As we continue our series through the New Testament book of
Romans, I hope to cover the concepts in Romans chapters 6 and 7
today. For the first 5 chapters the apostle Paul elaborates upon
the gospel, the good news whereby Christ died for our sins such
that by simply putting our faith in Him we are saved from the
wrath of God and guaranteed eternal life, having been reconciled
to God through the cross.
Now starting in Romans chapter 6 Paul talks about the Christian
life. And the first thing he brings up is an implication of the
gospel which even skeptics may bring up. Namely that if
salvation is by faith and not by works, then can the grace to be
taken as a license to sin? Romans 6:1 he brings up this
question asking, "What shall we say,
then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" For
if your salvation status is not contingent upon your behavior,
this is the obvious question that comes up.
In Romans 6 Paul answers this by giving the Christian a new
perspective on life. For as those who have been saved and are
destined for eternal glory it is not appropriate for us to ask
ourselves as to whether we are allowed to sin, but rather what
good purpose God has for us. For as Paul says in Eph 2:8-10
"For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God— not by works, so that no one can boast." But
follows that by saying, "For we are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which
God prepared in advance for us to do." Or as he says
in Titus 2:11-14 "For the grace
of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It
teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this
present age, while we wait for the blessed hope— the glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave
himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify
for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do
what is good."
In other words, one of the reasons why salvation was made a free
gift rather than something you had to qualify for by being good,
was in order for us to do what is good freely rather than
begrudgingly in order to obtain salvation. Consider for example
generosity. If a person is obligated to be generous, it's not
generosity. Paying taxes is not an act of generosity. Generosity
can only be practiced if a person is not legally obligated to do
so. And this the case with regards to the Christian doing what
is good. We do what is good not in order to earn salvation, but
rather we do what is good because we are saved, and doing what
is right is the purpose and destiny God has assigned us.
The first 14 verses of Romans 6 say this, "What
shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may
increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it
any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. If we
have been united with him like this in his death, we will
certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 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. Now if we died with Christ, 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. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but
the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, reckon
yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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; and offer the parts of your body to him as
instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your
master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
So before we were saved sin controlled our destiny. But now
being under grace sin no longer controls our destiny. Now we
have a new life and a new destiny. And it is our anticipation of
that destiny that we do what is right.
In the second part of Romans 6 Paul gives another perspective on
this same kind of question where in Romans 6:15 he says, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under law but under grace? Certainly not!" For there
were those in the Christian community who viewed the grace of
God as a license to sin. Jude writes in Jude 1:4"Certain
men whose condemnation was written about long ago have
secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who
change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and
deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."
Genuine believers don't think in terms of how much we can get
away with. We don't think about how can we get away with
sinning. Rather we think about how we can get away from sinning.
Before we were married to sin. We took on its name and identity.
We lived with it. But now having been born again, essentially
married to Christ and taking on his identity, sin is more like
the annoying neighbor who comes knocking on our door
periodically. Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to
God in Christ Jesus.
The reason Paul gives in Romans 6 as to why God's grace should
not be taken as a license to sin is because of the worthlessness
of sinful living and because of the fruitfulness of righteous
living. It's just not worth it. He says, "When you were slaves to sin, you were free
from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap
at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those
things result in death!"Rom 6:20,21 And he goes on to say, "But now that you have been set
free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you
reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord."Rom 6:22,23
He goes on in first part of chapter 7 to give the analogy of
marriage. Previously we were married to the law of sin and
death. It used to be if you sinned you were condemned. But now,
through Christ, we've died to that principle, freeing us up to
be bound to Christ under the Law of the Spirit in order that we
might bear fruit to God. For
"through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me
free from the law of sin and death." Rom 8:2 The law of the
Spirit of life is this - God gives you the Holy Spirit who
imparts to you life. It provokes you inside to righteous living.
Remember Paul talked about being transformed from being slaves
to sin to being slaves to God. This is the experience of those
born of God. In fact the apostle John, speaking in a lifestyle
sense, goes so far to say, "No
one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s
seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has
been born of God."1John
3:9
Yet this is not to say that we are completely free from the
sinful nature associated with our flesh. For in the second part
of Romans chapter 7 Paul goes on to express his own internal
struggle against sin. He says, for example, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that
is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is
good, but I cannot carry it out." Rom 7:18 and he says, "I find this law at work: When
I want to do good, evil is right there with me."Rom 7:21 Now some have said
that this was not Paul's Christian experience, but his
experience prior to coming faith. But in fact Paul clearly
applies these ideas to Christians in Gal 5:16,17 where he says, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will
not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful
nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit
what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict
with each other, so that you do not do what you want."
Which is the same phrase he used in Romans 7 describing his own
experience. Those who
have the Spirit nonetheless retain their sinful nature and as
such there is this common experience of an internal struggle
between the Spirit and the sinful nature.
Yet we are no longer viewed as bound in slavery to the sinful
nature, even though our flesh is bound to that principle. Paul
says, "in my inner being I
delight in God’s law"Rom
7:22 and he says, "I
myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law"Rom 7:25b What defines us in
God's sight is our inner being. Our intentions. But this is not
our final state. Of his present state Paul says, "What a wretched man I am! Who
will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—
through Jesus Christ our Lord!"Rom 7:24-25a And despite the
fact that whatever we do sin is not absent, yet it is not the
controlling principle of the Christian's life. Paul will
elaborate upon this fact in Romans chapter 8 which we'll cover
next time.
But to summarize, Paul says in 2Cor
5:17 "If anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new
has come!" Though for now we still retain our sinful
nature and struggle against it, yet our inner person has been
made new. And as we walk in the Spirit we will live a productive
life and not carry out the desires of our sinful nature. Of the
New Covenant the Lord says in
Jer 32:39-40, "I
will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they
will always fear me for their own good and the good of their
children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with
them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire
them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me." This
is the Christian experience.
BLESSED ASSURANCE
I SURRENDER ALL
TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY