Transcript
Verse 8 of Romans chapter 6,
8) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him:
9) knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies no longer; death has no longer lordship over Him.
10) For in that He died, He died unto sin once and for all: but what He lives, He lives unto God.
11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto to the sin principle, but living unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12) Let not the sin principle therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13) Neither yield or present your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto the sin principle: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are living from out of the dead, and your members (that is, of your body) as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14) (Factual statement) For sin will not have dominion (or lordship) over you: for you are not under law, but under grace.
Just as in Galatians chapter 6, so in Romans chapter 6 we are talking about sanctification. In Romans chapter 3 verse 21 through chapter 5 verse 21 Paul discussed justification. Justification is when the Lord’s righteousness is imputed to our account. And therefore positionally, because the Lord suffered for the penalty for our sins, we have been made right with God. But in sanctification, chapters 6 through 8, three chapters. Actually, chapter 6 talks about the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, and he establishes for us in chapter 6 of Romans the fact that the person who has been born of the Spirit of God has died to sin. We will explain that. But then in chapter 7 he talks about the flesh. And in chapter 8 he talks about the Spirit. By the time he gets to chapter 7 he then separates these two elements. The problem with the flesh in chapter 7 and the provision of the Spirit in chapter 8.
But here he is laying down the doctrinal position for us. That justification: we have been freed from and delivered from the penalty of sin, forever. But in sanctification, that is when the Spirit of Christ comes into our spirit, we are sanctified or set apart, and by that process we are delivered from the power of sin. Forgiven for the penalty of sin, and we are now delivered from the power of sin, that is, the source of sin. The Bible teaches that Satan is the source of sin. Ephesians chapter 2, he energizes the nonbeliever to fulfill the desires of his flesh and of his mind. And that, when a person is saved, that is what the person is saved from – the one who is producing the power of sin over that person’s life.
There are two sections in chapter 6. Each section begins with a question. Verses 1 to 14 that we are in, and verses 15 to 23.
At the end of Paul’s teaching about justification at the end of chapter 5 he says, Where sin abounds grace does much more abound. So the first question, or objection, that he addresses is the person that says, “Well, if that is true, where sin abounds grace does much more abound, then we will sin. The more we sin the more we experience God’s grace. Win-win situation!” But in application he says, May it never happen! It cannot happen that way. For he asked the question there in verse 2, how shall we who are dead to sin live any longer in it? He answers it with a question. He says, how can a person continue in a lifestyle of sin when we are dead to sin? What in the world does that mean?
And this first part, he is giving us information that possibly we have never learned before. He tells us in three places. Look at verse number 3, he says Know ye not, literally, are you ignorant? Verse 6, Knowing this. Verse 9, Knowing that Christ. He is giving us the information because he knows that many believers do not have this information and do not understand it.
So he says, first of all, in verse 3, that we have died with Him. We have died with Christ. When Christ died, we died. Why? Because He died our death, therefore we have died. Secondly, we have been buried with Him by baptism into His death.
And we spent at length sharing with you that baptism here is not speaking of water baptism. It is talking about Spirit baptism. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the name given to describe the conversion or salvation process. God’s Spirit cleanses and God’s Spirit comes to reside within. And so baptism, making reference to identification. That is why we submit to water baptism because it symbolizes, it expresses, it represents what God has done in us spiritually. That when we go under the water it signifies death and burial.
The burial, why is burial included in this mix? Because once a person is buried that is the conclusion factor that the person has died. If you can bury them, they are dead. And so the water shows that we died with Christ. We were buried with Christ. And when we come up out of the water it symbolizes the fact that when God’s Spirit came into our spirit by His resurrection power we now walk in newness of life. We walk in the resurrection of Christ as our life, but we have died.
