If you are saved and because you are saved you cannot go back. You died. Sin produces death and I have died to the sin principle. So even if I were able to go back and participate in my life of sin again, what would I experience? It would not be life. I would experience death because sin produces death. And Paul is making a distinction. We have died to sin. We are free from sin; we are not free to sin.
Transcript
Romans chapter 6. We hope to finish out this section this morning. I know that the word finish and the word Romans does not generally come in the same sentence. Romans chapter 6, the entire section is verses 1 to 14 but we are in verses 1 through 7.
Paul says, Therefore what shall we say? That is because at the end of chapter 5 he said, Where sin abounds grace does much more abound.
1) Therefore what shall we say? Shall we continue in the sin, in order that grace may abound?
2) May it not happen. How is it that we who have died to the sin, how is it that we shall still (or any longer) live in it?
3) Or do you not know, (more literally: 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 have become planted with Him in the likeness of His death, but also we shall be in the likeness His resurrection,
6) knowing this, that our old man (the old nature) was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin might be made ineffective, that is so that we should no longer serve the sin (that is, the sin principle).
7) For the one who has died has been freed from sin. But that is not the word freedom: the one who has died has been justified from the sin principle.
Very interesting statements. Very powerful words that we need to understand and this morning we are going to try to wrap this up and bring it to a conclusion. We are going to cover three areas in this section and finish up with verses 6 and 7.
So first of all the person who wants to be free, the libertine he says, “Well, if grace abounds much more where there is sin, then we will sin so that we can experience God’s grace.” Paul says, May it never happen! May it never happen that way! It answers a lot of the misunderstandings about salvation to understand what Paul is saying. How can we, he says, who died to sin how shall we live any longer in it? So he answers the question with a question. How is it possible for those of us who have died (past tense) to the sin principle how shall we live any longer in it?
Justification he taught us, in chapters 4 and 5, is our position with Christ. We have been set free from the penalty of sin. But sanctification now, is our condition. Justification is our position; sanctification is our condition. I have been set free from the power of sin. It does not mean that sin no longer exists or that sin no longer is in operation. Death means separation.
When Christ came into my spirit I became dead to the sin principle who – again, as we have studied before – is Satan. Death to sin means separation from its power. I have died to sin. I have not come back to life. How can a person who is dead to sin decide, “Well, I will go back to sin, a lifestyle of sin, and I will use the excuse that I can experience God’s grace much more that way.” Because the legalist would say, “Well see, you are encouraging people to go back to their sin as a license for sin and so you have to be careful because people would lose their salvation.” No, you do not lose your salvation.
What he is saying is because you are saved, if you are saved, and because you are saved you cannot go back. You died. Are you going to take a shovel and go back and dig yourself up? Where there is sin, there is death not life. Sin produces death and I have died to the sin principle. So even if I were able to go back and participate in my life of sin again, what would I experience? It would not be life. I would experience death because sin produces death. “So I think I will go back and experience death again so that God’s grace will abound.” No. It says wherever there is sin, grace much more abounds. It does not say that sin produces grace. And there is a big fact to that.
Is life an excuse for more death? Why would I want an excuse to experience more death? Increasing the curse by sinning does not increase the blessing. It cannot mix. Thinking that I can go out and sin and if I do the end result is I am going to experience God’s grace. It is almost like a reward for sinning. And Paul is making a distinction between the two. We have died to sin. We are free from sin; we are not free to sin. How do I go back to something that I have died to?
One of the examples that I can think of is electricity. This building is wired with electricity. And if I understand this building as to be the house in which my spirit lives in and it is wired for electricity, what the Bible is telling me is that I used to be plugged in. But when Christ came into my spirit He separated me, or caused death between me and the current in the system that is in the flesh. So I have been disconnected. It is still there but its power no longer dominates over me. So how do you go back? And the Lord has made it so that when He came and saved me He cut off all the plugs too. How do you go plug something in? You cannot plug it in, you have died, you have been separated.
