Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Lazarus Reinters the Tomb

Imagine with me the day that Christ came to Bethany.

It was a cloudy day, the sky thick with the colorlessness of four days of morning.

The sisters of the deceased overtired by the countless visits of the townspeople offering their condolences.

Their eyes red yet dry after their tear ducts ran out, their hearts still broken but numb by now.

And then finally, news that the One Friend that they had called for, the One whom they thought they needed to stop their brother’s sickness and the one whom they needed now to comfort them with His tears had come.

After weeping comforting Martha with His death-defeating gospel and weeping with Mary, the disciples saw their Master approach the tomb of his dearly departed friend and command that the stone be rolled away.

With their ears and their eyes, Peter, James, John and the rest witnessed Christ call out into the darkness of the sepulcher’s stench saying, “Lazarus, come out!”

They had witnessed before the power of that loud voice calming the storm, casting out the demons, calling them to follow after him; and now just as from eternity past when He called the lights of the world out of the darkness, He called Lazarus out of the darkness of his death into the light of life

and out Lazarus came wrapped in his grave clothes, freed death’s grasp by the glorious power of God.

Now stop and imagine with me an alternate ending.

An ending where, once he exited from the tomb, Lazarus refused to be unbound from the clothes of his crypt.

That Lazarus refused to walk back to Bethany with His Lord but instead turned right around and went back to his tomb.

This would have been an absurd, unbelievable, unclean, abomination for the living man return to his dark, cold, stinking tomb.

This made up script is so unrealistic, it’s so head scratching, if not downright idiotic.

An Absurd Objection

And that is Paul’s point in our passage today when he answers an objection to the gospel of grace alone by faith alone.

Should we who have been justified continue in sin our sin that God’s grace in forgiving our sins may abound?

To Paul, such a thought is absurd, unbelievable, and an abomination.

And so as we will shortly see, he answers this question with a resounding no - may it never be!

Main Point & Structure

And the reason for his answer is this: our union with Christ.

We who have been United with Christ must not remain in sin but instead walk in newness of life for when Christ died we died, and when He rose from the dead we were made alive.

This is Paul’s argument in this passage and this is our main idea today.

We must not remain in sin for we have been United with Christ.

When He died, in a very real sense we died.

And when He rose from the dead we too experience fruits of this resurrection.

We can see this argument mapped out like this: In verses 1-2 we see Grace Interrogated.

In verses 3-5 Paul defends his answer that we should not continue in sin by holding up our Union with Christ through Baptism.

And then in verses 6-7 Paul presents another grounds for his argument by pointing to our Union with Christ at the Cross.

Grace Interrogated vs 1-2

Union through Baptism vs 3-5

Union at the Cross vs 6-7

Let’s look back to the book of Romans as I read verses 1-2 and we begin our first section, Grace Interrogated.

Grace Interrogated vs 1-2

Romans 6:1-2 “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?”

Context for the Question

Now this question doesn’t come out of no where and it is not a parenthesis in Paul’s argument or logic.

Just as he did in chapter 2, here Paul engages this imaginary opponent in order to advance his argument to focus more fully on what it means to live under grace .

Last week Shaan taught us from Romans 5:17-21 that just as sin and disobedience brought death to all the descendants of Adam, eternal life and grace has been given to all who have been made righteous through the obedience of the New Adam, Jesus Christ.

And if you remember, the key verse in that passage was Romans 5:20 “20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” The Law of God exposes our sinfulness and increases our natural bent to rebel against God so that our sins abound.

But the good news of the gospel is this: Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

And it is from this amazing gospel reality, that this objection is raised, “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”

If grace abounds over and above the increases of my sin, and this triumph brings God glory, why should I stop sinning?

Wouldn’t more sin lead to more abundance of grace and more glory for God?

The Legalist

Now, on the face of it, this question seems to be coming from the lawless one who idolizes their sin, but in actuality the question actually arises from the legalist who idolizes the law.

Remember that in chapter 3 verses 5-8, Paul addresses the slander that his opponents spread.

They lied saying that Paul taught that evil should be done that good my come.

And the reason for their objection is that the gospel is so radical and grace is so free that it leaves no room for the legalist to justify himself.

Many of us grew up in Catholic backgrounds.

When you work and you work and you work, for year after year, decade after decade to earn God’s favor and forgiveness and then you hear that this favor and forgiveness has been earned for you by Christ and it is yours by faith alone, it is so hard to come to the realization that all that work was in vain.

That Jesus paid it all.

That you can come to Him and find rest from your work.

The Licentious

Now that’s not to say that this thought is not whispered into our ears by the serpent to keep us in love with our sin.

Even though this objection arises from the heart of the legalist, this lie is spread by the Devil so as to tempt us to stay in the dominion of darkness.

This was the heart of the apostates that Jude warns about in Jude 4, they are, “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

But as John Stott points out in his commentary, “While recognizing antinomianism in others, however, we must not be allowed to conceal its ugly presence in ourselves.

Have we never caught ourselves making light of our failures on the ground that God will excuse and forgive them?”

Surely I am not absolved of guilt here.

How often do you and I give into temptation and sin with this thought in the back of our minds, “this sin has already been forgiven, Jesus paid it all”, “not even this sin can separate me from His love”, “God’s grace abounds over this”.

Surely these promises are true.

Jesus did pay it all, nothing will separate us from His Love, God’s grace abounds all the more.

But it is a sinister thing to assuage our souls with these words that are to help us cling to Christ and flee temptation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, such an attitude and action is what Jude described as ungodly and tantamount to denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Think about this reality, when we engage in such thoughts and practices we are no better than Peter standing by the fire shouting I don’t know Him as His savior stands in the next room on trial for his sins.

Application: Be On Guard to this tempting thought

Oh dear saints, be on guard.

Answer the tempter with Paul’s next words Romans 6:2 “2 May it never be!

How shall I who died to sin still live in it?”

May it never be.

This is not a calm cool and collected, well actually you’re wrong.

No, this is the most emphatic and animated rejection Paul could use, Not at all! Never!

By no means!

Paul will have nothing to do with such a suggestion.

And neither should we.

Why? Paul spends the next 5 verses answering that question.

But the thesis statement for why we who have been justified must not continue in sin is this, “how shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

See that Paul describes sin as not just a single act of lawlessness but as a power.

In Romans 5 Paul used the language that sin reigns over all who descended from Adam.

Later in our passage Paul will use the language of being slaves to sin.

In Romans 6:14, Paul writes that sin no longer rules over those who are under grace.

Sin is a slave master, but the slave is only under his master’s rule when he is alive.

That is Paul’s logic here.

Dead people don’t live in sin, because they are dead.

Not Perfection

Now, Paul is not preaching the erroneous doctrine that Christians no longer sin after coming to faith in Christ.

We do not and will not achieve sinless perfection until we are fully sanctified, until we are glorified.

We know full well, and quite personally, that Christians are still sinners.

And that is why Paul says we do not live in sin - to live in sin, or continue in sin from verse 1, is the idea of staying put.

This is like Lazarus staying in his grave clothes and returning back into the tomb to breath in the stench of death instead of following His Lord.

We do not do that, we don’t stay put, we don’t remain, we don’t continue in sin.

Application: Do You Believe in Your Death?

Notice also that that phrase in verse 2, “we died to sin” this is not an imperative.

Paul is not commanding us to be dead to sin.

This is an indicative in the past tense.