Your Day in Romans - 6:1-23

[Al Moak]

The Ninth Sermon
Romans 6:1-23
You Can Win!

How's your spiritual life going?  Is it as good as you'd like it to be, or are you sometimes frustrated by sins that seem to "hang on?"  Are you wondering if you'll ever get to a place of genuinely pleasing your Lord?  I have some really good news for you!  In Romans 6 our Lord is telling you, through the apostle Paul, that there IS a way!

You may remember that, in the previous chapter, Paul said, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by One Man's obedience many will be made righteous." We understood that to mean that the entire human race was guilty of Adam's sin.  In the same way, though, we also saw that all believers, all who are justified by faith, are constituted righteous by the obedience of the one Man Jesus Christ.  In the first case, the entire human race was arraigned and declared guilty at the bar of divine justice.  In the second case, all who have repented and who trust Jesus Christ are entirely acquitted and declared - at the same bar of divine justice - not only innocent, but even pleasing to the holy God!

Now, in the present chapter, Paul takes it one step further. In addition to the justifying act of God, there is also a sanctifying work of God in all those who have been justified.  It was important for the people of the Roman church, and it's important for us as well, to see the sanctification that really characterizes each and every justified Christian.

The most literal meaning of the word "sanctification" is "to set apart," or "separate."  Considering, therefore, that the whole earth is in rebellion against God, the process of sanctification is therefore just a process of separating those who have repented of their rebellion from those who remain in it. 

Note carefully that we're not talking about physical separation, or even social separation, but instead we're talking about separation in thought, motivation, and behavior.  Christians become a unique people, a people who are quite different from the rest of the human race.

The chapter before us deals with the absolute necessity of that separation.  When we're through looking at this chapter, we should see clearly why each of us absolutely must be undergoing the process of sanctification, and we should also understand the secrets for success in that process.

In the previous chapter, the apostle made it very, very clear that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Substitute.  He has made it clear that, since such salvation depends entirely upon God's grace alone, it is therefore God alone who is glorified when He exercises that grace.  But, though He is glorified, yet the very first thing Paul has to do in the present chapter is to make it abundantly clear that we can't take from that fact the attitude that we should go on sinning so that grace may abound and God may be even more glorified!  He uses an extremely intense Greek phrase regarding such an attitude.  He says "me genoito!"  Literally, it means, "May it never be!"  It's as though he shouted it.  He feels that strongly about it.

He said it that emphatically to set up what he was going to say next.  He says, "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"  The point is that Christians have died to sin!  We can't live in it because we've died to it!  What an astounding statement!  Have you died to sin?  It's not a question you can answer flippantly.  You need to pause a long moment, and then you need to ask, "What does it mean to die to sin?"

Does it mean that you don't sin anymore at all?  If that were the case, the apostle John wouldn't have had to say, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  He wouldn't have had to inform us that we have "an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ the righteous One."  Every believer who is honest with himself knows he still sins.

Paul explains.  He tells us that all who are baptized into Christ were baptized into His death and resurrection, and that, since He died for our sin, and since He represents us in death, burial, and resurrection, why then, in Him, we died to sin and were raised to newness of life.  Baptism is a ritual that signifies union with Christ and membership in His kingdom, a kingdom into which He sponsors us by His death, burial, and resurrection.  We still sin, but because of His resurrected life in us, sin is no  longer our life principle.

Nevertheless, if you're a thinking Christian, you're still not satisfied.  You'll say, "Well, that's really wonderful that my Savior died to sin and that I'm therefore dead to sin in Him.  But here it tells me that I should therefore no longer live in it - I should stop sinning!  How do I do that?  What in this passage helps me with my ongoing life?"  I hope you ask that question, because you certainly should!  If you don't, perhaps there's doubt whether you care, doubt that you've really passed from death to life.

Let's look at this portion of Paul's letter carefully to see if there's help here for our daily lives.

There are at least two things of vital importance to us here: he says, "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."  Secondly, he also says, "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We should "walk in newness of life" because "Christ was raised from the dead."  Why?  How?  The answer is that we can be "alive to God in and through the work of Christ Jesus our Lord."  We can do it, in other words, because we do it not in our own strength, but in the strength of the living Christ - by means of His Spirit dwelling in us!  It's called spiritual life, because it's life that comes not from ourselves but from His Spirit.

