Gospel Freedom From Sin-Romans 6

dChristians have been afraid of grace ever since the time of Paul. Christians often speak about grace with hesitation, trepidation or qualification. They add all sorts of buts and brakes. They say, “Yes, grace, but…” or “Jesus is full of grace and truth, not just grace.” They think that people will simply take advantage of grace and live as they please, although they themselves received grace and live for Christ…in their own way or according to their own church’s emphasis and preference. They think that grace is dangerous and must be taught with caution and conditions. They mistake and confuse true grace with cheap grace. They teach grace as though it is a law that must be obeyed rather than a free gift that is first and foremost received and believed (Jn 1:12). They are like those in Romans 6 who object to, dislike and even oppose Paul’s teaching of grace (Rom 6:1, 15).

A reason for Romans 6. The parable of the prodigal son is a heart warming story (Lk 15:11-32). The younger son demands his share of his father’s estate, goes off and squanders it all, and comes home, he thinks, in utter disgrace and humiliation. But to his shock, his father runs down the road to hug him, and throws a huge party with a fattened calf in his honor. He is welcomed back as a son, which he doesn’t deserve, and for which his older brother is very very unhappy. Say after a few years, a thought crosses the young man’s mind. Life is somewhat humdrum. His older brother is barely tolerating having him around. He still remembers the happy day when his father ran to hug and kiss him upon his return home. Then he thinks, supposing I did it again? Why not run away for a few weeks, enjoy myself, and then come back again like before? Maybe I’ll get another party and another fattened calf! Absurd? Unthinkable? Sadly it’s exactly what a many Christians think. “God will surely forgive me again.” Paul probably met exactly this line of argument again and again. Romans 6 is written, at one level, to answer this point.

The question of sin in the life of a Christian. In Romans 5, Paul insists that Christians–justified by faith (Rom 5:1)–will be saved from God’s wrath (Rom 5:9-10), because in union with Christ they are transferred into the realm of grace and life (Rom 5:15, 17, 20). This raises the question of sin in the life of the Christian. Does sin no longer have any effect or power on a Christian? Will sin cause the loss of salvation? In Romans 6 Paul asserts that believers are not only justified (delivered from the penalty of sin) but also sanctified (delivered from the power of sin). Sin no longer has the power to master and rule over Christians (Rom 6:6, 14, 18, 22). Paul pictures Christian life/experience as a transfer of one “regime” or “realm” or “pattern” (Rom 5:14) into another. Paul asserts that to be a Christian means to be released from the old regime dominated by Adam (5:12-21), sin (ch.6), the law (ch.7) and death (ch.8) and transferred into the new regime, dominated by Christ (5:12-21; 7:1-6), righteousness (ch.6), the Spirit (ch.7), grace (Rom 6:14-15) and life (5:12-21; 6:4; 8:1-13).

1. United with Christ (1-14)–New Identity: Dead to sin through union with Christ.
2. Slaves of God (15-23)–New Freedom: Freed from sin’s power to serve righteousness.

I. Dead to Sin Through Union with Christ (1-14): New Identity

Shall we sin to receive more grace? Paul had asserted that “where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom 5:20). Paul then poses a question that he had undoubtedly heard many times after his preaching on justification by grace and by faith and not by works or the law (Rom 6:1). He emphatically rejects any such inference and explains why: we “died to sin” (Rom 6:2)–the key idea of Romans 6. Thus, we are no longer slaves to sin (Rom 6:6, 17-18, 22), and sin is no longer our master (Rom 6:14). The objection of Rom 6:1 leads Paul to discuss how the gospel does lead to a holy and changed life. Ch. 1-5 explains what God has accomplished for us in the gospel. Ch. 6-8 tell us what God will accomplish for us through the gospel. They tell us how to “experience” the gospel, how the gospel is dynamite that produces deep massive changes in our actual person, character and behavior.

What “dead to sin“ does not mean. To understand what Paul means by “we died to sin” (Rom 6:2), it is important to know what it does not mean. It does not mean:

1. I no longer want to sin. If he doesn’t why urge him or her not to (Rom 6:12-14).
2. I should no longer sin. This is true for a Christian. But Paul said we died to sin, not we should die to sin.
3. I should slowly move away from sin. “We died” is something that’s done, not an ongoing continual process.
4. I renounce sin. Yes, Christians should do so. But Paul explains that this death is the result of our union with Christ (Rom 6:3-5). It is the result of something done to us, not something we have done.
5. I am no longer guilty of sin; my sin cannot condemn me for I am forgiven in Christ. Again, this is true, but is probably not the meaning here. Paul wants to show how and why the gospel makes a difference in the way a true Christian lives.

