Romans Chapter 6
Believers Are Dead to Sin
and Are a New Creation in Christ

 

Throughout the first five chapters of Romans, Paul has been stressing the dire situation of mankind and the inevitable doom that people face because of their sin. Paul has been describing for us the rebellious nature of human beings against a holy God, their love of their own sinfulness, and their refusal to understand and recognize the God that has been clearly revealed to them both inwardly and outwardly.

Then, in response to this seemingly hopeless condition of human beings, Paul goes on to present to us the wonderful forgiving mercy and grace of God. The mercy and grace that reach down to these unworthy people and offer to them a full pardon through the perfect and finished work of Jesus Christ. The work of Christ in regard to humanity is so full, so thorough, so complete, so merciful, so gracious, so comprehensive, so abundant, and so magnanimous that it was summed up by Paul in the last two verses of chapter five, Romans 5:20,21:

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant.

We see God’s enormous love in verse 20. The greater the sin was, the greater the grace was to cover sin. Great is humankind’s sinfulness, but infinitely greater is God’s forgiving grace.

Now we have talked about the sin of mankind and we have talked about God’s salvation. We are now going to talk about a believer’s holiness. Now that the sinner has been taken from sin to salvation, what kind of a change takes place in that person? That will be the subject of chapters six through eight. Paul introduces the discussion by raising a question that inevitably comes up at this point. That inevitable question comes up in Romans 6:1:

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness?

This is oh so true concerning the nature of people, that they would think they have found a way to make God look good by continuing in their sin? The thinking goes something like this:

“If more sin generates more grace from God, should we just then continue on sinning now that we have been saved, and sin even more so God can be even more gracious seeing that He gets such a thrill out of grace?”

To put it another way, someone might say:

“Paul, your doctrine here provides a great deal of freedom. This idea that salvation is simply and only by grace through faith, without works, and that the greater the sin the greater the grace, leads to a viewpoint that provides too much freedom. In fact it sounds like a view of freedom gone bezerk. It leads to a person saying: ‘Well, if the more the sin the more the grace, man I am just going to sin like crazy day and night so God can get all kinds of glory by dispensing grace.’”

This is the way Paul moves into the section on sanctification, which describes how a believer develops the qualities of holiness. As we move into chapter 6, Paul is going to show us that the true Gospel of grace does not lead to just sinning like mad because you are going to be alright anyway. We believe you will soon come to realize this is a pretty sick way of interpreting the Gospel message. Paul will show us that if a person is truly saved, that salvation will lead to a holy life. People who are truly saved do not need to be controlled externally because there is planted within them a control principle by virtue of their new nature, the new life, which is under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Romans deal with how a person gets saved, the process called justification. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 deal with how you behave after you get saved, the process called sanctification. And we will see that the two processes, justification and sanctification, are linked together. Holiness is as much a gift from God to the believer as is salvation.

When a person is saved, it is not simply a divine transaction but a divine miracle of transformation. God does not just say, “Now you’re saved.”

That is why we believe for the most part the Church in America is an unregenerate, unredeemed, Godless, Christless, Hell-bound Church, because you do not see any holiness displayed within much of it or the people that go there.

In verse 1 of chapter six, we find what might be classified as an antagonistic statement. Paul has been accused many times of preaching a gospel of grace that is opposed to the Jewish laws. This was no little matter to the Jewish people. In fact, it might help to take a look at just how seriously they took it by reading from Acts 21:27-36 NLT:

27 The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him,
28 yelling, “Men of Israel! Help! This is the man who teaches against our people and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the Temple—and he even defiles it by bringing Gentiles in!”
29 (For earlier that day they had seen him in the city with Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, and they assumed Paul had taken him into the Temple.)
30 The whole population of the city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him.
31 As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
32 He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul.
33 The commander arrested him and ordered him bound with two chains. Then he asked the crowd who he was and what he had done.
34 Some shouted one thing and some another. He couldn’t find out the truth in all the uproar and confusion, so he ordered Paul to be taken to the fortress.
35 As they reached the stairs, the mob grew so violent the soldiers had to lift Paul to their shoulders to protect him.
36 And the crowd followed behind shouting, “Kill him, kill him!”

Paul wants to show people that there is no need to impose law on people. The Judaizers, those who wanted others to know that people are saved only when they conform to Jewish laws and customs, wanted to do just that. When they heard this teaching about being able to enter God’s kingdom by grace alone, they could not handle that. So they said, “No, you must be circumcised and you must keep all the laws that God gave Moses if you want to get into the kingdom.” They believed that if people thought they could be saved and get into Heaven by pure grace, they would sin till they dropped.

We still have this kind of thinking going on today. People think you have to have a list of different rules in order to be spiritual. It goes on in churches and in Christian schools where people think they can force spirituality down the throats of others by expecting them to obey the rules that are going to force them into a certain Christian mold. That just simply is not the way one enters into the Kingdom of God. We believe this is a good time
to turn to the book of Jude and read what Jude writes in Jude 1-25 NLT

1 This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. I am writing to all who are called to live in the love of God the Father and the care of Jesus Christ.
2 May you receive more and more of God’s mercy, peace, and love.
3 Dearly loved friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the truth of the Good News. God gave this unchanging truth once for all time to his holy people.
4 I say this because some godless people have wormed their way in among you, saying that God’s forgiveness allows us to live immoral lives. The fate of such people was determined long ago, for they have turned against our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 I must remind you—and you know it well—that even though the Lord rescued the whole nation of Israel from Egypt, he later destroyed every one of those who did not remain faithful.
6 And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the day of judgment.
7 And don’t forget the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with sexual immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and are a warning of the eternal fire that will punish all who are evil.
8 Yet these false teachers, who claim authority from their dreams, live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at the power of the glorious ones.

