to self, meaning to the old sinful ways. The old is gone, behold the new!

There were believers then, as there are now, that believe that because God’s grace is so tremendous that we should go on sinning. That it is okay to actively seek out sin in our lives, that it is good even! I mean, after all, God’s grace is without end, right?

Without having to, God has proven that He is a God of Grace beyond measure. Is it okay to justify our sin? To make reasons or excuses to continue sinning? Let’s see what Paul has to say on the issue.

Romans 6:1 NLT

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

Paul faced the same problem back then that we face now. We have leaned so heavily into the Grace message that many pastors do not even talk about sin anymore. Everything is “okay” because God’s grace pours out on all people. The mindset is “The more we sin, the more we see God’s grace.” Look what Jude, who many believe to be the brother of Jesus, says about this:

Jude 4 NLT

4 I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

One name that comes to mind is the Russian monk Rasputin. His theology seemed to say: “The more a person sins, the more grace he will receive. So sin with gusto.”

I have had people say to me “I was born a sinner and I will die a sinner.” This is true for all of us. The difference is we are to seek out righteousness in Christ, minimizing the sin effect in our lives and maximizing the Jesus effect in our lives.

When we sin, it not only affects us, it affects others. There is a ripple effect.

When we act in Christ, there is also a ripple effect, effecting everybody around us, for Him.

We must be careful of who we are listening to, as well as who we allow to worm their way into our lives. We must live with and deal with ungodly people in this world. Allowing ungodly people into our inner circle is asking for trouble.

Paul says this of one believing it is okay to continue sinning:

Romans 6:2 NLT

2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Paul recognized that believers commit acts of sin until we are released from this earthly existence. What he is saying is that children of God should not voluntarily be giving sin an opportunity or encouraging sin.

When someone becomes a Christian, Paul implies, their change of state in relationship to sin is as dramatic as a change from life to death.

As believers, we should be able to make this statement: “We who are Christians no longer live under the domination of sin. We cannot, therefore, go on living in sin the way we used to.”

The Apostle Paul backs this up when he says:

Romans 6:3–4 NLT

3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

In verse three, Paul uses the words “joined with Christ.” Before Jesus, the Jews were baptized “unto” Moses, meaning to follow the ways of the law, pledging allegiance to Moses as their leader. Believers of “the way” or Jesus Christ are baptized “into” Christ. You and Christ are to be one.

In verse four, Paul states we died and were buried with Christ and raised in new life.

Paul is referring to water baptism in this verse. The Greek word “baptisma” almost always refers to the water baptism of Christians.

Being joined into Christ means we now have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Water baptism does not secure salvation. Water baptism is a public proclamation of our faith in Christ and symbolic of the washing away of sin.

Baptism stands for the whole conversion experience. Christ died for our sins according to scripture, he was buried, and he was raised again on the third day.

Those who believe on Christ died with Him, were buried with Him, and will be raised with Him. His redemptive works are at work in us. This means we now have the ability, through Christ, to live a new life. We have been immersed fully in Jesus Christ.

The Results of Being Raised with Christ

Romans 6:8–10 NIV

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In verse eight Paul is bringing this all the way back to Adam, which literally means “first man” in the Hebrew. Jesus Christ is the second “Adam,” or final one. We have died to the old sin nature, the old man, meaning the original Adamic line and all who followed Adam. We now live in the final Adam or man, Jesus Christ.

Verse nine acts as a “bottom line” message for Paul. We know and believe that Christ died once, was raised once, and will not die again. He conquered death, and has given the assurance to those who belong to Him that we shall also conquer death.

Verse ten can be a little confusing. Paul states that Jesus died to sin. Why would Christ, the sinless one, have to die to sin? True, Jesus was not held under sin’s power in a way that turned him into a sinner.

But as a result of his real identification with human beings, he was subject to the power of sin. He was therefore tempted as we are (Heb. 2:14–17). In this sense, he, too, needed to “die” to sin’s power. Paul is telling us that Christ did not die for sin, but unto sin in this verse. We, in Christ, are to die unto sin. Look what he says in 2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Christ bore the transference of our sin onto himself. Christ is made to be what we were so that we could become in Him what He is! What Paul is telling us in Romans and in this verse is that We are not to change the old man or the old woman, but that old man or woman goes to the cross with Christ unto death.

Paul is saying that no-one who remains the old man or woman will be saved. Every man and every woman must be born again into Christ.

Putting Our Status into Action

Romans 6:12–13 NLT

12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

It is true that we are no longer constantly living in sin. Does this mean that sin is no longer an opposing force in our lives? No! Sin exists all around us and is a reality that we face moment by moment.

Paul is telling us not to let sin control the way we live. This takes practice, it takes constant effort, and it takes reflection. We can learn when we make mistakes. God made us, he knows that when we make mistakes, and we learn from those mistakes, we actually get smarter.

Recently, science has found that new neural pathways are created and neurotransmitters connecting to synapse increase when we reflect on mistakes and we learn from mistakes. We actually get smarter! God is so cool!

We are to think before we act though. Paul is saying “before you allow any part of your body to lead you to sin, check yourself.”

Have you ever kicked someone or something and tried justifying your action? How about punching or slapping? Cursing? blocking someone out? If what we are doing is a necessity, that is one thing. If it is leading us to sin, we have the power to stop, think, and then act.

Having been given this new life in Christ, we are to give ourselves over fully to Jesus Christ to the glory of God.

Paul’s Exhortation

Romans 6:20–21 NLT

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.

Wow, Paul makes it pretty clear here. To be slaves of sin means to be enemies of righteousness; to be enemies of sin means to be friends of righteousness. To be devoted to both sin and righteousness at the same time is impossible.

Think for a moment. Are there things in your past that you enjoyed that were not really Godly? When we die to that sin, we then detest those things that we used to do. Some of us actually become nauseous when we fall into sin or toy with the idea of doing what we know is wrong.

Jesus Christ tells us:

Matthew 6:24 NIV

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

We know that Jesus was talking about not just money, but anything we set as an idol before God. If we put sin before God, that sin is an idol that we are serving. We must serve God, love God, and worship God above all else.

We are going to close with this verse tonight. This is the fourth stop on the Roman Road to Salvation:

Romans 6:23 NLT

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The phrase “wages of sin” literally means that wages we earn through sin. Paul does not pull any punches here. The payment we receive is physical death, spiritual death, and everlasting death. That is the paycheck we can expect from sin.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ! What an amazing and comforting truth! The sinner who has fled to God in Christ for refuge receives the most for the least! Life everlasting at no charge to you or to me. Jesus wrote and signed that check, to the Glory of God. All praise and Glory be to Him. Amen?

Let’s pray.