Transcript
Romans chapter 6 beginning at verse 1.
1) What therefore shall we say? Shall we continue in the sin, in order that grace might abound?
2) May it not happen. We who died to the sin, how shall we 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 up from out the dead, through the glory of the Father, we also (that is, we ourselves) should walk in newness of life.
5) For if we had become united together (or planted together) in the likeness of His death, but we also will be in the likeness of His resurrection:
6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin might be made inactive, that we should no longer serve sin.
7) For the one who has died has been justified from the sin principle.
We have been here in chapter 6 for a couple of weeks. Chapters 6 through 8 is the teaching that of the doctrine of sanctification. Sanctification means to be set apart by God to belong to Him. And that happens when a person is born of the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit that sets us apart that is the guarantee that we belong to Christ. And when Paul was finishing his message at the end of chapter 5 about justification, you remember justification is being positioned right with the Lord. Sanctification is being set apart by the Lord for His purposes and for Himself. At the end of chapter 5 when Paul taught on justification in verse 20 he says, Where sin abounds grace does much more abound. Emphasizing God’s provision for us that no matter how sinful we are God’s grace is greater and God draws sinners to Himself. Even Jesus when He came He said, I did not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32) And the religious leaders and some of the religious people thought that they were righteous and did not need to be saved. Did not need a Savior.
It is interesting that that is our human view of things. We think, at least subconsciously, that God chooses good people. That God uses good people and talented people, which is why we at times as the church, not this church, but the church as a whole if a celebrity seemingly receives the Lord we put them up front right away, for influence. “Look! this big celebrity that we all know has surrendered to Christ!” Trying to get other people to sense that it is okay and that that is the thing to do. Of course, when the celebrities then, a week or a month later realize that it is going to affect their profession, they are not going to earn as much money if the word gets out they are a Christian, then they just remove themselves from the scene, no longer want to identify with Christ. But we use them. We are trying to show that influential people surrender to Christ, not us losers.
But it is interesting that Jesus came and said that He came for sinners. It is a fascinating thing to meditate on as to exactly how God looks at us. He sees us for who we really are but not in the condemning way. He sees us for who we are and says, “I want to help your spiritual condition. I will provide for you everything that you need.” And our response at times is, “Oh, I am not worthy. Lord, I am just too horrible a person to be a Christian.” And God’s attitude is, “Yeah, I know, that is why I am here. I am here because you are a sinner. I did not come for the righteous. I came for the sinners.” So where sin abounds grace does much more abound.
So he says with the question in verse 1, Therefore what shall we say? Shall we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? So somebody is going to get this wise idea that I can continue in my sin because the more I sin the more I experience the grace of God. So he asked the question, Shall we continue in – now notice the translation – Shall we continue in the sin in order that grace may abound? The reason why that is important, we showed that at the end of chapter 5. In fact chapter 5 verse 12 the sin principle is introduced to us. I John chapter 3 verse 8 tells us that the sin principle is Satan himself. He is the sinner. He is the origin and source of sin. That when Adam sinned in the Garden, sin passed upon all men. We were born with a sin nature. He did not just do a wrong or bad thing, he introduced sin into the world for us. So what he is saying is you cannot ask the question, you cannot even approach God that way. “Well, the more we sin the more we will experience God’s grace because of the truth in chapter 5 verse 20.”
This text also answers the question to the person – the first hour we talked about the libertines. [See Galatians 5:22-23] The people who say we are free under God’s grace, we are not under law, we can do whatever we want to do. Again the question, Shall we continue in the sin in order that grace may abound? Not just sin in general, but the sin principle, the lifestyle of sin.
