Transcript
Romans chapter 6 we are in this section verses 1 through 7. Romans chapters 6 through 8 is the doctrine of sanctification, a thorough presentation by Paul. Verses 1 to 7, beginning with verse 1:
1) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin… We mentioned to you last week the word sin has the definite article. Shall we continue in the sin, in order that grace may abound?
2) May it not happen. Strongest form of impossibility in Greek. May it not happen. We who died to sin (and again it has the definite article: the sin principle) how shall we any longer (or still) live in it?
3) Or are you ignorant, that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4) Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death: in order that just as Christ was raised from out the dead through the glory of the Father, in this same way also we ourselves should walk in newness of life.
5) For if we had become planted with Him in the likeness of His death, but also we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection:
6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified, in order that the body of sin might be made inactive, that we should no longer be in servitude (or slavery) to sin.
7) For the one who has died has been freed or more literally: has been justified from the sin, that is the sin principle.
In chapter 3 verse 21 through chapter 5 verse 21 Paul presented the doctrine of justification. How we are made right with God by having the righteousness of Christ credited to our account. This is the second phase now of the three parts of salvation. This is sanctification. This takes place when the Spirit of Christ comes into the spirit of a person’s life. This is what we call receiving Christ.
And I know that there are phrases used today that are misleading as far as understanding of salvation goes. One of the phrases that people love to use is: to accept the Lord. That is not used in the Bible. It is literally receive the Lord. A person must receive Christ not in their mind and in their thinking only, but a person must be born and receive the Spirit of Christ into their spirit. Once the Holy Spirit comes into the spirit of a person that person is saved. They are filled with His Spirit. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 says that we are sealed, our spirit is sealed with the Holy Spirit. So within our spirit is perfect peace, perfect joy, all of the time because Christ is there. Nothing can penetrate. He will not leave, nor can anything take Christ away from us. So our spirit or soul is sealed and we are called sanctified. The word sanctified means set apart. When Christ comes into our spirit we are now said to be set apart for Christ. We now belong to Christ.
And one of the things that we need to understand about the salvation process is not only did Jesus die on the cross as the payment and penalty for our sins but He died on the cross and He purchased us. I Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20 says, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Now in the first hour [see Galatians 5:18-21], we talked about the flesh and how the flesh is evil. It cannot submit to the law of God, neither does it have the capacity. It says flesh not body. The body is neutral. The body is used both by the Lord and by the leading of sin through the flesh. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is the flesh, it is the material that the body is made of that has the principles of sin in it. So that the physical body itself is neutral.
The mind, the (psuchē) as Paul calls it in the book of Colossians, is the arena that entertains the impulses and thoughts that come from the flesh. Within the same arena we entertain the thoughts of God’s Spirit that minister to us through God’s word. Thoughts from the environment around us that cause these thoughts to occur with the mind. As we work our way up to Romans chapter 12 verse 1 we understand after we are saved that we are to present our bodies to Christ as a living sacrifice. That is our function. But it also goes on to say, whom we serve with our reasoning process.
The term reasonable is literally the term for the reasoning process. In other words I serve the Lord – not so much what I do physically for Him. We talked about that first hour, that I can do things in the human, and in the human effort, and do it for Him and it still not be in service to Christ. He will not accept that. But rather, as I think about the things of life, as I reason things out and I make my decisions. My service to Christ comes when whatever situation that I am presented with, whatever I am thinking about, whatever I am praying about, I present my body as a living sacrifice to Christ. In other words, “Whatever you want Lord, here I am to be used by You and for Your purposes.”
Our initial response in situations is to pray and try to get God to do things so things work out for us in a certain way. But in reality we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. And that occurs at each situation, not just a one-time thing. This happens in every situation. I am praying and what does God want me to do? What is His will for my life? It is in my reasoning processes – as I think things out – to make the decision to surrender my body to Christ for Him to work things out.