Again, the definition for death is separation. It does not mean non-existent, it doesn’t mean annihilation, it means separation. Physical death is the same, it is when your spirit is separated from your body. If you hear that a certain person has died, it does not mean that they have ceased to exist. Everybody is going to live forever in one of two places. But everybody is going to live forever. So at death I do not cease to exist I just change locations and you are left with cleaning up the rest at your discretion. Do not worry, I have been threatened. They are just going to throw my body right over the cliff here into the creek, waiting for the next storm come through.
We have died with Him. We were buried with Him. And thirdly, because we are planted in the likeness of His death, we are also in the likeness of His resurrection. When I receive Christ into my life I receive the three things about Him into my life: His death, His burial, and His resurrection. Through His death I died. So therefore, when Christ comes into my life He delivers me from the source of sin.
Now my body, according to Romans chapter 7, my physical body still has the system and the law of sin in it. But I have been separated from it. It operates in the physical body that I live in but it no longer dominates or controls my life. To be delivered and to be saved, that is literally what it means. Not that you get rid of sin from out of the flesh, but you as a person, as a soul, you are separated from its control. And after we are rescued, saved, or separated from its control it continues to function but its source has been cut off, which could make it even worse. It is like going through withdrawals. You can keep feeding with the alcohol or with the drugs but once you stop and try to kick it cold turkey things can get pretty wild as the flesh yearns and squirms for its source of sin. So death, burial, and resurrection. With His death I have died and with His resurrection I live. And because of this, the believer first of all is dead to the sin principle, the source of sin. Separated. [Romans 6:2]
In chapter 6 verse 7 it says that the believer has been freed from sin. Set free. Now this is very important for today because—and we are going to address this issue. Though the Bible states these facts, these are factual statements about what happened to us in Christ when we received Christ. But we find that whatever it is telling us, I do not feel that is the way it is. I mean this flesh and its weakness and its sin is more serious than what we are studying about. I mean you can read what Paul has to say and say well, “Easy for you to say,” you know. And even my life does not seem that that is the way it is going like Paul says.
That is what he is addressing today in verse 8. It says, Now if we died with Christ, and the word if is what is called first-class condition, since. Since we died with Christ, (our promise for the future is) we believe that we also shall live with Him. Not only have I been resurrected from the spiritual dead, and I am walking in newness of life now, because of His physical resurrection I too will live with Him throughout eternity, and physical death will not stop me.
But then he says in verse 9, Knowing that Christ has been raised from out of the dead He dies no longer—He only died once—death is no longer lording it over Him. (verse 10) For what He died to sin, He died once and for all: and what He lives, He lives unto God. What does it have do with me? Very, very important in that Jesus Christ died once. He is not going to die again. He submitted to death, He experienced death, so that He could be delivered out of death. That is defeating death.
You see, in God’s eyes victory is not just look at death and saying, “You have no power over me get lost.” But rather submitting and saying, “Okay, go ahead, kill me,” and after you die you rise up. It is like, “Well, the last enemy has been defeated.” You see, because I am also going to experience physical death, but physical death will not separate me from the love of Christ because Jesus died once when He died on the cross once. And since I am dead in Christ, I only die once. I have been made dead to sin once. That is all it takes. I do not have to re-die all over again, or re-crucify myself. We died once. We will die no more.
So he says in verse 11—he is giving us this information. These are factual statements. The next is the imputation. This is what is important for us to know. Verse 11. Now in this way, that is what the word so means. In this way also you yourselves impute (or calculate) yourselves to be indeed dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. What does that mean? When he says so at the beginning of verse 11, he is taking into account all the facts that he has given us in verses 2 through 10. This is the condition, the position and the condition of every believer who has received Christ. These are the things that have happened to us. These are the principles that are ongoing in our lives. I have died. I am walking in newness of life, which is the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, not in the life of the old nature.
He says, In this way you yourselves also impute (or calculate) yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. The word impute or calculate means you put this to your account that you are dead, but you are living in Christ. What do I do with that? Where do I write it down? What is he talking about? See, this is all by faith. By faith we are to calculate and impute the fact that these things are true. Number one, by faith. Number two, according to the facts. God is telling me this. Here is what happened to you when you got saved. Here is who you are now. By faith, according to the facts, regardless of the feelings. Those three things are very important. I believe by faith, and I will believe the facts, but I am not going to go according to my feelings.