10 But these people mock and curse the things they do not understand. Like animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and they bring about their own destruction.
11 How terrible it will be for them! For they follow the evil example of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they will do anything for money. And like Korah, they will perish because of their rebellion.
12 When these people join you in fellowship meals celebrating the love of the Lord, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are shameless in the way they care only about themselves. They are like clouds blowing over dry land without giving rain, promising much but producing nothing. They are like trees without fruit at harvest time. They are not only dead but doubly dead, for they have been pulled out by the roots.
13 They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the dirty foam of their shameful deeds. They are wandering stars, heading for everlasting gloom and darkness.
14 Now Enoch who lived seven generations after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Look, the Lord is coming with thousands of his holy ones.

16 These people are grumblers and complainers, doing whatever evil they feel like. They are loudmouthed braggarts, and they flatter others to get favors in return.
17 But you, my dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you,

19 Now they are here, and they are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They live by natural instinct because they do not have God’s Spirit living in them.
20 But you, dear friends, must continue to build your lives on the foundation of your holy faith. And continue to pray as you are directed by the Holy Spirit.
21 Live in such a way that God’s love can bless you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you.
22 Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.
23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. There are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren’t contaminated by their sins.
24 And now, all glory to God, who is able to keep you from stumbling, and who will bring you into his glorious presence innocent of sin and with great joy.
25 All glory to him, who alone is God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, glory, majesty, power, and authority belong to him, in the beginning, now, and forevermore. Amen.

So Paul is facing a violent group of Jews who are telling him that he cannot teach this Gospel of grace because people will go wild and such teaching is in direct opposition to God’s Law. Then, on the other hand, you have the Libertines who are saying, “Teach it, Paul! We love every minute of it and believe that we should use God’s grace to sin all over the place, and in that way He’ll be able to display His grace more, and we’ll be the source of giving Him glory.” Both groups give clear evidence that they themselves have never been saved.

What Romans 6:1 is saying is this:

 “Shall we who have been saved by grace habitually sustain the same relationship to sin that we had before we were saved? Shall we go on with that same relationship where sin had full control and we yielded fully to it? Are we going to pursue that same life of sin? Can a person be saved and continue going on in the same life pattern they had before they were saved? Can there be justification without sanctification? Can a person be truly saved and not truly changed?”

Some in our Christian community would say yes. They claim that if you have ever simply asked Jesus into your heart you will be saved no matter how you live your life. In other words they are saying that justification can exist without sanctification. I think Paul makes the answer to that pretty clear in Romans 6:2. In verse 1 Paul asks: “Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness?” Then in Romans 6:2 NLT Paul gives us the answer:

Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

The very suggestion of such a thing is repulsive to Paul. The suggestion that a Christian who has come to faith in Christ could willfully continue in sinful behavior is not only repulsive, it is impossible. We like the comment that Dr. Donald Barnhouse made, and I quote: “Holiness starts where justification finishes. And if holiness does not start, you have the right to suspect that justification (being saved) never started either.” You cannot maintain the same relationship you had to sin before if you have truly accepted Christ as your Savior because the Holy spirit of God comes to live in you when you make that commitment. Also, when you make that commitment, we have learned that you die to sin (2 Corinthians 5:14).[fn]             

Now death and life cannot be compatible, can they? You cannot be dead and alive at the same time, can you? Some of us can be alive and look dead, but that is a subject for another discussion. The simple fact is that you cannot be dead and alive at the same time. Can we all agree with that? So it is not possible for a Christian to be living in sin when they have died to it. If a person embraces and enjoys living in sin, it is simply not possible that they are a true Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ. John made this very clear in 1 John 1:5-7 and 2:1-6 NLT:

This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth.
7 But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.

1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely.
2 He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
3 And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By obeying his commandments.
4 If someone says, “I belong to God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth.
5 But those who obey God’s word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him.
6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did.

A believer, one who has received salvation through a saving faith in Jesus Christ, no longer lives in Sin City. They have moved, they have changed their address, because they can no longer live in that environment. Their new nature as a follower of Jesus creates within them a desire to live a sinless life. They will not always succeed, but the desire is there, a desire that was not there before they were saved. Living where they lived before would make them feel very guilty.

Now before we go any further and before someone jumps all over us, let us make it clear that we are not suggesting that Christians never sin. The point that is being made here is that true Christians have died to sin and no longer live with the desire to sin that they once had. Listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 NLT:

Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live.
15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.
16 So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!

We were once slaves to sin and then decided to become slaves to a new master, Jesus Christ. We therefore died to a life of sin and were reborn into a life of righteousness. We used to take pleasure in our sin, now we find our pleasure in righteousness and sin makes us very uncomfortable. You might be wondering, “What’s the end result of all of this? What’s in it for me?” Paul tells us in Colossians 3:1-5 NLT:

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power.
2 Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.
3 For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 And when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry.

