The New Life

to this point Paul has focused solely on justification by grace through faith alone and seems to have left out sanctification.... the life-change, the spiritual growth that takes place in a Christian

well… as we turn to chapter 6 we will begin to study this but we should not see this new chapter in the letter as a completely different “chapter” in the christian life…

as if… justification and sanctification are unrelated.... as if Jesus might justify us without giving us a new life

no.... there is one way to become a Christian and BE a christian!

Paul will teach us that we are saved by grace through faith AND we grow to look more like Christ by grace through faith!

Colossians 6:7

English Standard Version Chapter 2

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

“Grace saves us not only from the penalty of sin but also from the power of sin.”

Douglass Moo says, “Justification --- acquittal from the guilt of sin, and sanctification --- deliverance from ‘sinning’ --- must never be confused, but neither can they be separated.”

2 parts to the same action of salvation

in Justification, sin is pardoned

in sanctification, sin is subdued

[being on a team but not wearing the uniform.... everyone on the team wears the uniform]

subduing the power of sin is really the main topic of chapter 6

Paul is going to make it clear to those who have been justified and enjoy their new status of being reconciled to God...

that these benefits bring with them a power that must lead to a new way of life

Main Idea: Being saved by grace, we are now commanded to walk by grace in a new life.

[read the passage]

Romans 6:1-4 “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

PRAY

BODY:

Paul begins chapter 6 with a question that obviously some of his opponents had been asking....

The question: “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

[already in 3:8 but he just dismissed it at that point… ]

Romans 3:8 ESV

8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

2 reasons for this question:

they disagreed with Paul that salvation was by grace through faith alone… Pharisees.... teachers of the Law that thought you had to obey the Law in order to be saved....

of course they themselves couldn’t follow it… do you know the WOE chapter? Matthew 23.... Jesus says, “Woe to you scribes & Pharisees...”

those people were afraid that people would just say they believe in Jesus to get heaven but live however they wanted...

they honestly thought they had found a loophole… great! they thought! God will forgive me and show me grace every time I sin… and the more grace He gives me, the better He looks and the more glorified He is… so.... I’ll just live however I want and get the pleasure of earthly desires along with the grace of God

this way of thinking is called:

antinomianism = “against the law”

long history in the church , in fact we hear about this in the book of Jude in vs. 4:

New Living Translation (Jude)

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....

so that’s where the question is coming from....

what’s Paul’s answer?

The answer: “By no means!”

ridiculous!!

“how can we who died to sin still live in it?”

what does it mean that we have died to sin?

vs. 3 says....

romans 6:3

“3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

death is all over this passage here… from vs. 1-14 the words death, die, died, dead are in here like 15 times or so… something has died

but we know through experience that Paul’s not saying, “if you’re a christian, you’ll never sin again because you died to sin....”

that wouldn’t make sense anyway because later in this chapter he encourages us...

romans 6:12-13 “12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

Romans 13:12 (ESV)

12 ...So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Romans 13:14 ESV

14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Paul still encourages us not to sin... to live by the spirit instead of by the flesh… he wouldn’t need to do that if our passage today meant that we would never struggle with sin again...

if we thought that:

we’d be discouraged and think we’re not actually saved

we’d think God messed something up but i don’t want to tell anybody that… so i’ll just pretend that i never sin

so… what does it mean that we have “died to sin?”

death is the penalty for sin… we read that throughout the entire Bible.

those who sin deserve death

death entered the world through sin

the wages of sin is death

but here’s the deal.... on the cross.... jesus bore the penalty for sin! the condemnation… the wrath of God… he bore death.... for us!

and it worked! because God raised Jesus from the dead to show that this penalty had been satisfied!

so because his death was substitutionary… in our place… we can say that on our behalf… the penalty of sin has been satisfied!

we are dead to sin and it has no more claim on us if we are in Christ

he is our representative

so when we’re baptized, we are united with Christ in his death

remember, Christians are no longer “in adam” we are “in christ”

not enemies with God… friends with God

but before our salvation… we wanted nothing to do with God

we were against him… he was against us… even if we claimed to not believe in him we knew it in our bones!

this is why the non-Christian hates the thought of death… it means standing before God

the natural man doesn’t read the bible, doesn’t want to go to church, doesn’t really like being around christians who are now friends with God…

he’s terrified! and wants to avoid God

same thing happened in the garden back in Genesis 3 as soon as sin and death came in...

