All Roads Lead to Romans
January 4, 2015 :: Romans 6:1-14
Today, I want to pick up where we left off in our ongoing series “All Roads Lead to Romans,” but it’s been a whole month since we were in Romans together, so it may be difficult to just jump right in without a review.
On the other hand, we’ve seen so much in the first 5 chapters, it’s difficult to summarize all of it. I thought about preaching a message today just on “what we’ve learned so far in Romans.” I could easily fill up a whole sermon time just on that.
In the first chapter, the apostle Paul lays out his desire to share the gospel deeply with the believers in Rome. Some of the believers in Rome are Jews and some are Gentiles. And there is some tension between those two groups. But the gospel is for both of them, and Paul is not ashamed of it.
Paul said (say it with me), “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
This letter is the fullest statement in the Bible of Paul’s understanding of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
And the good news begins with...what?
The bad news, right?
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness...”
We are bad, and God is mad.
And, even worse news, this problem of unrighteousness is universal. The bad people are bad, and the good people are not really good. They are also bad. (Read chapter 2)
And, the worst news? We cannot work ourselves out of our problem. Left to ourselves, we will all perish.
Say it with me: “...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...” Romans 3:23
That’s the bad news.
But the gospel is good news.
Paul said in Romans 1:17: “...in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith.”
God has solved our righteousness problem.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...(say it with me), “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Justified!
That’s been the biggest word to enter our vocabulary last Fall.
Justification by ... what?
By faith! Not by works.
“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
Father Abraham (Rom 4) believed and it was credited to him righteousness.
And it’s the same for us!
God justifies the ungodly. The unrighteous are declared righteous by God’s grace.
Do you remember that?
That’s a dangerous thing to believe.
But it comes with incredible blessings.
Romans chapter 5 was full of the blessings of justification.
We couldn’t hardly wrap our minds around them. Peace, grace, hope, love, salvation, and God Himself.
All flowing to those who have faith. Not to those who clean up their act, but to those who believe in Jesus.
The last part of chapter 5 went even further to describe those blessings. It contrasted Adam and Christ, the two heads of humanity.
Do you remember this?
What it meant to be in Adam and–how much more–it meant to be in Christ.
And the list was a-maz-ing!
Super-overflowing grace, super-effective justification, super living reign forever, and super-increasing grace.
Romans 5:20. “...where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Now, that gets us caught up, and it paves the way for the question that Paul is going to start chapter 6 with.
Paul is anticipating and answering a potential objection to his gospel of grace. Chapter 6, verse 1.
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
It’s a new year.
And with the new year often comes near year’s resolutions.
How many have made a new year’s resolution for 2015?
How many are not making a new year’s resolution for 2015?
How many have already broken their new year’s resolution for 2015?
There’s something about the beginning of a new year where many of us feel compelled to try to recreate ourselves.
To make a new person of ourselves. A New You.
The marketing whizzes out there try to sell that to us.
“If you join our gym, there will be a new you.”
“Give us 6 months on this diet, and you will become a new person.”
“Open this account, and there will be a new and better financial you in 2015.”
A New You.
And that sounds good, but it often does not pan out the way it was being sold to us.
This section of the book of Romans, however, is also about a new you, but it’s completely true and trustworthy.
And it’s not about a new you for 2015. It’s about a new you forever.
And how the fact of that new you will change your life in 2015 and forever.
I said a minute ago that the gospel of grace is a dangerous thing to believe.
That we are saved and declared righteous not by becoming righteous, by doing good works, by obeying the law, by being a good person, but through faith alone in Christ alone. Just by believing in Jesus.
That could be dangerous.
Paul’s enemies sure thought that it was.
Some of them were doubtlessly saying, “Well, if that’s true then we should just sin some more.”
If God’s grace (Romans 5:20) kept increasing no matter how bad sin got, then maybe we ought to just sin some more so that grace may get even awesomemer!
I told you a couple of weeks ago about a guy who said directly to me, “Jesus died so that we can sin.”
That’s the question that Paul is asking.
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
Doesn’t this good news thing sound just a little too good to be true?
“Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
How would you answer that?
