START
We continue our study of the book of Romans. We are up to chapter 6. We will cover the first half of the chapter today. Let’s start form gathering a little bit of context. It is always helpful but especially useful if you new to the book and did not go over all previous chapters with us.
Context
Last Sunday we talked about the issue of original sin. The scriptures tells us that we all affected by this phenomena. Corruption that flows from Adam, our forefather, down to every single human being. “Contamination at the source” as it was stated. It effects all people, regardless of the nation or any other factor. We discovered that in a contrary to a common conception that all people are born pure, and the corruption is the fault of their surrounding. Biblical perspective is that there can be no environment that is so perfect , that one can live a holy life. Simply because our contamination is not external but internal. Broken state of the people is not just a result of an external factors. External circumstances definitely can work as a multiplier. But if we would look at the root of the issue, truth is that we are fundamentally broken inside. Our nature is contaminated by the sin.
God’s holiness
And that is the problem because God is not compatible with sin. He is perfectly holy and nothing sinful can withstand his presents. You can think about God’s holiness as a fire. Imagine yourselves in the forest at the night time. It’s dark, it’s cold. It’s scary. All that was so familiar just a moment ago can no longer be recognized. You are lost and afraid. But, you can see a bonfire in between trees. You see the light. It gives you hope. It’s not so scare anymore. You start to walk towards the light. As you get closer, you start to feel the warmth. You hear the crackle of the fire as it burns, it is so comforting. You sit next the flame and the night is not so scary anymore.
But what would happen if you will get to close? If you will stick your heads or feet right into the fire? They will burn. Pain. Distruction. We all know the feeling.
That is why prophet Isaiah was so scared when he found himself in the presents of God.
Isaiah 6:5(NLT)
Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.”
Anything that unclean will perish in the presents of God. That is why we need to be purified in order to be with God.
Justification is free through faith
Last week we talked about water. And as the water has to go through the filtration in order to return to it’s original, pure state. We are getting purified by faith in Jesus Christ. We explored that justification is not something that we can earn by doing(or not doing) things. It is something that comes as a free gift, by the grace of God, though faith. Justification guaranteed to everyone who believe. This is a promise that backed by God and it is available for everyone. It only requires faith, the rest is covered by the grace of God. Uniqueness of God’s grace is that it’s always enough. There is no sin that is so great that God’s grace would not be able to cover.
And again idea that justification comes by faith and not by works was revolutionary back in the day. And I think that even today many people do not fully understand what that means. A lot of people live in the world were justification, or forgiveness comes by following tradition, following rules. By doing the right thing. Back in the day it was circumcision and following “The Law”. And when we say that justification comes apart from work, that it is the gift of God that comes by grace.Our human logic derives conclusion. The view that gained popularity recently. But which in fact nothing new. Back in the day of Paul, people already was tricked by this lie.
Hyper Grace
“New” teaching that flooded the minds of people all over the world is called “Hyper Grace teaching”. Which is effectively focuses ONLY on God’s grace and disregard everything else. Some key point of this belief would be
- Once saved, a believer is permanently righteous in God’s eyes, regardless of behavior.
- There is no need to ask for forgiveness repeatedly, because all sins are already forgiven.
- Jesus’ earthly teachings (pre-cross) were still under the Old Covenant. Therefore, much of what Jesus said (e.g., Sermon on the Mount) was aimed at Jews under the Law, not directly at Christians today.
Those are just a few highlights and not a comprehensive list of key differences. By the rough estimate tens of millions of Christians today following this false teachings. There is a good chance that there is more than one person right in this room who follow this teachings maybe without even knowing that. Teaching that criticized by pretty much every major christian confession along with the bible itself.
Condensed doctrine
If we would condense the doctrine of the hyper grace into a one question, we would effectively get the verse 1 of the chapter 6:
Romans 6:1
¹What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
In other words if justification requires no works. And grace is always enough, maybe then I can continue to live the way I lived before I came to Christ Jesus? All my sins are covered by the work of the cross, so who cares if I continue to sin…
Romans 6:2
²By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
You see that Short answer is “No, you cannot continue in sin.”
Abundance of God’s grace by no means is a licence to sin.
Romans 6:3
³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Baptism
Paul begins to explain why it is not OK. All the readers of the Paul’s letter were baptized(Greek word that means to immersed, to be covered over with) via water baptism. It was, and still is a very important Christian practise and the command of Jesus. The idea that baptism is something optional, something that is not important is not a biblical idea. Everyone who believed in Jesus were getting baptized by His church. So, if you consider yourself a follower of Christ, but you never been baptized I strongly recommend to do so. The baptism in our today’s scriptures portrays a very important spiritual reality. That there has to be a dramatic change in life of the believer at the moment of repentance. Our old self, old corrupted spiritual nature die and being buried with Christ, and then we rise with Christ for the new life by the power of the Father.
It worth mentioning that baptism illustrates that spiritual reality but it does not make that reality come to pass.
This reality comes to pass when we come to God with genuine repentance. When we confess our sins and ask Him for forgiveness. When we genuinely desire to change. We die to our old life, old ways, old self. And rise with Christ for new life in him.
