Hi and welcome back. Last week we discussed God’s calling on your life. So this week we’re going to get right back into our study of Romans. The last verse we looked at was verse 10. So let’s go over that again before we get too far.
Romans 6:10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Jesus died to sin, not His own sins, for he lived a sinless life.
But he died for the sins of the world. He died that death once, not as the Old testament saints who had to offer sacrifices continually. His death was a perfect sacrifice. He was without blemish. The perfect lamb. But now he lives to God. In one sense Jesus always lived to God. But now he lives to God in a new relationship, as the risen one. Through his resurrection he now lives where sin can never enter into his domain.
Romans 6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
We are called to follow Christ’s example.
We are dead to sin. In other words the old man is no longer. But now we live to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies. In other words don’t let sin have dominion over you.
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.
If you have become a slave to sin, then sin is your master.
Sin dictates how you live your life. If you have a passion for pornography, then pornography rules over your life. That lust rewires your brain so that you can never look at a woman as just a woman. She becomes an object for your own sinful pleasure. You now have a craving that will never be fully satisfied. Your lust has made you a slave to sin.
So don’t give sin a foothold in your life.
If we are dead to sin we shouldn’t try to resurrect that sin. Leave it on the cross where it belongs. Continue to live your life for the Savior. We are free from the chains of our past.
John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Romans 6:13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
We have control over our bodies and how we use them.
We can either use our members for evil or for the glory of God. If you are truly God’s hands and feet then you will choose to use them as instruments of righteousness.
Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
A person who tries to do the right thing by using the law as a guide for their life is going to give in to temptation.
Why? Because the law makes it clear what he shouldn’t do, but doesn’t give him the power to do it. There will always be temptation and even though the law makes it clear that lying is a sin, those little white lies will come out of our mouths without a second thought.
But if you are under grace sin no longer has dominion over you.
You have died to sin and you have the power of the Holy Spirit within you. Your motivation becomes the love of Christ, and not the fear of punishment. It is Grace that sets the believer apart from the rest of the world. We are a Holy, sanctified people.
Romans 6:15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
We may be free from the law, but it doesn’t give us a license to be lawless.
Grace means that we have the freedom to serve the Lord. We are not free to sin a little. Because as we all know, God cannot condone sin. Sin is an offense to God.
Romans 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Why would you even consider being a slave to sin?
If you give in to the enticement of sin you are bound by guilt, fear and the anguish that goes along with it. That path will lead to your eternal death. In other words your eternal separation from God. If we are obedient to God we can enjoy a holy life. A life set apart from the things of this world. A life worth living.
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other…..
Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
Do you thank God that he brought you out of that sinful past?
Do you thank God that sin no longer has you wrapped in chains? If you are obedient from the heart then the love of God and his word has touched you in a way that sin never could. Satan knows nothing of love.
Romans 6:18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
When Paul says that we are set free from sin, he means that sin is no longer the dominating power in our lives.
Sure we’re going to slip every now and then. But that doesn’t mean we do a swan dive into the pig trough.
Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Paul makes it clear that this is a worldly illustration to make his point.
He realizes that his audience would have intellectual and spiritual difficulty in understanding what he was saying. He used the simile of a master and a slave to drive home his point.
Hopefully for you it was a point well taken.
This brings us to the end of this podcast for today. When we pick up next week we will be finishing chapter 6.
As always may you have a week full of opportunities to share this good news with those that need to hear it.