Some of us might say, “Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t say it that way or out loud, but I’ve gotten a little complacent about sin.”
Jesus died for my sin, and I trust that.
So, yeah, I’m planning to just go on sinning.
It’s kind of working for me. I sin, God forgives. What a deal!
He just looks better and better as He forgives me again and again.”
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
Paul says (v.2), “By no means!”
That’s unthinkable! That’s crazy talk!
The Greek word here is again, “May genoita.” Seriously?! No way.
“By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
We can’t. It’s unthinkable. Everything has changed.
We can’t go on sinning so that grace may increase! It’s the exact opposite. Because of grace, we’ve got to stop sinning.
Why?
Because we died.
The first new you that we discover in Romans chapter 6 is a dead you.
#1. DEAD YOU.
Are you surprised to find out that you died?
Probably not what you expected to hear at church on the first Sunday of 2015.
Unless you were reading ahead.
You died.
Verse 2 says that we who are believers in Jesus died to sin.
That’s to the penalty and power of sin.
Our relationship with sin has gone through a major transformation.
Because we died to it.
Now, when did that happen?
We did you and I die? V.3
“Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”
Paul believes that his readers all should know this.
When they were baptized into Christ Jesus, they were baptized into Christ’s death.
And I believe that he means their spiritual baptism (their incorporation into the body of Christ) illustrated by their water baptism, the outward sign of that inward reality.
I don’t think that he means, literally, that their getting baptized in water would spiritually connect them with the death of Christ.
But that spiritually, they were baptized, incorporated into Christ by faith, and that was the very thing that their water baptism symbolized.
This is the only place in Romans where baptism is mentioned, and I don’t think that Paul is trying to sneak in salvation by water baptism here. He believes in justification by faith, not justification by baptism.
But baptism stands for faith. And water baptism is a declaration of faith.
So, when you or I became a Christian, put our faith in Christ (which our water baptisms symbolizes), that’s when we died.
Dead You and Dead Me.
Why is that good news?
Because of the second new you in this passage:
#2. RISEN YOU. V.4
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
There it is. A New You.
Not a new you for 2015, but a new you forever.
To “live a new life.” Literally, “to walk in newness of life.”
Why? Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection. V.5
“If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”
To be resurrected, you have to die first.
And so, when Christ died, we died.
We are united with Christ. Union with Christ is so precious.
Because if “we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”
We died with Christ, we are made alive in Christ and someday will rise from the dead and have a new body like His glorious risen body.
Now, again, why is that important?
I, mean, besides the fact that we’ll live forever in new bodies?!
What does that have to do with the question of v.1 and remaining in sin? V.6
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin–because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”
That’s really important.
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him...” That’s Dead You.
You were crucified with Christ. Not physically, but spiritually and forensically, that is, legally.
Because you are united to Christ by faith, you were counted as crucified with Christ.
He went through it, but you were united to Him in it.
Why?
“...so that the body of sin might be done away with...”
Now, that’s a hard phrase to interpret. There a couple of different things you could think that it means. One might be that it means “the great mass of your sins” (a body of sin), but that’s not the way that Paul normally uses the word “soma” or body.
It might mean the physical body as the place where sin dwells. And “done away with” would mean destroy to be replaced with a resurrection body.
I tend to think it basically means the body as a helpless tool of sin.
And “done away with” or the Greek word “katargathay” means here to nullify or render ineffective.
The point of the verse is where it ends up, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin...”
Here’s the third and last new you in this passage.
#3. FREED YOU.
Emancipated you. V.6 again, “that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”
Doesn’t that sound good?
You were united with Christ in His death and resurrection so that you could be freed from the penalty and power of sin.
How do we know that this is true? V.7
“...because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”
Literally–has been justified from sin.
Death severs sin’s hold.
Let’s say that I murdered someone, and I went to prison for it, and then one day I got executed for it.
I’m lying there on the table, lethal injection, and I die.
At that moment, could I be tried and executed again for that crime?
No, I would be justified from it.
I would have paid my debt for that crime.
I would be freed from that crime with my death as far as our legal system is concerned.
Do you see how that works?