Romans 6:3 continues to expand on what we have heard in verses one and two. Paul continues:

Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him?

Do you know what a true Christian is? A Christian is not just merely a person who has been declared righteous and then chooses to do as they please. When one truly believes in Jesus, they are brought into a living, intimate union with Jesus Christ. Salvation does not occur when God deletes your record of sin from His computer and replaces it with a file entitled “SAVED.” Salvation occurs when your life is fused with the life of Jesus. You are immersed, or as verse 3 says, baptized into Jesus Christ. That is true salvation. To be immersed or baptized into Jesus Christ means we are involved in all that God is doing in the life of Jesus. Paul is not talking about a baptism involving water here, but a spiritual baptism, an immersion, a fusing, a joining, a bonding with the very life of Jesus Christ. We further see in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that when we ourselves are immersed into the life of Christ, we are therefore immersed into the lives of all the other Christians and therefore become united together as one body, a body controlled by the Holy Spirit, who is Christ living within us. That one body of believers, guided by the Holy Spirit to be righteous and do good works, is what the Church was meant to be. It was never meant to be a religious social club, or a collection of people who use the church and the name of Christ to satisfy their own greedy and selfish desires. 1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT reads:

1 Corinthians 6:17 reads:

So when you become a Christian, you become one with Christ. When you are saved, Jesus Christ is poured into you and fills you up. It is as if you and Jesus are two glasses of liquid, and you are poured into Jesus’ glass. He, therefore, fills every part of you and you become an inseparable part of Him. Have you ever heard the phrase, “The Holy Spirit is poured out?” or “They were filled with the Holy Spirit?” What an incredible concept, and if you do not quite understand it, take heart, no human being can understand it because it is too far above our capacity for understanding. But God understands it and as we have learned earlier, there are just some things we need to accept because we have faith and trust in Him. Paul writes in Colossians 2:8-14 NLT:

Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ.
9 For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body,
10 and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe.
11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. It was a spiritual procedure—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
12 For you were buried with Christ when you were (spiritually)[fn] baptized. And with him you were raised to a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins.

Then Paul gives us all a sense of the reality of our fusion with Christ when in 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 NLT:

15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!
16 And don’t you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”
17 But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

When a believer does something like what was just described, they are in effect joining Christ to the prostitute because, as we have learned, we are one with Christ and anything we do involves Christ. Now, just a few more passages to make sure we understand this bonding that we have with Jesus. First Ephesians 2:4-6 NLT, where Paul writes:

4 God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much,
5 that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!)
6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus.

Revelation 3:21 NLT:
I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.

Titus 3:1-9 NLT:
Remind your people to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good.
2 They must not speak evil of anyone, and they must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.
3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled by others and became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy. We hated others, and they hated us.
4 But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love.

6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.
7 He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.
8 These things I have told you are all true. I want you to insist on them so that everyone who trusts in God will be careful to do good deeds all the time. These things are good and beneficial for everyone.

Salvation leads you out of a life that is a slave to sin and makes available to you the power of the divine nature of Jesus. The first thing that happens to you when you are saved is that you attend your own funeral. That is where it all begins; you die to sin. So let us continue in Romans 6:4:

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  (NLT)

What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!

John Newton once said, “I am not what I ought to be, but I am sure not what I was.” The believer’s holy life follows as a direct result of their death to sin and resurrection to a new life. Their new life is one in which righteousness now becomes the norm for behavior. Whereas in the past, sin was the norm for behavior. Sin will still crop up now and then, however, and we will find out why when we get to chapter 7. Listen to the way this new life is described by various writers throughout the Bible:

• Ezekiel 18 calls it “A new spirit.”
• 2 Corinthians 5 calls it “A new creation.”
• Galatians 6 calls it, “A new Creature.”
• Ephesians 4 calls it, “ A new man/woman.”
• Revelation 2:17 says, “A new name.”
• Psalm 40, “A new song.”

 

We walk in newness of life. The Greek word used for “walk” in Romans 6:4 means “daily spiritual conduct.” So we now have a new way of living each day, a way of living that is capable of goodness and joy; rather than selfishness and unhappiness. Paul affirms this reality in Romans 6:5:

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.

Having been joined together with Christ in His death through our faith in what He did, we were therefore still joined with Him when He rose from the grave, and we are joined to Him now through the Holy Spirit, and we will join Him personally in Heaven when we die, and we will then spend eternity with Him in Heaven. There need be no fear of death if you are a believer because the instant you die you will be in Heaven with Jesus. What kind of people are we when we become one with Christ in our salvation? Before we answer that, let us look at Ephesians 2:6-10 NLT:

For God raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus.
7 And so God can always point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us through Christ Jesus.

9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

You do not get saved by doing good works, You get saved to do good works. It is a marvelous concept. A Christian is a brand new person. You become something you never were before. It is not something that has been added, it is a complete transformation. Becoming a Christian is not getting something new. Becoming a Christian is to become someone new. It means we have died to sin in our new nature. Sin is no longer the dominant power in our lives. If you consider yourself a Christian and do not feel that you are different than what you once were, you might want to examine yourself to be certain your commitment to Jesus was real. That does not mean that you are not saved if you are still sinning, but that sin should be causing you a great deal of remorse and guilt if you know you are not doing all that you can to eliminate it through the power God makes available to you.