So the question is not what great gift of God can I use in order to use it as an excuse and justification for my sin? You do not need an excuse. If you can go back to your lifestyle of sin then you have never been delivered from it. But he is saying, It is impossible. A Christian can commit an act of sin. A Christian cannot commit a lifestyle of sin – like it was before we were saved. It is impossible not because of my abilities or inabilities but because the Spirit of Christ dwells inside. And we learn from Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and 17 that God’s Spirit has been placed there to oppose the desires of the flesh so that I cannot do the things that I desire. God knows. And so if I try to go back I have the grief of the Holy Spirit in my life. So the answer is it is impossible. Sin actually works against grace. Sin does not produce grace, sin works against grace. But for the person who is repentant of his sin God’s grace is there to bring them to Christ.
He says, verse 3, Or are you ignorant that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? And we studied how that the Spirit baptism is what brings us into Christ and into the body of Christ. The symbolism in baptism is now applied to the spirit realm. That Christ’s death – I was baptized into Christ’s death through the coming of His Spirit.
Verse 4, In order that just as Christ was raised from out the dead, through the glory of the Father, so also we also should walk in newness of life. We have been buried with Him. Dead things are buried. That is the significance of Christ dying on the cross and literally being physically buried, put in a tomb. You bury dead things. Putting Him in the tomb; pronouncing Him dead; rolling the stone in front of the door of the tomb; placing soldiers on the outside and then sealing the tomb was actually a proof of His death. When Jesus was buried He was buried for three days but never to be buried again. Death has no more power over Him because He was raised from the dead. His resurrection is what proved and provided power over death and over sin. He experienced it. His resurrection shows that He defeated death and He defeated Satan.
So we were buried with Him through baptism unto death so that we can be raised up and that we could walk in newness of life. Very interesting phrase in verse 4. A Christian, a genuine person who is saved does not have a makeover life.
It is not like one of those TV programs where you see what they look like and then take them to the back and put makeup on them, and fix up their hair, and do whatever, and tie corsets on – squeeze hard and you know, make them look a little thinner. You can tell I have experience. Sometimes I think I need one to fit into suits on Sunday. It is not a makeover.
Just last night I was reading on the Internet some blogs by people who were “former Christians” supposedly. They call themselves backsliders but then they tell you what backsliding is. What they are saying is – they describe their whole association with church, and Christianity, and all the activities, and the witnessing, and the whole deal that they were in. One guy worked his way up to pastoral ministry and realized that the more time he put in and the more effort he put in, the emptier he got. And he knew something was wrong. Of course, he blames the church. He blames Christianity. He says, “Christianity is nothing. The harder you work at it the emptier you get. It is just a religion.” And his friends also experienced the same thing.
Well, they entered into a type of Christianity that is a makeover from the outside. And you attach your human efforts to practicing certain principles to change your behaviour. But you can only do that for so long and do it at certain periods of time – especially when everybody’s watching you at church. But I was reading the other day that you are really who you really are except for Sundays, when you are not yourself. It is not a makeover, it is a newness of life.
Now the word in verse 4, the word for newness means quality and character. A whole new quality and character of life. It means to become a new creation. I used to use the word creature like the Bible does and people began to identify with creatures more than creation. I decided to use creation. There has been a change, a transformation inside that begins over time to manifest itself as a whole new creation. II Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17, We have become a new creation in Christ Jesus, the old things have passed away, behold all things have become new. It is not a makeover, it is a transformation. When the living Christ comes to live within, newness and character.
He goes on to say in verse 5, For if we have become buried with Him in the likeness of His death, but also we shall be in the likeness His resurrection.
Then he says in verse 6, Knowing this. And again, Paul’s main concern for believers – not all people but for believers – is that they would understand things. Just the word ignorance itself is used six times in Paul’s letters. I would not have you to be ignorant. This word [translated knowing this] is the same word without the alpha privative in front of it. He says, Knowing this. James and Paul and Peter and all of them talked about if you know certain things you will have understanding and that is why they were led to write what they did. Knowing this. We have come to know that Christian living is dependent upon Christian learning. We need to understand. If the devil through ignorance can keep us ignorant he will make us impotent. No knowledge, no strength. Not because Christ is not strong but because we are confused and we do not know and we do not understand.
He says, Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him. The word old in the Greek text actually means old to the point of no longer useful, worn-out, fit for the scrap pile. The old nature. In order that the body of sin might be destroyed or made ineffective. And by ineffective it means to be ineffective by removing the power of control. So sin is still there but Christ has removed its power to control us. It no longer dominates us. He says at the end of verse 6, so that we should no longer serve the sin principle. Meaning be enslaved to it, because we are not.