Now, the term that James uses in James chapter 1 about a doubter. That is a person whose mind is going in two different directions. I always use the example of how counselors used to – and some might still do – if you are trying to figure out what you are supposed to do as far as decision-making, is have you take a piece of paper and you draw a line down the middle and you label them pros and cons. What is the benefit if you make your decision to do it? What are the hardships and the difficulties if you decide to do it? And then see the two lists and if the benefits outweigh the difficulties, then it might be an indication that God wants you to go ahead and do it. Well that is taking things into consideration and making a choice based on pros and cons of the situation. To God, we are not to even do that, pros and cons. It does not matter what the benefits are, or the difficulties are. All that matters is what the Lord wants.
I am sure the Lord – if He had a counselor helping Him before He carried His cross to the hill and the counselor listed the pros and cons about His decision to surrender voluntarily to go on the cross, there would not be much benefit to it from a human standpoint. “I do not think You should do this. This is going to turn out to be really bad, you know? So I would not do it.”
Remember again from what we said from Thursday night, is that at the end of Romans chapter 8 verse 28 says, God works all things for the good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But then he works into chapters 9 through 11 about Israel rejecting the truth of God, rejecting their Messiah as an example of Romans chapter 8 verse 28 that God works everything for the good. How can they reject the Messiah? How can they rebel against God? How can they be skipped over and the Gentiles grafted in to preach the gospel that they are supposed to be preaching? And God still say, “I am still with you. I keep My promises.” And even go to the point where He would use the Gentiles to make the nonbelieving Jews jealous, so that they will turn and receive their Messiah. That is the depths of God’s love. His promises never change. What He says, He will do. And it is not dependent upon the good and bad of the people that He makes the promise to. He works everything for the good. He will even take rebellion and He will work it out for His good eventually.
It does not say, Everything is good. It says, He works it out for the good. Israel, the remnant that is the elect, they will be saved. The Gentiles, when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, when all the Gentiles who are going to be saved are saved, they are going to be saved too. So the saved Jews and the saved Gentiles are going to make up what would be the body of Christ in its fullness in heaven.
And so in Romans chapter 6 he is beginning to talk about and teach about this sanctification. Justification – you have been made right with God. Sanctification means you have been born of the Spirit of God and therefore you belong to Him by that process of salvation. So then He uses a certain Jewish response form called a diatribe that he anticipates the Jewish mind, or the religious mind, asking questions or even coming off the wall in a very perverted way about what the Gospel is all about.
In chapter 5 verse 20 he says, Where sin abounds grace does much more abound. That is supposed to be a word of comfort. A person’s sins cannot be so great that God cannot save them or God cannot forgive them. But some people take advantage of it. “Well, if God’s grace abounds wherever sin is, then I will sin so that I can experience God’s grace. I can sin and get God’s grace at the same time.”
So he started out with a question, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Verse 1. And again the word sin has the definite article. Shall we continue in the sin principle for the purpose that grace may abound? Verse 2, May it not happen. Or literally, That is impossible. We who died to sin (and again, that is the sin principle with the article) how shall we any longer (or still) live in it?
And so last week we did an in depth study of this definite article. It is impossible. According to the many scriptures we took: I John 3:8-9; I John 3:6; I John 5:18, it is impossible for a believer to continue habitually living under the sin principle whom I John chapter 3 verse 8 identifies as Satan. He is the energizing force. He is the sinner who has been sinning from the beginning. When his influence is over a person’s life they are habitually and continuously living under his influence. That is an unsaved person. When a person is saved, when the Spirit of Christ comes into the life of a person, the sin principle is no longer the root source and cause of sin in that person’s life. The law of sin and death is still in the flesh. There are still impulses in the flesh that have come from the life of sin, but Satan is no longer there. It is now the Spirit of Christ.
See that is why “born of the Spirit of God” is very important to understanding the salvation process. Salvation – when a person is saved they are literally saved. Delivered from Satan to Christ. It is not just a matter of the mind. It is a spiritual experience when the Spirit of Christ delivers a person from Satan. And the Spirit of Christ dwells in that person’s life, forever, not just here, but throughout eternity.