The name John Newton may be familiar to some of you. After being educated in England, John ran away to sea early in his life and eventually ended up in Africa. In kind of a role reversal he was sold as a slave to a black woman. He lived on the crumbs from her table and yams that he dug from the ground at night. His clothing consisted of a single shirt which he washed periodically in the ocean. When he finally escaped he went to the natives and lived very much like an animal. It seems hard to believe that a civilized and educated man like John Newton could have sunk to such a low level. But the power of God reached down to John Newton in that situation through a missionary in Africa. Perhaps John Newton cried out to God in despair as many of us do, and God responded by putting him in touch with this missionary in Africa.

John eventually became a sea captain and later on in his life he became an ordained minister. He wrote many marvelous hymns, the most famous probably is “Amazing Grace.” He became the pastor of a church in London and there is still an epitaph in that church yard where John was the pastor, an epitaph which John wrote himself. It reads as follows:

“Sacred to the memory of John Newton. Once a libertine (one who lives an unrestrained immoral life) and a blasphemer and slave of slaves in Africa; but renewed, purified, pardoned and appointed to preach the Gospel which he had labored at one time to destroy.”[fn]

Are you having a hard time of it in your life? I bet you are probably not in as bad a way as John Newton was at the lowest point in his life. And even if you are, look what happened to him when he placed his complete faith and trust in Christ. What changes a life like that? How does it happen that the apostle Paul can himself say in 1 Timothy 1:12-17 NLT:

How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for considering me trustworthy and appointing me to serve him,

14 Oh, how kind and gracious the Lord was! He filled me completely with faith and the love of Christ Jesus.
15 This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I was the worst of them all.
16 But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.
17 Glory and honor to God forever and ever. He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.

Paul is speaking here of how Christ used him as an example. Paul was a sinner first class. He was a mass murderer of Christians and committed any number of vile sins. Yet in spite of all that Paul had been, Christ placed him in the ministry just as he did John Newton, and just as he has done with me, and yes you could be next. It does not matter what you have been like or what you have done in the past. Once you become a new creation in Christ, Christ can use you to do things you never before thought yourself capable of accomplishing. If you are not familiar with the passage we are about to give you, I would encourage you to copy it and place it on your bathroom mirror for at least a few weeks so that you can be reminded of it several times each day. It comes from Galatians 2:16-20 NLT:

As we move on now to Romans 6:6-7, Paul tells us how our body of sin is destroyed:

In verse 6 we see that our old self was crucified with Christ. That means that our old self is dead, it is not just wounded. Ephesians 4:17-32 NLT tells us:

With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused.
18 Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him.
19 They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.
20 But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ.
21 Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus,

23 Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.

25 So put away all falsehood and “tell your neighbor the truth” because we belong to each other.

28 If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need.
29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

The old self is your former manner of life, your former way of living. The new self is like Jesus. We have looked at part of this passage before, but it applies again here. 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 NLT:

Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live.
15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.
16 So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!

18 All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him.
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.
20 We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, “Be reconciled to God!”

We are a new creation that is not yet perfect. There is a radical difference that should be noticed by our circle of acquaintances and family as well as new people we meet. So when someone comes along claiming to be a Christian and they gossip, take advantage of others for their own personal gain, act as if life is all about them, are selective in who they want in their church, are accepting of beliefs that are forbidden in Scripture, such as homosexuality and abortion, these people do not exhibit the qualities of a life that has been joined with Christ. Where there is no evidence of such a union, there is very likely no salvation. I am quite concerned that this condition is altogether too prevalent in most churches today. I would even go so far as to suggest that most people never hear the message of salvation in the churches they attend.

Now let us take a close look at the phrase in Romans 6:6 that says “Our body of sin is done away with.” Before a person is saved their body is totally controlled by the sinful nature. So because of our union in Christ’s death, the body of the believer is no longer in the possession of sin. It is no longer controlled and dominated by sin according to 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 NLT:

Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Let us jump ahead a few verses to Romans 6:16:

Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.

When you ask Christ into your life, you get a new King and Master. Jesus replaces Satan and this allows you to choose righteousness instead of self-will. In your own strength this is impossible but by yielding to the Holy Spirit, that is, letting the Holy Spirit control you instead of your own thoughts and desires, you can then choose to walk God’s way. Galatians 5:24 does a good job of summarizing all of this:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

The sinful nature has been killed in terms of its dominance, not necessarily in terms of its presence. A man by the name of Martin Jones came up with the following illustration to which I have added my own personal touch.

“There were two fields with a little road running down the middle of them and separating them. All of his life, before he knew Christ, this man named Ron lived in the field on the south side of the road. This field was ruled by Satan, and Ron served this master faithfully. He allowed Satan to dominate him, dictate to him, and tell him what to do. His humanness, his flesh, and his body were therefore used for sin.

“And then one day, by the grace of God, someone called to him from the field on the north side of the road, the field that was under the dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore controlled by righteousness and holiness which reflected the nature of the field’s Ruler. Again, by the grace of God, Ron responded to the call and crossed over to the other field with Satan hanging on to his coattails trying to pull him back. But when he entered the new field, Satan had to reluctantly let go as Ron was transformed, no longer wanting to serve Satan but Christ.