Verse 7, For the one who has died has been justified from sin. Positional. That is a perfect tense verb. The position is conditional and it is permanent. We are always justified and free from the sin principle. We are never in bondage to it again. So, For the one who has died has been justified from the sin principle.
Augustine before he was saved, history tells us that he had a mistress. That a very beautiful woman seduced him and he had a long relationship with her. When he received Christ, one day he saw her on the street and she says, “Augustine, it is me.” And he said, “I know, but it is not me,” and he kept going. He is not the same. He is now saved.
In Jude chapter 1 (there is only one chapter) verse 4, it says For there are certain men who have crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness (that means unrestrained uncontrolled desires) and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They have turned the grace of God into freedom for sin, out of control sin. They are using it as a justification factor. But Paul is teaching here that if you have died to sin you cannot do it because Christ now lives within. You try to live your life of sin, you have to be plugged into Satan twenty-four hours a day, and Jesus says, “I have unplugged you.” Simple as that, plugged you into the Spirit of God.
In Titus chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 he says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. No such thing as freedom for the flesh. The true grace of God teaches us – not only teaches us but gives us the ability to walk in newness of life and to not follow after as a lifestyle the desires of the flesh. It is a condition, a state of being that we are in. But it is all brought about, not by my confession or profession of faith, it is all brought about by the incoming and presence and indwelling of the Spirit of Christ. In other words, it is not just words that people say in front of a church. It is literally being born of the Spirit of God. So Paul says, “If you are truly indwelt by God’s Spirit, born of God’s Spirit, you have died to sin.” You are separated from it. That is to say, you are no longer plugged in. It no longer has power and control over you. You can say no and you need not follow that way. Even though we try and even then God’s Spirit is there to convict us and to grieve and bring us back to confession and restoration.
So Paul has gone to great lengths to say salvation is not just something, some outward religious thing that you join. It is an inward transformation where you become a new creation, a new creature, a new person. Like Augustine, “It looks like me, but is no longer me.” Because he s walking in newness of life like we walk in newness of life. So it is really understanding, first of all, salvation, what salvation is. It has nothing to do with mental agreement, it has do with literally being born again, born of the Spirit of God, a spiritual birth. That is what salvation is. But also having experienced a spiritual birth realizing what that salvation did to me. Not only did He save my soul but He separated me. I experienced death from the principle of sin, Satan himself. From energizing my life, to fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Freedom. We are harassed, but we are free. And it is the grace of God that saves us and it is the grace of God that sustains us. So a person cannot use that excuse, freedom for sin.
You have your legalists, and you have your libertines. There is no law made that can produce spiritual fruit, we saw in the first hour. And in the second hour we see that there is no freedom to serve sin any longer. The power is gone. We have been literally delivered and saved. That is what saved means. We are saved from something. He literally delivers us, rescues us, and pulls us out of Satan’s system and we now belong to Christ.
So next week, as we venture on and continue to learn with this section what he has done for us is he has established for us the understanding of what salvation is and what salvation does. And you and I both know in our exposure to the things in the body of Christ – just the arguments over salvation. “Can you lose your salvation?” Well, you do not understand what the Bible teaches about salvation or else you would not be having that debate because it does not even take it into consideration. Salvation is not something that you win because you believe and you lose because you disbelieve. It is an act of God. In order for me to be not saved Jesus would have to leave my life and He promises to never do that. And if He did decide to do it, what could I do about it? He knows we are at His mercy, which is why He has mercy on us.
So we can rejoice, not in that we have won over sin completely. We still live in these bodies of flesh, but we live in freedom. We have not fallen back into slavery to sin again. We wrestle with it but it will never pin us. And so the entire presentation is so the believers walk in the life of victory, which means that we by faith know and believe that through the death of Christ on the cross we have died to the sin principle. It no longer lords it over us. And yet Paul is now going to go on in the chapter and teach us that in your decision-making, present yourselves, yield yourselves as instruments of righteousness rather than instruments of unrighteousness. Instead of trying to go back into the world, instead of trying to go back to do your own thing, instead of struggling with that your whole life, yield yourselves to Christ.
Let’s close with prayer.
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