Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P25 (01-06-19)
Synopsis
We are continuing our study of Romans. We are currently in the 6th chapter of Romans. Here in chapter 6, Paul is explaining the law of sin and death in contrast to the law of life in Christ Jesus. All of us were born under the law of sin and death. We had been deceived into thinking we can be righteous by observing the law. But the more we tried to obey the law, we come to know we cannot obey it completely or perfectly. So we decide to pick and choose which ones we think we can obey. Well, I can attend church on Sundays. I can stop saying certain bad words, or at least not smoke in church. Yet, if we were are intellectually honest with ourselves, we would realize that the law can only make us conscious of sin.
Paul goes on to explain the purpose of the law. The law was added so man can recognize he is a sinner, and recognize his condition of death, death to God called spiritual death, in order that he might seek a Savior. When one considers that the wages of sin is death, that sin is what caused our death, then we have a more serious problem than sin. If I die in this state of sin, I will forever be separated from God. If I realize that this sinful lifestyle I am living is not fulfilling any real purpose, meaning and satisfaction in life, then am I willing to accept the offer of new life in Christ Jesus? That is the appeal the apostle Paul is making to men.
So the only solution for man is what Christ Jesus did through his death, burial and resurrection. The only hope for man is for man to be out from under the law. For as long as he is under the law, then the next time he sins, he would die, and that is assuming he had any life to begin with. The truth is man is born dead, without the righteousness of God living in him. So Jesus did something for man that man could never do for himself.
Jesus died to take away the cause of death, which is sin. He died for all mankind, for all men back to Adam and all men yet to be born, and forward to eternity. That being accomplished by Jesus shed blood on a cross, now Jesus has made preparation for all mankind to be made alive. So then Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended back to his Father so that the same life that raised him from the dead, can raise you and me from the dead.
Now that sin is out of the way, man has the option to choose life. The only available life to man is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. That is because Jesus is God in the flesh, and is eternal life. He has life in His person, being the eternal God. So if you are in Christ and Christ is in you, then you have been restored to a right relationship with God, are born again spiritually. By faith and faith alone in what he accomplished for you are you given the right to become children of God.
Now once you become a child of God, then you are set free from the demands of the law. You are now led internally by the Spirit of God that lives in you, who teaches you to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and who is your counselor, instructing you in regards to what is right and wrong, good and evil. You now are free to trust someone you know now. Formerly you did not know God and were enslaved to the law of sin and death. Now you are set free to live according to the Spirit. You have that choice to walk by the Spirit or not. But why let sin be your master, now that you are under grace? Why continue to live in a manner that you are now ashamed of? So choose to renew your mind with truth, now that you have been set apart, made holy by Christ Jesus. Live in accordance to His good purposes for you.
Transcript
We will pick up in verse 8 in chapter 6.
Romans 6:8
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We entered into that spiritual death. We also entered into his spiritual life.
Romans 6:9
9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
In the realm of God, the wages of sin is death. What is the wages of sin from God’s vantage point? It is not a paddling. It is not going to the woodshed. It is not being out of fellowship. It is not being scolded. The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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When Jesus became sin for you and me, he was also under the penalty of death. He died a death just exactly like ours so that we could experience resurrection exactly like his. Do we understand that? That even God himself was subject to the law of sin and death. You cannot separate sin from death. If you are going to be under the law, then if you sin, you are going to die. We had to be freed from the mastery that sin had over us in that the wages of sin is death. That had to be cured permanently if we were ever going to experience what we call eternal life in Christ Jesus. So he said he cannot die again, and therefore, death has no mastery over him, nor us, when we are born again.
Romans 6:10
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all;
How many times did he die? Once. If the wages of sin is death, and you died once, and it says he will not die again, what does that tell us? If he isn’t going to die again, that means the death he died he died to accomplish something permanently and forever. That is the meaning of the cross. When Jesus died once and for all, he said “it is finished”, and that means it is finished. The sin issue has been dealt with by God. The sin of man was placed on the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and there, he who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, for apart from the righteousness of God, there is no righteousness, for all have sinned, all have fallen short, of the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Romans 3:21-24
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
The only righteousness you and I will ever receive is the righteousness of Christ Jesus. So he died to sin once and for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God eternally. And so do we, when we are born again.