My feelings dictate to me that a lot of the times in my struggle with my flesh that what God’s word says about those things is not true. Or if I am asked to believe it by faith, I think it is a mental thing. Okay, I have to believe it and it is just like a positive thought. Okay, I believe it, but what happens if I die and it is not true? There is always that in the back your mind if you are playing mind games with the things of Christ. That is why we live by faith. And this is a perfect example of what living by faith is. Spiritually these things are true for me. I am to receive them and believe them by faith because that is what Jesus did for me on the cross. That I am separated from, I have died to the sin principle. Not that sin in my flesh ceases to exist, but that I have been delivered and rescued and saved from the power of sin dominating my life. But it is still there in the flesh. I am just not plugged into it, if that makes sense. I am plugged into a different source now. My spirit is plugged into the Holy Spirit. It is not plugged into Satan energizing my flesh. But I am stuck in this body. That is why at the end of Romans 7 Paul says, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death. Constantly battling with the flesh.
There are couple of reasons as to why believers have difficulty believing these facts.
1) They have never heard them, the doctrine or the teaching. That is why Paul emphasized three times to know something. He says, here is some information that you have to know that you do not know.
2) Secondly, when you were born of the Spirit of God when you received Christ, this birth is not experiential. That is to say, it is not physically observable and it is not physically verifiable.
When God saves me it is a spiritual experience or process. It is something that you cannot observe physically, and you cannot even verify it physically in the human. Just in the human I have no way of telling if I am saved or not. I have no way of telling whether I belong to Christ or not. And if it is just in the human and watching me in the human I would say, no, you are not saved. Except for the fact that the Spirit of God keeps me in Christ. It will not let my flesh take me away from Jesus Christ.
We saw back in Galatians chapter 5 verse 17 that the flesh is fighting against the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God has been placed there to stop the flesh, so that we cannot do the things that we want to do.
So, number one, many believers have never heard, nor have they been taught the doctrine and teaching. And secondly, the new birth is spiritual, therefore, it is not physically observable, nor humanly verifiable. There is no machine that I can pass through to see if I have experienced a spiritual birth.
3) But thirdly, many people, many believers, have a difficult time believing these facts because of the continual battle with sin. And this battle almost constantly contradicts the truth of God’s word.
See, I do not feel like I am in the condition that Paul just described. I do not feel like I have been delivered from the control and power of sin. Yet as I look back over my life, there is a difference. I commit acts of sin. And I can see that there is a spiritual control over my life that is different than before. From a certain day that I can remember, and some people do not remember a particular day or time. But from at a certain day on I have been under the control of a different Spirit. And I know it is not me because I have tried to go a different direction. Whoever this Spirit is says, “Uh-uh, you are not going that way.” He stops me. The Bible teaches that He keeps me in Christ Jesus. I Peter chapter 1 is that He is keeping us in Christ Jesus for that day.
But because of my battle and my struggle, and I look at all this from the inside, it sounds like my life contradicts what God’s word says. That is why we have to impute it, calculate it by faith. God is telling us from the outside, by His word and by His Spirit He is telling us, you have received Christ and by receiving Christ here is what your spirit or soul went through. You are now filled with God’s Spirit, Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14. You are now sealed by the Holy Spirit. No one can penetrate your spirit. You are being kept by the power of God but you are living in a condition where you have to live in a physical body that is not evil in and of itself, but because of the material, the flesh—in the flesh is the law of sin.