So he says, How can we who have died to sin – and remember our definitions. Death in the Bible means separation. It does not mean nonexistence. The same as it does with us. When a human being dies as we say, their spirit leaves their body. There is a separation. But they are still alive somewhere. But they have experienced death or separation. So with the believer. The moment that I am saved, saved by the Spirit of Christ, at that particular moment I died to the sin principle. I have been separated from Satan. I no longer belong to him. Never will.
We will see later on in chapter 6 that Paul is going to be so bold as to say that if you have experienced the salvation process that sin shall no longer rule over you. Therefore make the decision to present the members of your body to Christ for works of righteousness, not unrighteousness. Sin does not rule over you. You have a choice. You can present yourself to Christ.
We saw that death was introduced into the Scriptures with the fall of Adam in the Old Testament.
But there is something in verse 3 that we want to look at this morning. He says, first of all, how can you continue to live in the sin principle if you are saved? How can you say, “I will continue to sin so that grace may abound?” You cannot do it. You can commit an act of sin, I John chapter 2 verse 1 says. You can commit an act of sin but I John chapter 3 is full of scriptures that say, “If you are born of God you do not practice sin anymore. You cannot practice a lifestyle of sin.”
He says in verse 3, Or are you ignorant that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Many people, many in the ministry use this text while performing water baptism. It is not wrong to use this Scripture when baptizing others but it in and of itself is not talking about water baptism.
First of all, the word baptism is (baptō) and it means to dip or to immerse.
Secondly, it is mostly related to the term identification. In those days more than in ours if you were to join a club, or especially if there is a change in your life, even a change of profession or job, they would baptize signifying to other people that there was a major change in your life. And whoever you are baptized in is the change that you are representing. And the Jews, the Jewish people, they would baptize everything. The book of Hebrews says that they even baptized their pots and pans and plates in a ceremonial way to identify with cleansing.
So its first meaning is identification. It is used in I Corinthians chapter 10 verse 2 where it says, All were baptized unto Moses under the cloud and in the sea. Well, they did not have a baptismal ceremony. But when the people followed Moses’ leadership they identified with him and therefore it was called baptism.
Baptism is also related to cleansing. And from a religious standpoint that is what the Jews used it for. It represented in a ceremony cleansing. It in and of itself does not cleanse anybody. So there is both water baptism and there is spiritual baptism that is mentioned in the Scripture.
In spirit baptism, when a person is saved they are brought into the body of Christ. And the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the phrase that John the Baptist used to describe the Lord’s ministry. In Matthew chapter 3 verse 11 John the Baptist, in introducing Jesus said, I baptize with water but there is one coming after me that is greater than I who baptizes with the Spirit. So the Lord’s ministry to each person from a salvation standpoint is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And you can see why in some churches and doctrinal systems the term baptism of the Holy Spirit has been twisted and misused so much that, first of all, it will not represent what it represents in the Bible if you listen to that teaching. But then the people who see it as being wrong they will not even mention the phrase because that is them over there and that is not us over here. And that is how Satan gets the very truths of God’s word to be perverted and twisted around. People either misuse it or do not want to use it at all because of how others use it. But in Matthew chapter 3 verse 11 John the Baptist said, The Lord’s ministry is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And remember what baptism is. It is identification and cleansing. So that when Jesus Christ baptizes people with His Spirit, they are cleansed. Your sins are forgiven. Christ comes to live within and that denotes cleansing. Plus, the rest of the New Testament says, I belong to Christ. My identity with Him is through His Spirit that dwells in me. You have cleansing. You have identification. My identification is with Christ because He has baptized me with His Spirit.
Now it is very interesting, some of the other Scriptures that Paul would use. Galatians chapter 3 verse 27 he says, For as many of us as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. He is not talking about water baptism. Again there are two reasons for me making reference to Spirit rather than water. Number one, it is a factual statement that when you get baptized you put on Christ. If it is water baptism that means water baptism does not represent it, it is the means by which you put on Christ, and we know that is not true. By being baptized by the Spirit of Christ, by Christ himself, I have put on Christ. That is what it means to be saved.