Remember the first hour I introduced you, there are two kinds of people. A person who is saved is a person who commits acts of sin. An unsaved person commits a lifestyle, a continuous lifestyle of sin. That is the difference between somebody who is saved and somebody who is not. Because God’s Spirit convicts me and God’s Spirit is there every time I sin to convict me, and to grieve, and to bring me to repentance. But a nonbeliever does not have that. A nonbeliever just continues to sin. So he is making reference to the sin principle. This lifestyle of sin. How can we continue in the lifestyle of sin, under the influence of Satan who is the sinner, and say, “We will do this so that we can experience God’s grace?” You are doing this as an unsaved person. A believer cannot go back to that. In fact, I have used the word impossible.
Several times in I John chapter 3 and once in I John chapter 5 verses 18 to 20 John repeats it. The one who has been born of God does not commit a lifestyle of sin. It is impossible. Because remember the Bible’s definition of sin is being under Satan’s influence and that is what literally happens. When a person is saved Christ comes into the person’s life, literally, spiritually, and His Spirit is there to prevent us from living under Satan’s domain in a lifestyle of sin. We still have the flesh. It still has its desires. We still commit acts of sin, but as again we saw the first hour, the Holy Spirit is there to keep us from completing the things that we desire to do in the human, and in the flesh. He protects us, He keeps us in the things of Christ.
So he asked the question, How can we continue in the life of sin in order that grace may abound? It is a contradiction. May it not happen. King James says, God forbid, which is the strongest expression of negation in Greek. May it not happen. We who died to the sin, the sin principle, how show yet we live in it?
But verse 3 says, Or are you ignorant? This is the first of five mentions of the form of the word to know. This is the word know with what is called the alpha privative, the negation in front of it. Ignorant is to be without knowledge. But there are five in the text. Obviously what he is doing is he is saying, “I am ministering to believers because they are ignorant about these matters.” And there are five presentations. And it is interesting just the word ignorant itself in all of Paul’s letters is mentioned six times. So you can understand why he is ministering. He is ministering to our ignorance, because we are ignorant. We do not understand the Scriptures. We do not understand the things of Christ. So he says, Are you ignorant that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?
We studied how that baptism, there are two kinds in the Scriptures. There is what is called wet baptism, that is water baptism; and dry baptism, which is Spirit baptism. There are two different kinds of baptisms that are mentioned in the Bible. And just in summation from what we studied before – when Christ saves us Matthew chapter 3 verse 11 tells us that His ministry is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And baptism has to do with identification and cleansing. When His Spirit comes into our spirit our spirits or soul is made pure and clean.
And as far as identification – as the early church we have seen in many pieces Scripture, the early church says our identification with Christ is by the presence of His Spirit that lives inside. Not by my religious beliefs, but the presence of His Spirit is how I belong to Him. I was baptized into Jesus Christ.
Now water baptism is the outward expression; that is my testimony of what happened inwardly. It is supposed to represent the fact – it is my testimony – that I have been baptized with God’s Spirit. I have been cleansed, filled, saved, and now I am getting water baptized in order to symbolize and give that testimony of what has happened to me spiritually. But what is significant about this is the text says that we were baptized into Christ Jesus and when we were baptized into Christ we were baptized into His death. And some people think that water baptism is when we are baptized into His death. No, it is not. It is when Christ baptizes us with His Spirit and we are born of His Spirit, we are baptized into Christ and we are baptized into His death.
On Thursday night we introduced a couple of weeks ago the truth in Scripture that when you receive Jesus Christ, He is not just a neutral being. He is not just a spirit that has a name and whose power that we access every once in a while. The Bible teaches that when we receive Christ we receive three aspects or characteristics of Christ that are Him, part of Him. When He comes in to our lives we receive Him with His characteristics; and those three characteristics are His death, burial, and resurrection. We experience all three of those in our life.
Look what the text says as we continue on. Verse 4, Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death. Not water baptism but by spiritual baptism. The purpose: in order that just as Christ was raised from out the dead, through the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life. For if we have become planted in the likeness of His death, but also we shall be in the likeness His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man was crucified, in order that the body of the sin might be made ineffective, so that we would no longer serve the sin.
