A New Life & a New Future

(Presented at Penney Retirement Community's Tuesday evening Bible study, October 3, 2023)

Romans 6

¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Introduction

When we look at the early chapters in the book of Romans, we see clearly the connection of faith to salvation. In order for us to be justified (or declared innocent) before God, we must have faith in Jesus, and salvation and redemption come only through Jesus.

Leading up to Romans 6, Paul discusses some benefits of our standing before God. Those include the fact that we can have peace with God, we stand permanently in grace, and we can rejoice in the hope of His promises.

The early church in Rome consisted of several house churches and were led mostly by Jewish disciples of Jesus. When Claudius expelled all Jews from the city of Rome, however, only the Gentile Christians remained. Therefore, the church grew and expanded as a largely Gentile community from 49 to 54 A.D, during which Paul wrote this letter.

In chapter 6, Paul continues his discussion from earlier chapters of the benefits of being saved and justified, with the chief benefit being that in Christ, we no longer are the servant of the world of sin.

The core message Paul is telling the believers in Rome is that they have been set free, totally free, from their slavery to their sin nature.

In our passage today, Paul tells us that in Jesus we have:

·       A new life vv. 1-4

·       A new future vv. 5-10

·       A new purpose vv. 11-14

·       Implications of our choices vv. 15-19

·       Benefits of being Christlike vv. 20-23

 

The Exposition

·       Paul tells us in vv. 1-4 that in Christ we have a new life

¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (vv. 1-4).

Paul asks this question in v. 1: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Should we continue to sin so that we could receive more grace from God? If sin allows God’s grace to shine through, then why not?  Then immediately in v. 2, Paul answers his own question: “By no means!” (literally, “May it never be!”).

This may well have been a question troubling some of those early Christians as they struggled against their sin nature in the permissive and promiscuous culture of Rome.

Paul taught that Jesus made one sacrifice for all sins, and God’s grace covers every sin we have ever committed or will ever commit. The writer of Hebrews concurs, stating:

“12 But when this priest (that is, Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. ¹⁴ For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” ( Hebrews 10:12-14 ).

Paul’s opening of the discussion in chapter 6 in vv. 1-2 raises what to us may seem to us as a bit odd. But for the Roman Christians, no doubt grew out of his teaching about justification, as presented of in 5:20: “…where sin increased, grace increased all the more…,” and the Romans needed to be assured that grace is not a license to sin.

In addition to Paul’s warning in vv. 1-2, the Apostle Jude also condemned the approach to grace that may result in increased sinning. Jude condemned: “…ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4).

Grace is a free gift…so how much is it worth to us? Do we treat it as something valuable? In his Cost of Discipleship, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer offered this observation about the issue: “…grace is costly…because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.”

Paul’s readers were still young in the faith and may also have misunderstood the role of God’s grace in their behavior. It may seem a silly or moot issue to us, but to relatively new Christians in Roman society it probably was not.

We also perhaps can regard the question in vv. 1-2 is an example of hyperbole or overstatement on Paul’s part, making the extreme point that the more we sin, the more God’s grace will be required, thereby contributing to His glory.

Paul also had dealt with this in 3:8, where he posed the question: “Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—’Let us do evil that good may result’”?

Such a suggestion, of course, is preposterous, and as we read in v. 2, Paul soundly rejects the suggestion: “By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

He does not say we don’t struggle with the sin nature, however. In fact, he deals with his own struggle with the propensity to sin in chapter 7.

Paul emphasizes in his letters that we have died to sin, stressing the impossibility of a Christian continuing in a life dominated and conquered by the sin nature. Christ supplanted the sin nature with His own nature in believers, who because of Him are able to choose to be pure, holy, and righteous.

As he puts it in Ephesians 4, we are in possession of  “²⁴ …the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” We are no longer enslaved by the old nature and, unlike the unsaved, we are able to choose righteousness.

But the sin nature—what we call “the old man” or “the flesh”—continues to lure us. We overcome it by living in the spirit, not in the flesh.

Paul holds that we have died to sin, and since sin no longer is our nature, we must not continue in it. Even though we may struggle with sin, we must allow the spiritual side of our existence to prevail against our old self-serving sin nature.

To bring further clarity to this, let’s look at Romans 8, where Paul tells us:

“⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:5-9).

So how do we live by the spirit? By works?…By resisting sin?…By controlling our desire to sin? Absolutely not. No…just consider what Paul tells us in Colossians 2:6-7:

“⁶ …just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

We live by the spirit the same way we received the Lord. Not by works…not by resisting sin…not by exerting control over our sin nature.

