Dead Or Alive Series

Text: Romans 6:1-14

Title: Dead or Alive

Romans 6:1-14 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be 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 lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

I. We are Dead

a. Dead to sin

b. Baptized into Christ’s death

c. Crucified with Him

II. We are Alive

a. Christ beat death

b. Alive to God

c. Instruments of righteousness

For those of you who have kids, have you ever noticed how your kids seem to behave a lot better at school or at other people’s house than they do at home with you? At home Lilly will throw a fit if she doesn’t get what she wants, or cry a lot. But at school or with other people she seems to be able to do what she’s told.

Growing up I had a younger brother who was special needs. He had a fairly severe mental handicap. But this phenomenon was even true with him. He didn’t have the same reasoning skills as a normal kid, but when he was at school he seemed to have the ability to do things that he couldn’t do at home. It was amazing.

It’s so frustrating because you wonder why they don’t act that way when they’re at home. Why are kids always trying to push the boundaries with their parents? Why is it that they think they can get away with bad behavior at home, but they wouldn’t act that way at school?

Well I have a theory as to why kids act that way. My theory is that our kids know that we love them completely and unconditionally. They know that we instinctively want to make them happy. They know that we will never abandon them, disown them, or reject them. They don’t have that same kind of security with their teachers, or other places. So they are more likely to push at our boundaries, than the boundaries at school.

That’s why you have to make sure that you clearly explain the rules to them, outline your expectations, and be consistent in your discipline. Kids need to learn that they have rules and boundaries and they are expected to obey.

If they fail to follow the rules, they don’t get kicked out of the family, they experience discipline. We want them to know that we love them, even when we discipline.

Today as we move into the sixth chapter of Romans, we see Paul dealing with a similar problem. It turns out that people act like kids in their relationship to God. There were some who thought that just because you could never be kicked out of the family of God that it was then OK to disobey, sin, and run amok. We’re like that sometimes. Because we know that salvation is by grace through faith, then we think that it must be OK to sin all we want because God likes forgiving us.

But that is not the kind of relationship we are supposed to have with God. God doesn’t save us so that we can sin; He saves us so we can be free from sin. If we continue to willfully disobey God and continue to live in sin, and continue to push at His boundaries, that is a good indication that you are still very much a slave to sin.