“But Satan never gives up easily and at various times Ron would hear Satan calling to him from across the road, telling him how much pleasure he would have if he only would come back to Satan’s field. And although Ron was no longer under Satan’s dominion, Satan in his own clever and devious way made Ron think that maybe it would be fun to just visit Satan’s field occasionally for a good time. But whenever he did that, he realized immediately the terrible mistake he had made and rushed back to the field of His Lord and Savior, Jesus. After a while, although he was still tempted to listen to Satan’s call, Ron learned that Satan did not care a lick about him and all that he wanted to do was snatch people away from Christ so he could destroy them and weaken the Kingdom of God. So when Ron was tempted again by Satan’s call, He called out to his Lord Jesus and Jesus told him just how to resist the temptation”

Although sin no longer dominates us as Christians, we can fall victim to that very thing from which we have been delivered. Then as Paul moves on to Romans 6:8-10, we find that:

8 Since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life.
9 We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
10 He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God.  (NLT)

Now in verse 8 we have the same idea that we found in verse 3 and verse 5. We have died with Christ and now have risen in new life with Christ. We participate in the same holy life that Jesus lives, now and forever. Then in verse 9, building on the same thought, we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death has no more control over Him. Consequently it has no more control over those of us who have been joined to Christ by faith. We know this because verse 9 says that Christ is never going to die again. God raised Jesus from the dead and in so doing demonstrated that the power of sin and death, had been defeated. When Christ defeated death He conquered sin and this was a final victory to which nothing else needed to be added. Almost takes your breath away does it not?

And then verse 10 confirms that Christ died once and it was a death that will require no repetition because death has no more power. Jesus has broken that power and that was a very important principle to the Jews of the day because under the old sacrificial system they would have to  sacrifice animals repeatedly to cover their sin. But Jesus who is the Lamb of God was the perfect sacrifice once and for all. And because Jesus died once and came out of the grave breaking the power of sin, those who believe in Him and are placed with Him in His death and resurrection, have also broken the power of sin permanently. It will never lay claim on them again. It will never be their master.

Verse 10 tells us that Jesus died to sin. Verse 2 told us that believers died to sin. What is the connection? Whatever it means for Jesus it means for us. It means that Jesus died to the penalty for sin. Romans 6:23 says that “The wages of sin is death.”Death, therefore, is the penalty for being a sinner. When Jesus died on the cross, He died to sin in terms of paying the penalty for sin. Jesus paid the penalty and met the demand of sin. God said in Genesis 2 :17: “You sin, you die.” Jesus said, “I’ll take the penalty of death for everybody.” So He died to sin once in paying the penalty of sin for everyone ever born.

When we died in Christ, our penalty was paid also. That is why sin has no more power over us in terms of being penalized for the sins we have committed. That is why a believer does not have to go to Hell to pay for their sins. They have already been paid for. The wages (which means what you deserve to get) for your sin is your death, and when you believe in Jesus as your Savior, you died in Jesus who had paid that penalty. Consequently the penalty for your sin was paid by Him and that is why sin has no further claim on you. So when it says in verse 2 that we died to sin and in verse 10 that Jesus died to sin, we come together. Both of us can die to sin together in the sense of paying the penalty for sin. There is only one way for you to deal with your sin; you must die.

Now there is one more thing we have to cover here. Jesus not only died to the penalty of sin, but He died to the power of sin. You might say, “Wait a minute, was Jesus under the power of sin?” Absolutely. He bore our sins in His own body. In fact in 2 Corinthians 5:21, we read:

Jesus was temporarily under the power of sin in a manner beyond our ability to understand. Imagine Jesus on the cross with all the weight of all the sin of all the people who ever lived throughout history heaped upon Him. He was under the power of sin and it killed Him. We need to clearly understand that Jesus was God and without sin. He did not have to die. He could have hung there on the cross for as long as He wanted to, and the Romans could have pierced His body with spears all day long and He would not have died. The reason that Jesus died was that He took all the sin of all time upon Himself and paid for it with His death. It was that sin that caused His death.

So let us take a look at this new person and what they can become. Paul sketches this process called sanctification beginning in Romans 6:11 NLT:

So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.

Having risen from the dead and being dead to sin, the believer is now ready to move on. But it is not always easy as Paul tells us in Romans 7:15-20 NLT:

15 I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.
16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong.
17 But I cannot help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.
18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I cannot make myself do right. I want to, but I cannot.

20 But if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it.

Paul is telling us that he has a desire to do what is right, he has a desire to see victory in his life, and he has a desire to do those things that please God. Here we see a man who is struggling with sin, but who really wants to stop doing those things that make him miserable. How can one achieve this goal? How does one put off things that should not be in their lives?

Well, this is the moment that we need to introduce the word “knowledge” to our discussion. It is basic to the principle of the Word of God that people first have to know what is true before they can put it into practice. The book of Hosea tells us that the people were destroyed because of a lack of knowledge, Hosea 4:6, NLT:

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.

Hosea 6:6. NLT
I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that is more important than burnt offerings.

