Chainbreaker

Chain Breaker

Romans Series

CCCAG July 19th, 2020

Scripture- Romans 6 (Tammie Reading)

Rom 6

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We 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 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed 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 the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom 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 wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When 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 to 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.

Prayer

A little preface to this chapter-

One of the keys to understanding the Apostle Paul’s writings is that he is assuming that the reader has at least a general understanding of Old Testament history and law.

If you were here in Sunday school last week, we learned that the church in Rome church had gone through a pretty big upheaval. Roman Emperors Tiberius and Claudius had issued an edict that said all Jews must leave the city. Upon Claudius’ death in 54 AD, that edict was lifted and Jews returned to Rome, and rejoined the church that had become largely gentile during that time. The Gentiles only knew the Gospel and had a very limited understanding of the Old Testament and how it fit in with Jesus’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

Roman’s was written soon after the Jews returned. If they hadn’t been able to return, Roman’s would have to be a much longer book as Paul would have had to do a considerable amount of teaching to blend the Old Testament and the New Testament together as one cohesive bible.

Paul would have had to give the Gentiles all the background necessary to understand many of the hard truths he is trying to explain to them. However, with the return of the Jews, Paul knows that the Jews could explain to the Gentiles why what he is talking about in the book of Romans is so important.

I say all of that because we are in a similar situation today- the amount of bible knowledge, even in my generation, is seriously lacking, so when people my age or younger read a book like Romans, particularly chapters 2-7 they have no idea what Paul is trying to say here.