Dead to Sin - Alive unto God in Christ Jesus

Faith and Your Perspective

I would like to share with you men today from the book of Romans. I thought I had a topic in mind and I may get there, but one thing about the book of Romans is that it is a rich book which covers a lot of ground in a lot of depth. I have noticed two paths for the new Christian - one which is overly conscious of sin - almost boasting in our ability to sin and another that barely considers sin and does not take it seriously. I want to share with you that both of these paths are roadblocks in your spiritual growth, and of course we will let the scripture be our guide.

A few things to note before we do:

Christians can and do still commit sin (1 John 1:8)

God hates sin

On this first note we must understand that Christians are not made righteous by their inability to sin, but by the blood of Jesus Christ, who alone is righteous. People will often attack Christians for hypocrisy when they fall - as if to say their faith must not be true or what they teach must not be worth anything. But here is where they miss the point. Christians are not defined by sinlessness, but by the sinless one. We are not defined by our perfection, but by the Grace in which we stand—that is to say that God loved use despite our obvious ability to sin and has made a way of redemption (Jesus Christ) through Whom we may be at peace with God. That is truly good news!

Read Romans 5:1-11 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (What a comfort this is for us to know there is a point to our suffering - so much so Paul is telling us here to rejoice in our sufferings! Rejoicing may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you are suffering - but what we are learning here is that God is working in that suffering to produce endurance...

Men, if you are suffering today and a Christian, I pray you will rejoice and take comfort in knowing that God is at work in that suffering. In our bodies this principle is at work—when you first take up jogging or weight lifting - most people would describe that as suffering. As you continue you gain endurance - it gets a little easier and you start to see hope---maybe I can make it around the block on this jog :)

For those of you suffering not as Christians I will invite you the only way out of that suffering which leads to death and more separation from God - and that is to believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord - the one by whom you may have eternal life.

Read Romans 6:1-14

Romans 6:1–14 (ESV)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Dead to sin - alive to God in Christ Jesus. If I am to consider myself dead to sin, but all I can think about IS sin, my perspective needs to change. My boast needs to be in Christ Jesus - not in my ability to continue on in sin. ——When you first learn how to drive a car, you are very aware of all the details, checking the mirrors, when to apply the brake, how hard to press the brake, etc. - in the same way when you come to Christ, you must learn what sin is - what has been put to death, what did Christ conquer - what are you to consider yourself dead to and live in no more? Ok, so you’re driving and eventually things become second nature - automatic—it’s funny how we even have a term like that —things become second nature because you as a Christian have a second nature —learning to drive as a Christian involves growing in faith, prayer, learning your Bible, and being led by the Holy Spirit. Once driving is second nature, you don’t stay focused on when to use your turn signal or hit the brake, or any of the little details of driving. You relax, enjoy the ride. Your spiritual journey in Christ is like this---we don’t want to be caught up boasting in our ability to fail—we need to never deny that we can sin and confess it when we do—but our boast is in Christ Jesus our Lord who was and is the answer to sin. So I’m not worried or focused on the fact that I can slip up—I am thankful for that I am right with God through Christ Jesus—gratitude not wallowing in my capacity for sin. I can drive because the Holy Spirit has taught me to drive—so drive. I don’t drive down the road worried I might forget to use my turn signal or make a mistake while turning. I trust the process. Can we trust God by His Holy Spirit—as we pray “lead is not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Let us turn then to Romans 8:1-15

Romans 8:1–15 (ESV)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

(So what is Paul saying here? There are 2 ways to live - according to the flesh and according to the Spirit. These are at odds with each other. You can see there the mind set on flesh is hostile to God—and that those in the flesh cannot please God. The mind on the Spirit is life and peace) Well, how do we live, let’s keep reading.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

We can see from this guys that we are not to fall back into fear - fear that I could sin—thinking that I’ve sinned 5 times before breakfast. That does not sound like life and peace. We are taught here that the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. This is a good test. When we are anxious and fearful, our mind is not on the Spirit—it is on flesh. The mind on the flesh is death. The mind on the Spirit is life and peace. So let us be in our right mind, so to speak.

Read Romans 8:31-39

Romans 8:31–39 (ESV)

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? (that includes you! Not just you condemning others, but yourself. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus we read earlier—so who are you to continue condemning yourself in your own mind and heart—but if your heart does condemn you, know that God is greater than your heart 1 John 3:20) Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Here it is important to remember that we cannot have the more than conquerors part without the through Him part. I cannot be puffed up and thinking I have conquered anything by my own strength—I know where my help comes from, my help comes from the Lord) --For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (What an amazing Truth here—here is this list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus—and in case there was any doubt, this last part says “nor anything else in all creation” This means nothing separates us from God’s love in Christ Jesus. Nothing. Not even you and your condemning thoughts of yourself. Those thoughts will make you feel miserable and unloved because thoughts of the flesh are death. But your thoughts of yourself don’t change the Truth—they don’t undo the work of His cross. Your thoughts of other people and their shortcomings doesn’t undo the work of His cross in their lives either—for you who would condemn your Christian brother for falling short.

With a love like that gentleman, surely we ought to have our hearts saturated in gratitude for what He has done. The great love that has been shown to us. With this we address the other type of spiritual danger—being too casual or flippant about sin. What an offense or a slap in the face to our God to casually disregard sin and not take it seriously. Here we have a challenge though and that is how do we take sin seriously without falling into condemnation? We need to understand Godly conviction that leads to repentance—that is a change of mind and heart—renewing ourselves to the Truth.

Read 1 John 1:5-1 John 2:2

1 John 1:5–2:2 (ESV)

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (In this we have our path away from self-condemnation—confession—why? Because He is faithful and just to forgive! And cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. (This is important—John is telling us here he his not expecting them to sin - to our earlier point, in fact he’s saying specifically, I’m writing this so you don’t sin! So we shouldn’t just be waiting around and wallowing in the weakness of flesh which could still sin. We ought instead take heed to this next part which says) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

This is how we remind ourselves not to fall into condemnation, we set our minds again upon our Lord and remind ourselves what He has done! This gives way to great joy and gratefulness in our hearts. Let us thank Him again in prayer as we close.