In other words, brothers and sisters, it's a spiritual battle, a battle we can win through His strength and not our own.  It's a battle conducted in conjunction with the Holy Spirit of the living Christ, a battle, in other words, that involves prayer, knowledge of the Word, encouragement from brothers and sisters, experience, repentance, confession - and all of it over and over again.  But because our Lord is alive, and because He lives in us by His Spirit, so that even though it's through blood, sweat, and tears. uet we can win!  It isn't – as some think - a silent, mysterious victory that happens without our awareness, but it's a victory that involves our lifelong efforts, prayers, and confessions along with repeated repentance – to all of which we are moved by His Spirit dwelling in us.

That's the message of Romans 6.  It just tells us that we can - and must - get into the battle, that we can and must walk in newness of life by the grace of the Spirit of the resurrected Christ.  We are urged by the apostle to do exactly that when he says, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

Now there's a very important caution needed here.  Many in our day use this passage to "prove" that the law was once the means of salvation, but that it no longer is so – that It's no longer in force.  Neither is true!  Verse fifteen is really saying the very same thing as verse one.  It's just reiteration with a small but important addition.  Verse one asks whether we should sin that grace might abound.   Verse fifteen asks whether we should go ahead and sin now that we are not under the law's condemnation.  the answer is just as strong here as it was in verse two: he shouts, "May it never be!"

Whether we continue to sin, using the excuse that it will make grace abound, or whether we use the excuse that since our condemnation has been cleared anyway – therefore we can go on sinning - both excuses are devilish lies!  If you go on sinning because you say, "I'm freed from condemnation, and therefore it doesn't matter," then, says Paul, you are a slave of sin!  you're under it's power and are not living in newness of life - you aren't freed from its power!  And if you are slaves to sin, then that course of life leads to death.

But neither is it saying that the law was once the means of salvation - it never has been!  Nor is it saying that the law is now out of date - it isn't!  It's just saying we're no longer condemned by it, and it's further saying that we dare not use that as an excuse to sin and break the law.

Instead, says Paul, we should be most thankful that we are no longer slaves of sin, but instead we're now slaves of righteousness!  So, he says, just as you used to present yourselves as slaves to "lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness."  In other words, as we saw earlier, it's going to be a battle, one that sometimes produces pain and frustration, but one in which you give yourself over to the Spirit of the risen Christ, and one that produces final victory!

So, says Paul, Present your members - your arms, your hands, your feet, your emotions and brains - EVERYTHING - to your risen King, and by His Spirit, He will help you in the battle.  He will not keep you from the fierceness of the warfare, but He will be with you in it to give you final victory!

We have the greatest possible motivation.  Not only will we have victory by Christ's Spirit, but, if we don't present ourselves to Christ, then we must experience eternal death.  He says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  We'll win if we fight, and we're dead - eternally - if we don't!

Sanctification - separation from the attitudes and motivation of the world - is vitally important for justified believers.  And it's just as important - even far more important - to their risen, living Lord!  Let's not withdraw, therefore, from the battle, but let's actually overcome sin by His living help!

[Chris & Margit Saunders]

Verses from PSALM 141

Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

O Lord, I call to you; come to me quickly;
hear my voice when I cry to you.
Set a watch before my mouth, O Lord,
and guard the door of my lips.

Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Let not my heart incline to any evil thing;
let me not be occupied in wickedness.
But my eyes are turned to you, Lord God,
in you I take refuge;
do not leave me defenceless.

Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

[Al Moak]

That psalm expresses the continuous, day-by-day experience of the Christian, does it not?

[Chris & Margit Saunders]

Yes, and Mary's last recorded words certainly do!!
Know what I mean?

[Al Moak]

Chris - I am so ignorant!  I've been looking for Mary's last recorded words - and I can't find them!   Where?  What?

[Chris & Margit Saunders]

Hahaaaaaa! "Whatever He says to you.. do it."
John ch 2 v 5  lol.
Sometimes our intellect defeats the simplicity of the Christian life.!

[Al Moak]

How right that is!  In fact, everything should be done "in His Name" (Col. 3:17).  It has to represent Him.  If it does not, then it shouldn't be done.