In I Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13 he says, For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have all been made to drink of the one Spirit. In the Scriptures Spirit baptism represents the total ministry of Christ when He saves someone He baptizes, He cleanses them by the coming of His Spirit, and His identification with them is through His Spirit.
Now when I said earlier it is not wrong to read this during a water baptismal ceremony, is because water baptism was given in order to represent what has happened in a person’s spirit. It is an outward expression of what has happened in a person’s spirit. As I have been baptized by the spirit of Christ and therefore I get water baptized and that is my testimony that through the death, burial, and resurrection, as you come out of the water of Christ, it is my testimony. It in and of itself does not save anybody. Being dunked in water, you can dive in the water or do whatever you want to do; it is not going to spiritually cleanse you. It is a physical activity that produces no spiritual benefit other than to follow the Lord’s lead when He says, “Do this so that you are telling all people that you now identify with Me, and that this is what has happened in your life.”
So Christian baptism is different than John the Baptist’s baptism. His was to introduce the Messiah. It is different than Jewish baptism that we find even in the book of Acts. Jewish baptism was different than what we now call believer’s baptism. And believer’s baptism is that we do an outward expression representing an inward work of God’s Spirit in our life. And that is what it represents. So if a person’s being water baptized, it is very appropriate to read this Scripture and say this person is being water baptized as an expression of what has happened in their spirit and in their heart when they received Christ. You do not hear it often, which probably is one of the biggest problems. People make it sound like because you are being water baptized, you are now going to put on Christ and be saved, and that is not the what the text is representing at all. So this text is clearly representing Spirit baptism. Water is just water, it has no effect on a person’s spirit. It has an effect on your physical human body but does not do anything spiritually.
So he says in verse 3, and we will see the rest of the chapter, he is talking about the people who have experienced this baptism in verse 3 have been separated from the power of sin. That does not happen in water baptism. That happens when the Spirit of Christ comes in and cleanses us. He says, Or are you ignorant that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? And that is why we symbolize the death, burial, and resurrection by the way in which we are baptized. Because there are three elements – and we will get into this next week – there are three elements about the person of Jesus Christ that He brings with Him when He comes into our life.
These are things that we as believers are very ignorant of. And the reason I say that is because the questions we have when we question God is about what is happening in our life. Every human being that you come in contact with you also come in contact with who they are. The good, and the bad, and the ugly. Whether they have showered or not. I mean if you come into their association you are going to find out that they bring with them more than just their name. It is everything about them as a person.
Well, when Christ comes into a person’s life He brings His death, burial, and resurrection. Paul even expressed that he experiences the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection by Christ coming into his life. So by Christ dying on the cross He died my death. Therefore Paul says, “I have died.” He just did not substitute Himself for me so that I would not have to die; He substituted Himself for me and therefore I am dead. Dead to sin, separated from sin, the sin principle, Satan himself, and I belong to Christ. But belonging to Christ – and many emphasize the healing ministry of the Lord, the miracle producing ministry of the Lord, all part of Him but they do not emphasize the identification with His sufferings, nor the fact that we were crucified with Him when He died on the cross. Those are the things that we do not like to hear.
But those are the things that are brought into our life and in verse 3 Paul is saying, “Here is the foundation for the statements that I am making to you, you have died to the sin principle. And it is impossible for you to live any longer under the sin principle if indeed you have been born of the Spirit of God.” It is impossible. And then he will spend the rest of the chapter telling us exactly how this sanctification process broke Satan’s control over us and sin’s control over us and the power that we do have in Christ to be set apart.
And so will continue in this the next week now that we have got the terminologies and understanding down from this first part of teaching. We will continue on to see in our sanctification, the power we have over sin, not its power over us.
Let’s close with prayer.