And I would never do that crime again. I would be dead to that sin. It would have no power over me. I would not have to obey it.
Do you see how that works?
Now, you died with Christ. You were crucified with Christ.
And when that happened, your sins were paid for. They are no longer yours.
“Anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”
The penalty and the tyranny of sin.
And hear how powerful Christ’s death and resurrection are. V.8
“Now if we died with Christ [and we did!], we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. [No lordship. Christ only submitted to death once and will never submit again for all eternity!] The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”
This is glorious stuff, and I know that I’m really doing it justice in trying to explain it.
Do you see how all three of the new you’s are in here?
“Now if we died with Christ [Dead You], we believe that we will also live with him [Raised You]. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”
So that’s Freed You.
Because you and I are united with Christ, we have died, we will rise, and we are freed.
How did Jesus die to sin? He never sinned. But He was tempted.
And when He died FOR sin, He died TO sin once for all.
And we are united to Him!
So the life He lives is a perfect one, a righteous one, a life to God.
And that’s our life now!
A New You.
That’s who you and I are now.
We are in Christ.
We have died, we will rise, and we have been freed!
Amen?
But it doesn’t always feel that way.
You see, even though it’s a spiritual reality, and even though it’s true, true-true, it doesn’t always seem that way.
Because we live right now in the time between times.
We live in the already but not yet.
We live in a time when sin remains even if sin does not reign.
We live in a time when sin is still resident even if sin is not still president.
We have been saved from the penalty of sin and the power of sin has been broken by that, but we still have the presence of sin.
Until the resurrection, sin is still hanging around. It is still in us and tempting us from within and trying to exert its old power over us.
Sin is still trying to call the shots.
And it’s easy for us to think that we still have to obey.
That’s one of the big reasons why our new year’s resolutions fail.
Because we let sin continue to exert power over us.
We say, “Yes, master,” when it beckons.
We grow complacent and say, “I’m glad that God is forgiving this” as we commit sin.
Or we try on our own to defeat sin and change ourselves in our own power.
As if nothing decisive has happened in our justification and union with Christ.
We act like we’re on our own not joined to Jesus.
But we are in Christ.
We have died, we will rise, and we have been freed!
And that makes all the difference.
Two points of application as Paul closes this section:
#1. COUNT YOURSELF ALIVE TO GOD. V.11
“In the same way [as Jesus lives to God], count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
That’s an mindset. That’s a telling yourself the truth kind of thing.
Reckon like this.
Think about yourself this way.
Remind yourself of the truth.
Preach to your heart.
You are dead to sin but alive to God IN CHRIST JESUS.
That’s the key. If you are in Christ Jesus, you have died, you will rise, and you are freed from the penalty and power of sin.
Maybe every day this year, you should say that to yourself.
“I have died. I will rise. I have been freed from sin. I am alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Count on it!
Too often we listen to our hearts instead of talking to our hearts.
Tell your heart this in 2015.
“I have died. I will rise. I have been freed from sin. I am alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
#2. OFFER YOURSELF TO LIVE FOR GOD.
You are alive to God, so live like it. V.12
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life [because that’s who you are!]; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments [literally: weapons] of righteousness. For [here’s the promise] sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”
Live like it.
That last verse is a surprise because he hasn’t mentioned the last since the last chapter. And it will take a couple more messages to get more into that idea.
But you can see that it’s a promise. Sin shall not be your master.
So, don’t live like it is.
Live like a freeman. Live like a freewoman.
Don’t let sin reign. Offer yourself and your body parts and all that you are to God and live for God. Live for righteousness.
So, “No” to sin. It’s not your master any longer.
Say, “Yes” to God. He is your master now.
That’s what we’re going to see next week.
Offer yourself to live for God.
And fulfill what verse 4 said that Christ had died and risen for. So that you and I can walk in newness of life.
A new you in Christ Jesus.
***
Messages in this Series
01. All Roads Lead to Romans
02. I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel
03. The Bad News
04. Hope for Holy Sexuality
05. The Even Worse News
06. The Worst News
07. Justified
08. Father Abraham
09. The Blessings of Justification
10. How Much More
11. New You
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