Verse 6 is a very important verse. When Jesus died on the cross, He died my death, He died your death. The moment that I receive Christ I receive His death for me, His burial for me, and His resurrection for me. I receive the fact that when He died on the cross I died. In the human, in the flesh, I died. That is why Jesus said, If anybody be My disciple let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Let him deny himself because in His death we died. The old man that is mentioned there in verse 6 is the old nature, the old human nature. We were crucified with Christ.
Paul said back in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. Literally that is a perfect tense verb: I have been crucified with Christ. Paul stands at a condition of being crucified today with Christ starting at the time that he was born of the Spirit of God. He is in a condition of being crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
In Galatians chapter 5 verse 24 it says, Those that are of Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. Nowhere does it say we are to do it. And nowhere does it say that it is happening now. It has already been done. So when I receive Christ into my life I am receiving His Spirit who fills me and who protects me. He seals me. I belong to Christ from now on. But through His death that He brings with me into my life I have died to my sinful flesh.
Remember death does not mean cease to exist; death means separation. My sinful flesh continues to function and continues to exist but it no longer dominates me. I have died. Because that is what Christ did. He died on the cross, notice the purpose clause, in order that the body of sin might be made ineffective. It does not mean making the body of sin to no longer function, it is to make it not effective. It is there. It tempts us. But we will see later on in Romans chapter 6 that sin shall no longer have dominion over you if you are a Christian. The potential for sin is there. The temptation is there. But sin will no longer dominate your life. So later on he is going to say, So submit the members of your body as instruments of righteousness instead of unrighteousness.
It is a matter of – and we are heading towards that in Romans chapter 12 that all of our relationship with the Lord, this fellowship that we have, takes place in the (psuchē), the arena, Paul calls it. The mind. I am not talking about mental concepts. I am talking about the live feed of the energy impulses of Christ’s Spirit, and of course Satan through the flesh and the world, these thought impulses that I experience. I serve Christ out of my decision-making. It is not a religious decision. It is not just a matter of beliefs, correct beliefs about Him. But my service to Christ, as we will find out from Romans chapter 12 verse 1 is presenting myself as a living sacrifice. What is God’s will for my life? As emotionally and psychologically and circumstantially I am being torn in different directions and I am throwing up prayers, “God what you want me to do?” There is only one thing that He wants us to do – make a decision to present your body as a sacrifice. A living sacrifice that is presented and made several times a day. When it comes time to make those decisions I am no longer my own. I have died to that fleshly impulse. I can make the decision to surrender my life to God’s Spirit, you see, but that is all I can do is make the decision.
Even with repentance, when somebody before they come to know Christ. The word repentance means make a decision for change. But it also means that you cannot change yourself, you can only make the decision for change, “Lord, here I am. You save me. I cannot save myself. Lord, have mercy on me. I cannot do anything to save myself.” And then from then on it is the same basis every day. “Lord, here is the situation. Here is what I am thinking.” Or, “Here is what is bothering me.” Or, “Here is what the enemy is bringing into my life.” The only thing we can do is make the decision to surrender ourselves to Christ for His will to be done. That is all we can do. It is a decision. It is not a ceremony. It is not an activity in a ceremony. It is our own personal interaction with God’s Spirit. And it is our own personal decision-making process that serves Him. At the end of Romans chapter 12 verse 1, it says, we serve God, which is our reasonable service. The word reasonable means whom we serve with our reasoning process.
You can see why religion is the biggest enemy of God. It is because we can just go through the motions. And in our personal life where our thought processes are, we can be totally away from God. As long as I go through the routine I can keep my thoughts to myself and I can do what I want to do. God says, “No. I saved you.” And the service to Christ is in our reasoning process. As we reason things out in life He wants us to come to the conclusion that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. “Lord, here am I. Let your Spirit work in my life and through my life according to your will.” See, that is all I can do with everything is just make the decision. Yes or no. I cannot carry out the decision myself.