Romans 6:10-11
but the life he lives, he lives to God.11 In the same way, count [or reckon, count it as such] yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
John 16:9 (TLB)
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me
Romans 14:23b
and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
In the garden of Eden, how did Adam sin? He did not commit adultery. He did not steal. There was nobody there to do those things. He started believing what Satan told him was true, and in so doing, he denied what God had told him was true. In the garden of Eden was the root of sin. Now, you can have the fruit of sin, and we are all familiar with that. But we need to go underneath the skin to see where the root is. Are you drunk? You do not have a drinking problem. You have a heart problem. It is hard as a brick. You think you need to go and douse your head with booze in order to have satisfaction in your life instead of going to God. Until you find the truth of that, you will be struggling with drinking all your life. You will be going to one meeting after another. But you do not have a drinking problem but a heart problem.
Matthew 15:10-11
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
Matthew 15:18-20
18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Until that heart problem is solved, nothing is going to be solved. You can put a man in jail and get him to quit drinking, but it has not stopped the heart problem. God says you have a problem. If you have a heart problem, there is only one person who can cure that heart problem, and that is the curer of heart problems, and that is not a cardiologist. It is Jesus. He is the only one who can give you a new heart.
Ezekiel 36:26
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Romans 6:11
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
It will be a new heart I will give to you. Reckon yourself dead to this world of unbelief. Reckon yourself dead to this attitude that God does not know what He is talking about but Satan does. Or this attitude of “I do not need Satan and I do not need God. I will do it my own way.” Dead to sin. Dead to being an unbeliever but alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is not just talking about an unbeliever but a lost man. There are people sitting here who are believers but we are not trusting Him with our daily lives.
Romans 6:12
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
The very moment we turn ourselves over to saying “I do not need God for information to determine right from wrong. I will do it on my own.” People think God does not live in this world we live in today. “He just does not understand we are living in a new generation.” I tell you something. God does understand. He is the one who made us. He is the one who knows us. When you let sin reign in your mortal body, you will be obeying the evil desires that are put there constantly by Satan. How many of you get bombarded by Satan with evil desires. If anybody does not hold your hand up, how many of you are convicted of being a liar? We get bombarded with evil desires. Why? Because they are there. They are in our flesh.
Romans 6:13
13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness,
We can offer our bodies to either place, an instrument of wickedness or an instrument of righteousness.
Romans 6:13-14
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.
Look back in your bible to Romans 5:20.
Romans 5:20
20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
In other words, you cannot out sin the grace of God. Some of us have tried, but you cannot do it. You cannot out sin the grace of God.
Romans 5:21
21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Turn to Galatians 3:19.
Galatians 3:19
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until
When you have an ‘until’ you have a ‘before’ and an ‘after’.
Galatians 3:19
the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.
Who is the Seed referring to? The Seed is Jesus.
Galatians 3:20-21
20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
Can the law give you life? No. What does the law give you? Death.
Galatians 3:22-23
22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised [to Abraham], being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.23 Before the coming of this faith,
This could be before you exercised faith in Christ Jesus or before he came. Either one of those things is true.
Galatians 3:23-24
we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith [in Christ] that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
What was the purpose of the law? To lead us to Christ. The purpose of the law is to show you your sinfulness. Why? If I do not see I am a sinner, why would I need Jesus cross. If I do not see I am dead, what is the meaning of the resurrection? All it would be to me is a historical fact, just like Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford’s theater. It would have no meaning to me at all that Lincoln got shot in Ford’s theater, outside being a historical truth. So also with Jesus Christ. There is no meaning of the resurrection to me until I realize I am dead. His resurrection is what gave me life. Now, what took place 2000 years ago has meaning to me today.
