Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 6:1-14

This morning we are turning in the book of Romans to chapter 6.

Last week we looked at the end of chapter 5, we had been in Romans 5 for a few weeks.

One of the things that I said introducing Romans 5 was that there are going to be several passages of scripture that really do not fit into modern Christianity well in the book of Romans.

In fact, almost all of Romans 5-12 lack what we want in a sermon.

They don’t deal at all with felt needs.

We want recipes for a better life, we want to know biblically how to raise better families, we want to know how to handle our finances, how to deal with our government, and the Bible deals with each one of those things - just not here.

Not in Romans 5-12.

And so, this might be a time when we check out.

This might be a time when we decide to 1-2 skip a few 99 Romans 12 back to the good stuff.

I urge you not to do that.

This should not be a time when we check out.

These passages are some of the most important and foundational passages that exist in the entirety of scripture.

I will also tell you, I make no claim to understand all of this book.

I am wrestling with it.

I pray that God would bring me back to this book during my time as a minister, some time later when I have better understanding of His love and grace so that I do it more justice.

But I know this is where He would have us this morning.

Because these truths are so vital to our lives as believers.

Learn this stuff.

Try hard to understand it.

I will try to weave in situations to bring understanding and application, but the doing - is between you and the Lord.

And there is always doing to be done.

As we develop understanding - we build our trust in the lord, in what he is doing and has done.

Let’s pray.

As we read this passage, there is a sermon here, without any help from me.

Paul shares a feeling, he explains himself, he goes through some exposition and gets really deep into the theology, he explains the implications on our lives and then gives exhortation.

Paul has just finished chapter 5 with this truth

Paul goes through this beautiful explanation of grace and how it interacts with sin.

When there is sin, there is grace.

When there is more sin, there is exponentially more grace.

You can not out sin the grace of God.

When you sin God sees the need for grace in your life and pours it out of his abundance of it.

Rivers of grace.

oceans of grace.

And when that is taught correctly, it should provoke some funny thoughts in our minds.

Grace should be understood, taught, and preached in such a way that it causes people to thingk that sin is a good thing - because it makes God look better.

Paul - knowing that, asks the question for you.

Should we keep on sinning?

And then answers it.

How can we who died to sin - still live in it.

And then he starts to go into some deep theology.

This is the stuff God wants us to understand.

This is the stuff that was written - not to fly over - but to think about, to contemplate, to build off of.

This is foundational Christian truth.

Paul asks the question.

Do you know what it means to be a christian?

You are gathering as the church, don’t you understand what it means to be be a christian?

You are asking about sin, contemplating the idea of sinning not less - but more!

Don’t you know?

All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

Now some of the water gets muddy here.

Our understanding of baptism gets messy.

I don’t want to go too far into baptism this morning - but I will say this.

Baptism does not do the work of salvation.

There is nothing holy about the water from the spigot that we fill the baptismal with.

As with a wedding, the rings do not do the work, they are symbolic of what the hearts and spirits of people are doing.

Paul uses baptism here referring to the point of conversion for a christian.

Potentially referring to a separate experience as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 where it says we are baptized by one spirit into one body.

Water baptism is an instruction we received from the Lord in the great commission - to baptize in the NAME of the father, the son, and the HS - which seems like it could be a different thing.

The Eunuch got baptized immediately after hearing the gospel - the early church made water baptism a priority as part of conversion.

And it should be - we are deficient in that.

Baptism is an important part of the christian experience.

So much so - that without being there, without being a part of the church in Rome, he expected them to understand Baptism.

Baptism is not the point of this passage, though we can stand to learn a lot about baptism from it.

This experience - the beginning of our salvation - as soon as we become part of the body of Christ - we are united with him.

And in that, we died with him.

Pastor - I have a pulse.

I have not died.

If you are a believer, if you are a christian, united with Christ, you have died with him.

We are no longer the old person.

When I hear the gospel, God gives me faith to believe the gospel, I respond to the gospel, I am baptized into the body, I die - I am born again.

I am a new creation.

The spirit in me is now united with Christ.

And in that, your spirit, is dead to sin.

And we know we are dead, because we are buried.

You only bury things that are certainly gone.

Our old self is buried.

We are united with Christ in death, burial and in Resurrection.

You had an identity with Adam - Paul wrote about that in Romans 5.

You have a new identity with Christ.

And in that you died to sin.

Do you know that you have died to sin?

Most often when you talk to a believer about sin, it is something that they are working on, struggling with, working through.

But that isn’t our reality.

Our reality is DEAD.

DEAD.

Multiple times in this passage we are told we are dead.

Vs 2. We who died to sin.

Vs 6. WE KNOW we were crucified with him.

Vs 8. Now if we died...

The death is reality, and it has a lot of implications in our lives.

The implications are

vs 4. we walk in the newness of life

vs 5. We are united in ressurection.

vs 6.

Our enslavement to sin is destroyed.

Vs 8 We live with him.

Vs 10.

If he lives, we live.

The life he lives, he lives for the glory of God.