In other words, God does not want our sacrifices; He wants us to know, really know, Him. He says that is far more important than trying to show Him, or anyone else for that matter, how good we are. In this context the word know means to acquire information through your mind and pass it down to your heart so that you can make it happen. What kind of information do we acquire about God and how do we get that knowledge? It is a knowledge of the character of God, a knowing of what God is like and how He works because we have had the experience of Him and His working in our lives. It is an experiential knowledge. That is not what is meant here at all. To know God is to know who He is and what He does in our lives. In other words, God is Jehovah-jireh, the God who provides. And we know that because He has provided His love and care for us. God is Jehovah-shalom (the God who is peace) and we know that because we have received His salvation and know that we have an everlasting peace with God.

We know that God is merciful because we are alive, we have been forgiven, and He uses us in His ministry, not because of who we are but because of who He is. God is patient, and we know that through experiencing His unending patience with our falling on our faces and His picking us up again and setting us on our feet. Much as a parent watches their 12-month-old begin to walk. The child takes a step and falls. What does the parent do? Exclaims how wonderful it is the child took one step, and then picks him or her up and encourages that child to take two steps. The child does so only to fall again. Patiently the parent picks the child up, sets him on his feet again, and holds arms out encouraging him to take some more steps. And so the process proceeds, trying, falling, being helped  up again, and then encouraged to keep trying until the child is finally walking and then running all over the place. Our Heavenly Father is that patient with us as we try to walk along the path He has for us.  We come to know that God is in control as we experience His work in our lives; saving, guiding, opening and closing doors, arranging circumstances to help us become what He wants us to be. We could preach a whole series of sermons on knowing God, and maybe we will someday.

Suffice it to say that what Hosea is talking about here is a long way from mere head knowledge; it is heart knowledge gained through the experience of God’s working in our lives.

Isaiah 1:2,3, NLT:
Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! This is what the Lord says: “The children I raised and cared for have turned against me.
3 Even the animals—the donkey and the ox—know their owner and appreciate his care, but not my people . . . No matter what I do for them, they still do not understand.”

They did not know so they could not function properly. You will never be able to please God without knowing what He wants you to do. We find the same thing in the New Testament, Philippians 4:6-8. NLT:

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
7 If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Colossians 3:5-10 NLT:

6 God’s terrible anger will come upon those who do such things.
7 You used to do them when your life was still part of this world.
8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.
9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds.
10 In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you.

In verse 5, where it refers to idolatry, you may blow that off thinking idolatry is something that happens in Africa or among primitive peoples. But no, folks, it happens to those of us in the good old USA too. Paul specifically here equates idolatry with being greedy for the good things of life. That includes materialism, but is not limited to it. Idolatry also happens any time we put ourselves above God. So when we want to be totally in charge of our life, that is idolatry because God wants to be in control of our life. God is to be Number One. We might get a better idea of what Paul is trying to convey in this passage if we consider the translation from The Message. As you listen, notice how strong the language and the images are:

Colossians 3:5-10, The Message
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. that is a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It was not long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you have stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete.

You cannot do what you do not know, so we begin by knowing. How many times do you hear someone say something like: “I don’t believe God would do that,” or “I don’t believe Jesus was really God,” or “The Bible is nothing more than a collection of mythological stories,” or “God wouldn’t send a good person to Hell. I do a lot of good things and have lived a good life for the most part, I am sure I’ll be OK.” Where do people get such confidence? People who say these things know very little if anything at all about the Bible. They do not know, really know as we were describing a few minutes ago, God. They do not have first-hand experience with the character of God. They therefore are basing all their knowledge on assumption, on what they want to believe, or what a neighbor or co-worker has suggested rather than on the facts. And if they do not change their attitude, what a shock awaits them at death. We must read and know the Bible before we can reach any conclusions, either for or against what it claims is the truth.

A believer needs to know as well. In order to function properly we need to know that the power of sin has been broken. We need to know that we do not have to fall victim to the power of sin in our lives. We need to know that sin cannot force us to do that which is against what we know God would want us to do. And how do we know that? By receiving Christ as our Savior and experiencing Him setting us free from the power of sin. Now once you know that, you are on your way to victory because it puts confidence in your heart. The doubt is gone and the fear is gone. You know you are dealing with a defeated enemy that no longer has control of you. All of this begins with knowing God‘s Word in the Bible, and with knowing God Himself.

The next thing we need to address is also found in Romans 6:11, and it is the word
“consider,” which is also translated “understand” in certain translations. What does it
mean to “consider” something? Well Webster says it means “to think about carefully: as
a : to think of especially with regard to taking some action.[fn]The Greek word used here is actually an accounting term: reckon.  If you are from down South you might say, “I reckon that would be so” when you want to affirm something. We could translate the word in this verse to mean “affirm.” First you come to know something is true, then you affirm, or conclude, or believe that it is true. You know it is true because the evidence proves that it is true, so then you believe it with all your heart. The accounting of the matter adds up to: Dead to sin = Live for the glory of God. So when verse 11 tells us:

So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus,

We should now be able to believe this because of all the evidence we have been given thus far in our study of Romans. You may find these things difficult to believe initially because they are so counter-culture. This is not what we are told on the TV news or talk shows. This concept is almost like a fairy tale to us, and we all know that fairy tales are interesting stories, but only fantasy. But you can believe it. The more you cling to it, and the better you understand the Bible, the more you know about the Bible, the easier it will be to accept the things the Bible teaches.