No, we live by the Spirit by faith, just as we received the Lord by faith…

Another aspect of living by the Spirit is simply reading His word. As Paul tells us in Romans 12, we must “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Constantly renewing our minds in the Word brings about important changes in us, mainly because of the weakening of the sin nature in us.

Some of you in this room this evening came to Christ as adults, like I did. If so, you must have noticed, just like I did, that when you became Christian, your focus changed. What I would call radical change was my own experience. I accepted Christ not until I was in my 30s, as a pretty ruthless rising corporate manager and weekend partier. But with Christ my focus quickly changed…my outlook on life took on new meaning and purpose…all because, as Paul puts it in v. 2: “We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

Without Christ, I was lost are spiritually dead…responding chiefly to selfish desires…for money, position, advantage over others, more stuff…all of those desires that are centered on pleasure, physical comfort, psychological well-being, and winning at the game of life. Looking back, life without the Lord for me before the Lord found me was a pretty empty existence.

Paul expands on the theme of what we were before Christ entered our lives and afterward in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus (Ephesians 2:1-5):

“¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

Those without Christ have no real standard other than self-satisfaction. That’s what Paul means when he talks in Ephesians 2 about following “…the ways of this world…”; we were formerly servants of our selfishness, but as Christians we are no longer chained to a life of sin and can relate to God and His holiness. We have, Paul says, died to sin.

Vv. 3-4:

³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

He uses the example of baptism in vv. 3-4 of Romans 6 to illustrate our vital union with Christ in his death, giving us the picture of dying to our old life and being raised in the new life with Christ.

The importance of burial imaging in baptism is that it attests to the reality of death…the death or end of the old life governed by the sin nature. God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead has likewise imparted life to those who are his. The expression to “…live a new life…” in v. 4 is literally translated to “…walk in newness of life…,” the walk being the evidence of the new type of life granted to the child of God.

V. 4 of our passage in Romans chapter 6 kind of sums up the fact that our old sin-filled life was buried with Christ, and in believing and trusting in Him we rose with Him to live a life free from the slavery to our sin nature, telling us that: “…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

In addition to telling us that we have a new life, Paul also tells us:

In Christ we have a new future (5-10).

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin (vv. 5-7).

Notice how Paul transitions in v. 5 to the term “…united…”: “⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

He doesn’t mean a physical death here, but rather, the death of our slavery to sin and resurrection to righteousness.

How do we know this? V. 6 gives us the answer: “…our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…”

V. 7 continues the thought by stating that we have been “…set free from sin…” The literal meaning is that we have been justified, declared righteous, or declared free from sin, as contrasted with our pre-Christian state, in which we were dominated by sin.

But we have been freed from the power of sin through our faith in Jesus. As Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “…if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” For the Christian, the old life of sin apart from Christ is gone, and we are a new creation in union with Christ.

Paul sums up the ultimate meaning of being united with Christ in vv. 8-10, where he tells us:

^8…if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Union with Christ continues to be the theme in vv. 8-10, but attention shifts from its effect on the problem of sin to a consideration of its bearing on the problem of death…so Paul writes about resurrection.

With the note in v. 8 that “…we will also live with him…” Paul is considering our future bodily resurrection. Death because of our sin held the Savior only briefly, because He was not guilty of personal sin, and therefore death had no right to hold him indefinitely (Acts 2:24). Likewise, it had no right to call him again to the experience of death. Once having been raised from the dead, our Lord is alive for ever and ever, as He announced to John in Revelation 1:18: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

Paul knew it was important to emphasize this truth to the Roman Christians to help define what we should expect in the future, but also to motivate us in our manner of living in the present, as he pointed out to the Corinthians in his second letter to them: “…he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Paul has so far told us we have in Christ a new life and a new future, and now:

·   In Christ we have a new purpose vv. 11-14

¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace (vv. 11-14).

We know there are only two options for human beings: to live enslaved to sin or to be servants of our Savior’s righteousness and His purposes for us. We should always remember how Paul characterizes people—either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.

In v. 11 Paul tells us to “…count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The key word “…count…” (literally, “to reckon” or “to consider”) has a more precise meaning in the original language of Paul’s letters, Koine Greek, than in our English translations. Paul uses the present imperative verb tense (“…count”), stressing the necessity to keep on doing it…telling us to constantly or repeatedly count or consider ourselves dead to sin in order to avoid yielding to the ever-present call of our sin nature.

Because we are dead to sin and self but alive to God, Paul is telling us emphatically that we must act like it. That’s the emphasis in vv. 12-13, where the implication is that sin has been reigning, but now we can resist it.

Believers must do their part by refusing to answer the sin nature’s call. Paul’s description here of the body as “…mortal…” is a reminder that despite being united to Christ, we are still living in a frail instrument subject to the ultimate call of death.