So it is kind of like you pick a house to live in. You say, “Oh, this is so nice, out in the country and it is peaceful.” And then you have neighbors, you know. It like them opening up their windows and playing their stereo full blast 24 hours a day. And somebody telling me, “Do not worry about it, you have been made right with God.” My flesh is just screaming and pulling all of the time. I do not feel saved. But God tells me that inwardly, spiritually, I have been made dead to sin. That is to say, my spirit and soul is separate from the flesh. Cut off. And the only time that I fall into sin is when I reach out and decide to cooperate with what the flesh is trying to influence me to do. But I do not have to. I have been delivered. That is what it means to be saved. I have been delivered from the power and the dominance of the source of sin over my life. I have now been set free in my spirit to belong to Christ. But it is not the flesh.
See, that is what faith is. Again, faith is not a mind game. It is believing I have died to sin, which is hard to believe when sin is still alive. How did I die to it and it is still alive? It does not say sin dies. I have died to it. And that is what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. I must move forward from here based on the facts of Scripture, and under the influence and power of God’s Spirit believe it by faith, and not get caught up in the human evaluation. Or trying to evaluate my spiritual condition based on how my human element feels. And that is the principle of faith. My flesh is always going to oppose those moments when God’s Spirit says, just believe. Just believe Me. What I said I will do. Yeah, okay.
It is the human side, like Abraham. I always use him as an example because he is always used in the Bible, nice cooperation there. Abraham says here is what God said, I am going to have a son. You know, time ticks on. No time to God, right? It is just us. What if I, like David and the household of Jesse, would receive the promise that Messiah is coming but it will not be for another couple hundred years. What if God gives me a promise that is not going to be fulfilled in my lifetime? More than likely, I will get frustrated in the flesh and in the human, and I will try to make it happen. Because if God said it, why is He not doing it? See, that is not up to me to question God. God always took a lot of time, and His timetable was always dependent upon fulfilling His word at a time when we no longer can try to fulfill it ourselves.
That is what happened with Abraham. His human got tired of sitting around waiting. So in the human he took things into his own hands. And in the human he bore a child through Hagar, and said, “Okay, now God’s promise is fulfilled.” And God said, no.
And Galatians chapter 4 verse 21 and Romans chapter 4 verse 20 tells us that Abraham—two things about faith: (1) what God says is His Word. That is God’s word. (2) What God says, He will do. That is faith, two elements of faith. It is not, that is God’s word here is what I am going to do. That is what the church is going through today. God’s word says this, so I am going to go do it. Okay, Abraham, see ya.
And what Abraham produced from the human and from the flesh is what has created all the problems over in the Middle East today. The more we try to fulfill God’s Word in the human effort the more we are creating problems for ourselves.
It is by faith. According to the facts. Regardless of the feelings. God says He has done this in my life. I am looking at it from the inside. I am saying, “Lord, I know You are there. I commune with You. I fellowship with You. But my flesh just does not feel like I have died to sin.” If we understand what it is. If we understand that we have died to it, it itself has not died. And that this is the way God looks at me.
We will see that in Romans seven when Paul goes to the struggle of trying to keep the things of God in the flesh and he comes to a conclusion, he cannot do it. In fact, the more he tries, the worse things get. So he has to accept what God says. In fact, Paul says that he realizes that with this law of sin in his flesh it is no longer he that is doing it, it is the law of sin in him. That is summarizing everything that God is trying to teach us.
Now hopefully that’s how God looks at us. That it is true. When I stand before Him and I go, “Lord, I am so sorry. Oh, just the other day.” And He looks at me and says, “That was not you.”
“No? Oh! That was the other guy. Yeah, I knew it was his fault.”
“No. That was your flesh that had you surrounded. See, I look at you differently than you look at yourself. I left you in that struggle so that you could believe what I did for you by faith.”
That is how He looks at us. That is what He has done for us.
That is why it is so powerful to share with others. Christianity is not a holier than thou religious system. It is telling people that Jesus Christ died for my sin, the penalty for my sin. And He died to separate me from the power of sin. Though there is still sin in my flesh, I have been set free. It is all around me and bugs me and pulls on me and tugs on me, so that I will not live according to the flesh, but totally by the inner man where Christ dwells, putting no confidence in the flesh.
Let’s close with prayer.