So we have, we who are of Christ we already have crucified the flesh and Paul says, “I stand in a condition of being crucified in Christ.” Most of the time we think that our struggle is with Satan not realizing that the moment I receive Christ my flesh entered into being crucified. That was me up on the cross so that my flesh would no longer have the freedom to sin against God in a rebellious way. Most of the time we are fighting against God and we think it is Satan. It is God telling us, “You have been crucified.” And we are wiggling and squirming and fighting to get down off of that cross so I can do my own thing. We think it is Satan preventing us but no, we have been crucified. He died my death. But the good news is that we live by His resurrection. We experience His resurrection every day.
In Philippians chapter 3 verse 10 Paul says, Oh that I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, while being made conformable to His death. See, Paul knew that to come to know Christ you have to experience and receive everything about Him. But he knew that by the power of the resurrection of Christ he lives every day. That is his life. The same power that was powerful enough to defeat death is the same power that keeps us living day after day. But we also experience His death. We have His death and His life taking place in ours every single day.
I just thought of a scripture I want to read to you in closing. If you have your Bibles turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15,
15) Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love that you have unto all the saints,
16) I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him:
18) that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know (three things, he lists three things) that you may know what is the hope of his calling, (the hope that is in Christ that is for you. Secondly,) and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (how rich spiritually the inheritance is for us that we experience right now in Christ. Notice the third thing, verse 19)
19) and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,
20) which He worked in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies,
21) far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
He says, “I am praying for you as believers. I heard that you are saved, I have heard of your love, and I have heard of your faith. But as you go through this earthly life and you have been crucified I am praying that you understand His power sustains you, not your flesh.” That the flesh was crucified for a reason, that only the power of God would be our sustaining force. So powerful that every single day all day long His Spirit – with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same spirit that sustains my life, every day. My problem is that I see my flesh and I see the condition of my flesh and I experience the crucifixion of the flesh, and it is kind of depressing. I see the world, its condition, I know what I want to do, realizing I cannot do it because God keeps me from doing it. I am surrendering my life to Him. What does the flesh want to do today? It is crucified. I mean it is kind of depressing, except Paul says, “You do not understand that all this is happening so that the power, resurrection power of Jesus Christ, can be the sustaining strength and force in your life.” Very powerful.
More powerful than death. Remember the flesh has experienced death. His resurrection power is more powerful than death itself. God has designed it – not only from a worldly standpoint but on a personal basis – that once I receive Him, His Spirit is the only thing, the only one that is ministering life. Everything else is death. And yet we keep trying to keep the flesh alive. We keep trying to go out in the world. And it is like beating your head against a brick wall. We have to understand that when we receive Christ, the old nature has been crucified. When He died, I died. When He was buried, I identified with His burial. When He rose from the dead, He raised me up from the spiritual dead. And His resurrection power and His intercession at the right hand of the Father right now is the sustaining force in my life. He makes it so everything else is eliminated except for Him.
And sometimes it takes our entire lifetime. As we look out and we see the great horizons that we live in and all of a sudden we start realizing the truth about life that we do not have as broad of horizons as we think. That is all the world and the flesh. And then we start realizing things about ourselves. I cannot look to my flesh. I have been doing that for many years. I cannot do that. Sometimes it takes an entire lifetime to realize, “Oh, it is the Spirit of Christ in me who sustains me.” He calls on me to present myself as a living sacrifice. Stop fighting against Him and just surrender. You died my death so that I could be free to experience the Spirit of Christ. That is what the Christian life is all about.
Unfortunately the Biblical truth and the Biblical Christianity is not like a lot of what we teach and preach in the church today. We have brought the world into the church. We appeal to people’s flesh. We do not dare talk about the flesh has been crucified. People do not like to hear that. I have this title in my head of a book, it does not exist yet, it might someday. The title of it is How the Gentiles Have Paganized the Church. We brought our culture and world into the church to appeal to the total human being. And the gospel message is deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him but it is all under His power, displaying His power and His greatness through us. Realize this is all about Him, not about us.
We will continue to learn about this in Romans 6 as we continue next week. Let’s close with prayer.