Now what does it mean when you affirm that you are really dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ? First of all it means that when we are tempted we can have confidence in the presence of the Holy Spirit who comes to live within us when we give our life to Christ. That is exactly what 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us:

But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you cannot stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.      (NLT)

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again.
26 They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish.”

Now I  ask you to pay attention with all your heart to what we are telling you.

John Stott has said that:

“The major secret of holy living is in the mind. It is in knowing that our former self was crucified with Christ, in knowing that baptism into Christ is baptism into His death and resurrection, and in considering that through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God. We are to recall, to ponder, to grasp, to register these truths until they are so integral to our mindset that a return to the old life is unthinkable.”[fn]

Paul goes on to say in Romans 6:12 NLT:

(Therefore)[fn] do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires.

Verse 12 begins with the word, “therefore.” Whenever we see a “therefore” at the beginning of a sentence, we know exactly what it is there for. It takes us from the past statement to the present statement. And what was the last statement made in verse 11? “You must consider yourselves dead to sin.” So “therefore” “don’t let sin control the way you live.” To make this practical in your day-to-day life, we could suggest that you ask God for help whenever you feel you want to do something you should not. Then get in touch with people who can help you not to do it. Ask a trusted friend or family member to pray for and with you. Talk with someone you trust either face-to-face or on the phone, maybe someone you know has struggled with the same issue, and explain what your dilemma and temptation is. Accept the love and support that individual probably wants to give you.

In the first 10 verses of chapter 6 Paul has been saying that sin has no control over us anymore when we receive Christ as our Savior. But Paul has never said that it is no longer a force that has to be dealt with. It just is not our lord and master anymore. It keeps calling us to come back over to the other side of the road, if you recall the contrast we made earlier. Sin wants to bring us back under its control even though we are no longer under its power. Before we were believers, sin was our king, queen, our lord and master, and we were slaves to it, which is exactly what we will see in Romans 6:17 when we get to it shortly. What Paul wants us to understand in verse 12 is that if sin is no longer our lord and master, do not let sin act like it is still our lord and master. Do not let sin act as if it still had control of you. Listen to Peter writing in 1 Peter 2:8-12 NLT:

“He is the stone [in other words, the Person] that makes people stumble, the rock that will make them fall.” They stumble because they do not listen to God’s word or obey it, and so they meet the fate that has been planned for them.
9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
10 “Once you were not a people; now you are the people of God. Once you received none of God’s mercy; now you have received his mercy.”
11 Dear brothers and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. So I warn you to keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very souls.
12 Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior [that means, your good deeds], and they will believe and give honor to God.

Peter is telling you and me to take a look at who you are. You do not need that kind of stuff anymore. Remember, if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are a new creation in Christ, a brand new person on the inside, so to speak. The Holy Spirit of God now resides within you. But until you are in Heaven you will have to remain in the same body and it is that body that is calling out to you to have its lusts fulfilled. Your new spirit that has been joined with Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit of God provides the power to walk away from all temptations. You simply have to call upon Him to help you in such situations and He will.

You know what temptation is like, do you not? It is that little voice inside that calls out:

“I see it, I want it.”                ®	“It will feel good.”
“I deserve it.”                        ®	“It will not hurt anybody.”
“No one will ever know.”      ®	“Everybody else is doing it, why shouldn’t I?”
“Just wait, I’ll get even.”      ®	“Just a little will not hurt.”

 

I believe you know what we are talking about. If you pamper the body, entertain the body, and continually expose the body to temptation, you are going to have a problem because it is the body and all its sensory connections and feelings that are exposed to the world and can become channels through which temptations can draw you into sin, and then sin can have its way with you because you allowed it. That is exactly what Paul is telling us in verse 12, that sin would like to have control over us. But you do not have to allow it to have control over you. You have the power to choose. Your will to want to resist is a key ingredient here. If you want to resist you have the power to ask God to give you the strength to resist. That is very likely what Paul had in mind when writing Philippians 2:12-15:

Dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into action God’s saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.
13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.
14 In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing,
15 so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them.

You cannot do these things if first you do not activate your will to call upon God to help you remain in His will. If you choose to do your part, God will most certainly do His part. Do not be depressed if you fail. Holiness is not a discipline that develops instantaneously. In fact activating your will is a lifelong job until you get your new body in Heaven. So when you hear certain people claim that, “Ten years ago I eliminated sin from my life,” you can be assured they are trying to hide something because no one has ever been able to do that. In fact, the closer we get to God, the more spiritually minded we become, and the more we become aware of God’s holiness the more keenly aware we become of our own sin.

So Paul continues with this theme in Romans 6:13:

Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.

A person’s self-will becomes the central issue in this verse. Paul is speaking here of body parts: the mind, the organs, the eyes, the ears, the mouth, and I am sure we could make a very long and detailed list if we wanted to, but you understand what we mean. We are talking about all those things that are part of our flesh and our humanness. Do not let any of those parts become weapons that can be used against you to corrupt you and cause you both physical and emotional pain. Satan uses our bodies as weapons to control the world. The body becomes the weapon he needs to promote unrighteousness. So Paul is saying, “Do not be a contributing partner with Satan in corrupting the world. do not let him use you as one of his weapons.” Instead, all of those bodily parts can be used to serve God and bring Him glory, as well as your own personal peace and joy. God wants to use your body as a weapon of righteousness to defeat evil. God wants to say, “Here’s my man, here’s my woman, here’s my child. They are My weapons of righteousness.” What a fascinating concept. When God wants to battle sin, He reaches down and uses the people who are willing to be His weapons.