Genesis 3:8 “8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God...”

when we are alive to sin.... we are dead to God

but now!!!!

as believers… we are dead to sin… and alive to God!!

now we move to the reason for Paul’s answer:

look at verse 4....

romans 6:4 “4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

The reason: “Our old life is dead and buried with Christ, and we now live a new life!”

God’s grace not only forgives us but also delivers us from sinning

Amplified Bible Chapter 6

so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.

but just like we are saved by grace… we now live by grace…

we couldn’t save ourselves by our own effort and we can’t live the Christian life by our own effort either!

[have you ever tried to stop a certain sin and, sure enough, find yourself sinning again? of course you have!]

when that happens, we wake up, ask God to forgive us, cry out to him because our relationship with him matters so much to us… and then move ahead in faith....

[stock market analogy]

and the power to do this comes from the gift of Grace

We are engrafted into Christ and his death through our baptism...

and just like a twig that gets its substance from the root it is grafted to, we now live by getting our substance, our power to live this new life… not from our own effort, but from the grace given us by the Spirit of God now living in us!

- so what does this new life look like?-

first… the new life desires God…

completely opposite from when we were in Adam and wanted to hide from God

we now desire God:

king david was a known as a “man after God’s own heart”

Psalm 42:1–2 (ESV)

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?

psalm 63:1

“1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

we also have the example of king jesus, waking up early to spend time with His father

Mark 1:35 ESV

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

the new life is characterized by desiring God…

it desires to know Him…

to spend time with him....

it desires to know his ways...

and to obey them....

i want to give you 2 ways today as we finish that this new life shows itself....

walking in newness of life shows itself in…

new mind

new heart

MIND - the christian has a new mind

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind...

the believer looks at everything differently than he did before

time vs eternity

before our thoughts were only consumed with the things of this world

listen to how Lloyd-Jones puts it: (talking about the not-yet-christian)

“his thought world is bounded by this world and its knowledge and its culture and its art and its business and its pleasures and all such things… it is a life and outlook that are bounded entirely by the body and by the rational soul and by nothing beyond...”

but the Christian’s mind is changing… the Christian knows that there is a part of him now that is spirit… not flesh only....

he begins to live more and more in spirit and less and less in flesh...

his values have changed.... not just wanting to know about the pleasure he can get out of something… but what is that thing’s eternal value?

how does that thing, that relationship, that action effect my soul? or my relationship to God?

another change in mind is that the believer is now interested in the bible… before every other book came first… now every other book can’t even compare to this book!

the believer knows it’s the only book that brings her closer to God

it speaks to her

and she is moved by it

HEART - the new man has a new heart with new desires...

this is what Jesus says about them....

Matthew 5:6 ESV

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

the believer’s greatest desire is no longer for pleasure and satisfaction but for righteousness… holiness

with king David the believer cries out, “create in me a clean heart, O God” this is the new desire

a desire to have a heart that is free from sin… and when he does sin… he is grieved by it

he feels no longer that sin is just an offense against the Law but an offense against the God who loved him so much he sent his only son to die for him!

- What is your thought when you sin?

are you worried about the punishment?

if so, you’re still thinking like one under the law

or are you concerned that you have hurt the One who loves you?

if so, that is Christian thinking

our new heart’s desire is to live in a way that pleases God...

we will have a desire for prayer… communion with God

we will have a desire for the Church… communion with our brothers and sister in Christ

we will have a desire for the lost.... the sheep that are still without a shepherd.... we know that feeling and have been rescued from it

we should have compassion for them

FINALLY, our new heart will change our will from being about “what I want” to “what does God want for me?”

CONCLUSION:

Being saved by grace, we are now commanded to walk by grace in a new life.

we have been raised together with Christ!

because we are united to Him, we are now different in mind AND heart

so here’s the question:

“have you been raised together with Christ?”

“Are you alive to God?”

“do you know God?”

“Do you desire him?”

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