Thus, to be “dead to sin” does not mean to be insensitive to its enticements, for Paul makes clear that sin remains for the Christian an attraction to be battled with every day (Rom 6:13).

No longer under the ruling power of sin. So what does Paul mean? He explains in detail in ch. 6. But simply speaking it means to be delivered from the absolute tyranny of sin, from the state in which sin holds unchallenged sway, the state in which we all lived before conversion under sin’s power (Rom 3:9). It means that the moment you become a Christian, you are no longer under the “reign”–the ruling power–of sin. Why not? It is because in Christ, grace–not sin–reigns (Rom 5:21). Before Christ we were completely under the control of sin. But in Christ sin no longer can dominate us. We now have the ability to resist and rebel against sin. There is a new power at work in our lives, ruling us (Col 1:13; Ac 26:18).

Able not to sin. Habitual sinning reveals sin’s tyranny (not able not to sin), a tyranny from which the beliver has been freed (able not to sin). So “died” to sin does not mean that sin is no longer within you, or that it has no more influence within you. Sin is still indeed present. But sin no longer can dictate to you. Though you may and will obey/give in to sin (which the Bible predicts), the fact is that you no longer have to obey you. You have died to it; it can be dead to you. Why would we live in it any longer? (Rom 6:2).

A change of your core identity. When a non-Christian sins, they are acting in accord with their identity, with who they are. Why wouldn’t they sin? But when someone is united to Christ, everything changes, because who they are changes. There is a new “me.” When a Christian sins, they are acting against their identity. Why would they sin? Therefore, if I sin, it is because I do not realize who I am. I have forgotten (or choose to forget) what has been done for me in Christ.

Count yourselves dead to sin (Rom 6:11) is the way to work out our union with Christ. Why must we must count–reckon–consider–calculate–ourselves to be something that we already are? It is something that we have (money, muscles), but if we don’t use it, it’s as though we don’t have it. So unless we act on this great privilege of being dead to sin, it will not automatically be realized in our experience. We have to appropriate it, live it, act on it, enjoy it.

Here’s how Martyn Lloyd-Jones illustrates our condition:

“Take the case of those poor slaves in the United States of America about a hundred years ago. There they were in a condition of slavery. Then the American Civil War came, and as the result of that war, slavery was abolished in the United States. But what had actually happened? All slaves, young and old, were given their freedom, but many of the older ones who had endured long years of servitude found it very difficult to understand their new status. They heard the announcement that slavery was abolished and that they were free: but hundreds, not to say thousands, of times in their after-lives and experiences many of them did not realize it, and when they saw their old master coming near them they began to quake and to tremble, and to wonder whether they were going to be sold…

“You can still be a slave experientially, even when you are no longer a slave legally … Whatever you may feel, whatever your experience may be, God tells us here, through his word, that if we are in Christ we are no longer in Adam, we are no longer under the reign and rule of sin … And if I fall into sin, as I do, it is simply because I do not realize who I am … Realize it! Reckon it!”  (Romans chapter 6)

Questions:

1. To Paul a believer has experienced a change of status/identity (1-5). What difference does dying with Christ make to your sense of identity?
2. Do you truly believe that you don’t have to sin? What difference does/would it make?
3. What does it mean to count (reckon/consider/calculate) yourself dead to sin (Rom 6:11)?
4. How is presenting/offering yourself (limbs/organs) to God different from presenting yourself to sin (Rom 6:13)? What would it look like positively to offer that part of your body/character to righteousness? How will you “know” more clearly and more regularly that you died with Christ?
5. What is involved in becoming a Christian, and then living the life of God’s renewed humanity, is a change of master. How can we present ourselves to God when we still seem to be under sway of the wrong master (Rom 6:16)?
6. What does it mean for believers to become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which they/ we are committed (Rom 6:17, 19)?
7. What are the three contrasts in Romans 6:23?