We are called to walk in the newness of life. And not to continue to live in sin. And we do it not by our own strength but by the power of the Father.
Romans 6:5-11
⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.⁷For one who has died has been set free from sin.⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
You can’t rise if you haven’t died
You cannot be resurrected if you haven’t died yet. If never actually said good buy to your old, sinful life and your “old self” is still reign in you. Then sin will also reign in you along with it. We cannot continue to live our old life of rebel against God and expect to be, accepted, reconciled and united with Him.
The way to get freedom
The only way to get free from sin is though death. Our old self should be crucified with Jesus. And it is something that is happening during our repentance. It’s not something that we should do, but something that is done by the power of God. We don’t have to battle our “old man”, but simply regard him as dead. Just as a verse 6 says. When we die with Christ in this way death and sin have no dominion over us anymore. We are free to live a new life, we inherit the eternal life.
But the new life is not so that we can live for ourselves. Just as Christ lives his life for God we also should consider ourselves dead to sin and live to God.
Romans 6:12-14
¹²Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.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.¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
HG vs Bible
Even though our “old self” was crucified and we are no longer slaves to sin. Our mortal bodies are still susceptible to the temptations. Sin cannot take over you against your will. But you can willingly give up the control to sin. Unlike the promoters of Hyper Grace who say that there is nothing we should do, nothing to worry about. That everything we just happen “by itself” as long as we focus on who we are in Christ. Apostle Paul clearly states that there is our part in all this. It is within our power and it is our responsibility not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. Sin wants to make you to obey its passions. Sin want to have control over you. As a slave owner do not want to let his slaves go free, even though they are free legally speaking.
There is two part to this process. And first thing that we do is written in the verse 13:
Romans 6:13
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.
If we would read literal translation it would say “do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin”.
Members
What are those members that Paul is writing about? It is our eyes, our ears, hands and feet and the rest. How can we preset the members of our body to sin? This days in Batumi it is not that hard. Once summer season is started the city full of people, man and women who decided that wearing as little cloth as possible is the way to go. And just by walking on the street you can’t help but see things. Then it is up to you, to look away and not let sin use your eyes as instrument of unrighteousness. Or to let yourself, you know, enjoy the view so to speak.
When someone cut’s you off while you drive. It is up to you whether you will let your mouth to be used as an instrument of unrighteousness.
When you browsing the internet youtube, instagram, facebook etc. What do you do with the inappropriate things you see? Maybe you visit websites no Christian should visit?
It can be all sorts of things. You know your areas of weakness.
First step
Once Christ set us free, and we regained control over our life first thing we should do is to stop doing the wrong thing. We used to be slaves to sin. We used to be controlled by it without even realizing it. But when we come to Christ, we die to sin. We are no longer slaves. It is NOT OK for me to keep doing the wrong things waiting on God to change me. It is not the way bible teaches.
Bible says that we should stop willingly present ourselves to sin. Sin cannot force us. But we can give up control and let sin reign. Like a freed slaves who return to their old master.
Stop old
Do not go to the bar or club. Because you know that you WILL present your body to sin if you do. If things on the internet trip you up, stop visiting those websites. Install blockers, set up your devices. There is people who can help you with that if you want. Do not preset your eyes, your ears and the rest of your body to sin. It can be hard at the beginning, because we used to do those things. It can be hard to break the old habits. Sometimes you find yourself starting to do things automatically, almost subconchansly and only half way through you think “what actually I am doing?”.
Remember, you died to sin. You no longer slave. You can break out. There some things, addictions that are harder to stop, but with God everything is possible.
Start new habits
But it’s not only about stopping, but rather reversing. The second part of the process is to present yourself to God. Let God use you for righteousness. For his good purposes. And often when it comes to serving God, we start looking for the most perfect calling for our lives. And we not willing to do anything unless we absolutely exited about the thing. Unless we feel that we’ve been created with the sole purpose to do this very ministry. But I challenge you to look at serving God from different perspective. From the perspective of unemployed who desperately need money. When you in the super tight spot, you ready to do any work. To be a weightier, to do the dished, to distribute brochures, whatever is available. Typically you are not rejecting opportunities when your kids are hungry and you have nothing to pay your bills with.
Be ready to do anything. At least for a time. Be ready to preset members of your body to God as instruments for righteousness.
If your hands use to destroy and cause pain. Let God use them to build up and healing. If you tongue use to curse, let God use it to bless.
Stop putting yourself into places where you know you gonna sin. Instead bring yourself to a bible study for example. I cannot promise that it will be super entertaining for you. Even though personally I enjoy our bible studies. But what I can promise is that you not gonna be exposed to sin during this time. There will be no alcohol, no pornography, no filthy talks. You’ll find people who will help you to stay away from sin.
Conclusion:
Today we learned that even though God’s grace has no limit. It is so great that it covers any multitude of sins. Even though justification is a gift of God. Even though God takes care of our old nature, we cannot continue to live in sin. We are dead to sin, it is the truth of the Bible and we should live accordingly. We were resurrected with Christ to live for God.