Galatians 3:19
25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
The law did its work. The law showed me I am a sinner. Now, I put the law aside. It did its work. It showed me I was a sinner so I would turn to Christ by faith, so that I will be led by Him from that day forth. No longer being led by the law but by the Spirit. Yet people have no clue at all about the ministry of the Spirit in our lives. In other words, the Holy Spirit of God is just thought of as some kind of fantasy. He may as well be talking about Casper the ghost. But there is a reality. Christ is alive.
Colossians 2:17
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ
Christ was raised to give life to you and me. When you have Christ’s life living in you, now you have someone to instruct you, to teach your mind, control your emotions and direct your will. That is Christ. No longer laws written on stone that you cannot obey. And because you cannot obey, you are under the death penalty under the law. You are under the curse of the law. You are dead. But now you are to be led internally, by the living God, who now lives in you, and leads you into paths of righteousness. He guides us. He leads us. He does not condemn us.
John 16:13
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth
Romans 8:11
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Romans 8:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Do you understand that? In Christ, what are we told? There is no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. Why? Because the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. There is no condemnation awaiting you, who are in Christ Jesus. So when people are telling you that if you keep doing this or this or that, then that is a lie. No man will be held accountable for their sins when there is no law. The law has been put aside for those who are believers. The law has been put aside so you can now be led internally by the Holy Spirit of God who lives in you. Is that good news, folks? Yes. Because of this truth is why Paul says this.
Romans 6:13-14
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;
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
We talked about this last time. If sin is not your master because you are not under the law, but when you are under the law, sin is your master. Sin is your master when you are under the law. The only way you are going to be freed from being mastered by sin is to become mastered by Him. You can be mastered by sin or you can be mastered by Him. There is nothing in between. When you refuse to be mastered by Him, you are automatically mastered by sin. There is no alley way. There is just a fence. On one side is Him. On the other side is sin. You have a choice of who you want to be mastered by, by Him or by sin.
Three basic questions, that are obviously, going to pop up in a person’s mind, when they are either first introduced to the fact that you are no longer under law, but under grace, or are adamant toward that teaching, or whatever the problem might be. Paul says he is going to address these basic questions to get them out of the way before we go into chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-2).
Paul is going to answer three basic questions.
Romans 6:1
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
Romans 6:15
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?
Romans 7:7
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful?
Between chapters 5 and 8, you have a parentheses before chapters 6 and 7. Chapter 5 goes right into chapter 8 in thought. But Paul pauses here to answer some questions in chapters 6 and 7. Before we go on to the good news that is in chapter 8, Paul will answer some questions. Chapter 8 is where he picks up saying there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, who has set us free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 6:1
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
So the lost person thinks, “If this grace is so good, then should we just go on sinning so God’s grace can be known all the more? If the more we sin, then the more this grace will be talked about. So let us just sin up a storm so God’s grace can be shown to the whole world.” That was one question that was asked.
Romans 6:15
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?
What then shall we say? We are no longer under the law. Sin shall not be your master. It clearly says here we are not under the law, yet we have numerous denominations that teach people they are under the law. Legalistic as can be, putting you under the law, and therefore, keep you under the power of sin, and then beat the daylights out of you every day for sinning.
How many people have said with this kind of grace teaching, “Oh, you are teaching people how to have a license to sin.” I do not need a license to sin. I sin quite well without a license. Have you ever noticed anyone not sinning who is under the law? Have you ever known anybody under the law who never sinned. This is the legalistic thinking, “I am under the law, I do not sin, but you are under grace, and you do sin.” I got news for you. All have sinned. It is just whether you want to be mastered by sin. If you want to be mastered by sin, keep yourself under the law. I you want to be mastered by God, keep yourself under grace.
Romans 6:15
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
In other words, that is a dumb question.
Romans 6:16
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey
Do you not know that? When you offer yourself to someone as a slave, you are obligated to obey the one you offer yourself to. Is that right or wrong? When you are a slave you have no rights. When you are a slave, you live under the control of the master. You really have no option. You are just there to obey the master. When you and I offer ourselves to someone to obey, you are slaves to the one whom you obey.