Now let us move on to Romans 6:14 NLT:

Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace.

God’s Law, the Ten Commandments, were given to Moses so that people could look at them and be aware of their sin; to look at them and know that they could not possibly keep them all the time. Just listen to them. It is something you should be able to realize right away.

The rules God has given us command, restrain, demand,  rebuke, condemn; but those rules cannot conquer sin. Those rules were never meant to solve the problem of sin. The Law was given so that people could know what sin was and that they needed someone to save them from their sin. From the very beginning of the Bible such a Savior was promised and He finally came in the form of Jesus. Trying to gain God’s favor, or our salvation, or eternal life by showing God that we can obey all His rules is not going to get anyone anywhere. The Law only magnifies the fact that you are a sinner by making it evident that you cannot keep it.

But the person who has Jesus as his/her Savior does not have to worry about keeping these rules of the Law, because they have been given all the righteousness which Jesus has through their faith in Him by the grace of God. Jesus was the only one who ever obeyed the Law, these rules, all the time. So He was the only one who could be the perfect sacrifice that God required for sin. A believer then, because of God’s grace, is seen by God as having obeyed the Law, these rules, perfectly , not because they actually did obey them but because of their faith in Christ alone.

What does this all mean? It means that simply put all people ever born are sinners; they make serious mistakes. Sinners cannot please God and are therefore destined to die and go to Hell. But God knowing that this might happen, set in place a plan for all people to be forgiven of these mistakes and therefore still be able to get into Heaven. God knew that none of the people on the earth could ever overcome their sin nature on their own. So He decided that because He loved each and every one of us so much, He Himself would take the form of a man and come to earth and make Himself the perfect sacrifice for sin so that we could all be forgiven and go to Heaven. Some of you might be thinking, “Wait a minute, didn’t God send Jesus to earth to die on the cross?” Yes and No. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all one and we are not going to attempt to explain the concept of the Trinity at this time. The important thing to know and understand for now is that God became a man and came to earth to die for our sins so that we could go to Heaven and so that we could have a better life while we were still here on earth. The human race has been given a great gift. It is a shame that the greatest majority of them reject that gift without understanding the severe consequences of their own foolishness. And it is all the result of people thinking they can go to Heaven by being what they consider a “good” person. We who believe in Jesus are new creations. Sin is no longer our master; Jesus is now our master, and there is no other way to Heaven. Let us now conclude Chapter 6 of Romans by reading verses 15-23, NCV:[fn]

15 So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under law? No!
16 Surely you know that when you give yourselves like slaves to obey someone, then you are really slaves of that person. The person you obey is your master.
[Unfortunately many of us make ourselves our own master.][fn]
You can follow sin, which brings spiritual death, or you can obey God, which makes you right with him.
17 In the past you were slaves to sin—sin controlled you. But thank God, you fully obeyed the things that you were taught.
18 You were made free from sin, and now you are slaves to goodness.
19 I use this example because this is hard for you to understand. In the past you offered the parts of your body to be slaves to sin and evil; you lived only for evil. In the same way now you must give yourselves to be slaves of goodness. Then you will live only for God.
20 In the past you were slaves to sin, and goodness did not control you.
21 You did evil things, and now you are ashamed of them. Those things only bring death.
22 But now you are free from sin and have become slaves of God. This brings you a life that is only for God, and this gives you life forever.
23 When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death. But God gives us a free gift—life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Those who hope for pardon or deliverance without Christ are hoping that God would be unjust. God will not be unjust. Now there are a lot of people who say, “I just do not believe that. A loving God would not send a good person like me to Hell.” Well, people have a right to believe or not believe whatever they want. But it is a fool who refuses to believe God’s absolute laws, whether spiritual or physical. If the same person who does not believe this absolute law in verse 23, “The wages of sin is death,” were also to state that they did not believe in the law of gravity, they have every right not to believe in it, but I guarantee that law would have their total and undivided attention if they were to walk off a cliff.

Now there is another side to the absolute in verse 23 which says: “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eternal life is not a paycheck for the things we do. It is not something that we earn for what we do. It is a free gift. You cannot earn eternal life. You cannot earn it by your works and you cannot earn it by belonging to a church. So if you want what you deserve, God will give you what you deserve. But if you want what you do not deserve, God will graciously, freely, and generously give you that.

Anyone seeing the truth of God’s Word in this chapter might well exclaim, “Boy, I do not want to be a slave to sin. I do not want to be in a position where I can only do wrong things. I do not want to go from sin to sin to sin; from being vile to being viler and viler; ultimately landing in eternal death. I do not want to do that. I want the gift of eternal life. How do I get that?” Look back to end of verse 23:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now that you know, if you have not already taken the plunge, why wait any longer? You can bow your head right now and ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life.

 

Isaiah

John

Romans

1 Peter


© Ron Teed - Used by permission. All rights Reserved.