In v. 13, Paul reminds us that we can be instruments of unrighteousness to sin or instruments of righteousness to God. In v. 12, he treats sin as a value we can choose to let govern us, but in v. 13 he moves to the actions that result, because our actions demonstrate the core values we have chosen.

Paul elaborates on this point later in Romans 12:1-2:

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. So we can choose to be conformed to the world—that is, self-centered—or we can choose to be transformed and thereby prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Paul offers encouragement to his readers in v. 14 of chapter 6, reminding them that sin is not their master “…because you are not under law, but under grace.” Under grace, there is liberty to live in accord with a higher principle—the resurrection life of the Lord himself.

He sees grace as a sort of disciplinary power…not a license to live as we want, but to live sober, upright, and godly lives, just as he instructed Titus:

“For the grace of God…teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age…” (Titus 2:11-12).

We sometimes struggle with the sinful nature that constantly wants to dominate us, but we must always realize that in Christ we are no longer servants of the sin nature but servants of righteousness…and we are determined to live accordingly.

How we determine to live is a conscious decision.

Paul affirms that we have a more or less free will when it comes to putting our faith into action. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul warns us to take heed about how we live and that what we do to build on the foundation of Christlikeness will be rewarded. He tells the Corinthians they were to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and in doing so:

“…their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.”

Considering all this I want to briefly present a couple of points from vv. 15-23. First, there are:

·   Implications of our choices (15-19).

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance…

V. 15 asks and answers the same question as in v. 1. To paraphrase Paul: “…since sin is no longer lord over us, then can the Christian sin and never pay a penalty?”

The answer is a resounding no.

V. 16 explains that:

“…you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.”

As Christians, we have changed masters. The former master, our sin nature, no longer has to enslave us or have any authority over us. We are called to give our all to our new master, Jesus. We belong to Jesus, and we are no longer slaves to sin. For the first time in his or her life, the new Christian can decide to serve righteousness.

Remember, there are implications that come with our choice. Jesus said,

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

If we continue to commit certain acts of sin, while making no effort to stop letting that sin reign in his life, the result will be that eventually we will sink back into the very slavery from which we were freed at the moment of our salvation.

In vv. 18-19, Paul tells us:

¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.

We are not slaves to God in the sense we have no freedom or choice. If we choose to serve Him, all the promises of God’s word belong to us.

When we present ourselves to Christ, we will become more Christ-like, and a life of service to God is very sanctifying. You are sanctified, or made holy and set aside for special service. Sanctification means that God sees us as sinless. Our challenge as Christians is for us to reach for the point where we are free of sin, which is where God already sees us because we are sanctified in His sight.

We do not strive to be sinless in order to earn salvation. Rather, our motivation is that it pleases God when we become more like the one we serve.

Finally, our vv. 20-23 inform us of the:

·   Benefits of being Christlike (20-23).

²⁰When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv. 20-23).

A little personal testimony…before I met Christ, my life was a mess. I did not really realize it, but I was in a desperate condition. Driven by self-centeredness and the insatiable desire for success, like every lost person I was bound by every evil and free from every good.

After becoming a believer, I could relate to what Paul says in v. 21 about being ashamed. He says,

“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death.”

It took the encounter with Christ for me to realize the extent to which sin had enslaved me. I realized my life was pretty shallow before my encounter with Jesus. I had no real purpose, no direction, and no focus, and I was spiritually dead.

Paul cites the benefits attached to our choice to be Christlike in v. 22:

“…now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

Meeting the Savior changes a person.. Now he or she is free from enslavement to sin and for the first time in his or her life can choose to serve God. The result is not only a holy life now, but also everlasting life in the presence of the Lord.

V. 23 concludes with that familiar teaching we all use in our personal evangelism:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The beauty of a life in Christ is that we get to make choices. Once you make the choice to follow Him, you must keep choosing to be Christlike. God knows we will struggle. Remember, Paul never says that learning to live out our new way of life is going to be automatic. We may be saints, but the reality is we don’t act like saints all the time. It’s a process that can be challenging for us.

We all must make it our purpose today to fully present our lives to God as a living and holy sacrifice and remember the lessons Paul has given us today, that how we live is a choice, that there are implications to the choices we make, and that there are benefits for us attached to our choice to be Christlike.

Conclusion

Today it is my prayer that “…he who began a good work in you will carry it onto completion” (Philippians 1:6 )…and we all realize that journey encompasses faith in our Savior and a lot of personal reflection…and often…just plain grit.

May you be blessed as you recognize the grace to which you were called and the complete victory that is yours through Christ our wonderful Savior and Lord.

Amen.