Romans 6:16-17
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,
Before you were saved, you used to be slaves to sin. How many of you can testify of that? You might as well, all of you, testify to it, for the bible just got saying that. So you do not need to think, “was I or wasn’t I?”
Romans 6:17-18
you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
You had teaching, and you whole heartedly obeyed it. When you were under the law, were you whole heartedly trying to obey the teaching you were entrusted to? How many of you were whole heartedly trying? How many of you were successful? Not many hands this time. But you were out there trying, whole heartedly. But what did you find out about trying to obey the law? We will study that in Romans 7. The things I want to do I do not do. The things I do not want to do I do anyway.
James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
So under the law, we pick the ones we know we can do. I can go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday, or vice versa. If nobody sees, I can not drink. Nobody smells, I can not smoke. I will pick the ones I can do, and those are the ones I am going to concentrate on. We concentrate on those ones. But God gave us ten. When you look at the law, no man has ever lived in obedience to the law. James said if you kept the entire law, and violated at one point, you violated all of it. That puts us all where we belong.
Romans 3:20
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
You can grow up in a home with good teaching or you can grow up in a home with bad teaching. Unfortunately, in this day and age, where there is divorce that splits up homes, you can have one parent teaching nonsense and another parent trying to teach truth, and that poor child is bombarded with double mindedness and becomes unstable in all ways.
James 1:5-8
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
There is no consistency in what is being taught. We have to rely as parents, if you are going to get along with each other, and going to split, for God’s sake, become committed to teaching the child the same moral values. Do not have one over there teaching you to live like the devil and the other teaching him going to church obeying the things of God. That causes a double minded man and makes you unstable in all ways. Get at least consistent for the sake of the children.
So we go out wholeheartedly and obey the teaching for which you were instructed. But in Christ, you have been set free from sin. You have been set free from being a slave to false teaching. Do we realize that? Why? We have the Spirit of God living in us. What is the purpose of the Spirit of God living in us? To lead us into all truth. If the Spirit of God does not live in you, then you do not have a clue what truth is. You are just leaning on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight
Quit leaning on you own understanding, and instead rely on Him. But if you do not have the Holy Spirit of God in you, you have no choice but to lean on your own understanding. We have been set free from that. We have a plumb line in our life, where we can go to, and know precisely whether the line is straight or not. We talk about the fact that we have been set free from having to believe lies. We do not have to believe the lie of Satan. We do not have to. We can choose to, can’t we? But we do not have to.
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
But before you knew Christ, you had no option. He told you to do something, you just went and did it. Satan comes along and tells you things, things that are contrary to what you know to be true. He tells you that you know full well are harmful to your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. He tells you how much fun it is. Oh, he tells you all kinds of stuff. So we pour things in our veins, in our mouth, all kinds of deals, smoke down the lungs, or get into booze and drugs, and all kinds of things that we know full well are harmful to our bodies. Who are you listening to? Not to God. God says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God, but you do not treat it that way.
1 Corinthians 6:19
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
You have been set free from having to do that. There is no such thing as saying I have no control over this. Yes you do. You can do anything you want to do. Anything you want to do, you can do. If you want to quit something, you can quit it. Before I came to the Lord, I used to smoke like a furnace. I just could not wait to get another cigarette. If it was late at night, and I ran out, then I would go out and get some. Now, if Amy was asking me to get groceries, I thought she was punishing me in some way. On the day that I realized those cigarettes controlled my life. I did not do it for my health, because I was on the 200 year plan back then. They controlled me. The reason I knew they controlled me is because I could not quit. So I threw them in the waist basket and never picked one up again. I joined a health club. I quit drinking booze and quit drinking coffee, for a month, just a month. Every time I wanted coffee, I wanted a cigarette. I cut out everything that equated with smoking cigarettes. I smoked three packs a day. That is a lot of puffing. Some say, “You were not smoking. You were just a sucker.”
